[K12OSN] I need opinions....backup idea for when Terminal server down and I'm not around

[John Baillie]

I'll chime in David.

We have found K12LTSP to be pretty darn stable.

>From January - May we had to reboot one of the K12 servers that feeds
the lab once. The other one was up the whole school year. And we had to
reboot the K12 server that feeds the terminals in the 3rd and 4th grade
classes once. These are in heavy use every day.

It's quicker to reboot the server than bring 28 seats up to an
alternative OS. I'll bet someone on your staff would be willing to learn
the basic steps to recycle the server. Of course this will only need to
be done when indeed and in-fact out of town! 

With the students /home on a dedicated server the power recycle of a
server is no hassle at all. I agree with the comment of adding an
additional server. Last week someone posted a server configuration for
1500.00 that should in their opinion run 40 clients. That may be pushing
it a little but it might work well for 28 clients.

We are very happy with our Compaq EN SFF PII and PIII small foot print
and can be found on ebay for 50 -75 and they boot off the on board nic.
But I look forward to swapping them out for JTerms when the budget
allows. 

BTW I won an LTSP Term 150 workstation, LTSP on CD and LTSP Polo! at
NECC. Thanks disklessworkstations.com!

John



On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 12:15 -0400, David Trask wrote:
> This year I'm doing my first totally dedicated thin-client lab....until
> this year we've had the ability to dual boot....WinXP or LTSP....(which we
> used most of the time).  I'm try to decide on a thin-client model such as
> the LTSP Term 150 (I have no more than $279 per unit budgeted....and I
> need 28 or so...I already have monitors and keyboards/mice)  Anyway...two
> dilemmas....I worry about what happens if the Terminal Server fails while
> I'm far away (like at Linux World).  Until now they could boot into
> Windows and still have the class go on (remember I'm a computer teacher as
> well as the tech director and have a full slate of classes...grades K-8
> over the course of a week....I see about 450-600 kids)  When I go to
> dedicated thin-clients...K12LTSP server goes down...they're dead in the
> water.  So....
> 
> Couple ideas I'm tossing around....
> 
> 1.  Go with something like an NTAVO NTA 6010B
> http://www.ntavo.com/ntaterminal.php Which has a flash based OS on it and
> has the RDP, ICA, X, Firfox...etc already on it so at least they could get
> to my Win Terminal Server or at least the Internet....
> 
> 2.  Buy something like the LTSP Term 150 and possibly also buy (which I've
> budgeted for) USB keys for each machine that can be made bootable with
> something like Puppy Linux (Flash Puppy) or Damn Small Linux...but I don't
> know for sure if the Term 150 will boot via USB....but anyway...they could
> be handed out...they can boot via USB and at least get to the 'Net.
> 
> 3.  Buy a mini-ITX barebones like this one
> http://www.caseoutlet.com/shopexd.asp?id=203  (I have one so I know they
> work...though mine has no CD drive) and add a CD drive along with 256 mb
> RAM and make my own LIVE CD from Knoppix or better yet....PCLinuxOS (very
> easy to make your own Live CD with all your own configs in place)....that
> way if the server goes down...just pop in the disc and they can boot into
> a Live CD
> 
> Remember, this is my lab I'm mostly worried about....I'm open to all sorts
> of suggestions....my biggest things that are truly important....small size
> and very quiet.  I'm even willing to entertain a unit with a HD and a
> locally loaded version of Linux (for emergencies) if it's VERY quiet
> (fanless or very quiet)...and small.  So....fire away!  I could use some
> ideas, thoughts, and opinions.
> 
> David N. Trask
> Technology Teacher/Coordinator
> Vassalboro Community School
> dtrask at vcsvikings.org
> (207)923-3100
> 
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