Bare Metal (PC Farm)
While the majority of DaDesktop operations utilise virtual desktop environments, specific tasks require direct access to physical hardware. The bare metal feature ensures that each participant is allocated a dedicated physical desktop or server, all centrally managed within the DaDesktop ecosystem.
Dedicated hardware per user
Participants are provided with their own physical machines, bypassing the need for virtual desktop instances.
Remote management of physical classrooms
Integrate existing classroom infrastructure with DaDesktop to oversee machines without the necessity of on-site presence.
Scenarios requiring bare metal access
- Software applications that do not support virtualisation, such as ONAP and OpenStack.
- Hardware components that cannot be virtualised, including specific GPUs, Mellanox cards, and specialised network equipment.
- Training courses where firmware manipulation or interaction with physical hardware is integral to the curriculum.
- Physical classroom configurations that demand remote administrative control.
Operational mechanics
Every physical machine is linked to a DaDesktop node via a control cable known as ddnexus. When provisioning a standalone or fresh-start desktop, simply choose the "Metal PC" option to deploy the environment directly onto the physical hardware.
PC Farm Architecture
Existing office desktops can be integrated to function as bare metal nodes. In this setup, each physical desktop is designated as a potato. The central server responsible for their management is referred to as a pumpkin (also known as a DaDesktop node or ddnode). The USB cable connecting each potato to the pumpkin is termed a potato stalk.
Potato stalk cables are readily available on marketplaces such as eBay and Alibaba.
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