virtualization 5+ Users, One Server/Rig

[Guest]

Hey, Guys!

Out of curiosity, Can 1 Server/PC be setup in such a way that it can be used as the main workhorse and connected with multiple thin clients to be used for Work? I am attaching a photo below to make it easier for me to communicate my idea :P.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited September 1, 2017 by Navneet Suresh
Added Image, Edits

[Mira Yurizaki]

My limited understanding of this is basically yes. I've seen solutions that involve setting up a VM for every thin client to allowing multiple users to log in.

 

I just don't know how to set up something like the former. The latter is more straightforward with *nix OSes.

[manikyath]

yes you can, but its more of a hassle, less reliable, and more expensive that just buying a bunch of client PC's, buying a server, and setting up active directory.

[Unimportant]

23 minutes ago, Navneet Suresh said:

Hey, Guys!

Out of curiosity, Can 1 Server/PC be setup in such a way that it can be used as the main workhorse and connected with multiple thin clients to be used for Work? I am attaching a photo below to make it easier for me to communicate my idea :P.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

It's easy in linux, (and thus, presumably oher unix variants), in fact the X windows system runs as a client/server model even on a single desktop, it just connects trough the loopback connection.

[Unimportant]

double post.

[Ithanul]

It is possible to do such a setup.  Requires some good amount of work.

Myself, I have no experience with thin clients yet.  Mostly deal with thick clients with a roaming profile hooked to servers floating in VMs.

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

My limited understanding of this is basically yes. I've seen solutions that involve setting up a VM for every thin client to allowing multiple users to log in.

 

I just don't know how to set up something like the former. The latter is more straightforward with *nix OSes.

oh! I have done some digging and found this > multiseat

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, manikyath said:

yes you can, but its more of a hassle, less reliable, and more expensive that just buying a bunch of client PC's, buying a server, and setting up active directory.

Yeah, But I want to try it anyway!

5 minutes ago, Unimportant said:

It's easy in linux, (and thus, presumably oher unix variants), in fact the X windows system runs as a client/server model even on a single desktop, it just connects trough the loopback connection.

Any good resource(Website) which I can refer to?

2 minutes ago, Ithanul said:

It is possible to do such a setup.  Requires some good amount of work.

Myself, I have no experience with thin clients yet.  Mostly deal with thick clients with a roaming profile hooked to servers floating in VMs.

Oh, Can you ELI5?

[Hiitchy]

You'd definitely be able to do this. I think the thing you're looking for is PXE Roms if I remember what they're called. I've never looked into it myself but I am familiar with the thin client concept.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Hiitchy said:

You'd definitely be able to do this. I think the thing you're looking for is PXE Roms if I remember what they're called. I've never looked into it myself but I am familiar with the thin client concept.

Ok I will do some digging on PXE ROMS.

[Hiitchy]

13 minutes ago, Ithanul said:

It is possible to do such a setup.  Requires some good amount of work.

Myself, I have no experience with thin clients yet.  Mostly deal with thick clients with a roaming profile hooked to servers floating in VMs.

I think this is exactly what the OP is after, minus the VM

[Ithanul]

 

11 minutes ago, Navneet Suresh said:

Oh, Can you ELI5?

Hmmm, that a new term for me.  Sorry, had to look up that term.

 

Pretty much, I deal with laptops with a locked down and strip OS that has to log into a Domain Controller (type of server role) to gain access to resources on servers that are in VMWare that floats on top of a physical server running ESXi.  The user profiles defaults are held on the servers, so once a user logs in the laptop pulls the profile to the OS.  Depending on setup, the profile saves back to server or wipes on each logout of any changes.  This probably varies depending what OSes you want to run and security settings.

[manikyath]

10 minutes ago, Navneet Suresh said:

Yeah, But I want to try it anyway!

we shall continue then, do the users need to do anything graphical?

(past like, editing a word document)

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, Hiitchy said:

I think this is exactly what the OP is after, minus the VM

Pretty much!

32 minutes ago, Ithanul said:

 

Hmmm, that a new term for me.  Sorry, had to look up that term.

 

Pretty much, I deal with laptops with a locked down and strip OS that has to log into a Domain Controller (type of server role) to gain access to resources on servers that are in VMWare that floats on top of a physical server running ESXi.  The user profiles defaults are held on the servers, so once a user logs in the laptop pulls the profile to the OS.  Depending on setup, the profile saves back to server or wipes on each logout of any changes.  This probably varies depending what OSes you want to run and security settings.

Oh ok, How can I use this setup for the below-mentioned purpose.

32 minutes ago, manikyath said:

we shall continue then, do the users need to do anything graphical?

(past like, editing a word document)

Yeah, I need a GUI as we would use it for Browsing, Word Docs, Coding(Development), Designing(Photoshop..)

AND I FORGOT TO MENTION I thought of having different os( Linux for me, Windows/Linux option for others) on VM according to the needs of my team.)

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Navneet Suresh said:

Designing(Photoshop..)

that is much preferred to be a seperate desktop due to its high color accuracy requirements, the rest of it is essentially just setting up a server with some VM's and all systems are go.

[Ithanul]

2 minutes ago, Navneet Suresh said:

Oh ok, How can I use this setup for the below-mentioned purpose.

Yeah, I need a GUI as we would use it for Browsing, Word Docs, Coding(Development), Designing(Photoshop..)

AND I FORGOT TO MENTION I thought of having different os( Linux for me, Windows/Linux option for others) on VM according to the needs of my team.)

Biggest question:  What OS do you plan to run for your servers?  What OSes for your client machines?

Do you want the server OS in a VM or prefer it to be the actual OS for the hardware?

 

Fair warning, my knowledge dealing with Linux is very limited.  I know how to install some Linux distros, but in a server setting I have limited actual experience dealing with Linux in that environment.  At most, I can hunt out guides for Linux OSes.

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, manikyath said:

that is much preferred to be a seperate desktop due to its high color accuracy requirements, the rest of it is essentially just setting up a server with some VM's and all systems are go.

But I will have external monitors connected to the thinclients. So The color accuracy should be good.

34 minutes ago, Ithanul said:

Biggest question:  What OS do you plan to run for your servers?  What OSes for your client machines?

Do you want the server OS in a VM or prefer it to be the actual OS for the hardware?

 

Fair warning, my knowledge dealing with Linux is very limited.  I know how to install some Linux distros, but in a server setting I have limited actual experience dealing with Linux in that environment.  At most, I can hunt out guides for Linux OSes.

I plan to have Linux preferably Ubuntu Server as main server OS and have other os on VM/Virtualized.

Edited September 1, 2017 by Navneet Suresh
Add more info.

[dmaes]

19 hours ago, Navneet Suresh said:

I plan to have Linux preferably Ubuntu Server as main server OS and have other os on VM/Virtualized.

Server:

• Install Ubuntu Server
• Setup KVM
• Setup all VM's
• Install qxl-drivers on all VM's
• set VM's to use SPICE

Thin clients:

• Install a lightweight distro without DE (suggestion: debian or arch)
• Install XORG + XINIT
• Install a SPICE-client
• set SPICE-client to execute in .xinitrc
• connect SPICE-client to desired VM

I never tried it (but will in the near future), but it should work

[Guest]

3 hours ago, 101dmrs said:

Server:

• Install Ubuntu Server
• Setup KVM
• Setup all VM's
• Install qxl-drivers on all VM's
• set VM's to use SPICE

Thin clients:

• Install a lightweight distro without DE (suggestion: debian or arch)
• Install XORG + XINIT
• Install a SPICE-client
• set SPICE-client to execute in .xinitrc
• connect SPICE-client to desired VM

I never tried it (but will in the near future), but it should work

Okay Great!

Can you give me some good resources(guides) on Windows+Ubuntu Installation on KVM?
I will post an update when I start this project.

[dmaes]

13 hours ago, Navneet Suresh said:

Okay Great!

Can you give me some good resources(guides) on Windows+Ubuntu Installation on KVM?
I will post an update when I start this project.

Ubuntu guide for installing KVM: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Installation

Then on another Linux PC with a GUI: ssh -X to server, run 'virt-manager' and hit the 'Create a new VM'-icon in the top left. Creation of the VM is pretty straightforward, installation of the guest OS is just like on a normal computer. When installation is done, you can tweak the VM-settings. Be sure to set the NIC to an existing interface in bridge mode (so not the default virtual default NAT), you could give each VM it's own interface, if you have enough ports on your server. Also set 'Display' to spice, make it listen on all interfaces and give it a port number, instead of 'auto'. Set 'Video' to 'qxl'. Do other stuff like hardware pass-through if you need to. If you're using a lot of the same VM's, copy the image-file and config-file, rename them, change some things in the config-file (VM-name, disk-image-path, spice-port, nic, ...) and use 'virsh define <config-file> to create a new VM with the same settings and no lengthy installation process for the guest OS.

You can also do this from terminal with virt-install, but I never did that, so can't help you with that. (I did 1 install with the GUI and re-use config-files)