[TriLUG] Home lab setup recommendation

[Ron Kelley via TriLUG]

What specifically do you mean by clustering?  Are you trying to share resources between the two devices in real time?  Or, do you plan on running a virtual machine on one (laptop) then move it to your other (AMD) system?  Given the two systems have unlike CPUs, you can't move (in realtime) a VM between them.  You can, however, install VMWare Workstation on your Ubuntu system and copy the VM to your AMD system later.  Or, better yet, use an NFS mount to host your VM files so the AMD and laptop systems can see the same VMs.

As for your blender app, it sounds to me you need to put your NVidia GT 610 GPU in "pass-through" mode to allow the VM to directly manage it.  If so, I suggest installing VMWare (ESXi or Workstation) on your ADM box and pass the GPU directly to a VM.  Look at this thread here:  https://communities.vmware.com/thread/469681?start=0&tstart=0   

My suggestion: install ESXi on your AMD, create your VMs as necessary, and control them via remote control (VNC, etc).  For your blender app, use the suggestion above to enable pass-thru mode.  To manage the VMs, use VMWare Workstation on your laptop and have it connect to your ESXi server.  VMWare workstation will happily management remote VMs...

Hope this helps.



On 1/4/2017 12:47 PM, vikram sai balaji ulaganathan via TriLUG wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> Available hardware:
> 
> I have an old HP DV6700 laptop with intel core 2 duo 2.16 GHZ and 3GB RAM.
> This has ubuntu in it.
> 
> I also built a small desktop of AMD Athlon X4 860K (quad core) 3.7 GHZ with
> NVidia GT 610 graphics card. This has ubuntu as the primary os while arch
> Linux is used when blender is needed.
> 
> Requirement:
> 
> Learning Blender:
> 
> I wanted to learn blender and only Arch Linux was the best option to enable
> proprietary cuda driver to speed up my rendering. So I have to be
> physically on my desktop to do the rendering. The problem is that my
> desktop is connected to my TV (Only TV at home) in the hall and I have to
> be close enough to do all the work and it affects everyone else.
> 
> I wanted to see if I can cluster the HP laptop and desktop and run VM's on
> them.
> 
> The idea is to use the laptop as a mini server to first create my blender
> files with low resolution rendering and once I am satisfied with my
> changes, move it to the desktop and start the rendering there with more
> fine tuning.
> 
> Running DLNA & learning sys / app containers:
> 
> Also I wanted to run dlna server on my laptop to save power. And multiple
> VM's on my desktop to try different OS / servers, just to gain experience
> in system and app containers.
> 
> Questions:
> 
> 1. Has anyone clustered two different architecture based machines and
> created servers as a home lab?
> 
> I have seen videos of XenServer (Xen Project), Proxmox, Pelican HPC,
> OpenVZ, archivista.ch (did not work) & bhyve. I have yet to understand
> clustering multiple architecture. I am a newbie when it comes to clustering
> / home lab setup.
> 
> 2. What would be your recommendation on servers at home and is there a gui
> / web based software similar to proxmox or xen that I can use on my
> personal laptop (not the HP) to control their start / stop and connections
> to VM's created in them.
> 
> My primary preference will be free of charge software / one-time fee.
> 
> Thanks to all in advance for your advice
> 
> Vikram
>