SUM308: How Your Business Can Benefit From the Exciting New Features in VDI-in-a-Box v5.1

1. SUM308:How Your Business Can Benefit From the Exciting New Features in VDI-in-a-Box v5.1 Mick Glover Senior Support Readiness Specialist October 16, 2012

2. Agenda • Technology Overview • v5.1 New Features & Enhancements • Changes under the cover • Q&A

3. VDI-in-a-Box? Standing out from the crowd Lightweight & affordable VDI solution • Primarily aimed at SMB customers Single virtual appliance (CentOS) • Creates, provisions, manages, and load balances virtual desktops • Built in web interface, load balancing & HA mechanisms Promotes use local storage over shared storage Tight Integration with other Citrix products • Access Gateway, Profile management, FullArmor policy engine Open Architecture

4. The ViaB Mantra - Simplicity First… • Simple to deploy: All in one Linux appliance • Simple to use: Intuitive web based mgmt console • Simple to install: Runs on off-the-shelf servers • Simple to configure: Built-in step through wizards • Simple to scale: Just add servers

5. VDI-in-a-Box Versus Traditional VDI *Simplifying and Streamlining VDI* 5

6. User Data Citrix VDI-in-a-Box: Easy to deploy, Easy to manage Active Directory Server with Hypervisor + VDI-in-a-BoxVirtual Appliance 6

7. Release Focus - v5.1 • Primary: • Simplify management • Reduce cost • Enhance performance • Secondary: • Improve stability and quality 7

8. V5.1 Focus Areas 8

9. Upgrade Option - 5.0.x to 5.1 • Existing VM with 5.0.x vdiManager code is upgraded to 5.1 code • Grid upgrade/advanced properties • Upgrade .tar file uploaded • Note: Updated code replicated to all servers in the grid… 9

10. Out With the Old, In With the New… OLD New 11

11. Working hand-in-hand with key partners • DVS-simplified: A turnkey VDI appliance from Dell • The first, true HW VDI appliance… • Recently announced a full bundle for $500 per desktop • Server • VDI-in-a-Box server • 3 years support • Wyse thin client • http://www.citrix.com/ready/partners/dell-inc/products/dvs-simplified 12

12. Personal Desktops

13. Personal Desktops Overview PvD Integration (RingCube) • First introduced with XenDesktop 5.6 So what is PvD? • Citrix’s VDI Personalization solution for pooled desktops Provides Complete personalization • User profile and machine state maintained on separate PvD disk New Hybrid Desktop model (concept) • Reduced cost/simplified management (Pooled) • Persistent Personalization (Private) 15

14. PvD Disk Through explorer.exe - Mapping • What the user perceives as his/her C:drive is actually a subset of the PvD Disk • i.e. UserData.V2.vhd 16

15. Citrix Personal vDisk - taking a closer look… • Contains all User & App data • App data stored in VHD on root of PvD drive • User profile on root of PvD Note: V2 signifies PvD v5.6.7 as opposed to the initial Ibiza release v5.6 17

16. Installing Applications From a users perspective

17. Virtualization Logic - Personal Desktop V5.6.x Application IVM.sys I/O Alternate Data Streams in NTFS Resource Catalog 21

18. Personal vDiskv5.6.7 - Highlights • Removal of hidden V: drive letter • Dynamic adjustment applied to the default 50/50 (apps/profile) split of P: drive • Application compatibility improvements • Support for PVS 6.1 • Reduction in overhead by 44% 22

19. Configuring PvD in ViaB : New Image UI • Select “Pooled and personal desktops” • Select Prepare • PvD software/drivers installed during Prepare phase 26

20. Configuring PvD in ViaB: Image Prep options • Two Options • VDIprep • Sysprep • Pooled desktops • VDIprep& Sysprep • Pooled and personal desktops • VDIprepONLY 27

21. Enabling Sysprep Advanced Properties

22. Configuring PvD in ViaB: New Template UI • Select Size of PvD Disk • Defaults to 4GB • 50:50 User/App data split by default • Can be tweaked by changing the “PercentOfPvdForApps” registry value during image prep or image edit 29

23. Managing PvD idle pool settings in ViaB • Advanced Properties\Miscellaneous • “Max number of starting personal desktops” 30

24. Managing PVD in ViaB: Repair Action • Repair action on Session Reconstructs new desktop over copy of PvD found anywhere in the grid… 31

25. Personal Desktop - Virtual Disk • Once a personal Desktop image has been saved (published) and provisioned through a template and user assignment, the PvD disk can be seen attached to the VM through XenCenter… 32

26. Automated Desktop Agent

27. Automated Desktop Agent Image Prep Automated installation process • Administrator credentials must be provided for remote installation of DTAgent software Domain or local admin credentials accepted 34

28. Automated Desktop Agent Image Prep After image copy, remote auto install begins… Installation progress reported in real-time under in Activity window 35

29. Automated Desktop Agent Fallback option If DTAgent fails to auto-install, familiar easy-to-use manual installation mechanism available… • On desktop, browse to https://my.vdimanagerip/dt/dtagent 37

30. Automated Desktop Agent Auto-upgrade Auto-upgrade can be launched by clicking on or on the “Edit” link associated with a specific image…

31. Grid-wide Virtual IP

32. Grid-wide Virtual IP • Provides highly available virtual IP address for a single point of access to the VIAB grid • Always available • Virtual IP transferred to working appliance if current host goes down • Works with any user device 40

33. Grid-wide Virtual IP in Action 192.1.1.10 192.1.1.1 192.1.1.10 192.1.1.2 192.1.1.3 192.1.1.10 192.1.1.10 41

34. GRID-wide virtual IP - Configuration • Configure under Advanced Properties • Only one virtual IP can be specified per GRID 42

35. Checking which appliance holds the VIP • SSH into an appliance using the VIP address • Login as Root or kvm • Run ifconfig eth0 • Check inet addr:value 43

36. NIC Alias: eth0:1 • Running ifconfig on the server holding the VIP will show the Virtual IP address assigned to the NIC alias eth0:1 44

37. AD Failover

38. AD Failover • Provides the ability to configure a redundant connection to AD in case of failover of primary connection • 2 or more Domain controllers can be specified in a prioritized list • Optional feature • ViaB works fine with single DC specified 46

39. AD failover - Details • Specify multiple AD servers in setting up domain connection • Servers tried in order given • Test LDAPS and LDAP for each server • Results appear in Event Log • Failure in query of AD means retry all servers/protocols • First that succeeds becomes new AD connection • Periodically retry all servers/protocols • Resets original order if AD failure is corrected 47

40. AD Failover - Configuration • User Database admin tasks now found under the Users tab.. 48

41. Dual Datastores

42. Dual Datastores • Allow the retention of base image and diff disks in different datastores (Storage Repository's) • Example • Store base images and Personal disks on SAS (DAS) • Store Desktops/difference disks on SSD • Advantages • Manage/Reduce IOPS bottleneck • Increases server density • Improve performance at lower cost 52

43. Configuring Dual Datastore feature • Advanced Properties • Miscellaneous • Select, per server basis… • Datastore for Base images and personal disks • Datastore for Desktops (diff disks) • Remember: Simplicity First! • Single datastore by default 53

44. Dual Datastore Considerations • Dual Datastore option not available for XenServer at this time • ESX & Hyper-V ONLY 54

45. Fully specified computer names

46. Fully specified computer names • V5.0.x • Admin defined Prefix + Random auto generated Suffix • V5.1 • Specify complete name of virtual desktops • Prefix (1-11 Chars) and Suffix (0-4 Chars) • Benefit • Clean & Tidy • Allows admins to track virtual machines on the hypervisor and in AD • Support automation scripts and other software that require known computer names 57

47. Fully specified computer names Details Each template allows prefix and suffix • Prefix: up to 11 letters, numbers, hyphens • Suffix: up to 4 numbers including optional leading 0’s • Resulting names are NetBIOS and DNS compliant Prefix and suffix define computer name pool from suffix start value to 9999 • E.G. Win7PvD9999 Multiple templates can have overlapping pools 58

48. AD User & Group Search

49. AD User & Group Search • Partial name and search • User id and groups only (no first name…) • VDIManager searches AD for matching names • Simplicity first (exact match added automatically…) • Results: 10 hits only • If more then 10 results are found a warning saying refine search is displayed 60

50. AD User & Group Search - Details • If no ‘*’ wildcard, implicitly add ‘*’ to end and query • If one result without wildcard, use it • If zero results or more than one results with wildcard, pop up search dialog • Search dialog • Search entry • Selectable results • Limited to 10 results • Improved group handling • Built-in groups • Nested groups 61