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Can someone point me in a direction on how thin clients are managed in a Microsoft environment? I have set up a thin client mini-lab using Edubuntu in my office. I like it a lot!
However our school/district is has gone for an exclusive Window's environment. We got some funds to upgrade one of our computer labs. This lab only has enough power for 28 computers but enough room for 36 computers. We need 36!
I would like to have this be a test lab for thin clients, but I don't know where to start looking.
The more I Google thin client and/or diskless pcs, the more it seems Microsoft doesn't do this but has plans in the future to support it.
Is their any 3rd party software that lets you administer a thin client lab? If worse comes to worse I could try WINE on Edubuntu, but then I might have a headache with authentication and mapping network drives.
Our school is set up on Server 2003 for AD/domain, DHCP, and File Sharing. Our computers are mostly XP, tho the newer computers are coming with VISTA.
Any help on where to start looking would be appreciated. With the cost of electricity and our lack of power in this old building, thin clients seem to offer the most potential.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I don't know anything about the product other than what I read on that page, but if it doesn't help this post will at least bump the thread.
If you're more interested in the software than the hardware, I think managing a thin client network wouldn't be that much different from a traditional windows domain...probably some differences in the kinds of group policies you need to worry about.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
A nearby school has a lab full of Thinspace clients, and seems happy with 'em.
Basically, you're going to be looking at a big honkin' Terminal Server -- because educational pricing on Terminal Services is a lot better than educational pricing on Citrix -- and the thin client hardware of your choice (although RDP thin clients won't give you much choice).
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I am having a hard time conceptualizing how terminal services work. Is it an operating system or a Microsoft program you install on Windows?
My mental image (because I haven't seen one in production) is that of an XP pro machine that has terminal services installed.
It is maybe a 64 bit system with 8GB of ram. It has all the programs the students will use like Microtype, Word 2007, et cetera. Once the thin clients are set up in the lab, this terminal service computer is started.
Somehow, PXE?, the thin clients can boot off of the XP Pro with terminal services and the students log into the server and can run any program.
Since the terminal server only has to have each running program in it's memory once, there is a small footprint for the thin clients.
That is how the basically how I understand the Edubuntu server with thing clients is working in my test lab. Am I conceptualizing this correctly?
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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1) True thin clients are special pieces of hardware. In the Windows world, they probably come with a flash drive (or, in some very rare cases, ROM) with Windows Embedded installed -- but this is not necessary. Some places cut corners in the short term by putting using very poky standard desktops into the lab instead; if you picked ones with very low power consumption (and used LCDs, obviously), that might work for you -- although of course you're increasing your administrative headache and license cost, so I'd recommend an OS like Windows FLP in that scenario. Personally, I would strongly recommend a dedicated thin client; everyone from HP to Wyse sells a model nowadays, and the basic version you need is likely to run around $250.
2) You will not be able to install Terminal Services on a Windows XP Pro box for this purpose. You will need real server software, running on either Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008. The client version of Terminal Services only supports one connection, so it won't be able to host 36 sessions at once. (Note that I would recommend considerably more than 8GB of RAM if you really intend to host 36 sessions in a computer lab. A consumer-level workstation is probably not going to cut it.)
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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