10,000-User Reference Implementation with Atlantis ILIO and VMware. Horizon View at a Global Service Provider

Transcription

1 Atlantis ILIO and Horizon View at a Global Service Provider

2 Table of Contents About Refence Implementations....3 Executive Summary....3 Deployment Architectu....3 Architectu Overview....3 vsphe Design...5 Compute Platform Design....6 Server Sizing....6 Workload Assessment...7 VDI Management....8 Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI...9 s with Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI....9 Server Sizing User Density ESXi Host Configuration and Optimization Hyper-Thading DNS and Network Time Protocol Host Profiles Network Architectu Logical Network Design Shad Storage Architectu and High Availability...16 Image and Template Datastos High Availability (HA) Conclusion

3 About Refence Implementations Refence implementations describe how particular customers have architected their virtual desktop environment and deployed Horizon View. As compad to fence architectus, fence implementations focus on actual customer environments and include deployment information garding each layer, from client access devices, access infrastructu, virtual infrastructu, Horizon View desktops, and session management. Executive Summary This fence implementation illustrates the architectu a global service provider used with Horizon View and Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI in a large-scale deployment, including the specific implementation decisions made to meet customer quiments. The fence implementation: Delivers a fully stateless virtual desktop platform using Horizon View and Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Has a modular design that can scale to 10,000 users and beyond Gives the end user the best possible experience Delivers the most cost-effective desktop from both a CapEx and OpEx standpoint Provides a suitable level of dundancy to cope with disaster covery Deployment Architectu The architectu is described by a logical design layout that is independent of hard-specific details, as shown in Figu 1. Specifications of physical design components chosen for the logical design a also provided. Architectu Overview The logical architectu follows the principles of the Horizon View pod and block approach modular, scalable and peatable blocks of management and desktop infrastructu. This architectu includes: Two datacenters (Datacenter1 and Datacenter2) in an active-active configuration. In a Disaster Recovery (DR) scenario, 55 percent of users would continue to be serviced in the event of datacenter loss. Clusters of vsphe hosts supporting desktops for load balancing through the View Connection Servers. Considerations for storage and network quiments, including dundancy. 3

4 10,000-User Refence Implementation with Datacenter 1 Datacenter 2 Remote Access Layer Security Server Load Balancer Load Balancer Security Server Management Layer Profile Connection ILIO Centers Management Servers vcenter Server(s) Print Database Profile Connection Servers Management DHCP DHCP Database ILIO Centers Print vcenter Server(s) Sttched Management vsphe Cluster Compute Layer ES X 12 ESX Hosts ES X ES X 12 ESX Hosts 12 ESX Hosts ES X 12 ESX Hosts ES X 12 ESX Hosts ES X 12 ESX Hosts ES X 12 ESX Hosts ES X 12 ESX Hosts Networking Layer Storage Layer File Servers Profile Sto Profile Sto File Servers Figu 1: Architectu Overview 4

5 vsphe Design The virtual infrastructu chosen in this architectu is ESXi 5.0 Update 1. The ESXi layer is based on an approach that utilizes a single ESXi host design for both the desktop cluster and the management cluster. Figu 2 shows how the hosts would be used in this implementation, and the cluster management layout. Virtual desktops a hosted on desktop clusters running only virtual desktops and the Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI virtual machine. The server infrastructu quid for management and the View Connection Server implementation a hosted on a separate cluster, known as the VDI management block. Exceptions to placement within the VDI management block a the load balancers and the mote access and Security Server, which a hosted in a vsphe cluster located in the DMZ. The VDI management block itself should be managed by existing vsphe infrastructu in the enterprise, thus avoiding managing vsphe from within itself. Datacenter 1 VDI Management Manage Connection Server ESX Clusters vcenter Server(s) Manage Datacenter 2 vcenter Server(s) Existing ESX Infrastructu Manage Connection Server ESX Clusters vcenter Server(s) Figu 2: vsphe Cluster Design 5

6 Compute Platform Design This fence architectu a designed using the Cisco UCS B230-M2 half-width blade. The assembly, build, and configuration of each system have been standardized, with all components installed identically for all ESXi hosts. It is critical to standardize not only the model but also the physical configuration of the ESXi hosts. Standardization provides a manageable and supportable infrastructu by eliminating variability in such a large-scale deployment. A consistent hard platform across the infrastructu also allows for a host to take the role of any other host without the need to consider its hard specification, theby offering a gater level of flexibility. The configuration for the hard platform is detailed in Table 1. ATTRIBUTE Vendor Model Number of CPU sockets Number of CPU cos Total number of cos Processor speed Memory Network ports (outbound) Network speed Number of local drives Total useable capacity Datastos VDI STATELESS DESKTOP HOSTS SPECIFICATION Cisco UCS B230-M GHz 384GB 2 10 GbE (per port) GB Boot from SAN LUN 10GB Atlantis ILIO OS LUN Hypervisor version ESXi 5 U1, Build: Table 1: ESXi Server Specification Server Sizing To determine the quid number of ESXi hosts needed to accommodate the 10,000 stateless desktops (5,000 in each of the two datacenters), the service provider would collect performance and utilization data of existing users. If it is not possible to collect data from users (say, a genfield deployment), then a production pilot of at least 30 days active use by users would provide the metrics for average and peak CPU, memory, network, storage, and IOPS utilization. Taking into account the historical data collected by monitoring utilization and workloads through pilot or p-production rollouts, the number of virtual machines per blade can be incased to meet demand In this deployment, 20 percent headroom has been left fe on each host to have the capacity necessary should a host fail in a cluster or a larger DR event occurs. 6

7 Workload Assessment A typical user in this architectu runs a co set of office applications and quis 1.5GB RAM and 255MHz CPU to run their desktop at an acceptable performance level. Historically, workers have had a 7.5K SATA drive in a physical machine, so drive performance would peak at 80 IOPS with an average consumption of 30 IOPS for an 80 percent write and 20 percent ad split during steady state. Table 2 summarizes key virtual desktop machine quiments of a typical user in this environment. ATTRIBUTE RAM CPU VALUE 1.5GB 255MHz average IOPS 30 Read/write ratio Average throughput per virtual machine Total Throughput per LUN (50vms) ~20 percent ad, 80 percent write 487Kbps 1,660Kbps 24,350Kbps 83,000Kbps (23.8Mbps 81Mbps) Table 2: Summary of Key Virtual Machine Resource Requiments Table 3 summarizes the CPU quiments and details the CPU consumption for each of the ESXi hosts to support the workload of 10,000 stateless virtual desktop machines. DESKTOP PERFORMANCE METRIC RECORDED VALUE Number of CPUs (sockets) per host 2 Number of cos per CPU 8 MHz per CPU co Total MHz per host Proposed maximum host CPU utilization Usable CPU MHz per host Atlantis ILIO CPU cos overhead Average number of vcpus per physical desktop system Average CPU utilization per physical desktop system Number of virtual machines per host Total average CPU utilization per host Total CPU quiment for 1 host, including additional 15 percent for virtualization considerations (display protocol, Tools, Atlantis ILIO, etc.) 2,700MHz 43,200MHz 80 percent 34,560MHz 2 (1 Reserved 2700 MHz) 1 255MHz 100 (110 during host failu) 26,775MHz (29,325MHz during 1 host failu) 33,491MHz per host (36,424MHz during 1 host failu) Table 3: Hypervisor CPU Requiments 7

8 Table 4 summarizes the RAM availability and details the overall RAM quiments for the ESXi hosts to support the workloads of the Windows 7 virtual machines with Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI. The key sizing component for an Atlantis ILIO Diskless server is RAM. Table 4 outlines how the blade s sized for this architectu to support 110 virtual machines (worst case for DR). DESKTOP PERFORMANCE METRIC ESXi host memory Atlantis ILIO OS Observed average memory utilization per desktop Hypervisor overhead per virtual machine Atlantis ILIO RAM per virtual machine Number of virtual machines per host RECORDED VALUE 2GB 6GB 1.5GB (1.05GB after transpant page sharing) 0.03GB (30.72MB) 1.1GB 100 (110 during 1 host failu) Maximum number of plicas per datasto 3 Total plica size (3) Total virtual machine runtime memory Total Atlantis ILIO memory Total host memory consumption 60GB 171GB 191GB (allonce for 110 virtual machines) 335GB (362GB during a host failu) Table 4: Hypervisor RAM Requiments VDI Management In addition to the ESXi hosts quid to support desktop virtual machines, a number of hosts a quid for the VDI management block. They provide the Connection Servers and other management infrastructu quid to deliver the VDI platform. Eight Cisco UCS B230-M2 ESXi hosts a used in the management block. The block is a sttched vsphe cluster over the two datacenters with four hosts in each. This allows virtual machines to benefit from HA, DRS, and vsphe vmotion providing a highly available management platform. The vcenter server managing the VDI management block should be hosted external to the environment on existing ESXi infrastructu. This pvents the VDI management block s vcenter server from being affected by host failu in the environment. Atlantis ILIO Center is quid to manage and update the individual Atlantis ILIO appliances. Atlantis ILIO Management Center should be able to communicate with the vcenter server managing the Atlantis ILIO appliances. A single ILIO Center is quid per vcenter instance. 8

9 10,000-User Refence Implementation with Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Atlantis ILIO is a virtual appliance that accelerates storage IO, provides compssion and performs inline data de-duplication. In this design, each host contains an Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance, which psents an NFS datasto for the vsphe host. s with Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI stos stateless virtual desktops on the datasto, which uses local server RAM as primary storage. The Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance psents a standard NFS datasto through the vsphe hypervisor. Datastos for the desktops side entily in physical memory which provides a significant performance gain over shad storage even when compad to a local solid-state disk. Atlantis ILIO is deployed onto each blade allowing for a modular, scalable solution. It is provided in an OVF format, imported into vcenter and placed onto the appropriate blades using Atlantis ILIO Deployment Services to automate the deployment, installation, sizing and configuration of the ILIO virtual machines. The user data contained in the OS drive of the virtual desktops is placed onto a datasto on the shad storage platform. ILIO Datasto Virtual Machine Clones AP P OS Master NFS Shad Storage ILIO OS ESXi FS Boot Figu 3: Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Deployment 9

10 This deployment and configuration can be fully automated for Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI deployment through PowerShell API or the use of Atlantis ILIO Deployment Services. This automation allows deployment and update of Atlantis ILIO components as quid from Atlantis ILIO Center or a single script and configuration file. The initial setup and configuration is documented in Table 5. If a manual build of ILIO we to be quid, the settings in Table 5 would be set on the ILIO appliance befo powering on the appliance. ATTRIBUTE DETAIL SPECIFICATION CPU vcpus allocated 2 vcpus served Advanced CPU MHz HT sharing none Memory 193GB Network vnics 2 Adapter type Networks E1000 NFS network VLAN Management VLAN Disk FS datasto (shad storage) 10GB (Atlantis ILIO OS disk) Table 5: Atlantis ILIO Appliance Specifications After the Atlantis ILIO appliance is powed on, use the configuration settings in Table 6 during setup. ATTRIBUTE IP addssing Hostname Geographic aa Timezone Keymap Setup Compssion Export type SPECIFICATION Eth0: NFSNet Eth1: MgmtNet ILIO-xxx-xxx United States PDT PC/QWERTY/US Standard Disabled NFS Table 6: Atlantis ILIO Appliance Configuration After the Atlantis ILIO appliance has been configud, the storage is psented back to the ESXi host through a new NFS datasto. A CNAME is used to mount the datasto to enable changing IP addsses on Atlantis ILIO, if quid, without having to un-mount and mount the datasto. Table 7 lists the datasto specifications (on a per ESXi host basis). 10

11 ATTRIBUTE Datasto type Server Mount point Datasto name SPECIFICATION NFS ILIO-xxx-xxx /exports/ilio_virtuals/ ILIONFS-xxx Table 7: Atlantis ILIO NFS Datasto Specification Server Sizing User Density A synthetic workload generator s used to validate the fence implementation design and establish the maximum number of users that a single server could support for a given CPU and memory capacity. This test simulates a workload running a set of applications, including office productivity applications, Internet browsers, PDF aders, and multimedia tests. Testing s run on a blade with the specifications detailed in Table 1, but with 512GB of memory. This test concluded that 171 users could be supported on the server while maintaining an acceptable end-user experience. The number of users that could be supported with diffent memory amounts s also tested. With 384GB of memory, 115 users we possible. Taking into account other high-availability quiments within the environment, steady-state blade density s set at 100 users. The charts in Figu 4 and Figu 5 show memory and CPU usage during the tests. Figu 4: Server Memory Consumption During Test 11

12 Figu 5: Server CPU Consumption During Test 12

13 ESXi Host Configuration and Optimization ESXi s installed on SAN disks to boot from SAN for the server and take advantage of Cisco UCS Server Profiles. Server Profiles ease the management of hosts and enable host identity to be moved when quid. As Boot from SAN is the pferd solution, no manually configud local storage partitions a quid or cated. Boot LUNs should only be masked to the individual host as opposed to the cluster configuration of the datasto LUNs. A separate VLAN to isolate boot traffic from virtual machine traffic is also commended. Hyper-Thading ESXi supports Intel Hyper-Thading (HT) Technology on servers with Intel processors. HT improves processor performance by taking advantage of additional CPU interrupt controllers and gisters, theby enabling slightly higher utilization levels across the virtual infrastructu. Generally, a small improvement in performance can be gained by using HT. This performance gain is achieved by doubling the number of logical processors in an ESXi host. HT should be enabled as a default to offer a performance incase. Note: HT improves performance by supporting concurnt thad processing on the same physical CPU to take advantage of idle thad cycles. It is important to cognize that any performance incase will not be equivalent to adding mo physical processors. In very ra cases, enabling HT can actually hinder performance. To protect against this, performance should be monitod after changing this setting. By default, some servers throttle the CPU at the BIOS level and hamper virtualization as a server will not be able to use 100 percent of the CPU. This has a dict impact on not only the performance of all desktops but also of Atlantis ILIO. Ensu that Power Management and CPU Power and Performance a both set to Maximum Performance in the BIOS. DNS and Network Time Protocol DNS and NTP should be configud appropriately on each ILIO and ILIO Center appliance. DNS configuration allows the Atlantis ILIO appliance to automatically gister with ILIO Center. Configuration of a consistent set of NTP servers across the environment allows for consistent porting and debugging. Performance graphs and statistics on ILIO and ESX can be matched, for example. SERVER NAME PDTDNS01 PDTDNS02 PDTNTP01 PDTNTP02 IP ADDRESS 10.x.x.x 10.x.x.x 10.x.x.x 10.x.x.x Table 8: NTP and DNS Servers Host Profiles Host profiles provide the ability to captu a gold image ESXi host configuration, and ensu compliance with this profile. This featu also provides the ability to mediate hosts that a not compliant, ensuring a consistent host configuration within the vsphe environment. Host profiles should be applied at the cluster level; though when using a building block approach, diffent vsphe clusters (management, desktop) may contain diffent settings. Scaling the environment in the futu might lead to introduction of new hard at a later stage, and these clusters might qui diffent host profiles. 13

14 Network Architectu This section provides details on the networking configuration used for this architectu. Typically, the ESXi implementation uses the diffent types of network connection: Virtual Machine, Management Network and kernel. These networks connect to a virtual switch that has one or mo physical adapters (although two is garded as the minimum quid for silience) providing connectivity to existing physical networks. A fourth network is used to separate the NFS traffic that travels between ILIO and the ESXi hosts from other traffic. Logical Network Design The following best practices we followed for this network design: Separate networks for vsphe management, vsphe vmotion, and virtual machine connectivity Use of multi-nic vsphe networking Redundancy at the physical network switch level Redundant vswitches with at least two active physical adapter ports vswitch0 Management VLAN K0 vmnic0 vmnic0 vmotion VLAN K1 vmnic1 vmnic1 Fabric Interconnect A Distributed vswitch vmnic2 Fabric Interconnect B Management Virtual Machines VLAN vmnic3 Figu 6: Logical Host Network Design (Management Cluster) The VDI management block has a single standard vswitch for vsphe vmotion traffic and the vsphe ESXi management network. It also has a vnetwork Distributed Switch (dvswitch) that will be managed through vcenter. 14

15 vswitch0 Management VLAN xxx K0 vmnic0 vmotion VLAN xxx K1 vmnic1 Fabric Interconnect A vswitch1 NFS (ILIO) VLAN xxx vmnic2 vmnic3 Distributed vswitch Virtual Machines VLAN xxx Virtual Machines VLAN xxx Virtual Machines VLAN xxx Virtual Machines VLAN xxx vmnic4 vmnic5 Fabric Interconnect B Figu 7: Logical Host Network Design (VDI ) Note: NFS NICs a psented to each host but NFS traffic will be intra-host only. The dvswitch spans many ESXi hosts and agggates networking to a centralized cluster. This architectu incorporates a hybrid virtual networking solution that comprises both vswitches and dvswitches. The VDI desktop blocks have two standard vswitches: one for vsphe vmotion traffic and the vsphe ESXi management network, and the other for NFS storage psented by Atlantis ILIO. It also has a vnetwork Distributed Switch managed through vcenter. 15

16 Shad Storage Architectu and High Availability This deployment has a quiment for shad storage and its performance cannot be ignod, especially when considering folder diction and the user profile. The co desktop performs very well, but if My Documents or the user profile is placed on poorly performing storage, the quality of the user experience will be degraded. Shad storage is quid for the following data: Golden images for the desktop pools ESXi boot from SAN Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Virtual Machine boot drive and SnapClones Server infrastructu storage Template storage for desktops and servers Image and Template Datastos For each datacenter the is a 1.12TB datasto for templates and golden images. It is commended that these datastos be configud in RAID 5, or utilize enterprise flash drives (EFDs). High Availability (HA) vsphe HA s configud on the management block and disabled on the stateless desktops block due to the architectu deployed and the use of Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI. In the event of a host failu, users simply log in and a assigned a to a new virtual desktop and a diffent physical host. When the host is operational, the Atlantis ILIO virtual machine will cate its datasto automatically from SnapClone storage on shad storage. For the management servers, HA will provide covery of the virtual machines in the event of an ESXi host or blade failu. If an ESXi host fails for any ason, the virtual machines running on that server will go down, but will be started on another host within a few minutes. While the would be a service interruption perceivable to users, the impact is minimized by the automatic starting of these virtual machines on other ESXi hosts. For the server virtual machines in the management block vsphe cluster, it is important that the management server datastos a psented to all hosts in the block and a in a single storage subsystem. 16

17 Conclusion This design accommodates large-scale deployments that expand to accommodate implementation quiments in a horizontal scale-out fashion. Using Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI to cate a datasto from local server memory provides an implementation that delivers better than PC performance and dramatically duces storage OpEx by ducing costs for rack space, cooling, and ongoing maintenance. In addition, with this approach, you no longer need storage for virtual desktop images. This provides end users with an excellent desktop experience at low CapEx costs. Atlantis Computing, Atlantis ILIO and Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI, In-Memory VDI, Atlantis ILIO FlexCloud and Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI a trademarks of Atlantis Computing, Inc., Inc Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA USA Tel Fax Copyright 2013, Inc. All rights served. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. products a coved by one or mo patents listed at go/patents. is a gisted trademark or trademark of, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned hein may be trademarks of their spective companies.