VDI Architecture

1
VDI Architecture

• Chris House, VCP
• Senior Network Analyst
• DataCenter Team

2
Quick facts

• 1,500 Windows XP SP2 sessions
• 1 or more statically assigned to users
• 2 datacenters, 750 sessions per datacenter
• 2 VirtualCenter servers (1 per datacenter)
• 38 ESX servers (19 per datacenter/VC)
• 4 ESX clusters (2 per datacenter/VC)
• 15 datastores per cluster/server
• 25 sessions per datastore
• 2 HP StorageWorks XP1024 Fibre-Channel SAN Arrays
  (1 per datacenter)

3
Concept

• Concurrent VDI and blade PC deployment
• Complete desktop replacement for office and
  clinical staff
• Reduce PC maintenance costs/time
• Provide fastest possible access for roaming users
  to desktop and apps
• All sessions run 24x7
• Users encouraged to leave apps running
• Sessions statically assigned (no pooling)
• Support multiple sessions per user (software
  testing)
• Wyse dual-monitor HP thin terminals, 19-inch
  LCD monitors, biometric keyboards, Windows XP
  Embedded
• Manually failover sessions to remote datacenter
  if disaster

4
Sessions

• Windows XP SP2
• 10GB C drive
• 512MB RAM (pagefile 768-1536MB), 1 vCPU, 1 NIC
• Sessions never suspended/shut down
• Will reboot every 2 weeks once idle for 8 hours
• Reimaged as needed using Altiris (PXE boot)
• My Documents redirected to network drive
• Sessions not backed up

5
Session Deployment

• Sessions deployed once using ESX service console
  shell script (bash)
• VM name hostname same as custom MAC address
• 0050560A for VDC sessions
• 0050560D for BDC sessions
• Deployment process
• Create directory, customize new VMX
• vmkfstools clone sysprep-ready VMDK
• register with server and power on for sysprep

6
Location-based computing

• Sessions aware of user location within the
  enterprise
• Printing applications require user location to
  function properly
• Specific printers dynamically installed at RDP
  login depending on users location
• Roaming Printer Agent
• Custom solution developed in-house
• Microsoft Terminal Services API used to obtain
  thin terminal hostname, correlate to a location

7
Application deployment

• Initially considered SVS/Appstream
• Currently use Novell ZENWorks, Altiris
• Application objects assigned to users in
  eDirectory
• Icons for ZEN applications presented on desktop
• Application installed at first launch
• Moving to ZEN 10 for Active Directory

8
Broker

• Custom broker developed in-house
• Brokers RDP connections to VDI and other
  endpoints
• VDI
• CCI (HP blade PCs)
• Desktop PCs
• Assignments made in Active Directory
• Based on Remote Operator property of computer
  object in AD
• Supports multiple endpoints per user

9
Clusters Servers

• 38 x ESX 3.0.1 Enterprise
• 2 x VirtualCenter 2.0.2
• 40 sessions per server (DRS balances load)
• 4 clusters, 9-10 servers per cluster
• HA DRS enabled
• 375 sessions per cluster

• HP BL480c G1 c-Class blades
• Dual Intel Xeon Quad-Core processors _at_ 2.666GHz
• 24 GB memory
• 4 x 1000MB NICs
• Dual-port 4GB FC HBA

10
Network

• 4 x 1000MB NICs
• c-Class enclosures with two Cisco switches
• ESX vSwitch vmnics uplink to ports on both
  enclosure switches (two nics per vSwitch)
• Cisco switches have 2 x 1000MB Etherchannel
  uplinks, link state tracking enabled
• vSwitch0
• Service Console (VLAN for servers)
• VMKernel (VLAN for VMotion)
• vSwtich1
• Multiple Virtual Machine portgroups (separate
  VLANs)

11
Storage

• Dual-port 4GB Qlogic FC HBA
• c-Class enclosures with two 4/12 Brocade 4GB
  switches, single uplinks to core switches
• HBA connects to each switch
• Metro has dual-fabric FC star layout (core
  edge switches, 32 total)
• 15 datastores per cluster
• 25 sessions per datastore
• 263GB datastore size
• 9-10 hosts per datastore

12
Storage

• 2 x HP StorageWorks XP1024 arrays
• 7.89TB dedicated to local datacenter VM disks
• 7.89TB dedicated on remote array for synchronous
  continuous replication of local VM disks
• 15.78TB/array, 31.5TB total
• Dedicated array ports for VDI ESX (4 per fabric,
  8 total)
• Datastores balanced across all paths (8)
• 18 RAID5(7D1P) disk groups per array
• Local VDI LDEVs
• Replicated VDI LDEVs from remote array
• 1 LUN per datastore (no extents)
• Datastore LUNs are XP LUSEs of 17 LDEVs (from
  different disk groups - 136 spindles per LUN)

13
Achievements

• Staff appreciate lightning-fast access to
  applications and improved mobility
• Performance on par with and sometimes faster than
  PCs/BladePCs (server-class hardware)
• Decreased time to access information improves
  patient safety
• Very convenient
• Information secure in Datacenter
• Reduced PC support calls
• Reduced electricity usage through fewer PCs/CRTs
• Streamlined infrastructure
• Safe from ESX server failure with HA
• Safe from runaway CPU/memory hogging apps in
  sessions affecting servers with DRS load
  balancing
• Service desk has more tools to manage sessions
  (VM reset and View console through VC WebAccess)
• Able to perform server maintenance during the day
  by utilizing VMotion to shuffle sessions around

14
Issues

• Multimedia limits of RDP
• streaming video/Flash
• high-res images/animation
• Currently using Wyse multimedia redirector,
  supports only few codecs
• USB support
• VDI performance suffers when all sessions perform
  high disk I/O at same time
• Windows Updates disabled, failing retries
• Antivirus randomized across week
• Large software deployment/updates Epic
• Re-imaging

15
VMware vClient / VDM3

• Metro invited to private beta at Palo Alto HQ
• Several features of VDM could be beneficial for
  our environment
• Herculean effort to move existing environment to
  VDM
• rip replace would be quickest (versus
  migration)
• What to do with 1,500 displaced users?
• Conflicts exist between current session
  management processes/configuration and VDMs
  methods retraining

16
Future

• Software vendors working on multimedia
  improvements for RDP
• Considering switching to RGS or another protocol
• Introducing session pooling
• Eliminating array replication or switching to
  asynchronous
• Finding cheaper storage that performs
• Continuing to evaluate VDM

17
Questions?

• housecs_at_metrogr.org
• http//communities.vmware.com/people/chouse