virtual desktop environment, while maintaining superior performance and manageability. ... accelerates enterprise-class
White Paper
Cisco Unified Computing System with VMware Horizon 6 with View and Virtual SAN Reference Architecture December 2014
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
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Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 3 Solution Overview.................................................................................................................................................... 3 Cisco Unified Computing System .......................................................................................................................... 4 VMware vSphere .................................................................................................................................................. 7 VMware Virtual SAN ............................................................................................................................................. 7 VMware Horizon 6 with View ................................................................................................................................ 8 System Configuration (Design) ............................................................................................................................ 11 Cisco UCS Configuration .................................................................................................................................... 13 VMware Virtual SAN Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 18 VMware Horizon with View Configuration ........................................................................................................... 21 Test Results ........................................................................................................................................................... 23 Test Summary..................................................................................................................................................... 23 Test 1: 400 VMware View Linked Clones on Four Cisco UCS C240 M3 Servers in VMware Virtual SAN Cluster ........................................................................................................................................................ 24 Test 2: 800 VMware View Linked Clones on Eight Cisco UCS C240 M3 Servers in a VMware Virtual SAN Cluster ........................................................................................................................................................ 28 Test 3: 800 VMware View Full Clones on Eight Cisco UCS C240 M3 Servers on a VMware Virtual SAN Cluster ........................................................................................................................................................ 31 Test 4: Mixed 400 VMware View Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones on Eight Cisco UCS C240 M3 Servers ... 35 VMware View Operations Tests .......................................................................................................................... 39 VMware Virtual SAN Availability and Manageability Tests .................................................................................. 42 Test Methodology .................................................................................................................................................. 51 VMware View Planner 3.5 ................................................................................................................................... 51 VMware Virtual SAN Observer............................................................................................................................ 53 System Sizing ........................................................................................................................................................ 55 Virtual Machine Test Image Builds ...................................................................................................................... 55 Management Blocks ........................................................................................................................................... 56 Host Configuration .............................................................................................................................................. 56 Bill of Materials ...................................................................................................................................................... 57 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................. 57 For More Information ............................................................................................................................................. 58 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................... 59
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Page 2 of 59
Executive Summary The reference architecture described in this document uses VMware Horizon 6 with View hosted on the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS®) with VMware Virtual SAN as the hypervisor-converged storage solution. The purpose of this reference architecture is to provide guidance about the following aspects of deploying this joint solution: ●
Scalability and performance results while hosting 800 VMware Horizon 6 with View virtual desktops using industry-standardized benchmarking of real-world workloads
●
Design and implementation best practices covering Cisco UCS configurations, VMware Virtual SAN storage policies, and
6.
Reboot the hosts to make the changes effective.
Service Profile Configuration The main configurable parameters of a Cisco UCS service profile are summarized in Table 3. Table 3.
Service Profile Parameters
Parameter Type
Parameter
Server hardware
● UUID
● Obtained from defined UUID pool
● MAC addresses
● Obtained from defined MAC address pool
● Worldwide port name (WWPN) ● Worldwide node name (WWNN)
● Obtained from defined WWPN and WWNN pools
● Boot policy
● Boot path and order
● Disk policy
● RAID configuration
● LAN
● Virtual NICs (vNICs), VLANs, and maximum transmission unit (MTU)
● SAN
● Virtual host bus adapters (vHBAs) and virtual SANs (VSANs)
● Quality-of-service (QoS) policy
● Class of service (CoS) for Ethernet uplink traffic
● Firmware policy
● Current and backup versions
● BIOS policy
● BIOS version and settings
● Statistics policy
● System data collection
● Power-control policy
● Blade server power allotment
Fabric
Operation
Description
For Cisco UCS service profiles for hosts in a VMware Virtual SAN cluster, the policy configuration shown here is recommended. This configuration does not include all Cisco UCS service profile settings. The settings shown here are specific to an implementation of Cisco UCS with VMware Virtual SAN for VMware Horizon with View.
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Page 14 of 59
BIOS Policy The BIOS policy configured for the VMware Virtual SAN environment is aimed at achieving high performance, as shown in the example in Figure 8 and in Table 4. Figure 8.
BIOS Policy Configuration for the VMware Virtual SAN Environment
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Page 15 of 59
Table 4.
BIOS Policy Settings for the VMware Virtual SAN Environment
Policy
Settings ● Turbo Boost = Enabled
Processor
● Enhanced Intel Speedstep = Enabled ● Hyperthreading = Enabled ● Virtualization Technology (VT) = Enabled ● Direct Cache Access = Enabled ● CPU Performance = Enterprise ● Power Technology = Performance ● Energy Performance = Enterprise Intel Directed IO
● VT for Directed IO = Enabled
Memory
● Memory RAS Config = Maximum Performance ● Low-Voltage DDR Mode = Performance Mode
Boot Policy The boot policy is created with a Secure Digital (SD) card as the preferred boot option after the local CD or DVD boot option (Figure 9). Figure 9.
Boot Policy Configuration
Networking VMware vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) is configured for all hosts in the cluster. It allows virtual machines to maintain a consistent network configuration as the virtual machines migrate across multiple hosts. A separate vNIC is created for each traffic type for virtual machine data, VMware Virtual SAN, VMware vMotion, and management. These vNICs are configured as separate vNIC templates in Cisco UCS and applied as part of the service profile (Table 5).
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Table 5.
vNIC Template Configuration
vNIC Template Name
Fabric ID
Comments
VM-Data_A
Fabric A
MTU = 9000; QoS policy VMData
VM-Data_B
Fabric B
MTU = 9000; QoS policy VMData
Virtual SAN
Fabric A (with Enable Failover option)
MTU = 9000; QoS policy VSAN
vMotion
Fabric A (with Enable Failover option)
MTU = 9000; QoS policy vMotion
MGMT
Fabric A (with Enable Failover option)
MTU = 9000; QoS policy MGMT
The network control policy is set to Cisco Discovery Protocol Enabled, and the dynamic vNIC connection policy is applied with an adapter policy of “VMware.” QoS Policies Table 6 and Figure 10 show the QoS policy and QoS system-class mappings in Cisco UCS for the vNICs. Table 6.
QoS Policy Configuration
QoS Policy Name
Priority
VMData
Gold
Virtual SAN
Platinum
vMotion
Silver
MGMT
Bronze
Figure 10.
QoS System-Class Configuration
VLANs A dedicated VLAN is recommended for the VMware Virtual SAN VMkernel NIC, and multicast is required in the Layer 2 domain. This setting is configured as part of the VLAN as a multicast policy with snooping enabled. The following VLANs were created: ●
VLAN for virtual desktops: This is a /22 subnet with 1022 IP addresses to accommodate all 800 virtual desktops.
●
VLAN for VMware Virtual SAN: This is a /28 subnet with 14 IP addresses to accommodate 8 hosts.
●
VLAN for management components: This is a /24 subnet with 254 IP addresses to accommodate all management components, plus the VMware View Planner desktops for running the test workflows.
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Page 17 of 59
VMware Virtual SAN Configuration VMware Virtual SAN is a VMware ESXi cluster-level feature that is configured using the VMware vSphere Web Client. The first step in enabling VMware Virtual SAN is to select one of the two modes of disk-group creation: ●
Automatic: Enable VMware Virtual SAN to discover all the local disks on the hosts and automatically add the disks to the VMware Virtual SAN data store.
●
Manual: Manually select the disks to add to the VMware Virtual SAN shared data store.
In this setup, disk groups were created manually, and the storage policies listed in Table 7 were applied based on whether the VMware Virtual SAN configuration is for linked clones or full clones. These storage polices are tied to the storage requirements for each virtual machine and are used to provide different levels of availability and performance for virtual machines. Important: Use different policies for different types of virtual machines in the same cluster to meet application requirements. Table 7.
Storage Policies for VMware View
Policy
Definition
Default (Value Applied)
Maximum
Number of disk stripes per object
Defines the number of magnetic disks across which each replica of a storage object is distributed
1
12
Flash-memory read cache reservation
Defines the flash memory capacity reserved as the read cache for the storage object
0%
100%
0 (linked clone); 1 (full clone and replicas)
3 (in 8-host cluster)
Number of failures to tolerate
● Defines the number of host, disk, and network failures that a storage object can tolerate ● For n failures tolerated, n + 1 copies of the object are created, and 2n + 1 hosts of contributing storage are required
Forced provisioning
Determines whether the object is provisioned, even when currently available resources do not meet the virtual machine storage policy requirements
Disabled
Enabled
Object-space reservation
Defines the percentage of the logical size of the storage object that needs to be reserved (thick provisioned) upon virtual machine provisioning (the remainder of the storage object is thin provisioned)
0%
100%
Default storage policy values are configured for linked clones, full clones, and replicas.
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
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VMware View Configuration VMware Virtual SAN integrates with the VMware View pod and block design methodology, which consists of the following components: ●
VMware View Connection Server: A VMware View Connection Server supports up to 2000 concurrent connections. The tests used two VMware View Connection Servers operating in active-active mode. The two VMware View Connection Servers actively broker and possibly tunnel connections.
●
VMware View block: VMware View provisions and manages desktops through the VMware vCenter Server. Each VMware vCenter instance supports up to 10,000 virtual desktops. The tests used one VMware vCenter and one VMware Virtual SAN cluster with eight hosts. Note that the maximum number of VMware High Availability protected virtual machines allowed in a VMware vSphere cluster is 2048 per data store.
●
VMware View management block: A separate VMware vSphere cluster was used for management of servers to isolate the volatile desktop workload from the static server workload. For larger deployments, a dedicated VMware vCenter Server for the management and VMware View blocks is recommended.
VMware vSphere Clusters Two VMware Virtual SAN clusters were used in the environment: ●
An 8-node VMware Virtual SAN cluster was deployed to support 800 virtual desktops, as shown in Figure 11 and Table 8.
●
A 4-node VMware Virtual SAN cluster was deployed to support infrastructure, management, and VMware View Planner virtual machines used for scalability testing.
Figure 11.
VMware View Running on VMware Virtual SAN Using Cisco UCS
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Table 8.
VMware Virtual SAN Cluster Configuration
Property
Setting
Default
Revised
● HA
–
Enabled
● DRS
–
Enabled
● Host Monitoring Status
Enabled
–
● Admission Control
Enabled
–
● Admission Control Policy
Host failures the cluster tolerates = 1
–
● Virtual Machine Options > Virtual Machine Restart Priority
Medium
–
● Virtual Machine Options > Host Isolation Response
Leave powered on
–
● Virtual Machine Monitoring
Disabled
–
● Data Store Heartbeating
Select any, taking into account my preferences (no data store preferred)
–
● Automation Level
Fully automated (apply 1, 2, 3 priority recommendations)
–
● DRS Groups Manager
–
–
● Rules
–
–
● Virtual Machine Options
–
–
● Power Management
Off
–
● Host Options
Default (disabled)
–
Enhanced VMware vMotion capability
Disabled
–
Swap-file location
Store in the same directory as the virtual machine
–
Cluster features
VMware vSphere High Availability
VMware vSphere Storage DRS
Properties regarding security, traffic shaping, and NIC teaming can be defined for a port group. The settings used with the port group design are shown in Table 9. Table 9.
Port Group Properties: VMware dvSwitch v5.5
Property
Setting
Default
Revised
General
● Port Binding
Static
–
Policies: Security
● Promiscuous Mode
Reject
–
● MAC Address Changes
Accept
Reject
● Forged Transmits
Accept
Reject
Policies: Traffic Shaping
● Status
Disabled
–
Policies: Teaming and Failover
● Load Balancing
Route based on the originating virtual port ID
● Failover Detection
Caution: Link status only
–
● Notify Switches
Yes
–
Policies: Resource allocation
● Network I/O Control
Disabled
Enabled
Advanced
● Maximum MTU
1500
9000
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Page 20 of 59
VMware Horizon with View Configuration The VMWare Horizon with View installation included the following core systems: ●
Two connection servers (N+1 recommended for production)
●
One VMware vCenter Server with the following roles:
◦ VMware vCenter ◦ VMware vCenter single sign-on (SSO) ◦ VMware vCenter inventory service ●
VMware View Composer
Note that VMware View security servers were not used during this testing. VMware View Global Policies The VMware View global policy settings used for all system tests are shown in Table 10. Table 10.
VMware View Global Policies
Network Resource Pool
Host Limit (Mbps)
USB access
Allow
Multimedia redirection (MMR)
Allow
Remote mode
Allow
PCoIP hardware acceleration
Allow: Medium priority
VMware View Manager Global Settings The VMware View Manager global policy settings that were used are shown in Table 11. Table 11.
VMware View Manager Global Settings
Attribute
Specification
Session timeout
600 (10 hours)
VMware View Administrator session timeout
30 minutes
Auto-update
Enabled
Display prelogin message
No
Display warning before logout
No
Reauthenticate secure tunnel connections after network interruption
No
Enable IP Security (IPsec) for security server pairing
Yes
Message security mode
Enabled
Disable single sign-on for local-mode operations
No
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VMware vCenter Server Settings VMware View Connection Server uses VMware vCenter Server to provision and manage VMware View desktops. VMware vCenter Server is configured in VMware View Manager as shown in Table 12. Table 12.
VMware View Manager: VMware vCenter Server Configuration
Attribute
Setting
Specification
Connect using SSL
vCenter Server Settings > SSL
Yes
VMware vCenter port
vCenter Server Settings > Port
443
VMware View Composer port
View Composer Server Settings > Port
18,443
Enable VMware View Composer
View Composer Server Settings > Co-Installed
Yes
Advanced settings
Maximum Concurrent vCenter Provisioning Operations
20
Maximum Concurrent Power Operations
50
Maximum Concurrent View Composer Maintenance Operations
12
Maximum Concurrent View Composer Provisioning Operations
12
Enable View Storage Accelerator
√
Default Host Cache Size
2048 MB
Storage settings
VMware View Manager Pool Settings The VMware View Manager pool settings were configured as shown in Tables 13 and 14. Table 13.
VMware View Manager: VMware View Manager Pool Configuration
Attribute
Specification
Pool type
Automated Pool
User assignment
Floating
Pool definition: VMware vCenter Server
Linked Clones
Pool ID
Desktops
Display name
Desktops
VMware View folder
/
Remote desktop power policy
Take no power action
Auto logoff time
Never
User reset allowed
False
Multi-session allowed
False
Delete on logoff
Never
Display protocol
PCoIP
Allow protocol override
False
Maximum number of monitors
1
Max resolution
1920 x 1200
HTML access
Not selected
Flash quality level
Do not control
Flash throttling level
Disabled
Enable provisioning
Enabled
Stop provisioning on error
Enabled
Provision all desktops upfront
Enabled
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Table 14.
VMware View Manager: Test Pool Configuration
Attribute
Specification
Disposable file redirection
Do not redirect
Select separate data stores for replica and OS
Not selected
Data stores: Storage overcommit
Conservative
Use VMware View storage accelerator
Selected
Reclaim virtual machine disk space*
–
Disk types
OS disks
Regenerate storage accelerator after
7 days
Reclaim virtual machine disk space
–
Use Quickprep
Enabled
* VMware Virtual SAN does not support the space-efficient (SE) sparse disk format.
Test Results VMware View running on VMware Virtual SAN on the Cisco UCS reference architecture was tested based on realworld test scenarios, user workloads, and infrastructure system configurations. The tests performed included the following configurations: ●
Test 1: 400 VMware View linked clones on four Cisco UCS C240 M3 servers in a VMware Virtual SAN cluster
●
Test 2: 800 VMware View linked clones on eight Cisco UCS C240 M3 servers in a VMware Virtual SAN cluster
●
Test 3: 800 VMware View full clones on eight Cisco UCS C240 M3 servers in a VMware Virtual SAN cluster
●
Test 4: Mixed 400 VMware View linked clones and 400 full clones on eight Cisco UCS C240 M3 servers
●
VMware View operations tests
●
VMware Virtual SAN availability and manageability tests
All of these tests and the test results are summarized in the sections that follow
Test Summary VMware View Planner is a VDI workload generator that automates and measures a typical office worker’s activity: use of Microsoft Office applications, web browsing, reading a PDF file, watching a video, etc. The operations generated include opening a file, browsing the web, modifying files, saving files, closing files, and more. Each VMware View Planner operation runs iteratively. Each iteration is a randomly sequenced workload consisting of these applications and operations. The results of a test run consist of latency statistics collected for these applications and operations for all iterations. In addition to VMware View Planner scores, VMware Virtual SAN Observer and VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon are used as monitoring tools. For more information about the applications used for this testing, see the Test Methodology section later in this document.
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Page 23 of 59
Test 1: 400 VMware View Linked Clones on Four Cisco UCS C240 M3 Servers in VMware Virtual SAN Cluster VMware View Planner tests were run on 400 linked clones on four hosts with exceptional user performance, as represented by the VMware View Planner score and latency values. In the VMware View Planner results, QoS is determined for multiple types of applications categorized as Group A, Group B, and Group C user operations: ●
Group A applications are interactive, fast-running operations that are CPU bound: browsing a PDF file, modifying a Microsoft Word document, and so on.
●
Group B applications are long-running slow operations that are I/O bound: opening a large document, saving a Microsoft PowerPoint file, and so on.
●
Group C consists of background load operations that are used to generate additional load during testing. These operations are not used to determine QoS and hence have no latency thresholds.
The default thresholds are 1.0 second for Group A and 6.0 seconds for Group B. The test results in Figure 12 show that the latency values for the 95th percentile of applications in each group are lower than the required threshold. These results correspond to expected end-user performance while 400 linked clones are run on four hosts. Figure 12.
VMware View Planner Score: 400 Linked Clones
Test result highlights include: ●
Average of 85 percent CPU utilization
●
Average of up to 85 GB of RAM used out of 256 GB available
●
Average of 16.02 MBps of network bandwidth used
●
Average of 13.447 ms of I/O latency per host
●
Average of 1983 I/O operations per second (IOPS) per host
The specific latency values for all the applications are shown in Table 15. Table 15.
Application Latency Values: 400 Linked Clones
Event
Group
Count
Mean
Median
Coefficient of Variation
7zip-Compress
C
1197
3.822986
3.530973
0.313
AdobeReader-Browse
A
23940
0.238951
0.196896
0.813
AdobeReader-Close
A
1197
0.766411
0.750155
0.053
AdobeReader-Maximize
A
2394
0.699528
0.766001
0.219
AdobeReader-Minimize
A
1197
0.312196
0.296619
0.204
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Page 24 of 59
Event
Group
Count
Mean
Median
Coefficient of Variation
AdobeReader-Open
B
1197
0.712551
0.582646
1.001
Excel Sort-Close
A
1197
0.307458
0.192492
1.048
Excel Sort-Compute
A
31122
0.025334
0.023062
0.426
Excel Sort-Entry
A
31122
0.179093
0.147062
0.860
Excel Sort-Maximize
A
3591
0.365166
0.323991
0.316
Excel Sort-Minimize
A
1197
0.000692
0.000657
0.678
Excel Sort-Open
B
1197
0.593777
0.515999
0.624
Excel Sort-Save
B
1197
0.578326
0.513369
0.394
Firefox-Close
A
1197
0.52622
0.513906
0.052
Firefox-Open
B
1197
1.037588
0.84357
0.805
IE ApacheDoc-Browse
A
65835
0.085855
0.068178
2.397
IE ApacheDoc-Close
A
1197
0.005479
0.001636
8.362
IE ApacheDoc-Open
B
1197
0.882902
0.468084
3.336
IE WebAlbum-Browse
A
17955
0.26255
0.159749
2.395
IE WebAlbum-Close
A
1197
0.007337
0.001726
9.868
IE WebAlbum-Open
B
1197
0.870285
0.480918
3.008
Outlook-Attachment-Save
B
5985
0.076468
0.056133
2.510
Outlook-Close
A
1197
0.619196
0.554815
0.403
Outlook-Open
B
1197
0.777402
0.703031
0.385
Outlook-Read
A
11970
0.323953
0.209812
1.951
Outlook-Restore
C
13167
0.386632
0.375205
0.594
PPTx-AppendSlides
A
4788
0.083413
0.064426
0.823
PPTx-Close
A
1197
0.548461
0.492398
0.547
PPTx-Maximize
A
4788
0.00122
0.000728
7.175
PPTx-Minimize
A
2394
0.000684
0.000616
1.263
PPTx-ModifySlides
A
4788
0.304398
0.268314
0.661
PPTx-Open
B
1197
3.062735
3.031899
0.117
PPTx-RunSlideShow
A
8379
0.341099
0.528672
0.484
PPTx-SaveAs
C
1197
3.818085
2.91416
1.148
Video-Close
A
1197
0.069317
0.038364
1.822
Video-Open
B
1197
0.155579
0.048608
7.257
Video-Play
C
1197
50.511642
50.434445
0.005
Word-Close
A
1197
0.572719
0.602094
0.307
Word-Maximize
A
3591
0.323592
0.263979
0.378
Word-Minimize
A
1197
0.000679
0.000621
2.133
Word-Modify
A
25137
0.056807
0.059311
0.434
Word-Open
B
1197
4.213084
3.775295
0.608
Word-Save
B
1197
3.44489
3.354615
0.215
The host utilization metrics for CPU, memory, network, and disk I/O values that were obtained while running the test are shown in Figures 13, 14, and 15. All hosts had similar utilization on average while hosting 100 virtual desktops each.
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Page 25 of 59
Figure 13.
Host CPU Utilization from VMware View Planner: 400 Linked Clones, Average CPU Use in Percent
Figure 14.
Host Memory Utilization from VMware View Planner: 400 Linked Clones, Average Memory Use in GB
Note that the Y-axis memory (average) value in gigabytes ranges up to 90 GB out of 256 GB available on the host.
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Page 26 of 59
Figure 15.
Network Utilization from VMware View Planner: 400 Linked Clones, Average Network Use
Disk latency values shown in Figure 16 are obtained from VMware Virtual SAN Observer. Average read and write latency is 14 ms for the host shown in the figure, and on average is 13.44 ms across all hosts. These values, below the target threshold of 20 ms, correlate with the low application response times measured by VMware View Planner, and the overall results of a better end user experience. In these tests, the average of 1983 IOPS is generated per host. This value is well below the maximum IOPS capacity for similar VMware Virtual SAN systems based on the Cisco UCS C240 M3 as detailed the document VMware Virtual SAN with Cisco Unified Computing System Reference Architecture. Figure 16.
Host IOPS and Latency Graph from VMware Virtual SAN Observer: 400 Linked Clones
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Page 27 of 59
Test 2: 800 VMware View Linked Clones on Eight Cisco UCS C240 M3 Servers in a VMware Virtual SAN Cluster VMware View Planner tests were run on 800 linked clones on eight hosts with exceptional user performance. The tests demonstrated linear scalability from support for 400 desktops on four nodes to support for 800 desktops on eight nodes. Test result highlights include: ●
Average of 80 to 85 percent CPU utilization
●
Average of up to 82 GB of RAM used out of 256 GB available
●
Average of 17.12 MBps of network bandwidth used
●
Average of 14.966 ms of I/O latency per host
●
Average of 1616 IOPS per host
The QoS summary, application response times, and host utilization values are shown in Figure 17 and Table 16. Figure 17.
VMware View Planner Score: 800 Linked Clones
Table 16.
Application Latency Values: 800 Linked Clones
Event
Group
Count
Mean
Median
Coefficient of Variation
7zip-Compress
C
2391
3.354891
3.158507
0.303
AdobeReader-Browse
A
47820
0.223914
0.183528
0.822
AdobeReader-Close
A
2391
0.763632
0.750128
0.048
AdobeReader-Maximize
A
4782
0.697711
0.762164
0.218
AdobeReader-Minimize
A
2391
0.313204
0.301153
0.198
AdobeReader-Open
B
2391
0.665166
0.548225
1.013
Excel Sort-Close
A
2391
0.290767
0.186278
1.020
Excel Sort-Compute
A
62166
0.024431
0.022728
0.386
Excel Sort-Entry
A
62166
0.165498
0.140708
0.777
Excel Sort-Maximize
A
7173
0.364276
0.320248
0.321
Excel Sort-Minimize
A
2391
0.000661
0.000627
0.416
Excel Sort-Open
B
2391
0.548292
0.489547
0.588
Excel Sort-Save
B
2391
0.543247
0.484791
0.392
Firefox-Close
A
2391
0.526084
0.514294
0.052
Firefox-Open
B
2391
0.973367
0.785845
0.872
IE ApacheDoc-Browse
A
131505
0.082216
0.063011
2.456
IE ApacheDoc-Close
A
2391
0.005364
0.001548
8.607
IE ApacheDoc-Open
B
2391
0.782738
0.431805
3.245
IE WebAlbum-Browse
A
35865
0.250286
0.152367
2.460
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Page 28 of 59
Event
Group
Count
Mean
Median
Coefficient of Variation
IE WebAlbum-Close
A
2391
0.007503
0.001622
11.315
IE WebAlbum-Open
B
2391
0.805998
0.446739
2.963
Outlook-Attachment-Save
B
11955
0.068486
0.053753
2.305
Outlook-Close
A
2391
0.616925
0.554705
0.396
Outlook-Open
B
2391
0.735236
0.676026
0.336
Outlook-Read
A
23910
0.297843
0.199803
1.739
Outlook-Restore
C
26301
0.346654
0.340861
0.590
PPTx-AppendSlides
A
9564
0.078069
0.062656
0.763
PPTx-Close
A
2391
0.518743
0.461373
0.530
PPTx-Maximize
A
9564
0.001144
0.000679
7.695
PPTx-Minimize
A
4782
0.00062
0.000579
0.796
PPTx-ModifySlides
A
9564
0.291094
0.255203
0.686
PPTx-Open
B
2391
2.813034
2.8045
0.135
PPTx-RunSlideShow
A
16737
0.337466
0.527942
0.484
PPTx-SaveAs
C
2391
3.567793
2.791217
1.084
Video-Close
A
2391
0.067433
0.03201
2.166
Video-Open
B
2391
0.145677
0.045696
7.455
Video-Play
C
2391
50.486084
50.421127
0.005
Word-Close
A
2391
0.551263
0.585316
0.312
Word-Maximize
A
7173
0.321871
0.261876
0.379
Word-Minimize
A
2391
0.000609
0.000584
0.363
Word-Modify
A
50211
0.05865
0.065478
0.398
Word-Open
B
2391
3.889717
3.485008
0.578
Word-Save
B
2391
3.198789
3.167595
0.194
The host utilization metrics for CPU, memory, network, and disk I/O values that were obtained while running the test are shown in Figures 18, 19, and 20. Figure 18.
Host CPU Utilization from VMware View Planner: 800 Linked Clones, Average CPU Use in Percent
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Page 29 of 59
Figure 19.
Host Memory Utilization from VMware View Planner: 800 Linked Clones, Average Memory Use in GB
Note that the Y-axis memory (average) value in gigabytes ranges up to 82 GB out of 256 GB available on the host. Figure 20.
Network Utilization from VMware View Planner: 800 Linked Clones, Average Network Use
Disk latency values are obtained from VMware Virtual SAN Observer, as shown in Figure 21. Combined average read and write latency is measured as 16 ms on one of the hosts shown here, and is an average of 14.96 ms for all hosts. In these tests, the average IOPS generated are 1616 IOPS per host.
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Page 30 of 59
Figure 21.
Host IOPS and Latency Graph from VMware Virtual SAN Observer: 800 Linked Clones
Test 3: 800 VMware View Full Clones on Eight Cisco UCS C240 M3 Servers on a VMware Virtual SAN Cluster In addition to the testing for linked clones, 800 full clones were tested with higher virtual machine specifications of two vCPUs and 40 GB of disk space to mimic higher desktop resources allocated to full dedicated desktops. The results show the QoS summary, application response times, and host utilization values. Test result highlights include: ●
Average of 80 to 85 percent CPU utilization
●
Average of up to 84 GB of RAM used out of 256 GB available
●
Average of 13.13 MBps of network bandwidth used
●
Average of 13.995 ms of I/O latency per host
●
Average of 1087.87 IOPS
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Page 31 of 59
The QoS summary, application response times, and host utilization values are described in Figure 22 and Table 17. Figure 22.
VMware View Planner Score: 800 Full Clones
Table 17.
Application Latency Values: 800 Full Clones
Event
Group
Count
Mean
Median
Coefficient of Variation
7zip-Compress
C
2388
3.827199
3.525832
0.377
AdobeReader-Browse
A
47760
0.243642
0.200829
0.817
AdobeReader-Close
A
2388
0.76643
0.750171
0.058
AdobeReader-Maximize
A
4776
0.706106
0.766201
0.228
AdobeReader-Minimize
A
2388
0.313208
0.294657
0.211
AdobeReader-Open
B
2388
0.718087
0.577403
1.042
Excel Sort-Close
A
2388
0.335683
0.229137
0.927
Excel Sort-Compute
A
62088
0.026431
0.02438
0.511
Excel Sort-Entry
A
62088
0.184258
0.151464
0.901
Excel Sort-Maximize
A
7164
0.36963
0.330758
0.313
Excel Sort-Minimize
A
2388
0.000745
0.000662
3.522
Excel Sort-Open
B
2388
0.610323
0.531417
0.636
Excel Sort-Save
B
2388
0.61182
0.548862
0.380
Firefox-Close
A
2388
0.528206
0.514102
0.079
Firefox-Open
B
2388
1.070024
0.835468
0.972
IE ApacheDoc-Browse
A
131340
0.088938
0.069274
2.385
IE ApacheDoc-Close
A
2388
0.00579
0.001658
8.314
IE ApacheDoc-Open
B
2388
0.889725
0.477459
3.388
IE WebAlbum-Browse
A
35820
0.270266
0.162112
2.474
IE WebAlbum-Close
A
2388
0.007759
0.001714
10.623
IE WebAlbum-Open
B
2388
0.872419
0.484339
2.904
Outlook-Attachment-Save
B
11940
0.075901
0.057302
2.110
Outlook-Close
A
2388
0.685793
0.615624
0.394
Outlook-Open
B
2388
0.777585
0.699325
0.409
Outlook-Read
A
23880
0.333419
0.216472
1.990
Outlook-Restore
C
26268
0.388123
0.368232
0.655
PPTx-AppendSlides
A
9552
0.085008
0.06647
0.905
PPTx-Close
A
2388
0.562465
0.503776
0.535
PPTx-Maximize
A
9552
0.00135
0.000718
13.038
PPTx-Minimize
A
4776
0.000738
0.000613
6.706
PPTx-ModifySlides
A
9552
0.308703
0.269817
0.661
PPTx-Open
B
2388
3.07551
3.009046
0.147
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Page 32 of 59
Event
Group
Count
Mean
Median
Coefficient of Variation
PPTx-RunSlideShow
A
16716
0.341095
0.528568
0.484
PPTx-SaveAs
C
2388
4.132029
3.131973
1.178
Video-Close
A
2388
0.073594
0.037658
2.037
Video-Open
B
2388
0.15297
0.049374
6.926
Video-Play
C
2388
50.660026
50.456134
0.014
Word-Close
A
2388
0.569959
0.597739
0.319
Word-Maximize
A
7164
0.327242
0.265223
0.383
Word-Minimize
A
2388
0.000671
0.00061
1.571
Word-Modify
A
50148
0.057318
0.059561
0.461
Word-Open
B
2388
4.293781
3.73521
0.670
Word-Save
B
2388
3.635548
3.527526
0.238
The host utilization metrics for CPU, memory, network, and disk I/O values that were obtained while running the test are shown in Figures 23, 24, and 25. Figure 23.
Host CPU Utilization from VMware View Planner: 800 Full Clones, Average CPU Use in Percent
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Page 33 of 59
Figure 24.
Host Memory Utilization from VMware View Planner: 800 Full Clones, Average Memory Use in GB
Note that the Y-axis memory (average) value in gigabytes ranges up to 84 GB out of 256 GB available on the host. Figure 25.
Host CPU Utilization from VMware View Planner: 800 Full Clones, Average Network Use
Disk latency values are obtained from VMware Virtual SAN Observer, as shown in Figure 26. Combined average read and write latency is measured as 18 ms on one of the hosts shown here, and is an average of 13.99 ms for all hosts. In these tests, an average of 1087.87 IOPS are generated per host.
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Page 34 of 59
Figure 26.
Host IOPS and Latency Graph from VMware Virtual SAN Observer: 800 Full Clones
Test 4: Mixed 400 VMware View Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones on Eight Cisco UCS C240 M3 Servers To simulate a production environment, which would typically have a mix of linked clones and full clones, a test with 400 linked clones and 400 full clones was conducted on eight nodes. For this testing, all eight nodes were made available for provisioning linked clones and full clones. In other words, the linked clones and full clones were distributed across the entire cluster. Test result highlights include: ●
Average of 80 to 85 percent CPU utilization
●
Average 80 to 85 GB of RAM used out of 256 GB available
●
Average 11.05 MBps of network bandwidth used
●
Average of 7.80 ms of I/O latency
●
Average of 1043.37 IOPS
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Page 35 of 59
Figure 27 and Table 18 show the values. Figure 27.
VMware View Planner Score: 400 Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones
Table 18.
Application Latency Values: 400 Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones
Event
Group
Count
Mean
Median
Coefficient of Variation
7zip-Compress
C
2391
3.837502
3.609511
0.299
AdobeReader-Browse
A
47820
0.237904
0.199534
0.776
AdobeReader-Close
A
2391
0.76634
0.750187
0.054
AdobeReader-Maximize
A
4782
0.705092
0.765475
0.222
AdobeReader-Minimize
A
2391
0.313736
0.298537
0.206
AdobeReader-Open
B
2391
0.73929
0.601873
0.978
Excel Sort-Close
A
2391
0.326697
0.220315
0.948
Excel Sort-Compute
A
62166
0.026193
0.024479
0.390
Excel Sort-Entry
A
62166
0.180245
0.152002
0.756
Excel Sort-Maximize
A
7173
0.369944
0.334935
0.309
Excel Sort-Minimize
A
2391
0.000716
0.000687
0.462
Excel Sort-Open
B
2391
0.616223
0.543731
0.574
Excel Sort-Save
B
2391
0.616912
0.544978
0.399
Firefox-Close
A
2391
0.526329
0.51306
0.056
Firefox-Open
B
2391
1.035522
0.841609
0.820
IE ApacheDoc-Browse
A
131340
0.088842
0.069451
2.349
IE ApacheDoc-Close
A
2388
0.005519
0.001686
7.620
IE ApacheDoc-Open
B
2388
0.909516
0.496354
3.157
IE WebAlbum-Browse
A
35865
0.267615
0.162217
2.419
IE WebAlbum-Close
A
2391
0.007523
0.001767
9.844
IE WebAlbum-Open
B
2391
0.889531
0.513018
2.684
Outlook-Attachment-Save
B
11955
0.07668
0.057119
2.535
Outlook-Close
A
2391
0.686446
0.616239
0.381
Outlook-Open
B
2391
0.763189
0.69918
0.337
Outlook-Read
A
23910
0.334432
0.213805
2.002
Outlook-Restore
C
26301
0.419161
0.404693
0.596
PPTx-AppendSlides
A
9564
0.083011
0.066234
0.775
PPTx-Close
A
2391
0.558762
0.507701
0.492
PPTx-Maximize
A
9564
0.001278
0.000723
7.788
PPTx-Minimize
A
4782
0.000684
0.000624
0.681
PPTx-ModifySlides
A
9564
0.30651
0.268399
0.658
PPTx-Open
B
2391
3.094825
3.05699
0.126
PPTx-RunSlideShow
A
16737
0.340805
0.528658
0.483
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Page 36 of 59
Event
Group
Count
Mean
Median
Coefficient of Variation
PPTx-SaveAs
C
2391
3.937301
3.066142
1.046
Video-Close
A
2391
0.073392
0.038045
1.943
Video-Open
B
2391
0.145744
0.048822
6.829
Video-Play
C
2391
50.537753
50.442256
0.007
Word-Close
A
2391
0.56236
0.591607
0.314
Word-Maximize
A
7173
0.325756
0.265219
0.377
Word-Minimize
A
2391
0.000666
0.000622
0.956
Word-Modify
A
50211
0.058245
0.062483
0.431
Word-Open
B
2391
4.33827
3.819501
0.627
Word-Save
B
2391
3.620773
3.54622
0.191
The host utilization metrics for CPU, memory, network, and disk I/O values obtained while running the test are shown in Figures 28, 29, and 30. Figure 28.
Host CPU Utilization from VMware View Planner: 400 Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones, Average CPU Use in Percent
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Page 37 of 59
Figure 29.
Host Memory Utilization from VMware View Planner: 400 Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones, Average Memory Use in GB
Note that the Y-axis memory (average) value in gigabytes ranges up to 88 GB out of 256 GB available on the host. Figure 30.
Host CPU Utilization from VMware View Planner: 400 Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones, Average Network Use
Disk latency values are obtained from VMware Virtual SAN Observer, as shown in Figures 31 and 32. Combined average read and write latency is measured as 8 ms on one of the hosts shown here, and is an average of 7.80 ms for all hosts. In these tests, average IOPS generated are 1043.37.
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Page 38 of 59
Figure 31.
Host IOPS and Latency Graph from VMware Virtual SAN Observer: 400 Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones
Figure 32.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon CPU Utilization Graph: 400 Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones
VMware View Operations Tests In addition to running VMware View Planner tests, VMware View operations tests were conducted to measure the effect of these administrative tasks on the environment, as shown in Table 19. Table 19.
VMware View on Cisco UCS C240 M3: Operations Test Results
Details
400 Linked Clones
800 Linked Clones
800 Full Clones
Mixed (400 Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones)
Hosts
4
8
8
8
VMware Virtual SAN disk groups
Single disk group per host: 1 SSD and 4 HDDs
Single disk group per host: 1 SSD and 4 HDDs
Two disk groups per host: 2 SSDs and 12 HDDs
Single disk group per host: 2 SSDs and 12 HDDs
Provisioning time
42 minutes
80 minutes
9 hours and 29 minutes
4 hours and 15 minutes
Recompose time
60 minutes
121 minutes
–
60 minutes for 400 linked clones
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public.
Page 39 of 59
Details
400 Linked Clones
800 Linked Clones
800 Full Clones
Mixed (400 Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones)
Refresh time
36 minutes
72 minutes
–
36 minutes for 400 linked clones
Power-on time
4 minutes
8 minutes
8 minutes
8 minutes
Delete time
22 minutes
44 minutes
47 minutes
41 minutes
Times for these VMware View operations is measured through log entries found at C:\Program Data\VMware\VDM\logs\log-YEAR—MONTH—DAY for the VMware vCenter Server. In addition, CPU utilization during these operations is shown in Figures 33 through 39. Figure 33.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon CPU Utilization Graph: Deployment Operation for 400 Linked Clones and 400 Full Clones
Figure 34.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon CPU Utilization Graph: Deployment Operation for 800 Full Clones
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Page 40 of 59
Figure 35.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon CPU Utilization Graph: Power-on Operation for 800 Linked Clones
Figure 36.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon CPU Utilization Graph: Recomposition Operation for 800 Linked Clones
Figure 37.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon CPU Utilization Graph: Desktop Refresh Operation for 800 Linked Clones
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Page 41 of 59
Figure 38.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon CPU Utilization Graph: Deployment Operation for 800 Linked Clones
Figure 39.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon CPU Utilization Graph: Deletion Operation for 400 Linked Clones
VMware Virtual SAN Availability and Manageability Tests VMware Virtual SAN is fully integrated with VMware vSphere advanced features, including VMware vMotion, DRS, and High Availability, to provide the best level of availability for the virtualized environment. For redundancy, VMware Virtual SAN uses a distributed RAID architecture, which enables a VMware vSphere cluster to accommodate the failure of a VMware vSphere host or a component within a host. For example, a VMware cluster can accommodate the failure of magnetic disks, flash memory–based devices, and network interfaces, while continuing to provide complete capabilities for all virtual machines. In addition, availability is defined for each virtual machine through the use of virtual machine storage policies. These policies, along with the VMware Virtual SAN distributed RAID architecture, virtual machines, and copies of the virtual machine contents, are distributed across multiple VMware vSphere hosts in the cluster. In the event of a failure, a failed node does not necessarily need to migrate data to a surviving host in the cluster.
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Page 42 of 59
The VMware Virtual SAN data store is based on object-oriented storage. In this approach, a virtual machine on the VMware Virtual SAN is made up of these VMware Virtual SAN objects: ●
The virtual machine home or namespace directory
●
A swap object (if the virtual machine is powered on)
●
Virtual disks or virtual machine disks (VMDKs)
●
Delta disks created for snapshots (each delta disk is an object)
The virtual machine namespace directory holds all the virtual machine files (.vmx files, log files, and so on). It excludes VMDKs, delta disks, and swap files, which are maintained as separate objects. This approach is important because it determines the way in which objects and components are built and distributed in VMware Virtual SAN. For instance, there are soft limitations, and exceeding those limitations can affect performance. In addition, witnesses are deployed to arbitrate between the remaining copies of data in the event of a failure within the VMware Virtual SAN cluster. The witness component helps ensure that no split-brain scenarios occur. Witness deployment is not predicated on any failures-to-tolerate (FTT) or stripe-width policy settings. Rather, witness components are defined as primary, secondary, and tie-breaker and are deployed based on a defined set of rules, as follows: ●
Primary witnesses: Primary witnesses require at least (2 x FTT) + 1 nodes in a cluster to tolerate the FTT number of node and disk failures. If the configuration does not have the required number of nodes after all the data components have been placed, the primary witnesses are placed on exclusive nodes until the configuration has (2 x FTT) + 1 nodes.
●
Secondary witnesses: Secondary witnesses are created to help ensure that each node has equal voting power in its contribution to a quorum. This capability is important because each node failure needs to affect the quorum equally. Secondary witnesses are added to allow each node to receive an equal number of components, including the nodes that hold only primary witnesses. The total count of data components, plus witnesses on each node, is equalized in this step.
●
Tie-breaker witnesses: After primary witnesses and secondary witnesses have been added, if the configuration has an even number of total components (data and witnesses), then one tie-breaker witness is added to make the total component count an odd number.
The following sections describe the VMware Virtual SAN data store scenarios for maintaining resiliency and availability while performing day-to-day operations. Planned Maintenance For planned operations, the VMware Virtual SAN provides three host maintenance mode options: Ensure Accessibility, Full Data Migration, and No Data Migration. Each is described in the sections that follow.
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Page 43 of 59
Ensure Accessibility The Ensure Accessibility option is the default host maintenance mode. With this option, VMware Virtual SAN helps ensure that all accessible virtual machines on the host remain accessible, either when the host is powered off or when it is removed from the cluster. In this case, VMware Virtual SAN copies just enough data to other hosts in the cluster to help ensure the continued operation of all virtual machines, even if this process results in a violation of the FTT policy. Use this option only when the host will remain in maintenance mode for only a short period of time. During this time period, the system cannot guarantee resiliency after failures. Typically, this option requires only partial data evacuation. Select Ensure Accessibility to remove the host from the cluster temporarily, such as to install upgrades, and then return the host to the same cluster. Do not use this option to permanently remove the host from the cluster. Full Data Migration When Full Data Migration is selected, the VMware Virtual SAN moves all its data to other hosts in the cluster. Then it maintains or fixes availability compliance for the affected components in the cluster. This option results in the largest amount of data transfer, and this migration consumes the most time and resources. Select the Full Data Migration option only when the host needs to be migrated permanently. When evacuating data from the last host in the cluster, be sure to migrate the virtual machines to another data store, and then put the host in maintenance mode. The testing described in this document included a Full Data Migration test. With VMware Virtual SAN, placing a host in maintenance mode with the Full Data Migration option causes the virtual machine objects to be transferred to a different host. This migration is in addition to any virtual machines that were proactively migrated by administrators because the host may have disk objects for virtual machines that reside on other hosts. This transfer can be verified by using the vsan.resync_dashboard -r 0 Ruby vSphere Console (RVC) command, which shows the data being migrated as in the example in Figure 40.
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Page 44 of 59
Figure 40.
Host Maintenance Mode: Full Data Migration
No Data Migration When No Data Migration is selected, VMware Virtual SAN does not evacuate any data from this host. If the host is powered off or removed from the cluster, some virtual machines may become inaccessible. VMware Virtual SAN Failure Simulations In some cases, during ongoing operations in a VMware Virtual SAN environment, either an individual disk failure or a host failure may affect virtual machine availability based on the storage policies applied. This section simulates these failure scenarios to demonstrate how VMware Virtual SAN maintains storage data that is highly available under different conditions. Magnetic Disk Failure Simulation In a VMware Virtual SAN environment, if a magnetic disk storing any component of any object fails, it is marked as “Degraded,” and Virtual SAN immediately begins to rebuild components from that disk on other disks. This action is usually triggered when a drive or controller reports some kind of physical hardware failure. However, if a magnetic disk goes offline, it is marked as “Absent.” In this case, VMware Virtual SAN does not immediately rebuild components. Instead, it waits a default time of 60 minutes for the drive to be replaced or restored. This response is usually triggered by pulling a drive from its slot. During this time period, virtual machines continue to run using replicas of their components that exist on other drives. The only virtual machines that cease functioning are those that have a failure policy of FTT=0 and that have the sole copy of their data stored on the offline drive.
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Page 45 of 59
If the drive is replaced within 60 minutes, VMware Virtual SAN simply updates the data on that drive to synchronize it with the live data from the rest of the cluster. If the drive has not been replaced after 60 minutes, VMware Virtual SAN changes the state of the drive to “Degraded” and then begins to rebuild the data on other drives. Note that the VMware Virtual SAN default 60-minute repair-delay time can be modified. For more information, see Changing the Default Repair-Delay Time for a Host Failure in VMware Virtual SAN. For this simulation, object placements for the replica virtual machine are configured with FTT=1 and use the default storage policies. The magnetic disk is removed from the disk group as indicated by the “Object not found” status in Figure 41. After the default wait time has passed, the state of the drive changes from “Absent” to “Degraded.” Figure 41.
Magnetic Disk Failure Simulation: Degraded Disk
Another way to check the disk object information is by using the RVC command vsan.disk_object_info. In this case, one of the disks is not found, as shown in the example in Figure 42.
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Page 46 of 59
Figure 42.
Magnetic Disk Failure Simulation: Degraded Disk in VMware Virtual SAN Observer
After the repair-delay time is reached, VMware Virtual SAN rebuilds the disk objects from the replica and then uses a different disk, as shown in Figure 43. Figure 43.
Magnetic Disk Failure Simulation: Repair Delay Time Reached
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Page 47 of 59
By using the vsan.disk_object_info RVC command on the new disk, the virtual machine object constructs are found, as shown in Figure 44. Figure 44.
Magnetic Disk Failure Simulation: Repair Delay Time Reached
SSD Failure Simulation If an SSD in a VMware Virtual SAN disk group fails, the disk group becomes inaccessible, and the magnetic disks in the disk group do not contribute to the VMware Virtual SAN storage. As in the magnetic disk failure simulation, when an SSD fails, the VMware Virtual SAN waits through a 60-minute default repair delay time before it rebuilds the virtual machine objects from a different SSD: for example, in the event of a nontransient failure. The absent SSD makes the entire disk group unavailable, and after the default wait time the individual components are rebuilt across the other available disk groups. In the SSD failure test, an SSD was removed from a disk group, as shown in Figure 45. The SSD state is displayed as “Degraded” because the disk was manually removed from a disk group. For an actual disk failure, the state is displayed as “Missing.”
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Page 48 of 59
Figure 45.
SSD Failure Simulation: Disk Removed
After the repair delay time is reached, if the SSD failure continues to exist, VMware Virtual SAN rebuilds the virtual machine layout using a different SSD, as shown in Figure 46.
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Page 49 of 59
Figure 46.
SSD Failure Simulation: Repair Delay Time Reached
Network Failure Simulation The VMware Virtual SAN VMkernel network is configured with redundant virtual networks connected to Cisco UCS fabric interconnects A and B. To verify that the VMware Virtual SAN traffic is not disrupted, the physical port was disabled from Cisco UCS Manager to display a continuous vmkping to the VMware Virtual SAN IP address on the dedicated network, as shown in Figure 47.
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Page 50 of 59
Figure 47.
Network Failure Simulation
Similar redundancy for the management network in a VMware Virtual SAN environment is anticipated.
Test Methodology The reference architecture for this solution uses VMware View Planner as the benchmarking tool, and it uses VMware Virtual SAN Observer and vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon as the performance monitoring tools.
VMware View Planner 3.5 VMware View Planner is a VDI workload generator that automates and measures a typical office worker’s activity: use of Microsoft Office applications, web browsing, reading a PDF file, watching a video, etc. Each VMware View Planner operation runs iteratively. Each iteration is a randomly sequenced workload consisting of these applications and operations. The results of a run consist of latency statistics collected for the applications and operations for all iterations. In addition to VMware View Planner scores, VMware Virtual SAN Observer and VMware vCenter Operations Manager for Horizon are used as monitoring tools (Figure 48).
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Figure 48.
VMware View Planner Components
The standardized VMware View Planner workload consists of nine applications performing a total of 44 user operations (Table 20). These user operations are separated into three groups: interactive operations (Group A), I/O operations (Group B), and background load operations (Group C). The operations in Group A are used to determine quality of service. QoS is determined separately for Group A user operations and Group B user operations and is the 95th percentile of latency for all the operations in a group. The default thresholds are 1.0 second for Group A and 6.0 seconds for Group B. The operations in Group C are used to generate additional load. Table 20.
VMware View Planner Operations
Group A
Group B
Group C
AdobeReader: Browse
AdobeReader: Open
7zip: Compress
AdobeReader: Close
Excel_Sort: Open
Outlook: Restore
AdobeReader: Maximize
Excel_Sort: Save
PowerPoint: SaveAs
AdobeReader: Minimize
Firefox: Open
Video: Play
Excel_Sort: Close
IE_ApacheDoc: Open
Excel_Sort: Compute
IE_WebAlbum: Open
Excel_Sort: Entry
Outlook: Attachment-Save
Excel_Sort: Maximize
Outlook: Open
Excel_Sort: Minimize
PowerPoint: Open
Firefox: Close
Video: Open
IE_ApacheDoc: Browse
Word: Open
IE_ApacheDoc: Close
Word: Save
IE_WebAlbum: Browse
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Group A
Group B
Group C
IE_WebAlbum: Close Outlook: Close Outlook: Read PowerPoint: AppendSlides PowerPoint: Close PowerPoint: Maximize PowerPoint: Minimize PowerPoint: ModifySlides PowerPoint: RunSlideShow Video: Close Word: Close Word: Maximize Word: Minimize Word: Modify
For the testing, VMware View Planner performed a total of five iterations: ●
Ramp up (first iteration)
●
Steady state (second, third, and fourth iterations)
●
Ramp down (fifth iteration)
During each iteration, VMware View Planner reports the latencies for each operation performed in each virtual machine.
VMware Virtual SAN Observer VMware Virtual SAN Observer is designed to capture performance statistics for a VMware Virtual SAN cluster and provide access through a web browser for live measurements. It also can generate a performance bundle over a specified duration. VMware Virtual SAN Observer is part of Ruby vSphere Console (RVC) which is a Linux console user interface for VMware ESXi and vCenter. RVC is installed on VMware vCenter and is required for running VMware Virtual SAN Observer commands. Following best practices, an out-of-band VMware vCenter appliance is used in this reference architecture to run VMware Virtual SAN Observer commands. This setup helps ensure that the production VMware vCenter instance is not affected by the performance measurements.
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The VMware Virtual SAN Observer commands that were used for this solution are shown in Table 21. Table 21.
VMware Virtual SAN Observer Commands
VMware Virtual SAN Observer Command
Description
vsan.resync_dashboard 10.0.115.72.54 -r 0
Observe data migration while placing hosts in Full Migration maintenance mode.
vsan.disk_object_info
Verify disk object information.
vsan.vm_object_info
Verify virtual machine object information.
vsan.disks_info hosts/10.0.115.72.54
Obtain a list of disks on a specific host.
vsan.obj_status_report
Obtain health information about VMware Virtual SAN objects. This command is helpful in identifying orphaned objects.
vsan.reapply_vsan_vmknic_config
Re-enable VMware Virtual SAN on VMkernel ports while troubleshooting the network configuration.
vsan.observer {cluster name} -r -o -g /tmp -i 30 -m 1
Enable and capture performance statistics used for benchmark testing. For more information, see Enabling or Capturing Performance Statistics Using VMware Virtual SAN Observer.
For a more comprehensive list of VMware Virtual SAN Observer commands, see the VMware Virtual SAN Quick Monitoring and Troubleshooting Reference Guide.
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System Sizing The reference architecture used the sizing specifications described in this section.
Virtual Machine Test Image Builds Two different virtual machine images were used to provision desktop sessions in the VMware View environment: one for linked clones and one for full clones (Table 22). Both conformed to testing tool standards and were optimized in accordance with the VMware View Optimization Guide for Windows 7 and Windows 8. The VMware OS Optimization Tool was used to make the changes. Table 22.
Virtual Machine Test Image Builds
Attribute
Linked Clones
Full Clones
Desktop operating system
Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 (32-bit)
Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 (32-bit)
Hardware
VMware Virtual Hardware Version 10
VMware Virtual Hardware Version 10
CPU
1
2
Memory
1536 MB
2048 MB
Memory reserved
0 MB
0 MB
Video RAM
35 MB
35 MB
3D graphics
Off
Off
NICs
1
1
Virtual network adapter 1
VMXNet3 adapter
VMXNet3 adapter
Virtual SCSI controller 0
Paravirtual
Paravirtual
Virtual disk VMDK 1
24 GB
40 GB
Virtual disk VMDK 2
1 GB
1 GB
Virtual floppy drive 1
Removed
Removed
Virtual CD/DVD drive 1
Removed
Removed
Applications
Adobe Acrobat 10.1.4
Adobe Acrobat 10.1.4
Firefox 7.01
Firefox 7.01
Internet Explorer 10
Internet Explorer 10
Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Windows Media Player
Microsoft Windows Media Player
7Zip
7Zip
VMware tools
9.4.10, build-2068191
9.4.10, build-2068191
VMware View Agent
6.0.1-2089044
6.0.1-2089044
The Microsoft Windows 7 golden image was modified to meet VMware View Planner 3.5 requirements. See the VMware View Planner Installation and User’s Guide.
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Management Blocks Table 23 shows the sizing of the management blocks. Table 23.
Management Block Sizing
Server Role
VCPU
RAM (GB)
Storage (GB) Operating System
Software Version
Domain controller
2
6
40
Server 2012 64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server
2
8
140
Server 2012 64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 64-bit
VMware vCenter Server
4
10
70
Server 2012 64-bit
VMware vCenter 5.5.0 build 1178595
VMware vCenter appliance for VMware Virtual SAN Observer (out of band)
4
8
100
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 64-bit
VMware vCenter 5.5 U2 build 2063318
VMware View Connection Server
4
10
60
Server 2012 64-bit
VMware View Connection Server 6.0.1 build 2088845
VMware View Composer Server
4
10
60
Server 2012 64-bit
VMware View Composer 6.0.1 build 2078421
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Analytics Server
4
9
212
SLES 11 64-bit
3.5 build 2061132 (beta)
VMware vCenter Operations Manager UI Server
4
7
132
SLES 11 64-bit
3.5 build 2061132
VMware View Planner Server
2
4
60
Server 2012 64-bit
3.5 build 2061132
Host Configuration Table 24 summarizes the host configuration. Table 24.
Host Configuration
Component
Value
CPU
● Intel Xeon processor E5-2680 v2 at 2.80 GHz ● Hyperthreading: Enabled
RAM
● 256 GB (16 x 16 GB)
NICs
● Cisco UCS VIC 1225 converged network adapter (2 x 10-Gbps ports) ● Firmware version 2.2(2c) ● Driver version enic -1.4.2.15c
BIOS
● C240M3.1.5.7.0.042820140452
Disks
● 2 x 400-GB 2.5-inch enterprise performance SAS SSDs (1 SSD for linked clones and 2 SSDs for full clones) ● 12 x 900-GB 6-Gbps SAS 10,000-rpm drives (4 disks per host used for linked clones, and 12 disks per host used for full clones)
VMware ESXi version
● VMware ESXi 5.5.0 build 2068190
Storage adapter
● Firmware package version 23.12.0-0021 ● Firmware version 3.240.95-2788 ● Driver version 00.00.05.34-9vmw, build 2068190 interface 9.2
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Bill of Materials Table 25 provides the bill of materials for the reference architecture. Table 25.
Bill of Materials
Area
Component
Host hardware
Quantity
● Cisco UCS C240 M3
8
● Intel Xeon processor E5-2680 v2 at 2.80 GHz
16
● 16-GB DDR3 1600-MHz RDIMM, PC3-12800, dual rank
128
● LSI 9207-8i RAID controller
8
● Cisco VIC 1225 dual-port 10-Gbps SFP+ converged network adapter
8
● 16-GB SD card
16
● 400-GB 2.5-inch enterprise performance SAS SSD
8 (for linked clones) 16 (for full clones)
Network switch
Software
● 300-GB SAS 15,000-rpm 6-Gbps 2.5-inch drive ● 900-GB SAS 10,000-rpm 6-Gbps 2.5-inch drive
32 (for linked clones)
● Cisco UCS 6248 Fabric Interconnect
2
● Cisco Nexus 5548UP
2
● VMware ESXi 5.5.0 build 2068190
8
● VMware vCenter Server 5.5.0, build 1623101
1
● VMware Horizon 6.0.1, build 2088845
1
● VMware vCenter Operations for View 1.5.1, build 1286478
1
● Microsoft Windows 2008 R2
4
● Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
1
● Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
4
96 (for full clones)
Conclusion Implementing VMware Horizon 6 with View with VMware Virtual SAN on Cisco UCS provides linear scalability with exceptional end-user performance and a simpler management experience, with Cisco UCS Manager centrally managing the infrastructure and VMware Virtual SAN integrated into VMware vSphere. This solution also provides cost-effective hosting all sizes of virtual desktop deployments. The reference architecture demonstrates the following main points: ●
Linear scalability is achieved with VMware Virtual SAN as the storage solution on Cisco UCS for hosting VMware View virtual desktops. The reference architecture successfully scaled from 400 desktops on four Cisco UCS C240 M3 nodes to 800 desktops on eight nodes, keeping all aspects of end-user performance consistently acceptable with less than 15 ms of disk latency and 3-ms application response times.
●
Optimal performance is achieved while performing all virtual desktop operations such as refresh, recompose, deploy, power-on, and power-off operations. Times measured for these operations fall within industry-measured benchmarks and demonstrate the joint solution’s scalability.
●
VMware Virtual SAN provides highly available and resilient storage for hosting VMware View virtual desktops. Multiple maintenance and failure scenarios tested provide confidence in the resiliency of the joint solution.
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For More Information ●
VMware Virtual SAN Ready Nodes
●
What’s New in VMware Virtual SAN
●
Cisco FlexFlash: Use and Manage Cisco Flexible Flash Internal SD Card for Cisco UCS C-Series Standalone Rack Servers
●
VMware Virtual SAN Compatibility Guide
●
LSI
●
Changing the Default Repair-Delay Time for a Host Failure in VMware Virtual SAN
●
I/O Analyzer
●
Ruby vSphere Console (RVC)
●
Enabling or Capturing Performance Statistics Using VMware Virtual SAN Observer
●
VMware View Optimization Guide for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows 8
●
VMware View Planner Installation and User’s Guide
●
VMware Virtual SAN Quick Monitoring and Troubleshooting Reference Guide
●
Cisco UCS C240 M3 High-Density Rack Server (SFF Disk-Drive Model) Specification Sheet
●
Working with VMware Virtual SAN
●
VMware Virtual SAN Ready System Recommended Configurations
●
Enabling or Capturing Statistics Using VMware Virtual SAN Observer for VMware Virtual SAN Resources
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Page 58 of 59
Acknowledgements The following individuals contributed to the creation of this paper: ●
Balayya Kamanboina, Validation Test Engineer, VMware
●
Bhumik Patel, Partner Architect, VMware
●
Chris White, End User Computing Architect, VMware
●
Hardik Patel, Technical Marketing Engineer, Cisco Systems
●
Jim Yanik, End User Computing Architect, VMware
●
Mike Brennan, Technical Marketing Manager, Cisco Systems
●
Jon Catanzano, Senior Technical Writer/Editor, Consultant, VMware
●
Nachiket Karmarkar, Performance Engineer, VMware
Printed in USA
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C11-733480-00
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