A little while ago i made a post about running multiple virtual machine instances and streaming them as dedicated machines over my network.( along the lines of rdp ) since then i've asked a few network admins from my uni about this and they told me to look up thin clients or more recently zero clients. they also told me that there were old enterprise equipment capable of doing what i require. however the technology was proprietary and that i would have to ask someone who has experience in this area. any advice is welcome!
i am using unraids kvm to build each virtual instance. i want a vm for media consumption and text editing. my requirements are that they accept hdmi and have usb passthrough on the client side.(all over ethernet)
my understanding is that unraids solution only allows for the rdp protocol to be used. allegedly this means poor performance using a thin/zero client. is this true? my testing has shown barely tolerable performance over the browser and remotevnc. however i dont have a thin client to test this with.
According to my research i also found these points to be ambiguous (please help to verify)
thin clients do not provide a good experience, ie there will be noticable lag and video will stutter.
zero clients are better as they remove 'hardware' from the equation and instead act as a extender to stream usb and hdmi over ethernet. (runs on software and depends on pcoip?)
there isnt a solution for getting a proper physical desktop like experience over the network.
i've looked up kvm over ip however these are expensive. are there alternatives?
can someone also verify that steam link works with a vm running the game? (this will be my second vm there will be dedicated gpu for this)
also if there is a solution for what i require please tell me the protocol used and hardware required. i am willing to do the research myself :)
In my testing if you want media to work without stutter then you need client that can process media stream. I have HP thin client T410. Its pretty under powered and dont give me desired result. Maybe because it only supports RDP7 Full screen videos are choppy. And audio sync is unbearable.
RDP is much better than VNC. Havent tried anything else.
When i need to connect to my home pc from work i use FreeRDP (Linux) and it gives much better result. I can run games in windowed mode and with pretty ok fps and latensy.
i'm making a win 10 vm for a family member who is in uni. they currently need to do simple word processing and mat lab, with the occasional youtube video for learning mat lab.
the problem is space and money is at an issue, i have found space for keyboard mouse and screen. i was hoping for a monitor mounted client. (could be had for less than a 100$ on ebay wyse or sunray/rise?)
*first vm disregarding media consumption is the thin client capable of providing an acceptable experience for word 2015 and simple text based coding?
*regarding my second vm (not really a priority) we're in the middle of archiving old family videos for myself and extended family. (~450 hours in total to process) so responsiveness is not a priority but it is appreciated. seeing how it'll take months to complete. also i have a second video card for this.
i've heard that my best option was to get hdmi and usb extenders over ethernet. simple point to point, no switch involved. does anyone know of a solution that covers both for less than a 100? preferably over a single ethernet cable. i'm looking to spend a total of 250 for both. i've heard the steam link can do desktop with low latency. this is my fall back atm.
Basic Word processing and coding will work fine. Because there is not needed to redraw screen so often. Considering that you have good enough network connection.
are you talking about Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (thin/zero client)
or
Virtual Device Interfaces( spice etc )
i'm not sure what you mean :) but i'm looking for a client capable of providing a decent experience. i dont have a client device at the moment. but i've done testing for the software solutions. vnc viewer, logmein, standard rdp, browser based vnc, etc(all on my master computer,while vm is running on server) none of them are up to snuff atm.
i was told i needed a hard ware solution. zero client ideally. but my understanding is that zero clients use the pcoip protocol which requires a host card and doesnt play well with KVM(redhat)
does a more powerful thin client run better? my understanding is that the thin client comes with an 'os' optimised for rdp. it is light weight and doesn't do much on its own.
does the thin client do any decoding by default? i've read that encoding for rdp is done on the vm. does this mean that the thin client is simply not powerful enough to decode?
or is this a shortcoming of rdp where the encode simply does not transmit enough information for a good experience. i was told that 'protocols' like remotefx and citrus's encode, buffer, and transmit more information, that is why the remote experience is tolerable.
isn't that for windows server?, i don't think its available with redhats KVM. i was looking for a solution where the desktop experience over the network was tolerable. unfortunately, i'm tied in with unraid. and unraid uses KVM apparently. so the only protocol i know it uses is RDP.
i was thinking of putting a lightweight linux distro/remote connection os? on the thin client and running remote desktop from there. i think there was a lightweight linux based os just for rdp, i forgot the name, but apparently. it is the best way to get a decent experience apparently. it just boots to a log in menu and a settings tab for configuring.
Pardon my Linux ignorance here, but I thought RDP was Microsoft proprietary and Linux used VNC.
RDP is amazing going from windows to windows. I can play games like WoW via RDP on my HP Windows 8 tablet via RDP to my workhorse computer at home with no issues, for instance.
i may be wrong here, but i believe vnc (software or browser based) uses windows RDP to connect. each solution has different performance due to overhead and operating conditions.
my understanding of how this works
unraid ----> hypervisor (KVM redhat) ----> win 10 vm ----> (Remote Desktop Protocol) ----> client ( connects via RDP in windows )
please correct any misconceptions, i learnt from a variety of sources but this is my understanding how it works.
That explains a bit, and also clarified to me why VNC always had such shitty performance (think showmypc.) Since VNC isn't nearly as optimized as RDP is your QOL degrades a bit.
There is also a so-called VRDP protocol used in the VirtualBox virtual machine implementation by Oracle. This protocol is compatible with all RDP clients, such as that provided with Windows but, unlike the original RDP protocol, can be configured to accept unencrypted and password unprotected connections, which may be useful in secure and trusted networks, such as home or office LANs.
does this mean that RDP has variant protocols that can be used on other oses? ie linux distro that uses VRDP? or this this happening on the hypervisor? where the hypervisor spits out the stream via VRDP?
so from what i understand then, i should enable RDP on my windows VM and then use a cheaper windows client pc to connect via RDP?
is there an option where the thin client might be able to utilise the RDP function natively? lets say thorugh a lightweight linux distro. i've come across an older nuc for 89 without os. i'm hoping i might put some client os on it that might use RDP.
I can't guarantee anything, but that could work. Be mindful that you must have a pro or enterprise version of windows to enable the ability to use RDP into a workstation.
Windows 8/10 runs great on NUCs so that shouldn't bee too much of a problem. If you go through with it, let me know how this works out.
WOOP WOOP just tested the built in RDP client on my master pc (win 10 pro). the experience was solid. video playback was not so smooth. but i only enabled 2 cores and cpu usage was pinned at 100%. i tested word and notepad++ they felt almost native. i did notice a little delay however. i think i expect too much. dont think it'll play games but thats not till later. much much later. :)
all this time i got confused with vnc's RDP terminology. i guess forums use rdp as a term to describe remoting in; AND not to describe the protocol itself.
because the difference is night and day!
i now however see the problem now. RDP is a windows thing. if anyone here with experience can recommend a thin client that will utilise the RDP protocol. i'd be greatful.
what i'm looking for :
power on client -------> log in screen ------> boot into vm
thank you to everyone who helped. i had to do some more searching but i'm confident that this is now a workable solution. :)
anyone know of open source os that would work in this manner? i am able to get an older nuc for 20 dollars, has gig ethernet 2 cores, 2 gigs ram and 30 gb ssd. all thats missing is the os.
if an arm processor is this capable, i assume the desktop counterpart would be equally adept.
