[clug] Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) for Linux Desktops

[George at Clug]

    Paul, thanks for your comments.

You asked "Are you simply wanting to watch video?"  
Answer: best and simplest bandwidth load test I can come up with.
Cannot play games on a guest Desktop as currently KVM does not have a
virtual video card that supports 3D graphics. Though I understood it
is being worked on.  Standard applications such as word processors,
spreadsheets, and email work fine. Web browsers rendering pages with
advertisements can be  a bit of a drain on resources, causing slow
behaviour.

Your comment "Personally, I think VDI is not going anywhere", I am not
sure if I agree with you, previously I would have, however the
government department where I am currently working is now using VDI
(citrix client installed on a Windows laptop), dual monitors, and
Windows 7 guest.  When doing normal work (word processing, Excel
spreadsheets) I don't even notice I am using a VDI solution. Even when
using a web browser to watch a short youtube video, it is not even
noticeable. When we all watch the same broadcast seminar, we use the
Windows laptop, and not the VDI Windows 7 guest otherwise displayed
colours and windows can get distorted. I can only suggest that the
servers hosting the Windows 7 guests are well provisioned. 

I would call this a totally successful VDI solution (as long people
don't all start watching Youtube HD videos, lol).  I don't know how
well VDI compares to the cost of physical desktops (applying updates,
fault maintenance, total cost of VDI solution to total cost of non-VDI
desktop solution, etc). I have not seen any major slowdowns or
disconnects due to the number of people all logging in or shutting
down, etc. Though I have noticed if the VDI servers and/or
authentication servers go down, no one is able to work. Of course if a
traditional file server goes down, then much the same productivity
wise.

Having seen a successful Windows VDI implementation, I am curious if
the same could be achieved with FOSS.  And for my test, Linux
Desktops running on KVM.

George.



At Sunday, 07-05-2017 on 19:13 Paul Wayper via linux wrote:


On 06/05/17 17:15, George at Clug via linux wrote:
>      Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is virtualization
technology
> that hosts a desktop operating system on a centralized server in a
> data center. VDI is a variation on the client-server computing
model,
> sometimes referred to as server-based computing.
>
searchvirtualdesktop.techtarget.com/definition/virtual-desktop-infrastructure-VDI
> 
> Does anyone have experience with VDI for Linux KVM Guest Desktops
and
> can recommend a working FOSS solution capable for watch Video
> (preferably in HD) ?
> 
>>From my searching today, there is no real working solution as yet.
> 
> Potential solutions;
> 
> 1) Spice - includes video and audio but suffers from screen tearing
> and lag
> 
> 2) VNC - does not support audio
> 
> 3) XRDP - I was not able to get audio to work, but it might be
> possible?
> 
> 4) KVM-VDI - I do not know much of this product.

Personally, I think VDI is not going anywhere.

The reason why is that computing is actually incredibly cheap.  A