[GLLUG] virtualization/netboot question

[Sean O'Malley]

I have a couple of computers at home(doh). My little cousins like to play
on them on occasion.  However, some of the programs they like to use are
windows based,and some of them are linux based. I like to use the
computers for linux based things and they are running a distributed
client when not in use.

What I -want- is a system that lets me netboot the machines, copy vm image
files to the netbooted system's harddrive. Allow me to launch the VM in a
fullscreen kiosk mode. (copy a new image file in the background while they
are using the vm that is in use.) Let them log in as admin let them
completely screw up the system. When they logout or restart, they get a
nice fresh image to work with. (They have shared filespace on my server
because i do end up wiping out the machines often as I retool for
different projects.)

I would like this to work with both linux and windows so you can pick n
choose which OS you want to run/destroy.

I was going to use the linux k12 or cobbler for the netboot system.
Then I was going run qemu on top of it for my choice of VM's to use and
just adjust qemu to run fullscreen in more of a kiosk mode after selection
of the vm to actually use.

I was going to manage/reload the vm images using the unused bandwidth in
the background with a shell script, and do checksums on the images to
verify the copy completed, etc.

I found the paravirtualization drivers for kvm for Windows and I use those
on my laptop and it seems to work okay for my use.

I can handle it if say cobbler can drop the customized image onto the
disk, wiping the drive isn't that bad, but I do have different sized
drives on the system.

I could just use a terminal server, but that doesnt really let me leverage
the horsepower of the client machines which means my -real- projects won't
have enough horsepower when they are screwing around.

Does anyone know of a project that lets me do this?  Or know of a better
way to do this? comments/flames?