Techy Thursday proudly presents: Utilize the new features in Provisioning Services 5.1

1. Techy Thursday proudly presents:Utilize the new features in Provisioning Services 5.1 MikaelLindholm, Sr. Systems Engineer EMEA Sales Dev, Server Virtualization October 2009

2. Webinar protocol • Use the GoTo Webinar Q&A panel in the right of your screen to ask any questions. • You can also use the ”Raise your hand” -function to request to have yourself unmuted during Q&A time • Presentation available beginning of next week.

3. A few words on the presenter • Took two years to understand the beauty of Citrixafter first encounter in 1998 • Citrix Instructor and Consultant for a partner since 2000First CCIA in the Nordics • Joined Citrix Systems Finland in 2004 • Joined Citrix Systems EMEA in 2008 as aProduct Specialist specializing in PVS • Moved to the EMEA Server Virtualization group in 2009focusing on the Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V • Gained ~10 kg since joining Citrix and has long hair because no time to go to the barber shop Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute

4. Agenda • Provisioning Services brief overview • PVS 5.1 New Features – What, when and why use them • Scalability and Sizing • A few tips from the field • PVS 5.1 SP 1 • Q&A

5. Provisioning Services - Brief Overview

6. Provisioning Services - Conceptual • Components • vDisks • Provisioning Services • Target Devices • Streaming • Write cache vDisk 1 vDisk 4 vDisk 2 vDisk 3

7. Provisioning Services 5.1-New Features

8. Feature List: Standard Image Mode NIC Teaming Multiple Volume vDisks Offline DB Support User assigned vDisks Improved Logging VHD Direct Boot Read-only File System Server Initiated Failover XP Embedded Streaming Auditing Provisioning Services 5.1 - Complete Feature list

9. Standard Image Mode NIC Teaming • Hardware NIC Teaming supported inall vDisk modes • Vendors supported • Intel • Broadcom (not on Dell) • Modes supported • Fault Tolerance • Load Balancing

10. Creating vDisk Image - XenConvert • Image one or more volumes: • Up to 4 volumes per vDisk • NTFS only • Not contained within an extended partition • Partitions will be sized automatically on the destination disk • Two ways of building the vDisk • To Provisioning Services vDisk • To VHD, IF the PVS drivers are installed • Two ”versions” • With PVS converto to PVS vDisk only • Full version with XenServer or from myCitrix

11. Multiple Partition vDisks • Imaging of systems with multiple physical / logical drives into a single vDisk • How XenConvert Partitions Multiple Drivers

12. Offline Database Support • Continued operation of Provisioning Services hosts and provisioned systems in the event of a database failure or outage

13. Offline Database Support Unavailable when database connection is lost, regardless if Local Database Resiliency option is enabled: • Active Directory password changes • AutoAdd target devices • AutoUpdate or Incremental vDisk updates • RamDisk mode • Stream Process startup • User Groups (user assigned vDisks) – called follow the user • vDisk creation

14. Offline Database Support

15. Offline Database Support • MCLI Get farm

16. When to enable ”Offline database support” • No real reason yet to not turn on this feature • Small performance gain at the cost of a small memory footprint increase. • If disconnected from the PVS Datastore before the first snapshot there might be a MMC snap-in error.

17. User Assigned Virtual Disks

18. User Assigned Virtual Disks • Selects vDisk to stream to a provisioned system based on user logon

19. User Assigned Virtual Disks

20. User Assigned Virtual Disks

21. User Assigned Virtual Disks • vDisks assigned to individual users rather than machines: • Port Blocker and Personality settings will be supported on a per-Device basis, not on a user or group basis. GPO settings may continue to be applied on top of these settings • If device is not a member of a Collection with user groups enabled, target device boots using the vDisk assigned to that target device • Each target device maintains its own Difference Disk, which does not follow the user from machine to machine • Domain\username is not used for authentication, just vDisk assignment

22. When to use this feature? • As part of a PVS for Desktops or XenDesktop scenario • Enable ”Follow the User” with (fat) streamed endpoints • Does not currently make sense in hosted XenDesktop environments

23. Enhanced Logging - Server • New logging improvements will greatly simplify and expedite problem remediation

24. Enhanced Logging – Target Device • There is no config file on the client side • NOTE:You need the Server logging level to be the same or higher to get logs from the Target

25. Enhanced Logging – Log Files

26. Enhanced logging – log files

27. Enhanced logging – log files

28. Enhanced logging – log files

29. Typical Log Info/Errors Client's DB record about connected Server is incorrect/out of sync. Possibly due to reconnect, failover, DB error: CSSProtocol::UpdateClientStatus Server IP mismatch Requesting Device (KARENPVS01D), ID=13. Mismatching server IP AC16ECA5:AC16F036 Client reconnect: CSSProtocol::DispatchServiceRequest Recv: LS_SERVICE_REQUEST from device at IP:AC16533B. Reconnect=1 DEBUG CSSProtocol::DispatchServiceRequest Re-using IO Context for device at IP:AC16533B

30. Typical Log Info/Errors Client has no IO for a while, it is detached from the vdisk (normal behavior): DEBUG CSSVirtualDisk::CheckQuietFile Close quiet file \\172.17.129.148\cpvfs\HP7800_Vista321_Pilot Target device has sent heartbeat to server, but server does not know anything about the target: ERROR Error - No connection found for heartbeat from device at IP:907443D9

31. Typical Log Info/Errors StreamProcess threads hanging: DEBUG CSSProtocolModule::CheckMonitorThreads 10 threads appear to be in danger of hanging TRACE CSSProtocolModule::CheckMonitorThreads Thread TimerThread:170 [112c] appears to be in danger of hanging, waiting since 1252533287 (for about 176 seconds) at .\SSProtocolModule.cpp:1793 TRACE CSSProtocolModule::CheckMonitorThreads Thread SSProtocol:45 [11e8] appears to be in danger of hanging, waiting since 1252533297 (for about 166 seconds) at .\SSProtocol.cpp:367 ERROR CSSProtocolModule::CheckMonitorThreads Thread SSProtocol:43 [11e0] hung since 1252533272 (for about 241 seconds) at .\SSProtocol.cpp:883 ERROR CSSProtocolModule::DoLogEvent Detected one or more hung threads.Please send Stream.log to support ERROR CSSProtocolModule::DoLogEvent Terminating StreamProcess ERROR CSSProtocolModule::CheckMonitorThreads 1 threads hung, 9 threads in danger

32. Typical Log Info/Errors Expected Errors when there are Disk access issues for the stores: ERROR CManagedVdiskLock::Open - path_ = <\\stream1\I$\755_Update 4.lok> ERROR CManagedVdiskLock::Open - in CManagedVdiskLock::Open, could not open .lok file, last_error = 53 ERROR Error - Cannot get vdisk header for device at IP:C0A80661, DiskId=29 ERROR Error - Vdisk cannot be accessed for device at IP:C0A80661

33. Typical Log Info/Errors Stream process started or restarted, a lot of configuration settings like IP address and database: DEBUG CSSProtocolModule::CreateNoEx Creating protocol module DEBUG didn't get general inet addr from registry, falling back to ACE-provided value DEBUG general inet addr is: <10.42.101.37:6909> DEBUG host name: <D00510> DEBUG Loaded db library <StreamDb> DEBUG computerName_ = <D00510> DEBUG about to read reg key <Software\Citrix\ProvisioningServices\Database> for db settings

34. Typical Log Info/Errors License server connection in the streamprocess startup: • INFO LicenseMgr::OnLSConnStatusChange Successfully contacted the license server D00512.services.lab.vic.gov.au:27000

35. Offline vDisk Maintenance • Mount PVS VHD files directly within Microsoft Hyper-V • Easier vDisk Updating • Especially vm-tools, PVS and network drivers • Upgrade from previous PVS version to PVS 5.1 (and higher) • Create Common Image between physical device and Hyper-V • vDisk upgrade process Hyper-V (and XenServer (not supported)) • http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2009/07/28/New+Way+to+Upgrade+with+PVS+5.1+and+HyperV • http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2009/08/15/PVS+5.1+Direct+VHD+Boot+using+XenServer

36. Provisioning Services Read-only vDisk storage

37. Shared storage challenges • MS cluster based (SMB shared folder) storage low performance, only usable in smaller environments • Connecting more than one Windows Server to the same NTFS formatted LUN runs a high risk of disk corruption • Clustered Shared Volumes introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 is only supported for Hyper-V VMs (by Microsoft) • Until recently the ”only” workaround has been using 3rd party Cluster File Systems like: • Sanbolic’s Melio FS • HP Polyserve • Quantum StorNext

38. Read-only vDisk storage • Improves system performance by allowing VHDs to be deployed on read-only volumes, reducing disk I/O • Simplifies deployment of standard image mode on SAN and NAS devices • Enables vDisk to reside on a shared LUN allowing concurrent access by multiple servers

39. Read-Only vDisk Storage – Setup Process

40. Read-only vDisk storage – Typical Architecture

41. Read-only vDisk storage – FAQ • When should I choose this configuration? • Environments that use SAN for vDisk storage and client-side write-back cache (disk or RAM) • Does this feature improve performance? • Use of a read-only volume for vDisk storage eliminates overhead of normal PVS disk locking mechanism (impact primarily visible during target device boot) • Boot time performance is improved 25-50% depending on number of devices booting concurrently (greater improvement achiveved with higher device counts)

42. Read-only vDisk storage – FAQ • I need to use server side cache with my SAN storage. Can I still use this feature? • Yes, but you need a shared access solution to enable shared access to the volume with the write-back cache files • Can I use this feature with storage solutions other than SAN? • Generally, this feature is not needed with other solutions (such as NAS or Windows File System shares) as access to these devices is through CIFS or SMB which support safe shared volume access

43. Read-only vDisk storage – FAQ • Do we support FC SAN with read-only LUNs? • There is no reason this should not work (as you said the LUN appears as a drive to windows so PVS should have no problem using it) however it has not been tested • When using FC SAN is the iSCSI initiator software required? • iSCSI initiator is not required, vendor specific software for FC device should be used.

44. Scalability and Sizing Discussion

45. Disclaimer • Does any number discussed next apply to my environment?

46. Sub-agenda • XenApp and PVS • XenDesktop and PVS • General scalability and sizing

47. PVS Scalability - Streaming XenApp Farm • PVS to deploy XenApp farm with physical and virtual target “servers” • Two questions: • Is there a performance difference between a streamed and installed XA • How many XenApp servers per PVS Server

48. Test 1: Streamed XA scalability Streamed XenApp Server XA 5 – Windows 2008 HP DL360G5 Single Intel Xeon 2.0 GHz Quad Core Processor 8GB of RAM 2 internal 1GB network cards Physical XenApp Server XA 5 – Windows 2008 HP DL360G5 Single Intel Xeon 2.0 GHz Quad Core Processor 8GB of RAM 2 internal 1GB network cards ESLT Controller Lenovo T60 2GHz CPU - 2GB of RAM ESLT Launchers HP DL360G5 Single Intel Xeon 2.0 GHz Quad Core Processor 8GB of RAM 2 internal 1GB network cards

49. Test: Word and Excel users • Word users added incrementally • Excel user runs during stable load Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute

50. The Results…. Average it took to run excel script on each XenApp system 8 Min 18 Min 24 Min 34 Min 38 Min 48 Min 57.0 56.6 57.2 58.2 60.0 61.1 Physical 58.1 60.9 57.7 58.8 57.0 57.4 Streamed Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute