|Manuals

Deploy a VDI Pool

Info

This article uses Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) as the example provider. The same workflow applies to other VM-based providers — AWS (EC2), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IONOS Cloud, VMware (ESXi and Horizon), Microsoft Hyper-V, Proxmox VE, Oracle KVM (oVirt / OLVM), and Verge.IO. Provider-specific differences (credential fields, shape and instance type names, network parameters) are noted where they apply. Kubernetes models follow a different flow — to run an isolated browser on a cluster, see Track C — Deploy Remote Browser Isolation.

Info

This Quick Start uses the General Purpose built-in blueprint that Cloud Manager ships for Oracle Cloud — the fastest path to a working pool. The wizard pre-fills sensible defaults and only asks for environment-specific values. If you need full control over the provisioned infrastructure, the Custom Terraform flow covers .tf file upload and schema.json-driven Parameters. Cloud Manager also ships two other OCI built-ins for different workload profiles: Demanding Workflows (Optimized 3 Flex shapes) and Graphic Performance (GPU shapes) — see Create a Model Using a Built-in Blueprint.

By the end of this track, you will have a functioning on-demand VDI pool backed by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI): a VDI/DaaS model based on the General Purpose built-in (E Flex shape family), a session-based pool with scheduled provisioning, an Access Profile granting user access, and a validated end-to-end connection.

Prerequisites

In addition to the common prerequisites:

  • An OCI account with sufficient Compute quota in the target region for at least 2 VM instances of the E Flex shape. Check current quota in OCI Console > Governance > Limits, Quotas and Usage.
  • A virtual cloud network (VCN) and subnet available in the target OCI region, configured to allow inbound RDP (port 3389) from the Thinfinity® Workspace Gateway IP.
1

Open Cloud Manager

Log in to Thinfinity Workspace as an administrator, click the profile icon, and then click Cloud Manager in the right sidebar.

Workspace sidebar with the Cloud Manager entry highlighted

Cloud Manager opens.

Cloud Manager full UI screenshot

2

Add OCI Credentials

Cloud Manager needs OCI API Key credentials to communicate with your Oracle Cloud account. If you have already saved a valid OCI credential set in Cloud Manager (for example, from a previous Quick Start track or from earlier configuration work), skip to Step 3.

Otherwise, register your credentials now:

  1. From the top right of the screen, select Credentials.
  2. Click + New from the top right of the screen to open the credential form.
  3. Select Oracle Cloud as the provider.
Cloud Manager OCI Credentials panel showing available fields
  1. Leave Use Instance Principal off — this Quick Start uses API Key authentication, which works in every deployment topology. Instance Principal is an alternative for Thinfinity Workspace servers that run on an OCI Compute instance — see Oracle Cloud Credentials → Option B.
  2. Fill in the following fields.
Field Value
Tenancy ID Your OCI tenancy OCID (ocid1.tenancy.oc1..aaaa...).
User ID The OCID of the IAM user Cloud Manager will authenticate as.
Private Key (.PEM file) Upload the .pem private key file generated when you created the API Key in the OCI Console.
Fingerprint The MD5 fingerprint of the API Signing Key (format: xx:xx:xx:xx:...).
Region The OCI region where your Compute instance is located (e.g., us-ashburn-1).
  1. Click Save. Cloud Manager validates the credentials immediately and adds the entry to the Credentials list with a Valid status badge. If the badge instead shows Invalid, the most common causes are a mismatched fingerprint or the wrong private key file — see the linked guide below for the full error reference.
Info

For the full guide on generating these credentials in the OCI Console — including tenancy and user OCID lookup, API Key generation, and troubleshooting an Invalid credential status — see Oracle Cloud Credentials.

3

Create the VDI/DaaS Model

In the left navigation panel, expand the VDI/DaaS Models section and click the + button next to the section header. The Model Creation Wizard opens.

Provider step

Select Oracle Cloud and click Next.

Cloud providers list VDI and DaaS available for selection

Model Selector step

The Model Selector lists OCI’s three built-in blueprints — General Purpose (E Flex), Demanding Workflows (Optimized 3 Flex), and Graphic Performance (GPU) — plus a Custom option. For this Quick Start, select General Purpose. Click Next.

Credentials step

Select Existing and choose the OCI credential set you created in Step 2. Click Next.

Parameters step

The General Purpose built-in pre-fills sensible defaults across the Parameters step. For this Quick Start, you only need to set these fields:

Field Value
Compartment Name The name of the OCI compartment where instances will be deployed.
Admin username Local administrator username.
Admin password Local administrator password for the provisioned VMs. Must be at least 12 characters and contain both letters and numbers.

Leave all other fields at their defaults and click Next.

Parameters step with Compartment Name, Admin username and Admin password filled, other fields at defaults

Parameters step other fields available

Info

The defaults provision a Windows Server 2022 instance on an AMD Standard E4 Flex shape with 1 OCPU, 8 GB RAM, and a 60 GB disk, with the Thinfinity Workspace Virtualization Agent installed automatically at first boot. To customize the shape, OS image, compartment scoping, networking (public IP, DNS, domain join), or agent installation behavior, see Oracle Cloud (OCI) — General Settings.

Access step

  1. Leave the default Connection Mode set to Public IP.
  2. Set Pool Mode to Breadth First. Additional fields appear.
  3. Set Max Instances Count to 2 and Max users per instance to 2.
  4. Enable Use naming prefix, then set Prefix to VDI-OCI, Digits to 3, and Start Index to 1 (instances will be named VDI-OCI001, VDI-OCI002, etc.).
  5. Click Next.

Access step with Pool Mode set to Breadth First and naming prefix enabled

Deployment step

  1. By default, the deployment trigger is set to On Demand. Change to Scheduled and configure the instance counts:
    • Set Initial Instances to 1.
    • Set Lazy Instances to 1.
    • Set Max Instances to 5.
  2. Click Next.

Deployment parameters for the VDI/DaaS model

Power settings step

Leave the default options and click Next.

Destroy settings step

By default, the Destroy mode is set to Never, click Next to continue.

Info

In production, scheduled Power and Destroy policies help control resource cost — see Power and Scheduling Settings.

Save step

Enter OCI VDI Pool — Quick Start as the model Name and click Save.

The model appears in the VDI/DaaS Models tab.

New VDI/DaaS model in the list of available models

4

Deploy the First Instance

With the model configured, trigger the first deployment to verify the pool provisions correctly.

  1. Select the model in the left navigation panel, then click the Deployments tab next to Instances.
  2. Click the Deploy button (plus icon) in the model header above the table.
  3. In the Enqueue new deployment dialog:
    • Version: 1 (Production)
    • Count: 1
  4. Click Deploy.
Enqueue dialog — Version set to Production, Count set to 1

The Deployments tab shows the deployment in progress. The Message column streams the latest Terraform status in real time.

Deployments tab — deployment status "Started" with Terraform output visible in the Message column

Wait for the status to change to Success (typically 3–7 minutes for an OCI Compute instance). Once the deployment completes, the instance appears in the Instances tab with an On or Off status icon.

Instances tab — VDI-OCI001 instance visible with an On status badge

Warning

If the deployment transitions to Error, review the error in the Message column. Common causes are insufficient OCI quota, an invalid subnet OCID, or an OS image that is not accessible from the credential account. See Provisioning Failures.

5

Create an Access Profile

  1. In the Instances tab, click the Create Access Profile action in the model header above the table to launch the Access Profile wizard.

  2. In the first step of the wizard select the type of Access Profile you want to create for your VDI pool. For our example, choose RDC then click Next.

  3. In Connection Details:

    • Confirm the Model Name shows OCI VDI Pool — Quick Start.
    • Leave Use Staging disabled (this profile targets the Production version).
    • Set Stop after disconnect to 5 (minutes) to keep the VM running briefly after the user disconnects, so reconnects don’t trigger a full power-on. Tune to your workload — shorter delays minimize idle compute cost; longer delays keep the VM ready for frequent reconnects.

    Click Next.

  4. In Authentication Options, select Ask for new credentials and then Next.

  5. In Permissions, add the user or group that should have access to the new Access Profile, click Next.

  6. Enter a Name for the profile (for example, OCI VDI — General). Click Next when done.

The wizard redirects you to the list of Access Profiles available in the installation: Settings > Configuration > Access Profiles.

  1. Confirm the new Access Profile appears in the list.
  2. Click Apply.

Access Profiles list — OCI VDI — General profile listed, Apply button highlighted

6

Connect as an End User

  1. Open the Thinfinity Workspace portal in a new browser tab (or as the target end user).
  2. Log in with the credentials of the user you granted access to in Step 6.
  3. Locate the OCI VDI — General tile on the portal home screen.
  4. Click the tile and enter the VM credentials when prompted.

Cloud Manager assigns the available instance from the pool. If the instance is powered off, Cloud Manager powers it on before handing off the session (this may add 30–90 seconds to the first connection).

The remote session opens in the browser. Track B is complete.

Thinfinity Workspace dashboard — OCI VDI — General tile and the active RDP session inside the browser

What’s Next

See Also