Planning and Deploying Microsoft VDI with Management Technologies

1. Required Slide SESSION CODE: VIR311 Planning and Deploying Microsoft VDI with Management Technologies Michael Kleef Senior Technical Product Manager Microsoft Corporation

2. Agenda • Reference Solution Architecture • Sessions and VDI • Demo Environment • User Experience • Admin Experience • Building the Solution • Web to Connection Broker to VM • App-V integration • Config Manager integration • SCVMM integration

3. Announcement The appalling food quality and lack of acceptable and edible breakfast is not my fault. Don’t blame me! I hate it too….

4. The Microsoft VDI Technology Stack Partner Technology • Enterprise Deployments Partners such as • User Profiles and Data Roaming Profiles Folder Redirection • Application Delivery VDI Suites • Desktop and • Session Delivery • Virtualization Platform

5. Windows Server 2008 R2: The core of VDI - Remote Desktop Services and VDI Architecture System Center and App-V RD Session Host with RemoteApp RD Web Access RD Client RD Virtualization Host RD Connection Broker RD Gateway Licensing Server Active Directory®

6. Windows Server 2008 R2:Why Sessions? • Session Virtualization scales more users per server than VDI • App-V works in both VDI and Sessions • The same RDP connection protocol is used in both • Much of the service infrastructure is shared • Upsides for VDI: • VDI offers better user operating system isolation • VDI has better native application compatibility • VDI allows users to be admins of their own images • Upsides for Session Virtualization: • Session Virtualization requires less hardware than VDI • Sessions are cheaper than VDI desktops • Server management is less than VDI Remote Desktop Services enables both session virtualization and VDI!

7. Windows 7 Desktop or Virtual Desktop (VDI) Windows Server 2008 R2:Desktop Centralization Choices • Windows Server 2008 R2 Session Virtualization Windows RDS has up to 5x the scalability over VDI

8. VDI Guest VM ConsiderationsDeployment Choices • Provides virtual machine-based, centralized desktops for individual users that can be fully customized based on user profiles • Allows users to perform specialized tasks that require administrator access to their desktop • Enables users to access their personalized desktop from any computer while retaining the last saved state Personal Virtual Desktop • Provides virtual machine-based, centralized desktop based on a pool of virtual machines that are shared by multiple users • Allows users to perform standardized routine tasks and have access to common applications (such as Microsoft Office) • Rolls back the state upon logoff to provide a “clean” desktop for the next user’s session, but the previous user’s state can be saved offline Pooled Virtual Desktop

9. Guest VM ConsiderationsThe case for Personal Virtual Desktops Its all about the user • Specifically suits knowledge workers (typical office worker profile) • Those that walk away/disconnect and then want to reconnect Considerations: • Assign image through Active Directory Users and Computers • Provide an individual dedicated image per user • Minimize image duplication using SAN de-duplication if image storage is a concern • Minimize direct image management • Roaming Profiles • Folder redirection • Utilize Application Virtualization (App-V) or RemoteApp for application delivery and servicing • Service the operating system with your enterprise management tools and leverage single tooling Result: Easier to manage, more personalized and integrated with current tools

10. Guest VM ConsiderationsThe case for Pooled Virtual Desktops Its all about the user • Specifically suits task workers (typical call center profile) • User logs off, the VM resets and then just connect to the next VM to use applications Considerations: • Same scenario can also be delivered through Session Virtualization, and cheaper • User just connects to pool of VM’s through the Broker • Clustering generally doesn’t matter • With Citrix, the SAN doesn’t even matter • Minimize direct image management • Roaming Profiles • Folder redirection • Utilize Application Virtualization (App-V) for application delivery and servicing • Guest VM Operating System updates can be very painful • If pooled is the best choice for you, ensure you consider Citrix XenDesktop on Hyper-V • Also consider RDSH as this provides similar scenario support and scales better Result: Potentially less complicated, but less personalized and more difficult to manage

11. Guest VM ConsiderationsWhy can Pooled be difficult? Will a single master image and separation of the user state with linked clones work? • What happens when you need to service the image? Can the user state differencing tolerate change of the master image? When the Master Image needs to be serviced the corresponding linked clone suffers a catastrophic break • Solution is to duplicate the master, update it and create new pool with new linked clones • This is required every time a single master is updated with • Operating System patches • Anti-malware Updates • Anything else on the OS

12. Guest VM ConsiderationsWhy can Pooled be difficult? Will a single master image and separation of the user state with linked clones work? • Customer reports are highlighting that updating single master/linked image desktops without pool recreation aren’t working as expected • Nasty corruption problems • Some customers switching from pooled to PVD • Bad story: switching and leaving the linked clone architecture in place • However: Citrix XenDesktop on Hyper-V does the pooled model very well with its provisioning server

13. Architecture Review & User Experience Comparison DEMO

14. VDI and Sessions Sizing

15. VDI Capacity PlanningCaveats and Objectives Performance is very subjective with many variables • Caveats • Data provided is based on benchmark results and is not reflective of many real-life deployment considerations: • Is based on specific usage scenarios • Does not account for necessary “cushion” to deal with temporary peaks in resource usage • Recommend piloting for performance planning • Multiple factors determine actual performance • Variations in hardware • Driver versions • Desktop Workloads • Application quality • What we used: • Two differently configured AMD servers • Fiber Channel SAN • Objectives to be determined: • An indication of VM’s per server that could VDI scale to • Processor, Disk and Memory requirements • Network requirements • Service Placement • Comparison against Session Virtualization scale on same hardware

16. What IO bottlenecks do you hit first? • In order, generally that is: • Disk IO • Memory pressure • Processor • Disk IO is a performance and density related impact • Memory is a density impact • Processor is a performance and density related impact

17. VDI Capacity PlanningDisk IO Rule of thumb: SANs are your new best friends • Disk performance is the most critical factor in achieving density • Internal testing showed Windows 7 having lower Disk IO than Windows XP • SAN makes significant difference. Highly recommended • Plenty of cache • Consider de-duplication support especially if persistent • De-duplication allows the benefits of individual images at the cost of differencing disk • Managing images on a SAN is way faster and easier than over network (provisioning is faster) • We mean real SAN (iSCSI or FC) not NAS across the network… • Remember RDS does not require this huge SAN investment… • If you have low complexity requirements: • Think about cheaper DAS • RAID 0+1 offers better read and write performance than RAID 5 • Make sure to consider RDS

18. VDI Capacity PlanningDisk IO • Peak of read/write @ 3500 IOPs on single un-clustered server (Starting 64 VMs simultaneously) • Multiply that by number of servers • Result is the rough guidance for the maximum SAN disk IOPS you need • Test for the most demanding user logon pattern (for example: 9 am scenario) • This test based on Windows 7 Enterprise • Why use IOPS as a measurement? • Trying to calculate drive perf differences based on seek, latency and transfer rate is hard • IOPS is an easier way of understanding disk/SAN performance • Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOPS

19. VDI Capacity PlanningMemory Rule of thumb: More is better • Biggest constraint of upper limit VM density (not performance related) • Constrained by: • Available memory slots in servers • Largest Available DIMMs • Creates an artificial scale ceiling • Buy as much RAM as you expect to scale the number of VM’s • Plan for and allocate at least 1GB per Windows 7 VM • Memory allocation should be determined by upper maximum limit of running apps • Allocate enough RAM to prevent the VM paging to disk • 1GB actually covers a fair amount of app use…. • Also refer to: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/Perf_tun_srv-R2.mspx.

20. VDI Capacity PlanningProcessor Rule of thumb: If it doesn’t have SLAT don’t buy it • # of VMs per core is highly dependent on user scenarios • Application specific usage play a big role • Hyper-V supports: • 64 VMs per Server in Clustered scenarios • 384 VMs per Server in non-Clustered scenarios • 8 VM’s per Core • 8 VM’s/core is not an architectural limitation but what we have tested and support • SLAT enabled processors provide up to 25% improvement in density • What is Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)? • Intel calls it Extended Page Tables (EPT) • AMD calls it Nested Page Tables (NPT) or Rapid Virtualization Indexing (RVI) • Processor provides two levels of translation • Walks the guest OS page tables directly • No need to maintain Shadow Page Table • No hypervisor code for demand-fill or flush operations • Resource savings • Hypervisor CPU time drops to 2% • Roughly 1MB of memory saved per VM

21. VDI Capacity PlanningProcessor Single (Unclustered) server results: • Win7 VMs using 512 MBs RAM per instance – not supported! • Only supported with 8 VM’s per core • Though lab benchmark testing went as high as 11 VMs per Core at the limit • Note: Requirements for clustering will limit VDI VM supported capacity to 64 VMs per server Server Hardware:

22. VDI Capacity PlanningProcessor – “Real World” Real world deployments reflect higher RDS scale Our customer engagement feedback indicates differences between tests and real world deployments: • VM’s per core are higher in our tests than in typical production VDI deployments • Production Session Virtualization scale tends to be higher than our lab tests in users per server • Our rough estimate is that some customers see as high as 5:1 in favor of Session Virtualization over VDI • Use cases will determine actual numbers That means at minimum Session Virt scales 2:1 over VDI and as high as 5:1

23. VDI Capacity PlanningNetwork Performance Rule of thumb: Rich User Experience requires rich bandwidth • LAN • Generally place VDI (RDVH) servers as “close” as possible to the users • VDI User experience is heavily dependent on network performance • LAN performance generally not a bottleneck (calculate to be sure) • Network redundancy is very important in switching fabric • When its down, the user is totally down • Ensure Blade servers can sustain on the backplane • WAN • WAN issues now equals worse issues later • Latency kills user experience • Persistent protocols take bandwidth per connection • How to tell: Multiply the number of users by approximately 20kbps • Is that beyond the capacity of your internet/WAN network? • 20kbps is the best case scenario based on HDX • 20kbps represents a cut down user experience • Look at WAN optimization technologies or compression solutions

24. Building the BaseWhat do I need to start? • Hardware required: • One or two appropriately specified servers for the number of users required • Example: • Preferably dual quad Nehalem or equivalent AMD based processor • Optional: Second server purely for client VM’s • 16-32GB or more of RAM • RAID 5 (preferably RAID 0+1) disk subsystem • One or more hardware clients (to the scale of the POC) • Software required – VDI Standard Suite and/or: • One Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise • Optional: HYPER-V Server 2008 R2 • One or more copies of Windows 7 Enterprise Edition • VECD required • Any applications required (Microsoft Office etc) • Add App-V or SCCM for rapid application management and delivery • Add System Center Virtual Machine Manager for improved VM management • Configuration details available at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd941616(WS.10).aspx

25. VDI Broker Configuration DEMO

26. Management – what truly reduces TCO

27. SCVMM Dynamic Placement At capacity already SCVMM Wake VM from Saved State SAN Connect RD Connection Broker VDI Client To be released in this quarter! Hyper-V Cluster (RDVH)

28. System Center Configuration Manager • Choices: Local Policy or Separate Primary • Hardware Inventory • Software Inventory • Timing of deployment • Controlling Update targetting • Restriction to purely OS, agent, definitions, required app servicing • Choice for native application deployment over App Virtualization In VDI, remember, its important to reduce VM IO and Churn

29. System Center Configuration Manager • Tweaks • Apply Local Policy to limit Site Policy application • ConfigMgrv.Next plans will eliminate this requirement • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc146756.aspx • Hardware Inventory • Eliminate/Minimize • Software Inventory • Eliminate/Minimize • Patch Updates • Be very specific with targeting updates (English Update to English Client) • Timing of deployment • Offline Machine Servicing Tool 3.0 • Wake up, force poll, apply updates, go back to sleep

30. System Center Configuration Manager • App-V and Config Manager • App-V 4.6 supports Shared Cache However… • ConfigManager provides single console management • ConfigManager allows distributed package management Be aware: • ConfigManager “takes over” App-V client • Cant use both App-V and ConfigManager to target the same VM

31. Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 3.0Patching VMs on the Host OVMST UI 1. Provide collection of shutdown VMs and hosts and create servicing job Servicing Job 4. Shutdown VM and move back to the original host 3. Update the VM 2. Mount and start VM on selected maintenance host SCVMM WSUS/SCCM

32. Management Tools Integration DEMO

33. © 2010 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries. The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

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35. Required Slide Resources Learning • Sessions On-Demand & Community • Microsoft Certification & Training Resources www.microsoft.com/teched www.microsoft.com/learning • Resources for IT Professionals • Resources for Developers • http://microsoft.com/technet • http://microsoft.com/msdn

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