FAQ from June 6 VMUG webinar:
Solving Server CPU Bottlenecks in VMware View™ Deployments
Presented by: Stuart Robinson, Director of Systems Engineering Teradici (4 pm), Olivier Favre, Director Product Management - Server Solutions, Teradici (10 am)
Q: What density improvement is achieved with the APEX 2800 card vs. without?
A: The density improvement depends on your users’ workload varying form 10% to 100%.
10% for users only editing Microsoft productivity applications
100% for Multimedia users mainly playing Video on their screens
For Office workers workload (text editing, pdf browsing and light web browsing), we measured a 16% density improvement with the APEX 2800 (versus without)
Q: Can the driver for the host be installed via vCenter's Update Manager?
A: No. The drivers are not made available by VMware in their repository, so this can’t be used –we tried since the APEX is fully managed through View Administrator, once installed- You need to download the drivers manually and install as per QSG (techsupport.teradici.com).
Q: Is this going to help with the 3D CAD graphics such as ProE application by PTC? The reason I am asking is because I have deployed the View and users complain about the graphic refresh and it's seems to be slower than regular desktop.
A: It could, but will be dependent on your Server CPU Utilization when your users are experiencing a bad user experience. If your Server CPU is close to 70%, the card will give back CPU cycles which will be used right away by ProE application to deliver a better rendering.
Q: is the APEX 2800 card available for HP blade servers c7000?
A: No. We are currently working with Server OEM to bring the cards into their Blade servers. We will present some exciting news at upcoming VMworld 2012 in San Francisco.
Q: Flash or Video consumes a lot of CPU in 2 places.
A: The card Teradici APEX 2800 will greatly reduce the need for a second vCPU for video or flash workloads.
Q: 1. PCoIP process 2. Web browser - usage is so high as that 1vCPU VM reaches 100%, which CPU consumption does APEX 2800 reduce? Do you have case studies, white papers on tests?
A: The APEX 2800 will reduce the CPU usage of the PCoIP server process offloading the PCoIP related encoding tasks. Whitepapers are available at techsupport.teradici.com.
Q: We use IBM HX5s/MAX5 blades for our VMware hosts. So if this is a PCIe card, it will not work. Will there be mezzanine cards? Did I miss something here?
A: That’s correct. We are working with Server OEMs, including HP and IBM, to solve this limitation.
Q: Do these cards go in my ESXi hosts?
A: Yes, the card is installed into your ESXi server.
Q: So the card is not locked in to a particular version of PCoIP?
A: No. The card is compatible with View 4.6 and later and going forward we will maintain compatibility every time VMware releases a new version of View.
Q: Does Teradici have a future play for blade/chassis server configurations?
A: Yes, we will be announcing some exciting news at VMworld in San Francisco.
Q: Is 64 VMs still a maximum number? We would have clients with higher consolidation ratios, what can we do for them?
A:.-The current limitation of 64 displays (not VM) is driven by the maximum display resolution supported, currently hard coded to 1920x1200. However, we plan to enable IT Administrators the option to configure their max displays resolutions in our next release: if higher (aka 25x16), you will have less than 64 displays , if lower (12x10), you will reach over 120.
Q: Do you know if the APEX 2800 cards have been tested in any VDI appliance such as Pivot3?
A: Yes. Pivot3 has been testing the card with great success. Don’t hesitate to contact us at APEX2800@teradici.com or Pivot3 directly if you would like more details on this.
Q: Is View 5.1 supported?
A: Yes, View 5.1 is supported.
Q: How much do the cards run $ wise?
A: The card is available worldwide and has a list price of $1995 in the USA.
Q: Does PCoIP use the graphics card in the server or only in the CPU? Would this card replace the graphics card?
A: No, the APEX 2800 will not replace a GPU. IT will actually complement the physical GPU card when it is supported on VMware View deployment The APEX 2800 offloads the PCoIP encoding tasks, versus the GPU offloads the rendering of the displays.
Q: Do we need to install drivers or agents on the desktops themselves to get this to work properly?
A: Yes, you need to install a driver on each VM for them to be eligible for offload. A driver on the ESXi server is also required. For more information visit techsupport.teradici.com.
Q: Do you know if the card will fit in a Cisco UCS blade server?
A: Not currently. As of now it requires a PCIe x8 electrical slot to work.
Q: What is the minimum number of virtual machines necessary before a performance increase is noticed?
A: You can see a CPU reduction as soon as with one VM. The card is only sensitive to workload, not number of VM. The more pixels changes on the displays (up to 64), the more benefits the card will bring in terms of CPU Reduction.
Q: How is software support for the APEX 2800 cards installed?
A: Please refer to QSG available on techsupport.teradici.com
Q: Does ESXi recognize the card and install the driver automatic? Or it is manual installation?
A: It is a manual installation. The driver on ESXi host needs to be installed for it to be recognized by the host.
Q: Is there WAN Acceleration capability (i.e. we have remote offices on the East Coast that access VDI Farms in the Midwest over a 100 MBps MPLS Network)? We are not seeing CPU bottlenecks; however, we are concerned with 'sluggish UI' due to WAN latency.
A: No, the APEX 2800 will not solve any network latency issues.
Q: We are resellers and would like to get in touch with a contact that manages that relationship from Teradici.
A: Please contact: partnermarketing@teradici.com
Q: So this is a full-sized PCI-e card?
A: It is currently full-height half-length PCI-e x8 electrical . Half-height Half-length x4 will be available in CY Q4 2012.
Q: If you have a VM image that has the drivers in it, will it still run on another host that does not have the APEX card?
A: No. The display of the VM can only be offloaded if the drivers on both the VM and ESXi host are installed.
Q: What is the typical cost base for adding and setting up the cards across an existing farm?
A: We have an APEX calculator available on our website which can help understand better the different benefits of the card.
Q: So would you use an APEX along with a GPU in tandem?
A: That’s correct, APEX + GPU will be a great combination in your Server.
Q: What physical core to # virtual desktop can be expected with the APEX 2800 card vs. without?
A: It all depends on the workload of your users; you can see an improvement from 10% to 100% per core.
Q: if each card can handle 64 VMs and 2 cards are supported per server, what happens when you have 200 VMs or 150 VMs?
A: Each card automatically and dynamically offloads the most active 64 displays so even at 150 or 200 VM, the card will always protect against unforeseen multimedia peaks hence ensuring and protecting a great user experience as loads change. If the card was used to increase server consolidation ratio, the benefits will less than if you were able to offload each of the VM.
Q: Right now we have plenty of CPU room (at 50% on our hosts). Would there be any improvement in our user’s experience. Especially if using the Teradici zero client?
A: As long as your users’ workload is stable and peaks can’t create a push towards the 75% CPU utilization threshold, the card would currently have limited benefits for you. However, because the card is able to go more in depth around the PCoIP protocol (pixel encoding versus block of pixels, etc.), we have seen some user experience improvement for some specifics workloads.
Q: What is this Consolidation ratio?
A: The consolidation ratio, or server density, is the number of VM that a single Server can support based on its technical specifications. You have to differentiate Theorical number (only reached with tasks workers) versus actual (which adds some CPU buffer to any deployment to protect the user experience).
Q: Can we enable APEX 2800 on only one host or more per cluster, or does it have to be across all the hosts in the VDI Cluster?
A: The card only offloads the displays rendered for the VMs supported by that specific Server.
The APEX 2800 is compatible with DRS/vMotion meaning that if a VM gets “vmotioned”, it will still be eligible for offload, in the same user session, as long as the new Server also has an APEX 2800 installed.
Q: Do you have a reference of the hosts that were used to gather the statistics presented?
A: Yes, please refer to whitepaper “Performance study” at techsupport.teradici.com.
Q: Is the card can be monitored by Xangati?
A: Xangati will gather the statistics on PCoIP generated by the card however, it will not directly monitor the card itself.
Q: Will there be much benefit to task workers using web based applications? - no rich content
A: Not much. However, should your users start doing more multimedia activities or you have users with more unpredictable workloads, the card will help.
Q: Which VM operating systems does the card support (RHEL, Ubnutu, Windows XP/etc.)?
A: Same as VMware View guest OS.
Q: Is the GPU sharing going to require the Apex 2800 card or will it be a feature of view?
A: Shared GPU support is a View feature and does not require APEX 2800. However, bundling both APEX and GPU will bring great benefits to your deployments.
Q: So if I had 50 desktops, each with two displays, will it process only 50 displays or all 50 desktops?
A: The card sees “displays”. In your example, you have 100 displays and the card will dynamically and seamlessly offload the most active 64 displays (out of 100).
Q: Is only changing pixels get communicated from the server to the client?
A: That’s correct. PCoIP protocol only sends pixels that have changed from the “previous” screen.
Q: I had heard that Teradici MAY be working with a company called Nutanix? Do you know of this?
A: We are working with OEM partners to bring the benefits of the cards to their System.
Q: Does this card work under Linux (Ubuntu Desktop?)
A: The card is a VMware View enhancer. It has the same restrictions and compatibility as VMware View in terms of OS supported.
Q: Are you limited to 64 users or 1 card or can more cards be added to address more users?
A: Because of the slots limitation, we support up to 2 cards per Server, or 128 displays.
