DV3243

ViewPlanner: An Automated Measurement Infrastructure for Large-Scale VDI Deployments

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is rapidly gaining acceptance as a way to efficiently consolidate and manage a large number of desktops, and deliver a user experience similar to local desktops. While the technology is available today, there is limited information on the architecture and performance of VDI deployments. Such deployments can range from hundreds to thousands and tens of thousands of desktops and can be difficult to reason about. Moreover, quality metrics such as user experience are hard to track as the environment is scaled to thousands of desktops. As such, there is a pressing need for methodology and tools to evaluate VDI architectures that enable partners and customers to make deployment decisions for maximum ROI without compromising on quality.
To address this problem, we present "View Planner" - a tool to help characterize and size VDI deployments. The tool integrates with existing VMware products and standard office applications. Through a simple web interface, it enables users to configure the environment, deploy desktops, execute workloads and report results in an automated fashion, at the same time providing valuable end user measurements. View Planner will help partners and customers understand the scalability and quality of their deployments and make informed decisions about their architecture and hardware.
We have also used View Planner in house to conduct extensive studies of the VMware platform (such as comparison between storage protocols, server and storage sizing etc.) and, as part of this talk, will also present our results and best practices recommendations.

Desktop Virtualization

Breakout Session

ViewPlanner, Automated Measurement Infrastructure, Large-Scale VDI Deployments

1 Hour

Rishi Bidarkar, Sr. MTS, VMware, Inc.
Sunil Satnur, Sr MTS, VMware, Inc.
Banit Agrawal, MTS, VMware, Inc.