SESSION 110 Wednesday, April 13, 10:15am - 11:15am

Track: Desktop Support

VDI: Transform Your Desktop with Virtualization

Mike Voss Principal Architect, SHI Mike_Voss@SHI.com

Session Description In this session, Mike Voss, a leading VDI expert, will lead a discussion on the current and future state of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), including when to use it and what alternative options might best suit your enterprise. You;ll join him on a deep dive into not only the virtual aspect of VDI but also into the entire physical infrastructure when supporting a Desktop as a Service (DaaS) environment. As a result, you'll gain a better understanding of the key technical requirements that every IT pro should consider before selecting and implementing a VDI solution. Speaker Background Mike Voss has fourteen years of experience providing consulting and technical expertise for multiple federal and commercial clients. A senior virtualization architect, he has worked with many of the major platforms and technologies in the data center. Some of his specialties include server and desktop virtualization (VDI), computer storage, and the cloud. As a principal architect at SHI, his role is to provide architectural and solution guidance to SHI accounts across the eastern US, and to evangelize SHI's data center capabilities to partners and strategic customers.

Transform Your Desktop with Virtualization

Mike Voss

Principal Architect

SHI

Introduction

• 10 years at Federal Systems Integrator

• 5 years at Datacenter Solution Providers

• VMware, Citrix, Microsoft background

– VMware Certified Professional (Datacenter and Desktops)

– Citrix Certified Administrator (XenApp and XenDesktop)

– Microsoft Hyper-V MSTS, MCITP-EA

• Consultative Solution Architect

– Storage, Backup, BC/DR, Virtualization, Cloud

Agenda

• Desktop Virtualization Overview

• Current State

• Architecture

• Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)

• Key Considerations

• Future State

What is Desktop Virtualization? OS, apps and personalization are

decoupled from the physical device

Desktops and applications are centralized in the data center

Connect to virtual desktop or application from any device at any location

Think of it as any way to connect users to apps and data

Decoupling OS, Apps and User Data

Hardware

Operating System

User Data

Applications

Hardware

Operating System

Applications

User Data

Types of Desktop Virtualization

Network Boot

Provisioning Server

Apps

OS

Virtual Desktop Streaming

Apps

OSApps

OS

Display DataAppAppApp

OS

Terminal Services

PresentationServer

Synchronized Desktop (Offline)

Synchronized Desktop

Server

Apps

OSApps

OSApps

OS

Display Data

Apps

OS

Apps

OS

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

Apps

OS

Server

Hypervisor

When to use Desktop Virtualization

What is the business problem we are trying to solve?

• Business Continuity

• Reduce Administrative Overhead

• Enhanced Mobility/Productivity

• Security

• Increased Collaboration

Alternatives

• Business as usual (That’s OK!)

• Migrate legacy applications to the web

• Leverage SaaS and cloud-native applications

What are you going to do about your legacy applications?

Current State• Leading vendors

approaching feature parity

• Better voice/video

• Better provisioning

• Unified Portal for desktops, applications and cloud resources

• Mobile Device Management and Single-Sign-on

• Hybrid Cloud Strategy

Desktop Virtualization

Application Virtualization

Mobile Device Management

File Sharing

Unified Portal

VDI Architecture

Active DirectoryManagement Cluster

SAN Storage

Connection Brokers

Compute Servers Running Virtual Desktops

Load Balancers

Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)

Hypervisor

Bare Metal / Physical Servers / “Cloud Platform”

Resources

Automation and Orchestration – Orchestrate Process & Procedures

Management Layer

Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)Self-Service

Request & ApprovalMulti-Tenancy

------------------------------Service Catalog

Run and schedule workflows

------------------------------Management

End Users IT Admin

Install and Customize Workflows

------------------------------Orchestration

Non-Technical Success Factors

• Understand Use Cases

• Top-Down Support

• Determine Feasibility

• Pilot

Technical Success Factors

• Assessment

• User Environment Management

• Storage I/O and Latency

• Application Virtualization

• Anti-Virus Optimization

ASSESSMENT 873 Candidates chosen to virtualize

9 Hypervisors required (N+1) 97:1 consolidation ratio

Peak Predicted Demands: 1,351,958 MIPS 1,739 RAM (GB) 9497 IOPS 384 Mbps

Top Apps: Zgaclient.exe Thumbnailgen.exe Rcslauch.exe Acrord.exe Acrobat.exe

iexplore.exe

i3dvr_remote.exe

dfileman.exe

sitekiosk.exe

photoshop.exe

explorer.exe

interact.exe

outlook.exe

rundll32.exe

dwm.exe

tellernow!.exe

msreportbuilder.exe

ae.exe

appman.exe

acrord32.exe

fcagte.exe

excel.exe

billingedge.exe

cwintegratedclient.exe

ccc.exe

7.17%

3.47%

3.23%

2.91%

1.85%

1.82%

1.74%

1.59%

1.10%

0.94%

0.83%

0.80%

0.55%

0.47%

0.43%

0.38%

0.36%

0.33%

0.31%

0.26%

Top CPU Consumers By Application

Sizing Tips• Be careful overcommitting CPUs

– CPU utilization might be low, but CPU contention may be high

• Don’t overcommit memory

• Account for CPU and memory needed for the hypervisor, and any additional VMs (security virtual appliance)

• Size hypervisor clusters to withstand host failures– Don’t size for 100% utilization

• Size storage I/O to meet or exceed current desktops

User Environment Management

• Keep it Simple

• Folder Redirection

• GPO Optimization

• Reduce Login Times

• Contextual Awareness

Storage I/O and Latency

SSD

5000 IOPS

Notebook with SSDDesktop PC

7200 RPM

HDD

75 IOPS

Desktop Virtualization

?

VDI Storage Challenge

Shared

Storage

Virtual Desktops

Storage I/O and Latency• Storage – major source of project risk and

failures

• With disk-based storage systems, sizing is complex and expensive

• 10-20 IOPS per user results in a poor experience for the end user

• Common solutions:– Flash

– Hyperconverged

– Software/Hardware Add-Ons

Application Virtualization

• Should be leveraged where possible to reduce the number of applications in the base image

• Multiple Techniques

– Server-based computing

– Application packaging

– Application streaming

– Layering

A desktop is just another vessel to deliver an application

Anti-Virus Optimization• Needs to be re-thought when moving to a shared resource

environment

• Can cripple CPU and storage resources

• At the very least optimize– Tune scanning policies/schedules to stagger

• Ideally offload to improve performance and density

Introspection Engine

AV

Hypervisor

Virtual Desktop

Virtual Desktop

Virtual Desktop

Security Virtual

Appliance

Future State

• Cloud-based control plane for market leaders

• Hybrid cloud strategies with easy portability

• Designed to make it easy to adopt and implement

• Microsoft and Amazon will increase market share

Citrix Workspace Cloud

VMware’s Project Enzo

Questions?

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