Bare Metal (PC Farm)
While the majority of DaDesktop operations rely on virtual desktop environments, certain tasks demand the capabilities of physical hardware. Bare Metal provisioning ensures that each participant is assigned a dedicated physical desktop or server, all seamlessly administered through the DaDesktop platform.
Dedicated physical infrastructure
Rather than relying on virtualized environments, each participant is provided with a unique, dedicated physical machine.
Remote management of physical labs
Integrate existing classroom environments with DaDesktop to oversee the hardware fleet from a distance, eliminating the need for on-site presence.
Scenarios requiring Bare Metal
- Applications that are incompatible with virtualization, such as ONAP and OpenStack.
- Hardware components that cannot be virtualized, including specific GPUs, Mellanox network cards, and other specialized network equipment.
- Training modules where firmware interaction or direct access to physical hardware is a core learning objective.
- Existing physical classroom configurations that require centralized, remote administration.
Operational Workflow
Every physical device is linked to a DaDesktop node via a control cable known as ddnexus. When initiating a standalone or fresh-start desktop instance, simply choose the "Metal PC" option to trigger the direct deployment of the environment onto the physical hardware.
PC Farm Architecture
Existing office desktops can be integrated to function as Bare Metal nodes within the PC Farm. Within this framework, each individual physical desktop is referred to as a potato. The central server responsible for orchestrating these devices is known as a pumpkin (specifically, the DaDesktop node, or ddnode). The USB connection that links each potato to the pumpkin is termed a potato stalk.
These potato stalk cables can be sourced from marketplaces such as eBay and Alibaba.
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