10. February 2009 by Tony.

Desktop virtualization is not a new concept, but it is becoming more popular as enterprise system management becomes more complex. Sun released the Sun Virtual Desktop Access Kit for VMware in early 2007, and will soon be releasing Sun VDI 3.0, which offers a complete Sun stack in addition to the following features:

• Same great VDI product as Sun VDI Software 2.0, including support for Sun Ray devices, traditional PCs, and the VMware back-end
• Integration with Active Directory to allow easy mapping of AD users and groups to pools and virtual machines
• Support for Sun xVM virtualization (based on Sun xVM VirtualBox technology) as an option to VMware VI3
• Improved scalability with support for multiple VMware VirtualCenter servers
• Simplified integration with Sun Secure Global Desktop Software
• Additional access to virtual desktops using RDP clients (for example Windows Terminal Client)
• Enhanced storage mechanism for virtual machines using ZFS file system (in combination with Sun xVM VirtualBox)
• New administration UI and command line interface (CLI)
• Usage of MySQL as configuration database

A virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a layered software solution with three fundamental components: a virtualization platform, a broker, and client devices. The end user accesses a full desktop environment via a thin client device or an internet connection, as though they are using a conventional desktop computer.

Sun VDI 3.0 is made up of three functional layers - the virtualization layer, the session management layer, and the desktop access layer.

Virtualization Layer
The basis for the architecture is the virtualization layer (or hypervisor layer). In addition to creating and storing virtual machines the virtualization platform provides the base functionality needed for virtual machine management (starting, stopping, snapshotting, etc.). Sun VDI 3.0 supports Sun xVM VirtualBox and VMware Infrastructure 3.

Session Management Layer
The central component of the Sun VDI is the Sun VDI Core, located in the session management layer. The VDI Core provides all the functionality needed to build and manage large scale virtual machine deployments. In addition to its management capabilities, the VDI Core is also responsible for the brokering of virtual desktops on behalf of clients connecting from the desktop access layer.

By integrating with Active Directory, the VDI Core is able to provide support for assignment of virtual desktops to existing users and groups within an organization. The VDI Core configuration data and runtime information is stored in a MySQL database, which may be shared across multiple VDI Core instances on the network. This ensures access to the session management layer in failover scenarios.

Desktop Access Layer
Virtual desktops can be accessed via three different methods:

Sun Ray Software (SRS) via Thin Clients - A custom Sun Ray Software Kiosk Session is initiated when a user inserts a token card into a Sun Ray thin client. This session uses the Sun VDI Core to request access to a virtual desktop on behalf of the user. Once a virtual desktop has been assigned to the user, the session establishes a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection to the desktop using the Sun Ray Windows Connector.

Sun Secure Global Desktop Software (SGD) via a Web Browser – A web browser is used to initiate a SGD session. SGD, in turn, uses the VDI Core’s RDP redirection capability to establish a connection to an assigned virtual desktop.

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Connection – A virtual desktop can be accessed by any device capable of initiating an RDP session (RDP redirection must be supported on the client side to use this method). As with the previous case, the VDI Core’s redirection capability is used to establish a connection to an assigned virtual desktop.

here is the download link for Sun VDI 3.0 Early Access

Posted in VMware, VDI | No Comments »

14. January 2009 by Tony.

from Raj’s Blog

A Few months ago we did a bakeoff between Vmware VDI and Citrix Xendesktop solution.
Few things that are worth a mention for differences between these:
1. Citrix ICA protocol for remote desktop connectivity is better with multimedia apps than RDP 5.x.
2. Both RDP and ICA are bandwidth hogs, ICA might be slightly better over low latency link. Average bandwidth usage over WAN without any policing/acceleration technology was 300kbps with both ICA and RDP.
3. Citrix Presentation server has a great option of saving the disk space for multiple cloned desktops and also upgrading/patching only one master image and refreshing all desktops from it.
4. Citrix Access gateway for secure connectivity from outside seems like a separate purchase.(didn’t test it)

We didn’t go ahead with the whole project at that time.
Now Vmware has announced availability for VMware view that addresses point # 1,3 and 4 above. We are currently doing a bake off of vmware view and I will soon post how it went.

Posted in VMware, Citirx, Products, VDI, General Virtualization | No Comments »

17. December 2008 by Tony.

VMware lately published a whole bunch of must read technical papers:

Storage Design Options for VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Companies planning to deploy VDI face decisions about the use of both local and shared storage,
and in the case of shared storage solutions, choosing between differing technologies available in
today’s market. Selecting the appropriate storage model is important for both performance and costs reasons. Certain solutions require less overhead than others, as do different implementations of the same technology. Costs can vary greatly depending on which storage options are chosen. Fortunately organizations can leverage a myriad of best practices to help drive these costs down, while improving performance. This paper provides information on technical concepts related to storage implementations in a VMware ® Virtual Desktop Infrastructure ( VDI) environment.

VMware View Reference Architecture Kit

This reference architecture kit is comprised of four distinct papers written by VMware and our supporting partners to serve as a guide to assist in the early phases of planning, design and deployment of VMware View based solutions. The building block approach uses common components to minimize support costs and deployment risks during the planning of VMware View based deployments.

SQL Server Workload Consolidation

Database workloads are very diverse. While most database servers are lightly loaded, larger database workloads can be resource-intensive, exhibiting high I/O rates or consuming large amounts of memory. With improvements in virtualization technology and hardware, even servers running large database workloads run well in virtual machines. Servers running Microsoft’s SQL Server, among the top database server platforms in the industry today, are no exception.

Using IP Multi Cast with VMware

IP multicast is a popular protocol implemented in many applications for simultaneously and efficiently delivering information to multiple destinations. Multicast sources send single copies of information over the network and let the network take responsibility for replicating and forwarding the information to multiple recipients.

Posted in VMware, VDI, General Virtualization | No Comments »

15. December 2008 by Tony.

VMware launched the latest version of its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) suite, once known as Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM), now being called VMware View. The new product adds features and tools to help better manage physical and virtual clients, storage, and enterprise applications.

The release demonstrates VMware’s commitment to desktop virtualization in 2009. During September at VMworld 2008, VMware President and CEO Paul Maritz announced the company’s new desktop initiative and dubbed it VMware vClient saying that it would solve the “desktop dilemma.” The vClient initiative is part of several new product offerings to help VMware keep control of the virtual datacenter.

To learn more and to read the entire article at its source, please refer to the following page, Bright Articles - VMware Moves VDI Forward with the Launch of View 3

Posted in VMware, Citirx, VDI | No Comments »

25. November 2008 by Tony.

With VDIworks2Go, we’ll be able to support seamless virtual machines check-in and check-out. In effect, VDIworks2Go installed, VDP’s connection brokering interface will let you inform the system that you are about to disconnect from the network and hence need a checked out copy of your VM. The VM gets streamed over to you and executes locally using a virtual machine player.  When you reconnect to the network, you can check the VM back in so that it can execute on a fast server, without taking up your local resources. Read more

Posted in VMware, VDI | No Comments »