This should be my second to last blog on this setup. We are currently 15% virtualized having deployed zero clients in three clinics. Within the next 2 months that number will become 33% as we deploy the rest of the zero clients. The reason this should be my second to last blog on this project is that I expect to blog once more when I hit 33%.
One of the major issues that had prevented me from deploying globally was that I was running View 4.5 in Beta since May. My blogs are spread out because I'm most likely dealing with tech support to discuss an issue I was having in Beta. Of course I couldn't talk about those issues, NDA and all, so I would skirt around them in my blog. Now that 4.5 is released I'm free to talk and free to deploy.
A major advantage I see to this technology is its simplicity. Between the PCoIPMC and the View Administrator I can teach the technology to my helpdesk staff with ease. I'm even gearing up to teach non-IT staff how to use View Administrator. My reasoning for this is that by using zero clients I have removed the ability to reboot the VM from the end user. By teaching selected end users how to use the View Administrator I can give them back that ability. I might blog on how that process goes. With View 4.5 its pretty easy to grant a user the ability to reboot a desktop without allowing them to recompose it or delete it, so I don't see this as a potential security risk.
One thing that I'd like to start focusing on is redundancy in the design. I only have one VCS server, I'm not sure if this is a great idea. I'll have roughly a third of my network all needing this server to be up just to log in. The other day Windows Updates jammed the server and I had to reboot it. Luckily the service was still running so no one even noticed, however it did scare me. Had an update killed the server I could have had a third of my network down. This design seems pretty obvious to someone reading this but remember this thing is growing out of beta. I need to sit down and redesign my network now that this is getting real. Good thing that View Administrator guide is well written.
Outside of a network redesign, some printer issues, and the loss of the ability to reboot a VM, things are going great. Its absolutely amazing how quickly these things can be deployed and how quickly I can deploy the VMs. After this project is completed, I'm going to wrap my head around ThinApp.
