Trivia: Does dinCloud use VMware or Citrix in any of its products? Answer: No!
dinCloud has 2 flavors of virtual desktops:
- dinHVD – this is our VDI-killer, with support for up to 16 monitors, 4096×2048 resolution, remote USB & printer support, Microsoft Active Directory integration, RSA support via Radius, VOIP applications such as Microsoft Lync 2013, Avaya, Cisco IP Communicator, plus thick client software for Windows, MAC OSX, Linux, Apple iPhone/iPAD, and Android.
- dinDaaS – the world’s first pure HTML5 virtual desktop built as an extension of Google Chrome and available in the Chrome Web Store (search “dinDaaS”) it is fast, easy to install (zero footprint), and works with 1 monitor on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook, Android and coming soon – iPAD. Integrates with dinCloud local accounts, or customer’s Microsoft AD and/or 2-factor authentication systems.
dinHVD –
NOTE: With dinHVD, you should be able to surf YouTube videos flawlessly (no audio/video chop) even at full screen. Use this test link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEn7lZKzcMY If not? There’s an issue. Follow the steps below to find out what that might be. Still stumped? Contact dinCloud support https://support.www.dincloud.com/ by opening a ticket online.
Opening tickets with dinCloud support:
When you open the ticket we need to know the following so be prepared:
- What public IP are you coming from? http://www.whatismyip.com/
- What URL do you login at? It’s usually https://yourcompany.www.dincloud.com/
- Send us a screenshot where you do a “ping yourcompany.www.dincloud.com” (start, run, cmd, then the command in quotes)
- Send us a screenshot where you do a “tracert yourcompany.www.dincloud.com” (start, run, cmd, then the command in quotes)
- Give us as much detail (date, time, name of HVD, user name, etc.) as to your issue
Recommendations/Tips/Tricks:
- We DO NOT recommend thinClients! We tested 427 of them and they don’t work well — especially for the cost! However,we DO recommend thinPC’s. ThinPC’s including the Zotac ($179) part # ZBOX-BI320-U-W2 are terrific. We’ve tested them with up to 4 monitors at a time (using USB3 to VGA adapters).
- dinHVD only accelerates Microsoft Internet Explorer from within the virtual desktop NOT Google Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser. If you want the best web surfing experience then ONLY use Microsoft Internet Explorer.
- There’s 2 known bad Windows patches that you MUST remove from the physical and virtual desktop otherwise it’ll cause choppy audio/video/web surfing experiences. Go to windows update, installed, updates, check for these updates & uninstall them:
“KB2592687″ and “KB2574819”
!to find the dinhvd offending patches go to a windows command line (start/run/cmd) and then:
wmic qfe list full | find /i “KB2592687”
wmic qfe list full | find /i “KB2574819”
! if the above commands don’t return anything then it means that patch/KB isn’t installed; that’s good! But if it does come back with something, then it exists and must be removed using the commands below:
!to remove the findhvd offending patches
wusa /uninstall /kb:2592687
wusa /uninstall /kb:2574819
- dinHVD is engineered to operate with as low as 50kbps per user but we recommend 384kbps per user; However if you’re surfing high definition videos or sites the b/w may scale up to several mbps per user!
- We have users on dinHVD in India, Manila, London, Egypt, at latency up to 300ms. This may require a separate dinHVD pool and dinHVD gateway tuning but we can assist.
- The last item to check is something only we can do but to insure “graphics acceleration” is enabled for your pool of virtual desktops in dinHVD. If you’ve done all the above and using the test link you still see chop in audio or video, contact dinCloud TAC. If this isn’t resolved within 24-48hrs then contact me! mchase@www.dincloud.com
Deployment options:
- DEDICATED — dinHVD is often deployed as a 1:1 dedicated desktop. Although the pool is tied to a group you create in your own Microsoft Active Directory, a user put into that group upon first login to the dinHVD URL (i.e. https://yourcompany.www.dincloud.com/ ) is assigned a permanent desktop from the available pool.
- FLOATING – dinHVD may be used as a “pool” of desktops not owned / dedicated to any particular user. Users are logged into whatever desktop is available but upon each login will usually get a different desktop than they had last tie.
- TERMINAL SERVER – dinHVD may be a terminal server deployed to support up to 200 users per server. It has all the features of RDS except that it’s accelerated with the dinHVD protocol to provide a far superior performance & experience. I often recommend that this option be used when customers have >50 desktops as a failover method. It’s a 2nd icon the user will see upon logging into their dinHVD portal and is nice to have for DR purposes or when their primary desktop is unavailable. I also recommend this resource, along with a 2nd Microsoft AD server be deployed at a DIFFERENT dinCloud datacenter than where a customer is hosting their primary resources. In that case you won’t see a 2nd icon, you will have a 2nd URL portal for this.
dinDaaS –
1. dinDaaS will be updated this month (March 2015) in the Google Chrome Web Store (app = “dinDaaS”). dinDaaS’s code base now includes dinAuth so that users may authenticate against their existing 2-factor authentication system (OKTA, SecureAuth, Ping, etc.) or Microsoft Active Directory (“AD”).
2. dinDaaS’s codec has been upgraded from VP8 to VP9. This uses less bandwidth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VP9
3. dinDaaS has new keyboard remapping to support certain windows functions in the virtual desktop without being directed to the physical endpoint you’re logging in from.
Windows dinDaaS
Alt+Tab Alt + ~
PRN SCRN Alt + p / Alt + P
Num Lock Num Lock
Ctrl+Alt+Del Ctrl+Alt+d / Ctrl+Alt+D
4. BTW if you’re using a Chromebook, to right click, hold 2 fingers together and press down to click. 😉
5. You may have to adjust resolution in the virtual desktop depending on the device you’re using dinDaaS with (PC, MAC, Chromebook). On a Chromebook, I often use 1440×900.
6. dinDaaS was written for Chrome browser but once inside the virtual desktop you can use ANY web browser you want. Unlike dinHVD, dinDaaS has no preference and will accelerate all of them equally.
7. dinDaaS supports 1 monitor for the virtual desktop BUT you CAN you multiple monitors which are powered by your physical endpoint at the SAME TIME. So I leave the virtual desktop up on monitor 1 then on monitor 2 (or more) load up a web browser and use it simultaneously. I can’t drag/drop things between the 2 screens but I don’t mind. Let’s face it, there’s some weird websites that barely work on a physical desktop much less virtual, so this is kind of the best of both worlds sometimes. 😉
8. dinDaaS can surf things that dinHVD can’t – such as Netflix. But dinDaaS’s codec is different, not better (yet). Maybe when we get it to vp10 is will be better but for now there’s a trick: resize the web browser you’re using the size of the video window you’re playing and it improves performance/playback. Otherwise you will see a tad bit of chop for video/audio although for general flash based websites the surfing is often better on dinDaaS than dinHVD. Both products have their pro’s/con’s!
9. I personally love dinDaaS because it’s so easy to get up and running, whether I’m at a “locked down kiosk” that only allows MSIE or Chrome or I’m sitting on the couch with my Chromebook, at a friend or relative’s house, dinDaaS is that friend just waiting to kick it off from anywhere on anything to get you back to your email, apps, files & more in less than 60 seconds.
A word about DR:
1. Never keep your files for dinHVD or dinDaaS on the desktop. For a few bucks a month you can bundle Egnyte.comenterprise edition for ridiculously low pricing and we highly recommend it so that your files can be accessed from physical or virtual desktops, mobile devices, etc. We have often found that customers create content in a desktop but they consume it on a mobile device. Egnyte give you the freedom of access while protecting your data in dinCloud’s hosted dinStorage D3 infrastructure complete with daily snapshots, 3 copies, encryption and more.
2. If you don’t use Egnyte, at least put it on a Microsoft file share and then replicate this using Microsoft DFS to another file server at your site or another dinCloud datacenter.
3. Leverage tntdrive.com or cloudberrylab s/w tools to map a drive directly to dinStorage D3 using the S3 protocol and keep your files there.
4. Spin up a 2nd Microsoft AD at a different dinCloud datacenter or sync it to your onsite location.
5. We many DR options, discuss them with your sales account executive!
