The most simple vmware view setup?

[tomstom]

Good evening

we have a small project with 5 Desktops (=Users) and we think it would be a nice place to test VMware View.

Unfortunately, it looks like we have to setup 4 servers to serve 5 clients:

• View Connection Server
  
• VMWare vCenter Server with View Composer
  
• ESX Server
  
• View Transfer Server
  

Whats the most simple & working solution for VMware View with 5 Users?

The only Software they use is a simple accounting tool which works fine with 100KB memory...

We hope that we can setup a simple solution like this:

HP Hardware (Server) with:

• ESX Server with:
  
  • 1 x Windows 2008 R2 with Active Directory & File Server
    
  • 1 x Windows 2008 R2 with VMWare View for serving the 5 users desktop
    

Unfortunately, there is no VMware Presales support form / Mail (we hope that there is a customer support),

therefore it would be great if someone can help us answering this question.

Thanks a lot in advance,

kind regards,

Thomas

[tacticsbaby]

Sounds like you really don't need much to get started. I don't know which version of the View license you have. If you have the Premier license then you can create an automated pool using linked clones. If you don't use Premier then you could just create and automated pool using full clones. Or you could even just create 5 full VMs, install the View agent on them and import them into View. From the hardware side you should be OK. Just make sure that you are not maxing out your RAM in the hosts. What do you have for storage? You not only need capacity but IOPS. How are your users going to access their VMs? We use Wyse P20 and find that this is a great thin client. You could get this running with the following basic items:

This assumes you are not using the View Composer service

1) 1 connection server

2) Virtual Center

3) If users are connecting from outside of firewall then: 1 security server

4) Proper licensing - This is the big one. Make sure that your licenses are good with VMware and Microsoft. Also, if you are using Windows 7 then make sure to note that MAK licensing is not supported. KMS is what is supported for View, but unless you are using enough licenses at the same time KMS is not an option. An example would be >25 Windows 7 VMs in use.

This is just a quick and dirty list, I am sure others can provide more. Just to install View and do a basic setup is not hard. The hard part is building a good one and making it scale. For more information about getting started take a look at the evaluators guide: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-View46-Evaluators-Guide.pdf?source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBUQFj...

More than anything I would recommend making a good plan up front and getting buy in from all the decision makers. Once you deploy a dud, its' almost impossible to re-sell it. Good luck.

[tacticsbaby]

Sorry, misread your comments. Since you are using composer then you can use Linked Clones. I recommend them because they save disk space and ease management. Just remember that MAK keys are not supported by QuickPrep so you will want to deal with you MS licensing accordingly. Why do you wish to use a transfer server in a simple deployment? You plan to use Offline desktops? I would do that after you get the basic environment working well.

[tomstom]

Good evening tacticsbaby

Thank you very much for your fast and detailed answer!, it's really great for us to start.

At the moment, we have no VMWare Software and our Clients are all internal, so I think it's perfect to start using your proposed list

If I understand you right, we can install those components on the same Windows 2008 R2 instance for hosting the Virtual Client Desktops:

• VMware View Composer (is probably optional)
  
• For managing the ESX Server we use VMware Infrastructure (instead of Virtual Center)
  
• Connection Server
  
• VMware View Manager
  

Kind regards,

Thomas

[tacticsbaby]

You will need to have Virtual Center. You can get a combined license for View/Virtual center. I have found that if you doing only a View deployment this can save you money. Also, it is a good idea to keep your VDI environment seperate from your server environment if possible.

1) The composer service is needed for linked clones and that is installed on your Virtual Center server.

2) I don't know if I am understanding your question fully. Your VMs will be hosted on an ESX host and you will use your Windows 2008 server to manage your infrastructure. So for example your View connection server can run on the Windows 2008 server. NOTE: the View connection server is also your View manager server. You access view manager by the following: https://<yourviewconnectionserver>/admin.

It looks like you should spend some time on working out your licensing. Also remember that just because you buy a View license, a Microsoft Win7 license, you still need to buy another license from MS that allows you to access your VM from a thin client. The cost on this is flexible but you must take it it into account in order to stay legal. This is a quick a dirty way to get View setup in your environment but please take your time and do it right. I have found that there are so many things that cannot easily be predicted when beginning a View deployment. The more and better your planning up front and proper setting of expectations with your users the better. We all want View to succeded. Good luck and please tell me how this works out.

[tomstom]

Dear icsbaby

Thank you very much for your answer... once more!

Yes, we will solve the Licencing problems the right way, but 1st we need a proof of concept and about two weeks for testing and a presentation. It's a project for a customer and he is probably also testing the free 10 User XenDesktop. I'm very curious about the result of the customers comparison.

Kind regards,

Thomas

[tacticsbaby · Accepted solution]

I am curious too as to how this bake-off will go. I hope View wins! In order to achieve this please take a good look at the View documentation. I also strongly recommend that you take a look at the Windows 7 optimization guide for View : http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-View-OptimizationGuideWindows7-EN.pdf

This will show you how to build a good Win 7 Base image for View. Also note that it is highly recommended that you build your base images from scratch and NOT P2V them. You can quickly and easily build images for Windows operating systems using MDT 2010 update 1. This tool is free and is from Microsoft. I highly recommend you take a look at it. Also, many of the optimizations for Win7 and View are also good to use with Xen. Good luck.