What's new with virtual desktop infrastructure?

12 Nov 2009 | SearchVirtualDesktop.com

Enterprise IT tips and expert advice

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This is the first part in a series on the basics of VMware View.

One of the major applications of virtualization is not just server consolidation but also end-user
virtual machines. VMware View is the virtual desktop brokering and provisioning system in
VMware's data center virtualization platform, vSphere. This series will cover the basics of the
virtual desktop product, including installation, security and application virtualization features.

Virtual desktops: An introduction

Before I go any further, I would like to outline my experience and some caveats.

First, I've been working in the area of thin-client computing since the mid-1990s. Before I got into
virtualization and VMware, I was a Citrix-certified instructor working initially with Citrix MetaFrame
1.8 on Windows NT4 Terminal Service Edition and more or less ending with Citrix Presentation
Server 4.5 on Windows 2003. Before VMware came along and eclipsed my Citrix work, my m...
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ain product was Citrix.

Second, I don't believe in panaceas. There are things I still really love about the Citrix Product
range, and indeed I still continue to use a Citrix Presentation Server to connect to my remote lab
environment, which is held in co-location in the U.K. So my message is this: Fully research the
advantages and disadvantages of all the remote desktop and application delivery options now
available. When I started, if you wanted to deliver a desktop or application to a user down the
wire, there was only one way to do it -- Citrix. Now we are bombarded daily with complimentary
and competing solutions, including, for example:

* VMware Virtual Desktop View

* VMware ThinApp
* Citrix XenDesktop
* Citrix Provisioning Server
* Microsoft V-App
* Sun Virtual Desktop Connector (VDC)
* HP Client Virtual Software (CVS)
 * ThinPrint
* UniPrint

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is essentially the same as Terminal Services (TS) or Citrix
XenApp (formerly MetaFrame/Presentation server). That is to say you provide a desktop to the
user via a "thin" protocol. The difference between server-based computing and virtual desktops is
rather than having many users connected to one shared TS or Citrix Desktop -- users connect to
their own personal desktop. The advantages of VDI are many, but its key advantages beyond the
benefits of "thin-client computing" generally lie in remedying some of the limitations presented by
the shared desktop approach of TS and Citrix XenApp.

Advantages of virtual desktops

* One user's activity does not affect the performance of other users. Each user is limited to the
resources within their VM.

* Applications install natively to the Windows environment. There is no need for complicated
installation routines and validation to make applications work in an environment for which they
were never actually designed.

* Desktop hardening -- the process of bolting down the desktop whilst desirable in VDI is not
mandatory. In Terminal Services and Citrix XenApp, you absolutely must bolt down the desktop
to stop one user affecting the stability of the environment for other users using the shared
desktop.

* VDI allows you to leverage your corporate license agreement with Microsoft at no additional
charge, whereas each Citrix XenApp end-user connection requires a license from Citrix. Microsoft
has gone so far as to introduce a specific licensing model currently called the VECD (Vista
Enterprise Centralized Desktop) program to promote the use of Windows as the operating system
in the virtual desktop. It's by no means mandatory that you must use Windows as the guest
operating system in a VDI project. You could use a Linux desktop distribution if you prefer it or
your needs require it. This said few VDI environments run with just the virtualization layer and
Windows XP on its own. Nine times out of ten there will be some type of "VDI Broker" server --
which will need licensing too!

* VDI can be coupled with other application virtualization tools such as Microsoft's V-App or
VMware's ThinApp to reduce the footprint of the virtual desktop (because less is installed to
Windows) and also allow for advanced features such as being able to run many different versions
of the same application (flavors of Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat, for instance) on the same
virtual desktop.

* Unique Features such as VMware View's "Offline Desktop," which allows an end user to take
a copy of the virtual desktop from the ESX host and make it available on the PC/laptop even
when they are not connected to the corporate network. Offline Desktop uses "deltas" to make
sure only changes are synchronized back to the server copy of the VM, and a TTL value which
allows for the offline desktop to work only for a limited period.

* View3 introduced View Composer to enable a "linked clone" feature. This allows for one
single master VM from which many virtual desktops can be created (the linked clone). These
linked clones contain only the changes the user makes during the virtual desktop session and as
such massively reduce the disk space required to run virtual desktops.

Disadvantages of virtual desktops

* Printing is a huge challenge in the world of thin-client computing. By far the biggest challenge
is the amount of bandwidth used to send a print job from the remote data center back to the end-
user's physical printer. It's quite common to see Microsoft PowerPoint print jobs balloon in size to
hundreds of megabytes. Some thin-client vendors have their own solution using some kind of
"universal" PCL printer drivers. Some organizations prefer to buy in a third-party printing solution
such as ThinPrint or UniPrint. In View 3, VMware acquired a license for the core thin-print product
which they call virtual printing. This licensed version of ThinPrint should be good enough to
address most printing needs.

* The most common VDI protocol is still Microsoft RDP. RDP has been shown not to perform
as well as Citrix ICA Protocol -- and to be especially weak in the realm of multimedia, Flash-
based web-pages and graphical intensive applications such as computer-aided design. Microsoft,
VMware and Citrix all have projects to improve the client protocols used to connect to Windows
Vista and Windows 7.

* Storage is quite a significant penalty in VDI. However, with the advent of de-duplication
technology from the storage vendors such as NetApp, and the introduction of a "Thin
Provisioned" virtual disk in vSphere4 -- this becomes less significant. As I have already
mentioned VMware had effectively created a kind of built-in de-duplication process with View
Composer. If you combine thin-provision from your storage vendors with thin-provisioning from
VMware together with the linked clones feature -- you are really doing your level best to reduce
the disk foot print of virtual desktop environment.

How most VDI Systems Work

Despite the plethora of solutions that now crowd the virtual desktop space, as you might expect,
they all work very much in the same way and offer very similar features. Most will have some kind
of "broker" which acts as an intermediary between the end-user and the virtual desktop. The job
of the broker is to provide a logon process after which the user can select their desktop -- and
very often this connection will be based around a certificates-based SSL connection rather than
relying on Microsoft RDP Security. This broker will also integrate with vCenter to allow you to
create "pools" of desktops for different purposes -- a Sales Desktop Pool and an Accounts
Desktop Pool for example. It will also integrate with Active Directory to allow you to allocate the
right virtual desktop to the right people.

At the end-users' side they can either use a webpage to log in or a dedicated 32-bit client.
Frequently, the full client will offer a higher level of features to the end user than an ActiveX or
Java client can provide. There will normally be some kind of "agent" installed to the virtual
desktop which allows the user to connect to the virtual machine (VM). Frequently, this agent will
support advanced features such as two-factor authentication with technologies such as RSA's
Secure ID and the ability to redirect USB connections to/from the virtual desktop to the end-user
machine. This allows the user to log in with very high security and, for example, still use a USB
based printer sat on their desk.

For "Dilbert" or call center-style users, you might even want to go so far as replacing the physical
desktop PC with a thin client sometimes referred to as a "dumb" terminal -- I've often wondered
why they aren't called Smart Terminals! -- which merely offers a screen, keyboard and mouse
interface to the virtual desktop. There are many, many of these devices available. It's well worth
asking the OEM vendor for samples of their devices so you can test them against your VDI
environment -- because they vary massively in quality, reliability and functionality. To be brutally
honest, they can be rubbish and downright PITA. Some popular vendors of smart terminals
include:

* Wyse
* ChipPC
* Panologic
* NeoWare (now acquired by HP)
* Sun Sunray
* OEMs -- All the major vendors, such as HP Dell, and HP, have some kind of thin-client device