Configuration of Linux Terminal Server Group: LNS10A6 Thebe Laxmi, Sharma Prabhakar, Patrick Appiah

Contents  Introduction to LTS  Requirements  Benefits  Drawbacks  Configuration Process  Conclusion  References

Introduction to LTS  Key technology used in Linux operating system that allows thin clients to boot from LTS server. Thin Clients are the work stations that run few basic functions (i/o specially). Thin Clients do not need physical storage media for booting process and no software too.  Collection of softwares turning normal GNU/Linux into terminal server  LTS server runs all the applications that are necessary for the clients to run and manage their function (heavy weightlifting, right?)

Requirements Thin Client : Processor 533 MHz 32 MB RAM PCI Video Card – 16Mb memory Network Card (PXE network boot loader) PS/2 mouse, keyboard Server: Pentium 4 or Amd Anthlon, 3 GHz or better (192 * Users) MB RAM GB hard disk or RAID system 1 or 2 network cards PS/2 mouse and keyboard Hardware Requirements

Requirements contd....  Softwares Following are the software requirements. DHCP: For configuration of ip-address. DNS server: Address resolution.(Not essential) NTP server: Time synchronization.(Not essential) TFTP server: For transferring the boot file. XDMCP – opens desktop of server for clients Port Mapper: NFS rather than NBD (network block devices) in our case No software in thin clients necessary.

Benefits of LTS  Suitable for educational environments, and small scale business.  Low cost.  Central Administration and Management.  Security  Easy management.  Environment friendly

Drawbacks  Single Point of failure.  Requirements for high server configuration.  High network load.  Unable to handle Intensive Audio/Video processes.  Latency might cause programs unresponsive.

Configuration Process Following are the configuration Process:  Installation of Centos server.  Installation of LTSP –iso package. Source : sourceforge.net/projects/ltsp Mounted on: /mnt (mount –o loop /home/lns10a6/ltsp iso /mnt) rpm package installation: ltsp-utils(included in iso)

Configuration Process contd.... Following are the configuration Process:  ltspadmin tool was run (lwpperl module should be installed)  Configure installer option was selected. .... Next Slide =>

Configuration Process contd.... Following are the configuration Process:  path name: file:///mnt (note URL format) was located.file:///mnt  Other options : Default

Configuration Process contd...  Ltspcfg utility was launched

Configuration Process contd...  After service set up: Unmount ISO image from /mnt: umount /mnt  The configuration files of other required services are in following slides.

DHCP configuration contd...  Configuration file for DHCP daemon:  DHCP listening in eth1 interface:

Configuration Process contd...  NFS configuration file: what, and how you share?  Chroot /opt/ltsp contains scaled-down linux installation

Configuration Process contd..  Backbone of file transfer: linux initramfs filesystem image into RAM of thin client

Configuration Process Contd..  Host Configuration

Configuration Process contd...  Hosts allowed for local services

Configuration Process contd...  Multiple Client Hardware Platform support

Concluding our work....  Audio Settings Configuration was not performed.  Printer Configuration was not performed.  Understood NFS, DHCP, Portmapper, Run Level etc in brief  Last but not least, we have LTSP server running.

Thank You!! References: - [1]Available at: Guide/LTSPManual.pdf. Accessed on Nov. 2010http://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/project/ltsp/Docs-Admin- Guide/LTSPManual.pdf [2]Available at: Accessed on Nov [3] Available at: Accessed on Nov. 2010http:// [4] Available at: Accessed on Nov [5]Available at: Accessed on Nov. 2010http:// [6]Available at: Accessed on Nov