Guide to VM?

[brokebeardedguy]

Is there any place that has a reliable guide to setting up vms for thinclients?

if you own multiple pcs and can clone hdds to have identical machines can you do the same with vms?

is something I'm trying to lean about and theirs a ton of mix information online

[Electronics Wizardy]

If you want to deploy lots of Look into sysprep for windows. You can also have it run scripts at install with group policy scripts.

 

For the thin client connection look into vmware horizon and citrix xenserver. Hyper-v also is trying to compete here.

[brokebeardedguy]

I have no clue what that means....    I'm looking for a guide...   like VMware for dummies....   lol

I have like 5 asus eee boxes, and a few otiplexe gx620 that I thought I could use

[NelizMastr]

3 hours ago, brokebeardedguy said:

I have no clue what that means....    I'm looking for a guide...   like VMware for dummies....   lol

I have like 5 asus eee boxes, and a few otiplexe gx620 that I thought I could use

Then tell us what you want?

 

Do you want to connect to a server with all clients at once (Shared Remote Desktop) or to separate VMs (private virtual desktop, VDI)?

 

What's your budget for achieving this?

 

Which hardware do you have available for the server side? (that's newer than a GX620, those won't do).

[AbsoluteFool]

8 hours ago, brokebeardedguy said:

Is there any place that has a reliable guide to setting up vms for thinclients?

if you own multiple pcs and can clone hdds to have identical machines can you do the same with vms?

is something I'm trying to lean about and theirs a ton of mix information online

I'm not enterly sure what you are asking about. But for me it sounds like you want each thinclient to run of it's own VM from a server.

 

While this have serval sulutions, it's very hard to say which solution you are after.

One sulution could be to install windows on the thinclientsw install VNC and have VNC connection to each VM.

Second solution can be using FOG to PXE boot the thinclients

Third solution is to have all thinclients use the same VM with diffrent user accounts to access the server.

 

Of course there are many more ways, but that would be a very long list..

[brokebeardedguy]

6 hours ago, NelizMastr said:

Then tell us what you want?

 

Do you want to connect to a server with all clients at once (Shared Remote Desktop) or to separate VMs (private virtual desktop, VDI)?

 

What's your budget for achieving this?

 

Which hardware do you have available for the server side? (that's newer than a GX620, those won't do).

What I want:

I'm a machine hobbyist so instead of having to have 4 full size pcs in my garage I was hoping to use the asus eeebox mounted to like a 15in touchscreen to feed off the server

it uses a Ethernet to connect to the pc so I was going to use a usb3.0 ethernet to provide network support for the eeebox (if possible) or vise versa.

 

Do I want to connect:

I know I can clone my hdds for each pc and save time on installation as well as copies of software I was hoping to do the same via some type of VM because some of the software Is system hungry. it ran the gx620s at full usage.honestly the setup doesn't matter but the software doesn't play with iOS and Linux support can vary on how many axis each machine uses

 

My budget:

as little as possible. lol most of my hardware is bought second hand off craigslist and eBay I have windows license for everything from 95 to 10 maybe even a few 3.1 I have server 03, and server 08. I can get other software and keys relatively cheep if I don't have the correct os.

between my machines and my pc that I use for cad/video editing ive spend close to 10k so my budget is kind of gone. the next machine in may will run me another 4k. id like to be able to get that sooner then later.

 

My hardware:

the gx620s are just spare pcs laying around. not meant to be used as servers.

I have two 2950 with pair of 5460s 32 gigs of RAM and a PCI USB 3.0 card

I have a pesc1425 that I use as a web server.

I have also have some older servers I use as storage machines.

 

and I'm acquiring parts to build a dual hex 1366 with looks to be 24gigs of ram to replace all of my older servers being that the chassis will hold 12+hdds on raid

 

I know how to build systems and troubleshoot hardware issues, I'm not much of a software person outside of installation and setup. usually if I have an issue I just format and load a system backup. most of my systems are off line. I run two separate gig networks. my main pcs and TVs(game consoles, dvd, ect) are on a network with the media server. and the rest of my machines run on a private network. <--- maybe that's excessive I don't honestly know but I don't know much about configuring software to make everything work for me so I usually end up with a lot more hardware.

 

sorry if that was long winded just trying to give as much information as possible.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 hour ago, brokebeardedguy said:

What I want:

I'm a machine hobbyist so instead of having to have 4 full size pcs in my garage I was hoping to use the asus eeebox mounted to like a 15in touchscreen to feed off the server

it uses a Ethernet to connect to the pc so I was going to use a usb3.0 ethernet to provide network support for the eeebox (if possible) or vise versa.

 

Do I want to connect:

I know I can clone my hdds for each pc and save time on installation as well as copies of software I was hoping to do the same via some type of VM because some of the software Is system hungry. it ran the gx620s at full usage.honestly the setup doesn't matter but the software doesn't play with iOS and Linux support can vary on how many axis each machine uses

 

My budget:

as little as possible. lol most of my hardware is bought second hand off craigslist and eBay I have windows license for everything from 95 to 10 maybe even a few 3.1 I have server 03, and server 08. I can get other software and keys relatively cheep if I don't have the correct os.

between my machines and my pc that I use for cad/video editing ive spend close to 10k so my budget is kind of gone. the next machine in may will run me another 4k. id like to be able to get that sooner then later.

 

My hardware:

the gx620s are just spare pcs laying around. not meant to be used as servers.

I have two 2950 with pair of 5460s 32 gigs of RAM and a PCI USB 3.0 card

I have a pesc1425 that I use as a web server.

I have also have some older servers I use as storage machines.

 

and I'm acquiring parts to build a dual hex 1366 with looks to be 24gigs of ram to replace all of my older servers being that the chassis will hold 12+hdds on raid

 

I know how to build systems and troubleshoot hardware issues, I'm not much of a software person outside of installation and setup. usually if I have an issue I just format and load a system backup. most of my systems are off line. I run two separate gig networks. my main pcs and TVs(game consoles, dvd, ect) are on a network with the media server. and the rest of my machines run on a private network. <--- maybe that's excessive I don't honestly know but I don't know much about configuring software to make everything work for me so I usually end up with a lot more hardware.

 

sorry if that was long winded just trying to give as much information as possible.

Why not just use remote desktop? Should work fine for this use. VMs seem way overkill for a single client. Or just get a faster client.

[brokebeardedguy]

2 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Why not just use remote desktop? Should work fine for this use. VMs seem way overkill for a single client. Or just get a faster client.

but its not just one client...  it would be 4. and I don't have room or the want to stick 4 full size pcs in the garage with the machinery... and that's only right now until I can afford some more machines. looking to plan for the future not just a right now solution

[Electronics Wizardy]

44 minutes ago, brokebeardedguy said:

but its not just one client...  it would be 4. and I don't have room or the want to stick 4 full size pcs in the garage with the machinery... and that's only right now until I can afford some more machines. looking to plan for the future not just a right now solution

Just fire up 4 vms and remote desktop into them.

 

But really this is more effort than its worth, but if its for fun, go at it.

[brokebeardedguy]

i guess I just don't understand how things work. I assumed that vms and thin clients logged into a server pc that was capable of way more then the power of a thin client. it allowed the os and software to run server side while the client was just responsible for I/o of peripherals monitor and keyboard? leaving all the actual computing power to the server?

[Razor Blade]

29 minutes ago, brokebeardedguy said:

i guess I just don't understand how things work. I assumed that vms and thin clients logged into a server pc that was capable of way more then the power of a thin client. it allowed the os and software to run server side while the client was just responsible for I/o of peripherals monitor and keyboard? leaving all the actual computing power to the server?

I believe with thin clients it isn't necessarily the OS that runs on the server. They still need an OS but many services are able to run from a server. Hence why they're "thin". This may not be true for all but when I too had an interest in thin clients at one point, I went a different route due to potential complication and there seemingly isn't much of an open source thin client I know of so licensing expensive software for a project didn't make much sense for me.

 

If you built a server, would it have the power to run 4 instances of whatever software you're wanting? Will those VMs need a graphics card? There are many considerations. For your use case wouldn't a laptop which can RDP into your VMs work better? This way you could just RDP into whichever VM you desire and carry it with you. Also using a laptop will enable you to easily replace it if you ever need to. This was the route I went with...simple and effective.

[DogKnight]

VMWare offer a free course to introduce you to their tech (or at least they did a few years back). If you create an account on their training site you can get access to the VCA (VMWare Certified Associate) course. The exam costs money but going through the content is free. May assist in gaining some basic knowledge about their solutions and what they do.