2012R2 - Session Hosts vs VDI (Moving forwards away from fat desktops)

[Steve21]

Good Afternoon Guys,

 

We've been looking at how to move forward with our main IT suites etc as basically all our machines are still Core2 Duo, low 2GB~ standard, and HDDs, Been playing with RDS Session Hosts for some Staff Users recently and was wondering what the recommended or most common way to move forwards if we were looking to go virtual is.

 

After playing around with the standard 2012R2 options (Session Host wise) I'm honestly not sure anything like VMWare Horizon, or Citrix etc is really going to be needed for what we currently use (Unless anyone has a reason they can suggest if you're using it?)

 

But the one bit I can't really work out is the benefit of VDI over Session Hosts. As long as the site is using the same OS/applications (Which we basically are, although slightly different teacher/student images currently which could be on 2 separate servers), is there any real advantage of VDI over Sessions now? It seems with 2012R2 etc things like CPU have limits to what is used to ensure it's shared out, and I'd have hoped it's pretty hard to crash a Session Host from using normal applications.

 

Just wondering what people are using and whether since 2012R2 people actually feel there's a specific need for VDI based vendors like Citrix etc (Please note this is mainly for internal currently and not looking at accessing VDI externally)

 

Thanks,

Steve

[kmount]

USB is normally the big one these days, RDSH support is much patchier than RDVH.

 

RDSH is more cost effective to deploy so where possible starting there and seeing if it meets your needs makes the most sense.

 

You can blend them together though if you found a specific need for some RDVH (VDI).

 

2012R2 + RemoteFX is quite a compelling set up, we ran a POC with a customer recently by adding Nvidia GRID cards to their RDVH hosts and performance was spectacular.

 

Reducing your C2D/2GB jobs as repurposed thin clients is a good angle too to save you beans.

[dobsonl]

Hi Steve,

 

Have you got a guide or anything your following in how to set you old computers up? I've never managed to find an elegant way to do so that is end user friendly

 

Luke

[Steve21]

Ah thank you @kmount didn't realise it was patchy on USB side, but guessing that's more relation to peripherals etc rather than USB drives? Just thinking currently most our things are network based like printers/scanners etc, only a few USB devices around.

 

Aye will have to have a look into RemoteFX forgot about that, guess it helps a lot on graphics side.

 

Just seems a waste overall replacing all the desktops with new ones if it's not really needed for the majority of items, and then helps build towards better BYOD system etc too

 

Hi Steve,

 

Have you got a guide or anything your following in how to set you old computers up? I've never managed to find an elegant way to do so that is end user friendly

 

Luke

 

Currently the staff using the test are just using a shortcut on their normal desktops, as it's only a sort of point in principle test, so nothings elegant currently I'm afraid.

 

Thanks,

Steve

[jamesfed]

Hi Steve,

 

Have you got a guide or anything your following in how to set you old computers up? I've never managed to find an elegant way to do so that is end user friendly

 

Luke

 

Might be worth looking into Windows 10 Enterprise - have seen some mentions in the Add/Remove Windows Features of what looks like Windows Embedded Technology to do thin client style tech. Will have a look myself sometime soon

[kmount]

Yep, the dynamics of USB have improved over the years with RDSH but at the end of the day it's still a 'shared' OS unlike in RDVH.

 

RemoteFX will make the difference night and day.

 

Windows endpoints will have the best capabilities, coming from a Linux guy. So using something like thinpc or cut down kiosk'd windows is a good way to go.

[PotNoodleTech]

Hmm. 4GB Ram and a 128GB SSD per PC = sorted for the next 3+ years.

 

If you do want to go down the VDI route my STRONG advice would be to test the new system in anger in a classroom for a year before you deploy across the whole school.

Edited September 7, 2015 by PotNoodleTech

[jamin100]

Have a look at thinkiosk it's something I'll be looking at when our vworkspace VDI renewal is due