Ubuntu Remote working with active directory

[BKGarry]

Hello All,

 

I am just looking to a way of giving our Computing Students a better experience of programming, so I was thinking of setting up a central ubuntu server with them being able to access desktops from a X11 client, something like Xming X Server for Windows - Official Website

 

The thing is I would really like it to use active directory, maybe even map the home folder to a subfolder for their Window home directory (if it can create one automatically) but I am not sure where to start.

 

I was thinking this way they can use all the functions of Python, Java and other languages to their hearts content with minimal risk as they would just be standard users on the "server"

 

I will need instructions for each step (but I can google how to carry them out) but I really wanted other peoples opinion on this, as the other option is full windows clients with VDI in a box, but with less restrictions but I had the feeling that could be messy.

 

Thank you all in advance

 

---edit---

Just realised I used the entire incorrect terminology of this. I am looking to allow students to have a simple icon they double-click on their windows machines which opens a remote session on the "server" with a full and complete GUI. I do believe this is called X server or similar

Edited May 12, 2014 by BKGarry

[cpjitservices]

PowerBroker Open - Likewise Open - Active Directory Software Integration

 

For joining Linux machines to AD, works a treat. We have our Samba server joined to Ad and it works seamlessly with AD user accounts.

 

- you could also look at http://ltsp.org/ - You only need a low spec server for it too, might be handy just boot it over network and viola they have an environment they can play with and you issue a command to rebuild the environment if it breaks!!

[BKGarry]

Thank you, forgot to mention all clients are wireless so they are unable to NetBoot

[cpjitservices]

Thank you, forgot to mention all clients are wireless so they are unable to NetBoot

 

Ahh I see... still check out Power Broker. Good program.

[BKGarry]

Will do, so much planning of the different scenarios to evaluate what we can do.

[BKGarry]

Just realised I used the entire incorrect terminology of this. I am looking to allow students to have a simple icon they double-click on their windows machines which opens a remote session on the "server" with a full and complete GUI. I do believe this is called X server or similar Edited May 12, 2014 by BKGarry

[dhicks]

I am looking to allow students to have a simple icon they double-click on their windows machines which opens a remote session on the "server" with a full and complete GUI. I do believe this is called X server or similar

 

Yes, you can use an X server session, although I actually have a Debian server, joined to Active Directory as a member via Samba, running an RDP (Windows remote desktop) server, so Windows clients can log in as they would to a Windows Server machine.

[BKGarry]

oooo, now i didn't think of that @dhicks that may be a good solution, I am thinking this would all be a bit easier to manage than a VDI-in-a-box infrastructure and much easier than the current windows images they are booting of External SSDs on the laptops

[BKGarry]

@dhicks after doing some googling XRDP seems to be the main contender, do you advise anything else?

[dhicks]

@dhicks after doing some googling XRDP seems to be the main contender, do you advise anything else?

 

That's the one I used. This thread contains details of how I set up Samba to join a domain:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/nix/48032-configuring-samba.html

 

The details further along in the thread are mostly the bits you need - I'm assuming our users will need to be able to log on to the Debian server and see their own home folder from the desktop or command line.

 

Just looking through the bash history file of the server, it looks like I installed xorg, xfce4 and xrdp Debian packages, in that order.

[BKGarry]

Oooo, now that would be nice, thank. You again for your help, once again invaluable on here.

[BKGarry]

Having a good read, through that thread, really need to learn how to make it mount the home directory. Also are you using Debian itself or a redistribution like CentOS. I was thinking about going CentOS and then giving some teachers their own personal VMs on their machines to allow them to download and test program's before they go on the server.

[dhicks]

Having a good read, through that thread, really need to learn how to make it mount the home directory. Also are you using Debian itself or a redistribution like CentOS. I was thinking about going CentOS and then giving some teachers their own personal VMs on their machines to allow them to download and test program's before they go on the server.

 

CentOS is a redistribution of Red Hat - Ubuntu is based on Debian, if that's any help. Read Hat / CentOS should work just as well as Debian. I set my server up first as a command-line only install of Debian, then installed XFCE on top of that - a very basic desktop, if you used Ubuntu or similar you might get something a bit nicer-looking. I'd have thought if you were going to go to the trouble of setting up per-user VMs you might as well use those for development anyway, just make sure you get the VM to mount each user's network home folder so anything they create gets saved.

[BKGarry]

Thank you again @dhicks, only really planning VMs for teachers, so they can work at home, here we will go with the RDP solution. I knew I was reading something wrong tehehe. Now to double check the servers Hardware :-)

[dhicks]

Thank you again @dhicks, only really planning VMs for teachers, so they can work at home

 

Would it be simpler for them to be able to RDP in from home, save you having to set up VMs?

[BKGarry]

Shhhh, I should of thought of that, especially as I should be able to do it through HAP+

[cpjitservices]

CentOS does work with Samba, we have XRDP on all of our CentOS servers.. for thin client environments they are joined to the domain too using the program I posted.

[m1k3r]

As far as allowing them to login with their Active Directory credentials the instructions in the link below will work for any Debian/Ubuntu distro.

 

https://wiki.debian.org/AuthenticatingLinuxWithActiveDirectory

 

 

Also, you may want to try CentOS (Community version of RedHat) as it offers Active Directory integration during the installation and works flawlessly - I have started moving our web servers (and my work desktop) away from Ubuntu and onto CentOS for this very reason.

 

CentOS Project

[BKGarry]

Just burning CentOS to DVD now. Wish me luck

[cpjitservices]

You can't go far wrong with good old CentOS.

[m1k3r]

Good luck!

 

For future reference I believe the CentOS iso can be written directly to a USB drive and booted using dd, eg sudo dd if=centos.iso of=/dev/sdd

[cpjitservices]

I have a CentOS Systems Admin Ebook from my Linux Professional Courses if you want a copy in PDF.

[BKGarry]

I only have a 4gb DVD drive :-( that didn't work so going for the classic DVD method.

 

I am going to install CentOS, Setup AD Authentication, Figure our how to map a folder to their AD Home Drive, Install the Programmes needed on a Gnome interface and then setup XRDC. Hopefully that should be it but I may be back for more help. I will keep you all posted either way.

[cpjitservices]

You could just install CentOS minimal and download the packages you want... that way the installer will fit on a CD.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

XRDP setup is easy... 'yum install xrdp' - you can lockdown CentOS a bit like you can with Windows via GP, you can use Sabayon. It's a prile builder so you can strip down the profile and add it to user groups works over AD great.

 

http://www.redhat.com/magazine/008jun05/features/sabayon/

 

yum install sabayon

Edited May 13, 2014 by cpjitservices

[BKGarry]

Now why did I not think of that. Dur