The cool thing about Login VSI (besides the fact that it's free) is that it is now 100% platform independent. You can run the same tests on VDI and TS environments and compare the results head-to-head.

One very important thing to note about Login VSI is that this thing is a benchmarking tool. It is not meant for server sizing. In other words, Login VSI will give you an idea of the relative performance of different platforms or configurations, but it will not tell you how many users you can get on your server in your environment. (The reason for that is simple: The Login VSI tests are pre-built out-of-the-box. If you were able to change them, then the integrity of the benchmark would be compromised. If you want to know how many users you'll be able to get on your specific server in your environment, then you'll need to build your own custom tests and use a product like Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing.

Login VSI is still in beta, and it can be downloaded for free from the tools area of loginconsultants.com. (You must be logged in for the registration link to be active, but creating an account is free. The download is 286MB)

According to Jeroen, this new beta (Version 0.5) has several new features, including:

• True platform independence (both VDI & SBC) through a powerful custom command line option within the launcher. This includes the possibility to use a CSV file with advanced connection details for each individual session. In other words if you can script the connection, you can use Login VSI.
• Randomization of user data within each user load loop, this is the most important new feature of this beta as now optimizers (either at a memory or network level) cannot optimize/cache/compress/de-duplicate in an unrealistic fashion.
• Simplified and centralized configuration of the launcher(s). The ability to setup multiple launchers (master / slaves) for large scale tests is now more straightforward.
• The installation and configuration of the target platform is now 99% automated. (Only Office requires a manual default installation.)
• The scripted user workload is now a more realistic loop of 15 minutes. (The previous beta was 6 minutes.) It is now also more dynamic and includes printing to PDF.
• Many bug fixes and more robust user workload scripting suited for extreme system loads and improved platform support.

Login's hope is that Login VSI can become the standard benchmark for Windows desktop environments--regardless of whether that desktop is a VDI instance, a shared TS desktop, or a local desktop. They're building this thing from the ground-up for this kind of testing, and if anyone can make it happen, they can.

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There was a survey a while back that was conducting by CIO.com that really brought this fact out.  Out of all the CxO's interviewed 25% were using destkop virtualization, 13% planned on doing so within a year, and 21% planned to do so within one year to three years.  What alarmed me in this survey was that 37% of respondents have no plans to use desktop virtualization.  Really?  What are CxO's waiting for?

I have been taking the approach to virtualization for the past few years that virtualization is the "how" to cut costs out of the data center, the "how" to provision servers and PC's on demand and "how" to putting together a solid DR plan.  Now I think it's time to take this "how" to the real big cost in the enterprise today; desktop PCs.  These still cost way to much in time and money to manage.

So tell me folks, what is holding up your organizations from moving to virtual desktops?

The one thing that really needs to be worked on now is the automation and management of virtual servers and desktops.  I think once this really gets put together we will see a sudden upswing in the adoption curve for virtual desktops. 

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What is sepagoPROFILE?  Simply put, it's a great user profile management tool.  We all know that corrupt profiles are the most common thing in TS and Citrix environments.  With this great utility the problem of user profile corruption is greatly diminished if not resolved altogether.

How does this play into XenApp, XenDesktop, etc.  We will have to wait and see.  Stay tuned for more information coming this week.

Cheers

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Login VSI is a benchmarking tool you can use to compare the relative performance of one desktop technology to another. For years there have been tools like WinBench that have provided a standard way to benchmark the performance of a Windows desktop computer. Login VSI hopes to be the same thing for virtual desktop sessions.

What exactly is a virtual desktop session? Ultimately it could be any instance of a Windows desktop: VDI, Terminal Server, etc.

The tool works by using a launcher workstation (or several launchers) to launch sessions that connect to the server you're benchmarking. Then a script runs on that server and dumps response data out to a network share. Once the test is done, the data is analyzed and the tool spits out a number showing the number of sessions that server can run with reasonable performance. What is "reasonable performance?" In truth it doesn't really matter. What matters is that this test is the same everywhere, so you can try different hardware configurations, virtualized apps versus natively installed, etc. In fact, there's really no limit to the different elements you can benchmark, including:

• VDI versus Terminal Server
• VMware, XenServer, or Hyper-V running virtual desktops or Terminal Server / Citrix Servers
• Virtualized XP desktops versus virtualized Vista Desktops
• Performance impact of application streaming technologies
• Impact of (different) virus scanners
• Performance impact of tuning parameters
• Different VDI platforms
• Different storage platforms
• Impact of changes or updates like service packs or security fixes
• Hardware differences
• x64 versus 32-bit

Because Login VSI is a benchmarking tool, not a server sizing tool, the automated tests that run are NOT customizable. (If you're looking for a decent, cheap, and/or free server sizing tool, check out DeNamiK's LoadGen.)

You can download the Login VSI beta from the tools area of the Login Consultants website. (Registration required) It's meant to be run in a test or lab environment only. Since they're benchmarking the desktop sessions, they don't support things like roaming profiles which could skew the numbers with different types of network performance.

Ultimately it would be cool if this tool became a standard across the industry. How great would it be if different vendors released their "Login VSI" number when they released new products. (Of course they'd have to release an index number for each specific hardware configuration.)

This release is just the first beta, so it's by no means completely ready to go. This version is only about 90% automated. (They want to get to 100% so you can just run it after a few clicks and benchmark stuff very simply.)

The other big limitation of the current beta is that it only runs against Terminal Server-based (with or witout Citrix) servers for now, but VDI support is coming soon.

So, check out the beta. Share your thoughts an opinions here. Will something like this work? Is there anything that they're missing? Is this something that you'd like to see?

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Today, we're releasing our new ad-supported public video player. As you probably already know, the videos from BriForum 2005, BriForum US 2006, and BriForum Europe 2006 have been available for free for some time. The videos from both BriForums in 2007 are still under lock and key (unless you've attended the conference or purchased a DVD set). In the coming weeks, we'll be releasing some topical videos from the past two BriForums that relate to current events, as well as any other videos we think are cool or relevant.  If you have any requests, let me know.

To get off on the right foot, we're releasing the much-requested "Xen versus ESX: A performance head-to-head comparison" session presented at BriForum 2007 Amsterdam by Ron Oglesby. Interest in this video was spurred when XenDesktop was released back in February, so we set out to make it happen.

To get started, click on the image below:

Of course, if you like what you see here, you'll love attending this year's BriForum at the Navy Pier in Chicago, June 16-18.  For more information, check out www.briforum.com. 

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When you want to see the same 3D appplication demo running @ XenApp 4.5 within out Solution Showcase environment 'Virtuall' please request access www.virtuall.EU

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Brian's video takes a deep look at CPU & DLL optimization in a video entitled "Optimizing you Application's CPU & Memory Performance." While these topics are advanced, Brian shows that you can take control of your environment at a deeper level by using Citrix CPU Utilization Managment and Memory Optimization Management.  You'll probably need a propeller hat for it -- topics covered include in-depth PerfMon analysis, DLL rebasing, and getting the most out of Process Explorer.

My video, entitled "User Environment – Profiles and Group Policy", covers best practices for group policies, folder redirection, and profiles. This video is meant to be a starting point that can be used in most environments, and outlines a framework for a scalable design using out-of-the-box methods. There are also short discussions about Group Policy Preferences (included with Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008) and Flex Profiles.

These videos (and several others) are available at http://www.citrix.com/techvideos

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http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com.au/CAD_FlashTest.htm

To the untrained eye, this might look like nothing more than an excuse to play space invaders all day. But if anyone catches you playing, be sure to point out the "Citrix" logo on the space ships. Tell them this application was specfically designed to stress the rigors of Flash via ICA or RDP. (And when they ask why you're playing it on your desktop and not via a server, tell them that you're establishing the baseline.)

You might want to also pull up a few articles about Flash performance via Citrix, so that when your coworkers ask what you're doing you can do a quick ALT+TAB to show them the research that you've found. A few suggestions:

Secrets for optimizing flash performance

A thread about Flash 9 from our forum

Happy playing! (err... benchmarking) 

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The interface features a windows explorer style interface, and allows you to view, search, and edit things (assuming you have appropriate permissions).  So far nothing really new, there are lots of ADSI based viewers in addition to the administrator mmc snapin. 

ADExplorer allows you to save a snapshot of the datastore and browse it as well.  Probably most important, you can compare the snapshot against your live system.  Ever have a persistent issue that required dcdiag to fix now and then and wish you could find what had changed?  Bingo!  You probably don't even have to snapshot in advance of the problem.  Take the snapshot, dcdiag fix, then compare and find what was fixed.  Like you expext of a sysinternals tool it is free (see license) and there is no installer, just an exe, help file, and EULA.

One last note.  It is, well, ......      slow ........  We're talking AD to here.

 http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/adexplorer.mspx

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So what's the catch? Cost? Bandwidth? Is this even real?

I'm curious as to what others have seen... 

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Links for the 32 and 64 bit versions may be found at http://www.tmurgent.com/Tool_ATM.aspx .  There is no installer, just an exe to unzip and run.

This tool lets you look at file cache memory usage and effectiveness.  It is particulatly interesting to run on Vista/Longhorn due to the changes in those operating systems - especially SuperFetch.  SuperFetch is an advancement in system file caching, which traditionally only holds onto files being used.  SuperFetch actually reads files into a low priority standby pool in anticipation that the user is likely to want it soon.  See the web page for more information on this tool.

Read More on Tim Mangan