What Is VDI?
Prior to Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) was not part of Microsoft’s presentation remoting package [even though Microsoft technology in the form of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and the Windows operating system was used to enable another company’s VDI solution]. In this article, you will learn about this new role, how it works, and how to set it up for a single-server deployment.
But first, what is VDI?
At its most basic, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a deployment design that puts the user desktop on a virtual machine (VM) in the datacenter, rather than on the physical computer at someone’s desk. Some degree of connection and image management is usually implied in VDI.
Speaking generally, VDI can range in complexity, as follows:
Example 1: One VM assigned to each person with a virtual desktop, with that person connecting to that desktop via the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client, specifying the desktop’s name or Internet Protocol (IP) address
Example 2: A personal desktop assigned to a user, but the user doesn’t have to know what the VM’s name is—just that he or she wants to connect to the machine
Example 3: A pool of desktops available to a set of users on a temporary basis A few things vary with the different kinds of complexity.
-The discovery process
-The user control over the VM
-The ease of delivery
First, there’s the process of discovering and connecting to the right VM. In the first example, it’s obvious: You go to the desktop that you have specified by name in the RDP file and hope that the VM is turned on. In the second and third examples, there must be some intelligence somewhere to get you to the right endpoint and make sure the VM is ready to accept connections.
The degree of administrative control also varies with the type of VDI. In the first two examples, one user will always use the same VM. As the IT manager, you can allow that user whatever degree of control over this virtual desktop that you see fit. In the pooled case, users can’t alter the shared pool of desktops. If they did, they’d either lose whatever changes they made (if you’d configured the VM to discard changes and roll back to its saved state at logoff) or they’d be messing up the VM for the next user (if you hadn’t).
Finally, the VDI delivery models differ in how easy it is to personalize the VM and the applications installed on it. Again, the first two models make it easy. Even if you don’t allow users to install their own applications, the VMs can still have a specific set of applications designed for a specific user’s needs. The pooled model makes it difficult to support much personalization because all VMs in the pool must have the right applications for all people who use them, and personal installs don’t work in this model.
In my next article I will talk about how to upload VDI and how to choose best vps hosting for your needs.
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