Reference Architecture Dell EMC SC Series: 3,000 VMware Horizon Linked Clone VDI Users Dell EMC SC7020F all-flash array Abstract This document provides a reference architecture for running 3,000 VMware Horizon linked clone VDI users on a Dell EMC SC7020F all-flash array.
Revisions Revisions Date Description October 2019 Initial release Acknowledgements This paper was produced by the following: Author: Damon Zaylskie The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Table of contents Table of contents Revisions.............................................................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................................................2 Table of contents .................................................................................................
Table of contents 4.1 VDI performance data ......................................................................................................................................14 4.1.1 Boot phase........................................................................................................................................................15 4.1.2 Login ...................................................................................................................................................
Executive summary Executive summary The Dell EMC™ SC Series is an excellent platform for clustered storage. This document describes the performance and integration characteristics of an SC Series array running a VMware® Horizon® workload. This example has 3,000 users at 40 IOPS per user, which represents a heavy workload that is well above a typical user environment in terms of disk traffic.
VDI design considerations 1 VDI design considerations VDI workloads are some of the most I/O-intensive workloads supported by a storage array. The exact I/O load for VDI deployments is determined by the number of concurrent users and applications. The capacity requirements for VDI tend to be small compared to the throughput requirements, which is especially true for linked clone deployments. 1.
VDI design considerations 1.5 Storage pools In general, it is recommended to use fewer storage pools within SC Series arrays because this reduces complexity and increases flexibility, and usually improves performance. Dell EMC recommends using a single disk pool for hosting VDI desktop volumes. This provides better performance by leveraging the aggregate I/O bandwidth of all disks to service I/O requests from the VMware ESXi™ hosts.
VDI design considerations VMware guidelines typically suggest using fewer users per volumes. With snapshot-based protection, the number of VMs is less of a concern because recovery times change very little based on a larger user count per volume. Because of the small I/O size of VDI workloads, bandwidth is typically not a limiting factor. With modern 16Gb, or with higher Fibre Channel or 10Gb+ Ethernet architectures, the number of ports is less of an issue.
SC7020 overview 2 SC7020 overview 2.1 Intuitive management The SC7020 storage array has the control points to streamline day-to-day tasks, smooth major migrations, and keep all data fully available and optimized. Such features include convenient web management from a mobile device using Unisphere™ for SC Series, cloud-based analytics and monitoring with CloudIQ, and robust client-side software with Dell™ Storage Manager (DSM). 2.
SC7020 overview 2.5 Data center automation with leading technology partner integrations SC Series arrays feature integration points with VMware, Microsoft, Oracle, OpenStack, IBM, CommVault, Symantec, Foglight, and more. The VMware vSphere plug-in, vCenter™ SRM adapter, and VAAI support help manage storage and virtual machines together.
SC7020 overview 2.8 Eliminate the expense of managing separate systems DSM provides comprehensive monitoring and management of all local and remote SC Series arrays. Easy-touse data replication and migration between platforms gives PS Series customers flexibility to add SC arrays to their environment when desired. DSM streamlines SAN administration and reduces operating costs with advanced features like volume-level QoS, vVols support, and departmental charge-back reporting.
VDI test configuration 3 VDI test configuration This section describes the VDI test configuration used for this document. There are many options for running VDI workloads on SC Series hardware. A linked clone configuration was chosen due to the high adoption rate among Dell EMC customers. 3.1 Block storage configuration Block storage is used for this VDI deployment.
VDI test configuration 3.2 Improving VM performance 3.2.1 Memory Virtual machine performance is greatly affected by the quantity of memory allocated to each VM. It is the most effective way to improve performance in virtual machines, but it can be difficult to scale to large environments because of the aggregated quantity. For the purposes of this scenario, 3 GB per VM is allocated. Decreasing allocated memory results in more storage load, and this impact on storage should be tested.
Testing results 4 Testing results There are two phases that a VDI environment spends significant time and resources supporting: the login and steady state phases. These are the primary concerns for administrators since they happen every work day. These two phases must perform well for an environment to be user friendly. The boot phase is far less common and only happens in specific circumstances. It is far less important because it normally occurs outside business hours and has very little user impact.
Testing results 4.1.1 Boot phase The time required to boot up all VMs is less critical since it rarely happens in a production environment. It would typically only happen during a complete system outage, or a complete image replacement for all VMs. The performance during the boot phase is shown in Figure 1. Performance during boot phase The total IOPS achieved are just under 300,000, with an average latency of under 800 microseconds. 4.1.
Testing results 4.1.2.1 Login ramp Figure 2 shows how the load increases as users log in. This shows a fairly predictable increase in load and latency as the user activity increases. Performance during login phase The maximum load during the login phase reaches 175,000 IOPS. The average I/O size during this phase is 16KB, and the average latency is just under 800 microseconds.
Testing results 4.1.2.2 Steady workload This section details the performance once the environment achieves a steady workload state. This is the most important phase of the testing and the most common production state. The user experience is defined by how the storage performs in this state. Figure 3 shows the performance level of an SC7020 array. Performance during steady state Under full user workload, the I/O load generated is 164,000 IOPS. This equates to just over 54 IOPS per user.
Testing results 4.1.2.3 Login VSI test results The Login VSI test results detail how well the environment performs under user load. The tests are written to simulate a variety of real-world user applications in a realistic work pattern. The summary shown in Figure 4 combines the results of the applications into an overall user experience chart.
Testing results Summary The testing described in this document shows that in a VDI deployment, the SC7020 array has performance to spare even under a heavy load. The additional performance available allows maintenance to be run or additional users to be added without compromising performance. The user load of 3,000 VMs at 54 IOPS per user is conservative for this platform.
Environment A Environment A.1 Horizon View Horizon View configuration A.2 Component Description Horizon View 7.8 Role Virtual machine assignment, management, web interface, connection broker, Composer Servers Four 4-core servers, 16 GB RAM each, 2 Composers, 2 Connection servers Cabling 10Gbps VMXNet3 VMware hosts VMware host hardware configuration A.3 Component Description VMware host 6.
Environment A.4 Login VSI Login VSI configuration A.5 Component Description Login VSI 4.1.32 Role Workload generation and application performance reporting Windows desktops Virtual desktop configuration A.
Environment A.
Technical support and resources B Technical support and resources Dell.com/support is focused on meeting customer needs with proven services and support. Storage technical documents and videos provide expertise that helps to ensure customer success on Dell EMC storage platforms. B.1 VDI resources There is a large amount of SQL Server information available online. While not complete, the following list contains several useful links.
