Some VMWare help

[HelplmChoking]

Hey guys, quick question, in my company we use VMWare Horizon Client and awful thinclients to access our Network.

However, the performance is appalling as the server is in another continent. All our work is web-based but we need the VMs to access shared drive. Is there a way to access the drive only from an external device, for example mapping the drive to a location on a laptop without having to work in the VM?

[Electronics Wizardy]

is this at work? adk the it guy, i have no idea how your etwork is setup.

[Mikensan]

If they're using Horizon then they want control over the data. Horizon is a security solution, not cost savings so I imagine they are not going to let you map a drive to a device they don't directly control.

 

PCoIP/Blast are pretty lightweight protocols, so if your experience is that bad then downloading/uploading files are going to be worse anyway. Sounds like they need to invest in some sort of WAN acceleration or setup a remote site at your location.

 

Best solution is complain and make sure your co-workers complain to management so they can possibly budget a solution in for the next year. It costs money if you can't work efficiently.

[HelplmChoking]

2 hours ago, Mikensan said:

If they're using Horizon then they want control over the data. Horizon is a security solution, not cost savings so I imagine they are not going to let you map a drive to a device they don't directly control.

 

PCoIP/Blast are pretty lightweight protocols, so if your experience is that bad then downloading/uploading files are going to be worse anyway. Sounds like they need to invest in some sort of WAN acceleration or setup a remote site at your location.

 

Best solution is complain and make sure your co-workers complain to management so they can possibly budget a solution in for the next year. It costs money if you can't work efficiently.

I agree, they're well aware of the issue but are struggling to fix it. I've actually been pushing a business case to ditch the VMs and go to a laptop+dock solution. We're IT recruiters so being tied to a thinclient on a desk isn't exactly ideal, but the infrastructure cost so much to set up that there's no budget left to change. 

 

I'll find a way around eventually, managing the IT for our country isn't easy when head office is so "our way or the highway about it" 

[Jarsky]

I'm from New Zealand as well, and thankfully I don't have to access that much infrastructure internationally anymore, but we still have to deal with infrastructure and connectivity to other countries like India and Phillipines for them to access us. 

 

Unfortunately replication across thousands of miles to site servers can be extremely expensive as well as an absolute headache to fix when there are synchronization issues if you're using something like DFS. they are an administrators nightmare and would most definately be a last resort for your head office admins. So this really brings you back to using a delivery solution like you're currently using, or a VPN solution. 

 

You can get apps delivered directly to your computer via Horizon/Citrix using Remote App Delivery, rather than having them published in a VDI. You can then have shared folders be made available to those applications using client drive redirection (the same setup as assigning to a VDI). I believe you may be able to get access to the shared folder as a windows resource with an application such as Explorer++, allowing you to share between your local computer, and your shared drives. 

 

Another option is that you may be using 'best effort' routing to get back to your head office by using just your ISP's routes. There may be more 'premium' routes you can take to get to your head office which could substantially decrease the latency, depending where you're routing too.....We have a router in a Datacenter in New Market that connects back to our Citrix infrastructure. Then from that router we have 2 x 100Mbit links direct via a Philipines carrier which gives us a link with less than 100ms latency from end-to-end which makes it possible for them to use VDI's that feel fairly responsive. 

[Erkel]

Sounds like an IT recruiting company in NZ lol.   Never found had an experience where that staff were IT savy.

 

You are a multinational with the desktops running out of Sydney or something?  You on UFB?

 

Maybe simple networking issues.  I am in Auckland and we have a china office, RDP is not that bad going all that way.

 

 

[HelplmChoking]

On 03/06/2018 at 2:23 AM, Erkel said:

Sounds like an IT recruiting company in NZ lol.   Never found had an experience where that staff were IT savy.

 

You are a multinational with the desktops running out of Sydney or something?  You on UFB?

 

Maybe simple networking issues.  I am in Auckland and we have a china office, RDP is not that bad going all that way.

 

 

We're on UFB but you're right about being IT savy, the guys here are definitely not that! I at least have a degree in software engineering so I'm putting together a business case for a change but that's a ways off yet.