Tintri, now part of DDN, is a storage solution designed for virtualized environments and offers several features that integrate well with VMware Horizon View. In this workflow guide, we will discuss how to set up and utilize Tintri storage with Horizon View to enhance the performance, management, and scalability of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments.

1. Tintri Overview: – Tintri is a VM-aware storage platform that provides granular visibility and control at the virtual machine (VM) level. – It leverages Tintri Global Center (TGC) for centralized management, analytics, and monitoring of Tintri storage arrays. – Tintri supports features like VM-level snapshots, clones, replication, and integration with VMware vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA).

2. Horizon View Overview: – VMware Horizon View is a desktop and application virtualization solution that delivers virtual desktops and applications to end-users. – Horizon View provides features like desktop pooling, instant clone technology, application virtualization, and user profile management.

3. Tintri Integration with Horizon View: – Tintri integrates with Horizon View to provide optimized storage for VDI workloads, improving performance and management efficiency. – Tintri offers VAAI (vStorage APIs for Array Integration) support, which offloads storage operations to the Tintri storage array, reducing the load on vSphere hosts. – Tintri provides per-VM performance monitoring and analytics, enabling administrators to identify and troubleshoot performance issues at the VM level.

4. Workflow Steps:

a. Tintri Storage Configuration: – Deploy Tintri storage arrays and connect them to the vSphere environment using iSCSI or NFS protocols. – Configure networking, storage pools, and datastores on the Tintri storage arrays. – Integrate Tintri storage with vSphere using the Tintri vSphere Web Client Plugin or vCenter Server.

b. Horizon View Deployment: – Deploy the Horizon View Connection Server and configure the necessary network settings. – Set up the Horizon View Composer, which provides linked-clone functionality for desktop pools. – Create a VM template with the desired operating system and applications to be used for desktop provisioning.

c. Tintri Storage for Horizon View: – Create a Tintri datastore on the Tintri storage array dedicated to storing Horizon View desktops and other related data. – Configure Tintri VM-level snapshots and replication policies to ensure data protection and disaster recovery for Horizon View desktops.

d. Horizon View Desktop Pool Configuration: – Configure the Horizon View desktop pool settings, including the number of desktops, power management, and user assignment. – Specify the Tintri datastore as the storage location for the desktop pool. – Enable Horizon View Composer and linked-clone technology to optimize storage utilization and improve desktop provisioning speed.

e. Performance Monitoring and Troubleshooting: – Utilize Tintri Global Center (TGC) to monitor performance metrics at the VM and datastore level. – Identify potential performance bottlenecks using Tintri analytics and performance metrics. – Troubleshoot performance issues by drilling down into VM-level statistics and identifying resource contention or misconfigurations.

f. Desktop Provisioning and Management: – Use Horizon View to provision desktops from the VM template stored on the Tintri datastore. – Leverage Horizon View Instant Clone technology for rapid desktop provisioning and efficient storage utilization. – Manage desktops, including power management, user assignments, and desktop pool settings, through the Horizon View Administrator interface.

g. Backup and Disaster Recovery: – Leverage Tintri VM-level snapshots and replication to create backups and ensure disaster recovery capabilities for Horizon View desktops. – Schedule regular snapshot and replication jobs to protect critical desktops and associated data. – Perform restore operations from Tintri snapshots or replicated data in case of data loss or disaster events.

h. Scaling and Expansion: – Monitor storage capacity and performance on the Tintri storage arrays using Tintri Global Center. – Scale the Horizon View environment by adding more Tintri storage arrays or expanding existing storage pools. – Utilize Tintri’s VM-aware features like cloning and replication to simplify the process of deploying additional desktops or expanding the VDI infrastructure.

5. Best Practices and Considerations: – Properly size the Tintri storage arrays based on the expected number of Horizon View desktops and their associated workloads. – Follow VMware’s best practices for Horizon View deployment and configuration, including networking.