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What is a desktop virtualization? Depends on the marketing droid you are
talking to – there’s a lot of hype. Desktop virtualization… separates a…
desktop environment from a physical machine using a client–server model of computing. The model stores the resulting "virtualized" desktop on a remote central server… thus, when users work from their remote desktop client, all of the programs, applications, processes, and data used are kept and run centrally. (Wikipedia)
This isn’t new…
This was the ORIGINAL model of computing - a “terminal” (character based display device) attached to a remote server
X Windows (Unix) based solutions for doing this have been around for 20+ years
Why the hype now?
Desktops are out of control, users load and run whatever they like on “their” workstationsHard to support, no standard softwareHard to manage configuration, no telling
what’s installedRisk of data loss, company data not safe
Businesses need to “prove” compliance with IT security policies
Shared Services
Many users share one machineA user can “run away” with RAM or CPUDifferent users may need different apps that
conflict with each other
Can be relatively simple to deploy Sun Global Desktop, Citrix XenApp,
Windows Terminal Services
Desktop Virtualization
Similar to shared services but:Each user gets “their own” virtual machineMachines can be spawned on demand from
a golden imageDesktop controller server manages user
connections, VM power states, load balancing
Users CAN share a machine if appropriate
Citrix XenDesktop, VMware View
Achilles has a heel All of these schemes require a display
device – you need a desktop to see your desktop
Business would like to reuse their existing PC’s until they die – repurposed as thin clientsIf you reuse PC’s, now you have to manage the
desktop machines you already have PLUS the virtualization infrastructure
End users in general don’t like the idea of thin clients – you are taking “their” machine away
You could re-use your PC’s
Make and deploy a stripped down OS imageBare minimum Windows + proper client
software (ICA client for Citrix, View client for VMware)
Defer replacement for now, save a little money in the short term
Double the work, you have to manage the real workstations, plus the virtual workstations
You could buy actual thin clients A couple of hundred dollars a piece, not
that much cheaper than an entry level workstation
Run their OS from firmware, no moving parts
Most have some firmware update management scheme
Easy to manage than repurposed PC’s Get the “right” one for your solution
Make sure the ones you buy natively connect to your solution. ICA clients for Citrix, View clients for VMware, etc.
Lessons Learned Vendors wildly overstate the savings Dramatically increases complexity on the server
side, especially if business has little existing experience with virtualization
End users typically hate thin clients To be accepted, the “new” solution has to be dramatically
better than the old desktops Someone suggested stuffing the thin clients into an empty
desktop case… Once they use it, end users *REALLY* like having
their desktops available from anywhere They also *REALLY* like persistent state, where
they can disconnect, then reconnect, and continue where they left off (a la Session Broker, etc.)
Here’s something truly new – On Demand Desktop Streaming Originally made by Ardence, licensed by
Dell (ODDS), now part of Citrix XenDesktop (Citrix Provisioning Server)
Boot many PC’s from one central image PC’s don’t need a hard drive Can display a menu of boot images to pick
from - Linux, Windows, etc. You don’t need a desktop to see a desktop Ardence demonstration Head to head with SATA at Univ. of Neb.
© 2010 by Gregory L. Porter, [email protected]. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA