Citrix XenDesktop 7 Performance Monitoring Best Practices

Performance Monitoring
Best Practices for

Citrix XenDesktop 7
Presenter
Bala Vaidhinathan | CTO | eG Innovations

Today’s Presenter

Bala Vaidhinathan
CTO
eG Innovations

bala@eginnovations.com

© eG Innovations, Inc | www.eginnovations.com

The Desktop Virtualization Journey


Desktop Virtualization
What it Includes and How it has Evolved
Thin Client Computing
Citrix Presentation
Server

Application Virtualization

VMware Horizon View

LeoStream

Oracle VDI


Microsoft App-V

Citrix XenApp

Quest vWorkspace

The Evolution of Desktop Virtualization
Desktop Virtualization 1.0
Are we there yet?

 Focus on protocol choices –
HDX vs. PCoIP vs. RDP
 Capabilities of the core platform
dominate decision making
 Mainly in test/small scale
environments
 Assessments focus on which
desktops to virtualize & which not

Desktop Virtualization 2.0
Yes we are!

 Technology is mature;
Architecture proven
 Large scale production
deployments
 Virtualize most desktops
 Focus shifts to how to
operationalize and deliver on
the ROI promise

XenDesktop 7 – A Landmark Release


Desktop Virtualization Adoption
Today’s Focus

Test
- Deploy on
a few dozen
desktops
- Typically
use free
licenses
(VMware,
Citrix, …)

Pilot

Production

- A few hundred
desktops

- Thousands
of desktops

- Test technology
feasibility

- Production users

- Small
workgroup
rollout


- Expect to see
benefits of virtual
desktops
including ROI

User Services

Virtual Desktop Reference Architecture
Endpoint
Devices

User Workspace
Management

Infrastructure

Virtual Desktop
Enablement

Policies

Session
Management

Profiles

Compliance

Connection Provisioning Gateway
Broker
Server

Desktop
Provisioning &
Management

Infrastructure
Services
(AD, Databases, Sec
urity …)

Virtualization
Hypervisor

Compute

Storage

Network

User Services

Virtual Desktop Reference Architecture
Endpoint
Devices

Performance
Assurance

User Workspace
Management

Infrastructure

Virtual Desktop
Enablement

Policies

Session
Management

Profiles

Compliance

Connection Provisioning Gateway
Broker
Server

Desktop
Provisioning &
Management

Infrastructure
Services
(AD, Databases, Sec
urity …)

Virtualization
Hypervisor

Compute

User
Experience
Management

Total
Visibility
Automated
Diagnosis
Pre-Emptive
Alerting
Right-Sizing
& Capacity
Planning

Storage

Network

Performance Management – Key to future
Desktop Virtualization Success
Keep users happy

Lower operations
cost

Virtual
Desktop
Success

Ensure user
productivity
Forecast and
plan for growth
Invest wisely; Get most
out of investments


Performance Management – Striking the
Balance
Balancing Cost &
Performance

COST

PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT


PERFORMANCE

Performance Management
for Citrix XenDesktop 7


Desktop Virtualization Components
Virtual Desktops
Delivers virtual desktops to any user on any
device, anywhere.

End
Users
Virtual Desktop Platform
Orchestrates infrastructure components
to deliver virtual desktop service to users.

Desktop

Infra Apps

Storage

Virtual.

Network

Infrastructure Components
Provide foundational services including
storage, networking, computing, applic
ations, desktops, etc.

Meet the Team – Design

End
Users
Virtual
Desktop
Platform

Virtual Desktop Architect
Responsible for technology choices
Handles long term technology
planning and forecasting

Desktop

Infra Apps

Storage

Virtual.

Network


Meet the Team - Operations
Helpdesk
• Handles user complaints
about virtual desktops
• Performs 1st level
support

End
Users

Citrix Service Manager
• Operations for the Citrix tier
• Responsible for the desktop
virtualization service

Virtual
Desktop
Platform

IT Operations

Desktop

Infra Apps

Storage

Virtual.

Network


(Network Ops, Storage
Ops, Desktop Ops,
Application Ops, etc.)

Today’s Tools – Design

End
Users
Virtual Desktop Architect

Platform Tools

Virtual
Desktop
Platform

Responsible for technology choices
Handles long term technology
planning and
forecasting

Use virtual platform tools; limited
visibility end to end.

Desktop

Infra Apps

Storage

Virtual.

Network


Objectives vs. Capabilities
Role
Citrix Architect

Objectives
•
•

Load test, evaluate
performance of different
technologies
Analyze long term
performance and capacity –
across all the tiers

Capabilities
•

Trends for the virtual
desktop platform

•

Little/no visibility end-toend; forecasting, bottleneck
analysis capability

Today’s Tools - Operations

End
Users
Virtual
Desktop
Platform
IT Operations

Specialized Tools

Desktop

Infra Apps

Storage

Virtual

Network

Manage each tier individually.

(Network Ops, Storage
Ops, Desktop Ops,
Application Ops, etc.)

Role
Citrix Architect

Objectives
•
•

IT Operations

•

Capabilities

Load test, evaluate
technologies
Analyze long term

•

desktop platform

•

analysis capability

Keep the network, storage,
database, virtual tiers working
fine

•

Drill-down tools to
allow them to manage their
tiers well


End
Users
Platform Tools


Virtual
Desktop
Platform

Manage virtual desktop platform;
Don’t extend into infrastructure tiers.

• Operations for the Citrix tier
• Responsible for the desktop
virtualization service

Desktop

Infra Apps

Storage

Virtual

Network


The “It’s Not Me …!” Syndrome
Hey, this is not
working

Looks
fine

Not our
problem

End User

Not mine
either

Talk to
the other
guys
LAN
Admin

ERP Admin

Everything
Is OK

Client Admin
Firewall
admin

Sys admin

Application
Admin

Domain
admin
All lights
Are green

VMs are lightly
loaded

The server
is working
OK

Database
Admin

Server admin
No other
complaints

Virtualization
admin


We don’t
see anything
wrong

Citrix Service
Manager

Role
Citrix Architect

Objectives
•


•

•

•

Load test, evaluate
technologies
Analyze long term

•

desktop platform

•

analysis capability

fine

•

Drill-down tools to
tiers well

•

•

IT Operations

Capabilities

Citrix XenDesktop
health monitoring

•

No ability to troubleshoot
virtual desktop slowness
across tiers

Keep the Citrix platform
working well
Ensure that the virtual desktop
service is working well

Helpdesk

Trouble-ticketing & Desktop tools
Track trouble tickets.
Basic desktop troubleshooting

• Handles user complaints
about virtual desktops
• Performs 1st level
support

End
Users
Virtual
Desktop
Platform

Desktop

Infra Apps

Storage

Virtual.

Network


Role
Citrix Architect

Objectives
•


•

•

•

Helpdesk

Load test, evaluate
technologies
Analyze long term

•

desktop platform

•

analysis capability

fine

•

Drill-down tools to
tiers well

•

•

IT Operations

Capabilities

Citrix XenDesktop
health monitoring

•

No ability to troubleshoot
virtual desktop slowness
across tiers
Desktop troubleshooting
capability

Keep the Citrix platform
working well
Ensure that the virtual desktop
service is working well

•
•
•

Troubleshoot basic issues with
user desktops
Triage a problem and call the
right IT operations person

•

No visibility into operational
state of the service or to
triage a problem

In Summary: Today’s Gap
Little/no visibility endto-end; forecasting,
bottleneck analysis
capability
No ability to
troubleshoot virtual
desktop slowness
across tiers

End
Users
Virtual
Desktop
Platform

Desktop

Infra Apps

Storage

Virtual.

Network


No visibility into
operational state of the
service or to triage a
problem

The Solution:
Intelligent Performance Management
Deep end-to-end
performance visibility;
forecasting, bottleneck
analysis capability

Service Performance
Users, Applications, Sessions, Incident
s, Latency.

End
Users

Platform Performance

Virtual
Desktop
Platform

Connections, resources, failed desktops,
users

Desktop

Infra Apps

Storage

Virtual.

Utilization levels of CPU, memory, disk,
workload on each element – IOPS /
Requests / Bandwidth.

Network

Infrastructure Performance

Ability to troubleshoot
virtual desktop
slowness across tiers
Full visibility into
service to triage a
problem

Intelligent XenDesktop Performance
Management

… will not be like that

… more like this!


How does Intelligent XenDesktop
Performance Management help
you?


Visibility into the End User Experience
Citrix Service
A couple of transactions
Manager

are very slow.

Helpdesk


Monitor the Service, Not Silos
Citrix Service
Manager
One of the XenDesktop Apps
server is also seeing a problem.
The color cues highlight where
the more severe problem is.

Helpdesk


Virtualization-Aware Management
Citrix Service
Manager

Helpdesk

The XenDesktops Apps
instance is running on an ESX
server. Again the color cues
indicate where to focus.


Triage Problems Quickly

Clearly see which layer is
having a problem.

Citrix Service
Manager

Helpdesk

Drill down to see the cause of
the problem.


Triage Problems Quickly
Citrix Service
Manager

The application that is
responsible for the slow
down – a samba backup
job
Helpdesk


Focus on the Root-Cause, Not Effects
Without root-cause diagnosis, you have no idea where the problem lies

All the problems
appear to be equally
important.

With root-cause diagnosis, you have a clear idea of what to do to resolve the problem.
The root-cause
of the problem
The effects of
the problem


The Result
Citrix Service
Manager

Helpdesk


Analyze the Past

Review past incidents


Analyze the Past

Analyze which tier is the
bottleneck


Analyze the Past

Review how to avoid
performance issues

Citrix Architect


Optimize the Present

Citrix Architect

A few of the servers
are handling most of
the sessions


Forecast the Future
Citrix Architect

Memory bottleneck
preventing addition of
more Desktops


Forecast the Future
Citrix Architect

Predicted FUTURE
performance based on
the past


Addressing the XenDesktop
Performance Management Gap
Deep end-to-end
performance visibility;
forecasting, bottleneck
analysis capability

Service Performance
Users, Applications, Sessions,
Incidents, Latency.

End
Users

Platform Performance

Virtual
Desktop
Platform

Connections, resources, failed desktops,
users

Desktop

Infra Apps

Storage

Virtual.

Utilization levels of
CPU, memory, disk, workload on each
element – IOPS / Requests / Bandwidth.

Network

Infrastructure Performance

Ability to troubleshoot
virtual desktop
slowness across tiers
Full visibility into
service to triage a
problem

Live Demo
 Citrix XenDesktop 7
Performance Monitoring
with eG Enterprise
 February 20 @ 11am ET | 10am CT
8 am PT |4 pm UK and 5 pm CET

 Registration
https://www4.gotomeeting.com/
register/712481743

The Business Case for
XenDesktop Performance
Management


Cost of a XenDesktop Deployment


Cost Analysis – Per User
1
User

VDI cost per User

$852
Performance
Management per User

$40 (4%)
“Less than a cup of
Starbucks coffee
per month per
user!”


per User / month

$1.5

Benefit Analysis – A Global Tier-1 Bank
• Was seeing a lot of issues, without a clue
as to where the problem lie: network?
Database? Application? Virtualization?
• Implemented end-to-end performance
management and had the helpdesk play
an active role in the support process
• For simple problems, problem detection
and resolution time reduced by 33%
(4500 fewer users impacted during each
incident)
• For more complex problems (multiple
tiers), problem resolution time dropped
by an ORDER of MAGNITUDE.

ROI of XenDesktop Performance
Management
Without XD Performance
Management

Reduce Downtime
per Occurrence
by 90%
Reduce Outage
Frequency & Cost by 91%
(annual)

With XD Performance
Management

Overall
Impact

180 minutes
x $5,000
= $900,000

20 minutes
x $5,000
= $100,000

~ 90% savings
per outage
($800,000)

20 outages
x $900,000
= $18,000,000

16 outages
x $100,000
= $1,600,000

91% + savings
per year
($16,400,000)


Benefit Analysis – Global Tier-1 Bank
TSC

Server
Ops

AVM

Unix
SA

DBA/
Network

1 Server

1

1

1

2 Servers

1

1

1

3 or more servers in one datacenter

1

1

2

2 or more in multiple datacenters

1

1


1

1

1 Server

1

1

1

0

2 Servers

1

1

1

0

3 or more servers in one datacenter

1

1

1

-2

2 in multiple datacenters

1

1

2

1

1/1


1

1

2

1

1/1

3rd Level Developer Difference

Before EG

1

Fewer experts on
2
1
1/1
bridge calls 1/1
2
1

1
1

1

Currently with EG

-1
1

-1

Lower Estimated Number of people required on a P1Sx bridge call
“Based off of past history, with the visibility into the systems performance during an issue, Production Assurance estimates
that fewer Level 3 and Developers will be required on a bridge to mitigate customer impact. This will improve efficiency by
fewer calls that require 3rd level and developers to drop what they are doing or being woken up late night for a bridge call.”

© eG Innovations, Inc www.eginnovations.com
© eG Innovations, Inc | | www.eginnovations.com

Management
Management

Reduce IT Support
Cost by 15%
(annual)

With XD Performance
Management

Overall
Impact

20 FTE
x $80,000
= $1,600,000

17 FTE
x $80,000
= $1,360,000

15% savings
per year
($240,000)


Benefit Analysis – A University Medical
Center

More
users
per
physical
server
“We saw a 20% improvement in user density from deploying the
performance management system. We were able to reduce our
physical hosts by 20% as a result.”
Citrix admin at a leading US medical center


Management
Management

Improve
User Density on HW by 20%

With XD Performance
Management

Overall
Impact

100 users / server
 e.g. 500 servers

120 users / server

20% HW
server savings


Summary: ROI of XenDesktop
Management

With XD Performance
Management

Overall
Impact

180 minutes
x $5,000
= $900,000

20 minutes
x $5,000
= $100,000

~ 90% savings
per outage
($800,000)

20 outages
x $900,000
= $18,000,000

16 outages
x $100,000
= $1,600,000

91% + savings
per year
($16,400,000)

20 FTE
x $80,000
= $1,600,000
100 users / server

17 FTE
x $80,000
= $1,360,000
120 users / server

15% savings
per year
($240,000)
20% HW
server savings

Accelerate Time
to Deployment by 20%

100 Hours
(1,000 desktops)

80 Hours
(1,000 desktops)

20% faster

Boost User Experience





Reduce Downtime
per Occurrence
by 90%
Reduce Outage
Frequency & Cost by 91%
(annual)
Reduce IT Support
Cost by 15%
(annual)
Improve
User Density on HW by 20%


More productive

Performance Management for Virtual
Desktop Success
Assess

Performance
Lessons
Plan

Maintain

Performance
Management

Deploy

- Consider interdesktop dependencies
from the beginning
- Mitigate risk of VDI
failure downstream
- Process vs costly
ad-hoc fixes
- Ensure scalability
& deliver ROI

Design


Next Steps
 More details
http://www.eginnovations.com/freetrial

 Send an Email
info@eginnovations.com

 Call Us

+1 (866) 526 6700


Citrix XenDesktop 7 Performance Monitoring Best Practices

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