Intel Cloud Builders Guide to Cloud Design and Deployment on Intel Platforms

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1 Intel Cloud Builders Guide Intel Xeon Processor-based Servers RES Virtual Desktop Extender Intel Cloud Builders Guide to Cloud Design and Deployment on Intel Platforms Client Aware Cloud with RES Virtual Desktop Extender Intel Xeon Processor 5500 Series Intel Xeon Processor 5600 Series Audience and Purpose Cloud computing offers numerous business and technical benefits to enterprise organizations, including improved efficiencies in capital spending, increased resource utilization, and a more uniformed approach to IT infrastructure. Unfortunately, cloud construction is still an intimidating task for most organizations to undertake. Working with partners, Intel provides reference architectures through its Intel Cloud Builders program as a guideline for constructing an enterprise cloud. The service-oriented architecture of cloud computing lends itself very well to hosting client computing environments and can ease the deployment and management challenges associated with traditional endpoint architectures. However, the current generation of users requires more than basic application and data access. Today s users require a high performance, rich experience with complex interfaces as well as access to an array of external peripherals such as webcams and USB storage devices. These high demand users will not be satisfied with a sluggish virtual desktop session; therefore, it is critical to identify approaches which provide a high quality user experience. This paper presents a solution to enhance the experience and overall usability of virtual desktop sessions while maintaining the advantages of a typical Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployment. The target audience of this paper is enterprise IT departments that are looking for a balanced solution for delivering an uncompromised user experience with a VDI deployment. The paper first discusses today s standard VDI architecture and points out some of the inherent user experience challenges. Next, RES Virtual Desktop Extender* technology is introduced, and its architecture and benefits for VDI environments are discussed. Finally, the paper lays out performance benchmarks showing the raw numbers generated when executing both a synthetic as well as a more realistic HTML5 webpage workload, both of which clearly demonstrate the positive impact that the RES technology has on VDI deployments.

2 Table of Contents Executive Summary... 3 Introduction... 3 Current IT Landscape... 3 RES Virtual Desktop Extender (VDX)... 5 RES VDX integrated with RES Workspace... 6 Process... 6 Results... 7 Conclusion

3 Executive Summary Most organizations considering the adoption of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) would ideally like to optimize the utilization of both server and client computing resources. Current VDI technology is hindered in its ability to provide a capable platform for both real-time applications such as VoIP and graphics-intensive applications such as rich media. Leveraging the resources of the local client device is one technique for effectively executing resource-heavy applications and services while reducing the burden on both the network and data center infrastructure. In our tests, we have shown how running RES Virtual Desktop Extender (VDX)* on PCs powered by Intel Core processors can merge the benefits of centralized VDI processing and management with local client computing resources. Introduction As VDI deployments become more prevalent on enterprise clouds and IT departments move away from rich endpoint devices towards thin clients, most end-users notice a reduced experience if intelligent client capabilities are not leveraged. Virtual desktop solutions are designed to ease desktop management for organizations but normally overlook the impact on the end-user experience. Figure 2 shows the topology of these data center focused VDI deployments. While this may have some benefits for the IT department, it prohibits end users from getting the most productive experience. Common complaints of response time and slowness stem from over saturated servers and network congestion. These limitations have made it difficult for enterprises to fully adopt cloud-based virtual desktop services. Intel, working with RES Software, presents a strategy for overcoming these issues by utilizing end-client resources to handle real-time and resource intensive applications, such VoIP and rich media. This approach provides client aware delivery of virtual desktop services that balance infrastructure resources, user experience, and centralized manageability. This paper presents some of the benefits provided by the joint Intel and RES solution. Current IT Landscape Traditional IT infrastructure is generally comprised of a centralized data center model that provides services and storage to devices that run at the edge of an organization s network. With this approach, the majority of processing is done by end client devices. This model (figure 1) requires a significant amount of dedicated resources (both people and hardware) to support and maintain functionality for productivity in an enterprise network. This paradigm has provided the most flexibility for new hardware adoption and expansion but it is very costly for an organization to keep up with maintenance and technical expertise. To reduce this management burden on IT departments, organizations have started looking toward VDI deployments where the client computing environment is consolidated into the data center (figure 2). This provides a variety of advantages within an enterprise network, including centralized image management, data security, and end-user device flexibility. Unfortunately, VDI has a negative impact on the end-user experience when dealing with rich user interfaces, graphics rendering, and peripheral device support. Due to these limitations, VDI has only been implemented for limited use cases that don t involve functionality beyond basic data entry. To strike a better balance between endpoint and data center processing in a VDI environment, RES Software leverages their patented reverse seamless technology in a solution called Virtual Desktop Extender or VDX*, which enables organizations to utilize client-side resources in a VDI deployment (figure 3). By providing this balanced approach, VDX enables enterprises to deliver a rich end-user experience while still realizing the benefits of VDI. Figure 1: Traditional Enterprise Desktop Architecture 3

4 Figure 2: VDI Architecture Figure 3: Balanced VDI Compute Model enabled by RES Virtual Desktop Extender 4

5 RES Virtual Desktop Extender (VDX) RES Virtual Desktop Extender (VDX)* helps achieve a balanced approach to VDI computing by using patented reverse seamless technology. VDX leverages an endpoint s resources to enhance the end-user experience of a virtual desktop environment. VDX provides client awareness by utilizing the endpoint s local system resources to handle the execution of applications that cannot run or whose performance is significantly degraded within a virtual desktop environment. This solution provides a unique method to balance the user s workload between their endpoint device resources and the virtual desktop session hosted on the cloud. RES VDX supports Microsoft Remote Desktop Services* and VDI running over RDP*, VMware View running over PCoIP* and Citrix XenApp* and XenDesktop* running over HDX*. For example, figure 4 shows the local client menu available within a XenDesktop 5.0 virtual desktop session. Figure 4: Local start menu inside Citrix XenDesktop 5.0* virtual desktop session populated by RES VDX from the local desktop Figure 5 shows both a locally and a centrally executing application running seamlessly in a virtual desktop. In this particular case, a local executing media player leverages the resources of the endpoint to properly render video content, while an Outlook client runs centrally. Both are presented in a single screen, preventing the user from having to switch between the local and virtual desktop. Key benefits: Publish applications from the local start menu within a remote desktop session Present both local and centralized applications seamlessly in a single screen Allow resource heavy applications to leverage local resources Figure 5: Local and centralized applications presented seamlessly in a virtual desktop 5

6 RES VDX integrated with RES Workspace Manager RES VDX runs either as a standalone solution or integrated with RES Workspace Manager*. RES Workspace Manager enables IT to manage and secure access to resources such as applications, data, and network and printer mappings for both physical and virtual desktops. It integrates with existing application delivery and image management tools to control the personalization, configuration, and security of a user s desktop environment. The integration between VDX and Workspace Manager allows an IT administrator to control which local applications can be executed in the virtual desktop as well as specify certain file types to be opened by local applications. For example, if a user opens a media file in their remote session, the local Windows Media player can execute instead of the one hosted in the virtual desktop, thereby maximizing the user experience and reducing the bandwidth consumed by the virtual desktop session. Figure 6 shows an image of RES VDX configuration within RES Workspace Manager and how shortcuts can be created on the virtual desktop to link directly to either locally or virtually installed applications. Key benefits: Control which local applications are exposed in the virtual desktop session based on a user s context (location, endpoint, time of day, etc.) Provide unified personalization, configuration and security across local and remote applications Process In order to determine the capabilities of the RES VDX, we configured an environment that would allow us to measure the impact on user experience as well as on the server workload. We utilized PassMark Performance Test 7.0*, a commercially available performance benchmark to analyze the hardware performance differences between the two test iterations. The PassMark performance benchmark runs a variety of tests to determine an overall system rating including CPU, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, memory and hard disk. Individually each test is a single skew/vector, but combined they provide a method to quantify the performance a user would experience. PassMark Performance Test metrics System Rating A total system rating weighted by the following variety of system performance characteristics. CPU Rating A set of tests to determine the throughput and peak performance utilizing mathematical operations, compression, encryption, and SSE instructions. 2D Graphics Rating An assessment of the ability to complete rendering of 2D graphical modifications. This test includes windows interface constructions such as text boxes, radio options, and check boxes. 3D Graphics Rating An assessment of the vector processing capabilities for 3D rendering. Memory Rating A set of tests to determine the performance of memory allocation and access speeds. Disk Rating A set of I/O tests designed to give a performance rating for seek time and random read/write operations on the system hard disk. Figure 6: RES VDX integrated with RES Workspace Manager 6

7 Results The reverse seamless technology utilized by RES VDX allows local applications to be accessed from and seamlessly displayed in a virtual desktop session. This provides a simple technique to leverage end-client resources for specific applications or services that are unable to execute within a virtual desktop or whose performance is significantly hindered when executed remotely. Table 1 lists the Passmark results for the virtual desktop environment without RES Virtual Desktop Extender. The CPU rating indicates the processing capability of the server-hosted virtual machine is not the limitation on user experience. As indicated, 3D graphics applications are not able to run within the virtual desktop environment. Table 2 shows the results with RES Virtual Desktop Extender enabled. The user performance scales with the end-point client device and provides support for more intense rich media and graphics-based applications. Reviewing the data presented in Table 1 and 2, it is apparent that the end-point device can provide more performance than a virtual machine hosted on a remote server. This suggests that a VDI deployment should utilize the available resources of an intelligent client device to provide optimal performance. Provisioned Provisioned CPU Rating 2D Graphics 3D Graphics Memory Rating Disk Rating Processors (CPU) Memory (GB) Rating Rating FAILED FAILED FAILED FAILED Table 1: Citrix XenDesktop 5.0 with Microsoft Windows 7 virtual machines - PassMark benchmark results (Higher is better) Client Device System Rating CPU Rating 2D Graphics Rating 3D Graphics Rating Memory Rating Wyse Xenith Zero Client* Wyse C90LEW Zero Client* Wyse R90LW Fail** HP t5740e (Intel Atom N280) Lenovo ThinkPad T400 (Intel Core 2 Duo) Lenovo ThinkPad T410 (Intel Core i5) Lenovo ThinkPad T420 (Intel Core i7) *** Disk Rating Table 2: Client device PassMark benchmark results with reverse seamless capabilities from RES Virtual Desktop Extender (Higher is better) * Note: Insufficient resources to run local executables on zero client configurations. ** Note: Write filters on the Wyse R90LW prohibited the disk read/write test from completing. *** Note: Lenovo ThinkPad T420 rendered 3D graphics with 4x multi-sampling providing higher quality graphics rendering at a slight performance cost. 7

8 User Experience Analysis: Unfortunately, exclusively looking at synthetic benchmark tests only shows how well the individual platforms handle specific workloads. In order to give a better representation of the impact a user will experience, we tested the impact of Web applications. With the growing popularity of rich user interface Web media using HTML5 and WebGL, it is important for IT organizations to be aware of the impact on both the user experience and the associated data center workload. To accurately quantify the impact of using the HTML5 webvizbench.com benchmark, we measured virtual desktop and client device system resources (CPU, RAM and network) utilization when running Microsoft Internet Explorer 9. Looking at Figure 7, it is apparent that leveraging local resources has a positive impact on the user experience across all tested devices, with the exception of the HP t5470e thin client. These results show how RES VDX can effectively use intelligent end-point device resources to quickly render Web graphics across several generations of Intel products. Figure 7: Webvizbench.com FPS and Benchmark scores for client devices with RES VDX enabled and disabled 8

9 Figure 8 indicates how leveraging local resources has reduced the data center workload and the associated network traffic by transitioning some process execution to the end point device. This reduction in data center and network resource consumption translates to increased VDI scalability and enhanced quality of service for end users. Additionally, it is important to recognize that the lower CPU consumption on the intelligent client device indicates that additional applications and services may be transitioned to the device without hindering user experience. Conclusion RES VDX reverse seamless technology running on PCs powered by Intel Core processors can be used within cloud VDI deployments to greatly enhance the user experience while simultaneously decreasing the consumption of network and data center resources. In our tests, we have highlighted the benefits of using RES VDX, its positive impact on the end-user experience and its ability to reduce the load on data center resources. We observed that the user experience was significantly improved on all of the current generation Intel Architecture platforms. Note that the latest Intel Core i5 and i7 processors both provided the lowest CPU utilization when the workload was shifted to the client device, thereby providing the headroom for additional processes to be executed locally by leveraging RES VDX. This processing workload shift from data center hosted virtual machines to client devices also translates into increased VDI user density per server, saving additional power and cooling resources. Figure 8: Webvizbench.com CPU workload on client device and virtual machine 9

10 The test results show the advantages of an intelligently balanced compute model that is capable of efficiently leveraging both endpoint and data center resources to provide an optimal computing solution. Intel supports companies like RES Software that develop intelligent solutions capable of better distributing processing between endpoint devices and data centers, resulting in more flexible VDI deployments. Server Model information: SuperMicro X8DTG-QF 2x Intel Xeon Westmere EX 2.93 GHz 96 GB of DDR3 1.5 TB of RAID5 storage for virtual machine repository 300 GB storage for base XenServer 5.6 installation PassMark Performance Test: More Information: Intel Cloud Builders program, visit Intel Xeon processors: itcenter/products/xeon/index.htm Intel processor-based laptops and desktops: system/client/index.htm RES Software Virtual Desktop Extender: Disclaimers Intel processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor families. See products/processor_number for details. INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH INTEL PRODUCTS. NO LICENSE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, BY ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROP- ERTY RIGHTS IS GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT. EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN INTEL S TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE FOR SUCH PRODUCTS, INTEL ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER, AND INTEL DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, RELATING TO SALE AND/OR USE OF INTEL PRODUCTS INCLUDING LIABILITY OR WARRANTIES RELATING TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT, COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT. UNLESS OTHERWISE AGREED IN WRITING BY INTEL, THE INTEL PRODUCTS ARE NOT DESIGNED NOR INTENDED FOR ANY APPLICATION IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE INTEL PRODUCT COULD CREATE A SITUATION WHERE PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH MAY OCCUR. Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. Designers must not rely on the absence or characteristics of any features or instructions marked reserved or undefined. Intel reserves these for future definition and shall have no responsibility whatsoever for conflicts or incompatibilities arising from future changes to them. The information here is subject to change without notice. Do not finalize a design with this information. The products described in this document may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product to deviate from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request. Contact your local Intel sales office or your distributor to obtain the latest specifications and before placing your product order. Copies of documents which have an order number and are referenced in this document, or other Intel literature, may be obtained by calling , or by visiting Intel s Web site at Copyright 2011 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, Xeon inside, and Intel Intelligent Power Node Manager are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. 10