AWS Workspaces first impressions

Amazon AWS launched their Desktop as a Services (DaaS) VDI service today:

http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/
http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2014/03/amazon-workspaces-now-available.html

Here is my first impression of $35/month Standard Workspaces. As it is not available in their Sydney location I used US West (Oregon) and it took about 15 minutes to deploy, then you can use client on PC,  Mac, iPad or Android tablet.

I found the response surprisingly good considering 190ms latency from Sydney to Oregon, but I would expect latency to improve significantly once it becomes available in Sydney.

This blog entry was written using Workspaces and it works quite well, cut and paste works between workspaces and ordinary desktop, I could install applications just like an ordinary desktop. Even tried playing youtube clips in 480p, amazing how well it works considering it has to stream from youtube to Oregon and then PCoIP to my location in Sydney.

Benchmark results:

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/494116

Best region for low-latency Workspaces:
https://clients.amazonworkspaces.com/Health.html

Download clients from:

https://clients.amazonworkspaces.com/

Works on dual screens:

Quite usable with iPad:

http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/faqs/

Does WorkSpaces pricing include bandwidth costs?

The monthly subscription includes the streaming bandwidth between the user’s client and a WorkSpace. Web traffic from the user’s WorkSpaces (accessing public Internet, downloading files etc.) will be charged separately as AWS outbound bandwidth on your bill.

Data Transfer OUT From Amazon EC2 To Internet
First 1 GB / month	$0.00 / GB
Up to 10 TB / month	$0.12 / GB
Next 40 TB / month	$0.09 / GB

AWS Workspaces will arrive in Australia by June 2014:

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/382484,amazon-brings-virtual-desktops-to-australia.aspx

Systeminfo from Workspaces:

D:\Users\zorang>systeminfo

Host Name:                 IP-C0A87DCE

OS Name:                   Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter

OS Version:                6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601

OS Manufacturer:           Microsoft Corporation

OS Configuration:          Member Server

OS Build Type:             Multiprocessor Free

Registered Owner:          Amazon

Registered Organization:   Amazon.com

Product ID:                00496-001-0001283-84650

Original Install Date:     3/23/2014, 4:44:54 PM

System Boot Time:          3/27/2014, 12:25:53 PM

System Manufacturer:       Xen

System Model:              HVM domU

System Type:               x64-based PC

Processor(s):              1 Processor(s) Installed.

                           [01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 62 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~2500 Mhz

BIOS Version:              Xen 4.2.amazon, 10/5/2013

Windows Directory:         C:\Windows

System Directory:          C:\Windows\system32

Boot Device:               \Device\HarddiskVolume1

System Locale:             en-us;English (United States)

Input Locale:              en-us;English (United States)

Time Zone:                 (UTC+10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney

Total Physical Memory:     3,840 MB

Available Physical Memory: 1,248 MB

Virtual Memory: Max Size:  4,350 MB

Virtual Memory: Available: 1,700 MB

Virtual Memory: In Use:    2,650 MB

Page File Location(s):     C:\pagefile.sys

Domain:                    corp.amazonworkspaces.com

Logon Server:              \\AWS-03F52FD88B

Hotfix(s):                 276 Hotfix(s) Installed.

                           [01]: KB981391

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Network Card(s):           2 NIC(s) Installed.

                           [01]: Citrix PV Ethernet Adapter

                                 Connection Name: Local Area Connection

                                 DHCP Enabled:    Yes

                                 DHCP Server:     192.168.64.1

                                 IP address(es)

                                 [01]: 192.168.125.206

                           [02]: Citrix PV Ethernet Adapter

                                 Connection Name: Local Area Connection 2

                                 DHCP Enabled:    Yes

                                 DHCP Server:     172.16.1.1

                                 IP address(es)

                                 [01]: 172.16.1.84

                                 [02]: fe80::243b:bc89:5c0c:a895

D:\Users\zorang>

From Workspaces:

D:\Users\zorang>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.google.com [74.125.20.103] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.20.103: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=44

Reply from 74.125.20.103: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=44

Reply from 74.125.20.103: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=44

Reply from 74.125.20.103: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=44

Ping statistics for 74.125.20.103:

   Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

   Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 16ms

D:\Users\zorang>tracert www.google.com

Tracing route to www.google.com [74.125.129.147]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

 1     8 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  ec2-50-112-0-154.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

[50.112.0.154]

 2    18 ms     1 ms     1 ms  205.251.232.254

 3     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  205.251.232.160

 4    18 ms     7 ms     7 ms  205.251.232.95

 5     7 ms     7 ms     7 ms  205.251.226.192

 6     8 ms    11 ms     8 ms  72.21.221.191

 7     7 ms     7 ms     7 ms  66.249.94.212

 8     8 ms     8 ms     7 ms  66.249.94.199

 9    15 ms    15 ms    15 ms  216.239.46.208

10    14 ms    15 ms    14 ms  64.233.174.129

11     *        *        *     Request timed out.

12    16 ms    14 ms    15 ms  pd-in-f147.1e100.net [74.125.129.147]

Trace complete.

D:\Users\zorang>ping myhomenetwork.dyndns.org

Pinging myhomenetwork.dyndns.org [x.x.x.x] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from x.x.x.x: bytes=32 time=190ms TTL=48

Reply from x.x.x.x: bytes=32 time=191ms TTL=48

Reply from x.x.x.x: bytes=32 time=191ms TTL=48

Reply from x.x.x.x: bytes=32 time=192ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for x.x.x.x:

   Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

   Minimum = 190ms, Maximum = 192ms, Average = 191ms

D:\Users\zorang>

From home PC to Workspaces:

[zorang@centos ~]$ traceroute 54.186.198.84

traceroute to 54.186.198.84 (54.186.198.84), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets

1  router.asus.com (192.168.0.1)  0.492 ms  0.393 ms  0.465 ms

2  x.x.x.x (y.y.y.y)  5.478 ms  5.678 ms  6.014 ms

3  z.z.z.z (z.z.z.z)  5.634 ms  5.615 ms 172.18.93.166 (172.18.93.166)  5.375 ms

4  TenGigE0-5-0-0.chw-edge902.sydney.telstra.net (139.130.207.81)  5.759 ms  5.330 ms  5.710 ms

5  bundle-ether14.chw-core2.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.11.100)  8.321 ms  6.892 ms  7.264 ms

6  bundle-ether1.oxf-gw2.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.6.90)  9.494 ms  7.418 ms  7.979 ms

7  203.50.13.38 (203.50.13.38)  7.562 ms  4.703 ms  4.068 ms

8  i-0-2-0-5.sydo-core02.bi.telstraglobal.net (202.84.223.42)  5.884 ms i-0-6-0-6.sydo-core02.bi.telstraglobal.net (202.84.223.38)  6.212 ms i-0-2-0-5.sydo-core02.bi.telstraglobal.net (202.84.223.42)  5.446 ms

9  i-0-2-0-5.1wlt-core01.bx.telstraglobal.net (202.84.140.202)  146.691 ms i-0-2-0-2.1wlt-core01.bx.telstraglobal.net (202.84.140.21)  146.643 ms i-0-2-0-6.1wlt-core01.bx.telstraglobal.net (202.84.140.206)  146.109 ms

10  i-0-4-0-1.eqla01.bi.telstraglobal.net (202.84.251.154)  146.545 ms i-0-4-0-2.eqla01.bi.telstraglobal.net (202.40.149.242)  147.345 ms i-0-4-0-7.eqla01.bi.telstraglobal.net (202.40.149.254)  146.174 ms

11  63-235-40-45.dia.static.qwest.net (63.235.40.45)  145.920 ms  147.263 ms  146.289 ms

12  * * *

13  65-122-235-178.dia.static.qwest.net (65.122.235.178)  209.280 ms  211.308 ms  212.288 ms

14  205.251.225.20 (205.251.225.20)  213.110 ms 205.251.225.22 (205.251.225.22)  213.650 ms 205.251.225.20 (205.251.225.20)  210.919 ms

15  205.251.232.105 (205.251.232.105)  189.150 ms  189.194 ms  187.791 ms

16  205.251.232.211 (205.251.232.211)  189.451 ms  190.625 ms 205.251.232.205 (205.251.232.205)  190.365 ms

17  205.251.232.222 (205.251.232.222)  203.058 ms  190.240 ms  189.274 ms

18  * * *

19  * * *

20  * * *

21  * * *

22  * * *

23  * * *

24  * * *

25  * * *

26  * * *

27  * * *

28  * * *

29  * * *

30  * * *

[zorang@centos ~]$


Update 31/10/2014 - Now supports custom images:
http://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/workspaces-golden-images/