Thin Client nighmare!

[armadillo]

Hi, we have had 25 thin client terminals (HP 5735) and 1 win 2008 enterprise server installed and since then we had nothing but trouble. Very slow logging on, freezing up, randomly the tool bars in word or excel goes grey and you can't click on and you have to reboot for it to work again and usb stick not mounting and got to mount eventually but we can't open documents directly from it unless you copy the file onto the user area first then open, etc etc...the list is long.

It's a first thin client trial hence the small amount of hardware, the srver is a dual quad core processors, 8GB of RAM, running 100Mbps NICs, user profile on the same server and domainis win 2003 R2.

Any suggestion will be appreciated and thanks in advance for your comments.

[localzuk]

First thing I would say is that 100Mbps NIC is too slow, you need a 1Gbit card at least. Is the link between the room of machines and the server short? ie. from switch -> switch -> server or is it longer than that? How about network traffic in general, is it busy? Have you tried running performance monitors on the server to see what is using up what resources?

Next, are the users using the same roaming profile as windows XP machines? If so, I believe you may have issues between the 2 (not completely sure though, just remembering there was an incompatibility between the 2 in XP and Vista, and as 2008 server is based on Vista, i'm extending that issue to here).

Is the machine running 64bit windows?
Also, is the machine running an active virus scanner of some form?

[nut-ed]

What happens if you make an RDP connection from a PC to the server. This would go a long way to letting you know if the problem is server or TC related.

On the HP website they specifically don't mention W2008 for this model, but do specifically mention all previous OS's...

What do HP say - don't they provide support, maybe there is a later version of rdesktop you need to install...?

[Ric_]

You should also check the event logs to see why logon is taking so long - usual culprits are missing scripts or failing group policies. Of course profiles play a big part too!

The terminals, all be them the worst that HP have ever made, generally work OK. Just make sure that you have the latest firmware to remove the chance of any problems.

[kestrel1]

If this system was installed professionally, I would be getting back on to them & complaining.
We have a large thin client network, we only have two quad core servers at present & the rest of the application servers are about three years old. We don't have any issues like you describe & never have.
What speed are your switches? are they up to the job.
If you are thinking of going down the thin client route I would suggest that you try the same company that we use:
Precedence Technologies - Welcome
Precedence Technologies have their own thin clients & are very knowledgeable of the whole thin client network system.

[Butuz]

I am sure I remember reading about some kind of incompatibility issue between some HP thin clients and Win2k8 server. Possible updating the BIOS on the thin clients will fix this?

Butuz

[Axel]

If you want to eliminate the the Linux based terminals we would be happy to loan you a couple of Axel ultra thin clients. Our products are certified for W2008, and as a manufacturer we do offer direct technical support so we have resources to assist if you still experience problems....

[Oops_my_bad]

I doubt the TC themselves would be causing an issue - it is afterall just a citrix/rdp session. I think you need to begin with your server.

Did you not get anywhere by disabling RSOP in group policy?

[nut-ed]

I agree - it is just an RDP session - but it uses RDesktop - which is an Opensource product, and it depends if 'someone' has upgraded it for W2008, so is a potential cause and something to investigate/eliminate.

Unlike Windows based terminals, where Microsoft obviously support and upgrade the RDP client as necessary, the upgrade responsibility for the Linux based Rdesktop is not so clear...

Citrix is different - as Citrix are not interested in desktops (their interest is in servers) they DO produce a fully supported ICA client for Linux.

I am definitely not knocking Opensource - but it is important users know who is 'responsible', and don't assume "someone" else will always pick up the support tab...


Some manufacturers are reluctant to directly support Linix (mentioning no names) as any improvements they make they are obliged to publish for all - so losing a competitive edge gained from the R&D investment they put in....

[localzuk]

Some manufacturers are reluctant to directly support Linix (mentioning no names) as any improvements they make they are obliged to publish for all - so losing a competitive edge gained from the R&D investment they put in....

Just have to say, that that is not true. They would only need to 'publish for all' if they use an open source license - or use code from an open source licensed project. There are plenty of proprietary programs on Linux (the citrix ICA client is an example).

[armadillo]

First thing I would say is that 100Mbps NIC is too slow, you need a 1Gbit card at least. Is the link between the room of machines and the server short? ie. from switch -> switch -> server or is it longer than that? How about network traffic in general, is it busy? Have you tried running performance monitors on the server to see what is using up what resources?

Next, are the users using the same roaming profile as windows XP machines? If so, I believe you may have issues between the 2 (not completely sure though, just remembering there was an incompatibility between the 2 in XP and Vista, and as 2008 server is based on Vista, i'm extending that issue to here).

Is the machine running 64bit windows?
Also, is the machine running an active virus scanner of some form?

The TS server both NICs are on 1000bps, the lik between the server and the room is within the required ranger (room to switch is 40 metres max and switch to server is 5 metres max), the netwrk traffic is OK all the rest of PCs work fine, added more memory and put the user profiles on the TS server in the second disk therefore server/network monitor is showing all OK, the users are using separate roaming profiles as I mentioned above, the server is a 64Bitwin 2008.
Thanks for your help. Sophos onaccess scan is disabled.

[armadillo]

What happens if you make an RDP connection from a PC to the server. This would go a long way to letting you know if the problem is server or TC related.

On the HP website they specifically don't mention W2008 for this model, but do specifically mention all previous OS's...

What do HP say - don't they provide support, maybe there is a later version of rdesktop you need to install...?

I connected via RDP from a couple of PCs and it was fine but again even on thin client we only see the problems when more than 10 terminals or 25 at a time are used, I noticed that it doesn't mention anything about them being compatible with win 2008 server on the HP manuals, I think the engineer had a problem connecting to the server initially but he overcome that by upgrading the linux rdp version.

Thanks for your help

[armadillo]

You should also check the event logs to see why logon is taking so long - usual culprits are missing scripts or failing group policies. Of course profiles play a big part too!

The terminals, all be them the worst that HP have ever made, generally work OK. Just make sure that you have the latest firmware to remove the chance of any problems.

Thanks for your help- I will get the engineer to look for a newer firmware version if there is one. I today emailed (I sed yousendit as they were huge) the event logs to the company who set them up, wait and see what they come up with.

[armadillo]

I am sure I remember reading about some kind of incompatibility issue between some HP thin clients and Win2k8 server. Possible updating the BIOS on the thin clients will fix this?

Butuz

Thanks for you support- I will get the bios version checked.

[armadillo]

If this system was installed professionally, I would be getting back on to them & complaining.
We have a large thin client network, we only have two quad core servers at present & the rest of the application servers are about three years old. We don't have any issues like you describe & never have.
What speed are your switches? are they up to the job.
If you are thinking of going down the thin client route I would suggest that you try the same company that we use:
Precedence Technologies - Welcome
Precedence Technologies have their own thin clients & are very knowledgeable of the whole thin client network system.

The switch connecting the room where the thin clients is a 100 Mbps one, I asked the engineer to try to test with a gigabit switch for the thin client but the TS server is already on 1000Mbps both of it's NICs. I have chexked the company out and looked on their website and yes it looks good and they seem to know about their products. Thanks for your help.