News Feature | May 19, 2015

How OpenStack Can Work For DaaS

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

How OpenStack Can Work For DaaS

More and more commonly, OpenStack is being utilized to manage large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources through a data center. According to software company Leostream, it’s useful for virtual desktop environments as well: OpenStack, a free and open-source platform, is “changing the equation for virtual desktops and has the potential to turn VDI on its head.” A recent webinar from the company provides some advice on “How to Make OpenStack VDI and DaaS a Reality.”

According to an accompanying infographic, OpenStack clouds are viable solutions for hosting virtual desktop integration (VDI) or Desktops-as-a-Service (DaaS); any hypervisor is suitable for desktop workloads; and the key to delivering desktops is selecting an adequate display protocol and connection broker.

Leostream explains that OpenStack solutions allow for multitenant use, on-demand availability, easy networking with private networks for each tenant, and are less expensive than other VDI stacks.

There are three basic solution components: hypervisor, display protocol, and a connection broker. You can follow a simple workflow to create an efficient and cost-effective solution. The workflow includes:

  • building the Openstack cloud
  • creating an Openstack project for each tenant
  • building images for each tenant, including required applications and display protocol components
  • leveraging a connection broker to ease management

By employing a connection broker, you can manage and connect users to desktops in an OpenStack cloud, allowing you to define parameters that determine how the user’s connection to their instance is established and managed, establish policies regarding user access to pools, and define rules that automatically power on or off desktops based on user needs.

Ultimately, there are three keys to success in using OpenStack cloud to provide DaaS:

  • Manage boot and login storms by scheduling power on before high demand begins, power down or terminate instances that aren’t in use or aren’t needed, and cluster the connection broker that processes user logins.
  • Provide adequate performance, using instance size appropriate to installed applications and using a display protocol with adequate performance
  • Streamline user connections to desktops by selecting a connection broker that supports your environment, keeping in mind whether you will host Windows and/or Linux operating systems, and ensuring that the broker supports your chosen display protocol.

Visit Leostream to view the webinar or view the infographic.