VDI is a technology for the hosting and virtualization of individual client operating systems like Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista or Linux on physical host machines. The intent is to be able to deploy, secure, and manage enterprise desktops in the data center.
The VMware View was formerly known as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). The View uses the linked clone technology that allows multiple desktops to be deployed from a single base image. Automated desktop pools can use the linked clone feature to rapidly deploy desktops from a single parent VM. View Manager uses VMware View Composer to create and deploy linked cloned desktops from VMware vCenter Server.
The XenDesktop is the VDI solution from Citrix. XenDesktop is used to manage virtual desktop connections and assign users to dedicated or pooled virtual desktops. Provisioning Services creates and provisions virtual desktops from a single desktop image on demand, thus optimizing storage utilization and providing a pristine virtual desktop for each user each time the user logs on. The Provisioning Services VM Template is used for creating a VM-based pooled desktop group using the XenDesktop Setup Wizard.
The cloned desktops created using VMware View or the Virtual Desktops created using XenDesktop can then be managed in the HPCA Enterprise Console. The cloned desktops can be grouped into a single Organizational Unit (OU) and a policy can be enforced to this OU to deny services. Only the parent VM should be excluded from this deny policy so that it will be entitled to all those services installed on it. The cloned desktops can be updated automatically from the parent VM using the VMware View to reflect the services that were installed on the parent base image.