Looking to repurpose old PCs or laptops in to VDI Thin Clients (or Zero Clients)? Looking at implementing VDI but don’t have the budget for fancy Thin Clients or Zero Clients? Look no further! 10ZiG RepurpOS (also known as RPOS) allows you to repurpose PCs and laptops as VDI client endpoints.
You get all the power of a thin client, but built in to a piece of software that you can install on traditional x86 PC hardware. This means you don’t have to throw away semi-new hardware when rolling out your VDI deployment, it also means you can repurpose old hardware that was destined for recycling.
Read the post, or scroll down to watch the video!Please note that the screenshots may be a bit blurry since they were captured from the video recording.
The Software
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) is built on Linux, similar to their NOS OS for Zero Clients. It install’s like an operating system on traditional x86 computer systems, and turns them in to a fully functioning Thin Client which can be used for VDI.
Pros of the Software
Easy installation
Installs on x86 hardware (PCs, Laptops)
Supports most VDI Technologies (VMware, Citrix, RDP/VDA)
You can also contact me (or 10ZiG) for a free 10ZiG Repurposing Trial.
Demonstration
Below you’ll see a demonstration video of the 10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) in action, followed further below by a text review of the software.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Software Video Demonstration
The continuation of this blog post features the different segments of the video.
Setup and Configuration
Getting started is easy… You’ll be provided with a compressed archive that contains an ISO file (which you can burn to CD), or you can use an executable provided that will write the ISO to a USB stick, so you can boot the computer from that.
After booting the installer, you’ll see a very simple interface to get started.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Installer
You’ll note that you have the capability of both running a Live Instance as a Live CD, or you can choose to install the 10ZiG repurposing software to the hard drive disk.
After choosing to “Install RepurpOS”, you select the disk and hit “Install”.
Install the 10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) to disk
After a few moments, the install will complete. You’ll hit “Exit” and then restart the PC.
10ZiG RepurpOS Installed
10ZiG RepurpOS Reboot after Installation
Interface and Usage
On first boot, you’ll notice the PC repurposing software has a very simple look and interface. We started off with a licensing message since we are using a demo.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) unable to obtain a license
To get started, theres a simple “Start menu”-like interface that allows you to configure and use the client. You can configure the thin client settings, or configure and add connections.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Programs
And we have the settings menu.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Settings Menu
I want you to keep in mind that while you can configure and use the 10ZiG RPOS software from this interface, in a large corporate environment you’d probably want to use the 10ZiG Manager software, and lock out the interface.
10ZiG RepurpOS Configuration and 10ZiG Manager Compatibility
All components of this software can be managed and configured via the 10ZiG Manager, just like the 10ZiG 5948qv and other 10ZiG Zero Clients. This makes the software extremely powerful since you can easily manage and maintain it, even if you have thousands of repurposed PCs running RPOS.
Inside of the 10ZiG Manager, the RPOS devices show up similar to how the other 10ZiG Thin clients and Zero clients would appear.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) with RPOS and NOS Clients
You can see above that I pushed my main configuration template to the RPOS demo devices. For more posts on 10ZiG Manager, please see the following posts:
As part of my main template, I have included SSL certificates for my VMware Horizon View connection server, so we’ll be able to test a VDI connection using BLAST.
Using the guides for the 10ZiG Manager above, you could fully configure the RPOS the way you want (for mass deployment), and then create a template and deploy it to a large batch of RPOS PCs. Or you could do all the initial configuration directly from the 10ZiG Manager.
The software supports a number of different protocols and technologies.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Programs List
The list of applications and programs on 10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS)
And below we have the VMware Global Settings window.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) VMware Global Preferences10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) VMware Global PCoIP Settings10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) VMware Global RDP Settings10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) VMware Global Advanced Settings10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) VMware Global Settings
We also have the ability to configure the default connection from the Connection Manager. We can also configure whether we want auto-start a connection and enable automatic reconnection.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Connections Manager and Startup options
On a final note, you can see there is multi-display support built in. This is more apparent when browsing through other sections of the UI on the 10ZiG RPOS.
VDI Connection Testing
It’s time to test out the main functionality of the 10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) software!
I’ve gone ahead and created a connection profile for my company “Digitally Accurate Inc.” to access our VDI environment.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) with Connection Profile to Digitally Accurate Inc.
Double clicking that icon, initiates the session. We login with my credentials.
10ZiG Horizon DUO Login10ZiG Horizon DUO Challenge10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) Horizon View with DUO MFA Login
And here we are presented with the available desktop pools. Please note, that you can configure it to automatically connect to a chosen desktop pool, or if only one is available it will automatically connect.
And finally, we have a fully functional connection to our VDI environment on our VMware Horizon View environment using the 10ZiG repurposing software.
10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) with active VDI session on VMware Horizon View
Again, please note that the screenshots may be a little fuzzy due to the capture from video, the interface in reality is sharp and clear.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the 10ZiG RepurpOS (RPOS) software is a great way to bring life to old or existing hardware, reduce spending during a VDI rollout, and bring value to your investment.
Further backing up that investment, is the ability to use the 10ZiG Manager which is free, and can be used to manage a large number of devices.
I’d highly recommend this software and I look forward to using it more!
You have VMware Horizon View deployed along with Duo Multi-Factor Authentication (2FA, MFA), and you’re you having user experience issues with 10ZiG Zero Clients and multiple login dialog boxes and planning on how to deal with the MFA logins.
I spent some time experimenting with numerous different settings trying to find the cleanest workaround that wouldn’t bother the user or mess up the user experience. I’m going to share with you what I came up with below.
If you’re interesting in 10ZiG products and looking to buy, don’t hesitate to reach out to me for information and/or a quote! We can configure and sell 10ZiG Zero Clients (and thin clients), help with solution design and deployment, and provide consulting services! We sell and ship to Canada and the USA!
The Issue
When you have DUO MFA deployed on VMware Horizon, you may experience login issues when using a 10ZiG Zero Client to access the View Connection Server. This is because the authentication string (username, password, and domain) aren’t passed along correctly from the 10ZiG Login Dialog Box to the VMware Horizon View Client application.
Additionally, when DUO is enabled on VMware View (as a RADIUS authentication), there is no domain passed along inside of the DUO login prompt on the view client.
This issue is due to limitations in the VMware Horizon View Linux Client. This issue will and can occur on any system, thin-client, or Zero Client that uses a command string to initialize a VMware View session where DUO is configured on the View Connection Server.
Kevin Greenway, the CTO at 10ZiG, reached out to say that they have previously brought this up with VMware as a feature request (to support the required functionality), and are hopeful it gets committed.
At this point in time, we’d like to recommend everyone to reach out to VMware and ask for this functionality as a feature request. Numerous simultaneous requests will help gain attention and hopefully escalate it on VMware’s priority list.
The Workaround
After troubleshooting this, and realizing that the 10ZiG VMware login details are completely ignored and not passed along to the VMware View client, I started playing with different settings to test the best way to provide the best user experience for logging in.
At first I attempted to use the Kiosk mode, but had issues with some settings not being passed from the 10ZiG Client to the View Client.
Ultimately I found the perfect tweaking of settings that created a seamless login experience for users.
The Settings
On the 10ZiG Zero Client, we view the “Login” details of the “VMware Horizon Settings” dialog box.
10ZiG Zero Client VMware Horizon Settings Login Settings
Login Mode: Default
Username: PRESS LOGIN
Password: 1234
Domain: YourDomain
Please Note: In the above, because DUO MFA is enabled, the “Username”, “Password” and “Domain” values aren’t actually passed along to the VMware View application on the Zero Client.
We then navigate to the “Advanced” tab, and enable the “Connect once” option. This will force a server disconnection (and require re-authentication) on a desktop pool logoff or disconnection.
10ZiG Zero Client VMware Horizon Settings Advanced Settings
Please Note: This option is required so that when a user logs off, disconnects, or get’s cut off by the server, the Zero Client fully disconnects from the View Connection Server which causes re-authentication (a new password prompt) to occur.
The Login User Experience
So now that we’ve made the modifications to the Zero Client, I want to outline what the user experience will look like from Boot, to connection, to disconnection, to re-authentication.
Turning on the 10ZiG Zero Client, you are presented with the DUO Login Prompt on the View Connection Server.
You then must pass 2FA/MFA authentication.
You are then presented with the desktop pools available to the user.
Upon logging off, disconnecting, or getting kicked off the server, the session is closed and you are presented to the 10ZiG VDI Login Window.
To re-establish a connection, click “Login” as instruction by the “Username” field.
You are presented with the DUO Login Window.
And the process repeats.
As you can see it’s a simple loop that requires almost no training on the end user side. You must only inform the users to click “Login” where the prompt advises to do so.
Once you configure this, you can add it to a configuration template (or generate a configuration template), and then deploy it to a large number of 10ZiG Zero Clients using 10ZiG Manager.
Let me know if this helps, and/or if you find a better way to handle the DUO integration!
In this post, we’ll be going over how to deploy an existing configuration template that is stored inside of your 10ZiG Manager management software.
This allows you to push out configs on the fly to either a single device, or 10,000 devices at once. This is a MUST for managing small, medium, and large sized 10ZiG deployments.
If you’re interesting in 10ZiG products and looking to buy, don’t hesitate to reach out to me for information and/or a quote! We can configure and sell 10ZiG Zero Clients (and thin clients), help with solution design and deployment, and provide consulting services! We sell and ship to Canada and the USA!
This post is part three of a three part 10ZiG Manager Tutorial series:
Choose the 10ZiG Zero Client(s) that you’d like to deploy the configuration to. You can “CTRL + Click” or “SHIFT + Click” to select more than one 10ZiG Zero Client.
In the menu, expand “Configuration” -> and select “Apply Template”.
A “Configuration Template Note” is displayed. Please read and understand this, then click “Ok”.
In the “Configuration Templates” window, select and highlight the configuration template you’d like to deploy, and then click “Ok”. In my example, I’m choosing “DA-MainTemplate”.
The “Configuration Cloning Target” dialog box is displayed. Here you can change the target hostname, and choose to immediately push the configuration. Select “Ok”.
And now the “Reboot” dialog box is displayed. Here you can choose how you’d like the reboot to be handled once the configuration is pushed to the device(s). Select your preference, or leave as default and select “Ok”.
You’ll be brought back to the 10ZiG Manager interface. Here you’ll see a new task in the tasks list at the bottom of the window.
Once completed, you have successfully deployed the configuration.
You’re done! You have successfully pushed the configuration template to your 10ZiG Zero Client(s).
You can maintain, edit, and use multiple templates for different users, organizational units, or geographical units.
Let’s say you manage numerous 10ZiG Zero clients and your users all have similar USB hardware that needs to be redirected to the VDI session. In most cases the hardware will be redirected without any configuration necesary, but what about when that doesn’t happen. You need to push a configuration template with the device information to your 10ZiG Zero Clients.
In my case, I use a YubiKey Security Key. I regularly use this for logins in Chrome and noticed that it wasn’t being directed via USB redirection.
If you’re interesting in 10ZiG products and looking to buy, don’t hesitate to reach out to me for information and/or a quote! We can configure and sell 10ZiG Zero Clients (and thin clients), help with solution design and deployment, and provide consulting services! We sell and ship to Canada and the USA!
This post is part two of a three part 10ZiG Manager Tutorial series:
On the 10ZiG Zero Client, go to settings, USB redirection, and change the preference from “Default” to “Include”. This must manually be done on every Zero Client inside of your infrastructure (time consuming).
Add the USB hardware ID to your configuration template inside of the 10ZiG Manager and then push this to all your 10ZiG Zero Clients that you manage (super fast, can be deployed to thousands of devices in seconds).
In this post we’re going to cover the later, and show you how to add this to a config template. In my example, we’ll be adding the YubiKey security key with a hardware identifier (USB Product ID/PID) of 1050/0120 (Vendor ID: 1050, Product ID: 0120). We’ll be manually adding the hardware ID/PID to the config template in this tutorial.
Please Note: You can also add the settings on a 10ZiG Zero Client, and generate a template by pulling the config from that client. You can then push this to others as well.
To find out the Hardware ID/PID, you can either use the “Device Manager” on Windows, or plug in the device in to a 10ZiG Zero Client, go to settings, USB Redirection, and you should see the device name, along with the HID/PID info.
Instructions
Open the 10ZiG Manager.
Randomly choose a 10ZiG Zero Client from the list, right-click on it to open the menu. Expand “Configuration” -> Select “Manage templates”.
In the “Configuration Templates” window, right-click on your existing template (or create a new one), and select “Edit”.
In the “Template Configuration – Template Name” window, double-click on “USB Device Redirection”.
In the “USB Device Redirection” window, click on “Add”.
Enter in a friendly name, and enter your Vendor ID and Product ID in to the fields. For a YubiKey Security key, I did the following.
Click OK on all the fields, save the template. The configuration has been saved to the configuration template.
You’re done! You can now deploy this template to a single 10ZiG Zero Client, or deploy it as a batch to many 10ZiG Zero Clients.
So you’ve purchase some 10ZiG Zero Clients, configured the 10ZiG Manager, and want to create a configuration template to deploy to all your devices.
In this post, we’ll be going over how to create a configuration template from a manually configured 10ZiG Zero Client, so that you can edit it, and then deploy it to other 10ZiG Zero Clients (whether it’s a single unit, or 10,000).
Once you have a configuration template, you can add certificates, modify the VDI configuration, configure keyboard/mouse input, USB Redirection, and more! Doing all this with a configuration template allows you to manage and maintain a large amount of 10ZiG Zero Clients with ease.
If you’re interesting in 10ZiG products and looking to buy, don’t hesitate to reach out to me for information and/or a quote! We can configure and sell 10ZiG Zero Clients (and thin clients), help with solution design and deployment, and provide consulting services! We sell and ship to Canada and the USA!
This post is part one of a three part 10ZiG Manager Tutorial series:
Please Note: We are going to assume that you have manually configured at least one of your 10ZiG Zero Clients as a base configuration that you want to generate a template from. If not, make sure you do this before generating a template. We are also assuming that you have configured the 10ZiG Management software so that the Zero Clients can connect to it.
Instructions
Open the 10ZiG Manager.
Choose the 10ZiG Zero Client that you have already configured in the list and right-click on the unit.
In the menu, expand “Configuration” -> and Select “Generate Template”.
A warning explaining how the configuration is merged is presented, please read and understand this.
In the “Configuration Templates” window, type in a template name in to the “Template Name” field, and then select “Ok”. I’m calling mine “DA-MainTemplate”.
A warning explaining changes is presented, please read and understand this.
You will be brought back to the 10ZiG Manager, and will see the “Generate configuration template” task in the tasks list at the bottom of the window. It should eventually complete and be marked as successful.
The configuration template has been created.
You have now created a configuration template inside of 10ZiG Manager! You can edit this, and eventually deploy it to other 10ZiG Zero Clients on your network.
In an effort to truly showcase the capabilities of VMware Horizon View and the 10ZiG 5948q Zero Client, I wanted to put together a demo showing the ability to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 7.4) in a VDI environment.
First and foremost, this was super easy to setup. It was almost too easy…
Sidenote: Remember, my company Digitally Accurate Inc. is a 10ZiG partner. We can configure and sell 10ZiG Zero Clients (and thin clients), help with solution design and deployment, and provide consulting services! Contact us today for information or a quote! We sell and ship to Canada and the USA!
Please see below for video:
You’ll notice during login that after the credential prompt multiple desktops were available (we chose to log on to the RHEL instance) to choose from. You’ll see further on in the video versioning and specifications as well as video playback. Again, please note that my environment does not have any GPU or 3D rendering.
Please Note: The momentary black border on the bottom right side during login, was due to a resolution change on the VDI session. This was the first time logging in with this client, and the border doesn’t normally occur unless changing resolutions.
Please note, my company Digitally Accurate Inc, is a VMware Solution Provider Partner, 10ZiG Partner, and Red Hat Ready Business partner. Please don’t hesitate in reaching out for anything VDI! We design, sell, implement, and support VMware and VDI environments!
As promised in my previous post which covered my first impressions, here are some pictures and video of the 10ZiG 5948q zero client in action! In the videos I demonstrate video playback as well as the USB redirection capabilities of the 10ZiG Zero Client and VMware Horizon View. Scroll down to the bottom for videos!
If you’re interesting in 10ZiG products and looking to buy, don’t hesitate to reach out to me for information and/or a quote! We can configure and sell 10ZiG Zero Clients (and thin clients), help with solution design and deployment, and provide consulting services! We sell and ship to Canada and the USA!
Pictures
10ZiG 5948q Zero Client
10ZiG 5948qv Zero Client VMware Horizon View
10ZiG 5900 Series Zero Client VMware Horizon View Login
10ZiG 5948q Series Zero Client Configuration Menu
Videos
In this video, I demonstrate the capability of the 10ZiG 5948q zero client connected to a VMware Horizon View server (via a Unified Access Gateway) playing a video from YouTube. Please note that the ESXi server does not have a GPU and 3D rendering is disabled for the test (this is as low performance as it gets).
In this video, I demonstrate the capability of the 10ZiG 5948q zero client using USB redirection on a live VDI session.
And finally, here’s a video of a 10ZiG zero client cold boot for those that are interested.
And remember, my company Digitally Accurate Inc. is a VMware Solutions Provider and 10ZiG Partner. I’m also regularly posting content on these on the corporate blog as well!
It’s an exciting weekend as I got my hands on 2 new 10ZiG5900 Series Zero Clients (5948qv). My company purchased these for internal testing and demo purposes since we sell VMware VDI solutions and 10ZiG Thin and Zero Clients. I figured I’d do a brief post to offer my first impressions, offer a few pictures, as well as a brief write up.
If you’re interesting in 10ZiG products and looking to buy, don’t hesitate to reach out to me for information and/or a quote! We can configure and sell 10ZiG Zero Clients (and thin clients), help with solution design and deployment, and provide consulting services! We sell and ship to Canada and the USA!
Why a Zero Client
For a brief backstory, zero clients are used for environments and businesses that use desktop virtualization (VDI) instead of traditional computers. This means that an employee won’t actually have a computer, instead they will be using a zero client which relays video/keyboard/mouse (it’s actually more complicated than that, lol) to a desktop computer that’s virtualized on a server (either in the cloud, data center, or on-premise). This allows the company to save on hardware, provide better performance to end users, and really simplify a big portion of the IT landscape.
I’m a big fan of VDI, particularly the VMware Horizon View product. My company has a full demo/test VDI environment we have available to showcase this technology.
What’s really awesome is that you don’t necesarily even need to use a zero client. You could instead use an old netbook, laptop, computer, or even a cellphone to connect to these virtualized desktops using the VMware Horizon View client.
The next question you may be asking, is what about graphics quality? Well, you can implement special graphics cards to virtualize GPUs (such as the AMD FirePro MxGPU class of cards) and provide high end graphical capabilities to your users.
In my deployment we’ve been using software based VDI clients, but it was time to get our hands dirty with some zero clients. We decided to partner up with 10ZiG, and order a couple of these units for internal and demo purposes.
Now let’s get started!
10ZiG 5948qv Zero Client (5900q Series Zero Client)
Unboxing
10ZiG 5948q Zero Client
The 5948qv is part of 10ZiG’s power class of zero clients. This bad boy is the latest and greatest model and supports 3 displays (yup, that’s right) and 4K UHD resolutions. The hardware itself is based off an Intel Braswell (refreshed version) CPU. The device has 1 HDMI port, as well as 2 DisplayPort connections. It also has a microphone, audio line out, and a ton of USB ports (including both USB2 and USB3) for USB redirection. You can choose from 4GB or 8GB RAM configurations.
The 5948qv runs off 10ZiG’s NOS operation system. This is a compact and lightweight operating system that includes the VMware Horizon View client, as well as all the configuration utilities you’ll need to get up and running (as well as troubleshoot the device if needed).
When I received the first two units, I noticed that the boxes were very heavy (I was actually really surprised).
10ZiG 5900q Series Zero Client Box Shot
10ZiG 5948q Series Zero Client Box Shot
The packaging was very nice, and the contents were safely secured with proper cardboard spacers to avoid items shifting during transport.
The Zero Client
Finally it was time to take the zero client out! It is a very sleek, and very well put together device (I was actually surprised). As mentioned, it has some weight to it. It just looks great…
10ZiG 5948qv Zero Client
The bottom of the device swivels and turns to expose 2 hidden USB ports which can be used for any type of USB device. The device also has 2 x USB3.0 ports on the front, an additional 1 x USB2.0 on the front, and 2 x USB2.0 ports on the back.
10ZiG NOS – Linux Based OS
Plugging in the device and turning it on, it brings you to a big 10ZiG splash image and then on to first time configuration. In the first time configuration with the 10ZiG NOS Operating System you specify your locale and region settings, date and time, and others. One problem I came across, is that when choosing Canada, it defaulted the keyboard to French for some reason. I actually didn’t even realize this until later when trying to log in to my VDI session (it was registering the wrong characters when pressing keys) and rejecting my password. It actually took me over an hour to realize this when I finally started poking around in the console and noticed that the “/” key was triggering an entirely different character. Changing the keyboard to US English fixed this (although in my opinion it should have been the default).
Usage
After the first time setup is complete, the interface is very simple yet powerful. You can configure your VMware View Connection Server address (and properties for the connection), as well as all the hardware components of the zero client, this includes: Network, Display, Mouse, Keyboard, USB devices, printers, etc…
After specifying my View connection server and then leaving the control panel, I logged in to my VDI session and it worked great!
Initially I tested some videos on YouTube, which looked great, and then moved on to trying some other things that involved audio and all was perfect. This product was production ready! I also tested the USB redirection by connecting a USB thumb flash drive to a USB port. The Windows 10 VM detected the USB drive, and I was able to partition, format, and use the stick without any problems. Initial testing resulted in 4MB/sec USB redirection speeds.
I’m really hoping that when my budget permits, I can purchase an AMD MxGPU S7150 card so I can test the 10ZiG with some high performance graphic applications. In the meantime though, this works great!
Now before I leave you, there are two important things I want to mention:
The 10ZiG zero clients can be completely centrally managed and provisioned by the 10ZiG Manager, which is completely free if you own the products. You’d use this to deploy many zero clients (hundreds, thousands, etc…) in large scale deployments.
All in all, I’m very impressed with the device and have absolutely no complaints. I’ll be doing some more write ups and videos on the device soon! Stay posted!
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