Dynamic desktops using Proxmox VE

[manoj123]

Hi,
Can any one please confirm whether dynamic desktop allocation is possible using Prxomox VDI?
I could configure static desktops, in which each user is permanently given a desktop. I am looking for dynamic desktop, where the desktops will be randomly allocated to users when they login.

 

[_gabriel]

proxmox ve is the hypervisor.
balacing you want, must be done within your VMs.

 

[manoj123]

Two types of Virtual Desktops (static and dynamic) can be configured on the virtualization platforms.
My question is whether we can configure dynamic virtual desktops using proxox VE.
The advantage is that the same virtual desktop can be shared among multiple users as the no. of concurrent users will be less.

 

[manoj123]

proxmox ve is the hypervisor.
balacing you want, must be done within your VMs.

Thank you for the response.
Assume a scenario where 100 users are to be given virtual desktops of Linux Mint . But, no. of concurrent users would be less than 30.
Then, we don't need 100 virtual desktops. If we need to configure 100 virtual desktops, we need a minimum of 8 high-end servers, as per my understanding,
If dynamic desktop configuration is possible, we need to create only 30 or 40 virtual desktops. Thus we can considerably reduce the hardware cost by reducing the no. of servers.

 

[_gabriel]

Two types of Virtual Desktops (static and dynamic) can be configured on the virtualization platforms.

I don't know what you mean. Where you read this ?
in all cases, Virtual Desktop will be in your(s) VM(s) , it's out of the scope of the hypervisor ( PVE or others).

 

[leesteken]

... using Prxomox VDI?

I don't know what you mean. Where you read this ?

There appear to be several third-party software named "Proxmox" VDI or similar (without official Proxmox support of course). Maybe that's being used here?

 

[bbgeek17]

If dynamic desktop configuration is possible, we need to create only 30 or 40 virtual desktops. Thus we can considerably reduce the hardware cost by reducing the no. of servers.

Yes, of course, its possible. However, its not a feature built into PVE. As was mentioned before PVE is a hypervisor. You need some sort of other interface/plugin that would drive cloning your Golden Image to required number of VMs on demand.
You can write your own interface, using Proxmox API or CLI, or research and buy a commercial solution, if you find one that suites your needs.

Perhaps someone in the community can recommend/share what they are doing for VDI. Searching for "proxmox VDI" brings up many discussions around this topic. I recall someone using DeskPool for their VDI.

Good luck and feel free to share what you find with the community.

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Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

 

[alexskysilk]

I believe whats throwing everyone off is the mention of "proxmox." as multiple folks noted, proxmox is a hypervisor; if you wish to roll out a vdi environment atop proxmox you certainly can- but the question (google search?) you should be asking is "vdi dynamic destop" which would yield more results.

 

[manoj123]

I don't know what you mean. Where you read this ?
in all cases, Virtual Desktop will be in your(s) VM(s) , it's out of the scope of the hypervisor ( PVE or others).

As per my understanding there are two architectures for VDI--static and dynamic. With the static architecture, each user always connects to the same virtual machine (VM) that exists and is maintained between sessions. This means for every user, you need a VM, which obviously requires a large amount of storage for all the VMs.
With a dynamic architecture, the VMs are not persistent and when a user connects, a new VM is created based on a master template, the user personality is placed onto the new VM and applications are made available through application virtualization, giving very fast availability f the session. Once the user disconnects, the VM is destroyed. In reality, the VM is not created when the user connects; the VDI solution maintains a pool of "ready" VMs to expedite the user connection experience.
While dynamic architecture is more complex because of the provisioning requirements of the VM, profile and folder redirection, it is the best practice because it actually reduces management overhead since you're not patching the OS anymore; you just update the master image. In addition, you'll have fewer VMs, because you only need to host VMs for the number of concurrently accessing users.

I dont know whether the dynamic VM configuration is part of hypervisors like Proxmox or not.. But, the same is supported on some other virutalization platforms, as I understand.

 

[manoj123]

Yes, of course, its possible. However, its not a feature built into PVE. As was mentioned before PVE is a hypervisor. You need some sort of other interface/plugin that would drive cloning your Golden Image to required number of VMs on demand.
You can write your own interface, using Proxmox API or CLI, or research and buy a commercial solution, if you find one that suites your needs.

Perhaps someone in the community can recommend/share what they are doing for VDI. Searching for "proxmox VDI" brings up many discussions around this topic. I recall someone using DeskPool for their VDI.

Good luck and feel free to share what you find with the community.

---

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

Thank you for the response.
I also found Deskpool while searching in Google. But, I couldn't find a proper documentation of this and I m not sure if pooled desktop (dynamic VDI) is possible or not with it.

 

[bbgeek17]

I dont know whether the dynamic VM configuration is part of hypervisors like Proxmox or not.. But, the same is supported on some other virutalization platforms, as I understand.

Its not part of PVE, you need another piece of software and I dont know whether it exists in the form that will suite your needs.

I also found Deskpool while searching in Google. But, I couldn't find a proper documentation of this and I m not sure if pooled desktop (dynamic VDI) is possible or not with it.

Probably best to install it and try and/or reach out to their support and report back here.

---

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

 

[manoj123]

Its not part of PVE, you need another piece of software and I dont know whether it exists in the form that will suite your needs.

Probably best to install it and try and/or reach out to their support and report back here.

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Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

Thank you.
I have set up Proxmox VE with 3 VMs. But, couldn't create a dynamic VM.
Will look for the software that can create pooled desktops and if get a solution, definitely will report back here

 

[xpaz]

Thank you.
I have set up Proxmox VE with 3 VMs. But, couldn't create a dynamic VM.
Will look for the software that can create pooled desktops and if get a solution, definitely will report back here

Did you find anything other than Deskpool?

After the VMware-Broadcom apocalypse, we are considering Proxmox..