Citrix VDA Performance


Winter in Minnesota.  Back the car out of my driveway, reach the road and my car immediately slides, sideways downhill.  I think I need new tires. One of the best practices I like to talk about is “Maintain, because set and forget does not work.” We all know it is important to maintain our systems,… Continue reading Citrix VDA Performance

Windows 10 – Resource Utilization


Every 6 months, Microsoft releases a major update to Windows 10 (semi-annual channel). To be more precise, it is better to identify Windows 10 releases with version numbers (1503, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709,  1803, 1809 and 1903).  The format is the year and month of the release, so 1503 is March 2015 and 1709 is… Continue reading Windows 10 – Resource Utilization

Sizing Windows 2016, Windows 2012 and Windows 10 Virtual Machines


It has been almost one year since Windows Server 2016 was released at Microsoft Ignite. Are the virtual machine sizing recommendations for Windows Server 2012R2 applicable to Windows Server 2016? And since we are talking about sizing virtual machines for XenApp and XenDesktop, it might be a good time to revisit Windows 10. Let’s first… Continue reading Sizing Windows 2016, Windows 2012 and Windows 10 Virtual Machines

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

Windows 10 Optimization: Part 8 – The Results


Statistics are fun. It is amazing what interesting insights you can get from statistics. For example About 20% of workers would work harder if their employer offered a $1,000 shopping spree at the store of their choice – You hear that Citrix! About 20% of the people who watch the Super Bowl do so for… Continue reading Windows 10 Optimization: Part 8 – The Results

XenDesktop 5 Scalability – Site Capacity


When we last looked at XenDesktop 5 scalability, we really focused on the user experience in that users should not be required to wait longer than 2.5 seconds before the system responded to an authentication or launch request. We said that if the controller got very busy due to logon storms, we could add additional… Continue reading XenDesktop 5 Scalability – Site Capacity

XenDesktop 5 Scalability – XenDesktop Controller Capacity


Think about the architecture of XenDesktop 5. One of the core components responsible for an acceptable user experience during the initial authentication and launch of the virtual desktop are the controllers. If these controllers get overloaded, it will take users longer to launch their virtual desktops. What is acceptable is based on the users and… Continue reading XenDesktop 5 Scalability – XenDesktop Controller Capacity