Technical white paper

HP Client Virtualization Reference Architecture

for VMware View
Reference Architecture for Stateless Desktops

Table of contents
About this document

Executive summary

Why are customers deploying VMware

View?

Why purchase VMware software from

HP?

VMware View components

Why use stateless desktops

VMware View for HP Client

Virtualization reference architecture
design
The building block
HP Thin Client as access devices
Virtual infrastructure configuration
Physical component configuration
Infrastructure virtual machines
HP IO Accelerator configuration
Shared storage configuration
Access infrastructure
Physical network details
Detailed VMware View pool
configuration
Detailed HP IO Accelerator drive pool
configuration
Virtual machine image

7
8
9
9
10
10
11
11
12
12
13
15
15

Validation methodology
Workload description
High availability
Unplanned downtime

16
16
16
16

Validation results

17

Conclusion

17

Appendix A

17

Appendix B Sample bill of materials

24

For more information

25

About this document

This document provides a reference architecture for Stateless Virtual Desktops with VMware View 5 on local solid-state
and hot plug SAS storage utilizing HP hardware.
This VMware and HP reference architecture was built and validated by VMware and designed to address common use
cases; examples include enterprise desktop replacement, remote access and business process outsourcing, Bring Your
Own Device (BYOD) and disaster recovery. This reference architecture describes in detail the environment and workload
used to simulate realistic usage and draws conclusions based on performance testing.
This guide is intended to help customers IT architects, consultants, and administrators involved in the early phases of
planning, design, and deployment of VMware View-based solutions. The purpose is to provide a standard, repeatable,
and highly scalable design that can be easily adapted to specific environments and customer requirements.
The reference architecture is based on a building block approach that leverages common components to minimize
support costs and deployment risks during the planning of both small and large-scale, VMware View 5-based
deployments. While drawing on existing best practices and deployment guides pertinent to many of the individual
specific components, the reference architectures are tested and described in detail.
Some key features that can help an organization to get started quickly with a solution that integrates easily into existing
IT processes and procedures include:

Standardized, validated, repeatable components

Scalable designs that allow room for future growth
Validated and tested designs that reduce implementation and operational risks
Quick implementation, reduced costs, and minimized risk.
This reference architecture provides a proven and tested stateless architecture for desktop deployments using HP
ProLiant DL380p Gen8 servers and HP LeftHand Virtual SAN Appliance Software (VSA) powered by SAN/iQ Software v9.5.
The goal was to design and validate a standardized building block, consisting of components capable of supporting up to
a maximum of 600 stateless virtual desktops running on local HP IO Accelerator solid-state storage.
The architecture uses a standardized design to reduce the overall cost of implementation and management.

Figure 1: HP Client Virtualization with VMware View 600 User Logical Design

The architectural design is based on VMware View for Virtual Desktop provisioning and VMware vSphere for environment
virtualization. Storage components were implemented utilizing HP IO Accelerator card-based direct-attach solid state
storage, which is dedicated to hosting Virtual Desktops, and HP LeftHand VSA providing highly available storage for
persona. Each server was configured identically, thus the solution can scale from a single server to two and three
servers to ensure high availability.
The subsequent sections of this reference architecture document will provide full descriptions of the architecture and
test environment as well as performance metrics captured during test validation.

Executive summary
This stateless tiered storage reference architecture validation shows results for 200 Microsoft Windows 7 virtual
machines hosted on a single HP server. Using HP IO Accelerator and LeftHand Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA) powered by
SAN/iQ v9.5, VMware was able to achieve 200 Virtual Desktops per host with an average 94% CPU load per host. All
virtual machines were well below the accepted View Planner average response threshold of 2.5 seconds with a
maximum measured response time of 4.3 seconds. Consumed storage capacity grew modestly and averaged
approximately 350GB per host. HP LeftHand VSA was presented with enough hard disk space for persona, with a total
amount of 1.17TB of useable storage from the 4 enterprise SAS SFF HDD. Virtual storage bandwidth and IOPS utilization
was moderate to low. CPU was identified as the only performance limiting factor for scaling beyond 200 desktops per
host. At 200 users per desktop, costs for the VMware and HP components are as low as $420 per user plus the cost of
the client.
Additional highlights of the reference architecture IOPS and CPU usage are shown in Appendix A, and detailed
performance data can be found in the Validation results section.

Why are customers deploying VMware View?

VMware View 5 simplifies IT manageability and control while delivering one of the highest fidelity end-user experiences
across devices and networks.
VMware View helps IT organizations 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. Moving forward, IT can deliver dynamic and elastic desktop cloud
services such as dynamic 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 industryleading virtualization platform, allowing customers to extend the value of VMware infrastructure and providing
enterprise class features such as high availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
View 5 includes many enhancements to the end-user experience and IT control including:

PCoIP Optimization Controls: Deliver PC-over-IP (PCoIP) protocol efficiency and enable IT administrators to configure
bandwidth settings by use case, user or network requirements, and consume up to 75 percent less bandwidth

PCoIP Continuity Services: Deliver a seamless end-user experience regardless of network reliability by detecting
interruptions and automatically reconnecting the session

PCoIP Extension Services: Allows Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)-based tools to collect more than 20
session statistics for monitoring, trending, and troubleshooting end-user support issues

View Media Services for 3D Graphics: Enable View desktops to run basic 3D applications such as Aero, Office 2010 or
those requiring OpenGL or DirectX without specialized graphics cards or client devices

View Media Services for Integrated Unified Communications: Integrate voice over IP (VoIP) and the View desktop
experience for the end user through an architecture that optimizes performance for both desktop and unified
communications

View Persona Management (View Premier Editions only): Dynamically associates a user persona with stateless

floating desktops. IT administrators can deploy easier-to-manage stateless floating desktops to more use cases
while enabling user personalization to persist between sessions

Because its based on VMware vSphere 5, VMware View leverages the latest functionality of the leading cloud
infrastructure platform for highly available, scalable, and reliable desktop services.
For additional details and features available in VMware View 5, see vmware.com
VMware View is orderable from HP at
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/vmware/virtualization/vdi/index.html.

Why purchase VMware software from HP?

HP is the global leader in virtualization solutions based on VMware.
HP is #1 in x86 servers shipped running VMware vSphere. (according to the IDC Server Virtualization Tracker Q1CY12)
HP LeftHand Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA) costs 35% less than traditional shared storage needed for VMware features
like HA, vMotion, SRM, and more.

HP supports all pieces within the solution so there is never any finger pointing.

VMware View components

Typical VMware View 5 deployments consist of several common components. The illustration below represents a typical
architecture. It includes both core VMware View components as well as other components commonly integrated with
VMware View.
Figure 2: VMware View 5 Deployment

Why use stateless desktops

Stateless desktops are recommended for small businesses, departments and branch locations of up to 600 employees.
They are allocated to users temporarily and used on a one-off basis. Once the user has logged off, the desktop goes
back to the pool and becomes available for the next user. When properly architected, this type of pool provides extreme
flexibility between the operating system, application, and user data layers. Because the base operating system image is
exactly the same across all desktops, there are significant storage capacity and performance benefits. A stateless
design using a single non-persistent image also offers the ability to efficiently address multiple use cases, by layering in
different user profiles and application sets.
An important part of this deployment architecture is the use of HP IO Accelerators, which are significantly faster than
conventional hard disk drives. As users log off, the floating desktops can be quickly refreshed. If speed is required for
rapid turnaround, HP IO Accelerators offer a less expensive solution for small scale View deployments than more
complex storage architectures, and will improve the overall return on investment.
Note: While not tested for this document, HP recommends that as the size of the solution grows customers explore
sharing the HP IO Accelerators with HP LeftHand VSA as in the HP Gen8 Client Virtualization Enterprise Reference

Architecture for VMware View found at hp.com/go/cv. Combined with VMwares storage accelerator (host caching) this
allows customers to achieve lower costs per user while still providing a compelling user experience and impressive
storage performance.

VMware View for HP Client Virtualization reference

architecture design
For this reference architecture, a building block-based, stateless desktop solution capable of scaling to support
thousands of virtual desktops was designed.
This architecture uses common components and a standardized design across the building blocks to reduce the overall
cost of implementing the solution.
As the architecture is stateless in nature, local HP IO Accelerators are leveraged as the virtual machine datastores. User
data resides on a shared storage platform built utilizing HP LeftHand Virtual SAN Appliance.
Figure 3: VMware View 5 Architecture for HP Client Virtualization

The stateless architecture provides linear scalability from a single host to hundreds of hosts, and allows a modular
approach for customers to scale out their virtual desktop infrastructure.
This design is intended to be a general guide that addresses common design questions for stateless desktops.
A single-user role type was chosen to demonstrate scalability with a typical use case. By virtualizing the application set,
a single pool type could be deployed within an environment with multiple user roles.
The abstraction of the applications from the base image allows each user to leverage the same base OS and multiple,
different applications thereby reducing the administrative overhead required to maintain different user roles in the
same VDI architecture.

The building block

The building block in this reference architecture is an HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 server and HP LeftHand VSA, capable of
hosting all infrastructure components as well as the end-users Virtual Desktops.
While it is possible to deploy all components and desktops on one machine, a single host configuration cannot guard
against that server failing, thus in environments where high availability is required, it is recommended to implement at a
minimum a two (2) server configuration to allow for failover. An HP LeftHand Failover Manager (FOM) VM should be
implemented in every configuration where there are an even number of HP LeftHand VSAs and should reside on the
same network as those HP LeftHand VSA appliances but on a separate server. If you are virtualizing your management
systems on separate systems it is recommended that you place a FOM on those systems.
The building block contains a physical server, configured with a single HP IO Accelerator and four 300GB SFF 10K RPM
Hot Plug Enterprise SAS hard disk drives. Centralized shared storage was implemented by utilizing HP LeftHand VSA
software (see Figure 3 above). This shared storage is used for user profile data, virtual desktop .vswap files and the
core infrastructure server data.
On the networking side a 24 port HP 5920AF-24XG switch, which delivers a unique combination of unmatched 10 Gigabit
Ethernet and low-latency performance on all ports, was used. On the virtual network side a distributed switch
configured with 2000 ports and dedicated port groups for iSCSI, management and VDI traffic was created.
Because of the ability to leverage 10Gbit Ethernet, extensive bandwidth was available to the three-server cluster tested.
Each building block can share items such as the physical networking layer (as did the core infrastructure environment).

HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8

The HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 server provides a full solution that is modular and scalable for an array of customer
needs.
Supported by the HP ProActive Insight architecture, HP ProLiant Gen8 servers continuously analyze thousands of system
parameters to optimize application performance and proactively improve uptime while providing insight into every
aspect of your client infrastructure. Featuring embedded automation and intelligence, HP ProLiant Gen8 servers reduce
lifecycle operations tasks, facilities overhead, and downtime costs. HP ProLiant Gen8 servers enable:

3x increased administrator productivity with HP Smart Update1

6x performance increase for demanding workloads1
70% more compute per watt2
66% faster problem resolution with industrys first comprehensive, cloud-based management and support portal3
Figure 4: HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8

Compared to HP ProLiant G7

Based on HP internal testing with a 50% increase in server performance (OLTP applications), a 10% reduction in per server energy consumption plus 7%
cooling reduction from Intelligent Series rack. Assume a conservative PUE of 2.0 translates 7% cooling to 3.5% reduced cooling power.
The math : 10% (< per server) + 3.5% (< from Intelligent Series rack) = 13.5%.
150% (performance) x 113.5% (servers/P&C envelope) = 1.5 x 1.135 = 1.70
3

HP call center data based on an analysis of incident records during Q411. For customers using HP Insight Remote Support (IRS), their hardware-related
problems were solved 66% faster compared to customers not using IRS and 95% of the time it was fixed on the first try.
Based on analysis of over 12,000 incident records per month across all regions for Q411 where an onsite visit or spare part was required.

HP Thin Client as access devices

The HP thin client portfolio encompasses a large selection of access devices, ranging from simple single monitor devices
to the HP t610 that can support up to six monitors. Careful consideration and use case is recommended in order to
determine which HP thin client is best suited to the environment. Below is a high level overview of the available HP thin
clients.
Figure 5: HP Thin Client access devices

Flexible Thin Clients

Fast, flexible, secure. Give your business what it deserves. Our engineers did the hard work to develop a smart design
with feature-rich power, so you can focus on what matters for you. We know key to growth is staying flexible. We are by
your side to help make those growing pains less painful. We have designed our Flexible Thin Clients with the security you
need now (and the security youll need in the future), with options to grow and expand, all with performance as if you
were on a PC.

Virtual infrastructure configuration

The virtual infrastructure at the core of each building block is comprised of physical servers and VMware vSphere 5.0.
The overall virtual infrastructure is designed to support up to 200 desktop users per single host based upon the
workload that was tested (Note: Actual results will vary based on any given customers specific use cases and
applications. HP makes specific planning recommendations in the Gen8 Enterprise Client Virtualization Reference
Architecture for VMware View available from hp.com/go/cv). The architecture is built with high availability (HA) in mind,
thus it can sustain a single node failure in a three (3) server setup and still provide enough capacity to host all Virtual
Desktops. HA configurations will have lower per server user counts to insure consistent performance. Details about
recommended sizing for HA appear in the Validation results section of this document.
The VMware vCenter server database was hosted on a single Microsoft SQL Server 2008 instance. Both VMware vCenter
and Microsoft SQL Server were implemented as virtual machines. The vSphere hosts running these infrastructure virtual
machines were part of a standard VMware vSphere High Availability (HA) cluster to protect them from any physical
server failures. This is a common approach for hosting desktop infrastructure services that helps provide the highest
level of availability.

Physical component configuration

High-performance commodity components were chosen to maximize the per-host value of the reference architecture.

Server/storage

TESTED Configuration

HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8

Three HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 servers.

Each server is equipped with:
Intel Xeon CPU E5-2680 @2.70 GHz
Dual socket with 8 cores per socket (16 cores total)
Hyper-Threading Enabled
256 GB RAM
2 X 10 GbE NICs per ESX host HP Ethernet 10Gb 2-port 530FLR-

SFP+ Adapter
vSphere ESXi 5.0 Update 1 Build 623860
3 HP 365GB Multi Level Cell G2 PCIe ioDrive2 for ProLiant Servers
Note: The test systems were configured with larger 785GB

IO Accelerators. VMware and HP recommend the use of the

365GB cards for optimal price/performance.
HP LeftHand VSA with SAN/iQ v9.5 presented with 1.17 TB of

storage
Each host configured with 4 x HP 300GB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in SC ENT

HDD
Note: The HP ProLiant DL380p used Intel Xeon ES-2680 processors to facilitate what was deemed a compelling price/performance
mix. It is possible to upgrade to the Intel Xeon ES-2690 processor for enhanced performance.

Infrastructure virtual machines

A separate set of servers was used to host the common infrastructure components required for an enterprise desktop
environment, such as Microsoft Active Directory, DNS, DHCP and the VMware View Connection Server. The VMware
vCenter server also ran within this cluster. Each desktop infrastructure service was implemented as a virtual machine
running Windows Server 2008 R2.
All required infrastructure services were configured as virtual machines as per the table below:

Virtual Machine

Virtual Machine Configuration

Active Directory/DNS

2 vCPUs
2 GB memory
1 Ethernet card
Virtual HDD (1 x 45 GB)
Virtual Machine Disk (vmdk) only

vCenter Server with View Composer

2 vCPU
4 GB memory
1 Ethernet card
Virtual HDD (1 x 40 GB)
vmdk only

View Manager

2 vCPU
4 GB memory
1 Ethernet card
Virtual HDD (1 x 40 GB)
vmdk only

10

Virtual Machine

Virtual Machine Configuration

DHCP Server

2 vCPU
2 GB memory
1 Ethernet card
Virtual HDD (1 x 15 GB)
vmdk only

3 VSA Software Appliances

1 vCPU
1 GB memory
1 Ethernet card (10 GbE)
Virtual HDD for VSA installation on local datastore (1 x 7 GB)
Virtual HDD attached to VSA (1 x 820 GB)
vmdk only

HP IO Accelerator configuration
Each server was configured with single HP IO Accelerator. Given the stateless design, it is not necessary to have a
mirrored array of solid state disks.
If a host, drive, power supply or similar component fails, the high-level design provides the redundancy necessary to
provide a user with a new desktop as detailed in the High availability section of this reference architecture document.
Capacity is the center point of the design, as the ability to use the local HP IO Accelerator for various components of the
desktop is only limited by todays technology.
To make this architecture cost effective, a capacity of 365GB is more than sufficient to support a properly optimized
Windows 7 desktop at the quantities listed in this document.
User data, the parent base image and the .vswps associated with the individual desktops were on shared storage. The
local HP IO Accelerator contained only the replica base image and linked clones.
To ensure realistic results with a new solid-state drive, special attention is required when being used for benchmarking.
A new solid-state storage device is faster with writes when new than it will be after heavy use. This is especially
prominent with MLC-based solid-state. While this is a well understood issue that is easy to address, without
preconditioning the results from the local IO Accelerator would be misleading. Preconditioning may be achieved by
running two or more full test iterations prior to finalizing test results. HPs standard test practice is to fill the accelerator
completely, running two test runs and then running a final test to measure expected results.

Shared storage configuration

Since shared storage is not required for the placement of desktop images in a stateless desktop architecture, the
requirement for shared storage infrastructure is reduced using this architecture. This can result in significant cost
savings.
The usage of the shared storage is completely outside the actual building block. Technically, it is possible to provide
individual hosts without any type of shared storage whatsoever; however, in order to provide storage for templates as
well as user data it was included in the design. An actual production environment would base the shared storage device
around user requirements.
HP LeftHand VSA was set to store the management components. HP LeftHand Virtual SAN Appliances are scalable,
highly available, and fully redundant. HP LeftHand VSA was configured as Network RAID 10 on 3 nodes while each server
was configured as RAID 5 with 4 300GB SFF 10K RPM Hot Plug SAS Hard Drives. The total usable space was 1.17 TB and
all the management components including the View Planner Clients and appliance were stored on the VSA storage.

11

Access infrastructure
The physical networking was implemented with a redundant network core of full 10Gbit Ethernet. The network core also
load balances incoming requests across VMware View Connection Servers, where user requests were routed to the
appropriate building block for each virtual desktop session.
Realistically, it would be possible to provide networking at 10Gbit speeds for 3 servers with a pair of switches; however
this reference architecture used core networking as it would be more typical in a data center.

Physical network details

The table below details the components and configuration of the physical network.

CORE NETWORKING COMPONENTS

Quantity

Description

Built-in 10 Gigabit Ethernet Modules

BUILDING BLOCK NETWORK COMPONENT (COMMON ACROSS BUILDING BLOCKS)

2

10Gbit Network Switches

VLAN CONFIGURATION
VLAN ID

Description

VMware View Desktops Infrastructure -802.11q Tagged

Management Needs 802.11q Tagged

Storage iSCSI 802.11q Tagged

12

Detailed VMware View pool configuration

Once a the VMware View pool was created, it was configured as noted below.
Figure 6: Pool Configuration

13

The pool provisioning settings were as follows:

Figure 7: Pool Provisioning Settings

14

Detailed HP IO Accelerator drive pool configuration

The datastores for a stateless design are configured in the same way as for a standard shared storage infrastructure.
Each local HP IO Accelerator was named hostname_SSD1 so that it would be clear when configuring within the VMware
View Connection Servers.
VMware View automatically manages the datastores; no further configuration is required.
Figure 8: Configuration of Datastores

Virtual machine image

Each virtual desktop in the reference architecture environment was based on a single optimized Microsoft Windows 7
32-bit template. To reduce the IOPS required per virtual machine image, VMware recommends optimizing the base
image.
An optimized image can drastically decrease processor, memory, and disk utilization. All testing in this reference
architecture was performed in detail with an optimized image following the VMware View Windows 7 Optimization Guide
available at vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-View-OptimizationGuideWindows7-EN.pdf. The template configuration is as
follows:

VIRTUAL MACHINE CONFIGURATION

OS

Windows 7 32-bit

RAM

1GB

Number of vCPUs

Virtual Disk Size

24GB

15

Validation methodology
When validating the VMware View for HP Client Virtualization design, it is important to simulate a real world
environment as closely as possible. For this validation, each component was built and validated for the virtual
infrastructure necessary in a 200-user server building block using a simulated workload. The networking, virtual storage
appliance, and core common infrastructure components were also implemented and tested for the access infrastructure
necessary to support a three-server solution.
Testing was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, desktop pools were created provisioning the virtual machines to
a single server. Each pool was created manually, just as it typically would be created in a normal environment. Testing
was performed to find a tested limit of the single server, which for the server described in this document was 200
desktops.
The second phase of the validation included session establishment, logon, and execution of a workload across the
cluster. Client access devices established individual VMware View sessions, and connected to an assigned View desktop
using the VMware View Client. Once a session was established, a workload was run to simulate typical user activity.
Each session worked in the environment as a standard user throughout the test, during which overall system statistics
were collected from several components of the architecture. The following sections explain in more detail how each
layer was implemented and used as part of the validation and how the workload was implemented.

Workload description
Each virtual machine was equipped to run VMwares View Planner workload that simulates typical user behavior. View
Planner uses an application set comprised of Microsoft Office 2007 applications. The workload has a set of randomly
executed functions that perform operations on a variety of applications. Several other factors can be implemented to
increase the load or adjust the user behavior, such as the number of words per minute that are typed and the delay
between applications being launched.
The workload configuration used for this validation included Office 2007: Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.
During the execution of the workload, multiple applications were opened at the same time and windows were minimized
and maximized as the workload progressed, randomly switching between each application. Individual application
operations that were randomly performed included:

Microsoft Word 2007: Open/minimize/close, write random words/numbers, and save modifications
Microsoft Excel 2007: Open/minimize/close, write random numbers, insert/delete columns/rows, copy/paste
formulas, and save modifications

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007: Open/minimize/close and conduct slide show presentation

High availability
The VMware View for HP Client Virtualization design has different requirements for high availability as compared to a
standard desktop virtualization deployment. In the past, the design would be based on the redundancy provided by a
shared storage device, and would utilize features within VMware vSphere to provide High Availability (HA), Distributed
Resource Scheduling (DRS), and live migration with vMotion.
In this design, VMware HA is not necessary, as the failure of a host will be seen by the VMware View Connection Servers.
In case of server and/or storage failure, the broker will simply allocate a new desktop for the user after successful
authentication. A highly available implementation of a Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS) share enables always-on
View Persona provisioning. HP LeftHand VSA will sustain a single host failure with an HP LeftHand FOM properly
configured when an even number of VSA nodes are deployed or when odd node counts of 3 or greater are used. VMware
View Connection Servers can address both planned and unplanned downtime at the broker level, which was tested
extensively as a part of this reference architecture.

Unplanned downtime
A standard host-level outage is easily mitigated by careful pool planning. By provisioning a surplus number of virtual
desktops across the cluster, equal to the number of failed virtual desktops on a given host, the failure of a host is
contained. In the design, 200 desktops will be created on each host; however, only 130 would be allocated to users by
the broker unless there was a host/storage failure.

16

As the Connection Server will automatically sense that the desktops are no longer available after 30 seconds, if a user
that was on the failed server attempts to log back in, the user will receive a new desktop from another host. This
effectively provides HA, but at the Connection Server layer.

Validation results
This section details the results and observations that were concluded during the validation of stateless tiered storage of
desktop virtualization with VMware View 5.
All validation included several test iterations to ensure data consistency after a ramp-up period; for clarity multiple
iterations are not shown.
Testing was performed with an optimized Windows 7 image following VMware best practices. All data includes the initial
period of massive user logons ramping up the test to demonstrate that even when pushed heavily the environment can
provide an acceptable range of performance.
The storage pieces of the architecture proved capable of providing more than enough throughput and IOPS capacity. The
HP IO Accelerator latency averaged around 1.8ms and LeftHand VSA averaged 8ms. HP IO Accelerator IOPS was not even
challenged at an average of 900 IOPS, peaking at 1300 IOPS. LeftHand VSA had an even lower load of 11 IOPS on
average and peaking at 250 IOPS. For more details please see the figures in Appendix A.
With respect to CPU, the system used approximately 94% of CPU at boot up. However, once the systems reached a
steady state, utilization dropped to only 8%. For more details please see figure A-8 in Appendix A. Even at full CPU load
desktops were responsive and with an average application response time of 1.2 seconds (well below the accepted View
Planner average threshold of 2.5 seconds) and max value barely reaching 4.3 seconds. For more details see figure A-1 in
Appendix A.
This architecture shows that even in an HA scenario with three servers and an HA friendly 120-130 desktops per host
configuration (60% server load), an architecture can sustain unplanned single node failure and still provide enough
computing capacity to host all desktops on the remaining 2 servers.
The initial ramp-up period shows higher latency, but as mentioned earlier this was included to show how well the
infrastructure deals with a massive influx of all users logging in all at once.
Capacity of the HP IO Accelerator was tracked closely to ensure the environment would have no issue supporting the
necessary user counts. Even after multiple test runs, the linked clones grew only modestly. The architecture should
allow for a weekly refresh period.

Conclusion
The VMware View 5 architecture for HP Client Virtualization discussed in this reference document significantly reduces
the hardware infrastructure costs of desktop virtualization environments. The architecture provides a stateless desktop
virtualization environment designed with VMware View 5 tiered storage that can scale based on demand while providing
the lowest cost per desktop in the industry. In summary, this design provides linear scalability across both compute and
storage.

Appendix A
The View Planner workload was configured with different standard applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and
Outlook. The graphs in this section represent the response times for different operations of the applications as well as
overall performance as discussed throughout the document.

17

Figure A-1: Maximum Application Response Time of 4.3 Seconds, even at 200 Virtual Desktop workload

Figure A-2: Maximum 33ms HP LeftHand VSA Datastore Latency

18

Figure A-3: IO Accelerator Datastore IOPS

Figure A-4: HP LeftHand VSA Datastore IOPS

19

Figure A-5: HP IO Accelerator zero ms Write latency throughout the test

20

Figure A-6: Maximum 2.4ms Read Latency to the local HP IO Accelerator datastore

21

Figure A-7: Host Memory usage was at a stable 235GB throughout the test

22

Figure A-8: Boot Storm and Simulated Workload CPU usage

23

Appendix B Sample bill of materials

This section presents a sample bill of materials that covers at a high level the general server and storage requirements
for a 3 node solution as outlined in this document. The bill of materials does not include complete support options nor
does it address rack and power requirements. Please consult with your normal sales channel to insure you have
optimized your implementation to meet your needs.

Qty

Part Number

Description

653200-B21

HP DL380p Gen8 8-SFF CTO Server

662228-L21

HP DL380p Gen8 E5-2680 FIO Kit

662228-B21

HP DL380p Gen8 E5-2680 Kit

48

647901-B21

HP 16GB 2Rx4 PC3L-10600R-9 Kit

12

652564-B21

HP 300GB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in SC ENT HDD

684210-B21

HP Ethernet 10GbE 530FLR-SFP+ FIO Adptr

631681-B21

HP 2GB FBWC for P-Series Smart Array

656363-B21

HP 750W CS Plat PL Ht Plg Pwr Supply Kit

BC390AAE

HP SAAP 2.0 Nm E-LTU 1yr 24x7 Supp

673642-B21

HP 365GB MLC G2 PCIe IO Accelerator

TA688AB

HP P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Stock LTU

JG296A

HP 5920AF-24XG Switch

BD691AAE

VMware View Premier Bundle 100Pk 1yr E-LTU

24

For more information

VMware View, vmware.com/products/view/overview.html
VMware vSphere 5, vmware.com/products/vsphere
HP Client Virtualization, hp.com/go/cv
HP LeftHand Storage with VMware vSphere: Design considerations and best practices,
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA3-6918ENW
HP P4000 VSA Installation and Configuration Guide,
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03041804/c03041804.pdf
HP P4000 SAN User Guide,
http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03035314/c03035314.pdf

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Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only
warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein
should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omiss ions contained herein.
Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Intel and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and
other countries.
4AA4-3070ENW, Created August 2012

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