A while ago I created a discission tree to explain/help customers and coworkers with a couple of the design choices possible with the FSLogix Office 365 and/or the Profile Containers. I thought to share this, hoping this will help others in their decision making!
If you need any help, additional explanation, have any remarks or additions I should add, please let me know!
First starting with some of the basics, if you don't need the basics just scroll down to use the chart!
What is FSLogix?
For the people not active in EUC or the EUC folks living under a rock: FSLogix is a cool tool from Microsoft that makes working with virtual desktops and remote desktops way better (well most of the times). I'm focusing on the container part of the solution.
1. Profile Container: This feature stores your user profiles on a virtual hard disk (VHD or VHDX). This means you get faster logins, fewer profile issues, and a smoother experience overall because your profile stays consistent across sessions.
2. Office 365 Container: Perfect for optimizing Office 365 in virtual environments. It speeds things up and reduces the load on your network and storage by caching data from Outlook, OneDrive, and other Office 365 apps.
So, we mainly implement this solution at customers where non persistent VDI solutions are in play mostly in combination with Microsoft 365. You can use the containers standalone, separately or combine them depending on requirements. As usual “it depends”
There are 2 ways to attach an FSLogix container, Direct Attach or Cloud Cache.
The cloud cache feature does not get enough attention in my opinion. I’ve written a couple of articles before, but to be complete
What FSLogix Cloud Cache Does
Multiple Storage Options: It lets you use different storage locations at the same time, like local drives, network storage, and cloud services. This means your data is always accessible, even if one storage location goes down.
High Availability: If one storage location fails, Cloud Cache automatically switches to another one without interrupting your work. This keeps your virtual desktops running smoothly.
for more information, read a previous blog post I wrote: FSLogix and using the “OnPrem” Cloud cache (debruinonline.net)
Speed Boost: By keeping frequently accessed data locally, Cloud Cache reduces the time it takes to load your files and profiles, making your virtual desktop experience much faster. This also lowers the burden on the storage system since reads, once cached, are done locally. Of course, if the storage system used to cache “locally” is the same as the container location this does not help.
for more information about performance, read a previous blog post I wrote about the performance impact:
Synchronization: It ensures that any changes you make to your data are updated across all storage locations. So, whether you're working from home or the office, you always have the latest version of your files.
The discission tree
The first part is to decide what kind of container or containers to use.
The second part is whether to use Direct Attach or Cloud Cache and in case of Cloud Cache, use one or more locations to store the containers.
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