Thin Clients are low powered computers that do not have a hard disk drive. Since there is no hard disk drive, there is also no operating system. Since these are low powered systems, all processing is done on the server instead of the thin client itself. Certain types of thin clients (running on embedded X
P or embedded Linux) may have full fledged OS capabilities complete with installed applications such as Microsoft or Open Office and browsers such as Internet Explorer and/or Mozilla Firefox.
BOOTING PROCESS WITHOUT LOCALD HDD AND OS All Thin Clients boot up directly from a server which is running the operating system (Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server or even Linux). Thin Clients may boot either directly from the server via PXE boot and then connect to it or boot up from locally installed mini disk running Windows XP embedded (Win XPe), Windows CE embedded (Win CEe) or Linux embedded (Le) and then connect to the server. Once connected to the server, the user gets the log in screen of the operating system running on the server. Please bear in mind that booting from a server and connecting to a server are two different processes, since you can have more than one server -one simply for booting up and the second or even a third or more for connecting to (where the applications are installed and processing takes place) depending upon architecture. If required, an enterprise can also go in for a hybrid architecture consisting of both Windows and Linux Terminal servers.
Applications installation and user data storage
All applications are installed on the connecting server and every user has his own "My Documents" folder created where his profile, documents, etc. are stored.Applications and software to be installed and run in a Thin Client environment All common programs can be used with Thin Clients...to name a few MS Office; various browsers for surfing; e-mail clients like Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook, etc.; ERP packages -including SAP; Coreldraw, Adobe Photoshop, Pagemaker, Tally, MS SQL based packages, chatting (using keyboard) programs and even open source and customized packages.
Software packages that cannot be used on Thin Clients Heavy graphical games, animation packages like Maya and such others that require a very fast screen refresh cannot be used.
No Of Thin Clients can be made to run on a single server This depends upon the server hardware configuration, the choice of operting system and the programs/applications that are installed on that particular server. Typically, a small office with 10 Thin Clients can be well served by a P-IV machine with 1GB of RAM with Windows Server 2003 Standard edition (that supports up to 4GB of RAM. Enterprise edition + SP2 supports upto 64GB. For increased RAM support, 64 bit versions are apt wherein the Standard edition + SP2 can support 32GBwhile Enterprise + SP2 can support 2TB ). Increase the RAM to 2GB and the users to 20 to 25 without any problem. For users on an enterprise level, a Xeon based server with dual or more processors, a minimum of 4GB RAM and redundancy on storage devices by way of RAID, network adaptors and power supply unit is recommended. Load balancing technology with additional servers prevents any single server from reaching critical levels. These are of course, broad guidelines. Actual server hardware and architecture will most definitely vary from case to case
Connecting Printers on a Thin Client node
Printers can be installed on a Thin Client node either on a parallel port or USB port. The printer is physically installed on the Thin Client node but in configured on the server as a local printer printing to a TCP/IP port. In case of embedded systems, the printer in configured locally on the Thin Client itself
Devices a Thin Client access locally Most devices like local hard disk drives, pen drives, floppy disk drives and optical drives can be accessed by the Thin Client without any problem. For other devices like scanners, multi function devices and CD/DVD writer, if required on a Thin Client, our embedded systems are recommended, one that is running Win XPe.
Thin Clients and Citrix Citrix metaframe server installed on the Remote Server will enable the Thin Clients to work across a relatively slow WAN link also by using the ICA protocol instead of Remote Desktop (RDP).
Hard disk on my Thin Client Though not required, but if we do have or want a hard disk, we can have a dual boot system, whereby you can work either on the server or on the local hard disk
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