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.
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.
The following are the software components that are required for this book:
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
XenDesktop® 7.x
Citrix® NetScaler®
Citrix CloudBridge WAN Optimization
Hypervisor (Citrix® XenServer® 6.x.x, VMware vSphere (ESX 5.x), Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Rollup 1 for Hyper-V)
The following are the license requirements for this book:
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
Microsoft Windows XP, 7, and 8
Microsoft Terminal Services
XenDesktop®
Citrix® NetScaler®
Citrix® CloudBridge™ WAN Optimization product
The following are the hardware requirements for this book:
Hypervisor Host Servers
Network infrastructure
Client devices
The following are the XenDesktop® components used in this book:
StoreFront™
Delivery Controller
Studio
Director
License Server
Desktops
Application Servers
NetScaler Gateway™:
StoreFront™ frontend
CloudBridge™:
CloudBridge™ Connector
CloudBridge™ WAN Optimization
The following are the Microsoft products used in combination with Citrix® XenDesktop® components that are used in this book:
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft Active Directory
Microsoft DHCP
Microsoft DNS
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.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows:
"You can find out how many are assigned on each XenServer host by running the command cat /proc/cpuinfo".
A block of code is set as follows:
$grp = Get-XdDesktopGroup 'example' C:\PS>$grp.Desktops.Add( New-XdVirtualDesktop machine4 ) C:\PS>Set-XdDesktopGroup $grp
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
$grp = Get-XdDesktopGroup 'example'
C:\PS>$grp.Desktops.Add( New-XdVirtualDesktop machine4 )
C:\PS>Set-XdDesktopGroup $grpAny command-line input or output is written as follows:
PS C:\Windows\system32> Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Click on Advanced under the properties for TCP/IP version 4".
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[email protected]>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.
We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/7688OS_ColorImages.pdf.
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you could report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded to our website or added to any list of existing errata under the Errata section of that title.
To view the previously submitted errata, go to https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support and enter the name of the book in the search field. The required information will appear under the Errata section.
Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at <[email protected]> with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.
You can contact us at <[email protected]> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.