Published: November 12, 2007   |   Updated: February 25, 2008

The goal of this guide is to address the most common scenarios, decisions, activities, options, tasks, and outcomes. SoftGrid architecture has very well-defined requirements and supported configurations; because of this, planning a SoftGrid infrastructure that incorporates elements beyond this document should be carefully reviewed with Microsoft Support Services to ensure that it will be a supported scenario.

Decisions

This guide addresses the following decisions and/or activities that need to occur in preparing for SoftGrid planning. The seven steps below represent the most critical design elements in a well-planned SoftGrid design:

• Step 1: Choose Between Standalone Mode and Connected Mode
• Step 2: Determine the Number of SoftGrid Instances
• Step 3: Determine Role Placement and Fault Tolerance
• Step 4: Determine Server Resource Scaling Requirements
• Step 5: Determine Network Protocols Scheme
• Step 6: Assess Client Considerations
• Step 7: Determine Sequencer Placement

Some of these items represent decisions that must be made. Where this is the case, a corresponding list of common response options will be presented.

Other items in this list represent tasks that must be carried out. These types of items are addressed because their presence is significant in order to complete the infrastructure design.

Decision Flow

The following figure provides a graphical overview of the steps in designing a SoftGrid infrastructure.

Figure 2. The SoftGrid infrastructure decision flow

Information Collection

The following list of information is required for designing a SoftGrid infrastructure:

• Physical location characteristics used in Step 2. These include:
  • Geographic location
  • Number of users at location
• Active Directory deployment details:
  • Location of domain controllers

Applicable Scenarios

This guide addresses considerations that are related to planning and designing the necessary components for a successful SoftGrid infrastructure:

• Planning for streaming applications or deploying via software management system
• Planning SoftGrid-enabled application storage
• Planning satellite deployments
• Planning bandwidth considerations
• Planning SoftGrid load balancing
• Planning SoftGrid clustering infrastructure

Out of Scope

This guide will not cover the mechanics of delivering virtualized application packages to desktops when Standalone Mode is utilized. It is assumed the standard method of deploying applications within the organization will be utilized in this case (for example, System Center Configuration Manager 2007) and is beyond the scope of this guide.