How It Works
Compared to some other open-source thin client solutions, openthinclient stands out because it's a unified system that consolidates services and configuration.
The openthinclient solution is a unified system that provides all the services needed to create thin clients, manage them via a graphical interface, assign applications and components, and boot the openthinclient OS over the network.
Video Guide
Basic Principle
A new thin client is powered on and receives an IP address from the DHCP server on the network. The openthinclient Management Server monitors this process (see also ProxyDHCP/PXE configuration) and then sends the boot file and finally the Linux-based openthinclient OS over the network to the client — the PXE boot process begins.
Once the thin client has booted up, launch the desired application, e.g., Citrix or RDP client, and start server-based work. All applications load dynamically as compressed Squash-FS files.
openthinclient Management Server
The openthinclient Management Server is the central server component that provides all services, program files, and configurations on the network to boot and centrally manage thin clients. The following services are integrated into the openthinclient Management Server:
- LDAP — stores configurations
- NFS/Portmapper — makes files available to thin clients
- ProxyDHCP — intercepts DHCP requests and sends boot information
- Syslog — stores thin client logs on the server
- TFTP — provides boot files
- Web server — provides the openthinclient Manager
openthinclient Manager
The openthinclient Manager is a graphical interface for creating and managing thin clients, applications, and settings. To launch the openthinclient Manager, navigate to the server address in a browser:
http://<Hostname oder IP-Addresse>:8080- directly from the server
http://localhost:8080
openthinclient OS
The openthinclient OS is a Linux operating system based on Debian. As a window manager, the openthinclient OS includes a streamlined version of MATE.