The Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS™) is optimized for desktop virtualization workloads. Cisco UCS SmartPlay configurations help you easily and quickly deploy desktop virtualization by providing predefined configurations for every type of deployment scenario.
Desktop and application virtualization are increasingly popular ways for enterprises to reduce capital and operating expenses, improve efficiency, increase control, and expand connectivity. With virtual desktops, users can access their desktop images for laptops, thin clients, smartphones, or other devices from hosted, centralized infrastructure in a data center.
Although many enterprises are increasingly turning to desktop virtualization to address the need for increased business agility, risk mitigation, security, and support for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives, the appropriate infrastructure is critical to make these initiatives successful.
Cisco UCS provides the most optimized foundation for desktop and application virtualization infrastructure. The industry's first unified data center platform, Cisco UCS delivers a converged, programmable infrastructure that simplifies and accelerates enterprise-class application and service deployment in bare-metal, virtualized and cloud-computing environments. Unified, model-based management, end-to-end provisioning, and migration support come together in this next-generation data center platform to accelerate and simplify application deployment, with greater reliability and security.
Cisco UCS provides these important features:
• Integration of Cisco servers and network and I/O resources into one system
• Improvement of enterprise application availability and performance
• Scalability of service delivery to increase business agility
• Streamlining of data center resources to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO)
• Radical reduction in the number of devices requiring setup, management, power, cooling, and cabling
Cisco UCS is changing the economics and performance of server-hosted client computing, delivering a robust, high-performance computing fabric on which desktop virtualization can be deployed.
These are the primary elements of VMware View desktop virtualization architecture:
• VMware View transforms Microsoft Windows desktops into virtual desktops for on-demand services to users on any device.
• VMware View Manager provides broker and user management services, and VMware View Composer provides provisioning and deployment services.
The Cisco UCS controller node is the management server that hosts the OS or hypervisor management software (such as VMware vCenter), VMware View Manager, and Citrix View Composer. It can also house other management tools to support the environment.
The Cisco UCS desktop workload node hosts the Microsoft Windows XP, 7, and 8 virtual desktops as virtual machines for VMware View deployments.
Figures 1 and 2 show the Cisco® desktop virtualization architecture.
The configurations listed in Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4 provide some guidance on the target workloads based on assumptions about density, workload, and resiliency characteristics1.
Table 1. Cisco UCS SmartPlay Configurations with VMware View for VMware View Workloads
Configuration
Configuration Description
Target Workload Description
Starter System Bundle 1 (starting with 300 users)
UCS-EZ-VDI-ENT-VW
2 Cisco UCS 6248UP 48-Port Fabric Interconnects
1 Cisco UCS chassis with 2 Cisco 2208 IOM Modules
1 Cisco UCS B200 controller blade server
• CPU: 2 x 2.40-GHz Intel Xeon processors E5-2665
• Memory: 8 x 16 GB (128 GB total)
• Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card VIC 1240
3 Cisco B200 desktop workload blade servers
• CPU: 2 x 2.70-GHz Intel Xeon processors E5-2680
• Memory: 16 x 16 GB (256 GB total)
• Cisco UCS VIC 1240
3 VMware View Premier 100 Packs
Networking Infrastructure to support up to 20,000 virtual desktops
Management server blades to support up to 2,000 virtual desktops (for redundancy add another UCS B200 M3 Controller Blade)
View virtual desktop workload blades to support 300 users
300 View seats with vSphere included
Assumptions:
Need to upgrade with HDD for OS boot drives or use external storage
Need external storage to host VDI and user data storage
Expansion Bundle 1
(100 users)
UCS-EZ-VDI-EXP-VW
1 Cisco B200 hosting blade servers
• CPU: 2 x 2.70-GHz Intel Xeon processors E5-2680
• Memory: 16 x 16 GB (256 GB total)
• Cisco UCS VIC 1240
1 VMware View Premier 100 Pack
View virtual desktop workload blade to support 100 users
100 View seats with vSphere included
Assumptions:
Need to upgrade with HDD for OS boot drives or use external storage
Need external storage to host VDI and user data storage
SMB Bundle 1
(100 users)
UCS-EZ-VDI-SMB-VW
1 Cisco UCS C240 rack server
• CPU: 2 x 2.40-GHz Intel Xeon processors E5-2690
• Memory: 16 x 16 GB (256 GB total)
• HDD: 24 x 600 GB SAS
• Cisco UCS VIC 1225
1 VMware View Premier 100 Pack
All-in-one configuration to support both the management infrastructure and
View virtual desktop workload blades to support 100 users
100 View seats with vSphere included
Assumptions:
OS boot drives on server
VDI and user data storage on server; no external storage required
Upgrade Option 1
UCSB-F-FIO-785M
1 Cisco UCS Fusion-io 785 GB module
On-board server storage for non-persistent View virtual desktop workload to support up to 100 users
Upgrade Option 2
UCS-EZ-M8GB-4PK
Memory: 4 x 8 GB (32 GB total)
32GB memory for upgrade to support power users on virtual desktop workload blade
Upgrade Option 3
UCS-EZ-M16GB-4PK
Memory: 4 x 16 GB (64 GB total)
64GB memory for upgrade to support power users on virtual desktop workload blade
1The sizing characterization in this document is provided for guidance purposes only. The characterization is based on a Microsoft Windows 7, 32-bit, 2-GB system with a knowledge worker user and the server running with 60 to 70 percent utilization. Cisco recommends that you assess and profile customer requirements to correctly size the workload and identify the appropriate configurations.
