Jason Conger

Here is a fun one I came across.  This slide deck by Eric Sloof and Mattias Sundling details VMware myths and either busts or confirms the myth.  The following VMware myths are tackled in this article/presentation:

VMware HA works out-of-the-box – Busted.  There are several things the admin will need to do to get HA working in a vSphere environment.
VMware snapshots impacts performance – Confirmed.  Snapshots still have impact on performance.
Disk provisioning type doesn’t affect performance – Busted. Thin and Lazy Zeroed disks have the same speed. Once allocated, these disks are as fast as Zeroed disks. Thick Provision Eager Zeroed offer best performance from first write on.
Always use VMware tools to sync the time in your VM – Busted.  Use W32Time or NTP.  Do not use VMware Tools period sync.

For more explanation these conclusions and to download the PowerPoint deck, continue reading at the source…
Tags: VMware, Performance

VMware vSphere is pretty straight-forward to set up; however, there are a few things you should do to your environment after installation is complete.  Rick Vanover, details 10 of the top things you should do post-installation in a recent article.  Some of the tweaks include:

Set DNS – specifically, set each host to have the same DNS servers and suffixes.  This also includes getting the hostname from localhost changed to the proper local FQDN.
Create a DNS A Record for the host.
Raise the maximum number of NFS datastores.
Disable SSH warning when it is enabled.  VMware KB article 2007922 shows you how.
Set enable vMotion on vmkernel – environments with multiple vmkernel interfaces will need to granularly direct traffic.
More…

Some of these tweaks should be common sense, but then there is the saying that goes something like "why do they call it common sense when it isn't all that common?"  So, go read the rest of the article at the source…
Tags: VMware, vSphere, ESX

When most people think about Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server, they think low-power Terminal Services.  I used to think that too; however, Windows Server 2012 has changed all that.  There are a lot of new features in Windows Server 2012 around Remote Desktop Services that make things much easier for end users as well as administrators.  Scale is more easily achieved, the admin can serve multiple users on a single server (Remote Desktop Session Host – a.k.a. RDSH), or the admin can deliver a single desktop image to an end user – RDS/VDI.  The Remote Desktop Services Blog has several interesting videos posted that help explain some of these new features at a high level.  The videos include:

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Overview – Summary of the value of Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012
Quick VDI Wizard – Set up a virtual machine based deployment on a single server.
Set up an RDS VDI deployment – Set up a virtual machine-based deployment.
Set up an RDS session deployment – Set up a session-based deployment.
RemoteFX – Learn about the enhancements made for end user discovery and experience.

Continue reading at the source…
Tags: Microsoft, RDS, RDSH, VDI

In a multi-user environment such as Microsoft Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH), it is very important that the underlying Operating System maintain an acceptable level of performance for each user so that one user on the system doesn't wreak havoc for everyone else.  There are several options out there and Barry Schiffer has detailed the highlight for some of them in a new article on his website.  The products compared include:

Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Dynamic Fair Share Scheduling (DFSS)
Citrix CPU Utilization Management
RES CPU Management
Threadlocker by Andy Morgan

Each solution's inner-working is briefly described as well as pros/cons of each.  For example, DFSS works based on a filter driver which means that it will react instantly when a process is launched. However, Citrix acts based on process spikes and process priority so although this might work well is means that it will start acting after a certain period of CPU usage.
I highly recommend this short read for all the RDSH admins out there.  Continue reading at the source…
Tags: Performance, RDSH, Citrix

Citrix is diving deeper into the mobility stack with the recent announcement to acquire Mobile Device Management (MDM) vendor Zenprise.  Zenprise takes MDM to the next level by introducing capabilities like geo-fencing, automated compliance, and features that make mobile apps “business-ready” and keep mobile content secure. Zenprise MobileManager lets you manage the device lifecycle across every major platform including iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. Zenprise MobileManager offers out-of-the-box support for BYOD programs or corporate mobile initiatives.
The Citrix play in this acquisition is Citrix now has the ability to control which applications communicate with native device capabilities as well as other applications.  Citrix has been diving more into the Mobile Application Management (MAM) space and this Zenprise acquisition brings broader capabilities to this strategy as well as establishing Citrix as a leader in the MDM space.
Continue reading at the source…
Tags: Citrix, MDM, MAM

There are a lot of improvements to Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012.  One of those improvements is the introduction of user profile disks (which is similar to Citrix personal vDisk or VMware linked clones). User profile disks store user and application data on a single virtual disk that is dedicated to one user’s profile.  User profile disks provide an easy way to store the user settings and data on a separate virtual disk that is reattached at logon, so the user data isn’t discarded when the virtual machine rolls back.
Rob Leitman has written a nice article detailing the necessary steps to get this up and going in your RDS environment.  The article outlines a wizard-driven approach as well as a PowerShell method.  Rob also covers the inner workings of user profile disks as well as troubleshooting methods.
Continue at source…
Tags: Microsoft, RDS, Profile

Microsoft has made a lot of strides in Windows Server 2012 as well as System Center 2012.  Now, a new management pack is available from Microsoft to help monitor Remote Desktop Services.  The Remote Desktop Services Management Pack helps you manage your computers that are running Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2012 by monitoring the health of Remote Desktop Services role services.
This management pack provides monitoring of the following Remote Desktop Services role services:

RD Session Host
RD Virtualization Host
RD Licensing
RD Gateway
RD Connection Broker
 RD Web Access

Continue at source…
Tags: Microsoft, RDS, System Center

Oversubscription of CPU, Memory, and Storage is a debatable topic for virtualization environments.  There are times when to oversubscribe and when to not.  This new paper from Dell and Scott Lowe help point out the pros and cons of oversubscription and how far it should be taken before it becomes dangerous.
The whitepaper covers:

Resource management and oversubscription
Processing resource management
Memory resource management
Storage resource management
Resource overcommit
Oversubscribing processing resources
Oversubscribing memory resources
Oversubscribing storage resources

This is a concise document which makes for an easy read.  Be sure to check it out.
Tags: Dell, vSphere

Here is another free tool for you Citrix XenApp admins out there.  This time, it is a rolling reboot script that does a whole lot more than just reboot a bunch of servers.
Windows applications tend to have memory leaks that can cause problems over time.  This problem is amplified in XenApp environments since multiple users are running multiple copies of these applications.  The easiest method it to reboot the servers from time to time to ensure performance and stability.  To help automate this Dane Young has come up with a rolling reboot script that takes advantage of overcapacity found in most XenApp farms to reboot servers over time without user impact. After the reboot has been processed, a procedure will validate that the server has returned from the reboot properly and the load has reevaluated under 5000. This way, if there are any servers that do not return from a reboot, the script will stop processing subsequent server reboots. The script will process through all servers in the farm until all servers have rebooted.
This script now supports:

Worker Group logic to allow simultaneous processing of multiple worker groups
MaxServers variable to allow simultaneous processing of multiple servers within a worker group
SMTP notification logic to report status updates through e-mail
ExcludeServers global variable to enable Administrators to exclude farm servers from processing

Continue at source…
Tags: Citrix, XenApp, Performance

Andrew Morgan has released an update to ThinKiosk and a lot has been going on.  ThinKiosk allows you to convert your current PC's into VDI ready thin clients by replacing the Windows shell.  For details about ThinKiosk, check out this page.
Here is what's new in ThinKiosk 3.1:

VMware View enhanced support
FTP policy management
Encryption
Battery Awareness
Pre launch Citrix Receiver
Early launch process
More!

And best of all, it is still free!
Check it out at the source…
Tags: ThinKiosk, Citirx, VMware