Hack14.Put Your Desktops on a Thin Client Diet

Hack 14. Put Your Desktops on a Thin Client Diet

Centralize administration by using the Linux Terminal Server Project and existing or inexpensive desktop systems to give your users the computing power they need at a price you can afford.

Though the cost of hardware is constantly decreasing, it is still greater than zero. Putting a high-powered workstation on everyone's desk is a nice idea, but not everyone needs a dual-processor Mac or Linux box to get their work done. The key requirement for most users is access to the applications and data they're working on and enough memory to work with them.

The Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP; http://www.ltsp.org) lets you boot desktop systems from a remote server, gives users access to their applications and data when they log in, and provides a graphical, X Window System working environment that is functionally identical to booting from a local disk. This can provide substantial cost savings by enabling you to deploy or reuse less-expensive hardware on your users' desktops, since it reduces the amount of local storage and other hardware that any desktop system requires. A processor that is too slow to keep up with the demands of today's applications can still function quite nicely when its sole function is to update a display and respond to mouse and keyboard input.

Centralizing system resources on high-powered servers also provides substantial benefits to system administrators by eliminating the need to individually maintain and upgrade desktop operating systems and application software. All the software that a desktop system requires beyond a boot floppy or network boot information is stored on the server.

The LTSP also provides a great alternative to deploying and maintaining dual-boot systems throughout your enterprise or installing X Window System software on every Windows box if users only need to run Linux software occasionally. Give the users LTSP boot disks configured for their desktop systems and have them reboot using these disks. Problem solved! They have Linux systems on their desktops until they reboot.

Version 4.1 of the LTSP was the latest version at the time this book was written. Installation, configuration, and conceptual information should be similar for any newer version that may exist by the time that you read this.

2.6.1. Understanding the LTSP Client Boot Process

In case the notion of systems booting and getting all their software over a network is new to you, this section provides an overview of the boot process for an LTSP client system. Being able to visualize how LTSP clients and servers interact will minimize configuration problems and will also be useful if you need to diagnose performance or connectivity problems in the future.

LTSP client and servers interact in the following way when you boot an LTSP client:

1. The client boots and contacts a DHCP server to obtain its IP address, the name of the Linux kernel to download and boot, and the NFS location of a directory structure that it should use as the root filesystem for that kernel.

2. The client contacts the TFTP server on the LTSP kernel and downloads the specified kernel into local memory.

3. The client boots the downloaded kernel, using the NFS root filesystem as the root filesystem for that kernel.

4. The client runs the standard Linux startup script /etc/rc.sysinit, which starts various services required by the system, sets up swapping, and so on.

5. The client uses the information in /etc/lts.conf in the NFS-mounted root filesystem to contact whatever X Window System display manager is running on the specified system and display an X display manager login screen on the client's screen.

Once you log in, you are logged in on the LTSP server system. The client system is running only the X Window System software necessary to manage network connections, run an X Window System server, and so on.

Though you can use lower-powered systems as LTSP clients, this doesn't mean that every PC currently serving as a doorstop at your site can be recycled as a desktop LTSP client system. The PCs you use as LTSP clients must have sufficient resources to run the X Window System, use a reasonable screen resolution, display multiple windows that may be graphically complex, and be able to exchange data over the network relatively quickly. Pentium systems running at 166 MHz or greater, with a minimum of 32 MB of memory and a 4-MB video card, are quite suitable for use as LTSP clients. Adding 100-MB Ethernet cards, more memory, and 8-MB or greater video cards will provide a better user experience and will enable you to configure the X Window System to operate at higher resolutions and with greater color depth.

2.6.2. Downloading and Installing the LTSP Software

You can download the LTSP administrative and configuration utilities as a tarball with an installer (http://www.ltsp.org/ltsp-utils-0.11.tgz) or as an RPM (http://www.ltsp.org/ltsp-utils-0.11-0.noarch.rpm). You can also download the latest LTSP software by following the download link from its Sourceforge project site at http://sourceforge.net/projects/lts/.

As part of the initial configuration process, the LTSP administration utility downloads additional packages that the LTSP server(s) and clients require. These additional packages provide the kernel, X Window System utilities, and other components of the root filesystem used when LTSP clients boot from the server in order to start their X sessions. During the LTSP configuration process, you can either download these additional packages over the network or load them from a local CD-ROM or directory that provides them. To save time during the installation process and simplify installation in general, you should download an ISO image of a CD-ROM that contains all of these packages from http://ltsp.mirrors.tds.net/pub/ltsp/isos/ltsp-4.1-1.iso.

If you've downloaded a tarball of the LTSP utilities, unpack it and execute the install.sh script to install the utilities on the system that you want to be your LTSP server. If you've downloaded the RPM, simply install it with your favorite RPM invocation. Mine is:

 # rpm -Uvvh ltsp-utils-0.11-0.noarch.rpm 

If you've download the ISO of the packages required by the LTSP server, burn it to a CD-ROM and mount the CD-ROM (or mount the ISO using a loopback device if you're in a hurry or don't have a CD burner handy). Now the real fun begins!

2.6.3. Configuring and Starting the LTSP Server

To actually install the packages that an LTSP server needs and create your default LTSP configuration file, su to root (use su - to provide a pristine root environment) and execute the ltspadmin command. This command provides a terminal-oriented interface that enables you to install the packages and configure the system services required by required by an LTSP server. Figure 2-8 shows the ltspadmin utility's initial screen in an xterm.

Figure 2-8. The initial screen of the ltspadmin utility

The first step in configuring an LTSP server is to configure the installer itself. Use the arrow keys to select the "Configure the installer options" menu option. The installer prompts you for the location from which to retrieve the packages required by the installer, providing a network source by default. If you've installed them locally, supply the pathname to the directory containing the packages in the form of a URL that begins with file://, followed by the full pathname. (This means that your URL must begin with three slashes: two for the protocol specification and one for the beginning of the path to the directory containing the packages. For example, if you burned a CD-ROM and mounted it as /mnt/cdrom, your URL would be file:///mnt/cdrom.)

Next, you'll be prompted for the directory in which you want to install these packages on your server. You'll need to have about 350 MB free on the partition where this directory is located in order to do a complete install of all the LTSP software.

Finally, identify any HTTP or FTP proxies you want to use (or specify none), and then enter y to accept the values that you've entered. The screen shown in Figure 2-8 will be displayed again.

The next step is to select the Install/Update LTSP Packages option, which displays the screen shown in Figure 2-9.

Figure 2-9. The ltspadmin utility's Select Packages screen

Press A to select all the packages listed, and press Q to exit this screen and begin installing those packages. You'll have to answer y to an "are you really, really sure" prompt, and then package installation to the specified directory will begin.

Once all the packages are installed, press Enter and select the Configure LTSP option. This starts the ltspcfg utility and begins LTSP configuration. ltspcfg first checks and summarizes the status of all the services that LTSP requires on your server. Press Enter to continue, and you'll see two options: S to summarize the status of required services of your LTSP server, and C to actually configure them. Figure 2-10 shows the summary screen.

Figure 2-10. The ltspcfg utility's Summary screen

Selecting C displays the screen shown in Figure 2-11, which lists the various aspects of the LTSP server that have to be configured for the terminal server.

Figure 2-11. The ltspcfg utility's Configuration screen

An LTSP server must provide or have access to the following services in order to function correctly:

DHCP

Assigns the client's IP address and specifies values such as the location of the kernel that the client must download and boot, the path of the NFS root filesystem used by the client's kernel, and so on. The DHCP server doesn't need to be running on the LTSP server, but it must be configured correctly wherever it is running to provide the information required by LTSP clients.

NFS

Enables the client to access the root filesystem exported by the LTSP server, use swapfiles that live on the LTSP server over NFS, and so on.

TFTP

Enables the client to download the kernel that it will boot. The TFTP server does not need to be running on the LTSP server, but it must be configured correctly wherever it is running to provide the bootable kernel image required by LTSP clients.

XDMCP

Enables users to log in on the client system and establish an X Window System connection to the LTSP server.

I find it easier to run all the services required by LTSP clients on the LTSP server, to simplify administrative tasks such as updating the kernel boot image or changing DHCP parameters. The overhead of maintaining special DHCP and TFTP servers on the LTSP server is usually less than that of making updates on multiple systems. However, as discussed in the list above, only NFS and XDMCP must actually be running on the LTSP server.

We're all sysadmins here, so rather than walking through each step and listing each keypress, I'll just highlight the services that you have to activate and the types of values that you need to enter:

Runlevel

Set the runlevel at which your LTSP server starts. The LTSP server typically needs to be running at runlevel 5 to enable graphical logins via XDMCP, though the runlevel associated with graphical logins differs across Linux distributions. You can also use runlevel 3 (or whatever your nongraphical, multi-user runlevel is) and manually start the X Window System after each login, but that's less fun.

Interface selection

Identify the Ethernet interface over which the LTSP server accepts connections. This information is used in setting up the DHCP and NFS services. Some sites use multiple network interface cards (NICs) in their LTSP servers and attach all LTSP clients to a specialized subnet on a dedicated interface to improve performance and minimize the chance of DHCP collisions.

DHCP configuration

Add entries to the DHCP configuration file (/etc/dhcpd.conf) that your LTSP clients require when they get Ethernet addresses from your DHCP server, and make sure that the DHCP server is started by default at the previously specified runlevel. If the DHCP configuration file doesn't already exist, the ltspcfg utility creates a template configuration file. You must subsequently edit this to reflect your local domain, network configuration, and so on. Here are some examples of the key entries in the DHCP configuration file for LTSP:

 option routers 192.168.6.32; option domain-name-servers 192.168.6.32; option domain-name "vonhagen.org"; option root-path "192.168.6.32:/opt2/ltsp-4.1/i386"; subnet 192.168.6.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { use-host-decl-names   on; option log-servers   192.168.6.32; range 192.168.6.100 192.168.6.120; filename   "/lts/vmlinuz-2.4.26-ltsp-2"; } 

"Quick and Easy DHCP Setup" [Hack #20] has more detailed information about setting up DHCP and all the entries in the /etc/dhcpd.conf file.

If you need to provide specific settings for distinct LTSP clients, you can uniquely identify clients by their MAC addresses and provide client-specific configuration information in your DHCP configuration file.

TFTP configuration

Make sure the TFTP server is enabled in /etc/xinetd.d/tftp and the directory where it stores files exists.

Portmapper configuration

Make sure the portmapper, required to map ports to Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services, is running on the LTSP server so that NFS (and, optionally, NIS) services will work correctly.

NFS configuration

Configure the LTSP server to start NFS at boot time if it doesn't already do so.

XDMCP configuration

Determine which of the available X display managers (gdm, kdm, or xdm) are installed on the LTSP server, and identify the one that is currently used in runlevel 5. This option also adds entries to the configuration file used by that display manager so that it will accept connection requests from remote LTSP clients.

Create /etc/hosts entries

Create entries in the LTSP server's /etc/hosts for the range of IP addresses used by LTSP clients. Most RPC-based services, such as NFS, need to be able to map an IP address to a hostname and back again. If you are using DNS, you can also add these entries to your DNS server.

Create /etc/hosts.allow entries

Add entries to the /etc/hosts.allow file for the NFS portmapper and TFTP services required by LTSP clients. The /etc/hosts.allow file is used by xinetd's TCP wrappers to enable access from specified hosts or subnets.

Create /etc/exports entries

Add entries to the /etc/exports file used by NFS to identify directories to export, the hosts that can mount them, and how to mount and access those directories. The entries added by the ltspcfg program identify the NFS-mounted root filesystem used during the LTSP client boot process and the NFS directory that contains swapfiles for LTSP clients.

Create the lts.conf file

Create a default Linux Terminal Server configuration file in etc/lts.conf, relative to the root of your NFS-mounted root filesystem (in other words, relative to the directory named in the root-path directive in your /etc/dhcp.conf file). This file provides initial values that a client uses for local configuration and to connect to the LTSP server, and it enables you to provide client-specific settings when necessary. You may have to modify this file to reflect differences between systems such as graphics resolutions or PS/2, serial, and USB mice. See the LTSP documentation for more information about its possible contents.

At this point, you should reboot your LTSP server and verify that all the mandatory services have started automatically (DHCP, portmapper, NFS, and an X display manager) and that other mandatory services such as TFTP are enabled. Almost there!

2.6.4. Preparing LTSP Client Boot Media

Once the LTSP server is configured, the next step is to figure out how you want to boot your clients. There are a variety of ways of booting LTSP clients:

• Via the Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE), if supported by your Ethernet card. PXE is limited to booting files that are smaller than 32K (which doesn't include the Linux kernel), so you'll have to configure it to load a network bootstrap program (NBP) first, which then loads the kernel. Some network cards or motherboards with onboard networking require the use of specialized PXE bootloaders. LTSP Versions 4.0 and greater provide a PXE bootstrap program known as pxelinux.0. For more information about using pxelinux.0, see http://www.ltsp.org/README.pxe. Another open source PXE bootstrap program often used with LTSP is bpbatch. You can get additional information about bpbatch from its web site (http://www.bpbatch.org) or from http://www.ltsp.org/contrib/bpbatch.txt.

• Via Etherboot or Netboot, two open source Linux projects for creating boot ROMs that you can plug into any network card that supports a boot ROM.

• Via floppy disk, by creating an Etherboot image customized for your network card that you write to a floppy and boot from.

Of these, the most common and easiest to start with is booting from floppy. You simply write the customized Etherboot image to a floppy and then ensure that the client system is configured to boot from its floppy disk drive first. The client boots the image on the floppy, which initializes your client's network interface, then sends out a DHCP request and uses the boot-file and root-path images to download the kernel and boot using the specified root filesystem.

Creating an Etherboot image customized for your client's network card would be completely outside the scope of this hack if it weren't for the amazing ROM-O-Matic web site (http://www.rom-o-matic.net)simply identify your network card, and the web site will generate a boot image for you and download it to your system. It doesn't get much easier than that!

To create the right ROM image, you need to know the exact PCI ID of your network card. If you're not sure which card you have, the easiest thing to do is to boot your client using a rescue disk [Hack #90] or other bootable CD (the Knoppix Live CD included with Knoppix Hacks, also from O'Reilly, is a personal favorite). After logging in, you can run the lspci command to identify your Ethernet card and then run the lspci -n command to display the PCI identifiers (two four-digit, colon-separated numbers) for your card. You can then match these against the versions of your card listed on the ROM-O-Matic site, click Get ROM, and save the ROM image to your system. You can then write it to a floppy disk using a command like the following (as root):

 # cat  ROM-filename > /dev/fd0  

You're now seconds away from turning an old PC into a useful X terminal.

2.6.5. Booting an LTSP Client

Before booting your LTSP client, make sure that all the services required by the LTSP server are running on the server, and that the client is configured to boot from its floppy disk first.

Drumroll, please! Insert the floppy disk in the client's floppy drive and power on the system. After the generic POST messages, you should see a message about loading the ROM image, followed by some Ethernet configuration information and the message "(N)etwork Boot or (Q)uit." Press N, and your system will download and boot the Linux kernel from your LTSP server. After the standard Linux boot messages, you will see a screen that displays the login dialog shown in Figure 2-12.

Figure 2-12. An LTSP client's GDM login dialog

Congratulationsyour doorstop is now a useful X terminal!

Once you have an LTSP server configured and set up, the only thing you have to do to create additional client systems is to generate ROM images for the appropriate Ethernet cards, put each on a floppy, and boot the new client with an appropriate boot floppy. This is especially easy if you tend to buy your PCs in batches or from a single vendorchances are that many of them will have the same Ethernet cards and can use the same boot floppies.

2.6.6. See Also

• https://www.ltsp.org

• "Quick and Easy DHCP Setup" [Hack #20]

• "Rescue Me!" [Hack #90]

• http://www.rom-o-matic.net

• Knoppix Hacks, by Kyle Rankin (O'Reilly)