VMware Communities : Thread List - Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Archives

VDI & Windows XP Remote Desktop Licensing

pnarducci — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:00:21 GMT

I have read that Microsoft requires a special "remote desktop license" if you want to access a Windows XP computer (or VM) from a non-Windows XP computer (such as a thin client running Windows CE). Is this true? Does anyone know the approximate cost of such a license? Are there any other licensing rules or work arounds when using VDI with XP?

Questions regarding Thin Clients and VDI

Gaprofitt — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:32:33 GMT

I have a couple of questions for you guys and gals. I'm new to the thin client world but can see some benefits for our organization. We are a manufacturing facility which operate machinery which punches holes in parts. We have small computers mounted in this units which are constantly failing due to hard drives, power supplies etc. These units have touchscreens and barcode scanners which the operators use. Here are my questions.

1.)What does VDI offer compared to just connecting to a RDP session? Couldn't I just build some Virtual machines in ESX running Windows XP and have the thin clients connect to these via RDP sessions.

2.)Does it matter if the local OS is Windows CE or Linux on the thinclient, if it supports RDP should that matter? For example would the scanner i'm using need to be compatible with the Thin client OS or not because i'm connecting to a machine running XP?

3.)Which thin clients are good? Wyse, Neoware etc. I'm currently waiting on some demo units.

We only have about 10-15 machines we need to do this on so I'm exploring replacing the machines with thin clients and I'm wondering if we really need VDI.

Thanks,

Greg

HP RGX

harrygunter — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 08:52:45 GMT

Hi all,
I read an article in the september 2006 IT Week on a US education provider rolling out VDI and softricity. They mentioned using the HP RGX protocol as against ICA or RDP. Has anyone any info on this as I've googled it and found nothing.

Cheers

Anyone tried the neoware m100 (thin laptop)

epping — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 12:44:38 GMT

looks interesting wondered if anyone had tried one in a VDI environment, when wireless gets better coverage i see this as the way forward.

http://www.neoware.com/mobility/index.html

Benchmarking a Virtual Desktop to establish a performance baseline

robert_way — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:35:13 GMT

Hey folks,

I am looking for suggestions/experiences in regard to establishing a baseline of performance for a Virtual Desktop. My goal is to create a VD that has either a benchmark suite installed in it or use and external mechanism to drive the VD through a "typical" user scenario to establish a baseline of performance on our soon to be built production Infrastructure that is slated to support about 850 virtual desktops.

I would like to run the vm to establish the baseline on a pristine infrastructure and then as more and more vms are introduced into the mix, run the becnmarks again to see how much results deviate from the norm and be able to identify a "saturation point" for each esx host at some pre-determined deviation from the baseline.

Any suggestions or past experiences doing something similar would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

SunRay & VDI?

ckboon — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 06:25:42 GMT

Hi,

Anybody here implemented and/or using SunRay thin clients & VDI/ESX?
Just like to find out ur experience, what to watch out and whether it is a good match.
Thanks.

Regards,
Alan

VDI connection broker for a Linux guest?

davesherman — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 18:11:24 GMT

Hi Folks,
We are implementing a VDI setup with Citrix desktop broker to XP virtual machines. Some of our development staff liked the idea and wondered if we could do the same for their Linux workstation images. Currently we are running a POC with VNC published on Citrix. Any better alternatives for a connection broker to broker connections to a Linux X-windows session?

Thanks!

School / University use

FOSKingston — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 14:28:47 GMT

Any one out there using VDI in an educational setup??
I'm looking in to it as a solutin for us.
Any one tried, Tried & failed??

I'd be as interested in places that it didnt work as those that did

WinXP VM LSi SCSI drivers?

ckboon — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:49:37 GMT

Hi,

What is the LSi 'SCSI card' the WinXP VM is using? Or which LSi driver should I get? Thanks.

Regards,
Alan

Can anyone answer some questions on leostream.

epping — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:26:24 GMT

Hi guys

I know some of you have played with this product, i have a couple of questions, i am running an eval at the moment.

OK this may seem strange but i only want a one-to-one relationship between user and VM presently, I would like the user to access leostream and it automatically launch the RDP seesion, it looks to me that this option is only available if in the "Policy" it is set to "randomly assign VM" ??

one more

I would like to offer access over the web, we have a Juniper SSL VPN box which i see is supported, again in the policy section i can see you can select an option for "External Viewer" i.e. use the Juinper RDP client i guess. Does this offer any real advantage over just using the leostream ActiveX viewer via the SSL VPN??

has anyone done anything like this before that can offer any advice

Many thanks

vramSize not deploying from a templates

jamespeters — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:32:41 GMT

Hi,

I have set the screen resolution in a VM to 1920x1200 (svga.maxHeight & svga.maxWidth) and increased the vramSize accordingly. All was working just fine. I then converted this VM to a template, and used it deploy a number of new VMs.

Interestingly enough, the vramSize parameter has disappeared from the newly deployed VMs.

Any ideas how I get VC to deploy a VM from a template whilst maintaining this setting? I've got to a couple hundred, and the though of using VI to manually edit every vmx file is driving me to despair!

Thanks,

James.

NeoWare Thin-Client and USB Printing with VDI?

ir1shm1ike — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:49:45 GMT

Has anyone used a NeoWare Thin-Client with a Local Printer hooked up USB?

Neoware

cjsdad09 — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:11:28 GMT

All,
Currently I am doing some testing with Neoware thin client boxes. I have a couple of XP desktops I have loaded on my ESX server here at my datacenter and a site to site VPN connection from there to one of my locations.
-When I log into my Neoware box, and create a RDP connection to the XP desktops the blue screen with the "login" box comes part way up and then freezes. From the Neoware box I am able to ping the desktop I am trying to access.
I also plugged in a "fat client" to the VPN and was able to launch RDP session to the "hosted" XP desktop.

Has anyone experienced this issue with the Neoware thin clients, or do you notice a problem with my test enviroment.

ICA Vs RDP

co6812 — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:45:33 GMT

Im am evaluating Propero for use in a Remote Access solution through a Whale SSL Gateway.

Users connect using this process: Internet Connection -> Whale -> Propero -> XP (virtual) Desktop via RDP

I have heard in various places that RDP is not very good over multiple
router hops compared to ICA.

Maybe you someone can point me in the right direction of any ways of getting XP to host ICA connections? I have read about software called PortICA but I don't think it's available yet.

Thanks in Advance

Can't login to AD Domain via RDP on WinXP VM

ckboon — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 07:05:58 GMT

Hi,

I have resolved the issue of login to my WinXP VM via RDP, and I managed to get the WinXP VM to join our Active Directory. I also allowed "Remote Desktop Users" to log on locally via the local computer policy (on the WinXP VM).

Do I need anything else on the AD server? Because I am not allowed to use AD userID to login to the WinXP VM via RDP. I can login to the domain via the console though.

I have also added the following to the "Log on locally" policy:
1) REMOTE INTERACTIVE LOGON
2) TERMINAL SERVER USER

Error msg: "The local policy of this system does not permit you to logon interactively."

Did I miss something else again?

Thanks for the help.

Message was edited by:
ckboon

Thin Disk & VI3 SDK

ckboon — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 06:27:21 GMT

Hi,

I am trying to look for Thin Disk or growable disk setup under ESX 3.0.x using the SDK. Could someone point me in the right direction which SDK to get and which manual to read?

Thanks.

Cheers,

Citrix Desktop Server

king@it.ibm.com — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 12:36:46 GMT

For those of you that missed this:

http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/product.asp?contentID=163057

If I remember well my early discussion with Citrix this was supposed to be an interim solution between the current CPS + free add-on CDB and the final Citrix target which is a "non-proxy" connection broker with ICA on the XP vm etc etc.

I guess that the main benefits of this Citrix Desktop Server Vs the current CPS + Citrix Desktop Broker is $$$$$. Currently you need to buy a full Citrix P.S. license to use the Desktop Broker piece ...... with the Desktop Server (hopefully) the price will be lower as it is a "dedicated" infrastructure that is only able to broker desktop (basically a streamlined CPS + CDB).

Let's see what turns out .......

Massimo.

Leostream connect tool

marcgijsman — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 10:18:53 GMT

When we try to connect to a hosted desktop with the leostream connect tool we get an error message, saying that we cannot make an remote desktop connection. If we login through a web-browser we can succesfully make an RDP connection to the same virtual desktop.

Has anybody an idea what the problem is??

Thanks in advance.

Marc Gijsman

New to ESX and VDI any tips out there

jegeter — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 20:35:37 GMT

Just wanted to drop in and Say Hi. I have finally convinced my company to go virtual. Finally got all servers and software installed. Right out of the gates we went with ESX 3.0 with virtual Center and a VDI deployment. I am new to ESX for production, but have been Playing with Workstation and Server for about a year on my own. If anyone has any good Tips and tricks for ESX I'm ready to Listen.

Thank Ahead of time.

Best way to reguarly export a system from VDI

chainsaw — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 23:32:46 GMT

I have a staff member who needs to regularly export their hosted desktop from my VI3. They've been using the VMware machine importer to connect to VC and then download and run their VM in VMplayer.

The VM is approximately 20GB and downloading the whole VM seems very inefficient.

Is there a better way to do this? Is there a way to get just the diff?

Open to any suggestions.

Thanks.

Peripheral Use

VMKR9 — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 10:59:42 GMT

We are in the process of a large scale VDI roll out and are trying to capture issues that will not function in the VDI. Does anyone have any experience of using peripherals in a VDI environment? ranging from simply reading a CD to Blackberry's, Scanners and dongles etc. We are using thin clients accessing the Virtual XP desktops using RDP. I am sure there are Terminal Services / Citrix type solutions that can be addapted to run on guest XP machines with a tubby or fat client. Also anyone have a solution for multi monitor support, I am aware that RDP in vista should support monitor spanning, anyone used this on XP?
Many Thanks!!

Remote Access Solution Through Whale to XP VMs

co6812 — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 15:02:29 GMT

Hi,

I have set up a Remote Access solution that currently works like this.

User logs into EGap Whale box using RSA SecureID. User then clicks RDP Icon and is connected via an Hardware F5 load balancer to one of 30 XP VMs. User then and logs on as if in the office.

The main problem I have is that once a session is disconnected the load balancer will always send the user to a different session.

Id be interested to know if anyone else has implemented anything similar and if so, what ways have you found to manage user connectivity to the VM's.

We're kind of at a brick wall now with the project so any advice is appreciated.

VDI can't change CDs during multi CD set distro install

osde.info — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 16:07:15 GMT

I am using VDI 2.0.1 (32042) to build/install CentOS 4.3 onto a new ESX 3 VM using my client CD drive (which I have pointed to an ISO on the network)

When my distro (4 CD set) asks for CD # 2 i try and change it using VDI but i just get errors ! So how do I virtiually insert second (3rd & 4th) disks ?

Thin Client reviews for VDI

sgrinker — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:22:35 GMT

We are about to begin a trial of different thin clients to our VDI desktops, and I was curious if anyone had any input/suggestions on different vendors they have tried? I have seen some postings regarding this in other threads, but I haven't really seen much about Chip PC (http://www.chippc.com) performance in this arena.

Right now I am looking to compare Wyse, Neoware, and Chip PC against a standard workstation RDP connection to see which can offer the best performance and price. Does anyone have any more input on these vendors, and more specifically how Chip PC models compare?

Also, I would be interested in any performance testing utilities anyone may know of for Thin Clients.

Thank you

Steve

VDI Connection Broker Prcing?

jamespeters — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:41:03 GMT

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any price comparatives for licensing of the different connection broker products available (LeoStream / Propero / Citrix / 2x)?

Thanks,

James.

Small VDI installation - makes sense?

Derrick_V — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 04:01:41 GMT

I need to share 6 XP VMs to a group of about 12 users. I have tried VMServer, but I prefer the features of VI3. Now I read about VDI and see that as a better fit. Most of the installations I've read about in this forum state installations with 20 - 200 desktops. So first I'm not sure if this makes sense for 6 sessions? Each session is fairly heavy-weight, 1GB RAM, 4 NICs, 32 GB disk, 1 cpu (preferably 2).

Second I wrote a simple connection broker using vbscript to identify an available session and then initiate the RDP from the user to the session. Every user is using regular desktop XP PC, no thin clients. The user logs off when finished and the VM is left running and waiting for the next user. So my second question is, does a proper feature-rich connection broker make sense for this?

Derrick

New to the Desktop side of VDI

KevinVogt — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:55:08 GMT

Greetings, I fairly new to Virtual Machines. Im responsible for the desktop and thin client side of everything. I was wondering if anyone has any tools or methods to help me with what I would like to do.

I have my template built and configured. I have my Customization Specification setup. I deploy from Template, type in the machine name use my custom spec and everything else is done. It boots up on the domain ready to go.

Suppose I wanted to quickly deploy 100 machines from my template. Do I have to go through the steps for each one or can I say here is my range of PC names...Go. Automate the process. The goal is to update the software on just my template and then drop the rest of the machines from it back in place. I'm haven't quite figured this out yet. I am using Virtual Infrastructure Client 2

Dunes VD-O and VDI

Lumpi — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:33:30 GMT

Hi. We have been evaluating several connection brokers and VI back-end management systems and so far only Dunes VD-O made it for us. I don't know what your experience with connection brokers are but we found it fairly reasonable in price and most importantly we have been able to customize it to fit our particular needs. Our primary concerns was the ability for the connection broker to be integrated with our current management process and we found it very adaptable.

Do you folks have any particular experience/feedback with Dunes that you could share?

VDI / Sound card emulation

GBromage — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 02:41:26 GMT

Hi everyone!

In a VDI setup, is there anything that can be done to provide sound to the users?

Both the RDP and ICA protocols support sending down the wire, but if I recall correctly, ESX/VI3 servers don't emulate a sound card.

Thanks,
Greg

Open standard for broker client access API

davlloyd — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 10:12:23 GMT

With all these new brokers coming on line there seems to be one big thing missing, a common access interface into them. If a company was to be able to switch brokers and retain current infrastructure there shoudl also be a common interface.

Utilising somthing like SOAP with a preset list of access functions should be an easy thing to agree upon. Obviously there would need to be some flexibility to utilise the various advantages of different brokers but the core set wouldn't deviate.

All you need is

-Connect with credentials
-Give them the OK/Deny
-If OK provide machine details
-Disconnect

A big part of VDI is the use of power saving thin clients, and to fully realise this XPe is not the path. Linux/CE provides reduced management, reduced configuration (memory, flash) and quicker boot times (OK, not so much CE) - all of which reduced cost.

I know I for one would not look at a Broker unless it was able to provide integration with a thin client so the user gets rich experience. There are enough companies out there with developers that can write a web page that pushes rdp settings down. A user should not realise they are accessing a Virtual Machine so an integrated client is required. In saying this the options are reduced currently unless they do standardise. The only other way is for the broker company to be able to push the likes of Wyse or Neoware to provide a client - not going to happen when you have 20 broker companies asking you to do it in a different way.

Difference between VDI and ESX?

ir1shm1ike — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 01:13:37 GMT

Can someone explain what the difference would be, if I create a VM on my ESX Server and connected to it with my Windows Machine through RDP, and VDI? I know that VDI uses Terminals which eliminates patching Windows, but is there any other difference?

VDI server sizing for very heavy use

MartijnLo — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 19:54:53 GMT

We are looking into VDI for an offshore development center in Mumbai. The developers in Mumbai will be connecting to our VDI through a dedicated connection. The amount of desktops we are sizing for is around 100 to 125.

At the moment this seems like the only available scenario apart from bringing all kinds of development environments over to Mumbai (which brings all kinds of legal and security issues with it).

Because of the heavy demands that our development environments put on the workstation (it's either MS Visual Studio Team System with extra tooling or Java development with Eclipse, Subversion etc. or Oracle with Oracle Forms Builder or JBuilder etc.) we are looking at Virtual Desktops with at least 1GB memory possibly even 1.5 to 2.0 GB if they will be doing compiling or running builds inside the VM. Conclusion: so I'm are a little stuck with our server sizing.

The only whitepaper I have found states a "heavy worker" as a VM with 384 MB so I am looking for more information about similar deployments or at least some form of calculation model on how to size the memory requirement for this type of deployment.

License Dongles? They work?

ir1shm1ike — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:08:51 GMT

We have a few machines that require dongles for License Keys to work. Would I put this on the Server or on the Thin-Client Device and if so do they work? Has anyone tried this?

VDI Management/Access solution. Looking for suggestions

JBane — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:56:00 GMT

Hello,
I have just started a project to provide a telecommuting solution and means of reducing office space needs. We provide outsourced helpdesk solutions to multiple clients with very different requirements on the desktop and network. In my investigation for a solution, I came across VDI. It seams to fit our needs the best in terms of flexibility and offerings. We also have a VMWare solution and SAN being put in place for the Server side of things and VDI would allow us to leverage our investment further. It is only lacking some of the automated management and access features we will need.

I am looking for a product(s) that will provide a provisioning and management interface to the infrastructure and provide a SSL-VPN interface for the users to connect to their desktops. The ideal solution in my head would be a website the user authenticates to which establishes the SSL-VPN connection, connects them to their virtual desktop image, and logs them in. The backend system should power on/unsuspend their VM if is not running.

I have a few ideas in my head on how to get this to happen, but would prefer an integrated solution. I am open to other ideas. This is what I have envisioned so far.

Thanks,
Jon

SSL-VPN to VDI.

stavener — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 16:21:57 GMT

has anyone looked at providing a VDI over SSL-VPN for remote office workers and teleworking / internet cafe access back to to the corporate environment ?

- one obvious requirement would be for HTTP access to the VM`s for remote control, ie like VNC and Citrix (nfuse) Does anyone else offer this ?

we looked at some SSL-VPN technologies before but we really need a RDP style connection to give us maximum security and no downloads to the client.

Stuart.

VDI - Thin-Client straight to RDP?

ir1shm1ike — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:20:05 GMT

We are currently evaluating Thin-Clients, HP, NeoWare, and Wyse. I created my XP machines on my ESX Server. And I got the RDP on the Linux Thin Client and XP Embedded working fine. But when either of them boot up, on the Linux I need to log into the Linux Desktop first then click on my connection to establish my RDP Session. Same thing with Xp embedded it logs into the local desktop and then I click on RDP to establish my session. Is it possible for when these thin-clients just boot up it prompts for a Log On and they log directly into the XP VM Machine and don't see anything(linux, xp embedded) when their thin-client boots?

Disabling local Host hard drive access from within RDP session

tekhie — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:42:06 GMT

Hi, does anyone know of a way to disable the ability to map to the local hard drive of the pc that you are running the RDP session from. If i type "net use" from a command prompt from within the RDP session then i see \\tsclient\c. I can then type net use * \\tsclient\c and this will allow me access to the physical hard drive of the pc i am running the rdp session on. Is there a way to prevent/disable this from the remote end. Changing the config of the local physical PC is not acceptable. The situation i have is that the RDP session will be initiated from an outsourced company PC back to a VM XP desktop on my ESX server. Only port 3389 (RDP) will be allowed on the firewall that sits between my corporate LAN and the outsourced companys corporate LAN. If a file copy is initiated between the XP VM and the locally mapped hard drive then this is all encapsulated in the traffic that gos through 3389 so will pass through the firewall. There is an obvious security issue here as it may be possible to copy an infected file from the outsourced LAN to my Corporate LAN. If anyone has any ideas would be much appreciated.

Experiences with SmartCard login?

ArnimS — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 15:53:34 GMT

Hello,

I hope, my question is not to "off topic", but
has anyone a suggestion for implementing a smartcard solution for VDI?

We would like to start a project with Wyse or Neoware terminals for a callcenter application running on hosted Windows XP Desktops.

Currently there is no need for a broker (or maybe we didn' see it), as every user will get HIS/HER personal virtual XP machine. The creation of the machines will be scripted.

So every user should be able to connect to his XP machine by simply using a smartcard.

We already use some of the Wyse S10 terminals and know, there should be a solution for it, but since 3 weeks we are waiting for a response from a Wyse partner, who can realize our needs.

Maybe someone has already such a solution in production use and can share his experience?

Thanks a lot.

Arnim

VDI Licensing/Pricing and Requirements

JBane — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:45:19 GMT

Forgive me if I have missed it somewhere, but I am not finding any details on what specifically VDI entails from a licensing or a requirements/setup perspective.

As I understand it, it is simply a ESX install with a different licensing model. When I look at the VDI Sizing PDF (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vdi_sizing_vi3.pdf) it shows Client and Desktop servers. I don't see any information on what the difference is.

Can someone break down the components of a VDI solution or point me in the right direction for some self education?

Virtual desktops & storage

ckboon — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 03:34:05 GMT

Hi,

First of all, can ESX 3.x server assign partial storage to a VM instead of full, say, 20GB? Similar to what a VMware Workstation can do right now. This will help to reduce the initial SAN storage setup cost.

If it's not possible, can I assign/create another vritual hdd for a VM as if I'm adding another physical drive to a machine? If I currently have a VM with 10GB C: and it's running out of space, so I create a separate 10GB virtual hdd to the VM. The VM now see it as a separate drive and assign drive D:. Is this possible?

Thanks for the help.

Regards,
Alan

VDI + Kerberos ?

NoeFr34 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:07:14 GMT

Hi everybody

I would like to know if some of you have already been working on the integration of a token kerberos in a VDI solution ?
Does it sound possible to you or not ? Maybe any example ?

Thanks for you help !

Noe.

VDI server(s) & virtual desktops sizing?

ckboon — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 06:47:42 GMT

Hi,

I have read the white paper regarding VDI sizing but I still have doubts. And I still looking for VDI information, etc.

Looking at current physical desktops with WinXP, they need at least 512MB to 1GB of RAM, and usually comes with at least 80GB HDD. So when it comes to virutal desktop specs, should I give 512MB RAM & 20GB storage per virtual desktops? Office work - MS Office, Notes, web, TN3270, etc.

Assuming I get 4 socket, dual-core CPUs (unless quad-cores are out now) per server and need to provide 100 virtual desktops and all accessing/powered up at the same time. VMotion, DRS, etc are included.

If each virtual desktops take 512MB, I would need 2 servers with 26GB of RAM each?

If each virtual desktops are given 20GB storage, it means I need to provide 2TB of SAN storage up front?

If 50 virtual desktops share a gigabit ethernet trunk, is that typically enough?

Thanks for the help.

Is there a reason RDP onto XP is slower than 2003?

Chris01 — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:12:01 GMT

I would like to move the aging computers onto VMware however the performance hit in RDPing to an XP machine on VM is holding me back.

It is much faster browsing in IE for example on a Terminal Server hosted on VM than it is a dedicated XP box again hosted within ESX.

Is there any reason for this, I can't believe this is the norm as the whole idea of dedicated XP boxes for people was to provide a more reliable perfomance.

Are there any tweeks I can carry out to XP in order to make it more responsive within RDP. I need the 16million colours.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thin Client + VDI +IP Phone = Any way to dial from contacts?

sgrinker — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 17:51:24 GMT

Does anyone happen to have any thoughts, suggestions, tips, tweeks, theories, solutions, or utilities that would help with the ability to dial from contacts to a physical IP Phone? More specifically Cisco TSP installed on the client VDI workstation.

The desired configuration would be a Thin Client plugged in through the IP phone, connected back to a VM VDI workstation. User would then select the contact to dial, and a call would be dialed from the local phone that the Thin Client is connected to.

Thanks

Steve

Invitation: VMware Forum Questions Citrix

Mike_Laverick — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 09:32:30 GMT

Hi there,

I am arranging an interview with Citrix with specific view of discussing their relationship with VMware. The interview will be both technical and strategic - and will cover running MFPS4.0 in a VM, Citrix VDI philiosophy and the long term status of the Access Gatway and NetScaler as physical or virtual appliances.

I would like to gather questions from the VMware Community to use as the basis of the interview.

If you have any question please post below:

Regards
Mike Laverick
RTFM Education

ps Daryl I've cross posted this to the ESX 3.x board to cover the bases - sorry about that!

Connection Broker for HP Remote Graphics Software

jacksonh — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 16:14:16 GMT

Has anyone used the HP Remote Graphics Software in VDI? We have streaming video requirements that can't be fullfilled using RDP, ICA, or VNC.

Is there a connection broker out there that support HP's RGS?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

2x ThinClientServer - HowTo needed

SirToby — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 09:39:31 GMT

Hello,

just tried install a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure with 2xThinClientServer (www.2x.com) and VMWare Server 1.0.1 (on SLES9) /VI 3.0.1.

I installed 2x Thinclientserver beta 4 on a virtual W2k3 Server (hosted on the VMWare Server). Booted another VM with 2x clientOS beta 4.

I can log with RDP into a virtual W2k Terminal Server on my ESX (or anywhere else), but what I want is to get on my VM W2k Workstations (not Server), i.e. do what I understand as VDI.

I can't get that running. I see the Icon of the connection/protokol on my 2xClient-rdesktop, but it doesn't do anything, it doesn't open the VM to log in.

I configured in 2xThinClientServer that way:
- created a "Protocol", Desktop Type: "Full", Protocol Type: "RDP"
Address: <ip-address of w2k-vm> Port 3389
- created a connection and entered a AD-User.

What am I doing wrong?
Is there a somewhere useful, indepth Howto anywhere?
Didn't find one neither on vmware.com nor 2x.com.

Thanks for any help,

Michael

Which Connection Broker?

mmenne — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:19:57 GMT

I'm working on putting together some solutions for VDI for our call center and retail stores.

What connection brokers are people using and why did you choose that one? If you're in the evaluation stages, which ones have you evaluated? Pros/Cons of each one?

I've been trying to get ahold of Propero to demo theirs for over a week. Two demo requests, two phone calls/messages, and an e-mail to sales with 0 response from them.

Their solution looks like the one I want to go with, but if I can't get ahold of them, how can I eval and/or purchase?

Michael

Provision Networks Virtual Access Suite for VDI

Elie-prof — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 02:08:33 GMT

Hi. I've been testing the Provision Networks solution for a few weeks very successfully. I've been looking around the forum this evening and haven't found it mentioned much. http://www.provisionnetworks.com/solutions/vas/vas.aspx?CID=

The extensions they have for RDP are very compelling. They have a lot of terminal server / RDP experience.

Any feedback or experiences would be appreciated.

HP Thin Clients?

ir1shm1ike — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 13:59:21 GMT

Just wondering if anyone is using or tested HP Thin Client machines, because they seem cheaper then WYSE and if they were any good?

Softricity

mmenne — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:21:01 GMT

Anyone using Softricity for application virtualization? For what I want to do with virtualization, it looks very compelling.

Any ideas what pricing is?

Any news on Wyse N10?

sgrinker — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:00:13 GMT

Just wondering if anyone in this forum has any news regarding the future Wyse N10 model that has been mentioned a few times in presentations? Has anyone seen or heard anything beyond the few marketing slides that exist on the device? I'm curious to know what they are all looking to add/improve, and especially what enhancements are being made in the video realm. I have heard that Wyse has been talking with Matrox to get their cards working for dual head options, but nothing more than that.

Thanks

Steve

Were do you start

yellowlawn — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:03:07 GMT

I have been asked by one of our bosses to investigate VDI and what it can offer.

We have about 105 employees and 4 servers running 2000 and 2003.

Someone suggested that we can take one of our servers install VM Ware and have multiple sessions on the server with differing O\s's? I believe you can then run Thin Client on one of these O\S sessions and allow staff to work in a Thin Client environment.

So a couple of questions come to mind:

1) Do you have to run a high spec, high bandwidth Server to offer this?

2) Is the link between Server and Client secure enough (we have some offsite users who work from home)

3) How does VMWare & Thin Client perform, is it as fast as being sat on the LAN or does it degrade outside a LAN?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thankyou for your time

Yellowlawn

Keeping machines joined to domain with snapshots

sgrinker — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:44:13 GMT

This is somewhat more of a general VM question, as we have run into this in the past with our VM Workstation machines for a long time. However, as we start looking at more uses of VDI the question is going to come into play a little more.

When using a VM workstation (VDI or ortherwise) that is connected to the domain, the machine will not be able to connect if a snapshot hasn't been reverted for approximately 2+ weeks. Whenever we encounter this issue on our own machines running VMWare Workstation, we simply generate a new SID from the snapshot, rename the machine, and join it back into the domain. Then finally take a new snapshot once all of this has occured. Failing any of the steps above seems to allow the machine to fall off membership again.

The steps listed above are relatively easy for all of our IT staff that uses the VM Workstation machines. However, if we want to unleash VM's to our user base with VDI technologies, this will cause a larger issue if we chose to utilize any snapshots. Anyone have any suggestions on how to avoid or minimize SID issues with snapshots?

Thanks

Steve

VDI - Video and Audio

jacksonh — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:18:06 GMT

How does audio and video virtualization work with VDI.

I know that when using RDP, the RDP virtual sound driver/device it used.

What if you were to use HP's Remote Graphics software or another client in order to support higher video requierements.

How would this work?

Wyse: Thin Clients For VMware VDI

king@it.ibm.com — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 14:23:36 GMT

I found this analysis in an internal newsletter. I have been playing with it in the last few weeks and it is indeed very interesting.

Massimo.

Wyse: Thin Clients For VMware VDI

Wyse Technology has announced a thin client desktop device that has been designed for organizations making use of VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). The solution results from collaboration between Wyse and VMware to make the Wyse Thin OS aware of key VMware VDI technologies. The result, Wyse Thin OSVDI Edition, is designed to enhance user experience and functionality, delivering all of the qualities associated with VMware VDI in a single push power button to work device. The solution incorporates the new Thin OSVDI edition software and is delivered on the Wyse S-Class thin client appliance. The VDI optimized desktop with the new OS and a single Wyse S-Class Thin Client device is priced at $299, with volume discounts available.
This announcement represents another step in the long and winding Thin Client road. Thin client solutions have come a long way in the last few years, but have managed to do so without attracting undue attention. We have promoted the use of both the Thin Client service delivery architecture and of VMware Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, as the combination of the two has much to offer. Enterprise Desktop Virtualization allows organizations to employ small, secure thin clients on the users desktop and then linki them to their own virtual desktop machines residing on centrally managed servers. Adding the Wyse thin client appliance and OS to the mix provides the organization with the opportunity to utilize a totally stateless desktop device as the user access platform. These are simple switch-on/switch-off machines with no moving parts and, more importantly, no user-accessible local operating system software to accidentally corrupt thus resulting in a near elimination of IT support to manage the desktop device. Equally, there is no way for business information to be stored on the device, as the thin client holds no local storage, thereby greatly enhancing enterprise security should a Wyse Thin Client device be stolen. Similarly, if a device fails, a new thin client appliance can be plugged in to the power and the network and be ready to use. Indeed, any user can log into a desktop from any thin client system in the enterprise.
The combination of Wyse Thin OSVDI Edition and VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure has the potential to radically alter the delivery of desktop services. Users are comfortable with the business applications and the way of working enabled by the PC. The Wyse Thin Client/VMware VDI combination gives users the applications they need in a fashion to which they have become accustomed while greatly improving overall security and availability and minimizing the costs of delivering these key desktop services. With Wyse now promoting a roadmap of future enhancements that includes enhanced multimedia support, virtualized USB, VoIP, and deeper integration into VMware ESX, we believe it is time for enterprises to once again reassess the architecture of desktop service delivery.

Desktop stability and the Explorer hanging events

davlloyd — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:49:44 GMT

As we ramp up our usage of Virtual Desktops an annoying issue keeps surfacing. Explorer hangs and in most cases seems to be in sync with a network hiccup.

Quick way to recover is to kill the explorer instance and run run it, then all is fine. Doing some memory dump analysis showed network based calls such as getDC preceeding the hang. Some information that seems to be related can be found in this blog http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2005/08/28/the-case-of-the-intermittent-and-annoying-explorer-hangs.aspx.

The question mark over this is that it does not happen on the server estate with RDP sessions and does not happen with anywhere near the frequency on fat clients so is this issue exasberated by hosting the clients on servers.

Is anyone else out there dabbling in the world of VDI seeing any client based responsiveness loss?

VDI Setup

daniel_uk — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:42:07 GMT

Hi,

Just ordered and got in a range of HP and WYSE boxes.

My first experiences are that the only issue is refresh rate when doing things.

Is there any way this can be modified on the VDI Image? Ive tried various resolutions on the thin client but it still has issues refreshing quickly.

Dan

LeoStream VDI Connection Broker

conyards — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:14:07 GMT

I've had a quick look around the internet but can't seem to find an administration guide for this VDI connection Broker...

Anybody aware of one?

Windows XP - Sysprep MassStorage Settings for LSI SCSI

KHanley1 — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 20:04:18 GMT

Environment: ESX 3.01, Altiris Deployment Server 6.8, WinPE ISO image (boot), Windows XP SP2

Problem: I am using a WinPE ISO to connect a VM to Deployment Server and download an image. On first boot into Windows I am getting a BSOD with a "STOP: 0x0000007B".

Background:
The image has a Sysprep.inf with the following:
************************************************
[SysprepMassStorage]
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0030&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_01=%systemroot%\System32\SCSI_LSI\symmpi.inf
************************************************
The following files have been staged in the referenced location:
lsipseud.inf
mpixp32.cat
MPT_INTRO.TXT
MPT_LEGAL.TXT
MPT_READ.TXT
symmpi.inf
symmpi.pdb
symmpi.sys
symmpi.tag
symmpixp_12018.txt
txtsetup.oem

Questions:
1.) Has anyone been able to load the LSI SCSI in this fashion?
2.) Do I need anything additional to get this loaded?
3.) I found a forum post regarding the VMWare SCSI Controller Installation Disk. Is the info below relevant and accurate?

************************************************
you should use the vmware-drivers (download from www.vmware.com)
you can try for you sysprep.inf
PCI\VEN_104B&DEV_1040="c:\driver\vmware_scsi\vmscsi.inf", "\driver\vmware_scsi", "VMware SCSI Controller Installation Disk", \disk.tag
************************************************

Blade, PC, Citrix, VDI

CWright — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:45:00 GMT

Our group in IT Infrastructure has been tasked with reviewing the viability of non-thick client, non-Citrix solutions for clients. While the direction from on high has not been very clear as to what the real driver is, the push is there anyway. We are a diverse utility with everything from nukes to inorganice generation plants, a major energy delivery business (the utility proper), B-to-B energy wholesaling, energy commodities trading, and more. So the environment is complex.

We have gone ahead and defined 12 areas in the company we think would benefit from this push, but they are very different areas. They basically split into the following groups:
- PDA users via RDP

These could be broken up different ways. Some of them are more remote than others. One trading floor right now uses Citrix and that has been a real problem and politically it is no longer viable. The issue has not simply been Citrix, but some infrastructure issues, but the result has been "blame Citrix" and it is a major money-making group. The guard shacks are definitely semi-remote, as are some of the utility garages and truck barns. Emergency is only needed in emergencies, but needs rapid deployment to the most appropriate site. And so on.

We are reviewing blades, ways to enhance Citrix, and I am working on bringing VDI into the mix because we are doing a lot of VMWare-based server virtualization and consolidation.

I have read many of the threads here, and they have been invaluable. We are currently working on a matrix based on the 13 "areas of opportunity" we have identified, covering over 500 users, trying to associate the solutions we think would be best or at least viable. So our options are HP's CCI and Clear Cube from the Blade side, VDI (probably with Softricity or Thinstall), and in some situations Citrix (our huge Citrix farm is not going away, mind you, as it is the key for most remote computing.)

We know the cost and issues with Citrix and it may do some PC replacement. But blades and VDI are solutions we are very new to.

I read in detail the analysis of cost by Ron and the other discussions. But all of this was centered around Citrix.

Does anyone have experience with the Blade PCs? To me, it seems very expensive both in the front end (two PCs, really, for each client, although session management can minimize that somewhat), lots of additional cabling and hvac and power enhancements, etc.

Any comments based on testing, production or simply analysis would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Chris

Desktop VMs - Users access through RDP how do I see what user sees?

MattDeBord — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 20:46:35 GMT

I have 3 Windows XP VMs running on VMWare Server on a Windows 2003 server. While they run great my biggest issue is that I can't figure out how to do a remote control so that I can see what the users see when they call for help. I have tried RDP and VNC.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

XP virtual machine won't load the printer

king@it.ibm.com — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:11:37 GMT

I am experiencing this annoying issue and was wondering if you have seen anything similar.

I have a Wyse S10 thin client on which I have defined 3 printers (LPT1, LPT2, LPD1). When I try to connect to a Windows XP virtual machines all 3 these printers get mapped into the RDP session I have established so thatI see them within Windows in the standard format "printer_name (from device_name)". Usually.

Yeah.. becuase out of 5 virtual machines I have created 4 of them maps all three printers while one only maps 2 of them. I am using the same domain users to test this (both standard users and admin users) so the problem is not specific to the user being logged. I am not able to trace this problem down to a specific thing. Of course the XP vm's have all been built from the same template and, although I have played with each of those a bit around, I can't think of anything I made on this single XP that could effect the printers being defined on the S10 and not properly loaded into the RDP connection.

I was just wondering if you are using locally defined printers (on PC's and/or Thin clients) and they ALL map correctly into your Windows XP vm's.

Thanks.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): Standard vs. Enterprise

kegwell — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:30:37 GMT

Can somebody please explain the differences between VDI Standard vs. Enterprise? I have having a difficult time finding a comparrison of the two versions, even on VMwares website. If this has been covered in a previous post, I appoligize. Thank You in advance.

Network Design for Big VMWARE FARMS

meistermn — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 22:40:51 GMT

Hello,

has anyone done the following?
In a Big ESX FARM (100-1000 server) would you mix produktion, prelive and test servers in the network, so you have one global network,
with many port groups (vlan-tagging).
This goog for mixxing workloads.
Bad Solution for Environment Tests like ADS,WINS DNS?
Or should you better separate production from prelive and test environment like in tradational environments.
So what is better a subnet with 1024 IP'S, so that you vmotion
everywhere or subnets with 255 IP and several esx farms.
AS Hardware I want to use HP DL385 2 CPU, HP DL 585 4 CPU or IBM X460 4 CPU Servers.
Discuss Advantages and Disadvantages oder different solutions!!!
Thanks

Meistermn

Construct a VDI Portal

supmac — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 09:05:04 GMT

Hello,
I would like to program a small VDI portal.It must be able to turn on and to switch off a virtual machine.
Is it possible to use the modules from the already existing WebAccess?

VMware Connection Broker

BillyTheKid — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:31:02 GMT

Hi,

I'll be upgrading my servers to VI3 and VC 2.0 and I'm interested to test Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). I've heard that VMware had a connection broker available but I cannot find it anywhere.

I'm currently testing the free trial from Leostream which is quite interesting but I'd also like to check out the one from VMware.

Can someone tell me if the CB from VMWare exists and where I can get it?

Thanks!
Sylvain

Need Advice on implementing VM Server for VDI to a classroom

MattG — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:30:42 GMT

Being the tech guy in the family I am responsible for managing my mom's computer class infrastructure at our local Catholic school. Anyone that is familiar with Catholic schools in the Philadelphia area, knows that they have very little money and there are new closings every year due to enrollment issues. That being the case, we have very limited funds to work with for the lab.

6 years ago a generous former student donated a decent amount of cash to create a computer lab with:
- 1 Dell Server with 256MB memory and 4GB HD

I created a base Ghost image for the PCs and used Microsoft's Poledit software to lockdown the PCs. The problem is Poledit is old and not very friendly and any new PC that comes in can't be easily updated with the original Ghost image.

These PCs should all be identical images. User data should only be stored on the Server. Audio is required on the PCs because they run education apps that have sound.

This brings me to investigate the possibility of using the free VMWare Server product to create VMs and a boot CD to automatically boot into a VM running on the VM Server.

I was thinking that I could buy a new PC class "Server" with 4GB memory and a large local SATA drive to run the Virtual Desktops from.

This would allow me to create and update a base image redploy it en masse.

This solution would be perfect because it would not require me to upgrade the old PCs and it would use them as dumb terminals. We would purchase XP upgrade licenses for each Virtual Desktop.

Does this make sense? Am I missing something?

-MattG

Comparison of VDI and Citrix Presentation Server or how they come together?

pfuhli — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 10:57:57 GMT

Hello,

when I found the announcement that VMware has teamed up with several partners for the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure alliance I became very interested in the concepts they will develop to help us standardizing a heterogeneous client infrastructure.
Because we already have a small farm of Citrix servers providing access to different applications and also some ESX server especially this partnership is very interesting to me.
Can anyone of you tell me more about how Citrix and VMware will work together or how it would make sense to combine both technologies?

At this time we already deploy some win xp desktops for super users using VI 3. But we have around 4.000 clients as traditional PCs - I can not imagine that we will all host them as separate xp VMs on ESX servers. Maybe some of them we will deploy that way but for me it would make more sense to migrate them to a presentation server. Does VMware think of a direct connection between Presentation Server and VI/ESX maybe or do they only live together for client hosting based on two different concepts?

Maybe someone can lead me to papers or something which gives me an idea of the conceptual alliance?!

Thnx in advance,

daniel

VDI for Linux Desktops?

duffbeer703 — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:30:39 GMT

Are there any solutions out there for using Linux desktops with VDI?

In a perfect world, I'd like SSL-VPN users to be able to connect to hosted Linux VM Images for desktop use. Unfortunately, Linux doesn't seem to support inbound RDP...

Equivalent of Allocate all disk space now in ESX?

trotter.marc — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 18:31:50 GMT

Was wondering if there was any sort of equivalent to unchecking "Allocate all disk space now under VMware Server or VMware Workstation in ESX?

If not is there any tool or utility that would permit me to increase the size of the disk, I know that I can add an additional disk, but I would rather increase the size of the system partition, if at all possible.

Thanks in advance.

Brokering user connections

avarcher — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 11:29:33 GMT

Hi

Has anyone any experience of a hot desk kind of scenario?

I mean - RDP client is directed to a free, not-logged in or locked, XP OS in a VM

Or - an XP VM is rapidly deployed and client connects.

Cheers, Andy.

Registrysettings

Lemmy10 — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:28:16 GMT

Hi!
I have setting in LOCAL_MACHINE on my desktop. If I move it to Microsoft Terminal server and VDI, will it still be unique for that user or must create a desktop for everyone ?

Connection Broker

Sticky — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 17:48:41 GMT

I would like to get some thoughts from the forum on Connection Brokers for VDI. So far I have looked at demos of 2x, ProperO, Leostream, Dunes and even the VMware version which is tied to Consulting time.

I would like to know what people are using or other thoughts.

Getting Started?

Brian Mitchell — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 15:47:16 GMT

I have the eval of Virtual Infrastructure 3.0 and would like to try out the VDI. Is it simply a matter of installing WindowsXP as a guest OS and then enabling the remote desktop?

Also, is there any documentation for VDI?

Thanks!!!

Windows 2000 Professional

File Save — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 05:17:29 GMT

has Any one created win2k Professional VM on ESX server for VDI kind of installation...
I tried doing it yesterday for one of our customers POC... but failed ...
can anyone guide me on this....

But yes Windows XP works great...

thanx friends

Pankaj

Serial Ports

dantekcs — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:38:04 GMT

Is there away connected through the rdp protocol to redirect serial ports from the thin client to the XP VM?

The Serial port For seems to work when i first reboot the vm but then i gives me machines like "Another program is already using the telephony device?"?

Poor Video

epping — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 14:26:53 GMT

hi

just setup my first virtual desktop, accessing it via a HP thin client using RDP. its working great but the graphics are noticably poorer than a standard pc. Do i have to do anything special ( i know ESX was designed with servers in ind so it was not a priority).

in device manager it states the driver is 10.10.7.0 SVGA 2, is there a updated driver or is it as good as i can hope for.

many thanks

what exactly am I purchasing with VDI ?

ivanf — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 07:10:08 GMT

HI ,

this is my first post and I guess some could consider this a stupid question, but here goes.

I have a bit of experience with Workstation, but now I am now putting togther a proposal to build an environment based on Virtual Infrastructre 3 Enterprise, running on 3 Sun V40Z servers. This platform is to consolidate some existing physical servers plus get some experience on how best to manage ESX for a bigger platform in the future.
Also in addition to this , a customer group has a requirement for at least 50 secure desktops for customer training. My first response was maybe ACE or VDI would suit. ACE has been discounted for now as the client boxes may run Linux.
I got a quote for VDI from my local VMware reseller and the cost is $100K AUD for 50 desktops !
So then I started asking, what exactly am I getting for $100K ?
(and I haven't had a good answer yet)
What does the VDI product do compared to me just cranking up 50 desktops on my ESX server and getting a thin client (such as Wyse) or a low grade PC to access the running VM either via RDP, or VNC etc. What "smarts" does the VDI package give me over and above just "rolling my own" desktops on ESX ?

Sorry if it's a dumb question, but so far I haven't seen an obvious answer

regards
Ivan

Keyboard and Console Issues with VDI

gbutler — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:12:04 GMT

I have an issue with one laptop that the VDI will not accept keystrokes from the keyboard. We also have issues with the same laptop that the console goes black and will not refresh unless we move to another server and then come back. Anyone else had this issue and is there a fix? The keyboard works for any other application so we know that it is not a bad key on the keyboard.

New and Nervous

GirlGeek — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:29:38 GMT

(I originally posted this on VM Server but I think that was incorrect...??)

Hello, All. I just received a quote for VMWare and a couple new servers, etc. and am just about to fax a purchase order over but find myself a little concerned over running a "virtual" network environment. I have so many questions about it and wanted to know, in general, how you IT people out there really feel about it. Love it? Hate it but have to use it? Neutral? Would appreciate any thoughts on the matter. Thanks in advance!

AMD's spelling of VDI.....

king@it.ibm.com — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 15:59:10 GMT

.... is Raiden....

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1970993,00.asp

This is not a technology announcement from the chip maker but rather an ednorsement of this new trend.... someone could refer to it as "slideware"...

Massimo.

VDI? How about PDI?

marcdeb — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 16:20:57 GMT

Lo,

I just wanna ask you this question.

In my situation, we have 20 branch offices, each running 1 Windows Server 2003 server and about 20 Windows XP desktops. The Windows Server acts with file/print/Exchange/RIS/SMS services.

Today, we have a problem making a good backup of that server, since bandwidth between those BO's and our main office is low. Increasing the bandwidth would solve this but it is also company policy to remove data from BO's to cope with physical theft. Those BO's are really remote.

I was thinking about insourcing that Windows Server and make it part of our central backup scheme but since those XPs are tightly connected to the Server and bandwidth is low, the performance penalty would not be acceptable.

But... how about insourcing both the 20 servers and 400 desktops? Physically, this is not a problem at all. We have space for those 400 desktops, can provide enough Watts and will be able to keep things cool. Every end-user get's a thin-client and gets access to his 'own' XP using RDP.

By doing this, we will be able to consolidate those 20 servers to 1 server. We won't have to investigate Terminal Services since all applications will stay on Windows XP. Since the end-user doesn't have to share his XP on a virtualisation platform, (s)he will experience native speeds. Furthuremore, client/server line-of-business applications will improve greatly because the bandwidth between the physical client and servers (mainly databases) is 100 megabit/s compared to that low bandwidth between the BO and the central site.

And... last but now least... we don't have to investigate in a VDI platform and won't have to write down those precious and expenisive HP Desktops, representing 400 x Pentium 4 processors, 400 x 512 Megabyte RAM and 400 x 60 Gbyte HDU. All current procedures will remain the same, e.g. for helpdesk support and provisioning a new desktop.

Is this a good idea or am I getting insane here. What problems are there to solve?

VDI with VMWARE Server and 2X Tool for free?

meistermn — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 12:41:01 GMT

On the following page is a guide who 2x want to do vdi with vmware server and 2x at no extra cost:
http://www.2x.com/virtualdesktop
What do think abou it?
Is it a scenario for waiting when esx will be cheaper for desktops when microsofts hyperwiser arrive 2007?

Softricity - your thoughts

DoratheExplorer — Tue, 23 May 2006 20:01:20 GMT

Hi,

Softricity application virtualization - anyone managed to have a play with the technology ?

Looks good on paper and the fact Microsoft are closing in on them for a buy it, makes it look like an up and coming product.

http://www.softricity.com/products/virtualization.asp

Being able to run multiple versions of products Office 97, 2000, XP Dlls together could open up some avenues for those problem users.

Your comments welcomed.
Thanks.

You do not have VMWare tools installed, RH host, RH VM

jgsmith — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:09:22 GMT

Can anyone explain why I don't have the tools installed? I have installed them enough times as root and don't ever get an error message, but whatever is happening the tools do not seem to have installed.

I am running a lab machine I use to test VMWare upgrades, at the moment this is running the final released VMWare server. It is an old P4 with 1GB RAM, host = RH ES4. It usually runs just a single VM at a time. The windows VMs run just fine, but the RH ES4 VM does not get the tools. It doesn't bother me much as it is only used to test stuff, but I am curious.

I install the tools as an rpm, usually by double-clicking the file icon but rpm -Uvh tools.rpm makes no difference. The end result is no errors and the 'CD' icon removed. A re-boot of the VM (or the host) does nothing.

Jonathan

Is VMip.exe infected with a Trojan?

jgsmith — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 18:26:33 GMT

I am moving this question (and its answer) to what I hope is the right forum. I started it in the beta area in error. This happened around 22-July-2006.

AVG has decided that vmip.exe is a trojan horse, or at least, that it has been infected with a trojan horse opening a backdoor onto the machine.

The host is Redhat ES4, the VM is Windows XP Pro sp2.

The VM is used to access exactly two web sites + Microsoft's update site. The two web sites in question will not be downloading any software onto the machine and are highly reputable. It seems desparately unlikely that the VM has been infected externally, the only source is VMWare itself, unless of course it is a false alarm.

Any advice is welcome!

Jonathan

PS, I hope this is the right forum, we are in a thunderstorm and keep losing the connection, making the site difficult to navigate...

Hosted Desktops on VM's - Who's doing this?

MR-T — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 15:26:39 GMT

I wanted to know if anyone was running XP desktop machines as VM's on ESX for their business.

Our current cost model just doesn't work for these type of small machines, but I'd love to make a move in this direction.

As desktop PC's are just so cheap now, unless I could run about 50 machines on a single ESX server, it's not cost effective.

If I could clamp a VM back to only use 1/50 of the resources, it might just work, but otherwise I'll stick to server consolidation.

Let me know.

Virtual Infrastructure Client 2.0

mroets — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:00:00 GMT

How do you make the Virtual Infrastructure Client 2.0 fullscreen the hole screen.

USB through RDP

andrew.reid — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 03:18:56 GMT

While I know that I'm not going to be able to answer all of my questions until I've got the test environment running and I can play with it, that's a little while away yet, and curiosity will kill me beforehand if I don't find out

I've got an interest in using VDI here at work (a school), but a critical part of that will be USB devices (mostly USB memory stick things). Our environment will most likely be made up of Wyse terminal devices (like the S10 or something) or, in some cases, recycled PCs connecting back via RDP to Windows XP VMs.

I don't want the user experience to change too dramatically -- ideally, kids will still walk up to a machine, log on and work away.

As far as USB is concerned, I need to know that when the kid logs on and plugs in his/her USB stick, it'll pop up in "My Computer" and they can work away like they normally would.

Is that do-able? I thought I read a post that said it didn't work quite like that. That'd be sad-inducing if true, as it'd kinda be a showstopper for us and VDI and I really want to be able to use it.

Thanks in advance,

- andrew

Costs & thoughts for medium sized firm - no need for blades

myxiplx — Wed, 17 May 2006 09:20:02 GMT

While I love the idea of a rack of blade servers running all our virtual machines, the more I look into it the less I'm convinced it's right for us. Costs seem to skyrocket as you attempt to scale your storage solution to match all that processing power and while I love the idea of virtual desktops I was beginning to think we would never be able to justify it.

However I've just started looking at the costs of simple, self contained 1U servers, and thinking for smaller companies like ourselves, this could bring the cost per user down to an acceptable level:

Spec 1:
Dual core single CPU Opteron 2.2Ghz
4GB RAM
4 x 80GB SATA drives, RAID-6
Gigabit Ethernet
£1,793

Spec 2:
2x Dual core Opteron 2.2Ghz
8GB RAM
4 x 120GB SATA drives, RAID-6
2X Gigabit Ethernet
£3,191

I'm assuming I will be able to run 8 users off a dual core opteron, if anyone can confirm or deny this it would be appreciated. I'm allowing 512MB of RAM and 10GB of storage per user.

From that assumption, spec 1 gives hardware costs of £224 per user and spec 2 gives £199 per user, although I'm a little concerned about disk performance with 16 users sharing spec 2.

Ok, I have ESX and Windows licences on top of that (still waiting for VMware to let me know their per-desktop pricing), and £165 or so for a thin clients, but these costs are now much closer to the initial cost of a new PC.

So ugrading a PC (and using the old machine as a thin client) will probably cost around £435. A whole new system is probably going to be around £600. For a remote user that's easily justifiable. You've got easier management, better data security and better physical security (who wants to steal a dumb terminal). We may even be able to justify a few licences purely on the basis of improved performance for our laptop users.

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that this does take off so we see these prices drop still further.... heh, wonder if I should send Dell an anonymous mail

Ross

VMotion time for Windows XP VM

andrew.reid — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 02:13:35 GMT

Following on from my previous question regarding VDI in general, roughly how long does the average "workstation" take to migrate? Can multiple migrations take place at the one time?

What are the factors that contribute to the length of time a VMotion takes? I've migrated moderately busy Exchange servers live, and that only took a few minutes.

I'm interested to know how quickly the DRS facility can shuffle machines around, in the event that it decides a particular VM (or VMs) need to be moved to optimize performance.

Cheers,

- andrew

VDI for schools

andrew.reid — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 06:42:47 GMT

So, here I am, reasonably familiar with VMware having done one server virtualisation and consolidation project at a previous site. I'm about to do the server stuff all again at my new site, which is a school, and I'm interested to see if we can't use VDI for our "commodity" desktops.

It'd solves a number of problems for us: desktop hardware lifetime, ability to access a SOE from anywhere in the world and (I believe) simplified management. Certainly, the second point there is the most critical.

To me, it seems like it could work well for us. Citrix/Microsoft TS has always looked good on paper for a school, but in reality, not being able to run some of your more rudimentary apps without fear of individual sessions eating all the resources available on a physical machine has been a problem. With VMware 3, a VM working hard could be moved off to another piece of hardware.

I'll be doing real-life testing later on in the piece, but for now, I'm interested to know:

- Is the RDP connection to the virtual machine itself (i.e., at the virtual hardware level) or to Windows XP?

- Can I use USB devices on the thin client terminal (i.e., through the RDP session)?

- What's the graphics performance going to be like? Not going to be running 3D CAD or anything, but, say, Flash on a web page, opening photos on the screen etc.?

- We're potentially going to deploy on blades (if we do VDI). Two-way, dual core, 8 or so GB of RAM. How many might I expect to see? I rang up VMware in Sydney and the dude said 8 per core, but is that a bit optimistic?

- What'll be the limiting factor for a VDI deployment; RAM, or CPU?

A few questions, I know, but I need to get my head around these early so I can either continue along seriously looking at VDI or not.

Thanks for any and all responses.

- andrew

Enterprise Desktops Delivery to Users

dalfonso01 — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 19:13:51 GMT

Hi,
I would know your opinion about ACE Delivery to users.

I saw that there are different forum topics about using ESX for Enterprise Desktops.

In this scenario should user use remote control or Terminal Services to single machines (as I saw somewhere told)? If yes, it seems to me this is not acceptable, because you are not connecting to the project but to a single machine as it would not belong to the ACE projects.

Another better (according to me) solution could be using a terminal server to get a remote desktop to the hosted machine.
Also this seems to me a tricks.

The best solution (according to me) could be hosting the ACE installed project (the package) to a Windows Based server and getting access to the ace player by the way of a Terminal Server/metaframe connection.

I thinks that ESX could the best solution if there would be a DIRECT path for the delivery of the ACE project to the ESC Server, thus if the ACE manager would produce an ESX package.

What are your opinion?
Best Regards
Fabio D'Alfonso

Remote Desktops

joelrf — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 00:33:33 GMT

Hi everyone:

I would like to host my users desktops in one ESX server. In the desktop (could be diskless) I want each user to access they own virtual machine running their own profile, etc.

My question: Is this possible ? Any suggestions for booting (PXE??). Something already done ?

Thanks in advance.

Complete Server based Computing model

wilber999 — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 20:18:07 GMT

Someone please let me know if I am losing my mind. We are a large VM/Citrix (not together) shop. We have about 8000 users and about 500 work from home. I am tired of patching, anti-virus, spyware, performance, Worms, Viruses, Users messing them up, Security ,etc of local desktops and want to get rid of as many of them as possible. We are healthcare and 35-40% of our user's devices are "terminal" like. GPO locks down the desktop to where they can only get to the Metaframe client and IE. All their apps can be rendered that way. We also cannot decide whether to put our $$ in the data center or the desktops, we are currently doing both.

Here is my crazy thought..
-Yank those devices and replace them with Wyse terminals (some device like that)
-Not sure whether to use a local browser or host it on the desktop in datacenter
-Install 2003 Terminal servers mode to host the desktops (no more than 15 per server). I like this to avoind the 1 to 1 relationship of XP desktops
- Use either Metaframe or Softricity (depending on what MS does to it) and IE to render everything the user needs

Of course there are many more details and obstacles, but what are the thoughts on this?

How are people accessing their desktop VM's?

MR-T — Thu, 11 May 2006 21:40:15 GMT

Simple question, I was chatting to someone today and the thing that bothered them about VDI was having to purchase 2 XP licences. 1 for the VM and another for their PC to access from.

How are people implementing this solution to reduce the cost?

I was thinking something cheap, stable with a browser.

Your thoughts are required.

Windows XP Embedded on VMware

davidsumner — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 21:01:34 GMT

Has anyone seen XP Embedded running on VMware? XPe let's you choose a targeted subset of the full XP Pro distribution. This results in less required resources to run. XPe can run on a 400MHz thin client with 256MB RAM and 128MB of flash memory. Seems to me that this would be ideal for hosting dozens of desktops in a virtualized environment.

The trick would be identifying the components that needed to be added to the XPe image to support the VMware environment (network, storage, etc.) and including VMware Tools in the image. But, as Microsoft claims, XPe is compatible with any appliction or device that will run on a full blown copy of XP.

Another benefit is the reduced cost of the license for XPe, less than half the price of XP Pro.

I have successfully booted a VMware virtual machine on a ESX 2.5.2 server using an XPe powered boot disk. However, it did not detect the hard drive or network card. I have found it hard to find any documentation specific to running XPe on VMware ESX.

Any guidance or interest would be appreciated.

Thanks,
David

how do I renew the server address (host) from a wireless computer (mine)

chin — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 03:11:13 GMT

how can I use the commands

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

through a wireless network

I want to change the server ip address and protect the original ip at the sametime.

pls help

Raid-5/6 versus Raid-10

myxiplx — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 09:23:20 GMT

Just had a very interesting debate with Iton over in the thread about VDI for medium sized firms (http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=413231&#413231)

The end result is that I found out the performance of RAID-5 and RAID-10 are subtly different, and found a good IBM article comparing their performance. I thought it might be a useful reference for anybody speccing a VM server:
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/storage/disk/ess/pdf/raid5-raid10.pdf