doc/gug/recording-playback.html

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class="breadcrumb-item active">Viewing session recordings in-browser</li> <li class="wy-breadcrumbs-aside"> <a href="_sources/recording-playback.md.txt" rel="nofollow"> View page source</a> </li> </ul> <hr/> </div> <div role="main" class="document" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article"> <div itemprop="articleBody"> <section id="viewing-session-recordings-in-browser"> <h1>Viewing session recordings in-browser<a class="headerlink" href="#viewing-session-recordings-in-browser" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h1> <p>Guacamole supports <a class="reference internal" href="configuring-guacamole.html#graphical-recording"><span class="std std-ref">recording activity within remote desktop sessions</span></a> such that it can be played back and reviewed later. Graphical recordings can be converted to video <a class="reference internal" href="configuring-guacamole.html#graphical-recording"><span class="std std-ref">using the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">guacenc</span></code> tool</span></a> (part of <a class="reference internal" href="installing-guacamole.html#building-guacamole-server"><span class="std std-ref">guacamole-server</span></a>) or can be played back directly in the browser in their native format using Guacamole itself. This has several benefits:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p>Recordings can be played back while the session is underway.</p></li> <li><p>Recordings need not be re-encoded as traditional video, an intensive process that often results in a larger file.</p></li> <li><p>It is very easy to locate and play back the recording for a session when doing so only involves clicking a button in the connection history.</p></li> </ul> <p>This chapter of the documentation covers installing and using the extension that allows recordings stored on disk to be played back in the browser.</p> <div class="admonition important"> <p class="admonition-title">Important</p> <p>This chapter involves modifying the contents of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">GUACAMOLE_HOME</span></code> - the Guacamole configuration directory. If you are unsure where <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">GUACAMOLE_HOME</span></code> is located on your system, please consult <a class="reference internal" href="configuring-guacamole.html"><span class="doc std std-doc">Configuring Guacamole</span></a> before proceeding.</p> </div> <section id="how-recording-storage-and-playback-works"> <span id="playback-architecture"></span><h2>How recording storage and playback works<a class="headerlink" href="#how-recording-storage-and-playback-works" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2> <p>The Guacamole web application includes its own support for playing back recordings from the history screen in the administration interface, but that support cannot automatically know where those recordings are stored nor how they are named. The extension documented here provides exactly that missing piece, allowing the web application to find recordings on disk so long as they are named appropriately and stored in a specific location.</p> <p>Each history entry has a deterministic, internal, unique identifier called its UUID, and all supported database backends make this UUID available ahead of time with the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">${HISTORY_UUID}</span></code> parameter token. This provides a reliable way for data stored <em>outside</em> the database to be associated with history entries that are otherwise stored purely <em>inside</em> the database, and it is this UUID that the extension searches for when locating the recording for a history entry.</p> <p>When a user lists the history of a connection, the recording storage extension additionally <a class="reference internal" href="#recording-storage-config"><span class="std std-ref">searches a predetermined location</span></a> for session recordings that match either of the following criteria:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p>The recording’s filename is <em>identical</em> to the history entry UUID and is directly within the search path.</p></li> <li><p>The recording has any name at all and is within a directory whose filename is identical to the history entry UUID and is directly within the search path.</p></li> </ul> <p>If such a recording is found, it is made available to any user that can view the history entry. The availability of a recording is displayed as a “View” link in the “Logs” column of the history table:</p> <p><img alt="View link in the history UI" src="_images/history-table-with-recordings.png" /></p> <p>Clicking on that link navigates to a screen with a player that loads the recording and allows it to be played back:</p> <p><img alt="In-browser player interface" src="_images/recording-player-in-use.png" /></p> </section> <section id="downloading-the-recording-storage-extension"> <span id="playback-downloading"></span><h2>Downloading the recording storage extension<a class="headerlink" href="#downloading-the-recording-storage-extension" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2> <p>The recording storage extension is available separately from the main <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">guacamole.war</span></code>. The link for this and all other officially-supported and compatible extensions for a particular version of Guacamole are provided on the release notes for that version. You can find the release notes for current versions of Guacamole here: http://guacamole.apache.org/releases/.</p> <p>The recording storage extension is packaged as a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.tar.gz</span></code> file containing only the extension itself, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">guacamole-history-recording-storage-1.5.3.jar</span></code>, which must ultimately be placed in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">GUACAMOLE_HOME/extensions</span></code>.</p> </section> <section id="installing-the-recording-storage-extension"> <span id="installing-recording-storage"></span><h2>Installing the recording storage extension<a class="headerlink" href="#installing-the-recording-storage-extension" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2> <p>Guacamole extensions are self-contained <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.jar</span></code> files which are located within the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">GUACAMOLE_HOME/extensions</span></code> directory. To install the recording storage extension, you must:</p> <ol class="arabic simple"> <li><p>Create the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">GUACAMOLE_HOME/extensions</span></code> directory, if it does not already exist.</p></li> <li><p>Copy <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">guacamole-history-recording-storage-1.5.3.jar</span></code> within <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">GUACAMOLE_HOME/extensions</span></code>.</p></li> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="#recording-storage-connection-config"><span class="std std-ref">Configure your connections to store their recordings within the path searched by the recording storage extension, as described below.</span></a></p></li> </ol> <div class="admonition important"> <p class="admonition-title">Important</p> <p>You will need to restart Guacamole by restarting your servlet container in order to complete the installation. Doing this will disconnect all active users, so be sure that it is safe to do so prior to attempting installation. If you do not configure the recording storage extension properly, Guacamole will not start up again until the configuration is fixed.</p> </div> <section id="preparing-a-directory-for-recording-storage"> <span id="prepare-recording-storage"></span><h3>Preparing a directory for recording storage<a class="headerlink" href="#preparing-a-directory-for-recording-storage" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h3> <p>By default, the recording storage extension will search within <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/var/lib/guacamole/recordings</span></code> for the recordings associated with a connection. Unless you or a third-party installation tool have created this directory, this directory will not exist and you will need to create it manually:</p> <div class="highlight-console notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">$ </span>mkdir<span class="w"> </span>-p<span class="w"> </span>/var/lib/guacamole/recordings </pre></div> </div> <p>You can also use another directory of your own choosing if you <a class="reference internal" href="#recording-storage-config"><span class="std std-ref">override the default location using the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">recording-search-path</span></code> property</span></a>.</p> <div class="admonition important"> <p class="admonition-title">Important</p> <p>The following steps will use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/var/lib/guacamole/recordings</span></code>, as it is a sensible location and the default search path. If you are using a different path, consider <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/var/lib/guacamole/recordings</span></code> below to be a placeholder and use your own path instead.</p> </div> <p>Once the path has been created, its permissions and ownerships must be modified such that <em>both of the following are true</em>:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p>The guacd service can write to the directory.</p></li> <li><p>The servlet container (typically Tomcat) can read from the directory, as well as read any files that are placed within the directory.</p></li> </ul> <p>The simplest way to do this is to ensure that:</p> <ol class="arabic simple"> <li><p>The directory is owned by the user that runs the guacd service and the <em>group</em> that runs the Tomcat service.</p></li> <li><p>The directory has read/write/execute permissions for the user (so that guacd can write here), and read/execute/<strong>setgid</strong> permissions for the group (so that Tomcat can read here, and so that <a class="reference external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setuid#When_set_on_a_directory">any files placed here are automatically owned by the Tomcat user’s group</a>).</p></li> </ol> <p>For example, if your guacd service runs as a dedicated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">guacd</span></code> user, and your Tomcat service runs as a user within the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tomcat</span></code> group:</p> <div class="highlight-console notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">$ </span>chown<span class="w"> </span>guacd:tomcat<span class="w"> </span>/var/lib/guacamole/recordings <span class="gp">$ </span>chmod<span class="w"> </span><span class="m">2750</span><span class="w"> </span>/var/lib/guacamole/recordings </pre></div> </div> <p>If set correctly, the ownerships and permissions should look like:</p> <div class="highlight-console notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">$ </span>ls<span class="w"> </span>-ld<span class="w"> </span>/var/lib/guacamole/recordings <span class="go">drwxr-s---. 1 guacd tomcat 0 Feb 5 05:43 /var/lib/guacamole/recordings/</span> <span class="gp">$</span> </pre></div> </div> </section> <section id="configuring-guacamole-for-recording-storage"> <span id="recording-storage-config"></span><h3>Configuring Guacamole for recording storage<a class="headerlink" href="#configuring-guacamole-for-recording-storage" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h3> <p>The recording storage extension has no required properties and typically does not need to be configured beyond (1) creating the storage directory <a class="reference internal" href="#prepare-recording-storage"><span class="std std-ref">as described above</span></a> and (2) configuring connections to use that storage directory <a class="reference internal" href="#recording-storage-connection-config"><span class="std std-ref">as described below</span></a>. Configuration is only necessary if you wish to use a storage location other than the default <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/var/lib/guacamole/recordings</span></code>.</p> <p>If you wish to use a different storage location than <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/var/lib/guacamole/recordings</span></code>, the following property must be added to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">guacamole.properties</span></code>:</p> <dl class="simple myst"> <dt><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">recording-search-path</span></code></dt><dd><p>The directory to search for associated session recordings. This property is optional. By default, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/var/lib/guacamole/recordings</span></code> will be used.</p> </dd> </dl> </section> <section id="completing-the-installation"> <span id="completing-recording-storage-install"></span><h3>Completing the installation<a class="headerlink" href="#completing-the-installation" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h3> <p>Guacamole will only reread <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">guacamole.properties</span></code> and load newly-installed extensions during startup, so your servlet container will need to be restarted before installation of the recording storage extension will take effect. Restart your servlet container, configure a connection to use the new storage, and give in-browser playback a try.</p> <div class="admonition important"> <p class="admonition-title">Important</p> <p>You only need to restart your servlet container. <em>You do not need to restart guacd</em>.</p> <p>guacd is completely independent of the web application and does not deal with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">guacamole.properties</span></code> or extensions in any way. Since you are already restarting the servlet container, restarting guacd as well technically won’t hurt anything, but doing so is completely pointless.</p> </div> <p>If Guacamole does not come back online after restarting your servlet container, check the logs. Problems in the configuration of the recording storage extension may prevent Guacamole from starting up, and any such errors will be recorded in the logs of your servlet container.</p> </section> </section> <section id="configuring-connections-to-use-recording-storage"> <span id="recording-storage-connection-config"></span><h2>Configuring connections to use recording storage<a class="headerlink" href="#configuring-connections-to-use-recording-storage" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2> <p>Recordings of connections can be found by the recording storage extension as long as those connections are configured in either of two ways, each involving naming a file or directory with the history UUID (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">${HISTORY_UUID}</span></code>).</p> <section id="option-1-using-a-subdirectory-named-with-the-history-uuid-recommended"> <h3>Option 1: Using a subdirectory named with the history UUID (RECOMMENDED)<a class="headerlink" href="#option-1-using-a-subdirectory-named-with-the-history-uuid-recommended" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h3> <p>If the recording path of a connection is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">${HISTORY_PATH}/${HISTORY_UUID}</span></code> and “automatically create path” is checked, then the recording storage extension will be able to locate the recording by recognizing that the directory is named with the UUID:</p> <p><img alt="Configuring session recording with the path containing the history UUID" src="_images/recording-storage-connection-config-option1-recommended.png" /></p> <p><strong>This is the recommended method of storing recordings.</strong> This method is the most flexible in that it allows other recordings like typescripts to be stored within the same directory, and it allows recordings to be given <em>any</em> name, including names that are more human-readable, contain <a class="reference internal" href="configuring-guacamole.html#parameter-tokens"><span class="std std-ref"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">${GUAC_DATE}</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">${GUAC_TIME}</span></code> tokens</span></a>, etc.</p> <p>Though the web application does not currently support in-browser playback of typescripts, server logs, or other files that might be of interest to the administrator looking at the history of a connection, it <em>does</em> recognize these files. Following this method will allow any future support for playback of other types of recordings to work even for old recordings.</p> </section> <section id="option-2-naming-the-recording-with-the-history-uuid"> <h3>Option 2: Naming the recording with the history UUID<a class="headerlink" href="#option-2-naming-the-recording-with-the-history-uuid" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h3> <p>If the recording path of a connection is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">${HISTORY_PATH}</span></code> and the recording name is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">${HISTORY_UUID}</span></code>, the recording storage extension will be able to locate the recording by recognizing that its name is identical to the UUID:</p> <p><img alt="Configuring session recording with the name containing the history UUID" src="_images/recording-storage-connection-config-option2.png" /></p> </section> </section> </section> </div> </div> <footer><div class="rst-footer-buttons" role="navigation" aria-label="Footer"> <a href="using-guacamole.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-left" title="Using Guacamole" accesskey="p" rel="prev"><span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-left" aria-hidden="true"></span> Previous</a> <a href="administration.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-right" title="Administration" accesskey="n" rel="next">Next <span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right" aria-hidden="true"></span></a> </div> <hr/> <div role="contentinfo"> <p>Copyright © 2023 <a href="http://www.apache.org/">The Apache Software Foundation</a>, Licensed under the <a href="http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0">Apache License, Version 2.0</a>. 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