This document discusses approaches to achieving low-cost, high-performance storage for Horizon desktops. It presents four approaches: 1) using the right shared storage, 2) deploying on a converged appliance, 3) using a virtual storage appliance, and 4) considering direct-attached storage. The right shared storage approach leverages all-flash arrays for burst performance without complexity. Converged appliances provide an integrated server and storage solution. Virtual storage appliances accelerate any storage. And direct-attached storage offers simplicity but requires different planning. Examples are given highlighting the performance, cost and simplicity of each approach.

1. Low-Cost, High-Performance Storage
for Horizon Desktops
Courtney Burry, VMware
Donal Geary, VMware
Tristan Todd, VMware
EUC5708
#EUC5708

3. 3
Agenda
Storage Costs
for Horizon View
Planning for
Performance
Modern
approach to
Storage
Architecture
Q and A

4. 4
Disclaimers / Things to Keep in Mind
 We refer to a few different storage technologies by name as
examples.
 We don’t use every single storage vendor on earth for examples.
 Don’t let it harsh your mellow if we don’t use your favorite.
 Some things presented here are the opinions of the presenters
 Remember…your mileage may vary

5. 5
Horizon View – Storage Costs

6. 6
“43% of workforce
using 3+ devices
9 of 10 companies
report consumer
technologies in the
workplace. But PCs
not going away!
74% of employees
use consumer
technologies, lack of
alternatives from IT
”
End-User Computing: The Current State
Increasingly
Mobile Workforce
Better Consumer
Technologies
Traditional Tools
Insufficient

7. 7
This Is Leading to Many Challenges for IT
“How Do I Secure IP and Data &
Maintain Compliance?”
• $459K/year spent on losses associated with
lost-stolen data and endpoints
“How Do I Manage All of These
New Devices and Apps?”
• Up to 8 hours for device deployment per user
• Over 4.5 hours spent patching
applications per user
“How Do I Contain Costs?”
• Managing BYOD typically costs companies
about 17-20% more vs. supporting company allocated
devices

8. 8
Deliver: Empower your
workforce with secure,
roaming access to your
same desktop
across devices
Broker: Manage and secure
virtual desktops from a single
admin console while
removing data off endpoints
Horizon View virtualizes desktops into a central service
Transform: Simplify
desktops and apps into
the datacenter with
virtualization
 Streamline Management
 Enhance Security
 Provide High Availability
 Better Support More Users
Across More Devices

9. 9
Overcoming Key Challenges to Accelerating
Adoption

10. 10
So What is Keeping VDI Projects from Taking Off More?
 Elephant in the room: cost of deploying VDI
Large up-front CAPEX hurdle
 VDI Solution Management Complexity
Layers of non-integrated, disparate elements
Management complexity and escalating OPEX
 Inadequate infrastructure & poor planning
Under sizing
Complex infrastructure that doesn’t scale
Lack of architectural approach day-1

11. 11
The Negative Impact of Infrastructure on ROI
Source: 2011 Morgan Stanley Desktop Survey
Server, Storage and Networking on average
comprise 50% of solution TCO per desktop
$160
$125
$40
$150
$125
$50 Storage
Server
Networking
Endpoint
Broker
Licensing
Average Cost per Virtual Desktop ($)

12. 12
The Goal of vFast Track Architectures
• Optimizing storage features in View and
storage solutions from partners
• Partnering with Cisco to deliver a
compelling bundled offering
• Incenting channel to drive bookings
Drive Down Cost of
Acquisition for VDI
below that of PC
• Make it easy to start small and grow
• VDI infrastructure with plug ins to
vCenter
Streamline VDI
Management &
Provide Linear
Scalability
• With prescriptive Reference
Architectures and Customer Reference
Implementations
Take the Guesswork
out of VDI

13. 13
Making Inroads on Acquisition Cost and TCO with View
ACQUISITION COST PER USER
DRIVING DOWN THE COST OF
AQUISITION
Radically Simpler Management
Storage Optimizations from VMware
3rd Party Storage Validations
$200
$1200
$1000
$800
$600
$400
Time 2013
$500
$0
Infrastructure Cost
(does not include client)
$250
2010
>$200

14. 14
Four approaches to storage for VDI
1
2
3
Use the right shared storage for
Horizon View
Deploy Horizon View on a converged
appliance
Use a Virtual Storage Appliance
4 Consider DASD

15. 15
Performance Planning

16. 16
What is VMware doing in Horizon View?
Leverage Linked Clones Tier Storage for VDI
SE Sparse Storage Accelerator

17. 17
Choosing “Good” Storage for Horizon View

18. 18
How do we know the storage is Good?
Low Latency
Reasonable
CAPEX
Reasonable
OPEX
Easy to
Manage
Scalable
Resilient
Green
Existing
Platform
Existing
Vendor
Support
Simple
Architecture
Burst Capable

19. 19
There is no denying it: Flash is Fast
 SATA HDD typ. read IOPS: 80
 Flash SSD typ. read IOPS: 30,000
375x

20. 20
Just for Perspective, 375x means
 Typical walking speed: 3 mph
 F-18E Super Hornet: 1120 mph

21. 21
IOPS – IOPS – IOPS!!!

22. 22
IOPS – IOPS – IOPS!!!
Storage
Network
We can deliver
250K read IOPs
200K write IOPs
LATENCY
LATENCY

23. 23
VMkernel
Storage – “Where bad things happen”
ArrayCache
Virtual SCSI
Storage Processor
Front-end
Spindles
Back-end
Paths
Path Contention or
thrashing
IOps/MBps Maximums
Processor saturation
Write De-stage = deadly
IOps/MBps Maximums
IOps/MBps maximums and
device configuration
“just not enough disks”
VMFS NFS client

24. 24
vDisk I/O – Three Main Latencies
Application
Guest OS
ESX Storage
Stack
VMM
Driver
3. KAVG
2. DAVG
1. GAVG
QAVG
GAVG = KAVG + DAVG
Fabric
vSCSI
HBA
Time in ESXi storage stack is minimal, for all practical
purposes KAVG ~= QAVG. In a well configured system
QAVG should be zero
Array SP
When KAVG > 0, I/O is
typically backed up in a
device or adapter Queue

25. 25
vCenter “Disk” Performance Chart
KAVG
• Kernel Read latency
• Kernel write latency
• Kernel command latency
QAVG
• Queue command latency
• Queue write latency
• Queue read latency
GAVG
• Read latency
• Write latency
• Command latency
DAVG
• Physical device command latency
• Physical device read latency
• Physical device write latency

26. 26
Viewing Queues and Activity in The Storage Stack
(Queues in the storage array not
illustrated)
Guest OS Queues Perf Mon in Guest
VM
VCtr - VM
VCtr - Host
Host
Adapter Queues (HBAs)
Device/LUN
Virtual Machines
ESXtop
VMKernel Queues
• Device Queues (LUNs)
• Adapter Queues (HBAs)
• World Queues (VMs)

27. 27
vSphere Performance Management Tools - vCenter
vCenter Alarms &
Charts
• Alarms on static
thresholds
• Alarm trigger may not
always indicate an
actual performance
problem
• Can Show Historical
trends
• Rough Granularity
(Min 20 Sec)

28. 28
vSphere Performance Management Tools – vCenter Ops Mgr
Aggregates metrics into workload,
capacity and health scores
Relies on dynamic thresholds

29. 29
Understanding Desktop IO Requirements
 Rules of thumb:
• Light – 5 IOPs – Not a lot of time at desktop
• Medium – 10 IOPs – Most of day at desktop – typical office worker
• Heavy – 20 IOPs – Developer, Power User
• You will find other rules of thumb guide numbers – that’s why they can be
dangerous
 Keep in mind these are average numbers
• Read / Write Mix
• Bursts – Boots, Provisioning. Logins, Lunar Cycles, Antivirus
• Average Numbers = Likely failure
 ASSESS YOUR WORKLOAD!
• Liquidware Stratusphere Fit
• Lakeside Systrack

30. 30
Modern approaches to Architecture

31. 31 Confidential
New Storage Solutions are Accelerating VDI Adoption
Wide Range of Cost-Effective Differentiated
Solutions to Get Customers Started Across
Segments
 Easily scale from 1 desktop to 1000’s
 Optimized storage plays (Tintri, Nimble, Fusion io.
Tegile. Pure, Virident, Atlantis, Nexenta, EMC)
Simplified VDI Management with Linear
Scalability
 Fully integrated with vCenter
 Provision and deploy desktops in minutes
 Start small and grow on demand

32. 32
Four approaches to storage for VDI
1
2
3
Use the right shared storage for
Horizon View
Deploy Horizon View on a converged
appliance
Use a Virtual Storage Appliance
4 Consider DASD

33. 33
Approach 1 - The Right Shared Storage for Horizon View
 Fundamental Drivers:
• Periods of high activity cause a huge burst of IO to the storage that traditional
storage systems were not designed to accommodate
• Only all-flash arrays can provide the burst IOPS needed to guarantee an
excellent user experience without complicated storage sizing and investments
exceeding $300/user
• Not all all-flash arrays provide inline de-duplication; this is important for
achieving user densities that drive down cost per user to palatable levels
 Representative Partners
• EMC XtremeIO X-Brick
• Tintri VMstore
• Nimble Storage
• Tegile
• Whiptail
• Pure Storage
• Solidfire
• NetApp
• Dell
• HP
• Hitachi
1

34. 34
Approach 2 – Converged Appliances
 Fundamental Drivers:
• Converged systems (combined server and storage appliances) offer a tightly
integrated combination of high speed storage, Intel servers, and a virtual SAN
filesystem
• This results in a system that deploys easily, scales linearly to supported
maximums, and is very easy to manage
• “One throat to choke” support model!
 Representative Partners
• Nutanix
• Pivot3
• V3
• VCE
2

35. 35
Approach 3 - Use a Virtual Storage Appliance
 Fundamental Drivers:
• Virtual Storage Appliances (VSA) speed up any kind of storage, although the
impact is greatest on traditional shared storage
• The price to performance ratio is very low compared to other kinds of storage
options
• Without a VSA, View deployments on traditional shared storage is likely to stall
or fail
 Representative Partners
• Nexenta VSA for View
• Atlantis Computing ILIO
3

36. 36
Approach 4 - Consider DASD
 Fundamental Drivers:
• You can’t beat the simplicity of direct-attached storage
• For the right use-case, DASD offers exception performance and very low cost
• You must think differently about sizing, operations planning, and resiliency
 Representative Partners
• Virident
• FusionIO
• LSI Nytro Warp
• Violin
• Intel SSD
4

37. 37
Comparing the four approaches
SAN/NAS
Converged
Appliances
Virtual
Storage
Appliances
DASD
Performance Better Good Best Wow
Cost Better Good Best Wow
Simplicity Better Best Good Wow
Scalability Best Good Better Good
Resiliency Best Better Good Meh

38. 38
Example - The Right Shared Storage for Horizon View
 Purpose-built for Virtualized Environments
• One-to-one mapping between abstractions supported
by the hypervisor and those supported by storage
• Make the “object” of storage VMs or vDisks and not
LUNs, volumes, etc.
• Flash-based architecture for performance optimization
 VM-Aware Capabilities
• Per-VM QoS
• Per-VM monitoring and reporting
• Per-VM management operations
• Auto-alignment (active vs. arbitrary)
• Integration with hypervisor management infrastructure
1000
Linked Clones
1000
VAAI Linked
Clones
1000
Full-Clones with
VAAI
Ultra-fast Pool Deployments
1

39. 39
Example - The Right Shared Storage for Horizon View
 Purpose-built for Virtualized Environments
• One-to-one mapping between abstractions supported
by the hypervisor and those supported by storage
• Make the “object” of storage VMs or vDisks and not
LUNs, volumes, etc.
• Flash-based architecture for performance optimization
 VM-Aware Capabilities
• Per-VM QoS
• Per-VM monitoring and reporting
• Per-VM management operations
• Auto-alignment (active vs. arbitrary)
• Integration with hypervisor management infrastructure
1
237$ desktop

40. 40
Example - Use a Virtual Storage Appliance - Nutanix
• Converged
• Software-Defined
• Server-attached Flash
• Linear Scale-out
• Inline Dedupe
2
400$ desktop

41. 41
Example - Use a Virtual Storage Appliance - Nexenta
3 I/O to VSA
• Read Rate 199,881 (149,911) KBps
• Write Rate 21,417 (16,063) KBps
 I/O to LUN
• Read Rate 1,255 (919) Kbps
• Write Rate 7,645 (5,734) Kbps
38x SAN Read I/O Offload
Vs. Bare Metal
2.5x SAN Write I/O Offload
Vs. Bare Metal

42. 42
Example - Use a Virtual Storage Appliance - Nexenta
3
35$ desktop+

43. 43
Example - Consider DASD – LSI Nytro WarpDrive
• 1000 Desktops
• 8 host cluster with N+1
• Amazing User Experience
• <0.5ms vDisk latency
• Ultra-fast Pool Ops
• Simple sizing
• Simple Scalability
4
199$ desktop

44. 44
At the end of the day

45. 45
Low Cost =
smart CAPEX
smart OPEX

46. 46
Simplicity =
easy scalability
easy deployment
simple integration

47. 47
Performance = delighted users

48. 4848
Other VMware Activities Related to This Session
 HOL:
HOL-MBL-130
Horizon Mirage - Manage Physical Desktops
HOL-MBL-1309
Horizon View from A to Z

49. THANK YOU

50. Low-Cost, High-Performance Storage
for Horizon Desktops
Courtney Burry, VMware
Donal Geary, VMware
Tristan Todd, VMware
EUC5708
#EUC5708