Desktop Virtualization on the Verge

Desktop virtualization has been on the verge of adoption for years. But actual deployment hasn’t caught up to the hype so fast. One hurdle is that several technologies fall under the “desktop virtualization” umbrella, and confusion can breed inaction. There is also a dearth of capable management tools to help businesses keep all this virtualization under control, says IDC analyst Ian Song.

On the plus side, desktop virtualization is picking up the pace. Last year, some 11 million licenses sold, according to IDC. Preliminary figures for this year show that 7 to 8 million licenses were sold in the first half of this year.

Generally speaking, desktop virtualization mimics the more popular server virtualization in that it decouples the physical machine from the software. Here are the basic subcategories of desktop virtualization, and what use cases are appropriate for each.

VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)

“VDI lets you put the desktop into the data center, where the image can be managed easily. What’s really nice about it is an IT pro can actually create a separate desktop for all users and test out all those desktops for patches before deploying,” says Lee Collison, solutions architect for Force 3 Inc. , a systems integrator based in Crofton, Md.

That is a huge draw because software vendors pump out patches and fixes that are impossible to keep tabs on, let alone test and install. The downside is that VDI presumes pretty constant connectivity to the data center, which can be a problem for road warriors.

Market leaders in VDI are VMware View and Citrix XenDesktop.

Client Hypervisors If VDI assumes connectivity, client hypervisors pretty much assume disconnection.

Because these hypervisors, as their name implies, run on client machines, they suit situations in which users are not always tethered to the corporate LAN. That means companies that employ outside contractors who use personal machines, but also must run corporate-sanctioned applications. With client hypervisors, the company can provide them with the image that they then run offline.

“The key phrase here is ‘disconnected.’ Users can sync up when they’re connected, but otherwise they’re free to roam,” says Ron Oglesby, CTO of Unidesk , a desktop virtualization management company.

Citrix XenClient is a “type 1” or bare-metal hypervisor that sits atop the client hardware and below the client OS. It then divvies up system resources into virtual machines (VMs) as needed. Type-2 client hypervisors create a layer above the OS, which then supports several virtual OS instances.

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How to resolve the issue “Remote Desktop Disconnected” or ...

One of the recurring issues seen in product support is why a client cannot connect.

Specifically, errors such as “Unable to RDP,”  “Remote Desktop Disconnected,” or “Unable to Connect to Remote Desktop (Terminal server)”  are common problems that we have seen come up in product support.

This article summarizes the various causes for Terminal Server Client (Remote Desktop Client) connection failures and how to fix them.

Some of the commonly seen Symptoms (order of frequency):

You may be limited in the number of users who can connect simultaneously to a Remote Desktop session or Remote Desktop Services session You may have a Port assignment conflict Associated Error messages: It also talks about some of the basic settings to enable remote desktop sessions which are covered in symptom 1 above.

Additionally, we have more symptoms documented under the following article:

Troubleshooting General Remote Desktop Error Messages

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc780927(WS.10).aspx

Note: This is a work in progress and we will constantly be updating these articles to reflect the latest issues and how to fix them.


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Mastering Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise

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Mastering Microsoft Windows Vista home, premium and basic

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