Bare Metal (PC Farm)
While the majority of DaDesktop operations occur within virtual environments, specific scenarios demand the power of physical hardware. The Bare Metal (PC Farm) feature allows each participant to access a dedicated physical desktop or server, all centrally administered through the DaDesktop platform.
Dedicated hardware for every user
Rather than sharing a virtual instance, each participant is assigned their own distinct physical machine.
Remote management of physical classrooms
Integrate existing classroom environments into DaDesktop to oversee and control the machines, eliminating the need for on-site presence.
Scenarios requiring bare metal access
- Applications that are incompatible with virtualization, such as ONAP and OpenStack.
- Hardware components that cannot be fully virtualized, including specific GPUs, Mellanox network cards, and other specialized network equipment.
- Training modules where firmware updates or direct interaction with physical hardware is a core learning objective.
- Physical classroom setups that require centralized remote administration.
Operational mechanism
Physical machines link to a DaDesktop node via a specific control cable known as ddnexus. To set up a standalone or fresh-start environment, simply select the "Metal PC" option. The desktop environment is then provisioned directly onto the physical hardware.
PC Farm terminology
Existing office desktops can be integrated to function as bare metal nodes. In this architecture, each physical desktop is referred to as a potato. The central server responsible for managing these devices is known as a pumpkin (essentially the DaDesktop node, or ddnode). The USB cable connecting each potato to the pumpkin is termed a potato stalk.
Potato stalk cables can be sourced from retailers such as eBay and Alibaba.
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