Wrestling with Shadows:

John NickelColby Deitz

The Tragedy and Triumph of Classroom Virtualization

What is Virtualization?

The process of running several operating systems on a single piece of hardware

Numerous virtualized computers, servers, and applications “live” in one location

What is Virtualization?

Traditional Architecture Virtual Architecture

One Machine, Many Parts

Make VM’sVM vSphere 5.1

Gather VM’sVMware Horizon View Administrator

Connect to VM’sVMware View Client

Spring 2013 PilotDistributed to 35 classrooms in 2 buildings

Were specifically chosen

Goals:

Make more effective use of limited resources

Streamline support of classroom spaces

Spring 2013 Setup

Counting down…What did we know?

Successfully implemented in our Technology Commons

Would be most visible test of virtualization at WCU

What did we expect to happen?

Hard to anticipate the results – this had never been done before

Knew that some would take to it, some wouldn’t

What was the result?

Where did it fall short?Video playback

Stuttering, choppy video

Effected all multimedia

What is “acceptable” is subjective

USB Redirection

Trouble using USB drive on VM

Mostly an education issue, as opposed to a hardware/software issue

Impaired professor’s ability to conduct class the way they were expecting to

Faculty ReactionRanged from quiet and apathetic to loud and opposed

Both individuals and departments

Overall attitude of discontent

Numbers don’t lie, but they’re not everything

How did we react?

Utilized the “full” partition

Stopped work on projects to focus on tickets

Assembled a team from all areas of IT

Tested every part of our virtual environment

What did we learn?Virtualization is not the be-all-end-all for everyone

Need to be aware of our clients and their different use-cases

There needs to be a tangible benefit to IT (if not, then why do it?)

Software/curriculum needs

Student’s don’t react the same as faculty

Students FacultyDon’t provide much feedback

Accept something is the way and adapt

More fluid – accepting of change

If they can do their work, they’re happy

Quick to say when something isn’t working the way they want/need it

Greater need for technology to work a certain way

If not, then it can stop class in it’s tracks

Can be harder to work-around things

A new day dawns…

Shining brighter with vCat

Shedding light

Greater emphasis on educating our clients

Scheduled several drop-in sessions over 2 weeks for training and questions

Sent email notifications to all faculty, deans, and department heads

Illumination

Found our professors have a greater need for multimedia, and not the programs found on vCAT

Not a failure, showed us something we never realized before

Can leverage virtualization where it should be used

Not mandating they give up traditional methods, presented as a tool

Onwards and UpwardsSpring 2013 wasn’t fun or flattering for us

Listened, made changes, and acted appropriately

Beginning of Spring, it seemed like everything exploded

Beginning of Fall, everything just worked

Starting to pursue application virtualization

Don’t win every fight, but with perseverance and planning you can win the war

Thank you for your time!https://joind.in/9898

John Nickel:johnnickel@wcu.edu

Colby Deitz:deitz@wcu.edu