[K12OSN] Using K12LTSP on existing school network

Rob Owens hick518 at yahoo.com
Sun Feb 18 02:01:54 UTC 2007


You are correct that the school network will only see
the LTSP server.  It will not see all the thin clients
(as long 
as you use a 2 network card setup in the LTSP server).
 

You are also correct that the thin clients will be
increasing bandwidth demand on the port that the
classroom server 
is attached to, but the increase will be negligible. 
Most of the bandwidth is between the clients and the
LTSP 
server.  The additional demands that the server will
cause on the school's network will be due to the fact
that you 
have 5 users, instead of one, requesting internet
sites and utilizing the school's centralized network
file storage 
(if they have any).  In short, this should not be a
problem.  Don't bother with a caching proxy
server--you don't need 
it.

The only way I could try to explain the "bring down
our school network" statement is this.  If someone
were to bring 
in a router or some other device which acts as a DHCP
server, and hooked it into your school network, you
could end up 
with multiple school computers getting the same IP
address.  This would cause trouble, but not bring the
network down.  
The LTSP server does, in fact, act as a DHCP
server--but it only serves IP addresses to the thin
clients and not to 
the school network, so it won't be a problem.  Be
careful setting it up though, because if you
mistakenly hook the 
"thin client nic" to the school network, you will be
serving IP addresses to the school network.  You don't
want this.  
Luckily, it will also have the side effect that your
thin clients won't boot, so you'll notice this mistake

immediately.

Tell the IT staff that the thin clients will be on a
separate subnet, and that the school's network will
only see the 
LTSP server.  Tell them that if it causes trouble
(which it won't), you'll simply unplug it until you
figure out what 
you did wrong.  Remind them that you are adding
computers to your classroom for free (or for cheap)
and that this is 
important to you and your students.

Good luck!

-Rob

On Sat, Feb 17, 2007 at 06:04:41PM -0500, Bob Hill
wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I am a high school teacher in North Carolina.  I
have been testing 
> K12ltsp and other LTSP solutions on a small (5
clients) classroom local 
> network for the past six months or so.  The current
Fedora Core 6 
> K12ltsp works very well and I am happy with the
performance.  I am not 
> network knowledgeable  yet, and have questions I
hope someone here may 
> answer.
> 
> How should I approach our IT staff to get an okay to
attach my classroom 
> server to our school network so we can have internet
access for the thin 
> clients?  I have tested this and it works fine, but
the IT staff always 
> warns us of attaching switches or routers to the
school network and does 
> not allow it.  Would attaching my LTSP server to the
network cause 
> problems somehow? 
> 
> The school network uses fat windows workstations
logging into the school 
> server through Novell, but most if not all of the
applications run 
> locally.  My classroom LTSP server does not need to
log on to our school 
> network.  Internet access just passes through the
school server.   It 
> seems the school network would see my classroom LTSP
server as just 
> another single machine with one IP address, while my
the switch I am 
> using would be behind this machine attached to the
thin clients.  Please 
> explain to me how this would "bring down our school
network" as I have 
> sometimes been told.  I understand that the clients
may be increasing 
> the bandwidth demand on the port the classroom
server is attached to, 
> but is this a problem?
> 
> Finally, if this is a problem, could I somehow set
up an extra cacheing 
> proxy server or something to download some complete
websites during off 
> hours and have the LTSP classroom server connect to
that for simulated 
> internet access?
> 
> Thanks for any suggestions or directions.
> 
> Bob Hill
> 
> 
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