For classrooms and shared computer rooms

A shared lab, from preparation to recovery.

Follow the points where Nixorium changes the work: preparing the room, opening a class, recovering a file, and rebuilding a client.

Operating cycle Included features Compare approaches

01shared definition01controllermanyworkstations≈15 min30-workstation reinstallObserved in the original deployment. Time depends on the controller, network, disks, and selected software.

Before the first class

Prepare once. Deliver inside the lab network.

The operator defines the shared desktop and teaching tools. The controller fetches and builds what the clients need. Each workstation can then be installed or updated over the lab LAN without direct Internet access.

This fits networks where clients sit behind a captive portal, cannot authenticate before login, or are intentionally denied direct Internet access. The controller still needs permitted access to obtain new inputs, and clients must be able to reach it locally.

Software and configuration enter through the controller; prepared systems reach clients over the lab LAN.

When the room opens

Start every class from a known student environment.

A reboot returns the designated student home to its clean template. Shared software comes from the lab configuration, so the lesson does not depend on a sequence of fixes made at individual seats.

Students meet a familiar environment at each workstation. Work that matters beyond the session still needs durable storage outside the local reset cycle.

Veyon is configured for classroom viewing. Evaluate the interactions you need on your own hardware and desktop session.

Every seat starts from the same clean student-home template while the shared system remains centrally defined.

When someone needs yesterday’s file

Recover a recent file without treating snapshots as backup.

Before the clean template becomes active at reboot, included student-home contents are retained as a local read-only snapshot. A teacher or administrator can recover a file while that snapshot remains in the current retention window.

The current default retains up to five local states. Reinstalling or losing the disk removes that history; important work belongs in durable storage.

The current clean session and recent local snapshots are separate; an administrator retrieves a file from retained history.

When a workstation stops being worth repairing

Recreate the system instead of preserving configuration drift.

A replacement or troublesome client can return through the same LAN installation path and the same pinned lab configuration. The goal is a repeatable system state, not an automated diagnosis of every hardware or data problem.

Validate one representative workstation before preparing the rest of the room. Hardware, firmware, network policy, and disk selection remain operator responsibilities.

A troublesome workstation returns through the LAN installer and comes back as a known managed system.

Included in the lab model

The capabilities behind the operating cycle.

Nixorium connects system delivery, student-session handling, classroom tooling, and lab-specific configuration in one NixOS workflow.

Install and update through the LAN

Clients receive prepared systems from the controller and do not need direct Internet access for installation or system updates. After the controller is ready, you do not need to carry an installation USB to each client.

PXE/iPXE for installation · Harmonia cache and Colmena for updates

Configure the lab in one place

Set the PC count, users, addresses, locale, packages, desktop defaults, and per-host exceptions in the private deployment.

Typed site settings · pinned Nixorium upstream

Reset the student workspace at boot

The designated student home returns to its clean template while up to five recent local states remain available for file recovery.

Btrfs subvolumes and read-only snapshots

Start from a classroom desktop

Clients get GNOME, teaching and development tools, and a generated Veyon topology. The controller can also serve as the teacher workstation.

Validate the Veyon interactions you need on your hardware

Give each user isolated developer tools

The current v2 beta gives every normal user a rootless Docker daemon and a writable npm prefix without sudo or root-equivalent Docker group membership.

Container data and npm caches are outside student-home snapshots

Use institutional and lab addressing together

The same interface can receive an institutional DHCP address while Nixorium assigns static lab addresses for controller-to-client traffic.

Requires an agreed /24 lab subnet and permitted local traffic

Alternative approaches

Compare the operating models.

Nixorium combines NixOS configuration, LAN delivery, and student-session handling. Other tools are stronger when disk imaging, mixed operating systems, or a broader management platform is the priority.

Capability	Nixorium	Clonezilla	FOG Project	Ansible	Foreman
Full OS state built from source configuration
Bare-metal provisioning over the LAN
Update installed PCs without reimaging
Reapply a declared OS state to limit drift
Install and update without client Internet
Reset the student home at boot
Retain recent student-session snapshots
Roll back the OS without reimaging
Manage a mixed-OS fleet
Built-in web management UI

Built into the core workflowPossible with extra setup or integrationNot a core feature

Why drift matters: when changes are made independently after installation, workstations tend to become different over time. Nixorium reapplies one declared NixOS state across the lab; Ansible can enforce desired state through playbooks, while image-led workflows generally return a machine to a captured baseline by reimaging it.

This compares the core projects, not every third-party extension or a custom stack. Clonezilla and FOG remain strong image-led choices; Ansible is strong for heterogeneous in-place automation; Foreman covers a wider infrastructure lifecycle.

Evaluate Nixorium

Check one representative workstation.

Confirm UEFI boot, network policy, disk selection, and the recovery model on the hardware your room actually uses.

Review requirements See how it works Set up the controller