Thin Client Installation at Gateway Community College, New Haven, CT

Transcription

1 Thin Client Installation at Gateway Community College, New Haven, CT

2 Presentation Evaluation Go to: bit.ly/nercomp_desktop13

3 Business Case and Concept Gateway moved to a new facility in Sept Previous facilities were outdated. New facility projected to have far more student traffic. Used repurposed and rebuilt computers in key public areas- Library and Student Services. New equipment needed for these areas.

4 Hardware Selection and Development Infrastructure was built from the ground up due to new campus construction. VDI server cluster- 4 Dell Power Edge 620 s, each using RAID 50, with 2-73 GB hard drives and 96 GB of RAM. N+1 configuration- estimated to support up to 210 clients. Allows for significant growth in deployed clients. Associated storage- Dell EqualLogic 6100, provides 13TB of storage, using 2 more PowerEdge 620 s as a front end.

5 Thin Client Infrastructure

6 Software Selection and Development Recommendation of VMWare View 5 as virtualization environment. Standardization of software platform across multiple colleges in an affiliated system. Integrated solution from a single vendor provided cost savings.

7 Client Selection Samsung NC 190 all in one. Previous excellent experience with Samsung hardware. Sturdy and utilitarian. Clean looking. A bit heavy for our mounting monitor arms.

8 Client Stations- Student Services

9 Client Stations- Student Services

10 Client Stations- Library

11 Client Stations- Library

12 Installations- VDI Cluster Server cluster install started in June Network and switch configuration delays stalled this segment. Database corruption and SSL certificate issues were problematic. Reinstallation of software in July Then installed the Teradici console for thin client management. Started to create pools and thin client images.

13 Installations- Virtual Center Virtual Center installed on a dedicated serverbest practices advise this on installations of 5 or more hosts. Allows us to grow the installation without having to rebuild the cluster. Vcenter allows us to provision a new VM from our template. Reduces deployment time from days to just an hour or two. Enables extensive proactive monitoring.

14 Installations

15 Installations- VM Ware HA VM Ware HA (High Availability) Provides high availability throughout the cluster. Set up as fully automated. Sends alerts on relevant actions. Works directly with DRS to assist in load balancing.

16 Installations- VM WareHA

17 Installations- VMotion Vmotion gives us the ability to migrate a VM from one host to another in real time. Transparent to the user. Helps with proactive maintenance. Can be used to augment automated load balancing of VM Ware HA.

18 Installations- VMotion

19 Installations- Storage VMotion Storage Vmotion works similarly to V Motion, but with the associated storage. Clients that are on storage that develops faults or failures are moved to another part of the cluster.

20 Installations- Storage VMotion

21 Installations- VM Ware DRS VM Ware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) Also automated. Performs a VM s initial placement in the cluster. Optimizes VM locations in the cluster. Protects against server failure. When DRS is used in conjunction with HA, VM s residing on a failed host will restart automatically on another host.

22 Installations- VM Ware DRS

23 Installations- VM Ware Update Manager VM Ware Update Manager creates a snapshot that can be used as a rollback in the event of a failed patch. Works with Windows and Linux based VM s Proactively patches some 3 rd party applications- MS, Adobe, Mozilla. Also patches offline VM s.

24 Installations- VM Ware Update Manager

25 Installations- VM Ware Update Manager

26 Installations- Physical Network Access Host server network hardware configuration- 6 physical NIC s configured for duplex. Two NIC s bound together for access to cluster SAN. Provides 2 GB of throughput per bound NIC. Enables load balancing and fault tolerance.

27 Pools Client pools are needed to provision custom images. Geographic and role based. We used approximately 10 different pools- Library classroom, Library Public area, Student Services departments, Student Self-Help area and Internet Café.

28 Operational Issues and Challenges Database corruption caused numerous issues. Printing issues hampered student use. Integration with new network technologies- Cisco ISE, Infoblox, 4500 series switches. Issues with USB ports and devices not being recognized.

29 Operational Issues and Challenges Tutorial websites don t function as intended. Students can t view optical media. Student expectation of versatility with regard to software. Have sporadic problems losing their domain trust relationship. Antivirus software was problematic due to accumulation of DAT s.

30 Lessons Learned Training, Training, Training! Technical team must be hands on to get the feel of the VDI system. Network infrastructure must be rock solid. Start small, then grow your deployments. Manage user expectations. ROI is long term, not short term.

31 Presentation Evaluation Go to: bit.ly/nercomp_desktop13