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BP1018 Sizing and Best Practices for Citrix XenDesktop with Dell EqualLogic Storage 15

4.3.1 Load generation

desktops that can be run on a physical or virtual server. Login VSI simulates a realistic VDI workload

using the AutoIt script within each desktop session to automate the execution of generic applications.

The tool’s “Light” workload was used to simulate the task worker workload. The characteristics of

“Light” workload are as follows:

• Applications used include Microsoft Internet Explorer®, Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®, Adobe

Flash® player, Adobe Shockwave® player, Freemind, Kid-Key-Lock, and Bullzip PDF printer

• Only two applications are open simultaneously.

• Workload is executed in 12 minute loops and the total idle time between each loop is about 1

minute and 45 seconds.

Find more details about the Login VSI tool at http://www.loginvsi.com/en/login-vsi/product-overview.

More details regarding the different types of workloads supported by Login VSI and their

characteristics are described in http://www.loginvsi.com/en/admin-guide/workloads.

4.3.2 Liquidware Labs Stratusphere UX

The complex setup and different configuration layers involved in VDI makes it very challenging to

measure the user experience. VDI performance and functionality depends on various factors such as

resource requirements like CPU, memory, network, and storage. The other key consideration is the

user experience with respect to time spent while trying to login and response times of applications

launched within the desktop.

Stratusphere UX by Liquidware Labs is designed for desktop administrators and support personnel to

measure and analyze end user experience and application response times. We used Stratusphere UX

for each test to gather metrics related to user experience and desktop performance.

4.3.3 Monitoring tools

We used Dell EqualLogic SAN HeadQuarters (SAN HQ) for monitoring the storage array performance.

The system resource utilization and performance metrics at the Citrix infrastructure layer and ESXi

hypervisor layer were monitored using VMware vCenter.

Detailed performance metrics were captured from the hypervisor, virtual desktop, storage array, Citrix

Infrastructure layer, and load generator.

4.4 Test criteria

The primary focus of our tests was to determine the maximum number of desktops which can be

deployed using a single PS6010XVS array and then study how the number of VMs can be scaled by

adding additional storage arrays. We used specific test criteria as described in the following sections

while performing the tests.

4.4.1 Storage capacity and I/O latency

We used the following performance criteria at the storage layer.

• Maintain less than 20 ms disk latency

• Maintain at least 15% spare capacity on the storage array