MS Terminal Services Connections

[Lee_K_81]

I have 2 MS Terminal Servers, load balanced with 160ish HP T5135 thin clients. Have a slight issue with the thin clients timing out and then re-connecting, i.e. tc loads up, and connects to a TS, no body tries to log in so it times out. Then it doesn't connect straight away. There seems to be a lag, sometimes of 5 mins where it doesnt connect. Anybody have these types of issues? Thanks in advance.

[Lee_K_81]

anybody???

[Ric_]

You are better off not having them connect automatically because displaying the login screen uses a TS license and puts load on the servers unnecessarily. I suspect the delay is a protection mechanism to prevent DOS attacks.

Your users will soon get used to clicking 'connect' to log on (mine don't have a problem).

[Lee_K_81]

I was hoping i wouldnt have to do that. Giving them access to the HP Thin Connect window just opens up the option of them playing. I'll have a look over half term. Just not looking forward to reimaging 130+ clients. Damn altiris / HP (in) compatibility.

[Ric_]

@Lee_K_81: I have 30 of those clients and that particular model is very locked down... access to the Thin Connect gubbin really isn't a problem. The t5125 allowed access to change the desktop background which is a PITA but these ones don't.

I do feel for you with the re-imaging though.

[Butuz]

Hmm mine does this too - it will drop back from the log on screen to the HP thin client screen for several seconds and then just as randomly it will connect back to the log on screen.

I think it is a problem with the HP clients themselves because old workstations i have here on thin client do not do this, they stay at the log in screen reliably.

Andrew

[bossman]

@Lee_K_81:

Tell me if i am wrong but the amount of clients per server seems quite high
(160 thin clients over 2 servers) i would have thought max thin clients per TS server would be at capacity 30 per server?

What spec are your servers?

[Lee_K_81]

@ bossman: well technically it's currently around 130 clients but most simultaneous is 90ish. Servers are HP DL380s 2x 3Ghz Dual Core Xeon, 4GB Ram. I've got another server ready waiting as we've got another 30 in stock ready to add. I've been keeping an eye on the servers and the most capacity they've reached is about 40%CPU and 50% RAM.

@Butuz: With some it's not too bad, but sometimes kids are waiting 5 or so minutes for it to automatically connect. It's causing complaints from the teachers.

@_Ric: Yeah the thin client we bought for testing was great with altiris. Imaging took seconds. They it end E-O-L and the new model doesnt.

[kestrel1]

We use Citrix with our 150 thin clients, this will refresh every so often when not in use, but comes straight back to the login screen.
I know Citrix is expensive, but I have found it to be very reliable. Our network support company recommend a maximum of 40 clients per server, we currently have 4 application servers, so are just within the limits. I also have various PC's that connect using the Citrix client software, so if all machines connected, we may have problems, but I have rarely had any major issues with too many clients connected.
I don't expect you could pursued them to start using Citrix could you?

[Lee_K_81]

Not at the moment. The costs with Citrix are a bit prohibitive. I know there are other alternatives out there that are cheaper but if we went with anything like that there could be other problems with the software not being as good. Just out of interest how much does citrix cost you?

[kestrel1]

We pay for subscription advantage every year which sets us back around £2,500.00 but that does enable us to purchase licences at a reduced cost when we need them. We paid about £124.00 per licence the last time we got any. This included subs advantage.
We are currently on Presentation server 4. We upgraded a couple of years ago, but because we are on subs advantage this didn't cost nearly as much as it would if we had to purchase a fresh.
Citrix is expensive & there are alternatives, but I have found it to be by far the best way to run a thin client network. Most of our thin clients are Linux based & are locked down. The newest machines are being supplied by our Network support company. The footprint on these machines is very small. I have plans to mount these on the backs of our TFT monitors. I have one bracket that I trialled & it works a treat, so all you can see is the screen mouse & keyboard.
If you want to take a look at these machines have a look at this:
http://www.precedence.co.uk/products/clients/
Precedence Technologies could sort you out with Citrix, if you decided to go down that path.
If you wanted a quote, I am sure they would oblige. The quote may come from Surftec, who work along side Precedence. Both are small companies, but they do not charge the earth for products or services. The client machines are currently around £199.00 each. With a hard glass TFT screen & mouse/keyboard package you would be looking at around £340.00, prices may have changed since my last purchase in July.

[Lee_K_81]

@Lee_K_81: I have 30 of those clients and that particular model is very locked down... access to the Thin Connect gubbin really isn't a problem. The t5125 allowed access to change the desktop background which is a PITA but these ones don't.

I do feel for you with the re-imaging though.

_Ric, just out of interest, have you found any way of removing the Shutdown button from the HP Thin Connect user session?

[meastaugh1]

Lee, I have the same setup as yours: t5135 set to persistently re-connect to a terminal server, although I have significantly fewer clients (40) and one server.

I did have a problem where there was a lag on re-connecting. It would usually show a black screen until the RDP session connected fully. The problem now seems to be resolved. I think the cause was that I had originally had a (low-spec) TS server on the domain for piloting with a few users, which was also the license server. When I moved to production, I switched the pilot server off, but left it's domain membership in tact. Since removing the pilot server from the domain, connections seem to be much better.

[Lee_K_81]

@meastaugh1: The main problem i;ve been having is with 2X i think. I've been trialling it and really struggling to get a connection, even as an admin, with no persistant connection, when i click connect, it says active, then does nothing and then shows disconnected . Removing it and using NLB which doesnt seem to be causing me the same problem. But we'll see.

The servers i have are HP DL380's each has 2 3GHz Dual Core CPUs and 4GB RAM, cant really say they're under spec'd.