New Horizon System setup

[WF8Sjake]

I have been told to figure out what all server equipment my school will need to install our own VDI setup for approx 80 student desktop stations.

I have a quote for the software side of this project but need to prepare a budget request for the hardware/server side of this project.

I have read the documentation but still not 100% sure of what we need server hardware wise to make this work properly.

And yes, as you can probably tell I am a complete novice to building a VDI infrastructure.

Thank you

[vcpguy]

Welcome to the forum. VDI is a journey and you will learn a lot during this discovery/implementation phase.

First you need to know your budget. This is very important for you to make a sound case whether VDI is even worth the investment.

I would like to start with the requirements - I/O, VDI VM, Licenses for VMware view, vSphere, storage, End point devices, MS Server licensing, Software that can be installed on VDI VM, Profile Management, etc...

Read some VMware books that will give you a good start like - http://www.amazon.com/VMware-View-Desktop-Virtualization-Solutions/dp/1849681120

attend VMware Authorized Training.

I hope this helps. I am not being very specific but giving you a idea about this interesting journey

[WF8Sjake]

Currently I do not have a set budget as this is what I am trying to plan out so as the CIO can do this budget planning. A VDI system is the way we want to go, just figuring out the details is the sticky part.

As I have read from the documentation, I need a total of 3 servers, the connector, composer, and transfer.

However the documentation is not totally clear on what the specifications are for these servers. Also it mentions using Windows Server 2008R2 as the operating system of choice but our CIO wnats to run Windows Server 2012R2 for all of our systems.

Can any of the needed servers be a VM? As we are about to begin deploying VM's for almost all of our servers.

[llacas]

All the servers can definitely be VM's. It's actually recommended to do this. If you have a VM environment setup (vSphere) then you can install all the server portion on there. Then the new server hardware can be dedicated to VDI desktop VM's only.

You'll need a VM for vCenter server, Connection server and composer server. Unless you plan on allowing to "check out" VM's locally (meaning the user downloads the VM to run on is local PC and not in the "private cloud" you setup with the server hardware) then you won't need a transfer server.

As for server supported platforms. Besides vCenter that can be Windows Server 2012 / 2012R2, all other components (composer,connection) only support Windows Server 2008R2.

[WF8Sjake]

Thank you very much!!

You have helped me greatly is getting this project started. . .