I have built the following VM in Windows Azure for a small web server for my client. Client OS: Windows 8 Server OS: Using OpenLogic's Linux CentOS 6.5 from Azure list
In the Server, the following packages are installed:
yum groupinstall "X Window System" "Desktop" (based on CentOS wiki but not sure what is the difference between "Desktop" and "Basic-Desktop" in some tutorials
Edit: Basic-Desktop is not fully installed while Desktop is fully installed for all features. "Desktop" is known as "Gnome Desktop Environment" in previous version.
yum vino-server
Edit: vino-server is VNC server for Gnome, tigervnc-server is required for CentOS 6.5 as a full featured VNC server
Now using Putty SSH for Windows to connect the Linux server without problem.
Based on the search in Internet, vino-server is a remote desktop based for VNC(Virtual Network Computing) and RDP(Remote Desktop Protocol). For using Windows RDP, XRDP is required while VNC could be used without any further packages but a bit of configurations.
Considerations about XRDP for CentOS
Since there is no native build XRDP for CentOS so I have to build myself. I didn't try it yet because according to a system engineer, building from source is not good idea and not secure for a production server. So to avoid it, I try to connect by VNC.
VNC Setting up difficulties
However, although I added ucd/tcp port 5900 to iptables and endpoints in Azure management portal, I cannot config the "Activating Remote Desktop Access" because I am in Putty terminal, no GUI can be opened.
I found a command vino-preferences
to setup which cannot be opened in Putty.
So, I tried XMing to open up the terminal.
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 5900 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m udp -p udp --dport 5900 -j ACCEPT
Xming for Windows setting up difficulties
I installed Xming, and fonts for it. I setup the Putty according to @NobleUplift's question: How do I get X11 Forwarding to work on Windows with PuTTY and Xming? and based on some other researches. Suppose Xming is using SSH Tunneling with Putty, that Putty will forward needed information to X Window.
X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost yes
AddressFamily inet
After these configurations and double click XMing shortcut configured for the above account, it does not open anything nor staying in Windows taskbar after input "password". It close immediately.
So I am now stuck here because I cannot config the VNC and I cannot connect with Xming neither. I hope the above description is adequate and any help is appreciated.