VDI Performance Benchmarking for Dell EMC XC-6515 with AMD

Contents VDI Performance Benchmarking for Introduction Dell EMC XC-6515 with AMD EPYC ❖ Test objective and setup 7502 Test results Introduction Conclusion Essentials This brief describes benchmark testing of a VDI workload solution that includes a Dell EMC XC hyperconverged system, AMD EPYC processors, and Nutanix Acropolis Key components of this solution: Operating System (AOS) on VMware ESXi. We performed the benchmarking with Login VSI, an industry-standard VDI benchmarking tool. • Dell EMC XC-6515—This 1U, one-socket XC Core system is based on the Dell EMC Dell EMC XC-6515 PowerEdge R6515 server platform. Designed for high The Dell EMC XC Core hyperconverged system combines the Dell EMC PowerEdge performance, the XC-6515 is server platform and Nutanix software to provide enterprise-class infrastructure highly scalable and well suited solutions for hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) environments. Consolidating compute for VDI environments. and storage into a single platform, XC Series appliances enable application and • AMD EPYC 7502—EPYC virtualization teams to quickly deploy new workloads. The XC Core system enables 7502 is part of the 2nd seamless expansion of data center capacity and performance—one node at a time. Generation of AMD EPYC 7002 Series processors for The XC-6515 is a 1U, one-socket appliance that is designed to provide high data center and cloud computing. The EPYC 7502 is performance for edge, database, VDI, and ROBO environments. The following table a high-performance processor provides key specifications: designed to scale well across Table 1. Dell EMC XC-6515 specifications cores to minimize variations in application performance. Specification Details • Nutanix AOS— AOS integrates storage, compute, and Form factor 1U, 1 socket networking resources into a PowerEdge server platform R6515 scalable software-defined infrastructure. AOS supports Number of cores Up to 64 multiple hypervisors and uses advanced machine learning Memory 128 GB – 1 TB technology to balance resources and automate HDD 1.2 TB, 1.8 TB, 2.4 TB (maximum 120 TB common data center workflows. per node) • VMware ESXi—ESXi is a bare- SAS/SATA SSDs 800 GB, 960 GB, 1.6 TB, 1.9 TB, 3,8 TB metal hypervisor designed to (minimum/maximum of 2 for hybrid increase capacity utilization configurations) through hardware consolidation and to increase performance. It is installed directly on your physical server for direct access and control of the underlying resources.

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Test objective and setup

Our primary objective was to measure application response time. To do so, we set up test sessions with the Login VSI Knowledge Worker user profile as follows:

• Max Total Login VSI Sessions with 479 Per Cluster and ~120 Per Host

• An average of three runs with 480 sessions with session errors of 1, 0, 2 respectively. The sessions error rate is within a 2 percent acceptable range.

The XC-6515 cluster was configured as follows: Table 2. XC-6515 cluster configuration

Component category Details Nodes 4 x XC-6515, each with a single EPYC 7502 32-core 2.5 GHz processor Memory 512 GB Storage • 6 x 2 TB SATA HDDs

• 2 x 512 GB SAS SSDs with Dell HBA330

Networking Intel X710 10 GbE SFP+ BIOS 2 NUMA per socket

The solution stack includes:

• Nutanix AOS 5.18

• VMware vSphere 6.7

• VMware Horizon 8 2006

• Login VSI 4.1.40.1

• Knowledge Worker user profile

The following table shows the virtual desktop configuration:

Table 3. Virtual desktop configuration

Component Details Virtual hardware 15 vCPUs 2 Memory 4 GB Video memory 256 MB Disks 1 x 60 GB

Virtual NIC VMxnet 3 Virtual storage LSI Logic SAS

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Component Details Desktop operating system and software Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise 64-bit build (1909) with Microsoft Office 2016 (32-bit)

Test results

Our discussion of the test results includes references to the following terminology: • VSIbase—The performance of the system while there is no load on the environment. This number is used to determine the performance threshold. VSIbase gives an indication of the base performance of the environment (lower is better).

• VSImax threshold—The point at which the environment’s saturation point is reached—that is, the maximum number of sessions that can be active on a system. VSImax threshold, which is based on VSIbase, gives you an indication of the scalability of the environment (higher is better).

• VSI Index Average—The average value as calculated by VSI. Whereas Average Response is a pure average, VSI Index Average applies certain statistical rules to the average to avoid undue influence of spikes on the average.

Test run 1 The following figure show the results of the first of our three test runs:

Figure 1. Performance results: Run 1 of 3

As the figure shows, the baseline performance rating in this test run was 702, which is within Login VSI’s top range (Very Good). As illustrated, the VSImax average was 1009, which is 693 lower than the VSImax threshold of 1702. Thus, the system was capable of launching more than the 480 desktops.

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Test run 2 The following figure shows the results of test run 2:

Figure 2. Performance results: Run 2 of 3

As this figure shows, the baseline performance rating in this test run was 717, which remains within Login VSI’s top range (Very Good). As illustrated, the VSImax average was 1050, which is 667 lower than the VSImax threshold of 1717. Thus, the system was capable of launching more than the 480 desktops.

Test run 3 The following figure shows the results of test run 3:

Figure 3. Performance results: Run 3 of 3

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As this figure shows, the baseline performance rating in this test run was 723, again remaining within Login VSI’s top range. As illustrated, the VSImax average was 1037, which is 687 lower than the VSImax threshold of 1724. Thus, the system was capable of launching more than the 480 desktops.

Test results summary In all three test runs, system baseline performance fell within Login VSI’s top range (Very Good), and VSImax average was lower than the VSImax threshold. Results show that the system was capable of launching more than the 480 desktops.

The following table summarizes all three test runs:

Table 4. Virtual desktop configuration

Test results Login VSI parameter Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 VSIbase 702 717 723 VSImax threshold 1702 1717 1724 VSImax average 1009 1050 1037

User experience is driven by application latency, login time, productivity. From a user experience perspective, the goal in every VDI deployment is to deliver a user experience that matches the physical desktop performance and does not have a negative impact on productivity, application responsiveness, boot time, and login time.

Conclusion

Having the right VDI solution is critical to the success of your application and desktop virtualization projects. This paper describes our benchmark testing of a VDI workload solution with a Dell EMC XC Core hyperconverged system, AMD EPYC processors, and Nutanix AOS on VMware ESXi. This highly scalable solution provides high performance with low TCO and lets you focus on providing quality services and applications, rather than spending time and resources managing the infrastructure.

Summary • The solution architecture offers a predictable cost, performance, and capacity scaling model.

• A four-node Dell XC-6515 configuration with 32 core EPYC 7502 processors per server can support 480 desktops with 2 vCPUs per VM running Nutanix HCI software.

• For higher desktop density, customers have the flexibility to use higher core count EPYC processors.

• With scalability of 64 cores per socket, EPYC based single socket systems such as the Dell XC6515 can deliver exceptional VDI performance and scalability.

• The Dell XC-6515 1U form factor reduces data center footprint, costs, and power cooling requirements, resulting in overall reduction of TCO.

• The 2nd Generation AMD EPYC 7502 processor with a single 32-core running at 2.5 GHz delivers excellent VDI performance with the capability to support up to 480 desktops on a single-socket,

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four-node cluster. The Login VSI benchmark tests on the system demonstrate a VSI Very Good base performance, which is on the top range for Windows 10 VDI workloads and enables launching more than 480 desktops.

• The AMD EPYC system-on-a-chip (SoC) enables organizations to deploy systems that meet today’s needs while positioning themselves for tomorrow’s requirements. AMD EPYC has many use cases including providing high performance for HCI for cloud deployments.

• The Nutanix Acropolis hyperconvergence solution with the AMD EPYC processors offers freedom of choice for data centers. Customers can right-size their AMD x86 CPUs, choosing the core counts that the application needs without sacrificing other processor features such as I/O and memory bandwidth.

• Together, AMD and Nutanix empower the development of modern data applications that implement solutions to a diverse set of business problems. They enable high-performance processing and cost-effective solutions that are precisely sized for current needs and easily scalable as the business grows.

Dell Technologies welcomes your feedback on the solution and the solution documentation. Contact the Dell Technologies Solutions team by email or provide your comments by completing our documentation survey.

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Author: Karthik Angamuthu 6

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