© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Blade Runner: Thin clients and Blades at CCGS Michael Lowbridge, ICT Manager

© 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

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Background: The School and its Desktop Challenges

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Business Requirements

© 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

© 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

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW

A better way to do Desktop Delivery

© 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.

© 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

© 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.

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Server Desktop Citrix and Microsoft

© 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

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Virtual Desktop (VDI) Citrix/VMware/Microsoft

© 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

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW HP CCI Blade PC/Workstation

© 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

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Brief Question Time? Next: CCGS Implementation

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW  Technical Support Staff

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Technical Support Staff

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW

Our Destination!

© 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

© 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

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW

 Every Junior School classroom has 4 thin clients installed

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW  The library uses 35 thin clients for students and staff, including library assistants

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW

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

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Deployment Stage 4  Build thin client image  Build blade image Stage 5 Use

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW The Components – Our choices

© 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 (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

© 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)

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Broker – Session Allocation Manager (SAM)

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Broker – Session Allocation Manager (SAM)

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Broker – Session Allocation Manager (SAM)

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Broker – Session Allocation Manager (SAM)

© 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

© 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

© 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

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Any Questions?

© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Michael Lowbridge ICT Manager Central Coast Grammar School Arundel Rd, Erina Heights Phone (02) Fax (02) Web Contact Details