Deploying VDI solutions today - lessons learned and best practices
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Transcript of Deploying VDI solutions today - lessons learned and best practices
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Agenda
What you need to know before we begin What is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) The business case for VDI The challenges of delivering desktop services How can VDI address those challenges
Deploying VDI What EMC has learned from VDI deployments Considerations for a VDI project Judging a successful VDI deployment
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What is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)?
VDI centralizes the creation, deployment, management and support of desktop services into the data center
– A single physical server can host a large number of virtualized desktop images
– The desktop image’s ‘disk’ are hosted on enterprise class NAS or SAN storage
– A ‘broker’ in its most basic form is used to evenly load balance client access across the data center infrastructure supporting desktop services
– Connection protocols such as RDP and PCoIP are used to access the desktop image over the network
– The desktop image can be accessed from traditional desktops and laptops as well as thin clients and mobile devices
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The business case for VDI – addressing physical desktop limitations
The average operational cost of a traditional desktop is around $2000– VDI can reduce this cost by reducing the costs of support, administration and break-fix
Provisioning and supporting desktop services is complex and costly– VDI can reduce this complexity and the staff allocation to support desktop services
Data protection & compliance presents new challenges for desktop use– By centralising and controlling desktop images in the data centre, sensitive corporate
data can be monitored and protected
Refreshing desktops to align with new operating systems is costly– VDI builds a compelling model around extending the life of existing end-point systems
Green concerns are highlighting the environmental cost of desktops– VDI allows for the deployment of inexpensive, energy efficient thin clients
Agile and responsive IT means delivering projects to tighter deadlines– Refreshing existing desktop images, deploying a range of bespoke images is simplified
and accelerated by a VDI infrastrucutre
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Key to Addressing Physical Desktop Challenges
Increase standardization• Hardware independent standard images
Streamline management• Centralized desktop hardware management
Increase flexibility• Quickly provision new desktops and applications
to users
Centralize Computing Resources• Move underutilized computing resources back
from the edge of your network
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What EMC has learned from VDI deployments to date
VDI is not a shrink wrapped solution – There is no one size fits all solution
Each company’s user environment is different– Reference Architectures and generic performance figures can only ever be a guide
The workload of a desktop user may vary, even across one organisation
– Most organisations contain a range of different user types
Each organisation’s desktop services environment will be unique– There could be multiple combinations of desktop images, applications and user data
Understanding the types of applications and user data created inside a company and how that information needs to be delivered to the user and protected is critical
Successful VDI deployments have started small with a user profiling exercise and then progressed through a POC to full implementation
10© Copyright 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
A VDI conversation is more than storage
• To deploy VDI successfully a business must understand
The type of desktop users – light or heavy
The data type users create & store – i.e. database entry or unstructured data
How those users access that data and if it must be persistent
The type and number of applications that exist within the business
• Cost savings are the most attractive element of VDI for many customers
• Most businesses do not understand the performance required for their desktop images or how large those images need to be
• A failure to balance cost with delivering a good user experience will doom a VDI deployment
11© Copyright 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
Successful VDI deployments follow on from a consultative approach
Help the organisation :
Define what the business hopes to gain from VDI– Cost savings alone may not build a compelling TCO case
Identify the correct group of desktop users for virtualization– Most businesses have different user groups - not all users are not currently a good fit
Profile those users to determine how they use their desktops– Determine concurrency of access, log on times, how much data is created
Identify the types of applications and user data created– Environments with many applications pose administrative and efficiency challenges
Understand the storage capacity and performance required up front– Failure to provide the correct configuration from the start could stall or halt a project
Help the customer focus on all the infrastructure elements required– VDI performance could require a significant number of servers as well as storage
12© Copyright 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
Above all else – be realistic about the scope and applicability of VDI
Help the organisation :
Understand where VDI technology and best practices are relevant today and what the solutions avaialble today can and can’t do
Decide which classes of user would make a good fit for VDI today, 6 months from now and going forward
Understand that VDI is a disruptive technology and often it is existing IT process that is the bottleneck to delivering VDI back to the business
Gain awareness that the perceived cost savings will come in a range of different areas over time and that some of those savings are ‘soft savings such as time saved to deploy and administer desktop images
There remain some unresolved elements such as desktop licensing and the impact on the data centre infrastructure from centralising desktop access
Realise that once in the data centre VDI rapidly becomes a Tier 1 application in terms of performance and availability requirements
13© Copyright 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
How to judge a successful VDI deployment
Fewer calls to the helpdesk
Quicker and simpler application and operating system upgrades
Extends the life of existing PC hardware
Fewer desk-side visits
Less time spent on user adds/moves/changes
Less time spent on application packaging
Less effort required to manage the flow of sensitive or secure information
14© Copyright 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
In addressing physical desktop limitations, VDI can create new challenges
Increase standardization• Hardware independent standard images
Streamline management• Centralized desktop hardware management
Increase flexibility• Quickly provision new desktops and applications
to users
• Realizing improved TCO• Cost of licensing
• Cost of hardware
• Cost of storage (Tier 6 $/GB)
• Performance at scale• Server, network and storage
scalability
• Increased Responsiveness• Simplify and accelerate deployment
and support tasks
• Meet Stringent Desktop SLAs• Availability (Tier 1 availability)
• Business Continuance
• DR
Centralize Computing Resources• Move underutilized computing resources back
from the edge of your network
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Enterprise Flash & Extended Cache
2 - Provision
OS
Array Integrated Snaps / Native Tools=
=
=
1 - Plan
3 - Price
Dynamic Storage Tiering
Multiprotocol & multi-tier support
User data Apps
Pointer Based
70% less
Thin Dedup/Comp Tier
80% less
App Virt
>95% less
Desktop / Application delivery Plan / Connection broker selection
=
4 - Perform
Security integration / VM aware backup / SRM=5 - Protect
$38/vm
Structuring an holistic approach to VDI
16© Copyright 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
Image composition – the solution to scale, save, and deliver the universal client with VDI
Effective scaling and delivery of the user experience in different client forms requires the separation of a desktop into its component parts
These components are streamed together to assemble a unique client experience
Broker & Composition
HostingCluster
User Workspace
17© Copyright 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
Successful techniques for realizing a low TCO
Backup Solution for VMware
Protect Every Layer– vCenter– View Manager– View Composer– AD– Gold Images– User Data– ThinApp packages
Dedup Everything– Source Based– Image level backup/File
level restore– Cross Domain– Rapid Recovery
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First – what about capacity?
1000 users, 10GB per desktop = 10TB – right?
Wrong…
Operating System– View Composer = savings capacity requirements for OS storage
60:1 savings (non-persistent) 2:1 - 5:1 savings (persistent)
Applications– Thin App = 50:1 savings for app storage
Assuming only 50% of apps can be virtualized
Storage– Dedupe/Compress + Archive = savings on user data storage
4:1 savings (being conservative)
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10:1 capacity reduction means all 1000 users can run on 1TB of storage – right?
Wrong…
1TB of storage fits on one spindle
How many hard drives are in 1000 desktops/laptops?
How do we solve THAT problem?
Is the problem solved?
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The Challenge
Architecting a View Environment to size for BOTH capacity and performance at scale when leveraging Linked Clone or Snapshot Technology
The Analysis
1000 x 10GB boot images = 1TB2TB – >80% capacity savings
8-10 iops per user ≈ 10,000 iops
The Result
at scale, data reduction technologies + EFD saves you $$$
How do you leverage EFD most efficiently?
Drive Type Sustained IOPS # of drives
7.2k SATA 80 125
10k FC 130 76
15k FC 180 56
EFD 2000 5
The Case for Enterprise Flash Drives
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FAST Cache +FAST Tiering
Appserver
Controller
DRAM Cache
FLASH
FLASH
1 of 10 I/Os from disk
With FAST Cache
Appserver
Controller
DRAM Cache
FLASH
1 of 10 I/Os from disk
Lower Cost + User Experience
DRAM Cache
4 of 5 I/Os from disk
Without FAST
Appserver
Controller
4.5Xbetter
Benefit at scale
View:10x better
View:4x better
View 4.5 + FAST = Lower Cost + Better Experience
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FASTcache Benefits: Antivirus Scan
This test measures the impact of running antivirus scan simultaneously on 150 desktops
Observations and Conclusions• Time to scan a desktops decreased from 67 to 15 minutes with FAST Cache
• Peak Host Response time decreased from 382 ms to 11.86 ms• Disk utilization never above 10% - FAST Cache effectively handles 100% of I/O once warmed
•Estimated number of drives required to match FAST Cache performance: 83
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FASTcache Benefits: Patch Updates
This test measures the impact of patching 150 Windows XP desktopsNine security updates applied in series and systems rebooted
Observations and Conclusions•Time to patch all the desktops decreased from 43 to 22 minutes
•Peak Guest Disk Response time decreased from 113ms to 43ms•Estimated number of drives to equal FAST Cache performance: 60
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“Oldey timey”
268 x 300GB 15K FC Disks
“New coolness”*
10 x 300GB FC
10x400GB EFD
20 x 1TB SATA
11% More Disk IOPS
53,000 vs 48,000 Aggregate IOPS
85% Fewer Disk Drives
40 EFD+FC+SATA vs 268 FC
90% Less Power
.8 kVA vs 8 kVA
22% Lower Storage Costs
+ Reduce Maintenance & SW costs
* Key Ingredients in new coolness:•VMware: View 4.next, Composer
•EMC: FAST Cache, FAST, Dedupe & Compress
Net: 4000 user deployment example
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Oh BTW – there’s a lot more to this than storage…
Securing the desktop– RSA SecureBook for VMware View
Backup/Recovery of the Desktop– Killer “End-User Self Restore”
Solution with Avamar
Creating “Desktop SKU” – an “all in” value proposition on Vblock
VDI Design/Implementation and Business Justification Services
Windows 7 Migration Services
26© Copyright 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
Key Take Aways
VDI TCO reduction generally comes from reduction of administration/support/desktop outages, rather than up-front capital expenditure savings
Many changes must be made to the desktop, often including application packaging and deployment methodology to achieve an efficient VDI deployment
Leveraging new technologies such as deduplication, flash and thin provisioning can change the TCO dynamics of deploying VDI and allow a virtual desktop solution to stack up
VDI offers great benefits for the right use case with the right cost model and within an organization able to exploit the technology to its fullest