Getting Started with Citrix VDI-in-a-Box

While desktop virtualization is powerful and worth the investment (of time and money), it can also be overly-complex to design and implement. At VMworld 2010 I heard that the winner of the Best of VMworld awards “best in show” was Kaviza, a desktop virtualization solution that finally made VDI “stupid easy” to implement and made it affordable – a perfect solution for the SMB.

I was excited to try it but haven’t had a chance until now while I am working on a free TrainSignal video training course titled: Introduction to Desktop Virtualization (more details about the course to follow, here on this website).

Since the time that I initially heard about Kaviza, they were bought by Citrix and “assimilated” into their “collective”. That made me fearful that Citrix would kill the project as it competed (on the SMB side) with XenDesktop. However, thankfully, Citrix has kept Kaviza alive and has renamed it “VDI-in-a-Box“. The only potentially negative thing that Citrix has done is to not post the pricing for VDI-in-a-Box publicly on their website (likely to prevent it from hurting sales of XenDesktop). Now, you have to fill out a form and request pricing or get it from your reseller. However, that isn’t too uncommon.

For me to be able to demo VDI-in-a-Box as part of my Intro to Desktop Virtualization course, I had to get it up and running and tested first. Thus, I recorded my complete installation, initial configuration, and testing of VDI-in-a-Box. I used a single vSphere ESXi server and the Windows AD option for authentication (although AD isn’t required). I happen to have a small NAS (Iomega IX4) in my lab and vCenter but those things aren’t required.

What Do You Think of VDI-in-a-Box?

The connection to my virtual desktop and the performance was fast, wasn’t it? What you saw in the video was real performance (not edited). What do you think of this product?

I am impressed with VDI-in-a-Box and I am awaiting a price quote now. My only recommendation for Citrix is to put pricing online instead of making you request a quote.

I suggest that you try out VDI-in-a-Box for yourself using the free 30 day eval. I think you’ll see that it can make desktop virtualization super-easy!

Stay tuned for more videos on VDI-in-a-Box as I plan to do further testing with it.

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