NexentaVSA for View

Deploying and configuring a VDI environment is a complex endeavor. Historically, more than 70% of all VDI projects fail due to cost overruns, as customers do not realize that they can spend more than 40% of VDI budget just on storage.

Creating a virtual desktop environment is difficult and requires in-depth knowledge of virtualization, storage, networks, and infrastructure. In addition, analyzing, configuring, and deploying are all complex and require differing components (such as virtualization, security, storage, active directory, server components, etc.) working together. IT staffs can be overwhelmed by these new workloads.

Press Release:
NexentaVSA for VMware View™ Accelerates VDI Deployments with VMware's Rapid Desktop Program

VDI creates new workloads that, for most IT staffs, have not been dealt with before. What once was sequential read-write functionality now becomes random. Boot storm issues (when everyone turns on their computer at the same time, or software patches need to be implemented all at once), also create new concerns for IT. And, after deployment, the entire environment needs to be optimized and rebalanced, as new machines are added or deleted from the system.

The consolidation of server instances, often hundreds or more, on a small number of physical hosts, creates highly randomized workloads that can be extremely taxing to storage systems that support a virtual server infrastructure.

Oftentimes, these issues prevent companies from successfully implementing a VDI solution.

Benefits

NexentaVSA for View reduces the complexity and challenges associated with configuring and deploying virtual desktops and associated storage. It simplifies complexity by implementing storage as a VSA. The configuration process has been streamlined so that administrators now can deploy virtual desktops into the hands of users more quickly, which ultimately enhances productivity.

NexentaVSA helps organizations get strategic VDI initiatives up and running quickly. With only four steps required to build an optimized VMware desktop pool, NexentaVSA streamlines deployment and creates an out-of-the-box, ready-to-use VDI solution. NexentaVSA further reduces complexity by integrating the virtual component (ESX), VDI (VMware View), and the storage component (NexentaStor).

Because it takes advantage of proven, open source NexentaStor technology, NexentaVSA also brings cost-effective storage and performance-optimized I/O to VDI deployments.

Easy-to-use wizards lead the administrator through configuration and tuning. Built-in intelligent profiles and calibration eliminate guesswork, optimizing desktop pool layout and applying best practices. NexentaVSA includes benchmarking capabilities that give administrators clear visibility into the complex VDI environment, all the way from the client endpoint through the storage components, making it easier to meet targeted performance goals.

NexentaVSA simplifies the reconfiguration process every time VDI requirements change, rebalancing desktop VMs and VSA storage automatically. Given the incredibly dynamic nature of VDI implementations, NexentaVSA slashes the time needed to prepare desktops for use, keeping your VDI user communities more productive.


How it Works

NexentaVSA is a sophisticated installation wizard for VDI deployments and provides a revolutionary approach to VDI implementation. It addresses the complexity and challenges related to configuring and deploying virtual desktops and associated storage, which, to many companies, creates a near insurmountable challenge. NexentaVSA cuts deployment complexity from 150 steps to four simple steps.

To deploy a pool of desktops, questions are presented as to which desktop template to use, how many desktops are desired for the pool, and which storage profile should be applied. It’s as simple as that. There are a variety of features that are presented through the wizard interface that alleviate deployment, performance validation, rebalancing, and calibration issues present with most legacy systems. More important, however, is that the tightly integrated appliances automatically are optimized specifically for VDI workloads and management.

The NexentaVSA solution greatly simplifies the deployment / configuration process with a few simple inputs, creating a synergy between the desktop, hypervisor, and storage never before achieved.

Deploy: The VDI Deployment Wizard gives administrators the capability to create NFS / ZFS storage from local ESX storages of all clustered ESX servers and, subsequently, create virtual desktops based on this automated (created) storage.

Measure: Unprecedented performance testing, provided through NexentaVSA Performance Analyzer, allows administrators to continually meet an established level of performance for the deployed pool.

Calibrate: A basic feature within NexentaVSA is the ability to collect and keep performance data. NexentaVSA re-calibrates to meet pre-set parameters. This means that the pre-set levels for IOPS, latency, and bandwidth do not veer from standard as the system grows.

NexentaVSA is an integrated virtual storage solution for VDI deployments and provides a revolutionary approach to VDI implementation. It simplifies the complexities of storage and desktop deployment for VDI into one console, greatly streamlining the process, while allowing for in-depth analytics, performance testing, and VDI environment calibration.

To see how NexentaVSA can jumpstart your VDI initiative, contact Nexenta and get started with your own evaluation.