RHEV for Desktops thin client and zero client
Hi are there any updated list of compatible thin clients for RHEV for Desktops? And is RHEV for Desktop compatible with zero clients? If yes, what are the brands? Thank you in advance, we do have a big opportunity here for schools and institutions.
Responses
Red Hat
25369 points
Since you haven't received a response from the community on this one yet, I'll see if I can find someone to help you with this question.
Red Hat
Guru
4649 points
Are you aware of https://www.redhat.com/resourcelibrary/datasheets/rhev-desktop-thinclients already?
I will check internally whether zero client support is going to be added with RHEV-3.1 or not and let you know.
We have a compatibility matrix for the SPICE client and all thin clients. In general, SPICE is supported on any Windows embedded client, except for Windows CE. We recommend at least 1Ghz processor and 1GB of memory.
SPICE is also supported on IGEL Linux, Wyse embedded SUSE Linux, and 10zig Linux. Since each vendor uses a unique Linux distro, support is explicitly developed and tested for that vendor's Linux.
There are currently no "Zero clients" available with the SPICE client. We're working on that for a future release.
Red Hat
25369 points
Hi ashutosh. If you don't receive an answer to this question here, you might like to start a new discussion on the topic.
It doesn't look like anyone has responded to this, and we had the exact same question (and in fact have an ongoing RFE on this). What we eventually discovered is that Red Hat does not offer a zero client implementation of SPICE. There is no getting around the fact that you have to have some sort of kernel or OS that can provide the necessary underpinnings for SPICE to be able to run. At this point, you can choose between a thin client or a zero client.
We were particularly interested in a zero client device. After much investigation and discussion, we found that IGEL, at one time, made such a device. They may or may not be willing to ressurect the design based on demand.
The implementation involved would have been PXE/DHCP boot that would get one to a point where a spice client could be used to access remote spice servers. I'm not sure if RHEVM would be required as a "landing zone" or not, but IGEL would provide a near zero client capable of grabbing a minimal pxe image, that in turn provides enough resources to initiate a spice session.
I'm personally using the IGEL UD6 thin client, and I'm pretty pleased with it. One can always ask for better performance from SPICE itself, but that's not the thin client's fault.
Going back to our particular RFE, we're looking for a Red Hat solution similar to LTSP...where we can use exisiting packages in Red Hat to roll our own deployment of a terminal server project based on SPICE. We've not met a lot of welcome reception to our RFE, but the IGEL hardware implementation may meet your needs, if you can come up with enough volume for them to put their PXE zero client design back into production.
Hello gurus,
When looking at https://www.redhat.com/resourcelibrary/datasheets/rhev-desktop-thinclients there is no reference to RHEV 3.1, we have igel thinclients and we're having troubles to share USB with them, is there any other place where to look an updated compatibility matrix, which includes v3.1 ?
We also have IGEL thin clients, model UD3. We also can't use USB sharing with them, since the later versions of RHEV (3.3 currently). I think support stopped when RHEV went from the proprietary USB driver to "native" USB redirection. The latest IGEL firmware still has "0.8.3" Spice client which is really old. This is disappointing because we purchased IGEL models largely because of their support for RHEV.
Red Hat
Guru
5688 points
Daniel, you can still use the legacy USB even in the latest RHEV 3.3.3 (released today). If you edit the VM properties, click "Show Advanced Options" at the bottom, then click on the "Console" tab. You'll see "USB Support". Select "Legacy" and you can continue to use the proprietary USB support.
Thanks for pointing that out about the legacy USB redirection. I actually opened a case with IGEL and they are supposed to release an updated version of the Spice client in July.
Currently, in IGEL and in every other thin client we've tested, the Spice support is via browser plugin only. This requires the user to login to the RHEV portal. This won't work in scenarios where you have a public kiosk and you want the user to be automatically logged in via predefined user credentials and transparently presented with the virtual desktop from the outset -- something you can do with the VMware View and Citrix and RDP clients.
If anyone has experience with thin clients that have a fully featured spice client (with options to configure the server name and user credentials, etc.), please share!
Pro
434 points
Hi, I was wondering if there has been any update on this. It seems that with all the visualization changes that are happening with RHEV the zero or thin clients are not longer an option or am I wrong?
Thanks.
Guru
2354 points
Aram
We're about to trial RHEV VDI on 10zig thin client devices which are apparently RH certified :-
http://www.10zig.com/product/red-hat-certified/
That alongside IGEL.
I'd be interested to hear how you are getting on with the IGEL units ?
Hi Richard,
This Spring, we set up some Igel UD3-LX thin clients in one of our open computer labs. We use both RHEV virtual desktops as well as VMware Horizon View. We configured the thin client so that icons appears on the desktop for both RHEV and VMware. RHEV is accessed through a Browser session. The UD3-LX seems to perform well.
Igel's Universal Management Suite (UMS) is quite powerful. You can associate configuration profiles, firmware updates, and files with thin clients. The thin clients can be organized into hierarchical groups. It took me a bit of effort to figure out how to download firmware updates from the UMS to the thin client, but now it is very easy.
The biggest issue that I have had with Igel's Linux OS is that the Firefox browser configuration doesn't support Native Client console invocation. In other words, it doesn't know to open .vv files with Remote Viewer. I just tried Igel's latest firmware (5.06.100.01) and this issue is still there. (Note that Browser plugin console invocation is supported but I prefer to use Native Client.)
Fortunately, I was able to update the Firefox browser configuration to include support for .vv files. The Firefox profile is located in /.ffpro/firefox/browser0. It takes a little effort but it is not overly difficult to modify the mimeTypes.rdf file to support .vv files. The best part is that once you have modified the mimeTypes.rdf file, it is easy to distribute it to the thin clients by using the UMS.
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