Dell has released a paper titled: "Desktop Virtualization with VMware Horizon View 5.2 on Dell EqualLogic PS6210XS Hybrid Storage Array". The paper which contains 44 pages details information in order to understand how to design, properly size, and deploy VMware Horizon View based desktop virtualization solutions using Dell EqualLogic storage.
The paper demonstrates how 2,000 standard user virtual desktops can be deployed in a VMware Horizon View 5.2 (Horizon View) VDI environment leveraging a single EqualLogic PS6210XS hybrid array. The test infrastructure included VMware Horizon View 5.2, VMware vSphere 5.1 hypervisor, Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell Force10 and PowerConnect switches, and Dell EqualLogic storage arrays. Details are provided for the storage I/O characteristics under various VDI workload scenarios like boot and login storms along with performance characteristics throughout the VDI stack. Login VSI was used to generate the test results.
The paper contains the following sections:
- Introduction
- Desktop virtualization with Horizon View
- Infrastructure and test configuration
- Horizon View test methodology
- Test results and analysis
- Sizing guidelines for EqualLogic SANs
- Best Practices
- Conclusions
- VMware Horizon View 5.2 solution configuration
- ESXi host network configuration
- Workload characterizations
- Additional Resources
This paper demonstrates how 2,000 standard user virtual desktops can be deployed in a VMware Horizon View 5.2 (Horizon View) VDI environment leveraging a single EqualLogic PS6210XS hybrid array. The test infrastructure included VMware Horizon View 5.2, VMware vSphere 5.1 hypervisor, Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell Force10 and PowerConnect switches, and Dell EqualLogic storage arrays. Details are provided for the storage I/O characteristics under various VDI workload scenarios like boot and login storms along with performance characteristics throughout the VDI stack (for example, ESXi server performance and user experience).
The 2,000 desktop VDI environment generated 17,514 IOPS during boot storm, 17,144 IOPS during login storm, and 16,773 IOPS during steady state. The EqualLogic PS6210XS delivered these IOPS requirements with less than 5 ms average latency, indicating more performance headroom as the latency was well below the standard maximum – 20 ms – allowed for acceptable storage performance. Additionally, performance results across all layers – user layer, hypervisor layer and storage layer – of the VDI stack were satisfactory as well.