Starter Kit - System Requirements

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Required Components for Starter Kit Installation

A Starter Kit installation requires only a basic configuration:

  1. The contents of your Pano System Starter Kit, including the media CD.  
  2. Server Hardware used to run both the Desktop Virtual Machines (DVMs) and other Pano System software:
    1. A Xeon Dual or Quad Core processor running at 2.0 GHz or faster.
    2. At least 1GB of RAM for each virtual desktop. Memory allocation can be reduced after identifying workloads. For a trial deployment, 1GB can be provisioned to start. A total of 8GB RAM should be sufficient for evaluation purposes.
    3. An initial 100GB of hard disk space for VMware and Pano Logic software and appliances or virtual machines. 
    4. An additional 8 to 20GB of disk storage for each DVM used to create and store the Windows operating system and any application files.
    5. A separate Windows PC workstation to assist in the setup and configuration of the virtual infrastructure. 
  3. Virtualization Infrastructure:
    1. Hypervisor: VMware ESX Server (part of vSphere 4 or VI 3.5) or the ESXi hypervisor. 
    2. Management Tools: VMware vCenter Server (the corresponding 4.0 or 2.5 version matching the version of vSphere/ESX - formerly called Virtual Center).  The Starter Kit can be used without vCenter with some limitations.  However View Manager (part of the VMware View suite, formerly called VMware VDM) is not needed as Pano Manager serves as the connection broker for the Starter Kit.
  4. Network Infrastructure:
    1. Local Area Network: switched Ethernet LAN connections of 100 Mb/s or better connecting the Pano Device endpoints and servers.
    2. Directory Service: Microsoft Active Directory version 2003 or higher is required for user authentication.  The Pano System also supports other directory services (see help:Supported Directory Services).  The Starter Kit can be used without a directory service with some limitations.
    3. Static IP Numbers: Although Pano Manager can work with DHCP-assigned dynamic IP numbers (see helptopic:(DHCP Method) Set Up Pano Client Discovery), for evaluation it is recommended that a static IP number be obtained from your network administrator for the Pano Manager Virtual Machine (VM).  This will simplify name resolution issues when locating the Pano Manager VM during setup. 
  5. Client Components:
    1. Client Peripherals/Hardware:  A supported USB keyboard, mouse, and VGA-compatible monitor is needed for each Pano Device.  For more details see  help:Supported USB device matrix.
    2. DVM Operating System: Installation media for a 32-bit version of Microsoft Windows XP Professional (SP2 or SP3) or Windows 7 (Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate editions) is required. 
    3. Microsoft Windows VDA licenses: A Virtual Desktop Access licenses (VDA - formerly called VECD) license is also needed for each Pano Device that connects to Microsoft Windows in a virtual machine.  These are device-based subscription licenses and need to be renewed each year.  Please contact your Microsoft representative, visit the Microsoft Virtualization web page or download the Microsoft VDA licensing brochure for pricing, renewals, license terms and additional information. 

Providing Adequate Resources for User Testing

Putting adequate server and storage resources in place for a virtual desktop roll-out can have a significant impact on the success of the VDI evaluation project.

Users will assess a physical to virtual conversion of their desktop computing environment by what performance they perceive. To ensure that VDI is deployed without impacting user productivity, it is very important that your virtual desktops are allocated sufficient CPU capacity, RAM, network bandwidth and storage throughput.

Pano Logic provides a VDI Infrastructure Sizing Solution Brief to help with configuring optimal server, storage, and network infrastructure for your pilot and full VDI deployments.

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