Lesson 3.6 — Thin clients, servers and virtual servers: what to include and how to describe them
This lesson helps the learner identify thin clients, servers, virtual servers, hypervisors and VDI servers that are in scope for Cyber Essentials.
CE questionnaire questions:
A2.7
What You'll Be Able to Do
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- create a checked inventory of in-scope thin clients and server environments
- including quantities and operating systems
- identify any unsupported
- unknown or externally managed systems that need investigation before submission.
Why This Matters
It explains what must be listed, how to describe operating systems clearly, and why hosted, virtualised or outsourced servers must not be ignored.
The most common problems are:
- saying there are no servers because none are in the office;
- forgetting virtual servers;
- forgetting hypervisors;
- forgetting VDI servers;
The Core Rule
A.2.6.1 asks for thin clients in scope, including quantity, make and operating system.
A2.7 asks for servers, virtual servers, virtual server hosts / hypervisors and VDI servers in scope, including quantity and operating system.
Common Mistakes
- saying there are no servers because none are in the office;
- forgetting virtual servers;
- forgetting hypervisors;
- forgetting VDI servers;
- forgetting remote desktop session hosts;
- forgetting cloud-hosted virtual machines;
Copy This
Work through the workbook activity for this lesson. Each question maps directly to the CE questionnaire.
Quick Checklist
Before moving on, make sure you can say yes to these:
- [ ] What does A.2.6.1 ask for?
- [ ] Do thin clients need to be supported and receive security updates?
- [ ] What does A2.7 ask for?
- [ ] Are virtual servers still servers for Cyber Essentials?
- [ ] Why must hypervisors be considered?
Your Action
Do this now — it takes 10–20 minutes.
List all servers and virtual machines in scope. Include hypervisors. Add to Section A2.
Key Takeaway
This inventory feeds into later firewall, secure configuration, update, access control and malware protection lessons.
Your Workbook Activity
Complete: Thin client and server inventory
This covers questionnaire questions: A2.7
Next Lesson
In the next lesson: Tablets and mobile devices: company-owned, BYOD and cloud access