21.12.2009
Citrix's XenDesktop 4 was the most accommodating VDI platform tested, likely owing to its origins as a hybrid of Linux and Citrix. While it's not a lightweight platform, we found it to be the most flexible. Microsoft recommends XenDesktop for its own Microsoft Standard VDI and Premium VDI suite client-side components (see ). XenDesktop runs on Microsoft Hyper-V, VMWare's ESX/vSphere platforms, as well as XenServer.
XenDesktop requires two Windows-based server virtual machines on the administrative side. These VMs cover provisioning and administration of desktop deliveries as a connection broker.
On the client side, XenDesktop supports most Windows clients, MacOS, Linux, plus various cell phones and hardware terminals.
The initial 'tax' in terms of hosted hardware is high. Citrix recommends using two physical servers at minimum, one to host the VMs of the server, and the other to house the desktops, which are standard virtual machines. That said, we used the two servers for most of the other tests, too.
We found that making XenDesktop work was simple if you read and follow the supplied guidelines studiously. XenDesktop requires Microsoft's Active Directory with DHCP and DNS/DDNS services running. XenDesktop host services use the Microsoft .Net Framework SP1 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005.
Although the large number of provisioning options initially shocked us, we found that provisioning revolves around creating generic XP versions, then using the generic versions as the basis for subsequent groups.
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