NVMe RAID Storage Solutions for VDI Applications

What is VDI?

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a form of desktop virtualization. An administrator can install multiple instances of a desktop operating system (such as Windows 10) to a server, which clients can then access via a local network or more commonly, a cloud-based service.

These desktop images reside within a server that is running a Virtual Machine (VM) platform (such as Citrix Hypervisor or VMware). The VM platform manages client access to each desktop mage.

VDI solutions are sometimes referred to as “Desktops on Demand” and are ideal for clients that are often on the move, or away from the office. It enables inexpensive, compact portable devices such as a tablet, laptop or thin client terminal, to utilize applications normally restricted to a physical, high-performance workstation. Virtualization solutions are becoming increasingly popular with modern workforces, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

How Does VDI benefit from NVMe Storage?

While the speed of the network or internet connection is paramount to a successful VDI deployment, the host server storage environment should not be ignored. NVMe technology provides significant performance advantages over SAS or SATA based media, and the compact form factor allows it to be easily integrated into just about any modern computing platforms.

A single NVMe SSD can outperform an entire array of platter disk drives or SAS/SATA SSD’s. NVMe RAID storage is even faster.

Introducing the FNL BRD Series: NVMe RAID solutions for VM Platforms

HighPoint FNL BRD Series NVMe RAID controllers and FnL BRD series AIC RAID Drives can be easily configured to host a wide-spectrum of VM (Virtual Machine) platforms, and are universally compatible with both PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 capable motherboards.

The compact, half-height BRD6202P is available with up to 4TB of preconfigured RAID 0 or 1 storage. The full-height SSD6204 doubles storage capacity up to 8TB, and features our Silent Running, fan-less cooling system.

Both models combine native boot support with excellent random and sequential transfer performance, and are capable of supporting a wide range of virtual machine platforms.

IOP RAID Architecture

BRD 6200 AIC drives employ IOP RAID architecture to support RAID 0 and 1 configurations. As a result, BRD AIC RAID drives are natively supported by all major PC-compatible operating systems, and will be automatically recognized as ordinary “drives”. This includes current VM platforms, such as VMware, Citrix Hypervisor, Proxmox, and Hyper-V, amongst others.

As a result, BRD AIC RAID drives are essentially plug-and-play storage devices; users will not have to install any device driver, software application or manually configure the device before use.

Seamless Software Updates:

Native hardware support enables you to update the VM platform and virtual machine images as needed, using standard update procedures. You will not need to compile a driver, or patch the kernel in order to continue using the BRD RAID drive.

Which VM Platform is right for my application?

Future posts will take a closer look at today’s leading VM platforms, and how they can benefit from NVMe RAID technology.