Bare Metal (PC Farm)
While the majority of DaDesktop environments operate on virtual desktops, there are specific scenarios that require the performance and capabilities of physical hardware. With the Bare Metal option, each participant is allocated a dedicated physical desktop or server, all centrally managed through the DaDesktop platform.
Exclusive Physical Hardware
Instead of relying on virtual desktops, each participant is assigned a dedicated physical machine to ensure full resource availability.
Remote Classroom Management
Integrate existing physical classrooms into DaDesktop, enabling you to oversee and control the machines without requiring on-site presence.
Use Cases for Bare Metal
- Applications that are incompatible with virtualisation, such as ONAP and OpenStack.
- Hardware components that cannot be effectively virtualised, including specific GPUs, Mellanox cards, and other specialised network equipment.
- Training modules where interacting with firmware or physical hardware is a core component of the learning experience.
- Existing physical classroom configurations that require remote administrative control.
Operational Workflow
Each physical machine links to a DaDesktop node using a control cable known as ddnexus. To initiate a standalone or fresh-start desktop, simply choose the "Metal PC" option during setup. The desktop environment is then deployed directly onto the physical hardware.
PC Farm Architecture
Existing office desktops can be integrated to function as bare metal nodes. In this ecosystem, each physical desktop is referred to as a potato. The server responsible for managing these nodes is called a pumpkin (essentially the DaDesktop node, or ddnode). The USB connection that links each potato to the pumpkin is termed a potato stalk.
USB cables suitable for the potato stalk connection are readily available on platforms such as eBay and Alibaba.
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