- #LINUX SERVER VDI MAC OS X#
- #LINUX SERVER VDI MANUAL#
- #LINUX SERVER VDI SOFTWARE#
- #LINUX SERVER VDI WINDOWS#
One of the limitations with using View with Linux Desktops is that currently there is no built-in mechanism to automate the cloning of Linux desktops, nor does it allow View Composer to be used to create and manage storage-efficient "linked" cloned desktops. Linux virtual desktops require you to log on separately to the Linux desktop ( Figure 5) after first logging onto the Horizon client. SSO allows your credentials to be passed from the Horizon client ( Figure 4) to the desktop.
#LINUX SERVER VDI WINDOWS#
View with Linux desktops, unlike View with Windows desktops, does not yet support single sign-on (SSO). Logging into View via Windows.Īuthentication. Fortunately, Linux has many schemes that allow the decoupling of user data from the desktop on which they currently reside. A floating desktop pool is useful if you can decouple the user's persona (user data, settings and so on) from the desktop. Floating desktops allows any user entitled to a pool to access any desktop in the pool desktops aren't assigned to a single user. Desktops in these pools can either be dedicated (persistent) to a single user, or floating. Individual users or groups of users can be entitled to access pools of desktops. The ability to authenticate users to access virtual desktops in View is done via Active Directory. Here’s what I observed for each of these processes.Įntitlement. Once the VDI environment was built up and the Linux VMs were created, I wanted to see how easy it was to entitle, authenticate, provision, manage, secure and access Linux desktops being managed by VDI compared to running Linux desktops running on physical hardware. (Note that zero clients and mobile clients aren't supported at this time.) I tested my virtual desktop using all three supported OSes.
#LINUX SERVER VDI MAC OS X#
Virtual desktops can be accessed on Windows, Linux or Mac OS X OSes machines using either a Web browser or the Horizon client ( Figure 3). Automated pools will create the virtual desktop automatically and as required from a template. Manual desktop pools are required, as automated desktop pools aren't supported with Linux virtual desktops. A desktop pool allows for the grouping of virtual desktops for administrative purposes ( Figure 2 shows the settings of the desktop pool).
#LINUX SERVER VDI MANUAL#
The agent registers the VM with the connection broker.Īfter creating the Linux VMs, I created a View manual desktop pool ( Figure 2) via the View Administrator Web portal. I then installed VMware tools and View agent on the VMs. Each of the VMs had two vCPUs, 4GB RAM and a 120GB hard drive. Supported versions of these distributions can be found in the VMware documentation. View 6.2 supports four Linux distributions: Ubuntu, RHEL, CentOS, and NeoKylin. I've set up View dozens of times and am very familiar with its installation process those with vSphere experience but new to View should still be able to do this in under an hour. The installation of View took me less than 30 minutes. For those interested in running only Linux desktops, View for Linux is the least costly option. VMware has three licensing options for using Linux desktops with View: Horizon 6 Enterprise Edition, VMware Workspace Suite and View for Linux. Horizon View 6.2 allows Linux desktops to be used as virtual desktops.
#LINUX SERVER VDI SOFTWARE#
All VMware software was under trial licenses. I installed VMware Horizon Enterprise 6.2 to create the VDI infrastructure, then created three CentOS 6.7 Linux virtual desktops. The virtual infrastructure consisted of a single hypervisor (ESXi 6.1) being managed by vCenter 6 VCSA. The lab hardware consisted of a Dell R610 (12 CPU cores, 96GB RAM, four 2.5" Micron M500DC SSD drives and two WD 750G Black HDD drives) a 24 port 1GB switch and various endpoint clients. In order to investigate VDI running Linux desktops, I set up a VDI environment in my lab. A simple VDI architecture is shown in Figure 1. The broker handles the entitlement of users, the association of users with virtual desktops, and in some cases the provisioning of the virtual desktops. The VM has an agent running inside of it that relays information back to the broker. I'll be using Horizon View for this investigation, but most of the information is pertinent to other VDI brokers.įor those new to using VDI, the concept is straightforward: a user uses a client device (laptop, thin client, tablet and so on) to connect to a broker in order to connect to a Linux desktop running as a virtual machine (VM) on a hypervisor. Now that all major VDI vendors support Linux desktops, I wondered if using a VDI broker with Linux could significantly help with the entitlement, authentication, provisioning, security and management of Linux desktops over physical Linux desktops. I outlined five of these in a recent article. There are many reasons that enterprises may wish to use Linux desktops within a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) broker.