[gPXE] Can gPXE's network booting be classified as a VDI solution ?

[Nick Couchman]

>>> On 2010/09/03 at 16:15, The Mad One <biker6202002 at yahoo.fr> wrote: 

> Thanks for the very informative reply, Nick,
> 
> Short answer: no, gPXE network boot is not a VDI solution.
> 
> I think I have misguided you, what I meant is : Can DRBL OS Streaming be 
> considered a VDI solution ?

In the popular sense of the term VDI, no.

> 
> Well, I was looking at OS Streaming as a sort of partial virtualisation 
> (only the hard drive is virtual), but, is VDI really about the main OS 
> software+apps running on the server side like in the mainframe computing 
> model ?

The term VDI refers to virtualizing the entire machine in your data center and only forwarding display information over the network.

> 
> I was confused by Citrix's sayings about XenDesktop's OS Streaming to be the 
> "low-cost way for customers to get started with desktop virtualization by 
> leveraging existing PC resources and keeping datacenter overhead to a 
> minimum"
> http://flexcast.citrix.com/technology/streamedvhd.html
> 

Yes, marketing folks have a good way of confusing us :-).

> I categorized LTSP as a "thin-client terminal server" solution like MS 
> terminal server for linux, but can Microsoft's terminal server be considered 
> VDI, in my opinion no, I see virtualization as software layer replacing the 
> hardware, to me a mainframe hosting VM's is a VDI solution because there's 
> some hardware abstraction at some point but terminal server isn't VDI because 
> it's just using a time-sharing OS with no more hardware abstraction layer. To 
> me virtualization is about virtual hardware not about the desktop you see on 
> screen being run locally or centrally, I'm I wrong ?

Yes, this is true - I was confused, too, at least momentarily.  LTSP represents only the terminal services part of the solution.  VDI actually refers to the entire package:
- Virtual desktop machines running on servers
- Remote display or terminal access technology connecting to these services

-Nick



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