mittim12
Immortal
Immortal

My basic understanding is that there would be a central server provisioning VMs to the clients and they'd be running some kind of thin client software as the 'operating system'?

There can be a connection broker that users access to manage connections to VM's or you could do some type of one to one ratio and deploy custom remote desktop connections to users. I would only recommend the latter in small environments as it would be a management nightmare for a large of amount of users. There are numerous connection brokers, VDM, Leostream, Provision Networks, and Citrix are the ones that come to mind first. You can connect up to these brokers through a thin client or if you didn't want to spend money to buy new clients you could utilize your current XP machines to connect up.

And how are the VMs managed? Are we able to keep a real-time view on things? Can we lock them right down so all they can do is run icons off of the desktop? Is AD even needed in that kind of environment?

The VM's would be managed through Virtual Center and the Connection Broker. You would definitely be able to keep an eye of real time statistics of the machines. You can definitely lock them down. You can do anything to these VM's that you would do to a typical desktop. AD is needed.

Also, what happens with licensing for XP? Can we use the product key that came with the Dells on each VM?

I would check with your Microsoft rep for that answer. They would be able to best explain it to you.

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