ThinkVirt

This excellent article by Christoph Harding explains how someone could use VMware Mirage with VMware View linked clone vDesktop pools.  Since the Wanova acquisition announcement, I’ve been testing the following:

• Mirage client installed on a physical Lenovo laptop running Windows 7
• Mirage client installed on a VMware View vDesktop running in San Jose
• Mirage Server running on an Amazon EC2 instance
• Mirage Branch Repeater running on a separate VMware Vew vDesktop running in San Jose

Using the above image as a visual representation, HQ for my testing was Amazon EC2.  Regional was a datacenter in San Jose and my house was the, “Field Office.”  Using EC2 for the last 2 months to test out this solution cost me a total of $24.  Well, in reality, I started this test on a t1.micro instance for free up to 750 hours and then spilled over 16 hours, which cost me 32 cents.

Then I thought that maybe Mirage would just, “run better” if I used a beefier instance type.  I then rebuilt my environment with a c1.medium and incurred a little over $360 in testing for the last two months.  Note to self, c1.medium didn’t speed things up in a way worth that much money and the t1.micro instance works just fine (and it’s free for the most part, barring the EBS usage).

IOPS across all of my test instances for the last 2 months has been around 26.2M but that includes some of test t1.micro instances I’m using for a few other projects.  This includes all inbound and outbound activity, including the capturing of upload of my Lenovo laptop CVD to my Mirage Server in Amazon EC2, and multiple uploads/downloads to the facility in San Jose.

Note:  For those testing out products that don’t require vCenter or vSphere

Use Case 1 – Protecting a Physical Device (Centralize Endpoint)

VMware has pretty much ignored the physical desktop as the message has been loud and clear to virtualize the desktops.  As a freelance VDI consultant, I can assure you that while VDI makes sense in many situations that range from hundreds to tens of thousands of users, VDI does not make sense for all situations.  There are some scenarios when a physical laptop (or desktop) make a lot more sense.

How does an administrator manage Gold images for an organization that has both physical and virtual desktops?  Well, with a bit of polish that answer very well could be VMware Mirage integrated with VMware View.

There would likely be one base layer, or client virtual disk, for the physical laptops and a separate base layer for the VMware View-based vDesktops.  Now it’s roughly single image management for everything.  Now it is not a question of whether to virtual the desktops, it’s a question of what percentage will be virtual versus physical, because VMware can (in the near future, potentially) manage them all.

Use Case 2 – Using Mirage to Update VMware View (Gold) Parent vDesktops in the Field

Another way to use potentially use Mirage and View together (not supported at the time of this writing) is to keep the gold image at HQ on a Mirage Server.  At a regional or field office with its own VMware View environment using the Linked Clone capabilities the Mirage Client installed inside the gold parent vDesktop.

The vDesktop can be powered on, pull the latest gold bits from HQ, and then the field administrator can take a snapshot of the vDesktop and recompose a vDesktop pool based on the latest snapshot.  Ideally integration would be done between the two products, but this manually works today. 

There are a few suggestions in the article by Christoph Harding that should be followed, to include disabling the Mirage client before a new snapshot is taken of the gold parent vDesktop.  This prevents the Mirage client from running within the linked clone vDesktops.

I’ve tested this and it works well. I also briefed on this at VMWorld and will be briefing on this for VMWorld Europe and a few remote locations in October. For me at Nutanix it makes a ton of sense. Same architecture in your HQ (Nutanix) can be the same thing in your Regional offices (less Nutanix but still Nutanix). For true field it's just Mirage and laptops.

Use Case 3 – Using Mirage to Update vDesktops (not VMware View) in the Field

To me, another beauty of Mirage is that it could be coupled strictly with VMware vSphere (for example) to deliver low cost, LAN-only vDesktops in the field.  Some field offices may have a need for vDesktops but not require the added complexity or cost of VMware View or PCoIP.  Instead, they could simply run vDesktops on vSphere either natively, or with a low cost broker solution (e.g. Nimdesk) to manage field vDesktops for LAN-attached workers not requiring intense graphics needs.  I also tested this scenario and it works well, assuming the recommendations in Christoph’s post are followed.

Improvements

Mirage has a lot of promise, but it also needs a lot of polish visually, to be accepted in many of the organizations I speak to on a daily basis.

This looks nice!

This looks ass (and yes I do see some value in using MMC's, maybe)!

Funny tweet!

Ron Oglesby (@ronoglesby) from Unidesk is also right, that it does take some manipulation of filters (just like the tuning/consulting that goes into ProfileUnity to get it to work just right) is required to make the Mirage solution run correctly, not cause unexpected harm, and not have bloated layers.

Interested in learning more about how to architect a VMware View + VMware Mirage solution?  Contact me here or via Twitter.