The Atlantis ILIO software virtual appliance may be deployed either “On Each Server” hosting virtual desktops or in a “top-of-rack” configuration where multiple virtual infrastructure hosts connect to a single Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance.

Atlantis ILIO On Each Server

Local deployment is the preferred configuration option, as it offers the best desktop performance, greatest flexibility, and lowest cost. In this configuration an Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance is deployed on each hypervisor alongside the individual virtual desktops.

For maximum performance and lowest cost, Atlantis ILIO can be configured to use local storage (SATA, SAS, and SSD) to store single instances of application and operating system files.  User data is always located on a shared SAN/NAS storage system for portability and ease of backup.

Persistent desktop deployments are always set up to use a shared SAN or NAS. Non-persistent desktops (stateless desktops) can use either shared storage or local direct attached storage with VMware linked-clones, Citrix Provisioning Server (PVS) or Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS).

Atlantis ILIO performs storage and performance optimization for all VDI desktops running on the same server before writing unique data to either local disk or SAN/NAS storage.

Hardware Options

An Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance is deployed on each VDI server running virtual desktops. Certified off-the-shelf servers are used to host both the virtual desktops and Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance.

Atlantis ILIO Top-of-Rack

In this configuration, the Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance is deployed on a dedicated server installed at the top of each rack of VDI servers.  Atlantis ILIO uses a shared SAN/NAS storage system to store user data and single instances of application and operating system files. The Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance performs inline deduplication and local read/write IO acceleration for all virtual desktops in its associated server rack.

Each hypervisor sees the Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance as a storage volume, and the storage target treats the Atlantis ILIO virtual appliance as if it were a hypervisor hosting one or more virtual machines.

Hardware Options

Atlantis ILIO top-of-rack controllers are deployed as software virtual appliances on certified off-the-shelf servers.