How To Test Virtual Desktops

4. Application streaming
Remoting a virtual desktop is usually just half the battle for most desktop administrators. Users must have applications, and there are a number of application delivery products that can be used to provide this service. Ensure that you test interoperability between the candidate virtual desktop product and your application streaming choices. While you may single-source the virtual desktop and application delivery, it’s still worth testing how the products interoperate in your environment.

5. Directory services
This is pretty simple. Make sure your current directory infrastructure can provide the information needed by the virtual desktop product. Because the virtual desktop, connection broker, application streaming tool and a number of other components may be using the directory service to properly provision users ensuring that your directory service will work correctly with this components is essential to a successful deployment.

6. Agents
It’s common for at least one component in a virtual desktop implementation to use an agent on the virtual desktop to keep track of what’s happening. You should test these agents to ensure they are able to report characteristics such as virtual machine uptime, activity status, performance counters, licensing information and application usage.

7. Offline operation
Some virtual desktop products allow users to work offline, such as on an airplane or in a remote office where network connectivity may be unreliable. If this is a use case that your organisation wants to support, then add offline operation to your checklist. Look at how offline changes are reconciled to the server-side virtual desktop instance. See how well the virtual desktop performs when it is disconnected for several days or a week, if this is a circumstance your users might encounter.

8. Secure access
Virtual desktop implementations are trying to provide desktop resources to authorised users. Your organisation gets to make choices about how strict the authorisation process should be and how security surrounding the virtual desktop will be deployed. There are a lot of fast-moving parts that must work in close concert with each other in a virtual desktop environment, so it’s critical to test and understand how the security offerings in your candidate VDI tools measure up in your environment.

9. Physical connectivity
Even with advances in offline operation, it’s worth auditing your underlying physical network for reliable connectivity between the users and the data centre that will host the virtual desktops. Look for firewall, load balancing, acceleration, deduplication and other special purpose network devices that might be placed between your users and the hosted virtual desktop to ensure that the VDI tools you select will work in your network.