Atlantis Computing virtualization consultant Jim Moyle released a white paper (28 pages) on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Input/Output operations per second (IOPS) for Windows 7 deployments.
Windows 7 IOPS for VDI is a very important topic – as Moyle points out – since:
many IT organizations planning a Windows 7 migration with VDI are unaware that the combination of Windows 7 and Anti-virus more than doubles the amount of memory and IOPS required per desktop compared to Windows XP
Moyle conducted tests using various tools, such as IOMeter and WinSAT to measure maximum I/O and Login VSI to measure VM density and user experience.
The arguments covered in the white paper are summarized below:
- Windows 7 optimizations
- Measuring IOPS ( covers Perfmon, ESXTOP, IOMeter and WinSAT )
- Determining Windows 7 demands for IOPS
- Windows boot
- Windows logon
- Application launches
- Antivirus (Avira, Microsoft Security Essentials)
- Logoff and shutdown
Moyle points out why IOPS are so crucial for the success of a VDI :
… with desktop virtualization, the hard drive is moved to shared storage, this storage is thenshared between hypervisors, allowing consequences to spread across the whole infrastructure. Inorder to deliver a consistently high performance virtual desktop experience that is equal or betterthan a physical PC, virtual desktops require constant access to low latency and high throughput storage.
Thanks to Michel Roth for providing the news.