Impressive features is how the Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) 3.0 software is described by Pedro Gomez, who describes a few them in his blog along with screenshots to demonstrate his points. For those looking ahead, Dirk Grobler explains why Sun VDI 3.1 early access (EA) may be worth trying, noting that the upcoming release will be adding some major updates.

VDI 3.0

Eight specific features of this version of Sun VDI are highlighted by Gomez.

• 1) Directorial role of managing the different components
• 2) Choice of LDAP or Active Directory
• 3) Choice of virtualization platform: VMware and VirtualBox
• 4) Assigning the desktop to users
• 5) Cloning capabilities
• 6) Power consumption and powering off/on desktops
• 7) Secure Global Desktop (SGD) integration
• 8) High availability elements in the architecture

"We have several key technologies in the virtualization field, some of them are extremely mature, (Sun Ray), some of them fairly new (VirtualBox) and some of them enterprise quality design (Secure Global Desktop)," Gomez writes. "All these elements are nicely coordinated by the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platform." VDI 3.1 EA

The highlights from Grobler number 11 on this beta version of the Sun VDI, although he indicates there are many more. The new additions include:

• 1) Microsoft Hyper-V support
• 2) Microsoft RDS support
• 3) VirtualBox 3.0.x
• 4) Template Management module: guest OS independent, manages different versions of hard disks
• 5) Integrated web console for VirtualBox
• 6) Host and Storage Maintenance
• 7) Virtual Networking: the option of isolating the virtual desktop network traffic per desktop pool, or assigning multiple subnets to virtual desktops.
• 8) RDP client configuration per desktop pool: access for Sun Ray clients can now be configured on a per pool basis.
• 9) Sun Desktop Access Client: the software version of the Sun Ray
• 10) Flash acceleration for MS Windows XP and 2003 desktops
• 11) USB redirection for MS Windows XP desktops and all hosted VirtualBox guest OSes

More Information

VDI 3.0 . The Orchestrator - Gomez's blog

Why would you want to give Sun VDI 3.1 EA a try? - Grobler's blog

VDI 3.0

Download for VDI 3.1 EA

Wiki for VDI 3.0

Wiki for VDI EA 3.1

Sun Microsystems' VDI 3 Offers Strong Appeal

Sun VDI 3.1 Architecture and New Features - slides presented during Oracle OpenWorld 2009

Sun Desktop Virtualization

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