Download EMC VSPEX END-USER COMPUTING 250 Virtual Desktops EMC VSPEX

VSPEX Proven Infrastructure
EMC VSPEX END-USER COMPUTING
VMware Horizon View 5.2 and VMware vSphere 5.1 for up to
250 Virtual Desktops
Enabled by EMC VNXe and EMC Next-Generation Backup
EMC VSPEX
Abstract
This guide describes the EMC® VSPEX™ end-user computing solution using
VMware Horizon View with EMC VNXe® and EMC Next-Generation Backup for up
to 250 virtual desktops.
July 2013
Copyright © 2012-2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA.
Published July 2013
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VMware Horizon View 5.2 and VMware vSphere 5.1 for up to 250 Virtual Desktops
VSPEX Proven Infrastructure
Part Number H11958
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VMware Horizon View 5.2 and VMware vSphere 5.1 for up to 250 Virtual Desktops
VSPEX Proven Infrastructure
Contents
Chapter 1
Executive Summary
13
Introduction .................................................................................................. 14
Target audience ............................................................................................ 14
Document purpose ....................................................................................... 14
Business needs ............................................................................................ 15
Chapter 2
Solution Overview
17
Solution overview ......................................................................................... 18
Desktop broker ............................................................................................. 18
Virtualization ................................................................................................ 18
Compute ....................................................................................................... 18
Network ........................................................................................................ 19
Storage ......................................................................................................... 19
Chapter 3
Solution Technology Overview
21
Technology solution ...................................................................................... 22
Summary of key components ........................................................................ 23
Desktop broker ............................................................................................. 24
Overview .............................................................................................................. 24
VMware Horizon View 5.2..................................................................................... 24
VMware View Composer ....................................................................................... 25
VMware View Persona Management..................................................................... 25
VMware View Storage Accelerator ........................................................................ 25
Virtualization ................................................................................................ 26
VMware vSphere 5.1 ............................................................................................ 26
VMware vCenter ................................................................................................... 26
VMware vSphere High Availability ........................................................................ 26
EMC Virtual Storage Integrator for VMware ........................................................... 27
VNXe VMware vStorage API for Array Integration support...................................... 27
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Compute ....................................................................................................... 27
Network ........................................................................................................ 29
Storage ......................................................................................................... 31
Overview .............................................................................................................. 31
EMC VNXe series .................................................................................................. 31
Backup and recovery..................................................................................... 32
Overview .............................................................................................................. 32
EMC Avamar......................................................................................................... 32
Security ......................................................................................................... 32
RSA SecurID two-factor authentication ................................................................. 32
SecurID authentication in the VSPEX end-user computing environment ............... 33
Required components .......................................................................................... 33
Compute, memory, and storage resources ........................................................... 34
Other components ........................................................................................ 35
VMware vShield Endpoint .................................................................................... 35
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View ........................................ 35
Chapter 4
Solution Stack Architectural Overview
37
Solution overview ......................................................................................... 38
Solution architecture .................................................................................... 38
Overview .............................................................................................................. 38
Architecture for up to 250 virtual desktops .......................................................... 39
Key components .................................................................................................. 39
Hardware resources ............................................................................................. 41
Software resources .............................................................................................. 42
Sizing for validated configuration......................................................................... 43
Server configuration guidelines .................................................................... 45
Overview .............................................................................................................. 45
VMware vSphere memory virtualization for VSPEX................................................ 45
Memory configuration guidelines ......................................................................... 47
Network configuration guidelines ................................................................. 47
Overview .............................................................................................................. 47
VLAN .................................................................................................................... 48
Enable jumbo frames ........................................................................................... 49
Link aggregation .................................................................................................. 49
Storage configuration guidelines .................................................................. 49
Overview .............................................................................................................. 49
VMware vSphere storage virtualization for VSPEX ................................................ 49
Storage layout for 250 virtual desktops................................................................ 51
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High availability and failover......................................................................... 52
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 52
Virtualization layer ............................................................................................... 52
Compute layer...................................................................................................... 53
Network layer ....................................................................................................... 54
Storage layer ........................................................................................................ 54
Validation test profile ................................................................................... 55
Profile characteristics........................................................................................... 55
Antivirus and antimalware platform profile ................................................... 56
Platform characteristics ....................................................................................... 56
vShield architecture ............................................................................................. 56
vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View platform profile ..................... 57
Platform characteristics ....................................................................................... 57
vCenter Operations Manager for View architecture ............................................... 57
Backup and recovery configuration guidelines.............................................. 57
Backup characteristics ......................................................................................... 57
Backup layout ...................................................................................................... 58
Sizing guidelines .......................................................................................... 58
Reference workload ...................................................................................... 59
Define the reference workload ............................................................................. 59
Applying the reference workload ................................................................... 59
Concurrency ......................................................................................................... 59
Heavier desktop workloads .................................................................................. 60
Implementing the reference architectures ..................................................... 60
Overview .............................................................................................................. 60
Resource types .................................................................................................... 60
CPU resources ...................................................................................................... 60
Memory resources................................................................................................ 61
Network resources ............................................................................................... 61
Storage resources ................................................................................................ 62
Backup resources ................................................................................................ 62
Implementation summary .................................................................................... 62
Quick assessment......................................................................................... 63
Overview .............................................................................................................. 63
CPU requirements ................................................................................................ 63
Memory requirements .......................................................................................... 63
Storage performance requirements ...................................................................... 63
Storage capacity requirements............................................................................. 64
Determining equivalent reference virtual desktops .............................................. 64
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Contents
Fine tuning hardware resources ........................................................................... 65
Chapter 5
VSPEX Configuration Guidelines
69
Configuration overview ................................................................................. 70
Pre-deployment tasks ................................................................................... 71
Overview .............................................................................................................. 71
Deployment prerequisites .................................................................................... 71
Customer configuration data......................................................................... 74
Prepare switches, connect network, and configure switches......................... 74
Overview .............................................................................................................. 74
Configure infrastructure network .......................................................................... 74
Configure VLANs .................................................................................................. 75
Complete network cabling.................................................................................... 76
Prepare and configure storage array ............................................................. 76
Overview .............................................................................................................. 76
Prepare VNXe ....................................................................................................... 76
Set up the initial VNXe configuration .................................................................... 76
Setup VNXe networking........................................................................................ 77
Provision storage for NFS datastores .................................................................... 77
Provision optional storage for user data ............................................................... 78
Provision optional storage for infrastructure virtual machines .............................. 78
Install and configure vSphere hosts .............................................................. 79
Overview .............................................................................................................. 79
Install vSphere ..................................................................................................... 79
Configure vSphere networking ............................................................................. 79
Jumbo frames....................................................................................................... 80
Connect VMware datastores................................................................................. 80
Plan virtual machine memory allocations ............................................................. 80
Install and configure SQL Server database .................................................... 83
Overview .............................................................................................................. 83
Create a virtual machine for Microsoft SQL Server ................................................ 84
Install Microsoft Windows on the virtual machine ................................................ 84
Install SQL Server ................................................................................................. 84
Configure database for VMware vCenter ............................................................... 84
Configure database for VMware Update Manager ................................................. 85
Configure database for VMware View Composer .................................................. 85
Configure database for VMware View Manager..................................................... 85
Configure the VMware View and View Composer database permissions............... 85
VMware vCenter Server deployment .............................................................. 86
Overview .............................................................................................................. 86
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Create the vCenter host virtual machine ............................................................... 87
Install vCenter guest OS ....................................................................................... 87
Create vCenter ODBC connections........................................................................ 87
Install vCenter Server ........................................................................................... 87
Apply vSphere license keys .................................................................................. 87
Deploy the vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) plug-in................................ 87
Install the EMC VSI plug-in ................................................................................... 88
Set up VMware View Connection Server ........................................................ 88
Overview .............................................................................................................. 88
Install the VMware View Connection Server .......................................................... 89
Configure the View event log database connection .............................................. 89
Add a second View Connection Server ................................................................. 89
Configure the View Composer ODBC connection .................................................. 89
Install View Composer.......................................................................................... 89
Link VMware Horizon View to vCenter and View Composer ................................... 89
Prepare master virtual machine............................................................................ 90
Configure View Persona Management group policies ........................................... 90
Configure folder redirection group policies for Avamar ......................................... 90
Configure View PCoIP group policies .................................................................... 90
Set up Avamar............................................................................................... 91
Avamar configuration overview ............................................................................ 91
GPO modifications for Avamar.............................................................................. 92
GPO additions for Avamar .................................................................................... 92
Master image preparation for EMC Avamar ........................................................... 96
Define datasets.................................................................................................... 96
Define schedules ............................................................................................... 101
Adjust maintenance window schedule ............................................................... 101
Define retention policies .................................................................................... 102
Group and group policy creation ........................................................................ 102
EMC Avamar Enterprise Manager—activate clients ............................................. 106
Set up VMware vShield Endpoint ................................................................ 113
Overview ............................................................................................................ 113
Verify desktop vShield Endpoint driver installation ............................................ 114
Deploy vShield Manager appliance .................................................................... 114
Install the vSphere vShield Endpoint service ...................................................... 114
Deploy an antivirus solution management server ............................................... 114
Deploy vSphere Security Virtual Machines ......................................................... 114
Verify vShield Endpoint functionality.................................................................. 114
Set up VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View .................... 115
Overview ............................................................................................................ 115
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Create vSphere IP pool for vCenter Operations Manager ..................................... 116
Deploy vCenter Operations Manager vApp ......................................................... 116
Specify the vCenter Server to monitor ................................................................ 116
Update virtual desktop settings ......................................................................... 116
Create the virtual machine for the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View
Adapter server ................................................................................................... 117
Install the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Adapter software ........ 117
Import the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View PAKFile ...................... 117
Verify vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View functionality...................... 117
Summary of VSPEX configuration guidelines............................................... 117
Chapter 6
Validating the Solution
119
Overview ..................................................................................................... 120
Post-install checklist ................................................................................... 121
Deploy and test a single virtual desktop ..................................................... 121
Verify the redundancy of the solution components ..................................... 121
Provision remaining virtual desktops .......................................................... 122
Appendix A
Bills of Materials
125
Bill of material for 250 virtual desktops ...................................................... 126
Appendix B
Customer Configuration Data Sheet
127
Overview of customer configuration data sheets......................................... 128
Appendix C
References
131
References .................................................................................................. 132
EMC documentation ........................................................................................... 132
Other documentation ......................................................................................... 132
Appendix D
About VSPEX
135
About VSPEX ............................................................................................... 136
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Figures
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
Figure 6.
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Figure 34.
Figure 35.
Figure 36.
Figure 37.
Solution components ......................................................................... 22
Example of compute layer flexibility ................................................... 28
Example of Highly-Available network design....................................... 30
Authentication control flow for Horizon View access requests originating
on an external network ....................................................................... 33
Logical architecture: VSPEX end-user computing for VMware Horizon
View with RSA .................................................................................... 34
Logical architecture for 250 virtual desktops ...................................... 39
Hypervisor memory consumption ....................................................... 46
Required networks ............................................................................. 48
VMware virtual disk types................................................................... 50
Core storage layout—250 virtual desktops ......................................... 51
Optional storage layout—250 virtual desktops ................................... 52
High availability at the virtualization layer .......................................... 53
Redundant power supplies ................................................................. 53
Network layer high availability............................................................ 54
VNXe series high availability .............................................................. 55
Sample Ethernet network architecture ................................................ 75
Virtual machine memory settings ....................................................... 82
Persona Management modifications for Avamar ................................. 92
Configuring Windows folder redirection .............................................. 93
Create a Windows network drive mapping for user files ...................... 94
Configure drive mapping settings ....................................................... 94
Configure drive mapping common settings ......................................... 95
Create a Windows network drive mapping for user profile data ........... 95
Avamar Tools menu ............................................................................ 97
Avamar Manage All Datasets window ................................................. 97
Avamar New Dataset window.............................................................. 98
Configure Avamar Dataset settings ..................................................... 98
User profile data dataset .................................................................... 99
User profile data dataset Exclusion settings ....................................... 99
User profile data dataset Options settings........................................ 100
User Profile data dataset Advanced Options settings........................ 100
Avamar default backup/maintenance windows schedule ................. 101
Avamar modified backup/maintenance windows schedule .............. 102
Create new Avamar backup group .................................................... 103
New backup group settings .............................................................. 104
Select backup group dataset ............................................................ 104
Select backup group schedule.......................................................... 105
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Figures
Figure 38.
Figure 39.
Figure 40.
Figure 41.
Figure 42.
Figure 43.
Figure 44.
Figure 45.
Figure 46.
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Figure 48.
Figure 49.
Figure 50.
Figure 51.
Figure 52.
Figure 53.
10
Select backup group retention policy................................................ 105
Avamar Enterprise Manager .............................................................. 106
Avamar Client Manager .................................................................... 106
Avamar activate client window ......................................................... 107
Avamar activate client menu............................................................. 107
Avamar Directory Service configuration ............................................ 108
Avamar Client Manager—post configuration ..................................... 108
Avamar Client Manager—Virtual desktop clients............................... 109
Select virtual desktop clients in Avamar Client Manager ................... 109
Select Avamar groups to add virtual desktops .................................. 110
Activate Avamar clients .................................................................... 110
Commit Avamar client activation ...................................................... 111
The first information prompt in Avamar client activation ................... 111
The second information prompt in Avamar client activation.............. 112
Avamar Client Manager—Activated clients ........................................ 112
View Composer Disks page............................................................... 122
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Tables
Table 1.
Table 2.
Table 3.
Table 4.
Table 5.
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Table 27.
Table 28.
Table 29.
Table 30.
Table 31.
Table 32.
Table 33.
Table 34.
Solution hardware .............................................................................. 41
Solution software ............................................................................... 42
Server hardware ................................................................................. 45
Storage hardware ............................................................................... 49
Validated environment profile ............................................................ 55
Platform characteristics ...................................................................... 56
Platform characteristics ...................................................................... 57
Profile characteristics ......................................................................... 57
Virtual desktop characteristics ........................................................... 59
Blank worksheet row .......................................................................... 63
Reference virtual desktop resources ................................................... 64
Example worksheet row ...................................................................... 65
Example applications ......................................................................... 65
Server resource component totals ...................................................... 66
Blank customer worksheet ................................................................. 67
Deployment process overview ............................................................ 70
Tasks for pre-deployment ................................................................... 71
Deployment prerequisites checklist .................................................... 72
Tasks for switch and network configuration ........................................ 74
Tasks for storage configuration........................................................... 76
Tasks for server installation ................................................................ 79
Tasks for SQL Server database setup .................................................. 83
Tasks for vCenter configuration .......................................................... 86
Tasks for VMware View Connection Server setup ................................ 88
Tasks for Avamar integration .............................................................. 91
Tasks required to install and configure vShield Endpoint.................. 113
Tasks required to install and configure vCenter Operations Manager 115
Tasks for testing the installation ....................................................... 120
Common server information ............................................................. 128
vSphere server information............................................................... 129
Array information.............................................................................. 129
Network infrastructure information ................................................... 129
VLAN information ............................................................................. 129
Service accounts .............................................................................. 130
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Tables
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Chapter 1
Executive Summary
This chapter presents the following topics:
Introduction............................................................................................... 14
Target audience ......................................................................................... 14
Document purpose .................................................................................... 14
Business needs ......................................................................................... 15
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Executive Summary
Introduction
EMC® VSPEX™ validated and modular architectures are built with proven technologies
to create complete virtualization solutions that enable you to make an informed
decision in the hypervisor, compute, and networking layers. VSPEX eliminates server
virtualization planning and configuration burdens. When embarking on server
virtualization, virtual desktop deployment or IT consolidation, VSPEX accelerates your
IT transformation by enabling faster deployment, greater choice, higher efficiency,
and lower risk.
This proven infrastructure guide is intended to be a comprehensive guide to the
technical aspects 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.
Target audience
The readers of this guide are expected to have the necessary training and background
to install and configure an VSPEX end-user computing solution based on VMware
Horizon View with VMware vSphere® as a hypervisor, EMC VNXe series storage
systems, and associated infrastructure as required by this implementation. External
references are provided where applicable and EMC recommends that the readers be
familiar with these documents.
Readers are also expected to be familiar with the infrastructure and database security
policies of the customer installation.
Individuals focused on selling and sizing a VSPEX end-user computing for VMware
Horizon View solution should pay particular attention to the first four chapters of this
document. After the purchase, implementers of the solution will want to focus on the
configuration guidelines in Chapter 5, the solution validation in Chapter 6, and the
appropriate references and appendices.
Document purpose
This proven infrastructure guide is an initial introduction to the VSPEX end-user
computing architecture, an explanation on how to modify the architecture for specific
engagements, and instructions on how to effectively deploy the system.
The VSPEX end-user computing architecture provides the customer with a modern
system capable of hosting a large number of virtual desktops at a consistent
performance level. This solution executes on VMware’s vSphere virtualization layer
backed by the highly available VNX storage family for storage and VMware’s Horizon
View desktop broker. The compute and network components are vendor definable,
redundant, and sufficiently powerful to handle the processing and data needs of a
large virtual desktop environment.
The 250 virtual desktop environments discussed are based on a defined desktop
workload. While not every virtual desktop has the same requirements, this guide
contains methods and guidance to adjust your system to be cost effective when the
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Executive Summary
system is deployed. For larger environments, solutions for up to 2000 virtual
desktops are described in the proven infrastructure guide EMC® VSPEX™ END-USER
COMPUTING VMware Horizon View 5.2 and VMware vSphere 5.1 for up to 2000 Virtual
Desktops.
An end-user computing or virtual desktop architecture is a complex system offering.
This guide facilitates the architecture’s setup by providing up front software and
hardware material lists, step-by-step sizing guidance and worksheets, and verified
deployment steps. After the last component is installed, there are validation tests to
ensure that your system is up and running properly. Following this guide will ensure
an efficient and painless desktop deployment.
Business needs
Business applications are moving into the consolidated computing, network, and
storage environment. EMC VSPEX end-user computing using VMware reduces the
complexity of configuring every component of a traditional deployment model. The
challenge of integration management is reduced while maintaining the application
design and implementation options. Administration is unified, while process
separation can be adequately controlled and monitored. The following are the
business needs for the VSPEX end-user computing for VMware architectures:
•
Provide an end-to-end virtualization solution to use the capabilities of the
unified infrastructure components.
•
Provide a VSPEX end-user computing for VMware Horizon View solution for
efficiently virtualizing 250 virtual desktops for varied customer use cases.
•
Provide a reliable, flexible, and scalable reference design.
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Executive Summary
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Chapter 2
Solution Overview
This chapter presents the following topics:
Solution overview ...................................................................................... 18
Desktop broker .......................................................................................... 18
Virtualization ............................................................................................. 18
Compute ................................................................................................... 18
Network..................................................................................................... 19
Storage ..................................................................................................... 19
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Solution Overview
Solution overview
The EMC VSPEX end-user computing for VMware Horizon View 5.2 on VMware
vSphere 5.1 solution provides a complete systems architecture capable of supporting
up to 250 virtual desktops with a redundant server/network topology and highly
available storage. The core components that make up this particular solution are
desktop broker, virtualization, storage, server computer, and networking.
Desktop broker
Horizon View is the virtual desktop solution from VMware that enables virtual
desktops to run on a VMware vSphere virtualization environment. It enables the
centralization of desktop management and provides increased control for IT
organizations. Horizon View enables end users to connect to their desktop from
multiple devices across a network connection.
Virtualization
vSphere is the leading virtualization platform in the industry. It provides flexibility
and cost savings to end users by enabling the consolidation of large, inefficient
server farms into quick, reliable cloud infrastructures. The core vSphere components
are the VMware vSphere Hypervisor and the VMware vCenter™ Server for system
management.
The VMware hypervisor runs on a dedicated server and enables multiple operating
systems to execute on the system at the same time as virtual machines. These
hypervisor systems can be connected to operate in a clustered configuration. These
clustered configurations are then managed as a larger resource pool through the
vCenter product and allow for dynamic allocation of CPU, memory, and storage across
the cluster.
Features such as vMotion, which enables a virtual machine to move between different
servers with no disruption to the operating system, and Distributed Resource
Scheduler (DRS) which uses vMotions to automatically balance load, make vSphere a
good business choice.
With the release of vSphere 5.1, a VMware virtualized environment can host virtual
machines with up to 64 virtual CPUs and 1 TB of virtual RAM.
Compute
VSPEX enables the flexibility of designing and implementing the vendor’s choice of
server components. The infrastructure has to conform to the following attributes:
18
•
Sufficient RAM, cores and memory to support the required number and types
of virtual desktops
•
Sufficient network connections to enable redundant connectivity to the
system switches
•
Excess capacity to withstand a server failure and failover in the environment
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Solution Overview
Network
VSPEX enables the flexibility of designing and implementing the vendor’s choice of
network components. The infrastructure has to conform to the following attributes:
•
Redundant network links for the hosts, switches and storage
•
Support for Link Aggregation
•
Traffic isolation based on industry accepted best practices
Storage
The VNXe storage family is one of the foremost-shared storage platforms in the
industry. Its ability to provide both file and block access with a broad feature set
make it an ideal choice for any end-user computing implementation.
The VNXe storage components include the following, which are sized for the stated
reference architecture workload:
•
Host adapter ports—Provide host connectivity through fabric into the array.
•
Storage processors (SPs)—The compute component of the storage array,
responsible for all aspects of data moving into, out of, and between arrays
and protocol support.
•
Disk drives—Physical spindles that contain the host/application data and
their enclosures
The 250 Virtual Desktop solution discussed in this document is based on the
VNXe3300 storage array. The VNXe3300 can host up to 150 drives.
The EMX VNXe series supports a wide range of business class features that are ideal
for the end-user computing environment including:
•
Thin Provisioning
•
Replication
•
Snapshots
•
File Deduplication and Compression
•
Quota Management and many more
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Solution Overview
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Chapter 3
Solution Technology
Overview
This chapter presents the following topics:
Technology solution................................................................................... 22
Summary of key components ..................................................................... 23
Desktop broker .......................................................................................... 24
Virtualization ............................................................................................. 26
Compute ................................................................................................... 27
Network..................................................................................................... 29
Storage ..................................................................................................... 31
Backup and recovery ................................................................................. 32
Security ..................................................................................................... 32
Other components ..................................................................................... 35
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Solution Technology Overview
Technology solution
This solution uses EMC VNXe3300™ and VMware vSphere 5.1 to provide the storage
and computing resources for a VMware Horizon View environment of Microsoft
Windows 7 virtual desktops provisioned by VMware View Composer.
Figure 1.
Solution components
In particular, planning and designing the storage infrastructure for VMware Horizon
View environments is a critical step because the shared storage must 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 might
adapt to slow performance, but unpredictable performance frustrates them and
reduces efficiency.
To provide predictable performance for end-user computing, the storage system must
handle the peak I/O load from the clients while keeping response time to 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.
EMC Next-Generation Backup enables protection of user data and end-user
recoverability. This is accomplished by using EMC Avamar® and its desktop client
within the desktop image.
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Solution Technology Overview
Summary of key components
This section briefly describes the key components of this solution.
•
Desktop broker
The Desktop Virtualization broker manages the provisioning, allocation,
maintenance, and eventual removal of the virtual desktop images that are
provided to users of the system. This software is critical to enable on-demand
creation of desktop images, to enable maintenance of the image without
affecting user productivity, and prevent the environment from growing in an
unconstrained way.
•
Virtualization
The virtualization layer enables the physical implementation of resources to
be decoupled from the applications that use them. The application’s view of
the resources available to it is no longer directly tied to the hardware. This
enables many key features in the end-user computing concept.
•
Compute
The compute layer provides memory and processing resources for the
virtualization layer software and for the applications running in the
infrastructure. The VSPEX program defines the minimum amount of compute
layer resources required, but enables the customer to implement using any
server hardware, which meets these requirements.
•
Network
The network layer connects the users of the environment to the resources they
need and connects the storage layer to the compute layer. The VSPEX program
defines the minimum number of network ports required for the solution and
provides general guidance on network architecture, but enables the customer
to implement the requirements using any network hardware that meets these
requirements.
•
Storage
The storage layer is a critical resource for the implementation of the end-user
computing environment. Due to the way desktops are used, the storage layer
must absorb large bursts of activity as they occur, without unduly affecting
the user experience.
•
Backup and recovery
The optional Backup and recovery components of the solution provide data
protection in the event that the data in the primary system is deleted,
damaged, or otherwise unusable.
•
Security
The optional Security components of the solution from RSA provides
customers with additional options to control access to the environment and
ensure that only authorized users are permitted to use the system.
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Solution Technology Overview
•
Other components
There are additional, optional, components, which may improve the
functionality of the solution depending on the specifics of the environment.
Solution architecture provides details on all the components that make up the
reference architecture.
Desktop broker
Overview
Desktop virtualization is a technology encapsulating and delivering desktops to a
remote client device, which can be thin clients, zero clients, smart phones, or tablets.
It enables subscribers from different locations access to virtual desktops hosted on
centralized computing resources at remote data centers.
In this solution, VMware Horizon View is used to provision, manage, broker and
monitor desktop virtualization environments.
VMware Horizon
View 5.2
VMware Horizon View 5.2 is a leading desktop virtualization solution that enables
desktops to deliver cloud-computing services to users. VMware Horizon View 5.2
integrates effectively with vSphere 5.1 to provide:
•
Performance optimization and tiered storage support—View Composer
optimizes storage utilization and performance by reducing the footprint of
virtual desktops. It also supports the use of different tiers of storage to
maximize performance and reduce cost.
•
Thin provisioning support—VMware Horizon View 5.2 enables efficient
allocation of storage resources when virtual desktops are provisioned. This
results in better use of storage infrastructure and reduced capital expenditure
(CAPEX)/operating expenditure (OPEX).
This solution requires the VMware Horizon View 5.2 Bundle. The VMware Horizon
View Bundle includes access to all View features, such as vSphere Desktop, vCenter™
Server, View Manager, View Composer, View Persona Management™, vShield
Endpoint™, VMware ThinApp®, and VMware View Client with Local Mode.
The VMware Horizon View 5.2 release includes the following enhancements for
improving the user experience.
•
Support for Hardware accelerated 3-D graphics by virtualizating the Graphics
Processing Unit (GPU)
•
Desktop access through HTML5, and iOS and Android applications
•
Support for Microsoft Windows 8
For more information, refer to What’s New in VMware Horizon View 5.2.
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VMware View
Composer
View Composer works directly with vCenter Server to deploy, customize, and maintain
the state of the virtual desktops when using linked clones. Desktops provisioned as
linked clones share a common base image within a desktop pool and as such have a
minimal storage footprint. View Composer also enables the following capabilities:
•
Tiered storage support to enable the use of dedicated storage resources for
the placement of both the read-only replica and linked clone disk images.
•
An optional standalone View Composer server used to minimize the impact of
virtual desktop provisioning and maintenance operations on the vCenter
Server.
This solution uses View Composer to deploy 250 dedicated virtual desktops running
Windows 7 as linked clones.
VMware View
Persona
Management
View Persona Management preserves user profiles and dynamically synchronizes
them with a remote profile repository. View Persona Management does not require
the configuration of Windows roaming profiles, thus eliminating the need to use
Active Directory to manage View user profiles.
View Persona Management provides the following benefits compared to traditional
Windows roaming profiles:
VMware View
Storage
Accelerator
•
With View Persona Management, a user’s remote profile is dynamically
downloaded when the user logs in to a View desktop. View downloads
persona information only when the user needs it.
•
During login, View downloads only the files that Windows requires, such as
user registry files. Other files are copied to the local desktop when the user or
an application opens them from the local profile folder.
•
View copies recent changes in the local profile to the remote repository at a
configurable interval.
•
During logout, only files that are updated since the last replication are copied
back to the remote repository.
•
Configure View Persona Management to store user profiles in a secure,
centralized repository.
View Storage Accelerator reduces the storage load associated with virtual desktops
by caching the common blocks of desktop images into local vSphere host memory.
Storage Accelerator uses a feature of VMware vSphere 5.1 called Content Based Read
Cache (CBRC), which is implemented inside the vSphere hypervisor.
When enabled for the View virtual desktop pools, the host hypervisor scans the
storage disk blocks to generate digests of the block contents. When these blocks are
read into the hypervisor, they are cached in the host based CBRC. Subsequent reads
of blocks with the same digest are served directly from the in-memory cache. This
significantly improves the performance of the virtual desktops, especially during boot
storms, user login storms, or antivirus scanning storms when reading a large number
of blocks with identical content.
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Solution Technology Overview
Virtualization
VMware vSphere 5.1
VMware vSphere 5.1 is the market-leading virtualization platform that is used across
thousands of IT environments around the world. VMware vSphere 5.1 transforms a
computer’s physical resources by virtualizing the memory, storage, and network. 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 5.1 are coupled with DRS and
VMware vMotion™ which enables the seamless migration of virtual desktops from one
vSphere server to another with minimal or no impact to the customer’s usage.
This solution uses VMware vSphere Desktop Edition for deploying desktop
virtualization. It provides the full range of features and functionalities of the vSphere
Enterprise Plus edition, enabling customers to achieve scalability, high availability,
and optimal performance for all of their desktop workloads. vSphere Desktop also
comes with unlimited vRAM entitlement. vSphere Desktop edition is intended for
customers who want to purchase only vSphere licenses to deploy desktop
virtualization.
VMware vCenter
VMware vCenter is a centralized management platform for the VMware virtual
infrastructure. It provides administrators with a single interface for all aspects of
monitoring, managing, and maintaining of the virtual infrastructure and can be
accessed from multiple devices.
VMware vCenter also manages some of the more advanced features of the VMware
virtual infrastructure, such as vSphere High Availability (HA) and DRS, along with
vMotion and Update Manager.
VMware vSphere
High Availability
The VMware vSphere HA feature enables the virtualization layer to restart virtual
machines automatically in various failure conditions.
•
If the virtual machine operating system has an error, the virtual machine can
be automatically restarted on the same hardware.
•
If the physical hardware has an error, the impacted virtual machines can be
automatically restarted on other servers in the cluster.
Note
In order to restart virtual machines on different hardware those servers need
to have resources available.
vSphere HA enables you to configure policies to determine which machines are
restarted automatically, and under what conditions these operations should be
attempted.
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Solution Technology Overview
EMC Virtual
Storage Integrator
for VMware
EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) for VMware vSphere is a plug-in to the vSphere
client that 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 with the VSI Feature Manager. VSI provides a unified user
experience, which enables new features to be introduced quickly in response to
changing customer requirements.
Apply the following features during the validation testing:
•
Storage Viewer (SV) — Extends the vSphere client to facilitate the discovery
and identification of VNXe storage devices that are allocated to VMware
vSphere hosts and virtual machines. SV presents the underlying storage
details to the virtual data center administrator, merging the data of several
different storage mapping tools into a few seamless vSphere client views.
•
Unified Storage Management — Simplifies storage administration of the VNX
unified storage platform. It enables VMware administrators to provision new
Network File System (NFS) and Virtual Machine File System (VMFS)
datastores, and Raw Device Mapping (RDM) volumes seamlessly within
vSphere client.
The EMC VSI for VMware vSphere product guides on EMC Online Support have more
information.
VNXe VMware
vStorage API for
Array Integration
support
Hardware acceleration with VMware vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI) is a
storage enhancement in vSphere that enables vSphere to offload specific storage
operations to compatible storage hardware such as the VNXe series platforms. With
storage hardware assistance, vSphere performs these operations faster and
consumes less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth.
Compute
The choice of a server platform for an VSPEX infrastructure is not only based on the
technical requirements of the environment, but on the supportability of the platform,
existing relationships with the server provider, advanced performance and
management features, and many other factors. For this reason, VSPEX solutions are
designed to run on a wide variety of server platforms. Instead of requiring a given
number of servers with a specific set of requirements, VSPEX documents a number of
processor cores and an amount of RAM that must be achieved. This can be
implemented with two servers—or twenty—and still be considered the same VSPEX
solution.
For example, assume that the compute layer requirements for a given implementation
are 25 processor cores, and 200GB of RAM. One customer wants to implement these
using white-box servers containing 16 processor cores, and 64 GB of RAM; while a
second customer chooses a higher-end server with 20 processor cores and 144 GB of
RAM. Figure 2 shows this example.
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Solution Technology Overview
Figure 2.
Example of compute layer flexibility
The first customer needs four of the servers they chose, while the second customer
needs two.
Note
To enable high availability at the compute layer each customer needs one
additional server so if a server fails the system has enough capability to
maintain business operations.
Observe the following best practices in the compute layer:
28
•
Use a number of identical or at least compatible servers. By implementing
VSPEX on identical server units, you can minimize compatibility problems in
this area.
•
If you are implementing hypervisor layer high availability, then the largest
virtual machine you can create is constrained by the smallest physical server
in the environment.
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Solution Technology Overview
•
EMC recommends that you implement the high availability features available
in the virtualization layer, and ensure that the compute layer has sufficient
resources to accommodate at least single server failures. This enables you to
implement minimal-downtime upgrades, and tolerate single unit failures.
Within the boundaries of these recommendations and best practices, the compute
layer for EMC VSPEX can be very flexible to meet your specific needs. The key
constraint is that you provide sufficient processor cores and RAM per core to meet the
needs of the target environment.
Network
The infrastructure network requires redundant network links for each vSphere 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. An example of this kind of highly available network topology is depicted in
Figure 3.
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Solution Technology Overview
Figure 3.
Example of Highly-Available network design
This validated solution uses virtual local area networks (VLANs) to segregate network
traffic of various types to improve throughput, manageability, application separation,
high availability and security.
EMC unified storage platforms provide network high availability or redundancy by
using link aggregation. Link aggregation enables multiple active Ethernet connections
to appear as a single link with a single MAC address, and potentially multiple IP
addresses. In this solution, Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is configured on
VNXe, 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.
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Storage
Overview
The storage layer is a key component of any cloud infrastructure solution that serves
data generated by applications and operating systems in a data center storage
processing system. This increases storage efficiency, management flexibility and
total cost of ownership (TCO). In this solution, VNXe series arrays are used to provide
virtualization at the storage layer.
EMC VNXe series
The VNX family is optimized for virtual applications delivering 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 VNXe series is powered by Intel Xeon processor for intelligent storage that
automatically and efficiently scales in performance, while ensuring data integrity and
security.
The VNXe series is a purpose-built platform for IT managers in smaller environments
and the VNX series is designed to meet the high-performance, high-scalability
requirements of midsize and large enterprises.
VNXe customer benefits
VNXe supports the following features:
•
Next-generation unified storage, optimized for virtualized applications
•
Capacity optimization features including compression, deduplication, thin
provisioning, and application-centric copies
•
High availability, designed to deliver five 9s availability
•
Multiprotocol support for file and block
•
Simplified management with EMC Unisphere™ for a single management
interface for all NAS, SAN, and replication needs
VNXe software suites available
The following VNXe software suites are available:
•
Remote Protection Suite—Protects data against localized failures, outages,
and disasters.
•
Application Protection Suite—Automates application copies and proves
compliance.
•
Security and Compliance Suite—Keeps data safe from changes, deletions,
and malicious activity.
VNXe software packs available
The following VNXe software pack is available:
•
Total Value Pack—Includes all the protection software suites and the Security
and Compliance Suite.
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Solution Technology Overview
Backup and recovery
Overview
Backup and recovery is another import component in this VSPEX solution, which
provides data protection by backing up data files or volumes with defined schedule
and restoring data from backup in case recovery is happening after disaster. In this
VSPEX solution, EMC Avamar is used for backup/recovery, supporting up to 250
virtual desktops.
EMC Avamar
EMC Avamar provides methods to back up virtual desktops using either image-level
or guest-based operations. Avamar runs the deduplication engine at the virtual
machine disk (VMDK) level for image backups and at the file-level for guest-based
backups.
Image-level protection enables backup clients to make a copy of all the virtual disks
and configuration files associated with the particular virtual desktop, to be used in
the event of hardware failure, corruption, or accidental deletion of a virtual desktop.
Avamar significantly reduces the backup and recovery time of the virtual desktop by
using change block tracking (CBT) on both backup and recovery.
Guest-based protection runs like traditional backup solutions. Guest-based backup
can be used on any virtual machine running an operating system for which an Avamar
backup client is available. It enables fine-grained control over the content and
inclusion and exclusion patterns. This can be used to prevent data loss due to user
errors, such as accidental file deletion. Installing the desktop or laptop agent on the
system to be protected enables end-user self-service recoverability of data.
This solution is tested with guest-based backups.
Security
RSA SecurID twofactor
authentication
RSA SecurID two-factor authentication can provide enhanced security for the VSPEX
end-user computing environment by requiring the user to authenticate with two
pieces of information, collectively called a passphrase, consisting of:
•
Something the user knows: a PIN, which is used like any other PIN or
password.
•
Something the user has: A token code, provided by a physical or software
“token,” which changes every 60 seconds.
The typical use case deploys SecurID to authenticate users accessing protected
resources from an external or public network. Access requests originating from within
a secure network are authenticated by traditional mechanisms involving Active
Directory or LDAP. A configuration description for implementing SecurID is available
for the VSPEX end-user computing solutions.
SecurID functionality is managed through RSA Authentication Manager, which also
controls administrative functions such as token assignment to users, user
management, high availability, and so on.
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Solution Technology Overview
SecurID
authentication in
the VSPEX enduser computing
environment
SecurID support is built into VMware Horizon View, providing a simple activation
process. Users accessing a SecurID-protected Horizon View environment are initially
authenticated with a SecurID passphrase, following by a normal authentication
against Active Directory. In a typical deployment, one or more View Connection
servers are configured with SecurID for secure access from external or public
networks, with other Connection servers accessed within the local network retaining
Active Directory-only authentication.
Figure 4 shows placement of the Authentication Manager servers in the Horizon View
environment.
Figure 4.
Required
components
Authentication control flow for Horizon View access requests originating
on an external network
The following components are required to enable SecurID:
•
RSA SecurID Authentication Manager (version 8.0)—Used to configure and
manage the SecurID environment and assign tokens to users. Authentication
Manager 7.1 SP4 is available as a virtual appliance running on VMware ESXi.
•
SecurID tokens for all users—SecurID requires something the user knows (a
PIN) with a constantly-changing code from a “token” the user has in
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Solution Technology Overview
possession. SecurID tokens may be physical, displaying a new code every 60
seconds which the user must then enter with a PIN, or software-based, where
the user supplies a PIN and the token code is supplied programmatically.
Hardware and software tokens are registered with Authentication Manager
through “token records” supplied on a CD or other media.
For more information about enabling SecurID for VSPEX end-user computing
architecture for VMware Horizon View, refer to the design guide Securing EMC VSPEX
End-User Computing With RSA SecurID - VMware Horizon View 5.2 and VMware
vSphere 5.1 for up to 2,000 Virtual Desktops.
Compute, memory, Figure 5 shows the VSPEX end-user computing for VMware Horizon View environment
with two infrastructure virtual machines added to support Authentication Manager.
and storage
resources
Figure 5.
Logical architecture: VSPEX end-user computing for VMware Horizon
View with RSA
The minimum hardware resources needed to support SecurID are:
•
Two CPU (cores)
•
4 GB memory
•
100 GB disk space
Requirements are minimal and can be drawn from the overall infrastructure resource
pool.
For more information, refer to the RSA Authentication Manager 8.0 Performance and
Scalability Guide.
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Solution Technology Overview
Other components
VMware vShield
Endpoint
VMware vShield Endpoint offloads virtual desktop antivirus and antimalware
scanning operations to a dedicated secure virtual appliance delivered by VMware
partners. Offloading scanning operations improves desktop consolidation ratios and
performance by eliminating antivirus storms, while also streamlining antivirus and
antimalware deployment and monitoring and satisfying compliance and audit
requirements through detailed logging of antivirus and antimalware activities.
VMware vCenter
Operations
Manager for
Horizon View
VMware vCenter™ Operations Manager™ for Horizon View provides end-to-end
visibility into the health, performance and efficiency of virtual desktop infrastructure
(VDI). It enables desktop administrators to proactively ensure the best end-user
experience, avert incidents and eliminate bottlenecks. Designed for VMware Horizon
View™, this optimized version of vCenter Operations Manager improves IT
productivity and lowers the cost of owning and operating VDI environments.
Traditional operations-management tools and processes are inadequate for
managing large View deployments, because:
•
The amount of monitoring data and quantity of alerts overwhelm desktop and
infrastructure administrators.
•
Traditional tools provide only a silo view and don’t adapt to the behavior of
specific environments.
•
Lack of end-to-end visibility into the performance and health of the entire
stack—including servers, storage and networking—stalls large VDI
deployments.
•
IT productivity suffers from reactive management and the inability to ensure
quality of service proactively.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View addresses these challenges
and delivers higher team productivity, lower operating expenses and improved
infrastructure utilization.
Key features include:
•
Patented self-learning analytics that adapt to your environment, continuously
analyzing thousands of metrics for server, storage, networking and end-user
performance.
•
Comprehensive dashboards that simplify monitoring of health and
performance, identify bottlenecks, and improve infrastructure efficiency of
your entire View environment.
•
Dynamic thresholds and “smart alerts” that notify administrators earlier in the
process and provide more-specific information about impending performance
issues.
•
Automated root-cause analysis, session lookup and event correlation for
faster troubleshooting of end- user problems.
•
Integrated approach to performance, capacity and configuration management
that supports holistic management of VDI operations.
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Solution Technology Overview
36
•
Design and optimizations specifically for VMware Horizon View.
•
Availability as a virtual appliance for faster time to value.
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Chapter 4
Solution Stack
Architectural Overview
This chapter presents the following topics:
Solution overview ...................................................................................... 38
Solution architecture ................................................................................. 38
Server configuration guidelines .................................................................. 45
Network configuration guidelines ............................................................... 47
Storage configuration guidelines ................................................................ 49
High availability and failover ...................................................................... 52
Validation test profile ................................................................................ 55
Antivirus and antimalware platform profile ................................................. 56
vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View platform profile .................... 57
Backup and recovery configuration guidelines ............................................ 57
Sizing guidelines ....................................................................................... 58
Reference workload ................................................................................... 59
Applying the reference workload ................................................................ 59
Implementing the reference architectures................................................... 60
Quick assessment ..................................................................................... 63
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Solution Stack Architectural Overview
Solution overview
VSPEX Proven Infrastructure solutions are built with proven technologies to create a
complete virtualization solution that enables you to make an informed decision when
choosing and sizing the hypervisor, compute, and networking layers. VSPEX
eliminates many server virtualization planning and configuration burdens by using
extensive interoperability, functional, and performance testing by EMC. VSPEX
accelerates your IT Transformation to cloud-based computing by enabling faster
deployment, greater choice, higher efficiency, and lower risk.
This section is intended to be a comprehensive guide to the major aspects of this
solution. Server capacity is specified in generic terms for required minimums of CPU,
memory and network interfaces; you are free to select the server and networking
hardware of your 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 end-user
computing deployment.
Each VSPEX Proven Infrastructure balances the storage, network, and compute
resources needed for a set number of virtual machines, which have been validated by
EMC. In practice, each virtual machine has its own set of requirements that rarely fit a
pre-defined idea of what a virtual machine should be. In any discussion about virtual
infrastructures, it is important to first define a reference workload. Not all servers
perform the same tasks, and it is impractical to build a reference that takes into
account every possible combination of workload characteristics.
Solution architecture
Overview
Below is a detailed description of the VSPEX end-user computing solution for up to
250 virtual desktops.
Note
38
VSPEX uses the concept of a Reference Workload to describe and define a
virtual machine. Therefore, one physical or virtual desktop in an existing
environment may not be equal to one virtual desktop in a VSPEX solution.
Evaluate your workload in terms of the reference to arrive at an appropriate
point of scale. A detailed process is described in Applying the reference
workload.
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Solution Stack Architectural Overview
Architecture for up
to 250 virtual
desktops
The architecture diagrams in this section show the layout of major components
comprising the solution.
Figure 6 shows the overall logical architecture of the solution.
Figure 6.
Key components
Logical architecture for 250 virtual desktops
This section lists the key components used in this solution.
VMware View Manager Server—Provides virtual desktop delivery, authenticates users,
manages the assembly of users' virtual desktop environments, and brokers
connections between users and their virtual desktops. In this solution, VMware View
Manager 5.2 is installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 and hosted as a virtual machine
on a VMware vSphere 5.1 server. Two VMware View Manager Servers were used in
this solution.
Virtual desktops—Two hundred and fifty persistent virtual desktops running Windows
7 are provisioned as VMware View Linked Clones.
VMware vSphere 5.1—Provides a common virtualization layer to host a server
environment that contains the virtual machines. The specifics of the validated
environment are listed in Table 1. vSphere 5.1 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.
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Solution Stack Architectural Overview
•
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—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 5.1—Provides a scalable and extensible platform that forms
the foundation for virtualization management for the VMware vSphere 5.1 cluster. All
vSphere hosts and their virtual machines are managed through vCenter.
VMware vShield Endpoint—Offloads virtual desktop antivirus and antimalware
scanning operations to a dedicated secure virtual appliance delivered by VMware
partners. Offloading scanning operations improves desktop consolidation ratios and
performance by:
•
Eliminating antivirus storms
•
Streamline antivirus and antimalware deployment
•
Monitoring and satisfying compliance and audit requirements through
detailed logging of antivirus and antimalware activities
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View—Monitors the virtual desktops
and all of the supporting elements of the VMware Horizon View virtual infrastructure.
VSI for VMware vSphere —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.
SQL Server—vCenter Server requires a database service to store configuration and
monitoring details. A Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is used for this purpose.
DHCP server—Centrally manages the IP address scheme for the virtual desktops. This
service is hosted on the same virtual machine as the domain controller and DNS
server. The Microsoft DHCP Service running on a Windows 2012 server is used for this
purpose.
DNS Server—Required for the various solution components to perform name
resolution. The Microsoft DNS Service running on a Windows Server 2012 server is
used for this purpose.
Active Directory Server—Required for the various solution components to function
properly. The Microsoft AD Directory Service running on a Windows Server 2012
server is used for this purpose.
Shared Infrastructure—DNS and authentication or authorization services like
Microsoft Active Directory can be provided through existing infrastructure or set up as
part of the new virtual infrastructure.
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IP/Storage Networks—All network traffic is carried by standard Ethernet network with
redundant cabling and switching. User and management traffic is carried over a
shared network while NFS storage traffic is carried over a private, non-routable
subnet.
EMC VNXe3300 series—Provides storage by using IP (NFS) connections for virtual
desktops, and infrastructure virtual machines such as VMware View Manager servers,
VMware vCenter Servers, Microsoft SQL Server databases, and other supporting
services. Optionally, user profiles and home directories are redirected to CIFS network
shares on VNXe3300.
VNXe series storage arrays include the following components:
•
Storage processors (SPs) support block and file data with UltraFlex I/O
technology that supports iSCSI, CIFS and NFS protocols. The SPs provide
access for all external hosts and for the file side of the VNXe array.
•
Battery backup units are battery units within each storage processor and
provide enough power to each storage processor to ensure that any data in
flight is de-staged to the vault area in the event of a power failure. This
ensures that no writes are lost. On restart of the array, the pending writes are
reconciled and persisted.
•
Disk-array enclosures (DAE) house the drives used in the array.
EMC Avamar—Provides the platform for protection of virtual machines. This protection
strategy uses persistent virtual desktops. It can use both image-level and guestbased protection.
Hardware
resources
Table 1 lists the hardware used in this solution.
Table 1.
Solution hardware
Hardware
Configuration
Notes
Servers for
virtual
desktops
• Memory: 2 GB RAM per desktop (500 GB RAM
across all servers)
Total server capacity
required to host 250
virtual desktops
• CPU: 1 vCPU per desktop (eight desktops per
core:32 cores across all servers)
• Network: Six 1 GbE NICs per server
• Additional CPU and RAM as needed for the
VMware vShield Endpoint and Avamar AVE
components.
Note: To implement vSphere HA functionality and
to meet the listed minimums, the infrastructure
should have one additional server.
NFS and CIFS
network
infrastructure
Minimum switching capability:
• Six 1 GbE ports per vSphere server
Refer to vendor
documentation for
specific details
concerning vShield
Endpoint and Avamar
AVE resource
requirements
Redundant LAN
configuration
• Two 10 GbE ports per storage processor
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Hardware
Configuration
Notes
EMC
VNXe3300
• Two storage processors (active/active)
• Twenty-two 300 GB, 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS
disks (three RAID 5 performance packs and
one hot spare disk)
For throughput
requirement, 1 GbE
may be sufficient for
250 basic desktops,
while 10 GbE is
preferred for
applications and
systems with higher
I/O needs.
Thirteen 2 TB, 7,200 rpm 3.5-inch NL-SAS disks
Optional for user data
Seven 300 GB, 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS disks (one
RAID 5 performance pack)
Optional for
infrastructure storage
Seven 300 GB, 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS disks (one
RAID 5 performance pack)
Optional for vCenter
Operations Manager
for Horizon View
Minimum number required:
These servers and the
roles they fulfill may
already exist in the
customer
environment
• Two 10 GbE interfaces per storage processor
Servers for
customer
infrastructure
• Two physical servers
• 20 GB RAM per server
• Four processor cores per server
• Two 1 GbE ports per server
• Additional CPU and RAM as needed for the
VMware vShield Endpoint components.
Refer to vendor
documentation for
specific details
concerning vShield
Endpoint resource
requirements
Software resources Table 2 lists the software used in this solution.
Table 2.
Solution software
Software
Configuration
VNXe3300 (shared storage, file systems)
Software version
2.3.1.19462
VMware Horizon View Desktop Virtualization
VMware View Manager
5.2
Operating system for View Manager
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition
Microsoft SQL Server
Version 2008 R2 Standard Edition
EMC Avamar Next-Generation Backup
42
Avamar Virtual Edition (2TB)
6.1 SP1
Avamar Agent
6.1 SP1
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Software
Configuration
VMware vSphere
vSphere Server
5.1*
vCenter Server
5.1.0a
vShield Manager (includes vShield
Endpoint Service)
5.1
Operating System For Vcenter Server
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View
VMware vCenter Operations Manager
5.0.1.0
vCenter Operations Manager for
Horizon View plug-in
1.5
Virtual desktops
Note: Aside from the base operating system, this software is used for solution validation
and is not required
Base operating system
Microsoft Windows 7 Standard (32-bit) SP1
Microsoft Office
Office Enterprise 2007
Microsoft Internet Explorer
8.0.7601.17514
Adobe Reader
X (10.1.3)
VMware vShield Endpoint (component
of VMware Tools)
8.6.5 build-652272
Adobe Flash Player
11
Bullzip PDF Printer
7.2.0.1304
FreeMind
0.8.1
Login VSI (VDI workload generator)
3.6 Professional Edition
* Patch ESXi510-201210001 needed for support Horizon View 5.2
Sizing for
validated
configuration
When selecting servers for this solution, the processor core must meet or exceed the
performance of the Intel Nehalem family at 2.66 GHz. As servers with greater
processor speeds, performance, and higher core density become available, servers
can be consolidated as long as the required total core and memory count is met and a
sufficient number of servers are incorporated to support the necessary level of high
availability.
As with the selection of servers, selecting network interface card (NIC) speed and
quantity should also be consolidated as long as the overall bandwidth requirement
for this solution and sufficient redundancy necessary to support high availability are
maintained.
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The following represents a sample server configuration required to support this 250desktop solution.
•
Four servers each with:

Two quad-core processors (total eight cores)

128 GB of RAM
This server configuration provides 32 cores and 512 GB of RAM. As shown in Table 1,
a minimum of one core is required to support eight virtual desktops and a minimum
of 2 GB of RAM is required for each. The correct balance of memory and cores for the
expected number of virtual desktops to be supported by a server must also be taken
into account. Additional CPU resources and RAM are required to support the VMware
vShield Endpoint components.
IP network switches used to implement this solution must have a minimum
backplane capacity of 48 Gb/s non-blocking and support the following features:
•
IEEE 802.1x Ethernet flow control
•
802.1q VLAN tagging
•
Ethernet link aggregation using IEEE 802.1ax (802.3ad) Link Aggregation
Control Protocol
•
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) management capability
•
Jumbo frames
The quantity and type of switches chosen should support high availability. A network
vendor must be chosen based on the availability of parts, service, and support
contracts. The network configuration should also include the following:
•
A minimum of two switches to support redundancy
•
Redundant power supplies
•
A minimum of forty 1-GbE ports (distributed for high availability)
•
Appropriate uplink ports for customer connectivity
Use of 10 GbE ports should align with the ports on the server and storage while
keeping in mind the overall network requirement for this solution and a level of
redundancy to support high availability. Additional server NICs and storage
connections should also be considered based on customer or specific
implementation requirements.
The management infrastructure (Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and SQL Server) can be
supported on two servers similar to those previously defined, but will require a
minimum of 20 GB RAM instead of 128 GB.
Disk storage layout is explained in Storage configuration guidelines.
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Server configuration guidelines
Overview
When designing and ordering the compute/server layer of the VSPEX solution
described below, several factors may alter the final purchase. From a virtualization
perspective, if a systems workload is well understood, features like Memory
Ballooning and Transparent Page Sharing can reduce the aggregate memory
requirement.
If the virtual machine/desktop pool does not have a high level of peak or concurrent
usage, the number of vCPUs is reduced. Conversely, if the applications deployed are
highly computational in nature, the number of CPUs and memory purchased may
need to be increased. Table 3 lists the server hardware and the configurations.
Table 3.
Server hardware
Hardware
Configuration
Notes
Servers for
virtual
desktops
• Memory: 2 GB RAM per desktop (500 GB RAM
across all servers)
Total server capacity
required to host 250
virtual desktops
• CPU: 1 vCPU per desktop (eight desktops per
core:32 cores across all servers)
• Network: Six 1 GbE NICs per server
• Additional CPU and RAM as needed for the
VMware vShield Endpoint and Avamar AVE
components.
Note: To implement VMware vSphere HA
functionality and to meet the listed minimums,
the infrastructure should have one additional
server.
VMware vSphere
memory
virtualization for
VSPEX
Refer to vendor
documentation for
specific details
concerning vShield
Endpoint and Avamar
AVE resource
requirements
VMware vSphere 5.1 has a number of advanced features that help to maximize
performance and overall resource utilization. The most important of these are in the
area of memory management. This section and Figure 7 describes some of these
features and the items you need to consider when using them in the environment.
In general, you can consider virtual machines on a single hypervisor consuming
memory as a pool of resources.
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Figure 7.
Hypervisor memory consumption
This basic concept is enhanced by understanding the technologies described in this
section.
Memory over-commitment
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. If more memory than that is
present on the server that is being actively used, vSphere may resort to swapping out
portions of a virtual machine’s memory.
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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 benefit from this feature.
Transparent page sharing
Virtual machines running similar operating systems and applications typically have
identical sets of memory content. Page sharing enables 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 to 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:
•
The system overhead for the VMkernel
•
Additional overhead for each virtual machine
The amount of additional overhead memory for the VMkernel is fixed while each
virtual machine depends on the number of virtual CPUs and configured memory for
the guest operating system.
Allocating memory to virtual machines
The proper sizing of memory for a virtual machine or desktop in VSPEX 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 adjustments, as discussed later in this guide. In
this solution, each virtual desktop gets 2 GB memory, as listed in Table 1.
Network configuration guidelines
Overview
This section provides guidelines for setting up a redundant, high-availability network
configuration. The guidelines outlined here take into account jumbo frames, VLANs,
and LACP on EMC unified storage. For details on the network resource requirement,
refer to Table 1.
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VLAN
The best practice is to isolate network traffic so that the traffic between hosts and
storage, hosts and clients, and management traffic all move over isolated networks.
In some cases physical isolation may be required for regulatory or policy compliance
reasons; but in many cases logical isolation using VLANs is sufficient. This solution
requires a minimum of three VLANs.
•
Client access
•
Storage
•
Management
These VLANs are shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8.
Required networks
The client access network is for users of the system, or clients, to communicate with
the infrastructure. The storage network is used for communication between the
compute layer and the storage layer. The management network is used for
administrators to have a dedicated way to access the management connections on
the storage array, network switches, and hosts.
Note
48
Figure 8 demonstrates the network connectivity requirements for a VNXe3300
using 1-GbE network connections. A similar topology should be created when
using the VNXe3150 array, or 10 GbE network connections.
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Enable jumbo
frames
This solution for EMC VSPEX end-user computing recommends MTU be set at 9,000
(jumbo frames) for efficient storage and migration traffic.
Link aggregation
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, LACP is configured on VNXe,
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.
Storage configuration guidelines
Overview
vSphere allows more than one method of utilizing storage when hosting virtual
machines. The solutions in Table 4 were tested utilizing NFS and the storage layout
described adheres to all current best practices. An educated customer or architect
can make modifications based on their understanding of the systems usage and load
if required.
Table 4.
Storage hardware
Hardware
Configuration
Notes
EMC
VNXe3300
• Two storage processors (active/active)
For throughput
requirement, 1 GbE
may be sufficient for
250 basic desktops,
while 10 GbE is
preferred for
applications and
systems with higher
I/O needs.
• Two 10 GbE interfaces per storage processor
• Twenty-two 300 GB, 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS
disks (three RAID 5 performance packs)
Thirteen 2 TB, 7,200 rpm 3.5-inch NL-SAS disks
Optional for user data
Seven 300 GB, 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS disks (one
RAID 5 performance pack)
Optional for
infrastructure storage
Seven 300 GB, 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS disks (one
RAID 5 performance pack)
Optional for vCenter
Operations Manager
for Horizon View
This section provides guidelines for setting up the storage layer of the solution to
provide high availability and the expected level of performance.
VMware vSphere
storage
virtualization for
VSPEX
VMware ESXi provides host-level storage virtualization. It virtualizes the physical
storage and presents the virtualized storage to virtual machine.
A virtual machine stores its operating system and all other files related to the virtual
machine activities in a virtual disk. Figure 9 shows VMware virtual disk types. The
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Solution Stack Architectural Overview
virtual disk itself is one or multiple files. VMware uses a virtual SCSI controller to
present the virtual disk to guest operating systems running inside virtual machines.
A virtual disk resides in a datastore. Depending on the type used, it can be either a
VMware Virtual Machine File system (VMFS) datastore or an NFS datastore.
Figure 9.
VMware virtual disk types
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 networked storage.
Raw Device Mapping
In addition, VMware also provides a mechanism named Raw Device Mapping (RDM).
RDM enables a virtual machine to access a volume on the physical storage directly,
and can only be used with Fibre Channel or iSCSI.
NFS
VMware supports using NFS file systems from external NAS storage system or device
as virtual machine datastore.
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Storage layout for
250 virtual
desktops
Core storage layout
Figure 10 shows the layout of the disks that are required to store 250 virtual
desktops. This layout does not include space for user profile data. For more
information, refer to VNXe shared file systems.
Figure 10.
Core storage layout—250 virtual desktops
Core storage layout overview
The following core configuration is used in the solution.
•
Twenty-one SAS disks are allocated in RAID 5 (6+1) group to contain virtual
desktop datastores.
•
One SAS disk is a hot spare and is contained in the VNXe hot spare pool.
Note
Seven of the disks used (one RAID 5 (6+1) group) may contain VNXe
system storage, which reduces user storage.
VNXe provisioning wizards perform disk allocation and do not allow
user selection.
If more capacity is required, larger drives may be substituted. To
satisfy the load recommendations, the drives will all need to be 15k
rpm and the same size. If differing sizes are used, storage layout
algorithms may give sub-optimal results.
Optional user data storage layout
In solution validation testing, storage space for user data is allocated on the VNXe
array, as shown in Figure 11. This storage is in addition to the core storage shown in
Figure 10. If storage for user data exists elsewhere in the production environment,
this storage is not required.
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Figure 11.
Optional storage layout—250 virtual desktops
Optional storage layout overview
The following optional configuration is used in the solution:
•
Twelve NL-SAS disks are allocated in RAID 6 (4+2) groups to store user data
and profiles.
•
One NL-SAS disk is a hot spare.
•
Seven SAS disks configured as a RAID 5 (6+1) group are used to store the
infrastructure virtual machines.
•
Seven SAS disks configured as RAID 5 (6+1) group are used to store the
vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View virtual desktops and
databases.
•
Remaining disks are unbound or drive bays may be empty, as no additional
drives were used for testing this solution.
Note
The actual disk selection is done by the VNXe provisioning wizards and may
not match the allocation.
VNXe shared file systems
The virtual desktops use two shared filed systems—one for user profiles, and the
other to redirect user storage that resides in home directories. In general, redirecting
user data out of the base image of VNXe for file usage enables centralized
administration, backup, and recovery, and makes the desktops more stateless. Each
file system is exported to the environment through a CIFS share.
High availability and failover
Introduction
This VSPEX solution provides a highly available virtualized server, network, and
storage infrastructure. When implemented in accordance with this guide it provides
the ability to survive most single-unit failures with minimal to no impact to business
operations.
Virtualization layer As indicated earlier, EMC recommends that you configure high availability in the
virtualization layer and allow the hypervisor to restart automatically any virtual
machines that fail. Figure 12 shows the hypervisor layer responding to a failure in the
compute layer:
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Figure 12.
High availability at the virtualization layer
By implementing high availability at the virtualization layer, it ensures that, even in
the event of a hardware failure the infrastructure attempts to keep as many services
running as possible.
Compute layer
While the choice of servers to implement in the compute layer is flexible, EMC
recommends that you use enterprise class servers designed for the data center. This
type of server has redundant power supplies, which should be connected to separate
power distribution units (PDUs) in accordance with your server vendor’s best
practices.
Figure 13.
Redundant power supplies
EMC also recommends you configure high availability in the virtualization layer. This
means configuring the compute layer with enough resources so that the total number
of available resources meets the needs of the environment, even with a server failure,
shown in Figure 12.
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Network layer
The advanced networking features of the VNX family provide protection against
network connection failures at the array. Each vSphere host has multiple connections
to user and storage Ethernet networks to guard against link failures. These
connections should be spread across multiple Ethernet switches to guard against
component failure in the network. These connections are also shown in Figure 14.
Figure 14.
Network layer high availability
By ensuring that there are no single points of failure in the network layer, you can
ensure that the compute layer is able to access storage, and communicate with users
even if a component fails.
Storage layer
54
The VNX family is designed for five 9s availability by using redundant components
throughout the array, as shown in Figure 15. All of the array components are capable
of continued operation in case of hardware failure. The RAID disk configuration on the
array provides protection against data loss due to individual disk failures, and the
available hot spare drives are dynamically allocated to replace a failing disk.
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Figure 15.
VNXe series high availability
EMC storage arrays are designed to be highly available by default. When configured
according to the directions in their installation guides there are no single unit failures
that result in data loss or unavailability.
Validation test profile
Profile
characteristics
Table 5 shows the solution has a validated environment profile.
Table 5.
Validated environment profile
Profile characteristic
Value
Number of virtual desktops
250
Virtual desktop operating system
Windows 7 Enterprise (32-bit) SP1
CPU per virtual desktop
1 vCPU
Number of virtual desktops per CPU core
8
RAM per virtual desktop
2 GB
Desktop provisioning method
Linked clone
Average storage available for each virtual desktop
18 GB (vmdk and vswap)
Average I/O per second (IOPS) per virtual desktop at
steady state
9.3 IOPS
Average peak IOPS per virtual desktop during boot
storm
40 IOPS
Number of datastores to store virtual desktops
2
Number of virtual desktops per datastore
125
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Solution Stack Architectural Overview
Profile characteristic
Value
Disk and RAID type for datastores
RAID 5, 300 GB, 15k rpm, 3.5 inch
SAS disks
Disk and RAID type for CIFS shares to host user
profiles and home directories
RAID 6, 2 TB, 7,200 rpm, 3.5 inch
NL-SAS disks
Antivirus and antimalware platform profile
Platform
characteristics
The solution is sized based on the vShield Endpoint platform requirements, as shown
in Table 6.
Table 6.
Platform characteristics
Platform component
VMware vShield Manager
appliance
Technical information
Manages the vShield Endpoint service installed on each
vSphere host.
1 vCPU, 3 GB RAM, and 8 GB hard disk space.
VMware vShield
Endpoint service
Installed on each desktop vSphere host. The service uses
up to 512 MB of RAM on the vSphere host.
A component of the VMware tools suite that enables
integration with the vSphere host vShield Endpoint service.
VMware Tools vShield
Endpoint component
vShield Endpoint thirdparty security plug-in
vShield
architecture
56
Installed as an optional component of the VMware tools
software package and should be installed on the master
virtual desktop image.
Requirements vary based on individual vendor
specifications.
Note: A third-party plug-in and associated components are
required to complete the vShield Endpoint solution.
The individual components of the VMware vShield Endpoint platform and the vShield
partner security plug-ins each have specific CPU, RAM, and disk space requirements.
The resource requirements vary based on a number of factors, such as the number of
events logged, log retention needs, the number of desktops being monitored, and the
number of desktops on each vSphere host.
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vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View platform profile
Platform
characteristics
Table 7 shows how the solution was sized based on the vCenter Operations Manager
for Horizon View platform requirements.
Table 7.
Platform characteristics
Platform component
Technical information
The vApp consists of a user interface (UI) virtual
appliance and an Analytics virtual appliance.
VMware vCenter Operations
Manager vApp
VMware vCenter Operations
Manager for Horizon View Adapter
•
UI appliance requirements: 2 vCPU, 5 GB
RAM, and 25 GB hard disk space
•
Analytics appliance requirements: 2 vCPU, 7
GB RAM, and 150 GB hard disk space
vCenter Operations Manager enables integration
between vCenter Operations Manager and
VMware View and requires a server running
Microsoft Windows 2008 R2. The adapter gathers
View related status information and statistical
data.
•
vCenter
Operations
Manager for View
architecture
Server requirements: 2 vCPU, 6 GB RAM, and
30 GB hard disk space.
The individual components of vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View have
specific CPU, RAM, and disk space requirements. The resource requirements vary
based on the number of desktops being monitored. The numbers provided in Table 7
assume that 250 desktops are monitored.
Backup and recovery configuration guidelines
Backup
characteristics
Table 8 shows the solution sizing with the application environment profile.
Table 8.
Profile characteristics
Profile characteristic
Number of virtual desktops
User data
Value
250
2.5 TB (10.0 GB per desktop)
Daily change rate for user data
User data
2%
Retention per data types
Daily
30 daily
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Profile characteristic
Value
Weekly
4 weekly
Monthly
1 monthly
EMC Avamar AVE requirements
Backup layout
0.5 TB AVE
6 GB dedicated RAM
and 850 GB disk space
1.0 TB AVE
8 GB dedicated RAM
and 1,600 GB disk
space
2.0 TB AVE
16 GB dedicated RAM
and 3,100 GB disk
space
Two dedicated 2
GHz processors
and one 1 GbE
connection
EMC Avamar provides various deployment options depending on the specific use
case and recovery requirements. In this case, the solution is deployed with two 2 TB
Avamar Virtual Edition machines. This enables the unstructured user data to be
backed up directly to the Avamar system for simple file-level recovery. The solution
also enables customers to unify their backup process with industry-leading
deduplication backup software, and achieve the highest levels of performance and
efficiency.
Sizing guidelines
In the following sections, the readers will find definitions of the reference workload
used to size and implement the VSPEX. Guidance is provided on how to correlate
those reference workloads to actual customer workloads and how that may change
the end delivery from the server and network perspective.
Modification to the storage definition is made by adding drives for greater capacity
and performance. The disk layouts are created to provide support for the appropriate
number of virtual desktops at the defined performance level. Decreasing the number
of recommended drives or stepping down an array type can result in lower IOPS per
desktop and a reduced user experience due to higher response times.
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Reference workload
Each VSPEX Proven Infrastructure balances the storage, network, and compute
resources needed for a set number of virtual desktops that have been validated by
EMC. In practice, each virtual desktop has its own set of requirements that rarely fit a
pre-defined 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 servers
perform the same tasks, and it is impractical to build a reference that takes into
account every possible combination of workload characteristics.
To simplify the discussion, we have defined a representative customer reference
Define the
reference workload workload. By comparing the actual customer usage to this reference workload, you
can extrapolate which solution to choose.
For the VSPEX end-user computing solutions, the reference workload is defined as a
single virtual desktop. Table 9 shows the characteristics of this virtual desktop.
Table 9.
Virtual desktop characteristics
Characteristic
Value
Virtual desktop operating system
Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise Edition
(32-bit) SP1
Virtual processors per virtual desktop
1
RAM per virtual desktop
2 GB
Available storage capacity per virtual desktop
18 GB (vmdk and vswap)
Average IOPS per virtual desktop at steady
state
10
This desktop definition is based on user data that resides on shared storage. The I/O
profile is defined by using a test framework that runs all desktops concurrently, with a
steady load generated by the constant use of office-based applications like browsers,
office productivity software, the Avamar backup agent and other standard task worker
utilities.
Applying the reference workload
In addition to the supported desktop numbers, there may be other factors to consider
when deciding which end-user computing solution to deploy.
Concurrency
The workloads used to validate VSPEX solutions assume that all desktop users will be
active at all times. In other words, the 250 desktop architecture is tested with 250
desktops, all generating workload in parallel, all booted at the same time, and so on.
If the customer expects to have 300 users, but only 50 percent of them are logged on
at any given time due to time zone differences or alternate shifts, the 150 active users
out of the total 300 users can be supported by the 250 desktop architecture.
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Heavier desktop
workloads
The workload is defined in Table 9 and used to test this VSPEX end-user computing
configuration is considered a typical office worker load. However, some customers
may feel that their users have a more active profile.
If a company has 200 users, and due to custom corporate applications, each user
generates 15 IOPS as compared to 10 IOPS used in the VSPEX workload. This
customer needs 3,000 IOPS (200 users * 15 IOPS per desktop). This 250 desktop
configuration would be underpowered in this case because it has been rated to 2,500
IOPS (250 desktops * 10 IOPS per desktop). This customer should refer to the
VMware Horizon View 5.2 and VMware vSphere 5.1 for 500 Virtual Desktops
document and consider moving up to the 500 desktops solution.
Implementing the reference architectures
Overview
The solutions architectures require a set of hardware to be available for the CPU,
memory, network, and storage needs of the system. In the solutions architectures,
these are presented as general requirements that are independent of any particular
implementation. This section describes some considerations for implementing the
requirements.
Resource types
The solution architectures define the hardware requirements for the solution in terms
of five basic types of resources:
•
CPU resources
•
Memory resources
•
Network resources
•
Storage resources
•
Backup resources
This section describes the resource types, how they are used in the solution, and key
considerations for implementing them in a customer environment.
CPU resources
The solution architectures define the number of CPU cores that are required, but not a
specific type or configuration. It is intended that new deployments use recent
revisions of common processor technologies. It is assumed that these will perform as
well as, or better than, the systems used to validate the solution.
When using the Avamar backup solution for VSPEX, do not schedule all backups at
once, but stagger them across your backup window. Scheduling all resources to back
up at the same time could cause the consumption of all available host CPUs.
In any running system, it is important to monitor the utilization of resources and
adapt as needed. The reference virtual desktop and required hardware resources in
the solutions architectures assume that there are no more than eight virtual CPUs for
each physical processor core (8:1 ratio). In most cases, this provides an appropriate
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level of resources for the hosted virtual desktop. This ratio may not be appropriate in
all use cases. Monitor the CPU utilization at the hypervisor layer to determine if more
resources are required.
Memory resources
Each virtual desktop in the solution is defined to have 2 GB of memory. In a virtual
environment, it is common to provision virtual desktops with more memory than the
hypervisor physically has due to budget constraints. The memory over-commitment
technique takes advantage of the fact that each virtual desktop does not fully use the
amount of memory allocated to it. It makes business sense to oversubscribe the
memory usage to some degree. The administrator should proactively monitor the
oversubscription rate such that it does not shift the bottleneck away from the server
and become a burden to the storage subsystem.
If VMware vSphere runs out of memory for the guest operating systems, paging will
begin to take place, resulting in extra I/O activity going to the vswap files. If the
storage subsystem is sized correctly, occasional spikes due to vswap activity may not
cause performance issues as transient bursts of load can be absorbed. However, if
the memory oversubscription rate is so high that the storage subsystem is severely
impacted by a continuing overload of vswap activity, more disks need to be added
not because of capacity requirement, but due to the demand of increased
performance. The administrator must now decide whether it is more cost effective to
add more physical memory to the server, or to increase the amount of storage. With
memory modules being a commodity, it is possibly less expensive to choose the
former option.
This solution was validated with statically assigned memory and no over-commitment
of memory resources. If memory over-commit is used in a real-world environment,
regularly monitor the system memory utilization and associated page file I/O activity
to ensure that a memory shortfall does not cause unexpected results.
When using the Avamar backup solution for VSPEX, you should stagger the
scheduling of backups across your backup window. Do not schedule all backups to
occur simultaneously. Scheduling all resources to back up at the same time could
cause the consumption of all available host memory.
Network resources
The solution outlines the minimum needs of the system. If additional bandwidth is
needed, it is important to add capability at both the storage array and the hypervisor
host to meet the requirements. The options for network connectivity on the server will
depend on the type of server. The storage arrays have a number of included network
ports, and have the option to add ports using EMC FLEX I/O modules.
For reference purposes in the validated environment, EMC assumes that each virtual
desktop generates 10 IOs per second with an average size of 4 KB. Each virtual
desktop is generating at least 40 KB/s of traffic on the storage network. For an
environment rated for 250 virtual desktops, this comes out to a minimum of
approximately 8 MB/sec. This is well within the bounds of modern networks.
However, this does not consider other operations. For example, additional bandwidth
is needed for:
•
User network traffic
•
Virtual desktop migration
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•
Administrative and management operations
The requirements for each of these will vary depending on how the environment is
being used. It is not practical to provide concrete numbers in this context. The
network described in the solution for each solution should be sufficient to handle
average workloads for the above use cases.
Regardless of the network traffic requirements, always have at least two physical
network connections that are shared for a logical network so that a single link failure
does not affect the availability of the system. The network should be designed so that
the aggregate bandwidth in the event of a failure is sufficient to accommodate the full
workload.
Storage resources
The solution contains a layout for the disks used in the validation of the system. The
layout balances the available storage capacity with the performance capability of the
drives. There are a few layers to consider when examining storage sizing. Specifically,
the array has a collection of disks that are assigned to a storage pool. From that
storage pool, you can provision datastores to the VMware vSphere Cluster. Each layer
has a specific configuration that is defined for the solution and documented in the
Chapter 5 VSPEX Configuration Guidelines.
It is generally acceptable to replace drive types with a type that has more capacity
with the same performance characteristics or with ones that have higher performance
characteristics and the same capacity. Similarly, it is acceptable to change the
placement of drives in the drive shelves in order to comply with updated or new drive
shelf arrangements.
In other cases where there is a need to deviate from the proposed number and type of
drives specified, or the specified pool and datastore layouts, ensure that the target
layout delivers the same or greater resources to the system.
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Backup resources
The solution outlines the backup storage (initial and growth) and retention needs of
the system. Additional information can be gathered to size Avamar further including
tape-out needs, RPO and RTO specifics, as well as multi-site environment replication
needs.
Implementation
summary
The requirements stated in the solution are what EMC considers the minimum set of
resources to handle the workloads required based on the stated definition of a
reference virtual desktop. In any customer implementation, the load of a system will
vary over time as users interact with the system. If the customer’s virtual desktops
differ significantly from the reference definition, and vary in the same resource, then
you may need to add more of that resource to the system.
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Quick assessment
An assessment of the customer environment helps to ensure that you implement the
correct VSPEX solution. This section provides an easy-to-use worksheet to simplify
the sizing calculations, and help assess the customer environment.
Overview
First, summarize the user types planned for migration into the VSPEX end-user
computing environment. For each group, determine the number of virtual CPUs, the
amount of memory, the required storage performance, the required storage capacity,
and the number of reference virtual desktops required from the resource pool.
Applying the reference workload provides examples of this process.
Fill out a row in the worksheet for each application, as shown in Table 10. Fill out the
resource requirements for the user type. The row requires inputs on three different
resources: CPU, memory, and IOPS.
Table 10.
Blank worksheet row
Application
User
type
example
CPU
(virtual
CPUs)
Resource
requirements
Memory
(GB)
IOPs
Equivalent
reference
virtual
desktops
Number
of
users
-
-
Total
reference
desktops
-
Equivalent
reference
desktops
CPU requirements
The reference virtual desktop assumes most desktop applications are optimized for a
single CPU. If one type of user requires a desktop with multiple virtual CPUs, modify
the proposed virtual desktop count to account for the additional resources. For
example, if you have virtualized 100 desktops, but 20 users require two CPUs instead
of one, consider that your pool needs to provide for 120 virtual desktops.
Memory
requirements
Memory plays a key role in ensuring application functionality and performance.
Therefore, each application process has different targets for the acceptable amount
of available memory. Like the CPU calculation, if a group of users require additional
memory resources, simply adjust the number of desktops you are planning for to
accommodate the additional resource requirements.
For example, if you have 100 desktops to be virtualized, but each one needs 4 GB of
memory instead of the 2 GB that is provided in the reference virtual desktop, plan for
200 reference virtual desktops.
Storage
performance
requirements
The storage performance requirements for desktops are usually the least understood
aspect of performance. The reference virtual desktop uses a workload generated by
an industry-recognized tool to execute a wide variety of office productivity
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applications and should be representative of the majority of virtual desktop
implementations.
Storage capacity
requirements
The storage capacity requirement for a desktop can vary widely depending on the
types of applications in use and specific customer policies. The virtual desktops in
this solution rely on additional shared storage for user profile data and user
documents. This requirement is covered as an optional component that can be met
with the addition of specific storage hardware defined in the solution. It can also be
covered with existing file shares in the environment.
Determining
equivalent
reference virtual
desktops
With all of the resources defined, determine an appropriate value for the equivalent
reference virtual desktops by using the relationships in Table 11. Round up all values
to the closest whole number.
Table 11.
Reference virtual desktop resources
Resource
Value for reference virtual
desktop
Relationship between
requirements and
equivalent reference
virtual desktops
CPU
1
Equivalent reference
virtual desktops =
Resource requirements
Memory
2
Equivalent reference
virtual desktops =
(Resource
requirements)/2
IOPS
10
Equivalent reference
virtual desktops =
(Resource
requirements)/10
For example, 50 users each need two virtual CPUs, 12 IOPS per desktop, 8 GB of
memory. Enter this in the “Resource requirements” row. They need two reference
desktops of CPU, four reference desktops of memory, and two reference desktops of
IOPS based on the virtual desktop characteristics in Table 11. Enter these figures in
the “Equivalent reference desktops” row, as shown in Table 12. Use the maximum
value in the row to fill in the “Equivalent reference virtual desktops” column.
Multiply the number of equivalent reference virtual desktops by the number of users
for the total resource needs for that user type.
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Table 12.
Example worksheet row
User type
Heavy
users
CPU
(virtual
CPUs)
Memory
(GB)
IOPS
Equivalent
reference
virtual
desktops
Number
of
users
Total
reference
desktops
Resource
requirements
2
8
12
-
-
-
Equivalent reference
virtual desktops
2
4
2
4
50
200
After the worksheet is filled out for each user type that the customer wants to migrate
into the virtual infrastructure, calculate the total number of reference virtual desktops
required in the pool by calculating the sum of the total column on the right side of the
worksheet, as shown in Table 13.
Table 13.
Example applications
User type
Heavy
users
Moderate
users
Typical
users
Total
CPU
(virtual
CPUs)
Memory
(GB)
IOPS
Equivalent
reference
virtual
desktops
Number
of
users
Total
reference
desktops
Resource
requirements
2
8
12
-
-
-
Equivalent reference
virtual desktops
2
4
2
4
40
160
Resource
requirements
2
4
8
-
-
-
Equivalent reference
virtual desktops
2
2
1
2
20
40
Resource
requirements
1
2
8
-
-
-
Equivalent reference
virtual desktops
1
1
1
1
20
40
240
The VSPEX end-user computing solutions define discrete resource pool sizes. For this
solution set, the pool contains 250 desktops. In the case of Table 13, the customer
requires 240 virtual desktops from the pool. Therefore, this 250 virtual desktop
resource pool provides sufficient resources for the current needs as well as some
room for growth.
Fine tuning
hardware
resources
In most cases, the recommended hardware for servers and storage is sized
appropriately based on the process described. In some cases, there is a desire to
customize the hardware resources available to the system beyond the recommended
sizing. A complete description of system architecture is beyond the scope of this
document. Additional customization can be done at this point.
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Storage resources
In some applications, there is a need to separate some storage workloads from other
workloads. The storage layouts in the VSPEX architectures put all of the virtual
desktops in a single resource pool. In order to achieve workload separation, purchase
additional disk drives for each group that needs workload isolation, and add them to
a dedicated pool.
It is not appropriate to reduce the size of the main storage resource pool in order to
support isolation, or to reduce the capability of the pool without additional guidance
beyond the scope of this guide. The storage layouts presented in the solutions are
designed to balance many different factors in terms of high availability, performance,
and data protection. Changing the components of the pool can have significant and
difficult to predict impacts on other areas of the system.
Server resources
For the server resources in the VSPEX end-user computing solution, you can
customize the hardware resources more effectively. To do this, first total the resource
requirements for the server components as shown in Table 14.
Table 14.
Server resource component totals
User type
CPU
(virtual
CPUs)
Memory
(GB)
Number
of users
Total CPU
resources
Total
memory
resources
Heavy
users
Resource
requirements
2
8
15
30
120
Moderate
users
Resource
requirements
2
4
40
80
160
Typical
users
Resource
requirements
1
2
100
100
200
210
480
Total
In this example, the target architecture required 210 virtual CPUs and 480 GB of
memory. With an assumption of eight desktops per physical processor core, and no
memory over-provisioning, this translates to 27 physical processor cores and 480 GB
of memory. In contrast, this 250 virtual desktop resource pool as documented in the
solution requires 500 GB of memory and at least 32 physical processor cores. In this
environment, the solution is effectively implemented with fewer server resources.
Note
Consider high availability requirements when customizing the resource pool
hardware.
Table 15 shows a blank customer worksheet.
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Table 15.
User type
Blank customer worksheet
CPU
(virtual
CPUs)
Resource
requirements
Memory
(GB)
IOPS
Equivalent
reference
virtual
desktops
Number of
users
Total
reference
desktops
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Equivalent
reference
virtual
desktops
Resource
requirements
Equivalent
reference
virtual
desktops
Resource
requirements
Equivalent
reference
virtual
desktops
Resource
requirements
Equivalent
reference
virtual
desktops
Resource
requirements
Equivalent
reference
virtual
desktops
Total
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Chapter 5
VSPEX Configuration
Guidelines
This chapter presents the following topics:
Configuration overview .............................................................................. 70
Pre-deployment tasks ................................................................................ 71
Customer configuration data ...................................................................... 74
Prepare switches, connect network, and configure switches ....................... 74
Prepare and configure storage array ........................................................... 76
Install and configure vSphere hosts ........................................................... 79
Install and configure SQL Server database .................................................. 83
VMware vCenter Server deployment ........................................................... 86
Set up VMware View Connection Server ...................................................... 88
Set up Avamar ........................................................................................... 91
Set up VMware vShield Endpoint.............................................................. 113
Set up VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View ................... 115
Summary of VSPEX configuration guidelines ............................................. 117
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Configuration overview
The deployment process is divided into the stages shown in Table 16. On completion
of the deployment, the VSPEX infrastructure is ready for integration with the existing
customer network and server infrastructure.
Table 16 also includes references to chapters where relevant procedures are
provided.
Table 16.
70
Deployment process overview
Stage
Description
Reference
1
Verify prerequisites
Pre-deployment tasks
2
Obtain the deployment tools
Pre-deployment tasks
3
Gather customer configuration
data
Customer configuration data
5
Configure the switches and
networks, connect to the customer
network
Prepare switches, connect network, and
configure switches
6
Install and configure the VNXe
Prepare and configure storage array
7
Configure virtual desktop
datastores
Prepare and configure storage array
8
Install and configure the servers
Install and configure vSphere hosts
9
Set up SQL Server (used by
vCenter and Horizon View)
Install and configure SQL Server database
10
Install and configure vCenter and
virtual machine networking
VMware vCenter Server deployment
11
Set up View Connection Server
Set up VMware View Connection Server
12
Set up Avamar
Set up Avamar
13
Set up vShield Endpoint
Set up VMware vShield Endpoint
14
Set up vCenter Operations
Manager for Horizon View
Set up VMware vCenter Operations
Manager for Horizon View
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Pre-deployment tasks
Overview
Pre-deployment tasks, as listed in Table 17, include procedures that do not directly
relate to environment installation and configuration, but whose results are needed at
the time of installation. Examples of pre-deployment tasks are the collection of
hostnames, IP addresses, VLAN IDs, license keys, installation media, and so on.
Perform these tasks before the customer visit to decrease the time required onsite.
Table 17.
Deployment
prerequisites
Tasks for pre-deployment
Task
Description
Reference
Gather
documents
Gather the related documents
listed in the Preface. 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.
•
EMC documentation
•
Other documentation
Gather
tools
Gather the required and optional
tools for the deployment. Use Table
18 to confirm that all equipment,
software, and appropriate licenses
are available before the
deployment process.
Table 18
Gather
data
Collect the customer-specific
configuration data for networking,
naming, and required accounts.
Enter this information into the
Customer Configuration Data
worksheet for reference during the
deployment process.
Appendix B
Complete the VNXe Series Configuration Worksheet, available on the EMC Online
Support website, to provide the most comprehensive array-specific information.
Table 18 itemizes the hardware, software, and license requirements to configure the
solution.
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Table 18.
Deployment prerequisites checklist
Requirement
Description
Hardware
Physical servers to host virtual
desktops: Sufficient physical server
capacity to host 250 virtual desktops.
Reference
VMware vSphere 5.1 servers to host
virtual infrastructure servers.
Note: This requirement may be
covered by existing infrastructure.
Networking: Switch port capacity and
capabilities as required by the enduser computing.
EMC VNXe3300: Multiprotocol storage
array with the required disk layout.
Software
VMware vSphere 5.1 installation
media.
VMware vCenter Server
5.1.installation media.
VMware vShield Manager Open
Virtualization Appliance (OVA) file.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager
OVA file.
VMware vCenter Operations for
Horizon View Adapter.
VMware Horizon View 5.2 installation
media.
vShield Endpoint partner antivirus
solution management server software.
vShield Endpoint partner security
virtual machine software.
EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified
Storage Management
EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Storage
Viewer.
EMC Online Support
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
installation media (suggested OS for
VMware vCenter and VMware View
Connection Server).
Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 installation
media.
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or later
installation media.
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Requirement
Description
Reference
Note: This requirement might be
covered in the existing infrastructure.
EMC vStorage API for Array Integration
Plug-in.
Licenses
EMC Online Support
VMware vCenter 5.1 license key.
VMware vSphere 5.1 Desktop license
keys.
VMware View Premier 5.1 license
keys.
vShield Endpoint license keys
(VMware).
vShield Endpoint license keys (vShield
Partner).
VMware vCenter Operations for
Horizon View.
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
Standard (or later) license keys.
Note: This requirement might be
covered in the existing Microsoft Key
Management Server (KMS)
Microsoft Windows 7 license keys.
Note: This requirement might be
covered in the existing Microsoft Key
Management Server (KMS).
Microsoft SQL Server license key.
Note: This requirement might be
covered in the existing infrastructure.
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Customer configuration data
To reduce the onsite time, information such as IP addresses and hostnames should
be assembled as part of the planning process.
Appendix A provides a table to maintain a record of relevant information. This form
can be expanded or contracted as required, and information may be added, modified,
and recorded as deployment progresses.
Additionally, complete the VNXe Series Configuration Worksheet, available on the
EMC online support website, to provide the most comprehensive array-specific
information.
Prepare switches, connect network, and configure switches
Overview
This section provides the requirements for network infrastructure required to support
this solution. Table 19 provides a summary of the tasks to be completed and
references for further information.
Table 19.
Tasks for switch and network configuration
Task
Description
Configure the
infrastructure
network
Configure storage array and
vSphere host infrastructure
networking as specified in the
solution document.
Configure the
VLANs
Configure private and public VLANs
as required.
Complete the
network
cabling
Configure
infrastructure
network
74
Reference
Vendor’s switch configuration
guide
Connect switch interconnect ports.
Connect VNXe ports.
Connect vSphere server ports.
The infrastructure network requires redundant network links for each vSphere 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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Figure 16 shows a sample redundant Ethernet infrastructure for this solution, and
shows the use of redundant switches and links to ensure that no single points of
failure exist in network connectivity.
Figure 16.
Configure VLANs
Sample Ethernet network architecture
Ensure there are adequate switch ports for the storage array and vSphere hosts that
are configured with a minimum of three VLANs for:
•
Virtual machine networking, vSphere management, and CIFS traffic
(customer-facing networks, which may be separated if required)
•
NFS networking (private network)
•
vMotion (private network)
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Complete network
cabling
Ensure that all solution servers, storage arrays, switch interconnects, and switch
uplinks have redundant connections and are plugged into separate switching
infrastructures. Ensure that there is complete connection to the existing customer
network.
Note
At this point, the new equipment is being connected to the existing customer
network. Ensure that unforeseen interactions do not cause service issues on
the customer network.
Prepare and configure storage array
Overview
This section describes how to configure the VNXe storage array. In this solution, the
VNXe series provides NFS data storage for VMware hosts. Table 20 lists the tasks for
the storage configuration.
Table 20.
Prepare VNXe
Tasks for storage configuration
Task
Description
Reference
Set up the initial
VNXe
configuration
Configure the IP address
information and other key
parameters on the VNXe.
•
EMC VNXe3300 System
Installation Guide
•
Setup VNXe
Networking
Configure LACP on the VNXe
and network switches.
EMC VNXe Series
Configuration Worksheet
•
Provision storage
for NFS
datastores
Create NFS file systems
presented to the vSphere
servers as NFS datastores
hosting the virtual desktops.
Vendor’s switch
configuration guide
Provision
optional storage
for user data
Create CIFS file systems that
used to store roaming user
profiles and home directories.
Provision
optional storage
for infrastructure
virtual machines
Create optional NFS
datastores to host the SQL
Server, domain controller,
vCenter Server, and View
Manager virtual machines.
EMC VNXe3300 System Installation Guide provides instructions for assembly,
racking, cabling, and powering the VNXe. There are no specific setup steps for this
solution.
After completing the initial VNXe setup, you need to configure key information about
Set up the initial
VNXe configuration the existing environment so that the storage array can communicate. Configure the
following items in accordance with your IT data center policies and existing
infrastructure information:
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•
DNS
•
NTP
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•
Storage network interfaces
•
Storage network IP address
•
CIFS services and Active Directory Domain membership
The reference documents listed in Table 20 provide more information on how to
configure the VNXe platform. Storage configuration guidelines provide more
information on the disk layout.
Setup VNXe
networking
The VNXe supports Ethernet port aggregation so that users can bind Ethernet ports
together as a single logical interface. The interfaces must be on the same IP subnet
and connected to the same physical or logical switch. For NFS datastores used in this
solution, LACP must be used to provide additional network cable redundancy rather
than to increase overall throughput.
The following steps show how to configure LACP on VNXe if more than one network
interface is available.
1.
In the VNXe Unisphere dashboard, select Settings.
2.
Click More configuration. The More Configuration page appears.
3.
Click Advanced Configuration. The Advanced Configuration page appears.
4.
In the Advanced Configuration, select the port you want to aggregate.
Note
5.
Ports can be aggregated only with eth2 from the base port list and
only with eth10 from the list of I/O modules.
Select Aggregate with eth2 or eth10, and then click Apply changes.
The changes are applied and the aggregation is complete.
Note
Provision storage
for NFS datastores
There may be additional configuration required on the network switch.
These steps are available in the configuration materials from the
switch vendor.
Complete the following steps in Unisphere to configure NFS file systems on VNXe to
store virtual desktops:
1.
Create a pool with the appropriate number of disks.
a.
In Unisphere, navigate to System > Storage Pools, and then select
Configure Disks.
b.
Create a new pool manually by disk type. When prompted to select a
storage type, select SAS disk type and Balanced Perf/Capacity storage
profile.
The validated configuration uses a single pool with 21 drives. In other
scenarios, creating separate pools may be advisable.
Note
Hot spare disks must be created at this point.
For additional information, refer to the EMC VNXe3300 System Installation
Guide. Figure 10 shows the target core storage layout for the solution.
2.
Create an NFS shared folder server.
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Access this wizard in Unisphere by navigating to Settings > Shared Folder
Server Settings > Add Shared Folder Server. For detailed instructions, refer to
the VNXe3300 System Installation Guide.
3.
Create a VMware storage resource.
a.
In Unisphere, navigate to Storage > VMware > Create.
b.
Create two NFS datastores on the pool and shared folder server created
above.
The size of the datastore is determined by the number of virtual desktops
it contains. The validated configuration used 1 TB datastores each.
Note
4.
Provision optional
storage for user
data
Thin Provisioning should not be enabled.
Finally, add the required vSphere hosts to the list of hosts allowed to access
the new datastore.
If the storage required is for user data (that is, roaming user profiles or View Persona
Management repositories and user or home directories) does not exist in the
production environment already and the optional user data disk pack has been
purchased, complete the following steps in Unisphere to configure two CIFS file
systems on VNXe:
1.
Create a RAID 6 storage pool that consists of twelve 2 TB NL-SAS drives.
Figure 11 shows the target optional user data storage layout.
2.
Provision optional
storage for
infrastructure
virtual machines
Create two file systems from the storage pool and export them as CIFS
shares on a CIFS server.
If the storage required for infrastructure virtual machines (that is, SQL Server, domain
controller, vCenter Server, vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View, and VMware
View Connection Servers) does not exist in the production environment and the
optional user data disk pack is purchased, configure an NFS file system on VNXe. This
will be used as the NFS datastore in which the infrastructure virtual machines reside.
To provision the optional storage, repeat the configuration steps shown in Provision
storage for NFS datastores, while taking into account the smaller number of drives.
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Install and configure vSphere hosts
This section provides information about installation and configuration of vSphere
hosts and infrastructure servers required to support the architecture. Table 21
describes the tasks to be completed.
Overview
Table 21.
Install vSphere
Tasks for server installation
Task
Description
Reference
Install vSphere
Install the vSphere hypervisor on
the physical servers deployed for
the solution.
VMware vSphere Installation
and Setup Guide
Configure
vSphere
networking
Configure vSphere networking
including NIC trunking, VMkernel
ports, virtual machine port
groups, and jumbo frames.
VMware vSphere Networking
Connect
VMware
datastores
Connect the VMware datastores
to the vSphere hosts deployed
for the solution.
VMware vSphere Storage
Guide
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 5.1 installation media and install the hypervisor on each of the
servers. vSphere hostnames, IP addresses, and a root password are required for
installation. Appendix B provides appropriate values.
Configure vSphere
networking
During the installation of vSphere, a standard virtual switch (vSwitch) is created. By
default, vSphere chooses only one physical NIC as a vSwitch uplink. 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 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.
vSphere networking configuration, including load balancing, link aggregation, and
failover options is described in vSphere Networking. Choose the appropriate loadbalancing option based on what is supported by the network infrastructure.
Create VMkernel ports as required, based on the infrastructure configuration:
•
VMkernel port for NFS traffic
•
VMkernel port for 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. For more
information, refer to the list of documents in the Preface of the document.
Jumbo frames
A jumbo frame is an Ethernet frame with a “payload” greater than 1,500 bytes and up
to 9,000 bytes. This is also known as the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU). The
generally accepted maximum size for a jumbo frame is 9,000 bytes. Processing
overhead is proportional to the number of frames. Therefore, enabling jumbo frames
reduces processing overhead by reducing the number of frames to be sent. This
increases the network throughput. Jumbo frames must be enabled end-to-end. This
includes the network switches, vSphere servers, and VNXe storage processors. EMC
recommends enabling jumbo frames on the networks and interfaces used for carrying
NFS traffic.
Jumbo frames can be enabled on the vSphere server into two different levels. If all the
portals on the vSwitch need to be enabled for jumbo frames, this can be achieved by
selecting properties of vSwitch and editing the MTU settings from the vCenter. If
specific VMkernel ports are to be jumbo frames-enabled, edit the VMkernel port
under network properties from vCenter.
To enable jumbo frames on the VNXe in Unisphere, navigate to Settings > More
Configuration > Advanced Configuration. Select the appropriate IO module and
Ethernet port, and then set the MTU to 9,000.
Jumbo frames may also need to be enabled on each network switch. Consult your
switch configuration guide for instructions.
Connect VMware
datastores
Connect the datastores configured in Prepare and configure storage array 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. For more information, refer to the list of documents in
Appendix C of this document.
The vSphere vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) plug-in for NFS must be
installed after VMware Virtual Center has been deployed as described in VMware
vCenter Server deployment.
Plan virtual
machine memory
allocations
Server capacity is required for two purposes in the solution:
•
To support the new virtualized desktop infrastructure.
•
Support the required infrastructure services such as
authentication/authorization, DNS, and databases.
For information on minimum infrastructure services hosting requirements, refer to
Table 1. If existing infrastructure services meet the requirements, the hardware listed
for infrastructure services is not required.
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Memory configuration
Proper sizing and configuration of the solution requires that you are careful when you
configure the server memory. The following section provides general guidance on
memory allocation for the virtual desktops and factors in vSphere overhead and the
virtual machine configuration. We begin with an overview of how memory is managed
in a VMware environment.
ESX/ESXi memory management
Memory virtualization techniques enable the vSphere hypervisor to abstract physical
host resources such as memory in order to provide resource isolation across multiple
virtual machines while avoiding resource exhaustion. In cases where advanced
processors (for example, Intel processors with EPT support) are deployed, this
abstraction takes place within the CPU. Otherwise, this process occurs within the
hypervisor itself through a feature known as shadow page tables.
vSphere uses the following memory management techniques:
•
Allocation of memory resources greater than those physically available to the
virtual machine is known as memory over-commitment.
•
Identical memory pages that are shared across virtual machines are merged
through a feature known as transparent page sharing. Duplicate pages are
returned to the host-free memory pool for reuse.
•
Memory compression - ESXi stores pages, which would otherwise be swapped
out to disk through host swapping, is located in a compression cache in the
main memory.
•
Host resource exhaustion can be relieved through a process known as
memory ballooning. This process requests free pages be allocated from the
virtual machine to the host for reuse.
•
Hypervisor swapping causes the host to force arbitrary virtual machine pages
out to disk.
For more information, refer to the VMware white paper Understanding Memory
Resource Management in VMware vSphere 5.0.
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Virtual machine memory concepts
Figure 17 shows the memory settings parameters in the virtual machine.
Figure 17.
Virtual machine memory settings
•
Configured memory—Physical memory allocated to the virtual machine at the
time of creation.
•
Reserved memory—Memory that is guaranteed to the virtual machine.
•
Touched memory—Memory that is active or in use by the virtual machine.
•
Swappable—Memory that can be de-allocated from the virtual machine if the
host is under memory pressure from other virtual machines through
ballooning, compression or swapping.
EMC recommends the following best practices:
•
Do not disable the default memory reclamation techniques. These are
lightweight processes that enable flexibility with minimal impact to
workloads.
•
Intelligently size memory allocation for virtual machines. Over-allocation
wastes resources, while under-allocation causes performance impacts that
can affect other virtual machines sharing resources. Over-committing can lead
to resource exhaustion if the hypervisor cannot procure memory resources. In
severe cases when hypervisor swapping is encountered, the virtual machine
performance will likely be adversely affected. Having performance baselines
of your virtual machine workloads assists in this process.
For more information on esxtop, refer to the VMware community topic Interpreting
esxtop Statistics.
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Install and configure SQL Server database
Overview
This section and Table 22 describe how to set up and configure a SQL Server
database for the solution. At the end of this section, you will have SQL Server on a
virtual machine, with the databases required by vCenter, Update Manager, VMware
Horizon View, and View Composer configured for use.
Table 22.
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 machine
meets the hardware and
software requirements.
Install Microsoft
Windows on the
virtual machine
Install Microsoft Windows
Server 2008 R2 Standard
Edition on the virtual
machine created to host
SQL Server.
Install Microsoft SQL
Server
Install Microsoft SQL
Server on the virtual
machine designated for
that purpose.
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
Configure database
for VMware View
Composer
Create the database
required for View
Composer on the
appropriate datastore.
VMware Horizon View 5.2
Installation
Configure database
for VMware View
Manager
Create the database
required for VMware View
Manager event logs on the
appropriate datastore.
VMware Horizon View 5.2
Installation
Configure the
VMware View and
View Composer
database
permissions
Configure the database
server with appropriate
permissions for the
VMware View and VMware
View Composer
databases.
VMware Horizon View 5.2
Installation
Configure VMware
vCenter database
Configure the database
server with appropriate
permissions for the
Preparing vCenter Server
Databases
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Task
Description
permissions
VMware vCenter.
Configure VMware
Update Manager
database
permissions
Configure the database
server with appropriate
permissions for the
VMware Update Manager.
Reference
Preparing the Update Manager
Database
Create a virtual
machine for
Microsoft SQL
Server
Create the virtual machine with enough computing resources on one of the Windows
servers designated for infrastructure virtual machines, and use the database
designated for the shared infrastructure.
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.
Note
The customer environment may already contain an SQL Server designated for
this role. In that case, refer to Configure database for VMware vCenter.
One of the installable components in the SQL Server installer is the SQL Server
Management Studio (SSMS). You can install this component on SQL Server directly as
well as on an administrator’s console. Install SSMS on at least one system.
In many implementations, an option is to store data files in locations other than the
default path. To change the default path, right-click on 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
Configure
database for
VMware vCenter
For high availability, SQL Server can be installed in a Microsoft Failover
Clustering or on a virtual machine protected by vSphere HA clustering. It is not
recommended to combine these technologies.
To use VMware vCenter in this solution, 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. For more information, refer to the list
of documents in Appendix C of this document.
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 SQL Server.
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Configure
database for
VMware Update
Manager
To use Update Manager in this solution, 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. For more information, refer to the
list of documents in Appendix C of this document. 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.
Configure
database for
VMware View
Composer
To use View Composer in this solution, create a database for the service to use. The
requirements and steps to configure the Update Manager database correctly are
covered in the VMware Horizon View 5.2 Installation documentation. For more
information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C of this document. 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.
Configure
database for
VMware View
Manager
To retain View event logs create a database for the View Manager to use. The
requirements and steps to configure the VMware View event database correctly are
covered in the VMware Horizon View 5.2 Installation documentation. For more
information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C of this document. 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.
Configure the
VMware View and
View Composer
database
permissions
At this point, your database administrator must create user accounts that are used for
the View Manager and View Composer databases and provide them with the
appropriate permissions. 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. The required permissions are available in
the VMware Horizon View 5.2 Installation documentation.
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VMware vCenter Server deployment
Overview
This section provides information on how to configure vCenter. Table 23 describes
the tasks to be completed.
Table 23.
86
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.
VMware vSphere Virtual Machine
Administration
Install vCenter
guest OS
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.
VMware vSphere Virtual Machine
Administration
Create vCenter
ODBC
connections
Create the 64-bit vCenter and
32-bit vCenter Update Manager
ODBC connections.
vSphere Installation and Setup
Installing and Administering
VMware vSphere Update
Manager
Install vCenter
Server
Install vCenter Server software.
VMware vSphere Installation and
Setup
Install vCenter
Update
Manager
Install vCenter Update Manager
software.
Installing and Administering
VMware vSphere Update
Manager
Create a virtual
data center
Create a virtual data center.
VMware vCenter Server and Host
Management
Apply vSphere
license keys
Type the vSphere license keys
in the vCenter licensing menu.
VMware vSphere Installation and
Setup
Add vSphere
hosts
Connect vCenter to vSphere
hosts.
VMware vCenter Server and Host
Management
Configure
vSphere
clustering
Create a vSphere cluster and
move the vSphere hosts into it.
VMware vSphere Resource
Management
Perform array
vSphere host
discovery
Perform vSphere host discovery
within the Unisphere console.
Using EMC VNX Storage with
VMware vSphere—TechBook
Install the
vCenter Update
Manager plugin
Install the vCenter Update
Manager plug-in on the
administration console.
Installing and Administering
VMware vSphere Update
Manager
Deploy the
vStorage APIs
for Array
Integration
Using VMware Update
Manager, deploy the VAAI plugin to all vSphere hosts.
•
EMC VNX VAAI NFS plug-in
installation how-to video
•
VMware vSphere Storage APIs
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Task
Description
(VAAI) plug-in
Install the EMC
VSI plug-in
Install the EMC Virtual Storage
Integration plug-in on the
administration console.
Reference
for Array Integration (VAAI)
Plug-in
• Installing and Administering
VMware vSphere Update
Manager
EMC VSI for VMware vSphere:
Unified Storage Management—
Product Guide.
Create the vCenter
host virtual
machine
If the 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
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. For more
information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C of this document.
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 the vSphere Installation and
Setup Guide to ensure that adequate space is available on the vCenter and vSphere
Update Manager installation drive. For more information, refer to the list of
documents in Appendix C of this document.
Create vCenter
ODBC connections
Before installing the vCenter Server and vCenter Update Manager, create the ODBC
connections required for database communication. These ODBC connections will use
SQL Server authentication for database authentication. Appendix B provides SQL
login information.
For details about instructions on how to create the necessary ODBC connections, refer
to the vSphere Installation and Setup and Installing and Administering VMware
vSphere Update Manager. For more information, refer to the list of documents in
Appendix C of this document.
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 in to 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.
Deploy the
vStorage APIs for
Array Integration
(VAAI) plug-in
The VAAI plug-in enables support for the vSphere 5.1 NFS primitives. These primitives
reduce the load on the hypervisor from specific storage-related tasks to free
resources for other operations. Additional information about the VAAI for NFS plug-in
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is available in the plug-in download vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI)
Plug-in.
For more information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C of this document.
The VAAI for NFS plug-in is installed using vSphere Update Manager. Refer to the
process for distributing the plug-in as demonstrated in the EMC VNX VAAI NFS plug-in
installation how-to video. To enable the plug-in after installation, restart the vSphere
server.
Install the EMC VSI The VNXe storage system can be integrated with VMware vCenter using EMC Virtual
Storage Integrator (VSI) for VMware vSphere Unified Storage Management plug-in.
plug-in
Set up VMware View Connection Server
Overview
This section provides information on how to set up and configure View Connection
Server for the solution. For a new installation of Horizon View, VMware recommends
that you complete the tasks in the order shown in Table 24:
Table 24.
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Tasks for VMware View Connection Server setup
Task
Description
Reference
Create virtual machines
for VMware View
Connection Server
Create two virtual machines in
vSphere client. These virtual machines
are used as View Connection Servers.
VMware Horizon
View 5.2
Installation
Install guest OS for
VMware View Connection
Server
Install Windows Server 2008 R2 guest
OS.
Install VMware View
Connection Server
Install View Connection Server
software on one of the previously
prepared virtual machines.
Enter the View license
key
Enter the View license key in the View
Manager web console.
Configure the View event
log database connection
Configure the View event log database
settings using the appropriate
database information and login
credentials.
Add a replica View
Connection Server
Install View Connection Server
software on the second server.
Configure the View
Composer ODBC
connection
On either the vCenter Server or a
dedicated Windows Server 2008 R2
server, configure an ODBC connection
for the previously configured View
Composer database.
Install View Composer
Install VMware View Composer on the
server identified in the previous step.
Connect VMware View to
Use the View Manager web interfaces
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View 5.2
Installation
VMware Horizon
VSPEX Configuration Guidelines
Task
Description
vCenter and View
Composer
to connect View to the vCenter Server
and View Composer.
Prepare a master virtual
machine
Create a master virtual machine as the
base image for the virtual desktops.
Configure View Persona
Management™ Group
Policies
Configure AD Group Policies to enable
View Persona Management.
Configure View PCoIP
Group Policies
Configure AD Group Policies for PCoIP
protocol settings.
Reference
View 5.2
Administration
Install the VMware Install the View Connection Server software using the instructions from the VMware
document, VMware Horizon View 5.2 Installation. Select Standard when prompted for
View Connection
the View Connection Server type.
Server
Configure the View Configure the VMware View event log database connection using the database server
event log database name, database name, and database login credentials. For specific instructions on
how to configure the event log, refer to the VMware Horizon View 5.2 Installation
connection
Guide. For more information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C of this
document.
Add a second View
Connection Server
Repeat the View Connection Server installation process on the second target virtual
machine. When prompted for the connection server type, specify Replica and then
provide the VMware View administrator credentials to replicate the View
configuration data from the first View Connection Server.
Configure the View On the server that will host the View Composer service, create an ODBC connection
for the previously configured View Composer database. For specific instructions on
Composer ODBC
how to configure the ODBC connection, refer to the VMware Horizon View 5.2
connection
Installation Guide. For more information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C
of this document.
Install View
Composer
On the server that will host the View Composer service, install the View Composer
software. Specify the previously configured ODBC connection when prompted during
the installation process. For specific instructions on how to configure the ODBC
connection, refer to the VMware Horizon View 5.2 Installation Guide. For more
information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C of this document.
Link VMware
Horizon View to
vCenter and View
Composer
Using the VMware View Manager web console, create the connection between
Horizon View and both the vCenter Server and View Composer. For specific
instructions on how to create the connections, refer to the VMware Horizon View 5.2
Administration Guide. For more information, refer to the list of documents in
Appendix C of this document. When presented with the option, enable vSphere host
caching (also known as View Storage Accelerator or Content Based Read Cache) and
set the cache amount at 2 GB, the maximum amount supported.
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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 7 guest OS.
2.
Install appropriate integration tools such as VMware Tools.
3.
Optimize the OS settings by referring to the following document: Deploying
Microsoft Windows 7 Virtual Desktops with VMware View —Applied Best
Practices white paper.
4.
Install the Avamar desktop or laptop client (refer to Set up Avamar for
details).
5.
Install the VMware View agent.
Note
Configure View
Persona
Management
group policies
If the View Persona Management feature is used, the Persona Management
component of the VMware View agent should be installed at this time. Ensure
that the Persona Management option is selected during the installation of the
View agent.
View Persona Management is enabled using AD Group Policies that are applied to the
Organizational Unit (OU) containing the virtual desktop computer accounts. The View
Group Policy templates are located in the \Program Files\VMware\VMware
View\Server\extras\GroupPolicyFiles directory on the View Connection Server.
Folder redirection is enabled using AD Group Policies that are applied to the OU
Configure folder
containing the virtual desktop user accounts. AD folder redirection is used (instead of
redirection group
policies for Avamar View Persona Management folder redirection) to ensure that the folders maintain the
naming consistencies required by the Avamar software. Refer to Set up Avamar for
details.
Configure View
PCoIP group
policies
View PCoIP protocol settings are controlled using Active Directory (AD) Group Policies
that are applied to the OU containing the VMware View Connection Servers. The View
Group Policy templates are located in the \Program Files\VMware\VMware
View\Server\extras\GroupPolicyFiles directory on the View Connection Server.
The group policy template pcoip.adm should be used to set the following PCoIP
protocol settings:
•
Maximum Initial Image Quality value: 70
•
Maximum Frame Rate value: 24
•
Turn off Build-to-Lossless feature: Enabled
Higher PCoIP session frame rates and image qualities can adversely affect server
resources.
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Set up Avamar
Avamar
configuration
overview
This section provides information about installation and configuration of Avamar that
is required to support “in-guest” backup of user files. There are other Avamar-based
methods for backing up user files; however, this method provides end-user restore
capabilities through a common GUI. For this configuration, it is assumed that only a
user’s files and profile are being backed up. Table 25 describes the tasks that must
be completed.
Note
The backups produced by the procedure described here should be
supplemented by regular backups of the data center infrastructure
components required by Horizon View virtual desktops. A full disaster
recovery requires the ability to restore the Horizon View infrastructure in
combination with the ability to restore Horizon View virtual desktop user data
and files.
Table 25.
Tasks for Avamar integration
Task
Description
Reference
Microsoft Active Directory preparation:
Create Group
Policy Object
(GPO)
modifications for
Avamar
Create and configure the GPO to
enable VMware View Persona
Management
Create GPO
additions for
Avamar
Create and configure the GPO to
enable Avamar backups of user
files and profiles.
VMware Horizon View Persona
Management Deployment
Guide
VMware Horizon View Master (Gold) image preparation:
Install master
image preparation
for Avamar
Install and configure the Avamar
client to run in user mode.
Avamar Client for Windows on
VMware View Virtual Desktops
EMC Avamar preparation
Define datasets
Create and configure Avamar
datasets to support user files and
profiles.
Define schedules
Create and configure an Avamar
backup schedule to support virtual
desktop backups.
Adjust
Maintenance
Window schedule
Modify the Maintenance Window
schedule to support virtual
desktop backups.
Define retention
policies
Create and configure Avamar’s
retention policy.
Create group and
group policy
Create and configure Avamar’s
group and group policy.
•
EMC Avamar 6.1 SP1
Administrator Guide
•
EMC Avamar 6.1 SP1
Operational Best Practices
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Task
Description
Reference
Post desktop deployment:
Activate clients
(desktops)
GPO modifications
for Avamar
Activate Horizon View virtual
desktops using Avamar Enterprise
Manager.
EMC Avamar 6.1 SP1
Administrator Guide
This section assumes the CIFS share has been created, the VMware View Persona
Management Active Directory administrative template has already been
implemented, and the required GPO has been created and configured. You must
review and modify two GPO configurations if not set properly to support Avamar client
backups.
To ensure Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path-naming conventions are
maintained, configure the Persona Repository Location share path as
\\cifs_server\folder\, as shown in Figure 18.
Figure 18.
Persona Management modifications for Avamar
To ensure Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path naming conventions are
maintained, do not use VMware View Persona Management portion of the GPO to
configure Folder Redirection. This will be completed in the next section, GPO
additions for Avamar.
GPO additions for
Avamar
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Due to current Avamar limitations and to reduce management burden, mapped drives
must be used. Additionally, you need to configure Windows Folder Redirection to
create the UNC paths needed for the mapped drives. The GPO created to support
VMware View Persona Management can be used, or a new GPO can be created.
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Folder redirection
To configure Windows Folder redirection:
1. Edit the GPO by navigating to User Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings
> Folder Redirection policy setting.
2. Right-click Documents.
3. Select Properties.
4. Select Basic—Redirect everyone’s folder to the same location from the
settings dropdown list.
5. Type \\CIFS_server\folder in Root Path, as shown in Figure 19.
Figure 19.
Configuring Windows folder redirection
Mapped drives
Create two mapped drive configurations—one for the user’s files and one for the
user’s profile. Do the following procedure twice, changing three variables each time
(Location, Label As, and Drive Letter Used) to create the two mapped drives.
To configure drive mappings:
1. Edit the GPO and navigate to User Configuration > Preferences > Windows
Settings > Drive Maps.
2. Right-click anywhere on the white area in the window.
3. Select New > Mapped Drive from the menu that appears, as shown in Figure
20.
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Figure 20.
Create a Windows network drive mapping for user files
The mapped drive Properties window appears as shown in Figure 21. To create the
user’s files mapped drive:
1.
Select Create from the Action list box.
2.
Type \\cifs_server\folder\%username% in Location.
3.
Select Reconnect.
4.
Type User_Files in the Label as.
5.
Under Drive Letter, select Use, and then select U from the list box.
6.
Under Hide/Show this drive, select Hide this drive.
Figure 21.
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Configure drive mapping settings
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7.
Click the Common tab at the top of the Properties window, and select Run in
logged-on user’s security context (user policy option), as shown in Figure
22.
Figure 22.
Configure drive mapping common settings
Repeat the steps above to create the user’s profile mapped drive using the following
variables. Figure 23 shows a sample configuration:
1.
Type \\cifs_server\folder\%username%.domain.V2 in the Location field,
where domain is the Active Directory domain name.
2.
Type User_Profile in the Label as field.
3.
Under Drive Letter, select Use, and then select P.
Figure 23.
Create a Windows network drive mapping for user profile data
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Close the Group Policy Editor to ensure that the changes are saved.
Master image
preparation for
EMC Avamar
This section provides information about using the Avamar client for Windows to
provide backup and restore support for VMware Horizon View virtual desktops that
store user-generated files in VNXe home directories. For details, refer to the Avamar
Client for Windows on VMware View Virtual Desktops, and the remainder of this
section for configurations specific to VMware View Persona Management.
The Avamar client for Windows installs and runs as a Windows service named Backup
Agent. Backup and restore capabilities are provided by this server service.
Windows security limits the access of services logged on using the Local System
account to local resources only. In its default configuration, Backup Agent logs on
using the local system account and cannot access network resources including the
VMware Horizon View user’s profile or data file shares.
To access VMware Horizon View user profile and data file shares, the Backup Agent
must instead run as the currently logged in user. This is accomplished by using a
batch file that starts Backup Agent and logs it on as a user when the user logs in.
Details on how to prepare the master image and create the batch file mentioned
above are described in Avamar Client for Windows on VMware View Virtual Desktops.
Some minor modifications are required when using VMware View Persona
Management.
Avamar Client for Windows on VMware View Virtual Desktops contains the following
note:
The commands in this batch file assume that the drive letter of the user data
disk for the redirected Avamar Client for Windows var directory is “D”. When a
different drive letter is assigned, replace “D” in all instances of “D:\” with the
correct letter. Redirection of the var directory is described in Re-direct the
Avamar Client for Windows var directory.
Replace “D” with “P” according to the mapped drive configuration. Additionally,
modify the vardir path value within the Avamar.cmd file located in C:\Program
Files\avs\var to “--vardir=P:\avs\var”.
Define datasets
For the next several sections, assume the Avamar Grid is up and functional, and that
you have logged into Avamar Administrator. For information on accessing Avamar
Administrator, refer to the EMC Avamar 6.1 SP1 Administration Guide.
Avamar datasets are a list of directories and files to backup from a client. Assigning a
dataset to a client or group enables you to save backup selections. For additional
information about datasets, refer to the EMC Avamar 6.1 SP1 Administration Guide.
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This section provides VMware Horizon View virtual desktop specific dataset
configuration information that is required to ensure successful backups of user files
and user profiles. Create two datasets—one for the user’s files and the other for the
user’s profile. Repeat the following procedure twice, changing two variables each
time (Name and Drive Letter Used). When you create the User Profile dataset, there
are additional steps.
1.
Click Tools within the Avamar Administrator window and select Manage
Datasets, as shown in Figure 24.
Figure 24.
Avamar Tools menu
The Manage All Datasets dialog box appears as shown in Figure 25.
2.
Click New.
Figure 25.
Avamar Manage All Datasets window
The New Dataset dialog box appears as shown in Figure 26, and the custom settings
selected are shown in Figure 27.
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Figure 26.
3.
Remove all other plug-ins from the list by selecting each and clicking the button.
4.
Type View-User-Files for the name of the new Dataset.
5.
Select Enter Explicitly.
6.
Select Windows File System from the Select Plug-in Type list box.
7.
Type U:\ in the Select Files and/or Folders: field, and click the + button.
Figure 27.
8.
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Avamar New Dataset window
Configure Avamar Dataset settings
Click OK to save the dataset.
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Repeat the steps above to create a new dataset for user profile data; however, use
the following values as shown in Figure 28:
•
Type View-User-Profile for the name of the new Dataset.
•
Type P:\ in the Select Files and/or Folders: field.
Figure 28.
User profile data dataset
Additional configurations are required to back up User Profile data properly; a sample
configuration is shown in Figure 29.
9.
Click the Exclusions tab.
10. Select Windows File System from the Select Plug-in Type list box.
11. Type P:\avs in Select Files and/or Folders:, and click the + button.
Figure 29.
User profile data dataset Exclusion settings
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12. Click the Options tab as shown in Figure 30.
13. Select Windows File System from the Select Plug-in Type list box.
14. Select Show Advanced Options.
Figure 30.
User profile data dataset Options settings
15. Navigate to Volume Freezing Options as shown in Figure 31.
16. Select None from the Method to freeze volumes list box.
17. Click OK to save the dataset.
Figure 31.
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User Profile data dataset Advanced Options settings
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Define schedules
Avamar schedules are reusable objects that control when group backups and custom
notifications occur. Define a recurring schedule that satisfies your recovery point
objectives (RPO). For additional information about datasets, refer to the EMC Avamar
6.1 SP1 Administration Guide.
Adjust
maintenance
window schedule
Avamar server maintenance comprises three essential activities:
•
Checkpoint—a snapshot of the Avamar server taken for the express purpose
of facilitating server rollbacks.
•
Checkpoint validation—an internal operation that validates the integrity of a
specific checkpoint. After a checkpoint passes validation, it can be
considered reliable enough to be used for a server rollback.
•
Garbage collection—an internal operation that recovers storage space from
deleted or expired backups.
Each 24-hour day is divided into three operational windows, during which various
system activities are performed:
•
Backup Window—reserved to perform normal scheduled backups. No
maintenance activities are performed during the backup window.
•
Blackout Window—reserved to perform server maintenance activities,
primarily garbage collection, that require unrestricted access to the server. No
backup or administrative activities are allowed during the blackout window.
However, you can perform restores.
•
Maintenance Window—reserved to perform routine server maintenance
activities, primarily checkpoint creation and validation.
Figure 32 shows the default Avamar backup, blackout and maintenance windows.
Figure 32.
Avamar default backup/maintenance windows schedule
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User files and profile data should not be backed up during the day while the users are
logged onto their virtual desktop. Adjust the backup window start time to prevent
backups from occurring during that time.
Figure 33 shows modified backup, blackout, and maintenance windows for backing
up VMware Horizon View virtual desktops.
Figure 33.
Avamar modified backup/maintenance windows schedule
To adjust the schedule to appear as shown above, change the Backup Window Start
Time from 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM, and click OK to save the changes.
For additional information about Avamar server maintenance activities, refer to the
EMC Avamar 6.1 SP1 Administration Guide.
Define retention
policies
Avamar backup retention policies enable you to specify how long to keep a backup in
the system. A retention policy is assigned to each backup when the backup occurs.
Specify a custom retention policy to perform an on-demand backup, or create a
retention policy that is assigned automatically to a group of clients during a
scheduled backup.
When the retention for a backup expires, then the backup is automatically marked for
deletion. The deletion occurs in batches during times of low system activity.
For additional information on defining retention policies, refer to the EMC Avamar 6.1
SP1 Administration Guide.
Group and group
policy creation
Avamar uses groups to implement various policies to automate backups and enforce
consistent rules and system behavior across an entire segment, or group, of the user
community.
Group members are client machines that have been added to a particular group for
the purpose of performing scheduled backups.
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In addition to specifying which clients belong to a group, groups also specify:
•
Datasets
•
Schedules
•
Retention Polices
These three objects comprise the group policy. Group policy controls backup
behavior for all members of the group unless you override these settings at the client
level. For additional information about groups and group policies, refer to the EMC
Avamar 6.1 SP1 Administration Guide.
This section provides group configuration information that is required to ensure
proper backups of user files and user profiles. Now create two groups and their
respective group policy—one for the user’s files and one for the user’s profile. Repeat
the following procedure twice, changing two variables each time (Name, and Dataset
Used).
1.
Select Actions in the menu bar, and then New Group, as shown in Figure 34.
Figure 34.
Create new Avamar backup group
The New Group dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 35.
2.
Type View_User_Data in the Name field. Disabled should not be selected.
3.
Click Next.
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Figure 35.
4.
Select VMware-View-User-Data from the Select An Existing Dataset list box,
as shown in Figure 36.
5.
Click Next.
Figure 36.
104
New backup group settings
Select backup group dataset
6.
Select a schedule from the Select An Existing Schedule list box as shown in
Figure 37.
7.
Click Next.
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Figure 37.
Select backup group schedule
8.
Select a retention policy from the Select An Existing Retention Policy
dropdown list as shown in Figure 38.
9.
Click Finish.
Note
Figure 38.
If you click Next, it takes you to the final New Group window where
you can select the clients to be added to the group. You do not need
to do this step, as clients are added to the group during activation.
Select backup group retention policy
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EMC Avamar
Enterprise
Manager—activate
clients
Avamar Enterprise Manager is a web-based multi-system management console
application that provides centralized Avamar system administration capabilities,
including the ability to add and activate Avamar clients in mass.
In this section, we will assume you know how to log into Avamar Enterprise Manager
(EM), and that the VMware Horizon View desktops are created. After successfully
authenticating into Avamar EM, the dashboard appears as shown in Figure 39.
1.
Click Client Manager to continue. The Avamar Client Manager window
appears.
Figure 39.
2.
Click Activate as shown in Figure 40 to continue.
Figure 40.
3.
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Avamar Enterprise Manager
Avamar Client Manager
Next, click the inverted triangle symbol, as shown in Figure 41.
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Figure 41.
4.
Avamar activate client window
Select Directory Service from the menu, as shown in Figure 42.
Figure 42.
Avamar activate client menu
A Directory Service window appears, requesting user credentials (this
assumes an Active Directory service has been configured within Avamar. For
additional information on enabling LDAP Management, refer to the EMC
Avamar 6.1 SP1 Administration Guide).
5.
Select a directory service domain from the User Domain list box as shown in
Figure 43.
6.
Enter credentials (User Name and Password) for directory service
authentication.
7.
Select a Directory Domain to query for client information, and click OK.
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Figure 43.
Avamar Directory Service configuration
Assuming the credentials entered in the previous step authenticate properly,
the intended Active Directory information appears on the left side of the
Avamar Client Manager window, as shown in Figure 44.
Figure 44.
8.
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Avamar Client Manager—post configuration
Navigate the Active Directory tree structure until the VMware Horizon View
virtual desktops is found. In this example, an OU is created named VSPEX,
as shown in Figure 45.
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Figure 45.
9.
Avamar Client Manager—Virtual desktop clients
Highlight the virtual machine desktops you want to add to the Avamar server
as shown in Figure 46 (noted by light-blue shading).
Figure 46.
Select virtual desktop clients in Avamar Client Manager
10. Click on the highlighted list and drag it over and on top of the Avamar
Domain already created, and release the mouse button.
The Select Groups window appears as shown in Figure 47.
11. Select (by clicking on the check box to the left) the Groups you wish to add
these desktops to, and click the Add button.
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Figure 47.
Select Avamar groups to add virtual desktops
The Avamar Client Manager window appears.
12. Click the Avamar Domain just added to the Horizon View desktops, and click
Activate, as shown in Figure 48.
Figure 48.
Activate Avamar clients
13. The Show Clients for Activation dialog box appears. Click Commit, as shown
in Figure 49.
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Figure 49.
Commit Avamar client activation
You will receive two informational prompts. The first prompt indicates the
client activation is performed as a background process.
14. Click OK, as shown in Figure 50.
Figure 50.
The first information prompt in Avamar client activation
The second prompt indicates the activation process has been initiated and to
check the logs for status.
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15. Click OK, as shown in Figure 51.
Figure 51.
The second information prompt in Avamar client activation
The Avamar Client Manager window appears, and immediately some clients have
been activated, as shown in Figure 52 (as noted by the green checkmarks).
Figure 52.
Avamar Client Manager—Activated clients
16. Log out of Avamar Enterprise Manager.
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Set up VMware vShield Endpoint
Overview
This section provides information on how to set up and configure the VMware-specific
components of vShield Endpoint.
Table 26 describes the tasks to be completed.
Table 26.
Tasks required to install and configure vShield Endpoint
Task
Description
Verify desktop
vShield Endpoint
driver installation
Verify that the vShield
Endpoint driver
component of VMware
Tools are installed on the
virtual desktop master
image.
Deploy vShield
Manager appliance
Deploy and configure the
VMware vShield Manager
appliance.
Register the
vShield Manager
plug-in.
Register the vShield
Manager plug-in with the
vSphere client.
Apply vShield
Endpoint licenses
Apply the vShield
Endpoint license keys
using the vCenter license
utility.
Install vSphere
vShield Endpoint
service
Install the vShield
Endpoint service on the
desktop vSphere hosts.
Deploy an antivirus
solution
management
server
Deploy and configure an
antivirus solution
management server.
Deploy vSphere
security virtual
machines
Deploy and configure
security virtual machines
(SVMs) on each desktop
vSphere host.
Verify vShield
Endpoint
functionality
Verify functionality of
vShield Endpoint
components using the
virtual desktop master
image.
Reference
vShield Quick Start Guide
vShield Quick Start Guide
Note: The antivirus management
server software and SVMs are
provided by vShield Endpoint
partners.
Consult with the vendor
documentation for specific
details concerning installation
and configuration.
Consult with the vendor
documentation for specific
details on how to verify vShield
Endpoint integration and
functionality.
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Verify desktop
vShield Endpoint
driver installation
The vShield Endpoint driver is a subcomponent of the VMware Tools software
package that is installed on the virtual desktop master image. The driver is installed
using one of the following two methods:
•
Select the Complete option during VMware Tools installation.
•
Select the Custom option during VMware Tools installation. From the VMware
Device Drivers list, select VMCI Driver, and then select vShield Driver.
Note
To install the vShield Endpoint driver on a virtual machine that already has
VMware Tools installed, simply initiate the VMware Tools installation again
and select the appropriate option.
The vShield Manager appliance is provided by VMware as an OVA file that is imported
Deploy vShield
Manager appliance through the vShield client using the File—Deploy OVF template menu option. The
vShield Manager appliance is preconfigured with all required components.
For more information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C of this document.
Install the vSphere The vSphere vShield Endpoint service must be installed on all vSphere virtual
desktop hosts. The service is installed on the vSphere hosts by the vShield Manager
vShield Endpoint
appliance. The vShield Manager web console is used to initiate the vShield Endpoint
service
service installation and verify that the installation is successful.
For more information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C of this document.
Deploy an
antivirus solution
management
server
The antivirus solution management server is used to manage the antivirus solution
and is provided by vShield Endpoint partners. The management server and
associated components are a required component of the vShield Endpoint platform.
Deploy vSphere
Security Virtual
Machines
The vSphere security virtual machines are provided by the vShield Endpoint partners
and are installed on each vSphere virtual desktop host. The security virtual machines
perform security-related operations for all virtual desktops that reside on their
vSphere host. The security virtual machines and associated components are required
components of the vShield Endpoint platform.
Verify vShield
Endpoint
functionality
After all required components of the vShield Endpoint platform have been installed
and configured, the functionality of the platform should be verified prior to the
deployment of virtual desktops.
Using documentation provided by the vShield Endpoint partner, verify the
functionality of the vShield Endpoint platform with the virtual desktop master image.
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Set up VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View
Overview
This section provides information on how to set up and configure vCenter Operations
Manager for Horizon View.
Table 27 describes the tasks that must be completed.
Table 27.
Tasks required to install and configure vCenter Operations Manager
Task
Description
Create vSphere IP
pool for vCenter
Operations Manager
Create an IP pool with two available IP
addresses.
Deploy vCenter
Operations Manager
vSphere Application
Services
Deploy and configure the vCenter
Operations Manager vSphere
Application Services (vApp).
Specify the vCenter
Server to monitor
From the vCenter Operations Manager
main web interface, specify the name
of the vCenter Server that manages
the virtual desktops.
Assign the vCenter
Operations Manager
license
Apply the vCenter Operations Manager
for Horizon View license keys using
the vCenter license utility.
Configure SNMP and
SMTP settings
From the vCenter Operations Manager
main web interface, configure any
required SNMP or SMTP settings for
monitoring purposes.
Reference
Deployment and
Configuration
Guide—vCenter
Operations
Manager 5
Note: Optional.
Update virtual
desktop settings
Update virtual desktop firewall
policies and services to support
vCenter Operations Manager for View
desktop-specific metrics gathering.
Create the virtual
machine for the
vCenter Operations
Manager for View
Adapter server
Create a virtual machine in the
vSphere client. The virtual machine is
used as the vCenter Operations
Manager for Horizon View Adapter
server.
Install guest OS for
the vCenter
Operations Manager
for Horizon View
Adapter server
Install Windows Server 2008 R2 guest
OS.
Install the vCenter
Operations Manager
for Horizon View
Adapter software
Deploy and configure the vCenter
Operations Manager for View Adapter
software.
vCenter Operations
Manager for View
Integration Guide
vCenter Operations
Manager for View
Integration Guide
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Task
Description
Import the vCenter
Operations Manager
for View PAK file
Import the vCenter Operations
Manager for View Adapter PAK file
using the vCenter Operations Manager
main web interface.
Verify vCenter
Operations Manager
for View functionality
Verify functionality of vCenter
Operations Manager for View using
the virtual desktop master image.
Reference
Create vSphere IP
pool for vCenter
Operations
Manager
vCenter Operations Manager requires two IP addresses for use by the vCenter
Operations Manager analytics and user interface (UI) virtual machines. These IP
addresses are assigned to the servers automatically during the deployment of the
vCenter Operations Manager vApp.
Deploy vCenter
Operations
Manager vApp
The vCenter Operations Manager vApp is provided by VMware as an OVA file that is
imported through the vShield client using the File—Deploy OVF template menu
option. The vApp must be deployed on a vSphere cluster with DRS enabled.
The specifications of the two virtual servers that comprise the vCenter Operations
Manager vApp must be adjusted based on the number of virtual machines being
monitored. For detailed information on the resource requirements of the vCenter
Operations Manager virtual servers, refer to the Deployment and Configuration Guide
—vCenter Operations Manager 5.
Specify the
vCenter Server to
monitor
Access the vCenter Operations Manager web interface using the web address:
http://<ip>/admin, where <IP> is the IP address or fully qualified host name of the
vCenter Operations Manager vApp.
Log in using the default credentials of user name “admin” and password “admin”.
Complete the vCenter Operations Manager First Boot Wizard to complete the initial
vCenter Operations Manager configuration and specify the appropriate vCenter Server
to monitor.
For detailed information about the information needed and steps required to
complete the vCenter Operations Manager First Boot Wizard, refer to the Deployment
and Configuration Guide—vCenter Operations Manager 5.
Update virtual
desktop settings
vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View requires the ability to gather metric
data directly from the virtual desktop. To enable this capability, the virtual desktop
service and firewall settings must be adjusted either by using Windows group policies
or by updating the configuration of the virtual desktop master image.
The following virtual desktop changes should be made to support vCenter Operations
Manager for Horizon View:
•
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Add the following programs to the Windows 7 firewall allow list:

File and Printer Sharing

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
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VSPEX Configuration Guidelines
•
Create the virtual
machine for the
vCenter
Operations
Manager for
Horizon View
Adapter server
Enable the following Windows 7 services:

Remote Registry

Windows Management Instrumentation
The vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Adapter server is a Windows Server
2008 R2 system that gathers information from several sources related to Horizon
View performance. The server is a required component of the vCenter Operations
Manager for Horizon View platform.
The specifications for the server vary based on the number of desktops being
monitored. For detailed information about the resource requirements for the vCenter
Operations Manager for Horizon View adapter server, refer to the vCenter Operations
Manager for Horizon View Integration Guide. For more information, refer to the list of
documents in Appendix C.
Install the vCenter
Operations
Manager for
Horizon View
Adapter software
Install the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Adapter software on the
server prepared in the previous step. For detailed information about the permissions
needed by the Horizon View Adapter within the components that it monitors, refer to
the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Integration Guide. For more
information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C.
Import the vCenter
Operations
Manager for
Horizon View
PAKFile
The vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View PAK file provides Horizon View
specific dashboards for vCenter Operations Manager. The PAK file is located in the
Program Files\VMware\vCenter Operations\View Adapter folder on the vCenter
Operations Manager for Horizon View Adapter server, and is installed using the main
vCenter Operations Manager web interface.
For detailed instructions on how to install the PAK file and access the vCenter
Operations Manager for View dashboards, refer to the vCenter Operations Manager
for Horizon View Integration Guide. For more information, refer to the list of
documents in Appendix C.
Verify vCenter
Operations
Manager for
Horizon View
functionality
On configuration of all required components of the vCenter Operations Manager for
Horizon View platform, be sure to verify the functionality of the vCenter Operations
Manager for Horizon View prior to deployment into production. For detailed
instructions on how to navigate the vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View
dashboard and observe the operation of the Horizon View environment, refer to the
vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Integration Guide. For more
information, refer to the list of documents in Appendix C.
Summary of VSPEX configuration guidelines
In this chapter, we presented the requisite steps required to deploy and configure the
various aspects of the VSPEX solution, which included both the physical and logical
components. At this point, you should have a fully functional VSPEX solution. The
following chapter describes post-installation and validation activities.
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VSPEX Configuration Guidelines
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Chapter 6
Validating the
Solution
This chapter presents the following topics:
Overview ................................................................................................. 120
Post-install checklist................................................................................ 121
Deploy and test a single virtual desktop ................................................... 121
Verify the redundancy of the solution components ................................... 121
Provision remaining virtual desktops ........................................................ 122
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Validating the Solution
Overview
This chapter provides a list of items that should be reviewed after the solution is
configured. The goal of this chapter is to verify the configuration and functionality of
specific aspects of the solution, and ensure that the configuration supports core
availability requirements.
Table 28 describes the tasks to be completed.
Table 28.
Tasks for testing the installation
Task
Description
Reference
Post install
checklist
Verify that adequate virtual ports
exist on each vSphere host
virtual switch.
VMware vSphere Networking
Verify that each vSphere host
has access to the required
datastores and VLANs.
Verify that the vMotion
interfaces are configured
correctly on all vSphere hosts.
VMware vSphere Storage
Guide
•
VMware vSphere Networking
VMware vSphere Networking
•
VMware vCenter Server and
Host Management
•
VMware vSphere Virtual
Machine Management
Deploy and
test a single
virtual
machine
Deploy a single virtual machine
using the vSphere interface by
utilizing the customization
specification.
Verify
redundancy
of the
solution
components
Restart each storage processor
in turn, and ensure that LUN
connectivity is maintained.
Verify the redundancy of the
solution components provides
the steps
Disable each of the redundant
switches in turn and verify that
the vSphere host, virtual
machine, and storage array
connectivity remains intact.
Vendor’s documentation
On a vSphere host that contains
at least one virtual machine,
enable maintenance mode and
verify that the virtual machine
can successfully migrate to an
alternate host.
VMware vCenter Server and Host
Management
Provision desktops using View
Composer linked clones.
VMware Horizon View 5.2
Administration
Provision
remaining
virtual
desktops
120
•
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Validating the Solution
Post-install checklist
The following configuration items are critical to functionality of the solution, and
should be verified prior to deployment into production. On each vSphere server used
as part of this solution, verify that:
•
The vSwitches hosting the client VLANs are configured with sufficient ports to
accommodate the maximum number of virtual machines that vSwitch may
host.
•
All required virtual machine port groups are configured and that each server
has access to the required VMware datastores.
•
An interface is configured correctly for vMotion using the material in the
vSphere Networking guide. For more information, refer to the list of
documents in Appendix C of this document.
Deploy and test a single virtual desktop
To verify the operation of the solution, it is important deploy a virtual desktop to verify
the procedure completes as expected. Verify that the virtual desktop is joined to the
applicable domain, has access to the expected networks, and that it is possible to
log in.
Verify the redundancy of the solution components
To ensure that the various components of the solution maintain availability
requirements, it is important to test specific scenarios related to maintenance or
hardware failure.
1.
2.
Restart each VNXe storage processor in turn and verify that connectivity to
VMware datastores is maintained during each operation. Complete the
following steps:
a.
In Unisphere, navigate to Settings > Service System.
b.
In the System Components pane, select Storage Processor SPA.
c.
In the Service Actions pane, select Reboot.
d.
Click Execute service action.
e.
During the reboot cycle, check for presence of datastores on vSphere
hosts.
f.
Wait until the SP finishes rebooting and shows as available within
Unisphere.
g.
Repeat steps b to e for Storage Processor SPB.
To verify that network redundancy features function as expected, disable
each of the redundant switching infrastructures in turn. While each of the
switching infrastructures is disabled, verify that all the components of the
solution maintain connectivity to each other and to any existing client
infrastructure.
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Validating the Solution
3.
On a vSphere host that contains at least one virtual machine, enable
maintenance mode and verify that the virtual machine can successfully
migrate to an alternate host.
Provision remaining virtual desktops
Complete the following steps to deploy the virtual desktops using View Composer in
the VMware Horizon View console:
1.
Create an automated desktop pool.
2.
Specify the preferred User Assignment:
a. Dedicated: Users receive the same desktop every time they log in to
the pool.
b. Floating: Users receive desktops picked randomly from the pool each
time they log in.
3.
Specify View Composer linked clones.
4.
Specify a value for the Pool ID.
5.
Configure Pool Settings as required.
6.
Configure Provisioning Settings as required.
7.
Accept the default values for View Composer Disks or edit as required.
If View Persona Management is used, select Do not redirect Windows
profile in the Persistent Disk section. Configure the Active Directory Group
Policy for VMware View Persona Management.
Figure 53.
122
View Composer Disks page
8.
Select Select separate datastores for replica and OS disk.
9.
Select the appropriate parent virtual machine, virtual machine snapshot,
folder, vSphere hosts or clusters, vSphere resource pool, linked clone, and
replica disk datastores.
VMware Horizon View 5.2 and VMware vSphere 5.1 for up to 250 Virtual Desktops
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Validating the Solution
10. Enable host caching for the desktop pool and specify cache regeneration
blackout times.
11. Specify image customization options as required.
12. Complete the pool creation process to initiate the creation of the virtual
desktop pool.
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Validating the Solution
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Appendix A
Bills of Materials
This appendix presents the following topics:
Bill of material for 250 virtual desktops .................................................... 126
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Bills of Materials
Bill of material for 250 virtual desktops
Component
VMware vSphere
servers
Solution for 250 virtual desktops
CPU
1 x vCPU per virtual desktop
8 x vCPUs per physical core
250 x vCPUs
Minimum of 32 physical cores
Memory
2 GB RAM per desktop
Minimum of 500 GB RAM
Network—1Gb
6 x 1 GbE NICs per server
Note: To implement vSphere HA functionality and to meet the listed
minimums, the infrastructure should have at least one additional server
beyond the number needed to meet the minimum requirements.
Network
infrastructure
1 Gb network
2 x physical switches
1 x 1 GbE port per storage processor for
management
6 x 1 GbE ports per vSphere server
10 Gb network option
2 x 10 GbE ports per storage processor for data
Note: When choosing the Fibre Channel option for storage, you still need to
choose one of the IP network options to have full connectivity.
EMC NextGeneration
Backup
Avamar
EMC VNXe series
storage array
Common
1 x Gen4 utility node
1 x Gen4 3.9 TB spare node
3 x Gen4 3.9 TB storage nodes
EMC VNXe3300
2 x storage processors (active/active)
22 x 300 GB, 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives—Core
desktops
13 x 2 TB, 3.5-inch NL-SAS drives (optional)—User
data
10 Gb Network
1x10 Gb IO module for each storage processor
(each module includes two ports)
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Appendix B
Customer Configuration
Data Sheet
This appendix presents the following topic:
Overview of customer configuration data sheets ....................................... 128
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Customer Configuration Data Sheet
Overview of customer configuration data sheets
Before you start the configuration, gather some customer-specific network and host
configuration information. The following tables provide information on assembling the
required network and host address, numbering, and naming information. This worksheet can
also be used as a “leave behind” document for future reference.
The VNXe Series Configuration Worksheet should be cross-referenced to confirm customer
information.
Table 29.
Common server information
Server name
Purpose
Primary IP address
Domain controller
DNS primary
DNS secondary
DHCP
NTP
SMTP
SNMP
VMware vCenter Console
VMware View Connection
Servers
Microsoft SQL Server
VMware vShield Manager
Antivirus solution
management server
vCenter Operations
Manager for Horizon
View Adapter server
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Customer Configuration Data Sheet
Table 30.
Server
name
vSphere server information
Purpose
Primary IP
address
Private net (storage)
addresses
VMkernel IP
address
vMotion IP
address
vSphere
Host 1
vSphere
Host 2
…
Table 31.
Array information
Array name
Admin account
Management IP address
Storage pool name
Datastore name
NFS Server IP address
Table 32.
Name
Network infrastructure information
Purpose
IP
address
Subnet
mask
VLAN ID
Allowed subnets
Default
gateway
Ethernet switch 1
Ethernet switch 2
…
Table 33.
Name
VLAN information
Network purpose
Virtual machine
networking
vSphere Management
NFS storage network
vMotion
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Customer Configuration Data Sheet
Table 34.
Account
Service accounts
Purpose
Password (optional, secure
appropriately)
Windows Server administrator
root
vSphere root
Array administrator
VMware vCenter administrator
VMware Horizon View
administrator
SQL Server administrator
VMware vCenter Operations
Manager administrator
VMware vShield Manager
administrator
130
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Appendix C
References
This appendix presents the following topic:
References .............................................................................................. 132
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References
References
EMC
documentation
Other
documentation
132
The following documents, located on the EMC Online Support website provide
additional and relevant information. Access to these documents depends on your
login credentials. If you do not have access to a document, contact your EMC
representative.
•
EMC VNXe3300 System Installation Guide
•
EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified Storage Management—Product Guide
•
VNXe Series Configuration Worksheet
•
Deploying Microsoft Windows 7 Virtual Desktops with VMware View—Applied
Best Practices white paper
•
Deploying Microsoft Windows 8 Virtual Desktops—Applied Best Practices
Guide
•
EMC Technical Note—Avamar Client for Windows on VMware View Virtual
Desktops (P/N 300-011-893)
•
VSPEX End User Computing with Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 and VMware vSphere
5.1 for up to 250 Virtual Desktops
•
VSPEX End User Computing with Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 and VMware vSphere
5.1 for 500, 1000 and 2000 Virtual Desktops
•
VSPEX End User Computing with VMware View 5.1 and VMware vSphere 5.1
for up to 250 Virtual Desktops
•
VSPEX End User Computing with VMware View 5.1 and VMware vSphere 5.1
for 500, 1000 and 2000 Virtual Desktops
The following documents, located on the VMware website, provide additional and
relevant information:
•
Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager
•
Preparing vCenter Server Databases
•
Preparing the Update Manager Database
•
vCenter Server and Host Management
•
Horizon View 5.2 Administration Guide
•
Horizon View 5.2 Architecture and Planning Guide
•
Horizon View 5.2 Installation Guide
•
Horizon View 5.2 Profile Migration Guide
•
Horizon View 5.2 Security Guide
•
Horizon View 5.2 Upgrades Guide
•
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon View Integration Guide
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References
•
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Administration Guide
•
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Installation Guide
•
VMware Horizon View Optimization Guide for Windows 7
•
vShield Administration Guide
•
vShield Quick Start Guide
•
vSphere Resource Management
•
vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) Plug-in
•
vSphere Installation and Setup Guide
•
vSphere Networking
•
vSphere Storage Guide
•
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
•
vSphere Virtual Machine Management
For documentation on Microsoft SQL Server, refer to the following Microsoft websites:
•
Microsoft
•
TechNet
•
Microsoft Developer Network
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References
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Appendix D
About VSPEX
This appendix presents the following topic:
About VSPEX ........................................................................................... 136
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About VSPEX
About VSPEX
EMC has joined forces with the industry’s leading providers of IT infrastructure to
create a complete virtualization solution that accelerates deployment of cloud
infrastructure. Built with proven technologies, VSPEX enables faster deployment,
more simplicity, greater choice, higher efficiency, and lower risk.
Validation by EMC ensures predictable performance and enables customers to select
technology that uses their existing IT infrastructure while eliminating planning, sizing,
and configuration burdens. VSPEX provides a proven infrastructure for customers
looking to gain simplicity that is characteristic of truly converged infrastructures while
at the same time gaining more choice in individual stack components.
VSPEX solutions are proven by EMC and packaged and sold exclusively by EMC
channel partners. VSPEX provides channel partners more opportunity, faster sales
cycle, and end-to-end enablement. By working closely together, EMC and its channel
partners can now deliver infrastructure that accelerates the journey to the cloud for
even more customers.
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