[ale] Mass Machine Virtualization w/ Remote GUI Access

[Joe Knapka]

Jeff Hubbs wrote:

>I've got a situation where a number of users on a development shop LAN 
>are in a bad way because they're trying to run a number of different 
>Win2K3 Server virtual machines - done up in Microsoft Virtual PC - on 
>their desktops.  This has come to result in people trying to pull and 
>push around 4-6GB of MSVPC files on the LAN, and, of course, anyone who 
>wants to actually run an instance on MSVPC has to have scads of RAM and 
>this is often incompatible with various people's desktops and laptops 
>who may be running "only" 512MB, tops. 
>
>My way of addressing this would be to use VMware instead of MSVPC, 
>running it on an "uberserver" capable of  holding and running numerous 
>virtual machines at once, such that various people can connect to the 
>virtual machines at the display level from their own WinXP desktops and 
>laptops. 
>  
>
Ooh, this sounds like a perfect opportunity to go out and buy some of those
Tyan 8-CPU mobos we were discussing last week!

>It's that last part that I have a question about.  Given that it would 
>be nice if more than one person could actually connect remotely to any 
>one of these virtual machines (i.e., fighting over mouse/keyboard if so 
>inclined), how to best cover the remote access?
>
>Ways I'm aware of include Xorg+Cygwin, a commercial X Server for 
>Windows, VNC, or MS Terminal Services. [NOTE:  I assume that all but the 
>last would take place over OpenSSH].
>
>What do you think?
>  
>
Micro$haft wants you to pay for every terminal server connection, and if 
you run out,
you can't log into the machine at all, which is very annoying and seems 
to happen
all the freakin' time. All of our machines have VNC installed, so that 
we can get to
the machines even when folks have forgotten to log out the
two or three Remote Desktop sessions we're allowed on each one. I'd 
probably go with
VNC and see how that works. You might give RealVNC some money for their
"enterprise edition" and avoid having to muck about with SSH tunnels.

-- JK