Diskless Remote Boot in Linux: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:07, 26 June 2008

Revision as of 22:46, 26 June 2008

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* Software that requires real-time input - Since all input at a [[thin client]] is sent over the network before it is registered by the operating system, there can be substantial delay. This is a major problem in software that requires real-time input (i.e. [[video games]]). Hybrid clients run the software locally, and as such, do not have this problem.

DRBL allows you to set up multiple [[Hybrid Clients]] with relative ease.

==How it works==

The client computer is set to boot from the network card using PXE or Etherboot. The client requests an IP address, and tftp image to boot from, both are provided by the DRBL server. The client boots the [[initial RAM disk]] provided by the DRBL server via tftp, and proceeds to map an [[nfs]] share (also provided by the DRBL server) as it's root (/) partition. From there, the client boots either the linux distribution in which the DRBL server is installed, Clonezilla, or an installer for various Linux distributions, depending on how that particular client was configured on the DRBL server.

All system resources reside on the local machine except storage, which resides on the DRBL server.

==Keys to a successful Hybrid Client environment with DRBL==

The main chokepoint in a DRBL installation is between the storage on the DRBL server, and the client workstation. So fast storage on the server (RAID), and a fast network (Gigabit Ethernet), are ideal in this type of environment.