Transcript VDI Architecture Metro Health

VDI Architecture
Chris House, VCP
Senior Network Analyst
DataCenter Team
Quick facts
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1,500 Windows XP SP2 “sessions”
1 or more statically assigned to users
2 datacenters, 750 sessions per datacenter
2 VirtualCenter servers (1 per datacenter)
38 ESX servers (19 per datacenter/VC)
4 ESX clusters (2 per datacenter/VC)
15 datastores per cluster/server
25 sessions per datastore
2 HP StorageWorks XP1024 Fibre-Channel SAN
Arrays (1 per datacenter)
Concept
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Concurrent VDI and blade PC deployment
Complete desktop replacement for office and clinical staff
Reduce PC maintenance costs/time
Provide fastest possible access for roaming users to desktop and
apps
All sessions run 24x7
Users encouraged to leave apps running
Sessions statically assigned (no pooling)
Support multiple sessions per user (software testing)
Wyse dual-monitor & HP thin terminals, 19-inch LCD monitors,
biometric keyboards, Windows XP Embedded
Manually failover sessions to remote datacenter if disaster
Sessions
• Windows XP SP2
• 10GB C: drive
• 512MB RAM (pagefile 7681536MB), 1 vCPU, 1 NIC
• Sessions never
suspended/shut down
– Will reboot every 2 weeks
once idle for 8 hours
• Reimaged as needed using
Altiris (PXE boot)
• “My Documents” redirected to
network drive
• Sessions not backed up
Session Deployment
• Sessions deployed once using ESX service
console shell script (bash)
• VM name & hostname same as custom MAC
address
– 00:50:56:0A for VDC sessions
– 00:50:56:0D for BDC sessions
• Deployment process
– Create directory, customize new VMX
– vmkfstools clone sysprep-ready VMDK
– register with server and power on for sysprep
Location-based computing
• Sessions aware of user location within the
enterprise
• Printing & applications require user location to
function properly
• Specific printers dynamically installed at RDP
login depending on user’s location
– “Roaming Printer Agent”
• Custom solution developed in-house
– Microsoft Terminal Services API used to obtain thin
terminal hostname, correlate to a location
Application deployment
• Initially considered SVS/Appstream
• Currently use Novell ZENWorks, Altiris
• Application objects assigned to users in
eDirectory
• Icons for ZEN applications presented on
desktop
• Application installed at first launch
• Moving to ZEN 10 for Active Directory
Broker:
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Custom broker developed inhouse
Brokers RDP connections to VDI
and other endpoints:
– VDI
– CCI (HP blade PCs)
– Desktop PCs
Assignments made in Active
Directory
Based on “Remote Operator”
property of computer object in AD
Supports multiple endpoints per
user
Clusters & Servers
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38 x ESX 3.0.1 Enterprise
2 x VirtualCenter 2.0.2
40 sessions per server (DRS
balances load)
4 clusters, 9-10 servers per cluster
HA & DRS enabled
375 sessions per cluster
• HP BL480c G1 c-Class blades
• Dual Intel Xeon Quad-Core
processors @ 2.666GHz
• 24 GB memory
• 4 x 1000MB NICs
• Dual-port 4GB FC HBA
Network
• 4 x 1000MB NICs
• c-Class enclosures with two Cisco switches
• ESX vSwitch vmnics uplink to ports on both
enclosure switches (two nics per vSwitch)
• Cisco switches have 2 x 1000MB Etherchannel
uplinks, link state tracking enabled
• vSwitch0
– Service Console (VLAN for servers)
– VMKernel (VLAN for VMotion)
• vSwtich1
– Multiple Virtual Machine portgroups (separate VLANs)
Storage
• Dual-port 4GB Qlogic FC HBA
• c-Class enclosures with two 4/12 Brocade 4GB
switches, single uplinks to core switches
• HBA connects to each switch
• Metro has dual-fabric FC ‘star’ layout (core &
edge switches, 32 total)
• 15 datastores per cluster
• 25 sessions per datastore
• 263GB datastore size
• 9-10 hosts per datastore
Storage
• 2 x HP StorageWorks XP1024 arrays
• 7.89TB dedicated to local datacenter VM disks
• 7.89TB dedicated on remote array for synchronous
continuous replication of local VM disks
• 15.78TB/array, 31.5TB total
• Dedicated array ports for VDI ESX (4 per fabric, 8 total)
• Datastores balanced across all paths (8)
• 18 RAID5(7D+1P) disk groups per array
– Local VDI LDEVs
– Replicated VDI LDEVs from remote array
• 1 LUN per datastore (no extents)
• Datastore LUNs are XP LUSEs of 17 LDEVs (from
different disk groups - 136 spindles per LUN)
Achievements
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Staff appreciate lightning-fast access to applications and improved mobility
Performance on par with and sometimes faster than PCs/BladePCs (serverclass hardware)
Decreased time to access information – improves patient safety
Very convenient
Information secure in Datacenter
Reduced PC support calls
Reduced electricity usage through fewer PCs/CRTs
Streamlined infrastructure
Safe from ESX server failure with HA
Safe from runaway CPU/memory hogging apps in sessions affecting
servers with DRS load balancing
Service desk has more tools to manage sessions (VM reset and View
console through VC WebAccess)
Able to perform server maintenance during the day by utilizing VMotion to
shuffle sessions around
Issues
• Multimedia limits of RDP
– streaming video/Flash
– high-res images/animation
– Currently using Wyse multimedia redirector, supports
only few codecs
– USB support
• VDI performance suffers when all sessions
perform high disk I/O at same time
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Windows Updates – disabled, failing retries
Antivirus – randomized across week
Large software deployment/updates – Epic
Re-imaging
VMware vClient / VDM3
• Metro invited to private beta at Palo Alto HQ
• Several features of VDM could be beneficial for
our environment
• Herculean effort to move existing environment to
VDM
– rip & replace would be quickest (versus migration)
– What to do with 1,500 displaced users?
• Conflicts exist between current session
management processes/configuration and
VDM’s methods = retraining
Future
• Software vendors working on multimedia
improvements for RDP
• Considering switching to RGS or another
protocol
• Introducing session pooling
• Eliminating array replication or switching to
asynchronous
• Finding cheaper storage that performs
• Continuing to evaluate VDM
Questions?
[email protected]
http://communities.vmware.com/people/chouse