Many of you who design, administer, and implement VMware View environments have probably encountered the discussion of how to integrate ThinApp into View desktops. So FYI there is a series of posts on the ThinApp Blog which discuss a strategy for integration. The ThinApp Blog has a series of posts, Integrating ThinApp Packages with View Part 1, Integrating ThinApp Packages with View Part 2, View and ThinApp Integration Guide - Part 3 or you can download the end product of that series . . . the VMware View and ThinApp Integration Guide. The guide discusses several of the topics covered in the previous posts but brings it all together with some task based scenarios that walk you through initial setup and configuration with screenshots and sample scripts.
So if you are looking for answers to these questions, this guide is for you.
How does ThinApp fit in with View Persistent and Non-Persistent Pools?
Should I stream all my ThinApp packages from a fileshare or deploy them into the VMs?
How do I use ThinApp and View Composer together?
Where you I put my ThinApp packages? On the C:, the User Data Disk, a fileshare?
How do I manage updates after the packages are in use?
Will users keep their unique settings like toolbar buttons when running ThinApps from different desktops?
How do I manage shortcuts and FileTypeAssociations for multi-user VMs?
VMware Leverages VMware vSphereTM Platform, New PCoIP Protocol and Rich Partner Ecosystem to Deliver Complete Desktop as a Managed Service Solution
PALO ALTO, CA--(November 9, 2009) - VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop through the datacenter and to the cloud, today announced VMware View™ 4, enabling rapid adoption of virtualized desktops and establishing a desktop as a managed service model. VMware View™ 4 is the industry's only purpose-built desktop virtualization solution, setting a new quality, cost and scale standard for desktop virtualization environments. Built on VMware vSphere™, the industry's leading virtualization platform, VMware View 4 is a complete desktop virtualization solution featuring a rich, flexible desktop user experience while delivering dramatic efficiency, security, performance, scalability and management improvements -- all while reducing desktop total cost of ownership by as much as 50 percent.
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Desktop virtualization has long remained a top IT goal because of the added security, manageability and compliance capabilities delivered. Adoption, however, has been limited due to high acquisition costs, insufficient user experience, scalability issues and limitations on the use cases that could benefit from virtualized desktops. With VMware View 4, VMware and its ecosystem of partners eliminate these barriers, enabling broader, mainstream enterprise adoption of desktop virtualization.
VMware View™ 4 provides:
Simplified desktop provisioning and management with flexible on-demand provisioning of thousands of desktops and applications instantaneously and the ability to manage up to tens of thousands of desktops from a single console
User flexibility and rich user experience with always on access to applications and desktops from nearly any device
Differentiated desktop SLAs including enterprise-class availability, disaster recovery, failover and scalability supporting tens of thousands of users across the enterprise
Improved security and compliance through centralized management of security policies permissions and updates
"At VMware, we're extremely proud of the impact we've had on the datacenter, transforming decades old computing models and accelerating the emergence of private and public cloud environments," said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer, VMware. "With the introduction of VMware View 4, we see an equally compelling opportunity to leverage our knowledge and expertise in virtualization and forever change how desktop services are both delivered and consumed."
"In addressing the main barriers to broad desktop virtualization adoption -- acquisition costs, user experience and scalability -- VMware, along with its broad ecosystem of partners is working to pave the way for enterprises to more easily transform their desktops into a managed service with significantly improved security, management, availability and compliance at a reduced total cost of ownership," said IDC industry analyst Mike Rose. "IDC expects that because of these and other advances, organizations will continue to increase the size of virtual desktop environments both in terms of users and use cases."
"VMware View 4 will enable us to centralize the management of our virtual desktops in regional data centers -- without compromising the end-user experience that they're used to today," said Greg Ball, solutions architect for Owens Corning. "VMware View 4 will also offer a lot more control over the data that's coming in and out of the virtual desktops than we ever had before. Thanks to the flexibility and ease of administration, we will be able to manage our growing desktop deployment without exponentially growing our staff."
Highest Quality Desktop Experience
VMware View 4 establishes a new desktop experience standard, capable of satisfying the broadest range of users -- from the basic task worker to the designer, with a rich, high-quality user environment across the widest range of devices and networks. View 4 will deliver a complete desktop environment including:
VMware View with PC over IP (PCoIP) -- New adaptive display protocol specifically developed for virtual desktop delivery dynamically detects device type, network connections and locations providing the optimal desktop experience for each unique user scenario. Only VMware View with PCoIP analyzes and optimizes for both hardware and software environments. A strong ecosystem of hardware and solution providers have announced support for PCoIP, enabling adoption and support of this key innovation.
VMware View Display -- Multi-monitor, adaptive display support, resolution optimization for each monitor with an option to pivot and rotate the display output, supporting rich audio and video content with increased performance.
VMware View Direct -- Seamless mapping from the virtual desktop to the end users device for locally attached peripherals through USB connection for increased productivity.
VMware View Printing -- Users automatically discover, connect and print to locally attached printer without the need to install print drivers. Delivers a high quality printing experience even over low bandwidth connections.
VMware View Unified Access -- Continuous desktop availability with a single point of authentication for users to access -- VMware View environments, Windows Terminal Servers, Blade PCs or even remote physical PCs.
"We are looking forward to deploying VMware View 4 for easier, more cost-effective centralized management of our desktops," said Mark Larsen, senior systems engineer for Jostens. "With VMware View 4, we will be able to efficiently deploy and manage secure desktops for users and scale out as our business grows. VMware View will also provide our employees with rich user experiences so they can access their desktops and, even, graphically-rich applications across a wide range of devices and networks."
Reduced Acquisition Cost and TCO
VMware View 4 will establish new levels of efficiency and cost savings through product advancements and close collaboration with partners, driving down storage, networking and compute resource costs.
Platform Optimization -- VMware View 4 is built upon VMware vSphere 4, the industry's leading virtualization platform. VMware vSphere 4 includes unique enhancements for desktop virtualization, delivering better performance and higher virtual machine densities to support demanding desktop environments on a minimum number of servers, reducing overall costs.
Centralized Security and Management -- VMware View 4 will enable enterprises to significantly reduce the ongoing management and operating expenses associated with desktops. Centralized management, standardized desktop images and flexible provisioning and upgrades enable enterprises to manage thousands of users from a single console while bringing greater enforcement of security, permissions and compliance policies. Customer deployments consistently demonstrate administrative cost reductions of 50 percent or greater.
Broad Ecosystem Alignment -- Desktops as a managed service requires coordination between multiple software and hardware infrastructure providers to reduce the overall solution cost and to drive support and interoperability. Through close collaboration with key partners ranging from PCoIP hardware endpoints and other thin clients to management, security, storage and network infrastructure providers, and ISVs, VMware has further reduced acquisition costs and TCO for customers. VMware and partners have designed, built, and validated end-to-end solutions of hardware and software to take the guesswork out of designing a virtualized desktop deployment, documented in reference architectures (see http://www.vmware.com/products/view/resources.html).
VMware provides a TCO desktop calculator http://www.vmware.com/go/view_calculator to enable customers to estimate their year-over-year savings with VMware View 4.
New Scalability and Performance Standards
VMware View 4 also raises the bar for performance and scalability of desktops with:
Industry-Leading Virtualization Platform -- VMware vSphere 4 will ensure scalability and consistent performance regardless of desktop loads and across peak usage periods, balancing resources and requirements for optimal performance, without disruption or downtime. Proven in the most demanding enterprise environments, vSphere will deliver unparalleled availability and business continuity for virtualized desktop environments, ensuring the highest level of performance without disruption to desktop users.
Scalable Desktop Management -- With VMware View 4, customers will be able to deploy and manage up to tens of thousands of desktops as a result of advancements in desktop brokering technology.
Partner Ecosystem Optimization -- VMware View takes advantage of unique optimization at the CPU, hardware, server and network levels to drive the highest performance, highest quality solutions. Partners also have provided reference architectures (http://www.vmware.com/products/view/resources.html) -- blueprints showing best practices for deploying virtualized desktops -- for VMware View 4.
Pricing and Availability
VMware View 4 will be generally available on November 19, 2009 through VMware sales and the company's extensive network of OEM partners and channel partners.
VMware View 4 is a family of products available in two editions:
VMware View 4, Enterprise Edition: includes VMware vSphere 4 for desktops, VMware vCenter 4 and VMware View Manager 4, a flexible desktop management server enabling IT administrators to quickly provision and tightly control user access.
VMware View 4, Premier Edition: includes VMware vSphere 4 for desktops, VMware vCenter 4, VMware View Manager 4, VMware ThinApp 4 and VMware View Composer requirements.
VMware View 4 Enterprise Edition is priced at $150 per concurrent connection and the VMware View 4 Premier Edition is priced at $250 per concurrent connection.
About VMware VMware delivers solutions for business infrastructure virtualization that enable IT organizations to energize businesses of all sizes. With the industry leading virtualization platform -- VMware vSphere™ -- customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, improve agility, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion, more than 150,000 customers and 22,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization which consistently ranks as a top priority among CIOs. VMware is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.
VMware, VMware View and VMware vSphere 4 are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements made in this press release which are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements and are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements relate, but are not limited, to, the adoption and deployment of VMware products and architecture, benefits that customers may achieve from our products and the timing of product releases. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) the duration and timing of recovery from negative economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in consumer or information technology spending; (iii) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, industry consolidation, entry of new competitors into the desktop virtualization market, and new product and marketing initiatives by our competitors;(iv) our customers' ability to develop, and to transition to, new products; (v) the uncertainty of customer acceptance of emerging technology initiatives; (vi) rapid technological and market changes in virtualization software; (vii) our ability to protect our proprietary technology; and (viii) delays to our product delivery pipeline. These forward looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent reports on Form 10-Q and Form 10-K and current reports on Form 8-K that we may file from time to time. VMware disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.
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Steve Herrod, the Senior VP of R&D at VMware presented his keynote at VMworld 2009. Outside we were able to catch up with Steve and dive into some of the interesting topics he was talking about during his keynote..
View Manager 3.1 includes the following enhancements:
Performance Improvements - Login times are significantly improved and server utilization is reduced.
Automated LDAP Data and View Composer Database Backup - You can now configure automated backup of LDAP data and View Composer databases in View Administrator, enabling disaster recovery.
Client Information - Information about the client device that the end user is connecting from is now provided for the desktop session as registry settings. This enables customers to use third party tools or create custom scripts to map local printers to devices. The information available includes the device name, IP address, and MAC address.
Improved Logging - Debug logs are now enabled by default. Logging has been improved to provide more informational messages with minimal performance impact.
Edit Desktop Wizard Navigation - Improved wizard navigation enables you to quickly modify existing desktop pools.
USB Improvements - View 3.1 offers more reliable and broader device support with reduced bandwidth consumption. A separate TCP/IP stream is used.
Multimedia Redirection (MMR) for Windows Vista - MMR is now supported in Windows Vista environments. MMR technology delivers the multimedia stream directly to the client using an RDP virtual channel instead of decoding and rendering it with RDP. This enables full fidelity playback in View Client.
Adobe Flash Bandwidth Reduction - The Adobe Flash bandwidth reduction feature improves end-user productivity when browsing Adobe Flash content.
Multi-Protocol Support - View Client can now use HP Remote Graphics Software (RGS) as the display protocol when connecting to HP Blade PCs, HP Workstations, and HP Blade Workstations. The connection is brokered by View Manager. HP RGS is a display protocol from HP that allows a user to access the desktop of a remote computer over a standard network. VMware View 3.1 supports HP RGS Version 5.2.5. VMware does not bundle or license HP RGS with View 3.1. Please contact HP to license a copy of HP RGS software version 5.2.5 to use with View 3.1. This release does not support HP RGS connections to virtual machines.
I came across this great article about linked clones that Vmware has in their Vmware View 3. It also got me thinking a bit, because Citrix XenDesktop Platinum, which has Citrix Provisioning Server included is so much better. No LUN mistakes, no growth on the base image etc.etc. So, be sure to read this article if you are on the verge of choosing a VDI solution. My bet is still that XenDesktop is far better than the other VDI solutions out there.
... discussing some of the new features in VMware View 3 and these articles really went straight to the point for me in regards to the hype surrounding the linked-clone technology and how it might not necessarily be the great solution that everyone makes it out to be.
The author makes two points, the first being that “snapshots can grow up to the same size as the source disk.” While not a common situation, the author points out that the Windows NTFS filesystem will always write to blocks on the disk that are zero’d (completely empty) before it will write to blocks containing deleted files. The author gives the example of having 10GB free space on the filesystem according to the Windows guest OS and then writing/deleting a 1GB file 10 times will result in the snapshot growing to 10GB.
