Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays Atlantis Computing Inc. Atlantis ILIO 4.1 Document Version 1.0
Copyrights Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays Document Version 1.0 2007-2015 Atlantis Computing, Inc. All rights reserved. Atlantis Computing, Atlantis ILIO, Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI, Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI, Atlantis ILIO for XenApp, Atlantis USX, In-Memory Storage, and In-Memory VDI are trademarks of Atlantis Computing, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. Atlantis Computing believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS. ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Use, copying, and distribution of any Atlantis Computing Inc. software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. Third-Party Licenses Certain third-party software may be distributed, embedded, or bundled with this Atlantis Computing, Inc. product, or recommended for use in conjunction with product installation and operation. Such third-party software is separately licensed by its copyright holder. The license agreements that govern the use of third-party software and its copyright holder s proprietary notices are available in the following location on the Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance: /opt/milio/thirdparty-licenses. Use of third-party software must be in accordance with its license terms. Atlantis Computing, Inc. makes no representation or warranty of any kind regarding such third-party software, offers no support for such third-party software and shall have no liability associated with its use. Documentation Feedback Please send any comments about Atlantis USX product documentation to documentation@atlantiscomputing.com. Technical Support Customers with a support contract can contact Atlantis Computing support by email or by submitting a case on the customer support portal. Email: support@atlantiscomputing.com Phone: 1.877.310.2224 Sales Email: sales@atlantiscomputing.com
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays About This Guide... 5 Target Audience... 5 How to Read this Guide... 5 Where to Go for More Information... 5 Document Conventions... 6 Illustration Conventions... 6 Typographic conventions... 6 Icon Conventions... 7 1. Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI Overview... 8 1.1 Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI Features... 8 1.1.1 Automated Deployment... 8 1.1.2 Storage Optimization Technology... 8 1.1.3 Atlantis ILIO Fast Clone... 8 1.2 VDI Deployment Overview... 9 1.2.1 Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI Deployment... 9 2. Planning for Deployment... 11 2.1 Installation Requirements... 11 2.2 Sizing Calculations for Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI... 12 2.2.1 Virtual Disk Size Calculation... 12 2.2.2 Memory Size Calculation... 12 2.3 Linked Clone versus Full Clone Scalability... 13 3. Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI Standby Host Deployment... 14 3.1 Installation Requirements... 14 3.2 VMware High Availability... 14 3.2.1 Atlantis ILIO and VMware High Availability... 14 3.2.2 Atlantis ILIO Deployment Requirements... 16 3.2.3 VMware Cluster Deployment Requirements... 16 3.3 Create HA Cluster... 17 3.3.1 VMware Cluster Prerequisites... 17 3.3.2 Creating a VMware Cluster... 17 3.4 Failure Scenarios and Recovery... 22 3.4.1 Steady State... 22 3.4.2 Failure... 23 3.4.3 Host Restored... 24 4. Best Practices for Deploying Desktop VMs... 25 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 3
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays 4.1 Host and Hypervisor Configuration for Atlantis ILIO Installation... 25 4.2 Storing User Data... 25 4.3 Operating System Templates... 25 4.4 Virtual Desktops that Use 32-bit and 64-bit Operating Systems... 26 4.5 Using VMware vmotion with Atlantis ILIO Virtual Machines... 26 4.6 Provisioning Storage for Virtual Desktops... 26 4.6.1 NFS target... 26 4.6.2 iscsi target... 26 4.7 Managing Virtual Desktop Storage Space... 27 4.8 Cloning Operation Using VMware Horizon View... 27 5. Recovering from System Failures... 28 5.1 System Crash Behavior... 28 5.2 Datastore Out-of-Space Error Recovery... 28 5.3 Recovery from Storage Device Failures... 29 6. Support Tools... 30 6.1 Using Atlantis Support Tools... 30 6.2 Sending Logs to Atlantis Support... 30 Glossary... 31 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 4
About This Guide Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays This guide describes the functionality and deployment of Atlantis ILIO optimized for Flash / SSD storage arrays. It provides an introduction to Atlantis ILIO and its associated concepts, and describes planning for installation, installing and configuring Atlantis ILIO, and using tools and processes for Atlantis ILIO support. The Atlantis ILIO Deployment Services is a companion document that provides information about automated installation on VMware ESX/ESXi. Target Audience This document is intended for system administrators who will install, administer, configure, and support Atlantis ILIO as part of a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). This guide assumes that the reader is familiar with VDI terminology and operation including the following technologies, products, and processes: Virtualization technology and datacenter operations. Hypervisor products such as VMware vcenter/esx. Storage configuration including creating NFS and iscsi datastores. Managing network configuration in a VDI environment. Creating, configuring, and deploying virtual machines (VMs) in a virtualized environment. Creating, configuring, and deploying desktop virtual machines using VMware Horizon View or Citrix XenDesktop. How to Read this Guide This guide provides a conceptual overview of Atlantis ILIO then describes step-by-step details for installation planning, installation and configuration, administration, and support. See the Glossary for descriptions of common Atlantis ILIO terms and VDI terminology. Initially, a reader should read all sections of the document in sequential order. Subsequently, the document can be used as a reference. Where to Go for More Information Additional information about Atlantis ILIO can be found at http://www.atlantiscomputing.com/support/overview, including solution briefs, videos, reference architectures, and knowledgebase articles. Login with your Support Portal account and go to the Software Downloads section to view the Atlantis ILIO Center 4.1, which is a companion document that provides information to help you install, configure, and manage Atlantis ILIO. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 5
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays Document Conventions Illustration Conventions Graphical Representation Description Atlantis ILIO virtual machine Desktop APP OS Virtual machine, virtual desktop, VDI session Shared Storage - SAN/NAS Local Storage - SATA/SAS/SSD drives Host Multiple VDI sessions Typographic conventions The following typographic conventions are used in this guide. Type italics bold User input Courier text Hyperlink Represents Used to introduce new terms, and for emphasis, placeholders, and document titles. For example, Atlantis ILIO Center, or Replace <IP address> with the IP address of the target server. Used for user interface elements such as navigation paths, tabs, buttons, field labels, and so on. For example, Click File > Save. Used for user input. For example, tar xvf. Used for command names, file names, and registry entries. For example, /usr/bin. A smaller character point size is used for code examples. For example: "name":"upload vcenter credentials" Used for active links such as URLs and cross-references within the document. For example, www.atlantiscomputing.com. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 6
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays Icon Conventions ICON Conventions Description Recommended best practice Formula used for deployment sizing calculations Example calculation Note Warning! Proceed with caution 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 7
1. Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI Overview Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI is a storage and performance optimization software solution that complements Citrix XenDesktop and VMware Horizon View to cut storage costs, reduce deployment risks, and boost performance. Without changing desktop images or IT operations, Atlantis ILIO software enables organizations to deliver virtual desktops that are less expensive and faster than physical PCs. Atlantis ILIO provides push-button, fully automated deployment, configuration, sizing, and datastore creation for thousands of virtual desktops across multiple racks of servers, making it possible to go live with VDI in weeks instead of months. Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI is the first storage optimization solution that can scale persistent VDI deployments with lower cost and better performance than a PC. 1.1 Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI Features 1.1.1 Automated Deployment Atlantis ILIO Center provides push-button, fully automated deployment, configuration, sizing, and datastore creation for thousands of virtual desktops across multiple racks of servers. Atlantis ILIO virtual machines are automatically created and registered as NFS data stores that are ready to use by Citrix XenDesktop or VMware Horizon View to complete the desktop provisioning process. 1.1.2 Storage Optimization Technology Atlantis ILIO software uses patent-pending content-aware storage optimization technologies: Analyzing & Processing IO Traffic Atlantis ILIO performs content-aware analyses of IO operations in real-time at the NTFS file system and block levels. Inline Deduplication Atlantis ILIO performs inline deduplication in real-time on-the-wire, eliminating up to 95% of the blocks before reaching the storage fabric. Coalescing (IO Blender Fix) Atlantis ILIO converts small random blocks generated by the Windows operating systems and hypervisors (often referred to as the IO blender effect) into larger blocks of sequential IO. 1.1.3 Atlantis ILIO Fast Clone Atlantis ILIO Fast Cloning can create new full clones of virtual desktops, while reducing the size of virtual desktop images. Unlike other storage cloning, Atlantis ILIO Fast Clone creates new virtual desktops without generating storage or network traffic. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 8
1.2 VDI Deployment Overview Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployments consist of various components that work together to deliver a fully functional working environment for the virtual desktop users. Persistent Deployment User s Virtual Desktop User s Data and Profile User s Applications Each user has a dedicated virtual machine that operates similarly to a physical PC with the ability to install applications and have all settings and data persist between sessions. This is also known as an assigned virtual desktop. In most cases, user data, settings, applications, and operating system files are all stored in the virtual machine. With traditional storage, this requires large amounts of storage capacity (20-80 GB per user) that increases linearly with every additional user. Customers have the option of using user personalization or profile tools to store user data, settings and applications separately to reduce the storage capacity consumed by the virtual machine. This approach preserves user files, settings, and applications across multiple sessions. This leads to an increase in the storage capacity consumed, but provides a user experience similar to that of a physical PC. Persistent desktops maintain user data, personalization settings, and any other changes. They simplify deployments and are the least disruptive to users, but often require more storage, potentially require High Availability mechanisms, and a number of other considerations. These could range from how to handle access to local USB devices and printers to user needs for installing personal software and administrative rights. 1.2.1 Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI Deployment Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI, when used with a flash/ssd array, is a persistent VDI deployment model that uses the flash array for storage. Atlantis ILIO is a solution that runs as a dedicated Atlantis ILIO virtual machine that is logically placed between the virtual desktop VMs and the Flash array storage for the virtual desktops. The Atlantis ILIO VM presents a NFS or iscsi storage interface to the hypervisor running the virtual desktop VMs. Specialized software or updates do not have to be installed in the virtual desktop VMs. In the Atlantis ILIO deployment, the Atlantis ILIO virtual machine and the virtual desktops are deployed on the same hypervisor used by the virtual desktops (see the following figure) where the storage is a Flash storage array. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 9
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays Figure 1-1. Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI (Disk-based) Architecture with Flash Array For high performance, Atlantis ILIO is configured for persistent desktop deployments. User data is located on a shared SAN/NAS storage system for portability and ease of backup. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 10
2. Planning for Deployment Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays This chapter describes the hardware, software, and protocol requirements for installation of Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI. This chapter also describes formulas for calculating minimum values for memory and storage. Calculations are described for Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI (Disk-based) deployments. Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI is deployed using Atlantis ILIO Center Deployment Services, which is described in the Atlantis ILIO Deployment Services. 2.1 Installation Requirements This section describes the hardware, software, and protocol requirements for installation of Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI when used with a Flash array. This section also describes formulas for calculating minimum values for memory and storage. Hardware, Software, or Protocol Requirement Atlantis ILIO Host Processor Atlantis ILIO VM Memory Atlantis ILIO installation storage Hypervisor Support Network Connection Storage Protocols (Virtual Desktops to ILIO) Storage Protocols (ILIO to storage) Host Server Minimum Requirement 1 vcpu @2.0 GHz or faster 16 GB or more depending on number of desktops and storage used by desktops 5 GB (for Atlantis ILIO operating system) VMware vsphere 4.0 or later (See Knowledge Base article KBA-01214-Y3V1H8, Atlantis ILIO Support Matrix, on the Atlantis Computing Support Portal for more information about supported features and platforms) 1 Gbps minimum dedicated connection to network storage (if used) NFS (recommended), iscsi NFS, iscsi, Fibre Channel, local disk 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 11
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays 2.2 Sizing Calculations for Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI This section provides the sizing calculations for key components of the Atlantis ILIO virtual machine: Virtual Disk and Memory. These calculations depend on the number of virtual desktops that Atlantis ILIO will support and the template size. 2.2.1 Virtual Disk Size Calculation This section describes the calculation of the size for the virtual disk for hosting the virtual desktops. The size of the virtual disk for storing the virtual desktops is calculated based on the type of deployment: persistent or non-persistent. Use the following formula to calculate the minimum size for the virtual disk for a persistent virtual desktop deployment. The amount of storage varies depending on factors such as the amount of user data stored in the virtual machine and application-generated data. Typically virtual desktops created from a master template consume less storage than a Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversion. Determine the amount of user data and use the resulting value in the formula. Virtual Disk Size for Persistent Deployment Formula Virtual Disk Size = {Base Template (Golden Image) size + ( (3.5 GB + n GB user data) * Number of Virtual Desktops to be deployed) )} where n is the average amount of user data across all virtual desktops stored in Atlantis ILIO. If the size of the base template is 20 GB, the user data is 5 GB, and the total number of persistent virtual desktops is 25, then the virtual disk size should be at least: Example Virtual Disk Size > {20 GB + ((3.5 GB + 5 GB) * 25)} = 232.5 GB 2.2.2 Memory Size Calculation This section describes the calculation of the memory size required for the Atlantis ILIO virtual machine. The formula for calculating the memory required for the Atlantis ILIO VM is the same for both persistent and non-persistent deployments. The Atlantis ILIO VM memory requirement depends on the number of virtual desktop sessions and the type of workload. The following formula approximates the memory requirements for a medium Login VSI workload. With larger workloads, the Atlantis ILIO VM memory required per virtual desktop session increases and there is an increase in the total memory necessary for the Atlantis ILIO virtual machine. The Atlantis ILIO virtual machine memory size is calculated as follows. Atlantis ILIO Virtual Machine Memory Size Formula Atlantis ILIO VM MEMORY Size = 6 GB for OS Reservation + 3% of Virtual Disk Atlantis ILIO VM Memory Size = 6 GB + 6 GB = 12 GB Example 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 12
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays If the calculated memory size is less than 22 GB, use 22 GB as the memory size. Note 2.3 Linked Clone versus Full Clone Scalability It is recommended that you use full clones for persistent desktop deployments because full clones deduplicate more efficiently than linked clones and support more desktops per controller. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 13
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays 3. Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI Standby Host Deployment This chapter describes the hardware, software, and protocol requirements for installation of Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI Standby Host. Additionally, this chapter describes the configuration for setting up a VMware High Availability (HA) cluster for Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI. 3.1 Installation Requirements Hardware, Software, or Protocol Requirement Atlantis ILIO Host Processor Atlantis ILIO VM Memory Atlantis ILIO installation storage Hypervisor Support Minimum Requirement for Standby Host 2 vcpu @2.0 GHz or faster. Must have same amount of memory (or more) as the other Hosts. 5 GB (for Atlantis ILIO operating system). VMware vsphere 4.0 or later (See Knowledge Base article KBA-01214-Y3V1H8, Atlantis ILIO Support Matrix, on the Atlantis Computing Support Portal for more information about supported features and platforms). 3.2 VMware High Availability VMware High Availability (HA) is a component of VMware vsphere that provides rapid recovery from outages by using a vsphere HA cluster of hosts. When a failure is detected in the HA cluster, the virtual machines on the failing host are restarted on other hosts within the cluster. 3.2.1 Atlantis ILIO and VMware High Availability When deploying a persistent virtual desktop, organizations have the option of deploying Atlantis ILIO virtual machines in a VMware High Availability (HA) configuration to minimize downtime caused by hardware failures. VMware HA enables Atlantis ILIO to provide rapid recovery from hardware failures by restarting virtual machines on a standby host in the same HA cluster. VMware HA maintains a heartbeat between hosts in the cluster so a failure can be detected and recovery started as quickly as possible. The benefits of using Atlantis ILIO with VMware HA are: Proven VMware HA Clustering Technology No Increase in storage footprint Minimal downtime after a failure Requires minimal setup and minimal additional hardware Atlantis ILIO supports VMware HA for Persistent VDI workloads enabling rapid recovery from hardware failures by restarting virtual machines on a standby host in the same HA cluster. The requirements for Atlantis ILIO are no different than when deploying Atlantis ILIO without HA (for example, for Stateless VDI). 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 14
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays Atlantis recommends configuring VMware HA with the Specify Failover Hosts Admission Control Policy. More details regarding this recommended configuration can be found in the following blog; http://blog.atlantiscomputing.com/2013/02/desktop-virtualization-best-practices-with-vmware-haadmission-control-atlantis-ilio/. The Active Hosts contain running Atlantis ILIOs and virtual desktop VMs. The Standby Host does not initially have any virtual machines running on it. The Atlantis ILIO VM OS (boot storage) for all ILIO appliances needs to be on common shared storage to enable fail over of the appliances. This is a standard VMware HA requirement. Within the VMware HA configuration, the Atlantis ILIO appliances should be set as High VM Restart Priority so that they are the first VMs that are started in the event of a host failure. For the Persistent disk-backed architecture: Mount a storage datastore on each of the active hosts where ILIO will store the backing disk. Each host should have a unique datastore. After ILIO is deployed, mount the Atlantis ILIO NFS datastore on the same host where the Atlantis ILIO is hosted. Finally, mount each of the storage datastores and each of Atlantis ILIO NFS datastores on the Standby Host in the cluster as well as the ILIO boot storage. The use of a unique datastore per active host is a key requirement for a successful failover operation. Each datastore mounted on an active host is also mounted on the Standby Host. When a Failover occurs, the failover occurs to the Standby Host because the datastore on the active host is only mounted on the Standby Host. If one of the Active Hosts fails, VMware vsphere will restart the ILIO will then automatically restart any virtual machines that were executing on the failed host on the Standby Host. Note that the Standby Host should be configured as a superset of the networking, memory, and storage datastores for the ILIO hosts in the cluster. For example, it should have the same datastores for all of the Active Hosts. The following figure shows a VMware HA configuration for an Atlantis ILIO On-Each-Server configuration with two Active Hosts and one Standby Host. The Active Hosts contain running Atlantis ILIOs and virtual desktop VMs. The Standby Host does not initially have any virtual machines running on it. However, if one of the Active Hosts fails, VMware vsphere restarts the virtual machines that were executing on the failed host on the Standby Host. Note that all backend storage devices and all Atlantis ILIO storage devices are mounted on the Standby Host to facilitate restarting VMs on the Standby host. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 15
Figure 3-1. Atlantis ILIO with VMware High Availability Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays 3.2.2 Atlantis ILIO Deployment Requirements In the High Availability setup, the requirements for Atlantis ILIO are the same as when deploying Atlantis ILIO without HA. The requirements depend on the number of VDI sessions involved. Before proceeding with the deployment of Atlantis ILIO with High Availability, please review the Installation Requirements in this guide. Note The description in this document is only for VMware ESX/ESXi. It does not describe a High Availability scenario for Microsoft Hyper-V. 3.2.3 VMware Cluster Deployment Requirements A Standby Host is required. This host should be similar to the other hosts in the cluster for which it will provide backup execution. VMware vmotion is also required to migrate virtual machines from the Standby Host to a failed host after repair has been completed. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 16
3.3 Create HA Cluster Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays To create a VMware HA Cluster refer to the following VMware links for vsphere 4.x and vsphere 5.x: http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.icbase/pdf/vsphere-esxi-vcenterserver-50-availability-guide.pdf http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_availability.pdf 3.3.1 VMware Cluster Prerequisites The VMware cluster must be created before creating an HA Cluster. The cluster can then be enabled for VMware HA. It is recommended that you first create an empty cluster. To create an empty cluster, first plan the resources of the cluster, and then use VMware vcenter to add hosts to the cluster and specify the cluster's VMware HA settings. 3.3.2 Creating a VMware Cluster To create a VMware cluster: 1. Select the Hosts and Clusters view. 2. Right-click the Datacenter in the Inventory tree and click New Cluster. 3. Complete the New Cluster wizard. Enable VMware HA on the cluster. 4. Click Finish to close the wizard and create the cluster. You have now created an empty cluster. 5. Based on your deployment method, add the hosts to the cluster. After hosts are added, enable HA. In the following example, two hosts are visible in a cluster and are displayed as shown in the following screenshots. This shows an example VMware HA cluster named HA-Testing. The cluster includes three hosts. The VMs that are running on two of the hosts (Atlantis ILIO VMs, vcenter, and virtual desktop simulation VMs in this example) are also displayed. Right-click the HA Cluster and select Settings to configure the HA Cluster. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 17
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays The HA Cluster Settings, Cluster Features dialog is displayed. Select the Turn on vsphere HA checkbox. Click OK. The vsphere HA Virtual Machine Options dialog is displayed. Select the VM restart priority = Medium and Host Isolation response = leaved powered on. Click OK. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 18
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays The vsphere HA VM Monitoring dialog is displayed. Select the VM Monitoring = Disabled and Monitoring sensitivity = High. Click OK. The vsphere HA Datastore Heartbeating dialog is displayed. Click the Select any of the cluster datastores taking into account my preferences option. Click OK. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 19
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays The VMware EVC dialog is displayed. The VMware EVC Mode should display as Disabled. Click OK. The Swapfile Location dialog is displayed. Click the Store the swapfile in the same directory as the virtual machine (recommended) option. Click OK. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 20
After the HA Cluster configuration is complete: Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays 1. Mount a storage LUN on each of the Active Hosts. Each host should have a different LUN. Note The use of a unique LUN per Active Host is a key requirement for a successful failover operation. Each LUN mounted on an Active Host is also mounted on the Standby Host. When a Failover occurs, the failover occurs to the Standby Host because the LUN on the Active Host is also mounted on the Standby Host. 2. Deploy and configure an Atlantis ILIO VM on each of the Active Hosts. The Atlantis ILIO VM for each Active Host is deployed on the storage LUN that was mounted on the host in step 1. 3. Mount the Atlantis ILIO datastore on the same host where the Atlantis ILIO is hosted. The storage configuration for each of the active hosts in the cluster is shown in the following screenshots. 10.0.0.42 is an Active Host with LUN0 and Atlantis ILIO-1.216 datastores mounted. 10.0.0.76 is a second Active Host with LUN1 and Atlantis ILIO 1.217 datastores mounted. 4. Next, provision the virtual desktops on each of the Active Hosts using the Atlantis ILIO datastore on that host. 5. Finally, mount each of the storage LUNs and each of Atlantis ILIO datastores on the Standby Host in the cluster. 10.0.2.14 is a Standby Host. All LUNs and Atlantis ILIO datastores used by the Active Hosts are mounted on this host. The HA Cluster configuration is now complete. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 21
3.4 Failure Scenarios and Recovery Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays This chapter describes the failure scenarios and their recovery when HA is enabled. It includes three operational states when a failure occurs. 3.4.1 Steady State The steady state is the ideal state where all hosts in the cluster are executing without error. The Standby Host is ready to take over if a failure occurs. It does not host any VMs in this state. Figure 3-2. Steady State Environment 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 22
3.4.2 Failure Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays A failure occurs when one of the hosts goes down or becomes unavailable on the network. In this condition, the Standby Host becomes active through VMware HA. The VMs that were running on the failing host are moved to the Standby Host by vsphere. Figure 3-3. Environment with Failed Replication Host 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 23
3.4.3 Host Restored Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays After the failing host has been restored to operation, use vmotion to move the VMs running on the Standby Host back to their original location (see the following figure). Then, the cluster returns to the Steady State. Figure 3-4. Restored Steady State Environment 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 24
4. Best Practices for Deploying Desktop VMs Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays This chapter describes best practices that should be followed for a VDI deployment that includes Atlantis ILIO. 4.1 Host and Hypervisor Configuration for Atlantis ILIO Installation Configuration of Host BIOS, CPU settings, time synchronization, NFS timeout, paravirtual SCSI drivers, and network drivers may need to be performed prior to Atlantis ILIO installation. These configuration steps are described in the following Knowledge Base articles that are available from the Atlantis Computing Support Portal. Time server configuration: KBA-01225-X2N4N4 CPU and BIOS settings for high performance: KBA-01150-HSMNF8 NFS timeouts: KBA-01049-9T7Q8G Installation of the paravirtual SCSI drivers is described in a VMware Knowledge Base article located at http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_us&cmd=displaykc&externalid=1 010398. The VMXNET3 adapter should be used as the virtual networking adapter. 4.2 Storing User Data Atlantis ILIO is optimized for deduplicating data that is stored across multiple virtual desktops. Therefore, it is recommended that only Windows operating system-related data and application executables that are part of a virtual desktop be hosted on an Atlantis ILIO datastore. Using profile redirection tools reduces the amount of memory required per virtual desktop but is not required for using Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI. Examples of user data are Microsoft Office documents (such as MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint files) and source code. 4.3 Operating System Templates Although Atlantis ILIO supports use of mixed operating system environments, while provisioning the virtual machines, it is recommended that different operating system templates be deployed using different Atlantis ILIO virtual machines. This minimizes the memory and storage requirements and optimizes performance. Note Using the same Atlantis ILIO virtual machine for Windows XP and Windows 7 might reduce the amount of deduplication and therefore increase the storage required. This impacts performance and requires a larger amount of memory and storage. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 25
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays 4.4 Virtual Desktops that Use 32-bit and 64-bit Operating Systems Although Atlantis ILIO supports provisioning of both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems for virtual desktops on the same Atlantis ILIO virtual machine, it is recommended that they use separate Atlantis ILIO virtual machines. This minimizes the memory and storage requirements and optimizes performance. Note Using the same Atlantis ILIO virtual machine for 32-bit and 64-bit Operating Systems might reduce the amount of deduplication and therefore increase the storage required. This impacts performance and requires a larger amount of memory and storage. 4.5 Using VMware vmotion with Atlantis ILIO Virtual Machines VMware vmotion should only be used to migrate Atlantis ILIO virtual machines when the Atlantis ILIO virtual machines are in the Powered Off state. Use the combination of vmotion and Storage vmotion to migrate the virtual desktop machine with the virtual desktop image. 4.6 Provisioning Storage for Virtual Desktops 4.6.1 NFS target Atlantis ILIO supports both thin and thick provisioning. Thin provisioned virtual desktops are recommended when deploying on NFS. 4.6.2 iscsi target Thin provisioned virtual desktops are strongly recommended for use with iscsi due to the 2 TB LUN size limit on ESX/ESXi. To go beyond the 2 TB limit, another ILIO LUN must be added. The following iscsi limitations also apply: LUN Masking is not supported. Authentication via CHAP is not supported. SNS discovery is not supported. (It is supported only with direct connect via IP address mapping.) Binding an iscsi target to a specific vnic or pnic is not supported. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 26
4.7 Managing Virtual Desktop Storage Space Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays If an Atlantis ILIO datastore runs out of space, there will be a notification icon next to all of the VMs that are deployed on the Atlantis ILIO datastore. If you click the icon, a message similar to the following is displayed. When this error scenario occurs, refer to section 5.2. 4.8 Cloning Operation Using VMware Horizon View When cloning virtual machines using VMware Horizon View, the settings must be changed from Conservative to Aggressive. This is to account for the deduplication capabilities of the Atlantis ILIO machine. If the setting is kept as Conservative, VMware Horizon View might throw an error stating that there is insufficient disk space. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 27
5. Recovering from System Failures 5.1 System Crash Behavior Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays An Atlantis ILIO hard reboot could be triggered by a hard reset, a power outage, or a hypervisor crash or reboot. During the hard reboot, Atlantis ILIO displays the following information from a hypervisor console. After a hard reboot of Atlantis ILIO, the ILIO file system comes back up in a consistent state. During the time that Atlantis ILIO is recovering, the virtual desktop VMs are not available. The reconstruction occurs in a brief period of time and a message indicating the number of seconds remaining is displayed. 5.2 Datastore Out-of-Space Error Recovery If an Atlantis ILIO datastore runs out of space, there will be a notification icon next to all of the VMs which are deployed on the Atlantis ILIO datastore. If you click the icon, a message similar to the following is displayed. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 28
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays To free up space on the Atlantis ILIO, some of the virtual desktop VMs on the Atlantis ILIO need to be migrated to another host with unused storage space. Select Cancel, then click OK to cancel the message. Next, in Atlantis ILIO Center, select Enable Safe Migration (see section 4.4.6, Enable Safe Migration, in the Atlantis ILIO Center ). Then, from the VMware vsphere console, highlight VMs to be migrated out, and select the Migrate option. Follow the Migration wizard steps to migrate VMs to other storage. It is recommended that no more than eight VMs be migrated at a time. When there is sufficient space on the Atlantis ILIO after migrating VMs, the VMs can be powered on again. 5.3 Recovery from Storage Device Failures Contact the Flash storage array vendor for support and guidance when recovering from a storage device failure. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 29
6. Support Tools Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays This chapter describes support procedures using Atlantis ILIO support tools. To perform these steps, go to a console for the powered-on Atlantis ILIO virtual machine and log in using the default UserID=poweruser and password=poweruser. 6.1 Using Atlantis Support Tools To perform log collection using tools in the support tools directory, type: /opt/support/ilio-collect-logs.sh. The following is a list of all supported arguments and an example: Usage: -t TIME_IN_MINUTES: Collects diagnostic logs for TIME_IN_MINUTES minutes. -?: Prints list of available commands. Example: /opt/support/ilio-collect-logs.sh t 30 Runs the ILIO log collection only (no file system checker) for 30 minutes. Running the ilio-collect-logs.sh script will generate a file named ilio_logs_<date>.tar.gz 6.2 Sending Logs to Atlantis Support To send logs to Atlantis Support: 1. Download WinSCP (winscp.net) or any secure copy tool. 2. Log on to the Atlantis ILIO machine using the tool. 3. Copy ilio_logs_<date>.tar.gz to your local machine. 4. Using your Atlantis Computing Support Portal account, log into the Atlantis Computing Support Portal, create a support request, and attach the logs.. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 30
Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI for Flash Arrays Glossary Term VDI ILIO Clients Host Servers Virtual Desktop Manager Virtualization Infrastructure Desktop Infrastructure Application Services Networking Shared Storage Definition Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Inline Image Optimization. Represents Atlantis ILIO TM throughout the documentation. PCs or Thin Client devices used to access virtual desktops. The actual physical hardware that runs the virtual desktops and/or ILIO virtual machine (VM). Brokers connections and manages sessions between client devices and virtual desktops. The hypervisor and management software that virtualizes and manages the virtual desktops. Infrastructure that provide desktop services to virtual desktops such as email, file, print and directory services. Application and presentation virtualization services that deliver applications to virtual desktop instances. The infrastructure that interconnects end users and other infrastructure services from inside and outside the LAN. Storage devices that are accessed by two or more hosts, such as NAS or SAN. 2015 ATLANTIS COMPUTING INC. 31