VMWare Horizon Linux Trial

This semester, our section of CS-140 has the honor to try out a trial offering that provides a very flexible environment to write, test, and debug the code we will be working on. This capability provides a "Virtual Machine" that runs on a central server, but the server provides a terminal window on your local machine.

Starting from a Web Browser

There are two ways to start the VMware Horizen client. The easiest way is to start from a web browser on your local machine (This limits your "terminal" to the web browser window. If you want full screen access, see the instructions for installing the VMWare Horizon View Client below.)

If you are on campus, open the web site: https://wsview.binghamton.edu/portal/webclient/index.html.

If you are off campus, open https://rangers.binghamton.edu/portal/webclient/index.html.

Then, you will need to log in with your PODS userid and password.

Once you are logged in, click on the "Watson Linux" destop pool.

Installing the VMware Horizon View Client

Once you have the VMware client installed, you can start it, log in with your PODS userid and password, select the "rangers.binghamton.edu" server, and select the "Watson Linux" desktop pool.

Once You Are On

When you are logged on, it's like sitting in front of a Linux Lab computer - only better (because the levels of the software are more up to date.) All features are available, including web browsers, full screen editors, eclipse, the Java jdk is installed. You get up to 4 windows to keep different thinks on (check out the 1/4 icon at the bottom right), etc.

Note that you have a new home directory in this environment that does not overlap with your home directory on the Linux Lab machines (or the "My H Drive" icon available on the web SSH client.) You may either ignore the Linux Lab home directory altogether, or your can send data back and forth using an ftp client like "filezilla". At lab, you may use the VMware Linux capability instead of using a Linux Lab machine, either using one of the Linux Lab machines as the local machine, or using your laptop.

One special feature - you will notices that there is an extra "tsclient" sub-directory in your home directory; and a tsclient icon on your home screen. This is a virtual link to your local computer disk space! You can easily move files back and forth between your local disk and your home directory using this feature! (Very cool.) However, performance isn't as good as your real home directory, so use this with discretion.

If you leave your screen inactive for a while, it may time out (the screen goes black). If that happens, just swipe up with your mouse, and you will have to type in your PODS password again, but will get back to where you were. This is a safety feature - in case you walk away, your data will be protected.

When you are done, don't forget to log out (The Circle/line icon on the upper right logs you out.) That way you will return resources to the server.

Feedback

One of the reasons we were given the opportunity to use this environment is to get feedback to the people who made this possible. Please let me know if this is a useful environment. How is the response time? Is there anything that doesn't work that you expected to work? Are there other features that you would like to see? Is there anything about this environment that you particularly like? Please send all feedback to me (Prof. Bartenstein) via email tbartens@binghamton.edu, and I will collect it and forward on to the people that made this possible.

Issues

• Some students have reported that sometimes keys seem to "stick" (type the same letter over and over again). The report is that this seems to occur more often using the VMware Horizon local client than when using the web interface.
• Students also report that sometimes when they log on, they connect to a session in which a different student is already logged on. The current theory is that this occurs because the previous student did not log out ("power down") his or her session when they quit. There are several things we can do to help in this situation...
  1. Close this session, and start a new one and hope that you don't get someone else's session. Sessions are handed out at random, so chances are if you try a second time, you will get a clean session and be able to log on.
  2. If you know the student who was connected, and they are nearby, you could get them to enter their password and then logout. That will give you the opportunity to log on yourself.
  3. If you know the student who was connected, give them a hard time about not logging off correctly. That way, maybe they will remember to log off correctly next time, and it will make your life easier.
  4. Make sure YOU log off correctly when you are finished so you aren't leaving a session in a bad state for the next person.
• Students have reported that not all the software they would like is already installed. Specifically, we will work on getting emacs available. Let me (Prof. Bartenstein) know if there are other tools you think are important to have on these systems.