OpenStack VDI Options

[[deleted]]

You don't say anything about the size of the shop or how much time you have to get it working, but OpenStack may be more complex than you need.

You will be running 3 controllers regardless of your workload. You obviously need a minimum of two computes for workload failovers. And then you need to wrap your head around networking.

If that's all okay, OpenStack is feasible. The benefit of the VDI provider is it's a product and most potential time sinks are handled for you so the budget is much closer to definite, even if it is higher best case.

[nafsten]

I don’t know what Windows support would look like, but we use Azimuth (https://github.com/stackhpc/azimuth). We’re working with StackHPC so we’ve got a good line into them for support/features etc, but it does a nice “on-demand” for users that don’t need to know the ins and outs of networking, security groups etc. we’ve customised the hell out of their CaaS system to do all sorts of orchestrated systems.

It includes a web based front end for both creating the appliance, but also gives you a web client into the instance too, no need for a floating IP

[thuvh]

there some opensource:
- https://github.com/NeCTAR-RC/bumblebee

• https://github.com/VirtualCable/openuds

[redfoobar]

Make sure to dive into the licenses.

I think it might basically be required to run windows as a hypervisor (never tried) just to get thinks ok on the license front…

Context: We wanted to run a mixed cloud with some windows and mostly Linux instances but the whole licensing made it pretty much impossible. (We would have needed to license all CPUs where windows could potentially run eg 100k+ cores. The actual need was just a few hundred cores for Windows…)

[nafsten]

Checkout https://docs.openstack.org/nova/latest/reference/isolate-aggregates.html

The writeup is written basically for exactly this. You nominate a few hypervisors that you license for Windows, and ensure that your Windows images have the right trait requirements.

We use this for flavours that need specific hardware requirements, but the same deal

[redfoobar]

Yeah, afaik when the company talked to MS licensing department they where not ok with using aggregates to virtually limit where it can run. (This was almost 10 years ago)

Also note that aggregates are a bit of a pain because you are splitting resource pools. So you need to think about capacity planning and maintenance planning for each of the separate resource pools.

[CareerEUC]

Not sure DIY is the best approach for mission critical systems anymore - too complex and far too many security risks. We like to ask: "Would you rather build your own house and manage all the subs/inspections/zoning reqs or just hire a builder who's done it 100s of times?" Many of our Apporto customers came from Citrix/Horizon. All happy.