VMTN Blog

From Massimo Re Ferre':  Why Desktop Virtualization is not as easy as Server Virtualization. He brings up a number of barriers to thin client computing that have remained true over the years. I do think that this is the psychological one is the most important -- ever since Apple II's and IBM PC's began sneaking into corporations, they've been my personal computer. Even if the end user experience with thin client computing is fine, it still feels like the IT department is taking power away from me, the end user. All that being said, however, everything I hear says full steam ahead for VDI deployments.

- End-user Experience. There is a big difference between virtualizing a server and virtualizing a desktop from an end-user perspective. You, as a CIO / Sys Admin, can virtualize a server or even the whole server farm and no one at your company would even notice it. It's just your own decision to do that or not to. In a desktop virtualization scenario, as soon as you start deploying the first thin client you are opening it up to the whole company. Immediately you have exposed your decision to dozens / hundreds / thousands of  other individuals that, for good reasons or political reasons, will start to challenge you. Good reasons might be technical limitations that you have to compromise with as of today, limitations for which a thin client can sometimes hardly cope, in terms of local device attachment support / multimedia video performance / flexibility / off-line capabilities etc etc, with a standard desktop deployment. I can assure you that no single "average end-user" would ever realize that their mail system in the back is now running on a vm whereas yesterday it was physical; however even the more "IT-candid end-user" would understand that he / she is using Outlook from a "little box where I cannot even attach my iPOD anymore" as opposed to the PC he / she was used to! And there is when political problems start.

A clarification about VECD licensing from Warren Ponder at the Virtual Desktop Blog. Warren is referring to Rich Brambley's posting over at VM /ETC about The hidden cost of VDI - VECD. Note that in all of yesterday's sound-and-fury from Microsoft, they did reduce the VECD license cost from $78 to $23 dollars.

Link: VMware Communities: Virtual Desktop Blog: VMware VDI - Understanding VECD Licensing.

The initial white paper released explaining VECD created more confusion than clarity. I know I read it many times and each time, I came away with a new interpretation. Fortunately I have some close contacts at Microsoft I was able to sync up with, back in September, at VMworld. VECD was top of the list to get clarified. Who better to hear it from the horses mouth. At VMworld Microsoft was handing out a recently completed license brief that had yet to be published on the Microsoft web site.

This license brief as well as my conversation with the owner at Microsoft, went a long way in clarify things for me. Unfortunately, I failed to share it had posted when it did. I recommend, Anyone interested in better understanding VECD should read this license brief. It covers VECD for SA and VECD. The document is titled Licensing Vista for Use with Virtual Machine Technologies and can be found on the Volume Licensing Briefs site.

From Warren Ponder: Virtual Desktop Blog: VMware VDI - VDM 2.0 Beta now live.

VDM 2.0 is a new product. Over the last few months the team has been hard at work so we can deliver on the design goals we set for this release of the broker. At this stage we are really focused on simplicity and scaleabilty.

One of the biggest changes for the initial release from the original Propero technology is we have ported to Windows. This release is only supported on Windows 2003. ...

In the coming weeks I wil be sharing more on the architecture and available features. Anyone thats interested in participating in the beta can find the registration page this URL - VDM 2.0 Press Release

Two interesting posts from Warren on the Virtual Desktop Blog:

VDI - Cardinal Healthcare - Webinar.

One of the most innovative things I feel they accomplished was in how they executed their client side strategy. After evaluating different alternatives from PC’s to thin clients. They decided to go with low-end PC’s. Because VDI was new at the time, Justin’s team had to create their own custom image. The image is PXE booted from the network by each of the client end points. In essence this enabled them to create their own low cost unmanaged client end point. When a device is powered on it downloads its image from the network. Once the boot process is complete, the user is given a chooser created by Justin’s team for selecting the environment they need. Once the user has made their selection, a connection is established to their hosted virtual desktop. Simple, clean and affective.

Warren's post on using the new Longhorn Terminal Services feature RemoteApp engendered some lively discussion, including some illuminating comments from the CTO of Provision Networks. VDI + RemoteApp = Match made in heaven

One of the features I have been waiting to see from 2008 server and the Terminal Services team is RemoteApp. RemoteApp is a new feature that introduces usability concepts that have been around for a while, but have really started to take off even more, as the desktop environment continues to change.

So what is the concept? A RemoteApp application accessed from a Terminal Server displays as if it was another application loaded on the user’s local desktop. This concept is nothing new really. On the Terminal Services front there have always been seamless windows from Citrix. Sun’s SGD product had the concept of the integrated client that took the seamless windows concept a step further by integrating the applications into the start menu and desktop. On the virtualization front, its similar to the Unity feature of the VMware Fusion product for MAC.

And a highlight from the comment of Peter Ghostine, CTO of Provision Networks:

One of the reasons why many IT organizations are favoring VDI over TS is because VDI mainly revolves around hosting a "standard" Windows desktop OS. Therefore, no special TS know-how is required. And it's not just about TS know-how, but also about the myriad apps out there that just won't work out of the box on TS without drastic steps to mitigate multi-user conflicts. There are many use-cases that I've documented over the years.

Brian Madden wrote a previous paper on VDI (VMware Desktop Infrastructure -- using virtual desktops on virtual infrastructure) and SBC (server-based computing, using a terminal server or Citrix Presentation Server), where he laid out nicely the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches. He also has the clearest explanation of the Citrix Ardence vDisk and streaming technology that I have seen.

In the real world, no single approach is right for every situation, and now Brian follows up with an article talking about how he sees the two blending in your organization and sees it as sort of an 80-20 split:

How to address the  "other" 20%

VDI is not the be-all end-all to application delivery. Terminal Server-based SBC is a good foundation. ... This means that VDI technology is useful in any scenario where you have power users or users who need strange, non-terminal-server-compatible applications, but where the users still need the flexibility associated with traditional SBC environments. (Examples include connecting to applications from anywhere, over slow connections, etc.)

Massimo re Ferre' then makes a good comment on the article from a real-world perspective -- yes, 80% of apps could be delivered with SBC, but why aren't they, and can VDI help?

Scott Lowe has published two recent articles around VDI: one a review of Leostream Connection Broker:

It may be that some of the other CBs out there also work as well as Leostream; I don’t know since I haven’t had the opportunity to work with all of them (note to vendors:  I will delete blatant marketing pitches in the comments).  I do know that the Leostream product works well thus far.

It took me a little bit of time to get accustomed to how the Leostream broker works (different terminology, I suppose), but once I understood how it works I found it pretty easy to make it do what I wanted it to do.  The pieces are all interconnected, though, so allow me to walk through a set of steps in the event you find yourself using the Leostream product in the future.

and another on using Login Consultants' Flex Profile Kit, which

allows administrators to selectively save portions of a user’s profile to a simple file, which can then be reapplied at next logon. ... Using this functionality, we can mimic the effect of a roaming profile without having to modify any user objects in Active Directory (and thus limiting the impact to hosted desktops only).

MIchel Roth of Login Consultants runs the very fine thincomputing.net blog, by the way.

Martijn Lohmeijer's VDI project is progressing again, and this time he's getting a demo of the Wyse S10.

And the VMTN VDI Forum keeps going strong as well, with two of the longest threads in the world: VDI Resources and Connection Brokers Summary.

Brian Madden on VDI and Ardence. Link: When to use VDI, when to use server-based computing, and how the Citrix Ardence dynamic desktop fits into all this.

VDI, or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, is quickly entering the buzzword danger zone. At the most basic level, VDI technology is a new method for delivering desktops to users. Of course users have been using desktops for years, at first running locally on their own PCs, and more recently by accessing remote server-based computing (SBC) desktops running on Microsoft terminal servers or Citrix Presentation Servers.

Now that various VDI technologies have hit the market, peoples’ reactions are all over the place. Some people are talking about how VDI will replace or compete with SBC and traditional technologies. In this article I’ll explain why this isn’t the case, and how all three technologies (VDI, SBC, and traditional desktops) can be used together to provide a holistic desktop delivery solution for a company of any size.

I’ll also explore the technology that makes VDI a reality and discuss some of the roadblocks that may be encountered along the way. I’ll talk about the emergence and importance of a concept known as the “dynamic desktop,” and why this is needed for a “true” VDI solution.

Finally I’ll provide a quick overview of Citrix’s Ardence solution and describe how it can enable organizations to truly realize the “on demand” desktop, whether it’s VDI-based or traditional PC-based.

[via thincomputing.net, VMblog, and virtualization.info]

From VMware Forum regular Massimo re Ferre', a comparison table of the various "connection broker" options for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. The connection broker is the software 'traffic cop' that controls session access to the server-side virtual desktops or other shared resources. Link: Brokering technologies for client consolidation.

This page is intended to be a summary for the various brokering technologies available for the VMware VDI initiative. At least this was the initial intent.

As soon as I started working on this summary two things became clear:

1. while the idea of the connection broker was initially associated to the VMware VDI initiative, the concept and values of these brokers (or "infrastructure access" packages) has expanded a bit to encompass other client consolidation models such as the more traditional "Terminal Services" model as well as the niche "PC Blades" model. Shared Services (i.e. TS / Citrix deployments are just not death and certainly hosted desktop can't be a good fit for everything either). Not to mention that these connection brokers are or will be able to broker virtual machines hosted also on non-VMware type of hypervisors.

2. connection brokering is only one piece of the functionality that these "infrastructure access" packages provide. Session brokering is the simple concept of redirecting an end-user to an available OS/application image (either from a pool or his/her own end-user image). As you can see below these packages (at least some of those) provides much more than that. That's  the reason for which referring to them as "connection brokers" is kind of limited.
   

So in a nutshell: what started to be the "VDI connection brokers" are now brokering other things than simply VDI vm's as well as these "VDI connection brokers" are doing more than "simply brokering".

[via run-virtual]

I've posted about others running VDI with Sun Ray thin clients back to virtual desktops hosted on Sun servers, but here's another story from the trenches. I would be happy to post about people using other hardware, since I know they are doing it, but the Sun fans seem to be the ones blogging about it. Check out the VMTN VDI Forum for more real-world stories.

Link: Unix Admin Corner: Sun Ray, x4600, VMware ESX stories from the trenches.

What we determined was that we could run 80 users on a single 4600. Our (5)4600's have 64GB of Ram and 8 dual core CPU's. Each 4600 has 8 4GB FCAL ports attached to a 27TB file Server. For each VM session, we have allocate 2GB of RAM and 70GB of Disk. On the five 4600's we are provided 450 simultaneous XP VM's. The XP VM are served out to the Sun Ray's via the uttsc windows connector. The cost savings over a FAT client is 70%.

[via Tarry] .

Patrick Rouse: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Overview.

In the past few years there has been and continues to be a lot industry buzz around virtualization. At this point most are familiar with the concept of server virtualization and consolidation using VMware ESX or Microsoft Virtual Server. Additionally, many have been successful using application virtualization and streaming technologies like Microsoft Softricity Softgrid to address application compatibility, version control and deployment issues.

VDI is VMware’s designation for the hosting and virtualization of a individual Client OS like Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista or Linux on VMware ESX. The intent is to be able to deploy, secure and manage enterprise desktops in the data center.

For those used to managing server based computing environments, consisting of Windows Terminal Servers and Citrix, managing VDI is definitely similar task. The difference is that instead of managing numerous centralized, multi-user server operating systems, one would be managing potentially hundreds, or thousands of centralized, virtualized single user operating systems.

[via thincomputing.net]

Scott Wallick posts at ITopinions.com about VDI: Living in an ever more virtual world.

I attended VMworld 2006 a couple of weeks ago, and perhaps the single most revolutionary thing that I saw was actually the most retro thing I saw - the return to the Terminal.

Using a combination of VMware’s VI3 infrastructure and VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), there is a small quiet movement towards returning to computing via a (anything but dumb) terminal. All that is old is new again!
Why, you may ask? Number one on the VDI hit list is security. If the access point to a computing environment is inherently “dumb” (as in not intelligent, also as in not where the computing power or data are), then a user who removes the local access unit cannot take sensitive information with them (à la the V.A. debacle).

Also high on the list of reasons of why go to what is commonly referred to as “Thin Computing” is disaster recovery (DR). Because each session is virtual (which in VMware-land is simply a file containing the data related to a session), the file can be backed up, replicated and otherwise copied, migrated or archive.

And Sun's Warren Ponder also is keeping busy post-VMworld with their VDI solution. He's writing a new white paper that will be ready in a few weeks, but in the meantime part one is here. Link: Sun Desktop Virtualization Solution White Paper - Part2

Ok, I am getting overwhelmed with requests now after VMworld and Sun's Immersion Week. This is a good thing trust me, I am not complaining. We have been secretly working on some sauce for VDI based solutions. It is a long story actually, and I will not go into it now. If we ever come across each other in person just ask and I will give you the whole story. It really was secret, even my really really good buddy thinguy did not even completely know :) I felt bad because he just found out this past week at Sun's Immersion Week what we had been working on. I usually share everything but I really did keep forgetting to tell him with everything that is going on.

We started talking about the VI Access Kit openly at VMworld. Simply put, the VI Access Kit is the glue between Sun Desktop Infrastructure Products and VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. It introduces the ability to automate virtual desktop lifecyle management for virtual desktop environments. We introduce a concept we call a factory which dynamically creates the virtual desktops on the fly based a few different variables. It also handles the pooling and recycling of virtual desktops as well.