Operating system
Windows 10 build 1809 was used for this test. Two processor cores and 3 GB of RAM are assigned to each VM.
The processor requirements for Windows 10 can change based on the build number and patch level. Processing and memory requirements for Windows 10 have increased over time with newer builds. One of the best ways to reduce the CPU and disk load for a Windows virtual machine is to use the VMware OS Optimization Tool. This tool is a consolidated interface that can be used to change the behavior of virtual machines to reduce their hardware requirements. Be careful if choosing the most-restrictive configurations, which can cause applications or even Windows features to stop working. This tool is designed to reduce the effort it takes to optimize Windows. It requires testing of the configuration to ensure sure all user applications still work correctly with the optimizations applied.
Another tool that was mentioned previously in this paper is VMware DEM. This tool redirects user data to one or more file shares based on certain conditions. This capability allows directing different types of data to different locations. User-profile data and documents can be pointed to home directories that are replicated. Temporary data such as application temp files that do not need to be saved are placed on volumes with no data protection. This approach reduces replication traffic and the overall storage load.
All user profiles are redirected to file shares to capture the user load for this test. The ability of the PowerStore array to host file shares consolidates storage management and reduces backup complexity. A single PowerStore appliance can host all end-user data.
The applications can be layered using VMware AppVolumes. It greatly improves application management and updating by removing the applications from the base image and managing them independently. When an update is required, the layered application is updated externally and the updated version is applied to the environment.
Layering applications enables rapid application provision and updating. The individual applications are managed independently with the ability to present groups of applications to user groups. The advantage is quick deployment of layered applications to new users or groups of users.
