When we at dataplex talk to clients about desktop virtualisation an element that many forget about is the user experience and their personalisation – amazingly true! And this comes under a virtualisation banner all of its own – User Virtualisation; the collection of files and settings unique to an individual user, such as the Windows user profile, desktop settings, shortcuts and images etc….
Get it wrong and your project will fall at the first hurdle.
When considering the ways to manage the persona, this can be done through the following ways:
1. Local user
This is how Windows deals with profiles now: All user data and profile information is kept locally on the Windows C:\ drive in the Users folder. This is not good in desktop virtualisation as the image is often read only and all user specific settings are lost on logoff. Not a great experience for end user.
2. Roaming profiles and folder redirection
In this configuration, the user profile is synced between a network location and the local desktop. If folder redirection is enabled, then the local copy is also kept on the network file share. This fix can work in a VDI environment, but are not the greatest way to cater for user experiences – how are you going to differentiate between a local copy of XP and that running over VDI if your deployment is hybrid – it could get messy!
4. Profile migration, caching and streaming engines
An entire industry has developed around profile management. The majority of players in this market have developed products that cache a copy of the profile on a central file share and copy or stream it back and forth as needed or scheduled. Vendors like AppSense can cater for this amongst many others.
5. Layered persona
The layering or container concept is the newest design type on the list, and it applies to profile management as well as image management. These tools basically create layers of the operating system, application, patches and personality, and they handle the user profile and data by making each user a container/layer that appears to be on the C:\ but is actually a separate folder.
VDI breaks typical local user persona management because a virtual desktop based on the Microsoft, Citrix and VMware model should be flexible and easy to manage. But once a desktop's user profile is on the local C:\, that desktop is tied directly to an end user. The best way to fix this is to move to a more robust profile management solution such as AppSense Environment Manager.