Adhering VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Alliance Leostream launches a new product: Virtual Desktop Connection Broker.
The products features are:
- Single Sign-On
The Leostream Connect agent that runs on the end user’s Windows XP desktop provides single sign-on and sign-off. So the user simply enters their username and password into the Leostream Connect interface and presses Connect, and shortly after they are auto-logged into the remote Windows session - Virtual Desktop Pooling
Desktops can be organized into groups or “pools” using a sophisticated, automated, labeling system. Once labeled they can be assigned to users according to that user’s group membership as defined by the external authentication server - Virtual Desktop Failover
Leostream checks the state of a Virtual Desktop before assigning, or re-assigning, it so if a VM fails then it is automatically replaced by another from the same pool - Session Stickiness
The assignment of a particular Desktop to a user can be permanent, or just for a preset period of time - Native RDP Client Support
Leostream integrates with the native Microsoft RDC client rather than the browser or Java-based versions; this enhances performance and ensures compatibility with Microsoft Vista - Thin Client Support
Tight integration with thin clients such as the Wyse S10 enable a seamless end-user experience - Multi-Protocol Support
Remote desktop protocols supported include: Microsoft’s RDP, Citrix’s ICA, VNC, and VMware Remote Viewer – enabling the use of operating systems that do not support RDP - Policy Base Session Variables
Session variables such as screen size, disk re-direction, and remote printing can be set with each access Policy - Secure Access
Authentication and RDC session can be secured using SSL certificates – ensuring data security - Dynamic Management of Virtual Machine State
The VM state can be automatically changed when assigned and un-assigned, so allowing unused VMs to be kept in a powered-off state economizing both licensing and hardware utilization - Virtual Hosted Desktop Self-Service
Users can browse a catalog of Virtual Machines, select one and then request a copy. Each request must then be approved by a supervisor before being created and assigned to that user. The created VMs can be set to expire at a certain date, after which only a Administrator can bring them back into service, and finally they can be set to be deleted on a particular date - Monitoring and Reporting
Real-time monitoring of RDC sessions, and reporting via email and SNMP - External Authentication
Users can be authenticated and profiled using Active Directory or LDAP servers without a schema change - User Activity Monitoring and Logging
User status is displayed, user activity is logged, and users can be logged out of the system, so providing a central view of all user activity - Virtual Appliance Format
The Connection Broker is distributed as a Virtual Appliance so it can be rapidly set up, duplicated, moved, and backed- up. It requires a minimum of 1.5G of Memory, and bridged network connectivity. CPU utilization is dependent on the Connection Broker load and will require between 1/10 and all of a 2GHz Xeon processor - Scalability
The Connection Broker manages multiple VMware VirtualCenters. The maximum deployment sizes are:- 7,000 VMs per VirtualCenter
- 1024 VirtualCenters per Connection Broker
- 50,000 VMs can be managed per Connection Broker
Watch a demo here.
The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.