User manual REDHAT ENTERPRISE VIRTUALIZATION FOR DESKTOPS SOLUTION GUIDE

[. . . ] Red Hat enteRpRise ViRtualization foR desktops Solution Guide www. redhat. com Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops taBle of Contents 3 3 BEnEfits of DEsktop ViRtualization BEnEfits foR it DEpaRtmEnts 3 advantages Relative to traditional or physical Desktops 4 advantages Relative to terminal services models 4 BenefitsforEndUsers 5 DRawBacks witH cuRREnt ViRtual DEsktop solutions 5 user challenges with Existing Virtual Desktop solutions 5 ITChallengeswithExistingRetrofittedVirtualDesktopSolutions 6 DEscRiption of RED Hat EntERpRisE ViRtualization foR DEsktops 6 OverviewofBenefits 6 components of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops 7 Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor 9 Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization manager 12 spicE 2 www. redhat. com Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops Benefits of desktop ViRtualization the advent of virtualization technology on x86 platforms has allowed a radically new, cost-effective model of desktop delivery. it allows it to centrally manage, maintain, and enforce policies on desktops in a much more effective and holistic manner than traditional desktops (individual pcs running an operating system (os) and applications) and legacy sBc/terminal services solutions (shared os and applications). this enables bettercomplianceandalsoleadstoasignificantreductioninthetotalcostofownership. Inaddition, virtual desktops can enable powerful new functionality for end users. ThispaperdiscussesindepththebenefitsofthevirtualdesktopmodelandhighlightsRedHatsolutions. [. . . ] on the desktop side, the systems need to work seamlessly with microsoft active Directory and the enterprise desktop build process. it may also need to interface with application streaming technology and management systems. these requirements are very different than those for a virtual server management system. TheaboveproblemsmakeitdifficultandexpensiveforITtodeployvirtualdesktopsolutionsonalargescale. desCRiption of Red Hat enteRpRise ViRtualization foR desktops oveRview of BenefitS Red Hat®EnterpriseVirtualizationforDesktopsisavirtualdesktopsolutionthatprovidesthebenefitsof virtual desktops such as centralized management, maintenance, and policy enforcement, while eliminating the drawbacks of existing solutions. this is a fully integrated component of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, a comprehensive and highly scalable platform for both virtual servers and virtual desktops. with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops, end users experience no difference relative to working on a physical desktop. Graphics intensive applications, multimedia applications like softphones (ip phone clients), and video confe-rencing all work as they do today on physical desktops. from an it perspective, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops is easy to set up, manage, and scale. comPonentS of Red hAt enteRPRiSe viRtuAlizAtion foR deSktoPS from a high level, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops is a software solution that will run on commodityhardwareandconsistsofthreecomponents(seefigureonpage7): · Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor: the server (or cluster of servers) that actually runs the users' virtual desktops. · Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization manager: the management system for all components of the system. this places other solutions at asignificantdisadvantagerelativetoKVM. Desktop optimization Red Hat Enterprise Linux KVM diagram_RHEV_VDH_cluster. ai Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor desktop optimization the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor runs a resource optimization layer that is tied very closely to kVm and plays a role in improving the density of virtual desktops on the server, assisting in the remote rendering of the virtual desktop, and enabling the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor to be a part of the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor cluster. the desktop optimization layer includes several industry-leading algorithms and mechanisms like memory page sharing (done at the host level) or memory ballooning (done at the guest with host level interaction) to improve the density of virtual desktops on a given Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor server. Red hAt enteRPRiSe viRtuAlizAtion hyPeRviSoR: viRtuAl deSktoPS as described above, the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor runs linux, kVm, a resource optimization layer, and then the virtual desktops. the virtual desktops can be either microsoft windows or Red Hat Enterprise linux desktops. 8 www. redhat. com Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops Red hAt enteRPRiSe viRtuAlizAtion mAnAGeR the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization manager is the front-end for the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor and contains all of the control functions required for the virtual desktop solution. it is, in effect, the management system for the entire Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops solution. it manages the provisioning process, connection protocol, user sessions log-on/log-off, virtual desktop pools, virtual desktop images, and the high availability/clustering system. ITadministratorscansearchforusers, desktops, servers, andspecificeventsfromasimpleinterface, and can then manage or act upon any selected component. the search mechanism also supports complex queries and cross correlation of data for quick troubleshooting. some examples of management queries are: · Vms: user . username = *John* AND template. name = *xp* AND Apps = *office* this will show you all desktops that belong to the user "John" that have been derived from a windows Xp template, andthathaveMicrosoftOffice® installed. out of the thousands of desktops that it may have in the system, the administrator can quickly locate this desktop and provide assistance to the user if required. · Vms: CPU_Usage > 90 AND Hosts. Name = vs-a this returns all desktops that are on vs-a that have a cpu usage of >90 percent. this enables it to livemigrate the desktop away from that server, and troubleshoot it if required. [. . . ] for the switchover time (less than two minutes) however, new users will not be able to log onto the system and new desktops cannot run until the backup Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization manager takes over. the entire Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization manager for Desktops system is designed to be fully redundant at the Hypervisor and manager levels. www. redhat. com 11 Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops SPice one of the main reasons that the user experience on virtual desktop systems is inferior to that on a physical desktop is that today's connection protocols are poorly designed and not custom built for virtual desktop environments. for example, RDp was designed in the terminal services era when graphics and multimedia were not a core enterprise computing requirement. Inaddition, RDPisinefficientfromaCPUconsumptionperspectiveregardingavirtualdesktoparchitecture. [. . . ]