© 2010 DinamiQs

Desktops

In the past 20 years there has been one single platform that allowed businesses and people to deploy and run a large variety of business applications. That platform is the Microsoft Windows™ Operating System and it has become so ubiquitous that over 90% of businesses are running some iteration of this OS. Apart from this, most private end-users are running an OEM version of the Windows OS on their home PCs.

As such most of all existing applications have been written to make use of the Windows Operating System. It is therefore only logical to enable the Windows Desktop OS in a virtualized, Internet-accessible form, but to do so with all modern, state-of-the-art technology.

Since its inception VirtualStorm has been a solution to virtualize desktops.

The original goals for VirtualStorm were scalability, end-user performance, minimizing IT environment requirements, rapid deployment and extreme application virtualization.

The end result is software that installs on top of virtualized Windows XP desktops, using VMware’s enterprise grade ESX hypervisor and Symantec’s Workspace Virtualization solution.

DinamiQs

To enable and optimize the Windows platform and to create an ultimate shared resource environment, DinamiQs has developed a number of technologies that allow for a full stack deployment of virtualized desktops:

DVS4VDI, XP image filter driver that incorporates the DinamiQs Memory Enhancement Stack and the DinamiQs DiskIO driver that allows access to the shared repository.

DMC, DinamiQs Management Console, Single Point of Management that allows full access to unlimited numbers of virtual and physical clients and their

applications.

DCIP*, DinamiQs Thin Image Provisioning for ubiquitous physical endpoint access, supporting any third party connection protocol and configurable for most physical hardware end-point devices.

DRPA, Fully automated desktop deployment, pre-provisioning and real-time on-request deployment with broker functionality. The automation manager is also addressable through a standard API.

DILM**, DinamiQs Integrated License Manager, module that allows for enforceable license management through Light Switch Technology.

VirtualStorm Cloud Enabled Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

based on industry leading technologies.

By

The future of VDI

A loaded VirtualStorm image. Dozens of applications in 384MB of physical memory

* planned availability end of March 2010

** planned availability end of May 2010

Version 1.1

DHP*, fully automated hybrid profile redirection places any and all profile information either on the storage subsystems or on networked storage. Profile information is only used and never placed inside a virtual desktop image. The only exception is for mobile units that get a full copy of the user’s profile for offline use.

SMART, application self service for end-users using elevated privileges to activate applications. SMART integrates with self-service workflow management environments through Active Directory.

Core Technologies

VirtualStorm consists of the DVS4VDI agent, which filters applications, handles memory and deals with cross-network communication and the Centralized Management Console.

VDI desktops are full clone XP desktops of no more than 500MB of files, which clone extremely fast. The full C:\ disk of the XP desktop is 1.19 GB large, mostly because of empty space inside the image. Average deployment times in modest hardware are between 10 and 30 seconds for a full XP desktop deployment.

All applications reside in a centrally located LUN that is mounted across all desktops in the environment and that allows activation, de-activation and resetting of all applications that are available.

At logon the XP image checks the username in the Active Directory and activates those applications that the end-user is entitled to.

The way the technology works, the end-user (and indeed Windows itself) believes the application is installed inside the image. In reality, the application is only being used, it is never, ever, really installed inside the image. This allows almost instant installation of any size application inside a 1.19 GB Windows XP image.

The technology scales linearly with high densities of desktops (250+ desktops per server with average end-user activity) on commodity server hardware and off-the-shelf storage. For high performance desktops more advanced storage (SSD and large-cache systems) are used.

Applications are only used, never read into the image (so no unpredictable ‘redo’ file type image growth) and the enhanced memory manager allows loading of dozens of applications by extending the virtual memory from 384MB of virtual memory to over 1GB of virtual memory, bypassing the regular VMware memory bottlenecks. (see also the picture on the front page)

* planned availability end of March 2010

** planned availability during May 2010

Application entitlement through SMART 1.19 GB C:\ drive. Windows thinks 2.26 GB is installed.

The enhanced memory manager allows loading of large application, but it also divides the actual application over the disks in the storage and allows the environment to actually use the bandwidth of the disks in the storage arrays to deliver the applications. Because the environment is mostly static, there is little random IO and much sequential IO resulting in large bandwidth for the delivery of the applications to the virtual memory inside the XP desktops.

User profiles are AD managed and are offloaded to the network or a separate LUN on the storage subsystems. Profile data is never stored inside the image, but always remains outside the image. The only exception being mobile, non-connected units that are designated as such and which keep the user profile locally.

The desktop environment is a flexible, fast, easily managed launch platform for the applications of the end-users.

To manage the desktops a single view is created that allows management of users, computers, the AD and the VMware VirtualCenter host and ESX hosts. Through this Management Console it is quite easy to activate, de-active and reset applications throughout the enterprise from a central location. It is in fact possible to manage all virtual and physical end-points and to deploy and remove applications.

Architecture Overview

VirtualStorm and its agents reside in the datacenter. However, through Thin Image provisioning and the SMART agent most Fat Clients can be managed throughout the LAN/WAN infrastructure. Even outside the sphere of control the agent still manages access to licensed application on a mobile fat client.

The infrastructural view is a simple, vendor agnostic environment that consist of commoditized compute, storage and interconnect with commoditized application launch platforms (desktops.)

DinamiQs Management Console

VirtualStorm Hybrid VDI environment

In general a VirtualStorm environment consists of a number of servers, connected through Fiber Chan-nel, Ethernet (NFS/CIFS/iSCSI) or Infiniband to a central storage switch and through that to the cen-tral storage. This is commonly known as the storage backend. The front-end is the regular Ethernet LAN that connects to the physical end-points, be they Fat Clients, Thin Clients or Zero Clients with a view on the VDI environment. Best practices for larger environments require a high grade Random IO disk or set of disks for the application repository. The desktop storage can be regular spinning disk, as these disks can deliver sufficient bandwidth for the virtualized applications.

Setting up the environment is basically an exercise in properly scaling of storage, IO, interconnects, CPU power and memory.

TCO and ROI. And Green. Extreme virtualization, high density, sharing of re-sources and centralization of application manage-ment means that the Total Cost of Ownership is drastically reduced. Cost savings can be made in the acquisition of desktops, servers, storage and interconnects. In addition there is better license control, better appli-cation control and a much reduced desktop man-agement task through end-user self-service and workflow management combined with the central Management Console which allows any unskilled helpdesk to activate, de-activate and reset applica-tions instantaneously and remotely. Fewer servers and storage require less power and produce less heat, resulting in lower power and cooling costs for the IT environment. Depending on current measures to curb the costs of the desktop environment, VirtualStorm is capable of further reducing TCO by 20 to 70%. And because of the low cost of deployment ROI is typically less than six months. Use of VirtualStorm reduces the cost of the total IT environment drastically, simplifies the infrastructure, makes optimal use of available resources and scales linearly. In most cases it turns out 90% of the enterprise can work with the VDI component of Vir-tualStorm, while the remaining 10% make use of managed Fat Clients or Thin Clients, making the solution and the management of the environment uniform for the enterprise.

“VirtualStorm is True VDI, without compromise…”

- JP Beerens, SAP Technical Specialist

DinamiQs B.V. Kabelstraat 3 1322 AD Almere The Netherlands tel: +31 36 524 11 60 fax: +31 36 524 11 10 email: info@dinamiqs.com

North American Distribution

Web: http://www.VirtualStormNow.com Email: sales@virtualstormnow.com

Call: +1 (603) 766 4986

The future of VDI