How Sangfor VDI Would Have Mitigated the Failure

How Sangfor VDI Would Have Mitigated the Failure

Sangfor VDI mitigates IT failures by providing centralized control, enhanced security, built-in redundancy, and flexible access. These features reduce the impact of hardware or software failures, improve recovery times, and ensure that users can maintain productivity even during disruptions.

Hello Dear

1. Backup and Recovery
When a system error occurs, a common solution is to recover from backups. However, this approach is often impractical with traditional PCs due to several limitations:

Time Consumption and System Unavailability: The biggest drawback of PCs is the need to manually create clones of the system disk. This process can take 10 minutes to several hours, during which the system is offline. As a result, few users proactively perform these backups.

External Storage Issues: External storage solutions require additional equipment. Using NAS for backup can consume a significant amount of internal bandwidth, potentially causing network congestion.

Cloud Backup Limitations: Cloud backup can help, but it generally supports file and data backups rather than full system backups and, therefore, is not useful for system failures.

System Reboot: The system often needs to be rebooted into a recovery environment to restore the OS from a backup. However, in the Crowd Strike incident, this was problematic since the system entered a blue screen upon booting.
Here is how Sangfor VDI addresses these limitations:

Scheduled Backup and Snapshot: Sangfor VDI automatically backs up virtual desktops through scheduled file backups and snapshots. Snapshots capture the state of a virtual desktop at a specific point in time, ensuring fast, lightweight backups with minimal system impact. This allows for more frequent backups and reduces data loss risk.

Separation of Backup Files: In VDI, backup files are stored separately from the virtual machine (VM) running the desktop. This means the backup files remain safe and accessible even if the VM encounters critical errors, such as a blue screen of death.

No Reboot Rollback: Sangfor VDI allows admins and users to revert to a previous snapshot without rebooting the VM. This process avoids the traditional boot sequence, which would be more efficient in incidents like the CrowdStrike update, where booting the machine was not possible.

Centralized Management: Virtual desktops in a VDI environment are managed centrally. Admins can apply updates, rollbacks, or configurations from a central console, eliminating the need to be physically present at individual devices.

By leveraging these backup capabilities, Sangfor VDI enables businesses to swiftly recover from unexpected faulty updates and other failures, restoring operations within minutes rather than hours.

2. User Profile Management
What if not all the computers in your organization were installed with the new Crowd Strike update? While these systems could take over business operations, they may lack the necessary data and settings for a smooth transition. Preparing these systems and restoring data from backups (e.g., external storage or cloud) can be time-consuming and delay business recovery. Not to mention that there might not be any backup files available.

Sangfor VDI to the Rescue Again

Sangfor VDI addresses the above challenges with its User Profile Management (UPM) technology. Here’s how it works:

Separation of Data: UPM technology ensures that system data, user configurations, and user files are stored separately from the VM running the virtual desktop.

Rapid Assignment of VMs: In case of a system crash like the Crowd Strike incident, admins can swiftly assign a new VM to affected users. The user can then load their system data, personal files, and configurations as if they were working on their original virtual desktop.

Automatic Data Retrieval: The process is fast because the new VM automatically retrieves the data. Admins only need to provide users with access permissions and credentials.
Sangfor VDI’s UMP approach ensures that businesses can maintain operations with minimal disruption, providing a quick and seamless transition for users affected by system failures or updates.

3. Out-of-Band Management
So far, we have learned that VDI allows admins to centrally and remotely manage virtual desktops. However, not all VDI solutions would allow this in the Crowds trike outage. This depends on the management protocol.

Many VDI solutions use in-band management protocols, where the client connects directly to the VM. This requires the VM’s network to be operational. If the VM’s network is down or unresponsive, the IT team cannot provide timely remote intervention to support the VM. This dependency complicates addressing issues like the CrowdStrike incident even when using VDI, as in-band protocols would not allow remote access to the VMs until the network was restored.

Additionally, users cannot see the boot process with in-band protocols. This means if the VM is slow to boot or fails to start, users are unaware of the issue and may keep restarting to solve the problem.

Sangfor VDI’s Out-of-Band (OOB) Management

Sangfor VDI uses an out-of-band (OOB) management protocol, allowing the client to connect to the hypervisor rather than directly to the VM. Even if the VM experiences a blue screen of death or other network issues, the IT team can remotely access and troubleshoot the VM before it receives an IP address.

This would have been particularly beneficial during the recent Crowds trike incident. Admins would still have been able to access and fix VMs even if their network was down. This capability is vital for maintaining business continuity and minimizing downtime during critical system failures. Moreover, with OOB protocols, users can see the standard boot process. In the case of the Crowd Strike issue, they would see the BSOD and immediately know the problem.

Hi, here i report how Sangfor VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) could have helped prevent or mitigate the failure:

Isolation and Recovery: Imagine you’re working on a virtual desktop, and suddenly it crashes due to some issue. With VDI, that mishap wouldn’t affect other users. You could swiftly switch to a different virtual desktop while the troubled one gets fixed behind the scenes.

Centralized Management: Think of VDI as the ultimate desktop manager. Administrators can handle all virtual desktops from a central control panel. Need to deploy updates, patches, or tighten security? No problem! Plus, if a failure occurs, admins can restore or redeploy virtual desktops like desktop superheroes.

Snapshot and Rollback: Ever wish you could hit “undo” in real life? VDI grants that power. Before making changes, administrators take snapshots of virtual desktops. If something goes haywire, they roll back to a previous state—like rewinding a movie to the good part.

High Availability: VDI deployments are like a well-choreographed dance. Virtual desktops pirouette across multiple servers or data centers. If one server trips over its shoelaces, users can seamlessly connect to another. No awkward pauses in the performance!

Resource Optimization: VDI isn’t just about virtual desktops; it’s about resource matchmaking. If a specific desktop gets too greedy with resources (like that friend who hogs all the pizza), it won’t impact others. Resources can be dynamically adjusted—like a buffet that magically refills itself.

Hey, Welcome to the Forums!
Great insights on how Sangfor VDI could have prevented the failure. It's impressive how virtual desktop infrastructure can enhance stability and security in critical situations. Thanks for the informative read.