For the lowest latency VDI VMs, the VMs should be running from in-host RAM. The combination of two facts – that RAM is the lowest latency media there is, and it is on the same motherboard as the host CPU, makes this storage architecture for VDI higher performing than any other….
VirtuCache
VDI deployments are plagued with boot storm problems as they scale up. Boot storms are caused when many VDI users simultaneously boot up their virtual desktops, say first thing in the morning when they come to work. When a large number of VDI VMs are simultaneously powered on and their…
One advantage that Hyper-converged infrastructure(HCI) has over SAN infrastructure is that HCI has put high speed storage back in the hosts. This is also true for Host Side Caching software. However, unlike HCI, host side caching retains the flexibility that SAN infrastructure has over HCI, of being able to do…
Even if you have a fast array and storage network, and you are still experiencing high storage latencies for your high throughput VMs, it might be because of choked Queue Depths at the VM and virtual LUN device in the host. This problem will happen only if a few VMs…
If your SQL Server runs in a VMware VM and it has performance issues, the root cause of which is slow storage, then our host side caching software for VMware, called VirtuCache, will be able to fix this problem. This post explains how VirtuCache does this by explaining the read…
If your Veeam backups take a long time to complete or if they fail entirely; VMs freeze during backups; you see disk consolidation errors in vcenter; or if you simply want to speed up your backups, then our VirtuCache software is relevant. VirtuCache Configuration to Speed Up Backup Times in…
02 Feb: VMware Host Side Caching to improve the performance of Dell PowerVault ME4 storage appliance
VirtuCache is ESXi software that automatically caches ‘hot’ data from any SAN storage to in-host SSD or RAM. By doing so it improves the storage performance of VMware VMs, without requiring you to upgrade your storage appliance or network. VirtuCache is a superior solution to Hybrid Dell ME4’s internal Read…
The specific NVME SSDs I recommend are the Samsung PM1735, for a conventional PCIe slot in the VMware host, and the Intel P4610 for a 15mm U.2 slot in the host. NVME SSDs are by far the best choice for host side caching in VMware. They are the same price…
VMware has two categories of SSD Host Caches — those that swap out memory contents to SSD when host memory is full, and those that cache storage requests to host Flash / RAM. In the former category are the below VMware features. VMware’s ‘Host Cache Configuration’ feature VMware’s ‘Virtual Flash…
The big difference between the two is that VSA can cache only reads and only from the Master/Replica VM in Horizon VDI.1,2 VirtuCache caches reads and writes from all server & desktop VMs, and it can cache to TBs of in-host SSD or RAM, with the goal of servicing all storage…