The customer was not satisfied with the performance of vSphere used in a hosted desktops project at their organisation. Also the connection between Active Directory Domains on different sites was not functioning as expected.

The vSphere Deployment was not completed according to best practices. Various issues like hardware errors, misconfiguration, undersized hardware and poor choice of software solutions.
The design of the Active Directory domain was inconsistent. The domains functioned indipendently however they formed part of the same Active Directory Forest. This limited the functionality of the Active Directory in functions such as the exchange of user and user group information within different domains.

Many of the issues with vSphere were due to performance tuning and misconfiguration by the hardware vendors of the equipment in the customer’s data center. Sascha identified the issues through benchmarking, analysis and monitoring tools.
As for the Active Directory issues, Sascha tackled the problem by breaking it down into smaller problems. In specialised areas, Microsoft Support for Active Directory was consulted.

Confidence was restored in the hosted desktops project. The users could visibly see the benefit from improved desktop performance after the project was completed. The defective hardware in the data center was not only replaced but upgraded to higher specifications at an attractive price. This is a text book example of how a crisis was turned into an opportunity.