Virtual Desktops

Virtual Desktopsa leaner, greener solution

Shivaji Samanta Chief Information OfficerPiedmont Virginia Community CollegeCharlottesville, VirginiaI am sure all of you have been to presentations from the heavy hitters in VDI like VMWARE, CITRIX and others. While they are very feature rich and robust solutions, they also require considerable planning and resources to roll out in any scale. There are some other less expensive and quicker solutions using thin clients that are much less resource intensive and may be ideal for specific applications like kiosks, testing and training stations etc. and have the added advantage of being really inexpensive in comparison. PVCC is did a pilot of one such thin terminal from NComputing in Spring 2012 with thirty stations. This was so successful that we deployed a Math Emporium with sixty tutorial stations in Fall 2012. In Spring 25 more were deployed for a Writing Center, and more were scattered around campus as workstations in student and faculty lounges. While the pilot was in progress last Spring, we also found cases where the thin client was not quite working out so we piloted a different solution, which also worked very well, and has been deployed now. In this presentation we will see why each was the best solution for the intended use case.1So what is Desktop Virtualization?Wikipedia says :Desktop virtualization (sometimes called client virtualization), as a concept, separates a personal computer desktop environment from a physical machine using the clientserver model of computing.

Virtual desktop infrastructure, sometimes referred to as virtual desktop interface (VDI) is the server computing model enabling desktop virtualization, encompassing the hardware and software systems required to support the virtualized environment.4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College22What does that mean ?It means that with desktop virtualization, what you see (and hear) is on a local client but everything is really running somewhere else on a remote server.4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College3Dj vu all over again, for all those in the audience with the gray hairs, or lack thereof!! Back to the days of dumb terminals again, sort of, except that these are not the old green screen ADM3A boxes. These are feature-rich, graphic intensive multimedia terminals.

3Some reasons to think about VDIFlexible desktop managementEnabling greater mobilityEasier maintenance, better security

BUT DONT THINK YOU ARE DOING ITJUST TO SAVE MONEY OR BECAUSE IT IS COOL

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College4You do not want to go into this thinking that it is just a way to save money, though there are use cases where it does give rise to savings in incremental costs and lower energy consumption hence the lean, green solution. Note that planning and infrastructure have to be there before these savings can be realized, and even then it is a primarily a saving in management and configuration.4Find the right use case for VDIWhat is the problem you are trying to solve?Examine the many ways to deliver virtual desktops to the end-userChoose the technology that makes most sense for the specific problem at hand4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College55Upcoming Projects : Spring 2012Deploy a Developmental Math Lab with up to 70 workstations for Fall 2012Deploy computer lab at remote site for Fall 2012, in addition to design and deploy five media enabled classrooms and three compressed video classrooms.Deploy Developmental Writing Lab with 25 workstations for Spring 2013Deploy five media enabled classrooms including two computer labs at Downtown site for Spring 2013Provide faculty/staff access to network shares for BYOD from off-campus without compromising securityRefresh Faculty Training Center with ten workstations4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College66Different ways to get there VMWare ViewCITRIX XEN DesktopVDI-in-a-Box ApplianceVarious Thin ClientsHP Smart ClientsWyse Thin ClientsPano Logic Zero ClientsNComputing Desktop Virtualization

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College7VDI-in-a-Box4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College8VDI-in-a-Box 5.2 Broker Provisioning ServiceHigh Availability fail-over optionScalable Load Balancer (Nx+1 grid)Virtual Desktop AgentTemplate ManagerCitrix Receiver agentWorks with VMWare, Xenserver, Hyper-V

Scenarios where VDI-in-a-Box worksPC Replacement Windows 7 (or 8) MigrationRemote Office/Branch OfficeComputer Labs. Different images can be delivered based on login on same boxDesktops as a cloud-based service and managed services4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College9When considering a PC refresh cycle, for the same budget you can upgrade to VDI-in-a-Box. Benefits include sizable reduction in the operational costs of patching and updating desktops, greater security, lower unplanned downtime, disaster recovery options and extension of the client lifecycle by two to three times.

9Upcoming Projects : Spring 2012Deploy a Developmental Math Lab with up to 70 workstations for Fall 2012Deploy computer lab at remote site for Fall 2012Deploy Developmental Writing Lab with 25 workstations for Spring 2013Deploy two computer labs at Downtown site for Spring 2013Provide faculty/staff access to network shares for BYOD from off-campus without compromising securityRefresh Faculty Training Center with ten workstations4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College10Projects that were deployed using VDI-in-a-Box10Implementation @ PVCC40 Citrix VDI-in-a-Box User LicensesCitrix Gateway LicenseDual failover servers Dual quad core 2.4 GHz cpus96 Gb RAM~ 980 Gb of VMFS storageVMWare ESXi 5.14/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College11

Management ScreensVDI Manager, which lets you configureImages with preconfigured softwareTemplates from images, which are deployed toUsers, groups, access levelsGateway ManagerFront end to the server(s)Takes care of load balance, failover, SSL4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College12

VDI-in-a-box deployment @ PVCC65 users currently signed up for Access to preconfigured virtual desktops with access to document sharesAvailable on Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS and Android devicesComputer Lab (20 Computers)Training Lab with 10xN500 thin clients4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College13Thin Client benefits :Triple the number of PCs you can afford without increasing your budgetReduce maintenance and support costs by 75%Reduce power and cooling requirements by 90%Reduce device theft and lossCentrally stored data increases security4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College14NComputing : options available:PC ExpansionX-series (Direct PCI : 1 PC 11 Users) M-series (Ethernet : 1 PC 45 Users)PC RefreshL-series (Ethernet : 1 Server 100 Users)PC DesktopN-Series (Citrix Client: Server infrastructure)

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College15Comparison with a typical PCThin client virtual desktops drastically reduce e-waste due to their small size and longer service life.Virtual Desktop vs. PC Scorecard1-5 watts usage vs. 150 watts usage10 year service life vs. 3 year service life0.34lbs of e-waste vs. 25lbs of e-waste4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College16Host Operating Systems supportedWindows XP/Windows 7Windows Server 2003/2008Windows Multipoint ServerUbuntu Linux4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College17Typical power consumptions

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College1818Where does this work best?Most people use no more than 5% of their desktops CPU and very little of the storage capacity. 50-70% savings in hardware costs and ~90% savings in power consumption. Best suited for users with :basic computing needswhere the price to performance ratios are more important.

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College19Where can you use these ?ClassroomsComputer labsLibrariesTesting centersRegistrationTeacher desksDigital signageKiosks

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College20Upcoming Projects : Spring 2012Deploy a Developmental Math Lab with up to 70 workstations for Fall 2012Deploy computer lab at remote site for Fall 2012Deploy Developmental Writing Lab with 25 workstations for Spring 2013Deploy two computer labs at Downtown site for Spring 2013Provide faculty/staff access to network shares for BYOD from off-campus without compromising securityRefresh Faculty Training Center with ten workstations4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College21Projects that were deployed using NComputing thin clientsProjects that were deployed using VDI-in-a-Box21Single Lab

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College22Single Labs22Multiple Labs

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College23Multiple Labs23Wide area deployment

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College24Comparison of video performance

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College2525Demo of video acceleration

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College26L300 Specifications/Connections

Maximum Screen Resolution (Wide 16:9) 1920x1080Maximum Screen Resolution (Standard 4:3) 1600x1200Maximum Color Depth 24-bitMouse & Keyboard PortsUSBSpeaker PortYesMicrophone Port YesUSB Peripheral Ports* 2 x USB*Acceleration for full-screen video supportYes

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College27N500 Specifications/Connections

Maximum Screen Resolution (Wide 16:9) 1920x1080Maximum Screen Resolution (Std 4:3) 1600x1200VideoFull 1080pCodecH.264, MPEG-4, VC1Flash VideoFull HD 1080pMouse & Keyboard PortsUSBSpeaker/Microphone PortYesUSB Peripheral Ports* 2 x USB*Dual Display PortsYesEthernet Connection10/100/1000BASE-T

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College28Typical Usage on Virtual HostQuad Core, 8 GB Ram, 80 GB HDDWindows Server 2008 R2VMWare v4.1 hosts4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College29

Typical Config Physical ServerDesktop class Dell Optiplex 99016 Gb RAM, 500 GB HDD, i7 dual-quad 3.4 GHZ CPUWindows Server 2008 R2 64-bit4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College30

VSpace Management ConsoleAllows you to scan by subnet or broadcastPut devices in groupsPush configurations, auto login parametersReboot one or more unitsView screens on each unit4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College31

NComputing Deployment @ PVCC2xWin2k8 VMs : 66 workstations (1 lab)1xWin2k8 Server : 43 workstations (2 labs)2xWin7sp1 VMs : 25 w0rkstations (failover)1xWin7sp1 VM : 6 workstations (Adjunct)1xWin7sp1 VM : 4 workstations (Students)

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Attack of the clones !!

Over 150 deployed

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College33CLONE ARMYPiedmont Virginia Community College3430 Each IV lab X 4

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College3524 Kiilmarnock Center IV lab and 1 in Admissions Office

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College3628 Math Lab X 2

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College376 Testing CenterPicture of testing center lab here

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College383 Tutoring Lab

4/17/2013Piedmont Virginia Community College394 and 3 Warsaw and GlennsAdmissions Offices

4/17/2013SummaryChoose the solution that works best for your requirementsDo not assume this will just save you moneyDo plan well before you start anythingBenefitsReduced costs in some applications, balanced by increased infrastructure demandsImproved management of desktopsEasier deployment and controlPiedmont Virginia Community College404/17/2013Questions ?

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