The Top Eight Best Practices for Deploying XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6

8/25/2
015
Oracle Confidential –
Internal/Restricted/Highly Restricted
1
Top Eight Best Practices for Deploying
Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6

8/25/2
015
2
Moderator
Christine Ackley
Director of Marketing Operations
eG Innovations
Christine.Ackley@eginnovations.com

8/25/2
015
3
eG Innovations
• Leading provider of IT performance
monitoring, diagnosis and reporting software
• Specialists in Citrix performance monitoring
and management
• Citrix Premier Technology Partner since 2004
• Our solutions are used in some of the largest
Citrix deployments in the world

8/25/2
015
4
PQR

8/25/2
015
5
Today’s Presenters
Rob Beekmans
Senior Consultant
PQR
Rob.beekmans@pqr.nl
@robbeekmans
http://vThoughtsOfIT.blogspot.nl
Srinivas Ramanathan
CEO
eG Innovations, Inc.
srinivas@eginnovations.com
@sramanat

8/25/2
015
6
Agenda
 Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop 7.6 Architecture
 Top 8 Best Practices when deploying XA / XD 7.6
 End-to-End Performance Visibility in XA / XD 7.6
 Recommendations when moving to XA / XD 7.6
 Q & A

8/25/2
015
7
Logistics
 Please submit your questions at any time during the
webinar using the questions panel on the
GoToWebinar client.
 This webinar is being recorded. You will receive a
link to the recording in a few days.
 A copy of this presentation is posted on Slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/eginnovations/

8/25/2
015
8
XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6
Unified Architecture for Applications &
Desktops

8/25/2
015
9
Old Architecture: IMA
Framework used for management and communication
between the XenApp hosts.
• IMA Service
• Data store – contains farm configuration
• Local Host Cache on each of the XenApp hosts
• Data Collectors – A database keeps track of data
about the servers in its zone, such as sessions,
published apps, connected users, etc
• Management Console

8/25/2
015
1
0
New Architecture: FMA

8/25/2
015
1
1
FMA vs. IMA
• Zones together with their Zone Data Collectors are
gone (it’s now one big Site)
• No more IMA protocol and Service, these are
replaced by the XD7 Virtual Delivery Agents
• All virtual and or physical servers basically function
as ‘Workers’ or ‘Session only Mode’
• Easier installation, VDA determines role

8/25/2
015
1
2
XenApp / XenDesktop 7.6 Architecture

8/25/2
015
1
3
Top 8 Best Practices for XA/XD 7.x
1. The data store is more important now

8/25/2
015
1
4
#1: Data Store Design Principles
 What does the data store have?
 Stores Site policies, Machine Catalogs, Delivery
Groups and published applications, desktops
 Live runtime data - who is connected to which
resource, which server, server load and connection
status for load balancing
 No data store (site database) means:
 No consoles
 Users work on most used apps from last two weeks

8/25/2
015
1
5
#1: Data Store Design Principles
 Host on a highly available database configuration
 SQL alwayson Availability groups
 SQL Mirroring
 SQL Clustering instances
 Of course – regular backups!

8/25/2
015
1
6
2. Ensure connection leasing is on

8/25/2
015
1
7
No Local Host Cache in XA/XD 7.6
 Local Host Cache (LHC) - cache a copy of the central
IMA configuration database
 Speeds up user authentication and application
enumeration
 Has dynamic live runtime data used for making
load balance decisions
 Servers could operate independent from data store
for ever
 LHC got updated when connection was established

8/25/2
015
1
8
#2: Enable Connection Leasing
 XenApp 7.6 FP2 has connection leasing
Not exactly a substitute for LHC

8/25/2
015
1
9
 Users can reconnect to resources they used in past 2
weeks, history kept on controllers
 No VDA load balancing will occur when leasing is active
 Users connect to the last host they connected to when
the site database was available
 Anonymous users are not supported
 Won’t work for pooled VDI desktops
 Not a replacement for SQL clustering
 Useful when network issues prevent connection to data
store

8/25/2
015
2
0
 Extra load of connection leasing depends on the
rate at which users are brokering sessions whilst
the database is down
 Overall relatively small increase in disk IOPs and
CPU usage
 Benefits much higher but not good enough to
forget LHC

8/25/2
015
2
1
3. Use session pre-launch/lingering to improve UX

8/25/2
015
2
2
#3: Better UX with Session Pre-Launch
 Improve user experience – start sessions before they are
requested
 Turned off by default
 Applicable only for Delivery Groups with applications
 Use judiciously for specific users/groups
 Default timeout – 15 mins

8/25/2
015
2
3
3. Use session pre-launch to improve UX
4. Use GPU for better scaling and performance

8/25/2
015
2
4
#4: Use GPU for Scaling and Performance
Use cases:
• Medical Apps
• CAD/CAM
• Engineering
Apps

8/25/2
015
2
5
Evaluate shared vs.
dedicated (or passthrough)
GPU option
XenApp, XenDesktop and
XenServer now support
GPU technology

8/25/2
015
2
6
“Look at regular desktops and laptops. How many of them can
you buy without a GPU? And if you price out a business desktop
and then you have to shave off some costs, do you ever do that
be removing the GPU? No!
So by that logic a GPU should be 100% required for VDI, and if
you don’t like the “added” cost of it, then you can offset it by
putting 10% more users per server.”
By Brian Madden

8/25/2
015
2
7
5. Enhance graphics performance with Framehawk

8/25/2
015
2
8
#5: Enhance Graphics with Framehawk
 Introduces a new ICA virtual channel that
dramatically improves the user experience
 For users on WiFi, satellite offices, public transport,
etc. – links that are lossy
 UDP based (vs. Thinwire – TCP based)
 Framehawk is self healing (hides loss through
interpolation) and smart (differentiate random loss
vs. congestion)
 Framehawk is off by default –selectively turn it on
using studio

8/25/2
015
2
9
#5: Enhance Graphics with Framehawk
 Keyboard input is more interactive with
Framehawk on lossy, high latency networks than
with Thinwire
 NetScaler supports this - 11.0 build 62.10 extends
for external Framehawk connections
 4-5Mbps + 150Kbps per ccu
 Available in all licenses
 Verify if Framehawk is enabled –
http://blogs.citrix.com/2015/08/17/got-framehawk-weve-got-remote-access-
tips-and-tricks/

8/25/2
015
3
0
6. Use PVS for provisioning (vs. MCS)

8/25/2
015
3
1
PVS or MCS?
Citrix Provisioning Services

8/25/2
015
3
2
PVS or MCS?

8/25/2
015
3
3
PVS or MCS?
 PVS:
 Central image store, the PVS server
 Creating /updating an image with PVS is easy – just change
the pointer for each target
 MCS:
 Places the image on each data store used for targets
 First creates a single image file from a VM snapshot and
when finished copies that image to each data store. This
process takes up CPU, IO and network resources
 Multiple image management is a challenge
PVS preferred if you have multiple data stores or
images

8/25/2
015
3
4
#6: Exploit PVS Enhancements
 New caching option called “Cache in Device
RAM with Hard Disk Overflow” (PVS > 7.1)
 Cache in RAM provided great throughput, better
response time but if cache became full, the target
would experience a BSOD
 Hard disk overflow avoids the BSOD problem
 Data is written to the memory buffer first. When
buffer is full, “stale” data is flushed to disk.

8/25/2
015
3
5
#6: Anti-Virus & PVS
 Anti-virus not properly configured can slow down
your streamed targets
 Scan your vDisk before you close and set a
signature if possible that it’s scanned.
 Set exclusions to avoid scanning of PVS related
files
 Make a plan how you update your AV definitions
for your vDisk is read/only
 Look at: http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx124185

8/25/2
015
3
6
7. Get a handle on Citrix performance with Director/
NetScaler Insight

8/25/2
015
3
7
#7: Get Citrix Performance Visibility
 EdgeSight:
 Enfant terrible from Citrix, deprecated in 7.x
 In 7.x integrated in Director (helpdesk tool)
 Logon duration report enabled by default
 Only one week history without Platinum
 Mostly Citrix centric

8/25/2
015
3
8
#7: Get Citrix Performance Visibility
 NetScaler Insight for Citrix stack (Platinum)

8/25/2
015
3
9
4. Use vGPU for scale and performance
7. Get a handle on Citrix performance with Director/
NetScaler Insight
8. End-to-End performance visibility is key for success

8/25/2
015
4
0
• No longer a single product
• No unified API/toolset to
manage these tiers
• Director
• NetScaler Insight
• XenMobile admin
• PVS admin
• XenCenter
• Slow, manual diagnosis
process
Let’s talk about the Citrix stack first!
#8: Get End-To-End Performance Visibility
Sharefile
Control
Device
Manager
Citrix
Performance
Management

8/25/2
015
4
1
What Citrix Director/EdgeSight Provides
Citrix
Director/
EdgeSight
• Visibility into XenApp
instances
• Visibility into user
desktops for XenDesktop
• Integration with
NetScaler Insight Center
for network performance

8/25/2
015
4
2

8/25/2
015
4
3
Network Web on
ESX
Active Directory
SQL
XenApp on
VMware ESXZDC on
VMware ESX
License Server
Profile Server
Enterprise
Apps
vCenterOracle
Client
Where is the Root-Cause?
SAN
Switch
What is the root cause of the service problem?
Network? VMware? AD? SQL? Storage? Profile Server?

8/25/2
015
4
4
#8: Get End-To-End Performance Visibility
• Performance of the
non-Citrix tiers can
also impact Citrix
performance
• Not sufficient to
monitor only the
Citrix tiers
Profile
Management
Sharefile
Control
Device
Manager
Citrix
Performance
Management

8/25/2
015
4
5

8/25/2
015
4
6
#8: Get End-to-End Performance Visibility
 Manage the different Citrix tiers from one console
 Manage the non-Citrix tiers as well
 Manage the Citrix SERVICE end-to-end, not as silos

8/25/2
015
4
7

8/25/2
015
4
8
eG Enterprise – Live Demo

8/25/2
015
4
9
Monitoring the User Experience
When users access applications,
they are seeing 100% errors!

8/25/2
015
5
0
End-to-End Citrix Service Topology
The XenApp server is seeing
some issue. Let’s drill down.

8/25/2
015
5
1
Virtualization Topology View
The XenApp server is running on
a VMware server that is having
an issue. Let’s drill down and see.

8/25/2
015
5
2
Drilldowns into Each Tier
The VMware server’s system console
is running hot. Something is taking a
lot of CPU, affecting all the VMs on
this server.

8/25/2
015
5
3
Diagnosis to Pinpoint the Root-Cause
OOPS – there are multiple samba
backup jobs running on the VMware
server that are affecting Citrix
performance!

8/25/2
015
5
4
#8: Get End-to-End Performance Visibility
 Manage all the different Citrix tiers from one console
 Manage the non-Citrix tiers as well
 Manage the Citrix SERVICE end-to-end, not as silos

8/25/2
015
5
5
The eG Universal Monitor
A single agent license for all OS
and virtual platforms
A single price, regardless of OS
or server configuration
A single agent for
monitoring any application
Auto-upgradeable
Agentless monitoring option
100% web-based – HTTP(S)
Delivers maximum flexibility, ease of deployment and rapid ROI
eG
Monitor
Citrix VMware Oracle, SQL
Web, Email,
DNS, FTP
Network
Devices
App Servers -
WebLogic
Web Servers
Sybase, DB2
Windows
Applications
SAP R/3
Custom
Applications
eG Manager
HTTP/HTTPS

8/25/2
015
5
6
ROI of Total Citrix Performance
Management
“Dramatically simplify
and accelerate
virtualization
performance
management.
Deliver peak
performance, user
satisfaction and ROI.”
Citrix
Performance
Monitoring
with eG
Enterprise
IT Productivity
Higher
service
uptime
Simplicity
User Satisfaction
Cost control & ROI

8/25/2
015
5
7
4. Use vGPU for scale and performance
7. Get a handle on Citrix performance with
Director/NetScaler Insight
8. End-to-End performance visibility is key for success

8/25/2
015
5
8
Moving to XenApp /XenDesktop 7.6
Consideration Recommendation
Stability Good
Ease of migration Easy – esp if Win 2008 R2 or later
Migrate vs. build fresh Build fresh unless you have many
published applications
Setup process One of the easiest!
Do yourself vs. rely on a consultant Experience can help!
Performance Should be the same as before.
Monitor for any changes in
performance before and after the
change.

8/25/2
015
5
9
Contact Us for More Information
Web: http://www.eginnovations.com
Trial: http://www.eginnovations.com/freetrial
Email: info@eginnovatios.com
Ph: +1 (866) 526 6700
Web: http://www.pqr.com
Email: info@pqr.com
Ph: +31 (30) 6629729

8/25/2
015
6
0
&

8/25/2
015
6
1
Resources
 Free Trial
http://www.eginnovations.com/freetrial
 Contact Us
info@eginnovations.com
 Call Us +1 (866) 526 6700

The Top Eight Best Practices for Deploying XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6

More Related Content

The Top Eight Best Practices for Deploying XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6