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Tech Tips

Successful Deployment ofVMware Horizon (with View) and

VMware MirageIn today’s rapidly-changing workplace, workers are increasingly mobile. In fact more than 52 percent of employees carry at least

three devices for work, and many bring their own devices to and from work, a practice known as bring your own device (BYOD).

These workplace dynamics create new IT challenges including data security and compliance, cost containment, and endpoint/

image management.

VMware Horizon™ (with View) helps IT tackle these challenges head-on by virtualizing end-user desktops. With View, IT organizations

can move desktop assets (OS, applications and data) into the data center, where IT staff can more securely manage and deliver them

to end users across multiple devices and locations. This approach offers many benefits:

• Lowers Total Cost of Ownership

• Reduces Operational Expenses (OpEx)

• Improves Security• Supports Mobility and Workplace Device Diversity

VMware Mirage™ helps IT tackle image management challenges. Mirage is designed to deliver unified image management to physical,

virtual, and BYO devices. While View virtualizes end-user desktops, Mirage works on any new or existing physical or virtual device. With

Mirage, IT creates and updates layers, such as base layers, with core OS components and common business applications. Devices are

backed up to a central repository and updated with IT-managed dynamic layers. Mirage provides fully-automated backup and recovery,

extends PC lifecycle management tools, and is designed for distributed environments.

As you plan your virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or physical endpoint deployment, consider the following tips:

1 Look at Your User Roles and Requirements

For a more successful VDI deployment, create groups of

users with similar desktop usage models and requirements.

Considerations might include: types of users (e.g., task

worker, knowledge worker); mobility requirements (e.g.,

none, mobile, offline access); and user requirements (e.g.,

dedicated desktop, customized, user-installed apps).

This will affect your choice of desktop pool (dedicated or

floating), the number of virtual machine pools you create,

and whether or not your users can connect to a virtual

desktop. You can alternatively decide to centrally control

physical endpoints via VMware Mirage. Consider what

you must do to maintain user data when users are not

connected. Roaming profiles, View Persona Management,

user data disks and other third-party methods of user data

storage are available to best manage your different user

roles. See the Desktop Pools for Specific Types of Workers 

section in the VMware View manual for more details.

For physical endpoints, consider Mirage

Research the requirements of different departments or

groups of users who may have unique application or policy

requirements before managing your physical endpoints.

This allows you to create fewer IT-managed layers and

simplifies Mirage desktop deployment. See the Mirage

Reviewer’s Guide for more details.

Set expectations with users

The success of a VDI deployment depends on employee

satisfaction, so it is important to build user expectations

into your deployment plan. Ask key questions, such as:

what devices will employees use? Will printing be a

requirement? Do users need to play or record audio?

Run a desktop virtualization pilot to gather data on

performance requirements and employee satisfaction.

Make sure that users can quickly access their data. For

more information, see the Horizon Reviewer’s Guide.

Figure 1: Managing User Persona and Data

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Tech Tips - VMware Horizon (with View) and VMware Mirage

2 Assess Applications Requirements

To optimize the desktop experience for end users, do a full

assessment of all applications that will be run by the virtual

desktops. Check the number of licenses, including renewal

dates and their compatibility with View and Mirage. If youare upgrading operating system versions, check application

compatibility or package them using VMware ThinApp®.

For Mirage, use Application Layers to support specific

use cases for different applications. Identify the smallest

number of base layers that can support broad numbers

and types of endpoints in your Mirage environment.

Reducing the number of images for IT to support reduces

management time and costs.

Use application layers on top of the standard base layer

to support the deployment of custom applications. The

Mirage Driver library enables using the same base layer

on all types of physical and virtual hardware. For details,

see the Architecture and Components section in theMirage Reviewer’s Guide.

3 Evaluate Your Data Topology

Have a clear understanding of where user files, folders,

settings and user personalization settings are located and

plan how to map them to the new environment. You may

need to enable file access to users across remote locations

but have the files centralized in one location. If you use

roaming for terminal services, decide whether you will

continue to do so in your virtual desktop environment.

4

Confirm your Directory Services are Properly Configured

and Running

Make sure all Active Directory domain controllers are

replicating properly, and that DNS and DHCP are correctly

configured, running, and able to accommodate the newly-

created desktops. Ensure that you have domain controllers

in the locations where people are logging in. For example,

if your firewall software blocks Global Catalog and LDAP

ports, administrators will have problems configuring user

entitlements. If you have a firewall between your View

environment and your Active Directory server, all of the

necessary ports must be open for Active Directory to

function correctly.

5 Assess Your Current Infrastructure

Review your current setup to see what existing

infrastructure you can leverage and what you might need

to add for your new environment. Review and optimize

WAN topology, QoS/CoS, display protocols, geographic

location of sites and remote access methods. Determine

whether a VPN solution is in place, and whether you will

use hybrid-security multi-factor authentication, or an

alternate topology (e.g., View Security Server). For best

practices on setting up your new environment, see Horizon

Architect Planning.

Size your Mirage servers appropriately to support the

number of endpoints you need to manage. Each Mirage

server can support up to 1,500 endpoint devices. Follow

the general guidelines in Figure 2 to size the physical

Mirage server appropriately. Deployments larger than

1,500 endpoints require a number of Mirage servers

behind a Layer 7 load balancer, such as the F5 BIG-IP

Local Traffic Manager or the SteelApp Traffic Manager.

UP TO 300

ENDPOINTS

UP TO 500 UP TO 1,500

Server

Type

Virtual Physical Physical

CPU 1x Dual-Core

Processor,

2.26 GHz

1x Quad-Core

Processor,

2.26 GHz

2x Quad-Core

Processor,

2.26 GHz

RAM 8 GB 8 GB 16 GB

Figure 2: Mirage Server Sizing Guidelines

Mirage relies on the network to stream layers to the

Mirage server. Be sure to optimize your existing network

infrastructure, including the location of the Mirage server.

If you plan to place the Mirage ser ver in the data center

of your headquarters and make it available via the WAN,

configure the Network QoS and use Mirage Branch

Reflectors to reduce network consumption.

Steady-state network utilization with Mirage averages

15Kb/sec per user, or about 50Mb per user per day. You can

throttle bandwidth on routers to ensure top performance.

Finally, if your users connect over a WAN ensure your

system uses bandwidth efficiently, does not degrade

performance and is latency–tolerant.

Use a Branch Reflector to improve performance in

Branch Offices

Branch Reflectors optimize layer deployment (application

layer, base layer and driver library). Mirage lets you

centrally nominate any Mirage-managed device as a

Branch Reflector. The nominated device automatically

takes on the nominated role the next time that it connects

to the Mirage server. The Branch Reflector acts as a staging

area for image updates, allowing other devices to update

via their LAN, usually without dedicated infrastructure or

an on-site technician.

For more on Branch Reflectors and multiple office

locations, see the Mirage Reviewer’s Guide.

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Tech Tips - VMware Horizon (with View) and VMware Mirage

Figure 3: Networking Setup for Mirage

6 Confirm Your Security Needs

Determine your requirements for authentication, data

protection, compliance, and archiving and retention

policies. For example, find out if you are using multi-factor

authentication such as smart cards or tokens in addition to

Active Directory to authenticate user access.

You can install and configure a View Security Server in

your DMZ to help connect external users with their View

desktops behind the corporate firewall. For more

information on security with desktop virtualization, see

the Security Solution Architecture for VDI. For Mirage, you

can set up the Mirage Gateway so users are not required

to VPN in from remote locations in order for their device

to centralize with the Mirage server.

For all Mirage client-server communication, you can

enable SSL via a global setting. Doing so will help keep

your client-server communications secure. For details,

see Setting Up the SSL Certificate in Windows Server in

the Mirage Administrator’s Guide.To protect user data, Mirage uses NTFS on the server side

so that regular Windows Security applies through access-

control-list object permissions. If you choose NAS storage

instead, you can leverage vendor data security tools and

use them in conjunction with Mirage. For example, to

configure NetApp NAS storage security to mimic pure

Microsoft NTFS permissions, see the VMware Knowledge

Base article Configuring Mirage Storage Security (2031614).

During backup and restore operations, Mirage uses the

MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm checksum to ensure

data integrity. Mirage is compatible with the Microsoft

Encrypting File System (EFS), Microsoft BitLocker drive

encryption, Sophos SafeGuard hard drive encryption,

and other encryption technologies, giving you the

flexibility to secure your data in the way that best meets

your business needs.

7 Right Size Your Storage

Many VDI projects fail, underperform or “over-cost” due

to poor storage design. To size your storage, use the most

accurate data you can gather about current and future

desktop requirements and compare it to the capabilities

of your storage systems. When sizing your storage,

consider both peak and average workloads.

Sizing storage for average workloads results in

inadequate resources during peak times, which

degrades end-user performance.

For Mirage, allocate appropriate storage resources for

optimal endpoint management. Both the reference

machine (where you capture IT-managed layers) and

backup/restore snapshots for each endpoint require

storage on the Mirage server. While capacity consumption

varies depending on the level of file duplication, number

of base layers and the number of snapshots you store, a

starter guideline is 15-30 GB of datacenter storage for

each user.

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Tech Tips - VMware Horizon (with View) and VMware Mirage

8 Consider Options for Restoring Endpoints

If a physical computer is lost, stolen or damaged you can

either restore the entire image to a replacement device or

restore only selected layers.

Restoring all layers to new hardware gives end-users theexact experience they had on their old hardware, which

minimizes productivity loss. You can also deliver only

user-managed layers to the new device if you require a

new base layer. If the information on an endpoint hard disk

is corrupted, you can overwrite the prior information and

restore the desktop image to the same device.

For a hands-on exercise in restoring a PC, see Using

Horizon Mirage for Desktop Recovery in the Mirage

Reviewer’s Guide.

9 Determine Support Requirements

Train all desktop support staff on the support model

changes so that support requirements for View andMirage are clear. Doing this at the beginning of the

deployment can greatly increase the likelihood of

success for your implementation.

10 Evaluate Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on

Investment (ROI)

Desktop virtualization does not deliver TCO and ROI in

the same way that server virtualization does. To show

how this new capability benefits your organization, use

the VMware TCO Calculator. This can be done ahead of

deployment to find out exactly what gains your

organization can expect. For example, desktop

virtualization can:

• Reduce support costs by 50 percent by centralizing

management

• Let you support up to 40 percent more end users with

the same IT personnel

• Reduce network requirements through more efficient

bandwidth usage

• Push out PC refresh cycles from 3-4 years to 5-7 years

ResourcesLearn more about VMware Horizon (with View)

• Horizon Product Overview

• Horizon Data Sheet

• Horizon Technical Documentation 

• Horizon Reviewers Guide

• Horizon Architectural Planning Guide

Learn more about VMware Mirage

• Mirage Product Overview

• Mirage Data Sheet

• See the VMware Knowledge Base for Mirage-related

questions

• Read the End User Computing Blog for the latest on Mirage

• Evaluate Mirage for 60 days

• Mirage Administrator’s Guide

• Mirage Reviewer’s Guide