Virtualisation help for a Virt Noob :)

[Disease]

I am after some advice for virtualisation which we a looking to experiment with.

I have a server running Hyper-V

2 x 2.5 Quad Core HT CPU
40GB Ram
10k SAS drives.
Bonded Network Connection

How many virtual clients could I run using this server?

I have created 15 xp machines on here so far, how do I connect to these virtual machines from a machine in a room, is there a way to PXE boot into a remote desktop session, or have I totally missunderstood te way this works?

Thanks.

[Domino]

What are you trying to achieve?

From the sounds of it you'd be much better off looking at a thin client solution that a virtualisation one?

You could get thinstation or something similar to boot to an rdp session on each VM desktop, but you're not actually gaining much from that

[SYNACK]

Sounds like you are trying to implement a VDI type solution, the first thing that I would recommend is using Windows 7 instead of XP for the virtual clients. It is vastly better at being virtualised and will end up performing better especially with the efficiency/smoothness of RDP.

I know I have seen a setting in AD user settings to do with VDI but I have not used it, ties into Hyper-V I think.

Each of your clients will need to somehow be running an RDP client, whether this is via a locally installed client or a PXE booted client with RDP. Windows PE runs for 24 hours before auto rebooting but should be customizable to autoboot an RDP client possibly even the latest one to give your the best support.

You could also look at booting something like thinstation but that will only have support for the uch older and less responcive/efficient RDP protocols.

[bio]

I Would buy a wyse WSM license, install it on your server and you are ready to go

bio..

[zag]

I've only ever virtualized servers on Hyper-V, I'm not quite sure what you are trying to do?

I've never looked into actually virtualizing the desktops before.

[Disease]

I've only ever virtualized servers on Hyper-V, I'm not quite sure what you are trying to do?

I've never looked into actually virtualizing the desktops before.

That is exactly what I am trying to achieve, I am trying to virtualise clients, I have no idea if that is the bes way to go though, any one point me in the right directions for windows thin client solutions that I can implement myself on existing hardware?

[Sandman]

The guides on Xtravirt.com and Petri.co.il are good for starting out.

I used them when i was getting started.

You should also try joining/following the Virtualization Twitter/blog communities as they are very helpful!

Eric Siebert's site has a good index of all of the best sites: vLaunchPad

[somabc]

I know I have seen a setting in AD user settings to do with VDI but I have not used it, ties into Hyper-V I think

Looks like this.

[zag]

If your a virtualization n00b then no way you want to be going the thin client/virtual desktop route. Its very early stage technology.

Server virtualization has far more benefits of nice backups, easy to transfer and great hardware utilization but I'm yet to be convinced by the desktop route.

[jamesfed]

I think you may of jumped the gun a bit by the sounds of it and not done enough research on your methods of VMing desktops.
We are doing the same here over the holiday using Kaviza VDI running on Citrix XenServer (going to change over to Hyper-V for Win7 when we move over to it a little later).
By the sounds of it you have got a pretty decent server that should support ~30 clients (maybe a little more) but no real mangement software to run the clients from.

Some options which you might want to consider are-
Citrix XenDesktop
Kaviza (what we are going to be using which uses the Citrix protocol)
Microsoft VDI with a TS gateway

Each of these will provide software for the rapid provisioning and assignment of desktops to your users.

Most of the time with VDI you will be connecting to your virtual desktops from a Thin Client device (HP/Wyse/10zig all do Thin Clients) with a limited OS - one person mentioned Thin Station which works but is outside of my ablities.

All the same if you want a decent VDI setup you are going to need some software managing it in the background or all you will of done is obtained a powerful server to host desktops that might as well be running on conventional PCs.