Diskless Workstations and Thin Clients – How these stuffs work?
Even for network engineers who are more familiar with diskless workstations and thin clients setup process, deciding on the network topology, the model of client and server PC, and the server operating system best suited for a certain type of work environment is not an easy project to handle. Setting up this kind of network infrastructure actually requires meticulous hardware and software configuration processes.
What is
A diskless workstation is a network computer that has no local hard drive space or floppy disk drive but has a monitor, motherboard, network card, keyboard, and mouse. On the other hand, a thin client is a network computer that depends heavily on another computer (its server) to supply the operating system and software applications needed by the end user. In other words, both unit are diskless and have no operating system. The key difference is that a diskless workstation has the capability to process load in its own environment whereas thin clients cannot – but only on its server.
Principle of Operation
Diskless workstation and thin clients almost works the same way. Here’s how these system works.
First you need to setup a working Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) server. PXE technology provides a means of starting up a PC using a network adapter instead of the traditional method of hard drive, USB flash drive, CD or floppy disk. In auto-booting, PXE is the network protocol commonly used to find a server with files for booting the device.
The PXE server is a combination of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server and Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server. When a boot-up process request is sent from the diskless workstation, the server responds to the requests over the network by first allocating an IP address via DHCP or TFTP and then sending back the necessary data to the workstation.
Next, you have to setup a PC that you will be using as your diskless workstation so that it can boot from the PXE server via the Local Area Network (LAN).
Setup Process
As what I’ve mentioned earlier, the setup process is complicated even for the experienced IT guy. There are different operating systems as well techniques used in order to configure the diskless workstation or thin client as well as the server. Here are some the few guides that can expand your knowledge on this topic.
How to setup your own PXE Boot Server using Ubuntu Server by HyRax Macrocosm
How to use CCBoot to Build a Diskless Boot Server on Windows by CCBoot Solution
How to create a diskless workstation that boots from PXE using Ubuntu by HyRax Macrocosm
Diskless Workstation Administration Guide by Silicon Graphics, Inc.
ASTi T4 ACE Diskless Installation Guide by Advanced Simulation Technology Inc.
Shopping for Network Computers
Now that you have the ideas on the principle of operation and on how to setup the diskless workstation, thin client and server, you might be interested as well on building your own network.
Unlike thin clients, diskless workstations are already hard to find these days. Diskless Workstation and Symbio Technologies are some of the few remaining vendors of diskless workstations. Thin client vendors are many. Some of the popular names are HP, Dell, IGEL, Chip PC and 10Zig.
Diskless workstations and thin clients are mostly used in manufacturing companies where there are hundreds to thousands of computers to manage. Here are the major benefits these companies, particularly the IT teams, are getting out of using these types of network computers.
Reduction in investment capital and implementation costs because of accelerated deployments, upgrades, and server repurposing
Safe utilization in production floors where dirt, dust, and heat are a concern since these units have no fans and hard drives
Ease of management and maintenance since its the server you're maintaining and not the hundreds or thousands of clients
More secure operation since all updates and data is handled at the server end
Side Note: Don’t get confused with diskless storage devices. They are external peripherals of modern computer networks. They provide fast and easy way to backup, share, and access files on a home or business networks. They also consume less power, require less space, and offer significantly faster transfer speeds.
