FAQ for DRBL (Diskless Remote Boot in Linux)

 

What's the difference between DRBL and LTSP ?

DRBL uses PXE or etherboot to let the client machine boot, which is similar to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project). While LTSP is a centralized server, all the users from the client machines access the LTSP server to run their applications on the LTSP server. You use the client's keyboard and mouse to input, and the client's monitor to display the results. This is great when you use a thin client. You have to increase the server requirements when you have more than 20 or 30 clients. On the other hand, DRBL uses NFS and NIS to provide boot services to the client machines, so DRBL server is just a NFS and NIS server. All the users from all the client machines just access the DRBL server to request files or authentication. Packages are loaded to the client machines and use their own CPU and RAM for processing. Therefore, you can use a common PC as the DRBL server, since it's only doing file and authentication serving. The client machines, however, should be powerful enough to run the applications they need. Our typical installations using DRBL to deploy the Linux classroom have around 30 to 40 clients.
Both LTSP and DRBL have their own roles, you can choose what you want depending on your situation.

 

What's kind of server and client should  I buy if I want to use DRBL ?

This depends on what's kind of application you want to run.
For the education environment, the following is recommended:

Since DRBL will work with any Pentium class hardware, you can start your PC cluster with just about any machine you have laying around. You can expand your cluster as your budget allows.

 
What's NCHC ?

National Center for High-Performance Computing, it's located in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more details, please visite the website of NCHC http://www.nchc.org.tw


DRBL FAQ
NCHC Free Software Labs
steven at nchc dot org dot tw