PCoIP Session - OS Test

PCoIP - PC over IP - is a proprietary protocol for remote workstation and desktop resolution. Amazon WorkSpaces supports PCoIP to deliver virtual desktops to users connecting to the VDI. Since PCoIP recognizes different types of content and then uses different compression algorithms based on the content type, it is often considered ideal to deliver on the VDI promise of a rich user experience.

The key factors influencing user experience in such cases are the latencies experienced by the user while connecting to the desktop via PCoIP and the bandwidth used when a user interacts with a virtual desktop. High latency and excessive bandwidth consumption can often slowdown access to desktops, thereby significantly delaying subsequent user operations. Hence, monitoring the latency and bandwidth usage of the PCoIP communication channel between the user terminal and the virtual desktops is essential.

The PCoIP Session - OS test auto-discovers the users who are currently connected to the Windows virtual desktops on the cloud via PCoIP. For each such user, the test monitors the communication between a user and the virtual desktop, and reports the following:

• The latency experienced by each user session;

• The bandwidth used by the incoming and outgoing data/audio/multimedia traffic transacted by the PCoIP communication channel between each user and virtual desktop;

Using this test, an administrator can identify user sessions that are being impacted by high latency and abnormal bandwidth usage. In addition, the test also reveals the type of traffic that is causing excessive bandwidth usage, thereby providing pointers to how the client configuration can be fine-tuned in order to reduce bandwidth consumption and improve performance.

Target of the test : A Windows virtual desktop on the cloud

Agent deploying the test : An Amazon Cloud Desktop Group

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every user who is connected to a virtual desktop via PCoIP.

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The nick name of the Amazon Cloud Desktop Group component for which this test is to be configured.
Port	Refers to the port at which the specified host listens to. By default, this is NULL.
Inside View Using	To obtain the 'inside view' of performance of the desktops - i.e., to measure the internal performance of the cloud-based virtual desktops - this test uses a light-weight eG VM Agent software deployed on each of the desktops. Accordingly, this parameter is by default set to eG VM Agent.
Report Powered OS	If this flag is set to Yes (which is the default setting), then the 'inside view' tests will report measures for even those desktops that do not have any users logged in currently. Such desktops will be identified by their name and not by the username_on_desktopname. On the other hand, if this flag is set to No, then this test will not report measures for those desktops to which no users are logged in currently.
Report By User	This flag is set to Yes by default. The value of this flag cannot be changed. This implies that the cloud-based virtual desktops in environments will always be identified using the login name of the user. In other words, in cloud environments, this test will, by default, report measures for every username_on_desktopname.
Is Cloud VMs	Since this test runs for a 'Amazon Cloud Desktop Group' component, this flag is set to Yes, by default.

Measurements of the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Round trip time	Indicates the round trip latency between the virtual desktop and this user terminal.	Secs	Comparing the value of this measure across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who are experiencing higher latency when connecting to a virtual desktop.
Data received rate	Indicates the rate at which data was received by this user from the virtual desktop.	Kbit/Sec	Comparing the value of each of these measures across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who are consuming the maximum bandwidth. Once you zero-in on the user, you can compare the Data received rate of that user with the Data sent rate to know when the user consumed more bandwidth - when receiving data or while sending data?
Data sent rate	Indicates the rate at which data was sent by this user to the virtual desktop.	Kbit/Sec
Audio data received	Indicates the bandwidth used while transmitting sound/audio to this user.	Kbit/Sec	Comparing these values across users will reveal which user is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive sound/audio files over PCoIP.
Audio data sent	Indicates the bandwidth used while receiving sound/audio from this user.	Kbit/Sec
Imaging data received rate	Indicates the bandwidth used when sending imaging data to this user.	Kbit/Sec	Comparing these values across users will reveal which user is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive images over PCoIP.
Imaging data sent rate	Indicates the bandwidth used when receiving imaging data from this user.	Kbit/Sec
Imaging decoder capability rate	Indicates the currrent estimate of the decoder processing capability.	Kbit/Sec
Incoming bandwith	Indicates the overall bandwidth used by incoming PCoIP packets.	Kbit/Sec	Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user is performing bandwidth-intensive operations over the PCoIP channel.
Outgoing bandwidth	Indicates the overall bandwidth used by outgoing PCoIP packets.	Kbit/Sec
USB data received rate	Indicates the bandwidth used when this user received USB data over the PCoIP channel.	Kbit/Sec	Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive USB data over the PCoIP channel.
USB data sent rate	Indicates the bandwidth used when this user sent USB data over the PCoIP channel.	Kbit/Sec
Received packets lost	Indicates the percentage of packets received by this user that were lost.	Percent	A high value for these measures is indicative of a bad network connection between the user terminal and the virtual desktop.
Transmitted packets lost	Indicates the percentage of packets transmitted by this user that were lost.	Percent
Imaging encoded frames	Indicates the number of imaging frames that were encoded per second.	Frames/Sec