[tech_serf]

I support a small biz of about 16 users. Currently, they have a Dell W2000 server (which the previous tech had them buy and it was overkill). The rest are optiplex desktops running 2000 and XP. It works well, but the owner wants to replace the server as it is about 8 years old and would like to go to TS2008.

I have a fair bit of experience supporting regular servers (NT, 2000/2003) and have a fair knowledge of TS2008 but no real experience with 'thin clients'. It would be mixed mode anyway, as some would still be desktops and a few at first would be thin clients.

I guess my view of things now is this:

Option 1: go to TS2008, make it a DC. Have thins login and run apps that way, have the existing desktops moved to the new domain so they get login scripts and minimal group policies.

Possible problems:
-DC on TS is not recommended, but since the load is so small, I'm wondering how much of a performance hit it would be? Does AD still slow servers down a lot, just doing its background stuff? I could see it being taxed in a larger domain/forest structure, but not this.
-Security of having users login seems to be a concern but it seems like it can be reasonably accomplished with some planning

Option 2: new 'regular' server 2008 and just migrate file share, printers, AD accounts over

Option 3: new TS2008 but just run it as a member/stand alone server with no AD. Give desktop users static mappings one time (not much changes) to shares and then just make local accounts on the server for the TS users.

As well, if anyone has any practical experience running IE as a thin client over TS, I'd like to know how it went. I do it in remote administration mode and it seems ok, but I know this can be an issue.
*Running some other browser local on a thin client then using TS for other apps is not an option for these users. They need to use all apps in the TS, or on the desktop. The owner really wants to avoid confusion for these users.

Thanks!

[avisitor]

If you're using fat client hardware, is there a specific reason that you want to have people work out of TS? You realize that you'd need to buy TS CALs as well as regular CALs (a change from Windows 2000).

I'd disagree with you about just running some apps in TS, especially with TS 2008 and TS RemoteApp. At a site I manage, that's exactly what they do. It's a school and the teachers often require certain pieces of software to be available for student use. Rather than deploying the software to every laptop in a cart (of 30) I can install it to our terminal server, configure it as a RemoteApp and put a link in our applications folder.

I wouldn't run TS and a DC on the same server. I generally don't like to run anything else on my DCs (though I don't object to virtualizing them, if you're careful to have them on more than one physical server).

I use IE over TS over the internet frequently. It's quite usable as long as you're on a reasonable latency connection and have enough bandwidth. On a LAN it's great.

Do yourself a favor and download the trial. Install it on a VM, configure it and see for yourself.