So serverpc is now complete with RAM and excluding the HDD bracket which should come on Monday. It proves to be quite capable of running 12 GB VMs for different versions of Qgis so that part of it looks OK. I have it installed with Debian 9.3 and not much more than Virtualbox at the moment to host the VMs.
For hosting backups it just looks like I will need to install the SSH daemon to host a remote repository which will let the computers connect to it. I need to do more work on this in coming weeks to see how well it will work.
It's been good to be testing Qgis 2.99 again without worrying about Mainpc running out of disk space for virtual machines and also be able to use three computers together to accomplish mapping tasks with six screens, better than trying to have three screens hooked onto one computer. For example I have been looking on one computer at video clips of the Taieri Gorge line, which I can step to the next frame without having to switch window on mainpc. This means I can easily keep the video clip in sync with the map on a different computer, especially as each computer has its own keyboard and mouse.
Whether I can RDP to a remote VM on serverpc and use it to do maps remains to be seen. My previous impression was that RDP clients are too limited in resolution to be as good as drawing directly on a canvas. With the nearest screen for serverpc being right to the side of the centre screen connected to mainpc this is probably not an issue anyway.
What remains to be done is to install the shelf that serverpc sits on. I have picked up some more bolts from the hardware shop and doing that, and the shelf on top of the drawer cabinet, are the things to be finished hopefully over the weekend. Reinstating some sort of shelf for drinking glasses is a possibility as well if the proposed solution involving the drawer cabinet isn't workable, and it seems it may not be, partly because of a risk of spilling onto the scanner if that is slid out.
serverpc currently has a logitech K230 compact wireless keyboard (and MS wireless mouse) attached to it, as well as the KVM cable to allow it to be controlled by the main keyboard and mouse that I use. This logitech keyboard seems to be to cope with being in close proximity to two other wireless logitech keyboards (all three of which are different models) and a MS multimedia wireless keyboard, as well as a Logitech wireless mouse and two MS wireless mice. However this keyboard seems to have a fault where pressing the Tab key results in the backtick key being pressed as well. I don't have the receipt to be able to prove it is faulty and needing return so it will just stay on this computer for now, since I can use the main keyboard as well. It only seems to affect using the tab key and not have issues with any other key.
