Windows on OpenStack: Best Practices and Pitfalls
Channel: OpenInfra Foundation
Date: 2013-05-03

Speaker: Tim Smith, gridcentric

Due  to  security,  licensing,  and  networking  particularities,  as  well  as  a  resource-­heavy  boot  and  runtime profile,  running  Windows  in  a  cloud  environment  poses  a  unique  set  of  challenges  to  implementers  of OpenStack  public  and  private  clouds.

Despite  these  challenges,  enterprises  are  increasingly  looking  to  deploy  Windows  virtual  desktops  and servers  in  their  OpenStack  environments  -­  both  to  replace  physical  desktops  as  well  as  to  move  their Windows-­based  server  applications  to  a  more  economical  virtualization  platform.

In  this  talk  we  present  best  practices  and  pitfalls  learned  over  the  course  of  several  pilot  and  production Windows-­on-­OpenStack  deployments,  including: -­  Understanding  how  Windows  works  in  the  context  of  an  OpenStack  cloud:  images,  instances,  etc. -­  Methods  for  mitigating  the  "boot  storm""  incited  by  booting  large  numbers  of  Windows  VMs. -­  Integrating  with  existing  Windows  networking  services,  such  as  Active  Directory. -­  Desktop  personalization,  access  marshalling,  and  session  management. -­  License  and  license  key  management  for  short-­lived  Windows  VMs. -­  Strategies  for  the  reduction  of  runtime  resource  usage  for  large  Windows  deployment.  

For more summit videos, visit: http://www.openstack.org/summit/portland-2013/session-videos/