Rapid Desktop Appliance:Nexenta VSA for VMware Horizon View and Cisco UCS
The Cisco UCS and Nexenta VSA for VMware Horizon View solution passed the “Rapid Desktop Appliance” certification from VMware. Nexenta VSA for VMware Horizon View is a completely software-based virtual storage appliance that has been purpose built to support VMware View VDI deployments. When deployed on Cisco UCS, it provides unprecedented performance at a superior density for VDI deployments.
Desktop virtualization solutions are gaining great traction in small business and mid-market segments. But many mid-market IT organizations are extremely lean and, as a result, they struggle with deployment complexity, systems integration, and SAN management when trying to roll out VDI. To help simplify and address some of these common challenges, Cisco, VMware, and Nexenta have teamed up to develop a set of integrated solutions (Cisco UCS and Nexenta VSA for VMware Horizon View®) that also are fully validated under the VMware Rapid Desktop Program.
The Cisco UCS / Nexenta VSA for VMware Horizon View advantage
With Cisco UCS hardware, customers now can deploy a complete VDI environment, including floating and dedicated desktops, in a highly available scenario with great simplicity, ease, and superior performance. In this all-inclusive solution, customers have everything they need in terms of compute, networking, and storage to deploy a VDI infrastructure. No additional investment in an external storage appliance is required. Just install Nexenta VSA for VMware Horizon View in the Cisco UCS configuration and you are ready to go.
The Benefits
Nexenta VSA for VMware Horizon View is optimized for the desktop workload:
- Enables burst isolation (using the hybrid caching technology of ZFS).
- Enables low latency by deploying a virtual storage appliance local to the compute node (where VDI virtual machines are deployed).
- Solves Boot Storm issues by offloading desktop clones through VMware NAS VAAI integration.
- Minimizes network traffic by using the virtual network between compute and storage. Eliminates the need for external network interfaces.
- Uniform IOPS /User at any scale: Eliminates the declining user experience on ramp up. Tight coupling of VDI and storage through an easy-to-use application.
- Scalable local write cache: Fast writes at any scale through the use of ZFS Intent logs.
These solutions are supported by the following configurations:
Entry-level Configuration: Cisco UCS C 240 M3 with Nexenta VSA for VMware Horizon View: This solution is based on UCS C-Series rack mount server leveraging internal storage, and VMware View deployed on VMware vSphere using the Nexenta VSA for desktop deployment and configuration. You have the option to start small (for compute environments with less than 500 end users) with just one C240 and grow your environment to by adding more C240s to the cluster. Each C240 M3 server can handle up to 175-200 virtual desktops (depending on your workload, desktop image, and usage pattern).
Deployment Option 1:
Floating Desktops Using Cisco UCS C240 M3 Rack Mount Servers
Scale-out Configuration: Cisco UCS Platform with Nexenta VSA for VMware Horizon View: This solution is based on having the VMware View desktop workload on UCS B-Series blade servers and storage provided by UCS C-Series rack mount servers managed by Nexenta VSA.
A combination of UCS B-Series blade (B230 M2 or B200 M3)and UCS C-Series rack servers (C240 M3) can pack more density and provide a shared storage option to stand up dedicated desktops. Nexenta VSA, in the local blade host, provides the performance required by the desktops, while the Nexenta storage in the rack servers provides the external storage to support backup, high availability, replication, and more. The rack servers can be configured in a mirrored pair to handle high availablity should one of the C240s become unavailable.
Deployment Option 2:
Dedicated Desktops Using Cisco UCS C240 M3 Rack Mount Servers
Leveraging this configuration, Cisco and Nexenta were able to stand up approximately 1,600 VMware View desktops on eight blade servers in a chassis.
Please feel free to contact us for more information or to schedule a quick product briefing.