ISS Technology Update, Volume 6 Number 10 - Newsletter

ISS Technology Update Volume 6, Number 10

Frequently asked questions regarding the adoption of HP VDI

This is the third in a series of newsletter articles about HP Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in which we will cover additional

frequently asked questions (FAQs) that our technical staff receives. It is our goal to share these answers publicly as the HP

knowledge base for VDI environments keeps expanding.

This set of FAQs includes, but is not limited to, the following VDI-related topics:

• Remote protocols for VDI

• HP Session Allocation Manager

FAQs

Question #1________________________________________________________________________________________

Q. What protocols are officially supported within VDI?

A. The major supported protocols within VDI are Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (MS-RDP) and HP Remote Graphics

Software – PC Edition (RGS-PC). Although it appears possible to use Virtual Network Computing (VNC), it has not been

heavily requested and is thus far unsupported.

Question #2________________________________________________________________________________________

Q. How does RGS-PC compare with MS-RDP in bandwidth and latency requirements?

A. In nearly all circumstances, RGS-PC requires lower latency than MS-RDP. With RGS-PC, even a power user typically works

well between 100 and 200 ms of network latency. The chart below illustrates network bandwidth consumption versus CPU

utilization for RGS and MS-RDP. At lower utilization levels, the user experience is very similar. However, as demand

increases, the user experience is better with RGS with the added benefit of requiring less bandwidth.

Kbps

Question #3________________________________________________________________________________________

Q. Does the virtual machine (VM) operating system determine which connection protocol to use?

A. Yes. Microsoft Windows XP Professional fully supports both RGS-PC and MS-RDP. At present, Microsoft Windows Vista is

not supported for RGS. For now, if Vista is selected as the VM operating system, MS-RDP is the only supported protocol.