April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 1

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

April 23-25, 2007

Creating a Dynamic Terminal Server Environment

Michael Burke

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 3

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

The Agenda

• Challenges• Virtualization Technologies• A New Idea for the Same Old Thing• Options

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 4

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

The Dynamic Environment

• American Heritage Dictionary– adj. (dī-nam’-ik) Characterized by

continuous change, activity, or progress

• The ability to adapt rapidly to changing conditions

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 5

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Challenges Faced Today• Rapid deployment of new terminal servers

• Application regression testing (updates and coexistence)

• Server sprawl (siloing and departmental segregation)

• Securing access to applications and data

• Expanding virtual workforce

• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity

• Rising costs (hardware, operations, management)

• Operations issues (power, cooling, rack space)

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 6

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

The 5 Phases of Deployment

• Provision• Build• Deploy• Support• Retire

• Obtain hardware• Configuring the

hardware• Power, cooling and

rack space

• Install and configure the operating system

• Install and configure management

• Install and configure applications

• Secure• Test

• Publish applications to new server

• Adjust firewall rules• Update change

control and documentation

• Manage hardware• Track resources• Patch/update

operating system• Patch/update

applications• Resolve issues

• Remove app publication for server

• Power down system• Remove from rack• Update change

control and documentation

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 7

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Your Solution Should Be…

• A time saver!• Easier to manage• More resilient/reliable• More flexible• Conform to existing processes• Be economically sound • Invite new ideas and thinking

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 8

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

The Virtual World

• Hardware Virtualization

• Storage Virtualization

• OS Virtualization

• Application Virtualization

• Access Virtualization

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 9

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

The Layers

Operating System

App App App

- Decoupled

Operating System

App App AppApplication Virtualization and Streaming

Operating System Streaming and Virtualization

Hardware Virtualization and Abstraction

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 10

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Hardware Layer Options

• Physical Servers• Virtual Machines

– VMware, Microsoft, Xen

• Should you virtualize or not?• Pros

– Better utilization of resources– Autonomy in hardware profile– Rapid provisioning– Simplified DR– Save money

• Cons– Terminal Server user density

typically lower– ISV support issues– Cost

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 11

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Operating System Layer Options

• Manual install• ADS/RIS (unattended) deployment• Image-based deployment• OS streaming

– Paradigm shift in thinking– Ardence (now part of Citrix)

• OS virtualization– Virtuozzo (more later)

Operating System

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 12

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Application Layer Options

• Manual install• Automated install

– Citrix IM– SMS/System Center, Altiris– Scripted install

• Virtualization and Streaming– SoftGrid, Altiris, Citrix

App

App

App

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 13

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

The Dynamic Solution

• Hardware Platform– VMware Infrastructure 3

• Operating System Layer– Ardence

• Application Layer– SoftGrid Application Streaming

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 14

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

VMware Infrastructure 3• A set of products and components

– VMware ESX Server 3– VirtualCenter Management Server– VMotion, DRS and HA

• Hardware autonomy• Near-hardware performance of virtual machines• Advanced memory management• Provision new VMs from templates• Live migration of VMs from one host to another• Dynamically balancing VM load across host resources• High availability

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 15

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Ardence OS Streaming• Ardence client mounts

a vDisk image over the network– PXE boots to a bootstrap

on the Ardence server– Uniqueness identified by

MAC address– Appears as a local disk

on the client– Single read-only image

accessed by multiple hosts

• Writes saved to:– File on the streaming

server– In client RAM– File on local storage

• Features– Instant upgrades– Rollback– Instant restoration– Less data to back up– Simplified DR

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 16

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

SoftGrid Application Streaming

• Simplified deployment– Sequence once, deploy everywhere

• Absolute control over access– Controlled though Active Directory security groups

• Isolation of applications– Allows side by side use of conflicting applications

• Auditing of application use– Know who is running which applications and how often

• Easier update/patch management– Update once, deploy everywhere

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 17

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Overview of How it Works…• Deploy new VM from template

– Small local disk for SoftGrid cache

• VM boots from the network– Loads shared Ardence image– Ardence image contains SoftGrid client

• SoftGrid client contacts the SoftGrid server– Pre-caches applications locally

• Server is added to published applications– Manually by administrator– Automatically via script (MFCOM, etc.)

5 Min

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 18

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

The Dynamic Solution

SAN

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 19

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Still Need Physical Servers?

• Ardence can stream to physical or virtual– One image per platform

• Acronis TrueImage– Capture image from template build– Deploy with Universal Restore to achieve hardware

platform autonomy

• PlateSpin– Universal deployment to any hardware– Convert from physical or virtual– Deploy from image to any hardware, including virtual

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 20

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Another Alternative

• Virtuozzo– Operating System virtualization– Creates an isolated kernel partition– Share unique underlying OS– Silo without additional Terminal Servers

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 21

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Let’s Review Our ChallengesRapid deployment of new terminal servers

Application regression testing (updates and coexistence)

Server sprawl (siloing and departmental segregation)

Securing access to applications

Expanding virtual workforce

Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity

Rising costs (hardware, operations, management)

Operations issues (power, cooling, rack space)

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 22

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Final Thoughts• Some terminal servers may be physical

– Performance reasons– ISV supportability

• Look for re-use scenarios– Stream OS and Apps to both, or some

• Bowl of brown M&Ms• Treat the layers independently

– Any layer can be adjusted to fit needs

• All of these technologies can be leveraged beyond Terminal Server– More return on investment

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 23

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

The Cast• Hardware Virtualization

• Platform Imaging

• Operating System Streaming and Virtualization

• Application Streaming

• Access Mechanisms

And many others!

April 23-25, 2007 BriForum 2007: Chicago 24

CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Questions?

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CREATING A DYNAMIC TERMINAL SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Thank You!

Michael Burke

mburke@foedus.com