Configure VMWare View 4.5 using RDP through Firewall

[chewatt]

I've been using VMWare products for a few years now and am just getting into VMWare View 4.5.  I do realize that PCOIP through a VPN is a superior protocol over RDP and would give me many more features but for the time being I am forced to run without a VPN due to my ISP's equipment that will be replaced when my client's contract expires in a few months.  I've been reading every document possible to learn how to run RDP from WAN clients through my firewall into my ESX View server and I just can't find the right documents.  My "guess" would be that I simply port forward port 443 through my firewall to my View Manager Server's IP address (or security server) and tell both the server and the client to default to RDP and I'd be good to go.  So my question is...can this be done with just the 443 port or do I need to run a VPN?  I really just need the most simple config for now to test performance over the WAN.  If possible (to test) I'd like to just port map 443 straight to the View Manager without a security server.  Can this be done or do I have to run a security server in order to listen on 443?

[BobPopples]

The actual port required for View is 443 for the SSL connection. In my configuration I am running a Security server in front of my View Connection server. It does not have an external presence, but I have a NAT in our firewall for port 443 pointing to it from an outside public static IP. You could use the static IP assigned by the ISP depending on what other services you are hosting. If you are hosting other SSL based services on that IP then you may have some problems without getting another IP or using VPN.

So basically, yes you can access the View Connection server remotely without using VPN, but you should setup a Security server VM to be the go between. I just used a Server 03 x86 VM with 1GB RAM and 2 CPU's. NAT or port forward port 443 to your Security server and you should be good to go. Also, you have to use RDP as the transport protocol if you are going to use the security server.

Connecting to a virtual desktop hosted by View via RDP will not conflict with the RDP protocol on your server.