In his InformationWeek review of Sun's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) 3.0, Randy George finds a lot to praise along with a rather significant caveat, which has to do with Oracle's yet unannounced plans for the Solaris OS.

George likes the Active Directory support for client authentication, the integration with VMware's ESX/VirtualCenter for Virtual Desktop hosting and the built-in support for Remote Desktop Protocol.

He points out that running VDI 3.0 means users have to embrace Solaris, because VDI Core and VirtualBox require 64-bit hardware running Solaris 10 Update 6. Since Solaris can rim on any 64-bit-ready x86 box, those using ESX as hypervisor will need to worry only about managing Solaris on the VDI Core box.

VDI 3.0 presented no configuration problems, George reports, nor any in tying virtual desktop access to the Active Directory user accounts and groups in our test environment. VDI Core also can authenticate against LDAP databases.

But, he notes, VDI Core comes with a relatively basic set of performance management and provisioning features compared with other connection brokers, such as Sychron and Quest. This means IT can't prioritize connection requests based on the desktop pool, which means one group of users may take server resources from another group. George writes that he would have liked to see more application awareness, load balancing, and support for other hypervisors.

Part of the plus of VDI Core, the review notes, is that it can be configured to automatically clone new virtual desktops in a given desktop pool based on increasing user demand, and then spin them back down when demand drops.

The review also praises the way Sun allows VDI 3.0 to create a master image not joined to the domain, and then works with sysprep, which changes the clone's security identifier (SID) and joins it to the Windows domain automatically. While other players possess this capability, Sun executes it very well, George observes.

He also liked how the virtual desktop images ran a variety of software, including Office, applications served out via terminal services, and a connection to Salesforce.com. All the applications worked well in a virtual desktop environment, and actually performed faster than they do on a regular fat client computer.

George writes of having easily accessed virtual desktops via the Web portal and through thin clients. Using the portal, it was possible to quickly log in to virtual desktops using AD credentials. While the portal itself worked as advertised, nothing made it stand out from the other connection brokers tested.

The Sun Ray 270 thin clients also came in for praise from George. Aside from the aesthetic appeal of the devices, he writes, they include a smartcard reader for two-factor authentication. The token associated with the smartcard can be tied to a particular user or desktop pool so that when users log in, the appropriate virtual desktop is automatically launched.

Now, then, about that caveat: George writes that, "...while there's plenty to like about VDI Core 3.0, enterprises must also consider a few variables, not the least of which is whether VDI Core will exist a year from now with the recent acquisition of Sun by Oracle."

A further reservation has to do with the lack of support for Hyper-V at the virtualization layer. Sun also limits storage choices to its own OpenStorage or Sun's Unified Storage Server (aka Amber Road) if you use Sun's VirtualBox hypervisor, George writes, adding that neither storage platform supports Fibre Channel. If you use ESX, however, you can use any storage system.

George concludes his review pondering whether Microsoft-centric IT shops will embrace Solaris, particularly when Solaris administration is a skill set that's relatively difficult to find and expensive to obtain. That said, if you have Solaris expertise in house or are willing to get it, Sun VDI is worth consideration.

More Information

Getting Started Guide for Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) 3.0

Are Three Hosts Truly Necessary to Run VDI 3?

Webinar on Sun VirtualBox [...read more...]

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