Happy Thanksgiving, blog followers! For me, party prep for tomorrow’s big feast is already in full swing and I have cooking on my mind! In the spirit of recipe sharing, I wanted to post a new Leostream favorite. It’s not exactly a Thanksgiving staple, but in the world of desktop virtualization it’s sure to hit the spot for open source fans.
This recipe was originally cut from last week’s webinar on simplifying Linux VDI, which is now available on-demand.
Dishing out Linux hosted desktops is easy when you combine one part OpenStack Cloud and one part Ubuntu, with your protocol of choice and the Leostream Connection Broker.
Step 1: First prepare your Linux desktop by downloading the Linux image as a QCOW2-file from the OpenStack Community App Catalogue and upload it into Glance.
Step 2: Then, launch a Linux instance and fix to your liking by adding in all of the applications your users will demand. You can create numerous master Linux instances in order to satisfy every use case for task workers, power users, and everyone in between.
Step 3: Next, select a display protocol that supports Linux. A display protocol provides end users with a graphical interface to view desktops that reside in the datacenter. You can choose from a variety of open source (free) platforms like VNC and Spice, or a handful of commercial versions, such as those provided by NoMachine, HP RGS, and Exceed on Demand. The best way to choose a display protocol is to “taste-test” the different options in your environment and to select the protocol that provides adequate performance.
Step 4: No Linux VDI project is complete without the secret sauce – a connection broker. Leostream, for example, is built on a Linux operating system and available as a download file for easy uploading into OpenStack. Using a connection broker helps to streamline the management of your VDI environment and control when and how desktops are delivered to end-users.
It’s that simple! The best part is this recipe can yield a few dozen desktops or a few thousand. Enjoy!