Multi-VM Server Idea - Doable?

[Kezmodo]

Hey all,

 

Apologies in advance for my ignorance on this subject. 

So I've been tasked with finding a "creative solution" at work. Essentially, we have six-to-eight TVs set up in the office to monitor call logs, stats, etc - each team has their own TV that displays the information they need to monitor, which can vary. Currently we have one computer per TV running in the server room with a complicated extension system to get the video output to the right TV. These are old machines that make a lot of noise, use a fair amount of power, and take up a bunch of space. 

My idea is to build a server that runs multiple Virtual Machines; one for each TV displaying whatever that team needs, accessible via remote desktop connection if changes need to be made. My main problem is that I simply don't know enough about servers or virtual machines, and so I have no idea whether this is even possible.

Has anyone attempted this before? If it's possible, is it even worth it? What kind of system requirements am I looking at?

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

 

[TheLaserCucumber]

You can run multiple VMs with VMware ESXi for example.

But I think to see what they do, you have to have at least a NUC or something like that hooked up to the TVs and connected to the VM via a remote desktop connection.

It's probably possible in another way, but I don't know it

[SpaceGhostC2C]

I know barely enough to say two things:

 

- It is possible, through a "7 gamers, 1 CPU" kind of setup, except you need much less power in terms of hardware

- It is also possible through a single server-grade GPU, through "GPU virtualization" (I'm making that up), basically sharing a powerful GPU between many VMs running in the same host.

 

Now you need someone who knows better to tell you the details of it or whether there are other options  

[Kezmodo]

Just now, TheLaserCucumber said:

You can run multiple VMs with VMware ESXi for example.

But I think to see what they do, you have to have at least a NUC or something like that hooked up to the TVs and connected to the VM via a remote desktop connection.

It's probably possible in another way, but I don't know it

I should probably clarify, I would probably want to stick with the current set up as far as display cable extensions if possible, as that already works fine. I assume I might need multiple GPUs to achieve this?

[Kezmodo]

1 minute ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I know barely enough to say two things:

 

- It is possible, through a "7 gamers, 1 CPU" kind of setup, except you need much less power in terms of hardware

- It is also possible through a single server-grade GPU, through "GPU virtualization" (I'm making that up), basically sharing a powerful GPU between many VMs running in the same host.

 

Now you need someone who knows better to tell you the details of it or whether there are other options  

That is actually really useful info! Thanks

[WereCatf]

How much resources do the software running on each TV-set require? If it's rather lightweight stuff, I think the easiest and most reliable way would be just buying miniature-PCs, like e.g. UP Squared -- they're small, use little power and can still run 4K displays and stuff, if needed. As for VMs, if you insist on going with those, you could either buy a huge bunch of GPUs and passthrough each one to a different VM, or you could set up thin-clients for each TV-set and use VNC or Spice or similar for the remote-display -- I happen to run multiple VMs and I definitely love how performant Spice it.

[Kezmodo]

7 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

How much resources do the software running on each TV-set require? If it's rather lightweight stuff, I think the easiest and most reliable way would be just buying miniature-PCs, like e.g. UP Squared -- they're small, use little power and can still run 4K displays and stuff, if needed. As for VMs, if you insist on going with those, you could either buy a huge bunch of GPUs and passthrough each one to a different VM, or you could set up thin-clients for each TV-set and use VNC or Spice or similar for the remote-display -- I happen to run multiple VMs and I definitely love how performant Spice it.

Some excellent suggestions here - lots for me to get stuck into researching.
Thank you so much

[brob]

Depending on the software used, computer sticks might offer a solution.