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Citrix XenDesktop VDI Capacity Testing Using Atlantis USX Citrix Ready VDI Capacity Program Phase IIA performance test demonstrating the Atlantis USX software defined storage solution successfully supporting a complex Citrix XenDesktop workload designed to simulate a 1,500 -user VDI environment at normal load

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Citrix XenDesktop VDI Capacity Testing Using Atlantis USX

While virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) has become more common in recent years, performance and high cost challenges associated with traditional disk-based or hybrid storage have inhibited its broad adoption. Fortunately, storage solutions exist to resolve these issues and deliver better VDI performance and user experience.

This white paper summarizes a performance test of the Atlantis USX Software-Defined Storage system, which supported a realistic Citrix XenDesktop workload leveraging Citrix Provisioning Services in a simulated 1,500-user environment. The paper also discusses additional benefits of Atlantis USX, including improved performance and capacity and reduced costs.

Ultimately, the Atlantis USX Software-Defined Storage system is shown to partner perfectly with Citrix XenDesktop in containing costs and maximizing the potential of VDI.

The Promise and the Challenge of VDIVirtual desktops have grown in popularity in recent years. As more companies have freed their workers from the figurative shackles of traditional desktops, VDI systems such as Citrix XenDesktop have grown as well.

The promise of VDI is clear. Virtualizing desktops offers a more secure, more manageable and less costly end-user computing model. Consequently, the increasing availability of scalable server architecture has made virtual desktops more than just technically feasible.

Present Need for SolutionIn spite of the massive potential that VDI offers the modern workplace, adoption has been slow. The most significant barriers to increased adoption of VDI are rooted in storage performance shortfalls, cost, complexity, and capacity problems. According to Gartner, storage makes up 74 percent of the cost of VDI deployments.

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Common barriers to realizing the full potential of VDI include:

• Disappointed Users: A key promise of VDI architecture is speed of service for each individual user. Historically, however, VDI deployments provide only a limited number of IOPS. In particular, VDI deployments that rely on spinning disk storage systems tend to deliver unreliable performance, slowed response times and inconsistent availability. The predictable results are mounting user frustration levels and loss of productivity.

• Lackluster Performance: VDI deployments often perform inconsistently, failing to deliver performance on par with dedicated desktops/laptops. This leaves frustrated users wondering why their desktops consistently fail to deliver the expected performance, prompting increased levels of help desk calls. This can also cause users to reject the solution, causing the VDI project to be abandoned leaving them without the significant benefits of a virtual workspace.

• High Costs: Companies undertake VDI deployments to reduce equipment and management costs. But the anticipated ROI of VDI deployments frequently fail to materialize. High infrastructure costs stemming from inefficient storage often results in a total investment that outstrips the sum costs of dedicated desktops and laptops. Since cost and performance are correlated, attempts to enhance performance also increase costs.

• Complexity: Historically VDI has been very complicated and difficult to implement due to the significant amount of storage needed to successfully meet performance and capacity requirements to deliver a good user experience. This requires a monumental administrative effort and significant expertise to appropriately size, carve up, scale, and maintain for VDI environments.

Top Features to Consider in a Modern VDI Storage SolutionExercising careful consideration in the selection of a VDI storage solution can eliminate the barriers to VDI adoption noted above. It is the key to fully realizing the promise and potential of a VDI installation.

In particular, the following features are conducive to maximizing the potential of VDI:

1. More IOPS per Desktop: Input/output performance is key to shaping user satisfaction with VDI. And VDI is typically voracious consumers of IOPS. A storage system that fails to deliver the minimum threshold of IOPS required to adequately support VDI can cripple performance and escalate user dissatisfaction. Conversely, storage infrastructure that can consistently and fully meet IOPS demands will support maximum VDI performance and boost user satisfaction.

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2. Reduced Startup/Login Times: Desktop startups and logins form the initial “first impression” of user experience. Unfortunately, that first impression is often negative. The shortcomings of many VDI storage systems combine with the peak workloads typically generated at startup/login to deliver decidedly disappointing performance. Organizations should look for a VDI storage solution that will minimize boot times.

3. Fast Application Performance: How long does it take to open an Excel file? How long to send or receive an email with a large attachment? All too often, VDI is coupled with overwhelmed storage solutions, dragging application performance far below that of physical computers. Virtual desktop users expect these and other common chores to be completed as quickly and efficiently as with dedicated laptops and desktops.

4. Reduced Required Storage Capacity: Storage requirements typically consume 40 to 60 percent of VDI budgets, often rendering virtual desktops more expensive than the physical computers they replace. Reducing the storage space required of VDI can effectively and substantially decrease overall costs and boost the profitability of a VDI system.

Citrix VDI Capacity Program for Storage PartnersCitrix Ready® launched this program with many existing storage partners. The goal is to address the storage needs of customers who already have implemented or are considering implementing Citrix XenDesktop. VDI presents multiple types of data — each with its own unique requirements — to the storage infrastructure tier. Storage in turn can cope with these requirements using various hardware- and software-based approaches, some of which can be combined into hybrid solutions. As the number of storage options for VDI has increased over the last several years, confusion has arisen for some customers who are still unsure which approach is right for them.

To help address this confusion, Citrix started this program — Citrix Ready® VDI Capacity Program for Storage Partners Phase II — with storage partners representing several different VDI workloads with their storage solutions. To participate in the program, the partner was required to set up a test environment with the necessary compute resources needed to generate a 1,500, 3,000, or 5,000 user XenDesktop workload.

As opposed to a traditional “benchmark,” whereby different achievement scores are possible, this VDI Capacity Program simulates “a day in the life” of a XenDesktop farm supporting a certain number of users. If a partner’s chosen storage solution can successfully support “a day’s” run to the defined user capacity while sustaining required performance metrics, the partner passes and the validation test is concluded.

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Test MethodologyThe VDI Capacity Program focuses on provisioning the appropriate amount of storage capacity with a cost-effective design, while also assuring adequate VDI performance. A simple, binary pass/fail methodology is employed. In this test iteration, the primary objective was to demonstrate the ability of the Atlantis USX storage repository to comfortably support 1,500 Windows 8.1 virtual desktops deployed via XenDesktop 7.6 Provisioning Services (PVS).

Three servers were setup to provide physical storage. Networking consisted of one Cisco Nexus 93128TX. The test environment equipment and configurations were as follows:

I. Management Servers: Two Intel Server System R1208WTTGS 1U Servers, each configured with:

• Dual Intel Xeon E5-2699v3 (18 Core at 2.3 gigahertz)• Intel Server Board S2600WTT• 128 gigabyte DDR4 RAM• Boot drive - 1 x Intel SSD DC S3710 Series (200 gigabytes, 2.5”)• Intel Ethernet Server Adaptor X520-T2• Data drive - 1 x Intel SSD DC P3700 Series (800 gigabytes, 2.5” SFF)

II. Compute Servers: 18 Intel Server System R1208WTTGS 1U Servers installed with Citrix XenServer 6.5, each configured with:

• Dual Intel Xeon E5-2699v3 (18 Core at 2.3 gigahertz)• Intel Server Board S2600WTT• 256 gigabyte DDR4 RAM• Boot drive - 1 x Intel SSD DC S3710 Series (200 gigabytes, 2.5”)• Intel Ethernet Server Adaptor X520-T2• Configured in three XenServer Pools of six servers each:

• Each pool is presented with 6 x 400 gigabyte NFS storage volumes provided by Atlantis USX.

• Each pool has access to 2.4 terabytes of capacity before data reduction. With an average deduplication rate of 80 percent, this would mean effective capacity of 12 terabytes.

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III. Storage Servers configured with Atlantis USX SDS Software: Three Intel Server System R1208WTTGS 1U Servers, each configured with:

• Dual Intel Xeon E5-2699v3 (18 Core at 2.3 gigahertz)• Intel Server Board S2600WTT• 256 gigabyte DDR4 RAM• Boot drive - 1 x Intel SSD DC S3710 Series (200 gigabytes, 2.5”)• Intel Ethernet Server Adaptor X520-T2• Data drive - 1 x Intel SSD DC S3510 Series (1.6 terabytes, 2.5”)• 18 x 400 gigabyte NFS Atlantis USX volumes providing storage capacity to the Compute

Servers for a total of 7.2 terabytes of total capacity before data reduction.

Login Virtual Session Index (Login VSI) is the industry-standard tool for VDI performance and capacity testing. This tool was used to generate VDI workloads and to measure performance. For this test, the test load was designed to simulate typical daily knowledge worker tasks such as web browsing, viewing videos, sending and receiving emails, and managing documents via tools such as Microsoft Office. The binary result of pass/fail was determined by observing whether the storage system successfully met the storage demands placed upon it without reaching a latency limit known as VSImax.

Overview of PartnerAtlantis Computing, winner of the Best of VMWorld and Best of Citrix Synergy awards, offers the industry’s most flexible and powerful software-defined storage (SDS) platform. Atlantis delivers the performance of an all-flash array at half the cost of traditional storage. Atlantis HyperScale leverages the patented Atlantis USX SDS platform to deliver all-flash hyper-converged appliances that cost 50 to 90 percent less than traditional storage or other hyper-converged appliances.

Atlantis makes running VDI, remote office/branch office (ROBO), and server virtualization workloads more efficient than anyone else to drive down the cost of performance to next to nothing. Whether they are supporting a hospital, bank, or government agency, IT organizations gain:

• All-flash performance across the entire data center• 50-90 percent lower hardware cost, eliminating the need for expensive external arrays and

deferring storage purchases far into the future• Freedom of choice for server vendor and hypervisors without vendor lock-in • Modular, pay-as-you-grow scalability

To date, Atlantis has deployed over 120 petabytes of storage for more than 1,000 mission-critical deployments and 1 million virtual workspaces, including some of the largest desktop virtualization deployments in the world.

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Atlantis USX for Citrix XenDesktopAtlantis USX is a Software-Defined Storage system. The Atlantis software serves as an intermediary between storage and virtual desktops, virtualizing storage in much the same way that servers are virtualized. Atlantis USX virtualizes storage by extracting storage from all types of physical storage devices into virtual storage pools, increasing storage performance and capacity by as much tenfold. Pooling memory and compute resources from servers provides enhanced deduplication capabilities and accelerated IOPS for VDI. The Atlantis USX technology effectively slashes the cost of storage, which is typically the most expensive component of VDI deployments.

The benefits of Atlantis USX extend beyond simply making storage more affordable and effective. Atlantis data services are applied at the compute layer to enable a range of value-added benefits, including:

• Data deduplicated snapshots and backups• Data recovery• Data mobility• IO acceleration• Provisioning and fast cloning• Stretched clustering

Atlantis USX deploys as a virtual appliance that accelerates physical storage performance while simultaneously consolidating and increasing available capacity. USX provides the flexibility of pooling storage from any SAN, NAS or DAS device, delivering the performance of an all-flash storage array at half the cost of traditional SAN. Enterprises deploying Atlantis USX can typically avoid purchasing additional storage for more than five years. USX will meet the performance needs of any application, eliminating the ever-increasing pressure to purchase newer and faster storage hardware.

For enterprises deploying VDI such as Citrix XenDesktop, Atlantis USX enables a seamless transition from costly shared storage systems to lower cost, hyper-converged systems.

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Unique Offerings of Atlantis USX

Atlantis USX offers a number of innovative and unique features comprising a comprehensive package that is not available with any competing product. Offerings unique to Atlantis USX include:

• Up to 90 Percent Less Storage Needed: Atlantis USX can reduce storage requirements by as much as 90 percent for non-persistent or persistent VDI. It also enables the use of lower-cost storage. The sum storage savings made possible with Atlantis USX can reduce the per-desktop cost for VDI deployments to substantially less than the cost of a dedicated PC.

• In-Line Data Deduplication and Performance Acceleration: Advanced deduplication and performance accelerations reduce the load on underlying storage devices, resulting in significantly increased VDI IOPS.

• In-Memory Performance Storage Options: In-memory architecture reduces network traffic, while greatly increasing storage IO for VDI.

• Ability to Leverage Any Existing Hardware: Atlantis USX can extract and pool from multiple sources and any type of physical hardware storage, including SAN, NAS, and local disk. Atlantis will present the allocated storage with additional capacity and performance for any VDI environment.

• Up to 80 Percent Lower Cost than SAN: Compared to SAN + servers or other hyper-converged appliances, Atlantis USX delivers a complete VDI solution with less hardware, complexity, and data center requirements. Cost savings apply to both capital and operational expenses.

• Superior User Experience: Atlantis USX performance acceleration (faster than a PC) offers user-pleasing features such as fast boot times and near instantaneous application launches, contributing to a superior user experience and a productive workforce. Atlantis USX performance improvements can reduce the time required for common tasks from minutes to seconds.

• Pooled Storage from All Storage Types: Virtual storage can be extracted from all forms of storage, including:

• SAN• NAS• Flash• RAM• DAS• Hybrid arrays

Pooled storage enables the more efficient usage of storage capacity. Virtual storage volumes may be delivered instantly to any application, increasing performance, lowering costs, and making data centers more agile.

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Citrix XenDesktop VDI Capacity Testing Using Atlantis USXWhite Paper

• Intel SSDs Leveraged for Reliable, Consistent Performance: Atlantis USX used Intel solid-state drives for this exercise, enhancing the performance and dependability of its Software-Defined Storage systems with Intel’s world-renowned reputation for industry-leading quality, reliability, and durability.

Atlantis USX has been validated by Citrix as a Citrix Ready® product. To date, more than 27,000 products have been validated as Citrix-compatible. Atlantis was also awarded the Citrix Ready® Best of Synergy award in the desktop category.

Overview of Test ResultsAtlantis USX serves as a storage repository to the hypervisor — just another storage source from the perspective of the hypervisor — enabling the seamless deployment of XenDesktop into the USX storage volumes. The purpose of this test was to verify that Atlantis USX complied with all interoperability requirements of the VDI Capacity Program. The test was designed to simulate the workload of 1,500 VDI knowledge workers using Citrix XenDesktop leveraging the Atlantis USX Software-Defined Storage solution.

To determine the number of IOPS that were available for VDI workloads, a Windows 8.1 virtual machine was configured with Iometer, and a 20-gigabyte virtual machine disk was created. The VMDK was located on one of the 400 gigabyte Atlantis USX storage volume. The team then performed a test configured with a workload using 80 percent write, 80 percent random with 4k blocks against one Atlantis USX storage volume, achieving an average result of 53,000 IOPS, making the overall solution approach an impressive 1 million IOPS, and about 646 IOPS per desktop.

Notable test results and performance metrics included the following:

1. Time Required to Launch VMs: 1,500 user VMs were started simultaneously. Launch time started at beginning of boot, and ended when all VMs had been registered with broker. Total time required to launch all VMs was 12 minutes, yielding an average of 125 desktops per minute.

2. Login VSI Data: The latency limit of VSImax was not reached at any point of the test. A total of 1,583 sessions were successfully launched, achieving a Login VSI baseline performance score of 765. The Login VSI average response was 1004.

3. Total IOPS: As noted above, an average of 53,878 IOPS was achieved. Since 18 400-gigabyte Atlantis USX storage volumes were deployed for this test, total storage solution IOPS would be calculated at 969,804 (18 x 53,878 IOPS).

4. Storage Cost per User: Total storage costs per user were calculated at $86.44.

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Citrix XenDesktop VDI Capacity Testing Using Atlantis USXWhite Paper

Time Required to Launch VMs

Login VSI Data

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80% Write/ 80% Random IO (VDI Workload)

Login VSI Data

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Test Results Show Mutual BenefitCitrix XenDesktop delivers full Windows VDI capabilities in addition to virtual apps, meeting the demands of any use case. XenDesktop enables users to access their apps, desktops and data without the limitations of a traditional solution. On the unified FlexCast Management Architecture (FMA) platform, XenDesktop is the only solution that is FIPS-compliant and Common Criteria certified to meet the highest security standards of regulated industries. End users will enjoy the simple virtual desktop interface, while IT will appreciate the superior performance of HDX technology, even when deployed over challenging, high-latency networks.

Atlantis USX significantly enhances the user and administrator experience of workspace environments by alleviating common challenges with storage performance, capacity and complexity — all while significantly reducing costs. Ultimately, Atlantis USX enables a virtual desktop experience that is superior in function and cheaper in cost than a traditional PC.

As demonstrated with Login VSI test results, Atlantis USX Software-Defined Storage clearly exceeds the benchmark set for the Citrix VDI Capacity Program. The test also confirmed that SDS provides extremely high performance and capacity savings when deployed with XenDesktop virtual desktop VMs.

It should be noted, however, that Login VSI only tests a small subset of the factors that are key to a successful VDI deployment. Two primary influential factors are end-user experience and administrative/management complexity. Any VDI solution that improves user experience while reducing operational overhead will result in a superior deployment, and will bolster enhanced user and administrator acceptance. A byproduct of the Citrix VDI Capacity Program benchmark test was a clear demonstration that Software-Defined Storage can simplify management requirements and deliver an unparalleled user experience.

As conclusively shown by the results of the Citrix VDI Capacity Program benchmark test, Atlantis USX serves as a perfect symbiotic partner for Citrix XenDesktop, handily meeting or exceeding all the requirements of the Citrix Ready® Program.

For more information about USX Software-Defined Storage, contact Atlantis.

For more information about XenDesktop, visit Citrix.

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Copyright © 2016 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix Ready are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. and other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

About AtlantisAtlantis, winner of the Best of VMworld and Best of Citrix Synergy awards, offers the industry’s most flexible and powerful Software-Defined Storage (SDS) platform. Atlantis delivers the performance of an all-flash array at half the cost of traditional storage. Atlantis HyperScale leverages the Atlantis patented SDS platform to deliver all-flash hyper-converged appliances that are 50 to 90 per cent lower cost than traditional storage or other hyper-converged appliances. To date, Atlantis has deployed over 120 petabytes of storage for more than 800 customers and 1 million virtual workspaces and includes the largest virtualisation deployments in the world. Atlantis is privately held and funded by Adams Street Partners, Cisco Systems, El Dorado Ventures and Parch Ventures, with headquarters in Mountain View, California and offices in Europe.

Atlantis Computing, Atlantis HyperScale and Atlantis USX are trademarks of Atlantis Computing. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Corporate HeadquartersFort Lauderdale, FL, USA

Silicon Valley HeadquartersSanta Clara, CA, USA

EMEA HeadquartersSchaffhausen, Switzerland

India Development CenterBangalore, India

Online Division HeadquartersSanta Barbara, CA, USA

Pacific HeadquartersHong Kong, China

Latin America HeadquartersCoral Gables, FL, USA

UK Development CenterChalfont, United Kingdom

About Citrix ReadyCitrix Ready identifies recommended solutions that are trusted to enhance the Citrix Deliver y Center infrastructure. All products featured in Citrix Ready have completed verification testing, thereby providing confidence in joint solution compatibility. Leveraging its industry leading alliances and partner eco-system, Citrix Ready showcases select trusted solutions designed to meet a variety of business needs. Through the online catalog and Citrix Ready branding program, you can easily find and build a trusted infrastructure. Citrix Ready not only demonstrates current mutual product compatibility, but through continued industry relationships also ensures future interoperability. Learn more at www.citrixready.citrix.com.

AppendixFor more information about the Citrix Ready® Program, visit: https://www.citrix.com/partner-programs/citrix-ready.html

To learn more about how Atlantis USX Software-Defined Storage improves XenDesktop deployments, please visit: https://citrixready.citrix.com/atlantis-computing/atlantis-usx.html.

To learn more about SDS for VDI, contact Citrix and Atlantis Computing.

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