Wow! What a great day!

[David Trask]

"Willis, Ben" <BenWillis at anderson5.net> writes:
>David,
>
>I would like to know more about your installation. How many servers,
>clients etc. What software do you use mainly in the different grades. Do
>you have any provisions for using older windows applications?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Ben Willis
>Anderson School District Five
>Anderson, SC

Sure!  Here's what I'm doing.  Remember, I've been a K12LTSP school for
many years so we already have quite a bit of experience with Linux and
thin-clients.  This year marks a total shift over to Edubuntu....not just
on the thin-clients, but on the desktops as well.  

I have a K-8 school of about 600 users.  We have 2 Edubuntu servers
running in DHCP Failover/Load balancing mode  see below for link to how-to
in the wiki.  I have a Samba/LDAP server (running on Ubuntu Server 7.04)
as the central auth point for all workstations and servers.  This server
houses all the student home dirs and so forth (mounted via NFS to the
Edubuntu servers).  As for Windows....we do that 2 ways.  I have a Windows
2003 Terminal server which the user use the Terminal Services client in
Edubuntu to connect to the server.  The Samba/LDAP server is also the PDC
(primary domain controller) so I simply have to join the Windows TS to the
domain and that takes care of users and authentication.  All the users,
profiles, etc live on the Samba/LDAP server.  The other thing I've done
(and this is my grand experiment for this year) is to install VMWare
Player and a Windows XP VM to each workstation (actually it's part of the
image....but pushing new Windows VM's will be a cinch....all I have to do
is push the folder to the machines via SSH or something like wget).  So
the users can either connect to the Windows Terminal server....or launch
the VMWare Windows XP VM (for running an app on the local hardware).  I
have not installed many apps on Windows....it's simply there for certain
situations.  

I've learned over the years....if the machine boots initially to
windows....that's what most of the people will use....regardless of what
else is on there.  So this year the machines all boot to Edubuntu with
windows as the "other" possibility as a VM or TS connection. 
Thus....people do 90% or more of their work in Edubuntu.

As for clients....I need to count at some point.  Generally I can say that
we usually have up to 35-40 concurrent connections at any one time to the
Edubuntu Terminal Servers.  total number of
clients....workstations....laptops...etc....is in the 300 range.  At any
one time...up to 200 workstations/laptops can be hitting the server for
DHCP....Samba/LDAP stuff...etc.  Especially when we're doing NWEA testing.
 ;-)   So....to the person off the street we are an Edubuntu school as
every classroom machine boots to Edubuntu....thin-clients and all.   Very
cool!  :-)






https://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuDHCPload-balancingFailover

David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Director
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcsvikings.org
(207)923-3100