VDI and how it works exactly?

[ljmitch]

Hi,

Have limited experiences with thin clients and the like so have been reading up on VDI as we're looking at it. If someone could slap me in the right direction.....!

Basically....with a thin client, does a user first have to logon to the thin client, or does a thin client just have a shortcut on its desktop to launch Remote desktop client?

Or I'm guessing autologs onto thin client and auto starts the RDP client to connect to the VM?

Or am I completely confused and you first login (authenticate) via a webpage or similar first off which then auto connects you to your own personal virtual machine (single sign on is what I'm looking for!)

And I'm guessing somehow when a user logs on (however) they will always get their VM, like their very own desktop pc they can customise however.

Whats this connection broker stuff about? Do I have choices? Can you somehow use ICA instead of RDP?

One final thing is audio and usb support. How good is it realllly?! If I plug in a usb device do I really have to logoff and back on again?

Thanks for your time!

[TomHowarth · Accepted solution]

Welcome the to forums

Time for some consultant type answers

Basically....with a thin client, does a user first have to logon to the thin client, or does a thin client just have a shortcut on its desktop to launch Remote desktop client?

Depends, on how you configure the device. and what type of Thin client it is. on the whole propiotory OSes like WTOS tend to boot to a manager and then you click on a icon and get directed to a (Citrix Desktop, Web Interface or Broker front end). Embeded XP devices tend to logon to a User Desktop and then either auto launch your connection or await a double click event.

Or I'm guessing autologs onto thin client and auto starts the RDP client to connect to the VM?

See above, Depends upon how configured

Or am I completely confused and you first login (authenticate) via a webpage or similar first off which then auto connects you to your own personal virtual machine (single sign on is what I'm looking for!)

VDM and most broker software will authenticate againts a Web site (if using none XP/Vista Clients) or a agent can be installed on a Desktop or XPe device. both offer SSO but only against ADS if VDM LeaStream and VAS offer other authentication providers

And I'm guessing somehow when a user logs on (however) they will always get their VM, like their very own desktop pc they can customise however.

Depends upon whether you have persistant or none persistant VM's. consider this similar to roaming profiles and Hotdesking

Whats this connection broker stuff about? Do I have choices? Can you somehow use ICA instead of RDP?

You only have the ability to use ICA if you choose to use XENdesktop (this can be installed using VI3 as the Guest delivery engine. there is no requirement to deploy XENserver

One final thing is audio and usb support. How good is it realllly?! If I plug in a usb device do I really have to logoff and back on again?

Depends on the Brokering technology choosen. you do get some built in redirection in the way of RDP's own redirection (read downstream audio, and limited USB redirection. VDM can do Bi-directional Audio however this is limited to devices that have the agent installed and if on XP the client device's user is required to have administative local access. VAS, LeoStream and XENdesktop offer a greater selection of support

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[ljmitch]

Thanks for the answer. It definately helped to get it straight in my mind!

Only reason I mentioned the ica thingy is because I saw a youtube vid comparing the two with a nice graphic of a globe getting moved around!

The rdp one was clunky and the ica one was really smooth! But I've read somewhere else rdp protocol has been released (disclosed the word?!) to everyone so hopefully wont be too long before some brightsparks work on it to make it a bit better!!

But food for thought about the other products out there.....would assume ESX is going to be the best to run off as its proven and I know what I'm doing on that side!! But all these VDM solutions to look at and consider. It looks like its a side of the industry just really starting out and the best is definately yet to come.....hmmmm what to do!

[mittim12]

Patrick Rouse of Provision Networks has created a nice broker comparison document if you want to do check it out. It should give you a good overview of what features are supported on which broker.

If you found this or any other post helpful please consider the use of the Helpful/Correct buttons to award points

[TomHowarth]

The real one to look for is this is the next generation remote display protocol Net2Display

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[jesse_gardner]

The problem is that VDI is exploding right now. People are making decisions on products right now. I can tell you our situation: We're likely going to choose XenDesktop because of ICA's performance over high latency links. While I otherwise prefer VMware VDM, user experience is what matters.

Is there any new information about Net2Display approval, development, VMware implementation?

[williambishop]

Also keep in mind that some vendors (particularly wyse) have usb, video, dual screen, capabilities beyond standard RDP. If you use their thin client, and use the licensed features, you can get full motion video and audio, as well as support for multiple displays(real) and support for USB devices(we use scanners, etc with ours).