SSH Tunnel VPN Entry - Dynamic Port Usage
Not sure how best to ask this question so i'm going to start with an outline of my connection scenario and go from there.
The general gist is i'm trying to create an RDM RDP entry that would work on the Local LAN and via SSH tunnel (when needed).
Please bear with me :)
Scenario:
Connection-General:
Connection-VPN/SSH/Gateway-General:
Connection-VPN/SSH/Gateway-Settings:
Upon testing the above configuration the SSH tunnel is established successfully but then the RDP connection is attempted to TARGET[:]DYNAMIC-SSH-PORT instead of LOCALHOST[:]DYNAMIC-SSH-PORT
I tried to get around this behavior by creating an Alternate Host entry with localhost[:]DYNAMIC-SSH-PORT but there's no variable that exposes that port value. I tried using the $PORT$ variable but it's always blank in this scenario.
Ex.
If i hard code the SSH local port (uncheck "Use Dynamic Port") and use that same port in Alternate Hosts then everything works as expected.
Would it make sense for the SSH tunnel entry to override the existing $HOST$ entry with localhost or at least expose the SSH Tunnel dynamic port as a variable value to be able to use it in Alternate Host configuration?
Not sure if this should be submit as an official support request (have a site license) or if a forum post is sufficient. Please let me know if i posted in the wrong place :)
Best regards
Edit:
All Comments (17)
Hi,
You did the right thing by posting here. I want to be honest we are short on staff because of the vacation. I will assign this thread to Hubert and he will answer you as soon as he get back. We will verify if we can do something for this.
Regards
David Hervieux
David,
No rush, I'm just glad you'll be looking into it. It'll be great if we don't have to manage the local SSH tunneled ports manually :)
I'll await Huberts review and response, thanks again!
Have you had a chance to look yet Hubert?
I didn't check it yet but I will bump up the priority. :) I'll get back to you soon.
Regards,
Hubert Mireault
We will add a variable called $DYNAMIC_PORT$ which you will be able to use in the alternate hosts. Using this, your scenario should be possible. Look forward to it in the next RDM version!
Regards,
Hubert Mireault
That's great! :woohoo:
Thanks for the quick turnaround guys, can't wait to try it out. Should really simplify our process.
Hubert,
I have one issue with the proposed solution. When using the SSH Tunnel along with alternate hosts it pre-populates the alternate host list with the incorrect entry ($HOST$:$DYNAMICPORT$); that is how we figured out why the SSH Tunnel wasn't working for us in the first place.
Example:
Configure the following entry in Alternate Hosts:
Then, connecting through the SSH will give you:
Would it be possible to just change the SSH tunnel to always go to localhost instead of $HOST$? Is there a reason that you would ever want $HOST$:$DYNAMICPORT$ other than the documented case of using localhost as $HOST$?
NOTE: I just used 192.168.222.1900 as an invalid IP that I do not have access to so that I can force it to go through the SSH tunnel.
Hello,
Just a quick update, we will use $DYNAMIC_PORT$ as a variable (with the underscore) to respect our variable naming standards.
For automatically using "localhost" we will add an option for this. I'll keep you updated on the progress of that.
Regards,
Hubert Mireault
Hubert,
Thanks for the reply and looking forward to the fix!
Hubert,
I looked for this in 11.7.1.0 but didn't see it, did it make it in? If not, do you have a projected release for this?
Thanks,
Sorry Zachary, this isn't in yet but the feature is nearly finished internally. I can give you a better estimate of when it will be available later today. It will probably be in version 12 of RDM though.
Regards,
Hubert Mireault
The feature has been completed internally and it will indeed be available in RDM 12.
Regards,
Hubert Mireault
Hubert,
That's great news. Can we expect to see a beta of RDM 12 soon?
Thanks,
Zach Anderson
We should have a beta including this change in approximately 2 weeks.
Regards,
Hubert Mireault
Any update on beta availability? Looking forward to test this out!
Hello,
Unfortunately we don't have this change in the latest beta yet (11.7.4.0). I will ask David for an estimated release for the RDM 12 beta.
Regards,
Hubert Mireault
I asked David and we are aiming to release the beta next week.
Regards,
Hubert Mireault