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Do I need to buy Citrix Metaframe?
You do not need to purchase Citrix Metaframe. When you buy ThinManager, ACP provides a CDS (Citrix Device Services) license. CDS has all the basic functionality of Citrix Metaframe. If you need advanced features such as higher color depth (CDS allows up to 256 colors), Citrix Load Balancing, or sound, then you need Citrix Metaframe.
What licenses do I need?
You need activated licenses from Microsoft, Citrix, ACP and whatever applications you run. You need to purchase two different types of licenses from Microsoft CALs and TCALs. When you receive ThinManager from ACP you will receive a license for Citrix Device Services (CDS). This license only needs to be activated. However, you will need to purchase the appropriate number of terminal connections licenses from ACP.
In your experience what is the best hardware and configuration (PC Server) to be used for a large installation?
We believe that any "brand name" server will be fine, and we don't have a preference as to which works best. I know that both Compaq and HP make excellent servers. With a large installation, we would recommend going to the high end of servers if you want to be able to run all of the screens from one machine. Since the server will be around for a while, consider going ahead with one of the new 1 GHz processors. Load up with memory - getting over 2,000 MB wouldn't cost that much and would help performance. We would also suggest using Windows 2000 Server as the operating system for the Terminal Server (not Windows NT 4.0 TSE).
It may be that a better way to do this is to break it up into two primary servers. In that case, the machines don't need to be top of the line, and prices for the smaller machines have fallen off considerably in the past year. Also we have been talking about worst case. When we first introduced Terminal Server technology we were specifying a 500 MHz dual PIII server with 2,048 MB of RAM to support up to 25 sessions of the largest HMI applications.
How do I set up the DHCP server for use with ThinManager?
To use DHCP with ThinManager, two options need to be added to the DHCP server configuration. These options are the "Bootfile Name" and "Boot Server Host Name". Consult the documentation for your DHCP server. For the Microsoft DHCP server, there is a description of the necessary setup in the ThinManager users manual.
Why do I need ThinManager?
ThinManager is a server-side management tool that extends the capabilities of Microsoft Terminal Services. ThinManager maintains the Thin Client configuration database and allows ACP enabled Thin Clients to be supported from a central location. ACP has also added features specifically to address the needs of industrial computing installations, such as failover, replacement, auto-configuration, support for touchscreens, wireless networking and support for industrial networks.
How can I add redundancy to my thin-client architecture?
ACP offers several ways to add redundancy. You can add a backup Windows 2000 server to which the ACP enabled Thin Clients can automatically fail-over. You can also add redundancy to ThinManager by running multiple copies. This would allow the thin-clients to boot even if your primary server is down. These features are detailed in the Failover article in our Tech Notes.
Is there a price break available for a redundant server application? If not, what are the advantages/disadvantages to having only server A with Thin Client manager software and not server B? We would still be able to fail over from A to B; would we not be able to fail back from B to A using ACP's Enforced Primary option?
We do not offer a price break if you choose to install ThinManager on both Terminal Servers. The reason is that both copies are full versions and, unlike some Terminal Server software packages, are both running at the same time. If both servers were online (the only way to make failover work) then one Five Pack on each machine would mean that you could run 10 concurrent Thin Clients (5 would find the primary and 5 would find the secondary).
Your question about installing ThinManager on just the primary is close to the suggestion that I would like to make - install ThinManager on a third machine. The computer that makes the most sense for this is the DHCP server, or some other computer that will be reliable and already exists. This way as each Thin Client boots, the DHCP server will point it to the machine with ThinManager (maybe even itself) and the client will be told by ThinManager the IP address of both the primary and any other backup servers. The client will then search when it boots in turn for the servers until it finds one online and connects.
The reason to put a copy of ThinManager on each server is that it provides you with a backup copy of ThinManager. If ThinManager has been installed on the primary Terminal Server, then none of the Thin Clients can boot if the primary is offline. For instance, let's say that you had 5 clients and wanted to use ACP failover, and you installed the licenses on the primary Terminal Server. If it fails and the clients switch to the backup server, any client that is rebooted will not be able to find ThinManager to get a license and so will not boot. In that case, you would need 5 ThinManager licenses on each server.
A good follow-up article (if you missed it) is an article that we did for our newsletter aboutServer Reliability
What happens if the license server fails?
First of all, don't panic! Your Thin Clients will still work. When a session is started on a Terminal Services server, the server must check with the license server to see if a license is available. If the license server cannot be reached, a temporary license will be issued. When the license server comes back on-line, the temporary license will be converted to a permanent license.
If you learned from these, you can see more FAQ's online.
For more information on ACP Industrial Thin Client computers, please visit our web site at http://www.thinmanager.com
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