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BP1018 Sizing and Best Practices for Citrix XenDesktop with Dell EqualLogic Storage
Table of contents
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Audience ...................................................................................................................................................... 1
2 Virtual Desktop Infrastructures ....................................................................................................................... 2
2.1 Addressing VDI storage challenges with EqualLogic SANs ............................................................... 2
3 Citrix XenDesktop solution infrastructure..................................................................................................... 4
3.1 Test infrastructure: Component design details ................................................................................... 4
3.2 XenDesktop VDI delivery using provisioning servers ........................................................................... 7
3.3 Provisioning server components ............................................................................................................ 8
3.4 EqualLogic storage array configuration ................................................................................................ 9
3.5 Citrix XenDesktop networking .............................................................................................................. 10
3.5.1 Network architecture ...................................................................................................................... 10
3.5.2 Network characteristics ..................................................................................................................12
3.5.3 vSwitch and VLAN configuration ...................................................................................................12
4 Citrix XenDesktop test methodology .......................................................................................................... 14
4.1 Test objectives ......................................................................................................................................... 14
4.2 Test approach .......................................................................................................................................... 14
4.3 Test tools .................................................................................................................................................. 14
4.3.1 Load Generation ............................................................................................................................... 15
4.3.2 Liquidware Labs Stratusphere UX .................................................................................................. 15
4.3.3 Monitoring tools ............................................................................................................................... 15
4.4 Test criteria ................................................................................................................................................ 15
4.4.1 Storage capacity and I/O latency .................................................................................................. 15
4.4.2 System resource utilization on the hypervisor infrastructure ................................................. 16
4.4.3 Virtual desktop user experience ................................................................................................... 16
5 Citrix XenDesktop test results and analysis ................................................................................................. 17
5.1 Test Scenarios ........................................................................................................................................... 17
5.2 vDisk I/O Characteristics ........................................................................................................................ 18
5.3 CIFS share I/O Characteristics .............................................................................................................. 19
5.4 Task worker – 100% Pre-boot and login storm ................................................................................ 20
5.4.1 Storage layer: EqualLogic array performance ............................................................................ 20
5.4.2 Login storm I/O ............................................................................................................................... 23
5.4.3 Hypervisor layer: ESXi host performance .................................................................................... 24