Cisco-Nimble Solution on Cisco UCS and Nimble AF5000 with Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 VDI 5000 Seat Deployment with Graphics Support

Last Updated: March 22, 2017

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Solution Overview

Introduction

Audience

Cisco-Nimble Solution Benefits

Solution Summary

Technology Overview

Cisco Unified Computing System

Cisco UCS Differentiators

Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis

Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects

Cisco UCS Fabric Extenders

Cisco UCS Manager

Cisco UCS B-Series M4 Servers

Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Platform Switches

Cisco Nexus 1000v

Cisco MDS 9100 Series Fabric Switches

Nimble Storage – All Flash Array

Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.11

Citrix Provisioning Services 7.11

Citrix Desktop Studio for XenApp 7.11

Benefits for Desktop Administrators

Citrix Provisioning Services Solution

Citrix Provisioning Services Infrastructure

Solution Architecture

Solution Design

Compute

Network

Storage

Design Considerations

Management Connectivity

QoS and Jumbo Frames

Cisco UCS Server – vSphere Configuration

Cisco UCS Server – Virtual Switching using Cisco Nexus 1000V

Cisco Nexus 9000 Series – vPC Best Practices

High Availability

Scalability

Architecture and Design Considerations for Desktop Virtualization

Understanding Applications and Data

Project Planning and Solution Sizing Sample Questions

Hypervisor Selection

Citrix XenDesktop Design Fundamentals

Machine Catalogs

Delivery Groups

Citrix Provisioning Services

Example XenDesktop Deployments

Designing a XenDesktop Environment for a Mixed Workload

High-Level Storage Architecture Design

Solution Hardware and Software

Products Deployed

Hardware Deployed

Software Deployed

Logical Architecture

VLANs

VSANS

VMware Clusters

Solution Configuration

Configuration Topology for Scalable Citrix XenDesktop Mixed Workload

Component Layers

Cisco Unified Computing System Configuration

Base Cisco UCS System Configuration

Enable Server Uplink Ports

Create Resource Pools

Create VLANs

Create VSANs

Create Host Firmware Package

Set Jumbo Frames in Cisco UCS Fabric

Create Network Control Policy for Cisco Discovery Protocol

Create Power Control Policy

Cisco UCS System Configuration for Cisco UCS B-Series

Create Server BIOS Policy

Configure Update Default Maintenance Policy

Create vNIC Templates for Cisco UCS B-Series

Create vHBA Templates for Cisco UCS B-Series

Create Service Profile Templates for Cisco UCS B-Series

Nimble AF5000 Configuration

Nimble AF5000 Adaptive Array System Configuration

Nimble Management Tools: InfoSight

Register and Login to InfoSight

Configure Arrays to Send Data to InfoSight

Nimble Management Tools: vCenter Plugin

Register vCenter Plugins

Configure Arrays to Monitor your Virtual Environment

Configure Setup Email Notifications for Alerts

Data Storage Layout

Create Initiator Groups

Create Volumes

Configure MDS 9100 Series

Boot from SAN Benefits

SAN Configuration on the Cisco MDS 9148 Switches

Install and Configure ESXi 6 U2b

VMware ESXi 6.0

Download Cisco Custom Image for ESXi 6 Update 2b

Install ESXi

Set Up Management Networking for ESXi Hosts

Download VMware vSphere Client

Download VMware vSphere CLI 6

Log in to VMware ESXi Hosts by Using VMware vSphere Client

Install and Configure vCenter 6

Install the Nimble Connection Manager

Building the Virtual Machines and Environment

Install and Configure Cisco Nexus 1000v VSUM and VEM

Install Cisco Virtual Switch Update Manager

Install Cisco Virtual Switch Update Manager

Install Cisco Nexus 1000V using Cisco VSUM

Perform Base Configuration of the Primary VSM

Add VMware ESXi Hosts to Cisco Nexus 1000V

Migrate ESXi Host Redundant Network Ports to Cisco Nexus 1000V

Cisco Nexus 1000V vTracker

Cisco Nexus 1000V Configuration

Installing and Configuring Infrastructure, XenDesktop and XenApp

XenDesktop and XenApp Prerequisites

Install XenDesktop Delivery Controller, Citrix Licensing and StoreFront

Installing Citrix Licenses

Configure the XenDesktop Site

Additional XenDesktop Controller Configuration

Add the Second Delivery Controller to the XenDesktop Site

Create Host Connections with Citrix Studio

Configuring StoreFront

Installing and Configuring Citrix Provisioning Server 7.11

Install Additional PVS Servers

Preparing the Master Targets

Install XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agents

Install the Citrix Provisioning Services Target Device Software

Create Citrix Provisioning Services vDisks

Create Delivery Groups

Configuring User Profile Management

Test Setup, Configuration, and Load Recommendation

Test I: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for Single Blade Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenDesktop 7. 11 VDI with PVS 7.11 Windows 10 Non-Persistent Desktops

Test II: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for 2500 User Cluster Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenDesktop 7. 11 with PVS 7.11 Windows 10 Non-Persistent Desktops

Test III: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for Single Blade Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenDesktop 7. 11 VDI with MCS Windows 10 Persistent Desktops

Test IV: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for 1000 User Cluster Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenDesktop 7. 11 with MCS Windows 10 Persistent Desktops

Test V: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for Single Blade Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenApp 7.11 with PVS 7.11 Server 2012 R2 Hosted Shared Desktop Sessions

Test VI: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for 1500 Session Cluster Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenApp 7.11 with PVS 7.11 Server 2012 R2 Hosted Shared Desktop Sessions

Test VII: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for Full Solution Scale 5000 Total Users (with and without PVS RAM Cache enabled for XenApp and PVS VDI)

Testing Methodology and Success Criteria

Testing Procedure

Pre-Test Setup for Single and Multi-Blade Testing

Test Run Protocol

Success Criteria

VSImax 4.1.x Description

Server-Side Response Time Measurements

Calculating VSImax v4.1.x

Test Results

Test I: PVS Single Server on B200-M4 with 195 Users Test Results

Test II: PVS Non-Persistent Windows 10 VDI Cluster with 2500 Users Test Results

Test III: MCS Single Server Persistent Windows 10 VDI on Cisco UCS B200-M4 with 200 Users Test Results

Test IV: MCS Cluster Test with 1000 Persistent Windows 10 VDI on Cisco UCS B200-M4 with 200 Users Test Results

HSD Single-Server Recommended Maximum Workload for Cisco UCS B-Series

Test V: HSD Single Server on Cisco UCS B200-M4 with 290 Users Test Results

Test VI: HSD Scaling with 1500 Users Test Results

Solution Design Considerations – Nimble Storage

Test Case VIIa - 5000 User Testing – Mixed Workload 1000 MCS Persistent, 2500 PVS XenDesktop Non-Persistent and 1500 PVS XenApp Users Testing with LoginVSI with PVS RAM Cache

Test Case VIIb - 5000 User Testing – Mixed Workload 1000 MCS Persistent, 2500 PVS Non-Persistent XenDesktop and 1500 XenApp Users with LoginVSI with PVS Cache on Device Hard Drive

Storage Test Case I – 2500 XenDesktop Session Boot Storm

Nimble Storage – Absolute Resiliency and Non-Stop Availability

Storage Test Case II – Nimble Storage Controller Failover During an Active Workload

Storage Test Case III – Multiple Disk Drive Failures During an Active workload

Test Results Summary

Nimble Storage – Transparent Application Migration

Nimble Storage Monitoring and Predictive Analytics

Data Savings

Nimble Storage – Infosight VMVision

Single Server Testing Utilizing the NVIDIA M6 Card and vGPU

Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server with NVIDIA M6 GRID Card

Install and Configure NVIDIA M6 Card

Physical Installation of the NVIDIA M6 Card into the Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server

Before You Begin

Install the NVIDIA VMware VIB Driver

Configure a VM with a vGPU

Install the GPU Drivers into Windows VM

Install and Configure NVIDIA Grid License Server

Testing Methodology and Results for the NVIDIA M6 Cards

Internet Explorer 11 Configuration

Test Configurations

GPU Performance Metrics

Validated Hardware and Software

Bill of Materials (BOM)

Summary

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

Appendix A – Cisco Nexus 9372 Switch Configuration

Switch A Configuration

Switch B Configuration

Appendix B – Cisco MDS 9148 Switch Configuration

MDS- A Switch Configuration

MDS- B Switch Configuration

Executive Summary

Cisco® Validated Designs include systems and solutions that are designed, tested, and documented to facilitate and improve customer deployments. These designs incorporate a wide range of technologies and products into a portfolio of solutions that have been developed to address the business needs of customers. Cisco and Nimble Storage have partnered to deliver this document, which serves as a specific step by step guide for implementing this solution. This Cisco Validated Design provides an efficient architectural design that is based on customer requirements. The solution that follows is a validated approach for deploying Cisco, Citrix and Nimble Storage technologies as a shared, high performance, resilient, virtual desktop infrastructure.

This document provides a reference architecture and design guide for up to 5000 seat mixed workload on Cisco UCS and Nimble Storage AF5000 array with Citrix XenApp server-based sessions, XenDesktop persistent Windows 10 virtual desktops and XenDesktop pooled Windows 10 virtual desktops on VMware vSphere 6. The solution is a predesigned, best-practice data center architecture built on the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), the Cisco Nexus® 9000 family of ethernet switches, Cisco MDS 9000 family of Fibre Channel switches and Nimble Storage all flash array.

This solution is 100 percent virtualized on Cisco UCS B200 M4 blade server booting VMware vSphere 6.0 Update 2 via fibre channel SAN from the Nimble Storage AF5000 storage array The pooled virtual desktops are powered by Citrix Provisioning Services 7.11 with a mix of Citrix XenDesktop 7.11, which supports both persistent and non-persistent virtual Windows 7/8/10 desktops and hosted shared Server 2008 R2, Server 2012 R2 or Server 2016 server desktops, providing unparalleled scale and management simplicity. Citrix XenDesktop pooled Window 10 desktops (2500,) persistent Windows 10 desktops (1000) and Citrix XenApp Server 2012 R2 RDS server based desktop sessions (1500) were provisioned on the Nimble Storage array. Where applicable the document provides best practice recommendations and sizing guidelines for customer deployment of this solution.

The Cisco-Nimble Solution outlined in this document delivers a converged infrastructure platform designed for Enterprise and Cloud datacenters.

The solution provides outstanding virtual desktop end user experience as measured by the Login VSI 4.1 Knowledge Worker workload running in benchmark mode.

The 5000 seat solution provides a large scale building block that can be replicated to confidently scale out to tens of thousands of users.

Solution Overview

Introduction

Cisco, Nimble Storage, and Citrix have partnered to deliver a Cisco-Nimble Solution that combines Cisco Unified Computing System servers, Cisco Nexus ethernet and Cisco MDS fibre channel families of switches, and a Nimble Storage all-flash array into a large scale, enterprise desktop virtualization solution, including graphics support.

Customers looking to implement a desktop virtualization solution using shared data center infrastructure face a number of challenges. One key challenge is achieving the levels of IT agility and efficiency necessary to meet business objectives. Addressing these challenges requires having an optimal solution with the following characteristics:

·         Availability: Helps ensure applications and services are accessible at all times with no single point of failure

·         Flexibility: Ability to support new services without requiring infrastructure modifications.

·         Efficiency: Facilitate efficient operation of the infrastructure through re-usable policies and API management.

·         Speed: Ease of deployment and management to minimize operating costs.

·         Scalability: Ability to expand and grow with some degree of investment protection

·         Low Risk: Minimal risk by ensuring optimal design and compatibility of integrated components

Nimble Storage prescribes a data center platform with these characteristics by delivering an integrated architecture that incorporates compute, storage and network in a best practice design. The Cisco-Nimble Solution minimizes risk by testing the integrated architecture to ensure compatibility between its components. The Cisco-Nimble Solution addresses IT pain points by providing documented design, deployment and support that can be used in all stages (planning, design and implementation) of a deployment.

This document outlines the deployment procedures for implementing a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) on the Cisco-Nimble Solution platform solution using Citrix desktop and session virtualization technologies. This guide is based on the Cisco-Nimble Solution validation that was done using VMware vSphere 6.0 U2a, Cisco UCS B-Series, Cisco Nexus ethernet switches, Cisco MDS fibre channel switches, a Nimble AF5000 All Flash Array and Citrix XenDesktop, XenApp and Provisioning Services technologies with graphics support.

The Cisco-Nimble Solution is designed for high availability, with no single points of failure while maintaining cost-effectiveness and flexibility in design to support a variety of workloads in enterprise and cloud datacenters. The Cisco-Nimble Solution design can support different hypervisor options, and also be sized and optimized to support different use cases and requirements.

Audience

The intended audience of this document includes, but is not limited to, sales engineers, field consultants, professional services, IT managers, partner engineering, and customers who want to take advantage of an infrastructure built to deliver IT efficiency and enable IT innovation.

Cisco-Nimble Solution Benefits

The Cisco-Nimble Solution is the result of a joint partnership between Cisco and Nimble Storage to deliver a series of infrastructure and application solutions optimized and validated on Cisco UCS, Nimble Storage and Cisco Nexus switches. Customers must use Cisco UCS, Nimble Storage and one of the approved application stacks to be a valid Cisco-Nimble Solution and they must also have valid support contracts with Cisco and Nimble Storage.

Cisco and Nimble Storage have a solid, joint support program focused on the Cisco-Nimble Solution, from customer account and technical sales representatives to professional services and technical support engineers. The support alliance provided by Cisco and Nimble Storage provides customers and channel partners with direct access to technical expert who can collaborate with cross vendors and have access to shared lab resources to resolve potential issues.

Solution Summary

This Cisco Validated Design provides a complete Virtual Desktop Solution utilizing the Cisco-Nimble Solution Architecture. The solution provides test cases and reference architectures for system scalability, self-contained functioning environment and multiple workload on Cisco and Nimble Storage hardware. The following scenarios and test cases where demonstrated in this solution,

1.     Single Blade scalability for Citrix XenApp 7.11 RDS HSD, VDI Hosted Virtual Desktop (Persistent, non-persistent)

2.     Multiple Workload Cluster scalability for Citrix XenApp 7.11 RDS HSD, VDI Hosted Virtual Desktop (Persistent, non-persistent)

3.     Full Scale 5000 User Mixed Workload scalability for Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 Pooled VDI (50%) Persistent VDI (20%) and RDSH (30%)

4.     Demonstrate full scale, mixed-workload scalability over a 24 hours (minimum) soak test period where LoginVSI is run in steady-state manner for an extended duration.

5.     Demonstrate Nimble Storage features such as Transparent Application Migration, InfoSight and VMVision

6.     5000 user mixed user workload performance testing showcasing Nimble Storage’s metrics such as Bandwidth, IOPS and sub-milli second latency during peak workload.

7.      Demonstrate Nimble Storage’s Absolute resiliency and Non-Stop Availability through Controller failover and Drive failure tests during an active workload.

8.     NVIDIA M6 GPU integration with Cisco UCS blades and provide implementation guidance on the Cisco-Nimble Solution.

Technology Overview

The Cisco-Nimble Solution is a data center architecture for Enterprise or Cloud deployments and uses the following infrastructure components for compute, network and storage:

·         Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS)

·         Cisco Nexus and MDS Switches

·         Nimble Storage arrays

The validated Cisco-Nimble Solution design covered in this document uses the following models of the above infrastructure components.

·         Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis with 2200 Series Fabric Extenders (FEX)

·         Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers

·         Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects (FI)

·         Cisco Nexus 9300 Series Ethernet switches

·         Cisco MDS 9100 Series 16GB Fibre Channel switches

·         Nimble AF5000 All Flash Array

·         NVidia M6 Graphics Cards for Blade Servers

The above components are integrated using design and component best practices to deliver a converged infrastructure for Enterprise and cloud data centers.

The next section provides a technical overview of the compute, network, storage and management components of the Cisco-Nimble Solution.

Cisco Unified Computing System

The Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS) is a next-generation data center platform that integrates computing, networking, storage access, and virtualization resources into a cohesive system designed to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase business agility. The system integrates a low-latency; lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet unified network fabric with enterprise-class, x86-architecture servers. The system is an integrated, scalable, multi-chassis platform where all resources are managed through a unified management domain.

The main components of the Cisco UCS are:

Compute - The system is based on an entirely new class of computing system that incorporates blade servers and modular servers based on Intel processors.

Network - The system is integrated onto a low-latency, lossless, 10-Gbps unified network fabric. This network foundation consolidates LANs, SANs, and high-performance computing networks which are separate networks today. The unified fabric lowers costs by reducing the number of network adapters, switches, and cables, and by decreasing the power and cooling requirements.

Virtualization - The system unleashes the full potential of virtualization by enhancing the scalability, performance, and operational control of virtual environments. Cisco security, policy enforcement, and diagnostic features are now extended into virtualized environments to better support changing business and IT requirements.

Storage access – Cisco UCS system provides consolidated access to both SAN storage and Network Attached Storage over the unified fabric. This provides customers with storage choices and investment protection. Also, the server administrators can pre-assign storage-access policies to storage resources, for simplified storage connectivity and management leading to increased productivity. The Cisco-Nimble Solution can support either iSCSI or Fibre Channel based access. This design covers only Fibre Channel connectivity.

Management: The system uniquely integrates all the system components, enabling the entire solution to be managed as a single entity through Cisco UCS Manager software. Cisco UCS Manager provides an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI), a command-line interface (CLI), and a robust application-programming interface (API) to manage all system configuration and operations. Cisco UCS Manager helps increase IT staff productivity, enabling storage, network, and server administrators to collaborate on defining service profiles for applications. Service profiles are logical representations of desired physical configurations and infrastructure policies. They help automate provisioning and increase business agility, allowing data center managers to provision resources in minutes instead of days.

The Cisco Unified Computing System in the Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture consists of the following components:

·         Cisco UCS Manager provides unified management of all software and hardware components in the Cisco Unified Computing System and manages servers, networking, and storage from a single interface.

·         Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects is a family of line-rate, low-latency, lossless, 10-Gbps Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet interconnect switches providing the management and communication backbone for the Cisco Unified Computing System.

·         Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis supports up to eight blade servers and up to two fabric extenders in a six-rack unit (RU) enclosure.

·         Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers increase performance, efficiency, versatility and productivity with these Intel based blade servers.

·         Cisco UCS Adapters wire-once architecture offers a range of options to converge the fabric, optimize virtualization and simplify management.

·         Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches are virtual machine access switches for VMware vSphere environments that provide full switching capabilities and Layer 4 through Layer 7 services to virtual machines.

·         Cisco UCS Blade Server M6 GPU – GRID 2.0 SW Required for VDI you can now expand your virtualization footprint without compromising performance or user experience while also increasing security. This means, you can empower your workforce to create anything around the world, from any location with the ease and flexibility.

The optional Cisco UCS components of the Cisco-Nimble Solution are:

·         Cisco UCS Central provides a scalable management platform for managing multiple, globally distributed Cisco UCS domains with consistency by integrating with Cisco UCS Manager to provide global configuration capabilities for pools, policies, and firmware.

·         Cisco UCS Performance Manager is purpose-built data center management solution that provides a single pane-of-glass visibility of a converged heterogeneous infrastructure datacenter for performance monitoring and capacity planning.

Cisco Unified Computing System has revolutionizing the way servers are managed in data-center. The next section takes a detailed look at the unique differentiators of Cisco UCS and Cisco UCS Manager®.

Cisco UCS Differentiators

·         Embedded Management — Servers in the system are managed by embedded software in the Fabric Interconnects, eliminating need for any external physical or virtual devices to manage the servers.

·         Unified Fabric — There is a single Ethernet cable to the FI from the server chassis (blade or modular or rack) for LAN, SAN and management traffic. This converged I/O results in reduced cables, SFPs and adapters – reducing capital and operational expenses of overall solution.

·         Auto Discovery — By simply inserting a blade server in the chassis or connecting a rack server to the FI, discovery and inventory of compute resource occurs automatically without any intervention. Auto-discovery combined with unified fabric enables the wire-once architecture of Cisco UCS, where compute capability of Cisco UCS can be extended easily without additional connections to the external LAN, SAN and management networks.

·         Policy Based Resource Classification — When a compute resource is discovered by Cisco UCS Manager, it can be automatically classified to a resource pool based on policies defined. This capability is useful in multi-tenant cloud computing. This CVD showcases the policy based resource classification of Cisco UCS Manager.

·         Combined Rack, Blade and Modular Server Management — Cisco UCS Manager can manage B-series blade servers, C-series rack servers under the same Cisco UCS domain. Along with stateless computing, this feature makes compute resources truly agnostic to the hardware form factor.

·         Model based Management Architecture — Cisco UCS Manager architecture and management database is model based and data driven. An open XML API is provided to operate on the management model. This enables easy and scalable integration of Cisco UCS Manager with other management systems.

·         Policies, Pools, Templates — The management approach in Cisco UCS Manager is based on defining policies, pools and templates, instead of cluttered configuration, which enables a simple, loosely coupled, data driven approach in managing compute, network and storage resources.

·         Loose Referential Integrity — In Cisco UCS Manager, a service profile, port profile or policies can refer to other policies or logical resources with loose referential integrity. A referred policy cannot exist at the time of authoring the referring policy or a referred policy can be deleted even though other policies are referring to it. This provides different subject matter experts from different domains, such as network, storage, security, server and virtualization the flexibility to work independently to accomplish a complex task.

·         Policy Resolution — In Cisco UCS Manager, a tree structure of organizational unit hierarchy can be created that mimics the real life tenants and/or organization relationships. Various policies, pools and templates can be defined at different levels of organization hierarchy. A policy referring to another policy by name is resolved in the organization hierarchy with closest policy match. If no policy with specific name is found in the hierarchy of the root organization, then special policy named “default” is searched. This policy resolution logic enables automation friendly management APIs and provides great flexibility to owners of different organizations.

·         Service Profiles and Stateless Computing — A service profile is a logical representation of a server, carrying its various identities and policies. This logical server can be assigned to any physical compute resource as far as it meets the resource requirements. Stateless computing enables procurement of a server within minutes, which used to take days in legacy server management systems.

·         Built-in Multi-Tenancy Support — The combination of policies, pools and templates, loose referential integrity, policy resolution in organization hierarchy and a service profiles based approach to compute resources makes Cisco UCS Manager inherently friendly to multi-tenant environment typically observed in private and public clouds.

·         Extended Memory — The enterprise-class Cisco UCS B200 M4 blade server extends the capabilities of Cisco’s Unified Computing System portfolio in a half-width blade form factor. The Cisco UCS B200 M4 harnesses the power of the latest Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v4 Series processor family CPUs with up to 1536 GB of RAM (using 64 GB DIMMs) – allowing huge VM to physical server ratio required in many deployments, or allowing large memory operations required by certain architectures like big data.

·         Virtualization Aware Network —Cisco VM-FEX technology makes the access network layer aware about host virtualization. This prevents domain pollution of compute and network domains with virtualization when virtual network is managed by port-profiles defined by the network administrators’ team. VM-FEX also off-loads hypervisor CPU by performing switching in the hardware, thus allowing hypervisor CPU to do more virtualization related tasks. VM-FEX technology is well integrated with VMware vCenter, Linux KVM and Hyper-V SR-IOV to simplify cloud management.

·         Simplified QoS —Even though Fibre Channel and Ethernet are converged in Cisco UCS fabric, built-in support for QoS and lossless Ethernet makes it seamless. Network Quality of Service (QoS) is simplified in Cisco UCS Manager by representing all system classes in one GUI panel.

Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis

The Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis is a fundamental building block of the Cisco Unified Computing System, delivering a scalable and flexible blade server architecture. A Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server chassis is six rack units (6RU) high and can house up to eight half-width or four full-width Cisco UCS B-series blade servers.

For a complete list of blade servers supported, see: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/index.html.

There are four hot-swappable power supplies that are accessible from the front of the chassis. These power supplies are 94 percent efficient and can be configured to support non-redundant, N+1, and grid-redundant configurations. The rear of the chassis contains eight hot-swappable fans, four power connectors (one per power supply), and two I/O bays that can support Cisco UCS 2000 Series Fabric Extenders. The two fabric extenders can be used for both redundancy and bandwidth aggregation. A passive mid-plane provides up to 80 Gbps of I/O bandwidth per server slot and up to 160 Gbps of I/O bandwidth for two slots. The chassis is capable of supporting future 40 Gigabit Ethernet standards.

Cisco UCS 5108 blade server chassis uses a unified fabric and fabric-extender technology to simplify and reduce cabling by eliminating the need for dedicated chassis management and blade switches. The unified fabric also reduces TCO by reducing the number of network interface cards (NICs), host bus adapters (HBAs), switches, and cables that need to be managed, cooled, and powered. This architecture enables a single Cisco UCS domain to scale up to 20 chassis with minimal complexity.

For more information, see: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-5100-series-blade-server-chassis/index.html.

Figure 1  Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis

Front View

Back View

Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects

Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects are a family of line-rate, low-latency, lossless 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet and Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and 4/2/1 and 8/4/2 native Fibre Channel switches. Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects are the management and connectivity backbone of the Cisco Unified Computing System. Each chassis or connects to the FI using a single Ethernet cable for carrying all network, storage and management traffic. Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects provide uniform network and storage access to servers and are typically deployed in redundant pairs.

Cisco UCS Manager provides unified, embedded management of all software and hardware components of the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS) across multiple chassis with blade servers and thousands of virtual machines. The Cisco UCS Management software (Cisco UCS Manager) runs as an embedded device manager in a clustered pair fabric interconnects and manages the resources connected to it. An instance of Cisco UCS Manager with all Cisco UCS components managed by it forms a Cisco UCS domain, which can include up to 160 servers.

The Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect family is currently comprised of the Cisco 6100 Series, Cisco 6200 Series and Cisco 6300 Series of Fabric Interconnects.

Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnects were used for this CVD.

For more information, see: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-6200-series-fabric-interconnects/index.html

Figure 2 Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnect

Cisco UCS Fabric Extenders

The Cisco UCS Fabric extenders multiplexes and forwards all traffic from servers in a chassis to a parent Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect over from 10-Gbps unified fabric links. All traffic, including traffic between servers on the same chassis, or between virtual machines on the same server, is forwarded to the parent fabric interconnect, where network profiles and polices are maintained and managed by the Cisco UCS Manager. The Fabric extender technology was developed by Cisco. Up to two fabric extenders can be deployed in a Cisco UCS chassis.

The Cisco UCS Fabric Extender family currently comprises of Cisco UCS 2200 and Cisco Nexus 2000 Series of Fabric Extenders. The Cisco UCS 2200 Series Fabric Extenders come in two flavors as outlined below.

·         The Cisco UCS 2204XP Fabric Extender has four 10 Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE-capable, SFP+ ports that connect the blade chassis to the fabric interconnect. Each Cisco UCS 2204XP has sixteen 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports connected through the mid-plane to each half-width slot in the chassis. Typically configured in pairs for redundancy, two fabric extenders provide up to 80 Gbps of I/O to the chassis.

·         The Cisco UCS 2208XP Fabric Extender has eight 10 Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE-capable, SFP+ ports that connect the blade chassis to the fabric interconnect. Each Cisco UCS 2208XP has thirty-two 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports connected through the mid-plane to each half-width slot in the chassis. Typically configured in pairs for redundancy, two fabric extenders provide up to 160 Gbps of I/O to the chassis.

Cisco UCS 2208 Fabric Extenders were used for this CVD.

For more information, see:  http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-6200-series-fabric-interconnects/data_sheet_c78-675243.html

Figure 3  Cisco UCS 2208 Series Fabric Extenders

Cisco UCS Manager

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Manager provides unified, embedded management for all software and hardware components in the Cisco UCS. Using Cisco Single Connect technology, it manages, controls, and administers multiple chassis for thousands of virtual machines. Administrators use the software to manage the entire Cisco Unified Computing System as a single logical entity through an intuitive GUI, a command-line interface (CLI), or an XML API. The Cisco UCS Manager resides on a pair of Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects using a clustered, active-standby configuration for high availability.

Cisco UCS Manager offers unified embedded management interface that integrates server, network, and storage. Cisco UCS Manger performs auto-discovery to detect inventory, manage, and provision system components that are added or changed. It offers comprehensive set of XML API for third part integration, exposes 9000 points of integration and facilitates custom development for automation, orchestration, and to achieve new levels of system visibility and control.

Service profiles benefit both virtualized and non-virtualized environments and increase the mobility of non-virtualized servers, such as when moving workloads from server to server or taking a server offline for service or upgrade. Profiles can also be used in conjunction with virtualization clusters to bring new resources online easily, complementing existing virtual machine mobility.

For more information on Cisco UCS Manager, see: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-manager/index.html

Cisco UCS B-Series M4 Servers

Cisco UCS B200 M4 blade servers with Cisco Virtual Interface Card 1340 were used for this CVD.

The enterprise-class Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server extends the capabilities of Cisco’s Unified Computing System portfolio in a half-width blade form factor. The Cisco UCS B200 M4 uses the power of the latest Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v3 Series processor family CPUs with up to 768 GB of RAM (using 32 GB DIMMs), two solid-state drives (SSDs) or hard disk drives (HDDs), and up to 80 Gbps throughput connectivity. The Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server mounts in a Cisco UCS 5100 Series blade server chassis or Cisco UCS Mini blade server chassis. It has 24 total slots for registered ECC DIMMs (RDIMMs) or load-reduced DIMMs (LR DIMMs) for up to 768 GB total memory capacity (Cisco UCS B200 M4 configured with two CPUs using 32 GB DIMMs). It supports one connector for Cisco’s VIC 1340 or 1240 adapter, which provides Ethernet and FCoE.  There is also a second mezzanine card slot that can be used for the NVidia M6 Graphics cards.

For more information, see: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b200-m4-blade-server/index.html

Figure 4 Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server

Cisco VIC 1340

The Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card (VIC) 1340 is a 2-port 40-Gbps Ethernet or dual 4 x 10-Gbps Ethernet, FCoE-capable modular LAN on motherboard (mLOM) designed exclusively for the M4 generation of Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers. When used in combination with an optional port expander, the Cisco UCS VIC 1340 capabilities is enabled for two ports of 40-Gbps Ethernet. The Cisco UCS VIC 1340 enables a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure that can present over 256 PCIe standards-compliant interfaces to the host that can be dynamically configured as either network interface cards (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs). In addition, the Cisco UCS VIC 1340 supports Cisco® Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) technology, which extends the Cisco UCS Fabric interconnect ports to virtual machines, simplifying server virtualization deployment and management.

For more information, see: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/interfaces-modules/ucs-virtual-interface-card-1340/index.html

Figure 5  Cisco VIC 1340

Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Platform Switches

The Cisco Nexus 9000 family of switches offer both modular (9500 switches) and fixed (9300 switches) 1/10/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet switch configurations designed to operate in one of two modes:

·         Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) mode that uses an application centric policy model with simplified automation and centralized management

·         Cisco NX-OS mode for traditional architectures – the Cisco-Nimble Solution design in this document uses this mode

Architectural Flexibility

·         Delivers high performance and density, and energy-efficient traditional 3-tier or leaf-spine architectures

·         Provides a foundation for Cisco ACI, automating application deployment and delivering simplicity, agility, and flexibility

Scalability

·         Up to 60-Tbps of non-blocking performance with less than 5-microsecond latency

·         Up to 2304 10-Gbps or 576 40-Gbps non-blocking layer 2 and layer 3 Ethernet ports

·         Wire-speed virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN) gateway, bridging, and routing

High Availability

·         Full Cisco In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) and patching without any interruption in operation

·         Fully redundant and hot-swappable components

·         A mix of third-party and Cisco ASICs provide for improved reliability and performance

Energy Efficiency

·         The chassis is designed without a mid-plane to optimize airflow and reduce energy requirements

·         The optimized design runs with fewer ASICs, resulting in lower energy use

·         Efficient power supplies included in the switches are rated at 80 Plus Platinum

Investment Protection

·         Cisco 40-Gb bidirectional transceiver allows for reuse of an existing 10 Gigabit Ethernet cabling plant for 40 Gigabit Ethernet

·         Designed to support future ASIC generations

·         Easy migration from NX-OS mode to ACI mode

A pair of Cisco Nexus 9372PX Platform switches were used in this CVD.

For more information, refer to: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/index.html

Cisco Nexus 1000v

Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches provide a comprehensive and extensible architectural platform for virtual machine (VM) and cloud networking. Integrated into the VMware vSphere hypervisor and fully compatible with VMware vCloud® Director, the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series provides:

·         Advanced virtual machine networking using Cisco NX-OS operating system. Capabilities include PortChannels (LACP), IEEE 802.1Q VLAN trunking, Jumbo Frame support and Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) for cloud deployments

·         Cisco vPath technology for efficient and optimized integration of Layer 4-7 virtual networking services (e.g. Firewall)

·         Mobile virtual machine security and network policy. Advanced security capabilities include Strom Control, BPDU Guard, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) snooping, IP source guard, Dynamic Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Inspection, and Cisco TrustSec® security group access (SGA), Security Group Tagging (SGT) and Security Group ACL (SGACL) support.

·         Non-disruptive operational model for your server virtualization and networking teams

·         Policy-based virtual machine connectivity

·         Quality of service (QoS)

·         Monitoring: NetFlow, Switch Port Analyzer (SPAN), and Encapsulated Remote SPAN (ERSPAN)

·         Easy deployment using Cisco Virtual Switch Update Manager (VSUM) which allows you to install, upgrade, monitor and also migrate hosts to Cisco Nexus 1000V using the VMware vSphere web client.

·         Starting with Cisco Nexus 1000V Release 4.2(1)SV2(1.1), a plug-in for the VMware vCenter Server, known as vCenter plug-in (VC plug-in) is supported on the Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch. It provides the server administrators a view of the virtual network and a visibility into the networking aspects of the Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch. The server administrator can thus monitor and manage networking resources effectively with the details provided by the vCenter plug-in. The vCenter plug-in is supported only on VMware vSphere Web Clients where you connect to VMware vCenter through a browser. The vCenter plug-in is installed as a new tab in the Cisco Nexus 1000V as part of the user interface in vSphere Web Client.

For more information, refer to:

·         http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9902/index.html

·         http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10785/index.html

Cisco MDS 9100 Series Fabric Switches

The Cisco® MDS 9148S 16G Multilayer Fabric Switch is the next generation of the highly reliable, flexible, and low-cost Cisco MDS 9100 Series switches. It combines high performance with exceptional flexibility and cost effectiveness. This powerful, compact one rack-unit (1RU) switch scales from 12 to 48 line-rate 16 Gbps Fibre Channel ports. Cisco MDS 9148S is powered by Cisco NX-OS and delivers advanced storage networking features and functions with ease of management and compatibility with the entire Cisco MDS 9000 Family portfolio for reliable end-to-end connectivity.

Cisco MDS 9148S is well suited as the following:

·         Top-of-rack switch in medium-sized deployments

·         Edge switch in a two-tiered (core-edge) data center topology

·         Standalone SAN in smaller departmental deployments

The main features and benefits of Cisco MDS 9148S are summarized in the table below.

Table 1     Cisco MDS 9148S Features and Benefits

Feature

Benefit

Up to 48 autosensing Fibre Channel ports are capable of speeds of 2, 4, 8, and 16 Gbps, with 16 Gbps of dedicated bandwidth for each port. Cisco MDS 9148S scales from 12 to 48 high-performance Fibre Channel ports in a single 1RU form factor.

High Performance and Flexibility at Low Cost

Supports dual redundant hot-swappable power supplies and fan trays, PortChannels for Inter-Switch Link (ISL) resiliency, and F-port channeling for resiliency on uplinks from a Cisco MDS 9148S operating in NPV mode.

High-Availability Platform for Mission-Critical Deployments

Intelligent diagnostics/Hardware based slow port detection and Cisco Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) and Remote SPAN (RSPAN) and Cisco Fabric Analyzer to capture and analyze network traffic. Fibre Channel ping and traceroute to identify exact path and timing of flows. Cisco Call Home for added reliability.

Enhanced performance and monitoring capability. Increase reliability, faster problem resolution, and reduce service costs

In-Service Software Upgrades

Reduce downtime for planned maintenance and software upgrades

Aggregate up to 16 physical ISLs into a single logical PortChannel bundle with multipath load balancing.

High performance ISLs and optimized bandwidth utilization

Virtual output queuing on each port by eliminating head-of-line blocking

Helps ensure line-rate performance

PowerOn Auto Provisioning to automate deployment and upgrade of software images.

Reduces administrative costs

Smart zoning for creating and managing zones

Reduces consumption of hardware resources and administrative time

SAN management through a command-line interface (CLI) or Cisco Prime DCNM for SAN Essentials Edition, a centralized management tool. Cisco DCNM task-based wizards simplify management of single or multiple switches and fabrics including management of virtual resources end-to-end, from the virtual machine and switch to the physical storage.

Simplified Storage Management with built-in storage network management and SAN plug-and-play capabilities. Sophisticated Diagnostics

Fabric-wide per-VSAN role-based authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) services using RADIUS, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Microsoft Active Directory (AD), and TACACS+. Also provides VSAN fabric isolation, intelligent, port-level packet inspection, Fibre Channel Security Protocol (FC-SP) host-to-switch and switch-to-switch authentication, Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), Secure Shell Version 2 (SSHv2), and Simple Network Management Protocol Version 3 (SNMPv3) implementing Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Other security features include control-plane security, hardware-enforced zoning, broadcast zones, and management access.

Comprehensive Network Security Framework

Virtual SAN (VSAN) technology for hardware-enforced, isolated environments within a physical fabric. Access control lists (ACLs) for hardware-based, intelligent frame processing. Advanced traffic management features, such as fabric-wide quality of service (QoS) and Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR) for resource sharing across vSANs. Zone-based QoS simplifies configuration and administration by using the familiar zoning concept.

Intelligent Network Services and Advanced Traffic Management for better and predictable network service without compromising scalability, reliability, availability, and network security

Common software across all platforms by using Cisco NX-OS and Cisco Prime DCNM across the fabric.

Reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) through consistent provisioning, management, and diagnostic capabilities across the fabric

Nimble Storage – All Flash Array

The AF series array family starts at the entry level with AF1000, then expands up to the AF3000, AF5000, AF7000, and then finally, at the high end, to the AF9000. All Flash arrays can be nondisruptively upgraded from the entry level, all the way to the high end array model.

This CVD specifically uses the Nimble Storage AF5000 all flash array. The AF5000 is designed to deliver up to 120,000 IOPS at sub-millisecond response times.  The AF5000 delivers the best price for performance value within the Nimble Storage all flash array family.

Each 4U chassis supports 48 SSD drives with additional flash capacity available via expansion shelves.  The storage subsystem uses SAS 3.0 compliant 12Gbps SAS connectivity, with an aggregated bandwidth of 48Gbps across 4 channels per port.  The AF5000 all flash array can scale flash capacity up to 184TB raw, extensible to 680TB effectively with a 5:1 data reduction through data deduplication and compression.

For additional information, refer to: https://www.nimblestorage.com/technology-products/all-flash-arrays.

Figure 6 Nimble AF5000 All Flash Array

Front View

Back View

The Nimble Storage Predictive Flash Platform

The Nimble Storage Predictive Flash platform enables enterprise IT organizations to implement a single architectural approach to dynamically cater to the needs of varying workloads, driven by the power of predictive analytics. Predictive Flash is the only storage platform that optimizes across performance, capacity, data protection, and reliability within a dramatically smaller footprint.

Predictive Flash is built upon Nimble’s CASL™ architecture, NimbleOS and InfoSight™, the company’s cloud-connected predictive analytics and management system. CASL scales performance and capacity seamlessly and independently. InfoSight leverages the power of deep data analytics to provide customers with precise guidance on the optimal approach to scaling flash, CPU, and capacity around changing application needs, while ensuring peak storage health.

NimbleOS Architecture

The Nimble Storage operating system, NimbleOS is based on its patented Cache Accelerated Sequential Layout (CASL™) architecture. CASL leverages the unique properties of flash and disk to deliver high performance and capacity – all within a dramatically small footprint.  CASL and InfoSight™ form the foundation of the Predictive Flash platform, which allows for the dynamic and intelligent deployment of storage resources to meet the growing demands of business-critical applications.

Universal Hardware Architecture

All Nimble Storage arrays are built upon a universal hardware platform. All array components are modular and components, including controllers, can be nondisruptively upgraded easily by the customer or Nimble Storage representative.  The universal hardware architecture spans both all flash and adaptive flash arrays, giving Nimble Storage and customers maximum flexibility and reuse with array hardware.

Figure 7  Nimble Storage Universal hardware Architecture

Nimble Storage InfoSight

Using systems modeling, predictive algorithms, and statistical analysis, InfoSight™ solves storage administrators’ most difficult problems. InfoSight also ensures storage resources are dynamically and intelligently deployed to satisfy the changing needs of business-critical applications, a key facet of Nimble Storage’s Predictive Flash platform.  At the heart of InfoSight is a powerful engine comprised of deep data analytics applied to telemetry data gathered from Nimble arrays deployed across the globe. More than 30 million sensor values are collected per day per Nimble Storage array. The InfoSight Engine transforms the millions of gathered data points into actionable information that allows customers to realize significant operational efficiency through:

·         Maintaining optimal storage performance

·         Projecting storage capacity needs

·         Proactively monitoring storage health and getting granular alerts

·         Proactively diagnoses and automatically resolves complex issues, freeing up IT resources for value-creating projects

·         Ensures a reliable data protection strategy with detailed alerts and monitoring

·         Expertly guides storage resource planning, determining the optimal approach to scaling cache, IOPS to meet changing SLAs

·         Identifies latency and performance bottlenecks through the entire virtualization stack

·         Delivers transformed support experience from level 3 support

For more information, refer to: https://www.nimblestorage.com/infosight/architecture/

VMVision – Hypervisor and VMware Monitoring

VMVision provides granular view of resources used by each Virtual machine connected to a Nimble array. Using VMVision we can correlate performance of VMs in same datastore with insights on hypervisor and host resources constraints like vcpu, memory and network. VMVision also helps in Determining VM latency factors – storage, Host or Network. Also helps in taking corrective action on noisy neighbor VMs and reclaim space from underutilized VMs. Every hours those correlated stats are sent to InfoSight via the heartbeat mechanism for processing. There is no additional host-side agents/tools or licenses to administer for this feature to work.

Figure 8 Nimble Storage VMVision

In-Line Compression

CASL uses fast, in-line compression for variable application block sizes to decrease the footprint of inbound write data by as much as 75 percent.  Once there are enough variable-sized blocks to form a full write stripe, CASL writes the data to disk. If the data being written is active data, it is also copied to SSD cache for faster reads. Written data is protected with triple-parity RAID.

In-Line Deduplication

Nimble storage all flash arrays include in-line data deduplication in addition to in-line compression. The combination of in-line deduplication and in-line compression delivers the most comprehensive data reduction capability that allows NimbleOS to minimize the data footprint on SSD, maximize usable space, and greatly minimize write amplification

Common Data Services and Transparent Application Migration

Enterprises can deploy All Flash, Adaptive Flash or a combination of both to meet the varying needs of all applications. Since both arrays run the same NimbleOS, management and functionality are identical, and arrays can be clustered together and managed as one.

Figure 9 Transparent Application Migration

Unified Flash Fabric

The Nimble Unified Flash Fabric is a single consolidated architecture that enables flash for all Enterprise applications. Until now, enterprises have been forced to choose between Hybrid Flash and All Flash arrays. This is no longer the case with the Nimble Unified Flash Fabric. The Unified Flash Fabric enables flash for all Enterprise Applications by unifying All Flash and Adaptive Flash arrays into a single consolidated architecture with common data services.

Figure 10          Nimble Storage Unified Flash Fabric

Thin-Provisioning and Efficient Capacity Utilization

Capacity is only consumed as data is written. CASL efficiently reclaims free space on an ongoing basis, preserving write performance with higher levels of capacity utilization. This avoids fragmentation issues that hamper other architectures.

Accelerated Write Performance

Once writes are placed in NVDIMM (made persistent and mirrored to the passive partner controller) they are acknowledged back to the host and sent to SSD at a later time (generally when there is a full stripe be written). As a result, writes to a Nimble Storage Array are acknowledged at memory speeds.

Maximizing Flash Write Cycles

By sequencing random write data, NimbleOS sends full stripes of data to SSD.  By compressing and deduplicating the data in-line, the data footprint on disk in minimized.  Additionally, the data being sent to disk is of variable block size, which means NimbleOS does not have to break up data into smaller, fixed-sized chunks, to be placed on SSD.  As a result, data is efficiently sent to SSD. This allows Nimble Storage arrays to maximize the deployable life of a flash drive by minimizing write wear on the flash cells.

Read Performance

NimbleOS and all flash arrays deliver sub-millisecond read latency and high throughput across a wide variety of demanding enterprise applications.  This is because all reads come from SSD.

All Flash

Nimble Storage all flash arrays only use SSDs to store data.  As a result, all read operations come directly from the SSDs themselves, providing for extremely fast read operations.  All writes are also sent to SSD, but as a result of the NimbleOS architecture and the usage of NVDIMMs to store and organize write operations, all writes are acknowledged at memory speeds (just as with the adaptive flash arrays).

Nimble Storage all flash arrays use TLC (Triple Level Cell) SSD, which allows for maximum flash storage density.  Traditional SSD issues revolving around write wear, write amplification, and so on are not an issue within the variable block NimbleOS architecture, which minimizes write amplification greatly due to intelligent data layout and management within the file system.

Efficient, Fully Integrated Data Protection

All-inclusive snapshot-based data protection is built into the Adaptive Flash platform. Snapshots and production data reside on the same array, eliminating the inefficiencies inherent to running primary and backup storage silos. InfoSight ensures that customers’ data protection strategies work as expected through intuitive dashboards and proactive notifications in case of potential issues.

SmartSnap: Thin, Redirect-on Write Snapshots

Nimble snapshots are point-in-time copies capturing just changed data, allowing three months of frequent snapshots to be easily stored on a single array. Data can be instantly restored, as snapshots reside on the same array as primary data.

SmartReplicate: Efficient Replication

Only compressed, changed data blocks are sent over the network for simple and WAN-efficient disaster recovery.

Zero-Copy Clones

Nimble’s snapshots allow fully functioning copies, or clones of volumes, to be quickly created. Instant clones deliver the same performance and functionality as the source volume, an advantage for virtualization, VDI, and test/development workloads.

Application-Consistent Snapshots

Nimble enables instant application/VM-consistent backups using VSS framework and VMware integration, using application templates with pre-tuned storage parameters.

SmartSecure: Flexible Data Encryption

NimbleOS enables individual volume level encryption with little to no performance impact. Encrypted volumes can be replicated to another Nimble target, and data can be securely shredded at the volume level of granularity.

Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.11

Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop are application and desktop virtualization solutions built on a unified architecture so they're simple to manage and flexible enough to meet the needs of all your organization's users. XenApp and XenDesktop have a common set of management tools that simplify and automate IT tasks. You use the same architecture and management tools to manage public, private, and Flash cloud deployments as you do for on premises deployments.

Citrix XenApp delivers the following:

·         XenApp published apps, also known as server-based hosted applications: These are applications hosted from Microsoft Windows servers to any type of device, including Windows PCs, Macs, smartphones, and tablets. Some XenApp editions include technologies that further optimize the experience of using Windows applications on a mobile device by automatically translating native mobile-device display, navigation, and controls to Windows applications; enhancing performance over mobile networks; and enabling developers to optimize any custom Windows application for any mobile environment.

·         XenApp published desktops, also known as server-hosted desktops: These are inexpensive, locked-down Windows virtual desktops hosted from Windows server operating systems. They are well suited for users, such as call center employees, who perform a standard set of tasks.

·         Virtual machine–hosted apps: These are applications hosted from machines running Windows desktop operating systems for applications that can’t be hosted in a server environment.

·         Windows applications delivered with Microsoft App-V: These applications use the same management tools that you use for the rest of your XenApp deployment.

Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 includes significant enhancements to help customers deliver Windows apps and desktops as mobile services while addressing management complexity and associated costs. Enhancements in this release include:

·         Unified product architecture for XenApp and XenDesktop—the FlexCast Management Architecture (FMA). This release supplies a single set of administrative interfaces to deliver both hosted-shared applications (RDS) and complete virtual desktops (VDI). Unlike earlier releases that separately provisioned Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop farms, the XenDesktop 7.11 release allows administrators to deploy a single infrastructure and use a consistent set of tools to manage mixed application and desktop workloads.

·         Support for extending deployments to the cloud. This release provides the ability for Flash cloud provisioning from Amazon Web Services (AWS) or any Cloud Platform-powered public or private cloud. Cloud deployments are configured, managed, and monitored through the same administrative consoles as deployments on traditional on-premises infrastructure.

·         Enhanced HDX technologies. Since mobile technologies and devices are increasingly prevalent, Citrix has engineered new and improved HDX technologies to improve the user experience for hosted Windows apps and desktops.

·         A new version of StoreFront. The StoreFront 3.0 release provides a single, simple, and consistent aggregation point for all user services. Administrators can publish apps, desktops, and data services to StoreFront, from which users can search and subscribe to services.

·         Remote power control for physical PCs. Remote PC access supports “Wake on LAN” that adds the ability to power on physical PCs remotely. This allows users to keep PCs powered off when not in use to conserve energy and reduce costs.

·         Full AppDNA support. AppDNA provides automated analysis of applications for Windows platforms and suitability for application virtualization through App-V, XenApp, or XenDesktop. Full AppDNA functionality is available in some editions.

·         Additional virtualization resource support.  As in this Cisco Validated Design, administrators can configure connections to VMware vSphere 6 hypervisors.

Citrix XenDesktop delivers:

·         VDI desktops: These virtual desktops each run a Microsoft Windows desktop operating system rather than running in a shared, server-based environment. They can provide users with their own desktops that they can fully personalize.

·         Hosted physical desktops: This solution is well suited for providing secure access powerful physical machines, such as blade servers, from within your data center.

·         Remote PC access: This solution allows users to log in to their physical Windows PC from anywhere over a secure XenDesktop connection.

·         Server VDI: This solution is designed to provide hosted desktops in multitenant, cloud environments.

·         Capabilities that allow users to continue to use their virtual desktops: These capabilities let users continue to work while not connected to your network.

Some XenDesktop editions include the features available in XenApp.

Release 7.11 of XenDesktop includes new features that make it easier for users to access applications and desktops and for Citrix administrator to manage applications:

·         The session prelaunch and session linger features help users quickly access server-based hosted applications by starting sessions before they are requested (session prelaunch) and keeping application sessions active after a user closes all applications (session linger).

·         Support for unauthenticated (anonymous) users means that users can access server-based hosted applications and server-hosted desktops without presenting credentials to Citrix StoreFront or Receiver.

·         Connection leasing makes recently used applications and desktops available even when the site database in unavailable.

·         Application folders in Citrix Studio make it easier to administer large numbers of applications.

Other new features in this release allow you to improve performance by specifying the number of actions that can occur on a site's host connection; display enhanced data when you manage and monitor your site; and anonymously and automatically contribute data that Citrix can use to improve product quality, reliability, and performance.

For more information about the features new in this release, see Citrix XenDesktop Release 7.11.

Figure 11           Logical Architecture of Citrix XenDesktop

Citrix Provisioning Services 7.11

Most enterprises struggle to keep up with the proliferation and management of computers in their environments. Each computer, whether it is a desktop PC, a server in a data center, or a kiosk-type device, must be managed as an individual entity. The benefits of distributed processing come at the cost of distributed management. It costs time and money to set up, update, support, and ultimately decommission each computer. The initial cost of the machine is often dwarfed by operating costs.

Citrix PVS takes a very different approach from traditional imaging solutions by fundamentally changing the relationship between hardware and the software that runs on it. By streaming a single shared disk image (vDisk) rather than copying images to individual machines, PVS enables organizations to reduce the number of disk images that they manage, even as the number of machines continues to grow, simultaneously providing the efficiency of centralized management and the benefits of distributed processing.

In addition, because machines are streaming disk data dynamically and in real time from a single shared image, machine image consistency is essentially ensured. At the same time, the configuration, applications, and even the OS of large pools of machines can be completely changed in the time it takes the machines to reboot.

Using PVS, any vDisk can be configured in standard-image mode. A vDisk in standard-image mode allows many computers to boot from it simultaneously, greatly reducing the number of images that must be maintained and the amount of storage that is required. The vDisk is in read-only format, and the image cannot be changed by target devices.

These same benefits apply to vDisks that are streamed to bare metal servers, which is the way we utilized PVS in this study.

Citrix Desktop Studio for XenApp 7.11

If you manage a pool of servers that work as a farm, such as Citrix XenApp servers or web servers, maintaining a uniform patch level on your servers can be difficult and time consuming. With traditional imaging solutions, you start with a clean golden master image, but as soon as a server is built with the master image, you must patch that individual server along with all the other individual servers. Rolling out patches to individual servers in your farm is not only inefficient, but the results can also be unreliable. Patches often fail on an individual server, and you may not realize you have a problem until users start complaining or the server has an outage. After that happens, getting the server resynchronized with the rest of the farm can be challenging, and sometimes a full reimaging of the machine is required.

With Citrix PVS, patch management for server farms is simple and reliable. You start by managing your golden image, and you continue to manage that single golden image. All patching is performed in one place and then streamed to your servers when they boot. Server build consistency is assured because all your servers use a single shared copy of the disk image. If a server becomes corrupted, simply reboot it, and it is instantly back to the known good state of your master image. Upgrades are extremely fast to implement. After you have your updated image ready for production, you simply assign the new image version to the servers and reboot them. You can deploy the new image to any number of servers in the time it takes them to reboot. Just as important, rollback can be performed in the same way, so problems with new images do not need to take your servers or your users out of commission for an extended period of time.

Benefits for Desktop Administrators

Because Citrix PVS is part of Citrix XenApp, desktop administrators can use PVS’s streaming technology to simplify, consolidate, and reduce the costs of both physical and virtual desktop delivery. Many organizations are beginning to explore desktop virtualization. Although virtualization addresses many of IT’s needs for consolidation and simplified management, deploying it also requires deployment of supporting infrastructure. Without PVS, storage costs can make desktop virtualization too costly for the IT budget. However, with PVS, IT can reduce the amount of storage required for VDI by as much as 90 percent. And with a single image to manage instead of hundreds or thousands of desktops, PVS significantly reduces the cost, effort, and complexity for desktop administration.

Different types of workers across the enterprise need different types of desktops. Some require simplicity and standardization, and others require high performance and personalization. XenApp can meet these requirements in a single solution using Citrix FlexCast delivery technology. With FlexCast, IT can deliver every type of virtual desktop, each specifically tailored to meet the performance, security, and flexibility requirements of each individual user.

Not all desktops applications can be supported by virtual desktops. For these scenarios, IT can still reap the benefits of consolidation and single-image management. Desktop images are stored and managed centrally in the data center and streamed to physical desktops on demand. This model works particularly well for standardized desktops such as those in lab and training environments and call centers and thin-client devices used to access virtual desktops.

Citrix Provisioning Services Solution

Citrix PVS streaming technology allows computers to be provisioned and re-provisioned in real time from a single shared disk image. With this approach, administrators can completely eliminate the need to manage and patch individual systems. Instead, all image management is performed on the master image. The local hard drive of each system can be used for runtime data caching or, in some scenarios, removed from the system entirely, which reduces power use, system failure rate, and security risk.

The PVS solution’s infrastructure is based on software-streaming technology. After PVS components are installed and configured, a vDisk is created from a device’s hard drive by taking a snapshot of the OS and application image and then storing that image as a vDisk file on the network. A device used for this process is referred to as a master target device. The devices that use the vDisks are called target devices. vDisks can exist on a PVS, file share, or in larger deployments, on a storage system with which PVS can communicate (iSCSI, SAN, network-attached storage [NAS], and Common Internet File System [CIFS]). vDisks can be assigned to a single target device in private-image mode, or to multiple target devices in standard-image mode.

Citrix Provisioning Services Infrastructure

The Citrix PVS infrastructure design directly relates to administrative roles within a PVS farm. The PVS administrator role determines which components that administrator can manage or view in the console.

A PVS farm contains several components. Figure 12 provides a high-level view of a basic PVS infrastructure and shows how PVS components might appear within that implementation.

Figure 12          Logical Architecture of Citrix Provisioning Services

Solution Architecture

Cisco-Nimble Solution delivers a converged infrastructure platform that incorporates compute, network and storage best practices from Cisco and Nimble to deliver a resilient, scalable and flexible datacenter architecture for Enterprise and cloud deployments.

The following platforms are integrated in this Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture:

·         Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) – B-Series blade servers

·         Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects (FI) – unified access to storage and LAN networks

·         Cisco Nexus 9300 series switches – connectivity to users, other LAN networks and Cisco UCS domains

·         Cisco MDS 9100 fabric switches – SAN fabric providing Fibre Channel (FC) connectivity to storage

·         Nimble AF5000 array – SAN boot of Flash storage array with SSDs

·         Cisco Nexus 1000V  – access layer switch for virtual machines

·         VMware vSphere 6.0 U2b – Hypervisor

·         Cisco UCS Blade Server NVidia M6 GPU

This Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture uses Cisco UCS B-series servers for compute. Cisco UCS B-series servers are housed in a Cisco UCS 5108 blade server chassis that can support up to eight half-width blades or four full-width blades. Each server supports a number of converged network adaptors (CNAs) that converge LAN and SAN traffic onto a single interface rather than requiring multiple network interface cards (NICs) and host bust adapters (HBAs) per server. Cisco’s Virtual Interface Cards (VICs) support 256 virtual interfaces and supports Cisco’s VM-FEX technology (see link below). Two CNAs are typically deployed on a server for redundant connections to the fabric. Cisco VIC is available as a Modular LAN on Motherboard (mLOM) card and as a Mezzanine Slot card. For more information on the different models of Cisco UCS VIC adapters available, see:  http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/interfaces-modules/unified-computing-system-adapters/index.html

All compute resources in the data center connect into a redundant pair of Cisco UCS fabric interconnects that provide unified access to storage and other parts of the network. Each blade server chassis requires 2 Fabric Extender (FEX) modules that extend the unified fabric to the blade server chassis and connect into the FIs using 2, 4 or 8 10GbE links. Each Cisco UCS 5100 Series chassis can support up to two fabric extenders that provide active-active data plane forwarding with failover for higher throughput and availability. FEX is a consolidation point for all blade server I/O traffic, which simplifies operations by providing a single point of management and policy enforcement. For detailed information about FEX see:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/data-center-virtualization/fabric-extender-technology-fex-technology/index.html.

Two second generation models of FEX are currently available for the Cisco UCS blade server chassis. Cisco UCS 2204XP and 2208XP connect to the unified fabric using multiple 10GbE links. The number of 10GbE links that are supported for connecting to an external fabric interconnect and to the blade servers within the chassis are shown in the table below. The maximum I/O throughput possible through each FEX is also shown.

Table 2     Blade Server Fabric Extender Models

Blade Server Models

Internal Facing Links to Blade Servers

External Facing Links to FI

Aggregate I/O Bandwidth

Cisco UCS 2204XP

16 x 10GbE

Up to 4 x 10GbE

40Gbps per FEX

Cisco UCS 2208XP

32 x 10GbE

Up to 8 x 10GbE

80Gbps per FEX

By deploying a pair of Cisco 2208XP FEX, a Cisco UCS 5100 series chassis with blade servers can get up to maximum of 160Gbps of I/O throughput for the servers on that chassis. For additional details on the FEX, see:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10276/data_sheet_c78-675243.html

The rack mount servers can also benefit from a FEX architecture to aggregate I/O traffic from several rack mount servers but unlike the blade servers where the FEX modules fit into the back of the chassis, rack mount servers require a standalone FEX chassis. Cisco 2200 Series FEX model is functionally equivalent to the above blade server FEX models. Other than the physical cabling required to connect ports on Cisco Nexus FEX 2300 to servers and FIs, the discovery and configuration is same as that of the blade server to FI connectivity. For data centers migrating their access-switching layer to 40GbE speeds, Cisco Nexus 2300 series FEX is the newest model.  For additional details on the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series FEX, see:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/switches/nexus-2000-series-fabric-extenders/index.html

Rack Mount Servers can also be deployed by directly connecting into the FIs, without using Cisco UCS FEX chassis. However, this could mean additional operational overhead by having to manage server policies individually but nevertheless a valid option in smaller deployments.

The modular server chassis connect directly into FIs using break out cables that go from each 40G QSFP+ port on the server side to 4x10GbE ports on each FI. A second QSFP+ is used to connect to the secondary FI.

The fabric extenders in a blade server chassis connect externally to the unified fabric using multiple 10GbE links – the number of links depends on the aggregate I/O bandwidth required. Each FEX connect into a Cisco UCS 6200 series fabric interconnect using up to 4 or 8 10GbE links depending on the model of FEX. The links can be deployed as independent links (discrete Mode) or grouped together using link aggregation (port channel mode). In discrete mode, each server is pinned to a FEX link going to a port on the fabric interconnect and if the link goes down, the server’s connection also goes down through the FEX link. In port channel mode, the flows from the server will be redistributed across the remaining port channel members. This is less disruptive overall and therefore port channel mode is preferable.

Cisco UCS system provides the flexibility to individually select components of the system that meet the performance and scale requirements of a customer deployment. There are several options for blade and rack servers, network adapters, FEX and Fabric Interconnects that make up the Cisco UCS system.

Compute resources are grouped into an infrastructure layer and application data layer. Servers in the infrastructure layer are dedicated for hosting virtualized infrastructure services that are necessary for deploying and managing the entire data center. Servers in the application data layer are for hosting business applications and supporting services that Enterprise users will access to fulfill their business function.

The architecture can support any hypervisor but VMware vSphere will be used to validate the architectures. High availability features available in the hypervisor will be leveraged to provide resiliency at the virtualization layer of the stack.

A Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture can support either iSCSI or Fibre Channel (FC) based access to a Nimble Storage array. An iSCSI based access can be used if an end-to-end unified fabric architecture from compute to storage is preferred, but the focus of this CVD will be on a fibre channel based access to Nimble Storage, specifically the AF5000 All Flash array. In this architecture, the traffic will traverse a unified fabric between Cisco UCS and Fabric Interconnects but then diverge onto separate LAN and SAN networks. For other Cisco-Nimble Solution design options, including iSCSI and FC connectivity spanning both adaptive flash and all flash arrays, see the following CVDs that are located in the Cisco Design Zone:

·         AF7000 FC Design Guide: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/UCS_CVDs/smartstack_afa_design.html

·         AF7000 FC Deployment Guide: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/UCS_CVDs/smartstack_afa.html

Nimble Storage’s all flash and adaptive flash arrays are built upon Nimble’s Predictive Flash CPU-driven architecture that provides enterprises with the ability to achieve peak flash-based performance and capacity.  The Nimble Predictive Flash platform is based on NimbleOS and InfoSight™, a cloud-based management and support system.  NimbleOS maximizes the capabilities of SSD to deliver the best flash performance while achieving flash-friendly results with intelligent, space efficient, variable block, data layout on SSD.  NimbleOS and InfoSight™ form the foundation of the Predictive Flash platform, which allows for the dynamic and intelligent deployment of storage resources to meet the growing demands of business-critical applications.

Nimble’s AF5000 is a Flash array designed for large scale enterprise applications with high performance needs. The base array can support up to 12 hard disk drives (HDD) and 4 solid-state drives (SSD). The maximum raw capacity of the base array using 6TB HDD drives is 72TB, with an effective capacity of around 50-100 TB. The flash capacity of the base array using 1.6 TB SSD drives is approximately 3.2-7.6 TB. The capacity and performance can be extended using expansion shelves, with the best model providing up to 90TB of raw capacity and 66-132TB of effective capacity per shelf. The SSD expansion shelf can deliver an additional 30.72TB of flash capacity. AF5000 supports up to 6 expansion shelves which can be combined to meet the performance and capacity needs of enterprise data centers. For additional details of AF5000, see:

http://www.nimblestorage.com/products-technology/products-specs/

If a unified fabric from compute to storage is required or preferable, iSCSI access can be used but the focus of this Cisco-Nimble Solution solution is on a FC based access which currently requires a dedicated SAN network. The traffic does traverse a unified fabric between Cisco UCS and Fabric Interconnects but then diverge onto separate LAN and SAN networks.

This Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture utilizes a dedicated SAN network for block storage traffic. The SAN connections are 8Gb FC links between the MDS switches and Fabric Interconnects, and 16Gb FC links between the Nimble Storage arrays and MDS switches. Two distinctly separate fabrics (no physical interconnectivity) are used for the SAN fabric as the Nimble Connection Manager (host MPIO package) and the Nimble Storage array negotiate which paths are best used for SAN I/O.

Figure 13           SAN Fabric Connectivity

The unified fabric between Cisco UCS servers and Fabric Interconnects splits into separate SAN and LAN networks. If a unified fabric is required or preferable end-to-end from compute to storage, iSCSI block storage access can be used. Alternatively, a Cisco Nexus 5000 series or MDS switch can be used for FCoE to FC connectivity since FCoE capability is not directly available to the Nimble Storage array. The focus of this Cisco-Nimble Solution is on a dedicated fibre channel based storage access design using Cisco MDS fabric switches.

The Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture is a highly resilient design with redundant Unified, LAN and SAN fabrics that includes component and link level redundancy when accessing these fabrics. The unified fabric and LAN connections are 10Gb Ethernet links.  Multiple 10GbE links and FC links are deployed in the Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture with link aggregation using Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) to provide higher aggregate bandwidth and resiliency across the different fabrics. Use of LACP is strongly recommended when available for improved failover convergence time and protection from misconfigurations. Static or manual bundling is an alternative but is less preferable and therefore not used in this architecture.

The data center LAN network in this Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture uses a pair of Cisco Nexus 9300 switches that serve as the access/aggregation layer of the data center network. In this design, the Nexus 9300s provide reachability to users and other parts of the network. In larger deployments, an additional layer of hierarchy can be added using Cisco Nexus 9000 series switches as an aggregation/core layer in a classic data center tiered design or as a spine in a spine/leaf design. Cisco Nexus 9000 family of switches can operate in one of two modes: Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) for newer cloud architectures or in Cisco NX-OS standalone mode for the more traditional data center architectures. In the Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture, the Cisco 9300s are deployed in NX-OS standalone mode and provide investment protection by enabling a pathway to Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). Cisco ACI was designed to help Enterprises transition their data centers to a cloud architecture that is dynamic, where applications can be quickly deployed and scaled, and adapt with the needs of the business. To enable this, Cisco ACI provides a flexible, scalable, application centric, policy-based framework based on open APIs that accelerate and simplify datacenter deployments while providing centralized orchestration, visibility and management.

Virtual Port Channel (vPC) or link-aggregation capabilities of the Cisco Nexus 9000 family of switches are used on the network links to Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects. A virtual PortChannel (vPC) allows links that are physically connected to two different Cisco Nexus 9000 Series devices to appear as a single PortChannel. vPC provides Layer 2 multipathing with load balancing by allowing multiple parallel paths between nodes that result in increased bandwidth and redundancy.  A vPC-based architecture is therefore highly resilient and robust and scales the available Layer 2 bandwidth by using all available links. Other benefits of vPCs include:

·         Provides a loop-free topology

·         Eliminates Spanning Tree Protocol blocked ports

·         Uses all available uplink bandwidth

·         Provides fast convergence for both link and device failures

·         Provides higher aggregate bandwidth by adding links – same as Port Channels

·         Helps ensure high availability

The aggregate throughput of the two fabrics depends on the number of 10GbE and 8Gb FC links deployed to meet the throughput needs of a given customer deployment.  This design uses a 4 x 10GbE access to the unified fabric from Cisco UCS blade server chassis. This can be scaled up to a max of 8x10 GbE on the UCS blade server chassis. The LAN and SAN fabric provides a 2x10 GbE and 4x8Gb FC access respectively from each FI. This can also be scaled higher by adding additional 10GbE and 8Gb FC links.

The Cisco-Nimble Solution platform will be managed locally using Cisco UCS Manager, VMware vCenter and Nimble Management software. The storage array will also be remotely monitored from the cloud using Nimble InfoSight™ to provide insights into I/O and capacity usage, trend analysis for capacity planning and expansion, and for pro-active ticketing and notification when issues occur.

Solution Design

The end-to-end Cisco-Nimble Solution design is shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14          Cisco-Nimble Solution Design

Compute

Cisco-Nimble Solution design uses Cisco UCS with 32x Cisco UCS B200 M4 half-width blades to provide the compute resources. The hypervisor layer in the design is provided by VMware ESXi 6.0 U2a. Features available at the hypervisor layer (for example, VMware clustering, high availability) are leveraged where possible for a robust design. The blade server chassis is connected via FEX modules on the back of the chassis to a pair of Cisco UCS 6248 FIs. A pair of Cisco 2204 XP fabric extenders is used in this design. The FEX to FI connectivity uses 8x10GbE links, 4 from FEX-A to FI-A and 4 from FEX-B to FI-B to provide an aggregate access bandwidth of 80Gbps to the unified fabric. The FIs are connected to LAN and SAN network using 10GbE and 8Gb FC links. The FI provides 40Gbps of aggregate bandwidth to the LAN network and 64Gbps to the SAN network. Link aggregation using port channels are used on the unified fabric FEX-FI connections and virtual port channels on the Nexus-FI LAN connections.

Network

The LAN network design is shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15           Cisco-Nimble Solution LAN Fabric Design

The LAN network provides network reachability to the applications hosted on Cisco UCS servers in the data center. The infrastructure consists of a pair of Nexus 9372 PX switches deployed in NX-OS standalone mode. Redundant 10Gbps links from each Nexus switch are connected to ports on each FI and provide 20Gbps of bandwidth through each Nexus. Virtual PortChannels (vPCs) are used on the Nexus links going to each FI. VLAN Trunking is enabled on these links as multiple application data vlans, management and vMotion traffic needs to traverse these links. Jumbo Frames are also enabled in the LAN network to support vMotion between multiple UCS domains. See Design Practices section for other Nexus 9000 best practices in the design.

The SAN network provides 16Gb fibre channel connectivity to the Nimble storage array and consists of a pair of MDS switches. The MDS switches form completely separate fabrics (SAN fabric A, SAN fabric B) and use a dual vSAN (vSAN-A, vSAN-B) design to provide two redundant and completely diverse paths to the Nimble array.

Link aggregation using port channels are used to aggregate 4 x 8G FC links to provide 32G of FC bandwidth on each SAN Fabric between Cisco FI and MDS switches. Link aggregation is not used for the Nimble array links which uses two 16Gb FC links from each controller module (active and passive) for each SAN fabric, providing 32G of FC bandwidth to the active controller. Four links from the SAN fabric, 2 from SAN Fabric A and 2 from SAN Fabric B also connect to the passive controller so that both controllers have 32B FC access to the SAN fabric.

Cisco MDS switches are deployed with N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) enabled to support the virtualized environment running on Cisco UCS blade servers. NPIV is necessary to provide isolation in virtualized environments where multiple virtual machines are running on a single server but a LUN needs to be presented to only one VM and not all VMs running on the server. Without NPIV, LUNs would be presented to the host and as a result, all VMs running on that host. To support NPIV on the Cisco UCS servers, the Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects that connect the servers to the SAN fabric, are enabled for N-Port Virtualization (NPV) mode by configuring to operate in end-host mode (as opposed to FC switching mode). NPV enables Cisco FIs to proxy fabric login, registration and other messages from the servers to the SAN Fabric without being a part of the SAN fabric. This is important for keeping the limited number of Domain IDs that Fabric switches require to a minimum.

The design also uses the following best practices:

·         Jumbo frames on unified fabric links between Cisco UCS and fabric interconnects

·         QoS policy for traffic prioritization on the unified fabric

·         Port-channels with multiple links are used in both the unified fabric and SAN network for higher aggregate bandwidth and redundancy.

·         Zoning is single initiator (vHBA) to multiple targets.

Storage

The Nimble storage design is shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16          Cisco-Nimble Solution Storage Design

Cisco-Nimble Solution design uses Nimble All Flash array to provide block storage. A base configuration with 46TB of raw capacity was deployed in the array used for validation. Nimble’s All Flash supports the addition of up to 2 expansion shelves for a total raw flash capacity of 184TB, with an effective capacity of around 680TB (applying a 5:1 data reduction). Similarly for an AF9000 maximum raw flash capacity.AF5000 can support up to 120,000 IOPS and an AF9000 is capable of producing up to 300,000 IOPS.

This Cisco-Nimble Solution design uses 16G fabric connectivity with two FC interface cards to provide 64G of FC bandwidth per controller. For additional FC bandwidth, a third FC card can be deployed on each controller but this interface is typically used for 10GbE connections to other arrays in a scale-out cluster for data replication traffic. The links between a pair of Cisco MDS and Fabric Interconnect switches are aggregated using 4x8G FC links to deliver 32G of bandwidth across the SAN fabric to each controller. Nimble Storage arrays support nondisruptive upgrades for adding additional capacity (scale deep), controller upgrades (scale up), or adding additional arrays (scale out).

This design uses FC SAN boot to boot the servers. The Service Profile used to configure and deploy Cisco UCS servers is configured to include a boot policy that points to the Nimble Storage array.  The boot policy specifies a primary and secondary SAN path to the two controllers on the array where the boot volumes reside. A second boot policy is also configured but with the primary and secondary paths reversed from that of the first boot profile. The second boot policy is used to load balance SAN boot across different paths when multiple servers are booting. This is an optional aspect of the design that can be helpful in larger deployments for distributing load when multiple servers have to be simultaneously booted. Each server has a dedicated boot volume (40GB) on the Nimble storage array. Nimble Storage arrays provide an ACL at the initiator level to only allow connections from the appropriate Cisco UCS blade. During the initial SAN boot, the server attaches to all primary and secondary connections to both active and standby controller. This provides for normal boot operations even when a controller or primary path is offline. The hosts are configured with the Nimble Connection Manager and Path Selection Policy which optimize MPIO settings. This will allow for proper FC path management and failover connectivity.

The following sections of this document provides more details on the connectivity and high availability aspects of this design.

Design Considerations

Management Connectivity

This Cisco-Nimble Solution design uses a separate out-of-band management network to configure and manage compute, storage and network components in the solution. Management ports on each physical device (Cisco UCS FI, Nimble AF5000 Array Controllers, Cisco Nexus and MDS switches) in the solution are connected to a separate, dedicated management switch.

Management access is also needed to ESXi hosts, vCenter VM and other management VMs but this is done in-band in this design. However, if out-of-band management to these components are required, the disjoint layer 2 feature available in Cisco UCS running end-host mode can be used. This would require additional uplink port(s) on the Cisco UCS FI to connect to the management switches. Additional out-of-band management vlans and vNICs will also be needed and associated with the uplink ports. The additional vNICs are necessary since a server vNIC can only be associated with a single uplink.

QoS and Jumbo Frames

Cisco UCS, Nexus, and MDS switches in the Cisco-Nimble Solution provide QoS policies and features for handling congestion and traffic spikes that can occur in a Cisco-Nimble Solution environment. Cisco-Nimble Solution support different types of traffic (e.g. vMotion, FCOE) and the QoS capabilities in these components can alleviate and provide the priority that certain types of traffic require.

Cisco-Nimble Solution design also uses jumbo frames with an MTU of 9000 Bytes across the LAN, SAN and Unified Fabric links. Jumbo frames increase the throughput between devices by enabling larger sized frames to be sent and received on the wire while reducing the CPU resources necessary to process them. Jumbo frames were enabled during validation on the LAN network links in the Nexus switching layer, the SAN MDS fabric and on the Unified Fabric links using Cisco UCS QoS system classes.

Fabric Extender Attached Design

For larger scale deployments, Cisco UCS C-series can be connected using standalone Fabric Extenders, namely the 1RU FEX 2232PP. Functionally, the standalone FEX is identical to the Cisco UCS 2204 and 2208 IOM modules that are deployed on the Cisco UCS 5108 blade server chassis for connecting to Cisco UCS Fabric Extenders. Similarly, the Cisco VIC on each Cisco UCS C-series server connect to both Fabric Interconnects using two Cisco FEX 2232PPs. The FEX and Fabric Interconnects form port channels automatically based on the chassis discovery policy providing a link resiliency to the Cisco UCS C-series server. This is identical to the behavior of the IOM to Fabric Interconnect connectivity. Logically, the virtual circuits formed within the Cisco UCS domain are consistent between B and C series deployment models and the virtual constructs formed at the vSphere are unaware of the platform in use.

Cisco UCS Server – vSphere Configuration

Cisco UCS B200 M4 blade servers with Cisco 1340 VIC running vSphere 6.0 U2 were validated in this Cisco-Nimble Solution design. Cisco UCS servers were assigned to a VMware High Availability (HA) cluster to mitigate against host failures. Two VMware HA clusters were used in validation – one for infrastructure management and services (e.g. VMware vCenter) and one for applications that users access. The Cisco VIC on each server presents multiple vPCIe devices to ESXi. vSphere identifies these virtual adapters as vmnics. In this Cisco-Nimble Solution design, the following virtual adapters (vNICs) were used with –A connected to unified fabric A and –B to unified fabric B resulting in each ESXi node being dual homed to the external network.

·         Two vNICs (vNIC-A, vNIC-B) for application VM, in-band management and vMotion traffic

The connectivity within each ESXi server and the vNIC presented to ESXi are shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17           Cisco UCS Server Networking – vSwitch (Optional)

The Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture uses two port groups (IB-MGMT-PG) for in-band management of the VMs and APP-VM-PG for application traffic. The design also used two VMkernel NICs (vmk), each with its own port group for host level functionality:

·         vmk0 - ESXi management

·         vmk1 - vMotion interface

The ESXi management interface is for host to vCenter connectivity, direct access to ESXi shell and VMware cluster communication. The vMotion interfaces are private subnets supporting data access and VM migration across the Cisco-Nimble Solution infrastructure.

Cisco UCS Server – Virtual Switching using Cisco Nexus 1000V

A Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual distributed switch is used to provide connectivity between virtual machines and host connectivity to external networks. Cisco Nexus 1000v is an optional component of the Cisco-Nimble Solution. Cisco Nexus 1000v is fully integrated into the VMware virtual infrastructure, including VMware vCenter and vCloud Director and extends the network edge to the hypervisor and virtual machines. Cisco Nexus 1000V is compatible with any upstream physical access layer switch that is compliant with Ethernet standards including Cisco Nexus switches and switches from other network vendors.

The Cisco Nexus 1000v comprises of the following components and operationally emulates a modular switch where:

·         Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM) – is the control and management plane of the virtual switch. VSM is deployed as an external virtual machine and runs NX-OS to manage multiple Virtual Ethernet Modules as one logical modular switch.

·         Cisco Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM) – virtual line card or module within the virtual switch that VMs connect into. VEM is embedded in each VMware vSphere host and replaces the VMware Virtual Switch (vSwitch) functionality.

·         Operating inside the VMware ESXi hypervisor, Cisco Nexus 1000V VEM uses the VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) API, jointly developed by Cisco and VMware to provide policy-based VM connectivity, Layer 2 switching and advanced networking functions. The tight integration makes Cisco Nexus 1000V fully aware of key virtualization features such as VMware vMotion and Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS). VEM provides switching functionality based on the configuration information it receives from the VSM. In the event of a communication loss with the VSM, VEM continues to forward traffic based on last known configuration or Nonstop Forwarding (NSF). VEM therefore provides reliability and advanced switching functionality.

Cisco Nexus 1000V VSM controls multiple VEMs as one logical modular switch with the VEM running as software on each server representing the line cards on a switch. VSM is integrated into VMware vCenter server to that the datacenter administrator can manage and monitor the network configuration on the Cisco Nexus 1000V switches. Configuration done through the VSM are automatically propagated to all VEMs managed by a given VSM. For high availability, VSMs can be redundantly deployed providing rapid, stateful failover as the VSMs. VSMs also provide port-profiles as a mechanism for grouping ports by category that enables the solution to scale to a high number of ports. VSM can also be accessed and managed through CLI, SNMP, XML API and CiscoWorks LAN management Solution.

Figure 18 shows the virtual networking within ESXi on a single Cisco UCS server. The Cisco Nexus 1000V VEM running on the ESXi node is registered to a VSM running on the infrastructure cluster and integrated into VMware vCenter. The Cisco VIC on each server presents multiple vPCIe devices to ESXi that are identified as vmnics. This Cisco-Nimble Solution design uses two virtual adapters (vNIC-A, vNIC-B) with vNIC-A connected to unified fabric A and vNIC–B connected to unified fabric B. Host traffic (application VMs, in-band management, vMotion) are distributed across these vNICs. The ESXi vmnics are presented as Ethernet interfaces on Cisco Nexus 1000V. Cisco Nexus 1000V provides port profiles to address the dynamic nature of server virtualization from the network’s perspective. Port profiles, defined on the VSM, serve as templates that define the network, security and service level policies for groups of virtual machines. Cisco Nexus 1000v aggregates the Ethernet uplinks into a single port channel named the "System-Uplink" port profile for fault tolerance and improved throughput. The port profiles can then be applied to individual virtual machine Ethernet interfaces through VMware vCenter.

Cisco Nexus 1000v provides link failure detection, disabling Cisco UCS Fabric Failover within the vNIC template is recommended.

Figure 18          Cisco UCS Server Networking – Nexus 1000V

The Cisco-Nimble Solution architecture uses two port profiles (IB-MGMT) for in-band management of the VMs and APP-VM for the application traffic used in validation. The design also uses two VMkernel NICs (vmk), each with its own port profile for host level functionality:

·         vmk0 - ESXi management

·         vmk1 - vMotion interface

·         The ESXi management interface is for host to vCenter connectivity, direct access to ESXi shell and VMware cluster communication. The vMotion interfaces are private subnets supporting data access and VM migration across the Cisco-Nimble Solution infrastructure.

The Cisco Nexus 1000v also supports Cisco's MQC to assist in uniform operation and enforcement of QoS policies across the infrastructure. The Cisco Nexus 1000v supports marking at the edge and policing traffic from VM-to-VM.

For more information about "Best Practices in Deploying Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches on Cisco UCS B and C Series Cisco UCS Manager Servers" refer to: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9902/white_paper_c11-558242.html

For this study we employed the Cisco Nexus 1000 V distributed virtual switch.

Cisco Nexus 9000 Series – vPC Best Practices

Cisco-Nimble Solution incorporates the following Cisco Nexus 9000 design best practices and recommendations.

vPC Peer Keepalive Link Considerations

·         Recommendations for a vPC peer keepalive link is dedicated 1Gbps Layer3 link, followed by out-of-band management interface (mgmt0) and lastly, routing the keepalive link over an existing Layer3 infrastructure between the existing vPC peers. vPC peer keepalive link should not be routed over a vPC peer-link. The out-of-band management network was used as the vPC peer keepalive link in this Cisco-Nimble Solution design.

vPC Peer Link Considerations

·         Only vPC vlans are allowed on the vPC peer-links. For deployments that require non-VPC vlan traffic to be exchanged between vPC peer switches, deploy a separate Layer 2 link for this traffic.

·         Only required vlans are allowed on the vPC peer links and member ports – prune all others to minimize internal resource consumption.

·         Ports from different line cards should be used to provide redundancy for vPC peer links. It was not possible to do this on the fixed module Cisco Nexus 9372PX switches used in this Cisco-Nimble Solution design.

vPC General Considerations

·         vPC peer switches deployed using same bridge-id and spanning tree VLAN priority by configuring the peer-switch command on both vPC peer switches. This feature improves convergence and allows peer switches to appear as a single spanning-tree root in the Layer 2 topology.

·         vPC role priority specified on both Cisco Nexus peer switches. vPC role priority determines which switch will be primary and which one will be secondary. The device with the lower value will become the primary. By default, this value is 32677. Cisco recommends that the default be changed on both switches. Primary vPC devices are responsible for BPDU and ARP processing. Secondary vPC devices are responsible for shutting down member ports and vlan interfaces when peer-links fail.

·         vPC convergence time of 30s (default) was used to give routing protocol enough time to converge post-reboot. The default value can be changed using delay-restore <1-3600> and delay-restore interface-vlan <1-3600> commands. If used, this value should be changed globally on both peer switches to meet the needs of your deployment.

·         vPC peer switches enabled as peer-gateways using peer-gateway command on both devices. Peer-gateway allows a vPC switch to act as the active gateway for packets that are addressed to the router MAC address of the vPC peer allowing vPC peers to forward traffic.

·         vPC auto-recovery enabled to provide a backup mechanism in the event of a vPC peer-link failure due to vPC primary peer device failure or if both switches reload but only one comes back up. This feature allows the one peer to assume the other is not functional and restore the vPC after a default delay of 240s. This needs to be enabled on both switches. The time to wait before a peer restores the vPC can be changed using the command: auto-recovery reload-delay <240-3600>.

·         Cisco NX-OS can synchronize ARP tables between vPC peers using the vPC peer links. This is done using a reliable transport mechanism that the Cisco Fabric Services over Ethernet (CFSoE) protocol provides. For faster convergence of address tables between vPC peers, ip arp synchronize command was enabled on both peer devices in this Cisco-Nimble Solution design.

vPC Member Link Considerations

·         LACP used for port channels in the vPC. LACP should be used when possible for graceful failover and protection from misconfigurations

·         LACP mode active-active used on both sides of the port channels in the vPC. LACP active-active is recommended, followed by active-passive mode and manual or static bundling if the access device does not support LACP.  Port-channel in mode active-active is preferred as it initiates more quickly than port-channel in mode active-passive.

·         LACP graceful-convergence disabled on port-channels going to Cisco UCS FI. LACP graceful-convergence is ON by default and should be enabled when the downstream access switch is a Cisco Nexus device and disabled if it is not.

·         Only required vlans are allowed on the vPC peer links and member ports – prune all others to minimize internal resource consumption.

·         Source-destination IP, L4 port and VLAN are used load-balancing hashing algorithm for port-channels. This improves fair usage of all member ports forming the port-channel. The default hashing algorithm is source-destination IP and L4 port.

vPC Spanning Tree Considerations:

·         Bridge Assurance enabled on vPC peer links by specifying spanning-tree port type network. Bridge Assurance should be disabled on vPC member ports.

·         Spanning port type specified as edge or edge trunk on host facing interfaces connecting to Cisco UCS FI.

·         BPDU Guard feature enabled on host-facing interfaces connecting to Cisco UCS FI. This was done by globally enabling it on all edge ports using the spanning-tree port type edge bpduguard default command.

·         BPDU Filtering feature enabled on host-facing interfaces connecting to Cisco UCS FI. This was done by globally enabling it on all edge ports using the spanning-tree port type edge bpdufilter default command.

·         Loop Guard was disabled (default setting) in this design. If necessary, they can be enabled globally using spanning-tree loopguard default or at the interface level using spanning-tree guard loop.

·         Root Guard enabled on vpc member ports connected to access devices to make sure that vPC peer switches remain the spanning tree root – using interface level command spanning-tree guard root

Other Considerations

·         Unidirectional Link Detection (UDLD) was enabled globally using feature udld and on vPC peer links and member ports to Cisco UCS FI.

·         HSRP specific

—     Interface vlans should be defined as passive interfaces to avoid routing peer information

—     Disable IP redirection on HSRP interface vlans

—     Use default timer for HSRP/VRRP

·         If the Cisco-Nimble Solution design outlined in this CVD is connected to additional aggregation/core layer Cisco Nexus switches in a two-tiered design for scalability or other expansion purposes, the following guidelines should be followed.

—     In a two-tiered data center design using Cisco Nexus switches, vPCs can also be used between the Cisco Nexus switches in each tier using a double-sided vPC topology. In such a design, the vPC domain identifiers must be different as this information is exchanged through LACP protocol and using the same vPC domain identifiers will generate continuous flaps on vPC between the different Cisco Nexus network layers.

—     If modular Cisco Nexus switches are used, redundancy should be provided by using ports from different line cards.

—     Deploy dedicated Layer 3 link(s) for exchanging routing information between peer switches in a two-tiered design or other topologies where Layer 3 is used between the tiers. The vPC peer-link should not be used.

Last but not least, review the criteria for vPC Type-1 and Type-2 consistency checks in the link provided below to avoid issues in your deployment.

·         vPC Design Guide: http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/design/vpc_design/vpc_best_practices_design_guide.pdf

·         Nexus 9000 NX-OS Release 6.x Configuration Guide: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus9000/sw/6-x/interfaces/configuration/guide/b_Cisco_Nexus_9000_Series_NX-OS_Interfaces_Configuration_Guide.html

High Availability

Cisco-Nimble Solution platform was designed for maximum availability of the complete infrastructure (compute, network, storage, virtualization) with no single points of failure.

Compute and Virtualization

·         Cisco UCS system provides redundancy at the component and link level and end-to-end path redundancy to storage array and LAN network.

·         Cisco UCS 5108 blade server platform is highly redundant with redundant power supplies, fans and fabric extender modules..

·         Each fabric extender on the Cisco UCS 5108 blade server is deployed with 4x10GbE links to the unified fabric. The links are part of a port channel to ensure rerouting of flows to other links in the event of a link failure.

·         Each server is deployed using vNICs and vHBAs that provide redundant connectivity to the unified fabric. NIC failover is enabled between Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects using Cisco UCS manager. This is done for all management and virtual machine vNICs.

·         VMware vCenter is used to deploy VMware HA clusters to allow VMs to failover in the event of a server failure. VMware vMotion and VMware HA are enabled to auto restart VMs after a failure. Host Monitoring is enabled to monitor heartbeats of all ESXi hosts in the cluster for faster detection. Admission Control is also enabled on the blade servers to ensure the cluster has enough resources to accommodate a single host failure.

·         VMware vSphere hosts use SAN multipathing to access LUNs on the Nimble array. If any component (NIC, HBA, FEX, FI, MDS, Nimble controller, cables) along a path fails, all storage traffic will reroute to an alternate path. When both paths are active, traffic is load balanced.

Network

·         Link aggregation using port channels and virtual port channels are used throughout the Cisco-Nimble Solution design for higher bandwidth and availability.

·         Port channels are used on unified fabric links between fabric extender and fabric interconnects. Virtual port channels are used between FIs and Nexus switches. VPCs provider higher availability than port channels as it can continue to forward traffic even if one of the Nexus switches fail because VPCs distribute member links of port-channel across different Nexus switches.

·         Pair of Cisco Nexus 9000 series switches are used in the datacenter LAN fabric to provide redundancy in the event of a switch failure.

·         Pair of Cisco MDS switches are used in the SAN fabric to provide redundancy in the event of a switch failure.

·         MDS and Nexus switches are highly redundant with redundant power supplies, fans and have out-of-band management access.

·         The two MDS switches form two separate fabrics and provide two distinct physical paths to storage for redundancy. FI-A to MDS-A to Nimble array is SAN Fabric A and FI-B to MDS-B to Nimble array is SAN Fabric B. Dual VSANs are used across these fabrics with vSAN-3 on Fabric A and vSAN-4 on Fabric B. The dual vSANs represent two redundant paths to the storage array with traffic load balanced across both vSANs when there is no failure.

Storage

·         The Nimble AF5000 array has redundant storage controllers which allow for an active / standby configuration.

·         The AF5000 has redundant power supplies with diverse cabling and data paths to each controller.

·         Each Nimble storage controller is redundantly connected to the SAN fabric. Each controller is connected using 4x 16Gb FC links to upstream MDS switches with 2x16Gb links going to MDS-A switch and 2x16Gb links going to MDS-B switch in the SAN fabric. This will allow 64GB network bandwidth for each controller.

·         FC target connections are configured in a Dual fabric / dual vSAN switch fabric.  This configuration is used across the SAN fabric and unified fabric for redundant connectivity to storage.

·         Each Service Profile has a boot profile with redundant paths to primary and secondary FC targets on the Nimble Storage array.

·         All VMware datastore volumes utilizes Nimble PSP_Directed for proper path failover and load distribution.

Scalability

For higher performance and capacity, Cisco-Nimble Solution solutions can scale up by adding compute, network, storage or management subsystems individually or scale out with consistent and predictable performance by deploying additional units of the complete Cisco-Nimble Solution.

Management

·         Cisco UCS Manager residing on a clustered pair of Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects that makes up a UCS domain can manage up to 160 servers (8 servers per chassis x 20 chassis) in a single UCS domain.

·         Cisco UCS Central can be deployed to provide a single pane for managing multiple Cisco UCS domains – for up to 10,000 servers. Cisco UCS Central complements Cisco UCS Manager to provide centralized inventory, faults, and logs, global policies and pools, firmware management, global visibility and flexible administrative controls. Cisco UCS Central is a manager of managers that interfaces with Cisco UCS Manager in each domain to manage multiple, globally distributed Cisco UCS domains.

Storage

Scale-to-Fit

With Nimble Storage’s AF5000 Predictive Flash platform, it is easy to accommodate application growth by scaling performance, capacity, or both—efficiently and non-disruptively. With Nimble Storage scale-to-fit, organizations can:

·         Flexibly scale flash to accommodate a wide variety of application working sets. With the addition of an All Flash Shelf, the AF5000 can support up to 184TB raw ( 680TB effective considering a 5:1 Data Reduction)

·         Flash capacity expansion is a simple as adding additional drives to the existing array, or by attaching expansion shelves to the SAS 3.0 (12Gb) expansion ports. The AF5000 supports adding up to a single all Flash expansion shelf.

·         Scale up performance by upgrading compute for greater throughput and IOPS

·         Scale capacity and performance together by clustering any combination of Nimble Storage arrays – see next section for Nimble’s scale-out capabilities

Scale-Out

Nimble Storage’s Predictive Flash platform features a scale-out architecture that makes it easy to scale capacity and performance beyond the physical limitations of a single array. With Nimble Storage scale-out, organizations can:

·         Group up to 4 Nimble arrays (any model) for higher scalability and performance

·         One management console to administer all storage hardware resources in the group as a single entity

·         Dynamic load balancing across arrays in a group to eliminate performance hot spots

·         Multi-array data striping, enabling any application to fully leverage the collective hardware resources of the scale-out group

·         Flexible configuration of any combination of Nimble Storage arrays in the group, maximizing storage ROI

·         Seamless reconfiguration and hardware refreshes, without downtime

Storage Management Nimble vCenter Plugin

Nimble Storage provides a plugin that works specifically with vCenter to manage datastores residing on Nimble arrays. You can use either the desktop vCenter plugin, or the web-based vCenter plugin. Both provide the same functionality, with slight variances in the user views, and minor enhancements.

The Nimble vCenter plugin allows the following capability directly from vCenter:

·         Create, clone, grow, and edit datastores

·         Take, clone, and delete snapshots

·         Add Nimble-specific capabilities to vCenter server which can be used to create vCenter roles

·         Edit protection schedules

Architecture and Design Considerations for Desktop Virtualization

There are many reasons to consider a virtual desktop solution such as an ever growing and diverse base of user devices, complexity in management of traditional desktops, security, and even Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to work programs. The first step in designing a virtual desktop solution is to understand the user community and the type of tasks that are required to successfully execute their role. The following user classifications are provided:

·         Knowledge Workers today do not just work in their offices all day – they attend meetings, visit branch offices, work from home, and even coffee shops. These anywhere workers expect access to all of their same applications and data wherever they are.

·         External Contractors are increasingly part of your everyday business. They need access to certain portions of your applications and data, yet administrators still have little control over the devices they use and the locations they work from. Consequently, IT is stuck making trade-offs on the cost of providing these workers a device vs. the security risk of allowing them access from their own devices.

·         Task Workers perform a set of well-defined tasks. These workers access a small set of applications and have limited requirements from their PCs. However, since these workers are interacting with your customers, partners, and employees, they have access to your most critical data.

·         Mobile Workers need access to their virtual desktop from everywhere, regardless of their ability to connect to a network. In addition, these workers expect the ability to personalize their PCs, by installing their own applications and storing their own data, such as photos and music, on these devices.

·         Shared Workstation users are often found in state-of-the-art university and business computer labs, conference rooms or training centers. Shared workstation environments have the constant requirement to re-provision desktops with the latest operating systems and applications as the needs of the organization change, tops the list.

After the user classifications have been identified and the business requirements for each user classification have been defined, it becomes essential to evaluate the types of virtual desktops that are needed based on user requirements. There are essentially five potential desktops environments for each user:

·         Traditional PC: A traditional PC is what typically constitutes a desktop environment: physical device with a locally installed operating system.

·         Hosted Shared Desktop: A hosted, server-based desktop is a desktop where the user interacts through a delivery protocol. With hosted, server-based desktops, a single installed instance of a server operating system, such as Microsoft Windows Server 2012, is shared by multiple users simultaneously. Each user receives a desktop "session" and works in an isolated memory space. Hosted Virtual Desktop: A hosted virtual desktop is a virtual desktop running on a virtualization layer (ESX). The user does not work with and sit in front of the desktop, but instead the user interacts through a delivery protocol.

·         Published Applications: Published applications run entirely on the Citrix XenApp virtual machines and the user interacts through a delivery protocol. With published applications, a single installed instance of an application, such as Microsoft Office, is shared by multiple users simultaneously. Each user receives an application "session" and works in an isolated memory space.

·         Streamed Applications: Streamed desktops and applications run entirely on the user‘s local client device and are sent from a server on demand. The user interacts with the application or desktop directly but the resources may only available while they are connected to the network.

·         Local Virtual Desktop: A local virtual desktop is a desktop running entirely on the user‘s local device and continues to operate when disconnected from the network. In this case, the user’s local device is used as a type 1 hypervisor and is synced with the data center when the device is connected to the network.

For the purposes of the validation represented in this document both XenDesktop hosted virtual desktops and XenApp hosted shared server desktops were validated. Each of the sections provides some fundamental design decisions for this environment.

Understanding Applications and Data

When the desktop user groups and sub-groups have been identified, the next task is to catalog group application and data requirements. This can be one of the most time-consuming processes in the VDI planning exercise, but is essential for the VDI project’s success. If the applications and data are not identified and co-located, performance will be negatively affected.

The process of analyzing the variety of application and data pairs for an organization will likely be complicated by the inclusion cloud applications, like SalesForce.com. This application and data analysis is beyond the scope of this Cisco Validated Design, but should not be omitted from the planning process. There are a variety of third party tools available to assist organizations with this crucial exercise.

Project Planning and Solution Sizing Sample Questions

Now that user groups, their applications, and their data requirements are understood, some key project and solution sizing questions may be considered.

General project questions should be addressed at the outset, including:

·         Has a VDI pilot plan been created based on the business analysis of the desktop groups, applications and data?

·         Is there infrastructure and budget in place to run the pilot program?

·         Are the required skill sets to execute the VDI project available? Can we hire or contract for them?

·         Do we have end user experience performance metrics identified for each desktop sub-group?

·         How will we measure success or failure?

·         What is the future implication of success or failure?

Below is a short, non-exhaustive list of sizing questions that should be addressed for each user sub-group:

·         What is the desktop OS planned? Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10?

·         32 bit or 64 bit desktop OS?

·         How many virtual desktops will be deployed in the pilot? In production? All Windows 7/8/10?

·         How much memory per target desktop group desktop?

·         Are there any rich media, Flash, or graphics-intensive workloads?

·         What is the end point graphics processing capability?

·         Will XenApp RDS be used for Hosted Shared Server Desktops or exclusively XenDesktop HVD?

·         Are there XenApp hosted applications planned? Are they packaged or installed?

·         Will Provisioning Server, Machine Creation Services, or another method be used for virtual desktop deployment?

·         What is the hypervisor for the solution?

·         What is the storage configuration in the existing environment?

·         Are there sufficient IOPS available for the write-intensive VDI workload?

·         Will there be storage dedicated and tuned for VDI service?

·         Is there a voice component to the desktop?

·         Is anti-virus a part of the image?

·         Is user profile management (for example, non-roaming profile based) part of the solution?

·         What is the fault tolerance, failover, disaster recovery plan?

·         Are there additional desktop sub-group specific questions?

Hypervisor Selection

Citrix XenDesktop is hypervisor-agnostic, so any of the following three hypervisors can be used to host RDS- and VDI-based desktops:

·         VMware vSphere: VMware vSphere comprises the management infrastructure or virtual center server software and the hypervisor software that virtualizes the hardware resources on the servers. It offers features like Distributed Resource Scheduler, vMotion, high availability, Storage vMotion, VMFS, and a multi-pathing storage layer. More information on vSphere can be obtained at the VMware web site: http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/overview.html.

·         Hyper-V: Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V is available in a Standard, Server Core and free Hyper-V Server versions. More information on Hyper-V can be obtained at the Microsoft web site: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/default.aspx.

·         XenServer: Citrix® XenServer® is a complete, managed server virtualization platform built on the powerful Xen® hypervisor. Xen technology is widely acknowledged as the fastest and most secure virtualization software in the industry. XenServer is designed for efficient management of Windows and Linux virtual servers and delivers cost-effective server consolidation and business continuity. More information on XenServer can be obtained at the web site: http://www.citrix.com/products/xenserver/overview.html.

For this CVD, the hypervisor used was VMware ESXi 6.0 Update 1a.

Citrix XenDesktop Design Fundamentals

An ever growing and diverse base of user devices, complexity in management of traditional desktops, security, and even Bring Your Own (BYO) device to work programs are prime reasons for moving to a virtual desktop solution.

Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 integrates Hosted Shared and VDI desktop virtualization technologies into a unified architecture that enables a scalable, simple, efficient, and manageable solution for delivering Windows applications and desktops as a service.

Users can select applications from an easy-to-use “store” that is accessible from tablets, smartphones, PCs, Macs, and thin clients. XenDesktop delivers a native touch-optimized experience with HDX high-definition performance, even over mobile networks.

Machine Catalogs

Collections of identical Virtual Machines (VMs) or physical computers are managed as a single entity called a Machine Catalog. In this CVD, VM provisioning relies on Citrix Provisioning Services to make sure that the machines in the catalog are consistent. In this CVD, machines in the Machine Catalog are configured to run either a Windows Server OS (for RDS hosted shared desktops) or a Windows Desktop OS (for hosted pooled VDI desktops).

Delivery Groups

To deliver desktops and applications to users, you create a Machine Catalog and then allocate machines from the catalog to users by creating Delivery Groups. Delivery Groups provide desktops, applications, or a combination of desktops and applications to users. Creating a Delivery Group is a flexible way of allocating machines and applications to users. In a Delivery Group, you can:

·         Use machines from multiple catalogs

·         Allocate a user to multiple machines

·         Allocate multiple users to one machine

As part of the creation process, you specify the following Delivery Group properties:

·         Users, groups, and applications allocated to Delivery Groups

·         Desktop settings to match users' needs

·         Desktop power management options

Figure 19 shows how users access desktops and applications through machine catalogs and delivery groups.

Server OS and Desktop OS Machines configured in this CVD to support hosted shared desktops and hosted virtual desktops (both non-persistent and persistent).

Figure 19          Access Desktops and Applications through Machine Catalogs and Delivery Groups

Citrix Provisioning Services

Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 can be deployed with or without Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS). The advantage of using Citrix PVS is that it allows virtual machines to be provisioned and re-provisioned in real-time from a single shared-disk image. In this way administrators can completely eliminate the need to manage and patch individual systems and reduce the number of disk images that they manage, even as the number of machines continues to grow, simultaneously providing the efficiencies of a centralized management with the benefits of distributed processing.

The Provisioning Services solution’s infrastructure is based on software-streaming technology. After installing and configuring Provisioning Services components, a single shared disk image (vDisk) is created from a device’s hard drive by taking a snapshot of the OS and application image, and then storing that image as a vDisk file on the network. A device that is used during the vDisk creation process is the Master target device. Devices or virtual machines that use the created vDisks are called target devices.

When a target device is turned on, it is set to boot from the network and to communicate with a Provisioning Server. Unlike thin-client technology, processing takes place on the target device (Step 1).

Figure 20          Citrix Provisioning Services Functionality

The target device downloads the boot file from a Provisioning Server (Step 2) and boots. Based on the boot configuration settings, the appropriate vDisk is mounted on the Provisioning Server (Step 3). The vDisk software is then streamed to the target device as needed, appearing as a regular hard drive to the system.

Instead of immediately pulling all the vDisk contents down to the target device (as with traditional imaging solutions), the data is brought across the network in real-time as needed. This approach allows a target device to get a completely new operating system and set of software in the time it takes to reboot. This approach dramatically decreases the amount of network bandwidth required and making it possible to support a larger number of target devices on a network without impacting performance

Citrix PVS can create desktops as Pooled or Private:

·         Pooled Desktop: A pooled virtual desktop uses Citrix PVS to stream a standard desktop image to multiple desktop instances upon boot.

·         Private Desktop: A private desktop is a single desktop assigned to one distinct user.

The alternative to Citrix Provisioning Services for pooled desktop deployments is Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS), which is integrated with the XenDesktop Studio console.

Locating the PVS Write Cache

When considering a PVS deployment, there are some design decisions that need to be made regarding the write cache for the target devices that leverage provisioning services. The write cache is a cache of all data that the target device has written. If data is written to the PVS vDisk in a caching mode, the data is not written back to the base vDisk. Instead it is written to a write cache file in one of the following locations:

·         Cache on device hard drive. Write cache exists as a file in NTFS format, located on the target-device’s hard drive. This option frees up the Provisioning Server since it does not have to process write requests and does not have the finite limitation of RAM.

·         Cache on device hard drive persisted. (Experimental Phase) This is the same as “Cache on device hard drive”, except that the cache persists. At this time, this method is an experimental feature only, and is only supported for NT6.1 or later (Windows 10 and Windows 2008 R2 and later). This method also requires a different bootstrap.

·         Cache in device RAM. Write cache can exist as a temporary file in the target device’s RAM. This provides the fastest method of disk access since memory access is always faster than disk access.

·         Cache in device RAM with overflow on hard disk. This method uses VHDX differencing format and is only available for Windows 10 and Server 2008 R2 and later. When RAM is zero, the target device write cache is only written to the local disk. When RAM is not zero, the target device write cache is written to RAM first. When RAM is full, the least recently used block of data is written to the local differencing disk to accommodate newer data on RAM. The amount of RAM specified is the non-paged kernel memory that the target device will consume.

·         Cache on a server. Write cache can exist as a temporary file on a Provisioning Server. In this configuration, all writes are handled by the Provisioning Server, which can increase disk I/O and network traffic. For additional security, the Provisioning Server can be configured to encrypt write cache files. Since the write-cache file persists on the hard drive between reboots, encrypted data provides data protection in the event a hard drive is stolen.

·         Cache on server persisted. This cache option allows for the saved changes between reboots. Using this option, a rebooted target device is able to retrieve changes made from previous sessions that differ from the read only vDisk image. If a vDisk is set to this method of caching, each target device that accesses the vDisk automatically has a device-specific, writable disk file created. Any changes made to the vDisk image are written to that file, which is not automatically deleted upon shutdown.

In this CVD, Provisioning Server 7.11 was used to manage Pooled/Non-Persistent VDI Machines and XenApp RDS Machines with “Cache in device RAM with overflow on hard disk” for each virtual machine. This design enables good scalability to many thousands of desktops. Provisioning Server 7.11 was used for Active Directory machine account creation and management as well as for streaming the shared disk to the hypervisor hosts.

Example XenDesktop Deployments

Two examples of typical XenDesktop deployments are the following:

·         A distributed components configuration

·         A multiple site configuration

Since XenApp and XenDesktop 7.11 are based on a unified architecture, combined they can deliver a combination of Hosted Shared Desktops (HSDs, using a Server OS machine) and Hosted Virtual Desktops (HVDs, using a Desktop OS).

Distributed Components Configuration

You can distribute the components of your deployment among a greater number of servers, or provide greater scalability and failover by increasing the number of controllers in your site. You can install management consoles on separate computers to manage the deployment remotely. A distributed deployment is necessary for an infrastructure based on remote access through NetScaler Gateway (formerly called Access Gateway).

Figure 21 shows an example of a distributed components configuration. A simplified version of this configuration is often deployed for an initial proof-of-concept (POC) deployment. The CVD described in this document deploys Citrix XenDesktop in a configuration that resembles this distributed components configuration shown.

Figure 21          Example of a Distributed Components Configuration

Multiple Site Configuration

If you have multiple regional sites, you can use Citrix NetScaler to direct user connections to the most appropriate site and StoreFront to deliver desktops and applications to users.

In Figure 22, depicting multiple sites, a site was created in two data centers. Having two sites globally, rather than just one, minimizes the amount of unnecessary WAN traffic. Two Cisco blade servers host the required infrastructure services (AD, DNS, DHCP, Profile, SQL, Citrix XenDesktop management, and web servers).

Figure 22          Multiple Sites

You can use StoreFront to aggregate resources from multiple sites to provide users with a single point of access with NetScaler. A separate Studio console is required to manage each site; sites cannot be managed as a single entity. You can use Director to support users across sites.

Citrix NetScaler accelerates application performance, load balances servers, increases security, and optimizes the user experience. In this example, two NetScalers are used to provide a high availability configuration. The NetScalers are configured for Global Server Load Balancing and positioned in the DMZ to provide a multi-site, fault-tolerant solution.

Designing a XenDesktop Environment for a Mixed Workload

With Citrix XenDesktop 7.11, the method you choose to provide applications or desktops to users depends on the types of applications and desktops you are hosting and available system resources, as well as the types of users and user experience you want to provide.

Server OS machines

You want: Inexpensive server-based delivery to minimize the cost of delivering applications to a large number of users, while providing a secure, high-definition user experience.

Your users: Perform well-defined tasks and do not require personalization or offline access to applications. Users may include task workers such as call center operators and retail workers, or users that share workstations.

Application types: Any application.

Desktop OS machines

You want: A client-based application delivery solution that is secure, provides centralized management, and supports a large number of users per host server (or hypervisor), while providing users with applications that display seamlessly in high-definition.

Your users: Are internal, external contractors, third-party collaborators, and other provisional team members. Users do not require off-line access to hosted applications.

Application types: Applications that might not work well with other applications or might interact with the operating system, such as .NET framework. These types of applications are ideal for hosting on virtual machines.

Applications running on older operating systems such as Windows XP or Windows Vista, and older architectures, such as 32-bit or 16-bit. By isolating each application on its own virtual machine, if one machine fails, it does not impact other users.

Remote PC Access

You want: Employees with secure remote access to a physical computer without using a VPN. For example, the user may be accessing their physical desktop PC from home or through a public WIFI hotspot. Depending upon the location, you may want to restrict the ability to print or copy and paste outside of the desktop. This method enables BYO device support without migrating desktop images into the datacenter.

Your users: Employees or contractors that have the option to work from home, but need access to specific software or data on their corporate desktops to perform their jobs remotely.

Host: The same as Desktop OS machines.

Application types: Applications that are delivered from an office computer and display seamlessly in high definition on the remote user's device.

For the Cisco Validated Design described in this document, a mix of Hosted Shared Desktops (HSDs) using RDS-based Server OS machines and Hosted Virtual Desktops (HVDs) using VDI-based Desktop OS machines were configured and tested. The mix consisted of a combination of both use cases. The following sections discuss design decisions relative to the Citrix XenDesktop deployment, including the CVD test environment.

High-Level Storage Architecture Design

This section outlines the recommended storage architecture for deploying a mix of various Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp delivery models on the same Nimble Storage array. These models include persistent and non-persistent hosted VDI, hosted-shared desktops, and intelligent VDI layering, such as profile management and user data management.

For XenApp server shared desktops and the non-persistent Windows 10 virtual desktops, the following recommendations are best practices for the Provisioning Server write cache drives, user profiles, user data, and application virtualization:

·         Provisioning Services (PVS) vDisk: CIFS/SMB 3 is recommended to host the PVS vDisk. CIFS/SMB 3 allows the same vDisk to be shared among multiple PVS servers while still maintaining resilience during storage node failover. This process results in significant operational savings and architecture simplicity. SMB3 is available in Windows Server 2012 or higher and provides persistent handles. SMB3 persistent handles prevents the PVS server from crashing during a storage node failover. Therefore, Windows 2012 is the required OS for a PVS server to ensure a stable PVS implementation.

·         Provisioning Server Write Cache Drives: Write cache drives should be 2 times the size of the virtual machine memory. Choose “Cache in device RAM with overflow on hard disk as the provisioning technique. Deduplication should not be enabled on this volume, because the rate of change is too high. The PVS write cache file should be set for thin provisioning at the storage layer.

·         User Profiles: Use Citrix User Profile Manager to set policy and provision user profiles.

·         User Data: We recommend hosting user data on CIFS home directories to preserve data upon VM reboot or redeploy.

·         Monitoring and management:  We recommend using Citrix XenDesktop Director and Cisco UCS Performance Manager to provide monitoring and management of the solution.

Solution Hardware and Software

Products Deployed

The architecture deployed is highly modular. While each customer’s environment might vary in its exact configuration, the reference architecture contained in this document once built, can easily be scaled as requirements and demands change. This includes scaling both up (adding additional resources within a Cisco UCS Domain) and out (adding additional Cisco UCS Domains and Nimble Storage Flash Arrays.)

The solution includes Cisco networking, Cisco UCS and Nimble AF5000 storage, which efficiently fit into a single data center rack, including the access layer network switches.

This validated design document details the deployment of the multiple configurations extending to 5000 users for a mixed XenDesktop workload featuring the following software:

·         Citrix XenApp 7.11 Shared Hosted Virtual Desktops (RDS) with PVS write cache on FC storage

·         Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 Non-Persistent Hosted Virtual Desktops (VDI) with PVS write cache on FC storage

·         Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 Persistent Hosted Virtual Desktops (VDI) provisioned with Citrix PVS and stored on FC storage

·         Citrix Provisioning Server 7.11

·         Citrix User Profile Manager

·         Citrix StoreFront 3

·         VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0 Update 2 Hypervisor

·         Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 10 64-bit virtual machine Operating Systems

·         Microsoft SQL Server 2012

·         Cisco Nexus 1000V primary and secondary Virtual Supervisor Module

Figure 23 details the physical hardware and cabling deployed to enable the solution.

Figure 23          Virtual Desktop Workload Architecture for the 5000 Seat Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 on Cisco-Nimble Solution

Hardware Deployed

The solution contains the following hardware as shown in Figure 23:

·         Two Cisco Nexus 9372PX Layer 2 Access Switches

·         Four Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis with two UCS-IOM-2208XP IO Modules

·         Two Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade servers with Intel Xeon E5-2660v4 2.0-GHz 14-core processors, 128GB 2400MHz RAM, and one Cisco VIC1340 mezzanine card for the hosted infrastructure, providing N+1 server fault tolerance

·         Ten Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade servers with Intel Xeon E5-2680v4 2.4-GHz 14-core processors, 512GB 2400MHz RAM, and one Cisco VIC1340 mezzanine card for the XenApp Hosted Shared Desktop workload, providing N+1 server fault tolerance at the workload cluster level

·         Sixteen Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade servers with Intel Xeon E5-2680v4 2.4-GHz 14-core processors, 512GB 2400MHz RAM, and one Cisco VIC1340 mezzanine card for the persistent and non-persistent XenDesktop virtual desktop workload, providing N+1 server fault tolerance at the workload cluster level

·         Nimble Storage AF5000 dual controller storage system, one base disk shelf with 40TB raw space, one external shelf with 44TB raw space and 16 GB ports for Fibre Channel connectivity respectively

Software Deployed

Table 3  lists the software and firmware version used in the study.

Table 3     Software and Firmware Versions

Vendor

Product

Version

Cisco

UCS Component Firmware

3.1(2b) bundle release

Cisco

UCS Manager

3.1(2b) bundle release

Cisco

UCS B200 M4 Blades

3.1(2b) bundle release

Cisco

VIC 1340

4.1(1d)

Cisco

Nexus 1000V

5.2.1

Cisco

Virtual Switch Update Manager

2.0

Cisco

UCS Performance Manager

2.0

Citrix

XenApp VDA

7.11.0.101

Citrix

XenDesktop VDA

7.11.0.101

Citrix

XenDesktop Controller

7.11.0101

Citrix

Provisioning Services

7.11.0.8201

Citrix

StoreFront Services

3.6.0.33

VMware

vCenter Server Appliance

6.0.0.10000

VMware

vSphere ESXi 6.0 Update 1a

6.0.0.4192238

Storage

Nimble Storage AF5000

NimbleOS 3.5.3.0-045746

Logical Architecture

The logical architecture of this solution is designed to support up to 5000 users within four Cisco UCS 5108 Blade server chassis containing 28 blades, which provides physical redundancy for the blade servers for each workload type.

Figure 24 outlines the logical architecture of the test environment, including the Login VSI session launcher self-contained end user experience benchmarking platform.

Figure 24          Logical Architecture Overview

This document is intended to allow you to fully configure your environment. In this process, various steps require you to insert customer-specific naming conventions, IP addresses, and VLAN schemes, as well as to record appropriate MAC addresses. Table 4  through Table 6  lists the information you need to configure your environment.

Figure 25 identifies the server roles in the 28 server deployment to support the 5000 seat workload. We also break out the infrastructure virtual machine fault tolerant design.

Figure 25          Server, Location, and Purpose

The following table outlines the virtual machine deployments on the hardware platform.

Table 4     Virtual Machine Deployment Architecture

Server Name

Location

Purpose

C1-Blade8,

C2-Blade8

Physical – Chassis 1, 2

ESXi 6.0 Hosts Infrastructure VMs

Windows 2012-R2, VCSA, VSM, VSUM

C1-Blade1-6, C2-Blade1-6

Physical – Chassis 1, 2

ESXi 6.0 Hosts

96x XenApp RDS VMs

C3-Blade1-3, C4-Blade1-4

Physical – Chassis 3, 4

ESXi 6.0 Hosts

1200x XenDesktop VDI (Non-Persistent) VMs

C3-Blade4-6, 8 C4-Blade5, 6, 8

Physical – Chassis 3, 4

ESXi 6.0 Hosts

1200x XenDesktop VDI (Persistent) VMs

CTX-SF1

C1-Blade8

Citrix StoreFront Server 1

CTX-XD1

C1-Blade8

XenDesktop Controller 1, Studio, Licensing

CTX-PVS1

C1-Blade8

Provisioning Services streaming server 1

CTX-PVS3

C1-Blade8

Provisioning Services streaming server 3

SQL1

C1-Blade8

SQL Server 1 (Always On)

AD-DC1

C1-Blade8

Active Directory Domain Controller 1

VCSA

C1-Blade1

VMware vCenter Server Appliance

VSM_primary

C1-Blade1

Cisco Virtual Supervisor Module

CTX-SF2

C2-Blade1

Citrix StoreFront Server 2

CTX-XD2

C2-Blade1

XenDesktop Controller 2, Director

CTX-PVS2

C2-Blade1

Provisioning Services streaming server 2

SQL2

C2-Blade1

SQL Server 2 (Always On)

AD-DC2

C2-Blade1

Active Directory Domain Controller 2

VSM_secondary

C2-Blade1

Cisco Virtual Supervisor Module

VSUM

C2-Blade1

Cisco Virtual Switch Update Manager

UCSPM

C2-Blade1

Cisco UCS Performance Manager

VLANs

The VLAN configuration recommended for the environment includes a total of seven VLANs as outlined in Table 5.

Table 5     VLANs Configured in this Study

VLAN Name

VLAN ID

VLAN Purpose

Default

1

Native VLAN

In-Band-Mgmt

70

VLAN for in-band management interfaces

Infra-Mgmt

71

VLAN for Virtual Infrastructure

VDI

77

VLAN for VDI Traffic

vMotion

76

VLAN for VMware vMotion

OB-Mgmt

164

VLAN for out-of-band management interfaces

VSANS

We utilized two virtual SANs for communications and fault tolerance in this design:

Table 6     VASNs Configured in this Study

VSAN Name

VSAN Purpose

ID Used in Validating This Document

VSAN 3

VSAN for primary SAN communication

3

VSAN 4

VSAN for secondary SAN communication

4

VMware Clusters

The following four VMware Clusters were used in one vCenter data center to support the solution and testing environment:

·         VDI Cluster Nimble Storage Data Center with Cisco UCS

—     Infrastructure Cluster: Infra VMs (vCenter, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, SQL Server, XenDesktop Controllers, Provisioning Servers, Nexus 1000v Virtual Supervisor Modules ( VSMs, etc.)

—     RDS: Citrix XenApp RDS VMs (Windows Server 2012 R2)

—     VDI Non-Persistent: Citrix XenDesktop VDI VMs (Windows 10 64-bit non-persistent virtual desktops provisioned with Citrix PVS

—     VDI Persistent: Citrix XenDesktop VDI VMs (Windows 10 64-bit persistent virtual desktops provisioned with Citrix MCS

·         VSI Launchers Cluster

-         Launcher Cluster 1 and 2: Login VSI Cluster (The Login VSI launcher infrastructure was connected using the same set of switches and vCenter instance, but was hosted on separate local storage and servers)

Figure 26          VMware vSphere Clusters on vSphere Web GUI

Solution Configuration

This section details the configuration and tuning that was performed on the individual components to produce a complete, validated solution. Figure 27 illustrates the hardware components for this solution.

Configuration Topology for Scalable Citrix XenDesktop Mixed Workload

Component Layers

Figure 27          Solution Component Layers

Figure 27 above captures the architectural diagram for the purpose of this study. The architecture is divided into three distinct layers:

·         Network Access layer and LAN

·         Storage Access to the Nimble Storage AF5000

·         Cisco UCS Compute Platform

Cisco Unified Computing System Configuration

This section talks about the Cisco UCS configuration that was done as part of the infrastructure build-out. The racking, power and installation of the chassis are described in the install guide (see www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-manager/products-installation-guides-list.html) and it is beyond the scope of this document. For more information about each step, refer to the following document, Cisco UCS Manager Configuration Guides – GUI and Command Line Interface (CLI) Cisco UCS Manager - Configuration Guides - Cisco

Base Cisco UCS System Configuration

To configure the Cisco Unified Computing System, complete the following steps:

1.     Open a web browser and navigate to the Cisco UCS 6248 Fabric Interconnect cluster address.

2.     Click the Launch UCS Manager link to download the Cisco UCS Manager software.

3.     If prompted to accept security certificates, accept as necessary.

4.     When prompted, enter admin as the user name and enter the administrative password.

5.     To log in to Cisco UCS Manager, click Login.

Cisco UCS Manager Software to Version 3.1.2b

The Cisco UCS chassis comes with Cisco UCS Manager 3.1.2b release. This document assumes the use of Cisco UCS Manager Software version 3.1.2b. To upgrade the Cisco UCS Manager software and the Cisco UCS 6248 Fabric Interconnect software to a higher version of the firmware,) refer to Cisco UCS Manager Install and Upgrade Guides.

Add a Block of IP Addresses for Out-of-Band KVM Access

To create a block of IP addresses for server keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) access in the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

This block of IP addresses should be in the same subnet as the management IP addresses for the Cisco UCS Manager.

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, in the navigation pane, click the LAN tab.

2.     Select Pools > root > IP Pools > IP Pool ext-mgmt.

3.     In the Actions pane, select Create Block of IP Addresses.

4.     Enter the starting IP address of the block and the number of IP addresses required, and the subnet and gateway information.

5.     Click OK to create the IP block.

6.     Click OK in the confirmation message.

Synchronize Cisco UCS to NTP

To synchronize the Cisco UCS environment to the NTP server, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, in the navigation pane, click the Admin tab.

2.     Select All > Timezone Management.

3.     In the Properties pane, select the appropriate time zone in the Timezone menu.

4.     Click Save Changes, and then click OK.

5.     Click Add NTP Server.

6.     Enter <<var_global_ntp_server_ip>> and click OK.

7.     Click OK.

Edit Chassis Discovery Policy

Setting the discovery policy simplifies the addition of B-Series Cisco UCS chassis.

To modify the chassis discovery policy, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, in the navigation pane, click the Equipment node and select Equipment in the list on the left.

2.     In the right pane, click the Policies tab.

3.     Under Global Policies, set the Chassis/FEX Discovery Policy to 4-link.

4.     Set the Link Grouping Preference to Port Channel.

5.     Click Save Changes.

6.     Click OK.

Enable Server Uplink Ports

To enable server and uplink ports, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, in the navigation pane, click the Equipment tab.

2.     Select Equipment > Fabric Interconnects > Fabric Interconnect A > Fixed Module.

3.     Expand Ethernet Ports.

4.     Select ports 1 through 24 that are connected to the Cisco IO Modules of the four B-Series 5108 Chassis, right-click them, and select Configure as Uplink Port.

5.     Click Yes to confirm uplink ports and click OK.

6.     In the left pane, navigate to Fabric Interconnect A. In the right pane, navigate to the Physical Ports tab > Ethernet Ports tab. Confirm that ports have been configured correctly in the If Role column.

7.     Repeat the above steps for Fabric Interconnect B.

Acknowledge Cisco UCS Chassis

To acknowledge all Cisco UCS chassis, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, in the navigation pane, click the Equipment tab.

2.     Expand Chassis and select each chassis that is listed.

3.     Right-click each chassis and select Acknowledge Chassis.

4.     Click Yes and then click OK to complete acknowledging the chassis.

Create Uplink Port Channels to Cisco Nexus 9372PX Switches

To configure the necessary port channels in the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

5.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the LAN tab in the navigation pane.

6.     In this procedure, two port channels are created: one from Fabric A to both Cisco Nexus 9372PX switches and one from Fabric B to both Cisco Nexus 9372PX switches.

7.     Under LAN > LAN Cloud, expand node Fabric A tree.

8.     Verify that four ports are configured as Ethernet network connectivity. If not, click the interface and click 'Configure as Uplink Port'.

9.     Repeat the above steps for Fabric B.

Create Uplink Port Channels to Cisco MDS 9148 Switches

To configure the necessary port channels in the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

10.  In Cisco UCS Manager, click the SAN tab in the navigation pane.

11.  In this procedure, two port channels are created: One from Fabric A to Cisco MDS 9148 switch A and one from Fabric B to Cisco MDS 9148 switch B.

12.  Under SAN > SAN Cloud, expand node Fabric A tree.

13.  Repeat the above steps for Fabric B.

Create an Organization

Organizations are used to organize resources and restrict access to various groups within the IT organization, thereby enabling multi-tenancy of the compute resources.

Although this document does not assume the use of organizations this procedure provides instructions for creating one.

To configure an organization in the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, from the New menu in the toolbar at the top of the window, select Create Organization.

2.     Enter a name for the organization.

3.     Optional: Enter a description for the organization.

4.     Click OK.

5.     Click OK in the confirmation message.

Create Resource Pools

This section details how to create the MAC address, iSCSI IQN, iSCSI IP, UUID suffix and server pools.

Create MAC Address Pools

To configure the necessary MAC address pools for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the LAN tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Pools > root.

In this procedure, two MAC address pools are created, one for each switching fabric.

3.     Right-click MAC Pools under the root organization.

4.     Select Create MAC Pool to create the MAC address pool.

5.     Enter MAC_Pool_A as the name for MAC pool.

6.     Optional: Enter a description for the MAC pool.

Keep the Assignment Order at Default.

7.     Click Next.

8.     Click Add.

9.     Specify a size for the MAC address pool that is sufficient to support the available blade or server resources.

10.  Click OK.

11.  Click Finish.

12.  In the confirmation message, click OK.

13.  Right-click MAC Pools under the root organization.

14.  Select Create MAC Pool to create the MAC address pool.

15.  Enter MAC_Pool_B as the name for MAC pool.

16.  Optional: Enter a description for the MAC pool.

17.  Select Default for the Assignment Order.

18.  Click Next.

19.  Click Add.

20.  Specify a starting MAC address.

21.  Specify a size for the MAC address pool that is sufficient to support the available blade or server resources.

22.  Click OK.

23.  Click Finish.

24.  In the confirmation message, click OK.

Create WWPN Pools

To configure the necessary WWPN  pools for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the SAN tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Pools > root.

3.     Under WWPN Pools, right click WWPN Pools and select Create WWPN Pool.

4.     Name it SP-WWPN.

5.     Assignment order can remain Default.

6.     Click Next.

7.     Click Add to add block of Ports.

8.     Enter number of WWPNs.  For this study we did 100.

9.     Click Finish.

Create WWNN Pools

To configure the necessary WWNN pools for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the SAN tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Pools > root.

3.     Under WWNN Pools, right-click WWNN Pools and select Create WWNN Pool.

4.     Name it SP-WWNN.

5.     Assignment order can remain Default.

6.     Click Next

7.     Click Add to add block of Ports

8.     Enter number of WWNNs.  For this study we did 100.

9.     Click Finish.

Create UUID Suffix Pool

To configure the necessary universally unique identifier (UUID) suffix pool for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the Servers tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Pools > root.

3.     Right-click UUID Suffix Pools.

4.     Select Create UUID Suffix Pool.

5.     Enter UUID_Pool as the name of the UUID suffix pool.

6.     Optional: Enter a description for the UUID suffix pool.

7.     Keep the prefix at the derived option.

8.     Click Next.

9.     Click Add to add a block of UUIDs.

10.  Keep the From field at the default setting.

11.  Specify a size for the UUID block that is sufficient to support the available blade or server resources.

Create Server Pool

To configure the necessary server pool for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

Consider creating unique server pools to achieve the granularity that is required in your environment.

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the Servers tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Pools > root.

3.     Right-click Server Pools.

4.     Select Create Server Pool.

5.     Enter Infra_Pool as the name of the server pool.

6.     Optional: Enter a description for the server pool.

7.     Click Next.

8.     Select two (or more) servers to be used for the VMware management cluster and click >> to add them to the Infra_Pool server pool.

9.     Click Finish.

10.  Click OK.

Create VLANs

To configure the necessary virtual local area networks (VLANs) for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the LAN tab in the navigation pane.

In this procedure, five VLANs are created.

2.     Select LAN > LAN Cloud.

3.     Right-click VLANs.

4.     Select Create VLANs.

5.     Enter MGMT as the name of the VLAN to be used for in-band management traffic.

6.     Keep the Common/Global option selected for the scope of the VLAN.

7.     Enter <<var_mgmt_id>> as the ID of the management VLAN.

8.     Keep the Sharing Type as None.

9.     Click OK, and then click OK again.

10.  Repeat the above steps to create all VLANs and configure the Default VLAN as native.

Create VSANs

To configure the necessary virtual storage area networks (VSANs) for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the SAN tab in the navigation pane.

In this procedure, two VSANs are created. When these VSANs are created, be sure to add them to the port-channel uplink created earlier.

2.     Select SAN > SAN Cloud.

3.     Under Fabric A, right-click VSANs.

4.     Select Create VSANs.

5.     Enter VSAN3 as the name of the VSAN to be used for in-band management traffic.

6.     Select Fabric A for the scope of the VSAN.

7.     Enter 3 as the ID of the VSAN.

8.     Click OK, and then click OK again.

9.     Repeat the above steps on Fabric B with VSAN 4 to create the VSANs necessary for this solution.

10.  When done with both sides, go into the port-channel created earlier in the section ‘Create uplinks for MDS 9148’ and add the respective VSANs to their port channels.  VSAN3 in this study is assigned to Fabric A and VSAN4 is assigned to Fabric B. (VSAN3 Should only be on Fabric A and 4 on B)

11.   Go to the Port-Channel for each Fabric and assign the VSAN appropriately.

Create Host Firmware Package

Firmware management policies allow the administrator to select the corresponding packages for a given server configuration. These policies often include packages for adapter, BIOS, board controller, FC adapters, host bus adapter (HBA) option ROM, and storage controller properties.

To create a firmware management policy for a given server configuration in the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the Servers tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Policies > root.

3.     Right-click Host Firmware Packages.

4.     Select Create Host Firmware Package.

5.     Enter VM-Host as the name of the host firmware package.

6.     Leave Simple selected.

7.     Select the version 3.1.2b for the Blade Package.

8.     Click OK to create the host firmware package.

Set Jumbo Frames in Cisco UCS Fabric

To configure jumbo frames and enable quality of service in the Cisco UCS fabric, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the LAN tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select LAN > LAN Cloud > QoS System Class.

3.     In the right pane, click the General tab.

4.     On the Best Effort row, enter 9216 in the box under the MTU column.

5.     Click Save Changes in the bottom of the window.

6.     Click OK.

Create Network Control Policy for Cisco Discovery Protocol

To create a network control policy that enables Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) on virtual network ports, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the LAN tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Policies > root.

3.     Right-click Network Control Policies.

4.     Select Create Network Control Policy.

5.     Enter Enable_CDP as the policy name.

6.     For CDP, select the Enabled option.

7.     Click OK to create the network control policy.

Create Power Control Policy

To create a power control policy for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the Servers tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Policies > root.

3.     Right-click Power Control Policies.

4.     Select Create Power Control Policy.

5.     Enter No-Power-Cap as the power control policy name.

6.     Change the power capping setting to No Cap.

7.     Click OK to create the power control policy.

Cisco UCS System Configuration for Cisco UCS B-Series

Create Server BIOS Policy

To create a server BIOS policy for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the Servers tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Policies > root.

3.     Right-click BIOS Policies.

4.     Select Create BIOS Policy.

5.     Enter B200-M4-BIOS as the BIOS policy name.

6.     In this paper we used GPUs, our VDI machines on the B200 servers.  For the use of GPUs they need to be enabled in the BIOS policies.  In this study we had two separate BIOS policies for B Series.  Each one required a setting to enable GPU usage and they are as follows:

7.     For B-Series use GPU BIOS Policy Settings:

8.     Configure the remaining BIOS policies as follows and click Finish.

Configure Update Default Maintenance Policy

To update the default Maintenance Policy, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the Servers tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Policies > root.

3.     Select Maintenance Policies > default.

4.     Change the Reboot Policy to User Ack.

5.     Click Save Changes.

6.     Click OK to accept the change.

Create vNIC Templates for Cisco UCS B-Series

To create multiple virtual network interface card (vNIC) templates for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the LAN tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Policies > root.

3.     Right-click vNIC Templates.

4.     Select Create vNIC Template.

5.     Enter vNIC_Template_A as the vNIC template name.

6.     Keep Fabric A selected.

7.     Do not select the Enable Failover checkbox.

8.     Under Target, make sure that the VM checkbox is not selected.

9.     Select Updating Template as the Template Type.

10.  Under VLANs, select the checkboxes for MGMT, Default, VDI, Infra, and vMotion.

11.  Set Native-VLAN as the native VLAN.

12.  For MTU, enter 9000.

13.  In the MAC Pool list, select MAC_Pool_A.

14.  In the Network Control Policy list, select CDP_Enabled.

15.  Click OK to create the vNIC template.

16.  Click OK.

17.  In the navigation pane, select the LAN tab.

18.  Select Policies > root.

19.  Right-click vNIC Templates.

20.  Select Create vNIC Template.

21.  Enter vNIC_Template_B as the vNIC template name.

22.  Select Fabric B.

23.  Do not select the Enable Failover checkbox.

24.  Under Target, make sure the VM checkbox is not selected.

25.  Select Updating Template as the template type.

26.  Under VLANs, select the checkboxes for MGMT, NFS-Storage, Default, VDI, Infra, and vMotion.

27.  Set Native-VLAN as the native VLAN.

28.  For MTU, enter 9000.

29.  In the MAC Pool list, select MAC_Pool_B.

30.  In the Network Control Policy list, select CDP_Enabled.

31.  Click OK to create the vNIC template.

32.  Click OK.

Create vHBA Templates for Cisco UCS B-Series

To create multiple virtual host bus adapter (vHBA) templates for the Cisco UCS environment, complete the following steps:

1.     In Cisco UCS Manager, click the SAN tab in the navigation pane.

2.     Select Policies > root.

3.     Right-click vHBA Templates.

4.     Select Create vHBA Template.

5.     Enter vHBA_Template_A as the vHBA template name.

6.     Keep Fabric A selected.

7.     Select VSAN3 for Fabric A from the drop down.

8.     Change to Updating Template.

9.     For Max Data Field keep 2048.

10.  Select SP-WWPN (created earlier) for our WWPN Pool.

11.  Leave the remaining as is.

12.  Click OK.

13.  In the navigation pane, select the LAN tab.

14.  Select Policies > root.

15.  Right-click vHBA Templates.

16.  Select Create vHBA Template.

17.  Enter vHBA_Template_B as the vHBA template name.

18.  Select Fabric B.

19.  Select VSAN4 for Fabric B from the drop-down.

20.  Change to Updating Template.

21.  For Max Data Field keep 2048.

22.  Select SP-WWPN (created earlier) for our WWPN Pool.

23.  Leave the remaining as is.

24.  Click OK.

Create Service Profile Templates for Cisco UCS B-Series

To create service profile templates for the Cisco UCS B-Series environment, complete the following steps:

1.     Under the Servers tab in Cisco UCS Manager Select Service Profile Templates.

2.     Right-click and select Create Service Profile Template.

3.     Name the template B-Series.

4.     Change to Updating Template.

5.     Select UUID pool created earlier.

6.     Click Next.

7.     Click Next through Storage Provisioning.

8.     Under Networking, Select Expert.

9.     Click Add.

10.  Name it vNIC-A.

11.  Select check box for Use vNIC Template.

12.  Under vNIC template select the vNIC_Tmplt_A.

13.  For Adapter Policy select VMware.

14.  Repeat the networking steps for vNIC_Tmplt_B.

15.  Click Next.

16.  Under SAN Connectivity, select Expert.

17.  Select WWNN Assignment from the Pool created earlier.

18.  Click Add.

19.  Name the adapter vHBA-A.

20.  Select vHBA Template: vHBA-A.

21.  Select Adapter Policy : VMWare.

22.  Repeat steps for vHBA-B on Fabric B.

23.  No Zoning will be used.

24.  Click Next through vNIC/vHBA Placement policy.

25.  Click Next through vMedia Policy.

26.  Click Create Boot Policy to create a Boot From SAN policy.

27.  Add Remote CD/DVD to install OS from ISO image.

28.  Click Add SAN Boot to add an HBA for Boot From SAN and label it ‘fc0’.

29.  Add a second SAN Boot vHBA and label it ‘fc1'.

30.  Add a SAN Boot Target to enter the WWPN for the Nimble Array.  We will add 4 SAN Boot Targets.  One Primary and one Secondary per vHBA.

The boot targets will be added in the following order:

·         SAN Primary interface (fc0)

—     Target HBA-> Controller A: HBA FC1.1

—     Target HBA -> ControllerB: HBA FC1.1

·         SAN Secondary interface (fc1)

—     Target HBA-> Controller A: HBA FC2.1

—     Target HBA -> ControllerB: HBA FC2.1

31.  The final boot policy should look like this with the WWN filed representing the WWPN that belong to the FC ports on the Nimble AF5000 Adaptive Array.

32.  Click through the defaults for the remaining Service Profile Template Wizard.  We can now create Service Profiles from this template and assign to our B-Series servers in our chassis. In this Solution, 32 Service Profiles were created and assigned to 4x fully populated 5108 Chassis with Cisco UCS B200 M4 Servers. All Servers have ESXi installed and boot from the Nimble AF5000 SAN.

Nimble AF5000 Configuration

Nimble AF5000 Adaptive Array System Configuration

This section provides the procedure for initializing a Nimble Storage array and setting up basic IP connectivity.

Nimble Setup Manager

The Nimble Setup manager can be downloaded from Infosight at this location:  http://infosightweb.nimblestorage.com/InfoSight/cgi-bin/downloadFile?ID=documents/Setup-NimbleNWT-x64.2.3.2.287.zip

The Nimble Setup manager is part of the Nimble Storage Windows Toolkit.  In this instance the Nimble Setup Manager is the only component that needs to be installed.

Initialize the Nimble Storage Array

1.     In the Windows Start menu, click Nimble Storage > Nimble Setup Manager.

2.     Select one of the uninitialized arrays from the Nimble Setup Manager list and click Next.

If the array is not visible in Nimble Setup Manager, verify that the array’s eth1 ports of both controllers are on the same subnet as the Windows host.

Configure the Nimble OS using the GUI

1.     Choose the appropriate group option and click Next.

—     Set up the array but do not join a group. Continue to Step 5.

—     Add the array to an existing group.

If you chose to join an existing group, your browser automatically redirects to the login screen of the group leader array. See Add Array to Group Using the GUI to complete the configuration.

2.     Provide or change the following initial management settings and click Finish:

—     Array name

—     Group name

—     Management IP address and subnet mask for the eth1 interface

—     Default gateway IP address

—     Optional. Administrator password

3.     You may see a warning similar to There is a problem with this website's security certificate. It is safe to ignore this warning and click Continue.

If prompted, you can also download and accept the certificate. Alternatively, create your own. See the cert command in the Nimble Command Line Reference Guide. Also, if Internet Explorer v7 displays a blank page, clear the browser's cache. The page should be visible after refreshing the browser.

4.     In the login screen, type the password you set and click Log In. From this point forward, you are in the Nimble OS GUI.  The first time you access the Nimble OS GUI, the Nimble Storage License Agreement appears.

5.     In the Nimble Storage License Agreement, read the agreement, scroll to the bottom, check the acknowledgment box, and then click Proceed.

6.     Provide the Subnet Configuration information for the following sections and click Next:

a.     Management IP: IP address, Network and Subnet Mask

The Management IP is used for the GUI, CLI, and replication. It resides on the management subnet and floats across all "Mgmt only" and "Mgmt + Data" interfaces on that subnet.  In this instance you only need to configure the Management network.  No IP data network connectivity is required.

b.    Subnet: Subnet label, Network, Netmask, Traffic Type(Data only, Mgmt Only, Mgmt +Data), MTU

7.     Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) – Standard (1500) Provide Interface Assignment information for the following sections and click Next:

a.     Interface Assignment: For each IP interface, assign it a subnet and a Data IP address within the specified network. For inactive interface, assign the "None" subnet.

b.    Diagnostics:

i.    Controller A diagnostics IP address will be on the same subnet as the management IP address.

ii.    Controller B diagnostics IP address  will be on the same subnet as the management IP address.

8.     Provide the following Domain information and click Next:

a.     Domain Name

b.    DNS Servers: Type the hostname or IP address of your DNS server. You can list up to five servers.

9.     Provide the following Time information and click Next:

a.     Time Zone: Choose the time zone the array is located in.

b.    Time (NTP) Server: Type the hostname or IP address of your NTP server.

10.  Provide Support information for the following sections and click Finish.

11.  Email Alerts:

a.     From Address: This is the email address used by the array when sending email alerts. It does not need to be a real email address. Include the array name for easy identification.

b.    Send to Address: Nimble recommends that you check the Send event data to Nimble Storage Support check box.

c.     SMTP server hostname or IP address

d.    AutoSupport:

i.        Checking the Send AutoSupport data to Nimble Storage check box enables Nimble Storage Support to monitor your array, notify you of problems, and provide solutions.

e.     HTTP Proxy: AutoSupport and software updates require an HTTPS connection to the Internet, either directly or through a proxy server. If a proxy server is required, check the Use HTTP Proxy check box and provide the following information to configure proxy server details:

i.        HTTP proxy server hostname or IP address

ii.    HTTP proxy server port

iii.    Proxy server user name

iv.    Proxy server password

The system does not test the validity of the SMTP server connection or the email addresses that you provided.

12.  Click Finish. The Setup Complete screen appears. Click Continue.

13.  The Nimble OS home screen appears. Nimble Storage array setup is complete.

Nimble Management Tools: InfoSight

Register and Login to InfoSight

Before You Begin

It can take up to 24 hours for the array to appear in InfoSight after the first data set is sent. Data sets are configured to be sent around midnight array local time. Changes made right after the data set is sent at midnight might not be reflected in InfoSight for up to 48 hours.

Procedure

1.     Log in to the InfoSight portal at https://infosight.nimblestorage.com.

2.     Click Enroll now to activate your account. If your email is not already registered, contact your InfoSight Administrator. If there is no existing, InfoSight Administrator (Super User) registered against your account or you are not sure, contact Nimble Storage Support for assistance.

3.     Select the appropriate InfoSight role and enter the array serial number for your customer account. If this is the first account being created for your organization, you should select the Super User role. The number of super users is limited to the total number of arrays that are associated with an account.

4.     Click Submit.

5.     A temporary password is sent to the email address that you specified. You must change your password the first time you log in.

Configure Arrays to Send Data to InfoSight

To take full advantage of the InfoSight monitoring and analysis capabilities, configure your Nimble arrays to send data sets, statistics, and events to Nimble Storage Support. InfoSight recommendations and automatic fault detection are based on data that is sent from your arrays and processed by InfoSight. If you did not configure your Nimble arrays to send this data to Nimble Storage Support during the initial setup, you can change the configuration at any time from the Administration menu in the GUI or by running the group --edit command in the CLI.

Before You Begin

This procedure must be performed in the array GUI.

Procedure

1.     From the Administration menu in the array GUI, select Alerts and Monitoring > AutoSupport / HTTP Proxy.

2.     On the AutoSupport page, select Send AutoSupport data to Nimble Storage Support.

3.     Click Test AutoSupport Settings to confirm that AutoSupport is set up correctly.

4.     Click Save.

Nimble Management Tools: vCenter Plugin

Register vCenter Plugins

The vCenter plugin from Nimble Storage allows for single pane of glass administration directly from vCenter as well as integration with Nimble Infosight analytics. The first step is performed on the array GUI, not in Infosight.  Nimble Storage has integration vCenter through plugin registration. This allows for datastore creation and management using vCenter. The vCenter plugin is supported on ESX 5.5 update 1 and later.

The plugin is not supported for:

- Multiple datastores located on one LUN

- One datastore spanning multiple LUNs

- LUNs located on a storage device not made by Nimble

Procedure

Use a vCenter account that has sufficient privileges to install a plugin (usually a user assigned to the Administrator role). You need to know the vCenter hostname or IP address. The plugin is part of the Nimble OS. To take advantage of it, you must first register the plugin with a vCenter Server.  Multiple plugins can be registered on the Nimble array. In turn, each array that registers the plugin adds a tab to the vSphere client. The tab name for the datastore page is "datacenter page-Nimble-<groupname>".  To register the vCenter plugins, complete the following steps:

1.     From the Nimble OS GUI main menu, select Administration > vCenter Plugin.

2.     If the fields are not already filled, enter the vCenter server host name or IP address, user name, and password.

3.     Click View Status to see the current status of the plugin.

4.     Click Register. If a Security Warning message appears, click Ignore.

5.     If you are not sure of which subnet_label to select, the selection that appears when the dialog opens is probably the correct one.

6.     Click View Status again to ensure that the plugin has been registered.

7.     Restart the vSphere client.

View a List of Installed Plugins

A list of all registered plugins on the array can be discovered by completing the following steps:

1.     Log into the Nimble OS CLI.

2.     At the command prompt, type:

vmwplugin --list --username <username> --password <password> --server

<server_hostname-address> --port port_number <port number>

If no port number is specified, port 443 is selected by default. A list of installed plugins displays.

Configure Arrays to Monitor your Virtual Environment

To configure arrays to monitor your virtual environment, complete the following steps:

1.     Log in to https://infosight.nimblestorage.com

2.     Go to Administration > Virtual Environment.

3.     In the Virtual Environment list, find the array group for which you want to monitor the virtual environment.

4.     Click Configure.

5.     The Configure Group dialog box opens.

6.     Verify that your software version is up to date and that your vCenter plugin is registered.

7.     Select Enable in the VM Streaming Data list.

8.     Click Update.

Configure Setup Email Notifications for Alerts

To configure setup email notifications for alerts, complete the following steps:

1.     On the Wellness page, click Daily Summary Emails.

2.     Check Subscribe to daily summary email.

3.     Enter an email address for delivery of the email alerts.

4.     (Optional) You can click Test to send a test email to the email address that you indicated.

5.     Click Submit to conclude the email alerts setup.

Data Storage Layout

For this solution, the layout for the Nimble AF5000 Adaptive Array are listed in the following table. This is the recommended sizes and Performance Policies for best performance in this VDI solution.

Table 7     Layout for the Nimble AF5000 All Flash Array

Create Initiator Groups

We must create our initiator groups to allow FC access to the array from the ESXi hosts. To create an Initiator group in the Nimble GUI, complete the following steps.

An initiator group will need to be created for every ESXi host.

1.     On the Nimble Home screen, select Manage.

2.     Select Initiator Groups and click Create.

3.     Enter the name of your initiator group and the WWPN for each ESXi host vHBA.

Create Volumes

To create a volume on the Nimble AF5000 Adaptive Array, complete the following steps:

1.     On the Nimble Home page, select Manage > Volumes.

2.     Click New Volume.

3.     Input Volume Name, Description and Select your Performance Policy.  In this example we used the Windows Files Server Performance policy because the volume being created was used for User Data.  In our ESXi policies we utilized VMware ESX Performance Policy.

4.     Assign to the proper initiator group (Initiator Groups for this solution include one per ESXi Host with both of their vHBA WWPN added to the initiator group).

5.     Enter the size of the volume desired and click Next.

6.     (Optional) Select your Protection Plan for this volume. For this project we created a snapshot schedule for our Infrastructure Volumes only. For WriteCache data and other volatile data we did not assign a protection plan.

7.     Click Finish.

8.     We created a 40TB Volume and assigned it to the all the required VDI hosts using the initiator group.

Configure MDS 9100 Series

In this solution we utilized the Cisco MDS 9148 Switches for Fiber Channel Switching. For racking, cable and initial setup of the MDS switches, please refer to the Quick Start Guide:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/mds9000/hw/9148/quick/guide/MDS_9148_QSG.pdf

When the MDS switch is racked and can be logged into it can now be configured to communicate with the Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects.

In this study, we used two separate fabrics each with their own unique VSAN. Fabric A is configured for VSAN3 while Fabric B for VSAN4. In our initial UCS configuration you will see where we configured fiber cables on ports 29-32 and configured a FC port-channel. FI-A’s FC port channel is configured for VSAN3 and FI-B’s FC port-channel for VSAN4.

Figure 28          Fabric A

Figure 29          Fabric B

Physically, the Fabric Interconnects ports 29 thru 32 run to the MDS switch ports 17 thru 20.

Ports 17 thru 20 on the MDS switches are configured in a port-channel, while ports 13 thru 16 are plugged into the Nimble AF5000 Adaptive Array.

After the ports and port channels are configured, the next steps are to configure the zones and Active Zoneset Database in the MDS switches. The below commands show how to add in a single host on both MDS A and B.  You will need to configure all hosts that will access the Nimble Array in these commands. Then entire MDS switch configuration is included in this document in Appendix A – Cisco Nexus 9372 Switch Configuration.

MDS-A

Configure Terminal

Zoneset name SP-Infra-A vsan 3

Zone name {ESXi hostname-fc0} vsan 3

Member pwwn {ESXi Host pwwn for fc0}

Member pwwn {Nimble pwwn Controller A, Port 1}

Member pwwn {Nimble pwwn Controller B, Port 1}

Zone commit vsan 3

Zoneset name SP-Infra-A vsan 3

Member {ESXi hostname-fc0}

Exit

Zoneset activate name SP-Infra-A vsan 3

Zone commit vsan 3

Exit

Copy running-config startup-config

MDS-B

Configure Terminal

Zoneset name SP-Infra-B vsan 4

Zone name {ESXi hostname-fc1} vsan 4

Member pwwn {ESXi Host pwwn for fc1}

Member pwwn {Nimble pwwn Controller A, Port 2}

Member pwwn {Nimble pwwn Controller B, Port 2}

Zone commit vsan 4

Zoneset name SP-Infra-B vsan 4

Member {ESXi hostname-fc1}

Exit

Zoneset activate name SP-Infra-A vsan 4

Zone commit vsan 4

Exit

Copy running-config startup-config

After these commands are saved you can now add the vHBA WWPN to any volume initiator groups in the Nimble AF5000 Array to grant access to the volumes.

Boot from SAN Benefits

Booting from SAN is another key feature which helps in moving towards stateless computing in which there is no static binding between a physical server and the OS/applications it is tasked to run. The OS is installed on a SAN LUN and boot from SAN policy is applied to the service profile template or the service profile. If the service profile were to be moved to another server, the pwwn of the HBAs and the Boot from SAN (BFS) policy also moves along with it. The new server now takes the same exact character of the old server, providing the true unique stateless nature of the Cisco UCS Blade Server.

The key benefits of booting from the network:

·         Reduce Server Footprints: Boot from SAN alleviates the necessity for each server to have its own direct-attached disk, eliminating internal disks as a potential point of failure. Thin diskless servers also take up less facility space, require less power, and are generally less expensive because they have fewer hardware components.

·         Disaster and Server Failure Recovery: All the boot information and production data stored on a local SAN can be replicated to a SAN at a remote disaster recovery site. If a disaster destroys functionality of the servers at the primary site, the remote site can take over with minimal downtime.

·         Recovery from server failures is simplified in a SAN environment. With the help of snapshots, mirrors of a failed server can be recovered quickly by booting from the original copy of its image. As a result, boot from SAN can greatly reduce the time required for server recovery.

·         High Availability: A typical data center is highly redundant in nature - redundant paths, redundant disks and redundant storage controllers. When operating system images are stored on disks in the SAN, it supports high availability and eliminates the potential for mechanical failure of a local disk.

·         Rapid Redeployment: Businesses that experience temporary high production workloads can take advantage of SAN technologies to clone the boot image and distribute the image to multiple servers for rapid deployment. Such servers may only need to be in production for hours or days and can be readily removed when the production need has been met. Highly efficient deployment of boot images makes temporary server usage a cost effective endeavor.

·         Centralized Image Management: When operating system images are stored on networked disks, all upgrades and fixes can be managed at a centralized location. Changes made to disks in a storage array are readily accessible by each server.

With Boot from SAN, the image resides on a SAN LUN and the server communicates with the SAN through a host bus adapter (HBA). The HBAs BIOS contain the instructions that enable the server to find the boot disk. All FCoE-capable Converged Network Adapter (CNA) cards supported on Cisco UCS B-series blade servers support Boot from SAN.

After power on self-test (POST), the server hardware component fetches the boot device that is designated as the boot device in the hardware BOIS settings. When the hardware detects the boot device, it follows the regular boot process.

SAN Configuration on the Cisco MDS 9148 Switches

To configure the Cisco MDS 9148 switches for boot from SAN, we must identify the world wide port name for the Nimble AF5000 Adaptive Array controllers. In this solution, the WWPN are as follows:

Figure 30          For Controller A and Controller B

When the WWPN are identified they can be added to our Boot From SAN (BFS) Policy in Cisco UCS Manager.

When these steps are completed and the BFS policy is assigned to the blade server, you will have an option to install ESXi onto a 10GB LUN presented from the Nimble Array.

Install and Configure ESXi 6 U2b

VMware ESXi 6.0

This section provides detailed instructions for installing VMware ESXi 6 Update1 in an environment. After the procedures are completed, two booted ESXi hosts will be provisioned.

Several methods exist for installing ESXi in a VMware environment. These procedures focus on how to use the built-in keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) console and virtual media features in Cisco UCS Manager to map remote installation media to individual servers and connect to their boot logical unit numbers (LUNs).

Download Cisco Custom Image for ESXi 6 Update 2b

To download the Cisco Custom Image for ESXi 6 Update 2b, complete the following steps:

1.     Click the following link vmware login page.

2.     Type your email or customer number and the password and then click Log in.

3.     Click on the following link CiscoCustomImage6.0.

4.     Click Download Now.

5.     Save it to your destination folder.

This ESXi 6.0 Cisco custom image includes updates for the fnic and eNIC drivers. The versions that are part of this image are: eNIC: 2.1.2.59; fNIC: 1.6.0.12

Install ESXi

To install VMware ESXi to the SAN-bootable LUN of the hosts, complete the following steps on each host:

1.     On reboot, the machine detects the presence of the ESXi installation media. Select the ESXi installer from the menu that is displayed.

2.     After the installer is finished loading, press Enter to continue with the installation.

3.     Read and accept the end-user license agreement (EULA). Press F11 to accept and continue.

4.     Select the Nimble LUN that was previously set up as the installation disk for ESXi and press Enter to continue with the installation.

5.     Select the appropriate keyboard layout and press Enter.

6.     Enter and confirm the root password and press Enter.

7.     The installer issues a warning that existing partitions will be removed from the volume. Press F11 to continue with the installation.

8.     After the installation is complete, clear the Mapped checkbox (located in the Virtual Media tab of the KVM console) to unmap the ESXi installation image.

The ESXi installation image must be unmapped to make sure that the server reboots into ESXi and not into the installer.

9.     The Virtual Media window might issue a warning stating that it is preferable to eject the media from the guest. Because the media cannot be ejected and it is read-only, simply click Yes to unmap the image.

10.  From the KVM tab, press Enter to reboot the server.

Set Up Management Networking for ESXi Hosts

Adding a management network for each VMware host is necessary for managing the host. To add a management network for the VMware hosts, complete the following steps on each ESXi host.

To configure the ESXi host with access to the management network, complete the following steps:

1.     After the server has finished rebooting, press F2 to customize the system.

2.     Log in as root and enter the corresponding password.

3.     Select the Configure the Management Network option and press Enter.

4.     Select the VLAN (Optional) option and press Enter.

5.     Enter the <<var_ib-mgmt_vlan_id>> and press Enter.

6.     From the Configure Management Network menu, select IP Configuration and press Enter.

7.     Select the Set Static IP Address and Network Configuration option by using the space bar.

8.     Enter the IP address for managing the first ESXi host: <<var_vm_host_01_ip>>.

9.     Enter the subnet mask for the first ESXi host.

10.  Enter the default gateway for the first ESXi host.

11.  Press Enter to accept the changes to the IP configuration.

12.  Select the IPv6 Configuration option and press Enter.

13.  Using the spacebar, unselect Enable IPv6 (restart required) and press Enter.

14.  Select the DNS Configuration option and press Enter.

Because the IP address is assigned manually, the DNS information must also be entered manually.

15.  Enter the IP address of the primary DNS server.

16.  Optional: Enter the IP address of the secondary DNS server.

17.  Enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the first ESXi host.

18.  Press Enter to accept the changes to the DNS configuration.

19.  Press Esc to exit the Configure Management Network submenu.

20.  Press Y to confirm the changes and return to the main menu.

21.  The ESXi host reboots. After reboot, press F2 and log back in as root.

22.  Select Test Management Network to verify that the management network is set up correctly and press Enter.

23.  Press Enter to run the test.

24.  Press Enter to exit the window.

25.  Press Esc to log out of the VMware console.

Download VMware vSphere Client

To download the VMware vSphere Client, complete the following steps:

1.     Open a web browser on the management workstation and navigate to the VM-Host-01 management IP address.

2.     Download and install the vSphere Client.

This application is downloaded from the VMware website and Internet access is required on the management workstation.

Download VMware vSphere CLI 6

To download VMware vSphere CLI 6, complete the following steps:

1.     Click the following link VMware vSphere CLI 6.0

2.     Select your OS and Click Download.

3.     Save it to your destination folder.

4.     Run the VMware-vSphere-CLI.exe

5.     Click Next.

6.     Accept the terms for the license and click Next.

7.     Click Next on the Destination Folder screen.

8.     Click Instal.

9.     Click Finish.

Install VMware vSphere CLI 6.0 on the management workstation.

Log in to VMware ESXi Hosts by Using VMware vSphere Client

ESXi Host VM-Host-01

To log in to the VM-Host-01  ESXi host by using the VMware vSphere Client, complete the following steps:

1.     Open the recently downloaded VMware vSphere Client and enter the IP address of VM-Host-01 as the host you are trying to connect to: <<var_vm_host_01_ip>>.

2.     Enter root for the user name.

3.     Enter the root password.

4.     Click Login to connect.

Install and Configure vCenter 6

Install and Configure VMware vCenter Appliance

To build the VMWare vCenter VM, complete the following steps:

1.     From the vSphere 6 download page on the VMware Web site, download the vCenter ISO file for the vCenter Server appliance onto your system.

2.     Open the vSphere ISO via Windows Explorer and double-click the vcsa-setup.htm file.

A browser will open with an option to Install.

.

3.     Follow the onscreen prompts. Accept EULA.

4.     Enter the IP of the ESXi host the vCenter Appliance will reside. Click Next.

5.     Click Yes to accept Certificate Warning.

6.     Click Yes.

7.     Provide a name for the vCenter appliance, then click Next to continue.

8.     Select Install vCenter Server with and Embedded Platform Services Controller (unless your environment already has a PSC).

9.     Create a new SSO domain (unless your environment already has and SSO domain. Multiple SSO domains can co-exist).

10.  Select the proper appliance size for your deployment. In our study, Medium was sufficient.

11.  In our study we used the embedded PostgreSQL database.

.

12.  Enter Network Settings for appliance.

It is important to note at this step that you should create a DNS A record for your appliance prior to running the install. The services will fail to startup and your install will fail if it cannot resolve properly.

13.  Review the Install Settings and click Finish.

14.  When your install completes successfully, you can now login to your Web Client and begin adding hosts and configuring clusters.

15.  Log into the vSphere Web Client.

16.  Using a web browser, navigate to https://<<var_vcenter_ip>>.

17.  Click the link labeled Log in to vSphere Web Client.

18.  If prompted, run the VMWare Remote Console Plug-in.

19.  Log in using the root user name and password.

20.  Click the vCenter link on the left panel.

21.  Click the Datacenters link on the left panel.

22.  To create a Datacenter, click the icon in the center pane which has the green plus symbol above it.

23.  Type Nimble_DC_1 as the Datacenter name.

24.  Click the vCenter server available in the list. Click OK to continue.

25.  Right-click Datacenters > Nimble_DC_1 in the list in the center pane, then click New Cluster.

26.  Name the cluster Nimble_Infrastructure.

27.  Select DRS. Retain the default values.

28.  Select vSphere HA. Retain the default values.

If mixing Cisco UCS B M3 and M4 servers within a vCenter cluster, it is necessary to enable VMware Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) mode. For more information about setting up EVC mode, refer to Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) Processor Support.

29.  Click OK to create the new cluster.

30.  Click Nimble_DC_1 in the left pane.

31.  Right-click Nmble_Infrastructure in the center pane and click Add Host.

32.  Type <<var_esx_host_1_ip>> and click Next.

33.  Type root as the user name and <<var_esx_host_password>> as the password. Click Next to continue.

34.  Click Yes to accept the certificate.

35.  Review the host details, and click Next to continue.

36.  Assign a license, and click Next to continue.

37.  Click Next to continue.

38.  Click Next to continue.

39.  Review the configuration parameters then click Finish to add the host.

40.  Repeat this for the other hosts.

Install the Nimble Connection Manager

In order to utilize the Nimble provided PSP to manage the paths ESXi will use for the Nimble Volumes we need to install the Nimble Connection Manager VIB.

This can be installed using the esxcli command or through VMware’s Update Manager.  We used Update Manager to deploy this VIB to our hosts.

1.     Put ESXi host into maintenance mode.

2.     SSH into ESXi host.

3.     run command "esxcli software vib install -d http://update.nimblestorage.com/esx6/ncm" which will automatically download and install the files for you.

4.     Take ESXi host out of maintenance mode.

Building the Virtual Machines and Environment

Software Infrastructure Configuration

This section details the configuration for the software infrastructure components that comprise the solution.

Install and configure the infrastructure virtual machines following the guidance provided in Table 8.

Table 8     Test Infrastructure Virtual Machine Configuration

Configuration

Citrix XenDesktop Controllers

Virtual Machines

Citrix Provisioning Servers

Virtual Machines

Operating system

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

Virtual CPU amount

4

4

Memory amount

8 GB

12 GB

Network

VMXNET3

Infrastructure VLAN

VMXNET3

Infrastructure VLAN

Disk-1 (OS) size and location

40 GB

Infra-DS volume

40 GB

Infra-DS volume

Disk-2 size and location

–

500 GB

PVS-vDisk volume using CIFS

Configuration

Microsoft Active Directory DCs

Virtual Machines

Citrix Licensing Virtual Machines

Operating system

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

Virtual CPU amount

4

2

Memory amount

4 GB

4 GB

Network

VMXNET3

Infrastructure VLAN

VMXNET3

Infrastructure VLAN

Disk size and location

40 GB

Infra-DS volume

40 GB

Infra-DS volume

Configuration

Microsoft SQL Server

Virtual Machine

Citrix Storefront Virtual Machines

Operating system

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

Virtual CPU amount

4

2

Memory amount

12 GB

4 GB

Network

VMXNET3

Infrastructure VLAN

VMXNET3

Infrastructure VLAN

Disk-1 (OS) size and location

60 GB

Infra-DS volume

40 GB

Infra-DS volume

Disk-2 size and location

–

Disk-3 size and location

–

Install and Configure Cisco Nexus 1000v VSUM and VEM

Install Cisco Virtual Switch Update Manager

Verifying the Authenticity of the Cisco-Signed Image (Optional)

Before you install the Nexus1000v-vsum.1.5.x-pkg.zip image, you have the option to validate its authenticity. In the zip file, there is a signature.txt file that contains an SHA-512 signature and an executable script that can be used to verify the authenticity of the Nexus1000v-vsum.1.5.x-pkg.zip image.

To set up the primary Cisco Nexus 1000V VSM on the Cisco Nexus 1110-X A, complete the following steps:

Verifying the authenticity of an image is optional. You can still install the image without validating its authenticity.

1.     Copy the following files to a directory on the Linux machine:

—     Nexus1000v-vsum.1.5.x-pkg.zip image

—     signature.txt file

—     cisco_n1k_image_validation_v_1_5_x script

2.     Make sure the script is executable.

chmod 755 cisco_n1k_image_validation_v_1_5_x

3.     Run the script.

./cisco_n1k_image_validation_v_1_5_x -s signature.txt Nexus1000v-vsum.1.5.x-pkg.zip

4.     Run the script.

./cisco_n1k_image_validation_v_1_5_x -s signature.txt Nexus1000v-vsum.1.5.x-pkg.zip

5.     Check the output. If the validation is successful, the following message displays:

Authenticity of Cisco-signed image Nexus1000v-vsum.1.5.x-pkg.zip has been successfully verified!

Install Cisco Virtual Switch Update Manager

VMware vSphere Web Client

To install the Cisco Virtual Switch Upgrade Manager from OVA in the VMware virtual environment, complete the following steps:

1.     Log into the VMware vSphere Web Client.

2.     In the pane on the right, click VMs and Templates.

3.     In the center pane, select Actions > Deploy OVF Template.

4.     Select Browse and browse to and select the Nexus1000v-vsum.1.5.x.ova file.

5.     Click Open.

6.     Click Next.

7.     Review the details and click Next.

8.     Click Accept to accept the License Agreement and click Next.

9.     Name the Virtual Machine, select the VSphere_DC datacenter and click Next.

10.  Select the SP-Infrastructure cluster and click Next.

11.  Select Nimble_Infra_DS and the Thin Provision virtual disk format and click Next.

12.  Select the MGMT Network and click Next.

13.  Fill in the Networking Properties.

14.  Expand the vCenter Properties and fil those in.

15.  Click Next.

16.  Review all settings and click Finish.

17.  Wait for the Deploy OVF template task to complete.

18.  Select the Home button in VMware vSphere Web Client and select Hosts and Clusters.

19.  Expand the Infrastructure cluster and select the Virtual Switch Update Manager VM.

20.  In the center pane, select Launch Remote Console. If a security warning pops up, click Allow.

21.  If a security certificate warning pops up, click Connect Anyway.

22.  Power on the Virtual Switch Update Manager VM.

23.  When the VM has completely booted up, log out and log back into the VMware vSphere Web Client.

About the Cisco VSUM GUI

The following lists the details of the Cisco VSUM GUI:

·         Cisco VSUM is a virtual appliance that is registered as a plug-in to the VMware vCenter Server.

·         The Cisco VSUM is the GUI that you use to install, migrate, monitor, and upgrade the VSMs in high availability (HA) or standalone mode and the VEMs on ESX/ESXi hosts.

Figure 31           VMware vSphere Web Client—Home Page

Figure 32          Cisco VSUM—Home Page

Install Cisco Nexus 1000V using Cisco VSUM

VMware vSphere Web Client

To install the Cisco Nexus 1000V switch by creating a new VSM, complete the following steps:

Optionally, an existing VSM can be used that is provided by a Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform (CSP).

1.     Log in to VMware vSphere Web Client and choose Home > Cisco Virtual Switch Update Manager > Nexus 1000V > Install, and then choose the data center. The installation screen appears.

2.     In the Nexus 1000v Switch Deployment area, choose I want to deploy new control plane (VSM).

3.     In the Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch Deployment Type area, install the switches as an HA pair. By default, the High Availability Pair is selected.

4.     Choose the control port group for the switch.

5.     Choose the management port group for the switch.

The Cisco Nexus 1000V VSM uses the management network to communicate with vCenter Server and ESXi. The management and control port group can use the same VLAN.

6.     In the Host Selection area, click Suggest to choose two hosts based on the details provided in the Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch Deployment Type area. The IP address of the hosts on which the switch will be deployed.

7.     The primary switch is deployed on Infrastructure Host 1 and the secondary switch is deployed on Infrastructure Host 2. Click Pick a Host to override the system choices.

8.     Choose the system-selected datastore that you want to override. Choose Nimble_Infra_DS as the datastore for each host.

9.     In the Switch Configuration area, enter 70 as the domain ID for the switch.

10.  The domain ID is common for both the primary and secondary switches and it should be unique for every new switch. The range for the domain is from 1 to 1023.

11.  In the Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM) configuration area, enter the Switch Name, IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Gateway Address.

12.  Do not select Default Port Profiles.

13.  Enter the Password and Confirm Password for Admin.

14.  Click Finish to install the Cisco Nexus 1000V switch.

The Cisco Nexus 1000V installation is confirmed when the primary task Create Nexus 1000v Switch has the status Completed. A typical installation of the switch takes about 4 minutes.

Perform Base Configuration of the Primary VSM

SSH Connection to Primary VSM

To perform the base configuration of the primary VSM, complete the following steps:

1.     Using an SSH client, log in to the primary Cisco Nexus 1000V VSM as admin.

2.     Run the following configuration commands:

Any VLAN that has a VMKernal port should be assigned as a system VLAN on both the uplink and the vEthernet ports of the virtual switch.

config t

ntp server <<var_switch_a_ntp_ip>> use-vrf management

ntp server <<var_switch_b_ntp_ip>> use-vrf management

vlan <<var_ib-mgmt_vlan_id>> 70

name IB-MGMT-VLAN

vlan <<var_nfs_vlan_id>> 73

name NFS-VLAN

vlan <<var_vmotion_vlan_id>> 76

name vMotion-VLAN

The Cisco Nexus 1000V is currently limited to 1024 Max ports per profile. This solution is comprised of 2,512 virtual desktop machines for the user workload and requires three dedicated port-profiles.

vlan <<var_vdi_vlan_id>> 77

name DHCP

vlan <<var_vdi_vlan_id>> 77

name DHCP2

vlan <<var_vdi_vlan_id>> 77

name DHCP3

vlan <<var_vm-traffic_vlan_id>> 71

name Infrastructure

vlan <<var_native_vlan_id>> 1

name Native-VLAN

exit

port-profile type ethernet system-uplink

vmware port-group

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk native vlan <<var_native_vlan_id>> 1

switchport trunk allowed vlan <<var_ib-mgmt_vlan_id>>, <<var_nfs_vlan_id>>, <<var_vmotion_vlan_id>>, <<var_vm-infra_vlan_id>> 70-79,164

channel-group auto mode on mac-pinning

no shutdown

system vlan <<var_ib-mgmt_vlan_id>>, <<var_nfs_vlan_id>>, <<var_vmotion_vlan_id>>, <<var_vm-infra_vlan_id>> 70-79,164

system mtu 9000

state enabled

port-profile type vethernet IB-MGMT-VLAN

vmware port-group

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan <<var_ib-mgmt_vlan_id>> 70

no shutdown

system vlan <<var_ib-mgmt_vlan_id>> 70

state enabled

port-profile type vethernet NFS-VLAN

vmware port-group

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan <<var_nfs_vlan_id>> 73

no shutdown

system vlan <<var_nfs_vlan_id>> 73

state enabled

port-profile type vethernet vMotion-VLAN

vmware port-group

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan <<var_vmotion_vlan_id>> 76

no shutdown

system vlan <<var_vmotion_vlan_id>> 76

state enabled

port-profile type vethernet VM-INFRA-VLAN

vmware port-group

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan <<var_vm-infra_vlan_id>> 71

no shutdown

system vlan <<var_vm-infra_vlan_id>> 71

state enabled

port-profile type vethernet n1kv-L3

capability l3control

vmware port-group

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan <<var_ib-mgmt_vlan_id>> 70

no shutdown

system vlan <<var_ib-mgmt_vlan_id>> 70

state enabled

port-profile type vethernet DHCP

vmware port-group

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan <<var_vdi_1_vlan_id>> 77

no shutdown

max-ports 1024

system vlan <<var_vdi_1_vlan_id>> 77

state enabled

port-profile type vethernet DHCP2

vmware port-group

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan <<var_vdi_1_vlan_id>> 77

no shutdown

max-ports 1024

system vlan <<var_vdi_1_vlan_id>> 77

state enabled

port-profile type vethernet DHCP3

vmware port-group

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan <<var_vdi_1_vlan_id>> 77

no shutdown

max-ports 1024

system vlan <<var_vdi_1_vlan_id>> 77

state enabled

switchport access vlan <<var_ib-mgmt_vlan_id>> 70

no shutdown

system vlan <<var_ib-mgmt_vlan_id>> 70

state enabled

exit

copy run start

Add VMware ESXi Hosts to Cisco Nexus 1000V

VMware vSphere Web Client

To and VMware ESXi hosts, complete the following steps:

1.     From the VMware vSphere Web Client, from the Home tab, select Cisco Virtual Switch Update Manager.

2.     Under Basic Tasks, select Nexus 1000V.

3.     Select Configure.

4.     Select the SP-VDI datacenter on the right.

5.     Select the VSM on the lower right.

6.     Click Manage.

7.     In the center pane, select the Add Host tab.

8.     Expand the Infrastructure ESXi Cluster and select one of the Infrastructure Management Hosts.

9.     Click Suggest.

10.  Scroll down to Physical NIC Migration and expand each ESXi host.

11.  On both hosts, unselect vmnic0, and select vmnic1. For vmnic1, select the system-uplink Profile.

12.  Scroll down to VM Kernel NIC Setup and expand both ESXi hosts.

13.  All VMkernel ports should already have the appropriate checkboxes selected.

14.  Scroll down to VM Migration and expand both ESXi hosts.

15.  Select the IB-MGMT-VLAN profile for the VSUM and vCenter Virtual Machines.

16.  Click Finish.

The progress of the virtual switch installation can be monitored from the c# interface.

Migrate ESXi Host Redundant Network Ports to Cisco Nexus 1000V

To migrate the ESXi host redundant network ports, complete the following steps:

1.     In the VMware vSphere Web Client window, select Home > Hosts and Clusters.

2.     On the left expand the Datacenter and cluster, and select the first VMware ESXi host.

3.     In the center pane, select the Manage tab, then select Networking.

4.     Select vSwitch0.  All of the port groups on vSwitch0 should be empty. Click the red X under Virtual switches to delete vSwitch0.

5.     Click Yes to remove vSwitch0. It may be necessary to refresh the Web Client to see the deletion.

6.     The Nexus 1000V VSM should now be the only virtual switch. Select it and select the third icon above it under Virtual switches (Manage the physical network adapters connected to the selected switch).

7.     Click the green plus sign to add an adapter.

8.     For UpLink01, select the system-uplink port group and make sure vmnic0 is the Network adapter. Click OK.

9.     Click OK to complete adding the Uplink. It may be necessary to refresh the Web Client to see the addition.

10.  Repeat this procedure for the other ESXi host.

11.  From the SSH client that is connected to the Cisco Nexus 1000V, run show interface status to verify that all interfaces and port channels have been correctly configured.

12.  Run show module and verify that the one ESXi host is present as a module.

13.  Repeat the above steps to migrate the remaining ESXi hosts to the Nexus 1000V.

14.  Run: copy run start.

Cisco Nexus 1000V vTracker

SSH Connection to Primary VSM

The vTracker feature on the Cisco Nexus 1000V switch provides information about the virtual network. environment. To connect SSH to the primary VSM, complete the following steps:

1.     From an SSH interface connected to the Cisco Nexus 1000V VSM, enter the following:

config t

feature vtracker

copy run start

show vtracker upstream-view

show vtracker vm-view vnic

show vtracker vm-view info

show vtracker module-view pnic

show vtracker vlan-view

copy run start

Cisco Nexus 1000V Configuration

SP-N1KV# sho ru

!Command: show running-config

!Time: Fri Mar 18 23:37:14 2016

version 5.2(1)SV3(1.5a)

hostname SP-N1KV

feature telnet

username admin password 5 $1$qxPYV8oS$OqsLtCVU/ZC8oatwK7fmU2  role network-admin

username admin keypair generate rsa

banner motd #Nexus 1000v Switch

#

ssh key rsa 2048

ip domain-lookup

ip host SP-N1KV 10.10.70.9

errdisable recovery cause failed-port-state

vem 3

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000000e

vem 4

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000003d

vem 5_[K

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000000c

vem 6

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000003f

vem 7

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000003e

vem 8

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000002f

vem 9

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000001c

vem 10

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000002c

vem 11

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000001e

vem 12

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000003c

vem 13

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000001f

vem 14

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000002e

vem 15

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000002d

vem 16

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000001d

vem 17

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000000d

vem 18

host id e811ca25-ef8f-e511-0000-00000000000f

snmp-server user admin network-admin auth md5 0x1abb14a596b559408ae5ed99ed9e84c0

priv 0x1abb14a596b559408ae5ed99ed9e84c0 localizedkey

rmon event 1 log trap public description FATAL(1) owner PMON@FATAL

rmon event 2 log trap public description CRITICAL(2) owner PMON@CRITICAL

rmon event 3 log trap public description ERROR(3) owner PMON@ERROR

rmon event 4 log trap public description WARNING(4) owner PMON@WARNING

rmon event 5 log trap public description INFORMATION(5) owner PMON@INFO

vrf context management

ip route 0.0.0.0/0 10.10.70.1

vlan configuration 701-702

vlan 1,70-72,76-77,701-702

vlan 70

name Management

vlan 71

name Infrastructure

vlan 72

name VDI

vlan 76_[K

name vMotion

vlan 77

name DHCP

vlan 701

name Control

vlan 702

name Packet

port-channel load-balance ethernet source-mac

port-profile default max-ports 32

port-profile type ethernet Unused_Or_Quarantine_Uplink

shutdown

description Port-group created for Nexus 1000V internal usage. Do not use.

state enabled

vmware port-group

port-profile type vethernet Unused_Or_Quarantine_Veth

shutdown

description Port-group created for Nexus 1000V internal usage. Do not use.

state enabled

vmware port-group

port-profile type ethernet system-uplink

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk native vlan 1

switchport trunk allowed vlan 70-79

system mtu 9000

channel-group auto mode on mac-pinning

no shutdown

system vlan 70-72,76-77

state enabled

vmware port-group

port-profile type vethernet Management

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan 70

no shutdown

capability l3control

system vlan 70

state enabled

vmware port-group

port-profile type vethernet Infrastructure

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan 71

no shutdown

system vlan 71

state enabled

vmware port-group

port-profile type vethernet VDI

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan 72

no shutdown

system vlan 72

state enabled

vmware port-group

port-profile type vethernet vMotion

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan 76

no shutdown

system vlan 76

state enabled

vmware port-group

port-profile type vethernet DHCP

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan 77

no shutdown

max-ports 1024

system vlan 77

state enabled

vmware port-group

port-profile type vethernet DHCP2

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan 77

no shutdown

max-ports 1024

system vlan 77

state enabled

vmware port-group

port-profile type vethernet DHCP3

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan 77

no shutdown

max-ports 1024

system vlan 77

state enabled

vmware port-group

port-profile type vethernet n1kv-L3

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan 70

state enabled

vmware port-group

interface port-channel1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 4

mtu 9000

interface port-channel2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 5

mtu 9000

interface port-channel3

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 7

mtu 9000

interface port-channel4

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 9

mtu 9000

interface port-channel5

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 10

mtu 9000

interface port-channel6

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 11

mtu 9000

interface port-channel7

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 12

mtu 9000

interface port-channel8

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 13

mtu 9000

interface port-channel9

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 15

mtu 9000

interface port-channel10

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 16

mtu 9000

interface port-channel11

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 18

mtu 9000

interface port-channel12

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 3

mtu 9000

interface port-channel13

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 14

mtu 9000

interface port-channel14

inherit port-profile system-uplink

vem 17

mtu 9000

interface mgmt0

ip address 10.10.70.9/24

interface Ethernet3/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet3/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet4/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet4/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet5/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet5/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet7/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet7/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet9/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet9/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet10/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet10/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet11/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet11/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet12/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet12/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet13/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet13/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet14/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

_[K

interface Ethernet14/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet15/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet15/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet16/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet16/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet17/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet17/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet18/1

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface Ethernet18/2

inherit port-profile system-uplink

interface control0

line console

line vty

boot kickstart bootflash:/n1000v-dk9-kickstart.5.2.1.SV3.1.5a.bin sup-1

boot system bootflash:/n1000v-dk9.5.2.1.SV3.1.5a.bin sup-1

boot kickstart bootflash:/n1000v-dk9-kickstart.5.2.1.SV3.1.5a.bin sup-2

boot system bootflash:/n1000v-dk9.5.2.1.SV3.1.5a.bin sup-2

svs-domain

domain id 70

control vlan 1

packet vlan 1

svs mode L3 interface mgmt0

switch-guid 3f4da4f4-cf89-4968-96ab-bdd61db67f1c

enable l3sec

svs connection SP-VDI

protocol vmware-vim

remote ip address 10.10.71.26 port 80

vmware dvs uuid "c6 35 09 50 15 cb 1e 2f-c8 42 86 a3 19 28 98 d0" datacenter-n

ame SP-VDI

max-ports 9000

connect

vservice global type vsg

no tcp state-checks invalid-ack

no tcp state-checks seq-past-window

no tcp state-checks window-variation

no bypass asa-traffic

no l3-frag

vservice global

idle-timeout

tcp 30

udp 4

icmp 4

layer-3 4

layer-2 2

nsc-policy-agent

registration-ip 0.0.0.0

shared-secret **********

log-level

Installing and Configuring Infrastructure, XenDesktop and XenApp

This section details the installation of the core components of the XenDesktop/XenApp 7.11 system. This CVD installs two XenDesktop Delivery Controllers to support both hosted shared desktops (RDS), non-persistent virtual desktops (VDI), and persistent virtual desktops (VDI).

XenDesktop and XenApp Prerequisites

Citrix recommends that you use Secure HTTP (HTTPS) and a digital certificate to protect vSphere communications. Citrix recommends that you use a digital certificate issued by a certificate authority (CA) according to your organization's security policy. Otherwise, if security policy allows, use the VMware-installed self-signed certificate.

To install vCenter Server self-signed Certificate, complete the following steps:

1.     Add the FQDN of the computer running vCenter Server to the hosts file on that server, located at SystemRoot/

WINDOWS/system32/Drivers/etc/. This step is required only if the FQDN of the computer running vCenter Server is not already present in DNS.

2.     Open Internet Explorer and enter the address of the computer running vCenter Server (e.g., https://FQDN as the URL).

3.     Accept the security warnings.

4.     Click the Certificate Error in the Security Status bar and select View certificates.

5.     Click Install certificate, select Local Machine, and then click Next.

6.     Select Place all certificates in the following store and then click Browse.

7.     Select Show physical stores.

8.     Select Trusted People.

9.     Click Next and then click Finish.

10.  Perform the above steps on all Delivery Controllers and Provisioning Servers.

Install XenDesktop Delivery Controller, Citrix Licensing and StoreFront

The process of installing the XenDesktop Delivery Controller also installs other key XenDesktop software components, including Studio, which is used to create and manage infrastructure components, and Director, which is used to monitor performance and troubleshoot problems.

1.     To begin the installation, connect to the first XenDesktop server and launch the installer from the Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 ISO.

2.     Click Start.

The installation wizard presents a menu with three subsections.

3.     Click “Get Started - Delivery Controller.”

4.     Read the Citrix License Agreement.

5.     If acceptable, indicate your acceptance of the license by selecting the “I have read, understand, and accept the terms of the license agreement” radio button.

6.     Click Next.

7.     Select the components to be installed on the first Delivery Controller Server:

a.     Delivery Controller

b.    Studio

c.     License Server

d.    StoreFront

8.     Click Next.

Dedicated StoreFront servers should be implemented for large scale deployments.

9.     Since a SQL Server will be used to Store the Database, leave “Install Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 Express” unchecked.

10.  Click Next

11.  Select the default ports and automatically configured firewall rules.

12.  Click Next

13.  Click Install to begin the installation.

14.  (Optional) Click the Call Home participation.

15.  Click Finish.

16.  (Optional) Check Launch Studio to launch Citrix Studio Console.

Installing Citrix Licenses

To install the Citrix Licenses, complete the following steps:

1.     Copy the license files to the default location (C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Licensing\ MyFiles) on the license server.

2.     Restart the server or Citrix licensing services so that the licenses are activated.

3.     Run the application Citrix License Administration Console.

4.     Confirm that the license files have been read and enabled correctly.

Configure the XenDesktop Site

Citrix Studio is a management console that allows you to create and manage infrastructure and resources to deliver desktops and applications. Replacing Desktop Studio from earlier releases, it provides wizards to set up your environment, create workloads to host applications and desktops, and assign applications and desktops to users.

Citrix Studio launches automatically after the XenDesktop Delivery Controller installation, or if necessary, it can be launched manually. Studio is used to create a Site, which is the core XenDesktop 7.11 environment consisting of the Delivery Controller and the Database.

To configure XenDesktop, complete the following steps:

1.     From Citrix Studio, click the Deliver applications and desktops to your users button.

2.     Select the “An empty, unconfigured Site” radio button.

3.     Enter a site name.

4.     Click Next.

5.     Provide the Database Server Locations for each data type and click Next.

6.     Provide the FQDN of the license server.

7.     Click Connect to validate and retrieve any licenses from the server.

If no licenses are available, you can use the 30-day free trial or activate a license file.

8.     Select the appropriate product edition using the license radio button.

9.     Click Next.

10.  Click Finish to complete initial setup.

High availability will be available for the databases once added to the SQL AlwaysOn Availability Group

11.  Click Test site to determine the site creation success.

Additional XenDesktop Controller Configuration

After the first controller is completely configured and the Site is operational, you can add additional controllers.  In this CVD, we created two Delivery Controllers.

To configure additional XenDesktop controllers, complete the following steps:

1.     To begin the installation of the second Delivery Controller, connect to the second XenDesktop server and launch the installer from the Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 ISO.

2.     Click Start.

3.     Click Delivery Controller.

4.     Select the components to be installed:

a.     Delivery Controller

b.    Studio

c.     Director

d.    StoreFront (This solution uses two dedicated StoreFront servers)

5.     Click Next.

6.     Repeat the same steps used to install the first Delivery Controller, including the step of importing an SSL certificate for HTTPS between the controller and vSphere.

7.     Review the Summary configuration.

8.     Click Install.

9.     Confirm all selected components were successfully installed.

10.  Verify the Launch Studio checkbox is checked.

11.  Click Finish.

Add the Second Delivery Controller to the XenDesktop Site

To add the second Delivery Controller to the XenDesktop Site, complete the following steps:

1.     Click the Connect this Delivery Controller to an existing Site button.

2.     Enter the FQDN of the first delivery controller.

3.     Click OK.

4.     Click Yes to allow the database to be updated with this controller’s information automatically.

5.     When complete, test the site configuration and verify the Delivery Controller has been added to the list of Controllers.

Create Host Connections with Citrix Studio

Citrix Studio provides wizards to guide the process of setting up an environment and creating desktops.  To set up a host connection for a cluster of VMs for the HSD and VDI desktops, complete the following steps:

The instructions below outline the procedure to add a host connection and resources for HSD and VDI desktops.

1.     Connect to the XenDesktop server and launch Citrix Studio.

2.     From the Configuration menu, right-click Hosting and select Add Connection and Resources.

3.     Select the Host Type of VMware vSphere®.

4.     Enter the FQDN of the vCenter server.

5.     Enter the username (in domain\username format) for the vSphere account.

6.     Provide the password for the vSphere account.

7.     Provide a connection name.

8.     Select the Other tools radio button since Provisioning Services will be used.

9.     Click Next.

10.  Review the Summary.

11.  Click Finish.

Configuring StoreFront

Citrix StoreFront stores aggregate desktops and applications from XenDesktop sites, making resources readily available to users. In this CVD, StoreFront is installed on the Delivery Controllers virtual machine as part of the initial Delivery Controller installation. Most of the StoreFront configuration is automatically done as part of the installer. To finalize the StoreFront configuration log into the second Delivery Controller and launch the StoreFront Console.

To configure StoreFront, complete the following steps:

1.     From the StoreFront Console on the second server select “Join existing server group”.

2.     In the Join Server Group dialog, enter the name of the first Storefront server.

3.     Before the additional StoreFront server can join the server group, you must connect to the first Storefront server, add the second server, and obtain the required authorization information.

4.     Connect to the first StoreFront server.

5.     Using the StoreFront menu on the left, you can scroll through the StoreFront management options.

6.     Select Server Group from the menu.

7.     To add the second server and generate the authorization information that allows the additional StoreFront server to join the server group, select Add Server.

8.     Copy the Authorization code from the Add Server dialog.

9.     Connect to the second Storefront server and paste the Authorization code into the Join Server Group dialog.

10.  Click Join.

11.  A message appears when the second server has joined successfully.

12.  Click OK.

The Server Group now lists both StoreFront servers in the group.

Installing and Configuring Citrix Provisioning Server 7.11

In most implementations, there is a single vDisk providing the standard image for multiple target devices. Thousands of target devices can use a single vDisk shared across multiple Provisioning Services (PVS) servers in the same farm, simplifying virtual desktop management. This section describes the installation and configuration tasks required to create a PVS implementation.

The PVS server can have many stored vDisks, and each vDisk can be several gigabytes in size. Your streaming performance and manageability can be improved using a RAID array, SAN, or NAS. PVS software and hardware requirements are available at: http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/provisioning/7-7.html

Prerequisites

Set the following Scope Options on the DHCP server hosting the PVS target machines (for example, VDI, RDS).

As a Citrix best practice cited in this CTX article, apply the following registry setting both the PVS servers and target machines:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TCPIP\Parameters\

Key: "DisableTaskOffload" (dword)

Value: "1"

Only one MS SQL database is associated with a farm. You can choose to install the Provisioning Services database software on an existing SQL database, if that machine can communicate with all Provisioning Servers within the farm, or with a new SQL Express database machine, created using the SQL Express software that is free from Microsoft.

The following MS SQL 2008, MS SQL 2008 R2, MS SQL 2012, MS SQL 2012 R2 and MS SQL 2014 Server (32 or 64-bit editions) databases can be used for the Provisioning Services database: SQL Server Express Edition, SQL Server Workgroup Edition, SQL Server Standard Edition, SQL Server Enterprise Edition. Microsoft SQL 2012 R2 was installed separately for this CVD.

To install and configure Citrix Provisioning Service 7.11, complete the following steps:

1.     Insert the Citrix Provisioning Services 7.11 ISO and let AutoRun launch the installer.

2.     Click the Console Installation button.

3.     Click Install to install the required prerequisites.

4.     Click Next.

5.     Read the Citrix License Agreement.

6.     If acceptable, select the radio button labeled “I accept the terms in the license agreement.”

7.     Click Next.

8.     Optionally provide User Name and Organization.

9.     Click Next.

10.  Accept the default path.

11.  Click Next.

12.  Click Install to start the console installation.

13.  From the main installation screen, select Server Installation.

14.  The installation wizard will check to resolve dependencies and then begin the PVS server installation process.

15.  Click Install on the prerequisites dialog.

16.  Click Yes when prompted to install the SQL Native Client.

17.  Click Next when the Installation wizard starts.

18.  Review the license agreement terms.

19.   If acceptable, select the radio button labeled “I accept the terms in the license agreement.”

20.  Click Next.

21.  Provide User Name, and Organization information. Select who will see the application.

22.  Click Next.

23.  Accept the default installation location.

24.  Click Next.

25.  Click Install to begin the installation.

26.  Click Finish when the install is complete.

27.  The PVS Configuration Wizard starts automatically.

28.  Click Next

29.  Since the PVS server is not the DHCP server for the environment, select the radio button labeled, “The service that runs on another computer.”

30.   Click Next.

31.  Since DHCP boot options 66 and 67 are used for TFTP services, select the radio button labeled, “The service that runs on another computer.”

32.  Click Next.

33.  Since this is the first server in the farm, select the radio button labeled, “Create farm”.

34.  Click Next.

35.  Enter the FQDN of the SQL server.

36.  Click Next.

37.  Provide the Database, Farm, Site, and Collection names.

38.  Click Next.

39.  Provide a vDisk Store name and the storage path to the File vDisk share.

Create the share using support for CIFS/SMB3.

40.  Click Next.

41.  Provide the FQDN of the license server.

42.  Optionally, provide a port number if changed on the license server.

43.  Click Next.

44.  If an Active Directory service account is not already setup for the PVS servers, create that account prior to clicking Next on this dialog.

45.  Select the Specified user account radio button.

46.  Complete the User name, Domain, Password, and Confirm password fields, using the PVS account information created earlier.

47.  Click Next.

48.  Set the Days between password updates to 7.

This will vary per environment. “7 days” for the configuration was appropriate for testing purposes.

49.  Click Next.

50.  Keep the defaults for the network cards.

51.  Click Next.

52.  Select Use the Provisioning Services TFTP service checkbox.

53.  Click Next.

54.  Make sure that the IP Addresses for all PVS servers are listed in the Stream Servers Boot List.

55.  Click Next.

56.  Click Finish to start installation.

57.  When the installation is completed, click Done.

Install Additional PVS Servers

Complete the installation steps on the additional PVS servers up to the configuration step where it asks to Create or Join a farm. In this CVD, we repeated the procedure to add a total of three PVS servers. To install additional PVS servers, complete the following steps:

1.     On the Farm Configuration dialog, select “Join existing farm.”

2.     Click Next.

3.     Provide the FQDN of the SQL Server.

4.     Click Next.

5.     Accept the Farm Name.

6.     Click Next.

7.     Accept the Existing Site.

8.     Click Next.

9.     Accept the existing vDisk store.

10.  Click Next.

11.  Provide the PVS service account information.

12.  Click Next.

13.  Set the Days between password updates to 7.

14.  Click Next.

15.  Accept the network card settings.

16.  Click Next.

17.  Select Use the Provisioning Services TFTP service checkbox.

18.  Click Next.

19.  Make sure that the IP Addresses for all PVS servers are listed in the Stream Servers Boot List.

20.  Click Next.

21.  Click Finish to start the installation process.

22.  Click Done when the installation finishes.

You can optionally install the Provisioning Services console on the second PVS server following the procedure in the section Installing Provisioning Services.

After completing the steps to install the second PVS server, launch the Provisioning Services Console to verify that the PVS Servers and Stores are configured and that DHCP boot options are defined.

23.  Launch Provisioning Services Console and select Connect to Farm.

24.  Enter localhost for the PVS1 server.

25.  Click Connect.

26.  Select Store Properties from the drop-down menu

27.  In the Store Properties dialog, add the Default store path to the list of Default write cache paths.

28.  Click Validate. If the validation is successful, click OK to continue.

Preparing the Master Targets

This section provides guidance around creating the golden (or master) images for the environment. VMs for the master targets must first be installed with the software components needed to build the golden images. For this CVD, the images contain the basics needed to run the Login VSI workload.

To prepare the master VMs for the Hosted Virtual Desktops (HVDs) and Hosted Shared Desktops (HSDs), there are three major steps: installing the PVS Target Device x64 software, installing the Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs), and installing application software.

The master target HVD(VDI) and HSD(RDS) VMs were configured as listed in the table below:

Configuration

VDI Non-Persistent

Virtual Machines (PVS)

VDI Persistent

Virtual Machines (MCS)

RDS

Virtual Machines (PVS

Operating system

Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit

Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

Virtual CPU amount

2

2

6

Memory amount

2.0 GB (reserved)

2.0 GB (reserved)

24 GB (reserved)

Network

VMXNET3

VDI vLAN (VSM)

VMXNET3

VDI vLAN (VSM)

VMXNET3

VDI vLAN (VSM)

Persistent Virtual Disk size

N/A

32GB

N/A

Citrix PVS vDisk size and location

24 GB (thick)

PVS-vDisk volume

N/A

40 GB (thick)

PVS-vDisk volume

Citrix PVS write cache

Disk size

6 GB

N/A

28 GB

Citrix PVS write cache

RAM cache size

256 MB

N/A

1024 MB

Additional software used for testing

Microsoft Office 2016

Login VSI 4.1.5 (Knowledge Worker Workload)

Microsoft Office 2016

Login VSI 4.1.5 (Knowledge Worker Workload)

Microsoft Office 2016

Login VSI 4.1.5 (Knowledge Worker Workload)

Install XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agents

Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) are installed on the server and desktop operating systems, and enable connections for desktops and apps. The following procedure was used to install VDAs for both HVD and HSD environments.

By default, when you install the Virtual Delivery Agent, Citrix User Profile Management is installed silently on master images. (Using profile management as a profile solution is optional but was used for this CVD, and is described in a later section.)

To install XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agents, complete the following steps:

1.     Launch the XenDesktop installer from the XenDesktop 7.11 ISO.

2.     Click Start on the Welcome Screen.

3.     To install the VDA for the Hosted Virtual Desktops (VDI), select Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Desktop OS. After the VDA is installed for Hosted Virtual Desktops, repeat the procedure to install the VDA for Hosted Shared Desktops (RDS). In this case, select Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Server OS and follow the same basic steps.

4.     Select “Create a Master Image”.

5.     Click Next.

6.     Click Next.

7.     Optional: Select Citrix Receiver.

8.     Click Next.

9.     Select “Do it manually” and specify the FQDN of the Delivery Controllers.

10.  Click Next.

11.  Accept the default features.

12.  Click Next.

13.  Allow the firewall rules to be configured Automatically.

14.  Click Next.

15.  Verify the Summary and click Install.

16.  (Optional) Select Call Home participation.

17.  Check “Restart Machine”.

18.  Click Finish and the machine will reboot automatically.

Repeat the procedure so that VDAs are installed for both VDI (using the Windows 10 OS image) and the RDS desktops (using the Windows Server 2012 R2 image).

Install the Citrix Provisioning Services Target Device Software

For non-persistent Windows 10 virtual desktops and Server 2012 R2 XenApp virtual machines, Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) is used for deployment. The Master Target Device refers to the target device from which a hard disk image is built and stored on a vDisk. Provisioning Services then streams the contents of the vDisk created to other target devices. This procedure installs the PVS Target Device software that is used to build the RDS and VDI golden images.

To install the Citrix Provisioning Server Target Device software, complete the following steps:

The instructions below outline the installation procedure to configure a vDisk for VDI desktops. When you have completed these installation steps, repeat the procedure to configure a vDisk for RDS.

1.     On the Window 10 Master Target Device, launch the PVS installer from the Provisioning Services 7.11 ISO.

2.     Click the Target Device Installation button.

The installation wizard will check to resolve dependencies and then begin the PVS target device installation process.

3.     Click Next.

4.     Confirm the installation settings and click Install.

5.     Deselect the checkbox to launch the Imaging Wizard and click Finish.

6.     Reboot the machine.

Create Citrix Provisioning Services vDisks

The PVS Imaging Wizard automatically creates a base vDisk image from the master target device.  To create the Citrix Provisioning Server vDisks, complete the following steps:

The instructions below describe the process of creating a vDisk for VDI desktops. When you have completed these steps, repeat the procedure to build a vDisk for RDS.

1.     The PVS Imaging Wizard's Welcome page appears.

2.     Click Next.

3.     The Connect to Farm page appears. Enter the name or IP address of a Provisioning Server within the farm to connect to and the port to use to make that connection.

4.     Use the Windows credentials (default) or enter different credentials.

5.     Click Next.

6.     Select Create new vDisk.

7.     Click Next.

8.     The Add Target Device page appears.

9.     Select the Target Device Name, the MAC address associated with one of the NICs that was selected when the target device software was installed on the master target device, and the Collection to which you are adding the device.

10.  Click Next.

11.  The New vDisk dialog displays. Enter the name of the vDisk.

12.  Select the Store where the vDisk will reside. Select the vDisk type, either Fixed or Dynamic, from the drop-down menu.  (This CVD used Dynamic rather than Fixed vDisks.)

13.  Click Next.

14.  On the Microsoft Volume Licensing page, select the volume license option to use for target devices. For this CVD, volume licensing is not used, so the None button is selected.

15.  Click Next.

16.  Select Image entire boot disk on the Configure Image Volumes page.

17.  Click Next.

18.  Select Optimize for hard disk again for Provisioning Services before imaging on the Optimize Hard Disk for Provisioning Services.

19.  Click Next.

20.  Select Create on the Summary page.

21.  Review the configuration and click Continue.

22.  When prompted, click No to shut down the machine.

23.  Edit the VM settings and select Force BIOS Setup under Boot Options.

24.  Restart Virtual Machine.

25.  Configure the BIOS/VM settings for PXE/network boot, putting Network boot from VMware VMXNET3 at the top of the boot device list.

26.  Select Exit Saving Changes.

After restarting the VM, log into the VDI or RDS master target. The PVS imaging process begins, copying the contents of the C: drive to the PVS vDisk located on the server.

27.  If prompted to Restart select Restart Later.

28.  A message is displayed when the conversion is complete, click Done.

29.  Shutdown the VM used as the VDI or RDS master target.

30.  Connect to the PVS server and validate that the vDisk image is available in the Store.

31.  Right-click the newly created vDisk and select Properties.

32.  On the vDisk Properties dialog, change Access mode to “Standard Image (multi-device, read-only access)”.

33.  Set the Cache Type to “Cache in device RAM with overflow on hard disk.”

34.  Set Maximum RAM size (MBs): 64 for VDI and set 1024 MB for RDS vDisk.

35.  Click OK.

Repeat this procedure to create vDisks for both the Hosted VDI Desktops (using the Windows 10 OS image) and the Hosted Shared Desktops (using the Windows Server 2012 R2 image).

Provision Virtual Desktop Machines

To create VDI and RDS machines, complete the following steps:

1.     Select the Master Target Device VM from the vSphere Client.

2.     Right-click the VM and select Clone.

3.     Name the cloned VM Desktop-Template.

4.     Select the cluster and datastore where the first phase of provisioning will occur.

5.     Remove Hard disk 1 from the Template VM.

Hard disk 1 is not required to provision desktop machines as the XenDesktop Setup Wizard dynamically creates the write cache disk.

6.     Convert to the Desktop-Template VM to a Template.

7.     From Citrix Studio on the Desktop Controller, select Hosting and Add Connection and Resources.

8.     Select Use an existing Connection and click Next.

9.     Correspond the name of the resource with desktop machine clusters.

10.  Browse and select the vSphere clusters for desktop provisioning and use the default storage method Use storage shared by hypervisors.

11.  Select the data storage location for the corresponding resource.

12.  Select the VDI networks for the desktop machines and click Next.

13.  Select the first datastore for desktop provisioning.

14.  Click Finish.

Return to these settings to alter the datastore selection for each set of provisioned desktop machines.

15.  Start the XenDesktop Setup Wizard from the Provisioning Services Console.

16.  Right-click the Site.

17.  Choose XenDesktop Setup Wizard… from the context menu.

18.  Click Next.

19.  Enter the XenDesktop Controller address that will be used for the wizard operations.

20.  Click Next.

21.  Select the Host Resources on which the virtual machines will be created.

22.  Click Next.

23.  Provide the Host Resources Credentials (Username and Password) to the XenDesktop controller when prompted.

24.  Click OK.

25.  Select the Template created earlier.

26.  Click Next.

27.  Select the network that will be used for the provisioned virtual machines.

A single VLAN was created for the VDI and RDS VMs, however, the Nexus 1000V is limited to 1024 ports per interface. Three port-profiles where created to accommodate this CVD.

28.  Select the vDisk that will be used to stream virtual machines.

29.  Click Next.

30.  Select “Create a new catalog.”

The catalog name is also used as the collection name in the PVS site.

31.  Click Next.

32.  On the Operating System dialog, specify the operating system for the catalog. Specify Windows Desktop Operating System for VDI and Windows Server Operating System for RDS.

33.  Click Next.

34.  If you specified a Windows Desktop OS for VDIs, a User Experience dialog appears. Specify that the user will connect to “A fresh new (random) desktop each time.”

35.  Click Next.

36.  On the Virtual machines dialog, specify:

a.     The number of VMs to create. (Note that it is recommended to create 200 or less per provisioning run. Create a single VM at first to verify the procedure.)

b.    Number of vCPUs for the VM (2 for VDI, 6 for RDS)

c.     The amount of memory for the VM (1.7GB for VDI, 24GB for RDS)

d.    The write-cache disk size (10GB for VDI, 30GB for RDS)

e.     PXE boot as the Boot Mode

37.  Click Next.

38.  Select the Create new accounts radio button.

39.  Click Next.

40.  Specify the Active Directory Accounts and Location. This is where the wizard should create the computer accounts.

41.  Provide the Account naming scheme. An example name is shown in the text box below the name scheme selection location.

42.  Click Next.

43.  Click Finish to begin the virtual machine creation.

44.  When the wizard is done provisioning the virtual machines, click Done.

Provisioning process takes ~10 seconds per machine.

45.  Verify the desktop machines were successfully created in the following locations:

a.     PVS1 > Provisioning Services Console > Farm > Site > Device Collections > VDI-NP > CTX-VDI-001

b.    CTX-XD1 > Citrix Studio > Machine Catalogs > VDI-NP

c.     AD-DC1 > Active Directory Users and Computers > dvpod2.local > Computers > CTX-VDI-001

46.  Logon to newly provisioned desktop machine, using the Virtual Disk Status verify the image mode is set to Ready Only and the cache type as Device Ram with overflow on local hard drive.

Create Delivery Groups

Delivery Groups are collections of machines that control access to desktops and applications. With Delivery Groups, you can specify which users and groups can access which desktops and applications.

To create delivery groups, complete the following steps:

The instructions below outline the procedure to create a Delivery Group for VDI desktops. When you have completed these steps, repeat the procedure for a Delivery Group for RDS desktops.

1.     Connect to a XenDesktop server and launch Citrix Studio.

2.     Choose Create Delivery Group from the drop-down menu.

3.     Specify the Machine Catalog and increment the number of machines to add.

4.     Click Next.

5.     Specify what the machines in the catalog will deliver: Desktops, Desktops and Applications, or Applications.

6.     Select Desktops.

7.     Click Next.

8.     To make the Delivery Group accessible, you must add users, click Add…

9.     In the Select Users or Groups dialog, add users or groups.

10.  Click OK. When users have been added, click Next on the Assign dialog (shown above).

11.  Enter the StoreFront configuration for how Receiver will be installed on the machines in this Delivery Group. Click “Manually, using a StoreFront server address that I will provide later.”

12.  Click Next.

13.  On the Summary dialog, review the configuration. Enter a Delivery Group name and a Display name (for example, VDI or RDS).

14.  Click Finish.

15.  Citrix Studio lists the created Delivery Groups and the type, number of machines created, sessions, and applications for each group in the Delivery Groups tab.

16.  On the pull-down menu, select “Turn on Maintenance Mode.”

Configuring User Profile Management

Profile management provides an easy, reliable, and high-performance way to manage user personalization settings in virtualized or physical Windows environments. It requires minimal infrastructure and administration, and provides users with fast logons and logoffs. A Windows user profile is a collection of folders, files, registry settings, and configuration settings that define the environment for a user who logs on with a particular user account. These settings may be customizable by the user, depending on the administrative configuration. Examples of settings that can be customized are:

·         Desktop settings such as wallpaper and screen saver

·         Shortcuts and Start menu setting

·         Internet Explorer Favorites and Home Page

·         Microsoft Outlook signature

·         Printers

Some user settings and data can be redirected by means of folder redirection. However, if folder redirection is not used these settings are stored within the user profile.

The first stage in planning a profile management deployment is to decide on a set of policy settings that together form a suitable configuration for your environment and users. The automatic configuration feature simplifies some of this decision-making for XenDesktop deployments. Screenshots of the User Profile Management interfaces that establish policies for this CVD’s RDS and VDI users (for testing purposes) are shown below. Basic profile management policy settings are documented here:

http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-7.html

Figure 33           VDI User Profile Manager Policy

Figure 34          RDS User Profile Manager Policy

Test Setup, Configuration, and Load Recommendation

In this project, we tested a single Cisco UCS B200 M4 blade in a single chassis with multiple workload types.  We also ran tests on each workload type full cluster.

Test I: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for Single Blade Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenDesktop 7. 11 VDI with PVS 7.11 Windows 10 Non-Persistent Desktops

This test identifies the maximum recommended load a single server can support without compromising end user experience. The value determined is used to size the workload cluster for N+1 server fault tolerance.

Hardware components:

·         Cisco UCS 5108 B-Series Server Chassis

·         2 Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnects

·         1 Cisco B200-M4 B-Series Blade Server XenDesktop VDI workload.

·         2 Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v3 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 256 GB of memory per blade server [16 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2133 MHz]) for all Infrastructure blades

·         1 Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2680 v4 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 512 GB of memory per blade server [32 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2400 MHz]) for all workload blades

·         Cisco vNIC CNA (1 per blade)

·         2 Cisco Nexus 9300 Access Switches

·         Nimble AF5000 All Flash Array

Software components:

·         Cisco UCS firmware 3.1.2b

·         Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 VDI Hosted Virtual Desktops

·         Citrix Provisioning Server 7.11

·         Citrix User Profile Manager

·         Microsoft SQL Server 2012

·         Microsoft Windows 10, 2vCPU, 1.7GB RAM, 40 GB vdisk

·         Microsoft Office 2016

·         Login VSI 4.1.5

Test II: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for 2500 User Cluster Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenDesktop 7. 11 with PVS 7.11 Windows 10 Non-Persistent Desktops

Figure 35           17x Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server for Blade Server VDI Scalability XenDesktop 7. 11 VDI with PVS 7.11

This test identifies the recommended load a workload cluster can support during normal operations. The reader will note that under normal conditions, each server in the cluster runs 150 virtual desktops, fewer than the maximum recommended load. In the event of a server outage, the remaining servers in the cluster will support the full load without compromising end user experience.

Hardware components:

·         Cisco UCS 5108 B-Series Server Chassis

·         2 Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnects

·         17x Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2680 v4 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 512 GB of memory per blade server [32 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2400 MHz]) for all workload blades

·         In this study we tested the environment to maximize the resources.  In an N+1 scenario the VDI scale workload should be a total of 2500 VMs to accommodate a single blade failure.

·         2x Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v3 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 256 GB of memory per blade server [16 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2133 MHz]) for all Infrastructure blades

·         Cisco vNIC CNA (1 per blade)

·         2 Cisco Nexus 9300 Access Switches

·         Nimble AF5000 Adaptive Array

Software components:

·         Cisco UCS firmware 3.1.2b

·         Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 VDI Hosted Virtual Desktops

·         Citrix Provisioning Server 7.11

·         Citrix User Profile Manager

·         Microsoft SQL Server 2012

·         Microsoft Windows 10, 2vCPU, 2GB RAM, 40 GB vdisk

·         Microsoft Office 2016

·         Login VSI 4.1.5

Test III: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for Single Blade Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenDesktop 7. 11 VDI with MCS Windows 10 Persistent Desktops

Figure 36          Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server for Single Server Scalability XenDesktop 7. 11 VDI with MCS

This test identifies the maximum recommended load a single server can support without compromising end user experience. The value determined is used to size the workload cluster for N+1 server fault tolerance.

Hardware components:

·         Cisco UCS 5108 B-Series Server Chassis

·         2 Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnects

·         1 Cisco B200-M4 B-Series Blade Server XenDesktop MCS workload.   (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2680 v4 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 512 GB of memory per blade server [32 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2400 MHz]) for all workload blades

·         2 Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v3 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 256 GB of memory per blade server [16 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2133 MHz]) for all Infrastructure blades

·         Cisco vNIC CNA (1 per blade)

·         2 Cisco Nexus 9300 Access Switches

·         Nimble AF5000 All Flash Array

Software components:

·         Cisco UCS firmware 3.1.2b

·         Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 VDI Hosted Virtual Desktops with MCS

·         Citrix Provisioning Server 7.11

·         Citrix User Profile Manager

·         Microsoft SQL Server 2012

·         Microsoft Windows 10, 2vCPU, 1.7GB RAM, 40 GB vdisk

·         Microsoft Office 2016

·         Login VSI 4.1.5

Test IV: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for 1000 User Cluster Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenDesktop 7. 11 with MCS Windows 10 Persistent Desktops

Figure 37           7x Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server for Blade Server VDI Scalability XenDesktop 7. 11 VDI with MCS

This test identifies the recommended load a workload cluster can support during normal operations. The reader will note that under normal conditions, each server in the cluster runs 140 virtual desktops, fewer than the maximum recommended load. In the event of a server outage, the remaining servers in the cluster will support the full load without compromising end user experience.

Hardware components:

·         Cisco UCS 5108 B-Series Server Chassis

·         2 Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnects

·         7x Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2680 v4 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 512 GB of memory per blade server [32 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2400 MHz]) for all workload blades

·         In this study we tested the environment to maximize the resources.  In an N+1 scenario the VDI scale workload should be a total of 1000 VMs to accommodate a single blade failure.

·         2x Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v3 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 256 GB of memory per blade server [16 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2133 MHz]) for all Infrastructure blades

·         Cisco vNIC CNA (1 per blade)

·         2 Cisco Nexus 9300 Access Switches

·         Nimble AF5000 Adaptive Array

Software components:

·         Cisco UCS firmware 3.1.2b

·         Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 VDI Hosted Virtual Desktops With MCS

·         Citrix User Profile Manager

·         Microsoft SQL Server 2012

·         Microsoft Windows 10, 2vCPU, 2GB RAM, 40 GB vdisk

·         Microsoft Office 2016

·         Login VSI 4.1.5

Test V: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for Single Blade Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenApp 7.11 with PVS 7.11 Server 2012 R2 Hosted Shared Desktop Sessions

Figure 38          Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server for Single Server Scalability XenApp 7. 11 HSD with PVS 7.11

This test identifies the maximum recommended load a single server can support without compromising end user experience. The value determined is used to size the workload cluster for N+1 server fault tolerance.

Hardware components:

·         Cisco UCS 5108 B-Series Server Chassis

·         2 Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnects

·         1 Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2680 v4 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 512 GB of memory per blade server [32 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2400 MHz]) for all XenApp blades

·         2 Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v3 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 256 GB of memory per blade server [16 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2133 MHz]) for all Infrastructure blades

·         Cisco vNIC CNA (1 per blade)

·         2 Cisco Nexus 9300 Access Switches

·         Nimble AF5000 All Flash Array

Software components:

·         Cisco UCS firmware 3.1.2b

·         Citrix XenApp 7.11 HSD Hosted Shared Desktops

·         Citrix Provisioning Server 7.11

·         Citrix User Profile Manager

·         Microsoft SQL Server 2012

·         Microsoft Windows 2012, 6vCPU, 24GB RAM, 40 GB vdisk

·         Microsoft Office 2016

·         Login VSI 4.1.5

Test VI: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for 1500 Session Cluster Scalability for Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server XenApp 7.11 with PVS 7.11 Server 2012 R2 Hosted Shared Desktop Sessions

Figure 39          8x Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server for Blade Server HSD Cluster Scalability XenApp 7.11 HSD with PVS 7.11

This test identifies the recommended load a workload cluster can support during normal operations. The reader will note that under normal conditions, each server in the cluster runs 245 hosted shared desktop sessions, fewer than the maximum recommended load. In the event of a server outage, the remaining servers in the cluster will support the full load without compromising end user experience.

Hardware components:

·         Cisco UCS 5108 B-Series Server Chassis

·         2 Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnects

·         8x  Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2680 v4 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 512 GB of memory per blade server [32 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2400 MHz]) for all XenApp blades.

·         In this study we tested the environment to maximize the resources.  In an N+1 scenario the HSD scale workload should be a total of 43 VMs to accommodate a single blade failure.

·         2x Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v3 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 256 GB of memory per blade server [16 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2133 MHz]) for all Infrastructure blades

·         Cisco vNIC CNA (1 per blade)

·         2 Cisco Nexus 9300 Access Switches

·         Nimble AF5000 Adaptive Array

Software components:

·         Cisco UCS firmware 3.1.2b

·         Citrix XenApp 7.11 HSD

·         Citrix Provisioning Server 7.11

·         Citrix User Profile Manager

·         Microsoft SQL Server 2012

·         Microsoft Windows 2012 R2, 6vCPU, 24GB RAM, 40 GB vdisk

·         Microsoft Office 2016

·         Login VSI 4.1.5

Test VII: Cisco UCS Test Configuration for Full Solution Scale 5000 Total Users (with and without PVS RAM Cache enabled for XenApp and PVS VDI)

Figure 40          30x Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server for Full Solution Scalability XenDesktop 7. 11 with PVS 7.11

Hardware components:

·         4x Cisco UCS 5108 B-Series Server Chassis

·         2 Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnects

·         30 Cisco B200-M4 B-Series Blade Server XenDesktop VDI and XenApp HSD workload. Two Intel Xeon processor E5-2680 v4 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 512 GB of memory per blade server [32 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2400 MHz]) for all workload blades

·         2 Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers (2 Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v3 CPUs at 2.6 GHz, with 256 GB of memory per blade server [16 GB x 15 DIMMs at 2133 MHz]) for all Infrastructure blades

·         Cisco vNIC CNA (1 per blade)

·         2 Cisco Nexus 9300 Access Switches

·         Nimble AF5000 All Flash Array

Software components:

·         Cisco UCS firmware 3.1.2b

·         Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 VDI Hosted Virtual Desktops

·         Citrix XenApp 7.11 HSD Hosted Shared Desktops

·         Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 MCS Persistent Desktops

·         Citrix Provisioning Server 7.11

·         Citrix User Profile Manager

·         Microsoft SQL Server 2012

·         Microsoft Windows 10, 2vCPU, 2GB RAM, 40 GB vdisk

·         Microsoft Windows 2012 R2, 6vCPU, 24GB RAM, 40 GB vDisk

·         Microsoft Office 2016

·         Login VSI 4.1.5

Testing Methodology and Success Criteria

All validation testing was conducted on-site within the Cisco labs in San Jose, California.

The testing results focused on the entire process of the virtual desktop lifecycle by capturing metrics during the desktop boot-up, user logon and virtual desktop acquisition (also referred to as ramp-up,) user workload execution (also referred to as steady state), and user logoff for the Citrix XenApp RDS Hosted Shared models under test.

Test metrics were gathered from the virtual desktop, storage, and load generation software to assess the overall success of an individual test cycle. Each test cycle was not considered passing unless all of the planned test users completed the ramp-up and steady state phases (described below) and unless all metrics were within the permissible thresholds as noted as success criteria.

Three successfully completed test cycles were conducted for each hardware configuration and results were found to be relatively consistent from one test to the next.

You can obtain additional information and a free test license from http://www.loginvsi.com.

Testing Procedure

The following protocol was used for each test cycle in this study to insure consistent results.

Pre-Test Setup for Single and Multi-Blade Testing

All machines were shut down utilizing the XenApp 7.11 Administrator.

All Launchers for the test were shut down. They were then restarted in groups of 10 each minute until the required number of launchers was running with the Login VSI Agent at a “waiting for test to start” state.

Test Run Protocol

To simulate severe, real-world environments, Cisco requires the log-on and start-work sequence, known as Ramp Up, to complete in 48 minutes. Additionally, we require all sessions started, whether 60 single server users or 900 full scale test users to become active within two minutes after the last session is launched.

In addition, Cisco requires that the Login VSI Benchmark method is used for all single server and scale testing. This assures that our tests represent real-world scenarios. For each of the three consecutive runs on single server tests, the same process was followed. Complete the following steps:

1.     Time 0:00:00 Start PerfMon Logging on the following systems:

—     Infrastructure and VDI Host Blades used in test run

—     All Infrastructure VMs used in test run (AD, SQL, brokers, image mgmt., etc.)

2.     Time 0:00:10 Start Storage Partner Performance Logging on Storage System.

3.     Time 0:05: Boot RDS Machines using XenDesktop Studio UCSM KVM.

4.     Time 0:06 First machines boot.

5.     Time 0:35 Single Server or Scale target number of RDS Servers registered on XD.

No more than 60 Minutes of rest time is allowed after the last desktop is registered on the XD Studio or available in View Connection Server dashboard. Typically a 30 minute rest period for Windows 7 desktops and 15 minutes for RDS VMs is sufficient.

6.     Time 1:35 Start Login VSI 4.1.4 Office Worker Benchmark Mode Test, setting auto-logoff time at 900 seconds, with Single Server or Scale target number of desktop VMs utilizing sufficient number of Launchers (at 20-25 sessions/Launcher).

7.     Time 2:23 Single Server or Scale target number of desktop VMs desktops launched (48 minute benchmark launch rate).

8.     Time 2:25 All launched sessions must become active.

All sessions launched must become active for a valid test run within this window.

9.     Time 2:40 Login VSI Test Ends (based on Auto Logoff 900 Second period designated above).

10.  Time 2:55 All active sessions logged off.

All sessions launched and active must be logged off for a valid test run. The XD Studio or View Connection Dashboard must show that all desktops have been returned to the registered/available state as evidence of this condition being met.

11.  Time 2:57 All logging terminated; Test complete.

12.  Time 3:15 Copy all log files off to archive; Set virtual desktops to maintenance mode through broker; Shutdown all Windows 7 machines.

13.  Time 3:30 Reboot all hypervisors.

14.  Time 3:45 Ready for new test sequence.

Success Criteria

Our “pass” criteria for this testing follows is Cisco will run tests at a session count level that effectively utilizes the blade capacity measured by CPU utilization, memory utilization, storage utilization, and network utilization. We will use Login VSI to launch version 4.1 Office Worker workloads. The number of launched sessions must equal active sessions within two minutes of the last session launched in a test as observed on the VSI Management console.

The Citrix Desktop Studio or VMware Horizon with View Connection Server Dashboard will be monitored throughout the steady state to make sure of the following:

·         All running sessions report In Use throughout the steady state

·         No sessions move to unregistered, unavailable or available state at any time during steady state

Within 20 minutes of the end of the test, all sessions on all launchers must have logged out automatically and the Login VSI Agent must have shut down. Stuck sessions define a test failure condition.

Cisco requires three consecutive runs with results within +/-1% variability to pass the Cisco Validated Design performance criteria. For white papers written by partners, two consecutive runs within +/-1% variability are accepted. (All test data from partner run testing must be supplied along with proposed white paper.)

We will publish Cisco Validated Designs with our recommended workload following the process above and will note that we did not reach a VSImax dynamic in our testing.

The purpose of this testing is to provide the data needed to validate Citrix XenApp 7.11 Hosted Shared Desktop with Citrix Provisioning Services 7.11 using Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 sessions on Cisco UCS B-Series Servers.

The information contained in this section provides data points that a customer may reference in designing their own implementations. These validation results are an example of what is possible under the specific environment conditions outlined here, and do not represent the full characterization of Citrix products.

Four test sequences, each containing three consecutive test runs generating the same result, were performed to establish single blade performance and multi-blade, linear scalability.

VSImax 4.1.x Description

The philosophy behind Login VSI is different to conventional benchmarks. In general, most system benchmarks are steady state benchmarks. These benchmarks execute one or multiple processes, and the measured execution time is the outcome of the test. Simply put: the faster the execution time or the bigger the throughput, the faster the system is according to the benchmark.

Login VSI is different in approach. Login VSI is not primarily designed to be a steady state benchmark (however, if needed, Login VSI can act like one). Login VSI was designed to perform benchmarks for SBC or VDI workloads through system saturation. Login VSI loads the system with simulated user workloads using well known desktop applications like Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and Adobe PDF reader. By gradually increasing the amount of simulated users, the system will eventually be saturated. Once the system is saturated, the response time of the applications will increase significantly. This latency in application response times show a clear indication whether the system is (close to being) overloaded. As a result, by nearly overloading a system it is possible to find out what its true maximum user capacity is.

After a test is performed, the response times can be analyzed to calculate the maximum active session/desktop capacity. Within Login VSI this is calculated as VSImax. When the system is coming closer to its saturation point, response times will rise. When reviewing the average response time it will be clear the response times escalate at saturation point.

This VSImax is the “Virtual Session Index (VSI)”. With Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Terminal Services (RDS) workloads this is valid and useful information. This index simplifies comparisons and makes it possible to understand the true impact of configuration changes on hypervisor host or guest level.

Server-Side Response Time Measurements

It is important to understand why specific Login VSI design choices have been made. An important design choice is to execute the workload directly on the target system within the session instead of using remote sessions. The scripts simulating the workloads are performed by an engine that executes workload scripts on every target system, and are initiated at logon within the simulated user’s desktop session context.

An alternative to the Login VSI method would be to generate user actions client side through the remoting protocol. These methods are always specific to a product and vendor dependent. More importantly, some protocols simply do not have a method to script user actions client side.

For Login VSI the choice has been made to execute the scripts completely server side. This is the only practical and platform independent solution, for a benchmark like Login VSI.

Calculating VSImax v4.1.x

The simulated desktop workload is scripted in a 48 minute loop when a simulated Login VSI user is logged on, performing generic Office worker activities. After the loop is finished it will restart automatically. Within each loop the response times of sixteen specific operations are measured in a regular interval: sixteen times in within each loop. The response times of these five operations are used to determine VSImax.

The five operations from which the response times are measured are:

·         Notepad File Open (NFO)

Loading and initiating VSINotepad.exe and opening the openfile dialog. This operation is handled by the OS and by the VSINotepad.exe itself through execution. This operation seems almost instant from an end-user’s point of view.

·         Notepad Start Load (NSLD)

Loading and initiating VSINotepad.exe and opening a file. This operation is also handled by the OS and by the VSINotepad.exe itself through execution. This operation seems almost instant from an end-user’s point of view.

·         Zip High Compression (ZHC)

This action copy's a random file and compresses it (with 7zip) with high compression enabled. The compression will very briefly spike CPU and disk IO.

·         Zip Low Compression (ZLC)

This action copy's a random file and compresses it (with 7zip) with low compression enabled. The compression will very briefly disk IO and creates some load on the CPU.

·         CPU

Calculates a large array of random data and spikes the CPU for a short period of time.

These measured operations within Login VSI do hit considerably different subsystems such as CPU (user and kernel), Memory, Disk, the OS in general, the application itself, print, GDI, etc. These operations are specifically short by nature. When such operations become consistently long: the system is saturated because of excessive queuing on any kind of resource. As a result, the average response times will then escalate. This effect is clearly visible to end-users. If such operations consistently consume multiple seconds the user will regard the system as slow and unresponsive.

Figure 41          Sample of a VSI Max Response Time Graph, Representing a Normal Test

Figure 42          Sample of a VSI Test Response Time Graph with a Clear Performance Issue

When the test is finished, VSImax can be calculated. When the system is not saturated, and it could complete the full test without exceeding the average response time latency threshold, VSImax is not reached and the amount of sessions ran successfully.

The response times are very different per measurement type, for instance Zip with compression can be around 2800 ms, while the Zip action without compression can only take 75ms. These response time of these actions are weighted before they are added to the total. This ensures that each activity has an equal impact on the total response time.

In comparison to previous VSImax models, this weighting much better represent system performance. All actions have very similar weight in the VSImax total. The following weighting of the response times are applied.

The following actions are part of the VSImax v4.1 calculation and are weighted as follows (US notation):

·         Notepad File Open (NFO): 0.75

·         Notepad Start Load (NSLD): 0.2

·         Zip High Compression (ZHC): 0.125

·         Zip Low Compression (ZLC): 0.2

·         CPU: 0.75

This weighting is applied on the baseline and normal Login VSI response times.

With the introduction of Login VSI 4.1 we also created a new method to calculate the basephase of an environment. With the new workloads (Taskworker, Powerworker, etc.) enabling 'basephase' for a more reliable baseline has become obsolete. The calculation is explained below. In total 15 lowest VSI response time samples are taken from the entire test, the lowest 2 samples are removed and the 13 remaining samples are averaged. The result is the Baseline. The calculation is as follows:

·         Take the lowest 15 samples of the complete test

·         From those 15 samples remove the lowest 2

·         Average the 13 results that are left is the baseline

The VSImax average response time in Login VSI 4.1.x is calculated on the amount of active users that are logged on the system.

Always a 5 Login VSI response time samples are averaged + 40% of the amount of “active” sessions. For example, if the active sessions is 60, then latest 5 + 24 (=40% of 60) = 31 response time measurement are used for the average calculation.

To remove noise (accidental spikes) from the calculation, the top 5% and bottom 5% of the VSI response time samples are removed from the average calculation, with a minimum of 1 top and 1 bottom sample. As a result, with 60 active users, the last 31 VSI response time sample are taken. From those 31 samples the top 2 samples are removed and lowest 2 results are removed (5% of 31 = 1.55, rounded to 2). At 60 users the average is then calculated over the 27 remaining results.

VSImax v4.1.x is reached when the VSIbase + a 1000 ms latency threshold is not reached by the average VSI response time result. Depending on the tested system, VSImax response time can grow 2 - 3x the baseline average. In end-user computing, a 3x increase in response time in comparison to the baseline is typically regarded as the maximum performance degradation to be considered acceptable.

In VSImax v4.1.x this latency threshold is fixed to 1000ms, this allows better and fairer comparisons between two different systems, especially when they have different baseline results. Ultimately, in VSImax v4.1.x, the performance of the system is not decided by the total average response time, but by the latency is has under load. For all systems, this is now 1000ms (weighted).

The threshold for the total response time is: average weighted baseline response time + 1000ms.

When the system has a weighted baseline response time average of 1500ms, the maximum average response time may not be greater than 2500ms (1500+1000). If the average baseline is 3000 the maximum average response time may not be greater than 4000ms (3000+1000).

When the threshold is not exceeded by the average VSI response time during the test, VSImax is not hit and the amount of sessions ran successfully. This approach is fundamentally different in comparison to previous VSImax methods, as it was always required to saturate the system beyond VSImax threshold.

Lastly, VSImax v4.1.x is now always reported with the average baseline VSI response time result. For example: “The VSImax v4.1 was 125 with a baseline of 1526ms”. This helps considerably in the comparison of systems and gives a more complete understanding of the system. The baseline performance helps to understand the best performance the system can give to an individual user. VSImax indicates what the total user capacity is for the system. These two are not automatically connected and related:

When a server with a very fast dual core CPU, running at 3.6 GHZ, is compared to a 10 core CPU, running at 2,26 GHZ, the dual core machine will give and individual user better performance than the 10 core machine. This is indicated by the baseline VSI response time. The lower this score is, the better performance an individual user can expect.

However, the server with the slower 10 core CPU will easily have a larger capacity than the faster dual core system. This is indicated by VSImax v4.1.x, and the higher VSImax is, the larger overall user capacity can be expected.

With Login VSI 4.1.x a new VSImax method is introduced: VSImax v4.1. This methodology gives much better insight in system performance and scales to extremely large systems.

Test Results

For Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 VDI Desktop use cases, the recommended maximum workload was determined based on both Login VSI Knowledge Worker workload with flash end user experience measures and blade server operating parameters.

This recommended maximum workload approach allows you to determine the server N+1 fault tolerance load the blade can successfully support in the event of a server outage for maintenance or upgrade.

Our recommendation is that the Login VSI Average Response and VSI Index Average should not exceed the Baseline plus 2000 milliseconds to insure that end user experience is outstanding. Additionally, during steady state, the processor utilization should average no more than 90-95 percent.

Memory should never be oversubscribed for Desktop Virtualization workloads.

Callouts have been added throughout the data charts to indicate each phase of testing.

Test Phase

Description

Boot

Start all RDS and VDI virtual machines at the same time

Login

The Login VSI phase of test is where sessions are launched and start executing the workload over a 48 minutes duration

Steady state

The steady state phase is where all users are logged in and performing various workload tasks such as using Microsoft Office, Web browsing, PDF printing, playing videos, and compressing files

Logoff

Sessions finish executing the Login VSI workload and logoff

Test I: PVS Single Server on B200-M4 with 195 Users Test Results

Figure 43          Single-Server Recommended Maximum Workload for VDI with 195 Users

The recommended maximum workload for a Cisco UCS B200-M4 server with E5-2680 v4 processors and 512GB of RAM is 195 Windows 10 Desktops with 2vCPU and 2GB RAM.

Figure 44          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 VDI | VSI Score

Performance data for the server running the workload follows:

Figure 45          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 VDI | Host CPU Utilization

Figure 46          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 VDI | Host Memory Utilization

Figure 47          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 VDI | Host Network Utilization

Figure 48          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 VDI | Host Storage Adapter Rate

Test II: PVS Non-Persistent Windows 10 VDI Cluster with 2500 Users Test Results

Figure 49          VDI Server Scale Recommended Maximum Workload for VDI with 2500 Users

The recommended maximum workload for 17x Cisco UCS B200-M4 server with E5-2680 v4 processors and 512GB of RAM is 2500 Windows 10 Desktops with 2vCPU and 2GB RAM.

Figure 50          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Server Scale w/ 2500 Users | XenDesktop 7.11 VDI | VSI Score

Test III: MCS Single Server Persistent Windows 10 VDI on Cisco UCS B200-M4 with 200 Users Test Results

Figure 51           Single-Server Recommended Maximum Workload for MCS VDI with 190 Users

The recommended maximum workload for a Cisco UCS B200-M4 server with E5-2680 v4 processors and 512GB of RAM is 200 Windows 10 Desktops with 2vCPU and 2GB RAM.

Figure 52          B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 MCS VDI | VSI Score

Performance data for the server running the workload follows:

Figure 53           Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 MCS VDI | Host CPU Utilization

Figure 54          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 MCS VDI | Host Memory Utilization

Figure 55           Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 MCS VDI | Host Network Utilization

Figure 56          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 MCS VDI | Host Storage Utilization

Test IV: MCS Cluster Test with 1000 Persistent Windows 10 VDI on Cisco UCS B200-M4 with 200 Users Test Results

Figure 57           VDI Server Scale Recommended Maximum Workload for MCS VDI with 1000 Users

The recommended maximum workload for 7x Cisco UCS B200-M4 server with E5-2680 v4 processors and 512GB of RAM is 1000 Windows 10 Persistent Desktops with 2vCPU and 2GB RAM.

Figure 58          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Server Scale w/ 1000 Users | XenDesktop 7.11 MCS VDI | VSI Score

HSD Single-Server Recommended Maximum Workload for Cisco UCS B-Series

For Citrix XenApp 7.11 HSD Desktop use cases, the recommended maximum workload was determined based on both Login VSI Knowledge Worker workload with flash end user experience measures and blade server operating parameters.

This recommended maximum workload approach allows you to determine the server N+1 fault tolerance load the blade can successfully support in the event of a server outage for maintenance or upgrade.

Our recommendation is that the Login VSI Average Response and VSI Index Average should not exceed the Baseline plus 2000 milliseconds to insure that end user experience is outstanding. Additionally, during steady state, the processor utilization should average no more than 90-95 percent.

Memory should never be oversubscribed for HSD Virtualization workloads.

Callouts have been added throughout the data charts to indicate each phase of testing.

Test Phase

Description

Boot

Start all RDS and VDI virtual machines at the same time

Login

The Login VSI phase of test is where sessions are launched and start executing the workload over a 48 minutes duration

Steady state

The steady state phase is where all users are logged in and performing various workload tasks such as using Microsoft Office, Web browsing, PDF printing, playing videos, and compressing files

Logoff

Sessions finish executing the Login VSI workload and logoff

Test V: HSD Single Server on Cisco UCS B200-M4 with 290 Users Test Results

Figure 59          HSD Single-Server Recommended Maximum Workload for HSD with 290 Users

The recommended maximum workload for a Cisco UCS B200-M4 server with E5-2680 v4 processors and 512GB of RAM is 290 Windows 2012 R2 Server with 6vCPU and 24GB RAM.

Figure 60          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenApp 7.11 HSD | VSI Score

Performance data for the server running the workload follows:

Figure 61          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 HSD | Host CPU Utilization

Figure 62          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 HSD | Host Memory Utilization

Figure 63          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 HSD | Host Network Utilization

Figure 64          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Single Server | XenDesktop 7.11 HSD | Host Storage  Utilization

Test VI: HSD Scaling with 1500 Users Test Results

Figure 65          HSD Server Scale Recommended Maximum Workload with 1500 Users

The recommended maximum workload for 8x Cisco UCS B200-M4 server with E5-2680 v4 processors and 512GB of RAM is 1500 Windows 2012 R2 Servers with 6vCPU and 24GB RAM.

Figure 66          Cisco UCS B-200 M4 Server Scale w/ 1500 Users | XenApp 7.11 HSD | VSI Score

Solution Design Considerations – Nimble Storage

There were six test cases considered in this solution.

Each of these test cases where designed to measure the performance, scalability and resilience of the Nimble Storage array.

The 5000 user mixed workload consists of 1000 Persistent MCS desktops, 2500 Non-Persistent PVS desktops and 1500 XenApp users.

Under all of the test cases, Nimble Storage AF5000 delivered superlative performance with very low latency:

·         5000 users LoginVSI test with PVS RAM cache Enabled

·         5000 users LoginVSI test with PVS RAM cache Disabled

·         Boot Storm testing – 2500 XenDesktop VM’s

·         Nimble Storage controller failover during an active workload

·         3 Nimble Storage Drive failure (SSD) during workload

Test Case VIIa - 5000 User Testing – Mixed Workload 1000 MCS Persistent, 2500 PVS XenDesktop Non-Persistent and 1500 PVS XenApp Users Testing with LoginVSI with PVS RAM Cache

The below graph shows the LoginVSI response time and has a VSIbaseline of 680ms without reaching a VSIMax.

Nimble Storage Performance Graphs With PVS RAM Cache Enabled

Test Result Summary :The diagram shows Nimble Storage’s Bandwidth, IOPS and Latency graph. As seen the latency was consistently sub-milli second through the test cycle.

Test Case VIIb - 5000 User Testing – Mixed Workload 1000 MCS Persistent, 2500 PVS Non-Persistent XenDesktop and 1500 XenApp Users with LoginVSI with PVS Cache on Device Hard Drive

Nimble Storage Performance Graphs with PVS RAM Cache Enabled

Without PVS RAM Cache (Disabled)

Test Result Summary -The average latency of the Nimble Storage was noticed to be sub-milli second and Maximum IOPS close to 50K was recorded.

Storage Test Case I – 2500 XenDesktop Session Boot Storm

Nimble Storage Performance Graphs During Boot Storm

Test Result Summary – the boot storm of 2500 XenDesktop VM’s did not cause any spike in latency and stayed at sub-ms average.

Nimble Storage – Absolute Resiliency and Non-Stop Availability

Nimble non-stop availability delivers 99.9999% measured availability through predictive analytics and ‘no single point of failure’ hardware and software design.

Storage Test Case II – Nimble Storage Controller Failover During an Active Workload

In this test we decided to fail over an active controller while a XenDesktop workload is running to see if it has any impact to the end user’s performance.

Nimble Storage controllers are setup in an Active-Standby model to provide a simple, fast, predictable, and reliable model without having to worry about balancing LUNs, I/O load, or worry about controller headroom and how performance could be impacted should a controller failure occur.

There are two controllers or nodes with the following characteristics:

·         One controller runs in active mode, owns all of the volumes, services all I/O requests and provides data services such as compression, snapshots, replication, RAID, and so on

·         The partner controller runs in standby mode, ready to take over should the active controller experience a failure

This is a mature, simple, and straightforward model to implement, providing deterministic failover times without any performance impact after a failover, regardless of the load of the failed active controller. An additional benefit of the Active-Standby model is that it eliminates the risk of prolonged degraded performance due to software upgrades. For instance, more than 60 percent of Nimble Storage customers upgrade their production arrays during regular business hours.

In this solution, Controller B is active and Controller A is on standby. Once the failover has been triggered Controller A will become active without impacting the end users performance. This failover is performed during an active user workload.

Figure 67          Controller B Active

Figure 68          Controller Failover

Figure 69          Controller B offline and Failover to Controller A

Figure 70          Controller B in Standby and Controller A is Active

Nimble Storage Performance Graphs During Controller Failover

Test Result Summary: The end user performance is unaffected by the controller failure. The overall latency was averaging less than 0.6ms

Storage Test Case III – Multiple Disk Drive Failures During an Active workload

Triple+ Parity RAID – When it comes to resiliency, Nimble’s Triple+ Parity RAID allows a system to continue operating after the loss of any three simultaneous SSD failures (even within the same RAID group). Further, intra-drive parity (the “+” in Triple+) protects against additional read errors on any other SSD.

In this test three random SSD’s where pulled thereby causing drive failures on the array. This was done while an actual 5000 user workload was running.

All the drives are online before the actual drive failure test.

Three drives failed with an active workload  (~4900 users) is shown below.

Nimble Storage Performance Graphs During Drive Failure

Consistent Throughput and IOPS with expected spike in latency during the actual loss of drives with no real performance hit.

Test Results Summary

There was no impact to performance, even when 3 drives were pulled when there were close to 4900 users logged in (see loginvsi Performance graphs). Most importantly, there was no impact to the actual data that was being written on to the drives that had failed. This showcases Nimble Storage’s Triple + Parity for absolute resiliency.

The 3 SSD’s where brought online again before the test completed and the users logged off. The drives rebuilt itself with no data loss.

All the drives where restored and successfully rebuilt during the end of the test.

Nimble Storage – Transparent Application Migration

This solution employed Nimble Storage Transparent Application Migration feature. This feature enables the administrator to transparently migrate Volumes that was setup on an Adaptive array to an All Flash array or vice-versa. In our solution we had infrastructure volumes that housed all of the VDI infrastructure Virtual machines on the adaptive flash that was leveraged from our previous Cisco Validated Design. We planned to leverage the same volumes for this solution, thereby reducing time to rebuild the entire infrastructure. Nimble storage’s transparent application migration helped us migrate the VDI infrastructure volumes from one array to the array without affecting the consistency of the infrastructure.

Select the volume that you want moved:

Check for the destination location and click Move:

The progress can be monitored under the volume properties as shown below:

When the volume has been moved, make sure the Cisco UCS hosts have the new WWPN’s configured to point to the volumes that have been migrated.  This is done by creating a new Boot from SAN policy reflecting the WWPN of the destination array where the volumes have been moved.

When the volume move is completed and a new Boot From SAN policy is created to reflect the new WWPN of the destination array, the new WWPN need to be zoned into the MDS switches.

MDS-A

MDS-B

Nimble Storage Monitoring and Predictive Analytics

Complex infrastructure creates an app-data gap that disrupts data delivery and makes users wait. Closing the app-data gap requires predicting and preventing barriers to data velocity across the infrastructure stack, a challenge that often leads to costly downtime. InfoSight uses big data science to correlate trillions of sensor data points to find the barriers and solve your most complex issues. InfoSight predicts, diagnoses, and prevents problems across the infrastructure stack. It is like having an army of IT experts keeping your infrastructure running perfectly and predicting future needs, without you lifting a finger. Experience the power of InfoSight Predictive Analytics.

InfoSight along with VMVision provides performance correlation analytics identify leading factors impacting performance, avoiding significant manual data collection and analysis. InfoSight VMVision agentless per-VM monitoring feature brings enterprise IT staff clear visibility into latency and performance across host, network, and storage layers of the stack through intuitive graphical representations.

The below figure represents InfoSight console for the All Flash AF5000 that has been used in this solution. The InfoSight page contains an Overview and a Performance section.

The Overview section provides the following information:

·         Capacity trends – Predictive analysis of how the array will be utilized over time based on the current utilization

·         Wellness summary  - Any issues related to the array, Pools, Volumes, etc.

·         Space savings – Overall space savings gained by Nimble Storage data savings

Figure 71           Nimble Storage InfoSight Overview

Figure 72          Effective Capacity Savings

Data Savings

The array after the infrastructure and Desktops where setup showed an overall data reduction of 10X+. Through various workload testing we saw the overall data savings to be around the 83.13TiB with an overall data reduction rate of 5x+.

The below figure shows the Performance tab of Infosight for the All Flash array that has been utilized in this solution. It shows the in-depth performance metrics such as Latency, IOPS and Bandwidth over the entire life period of the array since it was first installed.

The coloring in the performance chart depicts InfoSight's Potential Impact Score metric. Using InfoSight intelligence, this score identifies those periods where the impact of latency on application behavior is expected to be strongest. Larger-block operations, for example, tend to be more latent; at the same time the workloads driving them tend to be less latency sensitive. InfoSight's Impact Score corrects for this bias and highlights those latency events expected to cause the most impact to end users when accessing applications.

Figure 73           Performance tab

Nimble Storage – Infosight VMVision

VMVision is the additional layer of monitoring that is provided with Infosight. The vCenter server first needs to be registered on Infosight and array console and it starts collecting data. Infosight VMVision agentless per-VM monitoring feature brings enterprise IT staff clear visibility into latency and performance across host, network, and storage layers of the stack through intuitive graphical representations. The vCenter collection API is used for the following:

·         VM latency

·         Host CPU, Memory and latency

·         VMDK IOPS, MBPS and latency

·         Datastore IOPS, MBPS latency

Infosight Data Analytics and Case Creation Service troubleshoots the following:

·         Identify overloaded hosts (CPU, Memory)

·         Latent VM’s by datastore

·         Noisy Neighbors VM

·         Find Nimble volumes for VMware datastore

To enable VMVision, complete the following steps:

1.      Login to the array GUI then navigate to VMware Integration under Administration.

2.     Register the vCenter that you want to monitor by providing the vCenter Host name and credentials.

3.     Log into Infosight and navigate to VMVision under Administration.

4.     Click Configure afar locating the array you want to monitor.

5.      Make sure the VM Streaming data is enabled and vCenter plugin is registered.

Below is an example of the monitoring details that VMVision provides.

You can provide details of each VM based on IOPS or Latency metrics.

VMVision also provides in-depth metrics of Hosts (CPU and Memory).

It can also provide a Datastore tree map of how each Volume (datastore) is performing in terms of IOPS and Latency.

The bigger the box, the more IOPS, and the darker the box means more latency for that datastore.

VMVision also provides the list of inactive VM’s over the last 7 days. These VM’s have not generated any I/O for the last 7 days. This is useful to analyze all the desktops that have not been used and probably reclaim any resources.

Single Server Testing Utilizing the NVIDIA M6 Card and vGPU

Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server with NVIDIA M6 GRID Card

In 2016 NVIDIA released the M6 GRID cards capable of fitting into a Cisco B200 M4 Server. This release opened up a new world of possibilities in our already robust VDI deployments and adding the capability of Graphics Desktops to our traditional VDI solutions. Our solution here is meant to run in parallel on the same Cisco UCS B200 Hardware as a non-graphics user sessions. We have determined that we can run 180-195 individual users on a single blade.  With the introduction of the M6 card, we are able to run 150-165 standard user sessions on the same blade that will be shared with 16 vGPU enabled VMs.

The difference between a CPU and a GPU is that CPU only has a dozen or so cores (in our case the 2680v4 has 12) and runs tasks sequentially. Where a GPU has many more cores and runs tasks in parallel.

Under the control of NVIDIA’s Virtual GPU Manager that runs on ESXi, the GRID physical GPUs are able to support multiple virtual GPU devices (vGPU) that can be assigned directly to our guest VMs.

Guest VMs can use the vGPUs the same as a physical GPU that has been passed through directly to the VM from the hardware. With an NVIDIA driver loaded in the guest VM’s OS the end user is able to utilize GPU functionality. Figure 74 illustrates the architecture of the NVIDIA vGPU.

Figure 74          NVIDIA vGPU Architecture

Install and Configure NVIDIA M6 Card

In this study we tested the NVIDIA M6 card deployed as a vGPU to Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 virtual desktops.  We used the Power User vGPU Profile to enable a density of 16 desktops using 512MB of video memory.

Physical Installation of the NVIDIA M6 Card into the Cisco UCS B200 M4 Server

The NVIDIA M6 graphics processing unit (GPU) provides graphics and computing capabilities to the server. The GPU package consists of the three elements shown in Figure 75.

Figure 75           NVIDIA M6 GPU Package

1

NVIDIA M6 GPU (CPU and heat sink)

2

T-shaped wrench

3

Custom standoff

Before You Begin

Before installing the NVIDIA M6 GPU, do the following:

·         Remove any adapter card, such as a VIC 1380, VIC 1280, or PT extender card from slot 2. You cannot use any other card in slot 2 when the NVIDIA M6 GPU is installed.

·         Upgrade your Cisco UCS system to a version of Cisco UCS Manager that supports this card. Refer to the latest version of the Release Notes for Cisco UCS Software at the following URL for information about supported hardware: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-manager/products-release-notes-list.html.

To install the NVIDIA M6 GPU, complete the following steps:

1.     Use the T-shaped wrench that comes with the GPU to remove the existing standoff at the back end of the motherboard.

2.     Install the custom standoff in the same location at the back end of the motherboard.

3.     Position the GPU over the connector on the motherboard and align all captive screws to the standoff posts (callout 1).

4.     Tighten the captive screws (callout 2).

Figure 76          Installing the NVIDIA MG GPU

Figure 77 illustrates the GPU installed in a Cisco UCS B200 M4 blade server.

Figure 77           Installed NVIDIA M6 GPU

1

Front of server

2

Custom standoff screw

Install the NVIDIA VMware VIB Driver

To install the NVIDIA VMware VIB Driver, complete the following steps:

1.     Download the latest drivers and software packages from NVidia’s Web Site.

2.     Upload the VIB file to the /tmp directory of the ESXi host.

3.     Install the latest driver: esxcli software vib install –v /tmp/{Latest Driver Package Name}

Host must be in Maintenance Mode to install.

A message will validate that the VIB installed correctly.

4.     Validate the driver was installed by running the command ‘nvidia-smi’ command.

5.     By Default the M6 cards come in Compute mode.  We will utilize them in Graphics mode in this study.  You will need to download the gpumodeswitch utility from NVidia’s web site.   In this exercise, we used the boot ISO which loads a Linux environment with the gpumodeswitch utility already loaded.

6.     Mount the ISO file through the Cisco UCS Manager KVM and reboot the host.

7.     When the Linux shell loads, enter the command: gpumodeswitch –gpumode graphics.

Type ‘Y’ when prompted to switch all adapters to Graphics. When it completes, reboot back into ESXi.

Configure a VM with a vGPU

To configure a vGPU for a VM, complete the following steps:

1.     Select Edit Settings in the VSphere Web client for the VM you want to add to the vGPU.

2.     Select the Virtual Hardware tab.

3.     In the New device section, select Shared PCI Device to add the NVIDIA GRID Card.

4.     Select the GPU Profile you want to run.  In this study, we wanted to achieve a density of 16 vGPU machines on this host so we chose Profile ‘grid_m6-0b’ which allocates 512Mb per VM for a total of 16 per blade with the M6 Card.

*GPU Profiles for the M6 are as follows:

Install the GPU Drivers into Windows VM

It is important to note that the drivers installed with the Windows VDI desktop must match the version that accompanies the driver for the ESXi host.  So if you downgrade or upgrade the ESXi host vib, you must do the same with the NVIDIA driver in your Windows master image.

In this study we used ESXi Host Driver version 352.83 and 354.80 for the Windows VDI image. These drivers come in the same download package from NVIDIA.

To install the GPU drivers into your Windows VM, complete the following steps:

1.     Since our image is deployed via Citrix PVS, first place the image in Private Mode.

2.     Double-click file ‘354.80_grid_win8_win7_international’

3.     Select Agree and Continue.

4.     Click Next to use Express Installation.

5.     The driver and software will be installed and click ‘Finish’ to complete install.

Install and Configure NVIDIA Grid License Server

To use NVIDIA’s vGPU features you must setup a Grid Licensing server. The detailed instructions for setting up a Grid License server can be found in the Grid Quick Start guide: http://images.nvidia.com/content/grid/pdf/grid-2.0-quick-start-guide.pdf

The license server requires a fixed IP address. The IP address may be assigned through DHCP or can be statically configured. The server’s Ethernet MAC address is used as a unique identifier when registering the server and generating licenses in NVIDIA’s licensing portal. The server runs on either Windows or Linux.

To create a server interface, complete the following steps:

1.     Select Create License Server from under GRID Licensing in the left pane of the NVIDIA Software Licensing Center page to display the Create Server page.

2.     Fill in your server details on the Create Server page.

The License Server ID field is the MAC address of the VM of the License server.

3.     Save the .bin file onto your license server for installation. Java is required to install the NVIDIA GRID License Server. The package comes in a .zip file.

4.     Unzip the license server installer.

5.     Run setup.exe and follow the installation wizard.

6.     Go to http://<FQDN of the license Server>:8080/licserver to display the License Server Configuration page. You will need the License Server’s MAC Address to generate a license .bin file on the portal.

7.     Select Configuration from the menu in the left pane.

8.     Use the License Server Configuration menu to install the .bin file:

a.     Select Choose File.

b.    Use the file browser to locate the .bin file downloaded from the licensing portal web site.

9.     When the License server is properly installed, we must point our master image to the license server so the VMs with vGPUs can obtain a license.

a.     In Windows – Control Panel, double click the NVidia Control Panel.

b.    In the Control Panel, enter the IP or FQDN of the Grid License Server.  You should receive a result similar to the below image.

Testing Methodology and Results for the NVIDIA M6 Cards

In this study we have shown how the Login VSI Knowledge Worker workload can successfully run on the Cisco UCS B200 M4 Servers along with the performance results and charts. To incorporate the NVIDIA Grid M6 cards using the vGPU we were able to demonstrate that 16 vGPU enabled VMs could run simultaneously on a B200 M4 with 100+ standard, non-vGPU VMs running the Knowledge Worker workload.  What this showed was the ability for VDI administrators to add Power User or Graphics workers to the same hardware as task workers.

To illustrate the usage of the vGPU in the graphics VMs, we developed a test workload that incorporates software already used in the LoginVSI knowledge worker workload. We will illustrate how Internet Explorer 11 can utilize the vGPU while running online HTML5 videos.

Internet Explorer 11 Configuration

In the Advanced Settings tab of Internet Explorer 11, the setting ‘Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering*’ is disabled by default, thus allowing the system GPU to render content in IE.

Using a Group Policy Preference, we were able to Enable and Disable quickly.

Test Configurations

1.     To heavily utilize the IE rendering feature we created a custom workload with LoginVSI 4.1.4 that launches Internet Explorer sessions running the 480p HTML5 videos included on the VSI File Share.

2.     The workload is programmed to launch each of the 5 HTML5 videos, 2 times for a total of 10, in a staggered fashion over a period of 30 minutes.

During our typical workloads, we enable this setting to allow the software rendering instead of GPU rendering, however with the introduction of VMs with vGPUs, we ran a workload with high graphics utilization and this setting disabled to observe IE offload its rendering to the vGPU. The following were our Perfmon results on a single virtual machine with and without GPU support.

For a workload with a high graphics support requirement, beyond that required for a Windows 10 and Office 2016 Knowledge Worker, the use of a vGPU can significantly improve performance for those users.

GPU Performance Metrics

GPU metrics and how to gather and present the performance data is not always a straight forward discussion.  The nvidia-smi command that is built in when you install the GPU Manager VIB can show vGPU utilization for the 16 VMs deployed.

GPU-Z

The other tool used to gather metrics in this scenario was GPU-Z.  GPU-Z is a popular tool that can measure the GPU Load usage and other metrics. We were able to collect GPU Load usage metrics to make our graphs by Logging to a text file.  This in conjunction with PerfMon allowed us to measure the GPU vs. CPU load when our Internet Explorer HTML-5 videos were running.

Validated Hardware and Software

Table 9  lists all the components and software versions used in validating the Cisco-Nimble Solution design. Cisco and Nimble Storage provides interoperability matrices that should also be consulted to ensure support for a specific Cisco-Nimble Solution implementation.

·         Cisco UCS Hardware and Software Interoperability Tool: http://www.cisco.com/web/techdoc/ucs/interoperability/matrix/matrix.html

·         Interoperability Matrix for Cisco Nexus and MDS 9000 Products: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/storage-networking/mds-9000-nx-os-san-os-software/products-device-support-tables-list.html

·         Nimble Support Matrix: https://infosight.nimblestorage.com/InfoSight/cgi-bin/viewPDFFile?ID=array/pubs_support_matrix_2_3_rev_f.pdf (requires login)

·         VMware Compatibility Guide: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

Table 9     Infrastructure Components and Software Revisions

Components

Software

Version

Comments

Network

Cisco Nexus 9372PX

(N9k-9372PX)

6.1(2)I3(4a)

Cisco Platform Switch for ToR, MoR, EoR deployments; Provides connectivity to users and other networks and deployed in NX-OS Standalone mode

Nexus 1000V

5.2(1)SV3(1.5a)

(Optional) Distributed Virtual Switch

Cisco UCS 6248UP FI

3.1.2b

Fabric Interconnect with embedded management

Cisco MDS 9148S

6.2(13a)

16G Multilayer Fabric Switch

Compute

Cisco UCS 5108

3.1.2b

Blade Server Chassis

Cisco UCS B200M4 servers

3.1.2b

Blade Servers

Cisco ENIC Driver

2.3.0.6*

Cisco VIC Ethernet driver

Cisco FNIC Driver

1.6.0.24**

Cisco VIC FCoE driver

Adapter Firmware

4.1(1d)

Cisco VIC Adapter Firmware

Management

Cisco UCS Manager

3.1.2b

Embedded Management

vCenter plugin for Nimble

TBD

vCenter plugin for UCS

TBD

Storage

Nimble AF5000

NimbleOS 3.5.3

Nimble NCM for ESXi

3.3

Virtualization

VMware vSphere

6.0 U2a

Cisco ISO Available

VMware vCenter Server

6.0 U2

Appliance

Tools

LoginVSI

4.1.5

Other

Microsoft Active Directory/DNS

2012R2

* During this study ENIC driver version 2.3.0.6 was tested but it is highly recommended to upgrade this driver to the latest version available.

** During this study FNIC driver version 1.6.0.24 was tested but it is highly recommended to upgrade this driver to the latest version available.

Bill of Materials (BOM)

The BOM below lists the major components validated but it is not a comprehensive list.

Table 10  Cisco-Nimble Solution Bill of Materials

Line

SKU

Description

Quantity

1.0

UCSB-B200-M4

UCS B200 M4 w/o CPU, mem, drive bays, HDD, mezz

1

1.1

UCS-CPU-E52680E

2.40 GHz E5-2680 v4/85W 6C/15MB Cache/DDR4 1866MHz

2

1.2

UCS-MR-1X1322RV-A

32GB DDR4-2400-MHz RDIMM/PC4-19200/dual rank/x4/1.2v

16

1.3

UCSB-MLOM-40G-03

Cisco UCS VIC 1340 modular LOM for blade servers

1

1.4

UCSB-HS-EP-M4-F

CPU Heat Sink for UCS B200 M4/B420 M4 (Front)

1

1.5

UCSB-HS-EP-M4-R

CPU Heat Sink for UCS B200 M4/B420 M4 (Rear)

1

1.6

UCSB-LSTOR-BK

FlexStorage blanking panels w/o controller, w/o drive bays

2

1.7

NVidia M6 GPU card for B200 M4

1

1.8

C1UCS-OPT-OUT

Cisco ONE Data Center Compute Opt Out Option

1

2.0

UCSB-5108-AC2-UPG

UCS 5108 Blade Server AC2 Chassis, 0 PSU/8 fans/0 FEX

1

2.1

N01-UAC1

Single phase AC power module for UCS 5108

1

2.2

N20-FAN5

Fan module for UCS 5108

8

2.3

N20-CBLKB1

Blade slot blanking panel for UCS 5108/single slot

7

2.4

N20-CAK

Accessory kit for UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis

1

2.5

N20-FW014

UCS Blade Server Chassis FW Package 3.1

1

2.6

UCSB-5108-PKG-HW

UCS 5108 Packaging for chassis with half width blades.

1

2.7

UCSB-PSU-2500ACDV

2500W Platinum AC Hot Plug Power Supply - DV

2

2.8

CAB-C19-CBN

Cabinet Jumper Power Cord, 250 VAC 16A, C20-C19 Connectors

2

2.9

UCS-IOM-2208XP

UCS 2208XP I/O Module (8 External, 32 Internal 10Gb ports)

2

3.0

UCS-FI-6248UP-UPG

UCS 5108 Blade Server AC2 Chassis, 0 PSU/8 fans/0 FEX

1

3.1

N10-MGT014

UCS Manager 3.1

2

3.2

UCS-ACC-6248UP

UCS 6248UP Chassis Accessory Kit

1

3.3

UCS-PSU-6248UP-AC

UCS 6248UP Power Supply/100-240VAC

2

3.4

UCS-BLKE-6200

UCS 6200 Series Expansion Module Blank

1

3.5

UCS-FAN-6248UP

UCS 6248UP Fan Module

2

3.6

UCS-FI-DL2

UCS 6248 Layer 2 Daughter Card

1

3.7

CAB-9k12A-NA

Power Cord, 125VAC 13A NEMA 5-15 Plug, North America

2

3.8

UCS-L-6200-10G-C

2nd Gen FI License to connect C-direct only

1

4.0

5.0

DS-C9148S-D12P8K9

MDS 9148S 16G FC switch, w/ 12 active ports + 8G SW SFPs

2

5.1

DS-SFP-FC8G-SW

8Gbps Fibre Channel SW SFP+, LC

12

5.2

DS-9148S-KIT-CSCO

MDS 9148S Accessory Kit for Cisco

1

5.3

CAB-9K12A-NA

Power Cord, 125VAC 13A NEMA 5-15 Plug, North America

2

5.0

AF5000-4F-48T-6400FS

Nimble AF5000 FC Connectivity with 12 x 4TB HDDs and 4 x 1.6TB SSDs

1

Summary

The Cisco-Nimble Solution delivers an infrastructure platform for Enterprise VDI deployments and cloud datacenters using Cisco and Fibre Channel-attached Nimble Storage AF5000 array. The Cisco-Nimble Solution is designed and validated using compute, network and storage best practices and high availability to reduce deployment time, project risk and IT costs while maintaining scalability and flexibility for addressing a multitude of IT initiatives.

About the Authors

Jeff Nichols, Technical Marketing Engineer, Cisco UCS Solutions Engineering, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Jeff Nichols is a Cisco Unified Computing System architect, focusing on Virtual Desktop and Application solutions with extensive experience with VMware ESX/ESXi, XenDesktop, XenApp and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services. He has expert product knowledge in application, desktop and server virtualization across all three major hypervisor platforms and supporting infrastructures including but not limited to Windows Active Directory and Group Policies, User Profiles, DNS, DHCP and major storage platforms

Bharath Ram, Sr. Technical Marketing Engineer, Nimble Storage Inc.

Bharath Ram is an SME for Virtual Desktop and Application infrastructure. He has extensive knowledge and experience in designing and implementing large scale Citrix and VMWare VDI solutions for Healthcare and Insurance domains. As a Technical Marketing Engineer, he works on creating whitepapers and reference architecture for VDI based solutions for Nimble Storage.

Jay White, Principal Technical Marketing Engineer, Nimble Storage Inc.

Jay has 20 years of experience in both the network and storage industries, including roles in Engineering, technical Sales, data center consulting, and Technical Marketing. Jay leads the Cisco-Nimble Solution related technical activity at Nimble Storage. In the past, he has provided subject matter expertise on nearly all aspects of network storage systems, including performance, file systems, protocols, storage efficiency, disaster recovery, and more.

Acknowledgements

For their support and contribution to the design, validation, and creation of this Cisco Validated Design, the authors would like to thank:

·         Mike Brennan, Technical Marketing Manager, Cisco Systems Inc.

·         Bill Heffelfinger, Sr. Director Technical Marketing, Nimble Storage Inc.

·         Arun Garg, Director, Solutions Product Management, Nimble Storage Inc.

·         Matt Miller, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Nimble Storage Inc.

Appendix A – Cisco Nexus 9372 Switch Configuration

Switch A Configuration

SP-N9K-A# sho ru

!Command: show running-config

version 6.1(2)I3(3a)

switchname SP-N9K-A

vdc SP-N9K-A id 1

allocate interface Ethernet1/1-54

limit-resource vlan minimum 16 maximum 4094

limit-resource vrf minimum 2 maximum 4096

limit-resource port-channel minimum 0 maximum 512

limit-resource u4route-mem minimum 248 maximum 248

limit-resource u6route-mem minimum 96 maximum 96

limit-resource m4route-mem minimum 58 maximum 58

limit-resource m6route-mem minimum 8 maximum 8

feature telnet

cfs ipv4 distribute

cfs eth distribute

feature udld

feature interface-vlan

feature hsrp

feature lacp

feature dhcp

feature vpc

feature lldp

username admin password 5 $1$9oM5JvS/$QwdAYtzhL1yKttz24UHmT/  role network-admin

no password strength-check

ip domain-lookup

copp profile strict

snmp-server user admin network-admin auth md5 0xb33f045ecc70424cfca355d6a205e2f8

priv 0xb33f045ecc70424cfca355d6a205e2f8 localizedkey

rmon event 1 log trap public description FATAL(1) owner PMON@FATAL

rmon event 2 log trap public description CRITICAL(2) owner PMON@CRITICAL

rmon event 3 log trap public description ERROR(3) owner PMON@ERROR

rmon event 4 log trap public description WARNING(4) owner PMON@WARNING

rmon event 5 log trap public description INFORMATION(5) owner PMON@INFO

vlan 1,70-80

vlan 70

name IB-MGMT-VLAN

vlan 71

name SP-Infra

vlan 72

name VDI

vlan 73

name Storage-1

vlan 74

name ISCSI-BOOT-1

vlan 75

name ISCSI-BOOT-2

vlan 76

name vMotion

vlan 77

name VLAN77

vlan 78

name VLAN78

vlan 79

name VLAN79

vlan 80

name Launcher80

spanning-tree port type edge bpduguard default

spanning-tree port type edge bpdufilter default

spanning-tree port type network default

route-map exit permit 10

service dhcp

ip dhcp relay

ipv6 dhcp relay

vrf context management

ip route 0.0.0.0/0 10.29.164.1

vpc domain 10

peer-switch

role priority 10

peer-keepalive destination 10.29.164.132 source 10.29.164.131

delay restore 150

peer-gateway

auto-recovery

interface Vlan1

no ip redirects

no ipv6 redirects

no shutdown

interface Vlan70

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.70.4/24

hsrp version 2

hsrp 70

preempt delay minimum 240

priority 130

timers  1  3

ip 10.10.70.1

description IB Mgmt

no shutdown

interface Vlan71

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.71.4/24

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 71

preempt

priority 130

ip 10.10.71.1

ip dhcp relay address 10.10.71.21

description Infrastructure

no shutdown

interface Vlan72

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.72.5/24

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 72

preempt

ip 10.10.72.1

ip dhcp relay address 10.10.71.21

description VDI

no shutdown

interface Vlan73

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.73.5/25

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 73

preempt

ip 10.10.73.1

description Storage 1

no shutdown

interface Vlan74

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.74.5/25

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 74

preempt

ip 10.10.74.1

description ISCSI Boot 1

no shutdown

interface Vlan75

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.75.5/25

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 75

preempt

ip 10.10.75.1

description ISCSI Boot 2

no shutdown

interface Vlan76

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.76.5/25

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 76

preempt

ip 10.10.76.1

description vMotion

no shutdown

interface Vlan77

no ip redirects

ip address 10.3.0.2/19

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 77

preempt

priority 130

ip 10.3.0.1

ip dhcp relay address 10.10.71.21

no shutdown

interface Vlan80

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.80.4/20

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 80

preempt

ip 10.10.80.1

ip dhcp relay address 10.10.71.21

no shutdown

interface port-channel10

description vPC peer-link

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

spanning-tree port type network

vpc peer-link

interface port-channel11

description SP-FI-A

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

spanning-tree port type edge trunk

mtu 9216

vpc 11

interface port-channel12

description SP-FI-B

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

spanning-tree port type edge trunk

mtu 9216

vpc 12

interface port-channel13

description Launcher-A

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

spanning-tree port type edge trunk

mtu 9216

vpc 13

interface port-channel14

description Launcher-B

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

spanning-tree port type edge trunk

mtu 9216

vpc 14

interface Ethernet1/1

switchport access vlan 70

spanning-tree port type edge

speed 1000

interface Ethernet1/2

switchport access vlan 71

speed 1000

interface Ethernet1/3

interface Ethernet1/4

interface Ethernet1/5

interface Ethernet1/6

interface Ethernet1/7

interface Ethernet1/8

interface Ethernet1/9

interface Ethernet1/10

interface Ethernet1/11

interface Ethernet1/12

interface Ethernet1/13

interface Ethernet1/14

interface Ethernet1/15

interface Ethernet1/16

interface Ethernet1/17

interface Ethernet1/18

interface Ethernet1/19

description Launcher-A:19

shutdown

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 13 mode active

interface Ethernet1/20

description Launcher-B:20

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 14 mode active

interface Ethernet1/21

interface Ethernet1/22

interface Ethernet1/23

interface Ethernet1/24

interface Ethernet1/25

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 11 mode active

interface Ethernet1/26

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 12 mode active

interface Ethernet1/27

description SP-FI-A:1/27

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 11 mode active

interface Ethernet1/28

description SP-FI-B:1/28

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 12 mode active

interface Ethernet1/29

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 13 mode active

interface Ethernet1/30

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 14 mode active

interface Ethernet1/31

interface Ethernet1/32

interface Ethernet1/33

interface Ethernet1/34

interface Ethernet1/35

interface Ethernet1/36

interface Ethernet1/37

interface Ethernet1/38

interface Ethernet1/39

interface Ethernet1/40

interface Ethernet1/41

interface Ethernet1/42

interface Ethernet1/43

interface Ethernet1/44

interface Ethernet1/45

interface Ethernet1/46

interface Ethernet1/47

description VPC Peer SP-N9K-B:1/47

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

channel-group 10 mode active

interface Ethernet1/48

description VPC Peer SP-N9K-B:1/48

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

channel-group 10 mode active

interface Ethernet1/49

interface Ethernet1/50

interface Ethernet1/51

interface Ethernet1/52

interface Ethernet1/53

interface Ethernet1/54

interface mgmt0

vrf member management

ip address 10.29.164.131/24

line console

line vty

boot nxos bootflash:/n9000-dk9.6.1.2.I3.3a.bin

SP-N9K-A#  exit

Switch B Configuration

SP-N9K-B# sho ru

!Command: show running-config

version 6.1(2)I3(3a)

switchname SP-N9K-B

vdc SP-N9K-B id 1

allocate interface Ethernet1/1-54

limit-resource vlan minimum 16 maximum 4094

limit-resource vrf minimum 2 maximum 4096

limit-resource port-channel minimum 0 maximum 512

limit-resource u4route-mem minimum 248 maximum 248

limit-resource u6route-mem minimum 96 maximum 96

limit-resource m4route-mem minimum 58 maximum 58

limit-resource m6route-mem minimum 8 maximum 8

feature telnet

cfs eth distribute

feature udld

feature interface-vlan

feature hsrp

feature lacp

feature dhcp

feature vpc

feature lldp

username admin password 5 $1$6vbjAAN7$/ciP/uU95xAu31ce49DsO/  role network-admin

ip domain-lookup

copp profile strict

snmp-server user admin network-admin auth md5 0xc9cdb92eef56e64d61657edda45c102a

priv 0xc9cdb92eef56e64d61657edda45c102a localizedkey

rmon event 1 log trap public description FATAL(1) owner PMON@FATAL

rmon event 2 log trap public description CRITICAL(2) owner PMON@CRITICAL

rmon event 3 log trap public description ERROR(3) owner PMON@ERROR

rmon event 4 log trap public description WARNING(4) owner PMON@WARNING

rmon event 5 log trap public description INFORMATION(5) owner PMON@INFO

vlan 1,70-80

vlan 70

name IB-MGMT

vlan 71

name SP-Infra

vlan 72

name VDI

vlan 73

name Storage-1

vlan 74

name ISCSI-BOOT-1

vlan 75

name ISCSI-BOOT-2

vlan 76

name vMotion

vlan 77

name VLAN77

vlan 78

name VLAN78

vlan 79

name VLAN79

vlan 80

name Launcher80

spanning-tree port type edge bpduguard default

spanning-tree port type edge bpdufilter default

spanning-tree port type network default

service dhcp

ip dhcp relay

ipv6 dhcp relay

vrf context management

ip route 0.0.0.0/0 10.29.164.1

vpc domain 10

role priority 20

peer-keepalive destination 10.29.164.131 source 10.29.164.132

delay restore 150

peer-gateway

auto-recovery

interface Vlan1

no ip redirects

no ipv6 redirects

interface Vlan70

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.70.5/24

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 70

preempt

ip 10.10.70.1

no shutdown

interface Vlan71

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.71.6/24

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 71

preempt

ip 10.10.71.1

no shutdown

interface Vlan72

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.72.6/24

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 72

preempt

ip 10.10.72.1

ip dhcp relay address 10.10.71.21

description VDI

no shutdown

interface Vlan77

no ip redirects

ip address 10.3.0.3/19

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 77

preempt

priority 130

ip 10.3.0.1

ip dhcp relay address 10.10.71.21

no shutdown

interface Vlan80

no ip redirects

ip address 10.10.80.5/20

no ipv6 redirects

hsrp version 2

hsrp 80

preempt

ip 10.10.80.1

ip dhcp relay address 10.10.71.21

no shutdown

interface port-channel10

description vPC peer-link

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

spanning-tree port type network

vpc peer-link

interface port-channel11

description SP-FI-A

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

spanning-tree port type edge trunk

mtu 9216

vpc 11

interface port-channel12

description SP-FI-B

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

spanning-tree port type edge trunk

mtu 9216

vpc 12

interface port-channel13

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

spanning-tree port type edge trunk

mtu 9216

vpc 13

interface port-channel14

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

spanning-tree port type edge trunk

mtu 9216

vpc 14

interface Ethernet1/1

switchport access vlan 71

speed 1000

interface Ethernet1/2

interface Ethernet1/3

interface Ethernet1/4

interface Ethernet1/5

interface Ethernet1/6

interface Ethernet1/7

interface Ethernet1/8

interface Ethernet1/9

interface Ethernet1/10

interface Ethernet1/11

interface Ethernet1/12

interface Ethernet1/13

interface Ethernet1/14

interface Ethernet1/15

interface Ethernet1/16

interface Ethernet1/17

interface Ethernet1/18

interface Ethernet1/19

description Launcher-A:19-b

shutdown

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 13 mode active

interface Ethernet1/20

description Launcher-B:20-b

shutdown

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 14 mode active

interface Ethernet1/21

interface Ethernet1/22

interface Ethernet1/23

interface Ethernet1/24

interface Ethernet1/25

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 11 mode active

interface Ethernet1/26

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 12 mode active

interface Ethernet1/27

description SP-FI-B:1/27

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 11 mode active

interface Ethernet1/28

description SP-FI-A:1/28

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 12 mode active

interface Ethernet1/29

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 13 mode active

interface Ethernet1/30

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

mtu 9216

channel-group 14 mode active

interface Ethernet1/31

interface Ethernet1/32

interface Ethernet1/33

interface Ethernet1/34

interface Ethernet1/35

interface Ethernet1/36

interface Ethernet1/37

interface Ethernet1/38

interface Ethernet1/39

interface Ethernet1/40

interface Ethernet1/41

interface Ethernet1/42

interface Ethernet1/43

interface Ethernet1/44

interface Ethernet1/45

interface Ethernet1/46

interface Ethernet1/47

description VPC Peer SP-N9K-A:1/47

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

channel-group 10 mode active

interface Ethernet1/48

description VPC Peer SP-N9K-A:1/48

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,70-80

channel-group 10 mode active

interface Ethernet1/49

interface Ethernet1/50

interface Ethernet1/51

interface Ethernet1/52

interface Ethernet1/53

interface Ethernet1/54

interface mgmt0

vrf member management

ip address 10.29.164.132/24

line console

line vty

boot nxos bootflash:/n9000-dk9.6.1.2.I3.3a.bin

SP-N9K-B#  exit

Appendix B – Cisco MDS 9148 Switch Configuration

MDS- A Switch Configuration

MDS-A# sho ru

!Command: show running-config

!Time: Mon Mar 21 01:32:00 2016

version 6.2(9a)

power redundancy-mode redundant

feature npiv

feature fport-channel-trunk

feature fcsp

role name default-role

description This is a system defined role and applies to all users.

rule 5 permit show feature environment

rule 4 permit show feature hardware

rule 3 permit show feature module

rule 2 permit show feature snmp

rule 1 permit show feature system

username admin password 5 $1$loX7vizP$00IbhSFcpx6WufBmOMKB.1  role network-admin

ip domain-lookup

ip host MDS-A  10.29.164.64

aaa group server radius radius

snmp-server user admin network-admin auth md5 0x6c81eb7167a2e69497a60698ca3957da

priv 0x6c81eb7167a2e69497a60698ca3957da localizedkey

snmp-server host 10.155.160.192 traps version 2c public udp-port 1163

snmp-server host 10.29.164.130 traps version 2c public udp-port 1163

rmon event 1 log trap public description FATAL(1) owner PMON@FATAL

rmon event 2 log trap public description CRITICAL(2) owner PMON@CRITICAL

rmon event 3 log trap public description ERROR(3) owner PMON@ERROR

rmon event 4 log trap public description WARNING(4) owner PMON@WARNING

rmon event 5 log trap public description INFORMATION(5) owner PMON@INFO

vsan database

vsan 3 name "VSAN3-A"

device-alias database

device-alias name SP-Infra1-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:2f

device-alias name SP-Infra2-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:0f

device-alias name SP-VDI-01-fc0 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:2c

device-alias commit

fcdomain fcid database

vsan 3 wwn 20:1f:00:2a:6a:d3:df:80 fcid 0x300000 dynamic

vsan 3 wwn 20:20:00:2a:6a:d3:df:80 fcid 0x300100 dynamic

vsan 3 wwn 52:4a:93:72:0d:21:6b:01 fcid 0x300200 dynamic

vsan 3 wwn 52:4a:93:72:0d:21:6b:11 fcid 0x300300 dynamic

vsan 3 wwn 52:4a:93:72:0d:21:6b:10 fcid 0x300400 dynamic

vsan 1 wwn 52:4a:93:72:0d:21:6b:11 fcid 0x290000 dynamic

vsan 1 wwn 52:4a:93:72:0d:21:6b:10 fcid 0x290100 dynamic

vsan 1 wwn 20:20:00:2a:6a:d3:df:80 fcid 0x290200 dynamic

vsan 1 wwn 24:01:00:2a:6a:d3:df:80 fcid 0x290300 dynamic

vsan 3 wwn 24:01:00:2a:6a:d3:df:80 fcid 0x300500 dynamic

vsan 3 wwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01 fcid 0x300600 dynamic

vsan 3 wwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05 fcid 0x300700 dynamic

vsan 1 wwn 52:4a:93:72:0d:21:6b:00 fcid 0x290400 dynamic

interface port-channel1

channel mode active

switchport rate-mode dedicated

vsan database

vsan 3 interface port-channel1

vsan 3 interface fc1/9

vsan 3 interface fc1/10

switchname MDS-A

line console

line vty

boot kickstart bootflash:/m9100-s5ek9-kickstart-mz.6.2.9a.bin

boot system bootflash:/m9100-s5ek9-mz.6.2.9a.bin

interface fc1/1

interface fc1/2

interface fc1/11

interface fc1/12

interface fc1/3

interface fc1/4

interface fc1/5

interface fc1/6

interface fc1/7

interface fc1/8

interface fc1/9

interface fc1/10

interface fc1/13

interface fc1/14

interface fc1/15

interface fc1/16

interface fc1/17

interface fc1/18

interface fc1/19

interface fc1/20

interface fc1/21

interface fc1/22

interface fc1/23

interface fc1/24

interface fc1/25

interface fc1/26

interface fc1/27

interface fc1/28

interface fc1/29

interface fc1/30

interface fc1/31

interface fc1/32

interface fc1/33

interface fc1/34

interface fc1/35

interface fc1/36

interface fc1/37

interface fc1/38

interface fc1/39

interface fc1/40

interface fc1/41

interface fc1/42

interface fc1/43

interface fc1/44

interface fc1/45

interface fc1/46

interface fc1/47

interface fc1/48

interface fc1/1

interface fc1/2

interface fc1/11

interface fc1/12

!Active Zone Database Section for vsan 3

zone name SP-Infra1-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:2f

!               [SP-Infra1-fc0]

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-Infra2-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:0f

!               [SP-Infra2-fc0]

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-01-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:2c

!               [SP-VDI-01-fc0]

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-02-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:0c

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

zone name SP-VDI-03-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:4b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-04-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:2b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-05-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:0b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-06-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:4a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-07-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:2a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-08-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:0a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-09-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:59

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-10-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:5c

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-11-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:29

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-12-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:09

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-13-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:48

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-14-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:18

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zoneset name SP-Infra-A vsan 3

member SP-Infra1-fc0

member SP-Infra2-fc0

member SP-VDI-01-fc0

member SP-VDI-02-fc0

member SP-VDI-03-fc0

member SP-VDI-04-fc0

member SP-VDI-05-fc0

member SP-VDI-06-fc0

member SP-VDI-07-fc0

member SP-VDI-08-fc0

member SP-VDI-09-fc0

member SP-VDI-10-fc0

member SP-VDI-11-fc0

member SP-VDI-12-fc0

member SP-VDI-13-fc0

member SP-VDI-14-fc0

zoneset activate name SP-Infra-A vsan 3

do clear zone database vsan 3

!Full Zone Database Section for vsan 3

zone name SP-Infra1-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:2f

!               [SP-Infra1-fc0]

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-Infra2-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:0f

!               [SP-Infra2-fc0]

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-01-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:2c

!               [SP-VDI-01-fc0]

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-02-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:0c

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

zone name SP-VDI-03-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:4b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-04-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:2b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-05-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:0b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-06-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:4a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-07-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:2a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-08-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:0a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-09-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:59

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-10-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:5c

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-11-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:29

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-12-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:09

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-13-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:48

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zone name SP-VDI-14-fc0 vsan 3

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:18

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:01

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:05

zoneset name SP-Nimble-A vsan 3

zoneset name SP-Infra-A vsan 3

member SP-Infra1-fc0

member SP-Infra2-fc0

member SP-VDI-01-fc0

member SP-VDI-02-fc0

member SP-VDI-03-fc0

member SP-VDI-04-fc0

member SP-VDI-05-fc0

member SP-VDI-06-fc0

member SP-VDI-07-fc0

member SP-VDI-08-fc0

member SP-VDI-09-fc0

member SP-VDI-10-fc0

member SP-VDI-11-fc0

member SP-VDI-12-fc0

member SP-VDI-13-fc0

member SP-VDI-14-fc0

interface fc1/1

switchport trunk mode off

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/2

switchport trunk mode off

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/3

switchport trunk mode off

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/4

switchport trunk mode off

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/5

port-license acquire

interface fc1/6

port-license acquire

interface fc1/7

no port-license

no shutdown

interface fc1/8

no port-license

no shutdown

interface fc1/9

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/10

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/11

port-license acquire

channel-group 1 force

no shutdown

interface fc1/12

port-license acquire

channel-group 1 force

no shutdown

interface fc1/13

interface fc1/14

interface fc1/15

interface fc1/16

interface fc1/17

interface fc1/18

interface fc1/19

interface fc1/20

interface fc1/21

interface fc1/22

interface fc1/23

interface fc1/24

interface fc1/25

interface fc1/26

interface fc1/27

interface fc1/28

interface fc1/29

interface fc1/30

interface fc1/31

interface fc1/32

interface fc1/33

interface fc1/34

interface fc1/35

interface fc1/36

interface fc1/37

interface fc1/38

interface fc1/39

interface fc1/40

interface fc1/41

interface fc1/42

interface fc1/43

interface fc1/44

interface fc1/45

interface fc1/46

interface fc1/47

interface fc1/48

interface mgmt0

ip address 10.29.164.64 255.255.255.0

ip default-gateway 10.29.164.1

MDS-A#   exit

MDS- B Switch Configuration

MDS-B# sho ru

!Command: show running-config

version 6.2(9a)

power redundancy-mode redundant

feature npiv

feature fport-channel-trunk

role name default-role

description This is a system defined role and applies to all users.

rule 5 permit show feature environment

rule 4 permit show feature hardware

rule 3 permit show feature module

rule 2 permit show feature snmp

rule 1 permit show feature system

username admin password 5 $1$dcmFCg/p$0ZC5U6uhI65oOePpHfAzn0  role network-admin

no password strength-check

ip domain-lookup

ip host MDS-B  10.29.164.128

aaa group server radius radius

snmp-server user admin network-admin auth md5 0xc9e1af5dbb0bbac72253a1bef037bbbe

priv 0xc9e1af5dbb0bbac72253a1bef037bbbe localizedkey

snmp-server host 10.155.160.192 traps version 2c public udp-port 1164

snmp-server host 10.29.164.130 traps version 2c public udp-port 1164

rmon event 1 log trap public description FATAL(1) owner PMON@FATAL

rmon event 2 log trap public description CRITICAL(2) owner PMON@CRITICAL

rmon event 3 log trap public description ERROR(3) owner PMON@ERROR

rmon event 4 log trap public description WARNING(4) owner PMON@WARNING

rmon event 5 log trap public description INFORMATION(5) owner PMON@INFO

vsan database

vsan 4 name "SP-FAB-B"

device-alias database

device-alias name SP-Infra1-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3f

device-alias name SP-Infra2-fc1 pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1f

device-alias commit

fcdomain fcid database

vsan 4 wwn 24:01:00:2a:6a:d9:84:c0 fcid 0x5b0000 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02 fcid 0x5b0100 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06 fcid 0x5b0200 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:5a fcid 0x5b0001 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1b fcid 0x5b0002 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:19 fcid 0x5b0003 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1a fcid 0x5b0004 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3a fcid 0x5b0005 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1f fcid 0x5b0006 dynamic

!            [SP-Infra2-fc1]

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:58 fcid 0x5b0007 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3c fcid 0x5b0008 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3f fcid 0x5b0009 dynamic

!            [SP-Infra1-fc1]

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:5b fcid 0x5b000a dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3b fcid 0x5b000b dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:38 fcid 0x5b000c dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1c fcid 0x5b000d dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:49 fcid 0x5b000e dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:08 fcid 0x5b000f dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:39 fcid 0x5b0010 dynamic

vsan 4 wwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:37 fcid 0x5b0011 dynamic

interface port-channel1

channel mode active

switchport rate-mode dedicated

vsan database

vsan 4 interface port-channel1

vsan 4 interface fc1/9

vsan 4 interface fc1/10

switchname MDS-B

line console

line vty

boot kickstart bootflash:/m9100-s5ek9-kickstart-mz.6.2.9a.bin

boot system bootflash:/m9100-s5ek9-mz.6.2.9a.bin

interface fc1/1

interface fc1/2

interface fc1/11

interface fc1/12

interface fc1/3

interface fc1/4

interface fc1/5

interface fc1/6

interface fc1/7

interface fc1/8

interface fc1/9

interface fc1/10

interface fc1/13

interface fc1/14

interface fc1/15

interface fc1/16

interface fc1/17

interface fc1/18

interface fc1/19

interface fc1/20

interface fc1/21

interface fc1/22

interface fc1/23

interface fc1/24

interface fc1/25

interface fc1/26

interface fc1/27

interface fc1/28

interface fc1/29

interface fc1/30

interface fc1/31

interface fc1/32

interface fc1/33

interface fc1/34

interface fc1/35

interface fc1/36

interface fc1/37

interface fc1/38

interface fc1/39

interface fc1/40

interface fc1/41

interface fc1/42

interface fc1/43

interface fc1/44

interface fc1/45

interface fc1/46

interface fc1/47

interface fc1/48

interface fc1/1

interface fc1/2

interface fc1/11

interface fc1/12

!Active Zone Database Section for vsan 4

zone name SP-VDI-01-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3c

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-02-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1c

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-03-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:5b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

zone name SP-VDI-04-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-05-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-06-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:5a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-07-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-08-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-09-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:49

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-10-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:39

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-11-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:19

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-12-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:58

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

zone name SP-VDI-13-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:38

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-14-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:08

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-Infra1-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3f

!               [SP-Infra1-fc1]

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-Infra2-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1f

!               [SP-Infra2-fc1]

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zoneset name SP-Infra-B vsan 4

member SP-VDI-01-fc1

member SP-VDI-02-fc1

member SP-VDI-03-fc1

member SP-VDI-04-fc1

member SP-VDI-05-fc1

member SP-VDI-06-fc1

member SP-VDI-07-fc1

member SP-VDI-08-fc1

member SP-VDI-09-fc1

member SP-VDI-10-fc1

member SP-VDI-11-fc1

member SP-VDI-12-fc1

member SP-VDI-13-fc1

member SP-VDI-14-fc1

member SP-Infra1-fc1

member SP-Infra2-fc1

zoneset activate name SP-Infra-B vsan 4

do clear zone database vsan 4

!Full Zone Database Section for vsan 4

zone name SP-VDI-01-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3c

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-02-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1c

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-03-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:5b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

zone name SP-VDI-04-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-05-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1b

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-06-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:5a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-07-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-08-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1a

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-09-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:49

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-10-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:39

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-11-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:19

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-12-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:58

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

zone name SP-VDI-13-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:38

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-VDI-14-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:08

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-Infra1-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:3f

!               [SP-Infra1-fc1]

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zone name SP-Infra2-fc1 vsan 4

member pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:00:00:1f

!               [SP-Infra2-fc1]

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:02

member pwwn 56:c9:ce:90:0d:e8:24:06

zoneset name SP-Infra-B vsan 4

member SP-VDI-01-fc1

member SP-VDI-02-fc1

member SP-VDI-03-fc1

member SP-VDI-04-fc1

member SP-VDI-05-fc1

member SP-VDI-06-fc1

member SP-VDI-07-fc1

member SP-VDI-08-fc1

member SP-VDI-09-fc1

member SP-VDI-10-fc1

member SP-VDI-11-fc1

member SP-VDI-12-fc1

member SP-VDI-13-fc1

member SP-VDI-14-fc1

member SP-Infra1-fc1

member SP-Infra2-fc1

interface fc1/1

switchport trunk mode off

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/2

switchport trunk mode off

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/3

switchport trunk mode off

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/4

switchport trunk mode off

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/5

port-license acquire

interface fc1/6

port-license acquire

interface fc1/7

switchport trunk mode off

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/8

switchport trunk mode off

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/9

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/10

port-license acquire

no shutdown

interface fc1/11

port-license acquire

channel-group 1 force

no shutdown

interface fc1/12

port-license acquire

channel-group 1 force

no shutdown

interface fc1/13

interface fc1/14

interface fc1/15

interface fc1/16

interface fc1/17

interface fc1/18

interface fc1/19

interface fc1/20

interface fc1/21

interface fc1/22

interface fc1/23

interface fc1/24

interface fc1/25

interface fc1/26

interface fc1/27

interface fc1/28

interface fc1/29

interface fc1/30

interface fc1/31

interface fc1/32

interface fc1/33

interface fc1/34

interface fc1/35

interface fc1/36

interface fc1/37

interface fc1/38

interface fc1/39

interface fc1/40

interface fc1/41

interface fc1/42

interface fc1/43

interface fc1/44

interface fc1/45

interface fc1/46

interface fc1/47

interface fc1/48

interface mgmt0

ip address 10.29.164.128 255.255.255.0

ip default-gateway 10.29.164.1

MDS-B#   exit