VDI Proof of Concept (POC) Test Plan

White Paper

Test Plan:

Executing a VDI Proof of Concept (POC) with Unidesk

Desktop Layering

for VDI™

VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

Introduction Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), when implemented correctly, can provide clear advantages over physical PCs:  Mobility – End users can access their Windows desktops and applications anywhere, anytime from any device, including zero/thin clients, home PCs, smart phones, and pads;  Security – Critical applications and data are moved from the edge into the data center, where they are more secure;  Longevity – Thin and zero clients have much longer lifespans than PCs and laptops, enabling IT to get out of the device management business and avoid recurring 3-5 year PC refresh cycles;  Energy Savings – Zero and thin clients use significantly less power than PCs and laptops;  Manageability – Desktop layering software for VDI makes it much easier to package and deliver applications and apply Windows updates, compared to the legacy PC management tools that are required to manage physical desktops;  Support – Virtual desktops don’t have the physical hardware issues that PCs have. Virtual desktops that are damaged by user configurations can also be fixed in minutes by Level 1 support staff, simply by rolling back the User layer to a previous snapshot. When implemented incorrectly, however, VDI can lead to cost overruns, unhappy end users, far more management complexity than exists with physical PCs, and, ultimately, project stall. Unfortunately, this is too often the case. Why? VDI Proof of Concept (POC) test plans are often incomplete, and fail to anticipate all of the use cases and desktop configurations that will be required at full scale production. As a result, what seemed to work fine for 10 users becomes too hard to manage and too costly to implement for 200 users. This white paper provides POC recommendations and a test plan to ensure that your VDI pilot takes into account everything you’ll need for full scale VDI production success.

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

Audience The intended audience for this white paper is VDI project leads, field consultants, solution architects, and sales engineers who want to test Unidesk VDI management software in conjunction with a connection broker such as Citrix XenDesktop or VMware Horizon View.

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

1. Use Case Definition A successful VDI POC starts with identifying the Use Cases that will be required for your implementation. A university may have “Economics 422 Lab,” Biology 201 Lab,” “Faculty,” “Athletics,” and “Registrar.” A state or local government organization may have “Court,” “Sheriff,” “Health,” “Emergency Management,” “Highway,” “Fire,” “Corrections,” and “Tax Collection.” A manufacturing firm may have “Procurement,” “Customer Support,” “Manufacturing Floor Kiosks,” “Marketing,” “R&D”, and “Sales.” When defining the use case it’s important to collect as much information as possible about desktop requirements. Requirements for each use case can be generally divided between Service Level Requirements and Functional Requirements. Examples of both follow. Note that it’s often better to test define and test fewer cases in their entirety rather than to test small parts of many use cases. Service Level Requirements Requirement

Description

Options

Selection

Availability Operational RTO

Time Desktop is Up Recovery Time for Desktop Recovery Point for Desktop Time to Recover Desktop From Disaster Point at which Desktop Should be Recreated after Disaster Mixture of Graphics Intensity and Processor Utilization

% Value Time Value

99.90% 2 Hours

Time Value

1 Day

Time Value

2 Days

Time Value

2 Hours

Low/Medium/High (High in Graphic Intensity = High) (Medium Graphics intensity = at least Med) Time Value

Low

Time Value

2 Days

Operational RPO DR RTO

DR RPO

Performance

Time to Provision Virtual Desktops Time to Reconfigure Virtual Desktop

Create New Desktop Change Desktop Memory, CPU, Application, Windows

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2 Days

VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

Functional Requirements Requirement

Description

Options

Selection

Operating System

What OS is required for the virtual desktop Allowing microphone input and speaker output Runs agent to display information from the phone system User can access virtual desktop via a web portal Is printing required by users Will USB devices at the users workstation be needed Based on criteria below, what are the graphical computing requirements

Windows XP, 7, 8 Vista, Linux Yes/No

Windows 7 32-bit

Yes/No

No

Yes/No

Yes

Yes/No

Yes

Yes/No

Yes

Low/Med/High

Med

Bi-directional Audio Phone System Integration Web Portal Printing USB Peripherals

Graphic Intensity  

HD Streaming Streaming Media  Media Player  Flash Player  DirectX  CAD  PowerPoint Streaming Media Frequently Processor Utilization Expectation Client Drive Mapping CD/DVD Read Access CD/DVD Write Access Multi-Monitor Web Camera

Yes

Yes/No (Yes=High) No Yes/No (Yes=High) Yes

How often is streaming media required? What is the CPU requirement? Do users require access to drives from client device? Do users require read access to local CD/DVD? Do users require write access to local CD/DVD? Do users require more than one display? Do users require a web camera?

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Yes/No (Yes=High) Yes/No (Yes=High) Yes/No (Yes=Med) Yes/No (Yes=Med) Yes/No (Yes=Med) Often/Sometimes /Seldom Low/Med/High (450 Mhz/900 Mhz/1350 Mhz) Yes/No

Yes Yes Yes No Yes Sometimes

Yes/No

No

Yes/No

No

#/No

No

Yes/No

No

Low

Yes

VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

More Functional Requirements Requirement

Description

Options

Selection

Personalization & Customization

Are there user specific items that must be available from session to session? Users’ work (i.e. Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets, etc) Average amount of storage a user requires for their data Percentage of files over 5MB users will require over slower WAN connections Percentage of files over 2MB users require over faster LAN connections Will users settings stored in the Windows Profile need to persist? Are users given administrative rights, and will apps and plug-ins they install need to persist? Will users need to access desktops from outside the production network? Will users need to access virtual desktops from multiple locations on the production network? Will users need to access virtual desktops while not connected to any network? Is an encrypted channel required from endpoint to virtual desktop? Should users’ logon attempts be logged?

Yes/No

No

Yes/No

No

# value

N/A

# value

N/A

# value

N/A

Yes/No

Yes

Yes/No

Yes

Yes/No

Yes

Yes/No

Yes

Yes/No

No

Yes/No

No

Yes/No

No

 User Data

o Amount in GB o % of Files > 5MB across WAN o % of Files > 2MB across LAN  Profile  User-Installed Apps

Remote Access

Roaming Access

Offline Access

Encrypted Communications Access Logging

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

2. Application Delivery Application delivery is often an overlooked challenge in VDI implementations. Many organizations underestimate the sheer number of applications their users use on a daily basis, and the number of different desktop configurations required by each use case. Application delivery considerations generally fall into the following categories: • •

• • • •

Application volume – The total number of applications that need to be delivered; Application interoperability – Whether the application needs to communicate or integrate with other applications (Microsoft Word and web browser plug-ins being common examples); Standard applications – Whether the application is needed by all or a majority of users; Departmental applications – Whether the application is needed by a subset of users (e.g. 5-50); One-off applications – Whether the application is needed by just 1 or 2 users; Update frequency – How often apps need to be patched or updated.

If you have a large volume of applications (50+), numerous departmental and one-off applications, high update frequencies, or high interoperability requirements, application layering will likely be required for VDI success. Many Standard apps are not virtualization-friendly, and cannot be virtualized at all with legacy application virtualization tools such as VMware ThinApp and Microsoft App-V. Depending on IT skill sets, IT resource availability, and whether an application needs to communicate with other apps or plug-ins, a single app may take days or even weeks to virtualize, ruling out the use of app virtualization for Departmental and One-off apps. Application layering technology is the newer, easier, and more powerful way to package and deliver all applications in VDI. Only a few minutes are required to layer an app – anyone who knows how to run Setup can do it. Once apps are layered, they can be assigned to one or more desktops without reinstallation. The next time the desktops reboot, the applications will be present and available to the users. Layered applications appear to Windows as if they are natively installed, so they do not have the interoperability limitations of virtualized/isolated applications.

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

Most organizations package Standard and Departmental apps as Unidesk application layers so they can be centrally assigned, patched, and maintained by IT. One-off applications are often delegated to end users to install themselves as user-installed apps – Unidesk’s storage-efficient persistent desktops make this easy and affordable. The following table lists a sample application inventory, and the delivery considerations for each app. Application Delivery Considerations Application

Standard

Dept.

One-Off

Interop

Update

Adobe Flash Player 11 ActiveX Adobe Flash Player 11 ActiveX 64-bit Adobe Flash Player 11 Plugin Adobe Reader X (10.1.4) Adobe Reader 9.4.0 Adobe Shockwave Player 11.6 AllMedia Grabber Apple Application Support Atomic Alarm Clock 5.81 Bullzip PDF Printer 7.2.0.1304 Centra Client Cisco Systems VPN Client 4.8.01.0300 Cisco WebEx Meetings Citrix Desktop Receiver Citrix online plug-in - web Citrix HTML5 HDX Engine Citrix offline plug-in Citrix online plug-in - web Citrix XenApp Plugin for Hosted Apps Connector ID CopySafe PDF CopySafe Plugin DAEMON Tools Lite Dell Laser MFP 1815 Software Uninstall Everything 1.2.1.371 FastStone Capture 5.2 Google Quick Search Box

Yes

No

No

Yes

6 months

No

Yes

No

Yes

6 months

No Yes No No

Yes No Yes Yes

No No No No

Yes Yes Yes Yes

6 months 6 months 6 months 6 months

No

No

Yes

No

9 months

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan GPL Ghostscript 8.61 GPL Ghostscript Fonts GPL MPEG-1/2 DirectShow Decoder Filter GPL Ghostscript Lite 8.70 Greenshot Growl for Windows Growl Outlook Add-In IBM Standard Software Installer Icon Restore 1.0 Java DB 10.2.2.0 Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 SDK JavaFX 2.1.1 KB2600644_Mui_1033 KeePass Password Safe 2.13 Ken Test Application Lotus Notes 8.5.1 Microsoft Document Explorer 2008 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Microsoft Office Outlook Microsoft Forefront Client Security Antimalware Service Microsoft Forefront Client Security State Assessment Service Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 Microsoft Help Viewer 1.1 Microsoft IntelliPoint 8.1 Microsoft Lync 2010 Microsoft Lync Web App Plug-in Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Agent

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan Microsoft Outlook Social Connector Provider for Facebook 64-bit Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008 SP1 Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) Microsoft SQL Server VSS Writer Microsoft User Experience Virtualization Agent Microsoft Visio Professional 2010 Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium - ENU Mozilla Firefox 13.0.1 (x86 en-US) Network Recording Player Notepad++ QuickTime SonicWALL Global VPN Client System Center Operations Manager 2012 Agent SysTrack Administrative Tools ThinApp Adobe Reader 8.2.0 (VMware ThinApp) ThinApp Adobe Reader X (VMware ThinApp) TweetDeck Virtual Machine Planner (x64) VirtualCloneDrive VMware Tools VMware View Agent VMware View Client VMware vSphere Client 5.0 WebEx WebEx Productivity Tools Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant Windows Media Format 11 runtime

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

Once you have completed your inventory, try to layer applications that are normally difficult to virtualize with App-V, ThinApp, and other legacy application virtualization technologies. • • • • •

Applications with services Applications with shell access Applications with drivers (e.g. CutePDF Writer, scanners, printers) Application plugins Custom-built applications

Layer these and the other apps in your chosen test use cases with Unidesk to prove you can deliver and patch all of your applications with ease. Each app will only take 20 minutes or so to layer, so many organizations will layer 20-50 apps during the POC.

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

3. Image Management Image management is another important consideration for VDI success. It is not uncommon for VDI projects to stall or fail due to large numbers of golden operating system images that must be patched to stay current with Microsoft Windows hot fix and service pack releases. Image sprawl occurs when administrators need to create multiple parent VMs and golden images for every pool, or build applications that cannot be virtualized into the golden image. With Unidesk layering technology, only one clean golden Windows OS layer is usually required for all desktops, since all applications can be quickly and easily packaged as separate application layers, and since physical VM settings (e.g. CPU, memory) can be configured separate from the OS layer. The following table provides an example to estimate the number of golden images your VDI implementation will require. Create as many golden OS layers as you need during your POC to validate how easy it will be to create desktops with Unidesk layering technology. Image Management Planning Requirement

Number of Golden Images

Windows XP 32-bit Windows XP 64-bit Windows 7 32-bit Windows 7 64-bit

1 0 1 0

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

4. Storage Requirements The POC is a good opportunity to understand exactly how much storage capacity your production VDI deployment will require. Unidesk layering technology provides the same or better storage savings than VMware Linked Clones, Citrix Provisioning Server (PVS), or Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS) image sharing technologies, but with the simplicity and efficiency advantages in application delivery and image management described above. Unidesk also provides this storage savings for both non-persistent and persistent desktops, whereas the blockbased image sharing technologies can only provide the savings for non-persistent desktops. The following table helps you estimate your storage requirements for your VDI POC, and extrapolate the storage requirements for your full VDI implementation. Storage Considerations Desktop Components

Storage Capacity

OS Layer Application Layers (~50 apps) User Layer (per desktop, persistent-only) Boot Images (per desktop, for vSwap, pagefile, dump file)

16 GB 200 GB 5 GB 4 GB

50 full-sized persistent desktops, assuming each desktop required 40 GBs of capacity, would normally require 2 TB of storage capacity. However, Unidesk stores OS and Application layers only once per datastore, eliminating redundant Windows OS and application storage. The following formula can be used to calculate Unidesk storage requirements: ((OS layer size + Application layers size) * (# of Desktop CachePoints + 1 Master CachePoint)) + (# of desktops * size of User layer) + (Boot images * # of desktops) = Total Space Required Plugging these numbers in, assuming a POC with 50 persistent desktops and a single Master CachePoint virtual appliance to host the desktops, would require: ((16+200)*1) + (50*5) + (50*4) = 666 GB That’s a savings of 1.33 TB, or 66% for 50 persistent virtual desktops. The VDI storage footprint can be reduced even further by implementing non-persistent virtual desktops with Unidesk. By choosing the minimum User layer size of 400 MB, only

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

20 GB would be required for User layer storage instead of 250 GB. The capacity requirement for 50 non-persistent virtual desktops would then be 436 GB. That’s a savings of 15.7 TB, or 78% for 50 non-persistent virtual desktops.

5. Personalization and Customization Many users will expect a PC-like experience. They will not be satisfied with a virtual desktop that does not sustain their settings and configurations between sessions and remember where they “left off.” You may also learn from your application inventory that you have a large number of application “one-offs” – apps that are used by only a few users. The effort to virtualize or even layer these applications may not be worthwhile. Unidesk persistent desktops are an ideal solution to address both of these requirements. Unidesk storage-efficient persistent desktops naturally keep all user customizations without the need for third party profile management tools. Userinstalled apps are also captured, which profile management tools cannot do. The User Layer leverages the native Windows Profile to retain all settings. The User Layer also captures all writes, including data and user-installed apps. By allocating a specific amount of space to each User Layer, you can enable your end users to install their own one-off apps to offload IT, and still control how big each User Layer can be. By configuring the User Layer snapshot frequency, you can also enable your service desk to quickly repair desktops that are broken by a user modification. Level 1 service desk personnel can roll the User Layer back to any previous snapshot for any desktop to quickly eradicate any malware, viruses, DLL conflicts, or other problems, essentially “undoing” whatever damage the user may have caused. Test these Personalization capabilities during your POC: 1.

Have a user install Google Toolbar while using their desktop. Verify that it works perfectly with the web browser packaged and delivered by IT. Verify that Google Toolbar is still there after the desktop is patched and rebooted.

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

2. 3. 4. 5.

Install a print driver for the user. Verify it can print. Verify the print driver is still there after the desktop is patched and rebooted. Change the background of the desktop. Follow same steps as above. Save files to the desktop. Follow same steps as above. Configure the snapshot frequency. Make sure a snapshot has been taken. Install user-installed apps and create data. Restore the desktop to the snapshot. Verify that the user-installed apps and data created after the snapshot are gone.

6. Choosing Your End Users It is important to select the right user group for POC testing. Users should be as representative as possible for the chosen use cases. Users should also be friendly to IT, and willing to provide feedback. One customer – Sunrise Health Region – chose opinion leaders for its VDI POC with Citrix XenDesktop and Unidesk as it prepares for its 3,000-user production deployment. The healthcare organization deployed 50 Unidesk POC desktops to everyone in IT, including the VP Corporate Services, as well as to select power users in Registration, Payroll, Finance, and a few other departments. The power users use their Unidesk desktops through Citrix Receiver on iPad, Android devices, Wyse clients, and repurposed PCs. Because the power users are seen walking around accessing their desktops and apps from iPads, everyone else wants to do the same, which is creating tremendous pull for VDI.

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

7. Sample POC Test Plan Following is a sample test plan that summarizes many of the requirements already discussed. Visit the Unidesk Technical Training Center for additional details and instructions for each step. 1. Follow the POC checklist to setup POC environment 2. Install Unidesk 3. Prep your Gold Image using the Unidesk Unattend Builder and Optimization Builder (available in the Unidesk Download Center) 4. Import the OS layer and test creation of the first desktop 5. Create Installation Machines 6. Create an OS version, update the OS 7. Create App Layers for applications defined in POC 8. Test applications after packaging 9. Create a POC desktop and test 10. Create user desktops, test one or two 11. Add desktops to broker pools to test Citrix XenDesktop or VMware Horizon View integration 12. Hold training session, have users use desktops 13. Add applications and update OS layer during POC 14. Revert to earlier app and OS layer versions to verify mistakes can be undone 15. Create templates with pre-selected combinations of layers Encourage end users to exercise their virtual desktops: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Work in the virtual desktop environment as much as possible Browse with different web browsers Use Microsoft Office Use critical business/organization applications Open files from flash drive Save files to home drive Print to various network printers Access virtual desktop from home PC Access virtual desktop from BYOD device (iPad, Android) Install an application, verify it persists between sessions Change profile settings, verify they persist between sessions

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

8. End User Questionnaire Survey your end users at the end of the POC to ensure the VDI experience meets their requirements. Here are some sample questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Was the login process and interaction with your virtual desktop intuitive? Did you experience any problems? Was the performance of the applications on your virtual desktop adequate? Please explain your expectations for performance followed by your experience. Was your desktop experience from home and other locations different from your experience at work? Was the functionality and performance of printing adequate? Please explain your expectations for printing followed by your experience. What if any issues did you experience during the POC? Was there anything missing compared to your physical PC? Now that you understand how the virtual desktop works, how do you think it will help you? With which activities?

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VDI Proof of Concept Test Plan

About Unidesk Corporation Unidesk Corporation (www.unidesk.com) provides the management platform that accelerates the movement of Microsoft Windows desktops® to the cloud. Unidesk® layering technology enables Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to deliver more applications, satisfy more use cases, and offer a more personal user experience with less IT effort and less storage. By connecting to Unidesk desktops from Citrix XenDesktop®, VMware Horizon View™ and other brokering solutions, customers expedite VDI projects, reduce desktop operations costs up to 30%, cut VDI storage capacity requirements up to 85%, and enhance worker productivity. Unidesk Corp. is a privately-held company with headquarters in Marlborough, Mass, USA.

Unidesk Corporation, 313 Boston Post Road West, Marlborough, MA 01752 USA Tel 508-573-7800 Fax 508-573-7801 Copyright © 2013 Unidesk Corp. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. Unidesk is a registered trademark of Unidesk Corp. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Item No: UNI-WP-POC -TEST-PLAN Date: April 2013

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