XtremIO and XenDesktop for the Best User Experience

XtremIO and XenDesktop for the Best User Experience

2 Executive Summary Citrix XenDesktop and EMC s all-flash XtremIO storage array are leading solutions for desktop virtualization and enterprise storage respectively. Together, they provide the best end user experience and unprecedented ease of administration at the best $/desktop for any XenDesktop deployment. 750 virtual desktops provisioned on a single XtremIO X-Brick were rigorously tested with the following results: a) The total IO requirements of 750 concurrent knowledge worker desktops never exceeded a small fraction of the total IO capability of the X-Brick. b) The end user experience was excellent all throughout with average storage response times of sub-1milisecond. There was no evidence of any IO hiccups or write cliffs during the testing. c) Administrators simply configured XtremIO in three simple steps and left it running. During normal desktop operations most IOs to XtremIO were random WRITEs but there was no cache sizing or tuning required at any time. d) The entire deployment occupied 57% less space due to XtremIO s inline data reduc tion technology yielding the best $/desktop economics. The Business Challenge There are many strategies for solving the storage problem of virtualized desktop infrastructure (VDI). They range from the deliberate under-sizing of storage requirements to the crippling of desktops so that they don t issue too many IOs, to introducing additional layers of hardware and software (and their associated management pain). All ruin end user experience and often cause VDI projects to stall or end prematurely. XtremIO an all-flash storage solution with built in inline data reduction, innovative data protection and load balancing, VAAI integration and excellent performance for random I/ Os enables enterprises to provision virtual desktops for users that provide user experiences similar to tablets, ultrabooks or physical desktops containing SSDs (as opposed to typical VDI that tries to mimic the experience of a desktop PC with an HDD). By ensuring the best user experience for VDI end users, simplifying the management of virtual machines for administrators, and providing an attractive cost per desktop, XtremIO s customers achieve great return on their VDI investment. For more insight into VDI challenges, consider these top 10 mistakes and how XtremIO effectively addresses them. http://support.citrix.com/servlet/kbservlet/download/24559-102-647931/

3 Overview: Citrix VDI Capacity Program for Storage Partners In Q1 2014, Citrix launched a new program designed specifically to address the storage needs of customers who are implementing XenDesktop using the VDI FlexCast approach. VDI presents multiple types of data, each with its own unique requirements, to the storage infrastructure tier. Storage in turn can respond to with these requirements using a variety of HW and SW based approaches, some of which can be combined with hybrid solutions. The variety of choices and the differences between them has led to some confusion for customers and partners. To resolve this, Citrix constructed a turnkey VDI Capacity test rig in their Santa Clara Solutions Lab. This rig contained the necessary server capacity to generate 750 users of a reference XenDesktop workload. The VDI farm was complete and fully operational with the exception of storage. Citrix storage partners were invited to connect their storage to the VDI farm and participate in a VDI Capacity test that simulated of a day in the life of a 750 user Citrix farm. Test methodology The focus of the VDI Capacity Program for Storage Partners is on provisioning the appropriate amount of storage performance and capacity with a cost-efficient design. Using a simple, binary pass/fail methodology, if a partner s provided storage solution can successfully support a day s run to the defined user capacity, while sustaining required performance metrics, the partner passes and the test ends. Once passed, Citrix will describe the storage partner as 750 User Verified for XenDesktop. Login VSI, a highly regarded and respected tool for standardized VDI performance and capacity testing, was used to generate VDI workloads and to measure performance. 750 desktops were created, launched and executed a workload program that simulates a typical workday. Pass/fail was determined by whether or not the storage system used could successfully handle the storage demands placed on it without reaching a latency limit called VSI Max. More about Login VSI can be found here: Partner Overview As the market leader in enterprise storage, EMC s goal is to provide comprehensive cutting edge solutions for VDI and not just point products. We offer our customers technologies that are not only best-of-breed by themselves but also well integrated among themselves to provide a seamless, superior, experience for both administrators and end users. Here are a few examples of EMC s holistic solutions for VDI: Vblock: EMC XtremIO is powering the most advanced converged infrastructure VDI solution: the Vblock Specialized System for Extreme Applications. This Vblock system is designed and certified for Citrix XenDesktop. It brings compute, network, all- flash storage, and virtualization technologies together into a tightly integrated system, enabling the infrastructure to be deployed, provisioned, operated, and supported as a single entity. The simplicity of the VCE design allows your IT team to focus on business priorities, not infrastructure requirements. Vblock Systems can be up and running within days after arrival at your data center providing dynamic pools of resources that can be intelligently leveraged to respond to changing demands and opportunities. http://www.vce.com/products/specialized/extreme-apps http://xtremio.com/vblock

4 Powerpath: A industry proven solution, PowerPath is EMC s host-based software for automated data path management, failover and recovery, and optimized load balancing. PowerPath automates, standardizes, and optimizes data paths in physical and virtual environments as well as cloud deployments to deliver high availability and performance. XtremIO is well integrated with PowerPath to provide the best host connectivity. Backup and Recovery solutions: A wide range of solutions from DataDomain to Data Protection Suite to Mozy ensure that customers have ample choices to backup, recover and archive their entire VDI storage footprint. Isilon: EMC Isilon scale-out storage solutions are designed for enterprises that want to manage their data, not their storage. With 20PBs of network-attached-storage (NAS) capacity per cluster, Isilon efficiently stores all VDI end user data, files and folders. VPLEX: For tiering, replication, and high availability/disaster recovery purposes, EMC XtremIO is fully integrated with EMC VPLEX. VPLEX delivers data mobility and availability across arrays and sites. VPLEX is a unique virtual storage technology that enables mission critical applications to remain up and running during any of a variety of planned and unplanned downtime scenarios. VPLEX permits painless, non-disruptive data movement, taking technologies like VMware and other clusters that were built assuming a single storage instance and enabling them to function across arrays and across distance. ESRS: XtremIO is fully integrated with EMC Secure Remote Support (ESRS), which proactively identifies and resolves potential issues before they impact your operations by providing secure, high-speed, around-the-clock remote support for your VDI infrastructure. Partner Solution Configuring XtremIO XtremIO configures in three easy steps and does not require any RAID sizing or configuration of any kind. XtremIO data protection is custom built for flash and extends the longevity of flash while ensuring very low wasted capacity to parity overhead. There are no caches to worry about despite the high skew of WRITE IOs. A demonstration of the configuration steps is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxvteeiivao Highlights of XtremIO s performance As expected (http://blogs.citrix.com/2013/04/17/why-pvs-isnt-going-away/), the IOs from XenDesktop are heavily skewed towards Write IOs. The total aggregate peak bandwidth of about 250 MB/s occurs during boot storms while the total IO bandwidth averages about 80MB/s during Login VSI runs. All IOs are achieved at less than 0.5 millisecond of latency per IO on average. This is only a tiny fraction of the total write IOPS and bandwidth supported by each X-Brick. Though the tests mandated that we run no more than 750 desktops, each X-Brick has been proven to run 3,500 PVS XenDesktops easily (with and without Personal vdisks): http://portugal.emc.com/collateral/technical-documentation/h12817-xtremio-citrixhyperv-psg.pdf

5 Boot-storm IOs: IOPS view. Boot-storm IOs: Bandwidth view Steady State IOs during Login VSI runs: IOPS View. Notice the high percentage of write IOs (dark blue in the graph).

6 Steady State IOs during Login VSI runs: Bandwidth View Steady State IOs during Login VSI runs: Latency View. Notice the consistent latency, on average below 0.5 milliseconds (500 microseconds in the graph).

7 VSI Max was never reached XtremIO was much lower than the VSI Max limits at all times during the test.

8 Data Reduction Solution components/ Architecture Design A single XtremIO X-Brick was used. Please refer to the datasheet below for more details on X-Bricks: https://www.emc.com/collateral/software/specification-sheet/h12451-xtremio-ss.pdf A single XtremIO X-Brick supports up to 3,500 all flash VDI desktops with pricing of $100/desktop at small scale and less than $45/desktop when fully utilized. Additional solution data XtremIO brings major advantages to all key VDI stakeholders the desktop administrator, the storage administrator, the end user, and the virtualization administrator.

9 https://www.emc.com/collateral/white-paper/p12439-xio-citrixxendesktop-vsphere-ra. pdf https://www.emc.com/collateral/software/technical-documentation/h11773-emc-infrastructure-for-superior-enduser-computing-experience-ra.pdf

10 Conclusion and Call to Action i. Summarize scope of solution XtremIO delivers a much faster and more enjoyable user experience to XenDesktop end users at a lower $/desktop than traditional storage or other flash arrays. By leveraging industry-leading innovations such as high-performance data reduction and flash-optimized data protection, XtremIO radically lowers the $/desktop while bringing high performance to PVS XenDesktops. It provides unprecedented simplicity and acceleration to ongoing administrative activities such as desktop rollout and maintenance and enterprises gain the ability to deploy full clones with the efficiency of linked clones. With XtremIO, Citrix XenDesktop has no limits and XenDesktop projects will roll out faster and with assured success. ii. Provide quick links/reference guides http://xtremio.com/vdi Addendum Minimum storage requirements as determined by Citrix for 750 concurrent VDI desktop users: Write Cache Files: 6 GB Write cache file per user 4.5 TB minimum required Additional 2.5 TB added to LUN for overhead User Data: 30 GB allowed for each user 750 * 30 = 22 TB of required space 3 TB added for overhead Total storage capacity required: 7 TB for write cache + 25 TB for user data = 32 TB required Citrix Provided Server Configuration A single HP C7000 enclosure will be used hold the servers The enclosure will be in a separate isolated environment Servers will be BL460c G7 with 2 Procs and 192 GB of memory 1 server to contained the necessary infrastructure VMs 4 servers will contain client VMs necessary to drive work load A separate Login VSI 4.0 license will be obtained to further provide isolation VM Configuration - 32-bit Win7 1.5GB memory, 1 vcpu 11 servers will contain XD7 desktops VM Configuration 64-bit Win7 1.5 GB memory, 1 vcpu Servers will be Windows 2012 Hyper-V

11 Citrix Provided Configuration Network Configuration FlexFabric will be configured to allow for either Ethernet or Fibre connectivity from the blades. These will be connected to a 4gb Brocade switch Four networks will be created: Network 1 internal to HP Virtual Connect for PXE boot of VMs, 5 gb Network 2 Connection to lab storage and management, 1gb Network 3 Production network for connection between clients and XD VMs, 5 gb Network 4 will be either: Connection to vendor storage for using iscsi, 9 gb OR Fibre connection to SAN for vendor storage There will be no HA or redundancy across the NICs

12 XenDesktop Configuration XenDesktop 7 will be used Provisioning will be done with PVS version 7.0.0.46. Due to MCS working best with file based storage and not all vendors supporting file based storage (NFS), PVS will be used to provision the desktop VMs. This will create a write-intensive environment. One each broker (DDC) and PVS VM will be created to support the Infrastructure Storage Configuration completed by Vendor Vendor controls setup of their storage: Number of LUNs, Cache Usage, iscsi vs Fibre, etc. Citrix will provide any necessary configuration information prior to vendor on-site (IP addresses, etc) Vendor must provide full disclosure of configuration. Citrix must sign-off on configuration. All configurations must contain best practices as would be recommended to customers in productivity environment Vendor must disclose street price of storage configuration, that number will be used to determine cost per user for 750 users

13 Definitions VM definitions Infrastructure VMs: All will be 64-Bit Windows 2012 AD VM 4GB memory, 1 vcpu DDC VM 8 GB memory, 2 vcpu locally configured SQL PVS VM 4 GB memory, 2 vcpu locally configured SQL Client VMs 32-bit Win7, 1.5 GB memory, 1 vcpu XD VMs 64-bit Win8, 1.5 GB memory, 1 vcpu Login VSI Login VSI 3.7 will be used VSIShare will be inside the chassis IOPs medium work load will be used Corporate Headquarters Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA India Development Center Bangalore, India Latin America Headquarters Coral Gables, FL, USA Silicon Valley Headquarters Santa Clara, CA, USA Online Division Headquarters Santa Barbara, CA, USA UK Development Center Chalfont, United Kingdom EMEA Headquarters Schaffhausen, Switzerland Pacific Headquarters Hong Kong, China About Citrix Ready Citrix Ready identifies recommended solutions that are trusted to enhance the Citrix Delivery Center infrastructure. All products featured in Citrix Ready have completed verification testing, thereby providing confidence in joint solution compatibility. Leveraging its industry leading alliances and partner eco-system, Citrix Ready showcases select trusted solutions designed to meet a variety of business needs. Through the online catalog and Citrix Ready branding program, you can easily find and build a trusted infrastructure. Citrix Ready not only demonstrates current mutual product compatibility, but through continued industry relationships also ensures future interoperability. Learn more at www.. 2014 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix, Citrix Receiver, HDX, CloudGateway, XenDesktop, XenApp, NetScaler and XenVault are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.