School virtualisation

[ajames]

I have at present all my servers virtualised using hyper v and would now like to turn all the pc’s in the school into thin clients and have them log on to virtual desktops.

 

What I need is a good step by step guide to getting the first server setup through to load balancing servers and even the best type of software to use for the thin clients, ideally I would like to thin client software that literally starts up and presents a remote desktop connection straight to the first available server.

I am about to undergo a project to virtualise the school, I have read forum after forum but I looking for advice or assistance from someone who has done this in a school.

 

Anyone got anything like this or any information on what they have done / used.

 

As usual free or within the schools Microsoft licencing would be advantages.

[markwilfan]

Yeh. Don't do it. Inherited a 90 client vmware vdi infrastructure. Promises the world and delivers... much pain

[internetuser]

I use vmhorizon and it works extremely well. Not cheap but over time will pay for its self due to the concurrent licening, man hours and reutilisation of machines..

 

In terms of using a Microsoft solution I presume it would be based on using rds.

 

For end user clients you can use Windows 7 thin, and scripts to lock them down to only run the connection software.

[dhicks]

What I need is a good step by step guide to getting the first server setup through to load balancing servers and even the best type of software to use for the thin clients, ideally I would like to thin client software that literally starts up and presents a remote desktop connection straight to the first available server.

 

We're going for an approach of using a web-based RDP client from Windows workstations / Chromebooks. We can convert any PC/laptop to a Chromebook with Neverware's Cloudready for around £50 a time, including Chrome management license. That way you can have client machines that do web browsing locally to save server-side resources. We use Ericom AccessNow for web-based RDP, but I noticed the other day that Guacamole is now an official Apache project, so that might make for a very capable and free web-based RDP solution.

 

For load balancing, we simply have a bit of Javascript at the login page that directs particular users to particular servers, using AccessNow's nice flexible login API. I'm not sure if Guacamole can be used in quite the same way, it would be something to try out.

[Jambon360]

If your going to do it plan carefully.

We're a school of 1400 students running on VMware vSphere and View Horizon and it is very nice to work with.

One thing I will say is don't go completely Thin Client based keep some Thick Client ICT Suites available especially for your ICT teachers.

We're a 50/50 split and it balances out well and makes our work load easier to manage.

[mukz]

We have Dell vWorkspace/RDS setup with Wyse AIO clients, mind was was not entirely made up until it was put into action, it does not work for us where anything related to adobe flash professional and premier elements is used, so i put them all in offices where they do not need anything fancy and it works great!

I am building a custom built server for graphics intensive apps, so far my i7, 32gb, 10Gb Ram, works great for 30 concurrent desktop sessions, stress tested using a software a while ago.

 

It was put into place before my time and was designed and implemented in 3 weeks!! Did not work at all! And for this reason i second Jambon in saying that keep Suites to fully fledged desktops.

[Jambon360]

Indeed mukz!

 

Anything graphics intensive is a no go unless you want to spend a considerable amount.

I looked at kitting out two of my Dell R620's with the latest Nvidia GRID cards and it just wasn't worth it.

[mukz]

Indeed mukz!

 

Anything graphics intensive is a no go unless you want to spend a considerable amount.

I looked at kitting out two of my Dell R620's with the latest Nvidia GRID cards and it just wasn't worth it.

 

We looked at that too but instead i kitted out my unused home editing pc that i used for call of duty with 3 2gb graphics card, true it doesn't compare to the Grid but kids don't really do anything fancy to even utilise the K1/K2 cards. It works great as mentioned in previous post. I tested with Win 10 as an OS and it got even better performance.

 

We are moving away from traditional servers brought from dell and instead buy a box from eBay and kit it out with consumer grade hardware! One of the ex vWorkspace architects who now owns his own company and builds servers for RackSpace datacenter got me into his thinking.

[PotNoodleTech]

Tried this in 2007. Trailed it on 100 PCs. Gave up fighting with it in 2012 and went back to fat clients - most pleased with the result.

 

I'd be very very careful before you go down the whole school VDI route - don't do it just because it "sounds cool". You may find southing that sounds cool actually works out not being cool!

[PotNoodleTech]

We are moving away from traditional servers brought from dell and instead buy a box from eBay and kit it out with consumer grade hardware! One of the ex vWorkspace architects who now owns his own company and builds servers for RackSpace datacenter got me into his thinking.

 

Put some photos up sounds like an interesting project!

[mukz]

Put some photos up sounds like an interesting project!

 

Will do when i get to it. Got a lot of other stuff to deal with first! Namely a certain business manager who signed an VOIP 3yr Capex agreement for 110K!! For which of the life of me i have no idea why it costs so much! Everything i priced worked out to be 30k for 3 years all in.

[jslate1980]

I have at present all my servers virtualised using hyper v and would now like to turn all the pc’s in the school into thin clients and have them log on to virtual desktops.

 

What I need is a good step by step guide to getting the first server setup through to load balancing servers and even the best type of software to use for the thin clients, ideally I would like to thin client software that literally starts up and presents a remote desktop connection straight to the first available server.

I am about to undergo a project to virtualise the school, I have read forum after forum but I looking for advice or assistance from someone who has done this in a school.

 

Anyone got anything like this or any information on what they have done / used.

 

As usual free or within the schools Microsoft licencing would be advantages.

 

Hi ajames

 

A year on I am interested to know if you went down the desktop virtualisation route?

[AlanD]

I kind of did this - as an experiment - but it was ten years ago. We used the Linux terminal Server project....and so used stripped down old PCs - no hard drives with PXE boots off the linux server. Used WINE to get Microsoft Office (and some other Microsoft programs) to run on the linux desktops - as well as the usual linux stuff. I think the browser actually ran locally. Everyone moaned about what they called the "non standard" linux desktop (...as if that mattered when they were still using Microsoft programs...) and insisted that students needed the Windows experience. Today - with ipads, and Android tablets - and cloud based apps like Office 365 and Google Docs it should be less of a problem to sell such a package to users. Maybe I should revisit this.

 

But - there are areas - like Design and Technology - with its CAD/CAM programs and perhaps Music with things like Sibelius which are clearly not possible on thin clients.

[RobD]

I implemented Citrix a few years back at a School, main issues were cost of licences vs PCs and installing loads of school applications which really bloated the golden image (I should App-V'd or XenApp'd the applications but didn't).

 

I had varied success with Citrix Desktop lock and ThinKosk to turn PCs into thin clients. Much easier to just buy thin clients if you can.

Edited August 23, 2017 by RobD
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[mukz]

If anyone is in need of dell wyse 5212 aio we have i think 20 brand new boxes. My predecessor over ordered!