Just before the launch of XenDesktop 4.0, Citrix released a 42-pages reference architecture on how to build a VDI environment for 10,000 seats with the following characteristics:
The blueprint specifically applies to the previous version of XenDesktop and discusses the following areas of the project:
- Virtualization Infrastructure: A detailed design on the underlying virtualization infrastructure focusing on hardware, capacity, high-availability and storage.
- Operating System Delivery: A detailed design on the delivery of the base operating system to hosted and streamed desktops with a focus on farm design, capacity, cache and high-availability.
- Application Delivery: Focuses on the integration of the application layer in regards to desktop delivery, specifically applications, integration and application optimization.
- Desktop Delivery: Creates a design for the desktop delivery process, with a focus on capacity, groups and group settings.
- Virtual Desktop: Focuses on defining the components of a desktop image for hosted and streamed desktops. The section looks at virtual desktop specifications, desktop images and storage requirements.
- Access Design: Focuses on how internal and external users receive their resources.
- Business Continuity Design: Focuses on designing a solution that reduces the impact of service faults on users.
Independently on the decision to adopt Citrix technologies, it’s a good starting point that anybody interested in VDI may want to check.
In the past VMware published similar papers, like Virtual Desktop Infrastructure – Deployment Considerations and VDI Implementation Best Practices.