VMWARE View 4.6

[smiler1]

Hi All

Im trying to find some info on View 4.6, there seems to be very little about. Ive been told that this release will include the isochronous support to allow devices such a USB web cams to work. Does anyone have any information, regarding what 4.6 will include or when it will be available?

Regards

Steve

[theandyorr]

I believe there's a delay caused by issues due to VMware's desire to provide a free View client on the iPad, and Apple's insistance that they charge a fee for it (that's what I've heard...definitely not any thing official). I expect we'll all see it but probably with a .99 cent price tag (US App Store).

If anybody else has any information about that, that isn't protected under an NDA, please feel free to correct me.

[admin]

That is not correct. There is not a delay. Everything is on time as scheduled curretnly. Just wrapping up some loose ends.

WP

[fduranti]

At least in my opinion i think that having to pay a bit for that application is not a problem probably taking in consideration that at this moment only one application (that cost i think about 11$) is available for view connection and it work only in RDP and has, at least for us, many problems (connection that sometimes don't work, keyboard layout problems, and so on).

I hope that the view client for ipad will be out really soon

[theandyorr]

Thanks Warren. Glad to here that. A lot of our staff are really excited for it's release.

[hmartin]

When will the security server (or View in general) support RADIUS?  We have an extensive investment in our security infrastructure, which is RADIUS-based.  We can't just switch to RSA.  Alternatively, how can we utilize our existing SSL VPN to access the View environment and PCoIP (probably tough with UDP)?

[matais]

Maybe some day they will have Printer Support over PCoIP as well?  Or Flash or Media redirection?  Have you seen how much CPU rendering happens when playing a video in a VDI?  Not to mention how much bandwidth it will take through WAN when using connection server if this PCoIP will actually work through it with a reasonable amount of users.  When will PCoIP support the USB devices anyway?  Not to mention access controls for when users aren't on the LAN, how do we turn off Copy/Paste, and printing or USB when they get that working?  Maybe in project Horizon, 5 years from now?

[Linjo]

@matais

1. View have had printer support since version 4.5.

2. With PCoIP there is no need for Flash or Media redirection, it actually limits on what devices you can deploy PCoIP.

3. Yes, rendering video uses CPU. Whats your point?

4. You can, if you need to, limit the amount of bandwith for PCoIP. We are a few hundred people using the same View pool hosted 1500km away without problems.

5. PCoIP supports USB Redirection on Windows and Linux Devices.

6. Access controls can be implemnted with GPO:s in the desktop easily.

7. Horizon is closer then you think.

Its some bold statements from a first poster...

// Linjo

[matais]

@Linjo  Sorry, I haven't tried this stuff since a POC last year, wasn't sure which version.

1. View have had printer support since version 4.5.  -Does this work in PCoIP with the ThinPrint OEM?

2. With PCoIP there is no need for Flash or Media redirection, it actually limits on what devices you can deploy PCoIP.  Since we went with XenDesktop, we utilize Flash and Mediastream redirection all the time.  -There is no CPU required in the datacenter since the datastream is sent to the device for rendering video.  If I had hundreds of devices playing video that was rendered on the hypervisor, I would need three times the amount of servers.

3. Yes, rendering video uses CPU. Whats your point?  -See above

4. You can, if you need to, limit the amount of bandwith for PCoIP. We are a few hundred people using the same View pool hosted 1500km away without problems.  -How do these limits affect the user experience, and is it dynamic to the amount of bandwidth necessary at any given time?

5. PCoIP supports USB Redirection on Windows and Linux Devices.  -This is cool, I did not know this.  Previously only worked in RDP.  Can it be disabled when a user goes home and attaches to the same desktop, and re-enabled when the user comes back to the office?  How do you achieve this?

6. Access controls can be implemnted with GPO:s in the desktop easily.  -See above, is it adaptive to access controls when users roam to different end-points?

7. Horizon is closer then you think.  -Will it allow users to self-subscribe to content and applications accessible to all platforms and devices the user may intend to use?  Perhaps a single pane of glass for application launch, subscription and request with a central management console for IT.

Its some bold statements from a first poster...

I have still yet to see any solution from vmware in regards to desktop publishing and virtualization that can actually scale without introducing more management points and other major infrastruction pain points.  Please point out anything they are doing in this space worth considering anytime closer that I would think?

[Linjo]

1. Yes.

2. There are pro's and con's with all solutions, with FlashRedirection you need a device that understands the codec and have the correct flash rendered installed and configured. You also need to allow all these endpoint to have direct access to the source, that does not work in all enviroments.

How do you solve silverlight, VP8 or any new type of codec with redirection?

What do you do when a new flashversion is released that the streaming technology is not compatible with? (I am genuinly interested here, not try to be rude.)

3. There are pro's and con's with all solutions.

4. Yes, PCoIP is dynamic and will adjust according to the network conditions. (We do not need to care if the device has local redirection capabilites or not)

5. I'm happy to have enlighted you. Yes, you can disable USB redirection for remote users and enable it for local users by not allowing the USB TCP port.

6. Yes, with GPO:s. (Depending exactly what you mean with access controls)

7. Can't comment on features and functionality here. Google is your friend...

It seems that you are not updated on VMware products, so its hard to understand what you exactly are referring to in your last statement.

Is it that we only have one management console for administrating the View solution? (plus vCenter if you count that)

Or maybe that we have published a reference architechtures with up to 50.000 desktops?

Not trying to start a flame-war and I am not here to debate  your choice of vendor to solve your usecase, but you are making  statements that are simply based on incorrect information and could mislead people since you are  stating these as facts.

// Linjo

[matais]

Why is it a flame war to analyze differences in product.  There's always a use case for every product, why not explore?

BTW, anybody could write reference archtecture of 50,000 desktops, it could be MS RDS and it could be written.  Doesn't mean that the infrastructure isn't insanely large to the point that it's not worth implementing.  What is your meaning to the reference architecture, what should I be able to gleen from that?  I could give you a reference architecture of 50,000 traditional desktops, but I wouldn't recommend it in comparison to what is available out there.  Give a comparison of the 50,000 view desktops to a use case another solution.

Access Controls:  Say a user has full access in their VDI solution when in the office, but when the user goes home to use their own PC, that is not protected by the company controls, and wants to access the same VDI.  How do you protect the VDI from client side drive mappings, preventing the user from copy/paste, or printing.  How do you provide this solution seamlessly?  Do you create TCP rules for entire subnets for all the different users accessing?  What if the user becomes compliant with their asset by using a company owned laptop, and they want to have full access from it, yet using the same VPN solution?

I admit, my information may be outdated, or wrong.  That is why I am posting, to be corrected.  I'm cool with being wrong, but dialogue is the easiest way to determine that without demoing the product or reading through administrator's guides.  Sorry to bother you, but I did learn a lot, which is progress.

[nnmansoori]

Hi Everybody, just wanted to inform you that I installed VMware View 4.6, my vDesktops are Windows XP SP3, and the Hypervisor and vCenter version is 4.1, I am using Wyse P20 as TC with USB headset and Softphone using for Call Center agents, the sound issue is resolved after upgrading to VMware View 4.6 with USB headset.

[fduranti]

Hi, we're just about to finish our pilot and deploy a more consistent infrastructure and regarding the Access Controls it works good.

In our case we don't want drive redirection also from internal connection (because the user should save their data on the Virtual Machine and not on the physical pc).

With PCoIP you don't have drive redirection as for RDP connection (and you can disable it on the virtual desktop for RDP users with GPO). Users will be able to use USB redirection from internal PC (if you want that they should use usb key or usb cdrom).

From internet you can enable only PCoIP protocol and you'll not get drive redirection or usb redirection so they're not able to transfer data.

You just need to "not" enable usbredir from Security Gateway to virtual desktop.

Copy/pasteof file from the vdi client to the physical server is not possible (you can just copy/paste text).

If they use company desktop and vpn they can connect directly to the internal connection broker and don't need to use the public security gateway.

The only problem not using RDP at least from internal network is that users will not be able to use their physical desktop cdrom directly if the cdrom is SATA because it's not redirected by pcoverip. You can share the cdrom on the physical desktop and you can configure on the Virtual Desktop that is launched at connect and also when user reconnect (so session already opened) that can check the Connection Server used by user and if it's an internal Server (so the user is connecting "securely" through lan/wan or vpn) it will connect the shared \\physicalipsource\CDROM as drive "x.". If the user connect through an external security gateway you can choose if leave him connected to the last "cdrom share" connected (probably that of his physical pc in the office if it's switched on or disconnect it from the share.

Don't take all of that as gold... it's just our experience on vmware view 4.5/4.6.

Francesco