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Patrick Rouse. VMware User Group March 25, 2008 San Diego, CA. Agenda – Desktop Virtualization. Desktop Virtualization (VDI) Benefits Desktop Virtualization Best Practices & Tutorials Provision Networks Virtual Access Suite Live Demo. Who We Are – Pinnacle Technologies.
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Patrick Rouse VMware User Group March 25, 2008 San Diego, CA
Agenda – Desktop Virtualization • Desktop Virtualization (VDI) Benefits • Desktop Virtualization Best Practices & Tutorials • Provision Networks Virtual Access Suite • Live Demo
Who We Are – Quest Software – ESX vRanger Pro, vConverter, vOptmizer – Foglight – Root Cause Analysis for VMware – Desktop Authority – Virtual Access Suite
Who We Are – Provision Networks Provision Networks, a division of Quest Software, produces and markets the award-winning Virtual Access Suite – an enterprise-grade application delivery, virtual desktop provisioning, management and brokering solution.The Virtual Access Suite is available in three editions: Standard Edition: Enhances manageability, stability and usability of Citrix and Terminal Services Desktop Services Edition: Enables blade PC and virtual client connections from any virtual infrastructure, including VMware, Virtual Iron, Microsoft and SWsoft. Enterprise Edition: Encompasses the Desktop Services & Standard Editions and adds support to Provision-enabled terminal server platforms • Virtual Access Suite Introduced • Acquired by Quest Software - Provision Management Framework Launched - Virtual Desktop Solution Introduced - Universal Print Driver for ICA and RDP - Emergent Online founded 2007 2001 2006 1996 2004
Authenticate and receive back the address of the hosted desktop • Connect to the hosted desktop using some type of remote display protocol (for example, RDP) VDI Connection Broker Basics What is a Connection Broker? A basic connection broker is a service that authenticates a client, retrieves a list of Virtual Desktops and directs the client to its’ destination.
Benefits of Desktop Virtualization • Centrally control and manage all off-site access to sensitive applications and data. Extend corporate network security policies to off-site facilities. • Contain desktop proliferation and build standardized, centrally managed desktop environments. Meet HIPAA, SOX, GLBA compliance. • Quickly recover, re-provision, and re-establish user access to complete desktop environments to ensure business continuity. • Contingency plans in place to accommodate work-from-home users and employees quarantined due to a pandemic. Telecommuting! • Each desktop environment is encapsulated in a VM, completely independently of other VMs. If anything goes wrong with one VM, other VMs remain unaffected. • No lack of support from ISVs. No complex IT training (desktop administrators). No application code modifications and/or repackaging. • Eliminate squandering of precious computing resources. Eliminate loss/theft of corporate data stored on stolen PCs. • Branch Office Connectivity. Mergers and Acquisitions. Distributed computing environments can be integrated without major investments in remote IT infrastructures.
Physical desktop TCO Source: Gartner Research Source: Gartner Research Benefits of Desktop Virtualization
Best Practices – VDI Host Planning • No more than 1500 Virtual Desktops per VMware Virtual Center • Dedicate specific VI Hosts or Data Centers for VDI • Use Dual Processor, Quad Core, Blade or 1U Servers for VI Hosts • Use iSCSI SAN instead of Fiber Channel to reduce cost per user.
Best Practices – VDI Host Planning • Utilize iSCSI HBA to reduce CPU usage on ESX Hosts. • 4-10 Virtual Desktops per CPU Core • 16-32GB of RAM per ESX Server (unless allocating > 640MB per VM)
Best Practices – Component Placement • Deploy SSL Gateway in DMZ • Web Interface on the same machine, or on the Private Network. • Deploy two Connection Broker Servers (for redundancy and load balancing). • Do NOT allow DRS to move Connection Brokers to the same ESX Host. • All infrastructure servers can be virtualized
Best Practices – Virtual Desktop OS • >= 384MB for each XP Pro Virtual Desktop • Keep VM Disk Files as small as possible • Utilize a Universal Printer Driver (reduced Mgmt, CPU & Bandwidth)
Best Practices – Virtual Desktop OS • Disable screen savers on VMs (utilize client screensaver) • Schedule Shutdown/Reboot of Virtual Desktops • Enable Remote Control of Desktops (via Terminal Services Manager, Shadow or Remote Assistance)
Configuring Remote Control Classic is the default setting when XP Pro & 2003 are domain members
Configuring Remote Control Allows tsadmin.exe (Terminal Services Manager) or shadow.exe to connect from a remote RDP Session.
Best Practices – Virtual Desktop OS • Configure User GPO Settings for Folder Redirection (for My Documents, Desktop, Start Menu & Application Data) environment lockdown (for non-administrators) • Configure Computer GPO Settings, i.e. Loopback Policy Processing, RDP Connection Settings, Disabling of Offline Files, Deletion of Roaming Profile Cache… • Roaming Profile Path is defined in the properties of the User’s Active Directory Account
Best Practices – Virtual Desktop OS • Install User Profile Hive Cleanup Service (UPHClean) • Alter the Default Explore Path when using Folder Redirection to redirect the Start Menu to a Network Share, so user’s Default Explore Path is their Home Folder. Unloads user profiles that might otherwise get hung unloading [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\explore\ddeexec] @="[ExploreFolder(\"%u:\\\\\\\", %u:\\\\, %S)]" • Prevent NTFS from tracking reads on the local file system [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem] "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001
Best Practices – Virtual Desktop OS • Remove the Hgfs Registry Entry so user’s profiles will unload completely. Setting added by VMware Tools. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\Order] "ProviderOrder"="RDPNP,LanmanWorkstation,WebClient" • Lock down the System Drive’s NTFS Permissions so normal users can’t install software, spyware, malware… or save data on their Virtual Desktops. Recommended NTFS Permissions on New System Builds: %SystemDrive% - Authenticated Users = "Read and Execute" %SystemDrive% - Administrators = "Full Control" %SystemDrive% - System = "Full Control" %SystemDrive% - Creator Owner = "Full Control" %ProgramFiles% - Authenticated Users = "Read and Execute" %ProgramFiles% - Administrators = "Full Control" %ProgramFiles% - System = "Full Control" %ProgramFiles% - Creator Owner = "Full Control"
Best Practices – Client Devices • Don't assume that everyone can use a thin client. (No DVD+R, CDR/RW, High-end Graphics) • Choose XPe based thin clients when needing to support USB peripheral devices (printers, scanners, handhelds, storage) • Consider devices with local Internet Browser, Windows Media Player, Adobe Flash Player… • Convert older PCs into diskless thin clients via PXE Boot
Provision NetworksVirtual Access Suite VAS: more than just a “connection broker” In contrast, VAS is a comprehensive provisioning and delivery framework with a sophisticated brokering service at its core. Support for Standard Windows desktop OS (i.e., WinXP, Vista)…
Provision NetworksVirtual Access Suite VAS: more than just a “connection broker” Support for Windows Terminal Server…
Provision NetworksVirtual Access Suite New features for version 5.10 (April-May 2008)
Provision NetworksVirtual Access Suite Available Clients Thin Client Vendors
Desktop Virtualization Solution Calculator
Provision NetworksVirtual Access SuiteDemo and Q&A • Provision Networks Demo • References: • VMware VDI Best Practices • How to configure Folder Redirection • VMware Infrastructure 3 Configuration Maximums • How to install, configure and administer Virtual Access Suite, Desktop Services. (VDI Connection Broker) • Using the Flex Profile Kit with VDI • Provision Networks Metaprofiles-IT • Memory Overcommitment in the Real World • RDP Audio - Hotfix • Idle session Group Policy settings do not work - Hotfix
Questions and Answers Patrick Rouse Patrick.Rouse@quest.com 619.994.5507 www.provisionnetworks.com