March 10, 2012 Citrix SE Jerry Shea Top Ten things every IT person needs to know about VDI.

March 10, 2012

Citrix SEJerry Shea

Top Ten things every IT person needs to

know about VDI

Executive buy-in

IT Collaboration

Funding

Users and Change

Standards

User rights

Applications

Operating Procedures

Desktop Experience

Network Impact

Multimedia

Peripherals

Resources

Mobility

User

Calculate Network Impact

Regardless of the flavor of virtual desktop being implemented the network plays a critical role.

The user experience degrades as the latency increases and the bandwidth decreases.

Proper network planning must be based on the type of work users are performing and the overall network topology.

Profile Strategy

The user’s profile is one of the major ways the pooled virtual desktop becomes personalized.

If users are going to accept a new desktop strategy, they must have the ability to personalize their desktop environment.

The personalization must not negatively impact the performance of the environment.

Applications

AssessmentWhat is requiredWhere do they go

Patch Tuesday

Desktop virtualization can be successful without an application virtualization strategy, but only in certain situations, and typically only in smaller, less complex environments.

Simplify the management of the desktop environment by reducing the number of images.

The primary factor that often dictates the need for additional desktop images are application sets.

Resource Allocation Most users only consume a fraction of their total potential desktop

computing power, which makes desktop virtualization extremely attractive. There is a fine line between maximizing the number of users a single

server can support and providing the user with a good virtual desktop computing experience.

Trying to push the hypervisor, any hypervisor, too hard results in a poor user experience.

Optimizing Antivirus

Antivirus solutions are important

Consider the impact of where the Desktops are

Storms

Logoff

Logon

Boot

User Patterns

Virtual Desktops Optimizations

Organizations often spend time to create a customized standard operating environment for their desktop operating systems.

Disable •Screen Saver•Last Access Timestamp•Unneeded Features

System Cache

System cache is a powerful feature allowing a server to service requests extremely fast.

Provisioning services relies on fast access to the blocks within the disk image (vDisk) to stream to the target devices.

Simply adding RAM to a Provisioning services server is not enough; the system must be configured appropriately.

Controller Configuration

At a high level, the controller is responsible for: Authenticating users against Active Directory Enumerating available resources Creating registrations for newly started virtual

desktops Maintaining an active heartbeat with online

virtual desktops

Storage Design

IOPS are CriticalWhen it comes to storage, most people

think only about size/space to allocate per user?

Without a properly designed storage subsystem, a user’s virtual desktop will slow down to the point of becoming unusable because the storage becomes a bottleneck.

Migration

Personalized Settings Synchronization

Data Synchronization

End User

User topology

End Points• Hosted shared desktop• Hosted VM-based desktops (VDI)• Hosted Blade PC desktops• Local streamed desktops• Virtual Apps to installed desktops• Local VM-based desktop

Locations

Conclusion

Executive buy-in

Standards

Business Case

Experience

Support

One Size does not fit all

The information in this presentation was based on was developed by Citrix Consulting Services and can be

found in the following articles;

XD_7_Requirements_for_Successful_Desktop_Virtualization_Projects.PDF

XD - Top 10 Mistakes Identified When Doing Desktop Virtualization.PDF

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