Containers

Kasm Workspaces Install: 5 Steps to Run your Linux Desktop inside a Docker container

Discover Kasm Workspaces: the ultimate solution for streaming Docker containers, VDI desktops and secure browsers for home lab and production

If you are looking for one of the slickest and coolest solutions for streaming applications and desktops in your home lab or production, I want to introduce you to Kasm. It is a solution that will totally change how you do things, easily spinning up test environments, creating safe browsing sandboxes, and many other use cases. In this post, we will take a look at Kasm Workspace install and configuration to stream Docker container environments across a modern web browser.

What are Kasm Workspaces?

It is a containerized desktop infrastructure that allows streaming Docker containers in a secure, browser-based communication channel for applications and desktops. You can easily create virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions for full desktops or single applications for a team with application images streamed by Kasm. It helps administrators with data loss prevention (DLP) tools, includes two-factor authentication, SSO credentials, and the Kasm web services can be accessed by users using a simple web browser.

For home labs or office, it is a great solution as well since it can provide an easy way to spin up new Linux environments and access applications in a very streamlined way using web services. A DevOps engineer will appreciate the tools you can easily spin up and access from a simple web browser, meaning your tools are always accessible streaming across Kasm workspaces. You can create custom workspaces with apps, tools, environment variable configuration, and other customizations, including networking.

Kasm Workspaces Community Edition

The Kasm Workspaces community edition container streaming platform allows users to self-host Kasm on their own servers or computer for free on-prem. This version is great for home labbers who want to run streaming desktops, applications, and other tools and utilities quickly and easily.

Below is an overview of the Kasm Workspaces architecture found in their documentation.

Kasm single server architecture overview
Kasm single server architecture overview

How does the community edition compare to the professional and enterprise plan? There are many great features of the community edition. However, you will see three limitations noted in the information graphic provided by Kasm and a usage limit for sessions:

  • Excludes custom branding
  • Excludes web categorization
  • Excludes dynamic scaling
  • Also there is a 5 concurrent session limit

I don’t think the 5 concurrent sessions will be a big deal for most running this in the home lab or the inability to dynamically scale systems. You can see the Enterprise version gives you more features for developers and other employees, like a developer API. The company licenses it per user and is really not a lot of money for the capabilities you get with the product in order to provide security, accessibility, and manageability for your business.

Comparing community professional and enterprise solutions
Comparing community professional and enterprise solutions

Let’s take a look and see how to install Kasm Workspaces Community Edition.

Install Kasm Workspaces Community Edition

Note the following steps to install Kasm Workspaces Community Edition.

1. Create a Linux host for your Kasm Workspaces Community Edition machine

First things first, build yourself a Linux virtual machine that will serve as the Kasm host. I quickly Terraformed out a new Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS virtual machine to serve as the Kasm host.

The size of the VM I created contained 4 vCPUs, 8 GB of RAM and 80 GB of thin-provisioned hard drive space. Below, I used Terraform to clone an existing Ubuntu template.

Provisioning a new linux vm with terraform
Provisioning a new linux vm with terraform

2. Run the commands to install Kasm Workspaces

Next, we run the following commands:

cd /tmp

curl -O https://kasm-static-content.s3.amazonaws.com/kasm_release_1.15.0.06fdc8.tar.gz

tar -xf kasm_release_1.15.0.06fdc8.tar.gz
sudo bash kasm_release/install.sh

Below is an example of running the commands. You will quickly see the EULA to agree to with the installation of Kasm.

Installing kasm in ubuntu server 22.04
Installing kasm in ubuntu server 22.04

Enter Y on the prompt to accept the end user license agreement.

Agreeing to the eula agreement
Agreeing to the eula agreement

It will then begin pulling down the containers for the Kasm solution. Kasm does all the heavy lifting for you like copying files, installing Docker, setting up networks, installing versions of software needed for the solution, etc.

Pulling the images down during the kasm installation
Pulling the images down during the kasm installation

After a few minutes, the solution should be installed. It will display the administrator and user accounts and their passwords that have been set. Take note of the username and password as you will need these for logging into the Kasm workspaces (machines, apps, etc).

User accounts and passwords created after the kasm installation is finished
User accounts and passwords created after the kasm installation is finished

If you run a docker ps after the installation, you will see the following containers running right out of the install.

Docker ps command showing the kasm containers
Docker ps command showing the kasm containers

3. Browse to the Kasm workspaces web interface

In a browser, if you browse to the IP of your Kasm host, you will see the dashboard where you will need to login with the admin user and password.

Kasm workspaces login screen
Kasm workspaces login screen

On the dashboard control panel you will see handy statistics of things like:

  • Max active users
  • Successful logins
  • Failed logins
  • Created sessions
  • Current statistics
  • Image usage
Kasm admin dashboard
Kasm admin dashboard

This is what it looks like after you have had some activity:

Viewing the admin dashboard after a bit of history has been gathered
Viewing the admin dashboard after a bit of history has been gathered

4. Setting up workspaces in Kasm

One of the really great things about Kasm is the number of workspaces that are available out of the box. Using what Kasm calls the registry, you can browse a catalog of Docker containerized services that can be used as the basis for a workspace. There are quite a few available workspaces by default as you can see below. 

These range from full desktop workspaces like Ubuntu Jammy to individual applications, like Chrome, Firefox, Postman, and others that are part of the public open-source community. You will see collaboration tools, developer utilities, Docker tools, and their details etc.

The workspace registry in kasm
The workspace registry in kasm

Once you select one of the tiles in the registry, it will give you the option to Install.

Install a new workspace from the registry
Install a new workspace from the registry

Once you have added workspaces to Kasm, you can flip over to theย Workspacesย tab and you will see what the end user will see. However, your admin user can have workspaces collections as well as you see below. To launch the workspace, just click the tile. As simple as that!

Workspaces dashboard in kasm
Workspaces dashboard in kasm

When you click the tile for the workspace, it will prompt you to select how you want to open the session – in the current tab, new tab, or new window.

Launching a new workspace in kasm
Launching a new workspace in kasm

Below is the

The ubuntu jammy desktop workspace
The ubuntu jammy desktop workspace

5. Managing workspaces: Resuming, pausing, stopping, and deleting

Once you create a new workspace, you can resume, pause, stop, and delete existing workspaces. One of the great things to note is the Kasm workspace can simply be discarded and when you spin up the same workspace again, it will be a pristine copy of the workspace.

As you can see below, I have launched a few workspaces for the admin user and when I navigate back to the workspace dashboard, Kasm asks you what you would like to do with the workspace.

Managing workspaces to pause stop or delete
Managing workspaces to pause stop or delete

Adding additional registries

One of the other cool things about Kasm Workspaces is you can add additional registries to Kasm. This capability allows you to extend the functionality of the default available workspaces to additonal offerings.

One of the quick and easy ones to add is the Kasm Workspaces from Linuxserver.io. The registry URL is the below:https://kasmregistry.linuxserver.io/

You can see the catalog of workspaces from Linuxserver.io below. It features a few more full desktop Linux operating system workspaces and several more utilities and apps.

Linuxserver.io workspace registry
Linuxserver.io workspace registry

Next, navigat to Workspaces > Registry > Registries > Add Registry. Input the registry URL that we copied from Linuxserver.io and then click the Add registry button.

Adding the registry to the kasm workspace settings
Adding the registry to the kasm workspace settings

You will see the warning about adding 3rd party registries. Click Add Registry to finish adding the registry to Kasm.

Add the third party registry
Add the third party registry

You can filter your workspaces to see the ones available from a particular registry.

Filter the workspace registry with specific
Filter the workspace registry with specific

A great use case for the Kasm Workspaces platform is browser isolation. You can have a browser Kasm workspace you can use to launch a questionable URL. Think of it like a sandbox for this purpose. You can use them for all web browsing if you want to keep your machine clean and free from malware, PUPs, spyware, and more.

Also, there is a Kasm Open In Isolation browser plugin that you can download for Chrome/Chromium browsers that allows setting up quick and easy “right-click” functionality for a link. It will automatically forward opening the link to your Kasm workspace browser session.

Chrome open in isolation browser plugin
Chrome open in isolation browser plugin

When you install the Kasm Open In Isolation browser plugin, you will then get the following new right-click context menu integration when you right-click on a link:

Open link in kasm
Open link in kasm

The isolated browser technology within Kasm Workspaces is an excellent part of the security framework and offers protection against data loss and unauthorized access to your local PC. All browsing sessions are contained within a secure environment and minimizes the risk associated with internet use.

Install software and custom workspace images

With Kasm workspaces, you can install software inside your Kasm workspace image on first launch. In the properties of your workspace image, you can use the Docker Exec Config box under the properties of your added workspace to install software that you may be missing.

One of the picky things I found with the default Terminal workspace is it is missing the basic ping command. You can install ping, nmap, and netcat with the below:

{
  "first_launch": {
    "user": "root",
    "cmd": "bash -c 'apt-get update && apt-get install -y iputils-ping && apt-get install -y nmap &&  apt-get install -y netcat'"
  }
}
Install software using the docker exec config customization
Install software using the docker exec config customization

One thing to note is the commands will run asynchronously of the terminal spinning up. So if you quickly try to run ping, the command will not be found. But if you wait a few seconds, it will be there.

You can also build and use your own Docker images for Kasm workspaces. You can read the official documentation for that here: Building Custom Images โ€” Kasm 1.15.0 documentation.

Browser-based Access for cloud desktops and apps

The convenience of browser-based access means that you can interact with desktops and applications from any location with security and performance with no client installation needed. This is crucial for those supporting remote work and provides a way to maintain everything in a single location for management.

Businesses are also transforming from traditional VDI solutions to a more cloud-based approach with desktops-as-a-service (DaaS). It allows them to deploy and manage their IT resources and provide flexible, secure, and cost-effective alternative to traditional desktop delivery methods. While we touched on the free community edition, Kasm’s paid offerings allow hosting your resources in their cloud environment.

Single Sign-On, 2FA, and Containerized Workloads

Implementing Kasm Workspaces design supports single sign-on (SSO). This simplifies access management for users and deploying applications and services.

Also, Kasm has 2FA in place and built into the solution. You can integrate with your solution for 2FA and make sure the Kasm resources are locked down and secured appropriately.

KasmVNC

Kasm also provides other products on top of the Kasm Workspaces solution. KasmVNC software deployment is a remote web-based access tool to access a Desktop or application. While it is similar to other VNC programs, KasmVNC differs from others like TigerVNC, RealVNC, and TurboVNC. 

KasmVNC deviates from the RFB specification which defines VNC, to support modern technologies and increase security. KasmVNC is accessed by users from any modern browser and does not support legacy VNC viewer applications. It also uses a modern YAML based configuration at the server and user level, allowing for ease of management

Wrapping up Kasm Workspaces

I think most will find Kasm Workspaces to be awesome! It is an excellent solution for the ability to access full desktops, rendering applications, and tools by streaming them in a web browser. I really like the ease in which you can spin up Kasm and register workspaces on the network.

With open-source intelligence apps and services you can have things available at your fingertips. Even though multiple users can access the same Kasm shared host, coworking containers are totally isolated from one another. There are many blog guides to get started with Kasm and other resources on the net that will help you avoid problems configuring your Kasm workspaces. Let me know in the comments if you have used Kasm before? Also, feel free to ping me on the VHT Forums if you need help.ย 

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Brandon Lee

Brandon Lee is the Senior Writer, Engineer and owner at Virtualizationhowto.com, and a 7-time VMware vExpert, with over two decades of experience in Information Technology. Having worked for numerous Fortune 500 companies as well as in various industries, He has extensive experience in various IT segments and is a strong advocate for open source technologies. Brandon holds many industry certifications, loves the outdoors and spending time with family. Also, he goes through the effort of testing and troubleshooting issues, so you don't have to.

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