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Table Of Contents
Table 410. Virtual Machine Desktop Cluster Example
Item Example
Number of clusters 5
Number of desktops
and pools per cluster
1 pool of 2,000 desktops (virtual machines) per cluster
Nodes (ESXi hosts) Following are examples of various servers that could be used for each cluster:
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12 Dell PowerEdge R720 (16 cores * 2 GHz; and 192GB RAM on each host)
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16 Dell PowerEdge R710 (12 cores * 2.526 GHz; and 144GB RAM on each host)
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8 Dell PowerEdge R810 (24 cores * 2 GHz; and 256GB RAM on each host)
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6 Dell PowerEdge R810 + 3 PowerEdge R720
SSD storage Replica virtual machines
Non-SSD storage 32 Non-SSD datastores for clones (450 GB per datastore)
Cluster type DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler)/HA
Storage and Bandwidth Requirements
Several considerations go into planning for shared storage of virtual machine desktops, planning for storage
bandwidth requirements with regard to I/O storms, and planning network bandwidth needs.
Details about the storage and networking components used in a test setup at VMware are provided in these
related topics.
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Shared Storage Example on page 66
For a View 5.2 test environment, View Composer replica virtual machines were placed on high-read-
performance solid-state drives (SSD), which support tens of thousands of I/Os per second (IOPS).
Linked clones were placed on traditional, lower-performance spinning media-backed datastores,
which are less expensive and provide higher storage capacity. The example uses View Composer
linked-clones, rather than instant clones, because the test was performed with View 5.2. The instant
clone feature is introduced with Horizon 7.
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Storage Bandwidth Considerations on page 68
In a View environment, logon storms are the main consideration when determining bandwidth
requirements.
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Network Bandwidth Considerations on page 68
Certain virtual and physical networking components are required to accommodate a typical
workload.
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View Composer Performance Test Results on page 70
These test results describe a View 5.2 setup with 10,000-desktops, in which one vCenter Server 5.1
instance managed 5 pools of 2,000 virtual machine desktops each. Only one maintenance period was
required for provisioning a new pool or for recomposing, refreshing, or rebalancing an existing pool of
2,000 virtual machines. A logon storm of 10,000 users was also tested.
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WAN Support on page 72
For wide-area networks (WANs), you must consider bandwidth constraints and latency issues. The
PCoIP and Blast Extreme display protocols provided by VMware adapt to varying latency and
bandwidth conditions.
Chapter 4 Architecture Design Elements and Planning Guidelines for Remote Desktop Deployments
VMware, Inc. 65