Wyse Datacenter for VMware Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode RA

A Dell Reference Architecture
Wyse Datacenter for VMware Horizon Air
Hybrid-Mode
A Reference Architecture for the design, configuration and implementation of a
VMware Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode environment.
Dell Cloud Client-Computing Engineering
August 2016

2 Wyse Datacenter for VMware Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode
Revisions
Date Description
August 2016 Initial release
THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES.
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other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Table of contents
Revisions............................................................................................................................................................................................. 2
1 Introduction................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
1.1 Purpose............................................................................................................................................................................. 5
1.2 Scope ................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
2 Solution Architecture Overview ..............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Physical Architecture Overview....................................................................................................................................6
2.3 Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode..............................................................................................................................................6
2.4 Solution Layers ................................................................................................................................................................ 7
2.4.1 Networking....................................................................................................................................................................... 7
2.4.2 Virtual SAN Ready Node (VSRN) ...................................................................................................................................8
2.4.3 Virtual SAN Storage.........................................................................................................................................................9
2.5 Virtual SAN Ready Node ..............................................................................................................................................10
2.5.1 Virtual SAN Ready Node (Hybrid Configuration).....................................................................................................10
2.5.2 Virtual SAN Ready Node– Network Architecture....................................................................................................10
3 Hardware Components.......................................................................................................................................................... 12
3.1 Network .......................................................................................................................................................................... 12
3.1.1 Dell Networking S3048 (1Gb ToR Switch)................................................................................................................ 12
3.1.2 Dell Networking S4048 (10Gb ToR Switch) ............................................................................................................. 13
3.2 Virtual SAN Ready Nodes (VSRN) ............................................................................................................................... 13
3.2.1 VSRN R730 HY-8........................................................................................................................................................... 14
3.2.2 VSRN R730XD HY-8 ..................................................................................................................................................... 15
3.3 Wyse Thin Clients.......................................................................................................................................................... 16
3.3.1 Wyse 5030 PCoIP Zero Client .................................................................................................................................... 16
3.3.2 Wyse 5050 AIO PCoIP Zero Client ............................................................................................................................ 16
3.3.3 Wyse 7030 PCoIP Zero Client .................................................................................................................................... 17
3.3.4 Wyse 5010 Thin Client (ThinOS) with PCoIP............................................................................................................ 17
3.3.5 Wyse 5040 AIO Thin Client with PCoIP.................................................................................................................... 18
3.3.6 Wyse 3030 LT Thin Client (ThinOS)........................................................................................................................... 18
3.3.7 Wyse 5010 Thin Client (Windows Embedded 8 Standard) .................................................................................... 18
3.3.8 Wyse 7010 Thin Client (Windows Embedded Standard 8) .................................................................................... 19

3.3.9 Dell Venue 11 Pro.......................................................................................................................................................... 19
3.3.10 Dell Chromebook 13................................................................................................................................................ 19
3.3.11Wyse 5020 Thin Client.................................................................................................................................................20
3.3.12Wyse 7040 Thin Client.................................................................................................................................................20
4 Software Components............................................................................................................................................................ 21
4.1 VMware vSphere 6........................................................................................................................................................ 21
4.2 What’s new in this release of Virtual SAN? ............................................................................................................... 21
4.3 Horizon Air Hybrid (HAH) Virtual Appliances ...........................................................................................................22
4.4 Horizon Air Hybrid Control Plane ..............................................................................................................................23
5 Solution Architecture for Horizon Air Hybrid .....................................................................................................................24
5.1 Management Server Infrastructure............................................................................................................................24
5.1.1 DNS..................................................................................................................................................................................24
5.2 Storage Architecture Overview ..................................................................................................................................24
5.2.1 Virtual SAN Local Storage............................................................................................................................................24
5.3 Virtual Networking ........................................................................................................................................................25
5.3.1 HAHM-VSRN Network Configuration .......................................................................................................................25
5.4 Scaling Guidance ..........................................................................................................................................................27
5.5 Solution High Availability .............................................................................................................................................29
5.5.1 Virtual SAN HA/FTT Configuration.............................................................................................................................29
5.5.2 vSphere HA (Shared Tier 1) ..........................................................................................................................................30
5.5.3 HAHM High Availability ................................................................................................................................................30
5.6 Horizon Air Hybrid Communication Flow................................................................................................................ 31
6 Solution Performance and Testing.......................................................................................................................................32
Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................................................................33
About the Authors...........................................................................................................................................................................33

1 Introduction
1.1 Purpose
This document addresses the architecture design, configuration and implementation considerations for
the key components of the architecture required to deliver virtual desktops via VMware Horizon Air Hybrid
on VMware vSphere 6/VMware Virtual SAN 6.2.
1.2 Scope
Relative to delivering the virtual desktop environment, the objectives of this document are to:
 Define the detailed technical design for the solution
 Define the hardware requirements to support the design.
 Define the constraints which are relevant to the design.
 Define relevant risks, issues, assumptions and concessions – referencing existing ones where
possible.
 Provide a breakdown of the design into key elements such that the reader receives an incremental
or modular explanation of the design.
 Provide component selection guidance.

2 Solution Architecture Overview
2.1 Introduction
Dell Wyse Datacenter solutions provide a number of deployment options to meet your desktop
virtualization requirements. Our solution is able to provide a compelling desktop experience to a range of
employees within your organization from task workers to knowledge workers to power users. The
deployment options for Dell Wyse Datacenter include:
 Pooled Virtual Desktops (Non-persistent)
 Full Clone Virtual Desktops (Persistent)
2.2 Physical Architecture Overview
The core Virtual SAN Hybrid Ready Node architecture constitutes a Shared Tier1 model consisting of a
Cache and a Capacity Tier. The minimum requirements for this configuration is 1 x SSD for the Cache Tier
and 1 x HDD for the Capacity Tier. The management and compute nodes are configured in the same
Virtual SAN Ready Node Cluster and share the Virtual SAN software defined storage. The user data can be
hosted on a file server VM on the VSAN file system including other file server options.
2.3 Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode
Horizon Air Hybrid Mode consists of a Cloud based control plane hosted by VMware and Horizon Air
Hybrid Node which is located on-premise.
 Horizon Cloud Services – A control plane hosted in the cloud by VMware for management of
virtual desktops, applications, and user profiles hosted on on-premises infrastructure.
 Horizon Air Hybrid Node –Virtual SAN ready nodes that run on the customer’s site, connected to
the Cloud Control Plane by way of integrated Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode Software. (see section 4.4)

The top layer below represents the Cloud Control Plane and the lower two layers show the Horizon Air
Hybrid Node, consisting of the Smart Node & vSAN Ready Node layers.
2.4 Solution Layers
The Virtual SAN Ready Node Solution leverages a core set of hardware and software components
consisting of five primary layers:
 Networking Layer
 Compute & Management Server Layer
 Storage Layer (VMware Virtual SAN)
 Thin Client Layer (please refer to section 3.3)
These components have been integrated and tested to provide the optimal balance of high performance
and lowest cost per user. The Virtual SAN Ready Node stack is designed to be cost effective allowing IT
departments to implement high-performance fully virtualized desktop environments.
2.4.1 Networking
Only a single high performance Dell Networking 10Gb 48-port switch is required to get started in the
network layer. This switch hosts all solution traffic consisting of 10Gb LAN sources for smaller stacks.
Above 500 users we recommend that 10Gb LAN be used with Virtual SAN traffic separated into discrete
Switching Fabrics. Additional switches are added and stacked as required to provide High Availability for
the Network layer. When there is a requirement for 1Gb connectivity for DRAC/remote management, we
can use an existing 1Gb ToR or add a Dell Networking 1Gb 48-port switch for this function.

2.4.2 Virtual SAN Ready Node (VSRN)
The compute, management and storage layers are converged into a single server Virtual SAN Ready Node
(VSRN) appliance cluster, hosting VMware vSphere. The recommended boundaries of an individual cluster
are based on number of the nodes supported for vSphere 6 HA, which is 64.
Dell recommends that the VDI management infrastructure nodes be physically separated from the
compute resources. In this configuration both management and compute are in the same Virtual SAN
Cluster but the management node is reserved for management VMs only and this will be expanded to
depending on the size of the cluster.

2.4.3 Virtual SAN Storage
VMware Virtual SAN is software-defined storage solution fully integrated into vSphere. Once enabled on a
cluster, all the magnetic hard disks present in the hosts are pooled together to create a shared data store
that will be accessible by all hosts in the Virtual SAN cluster. Virtual machines can then be created and a
storage policy can be assigned to them. The storage policy will dictate availability / performance and
sizing.
Virtual SAN 6.2 provides two different configuration options, a hybrid configuration that leverages flash-
based devices for the cache tier and magnetic disks for the capacity tier, and an all-flash configuration.
This delivers enterprise performance and a resilient storage platform. The all-flash configuration uses flash
for both the cache tier and capacity tier.
From a hardware perspective, at least three ESXi hosts (four recommended for full resiliency options) are
required for the Virtual SAN cluster. Each host will need at least one SSD and one HDD. In the hybrid
scenario, the SSD acts as a read cache and write buffer. The read cache keeps a list of commonly
accessed disk blocks and the write cache behaves as a non-volatile write buffer. It is essential to the
performance of the Virtual SAN as all I/O goes to the SSD first. The higher the performance of the disks
then the better the performance of your virtual machines. It’s important to determine the number of
simultaneous write operations that a particular SSD is capable of sustaining in order to achieve adequate
performance.
All virtual machines deployed to Virtual SAN have an availability policy setting that ensures at least one
additional copy of the virtual machine data is available; this includes the write cache contents. When a
write is initiated by the VM then it is sent to both the local write cache on the owning host and also to the
write cache on the remote hosts. This ensures we have a copy of the in cache data in the event of a host
failure and no data will get corrupted. If a block is requested and not found in the read cache, the request
is directed to the HDD.

Magnetic hard disk drives (referred to as HDDs from here on) have two roles in the hybrid Virtual SAN
model. They make up the capacity of the Virtual SAN data store as well as the stripe width of the
components stored within. SAS, NL-SAS and SATA drives are supported per the Virtual SAN HCL.
VMware recommends configuring 10% of projected HDD space as SSD cache storage on the hosts. If a
higher ratio or capacity is required, then multiple disk groups should be created as there is a limit of 1 SSD
per disk group.
Virtual SAN implements a distributed RAID concept across all hosts in the cluster, so if a host or a
component within a host (e.g. an HDD or SSD) fails then virtual machines still have a full complement of
data objects available and can continue to run. This availability is defined on a per-VM basis through the
use of VM storage policies.
There are two ways to build a Virtual SAN cluster, build your custom configuration using the HCL Link or
choose the Dell VMware Certified Ready Nodes Link.
2.5 Virtual SAN Ready Node
2.5.1 Virtual SAN Ready Node (Hybrid Configuration)
The vSAN Ready Node (vSRN) Horizon Air Hybrid Shared Tier 1 configuration consists on a combined
Management and Compute Cluster. There is a requirement to have access to a network share which does
not have to be located on the Cluster. This share will host the Master Desktop & Application images used
by Horizon Air Hybrid (HAH).
The minimum recommended number of Nodes in this Hybrid Cluster is four, this allows for diskgroup
maintenance and other operational activity without having to the take the Cluster offline.
The R730 HY-8 configuration is using the x16 backplane and consists of two disk groups; each diskgroup
consists of 1 x SSD + 7 x HDDs.
2.5.2 Virtual SAN Ready Node– Network Architecture
In the Shared Tier 1 architecture, a single Dell Networking switch is shared among all network connections
for both management and compute, up to 500 users. Over 500 users Dell Wyse Solutions Engineering
recommends separating the network Fabrics to isolate Virtual SAN and LAN traffic as well as making each

switch stack redundant. Only the compute servers connect to Virtual SAN storage in this model. All Top of
Rack (ToR) traffic is layer 2 (L2)/ switched locally, with all layer 3 (L3)/ routable VLANs trunked from a core
or distribution switch. The following diagrams illustrate the logical data flow in relation to the core switch.

3 Hardware Components
3.1 Network
The following sections contain the core network components for the Dell Wyse Datacenter solutions.
General uplink cabling guidance to consider in all cases is that TwinAx is very cost effective for short 10Gb
runs and for longer runs use fiber with SFPs.
3.1.1 Dell Networking S3048 (1Gb ToR Switch)
Accelerate applications in high-performance environments with a low-latency top-of-rack (ToR) switch
that features 48 x 1GbE and 4 x 10GbE ports, a dense 1U design and up to 260Gbps performance. The
S3048-ON also supports Open Network Installation Environment (ONIE) for zero-touch installation of
alternate network operating systems.
Model Features Options Uses
Dell Networking
S3048-ON
48 x 1000BaseT
4 x 10Gb SFP+
Non-blocking, line-rate
performance
260Gbps full-duplex
bandwidth
131 Mpps forwarding rate
Redundant hot-swap
PSUs & fans
1Gb
connectivity
VRF-lite, Routed VLT,
VLT Proxy Gateway
User port stacking (up
to 6 switches)
Open Networking
Install Environment
(ONIE)

3.1.2 Dell Networking S4048 (10Gb ToR Switch)
Optimize your network for virtualization with a high-density, ultra-low-latency ToR switch that features 48
x 10GbE SFP+ and 6 x 40GbE ports (or 72 x 10GbE ports in breakout mode) and up to 720Gbps
performance. The S4048-ON also supports ONIE for zero-touch installation of alternate network
operating systems.
Model Features Options Uses
Dell Networking
S4048-ON
48 x 10Gb SFP+
6 x 40Gb QSFP+
Non-blocking, line-rate
performance
1.44Tbps bandwidth
720 Gbps forwarding rate
VXLAN gateway support
Redundant hot-swap
PSUs & fans
10Gb
connectivity
72 x 10Gb SFP+ ports
with breakout cables
User port stacking (up
to 6 switches)
Open Networking
Install Environment
(ONIE)
3.2 Virtual SAN Ready Nodes (VSRN)
In the Shared Tier 1 model, VDI sessions execute from shared storage on each Compute server, here that
storage is hosted locally. The hypervisor used in this solution is VMware vSphere. In this model, both the
Compute and Management server hosts access Virtual SAN storage. The management VLANs are
configured across 2 x 10Gb on the additional 10Gb NIC but can also be configured across the 2 x 1Gb
Network Daughter Cards (NDCs) if 1Gb is the only option.

3.2.1 VSRN R730 HY-8
The foundation of the Dell Wyse Datacenter solution portfolio is the best-in-class Dell PowerEdge R730.
This dual socket CPU platform runs the fastest Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 family of processors, can host up to
24 DIMMs of DDR4 RAM, supports up to 16 x 2.5” SAS disks and can be outfitted with 2 double-wide GPU
accelerators from AMD or NVIDIA. The Dell PowerEdge R730 offers uncompromising performance and
scalability in a 2U form factor. 1100w power supplies are required when using GPUs.
VSRN Host
PowerEdge R730
2 x Intel Xeon E5-2698v4 Processor (2.2Ghz)
512GB Memory (16 x 32GB RDIMMs, 2400MT/s)
VMware vSphere on internal 16GB Dual SD
2 x 400GB SSD (Caching)
14 x 1.2TB SAS (Capacity)
PERC H730 Integrated RAID Controller
Embedded 2 x Intel X520 DP 10Gb DA/SFP+
Embedded 2 x Intel I350 DP 1Gb Ethernet
Intel X520 DP 2 x 10Gb DA/SFP+ Server Adapter, LP
iDRAC8 Enterprise
2 x 750W PSUs

3.2.2 VSRN R730XD HY-8
The Dell 730XD is a 2U platform that can be configured with 24 x 2.5” disks or 12 x 3.5” disks to serve a
broad range of capacity requirements. Each appliance comes equipped with dual CPUs, 10 to 20 cores,
and up to 512GB of high-performance RAM by default. A minimum of six disks is required in each host, 3 x
SSD for the Cache tier (Tier1) and 3 x HDD for the Capacity tier which can be expanded up to 21 capacity
disks. This configuration supports three diskgroups. The 16GB mirrored pair of SD modules boots the ESXi
hypervisor while the PERC H730p is configured in pass-through mode connecting to the SSDs and HDDs.
There is a second boot option with the addition of the 2 x Flexi bay drives and with this configuration we
are not restricted to 512 GB which is the maximum support amount of memory supported for SD boot.
Each platform can be outfitted with SFP+ or BaseT NICs.
VSRN Host
PowerEdge R730XD
2 x Intel Xeon E5-2698v4 Processor (2.2Ghz)
512GB Memory (16 x 32GB RDIMMs, 2400MT/s)
VMware vSphere on internal 16GB Dual SD
3 x 400GB SSD (Caching)
18 x 1.2TB SAS (Capacity)
PERC H730 Integrated RAID Controller
Embedded 2 x Intel X520 DP 10Gb DA/SFP+
Embedded 2 x Intel I350 DP 1Gb Ethernet
Intel X520 DP 2 x 10Gb DA/SFP+ Server Adapter, LP
iDRAC8 Enterprise
2 x 750W PSUs

3.3 Wyse Thin Clients
The following Dell Wyse clients will deliver a superior VMware Horizon View user experience and are the
recommended choices for this solution.
3.3.1 Wyse 5030 PCoIP Zero Client
For uncompromising computing with the benefits of secure, centralized
management, the Dell Wyse 5030 PCoIP zero client for VMware View is
a secure, easily managed zero client that provides outstanding graphics
performance for advanced applications such as CAD, 3D solids
modeling, video editing and advanced worker-level office productivity
applications. Smaller than a typical notebook, this dedicated zero client is designed specifically for VMware
View. It features the latest processor technology from Teradici to process the PCoIP protocol in silicon
and includes client-side content caching to deliver the highest level of performance available over 2 HD
displays in an extremely compact, energy-efficient form factor. The Dell Wyse 5030 delivers a rich user
experience while resolving the challenges of provisioning, managing, maintaining and securing enterprise
desktops. For more information, please visit: Link.
3.3.2 Wyse 5050 AIO PCoIP Zero Client
The Wyse 5050 All-in-One (AIO) PCoIP zero client combines
the security and performance of the Wyse 5030 PCoIP zero
client for VMware with the elegant design of Dell’s best-
selling P24 LED monitor. The Wyse 5050 AIO provides a best-
in-class virtual experience with superior manageability – at a
better value than purchasing a zero client and high resolution
monitor separately. A dedicated hardware PCoIP engine
delivers the highest level of display performance available for
advanced applications, including CAD, 3D solids modeling,
video editing and more. Elegant in appearance and energy
efficient, the Wyse 5050 AIO is a fully functional VMware View endpoint that delivers a true PC-like
experience. It offers the full benefits of an efficient and secure centralized computing environment, like
rich multimedia, high-resolution 3D graphics, HD media, and full USB peripheral interoperability locally
(LAN) or remotely (WAN). For more information, please visit: Link.

3.3.3 Wyse 7030 PCoIP Zero Client
The Wyse 7030 PCoIP zero client from Dell offers an outstanding rich graphics user
experience with the benefits of secure, centralized management. It is a secure, easily
managed zero client that provides outstanding graphics performance for advanced
applications such as CAD, 3D solids modeling, video editing and advanced worker-level
office productivity applications. About the size of a notebook, this dedicated zero client
designed specifically for VMware View. It features the latest processor technology from
Teradici to process the PCoIP protocol in silicon and includes client-side content
caching to deliver the highest level of display performance available over 4 HD displays
in a compact, energy-efficient form factor. The Dell Wyse 7030 delivers a rich user experience while
resolving the challenges of provisioning, managing, maintaining and securing enterprise desktops. For
more information, please visit: Link.
3.3.4 Wyse 5010 Thin Client (ThinOS) with PCoIP
Designed for knowledge workers and power users, the Wyse 5010 thin client with
ThinOS and PCoIP is a high-performance thin client based on Dell Wyse ThinOS, the
virus-resistant firmware base designed for optimal thin client security, performance,
and ease-of-use. Highly secure, compact and powerful, the Wyse 5010 combines Dell
Wyse ThinOS with a dual-core AMD processor and a revolutionary unified graphics
engine for an outstanding user experience. The Wyse 5010 (ThinOS) addresses the
performance challenges of processing-intensive applications like computer-aided
design, multimedia, HD video and 3D modeling. Scalable enterprise-wide on-premise
or cloud-based management provides simple deployment, patching and updates. Take
a unit from box to productivity in minutes with auto configuration. Delivering
outstanding processing speed and power, security and display performance, the Wyse
5010 (ThinOS) offers a unique combination of performance, efficiency, and affordability. The Wyse 5010
(ThinOS) is Citrix HDX, Microsoft® RemoteFX, and VMware® Horizon View certified. It also supports
legacy peripherals via an optional USB adapter. For more information, please visit: Link.

3.3.5 Wyse 5040 AIO Thin Client with PCoIP
The Dell Wyse 5040 AIO all-in-one (AIO) thin client with
PCoIP offers versatile connectivity options for use in a wide
range of industries. With four USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet
and integrated dual band Wi-Fi options, users can link to their
peripherals and quickly connect to the network while working
with processing-intensive, graphics-rich applications. Built-in
speakers, a camera and a microphone make video
conferencing and desktop communication simple and easy. It
even supports a second attached display for those who need
a dual monitor configuration. A simple one-cord design and
out-of-box automatic setup makes deployment effortless
while remote management from a simple file server, Wyse Device Manager (WDM), or Wyse Thin Client
Manager can help lower your total cost of ownership as you grow from just a few thin clients to tens of
thousands.
3.3.6 Wyse 3030 LT Thin Client (ThinOS)
The Wyse 3030 LT thin client from Dell offers an excellent user experience within a cost-
effective offering, and features the virus resistant and extremely efficient Wyse ThinOS, for
environments in which security is critical—there’s no attack surface to put your data at risk.
The 3030 LT delivers outstanding performance based on its dual core processor design,
and delivers smooth multimedia, bi-directional audio and flash playback. Boot up in just
seconds and log in securely to almost any network. In addition, the Wyse 3030 LT is
designed for smooth playback of high bit-rate HD video and graphics within a very
compact form factor, with very efficient energy consumption and low heat emissions.
Using less than 7 watts of electricity, the Wyse 3030 LT’s small size enables discrete mounting options:
under desks, to walls, and behind monitors, creating cool workspaces in every respect.
3.3.7 Wyse 5010 Thin Client (Windows Embedded 8 Standard)
In addition to Wyse ThinOS, the Dell Wyse 5010 thin client is available with Windows
Embedded Standard 8 and packs dual-core processing power into a compact form
factor for knowledge workers who need performance for demanding virtual Windows®
desktops and cloud applications. It’s also great for kiosks, and multi-touch displays in a
wide variety of environments, including manufacturing, hospitality, retail, and
healthcare. It features dual-core processing power and an integrated graphics engine
for a fulfilling Windows® 8 user experience. Knowledge workers will enjoy rich content
creation and consumption as well as everyday multimedia. Kiosk displays will look great
on a thin client that is Microsoft RemoteFX®, Citrix® HDX, VMware PCoIP, and HD
video-enabled. Operating with less than 9 watts of energy, the Dell Wyse 5010
(Windows) offers cool, quiet operations, potentially lowering your overall carbon
footprint.

3.3.8 Wyse 7010 Thin Client (Windows Embedded Standard 8)
The versatile Dell Wyse 7010 thin client runs Windows Embedded Standard 8 and
gives people the freedom to mix and match a broad range of legacy and cutting
edge peripheral devices. Ports for parallel, serial, and USB 3.0 offer fast, flexible
connectivity. Like all Dell Wyse thin clients, the new Dell Wyse 7010 (Windows) is
one cool operator. Its energy efficient processor – which out-performs other
more power-hungry alternatives – and silent fan-less design, all contribute to help
lower an organization’s carbon footprint through power requirements that are a
fraction of traditional desktop PCs.
3.3.9 Dell Venue 11 Pro
Meet the ultimate in productivity, connectivity and collaboration. Enjoy full
laptop performance in an ultra-portable tablet that has unmatched flexibility
for a business in motion. This dual purpose device works as a tablet when
you're out in the field but also enables you to work on your desktop in the
office thanks to an optional dock. For more information, please visit: Link.
3.3.10 Dell Chromebook 13
The lightweight, easy-to-use Dell Chromebook 13 helps turn
education into exploration - without the worries of safety or security.
Priced to make 1:1 computing affordable today, Chromebook 13 is
backed by Dell support services to make the most of your budget for
years to come. The Chrome OS and Chrome browser get students
online in an instant and loads web pages in seconds. A high-density
battery supported by a 5th Gen Intel® CPU provides up to 12 hours
of power. Encourage creativity with the Chromebook 13 and its
multimedia features that include a 13.3" screen, stereo sound and
webcam. For more information, please visit: Link.

3.3.11 Wyse 5020 Thin Client
The Wyse 5000 series thin client is a highly efficient and powerful endpoint platform for
VMware virtual desktop environments. It is available with Windows Embedded Standard
and Wyse enhanced Linux. With its extremely compact size and high performance, it’s a
versatile virtual desktop endpoint. With a powerful, energy-saving quad core AMD G Series
APU in a compact chassis with dual-HD monitor support, the Wyse 5020 thin client
delivers stunning performance and display capabilities across 2D, 3D and HD video
applications. When it comes to energy efficiency, the Wyse 5000 series outperforms other,
more power-hungry desktop alternatives. Its silent diskless and fan less design helps
reduce power usage to just a fraction of that used in traditional desktops. For more
information, please visit Link.
3.3.12 Wyse 7040 Thin Client
The Wyse 7040 is a high-powered, ultra-secure thin client. Equipped
with 6th generation Intel i5/i7 processors, it delivers extremely high
graphical display performance (up to three displays via display-port
daisy-chaining, with 4K resolution available on a single monitor) for
seamless access to the most demanding applications. The Wyse 7040 is
compatible with both data center hosted and client-side virtual desktop environments and is compliant
with all relevant U.S. Federal security certifications including OPAL compliant hard-drive options,
VPAT/Section 508, NIST BIOS, Energy-Star and EPEAT. Wyse enhanced Windows Embedded Standard 7P
OS provides additional security features such as BitLocker. The Wyse 7040 offers a high level of
connectivity including dual NIC, 6 x USB3.0 ports and an optional second network port, with either copper
or fiber SFP interface. Wyse 7040 devices are highly manageable through Intel vPRO, Wyse Device
Manager (WDM), Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and Dell Command Configure
(DCC). For more information, please visit: Link.

4 Software Components
4.1 VMware vSphere 6
The vSphere hypervisor also known as ESXi is a bare-metal
hypervisor that installs directly on top of your physical
server and partitions it into multiple virtual machines. Each
virtual machine shares the same physical resources as the
other virtual machines and they can all run at the same
time. Unlike other hypervisors, all management
functionality of vSphere is done through remote
management tools. There is no underlying operating
system, reducing the install footprint to less than 150MB.
VMware vSphere 6 includes three major layers:
Virtualization, Management and Interface. The Virtualization layer includes infrastructure and application
services. The Management layer is central for configuring, provisioning and managing virtualized
environments. The Interface layer includes the vSphere web client.
Throughout the Dell Wyse Datacenter solution, all VMware and Microsoft best practices and prerequisites
for core services are adhered to (NTP, DNS, Active Directory, etc.). The vCenter 6 Server used in the
solution is a vCenter 6 virtual appliance, residing on the vSRN Cluster For more information on VMware
vSphere, visit http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere
4.2 What’s new in this release of Virtual SAN?
This new release of VMware Virtual SAN delivers following important new features and enhancements:
Deduplication and compression: Virtual SAN 6.2 supports deduplication and compression to eliminate
duplicate data. This technique reduces the total storage space required to meet your needs. When you
enable deduplication and compression on a Virtual SAN cluster, redundant copies of data in a particular
disk group are reduced to single copy. Deduplication and compression are available as a cluster-wide
setting on all-flash clusters.
Enabling deduplication and compression can reduce the amount of storage consumed by as much as 7x.
Actual reduction numbers will vary as this depends primarily on the types of data present, number of
duplicate blocks, how much these data types can be compressed, and distribution of these unique blocks.
RAID 5 and RAID 6 erasure coding: Virtual SAN 6.2 supports both RAID 5 and RAID 6 erasure coding to
reduce the storage space required to protect your data. RAID 5 and RAID 6 are available as a policy
attribute for VMs in all-flash clusters.
Prior to Virtual SAN 6.2, RAID-1 (Mirroring) was used as the failure tolerance method. Virtual SAN 6.2 adds
RAID-5/6 (Erasure Coding) to all-flash configurations. While RAID 1(Mirroring) may be favored where
performance is the most important factor it is costly with regards to the amount of storage needed.

RAID-5/6 (Erasure Coding) data layout can be configured to help ensure the same levels of availability,
while consuming less capacity than RAID-1 (Mirroring). Use of erasure coding reduces capacity
consumption by as much as 50% versus mirroring at the same fault tolerance level. This method of fault
tolerance does require additional write overhead in comparison to mirroring as a result of data placement
and parity.
Quality of Service: With the Quality of Service addition to Virtual SAN 6.2, IOPS limits are now available.
Quality of service for Virtual SAN 6.2 is a Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) rule. Because quality
of service is applied to Virtual SAN objects through a Storage Policy, it can be applied to individual
components or the entire virtual machine without interrupting the operation of the virtual machine.
The term “noisy neighbor” is often used to describe when a workload monopolizes available I/O or other
resources, which negatively affect other workloads on the same platform.
For more information on what’s new in Virtual SAN Link.
4.3 Horizon Air Hybrid (HAH) Virtual Appliances
The first configuration step for the HAH Appliances is to deploy the Horizon Air Link (HAL) OVA to the
vSRN Cluster. This appliance provides the initial connection the HAL control plane (see section 4.3). The
HAL once deployed and configured is then followed by the onboarding process. This process requires the
configuration details of the vSRN Cluster/SmartNode to be entered and once complete will then deploy
the HAH appliances from the Cloud to the on premise vSRN Cluster.
The appliances that reside on the vSRN Cluster consist of the SmartNode Manager, Tenant Appliance and
the Resource Manager. These VMs connect to the cloud service and this intercommunication between the
on-premise vSRN and the Cloud Management service manage the HAH infrastructure.
Tenant Appliance: This appliance brokers the end user connection to the VDI pool. The user connects via
the Horizon client (same as Horizon View client).
SmartNode Manager: This is the component that connects the SmartNode to the cloud service and also
hosts the App Volumes manager service.
Resource Manager: This Appliance has the Instant Clone Manager and Hypervisor manager services.
The administrator does not have direct access to these appliances and all management is done from the
Cloud Plane, which includes deploying Desktop Pools, Appstacks and managing the assignments of which
groups/users have access to these.
The user connects to the desktop pool via a floating IP address (to the broker) which acts as the broker
and this is located on the tenant appliance. The floating IP will failover to the standby appliance in the case
of a failure on the controlling appliance.

4.4 Horizon Air Hybrid Control Plane
Horizon Cloud Services with Horizon Cloud Manager is a control plane hosted by VMware in the cloud; it
enables the central orchestration and management of virtual desktops, applications, and user profiles on
on-premises vSRN Cluster. Horizon Cloud Services is a set of micro services which enables end-to-end
management workflows such as inventory management and App Volumes.
VMware is responsible for hosting the service and providing feature updates and enhancements for a true
software-as-a-service experience. These updates are deployed to the on-premise vSRN Cluster by a
specified or suitable time for the customer. Only the application metadata is stored in the Cloud
everything else is stored on-premise.
The Cloud Control Plane also hosts a common management UI called Horizon Cloud Manager. The
Horizon Cloud Manager is accessible by way of all major browsers and provides IT administrators a single
location for managing desktop images, applications, user data, profiles, and assignments. The Horizon
Cloud Manager is accessible from anywhere at any time, providing maximum flexibility.
The Cloud Control Plane was built to be a highly scalable, multi-tenant management service, leveraging
the architecture of the VMware Horizon Air Platform.

5 Solution Architecture for Horizon Air Hybrid
5.1 Management Server Infrastructure
The Management role requirements for the base solution are summarized below. Use data disks for role-
specific application files and data, logs, IIS web files, etc. in the Management directory located on the vSAN
datastore.
Role vCPU RAM (GB) NIC
OS + Data
vDisk (GB)
Tier 1 Volume (GB)
VMware vCenter 2 8 1 40 + 5 100 (VMDK)
Tennant Appliance 1 2 4 2 20 100 (VMDK)
Tennant Appliance 2 2 4 2 20
SmartNode manager 1 2 4 2 20
SmartNode manager 2 2 4 2 20
Resource manager 1 2 4 2 20
Resource manager 2 2 4 2 20
Total 14 32 13 165 200
5.1.1 DNS
DNS plays a crucial role in the environment not only as the basis for Active Directory but will be used to
control access to the various VMware software components. All hosts, VMs and consumable software
components need to have a presence in DNS, preferably via a dynamic and AD-integrated namespace.
Microsoft best practices and organizational requirements are to be adhered to.
Pay consideration for eventual scaling, access to components that may live on one or more servers (SQL
databases, VMware services) during the initial deployment. Use CNAMEs and the round robin DNS
mechanism to provide a front-end “mask” to the back-end server actually hosting the service or data
source.
5.2 Storage Architecture Overview
The Dell Wyse Datacenter solution has a wide variety of Tier 1 and Tier 2 storage options to provide
maximum flexibility to suit any use case. The vSRN Cluster configuration consists of local storage in a
vSAN configuration.
5.2.1 Virtual SAN Local Storage
To enable Virtual SAN, simply select the Datacenter in vSphere, go to menu Manage, Settings and General.
Click Edit button and select Turn ON Virtual SAN. There are two modes when configuring Virtual SAN:
automatic and manual. If Virtual SAN is setup in automatic mode, then all empty local disks will be used in

the creation of the shared data store. If configured in manual mode, then disks can be manually selected
during the creation of the data store.
5.3 Virtual Networking
5.3.1 HAHM-VSRN Network Configuration
The network configuration for the Dell VSRN appliances utilizes a 10Gb converged infrastructure model.
The management, vMotion and VDI traffic are configured across 2 x 10Gb NICs configured in an
active/active team and the VSAN VLAN is configured across 2 separate dedicated 10Gb interfaces. This
configuration separating the management and VSAN traffic enables scalability for both layers.
The network configuration in this model is the same for the compute and management layer. They both
share the local storage Virtual SAN configuration taking advantage of HA including Live Migrations. The
following outlines the VLAN requirements for the Compute and Management hosts in this solution model:
 Management Layer Network (Shared Tier 1)
o Management VLAN: Configured for hypervisor infrastructure traffic – L3 routed via core
switch
o VDI/Tenant Appliances VLAN: Configured for VDI session traffic and tenant appliances –
L3 routed via core switch
o Backbone/Appliance VLAN: Private VLAN-L2 switched only (IPv4 & IPv6 enabled)
 Virtual SAN/Storage Network (Shared Tier 1)
o Virtual SAN VLAN: Configured for iSCSI traffic – L2 switched only via 10 GbToR switch
o vMotion VLAN: Configured for Live Migration traffic – L2 switched only, trunked from Core
(HA only)
 A VLAN for iDRAC is configured for all hardware management traffic – L3 routed via core switch

Following best practices, LAN and block storage traffic is separated in solutions >500 users. This traffic is
combined within a single switch in smaller stacks to minimize the initial investment, however, VLANs are
required for each traffic type to enable traffic separation. Each Shared Tier 1 Compute host will have a
quad port NDC which includes both 10Gb and 1Gb interfaces. Configure the LAN traffic from the server to
the ToR switch as a LAG.
The following screenshot shows the VMkernel adapter for the management network (vmk0) and vMotion
network (vmk2) on a standard or distributed switch and Virtual SAN Network (vmk1) on a distributed
switch.
5.3.1.1 vSphere Distributed Switches
The benefit of using a vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) is that it brings a consistent configuration across all
hosts. The vDS is configured at the vCenter level and provides central management and monitoring to all
hosts configured on the vDS.
vDS should be used as desired for VM traffic especially in larger deployments to ease the management
burden across numerous hosts. In the VSRN rack model both the mgmt. hosts connect to shared storage
so require additional VMkernel ports. Network share values should be configured equally among the
VMkernel port groups that share a physical set of network adapters.
Virtual SAN cluster networking includes at least two VMkernel ports, one for management traffic and one
for Virtual SAN traffic. If vMotion, Storage vMotion or High Availability functionality is required in addition, a
third VMkernel port should be configured for this.

Virtual SAN traffic can be used on 1Gb networks as well as 10Gb networks for Hybrid configuration but
10Gb recommended and is required for All Flash configuration. Standard switch configuration can be used
for Proof of Concept, while VMware distributed virtual switch configuration is highly recommended for
production versions.
Network VMkernel adapter configuration for the host management traffic using a 10Gb network with
standard switch. It is recommended that the network configuration for the Virtual SAN storage is a 10Gb
network with distributed switch configuration.
The distributed switch configuration is the same on all VSRN storage hosts. It is recommended to have at
least two uplinks for each host to provide load balancing and fail back redundancy.
5.4 Scaling Guidance
The components are scaled either horizontally (by adding additional physical and virtual servers to each
component of the solution architecture scales independently according to the desired number of
supported users. Additional appliance nodes can be added at any time to expand the Virtual SAN SDS pool
in a modular fashion. The scaling limit for Virtual SAN follows the limits of a vSphere HA cluster, supporting
up to 64 Nodes in total per Cluster.

 The components are scaled either horizontally (by adding additional physical and virtual servers to
the server pools) or vertically (by adding virtual resources to the infrastructure)
 Eliminate bandwidth and performance bottlenecks as much as possible
 Allow future horizontal and vertical scaling with the objective of reducing the future cost of
ownership of the infrastructure.
Currently, only one SmartNode (on premise cluster) is supported, so the HAH appliances are not scalable
outside of this.
Component Metric Horizontal Scalability Vertical Scalability
vSRN Host/Compute
Servers
VMs per physical host Additional hosts and
clusters added as necessary
Additional RAM or
CPU compute power
VMware vCenter VMs per physical host
and/or ESX hosts per
vCenter instance
Deploy additional servers
and use linked mode to
optimize management
Additional vCenter
Management VMs.
File Services Concurrent
connections,
responsiveness of reads/
writes
Split user profiles and
home directories between
multiple file servers in the
cluster. File services can
also be migrated to the
optional NAS device to
provide high availability.
Additional RAM and
CPU for the
management nodes

5.5 Solution High Availability
High availability (HA) for vSRN is offered to protect each layers of the solution architecture, individually if
desired. Following the N+1 model, additional ToR switches for LAN or vSAN, are added to the Network
layer and stacked to provide redundancy as required, additional vSRN hosts are added to their respective
layers. All compute and management nodes should be part of the same vSphere HA cluster.
The HA options provide redundancy for all critical components in the stack while improving the
performance and efficiency of the solution as a whole.
 Additional switches added to the existing thereby equally spreading each host’s network
connections across multiple switches.
 Additional ESXi hosts added in the VSRN Cluster to provide N+1 protection.
5.5.1 Virtual SAN HA/FTT Configuration
The minimum configuration required for Virtual SAN is 3 ESXi hosts (or two hosts in conjunction with an
external witness node). A consideration of the 3-Node cluster model is if one node fails there is nowhere
to rebuild the failed components, so 3 node clusters should be used only for POC or non-production.
The virtual machines that are deployed via HAHM are policy driven and one of these policy settings is
Number of failures to tolerate (FTT). The default value is FTT=1 which will create a mirrored copy of the
Virtual Machine’s objects. For example, if the VM is 40Gb in size then 80Gb of storage space is required.
The recommended configuration by VMware for a Virtual SAN Cluster with FTT=1 and Raid 1 is four nodes
and this ensures that the virtual machines are fully protected during operational & maintenance activities.

This configuration can also survive another failure even when there is a host already in maintenance
mode.
5.5.2 vSphere HA (Shared Tier 1)
Both compute and management hosts are identically configured, within their respective tiers and leverage
shared storage so can make full use of vSphere HA. The Compute hosts can be configured in an HA
cluster following the boundaries of vCenter with respect to limits imposed by VMware (3000 VMs per
vCenter). This will result in multiple HA clusters managed by multiple vCenter servers. Although the
3000VMs are supported for GA, HAH supports 1000 VMs at this time.
vSRN Host Cluster
Manage
1000 VMs
vCenter
A single HA cluster will be sufficient to support the Management layer up to 10K users. An additional host
can be used as a hot standby or to thin the load across all hosts in the cluster.
5.5.3 HAHM High Availability
The HAHM appliances are deployed in pairs so for High Availability it is recommended to keep each
appliance pair on separate hosts within the vSRN Cluster. This can be configured via a VM Affinity Rule, for
more information on how to configure Virtual Machine Affinity Rules Link

5.6 Horizon Air Hybrid Communication Flow

6 Solution Performance and Testing
At the time of publication, here are the available density recommendations. The below user densities were
achieved by following the VMware/Horizon Air Hybrid Mode best practices in mind.
Hypervisor Provisioning Profile
Template
OS
Config User Density
6.0 Update 2 Instant Clones Task Windows 7 HAHM 200
6.0 Update 2 Instant Clones Power Windows 7 HAHM 110
6.0 Update 2 Instant Clones Task Windows 10 HAHM 200
6.0 Update 2 Instant Clones Power Windows 10 HAHM 109
For detailed validation results and analysis of these reference designs and more, please visit: Link

Acknowledgements
Thanks to David Hulama of the Wyse Technical Marketing team for his support and assistance with
VMware data center EUC programs at Dell. David is a Senior Technical Marketing Advisor for VMware VDI
solutions at Dell. David has a broad technical background in a variety of technical areas and expertise in
enterprise-class virtualization solutions.
Thanks to Andrew Breedy and Yinglong Jiang for their help in the validation of the solutions in this RA.
Andrew is a staff engineer working in the Dell Wyse Datacenter engineering group. Andrew has extensive
experience in server hardware and on Microsoft and VMware virtualization solutions as well as a
background in engineering test processes and performance analysis and characterization.
Yinglong is a Senior Solution Engineer in Dell Wyse Datacenter engineering team, primarily responsible for
testing the VDI solutions based on Dell solutions with a particular focus on software define storage and
hyper-converged data center infrastructure.
About the Authors
Keith Keogh is a Lead Architect in the Cloud Client Engineering Team at Dell. Keith has extensive
experience with the Design, Implementation and Validation of EUC Enterprise Solutions.
Peter Fine is the Chief Architect and CTO of EUC Enterprise Engineering at Dell. Peter owns the strategy,
architecture and leads the engineering of the datacenter EUC product and solutions portfolio. Follow
Peter on Twitter @ExitTheFastLane or www.ExitTheFastLane.com
Gus Chavira is the Dell Alliance Director to VMware and Chief Architect for VMware EUC based solutions
at Dell. Gus has worked in capacities of Sys Admin, DBA, Network and Storage Admin, Virtualization
Practice Architect, Enterprise and Solutions Architect. In addition, Gus carries a B.S. in Computer Science
Andrew Mc Daniel, CTO Enterprise Engineering - managing team responsible for examining new
technologies and research projects to evaluate potential benefit of internal and external partners’
hardware and software to Dell’s E2E solutions for EUC and their strategic integration.

Wyse Datacenter for VMware Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode RA

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