The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Blade Runner:
Thin clients and Blades at CCGS Michael Lowbridge, ICT Manager
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Agenda
Background: The School and its Desktop Challenges Solution Options
Server Based Computing (SBC) Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
Client Consolidated Infrastructure (CCI) Blade PC Our
Destination
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Background: The
School and its Desktop Challenges
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW School History
Established 1985 1200 students K 12 150 staff Offers both NSW
Higher School Certificate and International Baccalaureate Extensive
ICT infrastructure Focus on integration of technology into
classroom pedagogy
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Network
Infrastructure Windows 2003 Active Directory infrastructure 20
servers, including physical and virtual devices (Vmware ESX) EVA
4000 SAN and blade servers Site wide wireless network 950 client
computers, including notebooks, desktops and blade PCs
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Technical Support
Staff Head of ICT (educational and technical background) Excellent
technical support team including System Administrator and 3
technical support staff Database Administrator ICT Integrator
teaching staff to support use of technology across school
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Cost of desktop
maintenance, support Regulatory compliance, physical and data
security User flexibility, business continuity Drivers for
change
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Existing
computers were 3 yrs old and the lease was due to expire, looking
for replacement (Jul 07) Focus on green computing and reducing
energy consumption Concern with ever increasing maintenance costs
Security and potential for damage of classroom based desktops User
uptime and business continuity in event of hardware failure Drivers
for change
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Business
Requirements
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Increase Quality
and Reduce Costs Simple deployment Manufacturer support for life of
product Reduced TCO, increased efficiency Support Existing
Infrastructure Integration into Active Directory Integration into
existing Altiris infrastructure Standardisation Business
Requirements
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Desktop Support:
How is time spent? Reactionary tasks SW, patches, and Q&A
Network ops support Strategic project work
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW
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A better way to do Desktop Delivery
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Remote Client
Options? Remote Client Solutions provide technology that form an
alternative access method for applications and computing desktops.
We considered solutions based around three core technology
groups.
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Virtual Client
Spectrum Simple Applications are easily moved and deployed
Server-Based Computing HW OS Applications Containers Flexible
Encapsulated images, one or more per device Virtual Machines HW OS
Apps Virtual Machine OS Apps Virtual Machine Powerful Physical PC /
Workstation with standard desktop image Blade Computing HW OS
Applications
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW By 2010, thin
clients will make up more than 10 percent of all U.S. desktop
computer devices sold, according to IDC research.
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Server Desktop
Citrix and Microsoft
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Server Based
Computing Access Network Compute Flexible Cost Effective Secure
Flexible Cost Effective Secure ICA/RDP Low Bandwidth ICA/RDP Low
Bandwidth Multi-User Operating System Application Compatibility
Desktops & Applications Multi-User Operating System Application
Compatibility Desktops & Applications
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Virtual Desktop
(VDI) Citrix/VMware/Microsoft
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Virtual Desktop
Infrastructure Access Network Compute Flexible Cost Effective
Secure Flexible Cost Effective Secure RDP / RGS Individual
Environment Flexible Adaptable Individual Environment Flexible
Adaptable Connection Broker
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW HP CCI Blade
PC/Workstation
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Blade PC
Computing Access Network Compute Flexible Cost Effective Secure
Flexible Cost Effective Secure RDP/RGS Video/Graphics Support Low
Bandwidth RDP/RGS Video/Graphics Support Low Bandwidth Individual
Environment Predictable Consistent User Experience Individual
Environment Predictable Consistent User Experience Connection
Broker
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Brief Question
Time? Next: CCGS Implementation
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Technical Support
Staff
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Technical Support
Staff
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW
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Our Destination!
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Where We ended up
Initial Purchase (July 07) 110 HPt5720 XPE Thin Client 90 HP b2000
Blades Second Purchase (Jan 08) 35 HPt5720 XPE Thin Client 20 HP
b2000 Blades
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Why we decided on
thin clients/ PC Blades Power and flexibility of a desktop while
user is logged on Power savings 35W thin client, 20W blade
Multimedia and graphics support Flexibility of solution to grow
Seamless USB support Any hardware issues result in 1 minute fix
Cost reduction moving to 5 year lease
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW
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Every Junior School classroom has 4 thin clients installed
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW The library uses
35 thin clients for students and staff, including library
assistants
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW
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Deployment Stage 1 Analysis and investigation Thin client
testing in multiple areas Stage 2 Purchase and delivery Stage 3
Install thin clients and screens Install blade chassis
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Deployment Stage
4 Build thin client image Build blade image Stage 5 Use
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW The Components
Our choices
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Thin Client
Options 400MHz VIA VIA S3 Graphics 64MB Flash/128 MB RAM Serial,
Parallel, VGA, 6 USB 2.0, 2 PS/2 Flexible mounting options with HP
Quick Release HP ThinConnect t5135 Value for Money The simple
solution at our best price Flexible AMD Sempron +2100 (8W-1GHz) ATi
RS690M Graphics/NB & SB600 Vista Premium capable graphics 1 GB
Flash standard Expandable DDR-2 Memory Serial, VGA, DVI-D, 6 USB
2.0, 2 PS/2 Optional PCI or PCI Express x1 with Parallel port
Flexible mounting options with HP Quick Release Integrated WLAN
Support on XPe (same as business notebooks) Dual monitor support
(VGA and DVI-D) Enhanced widescreen modes Powerful, flexible, easy
innovative! Debian Linux t5735 Windows XPe t5730 Windows CE 5.0
t5530 Mainstream 800MHz VIA VIA S3 Graphics 64MB Flash/128MB RAM
Serial, Parallel, VGA, 6 USB 2.0, 2 PS/2 More peripherals Flexible
mounting options with HP Quick Release Enhanced features for
mainstream business use
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW HP Remote Client
Solutions software suite Session Allocation Manager (SAM) Remote
Graphics Software for PCs (RGS-PC) Rapid Deployment Pack (RDP)
Systems Insight Manager (SIM)
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Broker Session
Allocation Manager (SAM)
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Broker Session
Allocation Manager (SAM)
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Broker Session
Allocation Manager (SAM)
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Broker Session
Allocation Manager (SAM)
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Blade PCs Close
up view of blade E class Enclosure Individual blades We selected
the HP BladeSystem bc2000 Blade PC (Athlon 64, 2GB Ram, 80GB
HDD
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Challenges
Printers could no longer use Active Directory to map printers based
upon computer location Wrote script to identify name of thin
client, wrote to registry and used 2 nd script to map printer based
upon registry value Multiple PC Blade Images Use Altiris SVS to
activate certain applications on logon
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Challenges RGS
protocol Symptom of red screen repeatedly appeared on thin clients
indicating network bandwidth issue Analysis revealed it was not
switch traffic but CPU load and RGS sender process Ran Altiris job
to change priority of RGS Sender service to high, eliminated
majority of problem New version of RGS has resolved this
permanently
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Any
Questions?
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The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Michael Lowbridge
ICT Manager Central Coast Grammar School Arundel Rd, Erina Heights
Phone (02) 4366 6766 Fax (02) 4367 0577 Web
http://www.ccgs.nsw.edu.au Email [email protected] Contact
Details