Notes for a live roll out of Sun Ray's and VDI

So for the last 8 hours I've been rolling out Sun Ray's at one of my customers in Mexico City.  Just wanted to write some of my thoughts down

1. sunray-servers and sunray-config-servers do not need reverse lookup working
2. Sunray-servers and sunray-config-server do need a domain attached with the IP address
3. Do not have 2 different DHCP scopes on the same subnet...Werid things can happen
4. Sun Ray's don't take a lot of bandwidth if done correctly.

I'll write more l8r, but that's it for now.

Sun Ray default ports

Ok, this is really a post for myself on webadmin default ports for a Sun Ray Environment:

1. SRSS - 1660/1661 (Username default is admin)
   
2. VDC - 1800/1801 (Username default is root)
   
3. SGD - 80/443 (Username default is root)

Also, if VDC is tied into SGD, if the SGD demo licenses expires, VDC and SGD will stop working.

Missing the Ultra-Thin point

I just read this article on ZDnet: I don't think Mr. Murphy is really hitting the point.

1) Sun Ray's aren't good at everything
2) Sun Ray's are Great at somethings (This beg's the question of #1, but I thought I would say it for completeness)
3) Most corporations have at least 50% of there people using desktop's
4) Desktop's are expensive to manage. (Regardless of OS)
5) Managing desktops is easier to do centrally. (Regardless of the OS)

Hence, an Ultra-Thin type of client is easier and cheaper to manage if it's centralized.

Is Sun Ray's the only answer? NO. Is it AN answer? YES.

Want to run Citrix on a Sun Ray, No Problem, Want to RDP to a Windows Term Server, No Problem. In my humble opinion, this is what makes Sun Rays such a great solution, flexibility.

Red Hat Sun Ray's?

This week I spent most of my time working on Red Hat Sun Ray's. Red Hat? I though Sun made Sun Ray's why would they support Red Hat?

Actually Sun support's Red Hat and Solaris Native, meaning the Sun Ray Server Software is compiled for Red Hat and Solaris. Using Sun's Desktop Connector, or UTTSC, you can connect to any RDP enabled device. (Windows Terminal Server, Windows servers and using the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), you can connect to VM Ware Images that are part of a Pool and automaitically clone, start and shutdown.

The question isn't, can Sun Ray's work for you, it's which way to best impliment Sun Ray's for you.

All of this information can be found at: http://www.sun.com/desktop/

Gobi 8: Update 2

I tried using the Gobi 8 via cellular wireless this last week. It was hit or miss to say the least. The concept is great, but the implementation is less than desirable. Couple of new features that need to be added before I would take this Thin laptop on the road.

1. Cellular status: Why can't someone show me a strength meeter either on the screen or in lights on the frame by the battery.
   
2. being able to setup Profiles differently: Today the profiles and networks are setup together. I'd rather have the Sun Ray server and VPN information saved separately from the network information. I typically only use 1 Sun Ray server and VPN server but attache to many networks

Other than those 2 things, the Gobi 8 is great, and I have used it via ethernet and Wi-FI with great success.

Accutech Gobi 8: Thin Laptop?

If you read my last post there is a picture of a "THIN LAPTOP". I know most of you are going, Come on Thin Laptop? So, I decided to write this post on my thin laptop. It handles WI-FI, Wired, or Cellular wireless. My first thought was, Can Cellular Wireless really support a full Screen being streamed to it.

Before we go further, I want to give you the details of the setup.

1. Using the Gobi 8, I inserted the Cellular Wirelles (ATT Serria Wireles 875) into the Laptop
2. When it asked me what profile I wanted to use, I choose one that had all of the settings setup for my Sun Ray Server.
3. It then asks me if I want to modify the settings before applying them, and I said yes.
4. I choose the correct server settings and then when it went to which network, I choose HSDPA (Cellular)
1. For APN use: wap.cingular
2. for Dial String use: *99***1#
5. Apply the settings and BAM I was on. So thin Laptop via Cellular. IT's AWESOME

Performance.
So sitting in my house, the performance isn't bad. I can type faster than the letters are displayed back to the screen, but that's not all that surprising is it? Let me tell you though, not having to worry about hard drives dying and losing data is great. It's usable. I will be letting my sales rep use it this week, we will see what she says.

So the Accutech guys want there Gobi 8 back, but that's ok, because Dynamic Graphics is sending me there version of the Thin Laptop.

Hope this helped