Using Window Remote Desktop for remote CentOS 7/RHEL 7

How to install xrdp on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

xrdp is an Open Source Remote desktop Protocol server, which allows you to RDP to your Linux server from Windows machine; it is capable of accepting connections from  rdesktop, freerdp, and remote desktop clients. This how to will help you to setup xrdp server on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7.

Install EPEL, xrdp and nux Desktop repository rpms.

# rpm -Uvh http://li.nux.ro/download/nux/dextop/el7/x86_64/nux-dextop-release-0-1.el7.nux.noarch.rpm
# rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/7/x86_64/e/epel-release-7-9.noarch.rpm
# rpm -Uvh https://li.nux.ro/download/nux/dextop/el7/x86_64/xrdp-0.6.1-3.el7.nux.x86_64.rpm

Once it is installed, lets start the xrdp service.
# systemctl start xrdp.service

The xrdp will listen on 3389, lets confirm this by issuing following command.
# netstat -antup | grep xrdp
tcp      0   0 0.0.0.0:3389       0.0.0.0:*            LISTEN      1508/xrdp
tcp      0   0 127.0.0.1:3350     0.0.0.0:*            LISTEN      1507/xrdp-sesman

By default, services wont auto start after system reboot. Issue the following command to enable the service at system start up.
# systemctl enable xrdp.service

Next is to create iptables rule to allow rdp connection from the external machines, following command will add the exception for rdp port (3389).
# firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=3389/tcp
# firewall-cmd --reload

Configure SELinux
# chcon --type=bin_t /usr/sbin/xrdp
# chcon --type=bin_t /usr/sbin/xrdp-sesman

Test:

Now take RDP from any windows machine using Remote Desktop Connection, enter IP address of Linux server in computer field and click on connect.

RHEL 7– xrdp MSTSC 

You would be asked to enter the user name and password, you can either use root or any user that you have it on system. Make sure you use module "sesman-Xvnc".

RHEL 7– xrdp Login page 

If you click ok, you will see the processing. In less than a half min, you will get a desktop.

 RHEL 7 – xrdp Desktop

That’s All, you have successfully configured xRDP on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7. We welcome your comments.