Dec 01
Three Things You Should Know About VDI (Part 2)
Jason Cooper
I’ve been a C/D/H consultant for five years. I have the dual distinction of being both C/D/H’s first Southeast Michigan consultant AND our first VMware Certified Professional. Specializing in desktop management and virtualization, projects involving MetaFrame or ZENworks or VMware expose me to almost every corner of the enterprise, from messaging to networking to collaboration.
Technology is what I work at. Family and music are what I work for. In my copious spare time I enjoy gardening, camping, and cycling. I play guitar and a little harmonica, sometimes simultaneously. It occurs to me that I could duct tape a tambourine to my knee, but that would just be too weird.
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Articles by Jason Cooper
I come across a lot of interesting misconceptions and mis-configurations in the various clients I visit. I also get to see a lot of really cool technology deployed in interesting ways. Last time, I shared a funny misconception about the networking requirements for VDI, or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, by VMware. I’m not here to sell you on virtualization or VDI, rather, to plant some seeds for your consideration.
Hold on to your seat. Whatever problems exist in your physical environment will translate to your virtual environment. VMware (and XEN or Hyper-V) will eliminate the physical consequences of server sprawl, but if your enterprise has no method for managing the deployment of new servers, your VMware datacenter will become just as polluted as your physical data center. It will cost less to provide power and cooling, but the problem won’t go away. We try to get our clients to focus on the “Consolidation” portion of “Server Virtualization and Consolidation”. We also recommend having a managed process that requires a justification for deploying a new server (rather than adding a service to an existing server).
The price tag of such a project is not small. There is a tremendous, high-end hardware and software licensing expenditure at the outset of enterprise virtualization. Blade centers, SANs, and licensing are costly, and as stated earlier, the initial cost of VDI may outpace the cost of replacing all your desktops with new hardware. The cost justification for VDI, and for virtualization in general, is the long term return on investment that accompanies the reduced cost of ownership of virtual machines over physical boxes.
Another myth that needs to be dispelled: VDI is no replacement for desktop management. Products like System Center Configuration Manager, ZENworks, or Altiris are not eliminated by VDI deployments. In fact, they become all the more valuable. There may be some features (like remote control) which might be rendered unnecessary, but policies, application delivery, and workstation monitoring are no less critical in the virtual world.
Patch management is not simplified either. In April, Microsoft released the “Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool” Solution Accelerator for SCCM. It provides a way to automate the process of updating virtual machines. This makes keeping VM templates (a critical component of VDI) more manageable and automated.
Information flow in the Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool
(Check the tool out at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc501231.aspx)
Yet another myth: “Once I deploy VDI, I won’t have to worry about roaming profiles and redirected folders.” Generally speaking, best practices regarding data applies to virtual desktops the same way it does to physical workstations. Technologies like iFolder and Offline Folders that mirror user data to network locations, folder redirection using Group Policies, or a good written policy regarding where users save files are no less indispensable.
The most effective deployment of ANY desktop solution makes each individual desktop, be it virtual or physical, completely disposable. Even if you allocate one VDI instance per user, that user’s data still has to be stored on a device that is backed up regularly. The operating system, its applications, and its data are still prone to corruption.
Don’t fall into the trap of backing up virtual desktops—the capacity of your archive system will grow exponentially. Offload the volatile data and build a desktop environment that is easy to recover when disaster strikes. Backup your VDI templates in case of disaster. Restoring your templates and deploying new VMs will go much faster than restoring your VDI machines. The difficulty is in designing and maintaining an environment where critical user data is stored on a server, not local to the VM.
Next time, I’ll remind you about best practices related to mass desktop deployment, point you to a decent reference for deploying virtual desktops, and point you to one of the best resources for building a zero-touch standard operating environment, either physical or virtual.
Part 1 was published on November 14 (http://www.cdhtalkstech.com/2008/11/14/three-things-you-should-know-about-vdi-part-1/)
Update: Part 3 was published on Dec 12, 2008! (http://www.cdhtalkstech.com/2008/12/10/three-things-you-should-know-about-vdi-part-3/)