This topic has been thrown around in here before but I'd like to start a new discussion on the topic and describe what we do today versus where we'd like to be.
Current Situation
Today, we're re-purposing old PCs and installing WinXP with only Vmware View installed. We enable autologin and replace the default shell with the VMware View client so when the machine starts up it goes right to the VMware View login screen. Then we create an image and clone other PCs using that image. We have a different image for each different desktop model we own. Although this works well, it can be time consuming to maintain all these images and having to clone desktops.
Future Goal
We would like to PXE boot a minimal Ubuntu 11.10 installation with LXDE, autologin and autostart the VMware View client for Linux (Not the open client). This will allow us to maintain one or just a few client images right from the server and will also be able to remove the hard drives from our old desktops.
Status
- Ubuntu Server 11.10 has been setup with DHCP, TFTP and NFS
- Minimal ubuntu client image has been created and LXDE and Vmware View client packages have been installed.
- The client boots up with LXDE desktop and autologin has been enabled.
- The client boots up in less than 50 seconds
Next Steps
- Setup autostart of VMware view client with custom parameters
- Enable sound and USB redirection
- Configuration for multiple displays
I plan document the steps that i followed to setup my environment once i have everything finalized. In the meantime, if anyone is working on something similar, I'd really like to hear about your experience.
Stay tuned....