multi-monitors

[aiea96701]

We have a four monitor setup on all our workstations.   I'd like to consider virtualization for our workstations and have been reviewing Vmware View.   So, the question is:   Does Vmware View support multi-monitoring or multi-displaying?  Or, how should we perform the same conditions virtually? 

Thanks

[mittim12]

If you use the PCOIP protocol you can have up to 4 monitors in a multi monitor configuration.

[aiea96701]

This is encouraging.  Any downsides ?

[mittim12]

I've never done four but I run two on a regular basis without any issues. 

[tacticsbaby]

Definately possible with PCoIP. One thing to also consider would be to use Teredici PCoIP accellerator cards in your ESXi hosts. Each card can handle 64 individual desktops.

[tacticsbaby]

If you put a few of the cards I mentioned in the hosts you can really improve the video experience for the average user and increase the number of VMs you can run well on a single host. Here is a link to their site. http://www.teradici.com/pcoip/pcoip-products/add-on-products.php

We are considering a solution like this. Our vendor recommended this to us. We use Teredici based thin clients in our View 4.6 environment and so far they are ok, minus not being able to use smart card auth. Oh, I use Windows XP SP3 and Win 7 SP1 with View 4.6 over single and dual monitors. I find the display and video performance good. In order to get the best performance/resource manage you should look at OS optimization guides as well. For a good XP guide http://www.ituda.com/Docs/VMware/Best_Practices_For_Creating_VMware_View_Golden_Master_Images.pdf and Windows 7: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-View-OptimizationGuideWindows7-EN.pdf

[tacticsbaby]

You use more host memory up to a max of 128 mb.

[aiea96701]

128mb or 128gb?   

[aiea96701]

Not sure I quite understand this.   My requirement is to establish four monitors/displays for the desktop user (i.e. 4 monitors or 4 terminals, etc).   How does placing Teredici adapters on the ESX host accomplish this?

[tacticsbaby]

That would be 128 MB of video memory per VM.

[tacticsbaby]

As you add monitors to your VMs you use more memory on the ESXi host. As a result of your increased memory usage you can run fewer VMs on each host. What the Teredici card does is accelerate the video that goes to your client device so you not only have an improved user experience but you can also run more VMs per host. If you go to http://teradici.com/ you can find out more about this type of host card. Also, depending on what type of content you are delivering on those 4 monitors you can also install GPUs in your host for applications that need 3D video rendering support from a GPU. Since the advent of vshpere 4.x this sort of stuff is becoming more common.