Re: [Xen-users] Multi headed, Multi user partially virtualized environment - feasible?

[Rudi Ahlers <Rudi@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Jul 9, 2011 at 5:33 PM, Andreas <register090711c@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello all,

I've got an idea and am unsure of how difficult/possible it would be. Its at least pretty ambitious.

From the info i found, the pure linux part seems to be a bit complicated but seems doable, but as i have zero knowledge of xen yet, i don't know if the virtualized windows part will work.

So, any thoughts or experiences on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Idea:

Multimedia/IT-Infrastructure using (mostly) a single strong server and many "zero-clients".

1 Server:

Core i7 quad, 8+ GB RAM, 4+ TB HDD, etc

Two 3D graphics cards with 2 DVI/HDMI ports each

A PCIe 1x  graphics card with another 2 ports

10-20 "zero clients" replacing all TVs and PCs in the house:

-Cheap TFTs with HDMI port (all within the 15m maximum HDMI cable length)

-a few HDMI matrix switches so the servers 6 graphic ports can be switched to the different displays

-USB hub connected via a tree of hubs to the server

-USB mouse, keyboard, soundcard connected to the hub

1-4 "virtual clients"

VNC sessions over the network

While idle, the displays should display the time, pictures, news, etc.

When activated, the user gets a list of (virtualized) OSes, along with "internetbrowser only" or "tv only".

When an OS is chosen, the user can work at that client as if the OS would have been booted on a normal PC.

Up to 6 users could work on the zero clients at the same time (max 1 per VM & client).

The direct HDMI connection, without using VNC oder network at all, would allow to run 3D games in a virtual windows7 at full frame rates.

All USB hardware connected to a clients hub would be directly accessible to the OS in the VM, like on a local PC.

If only a single VM is running, nearly all the RAM and CPU would be available for its use.

What do you think?

Is it possible to build such a thing, if yes how difficult/much work would it be?

Is Xen the best way to go in such a szenario?

thanks a lot for your ideas,

   Andreas

_______________________________________________

 

AFAIK a normal PC can only accept input from one keyboard and one mouse at a time. So your biggest challenge would be to figure out how to bind a mouse and keyboard to one specific VM, then another keyboard & mouse to another VM.

 

One would normally use a dumb terminal for each user who needs to connect in this case, so I'm not sure if what you want todo would be possible with today's hardware.

 

 

 

--
Kind Regards
Rudi Ahlers
SoftDux

Website: http://www.SoftDux.com
Technical Blog: http://Blog.SoftDux.com
Office: 087 805 9573
Cell: 082 554 7532

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