Bare Metal (PC Farm)
While the majority of DaDesktop operations occur within virtual desktops, certain tasks require access to actual hardware. The bare metal option ensures that each participant is assigned their own dedicated physical desktop or server, all administered centrally through DaDesktop.
Dedicated Physical Hardware
Participants are allocated their own physical machines, ensuring direct hardware access rather than relying on virtual desktop environments.
Remote Management of Physical Classrooms
Integrate existing classroom environments with DaDesktop to oversee and manage the machines without requiring on-site presence.
When Bare Metal is Required
- Applications that cannot operate in virtualised environments, such as ONAP and OpenStack.
- Hardware components unsuitable for virtualisation, including specific GPUs, Mellanox cards, and various network devices.
- Training modules where firmware configuration or physical hardware interaction is a core component of the curriculum.
- Physical classroom configurations that necessitate remote administrative control.
Operational Overview
Each physical machine links to a DaDesktop node using a control cable known as ddnexus. To initiate a standalone or fresh-start desktop, select the "Metal PC" option. This allows the desktop environment to be deployed directly onto the physical hardware.
PC Farm Architecture
Existing office desktops can be integrated to function as bare metal nodes. Within this setup, each individual physical desktop is referred to as a potato. The server responsible for managing these units is termed a pumpkin (also known as a DaDesktop node or ddnode). The USB connection linking each potato to the pumpkin is designated as a potato stalk.
Potato stalk cables can be sourced from retailers such as eBay and Alibaba.
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