ask | dr. root

Easy - Sun Ray Server Software on a suitably sized server.

Sun have had a thin client desktop option available since the Solaris 2.6 days. The concept is very simple, have stateless low powered client that provide the user interface (UI = keyboard, mouse and graphics etc.) on the desktop and have everthing but the display running on the server. In some ways its is like the 3270 terminal for the 21st century. The thin clients come with Java card readers, which can provide multiple functions, but the handiest one is it ability to carry your session from one thin client to the next either for hot desking, moving from one part of the office to another or, in the event of hardware failure, bringing up your running session on a new client.

The current version, Sun Ray Server Software 3.1 (SRSS) suppports Solaris 8,9 & 10 on SPARC, and on X86 Solaris 10 , Java Desktop System, release 2, RHEL AS3 and SuSe ES 8 linux, 32-bit only. This gives you ample choice as to what the actual desk top looks like and what server you choose to serve it from. Any supported application will work in a Sun ray environment - this includes the obvious desktop applications such as web browsers, mail clients, StarOffice for documentation, Java applications but also includes the Microsoft Windows interoperability tools such as Sun's Tarantella or Citrix's ICA client. These latter tools allow mixed environments to deploy all their applications through one easily managed thin client desktop.

Sun Ray Server management is then a straight forward taks. Because there is only one server to manage, patch, monitor update etc, the administrators tasks are reduced. The thin clients have zero adminastration. If new firmware for the clients is installed on the servers, it is automatically loaded on the thin clients when ever they are rebooted or power cycled. Sun Ray Servers Software support the idea of failover groups, so multiple servers can provide resources for multiple clients. If any one server fails, the attached clients can immediately and automatically attach to the next least loaded server. The clients minimum bandwidth has dropped to 300Kbps, while this has benefits for the office network, it allows for the deployment of server less configurations for the home or small offive with a DSL or cable modem connection.

For more details check out http://www.sun.com/software/sunray/index.xml