White Papers - Entries from May 2013

Thursday, May 30. 2013

Deployment Guide - VMware View with FlexPod

Today, many CIOs are challenged to deliver a solution that efficiently and securely delivers Windows desktops and applications to all types of end-workers and devices in a way that meetscorporate objectives for cost, security, and compliance. In order to answer this challenge, VMware® View® with FlexPod™ provides the foundation for delivering efficient and scalable virtual desktop infrastructure using a pre-validated stack from industry-leading partners including VMware, Cisco, and NetApp.

The VMware View with Flexpod architecture reduces processes, thereby minimizing operational challenges such as configuration errors, and it lowers administrative costs. Using Flexpod to scale VMware View desktops on demand provides increased service levels and resource optimization. This solution enables enterprises to rapidly deploy a pre-tested and validated virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). It provides proactive, predictive, and centralized

management that can be integrated with third-party tools.

This paper describes the Flexpod reference architecture for VMware View 5.1 that include the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) and the NetApp Fabric-Attached Storage (FAS) Systems. It also provides detailed guidance on how to architect, implement, and manage a large, scalable VMware View solution with FlexPod. The paper details the best integration points for each of the key enabling Cisco and NetApp technologies and how each of these technologies plays a critical and complementary role in providing an integrated solution for VMware View

deployments.

This paper is intended for IT decision makers, architects, administrators, and others who want to familiarize themselves with the components and capabilities of VMware View on FlexPod. This paper assumes that the reader has a general understanding of VMware View and the VMware vSphere platform, and the Flexpod, Cisco, and Netapp products described in this solution.

Deployment Guide - VMware View with FlexPod

Monday, May 27. 2013

Reference Architecture - VMware Horizon Workspace

VMware Horizon Workspace combines applications and data into a single, aggregated workspace, with flexible access to the data and applications employees need for productivity, regardless of where they are based.

With fewer management points and easier access, Horizon Workspace reduces the complexity of IT administration. Horizon Workspace is delivered as a virtual appliance that is easy to deploy on site and integrate with existing enterprise services.

It helps organizations to centralize assets, devices, and applications and to manage users and data securely behind the firewall. Meanwhile, it enables users to share and collaborate with external partners and customers securely when policy allows.

This reference architecture specifies the sizing and connectivity requirements for a 2,000-user Horizon Workspace application management and file sharing solution. Horizon Workspace 1.0 enables IT to maintain control over the implementation, aggregate resources, and allow end users to access their entitled applications, data, and Horizon View desktops from inside or outside the corporate firewall, on the device or devices of their choice.

Reference Architecture - VMware Horizon Workspace

Tuesday, May 21. 2013

New Technical White Paper - How To Troubleshoot vSphere 5.x Performance Issues Using vCenter Operations

Performance problems can arise in any computing environment. Complex application behaviors, changing demands, and shared infrastructure can lead to problems arising in previously stable environments. Troubleshooting performance problems requires an understanding of the interactions between the software and hardware components of a computing environment.

Moving to a virtualized computing environment adds new software layers and new types of interactions that must be considered when troubleshooting performance problems. Proper performance troubleshooting requires that you start with a broad view of the computing environment and systematically narrow the scope of the investigation as you eliminate possible sources of problems.

Troubleshooting efforts that start with a narrowly conceived idea of the source of a problem often get bogged down in detailed analysis of one component, when the actual source of the problem is elsewhere in the infrastructure. In order to quickly isolate the source of performance problems, you need to adhere to a logical troubleshooting methodology that avoids preconceptions about the source of the problems.

Often,though, many environments are susceptible to the same performance issues, so this document is focused on addressing the most common performance issues VMware sees in the field and how these issues can be diagnosed using the VMware vCenter Operations Manager suite.

vCenter Operations Manager is a complex tool and can be leveraged many different ways. This guide will focus on the Virtual Machine object primarily as a starting point for learning to leverage the vCenter Operations Manager tool.

How To Troubleshoot vSphere 5.x Performance Issues Using vCenter Operations by Mark Achtemichuk and Hemant Gaidhani

New Technical White Paper - Securing the DMZ with VMware vCloud Networking and Security

This paper demonstrates how securing a virtual DMZ environment using VMware vCloud Networking and Security can help your organization reduce capital expenditure and increase agility, while building a cloud-ready, secure and scalable environment for business applications. It also highlights the different design approaches to securing business-critical applications and enables you to make suitable choices for your organization regarding the cloud. Further, it provides configuration guidance to help you with your deployment.

VMware customer experience and independent analyst research demonstrate that it is possible to build a fully virtualized, secure, scalable and cost-effective DMZ using vCloud Networking and Security. This paper provides VMware customers with reference architectures and design and deployment guidance, helping them realize benefits and mitigate risks.

The vCloud Networking and Security product suite provides protection beyond the limitations of physical security in several significant ways. Based on customer success with vCloud Networking and Security products over the past three years, including validation by well-known Qualified Security Assessors like PCI-certified Coalfire, VMware recommends a fully collapsed DMZ approach and has identified three new deployment scenarios for DMZ environments in the virtual datacenter. A fully consolidated DMZ leverages all the advantages of compute, network and security virtualization and provides maximum benefits.

Download DMZ Design and Deployment Guide by Ranga Maddipudi

Monday, May 20. 2013

New Technical White Paper - Virtual Machine Graphics Acceleration Deployment Guide

The purpose of this document is to explain the various types of virtual machine graphics acceleration available, how to implement and troubleshoot them, and to provide knowledge around the benefits offered by each technology.

The capability for 3D graphics and video in VMware Horizon View further expands the use cases and target users that IT can deliver with virtual desktops. In addition to expanding the target use cases, 3D augments the virtual desktop user interface by enabling a more graphically rich experience.

Graphics Acceleration in Horizon View Virtual Machines: Deployment Guide by Simon Long

Sunday, May 12. 2013

New Technical White Paper - VMware Horizon View 5.2 Performance and Best Practices

This paper presents best practices and performance data for VMware Horizon View 5.2 and also highlighted some of the new features. With optimized PCoIP image caching, a bandwidth improvement of up to 10% is seen across different network conditions. The other PCoIP improvements included dynamic GPO settings and the support of relative mouse.

Windows 8 optimizations are also presented which can provide up to 60% bandwidth savings. There were also performance improvements in the View management side where up to 2x improvement is seen for various administrative operations such as provisioning, recompose, and rebalancing.

Furthermore, with new SESparse disk, administrator can minimize storage overhead by efficiently using and reclaiming storage-space to minimize the storage capacity requirements for persistent desktops and decreases the need to continuously recompose and restore images.

For the vSGA feature, the results illustrated the ability of VMware’s hardware-backed 3D support to scale efficiently and it was illustrated that for light 3D workloads, a 2-socket x86 server with 2 GPUs can support over 100 3D desktops.

This clearly showed the benefits of GPU virtualization and the strength of VMware’s 3D strategy where VMs over-and-above those that can be supported by the GPUs seamlessly use VMware’s software renderer. Finally, best practices for optimizing the parent template, for optimizing PCoIP for different network conditions, and for the vSGA feature were presented.

Technical White Paper - VMware Horizon View 5.2 Performance and Best Practices

(Page 1 of 2, totaling 8 entries)

Thursday, May 30. 2013

Monday, May 27. 2013

Tuesday, May 21. 2013

Monday, May 20. 2013

Sunday, May 12. 2013

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