TechAgility

My only disappointment is that we are currently in the middle of moving our current Solutions Centre from one Office location to the other so it’ll be some while before I get a chance to test this.

It certainly looks quite impressive and it does have some lofty aims, but from a brief look through as well as their well deserved reputation based on Flex Profiles I’m sure this will stand up to it’s promises.

Test Scenario’s
With login VSI you can compare many different scenarios:
• VDI vs. SBC
• VMware, XenServer or Hyper-V running virtual desktops or Terminal/Citrix Servers
• Virtualized XP desktops versus virtualized Vista Desktops
• Performance impact of application streaming technologies
• Impact of (different) virus scanners
• Performance impact of tuning parameters
• Different VDI platforms
• Different Storage platforms
• Impact of changes or updates like service packs or security fixes
• Hardware differences
• x64 vs. 32 bits
• Etc…

I’d be very interested in hearing from anyone who does have the facility to test?

Login Consultants develop presentation virtualization benchmarking tool

Monday, May 12, 2008   |   0 Comments   |  

The consulting firm Login Consultants just opened the beta program of the first benchmarking tool for presentation virtualization: Login Virtual Session Index (VSI).

The product will measures the performance of a remote desktop session served by a Microsoft Terminal Services  / Citrix XenApp server or a VDI virtual machine.

To run the tool it’s required to have a 4 tiers infrastructure: a domain controller for the authentication a file server for logging user sessions, a server to host the TS/XenApp/VDI service and a workstation to launch the user sessions.

The firm is also working to introduce support for application streaming.

Enroll for the beta here.

virtualization.info: Login Consultants develop presentation virtualization benchmarking tool

written by dcaddick

So along with Alessandro I’m curious as to why the name ThinApp has been chosen as it does have more than a passing resemblance to Citrix’s new XenApp?

I wonder if this is any indication of the coming marketing campaigns in the push for customers attention in the Desktop Virtualization market?

VMware ThinApp is the final name for Thinstall technology

In January 2008 VMware, a hardware virtualization company, acquired an application virtualization startup called Thinstall.
The plan is to use the Thinstall technology to stream virtualized applications on the virtual desktops that VMware spawns through its connection broker: the Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM).

So fare VMware has been pretty fast in rebranding the Thinstall Application Virtualization Suite: the beta program for the new version is open since end of February and the testers can already download the beta 2.
The final version of the product, temporarily called Project North Star, is expected for the H2 2008.

The only information missing so far was the final name that VMware wants to use.
Now Micheal Keen, Director and Senior Solutions Architect in the Enterprise Architecture group at Alliance Technologies, reveals that the final name is ThinApp.

Duncan Epping further validates the news reporting that a former Thinstall employee confirmed.

The choice is interesting considering that Citrix just renamed its Presentation Server product in XenApp.

virtualization.info: VMware ThinApp is the final name for Thinstall technology

written by dcaddick

I am sure this is not really what VMware had in mind when they were touting VMware OnDemand? I’m guessing they had more of an idea that it would combine some of the benefits of ACE with ESX?

I have just got back from some training in Houston and while listening to a question from a colleague from the UK where he asked if "VDI was going to be able to use the full suite of Hypervisor functionality like vMotion…"  and that got me thinking…

Some of the Conventional Wisdom around the place holds that VDI by itself will likely not be able to cover all of any one customers needs and most will more than likely need to look at quite possibly a number of different approaches to cover ALL employees and ALL Applications.

So with this in mind I’d be interested in your thoughts on the following idea?

Just a few thoughts around VDI??

Let’s say that we stock a couple of decent servers with loads of resources and allows us to run quite a few VDI instances? OK? So one of the possible issues with the classic VDI so far is that if a user places a bit too much pressure on the resources then it has the potential to impact on all other users, being as it is a shared resource? (This is still one of the classic gotcha’s in Terminal Server and Citrix PS - the session is sticky and it stays with the same server unless a logout/login occurs)

So one idea I’m kicking around is the possibility that if a user started something like a 120Mb Excel spreadsheet that might consume quite a bit of CPU then would it be possible to use the vMotion to transfer him to a BladePC, if they started 3 or 4 of them (or they needed more resources?) then transfer them to a BladeWS…..?

Seamlessly!! with the user completely unaware that this has happened!!

Now the fundamentals of vMotion (or XenMotion for that matter?) requires shared boot storage - BUT I don’t think it needs to be NFS or iSCSI, etc. - the Citrix Provisioning Server or OS Streaming method like Neoware IM would probably work just as well in this scenario? As this then leaves the Virtual HardDisk/Storage in a common area accessible by the Vitrual Desktops regardless of whether they are running on VDI’s, the BladePC’s or the BladeWS’s.

The other point is the similarity of CPU would possibly cause an issue, and this probably extends beyond just Intel/AMD? This appears to be a fundamental of vMotion/XenMotion? So this might not fly today, but it is possible that with improvements in the Hypervisors this issue might be overcome at some stage soon?

Anyway, what do you think of the *idea/concept*? As a user requires more CPU and resources they might be able to be transferred from shared resources (VDI on ESX) to individual resources (BladePC) and then high powered resources (BladeWS) - once the high intensity workload has finished then the user would be transferred seamlessly back through the stack to a VDI instance on the ESX server.

Please bear in mind that this is only a concept at the moment and there are clearly problems and issues to be overcome - but the main reason for this post is to ask if you think it has legs? What do you think?

Clearly the ESX/Hypervisor would need to be able to run on hardware outside of it’s current Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) but with Xen this might not be such an issue?

Is wonder if this is where XenDesktop is headed?

written by dcaddick

So this turned up in my email this morning courtesy of Login Consultants and I must admit that I am intrigued as to what it’s full capabilities will be, but judging by their previous efforts with tools like Flex Profiles I’m sure it will be a very useful tool indeed.

May 7: 1st Beta Release Free “Login Virtual Session Indexer”

May 7th Login Consultants will release the first beta of Login Virtual Session Indexer (Login VSI), a free and easy to use benchmarking methodology from Login Consultants. The Login VSI is a complete toolset that allows you easily to compare scalability of all virtualization platforms and technologies. Login VSI supports all recent Windows OS’s (including 32 and 64bit), Office 2003 and 2007, all application streaming technologies and most importantly both SBC and VDI.

Because the setup is so simple there is an infinite amount of combinations and technologies you can now compare. For instance, you can also measure the relative impact of a virussanner or performance optimization technologies. Additionally, Login VSI will be a perfect tool to compare scalability of different virtualization platforms. Enter May 7th in your agenda, and watch our website www.loginconsultants.com.

written by dcaddick

In some cases the regular methods of "Going to Market" with a new product is fraught with pitfalls as it is conceived by Marketing and/or Product managers who then seem to loose sight of what the Customer is actually after - I’ve always thought it better to get the product and solution in front of the customer as quickly as possible and let them make up their mind and give feedback?

In all fairness, with some of the larger Vendor’s there is so much red tape and bureaucracy this makes it nigh on impossible to actually create demo sites like this that Gareth has created - so kudos to him for getting this created.

What Gareth has alluded to but possibly failed to qualify was, if you don’t have a Citrix ICA client installed then you might also want to think about downloading that elsewhere than from his hosted servers as that will also be quite quicker at over 17Mb for the web client?

Xendesktop or VDM2? Compare them for yourself

When the beta code for VDM2 was first released I wanted to push them both out over the Internet, however there was a red tape / NDA issue.

Now that VDM2 is released I can put both of them out together. All of the components are running as virtual machines on one ESX host. The XP clients are identical in terms of their configuration and resources.

The two URLs are https://oasxendesktop.oas.co.za for the Citrix XenDesktop and https://VDM2.oas.co.za for the VMware VDM2.

username is demo
password is also demo.

The latency is likely to be pretty awful for those abroad. It is slow but usable in South Africa but I am interested in seeing how the performance is from Europe, I think our under-sea cable terminates in Europe so it will probably be even worse in North America.

We have unfortunately also been having to contend with an inordinate number of power cuts, so please bear with our Third World infrastructure. Crises notwithstanding, I will try to give you some more details on the configuration some comparisons on the two different mechanisms tomorrow.

Stop Press:
Whoa, the reason that the Xendesktop demo worked was that most people already had a Citrix client. The VMware VDI agent is 6MB in size and getting that over our slow link will be hopeless.
Try to download and install it from http://garethcharlotte.googlepages.com/VMware-vdmclient-2.0.0-403.exe , this is hosted by google and should come down fairly quickly worldwide.

VMware and CITRIX for South Africa

written by dcaddick

Back when I was focused on Citrix Servers and helping people get the best out of existing Terminal Server and Citrix Server installations it was somewhat surprising how many Applications AND Developers all do their own thing in whatever way they like with no regards to Standards like these.

There was similar material from Microsoft regarding Server 2003 and I always kept the details in template email ready for when asked. Anyway, these links below should start you off in the right place?

Windows Server Software Logo Program Online Forum

• Participate in the Windows Server Software Logo Program Online Forum where you can chat with other developers, post questions, and discuss technical topics, problems, and suggestions.  This forum is monitored by Microsoft staff who can answer both business and technical questions.

Windows Server 2008 Home page

• Home page for the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

Get Windows Server 2008 RC0

• Download an evaluation copy of Windows Server 2008 RC0.

Certification Tool for x86

• The tool to run Windows Server 2008 certification in-house, the same tool the test vendors use.

Certification Tool for x64

• The tool to run Windows Server 2008 certification in-house, the same tool the test vendors use.

Works with Tool

• This highly-automated tool will help you quickly determine baseline compatibility with Windows Server 2008

System State Analyzer Tool

• Create two snapshots of fixed drives, registry settings, drivers, and services at different points in time and compare them to view differences.

Windows Server 2008 Application Compatibility Cookbook

• The Cookbook covers the most common application compatibility issues and provides tips how to modify your applications or redesign them to help provide a quality experience with Windows Server 2008 and/or the Windows Vista operating system.

Top 10 Steps for Developing Applications on Windows Server 2008

• This document details the top 10 issues to avoid when developing applications for Windows Server 2008.

Windows Server 2008 Software Logo Specifications

• Technical requirements of a server application and its client components must meet in order to become Certified for Windows Server.

Windows Server 2008 Software Logo Test Framework

• The Framework describes tests that verify an application’s compliance with Works with Windows Server 2008 requirements.

Windows Server 2008 Works with Specifications

• Technical specification outlining requirements that allow server applications to receive the Works with Windows Server 2008 designation.

Windows Server 2008 Works with Test Framework

• Includes detailed information for technical managers and testers preparing software applications for the Works with Windows Server 2008 program detailed information verification tests.

Windows Server 2008 Technical Library

• Microsoft TechNet page with detailed information on Windows Server 2008 technologies.

Developer Curriculum for Windows Server 2008

• Designed for software developers and solution architects, this fast-paced seminar series provides on-demand webcasts and labcasts about the new features and technologies in Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft ISV Zone

• Portal for ISV developer training and events on MSDN.

Microsoft INNOVATE ON Windows Server

written by dcaddick

Well it’s not much of a surprise that we’re not likely to see a replacement for Windows XPe any time soon? Well apart from an update based on SP3, but clearly it’s going to be some time before we see Vista based version of embedded? But I must confess that while reading through some of the details I was starting to get concerned that we are almost mimicking the bloatware that is afflicting the regular PC’s, Laptop’s and Servers?

Microsoft plots embedded OS futures

Oct. 09, 2007
In his keynote at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) last month, Kevin Dallas, GM of Microsoft’s Windows Embedded unit, tipped some of his group’s future product plans. Included are new versions of Windows CE 6.0 and Windows XP Embedded, plus the arrival of "Windows Vista Embedded."

Before detailing these, Dallas began his talk by providing "examples of where we could improve as an industry." Devices need to be service-aware, he said, citing telephony and navigation as examples.
It should be possible to use a mobile device to receive a phone call at home via VoIP (voice over IP), have it automatically switch to a WAN (and hands-free operation) when moved to a car, then seamlessly switch over to a corporate WLAN at the office, said Dallas. Similarly, he added, navigation devices ought to move information from a PC, to a mobile device, to an in-car system automatically.
Dallas noted four key trends that Microsoft is trying to develop its embedded technologies around, according to Dallas. These are:

• The "Software Plus Service" concept. "We can no longer build software that just sits on a device," he said. "Instead, we have to build software plus a service."
• Next, is a move away from just ramping up clock speed, and toward having multiple heterogeneous cores on a single chip — an applications processor, a graphics processor, and a radio processor.
• Then there’s the trend toward loosely-coupled services. Today, a device such as the Zune portable music player (PMP) is tied to a single music store, while a set-top box might be tightly coupled to a specific video-on-demand service. "In the future, these devices will be able to discover and connect to other services," Dallas said.
• "Finally, of course, there’s service-oriented development," Dallas continued. A service that a device is connecting to "may be on the same device in another core, it could be on the circuit board, it could be on the premises where the device sits, or it could be connecting out … to a web service that’s, frankly, on the other side of the world."

Visual Programming Language (VPL)
Dallas continued his keynote by revealing a new tool called the Visual Programming Language (VPL), with demos by Windows Embedded software architect Mike Hall. "Many developers think of building embedded operating systems in terms of technology stacks … What we’re suggesting is that you start to think at a much higher level," he said.
VPL will allow developers to use a graphical user interface to link services together, explained Hall. It will then be possible to determine at build time whether these services are going to run on a single device or on distributed devices, he said.
Hall added that, "As you start to link the inputs and outputs of services together, you are dynamically prompted for the inputs and the outputs that you want to match … The tools will be smart about determining the matchup between the output of one service and the input of another."

Windows Embedded Roadmap

Windows CE 6.0 Release 2 — Nov. 15, 2007, with Web Services on Devices (WSD), enhanced VoIP, and AJAX support

Windows XP Embedded — sometime in 2008, based on Windows XP Service Pack 3, including .NET Framework 3.0, an updated Media Player, and an RDP (remote desktop protocol) 6 client

Windows Vista Embedded — in 2009 or 2010, a componentized version of Windows Vista

New versions of Windows Embedded
Dallas then detailed future releases of Microsoft’s embedded operating systems. First among these will be Windows CE 6.0 Release 2, scheduled for release on Nov. 15, he said.
According to Dallas, this release will add AJAX (asynchronous Javascript and XML) and "heavy data entry" support in the browser. It also will include enhanced VoIP functionality, such as three-way audio and video conferencing.
The most key feature, according to Dallas, is Web Services on Devices (WSD). This is already included in Windows Vista as a native stack; it’s said the addition of it to Windows CE 6.0 Release 2 will allow communication between the two.
A manage code runtime environment, such as .NET Compact Framework, is no longer required, according to Hall, who also provided a "bubble" demo of graphics on a Vista machine being controlled by a Windows CE device. Instead, Hall said, WSD applications can be written in C or C++.
The second OS update, scheduled for "2008" according to Dallas, will be an enhancement to Windows XP Embedded based on the forthcoming Windows XP Service Pack 3. It will include .NET Framework 3.0, an updated Media Player, and version 6 of the Remote Desktop Client (RDP), he said.
Finally, "Windows Vista Embedded," a componentized version of Windows Vista, akin to Windows XP Embedded, will appear in "2009 or 2010."
Dallas concluded by saying, "You’ll see this common theme of new releases every two years. In between, you’ll see updates in components to drive differentiation, and updates in tools."
"We’re going to continue our ongoing investment [in embedded]," he promised. "We realize what our role is going to be around platform tools and services that enable these smart, connected service-oriented devices. So we’re going to continue to drive leadership in that area."
Further reading
For more details of the keynote, you can download a complete transcript of Kevin Dallas’s ESC Boston 2007 speech (PDF format). For Mike Hall’s account of his demos during Dallas’s keynote, go here.

Microsoft plots embedded OS futures

written by dcaddick

So Allessandro is certainly well connected in the Virtualization space and as XenSource will be clearly getting some serious airtime in just over 2 weeks time at the newly re-badged iForum (oops, Application Delivery Expo) hosted by Citrix then I’m sure that VMware will be trying to make sure that it has some choice announcements just before and even during the last week of October.

Note to self - must be less cynical

For those who will be attending iForum 2007 in Las Vegas, please drop me a note if you’d like to have a chat, as I’ll be attending as an employee of Neoware Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of HP)  

virtualization.info:
VMware Infrastructure 3.5 and ESX Server 3i to be available since December 2007 with new prices and editions

Wednesday, October 03, 2007   |   1 Comments

The upcoming major update in VMware Infrastructure 3.x, called 3.5, and new ESX Server 3i will be available to general public in December 2007, virtualization.info has learned. An official announcement is expected next week.

virtualization already broke the news about new features and enhancements that will appear in VI 3.5, including ESX Server 3i integration into servers from popular OEMs like Dell, IBM, HP. But the biggest news emerges only now: VMware will also sell ESX Server 3i as stand-alone product, with support for SATA storage devices, at less than $500.

What will change in details with new VI 3.5 offering:

• ESX Server 3i becomes the lowest entry-level for enterprise virtualization. It will have just basic capabilities (VMFS and vSMP) and will not be manageable by a VirtualCenter.
• more at source…

virtualization.info: VMware Infrastructure 3.5 and ESX Server 3i to be available since December 2007 with new prices and editions

written by dcaddick

Brian Madden and Gabe Knuth have been looking deep at a possible VDI Solution for a University and they have shared their experiences, I must say it’s an Excellent Post - nothing like igniting the fires just before iForum?

On Brian and Gabe’s behalf I take exception to those who have commented on this post and are giving them a hard time on their *recommendations* to the University - especially those who feel free to shoot them down without offering any other alternative AND simply hiding behind the "Guest" ID

It is great to see someone come out and be completely open about this process and bring it to the public domain where we can all have our 2cents worth - and for this they deserve and have my thanks, as we’re all trying to keep up with all the multitude of different options and potential solutions to help customers get the most out what they’ve got.

This is seriously only a small section of this, if you have any interest in VDI Solutions you should take the time to read through the full Post and all the comments

VDI for hundreds of apps and thousands of users? A case study where we recommended this instead of a Terminal Server-based solution

Posted by Brian Madden on September 26, 2007.

A very strange thing happened yesterday. Gabe and I were working with a customer—a university—and we ended up recommending a VDI solution instead of a Terminal Server-based solution. Afterwards I was feeling, “Wow! I can’t believe I just did that!” But I really feel it makes sense. And in fact I think it might continue to make sense more and more, and now I’m wondering if VDI can start to come out of the niche and into the mainstream?

Let’s start at the very beginning. Gabe and I worked with this university six months ago. They were not using any server-based computing or streaming or anything like that. It was a brand new environment. They had four scenarios (or “use cases”) they wanted to enable:

1. There are 1200 lab workstations throughout campus. Users need to be able to walk up to any one of them and access any of 200 applications. The users also need access to their own data and profiles.
2. They want to publish a remote desktop via server-based computing to people so that they can access the “lab workstation” from their dorm rooms or off campus.
3. They want to publish individual applications (as opposed to a full desktop like in Scenario 2) to users on their own computers.
4. Longer term, they want people to be able to run these applications locally on non-university-controlled workstations (i.e. student laptops), and they want this to work offline.

The initial plan

For Gabe and me, these four scenarios were perfect for a combination of traditional Terminal Server-based application delivery and application streaming.

We were thinking they could use something like SoftGrid to isolate and stream all (or most) of their applications. Then they could add some Terminal Server and a third-party application publishing tool to deliver individual applications. Our initial suggestions for each scenario above were:

1. Use SoftGrid to stream the applications so they run locally on each lab workstation. Install the few non-SoftGrid-compatible applications natively on the workstations.
2. Use Terminal Server, along with Citrix Presentation Server or one of the cheaper alternatives, to publish server-based computing desktops. A combination of SoftGrid and local installs would be used to get the applications onto these Terminal Servers, much like the lab workstations.
3. The same Terminal Servers, running Citrix or whatever, can be used to deliver seamlessly published server-based applications to desktops and laptops.
4. For the applications that can be sequenced with SoftGrid, they could also be streamed to Windows clients for local offline execution.

That was our recommendation and plan six months ago. Let’s look at how that worked out.

more at source…

written by dcaddick

So according to theinquirer.net Citrix has only just started shipping the WANscaler to the UK? Is this a reflection on the UK’s plentiful bandwidth, such that it doesn’t really need the WANscaler? or is it a reflection of how long it takes Citrix UK to develop a go-to-market strategy? Mmmm….? 

Citrix wants WAN stake

WANscaler: awful name, useful product

By Martin Veitch: Friday, 28 September 2007, 5:20 PM

CITRIX SYSTEMS has started shipping its WANscaler Client appliance in the UK for the first time.

Acquired when Citrix bought Orbital Data last year, WANscaler is aimed at optimising performance for branch offices through compression and accelerating protocol performance.

Despite the unfortunate name, it should sell like hot cakes to firms that already run Presentation Server or Terminal Services, as a way serve applications across wide area networks.

Security is also built in “at both ends of the wire”, said Citrix’s Dave Austin.

written by dcaddick