VDI Introduction
At South Dakota State University, research systems can be accessed off-campus through our Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Researchers will sign in to VDI using a client called VMware Horizon and will be assigned a virtual desktop that allows SSH and RDP access to research systems, as well as commonly-used software packages such as VNC Viewer, PuTTY, MobaXTerm, Office, Notepad, and others.
VDI Client Setup
To access VDI, visit https://cloudapps.sdstate.edu. From this site, you can download the VMware Horizon client, which is the software necessary to establish a connection to SDSU's VDI infrastructure and be assigned a virtual desktop. On this page, click "Install VMware Horizon Client". You will be brought to the VMware downloads page where you can choose the appropriate client for your operating system. Follow the instructions to download and install the VMware Horizon Client. There are further instructions at this link.
Accessing VDI
Once the VMware Horizon client has been installed, open the client. Add cloudapps.sdstate.edu if it is not there already. Double-click this and you will be brought to a sign-in page.
You will be presented with a login screen. Enter your username and password.
At the next screen, enter the number 1 in the field, and click login.
Once you click Login, you will be sent a Duo Push. Accept the Duo push on your phone and you will be given the option of which virtual desktop you have access to (Research).
Connecting to a Virtual Desktop
Double-click the Research button to be connected to a Research VDI desktop. Once the client loads your session, you will be presented with a virtual desktop that you can use to connect to research services such as the Roaring Thunder cluster and other servers assigned to your research group.