Administrator Guide

Central conguration—Automating updates and

congurations

This appendix describes how to set up your environment to provide your thin clients running Dell Wyse ThinLinux with automatic updates

and congurations.

NOTE: Dell thin clients do not require device management software. They are congured to obtain their IP address, as well as the

location of rmware and conguration instructions, from a DHCP server. However, you can use WDM or the Dell Wyse USB

Firmware Tool for a more hands-on management of client congurations and updates.

Topics:

• How INI les are employed

• Setting up the automatic congurations and updates

How INI les are employed

INI les that are created and maintained by the network administrator, determine how the thin client is congured and updated. The thin

client accesses INI les from the server during the initialization process. Typically, INI les are accessed through FTP, HTTP, and HTTPS; if

no protocol is specied, the default is anonymous FTP.

IMPORTANT

: The INI le processing hierarchy is as follows:

• Scenario 1 — MAC.ini exists. The MAC.ini le is processed and if the Include=WLX.ini statement is included, then the WLX.ini le is

processed.

• Scenario 2 — WLX.ini exists. The WLX.ini le is processed.

•

Scenario 3 — No ini les exist. Local conguration is applied.

INI les are employed as follows:

• wlx.ini — This is the global INI le. One wlx.ini le is available to all users. It contains global parameters for all thin clients accessing the

server. If the operating system cannot nd wlx.ini, it defaults to wnos.ini.

• MAC.ini — This le can be used for device-specic conguration. If the thin client locates this INI le that is stored in the same

directory as wlx.ini, wlx.ini is not accessed, unless you use the include=wlx.ini parameter.

NOTE

The placement of the include=wlx.ini parameter within the MAC.ini le dictates which value takes priority for a same specic

parameter that is contained in both the wlx.ini le and the MAC.ini le but is dened dierently that is dierent values for the same

parameter.

For example, if the wlx.ini le has parameterA=valueB, and the MAC.ini le has the same parameterA=valueC, then:

– If the include=wlx.ini parameter is included in the MAC.ini le before the parameterA=valueC statement, then the wlx.ini

parameterA=valueB is discarded and parameterA=valueC from the MAC.ini le is the nal value used.

– If the include=wlx.ini parameter is included in the MAC.ini le after the parameterA=valueC statement, then the MAC.ini

parameterA=valueC is discarded and parameterA=valueB from the wlx.ini le is the nal value used.

When a thin client is initialized, it accesses the global wlx.ini

le. For detailed information on constructing and using INI les, see Dell Wyse

ThinLinux INI Reference Guide.

Central conguration—Automating updates and congurations 97