Virtual Machine Environment

[JWOLLENBERG]

I apologize in advance for the length of this post.

We are looking into using a new IT consultant and he suggested looking into Virtualization.  They host the virtual machine and we would then login from any machine anywhere.  So the server will not even be onsite at our office.  I am currently testing this environment, which seems to be working ok so far.  I am wondering if anyone else has used this approach with AutoCAD or more specifically Civil 3D?  Speed is my main concern but I would love the ability to remote in from anywhere and have basically the same functionality.

I am told that if we upgrade our operating system license to Window 7 Ultimate I will be able to use multiple displays (Win 7 Pro doesn't have that ability over Remote Desktop).  Basic functionallity seems to work great and even some complex surfaces, alignments, profiles and corridors are working with decent speed.

The processor specs on the virtual machine is Xeon E5620, 2.40GHz (2 cores allocated to my machine and 8GB of RAM)

I am also wondering if Licensing will be an issue (only one login per user and each user will have their own Virtual Machine with their own seat of C3D)?

Any help would be appreciated.  Anyone see any pitfalls I don't?

Thanks,

Justin

[DarrenP]

unless its a citrix virtualization this will violate the EULA: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Installation-Licensing/Autodesk-EULA-and-non-Citrix-Virtualization/td-...

[JWOLLENBERG]

My IT consultant claims that it won't be an issue because each virtual machine is setup as a stand alone machine.  The instance of Civil 3D is unique to that machine which has its own IP address and operating system sharing of physical resources is outside of the OS.

Assuming this is the case as the install is unique to each of my users which have a unique license of each seat of C3D. Has anyone seen performace increases or decreases in this type of setup or any virtual machine setup? It would also be nice to know if anyone has seen any other pitfalls that I my be overlooking.

[TravisNave]

Your IT consultant is not familiar with the terms of the EULA.  Running the product on a virtual machine or over Remove Desktop violates the license agreement.  Unless you use an approved Citrix solution with the appropriate network licensing, you cannot legally do what you are asking.  Personally, I would not trust any IT consultant who has a laxed idea of software licensing.  I wouldn't be surprised if he is cutting licensing corners with piracy in other areas to make a few more bucks off of you. 

[JWOLLENBERG]

I agree he doesn't know the license agreement.  Quite honestly I don't either, hence one reason why I am on here asking the question.  He isn't selling me any software, I already own all the software, we are simply looking to move the location from a physical machine in the my office to a virtual one in the data center.  I cannot figure out why this would not be allowed as long as it is setup exactly like a physical machine where the software is not shared between multiple machines and hence simultanous users.  If the software could be shared and used simultanously, I see the reason against it.  That is not the case. 

what I am hearing is that when I VPN to my machine from home and use C3D I am violating the license? 

I am not convinced this a good option performance wise yet. 

[JWOLLENBERG]

All - Received this response via email just a few minutes ago.

"If you are using VMs that users are fully logging into with VMware or remote desktop the licensing for this will work in the same way as a normal network license on a non-virtual machine. However, you may notice some performance degradation depending on the hardware you are running the VMs on and how many VMs are being hosted per machine. This setup has not been officially tested by Autodesk so unfortunately I cannot provide you with any specific hardware recommendations. 

Best regards,

Autodesk Support Team"

So it looks like the licensing is okay but performance may not be great.  What I have tested so far is on par with my 2 year old physical machine. 

[TravisNave]

Well, in that case keep that email and move forward.  There are many instances where Autodesk support themselves are not familiar with their own licensing terms.  In any case, I agree that your performance experience will be somewhat lacking.  I wish you the best of luck.

[GTVic]

If it helps, I tested Civil 3D 2013 beta on a local Virtual Machine. Running on a reasonably fast computer off of a SSD hard disk. The performance was not acceptable, not useable. One major problem is that Autodesk 2012+ products require graphics hardware acceleration and you don't get that on typical virtual machines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallels_Workstation_Extreme

If you want remote operation with good performance and mulitple user access, you might want to consider a blade workstation setup. Licensing should not be an issue as the machines are unique.

http://bladesmadesimple.com/2010/05/running-cad-on-a-blade-possible-on-hps-ws460c-g6-workstation-bla...

[TravisNave]

In all reality, it is set up to work on a Citrix solution.  At least then you'll know it is approved and supported.