VDI thin client hardware

[bicky]

Hi I have setup a VDI with

1 Server 2008 R2 (RD Virtualization Host)

1 Server 2008 R2 (RD Connection Broker, RD Gateway, RD Session Host, and RD Web Access in single VM)

 

Is there a vdi thin client hardware available in the market.

 

Your help would be much appreciated, thank you.

[Achandler]

Any thin client that supports RDP 7.0 or above should be fine for what you need.

[bicky]

but how does it work in terms of Pooled VMs ?

 

What I am looking for is a thin client/small hardware that upon boot will prompt for username & password, when entered it will connect to the one of the pooled vms, is there something available ?

[Achandler]

In terms of pooled VMs, the different is in the RDP file itself, you can easily take the RDP file that RDWeb Access creates by going either through the IIS settings on the physical server or by opening up RDWeb Access in Firefox, then when you click on the RDP file it will ask you if you want to download it, then you have a copy of the file you can deploy to the clients.

 

You can create the file yourself but it is easier to take this pre-made one then edit it as appropriate.

 

With regards to physical hardware, there are multiple choices and different ones offer different options. There are vendors like Axel, HP, Igel, 10zig, Dell Wyse etc, apologies to any I have missed out. Most of these are customizable and will mean you can make them turn on (login locally if necessary) and then launch the RDP file. Then a user would be faced by a box asking for credentials, most clients would also let you make the RDP relaunch when closed etc.

 

I would setup your pool, then use some old hardware to create a test "thin client", you can use software like ThinKiosk.

[glennda]

Take a look at igel very good hardware

[bicky]

I have few HP Thin Clients T5325 & T5335z; these doesnt allow creating a .rdp shortcut, though it has option to setup RDP, Citrix, VMware connection. And simply adding vdi-01.myschool.co.uk in the RDP connection settings connects to the server rather than to the Windows 7 VM Pool.

 

 

Following is the contents of my vdi-01.myschool.co.uk-W7Pool1-localhost-VmFarm.rdp

redirectclipboard:i:0

redirectposdevices:i:0

redirectprinters:i:0

redirectsmartcards:i:0

devicestoredirect:s:

drivestoredirect:s:

session bpp:i:32

allow font smoothing:i:1

promptcredentialonce:i:1

gatewayusagemethod:i:2

gatewayprofileusagemethod:i:0

gatewaycredentialssource:i:0

full address:s:vdi-01.myschool.co.uk

alternate shell:s:

gatewayhostname:s:

workspace id:s:Congratulations !

use redirection server name:i:1

loadbalanceinfo:s:tsv://vmresource.1.W7Pool1

use multimon:i:1

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I don't know if they'd be of any use to you at all but I've got a Huge pile of HP T5700s going for next to nothing. Let me know.

[Achandler]

Can you edit that RDP file easily?

 

I can give you my basic settings from a virtual pooled (personal though)

[bicky]

that will be great, thank you.

[Achandler]

PMed you them.

[bicky]

thank you Achandler, may i know what hardware do you use for vdi client ?

[Achandler]

We have Windows 7 embedded thin clients, because we wanted to utilise RDP 8. So we have 10zig WES7 clients for our pooled desktops. They weren't as cheap as the linux alternatives though, but ours are in our SLT offices. If I was using thme with pupils I would have got cheaper linux ones. We use Remote desktop session host with our students.

[bicky]

thank you for your assistance

do you join win 7 embeded thin clients to domain ?

do users has to first logon to win 7 thin client then rdp to win 7 vm pool and enter domain credentials again ?

we have windows 7 volume license, will that cover windows 7 embed thin client license aswell

[glennda]

thank you for your assistance

do you join win 7 embeded thin clients to domain ?

do users has to first logon to win 7 thin client then rdp to win 7 vm pool and enter domain credentials again ?

we have windows 7 volume license, will that cover windows 7 embed thin client license aswell

 

The IGel Clients I recommended are actually Linux based (but support later versions of RDP etc I think). They also come wit a clever management software (which is free if you buy an igel). This then gives full managability of the devices remotely including profile provisioning (i.e you setup one and all the others get the config as they should).

[Achandler]

Ours are off the domain, we have thinkiosk on them, this auto logs the computer in, and replaces the explorer shell so the user is presented with a login box only.

 

You can use any old computers remember, doesn't have to be WES7 clients, and indeed Linux ones are fine to.

 

IGEL equipment seemed good when we saw it but it isn't the cheapest, the management software is good to as glennda said. Biggest issue I had with IGEL was with how pushy the sales bloke was.

 

ThinKiosk (which is free) has some GPOs that go with it.

[glennda]

Ours are off the domain, we have thinkiosk on them, this auto logs the computer in, and replaces the explorer shell so the user is presented with a login box only.

 

You can use any old computers remember, doesn't have to be WES7 clients, and indeed Linux ones are fine to.

 

IGEL equipment seemed good when we saw it but it isn't the cheapest, the management software is good to as glennda said. Biggest issue I had with IGEL was with how pushy the sales bloke was.

 

ThinKiosk (which is free) has some GPOs that go with it.

 

Never used ThinKiosk but another which is paid for and works along the same lines is VDIBlaster. Did you talk to Igel directly? Or through a reseller? We deal with the partner guys so they are more trying to make us sell more! But they are not the cheapest but one of the clients has over 300 and only ever had 1 fail.

[gshaw]

The Axel thin clients looked neat when I had one in on trial (was quite a while back though)

[TheScarfedOne]

I've got some stuff relating to RDP and thin clients on my blog. Currently on mobile app at moment so can't grab link. If you head there and search you should get it. I've got some Wyse t50s which use the same INI basic Linux config as you have here, and they connect to a rdp farm

[bicky]

it seems like only windows based thin client (windows embed) will allow to use the vdi with pooled vm.

is there any linux based thin clients that support this pooled vm ?

[Achandler]

I'll try and use a linux box next week to connect to our pool

[Jamo]

thank you for your assistance

do you join win 7 embeded thin clients to domain ?

do users has to first logon to win 7 thin client then rdp to win 7 vm pool and enter domain credentials again ?

we have windows 7 volume license, will that cover windows 7 embed thin client license aswell

 

No the volume licence only covers upgrades ie you always have to have an OEM licence for your client hardware plus the additional VDA licence for connecting to the virtual hosts. With volume licencing (EES) you get the VDA licence for free with your client OS licence so that is ok if you are using Windows thin PC, but if you use Linux as a client OS you have to purchase the VDA licence separately.

[Axel]

it seems like only windows based thin client (windows embed) will allow to use the vdi with pooled vm.

is there any linux based thin clients that support this pooled vm ?

 

look five posts up....!

[Bongo]

it seems like only windows based thin client (windows embed) will allow to use the vdi with pooled vm.

is there any linux based thin clients that support this pooled vm ?

 

 

I'm trying out an AXEL M80 at the moment and have it connecting to a 2012 RDS VDI server using pooled W7 and W8 VMs. Performance looks pretty good and the sso works well

[bicky]

I'll try and use a linux box next week to connect to our pool

@Achandler

could you please let us the model of the linux thin client.

 

@Bongo

Sounds great, how do you configure it to connect to the Pooled VM; did you created a RDP shortcut in the M80 desktop ?

 

 

Thank you

[Bongo]

 

@Bongo

Sounds great, how do you configure it to connect to the Pooled VM; did you created a RDP shortcut in the M80 desktop ?

 

 

Thank you

 

Within the client you simply set the session type as 'Microsoft RemoteApp Desktop' and then add the server URL, I was orignally putting https://myserver/rdweb which failed to connect but with help from Matthew just put myserver and the client connects and lists everything published to rdweb as icons on the homescreen; I currently have Win8, Win7 and some published apps.