8. Local apps versus Remote apps

In an LTSP environment you have a choice of running the applications locally on the workstation, or remotely on the server.

By far, the easiest way to setup an LTSP environment is to run the apps on the server. That is, the client application runs on the server, using the servers' CPU and memory, while it displays it's output on the workstation and uses the workstations' keyboard and mouse.

This is a fundamental capability of X Windows. The workstation works just like a standard X-Windows terminal.

8.1 Issues with setting up support for local apps

Setting up the ability to run apps locally requires much more.

• Greater demand on the workstation. It needs more RAM and a more powerful CPU. 64mb of ram on the workstation is a pretty good starting point.
• NIS - To run the apps on the workstation, you first must log into the workstation. This requires some form of password authentication. NIS has been chosen as the method of authenticating users over the network. This document will outline how to setup NIS on the server.
• Additional directories need to be exported for the workstation to mount via NFS.
• Slower startup of applications because they need to be read via NFS, causing increased network activity. Also, because each copy of the program is running on it's own CPU, you won't get the advantage of the Linux/Unix ability to share code segments between multiple instances of the same program, which would reduce the time it takes for second and succeeding launches of a program.

8.2 Benefits of running apps locally

• Reduces the load on the server. In large networks with memory intensive applications such as Netscape, running the app on the workstation can provide better performance, as long as the workstation is powerful enough to handle it.
• Runaway apps will not affect other users.
• Sound support is much easier to configure when the application that plays the sound is running on the workstation.