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Test Plan:
Desktop Layering
for VDI
Introduction
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), when implemented correctly, can provide clear advantages over physical PCs: Mobility End users can access their Windows desktops and applications anywhere, anytime from any device, including zero/thin clients, home PCs, smart phones, and pads; Security Critical applications and data are moved from the edge into the data center, where they are more secure; Longevity Thin and zero clients have much longer lifespans than PCs and laptops, enabling IT to get out of the device management business and avoid recurring 3-5 year PC refresh cycles; Energy Savings Zero and thin clients use significantly less power than PCs and laptops; Manageability Desktop layering software for VDI makes it much easier to package and deliver applications and apply Windows updates, compared to the legacy PC management tools that are required to manage physical desktops; Support Virtual desktops dont have the physical hardware issues that PCs have. Virtual desktops that are damaged by user configurations can also be fixed in minutes by Level 1 support staff, simply by rolling back the User layer to a previous snapshot. When implemented incorrectly, however, VDI can lead to cost overruns, unhappy end users, far more management complexity than exists with physical PCs, and, ultimately, project stall. Unfortunately, this is too often the case. Why? VDI Proof of Concept (POC) test plans are often incomplete, and fail to anticipate all of the use cases and desktop configurations that will be required at full scale production. As a result, what seemed to work fine for 10 users becomes too hard to manage and too costly to implement for 200 users. This white paper provides POC recommendations and a test plan to ensure that your VDI pilot takes into account everything youll need for full scale VDI production success.
Audience
The intended audience for this white paper is VDI project leads, field consultants, solution architects, and sales engineers who want to test Unidesk VDI management software in conjunction with a connection broker such as Citrix XenDesktop or VMware Horizon View.
Description
Time Desktop is Up Recovery Time for Desktop Recovery Point for Desktop Time to Recover Desktop From Disaster Point at which Desktop Should be Recreated after Disaster Mixture of Graphics Intensity and Processor Utilization
Options
% Value Time Value Time Value Time Value
Selection
99.90% 2 Hours 1 Day 2 Days
DR RPO
Time Value
2 Hours
Performance
Low/Medium/High (High in Graphic Intensity = High) (Medium Graphics intensity = at least Med) Time Value Time Value
Low
2 Days 2 Days
Description
What OS is required for the virtual desktop Allowing microphone input and speaker output Runs agent to display information from the phone system User can access virtual desktop via a web portal Is printing required by users Will USB devices at the users workstation be needed Based on criteria below, what are the graphical computing requirements
Options
Windows XP, 7, 8 Vista, Linux Yes/No Yes/No
Selection
Windows 7 32-bit Yes No
Graphic Intensity
Low/Med/High
Med
HD Streaming Streaming Media Media Player Flash Player DirectX CAD PowerPoint Streaming Media Frequently Processor Utilization Expectation Client Drive Mapping CD/DVD Read Access CD/DVD Write Access Multi-Monitor Web Camera
Yes/No (Yes=High) No Yes/No (Yes=High) Yes Yes/No (Yes=High) Yes/No (Yes=High) Yes/No (Yes=Med) Yes/No (Yes=Med) Yes/No (Yes=Med) Often/Sometimes /Seldom Low/Med/High (450 Mhz/900 Mhz/1350 Mhz) Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No #/No Yes/No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Sometimes Low
How often is streaming media required? What is the CPU requirement? Do users require access to drives from client device? Do users require read access to local CD/DVD? Do users require write access to local CD/DVD? Do users require more than one display? Do users require a web camera?
Yes No No No No
Description
Are there user specific items that must be available from session to session? Users work (i.e. Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets, etc) Average amount of storage a user requires for their data Percentage of files over 5MB users will require over slower WAN connections Percentage of files over 2MB users require over faster LAN connections Will users settings stored in the Windows Profile need to persist? Are users given administrative rights, and will apps and plug-ins they install need to persist? Will users need to access desktops from outside the production network? Will users need to access virtual desktops from multiple locations on the production network? Will users need to access virtual desktops while not connected to any network? Is an encrypted channel required from endpoint to virtual desktop? Should users logon attempts be logged?
Options
Yes/No
Selection
No
Yes/No
No
o Amount in GB o % of Files > 5MB across WAN o % of Files > 2MB across LAN Profile User-Installed Apps
# value # value
N/A N/A
# value
N/A
Yes/No
Yes
Yes/No
Yes
Remote Access
Yes/No
Yes
Roaming Access
Yes/No
Yes
Offline Access
Yes/No
No
Yes/No
No
Yes/No
No
2. Application Delivery
Application delivery is often an overlooked challenge in VDI implementations. Many organizations underestimate the sheer number of applications their users use on a daily basis, and the number of different desktop configurations required by each use case. Application delivery considerations generally fall into the following categories: Application volume The total number of applications that need to be delivered; Application interoperability Whether the application needs to communicate or integrate with other applications (Microsoft Word and web browser plug-ins being common examples); Standard applications Whether the application is needed by all or a majority of users; Departmental applications Whether the application is needed by a subset of users (e.g. 5-50); One-off applications Whether the application is needed by just 1 or 2 users; Update frequency How often apps need to be patched or updated.
If you have a large volume of applications (50+), numerous departmental and one-off applications, high update frequencies, or high interoperability requirements, application layering will likely be required for VDI success. Many Standard apps are not virtualization-friendly, and cannot be virtualized at all with legacy application virtualization tools such as VMware ThinApp and Microsoft App-V. Depending on IT skill sets, IT resource availability, and whether an application needs to communicate with other apps or plug-ins, a single app may take days or even weeks to virtualize, ruling out the use of app virtualization for Departmental and One-off apps. Application layering technology is the newer, easier, and more powerful way to package and deliver all applications in VDI. Only a few minutes are required to layer an app anyone who knows how to run Setup can do it. Once apps are layered, they can be assigned to one or more desktops without reinstallation. The next time the desktops reboot, the applications will be present and available to the users. Layered applications appear to Windows as if they are natively installed, so they do not have the interoperability limitations of virtualized/isolated applications.
Most organizations package Standard and Departmental apps as Unidesk application layers so they can be centrally assigned, patched, and maintained by IT. One-off applications are often delegated to end users to install themselves as user-installed apps Unidesks storage-efficient persistent desktops make this easy and affordable. The following table lists a sample application inventory, and the delivery considerations for each app. Application Delivery Considerations
Application
Adobe Flash Player 11 ActiveX Adobe Flash Player 11 ActiveX 64-bit Adobe Flash Player 11 Plugin Adobe Reader X (10.1.4) Adobe Reader 9.4.0 Adobe Shockwave Player 11.6 AllMedia Grabber Apple Application Support Atomic Alarm Clock 5.81 Bullzip PDF Printer 7.2.0.1304 Centra Client Cisco Systems VPN Client 4.8.01.0300 Cisco WebEx Meetings Citrix Desktop Receiver Citrix online plug-in - web Citrix HTML5 HDX Engine Citrix offline plug-in Citrix online plug-in - web Citrix XenApp Plugin for Hosted Apps Connector ID CopySafe PDF CopySafe Plugin DAEMON Tools Lite Dell Laser MFP 1815 Software Uninstall Everything 1.2.1.371 FastStone Capture 5.2 Google Quick Search Box
Standard
Yes No No Yes No No No
Dept.
No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
One-Off
No No No No No No Yes
Interop
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Update
6 months 6 months 6 months 6 months 6 months 6 months 9 months
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Once you have completed your inventory, try to layer applications that are normally difficult to virtualize with App-V, ThinApp, and other legacy application virtualization technologies. Applications with services Applications with shell access Applications with drivers (e.g. CutePDF Writer, scanners, printers) Application plugins Custom-built applications
Layer these and the other apps in your chosen test use cases with Unidesk to prove you can deliver and patch all of your applications with ease. Each app will only take 20 minutes or so to layer, so many organizations will layer 20-50 apps during the POC.
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3. Image Management
Image management is another important consideration for VDI success. It is not uncommon for VDI projects to stall or fail due to large numbers of golden operating system images that must be patched to stay current with Microsoft Windows hot fix and service pack releases. Image sprawl occurs when administrators need to create multiple parent VMs and golden images for every pool, or build applications that cannot be virtualized into the golden image. With Unidesk layering technology, only one clean golden Windows OS layer is usually required for all desktops, since all applications can be quickly and easily packaged as separate application layers, and since physical VM settings (e.g. CPU, memory) can be configured separate from the OS layer. The following table provides an example to estimate the number of golden images your VDI implementation will require. Create as many golden OS layers as you need during your POC to validate how easy it will be to create desktops with Unidesk layering technology. Image Management Planning Requirement
Windows XP 32-bit Windows XP 64-bit Windows 7 32-bit Windows 7 64-bit
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4. Storage Requirements
The POC is a good opportunity to understand exactly how much storage capacity your production VDI deployment will require. Unidesk layering technology provides the same or better storage savings than VMware Linked Clones, Citrix Provisioning Server (PVS), or Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS) image sharing technologies, but with the simplicity and efficiency advantages in application delivery and image management described above. Unidesk also provides this storage savings for both non-persistent and persistent desktops, whereas the blockbased image sharing technologies can only provide the savings for non-persistent desktops. The following table helps you estimate your storage requirements for your VDI POC, and extrapolate the storage requirements for your full VDI implementation. Storage Considerations Desktop Components
OS Layer Application Layers (~50 apps) User Layer (per desktop, persistent-only) Boot Images (per desktop, for vSwap, pagefile, dump file)
Storage Capacity
16 GB 200 GB 5 GB 4 GB
50 full-sized persistent desktops, assuming each desktop required 40 GBs of capacity, would normally require 2 TB of storage capacity. However, Unidesk stores OS and Application layers only once per datastore, eliminating redundant Windows OS and application storage. The following formula can be used to calculate Unidesk storage requirements: ((OS layer size + Application layers size) * (# of Desktop CachePoints + 1 Master CachePoint)) + (# of desktops * size of User layer) + (Boot images * # of desktops) = Total Space Required Plugging these numbers in, assuming a POC with 50 persistent desktops and a single Master CachePoint virtual appliance to host the desktops, would require: ((16+200)*1) + (50*5) + (50*4) = 666 GB Thats a savings of 1.33 TB, or 66% for 50 persistent virtual desktops. The VDI storage footprint can be reduced even further by implementing non-persistent virtual desktops with Unidesk. By choosing the minimum User layer size of 400 MB, only
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20 GB would be required for User layer storage instead of 250 GB. The capacity requirement for 50 non-persistent virtual desktops would then be 436 GB. Thats a savings of 15.7 TB, or 78% for 50 non-persistent virtual desktops.
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2. 3. 4. 5.
Install a print driver for the user. Verify it can print. Verify the print driver is still there after the desktop is patched and rebooted. Change the background of the desktop. Follow same steps as above. Save files to the desktop. Follow same steps as above. Configure the snapshot frequency. Make sure a snapshot has been taken. Install user-installed apps and create data. Restore the desktop to the snapshot. Verify that the user-installed apps and data created after the snapshot are gone.
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Unidesk Corporation, 313 Boston Post Road West, Marlborough, MA 01752 USA Tel 508-573-7800 Fax 508-573-7801
Copyright 2013 Unidesk Corp. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. Unidesk is a registered trademark of Unidesk Corp. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Item No: UNI-WP-POC -TEST-PLAN Date: April 2013
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