Using Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing to characterize HP ProLiant server scalability in a Citrix XenApp on XenServer consolidated environment

Table of contents

Executive summary............................................................................................................................... 3 Business need...................................................................................................................................... 4 HP BladeSystem................................................................................................................................... 5 HP ProLiant BL680c G5 server blade ..................................................................................................... 5 Software components ........................................................................................................................... 6

HP Insight Control suite ..................................................................................................................... 6 Citrix XenServer 5.5......................................................................................................................... 6 HP integration with XenServer............................................................................................................ 7

Citrix XenServer, HP Select Edition ................................................................................................. 7 Citrix Essentials for XenServer, HP Enterprise and Platinum Editions .................................................... 7 Comparison................................................................................................................................. 8

Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing ....................................................................................................... 9 Load testing ...................................................................................................................................... 10

Methodology................................................................................................................................. 10 Performance metrics ....................................................................................................................... 10

Using the Monitor tab ................................................................................................................. 10 Using ESLT counters .................................................................................................................... 12 Using script performance data ..................................................................................................... 12

Determining server scalability .......................................................................................................... 13 Example.................................................................................................................................... 14

Scalability results ........................................................................................................................... 15 Summary................................................................................................................................... 15

Scalability gains ............................................................................................................................ 15 Test topology..................................................................................................................................... 17 Installing and configuring the servers ................................................................................................... 17

Installing and configuring the XenApp server..................................................................................... 17 Installing the ESLT Controller............................................................................................................ 19 Installing ESLT Launchers ................................................................................................................. 19 Configuring the ESLT Controller and Launchers .................................................................................. 19

Downloading the ESLT scripts and applying licensing ..................................................................... 19 Importing the ESLT scripts ............................................................................................................ 19 Creating a Load for each application ........................................................................................... 20 Creating connections .................................................................................................................. 21 Creating users............................................................................................................................ 22 Creating ICA connections on each Launcher.................................................................................. 24 Initiating the test ......................................................................................................................... 24

Testing a XenApp on XenServer environment..................................................................................... 24 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 25 Appendix A ...................................................................................................................................... 26 Appendix B....................................................................................................................................... 27 For more information.......................................................................................................................... 28

Executive summary Many Citrix XenApp deployments include servers that are dedicated to hosting single applications, for compatibility and other reasons. These servers are often under-utilized and are excellent candidates for consolidation via virtualization.

Historically, the benefits of virtualization solutions have been offset by a significant performance overhead, with many fewer users being supported on a virtualized server than on the native (“bare-metal”) system. However, with Citrix XenServer running on high-performance HP ProLiant servers, scalability concerns are being out-weighed by the benefits delivered by this virtualization solution. One of the reasons for these performance enhancements over older-generation servers is the deployment of newer, multi-core AMD Opteron™ or Intel® Xeon® processors, which provide features specifically designed to support virtualization, along with the XenApp optimization built into XenServer1.

The latest server technology, including the powerful combination of the latest multi-core processor technologies and x64 memory enhancements can help you achieve unprecedented scalability in a XenApp environment. However, it can be difficult to make a detailed comparison of server performance in a particular environment – a comparison that is essential if you wish to make a compelling business case for server consolidation.

This paper describes how a Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing (ESLT) test harness can be used to compare XenApp performance on multiple generations of HP ProLiant server platforms. To characterize the scalability enhancements achieved by each successive generation, ESLT was run with the same workload (XenApp 4.5/Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 with Microsoft Office 2007 applications) on a range of HP ProLiant server platforms. Test results showed that there has been a 20x gain from an x86 two-socket, single-core HP ProLiant DL380 G2 server (8 users) to an x64, four-socket, six-core HP ProLiant BL680c G5 bare-metal server blade (163 users). The results also showed that, with this latter blade, there was minimal virtualization overhead (160 as opposed to 163 users supported)2.

Capacity planning for server consolidation is not a trivial task, not least because it has traditionally been difficult and expensive to compare the performance of different server platforms. This paper provides step-by-step instructions for installing and configuring ESLT to compare the performance of various HP ProLiant servers, teaches you to use ESLT and enable you to duplicate this process in your own environment. So that you can skip the time-consuming task of application scripting, the Citrix-developed ESLT scripts used in this testing are located on the Citrix website3. This is a proof point that you can deploy with confidence.

Target audience: This performance characterization is intended primarily for IT professionals planning XenApp/HP Server Based Computing (HP SBC) solution deployments.

This white paper describes testing performed in July 2009.

1 For further information, refer to the HP white paper: Best practices for deploying Citrix XenApp on XenServer on HP ProLiant servers2 HP has characterized numerous XenServer virtualization scenarios on ProLiant server platforms. Refer to the HP website: www.hp.com/solutions/citrix3 For further information, refer to Citrix Support article CTX122568.

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Business need Server consolidation has become an integral part of IT planning, helping to reduce costs and improve efficiency in today's enterprise datacenters. Technologies such as virtualization support the consolidation of multiple applications into Virtual Machines (VMs) hosted on one or more physical servers.

HP ProLiant server blades, in combination with server virtualization, can provide a strong foundation on which to build next-generation data centers as part of your consolidation efforts.

Consolidating servers through virtualization offers a wide range of benefits, including the following:

• Minimizing the hardware footprint During a XenApp migration, hardware sprawl is a typical concern. If no new hardware is being introduced, migration may take a significant amount of time since taking even a few servers out of production can greatly impact users. However, if the migration includes XenServer virtualization, the migration rate can be increased. Using physical-to-virtual migration software ensures that no servers are removed from production, making the transition seamless to users.

• Achieving cost savings Consider the following example. A typical deployment consisting of 20 legacy servers is being consolidated using XenServer to virtualize the workload. Over a three-year period, 17 of the physical servers are replaced by XenApp VMs that are hosted on the remaining servers. The elimination of 17 physical servers can provide substantial cost benefits, as shown in Figure 14.

Figure 1. Benefits achieved by eliminating a number of legacy servers

Savings

Year 1 $18,472

Year 2 $23,272

Year 3 $24,030

Total $65,774

4 For further information, visit the HP website at http://h20384.www2.hp.com/serverstorage/cache/605934-0-0-0-121.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

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HP BladeSystem Blades have the same features as standard servers or storage and run the same applications; the key differentiator is that each HP BladeSystem enclosure provides a common, all-in-one infrastructure5.

By contrast, traditional servers and storage require additional infrastructure components so that they can run your applications, connect to other systems, and deliver services to the business. These components include cables, network switches, and specific options on each server. In addition, each server requires its own power supplies, cables, and fans; moreover, servers are typically managed and updated individually.

To protect against downtime, an additional server is often needed as a spare. Within an HP BladeSystem enclosure, however, modular resources are pooled and shared, making it easier to build, adapt, and maintain your data center.

By reducing cabling and switch connections, HP BladeSystem can save you time and money. Moreover, enclosures provide shared power and cooling, saving upfront costs and helping to reduce your energy and air conditioning bills. Finally, the redundancy offered by the enclosure makes it easy to use a single, allocatable spare to simultaneously protect many server blades, helping minimize unplanned downtime.

The following section outlines the capabilities of the HP ProLiant BL680c G5 server blade, one of the blades featured in the testing described in this paper.

HP ProLiant BL680c G5 server blade The HP ProLiant BL680c G5 server blade delivers no-compromise performance and expansion in the first 4P/24C6 server blade for HP BladeSystem. With support for powerful Intel Xeon processor technologies, up to 128 GB of fully-buffered PC2-5300 DDR2 memory, up to 1 TB of internal storage via two small form factor (SFF) hot plug drive bays, four embedded Gigabit server adapter ports, and three I/O expansion mezzanine slots, this server blade delivers the density and performance needed to handle the most demanding enterprise-class applications.

This server blade supports Intel Xeon 7400 series processors for more performance and configuration flexibility than earlier-generation offerings. With thermal design specifications similar to those of 7300 series processors, the four- and six-core 7400 series drives levels of performance that were previously unattainable from quad-core processors.

Designed to keep pace with strenuous computing demands, the high-performance HP ProLiant BL680c G5 server blade, shown in Figure 2, features impressive expansion capabilities and enterprise-class availability, along with industry-leading management tools that make this blade easy to deploy and maintain.

5 For more information, visit the HP website at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/literature/index.html. 6 Denoting a maximum of four processors (P), each with up to six cores (C) for a maximum of 24 cores; 4P is also known as four-socket

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Figure 2. HP ProLiant BL680c G5 server blade

The next section outlines key software components used in the test solution that is described in this white paper.

Software components This section provides more information key software components used in the ESLT test solution.

HP Insight Control suite HP Insight Control suite offers management software designed to provide the deep insight, precise control, and ongoing optimization you need to maximize the potential of your HP BladeSystem infrastructure.

Based on HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM), Insight Control suite delivers the following capabilities in one easy-to-install package:

• Comprehensive proactive health management • Remote control • Patch management • Rapid server deployment • VM management • Power management

Citrix XenServer 5.5 Freely-available XenServer 5.5 is enterprise-class virtualization software that delivers a broad range of functionality, including centralized multi-node management, multi-server resource sharing, and full, live migration, features that may cost as much as $5,000 per server with other leading virtualization products.

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XenServer 5.5 delivers new functionality that makes it easier to integrate and manage VMs in an enterprise environment. This functionality includes:

• Consolidated backup Third-party backup solutions can now interface directly with XenServer to support full, incremental, in-guest, file, and image backups of VMs. These new consolidated backup capabilities allow you to execute full GUI-based snapshots directly from the Citrix XenCenter central management console.

• Enhanced conversion Enhanced conversion tools make it easy to convert VMs created in VMDK format into VHD format.

New XenConvert functionality also makes it easy to seamlessly convert between any of the common open virtualization format packages, including Open Virtualization Format (OVF), Open Virtual Appliance (OVA), and XenServer Virtual Appliance (XVA).

• Enhanced search Enhanced search capabilities can help you view and manage your XenServer environment using a range of criteria, including VM name, resource pool, location, server, storage repository, snapshot time, and network name – all from a single location. You can also create custom views or folders.

• Active Directory integration Integration with the Microsoft Active Directory service makes it easy for you to use your Active Directory credentials to mange XenServer hosts; you can also log and audit user activity.

• Expanded guest support SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, Debian 5.0, and RedHat/CentOS/Oracle® Enterprise Linux 5.3 are added to a growing list of supported guests that includes almost every version of the Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems.

HP integration with XenServer This section outlines HP integrations with XenServer.

Citrix XenServer, HP Select Edition HP has integrated XenServer with HP Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agents and a 90-day license for the HP ProLiant Virtual Console (PVC) utility. This edition supports the fast and straightforward installation, configuration, and management of VMs. Designed for new users of virtualization technology, HP PVC provides a simple GUI interface that allows you to set up and manage VMs on a particular host server. There is no need for a separate management server or even a network; instead, HP PVC relies on the host’s keyboard/video/mouse (KVM).

Your VM creation and management experience can be greatly enhanced through the addition of HP Integrated Lights-Out 2 (iLO 2) Advanced7, which provides a range of powerful features, including graphical remote consoles and virtual media capabilities.

XenServer, HP Select Edition is a free download from HP that can be installed on a hard drive or USB flash drive.

Citrix Essentials for XenServer, HP Enterprise and Platinum Editions By building on XenServer, Citrix Essentials for XenServer offers an advanced automation and management solution for the virtual datacenter. HP editions include HP SNMP agents and the HP ProLiant Virtual Console (PVC) utility to support fast and straightforward installation, configuration, and VM management.

7 Sold separately

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Key features of Citrix Essentials for XenServer include the following:

• Workload Balancing Workflow Balancing intelligently balances and rebalances virtual workloads across XenServer resource pools, ensuring optimal utilization and performance. This feature determines which resources are optimal for hosting a new workload or one that is being migrated to optimize user density or performance, or allow scheduled maintenance to take place.

• Workflow Studio Orchestration Workflow Studio Orchestration helps you automate key management processes within your virtual infrastructure using common task libraries and a graphical interface for workflow composition that almost eliminates scripting.

• Advanced StorageLink Advanced StorageLink leverages the native power of third-party array-based storage systems, making it easy for you to directly manage advanced storage functionality from your virtualization management console.

• Dynamic Provisioning Services Dynamic Provisioning Services allow you to centrally manage common sets of master workload images and stream them on demand to VMs and physical servers, helping to lower costs and optimize the data center infrastructure.

• High Availability XenServer delivers a broad range of powerful high-availability options, from automatic restarts following a host server or VM failure to the intelligent placement of VMs. For example, if a physical host should unexpectedly fail for some reason, XenServer automatically restarts that host’s VMs on the spare server to minimize downtime.

• Lab Manager Lab Manager helps you build, test, share, and delivering applications on-demand throughout the full application life cycle, from development to production.

• Stage Manager Stage Manager automates the management and deployment of multi-tier application environments from staging to production. Stage Manager helps you create customizable staging workflows for the applications and efficiently streamlines the staging process across all phases of the release process.

Comparison Table 1 compares the capabilities of the HP Enterprise and Platinum Editions of Citrix Essentials for XenServer.

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Table 1. Additional capabilities delivered by the HP Platinum Edition

Feature HP Enterprise Edition HP Platinum Edition

XenServer

Dynamic Workload Balancing

Workflow Studio Orchestration

Advanced StorageLink

Dynamic Provisioning Services

High Availability

Lab Manager

Stage Manager

Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing

Bridging the gap between application performance and the user experience

The Citrix EdgeSight product line provides the real-time visibility you need to test, deliver, and monitor the performance of Web, desktop, and virtualized applications, allowing you to optimize the user experience. By providing a direct line of sight across networks, servers, databases, and desktops, EdgeSight goes beyond the capabilities of traditional device and network monitoring tools to improve application visibility.

EdgeSight delivers a consolidated view of application performance as experienced by the user, providing you with opportunities to lower costs, reduce downtime, and improve service delivery.

ESLT is an automated load and performance testing solution for the XenApp environment. This solution extends the application performance visibility provided by EdgeSight through the introduction of pre-production application performance tools.

ESLT includes a Controller and a number of Launchers, which deliver the following functionality:

• The Controller is used to record and create virtual user scripts and define tests. When a particular test is ready for playback, the Controller instructs the Launchers to run the test with a specified number of virtual users for a specified period of time.

• The Launchers receive commands from the Controller and generate virtual user Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) sessions on the target XenApp servers. The Launchers then report session information back to the Controller for run-time and post run-time analysis. The number of Launchers required varies based on the desired workload.

This load-generating software solution helps predict how your system will react to high workload levels. By simulating hundreds of virtual XenApp users and monitoring the responsiveness of the system under test, ESLT allows you to determine how the current configuration and hardware infrastructure will be able to support the anticipated demand.

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Load testing This section describes how the ESLT-based solution was used to characterize the scalability of a broad range of HP ProLiant server platforms.

Methodology The load testing simulated user logins at a constant rate of three users every six minutes, with each user launching either Office Word 2007, Office PowerPoint 2007, or Office Excel 2007. Once logged in, each user runs through a series of activities (outlined in Table 2) that loop indefinitely until it is determined that the server has reached its scalability limit.

Table 2. User activities incorporated into the test scripts

Script Activities

Excel The user launches Office Excel 2007, opens a worksheet, creates two large tables of data, runs through several menus to format the tables, runs through some printing and page setup options, closes the worksheet, and loops through all these steps until a script failure occurs.

Word The user launches Office Word 2007, opens a new document, sets some menu options, types approximately two pages of text, inserts clipart, runs through printing and page setup options, opens help, closes the document, and loops through all these steps until a script failure occurs.

PowerPoint The user launches Office PowerPoint 2007, opens a new presentation, creates a nine-slide presentation using advanced slide features such as smartart and clipart, runs through a slide show, closes the presentation, and loops through all these steps until a script failure occurs.

The script failure referred to in Table 2 occurs when the application does not register an event that is supposed to open a new window with a specific title. This failure typically occurs when the server is under heavy load.

When a failure occurs, ESLT disconnects the session and reports which application disconnected. For example, if a session running a Word script disconnects, ESLT reports a Word Disconnect instance.

Performance metrics The following methods were used to obtain performance metrics during load testing:

• Monitor tab in the ESLT Console • ESLT counters • Script performance data

These methods are outlined below.

Using the Monitor tab ESLT provides metrics for both server subsystem performance and the user experience. As shown in Figure 3, the ESLT Monitor tab allows you to select and display server and application performance data.

For example, you can obtain Ready and Disconnect times for each application.

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Figure 3: Using ESLT to display performance data

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Using ESLT counters The Counters tab in the ESLT Console displays the current average values of selected Microsoft Windows Performance Monitor (Perfmon) counters.

During the load testing, the following Perfmon counters were monitored from ESLT to help characterize the performance and scalability of the bare-metal server and VMs:

• Processor %Processor Time

• System Processor Queue Length, Context Switches

• Physical disk All counters

• Memory All counters

• Terminal Services All counters

Using script performance data ESLT script performance data allows you to validate the user experience. The Scripts tab in the ESLT Console presents the following statistics on overall test performance:

• User count Average number of users currently executing the script

• Connections Average time taken for each user to connect to the server

• Disconnections Average time taken for each user to disconnect from the server

• ICA Ping Number of ICA pings performed – a high value may indicate connection problems between users and the server

• Script Performance of currently defined scripts – you can select each script to display the performance of individual instructions

Figure 4 provides sample Excel statistics from the Scripts tab.

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Figure 4: Using ESLT to present performance statistics

Determining server scalability Table 3 lists the criteria used to determine optimal server scalability based on the results of the load testing.

Table 3. Test results used to characterize scalability

Criteria Results used

Application launch time (time taken to launch the application after the ICA session connected)

ESLT measurements:

• Word Ready

• Excel Ready

• PowerPoint Ready

CPU utilization greater than 80% Perfmon counter: %Processor Time

Sessions disconnected before the end of the test ESLT measurements:

• Word Disconnect

• Excel Disconnect

• PowerPoint Disconnect

By monitoring application launch times – a very practical metric – as more and more users logged on, the team was able to demonstrate that these times were acceptable when the optimal number of users (as determined using Perfmon counter values) were active.

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With some tested servers, processor utilization reached 80% before the ESLT criteria were satisfied. In such cases, the team preferred to be conservative, specifying as optimal the number of users supported when response times first become unacceptable (that is, these times begin to increase markedly over a baseline level).

Example Figure 5 was used to characterize the scalability of the bare-metal x64 HP ProLiant BL680c G5 server blade. Testers were able to make the following conclusions:

1. The optimum number of users/ICA sessions supported by this configuration – when processor utilization reached 80% – was 163 users.

2. When more users were added to the server, application launch times increased. 3. Eventually, session disconnects/script failures began to occur.

Figure 5: Characterizing the optimal number of users for a sample platform

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Scalability results This section highlights the optimum number of users supported by each platform. By running the same workload on each tested server, testers were able to compare the scalability of successive generations of HP ProLiant servers, and of a range of XenApp on XenServer configurations.

Summary Table 4 summarizes the results.

Table 4: Test results Model Configuration CPU

speed RAM Disk BBWC Page file Users

supported

DL380 G2 2P/1C8 1.2 GHz 4 GB Ultra3 SCSI, 10k rpm

No 4092 MB

8

DL360 G3 2P/1C 2.8 GHz 4 GB Ultra-320 SCSI, 10k rpm

No 4092 MB

12

BL460c 2P/2C 2.33 GHz

4 GB SAS, 10k rpm

128 MB, 100% write

4092 MB

50 x86

BL480c 2P/8C 3.16 GHz

4 GB SAS

15k rpm

256 MB

100% write

4092

MB

80

Bare

-met

al

4P/6C 2.4GHz 56 GB SAS, 15k rpm

512 MB, 100% write

84 GB 163

4/6/129 SAS, 15k rpm

6 GB 160

Virtu

aliz

ed x64

BL680c G5

6/4/8 SAS, 10k rpm

6 GB 129

Scalability gains Figure 6 shows the scalability gains associated with processor architecture improvements in bare-metal server platforms10.

Important: As always, server scalability in a XenApp/HP Server Based Computing (HP SBC) environment is determined primarily by the applications being run on the particular server. Since the Office 2007-based scripts described in this white paper stressed the CPU, enhancements to the CPU architecture led directly to increased scalability.

8 Denoting two processors (P), each with a single core (C); 2P is also known as two-socket 9 Formatted as X/Y/Z, where X denotes the number of VMs, Y the number of virtual CPUs per VM, and Z the memory (in GB) allocated to each VM. 10 HP provides additional cost modeling reference configurations to further validate consolidation benefits: http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-8070ENW.pdfhttp://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-7194ENW.pdf

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Figure 6: Improvements in the scalability of bare-metal HP ProLiant platforms, from 8 users with the HP ProLiant DL380 G2 server to 160 users with the HP ProLiant BL680c G5 server blade

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Test topology Figure 7 illustrates the topology of the test environment.

Figure 7: ESLT single-server scalability configuration

Installing and configuring the servers This section describes how to install and configure the servers used in the test environment: the ESLT Controller, ESLT Launchers, and the XenApp (tested) server.

Installing and configuring the XenApp server Perform the following steps to configure a XenApp server to be tested using ESLT:

1. Install Windows 2003 (x86 or x64 edition, as appropriate). 2. Install Windows 2003 updates from the Microsoft website. 3. Install Terminal Services (if not installed with the operating system). 4. Set the pagefile to the appropriate size for the configured memory. 5. Download operating system-appropriate Microsoft .NET Runtime and Service Packs from the

Microsoft website; install. 6. Install Office 2007 (.msp install file included with this document).

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7. Install XenApp. – Change the Citrix XML Service port from the default value of 80 to 8080.

8. Configure the following Group Policy settings:

Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\

Accounts:

• Limit local use of passwords to console logon: DISABLE

Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Windows Settings \System …

• Do not display manage your server page at logon: ENABLE

• Display shutdown event tracker: DISABLE • Activate Shutdown Event Tracker System State

Data feature: DISABLE

9. Use Citrix Access Management Console to install Citrix hotpacks. 10. Use Access Management Console to publish Office Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. 11. Run the UserAdd script (see Appendix A) to add users to the XenApp server. The script creates

500 users with the preface ‘User’ (User1, User2, … , User500); passwords are blank. 12. Add the newly created users to the Administrators and Remote Desktop Users groups. 13. Create a printer on the XenApp server with the following parameters:

– Local Printer – Local Port: NULL

14. Via the Access Management Console, create a XenApp policy with the following parameters: – Disable client printer creation – Turn off client printer mapping

15. Via the Access Management Console, create a custom Load Evaluator with a name such as Single Server Scalability.

16. Open the newly created Load Evaluator; click Application Load. 17. Set the number of users to 1000, allowing the XenApp server to support more users than the

default Load Evaluator setting of 100. 18. Use Access Management Console to apply the newly created ‘Single Server Scalability’ Load

Evaluator to the server: – Click Server – Click Load Evaluator – From the drop-down box, select Single Server Scalability – Click OK

19. Install the XenApp client/plug-in: – Download the latest XenApp plug-in from the Citrix website – Install the plug-in – Configure the plug-in for the server under test

20. Ensure you can access published applications from the XenApp server.

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Installing the ESLT Controller A prerequisite for installing the ESLT Controller is Microsoft Visual J# 2.0 Redistributable Package.

Perform the following steps on the server to be used to host the ESLT Controller:

1. Obtain the ESLT software. 2. Click on the installer package to install the following:

– Controller – Launcher – XML Connector

Installing ESLT Launchers Perform the following steps on the servers to be used to host ESLT Launchers:

1. Obtain the ESLT software. 2. Click on the installer package to install the following:

– Launcher – XML Connector

Configuring the ESLT Controller and Launchers This section describes how to configure the ESLT Controller and Launchers11.

Note: To enable connectivity, the XenApp server, the ESLT Controller, and the ESLT Launchers must have the same password.

Downloading the ESLT scripts and applying licensing 1. Download the Citrix-developed ESLT scripts from the Citrix website.

Note: The latest versions of the ESLT scripts are available on the Citrix website.

2. On the server hosting the ESLT Controller, open the console. 3. Click on Licenses License Server Configuration. Enter the IP address of the server hosting the ESLT

licenses.

Importing the ESLT scripts Import the scripts that you have just downloaded into the Console. Carry out the following steps:

1. Click Script 2. Click Import, as shown in Figure 8.

11 For more information on configuring ESLT, refer to the Citrix document, “Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing User’s Guide,” at http://support.citrix.com/servlet/KbServlet/download/18515-102-342820/119008eslt-u-guide.pdf

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Figure 8: Importing scripts into the console

3. Browse to the location of the Citrix ESLT scripts you downloaded earlier. 4. Select the scripts named Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. 5. Click OK.

Creating a Load for each application A Load tells ESLT how to apply a workload to the server-under-test, specifying the number of connections, the length of time the test will run, and more12. You must create a Load for each application, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Note: The number of users supported by a Launcher must be equally divided between the applications running on the host server. Thus, if the server hosting Launcher A launches 99 sessions, 33 users are created for Word, 33 for Excel, and 33 for PowerPoint.

Carry out the following steps to create a Load for an application:

1. Right-click on Load; select Create Load. 2. Enter the desired parameters, as shown in Figure 9.

12 For further information, refer to the Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing User’s Guide

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Figure 9: Creating a Load for an application

Creating connections You must create connections between the servers from which tests will be launched (Launchers) to the server-under-test. ESLT Launcher must be installed on the Launchers.

Carry out the following steps to connect a Launcher to the server-under-test, as shown in Figure 10:

1. Click on Connection in the menu bar on the left side of the Console. 2. Perform the following steps in the Connection Properties dialog box:

a. Enter the IP address of the first Launcher. b. Enter the IP address of the server-under-test. c. Select XML Service.

Note: XML service must be running on all servers (controller, Launchers, and server-under-test).

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Figure 10: Creating a Launcher connection for the Excel application

3. For each Launcher and each application, perform the following steps in the XML Application

Browser: a. Enter the IP address of the server-under-test. b. At Connect on Port, enter 8080. c. Enter the appropriate user name, password, and domain (server name). d. Click on Search to display the applications published on the server-under-test. e. Select the desired application (Excel, in this example). f. Click on Select OK.

After you have created all the connections, you must specify the desired number of users for each.

Creating users Carry out the following steps to create the users that will connect to the server-under-test and run scripts for each Launcher, each application:

1. Right-click on the IP address of the Launcher, as shown in Figure 11. 2. Click on Add Users.

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Figure 11: Adding users to an Excel connection

3. Perform the following steps in the Add Users to Connection dialog box, as shown in Figure 12:

a. In the Count box, enter the number of users to be supported for this particular application on this particular Launcher (20 in this example)

b. In the Username box, enter the preface you wish to employ. If you are using the UserAdd.bat script (Appendix A) to add users, this preface is User.

c. Check the # box. d. In the Starting at # box, enter the identifying number for the first user to be created for this

application. e. In the Domain box, enter the name of the server-under-test. f. When complete, select OK.

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Figure 12: Provisioning more information about the users to be added to the Excel connection

Creating ICA connections on each Launcher On each Launcher host, use Citrix Program Neighborhood to create an ICA connection from the Launcher to the server-under-test. Verify that each of the published applications can be accessed.

Initiating the test Perform the following steps on the Controller to launch the load test:

1. On the toolbar, click Test. 2. Click Launch.

Testing a XenApp on XenServer environment The process for using ESLT to test XenApp on XenServer is essentially the same as that for testing XenApp alone. While you need a Controller and Launcher for each virtual machine (VM), the Controller/Launcher setup and configuration for a VM is the same as it is for a bare-metal XenApp server.

You should initiate load testing on the Controller connected to first VM, then initiate load testing on the Controller connected to the second VM, and so on, until all VMs are being tested. By minimizing start-up delays, you are effectively testing the all of the VMs in parallel. You can then aggregate the results in order to determine the full load capacity of the physical server.

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Conclusions Recent technology improvements have resulted in unprecedented scalability results in the XenApp/HP Server-Based Computing environment. With these latest gains in hardware and processor technology, virtualization has become a viable option. These improvements can help you build a compelling business case for server consolidation based on the following points:

• The processor has traditionally been the bottleneck in an x64 XenApp/HP SBC environment; however, you can now take advantage of advances in processor technology.

• There are typically no memory bottlenecks in an x64 environment. • There is minimal XenServer overhead in an x64 virtualization – 160 users were supported on the

virtualized platform; 163 on the bare-metal platform.

A key piece of the server consolidation process is the quantification of the numbers of users supported on various server platforms. As described in this white paper, ESLT allows you to compare the performance of the latest generation of HP ProLiant servers against your installed base. You can use the steps and scripts provided with this white paper to compare server performance in your environment.

Jointly tested by HP and Citrix at the Citrix eLab, this is a solution that you can deploy with confidence.

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Appendix A The UserAdd.bat batch file listed below can be employed to automatically create users and assign a blank password.

:top @Echo Off Set Num=1 :AddUser If "%Num%"=="501" Goto end Net user user%Num% /add /expires:never Echo %Num% Set /A Num=%Num%+1 Goto AddUser :End Set Num= Pause Pause

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Appendix B This appendix lists the Office 2007 ESLT files located on the Citrix website:

• Office2007ScalabilityTest.tst file contains scripts to test: o Excel o Word o PowerPoint

• Microsoft Office Transform File Exl.Wd.Acc.PptNoOutlk.MSP (for auto-install and auto-configuration of Office 2007)

• Detailed description of ESLT scripts – ESLTOfficeTestDetailedDescription.docx

For more information HP ProLiant servers http://www.hp.com/go/proliant

HP BladeSystem www.hp.com/go/bladesystem

HP Insight Control suite http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/ice/index.html

HP ActiveAnswers for Server Based Computing

http://www.hp.com/solutions/activeanswers/hpsbc

Citrix XenServer from HP http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/citrix/

Citrix XenApp http://www.citrix.com/English/PS/products/product.asp?familyID=19&productID=186

Citrix XenServer http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/cache/457122-0-0-225-121.html

http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/product.asp?contentID=683148

Citrix EdgeSight http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/product.asp?contentID=25119

To help us improve our documents, please provide feedback at http://h20219.www2.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/us/en/solutions/technical_tools_feedback.html.

Technology for better business outcomes © Copyright 2009 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. AMD Opteron is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Intel and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

4AA2-9639ENW, September 2009