IVOBEERENS.NL

Posts Tagged ‘View 4’

VMware released last week the desktop Reference Architecture Workload Simulator (RAWC). 

When validating VMware View™ designs it is important to simulate real world usage as closely as possible. The Desktop Reference Architecture Workload SImulator (RAWC) can be used to simulate a user workload in a typical Microsoft Windows® desktop environment.

Desktop RAWC runs on a Windows XP guest operating system and is executed on each desktop virtual machine (VM) on one or more ESX™ hosts. Each target desktop VM is equipped to run a RAWC workload that simulates typical user behavior, running an application set commonly used across a broad array of desktop environments.

 

The workload has a set of randomly executed functions that perform operations on a variety of applications. Each test is configured using the Desktop RAWC UI

 

The UI enables you to save and retrieve test parameters, create log folders, and define unique workloads based on Active Directory groups. You can use the UI to increase the load or adjust the user behavior, such as the number of words per minute that are typed and the delay between applications being launched.

The workload configuration typically used includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Java, Adobe Acrobat, McAfee Virus Scan, and 7-Zip. During the execution of the workload, multiple applications are opened at the same time and windows are minimized and maximized as the workload progresses, randomly switching between each application. Individual application operations that are randomly performed can include:

·        Microsoft Word – Open, minimize, maximize, close, insert text, save modifications

·        Microsoft Word (Random) – Open, minimize, maximize, close, write random words/numbers, save modifications

·        Microsoft Excel – Open, minimize, maximize, close, write random numbers, insert/delete columns/rows, copy/paste formulas, save modifications

·        Microsoft PowerPoint – Open, minimize, maximize, close, conduct a slide show presentation

·        Microsoft Outlook – Open, minimize, maximize, close, create/send emails

·        Internet Explorer – Open, minimize, maximize, close, browse page

·        Windows Media Player – Open, close, view a video

·        Java – Compile a java project comprised of several hundred files using the JDK to create a software

·        engineering type of workload

·        Adobe Acrobat Reader – Open, minimize, maximize, close, browse pages in PDF document

·        McAfee Anti-virus – Real time scanning

·        7-Zip – Open, close, compress a large file

The RAWC kit is available for download from  the VMware partner central website.

 

The long awaited VMware View with the PCoIP protocol has landed and is available for download.

VMware View 4.0 includes the following new features:

• VMware View with PCoIP – PCoIP provides an optimized desktop experience for the delivery of the entire desktop environment including applications, images, audio, and video content for a wide range of users on the LAN or across the WAN. PCoIP can compensate for an increase in latency or a reduction in bandwidth, to ensure that end users can remain productive regardless of network conditions.
• PCoIP includes VMware View Display with support for up to four monitors and the ability to deliver the optimal resolution and pivot orientation to each monitor independently.
• VMware vSphere Support – VMware vSphere 4 support enables improved virtual machine scalability, performance, and management, with continued support for VMware Infrastructure 3.x.
• Enhanced single sign-on – The Log in as current user feature is integrated with Active Directory and smart cards to help simplify the process of logging in to a VMware View desktop.
• Restricted entitlements – Administrators can control user access to virtual desktops based on the View Connection Server being used for authentication.
• Smart card policies – Administrators can set group policies to force desktop disconnection and require reconnection when users remove smart cards.
• Domain filtering – You can use vdmadmin.exe to control the accessibility of domains and traverse trust relationships more quickly.
• You can cleanly delete View desktops using scripts.
• You can log in to View desktops using user principal names (UPN).
• You can explicitly configure IP addresses to override those supplied by the View Agent when accessing a desktop.
• Mixed Active Directory and Kerberos authentication is supported.

The VMware View 4  release notes can be find here, and the downloads are here. Next week i try to test VMware View 4 and blog my experiences.

 

After attending the VMware View 4 Talkshoe podcast the following information about the announced VMware  View 4 was discussed:

VM’s per core:

VM’s per core, In VMware View 3 the number was 6-9 VM’s per core, now in View 4 with for example the Intel Nehalem processors you can get to 12-16 VM’s per core. This number heavily depends for example on the application load inside the VM’s.

The PCoIP protocol does NOT support:

- Security Server;

- Smart Cards integration;

- Thinprint support.

Generally: 

- The PCoIP protocol is not different in scalability than RDP;

- For the RDP protocol version 6 is used in VMware VIEW;

- Offline desktop support is still experimental;

- There’s no RTO Software Virtual Profiles in this release of VMware VIEW 4;

- Windows  7 is still experimental, official support will be around the begin of 2010; 

- The Connection server must be installed on Windows 2003, support for Windows 2008 will be around the begin of 2010;

- Advise for virus scanning software is use VMware aware virus scanners (VMsafe), for example Trend Micro and McAfee have beta’s that use the VMsafe technology.

 

Today VMware has View 4 announced.  VMware View 4 is supported on VMware vSphere and has a new protocol named PCoIP (View 3 uses RDP). 

 

Here’s a list of new and/or improved features:

FEATURE	NEW/IMPROVED	DESCRIPTION
Quad monitor support	New	Support 32-bit color with 1920 x 1200 display resolution and up to 4 monitors simultaneously.Benefit: True multiple displays allow you to “see more and do more” from a full desktop. This provides the ability to reproduce true color images with support for up to 4.2 billion distinct colors per pixel.
True multi-monitor support on L-shape configuration	New	Support 1 landscape display and 1 portrait display (with pivot monitors), variable resolution support, and auto fit to client.Benefit: Each monitor can be of a different size and be set to a different resolution. Auto Display Scaling/Dynamic Resizing helps desktop publishing, financial application, and high-end graphic design needs.
Guest desktop support Windows Vista and XP OS	New	Support for connecting to virtual desktops from Windows XP and Vista. The VMware View 4 PCoIP is a software-to-software implementation. However, it also supports hardware PCoIP hosts such as the Samsung SyncMaster 930ND 19″ monitor and Teradici Tera Portal. http://www.teradici.com/pcoip/pcoip-products/oem-solutions.php   Benefit: Provides scalable support to both software and hardware on the local hosts.
Network characteristics and security	New	SSL protection on TCP for session management and AES 128-bit key encryption on UDP for media transfer between host and client system.Benefit: Provides comparable security and encryption found in other protocols.
Protocol intelligence	New	PCoIP protocol provides the intelligence to handle prioritization and quality of services (QOS) for video/mouse/keyboard/sound, etc.Benefit: This greatly helps the user experience by managing bandwidth and content variables.
WAN performance and optimization	New	Operate with up to 250ms of round-trip latency with tolerance on packet loss up to 5%.
VPN tunneling	New	Support Cisco VPN soft client.
RDP virtual channel compatibility for USB redirection	New	Support the comparable list of USB peripherals including biometrics, card readers, webcams, mass storage, flash devices, scanners, etc. The authorization can be done on a per-user/per-group basis to only accept specific devices.
Flash control support for PCoIP	New	PCoIP uses breakthrough graphics compression that is custom built for delivering a user desktop over IP networks. It works in such a way as to support all graphics (full-frame rate 3D for design engineering, video gaming, etc.), and media (HD video, Microsoft video formats, YouTube, Microsoft Silverlight, Google, QuickTime, or Adobe Flash).Benefit: By compressing the display image at the host PC/Server, you avoid application interoperability issues that have plagued thin clients for years and can quickly adapt to physical networks.
Audio redirection	New	New to PCoIP protocol. Redirect audio with dynamic audio quality adjustment on the WAN.
ClearType font	New	Subpixel rendering technology which may help to improve the apperance of text on some computer displays. Newly added to PCoIP protocol

Full clone pool with thin disk/thin provisioning	New	VMware View 4 provides seamless native support for thin provisioning with the vSphere server.Benefit: Helps reduce storage usage and allows more guest desktops per core while still providing high performance.
Mixed cluster support for backward – forward compatibility	New	This new option in View Administrator allows different versions of clusters to be managed via the same UI.
VWware VMsafe API for better anti-virus optimization and execution	New	VMware vSphere supports VMware VMsafe™ API Security virtual machine deployment, sold separately by security vendors, is consistent with desktop deployment. Protects the virtual machine by inspecting virtual components (CPU, Memory, Network and Storage).

Triple single sign — on (3SSO) for sessions/connections keep-alive	Improved	This setting enables “log in as current user” using Active Directory credentials or smart cards over Remote Desktop Protocol.Benefit: Helps eliminate redundant authentication steps or double PIN entry when using smart cards.
Tag-based pool access	New	Administrators can now assign “tags” to connect server and desktop pools. Tag matching rules can be applied to restrict or grant users access to certain desktops.
Smart card removal policy	Improved	This policy setting forces desktops to disconnect when users remove their smart card.
Delete script	Improved	This scripting capability cleanly deletes VMware View desktops and allows extensibility using visual basic scripting.

VMware View is available in two editions:

Offline desktop and Windows 7 support is experimental. This means it is not ready for production environments! There is a HCL for Thin clients that supports View, click here for the HCL. VMware View will be released and available for download on 19 November 2009.

Sources:

- VMware View 4 product page

- VMware View Datasheet

- Register for a 60 day trail when it comes available