Best Practices for Deploying Virtual Desktop Infrastructure on the Unified Computing System

Best Practices for Deploying Virtual Desktop Infrastructure on the Unified Computing System Shawn Kaiser & Doron Chosnek 1

Focus of this session Touch on VDI market Touch on balance of resources Focus on compute needs Focus on Acme Corp case study 2

capability Why VDI Now? Who, What, When, Where, How and Why? Source: IDC, 2011 Brokers *includes XenApp Solutions are FINALLY mature VMware View evolution Citrix XenDesktop evolution VXI (Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure) Hypervisor improvements and support CPU and Server architecture improvements Nehalem/Westmere/Romley/ Cost effective 8GB dimms Windows 7 XP (Oct 25, 2001) = 10.5 years old! SP1 for Win7 (Feb 9, 2011) 32bit = 1GB 64bit = 2GB ASLR x86 Server Virt Source: Gartner (June 2011) strategy 3

The four basic food groups Fuel for a healthy VDI deployment Networking Storage CPU profile RAS features (empty calories) Cores MHz vs. SPECint/SPECfp Memory footprint / memory speed (and dessert) Cost 4

Networking/Storage Networking Dual 10Gb adequate for server Cisco VIC adds bandwidth, features Client side WAN speed, reliability issues Storage Cost, scale, availability, speed 5

Burst vs. Capacity vs. Cost Intel E5-2640 6 Core x 2.5GHz 95 Watt Cint = 231 CFP = 187 Blend = 209 Blend/Core = 34.75 1KU = $795 Intel E7-2860 10 Core x 2.0GHz 130 Watt Cint=213 CFP=127 Blend=170 Blend/Core=17 1KU= $2,558 231 Cint/CPU Capacity 213 Cint/CPU Core Burst E5-2640 2.5GHz Blend=34.75 E7-2860 2.0GHz Blend=17 CPU Cost E5-2640 1KU=$795 You can have it all! 1. Lower CPU cost 2. Lower power 3. Higher Burst 4. Higher Capacity E7-2860 1KU=$2,558

Memory Bus Speed 66% more VM s! Same server Same memory Same CPU s Tested with Medium workload generator on VMware View B250M2 X5680 192GB Just a change to memory speed B250M2 X5680 192GB

Cost Where does your VDI money go? Average Cost per Virtual Desktop ($650) $125 $50 $160 Storage Server Networking $150 $40 $125 Endpoint Broker Licensing Source: 2011 Morgan Stanley Desktop Survey Server, Storage and Networking on average comprise 50% of solution TCO per desktop 8

What makes UCS unique How to best utilize UCS for VDI Unified Fabric Service Profiles VXI Memory Expansion FEX Technology 9

Industry Game Changers Cisco B200 M3 Latest generation blade Flex Flash, Internal USB Up to 80Gb of IO Unsurpassed density in ½ width blade with cost effective Intel E5 processors. Cisco B230 M2 Unsurpassed density in ½ width blade, and highest capacity with Intel E7 Processors.

ACME Corp explores VDI

Background on ACME Hoping to gain efficiencies through VDI Manufacturer of anvils, traps, rockets, and TNT Limited data provided 2,000 users 1vCPU and 3GB RAM per user Desire to use Windows 7 Conflicting recommendations from other vendors 13

Calculating blade quantity 2000users 3GB = 6000GB 6000GB 90% = 5400GB 128GB 160GB 256GB 512GB 43 blades 34 blades 22 blades 11 blades Over 270 users/blade! 14

Calculating blade quantity 2000users 3GB = 6000GB of RAM 6000GB 90% = 5400GB of RAM 128GB 160GB 256GB 43 blades 34 blades 22 blades CPU requirements could force you into a different memory config 15

Cisco Recommendation 2,000 users, 3GB/User, 10% overcommit on memory Cisco testing and validation finds sweet spot for CPU 300MHz Nehalem based reservation or More importantly Cint2006Rate/VM of 2.85 Cisco ResComp scores most efficient configurations This is a very efficient configuration: Low cost Good density Good CPU reservation 16

Vendor 1 Recommendation Over-aggressive E5 system (not enough RAM) 2,000 users, 3GB/User, 10% overcommit on memory Vendor 1 is attempting a cost play by recommending a very low end CPU and low memory count: Configuration Servers VMs/Srv VMs/Core MHz/VM CINT/VM GB/VM Watts/VM Cost/VM Cisco B200M3/E5-2640/256GB 22 91 8 330 5.071 3.1 2.09 $17.49 Vendor 1/E5-2620/160GB 28 71 6 336 4.690 2.46 2.66 $10.22 Vendor 1 Argument? Not enough memory to satisfy the guest OS requirements or overaggressive memory overcommit. 17

Vendor 2 Recommendation Under-spec E7 system 2,000 users, 3GB/User, 10% overcommit on memory Vendor 2 is using a 10 core E7-2850 proc, loading it up with a bunch of Ram and trying to sell as few nodes as possible: Configuration Servers VMs/Srv VMs/Core MHz/VM CINT/VM GB/VM Watts/VM Cost/VM Cisco B200M3/E5-2640/256GB 22 91 8 330 5.071 3.1 2.09 $17.49 Vendor 2/E7-2650/512GB 11 182 9 220 2.349 3.1 1.43 $28.14 Vendor 2 Argument? Not enough CPU Too much RAM High Cost Too dense Generally unbalanced system 18

Vendor 3 Recommendation Over-spec AMD system 2,000 users, 3GB/User, 10% overcommit on memory Vendor 3 is using 4 socket AMD systems in an attempt to satisfy Bigger is Better: Another dimension Configuration Servers VMs/Srv VMs/Core MHz/VM CINT/VM GB/VM Watts/VM Cost/VM Burst/Core Cisco B200M3/E5-2640/256GB 22 91 8 330 5.071 3.1 2.09 $17.49 34.75 Vendor 3/AMD-6176/512GB 16 125 3 883 6.432 4.51 2.56 $48.38 15.08 Vendor 3 Argument? Too much RAM High Cost Enough CPU, but 19

ACME Corp Summary Selecting a partner for success Liked Cisco Compute/Memory recommendation for its efficiency Liked Cisco UCS for its innovative platform benefits ACME sees substantial value in the VXI end to end VDI solution 20

Additional Resources Next steps: Research White Papers: 175 Desktops on B230 M2 Knowledge Worker Profile (no Flash) 384 G memory, Dual E7-2870 / 10 Core CPU 186 Desktops on B200 M3 Knowledge Worker Profile (no Flash) 384 G memory, Dual E5-2690 / 8 Core CPU Industry-leading Density on 2-socket servers Cisco VXI TCO tool: https://express.salire.com/go/cisco/cisco-vxi-tco-advisor-results.aspx Cisco VXI: http://www.cisco.com/go/vxi 21

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