vdi, rds, med v, app-v - right decisions

VDI, RDS, MED-V, and App-VMaking the Right Decisions in

Deploying Applications

Greg Shields, MVPPartner and Principal Technologist

www.ConcentratedTech.com

This slide deck was used in one of our many conference presentations. We hope you enjoy it, and invite you to use it

within your own organization however you like.

For more information on our company, including information on private classes and upcoming conference appearances, please

visit our Web site, www.ConcentratedTech.com.

For links to newly-posted decks, follow us on Twitter:@concentrateddon or @concentratdgreg

This work is copyright ©Concentrated Technology, LLC

IT’s Mission Statement,Compliments of…Well…Me.

• “It is the core mission of IT to create, manage, and ensure the secured access to business applications and data.”

Greg Shields,

TechNet Magazine,

February, 2010

Fulfilling that Mission

• We IT Pros troubleshoot desktops.We IT Pros fix printers.We IT Pros install software.We IT Pros keep the network running.

• But above all else, our job is to create and manage that secured access to our business’ applications and data.● Without it, our business cannot operate.● Without it, we have no job.

Greg’s Soapbox:Techno-centrism is Soooo IT 1.0

• Today’s hubbub in the IT ecosystem is all about virtualization, all about virtualizing.

• And, yet, sometimes the most talked-about technology isn’t always the best-fit approach.

Greg’s Soapbox:Techno-centrism is Soooo IT 1.0

• Today’s hubbub in the IT ecosystem is all about virtualization, all about virtualizing.

• And, yet, sometimes the most talked-about technology isn’t always the best-fit approach.

• That’s why you’re here. To find that best-fit.• This is a STRATEGIES session.

● Lots of discussion● Lots of interaction● No demo

DISCUSS: How Do We Do That?

• What mechanisms are available today to deliver applications and data to users?

IT 2.0:Delivering Applications and Data

• What mechanisms are available today to deliver applications and data to users?● Local desktops & laptops● File servers and shares● App-V● Remote Desktop Services● Virtualized RDS● RemoteApp for Hyper-V● XP Mode / MED-V / Client Virtualization ● VDI, Pooled Virtual Desktops● VDI, Personal Virtual Desktops

Increasing Com

plexityIncreasing M

anagement B

urdenIncreasing O

verhead Cost

Lightweight to HEAVYweight Spectrum

● Local desktops & laptops● File servers and shares● Remote Desktop Services● App-V● Virtualized RDS● RemoteApp for Hyper-V● XP Mode / MED-V / Client Virtualization ● VDI, Pooled Virtual Desktops● VDI, Personal Virtual Desktops

Lightweight

HEAVYweight

The HEAVYWEIGHT Case: VDI

Why Start Here?Successfully using VDI requires a combination of nearlyevery other approach in the lightweight/heavyweight spectrum.

Products in this Space:

Hypervisors

• VMware vSphere

• Citrix XenSource

• Microsoft Hyper-V

• Sun VirtualBox

• Parallels Bare Metal & Containers

Products in this Space:

Storage

• HP & HP / LeftHand

• Dell & Dell Equalogic

• IBM

• EMC

• NetApp

• Starwind Software et al

Virtual Storage RequiresHigh-End Storage

• Thin Provisioning

• Snapshot

• Volume Rollback

• Replication, Local & DR

• Replication, Synchronous & Asynchronous• “Node-ification” (that’s my term…)

• Network RAID

• Continuous Data Protection

Products in this Space:

Monitoring & Performance Mgmt.

• First-Party Solutions

• vKernel

• eG Innovations

• Veeam

• Vizioncore

• Akorri

• CiRBA

• (This space is swiftly growing)

Products in this Space:

Desktop Provisioning

• VMware View Composer

• Citrix Provisioning Server

• Microsoft System Center VMM

• Quest vWorkspace

• Vizioncore vControl

• MokaFive Suite

Products in this Space:

Transport Protocols

• Microsoft RDP

• Citrix ICA & HDX

• VMware PCoIP, Extended RDP

• Quest Experience Optimized Protocol (EOP)

Products in this Space:

Desktop Brokers & Advertisement

• Microsoft RD Session Broker,RD Web Access

• Citrix XenDesktop

• VMware View Connection Server

• Quest vWorkspace AppPortal

• Ericom WebConnect

• MokaFive

Products in this Space:

Endpoints / Desktop Receivers

• Traditional PCs, via client access

• Pano Logic

• Wyse

• NComputing

Products in this Space:

Application Virtualization

• Microsoft App-V

• Citrix XenApp

• VMware Thinstall

• Symantec Workspace Virtualization

Products in this Space:

Workspace Management

• Microsoft Roaming Profiles

• RES Software PowerFuse

• AppSense Management Suite

• Tranxition LiveManage

• RingCube vDesk

Lightweight to HEAVYweight Spectrum

● Local desktops & laptops● File servers and shares● Remote Desktop Services● App-V● Virtualized RDS● RemoteApp for Hyper-V● XP Mode / MED-V / Client Virtualization ● VDI, Pooled Virtual Desktops● VDI, Personal Virtual Desktops

Lightweight

HEAVYweight

The LightWEIGHT Case: RDS

Why Continue Here?RDS has a long history. You already use it. You already know it.Yet, its application compatibility story still discourages people.

VDI vs. Traditional RDS(The RDS Perspective)• Applications are installed only once.

● Multiple users share the same application instance.● If you need to update an application, you do it in one place and

everyone immediately benefits.

• User resource needs are exceptionally light.● Resource needs are limited to hosting the user’s shell plus the

individual needs of their running applications.● Some platforms provide mechanisms to share even those

resources across multiple users, further increasing user density on a single server.

VDI vs. Traditional RDS(The RDS Perspective)• Administration occurs at the level of the individual server.

● Since multiple users share a single system’s resources, server administration is done at the level of the server itself.

• Presentation Virtualization technologies are exceptionally mature.

● Having been around for over ten years, platforms like Remote Desktop Services and XenApp are mature, stable, well-known, and easy to understand by technology generalists.

● You don’t need expensive consulting to spin up a Remote Desktop Server today.

VDI vs. Traditional RDS(The VDI Perspective)• Hosted desktops are managed as separate entities.

● In order to maintain 500 hosted desktops, you’ll be individually managing 500 extra desktops.

● Users connect to these desktops through some mechanism, likely their existing physical desktop.

● Hosted desktops guarantee desktop isolation.

• Administration is targeted to each separate VM.● Patches, applications, and configurations with VDI are all

individual to the virtual machine.● Thus, apps and their updates must be managed individually.● Some VDI platforms include software that automates this or

enables the linking of clones (nascent).● One user’s configuration won’t impact others.

VDI vs. Traditional RDS(The VDI Perspective)• User resource needs are comparatively heavy.

● RDS enables high user density because of intrinsic resource sharing, VDI requires virtual machines to operate like typical virtual machines.

● If you want 500 virtual machines, each with 1GB of RAM, you’ll need some percentage 500x1GB of RAM to support them.

● Some VDI platforms support memory sharing technologies that reduce this number.

● But even cutting it in half (a ratio that is suggested in some documentation) is still a big number.

VDI vs. Traditional RDS(The VDI Perspective)• VDI technologies are yet nascent, but maturing.

● Hurdles remain yet in user state management. This impacts both VDI and RDS, but is more challenging within VDI’s distributed infrastructure.

● Endpoint hardware (“Zero Client”) options are already architecturally superior to mature thin client hardware.

● Online -> offline transfer technology is developing.

● Desktop hypervisor technology is also developing.● BYOPC becomes a potential future state.

Other Delivery Infrastructures

• Virtualized RDS● Brings all the benefits of virtualization to RDS servers – backup,

snapshots, cloning, rapid deployment and rebuild.● Very small incremental complexity.

● Performance tax is the accompanying cost.● Nahelem / Opteron so significantly reduce this performance tax

that Virtualized RDS atop them is considered today’s best practice. More so with x86 than x64.

• “The most economic configuration for TS 2003 x86 workload has now changed (driven by the vSphere 4.0 Update 1 Patch 05) , on a Intel Nehalem host with 16 logical processors the optimal configuration is now 4VMs with 4vCPUs...”--Project Virtual Reality Check

Other Delivery Infrastructures

• XP Mode, MED-V, VMware ACE, Offline VDI, Client Hypervisors

● All create a double-desktop environment – one relatively controlled, one relatively uncontrolled.

● Some are focused exclusively on application compatibility, others are intended as desktop “replacement”.

● Or, put better, desktop “augmentation”.

● Many have failed to gain popular support in the past.● Complexity and scalability are concerns.

● Watch this space!Client hypervisor technologies could arguably be called IT 3.0.

Other Delivery Infrastructures

• RemoteApp for Hyper-V / Citrix VM Hosted Apps● “VDI for the environment who doesn’t want to use VDI!”● I dig this.

● Virtualize a set of desktops, then install an application on each desktop, then create a seamless window connection to that desktop.

● Primarily intended for application compatibility, particularly when a limited set of problem apps (or their users) are present.

● Eliminates the double-desktop problem.

Concluding: So, What Do You Do?

Concluding: So, What Do You Do?

• Eliminate “the products” from your application delivery strategy.● Analyze the delivery mechanisms over the

product suites.● Start with lightweight approaches first.● Then, move down the list, ruling out

approaches that don’t fit your application delivery requirements.

VDI, RDS, MED-V, and App-VMaking the Right Decisions in

Deploying Applications

Greg Shields, MVPPartner and Principal Technologist

www.ConcentratedTech.com

This slide deck was used in one of our many conference presentations. We hope you enjoy it, and invite you to use it

within your own organization however you like.

For more information on our company, including information on private classes and upcoming conference appearances, please

visit our Web site, www.ConcentratedTech.com.

For links to newly-posted decks, follow us on Twitter:@concentrateddon or @concentratdgreg

This work is copyright ©Concentrated Technology, LLC