Desktop Computing Strategic Project Sandia National Labs May 2, 2009 Jeremy Allison Andy Ambabo James Mcdonald Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Project Overview – Developed by the Desktop Support Org. –Team consists of developers, server managers and desktop technicians. –Scope is to deliver Windows desktops –Collaboration Partners: Networking Infrastructure computing Cyber Security Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Value Proposition – Support costs Reduce desktop visits Streamline the desktop, gain efficiencies – Security Malware Data loss – Green Costs At the desktop In the data center Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Value Proposition – Server re-provisioning Standard Data center configuration Re-provision for HPC, Corporate data processing – Performance Enterprise class hardware – Governance Centralized control Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Project Overview – Target Audience Analysis indicates 3000 desktops COE only 3000 additional desktops COE + 1 other app, like Adobe reader. Categories of typical use patterns – Admin, Knowledge, Compute intensive. First phase to deliver COE image (XP & Vista) Employ Streaming technology or published technology to deliver the + 1 apps. Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Project Components Hosted Virtual Desktops The Windows computing environment is ‘hosted’ or actually executes on high-end blade servers Screen images are sent over the network and can be rendered on thin clients, traditional PC’s, as well as other PC platforms VM Ware virtual software technology 48 HP C7000 Blade servers, 8 CPU’s/blade 96 Terabyte Fiber attached SAN storage Modeled after Enterprise Computing Virtual server efforts 16 Blade C7000 Chassis in California running ESXI 2 16 Tb iSCSI SAN Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Project Components –Application Streaming All the necessary elements required to execute a particular Windows application are ‘packaged’ and delivered to the users Windows desktop. The ‘package’ executes in the users Windows environment (local or virtual), but is transient (not installed in the users environment) VM Ware ThinApp software technology Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Project Overview –Project Components Published Applications Commonly known as Terminal server applications. Windows Applications, or a Windows desktop execute in a shared server environment. Established technology used within SCN, Diskless initiative, Anywhere.sandia.gov Citrix software technology employing newer streaming and virtual technologies. Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Deliverables – Build Windows XP and Vista virtual images Jan ’09 –Identify top candidates for application streaming and build packages – Feb ’09 –Identify top candidates for Published Applications and build environment – Feb ’09 –Evaluate and test desktop conferencing and video streaming capabilities – Feb ‘09 –Evaluate and test Remote capabilities – Feb ‘09 –Deploy virtual desktop clients Apr ’09 Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Technical Overview – Architecture – Phases – Future States – Limitations – Risks Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Architecture – San booting blade using HP Virtual Connect technology to address hardware failures quickly – 8 node clusters across 3 chassis so can lose one chassis and keep greater than 50 resources – Trunked ports provide additional bandwidth and failover capabilities – RAID 5 used for Data store 30 VM’s per Data store Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Phases – Phase one is used to prove technology to users and management – Phase two is expanding on capabilities focusing streaming applications – Phase Three roaming profiles to disconnect users from their VM’s – Phase Four higher end capabilities to users (Type1 Hypervisor and other technologies.) Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Future State – On Demand desktop. – Small set of images to manage. – Failover capabilities for usable states – Less Tech time to troubleshoot issues – Least User Privilege state but not removing their ability to customize environment – Portability of the users environment Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Limitations – Issues with View client and Flash Videos – Issues with Graphic capabilities – Issues with Windows Vista – Dependant upon technology that is not quite ready for our needs Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Risks –Larger attack vector for DOS or other attacks –Failures are magnified –Requires greater integration between organizations –Have to overcome “It is not physical.” mentality –Greater dependence upon the network and storage –Until people are comfortable with the technology making people feel comfortable with it Desktop Computing Strategic Project

Technical Details – Server Configuration – Thin Client and configuration – SAN – Deployment – Issues Desktop Computing Strategic Project