Thursday, March 5, 2009

[THIN] Re: XenApp or XenDesktop?

As long as your options are XenApp and XenDesktop, end-user functionality will be very similar. Brokers from other VDI vendors will probably look different to the end-user.
 
The primary difference is in the data center. It is easier to get apps to work on virtual desktops than it is on Terminal Server.
 
However, VDI has some important cost differences. More hardware is required to support the same number of users on VDI than on Terminal Server. According to Project Virtual Reality Check, you'll need double the hardware for VDI. And that doesn't include the SAN.
 
VDI also has a cost difference when it comes to Microsoft licensing. Terminal Server CALs are perpertual, are available in named-user, and don't require SA. VECD, on the other hand, is device based only, requires SA on the client device, and is licensed annually.

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 7:14 AM, Minero, Hector B CIV NSWCDD, K55 <hector.minero@navy.mil> wrote:
This brings up a question:

When should you deploy a XenApp (ICA) solution on Thin clients and when
should you deploy a XenDesktop solution?
I know cost may be an issue, licenses, etc. but performance-wise?
We've got Wyse TCs running ICA desktop sessions to Citrx servers and I'm
wondering if I would get better performance and better management if I
deployed XenDesktop or some other Desktop virtualization solution.

_______________________________
Hector Minero
NSWCDD K55
Ph:(540)653-8859


-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@freelists.org [mailto:thin-bounce@freelists.org] On
Behalf Of Christoph Wegener
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 6:13 AM
To: thin@freelists.org
Subject: [THIN] Re: thin client deployment in a school


Hi Puneet,

Here are my quick thoughts:
Looking at the applications you listed, it would be recommended to
have the applications executing on the desktop hardware rather than on
a Terminal Server/XenApp Server.
Products like XenDesktop and Provisioning Server from Citrix might be
applicable in this scenario to reduce TCO.
Especially Autocad will prevent you from deploying a Terminal Server
solution as Autodesk prohibits by its EULA to run its Software on a
Terminal Server. With the latest releases of AutoCAD you will not even
be able to run the installer on a Terminal Server.

Citrix Provisioning Server can help you reduce TCO by having a single
OS image for all desktops. So there is no need to patch 150 desktop
separately. Adding application virtualization to the mix will allow
you to dynamically compose your desktop images on the fly. This of
course requires that all the applications you listed are compatible
with application virtualization.
But as there are multiple competing vendors
(Microsoft,Citrix,VMware,Symantec) in the application virtualization
space, chances are high that you might find one or more products which
will enable this scenario for you.

If you still want to use a Terminal Server scenario, then you should
do a thorough analysis of the computing resources that all of your
application requires. This then gives you an idea about the
scalability and efficiency of your targeted architecture. I would
assume that applications like Photoshop may require huge amounts of
RAM for each user session. Therefore a worst case scenario could be
that you can only support about 5-10 Photoshop user sessions on a
single Windows 2003 Terminal Server instance. To maximize efficient
use of hardware scalability you could then look at running multiple
virtual OS instances on a single server with say 32Gb RAM to pack
40-80 Photoshop user sessions on a single physical server box.

Additionally, if the students are going to use the 3D modeling
features of some of the applications, then the currently available
server CPUs won't be sufficient and you might want to look at an
external GPU.
Citrix Systems has a Technology Preview of it's project Apollo
available which is targeted at delivering 3D applications via ICA:
https://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=13409
63&productId=163057


Hope this helps :)

Christoph

On Mar 5, 2009, at 8:36 PM, Puneet Goel wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have to deply thin client in a school for around 150 students. They
> will be working on advanced IT apps like 3D Max, Maya, Autocad,
> Photoshop, Oracle, SQL.
>
> can anyone guide me in finalizing server requirements for them.
>
> thanks
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