By: Alex Aizman, CTO & Co-Founder, Nexenta Systems
Desktop virtualization solutions are gaining traction with small and mid-sized organizations. But many of these IT organizations are extremely lean, and don’t have additional resources to dedicate to VDI deployment, systems integration and SAN management. In order to help simplify VDI rollouts, Cisco, VMware, and Nexenta have teamed up to develop a set of integrated solutions that are also fully validated under the VMware Rapid Desktop Program.
These solutions are now available in the following configurations:
Entry-level: Cisco UCS C 240 M3 with Nexenta VSA for VMware View™: This solution is based on UCS C-Series rack mount server leveraging internal storage and VMware View deployed on VMware vSphere using the Nexenta VSA for desktop deployment and configuration. With this solution you have the option to start small with just one C240 and grow your environment by adding more C240s to the cluster. Each C240 M3 server can handle up to 175-200 virtual desktops (depending on workloads, desktop images and usage patterns).
Fig 1. Deployment Option1: Floating Desktops Using Cisco UCS C240 M3 Rack Mount Servers
Scale-out: This solution is based on having VMware View desktop workload on UCS B-Series blade servers and storage provided by UCS C-Series rack mount servers managed by NexentaVSA.
A combination of UCS B-Series blade (B230 M2 or B200 M3)and UCS C-Series rack servers (C240 M3) can pack more density and provide a shared storage option to stand up dedicated desktops. NexentaVSA in the local blade hosts provides the performance required by the desktops while the Nexenta storage in the rack servers provides the external storage to support backup, high availability, replication etc. The rack servers can be configured in a mirrored pair to handle high availablity should one of the C240s become unavailable.
Fig 2. Deployment Option2: Dedicated Desktops Using Cisco UCS C240 M3 Rack Mount Servers
Expect to be able to stand up approximately 1,600 VMware View desktops on eight blade servers in a chassis with this configuration.
For more details, visit https://www.nexenta.com/corp/solutions/cisco-ucs-and-nexenta
