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A computer classroom based on THIN CLIENTS

A computer classroom based on THIN CLIENTS. Benny Keshet David de Leeuw Medical Computing Unit Ben Gurion University of the Negev. The Problem. Establishing a new (third) computer classroom in the Faculty of Health Sciences With minimal budget With no funding for manpower. The solution.

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A computer classroom based on THIN CLIENTS

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  1. A computer classroom based on THIN CLIENTS Benny Keshet David de Leeuw Medical Computing Unit Ben Gurion University of the Negev

  2. The Problem Establishing a new (third) computer classroom in the Faculty of Health Sciences With minimal budget With no funding for manpower

  3. The solution Usage of a terminal server and thin clients

  4. The concept Have a strong server capable of running sessions for at least 30 users at a time. Install all programs on the server only Use old PC’s as “thin clients” terminals to access the server

  5. Step I Get a strong terminal server: • CPU: 2* 2.8 GHz Xeon • RAM: 2 GB (expanded to 3 GB now) • Windows Server 2003 • IBM Pizza 335 system

  6. Step II Get “old” PC’s : • We had 30 Compaq EY systems (from 1999)

  7. Step III • Convert PC’s to thin clients. • Here we tried a number of methods:

  8. Step III-a Have the computers running Windows XP with automatic login and login script connecting to terminal server Advantages • It works Disadvantages • Slow • Heavy • Easily hacked • Still need antivirus protection, Windows updates, etc.

  9. Same idea as III-a, but connect to server in startup script (before login) Advantages Much faster Difficult to hack Disadvantages No mapping of local devices (floppy, cd, disk-on-key) Step III-b

  10. Step III-C Search for “real” thin clients Tried several, all based on Linux but all had problems, till we found …

  11. PXESCONFIG

  12. PXES PXES Universal Linux Thin Client PXESis the micro Linux distribution allowing you to build thin clients or diskless workstations.Hardware not suitable for other uses like current desktop OS can be recycled and converted into a thin client.. Made by one person: Diego Torres Milano

  13. Our use of PXES To set up, build a PXES Thin Client station you need a Linux computer. But for operation we can run this in a Windows only environment.

  14. How does it work • We create a small image for the thin station including all the features we need • This image in stored on a TFTPBOOT (RIS) server • With the help of a network card we bring the image to the workstation and boot a small Linux operating system • The operating system starts “remote desktop” software to access the server.

  15. Server environmentAll Windows 2003 • Terminal server • DHCP Server • TFTPSERVER – RIS Windows • Active directory for “prestaging”

  16. Client environment • PC with Pentium II/III processor • 64 MB RAM • INTEL Pro network card • Compatible VGA card • NO hard disk

  17. Demo In the Deichman building, room 002

  18. Status • Works • No more “images”, “ghosts”, antivirus, hackers, broken disks on workstations • Mapping of Floppy, CD, disk-on-key work

  19. Other possible applications in Faculty and/or BGU • Public stations in library • Administrative computers • Kiosks • Web browser stations • Stations for access of Linux Servers (VNC)

  20. Advantages • Environmental • Economical • Manpower

  21. More information • Technical writeup, including bugs we found and solved. • Not easy stuff … http://medic.bgu.ac.il/comp/thinclient/howto-pxeboot.pdf

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