PCoIP Session - OS Test

PCoIP - PC over IP - is a proprietary protocol for remote workstation and desktop resolution. Citrix 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 - VM test auto-discovers the users who are currently connected to the Omnissa Horizon 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 Omnissa Horizon desktop on the cloud

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every user who is connected to a Omnissa Horizon 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 Omnissa Horizon Desktops 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 cloud-hosted Omnissa Horizon desktops - i.e., to measure the internal performance of the Omnissa Horizon 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 (Omnissa Horizon).
Report By User	This flag is set to Yes by default. The value of this flag cannot be changed. This implies that the virtual machines in VDI environments will always be identified using the login name of the user. In other words, in VDI environments, this test will, by default, report measures for every username_on_virtualmachinename.
Report Powered OS	This flag is relevant only for those tests that are mapped to the Inside View of Desktops layer. If this flag is set to Yes (which is the default setting), then the 'inside view' tests will report measures for even those Omnissa Horizon desktops that do not have any users logged in currently. Such desktops will be identified by their name and not by the username_on_virtualdesktopname. On the other hand, if this flag is set to No, then this test will not report measures for those Omnissa Horizon desktops to which no users are logged in currently.
Is Cloud VMs	Since this test runs for 'Omnissa Horizon Desktops' component which is a cloud-hosted desktop group, this flag is set to Yes by default.
Detailed Diagnosis	To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG suite embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option. The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled: The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

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