NexentaVSA for View: Deploy—Measure—Calibrate

VDI Should Be EasyDesktop management shouldn’t be difficult. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is the concept of centralizing a corporation’s desktops using technologies such as virtualization. Typical VDI deployments include complex, multi-team involvements that can total more than 150 individual steps to create a full-fledged environment. The NexentaVSA™ for View solution greatly simplifies that process with a few simple inputs, creating a synergy between the desktop, hypervisor, and storage never before achieved. Think of it asVMware for View in-a-box.

What is NexentaVSANexentaVSA is a new approach to simplifying and automating virtual desktop infrastructure deployments, management, and calibration using virtual storage and VMware View 5.0.

The NexentaVSA solution addresses the key challenges of VDI deployment through a single dashboard with real-time analytics. It offers rapid deployment of NexentaStor, running as a virtual storage appliance (VSA), across the vSphere cluster based on simple user inputs.

NexentaVSA integrates the complexities of storage and desktop deployment for VDI into one console, greatly simplifying the process.

How it WorksA virtual Storage appliance is installed on the same hardware where the VDI virtual machines are installed. This eliminates the need for network connectivity and external storage systems altogether.

To deploy a pool of desktops, questions are presented as to which desktop template to use, how many desktops are desired for the pool, and which storage profile should be applied. It’s as simple as that. There are a variety of features that are presented through the wizard interface.(Figure 1 on following page.)

Dedicated and FloatingPreset values for a tuned desktop environment initially are based on the Dedicated or Floating settings. Dedicated desktops provide a 1:1 continuous relationship between a user and the virtual desktop. Each time the user logs in, they get mapped to the identical virtual machine. Floating desktops are built on-the-fly, based on a user’s attributes.

Leveraging VSANexentaVSA can be implemented into an environment with great flexibility between deployment architectures of locally hosted storage (NexentaStor VSA), a physical NexentaStor appliance, or even a third-party storage device. Through a wizard-based system, storage is chosen and deployed automatically.

Technical Brief

Flexible, Scalable Storage Architecture

• Usingcommodityx86hardwareorvirtualization,NexentaVSAcanbedeployedanywhere.

Orchestrated Storage Deployment

• NexentaVSAcommunicateswithVMwarevSphereandViewtodeployacustomizedstorageplatformwiththevirtualdesktopsbasedentirelyonuserinput.

Deployment Options• Storageisdeployedasavirtualstorage

applianceortophysicalhardware,applyingspecificStorageProfilestomeetdesktopneeds.

Performance Validation• Integratedperformancetesting

validatesthesolutionpost-deployment.

Cost / Time Savings• NexentaVSAlowerstheoverallcostof

deployingandmanagingadesktop.

• Implementationinhours,notdaysorweeks.

NexentaVSA at a Glance

Deployment WizardVDI Deployment Wizard gives administrators the capability to create NFS / ZFS storage from local ESX storages of all clustered ESX servers and, subsequently, create virtual desktops based on this automated (created) storage.

Administrators set the number of desktops to deploy and the maximum size of the pool, along with a desktop template. The Wizard rebalances those desktops with respect to storage locality and provides them to end users. (Figure 3)

For initial deployment, the Deployment Wizard asks a limited number of essential set-up questions and then provisions a specified ESX cluster with a new Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. The Wizard offers preset profiles for specific deployment scenarios. Profiles can be created by editing existing files or editing the xml config files.

NexentaVSA supports both dedicated and floating deployments. Dedicated refers to a pool of virtual desktops that are mutually interchangeable. Dedicated environments often are configured to revert to an original snapshot upon user logoff. Floating, on the other hand, retains its state, including all user modifications to local storage.

The Deployment Wizard asks that you first choose one of those environments. The Wizard initiates an automated transaction to allocate optimal system resources. It then creates the virtual desktops and a virtual desktop infrastructure.

The Wizard also guides the user through a process for integrating storage with virtualization, additionally providing real time analytics, logs, and activities.

Some VDI system deployments can take up to 150 steps. NexentaVSA radically reduces manual steps needed through integration with ESX, VMware View, and NexentaStor.

With NexentaVSA, deployment is less than a dozen steps away.

The VSA leverages the cache capabilities of ZFS to place a “cache wedge” between the virtual machines and the storage. As the VSA sits directly on the hypervisor and uses system RAM as its cache, not only are the blocks retrieved almost immediately, they do not leave the system as they are delivered to the virtual machine. This acts as an accelerator for the VMs and an offload of a taxing I/O workload from the SAN.

More important, however, is that the tightly integrated appliances automatically are optimized specifically for VDI workloads and management. Additionally, this means that the full software stack can be deployed to any in-house hardware.

Storage ProfilesThis functionality provides the configuration of NexentaStor storage to correspond with the desktops that are being created. (Figure 2)

For instance, being able to design a dedicated architecture through the wizard optimizes both the storage and the virtual desktops for this purpose. This integration is a huge value proposition for users that want a simple way of obtaining advanced storage features and desktop designs without the need for a dedicated team.

Performance ValidationFollowing the deployment through the Performance Analyzer, a series of performance-driven tests are available to run on the desktops themselves, outputting the results for evaluation by the administrator. This guarantees Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are met.

RebalancingSince deployment characteristics are all captured by the tool, it has intimate knowledge of the relation between the hypervisor, VSA, and where the desktops are located in relation to one another. Tracking this topology can be complex.

However, with NexentaVSA, one can “rebalance” VMs that no longer are in proximity to their VSA. This provides a quick mechanism for ensuring the best possible performance of each desktop.

Figure 2: Desktop Pool Profile

Technical Brief

Figure 1: Deployment Manager

Technical Brief

Figure 3:NexentaVSA—Wizard-based

Deployment Walkthrough

Calibration Wizard A basic feature within NexentaVSA is the ability to collect and keep performance data. Using this data, calibration settings define the expected ranges for virtual machines. It allows an administrator to know the number of desktops to be created and added to the pool with each successful iteration, until threshold knowledge has been gained.

Benchmark settings define the performance test engine and all other parameters, such as success threshold, percentage of desktops needed to participate in the performance testing, and much more. (Figure 5)

With other VDI solutions, scaling up is a difficult procedure. NexentaVSA re-calibrates to meet pre-set parameters. This means that the pre-set levels for IOPS, latency, and bandwidth do not veer from standard as the system grows.

Calibration consists of three basic steps:Run one of the built-in performance tests; ensure that the read / write IOPS meet the criteria; and add resources. (Depending on the calibration type, resources could mean desktops to the pool or add / reduce VSA resources.) (Figure 6)

This sequence of steps is repeated until either: storage performance falls below specified IOPS requirements, or the maximum number of desktops for a given pool is reached.

NexentaVSA constantly measures performance so the entire system stays within expected thresholds. Incremental deployments help set threshold limits.

Once a threshold level for desktops has been reached, adding infrastructure (CPU and memory) easily solves any scaling issues.

Performance AnalyzerUnprecedented performance testing, provided through NexentaVSA, allows administrators to continually meet an established level of performance for the deployed pool.

Advanced analytics closely monitor the deployment, and these metrics provide valuable, granular insight to the performance of storage, desktops, and hypervisors. Administrators can evaluate information presented by the performance metrics and leverage the “rebalancing” feature within the Nexenta solution.

Testing ParametersAs with any hardware / software configuration, testing is essential to knowing if the system is working to optimal parameters. The challenge is to measure each machine in the system for end user optimization, manage end user performance, and have the ability to scale up as needed without causing system latency or system killing bottlenecks.NexentaVSA collects data from each end-point client and the host in order to measure end user performance.This collection of data, from the clients and the host, is used to perform three distinct performance tests. At any point, and for each test, administrators can set or reset parameters. The three tests are as follows:IO Meter: a performance test for tuning Windows environments, can also be used to tune performance in iSCSI SANs.

SQLIO: a software tool for testing a disk subsystem, measuring straight IOPS, MB/sec, etc.

Multi-step: correlates different testing formats.

Each of these analyze for IOPS, latency, and bandwidth. The data then, over time, is averaged out to see if the entire VDI solution is running smoothly and within expected parameters. (Figure 4)

Figure 4: Benchmark Wizard

Nexenta Systems, Inc.444 Castro Street, Suite 320, Mountain View, CA 94041 USAwww.nexenta.com www.facebook.com/nexenta twitter.com/nexenta

Nexenta Systems is the leading supplier of enterprise-class OpenStorage solutions. Its flagship software-only platform, NexentaStor, delivers high-performance, ultra-scalable, cloud- and virtualization-optimized storage solutions. Copyright © 2012 Nexenta® Systems, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Rev: 010912

Figure 5: Calibration Wizard

Figure 6: Select Calibration Type through Calibration Wizard

About NexentaStor and VDINexentaStor storage software provides advanced features and functionality suited to handle the demands of a virtual desktop environment. Because virtual desktops create a largely random write in nature, the power and flexibility of NexentaStor, with ZFS architecture, greatly lends itself to solving workload requirements.

Arguably the most important feature is the ability to tune performance in the software and accelerate the desktop demand for low latency response times and IOPS. NexentaStor leverages system RAM as a first layer cache device. Additionally, second level cache devices, such as SSDs, can be incorporated as well. Additional features include:

▪ 128-bit File System: ZFS-based technology provides the most scalable and flexible 128-bit file system.

▪ Unified Appliance: Support for NAS (NFS, CIFS WebDAV, FTP) and support for SAN (iSCSI & FC) means flexibility.

▪ Data Deduplication & Native Compression: Inline data dedupe and compression reduce use of primary storage.

▪ Hybrid Storage Pools: Ability to use specialized devices, such as SSDs, to accelerate read and write performance.

Simple, Not ComplexNexentaVSA provides an easy to use, easy to implement installation wizard for VDI deployments. By addressing the VDI stack from the bottom-up, new possibilities are recognized for the solution.

Nexenta is the only storage solution that can measure end user experience as an ongoing process.

Through the power of the NexentaStor™ software, VMware View technology, and a simplified interface, Nexenta® solves the VDI deployment puzzle while meeting tough performance requirements.

BenefitsIn-depth testing measures the user experience in an ongoing process. It allows administrators to see where system bottlenecks exist or if other issues are affecting performance. These automated tests, based on real-time analytics, allow for fine-tuning the process as more desktops are added to the overall configuration. Actions are based on actual data, gathered in real time.

Calibration ensures maximum efficiency of all in-house hardware without degrading the end user experience.

Technical Brief