Internet Connection

Internet Connection

• Intranet – Alternatively, the HDX session over which their virtual desktop will be delivered may be transported across the Enterprise WAN and proxied by the same NetScaler Gateway where they authenticated. The advantage of this approach is that a significant portion of the HDX traffic would traverse the Enterprise network where quality of service may be used to provide an optimal user experience. Therefore, this is the recommended dynamic method provided the network assessment identifies that sufficient bandwidth is available or that the project allows for it to be provisioned and that an appropriate QoS infrastructure is in place or may be configured.

Resource Layer

The resource layer is the third layer of the design methodology and the final layer focused specifically on the user groups. The overall user acceptance of the solution is defined by the decisions made within the resource layer. Personalization, applications and overall desktop image design play a pivotal role in how well the desktop is aligned with the user group’s requirements, which were identified within the user data capture and application data capture sections of the assess phase.

Personalization

User Profiles

A user’s profile plays a critical role in determining how successful the user experience is within a virtual desktop or virtual application scenario. Even a well-designed virtual desktop solution can fail if users are frustrated due to lengthy logon times or lost settings. The user profile solution chosen must align with the personalization characteristics of the user group captured during the assess phase

as well as the FlexCast model selected.

Decision: Profile Type

This section provides an overview on the different profile types available and provides guidance on the optimal user profile for each FlexCast model.

• Local profiles – Local profiles are stored on each server or desktop operating system and are initially created based on the default user profile. Therefore, a user accessing these resources would create an independent profile on each system. Users are able to retain changes to their local profile on each individual system, but changes are only accessible for future sessions on that system. Local profiles require no configuration; if a user logging into a server or desktop operating system does not have a profile path administratively defined, a local profile is created by default.

• Roaming profiles – Roaming profiles are stored in a centralized network repository for each user. Roaming profiles differ from local profiles in that the information in the profile (whether it is a printer, a registry setting, or a file stored in the documents folder) can be made available to user sessions accessed from all systems in the environment. Configuring a user for a roaming profile requires an administrator to designate the user’s profile path (for virtual desktops) or terminal server profile path to a particular network share. The first time the user logs on to a server or desktop operating system, the default user profile is used to create the user’s roaming profile. During logoff, the profile is copied to the administrator-specified network location.

• Mandatory profiles – Mandatory profiles are typically stored in a central location for many users. However, the user’s changes are not retained at logoff. Configuring a user for a mandatory profile requires an administrator to create a mandatory profile file (NTUSER.MAN) from an existing roaming or local profile and assign users’ with a terminal services profile path. This can be achieved by means of Microsoft Group Policy, customizing the user properties in Active Directory or Citrix Profile Management.

• Hybrid profiles – Hybrid profiles combine a robust profile core (a mandatory profile or a local default profile) with user specific registry keys or files that are merged during logon. This technique enables administrators to tightly control which changes are retained and to keep the user profiles small in size. Furthermore, hybrid profiles address the last write wins issue using mature queuing techniques that automatically detect and prevent simultaneous writes that could potentially overwrite changes made in another session. Thus minimizing, user frustration resulting from lost profile changes when accessing multiple servers or virtual desktops simultaneously. In addition, they capture and record only the changes within the profile, rather than writing the entire profile at logoff. A good example of a hybrid profile solution is Citrix Profile Management, which will be discussed in detail within this chapter.

In order to select the optimal profile type for each user group it is important to understand their personalization requirements in addition to the FlexCast model assigned.