In continuation to one of my earlier posts here:
http://rjalan.blogspot.com/2009/01/vmware-vdi-vs-citrix-xendesktop.html
We concluded the following for Vmware view:
Pros:
1. Connection Server that can be placed in DMZ a good add on. Opens up desktops just using https on the front end.
2. View Manager with View composer –
a. Save space for OS images as it references master image
b. Makes it easier to update all the client desktops using recomposing and updating only master image.
c. New desktop provision is very easy and quick.
3. Single sign on works well. Supposed to work with tokens also.
Cons:
1. All the local LAN connections pass through View Manager all the time, so it’s a thick connection broker.
2. All the secure connections for DMZ connection server flow through this server as well. This is obvious though because all the RDPs are connected to https through this for end users. But that demands a server that can handle all these requests simultaneously.
3. Multimedia is not any better than normal RDP.
4. No real settings for bandwidth control for RDP. This might be a bandwidth hog depending on your needs. Through active directory group policy, we was able to make following changes:
a. End client(initiator) user can get these settings if in Active Directory: color depth, desktop background, themes, cursor shadow, compression. But in case, end user is connecting from a home computer etc., this settings can not be enforced.
b. For VM desktop, only 2 settings: Desktop background and color depth. These don’t make any major difference in the bandwidth utilization.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Poor Man's Failover on ESXi servers
HA can't do without VI license, but manual failover you can.
If you are running production, you still might want to get support for ESXi.
What you would need:
1. 2 ESXi servers running identical CPUs and have Shared Storage (FC or iSCSI).
2. Virtual Infrastructure Client(VIC)(Free included w/ Free ESXi).
3. Remote CLI installed on any other server or your desktop. Although, all the steps could be performed by VIC as well.
Steps to do the manual failover:
For documentation, I would use "testVM" as my VM guest running RHEL and 2 ESXi servers are serverA and serverB.
1. Install testVM on serverA. You would use VIC for this.
2. register the machine with other host, in this case, serverB. I prefer using remote CLI. Following command is needed:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VI Remote CLI\bin>vmware-cmd.pl --server serverA --username administrator -s register "[SharedStorage] testVM/testVM.vmx" ha-datacenter Resources
Enter password:
register() =1
Here ha-datacenter is the datacenter name and Resources is the resource pool. You can specify your own resource pool name if desired.
Other way of accomplishing the same thing is by going to configuration of serverB from VIC. Go to storage, click on shared storage disk, right click and browse. Then browse to testVM, and right click on .vmx file and click "Add to Inventory".
2. using VIC shutdown testVM on serverA, poweron testVM serverB and choose always keep on the serverB when testVM is powering up.
3. now you can go back and forth easily between two hosts using VIC or remote CLI.
For remote CLI:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VI Remote CLI\bin>vmware-cmd.pl --server serverA --u
sername administrator "[SharedStorage] testVM/testVM.vmx" stop
Enter password:
stop() = 1
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VI Remote CLI\bin>vmware-cmd.pl --server serverB --u
sername administrator "[SharedStorage] testVM/testVM.vmx" start
Enter password:
start() = 1
If you are running production, you still might want to get support for ESXi.
What you would need:
1. 2 ESXi servers running identical CPUs and have Shared Storage (FC or iSCSI).
2. Virtual Infrastructure Client(VIC)(Free included w/ Free ESXi).
3. Remote CLI installed on any other server or your desktop. Although, all the steps could be performed by VIC as well.
Steps to do the manual failover:
For documentation, I would use "testVM" as my VM guest running RHEL and 2 ESXi servers are serverA and serverB.
1. Install testVM on serverA. You would use VIC for this.
2. register the machine with other host, in this case, serverB. I prefer using remote CLI. Following command is needed:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VI Remote CLI\bin>vmware-cmd.pl --server serverA --username administrator -s register "[SharedStorage] testVM/testVM.vmx" ha-datacenter Resources
Enter password:
register() =1
Here ha-datacenter is the datacenter name and Resources is the resource pool. You can specify your own resource pool name if desired.
Other way of accomplishing the same thing is by going to configuration of serverB from VIC. Go to storage, click on shared storage disk, right click and browse. Then browse to testVM, and right click on .vmx file and click "Add to Inventory".
2. using VIC shutdown testVM on serverA, poweron testVM serverB and choose always keep on the serverB when testVM is powering up.
3. now you can go back and forth easily between two hosts using VIC or remote CLI.
For remote CLI:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VI Remote CLI\bin>vmware-cmd.pl --server serverA --u
sername administrator "[SharedStorage] testVM/testVM.vmx" stop
Enter password:
stop() = 1
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VI Remote CLI\bin>vmware-cmd.pl --server serverB --u
sername administrator "[SharedStorage] testVM/testVM.vmx" start
Enter password:
start() = 1
Monday, January 12, 2009
Vmware VDI vs Citrix Xendesktop
Few months ago we did a bakeoff between Vmware VDI and Citrix Xendesktop solution.
Few things that are worth a mention for differences between these:
1. Citrix ICA protocol for remote desktop connectivity is better with multimedia apps than RDP 5.x.
2. Both RDP and ICA are bandwidth hogs, ICA might be slightly better over low latency link. Average bandwidth usage over WAN without any policing/acceleration technology was 300kbps with both ICA and RDP.
3. Citrix Presentation server has a great option of saving the disk space for multiple cloned desktops and also upgrading/patching only one master image and refreshing all desktops from it.
4. Citrix Access gateway for secure connectivity from outside seems like a separate purchase.(didn’t test it)
We didn't go ahead with the whole project at that time.
Now Vmware has announced availability for VMware view that addresses point # 1,3 and 4 above. We are currently doing a bake off of vmware view and I will soon post how it went.
Few things that are worth a mention for differences between these:
1. Citrix ICA protocol for remote desktop connectivity is better with multimedia apps than RDP 5.x.
2. Both RDP and ICA are bandwidth hogs, ICA might be slightly better over low latency link. Average bandwidth usage over WAN without any policing/acceleration technology was 300kbps with both ICA and RDP.
3. Citrix Presentation server has a great option of saving the disk space for multiple cloned desktops and also upgrading/patching only one master image and refreshing all desktops from it.
4. Citrix Access gateway for secure connectivity from outside seems like a separate purchase.(didn’t test it)
We didn't go ahead with the whole project at that time.
Now Vmware has announced availability for VMware view that addresses point # 1,3 and 4 above. We are currently doing a bake off of vmware view and I will soon post how it went.
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