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BP1018 Sizing and Best Practices for Citrix XenDesktop with Dell EqualLogic Storage 7

Component

Description

VMware ESXi Enterprise

Plus

The smaller footprint version of ESXi that does not include the ESXi

service console.

VMware vCenter

Centralized management interface for VMware vSphere environment.

Component

Description

A third-party benchmarking tool from Login Consultants that is used

to simulate a real-world XenDesktop VDI workload.

sessions on target virtual desktop machines.

Task worker (Login VSI

Light workload)

A Task Worker is a user who performs repetitive functions with a small

set of applications. Examples of a Task Worker include call center

employees, data entry workers, and administrative task performers.

Refer to Appendix A for more detailed information about the hardware and software components used

for evaluating this solution.

3.2 XenDesktop VDI delivery using provisioning servers

Citrix XenDesktop 5 supports two different features to host virtual desktops, Machine Creation Services

and Provisioning Services. The hosting methodology should be selected based on the overall goals of

the organization, resource availability, and management activities.

For more detailed information on these two approaches, please refer to:

http://support.citrix.com/servlet/KbServlet/download/26449-102-650176/XD%20-

%20Planning%20Guide%20-%20Desktop%20Image%20Delivery.pdf

In our tests, we used provisioning services for streaming the OS image to all virtual desktops. The key

factors which influenced this decision were:

- Provisioning Services creates and de-provisions virtual desktops from a single desktop image

on demand, optimizes storage utilization, and provides a new virtual desktop to each user

each time they log on.

- Portions of the disk image are cached within the RAM on the provisioning servers (PVS). If

sufficient RAM is configured on the provisioning servers, most of the read I/O is handled by

memory rather than from the SAN. Memory access is faster than the disk. This significantly

reduces storage requirements which results in reduced costs and also better user experience.

- Adding new desktops has a minimal impact on storage as the target desktops do not require

any storage infrastructure operations.

- Management is very simple because only a single disk image needs to be maintained. If any

software updates or patches need to be installed, only a single image needs to be updated and

the same updated image is streamed to all virtual desktops.

Figure 2 is a block diagram that shows a high level overview of the Citrix XenDesktop VDI delivery

model using provisioning services. This process and figure show the VDI delivery model:

1. The end user logs in using the Web interface (A).

2. The Web interface (A) passes the credentials of the user to the Desktop delivery controller (E).