(Now OT) Thin client question - (I think?)

[Bart Silverstrim]

Patton Echols wrote:
> On 02/28/2008 09:27 AM, Bart Silverstrim wrote:
>> Dave Woyciesjes wrote:
>>
>>   
>>> What about purchasing a second server to run terminal services?
>>>
>>>     
>> If it's just for personal study, is your system "big enough" to run a 
>> terminal server in a virtual machine?
>>   
> 
> Yeah, I could try that.  My original question was about a production 
> environment.  But I'm wanting to learn, so . . .

Sorry...I only glanced at the one I replied to, where at the end I 
thought it said the point was moot at the organization in question but 
you wanted to learn about it.  I've found that the approach I suggested 
works best when my employment situation poo-poo's an idea I have from 
which I'd learn something.

>> If you already have a system configured but is going to be repurposed, 
>> there is a utility (free) from vmware that will convert the computer 
>> into an image to run. You may have to alter a couple drivers on first 
>> start (and be sure to plan for the network settings so you don't have a 
>> dupe on the network if one is on while the other is booting),
> 
> Not sure what you mean.  If I run, for example, XP-Pro in a VM on my 
> ubuntu box, do they have a separate network address?

If you bridge the network for vmware, yes.  You can't have a real 
machine on 192.168.0.2 and a virtual machine on your system, on the same 
network and bridged, in a vmware session with the address 192.168.0.2. 
Likewise, you can't have the 2 Windows machines with the NETBEUI name 
MY-MACHINE at the same time.  They'll see each other and barf on the 
network.  I make sure one is offline until I bring the other up and 
reconfigure it.

>>  but I've 
>> imaged...6?...servers from win2k to win2003 with that tool.
>>   
> Do you run them all in VM's from one hardware box?

2, actually, mainly because of lack of storage.  These were little-used 
machines :-)  The hardware was on the last legs, and we needed them to 
keep chugging along until they could be migrated.  No one with more cash 
would recommend what I've done with these systems (with the number of 
VM's running on VMWare Server free, not the full VMWare product) in a 
production environment, but they've WORKED.  And they worked well for 
our purposes so far.

>> *shrug* just an idea, if you're just studying it for your own purposes 
>> and learning.
>>   
> 
> I think I should try this on a hobby machine and poke around a bit.

I doubt you'll be disappointed, or at least you'll discover that there 
are purposes for VMWare.  With the setup I have now, I don't use 
snapshotting...I haven't experimented with it, but I have heard that 
using snapshots puts some limits on the flexibility of your VMs.  I will 
make backups by using tar -cvzxf to set of external hard drives on my 
home setup, then if I need to restore to a previous state I just untar 
it.  Great for developing/testing software.  Windows goes nuts? Restore!

Good luck!

-Bart