Centralized Desktops

[bwatkins14]

I would like my users to use Citrix to access their desktop's so it will look the same whether they are at home or in the office. I would like to create more than one type of desktop depending on what type of user it is. Can someone maybe point me to a link that would explain how this process works and how to set it up?

We also have VMWare ESX server and if you know of a better way of accomplishing this task with the use of VM please let me know.

Thanks for any help,
B

 

[enigma99]

bwatkins14,
How many ESX servers do you have in your enviornment?
It would be ideal to have multiple ones and use something like vmotion to move the Citrix servers between ESX hosts in case any kind of maintenance or emergency comes up.
If you dont have multiple ESX host servers...(in my opinion) your taking a very large risk if you have all your Citrix servers on it.

You can create multiple "Desktop" applications and publish them out to certain global groups. Example..."Accounting Desktop" can be published to the global group "Accounting". "HR Desktop" can be published to individuals in the "HR" Global Group.

Make sure that on your published "Accounting Desktop"...you only have Citrix servers that are designated for Accounting Desktop. And vice-versa with the HR desktop.

On your ESX server...you can create an Virtual Machine with Win2k3 (or Win2k), get the patches on it, install the applications (in applicaiton mode of course...not in remote admin mode) and do a sysprep. Then you can convert your Virtual Machine into a template which will give you the ability to deploy a Virtual Machine from this newly created template.

There's still a lot of things that we can go over but that's just some basic stuff.

Hope that helps.

 

[bwatkins14]

Thanks for your reply but it's not exactly what I'm looking for; let me better explain.

I currently have more than one ESX server and fault tolernece setup between them.

I would like to have vmware images of user desktops and then have the users access them via citrix. The citrix servers are not vmware images they are stand alone servers. I would like my users to use the citrix WI whether they are at home or in the office to access a XP or Vista desktop that is setup for that paticular user.

Does anyone know where to get documentation on how to do this or is anyone else currently doing this?

Thanks for your help,
B

 

[Dublin73]

have you looked at "Citrix Desktop Broker"? I don't have experience with it to date, but from what I've read about it, it looks to be along the lines of what you're looking for.

It gives you better administration and management of vm desktops

 

[bwatkins14]

Thanks dublin..

I'm looking into the Desktop Broker and will be installing it in a test enviroment. It sounds very interesting.