Cisco UCS: Choosing the Best Architecture for Your Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp Implementations

Mark Balch

May 22, 2013

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Desktop and Application Virtualization: Business Drivers

2

• Security from the end points, through the network, to the data center • Risk Management

Compliance and Security

• Remote workers, tele-workers, contractors, consultants • Business Process Outsourcing

Evolving Use Cases

IT Operational Efficiency and Agility

• Centralized control and management of user desktops • Flexible desktop and application deployment

Enterprise Mobility

• Desktop access regardless of network connection • Employee productivity

Consumerization of IT—BYOD

• Desktop and data access from employee-owned assets • Policy-based access and control

Desktop Refresh Cycles

• Upgrade costs reduction • Existing desktop software life extension

Business Drivers Aligned with

the Cisco Unified Workspace

Co-sponsored by Intel®

Major Trends—Cloud Physical » Virtual » Cloud Journey

HYPERVISOR

CONSISTENCY: Policy, Features, Security, Management

• One App Per Server

• Static

• Manual Provisioning

• Many Apps Per Server

• Mobile

• Dynamic Provisioning

• Multiple Tenants Per Server

• Automated Scaling

• Elastic

3

VDC-1 VDC-2

Co-sponsored by Intel®

Cisco UCS Leadership and Momentum

4

• UCS revenue reached a $2B annualized run rate

• Data Center revenue was 515M growing 77% Y/Y

• Over 23,000 unique UCS customers which represents 89% Y/Y growth

• More than half of all Fortune 500 customers have invested in UCS

• Over 3,400 Channel Partners are actively selling UCS worldwide and over 1700 UCS specialized

• Cisco is one of the Top 5 Server Vendors based on Worldwide Revenue Share

• 73 World Record Performance Benchmarks to date

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Source: DC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, Q4 2012, February 2013, Revenue Share

4

Industry Awards / Recognition for VDI / Virtualization

Citrix XenDesktop Density and Performance on Cisco UCS

5

Source: Principled Technologies White Paper, Cisco Validated Design: Citrix XenDesktop on Cisco UCS, Cisco/Citrix Internal testing

Fastest Desktop Boot Process 5000 desktops in 30 minutes

Virtual PVS Leveraging high throughput within Cisco UCS

Optimized XenApp Delivery 208 Sessions per Cisco UCS B200 M3

• Knowledge Worker Profile (Login VSI 3.x based)

• 384 GB memory, Dual E7-2870/10 Core CPU

175 Desktops on Cisco UCS B230 M2

• Knowledge Worker Profile (Login VSI 3.x based)

• 384 GB memory, Dual E5-2690/8 Core CPU

186 Desktops on Cisco UCS B200 M3

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Scalable Design

Cisco Desktop Virtualization Solutions Portfolio Lowest Cost per Desktop with Optimized Cisco UCS Infrastructure

6

Data Center Designs/Architectures

Segment

• Scale-out environment

with shared storage

• Targeted for medium and

large scale environments

SMB

Mid-Market Enterprise

Service Provider

500 Seats 20000 Seats 5000 Seats 2000 Seats

Cisco Desktop Virtualization Designs

On-Board Design

• Integrated Solution with

Tier-0 Storage on Server

• Targeted for non-

persistent desktops

Simplified Design

• “Appliance” config with

collapsed n/w layer with

shared storage

• Targeted for medium

scale environments

Converged

Infrastructure

• Turnkey Solutions with

integrated compute stacks

• Targeted for medium and

large scale environments

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

On-Board Architecture

7

Virtual Desktops

Platform + OS/Hypervisor

Server

Write latency = ~ 30μs – 2ms

Read latency = ~ 70μs - 2ms

Density

Desktop Delivery Options

Scalability

Cost

Solution Manageability

Benefits

• High density

• Floating/Stateless Desktop delivery

• Scales linearly

• Server based Manageability

• Lower acquisition cost & TCO

Co-sponsored by Intel®

Scalable Architecture High-level Topology

Benefits

• High density

• Citrix XenDesktop non-persistent, with

personal vdisk and persistent options

• Scale-out environment

• Advanced manageability

• Variable Acquisition costs

Network Storage (connected directly to Cisco UCS® FI)

Cisco® UCS

5108 Chassis

Cisco® UCS

FI 6248 UP

8

Nexus 5548

Access Switch

Architecture Overview

HYPERVISOR

Density

Desktop Options

Scalability

Cost

Solution Manageability

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Application Performance Acceleration and Graphics Use Cases NVIDIA GRID on Cisco UCS with Citrix HDX 3Pro

9

Cisco UCS C240 M3 Rack Server

Nvidia GRID

* Based LoginVSI 3.5 Medium work load (Knowledge Worker)

Cisco UCS C240 M3 Rack Server is 2U, 2-socket server

Supports up to 186 Virtual Desktops*

Supports up to 2 x NVIDIA GRID K2

Supports up to 2 x Nvidia GRID K1

With Intel®

Xeon® processor

Citrix Pre-Excalibur Desktop Virtualization Model Today: Separation of Owners and Roles

Current Desktops and Apps Architecture

Citrix Excalibur Desktop Virtualization Model Future: One Desktops and Apps Team

FlexCast Management Architecture

Excalibur Key Features

Cisco Desktop Virtualization CVD Projects for Citrix Excalibur

13

Citrix Excalibur on

Hyper-V 2012 SMB

750–1500 Seat Mixed

Use Case Study

Citrix Excalibur on

XenServer 6.2

Enterprise

5000 Seat Mixed

Use Case Study

Citrix Excalibur on

ESXi 5.1 Midmarket

2000 Seat Mixed

Use Case Study

Citrix Excalibur on Hyper-V 2012 SMB Architecture With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Citrix Excalibur on ESXi 5.1 Mid-Market Architecture With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Citrix Excalibur on XenServer 6.2 Enterprise Architecture

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

• Physical resources deployed through APIs

• Policy-enforced compute, network, identifier resources Rapid Provisioning

CLOUD REQUIREMENTS IDEAL INFRASTRUCTURE

• Integrated compute, network, and storage resources

• Bare metal abstraction and API design Simplified Infrastructure

• Virtualization awareness and scalability without complexity

• Automation and orchestration through industry standard tools Self Service Consumption Model

• Rapid scalability of virtual and physical resources

• Automated deployment Elastic Resource Allocation

Infrastructure Capabilities Matter More than Ever

17

Co-sponsored by Intel®

• Abstraction of bare-metal configuration

• Encapsulated in Cisco service profiles

• Available through an intuitive GUI, CLI or XML API

• Over 9000 objects in system management model

Programmable Infrastructure

Cisco UCS: Bare Metal Abstraction

Cisco UCS 6200

Series Fabric Interconnects

Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Server

or Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount

Server

Cisco Virtual Interface Cards (VIC 1240, VIC 1280)

Automated, Policy-Based

Configuration of Entire Hardware Stack

Network interface

card (NIC) configuration:

MAC address, VLAN,

and QoS settings; host

bus adapter

HBA configuration:

worldwide names

WWNs), VSANs, and

bandwidth constraints;

and firmware revisions

Cisco Service Profile

18

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Uniquely Cisco: Cisco UCS Embedded Automation Integrated, Policy-Based Infrastructure Management

Subject matter expert

define policies

Uplink port configuration, VLAN,

VSAN, QoS, and EtherChannels

Server port configuration including

LAN and SAN settings

Network interface card (NIC)

configuration: MAC address,

VLAN, and QoS settings;

host bus adapter HBA configuration:

worldwide names (WWNs), VSANs,

and bandwidth constraints;

and firmware revisions

Unique user ID (UUID),

firmware revisions,

and RAID controller settings

Service profile assigned to server,

chassis slot, or pool

Uplink port configuration, VLAN,

VSAN, QoS, and EtherChannels

Server port configuration including

LAN and SAN settings

Network interface card (NIC)

configuration: MAC address,

VLAN, and QoS settings;

host bus adapter HBA configuration:

worldwide names (WWNs), VSANs,

and bandwidth constraints;

and firmware revisions

Unique user ID (UUID),

firmware revisions,

and RAID controller settings

Service profile assigned to server,

chassis slot, or pool

Uplink port configuration, VLAN,

VSAN, QoS, and EtherChannels

Server port configuration including

LAN and SAN settings

Network interface card (NIC)

configuration: MAC address,

VLAN, and QoS settings;

host bus adapter HBA configuration:

worldwide names (WWNs), VSANs,

and bandwidth constraints;

and firmware revisions

Unique user ID (UUID),

firmware revisions,

and RAID controller settings

Service profile assigned to server,

chassis slot, or pool

Uplink port configuration, VLAN,

VSAN, QoS, and EtherChannels

Server port configuration including

LAN and SAN settings

Network interface card (NIC)

configuration: MAC address,

VLAN, and QoS settings;

host bus adapter HBA configuration:

worldwide names (WWNs), VSANs,

and bandwidth constraints;

and firmware revisions

Unique user ID (UUID),

firmware revisions,

and RAID controller settings

Service profile assigned to server,

chassis slot, or pool

Uplink port configuration, VLAN,

VSAN, QoS, and EtherChannels

Server port configuration including

LAN and SAN settings

Network interface card (NIC)

configuration: MAC address,

VLAN, and QoS settings;

host bus adapter HBA configuration:

worldwide names (WWNs), VSANs,

and bandwidth constraints;

and firmware revisions

Unique user ID (UUID),

firmware revisions,

and RAID controller settings

Service profile assigned to server,

chassis slot, or pool

Policies used to

create service

profile templates

Service profile

templates create

service profiles

Associating service profiles

with hardware configures

servers automatically 1 2 3 4

19

Storage SME

Server SME

Network SME

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Designed for Scale: Physical, Virtual and Cloud

Cisco UCS

Fabric Interconnect

Cisco UCS

Fabric Extender

Rack Mount Servers

Many Form-factors—

One System Scale Without Complexity

Distributed Virtual

Blade Chassis

Self Aware, Self

Integrating System

Blade Servers

20

Unified Fabric

Cisco® Fabric Extender Architecture

V

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

App Virtualization Optimized with Cisco VM-FEX Citrix XenApp

Performance Deterministic Delivery Low Latency

Up to 67% reduction in

application networking latency

21

Near linear deterministic

application delivery with scale

Up to 50% increase in application

networking performance

Co-sponsored by Intel®

Zero Touch Integration Decouple Complexity and Scale

22

Chassis: 4

- IOM 1: UCS 2104

- IOM 2: UCS 2104

- Blade slots

occupied: 8

Chassis: 3

- IOM 1: UCS 2104

- IOM 2: UCS 2104

- Blade slots

occupied: 8

Chassis: 2

- IOM 1: UCS 2104

- IOM 2: UCS 2104

- Blade slots

occupied: 8

Chassis: 1

- IOM 1: UCS 2104

- IOM 2: UCS 2104

- Blade slots

occupied: 8

Physical Inventory Name: Cisco UCS 12

Class: System

ID: 77449-32

Name: Cisco UCS 5108

Class: Chassis

ID: 234222-33

IOM 1: Cisco UCS 2104

IOM 2: Cisco UCS 2104

Blade slot occupied: 8

Fans: 8

Increase Capacity,

Not Complexity

New Equipment

Self Integrates

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Zero Touch Integration Decouple Complexity and Scale

Chassis: 4

- IOM 1: UCS 2104

- IOM 2: UCS 2104

- Blade slots

occupied: 8

Chassis: 3

- IOM 1: UCS 2104

- IOM 2: UCS 2104

- Blade slots

occupied: 8

Chassis: 2

- IOM 1: UCS 2104

- IOM 2: UCS 2104

- Blade slots

occupied: 8

Chassis: 1

- IOM 1: UCS 2104

- IOM 2: UCS 2104

- Blade slots

occupied: 8

23

Physical Inventory Name: Cisco UCS 12

Class: System

ID: 77449-32

Increase Capacity,

Not Complexity

New Equipment

Self Integrates

Inventory and

Status Updated

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Policy Inventory

Service Profile: Default 1

Service Profile: HR-App1

Zero Touch Integration Decouple Complexity and Scale

24

Immediately Apply

Existing Policies

Increase Capacity,

Not Complexity

New Equipment

Self Integrates

Inventory and

Status Updated

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Cisco UCS and Citrix XenDesktop Management Simplification (GPU and Non-GPU Servers in Single Domain)

25

Citrix 3D PRO with

NVDIA VGX

Citrix XenApp Farm Application

Tier Servers

Citrix XenDesktop

Farm

Citrix Dynamic Desktop Controller

Citrix Provisioning Services

LAN SAN A

SAN B Mgmt

One Logical Chassis to Manage*

IDLAN Connectivity

SAN Networking

Blade Chassis’

Server Blades

Rack Servers

Tier-0 storage on server

Server Identity Management

Monitoring, Troubleshooting

*160 servers managed in a single domain as a logical chassisS: 77449-32

With Intel® Xeon® processor

Unified Manageability Across Citrix XenDesktop Farms in Multiple Cisco UCS Domains: Use Case

26

• Unifies management of multi Cisco UCS domains

• Leverages Cisco UCS Manager technology

• Simplify global operations with centralized

inventory, faults, logs and server console

• Delivers global policies, service profiles, ID pools and templates

- Foundation for high availability, disaster

recovery and workload mobility

• Model based API for large scale automation

• Manages up to 1 Million+ virtual desktops

• Manages both tenant and service

provider environments

Farm1 XenApp/

XenDesktop

Cisco UCS Manager

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Cisco UCS Manager

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Cisco UCS Manager

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Cisco UCS Manager

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Cisco UCS

Central

With Intel® Xeon®

processor

Farm2 XenApp/

XenDesktop

Farm3 XenApp/

XenDesktop

Farm4 XenApp/

XenDesktop

Case Study—University of Tennessee

CHALLENGE

SOLUTION

IMPACT

• Transform computing environment into a flexible service to meets students’ work styles

• Easily support new applications every semester

• Support increasing data and information generated by UT and students

• Cisco Desktop Virtualization Solutions with Citrix XenDesktop and NetApp

Unified Storage Architecture

• Anytime access to virtual desktops, apps, personal files, network resources for over 27,000 students and staff on university-owned and personal devices

• Students’ educational experience is improved so they can make more efficient use of their time, giving UT a competitive edge when attracting students

• Reduced cost of software/hardware refreshes, security patches; increased energy savings

• Eventually phase out some computer labs

27

Co-sponsored by Intel®

28

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Co-sponsored by Intel®

Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.