A VirtualBox Server With Nothing To Do

December 19, 2011 9:58 AM

I have a Windows 2003 server with VirtualBox running in my colo cabinet, and I really don't have anything mission-critical running on it, and a bunch of unused cycles just sitting there. What fun can I have with it?

I already have BOINC installed and process SETI@home and a couple other projects, so thank you for the suggestion, but I'm already at that point. I also have VirtualBox installed on it, and in theory, it can run dozens, if not hundreds, of virtual Windows XP sessions, if I wanted to mirror a bunch. I can RDP in to the main session, or any of the VirtualBox sessions.

Limitations: it is on a 1MB/sec connection, and my mission-critical servers use about 70% of that on a constant basis, so while it has internet access, things like "games!" or "streaming server!" or "torrents!" aren't good suggestions. I know, that eliminates a lot of the cool stuff.

But, there must be something fun I can do with this computer, or one virtual machine, or dozens of virtual machines, that somebody might have suggestions for. Thanks much!

posted by AzraelBrown to Technology (2 answers total)

Join the NTP pool. It doesn't take much CPU or bandwidth, and provides a good service to the general internet community. I have a virtual Linux server in the pool and it barely makes a dent in my CPU or traffic graphs.
posted by zsazsa at 1:50 PM on December 19, 2011

More BOINC and BOINCish projects at distributedcomputing.
posted by Thug at 12:46 PM on December 20, 2011