Install Boundary Desktop

End-users of HCP Boundary can utilize the Boundary Desktop app to connect to a running HCP Boundary instance to easily:

• Browse available targets
• Connect to targets
• Manage active sessions

Security administrators use the Boundary CLI and API to automate infrastructure access management, but the Desktop app makes Boundary accessible to low-code and no-code users. Users that establish sessions with targets frequently will also find the browse, connect, and manage functionality convenient for day-to-day operations.

In this tutorial, you will install the Boundary Desktop app and connect to a running target.

Prerequisites

• Access to an HCP Boundary instance.
• Completed the previous quick start tutorials.
• A publicly accessible Ubuntu instance used in the Connect to Your First Target tutorial.
• A ssh key-pair that can be used to authenticate with the Ubuntu instance.

Install Boundary Desktop

Boundary Desktop can be installed on MacOS, Windows, or Linux systems. Select the tab for your preferred OS.

$ brew tap hashicorp/tap

$ brew install hashicorp-boundary-desktop

Authenticate with Boundary Desktop

Next you will launch the Boundary Desktop app and connect it to the running controller.

1. Open the Boundary Desktop app installed earlier.

2. Enter the Boundary server Cluster URL and click Submit.

   You can retrieve this from the HCP Portal or run echo $BOUNDARY_ADDR from your terminal session.

3. Click Choose a different scope and select the global scope.

4. Enter the administrator account in the Username field you selected when creating the HCP Boundary instance.

5. Enter the password you selected for the administrator account in the Password field.

6. Click Authenticate.

   You are presented with the Targets view, which contains the targets created in the Connect to Your First Target tutorial.

Connect to a target

Next you will connect to the default target using the Desktop app.

1. Establish a connection

   Click on Connect next to the quick-start-target target.

   

2. Copy the target's connection details

   You will be presented with a dialog box that displays the target's connection info. You can copy the connection details to your clipboard by clicking the button to the right of the Local proxy address.

3. View the pending connection

   Click OK, and navigate to the Sessions view using the sidebar on the left. Notice that the status for the Generated target has been updated to pending.

   

4. Start an SSH session

   Open a new shell session or your SSH client of choice to establish an SSH connection.

   Replace username with a valid username for your target host. Replace port with the value from the copied target details after the :. For example if the copied value was 127.0.0.1:12345 replace port with 12345. Replace private_key.pem with the path to your private key.

   $ ssh -p 12345 username@127.0.0.1 -i private_key.pem
   
   The authenticity of host '[127.0.0.1]:55315 ([127.0.0.1]:55315)' can't be established.
   ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:ZsbEADHGE95YlTkqSoKH+OMLHh//u33yEWs6DuB1DSc.
   Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
   Warning: Permanently added '[127.0.0.1]:55315' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
   Last login: Wed Mar 17 15:06:03
   $
   

   Copy

5. Once connected, return to the Boundary Desktop and the Sessions view should show the Generated target's status has been updated to active.

   

6. Terminate the connection

   You can close the active session directly from the Boundary Desktop app.

   Under the Sessions view, click Cancel to the right of the status for the Generated target. The status will update to canceling and a confirmation dialog should appear to verify the successful session termination.

   

   Back in your terminal session, there should be a dialog confirming a closed connection by the remote host.

   $ Connection to 127.0.0.1 closed by remote host.
   Connection to 127.0.0.1 closed.
   

Next steps

You have completed the quick start series for HCP Boundary. Next, take a deeper dive into the various resources you created during this series such as scopes, targets, and host groups in the HCP Administration series.