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Q1. Is ShaoLin Aptus a Linux Distribution?
No, ShaoLin Aptus is not a Linux distribution. It is a middle-ware (software) for Linux that designed for
deploying and managing cluster of Linux machines in the simplest way. ShaoLin Aptus is installed to an existing Linux server
such as Redhat, Mandrake, SuSE and more. Please see the latest release notes for Linux
distribution support information.
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Q2. Why not just simply install Linux on every PC and run it?
While it is certainly possible to install Linux on individual PC's, the answer to this is cost. In a networked
environment with multiple desktops connected to a file server (may be more, authentication, mail, etc.), administration of those
desktops comes at a great cost. Each desktop's installation of Linux and applications must be maintained together with network
and security configurations. While there are some good management tools available for easing software updating on each desktop
from a centralized server, the desktops will still need to configured individually and thus are not zero-administration.
ShaoLin developed the operating system components, ShaoLin Aptus, for Linux to run on the desktops using an optimized
"Fit Client" network architecture for zero-administration and central management.
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Q3. How do thin client and x-terminal differ from ShaoLin Aptus Fit Client?
Thin clients are some low powered machines with OS and minimal software installed.
It is aimed for improving management by reducing complexity at the client side. However, most of the "thin clients"
are powered by powerful backend servers to extend their functionality. The term "server-based computing" is more
oftenly used these days to describe those systems. X-terminals are very similar, they are actually describing
terminals that uses X-windows and of course is a server-based computing architecture. These systems connect to
the server by using a network protocol which transmit the display from the server to the client screen, and handles
keyboard and mouse events from the client to the server. That means all processing work and data storage are
centralized at the server. Since every user on the network is actually using the same central CPU and memory,
multiple high-power servers are required to handle the client terminals for load balancing reasons.
ShaoLin Aptus enables to turn normal desktop PC's into "Fit Clients". The clients are actually no OS installed
and startup by using either standard PXE boot ROM which is available in most of the
PC's, addon TC/IP boot ROM, floppy disk, CD-ROM, or hard drive. Since using hard drive is optional, client
workstations can even be diskless. Software applications, data and including the operating systems stores at
the server. Operating systems and applications are loaded through network to the client, and executed using the
client's CPU and memory. ShaoLin Aptus Fit Client reduces the complexity of PC's as much as thin clients, but preserve all
the benefit, flexibility and the processing power of a PC. They can run multiple applications or even high
powered applications such as CAD/CAM software and multimedia, and not affecting the performance of other users.
ShaoLin Fit Client network architecture have all the advantages of a traditional PC but are centrally managed
and client side zero-administration. It is also more reliable, because of the stateless design of ShaoLin Aptus server,
the client's session is still maintained even if the server crash or reboot and interruption of network connections.
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Q4. If everything stores at server, will we need multiple OS images at server which consumes lots of disk spaces?
No, there is exactly one copy of the operating system only. ShaoLin Aptus Fit Client
uses the Intelligent Union Architecture (IUA) technology to share a single copy of the operating system.
The client only use a special Linux kernel image which stored at the server, but the rest of your operating system at the server is
fully shared with the clients. This means you will only need to maintain one copy of the operating system, applications and data. The
concept is like file sharing, this case file sharing is extended to include OS, program files and configuration
files. When installing new software at the server, it will automatically available for all clients as everything
are shared.
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Q5. I am confused, how can OS and configuration files shareable?
ShaoLin Aptus resides on the OS level providing file management and uses the Intelligent Union Architecture
(IUA) to allow each host (the client) or host group (a number of clients) files to union with the server's
files. Clients will have physical read-only access to the original copy of the server operating system although
the file system on the client looks like read/write. When non shareable resources are to be written, they will be
redirected to a host specific area, and automatically make those resources not shareable.
ShaoLin Aptus with the IUA residing in kernel level (OS core level functionality) makes all these intelligence
transparent to all user applications. ShaoLin Aptus is a collection of all these tools and drivers, making the
"Fit Client" dream come true.
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Q6. Do all ShaoLin Aptus client machines must have the same hardware configuration?
No, the ShaoLin Aptus clients can have different hardware configurations as well as they are Pentium class
PC-based hardware. With the ShaoLin Intelligent Union Architecture (IUA), there is
no problem to use different hardware configurations.
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Q7. How to install new software for the ShaoLin Aptus clients?
There is no need to do any installation at the client. With ShaoLin Aptus, once software installation
is required at a single point, the ShaoLin Aptus server, then the software will be available to all ShaoLin Aptus clients on the network
instantly. No software installation is required at the clients.
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Q8. If the ShaoLin Aptus server crashes or reboot, what will happen to the clients?
If your Linux server with ShaoLin Aptus crashes or the network is cut, the clients will continue to function
until it access the file system, the client will generally freeze on where they are on.
As long as your server or network connection recovers, the ShaoLin Aptus clients will be unfrozen and the user
can pick up where they left off. (Please see Q3 for more information.)
In addition, ShaoLin Aptus can work with ShaoLin HA Cluster to provide a full redundant and fault tolerant solution for desktops.
(Please see ShaoLin HA Cluster product page for more information.)
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Q9. Does the ShaoLin Aptus client machine need more memory than a normal Linux desktop?
No. The memory consumption of the ShaoLin Aptus client will be the same as the memory consumption of a normal Linux
desktop PC. As all programs will run the same in a normal Linux desktop, and the amount of memory usage is depended
on what kind of applications are running.
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Q10. What happens if the diskless ShaoLin Aptus client's memory use up?
The diskless ShaoLin Aptus client will not hang when its memory used up. Because ShaoLin Aptus supports virtual memory
swap with the server hard drive through the network. If the client machine is not diskless, ShaoLin Aptus will do
the virtual memory swap with the local hard drive automatically.
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Q11. What is the maximum number of clients that can be supported by a single ShaoLin Aptus server?
There is no maximum or definite number of clients that can be supported by a single ShaoLin Aptus server.
Because ShaoLin Aptus clients uses a stateless protocol (no active client sessions data are stored at the server memory) to communicate
with the server and clients use their independent processing power to execute programs. Therefore, the ShaoLin Aptus server is very
scalable, and able to handle large number of clients without definite limitation. However, as more clients read/write data to the
server's disk, the performance of the server's disk I/O will be congested. For general office desktops, we recommend not more
than 200 diskless PC's or 350 normal PC's (with hard drive) connecting to a single server for adequate performance. The actual
performance will depend on the applications that you run, network performance and performance of the server hardware. If you
application doesn't generate much disk I/O (little disk read/write), you may scale up to hundreds of desktops per server.
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Q12. Do I require to purchase more than one ShaoLin Aptus server software if I have multiple Linux servers to run ShaoLin Aptus?
Yes, a single ShaoLin Aptus server software is only allowed to be installed on one server. You need to purchase
ShaoLin Aptus server software license for each Linux server that run ShaoLin Aptus.
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Q13. We are also considering thin client, but we will need to purchase multiple powerful servers which raises
our acquisition cost, does ShaoLin Aptus Fit Client also require this?
No. Thin client architecture moves the processing back to the servers. This requires you to add multiple high
power 2-way or 4-way servers to make up for the lost processing and memory lost on the desktop. Even in a smaller
deployment with just a few thin clients, Citrix (running Windows 2000 WTS) recommends at least two servers to
prevent the downtime that comes with frequent Windows server crashes. For this reason, thin client solutions are
more costly to purchase than even traditional fat client PC's solutions.
The server requirement for ShaoLin Aptus Fit Clients is not much different than for a file server in a traditional fat
client PC environment. When the ShaoLin Aptus software is placed on the same machine as the file server, use
normal file server sizing guidelines, then bump the requirements up about 10% to get the proper server size. For
larger environments serving hundreds or thousands of workstations, a separate server with ShaoLin Aptus should
be used. This server will be 90% read-only and the load is limited to serving the OS image when a client is
started up and application images when a user starts and application for the first time, it does not need to be
a super high powered server since it is still a 'file server'.
At a minimum, as with any file server, at least 512MB RAM with Ultra SCSI RAID disks drives running 100mbps
ethernet will be adequate to serve up to about 50 clients running normal Linux desktop applications.
Multi-channel SCSI RAID with separated switched gigabit network configuration will serve several hundred
clients. (Please see Q3 for more information.)
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Q14. Thin client is very sensitive to network traffic, will this also affect the ShaoLin Aptus Fit Client?
Thin clients send every keystroke and mouse movement back to the server, and every screen update to the client.
Since most keystrokes and mouse movements trigger some updating on the screen, the user will feel system
slowness if network traffic is high or even more importantly, network latency is long. Network latency is the
time it takes for a packet of information to reach its destination.
When a user starts an application on ShaoLin Aptus Fit Client, the application is loaded from the server, but then
executed locally. High network traffic or network latency will affect how long it will take for the application
to initially load and start, but thereafter, the performance of the application and OS on the ShaoLin Aptus
Fit Client is not affected by the network load. This is quite different than with
thin client, where high network load or latency can make the clients essentially unusable.
(Please see Q3 for more information.)
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