Citrix XenDesktop

Modular Reference Architecture

Citrix XenDesktop 5.6, Microsoft Hyper-V,
and Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI
October, 2012

Table of Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 3
Citrix XenDesktop ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Machine Creation Services (MCS) ........................................................................................................... 4
Citrix Profile Manager ............................................................................................................................... 5
Microsoft Hyper-V Server Core ................................................................................................................ 5
Dynamic Memory (SP1) ....................................................................................................................... 5
Atlantis ILIO Storage Optimization Software Overview ............................................................................ 6
Atlantis ILIO Deployment Options ........................................................................................................ 7
The Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Solution ................................................................................................ 7
Key Benefits ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Design Approach ..................................................................................................................... 8

Goals......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Performance and Cost .......................................................................................................................... 8
Scalability.............................................................................................................................................. 8
Designing the Pooled Citrix XenDesktop Architecture ............................................................................. 8
Storage Optimization, Selection and Sizing for Pooled Desktops ............................................................ 9
SAN Calculation ................................................................................................................................... 9
Networking Design ............................................................................................................................. 10

Citrix XenDesktop Reference Architecture Testing ..............................................................11

Test Results Summary ........................................................................................................................... 11
Cost Analysis Reference Architecture Infrastructure Cost/Desktop .................................................... 11
Performance and Density Testing .......................................................................................................... 12
Summary of the Login VSI Medium Workload: .................................................................................. 12
About Login VSI .................................................................................................................................. 12
Login VSI Test Configuration.............................................................................................................. 13
Login VSI Test Results ....................................................................................................................... 13
IOPS ....................................................................................................................................................... 14
IOPS Test Results .............................................................................................................................. 15
Storage Capacity Consumed .................................................................................................................. 17
Storage Response Time ......................................................................................................................... 18
CPU Utilization ........................................................................................................................................ 19
Memory Utilization .................................................................................................................................. 20
Testing Configurations ............................................................................................................................ 21
Environment Overview ....................................................................................................................... 21
Server Hardware ................................................................................................................................ 22
Hyper-V Configurations ...................................................................................................................... 22
Virtual Desktop Image and Configurations ......................................................................................... 22
Atlantis ILIO Configuration Information .............................................................................................. 22

Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................22

Page 1

Executive Summary
Hosted Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
(HVD) has the potential to transform
desktop computing and modernize the
desktop experience that IT
organizations provide to their
employees, increasing productivity and
lowering desktop computing costs.
However, making the successful
transition from physical to virtual
desktops requires an understanding of
the business requirements, existing
environment, and proven reference
architectures that can be tailored to each
organization and validated in the
customer environment.

At a Glance
Reference Architecture Components
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
Citrix Profile Manager
Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS)
Microsoft Hyper-V Core 2008 R2 SP1
Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI 3.2
Test Results Summary
Cost Per Desktop
(Server + Atlantis ILIO License)

$195

Density Desktops per Server

(Login VSI Max Not Reached)

140 desktops

In this document, Citrix has partnered

Boot Time (single desktop)
16 seconds
with GlassHouse Technologies and
Atlantis Computing to develop an
Boot Time (140 desktop boot storm)
6 min.
optimized reference architecture that
(2.5
sec. per
delivers on the business objectives of
desktop)
reducing cost and providing a user
experience that is superior to a physical
RAM used as Storage
18GB
PC. The reference architecture used
by Atlantis ILIO
(129MB)
Citrix XenDesktop with Atlantis ILIO
per desktop
Diskless VDI to deploy virtual desktop
images with no storage and deliver an
exceptional user experience at a cost per
desktop of $195 (including the server hardware and Atlantis ILIO license). The reference
architecture testing showed that this architecture can achieve a density of 140 users per server with
16 second boot time and amazing desktop performance. Using Citrix XenDesktop and Atlantis
ILIO Diskless VDI, desktops are deployed without the need for costly and complex storage
infrastructure.
The reference architecture is based on the Citrix XenDesktop desktop virtualization solution that
transforms Windows desktops and applications into an on-demand service available to any user,
anywhere, and on any device. With XenDesktop, you can securely deliver individual Windows, Web
and SaaS applications, or full virtual desktops, to PCs, Macs, tablets, smartphones, laptops and thin
clientsall with a high-definition user experience (HDX). The architecture includes Citrix
XenDesktop 5.6 with Machine Creation Services (MCS) and Profile Manager with Microsoft
Hyper-V as the hypervisor and Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI optimization software.

Page 2

Introduction
Hosted Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (HVD) refers to the process of running an end-user desktop
inside a virtual machine that lives on a server in the datacenter. HVDs are only one model of
desktop virtualization that should be considered during the strategy and design phases of desktop
virtualization. Different types of workers across the enterprise have varying performance and
personalization requirements. Some require simplicity and standardization while others need high
performance or a fully personalized desktop. XenDesktop 5.6 can meet all these requirements in a
single solution with Citrix FlexCast delivery technology. Atlantis ILIO supports both Citrix
XenDesktop VDI (Hosted VDI) and XenApp (Hosted Shared) desktop virtualization solutions.
Deploying Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a multi-phased process including strategy, design
& planning, implementation and transition into operations and management of the solution. This
reference architecture provides IT organizations with a proven and tested architecture for Citrix
XenDesktop that acts as a starting point to accelerate the deployment and eliminate the operational
risks of desktop virtualization. This document includes a Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 an Atlantis ILIO
Diskless VDI 3.2 Reference Architecture for stateless (pooled) VDI deployments - a validated
virtual desktop solution with datacenter infrastructure. The goal was to design and validate a
standardized building block capable of supporting an unlimited number of virtual desktops.

Included in this document is a description of the test environment and equipment, samples of actual
test results and a detailed analysis of the cost per desktop, performance and density. Validation for
the reference architecture was performed at scale in a lab environment simulating a 140 concurrent
user virtual desktop environment building block of one server, executing a realistic desktop
workload using Login VSI. The reference architecture is designed to scale the server infrastructure
modularly using as many server building blocks as necessary to reach the desired scalability level.
With validated architectures, customers can have confidence that a virtual desktop environment can
be efficiently implemented and that it will perform as expected. The document also includes specific
information necessary for Citrix XenDesktop customers to replicate the reference architecture in
their environment.
Page 3

Citrix XenDesktop1
Citrix XenDesktop is a desktop virtualization and VDI solution that delivers a complete Windows
desktop experience as an on-demand service to any user, anywhere. Whether users are task workers,
knowledge workers, or mobile workers, XenDesktop can quickly and securely deliver individual
applications or complete desktops while providing a high-definition user experience. Citrix
XenDesktop has many different deployment models. In this reference architecture, we have used a
pooled desktop model using Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS) and Profile Manager.

Machine Creation Services (MCS)2

A user authenticates using a web interface and selects their virtual desktop. Once the user
authenticates to Web Interface, the XenDesktop Controllers manage the desktop groups by
building, starting and shutting down the desktops as required. The XenDesktop Controller will rely
on Machine Creation Services (MCS) to deliver the appropriate desktop image to the Pooled and
Dedicated desktop groups. In this reference architecture, we are testing pooled desktops (also
known as non-persistent or stateless virtual desktops).
MCS does not require additional servers; it utilizes integrated functionality built into the Microsoft
Hyper-V hypervisor. A master desktop image is created and maintained within the hypervisor pool.
The XenDesktop Controller instructs the hypervisor to create a snapshot of the base image and thin
provision new virtual machines through the built-in hypervisor functions. MCS utilizes special
functionality within the XenDesktop Controller and XenDesktop Agent (installed within the virtual
desktop image) to build unique identities for each virtual machine, which is stored within the virtual
desktops identity disk. This functionality allows each virtual desktop to be unique even though it is
using the same base image.
When the pooled desktop reboots, the differential disk is deleted and the user starts with a brand
new virtual desktop. When the base image is updated, the pooled desktop utilizes the latest snapshot
upon next reboot. In this reference architecture, a Pooled virtual desktop is used. The pooled
random mode connects a user to any available virtual desktop image randomly and then streams in
1

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xendesktop/xd-library-wrapper.html
http://support.citrix.com/servlet/KbServlet/download/25558-102-665162/Reference%20Architecture%20%20XenDesktop%205.pdf
2

Page 4

the user profile which contains document and settings. This is the most common option as virtual
desktops are considered disposable after each use, helping to keep a clean and consistent
environment.

Citrix Profile Manager3

In this reference architecture, we have chosen to use Citrix Profile Manager for simplicity and
because it is integrated with Citrix XenDesktop. However, there are many third-party user
virtualization tools including AppSense and LiquidWare Labs ProfileUnity that should be considered
based on the requirements of your environment.
Profile Management from Citrix provides an easy, reliable, and high-performance way to manage
user personalization settings in Citrix XenDesktop environments. User personalization includes
applying user settings and documents to a pooled virtual desktop during the logon process. It
requires minimal infrastructure and administration, and provides users with fast logons and logoffs.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server Core4

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is a hypervisor-based that allows you to consolidate virtual
desktops onto a single physical server. Because Hyper-V Server is a dedicated, stand-alone product
that contains only the Windows hypervisor, Windows Server driver model, and virtualization
components, it provides a small footprint and minimal overhead.
Dynamic Memory (SP1)
Dynamic Memory, new in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, enables customers to better utilize the
memory resources of Hyper-V hosts by balancing how memory is distributed between running
virtual machines. Memory can be dynamically reallocated between different virtual machines in
response to the changing workloads of these machines. Dynamic Memory enables more efficient use
of memory while maintaining consistent workload performance and scalability. Implementing
Dynamic Memory means that higher levels of server consolidation can be achieved with minimal
impact to performance. It also enables larger numbers of virtual desktops per Hyper-V host for VDI
scenarios. The net result for both scenarios is more efficient use of expensive server-hardware
resources, which can translate into easier management and lower costs. In this reference
architecture, Dynamic Memory was enabled on the server running the virtual desktops.

3
4

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/technologies/upm-wrapper-all-versions.html
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29554

Page 5

Atlantis ILIO Storage Optimization Software Overview

Atlantis ILIO is a VDI storage and performance optimization software solution that makes virtual
desktops more affordable, reducing implementation risks and addressing key barriers to market
adoption: storage cost and user acceptance. Atlantis Computing software complements Citrix
XenDesktop and XenApp solutions by reducing the amount of storage needed, enabling the use of
less expensive storage, and boosting the performance of virtual desktops. Atlantis ILIO
fundamentally changes the economics and performance characteristics of VDI deployments by
intelligently optimizing how the Windows operating system interacts with storage.
Automated Deployment

Atlantis ILIO Center Deployment Services provides push-button, fully automated deployment,
sizing, and configuration of multiple racks of servers for thousands of users in less than one hour.
Atlantis ILIO virtual machines are automatically created and registered as NFS data stores that are
ready to use by Citrix XenDesktop or VMware View to complete the desktop provisioning process.
Analyzing & Processing IO Traffic

Atlantis ILIO performs content-aware analyses of IO operations in real-time at the NTFS file
system and block levels. Atlantis ILIO can service all IO requests made by the virtual desktop
operating system using only software and a small amount of server RAM before writing to storage
(SAN, NAS, Local Disk, RAM). Processing most or all IO from local server RAM reduces latency
and improves the virtual desktop user experience.

Graphic above illustrates the impact of ILIO on traffic sent by hypervisor to storage for 200 desktops
Inline Deduplication

Atlantis ILIO performs inline deduplication in real-time on-the-wire before IO transactions reach
the storage fabric. With Atlantis ILIO, the storage capacity required per virtual desktop decreases by
up to 95%, enabling the storage array to support up to 20 times more desktops with the same
amount of storage capacity. The combination of ILIOs traffic processing and its Inline
deduplication technology typically results in cutting the amount of traffic sent to storage by up to
90%.

Page 6

Coalescing (IO Blender Fix)

Atlantis ILIOs approach to storage optimization converts small random blocks generated by the
Windows operating systems and hypervisors often referred to as the IO blender affect into
larger blocks of sequential IO before sending the data to NAS, SAN, DAS, flash storage or RAM.
Compression

Atlantis ILIO compresses the optimized blocks before writing them to their ultimate storage
destination. In the case of Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI, this is critical as it reduces the amount of
RAM required per desktop by approximately 50% from 1 GB per virtual desktop to 300-600MB per
desktop.
Atlantis ILIO Fast Clone

Atlantis ILIO Fast Cloning solution can create new full clones of virtual desktops in as little as 10-40
seconds per desktop, while reducing the size of virtual desktop images to 500MB. For a typical
server hosting 100 desktops, the provisioning would be completed in between 15 minutes and 1
hour. Since provisioning is performed on all servers at the same time, this equates to deploying an
unlimited number of virtual desktops in 15-60 minutes with Atlantis ILIO instead of 10 hours for
every 100 desktops with traditional VMware vSphere full clones provisioning. Unlike other storage
cloning, Atlantis ILIO Fast Clone creates new virtual desktops using its metadata rather than
copying data from storage and is as a result extremely fast
Atlantis ILIO Deployment Options
The Atlantis ILIO software virtual machine is deployed on each VDI or XenApp server on the same
hypervisor used by the virtual desktops to process storage IO traffic locally and perform inline
deduplication of virtual desktop images. Atlantis ILIO runs in a dedicated virtual machine that is
logically placed between the Virtual Desktop VMs and the storage for the Virtual Desktops. The
Atlantis ILIO VM presents an NFS or iSCSI storage interface to the Virtual Desktop VMs and
connects to either local server memory (Diskless VDI), local storage (SAS/SATA/SSDs) or shared
storage (SAN/NAS) through NFS, iSCSI or Fiber Channel.

The Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Solution

Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI is the only solution in the industry to enable pooled Citrix XenDesktop
deployments without the need for traditional virtual desktop storage, which normally represents
40% to 60% of the total cost of a deployment. SSDs, SSD-based storage arrays, SAS and SATA
drives are completely eliminated from Citrix XenDesktop deployments. Citrix XenDesktop can now
be deployed to thousands of desktops in a matter of a few hours without the cost, complexity and
risks of installing and managing storage. Atlantis ILIO delivers a user experience that is much faster
than a physical PC at a cost of $195 per desktop.
Key Benefits

Page 7

Software only Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI is a purpose-built solution that allows virtual
desktops to use RAM as primary storage, completely eliminating the need for storage or
SSDs. Scale-out VDI infrastructure with just servers and software.
Amazing user experience 300+ IOPS/user faster than PC user experience.

CAPEX of $195/user Keep infrastructure cost under $200 per desktop including the
server hardware, RAM and Atlantis ILIO.
Lower OPEX Enable lower operating expenses by eliminating rack space, power
consumption, cooling and repair costs, and daily operational tasks of maintaining disk-based
storage.
Automated multi-rack deployment Automatically install, size, and configure Atlantis
ILIO on hundreds of servers. Create and register NFS data stores that are then ready to use
by Citrix XenDesktop MCS/PVS to complete the provisioning process.
Complements Citrix Solutions Complements Citrix FlexCast models including pooled,
dedicated, and hosted shared with Machine Creation Services (MCS), and Provisioning
Services (PVS).

Design Approach
Designing a VDI architecture starts with establishing requirements and objectives for the VDI
deployment and then making a series of design decisions to achieve those objectives using the best
available software and hardware solutions. In this reference architecture, the objectives were to
deliver a cost-effective, high performance, scalable, secure, and resilient VDI architecture that can be
deployed quickly in order to realize the cost, security and agility benefits of desktop virtualization.

Goals
The primary goal of this reference architecture is to provide IT organizations with a validated Citrix
XenDesktop architecture that leverages the latest optimization technologies from Citrix and Atlantis
Computing to reduce storage costs and increase desktop performance at scale.
Performance and Cost
The objective was to develop a reference architecture with IO performance that is equal or better
than a physical PC with a lower cost than a physical PC.
Scalability
The objective was to develop a VDI reference architecture with server and storage infrastructure
that scales out easily to meet growing demand for thousands of users without requiring additional
storage.

Designing the Pooled Citrix XenDesktop Architecture

After establishing the goals of the VDI architecture, the next steps are to select a server to act as the
virtual desktop host, select the storage architecture and ensure that the network has sufficient
bandwidth between the host servers and the storage system. A server with 12 cores was selected to
provide the optimal results from a price/performance perspective.
For some customers, selecting a more powerful server with 16 or 20 cores may be the right choice
depending on the relative pricing and density that the servers can support. The key to selecting the
optimal server is finding the balance between density (the number users per server) and cost of the
server to achieve the lowest possible cost per desktop with the CPU, Memory and IO resources
required to deliver a better than PC user experience.
Page 8

Storage Optimization, Selection and Sizing for Pooled Desktops

For pooled desktops, customers have the option to choose a shared SAN/NAS storage system, use
local SAS/SSD drives, or use local server RAM as primary storage for the virtual desktop images. A
small amount of shared storage is used for the user profile (i.e. My Documents, applications,
settings) in all configurations. In a pooled desktop case, using local server memory with Atlantis
ILIO Diskless VDI for the virtual desktop images
provided a lower cost and better performance than
using shared storage or local SSDs.
Sizing storage for a pooled VDI deployment involves
planning for both storage capacity (GB) and
throughput (IOPS). With traditional storage, hosted
VDI deployments are almost always IO bound.
Determining the peak number of write IOPS is critical to sizing VDI storage because write IOPS
cant be cached, they reduce the performance and lifespan of SSDs, and have significant write
penalties when using RAID. For example, RAID 5 which is standard for many SANs, has a 4 times
write penalty. Therefore, every frontend write IOPS generated by the virtual desktops means that
you need 4 write IOPS from the SAN disks. In other words, a SAN 15K SAS drive that might
normally be able to deliver 175 write IOPS, can only provide 40 write IOPS (see table above for
write IO penalties by RAID level5).
The write IOPS penalty, ineffectiveness of traditional caching and SSDs with write-heavy workloads
combined with the fact that the VDI workload is 80+% write during steady state is often
overlooked in VDI deployments, resulting in VDI storage being undersized by 2-4 times.
With Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI, writes IOPS are heavily deduplicated inline and then serviced by
RAM, which handles write IOPS very effectively with no write penalty or risk of disk failure. With
Atlantis ILIO, the total cost of delivering the 106 peak IOPS (77 read, 29 write IOPS measured in
this reference architecture) frontend IOPS per desktop including the server, memory and Atlantis
ILIO license is $195 per desktop.
To achieve the same number of front end IOPS with a SAN configured in RAID 5, you would need
0.81 15K SAS drives per user.
SAN Calculation
106 frontend IOPS per desktop (77 read IOPS, 29 write IOPS)
29 frontend write IOPS x 4 times write penalty = 116 backend write IOPS
116 write IOPS + 77 read IOPS = 143 total backend IOPS
143 IOPS per desktop 175 IOPS 15K SAS Drive = 0.81 15K SAN Disks per desktop
At $1,800 fully loaded cost per 15K SAN disk, you would need to purchase $1,458 of SAN storage
per user to achieve the same number of IOPS delivered by Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI in this
reference architecture test.

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/12/23/iops/

Page 9

With Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI, the IOPS per desktop are virtually unlimited because the virtual
desktops run in server RAM, which is the fastest possible storage media. Therefore, the primary
sizing parameter for storage is to understand the amount of server memory required to store the 140
virtual machine images.
The per-VM memory requirement for Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI is dependent on the number of
virtual desktop sessions and the type of workload. The formula below approximates the memory
requirements for a medium Login VSI workload using a 13.8GB Windows 7 base image with the
desktops re-provisioned on logoff. Depending on the virtual desktop image size and memory
allocated to the virtual machine operating system, the amount of RAM required per desktop for the
Atlantis ILIO RAM disk will vary. Because all images in a pooled VDI deployment are created from
a shared base image, the time to re-provision desktops is minimal.
Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI has the option to enable or disable compression. With compression
enabled, the amount of memory consumed is approximately 50% less but it consumes slightly more
CPU cycles. Therefore, if the configuration is memory bound, it is recommended that you enable
compression to maximize density. If the architecture is CPU bound, then you should disable
compression to maximize density.
In this reference architecture, the configuration was memory bound and the Atlantis ILIO virtual
machine was configured to use compression. The sizing of the Atlantis ILIO datastore was initially
set conservatively at 64GB of RAM for Atlantis ILIO (6GB + 430MB of RAM per desktop) to store
the optimized virtual desktop images. However, Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI only used 23.4GB of
RAM (6GB + 129MB per desktop), leaving 63% of the RAM disk available at after a combined 72
hours of Login VSI workload.
For a similar base image configuration where users are re-provisioned on logoff, the RAM disk for
the Atlantis ILIO virtual machine could be sized much smaller with 48GB RAM to free up more
memory for the virtual desktops and still have more than 50% of the RAM disk available for growth.
See the Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Administrators Guide for sizing guidelines.
Networking Design
For the reference architecture, the design used the Atlantis ILIO On-Each-Server deployment mode
with local server RAM as primary storage, which services all of the storage IO traffic for virtual
desktop images within the physical server without generating network traffic. As a result, the amount
of network traffic leaving host and traversing the network is minimal. Therefore, a 1Gb network was
selected from the VDI host servers running the virtual desktops into a switch. In this case, a 1Gb
network connection to shared storage would be sufficient as only the user profile is stored on a file
server or shared SAN/NAS storage.

Page 10

Citrix XenDesktop Reference Architecture Testing

Test Results Summary
Cost Per Desktop
(Server, Atlantis ILIO License)

$195

Density (Desktops per Server)

(Login VSI Max Not Reached)

140 desktops

Boot Time (single desktop)

16 seconds

Boot Storm Duration (140 desktop boot storm)

6 min.
(2.5 sec. per desktop)

RAM used as storage by Atlantis ILIO

18GB
(129MB per desktop)

Cost Analysis Reference Architecture Infrastructure Cost/Desktop

The objective of providing cost information for the infrastructure used in this reference architecture
is to allow organizations to compare the incremental cost per desktop and performance of this
architecture relative to their existing or planned VDI deployments. By isolating the key
infrastructure components of servers and storage, customers can compare different Citrix
XenDesktop architectures to make an informed decision based on price vs. user experience. The
infrastructure cost per desktop for this reference architecture was calculated below using the
combined purchase price of the server used in the testing and the price of the Atlantis ILIO Diskless
VDI perpetual license. The Citrix XenDesktop, Microsoft and any another other software licenses
used in the testing were not included in the cost below as those costs vary widely based on the
organization and software used.
Item

Quantity Description

VDI Server

Atlantis ILIO

140

Total Cost
Cost Per Desktop

Page 11

CPU Intel Xeon 5680 (12 cores @ 3.33MHz)

RAM 256GB RAM
Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Perpetual License
ATL-ILIO-SW-NP-DSKLS
$27,280.60
$195

Performance and Density Testing

Overall desktop performance was determined by using Login VSI 3.6 with the Medium no flash
workload to measure response times. The Login VSI Medium workload includes Word, Outlook,
Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, Bullzip PDF, and 7zip. When using the Login VSI Pro
product, you can choose to test VDI deployments with a various pre-configured workloads or a
custom workload. Atlantis Computing considers Login VSI medium to be a lighter workload with
fewer IOPS per desktop than a typical production VDI environment. Therefore, Atlantis
Computing recommends that you create a custom workload that closely emulates the production
VDI environment with the actual image that will be used in the VDI deployment.
Summary of the Login VSI Medium Workload:

Outlook, browse 10 messages.

Internet Explorer, one instance is left open (BBC.co.uk), one instance is browsed to
Wired.com, Lonelyplanet.com
Word, one instance to measure response time, one instance to review and edit document.
Bullzip PDF Printer & Acrobat Reader, the word document is printed to PDF.
Excel, a very large randomized sheet is opened.
PowerPoint, a presentation is reviewed and edited.
7-zip: using the command line version the output of the session is zipped.

For more information, visit http://www.Login VSI.com/workloads

About Login VSI
Login Virtual Session Indexer (Login VSI) is a vendor independent benchmarking tool to objectively
test and measure the performance and scalability of centralized Windows desktop environments
such as Server Based Computing (SBC) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Both leading ITanalysts and IT-vendors recognize and recommend Login VSI as the de-facto industry standard
benchmarking tool for SBC and VDI.
Login VSI can be used to test virtual desktop environments like Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp,
Microsoft VDI and RDS (Terminal Server), VMware View, Quest vWorkspace and other VDI/SBC
solutions.
Customers of Login VSI use the tool for different purposes:

Benchmarking: Make the right decisions about different infrastructure options based on
tests.
Load-testing: Gain insight in the maximum capacity of your current (or future) hardware
environment.
Capacity planning: Decide exactly what infrastructure is needed to offer users an optimal
performing desktop.
Change Impact Analysis: To test and predict the performance effect of every intended
modification before its implementation.

Login VSI is the standard tool used in all tests that are executed in the internationally acclaimed
Project Virtual Reality Check (for more information visit www.projectvrc.com).
Page 12

Login VSI Test Configuration

In this test, Login VSI 3.6 Dynamic with a 30 second logon interval was used to establish the
maximum density. Login VSI Dynamic works by taking a baseline of the first 15 Login VSI sessions
(925ms in our test) and then using a calculation to determine when the dynamic response time
threshold is reached, representing the maximum density that the server can support with acceptable
user experience (4,156ms in our test). In previous versions of Login VSI, VSImax Classic required
an average response time of less than 4000ms (4 seconds) to be considered a passing test run. At the
point where the response time hits 4000ms, Login VSI determines that you have reached the Login
VSI Max or the maximum number of desktops that can be supported by on that particular server.
Login VSI Test Results
The blue line in the chart below shows the average response time across all of the virtual desktops.
The tested configuration was able to support 140 virtual desktops without reaching the VSIMax of
4,156ms. The response time performance was well under the threshold of 4000 ms, with results
between 925ms and 2,000ms for most of the test run. Therefore, the maximum density for the
tested architecture is more than 140 desktops. This reference architecture was designed to scale out
horizontally without the need for storage. From a server and storage perspective, you can add an
infinite number of servers with a density of 140 virtual desktops per server to scale to any size Citrix
XenDesktop deployment.

For more information on the Login VSI, visit

http://www.Login VSI.com/analyzing-results
http://www.Login VSI.com/licenses

Page 13

IOPS
In order to deliver a consistently high-performance virtual desktop experience that is equal or better
than a physical PC, virtual desktops require constant access to storage with a sufficient number of
low latency Inputs/Output operations per Second (IOPS). IOPS are the number of operations or
transactions that the storage system services per second. IOPS can be reads from the storage system
or writes to the storage system. They can also be random or sequential. The amount of IOPS a
storage system or disk can provide varies based on the type of disk, RAID level, block size,
random/sequential blocks and the workload.
The VDI workload has very different IO patterns during different stages of virtual desktop use. For
example, when you boot up a virtual machine, the IO is 80-90% reads and 10-20% writes. During
normal steady state operation of the virtual desktops when users are logged into their computers and
using applications, the inverse is true with a 80% writes and 20% reads.
The VDI workload is also highly randomized due to the IO Blender effect. When the Windows 7
operating system generates IO, it optimizes that IO so that data is read from and written to disk
sequentially, maximizing overall system performance. In VDI environments there is no direct
connection between the desktop operating system and any physical disk (with local or shared
storage). Therefore, the disks are shared amongst the virtual desktop operating systems. As a result,
the hypervisor converts sequential IO into random IO (the IO Blender effect) which decreases
storage and desktop performance and in turn reduces the effectiveness of any available storage
caching modules. With desktop virtualization, the IO blender effect is more pronounced due to the
fact that the number of desktops per physical server is much higher than server virtualization.
With Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI, the virtual desktops are stored in highly optimized local server
RAM, which provides virtually unlimited low latency IOPS.

Page 14

IOPS Test Results

Boot Storm

Key
Read IOPS
Write IOPS

Performance Monitor IOPS Chart Showing Stacked Read/Write IOPS During Boot Storm6
The boot storm of 140 virtual desktops was initiated by powering on all virtual desktops at 9:40AM
in Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). Boot Storms are the most IO
intensive part of a virtual desktop workload and are 89% reads vs. 11% writes on average. The chart
above shows the read IOPS in red and the write IOPS in blue. The 140 virtual desktops generated a
peak of 14,309 IOPS during the boot storm or 106 IOPS per desktop. Boot time is a function of
many resources including CPU, Memory, Disk and the method used by the hypervisors
management system to start the VMs. However, boot storms often overwhelm the storage system,
triggering queuing and increasing latency, and resulting in extremely long boot times and degrading
the performance of any other virtual machines sharing the same storage system during the boot
storm. Because Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI was able to handle the 14,309 IOPS locally from
memory, all 140 virtual desktops were able to boot in exactly 6 minutes (2.5 seconds per desktop).
Booting a single VM with all the other desktop running took 16 seconds. Because each server
running virtual desktops has its own Atlantis ILIO datastore, a boot storm is isolated to a single host
server and does not affect the rest of the virtual desktops.

The Performance Monitor Graph does not show the peak values in the table unless you zoom in to
see a smaller time window.

Page 15

6,070

Avg
Read/Write Max
Ratio (%)
89%
10,388

Max
Read/Write
Ratio (%)
73%

Write IOPS (All)

Total IOPS (All)

751
6,821

11%
-

3,921
14,309

27%
-

Read IOPS/VM

45

89%

77

73%

Write IOPS/VM

11%

29

27%

Total IOPS/VM

51

106

Boot Storm IOPS

Avg

Read IOPS (All)

Login VSI Medium IOPS Results

Key
Read IOPS
Write IOPS

Performance Monitor Stacked Read/Write IOPS During a Login VSI Medium Test
The Login VSI Medium test run was started at 3:58PM with new virtual desktops logging on at 30
second intervals and then automatically beginning the Login VSI Medium workload until at 5:08PM
all 140 virtual desktop were running simultaneously. In contrast to the boot storm test, you can see
that normal operation in the virtual desktops generate predominantly write IOPS (blue area) with
88% write IOPS and 12% read IOPS on average. The total IOPS during the Login VSI test run
peaked at 1,738 IOPS7. As a result of showing the entire test run, the chart above does not
graphically capture the peaks during the last 10 minutes of the Login VSI run.

The Performance Monitor Graph does not show the peak values in the table unless you zoom in to see a smaller time
frame.

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The chart below provides a snapshot of the last 10 minutes of the Login VSI test run and shows the
peaks at a more detailed level. In addition, it is important to note that the read/write ratio becomes
more write-intensive during the peak period.
Login VSI
Medium
Read IOPS
(All)
Write IOPS
(All)
Total IOPS
(All)

Avg

Avg
Read/Write Max
Ratio (%)

Max
Read/Write
Ratio (%)

57

12%

517

30%

413

88%

1,221

70%

470

1,738

Key
Read IOPS
Write IOPS

Performance Monitor Read/Write IOPS During Login VSI Final 10 Minute Peak

Storage Capacity Consumed

Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI uses local server memory as primary storage for the virtual desktop
images. It is important to measure the amount of memory consumed by the Atlantis ILIO RAM
disk per virtual desktop during after completing the Login VSI tests. In the reference architecture
testing, multiple Login VSI medium workload test runs were completed over the course of 2 weeks
with a cumulative 72 hours of active workload. After the testing was complete, the used space in the
Atlantis ILIO RAM disk totaled 18GB, or 129MB per virtual desktop. This includes the base image
of 13.8GB being placed in the Atlantis ILIO datastore.

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RAM Consumed Per

Desktop After
Atlantis ILIO
Total Storage
Consumed

18GB
(140 desktops)

Storage Consumed
Per desktop

0.129GB

Storage Response Time

Storage response time (also known as Latency) is an important measure of storage performance that
correlates to the user experience of the virtual desktop. In the charts below, the storage response
time is shown in seconds during the Login VSI medium workload. The IO response times for both
read and write IO averages 4 milliseconds, which contributed to the exceptional performance
illustrated by the Login VSI average response time and baseline of 925ms.
Read Response Time (seconds)

Average Response Time

.004 seconds

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10% of Outliers Removed

.003 seconds

Write Latency (response time in ms)

Average Response Time

.004 seconds

10% of Outliers Removed

.004 seconds

CPU Utilization
The chart below shows the CPU utilization on the host throughout the Login VSI workload. The
server used in this architecture has 12 physical CPU cores with a clock speed of 3.33GHz, which
was allocated between each of the virtual desktop (10 cores) and the Atlantis ILIO virtual machine
(2 cores). This chart shows that throughout the entire test the CPU utilization was consistently
under the 60% CPU utilization level with one spike to 79%.

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Maximum CPU Utilization

79%

Memory Utilization
The chart below shows the available physical memory in MB on the host throughout the entire
virtual desktops lifecycle including boot, logon and steady state usage with the Login VSI workload.
The server used in this architecture has 256GB of physical memory, which was allocated between
each of the virtual desktop and the Atlantis ILIO virtual machine using Microsoft Hyper-V
Dynamic Memory. This chart shows that throughout the entire test there was at least 25GB of
unused memory headroom in the tested configuration including the amount of memory required to
store the virtual desktops images in Atlantis ILIO.
Memory Available (MB)

Average Memory Available

26,902

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10% of Outliers Removed

25,819

Testing Configurations

Environment Overview
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
Pooled desktops
Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS)
Citrix User Profile Manager
Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1 Core
Microsoft Windows 7 32-bit SP1
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 R2

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Server Hardware
CPU 3.33GHz Intel Xeon X5680 130W CPU/12MB CACHE/DDR3 1333MHZ
RAM 256GB RAM DDR3-1333MHz (32x8GB)
Hard Drive 2 x 146GB 15K SAS drivers in RAID 1 (used only for booting Hyper-V and
Atlantis ILIO VM, which could also be done using Boot-from-SAN with no local disks)
Networking Broadcom 5709 Dual-Port Ethernet PCIe Adapter
Hyper-V Configurations
Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1 Core
Default configuration with Dynamic Memory enabled
Virtual Desktop Image and Configurations
Windows 7 SP1 32-bit
Applications required by the Login VSI medium no flash workload including Word,
Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, Bullzip PDF, and 7zip
A minimum of 1GB of RAM and a Maximum of 2GB of RAM were allocated per desktop
with Hyper-V dynamic memory enabled
Atlantis ILIO Configuration Information
Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI 3.2 On-Each-Server with local server RAM as primary storage
The Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI virtual machine was allocated 6GB of RAM and 2 CPU
(default)
The Atlantis ILIO RAM Disk was configured to 58GB (18GB was used during the test)
Atlantis ILIO storage was presented back to hypervisor as using iSCSI.
Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI compression was enabled (default configuration)
Atlantis ILIO was configured to boot from Local SAS drives. However, administrators
could choose to boot from SAN to eliminate all disk requirements from the architecture.
This wouldnt change the run-time performance of Atlantis ILIO in any way.

Conclusion
This reference architecture provides IT organizations with blueprint for deploying a low cost, high
performance and highly scalable Citrix XenDesktop architecture using Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI
to ensure a user experience that is much faster than a physical PC at a cost of $195 per desktop.
Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI is the only solution in the industry to enable pooled Citrix XenDesktop
deployments without the need for traditional virtual desktop storage, which normally represents
40% to 60% of the total cost of a deployment. SSDs, SSD-based storage arrays, SAS and SATA
drives are completely eliminated from desktop virtualization deployments. Citrix XenDesktop can
now be deployed to thousands of desktops in a matter of a few hours without the cost, complexity
and risks of installing and managing storage. The flexibility in the design of the reference
architecture allows an organization to start with a single server and scale modularly as they grow.

Page 22

Acknowledgements
Citrix, Atlantis Computing and GlassHouse would like to acknowledge the following individuals for
their contributions to this reference architecture:
Citrix Systems, Inc.: David Wagner, Martin Rowan, Frank Anderson, Michael Cooper, Vishal
Ganeriwala, Patrick Carey
GlassHouse Technologies: Erwin Vollering, Jay Seaton
Atlantis Computing: Jim Moyle, Seth Knox, Mark Nijmeijer, Will Hanson

References & Additional Information

Citrix XenDesktop 5 Reference Architecture
Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Solutions Brief
Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI Evaluation Request

Windows 7 IOPS Deep Dive Whitepaper

Login VSI Download and Free Trial
Project Virtual Reality Check (VRC)

Contact Information
GlassHouse Technologies Inc.
200 Crossing Boulevard
Framingham, MA 01702
+1 508.879.5729
www.glasshouse.com

Atlantis Computing, Inc.

2570 W. El Camino Real, #230
Mountain View, CA 94040
USA Tel +1 650.917.9471
UK Tel +44.2034052851
Follow @AtlantisSDS on
Twitter

Citrix Systems
4988 Great America
Parkway
Santa Clara, CA 95054
+1 408.790.8000
www.citrix.com

www.atlantiscomputing.com

Atlantis Computing, Atlantis ILIO and Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI are trademarks of Atlantis Computing, Inc. All
other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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