VMware Horizon Community
AlexLSx7
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Zero Client for Blast Extreme and Nvidia vGPU

We currently have HP T310 PCOIP clients and need some more.

We are not too happy with how PCOIP works with AutoCAD so are looking at moving over to Blast Extreme as it seems to be better and as VMware are phasing support for PCOIP out, i guess its a move in the right direction.


Can anyone recommend some good Zero Clients for Blast Extreme that work well with Nvidia cards (M60) for AutoCAD/Revit use?

16 Replies
HussamRabaya
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

check Wyse 7000

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AlexLSx7
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

That's a thin client not a zero client.

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Najtsob
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Zero client = PCoIP. This is because zero client are based on tera2 chipset from Teradici (PCoIP authors).

For Blast you will need ordinary thin clients wit Windows or Linux. But I believe that Wyse ThisOS is firmware like OS (cutdown version of linux/bsd ?) and it has support for blast extreme protocol.

AlexLSx7
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Ahh right, i thought they were just any client that doesn't run a configurable OS and i saw these https://www.10zig.com/zero_clients which are apparently Zero Clients that run 'NOS'??

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BenFB
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

We demo the 10ZiG zero and thin clients with Blast Extreme. Their zero clients are running a linux OS that has been highly customized. I'd recommend doing a PoC of Dell/Wyze, 10ZiG and HP. From our research and reference calls those were the top three. They each have theirs ups and downs.

I would be looking for a device that can run the native Horizon Client so it has the full feature set (10ZiG is good about doing this). That way you don't get locked in to a device that won't support newer features that you may want to use (This was our biggest gripe with zero clients. No support for RTAV). You can use the VMware Compatibility Guide - View (Thin Clients) Search to narrow down your search.

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markadams123
Contributor
Contributor

Hello Alex.

Sorry to hear about your experience with PCoIP. Though, I found it to be an interesting protocol because my team got maximum performance out of it in our zero client deployment. We use ClearCube’s CD7014 ZERO+ client which comes with Integrated CAC Reader and support for multiple protocols including PCoIP, Blast Extreme and CITRIX XenDesktop.

In my opinion, PCoIP has the edge over Blast Extreme in certain aspects. PCoIP can manage intensive multimedia and graphics applications while Blast Extreme needs GPUs to deliver the same level of performance as PCoIP.

However, Blast Extreme was essentially designed for mobile devices and networks and it is built on H.264 video coding. So, it is a good option if your staff mostly consists of mobile users because they can leverage it for improved performance. Blast Extreme is also preferable if you have invested in NVIDIA GRID™ Tesla® M cards.

If you would like to go the Blast Extreme route, check out IGEL and 10ZiG’s zero clients.

Open to your thoughts and suggestions!

AlexLSx7
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

For our standard users it works fine.

We have done a POC with some Igels and 10zigs and have decided to get some 10zigs in for our CAD users as they were clearly more smoother running PCOIP. Once we upgrade to the latest version of View, we can also utilize Blast Extreme.

We do use GRID cards on both our standard and CAD pools.

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csavage
Contributor
Contributor

We went through the same process of testing and analysis only to discover exactly what markadams123 is saying to be true.

PCoIP can manage intensive multimedia and graphics applications while Blast Extreme needs GPUs to deliver the same level of performance as PCoIP.

Blast Extreme appears to be targeted at mobile devices and networks as its built on H.264 video coding.

We are waiting to see if there is some form of Zero client which comes on to the market in the near future. The management of the Zero client devices is far superior and the attack vectors are minimized greatly.

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himcrucified
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I've been pretty happy with Dell's new 5070's. Technically they're thin clients but it appears it's the closest thing we're going to get to a zero client if you also want the Blast option available. We're still on PCoIP so these should give us option when/if we ever need to migrate to Blast.

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mchadwick19
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Here's a second to the Dell/Wyse 5070's. We use the ones with integrated smart card readers and they have been solid for us throughout our testing. Also the management of the Dell clients (to me) is much easier than managing 10zigs or tera-based zero clients. Although if you have the $$$$ to shell out for the enterprise teradici MC then it might be better.

VDI Engineer VCP-DCV, VCP7-DTM, VCAP7-DTM Design
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HPU-ADM
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

In general you are going to need a GPU for that kind of application with either protocol.  Think about it, even on a physical desktop, you are going to a graphics card, and not use the lame "on board" video chip.

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HPU-ADM
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

For the horizon view client on the clearcube, is it windows or linux? Or did clearcube write their own?

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HPU-ADM
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Was this testing with blast extreme, with H.264 offloading?

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Ray_handels
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

We are also looking for a new Thin Client for our environment and seem to have the same specs, also using AutoCad and revit with vGPU's.

I would not suggest to go to Teradici Zero Clients as the management fee is very high (20$ per device per year) and VMware is going to replace it with blast in the future (at lest that's my guess). Also I don;t value Teradici as a reliable partner after what they did with the free version of the management console.. It's not a trustworthy partner anymore for us at least.

We are now testing 10Zig NOS devices and to this point I'm pretty happy with how they perform. Very easy to manage and just a few things that are a bit annoying. We will also be testing Dell/Wyse and HP but by the looks of it in this thread it seems as if 10Zig and Dell/Wyse seem to be the best...

Pretty interested to know what others are using though.

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AlexLSx7
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

We did go with the 10zigs in the end, and have been pretty happy with them. They work great.

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