Accessing Xserve Desktop Out Of Network via VPN or Remote Desktop

Question

Hi everyone,
Thanks a lot for taking the time to look at my question.
I'm trying to figure out how I would set up an Xserve so that it could operate on a work network while allowing users to access it away from work (at their houses) with a login and password that I've set up in the Xserve. That way they can access specific applications on the server.
I've searched through the forums and other documentation already with moderate success. Apparently I don't NEED a static IP address for my Xserve but it would make it easier. It seems that the most highly recommended solution is setting up a VPN.
So after some further research, I found that the VPN can be set up directly within the OSX server but I'm unclear on how to actually allow it to do what I'm trying to do. I don't want my external users to be able to have any admin rights -- I basically want them to remote desktop into a user account on the xserve with no ability to change any settings, but to access one application on it so they can run that application on the server.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Answer 1

If I understand your request correctly, what you want cannot be done out of the box.
Despite Mac OS X Server's ability to support multiple users, it's still limited to one GUI environment/desktop. That means that there's only one set of GUI apps that can run at a time.
You could have multiple users log on using Remote Desktop, but they'd all see the exact same thing. In addition, actions (key presses, mouse movements, etc.) by any one user would be reflected on every other screen, so it's not practical to have multiple users trying to use the same GUI environment.
You need to more clearly define what it is you're trying to achieve. Why, for example, are you trying to run applications remotely over the internet, given the additional latency inherent in this kind of setup)? What do you expect to gain?
More importantly, what application(s) are you trying to run?
Some applications support remote processing (e.g. an application you run locally on your machine submits a job to the server for processing, based on the idea that the server is a more powerful machine).
Other apps support collaboration where multiple users can share the same data and updates are dynamically reflected on other clients.
There are some hacks that emulate multiple desktops, and they might work for you, but you need a better understanding of what you're trying to do.