AlmaLinux 10 Gui

Option A: Azure Portal

• Open the Azure Marketplace and search for "AlmaLinux 10 with GNOME Desktop SecureAnyCloud".
• Select the image and click Create.
• Configure the basics:
• Subscription: select your Azure subscription.
• Resource Group: create a new group or select an existing one.
• Virtual Machine Name: enter a name for your VM.
• Region: select your preferred Azure region.
• Size: Standard_B2ms or larger.
• Under Administrator Account, select SSH public key and enter your key.
• Under Inbound Port Rules, allow SSH (port 22) only. You do not need to open port 3389, because the recommended way to reach the desktop is through an SSH tunnel (Step 6).
• Click Review + Create, then Create.

Option B: Azure CLI

Run these commands on your own workstation. Substitute your resource group, VM name and preferred region. Accept the Marketplace terms once per subscription, then create the machine:

az vm image terms accept --urn sac1647283583153:almalinux-10-gui:default:latest
az vm create \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --name my-almalinux-desktop \
  --image sac1647283583153:almalinux-10-gui:default:latest \
  --size Standard_B2ms \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --public-ip-sku Standard

Run these commands on your own workstation, not on the VM. Find the public IP, then connect:

az vm show --resource-group myResourceGroup --name my-almalinux-desktop --show-details --query publicIps -o tsv ssh azureuser@<vm-ip>

There is no password to enter. If SSH asks for one, your client is not offering the key you supplied at create time.

Check that the machine is AlmaLinux 10, that it boots to the graphical target, that the GNOME login screen (GDM) is running, and which desktop packages are installed:

cat /etc/almalinux-release uname -srm systemctl get-default systemctl is-active gdm.service rpm -q --qf '%{NAME} %{VERSION}\n' gdm gnome-shell gnome-settings-daemon mutter gnome-remote-desktop

Expected output:

AlmaLinux release 10.2 (Lavender Lion) Linux 6.12.0-211.53.1.el10_2.x86_64 x86_64 graphical.target active gdm 47.0 gnome-shell 49.4 gnome-settings-daemon 47.2 mutter 49.4 gnome-remote-desktop 49.3

The desktop comes from the distribution's own environment group, not from a third-party repository:

dnf group list --installed | grep -i 'Server with GUI' || true echo "packages installed: $(rpm -qa | wc -l)" df -h /

There is no Xorg server on AlmaLinux 10, because RHEL 10 removed it. The session is Wayland, and Xwayland runs X applications inside it:

rpm -q xorg-x11-server-Xorg || echo "(no Xorg server: AlmaLinux 10 GNOME is Wayland only)" rpm -q --qf '%{NAME} %{VERSION}\n' xorg-x11-server-Xwayland

A new virtual machine has remote desktop switched off. The helper shows the full status in one command:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/sac-remote-desktop status

The helper lives at /usr/local/sbin/sac-remote-desktop and its subcommands are status, enable, disable and credentials. On AlmaLinux, sudo replaces your PATH with its own secure_path (/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin), which does not include /usr/local/sbin. For that reason, the image also ships /usr/sbin/sac-remote-desktop as a symlink to it. Both the short form sudo sac-remote-desktop status and the full path above work.

Expected output on a new VM (the fingerprint is unique to your machine):

remote desktop service: disabled / inactive RDP backend: disabled listening on 3389: no per-VM RDP credential: generated (/root/sac-remote-desktop-credentials.txt) TLS certificate SHA-256: <the SHA-256 fingerprint of this VM's own certificate> accounts able to log in at the GNOME login screen: none (set one with: sudo passwd <user>)

Confirm the state from the network side as well:

sudo ss -tln | awk '$1=="LISTEN"{print $4}' | sort

0.0.0.0:22 [::]:22

SSH on port 22 is the only service reachable from outside the machine. Any other entry you see is bound to a loopback address (127.0.0.1 or ::1) and is not reachable from the network.

The GNOME login screen asks for your account password, and a new VM has none. Choose your own. Run this command on the VM and enter the new password twice when prompted:

sudo passwd azureuser

Your SSH access is unaffected. SSH remains key-only, and this does not enable SSH password logins. Now switch remote desktop on:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/sac-remote-desktop enable

Expected output:

remote desktop enabled: listening on port 3389 TLS certificate SHA-256: <the SHA-256 fingerprint of this VM's own certificate> RDP credential: sudo sac-remote-desktop credentials safest route: ssh -L 3389:localhost:3389 <user>@<vm-ip>, then point your RDP client at localhost:3389

If no administrator account has a password yet, the helper refuses rather than opening a login screen with nothing behind it, and tells you exactly which command to run first:

refusing to enable remote desktop: no administrator account has a password yet, so the GNOME login screen would have nothing to accept. Set your own first:
sudo passwd azureuser

The setting survives reboots. The helper runs grdctl --system rdp enable, then systemctl enable --now gnome-remote-desktop.service. It waits until port 3389 is listening before it reports success.

Now print this VM's RDP credential. You need it in the next step:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/sac-remote-desktop credentials

RDP_USERNAME=azureuser RDP_PASSWORD=<24 random characters, generated at this VM's first boot> RDP_PORT=3389 RDP_TLS_SHA256=<SHA-256 fingerprint of this VM's certificate> RDP_TLS_SHA1=<SHA-1 fingerprint of the same certificate, shown as the thumbprint by Windows>

RDP_USERNAME is your own administrator account name. RDP_PASSWORD is for your RDP client only. It is not an operating system password and it does not work for SSH.

Port 3389 is not open by default, and the SSH tunnel is the recommended route. The tunnel keeps RDP inside your existing SSH connection, so nothing new is exposed to the internet. On your own workstation, open the tunnel and leave it running:

ssh -N -L 3389:localhost:3389 azureuser@<vm-ip>

Then point your RDP client at localhost:3389:

• Windows: Remote Desktop Connection (mstsc) or Windows App, computer localhost:3389
• macOS: Windows App, add a PC with the name localhost:3389
• Linux: Remmina (RDP), server localhost:3389, or FreeRDP 3 (xfreerdp3 on Debian and Ubuntu, xfreerdp on AlmaLinux and Fedora): xfreerdp3 /v:localhost:3389 /u:azureuser /gfx /bpp:32

When the client asks for credentials, enter RDP_USERNAME and RDP_PASSWORD from Step 5. The client asks before any screen is drawn.

On the first connection, the client shows the server's certificate. It is self-signed and unique to your VM. Compare its fingerprint with RDP_TLS_SHA256 (or RDP_TLS_SHA1, which Windows displays as the thumbprint) before you accept it.

The GNOME login screen then appears. Select your account and enter the password you set in Step 5. The full desktop session opens.

If you prefer a direct connection instead of the tunnel, allow port 3389 in the VM's network security group from your own public address only, never from the whole internet. For example, run this from your workstation, replacing the values in angle brackets:

az network nsg rule create --resource-group myResourceGroup --nsg-name my-almalinux-desktopNSG \
  --name allow-rdp-from-me --priority 1010 --access Allow --protocol Tcp \
  --direction Inbound --destination-port-ranges 3389 --source-address-prefixes <your-public-ip>/32

Open Activities, or press the Super key, to reach the application grid. The image includes the applications that come with the Server with GUI group: Files (Nautilus), the Ptyxis terminal, Firefox, Text Editor, Calculator and Software.

A terminal inside the session behaves exactly like your SSH session, and your administrator account keeps its sudo rights. To confirm that you are on a Wayland session, run this in Ptyxis inside the desktop:

echo "$XDG_SESSION_TYPE"

To add software, use dnf as on any AlmaLinux machine, for example sudo dnf install -y libreoffice. Then open the application from the grid.

Disconnecting your RDP client leaves the session running on the VM. Connect again to return to it.

When you have finished, switch remote desktop back off. This closes port 3389 and keeps it closed across reboots:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/sac-remote-desktop disable

remote desktop disabled: nothing listening on port 3389

sudo /usr/local/sbin/sac-remote-desktop status shows the state at any time, whether the service is on or off.

Confirm that SELinux is enforcing, that SSH is key-only, and that no account has a password until you set one:

getenforce
sudo sshd -T | grep -E '^(passwordauthentication|kbdinteractiveauthentication) '
sudo passwd -S root | awk '{print $1, $2}'
sudo awk -F: '$2 !~ /^[!*]/ && $2 != "" {n++} END {print "accounts with a password: " n+0}' /etc/shadow

Expected output on a new VM (after Step 5 the last line reads 1, your own account):

Enforcing passwordauthentication no kbdinteractiveauthentication no root L accounts with a password: 0

L in the second field means that the root account is locked. A drop-in file pins the SSH policy, so a later package update to the main configuration cannot quietly loosen it:

grep -vE '^#' /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/60-sac-hardening.conf

PermitRootLogin prohibit-password PasswordAuthentication no KbdInteractiveAuthentication no ChallengeResponseAuthentication no

Every available update was applied when this image was built. dnf-automatic is armed, so the machine applies security updates on its own schedule:

systemctl is-enabled dnf-automatic.timer 2>/dev/null || systemctl is-enabled dnf-automatic-install.timer grep -E '^(upgrade_type|download_updates|apply_updates) ' /etc/dnf/automatic.conf

Expected output:

enabled upgrade_type = security download_updates = yes apply_updates = yes

Updates are applied, not merely downloaded. Check at any time whether anything is pending:

dnf -q check-update >/dev/null 2>&1; echo "exit=$? (0 = nothing pending, 100 = updates available)"

Automatic updates never restart the machine. After a kernel update, check whether a restart is due and pick your own window:

dnf needs-restarting -r || true

You can always update on your own schedule with sudo dnf -y upgrade. Reboot if a new kernel was installed. To opt out of automatic updates entirely, run sudo systemctl disable --now dnf-automatic.timer.

The Azure Network Security Group (NSG) is the enforced firewall for this image. It is the first, and usually the only, place where you need to open a port.

The Server with GUI group brings several daemons that a cloud server does not need. The image leaves them installed but disabled, never masked, so it exposes only port 22 and you can turn any of them back on with a single command:

for u in cockpit.socket avahi-daemon.service cups.service bluetooth.service firewalld.service; do echo "$u: $(systemctl is-enabled "$u" 2>/dev/null || echo not-installed)" done

cockpit.socket: disabled avahi-daemon.service: disabled cups.service: disabled bluetooth.service: disabled firewalld.service: disabled

To enable one of them, for example the Cockpit web console, run sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket and open the port in your NSG.

firewalld is installed but switched off, consistent with the rest of the SecureAnyCloud AlmaLinux family. With no host firewall in the way, your NSG rules take effect exactly as written and there is no second layer to keep in sync. If your policy requires a host firewall, enable it yourself and allow your own traffic through it:

sudo systemctl enable --now firewalld
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=ssh sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Once firewalld is running, a port must be open in both the Azure NSG and firewalld before traffic reaches your service. This includes port 3389 if you connect to the desktop directly rather than through the SSH tunnel.

The network stack is NetworkManager, the native enterprise Linux stack, configured by cloud-init exactly as on AlmaLinux Server. The desktop adds no second network stack.