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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Citrix XenDesktop is a suite of desktop virtualization tools designed to provide users with fast and convenient access to their Windows desktops and applications through any device. Virtual desktops mean that rather than setting up hundreds or thousands of individual computers in an enterprise, companies can instead opt to create servers with large amounts of memory, disk, and processing resources, and use virtualization to offer these resources to end users. The result of this is that users are provided with an experience that appears to be identical to having an individual desktop PC. Each user has some disk space, processor time, and memory allocated to them, as though it is present on their own physical machine, when in reality, the resources are physically present on a centralized server.
This book starts by answering the basic questions you need to ask when considering XenDesktop, followed by methods of how you can properly size your server infrastructure for XenDesktop. You’ll discover how to optimize the virtual machines used in XenDesktop, how to optimize your network for XenDesktop, and how to optimize the hypervisor and the cloud. You’ll also learn how to monitor XenDesktop to maximize performance.
By the end of the book, you will be able to plan, design, build, and deploy high performance XenDesktop Virtualization systems in enterprises. You will also know how to monitor and maintain your systems to ensure smooth operation.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
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Table of Contents
Optimizing Citrix® XenDesktop® for High Performance
Optimizing Citrix® XenDesktop® for High Performance
Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing
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First published: December 2015
Production reference: 1181215
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"The statements made and opinions expressed herein belong exclusively to the author and reviewers of this publication, and are not shared by or represent the viewpoint of Citrix Systems, Inc. This publication does not constitute an endorsement of any product, service, or point of view. Citrix makes no representations, warranties or assurances of any kind, express or implied, as to the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, availability, or currency of the content contained in this publication or any material related to this publication. Any reliance you place on such content is strictly at your own risk. In no event shall Citrix, its agents, officers, employees, licensees, or affiliates be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, business information, or loss of information) arising out of the information or statements contained in the publication, even if Citrix has been advised of the possibility of such loss or damages.
Citrix, Xen, XenApp, XenDesktop, XenMobile, XenServer, XenMotion, XenCenter, NetScaler, MetaFrame, EdgeSight, FlexCast, Citrix Receiver, StoreFront, Citrix Ready, CloudPortal, CloudBridge, ICA, HDX, HDX Insight, Citrix Workspace Cloud, Sanbolic, Melio, and other Citrix marks and brands appearing herein are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries."
Some of the images in the chapters are taken from the Citrix website and documentation.
Credits
Author
Craig Thomas Ellrod
Reviewers
Erik Bakker
Rene Lindeboom
Jan Hendrik Meier
Florian Zoller
Commissioning Editor
Zeeyan Pinheiro
Acquisition Editor
Tushar Gupta
Content Development Editor
Zeeyan Pinheiro
Technical Editor
Dhiraj Chandanshive
Copy Editor
Kevin McGowan
Project Coordinator
Suzanne Coutinho
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Indexer
Priya Sane
Graphics
Kirk Rocque D'Penha
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Nitesh Thakur
Cover Work
Nitesh Thakur
About the Author
Craig Thomas Ellrod has more than 25 years of experience in the computer industry and holds a bachelor's of science degree in computer science from California State University, Chico, and a master's in business administration from Pepperdine University. He has held many positions in the computer industry, including software programmer, support engineer, field and corporate system engineer, technical marketing manager, product marketing manager, and product manager. He has worked for companies such as Celerity Computing, Emulex, Pinnacle Micro, Sync Research, Cisco Systems, Citrix Systems®, Extreme Networks, and other smaller start-up ventures.
Craig currently works for Akamai as a solutions engineer and system architect in the Rockies region of the USA. He has authored patent applications and patent designs and received an innovation award while at Extreme Networks. Craig is passionate about technical marketing. He has written many deployment guides and is well versed in all Citrix® products. He also wrote a book on technical marketing, authored a XenApp® 6.5 video series, and wrote a book on Getting Started with XenDesktop® 7.x, Packt Publishing.
About the Reviewers
Erik Bakker is a freelance consultant/architect based in the Netherlands with a strong focus on Microsoft and Citrix® virtualization technologies (SBC and VDI). He is specialized in designing and troubleshooting large Citrix® and Microsoft environments using the latest available technologies.
He's been adept at Citrix® since the early WinFrame product and has since been certified in the complete Citrix suite up to the latest released products as an CCE-V for XenDesktop® 7.6. Besides working with the product, he's also a subject matter expert for Citrix regarding the Citrix® Virtualization Exams in which he helps to design the final exams.
Next to everything related to Citrix®, he's also an expert in Microsoft technologies. He has a broad knowledge of almost every Microsoft product released and is also certified in all major Microsoft products as an MCSE/MCITP.
Erik can be contacted on Twitter using the @bakker_erik handle or by sending him a message using LinkedIn at https://nl.linkedin.com/in/bakker123.
Rene Lindeboom lives in Almere, Netherlands, together with his wife and two little dogs.
He is (and has been for the last 15 years) a specialist in the fields of server-based computing, Virtual Desktop Infrastructures, and related application delivery technologies. He is also skilled in VMWare View, Horizon, and end user computing technologies such as Citrix® XenMobile®, RES Workspace Manager, and others.
Rene works for Platani Nederland as a senior IT specialist and is experienced in designing, implementing, and troubleshooting or reviewing larger customer environments based upon a sound and pragmatic approach. He likes transferring knowledge to those eager to get acquainted with new technologies and is fascinated by the speed in which technology evolves in this fast-moving world.
Platani Nederland offers specialized knowledge and expertise in all current technologies, delivered to the customer by experienced senior consultants in a quality-driven fashion using lessons learned and common sense. Find out more at http://www.platani.nl.
Follow Rene on Twitter at @renelindeboom or see his LinkedIn profile at http://nl.linkedin.com/in/renelindeboom.
Jan Hendrik Meier has more than 10 years of experience in IT. He started as a trainee for an IT-specialist company. During this time, he had his first contact with products from Microsoft and Citrix®. Now, he is an expert in infrastructure and virtualization solutions. In the Citrix® area, he started to work with an early XenDesktop® (or better XenApp) version—MetaFrame XP. He deepened his knowledge in the following products: Presentation Server, XenApp®, and XenDesktop® and started to expand this with knowledge about various other Citrix® products such as Provisioning Server, NetScaler®, and XenMobile®.
He is currently working as an IT architect for a medium-sized company based in Germany.
Furthermore, he writes books and professional articles on different IT technologies. If he finds interesting problems during his job, he writes description and solutions for them on his blog, which can be found at http://www.jhmeier.de.
I wish my daughter Evi an awesome and wonderful life. May all her wishes be fulfilled.
Florian Zoller works as a lead IT architect at msg services, a consulting company based in Germany. He has several years of experience in designing and implementing Citrix® infrastructures for midsize and large customers. Besides his expert knowledge of XenApp®/XenDesktop®, XenMobile®, and Netscaler®, he focuses on software distribution and automation technologies such as Heat software desktop and server management, PowerShell, and so on.
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Preface
Citrix® XenDesktop® is a desktop virtualization and a VDI solution that delivers Windows desktop experience as an on-demand service to any user, anytime, anywhere. It suits all types of workers from task workers and knowledge workers to mobile "work shifting" workers. XenDesktop® delivers complete desktops and applications quickly and in a secure manner while providing a high-definition user experience at the same time.
Instead of managing thousands of static desktop images, you can manage and update the desktop OS and applications once, from a single location. If you can corral all your user resources in the data center, you can get a better grasp of the security and better the policy compliance.
My first book, Getting Started with XenDesktop® 7.x, provides comprehensive details on how to design, implement, and maintain a desktop delivery site using XenDesktop®. It teaches you about management, policies, printing, USB support, storage and backup, the High Definition User Experience (HDX™), application delivery, the XenDesktop® SDK, Citrix Receiver™, security, and running XenDesktop® from the cloud.
If you are reading this book, you have most likely implemented XenDesktop® or are sizing and scoping your deployment. Once you have read the first book and understood how to install XenDesktop®, you will want to dig deeper into the topic of optimizing performance. You can't implement XenDesktop® realistically without understanding performance. The more information you have, the more you will be prepared to design and manage performance issues ahead of time.
You may have installed a previous version of XenDesktop® and found that XenDesktop® 7.x is different than the previous versions. This book will be helpful even if you are a desktop virtualization veteran or new to the game and starting fresh. In this book, we will walk through the architecture of Citrix® XenDesktop® to help you understand where the performance weak points are and how to optimize the product.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, XenDesktop® Architecture, covers the definition of some basic XenDesktop® architectures and the different components involved. We learn about some terminologies and concepts that are important to understand as a baseline before addressing performance.
Chapter 2, Sizing, teaches you to size the different components of XenDesktop® architecture. It provides you with some tools to help you keep your deployment within the bounds of comprehension.
Chapter 3, Hypervisors, examines how the virtual hardware operates in general and how it relates to XenDesktop® and then we continue down that path. Before we do that, we need to have a discussion on how virtualization works in relation to the underlying hardware.
Chapter 4, Memory Optimization, covers all of the weak points or places where we might want to focus on optimization, starting with virtual memory.
Chapter 5, Network Optimization, focuses on how the virtual hardware operates in relation to XenDesktop® with regards to networking.
Chapter 6, Storage Optimization, covers arguably the most important and most talked about topic of virtualization. There are many different types of storage, we review them in this chapter and find out which one is best for XenDesktop® and virtualization. It also includes a discussion on the controversial subject of IOPS.
Chapter 7, CPU Optimization, covers CPU virtualization and some concepts around optimizing performance. A lot of information passes through the CPU whether it's virtualized or not. When you install a hypervisor, it carves up the physical CPU into virtual CPUs and with the advent of hyper-threading, the number of vCPUs doubles conceptually.
Chapter 8, Performance Monitoring, focuses on how to monitor the performance of XenDesktop® and includes some sample tools, both GUI and CLI based.
Chapter 9, Acceleration, discusses performance optimization beyond the XenDesktop® site such as the WAN. You can control performance inside the hypervisors, hardware, and datacenter in which you deploy your XenDesktop® infrastructure.
Chapter 10, XenDesktop® Component Tweaks, covers some additional performance-enhancing tweaks for individual VDI components.
What you need for this book
The following are the software components that are required for this book:
The following are the license requirements for this book:
The following are the hardware requirements for this book:
The following are the XenDesktop® components used in this book:
The following are the Microsoft products used in combination with Citrix® XenDesktop® components that are used in this book:
Who this book is for
If you are a system administrator, architect, consultant, or beginner who has implemented XenDesktop® sites and is looking for tips on performance optimization, then this book is for you. This book will help both new and experienced XenDesktop® professionals to deliver desktops and applications that provide an outstanding user experience.
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Chapter 1. XenDesktop® Architecture
In this first chapter, we'll start with defining some basic XenDesktop architectures and the different components involved. We'll also visit some terminology and concepts that are important to understand as a baseline before addressing performance. As your XenDesktop sites grow, performance will be impacted, so getting the blueprint right first time is critical. One thing we often say in our business is "measure twice, and cut once". In this chapter, we will cover the following:
Introduction
XenDesktop is a desktop virtualization and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution that delivers a Windows desktop experience as an on-demand service to any user, anytime, anywhere. It suits all types of workers, from task workers or knowledge workers, to mobile workshifting workers. XenDesktop quickly and securely delivers complete desktops or applications while providing a high-definition user experience.
XenDesktop is a desktop virtualization solution that optimizes the delivery of desktops, applications, and data to end users. It includes all the capabilities to deliver desktops, applications, and data securely to every type of user in an enterprise. Instead of managing thousands of static desktop images, you can manage and update the desktop OS and applications once, from one location.
My other book, Getting Started with XenDesktop® 7.x, Packt Publishing, provides comprehensive details on how to design, implement, and maintain a desktop delivery site using XenDesktop. It also includes topics on management, policies, printing, USB support, storage and backup, the High Definition User Experience (HDX), application delivery, the XenDesktop SDK, the Citrix Receiver, and running XenDesktop from the cloud.
If you are reading this book, you have most likely heard of the desktop virtualization concept. You may have done some basic research on the topic or installed a previous version of XenDesktop. If you are a desktop virtualization veteran or new to the game and starting your proof of concept, this book will be helpful. In this book, we will assume you already have a XenDesktop environment or are planning one. We will help you understand the different topics surrounding XenDesktop performance.
Getting started with hypervisors
Before we get started, you will need to understand what a hypervisor is. A hypervisor is a thin operating system that hosts multiple instances of disparate operating systems. It can also be defined as software that can create and run virtual machines. The hypervisor software runs on server hardware that is enabled for virtualization. Once this is installed, you can install several instances of different operating systems onto the hypervisor. The hypervisor was game-changing, because instead of running one operating system per server, you could now run X number of operating systems on one server, saving space and money.
There are several vendors that make hypervisors, such as Citrix XenServer, VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and the Linux open source Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM). There are two types of hypervisors:
As you can imagine, the Type 1 hypervisors have been touted to have better performance as they interact directly with the server hardware resources.
Citrix XenServer and VMware ESXi are Type 1 hypervisors. Microsoft Hyper-V is presumably a Type 1 hypervisor. There has been debate over whether Hyper-V is a Type 1 or Type 2 hypervisor mainly because you first install the Windows server operating system and then turn on the Hyper-V role, giving the perception that Hyper-V is running on top of or with the help of the Windows Server operating system. Obviously, XenDesktop runs on Citrix XenServer, but it can also run on VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V.
Note
At the time of this writing, XenDesktop does not run on KVM. You could probably make it work. Citrix does not officially support KVM. Tribal Knowledge says you could run XenDesktop on KVM, but you would not be able to use MCS or PVS automation for creating VMs.
The following diagram gives you a visual idea of the differences between the types of hypervisors compared to traditional servers. It also shows how the interaction between these components contends for hardware resources and ultimately affects performance and sizing of hardware resources:
Architecture
Before we can start designing the XenDesktop infrastructure, we need to understand the core components that go into building it. XenDesktop can support all types of workers, from task workers that run Microsoft Office applications, to knowledge users that host business applications, to mobile workshifting users, to high-end 3D application users. XenDesktop scales from a small business supporting five to ten users up to large enterprises supporting thousands of users.
In the XenDesktop architecture, there are several sections called layers that are used to group certain functions together. Each layer is comprised of logical groupings of resources to help you better understand the roles each type of component plays.
The following is a simple diagram to illustrate the components that make up the XenDesktop architecture:
Referring to this diagram, you now have a visual representation of how a simple site will look when finished. Let's take a look at each individual component so you understand the role of each one.
The Clients layer
The Clients layer contains all the clients. It seems simple, and it is. Citrix Receiver is device-agnostic, so it will run on any device. You name it, and it will be capable of connecting to a XenDesktop.
The Network layer
One of the benefits of XenDesktop is that it creates a light network load for the client connections. However, we call out the Network layer because this is a potential pinch point in large XenDesktop deployments—a place where performance can be degraded or bottlenecked. The network layer is a general term and refers to every piece of the network, from the client device, through the wide area network, the cloud, and into the datacenter where XenDesktop is being hosted.
The Access layer
The Access layer is where you place the NetScaler to frontend your XenDesktop site. You can also place the StoreFront servers here. This layer contains resources that provide a portal for your clients to connect to the XenDesktop site. This layer is similar to DMZ computing in traditional network architectures.
