Table Of Contents
Citrix XenDesktop on FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud
Benefits of the Cisco Unified Computing System
Benefits of Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switches
Benefits of the NetApp FAS Family of Storage Controllers
Benefits of Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1
Benefits of Citrix XenDesktop and Provisioning Server
Cisco Unified Computing System
Cisco UCS 2100 and 2200 Series IO Module
Cisco UCS B200 M2 Blade Server
Cisco UCS B230 M2 Blade Server
Intel Xeon 5600 Series Processor
Intel Xeon E7 Series Processor
Cisco UCS Converged Network Adapter
Cisco Extended Memory Architecture
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers
Enhancements in Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
High-Definition User Experience Technology
Citrix XenDesktop Hosted VDI Overview
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 Advantages and Value Proposition
NetApp Technology Differentiators
NetApp FAS3240 Series Controller and DS2246 Disk Shelves Used in Test
Deeper Dive to HyperV Features
Hardware Support for Hyper-V VMs
Performance and Power Consumption
Private Cloud Management and Self-Service
Modular Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Technical Overview
Solution Components: Cisco, Citrix, and NetApp Reference Architecture
Understanding Desktop User Groups
Understanding Applications and Data
Project Planning and Solution Sizing Sample Questions
The Solution: A Unified, Pre-Tested and Validated Infrastructure
Cisco Networking Infrastructure
Cisco Nexus 5500 Series Feature Highlights
Architecture and Design of XenDesktop 5.6 on Cisco Unified Computing System and NetApp FAS Storage
Hosted VDI Design Fundamentals
System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
Designing a Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 Deployment
Storage System Configuration Best Practices
Building a Resilient Storage Architecture
Building a High-Performance Storage Architecture
Base Cisco UCS System Configuration
QoS and CoS in Cisco Unified Computing System
System Class Defined and Mapping
Enable QoS on the Cisco Unified Computing System
Configuring Boot from SAN Overview
SAN Configuration on Nexus 5548
Storage Array Host Initiator Configuration
SAN Configuration on Cisco UCS Manager
NetApp FAS3240 Storage Configuration
6.5.1 Example NetApp FAS Boot Volume and LUN Configuration
Example NetApp FAS Volume Configuration for Write Cache
Example NetApp iSCSI LUN Configuration for File and SQL Clustering
Cisco UCS Manager Configuration for Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1
Service Profile Templates For Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1
VLAN Configuration for Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V Installation
Installing Microsoft Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 Using Cisco UCS Manager
Configuration for the Pre-sysprepped Image
Configuration for the Post-sysprepped Image
Installing and Configuring Virtual Machine Manager 2012
Installing Virtual Machine Manager
Configuring Virtual Machine Manager 2012
Create Virtual Desktop Virtual Machines, Write-Cache Drives and Export VM Properties
Create Virtual Machine Shell Devices
Create Fixed Write-Cache VHD using NetApp Storage
Update the MAC Address on the Virtual Desktops
Attach Write-Cache Disks to Virtual Desktops
Export Virtual Machines for Import into Provisioning Server and Desktop Controllers
Desktop Delivery Infrastructure and Golden Image Creation
Overview of Solution Components
Microsoft Server 2008 R2 SP1 Profile Servers
Setting up a Two-Node Profile Server Cluster
Setting up a Highly Available Profile Share
Storage Configuration for Hyper-V Server Hosting PVS and Virtual Desktop vDisks
Citrix Provisioning Server (PVS) 6.1 for use with Standard Mode Desktops
Import Virtual Machines into PVS Collection and Create AD Machine Accounts
Import Virtual Machines into PVS Collection
Create Active Directory Machine Accounts
Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 Image Creation
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 Desktop Delivery Controller
Cisco UCS Test Configuration for Single Blade Scalability
Cisco UCS Configuration for Two Chassis—Fourteen Blade Test
Testing Methodology and Success Criteria
User Workload Simulation—LoginVSI From Login Consultants
Single Cisco UCS B230-M2 Blade Server Validation - 145 Users
Fourteen Cisco UCS B230-M2 Blade Server Validation - 2000 Users
Scalability Considerations and Guidelines
Cisco UCS System Configuration
Gather Essential Solution Requirements
Performance-Based and Capacity-Based Storage Estimation Processes
Getting Recommendations on Storage System Physical and Logical Configuration
Appendix A—Nexus Configurations
Appendix B—Virtual Machine Manager PowerShell Scripts
Appendix C—NetApp PowerShell Script
Appendix D—VDI Blade Performance Charts: 2000 Users
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases- M-Host-VDI-01
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-02
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-03
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-04
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-05
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-06
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-07
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-08
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-09
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-10
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-11
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-12
2000 User, Fourteen B230 M2 All Phases- VM-Host-VDI-13
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-14
About Cisco Validated Design (CVD) Program
Citrix XenDesktop on FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud
Overview
Industry trends indicate a vast data center transformation toward shared infrastructures. Enterprise customers are moving away from silos of information and toward shared infrastructures, to virtualized environments, and eventually to the cloud to increase agility and reduce costs.
FlexPod™ is a predesigned configuration that is built on the Cisco® Unified Computing System® (Cisco UCS™), the Cisco Nexus® family of data center switches, NetApp® FAS storage components, and Microsoft® Windows Server® and System Center software. FlexPod is a base configuration, but can scale up for greater performance and capacity, or it can scale out for environments that require consistent, multiple deployments. It has the flexibility to be sized and optimized to accommodate many different use cases.
FlexPod is a platform that can address current virtualization needs and simplify the evolution to IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) infrastructure. FlexPod for Microsoft Private Cloud can help improve agility and responsiveness, reduce total cost of ownership (TCO), and increase business alignment and focus.
This document focuses on deploying Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) on a Microsoft Private Cloud built on FlexPod with Microsoft System Center 2012. It leverages the core infrastructure detailed in the Cisco white paper document titled, FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud: Architecture Overview released in April 2012. Readers should refer to that document for a detailed description of the core components and how they should be configured.
Audience
This document describes the architecture and deployment procedures of an infrastructure comprised of Cisco, NetApp, Microsoft, and Citrix virtualization technologies. The intended audience includes, but is not limited to, sales engineers, field consultants, professional services personnel, IT managers, partner engineering staff, and customers who want to deploy the core FlexPod architecture.
Solution Component Benefits
Each of the components of the overall solution materially contribute to the value of functional design contained in this document.
Benefits of the Cisco Unified Computing System
Cisco Unified Computing System™ is the first converged data center platform that combines industry-standard, x86-architecture servers with networking and storage access into a single converged system. The system is entirely programmable using unified, model-based management to simplify and speed deployment of enterprise-class applications and services running in bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud computing environments.
Benefits of the Cisco Unified Computing System include:
Architectural Flexibility
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Cisco UCS B-Series blade servers for infrastructure and virtual workload hosting
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Infrastructure Simplicity
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Business Agility
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Benefits of Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switches
The Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch delivers innovative architectural flexibility, infrastructure simplicity, and business agility, with support for networking standards. For traditional, virtualized, unified, and high-performance computing (HPC) environments, it offers a long list of IT and business advantages, including:
Architectural Flexibility
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Infrastructure Simplicity
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Business Agility
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Specifications at-a Glance
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Benefits of the NetApp FAS Family of Storage Controllers
Planning your storage implementation should take into account that VDI environments are extremely I/O intensive. IOPS range from majority reads to majority writes depending on the system state. When in a boot storm, the storage back end will see a steady increase in read IOPS. When in production, heavy-write IOPS might be noticed, especially during high end user workloads. NetApp recommends sizing the storage for high IOPS with small I/O sizing.
NetApp provides a scalable, unified storage and data management solution for VDI. The benefits of the NetApp solution are:
Storage efficiency: Significant cost savings with multiple levels of storage efficiency for all the virtual machine data components. These storage efficiencies include:
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Performance: Enhanced user experience with transparent read and write I/O optimization that strongly complements NetApp's storage efficiency capabilities. NetApp provides performance enhancements with:
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Data protection: Enhanced protection of both the virtual desktop operating system data and the user data with very low overhead for both cost and operations. Superior NetApp data protection is achieved with RAID-DP. NetApp RAID-DP is an advanced RAID technology that provides the default RAID level on all storage systems. RAID-DP protects against the simultaneous loss of two drives in a single RAID group. It is very economical to deploy and the overhead with default RAID groups is a mere 12.5 percent. This level of resiliency and storage efficiency make data residing on RAID-DP safer than data residing on RAID 5, and more cost effective than RAID 10.
Benefits of Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Release 2 Service Pack 1 (R2 SP1) Hyper-V builds on the architecture and functionality of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V by adding multiple new features that enhance product flexibility, including dynamic memory, live migration, RemoteFx, and Second Level Address Translation (SLAT).
The adoption of virtualization in the enterprise has increased flexibility in the deployment and life cycle management of applications. IT professionals deploy and use virtualization to consolidate workloads and reduce server sprawl. Additionally, they deploy virtualization with clustering technologies to provide a robust IT infrastructure with high availability and fast disaster recovery.
Hyper-V provides a dynamic, reliable, and scalable virtualization platform combined with a single set of integrated management tools to manage both physical and virtual resources, enabling creation of an agile and dynamic data center.
Benefits of Citrix XenDesktop and Provisioning Server
If you are licensed to use the Advanced, Enterprise, or Platinum editions of Citrix XenDesktop, you can install Provisioning Server and use it to create a single desktop operating system image (vDisk) that you can stream to multiple desktops hosted in the virtual machine infrastructure.
Summary of Main Findings
The combination of technologies from Cisco Systems, Citrix Systems, Microsoft, and NetApp produced a highly efficient, robust and scalable Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) for a hosted virtual desktop deployment. Key components of the solution included:
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Architecture
The FlexPod architecture is highly modular or "pod" like. While each customer's FlexPod unit might vary in its exact configuration, once a FlexPod unit is built, it can easily be scaled as requirements and demands change. This includes scaling both up (adding additional resources within a FlexPod unit) and out (adding additional FlexPod units).
FlexPod is a defined set of hardware and software that serves as an integrated foundation for all virtualization solutions. Microsoft Private Cloud Solution validated with FlexPod includes NetApp storage, Cisco networking, the Cisco Unified Computing System, and Microsoft virtualization software in a single package in which the computing and storage can fit in one data center rack with the networking residing in a separate rack or deployed according to a customer's data center design. Due to port density, the networking components can accommodate multiple such configurations.
This document details the deployment of Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 with Provisioning Server 6.0 on a standard FlexPod for Microsoft Private Cloud. In addition to the Citrix software, Microsoft System Center VM Manager 2012 was deployed to manage the virtual machine infrastructure.
Figure 1 FlexPod for Microsoft Private Cloud Components
The reference configuration includes:
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For low-level details of deploying Microsoft Hyper-V on top of a FlexPod for Microsoft Private Cloud, please refer to the Cisco Validated Design document titled, FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud: Architecture Overview released in April 2012.
Storage is provided by a NetApp FAS 3240A (HA configuration within a single chassis) with accompanying disk shelves. All systems and fabric links feature redundancy, providing for end-to-end HA. For desktop virtualization, the deployment includes MS Hyper-V and System Center VM Manager (VMM) 2012.
Software Revisions
Table 1 Software Revisions
Configuration Guidelines
The FlexPod solution validated with Microsoft Private Cloud released in February 2012 provides details for configuring a fully redundant, highly-available configuration. As it applies to this document for building a VDI on a Microsoft Private Cloud built on FlexPod, references refer to which redundant component is being configured with each step, whether that be A or B. For example, Controller A and
Controller B are used to identify the two NetApp storage controllers that are provisioned with this document while Nexus A and Nexus B identify the pair of Cisco Nexus switches that are configured. The Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects are configured likewise.
For this document, only the configurations that are specific for the Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 with Provisioning Server 6.0 FlexPod will be covered.
This document is intended to allow the reader to configure the Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 with Provisioning Server 6.0 FlexPod customer environment as an addition to an existing Microsoft Private Cloud Flexpod. Alternatively, the document will provide instructions for the reader to configure a stand-alone VDI pod utilizing Microsoft Hyper-V and System Center VM Manager 2012.
For the Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 with Provisioning Server 6.0 FlexPod, we utilized VLANs to isolate and apply access strategies to various types of network traffic. Table 2 details the VLANs used in this study.
Table 2 VLANs
Infrastructure Components
This section describes all of the Cisco Unified Computing System infrastructure components used in the configuration.
Cisco Unified Computing System
Cisco Unified Computing System is a set of pre-integrated data center components that include blade servers, adapters, fabric interconnects, and extenders that are integrated under a common embedded management system (Figure 2). This approach results in far fewer system components and much better manageability, operational efficiency, and flexibility than comparable data center platforms.
Figure 2
Cisco Unified Computing System Components
The Cisco Unified Computing System is designed from the ground up to be programmable and self integrating. A server's entire hardware stack, ranging from server firmware and settings to network profiles, is configured through model-based management. With Cisco virtual interface cards (VICs), even the number and type of I/O interfaces are programmed dynamically, making every server ready to power any workload at any time.
With model-based management, administrators manipulate a model of a desired system configuration, associate a model's service profile with hardware resources, and the system configures itself to match the model. This automation speeds provisioning and workload migration with accurate and rapid scalability. The result is increased IT staff productivity, improved compliance, and reduced risk of failures due to inconsistent configurations.
Cisco Fabric Extender technology reduces the number of system components to purchase, configure, manage, and maintain by condensing three network layers into one. It eliminates both blade server and hypervisor-based switches by connecting fabric interconnect ports directly to individual blade servers and VMs. Virtual networks are now managed exactly as physical networks are, but with massive scalability. This represents a radical simplification over traditional systems, reducing capital and operating costs while increasing business agility, simplifying and speeding deployment, and improving performance.
Fabric Interconnect
Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects create a unified network fabric throughout the Cisco UCS. They provide uniform access to both networks and storage, eliminating the barriers to deploying a fully virtualized environment based on a flexible, programmable pool of resources.
Cisco Fabric Interconnects are a family of line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10-GE, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, and FCoE interconnect switches. Based on the same switching technology as the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series, Cisco UCS 6000 Series Fabric Interconnects provide the additional features and management capabilities that make them the central nervous system of the Cisco UCS.
The Cisco UCS Manager software runs inside the Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects. The Cisco UCS 6000 Series Fabric Interconnects expand the Cisco UCS networking portfolio and offer higher capacity, higher port density, and lower power consumption. These interconnects provide the management and communication backbone for the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade servers and Cisco UCS Blade Server Chassis.
All chassis and all blades that are attached to the Cisco Fabric Interconnects are part of a single, highly available management domain. By supporting unified fabric, the Cisco UCS 6000 Series Fabric Interconnects provide the flexibility to support LAN and SAN connectivity for all blades within their domain right at configuration time. Typically deployed in redundant pairs, the Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect provides uniform access to both networks and storage, facilitating a fully virtualized environment.
The Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect family is currently comprised of the Cisco 6100 Series and Cisco 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects.
Cisco UCS 6248UP 48-Port Fabric Interconnect
The Cisco UCS 6248UP 48-Port Fabric Interconnect is a 1 RU, 10-GE, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, FCoE interconnect providing more than 1Tbps throughput with low latency. It has 32 fixed ports of FC, 10-GE, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, and FCoE SFP+ ports.
One expansion module slot can be up to 16 additional ports of FC, 10-GE, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, and FCoE SFP+.
Cisco UCS U6120XP 20-Port Fabric Interconnect
The Cisco UCS U6120XP 20-Port Fabric Interconnect is a 1 RU, 10-GE, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, FCoE interconnect providing more than 500-Gbps throughput with very low latency. It has 20 fixed 10-GE, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, and FCoE SFP+ ports.
One expansion module slot can be configured to support up to six additional 10-GE, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, and FCoE SFP+ ports.
Cisco UCS U6140XP 40-Port Fabric Interconnect
The Cisco UCS U6140XP 40-Port Fabric Interconnect is a 2 RU, 10-GE, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, and FCoE interconnect built to provide 1.04 Tbps throughput with very low latency. It has 40 fixed 10-GE, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, and FCoE SFP+ ports.
Two expansion module slots can be configured to support up to 12 additional 10-GE, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, and FCoE SFP+ ports.
Cisco UCS 2100 and 2200 Series IO Module
The Cisco UCS 2100/2200 Series FEX multiplexes and forwards all traffic from blade servers in a chassis to a parent Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect from 10-Gbps unified fabric links. All traffic, even traffic between blades on the same chassis or virtual machines on the same blade, is forwarded to the parent interconnect, where network profiles are managed efficiently and effectively by the Fabric Interconnect. At the core of the Cisco UCS Fabric Extender are ASIC processors developed by Cisco that multiplex all traffic. Up to two Fabric Extenders can be placed in a blade chassis.
Cisco UCS 2104 has eight 10GBASE-KR connections to the blade chassis midplane, with one connection per Fabric Extender for each of the chassis' eight half slots. This gives each half-slot blade server access to each of two 10-Gbps unified fabric-based networks via SFP+ sockets for both throughput and redundancy. It has four ports connecting the Fabric Interconnect.
The Cisco UCS 2208 I/O module has 32 10GBASE-KR connections to the blade chassis midplane, with one connection per Fabric Extender for each of the chassis' eight half slots. This gives each half-slot blade server access to each of two 4x10-Gbps unified fabric-based networks via SFP+ sockets for both throughput and redundancy. It has eight ports connecting the Fabric Interconnect.
Cisco UCS Chassis
The Cisco UCS 5108 Series Blade Server Chassis is a 6RU blade chassis that will accept up to eight half-width Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers, up to four full-width Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers, or a combination of the two. The UCS 5108 Series Blade Server Chassis can accept four redundant power supplies with automatic load sharing and failover and two Cisco UCS Fabric Extenders, either 2100 or 2200 series. The chassis is managed by Cisco UCS Chassis Management Controllers, which are mounted in the Cisco UCS Fabric Extenders and work in conjunction with the Cisco UCS Manager to control the chassis and its components.
A single Cisco Unified Computing System managed domain can theoretically scale to up to 40 individual chassis and 320 blade servers. At this time Cisco supports up to 20 individual chassis and 160 blade servers.
Basing the I/O infrastructure on a 10-Gbps unified network fabric allows the Cisco Unified Computing System to have a streamlined chassis with a simple yet comprehensive set of I/O options. The result is a chassis that has only five basic components:
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Cisco UCS B200 M2 Blade Server
The Cisco UCS B200 M2 Blade Server balances simplicity, performance, and density for production-level virtualization and other mainstream data -center workloads. The server is a half-width, 2-socket blade server with substantial throughput and scalability. The UCS B200 M2 server extends the capabilities of the Cisco Unified Computing System. It uses Intel® Xeon® 5600 series multicore processors to deliver even better performance and efficiency. Two UCS B200 M2 blades were used in this study to host infrastructure virtual machines.
Cisco UCS B230 M2 Blade Server
The Cisco UCS B230 M2 Blade Server is a full-slot, two-socket blade server featuring the performance and reliability of Intel Xeon Processor E7-2800 product family and up to 32 DIMM slots which support up to 512 GB of memory. The Cisco UCS B230 M2 Blade Server supports two SSD drives and one CNA mezzanine slot for up to 20 Gbps of I/O throughput. The server delivers outstanding performance, memory, and I/O capacity to meet the diverse needs of a virtualized environment with advanced reliability and exceptional scalability for the most demanding applications. Fourteen B230 M2 blades were used in this study to host Windows 7 SP1 virtual desktops.
Intel Xeon 5600 Series Processor
Cisco UCS B200 M2 servers utilize x86-based Intel Xeon 5600 Series processors. The advanced reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features of Intel Xeon, combined with the highly available Cisco UCS architecture with redundant, hot-swappable components is designed to protect data integrity and reduce downtime. Intel Xeon processors also automatically and intelligently adjust server performance according to application requirements, increasing performance as needed and achieving substantial energy savings when performance requirements are low.
The Intel Xeon processor has become ubiquitous throughout the most demanding IT environments, supporting multiple OSs, including Sun Solaris and varieties of Linux and Microsoft Windows systems, enabling a consistent deployment platform across organizations. With Intel's continued support of virtual server environments, the x86 architecture has also become the standard platform used for virtualization.
Intel Xeon E7 Series Processor
The Intel Xeon processor E7-8800/4800/2800 product families deliver the highest performance of Intel® Xeon® processors for enterprise, mission-critical, and high-performance computing (HPC) deployments. With up to 10 cores and 20 threads, up to 30 MB of last-level cache, and supporting up to 32 GB DIMMs, the Intel Xeon processor E7 families are ideal for large data centers, ERP, CRM, and SCM applications, and the most demanding scientific and financial workloads. The E7-2870 processor was used in the B230 M2 blades in this study.
Cisco UCS Converged Network Adapter
A Cisco innovation, the Cisco UCS M81KR (Palo) VIC is a virtualization-optimized FCoE mezzanine card designed for use with Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers (Figure 3). The VIC is a dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet mezzanine card that supports up to 128 Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) standards-compliant virtual interfaces that can be dynamically configured so that both their interface type (network interface card [NIC] or HBA) and identity (MAC address and worldwide name [WWN]) are established using just-in-time provisioning. In addition, the Cisco UCS M81KR supports Cisco VN-Link technology, which adds server-virtualization intelligence to the network.
Figure 3 Cisco UCS VIC M81KR Converged Network Adapter
Cisco Extended Memory Architecture
A crucial innovation of the Cisco UCS, Cisco patented Extended Memory Technology provides more than twice as much memory (384 GB) as traditional two-socket servers, increasing performance and capacity for demanding virtualization and large data-set workloads. Alternatively, this technology offers a more cost-effective memory footprint for less-demanding workloads.
Building on the power of the Intel Xeon 5500 Series processors in the Cisco UCS, Cisco's Extended Memory Technology enables up to 384 GB of memory on a single server. It is available on the Cisco UCS B250 M1 Blade Server and the Cisco UCS C250 M1 Rack-Mount Server. This technology provides more than double the industry-standard memory footprint when compared even to other Xeon 5500 Series processor-based systems. Cisco Extended Memory Technology enables memory scalability decoupled from the traditional cost. With reduced costs and larger-than-ever memory footprints, IT departments can now consolidate more applications and virtual machines more economically.
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers (Figure 4) extend Cisco UCS innovations to a rack-mount form factor, including a standards-based unified network fabric, Cisco VN-Link virtualization support, and Cisco Extended Memory Technology. Designed to operate both in standalone environments and as part of the Cisco Unified Computing System, these servers enable organizations to deploy systems incrementally-using as many or as few servers as needed-on a schedule that best meets the organization's timing and budget. Cisco UCS C-Series servers offer investment protection through the capability to deploy them either as standalone servers in heterogeneous data centers or as part of the Cisco Unified Computing System.
Although this deployment used the Cisco UCS B-Series blade servers, the Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount servers extend the same benefits to customers. Future desktop virtualization deployments are planned on this server platform.
Each server platform addresses varying workload challenges through a balance of processing, memory, I/O, and internal storage resources.
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Figure 4 Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers
Citrix XenDesktop
Citrix XenDesktop is a desktop virtualization solution that delivers Windows desktops as an on-demand service to any user, anywhere. With FlexCast™ delivery technology, XenDesktop can quickly and securely deliver individual applications or complete desktops to the entire enterprise, whether users are task workers, knowledge workers or mobile workers. Users now have the flexibility to access their desktop on any device, anytime, with a high definition user experience. With XenDesktop, IT can manage single instances of each OS, application, and user profile and dynamically assemble them to increase business agility and greatly simplify desktop management. XenDesktop's open architecture enables customers to easily adopt desktop virtualization using any hypervisor, storage, or management infrastructure.
Enhancements in Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 makes virtual desktops personal and cost-effective. Enterprises around the world are transforming their desktop environments from device-centric management to user-centric private clouds where desktops and applications are delivered as a service, on-demand. XenDesktop 5.6 accelerates desktop transformation by delivering high-performance personal desktops and applications with all the flexibility, performance, and user experience of a PC but optimized for network, server, and storage resources.
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 features include:
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FlexCast Technology
Citrix XenDesktop with FlexCast is an intelligent delivery technology that recognizes the user, device, and network, and delivers the correct virtual desktop and applications specifically tailored to meet the performance, security, and flexibility requirements of the user scenario. FlexCast technology delivers any type of virtual desktop to any device and can change this mix at any time. FlexCast also includes on-demand applications to deliver any type of virtual applications to any desktop, physical or virtual.
The FlexCast delivery technologies can be broken down into the following categories:
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High-Definition User Experience Technology
Citrix High-Definition User Experience (HDX) technology is a set of capabilities that delivers a high definition desktop virtualization user experience to end users for any application, device, or network. These user experience enhancements balance performance with low bandwidth. Anything else becomes impractical to use and scale. Citrix HDX technology provides network and performance optimizations to deliver the best user experience over any network, including low bandwidth and high latency WAN connections.
Citrix XenDesktop Hosted VDI Overview
Hosted VDI uses a hypervisor to host all the desktops in the data center. Hosted VDI desktops can either be pooled or assigned. Pooled virtual desktops use Citrix Provisioning Services to stream a standard desktop image to each desktop instance upon boot-up. Therefore the desktop is always returned to its clean, original state. Citrix Provisioning Services enables the streaming of a single desktop image to create multiple virtual desktops on one or more hypervisors in a data center. This feature greatly reduces the amount of storage required compared to other methods of creating virtual desktops. The high-level components of a Citrix XenDesktop architecture utilizing the Hosted VDI model for desktop delivery are shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5 Citrix XenDesktop on Microsoft Hyper-V Architecture
Components of a Citrix XenDesktop architecture using Hosted VDI include:
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All of the aforementioned components interact to provide a virtual desktop to an end user based on the FlexCast Hosted VDI desktop delivery model leveraging the Provisioning Services feature of XenDesktop. This architecture provides the end user with a pristine desktop at each logon based on a centralized desktop image that is owned and managed by IT. The following steps in Figure 6 outline the sequence of operations executed by XenDesktop to deliver a Hosted VDI virtual desktop to the end user.
Figure 6 Operational Sequence
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Citrix Provisioning Services
Citrix Provisioning Server provides images to physical and virtual desktops. Desktops utilize network booting to obtain the image and only portions of the desktop images are streamed across the network as needed. Provisioning Server does require additional server resources but these can be either physical or virtual servers depending on the capacity requirements and hardware configuration. Also, Provisioning Server does not require the desktop to be virtualized as Provisioning Server can deliver desktop images to physical desktops.
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 Advantages and Value Proposition
Personal VDI desktops for any user expand the use cases for virtual desktops to demanding knowledge workers by permitting all of the customization, application flexibility, and persistence they expect from their desktop while achieving the ease of management and storage optimizations needed for large-scale deployments.
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Support for More than One Billion Devices
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 provides secure access to any desktop or application over any device from any location. It enables delivery of Windows applications to mobile devices that adapt to the way users interact with applications on smaller devices such as smartphones and tablets without source code changes.
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Scalable, High-Performance Multimedia
Optimize your users' experience by delivering high-quality voice, video and multimedia while reducing bandwidth and server-side rendering to drive down the cost of deployment.
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Breakthrough WAN Performance for Remote, Branch and Cloud Deployments
Expand virtual desktop deployments across the enterprise from remote branches to mobile users with high quality of service (QoS) to meet the most demanding service level agreements.
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NetApp FAS Systems
Challenges
There is an ongoing challenge to efficiently meet the growing storage needs of business applications such as VDI. What is needed is storage that is both efficient and flexible with high-end availability and performance to effectively meet the challenges of virtualized and traditional IT environments.
The Solution
The NetApp FAS3200 series enables businesses to cost-effectively meet the storage needs of business applications in both virtual and traditional environments. It handles today's workloads with Data ONTAP industry-leading storage efficiency through the NetApp Unified Storage Architecture running NetApp's storage operating system. Users can consolidate diverse data sets and be ready to respond to changes more easily and non-disruptively with the extra PCIe slots, high performance, and enterprise-class availability of the FAS3200 series.
Midsize environments can gain high-end benefits without the budget or space required to support frame array-class systems. Regional data centers, replicated sites, and departmental systems that need full-featured yet efficient storage with advanced availability and performance capabilities can benefit too.
The FAS3200 series includes two models to tailor-fit a solution that is right for all environments: FAS3240, and FAS3270. NetApp systems are easy to install, provision, and upgrade to meet customer needs. Maximize productivity with NetApp's common suite of application-aware management software. The FAS3200 systems, with the best value for mixed workloads, can give customers an edge that other midrange storage platforms simply cannot match.
Lower Costs with Highly Efficient Systems
NetApp delivers a truly unified storage architecture that uses a single platform with common software and processes across all tiers of storage. Users can consolidate their diverse workloads with multi-protocol support and also benefit from integrated data protection and one operating system across the entire family. This helps customers maximize the efficiency of their virtual servers by delivering storage when and where it is needed.
Additionally, common management across the unified storage architecture assists in consolidation of diverse data sets and data-in-place controller upgrades to more powerful FAS systems. This lowers administrative costs and makes it easier for customers to deploy new capabilities across the enterprise. Deploying a FAS3200 series system with a NetApp DS2246 disk shelf results in dramatically decreased space, power, and cooling consumption. This leading-edge disk shelf features the latest SAS technology by using small form factor SAS 2.5" disk drives that are capable of doubling capacity per rack unit, conserving valuable data center resources.
Increase Flexibility
The FAS3200 series scales to nearly 3PB of versatile storage that adapts readily to growing storage demands. If the environment needs extra connectivity, the expanded I/O configurations of the FAS3240 and FAS3270 models significantly increase the number of PCIe expansion slots available. Moreover, all FAS3200 systems support Data ONTAP in both standard and cluster modes, providing the flexibility of up to 24 nodes.
Proven Availability and Performance
The FAS3200 series is built on the proven enterprise-class availability of the NetApp storage infrastructure. The FAS3200 models leverage high-end systems by introducing features such as Alternate Control Path (ACP) and service processor. These enhance NetApp's already highly available architecture by enabling additional diagnostics and non-disruptive recovery.
Data availability can be further boosted with zero planned and unplanned downtime by combining the FAS3200 series with the NetApp MetroCluster™ solution, which promotes continuous access to data and prevents data loss. MetroCluster delivers distance array-based clustering to protect against outages in the data center, across campus, or citywide due to hardware, power, and network failures and environmental faults.
The FAS3200 series features leading-edge technology for high-performance storage. Use the NetApp DS4243 with solid state drives (SSDs) when every I/O read must be fast. Or boost system performance by adding up to 2TB of Flash Cache. These intelligent caching modules automatically increase read rates and reduce average latency for frequently accessed data, without adding more disk drives. NetApp Flash Cache combined with hard disk drives is an effective and typically more affordable alternative to SSDs.
NetApp Technology Differentiators
Single Scalable Unified Architecture
The NetApp Unified Storage Architecture provides customers with an agile and scalable storage platform. NetApp's innovative storage solutions provide customers with new alternatives and expanded possibilities compared to solutions from traditional storage vendors. All NetApp storage systems utilize the Data ONTAP® operating system to provide SAN (FCoE, FC, and iSCSI), NAS (CIFS, NFS), primary storage, and secondary storage within a single unified platform so that all virtual desktop data components can be hosted on the same storage array. A single process for activities such as installation, provisioning, mirroring, backup, and upgrading is used throughout the entire product line from the entry level to enterprise-class controllers. Having a single set of software and processes brings welcome simplicity to even the most complex enterprise data management challenges.
Unifying storage and data management software and processes reduces the complexity of data ownership, enables companies to adapt to their changing business needs without interruption, and results in a dramatic reduction in TCO.
For large, scalable VDI environments, the NetApp solution provides the following benefits:
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Storage Efficiency
One of the critical barriers to VDI adoption is the increased cost of using shared storage to obtain a highly available enterprise quality infrastructure. Virtual desktop deployment creates a high level of data redundancy, especially for the virtual machine OS data. Using traditional storage, this means you need storage equal to the sum of the storage required by each virtual machine. For example, if each virtual machine is 20 GB in size and there are supposed to be 1000 virtual machines in the solution, at least 2 GB of usable data would be required on the shared storage.
Thin provisioning, data deduplication, and FlexClone® thin-cloning technology are the critical components of the NetApp solution and offer multiple levels of storage efficiency across the virtual desktop OS data, installed applications, and user data. This helps customers save 50 percent to 90 percent on the cost associated with shared storage (based on existing customer deployments and NetApp solutions lab validation). NetApp is the only storage vendor that offers block-level data deduplication for live virtual machines, without any negative trade-offs.
Thin Provisioning
Thin provisioning is a way of logically presenting more storage to hosts than is physically available. With thin provisioning, the storage administrator is able to utilize a pool of physical disks (known as an aggregate) and to create logical volumes for different applications to use, while not allocating space to those volumes. The space gets allocated only when the host needs it. The unused aggregate space is available for the existing thinly provisioned volumes to expand or for use in creation of new volumes. For details about thin provisioning, refer to NetApp TR 3563: NetApp Thin Provisioning.
NetApp recommends using thinly provisioned logical unit numbers (LUNs) where possible in the Hyper-V environment for maximum storage efficiency. Note that when using thin provisioning it is important to monitor capacity utilization. Administrators should also configure storage management policies on the volumes that contain the thin-provisioned LUNs. The use of these policies aids in providing the thin-provisioned LUNs with storage capacity as they require it. The policies include automatic sizing of a volume, automatic snapshot deletion, and LUN fractional reserve.
NetApp Deduplication
NetApp deduplication saves space on primary storage by removing redundant copies of blocks within a volume hosting hundreds of virtual desktops. This process is transparent to the application and user and can be enabled and disabled on the fly. In a VDI environment, deduplication provides significant space savings, given that each virtual machine is an identical copy of the OS, applications, and patches. The savings are also achieved for the user data hosted on CIFS home directories. For more information on NetApp deduplication, refer to NetApp TR-3505: NetApp Deduplication for FAS, Deployment and Implementation Guide.
Using NetApp deduplication and file FlexClone not only can reduce the overall storage footprint of virtual desktops but also can improve performance by using transparent storage cache sharing. Data that is deduplicated or nonduplicated, in the case of file FlexClone data, on disk exists in the storage array cache only once per volume. All subsequent reads from any of the virtual machine disks of a block that is already in cache are read from cache and not from disk, improving performance by 10x.
Any non-deduplicated data that is not in cache must be read from disk. Data that is deduplicated but does not have as many block references as a heavily deduplicated data appear in cache only once. But based on the frequency of access might be evicted earlier than data that has many references or is heavily used. For more information on deduplication, refer to NetApp TR-3505: NetApp Deduplication for FAS Deployment and Implementation Guide.
FlexClone
NetApp FlexClone technology is hardware-assisted rapid creation of space-efficient, writable, point-in-time images of individual files, LUNs, or flexible volumes. The use of FlexClone technology in VDI deployments provides the flexibility to provision and redeploy thousands of virtual machines rapidly.
FlexClone adds a new level of agility and efficiency to storage operations. FlexClone volumes take only seconds to create and are non-disruptive to the parent FlexVol® volume or virtual machine. FlexClone copies share the same physical data space as the source and occupy negligible space (metadata) on the storage system. FlexClone file-level or volume-level clones use space very efficiently, leveraging the Data ONTAP architecture to store only data that changes between the source and clone. In addition to all these benefits, file-level or volume-level FlexClone volumes have the same high performance as other FlexVol volumes or files hosted on the volumes.
Additionally, FlexClone technology provides significant benefits with disaster recovery (DR) testing. DR testing with FlexClone is safe, risk free, and can be done during operational hours at any time. For more information on FlexClone technology concepts, refer to NetApp TR-3347: FlexClone Volumes: A Thorough Introduction.
Performance
Virtual desktops can be both read-intensive and write-intensive at different times during the lifecycle of the desktop, depending on the user activity and the desktop maintenance cycle. The performance-intensive activities are experienced by most large-scale deployments and are referred to as storm activities such as:
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With physical desktops, this was not a problem as each machine had its own disks and I/O was contained within a single desktop. With VDI using a shared storage infrastructure, significant performance issues might arise during these critical operations. This essentially means the solution would require a large number of additional spindles to meet the performance requirements, resulting in an increased overall solution cost.
To solve this problem, the NetApp solution contains transparent storage cache sharing (TSCS). TSCS is a core component of Data ONTAP and is extended with Flash Cache (formerly Performance Acceleration Module II or PAM II). These solution components save customers money by:
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Transparent Storage Cache Sharing
Transparent storage cache sharing (TSCS) allows customers to benefit from NetApp's storage efficiency and at the same time significantly increase I/O performance. TSCS is natively built into the Data ONTAP operating system and works by using block-sharing technologies such as NetApp primary storage deduplication and file/volume FlexClone to reduce the amount of cache required and eliminate duplicate disk reads. Only one instance of any duplicate block is read into cache, thus requiring less cache than traditional storage solutions. Since VDI implementations can see as much as 99% initial space savings (validated in the NetApp solutions lab) using NetApp space-efficient cloning technologies, this translates into higher cache deduplication and high cache hit rates. TSCS is especially effective in addressing the simultaneous system boot or "boot storm" of hundreds to thousands of virtual desktop systems that can overload a traditional legacy storage system.
The following are the main benefits of transparent storage cache sharing:
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NetApp Flash Cache
NetApp Flash Cache is a hardware device that extends the native Data ONTAP TSCS capabilities. Flash Cache increases the amount of available cache which helps reduce virtual desktop storm activities.
NetApp Write Optimization
Virtual desktop I/O patterns are often random in nature. Random writes are the most expensive operation for almost all RAID types because each write operation requires more than one disk operation. The ratio of VDI client operation to disk operation also depends on the RAID type for the back-end storage array. In a RAID 5 configuration on a traditional storage array, each client write operation requires up to four disk operations. A large write cache might help, but traditional storage arrays still require at least two disk operations. (Some coalescing of requests will happen if you have a big enough write cache. Also, there is a chance that one of the reads might come from the read cache.)
In a RAID 10 configuration, each client write operation requires two disk operations. The cost of RAID 10 is very high compared to RAID 5. However, RAID 5 offers lower resiliency or protection against single disk failure. (Imagine dual disk failure in the middle of the day, making hundreds to thousands of users unproductive.)
With NetApp, write operations have been optimized for RAID-DP by the core operating system Data ONTAP® and Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL®) since their invention. NetApp arrays combine multiple client write operations and send them to disk as a single IOP. Therefore, the ratio of client operations to disk operations is always less than 1, as compared to traditional storage arrays with RAID 5 or RAID 10 which require at least 2x disk operations per client operation. Also, NetApp RAID-DP® provides the desired resiliency-or protection against dual disk failure-and performance, comparable to RAID 10 but at the cost of RAID 5.
Flexible Volumes and Aggregates
Flexible volumes (FlexVol) and aggregates provide pools of storage. This storage virtualization allows the performance and capacity to be shared by all desktops in the volume or aggregate. In much the same way that Citrix virtualizes computing resources, NetApp virtualizes storage resources.
Data Protection
The availability of thousands of virtual desktops depends on the availability of the shared storage on which the virtual desktops are hosted. Thus, using the proper RAID technology is critical. Also, being able to protect the virtual desktop images and/or user data is very important. RAID-DP®, the Citrix StorageLink virtual machine Backup and Recovery function, NetApp SnapMirror® replication technology, and NetApp Snapshot™ copies are critical components of the NetApp solution that help address storage availability.
RAID-DP
With any Citrix XenDesktop deployment, data protection is critical because any RAID failure could result in hundreds to thousands of end users being disconnected from their desktops, resulting in lost productivity. NetApp RAID DP provides performance that is comparable to that of RAID 10 yet requires fewer disks to achieve equivalent protection. RAID DP protects against double disk failure as compared to RAID 5, which can protect against only one disk failure per RAID group. For more information about RAID DP, refer to NetApp TR-3298: RAID-DP: NetApp Implementation of RAID Double Parity for Data Protection.
NetApp FAS3240 Series Controller and DS2246 Disk Shelves Used in Test
NetApp FAS3240 series controllers and DS2246 disk shelves are ideally suited for SAN and NAS storage infrastructures that support enterprise applications such as VDI. With FAS3420 series controllers, you can take advantage of NetApp unified storage by simultaneously running SAN-based and NAS-based applications on the same storage system.
The FAS3240 chassis is 3U high and is designed for flexibility. It supports up to two controllers in a HA failover configuration. It also supports single-controller and single-controller plus I/O expansion module (IOXM) configurations. In addition to the wide array of connectivity, with PCIe expansion capabilities the FAS3240 can have additional ports added for FCoE or iSCSI. This expansion ability also enables the use of on-board memory for expanded read capabilities. This is referred to as Flash Cache. Flash Cache is offered for the FAS3240 in up to 1TB configurations.
Each DS2246 disk shelf is 2U high and supports up to 24 x 2.5 inch hard drives. It can be configured with either 450GB or 600GB 10K RPM SAS drives. This offers ideal capacity and increased IOPS per rack unit. For this test, 600GB 10K RPM SAS drives were used. The DS2246 has excellent SAS bandwidth, achieving 24GB SAS rates at 6GB x 4 per wide port.
For testing purposes, one NetApp FAS3240 single chassis HA solution was deployed. Connected to each of its controllers were four NetApp DS2246 disk shelves. The disk shelves were connected to each controller using dual-path connectivity. This allowed for higher performance in addition to failover capabilities. In addition, each FAS3240 controller was configured with 256GB of Flash cache for read optimization.
Figure 7 shows the connections between the FAS3240 Controllers and the DS2246 shelves.
Figure 7 FAS3240 and DS2246 Connections
Figures 8 and 9 show the back of a NetApp FAS3240 dual-controller configuration with further details on port/slot configuration for each.
Figure 8 FAS3240 Dual-Controller Rear
Figure 9 FAS3240 Port/Slot Configuration
Microsoft Technologies
The VDI software solution is built on top of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, System Center 2012 technologies and SQL Server 2008 R2. The Desktop Virtual Desktops deployed are Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise.
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2 is a multi-purpose server designed to increase the reliability and flexibility of your server or private cloud infrastructure, helping customers to save time and reduce costs. It provides powerful tools to react to business needs faster than ever before with greater control and confidence. Multiple components of Windows Server have been implemented in the VDI solution.
Active Directory
Active Directory helps customers manage corporate identities, credentials, information protection, and system and application settings. Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is the central location for configuration information, authentication requests, and information about all of the objects that are stored within the AD forest. Using AD, users can efficiently manage company users, computers, groups, printers, applications, and other directory-enabled objects from one secure, centralized location.
File Services
Windows Server 2008 R2 offers a cost-effective, enterprise-ready file serving platform for Windows and mixed environments. It offers an abundance of capabilities that have been requested over the years by IT organizations. Organizations can leverage the extensive file serving, data management, and data protection capabilities found in Windows Server 2008 R2.
Failover Clustering
Server availability is a higher priority than ever. The demands of a 24x7 global marketplace mean downtime can equate to lost customers, revenue, and productivity.
Windows Server 2008 brought many new or enhanced configuration, management, and diagnostic features to failover clustering that made setting up and managing the clusters easier for IT staff. Windows Server 2008 R2 builds on that work with improvements aimed at enhancing the validation process for new or existing clusters, simplifying the management of clustered VMs which run with Hyper-V, providing a Windows PowerShell interface, and providing more options for migrating settings from one cluster to another. These enhancements provide customers with a near turnkey solution for making applications and services highly available.
Hyper-V
Hyper-V is an integral part of Windows Server and provides a foundational virtualization platform that enables customers to transition to the cloud. With Windows Server 2008 R2, customers get a compelling solution for core virtualization scenarios, including production server consolidation, dynamic datacenter, business continuity, VDI, and test and development. Hyper-V provides better flexibility with features like live migration and cluster shared volumes for storage flexibility.
Hyper-V Server
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is the hypervisor-based server virtualization product that allows users to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server. It is a stand-alone product that provides a reliable and optimized virtualization solution enabling organizations to improve server utilization and reduce costs. Since Hyper-V Server is a dedicated stand-alone product containing only the Windows Hypervisor, Windows Server driver model, and virtualization components, it provides a small footprint and minimal overhead.
Deeper Dive to HyperV Features
The release of SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 provides new virtualization technology in Hyper-V, enabling users to deliver more advanced capabilities to the business for increased IT efficiency and agility.
Dynamic Memory
New in Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, Dynamic Memory enables customers to better utilize the memory resources of Hyper-V hosts by balancing how memory is distributed between running VMs. Memory can be dynamically reallocated between different VMs in response to the changing workloads of these machines. It enables more efficient use of memory while maintaining consistent workload performance and scalability. Implementing Dynamic Memory enables the achievement of higher levels of server consolidation with minimal impact on performance. Dynamic Memory also means larger numbers of virtual desktops per Hyper-V host for VDI scenarios. The net result for both scenarios is more efficient use of expensive server hardware resources, which can translate into easier management and lower costs.
Live Migration
Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V includes the much-anticipated live migration feature. Data centers with multiple Hyper-V physical hosts can move running VMs to the best physical computer for performance, scaling, or optimal consolidation without affecting users, thereby reducing costs and increasing productivity. Service and maintenance can now be done in a controlled fashion during business hours, increasing productivity for users and server administrators. Data centers can now also reduce power consumption by dynamically increasing consolidation ratios and powering off un-used physical hosts during lower demand times.
Hardware Support for Hyper-V VMs
Windows Server 2008 R2 now supports up to 64 logical processors in the host processor pool. This is a significant upgrade from previous versions and allows not only greater VM density per host but also gives IT administrators more flexibility in assigning CPU resources to VMs. Also new, Hyper-V processor compatibility mode for live migration allows for migration across different CPU versions within the same processor family (for example, "Intel Core 2-to-Intel Pentium 4" or "AMD Opteron-to-AMD Athlon"), enabling migration across a broader range of server host hardware.
Cluster Shared Volumes
With Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V uses Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) storage to simplify and enhance shared storage usage. CSV enables multiple Windows Servers to access SAN storage using a single consistent namespace for all volumes on all hosts. Multiple hosts can access the same LUN on SAN storage. CSV enables faster live migration and easier storage management for Hyper-V when used in a cluster configuration. Cluster Shared Volumes are available as part of the Windows Failover Clustering feature of Windows Server 2008 R2
Performance and Power Consumption
Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 adds enhancements that reduce VM power consumption. Hyper-V now supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), which uses new features on today's CPUs to improve VM performance while reducing processing load on the Windows Hypervisor. New Hyper-V VMs also consume less power due to the new Core Parking feature implemented in Windows Server 2008 R2.
Networking Support
In Windows Server 2008 R2 there are three new networking features that improve the performance of virtual networks. Support for Jumbo frames, previously available in non-virtual environments, has been extended to work with VMs. This feature enables VMs to use Jumbo Frames up to 9014 bytes if the underlying physical network supports it. Supporting Jumbo frames reduces the network stack overhead incurred per byte and increases throughput. In addition, there is a significant reduction of CPU utilization due to the lower number of calls from the network stack to the network driver. The VM Queue (VMQ) feature allows physical computer NICs to use direct memory access (DMA) to place the contents of packets directly into VM memory, increasing I/O performance.
Windows 7 Enterprise
Windows 7 is the most advanced Windows operating system to date, designed to meet the evolving needs of end users and IT professionals both in and out of the office. With Windows 7 Enterprise, users can take advantage of the following features that are not available in Windows 7 Professional:
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SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 includes a number of new services, including PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint, Master Data Services, and StreamInsight. It also includes Report Builder 3.0, Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint, a data-tier function in Visual Studio that enables packaging of tiered databases as part of an application, and Utility Control Point, which is part of Application and Multi-Server Management (AMSM) used to manage multiple SQL servers.
System Center VM Manager 2012
System Center VM Manager (VMM) 2012 helps to enable centralized management of physical and virtual IT infrastructure, increased server utilization, and dynamic resource optimization across multiple virtualization platforms. It includes end-to-end capabilities such as planning, deploying, managing, and optimizing the virtual infrastructure. VMM centrally creates and manages VMs across data centers, easily consolidates multiple physical servers onto virtual hosts, rapidly provisions and optimizes VMs, and dynamically manages virtual resources through management packs. The following is an overview of the new features offered in VMM 2012.
Fabric Management
VMM 2012 offers a robust set of new features to enable better management of the fabric supporting the virtual infrastructure.
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Private Cloud Management and Self-Service
Administrators can now create private clouds in VMM 2012. In VMM, private clouds are created from resources on premise. When creating a private cloud, administrators can choose a set of resources, such as storage and networking resources, that will support the private cloud. Administrators can then delegate those resources to self-service users to be used for creation of VMs but the details of the underlying fabric are hidden from the users. An added benefit of using private clouds is the elasticity it provides. Administrators can add resources to the cloud to increase the cloud capacity at the same time resource usage on the cloud is limited by the cloud capacity and by user role quotas.
The self-service user experience in VMM 2012 has been enhanced. Thanks to the opacity provided by the use of private clouds, self-service users can now use the VMM administrator console to create and manage their VMs on their assigned clouds.
Service Lifecycle Management
New to VMM 2012 is the concept of services. In VMM, services are a group of VMs that are configured, deployed, and managed from a single entity. Services are created from service templates and once they are deployed the service instances retain their relationship to the original service template. Administrators then can choose to make updates to the service template and those changes can be rolled out to the deployed services. In addition to deploying the VMs, applications can be installed to VMs deployed in services. VMM supports installation of Microsoft Server Application Virtualization (Server App-V) applications, Microsoft Web Deploy applications, and Microsoft SQL Server data-tier applications (DACs).
Modular Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Technical Overview
Audience
The key challenges all businesses face when considering VDIs include understanding the business drivers around VDI, understanding VDI desktop user candidate groups, understanding the virtual desktop workloads used within each group, and, perhaps most importantly, understanding where the data resides for a user group and workload pair.
Understanding these key drivers and uses allow the enterprise to analyze its VDI use cases, to select those that have the best potential for ROI, and to plan for successful VDI deployment. The analysis must identify the acceptable end user experience that will define a successful project.
Modular Architecture
Today's IT departments are facing a rapidly-evolving workplace environment. The workforce is becoming increasingly diverse and geographically distributed and includes offshore contractors, distributed call center operations, knowledge and task workers, partners, consultants, and executives connecting from locations around the globe at all times.
An increasingly mobile workforce wants to use a growing array of client computing and mobile devices that they can choose based on personal preference. These trends are increasing pressure on IT to ensure protection of corporate data and to prevent data leakage or loss through any combination of user, endpoint device, and desktop access scenarios (Figure 10). These challenges are compounded by desktop refresh cycles to accommodate aging PCs and bounded local storage and migration to new operating systems, specifically Microsoft Windows 7.
Figure 10 The Evolving Workplace Landscape
Some of the key drivers for desktop virtualization are increased data security and reduced TCO through increased control and reduced management costs.
Cisco Data Center Infrastructure for Desktop Virtualization
Cisco focuses on three key elements to deliver the best desktop virtualization data center infrastructure: simplification, security, and scalability. The software combined with platform modularity provides a simplified, secure, and scalable desktop virtualization platform (Figure 11).
Figure 11 Citrix XenDesktop on Cisco Unified Computing System
Simplified
Cisco Unified Computing System provides a radical new approach to industry standard computing and provides the heart of the data center infrastructure for desktop virtualization and the Cisco Virtualization Experience (VXI). Among the many features and benefits of Cisco Unified Computing System are the drastic reductions in the number of servers needed and number of cables per server and the ability to very quickly deploy or re-provision servers through Cisco UCS Service Profiles. With fewer servers and cables to manage and with streamlined server and virtual desktop provisioning, operations are significantly simplified .Thousands of desktops can be provisioned in minutes with Cisco Service Profiles and Cisco storage partners' storage-based cloning. This speeds time to productivity for end users, improves business agility, and allows IT resources to be allocated to other tasks.
IT tasks are further simplified through reduced management complexity, provided by the highly integrated Cisco UCS Manager, along with fewer servers, interfaces, and cables to manage and maintain. This is possible due to the industry-leading, highest virtual desktop density per blade of Cisco Unified Computing System along with the reduced cabling and port count due to the unified fabric and unified ports of Cisco Unified Computing System and desktop virtualization data center infrastructure.
Simplification also leads to improved and more rapid success of a desktop virtualization implementation. Cisco and its partners -Citrix (XenDesktop and Provisioning Server) and NetApp - have developed integrated, validated architectures, including available pre-defined, validated infrastructure packages, known as FlexPod.
Secure
While virtual desktops are inherently more secure than their physical world predecessors, they introduce new security considerations. Desktop virtualization significantly increases the need for virtual machine-level awareness of policy and security, especially given the dynamic and fluid nature of virtual machine mobility across an extended computing infrastructure. The ease with which new virtual desktops can proliferate magnifies the importance of a virtualization-aware network and security infrastructure. Cisco UCS and Nexus data center infrastructure for desktop virtualization provides stronger data center, network, and desktop security with comprehensive security from the desktop to the hypervisor. Security is enhanced with segmentation of virtual desktops, virtual machine-aware policies and administration, and network security across the LAN and WAN infrastructure.
Scalable
Growth of a desktop virtualization solution is all but inevitable and it is critical to have a solution that can scale predictably with that growth. The Cisco solution supports more virtual desktops per server and additional servers scale with near linear performance. Cisco data center infrastructure provides a flexible platform for growth and improves business agility. Cisco UCS Service Profiles allow for on-demand desktop provisioning, making it easy to deploy dozens or thousands of additional desktops.
Each additional Cisco Unified Computing System server provides near linear performance and utilizes Cisco's dense memory servers and unified fabric to avoid desktop virtualization bottlenecks. The high performance, low latency network supports high volumes of virtual desktop traffic, including high resolution video and communications.
Cisco Unified Computing System and Nexus data center infrastructure is an ideal platform for growth, with transparent scaling of server, network, and storage resources to support desktop virtualization.
Savings and Success
As demonstrated above, the simplified, secure, scalable Cisco data center infrastructure solution for desktop virtualization will save time and cost. There will be faster payback, better ROI, and lower TCO with the industry's highest virtual desktop density per server, meaning there will be fewer servers needed, reducing both capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenditures (OpEx). There will also be much lower network infrastructure costs, with fewer cables per server and fewer ports required, via the Cisco UCS architecture and unified fabric.
The simplified deployment of Cisco Unified Computing System for desktop virtualization speeds up time to productivity and enhances business agility. IT staff and end users are more productive more quickly and the business can react to new opportunities by simply deploying virtual desktops whenever and wherever they are needed. The high performance Cisco systems and network deliver a near-native end-user experience, allowing users to be productive anytime, anywhere.
Solution Components: Cisco, Citrix, and NetApp Reference Architecture
Cisco's desktop virtualization solution is the first in the industry to bind together the three critical elements of an end-to-end deployment: the end-user, the network, and the data center. It draws on Cisco's architectural advantage to provide a solution that supports a diversity of endpoint devices, extends pervasive security and policy management to each virtual desktop, and uses Cisco Unified Computing System—a new and innovative virtualization-optimized stateless server computing model.
Base Components
The Cisco UCS computing platform includes:
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Other key components include:
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Understanding Desktop User Groups
There must be a considerable effort within the enterprise to identify desktop user groups and their memberships. The most broadly recognized, high level user groups are:
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There is good reason to search for and identify multiple sub-groups of the major groups listed above in the enterprise. Typically, each sub-group has different application and data requirements.
Understanding Applications and Data
When the desktop user groups and sub-groups have been identified, the next task is to catalog group application and data requirements. This can be one of the most time-consuming processes in the VDI planning exercise, but is essential for the VDI project's success. If the applications and data are not identified and co-located, performance will be negatively affected.
The process of analyzing the variety of application and data pairs for an organization will likely be complicated by the inclusion cloud applications, like SalesForce.com. This application and data analysis is beyond the scope of this Cisco Validated Design, but should not be omitted from the planning process. There are a variety of third party tools available to assist organizations with this crucial exercise.
Project Planning and Solution Sizing Sample Questions
Now that user groups, their applications and their data requirements are understood, some key project and solution sizing questions may be considered.
General project questions should be addressed at the outset, including:
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Provided below is a short, non-exhaustive list of sizing questions that should be addressed for each user sub-group:
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Cisco Services
Cisco offers assistance for customers in the analysis, planning, implementation, and support phases of the VDI lifecycle. These services are provided by the Cisco Advanced Services group. Some examples of Cisco services include:
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The Solution: A Unified, Pre-Tested and Validated Infrastructure
To meet the challenges of designing and implementing a modular desktop infrastructure, Cisco, Citrix, NetApp and Microsoft have collaborated to create the data center solution for virtual desktops outlined in this document.
Key elements of the solution include:
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Cisco Networking Infrastructure
This section describes the Cisco networking infrastructure components used in the configuration.
Cisco Nexus 5548 Switch
The Cisco Nexus 5548 Switch is a 1RU, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE access-layer switch built to provide more than 500 Gbps throughput with very low latency. It has 20 fixed 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports that accept modules and cables meeting the Small Form-Factor Pluggable Plus (SFP+) form factor. One expansion module slot can be configured to support up to six additional 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports, up to eight FC ports, or a combination of both. The switch has a single serial console port and a single out-of-band 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet management port. Two N+1 redundant, hot-pluggable power supplies and five N+1 redundant, hot-pluggable fan modules provide highly reliable front-to-back cooling.
Cisco Nexus 5500 Series Feature Highlights
The switch family's rich feature set makes the series ideal for rack-level, access-layer applications. It protects investments in data center racks with standards-based Ethernet and FCoE features that allow IT departments to consolidate networks based on their own requirements and timing.
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Features and Benefits
This section details the specific features and benefits provided by the Cisco Nexus 5500 Series.
10GB Ethernet, FCoE, and Unified Fabric Features
The Cisco Nexus 5500 Series is first and foremost a family of outstanding access switches for 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. Most of the features on the switches are designed for high performance with 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The Cisco Nexus 5500 Series also supports FCoE on each 10 Gigabit Ethernet port that can be used to implement a unified data center fabric, consolidating LAN, SAN, and server clustering traffic.
Low Latency
The cut-through switching technology used in the Cisco Nexus 5500 Series ASICs enables the product to offer a low latency of 3.2 microseconds, which remains constant regardless of the size of the packet being switched. This latency was measured on fully configured interfaces, with access control lists (ACLs), QoS, and all other data path features turned on. The low latency on the Cisco Nexus 5500 Series enables application-to-application latency on the order of 10 microseconds (depending on the NIC). These numbers, together with the congestion management features described in the next section, make the Cisco Nexus 5500 Series a great choice for latency-sensitive environments.
Other features include: Nonblocking Line-Rate Performance, Single-Stage Fabric, Congestion Management, Virtual Output Queues, Lossless Ethernet (Priority Flow Control), Delayed Drop FC over Ethernet, Hardware-Level I/O Consolidation, and End-Port Virtualization.
Architecture and Design of XenDesktop 5.6 on Cisco Unified Computing System and NetApp FAS Storage
Design Fundamentals
There are many reasons to consider a virtual desktop solution such as an ever growing and diverse base of user devices, complexity in management of traditional desktops, security, and even Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) to work programs. The first step in designing a virtual desktop solution is to understand the user community and the type of tasks that are required to successfully execute their role. The following user classifications is provided:
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After the user classifications have been identified and the business requirements for each user classification have been defined, it becomes essential to evaluate the types of virtual desktops that are needed based on user requirements. There are essentially five potential desktops environments for each user:
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For the purposes of the validation represented in this document only hosted virtual desktops were validated. Each of the sections provides some fundamental design decisions for this environment.
Hosted VDI Design Fundamentals
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 can be used to deliver a variety of virtual desktop configurations. When evaluating a Hosted VDI deployment, consider the following:
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Hypervisor Selection
Citrix XenDesktop is hypervisor agnostic, so any of the following three hypervisors can be used to hosted VDI-based desktops:
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For this study, we utilized Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V, Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 as the hypervisor.
Provisioning Services
Hosted-VDI desktops can be deployed with and without Citrix Provisioning Services, but Citrix Provisioning Services enables you to stream a single desktop image to create multiple virtual desktops on one or more servers in a data center. This facility greatly reduces the amount of storage required compared to other methods of creating virtual desktops. Citrix Provisioning Services desktops can be deployed as Pooled or Private:
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When considering a Provisioning Services deployment, there are some design decisions that need to be made regarding the write-cache for the virtual desktop device leveraging provisioning. The write-cache is a cache of all data that the target device has written. If data is written to the Provisioning Server vDisk in a caching mode, the data is not written back to the base vDisk. Instead it is written to a write-cache file in one of the locations specified below. The following options exist for the Provisioning Services write cache:
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The alternative to Citrix Provisioning Services for pooled desktop deployments is Citrix Machine Creation Services, which is integrated directly with the XenDesktop Studio console.
For this study, we used Provisioning Server 6.1 for management of Pooled Desktops with Cache on device HD of each virtual machine. Provisioning Server 6.1 was used for Active Directory machine account creation and management as well as for streaming the shared disk to the hypervisor hosts.
System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) is a management solution for the virtualized datacenter, enabling you to configure and manage your virtualization host, networking, and storage resources in order to create and deploy virtual machines and services to private clouds that you have created.
Microsoft System Center 2012 cloud and datacenter management solutions empower you with a common management toolset for your private and public cloud applications and services.
SCVMM is an integral part of the System Center 2012 Application Management component.
Figure 12 Microsoft System Center 2012 Management Suite
We utilized System Center 2012 VMM for the VDI deployment outlined in this study.
Designing a Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 Deployment
To implement our pooled desktop delivery model for this study, known as Hosted VDI Pooled Desktops, we followed the Citrix Reference Architecture for local desktop delivery.
Figure 13 Pooled Desktop Infrastructure
We elected to use Provisioning Services 6.1 in place of Machine Creation Services for this study so that our design would scale to many thousands of desktops.
Learn more about Citrix's XenDesktop Reference Architecture - Pooled Desktops (Local and Remote) here. Learn more about XenDesktop 5.6 Planning and Design here.
Storage Architecture Design
In a VDI environment, the availability and performance of the storage infrastructure are very critical because thousands of users will be affected by storage outages or performance issues. Thus the storage architecture must provide the level of availability and performance typical for business-critical applications. NetApp has all the software and hardware solutions to address availability and performance for large, scalable VDI environments.
Storage System Configuration Best Practices
This section is a high-level overview of the components and features to consider when deploying a Citrix XenDesktop infrastructure on NetApp. For detailed information on storage resiliency, refer to the following:
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Building a Resilient Storage Architecture
Active NetApp Controllers: The controller in a storage system can be a single point of failure if not designed correctly. Active-active controllers provide controller redundancy and simple automatic transparent failover in the event of a controller failure to deliver enterprise-class availability. Providing transparent recovery from component failure is critical because all desktops rely on the shared storage.
Multipath High Availability (HA): Multipath HA storage configuration further enhances the resiliency and performance of active-active controller configurations. Multipath HA-configured storage enhances storage resiliency by reducing unnecessary takeover by a partner node due to a storage fault, improving overall system availability and promoting higher performance consistency. Multipath HA provides added protection against various storage faults, including HBA or port failure, controller-to-shelf cable failure, shelf module failure, dual intershelf cable failure, and secondary path failure. Multipath HA helps provide consistent performance in active-active configurations by providing larger aggregate storage loop bandwidth.
RAID Data Protection: Data protection against disk drive failure using RAID is a standard feature of most shared storage devices, but with the capacity and subsequent rebuild times of current hard drives where exposure to another drive failure can be catastrophic, protection against double disk failure, is now essential. NetApp RAID-DP is an advanced RAID technology that is provided as the default RAID level on all FAS systems. RAID-DP offers performance that is comparable to that of RAID 10, with much higher resiliency. It provides protection against double disk failure as compared to RAID 5, which can protect against only one disk failure. NetApp strongly recommends using RAID-DP on all RAID groups that store Citrix XenDesktop data.
Remote LAN Management (RLM) Card: The RLM card improves storage system monitoring by providing secure out-of-band access to the storage controllers, which can be used regardless of the state of the controllers. The RLM offers a number of remote management capabilities for NetApp controllers, including remote access, monitoring, troubleshooting, logging, and alerting features. The RLM also extends AutoSupport™ capabilities of the NetApp controllers by sending alerts or "down storage system" notification with an AutoSupport message when the controller goes down, regardless of whether the controller can send AutoSupport messages. These AutoSupport messages also send proactive alerts to NetApp to help provide faster service.
Networking infrastructure design (FCoE, Fibre Channel, or IP): A network infrastructure (FCoE, Fibre Channel, or IP) should have no single point of failure. A highly available solution includes having two or more Fibre Channel, FCoE or IP network switches; two or more CNAs, HBAs, or NICs per host; and two or more target ports or NICs per storage controller. In addition, if using Fibre Channel, two independent fabrics are required to have a truly redundant architecture.
Top Resiliency Practices
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For more information, refer to NetApp TR-3437: Storage Best Practices and Resiliency Guide.
Building a High-Performance Storage Architecture
A VDI workload can be very I/O intensive, especially during the simultaneous boot up, login, and virus scan within the virtual desktops. A boot storm, depending on how many servers and guests are attached to the storage, can create a significant performance effect if the storage is not sized properly. A boot storm can affect both the speed in which the desktops are available to the customer and overall customer experience. A "virus scan storm" is similar to a boot storm in I/O but might last longer and can significantly affect customer experience.
Due to these factors, it is important to make sure that the storage is architected in such a way as to eliminate or decrease the effect of these events.
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Solution Validation
This section details the configuration and tuning that was performed on the individual components to produce a complete, validated solution.
Configuration Topology for Scalable Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 Virtual Desktop Infrastructure on Cisco Unified Computing System and NetApp FAS Storage System
Figure 14 Architecture Block Diagram
The figure above captures the architectural diagram for the purpose of this study. The architecture is divided into four distinct layers:
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Figure 15 Detailed Architecture of the Configuration
Cisco UCS Configuration
This section talks about the Cisco UCS configuration that was done as part of the infrastructure build out. The racking, power and installation of the chassis are described in the Installation Guide and it is beyond the scope of this document. More details on each step can be found in the following documents:
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Base Cisco UCS System Configuration
To configure the Cisco Unified Computing System, perform the following steps.
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If the firmware is not current, follow the installation and upgrade guide to upgrade the Cisco UCS firmware. Also do not forget to upgrade the BIOS to the latest level and associate it with all the blades. Note: The Bios and Board Controller version numbers do not track the IO Module, Adapter, nor CIMC controller version number.
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Two server pools were created to balance load across the fabric and storage infrastructure.
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QoS and CoS in Cisco Unified Computing System
Cisco Unified Computing System provides different system class of service to implement quality of service including:
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Applications like the Cisco Unified Computing System and other time sensitive applications have to adhere to a strict QOS for optimal performance.
System Class Configuration
Systems Class is the global operation where entire system interfaces are with defined QoS rules.
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(Weight of the given priority * 100)
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Sum of weights of all priority
System Class Defined and Mapping
Cisco Unified Computing System defines system class names as follows:
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The following tables show the relationships between Class Names and Default Class Values and Weights.
Table 3 Class to CoS Map by default in Cisco Unified Computing System
Table 4 Default Weight in Cisco Unified Computing System
The Nexus OS uses a similar system, but the names are slightly different. By using corresponding classes of service to set QoS on the Cisco Unified Computing System and Nexus switches, end-to-end QoS can be implemented. Table 5 shows the mapping relationship between the Cisco Unified Computing System and Nexus.
Table 5 Name Map between Cisco Unified Computing System and the NXOS
Enable QoS on the Cisco Unified Computing System
To enable QoS, do the following:
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This is a unique value proposition for the Cisco Unified Computing System with respect to end-to-end QOS. For example, we have a VLAN for the NetApp filer iSCSI LUNs, configure Platinum policy with Jumbo frames and get an end-to-end QOS and performance guarantees.
LAN Configuration
The access layer LAN configuration consists of a pair of Cisco Nexus 5548s, a family member of our low-latency, line-rate, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE switches for our VDI deployment.
Cisco UCS Connectivity
Four 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports are configured on each of the Cisco UCS 6248 fabric interconnects, and they are connected to the Cisco Nexus 5548 pair in a bow tie manner as shown below in a port channel.
The 6248 Fabric Interconnect is in End host mode, as we are doing both Fibre Channel as well as Ethernet (NAS) data access as per the recommended best practice of the Cisco Unified Computing System. We built this out for scale and have provisioned more than 40 G per Fabric interconnect.
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Figure 16 Ethernet Network Configuration with Upstream Cisco Nexus 5000 Series from the Cisco Unified Computing System Fabric Interconnects
FAS 3240 LAN Connectivity
The Cisco Nexus 5548 is used to connect to the NetApp FAS3240 storage system for Fibre Channel, iSCSI and file-based access.
The FAS3240 is equipped with dual-port 8GB FC modules on each controller. These are connected to the pair of Nexus 5548s to provide block storage access to the environment.
The FAS3240 supports dual-port 10G Ethernet modules on each controller which are configured in a port channel and connected to the pair of N5Ks downstream. This allows end-to-end 10G access for iSCSI and file-based storage traffic. We have implemented jumbo frames on the ports and have priority flow control on, with platinum CoS and QoS assigned to the vNICs carrying the storage data access on the Fabric Interconnects.
The NetApp ethernet connectivity diagram is shown below. There is a total of 40G bandwidth available for the servers.
Figure 17 NetApp FAS 3240 Ethernet Connectivity
For information on configuring ethernet connectivity on a NetApp FAS3240, refer to FlexPod Validated with Microsoft Private Cloud.
SAN Configuration
The same pair of 5548 switches were used in the configuration to connect between the FC ports on the EMC VNX5500 and the FC ports of the UCS 6248 Fabric Interconnect expansion module.
Boot from SAN Benefits
Booting from SAN is another key feature which helps in moving towards stateless computing in which there is no static binding between a physical server and the OS / applications it is tasked to run. The OS is installed on a SAN LUN and boot from SAN policy is applied to the service profile template or the service profile. If the service profile were to be moved to another server, the pwwn of the HBAs and the Boot from SAN (BFS) policy also moves along with it. The new server now takes the same exact view of the old server, the true stateless nature of the blade server.
The key benefits of booting from the network:
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With Boot from SAN, the image resides on a SAN LUN and the server communicates with the SAN through a host bus adapter (HBA). The HBAs BIOS contain the instructions that enable the server to find the boot disk. All FC capable Converged Network Adapter (CNA) cards supported on Cisco UCS B-series blade servers support Boot from SAN.
After power on self test (POST), the server hardware component fetches the boot device that is designated as the boot device in the hardware BOIS settings. Once the hardware detects the boot device, it follows the regular boot process.
Configuring Boot from SAN Overview
There are three distinct phases during the configuration of Boot From SAN. The high level procedures include:
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In the following sections, each high-level phase will be discussed.
SAN Configuration on Nexus 5548
The FCoE and NPIV feature has to be turned on in the Nexus 5500 series switch. Make sure you have 8 GB SPF+ modules connected to the UCS 6200 series fabric interconnect expansion ports. The port mode is set to AUTO as well as the speed is set to AUTO. Rate mode is "dedicated" and when everything is configured correctly you should see something like the output below on a Nexus 5500 series switch for a given port (for example, Fc1/17).
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Cisco Fabric Manager can also be used to get a overall picture of the SAN configuration and zoning information. As discussed earlier, the SAN zoning is done up front for all the pwwn of the initiators with the NetApp FAS 3240 target pwwn.
VDI-N5548-A# show feature | grep npiv
npiv 1 enabled
VDI-N5548-A# show interface brief
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Interface Vsan Admin Admin Status SFP Oper Oper Port
Mode Trunk Mode Speed Channel
Mode (Gbps)
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fc1/17 1 auto on up swl F 8 --
fc1/18 1 auto on up swl F 8 --
The FC connection was used for configuring boot from SAN for all of server blades. In addition, a general purpose 1TB infrastructure LUN for infrastructure virtual machine storage and 14 write-cache LUNs for each VDI host were provisioned.
Single vSAN zoning was set up on the Nexus 5548's to make those FAS3240 LUNs visible to the infrastructure and test servers.
An example SAN zone configuration is shown below on the Fabric A side:
VDI-N5548-A# sh zoneset active vsan 1 zoneset name MS-VDI vsan 1
zone name vm-host-infra-01-fc0 vsan 1
* fcid 0xe30018 [pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3f] [vm-host-infra-01-fc0]
* fcid 0xe300ef [pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8] [FAS3240-B-0c]
* fcid 0xe301ef [pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8] [FAS3240-A-0c]
zone name vm-host-infra-02-fc0 vsan 1
* fcid 0xe3000d [pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1f] [vm-host-infra-02-fc0]
* fcid 0xe301ef [pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8] [FAS3240-B-0c]
* fcid 0xe300ef [pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8] [FAS3240-A-0c]
Where 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3f /20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1f are blade servers pwwn's of their respective Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) that are part of the Fabric A side.
The NetApp FC target ports are 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8/50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8 and belong to FC modules on Controller-A.
Similar zoning is done on the second Nexus 5548 in the pair to take care of the Fabric B side as shown below.
VDI-N5548-B# sh zoneset active vsan 1 zone name vm-host-infra-01-fc1 vsan 1
* fcid 0xd501ef [pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8] [FAS3240-A-0d]
* fcid 0xd500ef [pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8] [FAS3240-B-0d]
* fcid 0xd50010 [pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:38] [vm-host-infra-01-fc1]
zone name vm-host-infra-02 vsan 1
* fcid 0xd5000f [pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0f] [vm-host-infra-02-fc1]
* fcid 0xd500ef [pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8] [FAS3240-B-0d]
* fcid 0xd501ef [pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8] [FAS3240-A-0d]
Where 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3f /20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0f are blade servers pwwn's of their respective Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) that are part of the Fabric B side.
The NetApp FC target ports are 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8/50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8 and belong to FC modules on Controller. They were spread across the two controllers for redundancy as shown in Figure 18.
Figure 18 FAS3240 FC Target Ports
For detailed Nexus 5500 series switch configuration, refer to Cisco Nexus 5500 Series NX-OS SAN Switching Configuration Guide. (See the Reference Section of this document for a link.)
Storage Array Host Initiator Configuration
The following section provides detailed procedures for configuring fibre channel initiator groups (or igroups) for mapping to a NetApp LUN for Boot from SAN.
Create Initiator Groups
Figure 22 shows a PowerShell Window capture of the commands to create Initiator Groups.
Figure 19 PowerShell Window - Create Initiator Groups
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SAN Configuration on Cisco UCS Manager
To enable Boot from SAN on the Cisco UCS Manager 2.0 series, do the following:
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VDI-N5548-A# show fcns database vsan 1
0x470300 N 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8 (NetApp) scsi-fcp
0x470200 N 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8 (NetApp) scsi-fcp
VDI-N5548-B # show fcns database vsan 1
0x470400 N 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8 (NetApp) scsi-fcp
0x470500 N 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8 (NetApp) scsi-fcp
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Boot Fabric A Policy
Boot Fabric B Policy
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You can also modify the Boot policy in use in a Service Profile Template as shown below:
For Fabric A
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NetApp FAS3240 Storage Configuration
The following sections provide a detailed overview and configuration instructions for allocating storage on the NetApp FAS3240. This overview directly pertains to the VDI workload which is built on the FlexPod 2.0 specification. For details about configuring NetApp storage, refer to the Cisco CVD FlexPod Validated with Microsoft Private Cloud - February 2012.
Storage Overview
Each FAS3240 Controller is connected to two NetApp DS2246 Disk Shelves. Each DS2246 shelf contains 24 600GB 10,000rpm SAS drives. This gives each FAS3240 Controller direct control of and access to a total of 48 disks.
Aggregate Overview
For this Reference Architecture it was decided that two Raid-DP Groups of 16 disks would be used. This totaled to 32 disks for each controller. Two physical disks per Raid Group were allocated for parity, so for sizing calculations, 28 physical disks per controller were used.
One aggregate per controller, containing these Raid-DP Groups was created. This aggregate was named aggr1.
Volume Overview
To help ensure that each controller maintained peak performance throughout all of the lifecycles of a VDI environment, volumes were created symmetrically across both controllers. The following is a brief list of the volumes and their purpose:
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LUN Overview
All LUNs were created within their respective volume containers. They were all mapped to FC initiator groups for presentation to respective physical hosts. One exception to this was the SQL CSVs. These were mapped to iSCSI initiators for presentation to VMs with SQL installed.
Figure 20 shows two NetApp FAS3240 Controllers in Active-Active HA configuration with a detailed breakdown of Aggregate, Volume, and LUN allocation and placement.
Figure 20 NetApp Storage Overview
6.5.1 Example NetApp FAS Boot Volume and LUN Configuration
The following section provides detailed procedures for creating a Cisco UCS boot volume and LUN on which an OS image may be installed. In addition it describes the steps for mapping the LUN to an igroup to be accessible from a Cisco UCS server.
Create Thin Provisioned Volume and Boot from SAN LUN
Figure 21 shows a PowerShell Window capture of the commands to create a thin provisioned volume, LUN, and an igroup attached.
Figure 21 PowerShell Window - Boot Volume and LUN Creation
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Example NetApp FAS Volume Configuration for Write Cache
The following section provides detailed procedures for creating a volume and LUN for placing individual VM Write Cache VHDs. In addition it describes the steps for mapping the LUN to an igroup to be accessible from a Cisco UCS server.
Create Thin Provisioned Volume and LUN for VM Write Cache
Figure 22 shows a PowerShell Window capture of the commands to create a thin provisioned volume, LUN, and then to attach an igroup to it.
Figure 22 PowerShell Window - Write Cache Volume and LUN Creation
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Example NetApp iSCSI LUN Configuration for File and SQL Clustering
This section provides detailed procedures for creating a volume and LUN for providing CSVs for a virtualized instance of SQL or a file server. Since the initiator is a VM, iSCSI is required to attach the CSV LUN. Also detailed will be the process of creating an iSCSI igroup to map to the created LUN.
Create a Thin Provisioned Volume and LUN for a Virtualized SQL or File Server Instance
Figure 23 shows a PowerShell Window capture of the commands to create a thin provisioned volume, LUN, and then attach an iSCSI igroup to it.
Figure 23 PowerShell Window - Virtualized SQL/File Services Cluster Volume Creation
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Cisco UCS Manager Configuration for Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1
This section addresses the creation of the service profiles and VLANs to support the project.
There are two types of service profiles required to support two different blade server roles, Table 6.
Table 6 Role, Server and OS Deployment
To support those roles and hardware platforms, service profile templates were created, utilizing various policies created earlier. The templates were created in such a way as to split the load between the two fabrics.
The service profile templates were then used to quickly deploy service profiles for each blade server in the Cisco Unified Computing System. When each blade server booted for the first time, the service profile was deployed automatically, providing the perfect configuration for Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 installation.
In addition, to control network traffic in the infrastructure, virtual LANs (VLANs) were created on the Nexus 5548s, on the Cisco UCS Manager (Fabric Interconnects,) and on the Virtual Machine Manager 2012. The virtual machines in the environment used the VLANs depending on their role in the system.
The following sections describe the Service Profile Templates that were created and used and the VLAN configuration on Cisco UCS Manager.
Service Profile Templates For Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1
There were four service profile templates created in this configuration:
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Figure 24 Service Profile Templates—General Configuration
The Server Pool and Server Pool Qualification policy are applied to select the servers that should receive this template. This template is an Updating Template so that changes made to the template will be applied to each associated Service Profile automatically when changes are saved.
Figure 25 Service Profile Templates - Storage Configuration
On the Storage tab of the Service Profile Template, the World Wide Node Name Pool that was configured earlier is assigned to the virtual host bus adapters, vHBAs, for both fabrics. Note that vHBA fc0 is assigned to Fabric A while vHBA fc1 is assigned to Fabric B.
Figure 26 Service Profile Templates - Network Configuration
On the Network tab, we create the virtual NICs, vNICS, that the blade will have when a Service Profile derived from this template is applied. The vNICs created here are in support of the VLANs used in the project, which are detailed in the next section. Note the Fabric ID column, where the primary fabric and the failover fabric, following the primary if available are specified.
There is no hardware iSCSI vNIC configuration because Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 support software iSCSI initiators only.
Figure 27 Service Profile Templates - Boot Order
The Boot Order tab on the Service Profile Template utilizes the Boot policies configured earlier in the document.
Figure 28 Service Profile Templates - Policies
On the Policies tab of the Service Profile Template, we apply the BIOS, Host Firmware, Management Firmware, and Power Control Policies created in earlier sections of the document. Policies not expanded in the figure above were set at defaults.
VLAN Configuration for Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V Installation
A total of nine Virtual LANs, VLANs, were utilized for the project. Table 7 identifies them and describes their use.
Table 7 VLAN Naming and Use
VLANs are configured in Cisco UCS Manager on the LAN tab, LAN\VLANs node in the left pane of Cisco UCS Manager. Figure 29 details the VLANs created for the project.
Figure 29 Cisco UCS Manager VLAN Configuration
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Installing Microsoft Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 Using Cisco UCS Manager
OS Base Installation
The following are the installation steps for Microsoft Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1.
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Configuration for the Pre-sysprepped Image
For configuration there are multiple ways to perform tasks, some of which are: using the command line, sconfig, or Core Configurator. The Core configurator is a very handy mini GUI built on top of powershell that can be downloaded here.
To enable RDP using sconfig:
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To install the MPIO feature; sconfig does not facilitate this task. This task can be accomplished through the command line or Core configurator, if that was installed on the server.
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Sysprep generalize; this task is not available through sconfig or core configurator.
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Configuration for the Post-sysprepped Image
To configure the post-sysprepped image, do the following:
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Table 8 vNIC-MAC Address Mapping
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NETSH INT IPV4 SET ADDR MGMTNIC STATICIPaddr ubnetmask
NETSH INT IPV4 SET ADDR MGMTNIC STATIC10.13.0.113 255.255.0.0
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When the server restarts, you can proceed with the rest of the configuration.
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This is not needed for PVS (since the host doesn't use that network).
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Installing NetApp MPIO DSM
Run the installation program to install the DSM code and to set required parameters for HBAs in Windows registry.
Before you Begin
This process is for new DSM installations.You must have already completed the following tasks:
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A reboot of the Windows host is required to complete the installation.
The installation program displays the current and new versions of DSM and Windows MPIO Components. However, the installation program never installs new Windows MPIO components for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
Steps
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After you Finish
If the installer reports a problem, such as a required hotfix not found, correct the problem and run the installation again.
The installation program might also display a message instructing you to install Windows hotfixes after installing the DSM. If so, download the specified hotfixes from the Microsoft support site and install them.
Use Windows Disk Management to verify that all existing disks are online. If any disks are offline, set them online.
Finish the Installation
To finish the installation, do the following:
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Installing and Configuring Virtual Machine Manager 2012
This section provides a high-level walkthrough on how to prepare Virtual Machine Manager Pre-requisites, install Virtual Machine Manager and configure Virtual Machine Manager for use in the VDI setup.
Setting up VMM Pre-Requisites
VMM requires the .NET Framework 3.5.1 feature, Windows Automated Installation Kit, and SQL Server 2008 R2 Command Line Utilities be installed on the server before proceeding.
Install .NET Framework 3.5.1
To install .NET Framework 3.5.1, do the following:
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Windows Automated Installation Kit
To install the Microsoft Window Automated Installation kit, do the following:
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SQL Server 2008 R2 Command Line Utilities
To instal the SQL Server 2008 Native Client, do the following:
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Installing Virtual Machine Manager
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Configuring Virtual Machine Manager 2012
This section tackles the configuration required after completing the installation. On a high-level, three actions are needed:
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Add Hyper-V Hosts
Now that VMM is installed and the 14 Hyper-V hosts have been fully configured, it is time to add those hosts to VMM.
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Configure Virtual Machine Placement Location
This section will explain how to setup the virtual machine placement. This is the path used by VMM to place the Virtual machine metadata (xml) on the target hosts. By default this path is: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V
In our case, all the virtual machines should be located on drive V: on the VDI hosts.
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Configure Logical Networks Sites and VLANs
This section explains how to setup the Network Sites and VLAN tags to be used by VMM. This is needed by VMM to identify any VLAN tagging required on a virtual machine's virtual adapter.
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Create Virtual Desktop Virtual Machines, Write-Cache Drives and Export VM Properties
To create the virtual desktop shell machines, the user can use the Provisioning Services 6.1 wizard. The current wizard does the job but takes an extended period of time to provision 2000 virtual desktops. To showcase System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager and NetApp capabilities of thin provisioning and cloning, we opted to use a set of PowerShell scripts that are efficient and make use of the NetApp full potential. This section describes the process.
The following figure outlines the process flow for this section.
Figure 30 Machine Creation Process
Create Virtual Machine Shell Devices
Copy the scripts identified in Appendix B to the VMM server intended to manage the virtual desktop environment.
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The values in parenthesis are the defaults. If you don't enter a value, the default will be used. This step should take approximately 1.5 hours. That is dependent on the overall system performance. When this step is completed, you can proceed to following step.
Create Fixed Write-Cache VHD using NetApp Storage
Microsoft Hyper-V allows us to create three different types of Virtual Disks (VHD). These are:
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Excluding Differencing VHDs, NetApp Storage gives the ability to thin provision a fixed size virtual disk. That is to say, a virtual disk can be created as a fixed size; but it has the ability to expand as data is written to it. This gives the benefit of fixed size performance with the space saving attributes of a dynamically expanding virtual disk. Fixed size thin provisioned disks were used for Provisioning Services write-cache disks for this study.
Creating a Fixed Size Thin Provisioned Virtual Disk
The following figure shows a PowerShell Window capture of the commands to create a thin provisioned virtual disk.
Figure 31 PowerShell Window—Create Fixed Size Thin Provisioned VHD
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Cloning Master Virtual Disk to Virtual Machine Shell Subfolders
When the PowerShell Scripts for creating and modifying the Virtual Machines have completed (see section 6.9.1 above ), it will be time to assign each virtual machine "shell" its own write cache virtual disk. This is completed using a quick PowerShell script that utilizes the NetApp DataOnTap PowerShell Toolkit. The script will use NetApp FlexClone technology to create identical virtual disks in each Virtual Machine's subfolder.
The following figure shows a PowerShell Window capture of the commands to FlexClone a Master Write Cache Virtual Disk.
Figure 32 PowerShell Window—Cloning Virtual Disks
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Update the MAC Address on the Virtual Desktops
In this step, run the following powershell script: ModifyVMs.ps1
This script will switch the Virtual Desktops MAC addresses from Dynamic to Static (on the PVS legacy network). This is a requirement to stream the virtual desktop using the PVS server. The script will prompt you to enter parameters manually. Type y.
This script is fairly quick and should complete in about 20 minutes while cloning the VHD's is in progress.
Attach Write-Cache Disks to Virtual Desktops
In this step, run the following powershell script: AttachVHD.ps1
This script will attach the VHD's created in section Cloning Master Virtual Disk to Virtual Machine Shell Subfolders using NetApp cloning technology to the shell virtual desktops created in section Create Virtual Machine Shell Devices.
In this case the script requires that you enter the parameter directly (no manual parameter option).
While this step is running, you can proceed to next step and execute in parallel. This step is expected to complete in about 20 to 30 minutes.
Export Virtual Machines for Import into Provisioning Server and Desktop Controllers
In this step, run the following powershell script: GenPVSFile.ps1
This script exports the virtual desktop properties from VMM into a CSV file format that can be imported by the PVS server.
The script requires that you enter the parameter directly (no manual parameter option).
This script is expected to complete in about 3 minutes for the 2000 Desktops. The file produced by the script, Desktops.csv in the example above, will be used to import the machines into the Provisioning Server 6.1 Device Collection.
Desktop Delivery Infrastructure and Golden Image Creation
Many components are required to support the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure used in this study. This section details the key servers and their roles in the solution. Ultimately, Provisioning Server 6.1 in combination with XenDesktop 5.6 managed the VDI environment in this project.
The next section includes:
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Overview of Solution Components
Figure 33 provides a logical overview of the solution components in the environment.
Figure 33 Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 and Provisioning Server 6.1 Logical Diagram
Summary of the Environment:
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The following tables provide details on the configuration of the solution components.
The other dedicated Infrastructure Virtual Machines, all running Server 2008 R2 SP1:
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Microsoft Server 2008 R2 SP1 Profile Servers
This section explains the installation and configuration of the profile cluster. The installation did the following:
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Setting up iSCSI LUNs
This section details how to set the iSCSI LUNs using the windows iSCSI initiator. The steps below need to be completed on both Profile servers: profile01 and profile02. Before proceeding with this step, make sure that the target LUNs have been created on the NetApp storage.
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The names will be used to connect the LUNs to the hosts. When that is completed, rescan the disks under disk management.
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Setting up a Two-Node Profile Server Cluster
The two LUNs created in the section above, will be used for Quorum and file server clustered disk. Please follow the steps below to complete the clustering setup.
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Setting up a Highly Available Profile Share
To set up a highly available profile share, do the following:
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When that is completed on both Nodes, proceed to Failover Cluster Manager.
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Now you can use the Share name created in step 10 above to create highly available roaming user profiles.
Citrix Provisioning Services
Citrix Provisioning Server (PVS) is part of the XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum suites and was used in all tested scenarios. Provisioning provides the ability to create and manage 1000's of virtual machines hosted on hypervisor servers with identical virtual machine configurations. It allows those virtual machines to PXE boot from a single golden Windows 7 Image.
Storage Configuration for Hyper-V Server Hosting PVS and Virtual Desktop vDisks
The test environment utilized a single NetApp FAS3240 storage system to provide both boot-from-SAN LUNS for the B230 M2 blades hosting the Windows 7 SP1 virtual machines and LUNs for volumes that were used for:
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The Launcher vDisks were stored on the Launcher blades' local storage devices.
Citrix Provisioning Server (PVS) 6.1 for use with Standard Mode Desktops
The Windows 7 SP1 desktop image is converted into a vDisk (.vhd) image. The vDisk is then locked in a Shared (Read-only) mode and hosted on the PVS server's local disk or on a shared file location.
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For best performance, a copy of the vDisk was hosted and maintained on each PVS server's local drive to provide high availability and load balancing by all servers within the farm. The drive assigned by the hypervisor to each PVS server for vDisk storage was on a dedicated NFS mount. We assigned PVS servers 8GB RAM to facilitate the image(s) remaining persistent and be serviced by RAM after it is initially read for the first time by each server.
Two PVS servers were configured in a farm to provide high availability and resilience for virtual desktop provisioning. Connections are automatically failed over to a working server/s within the farm in the event of a failure without interruption to the desktop.
A separate PVS server with local storage was used to provision Login VSI Launcher machines for workload testing. We used 14 FC LUNS on the dual-controller NetApp FAS3240 to create and store each virtual machine's Write-Cache drive. Each controller hosted seven FC LUNs. Each LUN was zoned to an individual Hyper-V host.
It is important to consider where the Write Cache is placed when scaling virtual desktops using PVS server. There are several options as to where the Write Cache can be placed:
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For optimal performance and scalability the Cache on device HD option is used. A 4GB virtual disk is assigned to the virtual machine templates used in the clone creation process.
The PVS Target device agent installed in the Windows 7 gold image automatically places the Windows swap file on the same drive used by the PVS Write Cache when this mode is enabled.
The figure below illustrates multiple virtual machine instances hosted on a hypervisor server booting from a PVS single master image, each one has a virtual disk hosted on different NetApp FAS3240-provided LUNs associated with the VM's hypervisor host where the PVS cache is placed. This ensures that all write IO takes place on the NetApp FAS System filer storage over FC using high performance storage.
Figure 34 vDisk hosting on FC volumes
Import Virtual Machines into PVS Collection and Create AD Machine Accounts
In a previous section we created a comma separated file, named desktops.csv which contained the properties of the 2000 virtual desktop machine shells with 4GB write-cache drives attached. In this section, we will use that file to import the machines into our PVS device collection.
Import Virtual Machines into PVS Collection
To import virtual machines into a PVS collection, do the following:
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Create Active Directory Machine Accounts
When the devices are successfully added to your Collection in the PVS console, you must create Active Directory machine accounts in your virtual machine organizational unit. This section outlines how to accomplish that using the Provisioning Services Console on PVS01.
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Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 Image Creation
The Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 master or golden image with additional software was initially installed and prepared as a standard virtual machine on Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 prior to being converted into a separate Citrix Provisioning Server vDisk file. The vDisk is used in conjunction with Provisioning Server 6.1 and the XenDesktop 5.6 controller to create more than 2000 new desktop virtual machines on the Hyper-V hosts.
With XenDesktop 5.6 and Provisioning Server 6.1, the XenDesktop Setup Wizard was not utilized. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 power shell scripting was used to create the virtual desktop virtual machines. The properties of those machines were then exported and imported into the appropriate Provisioning Server collection.
Each virtual desktop virtual machine was created with a 3.0 GB write cache disk. More information as to why the additional virtual disks are needed can be found in section 5.1 Configuration Topology for Scalability of Citrix XenDesktops on Cisco UCS and NetApp FAS Storage.
The following section describes the process used to create the master or golden image and centralized Windows 7 vDisk used by Provisioning Services.
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 Desktop Delivery Controller
Two XenDesktop 5.6 Desktop Delivery Controllers (DDCs) were virtualized on Server 2008 R2 SP1 with the Hyper-V role installed running on Cisco B200 M2 infrastructure blades.
Beginning with XenDesktop 5, Citrix replaced the proprietary IMA protocol encrypted data store in favor of Microsoft SQL Server databases. Concurrently the concept of XenDesktop Farms (used in XenDesktop 4 and earlier) was eliminated in favor of the concept of Sites.
There is no master DDC. All DDCs communicate directly with the SQL database continuously to update status and usage, providing seamless fault tolerance. Citrix recommends at least two DDCs per site.
For this study, we created and utilized two DDCs. There were no public hot fixes or service packs for XenDesktop 5.6 posted during the study.
From a management standpoint, Citrix introduced two new management consoles beginning with XenDesktop 5.
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The Desktop Studio is the main administration console where hosts, machine catalogs, desktop groups and applications are created and managed. The Desktop Studio is where HDX policy is configured and applied to the site. The Desktop Studio is a Microsoft Management Console snapin and fully supports PowerShell.
Figure 35 XenDesktop 5.6 Desktop Studio
The Desktop Director is designed for use by level 1 and level 2 help desk personnel. It provides real-time status and limited management capability for the running XenDesktop infrastructure. Help Desk personnel can provide real-time status to end users, shadow their sessions, and restart their desktops. Desktop Director utilizes Internet Explorer and flash to present data.
Figure 36 XenDesktop 5.6 Desktop Director
Site Configuration
In addition to the standard XenDesktop site installation, the following additional items were configured one Machine Catalog, named PVS Desktops, to hold all virtual desktops in the test environment.
Figure 37 XenDesktop Catalog
One Desktop Group, named Desktops containing 2000 of the desktops from the catalog.
Figure 38 Desktop Group
Created XenDesktop HDX user policies to disable auto connect client drives and client printer redirection.
Figure 39 XenDesktop HDX User Policy
Configured the Power Settings for the Desktop Group to start the desired number of virtual desktops when the group was removed from Maintenance Mode in Assignments node of the Desktop Studio. Set action on disconnect to No action.
Figure 40 XenDesktop Power Settings
Configured the Max active actions and Max new actions per minute from the default 10 value to 75 for the multi-blade test in the Advanced Host Details section of the Configuration/Hosts node of the Desktop Studio.
Figure 41 XenDesktop Maximum Active and New Actions
When the environment was fully configured, the Desktop Controller was used during testing to boot, monitor desktop availability/usage status, and shut down the virtual desktops.
Test Setup and Configurations
In this project, we tested a single Cisco UCS B230 M2 blade in a single chassis and fourteen B230 M2 blades in two chassis to illustrate linear scalability.
Cisco UCS Test Configuration for Single Blade Scalability
Figure 42 Cisco UCS B230 M2 Blade Server for Single Server Scalability
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Cisco UCS Configuration for Two Chassis—Fourteen Blade Test
Figure 43 Two chassis test configuration-14 x B250 Blade Server
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Testing Methodology and Success Criteria
All validation testing was conducted on-site within the Microsoft Engineering Center with joint support from both Citrix and NetApp resources.
The testing results focused on the entire process of the virtual desktop lifecycle by capturing metrics during the desktop boot-up, user logon and virtual desktop acquisition, also referred to as ramp-up, user workload execution, also referred to as steady state, and user logoff for the Hosted VDI model under test.
Test metrics were gathered from the hypervisor, virtual desktop, storage, and load generation software to assess the overall success of an individual test cycle. Each test cycle was not considered passing unless all of the planned test users completed the ramp-up and steady state phases described below and unless all metrics were within the permissible thresholds as noted as success criteria.
Three successfully completed test cycles were conducted for each hardware configuration and results were found to be relatively consistent from one test to the next.
Load Generation
Within each test environment, load generators were utilized to put demand on the system to simulate multiple users accessing the XenDesktop 5.6 environment and executing a typical end-user workflow. To generate load within the environment, an auxiliary software application was required to generate the end user connection to the XenDesktop environment, to provide unique user credentials, to initiate the workload, and to evaluate the end user experience.
In the hosted VDI test environment, sessions launchers were used simulate multiple users making a direct connection to XenDesktop 5.6 via a Citrix HDX protocol connection.
User Workload Simulation—LoginVSI From Login Consultants
One of the most critical factors of validating a XenDesktop deployment is identifying a real-world user workload that is easy for customers to replicate and standardized across platforms to allow customers to realistically test the impact of a variety of worker tasks. To accurately represent a real-world user workload, a third-party tool from Login Consultants was used throughout the Hosted VDI testing.
The tool has the benefit of taking measurements of the in-session response time, providing an objective way to measure the expected user experience for individual desktop throughout large scale testing, including login storms.
The Virtual Session Indexer (Login Consultants' Login VSI 3.5) methodology, designed for benchmarking Server Based Computing (SBC) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments is completely platform and protocol independent and hence allows customers to easily replicate the testing results in their environment. NOTE: In this testing, we utilized the tool to benchmark our VDI environment only.
Login VSI calculates an index based on the amount of simultaneous sessions that can be run on a single machine.
Login VSI simulates a medium workload user (also known as knowledge worker) running generic applications such as: Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010, Internet Explorer 8 including a Flash video applet and Adobe Acrobat Reader. (Note: For the purposes of this test, applications were installed locally, not streamed nor hosted on XenApp).
Like real users, the scripted Login VSI session will leave multiple applications open at the same time. The medium workload is the default workload in Login VSI and was used for this testing. This workload emulated a medium knowledge working using Office, IE, printing and PDF.
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Figure 44 Graphical Representation of Medium Workload
You can obtain additional information on Login VSI from http://www.loginvsi.com.
Testing Procedure
The following protocol was used for each test cycle in this study to insure consistent results.
Pre-Test Setup For Single and Multi-Blade Testing
All virtual machines were shut down utilizing the Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 Desktop Studio. All Launchers for the test were shut down. They were then restarted in groups of 10 each minute until the required number of launchers was running with the Login VSI Agent at a waiting for test to start state.
All Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 VDI host blades to be tested were restarted prior to each test cycle.
Test Run Protocol
For each of the three consecutive runs on single blade (145 User) and 14-blade (2000 User) tests, the following process was followed:
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Success Criteria
There were multiple metrics that were captured during each test run, but the success criteria for considering a single test run as pass or fail was based on the key metric, VSI Max. The Login VSI Max evaluates the user response time during increasing user load and assesses the successful start-to-finish execution of all the initiated virtual desktop sessions.
Login VSI Max
VSI Max represents the maximum number of users the environment can handle before serious performance degradation occurs. VSI Max is calculated based on the response times of individual users as indicated during the workload execution. The user response time has a threshold of 4000ms and all users response times are expected to be less than 4000ms in order to assume that the user interaction with the virtual desktop is at a functional level. VSI Max is reached when the response times reaches or exceeds 4000ms for 6 consecutive occurrences.
If VSI Max is reached, that indicates the point at which the user experience has significantly degraded. The response time is generally an indicator of the host CPU resources, but this specific method of analyzing the user experience provides an objective method of comparison that can be aligned to host CPU performance.
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Calculating VSIMax
Typically the desktop workload is scripted in a 12-14 minute loop when a simulated Login VSI user is logged on. After the loop is finished it will restart automatically. Within each loop the response times of seven specific operations is measured in a regular interval: six times in within each loop. The response times if these seven operations are used to establish VSImax.
The seven operations from which the response times are measured are:
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These measured operations with Login VSI do hit considerably different subsystems such as CPU (user and kernel), Memory, Disk, the OS in general, the application itself, print, GDI, etc. These operations are specifically short by nature. When such operations are consistently long: the system is saturated because of excessive queuing on any kind of resource. As a result, the average response times will then escalate. This effect is clearly visible to end-users. When such operations consistently consume multiple seconds the user will regard the system as slow and unresponsive.
With Login VSI 3.0 it is now possible to choose between VSImax Classic and VSImax Dynamic results analysis. For these tests, we utilized VSImax Classic analysis.
VSIMax Classic
VSImax Classic is based on the previous versions of Login VSI, and is achieved when the average Login VSI response time is higher than a fixed threshold of 4000ms. This method proves to be reliable when no anti-virus or application virtualization is used.
To calculate the response times the seven activities listed in the previous section are totaled. To balance these measurements are weighted before they are summed. Without weighting individual response times before they are totaled, one specific measurement (out of seven) could dominate the results.
Within VSImax Classic two measurements are weighted before they are added to the total VSImax response time:
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A sample of the VSImax Classic response time calculation is displayed in Table 9.
Table 9 VSImax Classic Response Time Calculation
Then the average VSImax response time is calculated based on the amount of active Login VSI users logged on to the system. When the average VSImax response times are consistently higher than the default threshold of 4000ms, VSImax is achieved.
In practice however, tests have shown a substantial increase of application response time when antivirus and/or application virtualization is used. The baseline response time is typically around 1400 - 1800 ms without application virtualization or antivirus. However, when anti-virus or application virtualization is used, the baseline response time varies between 2500 - 3500 ms.
When the baseline response time is already so high the VSImax threshold of 4000ms is too easily reached. 'VSImax Classic' will report a maximum long before system resources like CPU, mem or disk are actually saturated.
It was decided further optimize VSImax calculation. Now in Login VSI 3.0 VSImax Dynamic is introduced to be able to support wildly varying baseline response times when anti-virus and/or application virtualization is used.
VSIMax Classic was not used in this study.
VSIMax Dynamic
Similar to 'VSImax Classic', VSImax Dynamic is calculated when the response times are consistently above a certain threshold. However, this threshold is now dynamically calculated on the baseline response time of the test.
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A sample of the VSImax Dynamic response time calculation is displayed in Table 10.
Table 10 VSImax Dynamic Response Time Calculation
Then the average VSImax response time is calculated based on the amount of active Login VSI users logged on to the system. For this the average VSImax response times need to consistently higher than a dynamically calculated threshold.
To determine this dynamic threshold, first the average baseline response time is calculated. This is done by averaging the baseline response time of the first 15 Login VSI users on the system.
The formula for the dynamic threshold is: Average Baseline Response Time x 125% + 3000. As a result, when the baseline response time is 1800, the VSImax threshold will now be 1800 x 125% + 3000 = 5250ms.
When the application virtualization is used, the baseline response time can wildly vary per vendor and streaming strategy. Therefore it is recommend to use VSImax Dynamic when comparisons are made with application virtualization or anti-virus agents. The result VSImax Dynamic scores are aligned again with saturation on a CPU, Memory or Disk level, also when the baseline response time are relatively high.
Determining VSIMax
The Login VSI analyzer will automatically identify the VSImax. In the example below the VSImax is 98. The analyzer will automatically determine stuck sessions and correct the final VSImax score.
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Figure 45 Sample Login VSI Analyzer Graphic Output
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In our tests, the total number of users in the test run had to login, become active and run at least one test loop and log out automatically without reaching the VSI Max to be considered a success.
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Our Login VSI pass criteria, accepted by Login Consultants for this testing is as follows:
Cisco will run tests at a session count level that effectively utilizes the blade capacity measured by CPU utilization, memory utilization, storage utilization, and network utilization. We will use Login VSI to launch version 3.5 medium workloads. The number of launched sessions must equal active sessions within two minutes of the last session launched in a test.
The Citrix Desktop Studio will be monitored throughout the steady state to insure that:
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Within 20 minutes of the end of the test, all sessions on all launchers must have logged out automatically and the Login VSI Agent must have shut down. We will publish our CVD with our recommendation following the process above and will note that we did not reach a VSIMax dynamic in our testing due to a technical issue with the analyzer formula that calculates VSIMax.
Test Results
The purpose of this testing is to provide the data needed to validate Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 Hosted VDI FlexCast model and Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1 using Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 and System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager to virtualize Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 desktops on Cisco UCS B230 M2 blade servers using a dual-controller NetApp FAS3240 storage system.
The information contained in this section provides data points that a customer may reference in designing their own implementations. These validation results are an example of what is possible under the specific environment conditions outlined in this paper, and do not represent the full characterization of XenDesktop with Microsoft Hyper-V.
Two test sequences were performed to establish single blade performance and multi-blade, linear scalability across the FlexPod.
Single Cisco UCS B230-M2 Blade Server Validation - 145 Users
This section details the results from the XenDesktop Hosted VDI single blade server validation testing.
The primary success criteria metrics are provided to validate the overall success of the test cycle as an output chart from Login Consultants VSI Analyzer Professional Edition, VSIMax Dynamic for the Medium workload (with Flash.)
Additional graphs detailing the CPU and Memory utilization during peak session load are also presented. Given adequate storage capability, the limiting factor in the testing was CPU utilization.
The single server graphs shown in this section are representative of a single Hyper-V host in the larger environment for validation purposes, but it should be noted that these graphs are representative of the behavior for all servers in the respective environment.
We present performance information on key infrastructure virtual machines with the tested blade.
Figure 46 145 Desktop Sessions on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 Below 4000 ms
The following graphs detail CPU, Memory, Disk and Network performance on the Single Cisco UCS B230-M2 Blades.
Figure 47 User Single B230 M2 CPU Utilization All Phases
Figure 48 145 User Single B230 M2 Available Memory
Figure 49 Single B230 M2 Cisco M81KR VIC Mbits Received Per Second
Figure 50 Single B230 M2 Cisco M81KR VIC Mbits Sent Per Second
The following graphs detail performance of the NetApp FAS3240 System during the single blade, 145 user test.
Figure 51 145 User NetApp Read IOPS
Figure 52 145 User NetApp Write IOPS
Figure 53 145 User NetApp Read Latency
Figure 54 145 User NetApp Write Latency
Figure 55 145 User NetApp Processor Average Utilization
Figure 56 145 User NetApp Processor Total Utilization
The following charts detail infrastructure server performance during the single blade, 145 User test:
Figure 57 145 User Virtual Machine Manager 2012 CPU Utilization
Figure 58 145 User Provisioning Server PVS01 CPU utilization
Figure 59 145 User Provisioning Server PVS01 Available Memory
Figure 60 145 User Provisioning Server PVS01 Mbits Sent/Second
Figure 61 145 User XenDesktop 5.6 Controller XDC01 CPU Utilization
Fourteen Cisco UCS B230-M2 Blade Server Validation - 2000 Users
This section details the results from the XenDesktop Hosted VDI fourteen blade server validation testing. It illustrates linear scalability from one blade at 145 Users to fourteen blades at 2000 users.
Note
The primary success criteria metrics are provided to validate the overall success of the test cycle as an output chart from Login Consultants' VSI Analyzer Professional Edition, VSIMax Dynamic for the Medium workload (with Flash.)
Additional graphs detailing the CPU and Memory utilization during peak session load are also presented. Given adequate storage capability, the limiting factor in the testing was CPU utilization. Each of the fourteen B230 M2 blade's performance charts are essentially identical for the multi-blade runs. We are including data on one randomly chosen blade in this document to represent all of the blades in this portion of the study.
The single server graphs shown in this section are representative of a single Hyper-V host in the larger environment for validation purposes, but it should be noted that these graphs are representative of the behavior for all servers in the respective environment.
We present performance information on key infrastructure virtual machines with the randomly chosen tested blade information.
Figure 62 2000 Desktop Sessions on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 Below 4000 ms
Figure 63 2000 User Fourteen B230 M2 Available Memory All Phases - Single Server Example
Figure 64 2000 User NetApp Read IOPS All Phases
Figure 65 2000 User NetApp Write IOPS All Phases
Figure 66 2000 User NetApp Read Latency
Figure 67 2000 User NetApp Write Latency
Figure 68 2000 User NetApp Processor Average Utilization
Figure 69 2000 User NetApp Processor Total CPU Busy
Figure 70 2000 User NetApp FC OPS
Figure 71 2000 User NetApp iSCSI OPS
The following charts detail infrastructure server performance during the fourteen blade, 2000 User test.
Figure 72 2000 User Provisioning Services 6.1 PVS01 CPU Utilization
Figure 73 2000 User Provisioning Services 6.1 PVS01 Available Memory
Figure 74 2000 User Provisioning Services 6.1 PVS01 Mbits/Second Sent
Figure 75 2000 User Provisioning Services 6.1 PVS02 CPU Utilization
Figure 76 2000 User Provisioning Services 6.1 PVS02 Available Memory
Figure 77 2000 User Provisioning Services 6.1 PVS02 Mbits/Second Sent
Figure 78 2000 User Provisioning Services 6.1 PVS03 CPU Utilization
Figure 79 2000 User Provisioning Services 6.1 PVS03 Available Memory
Figure 80 2000 User Provisioning Services 6.1 PVS03 Mbits/Second Sent
Figure 81 2000 User XenDesktop 5.6 Controller XDC01 CPU Utilization
Figure 82 2000 User XenDesktop 5.6 Controller XDC02 CPU Utilization
Scalability Considerations and Guidelines
There are many factors to consider when you begin to scale beyond the FlexPod two chassis, 14 VDI host server configuration, which this reference architecture has successfully tested. In this section we give guidance to scale beyond two Cisco UCS chassis.
Cisco UCS System Configuration
As our results indicate, we have proven linear scalability in the Cisco UCS Reference Architecture as tested.
Table 11 Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 and System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager hosting XenDesktop 5.6 with Provisioning Services 6.1
*Scale test was limited to 2000 virtual desktops per Microsoft supported number of virtual desktops for Virtual Machine Manager 2012 installation.
•
•
•
The backend storage has to be scaled accordingly, based on the IOP considerations as described in the NetApp scaling section. Please refer the NetApp section that follows this one for scalability guidelines.
Storage Sizing Best Practices
Storage estimation for deploying VDI solutions on NetApp includes the following:
•
•
•
Gather Essential Solution Requirements
The first step of the storage sizing process is to gather the solution requirements. This is essential to size the storage system correctly in terms of the model and the number of required NetApp storage controllers, type and quantity of disk spindles, software features, and general configuration recommendations.
The main storage sizing elements are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
For detailed information on implementing these technologies, consult the following documentation:
•
•
•
Citrix XenDesktop Considerations
When implementing Citrix XenDesktop, decide on the following:
•
•
•
•
Performance-Based and Capacity-Based Storage Estimation Processes
There are two important considerations for sizing storage for Citrix XenDesktop. The storage system should be able to meet both the performance and capacity requirements of the project and be scalable to account for future growth.
The steps for calculating these storage requirements are:
•
•
•
•
Getting Recommendations on Storage System Physical and Logical Configuration
After determining the total capacity and performance requirements, contact your local NetApp technical resource to determine the appropriate storage system configuration. Provide the total capacity and performance requirements to the NetApp SE and obtain appropriate storage system configuration. If required, NetApp can help you in each phase of the process discussed above. NetApp has detailed sizing tools specific to VDI that can help architect deployments of any scale. The tools are designed to factor in all the NetApp storage efficiency and performance acceleration components discussed earlier.
This step also involves planning the logical architecture (the total number of template and the associated FlexClone volumes that should be provisioned per aggregate). The recommendation is to provision fewer large aggregates over more, smaller aggregates. The advantages to larger aggregates are that the I/O has more disks to write across, therefore increasing the performance of all volumes contained within the aggregate.
Based on the estimated volume size from the capacity calculations section earlier, determine the number of template and associated FlexClone volumes that can be hosted in the largest possible aggregate. It is also a good idea to leave some room to grow the aggregates to handle situations when unexpected growth occurs. Also, disable scheduled aggregate Snapshot copies and set the aggregate snap reserve to zero. Make sure the data disk in the aggregate satisfies the performance requirements for the proposed number of virtual machines for volumes to be hosted in the aggregate.
References
This section provides links to additional information for each partner's solution component of this document.
Cisco Reference Documents
FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud: Architecture Overview
Cisco Unified Computing System Manager Home Page
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10281/index.html
Cisco UCS B230 M2 Blade Server Resources
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11583/index.html
Cisco UCS B200 M2 Blade Server Resources
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10915/index.html
Cisco UCS B200 M3 Blade Server Resources
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps12288/index.html
Download Cisco UCS Manager and Blade Software Version 2.0(1w)
Citrix Reference Documents
Citrix Consulting White Papers
http://support.citrix.com/product/xd/v5.5/consulting/
Microsoft Reference Documents
Windows Server 2008 R2
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/default.aspx
Active Directory
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/active-directory.aspx
File Services
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/file-and-print-services.aspx
Failover Clustering
Hyper-V Role on Server 2008 R2
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/hyper-v.aspx
Hyper-V server
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/hyper-v-server/default.aspx
Deeper Dive to HyperV features
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/hyper-v-features.aspx
Windows 7 Enterprise
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/products-and-technologies/windows-7/features.aspx
NetApp Reference Documents
NetApp TR-3563: NetApp Thin Provisioning http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3563.pdf
NetApp TR-3505: NetApp Deduplication for FAS, Deployment and Implementation Guide http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3505.pdf
NetApp TR-3347: FlexClone Volumes: A Thorough Introduction http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3347.pdf
NetApp TR-3437: Storage Best Practices and Resiliency Guide http://media.netapp.com/documents/wp-3437.pdf
Appendix A—Nexus Configurations
Nexus 5548-A
version 5.1(3)N1(1a)
feature fcoe
hostname msoft-vdi-n5548-a
feature npiv
feature fport-channel-trunk
feature telnet
no feature http-server
cfs eth distribute
feature interface-vlan
feature lacp
feature vpc
feature lldp
feature fex
username admin password 5 $1$nLc3JOYW$GzDHEH0ksSioYa/UjdJr.0 role network-admin
banner motd #Nexus 5000 Switch
#
ip domain-lookup
logging event link-status default
ip access-list classiffy_silver
10 permit ip 10.16.0.0/16 any
20 permit ip any 10.16.0.0/16
30 permit ip 10.17.0.0/16 any
40 permit ip any 10.17.0.0/16
ip access-list classify_silver
class-map type qos class-fcoe
class-map type qos match-all class-gold
match cos 4
class-map type qos match-all class-silver
match access-group name classiffy_silver
class-map type queuing class-fcoe
match qos-group 1
class-map type queuing class-gold
match qos-group 3
class-map type queuing class-silver
match qos-group 4
class-map type queuing class-all-flood
match qos-group 2
class-map type queuing class-ip-multicast
match qos-group 2
policy-map type qos system_qos_policy
class class-gold
set qos-group 3
class class-silver
set qos-group 4
class class-fcoe
set qos-group 1
class class-default
set qos-group 0
policy-map type queuing system_q_in_policy
class type queuing class-fcoe
bandwidth percent 20
class type queuing class-gold
bandwidth percent 33
class type queuing class-silver
bandwidth percent 29
class type queuing class-default
bandwidth percent 18
policy-map type queuing system_q_out_policy
class type queuing class-fcoe
bandwidth percent 20
class type queuing class-gold
bandwidth percent 33
class type queuing class-silver
bandwidth percent 29
class type queuing class-default
bandwidth percent 18
class-map type network-qos class-fcoe
match qos-group 1
class-map type network-qos class-gold
match qos-group 3
class-map type network-qos class-silver
match qos-group 4
class-map type network-qos class-all-flood
match qos-group 2
class-map type network-qos class-ip-multicast
match qos-group 2
policy-map type network-qos system_nq_policy
class type network-qos class-gold
set cos 4
mtu 9000
class type network-qos class-fcoe
pause no-drop
mtu 2158
class type network-qos class-silver
set cos 2
mtu 9000
class type network-qos class-default
mtu 9000
multicast-optimize
system qos
service-policy type qos input system_qos_policy
service-policy type queuing input system_q_in_policy
service-policy type queuing output system_q_out_policy
service-policy type network-qos system_nq_policy
slot 1
port 21-32 type fc
snmp-server user admin network-admin auth md5 0x43c8181d058c52019b4961b64ee16164 priv 0x43c8181d058c52019b4961b64ee16164 localizedkey
vrf context management
vlan 1,8
vlan 2222
name App-Cluster-Comm
vlan 2233
name public
vlan 2244
name vm-pvs
vlan 2255
name mgmt
vlan 2266
name CSV
vlan 2277
name Live-Migration
vlan 2288
name iSCSI-A
vlan 2299
name iSCSI-B
spanning-tree port type edge bpduguard default
spanning-tree port type edge bpdufilter default
spanning-tree vlan 1,2233,2244 priority 24576
vpc domain 10
peer-keepalive destination 10.25.2.15
device-alias database
device-alias name citrixvdi-a-0c pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
device-alias name citrixvdi-b-0c pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
device-alias name c1-s1-b200m2-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:c1:b1:01
device-alias name hyperV-ucs-2-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:c1:b2:01
device-alias name hyperV-ucs-3-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:c1:b3:01
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-01-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3f
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-02-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1f
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-03-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3e
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-04-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3b
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-05-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1e
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-06-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1b
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-07-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3d
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-08-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3a
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-09-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1d
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-10-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1a
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-11-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3c
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-12-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:29
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-13-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1c
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-14-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:09
device-alias name vm-host-infra-01-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:28
device-alias name vm-host-infra-02-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:08
device-alias commit
fcdomain fcid database
vsan 1 wwn 20:1f:54:7f:ee:1b:fe:00 fcid 0x410000 dynamic
vsan 1 wwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8 fcid 0x410001 dynamic
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
vsan 1 wwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8 fcid 0x410002 dynamic
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3a fcid 0x410003 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-08-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1b fcid 0x410004 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-06-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:09 fcid 0x410005 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-14-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1d fcid 0x410006 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-09-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3b fcid 0x410007 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-04-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3d fcid 0x410008 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-07-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:29 fcid 0x410009 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-12-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1e fcid 0x41000a dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-05-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1f fcid 0x41000b dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-02-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1a fcid 0x41000c dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-10-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:08 fcid 0x41000d dynamic
! [vm-host-infra-02-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1c fcid 0x41000e dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-13-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3e fcid 0x41000f dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-03-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3c fcid 0x410010 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-11-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3f fcid 0x410011 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-01-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:28 fcid 0x410012 dynamic
! [vm-host-infra-01-fc0]
vsan 1 wwn 20:20:54:7f:ee:1b:fe:00 fcid 0x410013 dynamic
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:07 fcid 0x410014 dynamic
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:26 fcid 0x410015 dynamic
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:25 fcid 0x410016 dynamic
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:06 fcid 0x410017 dynamic
interface Vlan1
interface Vlan2233
no shutdown
ip address 10.11.240.2/16
interface san-port-channel 1
channel mode active
interface port-channel10
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk native vlan 2
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2222,2233,2244,2255,2266,2277,2288,2299
spanning-tree port type network
vpc peer-link
interface port-channel11
interface port-channel17
switchport access vlan 2299
vpc 17
interface port-channel18
switchport access vlan 2288
vpc 18
interface port-channel19
switchport mode trunk
spanning-tree port type edge trunk
vpc 19
interface port-channel20
switchport mode trunk
spanning-tree port type edge trunk
vpc 20
interface fc1/21
switchport trunk mode off
no shutdown
interface fc1/22
switchport trunk mode off
no shutdown
interface fc1/23
switchport trunk mode off
no shutdown
interface fc1/24
switchport trunk mode off
no shutdown
interface fc1/25
interface fc1/26
interface fc1/27
interface fc1/28
interface fc1/29
interface fc1/30
interface fc1/31
interface fc1/32
interface Ethernet1/1
switchport access vlan 2233
interface Ethernet1/2
interface Ethernet1/3
interface Ethernet1/4
interface Ethernet1/5
interface Ethernet1/6
interface Ethernet1/7
switchport access vlan 2233
speed 1000
interface Ethernet1/8
switchport access vlan 2233
speed 1000
interface Ethernet1/9
interface Ethernet1/10
interface Ethernet1/11
interface Ethernet1/12
interface Ethernet1/13
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 19 mode active
interface Ethernet1/14
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 19 mode active
interface Ethernet1/15
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 20 mode active
interface Ethernet1/16
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 20 mode active
interface Ethernet1/17
description netapp-fas3240-ctrl-b-10gb
switchport access vlan 2299
channel-group 17 mode active
interface Ethernet1/18
description netapp-fas3240-ctrl-a-10gb
switchport access vlan 2288
channel-group 18 mode active
interface Ethernet1/19
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk native vlan 2
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2222,2233,2244,2255,2266,2277,2288,2299
channel-group 10
interface Ethernet1/20
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk native vlan 2
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2222,2233,2244,2255,2266,2277,2288,2299
channel-group 10
interface mgmt0
ip address 10.25.2.16/22
line console
line vty
boot kickstart bootflash:/n5000-uk9-kickstart.5.1.3.N1.1a.bin
boot system bootflash:/n5000-uk9.5.1.3.N1.1a.bin
interface fc1/21
interface fc1/22
interface fc1/23
interface fc1/24
interface fc1/25
interface fc1/26
interface fc1/27
interface fc1/28
interface fc1/29
interface fc1/30
interface fc1/31
interface fc1/32
!Full Zone Database Section for vsan 1
zone name c1-s1-b200m2-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:c1:b1:01
! [c1-s1-b200m2-fc0]
zone name hyperV-ucs-2-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:c1:b2:01
! [hyperV-ucs-2-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
zone name hyperV-ucs-3-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:c1:b3:01
! [hyperV-ucs-3-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-01-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3f
! [vm-host-vdi-01-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-02-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1f
! [vm-host-vdi-02-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-03-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3e
! [vm-host-vdi-03-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-04-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3b
! [vm-host-vdi-04-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-05-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1e
! [vm-host-vdi-05-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-06-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1b
! [vm-host-vdi-06-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-07-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3d
! [vm-host-vdi-07-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-08-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3a
! [vm-host-vdi-08-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-09-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1d
! [vm-host-vdi-09-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-10-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1a
! [vm-host-vdi-10-fc0]
zone name vm-host-vdi-11-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:3c
! [vm-host-vdi-11-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-12-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:29
! [vm-host-vdi-12-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-13-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:1c
! [vm-host-vdi-13-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-vdi-14-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:09
! [vm-host-vdi-14-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-infra-01-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:28
! [vm-host-infra-01-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zone name vm-host-infra-02-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:08
! [vm-host-infra-02-fc0]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0c]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0c]
zoneset name ms-vdi vsan 1
member c1-s1-b200m2-fc0
member hyperV-ucs-2-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-01-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-02-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-03-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-04-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-05-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-06-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-07-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-08-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-09-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-10-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-11-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-12-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-13-fc0
member vm-host-vdi-14-fc0
member vm-host-infra-01-fc0
member vm-host-infra-02-fc0
zoneset activate name ms-vdi vsan 1
Nexus 5548-B
version 5.1(3)N1(1a)
feature fcoe
hostname msoft-vdi-n5548-b
feature npiv
feature fport-channel-trunk
feature telnet
no feature http-server
cfs eth distribute
feature interface-vlan
feature lacp
feature vpc
feature lldp
feature fex
username admin password 5 $1$kjpHgfqH$qWFuj6a1QIYVVpBnuopgn0 role network-admin
banner motd #Nexus 5000 Switch
#
ip domain-lookup
logging event link-status default
ip access-list classiffy_silver
10 permit ip 10.16.0.0/16 any
20 permit ip any 10.16.0.0/16
30 permit ip 10.17.0.0/16 any
40 permit ip any 10.17.0.0/16
class-map type qos class-fcoe
class-map type qos match-all class-gold
match cos 4
class-map type qos match-all class-silver
match access-group name classiffy_silver
class-map type queuing class-fcoe
match qos-group 1
class-map type queuing class-gold
match qos-group 3
class-map type queuing class-silver
match qos-group 4
class-map type queuing class-all-flood
match qos-group 2
class-map type queuing class-ip-multicast
match qos-group 2
policy-map type qos system_qos_policy
class class-gold
set qos-group 3
class class-silver
set qos-group 4
class class-fcoe
set qos-group 1
class class-default
set qos-group 0
policy-map type queuing system_q-in_policy
class type queuing class-fcoe
bandwidth percent 20
class type queuing class-gold
bandwidth percent 33
class type queuing class-silver
bandwidth percent 29
class type queuing class-default
bandwidth percent 18
policy-map type queuing system_q_in_policy
class type queuing class-fcoe
bandwidth percent 20
class type queuing class-gold
bandwidth percent 33
class type queuing class-silver
bandwidth percent 29
class type queuing class-default
bandwidth percent 18
policy-map type queuing system_q_out_policy
class type queuing class-fcoe
bandwidth percent 20
class type queuing class-gold
bandwidth percent 33
class type queuing class-silver
bandwidth percent 29
class type queuing class-default
bandwidth percent 18
class-map type network-qos class-fcoe
match qos-group 1
class-map type network-qos class-gold
match qos-group 3
class-map type network-qos class-silver
match qos-group 4
class-map type network-qos class-all-flood
match qos-group 2
class-map type network-qos class-ip-multicast
match qos-group 2
policy-map type network-qos system_nq_policy
class type network-qos class-gold
set cos 4
mtu 9000
class type network-qos class-fcoe
pause no-drop
mtu 2158
class type network-qos class-silver
set cos 2
mtu 9000
class type network-qos class-default
mtu 9000
multicast-optimize
system qos
service-policy type qos input system_qos_policy
service-policy type queuing output system_q_out_policy
service-policy type network-qos system_nq_policy
service-policy type queuing input system_q_in_policy
slot 1
port 21-32 type fc
snmp-server user admin network-admin auth md5 0x60b6015e3c29399aa87578dd5a0300db
priv 0x60b6015e3c29399aa87578dd5a0300db localizedkey
vrf context management
vlan 1
vlan 2
name Native
vlan 2222
name App-Cluster-Comm
vlan 2233
name public
vlan 2244
name vm-pvs
vlan 2255
name mgmt
vlan 2266
name CSV
vlan 2277
name Live-Migration
vlan 2288
name iSCSI-A
vlan 2299
name iSCSI-B
spanning-tree port type edge bpduguard default
spanning-tree port type edge bpdufilter default
spanning-tree vlan 1,2233,2244 priority 57344
vpc domain 10
peer-keepalive destination 10.25.2.16
device-alias database
device-alias name citrixvdi-a-0d pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
device-alias name citrixvdi-b-0d pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
device-alias name c1-s1-b200m2-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:c1:b1:02
device-alias name hyperV-ucs-2-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:c1:b2:02
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-01-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2f
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-02-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0f
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-03-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2e
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-04-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2b
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-05-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0e
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-06-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0b
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-07-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2d
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-08-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2a
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-09-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0d
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-10-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0a
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-11-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2c
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-12-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:39
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-13-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0c
device-alias name vm-host-vdi-14-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:19
device-alias name vm-host-infra-01-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:38
device-alias name vm-host-infra-02-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:18
device-alias commit
fcdomain fcid database
vsan 1 wwn 20:1f:54:7f:ee:1b:ff:00 fcid 0x850000 dynamic
vsan 1 wwn 20:20:54:7f:ee:1b:ff:00 fcid 0x850001 dynamic
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0d fcid 0x850002 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-09-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2d fcid 0x850003 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-07-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0e fcid 0x850004 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-05-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0c fcid 0x850005 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-13-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2e fcid 0x850006 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-03-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2c fcid 0x850007 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-11-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:38 fcid 0x850008 dynamic
! [vm-host-infra-01-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2f fcid 0x850009 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-01-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2a fcid 0x85000a dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-08-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0b fcid 0x85000b dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-06-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:19 fcid 0x85000c dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-14-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2b fcid 0x85000d dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-04-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:39 fcid 0x85000e dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-12-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0f fcid 0x85000f dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-02-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0a fcid 0x850010 dynamic
! [vm-host-vdi-10-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:18 fcid 0x850011 dynamic
! [vm-host-infra-02-fc1]
vsan 1 wwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8 fcid 0x850012 dynamic
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
vsan 1 wwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8 fcid 0x850013 dynamic
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:17 fcid 0x850014 dynamic
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:36 fcid 0x850015 dynamic
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:35 fcid 0x850016 dynamic
vsan 1 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:16 fcid 0x850017 dynamic
interface Vlan1
interface Vlan2233
no shutdown
ip address 10.11.240.3/16
interface san-port-channel 2
channel mode active
interface port-channel10
switchport mode trunk
spanning-tree port type network
vpc peer-link
interface port-channel17
switchport access vlan 2299
vpc 17
interface port-channel18
switchport access vlan 2288
vpc 18
interface port-channel19
switchport mode trunk
spanning-tree port type edge trunk vpc 19
interface port-channel20
switchport mode trunk
spanning-tree port type edge trunk
vpc 20
interface fc1/21
switchport trunk mode off
no shutdown
interface fc1/22
switchport trunk mode off
no shutdown
interface fc1/23
switchport trunk mode off
no shutdown
interface fc1/24
switchport trunk mode off
no shutdown
interface fc1/25
interface fc1/26
interface fc1/27
interface fc1/28
interface fc1/29
interface fc1/30
interface fc1/31
interface fc1/32
interface Ethernet1/1
switchport access vlan 2233
interface Ethernet1/2
interface Ethernet1/3
interface Ethernet1/4
interface Ethernet1/5
interface Ethernet1/6
interface Ethernet1/7
switchport access vlan 2233
speed 1000
interface Ethernet1/8
switchport access vlan 2233
speed 1000
interface Ethernet1/9
interface Ethernet1/10
interface Ethernet1/11
interface Ethernet1/12
interface Ethernet1/13
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 19 mode active
interface Ethernet1/14
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 19 mode active
interface Ethernet1/15
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 20 mode active
interface Ethernet1/16
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 20 mode active
interface Ethernet1/17
description netapp-fas3240-ctrl-b-10gb
switchport access vlan 2299
channel-group 17 mode active
interface Ethernet1/18
description netapp-fas3240-ctrl-a-10gb
switchport access vlan 2288
channel-group 18 mode active
interface Ethernet1/19
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 10
interface Ethernet1/20
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 10
interface mgmt0
ip address 10.25.2.15/22
line console
line vty
boot kickstart bootflash:/n5000-uk9-kickstart.5.1.3.N1.1a.bin
boot system bootflash:/n5000-uk9.5.1.3.N1.1a.bin
interface fc1/21
interface fc1/22
interface fc1/23
interface fc1/24
interface fc1/25
interface fc1/26
interface fc1/27
interface fc1/28
interface fc1/29
interface fc1/30
interface fc1/31
interface fc1/32
!Full Zone Database Section for vsan 1
zone name c1-s1-b200m2-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:c1:b1:02
! [c1-s1-b200m2-fc1]
zone name hyperV-ucs-2-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:c1:b2:02
! [hyperV-ucs-2-fc1]
zone name vm-host-infra-01-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:38
! [vm-host-infra-01-fc1]
zone name vm-host-vdi-02-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0f
! [vm-host-vdi-02-fc1]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
zone name vm-host-vdi-03-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2e
! [vm-host-vdi-03-fc1]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
zone name vm-host-vdi-04-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2b
! [vm-host-vdi-04-fc1]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
zone name vm-host-vdi-05-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0e
! [vm-host-vdi-05-fc1]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
zone name vm-host-vdi-06-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0b
! [vm-host-vdi-06-fc1]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
zone name vm-host-vdi-07-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2d
! [vm-host-vdi-07-fc1]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
zone name vm-host-vdi-08-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2a
! [vm-host-vdi-08-fc1]
zone name vm-host-vdi-09-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0d
! [vm-host-vdi-09-fc1]
zone name vm-host-vdi-10-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0a
! [vm-host-vdi-10-fc1]
zone name vm-host-vdi-11-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2c
! [vm-host-vdi-11-fc1]
zone name vm-host-vdi-12-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:39
! [vm-host-vdi-12-fc1]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
zone name vm-host-vdi-13-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:0c
! [vm-host-vdi-13-fc1]
zone name vm-host-vdi-14-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:19
! [vm-host-vdi-14-fc1]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
zone name vm-host-vdi-01-fc1 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:2f
! [vm-host-vdi-01-fc1]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
zone name vm-host-infra-02-fc0 vsan 1
member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:02:02:18
! [vm-host-infra-02-fc1]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-a-0d]
member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:42:bd:e8
! [citrixvdi-b-0d]
zoneset name ms-vdi vsan 1
member c1-s1-b200m2-fc1
member hyperV-ucs-2-fc1
member vm-host-infra-01-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-02-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-03-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-04-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-05-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-06-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-07-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-08-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-09-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-10-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-11-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-12-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-13-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-14-fc1
member vm-host-vdi-01-fc1
member vm-host-infra-02-fc0
zoneset activate name ms-vdi vsan 1
Appendix B—Virtual Machine Manager PowerShell Scripts
Generate Virtual Machines
# Purpose: Generate up to virtual machines using the command-line parameters supplied
# for customization of the new virtual machine.
# Date: 29 August 2011
# Version: 7
# Author: Paul Wilson
# Modify by: Duy Le
# Notes: The script only creates VMs on a single host. To create VMs on multiple hosts
# run multiple instances of the script from a batch file or create an outer loop.
# The LocalVMStorage path and networks must exist or the script fails. I have
# not added any data validation checks to the script. This has been modified to work
# with SCVMM 2012. Must be run from a System Center VMM 2012 Server.
# Add the Virtual Machine Manager snapin so the commands work.
# import-module VirtualMachineManager.psd1
# Set Default Values:
#LOAY - defaults updated
$DefVMHost = "All"
$DefVMBaseName = "clus1vm"
$DefNetworkName = "PVS"
$DefNetworkName2 = "Public"
$DefVMPath = "V:"
$DefVMCount = 5
$DefStartCount = 1
$DefMemMin = 512
$DefMemMax = 2048
$DefNumCPUs = 1
$DefMemBuffer = 20
$DefMemWeight = 5000
$DefDomainUser = "CITRIX\Administrator"
# Parse the command-line and verify the 13 required parameters are present, if not display usage info
if ($args -eq $null -or $args.Count -lt 13)
{
write-host "Usage: GenVMs.ps1 VMTargetHost VMBaseName PVSBootNetwork SynthNetwork "
write-host "LocalVMStoragePath NumberToCreate StartingAt MinMemory MaxMemory"
write-host "CpuCores DynamicMemoryBuffer DynamicMemoryWeight DomainUser"
write-host " "
write-host "Example: .\GenVMs.ps1 ""$DefVMHost"" ""$DefVMBaseName"" ""$DefNetworkName"" ""$DefNetworkName2"" "
write-host """$DefVMPath"" $DefVMCount $DefStartCount $DefMemMin $DefMemMax $DefNumCPUs $DefMemBuffer $DefMemWeight $DefDomainUser"
write-host " "
write-host "Warning! Not enough command-line parameters have been supplied!"
$strAnswer = read-host "Would you like to manually provide the parameters (y/n)?"
switch ($strAnswer)
{
N {exit 1}
Y {
write-host "=========================================================="
write-host " PROVIDE PARAMETER VALUES. CONFIRM IN NEXT STEP"
write-host " Press [Enter] to accept the value in parenthesis"
write-host "=========================================================="
$VMHost = read-host "Enter HyperV Host name to create the servers on (eg $DefVMHost)"
if($VMHost.length -eq 0){ $VMHost = $DefVMHost}
$VMBaseName = read-host "Enter base name for virtual machines (eg $DefVMBaseName)"
if($VMBaseName.length -eq 0){ $VMBaseName = $DefVMBaseName}
$NetworkName = read-host "Enter the Hyper-V network for the emulated adapter (eg $DefNetworkName)"
if($NetworkName.length -eq 0){ $NetworkName = $DefNetworkName}
$NetworkName2 = read-host "Enter the Hyper-V network for the synthetic adapter (eg $DefNetworkName2)"
if($NetworkName2.length -eq 0){ $NetworkName2 = $DefNetworkName2}
$VMPath = read-host "Enter the locally accessible path where the host will store`r`nthe virtual machines data (eg $DefVMPath)"
if($VMPath.length -eq 0){ $VMPath = $DefVMPath}
[int]$VMCount = read-host "Enter the number of virtual machines to create on the host (eg $DefVMCount)"
if($VMCount -eq ""){ [int]$VMCount = $DefVMCount}
[int]$StartCount = read-host "Enter the first number to start at (eg $DefStartCount) "
if($StartCount -eq ""){ [int]$StartCount = [int]$DefStartCount}
$MemMin = read-host "Enter the minimum amount of dynamic memory in MB (eg $DefMemMin)"
if($MemMin.length -eq 0){ $MemMin = $DefMemMin}
$MemMax = read-host "Enter the maximum amount of dynamic memory to assign in MB (eg $DefMemMax)"
if($MemMax.length -eq 0){ $MemMax = $DefMemMax}
[int]$NumCPUs = read-host "Enter the number of CPUs to assign to the VM (eg $DefNumCPUs)"
if($NumCPUs -eq ""){ [int]$NumCPUs = [int]$DefNumCPUs}
$MemBuffer = read-host "Percentage of memory to use for cache (eg $DefMemBuffer)"
if($MemBuffer.length -eq 0){ $MemBuffer = $DefMemBuffer}
$MemWeight = read-host "Enter the memory weight for dynamic memory range is 0-10000 (eg $DefMemWeight)"
if($MemWeight.length -eq 0){ $MemWeight = $DefMemWeight}
$DomainUser = read-host "Enter the domain user for the hardware profile owner (eg $DefDomainUser)"
if($DomainUser.length -eq 0){ $DomainUser = $DefDomainUser}
write-host "Thank you..."
}
Default {exit 1}
}
}
else
{
# Place the command-line parameters into named variables for later use.
$VMHost = $args[0]
$VMBaseName = $args[1]
$NetworkName = $args[2]
$NetworkName2 = $args[3]
$VMPath = $args[4]
[int]$VMCount = $args[5]
[int]$StartCount = $args[6]
$MemMin = $args[7]
$MemMax = $args[8]
[int]$NumCPUs = $args[9]
$MemBuffer = $args[10]
$MemWeight = $args[11]
$DomainUser = $args[12]
}
#LOAY get hosts and sort by name
$VMhosts = Get-SCVMHost | sort Name
$VMhostsCount = $VMhosts.count
# Post back the settings to the user for confirmation
write-host "=========================================================="
write-host "CONFIRM CONFIGURED SETTINGS"
write-host "=========================================================="
write-host "HyperV Server to create VMs on: $VMHost"
write-host "hosts count: $VMhostsCount"
write-host "Base name for VMs: $VMBaseName"
write-host "PVS boot network name (emulated nic): $NetworkName"
write-host "Normal network name (synthetic nic): $NetworkName2"
write-host "Local path for HyperV server to store VMs: $VMPath"
write-host "Number of VMs to create: $VMCount"
write-host "Base number to start VM creation at: $StartCount"
write-host "Minimum Memory to assign to VM: $MemMin MB"
write-host "Maximum Memory to assign to VM: $MemMax MB"
write-host "Number of CPUs for the VM: $NumCPUs"
write-host "Dynamic Memory buffer: $MemBuffer%"
write-host "Dynamic Memory weight value: $MemWeight"
write-host "Profile Owner: $DomainUser"
write-host "=========================================================="
$strConfirm = read-host "Please confirm these settings. Continue (YES)?"
if ($strConfirm -ne "YES")
{
write-host "You did not type out the word YES. Aborting!"
exit 1
}
# Get the name of the SCVMM server we are running this on. The VMM server could be passed as a parameter as well.
$VMMServer = Get-SCVMMServer -Computername "localhost"
# Create a new Hardware Profile for a XenDesktop and set the default values or use the existing profile. Updating an existing profile is not supported.
# If the profile already exists and you want to make changes, you will need to change it through PowerShell, SCVMM, or delete and recreate the profile with the script.
$HWProfile = Get-SCHardwareProfile | where {$_.Name -eq "XD5Profile"}
if ($HWProfile -eq $null)
{
write-output "Hardware profile not found. Creating a default profile."
$HWProfile = New-SCHardwareProfile -Owner "$DomainUser" -Description "Hosted XenDesktop" -Name "XD5Profile" -CPUCount $NumCPUs -BootOrder PXEBoot,IDEHardDrive,CD,Floppy -DynamicMemoryEnabled $True -DynamicMemoryMaximumMB $MemMax -DynamicMemoryBufferPercentage $MemBuffer -MemoryWeight $MemWeight -MemoryMB $MemMin
}
# Calculate the ending value for the VM generation loop
$EndCount = $StartCount + $VMCount - 1
$VMsperHost = $VMCount/$VMhostsCount
#LOAY = change loop to double loop
# Create VMs in a loop
for ($i=$StartCount; $i -le $VMsperHost; $i++)
{
for ($j = 0; $j -le ($VMhostsCount-1); $j++)
{
# Create the Virtual Machine and assign the VM Name. Use the number after the format type to control the number of leading 0's.
# Format types: D=Decimal, X=Hexadecimal. ie. D3=(001,002,...,099,100,...999,1000,...n) D2=(01,02...,99,100,...n) X2=(...,0A,OB,...,FF,100,...n)
# LOAY - code had beend upgraded to handle 4 digit numbers (instead of 3)
$VMName = "{1}{0:D4}" -f ($j*$VMsperHost + $i), $VMBaseName
write-host "Creating $VMName..."
# Create a job group id to link the items together and create them as a group with the New-VM command
$JobGroupID = [System.Guid]::NewGuid().ToString()
# Get a network objects for creating the network adapters. If a second network adapter (synthetic usually) comment out the $VNetwork2= line
$LNetwork = Get-SCLogicalNetwork -Name $NetworkName -VMMServer localhost
$LNetwork2 = Get-SCLogicalNetwork -Name $NetworkName2 -VMMServer localhost
New-SCVirtualNetworkAdapter -JobGroup $JobGroupID -LogicalNetwork $LNetwork
# In case a second synthetic adapter is not necessary comment out the line below
New-SCVirtualNetworkAdapter -JobGroup $JobGroupID -synthetic -LogicalNetwork $LNetwork2
# Create a virtual DVD
New-SCVirtualDVDDrive -JobGroup $JobGroupID -Bus 1 -LUN 0
# Build Virtual Machine using SCVMM Powershell API.
# LOAY - code has been upgraded to loop thru the nodes
New-SCVirtualMachine -VMMServer $VMMServer -Name $VMName -VMHost $VMhosts[$j].computername -Path $VMPath -HardwareProfile $HWProfile -JobGroup $JobGroupID -RunAsynchronously -SkipInstallVirtualizationGuestServices -StartAction NeverAutoTurnOnVM -StopAction TurnOffVM
}
write-host "Sleeping 30 secs..."
sleep 30
}
Modify Virtual Machines
# Purpose: Modify the legacy NIC to use static MAC and assign it one from MAC Address pool
# Date: 08 Nov. 2011
# Version: 1
# Notes: This script is created for SCVMM 2012. It sets the first NIC, the Legacy NIC, to use
# static MAC address and then assign a MAC from the MAC pool.
# Must be run from a System Center VMM 2012 Server.
# Set Default Values:
$DefVMBaseName = "PVSTargetVM"
# Parse the command-line and verify the required parameter is present, if not display usage info
if ($args -eq $null -or $args.count -lt 1)
{
write-output "Usage: ModifyVMs.ps1 VMNameMatch"
write-output "Example: .\ModifyVMs.ps1 ""PVSTargetVM"" "
write-output "Function: Change the first to NIC to static MAC and get MAC from the MAC pool of the VMM."
write-host "Warning! Not enough command-line parameters have been supplied!"
$strAnswer = read-host "Would you like to manually provide the parameters (y/n)?"
switch ($strAnswer)
{
N {exit 1}
Y {
write-host "=========================================================="
write-host " PROVIDE PARAMETER VALUES. CONFIRM IN NEXT STEP"
write-host " Press [Enter] to accept the value in parenthesis"
write-host "=========================================================="
$VMBaseName = read-host "Enter base name for virtual machines (eg $DefVMBaseName)"
if($VMBaseName.length -eq 0){ $VMBaseName = $DefVMBaseName}
}
Default {exit 1}
}
}
else
{
# Place the command-line parameters into named variables for later use.
$VMBaseName = $args[0]
}
# Get the list of VMs that match the VMNameMatch provided on the command-line
$AllVMs = Get-SCVirtualMachine | where { $_.Name -match "$VMBaseName" } | sort Name
# Determine how many VM's meet the VMNameMatch criteria. Save the count for later output.
if ($AllVMs -eq $null)
{
write-output "No VMs match the pattern: $VMBaseName"
exit 1
}
else
{
$LeftToGo = $AllVMs.Count
if ($LeftToGo -eq $null)
{
$matchString = "Only one VM matched the pattern: {0}" -f $VMBaseName
$LeftToGo = 1
}
else
{
$matchString = "{0} VMs match the pattern: {1}" -f $AllVMs.Count, $VMBaseName
}
write-output $matchString
}
# Get MAC Address Pool name
$MACPool = Get-SCMACAddressPool
# Process each VM and attempt to assign a static MAC Address.
foreach ($myVM in $AllVMs)
{
try
{
# Get Virtual Network adapters from VM
$NIC = Get-SCVirtualNetworkAdapter -VM $myVM
#LOAY
#Grant MAC address
$PooledMACAddress = Grant-SCMACAddress -MacAddressPool $MACPool[1] -VirtualNetworkAdapter $NIC[0]
#LOAY
#Set virtual network adapter
Set-SCVirtualNetworkAdapter -PhysicalAddressType Static -PhysicalAddress $PooledMACAddress -VirtualNetworkAdapter $NIC[0] -RunAsynchronously
}
catch { }
}
Attach VHDs to Virtual Machines
# Purpose: This script attaches an existing VHD to a virtual machine. Designed for deploying XenDesktop and attaching write
# cache drives to existing VMs.
# Date: 28 Oct 2010
# Authors: Loay Shbeilat and Paul Wilson (no implied or expressed warranties) with content taken from Taylor Brown's blog:
# http://blogs.msdn.com/b/taylorb/archive/2008/10/13/pdc-teaser-attaching-a-vhd-to-a-virtual-machine.aspx
# Modify by: Duy Le
# Notes: This script will add a New IDE Virtual disk drive to attach the VHD and attach a boot ISO if specified. Must be run from a System Center VMM 2012 Server.
# Add the Virtual Machine Manager snapin so the commands work.
# import-module VirtualMachineManager.psd1
# Function ProcessWMIJob used to add the new Virtual Disk and VHD.
filter ProcessWMIJob
{
param
(
[string]$WmiClassPath = $null,
[string]$MethodName = $null
)
$errorCode = 0
if ($_.ReturnValue -eq 4096)
{
$Job = [WMI]$_.Job
while ($Job.JobState -eq 4)
{
Write-Progress $Job.Caption "% Complete" -PercentComplete $Job.PercentComplete
Start-Sleep -seconds 1
$Job.PSBase.Get()
}
if ($Job.JobState -ne 7)
{
if ($Job.ErrorDescription -ne "")
{
Write-Error $Job.ErrorDescription
Throw $Job.ErrorDescription
}
else
{
$errorCode = $Job.ErrorCode
}
}
Write-Progress $Job.Caption "Completed" -Completed $TRUE
}
elseif($_.ReturnValue -ne 0)
{
$errorCode = $_.ReturnValue
}
if ($errorCode -ne 0)
{
Write-Error "Hyper-V WMI Job Failed!"
if ($WmiClassPath -and $MethodName)
{
$psWmiClass = [WmiClass]$WmiClassPath
$psWmiClass.PSBase.Options.UseAmendedQualifiers = $TRUE
$MethodQualifiers = $psWmiClass.PSBase.Methods[$MethodName].Qualifiers
$indexOfError = [System.Array]::IndexOf($MethodQualifiers["ValueMap"].Value, [string]$errorCode)
if ($indexOfError -ne "-1")
{
Throw "ReturnCode: ", $errorCode, " ErrorMessage: '", $MethodQualifiers["Values"].Value[$indexOfError], "' - when calling $MethodName"
}
else
{
Throw "ReturnCode: ", $errorCode, " ErrorMessage: 'MessageNotFound' - when calling $MethodName"
}
}
else
{
Throw "ReturnCode: ", $errorCode, "When calling $MethodName - for rich error messages provide classpath and method name."
}
}
return $_
}
# Parse the command-line and verify the 3 required parameters are present, if not display usage info
if ($args -eq $null -or $args.Count -lt 3)
{
write-output "Usage: AttachVHD.ps1 LocalVMStoragePath VMNameMatch Postpend"
write-output "Example: .\AttachVHD.ps1 ""E:\Hyper-V"" ""HVDesktop01"" ""_wc"" "
write-output "Function: Adds a IDE drive and attachs an existing VHD to the VM."
write-output "In this example the E:\Hyper-V\HVDesktop01\HVDesktop01_wc.vhd is attached HVDesktop01"
exit 1
}
# Place the command-line parameters into named variables for later use.
$VHDPath = $args[0]
$VMNameMatches = $args[1]
$PostPend = $args[2]
# Get the VMM server name
$VMMServer = Get-SCVMMServer -Computername "localhost"
# Get the list of VMs that match the VMNameMatch provided on the command-line
# LOAY - took away the sorting (this causes the script to go slower)
$AllVMs = Get-SCVirtualMachine | where { $_.Name -match "$VMNameMatches" }
# Determine how many VM's meet the VMNameMatch criteria. Save the count for later output.
if ($AllVMs -eq $null)
{
write-output "No VMs match the pattern: $VMNameMatches"
exit 1
}
else
{
$LeftToGo = $AllVMs.Count
if ($LeftToGo -eq $null)
{
$matchString = "Only one VM matched the pattern: {0}" -f $VMNameMatches
$LeftToGo = 1
}
else
{
$matchString = "{0} VMs match the pattern: {1}" -f $AllVMs.Count, $VMNameMatches
}
write-output $matchString
}
# Process each VM and attempt to mount the VHD. The VHD needs to exist first.
#LOAY - added counter for throttling.
$counter = 0
foreach ($myVM in $AllVMs)
{
$counter++
if ($counter -eq 20)
{
$counter = 0
Sleep 5
}
$LeftToGo = $LeftToGo - 1
$HyperVGuest = $myVM.Name
$server = $myVM.hostname
# Modify $vhdToMount variable to match the path to the VHD if yours is not in the VM directory.
$vhdToMount = "{1}{2}.vhd" -f $VHDPath, $myVM.Name, $PostPend
$vhdloc = "{0}\{1}" -f $VHDPath, $myVM.Name, $PostPend
$Status = "Processing VM:{0} VHD:{1} VMs Left:{2}" -f $myVM.Name, $vhdToMount, $LeftToGo
Write-output $Status
try
{
##LOAY - updated the attach to be Async... Also commented the DVD mounting.
#NOT NEEDED: $vm = Get-SCVirtualMachine -name $myVM.Name
$jbgrp = [GUID]::NewGUID().ToString()
New-SCVirtualDiskDrive -IDE -Bus 0 -LUN 0 -UseLocalVirtualHardDisk -FileName $VhdToMount -Path $vhdloc -jobgroup $jbgrp
set-scvirtualmachine -vm $myVM -jobgroup $jbgrp -RunAsynchronously
# Get DVD Drive attached to the VM and then mount the ISO file specified on the command line
#$DVDDrive = Get-SCVirtualDVDDrive -VM $vm | where { $_.Bus -eq 1 -and $_.LUN -eq 0 }
#Set-SCVirtualDVDDrive -VirtualDVDDrive $DVDDrive -ISO $ISO[0] -runasychronously
}
catch {
write-output "Exception"
}
}
Generate PVS Machine File
# Purpose: Create a CSV file that can be imported by Provisioning services
# Date: 29 August 2011
# Version: 1.03
# Author: Paul Wilson
# Notes: The CSV file may need to opened and saved in the ANSI format on some computers.
# This script automatically appends information to any existing file in case you need to
# run the command multiple times with different match criteria.
# Parse the command-line and verify the five required parameters are present, if not display usage info
if ($args -eq $null -or $args.Count -lt 5)
{
write-output "Usage: GenPVSFile.ps1 SiteName CollectionName Description ImportFileName VMMatchCriteria"
write-output "Example: .\GenPVSFile.ps1 ""Site"" ""Collection"" ""XD Desktop"" ""c:\PVSImport.csv"" HVDesktop "
exit 1
}
# Pulls the VM Name Match criteria off the command-line
$VMNameMatches = $args[4]
# Connects to the local SCVMM Server
$VMMServer = Get-SCVMMServer -Computername "localhost"
# Finds all matching VMs and sorts by their machine name
$AllVMs = Get-SCVirtualMachine | where { $_.Name -match "$VMNameMatches" } | sort Name
if ($AllVMs -eq $null)
{
write-output "No VMs match the pattern: $VMNameMatches"
exit 1
}
else
{
$LeftToGo = $AllVMs.Count
if ($LeftToGo -eq $null)
{
$matchString = "Only one VM matched the pattern: {0}" -f $VMNameMatches
$LeftToGo = 1
}
else
{
$matchString = "{0}VMs match the pattern: {1}" -f $VMs.Count, $VMNameMatches
}
write-output $matchString
}
# The following loop gets the MAC address of the primary NIC then writes
# that output to the CSV file along with the other fields required for the PVS import
# most of which were supplied as parameters on the command-line.
# This code assumes the first NIC is the PVS boot NIC. If not, change the $nicDetails[0] to $nicDetails[1]
foreach ($vm in $AllVms)
{
$LeftToGo = $LeftToGo -1
$nicDetails = Get-SCVirtualNetworkAdapter -VM $vm
# Look to see if more than one network adapter is defined, if so, grab the first one in the array
if ($nicDetails.count -lt 1)
# If only one network adapter is defined, this evaluation will return True because no array is created
{
$csvString = "{0},{1},{2},{3},{4}" -f $vm.Name, $nicDetails.PhysicalAddress, $args[0], $args[1], $args[2]
add-content $args[3] $csvString
$StatusString = "Processing {0}. Virtual Machines left to process: {1}" -f $vm.Name, $LeftToGo
write-output $StatusString
}
else
# If that evalution was False, more than one NIC exists and we grab the MAC of the first one in the array
{
$csvString = "{0},{1},{2},{3},{4}" -f $vm.Name, $nicDetails[0].PhysicalAddress, $args[0], $args[1], $args[2]
add-content $args[3] $csvString
$StatusString = "Processing {0}. Virtual Machines left to process: {1}" -f $vm.Name, $LeftToGo
write-output $StatusString
}
}
Appendix C—NetApp PowerShell Script
Clone Write-Cache Disks for 2000 Virtual desktops.
# This script will clone a VHD file to a sub-directory structure already present on a NetApp LUN.
# It will connect to a NetApp controller and then clone the "Source" file to a destination root with sub-folders
# i.e. source file is c:\clusteredstorage\volume1\wc.vhd and destination is c:\clusteredstorage\volume1\VM001 etc.
#
# powershell import of NetApp Powershell Toolkit 1.6
import-module dataontap
# parse the command line and verify the necessary parameters are present. If not display usage info.
if ($args -eq $null -or $args.Count -lt 6)
{
write-output "Usage: NACloneWC.ps1 NAController NAUser NAPasswd SourceFile DestinationBase VMMBase"
write-output "Example: .\NACloneWC.ps1 10.2.2.2 root password c:\File.vhd d:\ VMMName"
exit 1
}
$nacontroller = $args[0]
$nauser = $args[1]
$napasswd = $args[2]
$source = $args[3]
$baseDestination = $args[4]
$baseVMName = $args[5]
# provide credential passthrough and then log into NetApp controller
$password = ConvertTo-SecureString $napasswd -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $nauser,$password
Connect-NaController $nacontroller -Credential $cred
$Matchingsubfolders = get-childitem $baseDestination -name -include ($baseVMName + "*")
foreach ($subfolder in $Matchingsubfolders)
{
$destination = $baseDestination + "\" + $subfolder + "\" + $subfolder + "_wc.vhd"
write-output $source
Write-output $destination
copy-nahostfile $source $destination
}
Appendix D—VDI Blade Performance Charts: 2000 Users
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases- M-Host-VDI-01
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-02
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-03
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-04
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-05
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-06
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-07
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-08
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-09
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-10
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-11
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-12
2000 User, Fourteen B230 M2 All Phases- VM-Host-VDI-13
2000 User, Fourteen Cisco UCS B230 M2 All Phases-VM-Host-VDI-14
Building Architectures to Solve Business Problems
Citrix XenDesktop on FlexPod with Microsoft Private CloudA Cisco Validated Design for 2000 Virtual Desktops featuringCisco Unified Computing System Blade Servers, NetApp FAS Storage,Citrix XenDesktop 5.6, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1Last Updated: May 24, 2012About Cisco Validated Design (CVD) Program
The CVD program consists of systems and solutions designed, tested, and documented to facilitate faster, more reliable, and more predictable customer deployments. For more information visit http://www.cisco.com/go/designzone.
ALL DESIGNS, SPECIFICATIONS, STATEMENTS, INFORMATION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS (COLLECTIVELY, "DESIGNS") IN THIS MANUAL ARE PRESENTED "AS IS," WITH ALL FAULTS. CISCO AND ITS SUPPLIERS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OR ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE. IN NO EVENT SHALL CISCO OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST PROFITS OR LOSS OR DAMAGE TO DATA ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE DESIGNS, EVEN IF CISCO OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
THE DESIGNS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. USERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR APPLICATION OF THE DESIGNS. THE DESIGNS DO NOT CONSTITUTE THE TECHNICAL OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL ADVICE OF CISCO, ITS SUPPLIERS OR PARTNERS. USERS SHOULD CONSULT THEIR OWN TECHNICAL ADVISORS BEFORE IMPLEMENTING THE DESIGNS. RESULTS MAY VARY DEPENDING ON FACTORS NOT TESTED BY CISCO.
The Cisco implementation of TCP header compression is an adaptation of a program developed by the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) as part of UCB's public domain version of the UNIX operating system. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1981, Regents of the University of California.
Cisco and the Cisco Logo are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at http://www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1005R)
Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.
Citrix XenDesktop on FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud
© 2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
About the Authors
Mike Brennan, Senior Technical Marketing Engineer, Cisco SystemsMike Brennan is a Cisco Unified Computing System architect, focusing on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solutions with extensive experience with Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenDesktop and Provisioning Services. He has expert product knowledge in application and desktop virtualization across all three major hypervisor platforms, both major desktop brokers, Microsoft Windows Active Directory, Profiles, DNS, DHCP and Cisco networking technologies.
Rob Briggs, VDI Reference Architect, Microsoft Group, NetAppRob Briggs is a VDI Reference Architect in the NetApp Microsoft Group. Rob is focused on developing, validating and supporting VDI initiatives and solutions that include NetApp products. Rob has extensive experience with VDI on Microsoft and Citrix Virtualization.
Loay Shbeilat, Program Manager, MicrosoftLoay Shbeilat is a Program Manager at the Enterprise Engineering Center, focusing on real world deployments of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solutions. Loay has expert product knowledge in the Microsoft Windows Server, with emphasis on Hyper-V and high availability.
Frank Anderson, Principle Solutions Architect, Strategic Alliance, Citrix SystemsFrank Anderson is a Principal Solutions Architect at Citrix, focusing on Desktop and Application Virtualization. Responsibilities include solutions validation, strategic alliances, technical content creation, testing, and benchmarking.
