Creating a Dynamic Terminal Server Environment

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Creating a Dynamic Terminal Server Environment

• Michael Burke

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The Agenda

• Challenges
• Virtualization Technologies
• A New Idea for the Same Old Thing
• Options

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The Dynamic Environment

• American Heritage Dictionary
• adj. (di-nam-ik) Characterized by continuous
  change, activity, or progress
• The ability to adapt rapidly to changing
  conditions

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Challenges Faced Today

• Rapid deployment of new terminal servers
• Application regression testing (updates and
  coexistence)
• Server sprawl (siloing and departmental
  segregation)
• Securing access to applications and data
• Expanding virtual workforce
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity
• Rising costs (hardware, operations, management)
• Operations issues (power, cooling, rack space)

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The 5 Phases of Deployment

• Provision
• Build
• Deploy
• Support
• Retire

• Obtain hardware
• Configuring the hardware
• Power, cooling and rack space

• Install and configure the operating system
• Install and configure management
• Install and configure applications
• Secure
• Test

• Publish applications to new server
• Adjust firewall rules
• Update change control and documentation

• Manage hardware
• Track resources
• Patch/update operating system
• Patch/update applications
• Resolve issues

• Remove app publication for server
• Power down system
• Remove from rack
• Update change control and documentation

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Your Solution Should Be

• A time saver!
• Easier to manage
• More resilient/reliable
• More flexible
• Conform to existing processes
• Be economically sound
• Invite new ideas and thinking

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The Virtual World

• Hardware Virtualization
• Storage Virtualization
• OS Virtualization
• Application Virtualization
• Access Virtualization

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The Layers
- Decoupled
Application Virtualization and Streaming
App
App
App
Operating System
Operating System Streaming and Virtualization
Hardware Virtualization and Abstraction
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Hardware Layer Options

• Physical Servers
• Virtual Machines
• VMware, Microsoft, Xen
• Should you virtualize or not?

• Pros
• Better utilization of resources
• Autonomy in hardware profile
• Rapid provisioning
• Simplified DR
• Save money

• Cons
• Terminal Server user density typically lower
• ISV support issues
• Cost

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Operating System Layer Options

• Manual install
• ADS/RIS (unattended) deployment
• Image-based deployment
• OS streaming
• Paradigm shift in thinking
• Ardence (now part of Citrix)
• OS virtualization
• Virtuozzo (more later)

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Application Layer Options

• Manual install
• Automated install
• Citrix IM
• SMS/System Center, Altiris
• Scripted install
• Virtualization and Streaming
• SoftGrid, Altiris, Citrix

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The Dynamic Solution

• Hardware Platform
• VMware Infrastructure 3
• Operating System Layer
• Ardence
• Application Layer
• SoftGrid Application Streaming

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VMware Infrastructure 3

• A set of products and components
• VMware ESX Server 3
• VirtualCenter Management Server
• VMotion, DRS and HA
• Hardware autonomy
• Near-hardware performance of virtual machines
• Advanced memory management
• Provision new VMs from templates
• Live migration of VMs from one host to another
• Dynamically balancing VM load across host
  resources
• High availability

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Ardence OS Streaming

• Ardence client mounts a vDisk image over the
  network
• PXE boots to a bootstrap on the Ardence server
• Uniqueness identified by MAC address
• Appears as a local disk on the client
• Single read-only image accessed by multiple hosts

• Writes saved to
• File on the streaming server
• In client RAM
• File on local storage
• Features
• Instant upgrades
• Rollback
• Instant restoration
• Less data to back up
• Simplified DR

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SoftGrid Application Streaming

• Simplified deployment
• Sequence once, deploy everywhere
• Absolute control over access
• Controlled though Active Directory security
  groups
• Isolation of applications
• Allows side by side use of conflicting
  applications
• Auditing of application use
• Know who is running which applications and how
  often
• Easier update/patch management
• Update once, deploy everywhere

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Overview of How it Works

• Deploy new VM from template
• Small local disk for SoftGrid cache
• VM boots from the network
• Loads shared Ardence image
• Ardence image contains SoftGrid client
• SoftGrid client contacts the SoftGrid server
• Pre-caches applications locally
• Server is added to published applications
• Manually by administrator
• Automatically via script (MFCOM, etc.)

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The Dynamic Solution
SAN
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Still Need Physical Servers?

• Ardence can stream to physical or virtual
• One image per platform
• Acronis TrueImage
• Capture image from template build
• Deploy with Universal Restore to achieve hardware
  platform autonomy
• PlateSpin
• Universal deployment to any hardware
• Convert from physical or virtual
• Deploy from image to any hardware, including
  virtual

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Another Alternative

• Virtuozzo
• Operating System virtualization
• Creates an isolated kernel partition
• Share unique underlying OS
• Silo without additional Terminal Servers

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Lets Review Our Challenges
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• Rapid deployment of new terminal servers
• Application regression testing (updates and
  coexistence)
• Server sprawl (siloing and departmental
  segregation)
• Securing access to applications
• Expanding virtual workforce
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity
• Rising costs (hardware, operations, management)
• Operations issues (power, cooling, rack space)

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Final Thoughts

• Some terminal servers may be physical
• Performance reasons
• ISV supportability
• Look for re-use scenarios
• Stream OS and Apps to both, or some
• Bowl of brown MMs
• Treat the layers independently
• Any layer can be adjusted to fit needs
• All of these technologies can be leveraged beyond
  Terminal Server
• More return on investment

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The Cast

• Hardware Virtualization
• Platform Imaging
• Operating System Streaming and Virtualization
• Application Streaming
• Access Mechanisms
• And many others!

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Questions?
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• Thank You!
• Michael Burke
• mburke_at_foedus.com