How to install and configure Apache Guacamole ?

1. Prerequisites

• A fresh server (Ubuntu 20.04 or CentOS 8) with root or sudo privileges

• Java 8+ (OpenJDK)
• A database (MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL) for storing user credentials
• Tomcat 9 (or later) to serve the Guacamole web application

2. Install Dependencies

Ubuntu 20.04

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y build-essential libcairo2-dev libjpeg-turbo8-dev \

libpng-dev libossp-uuid-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev \

libswscale-dev freerdp2-dev libpango1.0-dev libssh2-1-dev libtelnet-dev \

libvncserver-dev libpulse-dev libssl-dev libvorbis-dev libwebp-dev \

mysql-client mysql-server tomcat9 tomcat9-admin tomcat9-common \

nginx openjdk-11-jdk

CentOS 8

sudo dnf groupinstall -y "Development Tools"

sudo dnf install -y cairo-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel libpng-devel \

libuuid-devel ffmpeg-devel freerdp-devel pango-devel libssh2-devel \

libtelnet-devel libvncserver-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel openssl-devel \

libvorbis-devel libwebp-devel mysql mariadb-server mariadb \

tomcat tomcat-admin-webapps tomcat-webapps java-11-openjdk-devel nginx

3. Build and Install guacd (the Guacamole proxy daemon)

wget https://apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi?action=download&filename=guacamole/1.5.3/source/guacamole-server-1.5.3.tar.gz -O guacd.tar.gz
tar -xzf guacd.tar.gz

cd guacamole-server-1.5.3

mkdir build && cd build

cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DWITH_MYSQL=on
make

sudo make install

sudo ldconfig

sudo systemctl enable guacd

sudo systemctl start guacd

4. Install the Guacamole Web Application

# 1. Download the .war file

wget https://apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi?action=download&filename=guacamole/1.5.3/binary/guacamole-1.5.3.war -O guacamole.war

# 2. Deploy to Tomcat

sudo mv guacamole.war /var/lib/tomcat9/webapps/  # Ubuntu

# or

sudo mv guacamole.war /usr/share/tomcat/webapps/  # CentOS

# 3. Create extension directory

sudo mkdir -p /etc/guacamole/{extensions,lib}

5. Configure the Database

Replace <dbuser>, <dbpass>, and <dbname> with your choices.

# Log in to MySQL/MariaDB

sudo mysql -u root

# Create database and user

CREATE DATABASE guacamole_db CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_bin;

CREATE USER 'guac_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'guac_password';

GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE ON guacamole_db.* TO 'guac_user'@'localhost';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

EXIT;

Download and run the JDBC schema scripts:

cd guacamole-server-1.5.3/auth/mysql/schema

cat *.sql | mysql -u guac_user -p guacamole_db

6. Configure Guacamole

Create /etc/guacamole/guacamole.properties:

# MySQL properties

mysql-hostname: localhost

mysql-port:     3306

mysql-database: guacamole_db

mysql-username: guac_user

mysql-password: guac_password

# Location of proxy daemon

guacd-hostname: localhost

guacd-port:     4822

# Auth provider

auth-provider: 

net.sourceforge.guacamole.auth.jdbc.JDBCAuthenticationProvider

Link Tomcat’s GUACAMOLE_HOME:

sudo ln -s /etc/guacamole /usr/share/tomcat9/.guacamole   # Ubuntu

# or

sudo ln -s /etc/guacamole /usr/share/tomcat/.guacamole     # CentOS

Place the MySQL auth extension in Tomcat:

sudo cp guacamole-auth-jdbc-mysql-1.5.3.jar /etc/guacamole/extensions/

sudo cp /usr/local/lib/libguac-client-rdp.so /etc/guacamole/lib/

# (also copy vnc, ssh, etc. libs if needed)

7. Finalize & Start Guacamole Services

# Restart Tomcat and guacd

sudo systemctl restart tomcat9   # or tomcat

sudo systemctl restart guacd

Ensure ports 8080 (Tomcat) and 4822 (guacd) are open in your firewall or security group.

8. Access the Web UI of Guacamole

1. Visit http://<your-server-ip>:8080/guacamole/
2. Log in with the default user guacadmin / guacadmin
3. Immediately change the admin password under Settings → Users

You’re done! You now have a working Apache Guacamole installation. For advanced tuning—SSL via Nginx proxy, LDAP integration, custom themes—refer to the official docs.