One of the recommended best practices for a XenDesktop deployment is placing virtual desktops in their own OU with GPO inheritance blocked. This ensures a clean group policy exists to customize for the special needs of a VDI environment.

Once you’ve configured port access for remote assistance through Desktop Director – 3389 and 5985 – don’t forget to apply the required group policy to the desktops. This can be done through local policy or to the newly created GPO applied to your dedicated VDI OU.

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Remote Assistance -> Offer Remote Assistance.

Make sure to enable this object and also configure those allowed to perform the remote access.

The cloud is here. Finally, after years of battling with multiple devices and my iTunes purchases, it is no more. As a self-proclaimed Apple fanatic (proud Mac Book Pro, iPhone 4, and iPad 2 owner) I can’t remember an Apple update I’ve been more excited about. New features include iTunes purchases available on any device, last 1000 photos available on any device, iBooks anywhere. The idea of not having to worry about syncing my iPhone and iPad to a single device is liberating. Combined with the new features in the upcoming iOS 5 – http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/ – this is a game changer.

http://www.apple.com/icloud/

Any application. Any device. Anywhere.

Here is an issue I ran into the other week.  I wanted to add VLAN’s to the three SSID’s I had already set up on some Cisco AP’s.  I already had WEP setup on two of them, and a WPA Pre-shared key set up on the other.  When I created the VLAN’s and applied them to the SSID’s it cleared out the WEP keys and the WPA key.  In order for clients to reasscoiate with the AP’s I had to reenter all the information back in.  Just an FYI.

EMC has a new solution that supports the simultaneous booting of up to 1,000 virtual desktops in Citrix XenDesktop environments. The solution combines the new VNX unified storage appliance with FAST Cache technology. This is EMC’s first VNX solution for the Citrix enviroment.

Cisco’s Unified Computing Systems (UCS) has acquired the reputation of leading the next-generation of data center platforms by merging together the IT needs of computing, networking, storage access and virtualization into one unified system.  

Now until July 31, 2011, Cisco has announced (9) extensively discounted UCS B-Series Blade Server and C-Series Rack-Mount Server Bundles that are fully configured and ready to be implemented in any data center.  This is a great opportunity for any company to experience the next-generation of data center platforms with Cisco’s UCS at an exceptionally low entry point.

UCS B-Series Smart Play Promo Summary 

The Smart Play UCS B-Series Bundles have (5) options that range from an introductory priced B200 bundle to a high performance B230 Bundle which most are  including the Cisco M81KR Virtual Interface Card.  

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