[K12OSN] Multiple LTSP servers on a single subnet?

[Les Mikesell]

On Thu, 2005-05-12 at 11:43, Casey Woods wrote:
> I will have both students and staff using thin clients and they will all 
> be on the same IP subnet.  This subnet is dedicated to thin client 
> traffic.  I would like to connect two LTSP servers to the subnet and 
> somehow control which server the clients connect to on a client by 
> client basis (students to one server and staff to the other).  I'm 
> assuming that there is some way to do this with MAC addresses?

I think you can do that if you configure the dhcp servers as
non-authoritative and do not permit both to answer unknown
MAC addresses but I've forgotten the details.  The other
simple-minded way would be to run the staff dhcp server on
a different port and require custom boot floppies to access
that server.

> Here's why I want to do this:  I have a single gigabit fiber connection 
> between two buildings.  I want to consolidate all my LTSP servers in 
> building A.  The thin clients are in building B.  Best case scenario 
> would have me light up another fiber connection so that I can run two 
> subnets.  I have the extra fiber strands, but I'm try to avoid that 
> added expense.
> 
> I'm open to any and all ideas!

If your fiber-capable switches have management/vlan capability you
can easily make it look like you have two physical subnets with
a single connection between switches.  This would be the best
approach if you are trying to isolate usage for security reasons.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
    les at futuresource.com