The steps for this process are as follows:

1.) Open Active Directory by choosing Start, then Administrative Tools and Active Directory Users and Computers.

2.) Right-click on the domain name, and select Properties.

3.) Click the Group Policy tab, select New and type the name of the new policy added (Ex: “2X Client”).

 4.) Click Properties, choose the Security tab to select/add the users/groups to which you would like the policy applied, click Apply and click OK.

5.) Click Edit.

6.) At this point, the Group Policy Object Editor should appear; choose User Configuration then Software Settings.

7.) Choose Software Installation, then New and Package to type the full Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path of the installer package desired (Ex:\\servername\sharedfolder\2XClient.msi). Also be sure that users have access rights to the shared folder.

Note: You can change the Default Client Settings when installing the 2X Client v. 8.1 by exporting a “2XSettings.2xc” file from a client to the same folder where the .msi file is being deployed. For further information on passing the settings in this fashion, please see here.

In the sysvol folder, you should now have the following:

8.) When the following deployment menu appears, select Assigned, then OK.

9.) Right-click on the 2X Client and choose Properties.

10.) Click on the Deployment tab, check “Install this application at logon” and click Apply.

11.) The 2X Client should begin installation upon the user’s next logon.

Reference : How to use Group Policy to Remotely Install Software in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows Server 2008 

*Applies to Windows Server 2003 and 2008

The product has received significant demand so far, especally from customers with large server farm installations, to offer them the priority support they need to ensure maximum uptime. Included in the purchase price is a free seat at an on-site training session at a local 2X office*, to allow your administrator to become a certified 2Xpert, 2X Software’s expert designation.

2X Gold Support provides a powerful insurance policy to protect your investment in 2X technology. To order, please contact a 2X reseller, order online at www.2x.com/order, or email sales.us@2x.com for a quote. Gain peace of mind from ordering 2X Gold Support today!

*Does not include transportation, lodging for training

Dallas, TX, August 16, 2010 – 2X Software, a VMware Select TAP Partner, today announced that VMware has awarded the 2X CloudClient OS (CCOS) the VMware Ready™ designation, recognizing the product as passing VMware’s detailed evaluation and testing process, and the product’s listing in the VMware Partner Product Catalog. By completing extensive VMware-specific testing, the 2X CloudClient OS has been certified to make the best use of VMware technology and recognizes the product’s readiness for deployment to customer environments.

“We are pleased that the 2X CloudClient OS has been certified through the VMware Ready™ designation,” said Nikolaos Makris, CEO of 2X Software. “The 2X CloudClient OS offers VMware customers a powerful tool in allowing them to convert desktops, laptops, thin clients and other devices to cloud clients that can immediately deliver web applications where they are needed. We look forward to the continued recognition of the strength and stability of the 2X product line.”

The VMware Ready program is a VMware co-branding program for qualified partner products and is a benefit of the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program. With more than 1,200 members worldwide, the VMware TAP program works with best-of-breed technology partners to provide them a comprehensive set of VMware technical and marketing services, support, tools and expertise to deliver enhanced value to joint customers.

About the 2X CloudClient OS

The 2X CCOS can be instantly installed on a USB device (minimum USB size required is 512 MB). The portable CloudClient operating system can then be run from any computer that can boot from a USB device, allowing you to instantly connect to hosted virtual desktop applications, such as Google Apps, Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware. It serves as your personal cloud client that you can carry in your pocket, wherever you might need it.

Alternatively, you can burn the 2X CloudClient OS to a bootable CD-ROM, or install it on a local hard drive and run it as a Network Boot OS from your local network.

Features:

• Supports Web applications, such as Google Apps, Microsoft Live, Web browsers, and more
• Includes virtual desktop and application clients, such as Microsoft RDP, VMware View, Citrix XenApp and the 2X VirtualDesktopServer Client
• Installs and boots from any type of USB device, or from a CDROM and hard drive
• Converts standard PCs, laptops, netbooks or thin clients to a cloud device

To access the 2X CloudClient OS within the online VMware Partner Product Catalog, please visit: 2X CCOS Download.

About 2X

2X Software Ltd develops enterprise server-based virtual computing software, enabling desktop virtualization and application streaming on personal computers and thin client devices. Its product line, which includes the award-winning 2X VirtualDesktopServer and 2X ApplicationServer, is easily scalable, installable, and manageable with straightforward licensing, resulting in product prices far below those of competitors. For more information, please visit: http://www.2x.com.

If you browse to the site without entering in the path to the Web Access Portal logon page, you will be shown the page below:

To enable the end user to only browse to the site without entering the full path to the logon page, you will need to first open the IIS Manager and go to the 2x Web Access Portal site:

Then, click the “Basic Settings” link on the right of the navigation pane:

Edit the physical path of the website by clicking the “…” button:

Browse to the 2X Web Portal directory and click “OK” to save changes:

Confirm the physical path has changed to “\inetpub\wwwroot\2XWebPortal\”:

You will now need to add the logon page to the list of default documents. Failure to complete this step will yield the following result when attempting to browse the site:

Next, Open  “Default Documents” within the 2X Web Portal site in the IIS manager:

Click on the “Add” link within the Default Documents page in the IIS Manager:

Type “logon.aspx” within the Add Default Document box:

Confirm the “logon.aspx page” has been added at the top of the Default Documents list:

You can now browse to the site and access the 2X Web Access Portal logon page without entering the full path:

As you can see, it’s very simple to configure your locally-installed printer within the 2X Client for Macs; configuration settings can be easily set using the Options tab within the 2X Client, which allows you to specify the printer name and driver of your choice. The selected printer is then redirected to appear in the print dialog box, allowing you choose this printer in completing print jobs.

For more information on 2X ApplicationServer and 2X VirtualDesktopServer features and functionality, please visit: http://www.2x.com.

Dallas, TX, August 3, 2010 – The leading virtualization resource site, VirtualizationAdmin.com, announced today that the 2X ApplicationServer for Windows Terminal Services was selected as winner of the Application Server category of the VirtualizationAdmin.com Readers’ Choice Awards. 

“Our Readers’ Choice Awards give visitors to our site the opportunity to vote for the products they view as the very best in their respective category,” said Sean Buttigieg, VirtualizationAdmin.com manager. “VirtualizationAdmin.com users are specialists in their field who encounter various solutions for virtualization at the workplace.  The award serves as a mark of excellence, providing the ultimate recognition from peers within the industry.”

VirtualizationAdmin.com conducts bi-monthly polls to discover which product is preferred by administrators in a particular category of third party solutions for virtualization environments. The awards draw a huge response per category and are based entirely on the visitors’ votes. VirtualizationAdmin.com users can submit their votes for the current Readers’ Award poll in the site’s left-hand bar.

To see the complete Readers’ Choice Awards results, please visit: Readers’ Choice Awards Results.

About 2X ApplicationServer for Windows Terminal Services

The 2X ApplicationServer tunnels any Windows application or desktop onto remote computers, including Mac and Linux desktops, without the need to install the application or desktop onto each user’s machine. This provides significant savings on administration and support. Key features include:

• Application publishing, rather than local installation
• Tunneling specific applications rather than a complete desktop
• Publish applications to Web interface
• Publish Windows applications to Linux and Mac
• Multiple monitor support
• Automatic redundancy
• Application publishing based on username, group membership or IP
• Seamless integration with local desktop and taskbar
• SSL-secured connection to applications
• Universal printing and scanning
• Application license management
• Integration with 2X LoadBalancer
• Windows 2008 Server 32 / 64-bit support

The 2X ApplicationServer Version 8 was recently released, combining virtual computing technology and thin client management within a single application. New features include TWAIN re-direction, improved direct client settings management and the zero-management thin client feature. For more information on Version 8 features, please visit our blog post.

For a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) comparison of the 2X ApplicationServer 8 vs. Citrix XenApp 5, please visit our TCO blog post.

Obtaining the Trial Version

2X is offering a 30-day trial version of the 2X ApplicationServer for Windows Terminal Services. After the 30-day trial period, users can still use the 3-connection free version by registering for the 3-connection license key on the 2X website. Download the trial version today.

About VirtualizationAdmin.com

VirtualizationAdmin.com (http://www.VirtualizationAdmin.com) is a Virtualization resource site. It is a leading Virtualization site, attracting over 70,000 administrators and specialists a month. The site provides the latest Virtualization news, articles and tutorials by leading Virtualization experts, message boards, an exclusive FAQ, software listings and product reviews.

VirtualizationAdmin.com forms part of a group of sites run by TechGenix Ltd., including http://www.windowsnetworking.com – a comprehensive Windows Networking resource site; http://www.msexchange.org, a Microsoft Exchange Server resource site; http://www.windowsecurity.com, a Windows security resource site and http://www.isaserver.org, a Microsoft ISA Server resource site. For more information, please visit http://www.virtualizationadmin.com, or email info@virtualizationadmin.com.

About 2X

2X Software Ltd. develops enterprise server-based virtual computing software, enabling desktop virtualization and application streaming on personal computers and thin client devices. Its product line, which includes the award-winning 2X VirtualDesktopServer and 2X ApplicationServer, is easily scalable, installable, and manageable with straightforward licensing, resulting in product prices far below those of competitors. For more information, please visit: http://www.2x.com.

Dallas, TX, July 27, 2010 – 2X Software today announced that HSE Integrated Ltd. has chosen a 2X ApplicationServer solution to ensure efficient remote application delivery. HSE Integrated is Canada’s largest national industrial safety services provider, with operations across the country and into the United States. The company has consolidated 19 regional, private industrial safety companies into an all-inclusive public corporation with 25 locations and more than 600 employees. Each of the company’s locations requires access to their Calgary centralized data center, to access applications and centralized storage. The company deployed Microsoft Terminal Services to handle remote network access, with 10 terminal servers hosting their ERP software (Microsoft Dynamics AX) and other relevant applications such as Microsoft Office.

Although their Terminal Services solution initially met their basic needs, IT Director Ryan Barg found that it “fells short in several key areas as our complexity increased. We desired a simplified user experience, easy software administration, and the ability to publish applications seamlessly to our client devices based on Active Directory groups. We were also interested in better printer support, multiple monitors, and single sign-on.” After evaluating several high cost solutions, Ryan found that his requirements were easily with the much more affordable 2X ApplicationServer solution.

To solve their Terminal Services dilemma, the 2X ApplicationServer and 2X Loadbalancer were added to the company’s Terminal Services environment, which enabled the addition of necessary functionality as their infrastructure grew in complexity. Ryan notes that he “found that our requirements were met in other high-cost solutions, such as Citrix; however, 2X solutions were a fraction of the price with similar core functionality.” The company currently uses 10 32-bit terminal servers running Windows Server 2003, functioning as 2X ApplicationServer agent servers, and one 64-bit 2X ApplicationServer VM running Windows Server 2008, as well as one 32-bit 2X Loadbalancer VM running Windows Server 2003. Ryan notes that “he is in the process of upgrading all servers to 64-bit Windows Server 2008 machines,” and that his selected hypervisor is “VMWare ESXi 3.5, which will soon be upgraded to VMWare ESX 4.0.”

Ryan mentioned the two biggest benefits of HSE Integrated’s switch to the 2X ApplicationServer were the ability to seamlessly publish applications and desktops from a central location, and the ability to service more users through 2X’s unlimited number of allowed concurrent connections.Using the 2X ApplicationServer, HSE was able to publish all core applications from a centralized source. Ryan notes that he “has also been able to improve service delivery by publishing resource intensive software from higher- powered farms seamlessly to the end user. Using a 2X ApplicationServer solution, users are filtered for the specific applications they need in a single session, removing licensing and administration challenges and providing for a great end-user experience. In addition to centralizing HSE’s application delivery process, Ryan noted that the 2X ApplicationServer allowed improved virtual computing service to his user base, since “using the 2X ApplicationServer, we were able to service more users on fewer terminal servers.” A reduction in the number of required terminal servers meant that Ryan and the rest of the HSE IT team could focus on discerning what applications were most critical for the company’s needs, rather than wading through necessary licensing and administration hassles. Having available resources within his terminal server farm also allows for the seamless inclusion of additional users, should the need arise, without delays from additional license purchases. Ryan notes that the 2X ApplicationServer has provided these advantages to HSE with a performance so flawless he has never been forced to call the 2X Support staff for assistance.

To read the full case study, please visit: HSE Integrated Case Study. 

About the 2X ApplicationServer for Windows Terminal Services

The 2X ApplicationServer tunnels any Windows application or desktop onto remote computers, including Mac and Linux desktops, without the need to install the application or desktop onto each user’s machine. This provides significant savings on administration and support. Key features include:

• Application publishing, rather than local installation
• Tunneling specific applications rather than a complete desktop
• Publish applications to Web interface
• Publish Windows applications to Linux and Mac
• Multiple monitor support
• Automatic redundancy
• Application publishing based on username, group membership or IP
• Seamless integration with local desktop and taskbar
• SSL-secured connection to applications
• Universal printing and scanning
• Application license management
• Integration with 2X LoadBalancer
• Windows 2008 Server 32 / 64-bit support

The 2X ApplicationServer Version 8 was recently released, combining virtual computing technology and thin client management within a single application. New features include TWAIN re-direction, improved direct client settings management and the zero-management thin client feature. For more information on Version 8 features, please visit our blog post.

For a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) comparison of the 2X ApplicationServer 8 vs. Citrix XenApp 5, please visit our TCO blog post.

Obtaining the Trial Version

2X is offering a 30-day trial version of the 2X ApplicationServer for Windows Terminal Services. After the 30-day trial period, users can still use the 3-connection free version by registering for the 3-connection license key on the 2X website. Download the trial version today.

About 2X

2X Software Ltd. develops enterprise server-based virtual computing software, enabling desktop virtualization and application streaming on personal computers and thin client devices. Its product line, which includes the award-winning 2X VirtualDesktopServer and 2X ApplicationServer, is easily scalable, installable, and manageable with straightforward licensing, resulting in product prices far below those of competitors. For more information, please visit: http://www.2x.com.

About HSE Integrated

HSE Integrated is a national supplier of industrial health, safety and environmental monitoring services. The company provides an integrated suite of services to protect workers, assets and the community in the most cost-effective manner possible. HSE Integrated offers the largest team of industrial safety experts and the largest inventory of rental safety equipment in the country. From its head office in Calgary, Alberta, it serves its clients from field service locations in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Michigan. HSE also operates in Odessa, Texas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, under through a jointly owned company called Boots & Coots HSE Services LLP. HSE trades on the TSX under the symbol “HSL”. For more information, please visit: http://www.hseintegrated.com.

Dallas, TX, July 16, 2010 – 2X Software today announced its membership in the FileMaker Business Alliance, a group of FileMaker-affiliated members receiving promotional benefits, sales resources and cooperative marketing opportunities. FileMaker Business Alliance members have a reach of over 200,000 FileMaker customers, with collaborative support directly from FileMaker, allowing 2X Software increased support in delivering FileMaker to customers powerfully and efficiently, regardless of location.

“Membership in the FileMaker Business Alliance will be a powerful tool in enhancing our application delivery efforts for FileMaker customers,” said Scott Sims, 2X General Manager for the Americas. “We look forward to continue working with FileMaker to provide users with powerful, affordable application and desktop delivery options through the 2X robust virtual computing product line.”

For more information about the FileMaker Business Alliance, please visit: FileMaker Business Alliance.

2X Software’s all-in-one application delivery product, the 2X VirtualDesktopServer, offers users the ability to access desktop applications such as Filemaker seamlessly from any location, with the application appearing and performing as if running on the user’s local machine. The product also allows integration with hypervisors from any vendor, including VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Xen and more, allowing secure connections with two-factor authentication when required. For more information, please visit: 2X VirtualDesktopServer.

About 2X

2X Software Ltd develops enterprise server-based virtual computing software, enabling desktop virtualization and application streaming on personal computers and thin client devices. Its product line, which includes the award-winning 2X VirtualDesktopServer and 2X ApplicationServer, is easily scalable, installable, and manageable with straightforward licensing, resulting in product prices far below those of competitors. For more information, please visit: http://www.2x.com.

About FileMaker

FileMaker, Inc. is the worldwide leader in easy-to-use database software. Millions of customers – individuals, small businesses, teams in education and government, workgroups in Fortune 100 companies – manage, analyze, and share information with FileMaker database software. FileMaker software includes the legendary FileMaker Pro product line for Windows, Mac, and the Web, and Bento, the personal database software for Mac, iPhone, and iPod touch. With FileMaker software, creating, customizing, and sharing easy-to-use software solutions is quick and easy. For more information, please visit: http://www.filemaker.com.

Company’s state-of-the-art product line stands out among virtualization competitors.

Dallas, TX, July 12, 2010 – 2X Software, global developer of virtual computing solutions, today announced it has been selected by Everything Channel as a CRN Emerging Technology Vendor.  The annual list recognizes companies that are delivering high margins for solution providers with innovative and easy-to-use technology. Of special interest to the CRN editorial staff was the company’s robust product line, including the 2X ApplicationServer for Windows Terminal Services, 2X LoadBalancer for Terminal Services/Citrix, 2X ThinClientServer and the 2X VirtualDesktopServer. 2X products were praised for offering easily manageable and scalable solutions with a straightforward, affordable licensing structure, resulting in product prices far below those of their competitors.

“Solution providers are always looking for new and innovative technology to solve business problems for their customers. As this industry has shown, today’s emerging vendor can be tomorrow’s Cisco, Google or Facebook and getting ahead of technology can help a VAR grow their business and differentiate their offerings,” said Kelley Damore, VP, Editorial Director, Everything Channel.

The vendors that make up the CRN Emerging Technology Vendor list were founded in 2004 or later, have revenue under $1 billion and have an active U.S. channel strategy.  Final selection to the Emerging Technology Vendor list was made by the CRN editorial team after a review of submitted information.

”We are proud once again of our addition to the CRN Emerging Vendors list for 2010, a vote of confidence in our continued enhancements to our state-of-the art product line,” said Scott Sims, 2X General Manager for the Americas. “We will continue to ensure that our products offer powerful, affordable virtualization solutions to business of all sizes for years to come.”

For more information on the CRN Emerging Vendors program, please visit: CRN 2010 Emerging Vendors.

About 2X

2X Software Ltd develops enterprise server-based virtual computing software, enabling desktop virtualization and application streaming on personal computers and thin client devices. Its product line, which includes the award-winning 2X VirtualDesktopServer and 2X ApplicationServer, is easily scalable, installable, and manageable with straightforward licensing, resulting in product prices far below those of competitors. For more information, please visit: http://www.2x.com.

Everything Channel (www.everythingchannel.com, www.channelweb.com)

Everything Channel is the premier provider of IT channel-focused events, media, research, consulting, and sales and marketing services. With over 30 years of experience and engagement, Everything Channel has the unmatched channel expertise to execute integrated solutions for technology executives managing partner recruitment, enablement and go-to-market strategy in order to accelerate technology sales. Everything Channel is a UBM company. To learn more about Everything Channel, visit us at http://www.everythingchannel.com.

About United Business Media Limited (www.unitedbusinessmedia.com)
UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetization of B2B communities and markets. UBM’s businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities – from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists – with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialist teams t that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.

Microsoft’s penchant for renaming its products doesn’t help matters – even when it makes sense. And changing the name of Terminal Services to Remote Desktop Services (RDS) does make sense; RDP is just as often used to deliver desktops to rich clients (full fledged PCs) as to thin clients (terminals). But most IT pros think of “Remote Desktop” as a name that refers to the more limited form of RDP access in XP Pro, Vista Business/Enterprise/Ultimate and Windows 7 Pro/Enterprise/Ultimate, which allows only a single remote connection and locks out local access while an RDP session is in progress.

In fact, Remote Desktop Services in Server 2008 R2 refers to what was formerly called Terminal Services, but this is a much more complex and feature-filled version of TS than you’re used to if you’re coming from Server 2003. Some of the new features were added in Server 2008 (when it was still called Terminal Services) and some in Server 2008 R2. These include RemoteApp, Web Access, Gateway, and Session Broker (all introduced in Server 2008) as well as the new R2 features: Desktop Virtualization (VDI), IP Virtualization, Fair Share CPU Scheduling, and improvements to management, application installation, audio, video and multiple monitor support.

RDS session host desktop delivery vs. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

The question I encountered most frequently from TechEd attendees was “What’s the difference between the Remote Desktop session and VDI – and which one do I need?” It’s easy to confuse the two, because in both cases, you’re delivering a virtualized desktop to your user’s local machine, which the user can access instead of or in addition to the OS that’s actually installed on that local machine. But there’s an important difference.

The RDS Session Host and VDI represent two different types of server-based desktop virtualization:

• RDS Session Host is an example of Microsoft’s presentation virtualization, which decouples the running of the operating system from its presentation to the user. The multi-user kernel in the server OS allows the presentation via RDP of separate desktops to different users, who are using the same server OS. The presentation virtualization session sends only display, mouse and keyboard data across the network – all actual processing takes place on the server.
• VDI relies on OS virtualization, which creates multiple separate virtual machines in which separate operating systems run, along with RDP to present those VMs to the users. A VM can be dedicated to one user or shared and allocated via a VM pool, but only one user uses a particular VM at the same time.

When you deploy a remote desktop to the user via a Remote Desktop Session Host (the equivalent of what used to be a Terminal Services Application Mode server), the user is working in a shared environment on a server-based operating system, in this case Windows Server 2008 R2. Now, if you enable the Desktop Composition feature, the users’ desktops will look and feel like Windows 7 desktops, with the full Aero experience – but the underlying OS is still Server 2008 R2. On the other hand, when you deploy a desktop to the user via Microsoft’s VDI implementation, which is called the RD Virtualization Host, each user gets a unique, separate virtual operating system that is hosted on a server running in a hypervisor (Hyper-V). So even though in both cases the desktop is presented to the user over the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), the way those desktops are stored on the server is very different.

 So what are the practical implications of this difference? With the RDS shared environment, you can host a larger number of remote desktops and thus service more users using the same physical server. This means lower cost per user. You only have to buy an RD CAL for each user or each RD client computer (depending on which licensing method you select). With VDI, you have to buy an operating system license for each desktop that you deploy.

NOTE

Typically, an RDS desktop delivery solution can support 250 users on one server; the same server can support 30-50 users. The actual number of VMs per server depends on the hardware configuration, application software, and user workloads.

On the other side, with the VDI environment you deploy actual client operating systems to users, and all users don’t have to use the same OS; e.g., some could use XP, some Vista and some Windows 7. Some applications do a version check and won’t run on the server OS; these apps would run on the client operating systems that you deploy via VDI, so you generally get better app compatibility. In addition, the individual operating systems are more isolated. In the RDS shared environment, users should not be given administrative privileges because they could make changes that affect other users.

The RDS presentation virtualization solution is a more mature technology that Microsoft has offered since the release in 1998 of Windows NT Terminal Services Edition (code named Hydra), which was based on the MultiWin engine created by Citrix for its WinFrame product – a multi-user version of Windows NT 3.51. Although IBM first created virtual machines on its mainframes in the 1960s and VMware introduced virtualization for x86 computers in 1999, the concept of a hypervisor-based virtual infrastructure is a relatively new development, considered by some to have been born of the blade PC in the early 2000s. VDI technology is still evolving, is more complex, and can be more costly in terms of hardware capital expenditures.

Both RDS session host desktop delivery and VDI have security benefits, in that the operating systems are located on centrally managed servers in the datacenter that are generally subject to tight physical security. This makes it easier to control the applications and data and to ensure that security updates are applied, and if the endpoint device is stolen or otherwise accessed without authorization, it doesn’t contain data or apps locally and the user’s desktop is not at risk.

Both solutions also have a disadvantage: dependency on the network connection for users to access their desktops. If the endpoint device can’t connect to the RDSH or RDVH server, the user is cut off from his/her desktop, apps and data. This is the same drawback that has hindered the adoption of cloud computing. High end graphics applications in RDP sessions have also presented problems, but Microsoft is looking to its new RemoteFX technology to change that with both RDS and VDI, supporting full-motion video, Silverlight, 3D apps and OpenGL via GPU virtualization.

RDS/VDI integration

Microsoft has integrated the new VDI functionality into the traditional Terminal Services/RDS function, making the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host a role service within the Remote Desktop Services server role. Remote Desktop Session Host (formerly Terminal Services Application Mode) is also a role service. Both of these are installed from within Server Manager, as shown in Figure 1.

FIGURE 1: Installing the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host role service for Microsoft VDI

When you attempt to install the RD Virtualization Host role service, you will be notified of an important dependency: Hyper-V must be installed on the server, as well, because it is the hypervisor that creates and manages the virtual machines deployed via the VDI. Microsoft makes it easy to add Hyper-V within the process of installing the RDVH role, as shown in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2: Hyper-V must be installed on the server running the RD Virtualization Host

NOTE

A “gotcha” here is that in order to install Hyper-V, the processor must support hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT or AMD-V), and the feature must be enabled in the system BIOS. An interesting caveat is that you can’t install Hyper-V in a VM that’s running on Hyper-V. Or rather, you may be able to install it, but the VMs you create it in won’t run. That means if you have a virtual machine running Server 2008 R2 in a Hyper-V VM and you wanted to make it an RD Virtualization Host, you wouldn’t be able to do so. You probably wouldn’t try to do this in a production environment anyway, but it can be an obstacle for those who like to test such deployments in a virtual environment.

The RDVH servers run Hyper-V and host the desktop VMs, which are delivered to the client PCs (or other RDP client devices) over the network. Users can connect to the VMs from remote desktop PCs, laptops, thin clients or even smart phones and other mobile devices. An important component of Microsoft’s VDI is the Connection Broker, which establishes and manages the user sessions, allocates VMs from a pool, etc. The Connection Broker uses the Active Directory for session authentication and authorization.

The following components work together in Microsoft’s VDI:

• Hyper-V 2008 R2, the hypervisor that runs the virtual machines
• Server 2008 R2 RDS, which delivers the desktop interface to the client via RDP
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 R2, which provisions and manages the hosted desktops
• Windows 7 (for best functionality) or Vista or XP clients

Application delivery in the VDI environment can be accomplished via RDS RemoteApp or Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 (APP-V).

Microsoft VDI licensing options include:

• VDI Standard Suite: includes Hyper-V, RD Connection Broker, APP-V, VMM, Operations Manager and Configuration Manager.
• VDI Premium Suite: includes all of the above plus RDS Session Host and APP-V for RDS Session Host.

Why do you need third party products?

Microsoft has attempted to put together a complete VDI solution, but in the process has created some confusion with all the different components. A Microsoft-based VDI deployment can be enhanced by third party products such as 2X Software’s VirtualDesktopServer. 

One major problem with the Microsoft solution is that it assumes a pure Windows environment. The reality of the business world is that many networks today are heterogeneous, running different platforms. The 2X VirtualDesktopServer is vendor-independent. It supports not only Hyper-V and Windows Terminal Services/RDS, but also many other common hypervisors, including VMware vSphere, ESX and ESXi, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, Citrix XenServer, and Sun VirtualBox. You can manage and run virtual desktops on Windows, Linux and Mac computers for the greatest flexibility for both administrators and users. You may also be able to save money by integrating some Linux-based machines into your VDI.

Another problem with going the “pure Microsoft” route is that, in order to get advanced features such as VDI, you’ll need to upgrade your servers to Windows Server 2008 R2 and your clients to Windows 7. That can be an expensive proposition at a time when many companies find themselves in a budget crunch. With 2X products, you aren’t required to run the latest server and client OS in order to get the benefits of VDI.

2X VirtualDesktopServer also gives you centralized management of settings and connectivity options for all users directly from the management console, and supports Deepnet Unified Authentication to give enterprises the security benefits of managed multi-factor authentication using various types of tokens such as MobileID, SafeID, QuickID, GridID and RSA’s SecureID. MobileID and QuickID are especially interesting technologies that turn users’ mobile phones into one-time password tokens.

Summary

If you have already determined that the benefits of a server-based virtualized environment – easier management, more convenient “anywhere” user access, performance, security and reduced TCO – are right for your organization, the next step is understanding all of the virtualization options that are available to you, and how Microsoft’s solutions can be enhanced and made even more functional with third party products. A cost-benefits analysis can help you decide the best deployment route to take in bringing VDI to your network.