Xen users - Jul 2007 - Using thin clients with xen images on server?

Hi all,

I would like to know if the following is possible:

Option A
========Thin clients which network boots and the server gives it a virtual 
workstation. The thin client just displays the screen, similar to a 
terminal server but with a complete environment for the user on the 
server. The reason I want to do this instead of just using a linux 
terminal server is that each user may need to install stuff like php 
applications to test etc. i.e development machines.


Option B
========I couldn''t find any info on doing this and had decided that I
would have
  to

1) Buy a bunch of entry level pcs,
2) On boot up get DOM0 to run and then to go and fetch an image off the 
server and then download it to the local machine and start it up.


I then heard on a podcast a guy from vmware saying that option A is what 
they have some of their clients doing.

Any tips for doing this with XEN?

thanks

Mark
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On Wed Jul 18, 2007 at 23:10:32 +0200, Mark Clarke wrote:
> Option A
> ========> Thin clients which network boots and the server gives it a
virtual workstation.
  Not sure about this.
> 1) Buy a bunch of entry level pcs,
> 2) On boot up get DOM0 to run and then to go and fetch an image off the
server
> and then download it to the local machine and start it up.
  This would be possible.  All you need to do is configure each
''node''
 machine to boot up with DHCP, etc, and then pull the root filesystem
 over NFS for the domU.

  You might be able to get dom0 over NFS - but if you could do that
 you might as well just use Linux Terminal Server proper ..

Steve
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Mark Clarke wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I would like to know if the following is possible:
>
> Option A
> ========> Thin clients which network boots and the server gives it a
virtual
> workstation. The thin client just displays the screen, similar to a 
> terminal server but with a complete environment for the user on the 
> server. The reason I want to do this instead of just using a linux 
> terminal server is that each user may need to install stuff like php 
> applications to test etc. i.e development machines.
You could surely run xdm (with network turned on) on each xen image.  At 
your X server (display), you would just choose which box you wanted to 
login to.

I just got done moving my Ubuntu "Sun Ray Server Software" out of a 
VMware container/image onto real hardware.  The SRSS worked fine in 
both.  I will most likely migrate it into a Xen image.  My SunRay 
clients don''t mind where it lives.

If you don''t know how to configure SRSS (hard) or xdm (moderate)... 
You
could always "ssh -X bigbox1 firefox" where you had bigbox(N).  And 
everyone could get to apps as long as they had an X
server.
>
>
> Option B
> ========> I couldn''t find any info on doing this and had
decided that I would
> have  to
>
> 1) Buy a bunch of entry level pcs,
> 2) On boot up get DOM0 to run and then to go and fetch an image off 
> the server and then download it to the local machine and start it up.
>
>
> I then heard on a podcast a guy from vmware saying that option A is 
> what they have some of their clients doing.
>
> Any tips for doing this with XEN?
Xen doesn''t change the problem.  You have a bunch of networked 
sandboxes...  (doesn''t matter that they are virtual machines) now how 
are you going to connect to them?  What is on the desks of the users?  
LTSP type hardware?  SunRay?  X-Term?

-Scott

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