VMware VIEW COMPOSER 2.5 - ARCHITECTURE PLANNING EN-000350-01 Specifications download pdf (Page 33)

Estimating CPU Requirements for Virtual Desktops

When estimating CPU, you must gather information about the average CPU utilization for various types of

workers in your enterprise. In addition, calculate that another 10 to 25 percent of processing power is required

for virtualization overhead and peak periods of usage.

NOTE This topic addresses issues regarding CPU requirements when accessing View desktops remotely. If

users run a View desktop in local mode on their client systems, the View desktop uses the available CPUs on

the client device, up to 2 CPUs.

CPU requirements vary by worker type. During your pilot phase, use a performance monitoring tool, such as

Perfmon in the virtual machine and ESX Top in ESX, to understand both the average and peak CPU use levels

for these groups of workers. Also use the following guidelines:

Software developers or other power uses with high-performance needs might have much higher CPU

requirements than knowledge workers and task workers. Dual virtual CPUs are recommended for

compute-intensive tasks or for Windows 7 desktops that need to play 720p video using the PCoIP display

protocol.

Single virtual CPUs are generally recommended for other cases.

Because many virtual machines run on one server, CPU can spike if agents such as antivirus agents all check

for updates at exactly the same time. Determine which agents and how many agents could cause performance

issues and adopt a strategy for addressing these issues. For example, the following strategies might be helpful

in your enterprise:

Use View Composer to update images rather than having software management agents download

software updates to each individual virtual desktop.

Schedule antivirus and software updates to run at nonpeak hours, when few users are likely to be logged

in.

Stagger or randomize when updates occur.

As an informal initial sizing approach, to start, assume that each virtual machine requires 1/8 to 1/10 of a CPU

core as the minimum guaranteed compute power. That is, plan a pilot that uses 8 to 10 virtual machines per

core. For example, if you assume 8 virtual machines per core and have a 2-socket 8-core ESX server, you can

host 128 virtual machines on the server during the pilot. Monitor the overall CPU usage on the host during

this period and ensure that it rarely exceeds a safety margin such as 80 percent to give enough headroom for

spikes.

Choosing the Appropriate System Disk Size

When allocating disk space, provide only enough space for the operating system, applications, and additional

content that users might install or generate. Usually this amount is smaller than the size of the disk that is

included on a physical PC.

Because datacenter disk space usually costs more per gigabyte than desktop or laptop disk space in a traditional

PC deployment, optimize the operating system image size. The following suggestions might help optimize

image size:

Remove unnecessary files. For example, reduce the quotas on temporary Internet files.

Choose a virtual disk size that is sufficient to allow for future growth, but is not unrealistically large.

Use centralized file shares or a View Composer persistent disk for user-generated content and user-

installed applications.

Chapter 4 Architecture Design Elements and Planning Guidelines

VMware, Inc. 33

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