Remote Access

At a glance

With rportcli you can create tunnels to your remote machines. Optionally, you can directly launch an application such as ssh or remote desktop to instantly log in. Examples:

Create an SSH tunnel to a client called “Juan-Ford” and execute the openSSH client on it
```
rportcli tunnel create -n Juan-Ford -s ssh -b "-l root"
```
Create an RDP tunnel to a client called ABRAHAM and start the remote desktop using the Administrator user.
```
rportcli tunnel create -n ABRAHAM -s rdp -d -u Administrator
```

Create tunnels

With rportcli tunnel create you can establish a tunnel to a client. You have three mutual exclusive options to specify the client the tunnel is created for. Also called targeting.

By name -n, --name string: The client is identified by its name. Example:; rportcli tunnel create -n My-Remote-Machine; 🧙‍♂️ Wildcards are supported. If you don’t want to type in a long name, use -n "Alvin*" for example.; If more than one client matches the wildcard search, you will get an error.; Don’t omit the quotation marks. Otherwise, the wildcard sign * is resolved by your shell.
By ID -c, --client string: The client is identified by its ID. Example:; rportcli tunnel create -c 0658aeabf8e04f759dd2b9dbbec53068

You can either copy the client’s name or ID from the web user interface or use rportcli client list.

Once you have a client identified, specify for which port you want to create the tunnel.

The remote port, -r, --remote string: This is the port on the remote machine you wish to get access to.
The other end of the tunnel, -l, --local string: This is the port on your rport server you will use to access the tunnel.; If none is given, a random free port is selected.

Examples

Create a tunnel to the port 22 (SSH) of the client called “Holly-Harris”. A random free port on the rport server is used.

$ rportcli tunnel create -n Holly-Harris -r 22
Tunnel
KEY                VALUE                                  
ID:                1                                      
CLIENT_ID:         Holly-Harris                           
LOCAL_HOST:        0.0.0.0                                
LOCAL_PORT:        29853                                  
REMOTE_HOST:       127.0.0.1                              
REMOTE_PORT:       22                                     
LOCAL_PORT RANDOM: true                                   
SCHEME:            ssh                                    
IDLE TIMEOUT MINS: 5                                      
ACL:               89.0.79.56                             
USAGE:             ssh -p 29853 rport.example.com -l ${USER}

Create a so-called service forwarding. The host “ANTMAN” is used as a bridge host to create a tunnel for RDP to a remote machine where rport is not installed.

rportcli tunnel create --name ANTMAN -r 192.168.219.46:3389 -s rdp
Tunnel
KEY                VALUE                                  
ID:                2                                      
CLIENT_ID:         ANTMAN                                 
LOCAL_HOST:        0.0.0.0                                
LOCAL_PORT:        27139                                  
REMOTE_HOST:       192.168.219.46                         
REMOTE_PORT:       3389                                   
LOCAL_PORT RANDOM: true                                   
SCHEME:            rdp                                    
IDLE TIMEOUT MINS: 5                                      
ACL:               89.0.79.56                             
USAGE:             rdp://rport.example.com:27139

See rportcli tunnel create -h for all options.

Secured by default
All tunnels are protected with a tight access control list (ACL) by default. Only the current public IP Address of the rportcli host will be allowed to access the port of the tunnel. Use -a, --acl to create custom ACLs.
Also, all tunnels are closed automatically after an inactivity of 5 minutes. Use -m, --idle-timeout-minutes int to change this behaviour.

Close tunnels

Use rportcli tunnel list to display the list of active tunnels. Then use rportcli tunnel delete -c <CLIENT-ID> -u <TUNNEL-ID> to delete a tunnel for a client.

See rportcli tunnel delete -h for all options.

Time-saving shortcuts: Create and launch tunnels 🏎

For the two most widely used remote access protocols, SSH and RDP, rportcli has built-in shortcuts. After a tunnel is created, openSSH or Microsoft Remote Desktop will automatically start a session.

Remote Desktop

Create a tunnel for RDP to the host identified by its name. The Remote Desktop Client will automatically start using the username “Administrator” and a geometry of 1024*768.

rportcli tunnel create -n ABRAHAM -s rdp -d -u Administrator -w 1024 -i 768

Behind the scenes rportcli creates a temporary .rdp file and then the default app for this file type is launched.

SSH

Create a tunnel for SSH to the host identified by its name. The openSSH client is started with the ssh options -l root -A, meaning that the SSH user is root and the ssh-agent is passed into the session.

rportcli tunnel create -n Juan-Ford -b "-l root -A"

Rportcli will directly launch ssh - the open-ssh client - with the port of the tunnel appended. Other SSH client such as Putty for example are not supported.

The tunnel is closed automatically after the ssh client is closed. You don’t need to do this manually.

This applies only to ssh. For other apps a tunnel close can’t be triggered on app close. Tunnels will close after 5 minutes without network activity.

URI Open

To access http, https, vnc or realvnc services via a tunnel, you can use the generic URI launcher. For example:

rportcli tunnel create -n MyMachine -s http --launch-uri

After the tunnel is created, your default app for the specified URI is launched.