A small LTSP network setup

Tue Jun 12 21:19:37 UTC 2012

Beefy indeed :)

FYI things will be easier if .

Yes, the fat client does still PXE boot.  For some reason I don't remember
it doesn't take that much longer to boot the fatclients than the thin
clients since something like only the... I don't remember.  So yes, it gets
the full image loaded from the server.  Also, things get loaded onto the
RAM of the client--not the hard drive--and that's why I'd recommend to
remove the hard drives--seems that it goes to auto PXE boot more easily (no
choices) and you don't have to mess with BIOS or anything.  A big advantage
of fatclients is that all USB stuff is seen as local (as it is) as opposed
to the localapps where system processing still occurs on the server.  What
does your switch look like--it should have at least 1 gig port.  FYI the
#edubuntu irc is an ok place for responses that need more interaction,
though the #ltsp irc has a lot more people and thus more likely that
someone can help.

David

On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 4:02 PM, Faisal <xashiish at gmail.com> wrote:

>  Hi David,
>
> I will be administering the server in my spare time on a voluntary basis
> and therefore want to minimize the administrative tasks by letting their
> non-linux staff create user accounts, reset passwords and so on as and when
> and do not need to be calling me all the time. I have used Webmin for a
> short while and i like the collection of tools it has to offer. I will
> install it in the VM and play with it a bit more i think.
>
> I have today found out more about the client machines and they are better
> than what i expected. I am told they are Celeron dual core 2.4 GHz, 2 GB
> RAM & 40 GB HD. I will pick them up this coming Friday and confirm. If they
> are as described, then I guess this falls into the "beefy" category below.
> The organization is moving soon to another building and that is where the
> installation will take place so i still have some time to test things.
>
> Thanks for sharing the link. It looks a pretty straightforward method and
> i will give it a go when i get the client machines. One thing is not very
> clear to me though with the fat client method. Does the client still boot
> off the network with PXE and get the "full image" loaded from the server or
> is the OS installed on the local hard drive first???
>
>
> Thanks David for all your help,
> Faisal
>
>
> On 12/06/12 16:39, David Groos wrote:
>
> Hi Faisal,
>
>  Webmin is good, but even before jumping there I agree with Matt and
> recommend giving the standard users and groups app a tryo  But then again,
> are you going to be administering the server? Webmin is perhaps too much
> for just managing the users, but it allows you to manage all sorts of other
> functions as well, so if you are administering the server remotely then
> webmin might provide a great suite of tools for that.
>
>  If your clients are beefy enough then I would go with fat clients.  If
> they are so-so I would go with localapps and if they are marginal I would
> go with thin clients.
>
>  beefy > P4 2.4 GHz with 1 gig RAM
> so-so > P4 1.6 GHz with 512 MB RAM
> marginal > P3 or even P2 I have heard.
>
>  [All Edubuntu users: would you give the same cut-off points?  What
> should we publish as our recommendations?]
>
>  Alkis asserts that with a fatclient setup you can use a plain (modern)
> desktop as the server and can be used as the 'teacher computer' as well!
>  That's what I'll be trying for next year.  Another thing you might want to
> look into is an easy system of implementation described here:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/ltsp-pnp.  It's very
> straightforward with basically the idea that the way your server is setup
> so will be setup your thin/local/fat clients and therefore you pretty much
> only need to manage 1 system and not deal with a chrooted system.  Pretty
> cool.
>
>  I just went looking for up to date info on LTSP and it is hard to always
> know for sure… One thing that is helpful are the old edubuntu mailing list
> archives as there is lots of practical experience shared there and it is
> all time-stamped.  Good luck and let us know how things are going!
>
>  David G
>
>
>  On Jun 11, 2012, at 10:52 PM, Faisal wrote:
>
>  Hi David,
>
> Thank you for your response and thank you for pointing out Webmin. No I
> don't have any LDAP setup currently. Perhaps i can achieve what i want (an
> easy web interface for user account administration for the non-technical
> staff) using Webmin???  If so, then there is no need for any LDAP. It is
> not possible to estimate the number of users right now, but i suspect the
> lab will be there to use for a good number of this organizations users,
> they run afternoon classes for children and i am guessing there may be tens
> of potential users each requiring a user account.
>
> I have been promised used desktop computers being donated by a school and
> i don't have their full specs right now. But i am told they would at least
> be P4 or better. Sorry about the mixup of the terminology, by fat client i
> was referring to regular desktop computers with a local hard drive. But
> whether they would host the entire OS image locally or partially i am not
> sure about. Which is best and gives best performance?
>
>
> Regards,
> Faisal
>
> On 12/06/12 04:29, David Groos wrote:
>
> Hi Faisal,
>
> I'm not sure I understand completely -- do you already have an LDAP server
> running and you want to tie into that, or are you wanting to create an LDAP
> server on the edubuntu server to manage your users?  I've done the former,
> but if you don't already have a centrally managed LDAP system I would
> simply use the normal user management system.  For the first 3.5 years I
> used this built in system.  I also used webmin to manage users and in
> general was happy with it.
>
> (also, you mentioned you were going to get used, 'fat clients' that you
> were going to run as local apps--I believe the correct term is you were
> going to get used 'thick clients' since with LTSP we have the term 'fat
> clients' used to described a situation where the client runs everything
> locally, getting the entire image from the server.  Please describe the
> specs of the used hardware you are getting.)  If you run 15 clients as
> local apps you will be quite fine with the server hardware you described,
> I'd say.  If you are able to use fat clients (by having powerful enough HW
> specs on the clients) seems like the server setup would be overkill.
>
> David G
>
> On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 10:09 PM, Faisal <xashiish at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  Hi Andrie,
>>
>> Sorry, i should have provided more details regarding the user. The number
>> of workstations is small but the lab will be open to a large number of
>> people, potentially tens of users and the staff have never used linux
>> before.
>>
>>
>> On 12/06/12 04:04, Adrie Taniwidjaja wrote:
>>
>>
>> I think for this small size of instalation using Edubuntu default user
>> manager is more than enough.
>> Why make the instalation become more complicating with LDAP stuff ?
>>
>> On Tue, 2012-06-12 at 03:51 +0100, Faisal wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I am thinking of setting up a small LTSP network consisting of 10-15
>> workstations for a local charity. I am coming from the windows terminal
>> services / Citrix world and i am very familiar with that side of things and
>> my Linux experience is average at best.
>>
>> So far I have installed these flavours of an LTSP implementation: The
>> debianedu based Skolelinux -  www.slx.no and Edubuntu 12.04 in a VMWare
>> virtual server and i have been mighty impressed with the ease of install of
>> Edubuntu in particular and i think i will go with it. I have been able to
>> boot up a couple of thin clients simultaneously for testing purposes and
>> all seemed to run fine in my small lan at home. I loved some of the built
>> in tools such as Epostes for ease of management.
>>
>> In terms of hardware, i think we are going for donated/cheap used fat
>> clients and have the local apps option for LibreOffice, Firefox etc to ease
>> the load on the server. I am also thinking of having an NFS share for the
>> /home partition on a separate grey box(if that further helps ease the load
>> of the server and makes it run better).
>>
>> As for the server, there are good deals going on where i am for small
>> office servers such as the HP Proliant ML110 G7 with Intel Xeon E3-1220 /
>> 3.1 GHz(quad core) and 8 GB of DDR3 1333 mhz RAM(upgradable to 16) and 7200
>> rpm HD disc with dual Gigabit NICs. Would something like this be suitable
>> for powering the 10-15 workstations or will that be pushing it?
>>
>> The charity do not have tech savvy staff and i would like a centralized
>> user account setup with openldap. But ideally, have a web gui front end for
>> user account creations and password resets. I am looking into tools such as
>> Gosa2 - https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/ and Easy LDAP management found
>> here: http://www.ldap-account-manager.org/ . I have not been successful
>> so far in setting up these tools, but i am still working on it. I may ask
>> someone in my local LUG for help with this part if i struggle. Does anyone
>> know similar tools?
>>
>> Apologies for asking too many questions as i am still researching and
>> don't have a clear plan yet. Would appreciate you advice and guidance to
>> any tool or resource that would help me get answers.
>>
>> Regards
>> Faisal
>>
>>
>>   --
>> ------------------------------
>>
>>
>> Adrie Taniwidjaja - PT. BeLogix Indonesia
>> Jl. Lengkong Kecil No.73 Bandung
>> adrie at belogix.com, 022 9199 8360
>>
>>
>>
>> --
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>>
>>
>
>
>
>
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