Solutions for VMware VDI Using Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage

VMware View VDI Solution Using Solutions for VMware VDI UsingG2 Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD-Based Storage System SSD St

Table of Contents 1 Overview......................................................................................................................................... 4 2 Introduction of VMware View 5.1 ............................................................................................. 5 2.1 VMware View 5.1 Infrastructure ...................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 New Features in VMware View 5.1 for Storage System .................................................................................. 6 2.3 Challenges for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure .................................................................................................. 7

3 Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage System ..................................................... 8 3.1 Feature 1 --- Outstanding Performance ............................................................................................................ 8 3.2 Feature 2 --- Energy Savings ............................................................................................................................ 9 3.3 Feature 3 --- Stability and Reliability ............................................................................................................... 9 3.4 Feature 4 --- Low TCO ..................................................................................................................................... 9 3.5 Feature 5 --- Ease of Use .................................................................................................................................. 9

4 What Will You Get Using Dorado2100 G2 in VDI Scenarios? ........................................... 11 4.1 Remarkable Performance ............................................................................................................................... 11 4.1.1 Number of Virtual Desktop ................................................................................................................... 11 4.1.2 Response Time ...................................................................................................................................... 11 4.2 Lower Power and Space Consumption .......................................................................................................... 12

5 VMware View VDI Solution Using Dorado2100 G2 SSD-based Storage ....................... 13 5.1 Physical Network Scheme .............................................................................................................................. 13 5.2 Logic Network Scheme .................................................................................................................................. 14 5.3 Hardware Configurations ............................................................................................................................... 15 5.4 Software Configurations for Virutal Desktop Infrastructure .......................................................................... 17 5.5 Software Configuration for Virtual Machines ................................................................................................ 17 5.6 Configuration for Storage System .................................................................................................................. 18

6 Validation for VDI Solutions Using Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage ................... 20 6.1 Test Tool --- VMware ViewPlanner ................................................................................................................ 20 6.2 Test Environment Deployment ....................................................................................................................... 21 6.3 Test Results .................................................................................................................................................... 22 6.3.1 Boot Storm Test .................................................................................................................................... 22 6.3.2 Workload Test ....................................................................................................................................... 23

7 High Lights Using Dorado2100 G2 in VDI Scenarios ......................................................... 26

7.1 Test Results Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 26 7.2 High Light 1 --- Shorter Start-up Time for VMs ............................................................................................ 27 7.3 High Light 2 --- over 4000 VDI in RAID 5 and 8000 VDIs in RAID 10 supported by Dorado2100 G2 With 50 SSDs ................................................................................................................................................................ 27 7.4 High Light 3 --- Lower Space Consumption .................................................................................................. 28 7.5 High Light 4 --- Lower Power Consumption ................................................................................................. 29

8 Terms and Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ 31

1

Overview

This technical report reviews the solution for VMware View Virtualization Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) using Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 high-performance SSD-based System, including the brief introduction of VMware vSphere 5.1 and Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 Solid State Storage System, VDI solution using VMware View 5.1 and Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage, and cumstomers’ benefit for using Huawei Dorado2100 G2 in VDI scenarios.

This technical report is just a recommendation for deployments and configurations of VMware vSphere and Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage System. Users for this paper should be much familiar with the deployments and configurations of VMware vSphere 5.0, VMware View 5.1 and Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage System.

2

Introduction of VMware View 5.1

VMware View is a desktop virtualization solution that simplifies IT manageability and control while delivering the highest fidelity end-user experience across devices and networks. The VMware View solution helps IT organization automate desktop and application management, reduce costs, and increase data security through centralization of the desktop environment. This centralization results in greater end-user freedom and increased control for IT organizations. By encapsulating the operating systems, applications, and user data into isolated layers, IT organizations can deliver a modern desktop. It can then deliver dynamic, elastic desktop cloud services such as applications, unified communications and 3D graphics for real-world productivity and greater business agility. Unlike other desktop virtualization products, VMware View is built on and tightly integrated with vSphere, the industry leading virtualization platform, allowing customers to extend the value of VMware infrastructure and its enterprise class features such as high availability, disaster recovery and business continuity. VMware View™ creates a modern, user-centric approach to computing that maximizes end user freedom and optimizes IT control. VMware View allows IT to simplify and automate the management of thousands of desktops and to securely deliver desktop as a service to users from a central location with levels of availability and reliability unmatched by traditional PCs. By delivering secure access to applications and data to any device, when and where the user needs it, VMware View provides end users with the highest levels of mobility and flexibility.

2.1 VMware View 5.1 Infrastructure The VMware View 5.1 Infrastructure contains a series of components, including: 

VMware vSphere 5.0 including ESXi 5.0 update 1 and VMware vCenter 5.0 update 1;



VMware View Composer 3.0.0;



VMware View Connection Server 5.1.0;



VMware View Replica Server 5.1.0;



VMware View Security Server 5.1.0;



VMware View Agent 5.1.0;



VMware View Client 5.1.0



Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 64 Bit With Active Directory, DNS and DHCP



Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2;

The detailed infrastructure of VMware View 5.1 is shown as follow. Figure 2-1 The VMware View 5.1 Infrastructure diagram

2.2 New Features in VMware View 5.1 for Storage System There are a series of new features in VMware View 5.1 compared to View 5.0. In this report, only new features for storage system would be focused. The following performance optimizations and integration features take advantage of vSphere 5.0 enhancements: 

View Storage Accelerator uses Content Based Read Cache (CBRC) to reduce the load on the virtual desktop storage infrastructure by caching the common blocks of Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) files into memory on the VMware vSphere® Hypervisors. The CBRC is an ESXi 5.0 server memory cache of common blocks. View Storage Accelerator is enabled on a per-desktop pool basis; when enabled the host hypervisor scans the storage disk blocks of the virtual desktop VMDK files to generate digests of the block contents. These blocks are cached in the vSphere Hypervisor CBRC based on disk access patterns, and subsequent reads of blocks with the same digest are served from the in-memory cache directly. This feature improves the performance of the virtual desktops, particularly during boot storms, user logon storms and anti-virus scanning storms; it can also enhances the user experience and saves storage array costs.



Tech Preview: View Composer Array Integration with VAAI - Additional View Composer cloning options leverages the vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI)

Native Cloning capability of Network Attached Storage (NAS). Note: The storage vendors developing support for NFS native cloning (VAAI) need additional certification to support the View workload. CBRC is not supported with the NFS native cloning feature. 

Customizable View Composer disposable disk drive letter.



Support for up to 32 hosts in a cluster when Network File System (NFS) is in use. (The former limit was 8 hosts per cluster.)

2.3 Challenges for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure For Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, there are lots of challenges, including: 

Boot Storm

A boot storm is caused when a large population of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) users boot up which always causes serious pressure for servers and storage system. 

Login Storm

A boot storm is caused when a large population of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) users log into their desktop which causes serious pressure for servers and storage system. Boot storm and login storm are always two huge challenges for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure which bring defficulties for deploying and manage virtualization scenarios. 

Antivirus scanning Storm



User Workload Applications

User workload applications consists a series of routine applications including Microsoft Office, Internet explorer, file compression and decompression, file archive, high-definition video play, pdf review, etc.

3

Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage System Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 is a SAN-based Solid-State storage array using FC, 10GE and Infiniband interfaces for the enterprise-class high-performance market. The Dorado2100 G2 relies entirely on solid-state storage technology, and features advanced cache management and an advanced I/O scheduling algorithm to deliver unsurpassed performance. It offers an ideal choice for various performance-demanding storage scenarios such as large databases, VDIs, and high-performance computing. Huawei Dorado2100 G2 provides the lowest price-performance for applications with high performance but limited power and space consumption requirement.

3.1 Feature 1 --- Outstanding Performance 

IOPS: The Dorado2100 G2 delivers 600,000 IOPS which is equal to traditional arrays with 1500 pieces of 15K RPM SAS disks;



Access Speed: Access latency is about 500 μs which is just 8% of traditional arrays.

3.2 Feature 2 --- Energy Savings 

Low power consumption: Typical the Dorado2100 G2 SSD storage system’s power consumption is about 580 W which saves power up to 90% compared with performanceequivalent traditional disk arrays.



Intelligent CPU clock speed control: The Dorado2100 G2 intelligently controls the clock frequency of the CPU based on processor workload;



Intelligent fan speed control: Fan speed is regulated intelligently based on system temperature to reduce fan’s noise and power consumption, Which increases the environmental flexibility of equipment;

3.3 Feature 3 --- Stability and Reliability 

Data protection: The Dorado2100 G2 uses rigorous 32-bit error correcting code (ECC) in 1-KB blocks and a threshold warning function so that errors are corrected as soon as they are discovered. The Dorado2100 G2 supports or presents RAID 0, 5, and 10, global hot spare disks, and data pre-copy for faulty disks.



Global-active controller architecture: The active-active dual controllers implement redundancy and load balancing, ensuring high service reliability.



Component redundancy design: Redundant power supplies, fans, controllers, interface modules, SSDs, and BBUs eliminate single points of failure while supporting hot swap and online I/O expansion.



Comprehensive media protection: The adopted wear leveling, bad block repair, and random scrambling code technologies can dramatically prolong the service life of storage media with a global MTBF greater than one million hours.

3.4 Feature 4 --- Low TCO 

Investment Protection: There is no need to change software versions or your current application architecture. This means that you can easily incorporate the Dorado2100 G2 into your existing IT architecture while continuing to leverage your investment.



Power Consumption: Enjoy the benefits of memory system power savings of 90% annually.



Lower Space Consumption. The Dorado2100 G2 uses 95% less space than traditional arrays with equivalent performance, greatly reduces cabinet costs.

3.5 Feature 5 --- Ease of Use 

Simplified management: The user-friendly management and maintenance mechanisms support GUI and CLI modes and provide alarm notification by sound, short message, and email.



Intelligent service life monitoring for SSDs: The Dorado2100 G2 constantly monitors the operating status of SSDs and notifies detected exceptions in real time, helping ensure application reliability and minimizing system downtime.



Easy deployment: The Dorado2100 G2 uses a standard SAN form without changing existing IT architecture and protects original investment.

4

What Will You Get Using Dorado2100 G2 in VDI Scenarios? One of the most important elements in delivering VDI successfully is storage performance. Traditional SAS storage systems have fallen far short in terms of the performance needed for small random READ and WRITE IO in VDI scenarios, resulting in desktop delays and lockups and more importantly a loss of productivity. While it is commonly acknowledged that solid state storage array performance is measurably superior to that of spinning disk, less well known is the importance of solid state storage being properly integrated into the overall VDI solutions. Now, Huawei Oceanstor Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage is ready to efficiently handle highdemanded VDI applications at a fraction of mainstream storage vendors’ costs.

4.1 Remarkable Performance 4.1.1 Number of Virtual Desktop According to the storage feature 1 above, Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD storage system with 100 pieces of eMLC SSDs can provide with 600,000 IOPS with random read IOs, which strongly matches the VDI scenarios. In VDI scenarios, each medium-workloaded Virtual Desktop assumes 25 to 30 small random IOPS. Therefore, according to the IOPS performance, one Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage is supposed to support up to 20,000 Virtual Desktops. However, the same scenario would require over 1500 HDDs for the same performance, which would create a very unattractive performance ratio.

4.1.2 Response Time Also described in the storage feature 1 above, Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD-based Storage System can provide with very low latency (about 500 us) because of the highperformance Huawei eMLC solid state disks. VDI is latency-sensitive since every desktop user’s interaction needs to do application launch and file open at anywhere anytime. In order to achive lower response time and work more

efficiently, Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage System is easy to handle this, even in heavy-workloaded VDI scenarios.

4.2 Lower Power and Space Consumption According to Storage Feature 2 above, Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD-based Storage system’s controller enclosure’s power consumption is about 580 Watt, each disk enclosure with 25 SSDs consumes less than 300 Watt, which saves up to 90% over traditional SAS storage arrays to achive the same performance. To achive the same performance as Dorado2100 G2 in VDI scenarios using traditional SAS Storage, about 300 SAS hard disk would be used as decribed above, which means, it would take about 60 disk enclosures in which 25 pieces of 2.5 inch 10K or 15K RPM SAS hard disk are deployed. The comparison of power and space consumption between Dorado2100 G2 and traditional SAS storage according to the pre-analysis above is shown as follow. Table 4-1 Comparison of power and space consumption between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage Storage System

Dorado2100 G2

Traditional SAS Storage

Power Consumption of Controller Enclosure

Typically 580 W

About 500 W

Number of Disk Enclosure

3

Over 60

Number of Hard Disk

25 pieces of eMLC

About 300 pieces of 2.5 inch SAS Hard Disk

Power Consumption of Disk Enclosure

Typically 295W

About 300W

Space Consumption

8U

Over 120 U

Total Power Consumption

Less than 1500 W

Over 18000 W

As shown above, using Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD-based storage system not only saves your power consumption significantly, but also saves your space consumption apparently. Just for short, using Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G20 SSD-based storage is the most efficient way to save your money for the power and space consumption, even save your fee for management.

5

VMware View VDI Solution Using Dorado2100 G2 SSD-based Storage

As decribed above, Boot Storm and Login Storm are two major challenges for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), because the Boot Storm and Login Storm scenarios would cause severe IO pressures for storage system. The performance for traditional SAS hard disk is not capable of handling large scale of virtual desktops booting and login simultaneously. Using Dorado2100 G2 SSD storage system and VMware View acceleration features, it is easy to handle boot storm and login storm cause of high-level performance of Dorado Storage System and Huawei eMLC solid state disks. This section would detailedly describe the solutions for VMware View 5.1 VDI Scenario using Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD storage system.

5.1 Physical Network Scheme The detailed network scheme is shown as follow, which can be divided into several parts. Figure 5-1 Physical Network Configuration for VMware View VDI Solution



Part One: One Dorado2100 G2 configured with 25 pieces of 400GB eMLC SSD is used as user virtual desktop OS and replica datastores, storage for user persistant data is not shown above.



Part Two: Two Huawei Tecal E6000 blade server chassises, which contains ten blade servers in each chassis, consists of four ESXi clusters used to deploy the user desktop virtual machines.



Part Three: Two Huawei Tecal RH2288 V2 servers are used for Active Driectory Server、 View Connection Servers and VMware Center Server with View Composer.

5.2 Logic Network Scheme The detailed logic network scheme is shown as follow. Figure 5-2 Logic Network Configuration for VMware View VDI Solution



During the validation, each blade Server would be running VMware ESXi Server. All ESXi Server host would be divided into four parts, each part would contain an ESXi Server cluster with five blade servers. VMware High Avalability and Distributed Resource scheduler (DRS) would be both enabled to balance each ESXi Server’s workload and promote avalability.



In each ESXi Cluster, one resource pool and 250 Virtual Desktops would be deployed using VMware View linked-clone. Each Virtual Desktop would be deployed with

Windows 7 Enterprise Edition with sp1 32 bit operating system, View Agent and Test toolkit required by VMware ViewPlanner 2.1. 

Additionally, a CentOS 5.3 system that contains View Planner 2.1 application controller would be introducted into a separated ESXi server, used to control View Planner test, collect test data and generate the results report during the VMware ViewPlanner test for validation.

5.3 Hardware Configurations 

Storage System

In this solution infrastructure，an OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD storage system would be used. Detailed information about this storage system is shown as follow. Table 5-1 Hardware Configuration for Storage System

Storage System

Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage



Configuration Controllers

2 Controllers for Dorado2100 G2 Storage

CPU

Intel CPU with 4 Cores per Controller

Memory

16 GB DDRIII per Controller

Hard Disk

25 * 400GB eMLC Solid State Disk

Front-End Connector

4 * 8Gb FC per Controller

VMware vSphere Center Server with View Composer

One Huawei Tecal RH2288 V2 rack server is used as VMware vSphere Center with View Composer, detailed information is shown as follow. Table 5-2 Hardware Configuration for Server Used as VMware vSphere Center

Servers

Configuration CPU

2 * Intel Xeon E5-2660 @ 2.2GHz 8 Cores with Hyper-Threading

Memory

64 GB DDRIII

Hard Disk

2 * 2.5 inch 10K RPM 300GB SAS HDD

Network Adapter

4 * 1Gb Nic Network Adapter

Huawei Tecal RH2288 V2



ESXi Cluster Servers

In this solution, two Huawei Tecal E6000 blade chassises would be used for installing VMware ESXi 5.0. And each Tecal E6000 blade chassis would be deployed with ten blade servers. The detailed information for ESXi cluster servers is shown as follow. Table 5-3 Hardware Configuration for Server Used as ESXi Server

Servers



Huawei Tecal E6000 blade chassis



Configuration Number of Blade Slots

10 Slots for Huawei’s BH620 Series Blade Servers

CPU

Intel Xeon 5645 @ 2.4 GHz Processor with Hyper-Threading

Memory

96 GB DDRIII

Hard Disk

2 * 2.5 inch 10K RPM 300GB SAS HDD

Network Adapter

2* Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5715S GE

FC HBA Adapter

Emulex LPe11000 4Gb FC Host Adapter

ESXi Server for Virtual Machines Using as AD and View Connection Servers

In this solution infrastructure, one Huawei Tecal RH2288 V2 rack server is used for deploying virtual machines using as Windows Server 2008 R2 with Active Directory, View Connection Server and VMware ViewPlanner, detailed information is shown as follow. Table 5-4 Hardware Configuration for Server Used for AD, VCS and ViewPlaner VMs

Servers

Huawei Tecal RH2288 V2



Configuration CPU

2 * Intel Xeon E5-2660 @ 2.2GHz 8 Cores with Hyper-Threading

Memory

288 GB DDRIII

Hard Disk

2 * 2.5 inch 10K RPM 300GB SAS HDD

Network Adapter

4 * 1Gb Nic Network Adapter

Desktop Virtual Machine

In this solution infratructue, detailed information for desktop virtual machines is shown as follow. Table 5-5 Hardware Configuration for Virtual Desktops

Servers

Huawei Tecal E6000 blade server

Configuration CPU

2 * Intel Xeon E5645 @ 2.4GHz vCPU

Memory

2 GB vMemory

Hard Disk Network Adapter

OS disk: 40 GB from Dorado2100 G2 User data: 160GB from user date storage 1 * 1Gb vNic Network Adapter

5.4 Software Configurations for Virutal Desktop Infrastructure The Operating system, application software, and the corresponding version used in the solutions are shown as follow. Table 5-6 Software configuration for VMware View VDI Solution

Components

Software

Version

VMware ESXi Server

5.0

VMware vSphere Center/Client

5.0

VMware View Composer

3.0

VMware View Connection Server

5.1

VMware View Agent

5.1

VMware View Client

5.1

Test Tool

VMware View Planner

2.1

VMware vCenter Server Operating System

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition 64 Bit with R2 EN/US

6.10,

VM Operating System

Windows 7 Enterprise Edition 32 Bit with Sp1 EN/US

AD Server Operating System

Windows Server 2008 64 Bit with R2 EN/US

View Connection Server Operating System

Windows Server 2008 64 Bit with R2 EN/US

VMware View Infrastructure

Build 7600 6.10, Build 7600 6.10, Build 7600 6.10， Build 7600

5.5 Software Configuration for Virtual Machines 

In this validation, the software configuration information for virtual machines is shown in the following table.

Table 5-7 Software Configuration for Virtual Machines

Components Operating System

Software Name and Version Windows 7 Enterprise Edition 32Bit With Sp1 EN/US Word 2007/2010 EXCEL 2007/2010

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007/2010 OutLook 2007/2010 Internet Explorer 8.0 Web Browsers



Document Browser



Picture Album Browser

Firefox 3.6.x PDF Reader

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Archiving Software

7Zip (System Built-in)

Video Playback Software

Windows Media Player for HD-Video

5.6 Configuration for Storage System 

In this solution, one Huawei Dorado2100 G2 with 25 pieces of eMLC SSDs is used. The detailed information is shown as follow.

Table 5-1 Configuration for Dorado2100 G2 Storage System

Configuration

Storage System

Storage Model

Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSDbased Storage

Number of HDDs

25

Hard Disk Type

2.5 inch eMLC 400GB SSD

Number of RAID Group

2

RAID Level

RAID 5/10

Number of SSD in each RAID Group

12

Number of LUNs in each RAID Group

2

Hot Spare

1 In RAID Level 5: 64K

LUN Stripe In RAID Level 10 : 512K Storage system RAID group, LUN and ESXi cluster datastore information is shown as follow. Figure 5-3 Configurations for storage system and Datastores

6

Validation for VDI Solutions Using Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage

To validate the solutions for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure using Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage System, this section would detailedly describe the test tool and test methods.

6.1 Test Tool --- VMware ViewPlanner VMware View Planner is a tool designed to simulate a large scale deployment of virtualized desktop systems and study its effects on an entire virtualized infrastructure. The tool is scalable from a few virtual machines running on one VMware ESX/ESXi host up to hundreds of virtual machines distributed across a cluster of ESX/ESXi hosts. View Planner assists in the setup and configuration of the testing infrastructure, runs a set of application operations selected to be representative of real-world user applications, and reports data on the latencies of those operations. The version of VMware ViewPlanner for this validation is 2.1. The test model is shown as follow.

View Planner simulates application workloads for various user types, (task workers, knowledge workers, and power users) by running applications typically used in a Windows desktop environment. During the execution of a workload, applications are randomly called to perform common desktop user operations, including open, save, close, minimize and maximize windows; view an HTML page, insert text, insert words and numbers, conduct a slideshow, view a video, send and receive email, and compress files. View Planner uses a patent pending watermark technique to quantify the user experience and measure application latency on a user client/remote machine. ViewPlanner 2.1 workloads come from the following applications: 

Microsoft Word 2007/2010



Microsoft Excel 2007/2010



Microsoft PowerPoint 2007/2010



Microsoft Outlook 2007/2010



Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 or higher 

Document browse



Picture album browse



Mozilla Firefox 3.6.x or higher



Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.x or higher



Archiving software



Video playback software



Custom applications

6.2 Test Environment Deployment The detailed deployment step for validation is shown as follows. Step 1. Installation and configuration of Windows AD、DNS and DHCP server; Step 2. Installation and configuration of ESXi; Step 3. Installation and configuration of VMware vSphere Center; Step 4. Installation and configuration of View composer; Step 5. Creating ESXi host cluster; Step 6. Creating RAID、LUN, add Host Mapping; Step 7. Creating resource pools; Step 8. Import and configuration of ViewPlanner; Step 9. Creating virtual machine template; Step 10. Creating snapshot for virtual machine template; Step 11. Deployment of pool and virtual desktop;

6.3 Test Results The validation process of the solution consists of two parts: bootstorm test and application workload test. The boot storm mainly verified the performance of Dorado2100 G2 storage system under the worst scenes such as the virtual machine startup storm.This validation focuses on how long it will take for all virtual desktops to finish boot process, and CPU and disk utilities of the Dorado2100 G2 storage system. The workload test mainly verified the performance of Dorado2100 G2 storage system in the ViewPlanner’s application workload test scene. This validation focuses on the application response time, CPU and disk utilities of the Dorado2100 G2 storage system. During the test, 1000 virtual desktops would be created using VMware View Linked-Clone.

6.3.1 Boot Storm Test 

Test Method

In the boot storm test scene, firstly make sure that all tested virtual desktops unpowered. Then start the the PowerCLI command-line tool in vSphere Center Server, input Start-VM command to start all the virtual desktop, and then count the total start-up time, and sample CPU and disk utilities of the Dorado2100 G2 storage system. 

Start-up Time Comparison

During the test, the comparison of start-up time btween Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage is shown as follow. Figure 6- 1 Comparison of Start-up Time between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional Storage

Start-up Time Comparison between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage Time (min) 12

10 10 8

6.5

6

6 4 2 0 SAS_Storage_RAID5



Dorado2100 G2_RAID5

Dorado2100 G2_RAID10

Comparison of CPU Utility between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage

During the test, the comparison of CPU utility between Dorado2100 G2 and traditional SAS storage system is shown as follow. Figure 6- 2 Comparison of CPU Utility between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional Storage

CPU Utility Comparison Between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage AVG_CPU_Utility_SAS_Storage_RAID5

AVG_CPU_Utility_Dorado_RAID5

AVG_CPU_Utility_Dorado_RAID10 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00%

1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100 109 118 127 136 145 154 163 172 181 190 199 208 217

0.00%



Comparison of Disk Utility between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage

During the test, the disk utility comparison between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS storage system is shown as follow. Figure 6- 2 Comparison of Disk Utility between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional Storage

Disk Utility Comparison between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage AVG_Disk_Utility_SAS_Storage_RAID5

AVG_Disk_Utility_Dorado_RAID5

AVG_Disk_Utility_Dorado_RAID10

100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100 109 118 127 136 145 154 163 172 181 190 199 208 217 226 235

0.00%

6.3.2 Workload Test 

Workload Test Result

Each application’s operation response time, including Microsoft Office、Microsoft Internet Explorer、Mozilla Firefox、Adobe Acrobat Reader、7Zip、Archiving and Video Player etc are shown as follow.

Figure 6-3 Comparison of Application’s Response Time during the Workload Test between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage

Dorado_RAID10

Dorado_RAID5

SAS_Storage_RAID5

Word-Save Word-Open Word-Modify Word-Minimize Word-Maximize Word-Close Video-Open Video-Close PPTx-SaveAs PPTx-RunSlideShow PPTx-Open PPTx-ModifySlides PPTx-Minimize PPTx-Maximize PPTx-Close PPTx-AppendSlides Outlook-Restore Outlook-Read Outlook-Open Outlook-Maximize Outlook-Close Outlook-Attachment-… IE_WebAlbum-Open IE_WebAlbum-Close IE_WebAlbum-Browse IE_ApacheDoc-Open IE_ApacheDoc-Close IE_ApacheDoc-Browse Firefox-Open Firefox-Close Excel_Sort-Save Excel_Sort-Open Excel_Sort-Minimize Excel_Sort-Maximize Excel_Sort-Entry Excel_Sort-Compute Excel_Sort-Close AdobeReader-Open AdobeReader-Minimize AdobeReader-Maximize AdobeReader-Close AdobeReader-Browse ACROBAT_BROWSE_R… 7zip-Compress 0

1

2

3 Respons Time (s)

4

5



Comparison of CPU Utility between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage

During the test, the comparison of storage system’s CPU utility between Dorado2100 G2 and traditional SAS storage is shown as follow. Figure 6- 4 Comparison of CPU Utility between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional Storage

CPU Utility Comparision between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage CPU_Utility_SAS Storage_RAID5 CPU_Utility_Dorado_RAID10

CPU_Utility_Dorado_RAID5

90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00%

1 179 357 535 713 891 1069 1247 1425 1603 1781 1959 2137 2315 2493 2671 2849 3027 3205 3383 3561 3739 3917 4095 4273 4451 4629 4807 4985

0.00%



Comparison of Disk Utility between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage

During the test, the comparison of storage system’s disk utility between Dorado2100 G2 and traditional SAS storage is shown as follow. Figure 6- 5 Comparison of Disk Utility between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional Storage

Comparison of Disk Utilization between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage AVG_Disk_Utility_SAS_Storage_Raid5

100.00%

AVG_Disk_Utility_Dorado_Raid5

AVG_Disk_Utility_Dorado_Raid10

90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 1 179 357 535 713 891 1069 1247 1425 1603 1781 1959 2137 2315 2493 2671 2849 3027 3205 3383 3561 3739 3917 4095 4273 4451 4629 4807 4985

0.00%

7

High Lights Using Dorado2100 G2 in VDI Scenarios

7.1 Test Results Analysis According to the test results described in previous chapter, it is shown that the test results are almost strictly consistent with the pre-analysis in chapter four. The comparisons bwteen Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSD storage and traditional SAS storage including CPU and disk utilities during the boot storm and application workload tests are shown as follows. Table 7- 6 Test Result Analysis between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage

Huawei Storage

Dorado2100

G2

SSD

Traditonal SAS Storage

Controller Enclosure

1

1

Disk Enclosure

0

2

Number of HDDs

25 eMLC SSD

72 2.5 inch 10K RPM SAS

Space Unit

2U

6U

Avg CPU Utility of Storage Controllers During Boot Storm

In RAID Level 5: 20%

In RAID Level 5: 70%

Avg Disk Utility of Storage Controllers During Boot Storm

In RAID Level 5: 40%

Avg CPU Utility of Storage Controllers During Workload Test

In RAID Level 5: 17%

In RAID Level 10: 18% In RAID Level 5: 100%

In RAID Level 10: 20%

In RAID Level 10: 10%

In RAID Level 5: 55%

Avg Disk Utility of Storage Controllers During Workload Test

In RAID Level 5 : 40%

Power Consumption

About 580 W

In RAID Level 5: 75%

In RAID Level 10: 15% About 1100W

7.2 High Light 1 --- Shorter Start-up Time for VMs According to the boot storm test, when starting 1000 virtual desktops, it takes about 10 minites to finish using traditional SAS storage. However, it only takes about 6 to 6.5 minites using Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSD storage, which means that using Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage saves about 30% of the start-up time over traditional SAS storage. The following table shows the start-up times and save ratio between Huawe Dorado2100 G2 and traditional SAS storage. Table 7- 2 Start-up time Comparison between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage

Start-up Time comparison between Huawei Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage Huawei Storage

Dorado2100

G2

SSD

About 6 to 6.5 minites

Traditonal SAS Storage

Save Ratio

About 10 minites

About 35% to 40%

7.3 High Light 2 --- over 4000 VDI in RAID 5 and 8000 VDIs in RAID 10 supported by Dorado2100 G2 With 50 SSDs According to the test results, when testing 1000 virtual desktops on Dorado2100 G2, it is shown that: 

Average CPU Utility is about 20% during boot storm and 18% during application workload test in RAID level 5, and about 17% during boot storm and 10% during application workload test in RAID level 10;



Average disk utility is about 20% during boot storm and 20% during application workload test in RAID level 5, and about 20% during boot storm and 15% during application workload test in RAID level 10.

According to the Cask Effect theory: 

In RAID level 5, the CPU and disk utilities of Dorado2100 G2 in VDI secenarios could be quadrupled, therefore the performance of Dorado in VDI scenarios could be quadrupled if the other components of storage system are not the bottlenecks. Through monitoring the other components including the PCI-e channels, memory utilities and front-end connectors, etc, there were absolutely no bottlenecks when doubling their utilities.

Therefore, in RAID level 5, over 4000 virtual desktops is easy to handle by Huawei Dorado2100 G2 Storage with 50 SSDs. 

In RAID level 10, the CPU and disk utilities of Dorado in VDI secenarios could be turned eight times; therefore the performance of Dorado in VDI scenarios could be turned eight times if the other components of storage system are not the bottlenecks. Through monitoring the other components including the PCI-e channels, memory utilities and front-end connectors, etc. There were absolutely no bottlenecks when quadrupling their utilities. Therefore, in RAID level 10, over 8000 virtual desktops is easy to handle by Huawei Dorado2100 G2 Storage with 50 SSDs.

Therefore, Comparing to traditional SAS Storage System, Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSDbased Storage System in VDI scenarios can support over 4000 virtual desktops in RAID level 5 and over 8000 virtual desktops in RAID level 10 with 50 SSDs. Table 7- 3 Number of VDI s Supported by Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage

Number of VDIs Supported by Huawei OceanStor Dorado2100 G2 Storage System with 50 SSDs RAID Level

RAID 5

RAID 10

Number of VDIs

Over 4000 VDIs

Over 8000 VDIs

7.4 High Light 3 --- Lower Space Consumption According to the test results analysis in previous section, taking only performance in consideration: 

When Dorado using RAID level 5, it would take about 144 SAS hard disks for traditional SAS storage using RAID level 5 to archive the same performance in VDI scenarios;



When Dorado using RAID level 10, it would take about 288 SAS hard disks for traditional SAS storage using RAID level 5 to archive the same performance in VDI scenarios.

According to the specifications of Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSD Storage, it would take 2U cabinet spaces. The comparison of space consumption between Huawei Dorado2100 G2 and traditional SAS Storage if using traditional SAS storage to achive the same performance in VDI scenarios is shown as follow. Table 7- 4 Comparison of Space Consumption between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage When Dorado2100 G2 Using RAID Level 5

When Doado2100 G2 Using RAID Level 5 Storage System

Dorado2100 G2 Storage

Traditional SAS Storage

Number of VDIs

Over 4000 VDIs

Over 2000 VDIs

Number of HDDs

50 pieces of 2.5 inch SSDs

About 144 pieces of 2.5 inch SAS HDDs

Space Unit

4U

About 12U

Table 7- 5 Comparison of Space Consumption between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage When Dorado2100 G2 Using RAID Level 10

When Doado2100 G2 Using RAID Level 10 Storage System

Dorado2100 G2 Storage

Traditional SAS Storage

Number of VDIs

Over 8000 VDIs

Over 4000 VDIs

Number of HDDs

50 pieces of 2.5 inch SSDs

Space Unit

4U

About 288 pieces of 2.5 inch SAS HDDs About 24U

7.5 High Light 4 --- Lower Power Consumption According to the specifications of Huawei Dorado2100 G2 Storage, it takes less than 600W to work normally with 25 eMLC SSDs and less than 300W for 2U disk enclosure. However, it would take more than 500W for controller enclosure and about 300W for 2.5 inch SAS Disk enclosure to work normally. To achive the same performance in VDI scenarios, the comparison of power consumption between Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSD-based Storage and traditional SAS Storage is shown as follows. Table 7- 6 Comparison of Power Consumption between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage When Dorado2100 G2 Using RAID Level 5

When Doado 2100 Using RAID Level 5 Dorado2100 G2 Storage

Traditional SAS Storage

Number of VDIs

Over 2000 VDIs

Over 2000 VDIs

Number of HDDs

25 pieces of 2.5 inch SSDs

About 144 pieces of 2.5 inch SAS HDDs

Number of Controller Enclosure

1 Controller Enclosure (with 25 HDDs)

1 Controller Enclosure (with 25 HDDs)

Number of Enclosure

0

About 5 Disk Enclosures with 25 SAS Disks in each Disk Enclosure

Disk

Power Consumption for Controller Enclosure

< 600W

> 500W

Power Consumption for Disk Enclosure

0

>= 300W

Total Power < 600W Consumption

> 2000W

Table 7- 7 Comparison of Power Consumption between Dorado2100 G2 and Traditional SAS Storage When Dorado2100 G2 Using RAID Level 10

When Doado 2100 Using RAID Level 10 Dorado2100 G2 Storage

Traditional SAS Storage

Number of VDIs

Over 4000 VDIs

Over 4000 VDIs

Number of HDDs

50 pieces of 2.5 inch SSDs

About 288 pieces of 2.5 inch SAS HDDs

Number of Controller Enclosure

1 Controller Enclosure (with 25 SDDs)

1 Controller Enclosure (with 25 HDDs)

Number of Enclosure

1

About 10 Disk Enclosures with 25 SAS Disks in each Disk Enclosure

Power Consumption for Controller Enclosure

< 600W

> 500W

Power Consumption for Disk Enclosure

= 300W

Disk

Total Power < 900W Consumption

> 4000W

According to comparisons of performance, power consumption, space consumption and management fees, it’s better choice to choose Huawei Dorado2100 G2 SSD-based storage system in VDI scenarios.

8

Terms and Abbreviations

AD

Active Directory

CBRC

Content Based Read Cache

CIFS

Common Internet File System

CLI

Command Line Interface

CPU

Central Processing Unit

DDR

Double Data Rate

DHCP

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

DNS

Domain Name System

DRS

Distributed Resource Scheduler

DST

Dynamic storage tiering

ECC

Error Correcting Code

eMLC

Enterprise Multi-level Cell

FC

Fibre Channel

FCoE

Fibre Channel over Ethernet

HBA

Host Bus Adapter

HDD

Hard Disk Drive

iSCSI

SCSI over IP

IOPS

Input Output per Second

ISM

Integrated Management Software of Huawei Unified Storage System

LUN

Logical Unit Number

MRU

Most Recently Used

NAS

Network Attached Storage

NFS

Network File System

NMP

Native Multipathing Plug-In

OLAP

On Line Analytical Processing

OLTP

Online Transaction Processing

RDM

Raw Device Mapping

PSP

Path Selection Plug-Ins

RAID

Redundant Array Inexpensive Disk

RPM

Round per Minute

SAN

Storage Area Network

SSD

Solid State Disk

TOE

TCP/IP Offload Engine

VAAI

vStorage API for Array Integration

VDI

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

VM

Virtual Machine

VMFS

Virtual Machine File System