Bare Metal (PC Farm)
While the majority of DaDesktop operations rely on virtual desktops, certain tasks demand the performance and specificity of physical hardware. With the Bare Metal solution, every participant is allocated a dedicated physical desktop or server, all overseen and controlled centrally through DaDesktop.
Dedicated Hardware per User
Rather than sharing virtual resources, each participant receives an exclusive physical machine to work on.
Remote Classroom Management
Integrate existing physical classrooms into DaDesktop to administer and monitor the machines from any location, eliminating the need for on-site presence.
Use Cases for Bare Metal
- Deploying software that requires direct hardware access and cannot function within a virtualized environment, such as ONAP and OpenStack.
- Utilizing specific hardware components that do not support virtualization, including specialized GPUs, Mellanox network cards, and other dedicated network equipment.
- Delivering training courses where firmware updates or direct interaction with physical hardware is a core part of the curriculum.
- Maintaining and managing physical classroom infrastructures remotely.
Operational Mechanism
Each physical device is linked to a DaDesktop node using a specific control cable known as ddnexus. To initiate this setup, users simply select the "Metal PC" option when provisioning a standalone or fresh-start desktop. Once configured, the system deploys the environment directly onto the physical hardware.
Understanding the PC Farm Architecture
Existing office desktops can be integrated into the network to act as Bare Metal nodes. Within this architecture, each physical desktop unit is referred to as a potato. The central server responsible for orchestrating these nodes is known as a pumpkin (also identified as the DaDesktop node or ddnode). The physical USB cable that establishes the connection between each potato and the pumpkin is called a potato stalk.
These potato stalk cables can typically be sourced from online marketplaces such as eBay and Alibaba.
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