Thin-Client to connect and use virtual-machines on a server

Question

I’m looking for an infrastructure which ideally should be maintained as following:

Several (virtual) operating-systems (linux and windows as well) should run on a server simultaneously and be accessible over the local network from heterogeneous clients (such as linux, os x and windows operating systems running on a desktop computer).

The aim is that it doesn’t matter which client device in the local network you use, you can always connect and use these operating-systems on the server. It should also be possible to use on the client device two or three operating-systems from the server at the same time.

I investigated some time VMware ESXi / vSphere Hypervisor but I am anxious about the connection (the “remote desktop”) to these virtual-machines running on the server.

I am looking for a thin-client which can connect to these virtual-machines running on the server so that I can use this virtual-machine on the local computer. Does there exists something in general or is that only possible with RDP for windows and for example VNC for linux?

Solution 1

There's really a few different was you can go about doing this. You can either for a full blown VDI solution (such as VMware View) or just create the handful of VMs and connect remotely.

If you want a Thin Client that can connect to both Linux and Windows, there's tons of devices, such as HP and Wyse. Look for devices that support XDMCP.

Solution 2

is that only possible with RDP for windows and for example VNC for linux?

Linux does RDP. MSWindows does VNC.

RDP (and the XWindow system) require additional software pre-installed client side. So perhaps not a thin-client solution?

There are HTML5 and Java applet VNC clients. OTOH, I don't believe it's possible to run multiple, exclusive sessions on an MSWindows VNC server (with every other operating system the hard bit is setting up a shared VNC session!) and using an VNC-RDP bridge seems wasteful. Of course it would be trivial to knock up a connection multiplexer which only allows one IP stream at a time to connect to a specific VNC server.

Comments

[nexus]

If I want to go the way "just create the handful of VMs and connect remotely", which software would you recommend or is appropriate? Would VMware View Client work to connect to those VMs?

[Giordano Ferrari]

Depends on your budget. You can use VMware, Hyper-V, XenServer or KVM. It all comes down to budget/preference/right fit for your company. You would need to purchase VMware View to utilize the VMware View Client functionality.

[Giordano Ferrari]

You can also use xrdp for Linux guests to use the standard MS RDP.