Download EMC PROVEN END-USER COMPUTING SOLUTION ENABLED BY EMC VMAX

White Paper
EMC PROVEN END-USER COMPUTING
SOLUTION ENABLED BY EMC VMAX
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 with Provisioning Services 6.1
for 5000 Desktops Including:
• Citrix XenDesktop
• Citrix Provisioning Services
• EMC Symmetrix VMAX
EMC Proven Solutions
Abstract
This document describes an EMC® end user computing solution for 5000
desktops with Citrix XenDesktop and Provisioning Services.
December, 2012
Copyright © 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA.
Published December, 2012
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.
EMC2, EMC, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC
Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used
herein are the property of their respective owners.
For the most up-to-date regulatory document for your product line, go to the technical
documentation and advisories section on the EMC online support website.
EMC PROVEN END USER COMPUTING SOLUTION Enabled by EMC VMAX
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 with Provisioning Services 6.1 for 5000 Desktops
Including: Citrix XenDesktop, Citrix Provisioning Services, and EMC Symmetrix VMAX
White Paper
Part Number H11316
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EMC Proven End User Computing Solution Enabled by EMC VMAX
Citrix XenDesktop with Provisioning Services for 5000 Desktops
Contents
Chapter 1
Executive Summary
11
Introduction ...................................................................................................12
Document purpose.........................................................................................12
Target audience..............................................................................................12
Business needs..............................................................................................13
Chapter 2
Solution Overview
15
Solution overview...........................................................................................16
Chapter 3
Solution Technology Overview
19
The technology solution ................................................................................. 20
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6..................................................................................... 20
Citrix Personal vDisk....................................................................................... 20
Citrix Profile Manager...................................................................................... 20
Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1 ...................................................................... 21
Virtualization..................................................................................................21
VMware vSphere 5 ......................................................................................... 21
EMC Virtual Storage Integrator for VMware........................................................ 21
vStorage API for Array Integration Support ........................................................ 22
Storage...........................................................................................................22
EMC VMAX Series ........................................................................................... 22
EMC FAST VP for VMAX .................................................................................... 22
EMC Unisphere for VMAX ................................................................................ 22
EMC VNX Series.............................................................................................. 23
Chapter 4
Solution Architectural Overview
25
Overview of solution ...................................................................................... 26
Solution purpose............................................................................................ 26
Solution validation......................................................................................... 26
Reference workload........................................................................................26
Defining the reference workload ...................................................................... 26
EMC Proven End User Computing Solution Enabled by EMC VMAX
Citrix XenDesktop with Provisioning Services for 5000 Desktops
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Contents
Solutions architecture.................................................................................... 27
Key Components ............................................................................................ 28
Server configuration guidelines ..................................................................... 32
vSphere memory virtualization ........................................................................ 32
Memory configuration guidelines..................................................................... 32
Network configuration guidelines .................................................................. 33
Link Aggregation for EMC VNX.......................................................................... 33
VLAN ............................................................................................................. 33
Storage configuration guidelines ................................................................... 34
Chapter 5
Configuration Guidelines
35
Configuration overview .................................................................................. 36
Deployment process....................................................................................... 36
Pre-deployment tasks .................................................................................... 37
Overview ....................................................................................................... 37
Deployment prerequisites ............................................................................... 37
Prepare servers ..............................................................................................39
Prepare switches, connect network, and configure switches ......................... 39
Overview ....................................................................................................... 39
Configure infrastructure network...................................................................... 39
Configure storage network .............................................................................. 40
Configure VLANs............................................................................................. 40
Complete network cabling............................................................................... 40
Prepare and configure the VMAX storage array .............................................. 40
Overview ....................................................................................................... 40
Set up initial VMAX configuration..................................................................... 41
Provision storage for VMFS datastores ............................................................. 41
Configure initiator groups................................................................................ 42
Configure port groups ..................................................................................... 43
Configure masking views ................................................................................ 44
Configure FAST policy ..................................................................................... 45
Prepare and configure the VNX storage array................................................. 46
Overview ....................................................................................................... 46
Set up initial VNX configuration ....................................................................... 46
Provision storage for CIFS shares ..................................................................... 46
Install and configure vSphere hosts and
vSphere management infrastructure.............................................................. 48
Overview ....................................................................................................... 48
Install vSphere............................................................................................... 48
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Contents
Configure vSphere networking......................................................................... 48
Connect VMware datastores ............................................................................ 49
Install and configure SQL server database..................................................... 49
Create a virtual machine for Microsoft SQL Server.............................................. 49
Install Microsoft Windows on the virtual machine.............................................. 50
Install SQL Server ........................................................................................... 50
Configure database for VMware vCenter ........................................................... 50
Configure database for VMware Update Manager .............................................. 50
VMware vCenter Server deployment............................................................... 51
Overview ....................................................................................................... 51
Create the vCenter host virtual machine ........................................................... 52
Install vCenter guest OS.................................................................................. 52
Create vCenter ODBC connections.................................................................... 52
Install vCenter Server...................................................................................... 52
Apply vSphere license keys ............................................................................. 52
Install the EMC VSI plug-in .............................................................................. 52
Citrix XenDesktop Controller deployment....................................................... 53
Install server-side components of XenDesktop.................................................. 53
Configure a site.............................................................................................. 53
Add a second controller .................................................................................. 54
Install Desktop Studio .................................................................................... 54
Prepare master virtual machine ....................................................................... 54
Citrix Provisioning Server deployment............................................................ 55
Run the Provisioning Servers Configuration Wizard............................................ 56
Configure provisioning server inbound communication options.......................... 57
Configure the PVS bootstrap file ...................................................................... 58
Change the master virtual desktop vDisk to Standard Image mode ..................... 58
Set the master virtual desktop vDisk to cache on device hard drive..................... 58
Conclusion .....................................................................................................59
Appendix A
References
61
References .....................................................................................................61
EMC documentation ....................................................................................... 61
Other documentation...................................................................................... 61
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Citrix XenDesktop with Provisioning Services for 5000 Desktops
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Contents
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Figures
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
Figure 6.
Figure 7.
Figure 8.
Figure 9.
Solution architecture...................................................................... 17
Reference Architecture ................................................................... 28
vSwitch configuration..................................................................... 34
Create Storage Group ..................................................................... 41
Hosts - Create Initiator Group.......................................................... 42
Configure Port Group...................................................................... 43
Create Masking View...................................................................... 44
VDI FAST Policy .............................................................................. 45
VNX storage pool for file layout ....................................................... 47
EMC Proven End User Computing Solution Enabled by EMC VMAX
Citrix XenDesktop with Provisioning Services for 5000 Desktops
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Figures
8
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Tables
Table 1.
Table 2.
Table 3.
Table 4.
Table 5.
Table 6.
Table 7.
Table 8.
Table 9.
Table 10.
Table 11.
Table 12.
Table 13.
Table 14.
Table 15.
Virtual desktop characteristics........................................................ 27
Solution hardware ......................................................................... 29
Solution Software .......................................................................... 31
Reference virtual desktop parameters.............................................. 33
Deployment process overview......................................................... 36
Tasks for pre-deployment ............................................................... 37
Deployment prerequisites checklist................................................. 37
Tasks for switch and network configuration...................................... 39
Tasks for VMAX storage configuration.............................................. 40
Tasks for VNX storage configuration ................................................ 46
Tasks for installing and configuring hosts
and management structure............................................................. 48
Tasks for SQL Server database setup ............................................... 49
Tasks for vCenter configuration ....................................................... 51
Tasks for XenDesktop Controller Setup ............................................ 53
Tasks for Provisioning Server Setup ................................................. 55
EMC Proven End User Computing Solution Enabled by EMC VMAX
Citrix XenDesktop with Provisioning Services for 5000 Desktops
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Tables
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Citrix XenDesktop with Provisioning Services for 5000 Desktops
Chapter 1
Executive Summary
This chapter presents the following topics:
Introduction ............................................................................... 12
Target audience .......................................................................... 12
Document purpose ...................................................................... 12
Business needs .......................................................................... 13
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Chapter 1: Executive Summary
Introduction
EMC Proven™ Solution validated and modular architectures are built with proven
superior technologies to create complete virtualization solutions that enable you to
make informed decisions regarding the hypervisor, compute, and networking layers.
By reducing server virtualization planning and configuration burdens, EMC Proven
Solution infrastructures accelerate your IT Transformation by enabling faster
deployments, greater flexibility of choice, increased efficiency, and lower risk.
This document describes an EMC end-user computing solution for 5000 desktops
with Citrix XenDesktop and Provisioning Services. It is intended to be a
comprehensive guide for the technical aspects of this solution. Server capacity is
provided in generic terms for required minimums of CPU, memory, and network
interfaces; you may select server and networking hardware that meet or exceed the
stated minimums.
Document purpose
This document is intended to be a comprehensive guide for the technical aspects of
an EMC Proven End User Computing Solution for 5000 desktops with Citrix
XenDesktop and Provisioning Services. It covers the architectural considerations,
sizing and scaling, procedures, and best practices for planning, deploying,
monitoring, and maintaining the solution.
Server capacity is provided in generic terms for required minimums of CPU, memory,
and network interfaces; you may select server and networking hardware that meet or
exceed the stated minimums.
Target audience
The reader of this document is expected to have the necessary training and
background to install and configure Citrix XenDesktop, Citrix Provisioning Services,
VMware vSphere®, EMC Symmetrix® VMAX ®, and associated infrastructure as
required by the implementation of the solution described in this document. External
references are provided where applicable and it is recommended that the reader be
familiar with these documents.
Readers should also be familiar with the infrastructure and database security policies
of the customer installation.
Possible audiences for this document include: distributors, value-added retailers,
independent system vendors, technical consultants, and sales representatives.
These audiences willcan use the document to design, develop, build, sell, and deploy
this solution.
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Chapter 1: Executive Summary
Business needs
Customers require a scalable, tiered, and high-availability infrastructure on which to
deploy their end-user computing infrastructure. Several new technologies are
available to assist them in virtualizing their desktops, but they need to know how to
use these technologies to maximize their investment, support service-level
agreements, and reduce their total cost of ownership (TCO).
This solution addresses the following challenges:
•
Availability: Stand-alone servers incur downtime for maintenance or unexpected
failures. Clusters of redundant stand-alone nodes are an inefficient use of CPU,
disk, and memory resources.
•
Server management and maintenance: Individually managed desktops require
significant repetitive activities for monitoring, problem resolution, patching, and
other common activities. This is labor intensive, costly, error-prone, and
inefficient. Security, downtime, and outage risks are elevated.
•
Ease of solution deployment: While small and medium businesses must address
the same IT challenges as larger enterprises, staffing levels, experience, and
training are generally more limited. IT generalists are often responsible for
managing the entire IT infrastructure, or reliance is placed on third-party sources
for maintenance or other tasks. Perceived complexity of the IT function raises fear
of risk and may block adoption of new technology. Therefore, simplicity of
deployment and management are highly valued.
•
Storage efficiency: Storage added locally to physical servers or provisioned
directly from a shared resource or array leads to over-provisioning and waste.
EMC Proven End User Computing Solution Enabled by EMC VMAX
Citrix XenDesktop with Provisioning Services for 5000 Desktops
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Chapter 1: Executive Summary
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Chapter 2
Solution Overview
This chapter presents the following topic:
Solution overview ........................................................................ 16
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Citrix XenDesktop with Provisioning Services for 5000 Desktops
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Chapter 2: Solution Overview
Solution overview
This EMC Proven Solution was validated using the EMC VMAX 10K and VMwarevirtualized Windows Server platforms to provide the storage and computer resources
for a Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 environment of Windows 7 virtual desktops provisioned
using Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1.
Planning and designing the storage infrastructure for Citrix XenDesktop environment
is a critical step because the shared storage must be able to absorb large bursts of
input/output (I/O) that occur over the course of a workday. These bursts can lead to
periods of erratic and unpredictable virtual desktop performance. Users may adapt to
slow performance, but unpredictable performance will frustrate them and reduce
efficiency.
To provide predictable performance for a virtual desktop infrastructure, the storage
system must be able to handle the peak I/O load from the clients while keeping
response time to a minimum. Designing for this workload involves the deployment of
many disks to handle brief periods of extreme I/O pressure, which is expensive to
implement. This solution uses EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtualized
Pools (FAST VP)Tiering to reduce the number of disks required.
The solution described in this document includes servers, storage, network
components, and Citrix and VMware software packages. The solution allows
customers to quickly and consistently deploy a virtualized infrastructure to
consolidate their virtual desktop environment. Figure 1on page 17 provides a
graphical representation of the key components of the solution, and how these
components are interconnected.
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Chapter 2: Solution Overview
Figure 1.
Solution architecture
Built on the strategy of simple, intelligent, modular storage, EMC Symmetrix VMAX
incorporates a highly scalable Virtual Matrix Architecture that enables VMAX arrays to
grow seamlessly and cost effectively from an entry-level configuration into the world’s
largest storage system. VMAX supports EFDs, FC drives, and SATA drives within a
single array, as well as an extensive range of RAID types.
The VNX ® storage array is a multi-protocol platform that supports the Fiber Channel
(FC), Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), network file system (NFS), and
Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocols based on the customer’s specific
needs. This solution is validated using CIFS for data storage.
This solution requires the presence of Active Directory (AD), Domain Name Resolution
(DNS), and dynamic IP address assignment using the Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP). The implementation of these services is beyond the scope of this
guide, but all three are considered pre-requisites for successful deployment. In
addition, the DHCP server must have sufficient free IP addresses to assign one to
each of the virtual desktops that will be created as part of the solution.
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Chapter 2: Solution Overview
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Chapter 3
Solution Technology
Overview
This chapter presents the following topics:
The technology solution ................................................................ 20
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 ................................................................... 20
Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1 ....................................................... 21
Virtualization.............................................................................. 21
Storage..................................................................................... 22
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Chapter 3: Solution Technology Overview
The technology solution
This document describes the architecture of an EMC end-user computing solution for
5000 virtual desktops deployed using the following technologies:
•
Virtualization platform – VMware vSphere 5
•
Virtual desktop platform – Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
•
Virtual desktop deployment platform – Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1
•
Storage platform – EMC VMAX 10 K and EMC VNX5500
This document validates the performance of the solution and provides guidelines for
building similar solutions. Chapter 4 provides details on all the components that
make up the reference architecture.
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 delivers Windows desktops as an on-demand service to any
user, any device, anywhere. Powered by Citrix HDX technologies, XenDesktop quickly
and securely delivers any type of virtual desktop, or any type of Windows, web, or
software-as-a-service (SaaS) application, to all the latest PCs, Macs, tablets, smart
phones, laptops, and thin clients with a high-definition user experience.
Citrix FlexCast delivery technology enables IT to optimize the performance, security,
and cost of virtual desktops for any type of user, including task workers, mobile
workers, power users, and contractors. XenDesktop helps IT rapidly adapt to business
initiatives by simplifying desktop delivery and enabling user self-service. The open,
scalable, and proven architecture simplifies management, support, and integration.
Citrix Personal
vDisk
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 introduces the Personal vDisk feature , which allows users to
preserve customization settings and user installed applications in a pool-based
desktop. This is accomplished by redirecting the changes from the user’s pooled
virtual machine to a separate disk called personal vDisk. During runtime, the content
of the personal vDisk is blended with the content from the base VM to provide a
unified experience to the end user. The personal vDisk data is preserved during
reboot/refresh operations.
Citrix Profile
Manager
Citrix Profile Manager 4.1 preserves user profiles and dynamically synchronizes them
with a remote profile repository. Citrix Profile Manager does not require the
configuration of Windows roaming profiles, eliminating the need to use Active
Directory to manage Citrix user profiles.
Citrix Profile Manager provides the following benefits over traditional Windows
roaming profiles:
•
20
With Citrix Profile Manager, a user’s remote profile is dynamically downloaded
when the user logs in to a XenDesktop desktop. XenDesktop downloads
persona information only when the user needs it.
EMC Proven End User Computing Solution Enabled by EMC VMAX
Citrix XenDesktop with Provisioning Services for 5000 Desktops
Chapter 3: Solution Technology Overview
•
The combination of Citrix Profile Manager and pooled desktops provides the
experience of a dedicated desktop while potentially minimizing the amount of
storage required in an organization.
Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1
Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) takes a very different approach from traditional
desktop imaging solutions by fundamentally changing the relationship between
hardware and the software that runs on it. By streaming a single shared-disk image
(vDisk) instead of copying images to individual machines, PVS enables organizations
to reduce the number of disk images that they manage. As the number of machines
continues to grow, PVS provides the efficiency of a centralized management with the
benefits of distributed processing.
As machines stream the disk data dynamically in real time from a single shared
image, the machine image consistency is ensured. In addition, the configuration,
applications and even OS of large pools of machines can change completely during
the reboot operation.
Virtualization
The virtualization layer is a key component of any end user computing solution. It
allows the desktop resource requirements to be decoupled from the underlying
physical resources that serve them. This enables greater flexibility in the application
layer by eliminating hardware downtime for maintenance, and even allows the
physical capability of the system to change without impacting the hosted desktops.
VMware vSphere 5 VMware vSphere 5 is the market-leading virtualization platform used across
thousands of IT environments around the world. VMware vSphere 5 transforms a
computer’s physical resources by virtualizing the CPU, RAM, hard disk, and network
controller. This transformation creates fully functional virtual desktops that run
isolated and encapsulated operating systems and applications just like physical
computers.
The high-availability features of VMware vSphere 5 are coupled with DRS and
vMotion, which enable the seamless migration of virtual desktops from one vSphere
server to another with minimal or no impact to the customer’s usage.
This reference architecture leverages VMware vSphere Desktop Edition for deploying
desktop virtualization. It provides the full range of features and functionalities of the
vSphere Enterprise Plus edition, allowing customers to achieve scalability, high
availability, and optimal performance for all of their desktop workloads. vSphere
Desktop edition is intended for customers who want to purchase only vSphere
licenses to deploy desktop virtualization.
EMC Virtual
Storage Integrator
for VMware
EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) for VMware vSphere is a plug-in to the vSphere
client. It provides a single management interface that is used for managing EMC
storage within the vSphere environment. Features can be added and removed from
VSI independently, which provides flexibility for customizing VSI user environments.
Features are managed by using the VSI Feature Manager. VSI provides a unified user
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Chapter 3: Solution Technology Overview
experience, which allows new features to be introduced rapidly in response to
changing customer requirements.
The following features were used during the validation testing:
•
Storage Viewer (SV) — Extends the vSphere client to facilitate the discovery and
identification of EMC storage devices that are allocated to VMware vSphere hosts
and virtual machines. SV 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.
•
Storage Management — Simplifies storage administration of the EMC VMAX and
VNX storage platforms. It enables VMware administrators to provision new
Network File Systems (NFS), Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) datastores, and
RDM volumes seamlessly within vSphere client.
Refer to the EMC VSI for VMware vSphere Product Guides on EMC Online Support for
more information.
vStorage API for
Array Integration
Support
Hardware acceleration with VMware vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI) is a
storage enhancement in vSphere 5. It enables vSphere to offload specific storage
operations to compatible storage hardware such as the VMAX and VNX series
platforms. With storage hardware assistance, vSphere performs these operations
faster and consumes less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth.
Storage
Built on the strategy of simple, intelligent, modular storage, EMC Symmetrix® VMAX
with Enginuity™ version 5876 incorporates a highly scalable Virtual Matrix
Architecture that enables VMAX arrays to grow seamlessly and cost-effectively with
the business needs of the customer. VMAX supports EFDs, FC drives, and SATA drives
within a single array, as well as an extensive range of RAID types.
EMC VMAX Series
The EMC Enginuity operating environment provides the intelligence that controls all
components in the VMAX array, ensuring efficiency, scalability, and security.
EMC FAST VP for
VMAX
EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtualized Pools (FAST VP) combines the
advantages of Virtual Provisioning™ with granular tiering at the sub-LUN level. It
automatically implements non-disruptive changes to storage allocations and
optimizes the use of a storage configuration composed of different drive
technologies. These optimizations take full advantage of the fast response time of
Flash drives and provide the most cost-effective use of a mixed drive type
configuration while providing the best performance.
EMC Unisphere for
VMAX
Unisphere for VMAX is an advanced Graphical User Interface that provides a common
EMC user experience across storage platforms. Unisphere for VMAX enables
customers to easily provision, manage, and monitor VMAX environments.
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Chapter 3: Solution Technology Overview
EMC VNX Series
The VNX Series is optimized for virtual applications delivering industry-leading
innovation and enterprise capabilities for file, block, and object storage in a scalable,
easy-to-use solution. This next-generation storage platform combines powerful and
flexible hardware with advanced efficiency, management, and protection software to
meet the demanding needs of today’s enterprises.
The VNX series is powered by the Intel® Xeon processor for intelligent storage that
automatically and efficiently scales in performance, while ensuring data integrity and
security.
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Chapter 3: Solution Technology Overview
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Chapter 4
Solution Architectural
Overview
This chapter presents the following topics:
Overview of solution..................................................................... 26
Reference workload ..................................................................... 26
Solutions architecture................................................................... 27
Server configuration guidelines ....................................................... 32
Network configuration guidelines .................................................... 33
Storage configuration guidelines ..................................................... 34
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Chapter 4: Solution Architectural Overview
Overview of solution
This document describes the reference architecture of the EMC Citrix XenDesktop with
PVS solution for EMC VMAX, and provides guidelines for building similar solutions.
This architecture requires CIFS shares for storing user data. A VNX 5500 was used to
provide the requisite shares during testing, but any CIFS-based file services should
suffice, assuming that they provide sufficient performance and capacity. One optional
method to provide the shares is a VNX VG8 gateway, which is used in tandem with an
existing block-based storage array to provide file services.
Solution purpose
EMC Proven Solutions are built with proven superior technologies to create a
complete virtualization solution that allows you to make an informed decision in the
hypervisor, compute, and networking layers. By eliminating server virtualization
planning and configuration burdens, EMC proven solutions accelerate your IT
transformation by enabling faster deployment, more choices, higher efficiency, and
lower risk.
Solution validation This reference architecture is intended to be a comprehensive guide to every aspect
of this solution. Server capacity is provided in generic terms for required minimums of
CPU, memory, and network interfaces; the customer is free to select the server and
networking hardware of their choice that meet or exceed the stated minimums. The
specified storage architecture, along with a system meeting the server and network
requirements outlined, has been validated by EMC to provide high levels of
performance while delivering a highly available architecture for your private cloud
deployment.
Reference workload
Each EMC Proven Solution balances the storage, network, and compute resources
needed for a specified number of virtual desktops which have been validated by EMC.
In practice, each virtual desktop has its own set of requirements which rarely fit a predefined idea of what a virtual desktop should be. In any discussion about virtual
infrastructures, it is important to first define a reference workload. Not all desktops
perform the same tasks, and it is impractical to build a reference that takes into
account every possible combination of workload characteristics.
Defining the
To simplify the discussion, we have defined a representative customer reference
reference workload desktop workload. By comparing your actual customer usage to this reference
workload, you can extrapolate which reference architecture to choose.
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Chapter 4: Solution Architectural Overview
For EMC solutions, the reference workload is defined as a single virtual machine. This
virtual machine has the following characteristics:
Table 1.
Virtual desktop characteristics
Characteristic
Value
Virtual desktop operating system
Microsoft Windows 7 32-bit SP1
Virtual processors per virtual desktop
1
RAM per virtual desktop
1 GB
Available storage capacity per virtual machine
10 GB
I/O operations per second (IOPS) per virtual
machine
6.8
I/O pattern
60% Random/40% Sequential
I/O read/write ratio
5:95
This specification for a virtual machine is not intended to represent any specific
desktop. Rather, it represents a single common point of reference against which other
virtual machines can be measured.
Solutions architecture
An EMC virtual desktop solution is validated at different points of scale. These
defined configurations form the basis of creating a custom solution. These points of
scale are defined in terms of the reference workload.
Note: Due to the concept of a reference workload, which is applied as a core piece
of the EMC Proven Solution program, you cannot assume that because there
are 5000 desktops to consolidate into the EMC Proven Solution infrastructure,
you need 5000 reference virtual machines. You should evaluate your
workload using a single reference virtual machine and extrapolate that
information to arrive at an appropriate point of scale.
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Chapter 4: Solution Architectural Overview
Figure 2.
Key Components
Reference Architecture
VMware vSphere 5 — Provides a common virtualization layer to host a server
environment. The specifics of the validated environment are listed in Table 2 on page
29. vSphere 5 provides highly available infrastructure through such features as:
•
vMotion — Provides live migration of virtual machines within a virtual
infrastructure cluster, with no virtual machine downtime or service disruption.
•
Storage vMotion — Provides live migration of virtual machine disk files within
and across storage arrays with no virtual machine downtime or service
disruption.
•
vSphere High Availability (HA) – Detects and provides rapid recovery for a
failed virtual machine in a cluster.
•
Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) – Provides load balancing of
computing capacity in a cluster.
•
Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS) – Provides load balancing
across multiple datastores, based on space use and I/O latency.
VMware vCenter Server 5 — Provides a scalable and extensible platform that forms
the foundation for virtualization management for the VMware vSphere 5 cluster. All
vSphere hosts and their virtual machines are managed from vCenter.
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Chapter 4: Solution Architectural Overview
VSI for VMware vSphere — EMC VSI for VMware vSphere is a plug-in to the vSphere
client that provides storage management for EMC arrays directly from the client. VSI is
highly customizable and helps provide a unified management interface.
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 — VMware vCenter Server requires a database service
to store configuration and monitoring details. A Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 server is used
for this purpose.
Fiber Channel Network —Storage traffic between the vSphere hosts and the VMAX
10K is carried over an FC network.
IP Network — All network traffic is carried by a standard Ethernet network with
redundant cabling and switching. User and management traffic is carried over a
public network while VMware vMotion traffic is carried over a private, non-routable
subnet.
Shared Infrastructure — DNS and authentication/authorization services like Microsoft
Active Directory can be provided via existing infrastructure or set up as part of the
new virtual infrastructure.
EMC VMAX 10K array — Provides storage by presenting Fibre Channel LUNs to
vSphere hosts for 5000 virtual machines.
EMC VNX5500 array — Provides storage by presenting CIFS file shares for the 5000
virtual desktops.
Table 2.
Solution hardware
Hardware
Qty
Configuration
Notes
EMC VMAX 10K
1
Two bays, two engines,
VMAX shared
storage for vSphere
datastores
Four directors configured with:
EMC VNX5500
1
•
One hundred sixty
300GB, 15k rpm 3.5 in
FC disks (+ spares)
•
Twenty-four 2TB 7,200
rpm 3.5 in. NL SAS
disks (+ spare)
•
Thirty-two 100GB 3.5
in. Flash drives (+
spares)
Three data movers (2 active
and 1 passive)
Six disk-array enclosures
(DAEs) configured with:
•
Five 300 GB, 15k-rpm
3.5-in. SAS disks
•
Sixty-seven 2 TB, 7,200
rpm 3.5-in. NL-SAS
disks
•
Three 200 GB, 3.5-in.
Flash drives
Optional VNX
shared storage for
CIFS-based user
data
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Hardware
Qty
Intel-based
servers
36
3
30
Configuration
•
Memory: 144 GB of
RAM
•
CPU: Two Intel Xeon E72870 2.40-GHz decacore processors
•
Internal storage: One
73 GB internal SAS disk
•
External storage: VMAX
10K (FC)
•
NIC: Dual-port
Broadcom NetXtreme II
57711 1000Base-T
adapters
•
HBA: ISP2532-based
dual port 8 Gb Fibre
Chennel to PCI Express
HBA
Notes
Virtual desktop
vSphere clusters
Infrastructure server
vSphere cluster
10 GB Ethernet
switches
2
Forty-eight 10Gb ports
Redundant 10 GB
host connections
8 GB Fibre
Channel switches
4
Twenty-four 8 GB Fibre
Channel ports
Redundant FC
configuration
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Table 3.
Solution software
Software
Version
VMAX 10K (shared storage, virtual machine datastores)
Enginuity
5876.82.87
Unisphere for VMAX
1.5.0.3
VNX5500 (optional shared storage, CIFS file systems)
VNX OE for File
Release 7.1.55.3
VNX OE for Block
Release 32 (05.31.000.5.011)
EMC VNX and VMAX vSphere plug-ins
VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified Storage
Management
Version 5.4
VSI for VMware vSphere: Storage Viewer
Version 5.4
VSI for VMware vSphere: Path
Management
Version 5.4
vSphere servers
vSphere
5.0.0 (821926)
VMware Servers
OS
Windows 2008 R2 SP1
VMware vCenter Server
5.0 Update 1
Citrix
Citrix XenDesktop
5.6
Citrix Personal vDisk
5.6.7
Citrix Provisioning Services
6.1
Virtual desktops
Note: This software is used to generate the test load.
OS
MS Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 (32-bit)
VMware tools
8.6.0 build-515842
Microsoft Office
Office Enterprise 2010 SP1
Internet Explorer
9.0.8112.16421
Adobe Reader
X (10.1.4)
McAfee Virus Scan
8.7 Enterprise
Adobe Flash Player
11
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Chapter 4: Solution Architectural Overview
Software
Version
Bullzip PDF Printer
6.0.0.865
Login VSI (EUC workload generator)
3.6 Professional Edition
Server configuration guidelines
vSphere memory
virtualization
VMware vSphere 5 has a number of advanced features that help maximize
performance and overall resource utilization. This section describes the performance
benefits of some of these features for an EMC Proven Solution deployment.
Memory compression
Memory over-commitment occurs when more memory is allocated to virtual machines
than is physically present in a VMware vSphere host. Using sophisticated techniques
such as ballooning and transparent page sharing, vSphere is able to handle memory
over-commitment without any performance degradation. However, if more memory
than is present on the server is being actively used, vSphere might resort to swapping
out portions of a VM's memory.
Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA)
vSphere uses a NUMA load-balancer to assign a home node to a virtual machine.
Because memory for the virtual machine is allocated from the home node, memory
access is local and provides the best performance possible. Applications that do not
directly support NUMA also benefit from this feature.
Transparent page sharing
Virtual machines running similar operating systems and applications typically have
identical sets of memory content. Page sharing allows the hypervisor to reclaim the
redundant copies and keep only one copy, which frees up the total host memory
consumption. If most of your application virtual machines run the same operating
system and application binaries, then total memory usage can be reduced to increase
consolidation ratios.
Memory ballooning
By using a balloon driver loaded in the guest operating system, the hypervisor can
reclaim host physical memory if memory resources are under contention. This is done
with little or no impact to the performance of the application.
Memory
configuration
guidelines
This section provides guidelines for allocating memory to virtual machines. The
guidelines outlined here take into account vSphere memory overhead and the virtual
machine memory settings.
vSphere Memory Overhead
There is some associated overhead for the virtualization of memory resources. The
memory space overhead has two components:
32
•
The fixed system overhead for the VMkernel
•
Additional overhead for each virtual machine
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Overhead memory depends on the number of virtual CPUs and configured memory for
the guest operating system. Consult VMware vSphere Resource Management Guide
for the system overhead and the sample overhead memory size of different virtual
machines configurations.
Allocating Memory to Virtual Machines
The proper sizing of memory for a virtual machine in EMC Proven Solution
architectures is based on many factors. With the number of application services and
use cases available, determining a suitable configuration for an environment requires
creating a baseline configuration, testing, and making adjustments, as discussed
later in this document. Table 4 details the RAM and vCPU configuration of the virtual
desktops used to test this solution.
Table 4.
Reference virtual desktop parameters
Characteristic
Value
Virtual processors per virtual machine
1
RAM per virtual machine
1 GB
Note: Virtual machines require a certain amount of available overhead memory to
power on. When considering the memory sizing of the virtual machines, you
should be aware of the amount of this overhead.
Network configuration guidelines
This section provides guidelines for setting up a redundant, highly-available network
configuration. The guidelines take into account VLANs and Link Aggregation Control
Protocol (LACP) on EMC unified storage. For detailed network resource requirements,
please refer to Table 2 on page 29.
Link Aggregation
for EMC VNX
A link aggregation resembles an Ethernet channel, but uses the Link Aggregation
Control Protocol (LACP) IEEE 802.3ad standard. The IEEE 802.3ad standard supports
link aggregations with two or more ports. All ports in the aggregation must have the
same speed and be full duplex. In this solution, Link Aggregation Control Protocol
(LACP) is configured on the VNX, combining multiple Ethernet ports into a single
virtual device. If a link is lost in the Ethernet port, the link fails over to another port.
All network traffic is distributed across the active links.
VLAN
VLAN trunking is used to separate network traffic among different workflows. Ensure
adequate switch ports for the storage array and vSphere hosts that are configured
with a minimum of two VLANs for:
•
Virtual machine networking, vSphere management, and CIFS traffic
(customer- facing networks, which may be separated if desired).
•
vMotion (private network)
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Chapter 4: Solution Architectural Overview
Figure 3 shows a sample vSphere vSwitch that is configured with dedicated VMkernel
ports for vMotion and vSphere management, each utilizing a different VLAN. In
addition, a virtual machine port group was created for use by the virtual desktops.
Figure 3.
vSwitch configuration
Storage configuration guidelines
VMware vSphere provides host-level storage virtualization. It virtualizes the physical
storage and presents the virtualized storage to virtual machines.
A virtual machine stores its operating system and all other files which are related to
the VM activities in a virtual disk. The virtual disk can either be a single file or
multiple files. VMware uses virtual SCSI controller to present a virtual disk to a guest
operating system running inside the virtual machine.
A virtual disk resides in a datastore. This solution uses LUNs formatted with the
VMware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) as virtual machine datastores.
VMFS
VMFS is a cluster file system that provides storage virtualization optimized for virtual
machines. It can be deployed over any SCSI based local or network storage.
EMC PowerPath
EMC PowerPath® is host-based software that provides automated data path
management and load-balancing capabilities for heterogeneous server, network, and
storage deployed in physical and virtual environments. PowerPath uses multiple I/O
data paths to share the workload, and automated load balancing to ensure that data
paths are used efficiently.
The PowerPath/VE plug-in for vSphere is installed using the vSphere Update
Manager. The process to distribute the plug-in and apply the required licenses is
described in PowerPath/VE for VMware vSphere Installation and Administration
Guide. To enable the plug-in after installation, reboot the vSphere server.
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Chapter 5
Configuration
Guidelines
This chapter presents the following topics:
Configuration overview ................................................................. 36
Pre-deployment tasks ................................................................... 37
Prepare servers ........................................................................... 39
Prepare switches, connect network, and configure switches ................... 39
Prepare and configure the VMAX storage array .................................... 40
Prepare and configure the VNX storage array....................................... 46
Install and configure vSphere hosts and
vSphere management infrastructure................................................. 48
Install and configure SQL server database.......................................... 49
VMware vCenter Server deployment ................................................. 51
Citrix XenDesktop Controller deployment ........................................... 53
Citrix Provisioning Server deployment ............................................... 55
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Chapter 5: Configuration Guidelines
Configuration overview
Deployment
process
The deployment process is divided into the stages shown in Table 5. Upon
completion of the deployment, the infrastructure will be ready for integration with the
existing customer network and server infrastructure.
Table 5 lists the main stages in the solution deployment process. The table also
includes references to sections where relevant procedures are provided.
Table 5.
36
Deployment process overview
Stage
Description
Reference
1
Verify prerequisites
Pre-deployment tasks
2
Obtain the deployment
tools
Deployment prerequisites
3
Prepare the servers for
use
Prepare servers
4
Configure the switches
and networks, connect
to the customer
network
Prepare switches, connect network, and configure
switches
5
Install and configure
the storage arrays
6
Configure optional
storage for CIFS-based
user data
Prepare and configure the VNX storage array
7
Install and configure
the servers
Install and Configure vSphere Hosts and vSphere
Management Infrastructure
8
Install and configure
database
Install and configure SQL Server database
9
Install and configure
vCenter Server
VMware vCenter Server deployment
10
Install and configure
XenDesktop
Controllers
Citrix XenDesktop Controller deployment
11
Install and configure
Provisioning Services
servers
Citrix Provisioning Server deployment
Prepare and configure the VMAX storage array
Prepare and configure the VNX storage array
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Pre-deployment tasks
Overview
Pre-deployment tasks include procedures that do not directly relate to environment
installation and configuration, but whose results will be needed at the time of
installation. Examples of pre-deployment tasks are collecting hostnames, IP
addresses, VLAN IDs, license keys, installation media, and so on. These tasks should
be performed before the customer visit to decrease the time required onsite.
Table 6.
Deployment
prerequisites
Tasks for pre-deployment
Task
Description
Reference
Gather
documents
Gather the related documents listed in the
References section. These are used
throughout the text of this document to
provide detail on setup procedures and
deployment best practices for the various
components of the solution.
Appendix A: EMC
documentation on page 61
Gather tools
Gather the required and optional tools for
the deployment. Confirm that all
equipment, software, and appropriate
licenses are available before the
deployment process.
Table 7
Gather data
Collect the customer-specific
configuration data for networking,
naming, and required accounts.
Appendix A: Other
documentation on page 61
Table 7 itemizes the hardware, software, and license requirements to configure the
solution.
Table 7.
Deployment prerequisites checklist
Requirement
Description
Hardware
Physical servers to host virtual
servers: Sufficient physical server
capacity to host 5000 desktops
Reference
VMware vSphere 5 servers to host
virtual infrastructure servers
(Note: This requirement may be
covered in the existing infrastructure)
Networking: Switch port capacity and
capabilities as required by the virtual
server infrastructure
Table 2
EMC MAX10K storage array with the
required disk layout
EMC VNX5500 multiprotocol storage
array with the required disk layout
Software
VMware vSphere™ 5.0 installation
media
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Requirement
Description
Reference
VMware vCenter Server 5.0
installation media
Citrix XenDesktop installation media
EMC PowerPath Virtual Edition
EMC PowerPath Viewer
EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified
Storage Management
EMC Powerlink
EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Storage
Viewer
EMC vStorage API for Array Integration
plug-in
Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 installation
media
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
installation media (suggested OS for
VMware vCenter)
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or newer
installation media
(Note: This requirement may be
covered in the existing infrastructure)
Licenses
VMware vCenter 5.0 license key
VMware vSphere 5.0 license key
Citrix XenDesktop license file
EMC PowerPath Virtual Edition license
files
Microsoft Windows 7 license key
(Note: This requirement may be
covered by an existing Microsoft Key
Management Server (KMS))
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
Standard (or higher) license key
(Note: This requirement may be
covered by an existing Microsoft Key
Management Server (KMS))
Microsoft SQL Server license key
(Note: This requirement may be
covered in the existing infrastructure)
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Prepare servers
Server capacity is required for two purposes in the solution:
•
To support the new virtualized server infrastructure
•
To support the required infrastructure services such as
authentication/authorization, DNS, and database
For information on minimum infrastructure server and desktop hosting requirements,
refer to Table 2 on page 29. If existing infrastructure services meet the requirements,
the hardware listed for infrastructure services will not be required.
Prepare switches, connect network, and configure switches
Overview
This chapter provides the requirements for network infrastructure needed to support
this architecture. Table 8 provides a summary of the tasks for switch and network
configuration and references for further information.
Table 8.
Tasks for switch and network configuration
Task
Description
Reference
Configure
infrastructure
network
Configure storage array and vSphere
host infrastructure networking.
Install and Configure vSphere
Hosts and vSphere
Management Infrastructure
Configure
storage
network
Configure the Fiber Channel storage
network.
Configure storage network
Configure
VLANs
Configure private and public VLANs
as required.
Your vendor’s switch
configuration guide
Configure
Fibre
Channel
zones
Using single initiator zoning,
configure zones for all the Fiber
Channel hosts.
Complete
network
cabling
Connect the switch interconnect
ports.
Connect the VMAX ports.
Connect the VNX ports.
Connect the vSphere server ports.
Configure
infrastructure
network
The infrastructure network requires redundant network and Fiber Channel links for
each host, the storage array, the switch interconnect ports, and the switch uplink
ports. This configuration provides both redundancy and additional network
bandwidth. This configuration is required regardless of whether the network
infrastructure for the solution already exists or is being deployed alongside other
components of the solution.
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Configure storage
network
The infrastructure Fiber Channel network requires redundant Fiber Channel switches,
as well as links for each vSphere host and the storage array. This configuration
provides both redundancy and additional storage network bandwidth. Each vSphere
host should be connected to two different Fiber Channel switches, and each switch
should be connected to multiple directors on the storage array. Each Fiber Channel
connection between the vSphere host and the VMAX storage array should be placed
in a separate Fiber Channel zone.
Configure VLANs
Ensure adequate switch ports for the storage array and hosts that are configured with
a minimum of two VLANs for:
Complete network
cabling
•
Virtual machine networking, vSphere management, and CIFS traffic
(customer- facing networks, which may be separated if desired)
•
VMotion (private network)
Ensure that all solution servers, storage arrays, switch interconnects, and switch
uplinks have redundant connections and are plugged into separate switching
infrastructures. Ensure that the existing customer network is completely connected.
Note: At this point the new equipment is being connected to the existing customer
network. Be careful that unforeseen interactions do not cause service issues
on the customer network
Prepare and configure the VMAX storage array
Overview
This section describes how to configure the VMAX storage array. In the solution,
VMAX series provides LUNs that will be used to create VMFS datastores for virtual
machine storage.
Table 9.
40
Tasks for VMAX storage configuration
Task
Description
Set up initial
VMAX
configuration
Provision the VMAX including
network information, port groups,
storage pool configuration,
Unisphere for VMAX, and FAST VP
policies.
Configure
storage groups
Configure a storage group for
each of the vSphere clusters and
create the required LUNs.
Configure
initiator groups
Configure initiator groups and
add the applicable host initiators
to each group.
Configure
masking views
Configure a masking view for
each initiator group, selecting the
associated initiator group, port
group, and storage group.
Reference
Unisphere for VMAX –
Installation Guide
Unisphere for VMAX –
Product Guide
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Set up initial VMAX Configure the IP address information and other key parameters such as DNS and NTP
on the VMAX. In addition, configure the port groups, storage pool, FAST VP settings,
configuration
and the Unisphere for VMAX virtual appliance. The reference documents listed in
Table 9 on page 40 provide more information on how to configure the VMAX platform.
Provision storage
for VMFS
datastores
Use the Unisphere Storage – Storage Groups menu to create a storage group to
associate with each vSphere cluster, and configure the required number of LUNs of
the size required based on the per-desktop storage requirements. An additional
storage group will also be required if the VMAX will host the infrastructure servers
required to implement the solution. For this system we are creating one, 1.7 TB LUN
for each VDI server.
Figure 4.
Create Storage Group
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Chapter 5: Configuration Guidelines
Configure initiator
groups
Use the Unisphere Hosts – Initiator Groups menu to create an initiator group for each
of the storage groups and populate it with the vSphere host FC initiator values. In
some cases multiple initiator groups may be required; however, in this case all the
initiators can be configured in one initiator group.
Figure 5.
42
Hosts - Create Initiator Group
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Configure port
groups
Use the Unisphere Hosts – Port Groups menu to create a port group that includes all
the ports available to the hosts through the switch. In this case all hosts are available
on all ports in the VMAX.
Figure 6.
Configure Port Group
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Configure masking Use the Unisphere Hosts – Masking Views menu to create a masking view for each of
the storage groups, including the storage group, port group, and initiator group
views
created in previous steps. Where possible, the vSphere clusters should be distributed
evenly among each of the available port groups.
Figure 7.
44
Create Masking View
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Configure FAST
policy
Use the Unisphere Storage – FAST menu to create the VDI FAST policy and to
associate the VDI-Storage groups with the policy. Setting the FAST policy to 100% for
each tier allows FAST the most flexibility to place data in the correct storage type.
Figure 8.
VDI FAST Policy
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Prepare and configure the VNX storage array
Overview
This section describes how to configure the VNX storage array. In the solution, the
VNX series provides CIFS shares for user data.
Set up initial VNX
configuration
Configure the network interfaces, IP address information, and other key parameters
such as DNS, NTP, and CIFS servers on the VNX before storage provisioning. The
reference documents listed in Table 10 provide more information on how to configure
the VNX platform.
Table 10.
Provision storage
for CIFS shares
Tasks for VNX storage configuration
Task
Description
Reference
Set up initial
VNX
configuration
Configure the IP address
information and other key
parameters on the VNX.
Provision LUNs
Create LUNs that will be
presented to VNX datamovers to
create a NAS pool.
VNX5500 Unified
Installation Guide
Unisphere System Getting
Started Guide
Your vendor’s switch
configuration guide
Configure CIFS
server
Configure CIFS services and join
the CIFS server to the existing
Active Directory domain.
Provision CIFS
file shares
Create file systems that will be
used for CIFS file shares.
Complete the following steps in EMC Unisphere® to configure CIFS file systems on the
VNX array that will be used to store user data:
1.
Create a block-based RAID 6 storage pool that consists of sixty four (for 2 TB
NLSAS disks. Configure these as eight RAID 6 (4+2) groups.
Note: You should also create your Hot Spare disks at this point. Please consult the
EMC VNX5500 Unified Installation Guide for additional information.
46
2.
Using the pool created in step a, provision twenty 2 TB LUNs and present
them to the Data Mover using the system-defined NAS storage group.
3.
Configure CIFS services on the array, and create and join a CIFS server to the
existing Active Directory domain.
4.
Create multiple file systems from the NAS pool to use as CIFS file shares.
The validated solution used two 10 TB file systems for user data and two 2.5
TB file systems for user profile data.
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The relationship between the disks, LUNs, dVols, and file systems is depicted in
Figure 9.
Figure 9.
VNX storage pool for file layout
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Install and configure vSphere hosts and vSphere management
infrastructure
Overview
This section provides the requirements for the installation and configuration of the
vSphere hosts and infrastructure servers required to support the architecture. Table
11 describes the tasks that must be completed.
Table 11.
Install vSphere
Tasks for installing and configuring hosts and management structure
Task
Description
Reference
Install
vSphere
Install the vSphere hypervisor
on the physical servers being
deployed for the solution.
vSphere Installation and Setup
Guide
Configure
vSphere
Networking
Configure vSphere networking.
Connect
VMAX 10K
Connect the VMAX 10K
datastores to the vSphere
hosts deployed for the
solution.
Upon initial power up of the servers being used for vSphere, confirm or enable the
hardware-assisted CPU virtualization and the hardware-assisted MMU virtualization
setting in each server’s BIOS. If the servers are equipped with a RAID controller, EMC
recommends that you configure mirroring on the local disks.
Start up the vSphere 5.0 installation media and install the hypervisor on each of the
servers. vSphere hostnames, IP addresses, and a root password are required for
installation.
Configure vSphere During the installation of VMware vSphere, a standard virtual switch (vSwitch) will be
created. By default, vSphere chooses only one physical NIC as a virtual switch uplink.
networking
To maintain redundancy and bandwidth requirements, an additional NIC must be
added either by using the vSphere console or by connecting to the vSphere host from
the vSphere Client.
Each VMware vSphere server should have multiple interface cards for each virtual
network to ensure redundancy and provide for the use of network load balancing, link
aggregation, and network adapter failover.
VMware vSphere networking configuration including load balancing, link aggregation,
and failover options are described in vSphere Networking. Choose the appropriate
load-balancing option based on what is supported by the network infrastructure.
Create VMkernel ports as required, based on the infrastructure configuration:
48
•
VMkernel port for VMware vMotion
•
Virtual desktop port groups (used by the virtual desktops to communicate on
the network)
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vSphere Networking describes the procedure for configuring these settings. Refer to
the list of documents in References for more information.
Connect VMware
datastores
Connect the datastores configured in Provision storage for VMFS datastores to the
appropriate vSphere servers. These include the datastores configured for:
•
Virtual desktop storage
•
Infrastructure virtual machine storage (if required)
•
SQL Server storage (if required)
vSphere Storage Guide provides instructions on how to connect the VMware
datastores to the vSphere host.
Install and configure SQL server database
This section describes how to set up and configure a SQL Server database for the
solution. At the end of this chapter, you will have Microsoft SQL server on a virtual
machine, with the databases required by VMware vCenter configured for use.
Table 12.
Create a virtual
machine for
Microsoft SQL
Server
Tasks for SQL Server database setup
Task
Description
Reference
Create a virtual
machine for Microsoft
SQL Server
Create a virtual machine to
host SQL Server. Verify
that the virtual server
meets the hardware and
software requirements
http://msdn.microsoft.com
Install Microsoft
Windows on the
virtual machine
Install Microsoft Windows
Server 2008 R2 Standard
Edition on the virtual
machine created to host
SQL Server
http://technet.microsoft.com
Install Microsoft SQL
Server
Install Microsoft SQL
Server on the virtual
machine designated for
that purpose
http://technet.microsoft.com
Configure database
for VMware vCenter
Create the database
required for the vCenter
server on the appropriate
datastore
Preparing vCenter Server
Databases
Configure database
for VMware Update
Manager
Create the database
required for Update
Manager on the
appropriate datastore
Preparing the Update
Manager Database
The requirements for processor, memory, and OS vary for different versions of SQL
Server. Refer to the Microsoft website to obtain the minimum requirement for each
SQL Server software version. The virtual machine should be created on one of the
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vSphere servers designated for infrastructure virtual machines, and should use the
datastore designated for the shared infrastructure.
Note: The customer environment may already contain a SQL Server that is
designated for this role. In that case, refer to Configure database for VMware
vCenter.
Install Microsoft
Windows on the
virtual machine
The SQL Server service must run on Microsoft Windows. Install Windows on the virtual
machine by selecting the appropriate network, time, and authentication settings.
Install SQL Server
Install SQL Server on the virtual machine from the SQL Server installation media. The
Microsoft TechNet website provides information on how to install SQL Server.
One of the installable components in the SQL Server installer is the SQL Server
Management Studio (SSMS). You can install this component on the SQL Server
directly as well as on an administrator’s console. SSMS must be installed on at least
one system.
In many implementations you may want to store data files in locations other than the
default path. To change the default path, right-click the server object in SSMS and
select Database Properties. This action opens a properties interface from which you
can change the default data and log directories for new databases created on the
server.
Note: For High Availability, SQL Server can be installed in a Microsoft Failover
Cluster, or on a virtual machine protected by VMware VMHA clustering. It is
not recommended to combine these technologies.
Configure
database for
VMware vCenter
To use VMware vCenter in this solution, you will need to create a database for the
service to use. The requirements and steps to configure the vCenter Server database
correctly are covered in Preparing vCenter Server Databases section of the VMware
vSphere Installation and Setup Guide. Refer to the list of documents in the
References section for more information.
Note: Do not use the Microsoft SQL Server Express–based database option for this
solution.
It is a best practice to create individual login accounts for each service accessing a
database on a SQL Server.
Configure
database for
VMware Update
Manager
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To use VMware Update Manager in this solution you will need to create a database for
the service to use. The requirements and steps to configure the Update Manager
database correctly are covered in Preparing the Update Manager Database. It is a
best practice to create individual login accounts for each service accessing a
database on SQL Server. Consult your database administrator for your organization’s
policy.
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VMware vCenter Server deployment
Overview
This section provides information on how to configure the VMware vCenter Server.
Table 13 describes the tasks that must be completed.
Table 13.
Tasks for vCenter configuration
Task
Description
Reference
Create the vCenter
host virtual
machine
Create a virtual machine to be
used for the VMware vCenter
Server.
vSphere Virtual Machine
Administration
Install vCenter
guest operating
system
Install Windows Server 2008 R2
Standard Edition on the
vCenter host virtual machine.
Update the virtual
machine
Install VMware Tools, enable
hardware acceleration, and
allow remote console access.
Create vCenter
ODBC connections
Create the 64-bit vCenter and
32-bit vCenter Update Manager
ODBC connections.
vSphere Virtual Machine
Administration
•
vSphere Installation and
Setup
•
Installing and
Administering VMware
vSphere Update Manager
Install vCenter
Server
Install vCenter Server software.
vSphere Installation and
Setup
Install vCenter
Update Manager
Install vCenter Update Manager
software.
Installing and Administering
VMware vSphere Update
Manager
Create a virtual
datacenter
Create a virtual datacenter.
vCenter Server and Host
Management
Apply vSphere
license keys
Type the vSphere license keys
in the vCenter licensing menu.
vSphere Installation and
Setup
Add vSphere hosts
Connect vCenter to vSphere
hosts.
vCenter Server and Host
Management
Configure vSphere
clustering
Create a vSphere cluster and
move the vSphere hosts into it.
vSphere Resource
Management
Install the vCenter
Update Manager
plug-in
Install the vCenter Update
Manager plug-in on the
administration console.
Installing and Administering
VMware vSphere Update
Manager
Install the EMC
VNX UEM CLI
Install the EMC VNX UEM
command line interface on the
administration console.
EMC VSI for VMware vSphere:
Unified Storage
Management— Product
Install the EMC VSI
plug-in
Install the EMC Virtual Storage
Integration plug-in on the
administration console.
Guide
EMC VSI for VMware vSphere:
Unified Storage
Management— Product
Guide
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Create the vCenter
host virtual
machine
If the VMware vCenter Server is to be deployed as a virtual machine on a vSphere
server installed as part of this solution, connect directly to an Infrastructure vSphere
server using the vSphere Client. Create a virtual machine on the vSphere server with
the customer’s guest OS configuration, using the Infrastructure server datastore
presented from the storage array. The memory and processor requirements for the
vCenter Server are dependent on the number of vSphere hosts and virtual machines
being managed. The requirements are outlined in the vSphere Installation and Setup
Guide.
Install vCenter
guest OS
Install the guest OS on the vCenter host virtual machine. VMware recommends using
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition. Refer to vSphere Installation and Setup
Guide to ensure that adequate space is available on the vCenter and vSphere Update
Manager installation drive.
Create vCenter
ODBC connections
Before installing vCenter Server and vCenter Update Manager, you must create the
ODBC connections required for database communication. These ODBC connections
will use SQL Server authentication for database authentication.
Refer to vSphere Installation and Setup Guide and Installing and Administering
VMware vSphere Update Manager for instructions on how to create the necessary
ODBC connections.
Install vCenter
Server
Install vCenter by using the VMware VIMSetup installation media. Use the customerprovided username, organization, and vCenter license key when installing vCenter.
Apply vSphere
license keys
To perform license maintenance, log into the vCenter Server and select the
Administration - Licensing menu from the vSphere client. Use the vCenter License
console to enter the license keys for the vSphere hosts. After this, they can be
applied to the vSphere hosts as they are imported into vCenter.
Install the EMC VSI The VMAX and VNX storage systems can be integrated with VMware vCenter by using
EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) for VMware vSphere unified Storage Management
plug-in
plug-in. This provides administrators the ability to manage VNX storage tasks from
the vCenter. After the plug-in is installed on the vSphere console, administrators can
use vCenter to:
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•
Create datastores on VNX or VMAX and mount them on vSphere servers
•
Extend datastores
•
Perform FAST/full clones of virtual machines
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Citrix XenDesktop Controller deployment
This section provides information on how to set up and configure Citrix XenDesktop
controllers for the solution. For a new installation of XenDesktop, Citrix recommends
that you complete the following tasks in this order:
Table 14.
Install server-side
components of
XenDesktop
Tasks for XenDesktop Controller Setup
Task
Description
Create virtual machines for
XenDesktop controllers
Create two virtual machines in
vSphere Client. These virtual
machines will be used as
XenDesktop controllers.
Install guest OS for
XenDesktop controllers
Install Windows Server 2008 R2
guest OS.
Install server-side
components of
XenDesktop
Install XenDesktop server
components on the first
controller.
Configure a site
Configure a site in Desktop
Studio.
Add four additional
controllers
Install additional controllers for
high availability.
Install Desktop Studio
Install Desktop Studio to manage
XenDesktop deployment
remotely.
Prepare a master virtual
desktop
Create a master virtual machine
as the base image for the virtual
desktops.
Reference
http://www.citrix.com
The server-side components of XenDesktop to be installed on the first controller are:
•
Controller – creates and manages virtual desktops for users
•
Web Interface – provides users with web access to their virtual desktops
•
License Server – manages XenDesktop licenses
•
Desktop Studio – XenDesktop configuration and management console
•
Desktop Director – XenDesktop daily operations and helpdesk website
Important: Citrix supports installation of XenDesktop components only through the
procedures described in Citrix documentation. For more information, refer to the Citrix
website.
Configure a site
Start Desktop Studio and configure a site. For site configuration, do the following:
1.
License the site and specify which edition of XenDesktop to use.
2.
Set up the site database using a designated login credential for SQL Server.
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3.
Add a second
controller
Provide information about your virtual infrastructure, including the vCenter
SDK path that the controller will use to establish a connection to the
VMware infrastructure.
After you have configured a site, you can add four additional controllers to provide
high availability. The server-side components of XenDesktop required for the
additional controllers are:
•
Controller
•
Web Interface
•
Desktop Studio
•
Desktop Director
The license server component should not be installed on the second controller
because it is centrally managed on the first controller.
Install Desktop
Studio
If you want to manage your XenDesktop deployment remotely, install Desktop Studio
on appropriate administrator consoles from which the XenDesktop deployment will
be managed.
Prepare master
virtual machine
Optimize the master virtual machine to avoid unnecessary background services
generating extraneous I/O operations that adversely affect the overall performance of
the storage array.
Complete the following steps to prepare the master virtual machine:
1.
Install Windows XP or Windows 7 guest OS.
2.
Install appropriate integration tools such as VMware Tools.
3.
Install the Citrix Provisioning Servers agent software.
4.
Optimize the OS settings by referring the following documents: EMC
Performance Optimization for Microsoft Windows XP for the Virtual Desktop
Infrastructure—Applied Best Practices white paper and Deploying Microsoft
Windows 7 Virtual Desktops with VMware View —Applied Best Practices
white paper.
5.
Install third-party tools or applications, such as Microsoft Office, relevant to
your environment.
You will install the Virtual Desktop Agent after the desktop image has been captured
by the PVS server, as described in the next section.
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Citrix Provisioning Server deployment
This section provides information on how to set up and configure the Citrix
Provisioning Servers for the solution. For a new installation of Provisioning Services,
Citrix recommends that you complete the following tasks in this order:
Table 15.
Tasks for Provisioning Server Setup
Task
Description
Create virtual machines for
Provisioning Servers
Create two virtual machines in
vSphere Client. These virtual
machines will be used as
XenDesktop controllers.
Install guest OS for
Provisioning Servers
Install Windows Server 2008 R2
guest OS.
Install Provisioning
Services
Install Provisioning Server
software on the first server.
Run the Provisioning
Servers Configuration
Wizard
The wizard completes the
installation process by
configuration Provisioning Server
options.
Configure Provisioning
Server inbound
communication options
The inbound communication
options affect how many
desktops the Provisioning Server
can accommodate.
Deploy additional
Provisioning Servers
Additional Provisioning Servers
should be deployed to meet
availability and scalability needs.
Configure the PVS
bootstrap file
The PVS bootstrap file is used by
the virtual desktops to facilitate
communication with the PVS
server and boot the desktop.
Configure DHCP options to
enable PXE boot
The DHCP server for the desktops
must provide the PXE server
address of the Provisioning Server
that hosts the PXE server as well
as the PXE boot file.
Create a PVS template to
be used to deploy the
virtual desktops
The PVS template is used during
the creation of the virtual
desktops; the completed
template must be cloned to each
desktop VMFS datastore.
Import the master virtual
desktop into PVS
Use the PVS agent software to
import the master virtual desktop
into a vDisk on the PVS server.
Configure the PVS master
virtual desktop to boot to
Once imported, the master virtual
desktop must be booted from the
Reference
http://www.citrix.com
http://www.citrix.com
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Run the
Provisioning
Servers
Configuration
Wizard
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Task
Description
vDisk and power it on.
vDisk to install the Personal vDisk
and XenDesktop agent software.
Install the Personal vDisk
and XenDesktop Agent
software on the PVS
master virtual desktop.
Install the software packages and
power off the desktop when
completed, allowing the Personal
vDisk to update.
Copy the PVS master
virtual desktop to each
PVS server
The PVS master virtual desktop
must be copied to each PVS
server so that the PVS server can
use it to deploy desktops.
Change the master virtual
desktop vDisk to Standard
Image mode
The vDisk must be changed to
Standard Mode to enable it to be
shared.
Set the master virtual
desktop vDisk to cache on
device hard drive
The cache on device hard drive
option sets all desktops that use
the vDisk to use their dedicated
VMDK file to store cache data.
Use the XenDesktop Setup
Wizard to deploy virtual
desktops.
The XenDesktop Setup Wizard
deploys PVS-based desktops and
registers them with the
XenDesktop Controller.
Reference
Run the Provisioning Services Configuration Wizard after installing the Provisioning
Services software. The configuration option differs between the first and secondary
(or additional) provisioning servers. The following steps highlight the configuration
wizard options customized for this solution:
1.
On the Provisioning Services 6.0 server, select Start > All Programs > Citrix >
Provisioning Services > Provisioning Services Configuration Wizard. The
Provisioning Services Configuration Wizard window appears.
2.
Click Next. The DHCP Services page appears.
3.
Since the DHCP services run on a dedicated DHCP server, select The service
that runs on another computer.
4.
Click Next. The PXE Services page appears.
5.
Select The service that runs on this computer.
6.
Click Next. The Farm Configuration page appears.
7.
Select Create farm to configure the first provisioning server or Join existing
farm to configure additional provisioning servers.
8.
With either option, the wizard prompts for a SQL Server and its instance. The
provisioning server uses these inputs to create a database to store the
configuration details of the provisioning server. Additional provisioning
servers use these inputs to retrieve information about existing farms from
the database.
9.
Click Next. The User account page appears.
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10. Because the master desktop vDisk is stored on a local drive of each
provisioning server, select Local system account (Use with SAN) as the user
account to run the stream and SOAP services in the provisioning servers.
11. Click Next. The Active Directory Computer Account Password page appears.
Leave the active directory account password settings unchanged.
12. Click Next. The Network Communications page appears.
13. Ensure that the appropriate network card is selected for the stream services.
Leave the first communications and console ports unchanged.
14. Click Next. The TFTP Option and Bootstrap Location page appears.
15. Leave the Provisioning Services TFTP service option set to the default
setting.
16. Click Next. The Finish page appears.
17. Verify the settings specified in the wizard. Click Finish to complete the
configuration process.
Configure
provisioning
server inbound
communication
options
Each provisioning server maintains a range of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) ports to
manage all inbound communications from virtual desktops. The default port range of
21 ports and 8 threads per port may not support a large number of virtual desktops in
this validated solution. The total number of threads supported by a provisioning
server is calculated as:
Total threads = (Number of UDP ports * Threads per port * Number of network
adapters)
Ideally, there should be one thread dedicated for each desktop session. In this
solution, the number of UDP ports is increased to 64 (port range of 6910 to 6973) and
threads per port are increased to 10 on each PVS (64 * 10 * 1 NIC = 640 threads per
server) to accommodate up to 640 desktops.
To modify the tuning parameters, complete the following steps:
1.
Double-click a provisioning server in the Provisioning Services console to
display the Server Properties dialog box.
2.
Click the Network tab, and adjust the first and/or last ports.
Note: The Citrix PVS two-stage boot service uses port 6969 by default. Because this
service is not required for the solution, two-stage boot service is disabled to
avoid conflict and the UDP port range is enabled up to 6973.
3.
Click the Advanced tab to modify Threads per port parameter, and then click
OK.
It is a best practice to maintain the same server properties among PVS servers. In
particular, configure all servers with the same port range.
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Configure the PVS
bootstrap file
To update the bootstrap file required for the virtual desktops to PXE boot, complete
the following steps:
1.
In the Provisioning Services console, navigate to Farm > Sites > Site-name >
Servers.
2.
Right-click a server, and then select Configure Bootstrap. The Configure
Bootstrap dialog box appears.
3.
Add a new PVS server to the server farm.
4.
Update the bootstrap image to reflect the IP addresses used for all PVS
servers that provide streaming services in a round-robin fashion.
Note: Click Read Servers from Database to obtain a list of PVS servers or click Add
to manually add the server information.
5.
After modifying the configuration, click OK to update the ARDBP32.BIN
bootstrap file, which is located at C:\ProgramData\Citrix\Provisioning
Services\Tftpboot.
6.
Navigate to the folder and examine the timestamp of the bootstrap file to
ensure that the bootstrap file is updated on the intended PVS server.
Change the master In this validated solution, the PVS virtual machines share the virtual disk containing
the master vDisk. To enable this feature, this virtual disk is attached as read-only
virtual desktop
vDisk to Standard
After the necessary Citrix agents have been installed on the master desktop image,
Image mode
the access mode must be changed from Private Image to Standard Image to enable
virtual desktops to share the common vDisk. Thereafter, the vDisk becomes readonly.
Set the master
virtual desktop
vDisk to cache on
device hard drive
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Virtual desktop changes are redirected to a write-cache area. In this solution testing,
the write-cache type is set to Cache on device hard drive to ensure that each virtual
desktop uses its own VHD to store the write cache.
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Conclusion
EMC Symmetrix VMAX 10K is proven to be highly scalable and reliable. It is capable of
accommodating the storage performance and capacity requirements of a large scale
end user computing solution built on Citrix XenDesktop, Citrix Provisioning Services,
and VMware vSphere.
The VMAK 10K configuration featured in this document can support 5,000 active
virtual desktops, delivering a superior end user experience even during periods of
heavy load.
•
EMC FAST VP enables Symmetric VMAX 10K storage arrays to maximize
storage efficiency and provide autotiering of virtual desktop storage to the
most suitable storage tier, while ensuring that performance is maintained.
•
With Symmetrix VMAX 10K’s integration with VMware, the virtual desktop
infrastructure is relatively simple to provision and manage.
•
The Symmetrix VMAX 10K architecture is highly scalable and can be
expanded to support greater numbers of virtual desktops.
•
The Symmetrix VMAK 10K can easily service the peak IOPS encountered
during common end user computing workloads such as logon storms, boot
storms, and antivirus scan storms.
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.
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Appendix A
References
References
EMC
documentation
Other
documentation
The following documents available on EMC Online Support provide additional and
relevant information. If you do not have access to a document, contact your EMC
representative:
•
EMC Infrastructure for Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 (PVS) – Proven Solution Guide
•
EMC Infrastructure for Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 (PVS) – Reference Architecture
•
EMC Unisphere for VMAX – Installation Guide
•
EMC Unisphere for VMAX – Product Guide
Documentation related to the other components of this solution is available at the
respective vendor websites. This includes:
•
For Citrix documentation, please refer to the Citrix web site at
http://www.citrix.com
•
For VMware documentation, please refer to the VMware web site at
http://www.vmware.com
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