thin client setup (theoretical)

[sted]

As im sure another of my schools will look into thin clients before long (one has from another 3rd party and im not impressed with and neither are a lot of satff at the school, im currently trialing using old pcs as linux thinish(ive left open office/firefox on and setup as it seems silly to me to start a ts session to surf the net)at another school and so far so good) other than a terminal server (and associate lics) what do i need to get propper thin clients to connect?

 

I assume there needs to be some sort of pxe setup (hopefully not affecting wds/mdt) on the network for them to get a config from and then bootup into a minimal os with a ts programe but beyond that i have no idea

 

anyone know a good guide i can use for trying this (probably again with old pcs ive ripped the hdd out of (or at least wiped) also any suggestions about just how much ram im likely to need (im assuming the 1.5gb ive given the system im trialing while enough for the 3 or 4 test clients isnt enough for many more

[kmount]

Hi sted,

 

It very much depends.

 

Some thin clients will PXE boot directly pulling down from the network and doing whatever you want based on that. (Ie, if you've put something in a kiosk script style start up with the pxe image or a file it pulls down from TFTP or so)

 

Some will have an OS on (more likely to be referenced as chubby clients) which will let you do the local browser if you so wish (locking this down is of course important) and then have an RDP/ICA/VMWare View/XEN etc client thereon which you can configure (again it could be a config file pulled down from the server) and off it goes.

 

Some clients just simply have an RDP client which you configure and it fires up and fires to whatever you configured (without needing PXE, Axel are a good example of these which work very well indeed) but these don't have your local browser etc, they literally connect to your TS/VDI farm and off you go.

 

Worth doing some digging around the various options taking into account your longer term plans.

 

There's a fair few of us on here with experience in this kind of stuff so ask lots of questions

[Axel]

Thanks Kim,

 

I can't add much to your post, except to offer an "informal" homemade video of how to set up an Axel terminal and show to boot process...

 

 

Sted, what were the thin clients used at the school, and what were the problems. Different manufacturers design thin clients on totally different hardware

and architecture, so please don't make judgement on all by one unsuccessful experience. Below are some comments by happier thin client users...

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/thin-client-virtual-machines/22082-axel-ax3000-m70-lesson-monitor.html

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/thin-client-virtual-machines/45960-tidy-thin-client-installation.html

 

Dedicated thin clients obviously have pros and cons over "PC-thin clients" - one is essentially "free", the other silent, uses 5w power, 5 year warranty, instant boot and no issues with drivers etc....

 

Let me know if we can send you an evaluation....

 

[email protected]

[dhicks]

other than a terminal server (and associate lics) what do i need to get propper thin clients to connect?

 

Depends how you mean by "proper thin clients". We have a TFTP server set up to dish out copies of Slax with an RDP client installed. This is connecting to a dual-processor Dell server with 8GB of RAM running Windows Server 2008 R2 (we plan to stick some more RAM in at some point). We've tried PXE booting a number of machines, including older Dell 2400s, older RM all-in-ones and new Acer nettops. We've tried showing a YouTube video on each of them and found performance to be about the same as it would be locally, i.e. the older machines struggle a bit but the new ones manage pretty much seemless YouTube videos with sound. Actually, when we tried out a web-based video editing package we forgot we were using a thin client, performance was that good.

 

I'm leaning towards using Nettop machines rather than dedicated thin clients as they're about the same price and give you more flexibility - you can use whatever OS you like, configured in whatever way you like.

 

also any suggestions about just how much ram im likely to need (im assuming the 1.5gb ive given the system im trialing while enough for the 3 or 4 test clients isnt enough for many more

 

This thread might come in handy:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-server-2008-r2/48272-hardware-requirements-terminal-server.html

 

--

David Hicks

[sted]

Thanks Kim,

 

I can't add much to your post, except to offer an "informal" homemade video of how to set up an Axel terminal and show to boot process...

 

 

Sted, what were the thin clients used at the school, and what were the problems. Different manufacturers design thin clients on totally different hardware

and architecture, so please don't make judgement on all by one unsuccessful experience. Below are some comments by happier thin client users...

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/thin-client-virtual-machines/22082-axel-ax3000-m70-lesson-monitor.html

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/thin-client-virtual-machines/45960-tidy-thin-client-installation.html

 

Dedicated thin clients obviously have pros and cons over "PC-thin clients" - one is essentially "free", the other silent, uses 5w power, 5 year warranty, instant boot and no issues with drivers etc....

 

Let me know if we can send you an evaluation....

 

[email protected]

 

I dont actually blame the hardware (i cant remember what they are off hand but they are small black and purple boxes if that helps) i personally think the company who set it up did a poor job (the thin clients only (the "chubby" ones still worked) just refused to aknowlege the servers prescence at boot up for their config file and turned off) aparantly some update to the server borked it but it seemes to take a long time (weeks) to fix. I actually think its a good way to go for certain pcs i wouldnt want every pc a thin client but in classes where they so use web browser, open office and say etxtease why not makes my life simpler. As to reusing pcs or going propper thin client it does depend on circumstances with 2008 server having a "free" virtual licence a terminal server isnt costing much (bit of ram possibly 2nd nic and some licences) and old pcs are often just piled up somewhere so its a cheap way for a school to get more pcs around the place other schools ehre its a planned thing rather than we have no cash think then proper clients are a good way forwards

 

i wouldnt mind having one to try but i dont work for a school im part of a 3rd party who supports mainly primary schools where they dont have/want/afford a full time/part time tech(s) so i dont know if that affects it but against that if it works well i have no problems wither pointing people youre way or reselling the kit

 

as i say atm im wanting to get a head start before i have people seriously asking 1 school are currently trying chubby clients due to a total lack of cash (and are just using the 120days ts lics as a test)

[sted]

now ive had a brief play with one of the axel terminals i have to say im impressed that had to be about the simplest bit of kit i can remember installing in ages (i just configured it on screen wasnt worth looking at the multi terminal software to config 1 unit). I had it working in 2 mins any now have a test terminal server at the office (atm a 2008r2 hyper-v with 4gb (i think) of ram and a dedicated nic)i just need to find a willing volunteer to try it out on (im not in office enough for it to be worth me trying it really). Im definitely warming to the idea of thin clients not for every instance but certainly for classes where the pcs arnt heavily used or places like foundation stage where boot times on a pc can be longer than attention spans