[K12OSN] 64 bit ltsp vs. virtualization

[Nils Breunese]

Luis Montes wrote:

> I'm placing an order today for a new server. The school I'm using it  
> at has about 75 thin clients.
> Currently we're using an smbldap serer and two dual-core 4GB ram  
> servers.
>
> I'm gonna spend 5 or 6 K today on a 64bit 8-core 16GB ram monster.  
> (well monster compared to what I have right now)
>
> Now I'd like to just add this new box to the network as another ltsp  
> server using 64 bit edubuntu or fedora+ltsp, but so far my couple of  
> months with a 64 bit desktop have me thinking this might not be the  
> best approach.
>
> The main problem I have is that Adobe's has yet to get off their  
> butts and product a 64bit flash plugin. I know I can use the  
> nspluginwrapper but it only seems to work about half the time, and  
> when it does work, half the time sound doesn't.  I imagine that  
> sound through the thin clients will be even more troublesome.
>
> The other option I have is to load centos5.1 or ubuntu 8.04 on the  
> new server and something like vmware server to slice it up with 4 or  
> so 32bit guests.
>
> That second option seems like a waste of resources, but it may give  
> me less headaches.
>
> Surely there are other ltsp users in the same boat right now?
> Thoughts?

I have a quadcore with 4 GB RAM loaded with K12LTSP 5EL 64-bit. We do  
run into those issues with Flash being 32-bit only (crashes with  
nspluginwrapper and 32-bit Flash under 64-bit Firefox, although you  
can install 32-bit Firefox only) and no 64-bit Java browser plugin  
being available. You should be able to use 16 GB RAM with the PAE  
kernel on 32-bit Linux (up to 64 GB according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension) 
.

Nils Breunese.