Last year, Citrix revealed that the latest version of its VDI solution, XenDesktop, will be licensed on a per-user / per-device basis rather than the concurrent licensing model Citrix customers have been accustomed to.

To help ease the transition from concurrent licensing, Citrix introduced a Trade-Up promotion that included a 2-for-1 deal for customers that traded up ALL of their existing licensing.

The original Trade-Up program ended on June 30th, 2010. However, Citrix has recently announced an extension to its popular program until Dec 31, 2010.

Learn more about Citrix XenDesktop and calculate your savings

Trade-up to Citrix XenDesktop Now

Read EqualLogic Frameless Architecture: Part 1

Video Transcript:
The last couple points that I’d like to make, and again, many of our competitors have this frame-based architecture on their SANS, and these are SANS where you need to purchase a specific model number so the majority of those SANS can grow to a specific amount of drives.  With EqualLogic, with our frameless, virtualized architecture, a single EqualLogic group can easily grow to more than 600 terabytes.

A couple points on the frame-based SANS, first and foremost; your frame-based SAN goes up to a fixed number of drives and you have two storage processors.  Even as you add more and more drives to your frame-based SAN, adding spindles or drives doesn’t always equal adding performance that you need for your applications.

Today with VMware or Hyper-V or Xen server, if you’d like to give your virtual  machine more horsepower, which you do on the server side, is you give that virtual machine more processor or cache.  On a frame-based SAN, even if you give it more drives, you’re still going through those same two storage processors.

Also frame-based SANS, features and functionality are licensed separately.  Not only that, as an example snapshots, clones, remote replication, thin provisioning, advanced management; any of those features and functionality are licensed separately from when you buy the storage processors and the disks.  Not only are the features licensed separately, but you  have to pay software maintenance per feature and something else that not a lot of people know today is some features are licensed based on a fully loaded SAN.  What that means is say you purchase a SAN that can grow up to 120 drives and for the next couple years you only load up 30-60 drives.  Remote replication and some of those other features are licensed for a fully loaded SAN, so you’re actually paying more because you haven’t fully populated that SAN with those features and functionality.

With a frame-based SAN, 3-5 years from now and you’re ready to upgrade or move to a new frame-based SAN, it’s a forklift upgrade.  Or there is a migration that could take days or weeks, and that equals downtime and you may have to have someone actually fly in from somewhere to provide those services migrating or upgrading from one frame-based SAN to another frame-based SAN is going to cause downtime.

Then lastly, is death by nickels and dimes as I call it.  All the features of the frame-based SAN you have to pay for, so there can be hidden costs.  If you purchase a brand new SAN, you implement it, and all of a sudden you need advanced features like snapshots, clones, advanced integration with those snapshots and clones, with VMware, or Hyper-V or Exchange or Sequel.  That feature and functionality wasn’t looked at as a requirement with the initial purchase of the SAN.  You have to go back to management and have to ask them for even more money.

With EqualLogics frameless or virtualized SAN, when you purchase the EqualLogic array, everything is included; snapshots, clones, remote replication, thin provisioning, advanced management, advanced integration.  When you purchase a SAN, you should get everything included.  You shouldn’t ever have to go back to your manager and say Woops!  You should never  have to go back to your partner or Dell and say you’re adding Exchange 2010 or some new type of virtualization solution, how much will that cost?  Oh, and by the way, not only do you get everything, all of the features and functionality, but all updates and future releases, there is no additional cost.  So again there are no hidden costs with EqualLogic array.

As we looked at a little earlier, whether you have one EqualLogic array or 16, within that virtualized group or architecture, EqualLogic will do all of the automatic and dynamic load balancing for you.  Between drives, within EqualLogic arrays, between EqualLogic arrays, even between the EqualLogic arrays between the Ethernet interfaces, on the PS4000 or the PS6000.

Because of the frameless, virtualized architecture, when you’re ready to buy another EqualLogic array, if you’ve even purchased a single array and it’s 3-5 years down the road, you can buy a brand new EqualLogic array, make sure that both are on the latest firmware, and it’s a seamless upgrade and migration without any downtime whatsoever.  So you add your new EqualLogic array to your existing EqualLogic group, you can simply go into group manager, or the management interface, right click on your three-year old array and simply say ‘delete member’ from group.  When you do that the old EqualLogic array will copy all of its data to the new EqualLogic array in the background.  Because of the frameless, virtualized architecture there is absolutely no downtime.

See a live EqualLogic product demo

Learn about Dell storage

Video Transcript:
When you look at many SAN solutions today, many of our competitors have a frame-based SAN.

With EqualLogic, we have a frameless or virtualized architecture.

When you start looking at a frame-based architecture, what you basically start off with is a frame.  You have to sit down and decide, for the next 3-5 years, how much data growth and performance, the types of features, functionality, etc. that you need, and with a frame-based SAN, that usually comes as a specific model number, and a specific model number of a SAN that you purchase can grow to a specific amount of drives.

When you look at many SAN solutions today, many of our competitors have a frame-based SAN.  With EqualLogic, we have a frameless or virtualized architecture.  When you start looking at a frame-based architecture, what you basically start off with is a frame.  You have to sit down and decide, for the next 3-5 years, how much data growth and performance, the types of features, functionality, etc. that you need, and with a frame-based SAN, that usually comes as a specific model number, and a specific model number of a SAN that you purchase can grow to a specific amount of drives.

As an example, you start off with dual controllers for redundancy and performance, and a number of disks.  With EqualLogic, we also do this same thing.  We also start off with dual controllers and a certain number of drives and this is your basic SAN.  Right now the frame vs. frameless, or the competitive architecture vs. EqualLogic, doesn’t look that different.  Let’s grow that frame-based SAN.

As months go by, you need to add more capacity for disks or performance, so we go ahead and we add more drives.  With the EqualLogic array, when you’re ready to add more drives for capacity and performance, you not only add disks, but you also add two more controllers for cache throughput and performance with your disks.  As you add more and more EqualLogic arrays, your performance and your capacity, will scale more linear than by just adding disks or spindles to your SAN.  Then if you’ve planned out your performance or capacity requirements  for 3-5 years, you’ve just purchased your SAN, what happens if you’re acquired by another company, you acquire another company, or a new application comes online, compliance, video surveillance, etc, now what happens with your frame-based SAN, is you’ve now added all the disks and all the spindles that you can to your frame-based SAN.  What this means is there is no way to continue to grow with this frame-based SAN.  If you’re frame-based SAN in this example grows to 60 drives, you’ve filled those drives up, now you need that 61^st drive, you need to buy another frame-based SAN and that’s a forklift upgrade.

However with EqualLogic, what you’re going to see here is that you can have up to 16 physical EqualLogic arrays, and you can manage those as a single storage system.  So whether you have one, single EqualLogic array, or 16 EqualLogic arrays, you manage that EqualLogic environment the same way.  Ease of use and scaling are still going to be the same from day one, or day 365.  Also, what you’re able to do, is these 16 physical EqualLogic arrays can be solid state drives, SAS drives, beta drives, it doesn’t matter.  Every single, physical EqualLogic array is called a member.  Multiple EqualLogic arrays or multiple members fit into an EqualLogic group.

Also, you don’t have to worry about provisioning and rate types.   Once you select the rate type per EqualLogic array, the array or member will take care of the provisioning, the hot spares, the movement of date, etc.  So as you see you have one physical array or 16 array or members, you basically are working with a single pool of storage.  From that single pool of storage, what you’re going to do is create volumes, so these volumes 1, 2 and 3; you would map these as physical drives, or drive letters to a Windows server.  These volumes 1, 2 and 3 could be drive E, F and G to your local Windows server.  Also if we talk about virtualization as an example with VMware, volumes 1, 2 and 3 could be mapped or connected as data stores to your ESX servers.

With your frameless architecture, or virtualized architecture for SANs, whether you have one or 16 EqualLogic arrays you manage that the same way.  The same thing is not just for management, but also when we look at the pool of storage.  With our automatic load balancing and tiering, what you’re able to do is these volumes can move from one physical array to another, and because of our virtualized architecture, the physical server or virtual server doesn’t care what physical array these volumes are on.

During production you can have these volumes on high performance, low capacity, 15K SAS arrays and solid state SAS arrays and then later on as you look at compliance with archive and keeping data around longer, it might not necessarily need that production type of performance, but we still need to have it readily available so these volumes can actually automatically tier themselves, and they can move from solid state and 15K SAS drives to 10K SAS drives and SATA drives.  You can have EqualLogic take care of the movement of data or you as the network administrator can simply click on these volumes and say move it from one rate type to another rate type that’s on separate or distinct drives and different EqualLogic arrays.

Read EqualLogic Frameless Architecture: Part 2

See a live EqualLogic product demo

Learn about Dell storage

See a live Dell EqualLogic Product Demo

Of course, we’re talking about Dell EquaLogic virtual ISCSI storage here. Let’s face it, storage is the foundation of our datacenters. Servers and equipment only exist in order to give us access to our data, and for many administrators storage is an after thought rather than a foundation.

“How much storage does this server need?” is the common question and understandably so, since SAN solutions have historically been relatively expensive and complex… until EqualLogic, that is..

1. Centralized storage is an enabler

Whether your primary goal is to simplify your network, get virtualized, add storage capacity, shorten your backup and recovery windows, or improve your business continuity / disaster recovery plan, you’ll get ALL of this with your first EqualLogic array.

2. EqualLogic’s virtual storage is FAST and EASY

You don’t need a PHD in storage to manage provision or manage EqualLogic storage.  In fact, if you can manage a Windows server you can master Dell EqualLogic in an afternoon. There’s no need to understand LUNs, RAID Groups, IOPs, or fiber channel.

3. Don’t waste a penny on unused storage

We all have that admin that says his new server needs 2TB of storage, even though we know there’s no chance he’s going to need all of that.

• The old way: order a new server and a DAS just for him, and when he only uses 200GB, the rest goes to waste and sucks up power and cooling.

• The EqualLogic way: Thin provision him 2TB of storage, assign it to his server, and you’ll only see the 200GB he’s using. Once his project is done, delete the volume and it goes right back into the pool for use elsewhere.

4. Everything is faster on a SAN

It’s no secret that the longest standing bottleneck for servers (and workstations, for that matter) is the disk sub-system. Processors and memory have received ground-breaking performance increases, yet hard drive speeds have improved modestly. A disk array is pretty much mandatory if you want to even come close to full utilization of your new servers.

5. Buy fewer servers

How many times have you bought a new server because you needed more storage or faster disks? We’re all guilty of that at one time or another. There’s no wasting server resources when you purchase and manage your storage independently.

6. Get the most out of server virtualization

Fast, reliable, flexible storage is a critical component to virtualization. In the past, the vast majority of my design discussions revolved around how many hard drives should go in each virtual host.

Of course this meant we had to plan ahead of time which VM would go to on which host because the Exchange VM definitely needs more disk throughput than the Active Directory VM. With centralized virtual storage you are truly virtual- just type in the size you need and the EqualLogic does the rest!

7. Shorten your back up and recovery windows

No more backups at night!  With the click of a mouse or a simple schedule, your production volume is snapshoted, and your backup server can backup the snapshot in the middle of the day having ZERO affect on your production network.

8. Do you have a viable DR plan?

I’ve reviewed a lot of DR plans in my day and it’s staggering how many of them include a drive to Iron Mountain to pickup tapes. This reminds me of the old Windows days when I manually loaded 30+ floppy disks to install the OS.

Site-to-site replication with EqualLogic couldn’t be easier. With a few clicks, the array will take a snapshot of your volume and start a bit-level replication to it’s partner.

When you need to recover the offsite data, you can either choose to replicate it back to site A or physically transport the replication target array back to the primary data center and you’re back in business!

Read more EqualLogic articles

See a live Dell EqualLogic product demo

Join Dell and VMware to learn about the new capabilities of vSphere 4.1 and how the new EqualLogic 5.0 firmware makes deploying Tier 1 Apps and virtual desktops more efficient.

This webinar is over, but you might want to:

• See an EqualLogic free live demo
• Learn more about Dell EqualLogic
• Learn more about VMware vSphere

Register Today Designing and building a highly efficient internal cloud is top of mind for organizations of all sizes. Self-optimizing and tightly integrated server and storage platforms with the new vStorage APIs in VMware® vSphere 4.1 can help ensure project success. Dell is one of the first VMware partners to deliver on the promise of vStorage through integration with the vStorage APIs. Dell™ EqualLogic™ is designed to deliver greatly enhanced performance of virtualization deployments. Join VMware and Dell to learn about: The new capabilities of VMware vSphere 4.1 How the new EqualLogic virtualized SANs (PS6000XVS w/5.0 Firmware) can make deploying Tier 1 apps, virtual desktops and internal clouds more efficient We will also hear from Tim Vogel, Chief Technology Officer of Xtium, a joint VMware and Dell customer, who has used the new functionality and will present his findings. LIVE WEBCAST EVENT DETAILS: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 9:00 a.m. PT, 11:00 a.m. CT 12:00 p.m. ET FEATURED SPEAKERS: Andrew Gilman, Solutions Marketing Manager, Dell Tim Vogel, Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Xtium LLC Michael Adams, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, VMware

So Citrix changes names and terminology every so often, right?  OK, that’s the understatement of the century!

From MetaFrame to MetaFrame Presentation Server, to Presentation Server, to XenApp + XenDesktop, to XenDesktop with FlexCast.. whew!  I may have even missed a few

Citrix FlexCast is.. well.. watch the video!

Citrix FlexCast: Overview

Different types of workers across the enterprise need different types of desktops. Some require simplicity and standardization, while others require high performance and personalization.

XenDesktop can meet these requirements in a single solution with its unique FlexCast™ delivery technology.

With FlexCast™, IT can deliver every type of virtual desktop – each specifically tailored to meet the performance, security and flexibility requirements of each individual user. There are five delivery options:

FlexCast for Apps: Hosted Shared, Hosted VM, and Streamed

Allows any Windows® application to be centralized and managed in the datacenter, hosted either on multi-user terminal servers or virtual machines, and instantly delivered as a service to physical and virtual desktops. Optimized for each user device, network and location, applications are delivered via a high speed protocol for use while connected or streamed via Citrix application virtualization or Microsoft App-V directly to the endpoint for use when offline.

Local VM

Local VM desktops extend the benefits of centralized, single-instance management to mobile workers that need to use their laptops offline. When they are able to connect to a suitable network, changes to the OS, apps and user data are automatically synchronized with the datacenter.

Streamed VHD

Streamed VHDs leverage the local processing power of rich clients, while providing centralized single-image management of the desktop. This approach offers an easy, low-cost way for customers to get started with desktop virtualization by leveraging existing PC resources and keeping datacenter overhead to a minimum. It can also be ideal for government and university labs that use diskless PCs for maximum data security.

Hosted VDI

Hosted VDI desktops offer a personalized Windows® desktop experience, typically needed by office workers, which can be securely delivered over any network to any device. This option combines the benefits of central management with full user personalization, and can generally support up to 150 desktops per server.

Hosted Shared

Hosted Shared desktops provide a locked down, streamlined and standardized environment with a core set of applications, ideally suited for task workers where personalization is not needed – or allowed. Supporting up to 500 users on a single server, this model offers a significant cost savings over any other virtual desktop technology.

Citrix extended its 2-for-1 trade up promotion until the end of 2010

http://www.certain.com/system/profile/web/index.cfm?PKWebId=0×211395412e

If you are a current EqualLogic Customer, here is why you should attend:
· Gain insight into Dell’s Enterprise & Storage strategies from Michael Dell, Chairman & CEO, Dell Inc
· Attend Technical Breakout Sessions – Packed with best practices, introductory and deep dives into storage virtualization, iSCSI networking and EqualLogic Software features, such as SAN HQ – All enabling you to get the most out of your EqualLogic array
· Benefit from the Hands-on-lab training classes – sign up early, seats are limited (The training classes sold out weeks in advance of the last conference)
· Meet with your peers, Dell experts and technology solution partners throughout the conference and during dedicated networking lunches and evening receptions in Solutions Exposition
· Engage with Dell’s engineering, support and service experts to help you improve your EqualLogic experience and acquire valuable best practices to implement back in the data center

https://www.equallogic.com/support/download.aspx?id=9659

Version 5.0 includes the following new features:

• vStorageAPI Support for VMware vSphereV4.1
• Thin Clones
• Improved Group Manager GUI
• New Hybrid Configuration
• Scalability and performance improvements
• New Administrative Role –Volume Administrator
• SSH improvements
• Spin-down spare drives
• EQL branded Drives
• Raid Modulation Improvements

Please read the PS Series Release Notes V5.0.1 for information about updating firmware, including update paths and which firmware versions can co-exist in a group. Be sure to follow the best practice of backing up data before performing system maintenance.

The EqlXcp utility accelerates and offloads file copy operations from a Windows Server to the EqualLogic Array by using SCSI Extended Copy commands.

Scenario when using EqlXcp:
You are moving large files, like .VHDs, from one EqualLogic Volume to another EqualLogic Volume.

The following is an example of my testing of the new EqlXcp command.
– Physical Server running Windows Server 2008
– Drive E: is a 100GB EqualLogic Volume
– Drive F: is a 100GB EqualLogic Volume
– I have a 4GB file named BigFile.zip
– BigFile.zip is on Drive E: and I want to copy this file to Drive F:

Using EqlXcp and the Copy command below:

When using the Copy command you will see that the 2 NICs for SAN are running around 50% utilization below:
When using the EqlXcp command, there is NO utilization at all through the 2 NICs for SAN because the EqualLogic Array is physically doing all of the work.

Time it takes to copy a 4GB file from Drive E: to Drive F:
– Using EqlXcp: approx 35 seconds
– Using Copy command approx 2 minutes

Needless to say, if you have a large amount of files to move or large files to move from one EqualLogic Volume to another EqualLogic Volume using Windows Server, EqlXcp is the way to go!

NOTE: For more information on EqlXcp, please refer to Chapter 7 in the HIT 3.4.0 User Guide.