PVS vs MCS – Part 4: Deployment


This is part of a series comparing Provisioning Services and Machine Creation Services Part 1: Resource Delivery Options Part 2: Scalability Part 3: Storage Optimization Part 4: Deployment Part 5: On-going Maintenance Part 6: Architecture Part 7: Summary So far, the latest analysis between Machine Creation Services and Provisioning Services included within XenApp and XenDesktop… Continue reading PVS vs MCS – Part 4: Deployment

Sizing XenApp Windows 2012R2 Virtual Machines


I guess I’m not done yet. Last week, I posted the latest recommendations on sizing Windows 10 and Windows 7 virtual machines for a XenDesktop environment.  I received a few replies from people asking for any updates regarding Windows 2012R2. Unfortunately, when we discuss Windows 2012R2 and XenApp, the recommendations are not as straightforward as… Continue reading Sizing XenApp Windows 2012R2 Virtual Machines

Sizing Windows 10 and Windows 7 Virtual Machines


After reviewing all of the scalability tests we conducted over the past few months, I thought it was time to revisit the recommendations for sizing Windows 10 virtual machines.  I also reached out to Nick Rintalan to see if this is in line with what is currently being recommended for production environments (if you disagree,… Continue reading Sizing Windows 10 and Windows 7 Virtual Machines

XenDesktop 7.7 and Windows 10


The other day, I was able to share the latest single server density results when running Windows 7 on XenDesktop 7.7. We looked at a range of parameters like: PVS vs MCS PVS Disk Cache vs RAM Cache Citrix Policies: Very High Definition vs High Server Scalability vs Optimized for WAN Windows 7 optimizations Once… Continue reading XenDesktop 7.7 and Windows 10

XenDesktop 7.7 and Windows 7


We recently completed a massive round of testing looking at many of the different deployment configurations we can do with a Windows 7 desktop in XenDesktop 7.7. We wanted to look at how different factors might impact single server scalability. PVS vs MCS PVS Disk Cache vs RAM Cache Citrix Policies: Very High Definition vs… Continue reading XenDesktop 7.7 and Windows 7

The New XenApp – Reducing IOPS to 1


As we all know, IOPS are the bane of any application and virtualization project. If you don’t have enough, users will suffer. If you have too many, you probably spent too much money and your business will suffer. So we are always trying to find ways to more accurately estimate IOPS requirements as well as… Continue reading The New XenApp – Reducing IOPS to 1

Sizing XenDesktop 7 App Edition VMs


In the Mobilizing Windows applications for 500 users design guide, we made the recommendation to allocate 8vCPUs for each virtual XenDesktop 7 App Edition host (formerly known as XenApp). Spreading this out across a server with two Intel Xeon E5-2690 @2.9GHz processors and 192 GB of RAM, we were yielding about 200 users per physical… Continue reading Sizing XenDesktop 7 App Edition VMs

Project Accelerator Question 1 – Technical Skillsets


One of the first questions that Project Accelerator asks you is what technical skillset you current have, with a list of about 20 different technologies.  Why do we care? Let’s say you have App-V experience, then when you get to the application delivery portion, we will probably recommend you use App-V for a subset of… Continue reading Project Accelerator Question 1 – Technical Skillsets

RAM Smorgasbord


When I talk about virtual desktop specifications, we often break down our users into a few different categories (Light, Normal, Power, and Heavy). These categories correspond to the resources we allocate to the virtual desktop (assuming we are talking about the hosted VM-Based desktop model). This should be no surprise. This discussion directly relates to… Continue reading RAM Smorgasbord

Fun TechTalk on XenDesktop Enterprise Design


One of the best things about my position is I get to talk to a lot of smart people, do some pretty cool things (like playing around with the iPad), and constantly learn. For example, any idea why you would modify the “Maximum Transition Rate”? Do you even have an idea what it is? I… Continue reading Fun TechTalk on XenDesktop Enterprise Design