VIRTUAL DESKTOPS (VDI):

A CASE STUDY

Ted LoveDirector of Technology

Phoenix Central School Districtwww.phoenixcsd.org

Twitter: @ted_love

tlove@phoenixcsd.org

OBJECTIVES

What is VDI?What is the value?

The Phoenix CSD storyDevelopmental Effects

The Business Case for VDI

What is VDI?

Server hosted virtual machines with a desktop operating system

Has a management console that allows the provisioning of desktop VMs

vs Client Hypervisor or MS Multipoint vs Server Virtualization

Hardware

Operating System

Applications

User Profile

1400 PCs

+“THE CLOUD”

=

Phoenix CSD 2009-present Reduced IT staff Reduced equipment and supplies

budgets Increased IT department responsibilities Increased # of teacher and student

workstations Reduced power consumption

Goals for Phoenix Desktop Virtualization Centralize management of desktops Reduce footprint by having a lightweight

end device Consolidate and share compute

resources Benefit: flexibility of user device

agnosticism

Begin With the End in Mind

Stage 1Deployed 400 Thin ClientsTested VDI – not quite mature and $$$

Solution = Terminal Server (MS RDS)

DEVELOPMENTAL EFFECTS:Users perceived the Thin Clients as “less than” desktopsTeachers couldn’t live without the DVD driveRDS offered challenges that eroded user confidence- Software issues (legacy apps)- Printing issues- 64-bit Internet Explorer (plug-ins)- User profiles would easily get corrupted- Support for USB peripherals

Stage 1Application Virtualization Over 200 programs per school building De-couple the application from the OS Portability of apps Apps assigned by user/group instead of

by physical machine Microsoft App-V, InstallFree, Vmware

ThinApp, (Citrix XenApp) Licensing woes

Leostream Hyper-V / Quest vWorkspace Citrix XenDesktop VMware View

DEVELOPMENTAL EFFECTSIT staff enjoyed the testing of various platformsHowever, it was time-consumingVendor headaches (aren’t you ready to move forward?)Afforded the opportunity to time a major purchase

We learned that the “holy grail” of VDI is theNon-persistent linked clone (vs. dedicated desktop VMs)

Stage 2Proof of Concepts / Testing VDI

Stage 3January 2011 – one lab, then three labs at the Middle School

April 2011 – all 300 thin clients at the High School converted from RDP to View DEVELOPMENT EFFECTS

Didn’t solve all problems immediatelyHad it’s own set of problems

SAN Storage!

Hypervisor RAM

User settings – portability, printing

“LOG ON STORMS”

Stage 4Summer 2011 – SSD SAN, Profile Unity

January 2012 – RAM upgrade (4 GB to 16 GB ~ min 192 GB / blade server)

Summer 2012 – deployed an additional 400 thin clients for a total of:

800 thin clients12 ESX hosts

DEVELOPMENT EFFECTSIT team is both highly skilled and more agile

Solution Scaling

Ability to invest in needed compute resource

Stage 4Announced to staff accessibility of VDI system from outside the firewall

Thanks, Ted, this is a WONDERFUL development!  I will be making use of it…Pat

So many times these ideas come after school when I’m thinking about what I’m going to do the next day. Now with the virtual desktop, there’s no need to carry my files around in a hard drive.-Luisa

Holy ----!!!  I downloaded this on my iPAD.  Can’t believe how great it looks. Amazing.  Love it.  Thank you!” – Barb

VMWare works well on the iPad. Takes some getting used to the touch controls” – Rick

Effects of Desktop Virtualization Desktop technicians become desktop

architects Better desktop management benefits all

desktops (physical and virtual) Percentage of logged technician time

spent on troubleshooting went from 29.7% to 7.4% over five years

The Business Case for VDI For IT:

Single OS for IT to supportService orientedMore efficient management

For Users:Provide a better end-user experience

Cash Value:Reduce Software LicensingSave EnergySave $$ on expensive desktop replacement cycle

VDI savings $$ ??

IT Efficiency

Total Cost of Ownership

Questions for Discussion1. Who is doing it?

Why?To what extent?

2. Who/what/where is best suited to use virtual desktops?

3. What are the common challenges implementing VDI? Supporting VDI?

4. What can we do with VDI that we couldn’t do previously with physical desktops?