The VMware View Bootcamp ends today with a talk about the View Reference Architecture. Mac Binesh, a Sr. Technical Marketing Manager outlines some of the typical costs associated with and benefits of adopting a virtual desktop infrastructure. I found the content a fitting end to the View Bootcamp series. When I look back at the previous discussions I realize that many of the regular posters have already come to realize the ways that a product such as View can benefit their organization, and not just with regard to CAPEX/OPEX per physical desktop. My notes from the Day 9 video. What is a Stateless Desktop?

• Referred to as a “floating” desktop in View 4.5/4.6
• Generic user desktop that is allocated to a user at login
• User changed to the desktop are discarded at logoff
• No User installed application
• The VM returns to the desktop pool upon log off
• Lower cost per VM can be realized with tiered storage
• Starting with View 4.5 the “floating” VM can be placed on solid state disk on a blade server; previously the VM could only reside on the SAN

Reference Architecture Goals and Benefits

• The reference architecture represents a validated VDI solution that was built and tested by VMware
• The reference architecture represents a realistic desktop workload, a task/knowledge worker
• Lower the CAPEX (capital expense) costs as measured on a per desktop basis

• Since 2008 the datacenter hardware required by VMware View has decreased in cost by approximately 75%.
• CAPEX Datacenter (Hardware) Cost Per Stateless Virtual Desktop (figures from VMware): $242
• Qty 12: 8 core server w/96GB of ram: $212,796
• 12 desktops per server core
• Windows 7 23-bit with 1Gb of ram.
• Datacenter switch: $11,842
• SAN (20TB): $69,450
• Qty 32: 160GB SSD drives for servers: $15,968
• Total: $309,756 ($242 per desktop)

Key Use Cases

• Remote Office/Branch Office OR Business Process Outsourcing
• Reduced costs since desktops and users are centrally managed.
• Sensitive data stays in the data center.
• Streamlines application and desktop deployment.
• Labs, Kiosks, and Training Centers
• Supports distance learning environments.
• Rapidly provision desktops.
• Enhanced security with centralized control and management.
• Reduced costs and increased control.

View 4.5 Scalability Testing and Results

• For VMware testing the following architecture was used:
• Linked clone replica base image resided on local SSD storage
• Parent base image, user data, and the VM’s .vswp file resided on the SAN (shared storage)
• .vswp files and infrastructure VM’s  (parent base image and View servers themselves) resided on NFS
• Standard file shares were used for Windows user data redirections
• Non persistent automated pool that refreshes immediately
• Test Strategy and Success Criteria
• Establish a baseline for desktops per server
• Gradually increase the number of desktops until the resources of the server are maxed out
• Reduce the number of desktops until utilization is at an acceptable level (VMware used ~70% CPU utilization as their figure)
• Start with two servers, then scale out in two server increments
• Validate application performance with each server scale out
• Monitor SSD utilization
• Test Results
• VMware was able to scale to 96 desktops on an 8 core server (12 VM’s to server core)
• Varied reboots of VM’s were sustained without consuming 100% of the system resources
• 10Gbit ethernet combined with the use of local storage made it obvious that the networking environment could handle a fully scaled server load
• The traffic observed is similar to that of a typical file server

References from the presentation plus some I have added: