Connecting
There are two ways into an asset from the browser, and for SSH assets a third: your own SSH client through the SSH gateway.
The workbench
/workbench is where people who are not administrators work, and administrators can use it too. The left side lists every asset the user may connect to, with a search box; the right side holds one tab per open connection.
- Click an asset to open it in a new tab. Clicking an asset that is already open switches to its tab.
- Close a tab to disconnect it. Leaving the page disconnects them all.
- Each tab is its own session, so an administrator sees one line per tab in the session list.
Connecting from the asset list
On Assets, the Connect button opens the asset at /access/<organization>/<name>, a page that holds only the session and fills the browser window. Bookmark it to reach one server directly.
If the asset has no stored username or password, the button asks for what is missing first. See The account.
When the SSH gateway is on, SSH assets also have a Copy SSH command button, which copies a command such as ssh -p 2222 web-01@casvisor.example.com for a terminal on your own machine.
What happens on connect
- The browser asks Casvisor to start a session for the asset.
- Casvisor checks that the user is signed in and that a permission gives them Connect on this asset, from their IP address, right now. Administrators skip this check.
- Casvisor opens a WebSocket for the session. It checks again that the session was started by the same user and that the permission still holds, then connects to the asset, through its network gateway if it has one.
- The session shows as Online in the session list until the tab is closed or an administrator stops it, and is recorded as it goes.
If the check fails, the tab shows why, for example you have no permission to connect to the asset.
Keyboard and clipboard
- SSH and Telnet run in an xterm.js terminal: colours, resizing with the window, and the usual copy and paste of the browser. For SSH, with Upload or Download in the permission, the Files button in the top right corner opens a file panel beside the terminal.
- RDP and VNC run in a canvas, with a toolbar for full screen, the clipboard and key combinations such as Ctrl+Alt+Del. Keys go to the remote side as typed. Clipboard sharing follows the Copy and Paste actions of the user's permission. RDP follows the size of the browser window and, with Upload or Download, has a Files button for moving files.
See Protocols for the details of each.
Assets
An asset is a server people connect to through Casvisor: its protocol, host and port, the account Casvisor logs in with, and a tag that groups it with others for permissions.
SSH gateway
Reach SSH assets through Casvisor with your own ssh, scp, sftp, rsync, Xshell or VS Code Remote: sign in with a registered public key, name the asset in the username, and keep the same permissions, command rules and session list as the web terminal.