[K12OSN] teaching kids sys admin with VM's

[Robert Arkiletian]

Wondering if I could run k12ltsp 5EL for a full class of 30 kids. But
in addition to the ltsp environment, each kid also have a vmware VM so
I can teach them to install/configure a Linux OS.

My students like Linux but many of them are not comfortable installing
it at home. One of the main barriers is that they have no experience
installing/configuring an OS. They never get a chance to be root in my
class. I could also teach them how to setup their own apache web
server.

Problem: what are the sys req of such a box?

Could this handle it:
dual  -  quad core Xeons/Opterons (8 cores total)
16GB ram (approx 512MB per person)
4 15k rpm scsi in a raid

Any pitfalls people see?
For one I am wary of kids installing games in their VM's. I can't
restrict what they do in their own VM's.
I am also worried their VM's may break my ltsp setup. Could that happen?
Also that they would start services on eth1 (outside network). Maybe I
can restrict this, not sure. Wondering if this idea would be better on
it's own box on the internal network. If so then how would they access
it, vnc, nx?

ideas, comments welcome.

-- 
Robert Arkiletian
Eric Hamber Secondary, Vancouver, Canada
Fl_TeacherTool http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/Fl_TeacherTool/
C++ GUI tutorial http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/