I. Vision

The engineering software for the engineering classes needing computer equipment in a lab style setting as part of the course objectives is available to the instructors and students in any campus conventional teaching classroom, where the instructors can conduct classes demonstrating application procedures with the students, who follow instructions using their own personal laptops to remotely access the engineering licensed software.  The instructors have less limitations related to class size and/or available reservation times, compared to traditional physical computer classroom labs.

Objectives 

1. Solution will be using Citrix XenDesktop, Microsoft App-V, and Access Gateway (Citrix Appliances)
2. 24/7 access to Engineering software from any Windows/Mac based clients, some mobile devices and HP Thinclients
3. Users will connect via UTEP' s LAN or Wireless from inside the University and via own Internet provider from off-campus
4. Solution must provide a good user experience
5. Software will be available from a web portal
6. Solution will enforce security that will ensure that Virtual Desktop and software is isolated from any client's security risks.
7. Authentication and communications will be secured via SSL
8. SSO must be included in the design
9. Users will have access to their M:\ drive via Xythos.
10. Same printing devices will be available in this solution as those available in academic computer labs.
11. Users need to have access to their local attached peripherals such as printers or any USB devices
12. Citrix infrastructure is to support up to 150 concurrent connections initially
13. Infrastructure should be scalable to 1000 users
14. The solution must be fault tolerant and highly available
15. Solution provider will consider ease of management in their design
16. The Solution provider will provide the necessary tools to meter session loads and resources in infrastructure
17. Measures will be put in place to meter applications selected by College of Engineering

II. Strategy/Approach

Links to the following resources:

 Roll out project plan

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Design

XenDesktop Architecture

XenDesktop 4.0 Enterprise Edition

Windows 7 Enterprise (Base Image)

• Minimal Windows features installed
• VMware tools installed
• 1GB RAM
• 25GB Hard Drive
• ForeFront Client Security
• Adobe Reader
• System Restore is turned off (use VMware snapshots instead)
• Citrix Virtual Desktop Agent, Version 5.0.0145
  

Hardware Requirements

Hardware configuration...

Appv-V - App-V version 4.6 64-bit

User Environment

Mapped printers
HP 9040DN, Black and White LaserJet printer: \\itdsrvdre.utep.edu\wirelessBWe
HP 3800, Color LaserJet printer: \\itdsrvdre.utep.edu\stsccolor
Mapped Drives
Drive letter M:\ pointing to https://mspace.utep.edu/%username%
Desktop Wallpaper
Get it from \\itdsrvdre.utep.edu\soft$\wallpaper.jpg or provided by College of Engineering
Start Menu
Programs for all applications identified as "Hosted" (see software section)
Remove the Shutdown button
Desktop
Shortcut to My Documents
Shortcut to IE
Shortcut to FireFox
Other settings
Users cannot save anything permanently (user data and environment changes are deleted when user logs off). M: Drive is the only place where students can permanently save data.

Security 

TS lockdown

Software

III. Measureable results/success metrics

List achievable project goals

• UTEP Engineering students can access published applications and desktops from their computing equipment such as Windows/Mac/Unix based clients, supported mobile phones (i.e. iphone) and Apple iPad.
• Test above from within UTEP network and from off-campus
• Shutdown one Virtual Desktop infrastructure component at a time and test high availability (except for provisioning server)
• Published software's performance is equivalent to local installed software on physical PC.
• Test USB devices such as scanner, printer, flash drive
• Test 10 comptuers in a test environment to launch desktop at user logon.  Monitor resources on VMware infrastructure and provisioning server.
• Review requirements for upgrading the infrastructure to up to 1000 users
• Published applications work without any issues
• Effectively limits number of software concurrent launches based on licenses
• Application filtering based on user membership
  

IV. Milestones

List project milestones

V. Risks

List all risks associated with this project

VI. Action Items

List associated action items that arise as project progresses and require attention.
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