ArchLinux/KVM Multi-GPU Server as VDI-HOST

gshearer · 2015-10-13 13:57:57

Hey all,

Hopefully a fun conversation. So, every two years or so, my son and I rebuild our gaming rigs. This is one of those years. So, I'm tinkering around with the idea of using thin/zero clients and a server-beast that lives in the basement.

Professionally, I'm a network/systems engineer, and I work for an infrastructure services company. We build VDI solutions routinely for clients, based of course on "Enterprisey" things like VMware, Cisco UCS, blah blah blah. But at home, I've been running Linux on everything since MCC distribution (anyone old enough to remember that?)

So I'm looking for an open source way to do this. Here are the obstacles as I understand them:

1. There's no Linux vGPU driver for nvidia stuff yet - but I can use VFIO to map one card to one guest. I guess that's ok, but not really ideal. Of course, the goal is to share the work load across multiple cards. I'm sure someone is probably working on this stuff, but maybe you all are aware of something usable. Maybe there's an AMD solution? I also realize that KVMGT is in the works, but I'm not really interested in using Intel GPUs for this.

2. Need a cheap thin-client (sub $100). There seems to be more than one RPIv2 thin client projects out there which look interesting, but the requirement is to be able to drive two monitors (dual head) with at least 1080P each, but preferably 2560x1440 and eventually 4k. Might consider two RPIv2's driven by two guests, and something to glue a single keyboard/mouse to each.

3. My son won't require this, but I require the ability to connect to both Windows and Linux systems. Currently, my main desktop is all ArchLinux - I can dual-boot into Windows for gaming but these days the stuff I play runs fine under WINE - but I do need Windows for various work related things. Fun to think of a thin-client VDI running linux desktop - but with RDP windows (or even other spice sessions) into Windows stuff.

4. Lastly, price. Has to be reasonable. And by reasonable, I mean similar in totals to building a couple of gaming rigs that are roughly gonna be around $1000 each. Old gaming rigs of course get repurposed for the server farm In fantasy land, it'd be nice to build a server that has a couple of GRID cards, but.. alas, budget is finite.

What do you all think? After reading what I could find -- I'm leaning towards just building new rigs this year, and looking at this again in a year or two. Seems a bit early, but I thought I'd get your opinion.

Last edited by gshearer (2015-10-13 14:04:57)

Arch Linux

#1 2015-10-13 13:57:57

ArchLinux/KVM Multi-GPU Server as VDI-HOST

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