VCE Solution for VDI with Citrix XenDesktop on Vblock System 540

Transcription

1 VCE Solution for VDI with Citrix XenDesktop on Vblock System 540 Version 1.0 December 2015

2 THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS." VCE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Copyright VCE, VCE Vision, VCE Vscale, Vblock, VxBlock, VxRack, and the VCE logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of VCE Company LLC. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. 2

3 Contents Introduction...5 Solution overview... 5 Benefits... 6 About this document...6 Audience... 7 Feedback...7 Technology components... 8 Vblock System Storage components...8 Compute components...8 Networking components... 9 EMC Isilon Citrix components...11 Citrix XenDesktop Citrix XenApp...12 Citrix NetScaler...12 Citrix StoreFront...13 VMware vsphere...13 VMware vsphere ESXi VMware vcenter Server...13 Architecture overview Logical layout Physical layout Hardware and software components...18 Design considerations Compute design Network design...21 IP network components Citrix NetScaler design Storage design Storage for Citrix XenDesktop Storage for Citrix XenApp Virtualization design Application design Solution validation...30 Test environment design Test with Citrix XenDesktop

4 Test procedure...32 Test results Test with Citrix XenApp Test procedure...37 Test results Conclusion Next steps References

5 Introduction An up-to-date approach to IT infrastructure is required before an organization can achieve optimal service at minimal cost. The need is for high system availability, tight security, full disaster recovery, and support for a short development cycle. To fulfill these and other complex needs, organizations are embracing desktop virtualization (DV) solutions that combine virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) with server-hosted applications that leverage session-sharing technology. The best DV solutions offer greater reliability than do physical desktops; provide flexible options for scenarios that include applications, desktops, or both; and provide service at a low total cost and a high level of online responsiveness. Solution overview The pre-validated DV solution described in this document excels in all areas: reliability, flexibility, cost, and speed. The solution's core is the Vblock System 540, which is a converged infrastructure: an integrated set of resources for compute, storage, and networking, all pre-validated and pre-configured. The storage component of this Vblock System is EMC XtremIO, which is an all-flash storage array that provides the access speed needed to support large-scale virtualization. XtremIO handles the essential DV system needs, allowing an administrator to provide thousands of desktops to users, potentially across a wide geographic area. To retain and quickly retrieve large amounts of user data, the solution includes EMC Isilon the industry-leading Network Attached Storage (NAS) product. You can use an existing EMC Isilon cluster or incorporate VCE Technology Extension for EMC Isilon Storage, which provides VCE support. The data in Isilon includes user-installed applications, as well as unstructured data such as large documents and multimedia files. Both XtremIO and Isilon scale out in a modular way. Whether the module is an XtremIO X-Brick or an Isilon node, it provides cache and processors along with storage so that physical upgrades improve both capacity and performance. VCE drew on its partnership with Citrix for this solution, which includes the following additional products: Citrix XenDesktop, which provisions, manages, and monitors a desktop virtualization environment, allowing the secure delivery of Windows applications as well as fully customizable desktops. Citrix XenApp, which provides remote access to Windows applications and to partially customizable desktops, even allowing users to access Linux virtual desktops side-by-side with Windows resources. Citrix NetScaler, which provides secure delivery of XenDesktop and XenApp applications and handles traffic monitoring, content caching, and Secure Sockets Layer acceleration. Citrix StoreFront, which enables you to create enterprise app stores that give your users ondemand, self-service access to their business resources from mobile devices or desktops that use Citrix Receiver. 5

6 Benefits Several benefits are available for organizations that put this solution into effect: Enhanced user experience as a result of fast data retrieval. Low cost per desktop. Reduced time to value as a result of the lessened need for DV solution-design time. Reduced DV capacity footprint by as much as ten to one, with boot storms all-but eliminated. These benefits come from real-time data reduction by XtremIO. Lowered long-term infrastructure cost. This benefit is enabled by high consolidation ratios and thin-provisioning of storage. In particular, Isilon de-duplication reduces the requirements for user storage by as much as 35 percent. Reduced administrative costs, with the Isilon file system typically requiring less than one full-time employee per petabyte. Reduced cooling and power costs. Simple deployment and management. Delivery of video streams on demand and with high concurrency. Optimized user-data access by mode (random, sequential, or concurrent), whether on a per-file or per-directory basis. About this document This document describes two validation tests that VCE conducted to provide a performance baseline for a workload of 2000 power users. The usage details are described later. 6

7 Here are the main test results for Citrix XenDesktop Figure 1: Results summary for Citrix XenDesktop test Here are the main test results for Citrix XenApp 7.6. Figure 2: Results summary for Citrix XenApp test Audience This paper is for CIOs and system administrators who are interested in deploying DV at scale. Feedback To suggest changes and provide feedback on this document, send an message to Please include the title of the document, the name of the section to which your feedback applies, and your comments. 7

8 Technology components This solution relies on the following four technology components: Vblock System 540, EMC Isilon, Citrix products, and VMware vsphere. Vblock System 540 Vblock System 540 is an industry-leading converged infrastructure that incorporates an EMC XtremIO allflash storage array to enable delivery of more than a million IOPS. Storage components XtremIO is a 100 percent flash-based storage array that was created for maximum performance. scalability, and ease of use. The product includes inline data reduction, wear leveling, write abatement, thin provisioning, snapshots, volume clones, and data protection. The product architecture addresses all the requirements for flash-based storage, including longevity of the flash media and a lower effective cost of flash capacity. To support enterprise computing, XtremIO is integrated with other technologies. For example, communication between storage devices and VMware vsphere ESXi hosts is enabled with VMware vsphere Storage APIs Array Integration (VAAI). Resiliency comes from Fibre Channel (FC) connectivity, flash-specific dual-parity data protection, and storage presentation over the iscsi protocol. Compute components Vblock System 540 uses Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) blade enclosures, interconnects, and blade servers. The UCS data center platform combines x86-architecture blade and rack servers with networking and storage access in a single system. Innovations in the platform include a standards-based, unified network fabric; a Cisco Virtual Interface Card (VIC); and Cisco UCS Extended Memory Technology. A wire-once architecture with a self-aware, self-integrating, intelligent infrastructure eliminates the need for assembling components into systems manually. Cisco UCS B-Series 2-socket blade servers deliver record-setting performance to a wide range of workloads. Based on Intel Xeon processor E7 and E5 product families and designed for virtualized applications, these servers deliver fast performance. They also reduce expense by integrating systems management and converging network fabrics. 8

9 Networking components The networking components in the Vblock System 540 include Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches, fabric interconnects, and Cisco Nexus 3064-T Ethernet switches. Figure 3: Networking components in the Vblock System 540 9

10 A pair of Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches provide 10 GbE connectivity to the Vblock System 540 components as well as connectivity to the external network through the customer's core network. A pair of Cisco Nexus 3064-T switches connects the Advanced Management Pod (AMP) to the external network, supporting the Vblock System management infrastructure with redundancy. The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches provide the following kinds of 10 GbE connectivity: Between the Vblock System internal components. From those internal components to the AMP. From the internal components to the external network. A pair of 3064-T switches connect the AMP to the external network, supporting the customer's VDI infrastructure with redundancy. The two Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches support low-latency line-rate 10 GbE and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity on up to 48 ports. Unified port expansion modules are available and provide an extra 16 ports of 10 GbE or Fibre Channel (FC) connectivity. The FC ports are licensed in packs of eight in an on-demand basis. The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches have 32 integrated low latency unified ports. Each port provides line rate 10GbE or FC connectivity. The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches have one expansion slot that can be populated with a 16-port unified port expansion module. The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switch is the only network switch supported for Vblock System data connectivity in the AMP for Vblock System 540. Ports are reserved or identified for special Vblock System services such as backup, replication, or aggregation uplink connectivity. Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches provide a number of line-rate ports for non-blocking 10 Gb/sec throughput. EMC Isilon EMC Isilon storage uses intelligent software to scale data across vast quantities of commodity hardware, enabling explosive growth in performance and capacity. The product's revolutionary storage architecture---the OneFS operating system---offers a single clustered file system regardless of the size of the shared pool of storage. Data protection is scalable along with capacity and performance, and the technology protects an organization's human resources as well; even a large-scale system can be managed with a fraction of the personnel required for traditional storage systems of the same size. OneFS provides its value by incorporating parallelism at a deep level of the OS, and virtually every key system is distributed across multiple units of hardware. This parallelism allows OneFS to scale in virtually every dimension as the infrastructure is expanded. The system has no single point of failure, but allows any-to-any failover and multiple levels of redundancy that go far beyond the capabilities of a traditional array. As a result, OneFS can grow to multi-petabyte scale while providing greater reliability than traditional systems. Isilon scale-out NAS hardware provides the appliance in which OneFS executes. Hardware components are best of breed but commodity based, ensuring that Isilon benefits from the ever-improving cost and efficiency curves of commodity hardware. OneFS allows hardware to be incorporated or removed from the cluster at will and at any time, abstracting the data and applications away. Data is given infinite 10

11 longevity, protected from hardware changes. This feature all-but eliminates the cost and pain of data migrations and hardware refreshes. Citrix components The Citrix components are XenDesktop, XenApp, NetScaler, and StoreFront. Citrix XenDesktop This solution incorporates Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 to provision, manage, broker, and monitor the desktop virtualization environment. Citrix XenDesktop is the desktop virtualization solution from Citrix that enables virtual desktops to run on the vsphere virtualization environment. Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 integrates Citrix XenApp application delivery with Citrix XenDesktop desktop virtualization technologies. The unification of management and delivery components enables a scalable and easily managed solution for delivering Windows desktops and applications as secure mobile services. The Citrix XenDesktop architecture includes the following components: Component Citrix Director Citrix Receiver Citrix StoreFront Citrix Studio Delivery Controller Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) License Server Virtual Delivery Agent Description Is a web-based tool that helps IT support and help-desk teams to monitor an environment, troubleshoot issues before they become system-critical, and do support tasks for end users. As installed on a user's phone, mobile device, or PC, provides secure self-service access to documents; to desktops; and to web, Windows, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. Provides authentication and resource delivery services for Citrix Receiver so as to enable a centralized control of resources. Is a management console that lets you use any of several wizards to configure and manage a deployment that might include desktops and applications alike. Is a standalone server that provides services that in turn communicate with the hypervisor to authenticate and manage user access, to broker connections, and to distribute desktops and applications. Is the software that streams a single, appropriately patched master image to as many as thousands of desktops while ensuring that those copies are consistent. Assigns user or device licenses to the environment, whether from a separate machine or from an installation that is shared with other components. Enables connections for desktops and applications; the Agent is installed on a server or on a workstation operating system. 11

12 Component Personal vdisk Description Enables users to preserve customization settings and user-installed applications. The Personal vdisk software directs changes from the user's virtual machine to a separate Citrix Personal vdisk (PvDisk or PvD) and blends the content with content from the base virtual machine. Citrix XenApp Citrix XenApp is an application and desktop virtualization solution built on a unified architecture so that it is simple to manage and flexible enough to meet the needs of all users in the organization. Citrix XenApp shares with Citrix XenDesktop an architecture and a set of management tools. Citrix XenApp delivers applications and desktops: The server-based hosted applications are hosted from Windows servers to any type of device, including Windows PCs, Macs, smart phones, and tablets. Some Citrix XenApp editions include technologies that improve the user's mobile-device experience by automatically translating native display, navigation, and controls to the Windows equivalents; by enhancing performance over mobile networks; and by enabling developers to optimize custom Windows applications for a mobile environment. The server-hosted desktops are inexpensive, locked-down Windows virtual desktops that are hosted from Windows server operating systems. Those desktops are ideal for call-center employees and others who do a standard set of tasks. Citrix NetScaler Citrix NetScaler is an application delivery controller, which is a technology for load balancing of servers that are providing web applications to a large user base. This technology works in the context of changeable security and application policies. It provides secure delivery of Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp applications and handles traffic monitoring, content caching, and SSL acceleration. This solution incorporates Citrix NetScaler for load balancing. The product also offers the following features: HDX Insight, which offers full end-to-end monitoring of Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp traffic, allowing for an instant triage of issues on the network and a view of traffic at an individual user and application level. SmartControl, which provides access control based on a variety of attributes such as user role, state of the user's device, and the strength of the user's authentication. The policies for real-time decision-making can be managed and enforced on the NetScaler appliance, allowing administrators to enforce decisions dynamically at a single, secure site. You can apply policies to ensure an endpoint analysis during each user request for a connection. In this way, Citrix NetScaler prevents access by any user device that lacks specified characteristics such as antivirus software or the most current version of an operating system. 12

13 Citrix StoreFront Citrix StoreFront enables you to create enterprise app stores that give your users on-demand, self-service access to their business resources from mobile devices or desktops. Among the product's features: Meets the mobile user's expectation of a consistent and uniform experience on Windows, MAC OS, ios, Android, and Chrome OS and on HTML-5 enabled browsers. Provides access to applications and desktops that are consolidated from multiple XenApp and XenDesktop sites. Integrates with NetScaler to simplify sign on and monitoring. VMware vsphere VMware vsphere is the most widely adopted virtualization platform in the world. The technology increases server utilization so that a firm can consolidate its servers and spend less on hardware, administration, energy, and floor space. The success of vsphere reflects the ability of its installations to respond to user requests reliably while giving administrators the tools to respond to changing needs. The components of particular interest to this solution are vsphere ESXi and vcenter. VMware vsphere ESXi VMware vsphere ESXi is a bare-metal hypervisor; it installs directly on a physical server and partitions that server into multiple virtual machines. The phrase "ESXi host" refers to the physical server. vsphere ESXi hosts and their resources are pooled together into clusters that contain the CPU, memory, network, and storage resources that are available for allocation to the virtual machines. Clusters scale up to a maximum of 32 hosts and can support thousands of virtual machines. VMware vcenter Server VMware vcenter Server is management software that runs on a virtual or physical server to oversee multiple ESXi hypervisors as a single cluster. An administrator can interact directly with vcenter Server or can use vsphere Client to manage virtual machines from a browser window anywhere in the world. For example, the administrator can capture the detailed blueprint of a known, validated configuration a configuration that includes networking, storage and security settings and then deploy that blueprint to multiple ESXi hosts. 13

14 Architecture overview The following sections outline the solution architecture. Logical layout Designing an integrated solution for large numbers of users can be challenging as many variables must be taken into account. However, designing the solution in a modular way allows the problem to be broken down into layers that can designed separately and then linked together. 14

15 The logical architecture of the solution's Citrix components is composed of the following layers: user and hardware, where hardware encompasses access, resource, and control. Figure 4: Logical architecture for the Citrix components 15

16 Physical layout At a minimum, this solution requires a single-cabinet Vblock System 540. The system consists of a dedicated three chassis, 24-blade Cisco UCS environment used for the Citrix infrastructure and virtual desktop. Storage for all virtual desktops and infrastructure servers is hosted on the same EMC XtremIO (single X-Brick) and Isilon storage environment. Infrastructure management servers are isolated on two Cisco UCS C220 rack-mount servers. Figure 5: Environment overview The environment for both Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp includes the following characteristics: Two hosts are on the AMP for the Vblock System 540 (Cisco UCS C220 M3 servers) Only the AMP-2HA base is required. None of the Citrix infrastructure is housed on the AMP because the Vblock System supports mixed workloads, and the AMP does not comply with the standard factory build if the AMP contains any VDI infrastructure components. Three vsphere clusters are present: one for Citrix infrastructure management, one for PVS management, and one for desktops. 16

17 Three Cisco UCS blade chasses have 24 Cisco UCS B-series Blade Servers in total. To conform to Citrix, VMware, and Cisco guidelines, two VMware vcenter instances are deployed: The first manages the AMP infrastructure and houses the AD/DNS/DHCP servers. The second consists of three clusters that manage three types of infrastructure: Virtual desktop and XenApp server, Citrix infrastructure management, and provisioning services. Specifically: One 19-node vsphere cluster is for the virtual desktops and XenApp servers. One 3-node vsphere cluster is for the Citrix Infrastructure management. One 2-node vsphere cluster is for the PVS Server. Figure 6: VMware vcenter instances The following characteristics are also in effect for Citrix XenDesktop: The desktop image is a 64-bit Windows 7 with 2 vcpu, 4 GB of RAM, and 40 GB vhdd. 17

18 Write-cache and PvD for the Targets are set to 10 GB and 15 GB respectively. Standard LUN size on the XtremIO X-Brick is 2 TB. The PvDs are hosted from the Isilon storage. The following characteristics are also in effect for Citrix XenApp: The 125 Citrix XenApp servers are on 19 Cisco B200 M4 blade servers. Each Citrix XenApp Server has 4 vcpu and 12 GB RAM and contains the Virtual Desktop Agent. The Desktop Delivery Controllers helps broker the server-hosted desktops to the users. The 2000 power user sessions are load balanced across the Citrix XenApp servers. Hardware and software components The following table lists the hardware used in the validation test: Layer Hardware Quantity Compute Cisco UCS C220 M3 Rack Server 2 Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server chassis 3 Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server 24 Network Cisco Nexus 3064-T Switch 2 Cisco UCS 6248UP Series Fabric Interconnect 2 Cisco Nexus 5548UP Series IP Switch 2 Storage EMC VNXe 3150 Series Unified Storage System 1 EMC XtremIO Storage System 1 EMC Isilon X410 Storage System 4 NetScaler SDX Version The following table lists the software. Software Version Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 FP 2 VMware vsphere 6.1 Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) 7.6 Cumulative Update 1 Citrix StoreFront Server 3.0 Citrix Receiver

19 Software Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft Windows Server operating system Microsoft Windows desktop operating system Version 2012 R2 Enterprise 2012 R2 Standard Windows 7 Enterprise 19

20 Design considerations The next sections further describe the configuration. Compute design The following table outlines usage of the servers, which were configured in accordance with VMware and Citrix best practices. Server role vcpu RAM (GB) Storage (GB) Operating system SQL database server 2 10 System C: 100 SQLDB D: 100 SQLUserDB E: 10 SQLTranLog F: 10 SQLBackup I: 10 Windows Server bit R2 Notes For Citrix desktops vcenter vcenter Server, SSO, Inventory Services 4 32 System C: 100 Logs D: 100 Inventory Service E: 150 Windows Server bit R2 For Citrix desktops vcenter Update Manager Windows Server bit R2 For Citrix desktops vcenter SQL database for Citrix Desktop Delivery Controller and Provisioning Services SQL database server for Mirroring for Citrix Desktop Delivery Controller and Provisioning Services Desktop Delivery Controller C: 40 SQL Database E: C: 40 SQL Database E: C: 40 E: 60 Windows Server bit R2 Windows Server bit R2 Windows Server bit R2 20

21 Server role vcpu RAM (GB) Storage (GB) Operating system Notes Desktop Delivery Controller C: 40 E: 60 StoreFront C: 40 E: 60 StoreFront C: 40 E: 60 License Server 2 4 C: 40 E: 60 Director 2 4 C: 40 E: 60 PVS Server C: 40 vdisk Store F: 200 PVS Server C: 40 vdisk Store F: 200 PVS Server C: 40 vdisk Store F: 200 PVS Server C: 40 vdisk Store F: 200 Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows Server bit R2 Windows Server bit R2 Windows Server bit R2 Windows Server bit R2 Windows Server bit R2 Windows Server bit R2 Windows Server bit R2 Windows Server bit R2 The guidance that is provided with the factory build was sufficient for installing and configuring the AMP vcenter. Network design The unified network for this solution was designed as follows: Two Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches were configured to provide Ethernet and FC connectivity to the Citrix management and desktop infrastructure. The Citrix management Infrastructure and PVS infrastructure components were deployed on 5 Cisco B200 M4 blades that were connected through the vsphere 6.0 Standard Switch. The Citrix desktop cluster was deployed on 19 Cisco B200 M4 blades that were connected through the vsphere 6.0 Distributed Switch. 21

22 Here is the desktop architecture. Figure 7: Desktop architecture 22

23 Here is the Citrix management architecture. Figure 8: Citrix management architecture 23

24 Here is the Citrix PVS architecture. Figure 9: Citrix PVS architecture IP network components To support the Ethernet and storage area network (SAN) requirements, two Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches provided 10 Gb Ethernet (10 GbE) and FC connectivity. The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches have 32 integrated, low-latency unified ports, each providing line-rate 10 GbE or FC connectivity. The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches each have one expansion slot that can be populated with a 16-port unified port expansion module. Validation of this solution required an IP subnet capable of hosting 3500 DHCP addresses for Citrix XenDesktop desktops, as well as an IP infrastructure for the Citrix XenDesktop infrastructure and desktop pools. The following VLAN information was used for VDI management: VLAN name: vcesys_vdi_mgmt 24

25 VLAN number: 131 Citrix NetScaler design In general, Citrix NetScaler directs traffic based on L2-L4 information such as MAC/IP address and TCP ports and provides details on network health. For this solution, Citrix NetScaler was used to load-balance resources, to monitor operational health, and to enforce session persistence. The configuration included the following steps: Configured SSL certificates for secured communications. Established load balancing of the Storefront servers and the Desktop Delivery controllers. Created a load-balanced VIP for TFTP services across multiple PVS servers so that the VIP can be defined under DHCP option 66. Used the SOURCEIP option to ensure that the session request causes subsequent communication to be directed to the same server in accordance with the source IP address of a packet. During the test, monitors operated on a continuous basis. Storefront monitors showed the availability of Storefront services, and TFTP health monitors showed the availability of the PVS TFTP services. Storage design The storage design differed for the two cases. 25

26 Storage for Citrix XenDesktop The following diagram outlines the cluster and storage design for Citrix XenDesktop. Figure 10: Cluster and storage design for Citrix XenDesktop A single Isilon X410-4U cluster is used by two server clusters: By the provisioning server cluster, to store the PVS vdisks that are available for streaming to target devices. By the desktop cluster, to store two kinds of objects: The personal vdisks (PvDs), which hold a user's installed applications. The user's profile, which is composed of documents, application data, and personalization such as control-panel settings. The desktop cluster also uses XtremIO; specifically, for the desktop pool, Citrix PVS write cache, and Citrix infrastructure. Supported features LUN size Number of LUNs Total capacity Desktop pool, Citrix PVS write cache 2 TB TB Citrix infrastructure 4 TB 1 4 TB 26

27 Storage for Citrix XenApp The following diagram outlines the cluster and storage design for Citrix XenApp. Figure 11: Cluster and storage design for Citrix XenApp A single Isilon X410-4U cluster is used by two server clusters: By the provisioning server cluster, to store the PVS vdisks. By the XenApp server cluster, to store the user's profile. The desktop cluster also uses XtremIO; specifically, for the desktop pool, Citrix PVS write cache, and Citrix infrastructure. Supported features LUN size Number of LUNs Total capacity Both the desktop pool and the Citrix PVS write cache 4 TB 5 20 TB Citrix infrastructure 4 TB 1 4 TB 27

28 Virtualization design Citrix PVS is a software streaming technology that allows servers and desktops to be provisioned and reprovisioned in real time from a single shared-disk image. The service is commonly integrated with Citrix virtualization solutions to optimize operating system delivery and management. Often these solutions are critical to the operation of organizations and require high availability. Providing high availability for PVS requires a design that avoids a single point of failure across the network. The bootstrap file, named ardbp32.bin, is a key component that is delivered to PVS target devices so they can communicate with PVS over the network. The bootstrap file typically is delivered by means of Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) services hosted on provisioning servers. For TFTP, the Citrix PVS TFTP Service must be running on the PVS Server; the target startup must be set to the network device; and the DHCP server must be configured with options 66 and 67: The option 66 defines the boot server; either the PVS server IP or the PVS server load-balanced VIP. The option 67 defines the file name (ARDBP32.bin) that is received by TFTP. When the target device boots up it obtains the bootstrap file from the TFTP server and then streams the vdisk from the provisioning server. Figure 12: Citrix PVS TFTP deign 28

29 Application design The following diagram illustrates the deployment of the Citrix components. Figure 13: Application deployment 29

30 Solution validation The next sections detail the tests and results. Test environment design One test objective was to determine how many virtual desktop sessions can be supported by the Vblock System 540 as configured for the test, when a power worker workload is required. To generate and measure those workloads, the testers used Login Virtual Session Indexer (Login VSI) 4.4. Login VSI is designed to measure the maximum capacity of virtual desktop infrastructures by simulating unique user-application workloads and measuring in-session resource use and response times. Simulated users work with typical applications such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office 2010 applications, and Adobe Flash video. The results of several testing measurements are compiled into a metric known as VSImax. VSImax quantifies the maximum capacity of virtual desktops running on a given infrastructure while delivering an acceptable user experience. Login VSI was configured to run a pre-defined power user workload against a Citrix XenDesktop catalog of virtual desktops or against Citrix XenApp hosted desktops. A power user workload consumes more memory and CPU resources because of the increased number of applications that run concurrently. Such a workload addresses most of the hosted virtual desktop user classes. Workload parameters The test logged users into the virtual desktops incrementally. During testing, Login VSI sessions were initiated by launchers that ran on separate compute and storage infrastructure. Forty launchers were used, each running an average of 25 sessions. Each launcher was configured with 4 vcpus and 8 GB of vram, consistent with Login VSI sizing guidelines. Here are other test parameters for a power user workload: Once a session started, the workload repeated every 12 minutes. During each iteration, the response time was measured every 2 minutes. Up to 9 applications were opened simultaneously. Type rate was 160 ms per character. About 2 minutes of idle time was added to simulate real-world users. Workload applications The test used the following applications to generate workloads: Application Microsoft Outlook Workload Browse 10 messages. 30

31 Application Internet Explorer Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Microsoft PowerPoint 7-Zip Workload Leave one instance open and continuously browse a second instance. Measure response time for one instance, and review and edit a document in a second instance. Open a large randomized spreadsheet. Review and edit a presentation. Use the CLI to zip all session output. Metrics The test used the following transactions to measure response times: Transaction Name Transaction Description FCTS File Copy Text Share Copy a text document from the VSIshare to the temp directory. FCTL File Copy Text Local Copy a local random text file from the local temp directory to the home drive. NSLD Notepad Start Load Document Start Notepad and load a 1500 KB document. NFO Notepad File Open Show the file-open dialog in VSI Notepad. NFP Notepad File Print Open the print dialog in Notepad. ZHC Zip High Compression Use high compression to zip an Outlook Data File (extention.pst), which is approximately 5 MB. ZLC Zip Low Compression Use low compression to zip an Outlook Data File (extention.pst), which is approximately 5 MB. Test with Citrix XenDesktop The test with Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 occurred on a 2000-desktop configuration deployed on 19 vsphere servers. The test measured use of the CPU, memory, and storage processor, as well as application response times. 31

32 Test procedure Steps were as follows: 1 Clean start all desktop VMs and clients. 2 Restart all the launchers. 3 Idle all the desktop VMs and client launchers until startup services on the operating system settle down and until memory and CPU on the launchers show no usage. 4 Run at least two Login VSI loops in each active session. 5 Log off all users. 6 Generate test-run reports and data. Test results Results were as follows: With 1976 active sessions, VSIMax was not reached. No testing was conducted beyond those number of sessions. Maximum CPU usage: ESXi host: 66% Desktop: 12.36% Disk latency and transfer times: ESXi host: less than or equal to 3 ms Desktop: less than or equal to 2 ms Peak of (Write) and (Read) IOPs on EMC XtremIO storage. 32

33 Citrix XenDesktop application response times The application response time was measured for each transaction during Citrix XenDesktop testing. Figure 14: Citrix XenDesktop - application response times 33

34 Citrix XenDesktop vsphere ESXi host test results Various statistics were measured as the ESXi servers hosted the Windows 7 virtual machines. Figure 15: Citrix XenDesktop - vsphere ESXi host performance 34

35 Citrix XenDesktop desktop test results Various statistics were measured as 2000 Citrix XenDesktop desktops ran power-user workloads. Figure 16: Citrix XenDesktop - desktop test results Citrix XenDesktop storage statistics The EMC XtremIO inline data-reduction capability greatly reduced the system storage requirements. Specifically, the volume capacity that was configured and presented to VMware vsphere was TB; and the actual storage footprint for 2000 desktops and infrastructure servers was approximately 2.74 TB. However, the desktop and server virtual machines occupied a physical storage footprint of only GB. Here are the summary statistics: Overall efficiency ratio: 264.5:1 Data reduction ratio: 12.3:1 vsphere thin provisioning saving: 95% 35

36 Note: After a power user workload was run against the 2000 desktops, the total data reduction ratios were 3.9 to 1; but that number will vary depending on environment characteristics such as user profile and generated workload. Figure 17: XtremIO storage capacity for Citrix XenDesktop In relation to Isilon, the following statistics were for a 10-minute sample size at peak concurrency: Number of file operations: 9.09 million Disk throughput rate: 1.55 GB/s Test with Citrix XenApp The test with Citrix XenApp 7.6 occurred on hosted desktops that were presented from 125 XenApp servers. Scripts were run from the loginvsi console to simulate a power-user workload across the servers. The test measured use of the CPU, memory, and storage processor, as well as application response times. 36

37 Test procedure Steps were as follows: 1 Clean start all the Citrix XenApp hosted desktops and clients. 2 Restart all the launchers. 3 Idle all the Citrix XenApp hosted desktops and client launchers until startup services on the operating system settle down and until memory and CPU on the launchers show no usage. 4 Run at least two Login VSI loops in each active session. 5 Log off all users. 6 Generate test-run reports and data. Test results Results were as follows: With 2000 active sessions, VSIMax was not reached. No testing was conducted beyond those number of sessions. Maximum CPU usage: ESXi host: 52% Desktop: 68% Disk latency and transfer times: ESXi host: less than or equal to 2 ms Desktop: less than or equal to 1 ms 37

38 Citrix XenApp application response times The application response time was measured for each transaction during Citrix XenApp testing. Figure 18: Citrix XenApp - application response times 38

39 Citrix XenApp vsphere ESXi host test results Various statistics were measured as the ESXi servers hosted the Citrix XenApp servers. Figure 19: Citrix XenApp - vsphere ESXi host performance 39

40 Citrix XenApp desktop test results Various statistics were measured as 2500 Citrix XenApp hosted shared desktops ran power user workloads. Figure 20: Citrix XenApp - desktop test results Given 2500 Citrix XenApp sessions and 125 VM instances, the user density was 20 users per instance. Citrix XenApp storage statistics The EMC XtremIO inline data-reduction capability greatly reduced the storage requirements. Specifically, the volume capacity that was configured and presented to VMware vsphere was TB; and the actual storage footprint for 125 Citrix XenApp servers was approximately GB. However, the server virtual machines occupied a physical storage footprint of only GB. Here are the summary statistics: Overall efficiency ratio: 347.2:1 Data reduction ratio: 10.6:1 40

41 vsphere thin provisioning saving: 97% Figure 21: XtremIO storage capacity for Citrix XenApp No statistics are presented for Isilon, which in this case was used only to store vdisks and user profiles. The performance effect for VM provisioning was described earlier in relation to XenDesktop. 41

42 Conclusion The test results showed good session performance across the virtual machines in a large-scale DV deployment, with high density numbers against a power-user workload. XtremIO, Isilon, and the Cisco UCS servers all provided benefits: XtremIO saved storage capacity, reduced latency, and eliminated IOPS bottlenecks. This optimization was made possible by technology features such as thin provisioning and real-time data de-duplication. Isilon provided highly efficient, massively scalable storage of user profile data and XenDesktop personal vdisks. UCS B200 M4 servers lowered the overall cost by providing a high density per blade. Next steps To learn more about this and other solutions, contact a VCE representative or visit References References For additional information: Windows 7 Optimization Guide for Desktop Virtualization Citrix XenApp 7.6 and Citrix XenDesktop

43 About VCE VCE, an EMC Federation Company, is the world market leader in converged infrastructure and converged solutions. VCE accelerates the adoption of converged infrastructure and cloud-based computing models that reduce IT costs while improving time to market. VCE delivers the industry's only fully integrated and virtualized cloud infrastructure systems, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating, and managing IT infrastructure. VCE solutions are available through an extensive partner network, and cover horizontal applications, vertical industry offerings, and application development environments, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating, and managing IT infrastructure. For more information, go to Copyright 2015 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. VCE, VCE Vision, VCE Vscale, Vblock, VxBlock, VxRack, and the VCE logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of VCE Company LLC. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. 43