XenDesktop on myvirtualcloud.net

Hands Down the Ultimate VDI Platform - 2018 Review

Mon, 14 May 2018 08:46:21 +0000

Back in 2014 when I left VMware and joined Nutanix, I wrote two articles entitled "Hands Down the Ultimate VDI platform" (here and here) explaining how hyperconvergence and more specifically Nutanix were the perfect platforms for running VDI - and in all honesty that was one of the primary reasons I left VMware EUC CTO Office. I saw the opportunity to help thousands of organizations struggling with VDI deployments....and I was right, hyperconvergence is pretty much the default deployment model for VDI nowadays.

Citrix XenDesktop deployment? Here is everything you need to know about Nutanix vs. Other SDS

Tue, 24 May 2016 15:06:16 +0000

I have recently posted the article VMware Horizon View deployment? Here is everything you need to know about Nutanix vs. Other SDS. This time around I am consolidating all the numerous reasons for using Nutanix over other SDS solutions for Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp deployments.

VDI Calculator v7 Now Available w/ major changes

Wed, 06 Apr 2016 17:23:16 +0000

CHECK OUT THE NEW WEB VDI CALCULATOR HERE

Today I am releasing a new version on my VDI calculator, V7. This is a major release that include major improvements to the way VDI infrastructures are calculated, while also simplifying the process for people new to VDI sizing. I put a lot of effort into this release and had to make some big code changes to accommodate the desired outcomes. Let's go to What's New!

New 'Acropolis File Services' with Native Support for VMware Horizon UEM and Citrix Profile Manager

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 08:15:46 +0000

Nutanix has been primarily used to host virtual machines in the format of VMDKs and vdisks, but now it is also possible to natively store unstructured files such as user-generated content such as Office documents, and Windows user profiles and settings.

The Definitive Guide to End-User Computing and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Solutions

Sun, 06 Mar 2016 18:41:09 +0000

Back in 2011, in the world of SAN, I wrote an article called “VDI USER EXPERIENCE and USER ACCEPTANCE”. The article iterated through my experiences with many failed VDI deployments due to poor technical designs; mostly driven by storage performance complications.

Citrix XenDesktop & XenApp supported on Nutanix Acropolis

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 07:50:35 +0000

It gives me special pleasure to talk about this announcement because this is one of the projects I have been working on for a while. With this announcement today Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp customers will be supported on the Acropolis hypervisor (AHV).

The 'Nutanix Plugin for XenDesktop' Sneak Peek - Video Demo

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 20:09:38 +0000

In a Nutanix cluster, PRISM is the management gateway for components and administrators to configure and monitor single or multiple clusters. This includes the NCLI (command-line), HTML5 UI (administrative interface) and a REST API supporting for the entire management framework with PowerShell and Java SDKs.

Service Level Automation for XenDesktop with Nutanix

Tue, 06 May 2014 08:17:26 +0000

Yesterday I had the opportunity to present a TED-like talk at the GeekSpeak Tonight Session at Citrix Synergy Conference. The talk was about hyper-convergence and web-scale technologies and how they redefine the way VDI is architected and deployed.

The session was mostly vendor agnostic, where I discussed high level concepts about distributed file systems and web-scale technologies. Sometimes it's hard to see that it was an agnostic presentation because people automatically fall back to what the company "Nutanix" does, but the same presentation could have been done for other hyper-converged infrastructures and market players.

VDI Calculator v5.8 is Now Available with XenDesktop support for Nutanix

Tue, 29 Apr 2014 19:16:44 +0000

Today I am announcing the general availability of the new VDI Calculator v5.8. This new version introduces few important features.

XenDesktop support for Nutanix Platform - previously only Horizon View calculations on Nutanix platform was possible. This release introduces full calculation for XenDesktop pooled and assigned on Nutanix.
Increase to up to 5 Desktop Types - previously a maximum of three different desktop types could be configured. This release allows for a maximum of five desktop types to be simultaneously calculated . This feature is specially helpful for large VDI deployments with multiple departments using multiple different master images.
Italian and French Languages Support - in addition to Chinese and Spanish. The calculator will automatically follow regional settings and provide you with your language.
Squashed few little bugs

Nutanix Shadow Clones Explained and Benchmarked

Mon, 03 Mar 2014 03:20:31 +0000

One of the Nutanix features that drastically improve VDI performance and end-user experience is Shadow Clones. I briefly discussed Shadow Clones in the past. However, before explaining how Shadow Clones work let’s recap how VMware View Linked Clones work (the same is valid for XenDesktop MCS).

CBRC-like Functionality For Any VDI Solution with Nutanix

Mon, 03 Feb 2014 08:47:00 +0000

It is amazing when your world turns upside down and a technology that used to be awesome becomes mostly irrelevant. It amazes me how fast technology evolves and help organizations to achieve better performance and lower OPEX.

For a long time I have discussed the benefits of CBRC (Content Based Read Cache) available with Horizon View 5.1 onwards, allowing Administrators to drastically cut-down on read IO operations, offloading the storage infrastructure and providing greater end-user experience.

Here are few of the blog posts I wrote on CBRC technology: Understanding CBRC (Content Based Read Cache), Understanding CBRC – RecomputeDigest Method, Sizing for VMware View Storage Accelerator (CBRC), View Storage Accelerator Performance Benchmark, CBRC and Local Mode in VMware View 5.1, View Storage Accelerator (CBRC) Hashing Function.

CBRC helps to address some of the performance bottlenecks and the increase of storage cost for VDI. CBRC is a 100% host-based RAM-Based caching solution that helps to reduce read IOs issued to the storage subsystem and thus improves scalability of the storage subsystem while being completely transparent to the guest OS. However, CBRC comes at a cost.

When the View Storage Accelerator feature (CBRC) is enabled, a per-VMDK digest file is created to store hash information about the VMDK blocks. The estimated size of each digest file is roughly:

Launching VDI Calculator v3 with Partner support

Tue, 02 Jul 2013 18:23:54 +0000

I am excited to announce the version 3.0 of my VDI calculator. This new version introduces partner support, allowing 3rd party vendors to quickly demonstrate the benefits of their solutions, and allowing consultants and architects to see how those solutions impact their VDI and DaaS requirements. The first partner to be supported is Atlantis Computing with their ILIO diskless solution.

Introducing the New VDI Calculator!

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 10:19:47 +0000

The wait is over... and you can now get access to my new VDI calculator clicking on the link below.

The new calculator is built on Java framework instead of Flash, and run on Windows and Mac computers. There will also be a version specifically built for Android devices that uses native device capabilities. The Android version is coming a bit later.

Making an Educated Decision on View 5.0 or XenDesktop 5.5

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:26:00 +0000

I want to start this post saying that I often try to focus my blogging on the technical aspects of VDI, without putting too much focus on pricing or market. If you are an avid reader of my blog you know exactly what I am talking about. However, discussions about best product, best protocol or most aggressive ROI are often present in my circles.

New XenDesktop VDI Calculator

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:05:00 +0000

Due to the success of the original VDI Flash Calculator (now View VDI Calculator) I am releasing the first generation of the XenDesktop VDI Calculator.

The XenDesktop VDI Calculator is built on top of the same solid and field proven algorithms used on the original View VDI Calculator. The hypervizor of choice is vSphere and the desktop delivery mechanism if MCS (Machine Creation Services). I am already working on PVS (Provisioning Services) for a next release.

Comparing VMware View and XenDesktop on iPad

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:00:00 +0000

It was hard to create a title for this article because I normally don’t publish competitive analysis between products, protocols or architectures. I like to talk about products and technology from an optimistic and opportunistic approach. You rarely see me bashing vendors or products. I don’t do that because I believe nowadays every company has potential to quickly improve and innovate surpassing the competition.

Vblock, VPLEX and VDI

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:13:00 +0000

Jim Sanzone, one of my vSpecialist colleagues and VDI master was joined by the VCE team to demonstrate how two Vblocks with VPLEX within a datacenter can provide a **highly** available “Always ON” infrastructure for VDI environments that require lavish SLA’s.

EMC VPLEX Local provides seamless data mobility and high availability within a data center. It also allows you to manage multiple heterogeneous arrays from a single interface.

Desktop Virtualization Momentum to Build Though More a 2011 Opportunity

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:45:00 +0000

Barclays Capital released yesterday their Q4 VMware channel survey. They are raising their FY10 license growth expectation to 10%, up from 5.5% to reflect the improving server demand environment.

However there is an interesting comment about the VDI market.

We expect VMware to continue to make inroads in desktop virtualization with its new VMware View virtual desktop infrastructure platform, though we are more bullish on Citrix System’s ability to monetize the opportunity in 2010 given the maturity of their platform and established
XenApp installed base (Citrix claims 100 million) which is a natural advantage as it attempts to convert customers to desktop virtualization.

Mastering VDI Templates updated for PCoIP and View4

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:57:00 +0000

I have updated and uploaded a new version of my Mastering VDI Templates spreadsheet.

The new version has some corrections and adds the VMware ADM Templates for Group Policies Objects, including some non-documented PCoIP settings (at least I could not find anything on VMware documentation).

VMware View 4 – What changes for the Administrator

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:50:00 +0000

The big difference between VMware View 3 and 4 is that View 4 adds a new display protocol – PCoIP - that provides an optimized desktop experience for the delivery of the entire desktop environment specially across WANs with high latency and low bandwidth.

Mastering VDI Templates

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:48:00 +0000

A lot has been said and written about How to Create the Perfect VDI Template. In truth, there are some really great articles published about the subject, however I always found myself drifting from one article to another to get down to all recommendations or options available for my VDI templates.

Things to think of before a VDI deployment

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:27:00 +0000

During any VDI implementation, independent of the product you plan to utilise, some key components need to be properly and carefully designed in order to avoid pitfalls further down the track, or prepare the infrastructure for future growth.

VDI designs should also go through assessment process, just like any other deployment in the physical world, that should take care for the following:

Getting up to speed on XenDesktop really quickly

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:55:00 +0000

Do you need to learn XenDesktop really quickly, over a weekend? Bellow are are some VERY useful links if you need to get up to speed on XenDesktop really quickly...

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121478 (Enterprise Design Guide)

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/index.jsp?lang=en (Online Documentation Library)