Transcript What is a PvD Inventory?

Personal vDisk
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
Jits Langedijk
Sr. Consultant
Application & Desktop Delivery
[email protected]
@JRLangedijk
JitsLangedijk
Agenda
• Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
• What is a Personal vDisk (PvD)?
• What are the PvD requirements?
• What does Personal vDisk do?
• How to install or upgrade PvD?
• What is a PvD Inventory?
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
• March, 9 released
• Main Focus is integration of Personal
vDisk (RingCube).
• Features
• PvD integration into core components.
• Support for Microsoft SCVMM 2012 and
SCCM 2012.
• Updated Citrix License Server v11.10.
• Desktop Director 2.1 adds support for PvD.
• Fixed Issues.
Citrix
Personal
vDisk
technology
Complete personalization
Personalized PC experience
Departmental & user installed apps
Personalized apps, data & prefs
Efficiency and management
Single OS image management
Reduce storage by 65%
Enables pooled VDI for all
What is a Personal vDisk?
• RingCube 5.5 user personalization technology.
• VDI with PvD offers a virtual desktop & workspace.
• Each user gets a workspace stored on a SAN.
• Workspace contains entitlement based applications, data and settings.
• Workspace contains only user changes.
• Reduces storage requirements.
VDI Desktop Models – Dedicated Desktops
User Profile &
Settings
------------Departmental
Applications
------------User Installed
Applications
------------Local Peripherals
User Profile &
Settings
------------Departmental
Applications
------------User Installed
Applications
------------Local Peripherals
User Profile &
Settings
------------Departmental
Applications
------------User Installed
Applications
------------Local Peripherals
Increased storage
High per user cost
Increased management overhead
Complex and unique base images
Base Image
Base Image
Base Image
Highly personalized for users
Operating System
Operating System
Operating System
VM1
VM2
VM3
Increased user acceptance
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VDI Desktop Models – Pooled Desktops
Common Base Image
No personalization
Poor user acceptance
Operating System
Limited scope/user base
BASE / PARENT VM
Reduced storage requirements
Centralized management
Uptime & predictability
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Citrix Personal vDisk – Best of both worlds
User Profile &
Settings
------------Departmental
Applications
------------User Installed
Applications
------------Local Peripherals
User Profile &
Settings
------------Departmental
Applications
------------User Installed
Applications
------------Local Peripherals
User Profile &
Settings
------------Departmental
Applications
------------User Installed
Applications
------------Local Peripherals
Enterprise scope
Highly personalized for users
PvD 1
PvD 2
Common Base Image
PvD 3
Increased user acceptance
Reduced infrastructure requirements
Centralized management
Operating System
Uptime & predictability
BASE PARENT VM
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Personal vDisk Requirements
• XenServer 5.6 SP2 or above
• VMware vSphere 5.0
• VMware vSphere 4.1, Update 1
• Hyper-V
• Citrix License Server v11.10
• XenDesktop 5.6 will not work with older license servers
Component Requirements
Controller
Win2008, Standard or
Enterprise Edition, SP2 (32and 64-bit)
VDA with PvD
VDA without PvD
Windows XP 32-bit SP 3 or later Windows XP 32-bit SP3 or later
Windows XP 64-bit SP2 or later
Win2008 R2, Standard or
Enterprise Edition (64-bit only)
Windows Vista 32-bit or 64-bit
with SP2 or later
Win2008 R2 SP1, Standard or Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit
Enterprise Edition
Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit
What Does Personal vDisk Do?
• PvD intercepts application I/O requests (files, registry keys,
registry values) and redirects these requests.
• Requests are satisfied from the base Virtual Machine or Personal vDisk.
• PvD decides which layer to satisfy the request from by
consulting a set of rules called the resource catalog.
• PvD provides a blended view of both base Virtual Machine
and the users Personal vDisk.
PvD Storage Architecture
Assigned Desktops
Pooled Desktops with
Personal vDisk
MCS – ID Disk, Difference Disk, Base VM relationships
Windows 7
Master
VHD Chain
VHD Chain
VHD Chain
This is what the user
sees as Drive C:\
This is hidden from
the users view
Diff Disk
ID Disk
Virtual Desktop 1
Diff Disk
ID Disk
Virtual Desktop 2
Diff Disk
ID Disk
Virtual Desktop x
Storage Subsystem
MCS with PVD – ID Disk, Difference Disk, PVDisk
Windows 7
Master
VHD Chain
VHD Chain
VHD Chain
This is what the user
sees as Drive C:\
This is hidden from
the users view
Diff Disk
ID Disk
Virtual Desktop 1
Diff Disk
ID Disk
Virtual Desktop 2
Diff Disk
ID Disk
Virtual Desktop x
Storage Subsystem
MCS with PVD – ID Disk, Difference Disk, PVDisk
Windows 7
Master
VHD Chain
Diff Disk
ID Disk
Virtual Desktop 1
• This part is seen by
the user as Drive P:\
• Used for USERDATA
e.g. My Documents
• By default user is
allowed 50% of the
PVDisk
Personal vDisk
• PVDisk is created by copying
UserData.VDESK.TEMPLATE
from Base VM during catalog
creation
• 10GB by default with 50/50
Storage
split
for User Subsystem
Data / App Data
•
•
•
•
•
This part is Drive V:\
It’s hidden from the user
Merged with the Diff Disk
Seen by user as Drive C:\
E.g. Installed apps
Workflow
•Common
•Install
OS, common apps and VDA in base VM
•Create
•User
•Login
•PvD
Base Setup
VM pool and entitle
Access
User’s Workspace
through XenDesktop Client
assigned on first login
•Locally
administered/User installed/streamed apps
•Image
•Update
Update
Common Base Image
Operating System
base VM without affecting any user personalization
How do I install PvD?
• Upgrade options exist for
• XenDesktop 5, XenDesktop 5.5 and the VDA
• A ‘mixed’ site is permitted
• Controllers running XenDesktop 4, 5 and 5.5 can control desktops running
XenDesktop 5.6 VDA’s.
• Controllers running XenDesktop 5.6 can control desktops running the only the
XenDesktop 5.6 VDA.
• Desktop Studio from XenDesktop 5 SP1 can manage sites created with
XenDesktop 5.6 unless they include desktops with PvD.
• Desktop Studio from XenDesktop 5.6 can manage sites created with
XenDesktop 5, 5 SP1.
Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute
Controller Installation / Upgrade
• After installation/upgrade you need to configure a Site
• This includes, Licensing, Database set up and Host connection
• Desktop Deployment Wizard is used to configure a site
• Quick Deploy Wizard cannot be used with PvD
XenDesktop 5.6 – Post Installation (Existing Hosts)
Add Personal vDisks to existing hosts
• In Desktop Studio
• Select host
• Select Enable Personal vDisk
• Add Personal vDisk storage
XenDesktop 5.6 – Post Installation (New Hosts)
Add Personal vDisks to a new site
• In Desktop Studio
• Create a catalog
• Pooled with Personal vDisk (MCS)
• Streamed with Personal vDisk (PVS)
• Number of VMs
• Size (min of 3GB)
• Drive letter
Virtual Desktop Agent Installation
• VDA can be installed in two modes:
• Virtual Desktop Agent – includes the new features of XD 5.6
• Virtual Desktop Agent for HDX 3D Pro
• Enable Personal vDisk for VDA
• PvD is always installed. You either enable
or disable the drivers.
PvD Disk
• May be attached to any storage targets defined in the hypervisor
• Thin provisioning is supported for those hypervisors that support it
• Can be located on same VM, or different (IOPS split among locations)
• Default size and location selected in Desktop Studio catalog
creation
• (or PVS XenDesktop Setup Wizard, if PVS in use)
• PvD disks can be resized
What is a PvD Inventory?
• The PvD inventory consists of a few things …
• The resource catalog
• A set of 0-byte files which track files sourced from the base VM
• Essentially information about what is installed in the base VM
• The inventory is created by the administrator
• Start -> Citrix -> Personal vDisk -> Update Inventory
• At each base VM shutdown via the shutdown tracker
• These options are only available in the base VM
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Template VHD
• The inventory is computed and placed in the template VHD
• i.e. the resource catalog and sentry files corresponding to the base VM
• The template VHD is saved for use during first time boot in
Pooled VM mode
• After inventory creation a snapshot is taken and the
XenDesktop catalog is created
• An empty, unformatted volume is attached to each virtual machine
• This volume becomes the Personal vDisk for the user of that VM
• Initial size and SR location are obtained from DS/PVS setup wizard
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Pooled VM – First Time Boot
• MCS / PVS starts each VM in the pool
• The Personal vDisk driver detects the unformatted volume
and formats it
• The template VHD from the base VM is copied into the new
volume.
• This is a VHD inside a volume
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Pooled VM – Subsequent Boots
• On each subsequent VM boots the drivers perform the
following tasks …
• Detects the volume with the VHD inside
• Mounts the VHD
• Load the resource catalog from the VHD into the system registry
• Begin interception / virtualization
• PvD also will detect if the volume has been increased in size
and resize the VHD if needed
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Pooled VM – User Changes
• Over time users will make changes to their environment
• Add/delete/change files
• Add/delete/change registry keys/values
• Install/uninstall software (if rights permit)
• Receive provisioned applications (eg, via SCCM)
• It’s important to note that PvD captures all changes being
made
• These changes are redirected to the PvD VHD file
• No changes to the VM image are permitted
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Base VM – Life Cycle
• Base VM images can and will change over time
• A new inventory will be computed and stored in the base VM
• On next pooled VM boot the VM will notice that it is out-ofdate with respect to the new base VM
• PvD drivers will mount the VHD and merge the changes from the previous
inventory with the new inventory, respecting any changes made by the user.
• After this 3-way merge the VM will restart.
• Note – the broker will stop user logins during image update
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Reminders
• PvD is not a User Environment Management solution
• Be aware of the 50/50% profile and apps split
• PvD turns pooled VDI into pooled-static
• Admin always wins 
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Summary
• Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
• What is a Personal vDisk (PvD)?
• What are the PvD requirements?
• What does Personal vDisk do?
• How to install or upgrade PvD?
• What is a PvD Inventory?
Thanks for your patience!
[email protected]