Nova Scotia Community Access Program
Project Status:
Pilot Completed
What is C@P?
From their site:
The Nova Scotia Community Access Program (CAP) is a joint initiative of the Federal Government, through Industry Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia, managed by the Office of Economic Development. The Community Access Program is designed to assist communities to establish public Internet access sites and to train local citizens to make use of information technologies for social and economic benefit to the individual and to the community.
Issues for C@P
- Costs
- Computer Maintenance
- Updating computers and software
- Energy use and environmental impact
- Increasing Community use
Currently, most sites include outdated computers and software. Costs associated with maintaining and updating these computers can be very expensive. C@P also hopes to use free and open source software to reduce costs.
What tintedGreen provides
We want to develop a system that utilizes virtualization to allow an easier to maintain and less expensive network. This will allows the site the run the latest in operating systems and software. The idea would be to allow each site to use a virtualized desktop setup where all individual computers are running virtually from one server. All of the current computers (and new thin clients) will connect to the virtual machines on the server. This means that all the real work for these computers would be on the servers and the desktops themselves would just be windows to these virtual machines. This allows the sites to continue to use old hardware as well as buy very inexpensive thin client style computers that use much less energy. Due to the consolidation of these virtualized computers, they would also be easier to maintain and update. It would also allow for remote maintenance and repairs.
Environmental Impact
The sites will reduce its waste by being able to reuse all of their current hardware. Current and future hardware will also last a great deal longer. The sites will also be able to utilize low energy thin client computers for each desktop that use about a tenth of the energy a typical PC uses.
Pilot site
Lake Echo has been selected as a pilot for this project. If this site was to work well, we hope to propagate this type of virtualized desktop network throughout Nova Scotia C@P sites.
Technologies and software
- VMware ESXi bare metal hypervisor
- Linux Terminal Server Project running Ubunutu
- No Machine NX (for off site computers)
- Thinstation Linux client
- PXE to boot from LAN
C@P Project Update: January 25th, 2010
Now that the pilot C@P site in Lake Echo has been running for a few months, I thought I would share some pictures of the results.
Computers old and really old running the latest version of Ubuntu.
The server has been running perfectly since it was first booted up. The virtual machine running the terminal services hasn't had any problems.
The server in its cabinet at the C@P site.
How easy is it to add a computer to this setup? All it requires is to turn on the computer, enter the bios setting, and changing the boot order so the computer boots from the network first.
Changing the boot order so boot to network is first.
Now the computer will automatically boot into Linux from the server.
That's it. It could not be easier. A person with enough knowledge to hook up the wiring could setup a new computer on this network. Also, no changes are made to the computer, so if you wanted to leave the computer's old operating system in place (just in case) you can. The user can always set it to boot from the hard drive again, if needed. This setup also allows the C@P program to take donations of computers that do no even have hard drives.
Now that we have this setup, we can maintain, backup, and fix the virtual machines running these computers remotely. From my office, in Halifax, I can see exactly what is happening on these machines.
Here are a couple more pictures. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
Running a Monty Python video flawlessly with sound.
Booted and ready to login.
C@P Project Update: September 25th, 2009
As this project is starting to wind down, I thought I would give a quick update.
If you would like to know more about the thinclients and the C@P perspective of the project, take a look at Dan's write-up on the C@P site.
For the last couple of months, I have been working on the software and server side of the project. Utilizing the same kind of virtualization software that will be used in the system, I have built a full working version in my home office.
Here are some features:
- The Ubuntu version of Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) is now fully operational on a virtual machine.
- The ability to boot any computer off my network and turn it into a thinclient. Computers are set to PXE boot in the bios and they automatically boot into a Linux desktop environment off the LTSP server.
- A usb key version of Thinstation Linux that boots to linux and then connects automatically to a Ubuntu Virtual Machine using No Machine NX.
Essentially, all this means is that I can take any computer, connect it to the network, and have it running off our virtual machine with a full linux desktop environment in seconds. The usb key setup means that any computer in the world with a wired internet connection (barring any network setup restrictions) can also connect to a virtual machine on our server.
I have been doing extensive hardware and software compatibility testing with the system with any computer that comes through my office (which is a lot) and I have run into very few problems. The computers and operating system are responsive. Mice, keyboards, monitors, speakers, and other peripherals work great. Programs like web browsers, word processors, and educational software work perfectly. Other fun stuff like games, music, and video also run exceptionally well.
The front of the server.
The Dell R710 Server just arrived yesterday (after a few delays). It is a beast with two Intel Xeon E5520 CPUs and 16GB of ram. For this pilot project, we know that these specs are a little overkill. However, we really want to stress test the early parts of this setup and have lots of room for expansion if/when we move this setup to more C@P sites.
Here are some pictures of the current testing setup of the system:
Virtual machine running LTSP on my computer.
The server running as a thinclient. Pretty soon it will be running the whole system. See also the fitpc thinclient we plan to use in the system (it is not connected at the moment).
An old laptop without a hard drive running as a thinclient alongside the server. We should be able to run dozens of computers on this system at the same time (once it is completed). Note that I am playing "Midnight Cowboy" on the laptop at the same time. Picture quality and sound are great, even in full screen.
This is showing that both of the thinclients are running separate user accounts. Each computer can log into individual user accounts, allowing the user to have their own desktop setup and change their desktop appearance and background.
A shot of the server internals.
The next step is to move the system onto the server and setup everything at Lake Echo. When that is done, I want to invite people to come and try it out.
At this time, I'd really like to say how impressed I am with the Linux Terminal Server Project, Thinstation, and VMware. The companies and contributors working on these products and projects are awesome and the amount of information online is amazing. The fact that anyone can build something so cool and functional on a shoestring budget says a lot about the power of the open source movement and virtual machine software.
