Virtual Linux Labs

[agarabaghi]

So we are not a comp sci school, but we have a comp sci department who wants a virtual linux lab as they do not have hardware to run linux on.

 

The goal of the lab will be to allow students to have a dedicated desktop / profile where they can make changes and save them. We want to run Centos 7, but like i said we can just load up 12 laptops, or 12 desktop on campus and dedicated them to this class.

 

We don't have any vdi licenses, and i spent all day trying to create Linux Pool in the new hyperv only to find out it is not supported (i believe, and only Windows Pools can be made).

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated. We have thought about making 1 VM, and giving it 12 users (all of the students), restricting its accessibility on our network etc... but we would like to hear what other institutions are doing.

 

Thanks!

[halbert5150]

Personally I use vmwares free ESXi for this. ESXi plays nice with either windows or nix desktops. Setup a centos Vm, create 12 unique logons / vnc profiles. Then have the students install a vnc vlient to access the server.

[agarabaghi]

Yea, will just need to see how deep this class is going to be going. I would hate for 1 student to mess up the whole VM and cause it to go down and not allow other students to access it etc... We run ESXi already and that was a suggestion.

[OB1]

Yea, will just need to see how deep this class is going to be going. I would hate for 1 student to mess up the whole VM and cause it to go down and not allow other students to access it etc... We run ESXi already and that was a suggestion.

I wouldn't worry too much about this.

Linux has always been designed as a multi-user system.