Desktop Virtualization on ESXi

[Faize]

I am currently in the process of evaluating different hypervisors to see which one best meets my requirements, and would greatly appreciate any advice on how well ESXi can handle desktop virtualization scenarios.

1. Does the free edition of ESXi 5.x support the 3D virtual graphics adapter? Or is this feature only available in the paid editions of vSphere?
2. What are some good ways to access a VM intended to serve as a virtual desktop? Will the "Console" tab in vSphere Client work? Or is there some other software that needs to be installed on the client machine? The reason I ask is because Remote Desktop and VNC both provide a sub-par user experience.
3. How good is the virtual desktop experience compared to Microsoft's RemoteFX? Also, how good is it compared to (local) VMs running on Workstation or Fusion?

Finally, this isn't directly related to desktop virtualization, but does VMware maintain a list comparing the features available in each edition, including the free edition? There's a list comparing the various paid editions (Compare vSphere Editions for Server & Data Center Virtualization | United States), but I have no clue how these editions stack up against the free edition (or to put it another way, what I won't have access to by going with the free edition instead of the paid editions).

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

1. Support of the 3D graoucs acceleration is a feature of VMware Horizon view and this requires a licensed version of ESXi.You can learn more here - http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmware-horizon-view-graphics-acceleration-deployment.pdf. If you do not need the 3d graphics you can still use the free version to host virtual dekstops.
2. VMware Horizon View  is designed for hosting virtual desktops and provides methods for accessing virtual desktops relying upon AD for authentication. If you are just looking to host virtual desktops you could use the vSphere client but I would not recommend using the vSphere client as the method for access as this will put a load on your ESxi host the preferred method would be to use RDP to access the virtual desktops. I am surprised your have had sub-par performance with VNC and RDP both in my experience have worked well.
3. There are a number of factors that impact the end user experience particulalry the resources the hypersiro has and the number of virtual desktops - my exprience if the environment is properly sized the experience will be quite satisfactory. On comparable machines, hosting virtual desktop on ESXi will provide a more enjoyable performance.

This document will provide some of the differences between the free version and the paid versions - http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf.

[Faize]

Thank you, this is exactly the information I am looking for.

To address what I meant regarding sub-par performance with VNC and RDP, they simply can't provide the level of streaming performance that consumer techologies like Miracast, Steam Machines or Nvidia's SHIELD can. VNC and RDP are great for typical office use, but the moment you load a Youtube video, the experience goes from decent to terrible.

[Linjo]

Horizon View uses a remote protocol called PCoIP that delivers one of the best user experiences on the market.

There is a 60 day trial version if you want to try it out.

// Linjo