Desktop pooling

[denzal2k4]

After days of playing around with desktop pooling i've come to the conclusion it doesnt exist, not for what we want to do anyways.

Our plan has been for a while to do this:

Thin clients in non graphically intensive rooms (axel 80F)
Desktop pooling using a "golden image"
"dynamically created" machines?
Machine is wiped when user logs off
Running Windows 7 + office 2010

So we have purchased (over a year ago) a 3tb dell san for the systems to sit on
2 x Servers to run the virtual machines Dell R610 with 24gb Ram each (UVMS01, UVMS02) (Ram upgrade to 72gb/96gb when funds allow)
9 Axel M80F's (currently connecting to individual XP desktops on UVMS01)

So where I (the technician) got to after some research, was that we would need to create a Windows 7 virtual machine and then generate differencing disks from this, which I did and then assign these differencing disks to newly created virtual machines and add them to a desktop pool, no problems so far, all created and I can connect to each of them individually the issue is how do you connect to the pool eg Win7pool can you RDP to a pool somehow, I saw somewhere that you can edit a custom .rdp file and add the pool name to it, but I had no luck with this either, If I go through remote web access the Pool shows up there but when I connect to it I get redirected to UVMS01 which is also the session broker etc. So I feel like im gazumped and possibly heading down the wrong path, as we would still be creating the differencing disks which are about 1GB each. Now our plans are based on something our senior tech is sure he has heard is possible at some point! While I have every confidence this is true I'm having little luck finding out how to do it. If anyone has any pointers or has thin clients running from server 2008 r2 hyper v please respond!

So again the main problems, how do we point a thin terminal to a desktop pool rather then a specific machine (it seems oblivious to the fact the pool exists)
Can the machines be created at logon or do we just need to use differencing disks?
How do we get the differencing disks to revert to an earlier snapshot when the user logs off, ie go back to fresh installed desktop.

Sorry if this sounds like rambling im full of cold and "I can't brain today I have teh dumb"!

[denzal2k4]

no-one knows anything about Desktop pooling??

[Dave_O]

You need a broker

[denzal2k4]

You need a broker

We have a broker and as far as we can tell it is configured correctly. What would we need to type in an rdp connection box is it just the pool name or is there a magical suffix or prefix??

[Dave_O]

We have a broker and as far as we can tell it is configured correctly. What would we need to type in an rdp connection box is it just the pool name or is there a magical suffix or prefix??

You don't give details of your setup ie which technology you are using, but for VMWare View it goes like this.

1. Install View client
2. Point client at broker in settings
3. Enable a pool for a particular group of users
4. Login through client
5. Client offers you the pool you are entitled to.
At this stage the broker connects to the pool and decides, based on some dark magic, which desktop to offer you. Desktop is assigned and user login proceeds.

I don't believe you can use a simpe rdp client to connect to a broker per se

[denzal2k4]

Ok that clears it up a bit, we are using hyper-v, I wasn't aware that you point it at the connection broker so will try again tomorrow.

Thanks

[Dave_O]

Ok that clears it up a bit, we are using hyper-v, I wasn't aware that you point it at the connection broker so will try again tomorrow.

Thanks

What technology are you using:- a) for the broker b) at the back end (Citrix?)

[jamesfed]

Have a look at Citrix VDI in a box - it'll do just what uve asked with a golden image ect...

[denzal2k4]

excellent i'll give that a go, downloading it for hyper-v now, where does it sit in the grand scheme of things, does it replace any of the current roles the virtualization servers are doing?

Thanks

[jamesfed]

It just talks to Hyper-V - it'll install a client on your server to allow the management side of things (which runs as its own virtual machine) talk to Hyper-V.

Do have a good read through the setup guides - they will explain all If you do run into any problems just PM me and I'll see if I can help.

[denzal2k4]

James, do you have a rough idea of costings for citrix vdi in a box, as I've been told if its silly money which we think it may be there's no point installing and testing it?

Thanks

[jamesfed]

About £60 per concurrent user - however since they have been bought by Citrix the price may very well be lower now.

[1steelhead]

On your connection broker, browse to Windows\RemotePackages\RemoteDesktops.
If you created a Pool on the connection broker, the associated .RDP file to connect to it is in that directory.Copy it out of the location to ..?? maybe your destop for testing, and it should work.