Virtually Jason

Andre Leibovici has posted an interesting article at myvirtualcloud.net about direct PCoIP connections to VDI Desktops .  Apparently, VMware is testing this ability right now and is considering making it generally available; I find this fascinating! Andre points out a couple of use cases that seem largely focused on the small business space.  The use case that I’m most interested in is the “Cloud Provisioning” option that he mentions.  I’m interested in that because, near as I can tell, “Cloud Provisioning” really just means “desktops that are not provisioned or managed by View”.  That is exciting because it might open the doors for deeper 3 rd party integration or whole 3 rd party connection brokering for PCoIP (like the late Panologic did with RDP sessions). My favorite aspect of Panologic’s solution was how seamless it was, from the user perspective.  Since the VDI desktop could be associated with the Pano device, the RDP session was established a...

We recently experienced some confusion when creating vShield App firewall rules, so I figured that it would make for a good post.  For those who are unaware, vShield App (which is now a component of the vCloud Networking and Security solution) is a virtual firewall.  Rather than being a traditional firewall though, which allows for rules based on either layer 2 or layer 3 constructs, this firewall integrates with vCenter and so can have rules based on vCenter constructs.  At first glance, this is a little confusing, but once you become familiar with the concept it becomes very empowering. We have a motley collection of Port Groups in this VDI environment.  Each Port Group needs different firewall rules to be applied to it.  We have a “production” Port Group where the bulk of the customer’s employees sit, we have an “internet only” Port Group for external users and we have a whole bunch of Port Groups that are in between those two extremes for consultants, ...