Archive for December, 2008

Reality, What a Concept

Published by Robert Pogson December 19th, 2008 in Uncategorized. 4 Comments

My school has a powerful server, idling, and a mess of sissy servers, also idling. Server consolidation is in order. They all run that other OS. They need a server running GNU/Linux to run various web applications. The solution: VirtualBox from Sun Microsystems.

Virtual Box is a hypervisor for virtual machines. One installs VirtualBox, creates and configures as many virtual machines as one needs and installs an operating system in each. I chose GNU/Linux because that is what I am most comfortable using and I have tons of free software for it. On the first one, I installed LAMP (GNU/Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). This lets me add server scripts in PHP to do some very useful things:

  • collaboration/knowledge database with WikiMedia
  • huge number of text files indexed with SWISH-e and searched with swishe.php
  • searchable image gallery with Gallery
  • Moodle course management system

Then, I can create other virtual machines to hold the functions of the lesser servers, mostly print, file-sharing and database.

The only problems I had with this project?

  • the underlying OS was 32bit so I could not install more RAM than 4gB
  • it was tricky to use the NICs on the machine

Even the devotees of that other OS can use this technology and when they want to get off the Wintel treadmill, they can migrate their host OS and their virtual machines one by one making the job much easier. I can OpenSSH into mine to tweak and to manage. I can also control that other OS using Rdesktop (RDP protocol). That works better from a GNU/Linux machine than using the native Remote Desktop from my XP box. The print server no longer crashes weekly if I use GNU/Linux Rdesktop. Interesting, and very real. So, time moves on. If I keep beating my head against that monopolistic wall, it will move.

Lo, and behold, SUN has a new release which deals with both issues.

When my organization is comfortable with GNU/Linux as a guest OS (my boss already uses GNU/Linux at home), they can switch services one at a time to GNU/Linux guests and eventually, only a few databases will remain for compatibility with the mother ship.

So far, VirtualBox has been solid for us. It just works. I did find that the emulated SCSI drive was much faster than the emulated IDE drive which is no surprise if well emulated. The big server is still lightly loaded but now it actually does useful stuff for us besides authentication and DHCP. It could for instance run a basic GNU/Linux terminal server in one of the virtual machines to give a new lease on life to the old thick clients that populate our system.

Virtuality is a wonderful use of the modern multi-core system. I have previously used LTSP which virtualizes the desktop. Now we can enjoy virtualization of the server for similar comprehensive benefits:

  • lower cost of maintenance
  • lower parts count
  • easier administration
  • easier integration of GNU/Linux
  • lower power consumption
  • less congestion in the server room
- Robert Pogson

Excellent Article at Heise on LTSP

Published by Robert Pogson December 17th, 2008 in Linux in Education and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

see TFA.

TFA is concise, well-written and gives tons of links to further information about LTSP, the Linux Terminal Server Project, which is a great solution for extending the power of a newer PC or server and for centrally managing PCs at home, school or in business.

I first used LTSP in 2003 as implemented in the distro, K12LTSP. The LTSP team, and several distros have turned this combination of x-window-system, DHCP/BootP/TFTP/NFS into a means of booting diskless clients. This saves thousands of dollars in capital costs for even a small installation and lightens the load on the system administrator by a large factor.

- Robert Pogson

If You Like Thin Clients Stay Away From That Other OS

Published by Robert Pogson December 14th, 2008 in Uncategorized. 4 Comments

Thin clients are wonderful. They are:

  • small
  • quiet
  • cool
  • inexpensive
  • fast

but M$ wants to take away one of their chief advantages. This is what BILL VEGHTE said in an interview at Credit Suisse Annual Technology Conference 2008:

“we’ve been very successful in making sure that if you want the full Windows experience on there, that that is not — that doesn’t hit our average selling price. It’s delivering that Windows experience just through a different model, but our ability to deliver that, to extract that value instead of sort of a royalty type thing, do it through Client Access Licenses, server side and client.”

I will stick with GNU/Linux, Bill. I want it all. Compared to those big, old boxes, they are beautiful, eh? Let us reclaim the desktop.thin_client1

- Robert Pogson

Behemoth

Published by Robert Pogson December 13th, 2008 in Linux in Education and technology. 0 Comments

I built Beast as my terminal server years ago. Beast has a 1.8 gHz AMD64 CPU. At first it had 1 gB RAM but I upgraded a bit over time. Beast II or Behemoth is a bit like Frankenstein’s creature: bits and pieces of Beast plus some newer stuff. I did not go for a quad-core CPU at first. I could not see using 125 watts of power to run at 2.4 gHz or so. I chose obsolete technology, an Opteron 1220. The reason? I wanted a bit of clockspeed, AMD’s memory control, dual core and ECC RAM. The cache on this old Opteron is 1MB per core while Beast had 512MB altogether. Along with terabyte drives, Behemoth will be snappy. I will know as soon as the Opteron arrives. It is back-ordered. In the meantime, I will plan my first project for Behemoth: a conference of teachers. I want to show them what performance is. They are used to ancient hardware and software in the schools.

RAID is an important advantage in a terminal server. A school cannot afford to have a hundred extra hard drives in the system but they can afford a few on the server, hence four terabyte drives in RAID 1 for small files and RAID 1+0 for large files. I expect most of the increase in performance for interaction will come from the bigger/faster drives. My old ones moved data at 40 MB/s. Thesse babies can do 100 MB/s and in RAID 0, I should get double that, a five times increase. I used RAID 1 only in Beast.

RAM will go from DDR400 to DDR2 at 800 and there will be more, 8gB in all. I want to be able to hold lots of content in caches so the hard drives will not limit performance.

At first, I will backup Beast onto the 1 TB drives and then configure them to boot. The old drives were 200 gB IDE and SATA. The new setup will be much faster. I was even using compressed filesystems in the old setup.

The upgrade went well except that one stick of RAM was bent out of shape/broken on the way and I did have to go quad-core. Now I can dry my hair. Because of the broken RAM I have only 4 gB but that is OK. Beast still kicks butt. Now, to find projects that actually require 4 gB RAM …

- Robert Pogson

Excitement About Thin Clients

Published by Robert Pogson December 13th, 2008 in Linux in Education and Teaching. 0 Comments

IDC has issued a press release:”IDC Predicts Current Economic Crisis Still Provides For Pockets Of Opportunities Within The Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Region in 2009

12 Dec 2008

“

…9. Thin Clients Will Ride The Wave Of Cost Cutting And Desktop Virtualization

As the market matures, and better vendor collaboration results in software standards merging, virtualization to cut costs will extend beyond server virtualization in datacenters to virtualizing the desktop. In addition, deploying thin clients and a virtualized desktop environment will also reduce the carbon footprint. IDC is therefore optimistic and predicts that thin-client deployments on the back of desktop virtualization will gain traction in 2009, and further accelerate into 2010, as PC replacement cycles peak across the region. Full year 2009 thin-client shipments are expected to grow within the 12–15% range over 2008, to about 765,000 units.

10. The Economy And Mini-Notebooks Will Challenge The Way Computers Are Used And Sold In Asia/Pacific

IDC expects mini notebooks, a new product category created due to demand for devices that support mobility, to increase from around 5% of total notebooks shipped in the APEJ region in 2008 to more than 10% in 2009. The small cutesy form factor will be the primary selling point, but it will also change the way these devices are being used. With limited processing power and storage, users will be heavily dependent on being connected to the Internet, eventually running applications through the cloud. This demand for connectivity will further change the way mini notebooks are sold – instead of retail stores, partnerships with mobile operators are expected to proliferate with devices sold in service bundles like mobile phones, leveraging operators’ cellular 3G infrastructures. With vendors already looking at ways to overcome the challenges associated with this product category, IDC believes that mini notebooks will change the way traditional notebooks are used and sold.
…

This reflects the excitement I have been feeling about thin clients in education for several years. They are a great solution for cost-cutting and manageability. Of course, the IDC report is not only about education but the whole market in APEJ. Still, if businesses see the benefit, schools should as well.

The connection with netbooks is that both thin clients and netbooks share common features:

  • low cost
  • low footprint
  • low power
  • low noise

, all bringing value. The lack of horsepower for video is unimportant in many cases and, with the march of Moore’s Law, perhaps this will disappear as an impediment. That leaves the question, Why don’t more systems use thin clients?. I have no answer. Everyone to whom I have shown thin clients loves the improved performance and small footprint. Perhaps not enough people have seen them yet. I intend to change that in a small way at my next conference of teachers. I have a portable lab of thin clients under construction and will show it off with GNU/Linux, standard desktop applications, some particularly useful in education and some web applications like

Perhaps the IT industry is nervous about thin clients. After all, if thin clients cost less and last three times as long, isn’t there less money to be made selling them? Yes, but you should be able to sell many more and the servers to go with them. It is a paradigm shift, not the death of IT.

- Robert Pogson

Removal Voids Warranty

Published by Robert Pogson December 9th, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

It has been several years since I built my current terminal server. It’s a 2 gB AMD64 3000/1.8gHz with 512MB cache. I wanted something economical with a faster clock speed and far more memory for clients. My usual supplier had everything except the memory. I wanted ECC/unbuffered. All they had was buffered. I looked at Crucial.com’s upgrade finder and Crucial had what I wanted. Instead of asking my regular supplier to special order the Crucial part, I decided to order direct from Crucial.

Crucial shipped stuff to me and UPS managed deliver promptly even in the Arctic. Unfortunately for me, they did not put the pieces in a box but a bag/large envelope. It was bent and one stick was broken in two. Crucial denies responsibility after it leaves their hands and UPS only guarantees delivery which worked. The value of the broken stick is not worth my getting too upset but I may have to replace the pair or all. I will not know until all components arrive and I can test the sticks.

the bag close-up showing sticker

I suppose Crucial took the risk that a stick could break and offsets the benefit of cheaper packaging against the occasionally annoyance of a customer. I could have asked my usual supplier to special-order the parts, so I have some responsibility in this. My usual supplier always uses a box and will even supply heavy-duty boxes for my remote location.

I will complete the set from another supplier and never deal with Crucial again, if I can help it.

- Robert Pogson

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My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.

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