[K12OSN] Question on diskless vs diskfull clients & how to get them

Fri Mar 19 14:15:43 UTC 2004

I have also been doing some extensive testing of all variants of
hardware.  Of course the main reason I think most users are even
considering this options is cost (I know there are many other benefits,
I just think cost is what initially takes users down this road).
Keeping this in mind there is a lot to be said for getting donated
machines, booting them via an etherboot floppy, finding a donated
monitor letting it rock.  However there are also issues with this as
well, chances are your donated lab will not be uniform, and your faded
beige towers with old fans and power supplies will not be
asthetically/audibly pleasing (but functionality is the bottom line).  I
did not really notice a difference between running a 180MHZ machine with
64MB Ram compared to running a 800MHZ machine with 512MB Ram,
performance seemd to be solely based on the Server and networking
hardware (Definitely no less than 100MB switches network and a dual
processor server with 1GB Ram).  The macs leave something to be desired,
I have tried using the -query option for running them (which leaves
problems with sound boot/shutdown) and I have tried the way provide me
by Chuck of running OS 7.6 with MKLinux booter to initialize the thin
client (a little cryptic at first but once you get the hang of it not
bad at all).  I think the mac solution is doable if you have a lot of
mac equipment to use, but in my testing I wouldn't recommend it.  I may
have a little personal opinion involved here but to me macs seem slower
in general for most anything, generally involve more configuration, and
the hardware costs for maintenance are gastly.  As for thin terminals
such as the Term150, I have been more than impressed, I think this is a
awesome solution for where the budget isn't totally strapped.  You gain
asthetics, minimal sound, out of the box useability (No technical know
how needed), and hardware tuned specific to the task at hand.  The only
thin client I have tested thus far is the Term150 so I cannot speak
specifically to all others but would assume the same.  I chose the
Term150 simply because it had the lowest cost, and I wanted to test the
bargain priced hardware.  I still think we live in a world of "you get
what you pay for", building clients is probably a great project for a
class, and an excellent learning experience.  But I have been involved
in these projects before and the results aren't always a rock solid
product.

My opinion for a fresh 30-50 machine lab would be ebay for one kick but
server(Dual 2.8GHZ or above w/4GB Ram and a Raid5 SCSI setup and a GB
NIC), then buy all new Term150's for clients, and find donated monitors
(which can be swapped at any time while providing a low cost initial
setup, with a very stable base).  Plug it all into a 100MB switched
environment (very cheap with the Dell product line 2124 and 2024) with
Gigabit uplink to a server and you and your users will be smiling from
ear to ear.  Of course I am a professional overkiller :-)

Of course I am still fairly new here so others may have a better (more
educated) opinion.

I do still have reservations on the thin setup for power users who do
digital video editing, high end graphics, scanning, digital imaging,etc.
But I also don't think it is out of line to have a mixed platform
environment for learning teaching.  

-----Original Message-----
From: k12osn-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:k12osn-bounces at redhat.com] On
Behalf Of Chris Kacoroski
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 5:46 PM
To: A technical support and discussion community for users of the K12OS
Linux distribution.
Subject: [K12OSN] Question on diskless vs diskfull clients & how to get
them

Hi,

We are considering a LTSP project and am wondering the following:

1.  If there is any difference to how LTSP is set and configured if you 
have a diskless or diskfull client.  Does it make a difference on the 
network load?  Server load?  With a diskfull client I am assuming you 
could cache some stuff on the disk.

2. Options for getting clients.  So far I am looking at:

a) buy diskless workstation terminals like the Term 150
b) buy parts and have the local kids build small form factor diskless 
workstations
c) use old macs (of which we have a lot).  concerned about maintenance 
issues here
d) donated pc's.  concerned about variability and viability here.

What have you found out that works and what doesn't work.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

cheers,

ski

--
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it
   connected to the entire universe"		John Muir

Chris "Ski" Kacoroski, ckacoroski at nsd.org, 425-489-6263

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