Join VDI Migration Challenge! Share Your Thoughts and Get 1000 Coins!

1. Introduction

We are excited to announce an interactive community event focused on the best practices for replacing VMware VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure). This document provides instructions for migrating from VMware Horizon to Sangfor VDI. It outlines the steps for migrating both persistent and pool mode virtual machines, including uninstalling VMware components, migrating VMs using HCI, installing Sangfor components, and configuring the VMs within the Sangfor VDC environment.

  
You are warmly welcome to talk about your thoughts on the best practices for VMware replacement. You can share your objective evaluation of this migration solution, improvement suggestions, or analysis of the pain points not covered.

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2. How to Participate

Step 1. Read this best practice below:

Sangfor Virtual Desktop Infrastructure V5.9.6 Replacement VMware Horizon Guide

Step 2. Reply to this post like #Thoughts on VMware Replacement + your detailed opinion. Your opinion should not be less than 50 words.

Note: Feedback on grammar, spelling, and format issues of the best practice will not be adopted. Please focus on whether the solution is useful or covers your industry or application scenario.

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3. Activity Duration

May 8th, 2025 – June 25th, 2025

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4. Rewards & Criteria

1) Basic Reward: 200 to 500 coins for all eligible submissions (one per user).

2) Outstanding Reward: 1000 coins for excellent and high-quality feedback or suggestions.

The coins can be exchanged for physical gifts, an electronic gift card, or the specified gifts you requested in the Sangfor Store.

https://community.sangfor.com/plugin.php?id=exchange_centre:index#/store/default

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5. Rules for Opinion Sharing

To ensure high-quality, actionable insights and avoid generic comments, participants must adhere to the following rules:

Cite Document Sections: Reference specific chapters, pages, or steps (e.g., "Section 4.1: Migration (Persistent Mode) lacks clarity on post-migration IP configuration").

Propose Solutions: For improvement suggestions, add concrete action items (e.g., "Add a troubleshooting flowchart for VMOptimization Tools installation errors in Section 5.1").

Organize feedback into numbered points or subheadings (e.g., "Issue 1: Template Conversion Limitations").

Vague statements like "Good guide" or "Needs more details" without context will be disqualified.

Minimum 100 words for in-depth analysis (excludes code/images).

Imitation, adaptation, or copying of other participants' content will be disqualified.

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You can also join in this activity:

Join VDI Migration Challenge! Share Project Case and Get 10000 Coins!

Reply to this post like #Thoughts on VMware Replacement + your detailed opinion.

#Thoughts on VMware Replacement
- The migration guide is generally well-structured, especially in Sections 4.1 and 5.1.
- Some steps, like IP configuration and domain join, need more clarity for less experienced users.
- The issue with VMOptimization Tools not installing (Section 5.1, Step 9) lacks detailed troubleshooting advice.
- The guide relies heavily on manual steps, which could be challenging in large-scale environments.
- It would benefit from adding options for automation or scripting bulk VM migrations.
- Reusing templates is a helpful and time-saving feature.
By the way it's good for small migrations but needs improvements for complex or enterprise setups.

This community event on replacing VMware VDI with Sangfor VDI is a great opportunity to explore alternative virtualization solutions amid changing licensing models and costs.

1. Suggestions for Improvement:

1). Include rollback or contingency planning in case of migration issues.

2). Provide a side-by-side feature comparison (VMware vs Sangfor) to help stakeholders understand trade-offs.

3). Highlight licensing and cost benefits in practical terms.

2. Best Practices & Thoughts:

1). Pre-Migration Assessment:
Assess compatibility of applications, user profiles, and system requirements to ensure a smooth transition.

2). Persistent vs. Pool Mode Strategy:
Treat persistent VMs (user-customized) with caution—ensure data backup and user profile synchronization. Pool VMs can be rebuilt, so focus on efficient image creation.

3). Network and Security Policies:
Recheck firewall rules, VLAN settings, and endpoint configurations, especially if Sangfor introduces new network behaviors.

4). End-User Experience Testing:
Pilot test with select users to catch performance or UI issues early.

5). Training and Documentation:
Ensure IT staff and end users are trained on the new interface and operations

#Thoughts on VMware Replacement

The migration guide from VMware Horizon to Sangfor VDI V5.9.6 provides a detailed, step-by-step approach for both persistent and pool mode VMs. It’s a technically sound and structured guide, especially beneficial for environments where cost, vendor consolidation, or tighter integration with Sangfor HCI is a priority.

One of the strengths is its emphasis on practical procedures—uninstalling VMware components, converting templates with aDesk Tools, and preparing for domain and SSO integration. However, more insight into handling real-time user session migration or downtime minimization would improve the guide. Also, migration impact on end-user experience (latency, interface adaptation, performance) deserves more attention.

In high-security or regulated industries (e.g., finance or healthcare), further detail on data integrity validation and compliance checks during migration would be valuable.

Overall, the guide is quite useful and covers key tasks, but enriching it with risk handling, rollback strategies, and change management best practices would make it even more robust and enterprise-ready.