I won’t rehash everything from the presentation because you can read the crux of most of the discussions here.  However, I will say that the main points were that VDI is not ready to take on TS at the moment, but if the forthcoming promised features materialise then it soon could be.

If you don’t already subscribe to Brian’s blog you really should here.

Also keep your eyes peeled on Brian’s site as he promised to dig up an old post from Ron Oglesby that discussed VDI back in 2006.  He wanted people to check out the comments section for some wild comments on VDI from die-hard TS heads.  I think it is this post, but I might wrong so check his site anyway.

Now that 92% or customers feel confident that mission-critical apps run well on VMware, these have included some of the following in production:

• SQL Server
• Oracle
• IBM DB2
• SAP

So there is no reason not to virtualise Citrix XenApp servers.  It is very easy to virtualise everything aside from the application servers in a typical Citrix ecosystem, such as:

• License Server
• Data Collectors
• Web Interface
• Datastore Servers

What makes XenApp Servers possible virtualisation candidatres:

Most XenApp deployments still on 32bit due to compatability and vendor support, which can cause application silos to be created.  This in turn can result in under-utilised servers.  On top of this the sweet spot for number of processors is dual core. There are currently far too many issues around 64 bit Operating Systems and the apps running on them for most people to use x64 in a terminal Services environment.  So all these factors can create under utilised XenApp servers.

Advantages:

• x64 & x86 XenApp Virtual Machines can co-exist in the same VMware cluster which makes management a lot easier
• Template provisioning makes creating more XenApp servers a breeze
• Hardware refresh means that you don’t end up with even more under utilised servers when new processor families are introduced etc
• Next generation of Hardware Assist will give a 20% increase in XenApp server performance

Considerations:

• Manage user expectations when discussing consolidation ratios – use scale out not scale up, increase the number of XenApp servers
• Test real-life workloads, not just taking benchmarks on the internet as gospel as they only usually discuss Microsoft Office
• Do not use P2V as it can cause more problems than it solves – Registry bloats and can have HAL issues so avoid at all costs
• Use AMD’s RVI or Intel’s EPT
• Using 2 vCPU template can be the sweet spot, but make sure you test
• 1:5 Consolidation ratio is usually achievable, don’t over-reach

All in all a good session if not really technical enough for my liking.

Some of the areas that get particular analysis are:

• Uptime
• Direct driver model
• Memory management

More interesting still are some of the comments to post, have clearly been made by Citrix & Microsoft employees or people with a vested interest.

I find some of the points amusing, but my 2 penneth worth is thus:

• No VMotion or equivalent = not production ready

I think that this in itself is a good enough reason to use VMware over anything else.

A really cool tool that allow fast and simple connection to a MetaFrame Server or a published application and to export the connection to an ICA file.

Works perfectly with lots of customisable options:

• Display Settings
• Local Devices
• ICA Cache

Brilliant and it just works. Download it here.