Microsoft Virtualization Secrets

Enhancing Your VDI with RemoteFX

Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 introduced two huge technologies. The first is Dynamic Memory and the second is RemoteFX, which is aimed squarely at VDI environments. The goal of RemoteFX is to provide a consistent experience to end devices, no matter what the capabilities of those devices actually are.

Normally, the RDP leverages client-side capabilities for Windows Media playback, such as WMV files, and for desktop composition, such as Aero Glass and Flip 3D. If the client device does not support media redirection, the user experience is very basic. Additionally, because the remote operating system is in a virtual machine with no graphical hardware, many types of applications cannot run, such as those using DirectX, Silverlight, Flash, and so on.

RemoteFX actually consists of three technologies: Graphical Processor Unit virtualization, enhanced codec, and USB port-level redirection. Together they give a great desktop experience remotely. In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, the RemoteFX technology was supported only in LAN environments, but in Windows Server 2012 this has been extended to WAN scenarios as well. I want to look at each capability in a bit more detail.

Graphical Processing Unit (GPU)

The virtualization of the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) in the server allows virtual GPUs to be made available to the virtual machines running on the Hyper-V server. The virtual GPUs can be leveraged by the Windows 7 SP1 guest operating systems running ...