Computers on a Sailboat


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Hi All,

I am an experienced IT person, but have little exposure to unraid. I have a sailboat that has 4 TVs in it, as well as a bunch of electronics. I would like to have 1 computer to run workstations for all the TVs. It would also interface with all the electronics using VMs and provide storage, etc.

I would like a little feedback on the thought process to make sure I'm going down the right path. I was planning on using a threadripper 1920 with something like a Gigabyte X399 AORUS PRO TR4 ATX Motherboard. I was thinking of using 5700xt or 2070 passthrough for the main TV and something basic like 1650s for the additional three. Everything is relatively close together in a sailboat, so I was hoping I could use bluetooth keyboards/mice for each of the workstations.

Is unraid the right solution here? Does this even make sense? Should I just drink rum like a normal sailor and do dumb things with computers at work? If this is the wrong place to post this, please let me know. It's my first post and I'm green here. Thanks for any feedback.

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Unraid can handle it, provided the hardware can. VERY few motherboards can provide enough separable resources to set up 4 independent passthrough VM's. I think perhaps the linus tech tips youtube channel may have covered something similar.

 

Above and beyond all that, my gut feeling is that you would be better off with low power thin clients or media players at the 3 auxiliary locations and only do passthrough on a single VM. My reasoning is that the power requirements for the hardware capable of 4 passthrough VM's is likely to be much higher.

 

I think your power / cooling / physical isolation / vibration resistance is going to be the major challenge.

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Have a look at Aster multi-seat software from Ibik.

 

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I've been trialing this in a Windows 10 VM and it really is the Cat's pyjamas.

 

It's an application that allows you set up multiple users in Windows, each with their own desktop, settings etc., and assign discrete inputs (mouse & keyboards) and a discrete GPU OUTPUT.

 

This means that you can have a single VM, a single GPU and multiple users/desktops, each with their own isolated mouse, keyboard and display but using only a single GPU. Its GPU sharing on the very (very) cheap!

 

Right now, I have a workstation user set up that the kids use for gaming and a home theatre desktop that connects to my cinema projector. Each can run simultaneously and are pretty much isolated from each other. There;'s a bit of pfaffing around to ensure each user has set up a different sound output device, but essentially it works amazingly well. I've watched a movie while the kids play Cities Skylines, with neither of us aware we're using the same VM and GPU!

 

I'm planning to write a detailed blog post soon on how I set this up, but it sounds like it would be ideal for your situation. If you don't envisage more than 2 of your displays being used at the same time, you might even get away with a single GPU and VM. Provided that you assign a goodly number of CPU cores and memory to the VM, you should be golden. For sure, a pair of VMs and a pair of GPUs would likely be all you need - leaving space for dedicated USB adapters passed through for best results!

 

The software is really designed for use in cyber cafes and the like, but as a way of maximising resources in a multi-functional environment like a maxed out unRAID server, it's the bees knees.

 

I'm sure there are similar alternative solutions, for sure, and this isn't the only game in town. And it's paid software. But they are running a Covid special extended (3 month) trial period at the moment,. so worth checking out.

 

By the way, I ran 4x virtual HTPCs on my old AMD FX based unRaid system (basic AMD HD5450 GPUs, single slot and fan-less for best space usage and silent operation). heck out my blog, linked in sig, for some of the madcap configs I've been through in my time!

 

Good luck!!

 

PS: @jonathanm's suggestion would also work really well for you. unRaid running an Emby docker and storing all your media with FireTV 4K clients plugged into each display with a Kodi front end & Emby plugin would be a great solution too!

 

 

Edited by meep
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Thanks @meep and @jonathanm! I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Your insights are extremely helpful.

 

The fire 4K sticks was my backup plan. I’m currently running an FX based VM server at home with emby, and agree that solution would fit the bill with much less hassle.

 

However, I’d really like each workstation to handle gaming. At home, that just means dedicated computers for each “gaming capable” client. A couple thousand watts of gaming juice for 4 computers won’t cause a problem. But on the boat, I feel like consolidating clients into one box is more efficient. Also, all the hdmi cords are already running to a centralized location. Removing gaming from the requirements is probably what’s going to happen.
 

I have heard that getting dedicated resources for 4 pcs using passthrough on unraid is difficult. Thanks for confirming that. I don’t want to be constantly screwing with things on the boat. Don’t get me wrong, I love complicated nerdy setups. I just don’t want to sink a month into getting this working. 

 

Aster looked very interesting, but I have to tell you their marketing makes me feel like it’s an outdated product build by a foreign company. It’s really a missed opportunity if the product is good. If they have a trial I may give it a spin.

 

As far as putting a computer on a bouncy boat, no spinning hard drives is the most obvious mitigation strategy. Everything else is going to be mounted to something that is shock resistant. We’ll see how it holds up.

 

I think I’ve convinced myself that a single VM passthrough is the way to go. The others will likely be thin clients or maybe Astor will work. Thanks again!

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2 hours ago, beardfiercely said:

 

Aster looked very interesting, but I have to tell you their marketing makes me feel like it’s an outdated product build by a foreign company. It’s really a missed opportunity if the product is good. If they have a trial I may give it a spin.

 

 

If you think the marketing looks outdated, wait until you see the product! 

 

It's clunky in the extreme, but it really does work very very well for its specific use case.

 

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