2. Simplified VDI deployment
Virtual desktop
infrastructure (VDI) is an emerging alternative to the traditional
PC-based desktop computing paradigm. With the VDI approach, users
access secure, centrally managed virtual desktops running on
virtualization hosts located in the datacenter. Instead of having a
standard PC to work with, VDI users typically have less costly thin
clients that have no hard drive and only minimal processing power.
A typical environment where the VDI approach can provide benefits
might be a call center where users work in shifts using a shared pool
of client devices. In such a scenario, VDI can provide greater
flexibility, more security, and lower hardware costs than providing
each user with his or her own PC. The VDI approach can also bring
benefits to organizations that frequently work with contractors because
it eliminates the need to provide contractors with PCs and helps ensure
that corporate intellectual property remains safely in the datacenter.
A help desk also benefits from the VDI approach because it’s easier to
re-initialize failed virtual machines remotely than with standard PCs.
Although implementing a VDI solution may be less expensive than
provisioning PCs to users, VDI can have some drawbacks. The server
hardware for virtualization hosts running virtual desktops must be
powerful enough to provide the level of performance that users have
come to expect from using desktop PCs. Networking hardware must also be
fast enough to ensure that it doesn’t become a performance bottleneck.
And in the past, deploying and managing virtual desktops using previous
Windows Server versions has been more complex than deploying and
managing PCs because it requires deploying RDS with Hyper-V in your
environment.
Windows Server 2012, however, eliminates the last of these drawbacks
by simplifying the process by which virtual desktops are deployed and
managed. The result is that VDI can now be a viable option to consider
even for smaller companies who are looking for efficiencies that can
lead to cost savings for their organization.
Deployment types and scenarios
Windows Server 2012 introduces a new approach to deploying the
Remote Desktop Services server role based on the type of scenario you
want to set up in your environment:
-
Session virtualization
Lets remote users
connect to sessions running on a Remote Desktop Session Host to access
session-based desktop and RemoteApp programs
-
VDI Lets remote
users connect to virtual desktops running on a Remote Desktop
Virtualization Host to access applications installed on these virtual
desktops (and also RemoteApp programs if session virtualization is also deployed)
Whichever RDS scenario you choose to deploy, Windows Server 2012 gives you two options for how you can deploy it:
-
Quick Start
This option deploys
all the RDS role services required on a single computer using mostly
the default options and is intended mainly for test environments.
-
Standard deployment
This option
provides you with more flexibility concerning how you deploy different
RDS role services to different servers and is intended for production
environments.
Besides enabling scenario-based deployment of RDS role services like
Remote Desktop Session Host, Remote Desktop Virtualization Host, Remote
Desktop Connection Broker, and Remote Desktop Web Access, RDS in
Windows Server 2012 includes other enhancements such as:
-
A unified administration experience that allows you to manage your RDS-based infrastructure directly from Server Manager
-
Centralized resource publishing that makes it easier to deploy and
manage RemoteApp programs for both session virtualization and VDI
environments
-
A rich user experience using the latest version of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), including support for RemoteFX over WAN
-
USB Redirection, for enhanced device remoting for both session virtualization and VDI environments
-
User profile disks that let you preserve user personalization settings across collections of sessions or pooled virtual desktops
-
The ability to automate deployment of pooled virtual desktops by using a virtual desktop template
-
Support for using network shares for storing personal virtual desktops
-
Support for Storage Migration between host machines when using pooled virtual desktops
Virtual desktops and collections
A virtual desktop
is a virtual machine running on a Hyper-V host that users can connect
to remotely using RDS. A collection consists of one or more virtual
desktops used in a VDI deployment scenario. Virtual desktops can either be managed or unmanaged:
-
Managed collections
These can be
created from an existing virtual machine that has been sysprepped so it
can be used as a template for creating other virtual desktops in the
collection.
-
Unmanaged collections These can be created from an existing set of virtual desktops, which you then add to the collection.
Virtual desktops can also be pooled or personal:
-
Pooled virtual desktops
This type allows the user to log on to any virtual desktop in the pool
and get the same experience. Any customizations performed by the user
on the virtual desktop are saved in a dedicated user profile disk.
-
Personal virtual desktops
This type permanently assigns a separate virtual desktop to each user
account. Each time the user logs on, he or she gets the same virtual
desktop, which can be customized as desired, with customizations being
saved within the virtual desktop itself.
Table 1
summarizes some of the differences between pooled and personal virtual
desktops when they are configured as managed virtual desktops, whereas Table 2 lists similar kinds of differences between them when they are configured as unmanaged virtual desktops.
Table 1. Comparison of pooled and personal managed virtual desktops
|
Capability |
Pooled? |
Personal? |
|---|
|
New virtual desktop creation based on virtual desktop template |
? |
? |
|
Re-create virtual desktop based on virtual desktop template |
? | |
|
Store user settings on a user profile disk |
? | |
|
Permanent user assignment to the virtual desktop | |
? |
|
Administrative access on the virtual desktop | |
? |
Table 2. Comparison of pooled and personal unmanaged virtual desktops
|
Capability |
Pooled? |
Personal? |
|---|
|
New virtual desktop creation based on virtual desktop template | | |
|
Re-create virtual desktop based on virtual desktop template | | |
|
Store user settings on a user profile disk |
? | |
|
Permanent user assignment to the virtual desktop | |
? |
|
Administrative access on the virtual desktop | |
? |
