Minimum Desktop Specs for VMware View Client 4

[RealZ]

we are trying to setup work from home solution for our remote users and was curious to know would the minimum specs be at the host side to run view client without issues (such as Video/Audio breakup).

We will be using VOIP applications as well…

View Client desktop is Windows XPE.

Also, has anybody used View client on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Does MMR and USB Redirection work under any of them… Thanks in advance.

[gunnarb]

I hate to give you the standard answer of "it depends" but it really does.

As far as host requirements, "it depends" on how many users you want to support per host. What applications are these users running. Video/Audio is more a matter of bandwidth for remote users, internally it's not going to be an issue. Video/Audio also is going to depend on how you setup the guest OS, for instance to watch full HD video with PCoIP you need your guest to have 2-CPUs. I'd do a lot of research on your VoIP solution and see how others with your same solution have had success, PCoIP does not support bi-directional audio, RDPdoes, so you get VoIP but lose PCoIP which is your best bet from a USB Redirection (unless you have Wyse clients with TCX).

I'm sending this message from my PCoIP terminal (a Wyse P20) running Windows 7 on multiple monitors, so yes, View works great on it. However, 7 is not offically supported yet so I'd hold off on any production use of it until they get the WDDM driver issue figured out.

I can try to give you better specs if I had a better picture of your setup/design. Any 2proc quad core server will be enough for just about any View application, the only issue you are goign to run into is the amount of VMs you can get on that box.

-Gunnar

[RealZ]

Thanks. That was very helpful, but my question was about the machine that is running the View Client (the Portal/ Wyse Thin client in your case)….

Can one use Windows Vista and Windows 7 to run VMware view client and connect to a XPE machine? And in this scenario will I get both MMR and USB Redirection.

[gunnarb]

Oh, just so you understand terminology better, the word "host", when talking in a VMware setting, implies you are talking about the ESX server. "Guest" implies you are talking about the Virtual Machine running inside the host. I don't know what you'd call the end user device, it can be lots of things I guess, XPe would tell me you are running a XP embedded terminal.

Anyway...

I dont' understand what you mean by "connect to a XPE machine", the reverse is what you do with View. You take the XPe machine and connect to a View desktop. I'm going to assume this is what you mean, and the answer is yes. You can install the View client on XPe and connect via PCoIP or RDP. This is generally not the best practice as XPe is not a "zero client" which means you have to think of Anti-Virus and configuration of that OS. However, if that's what you have, then that's what you have, and yes you can get that to work.

MMR and USB is going to depend on the protocol and the type of XPe terminal you use. PCoIP is going to give you the best Video/USB but you will lose two way audio which limits your VoIP option. RDP supports two-way audio, but MMR/USB is not going to be as good, unless you have Wyse Terminals with the TCX option, even with that it isn't as good as PCoIP.

My two-cents,

Gunnar

[RealZ]

Thanks, I was actually mixed up in terminology… Lemme take another shot at it…

Our Host = ESX server

Guest OS = XPe

Terminal = xyz?

What I am trying to find out is can my Terminal be Windows Vista or Windows 7….? I have already tested with my terminal being XP and I was able to do PCOIP with Bidirectional audio using USB audio device.

Thanks...

[gunnarb]

Wow, you are virtualizing XPe and connecting to it with 7/Vista, that is the craziest use of VDI I've ever heard.

Regardless, ya sure, Vista/7 will do PCoIP/RDP and they both work fine. Same arguments I have already made when comparing RDP/PCoIP though. I had my 7 machine connect to a XP machine and it out performed my terminal doing the same thing, so absolutely this will work. Now why would you want to... nevermind don't answer.

-Gunnar

[RealZ]

Thanks Man!! BTW, the XPe guests are because we simply converted our physical thin clients into VMs so people outside office can get the same experience as they were in the office, eventually we will replace it with something like XP…maybe...

[gunnarb]

This question is still listed as "unanswered", is there anything else you were looking for?