Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage
Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware
Performance
This document describes how Huawei OceanStor V3 converged storage systems use SSDs to improve the performance of
VMware virtual desktops. The document introduces the technologies used by OceanStor V3 converged storage systems and
VMware virtual desktops, verifies the performance acceleration function of SSDs in typical scenarios, and provides best
practices, helping users select appropriate storage media for VMware virtual desktop deployment.
Tang Xiaojuan
Storage Solutions, IT, Huawei Enterprise BG
2015-10-28 V1.1
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
Contents
1 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Purpose ................................................................................................................................................................. 4
1.3 Intended Audience ................................................................................................................................................. 4
1.4 Customer Benefits ................................................................................................................................................. 5
1.5 Key Components ................................................................................................................................................... 5
1.6 Workload Model .................................................................................................................................................... 5
2 Products and Technologies ..................................................................................................... 6
2.1 OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems ............................................................................................................ 6
2.1.1 OceanStor OS ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
2.1.2 New-Generation Hardware ................................................................................................................................. 7
2.1.3 Convergence Design ........................................................................................................................................... 7
2.1.4 Virtualization, Intelligence, and Efficiency .......................................................................................................... 8
2.2 VMware Horizon View .......................................................................................................................................... 9
2.2.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................................................ 9
2.2.2 Linked Clone ...................................................................................................................................................... 9
2.2.3 View Storage Accelerator .................................................................................................................................... 9
3 Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance .................................................................. 10
3.1 Challenges............................................................................................................................................................10
3.2 Huawei Solution ...................................................................................................................................................10
3.2.1 Solution Architecture .........................................................................................................................................10
3.2.2 Solution Configuration....................................................................................................................................... 11
3.3 Verification Procedure ..........................................................................................................................................12
3.3.1 Verification Network..........................................................................................................................................12
3.3.2 Deploying the Environment ...............................................................................................................................12
3.3.3 Starting a Boot Storm Test .................................................................................................................................15
3.3.4 Starting a Medium-level Workload Test ..............................................................................................................15
3.4 Environment Deployment .....................................................................................................................................16
3.5 Test Procedure and Conclusion .............................................................................................................................16
3.5.1 Boot Storm Test Procedure.................................................................................................................................16
3.5.2 Boot Storm Test Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................18
3.5.3 Medium-level Workload Test Procedure .............................................................................................................18
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
3.5.4 Medium-level Workload Test Conclusion ...........................................................................................................20
4 Best Practices ........................................................................................................................... 22
4.1 Storage Configuration ...........................................................................................................................................22
4.1.1 Disk Domain Configuration ...............................................................................................................................23
4.1.2 Storage Pool Configuration ................................................................................................................................23
4.1.3 LUN Configuration ............................................................................................................................................24
4.1.4 Host and Host Group Configuration ...................................................................................................................24
4.2 Application Configuration.....................................................................................................................................24
4.2.1 Multipathing Configuration ................................................................................................................................25
4.2.2 Cluster Configuration ........................................................................................................................................25
4.2.3 VM Template Configuration ..............................................................................................................................25
4.2.4 Desktop Configuration .......................................................................................................................................25
5 Appendix ................................................................................................................................. 26
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
1 Overview
1.1 Introduction
VMware Horizon View 6.0 is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution that simplifies
desktop management and provides on-demand services. It expands VMware server
deployments to bring VDI advantages to desktops.
Huawei verified the usage of SSDs in OceanStor V3 converged storage systems for VMware
VDI, providing a reference for enterprise customers to deploy VMware VDI.
This document includes the following content:
Technologies and features of OceanStor V3 converged storage systems
Working principles of VMware virtual desktops
Solution overview
Solution implementation
Verification results
1.2 Purpose The purpose of this document is to describe how solid state disks (SSDs) are used to improve
the performance of VMware VDI. It is provided as a reference to Huawei partners and
customers for IT system planning, VMware virtual desktop performance acceleration, and
investment reduction.
1.3 Intended Audience This document is intended for Huawei employees, partners, and customers. It is assumed that
the readers are familiar with the following products and technologies:
OceanStor V3 converged storage systems
VMware vSphere virtualization platform
VMware Horizon View 6.0
E9000 blade server
Login Virtual Session Indexer (LoginVSI) test tool
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
1.4 Customer Benefits To compare the performance of VMware VDI between using five SSDs and 25 SAS disks in
OceanStor V3 converged storage systems, Huawei performed a verification test on 250
VMware virtual desktops of small-and medium-sized enterprises. The test result proves that
by using SSDs, the desktop latency can be reduced from 1.5 ms to 1 ms, disk usage from 35%
to 8%, the number of required disks is down by 80%, the number of required disk enclosures
by 80% (at most), and the required disk space down by 80% (at most).
1.5 Key Components
This solution uses the following hardware and software:
VMware vSphere virtual layer operating system: VMware ESXi 5.5
VM operating system: Windows 7 Enterprise Edition 32-bit with SP1
Storage array: OceanStor V3 Converged Storage 5500 V300R003
Server: Huawei Tecal RH2288 V2 server
Blade server: Huawei E9000 CH140 blade server
HBA: 10 Gbit/s ETH interface card
Switch: 10GE switch
1.6 Workload Model Login VSI mentioned in this document is an industrial-standard test tool that tests the
performance and scalability of various virtual desktop environments including VMware
Horizon View.
Login VSI usually performs a test under medium-level workload by simulating Office,
Internet Explorer, and PDF user operations. When the workload is higher or lower, reduce or
add workload before the test.
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
2 Products and Technologies
2.1 OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems
Huawei OceanStor V3 converged storage systems are next-generation storage products
intended for enterprise customers. Leveraging a storage operating system oriented to cloud
architecture, a powerful new-generation hardware platform, and a full range of intelligent
management software, OceanStor V3 converged storage systems deliver industry-leading
functionality, performance, efficiency, reliability, and ease-of-use. They provide data storage
for applications such as large-scale database OLTP/OLAP, file sharing, and cloud computing,
and can be used in industries ranging from government, finance, telecommunications, energy,
to media and entertainment (M&E). Meanwhile, OceanStor V3 converged storage systems
can provide a wide range of efficient and flexible backup and disaster recovery solutions to
ensure business continuity and data security, delivering excellent storage services.
For more details about OceanStor V3 converged storage systems, click the following link:
http://e.huawei.com/us/products/cloud-computing-dc/storage/unified-storage/mid-range
Figure 2-1 OceanStor V3 converged storage systems
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
2.1.1 OceanStor OS
OceanStor OS employing a cloud-oriented architecture is the core of OceanStor V3 converged
storage systems.
Figure 2-2 Storage operating system employing a cloud-oriented architecture
2.1.2 New-Generation Hardware
OceanStor V3 converged storage systems employ next-generation Intel multi-core processors,
PCIe 3.0 buses, 12 Gbit/s SAS 3.0 high-speed disk ports, and a variety of host ports such as
16 Gbit/s Fibre Channel, 10 Gbit/s FCoE, and 56 Gbit/s InfiniBand host ports.
The storage systems provide up to 28 GB/s of system bandwidth to meet the requirements of
bandwidth-intensive application scenarios. They also offer million-level IOPS performance,
outshining products from other vendors.
OceanStor V3 converged storage systems are equipped with exclusive SmartI/O cards.
A SmartI/O card supports 8 Gbit/s Fibre Channel, 16 Gbit/s Fibre Channel, 10 Gbit/s iSCSI,
and 10 Gbit/s FCoE. Users can specify the protocols that a SmartI/O card is required to
support.
The deduplication/compression cards used by OceanStor V3 support lossless data
deduplication and compression, efficiently reducing data storage cost.
In addition, the storage systems can implement data encryption to secure data.
2.1.3 Convergence Design
Convergence of SAN and NAS storage: SAN and NAS services are converged to
provide elastic storage, simplify service deployment, improve storage resource
utilization, and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO). Underlying storage resource pools
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
directly provide both block and file services, thereby shortening storage resource access
paths to ensure that the two services are equally efficient.
Convergence of heterogeneous devices: Based on the built-in heterogeneous
virtualization function, OceanStor V3 converged storage systems can efficiently manage
storage systems from other mainstream vendors and unify resource pools for central and
flexible resource allocation.
Convergence of entry-level, mid-range, and high-end storage systems: OceanStor V3
converged storage systems are the only storage systems in the industry that enable
entry-level, mid-range, and high-end storage systems to interwork seamlessly with one
another. Data can freely flow among storage products of different models without the
assistance of third-party systems.
Convergence of SSDs and HDDs: The advantages of traditional and solid-state storage
media are combined, bringing the performance of different types of storage media into full play and striking an optimal balance between performance and cost.
Convergence of primary and backup storage: The built-in backup function enables
data to be efficiently backed up without additional backup software, simplifying backup solution management.
2.1.4 Virtualization, Intelligence, and Efficiency
RAID 2.0+ underlying virtualization: OceanStor V3 converged storage systems use the
RAID 2.0+ block virtualization technology. RAID 2.0+ block virtualization of the
OceanStor V3 implements virtualization for underlying disk management and
upper-layer resource management. Inside the system, the storage space of each disk is
divided into fine-grained data blocks, which comprise RAID groups. In doing so, data is
evenly distributed to all disks in the storage pool. In addition, data blocks–based resource
management largely improves the resource management efficiency.
SmartTier (intelligent storage tiering): SmartTier automatically analyzes data access
frequencies per unit time and migrates data to disks of different performance levels
based on the analysis result. (High-performance disks store most frequently accessed
data, performance disks store less frequently accessed data, and large-capacity disks
store seldom accessed data.) In this way, the optimal overall performance is achieved, and the IOPS cost is reduced.
SmartQoS (intelligent service quality control): SmartQoS categorizes service data based
on data characteristics (each category represents a type of application) and sets a priority
and performance objective for each category. In this way, resources are allocated to services properly, fully utilizing system resources.
SmartThin (thin provisioning): SmartThin allocates storage space on demand rather than
pre-allocating all storage space at the initial stage. It is more cost-effective because
customers can start business with a few disks and add disks based on site requirements. In this way, the initial purchase cost and TCO are reduced.
SmartCache (intelligent cache): SmartCache enables storage systems to use SSDs as
cache resources to improve system read performance in scenarios where read operations outnumber write operations and hotspot data exists.
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
2.2 VMware Horizon View
2.2.1 Overview
VMware Horizon View (previously called VMware View) is a new desktop virtualization
product. It provides virtual workspaces to make desktop services elastic, enterprise desktop
management more reliable and secure, and hardware more independent and convenient. It
expands VMware server deployments to bring VDI advantages to desktops.
Figure 2-3 VMware Horizon View architecture
2.2.2 Linked Clone
View Composer can create linked clone pools for the specified parent VMs. Every linked
clone is like an independent desktop with a unique host name and IP address. A linked clone
desktop, however, shares one base image with its parent VM, thereby reducing the storage
requirement.
Moreover, programs can be deployed, updated, and patched only by performing operations on
the parent VM, without affecting end user configurations, data, and applications.
2.2.3 View Storage Accelerator
View Storage Accelerator allows hosts in the ESXi 5.0 version or later to cache frequently
accessed VM disk data, improving performance and reducing the requirement for extra
storage I/O bandwidth to manage boot storms and anti-virus scanning I/O storms. To use this
function, every ESXi host must have 1 GB random access memory (RAM).
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
3 Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
3.1 Challenges
In the IT industry, enterprises and administration departments are faced with challenges
concerning capacity, performance, and prices in data storage. Traditional data centers are
characterized by inefficient resource utilization and high investments. Virtual data centers are
becoming the development trend. In the future, selecting storage systems and storage media
that meet critical service requirements to build or re-deploy virtual data centers is an
inevitable choice for enterprise IT to improve service efficiency and reduce TCO.
3.2 Huawei Solution
3.2.1 Solution Architecture
The solution employs Huawei OceanStor V3 converged storage systems using SSDs to
balance the performance and cost requirements when services grow or data changes within the
life cycle.
This solution is verified in two scenarios:
Boot Storm Test
When virtual desktops are being started, the operating systems and applications need to read
massive data from disks. A large number of I/Os are produced in a short period, requiring the
storage system to have the capability of processing such intensive I/Os. The test is performed
in the following procedure: 1. Ensure that all virtual desktops are shut down. 2. Use View
Administrator to batch power on VMs. 3. Compare how long it takes for virtual desktops
deployed on SAS disks and on SSDs to be started, and the disk usage, CPU usage, and IOPS
on the storage systems during the startup.
Medium-level Workload Test
This test is performed when daily office applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, and 7-Zip are running. The disk usage, CPU usage, IOPS, and latency of
the storage systems using SAS disks and SSDs are compared when there are 250 users.
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3.2.2 Solution Configuration
Table 3-1 Hardware configuration
Hardware Component Quantity
Server Huawei Tecal RH2288 V2 each with:
256 GB memory
16 – Intel Xeon E5-2660 CPUs
1 – Intel 10Gbit/s Ethernet HBA
1 – QLogic 8Gbit/s Fibre Channel HBA
6
Huawei E9000, one blade each with (total 12
blades):
96 GB memory
12- Intel Xeon E5-2620 CPUs
1 – Intel 10Gbit/s Ethernet HBA
1 – QLogic 8Gbit/s Fibre Channel HBA
1
10GE switch Huawei S6324 2
Storage device Huawei OceanStor 5500 V3 with:
2 – controllers each with 24 GB cache
2 – 2 U 25 slots disk enclosures
25 – 600 GB SAS disks
5 – 600 GB SSDs
2 – 10 Gbit/s Ethernet I/O modules (2 ports)
2 – 24 Gbit/s SAS I/O modules (4 ports)
1
Table 3-2 Software configuration
Item Software
ESXi VMware vSphere 5.5
VMware Horizon
View
VMware View Connection Server 6.0.1
VMware View Composer 6.0.1
VMware View Agent 6.0.1
vCenter Server VMware vCenter Server 5.5
Storage device OceanStor V3 V300R003C00
Test tool Login VSI 3.7
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3.3 Verification Procedure
3.3.1 Verification Network
Figure 3-1 Network diagram
[1] OceanStor 5500 V3 configuration: 1 x controller enclosure, 24 GB cache, 2 x 10 Gbit/s ETH module, 2 x disk enclosure, 25 x 600 GB SAS disks, 5 x 600 GB SSDs, 1 x disk domain (contains all SAS disks and SSDs, with a total capacity of 15.432 TB and free capacity of 1.301 TB), 1 x storage pool (RAID 5-9 and a capacity of 10 TB at the SAS disk layer; RAID 5-5 and a capacity of 1.6 TB at the SSD layer), 4x1 TB thick LUNs (as the operating system disks of desktop VMs)
[2]E9000 CH140 configuration: 96 GB memory, 12 x E5-2620 CPU, 1 x QLogic 8 Gbit/s HBA, 1x10 Gbit/s Ethernet HBA
[3] RH2288 V2 configuration: 256 GB memory, 16 x E5-2660 CPU, 1 x QLogic 8Gbit/s HBA, 1x10 Gbit/s Ethernet HBA
3.3.2 Deploying the Environment
Table 3-3 Environment deployment procedure
Step Sub-step Operation
1 Prepare the physical environment (hardware and networks).
2 Install and configure operating systems.
2.1 Install VMware vSphere on three RH2288 servers and the 12 blades
of one E9000 server.
2.2 Configure an IP address for each ESXi host.
3 Prepare the Login VSI test environment.
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Step Sub-step Operation
3.1 Create 14 VMs on the RH2288 servers and install Windows Server
2008 R2 on the VMs.
3.2 Install the Login VSI master on one of the VMs.
3.3 Install Login VSI Analyze on the master.
3.4 Install Login VSI launchers on other VMs.
4 Prepare the VMware VDI.
3.1 Create 7 VMs on the RH2288 servers and install Windows Server
2008 R2 on the VMs.
3.2 Install AD, DNS and DHCP servers on two of the VMs.
3.3 Install SQLServer, vCenter Server, Connection Server, View
Composer, and vSphere Client on the other five VMs respectively.
3.4 Create a VM template and install the Windows 7 32-bit operating
system.
3.5 Add the VM vSphere virtualization architecture and test hosts into
the domain.
3.6 Install View Agent on the VM template.
3.7 Install Login VSI target on the VM template.
3.8 Set the VM template to obtain an IP address automatically.
3.9 Take a snapshot after the VM template is shut down.
4 Configure a storage subsystem.
4.1 Configure storage resources (disk domains, storage pools, LUNs, and
LUN groups).
4.2 Create hosts, host groups, and mapping views.
4.3 Add LUNs to LUN groups and add LUN groups and host groups to
mapping views.
5 Configure datastores on vCenter.
5.1 Re-scan all datastores.
5.2 Add new datastores and select LUNs to which the datastores are
mapped.
6 Deploy virtual desktops.
6.1 Create two clusters on vCenter. Each of the cluster contains six
blades.
6.2 Create two resource pools for each cluster.
6.3 Create desktop pools on VMware Connection Server.
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Table 3-4 IP address configuration table
Item Subitem IP Address
AD/DNS/DHCP 10.1.0.7/8
ESXi host Cluster 1 (VDI_Cluster1) 100.199.20.20
100.199.20.21
100.199.20.22
100.199.20.23
100.199.20.24
100.199.20.25
Cluster 2 (VDI_Cluster2) 100.199.20.26
100.199.20.27
100.199.20.28
100.199.20.29
100.199.20.30
100.199.20.31
Login VSI Master 10.1.0.253
Launcher1 10.1.0.201
Launcher2 10.1.0.202
Launcher3 10.1.0.203
Launcher4 10.1.0.204
Launcher5 10.1.0.205
Launcher6 10.1.0.206
Launcher7 10.1.0.207
Launcher8 10.1.0.208
Launcher9 10.1.0.209
Launcher10 10.1.0.210
Launcher11 10.1.0.211
Launcher12 10.1.0.212
Launcher13 10.1.0.213
VMware VDI vCenter server 10.1.1.42
View Composer 10.1.1.27
VMware Connection Server 10.1.1.29
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
Item Subitem IP Address
SQL Server 10.1.1.41
vSphere Client 10.1.1.30/100.199.20.130
Storage system 5500V3 controller A 100.199.20.251
5500V3 controller B 100.199.20.252
10GE service port A 172.168.11.7
10GE service port B 172.168.11.8
3.3.3 Starting a Boot Storm Test
Table 3-5 Boot storm test procedure
Step Sub-step Operation
1 Perform the test on SAS disks.
1.1 Shut down all the virtual desktops deployed on SAS disks.
1.2 Use View Administrator to batch power on VMs.
1.3 Record the disk usage and CPU usage during the startup, and the time
the startup takes.
2 Perform the test on SSDs.
2.1 Shut down all the virtual desktops deployed on SSDs.
2.2 Use View Administrator to batch power on VMs.
2.3 Record the disk usage and CPU usage during the startup, and the time
the startup takes.
3.3.4 Starting a Medium-level Workload Test
Table 3-6 Medium-level workload test procedure
Step Sub-step Operation
1 Perform the test on SAS disks.
1.1 Power on all the VMs deployed on SAS disks.
1.2 Start 13 Login VSI launchers.
1.3 Configure a CSV file that contains 250 virtual desktop IP addresses.
1.4 Start Login VSI Master.
1.5 Set the test duration to 7000s.
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Step Sub-step Operation
1.6 Start the test.
1.7 Record the IOPS, latency, disk usage, and CPU usage of LUNs
during the test.
2 Perform the test on SSDs.
1.1 Power on all the VMs deployed on SSDs.
1.2 Start 13 Login VSI launchers.
1.3 Configure a CSV file that contains 250 virtual desktop IP addresses.
1.4 Start Login VSI Master.
1.5 Set the test duration to 7000s.
1.6 Start the test.
1.7 Record the IOPS, latency, disk usage, and CPU usage of LUNs
during the test.
3.4 Environment Deployment For details about environment deployment, see Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage —
Using SSDs to Improve the Performance of VMware (Implementation Guide).
3.5 Test Procedure and Conclusion
3.5.1 Boot Storm Test Procedure
Before performing a boot storm test, all the VMs need to be shut down. During the test,
enable performance monitoring on DeviceManager to monitor the IOPS and latency of disk
domains.
Step 1 Shut down VMs.
On the vCenter, select Resource Pool. On the page that is displayed, select Virtual Machines
on the right. Select all the VMs by pressing the Shift button. Right-click the selected VMs and
choose Power > Power Off.
Step 2 Enable performance monitoring.
Log in to DeviceManager at the storage side. Click Monitor to enable performance
monitoring. Set Query Method to Multi-graph, Object Type to Disk domain, and
Statistical Items to Total IOPS.
Open a new DeviceManager window and click Monitor to enable performance monitoring.
Set Query Method to Single-graph, Object Type to Disk domain, and Data Type to
Advanced items. On the listed items, select Avg. I/O response time.
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
Step 3 Start VMs.
On the vCenter, select Resource Pool. On the page that is displayed, select Virtual Machines
on the right. Select all the VMs by pressing the Shift button. Right-click the selected VMs and
choose Power > Power On.
Step 4 Monitor performance indicators.
In the window in step 2, the IOPS and latency of disk domains during the VM startup jump
and drop abruptly before staying at stable values.
Figure 3-2 IOPS comparison between 25 SAS disks and 5 SSDs in a boot storm test
Data in the figure above is collected by System Reporter. One record is made every two minutes.
Figure 3-3 Latency comparison between 25 SAS disks and 5 SSDs in a boot storm test
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
1 2 3 4 5 6
SAS
SSD
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1 2 3 4 5 6
SAS
SSD
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
Data in the preceding figure is collected by System Reporter. One record is made every two minutes.
----End
3.5.2 Boot Storm Test Conclusion
As shown in the previous figures, five SSDs carry more IOPS than 25 SAS disks. Therefore,
when SSDs are used, the large number of I/Os produced during batch VM startup can be
processed quickly, resulting in low latency (only 1 ms) and fast startup (25% faster than that
when SAS disks are used).
3.5.3 Medium-level Workload Test Procedure
The test is performed in two scenarios: 1. 250 VDI users are deployed on 25 SAS disks. 2.
250 VDI users are deployed on 5 SSDs.
Step 1 Start VMs.
Ensure that all the VMs are started and are not logged in to using any tool.
Step 2 Start Login VSI Launcher.
Log in to the server where Login VSI Launcher resides and start all launcher Agents.
Step 3 Configure Login VSI Master.
Log in to the server where Login VSI Master resides. Open Management Console. Set the test
duration to 7000s, Session to 250s, Timeframe to 500s, and Launch Delay to 30s. Save the
configuration and start the test.
Step 4 Collect performance statistics.
Use System Reporter to export performance data including disk latency, IOPS, and usage, and
LUN latency and IOPS, and controller CPU usage.
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
Figure 3-4 Utilization rate comparison between 25 SAS disks and 5 SSDs
Figure 3-5 Latency comparison between 25 SAS disks and 5 SSDs
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 56 61 66 71 76
SAS
SSD
0
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0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 56 61 66 71 76
SAS
SSD
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
Figure 3-6 Controller CPU usage comparison between 25 SAS disks and 5 SSDs
Figure 3-7 LUN IOPS comparison between 25 SAS disks and 5 SSDs
----End
3.5.4 Medium-level Workload Test Conclusion
Based on the preceding analysis and figures, we can conclude that in the two scenarios, LUN
IOPS and CPU usage are almost the same because upper-layer applications are the same, but
5 SSDs outshine 25 SAS disks in terms of disk usage and I/O latency.
Therefore, SSDs can improve VMware performance with less cost.
0
2
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1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 56 61 66 71 76
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SSD
0
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1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 56 61 66 71 76
SSD
SAS
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Figure 3-8 Test result when 250 VDI users are deployed on 25 SAS disks
Figure 3-9 Test result when 250 VDI users are deployed on 5 SSDs
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Huawei OceanStor V3 Converged Storage Systems — Using SSDs to Improve VMware Performance
4 Best Practices
This chapter describes recommended configurations for deploying VMware VDI based on
Huawei OceanStor V3 converged storage systems, including storage, host, and VM template
configurations.
4.1 Storage Configuration
Figure 4-1 Resource allocation flowchart
Figure 4-2 Storage configuration
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[1] Disk configuration: scenarios 1: 25 SAS disks; scenario 2: 25 SAS disks and 5 SSDs
[2] Disk domain configuration: scenario 1: Add all SAS disks to one disk domain and set its hot spare policy to High (default); scenario 2: Add 5 SSDs to the existing disk domain.
[3] Storage pool configuration: create a storage pool, set the RAID policy of the SAS layer to RAID 5-9, Usage to Block Storage Service (default), add an SSD layer and set its RAID policy to RAID 5-5.
[4] LUN configuration: Evenly distribute LUNs to controllers A and B. In Advanced area of the LUNs, set Initial Capacity Allocation Policy to Allocate from the high-performance tier first. Retain the default values of other parameters.
[5] VM configuration: operating system disk: 25 GB, 2 GB memory, 1 x 2-core CPU
4.1.1 Disk Domain Configuration
A disk domain is a combination of multiple disks. After disks are consolidated and a certain
amount of hot spare capacity is reserved, a disk domain provides storage resources for storage
pools in a unified manner.
One or more disk domains can be created in the OceanStor V3.
Multiple storage pools can be created in a disk domain.
A disk domain can consist of SSDs, SAS disks, and/or NL-SAS disks.
Disk domains are isolated from each other in terms of performance, storage resources, and
faults.
The best practices use 2.5-inch 600 GB SAS disks and 2.5-inch 600 GB SSDs to provide
storage space for virtual desktops. As user data storage requires modest performance and
large capacity, NL-SAS disks are recommended.
Based on VMware View, you are advised to:
Use different disk domains to provide storage space for system disks and data disks to
facilitate management and maintenance.
Deploy not more than 100 disks on each layer of a disk domain to ensure performance and
reliability.
Retain the default (high) hot spare policy of the disk domain for the sake of reliability.
4.1.2 Storage Pool Configuration
A storage pool, a container that stores storage space resources, is created in a disk domain. A
storage pool can dynamically allocate resources from a disk domain and define the RAID
level of each storage tier.
A storage tier is a collection of storage media providing the same performance level in a
storage pool. Different storage tiers manage storage media with different performance levels
and provide different storage spaces for applications whose performance requirements vary.
Storage tiers are classified into three types: high-performance tier composed of SSDs,
performance tier consisting of SAS disks, and capacity tier made of NL-SAS disks.
OceanStor V3 supports six RAID levels: RAID 6, RAID 10, RAID 5, RAID 3, RAID 50, and
RAID 1. The most commonly used RAID levels are RAID 6, RAID 10, and RAID 5. From
the perspective of disk usage, RAID 6 and RAID 5 are classified into RAID 6-4 (2D+2P),
RAID 6-6 (4D+2P), RAID 6-10 (8D+2P), RAID 5-3 (2D+1P), RAID 5-5 (4D+1P), and RAID
5-9 (8D+1P).
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In VDI scenarios, the best practices for creating storage pools for storing system disks of
virtual desktops are as follows:
RAID 10 is strongly recommended because it can provide high performance using the
minimum number of disks.
If reliability takes precedence over performance, RAID 6 is recommended.
If capacity takes precedence over reliability, RAID 5 is recommended.
In VDI scenarios, the best practices for creating storage pools for storing data disks of virtual
desktops are as follows:
RAID 5 is strongly recommended because this RAID level can provide largest available
capacity using the minimum number of disks.
If reliability takes precedence over performance, RAID 6 is recommended.
If performance takes precedence over reliability, RAID 10 is recommended.
When creating a storage pool, you can set an alarm threshold for the capacity allocation ratio.
The default threshold is 80%. Capacity alarming is particularly important in scenarios where
value-added features such as thin LUN, snapshot, remote replication, and clone are used. You
can set a proper alarm threshold based on the speed of application data growth to prevent
insufficient capacity of the storage pool from causing application interruption.
4.1.3 LUN Configuration
A LUN is a storage unit that can be directly mapped to a host for data reads and writes.
In VDI scenarios, the best practices for creating LUNs for system disks of virtual desktops are
as follows:
Create an even number of LUNs so that they can be evenly distributed to controllers for load
balancing.
When creating LUNs, do not enable SmartThin for performance improvement.
Assign not more than 128 VMs for each LUN.
Do not enable SmartThin for the LUNs used by system disks because the system disks occupy
only a small amount of space but have demanding performance requirements. You are
advised to enable SmartThin for user data disks to improve storage flexibility.
4.1.4 Host and Host Group Configuration
You can create and manage hosts so that the hosts can obtain and use the storage resources
allocated by the storage system. You can also create host groups for easily managing multiple
hosts. This management mode adapts to the VMware cluster management mode.
When creating a host group, match it with a VMware cluster and name the host group after
the cluster name for easy management and maintenance.
4.2 Application Configuration The configuration involves multipathing, VMware clusters, datastores, and VM templates.
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4.2.1 Multipathing Configuration
The best practices use redundant switches to provide multiple paths between the host and
storage system. Therefore, the multipathing software must be used to choose the optimum
path.
You are advised to install UltraPath for VMware that can automatically discover and select
the best path.
4.2.2 Cluster Configuration
Add 12 blade servers to two clusters for easy management and maintenance. Note the
following during the cluster configuration:
If HA is enabled, ensure that the cluster has sufficient VM resources and provide at least
one more host for switchover.
If DRS is enabled, provide a dedicated channel for vMotion.
Create two resource pools for each cluster to store VM desktops later.
4.2.3 VM Template Configuration
A VM template uses the Windows 7 32-bit operating system, 2 GB memory, and one virtual
socket with two cores for CPU.
Note the following when deploying a VM template:
Deploy the VM template on local disks.
Install VMware Tools on the VM to facilitate mouse pointer switchover between the VM and local computer.
After adding the VM to a domain, set the VM to obtain an IP address automatically.
Take snapshots when the VM is shut down.
4.2.4 Desktop Configuration
Note the following during desktop configuration:
The number of desktop pools should be the same as that of LUNs. Select one data store
for one desktop pool.
Use View Composer linked clones for vCenter Server configuration.
The value of Storage OverCommit is calculated based on the sizes of datastores and template VMs. It can be set to Moderate or Aggressive.
Select View Storage Accelerator for operating system disks.
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5 Appendix
Glossary
Abbreviation Full Name
AD Active Directory
DNS Domain name server
IOPS I/O per second
LUN Logical unit number
LVM Logical volume manager
RAID Redundant arrays of independent disks
SAN Storage area network
SAS Serial attached SCSI
VM Virtual machine
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