Increase Scalability for Virtual Desktops with EMC Symmetrix FAST VP and VMware VAAI

White Paper with EMC Symmetrix FAST VP and VMware VAAI EMC GLOBAL SOLUTIONS Abstract This white paper demonstrates how an EMC Symmetrix VMAX running Enginuity 5875 can be used to provide the storage resources for a robust VMware View environment for 1,000 Windows 7 virtual desktops. By integrating EMC Symmetrix VMAX, Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning, VMware vsphere 4.1, and VMware View 4.5 into a virtual desktop environment, organizations can realize a disk cost savings of almost 50 percent while centralizing management of the entire desktop environment and increasing capacity utilization for storage and servers. January 2011

Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. The information in this publication is provided as is. EMC Corporation 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 EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. For the most up-to-date listing of EMC product names, see EMC Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com. VMware, ESX, ESXi, vmotion, VMware vcenter, VMware View, and VMware vsphere are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. Part Number h8062.1 2

Contents Executive summary... 5 Introduction to the new EMC Symmetrix VMAX and Enginuity 5875... 5 Business case... 5 Solution overview... 6 Key results... 6 Introduction... 7 Purpose... 7 Scope... 7 Audience... 7 Use case solution overview... 8 Overview... 8 Physical architecture diagram... 8 Virtual infrastructure details... 9 Physical environment... 9 Test configuration... 9 Hardware resources... 10 Software resources... 10 Key components... 11 Introduction... 11 EMC Symmetrix Management Console... 11 EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage array... 12 FAST VP... 12 EMC Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning... 13 PowerPath/VE... 13 VAAI... 13 VMware vcenter Server... 13 VMware vsphere... 14 VMware View 4.5... 14 VSI... 14 VMware View architecture... 15 Linked clone overview... 15 Linked clone and replica disks... 15 Storage architecture... 16 Storage layout... 16 Storage configuration... 17 Disk group configuration... 17 FC thin pool configuration... 17 3

EFD thin pool configuration... 18 SATA thin pool configuration... 18 Storage before and after comparison... 19 Network architecture... 20 Network layout... 20 EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI)... 21 Overview... 21 Configuration... 21 LUN view (for the vsphere host)... 21 Target view (for the vsphere host)... 22 Virtual machine view... 22 Capabilities... 23 Testing environment and results... 24 Test environment... 24 Test results overview... 24 Symmetrix VMAX test results... 24 Login VSI results... 27 Storage tier results... 28 Realizing TCO savings with FAST VP... 30 Reduce total cost of ownership... 30 Savings achieved with FAST VP... 30 Conclusion... 31 Summary... 31 Findings... 31 Next steps... 31 References... 32 White papers... 32 4

Executive summary Introduction to the new EMC Symmetrix VMAX and Enginuity 5875 EMC s latest Proven Solutions for both desktop and business-critical application environments make it easier and faster to manage infrastructure and clone applications for test and development through virtualization. These solutions document best practices that can drive significant cost savings and better performance for demanding application workloads, while accelerating the customer s journey to the private cloud. Proven Solutions use new and enhanced features to validate storage efficiency and scale for organizational growth: EMC Symmetrix Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools (FAST VP) providing better optimization of high-performance Flash drives, and better responsiveness to changes in data activity through sub-lun automated storage tiering VMware vstorage API for Array Integration (VAAI) enabling storage administrators to maintain control of the infrastructure, while managing virtual server storage and other applications sharing the same storage array New duplicate TimeFinder /Snaps creating capacity-efficient replicas for application testing and development, and maximizing the use of existing storage Business case The desktop environment presents many challenges for today s enterprises. With a workforce that is distributed across many locations, IT organizations can find it difficult to deliver a consistent end-user experience while maintaining security and keeping costs down. A virtual desktop environment increases security and simplifies management, but customers require a scalable, tiered, and highly available infrastructure to deploy their virtual desktop environment. Virtualization also helps companies extend the useful life of their assets, lowering the TCO. The combination of leading technologies from EMC and VMware allows companies to: Maximize their investment Support service level agreements Reduce their desktop total cost of ownership (TCO) Improve end-user productivity with a consistent experience around the globe 5

Solution overview VMware View 4.5 desktop virtualization technology meets both user and IT needs, providing compelling advantages compared to traditional physical desktops and terminal services. By integrating EMC Symmetrix VMAX, Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning, VMware vsphere 4.1, and VMware View 4.5 into a virtual desktop environment, organizations can reduce costs by: Centralizing and simplifying management of the entire desktop environment Increasing capacity utilization for storage and servers Increasing security because the desktop infrastructure is completely behind the firewall Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning enables organizations to present a large amount of capacity to a VMware View desktop environment, and then consume space only as needed from a shared pool. This approach: Improves TCO and utilization by reducing initial overallocation of storage capacity Reduces labor by simplifying data layout with automated wide striping Reduces the steps required to support growth Key results The test results outlined in this white paper show that when EMC Symmetrix VMAX, Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning, VMware vsphere 4.1, and VMware View 4.5 combine to create a virtual desktop environment: TCO is lowered by using fewer disks. System performance is increased using fewer resources. System performance can be maintained using a fully automated tiered storage architecture. 6

Introduction Purpose This solution demonstrates how an EMC Symmetrix VMAX running Enginuity 5875 can be used to provide the storage resources for a robust VMware View 4.5 environment for 1,000 Windows 7 Enterprise virtual desktops. Planning and designing the storage infrastructure for VMware View is a critical step because the shared storage must be able to absorb large bursts of I/O that occur during the course of a day. These bursts can lead to periods of erratic and unpredictable virtual desktop performance. Users can adapt to slow performance, but unpredictable performance is sure to quickly frustrate them. To provide predictable performance to a virtual desktop infrastructure, the storage must be able to handle the peak I/O load from the clients while maintaining low response times. Designing for this workload involved deploying several disks to handle extreme I/O activity. This white paper details a solution that can handle peak user workloads while realizing a disk cost savings of almost 50 percent through the new features found in Enginuity 5875, VMware View 4.5, View Composer 2.5, and VMware vsphere 4.1. Scope Throughout this white paper we assume that you have some familiarity with the concepts and operations related to virtualization technologies and their use in information infrastructure. This white paper discusses multiple EMC products as well as those from other vendors. Some general configuration and operational procedures are outlined. However, for detailed product installation information, please refer to the user documentation for those products. Audience This white paper is intended for EMC employees, partners, and customers including IT planners, virtualization architects and administrators, and any other IT professionals involved in evaluating, acquiring, managing, operating, or designing a virtual desktop infrastructure leveraging EMC technologies. 7

Use case solution overview Overview The validated solution is built in a VMware View 4.5 environment on an EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage platform. The key components of the physical architecture are: A five-node VMware vsphere 4.1 cluster for infrastructure services and virtual desktop load-generation test harness (the storage array for this environment was segregated from the desktop production environment) Four VMware vsphere 4.1 clusters to host virtual desktops An EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage array running Enginuity 5875 code Physical architecture diagram Figure 1 illustrates the physical architecture of the use case solution. Figure 1. Physical architecture diagram 8

Virtual infrastructure details VMware View Manager 4.5, View Composer 2.5, VMware vcenter Server, and Login VSI client load generators and all other supporting services are installed as virtual machines hosted on the Infrastructure cluster. The following are details of the virtual infrastructure: Virtual desktops are created by using VMware View Composer 2.5 and are deployed as linked clones. The View Composer 2.5 tiered storage feature is used to store desktop replicas on dedicated Enterprise Flash Drives (EFDs). User data is stored on dedicated User Data Disks (UDDs) deployed by way of View Composer 2.5 at desktop creation and using Windows folder redirection. Storage pools with EFD, Fibre Channel (FC), and SATA drives are used for linked clones and user data disks. An EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage system stores all virtual machine files (VMDK, VMX and log). VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) is used to load balance virtual desktops in the ESX cluster. Physical environment The physical environment for this use case consisted of the following elements: A Symmetrix VMAX array running Enginuity code 5875 and configured with a mix of EFD, FC, and SATA drives as detailed in the hardware table that follows. 28 physical servers running vsphere 4.1 deployed in four VMware clusters. A separate five-node infrastructure cluster running vsphere 4.1. This Infrastructure cluster hosted Active Directory, DNS/DHCP, VMware vcenter, and View 4.5/View Composer 2.5 virtual machines as well as the client launchers for Login VSI. A load balancer for the View Connection Broker virtual machines to distribute the virtual desktop connection workload. Test configuration Testing consisted of the following: Deployment of 1,000 Windows 7 Enterprise x64 virtual desktops Validation of the environment using Login Consultants VSI load-generation tool running a Medium workload Multiple tests were conducted to achieve a steady state load and performance, and utilization metrics were measured during all testing. 9

Hardware resources Table 1 describes the hardware resources used in this solution. Table 1. Hardware resources Equipment Quantity Configuration Unified computing blade servers (View desktops) 16 2 x quad-core Xeon 5500 Family CPUs, 48 GB RAM 2 x 10 GB QLogic CNA adapters Rack servers (View desktops) Management servers (Management, VMware vcenter/view Manager, Login VSI launchers) EMC Symmetrix VMAX SE Fibre Channel storage array 12 2 x six-core Xeon 5650 CPUs, 72 GB RAM 2 x 10 GB Emulex CNA adapters 5 2 x quad-core Xeon 5400 Family CPUs, 64 GB RAM 4 x 1 GigE Ethernet ports 1 x 4 GB QLogic QLE2462 HBA 1 36 x 450 GB 15k FC pooled storage 13 x 200 GB EFD 23 x 1 TB 7.2k SATA Multilayer director switches 2 8 GB SAN switches Enterprise-class switches 2 Converged network switches Enterprise fabric switches 2 Fabric interconnect switches Application load balancer 1 Hardware load balancer for Connection Brokers Software resources Table 2 describes the software resources used in the solution application environment. Table 2. Software resources Software VMware vsphere VMware vcenter VMware View VMware View Composer EMC PowerPath /VE Version 4.1 GA B260247 4.1 GA B259021 4.5 GA 2.5 GA 5.4 SP2 EMC Virtual Storage Integrator 4.0 Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise edition Login Consultants VSI 3.0 Windows 7 Enterprise x64 10

Key components Introduction This section briefly describes the components used in this solution, including: EMC Symmetrix Management Console EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage array FAST VP EMC Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning EMC PowerPath/VE VAAI VMware vcenter Server VMware vsphere VMware View 4.5 VSI EMC Symmetrix Management Console The Symmetrix VMAX storage system provides a built-in web browser interface, Symmetrix Management Console (SMC). SMC provides centralized management to the entire Symmetrix VMAX storage infrastructure. In the context of FAST, SMC integrates easy-to-use wizards to: Create a thin pool Create storage tiers Set FAST policies Define storage groups 11

EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage array EMC Symmetrix VMAX with Enginuity version 5875 provides the newest microcode edition to the Symmetrix family. The tiered storage configuration used in the test environment is based on the following Symmetrix VMAX features: FAST VP VLUN 3 or Virtual LUN VP Mobility Support for VAAI Built on the strategy of simple, intelligent, modular storage, it incorporates a new, highly scalable Virtual Matrix Architecture that enables Symmetrix VMAX arrays to grow seamlessly and cost-effectively from an entry-level configuration into the world s largest storage system. Symmetrix VMAX supports EFDs, FC drives, and SATA drives within a single array, as well as an extensive range of RAID types. The EMC Enginuity operating environment provides the intelligence that controls all components in the Symmetrix VMAX array. Enginuity 5875 for Symmetrix VMAX offers: More efficiency: New zero-downtime technology for migrations (technology refreshes) and lower costs with automated tiering More scalability: Up to two times more performance, with the ability to manage up to 10 times more capacity per storage administrator More security: Built-in encryption, RSA-integrated key management, increased value for virtual server and mainframe environments, replication enhancements, and a new e-licensing model FAST VP FAST VP is the sub-lun version of Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST). It enables the storage administrator to set high-performance policies that utilize more Flash drive capacity for critical applications, and cost-optimized policies that utilize more SATA drive capacity for less-critical applications. With FAST VP, customers can achieve: Maximum utilization of Flash drives for high-performance workloads Lower overall total cost of storage by placing the inactive data on SATA drives Better performance than all-fc configurations, but at a lower cost, requiring fewer drives, less power and cooling, and a smaller footprint Radically simplified management in a tiered environment FAST VP moves portions of a volume or LUN between tiers, based on the changing performance requirements of applications. It builds on the premise that only portions of a volume or LUN are active, and those are the portions that should be promoted to Flash drives. Since only the active portions of the volume or LUN are being moved to Flash drives, customers get the best utilization out of their Flash drive capacity. Additionally, FAST VP also moves inactive portions of a volume or LUN to SATA drives and enables customers to use both Flash and SATA together in Tier 1 environments. 12

EMC Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning EMC Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning enables organizations to reduce costs by: Simplifying storage management and increasing capacity utilization Presenting a large amount of capacity to a host, and then consuming space only as needed from a shared pool Improving TCO by reducing initial overallocation of storage capacity Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning also reduces labor by simplifying data layout with automated wide striping, and reducing the steps required to support growth. PowerPath/VE PowerPath/VE works with VMware ESX as a Multipath Plugin (MPP) that provides path management to ESX hosts. It is installed as a kernel module on the vsphere host. It will plug in to the vsphere I/O stack framework to bring the advanced multipathing capabilities of PowerPath/VE, including dynamic load balancing and automated path failover, to the vsphere hosts. VAAI VMware vstorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) enable VMware vsphere to offload certain operations to storage arrays like Symmetrix VMAX thereby accelerating tasks, supporting high-scale environments, and freeing up server resources for other activities. VAAI includes three components with this release: Full Copy: Offloads replication to the array for up to 10 times faster virtual machine deployments, clones, snapshots, and VMware Storage vmotion operations Block Zero: Initializes file system block and virtual disk space faster, with up to 10 times less I/O for Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) formatting and relocation Hardware-Assisted Locking: Enables more efficient metadata updates and assists virtual desktop deployments, for up to 10 times more virtual machines per datastore In our solution VAAI is on by default with Hardware-Assisted Locking enabled. With VAAI, instead of 32 to 64 virtual machines per replica image this solution scaled to 250 virtual machines per replica, providing improved scalability and efficiency. VMware vcenter Server VMware vcenter Server presents a universal hub for managing the VMware vsphere environment. It provides unified management of all hosts and virtual machines in a data center from a single console. VMware vcenter Server enables administrators to improve control, simplify day-to-day tasks, and reduce the complexity and cost of managing an IT environment. 13

VMware vsphere VMware vsphere is a complete, scalable, and powerful virtualization platform, delivering the infrastructure and application services that organizations need to transform their information technology and deliver IT as a service. VMware vsphere provides agility, control, and efficiency while fully preserving customer choice. VMware View 4.5 VMware View 4.5 is the leading desktop virtualization solution from VMware, built for delivering desktops as a managed service from the platform to the protocol. This solution unlocks the desktop components, operating system, applications, and persona (user data and settings) and allows IT to manage them independently of each other for extreme business agility. VMware View dynamically assembles these components on demand, giving end users a single personalized, unified desktop with all applications and information immediately available. VSI Virtual Storage Integrator is a free plug-in for VMware vcenter that is available to all users with EMC storage in their environment. VSI plug-ins are available for EMC Symmetrix, CLARiiON, and Celerra arrays. VSI simplifies the job of mapping VMware vsphere datastores to LUNs and NFS shares on your EMC storage, and helps pinpoint the location of virtual machines and raw device mapping files on the array. The VMware administrator s visibility into the storage layer can go a long way in helping troubleshoot storage performance issues and simplifying communication among server, storage, and virtualization teams. 14

VMware View architecture Linked clone overview VMware View with View Composer 2.5 uses the concept of linked clones to quickly provision virtual desktops. This reference architecture uses the new tiered storage feature of View Composer 2.5 to build linked clones and their replica images on separate datastores as shown in Figure 2: Figure 2. Linked clone architecture Linked clone and replica disks The operating system reads all the common data from the read-only replica and the unique data that is created by the operating system or user, which is stored on the linked clone. A logical representation of this relationship is shown in Figure 3: Figure 3. Replica disks and linked clones logical diagram 15

Storage architecture Storage layout Table 3 shows the disk layout. Symmetrix VMAX SE is based on a single engine with two directors, each director having two quad-core processors. Table 3. Storage disk layout 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D Symmetrix VMAX Disk Layout - Enginuity 5875 and View 4.5 Disk adapter 7 Disk adapter 8 A0 A1 B0 B1 C0 C1 D0 D1 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 4 200GB EFD RAID1 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 5 Hot Spare Disk Group 2 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 4 200GB EFD RAID1 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 6 Disk Group 6 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 4 200GB EFD RAID1 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 6 Disk Group 6 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 4 200GB EFD RAID1 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 6 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 4 200GB EFD RAID1 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 6 Disk Group 6 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 4 200GB EFD RAID1 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 6 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 4 200GB EFD RAID1 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 6 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 2 Disk Group 4 200GB EFD RAID1 Disk Group 5 Disk Group 6 Disk Group 6 E Hot Spare Hot Spare Hot Spare Hot Spare Hot Spare Hot Spare 200GB EFD Hot Spare Hot Spare 16

Storage configuration The following storage configuration is used for View desktop deployment: Note The disks in disk group 2 FC 450GB 15k have been configured as Data Devices, added to FC-Thin pool with thin devices bound to the pool. These thin devices are being used as desktop OS disk. Disk group 4 200GB EFD have been configured as Data Devices, added to EFD-Thin pool with thin devices bound to the pool. These thin devices are being used to store the gold image, snapshots, and replica disk. The disk group is denoted in blue. Disk group 5 SATA 1TB 7.5k have been configured as Data Devices, added to SATA- Thin pool with thin devices bound to the pool. These thin devices are being used as persistent user data disk. The disk group is denoted in green. Hot spares disks are denoted in yellow for each disk type. By default Symmetrix VMAX requires eight hot spares with a minimum of one disk per disk type including EFD. Disk group configuration Table 4 describes the configuration of the disk groups. Table 4. Disk group configuration Type No. Disks No. Data Devices Device Size Protection Disk Group 2 FC 16 16 240 GB RAID 5 (3+1) Disk Group 4 EFD 8 32 23 GB RAID 1 Disk Group 5 SATA 12 32 250 GB RAID 5 (3+1) FC thin pool configuration Table 5 lists the storage configuration for the FC thin pools. Table 5. FC thin pool configuration Parameter Setting Dev Configuration RAID 5 (3+1) No. of Data Dev 16 No. of Thin Dev 4 Data Dev Size (GB) 240 Thin Dev Size (GB) 960 TDev ID 7C:88 17

EFD thin pool configuration Table 6 lists the storage configuration for the EFD thin pools. Table 6. EFD thin pool configuration Parameter Setting Dev Configuration RAID 1 No. of Data Dev 32 No. of Thin Dev 4 Data Dev Size (GB) 23 Thin Dev Size (GB) 200 TDev ID A8:AF SATA thin pool configuration Table 7 lists the storage configuration for the SATA thin pools. Table 7. SATA thin pool configuration Parameter Setting Dev Configuration RAID 5 (3+1) No. of Thin Dev 8 No. of Data Dev 32 Data Dev Size (GB) 240 Thin Dev Size (GB) 960 TDev ID 8C:A8 18

Storage before and after comparison Table 8 compares the disk requirements for 1,000 desktops before and after FAST VP is implemented (user response times are the same in both disk configurations). Table 8. Before and after FAST VP disk requirements comparison Without FAST VP After FAST VP implementation Linked clones data stores 100 x 450 GB 15k FC drives 800 x 28.125 GB RAID 1 LUNs were used as data devices for a single thin pool 60 GB TDEVs 8 x 10-member thin meta devices (8 x 600 GB LUNs) used for the linked clone data stores for each desktop pool 1 x 20-member meta device using the 60 GB TDEVs (1.2 TB) and used as a separate data store for the vswap Linked clones data stores 16 x 450 GB 15k FC drives 16 x 240 GB RAID 5 LUNs were used as data devices for a single thin pool 240 GB TDEVs 4 x 4-member thin meta devices (4 x 960 GB LUNs) used for the linked clone data stores for each desktop pool Replica data stores 8 x 200 EFD disk drives 32 x 23 GB RAID 1 LUNs were used as data devices for a single thin pool 4 x 200 GB TDEVs used for replica disk for the corresponding desktop pool User Data Disk 12 x 1 TB 7.5k SATA drives 32 x 240 GB RAID 5 LUNs were used as data devices for a single thin pool 32 x 240 GB TDEVs 8 x 4-member thin meta devices (8 x 960 GB LUNs) used for persistent user data disk 19

Network architecture Network layout Network connectivity in this solution environment consisted of two 1G network interfaces for the ESX Service Console vswitch and two 10G converged network adapters for a second vswitch containing port groups for VM and vmotion networks. The adapters use 802.1Q trunking for the connections to the physical switches with VLAN tagging for network segregation. In the case of the unified computing servers, all port groups, including Service Console, were part of the same vswitch that was tied to the redundant 10G network interfaces. Figure 4. Network layout 20

EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) Overview VSI for vsphere Client is a storage plug-in that unites the capabilities of VMware View and EMC storage platforms. VSI presents the underlying storage details to the virtual datacenter administrator, merging the data of several different storage mapping tools into a few seamless vsphere Client views. VSI enables a virtualization administrator to resolve the underlying storage of Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) and Network File System (NFS) datastores and virtual disks, as well as raw device mappings (RDM). In addition, administrators are presented with lists of storage arrays and devices that are accessible to the ESX and ESXi hosts in the virtual datacenter. Configuration VSI, in conjunction with EMC Solutions Enabler, is configured to communicate from the client to the VMware vcenter server so that when installed, storage views are visible through VMware vcenter. LUN view (for the vsphere host) Figure 5 shows the VMware vcenter LUN view within the VSI. This view presents a summary of all LUNs assigned to the ESX host, the device configuration, its properties and multipathing, and to which storage array it belongs. Figure 5. VMware vcenter LUN view 21

Target view (for the vsphere host) Figure 6 shows the VMware vcenter Target view, listing the vmdk files and associated datastore for VM engmv-101. Figure 6. VMware vcenter Target view Virtual machine view Figure 7 shows the VMware vcenter VM view. Figure 7. VMware vcenter virtual machine view 22

Capabilities Once installed and configured, VSI provides four views: The global EMC Storage view This view is available from the vsphere Client Home page, linked by the EMC Storage icon, and has three tabs. The Settings tab allows you to configure the global settings for viewing storage, including the Solutions Enabler client/server settings, log settings, and version information. The Arrays tab lists all of the storage arrays that VSI has knowledge of, and allows for the discovery of new arrays and the deletion of previously discovered arrays. The Storage Pool Management tab displays all Symmetrix Management Console (SMC) servers with which VSI is currently registered. The EMC Storage tab for vcenter, Datacenters, Clusters, Resource Pools, and hosts This tab appears when a VMware object or host is selected. It provides insight into the storage that is configured and allocated for a given object or host. The EMC Storage tab for virtual machines This view appears when a virtual machine is selected. It provides insight into the allocated storage for a given virtual machine, including both virtual disks and RDM. The SRDF SRA tab This view appears when an ESX/ESXi host is selected on a vsphere Client running on VMware Site Recovery Manager Server. It allows you to configure device pair definitions for the EMC SRDF Storage Replication Adapter (SRA), to use when testing VMware Site Recovery Manager recovery plans, or when creating gold copies before VMware Site Recovery Manager recovery plans are executed. 23

Testing environment and results Test environment The 1,000 desktop Windows 7 environment built and tested in this white paper was tested using the VSI load-generation tool from Login Consultants. A separate Infrastructure environment was set up for the Domain, DNS, and client machines. Login VSI requires a launcher for each group of desktops (up to 45 per launcher), therefore our environment required 23 launchers that were Windows 7 Enterprise x64 virtual machines running the VSI launcher software as well as Microsoft Office. The test harness and its associated workload and resources were kept isolated from the virtual desktop workload. The Login VSI software was also installed on the Gold Copy desktop VM so that it was available on all desktops as they were deployed and testing consisted of initiating the launchers and having them connect to the desktops at which point they executed a loadgeneration script that ran in a loop for the duration of the test. Once all desktops were cycled through in the test and all launchers had completed their connections, the desktops were logged off and results files were generated. Test results overview The Login VSI tests measured the length of time it took for tasks to be executed by desktop VM during the duration of the test and also measured minimum, maximum, and average response times for all application tasks. The result was a graph showing the execution timings across the duration of the test and would indicate any periods where the Max Reached value was achieved this value equated to a response time that would be deemed unacceptable to a user and would indicate a failed test. The results in the following sections are representative of the testing completed in our environment that validates the storage design deployed. Symmetrix VMAX test results This section describes Symmetrix VMAX statistics from a VSI medium run. The initial test starts with a boot storm of all 1,000 desktops for a duration below 15 minutes. During the boot storm the array serviced more than 37,000 IOPS and leveled off to an average of 7,000 IOPS (7 IOPS per desktop) during medium load testing. Figure 8 shows the total IOPS for FC ports during the boot storm test. The IO activity was evenly distributed across all four director ports resulting in 37,000 combined IOPS on average. 24

Figure 8. Total FC port IOPS during boot storm test Figure 9 shows the total system IOPS (aggregate for all FE ports) during the boot storm test: Figure 9. Total aggregate FE port IOPS during boot storm test 25

Figure 10 shows the average IOPS per tier during the boot storm test: Average IOPS 10000 1000 I/O Per Sec 100 10 1 Figure 10. 15:15 15:30 15:45 16:00 16:15 16:30 16:45 17:00 17:15 17:30 17:35 Average tier IOPS during boot storm test 17:40 17:45 17:50 17:55 18:00 18:15 18:30 18:45 Figure 11 shows the total throughput of all drives during the boot storm test: Average Thoughput SSD FC SATA 100000 KB 10000 1000 100 10 SSD FC SATA 1 15:15 15:30 15:45 16:00 16:15 16:30 16:45 17:00 17:15 17:30 17:45 18:00 18:15 18:30 18:45 Figure 11. Total throughput for all drives during boot storm test 26

Figure 12 show statistics from a typical host in View-Cluster-1. On average the vsphere hosts had 60 percent CPU use during peak loads, and 90 percent memory use throughout the test. Note that the vsphere servers had a modest amount of memory (48 GB RAM). The number of desktops per host ranged between 36 and 70 based on the amount of RAM (48 to 96 GB) on a given ESX host. Figure 12. Typical host statistics Login VSI results Figure 13 shows the Login VSI Index Average, representing an average 1.5 to 2 ms end-user response time throughout the application workload testing. VSImax not reached indicates the test succeeded; at the end of the test with 1,000 desktops the system is working with no issues. 27

Figure 13. Login VSI index average Storage tier results FAST VP is comprised of storage tiers, FAST policies, and associated storage groups. Storage tiers are thin pools with the same disk and protection type, while FAST policies define the maximum percentage of the associated storage group capacity that can reside in each tier. Only one FAST policy can be assigned to a storage group; however multiple storage groups can be assigned to a single FAST policy. Our FAST VP user-defined policy consists of three tiers and is associated with storage group ViewThinDev, as shown in Table 9 and Figure 14: Table 9. FAST VP user-defined tier policies Name Thin pool type Protection Capacity Tier 1 Thin-EFD-RAID1 EFD RAID 1 10% Tier 2 Thin-FC- FC RAID 5 (3+1) 40% Tier 3 Thin-SATA- SATA RAID 5 (3+1) 50% Figure 14 shows the tiers in the management console: Figure 14. Symmetrix Management Console showing tiers 28

FAST VP moves data at the sub-extent level, therefore a thin device in FAST control may have extents associated with multiple tiers but still be bound to its original thin pool (see Table 10). Table 10. FAST control of thin devices Track 64KB Chunk 12 tracks 768 KB Sub-extent 10 chunks 7680 KB Extent 480 chunks 360 MB Figure 15 shows the SATA thin device track allocation for all three tiers of storage at the conclusion of testing as a result of FAST VP migration: Figure 15. SATA thin device allocation 29

Realizing TCO savings with FAST VP Reduce total cost of ownership Table 11 compares the storage configuration before and after implementation of FAST VP for the virtualized desktop environment. Table 11. Storage configuration before and after FAST VP Storage technology Before FAST VP After FAST VP implementation EFD n/a 8 x 200 GB EFD RAID 1 FC 100 x 450 GB 15k FC RAID 5 (3+1) 16 x 450 GB 15k FC RAID 5 (3+1) SATA n/a 12 x 1 TB SATA 7.2k RAID 5 (3+1) Savings achieved with FAST VP Table 12 lists the saving we achieved by implementing FAST VP in our virtual desktop infrastructure environment. Table 12. Savings achieved with FAST VP TCO parameter Improvement using FAST VP Capacity required 53% less storage required using FAST VP Cost per IOPS Cost comparison 43% lower using FAST VP 25% lower using FAST VP 30

Conclusion Summary Building a virtual desktop environment that integrates EMC Symmetrix VMAX, Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning, Symmetrix FAST VP, VMware vsphere 4.1, and VMware View 4.5 allows you to: Centralize management of the entire desktop environment to enable desktop environment consistency and increased security Use more of your available capacity for storage and servers Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning and FAST VP allow you to allocate thin provision LUNs for automated tiered storage. This lets you make a large amount of capacity to the VMware View desktop environment but only consume space as needed from a shared pool. This approach: Reduces TCO by avoiding overallocation of storage capacity Provides fully automated tiered storage capacity, easing management and providing for both performance and efficiency (FAST VP ensures that workloads are automatically moved to the appropriate tier of storage) Reduces labor through simplified data layout and automated wide striping Reduces the required steps to support growth Findings Our testing shows that a virtual desktop test environment that integrated EMC Symmetrix VMAX, Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning, VMware vsphere 4.1, and VMware View 4.5 provides: Increased system performance using less storage capacity (30 percent more aggregate disk IOPS, with 64 percent fewer disk drives) System performance can be maintained for 43 percent less cost per IOPS Next steps To learn more about this and other solutions, contact an EMC representative or visit www.emc.com. 31

References White papers For additional information, see the documents listed below. Access is restricted to EMC Powerlink users. EMC Virtual Storage Integrator for vsphere Client Version 3.0 Product Guide http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1/en_us/offering_technical/technical_document ation/300-010-946.pdf EMC Virtual Storage Integrator for vsphere Client Version 3.0.1 Release Notes http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1/en_us/offering_technical/technical_document ation/300-010-945_a03.pdf New Features in EMC Enginuity 5875 for Open Systems Environments white paper http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1/en_us/offering_technical/white_paper/h8092- features-enginuity-open-systems-wp.pdf 32