For example, we have a Math VDI. I used the VMWare tools to build a master image consisting of a virtual PC with certain specs (so many core processors, so much RAM, so much hard drive space, etc), and then installed Windows 10 Enterprise 64-bit on it. Then I used more VMWare tools to make ten read-only copies of this master; we refer to these copies as the VDI (Virtual Device Interface) machines, and the group of them make up the Math VDI Pool.
Students/etc can access one of these ten virtual Win10 boxes, each identical to the other, having math-specific software (like MATLAB) either through an HTML (web-based) interface, or a downloaded-client interface called "Horizon View Client" (available at least on Windows, Mac, and Linux - I run the Linux version on my Debian box if I need things like USB- or printer-passthru; the HTML interface otherwise, usually, just because I always have a web browser open and it's more convenient than firing up the client, but only marginally).
In this way, we only have to make one master image per departmental lab, and click a couple of buttons to make a few or a few hundred copies, to make a virtual computer lab. This is much easier than making a master image and copying it to a few or a few hundred physical computers, and then tweaking each machine to have the correct name or be added to the domain, and remembering to lock it down against student-initiated changes, etc, and if a physical machine dies, replacing a physical machine (or its hard drive, or repairing its registry, or cleaning a virus, or...) is much more labor intensive than simply telling the VMWare tools to .. oh, wait, I don't have to tell the VMWare tools to do anything; it automatically makes sure I have 20 working machines if I have specified I always need 20 working machines. Sweet!
As mentioned, the virtual Math lab computers can be accessed via a web-based or a client-based app on just about any Internet-connected device (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, etc). They can also be accessed through a dedicated piece of hardware called a thin (or in some cases, "zero") client.
Now we have acquired three different models of the Dell/WYSE thin/zero-clients; a 3040, a PxN zero client, and a 5040 All-In-One (AIO - monitor built-in). The first two of these are smaller than your typical Louis L'amour western paperback novel; the third just looks like a typical flat-panel LCD computer monitor. They have a very minimal operating system, just enough to allow them to point to a VDI (or other similar thin-client-based solution). We're thinking along the lines of replacing relatively-expensive full-blown PCs in our computer labs with relatively-inexpensive (and much less labor-intensive) thin-client AIOs.
I have gone into the settings of each of these thin-client boxes and pointed them to the Math VDI. Then plug in an Ethernet cable, a mouse and keyboard (and monitor in the non-AIO cases), turn it on, and the system boots up to a login prompt, at which a user can plug in his credentials and be connected to a Math VDI machine, and it's just like he's sitting at a real physical Windows 10 computer in a dedicated Math lab classroom (whether he's sitting at home with a laptop, or in a physical Math lab classroom with a thin-client box), to use the Math-type apps on this very ordinary Windows 10 setup, math department printers included.
So now the student can use his laptop at home, his desktop at his mother's house, or a thinclient set up in the campus Recreation Center, to connect to the Math VDI and get access to his math app (like the quite expensive MATLAB app mentioned above). On his personal computers, he can use the HTML client, or the Horizon View Client; on the thin-client, he just logs in like it's a physical Math lab PC. In all cases, he's actually just running a virtual PC off in another building, but it feels like a local PC.
It would be a pain to have to go each thin-client to set it up to point to the appropriate VDI, or to change its mouse settings, or to allow Math students to log into the Math VDI and Business students to log into the Business VDI, etc. So a centralized management system would be helpful.
Thus steps in the Dell Wyse Management Server (comes in both a free version and a pay-for version, depending on your needs).
So we created another virtual machine (just a plain virtual machine, not a VMWare Horizon/View VDI type setup). It's running Windows Server 2012R2, and is accessed via Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol - RDP. Logged into that machine, I downloaded the Dell/Wyse Management Server software from the "Dell File Download" site (not the "Dell Digital Locker" site), and installed it (easy install (and easy uninstall as I found out later)).
I then went and configured my 3040 thin client to look to the Wyse Management Server (WMS, formerly known as the CCM - Cloud Client Manager) app installed on my 2012R2 server, and rebooted the 3040, and voila! The 3040 device showed up in my WMS console. (After figuring out what I'm doing, I can similarly configure the other two thin clients we have. (Well, maybe not the zero-client PxN. Not sure yet.) Eventually, we may have tens or dozens or hundreds of thin clients, replacing more expensive actual PCs in computer labs, etc, which would be more easily managed via the WMS than by going to each one and manually configuring them.)
Sweet! Now I can remotely manage the little 3040 thin client, specifying things like what background to use, what VDI it should connect to automatically, if any, whether the user can tweak his mouse settings, or get into Admin mode, etc.
Only problem is, during the install of the WMS and the configuration of the 2040, I had some confusion about security certificates, a subject about which I know nothing (and I really should). When configuring either the WMS or the 3040 to point to the WMS, I didn't do anything with the certificate options, because I didn't know what to do, and this was just a test-bed pilot, not a production setup, so I wasn't worried yet about security; I just wanted to see if I could get the thin-client and WMS server talking to each other.
And I did get them talking to each other. For one day. The next day, the client couldn't log into the WMS server, complaining about certificates. I didn't know how to fix the problem, so I went about trying to get into the local settings of the 3040 thin client to tinker in there, but in my setting up of things, either I neglected to leave the Admin mode option turned on, or I intentionally turned it off, and while the two machines were talking for that one day, the client got the message, and now when it no longer will talk to the server, it won't let me get into its Admin-type innards.
I looked for ways to reset the 3040 thin client to factory condition, thinking I could start over. I found a "press G during boot-up" that was supposed to work, but didn't. I found that this feature too was turned off by the server when the two machines were talking to each other. the option to reset to factory specs when shutting down was missing, so that method was unavailable to me. I then discovered that you can "flash the BIOS" back to factory specs, by downloading from the Dell site a flash image file to an 8GB USB stick and boot the thin-client from that and then flashing the software to the thin-client. Wow. Really? Thankfully, not having an 8GB thumb drive on-hand, and running into some complexities (minor, but still new to me, so that it wasn't a totally fluid, easy process), I wasn't able to get around to actually trying this before I thought of one more option for me to try.
I pulled the Ethernet cable loose from the 3040.
Then I rebooted the 3040.
In a few seconds, the system was complaining about not having a network, but in the "Start" menu, the option to get into the admin settings were no longer grayed out. I had regained control of my 3040! W00t!
I document this here, because I was unable to find the information on the web that I have discovered in this process. Hopefully, Duck-duck-go's and Google's spiders will crawl over this blog and garner this info so that if anyone else is looking for this solution, they'll be able to find it.
Originally published at:
https://kentwest.blogspot.com/2018/03/regaining-control-of-wyse-3040.html
1 comment:
As I work with the Wyse Management Server software, I'm finding it to have quite a few ... quirks. I'd consider this beta software at best.
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