Getting Started with Desktop Virtualization
There are many components in a typical VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) system, and these pieces are often provided by different vendors and are not integrated. This segregation can lead to complexity, IT staff training issues, management complexity and vendor management issues. Tracking down problems in this piece-meal environment is difficult operationally, and it’s even harder to get a vendor to accept responsibility as blame shifts from one provider to the other.
A VDI system gives users a high performance desktop experience through centralized, virtual machines (VMs). There are multiple benefits to desktop virtualization and this is undoubtedly a trend that will experience significant growth in the immediate future.
Elements in a typical VDI solution include the following:
- A virtualization platform or “Hypervisor”. The software platform hosts VMs with the client operating systems. The platform must have the capacity to host enough VMs for all concurrently connected users. Examples of virtualization platforms include Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Xen and VMware vSphere.
- A protocol for users to connect to their virtualized OS over the network. This protocol could be the RDP protocol that is part of XP, Vista or Windows 7 or an add-on protocol with higher performance. The protocol will also handle tasks such as peripheral and printer redirection. Your decision about a protocol will depend on the device end users use to connect, such as a zero client, thin client or a laptop/PC system equipped with a full OS.
- A virtual and physical management platform. This platform manages the servers and helps provision VMs quickly and efficiently. This platform should provide end-to-end management capabilities such as VM inventory, health, alerting and other status information. Other features might include remote control, reporting, self-healing, fault tolerance and VM pooling to ensure that there is always a pool of VMs available for new connections.
- A connection or session broker. The session broker is responsible for distributing sessions from clients to VMs and redirecting users of disconnected sessions back to their original VMs.
- Profile and data redirection. Users customize their environments and it’s vital that these customizations and configurations are maintained between connections. Profile and data redirection ensure that if a user switches between VMs they have a consistent environment. It’s also important that any data the user stores, including folders such as Documents, is stored on a server, and that’s another task for profile and data redirection.
- Client devices. These devices are the point of access and could be thin clients or clients running software on OSs such as Windows, Linux, or others supported by the VDI solution.
Why is VDIworks the best solution on the market?
VDIworks simplifies all the key aspects of a VDI environment, including physical and virtual machines.
For over a decade we have developed the industry’s most powerful Virtual Desktop Platform (VDIworks’ VDP) which consolidates the protocol, virtual management platform, session broker, and profile and data redirection components into one single platform.
We provide a host of features which no competitor delivers, including:
- Universal discovery for all thinclients, desktops, servers, Hypervisors, AD users and VMs.
- API-level integration with VMware ESX, Hyper-V and Xen for simple Hypervisor management tasks.
- User and device-based connection brokering
- Physical systems management via industry standards such as IPMI, AMT, SNMP and WMI
- Patent-pending VM Pooling functionality
- Power management of VMs and physical systems.
- Self healing and Alerting.
- Inventory & Health.
- Remote control of Thinclients, VMs and hosts.
Click here for Frequently Asked Questions about VDI, or Contact Us for more information.