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Archive for the Microsoft Category

New step-by-step guides for testdriving VDI in Windows Server 2008 R2.

18. September 2009 by Tony.

Microsoft has updated the step-by-step guides for testdriving the VDI functionality in Windows Server 2008 R2. These are the two guides that were updated:

Deploying Virtual Desktop Pools by Using RemoteApp and Desktop Connection Step-by-Step Guide

Virtual desktop pools are groups of identically configured virtual machines that users can connect to by using either RemoteApp and Desktop Connection or Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access). In this guide, we will set up a virtual desktop pool and connect to the pool by using RemoteApp and Desktop Connection.

Deploying Personal Virtual Desktops by Using RemoteApp and Desktop Connection Step-by-Step Guide

Personal virtual desktops are virtual machines that are assigned to a user within your organization and available by using either RemoteApp and Desktop Connection or Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access). In this guide, we will set up a personal virtual desktop and connect to it by using RemoteApp and Desktop Connection.

Posted in Microsoft, VDI | No Comments »

Licensing Centralized Desktops: Microsoft VDI and WS08 R2 Remote Desktop Services

18. September 2009 by Tony.

Microsoft is holding a partners webcast on 21st Sep 2009, 6pm GMT “Licensing Centralized Desktops: Microsoft VDI and WS08 R2 Remote Desktop Services”. This session’ll provide an opportunity to learn about key licensing aspects of Microsoft VDI Suites and Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services Client Access License (RDS-CAL). Microsoft’s new VDI offerings, the “VDI Standard Suite” and the “VDI Premium Suite”, slated to hit the price list in Oct, package key VDI infrastructure and management components from Microsoft and streamline the licensing to better line up with the existing VECD license. In addition, the new RDS-CAL, which’s replacing the familiar TS-CAL for traditional session virtualization infrastructure (aka Terminal Services), offers even greater infrastructure capabilities in Windows Server 208 R2; in this Academy Live session, also provide an update to the licensing terms of the new RDS-CAL in the context of the new RDS capabilities.

More info: Registration

Posted in Microsoft, VDI | No Comments »

Bare metal PC provisioning with Citix Provisioning server

8. September 2009 by Tony.

a few questions to ponder:

If I take one disk image and stream it to 1000 Physical thin client devices devices using Citrix Provisioning Server (not quite VDI) what licenses do I need?

According to the VECD Licensing guide:

These two diagrams illustrate the two core architectures possible with Microsoft VDI: static and dynamic.

In static mode, there is a one-to-one mapping of VMs to users. The more users you have, the more VMs you need.

VMs are stored on a SAN or NAS and execute on the server. Desktops are presented on the PC or thin client, depending on the situation.

In a dynamic [Centralized] architecture there is only one master image. Instead of having to manage many dedicated images, you support one image that is automatically replicated as needed for users.

One would think that if you’re using bare mental provisioning you would NOT need a VECD license as the image is running on the local device.

After all VECD stands for “Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop”

Any comments?

Posted in Microsoft, Citirx, VDI | No Comments »

Survey for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

8. September 2009 by Tony.

I found the below on SANs.org, apparently written by Tim Proffitt and Emilio Valente

Survey for the First Company using Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

Objective:

We interviewed 2 companies that actually are using VDI to understand what their experience was and to collect useful information for companies that are going to adopt this type of technology. The summarized output for the first company is shown below:

Expectations

What were the reasons that motivated your company to adopt VDI?

There are two current use cases and one proposed use case. (1) Application Development required desktops for dev and test. Rather than provide physical machines, we utilized VDI. (2) For end-users who are evaluating new software, we provide VDI desktops for testing purposes. (3) We are currently evaluating delivering VDI desktops in place of active desktops for the light user.

My long-term objective is to have disposable end-points: machines that are light-weight, portable, without data, and inexpensive.

http://www.jwgoerlich.us/blogengine/post/2009/05/26/Disposable-end-point-model.aspx

What are the major advantages for your company to use VDI?

Reliability.

Roll-back capability thru snapshots.

Cost control (no additional hardware required).

What are the overall benefits you obtain from the adoption of VDI? Short-term? Long-term?

Flexibility

If we replace several desktops with VDI and thin notebooks (e.g., Netbook style devices), we cut costs and improve performance.

Evaluation

How did your team go about evaluating VDI?

Partnered with a VAR for evaluating Citrix and Microsoft solutions

Four week pilot project

What type of VDI was tested — PC or thin client? What type was deployed?

Both.

In the current use cases, 1 and 2 above, people access their VDI desktops by RDP’ing from their standard daily desktop PC.

In the future use case, 3 above, people will access VDI using thin client notebooks or customized netbooks.

How many applications were tested on the VDI environment?

Roughly a dozen.

How did you calculate for the size of the backend server infrastructure?

We went with a standard 4:1 model for licensing purposes and performance.

We ran performance counters over a four week period to gather usage statistics on our desktops, and estimated the required processor and memory count.

Challenges

What challenges did your company encounter during the integration process with existing equipment?

None, really. It was very straight forward.

How geographically dispersed is your VDI and did this cause performance issues?

The current usage is all over the local network.

The future usage will be local plus remote over a VPN.

Performance issues of RDP from a dedicated terminal over a VPN are nominal for most Internet connections.

What challenges have your technical staffs had to confront?

It was, at first, difficult to build the Windows XP and Windows Vista VDI images.

There were some challenges in running the Integration components. But these were minor, and quickly overcome.

What challenges has your management had to confront?

The main challenge is in designing a VDI infrastructure with a cost model

significantly more attractive than simply maintaining the desktops. The trouble here is that server and storage hardware is significantly more expensive than commodity desktops, which erodes the cost advantages of a centralized model.

How does your organization perform patch management on the VDI?

We use Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager to deploy, patch, and maintain both physical and virtual desktops.

How successful were you in creating a secure profile?

Very successful.

What challenges have your security professionals had to confront?

The primary consideration is that the physical hardware is the security boundary, not the virtual machine. Thus all VMs that run on a particular hypervisor must be in the same security tier.

Securing Windows Core as our hypervisor was significantly easier than securing the full installation of Windows due to its limited footprint.

How long has your company been performing technology “renewals”?

My firm has been around since 1985. Our technology “renewal” track record stretches back to when there were typewriters.

How has that (the technology renewals) impacted VDI adoption?

Not applicable. My goal is to have disposable end-points and manage them as inexpensive replaceable devices. We will likely continue a three year refresh cycle, which corresponds to the warranty period.

How has VDI altered your disaster recovery plans?

Not yet. The combination of VDI and notebook thin clients or netbooks strengthens our pandemic response plan. The plan calls for people to work from home. Rather than providing loaner notebooks, which are costlier, we provide people with standard devices that have no data and access the VDI desktop over the VPN. This reduces our risk exposure for data loss and breach should the devices be misplaced.

Costs

What kind of training have you allocated for your staff?

On the job training, as part of the pilot, was all that we required.

VDI utilizes the same desktop OS and thus does not require additional training or tools to support.

VDI utilizes the same hypervisor (Hyper-V) and, again, does not require additional training or tools to support.

What kind of training have you allocated for your users?

We demonstrated how to use Remote Desktop to connect to their workstations.

What was the cost increase in the transition period?

Nominal.

What is the maintenance cost of DVI compared to traditional infrastructure?

Comparable for software support. Significantly less for hardware support (approximately 75% less time spent on supporting hardware.)

How long did it take for your company to complete the switch over to VDI?

Not applicable, as we are currently running mixed VDI and traditional desktops.

Overall evaluation

What is the major disadvantage using VDI versus traditional infrastructure?

The expense of data center grade hardware and storage.

How have you dealt with laptop deployments?

Using netbooks with WiFi and VPN access.

Based on your experience, what do you recommend to a company that would like to adopt VDI?

Companies should absolutely consider adding VDI to their desktop support toolkit. The key metric is the best end-user experience at the lowest price-point. Application virtualization (such as Terminal Services and Citrix XepApp), desktop virtualization, and traditional desktop delivery all have a role to play in meeting the metric.