VMware Horizon Community
jjp333200
Contributor
Contributor

Disaster recovery scenario question

In the event of a WAN or View Connection server failure is it possible for remote offices to simply connect to their locally hosted View desktops via the Windows RDP client?

Reply
0 Kudos
6 Replies
dvhorvath
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It is possible. There is a setting in the vdm_agent.vdm template to allow direct RDP. It determines whether non-View clients can connect to a View desktop using RDP. When this setting is disabled, only connections through a View Connection Server will be allowed. This setting is enabled by default, so the default setting is to allow users to connect directly to View desktops using RDP. This assumes, of course, that the users are either administrators on the View desktops or have been added to the Remote Desktop Users group on those VMs.

Dave

Reply
0 Kudos
jjp333200
Contributor
Contributor

Dave - Thanks for your reply.  Taking it a step further if you don't mind...

Our remote sites require the capacity to operate indepedently if the WAN or the View Connection server is down.  Does it make sense to set up RDP with this setting enabled right out of the gate to ensure that capability?  Rather than have something bad happen and scramble...?  Thanks for your thoughts.

Reply
0 Kudos
dvhorvath
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I thought a little more about this after I posted my reply, too. As long as you have hosts in those remote locations to run the View desktops, then the people there should be able to RDP to those even if the WAN link goes down. That's what you're talking about, right? If that's the situation, you should be fine anyway, since the RDP setting is enabled by default.

But then, are your View connections going out on the WAN to a Connection Server at a central location, to broker a connection back to a View desktop at the remote office? That seems inefficient. So I think maybe I don't understand your situation. Can you clarify that point?

Dave

Reply
0 Kudos
jjp333200
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, that is the present state...Connection server at a central location brokering a View connection to locally hosted desktop at a remote office.  Our deployments are very small at this time as we flesh out these questions...particularly DR.

So...in your opinion...better to set up the remote offices with direct RDP connections to their local desktops, eliminate the inefficiency of the View brokering over the WAN and not have to worry so much about network or server outage?  In that case are we primarily using View Manager as just the desktop provisioning agent?

Reply
0 Kudos
dvhorvath
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Well, a lot of that really depends on performance. If you have high bandwidth, low-latency WAN connections between your remote sites and your central location, and the performance through the View Connection Servers at the central office seems fine in the remote locations, then I think you'll get a lot of benefit out of using PCoIP for those connections. Then you could just use RDP connections to the View desktops in a pinch if the WAN link goes down.

The difficulty with having Connection Servers at each of the remote locations, as I'm sure you've already found, is the necessary traffic between the Connection Servers that can't traverse a WAN link. So if the performance is good with the setup you have, I would go with that and rely on RDP connections only as a backup in case of emergency at those remote sites.

This is a kind of unusual setup, and I find it intriguing. Is it working out for you alright so far?

Dave

From: jjp333200 <communities-emailer@vmware.com<mailto:communities-emailer@vmware.com>>

Reply-To: communities-emailer <communities-emailer@vmware.com<mailto:communities-emailer@vmware.com>>

Date: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 1:28 PM

To: David Horvath <david.horvath@dmctechgroup.com<mailto:david.horvath@dmctechgroup.com>>

Subject: New message: "Disaster recovery scenario question"

VMware Communities<http://communities.vmware.com/index.jspa>

Disaster recovery scenario question

reply from jjp333200<http://communities.vmware.com/people/jjp333200> in VMware View™ (with View Manager) - View the full discussion<http://communities.vmware.com/message/2031722#2031722

Reply
0 Kudos
jjp333200
Contributor
Contributor

We're an unusual oufit sometimes...lol!

So far the small numbers we have are working pretty well.  The issue surrounds the remote sites that need to operate autonomously.  They are manufacturing and warehouse operations that presently use local workstations for scanning.  If the scanning stations become unavailable b/c of a WAN or Connection server failure, production lines stop and that is a bad situation.  One physical workstation can be replaced relatively quickly but a whole fleet of machines being inaccessible is unacceptable.  That's why I'm considering the direct RDP connection to the vms.  Also, we would configure the existing CPUs to connect to the vms to get more life out of the hardware.  That setup would not be leveraging PCoIP, correct?

Reply
0 Kudos