F5 and VMware

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

Integrating F5 Application Delivery

Networking with VMware View
F5 and VMware offerings
 V
 Mware View (version 2.x, 3.x,
4.0, 4.5)
 B
 IG-IP Local Traffic Manager
(version 10.1, 10.2)
 B
 IG-IP Edge Gateway (version 10.1)

Many organizations have the need to deploy desktop virtualization to both local and
remote users. Remote users typically want to access their virtual desktops from a variety
of locations and devices. However, this remote access can pose additional security and
user experience challenges to the IT organization.
With F5 solutions, organizations can ensure that all users have secure and optimal
access to their VMware View virtual desktops. VMware Views PC-over-IP (PCoIP) display
protocol delivers a rich desktop experience on both the LAN and WAN. F5 BIGIP Edge
Gateway helps users benefit from the performance of PCoIP while providing
an encrypted connection to the data center where their desktop resides. In addition,
BIGIP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) provides advanced traffic management within
the data center, which helps improve the performance and availability of the
VMware View servers.

Convenient Single Sign-On

Streamlining the authentication process into a single step, and not requiring a manual
logon every time the connection is disrupted, greatly improves user experience.
The BIGIP Edge Gateway advanced remote access solution caches sign-on credentials
and enables authentication pass-through during the logon process. If the connection
drops, BIGIP Edge Gateway re-authenticates the user automatically, creating a seamless
user experience, reducing the security risk, and lowering the volume of passwordlockout calls made to the help desk.

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SOLUTION OVERVIEW
F5 and VMware

Secure Access
Corporations need secure access to protect sensitive and vital business information.
BIGIP Edge Gateway provides pre-logon checks to the endpoint device and supports
a broad range of authentication mechanisms, including two-factor schemes and back-end
directory services. Furthermore, BIG-IP Edge Gateway can enforce Active Directory group
policies on corporate-owned and non-corporate-owned assets. Once authenticated,
BIG-IP Edge Gateway enables split tunneling and guarantees the encryption of PCoIP
and RDP transport protocols, whether natively encrypted or not. If the network
connection drops, VMware View users are re-connected back to their original host for
the fastest possible re-access.

High Performance PCoIP

Most traditional SSL VPN devices are unable to avoid degrading the performance of the
PCoIP protocol used by VMware View. BIG-IP Edge Gateway overcomes this with the
Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) feature, which provides all the benefits of secure
access without impacting PCoIP performance. In addition, BIG-IP Edge Gateway supports
automatic fallback to TCP if a high performance UDP tunnel cannot be established.

High Availability and Scalability

VMware View Manager manages connections between users and their virtual desktops
running in the data center. With BIG-IP LTM, the scalability and availability of that service
is improved through load balancing, health monitoring, and SSL offload, which improves
user experience, lowers server costs, and reduces operating expenses.

For more information please contact us at info@f5.com or visit

www.f5.com/solutions/applications/vmware/view. Or browse the VMware site
at www.vmware.com/go/view.

F5 Networks, Inc. 401 Elliott Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119

888-882-4447

www.f5.com

F5 Networks, Inc.
Corporate Headquarters

F5 Networks
Asia-Pacific

F5 Networks Ltd.
Europe/Middle-East/Africa

F5 Networks
Japan K.K.

info@f5.com

apacinfo@f5.com

emeainfo@f5.com

f5j-info@f5.com

VMware and VMware View are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions.
2010 F5 Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. F5, F5 Networks, the F5 logo, BIGIP, FirePass, iControl, TMOS, and VIPRION are trademarks
or registered trademarks of F5 Networks, Inc. in the U.S. and in certain other countries.
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