Any one in here use PCoIP compliant systems?

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Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 18, 2009
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We currently have 8 blades racks (I believe--I don't know the make/model) in a data center, hosting VMWare ESX 3.5/VMWare VDI. Everyone RDPs into their VDI Workstations from several locations (main office, their homes, remote locations, etc.) through Cisco VPN IPSEC.

It seems that our users need a better user experience which PCoIP might be able to offer. In particular, it's for MS Office 07 applications (PowerPoint Presentations mainly), and to stream videos during presentations. Also little things like the mouse cursor taking too long to move where the user wants to (kind of like non-locality: just moves from one point to another but without the user's knowledge of how it did that...).

So, if anyone has any real life experiences with this (pros/cons), that would be great to know. Thank you.

Note: I was looking into Verari to possibly utilize their Connexxus clients, but it seems that they only want to sell us the WHOLE package: blades, pcie card with Teradici chipset, connection broker, and the thin clients. So, ouch.
 
I use PCoIP hardware with several different setups:
6 Verari Racks (72 blades each) in Bristol, CT
2 Verari Racks (72 blades each) in Los Angeles
1U Verari machines in Charlotte, NC
Misc machines in CT with Teradici cards in them
All 'users' get Connexxus clients at there desk, all connections except LA go through the Broker in CT (LA has there own Broker)
You can buy the Teradici 'kit' from EVGA, it basically goes into any computer with an available PCIe (think its 4x) slot for it AND a PCIe video card (DVI only,no VGA), cant use onboard video. If your 8 blade racks have a PCIe video card and PCIe slot for the Teradici card, then you can use them with the kit, no need for the broker, but it makes connections much easier, you can manually set the 'marriage' of the client to host via MAC address....set it and forget it.
For a few connections, that will work fine, but for alot of connections, having the broker makes life much easier.
Cons?
- uses 3 IP's per machine setup rather than 1 (IP for OS, IP for client, IP for Teradici in blade)
- cost
Pro's?
- crystal clear video (we have connections from LA to CT that are really really clear,although we do have the mouse pointer problem you mentioned, this is fixed in Teradici firmware 2.2 which we are moving towards)
- dead machine swap outs are under 5 min..sign into broker, reassign user device to another blade/PC and have them press reconnect (I converted a whole room from XP machines to Vista machines in under 12 minutes ~26 machines)
Think the EVGA kit was $399 Connexxus device and $399 for the Teradici host card

Ask away if you want detailed info
 
I am interested to hear about solutions for this :). Also worth mentioning that Vmware View 4.0 will release a software version of PcoIP sometime next month (last I heard). We are waiting to see what the support thin client list will look like.
 
Yes, we are testing the vmview software client as well as well as the vm software host.
Use the VM host on the actual blade PC and it will serve up 2 sessions (ie VM machines) to 2 different users, so it doubles our available 'hosts'
 
How does one get the VMWare View 4 PCoIP protocol?

We currently only have the ESX 3.5 hypervisor, and the VDI. I guess View 4 includes VDI with other stuff, but that's not how we connect to our VMs.

Also, I think we have some HP C-Class blades at the Data Center we're hosting our VDI, so I don't think I can do Verari Systems since I have to buy their "whole" package and hosted on their own data center.

This would have been cool if weren't already set up at out NY Data Center.

Also, dbwillis:

I use PCoIP hardware with several different setups:
6 Verari Racks (72 blades each) in Bristol, CT
Click to expand...

Nice! Our corporate office is in Waterbury, CT (about 20 minutes from Bristol, CT). Where are you guys hosting?
 
Software PCoIP will be part of View w/ vSphere 4, all you have to do is wait to get it ;)

VMware licensed Teradici ... a very smart move IMHO
 
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archivalbackup said:
Software PCoIP will be part of View w/ vSphere 4, all you have to do is wait to get it ;)

VMware bought Teradici ... a very smart move IMHO
Click to expand...

Crap, I don't believe we have vSphere at all. I don't think we will be moving to them either.

I thought VMWare had like a "beta" stage opened to a few people where they could test it out. Blah.

So, now it's EMC -> VMWare -> Teradici? Alrighty.

Also, just to be sure with the hardware side, I would need one PCIe card on the blade for EACH independent Teradici portal? So, that would mean, if I had 50 portals, I would need 50 PCIe slots on the blades for this to work?

I hope I'm wrong...lol.
 
The next version of VMware View, 4.0, will have PCoIP in a software stack, so no cards needed. Works very well.
 
NetJunkie said:
The next version of VMware View, 4.0, will have PCoIP in a software stack, so no cards needed. Works very well.
Click to expand...

Exactly, I probably did not make this clear, VMware is getting rid of the hardware component on the server when they integrate PCoIP into View
 
You only need the physical PCIe card if you want to use that particular hardware with the PCoIP tech.
As mentioned there is the software PCoIP coming, which we will be using.
The 'puck' or user devices have VMView integrated in them, so plop one at a users desk, configure it for a VM machine and thats what they get on there monitor, works great.
its not a problem to have workstations in the NY center and users in CT, we have machines in Bristol CT and users in Charlotte NC, they work fine, there is a small lag with users in LA CA and machines in Bristol CT, but heck, thats across the country !
You dont have to buy the whole rack, you can buy the Verari 1U's which are the same machines as the ones in the rack (depending on models of course).
Im at ESPN and can prob show you the setup if you want (ps I just switched a control room from Verari running XP to Verari running Vista last night during a commercial break or two (under 10 min for ~25 macines,,pcoip is pretty cool stuff, EASY to use)
All our Verari blades are on 4 racks in 2 of our data centers, with 2 more racks being installed in Nov and 2 more in Dec/Jan in a new DC (ie 72 blades x 8 racks !!!)

(I thought VMware just licensed the tech from Teradici....didnt hear anything about Teradici being bought by them, Teradici is in Israel (we call the dev's there sometimes))
 
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You only need the physical PCIe card if you want to use that particular hardware with the PCoIP tech.
As mentioned there is the software PCoIP coming, which we will be using.
The 'puck' or user devices have VMView integrated in them, so plop one at a users desk, configure it for a VM machine and thats what they get on there monitor, works great.
its not a problem to have workstations in the NY center and users in CT, we have machines in Bristol CT and users in Charlotte NC, they work fine, there is a small lag with users in LA CA and machines in Bristol CT, but heck, thats across the country !
You dont have to buy the whole rack, you can buy the Verari 1U's which are the same machines as the ones in the rack (depending on models of course).
Im at ESPN and can prob show you the setup if you want (ps I just switched a control room from Verari running XP to Verari running Vista last night during a commercial break or two (under 10 min for ~25 macines,,pcoip is pretty cool stuff, EASY to use)
All our Verari blades are on 4 racks in 2 of our data centers, with 2 more racks being installed in Nov and 2 more in Dec/Jan in a new DC (ie 72 blades x 8 racks !!!)

(I thought VMware just licensed the tech from Teradici....didnt hear anything about Teradici being bought by them, Teradici is in Israel (we call the dev's there sometimes))
Click to expand...

Hmm, thank you for offering a tour. I might actually consider it since it's so close by here. I just don't want anyone getting in trouble for possibly violating security policies (I don't want you can'd, you know?).
 
Tours are AOK, just dont run up to Ditka asking for an autograph
 
Dang, I heard that wrong. VMware did license to make the software implementation. Perhaps they are thinking about purchasing, I have to do some digging. (comment edited for accuracy above).
 
Gotcha, also..dont get caught screwing the prod assistants :eek:)
Im off Fri/Sat, any other day, lemme know.
(also just got a new SuperMicro 1U system in today..get this, Teradici card, AJA HD output card, Nvidia FX4800 with SDI daughtercard...all in 1U !
 
dbwillis said:
(also just got a new SuperMicro 1U system in today..get this, Teradici card, AJA HD output card, Nvidia FX4800 with SDI daughtercard...all in 1U !
Click to expand...

Off topic, but I am curious to know what the allure of Supermicro is? I run into people who breath this company like a religion, but I feel they have no place in an enterprise environment (SMB maybe).
 
Supermicro builds good, solid machines, thats from my first hand experience, I mentioned the above info about the 1U because it has up to 5 add on cards in a 1U height machine, thats incredible.
I have very in depth use of the SM machines...
Every scrolling bottomline for ESPN (all ESPN networks), ABC, YES network (Yankees), ESPN America (London/Ireland) and TSN (Toronto) run on SuperMicro/Nvidia machines, the machines are used 24x7x365 and rarely have any problems.
In addition, every bug (ie the clock/score info) on ESPN, ABC, Yes, TSN, Showtime and a few others is run from a SuperMicro/Nvidia machine, and that machine is shipped from event to event, they do have problems, mainly from a card wiggling loose during shipping, but they are solid.
On the other hand, the majority of the graphics you see on ESPN is rendered in VIZ software running on Tyan/Nvidia combos and they always have problems.
HP, Intel, Dell dont have the available PCi/PCIe/PCIx slots we need so they are of no use really to us for that purpose.
 
Kachunkachunk said:
View 4.0 came out today, FYI.
Click to expand...

Link?

My company's been waiting for View 4 to test the PCoIP functionality but no luck getting it so far. It was announced on Monday 11/9, but it's not available yet to people who have licenses for View 3, nor is the demo available for download.

My understanding, both from our VMware TAM and other VMware employee's, is that it will be released on 11/19. There's a lot of speculation wether it will require vSphere4 Update 1 that's supposed to be released on the same day.
 
Just installed 3 new Verari racks tonight, along with a new Cisco switches, will try to snap some pics tomorrow.

(brings us to 14 racks @ 72 blades each using PCoIP tech)
 
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