Jim McQuillan - LTSP Founder

TUTORIAL: Thin Clients in a GNU/Linux Environment with the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP)

Abstract

This Tutorial covers all aspects of setting up diskless thin clients in a GNU/Linux environment. New features, such as wireless LTSP workstations, clustering and load balancing of the server and LDAP configuration will be addressed. Aside from corporate deployment, we will also show how the LTSP can be used to breath new life into older workstations, which is perfect for schools and other low-budget organisations.

What attendees will learn

We will start with a quick introduction and demonstration of the capabilities of an LTSP workstation, then we move right into installing LTSP on a fresh Linux system. We will go through the entire installation process, including configuration and troubleshooting.

We will cover:

• Building an Etherboot rom image;
• Burning an eprom;
• Configuring DHCP, TFTP, NFS, LDAP;
• Configuring the X desktop environment;
• Security of the workstation and server;
• Tuning the server for large numbers of users;
• Deployment in large enterprise networks and wide area networks;
• Loading applications
• Troubleshooting;
• Customising LTSP for special needs
.

Target Audience

System administrators and support personnel. We will cover installation and administration of small, medium and large scale deployments of Linux on the desktop.