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Installations for thin clients are quite different from conventional network installations using conventional workstation computers.

 

The thin client concept is one of the available ways to enable use of a WAN (Wide Area network) – typically the Internet – for communication between server and workstation. This is made possible by far lower bandwidth requirement than otherwise.

 

•With conventional workstation clients, a bandwidth of at least 1000 Mbps is required.

 

•With thin clients, a bandwidth of only 10 Mbps is enough. The bandwidth requirement is in other words reduced with up to 99 %! Other requirements for the workstations are also much lower. Instead of requiring a powerful workstation computer, any PC will do. However, a decent latency is still a requirement. To reduce latency requirements, a WAN mode solution may be a better choice.

 

With thin clients, it is made possible to work with cadett ELSA in your multi-user network environment, regardless of where you are located physically. As long as you have access to a fairly stable Internet connection with a decent latency, you are fine!

 

The software will be executed on a server (Citrix, Microsoft Remote Desktop, or TSplus) instead of on a workstation. The workstation will act as a terminal to the server.

 

If the maximum number of concurrent users is 3 - 4 or lower, the workstations may reside on the same server as the cadett ELSA main installation, meaning that only one server is required.

 

If the maximum number of concurrent users exceeds that number, the cadett ELSA server must be separated, and the workstations distributed over multiple additional servers, so that the number of concurrent users per such server is limited to about 3 - 4.

 

If you for example have 8 users, you would typically have one cadett ELSA server, and two workstation servers, limiting the maximum number of concurrent cadett ELSA users per workstation server to four.

 

As long as the maximum number of concurrent users is relatively low, let us say in the single digit range, it might be perfectly fine to assign each user to a specific workstation server.

 

On the other hand, if the maximum number of concurrent users is relatively high, let us say 10 or more, a solution with so-called roaming profiles might be better. In that case, the load will automatically be distributed among available workstation servers, and each user might end up in different workstation servers from work session to work session, depending on current loads.

 

In a conventional network environment, each user will have a fixed workstation code, which is selected at installation. When using thin clients, so-called dynamic workstations will instead be used. For dynamic workstations, the workstation code is determined when the software is started. As long as the previously used workstation code is free, it will be used again. If it for some reason is not, another workstation code will be assigned. This arrangement enables the possibility to have more than 58 defined users, which is otherwise the maximum. The maximum number of concurrent users on a single cadett ELSA server is however still 58.

 

Please note that all servers referred to here in most cases will be virtual. In medium and large size installations where multiple servers are involved, it is extremely important to have a super-fast connection between the servers. If they run on separate physical host machines, they must be able to communicate with at least 10 000 Mbps (10 Gbps).

 

The installation instruction below covers all kinds of thin client installations:

 

1.Small sized installations where the workstation server and the cadett ELSA server are the same.

 

2.Medium sized installations where the cadett ELSA server is separated from the workstation servers and where roaming profiles are not used.

 

3.Large sized installations where the cadett ELSA server is separated from the workstation servers where roaming profiles are used.

 

More information about Dynamic workstations in general and the principles behind them can be found in a separate topic named exactly that - Dynamic workstations.

 

Otherwise, please refer to the topic listed below, which describes the entire installation procedure.

 

•Installation procedure for thin clients