Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V): The Movie

By Matt McSpirit - virtualboy. Microsoft Partner Technology Specialist for Virtualization;
http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit

If you know, or have heard of App-V, chances are, you’ll know it exists as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack, usually abbreviated to MDOP.  If this is the first time you’ve heard of MDOP, it’s a Software Assurance benefit, and is effectively suite of technologies designed to help you optimise the desktop, and contains the following:

• Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) turns applications into centrally managed services that are never installed, never conflict, and are streamed on demand to end users.

• Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) provides deployment and management of virtual PC images to enable key enterprise scenarios, primarily resolving application compatibility with a new version of Windows.

• Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) enhances governance and control over Group Policy through robust change management, versioning, and role-based administration.

• Microsoft Asset Inventory Service (AIS) is a hosted service that collects software inventory data and translates it into actionable business intelligence.

• Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) reduces downtime by accelerating troubleshooting, repair, and data recovery of unbootable Windows-based desktops.

• Microsoft System Center Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM) provides insights into application and operating system failures, allowing helpdesk to be more proactive in managing PC problems, without installing an agent to the endpoint.

If at this point, you’re intrigued about some of the technologies within MDOP, you can read more about them, and see some of them in action here!

Anyway, the point of the post.  MED-V: The Movie?  Really?  Well, not really a movie, but more of a 8-part series dissecting the different areas of MED-V, so you can learn more about each different area of the product.  If you’ve never heard of MED-V before, the aim of the product is to smooth the transition to a newer OS, by providing an application-to-OS compatibility solution, which is seamless to the end user, but centrally managed and configured by the IT Admin.  The 8-part series, courtesy of the MED-V blog, highlights the following key sections:

1. Preparing a MED-V Image - Learn how to prepare a virtual PC image for use with MED-V.
2. Testing, Packing, and Uploading a MED-V Image - After completing the preparation, an image will be tested, then packaged, and finally uploaded to the MED-V Server for distribution.
3. MED-V Workspace Walkthrough - See how to configure a MED-V workspace (policies for the virtual machine) and watch a demonstration of the key features so that you can evaluate and learn the key capabilities of MED-V
4. Publishing Different Applications to Different Users of the Same MED-V Image - This demonstration will show you how to use a common MED-V image to serve multiple users or groups while presenting different applications.
5. Creating a MED-V Installation Package - Deploying MED-V packages can be streamlined by creating an installation package that includes all of the prerequisite technologies (Virtual PC, VM Additions update, and MED-V client) as well as a MED-V Workspace.
6. MED-V First Time Setup with Domain Join - Taking workspace images and configuring them to join the organization Active Directory domain is a critical part of managing, controlling and updating the virtual machines deployed, and is easy with MED-V first time setup.
7. Monitoring and Troubleshooting Tools in MED-V - Having the right tools to gain status, detect errors, and analyze problems is important when planning a MED-V infrastructure.
8. Updating a MED-V Image - MED-V workspaces will require updates as any other machine on the network, this walkthrough of updating the master image and distributing to users can be used if machines are not joined to the domain and managed by typical system management tools.

You can grab all the videos from here.