[THIN] Re: Advice on Thin Client published desktops

  • From: "Matt Kosht" <matt.kosht@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 12:42:58 -0500

We use advanced load evaluators currently also.  If I want to idle a
server I just change logon /disable. I don't like silo'ing anything
really and thankfully haven't had to do much of it yet.  I think when
you can only published to a server or two vs. the whole farm you
really start chipping away at the strength of the farm. If I learned
anything from VMWare servers is that there are wasted CPU cycles and
RAM doing nothing but costing money when you don't share it out.

We were very much, give the app the user needs and nothing else. Times
have changed for us though. As more and more of the apps go Citrix I
don't want them to have to launch a dozen apps when what they really
want is a duplication of their experience on their office PC or thin
client. (network drives, my docs, etc).

Based on the feedback I have received.  I plan to test PNAgent with
both scenarios (content/apps) very soon.  I will post my experiences.
Thanks everyone.
-Matt


On Jan 9, 2008 12:12 PM, Joe Shonk <joe.shonk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>
> I'm not a big fan of using Published Content.  I still say that using
> PNAgent with traditional published apps is still the way to go.   This will
> allow for apps to work from a WI page or PNAgent from a normal PC.  Why give
> a home user a desktop when they only need Outlook?
>
>
>
> As far as mixed OSes.   I'm confused as to why someone would publish an
> application across different OSes to begin with?  If there is a need to have
> both 32-bit and 64-bit servers then there was a case to Silo a set of
> applications.   Those resources should be dedicated to that silo and not
> shared (hence the reason to silo).  If you really want to go against the
> grain on this,  you can override the published application location for each
> server that is different than the normal location.
>
>
>
> Taking server online and offline is fairly easy with a custom load evaluator
> which I recommend in any case as it allow an admin to take a server offline
> without having to unpublish apps or chglogon /disable.  If you do a chglogon
> /disable it also prevents the admins from login into to machine via RDP.
>
>
>
> Joe
>
>
> ________________________________
>
>
> From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
> Of Greg Reese
> Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 7:20 AM
> To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [THIN] Re: Advice on Thin Client published desktops
>
>
>
>
>
>
> just choose published content and point it to the exe.  Content can be
> anything.  You can also make a folder of shortcuts and point the content
> path to the .lnk files.  This is one way to mix 32 bit with 64 bit and have
> things launch right regardless of whether a user hits a 32 bit server or 64
> bit server.  The published content path points to something like
> c:\shortcuts\word.lnk and that lnk file points to either "program
> files\office\winword.exe" or "program files (x86)\office\winword.exe"
> depending on the which server it hits. To the users, it doesn't matter, they
> login to a published desktop and click the pnagent generated icon they see.
> For you on the back end, all you have to manage is what servers host the
> desktop.  Everything else falls into place without anymore work.
>
>
>
>
>
> The catch is what I mentioned in my other post, users have to ALWAYS use the
> published desktop and launch things from there.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jan 8, 2008 9:06 PM, Matt Kosht <matt.kosht@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> On Jan 8, 2008 10:05 PM, Matt Kosht <matt.kosht@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > On Jan 8, 2008 9:55 PM, Greg Reese < gareese@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > i don't know about preferred but using the pnagent to fill in the apps
> on a
> > > published desktop is really easy and powerful.  I have been running
> farms
> > > that way since the agent first came out about five (six?) years ago
> (wow!
> > > has it been that long!?!?).  It's even easier if you publish the apps as
> > > content rather than apps.  Then you don't have to assign and unassign
> > > servers to apps every time you take a server on or offline.  The
> downside to
> > > that is that the the apps then ONLY work in the published desktop so
> your
> > > users in WI will need to know that.  I hide them in WI so users only see
> the
> > > desktop.
> > >
> > > Greg
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Jan 8, 2008 7:56 PM, Matt Kosht <matt.kosht@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > After running nearly 8 yrs on Novell infrastructure my company is
> > > > beginning to migrate over to Microsoft equivalents. On our PS4.0 farm
> > > > we run a mix of published apps using PNAgent (in the office)  and WI
> > > > 4.6 (remote access)to get them out to the user population.  We also
> > > > have piloted 20 users on Neoware e140's (linux) thin clients getting a
> > > > published desktop session. We are looking to add more of these over
> > > > the next year and this may become the dominant client of choice.  In
> > > > the Novell/Citrix world we used Zenworks to build/customize the user
> > > > desktop (showing them the apps they were authorized to, setting policy
> > > > restrictions, etc).  In the Microsoft world we have a working solution
> > > > of using GPO's and scripting to create the links on the desktop
> > > > dynamically based on group memberships (if member of appA then create
> > > > appA link).  This script seems a bit clunky to me and could be hard to
> > > > manage (we have about 30 unique apps in the farm).  I have read some
> > > > on this and found some admins use PNAgent inside the published desktop
> > > > to build shortcuts, start menu, etc.  Is this the preferred solution
> > > > to this challenge?  Are there other methods/tools I should consider?
> > > > Soliciting advice from the Thin think tank.
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> > >
> > >
> >
>
> When you publish content doesn't it have to be a web page or a
> document or other non executable?  How would you publish Word as
> content for example?
>
>
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