virtualbox.org

On our linux server, I have temporarily decided to install a virtual windows for windows users. Here is the problem:

Users who use windows RDP see a single desktop and not their own!
In other word, assume that I start the guest in the headless mode using
Then I decide to login with the administrator account. Later another user uses RDP and see the administrator's desktop!! Isn't that odd?

The authentication method is set to NULL which I thing that this the root of the problem. However, setting the authentication method to other things will prevent the users to connect via RDP

Not at all odd since this is a single OS guest. You would need a terminal server as guest to do otherwise. Remember the guest is acting as a stand alone OS and not an application so they will act the exact same way virtual as on metal.

You would need a terminal server as guest to do otherwise

Can you explain more on that? What should I look for exactly?
I want to create a windows guest for windows users. So, they connect to it and login with their credentials and do their work separately.


P.S: What is that "Allow multiple connection" in the remote display setting?

Connecting using VRDP to the host IP address and the port as defined in the guest setting gives you a connection directly to the virtual hardware monitor, keyboard and mouse. So there is only one connection possible.
Connecting to the (internal) RDP of the guest Windows using the IP address of the guest will give you the same experience like any other Windows PC.

Connecting to the (internal) RDP of the guest Windows using the IP address of the guest will give you the same experience like any other Windows PC.

When the network type is set to bridge, then the guest's IP address is invalid. So, how users can connect to such invalid address? I don't understand that...

That would be a LAN question that you and your LAN administrator has to answer. If you can get a valid address for the guest that the LAN can see and access it will work. At that point the vRDP would need to be shut off since you want to connect to the guest directly and not through the host.

I installed a window server 2008 R2 as a guest and installed the remote desktop feature. Still all users see a single shared desktop

I don't think this is a network problem. Because a remote connection is made to access the desktop. What config do you want to see in order to debug that?

I'm still not sure that this is a VirtualBox issue. You say you installed server 2008, but did you install the terminal service that would allow multiple unique connections? You can not use the VirtualBox RDP ( vRDP ) because it does not provide that. You would need to access the guest directly and use the Windows specific RDP to make the connections.

Sorry but I don't understand that... Do you mean that VirtualBox RDP feature doesn't allow multiple users to access their desktop?

Please see this picture, where I configured the RDP inside the window server 2008 (the guest)



Now, see this picture. On my laptop, I used VNC viewer to see the host's GUI (in the left window you can see window server is running as guest). The two right windows are RDP sessions from my laptop to the windows server (host:3389). As you can see both users see the admin's desktop.

I also tried to change the field of "user name" in the RDP application but it seems that it ignores the user name! because quickly I see the admin's page

Yes VBox will allow multiple single connections but not unique. How could it? Unique connections is an operating system feature.
Your issue is you do not understand how the unique connections to the OS are achieved.