Overview

itopia's Cloud Desktop is a remote computing solution built on Microsoft Remote Desktop Services. Cloud Desktop offers a highly-customizable, scalable, and cost-effective platform for delivering single-session or multi-session Windows desktops on Google Cloud.

Cloud Automation Stack (CAS) is itopia's orchestration and management system for Cloud Desktop environments. Within CAS, each Cloud Desktop environment is referred to as a deployment. When you sign up for itopia CAS, you create a new organization that is tied to your email address; this organization can then contain one or more Cloud Desktop deployments.

Deployment Topologies

Each deployment in CAS requires the following:

• A unique GCP project - each GCP project can only contain a single CAS deployment at any time. If you delete a deployment, you can reuse the GCP project to create a new deployment. The GCP project can also contain other resources that are created and managed outside of CAS
• A unique Active Directory domain - Active Directory is a requirement for Cloud Desktop, and each CAS deployment should use its own Active Directory domain. Although it is technically possible to configure multiple CAS deployments to use the same AD domain (via the Extended AD option), this is not supported nor recommended.
• A unique deployment ID - the deployment ID (or deployment code) is a 3-6 character identifier that is used in the naming of your CAS resources. VM instances and other GCP resources such as VPC networks and firewall rules all incorporate this deployment ID in their names. Active Directory objects such as organizational units (OUs) and security groups also use this ID in their names. Additionally, the default external address for your deployment is [deployment ID].cloudvdi.net, or [deployment ID]-[GCP region].cloudvdi.net if you create a multi-region deployment. The deployment ID is a global identifier in CAS and must therefore be unique for each deployment within CAS, not just within your organization.
• A unique username suffix - the username suffix is the portion of a username after the "@" symbol. This corresponds to the user principal name (UPN) suffix of your Active Directory user accounts. The username suffix is a global identifier in CAS and must therefore be unique for each deployment within CAS, not just within your organization.

The diagram below provides a simplified example of the relationship of CAS organizations, deployments, and resources, as well as how the deployment ID and username suffix are used for naming objects within the deployment.

When to use multiple deployments

Generally speaking, most organizations require only a single Cloud Desktop deployment; each deployment offers multiple ways of subdividing your environment to suit your organization's needs. For example, a single deployment can be configured in multiple GCP regions around the globe, and the deployment can contain multiple Collection Pools to segregate user sessions based on their applications or OS configurations as needed.

However, in situations where a very high level of segregation is required, an organization may choose to create multiple deployments. This may be a suitable option if, for example, a parent organization is deploying Cloud Desktop to multiple subsidiaries or a service provider will manage Cloud Desktop environments for multiple customers.

Given the high level of separation that each deployment demands, particularly the requirement for a unique AD domain, itopia typically recommends using a single deployment whenever possible; this will minimize the complexity of your Cloud Desktop environment and will provide a more unified experience both for managing your environment and for your end users.