VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) + DR (Disaster Recovery) : case study

[sam]

Context

I would like to take some advices from your own experiences / best practices about :

• a small company with 2 production sites (far from 2 miles away) using,

[ ] XP PRO with no Active Directory (5 workstations - max. 8 in the future)
​

[ ] a NAS file server (linux)
​

[ ] a bunch of regular applications : office + web (+ sometimes multmedia)
> application files are directly access on the Nas file server​

[ ] few partners online software (Citrix client)
​

[ ] one critical application for the accounting
> files are today stored localy but would be moved on the Nas

​

Basically, I wish to :

a) virtualize all workstations to make them available to users via VDI - Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (firstly internally via the local network (100 Mbs), and secondly if possible remotely via Internet)

b) establish a Disaster Recovery Plan between the 2 production sites in using the Proxmox solution

To achieve this, this small company asks me to :

• buy the necessary hardware (servers, etc..)

• design the architecture (network, replication, remote access, etc..)

• implement, test, document and guarantee a minimum monitoring

= project management from A to Z


Questions

1) as this small company is under contract with Dell and can benefit of specials rates from them, what would be the best Dell server (reference + important points + config) to meet the following needs :

[ ] virtualize 5 XP PRO workstations (max. 8 in the future) for common VDI to obtain a use and a render of near native performance for users
​

[ ] knowing that today a new workstation would cost between 300-500 € , the budget allocated to this server should not exceed 3500 €

​

2) for this project (VDI), and the given budget constraint, would it better to get one big server for all hosts or two intermediate servers to distribute the load and at the same time bearing a malfunction ?


3) on your point of view, what would be the best protocol (and tricks to render the display fluid and fine) to answer to a VDI expectation and needs of current users (office + web + sometimes multmedia) ?


4) does anyone deals with Desistar Recovery Plan (design and implementation) with Proxmox? If yes, can you share your best practices at this time ?


5) In your opinion, considering my inexperience and a uncomplete knowledge of your solution (I apologie, I'm human), what other important points have I neglected to ask you some questions ? What other important elements should be taken into account to avoid any failure to success this project ?


Thanking you in advance


Awaiting your reply,



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[jinjer]

Unfortunately I don't have an answer for you. I'm also looking into VDI but am not really convinced on the opportunity to virtualize everything. It's OK for servers that have light usage but I would be worried if I have ti virtualize a fileserver or an exchange server running anything but a light load.

May I ask what software are you considering for VDI? Are you going to use the MS solution?

jinjer

 

[udo]

Unfortunately I don't have an answer for you. I'm also looking into VDI but am not really convinced on the opportunity to virtualize everything. It's OK for servers that have light usage but I would be worried if I have ti virtualize a fileserver or an exchange server running anything but a light load.

May I ask what software are you considering for VDI? Are you going to use the MS solution?

jinjer

Hi,
i have good experience also with virtual fileservers and other powerfull used servers. Depends on the server and hardware.
For the vdi can you use a terminal-server (m$ license fee).

Udo

 

[sam]

May I ask what software are you considering for VDI? Are you going to use the MS solution?

I've tested several solutions (XenServer, RedHat, MS Hyper V, VMWare) and I've been pretty disappointed with the stability or complexity or price of those to obtain guarantees and make VDI.

On my point of view, Proxmox would be a a good compromise that could be on some points much better (price, stability, simplicity, efficiency, maintenance, etc..)

For the vdi can you use a terminal-server (m$ license fee).

According to Martin from Proxmox, using XP native free remote desktop via RDP could be a good trick rather than M$ T$.

Also, in KVM 0.14 (scheduled end of this year) the first SPICE protocol functionality will be integrated.

And for the moment, there still have a lot of alternatives protocols and softwares.

If anyone can bring further informations or share experiences and best practices on that point, I take it

Depends on the server and hardware.

Actually, that's the point I must quick solve : I need to buy the server before the 15th december of this year.

I wish to fit the appropriate Dell server configuration to make a test for :

[ ] virtualize 5 XP PRO workstations (max. 8 in the future) for common VDI to obtain a use and a render of near native performance for users
​

[ ] knowing that today a new workstation would cost between 300-500 € , the budget allocated to this server should not exceed 3500 €
​

If anyone can help, I remain available


Thx


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[spirit]

Hi, for disaster recovery, you can use a nexenta iscsi san. (it's an san distrib, like openfiler,based on solaris/zfs).So you can use the hardware you want .

you can made replication between 2 nexenta san (between 2 sites),transparently.

so you can easily restart your vm on second site.

http://www.nexenta.com/

 

[sam]

http://www.nexenta.com/

thanks for your advice, but i would have had precised that i rather work with Open Source softwares (no troll please) because of the DR criticality area of field

The same in Open Source ?

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[spirit]

http://www.nexenta.org/



more seriously, nexentastor, is solaris/zfs opensource distrib with closed source webinterface, enterprise grade (but you can use it for free , if you use under 18TB,this is the "NexentaStor Community edition")


it exist a pure opensource version,without webinterface, so command line only, solaris/zfs skill needed, it's called nexenta NCP (core platform)

but it exist an third party web interface for it : http://www.napp-it.org/ , i don't have personnaly tested it.

 

[sam]

nexentastor, is solaris/zfs opensource distrib with closed source webinterface, enterprise grade (but you can use it for free , if you use under 18TB,this is the "NexentaStor Community edition")

Oki doki, I apologize

When I Google it, i've quiclky glanced on the first links, and the trial version offer made me don't look further...

I prefer the http://www.nexenta.org/ and http://www.napp-it.org/ links

I note it


Many thx


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[tom]

Why are you using WinXP? Based on my knowledge this platform is more or less outdated, MS will cut support updates soon. E.g. the new IE9 will be not available for XP.

Take a deeper look on the upcoming service pack 1 for Win7/Win2008r2, including some updates regarding der integrated remote protocol.

 

[sam]

XP? Based on my knowledge this platform is more or less outdated, MS will cut support updates soon. E.g. the new IE9 will be not available for XP

Right ! But that's not the entreprise point of view at the moment...so wait & see

Take a deeper look on the upcoming service pack 1 for Win7/Win2008r2, including some updates regarding der integrated remote protocol.

Exact , I'll have a try to check if the RDP updates can be applied seperately


Many thx Tom
& don't hesitate to advise


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[jinjer]

I found a solution from NEC which claims to virtualize a huge number of workstations based on their "FlexPower" (i.e. intel modular server clone) and their thin clients.

I was not able to get quotes from them (i.e. my source for IMS is much cheaper then the source I found for the FlexPower) and nobody knows how the VDI works with NEC.

So it seems Proxmox + WinXP will be a winner here, provided there's some HA features built in proxmox (like automatic migration of workstations and automatic power-up for failed workstations).

My idea for VDI would be some 15-20 machines running on top of shared storage from 3 hardware nodes (dual xeons+12GB ram each) + some custom scripting for migrating the configuration of the machines (KVM) and starting them on other nodes in case a node must be decommisionned/rebooted.

Combine all this with live migration from KVM and all should be fine.

Now... I know Proxmox has their own plans for HA. I would hate to write down some thousands of lines of scripts just to find out somebody else did the job already

How do I resolve this issue?

jinjer

 

[tom]

what is the issue?

 

[braindeid]

Sam, jinjer what "type" of vdi are you looking at? Is it session based ala RDS / TS or a full desktop based?

 

[jinjer]

Well, in my case I would like to give each employee their own workstation, so they can mess with it, but if that ws is virtualized perhaps would solve some backup and availability problems.

 

[sam]

Yip,


Sorry I'm in late to answer :

jinjer : NEC which claims to virtualize a huge number of workstations based on their "FlexPower"

I had a discussion with Nec commercial representatives : it's a cluster of 2 identical physical servers seen and managed as one by a specific Nec software stack

• a basic Nec Flexpower server cost 8K€

• it is not a full virtualization software as Proxmox do

jinjer / tom : How do I resolve this issue ? / what is the issue ?

As Proxmox is Opensource, why not working together ?

braindeid : session based ala RDS / TS or a full desktop based ?

Actually, both can be discussed.

With the full desktop based option, I don't know if Proxmox installed on a desktop is today able to provide an embedded local "user friendly" client to the user to obtain a use and a render as native physical desktop ?

jinjer : is virtualized perhaps would solve some backup and availability problems

That's the point

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