I’ve spent the last month or so discussing the top 10 mistakes seen on desktop virtualization implementation so you can learn from other’s mistakes. I’ve discussed 9 different things so far and they were:

10.  Not calculating user bandwidth requirements

9.    Not considering the user profile

8.   Lack of Application Virtualization Strategy

7.  Improper Resource Allocation

6.  Protection from Anti-Virus

5. Managing the incoming storm

4. Not Optimizing the Desktop Image

3. Not using your Cache Wisely

2. Using VDI Defaults

And now it is time for the #1 thing that people mess up with desktop virtualization? Storage (SURPRISE). Actually, this shouldn’t be a surprise at all if you pay any attention to the blogosphere. There have been numerous discussions on this exact topic. If you haven’t yet, I’d suggest you read the white paper by Ruben Spruijt and Herco Van Brug Storage Deep Impact.

Why all of the confusion and misconfiguration of storage? When it comes to storage, most people think only about size… How much space do I need to allocate per user? With desktop virtualization, storage goes beyond simple size calculations. Virtual desktops rely on the storage infrastructure to load different parts of the operating system and user environment. Each one of the requests impacts the storage infrastructure. Without a properly designed storage subsystem, a user’s virtual desktop will slow down to the point of becoming unusable because the storage becomes a bottleneck.

In order to properly design the storage infrastructure, the architect must first be able to calculate the expected Input/Output Operations per Second (IOPS) requirements. The IOPS calculations must take the following into account:

Taking the six different parameters into account, an architect can calculate the IOPS requirements on a server-by-server basis and for the entire desktop virtualization architecture. The formula is as follows:

Total Raw IOPS=Disk Speed IOPS*# Of Disks

For example, if there are eight 72GB 15K SCSI3 drives in a RAID 10 configuration, the storage would have 720 functional IOPS.

Functional IOPS=(((Total Raw IOPS×Write %))/(RAID Penalty))+(Total Raw IOPS×Read %)

With the functional IOPS calculated for the disk subsystem, the number of desktops that can be supported is based on the phase of the desktop lifecycle. Identifying how many desktops can be simultaneously logged in with this configuration is as follows:

Total Raw IOPS=150×8=1200

Functional IOPS=(((1200× .8))/2)+(1200×.2)= 720

These calculations help identify what is possible when all desktops are doing the same activity. However, this is not likely to be the case. In fact, on each hypervisor, a portion of the desktops will be in one of the defined phases. So you, as the architect, must figure out what each server will require based on the loads experienced by each of the desktops combined. With your calculations, you might even realize you don’t need a SAN. You might be able to get by with local storage (as I’ve spoken about before).

Daniel – Lead Architect