VIRTUALISATION IN LEARNING
AGENDA
• Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop – Roseville
College (James Stewart)
• VMWare View – Riverview (Alex Gibson)
• VMWare View vs Citrix XenApp trial –
Monte Sant’ Angelo (Mark McLennan)
• Question and Answers
ROSEVILLE COLLEGE
WHY VIRTUALISATION?
• Each student has their own laptop (BYOT), so lack of
SOE exists
• Recognition that whilst in theory it is nice that
students choose the appropriate application to create
a piece of work that demonstrates their
understanding of a concept, the reality is that
standard application suits are necessary to teach
certain subjects
– Music
• Sibelius
• Acid
–
TAS
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
WHY VIRTUALISATION?
• Not feasible to try and install each piece of software
on individual machines
• How do we handle students who lose their laptop and
bring another home device. Lesson interruptions to
reinstall software
• No guarantee that student machines have the
capabilities to run large software suites such as
Creative Suite CS6
• Licencing restrictions. Many software vendors don’t
allow the installation of educational software on
student personal devices
OUR REQUIREMENTS
• The main requirement was to provide virtualisation at
the application layer, not desktop layer. A big focus of
BYOT is personalisation of learning, and we wanted
virtual applications to be more of an extension of the
student’s laptop, not found on a remote desktop.
• Needed to handed a whole year group (max 120
students) simultaneously with minimal performance
drop
• Needed to be able to run large, graphics and
multimedia based applications (Adobe CS6, Acid)
OUR REQUIREMENTS
• Needed to work seamless both onsite and over the
Internet at home (assuming at least a good 3G or
DSL line at home)
• Fast application loading
• Application preference remembering
• Support of local hardware, including saving to local
computer hard drives, webcam and USB support
• Web portal for application access, as well as ability to
use local shortcuts
• Compatible with iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and
Chrome OS.
WHY CITRIX
• NetStrategy tasked with
investigating current and upcoming technologies in
mid-2012 and to demonstrate to Roseville College a
pilot build that best met the stated requirements
• A hybrid solution of Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop
running on VMWare VSphere server backend
proposed
• Primary reason for Citrix is that is allowed for
application virtualisation focus, whereas Windows
Remote Desktop and VMWare View were more
traditional desktop focused
INFRASTRUCTURE
• 3 x Dell R720 servers
– Dual Xeon E-2690 2.9Ghz CPUs, 256Gb RAM, dual 10GB
NICs, dual 600Gb SAS local HDDs
• 1 x Dell EqualLogic PS6110XS SAS/SSD Hybrid
SAN (13TB storage)
• Citrix XenDesktop Concurrent Enterprise Licence for
120 users
• Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Remote Desktop
Services
• NetStrategy Professional Services
INFRASTRUCTURE
• XenApp (Windows 2008 R2) is used for:
– Simple applications that don’t require isolation
such as Microsoft Office, Geometer’s
SketchPad, Inspiration
• XenDesktop (Windows 7) is used for:
– More complex applications that require
isolation, such as Creative Suite CS6 (which
requires administrative rights on XenApp),
– Heavy multimedia apps that require driver
level access to the OS such as Acid Studio
• App Store
– Portal access that presents available XenApp
and XenDesktop apps in one location
SUPPORTING LEARNING
• All 7-12 students have their own personal laptop
(BYOT)
• 2012 saw 4 computer specialist labs at over 90%
utilisation
• 2013 has 2 computer specialist labs (one TAS, one
Music) at less than 50% utilisation
• Students and teachers are now using virtualised
applications on personal laptops instead of using
computer labs
• Students can now access all required software from
home on their devices
SUPPORTING LEARNING – FUTURE
• Currently investigating and testing changing TAS lab
to a universal dock system where students can plug
their laptops in and use their device with large
widescreen monitor and graphics tablets for graphic
design and multimedia
• Investigating the use of Citrix ShareFile to work hand
in hand with XenApp/XenDesktop as a shared
repository available to all College members on all
devices.
LESSONS LEARNT
• Citrix is a complicated beast. You need very good inhouse or very good outsourced technical services
• Receiver capabilities differ. Mac and Android receiver
versions lag a little behind Windows and iOS versions
• Some applications just won’t place nice. Sibelius 6 is
one such example
• Its amazing what 3G networks can support
• Students will always find a way to break something
that you never thought possible, or can’t replicate in
testing
LESSONS LEARNT
• A well designed virtualisation solution is expensive,
but worth it!
• So far, it is proving as a successful alternative to a
school owned 1:1 fleet with SOE
https://myapps.roseville.nsw.edu.au
DEMO - ROSEVILLE
ST IGNATIUS’ COLLEGE,
RIVERVIEW
WHY VIRTUALISATION?
WHY VDI OVER TS?
• Brian Madden paradox… VDI has become TS
• Choice between operating systems – Desktop OS rather
than App delivered from a Server OS
• More flexible application support. E.g. Solid Edge
• Ability to be flexible and agile about student devices.
• Licensing cost (at the time).
• In my opinion administration and management is easier
than Citrix.
RE-IMPLEMENTATION
• MacBook Airs with no BootCamp meant Vmware View
needed to improve.
• VDI boot times and overall performance was not
impressive.
New Setup:
• Floating dynamic pools, using the local SSD storage.
• Profiles sync back to SAN storage.
• Always on desktops eliminates boot storms and
speeds up time to connect.
• VMware Windows 7 Optimisation guide.
INFRASTRUCTURE/BENCHMARKS
• 3 x HP BL490c G7 blades
– Dual Xeon X5650 2.67 Ghz, 198GB RAM, 600GB FusionIO SSD local storage
(91,000IOPS)
• Current number of Desktops:
• Max concurrent in use:
215 *
157
• Benchmarked max: ~210 (Win7 4GB RAM)
- Host paging to disk (SSD) seen at around 90 desktops per host
• Tools: VMware View Planner, IOMeter
* 85 x Windows XP 2GB RAM
IMPACT ON LEARNING
• Efficient learning – accessible anywhere, anytime.
Access to all required network resources
• Move to BYOT – teachers can be confident in
delivering a lesson using devices
• Primary place for school work
Where to next?
Making better use of our VDI
• Extending life of lab machines by booting directly
into Virtual Desktops
• Deploying thin clients in some areas, e.g. Opacs
machines
• Wait for the technology to mature further
• VMWare Horizon
MONTE SANT’ ANGELO
MERCY COLLEGE
VS
WHY VIRTUALISATION ?
• Monte, a “Mac” School:
– ~1200 Students
– ~150 Staff
– 1450 Macs
• 2009/10 White Macbook’s (10.6.x) > 2012 MacAir’s (10.8.x)
• Except for TAS:
– 1.5 PC Labs (45 Win7 PCs)
– “2D Design Tools”
• Laser Cutter, 3D Prototyper
• … And the Business Office
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
Find a solution that:
• Delivers the required application(s)
• On our Network Infrastructure
• Within our tiny budget
• With the ability to scale up and out in the future
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
Find a solution that:
• Delivers the required application(s)
–
–
–
–
–
–
On campus or at home
Fast
With local and remote file access
With local USB (file and print)
Backed Up
…access to the internet…
• On our Network Infrastructure
• Within our tiny budget
• With the ability to scale up and out in the future
MISSION
“60 concurrent users,
Equivalent Application Functionality,
For less than the cost of a PC Lab”
PROCESS
Vendors
Write Criteria/Requirements
Build VMWare PoC
Build Citrix PoC
Initial Testing
Student Test Round 1
Tweaking / Refining
Student Test Round 2
Decision ?
DEFINING CRITERIA
• Environment
• Delivered Applications
• User Experience:
– Complexity
– Start up Time
– Application Performance
http://bit.ly/ZbbXDt
DEFINING CRITERIA
• Solution Functionality:
– File Access
– USB/External Devices
– Printing
– Internet Access
– Native File Association
http://bit.ly/ZbbXDt
DEFINING CRITERIA
• Solution Complexity:
– Administrative Overhead
– Application/SOE Maintenance
– Backup/Restore and DR
• Solution ‘Client Robustness’:
– Performance over slow internet
– …over ‘intermittent’ internet
– Mac sleep/wake cycle
http://bit.ly/ZbbXDt
DEFINING CRITERIA
• Future Proofing:
– Scaling up, Scaling out
– Move to ‘cloud’ ?
• Client Management
• Solution Cost:
– ROI
• Licencing (Upfront and Recurring)
• Applications
http://bit.ly/ZbbXDt
POC BUILD - VMWARE
VMWare – Horizon View 5.2
1 x Dell R710 – ESXi 5.1
(x5680 3.33Ghz 2 x 6 Cores, 128Gb, Internal SAS, iSCSI to SAN)
2 x Win2k8 Server VMs (On Production VM Environment)
–
–
–
–
View Connection Server
View Composer
View Transfer Server
SQL Server
N x Win7 Desktop VMs
Extreme x670 10Gb Core
Dell EqualLogic PS6110xv
Extreme x350 1Gb Edge
Motorola AP7131
POC BUILD - CITRIX
Citrix
1 x Dell R710 – Win2k8
(x5680 3.33Ghz 2 x 6 Cores, 128Gb, Internal SAS, iSCSI to SAN)
5 x Win2k8 Server VMs (On Production VM Environment)
–
–
–
–
–
Licence Server
StoreFront
Streaming Profiler
Netscaler
App Center
Extreme x670 10Gb Core
Dell EqualLogic PS6110xv
Extreme x350 1Gb Edge
Motorola AP7131
GATHERING FEEDBACK
• User Testing
• Student Survey
DECISION
?
VMWare:
P:
P:
•
•
Performance
Synergy (already VMWare backend)
•
Desktop/Application Management
M:
•
•
•
Boot up time
Another SOE
Scalable limit
I:
•
•
Citrix:
Teach ‘Windows Skills’
Horizon Suite
•
•
•
•
Seamless
Fast start up
XenApp and XenDesktop
Theoretically scales well
M:
•
•
Fine tuning applications
Whole new backend to maintain
I:
•
Citrix ecosystem of products
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Alex Gibson –
awgibson@riverview.nsw.edu.au
James Stewart –
jstewart@roseville.nsw.edu.au
Mark McLennan mmclennan@monte.nsw.edu.au