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VCE Solution for VDIwith Citrix XenDesktopon Vblock® System 540

Version 1.0

December 2015

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2© 2015 VCE Company, LLC.

All Rights Reserved.

Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................5Solution overview................................................................................................................................... 5Benefits.................................................................................................................................................. 6About this document...............................................................................................................................6Audience................................................................................................................................................ 7Feedback................................................................................................................................................7

Technology components........................................................................................................................... 8Vblock® System 540.............................................................................................................................. 8

Storage components........................................................................................................................8Compute components......................................................................................................................8Networking components.................................................................................................................. 9

EMC Isilon............................................................................................................................................ 10Citrix components.................................................................................................................................11

Citrix XenDesktop.......................................................................................................................... 11Citrix XenApp.................................................................................................................................12Citrix NetScaler..............................................................................................................................12Citrix StoreFront.............................................................................................................................13

VMware vSphere..................................................................................................................................13VMware vSphere ESXi.................................................................................................................. 13VMware vCenter Server.................................................................................................................13

Architecture overview.............................................................................................................................. 14Logical layout....................................................................................................................................... 14Physical layout..................................................................................................................................... 16Hardware and software components....................................................................................................18

Design considerations............................................................................................................................. 20Compute design................................................................................................................................... 20Network design.....................................................................................................................................21

IP network components................................................................................................................. 24Citrix NetScaler design.................................................................................................................. 25

Storage design..................................................................................................................................... 25Storage for Citrix XenDesktop....................................................................................................... 26Storage for Citrix XenApp.............................................................................................................. 27

Virtualization design............................................................................................................................. 28Application design................................................................................................................................ 29

Solution validation....................................................................................................................................30Test environment design...................................................................................................................... 30Test with Citrix XenDesktop................................................................................................................. 31



Test procedure...............................................................................................................................32Test results.................................................................................................................................... 32

Test with Citrix XenApp........................................................................................................................ 36Test procedure...............................................................................................................................37Test results.................................................................................................................................... 37

Conclusion................................................................................................................................................ 42Next steps............................................................................................................................................ 42References........................................................................................................................................... 42



IntroductionAn up-to-date approach to IT infrastructure is required before an organization can achieve optimal serviceat minimal cost. The need is for high system availability, tight security, full disaster recovery, and supportfor a short development cycle. To fulfill these and other complex needs, organizations are embracingdesktop virtualization (DV) solutions that combine virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) with server-hostedapplications that leverage session-sharing technology. The best DV solutions offer greater reliability thando physical desktops; provide flexible options for scenarios that include applications, desktops, or both;and provide service at a low total cost and a high level of online responsiveness.

Solution overviewThe pre-validated DV solution described in this document excels in all areas: reliability, flexibility, cost,and speed. The solution's core is the Vblock® System 540, which is a converged infrastructure: anintegrated set of resources for compute, storage, and networking, all pre-validated and pre-configured.The storage component of this Vblock System is EMC XtremIO, which is an all-flash storage array thatprovides the access speed needed to support large-scale virtualization.

XtremIO handles the essential DV system needs, allowing an administrator to provide thousands ofdesktops to users, potentially across a wide geographic area. To retain and quickly retrieve largeamounts of user data, the solution includes EMC Isilon—the industry-leading Network Attached Storage(NAS) product. You can use an existing EMC Isilon cluster or incorporate VCE Technology Extension forEMC Isilon Storage, which provides VCE support. The data in Isilon includes user-installed applications,as well as unstructured data such as large documents and multimedia files.

Both XtremIO and Isilon scale out in a modular way. Whether the module is an XtremIO X-Brick or anIsilon node, it provides cache and processors along with storage so that physical upgrades improve bothcapacity and performance.

VCE drew on its partnership with Citrix for this solution, which includes the following additional products:

• Citrix XenDesktop, which provisions, manages, and monitors a desktop virtualizationenvironment, allowing the secure delivery of Windows applications as well as fully customizabledesktops.

• Citrix XenApp, which provides remote access to Windows applications and to partiallycustomizable desktops, even allowing users to access Linux virtual desktops side-by-side withWindows resources.

• Citrix NetScaler, which provides secure delivery of XenDesktop and XenApp applications andhandles traffic monitoring, content caching, and Secure Sockets Layer acceleration.

• Citrix StoreFront, which enables you to create enterprise app stores that give your users on-demand, self-service access to their business resources from mobile devices or desktops thatuse Citrix Receiver.



BenefitsSeveral benefits are available for organizations that put this solution into effect:

• Enhanced user experience as a result of fast data retrieval.

• Low cost per desktop.

• Reduced time to value as a result of the lessened need for DV solution-design time.

• Reduced DV capacity footprint by as much as ten to one, with boot storms all-but eliminated.These benefits come from real-time data reduction by XtremIO.

• Lowered long-term infrastructure cost. This benefit is enabled by high consolidation ratios andthin-provisioning of storage. In particular, Isilon de-duplication reduces the requirements for userstorage by as much as 35 percent.

• Reduced administrative costs, with the Isilon file system typically requiring less than one full-timeemployee per petabyte.

• Reduced cooling and power costs.

• Simple deployment and management.

• Delivery of video streams on demand and with high concurrency.

• Optimized user-data access by mode (random, sequential, or concurrent), whether on a per-fileor per-directory basis.

About this documentThis document describes two validation tests that VCE conducted to provide a performance baseline for aworkload of 2000 power users. The usage details are described later.



Here are the main test results for Citrix XenDesktop 7.6.

.

Figure 1: Results summary for Citrix XenDesktop test

Here are the main test results for Citrix XenApp 7.6.

Figure 2: Results summary for Citrix XenApp test

AudienceThis paper is for CIOs and system administrators who are interested in deploying DV at scale.

FeedbackTo suggest changes and provide feedback on this document, send an e-mail message to [email protected]. Please include the title of the document, the name of the section to which yourfeedback applies, and your comments.



mailto:[email protected]?Subject=Documentation Feedback&body=Document: Citrix 7.6 on VSS XAPP Test Plan Please provide your comments:

Technology componentsThis solution relies on the following four technology components: Vblock System 540, EMC Isilon, Citrixproducts, and VMware vSphere.

Vblock System 540Vblock System 540 is an industry-leading converged infrastructure that incorporates an EMC XtremIO all-flash storage array to enable delivery of more than a million IOPS.

Storage components

XtremIO is a 100 percent flash-based storage array that was created for maximum performance.scalability, and ease of use. The product includes inline data reduction, wear leveling, write abatement,thin provisioning, snapshots, volume clones, and data protection. The product architecture addresses allthe requirements for flash-based storage, including longevity of the flash media and a lower effective costof flash capacity.

To support enterprise computing, XtremIO is integrated with other technologies. For example,communication between storage devices and VMware vSphere ESXi hosts is enabled with VMwarevSphere Storage APIs – Array Integration (VAAI). Resiliency comes from Fibre Channel (FC)connectivity, flash-specific dual-parity data protection, and storage presentation over the iSCSI protocol.

Compute components

Vblock System 540 uses Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) blade enclosures, interconnects, andblade servers.

The UCS data center platform combines x86-architecture blade and rack servers with networking andstorage access in a single system. Innovations in the platform include a standards-based, unified networkfabric; a Cisco Virtual Interface Card (VIC); and Cisco UCS Extended Memory Technology. A wire-oncearchitecture with a self-aware, self-integrating, intelligent infrastructure eliminates the need for assemblingcomponents into systems manually.

Cisco UCS B-Series 2-socket blade servers deliver record-setting performance to a wide range ofworkloads. Based on Intel Xeon processor E7 and E5 product families and designed for virtualizedapplications, these servers deliver fast performance. They also reduce expense by integrating systemsmanagement and converging network fabrics.



Networking components

The networking components in the Vblock System 540 include Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches, fabricinterconnects, and Cisco Nexus 3064-T Ethernet switches.

Figure 3: Networking components in the Vblock System 540



A pair of Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches provide 10 GbE connectivity to the Vblock System 540components as well as connectivity to the external network through the customer's core network. A pair ofCisco Nexus 3064-T switches connects the Advanced Management Pod (AMP) to the external network,supporting the Vblock System management infrastructure with redundancy.

The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches provide the following kinds of 10 GbE connectivity:

• Between the Vblock System internal components.

• From those internal components to the AMP.

• From the internal components to the external network.

A pair of 3064-T switches connect the AMP to the external network, supporting the customer's VDIinfrastructure with redundancy.

The two Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches support low-latency line-rate 10 GbE and Fibre Channel overEthernet (FCoE) connectivity on up to 48 ports. Unified port expansion modules are available and providean extra 16 ports of 10 GbE or Fibre Channel (FC) connectivity. The FC ports are licensed in packs ofeight in an on-demand basis.

The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches have 32 integrated low latency unified ports. Each port provides linerate 10GbE or FC connectivity. The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches have one expansion slot that can bepopulated with a 16-port unified port expansion module. The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switch is the onlynetwork switch supported for Vblock System data connectivity in the AMP for Vblock System 540.

Ports are reserved or identified for special Vblock System services such as backup, replication, oraggregation uplink connectivity. Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches provide a number of line-rate ports fornon-blocking 10 Gb/sec throughput.

EMC IsilonEMC Isilon storage uses intelligent software to scale data across vast quantities of commodity hardware,enabling explosive growth in performance and capacity. The product's revolutionary storagearchitecture---the OneFS operating system---offers a single clustered file system regardless of the size ofthe shared pool of storage. Data protection is scalable along with capacity and performance, and thetechnology protects an organization's human resources as well; even a large-scale system can bemanaged with a fraction of the personnel required for traditional storage systems of the same size.

OneFS provides its value by incorporating parallelism at a deep level of the OS, and virtually every keysystem is distributed across multiple units of hardware. This parallelism allows OneFS to scale in virtuallyevery dimension as the infrastructure is expanded. The system has no single point of failure, but allowsany-to-any failover and multiple levels of redundancy that go far beyond the capabilities of a traditionalarray. As a result, OneFS can grow to multi-petabyte scale while providing greater reliability thantraditional systems.

Isilon scale-out NAS hardware provides the appliance in which OneFS executes. Hardware componentsare best of breed but commodity based, ensuring that Isilon benefits from the ever-improving cost andefficiency curves of commodity hardware. OneFS allows hardware to be incorporated or removed fromthe cluster at will and at any time, abstracting the data and applications away. Data is given infinite



longevity, protected from hardware changes. This feature all-but eliminates the cost and pain of datamigrations and hardware refreshes.

Citrix componentsThe Citrix components are XenDesktop, XenApp, NetScaler, and StoreFront.

Citrix XenDesktop

This solution incorporates Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 to provision, manage, broker, and monitor the desktopvirtualization environment.

Citrix XenDesktop is the desktop virtualization solution from Citrix that enables virtual desktops to run onthe vSphere virtualization environment. Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 integrates Citrix XenApp applicationdelivery with Citrix XenDesktop desktop virtualization technologies. The unification of management anddelivery components enables a scalable and easily managed solution for delivering Windows desktopsand applications as secure mobile services.

The Citrix XenDesktop architecture includes the following components:

Component Description

Citrix Director Is a web-based tool that helps IT support and help-desk teams to monitor anenvironment, troubleshoot issues before they become system-critical, and do supporttasks for end users.

Citrix Receiver As installed on a user's phone, mobile device, or PC, provides secure self-service accessto documents; to desktops; and to web, Windows, and software-as-a-service (SaaS)applications.

Citrix StoreFront Provides authentication and resource delivery services for Citrix Receiver so as to enablea centralized control of resources.

Citrix Studio Is a management console that lets you use any of several wizards to configure andmanage a deployment that might include desktops and applications alike.

Delivery Controller Is a standalone server that provides services that in turn communicate with the hypervisorto authenticate and manage user access, to broker connections, and to distributedesktops and applications.

Citrix ProvisioningServices (PVS)

Is the software that streams a single, appropriately patched master image to as many asthousands of desktops while ensuring that those copies are consistent.

License Server Assigns user or device licenses to the environment, whether from a separate machine orfrom an installation that is shared with other components.

Virtual Delivery Agent Enables connections for desktops and applications; the Agent is installed on a server oron a workstation operating system.



Component Description

Personal vDisk Enables users to preserve customization settings and user-installed applications. ThePersonal vDisk software directs changes from the user's virtual machine to a separateCitrix Personal vDisk (PvDisk or PvD) and blends the content with content from the basevirtual machine.

Citrix XenApp

Citrix XenApp is an application and desktop virtualization solution built on a unified architecture so that itis simple to manage and flexible enough to meet the needs of all users in the organization. Citrix XenAppshares with Citrix XenDesktop an architecture and a set of management tools.

Citrix XenApp delivers applications and desktops:

• The server-based hosted applications are hosted from Windows servers to any type of device,including Windows PCs, Macs, smart phones, and tablets. Some Citrix XenApp editions includetechnologies that improve the user's mobile-device experience by automatically translating nativedisplay, navigation, and controls to the Windows equivalents; by enhancing performance overmobile networks; and by enabling developers to optimize custom Windows applications for amobile environment.

• The server-hosted desktops are inexpensive, locked-down Windows virtual desktops that arehosted from Windows server operating systems. Those desktops are ideal for call-centeremployees and others who do a standard set of tasks.

Citrix NetScaler

Citrix NetScaler is an application delivery controller, which is a technology for load balancing of serversthat are providing web applications to a large user base. This technology works in the context ofchangeable security and application policies. It provides secure delivery of Citrix XenDesktop and CitrixXenApp applications and handles traffic monitoring, content caching, and SSL acceleration.

This solution incorporates Citrix NetScaler for load balancing. The product also offers the followingfeatures:

• HDX Insight, which offers full end-to-end monitoring of Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApptraffic, allowing for an instant triage of issues on the network and a view of traffic at an individualuser and application level.

• SmartControl, which provides access control based on a variety of attributes such as user role,state of the user's device, and the strength of the user's authentication. The policies for real-timedecision-making can be managed and enforced on the NetScaler appliance, allowingadministrators to enforce decisions dynamically at a single, secure site.

You can apply policies to ensure an endpoint analysis during each user request for a connection. In thisway, Citrix NetScaler prevents access by any user device that lacks specified characteristics such asantivirus software or the most current version of an operating system.



Citrix StoreFront

Citrix StoreFront enables you to create enterprise app stores that give your users on-demand, self-serviceaccess to their business resources from mobile devices or desktops. Among the product's features:

• Meets the mobile user's expectation of a consistent and uniform experience on Windows, MACOS, iOS, Android, and Chrome OS and on HTML-5 enabled browsers.

• Provides access to applications and desktops that are consolidated from multiple XenApp andXenDesktop sites.

• Integrates with NetScaler to simplify sign on and monitoring.

VMware vSphereVMware vSphere is the most widely adopted virtualization platform in the world. The technologyincreases server utilization so that a firm can consolidate its servers and spend less on hardware,administration, energy, and floor space. The success of vSphere reflects the ability of its installations torespond to user requests reliably while giving administrators the tools to respond to changing needs.

The components of particular interest to this solution are vSphere ESXi and vCenter.

VMware vSphere ESXi

VMware vSphere ESXi is a bare-metal hypervisor; it installs directly on a physical server and partitionsthat server into multiple virtual machines. The phrase "ESXi host" refers to the physical server.

vSphere ESXi hosts and their resources are pooled together into clusters that contain the CPU, memory,network, and storage resources that are available for allocation to the virtual machines. Clusters scale upto a maximum of 32 hosts and can support thousands of virtual machines.

VMware vCenter Server

VMware vCenter Server is management software that runs on a virtual or physical server to overseemultiple ESXi hypervisors as a single cluster. An administrator can interact directly with vCenter Server orcan use vSphere Client to manage virtual machines from a browser window anywhere in the world. Forexample, the administrator can capture the detailed blueprint of a known, validated configuration––aconfiguration that includes networking, storage and security settings––and then deploy that blueprint tomultiple ESXi hosts.



Architecture overviewThe following sections outline the solution architecture.

Logical layoutDesigning an integrated solution for large numbers of users can be challenging as many variables mustbe taken into account. However, designing the solution in a modular way allows the problem to be brokendown into layers that can designed separately and then linked together.



The logical architecture of the solution's Citrix components is composed of the following layers: user andhardware, where hardware encompasses access, resource, and control.

Figure 4: Logical architecture for the Citrix components



Physical layoutAt a minimum, this solution requires a single-cabinet Vblock System 540.

The system consists of a dedicated three chassis, 24-blade Cisco UCS environment used for the Citrixinfrastructure and virtual desktop. Storage for all virtual desktops and infrastructure servers is hosted onthe same EMC XtremIO (single X-Brick) and Isilon storage environment. Infrastructure managementservers are isolated on two Cisco UCS C220 rack-mount servers.

Figure 5: Environment overview

The environment for both Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp includes the following characteristics:

• Two hosts are on the AMP for the Vblock System 540 (Cisco UCS C220 M3 servers)

• Only the AMP-2HA base is required. None of the Citrix infrastructure is housed on the AMPbecause the Vblock System supports mixed workloads, and the AMP does not comply with thestandard factory build if the AMP contains any VDI infrastructure components.

• Three vSphere clusters are present: one for Citrix infrastructure management, one for PVSmanagement, and one for desktops.



• Three Cisco UCS blade chasses have 24 Cisco UCS B-series Blade Servers in total.

• To conform to Citrix, VMware, and Cisco guidelines, two VMware vCenter instances aredeployed:

— The first manages the AMP infrastructure and houses the AD/DNS/DHCP servers.

— The second consists of three clusters that manage three types of infrastructure: Virtualdesktop and XenApp server, Citrix infrastructure management, and provisioning services.Specifically:

■ One 19-node vSphere cluster is for the virtual desktops and XenApp servers.

■ One 3-node vSphere cluster is for the Citrix Infrastructure management.

■ One 2-node vSphere cluster is for the PVS Server.

Figure 6: VMware vCenter instances

The following characteristics are also in effect for Citrix XenDesktop:

• The desktop image is a 64-bit Windows 7 with 2 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM, and 40 GB vHDD.



• Write-cache and PvD for the Targets are set to 10 GB and 15 GB respectively.

• Standard LUN size on the XtremIO X-Brick is 2 TB.

• The PvDs are hosted from the Isilon storage.

The following characteristics are also in effect for Citrix XenApp:

• The 125 Citrix XenApp servers are on 19 Cisco B200 M4 blade servers.

• Each Citrix XenApp Server has 4 vCPU and 12 GB RAM and contains the Virtual Desktop Agent.The Desktop Delivery Controllers helps broker the server-hosted desktops to the users.

• The 2000 power user sessions are load balanced across the Citrix XenApp servers.

Hardware and software componentsThe following table lists the hardware used in the validation test:

Layer Hardware Quantity

Compute Cisco UCS C220 M3 Rack Server 2

Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server chassis 3

Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server 24

Network Cisco Nexus 3064-T Switch 2

Cisco UCS 6248UP Series Fabric Interconnect 2

Cisco Nexus 5548UP Series IP Switch 2

Storage EMC VNXe 3150 Series Unified Storage System 1

EMC XtremIO Storage System 1

EMC Isilon X410 Storage System 4

NetScaler SDX Version 11515 1

The following table lists the software.

Software Version

Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 FP 2

VMware vSphere 6.1

Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) 7.6 Cumulative Update 1

Citrix StoreFront Server 3.0

Citrix Receiver 4.3



Software Version

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 R2 Enterprise

Microsoft Windows Server operating system 2012 R2 Standard

Microsoft Windows desktop operating system Windows 7 Enterprise



Design considerationsThe next sections further describe the configuration.

Compute designThe following table outlines usage of the servers, which were configured in accordance with VMware andCitrix best practices.

Server role vCPU RAM (GB) Storage (GB) Operatingsystem

Notes

SQL database server 2 10 • System C:100

• SQLDB D:100

• SQLUserDBE: 10

• SQLTranLogF: 10

• SQLBackupI: 10

Windows Server2012 64-bit R2

For Citrixdesktops vCenter

vCenter Server, SSO,Inventory Services

4 32 • System C:100

• Logs D: 100

• InventoryService E:150


For Citrixdesktops

vCenter UpdateManager

2 4 • 120 Windows Server2012 64-bit R2

For Citrixdesktops vCenter

SQL database for CitrixDesktop DeliveryController andProvisioning Services

4 10 • C: 40

• SQLDatabase E:100


SQL database server forMirroring for CitrixDesktop DeliveryController andProvisioning Services

4 10 • C: 40

• SQLDatabase E:100


Desktop DeliveryController 1

4 10 • C: 40

• E: 60




Server role vCPU RAM (GB) Storage (GB) Operatingsystem

Notes

Desktop DeliveryController 2

4 10 • C: 40

• E: 60

Windows Server2012 R2

StoreFront 1 4 10 • C: 40

• E: 60


StoreFront 2 4 10 • C: 40

• E: 60


License Server 2 4 • C: 40

• E: 60


Director 2 4 • C: 40

• E: 60


PVS Server 1 4 10 • C: 40

• vDisk StoreF: 200











The guidance that is provided with the factory build was sufficient for installing and configuring the AMPvCenter.

Network designThe unified network for this solution was designed as follows:

• Two Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches were configured to provide Ethernet and FC connectivity tothe Citrix management and desktop infrastructure.

• The Citrix management Infrastructure and PVS infrastructure components were deployed on 5Cisco B200 M4 blades that were connected through the vSphere 6.0 Standard Switch.

• The Citrix desktop cluster was deployed on 19 Cisco B200 M4 blades that were connectedthrough the vSphere 6.0 Distributed Switch.



Here is the desktop architecture.

Figure 7: Desktop architecture



Here is the Citrix management architecture.

Figure 8: Citrix management architecture



Here is the Citrix PVS architecture.

Figure 9: Citrix PVS architecture

IP network components

To support the Ethernet and storage area network (SAN) requirements, two Cisco Nexus 5548UPswitches provided 10 Gb Ethernet (10 GbE) and FC connectivity.

The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches have 32 integrated, low-latency unified ports, each providing line-rate10 GbE or FC connectivity. The Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches each have one expansion slot that can bepopulated with a 16-port unified port expansion module.

Validation of this solution required an IP subnet capable of hosting 3500 DHCP addresses for CitrixXenDesktop desktops, as well as an IP infrastructure for the Citrix XenDesktop infrastructure and desktoppools.

The following VLAN information was used for VDI management:

• VLAN name: vcesys_vdi_mgmt



• VLAN number: 131

Citrix NetScaler design

In general, Citrix NetScaler directs traffic based on L2-L4 information such as MAC/IP address and TCPports and provides details on network health. For this solution, Citrix NetScaler was used to load-balanceresources, to monitor operational health, and to enforce session persistence.

The configuration included the following steps:

• Configured SSL certificates for secured communications.

• Established load balancing of the Storefront servers and the Desktop Delivery controllers.

• Created a load-balanced VIP for TFTP services across multiple PVS servers so that the VIP canbe defined under DHCP option 66.

• Used the SOURCEIP option to ensure that the session request causes subsequentcommunication to be directed to the same server in accordance with the source IP address of apacket.

During the test, monitors operated on a continuous basis. Storefront monitors showed the availability ofStorefront services, and TFTP health monitors showed the availability of the PVS TFTP services.

Storage designThe storage design differed for the two cases.



Storage for Citrix XenDesktop

The following diagram outlines the cluster and storage design for Citrix XenDesktop.

Figure 10: Cluster and storage design for Citrix XenDesktop

A single Isilon X410-4U cluster is used by two server clusters:

• By the provisioning server cluster, to store the PVS vDisks that are available for streaming totarget devices.

• By the desktop cluster, to store two kinds of objects:

— The personal vDisks (PvDs), which hold a user's installed applications.

— The user's profile, which is composed of documents, application data, and personalizationsuch as control-panel settings.

The desktop cluster also uses XtremIO; specifically, for the desktop pool, Citrix PVS write cache, andCitrix infrastructure.

Supported features LUN size Number of LUNs Total capacity

Desktop pool, Citrix PVS write cache 2 TB 24 48 TB

Citrix infrastructure 4 TB 1 4 TB



Storage for Citrix XenApp

The following diagram outlines the cluster and storage design for Citrix XenApp.

Figure 11: Cluster and storage design for Citrix XenApp

A single Isilon X410-4U cluster is used by two server clusters:

• By the provisioning server cluster, to store the PVS vDisks.

• By the XenApp server cluster, to store the user's profile.

The desktop cluster also uses XtremIO; specifically, for the desktop pool, Citrix PVS write cache, andCitrix infrastructure.

Supported features LUN size Number of LUNs Total capacity

Both the desktop pool and the Citrix PVSwrite cache

4 TB 5 20 TB

Citrix infrastructure 4 TB 1 4 TB



Virtualization designCitrix PVS is a software streaming technology that allows servers and desktops to be provisioned and re-provisioned in real time from a single shared-disk image. The service is commonly integrated with Citrixvirtualization solutions to optimize operating system delivery and management.

Often these solutions are critical to the operation of organizations and require high availability. Providinghigh availability for PVS requires a design that avoids a single point of failure across the network. Thebootstrap file, named ardbp32.bin, is a key component that is delivered to PVS target devices so theycan communicate with PVS over the network. The bootstrap file typically is delivered by means of TrivialFile Transfer Protocol (TFTP) services hosted on provisioning servers.

For TFTP, the Citrix PVS TFTP Service must be running on the PVS Server; the target startup must beset to the network device; and the DHCP server must be configured with options 66 and 67:

• The option 66 defines the boot server; either the PVS server IP or the PVS server load-balancedVIP.

• The option 67 defines the file name (ARDBP32.bin) that is received by TFTP.

When the target device boots up it obtains the bootstrap file from the TFTP server and then streams thevDisk from the provisioning server.

Figure 12: Citrix PVS TFTP deign



Application designThe following diagram illustrates the deployment of the Citrix components.

Figure 13: Application deployment



Solution validationThe next sections detail the tests and results.

Test environment designOne test objective was to determine how many virtual desktop sessions can be supported by the VblockSystem 540 as configured for the test, when a power worker workload is required. To generate andmeasure those workloads, the testers used Login Virtual Session Indexer (Login VSI) 4.4.

Login VSI is designed to measure the maximum capacity of virtual desktop infrastructures by simulatingunique user-application workloads and measuring in-session resource use and response times.Simulated users work with typical applications such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office 2010applications, and Adobe Flash video. The results of several testing measurements are compiled into ametric known as VSImax. VSImax quantifies the maximum capacity of virtual desktops running on agiven infrastructure while delivering an acceptable user experience.

Login VSI was configured to run a pre-defined power user workload against a Citrix XenDesktop catalogof virtual desktops or against Citrix XenApp hosted desktops. A power user workload consumes morememory and CPU resources because of the increased number of applications that run concurrently. Sucha workload addresses most of the hosted virtual desktop user classes.

Workload parameters

The test logged users into the virtual desktops incrementally. During testing, Login VSI sessions wereinitiated by launchers that ran on separate compute and storage infrastructure. Forty launchers wereused, each running an average of 25 sessions. Each launcher was configured with 4 vCPUs and 8 GB ofvRAM, consistent with Login VSI sizing guidelines.

Here are other test parameters for a power user workload:

• Once a session started, the workload repeated every 12 minutes.

• During each iteration, the response time was measured every 2 minutes.

• Up to 9 applications were opened simultaneously.

• Type rate was 160 ms per character.

• About 2 minutes of idle time was added to simulate real-world users.

Workload applications

The test used the following applications to generate workloads:

Application Workload

Microsoft Outlook Browse 10 messages.



Application Workload

Internet Explorer Leave one instance open and continuously browse asecond instance.

Microsoft Word Measure response time for one instance, and review andedit a document in a second instance.

Microsoft Excel Open a large randomized spreadsheet.

Microsoft PowerPoint Review and edit a presentation.

7-Zip Use the CLI to zip all session output.

Metrics

The test used the following transactions to measure response times:

Transaction Name Transaction Description

FCTS File Copy Text Share Copy a text document from theVSIshare to the temp directory.

FCTL File Copy Text Local Copy a local random text filefrom the local temp directory tothe home drive.

NSLD Notepad Start Load Document Start Notepad and load a 1500KB document.

NFO Notepad File Open Show the file-open dialog inVSI Notepad.

NFP Notepad File Print Open the print dialog inNotepad.

ZHC Zip High Compression Use high compression to zip anOutlook Data File(extention .pst), which isapproximately 5 MB.

ZLC Zip Low Compression Use low compression to zip anOutlook Data File(extention .pst), which isapproximately 5 MB.

Test with Citrix XenDesktopThe test with Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 occurred on a 2000-desktop configuration deployed on 19 vSphereservers. The test measured use of the CPU, memory, and storage processor, as well as applicationresponse times.



Test procedure

Steps were as follows:

1 Clean start all desktop VMs and clients.

2 Restart all the launchers.

3 Idle all the desktop VMs and client launchers until startup services on the operating system settledown and until memory and CPU on the launchers show no usage.

4 Run at least two Login VSI loops in each active session.

5 Log off all users.

6 Generate test-run reports and data.

Test results

Results were as follows:

• With 1976 active sessions, VSIMax was not reached.

No testing was conducted beyond those number of sessions.

• Maximum CPU usage:

— ESXi host: 66%

— Desktop: 12.36%

• Disk latency and transfer times:

— ESXi host: less than or equal to 3 ms

— Desktop: less than or equal to 2 ms

• Peak of 25000 (Write) and 125000 (Read) IOPs on EMC XtremIO storage.



Citrix XenDesktop application response times

The application response time was measured for each transaction during Citrix XenDesktop testing.

Figure 14: Citrix XenDesktop - application response times



Citrix XenDesktop vSphere ESXi host test results

Various statistics were measured as the ESXi servers hosted the Windows 7 virtual machines.

Figure 15: Citrix XenDesktop - vSphere ESXi host performance



Citrix XenDesktop desktop test results

Various statistics were measured as 2000 Citrix XenDesktop desktops ran power-user workloads.

Figure 16: Citrix XenDesktop - desktop test results

Citrix XenDesktop storage statistics

The EMC XtremIO inline data-reduction capability greatly reduced the system storage requirements.Specifically, the volume capacity that was configured and presented to VMware vSphere was 59.186 TB;and the actual storage footprint for 2000 desktops and infrastructure servers was approximately 2.74 TB.However, the desktop and server virtual machines occupied a physical storage footprint of only 229.151GB.

Here are the summary statistics:

• Overall efficiency ratio: 264.5:1

• Data reduction ratio: 12.3:1

• vSphere thin provisioning saving: 95%



Note: After a power user workload was run against the 2000 desktops, the total data reduction ratioswere 3.9 to 1; but that number will vary depending on environment characteristics such as userprofile and generated workload.

Figure 17: XtremIO storage capacity for Citrix XenDesktop

In relation to Isilon, the following statistics were for a 10-minute sample size at peak concurrency:

• Number of file operations: 9.09 million

• Disk throughput rate: 1.55 GB/s

Test with Citrix XenAppThe test with Citrix XenApp 7.6 occurred on hosted desktops that were presented from 125 XenAppservers.

Scripts were run from the loginVSI console to simulate a power-user workload across the servers. Thetest measured use of the CPU, memory, and storage processor, as well as application response times.



Test procedure

Steps were as follows:

1 Clean start all the Citrix XenApp hosted desktops and clients.

2 Restart all the launchers.

3 Idle all the Citrix XenApp hosted desktops and client launchers until startup services on theoperating system settle down and until memory and CPU on the launchers show no usage.

4 Run at least two Login VSI loops in each active session.

5 Log off all users.

6 Generate test-run reports and data.

Test results

Results were as follows:

• With 2000 active sessions, VSIMax was not reached.

No testing was conducted beyond those number of sessions.

• Maximum CPU usage:

— ESXi host: 52%

— Desktop: 68%

• Disk latency and transfer times:

— ESXi host: less than or equal to 2 ms

— Desktop: less than or equal to 1 ms



Citrix XenApp application response times

The application response time was measured for each transaction during Citrix XenApp testing.

Figure 18: Citrix XenApp - application response times



Citrix XenApp vSphere ESXi host test results

Various statistics were measured as the ESXi servers hosted the Citrix XenApp servers.

Figure 19: Citrix XenApp - vSphere ESXi host performance



Citrix XenApp desktop test results

Various statistics were measured as 2500 Citrix XenApp hosted shared desktops ran power userworkloads.

Figure 20: Citrix XenApp - desktop test results

Given 2500 Citrix XenApp sessions and 125 VM instances, the user density was 20 users per instance.

Citrix XenApp storage statistics

The EMC XtremIO inline data-reduction capability greatly reduced the storage requirements. Specifically,the volume capacity that was configured and presented to VMware vSphere was 21.234 TB; and theactual storage footprint for 125 Citrix XenApp servers was approximately 660.52 GB. However, the servervirtual machines occupied a physical storage footprint of only 62.632 GB.

Here are the summary statistics:

• Overall efficiency ratio: 347.2:1

• Data reduction ratio: 10.6:1



• vSphere thin provisioning saving: 97%

Figure 21: XtremIO storage capacity for Citrix XenApp

No statistics are presented for Isilon, which in this case was used only to store vDisks and user profiles.The performance effect for VM provisioning was described earlier in relation to XenDesktop.



ConclusionThe test results showed good session performance across the virtual machines in a large-scale DVdeployment, with high density numbers against a power-user workload. XtremIO, Isilon, and the CiscoUCS servers all provided benefits:

• XtremIO saved storage capacity, reduced latency, and eliminated IOPS bottlenecks. Thisoptimization was made possible by technology features such as thin provisioning and real-timedata de-duplication.

• Isilon provided highly efficient, massively scalable storage of user profile data and XenDesktoppersonal vDisks.

• UCS B200 M4 servers lowered the overall cost by providing a high density per blade.

Next stepsTo learn more about this and other solutions, contact a VCE representative or visit www.vce.com.

ReferencesReferences

For additional information:

• Windows 7 Optimization Guide for Desktop Virtualization

• Citrix XenApp 7.6 and Citrix XenDesktop 7.6



http://www.vce.com/

http://support.citrix.com/servlet/KbServlet/download/25161-102-648285/XD - Windows 7 Optimization Guide.pdf

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop/xad-xenapp-xendesktop-76-landing.html

www.vce.com

About VCE

VCE, an EMC Federation Company, is the world market leader in converged infrastructure and converged solutions. VCEaccelerates the adoption of converged infrastructure and cloud-based computing models that reduce IT costs whileimproving time to market. VCE delivers the industry's only fully integrated and virtualized cloud infrastructuresystems, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating, and managing ITinfrastructure. VCE solutions are available through an extensive partner network, and cover horizontal applications, verticalindustry offerings, and application development environments, allowing customers to focus on business innovation insteadof integrating, validating, and managing IT infrastructure.

For more information, go to http://www.vce.com.

Copyright 2015 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. VCE, VCE Vision, VCE Vscale, Vblock, VxBlock, VxRack, and theVCE logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of VCE Company LLC. All other trademarks used herein are theproperty of their respective owners.



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