Virtualization Tips » VDI

VMware View 4.5 announced at VMworld 2010

Brian — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:04:54 +0000

Now that things have slowed a bit at VMworld 2010 for news, I have some time to put together a post about VMware View 4.5. The soon to be released View 4.5 has a bunch of new features and I probably cannot do it justice yet, but will continue to post as I learn more about the product.

There are two versions of View 4.5 available now with features that I will list below. There is an Premier license that includes the full Suite of VMware VDI related products and the Enterprise edition with covers the base View VDI install.

So what does VMware promise that View 4.5 can delivery on? It now offers Windows 7 support which can increase speed and reduce the cost and complexity of migrating to Windows 7. Some other important benefits are Simplified Desktop Management and Application Management via VMware ThinApp.

What is included with VMware View 4.5

VMware vSphere for Desktops – #1 Virtualization hypervizor
VMware View Manager – Central Management for Desktops
VMware ThinApp – Agentless Application Virtualization solution
VMware Composer – Create Desktop images and linked clones
VMware vCenter Server for Desktops – Management for vSphere Server
VMware View Client – Allows access to desktops in Datacenter now with Local mode for offline use
VMware vShield Endpoint – Enables offload and centralization of AntiVirus & Malware scanning

VMware View 4.5 product page

VMware announces View client for iPad with PCoIP support

Brian — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:48:05 +0000

VMware announced that it will soon support the Apple iPad with VMware View 4.5 when it’s released in a couple of weeks. The expected release time is sometime in late September 2010. The iPad View client will offer new innovation that VMware has created to keep ahead of it’s competitors. The new iPad client will use PCoIP for connecting to your VMware View servers.

In this new View client they have created new custom gesture integration to make using a Windows desktop easier from an iPad. Some of the new gestures that they have created are listed below.

New iPad Features and Gestures for View client

Gesture to bring up iPad keyboard
They created a virtual touchpad
System preference settings to allow for client personalization
A system monitor to show you about network performance

Liquidware Labs to partner up with VMware PSO Consulting

Brian — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:01:30 +0000

Just announced is an agreement between Liquidware Labs and VMware consulting to use it’s VDI assessment tools. Starting right away VMware consulting customer will gain access to Liquidware Lab VDI tools. This will give the top notch team at VMware a best in class VDI tool to help with with their VMware View installs. See a exert of the press release below. Full PR release.

Beginning immediately any customer who is in the exploratory, deployment, comparative, or optimization phase of a virtual desktop project can benefit from the visibility Stratusphere provides backed by the expertise and experience of VMware Professional Services. VMware Desktop Virtualization Assessments are aided tremendously when customers have relevant information on the real-time use of their infrastructure, networks, user activity, storage, applications, and application servers. Customers are encouraged to reach out to their VMware account team or VMware Professional Services to learn more about VMware Desktop Virtualization Assessment Services and for program details and implementation.

The proper planning, design, and implementation of a virtual desktop and application strategy requires true visibility. “Liquidware Labs gives VMware Professional Services additional solutions to complete comprehensive Desktop Virtualization Assessments for our customers, which are critical in the early phases of VMware View™ implementations,” said Andy Knosp, Senior Director, VMware Professional Services.

Stratusphere collects performance metrics in order to evaluate how well the infrastructure will perform when moving to a next generation desktop such as VMware View, and/or Windows 7. In addition, questions of sizing and scaling, infrastructure needs, and TCO/ROI can be more easily quantified as design decisions are rooted in contextual measurement vs. theory.

VMware releases View 3.1.3 as a Maintenance Release to fix issues

Brian — Thu, 06 May 2010 16:22:54 +0000

Fresh off the presses VMware announces the release of View 3.1.3. This is a Maintenance Release of the View product to address known issues in previous versions along with some security issues. To see a full list of the fixes included in this release you can read the release notes here.

As a note this release does not offer support for vSphere, it does require VI 3.5 update 3 or higher for your hypervisor. The release is available today for download from VMware. The release is a free upgrade for customer with active VMware View Support and Subscription contracts.

VMware will be acquiring RTO software

Brian — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:55:31 +0000

VMware working with RTO is nothing new. The two companies entered into a partnership last fall during VMworld 2009 to integrate the Virtual Profile technology into VMware View. With this purchase VMware can build this layering technology into the View product directly. This allows for the Operating sytems, user profile and applications to all be seperated out into individual layers.

While VMware is getting several of RTO’s products in this purchase the Virtual Profiles product that is a profile management solution is surely to be the gem in this deal.

You can view the press release here and for more questions see the FAQ’s document here.

Microsoft VECD license is a total joke

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:53:03 +0000

For those of you that have taken a deep look into VDI or have deployed solutions you should be familar with the latest Microsoft trick to milk more cash from corporations. As far as I’m concerned this is a cheap way to charge more money for now added features and pad their pockets because they did not jump into the VDI game.

Ok to explain things a bit more. Basically Microsoft requires you to purchase your desktop license (XP/Win7) of course. But if you want to do a VDI solution using XenDesktop you mush also purchase a RS or terminal services license and a VECD license. This VECD is listed as needed if you wish to run a workstation OS in a data center. This license can cost from $23 to $100 plus depending on what your end point device is and if its covered under Software Assurance. This is all additional cost on top of the Citrix XenDesktop license that you need to purchase.

I was blown away when the Microsoft rep’s were explaining this to us in a recent call. And the fact they can tell people this with a straight face amazes me.