Hi all!
We can really see the benefits of using VDI clients rather then using traditional physical machines. I have been at several VDI workshops (VMware, Citrix, MS etc) and now we finally running a POC with VMware Horizon View 5.3 and HP Thin Clients.
Our scoop is to running 3D CAD in VDI and quick deploy 50-100 clients.
When everything is up and running it works like a charm. It's a very good performance when running 3D CAD from the VDI client.
But, the issue is along the way from scratch to a running Windows OS. The deploy of VMs, recomposing, quick prep/sysprep, manage thin clients etc etc etc.
How do you manage all this?
We start with Thin client.
We are running HP clients with Windows 7 Embedded OS pre-installed. How do you manage theese? Using GPO?, virus protection?, OS patching?, corporate OS-deplyment? One of the benefits (according to sales) of VDI is the simplicity vs. psycical machines. But, instead you have to manage thin clients in a similar way. If you choose to use thin clients.
How does GPO working when the thin clients write lock is on?
Further, VDI clients
Quick prep vs. Sysprep?
Spontaneously I would say sysprep to avoid eventually future problem. But it's taking longer time and not working perfectly with full clones.
Which method do you use? Do you get a lot of problems not using sysprep? A lot of VMs with same SID etc. Has anyone had problems with MS, support and so on?
How do you use the user profile? Desktop, Documents, Favorites? Do use folder redirection or do you only use the persistent disk?
OT: Why the heck has not VMware yet released a serious deployment tool for VMs? That's a big joke according to me....or my ignorance.
Why the heck is the deployment tool for Linked Clone and Full Clone not the same? For Linked Clone there's no problem joining domain and a specific OU, for fully clones it's a nightmare.
According to sales, VDI is a quick process to implement. Sure, just for a try. But for a serious corporate POC there's a lot of hours behind. Now I feel it's more job to administrate VDI/TC then managing phys. machines today. And the recomposing is not so smooth that i thought.
BR