Dell is one of the world’s leading computer manufacturers, but nearly half the company works for Dell Global Infrastructure Consulting Services (Dell Services), an organization devoted to helping customers use Dell solutions effectively. Dell Services tested the Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) operating system to determine how the upgrade would help customers achieve higher virtual-machine density and deliver a better virtual desktop experience. Tests at four customer sites showed a 40-percent increase in virtual machine density by using the new Dynamic Memory feature in Hyper-V, with no degradation in virtual machine performance. With the new Microsoft RemoteFX feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, Dell Services saw virtual desktop performance increases, which will enable customers to expand their use of desktop virtualization and reduce costs.


Situation
Dell is one of the world’s largest computer manufacturers and a household name around the world. In fact, Dell ships more than 110,000 computer systems every day to customers in 180 countries, more than one every second. Based in Round Rock, Texas, Dell employs more than 96,000 people worldwide and is number 38 on the Fortune 500.

Dell does more than ship thousands of computers out the door every day; it also tries to make sure that customers use their computers to achieve their business and personal goals. To that end, it created Dell Global Infrastructure Consulting Services, or Dell Services for short, an international organization with more than 41,000 employees in approximately 90 countries that help customers get maximum benefit from Dell solutions and technology.

Terry Storey works in Dell Services as a Microsoft Strategist and Senior Global Architect. His job is to design data center solutions for enterprise customers that run Microsoft software. In his work, Storey saw many customers struggling with the same issues. “The Hyper-V virtualization technology in Windows Server 2008 R2 enabled many customers to compact their data center footprint, but many hit virtual-machine density barriers because of the inability to flexibly distribute host memory,” he says. “Customers had to allocate a fixed amount of physical memory to each virtual machine, which limited the number of virtual machines they could fit on each host server.”

Additionally, data center staff had to constantly worry about whether virtual machines had sufficient memory to host particular workloads. Especially in cloud environments, where pools of virtual machines and storage are dynamically allocated to various workloads as needed, the inability to also dynamically allocate physical memory presented an extra management chore.

Many customers were also eager to move further with desktop virtualization—running desktop operating systems, applications, and user data on a data center server to which users connect using remote desktop software. For graphics-intensive or performance-demanding applications, desktop virtualization simply did not deliver adequate performance when users had thin-client, or low-performance, devices. To get demanding applications to perform acceptably, organizations had to give employees high-end PCs, which cancelled out much of the benefit of desktop virtualization.

Solution
Dell Services saw solutions to these problems in Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (SP1), which provides significant improvements for data center and desktop virtualization. Dynamic Memory is an enhancement to Hyper-V that allows memory on a host server to be pooled and dynamically distributed to virtual machines based on workload demand, without service interruption. This provides more consistency in system performance and simplifies management for administrators.

We tested RemoteFX with users at customer sites, and they were very surprised at the performance they saw in VDI environments. Terry Storey Microsoft Strategist and Senior Global Architect, Global Infrastructure Consulting Services, Dell

Dell Services was also intrigued by Microsoft RemoteFX, a new feature of Remote Desktop Services (part of Windows Server 2008 R2) that provides a media-rich user environment for virtual desktops so that remote users enjoy cost-effective, local-like access to graphics-intensive applications.

“We were eager to understand how these new features could benefit Dell customers around the world,” Storey says. So Dell Services deployed Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 at four customer sites—two that already ran Hyper-V and two that ran VMware virtualization software—in early 2011.

Expanding Virtual-Machine Density
The Dell Services team deployed the Enterprise and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 to between 60 and 70 servers across the four customer sites using Dell PowerEdge M610 blade servers with dual quad-core processors. It also deployed and tested the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) operating system (Professional and Enterprise editions).

By using Dynamic Memory, Dell Services was able to fit 120 standard Windows 7 virtual machines and 133 optimized virtual machines (for VDI environments) on each server running Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1. With Windows Server 2008 R2, it could fit only 85 (VDI) virtual machines on each server. The Dell Services team virtualized typical infrastructure workloads including file and print, Domain Name System servers, and some of its customers’ in-house applications.

Desktop Virtualization Improvements
Dell Services also had great success with RemoteFX. It ran performance-intensive applications such as AutoCAD computer-aided design software and the Bloomberg Professional financial news service in a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment and experienced excellent responsiveness. RemoteFX also sped up lengthy logon times for remote users. VDI is a specific type of desktop virtualization in which a Windows client operating system runs on server-based virtual machines in the data center and interacts with the user’s client device such as a PC or a thin client. The virtual desktops ran on servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, and the client devices ran Windows 7 SP1 Professional and Enterprise editions.

“Most Windows 7 deployments that we encounter turn into desktop virtualization projects in some shape or form, because there is always a challenge in getting older applications to work with Windows 7,” Storey says. “With RemoteFX, we now have an excellent path for moving all of a customer’s applications to a virtual desktop environment so they can take advantage of Windows 7.”

For one customer, Dell Services created a large-scale VDI solution involving 700 virtualized desktops inside a server cluster configured for high availability. It used four Dell PowerEdge CX410 chassis that housed a total of 16 graphics processing units (GPUs) and 32 servers. Each server supported 24 virtual clients, for a total of 768 virtual machines in the cluster.

New Tools for Managing Virtual Infrastructures
Dell Services also tested Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (SP1), which gives data center administrators an easy way to manage a physical and virtual IT infrastructure, increase server utilization, and optimize dynamic resources. With the Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) tool, administrators can dynamically manage virtual resources through management packs that are PRO-enabled.

With RemoteFX, we now have an excellent path for moving all of a customer’s applications to a virtual desktop environment so they can take advantage of Windows 7. Terry Storey Microsoft Strategist and Senior Global Architect, Global Infrastructure Consulting Services, Dell

Dell Services has been working with the PRO management packs to extend System Center Virtual Machine Manager management capabilities to Dell hardware. For example, Dell servers monitor the temperature of their power supplies and the performance of their GPUs. Dell Services wants its servers to communicate this information to System Center Virtual Machine Manager so that it can pre-emptively move virtual machines out of harm’s way, from a host server with flagging performance or failing power supply, to a healthier host.

Benefits
From its early tests with Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, Dell Services has seen virtual-machine density improvements of 40 percent with no performance degradation. This will enable customers to reduce physical server acquisition and maintenance costs. Dell Services also saw performance improve in VDI environments, which enables customers to expand their desktop virtualization efforts.

Virtual Machine Density Increased 40 Percent
With Dynamic Memory in SP1, Dell Services has achieved a 40 percent increase in virtual-machine density, especially in VDI environments. “With Windows Server 2008 R2, if a customer needed 1,000 virtual machines, we prescribed a 12-node cluster,” Storey says. “With [Windows Server 2008 R2 with] SP1, we can fit 1,000 virtual machines in an 8-node cluster, which is a savings of four servers or [U.S.]$48,000.“

Excellent Performance, Easier Management
Not only did Dell Services see higher virtual-machine density with Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, but it also experienced excellent performance at higher densities. “Dynamic Memory dynamically takes memory from the host and unused virtual machines and gives to virtual machines that need it,” Storey says. “And it does so while maintaining performance across all virtual machines. When a VMware virtual machine runs out of memory, it goes to disk to fetch memory, and performance goes through the floor. With Dynamic Memory, when memory is exhausted the virtual machines revert to the operating system page file, which by default assigns 3 gigabytes of page file per 1 gigabyte of memory configured—while still maintaining good performance. It’s a very good architecture for customers that really want to push their virtualization environment and achieve very high densities while maintaining high performance.”

Dynamic Memory also makes managing virtual environments easier. “Once we set up a virtual environment for a customer, Hyper-V intelligently and dynamically adjusts memory as workloads requires, with no work on our or our customer’s part,” Storey adds.

Virtual Desktop Performance Improved
Dell Services also saw excellent results with virtual desktop performance when configured for two logical processors on 64-bit Windows 7 SP1 virtual machines running on Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1. “We tested RemoteFX with users at customer sites, and they were very surprised at the 2-D and 3-D frames-per-second graphics performance they saw in VDI environments,” Storey says.

Lower Hardware and Management Costs
Now, when applications need processor acceleration, Dell Services can recommend that customers simply put a GPU in the data center server and use RemoteFX, a far more cost-effective option than putting powerful processors in every client device. “By using RemoteFX, our customers can plug a graphics chip into a data center server and give users client devices that cost less than $150. This greatly reduces hardware and management costs,” Storey says.

Broader Use of Desktop Virtualization
Storey believes that better VDI performance and client cost reductions will encourage more customers to move more desktops to the VDI model. “With RemoteFX, even power users can move to VDI,” he says. “Whereas previously maybe 5 to 10 percent of users in an organization were a good fit for desktop virtualization, we believe that number will increase to at least 30 percent with RemoteFX.”

As a result of its Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 testing, Storey predicts that many of its VMware customers will re-evaluate Hyper-V. “With Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX, many customers are taking a new look at Windows Server 2008 R2,” he says. “Many have already paid for Hyper-V [as part of Windows Server 2008] and don’t want to renew expensive VMware licenses. VMware no longer has higher virtual machine density than Hyper-V.”

Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2 is the latest version of the Windows Server operating system from Microsoft. With Windows Server 2008 R2, you can create solutions that are easier to plan, deploy, and manage than with previous versions of Windows Server. Building on the features, security, reliability, and performance provided by Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 extends connectivity and control to local and remote resources. This means that your organization can benefit from reduced costs and increased efficiencies gained through enhanced management and control over resources across the enterprise.

For more information, go to
www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2008R2

For More Information
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www.microsoft.com

For more information about Dell products and services, visit the website at:
www.dell.com