openstack-manuals/doc/user-guides/source/cli_access_instance_through_a_console.rst

Access an instance through a console

VNC or SPICE is used to view the console output of an instance, regardless of whether or not the console log has output. This allows relaying keyboard and mouse activity to and from an instance.

There are three remote console access methods commonly used with OpenStack:

novnc

An in-browser VNC client implemented using HTML5 Canvas and WebSockets

spice

A complete in-browser client solution for interaction with virtualized instances

xvpvnc

A Java client offering console access to an instance

Example:

To access an instance through a remote console, run the following command:

$ nova get-vnc-console INSTANCE_NAME VNC_TYPE

The command returns a URL from which you can access your instance:

+--------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Type   | Url                                                                          |
+--------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| xvpvnc | http://192.168.5.96:6081/console?token=c83ae3a3-15c4-4890-8d45-aefb494a8d6c  |
+--------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

VNC_TYPE can be replaced by any of the above values as connection types.

When using SPICE to view the console of an instance, a browser plugin can be used directly on the instance page, or the get-vnc-console command can be used with it, as well, by returning a token-authenticated address, as in the example above.

For further information and comparisons (including security considerations), see the security guide.