A few days ago I’ve decided that I’ll look a bit deeper into the VMware Mirage solution and blog about it here. The reason for that is that in my role at VMware I get an enormous amount of requests for this relatively new solution. Customers are fascinated by the product and it’s technology. Especially the Windows- and hardware migration functionality is well received because it helps exactly where other migration or deployment solutions are struggling. It’s optimized for small and large scale environments and it comes with load of optimizations i.e. File- and block-level de-duplication, network traffic optimizations and more. If you want to learn more about Mirage please visit the VMware website and download the Mirage FAQ.

But now back to my little project!

As a starting point I’ve decided to read a bit of the collateral delivered by VMware. The Admin Guide for Mirage seemed like a good option – and it was. A great document which includes all information needed to setup my home lab. The Admin Guide is included in the VMware Mirage download package. To get this download package you’ve to visit the old Wanova website at: http://wanova.com/forms/lp.html as the download is not yet available (28.01.2013) in the My VMware Download Center. After the registration you’ll get a download link for the software installers and product guides.

Reading the Admin Guide I found the information which I’ve needed to planned the hardware infrastructure for my demo lab. The sizing mentioned in the guide of course is for a production system i.e. 16 GB RAM for the server and I planned to use less RAM because I’m only using it for a few concurrent client operations.

Of course I’ll use virtual machines for deploying the Mirage Servers and Clients, based on VMware virtualization. At the moment I’ve two options which are working great for me:

• My iMac i5 with 16 GB RAM running Mountain Lion and Fusion 5.0.x.
• A Fujitsu Esprimo P1510 with a Quad core i7 processor and 16 GB RAM running ESX 5.1. By the way this Fujitsu box is a great system for home labs as the storage and the network interface are detected by the installer without issues. Actually this P1510 is a office PC and not a proper server.

I’ve not decided finally which option I’ll go with but I’ve started to install the needed backend (Active Directory, SQL Server) on the Mac as my vSphere environment is not completely ready yet.

The Mirage home lab will finally consist of:

• VM with Windows 2008 R2 Server running as Active Directory Domain Controller and the Mirage Management Console.
• VM with Windows 2008 R2 Server as the Mirage Server and Management Server (Usually in a production environment you would install these modules on different servers but here this will be ok for me).
• Two client VM’s running Windows XP and Windows 7.
• Another client VM running Windows 7 as reference machine.

I’ve already used some product specific wording which you may not know so I’ll give you an overview first.

• Mirage Management Server – The main component that controls the Mirage Server Cluster
• Mirage Server – This server component manages the storage and delivers base/app-layers and CVD’s to the clients. Another task for the server is the consolidation of the monitoring and management communication.
• Mirage Client – The client is installed on a Windows endpoint. The client receives data from the server and sends local changes back into the datacenter.
• Mirage Console – The Mirage Console is a snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and it gives you access to the Mirage System.
• Reference Machine – A reference machine is used for creating the base layers for a CVD or s set of CVD’s. Actually this is i.e. a Windows 7 desktop where the IT administrator does install software which will be captured into layers.
• Branch Reflector – The branch reflector is a Mirage Client somewhere in your network, maybe in a branch which has an additional role. It serves the clients in the network with base and app layers so that the clients haven’t to download those layers from the central datacenter. This helps to save bandwidth and speeds up the delivery process.
• File Portal – The File Portal is a web portal based on Internet Information Server which gives the users access to their data located in their centralized CVD. This is great for users who can’t access their laptops or PC’s directly i.e. because they are stolen or broken. If that’s the case they can access the synchronized data via any device using a web browser.
• Base Layer – A layer defined by the administrator which includes the operating system, and the core applications i.e. VPN client, anti virus and so on.
• App Layer – This layer includes software for departments or line of business applications. The app layers can be created using the reference machine and then be deployed to large scale infrastructures.
• Driver Profile – A group of drivers which can be designated for use with specific hardware. The administrator can add drivers for the client hardware and Mirage will use them for the correct configured endpoints. 
• User-Installed applications and machine state – The information included here makes the endpoint unique. It includes i.e. a unique identifier, the hostname and any changes made to the Windows Registry. Also DLL’s and configuration files are part of this.
• User settings and data – As it says, it includes the users settings and data. Administrators can define which data will be protected by Mirage. The admin could i.e. exclude large video files or MP3′s from syncing. You should note here that all changes made by the user to data, applications and the machine state are efficiently propagated to the datacenter.

You now got a first impression of the Mirage wording which will help you in the next articles in this series.

For now that’s all but stay tuned for the next blog post coming. I’m currently setting up everything and will be back soon.

Currently I’m planning to write about:

• Installing Mirage and connecting to the Mirage system
• Mirage Console overview
• Centralizing an endpoint
• Creating a base layer
• Working with the driver library
• Deploying layers to the Mirage client

Image Source: http://newsroom.cisco.com/image/image_gallery?uuid=d27d5b59-29b5-4e5e-8ccb-a09e2d899b61&groupId=10157

Today Cisco has announced that the Cisco Jabber application, a all in one unified communication solution will be supported in VMware View desktop environments. Check this link for the announcement. 

 SAN JOSE, Calif., January 17, 2013 – As part of Cisco’s ongoing efforts to enable anytime, anywhere collaboration, Cisco today announced new software that extends the Cisco Jabber™ unified communications application to virtualized workspace environments. As part of a long-term software strategy for collaboration-enabling virtual desktops, this software, called the Virtualization Experience Media Engine (VXME), will be available initially on Cisco thin clients, followed by support for third-party devices, starting with Dell Wyse thin clients, and then Windows-based thin clients and Windows PCs.

 To see the full article, please visit either the VMware EUC Blog, or the Cisco Newsroom.

Link: http://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2013/01/momentum-for-real-time-unified-communications-support-within-virtualized-desktops-continues-in-2013-with-cisco.html

In one of my last articles I’ve mentioned that there is a new VMware View book available. Please check this link, to find a sample of the book. There are just a few pages but you can get a first overview of what you’ll get when ordering.

If you like it, feel free to support us and order at Amazon.com.

Nutanix enabled you to virtualize your datacenter without a SAN as requirement. On their website they’ve a great overview, how VMware Viewbenefits from a Nutanix Infrasstructure. Please visit this Link: http://www.nutanix.com/applications.html#Desktop_Virtualization to get deeper information.

You can also register for the best practise guide for VMware View which can be found here: http://www2.nutanix.com/l/8112/2012-10-26/39rqmv

Check this out! VMware View 5.1 and ThinApp have been awarded as winners or the readers choice award. Please feel free to visit the link below to get more information.

Link: http://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2013/01/01/readers-choice-awards.aspx

My colleague Tim Arenz from our Professional Services Organization has published a short blog posting about running the View Client for MacOS with multiple instances. As there is no built-in way of doing it, he found a quick and dirty workaround. This is very useful if you want to run multiple instances of VDI sessions i.e. as a Software Developer or Administrator.

Image Source: http://www.horizonflux.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/MultiInstancesViewClientDock.png

Link: http://www.horizonflux.com/launching-multiple-instances-of-the-vmware-view-client-for-mac-os-x/

Storage is a hot topic when planning your Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and there are a few things you should think about before rolling out hundreds or thousands of desktops. In a new article Cormac Hogan, a storage specialist from VMware writes about the Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI product. A great article from a real expert. See what Cormac says about the solution.

This is very impressive technology, and it is all done in software. Atlantis are really opening the doors for many customers who have not been able to pursue VDI due to storage costs either due to capacity or performance. And they certainly deserve those VMworld accolades.

Link: http://cormachogan.com/2012/10/25/atlantis-ilio-diskless-vdi-services-feature-review/

The wait is over! VMware has just published a new knowledge base article which points to an update for ESXi. This patch closes the gap between vSphere 5.1 and View 5.1.x. The update for ESXi requires a host reboot as of the release notes which you can find here. (Release Notes for ESXi510-20121001)

I guess the fixed issue in regards to View is: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2034550

PR923756: When the View Storage Accelerator feature is enabled in View, Multiple Content-Based Read Cache (CBRC) disable requests issued from View to hostd might cause View to lose connectivity to an ESXi host.

Link: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2035268

Interesting video on how to capture SAP GUI with VMware ThinApp. As mentioned in an old article on my blog there is a SAP support note ID which declares support for this solution.