If members could post what it took for them to build a trial, from procuring hardware, to downloading software, installing, configuring, building, testing, etc. Looking for areas to help and provide efficiency.
If members could post what it took for them to build a trial, from procuring hardware, to downloading software, installing, configuring, building, testing, etc. Looking for areas to help and provide efficiency.
-Procurement for Dell R720: about 2 weeks.
-Procuring various thin/zero clients to test: 1 week.
-Installation and configuring: 1 week
--Installing and configuring XenServer: 1 day.
--Installing and configuring server VMs: 1 day.
--Installing and configuring XenDesktop and images: 1 day.
--Installing and configuring Client receivers: 1 day.
-POC testing: 1 week.
Takes about 1 week to configure another alternate solution (eg. Microsoft, VMware).
Found out that our application can only use a VM client that recognizes the native NVIDIA display drivers. The RemoteFX solution did not work because the VMs did not have the NVIDIA display drivers, just some generic Microsoft one that cause some weird exceptions when processing 3D graphics. Haven't tried the VMware solution that is in beta, would be nice to have an alternative solution to Citrix.
-Procurement for Dell R720: about 2 weeks.
-Procuring various thin/zero clients to test: 1 week.
-Installation and configuring: 1 week
--Installing and configuring XenServer: 1 day.
--Installing and configuring server VMs: 1 day.
--Installing and configuring XenDesktop and images: 1 day.
--Installing and configuring Client receivers: 1 day.
-POC testing: 1 week.
Takes about 1 week to configure another alternate solution (eg. Microsoft, VMware).
Found out that our application can only use a VM client that recognizes the native NVIDIA display drivers. The RemoteFX solution did not work because the VMs did not have the NVIDIA display drivers, just some generic Microsoft one that cause some weird exceptions when processing 3D graphics. Haven't tried the VMware solution that is in beta, would be nice to have an alternative solution to Citrix.
Assuming the servers (only 2 for a basic PoC, but this is very easy to scale up if needed later) are already racked and cabled properly (nice and neatly, if not, this alone can take over a day depending on how fussy you want to be with the aesthetics) with internet access and the GRID cards installed, using Dell R720s, from absolutely nothing, meaning a complete ground up build consisting of:
* Update server BIOS and Firmware.
* New (XenServer) Hypervisor install and configuration.
* Configure storage acceleration technologies.
* Build Windows Templates.
* Build new AD Domain with all the intricacies (Group Policy, NTP, Licensing, CA Server, User Profile store, KMS / RDP Licensing, File Store, DHCP etc etc
* Build SQL AlwaysOn cluster.
* Build resilient / Load balanced Storefront.
* Build resilient XenDesktop 7.6 Site.
* Build resilient Netscaler with remote access.
* Build Windows 7 base image
* Build Windows 8.1 base image
If purely focused on just the PoC and I have all the media to hand without having to download it, 1 week (7 days) to a working PoC with basic demo applications and a good base level of performance.
Testing is an unknown quantity. This varies from client to client and can be from a week to over a month. And if they're really happy with it, the PoC turns into a production platform (hence the resiliency built in to it and the care taken with the aesthetics when racking).
As jlocout mentions above, if using VMware or Hyper-V, it takes considerably longer because of all the requirements those Hypervisors have compared to XenServer.
Assuming the servers (only 2 for a basic PoC, but this is very easy to scale up if needed later) are already racked and cabled properly (nice and neatly, if not, this alone can take over a day depending on how fussy you want to be with the aesthetics) with internet access and the GRID cards installed, using Dell R720s, from absolutely nothing, meaning a complete ground up build consisting of:
* Update server BIOS and Firmware.
* New (XenServer) Hypervisor install and configuration.
* Configure storage acceleration technologies.
* Build Windows Templates.
* Build new AD Domain with all the intricacies (Group Policy, NTP, Licensing, CA Server, User Profile store, KMS / RDP Licensing, File Store, DHCP etc etc
* Build SQL AlwaysOn cluster.
* Build resilient / Load balanced Storefront.
* Build resilient XenDesktop 7.6 Site.
* Build resilient Netscaler with remote access.
* Build Windows 7 base image
* Build Windows 8.1 base image
If purely focused on just the PoC and I have all the media to hand without having to download it, 1 week (7 days) to a working PoC with basic demo applications and a good base level of performance.
Testing is an unknown quantity. This varies from client to client and can be from a week to over a month. And if they're really happy with it, the PoC turns into a production platform (hence the resiliency built in to it and the care taken with the aesthetics when racking).
As jlocout mentions above, if using VMware or Hyper-V, it takes considerably longer because of all the requirements those Hypervisors have compared to XenServer.
Regards,
Luke Wignall
Performance Engineering Manager
NVIDIA | Worldwide Sales GRID Computing
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lukewignall/
https://twitter.com/lwignall
-Procuring various thin/zero clients to test: 1 week.
-Installation and configuring: 1 week
--Installing and configuring XenServer: 1 day.
--Installing and configuring server VMs: 1 day.
--Installing and configuring XenDesktop and images: 1 day.
--Installing and configuring Client receivers: 1 day.
-POC testing: 1 week.
Takes about 1 week to configure another alternate solution (eg. Microsoft, VMware).
Found out that our application can only use a VM client that recognizes the native NVIDIA display drivers. The RemoteFX solution did not work because the VMs did not have the NVIDIA display drivers, just some generic Microsoft one that cause some weird exceptions when processing 3D graphics. Haven't tried the VMware solution that is in beta, would be nice to have an alternative solution to Citrix.
* Update server BIOS and Firmware.
* New (XenServer) Hypervisor install and configuration.
* Configure storage acceleration technologies.
* Build Windows Templates.
* Build new AD Domain with all the intricacies (Group Policy, NTP, Licensing, CA Server, User Profile store, KMS / RDP Licensing, File Store, DHCP etc etc
* Build SQL AlwaysOn cluster.
* Build resilient / Load balanced Storefront.
* Build resilient XenDesktop 7.6 Site.
* Build resilient Netscaler with remote access.
* Build Windows 7 base image
* Build Windows 8.1 base image
If purely focused on just the PoC and I have all the media to hand without having to download it, 1 week (7 days) to a working PoC with basic demo applications and a good base level of performance.
Testing is an unknown quantity. This varies from client to client and can be from a week to over a month. And if they're really happy with it, the PoC turns into a production platform (hence the resiliency built in to it and the care taken with the aesthetics when racking).
As jlocout mentions above, if using VMware or Hyper-V, it takes considerably longer because of all the requirements those Hypervisors have compared to XenServer.