For the last year, I have been talking to a lot of people about the idea of using desktop virtualization for faster and easier deployment of desktop computers. Now, all I have to do is prove it.
For the Nova Scotia Community Access Program (NS C@P), I developed a system using virtual machines, an open source operating system (Ubuntu), and open source projects like the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) and thinstation to allow for an easy to setup and manage desktop environment.
The whole idea; drop a server in a C@P site, set the computers to boot from the network, and, viola, they are all running the latest version of Ubuntu. It's easy, it works great, it allows them to continue using the same computers, and it requires no setup on the computers themselves (they don't even require hard drives).
The pilot site for this project, Lake Echo, had been up and running for a couple of months now and it has been a great success. More info on the project can be found here. The project is now moving forward to add more C@P sites to this system in the coming months.
However, there is more to be done. While a system like this running Linux is great, there are still a lot of places that would prefer a Windows-based solution. That is why I have been working on such a system.
Using the Vmware View ecosystem, Windows 7, and what I have learned from LTSP, I have built a system that works almost the same as the linux-based system. Set the computer to boot from the network and it automatically boots to Ubuntu and the VMware view open linux client. This allows the user to enter in their network username and password (AD) and connect to their own virtual machines running windows.
Unfortunately, this system requires licencing costs of the VMware view ecosystem (approx. $150 per computer) and server costs (for Windows servers to run VMware vSpehere and view connection server) on top of the costs of Windows licences for the virtual machines. It also requires more resources to run these additional servers.
This is why I am quickly changing gears to build a system that does not require VMware view or any other type of desktop virtualization ecosystem that basically works the same way.
I will be posting more details on this project on tintedgreen.net soon. I will accompany this with some pictures and video.
Also, I will be uploading the documentation I created for the linux-based system sometime this week.
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