LTSP Server Revisited

Ever since Kevin Valentine demonstrated his 'rolling' LTSP setup at PACS I have been interested in this setup. It amazes me that organizations don't utilize this technology to develop labs and classrooms that are low-cost and energy efficient.

Thanks to eric (d_m) from Hive76, I acquired a Dell PowerEdge 1400sc Server, running dual p3 1000 MHz processors with 512 MB of ram.

Not an ideal box for a rolling LTSP setup as the damn thing weighs a ton, but a nice box. So here's the setup:

Description: Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.7 (lenny)
Linux version 2.6.26-2-686 (Debian 2.6.26-26lenny1)

Then I ordered and add max ram - 4 512 sticks (1 bad), so currently:

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1816360 1748252 68108 0 117004 1277088
-/+ buffers/cache: 354160 1462200

Using so much, because LTSP setup and running and writing this blog post.

I could probably run 4 more clients successfully max. More testing/stressing to come.

Debian LTSP installation guide.

That will get you installed.

Package: ltsp-server-standalone
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 5.1.10-2

Some LTSP notes: users and apps installed to server, not to chroot. This seemed counterintuitive to me; more reading required.

Window manager to server, ldm setup in chroot.

eth0: LTSP

I tried to do eth0 for the network, and eth1 for LTSP. Too much drama. Conform.

On the server I installed Mutillidae and WebGoat.

Bonus Find: By doing the Mutillidae/WebGoat install and utilizing the LTSP server I have a contained web application LTSP setup.

To do: Add pentest iso's to vbox on server and have an LTSP hack lab.
Build hydra to work on Debian.
Find 5 laptops to use as thin clients for demos.