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Why dcvix exists

Amazon DCV is a powerful remote desktop protocol designed for high-performance visualization and remote workstation access. It provides excellent streaming performance, low latency interaction, and secure communication between users and remote systems.

However, deploying DCV in a small or medium-sized organization often requires building an additional management layer around it.

Organizations typically need a way to answer simple questions:

  • Who is allowed to access a desktop?
  • Which workstation should a user connect to?
  • How are sessions created and terminated?
  • How can administrators manage a pool of remote machines?
  • How can users connect without knowing server addresses or technical details?

This is the problem dcvix solves.

What is dcvix?

dcvix is a lightweight open-source session broker for Amazon DCV remote desktops.

It provides the management layer around DCV while keeping the architecture simple:

  • DCV handles the remote desktop experience

    • high-performance display streaming
    • keyboard and mouse input
    • secure communication
    • application rendering

  • dcvix handles the organization and control

    • authentication
    • user access control
    • server pools
    • session lifecycle
    • workstation management

The goal is not to replace DCV, but to make it easier to deploy and operate.

Designed for small and medium-sized environments

Large enterprises often use complex VDI platforms with extensive infrastructure and management components.

Many organizations do not need that complexity.

A typical dcvix deployment might look like:

  • GPU workstations that easily scale from a few to many
  • a small engineering or research team
  • shared visualization machines
  • internal remote desktops
  • controlled access to specialized hardware

dcvix provides the essential orchestration layer without requiring a large VDI stack.

Architecture

dcvix consists of three components:

flowchart TD
    Launcher["Launcher<br/>User interface"]
    Director["Director<br/>Control plane"]
    Agent1["Agent<br/>Workstation<br/>DCV Server"]
    Agent2["Agent<br/>Workstation<br/>DCV Server"]

    Launcher -->|Authentication| Director
    Director -->|Session management| Agent1
    Director -->|Session management| Agent2

Director

The Director is the central management component.

It provides:

  • user authentication
  • access control
  • security token generation
  • desktop availability management
  • session orchestration

The Director decides where and how users connect.

Agent

The Agent runs on machines hosting DCV sessions.

It provides:

  • workstation monitoring
  • hardware and availability information
  • session creation
  • session termination
  • communication with the Director

Agents allow the Director to manage a pool of DCV-enabled machines.

Launcher

The Launcher is the user-facing application.

It provides:

  • a simple graphical interface
  • user authentication
  • available desktop discovery
  • automatic DCV connection

Users do not need to know:

  • server names
  • IP addresses
  • session identifiers
  • DCV configuration details

They simply authenticate, choose a desktop, and connect.

Simple by design

dcvix focuses on a small operational footprint:

  • written in Go
  • lightweight components
  • easy deployment
  • minimal dependencies
  • open-source under the MIT license

The objective is to provide a practical DCV management solution that can run anywhere, from a small lab environment to a production workstation pool.

The relationship between DCV and dcvix

Think of DCV as the remote desktop engine.

Think of dcvix as the system that decides who can use that engine.

flowchart TD
    dcvix["<b>dcvix</b><br/>Identity<br/>Access control<br/>Scheduling<br/>Session lifecycle"]
    DCV["<b>DCV</b><br/>Remote graphics<br/>Input handling<br/>Secure transport<br/>Desktop experience"]

Together they provide a simple, secure, and manageable remote desktop platform.