I wasn't sure whether this question should be asked here or over in Super User... I'd like some guidance for setting up a Remote Desktop scenario for users in a reliable yet cost-effective way. Factors are:
- 5x frequent staff who work from home or out of the office
- 8x Windows 7 Enterprise licenses available in our VLA
- MY 2008 IBM x3650 server with 2x Xeon-4C CPU's, 8GB RAM, 5x 300GB SAS drives in HW RAID-5 and a single 146GB SAS drive as a volume
- A brand new Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard OEM license which was purchased for use on this hardware (but hasn't been used yet and I'm not thinking of using elsewhere)
- IPv4 CIDR /27 block of public IP's available
- Hardware Firewall router with 4 ethernet zones (Trusted, Untrusted, 'DMZ' for public IP's, and spare)
Do I:
- Install the Server 2012 R2 Standard license, join to AD domain, configure Windows RDS and Windows 7 Desktop Experience, setup the RDP port and public IP for all 5 users to connect to this server. Or should I setup VDI's for each user? Either way, I'd need to purchase RDS CAL's for each user
- Install the free VMware ESXi HyperVisor and create a Windows 7 guest (licensed with existing VLA licenses), enable Remote Desktop Connection, configure for user and clone (x4). Setup firewall for each machine to have one of the 30 public IP's and the appropriate open TCP port. Advise each user of their machine's IP and port for the RDP client
I can see pro's and con's of both (especially when it comes to $), but which is a better scenario in terms of managing security, resources and staff productivity (based on user experience and RDP performance)?