VNC, SSH, and Screen Sharing for Orka VMs
Deeper look at how VNC, SSH, and Screen Sharing work for Orka VMs.
Quick navigation
Jump to: Default port assignment and reserved ports | Your control over VNC, SSH, and Screen Sharing in Orka VMs | Limitations | Disabling VNC | Managing SSH or Screen Sharing
See also: Opening Additional Ports on a VM
By default, every Orka VM is assigned a VNC, an SSH, and a Screen Sharing port during deployment. The assignment happens automatically.
However, having the port open might not be sufficient to reach your VM. For example, to be able to use SSH, you also need to have Remote Login enabled from the OS. Similarly, to be able to use Screen Sharing, you also need to have Screen Sharing enabled from the OS.
Default port assignment and reserved ports
During deployment, Orka assigns a VNC, an SSH, and a Screen Sharing port to the VM automatically. Based on the total number of VMs deployed on a node, Orka picks a port from a range. These are the default ranges of ports per type:
- 5900-5914 for Apple Screen Sharing
- 5999-6013 for VNC
- 8822-8836 reserved for SSH
On every Orka environment the following ports and port ranges are reserved:
- 22 (reserved for SSH)
- 80 (reserved for operational purposes)
- 443 (reserved for operational purposes)
- 5000-5014 (reserved for Apple Screen Sharing)
- 5999-6013 (reserved for VNC)
- 6443 (reserved for operational purposes)
- 8822-8836 (reserved for SSH)
Your control over VNC, SSH, and Screen Sharing in Orka VMs
| YES | NO | |
|---|---|---|
| During the creation or deployment of a VM | Open additional ports. Disable VNC and deploy the VM without a VNC port enabled. | Change the values of the assigned ports. Disable the SSH or the Screen Share ports. |
| After the deployment | Enable or disable SSH. Enable or disable Screen Sharing. | Re-enable the VNC port. Disable the VNC, SSH or Screen Share ports. Change the values of the assigned VNC, SSH, or Screen Share ports. |
Limitations
The configuration control and connection steps for VNC, SSH, or Screen Sharing, described here, are applicable only to Orka macOS VMs.
You cannot use the built-in VNC or Screen Sharing capabilities with:
- Orka nodes
- K8s pods
- non-macOS VMs
Disabling VNC
| Orka CLI | Orka REST API | |
|---|---|---|
| For a VM configuration | For orka vm create-config or orka vm create:(Interactive) Set VNC Console to no.(Direct) Pass --vnc no. | For POST /resources/vm/create,pass "vnc_console": false in the body. |
| For an individual VM | For orka vm deploy:(Interactive) Set VNC Console to no.(Direct) Pass --vnc no. | For POST /resources/vm/deploy,pass "vnc_console": false in the body. |
When you disable VNC on the VM configuration level, all VMs deployed from the configuration will have their VNC disabled automatically.
Once the VM is deployed with disabled VNC, you cannot re-enable it for this specific VM.
Managing SSH or Screen Sharing
Unless your VM is deployed from an SSH-enabled image or a Screen Sharing-enabled image, the respective connection method will be disabled for your VM.
To change the SSH or the Screen Sharing setting, you need to connect to the VM via VNC and modify its Sharing preferences.
- Connect to the VM via VNC.
- Launch System Preferences > Sharing.
- Manage SSH access to the VM with the Remote Login checkbox.
- Manage Screen Sharing access to the VM with the Screen Sharing checkbox.
- Restart the VM from the OS to persist the setting.
TIP: Don't want to do this every time?
Commit the changes to the base image or save a new image from the VM.
What's next
Updated over 2 years ago