[TriLUG] pxe thin client

[Kevin Hunter]

At 1:26pm -0500 Tue, 17 Nov 2009, Clay Stuckey wrote:
> My plan was to PXE boot to a linux thin client machine that uses
> Vintella to handle the windows AD credentials. from there, the user
> could either work in a linux desktop or use tsclient to RDP to a windows
> desktop.

The only thing you really need for PXE is a DHCP server, kernel server, 
and /somewhere/ for the guest machines to have a root filesystem.  Often 
in PXE booted systems this is an NFS mount.  Thus, the biggest worry 
should be RAM and network speed.  I know for fact this can be done with 
128MB and 100Mbit network speed.

The end question is "What load will the thin clients be expected to 
handle?"  If it's literally just a thin client w/ and RDP client 
installed, I know this can be done with 128 MB.  Often however, when 
folks say thin-clients, they really mean "not-locally-booted", but still 
want the power of a desktop locally.

> I have a set of standard PCs without hard drives. I can boot from CD,
> DVD or PXE. The ultimate goal is to RDP to a windows machine. The main
> requirement is that the first thing a use sees is a login prompt that
> hits windows AD. 

It sounds like you've already the hardware, so you're next issue is just 
to figure out what you'd like to PXE boot, and the server environment 
strong enough to provide for it.

> This is going to be in a secure environment so I do not want a user to
> be able to circumvent any login prompts to gain access to a local
> environment like a live CD. I have to force the login prompt. 

If they have physical access to the system, think again.  There is not a 
machine out there that I can't boot my own OS given physical access. 
You can do best effort, but don't delude yourself on this point.

Kevin