My work has given me a remote windows desktop to use, that I access using AWS.
Through this windows desktop (accessed via a chrome web-browser), I can SSH into a compute node to do work.
I dont actually need this virtual desktop, I’d rather just SSH from my local machine directly to the compute node, using the remote desktop’s network without having to spawn the desktop itself.
Ive been reading up about SSM agents[0] as a solution, but am unsure if I have the priveledges to do this myself.
Is this something I can easily do using the AWS credentials that I have?
It depends on how the network is setup, I suppose. I don’t know how AWS does things, but I would imagine that the Windows Desktop is set to be on the same network/subnet as the compute node you ssh into. Else the node would be accessible by anyone on the internet for brute forcing.
The way I reason it, the Windows Desktop that AWS spawns in done on a Linux-based VM in the cloud. AWS then creates a VPN to the workplace to make it seem like it shares the same subnet as the compute nodes. I think that’s how this works.
If so, I’m wondering if I can just SSH either into that VM without spawning the desktop and access the VPN that way, or if AWS itself offers some kind of service that extends the VPN directly to me.
I should stress that I’m not asking for creative solutions, I’m only wondering if this is a common use-case that easily catered for and I just need to RTFM better
They could also just be spawning Windows VMs directly in AWS, no point doing nested virtualization for something like this. Pretty sure they have a service for doing exactly what you described. No need for a VPN, it can spawn your VM on the right network already (they call it VPC). They can even put real GPUs for AutoCAD and stuff on those things.