For years VMware has been busy creating a range of Horizon-like products. At VMworld 2009 there was already a preview of what the folks in Palo Alto were working on.
Since then a lot has changed, AppBlast was shown, Octopus came (and went again).
30 minutes ago VMware finally launched their new range of end user computing products called the VMware Horizon Suite.
So, what does Horizon consist of? Well, actually Horizon is the new name for the collection of ALL End User Computing (EUC) products VMware has to offer, some of which you already know and love, like VMware View and ThinApp. But now the new cool products are finally here!
So, what is VMware Horizon Suite? It consists of these products:
This week Teradici, creator of the PCoIP protocol, released a technology preview of their new product named Teradici Arch. Teradici Arch is asoftware-based solution that enables the use of the PCoIP protocol for Microsoft RDS as an alternative to Microsoft RDP.
This should provide better user experience and access to the entire PCoIP ecosystem, PCoIP thin clients, APEX accelerator cards, etc.
Teradici has been forced to delay the release of Arch due to a scalability issue but a new tech preview will still allow enterprises to familiarize themselves with the product. The final product release is expected in Q3 2013.
This solution should be an ideal solution for enterprises with mixed environment of VMware View VDI and Microsoft RDS. I wonder how many of these mixed environments exist. The only mixed PCoIP/RDP environments I have seen in my work are View environments where both protocols are used to connect to the same View desktops to use MMR instead of PCoIP acceleration.
The PCoIP protocol is now available for use with terminal services for more performance over any network type and access to the PCoIP ecosystem of products including low maintenance, ultra-secure zero clients. Teradici Arch enables customers to:
During the last weeks we’ve been busy implementing a large VMware View deployment for one customer and planning an even larger VMware View deployment for another customer. At the first site we ran into some video performance issues which we definitely want to avoid during the second project.
In our quest to solve and avoid the video performance issues we ran into a number of ways to improve the video performance in VMware View that I would like to share.
480p-formatted video You can play video at 480p or lower at native resolutions when the View desktop has a single virtual CPU. If the operating system is Windows 7 and you want to play the video in high-definition Flash or in full screen mode, the desktop requires a dual virtual CPU.
720p-formatted video You can play video at 720p at native resolutions if the View desktop has a dual virtual CPU. Performance might be affected if you play videos at 720p in high definition or in full screen mode.
1080p-formatted video If the View desktop has a dual virtual CPU, you can play 1080p formatted video, although the media player might need to be adjusted to a smaller window size.
3D If you plan to use 3D applications such as Windows Aero themes or Google Earth, the Windows 7 View desktop must have virtual hardware version 8 and turn on the pool setting called Windows 7 3D Rendering. Up to 2 monitors are supported, and the maximum screen resolution is 1920 x 1200. This non-hardware accelerated graphics feature enables you to run DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2.1 applications without requiring a physical graphics processing unit.
These are the settings we used to size the first solution, so we use a Windows 7 desktop image with dual vCPU, 2GB memory, a VMXNET3 adapter and hardware version 8.
This is good for playing 720p in native video resolution but when scaling to full screen this setup does not run smoothly.
When deploying a VDI solution it is important to deliver PC like experience. Another requirement is delivering PC-grade applications on the VDI desktop. This is possible for the majority of office applications but applications that require (near) real-time two way audio and/or video, like Unified Communication solutions, remain a challenge.
The cause of this is the need to encode and decode voice and video. It isn’t feasible at scale to carry raw voice/video data from the endpoint to the datacenter to be encoded, or to decode it all there and send the video/audio data to the endpoint.
That is why development of Unified Communication solutions like Microsoft Lync are important to VDI vendors who need to continually reassure IT and end-users that the user experience will be the same as if they were working in a traditional personal computer.
Today, VMware announced that VMware is working with Microsoft to bring support for Microsoft Lync to VMware View desktops. The combination of VDI with Unified Communications leads to increased productivity, mobility and flexibility for employees, customers and partners alike. Soon, VMware View users will be able to communicate and collaborate with the Lync 2013 client, using rich voice and video features, all from within the VMware View desktop.
VMware is rapidly expanding the possibilities of their new management suite VMware vCenter Operations Manager (vCops) with their recent release of VMware vCenter Operations Manager for View. This new addition provides end-to-end visibility into the health, performance and efficiency of a VMware View virtual desktop infrastructure. With this new tool desktop administrators can proactively ensure the best end-user experience, avert incidents and eliminate bottlenecks.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for View really simplifies the deployment and management of a VMware View infrastructure. Admins can do end-to-end performance monitoring of entire virtual infrastructure, perform user-specific infrastructure analysis and track the health of various components in a view deployment.
The cool thing is, VMware vCenter Operations Manager for View automatically learns normal operating parameters for View infrastructure and user workloads. This means the thresholds are not based on some default parameter from a configuration or best practices guide. Instead it knows when your infrastructure is acting normal or is in trouble by constantly monitoring and evaluating the behavior of your environment.
Today VMware released the new version of their View Client for the iPad. The VMware View Client for iPad is the first iPad client with support for the PCoIP for tight integration with VMware View and increased flexibility for the end-user.
This client enables end-users to connect to their VMware View desktop from an iPad with the best possible user experience on LAN or across a WAN. For full support with this new VMware View client version 1.4, VMware View 4.6.1 or later is recommended.
Today Teradici announced the availability of their long awaited Server Offload Card, the Teradici APEX 2800.
VDI implementations are typically constrained by the servers’ CPUs. The many tasks a CPU performs, together with PCoIP® protocol image encoding, limits the number of virtual machines that can run on any one server.
The APEX 2800 card offloads graphics processing from the server CPU which can reduce server CPU utilization by up to 50%, freeing up valuable CPU cycles which can be used to support even more virtual machines, allow existing virtual machines to run more intensive applications, or simply to provide more headroom to your VDI implementation. With 2GB of on-board memory, each Server Offload Card can support up to 64 displays at a resolution of 1920×1200.
The Teradici APEX2800 delivers an even better PCoIP user experience and improves the number of VDI sessions per server. Because of the offloading to the APEX2800 you can deliver a more reliable and consistent level of experience regardless of the overall demand on server CPUs. The APEX 2800 works seamlessly with VMware View (4.6, 5.0 or later).
Today VMware released a new client for the iPad and Android devices. Version 1.2 is optimized for VMware View 5, has support for iOS 5 including AirPlay and contains presentation mode for use with external displays and AirPlay.
VMware View Client for Android makes it easy to access your Windows virtual desktop from your Android with the best possible user experience on the Local Area Network or across a Wide Area Network.
It requires at least VMware View 4.6 and only has PCoIP only connectivity for excellent interactive performance.
The VMware View client for Android can be found on the Android Market.
The VMware View client for the iPad can be found in the iTunes Store.
It’s a release party at VMware today. After VMware Workstation 8 and Fusion 4, VMware now released VMware View 5.
VMware View 5 will deliver better PCoIP performance, more supported client devices and integrated persona management.
The biggest differences are the media services, integrated persona management, several PCoIP enhancements and extended client support.
View Media Services for 3D Graphics
This enables basic 3D applications in View desktops without like Aero, Office 2010 or those requiring OpenGL or DirectX without the need for specialized graphics cards or client devices.
View Media Services for Integrated Unified Communications
Which enables and integrated VOIP and View desktop experience for the end-user with an architecture to provide optimized performance for both the desktop and unified communication.
A few minutes ago, VMware released the VMware View client for the iPad.
As of today the VMware View client for the iPad is available from the Apple AppStore for free.
The iPad View client fully supports PCoIP and contains a few unique new gestures. For a decent session using PCoIP you will need a WiFi connection because the bandwidth requirements are similar to those of a common thin- or FAT client.
The iPad View client is compatible with the new iPad 2 but does not support the use of the integrated cameras at the moment.
You can watch a demo of the VMware View client for the iPad below.
After installing the patches described in Microsoft Knowledge Base articles 2482017 or 2467023 Windows 7 clients are unable to connect from the View Client to the View Connection Server.
According to a VMware Knowledge Base article there is a conflict with two security bulletins issued for Windows 7, causing disruptions for VMware’s View Client and creating connection failures for users attempting to access the View Client Server.
Last week I visited a new project at which the client wants to virtualize their desktops.
During the kickoff the client mentioned that they use a variety of applications, clients and operating systems and want to deliver all these desktop flavors to their users.
Nothing new so far.
But this variety of clients and operating systems also includes Apples, MacBook (Pro)’s, etc using Mac OS X. Running a View client on a Macbook Pro with Mac OS X is no problem but provisioning Mac OS X as a virtual desktop is a whole different story.
One of my coworkers pointed me to a video from this years Tech-Ed Europe about VDI protocols. Bernhard Tritsch did an interesting comparison between the different remote protocols used in today’s VDI solutions. In a 60 minute session Bernhard explains the differences between location (host vs client), type (hardware vs software) rendering and compression types (lossless vs lossy).
Although the results aren’t that good for PCoIP (software version) it still is a very interesting video.
Last week we had a meeting with a McAfee Sales Engineer and he told us something I have been waiting for for a long time.
McAfee now has a product especially for virtualized environments, McAfee MOVE (Management for Optimized Virtual Environments). After Trend Micro, McAfee is now the second anti-virus company, that I know of, which has a product especially for virtual environments.
McAfee’s Management for Optimized Virtual Environments (MOVE) platform is combines speed ad security by significantly reducing the overhead of protecting individual machines in a VMware or Citrix virtual environment. Support for Microsoft Hyper-V is not available yet.
McAfee MOVE does this by offloading all anti-virus tasks to an appliance/server which needs to be installed on each ESX host or XenServer in a cluster. The only McAfee components which needs to be installed on the virtual server or desktop is the McAfee MOVE client and the ePO agent.
With the release of VMware View 4.5 comes the challenge to upgrade your existing installation to this new version.
The upgrade is not that difficult but because I promised you all a ‘How to upgrade to VMware View 4.5‘ I will provide this service anyway.
Before you start first a few pointers:
1. make a back-up of the VMware View systems that you’re going to upgrade;
2. If some of your end users are using the Client with Offline Desktop, ask them to check in their View desktops;
3. when you have multiple connection servers and you are upgrading from 4.0 to 4.5, you need to disable the VMware View Connection Server service on all Connection servers. (Thanks Sven)
4. If you are using vSphere, you must have vSphere 4.0 Update 2 or vSphere 4.1. If you are using VMware Infrastructure, you must have VMware Infrastructure 3.5 Update 5 and VirtualCenter Server 2.5 Update 6.
Last Thursday we attended the VMware vSphere 4.1, vCenter 4.1 and View 4.5 launch event at Amerongen (NL).
We already brought you all news regarding vSphere and vCenter 4.1 and View 4.5 but we heard some interesting thing we would like to share with you.
VMware View 4.5
With VMware View 4.5 VMware has changed the names for some product related features. Let us welcome Local mode, persistent disk, dedicated and floating pools.
For years VMware has been busy creating a range of Horizon-like products. At VMworld 2009 there was already a preview of what the folks in Palo Alto were working on.
During the last weeks we’ve been busy implementing a large VMware View deployment for one customer and planning an even larger VMware View deployment for another customer. At the first site we ran into some video performance issues which we definitely want to avoid during the second project.
When deploying a VDI solution it is important to deliver PC like experience. Another requirement is delivering PC-grade applications on the VDI desktop. This is possible for the majority of office applications but applications that require (near) real-time two way audio and/or video, like Unified Communication solutions, remain a challenge.
ay VMware released the new version of their View Client for the iPad. The VMware View Client for iPad is the first iPad client with support for the PCoIP for tight integration with VMware View and increased flexibility for the end-user.
Last week we had a meeting with a McAfee Sales Engineer and he told us something I have been waiting for for a long time.
