Preliminary testing of VMware View with EMC FAST Cache

1© Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Preliminary testing of VMware View with EMC FAST Cache


Boot Storm with FAST Cache

Linked Clone Boot and Logon StormThis test measures the impact of boot + user login of 150 Windows XP desktops simultaneously

RAID 10 2+2 RAID Group – 15K 450GB Drives – FAST Cache 133 GB (4x73GB EFD)

Observations and Conclusions• Time to boot all desktops to usable state and log in all users decreased from 20 to 9 minutes

•Peak response time decreased from 225ms to less than 50 ms


Boot Storm with FAST Cache (Cont)

150 Desktop Linked Clone Boot and Logon Storm w/Fully Warmed CacheBoot Storm after Antivirus Scan which promotes all View Repilca data to FAST Cache

Observations and Conclusions• Time to boot all desktops reduced to 3 minutes from 20 minutes with no FAST Cache

•FAST Cache absorbs 99% of I/O – Disks never more than 45% utilized•During peak load FAST Cache is absorbing over 2,800 write IOPS and 10,000 read IOPS

•During peak load FAST Cache sinks enough write IOPS to saturate an entire shelf of 15K FC drives•During peak load FAST Cache sinks enough read IOPS to saturate 60 15K FC Drives

•Estimated number of drives required to match FAST Cache performance: 66


View Recompose

Linked Clone Pool RecomposeThis test measures the impact of a recompose operation on 150 desktops

Observations and Conclusions• Replica copy happens almost instantaneously with FAST Cache enabled

•Disk average IOPS decreased by 70% and peak IOPS by 67%•FAST Cache would enable pool recompose operations during production which could be critical in failover,

disaster recovery scenarios and change control windows


View Recompose (Cont)

Linked Clone Pool Recompose of 150 DesktopsView recompose operation bound by vCenter concurrent operations throttle

Observations and Conclusions•FAST Cache absorbs 98% of I/O – disks are never more than 28% utilized

•Host response time never exceeds 2 ms during recompose•Estimated number of drives required to match FAST Cache performance: 13


View Refresh

Linked Clone RefreshThis test measures the effect of a View Refresh of 150

Windows XP desktops

Observations•Refresh lasted same duration with and without FASTcache due to vCenter throttling •Average disk IOPS decreased by 73%•Peak disk IOPS decreased by 75%

Conclusion• Substantially lower average and peak disk usage with FAST Cache enables remediation of virtual desktops while still delivering high performance•On demand refresh of non-persistent desktop pool members can be scheduled in real time during production hours which is an enabling technology for truly non-persistent pools of stateless desktops•Scale testing should show FAST Cache will enable significantly high user per spindle density due to decreased disk workload


View Refresh (Cont)

View Refresh of 150 DesktopsView refresh operation bound by vCenter concurrent operations throttle

Observations and Conclusions•FAST Cache absorbs 99% of I/O – disks are never more than 24% utilized

•Host response time never exceeds 5 ms during refresh•Estimated number of drives required to match FAST Cache performance: 18


Antivirus Scan

Antivirus ScanThis test measures the impact of running antivirus scan simultaneously on 150 desktops

Observations and Conclusions• Time to scan a desktops decreased from 67 to 15 minutes with FAST Cache

• 87.2% decrease in Peak Lun Response time • Peak Host Response time decreased from 382 ms to 11.86 ms


Antivirus Scan (Cont)

Simultaneous Full Antivirus Scan of 150 Desktops McAfee 8.5i with latest patch definitions and OAS enabled

Observations and Conclusions• Average time to scan a desktop decreased from 67 to 15 minutes with FAST Cache

• Disk utilization never above 10% - FAST Cache effectively handles 100% of I/O once warmed• During peak I/O FAST Cache handles over 1,100 write IOPS and 14,300 read IOPS

•Estimated number of drives required to match FAST Cache performance: 83


Patch Updates

Patch UpdatesThis test measures the impact of patching 150 Windows XP desktops

Nine security updates applied in series and systems rebooted

Observations and Conclusions•Time to patch all the desktops decreased from 43 to 22 minutes

•Peak Guest Disk Response time decreased from 113ms to 43ms


Patch Updates (Cont)

Patch UpdatesThis test measures the impact of patching 150 Windows XP desktops

Nine security updates applied in series and systems rebooted – No randomization of the workload

Observations and Conclusions•Heaviest write workload of all tests: 45:55 read:write ratio

•During peak workload FAST Cache is absorbing 2200 write IOPS and 9000 read IOPS•Estimated number of drives to equal FAST Cache performance: 60


RAWC Task Worker

Application Operation Baseline FAST Cache

MS Excel-Close 0.01 0.01

MS Excel-Open 2.45 1.49

MS Excel-Save_1 0.41 0.44

MS Excel-Save_2 0.11 0.08

MS IntExplorer-Close 0.01 0.01

MS IntExplorer-Open 0.41 0.57

MSOutlook-Close 0.36 0.36

MSOutlook-Open 1.20 1.03

MS PowerPT-Close 0.02 0.02

MS PowerPT-Open 1.51 1.48

MSWord-Doc01-Close 0.25 0.25

MSWord-Doc01-Open 0.88 0.90

MSWord-Doc01-Save_1 0.06 0.04

MSWord-Doc02-Close 0.25 0.25

MSWord-Doc02-Open 2.73 0.99

MSWord-Doc02-Save_1 0.20 0.05

PDF-Close 0.38 0.37

PDF-Open 17.49 5.17

RAWC Test RunThis test simulates 150 task workers running common

Office applications, Adobe Reader and IE8.

Observations•Neither test run is completely storage bound at this user density.•FAST Cache enables improved application response times even when not storage bound due to lower latency access times

Conclusion• Scale testing should show FAST Cache enabling higher user density for a given set of disks which will drive lower TCO, CapEx and OpEx costs as well as higher ROI

Documents

Preliminary testing of VMware View with EMC FAST Cache