VMware View Planner User Guide - VMware View Planner 4 · 3 Open the .vmx file of the VM and add...

VMware View Planner User Guide

VMware View Planner 4.5

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Contents

1 About this Guide 6

2 Security Information 7View Planner Port Requirements 7

3 Overview of VMware View Planner 8VMware View Planner Operation 9

Remote Mode 10

Local Mode 11

VMware View Planner User Interface 12

Understanding VMware View Planner WorkProfiles 12

Understanding VMware View Planner Reports 14

View Planner Quality of Service 14

View Planner Application Response Time 14

4 How to Run VMware View Planner 15Perform a Local Mode Test 15

Perform a Remote or Passive Mode Test 16

Perform a Remote or Passive Mode RDSH Test 17

Perform a Remote or Passive Mode RDSH Application Test 18

Perform a Local Test with Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop VDI 19

Perform a Remote Test with Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop VDI 20

5 How to Set Up VMware View Planner 22Deploying the View Planner Harness 23

Configuring the View Planner Harness 24

Changing the View Planner Harness IP Address 27

Setting Up the View Planner Windows Desktop Virtual Machines 27

Setting Up the View Planner Windows Client Virtual Machines 28

Setting Up the View Planner Linux Desktop Virtual Machines 29

Setting Up the View Planner Linux Client Virtual Machines 29

Setting Up the SSL Certificate in Microsoft Active Directory 30

Creating Clones Using View Planner 30

Registering a Workload to View Planner Harness 31

Creating a Work Profile 31

Creating a Run Profile 32

Starting a View Planner Run 34

Setting Up the User Experience Workloads 35

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Setting Up Microsoft Edge Driver 36

Enabling vSAN Data Collection 36

6 View Planner Command Tool 37Accessing Command Tool 37

View Planner Commands 37

7 View Planner Custom Workload 39Developing a Custom Workload 39

8 Advanced Configuration 43

9 Troubleshooting Information 45Failed to Access View Planner Web UI After OVA Installation 45

Failed to Find VMs During Run 45

Ratio of Actual to Expected Operations is Low in the Local Mode Test 46

Ratio of Actual to Expected Operations is Low in the Remote Mode Test 46

Updating Selenium Drivers for Browsers 47

Selenium driver for Microsoft Edge 47

Updating selenium driver for Firefox 47

Updating selenium driver for Chrome 48

10 Status Codes 49

11 Support Matrix 53

12 Case Study 54VDI Capacity Planning with View Planner 54

VMware View Planner 54

VM consolidation with View Planner 55

Prerequisite 56

Installing View Planner 56

Run Profile 59

View Planner Run 59

Conclusion 61

Contact Us 61

Understanding View Planner Report 61

Section 1 - Introduction 62

Section 2 - Test Configuration 62

Section 3 - View Planner Score 63

Section 4- Operation Details 64


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Section 5 - Resource Usage 66

Getting Optimized VM Consolidation Using View Planner Report 68

Contact Us 70


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About this Guide 1The VMware View Planner User Guide provides information about deploying VMware View Planner and instructions for performing a VDI performance test.

Intended AudienceThis document is intended for anyone who wants to install and run View Planner. The information is written for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology, virtual desktop infrastructure and datacenter operations.

VMware Technical Publications GlossaryVMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For definitions of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

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http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs

Security Information 2You must exercise caution and good judgment about where you deploy View Planner. View Planner is not intended to be used in production environments.

Security WarningThe setup procedure for View Planner may open ports or present other security issues that are not acceptable in many secure environments. A View Planner deployment is intended only for a performance test environment and may not be hardened sufficiently for all security requirements. Do not install View Planner harness or agent on virtual machines or OS instances that have been or may ever be deployed in a production environment, or that contain sensitive or personal information.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n View Planner Port Requirements

View Planner Port RequirementsView Planner uses a specific list of ports. Ensure that you adhere to the port requirements.

Port Requirements

Port Purpose

22 SSH

68 DHCP

8080 View Planner agent to the harness communication.

8081 View Planner web Interface.

80 View Planner web interface over HTTP and agent to harness data upload.

Caution Above table lists port required for a default view planner deployment.If you want to test your own application by plugging in a custom workload, you may need to open additional ports based on the application requirements.

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Overview of VMware View Planner 3VMware View Planner is a workload generator that simulates typical user operations such as typing in Microsoft Word, playing a PowerPoint slideshow, reading Outlook emails, browsing PDF and Web pages and watching video.

Caution View Planner must not be deployed in production environments. See section Chapter 2 Security Information for details.

Caution View Planner 4.4 results are not compatible with 4.2 and bellow versions. If you need to compare results with previous versions set key ENABLE_LEGACY_RAMPUP_TIME to 1 in Advanced configuration.

View Planner consists of these components:

n Several desktop virtual machines running on one or more ESXi hosts.

n Several client virtual machines running on one or more ESXi hosts.

Note Client virtual machines are used only in the case of remote-mode runs and not for local-mode runs.

n Single View Planner controller appliance running on an ESXi host.

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Figure 3-1. Conceptual Diagram of Typical VMware View Planner Layout


n VMware View Planner Operation

n VMware View Planner User Interface

n Understanding VMware View Planner WorkProfiles

n Understanding VMware View Planner Reports

VMware View Planner OperationYou can operate VMware View Planner in either remote mode or local mode.

When you start a View Planner run, a controller running in the virtual appliance powers on the desired number of desktops and client (for remote-mode runs) virtual machines, manages the workload execution, and gathers the result.


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Remote ModeThe Remote mode represents real-world VDI deployments. It uses client virtual machines to simulate real users. However, it requires more hardware than the local and passive mode operation.

When you initiate a remote-mode run, the harness powers on the configured number of desktop virtual machines and the same number of client virtual machines. After the virtual machines boot, they report their readiness to the harness. The harness then arranges for each client virtual machine to control and monitor a desktop virtual machine. After the configured number of client-desktop virtual machine pairs are established, the run begins.

During the run, each client virtual machine acts similar to a user, taking its designated desktop virtual machine through a series of predefined operations while measuring the performance of that desktop virtual machine.

When the run is completed, both the desktop and client virtual machines report the results to the harness and the result is stored in a database for post-processing.

Figure 3-2. VMware View Planner Operation (Remote Mode)

Passive Remote ModeA client virtual machine can connect with multiple desktops in the passive mode configuration. Passive mode requires fewer client machines in comparison to remote mode while simulating network and system load of VDI protocols.


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In this mode, a client virtual machine can act as a passive user and can connect with multiple desktops. Therefore, you can test the same number of desktops with lesser hardware while simulating network and system load of VDI protocols in desktops .

During the run, the View Planner agent in the desktop virtual machine acts as a user and takes the virtual machine through a series of predefined operations while measuring its performance.

When the run is completed, the desktop virtual machines report their results to the harness and the result is stored in a database for post-processing.

Local ModeLocal mode does not use client virtual machines and, therefore, needs a lesser hardware to test the same number of virtual machines. This mode does not simulate the network and system load of VDI protocols and is not an accurate representation of real-world VDI deployments.

When you initiate a local-mode run, the harness powers on the configured number of desktop virtual machines. After the virtual machines boot, they report their readiness to the harness, which then starts the run.

During the run, the View Planner agent in the desktop virtual machine acts like a user, taking the virtual machine through a series of predefined operations while measuring its performance.

When the run is completed, the desktop virtual machines report their results to the harness, where they are stored in a database for post-processing.

Figure 3-3. VMware View Planner Operation (Local Mode)


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VMware View Planner User InterfaceYou can interact with the View Planner using the web UI or the command-line Interface provided by the controller appliance.

Using the View Planner User Interface, you can:

n Define the Test-bed configuration.

n Provision the desktop and client virtual machines.

n Monitor progress of View Planner runs.

n View results and reports.

Command-line interface can also be used for automating View Planner operations.

Understanding VMware View Planner WorkProfilesWork Profile defines the group of application workloads to be executed during the run. You can either select one of the standard work profiles or create your own based on the applications used by users.

Work Profile Name standardTestProfile_chrome

Description This work profile can be used for the standard benchmark test.

Workloads vp_Adobe, vp_Chrome, vp_msExcel, vp_msOutlook, vp_msPowerPoint, vp_msWord, vp_ChromeWebAlbum, vp_winMediaPlayer

Recommended think time 5 seconds

Time taken for 1 iteration 15 minutes approximately

Recommended minimum iteration count 5

Work Profile Name standardTestProfile_edge

Description This work profile can be used for the standard benchmark test.

Workloads vp_Adobe, vp_msExcel, vp_msOutlook, vp_msPowerPoint, vp_msWord, vp_winMediaPlayer, vp_EdgeWebAlbum




Work Profile Name fileOperationsTestProfile

Description This work profile can be used to test file operations.

Workloads p_RandomFileGenerator, vp_MoveFiles, vp_CompressFolder, vp_CopyFiles


Time taken for 1 iteration 2–5 minutes approximately


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Work Profile Name fileOperationsTestProfile


File size 0.125 GB

Work Profile Name highMemoryTestProfile

Description This work profile can be used to test the memory. This work profile opens multiple chrome tabs in the background to stress on memory.

Workloads Vp_highMemPreRunChrome, vp_msExcel, vp_msPowerPoint, vp_msWord, vp_highMemPostRunChrome




Work Profile Name User_Experience_Profile

Description This Experimental work profile is being developed to measure the user experience like drag and drop, scrolling smoothness among others.

Workloads vp_scroll, vp_WindowDragDrop, vp_fileDragDrop


Time taken for 1 iteration


Work Profile Name Ubuntu_Test_Profile

Description This work profile contains all the workloads supported with Ubuntu.

Workloads vp_RandomFileGenerator, vp_MoveFiles, vp_CompressFolder, vp_CopyFiles, vp_Chrome, vp_ChromeWebAlbum, vp_FirefoxVideo




Work Profile Name Proven_Storage_Certification

Description This work profile is used for the VMware proven storage certification.

Workloads vp_Adobe, vp_Chrome, vp_msExcel, vp_msOutlook, vp_msPowerPoint, vp_msWord, vp_ChromeWebAlbum, vp_winMediaPlayer, vp_RandomFileGenerator, vp_MoveFiles, vp_CopyFiles





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Understanding VMware View Planner ReportsWhen a View Planner run completes, the View Planner controller appliance generates a run report containing a summary of the run results.

View Planner workload mix consists of multiple applications running in the desktop virtual machines and performing user operations. These user operations are separated into the three groups:

Group A Interactive, CPU bound operations

Group B IO bound operations

Group C long running and other miscellaneous operations

The operations in Groups A and B are used to determine Quality of Service, while the operations in Group C are used to generate additional load.

View Planner Quality of ServiceQuality of Service (QoS), determined separately for Group A user operations and Group B user operations, is the 95th percentile latency of all the operations in a group. The default thresholds are 1.0 seconds for Group A and 6.0 seconds for Group B.

View Planner Application Response TimeView planner application response time table reports the time taken by each work load operation.

Application response time table reports following info about workload operations:

n Operation Name.

n Operation Group (Group A/B/C).

n Executed / Expected count of an operation.

n The Mean value of the operation latency as reported by all virtual machines under test.

n The Median value of the operation latency as reported by all virtual machines under test.

n Variance: Latency difference between slowest and fastest operation.


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How to Run VMware View Planner 4VMware View Planner can be configured to run in various test modes like Remote, Local, RDSH.


Caution

View Planner 4.4 results are not compatible with 4.2 and bellow versions. If you need to compare results with previous versions set key ENABLE_LEGACY_RAMPUP_TIME to 1 in Advanced configuration.


n Perform a Local Mode Test

n Perform a Remote or Passive Mode Test

n Perform a Remote or Passive Mode RDSH Test

n Perform a Remote or Passive Mode RDSH Application Test

n Perform a Local Test with Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop VDI

n Perform a Remote Test with Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop VDI

Perform a Local Mode TestThe local mode test is simpler to configure and requires minimum hardware to test the same number of desktops as client virtual machines are not needed.

Procedure

1 Deploy View Planner harness using the steps provided in Deploying the View Planner Harness.

View Planner harness web UI must be accessible.

2 Configure the Infra server and VDI server in View Planner Harness using the steps in Configuring the View Planner Harness.

3 Use one of the following options to prepare the desktop Golden VM:

n For windows, see Setting Up the View Planner Windows Desktop Virtual Machines.

n For Linux, see Setting Up the View Planner Linux Desktop Virtual Machines.

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4 You can use one of the two following options for creating desktop virtual machines for tests:

n Create desktop pool using VMware Horizon View.

n Create desktop virtual machines using steps provided in Creating Clones Using View Planner.

n Use desktop Golden VM created in Step 3 as the parent VM.

n Select the snapshot and Sysprep / QuickPrep profile created in Step 3.

5 Create a local mode run profile using steps provided in Creating a Run Profile.

a Set the Run Mode to local.

b Set Desktop Prefix to the pool prefix if you are using a VMware Horizon View pool.

6 Start the run using steps provided inStarting a View Planner Run.

Perform a Remote or Passive Mode TestThis mode represents real-world VDI deployments. However, it requires more hardware than the local mode operation.

Procedure

1 Deploy View Planner harness using steps provided in Deploying the View Planner Harness.


2 Configure Infra server, Identity Server, and VDI server in View Planner Harness using steps in Configuring the View Planner Harness.

3 Use one of the following option to prepare the desktop Golden VM:

n For windows, use Setting Up the View Planner Windows Desktop Virtual Machines.

n For Linux, use Setting Up the View Planner Linux Desktop Virtual Machines .

4 Create desktop pool using VMware Horizon View.

n Use the desktop Golden VM created in Step 3 as the parent VM.

n Provide same values for pool display name and pool ID.

n Select the snapshot and Sysprep/QuickPrep profile created in Step 3.

Disable configuration Global settings>General>Hide domain list in client user interface in the Horizon view UI.

5 Prepare the client Golden VM using steps provided in Setting Up the View Planner Windows Client Virtual Machines.

6 Create client virtual machines using the steps provided in Creating Clones Using View Planner.

n Use the client Golden VM created in Step 5 as the parent VM.


n For Remote Mode test, create equal number of client virtual machines as desktops.


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n For Passive Remote Mode test, client count should be equal to the desktop count divided by max_sessions_per_client_passive_mode. The default value of max_sessions_per_client_passive_mode is set to 25 and can be modified using steps provided in Chapter 8 Advanced Configuration.

7 Create a remote mode run profile using steps provided in Creating a Run Profile.

a Set the Run Mode to remote or passive.

b Set Desktop Type to vdi.

c Set Desktop Prefix to the VMware Horizon View pool prefix.

d Set Client Prefix to the client virtual machine prefix.

8 Start the run using steps provided in Starting a View Planner Run.

Perform a Remote or Passive Mode RDSH TestYou can configure View Planner for Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH).

Procedure


View Planner web UI must be accessible.

2 Configure Infra server, Identity Server, and VDI server in View Planner Harness Using Steps in Configuring the View Planner Harness.

3 Prepare the RDSH server Golden VM using steps provided in Setting Up the View Planner Windows Desktop Virtual Machines.

4 Create an RDSH Farm and RDSH desktop pool using VMware Horizon View.

n Use the RDSH Golden VM created in the Step 3 as the parent VM.

n Provide same values for pool display name and pool ID.


Disable configuration Global settings>General>Hide domain list in client user interface in Vmware Horizon View UI.


6 Create client virtual machines using the steps provided in Creating Clones Using View Planner.





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n For Passive Remote Mode test, client count should be equal to the desktop count divided by max_sessions_per_client_passive_mode. The default value of max_sessions_per_client_passive_mode is set to 25 and can be modified using steps provided in Chapter 8 Advanced Configuration .



b Set Desktop Type to rdsh_desk.

c Set Desktop Prefix to the VMware Horizon View RDSH farm prefix



Perform a Remote or Passive Mode RDSH Application TestYou can configure View Planner for the Remote Desktop Session Host(RDSH) Application test.

Procedure




3 Prepare the RDSH server Golden VM using steps provided in Setting Up the View Planner Windows Desktop Virtual Machines.

4 Create an RDSH farm and application pool using VMware Horizon View.

n While creating RDSH farm, use the RDSH Golden VM created in Step 3 as the parent VM.


Create a new manual RDSH application pool using RDSH farm. Enter the name and ID of the application pool as viewplanner and path of the application to C:\viewplanner\vp_default.bat.

Disable configuration Global settings>General>Hide domain list in client user interface in Horizon view UI.


6 Create the required number of the client virtual machines using the steps provided in Creating Clones Using View Planner.



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n For Passive Remote Mode test, client count should be equal to thedesktop count divided by max_sessions_per_client_passive_mode. The default value of max_sessions_per_client_passive_mode is set to 25 and can be modified using steps provided in Chapter 8 Advanced Configuration .



b Set Desktop Type to rdsh_apps.

c Set Desktop Prefix to the VMware Horizon View RDSH farm prefix.



Perform a Local Test with Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop VDIYou can configure View Planner for Local Mode test for XenApp and XenDesktop VDI Deployment.

Prerequisites

Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop VDI Deployment must be ready.

Procedure



2 Configure Infra server in View Planner Harness Using Steps in Configuring the View Planner Harness.

3 Prepare the golden VM using steps provided in Setting Up the View Planner Windows Desktop Virtual Machines.

Install the XenApp and XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent instead of VMware Horizon View Agent.

4 Create a machine catalog using XenApp and XenDesktop Delivery Controller.

While creating the machine catalog,

n Select Single-Session OS.

5 Create a local mode run profile using steps provided in Creating a Run Profile.

a Set the Run Mode to local.

b Set Desktop Prefix to the desktop virtual machine prefix.


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Perform a Remote Test with Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop VDIYou can configure View Planner for Remote Mode test for XenApp and XenDesktop VDI Deployment.

Prerequisites

Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop VDI Deployment must be ready.

Procedure




While configuring VDI server,

n Select the type as Citrix Storefront.

n Enter the Citrix Storefront URL in IP/URL field. Eg:https://xyz.domain.com/citrix/storecitrix/discovery

Testing Citrix Storefront is not supported.

Enable HTTP Basic Authentication method in Citrix Storefront.

3 Prepare the golden VM using steps provided in Setting Up the View Planner Windows Desktop Virtual Machines.

Install the XenApp and XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent instead of VMware Horizon View Agent.

4 Create a machine catalog and delivery group using XenApp and XenDesktop Delivery Controller.

While creating the machine catalog,

n Select Single-Session OS.

n Select Users connect to a new (random) desktop each time they log on.

n Make sure the desktop machines do not shut down automatically after logout.

While creating the delivery group,

n Select the delivery type as Desktops.

n Select Allow any authenticated users to use this Delivery Group.

n Make sure maximum frames per second for the delivery group is not less than 30fps.


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Install the Citrix Workspace application instead of the VMware Horizon View Client.

6 Create the required number of the client virtual machines using the steps provided in Creating Clones Using View Planner.



u For Remote Mode test, create equal number of client virtual machines as desktops.


a Set the Run Mode to remote.

Passive mode is not supported in case of Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop.

b Set Desktop Type to vdi.

RDSH and RDSH Apps are not supported in case of Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop.

c Set Display Protocol to HDX.

d Set Desktop Prefix to the desktop virtual machine prefix.

e Set Resource Name to the display name of the delivery group.

f Set Client Prefix to the client virtual machine prefix.



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How to Set Up VMware View Planner 5VMware View Planner includes two components: View Planner harness and the View Planner agent.


Caution View Planner 4.3 results are not compatible with previous versions. If you need to compare results with previous versions set key ENABLE_LEGACY_RAMPUP_TIME to 1 in Advanced configuration.

n The View Planner harness is released as an OVA file.

n The View Planner agent is released as an installer that must be installed in test virtual machines (desktop and clients).


n Deploying the View Planner Harness

n Configuring the View Planner Harness

n Changing the View Planner Harness IP Address

n Setting Up the View Planner Windows Desktop Virtual Machines

n Setting Up the View Planner Windows Client Virtual Machines

n Setting Up the View Planner Linux Desktop Virtual Machines

n Setting Up the View Planner Linux Client Virtual Machines

n Setting Up the SSL Certificate in Microsoft Active Directory

n Creating Clones Using View Planner

n Registering a Workload to View Planner Harness

n Creating a Work Profile

n Creating a Run Profile

n Starting a View Planner Run

n Setting Up the User Experience Workloads

n Setting Up Microsoft Edge Driver

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n Enabling vSAN Data Collection

Deploying the View Planner HarnessYou can deploy the View Planner harness using the OVA file.

Procedure

1 Download the viewplanner-harness-version.ova file from https://www.vmware.com/products/view-planner.html.

2 Start the OVA installation using vSphere Client.

3 When prompted, enter the network parameters for static IP allocation. For DHCP, leave it blank.

IP allocation is set to static by default.

4 Enter the password when prompted. Wait for the OVA initialization to complete.

Password provided during the OVA initialization is the root password of the harness OS.

5 Access the User Interface using the URL http://Your_Harness_IP/vp-ui. Use default user name vmware and password viewplanner.

The first OVA boot can take up to 20 minutes to complete. If the web UI login fails after 20 minutes, try a different browser or incognito mode.


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https://www.vmware.com/products/view-planner.html

https://www.vmware.com/products/view-planner.html

Figure 5-1. VMware View Planner Web User Interface

6 Change the default password after first login via web UI when prompted.

New Password should:

n Be different from the default password viewplanner.

n Contain at least 8 characters.

n Not contain whitespaces.

7 You can also access View Planner harness command-line interface using SSH. Learn more about command tool at Chapter 6 View Planner Command Tool.

Configuring the View Planner HarnessConfiguring the harness includes adding a vCenter Server, Active Directory, and the VDI server.

Procedure

1 To add an infra server, click the SERVERS > Infra server > ADD NEW.


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2 Enter your vCenter Server details and click SAVE.

Figure 5-2. VMware View Planner Add Infra Server

3 To confirm that infra server is working properly, click the test option next to the server entry.

4 If you are using vSAN datastore, then Enabling vSAN Data Collection.

5 Setup SSL certificate and enable LDAP in Microsoft active directory using the steps provided in Setting Up the SSL Certificate in Microsoft Active Directory.

Identity Server (Active Directory) is optional for a local mode run.

6 To add Active Directory to View Planner, click SERVERS > Identity Servers > ADD NEW.


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7 Enter your Active Directory details and click Save.

Figure 5-3. VMware View Planner Add Identity Server

8 To confirm that identity server is working properly, click the test option next to your identity server.

9 To add aVDI server in View Planner, click SERVERS > VDI Servers > ADD NEW.

10 Enter your View server details and click Save.

Figure 5-4. VMware View Planner Add VDI Server


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11 To confirm that infra server is working properly, Click the test option next to your VDI server.

Changing the View Planner Harness IP AddressYou can change the IP address of View Planner Harness after deployment.

Prerequisites

View Planner Harness should be ready.

Procedure

1 Log in to the View Planner Harness using ssh.

Use the root user with the password set during the deployment to log in.

2 Execute /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_config_net command to configure the network parameters.

3 Choose IP address allocation for eth0 option from the menu.

4 Configure IPv4 address.

5 Select DHCP or static IP.

6 In case you select static IP, provide the IP address and Netmask when prompted.

7 Reboot the View Planner Harness.

Setting Up the View Planner Windows Desktop Virtual MachinesSetting up a Windows desktop virtual machine requires installing components such as VMware Horizon View Desktop agent, View Planner agent, and test applications.

Procedure

1 Create a base Windows 10 / 7 VM.

2 Shut down the VM.

3 Open the .vmx file of the VM and add the monitor_control.pseudo_perfctr = "1" entry to the file .

This entry provides access of the host timer, which is more accurate than the VM timer.

4 Install all required software for the test, such as Vmware Horizon View Agent, Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF reader, and Chrome.

5 Disable auto lock, auto sleep and screen saver.

6 Install View Planner agent on the VM using viewplanner-agent-version.msi.


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7 Enter the harness IP when prompted.

The view planner agent process must have access to read and write registry without windows UAC prompts. Disable windows UAC, if necessary.

8 If this is an RDSH server, set RDSH_SERVER_MODE to 1 and AUTOLOGIN_USER_ACCOUNT to windows user name that is configured for auto login in C:\viewplanner\config\agent.config.

9 If you are using Microsoft Edge, install the driver using the steps in Setting Up Microsoft Edge Driver.

10 Shut down the VM and take a snapshot.

11 Create a desktop Sysprep / QuickPrep customization script using vCenter Server.

This script is used while creating clones from golden desktop VM. The customization script must enable auto-login using an admin account. For remote mode test, configure customization script to join Microsoft active directory domain.

Setting Up the View Planner Windows Client Virtual MachinesSetting up a Windows client virtual machine requires installing components such as VMware Horizon View Client and View Planner agent.

Procedure

1 Create a base Windows 10 / 7 VM.

2 Shut down the VM.



4 Install the VMware Horizon View Client.

5 Disable the Identity server Certification check

a Open VMware Horizon View Client.

b Click Tools option on the top-right corner.

c Click configure SSL.

d Select Do not verify server identity certificates option.

6 Disable auto lock, auto sleep and screen saver.

7 Install View Planner agent on the VM using viewplanner-agent-version.msi.

8 Enter the harness IP when prompted.

The view planner agent process must have access to read and write registry without windows UAC prompts. Disable windows UAC, if necessary.


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9 If you are using userExperienceProfile work profile, setup the workload using steps in Setting Up the User Experience Workloads .


11 Create a desktop Sysprep/QuickPrep customization script using vCenter Server.

This script is used while creating clones from golden client VM. Customization script must enable auto-login using an admin account.

Setting Up the View Planner Linux Desktop Virtual MachinesSetting up Linux desktop virtual machine requires installing components such as VMware Horizon View Desktop agent, View Planner agent and test applications.

Procedure

1 Create a base Ubuntu / Photon VM.

See Chapter 11 Support Matrix for supported versions.

For Ubuntu, enable auto-login during installation.

2 Shut down the VM.



4 Install all required software for the test, such as VMware Horizon View Agent, Firefox, and Chrome.

5 Install View Planner agent on the VM :

a Download and extract the viewplanner-linux-agent-c-version.tar.gz file.

b Provide executable permission to agent/linux_agent_setup.sh.

c Run the setup script linux_agent_setup.sh in agent folder as the root user.

a Enter the harness IP when prompted.


7 For Ubuntu, create a VM customization script using vCenter Server.

This script is used while creating clones from Ubuntu VM. The customization script must enable auto-login.

Setting Up the View Planner Linux Client Virtual MachinesSetting up Linux client virtual machine requires installing components such as VMware Horizon View Client and View Planner agent.


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Procedure

1 Create a base Ubuntu VM.

See Chapter 11 Support Matrix for supported versions.

Enable auto-login during installation.

2 Shut down the VM.



4 Install VMware Horizon View Client.

5 Install View Planner agent on the VM:

a Download and extract the viewplanner-linux-agent-c-version.tar.gz file.

b Provide executable permission to agent/linux_agent_setup.sh.

c Run the setup script linux_agent_setup.sh in the agent folder as the root user.

a Enter the harness IP when prompted.


7 Create a VM customization script using vCenter Server.

This script is used while creating clones from Linux VM. The customization script must enable auto-login.

Setting Up the SSL Certificate in Microsoft Active DirectoryVMware View Planner uses an SSL connection for interacting and managing users with Microsoft Active Directory.

Prerequisites

Microsoft Active Directory must be installed.

Procedure

u Use steps outlined in the Microsoft guide to set up and enable SSL in Microsoft Active Directory.

Creating Clones Using View PlannerYou can clone virtual machines required for test using View Planner.

Procedure

1 In View Planner Web UI, navigate to VMs tab.


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https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2980.ldap-over-ssl-ldaps-certificate.aspx

2 Enter required details for the clones to be created.

View Planner supports linked and full clones for both Windows and Linux VMs. Instant clones are supported only for Windows VMs.

Figure 5-5. VMware View Planner Clone Virtual Machines

3 Click CLONE and wait for virtual machines to be created.

This step might take some time based on the number and type of clones to be created. Provide sufficient time for initialize of virtual machines before starting the test.

Registering a Workload to View Planner HarnessYou can register a new workload to the list of existing workloads in the View Planner Harness.

Procedure

1 In View Planner Web UI, navigate to WORKLOAD tab.

2 Click on ADD NEW.

3 Enter the workload name as vp_workload_name and version.

4 Click SAVE to register the workload.

Creating a Work ProfileWork Profile defines the workloads to be executed during the run.


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Procedure

1 In View Planner Web UI, navigate to WORKPROFILE tab.

2 Click ADD NEW.

3 Enter the WORKPROFILE name.

4 Select the workloads to be added in work profile from the list of registered workloads.

5 Click SAVE to add the new work profile.

Creating a Run ProfileRun Profile defines the parameters of a run.

Procedure

1 In View Planner Web UI, navigate to the RUN PROFILE tab and click ADD NEW.

2 Enter required details and click NEXT.

Figure 5-6. VMware View Planner Create Run Profile

Set iteration count to 5. Mandatory fields are marked as *. Other fields can be left blank.

Add Run Profile wizard moves to the Work Group tab.

3 Provide a Work Group name.

If there is a remote run, View Planner creates Active Directory users using Work Group Name as the prefix.

4 Select an identity server added previously as Domain Name.

This is applicable for a remote mode test only.


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5 Select a work profile.

For a standard test, use standardTestProfile_chrome or standardTestProfile_edge. Other Work Profiles can be used for testing individual application.

6 Provide the VM percent to be used in this workgroup.

If you are creating one workgroup, the default value is 100% . Total value of the VM percent between all workgroups must be 100 if you are creating more than one workgroup.

7 Select a Display Protocol.

This is applicable for the remote mode test only.

Ubuntu only supports Blast protocol .

Figure 5-7. VMware View Planner Create a Work Group

8 Select a Desktop Type.

n For a normal Remote runs with the VDI server, select vdi.

n For a VMware Horizon View direct connect runs, select direct_connect.

n For an RDSH server runs, select rdsh_desk.


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n For an RDSH application server runs, select rdsh_apps.

9 Enter the desktop virtual machine details.

a Provide a desktop prefix.

If the VMware Horizon View pool is being used, provide the pool prefix else provide the prefix of desktop clones.

b Select an Infra server configured previously.

c Select a VDI server.

Optional in for a local mode run and not required for a direct connect run.

d Press save (✓) button.

10 Fill Client virtual machine details.

a Provide a prefix for client virtual machines.

b Select an Infra server that manages clients.

c Press save (✓) button.

11 Click ADD and repeat steps 3–10 if another workgroup is required.

12 Click NEXT and review the details once all required workgroups are added.

Figure 5-8. VMware View Planner Review Run Profile

13 Click FINISH.

Starting a View Planner RunYou can start a run using Run Profile as a template.


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Procedure

1 In View Planner Web UI, navigate to the RUN tab and click button NEW RUN.

You see a New Run wizard.

2 Select a Run Profile created previously and provide a unique name for run.

Figure 5-9. VMware View Planner Start Run

3 Click START RUN button.

4 Use the Run option in RUN tab to track status of run. A run can take long time to complete based on Work Profile and virtual machine count.

5 Navigate to RUN > Instance List to get the report of the run after completion.

Setting Up the User Experience WorkloadsView Planner has a user experience workloads that quantifies user experience.

Procedure

1 Install view planner agent in golden client VM and make sure that the agent is running.

n User Experience workload is supported with only Windows 10 client and desktop.

n User Experience workload can be used only with remote mode runs.

2 Power on the view planner harness.

3 Run following commands from view planner command tool to pull vp_scroll, vp_fileDragDrop and vp_WindowDragDropworkload from harness to golden client VM:

workload --pull vp_scroll_1.0 --vmprefix golden_VM_prefix --count 1 --infraServer infra_server_name


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workload --pull vp_WindowDragDrop_1.0 --vmprefix golden_VM_prefix --count 1 --infraServer infra_server_name

workload --pull vp_fileDragDrop_1.0 --vmprefix golden_VM_prefix --count 1 --infraServer infra_server_name

Due to the large size, user experience workloads are not provided by default in agent and must be pulled from harness in golden client VM, if necessary.

Setting Up Microsoft Edge DriverMicrosoft Edge selenium driver is required to run workloads that use Microsoft edge.

Procedure

1 If you are using Microsoft Edge version 18 or later:

a Open command prompt with administrator permissions.

b Install Microsift edge driver using the DISM.exe /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:Microsoft.WebDriver~~~~0.0.1.0 command.

2 For earlier Microsoft Edge versions :

a Download the corresponding selenium driver from the Microsoft Driver site.

b Rename the downloaded driver to MicrosoftWebDriver.exe.

c Copy MicrosoftWebDriver.exe to C:\viewplanner\lib.

Enabling vSAN Data CollectionIf vSAN datastore is used, then performance services must be enabled for the cluster from vCenter to get read, write requests and latencies.

Procedure

u To enable vSAN performance services, follow these steps.

It is not mandatory to enable vSAN performance services for view planner run, though vSAN related performance metrics will be reported only when performance services are enabled. Performance metrics other than vSAN will be reported otherwise.


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https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/webdriver/

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vsphere.vsan-monitoring.doc/GUID-02F67DC3-3D5A-48A4-A445-D2BD6AF2862C.html?hWord=N4IghgNiBcIKYDswCMIEsEHMAEA3AygIIBy2ACnAE4BmA9pQLZgIDGc2+VuabIAvkA

View Planner Command Tool 6You can use the View Planner command tool to configure and run View Planner instead of the web UI. The command tool can also be used for automation.


n Accessing Command Tool

n View Planner Commands

Accessing Command ToolYou can access the View Planner command-line tool by Connecting to harness using SSH.

Procedure

1 Access the harness command line using SSH. Use user name root and the password provided during harness OVA installation.

2 Use the vpcmd -u user -p password command to access the View Planner command tool. Use user name vmware and default password is viewplanner.

View Planner CommandsYou can use the help command to get a list of available commands and helpcommand_name to get the command details.

n Command to add an infra server:

infraServer -a unique_name -t vcenter -i IP --datacenter datacenter_name -d

domain -u user_name

n Command to add an identity server:

identityServer -a domain_name -t microsoft_ad -i IP -u user_name

n Command to add a VDI server:

vdiServer -a unique_name -t view -i IP -d vdi_user_domain -u user_name

n Command to add custom workloads:

workload -a name -v version

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n Command to add workProfile:

workProfile --add name --description description --addWorkloads

workload_names_separated_by_comma

n Commands to Add runProfile:

runProfile -a name --runMode <local/remote> --VMcount VM_count --iterCount

iteration_count --description run_profile_descriptionn

workGroup -a name --runProfile run_rofile_name --domain identity_server_name --

workProfile work_profile_name --percent 100 --displayProtocol <pcoip/blast/rdp>

--deskType <vdi/direct_connect/rdsh_desk/rdsh_apps>

workGroup --addDesk work_group_name --runProfile run_profile_name --prefix

desktop_pool_prefix --infraServer infra_server_name --vdiServer vdi_server_name

n Commands to start and track run:

run --start run_profile_name --instance unique_run_instance_name

run --status

n Command to generate the report:

report --generate --instance run_instance_name --format <pdf/json/txt> --mode

<local/remote> --begin first_iteration_number_starting_from_1 --end

last_iteration_number

n Commands to get a log bundle from harness:

run --getLogs run_instance_name

n Command to pull new workloads from harness:

workload --pull workload_name --vmprefix VM_prefix --count 1 --infraServer

infra_server_name

n Command to create clones through View Planner:

n Instant Clone

virtualMachine --clone --infraServer infra_server_name --parentvm

parent_vm_name --prefix clone_prefix --count clone_count --type <full/linked/

instant> --user vm_user --password vm_password --host host_name

n Linked/Full Clone

virtualMachine --clone --infraServer infra_server_name --parentvm

parent_vm_name --prefix clone_prefix --count clone_count --type <full/linked/

instant> --customSpec customization_spec --snapshot snapshot --host host_name


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View Planner Custom Workload 7You can plugin your own scripts and automation with the view planner as a custom workload.

View Planner provides various workloads to measure performance at scale for applications like browsers, Microsoft Office, pdf reader among others. For your in-house and unique applications, view planner provides you the ability to develop and plug in your own workloads. Custom workloads can be created to simulate applications usage and measure latency values.

A workload developed by the user can use services like latency measurement and watermarking. Logs are collected and shipped to harness automatically.


n Developing a Custom Workload

Developing a Custom WorkloadIn this section, we create a custom workload that automates windows notepad application using an existing sample workload "vp_pythonExample_1.0" available in the view planner agent.

Prerequisites

1 View Planner harness should be ready.

2 A windows desktop, with the view planner agent installed.

3 Perform a local run with windows desktop to make sure that setup is working.

Procedure

1 In windows desktop virtual machine, navigate to c:\viewplanner\workloads\vdi_user folder. This directory contains all view planner workloads.

2 We will use an existing workload "vp_pythonExample_1.0" as a template, for this create a copy of the "vp_pythonExample_1.0" workload folder along side other workloads.

3 Rename the copied folder to a unique name, we will provide the name "vp_notepad_1.0" for our notepad workload.

4 "vp_notepad_1.0" folder contains two files.

n workload_script.py contains the python code responsible for the automation of application.

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n workload.config contains various configuration options for the workload.

5 Modify the workload name in the default section of the workload.config file.

[DEFAULT]

NAME = vp_notepad

6 Notepad workload will perform two operations during its execution, "notepad_open" and "notepad_close", this needs to be updated in workload_script.py.Open workload_script.py file and modify the op_count variable to total count of operations to be executed in the workload.

#[EDIT IT] Provide number of operations to be executed in this workload

op_count = 2

7 Provide the operation name, operation category, and number of times an operation must be executed for each iteration in the op_details array in the workload_script.py file.

a Operation name given in the op_details array is used for reporting. So the operation name must be unique. Appending the workload name as prefix to the operation name is a way to have unique operation names.

b For the detailed information about the operation category see Understanding VMware View Planner Reports.

#[EDIT IT] Provide workload operation names in order to be executed

op_details[0][0] = "notepad_open" # Operation name

op_details[0][1] = operation_group.OP_GROUP_B # Operation type

op_details[0][2] = 1 # Expected execution count per workload iteration

op_details[1][0] = "notepad_close"

op_details[1][1] = operation_group.OP_GROUP_A

op_details[1][2] = 1

8 Remove or add the new elements on the op_details array depending on the operation count.

9 In workload_script.py, add python functions to automate the open and close operations of notepad preceding the line MAIN : script starts here .

def OpenNotepad():

notepadPath = "C:\\Windows\\notepad.exe"

ret = subprocess.Popen(notepadPath)


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if ret == 1:

logger.error("Error in opening notepad")

return FAILURE

return SUCCESS

def CloseNotepad():

ret = subprocess.Popen(["taskkill","/F","/IM","notepad.exe"])

if ret == 1:

logger.error("Error in closing notepad")

return FAILURE

return SUCCESS

10 In workload execution loop, replace the log stating "Add code to run operation one here" with a function call to open and close notepad in order.

#Start watermark and log time-stamp [DO NOT REMOVE]

workloadHelper.startOpLog(op_details[counter][0])

# New operations can be added as new case in below switch. These switch cases will be called by

scheduler in order, once all switch cases are executed workload will deregister from scheduler

and exit.

# Workload switch [DO NOT REMOVE]

if (counter == 0):

if OpenNotepad() == FAILURE:

workloadHelper.finished(FAILURE)

elif (counter == 1):

if CloseNotepad() == FAILURE:

workloadHelper.finished(FAILURE)

else:

break

# End watermark and log time-stamp [DO NOT REMOVE]

workloadHelper.endOpLog(op_details[counter][0])

workloadHelper.startOpLog() and workloadHelper.endOpLog () functions in the preceding code measure the latency of each operation individually. Logs related to the workload are reported in the logs folder of respective workload. These logs are shipped to harness automatically.

11 Save the workload_script.py file.

12 Register the workload to the harness using the steps provided in Registering a Workload to View Planner Harness.

13 Create a new workProfile using steps in Creating a Work Profile, select your new workload when asked.


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14 Create the run profile using the steps provided in Creating a Run Profile, select workProfile created in above step when asked.

For remote or passive mode runs, the workload folder must be copied to the c:\viewplanner\workloads\vdi_user folder of the client machine.

15 Start a view planner run using the steps in Starting a View Planner Run.


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Advanced Configuration 8You can access advanced configuration options by navigating to SETTINGS > Configuration page.

Configuration Option Value Description

agent_scheduler_think_time_sec Integer (default 5)

Time agent scheduler takes between scheduling of workload operations in seconds. Increasing this value reduces overall CPU load and increases run time.

default_test_user_password Q1w2e3r4! Password used by View Planner for creating Test Active Directory users

delete_ad_users_after_run 0/1 (default 0) Test users created in AD will be automatically deleted after run completes when this value is enabled. This configuration must not be enabled for the RDSH test.

enable_legacy_rampup_time 0/1(default 0) This value should be set to 1 if results need to be compared with older (4.0, 4.1 and 4.2) versions of View Planner.

minimum_vm_required_percent 80 View Planner proceeds with run when at least this % of VMs are initialized without error.

rampup_time_base_sec 60 View Planner agent uses this number as base for calculating the default ramp-up time. Increasing this value reduces CPU load and increases run time.

rampup_time_increment_per_vm_sec 2 View Planner agent uses this number for calculating the default ramp-up time. Increasing this value reduces CPU load and increases run time.

rampup_time_max_sec 600 View Planner agent uses this number for calculating maximum the default ramp-up time. Increasing this value reduces CPU load and increases run time.

rampup_time_mgmt_run_sec 0 View Planner uses this ramp-up time for pre-run and preparation workloads.

rdsh_apps_pool_name viewplanner View Planner expects vp_default.bat to be exported as this application name for RDSH application test.

skip_vm_health_check 0/1 Set this value to 1 to skip the VM health check during the run.

status_with_timestamp 0/1 Set this value to 1 to see the run status with time stamp in web UI.

unmanaged_server_user_prefix vptest View Planner uses this value as user prefix, when an unmanaged Identity server is used.

desktops_force_reboot 0/1 Set this value to 0 to disable the force reboot of the desktops during run.

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Configuration Option Value Description

clients_force_reboot 0/1 Set this value to 0 to disable the force reboot of the clients during run.

vm_reboot_rate_per_minute 40 Maximum VM reboot requested per minute, lower value means a less load on the host.

vm_login_rate_per_minute 60 Set this value to limit remote login requests per minute during run. Default 0 means as fast as possible.

wait_time_after_vm_boot_sec 0 Set this value to provide some time to settle virtual machines after reboot.

max_sessions_per_client_passive_mode 25 Maximum number of remote sessions created by each client during passive mode run.

logout_after_run 0/1 (default 1) Set this value 1 to make desktop virtual machines logout after remote run


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Troubleshooting Information 9You can refer this section for common View Planner issues and solutions.


n Failed to Access View Planner Web UI After OVA Installation

n Failed to Find VMs During Run

n Ratio of Actual to Expected Operations is Low in the Local Mode Test

n Ratio of Actual to Expected Operations is Low in the Remote Mode Test

n Updating Selenium Drivers for Browsers

Failed to Access View Planner Web UI After OVA InstallationView Planner Web UI is unreachable after installation of OVA.

Solution

1 View Planner OVA can take few minutes to initialize, wait for approximately 20 minutes before accessing Web UI.

2 Check IP address of the harness VM, Access the User Interface using the URL http://Your_Harness_IP/vp-ui .

3 Check if the vApp option is enabled for the Virtual Machine.

4 Check if the command tool is accessible using steps provided in Accessing Command Tool.

5 If the command tool is accessible, Make sure that required ports are configured properly. See View Planner Port Requirements.

6 If the command tool is not accessible, make sure the vApp option is enabled for the Virtual Machine before first boot.

Failed to Find VMs During RunView Planer fails to search and prepare desktops and client VMs during view planner run.

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Cause

This issue can occur due to misconfigured test virtual machines (desktops and clients).

Solution

1 Make sure that view planner agent is installed in client and desktop virtual machines.

2 Check if auto login is enabled in client and desktop virtual machines.

3 Make sure that VM prefix provided during the run profile creation matches the virtual machine prefix.

If you are using VMware Horizon View pool virtual machines, VM prefix provided should match the pool prefix.

4 If virtual machines are failing to boot within time limit due to the high resource usage in the host machine, try reducing VM reboot rate using key vm_reboot_rate_per_minute, For details see Chapter 8 Advanced Configuration.

5 Make sure desktop and clients can ping the harness and vice versa. Check if there are any connection errors reported in view planner command prompt window in desktop and clients.

6 Check if necessary ports are open, see View Planner Port Requirements.

Ratio of Actual to Expected Operations is Low in the Local Mode TestOE ratio is less than 1 when few operations of workloads failed to run during tests.

Cause

This issue occurs due to misconfigured test applications.

Solution

u Check if all required applications for test, such as Microsoft Office, Chrome, and Adobe reader, are installed with correct version and activated with the proper license.

Ratio of Actual to Expected Operations is Low in the Remote Mode TestOE ratio can be less than 1 in remote mode tests when few operations of workloads cannot be measured during tests.

Cause

This issue occurs due to problems while measuring remote latency with view planner watermark technology.


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Solution

1 Create a local mode report of your remote mode test by running this command in Chapter 6 View Planner Command Tool.

report --generate --instance run_instance_name --format pdf --mode local --begin

first_iteration_number_starting_from_1 --end last_iteration_number

2 If OE ratio in the local mode report is low, check Ratio of Actual to Expected Operations is Low in the Local Mode Test.

3 If ratio in the local mode report is high:

a Log in manually from simulated clients to desktop using VMware Horizon client and make sure that the desktop is using full screen of the client machine.

b Disable auto lock and sleep feature of desktop and client operating system.

c Disable any screen savers.

Updating Selenium Drivers for BrowsersBrowser workloads in view planner are automated using selenium. Selenium drivers may need updates depending on browser versions.

Please follow these instructions to update browser drivers in case browser workloads fails.

Selenium driver for Microsoft EdgeSelenium driver for Microsoft Edge is required to automate Microsoft Edge browser

Procedure

u Follow steps given in Setting Up Microsoft Edge Driver to set up or update the selenium driver for Microsoft Edge.

Updating selenium driver for FirefoxTo automate Firefox browser corresponding Selenium Gecko driver must be installed.

Procedure

1 Get version of your Firefox browser from Help->About Firefox.

2 Download supporting Firefox driver from here. Extract geckodriver.exe for windows and geckodriver for linux from downloaded zip.

3 Do following steps in your golden VM:-

n For windows VM, create folder named <firefoxVersion>_<driverVersion> inside C:\viewplanner\lib\firefox_driver. Extract geckodriver.exe from downloaded zip and copy to newly created folder.


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https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/releases

n For linux VM, create folder named <firefoxVersion>_<driverVersion> inside /root/vp_agent/lib/firefox_driver. Extract geckodriver from downloaded zip and copy to newly created folder.

If Firefox version is 68 and driver version is 0.26, then create folder named 68_0.26.

Updating selenium driver for ChromeTo automate Google Chrome browser corresponding Selenium driver for Chrome must be installed.

Procedure

1 Get version of your Chrome form Help->About Google Chrome.

2 Download corresponding chrome driver from here.

3 Do following steps in your golden VM:-

n For windows VM, create folder named [baseVersion_fullVersion] inside C:\viewplanner\lib\chrome_driver. Extract chromedriver.exe from downloaded zip and copy to newly created folder.

n For linux VM, create folder named [baseVersion_fullVersion] inside /root/vp_agent/lib/chrome_driver. Extract chromedriver from downloaded zip and copy to newly created folder.

If chrome version is 78.0.3904.105, then create folder C:\viewplanner\lib\chrome_driver\78_78.0.3904.105 for windows and /root/vp_agent/lib/chrome_driver/78_78.0.3904.105 for linux.


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https://chromedriver.chromium.org/downloads

Status Codes 10You can refer this section for VMware View Planner Error Codes.

Status Code Name Status Code

SUCCESS 0

FAIL 1

FILE_NOT_FOUND 2

FILE_OPEN_FAILED 3

FILE_ERROR 4

OUT_OF_RANGE 5

WRONG_ARGUMENTS 6

NOT_IMPLEMENTED 7

STATE_ERROR 8

UNSUPPORTED_OPERATION 9

UNSUPPORTED_ARGUMENT 11

WRONG_ARGUMENT_COUNT 12

UNSUPPORTED_DISPLAY_PROTOCOL 13

UNSUPPORTED_DESKTOP_TYPE 14

UNSUPPORTED_INFRA_SERVER 15

UNSUPPORTED_VDI_SERVER 16

UNSUPPORTED_IDENTITY_SERVER 17

UNSUPPORTED_RUN_MODE 18

UNSUPPORTED_VM_PARENT_TYPE 19

AGENT_AVAILABLE 20

AGENT_BUSY 21

AGENT_UNREACHABLE 22

AGENT_HANGED 23

INSUFFICIENT_DESKTOPS 24

INSUFFICIENT_CLIENTS 25

RESOURCE_IN_USE 26

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RESOURCE_NOT_AVAILABLE 27

RUN_IN_PROGRESS 28

RUN_NOT_IN_PROGRESS 29

RUN_PAUSED 30

RUN_STOPPED 31

RUN_COMPLETED 32

RUN_ERROR 33

UNABLE_TO_TEST_UNMANAGED_SERVER 34

ALREADY_EXIST 35

DO_NOT_EXIST 36

FAILED_TO_FIND_VMS 37

ENCRYPTION_FALIURE 38

DECRYPTION_FALIURE 39

INVALID_RAMPUP_TIME 40

INVALID_THINK_TIME 41

INVALID_ITERATION_COUNT 42

INVALID_VM_COUNT 43

INVALID_VM_PERCENT 44

INVALID_WORK_PROFILE 45

INVALID_IDENTITY_SERVER 46

INVALID_INFRA_SERVER 47

INVALID_VDI_SERVER 48

INVALID_RUN_PROFILE 49

INVALID_WORK_GROUP 50

DUPLICATE_RUN_INSTANCE_NAME 51

UNSUPPORTED_CLONE_TYPE 52

ADDCLIENT_LOCAL_MODE_ERROR 53

VC_EXCEPTION_ERROR 54

FAILED_TO_READ_CONFIGURATION 55

UNSUPPORTED_USER_TYPE 56

CAN_NOT_REMOVE_SYSTEM_USERS 57

FAILED_TO_REBOOT_VM 58

VM_REBOOT_TIMEOUT 59

HW_PERF_COUNTER_NOT_SET 60

FAILED_TO_REMOVE_RUN_INSTANCE_FILES 61


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ALREADY_GENERATING_REPORT 62

VC_HOST_NOT_FOUND 63

VC_PARENT_VM_NOT_FOUND 64

VMS_ALREADY_EXIST 65

FAILED_TO_FIND_SNAPSHOT 66

ERROR_IN_CUSTOM_SPEC 67

ERROR_IN_CREATING_CLONE 68

ERROR_PROVISIONING_CLONE 69

ERROR_PROVISIONING_CLONE 70

WORK_GROUPS_MORE_THAN_VM 71

TOTAL_PERCENT_MORE_THAN_100 72

WRONG_USERNAME_PASSWORD 73

WRONG_DOMAIN_NAME 74

ERROR_CUSTOMIZING_CLONE 75

ERROR_CUSTOMIZING_IP_TIMEOUT 76

ERROR_CUSTOMIZING_PERMESSION_DENIED 77

INVALID_LICENSE 78

CONNECTION_FAILED 200

FAILED_TO_ACQUIRE_CONNECTION 201

QUERY_FAILED 202

DUPLICATE_ENTRY 203

INVALID_WORKLOAD 204

FOREGIN_KEY_CONSTRAINT_FAILED 205

SCHEMA_INCOMPLETE 206

INVALID_PASSWORD 207

INVALID_DESK_VM_PROFILE 208

INVALID_CLIENT_VM_PROFILE 209

RUN_INSTANCE_NOT_FOUND 271

UNABLE_TO_GENERATE_REMOTE_MODE_REPORT 272

UNSUPPORTED_DOC_FORMAT 273

REPORT_FILE_CREATION_ERROR 274

EMPTY_REPORT 275

SCHEDULER_STATE_ERROR 281

INVALID_INPUT_FOR_CMD_OPTION 300

BOTH_HOST_CLUSTER_PRESENT 301


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NO_HOST_CLUSTER_PRESENT 302

NO_CUSTOM_SPEC_LINKED_CLONE 303

UNKNOWN_ARCHIVE_FORMAT 382

BAD_ARCHIVE_FILE 383

FILE_NOT_IN_ARCHIVE 384

FAILED_TO_PARSE_DESKTOP_LOGS 385

FAILED_TO_PARSE_CLIENT_LOGS 386

VIEW_SUCCESS 500

VIEW_FAIL 501

WRONG_USERNAME_PASSWORD 502

ACCESS_DENIED 503

INVALID_USER_GROUP 504

INVALID_POOL 505

INVALID_POOL_TYPE 506

INVALID_CLONE_TYPE 507

INVALID_VCENTER 508

INVALID_USERASSIGNMENT 509

VM_NOTAVAILABLE_IN_VC 510

INVALID_SNAPSHOTNAME 511

INVALID_HOSTORCLUSTERNAME 512

INVALID_RESOURCEPOOLNAME 513

INVALID_VMFOLDERNAME 514

INVALID_DATASTORENAME 515

INVALID_COMPOSERDOMAIN_DETAILS 516

INVALID_CUSTOMSPECNAME 517

LOGOFF_VM_INCORRECTNAME 518

LOGOFF_VM_FAILURE 519

INVALID_CUSTOMSPECTYPE 520

INVALID_INSTANTCLONEDOMAINDETAILS 521

INVALID_VSANCONFIG 522

INVALID_VIEWSTORAGEACC 523

POOL_NOT_FOUND 524


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Support Matrix 11You can refer this section for software support information.

Software Support:Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit), Microsoft Windows 10

(32 bit and 64 bit), Photon OS (Local Mode), Ubuntu 18.04

VMware Horizon View 7–8.0

vSphere 6–6.7 U3

Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7 1912 (LTSR)

Workload Application Support:Microsoft Word 2013, 2016, 2019

Microsoft Power Point 2013, 2016, 2019

Microsoft Excel 2013, 2016, 2019

Microsoft Outlook 2013, 2016, 2019

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC 15–20.009.20065

Google Chrome 78–83

Mozilla Firefox 73-77

Microsoft Edge 12.10240–18.18363

Microsoft Edge (Chromium Based) 81-84

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Case Study 12This chapter includes the following topics:

n VDI Capacity Planning with View Planner

n Understanding View Planner Report

VDI Capacity Planning with View Planner

VDI deployments are on the rise due to employees working from home all over the world. VDI users can work remotely from anywhere and on any device like tablets, thin-clients and laptops while accessing remote desktops hosted on private data centers and cloud.

Good user experience is a key requirement for a successful VDI deployment. With the typical deployment ranging from hundreds to thousands of remote desktops, measuring and optimization of the user experience is challenging because of complex architecture, hardware, OS and application variations, various display protocols and different performance requirements of various users.

VMware View Planner

VMware View Planner is a benchmark and capacity planning tool designed to simulate real world workloads in a large-scale virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment. View Planner captures user experience observed by VDI users at the client side and measures latencies to identify infrastructure problems of virtual desktops. The benchmark is scalable from few virtual machines running on one host to thousands of virtual machines distributed across a cluster of hosts.

The tool generates a PDF report after completion of test. The report includes quality of service (QoS) data, application operation latencies and resource usage of the hosts involved in test. This data can then be used for optimization and benchmarking of the VDI deployment. More details about VMware View Planner report can be found here.

Workloads and Work profilesView Planner application automations are called workloads. The tool ships with various pre-defined workloads for applications like Google Chrome, MS Word, MS Excel, Adobe Reader etc. User developed workloads are also supported.

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https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-View-Planner/index.html

A group of workloads are defined as work-profile View Planner. You can either select one of the standard work profiles or create your own based on the applications under tests. More details about work profiles can be found Understanding VMware View Planner WorkProfiles.

Run ModesView Planner supports local, remote and passive remote mode for test. Remote and Passive modes use simulated client VM’s to connect with desktops under test to simulate real users. while local mode generates load directly on desktop virtual machines. More details about run modes can be found VMware View Planner Operation.

VM consolidation with View Planner

The goal of our experiment is to find VM consolidation of a host running standard view planner work-profile applications such that good user experience (QoS) is maintained with optimal resources usage.

For this test we used a 2-socket node with following configuration:

Processor Type Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6240 CPU @ 2.60GHz

No. of Logical Processors 72

Memory 766.46 GB

Storage 2.91 TB

ESXi Version 6.7.0

Following are the resources we allocated to each VM:

No of CPUs 2

Memory 4 GB

Storage 50 GB

We decided to perform a remote mode test as it simulates real user experience closely in compare to other modes. We used BLAST as our VDI protocol choice, although PCoIP and RDP are also supported. We also decided to go with work profile standardTestProfile_chrome which includes applications Adobe Reader, Google Chrome, MS Office etc.


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We selected and monitored several key parameters to ensure good user experience and system performance with optimal resource usage.

Performance Parameter Threshold

CPU sensitive operations (Group A) < 1 Second

Storage sensitive operations (Group B) < 6 Seconds

Ratio of actual to expected operations (O/E ratio) > 0.9

Discarded desktop count < 2%

Memory Usage of any desktop host < 90%

In following sections, we will be explaining the steps we followed to create set up and run tests.

Prerequisite

We have created VDI environment on a host node which includes vCenter, VMware horizon view and active directory with SSL enabled. Steps to create this setup is out of scope of this article.

Also, we have two hosts added in our vCenter. One of which will be used as desktop hosts while another one as client host.

Installing View Planner

View Planner has two main components: 1 - "View Planner harness" is available for download as .ova file. While 2- "View Planner agent" is a windows installer file. View Planner harness is the controller that drives the benchmark while View Planner agent is installed on the desktops to generate the load. View Planner components can be downloaded from the product page.

Setting Up and Configuring View Planner Harness

We deployed View Planner harness ova file using vSphere Client of vCenter Server. Once the OVA is deployed and powered on, View Planner user interface (UI) is accessible using URL “http://harness-ip/vp-ui”, default username is “vmware” and default password is “viewplanner”. You can use official guide for detailed steps. Below is the snapshot of View Planner home page after successful login.


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https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VIEW-PLAN-440&productId=984&rPId=45041

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-View-Planner/index.html

After deployment we configured VDI environment details in "SERVERS" tab using the steps in Configuring the View Planner Harness. We added our vCenter as infra server section, Microsoft Active Directory in identity server and VMware horizon view in VDI server. Adding Identity and VDI server details are required only for remote and passive mode tests. Once added you can use test button to validate the server configuration.


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Creating Virtual Machines

For a remote run desktop and client virtual machines needs to be created. Desktop virtual machines will be used to automate applications while client virtual machines will simulate real users by initiating desktop sessions using VMware horizon client.

Setting Up Desktop Virtual Machines

We created a desktop parent VM using steps given Setting Up the View Planner Windows Desktop Virtual Machines. We validated the setup by rebooting the VM and confirming that view Planner agent command Prompt was up after autologin and there was no error.


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We used desktop parent VM to create a horizon pool of 144 VMs on desktop host. We created instant clones for our tests however full and linked clones are also supported.

Setting Up Client Virtual Machines

We created a client parent VM using steps given Setting Up the View Planner Windows Client Virtual Machines. We validated the setup by rebooting the VM and confirming that view Planner agent command Prompt was up after autologin and there was no error.

Using client parent VM, we created 144 client VMs on client host by following steps Creating Clones Using View Planner. Alternatively, client VMs can also be created using VMware horizon or manual cloning.

Run Profile

A run profile acts as template for the view planner tests. We created a run profile with 5 iterations and “standardTestProfile_chrome” work profile as this includes all workloads required for test. You can get a list of available work profiles in “WORK PROFILES” tab of UI and create your own if none of the available profiles match your requirement.

Based on our experience we started first round of test by allocating 4 VMs per core. Our host has 36 cores, so we come up with VM count of 144. This number can be changed in subsequent round based on the threshold criteria defined earlier.

Detailed steps for creating new run profile can be found in Creating a Run Profile.

View Planner Run

Finally, we started 144 VM test run from the RUN tab. A standard work-profile run takes approximately 120 minutes and can vary depending on virtual machine count. You can also use “RUN” tab to track live run status during the test period. Use steps provided Starting a View Planner Run for details.


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When run gets completed, View Planner will generate a PDF report. In the report, there are sections for Quality of Service (QoS) and host resource usage. Quality of service is reported separately for CPU sensitive operations (Group A) and Storage sensitive operations (Group B). Upper acceptable threshold for Group A is 1 second and for Group B is 6 seconds. In host resource usage many metrics are available out of which we have mainly considered Average CPU Usage and Average Memory Usage.

Following are the screenshots of QoS and host resource usage from report of our 144 VM run.


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From above screenshots we can see that QoS of storage sensitive operations is above threshold limit. So, we decided to decrease VM count to 130 in our run profile and performed another test run. Following are the screenshots of QoS and host resource usage from report of our 130 VM run.

Conclusion

Based on tests, we can safely say that our single host can support 130 VMs when users use applications like MS Office, Google Chrome, Adobe Reader etc. on these VMs simultaneously, keeping 17% margin in CPU usage, which we can keep as buffer for peak times.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or want to know more, reach out to VMware View Planner team at [email protected]. View Planner team quite actively answer to this community email.

Understanding View Planner ReportThis article provides an insight on VMware View Planner Report, various metrics and score presented in the report. We will also analyse the report of a sample test and discuss its conclusions.

VMware View Planner is a benchmarking tool which analyses the VDI environment’s performance and user experience. It simulates large-scale virtual desktop deployments and generates the realistic measure of a user’s activity by running several applications on the desktop environment. The applications include Microsoft Office, browsers, Windows Media Player, and so on.


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https://my.vmware.com/en/web/vmware/info/slug/other/vmware_view_planner/4_4

When the run completes, View Planner Harness generates a comprehensive report with the details like test configuration, resource usage, and application performance. Report helps to analyze the VDI performance, VM consolidation and so on.

For detailed explanation of the View Planner reports keep reading. If you want to jump to a use case, click Getting Optimized VM Consolidation Using View Planner Report

Report constitutes of multiple sections

1 Introduction

2 Test Configuration

3 View Planner Score

4 Operation Details

5 Resource usage

Section 1 - IntroductionView Planner report explains the background of View Planner and the methodology used to classify the user operations.

Section 2 - Test ConfigurationThis section provides the configuration of the test, like work profile, number of iterations, display protocol, number of VMs, think time, ramp up time. Here is the test configuration of our test.


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This section also provides discarded VM count.

n It indicates the VMs which were available while starting the test but lost connection with the View Planner harness during the test. This can happen because of multiple reasons like VM crash, network issues.

n It also includes VMs which are not found for the test.

The discarded VM count should be less than 2% to consider a test as success.

Section 3 - View Planner ScoreThis section of View Planner report has two subsections. First Section provides the details of the test performed while second section gives quality of the service of CPU and storage.

First Section gives information about the mode of the test, mode of the latency data (remote mode test supports both local and remote mode report creation), test status, timestamps as shown in the figure.

In case of remote or passive runs with display protocol as blast protocol, blastCodecs.csv file is reported. This file contains the list of blast codecs used on each VM during the run.

Quality of ServiceView Planner workload mix consists of multiple applications running in the desktop virtual machines and performing user operations. These user operations are classified into the three groups:

Group Description Threshold

Group A Interactive, CPU bound operations <1

Group B IO bound operations <6

Group C long running and other miscellaneous operations


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https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/blast-extreme-display-protocol-vmware-horizon-7

The operations in Groups A and B are used to determine Quality of Service, which is the description or measurement of the overall performance. The operations in Group C are used to generate additional load.

For example, in Microsoft word application, Opening a document is classified as Group B as it requires disk I/O operations. While modifying the document is considered as Group A as it is CPU bound operation.

View Planner QoS score is the 95th percentile of application response time for Group A and B operations separately. If the quality of service scores for both group A and B are within the threshold limits provided by View Planner, only then the test is considered pass. The QoS values are represented in a graph as shown below.

Section 4- Operation DetailsOperation Details section has two subsections - OE Ratio and Application Response Time.

OE RatioOE ratio is the ratio of actual number of operations executed to expected number of operations. The number of operations expected depends on the configuration given by the user. Following is the OE ratio of a sample report.


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Quality of Service score determines whether the latency values of the operations are within the threshold limits. But there can be a case where all the operations might not be performed successfully. The reasons being absence of the application on the virtual machine, crashing of the application during the test, and so on. OE Ratio provides an insight on the percentage of the operations ran successfully.

Ideally all the expected operations must be performed resulting in OE Ratio as 1. But a test is considered as success if at least 90% of the expected operations are performed i.e, OE ratio greater than 0.9 is also acceptable.

Application Response Time

This section contains the following details in a table

n Application Latency Data - Operations performed on Applications, category (Storage sensitive or CPU sensitive) and the latency of each operation are reported.

n Remote Login Time - Time taken by the client to log on to the desktop machine in remote runs is reported.

In remote mode runs, View Planner collects the data from both client and desktop. Client machines report the latency of the operations as experienced by the user. Desktop machines report the latency of the operations actually occurred.

For example, if we consider open operation on google chrome application, then chrome window might open on the desktop as soon as the icon is clicked. So the desktop reports the chrome open operation as success. But the user might experience a delay because of the protocol or network latencies. So the client machine reports the chrome open operation as success only after the user sees the chrome application on the screen.

View Planner reports the data collected from the desktop as local mode data while the data collected from the client as remote mode data. View Planner generates the remote mode report by default. We can create the local mode report also. For commands to create the report, visit View Planner Commands.

Here is an operations details table of 130 VM sample test with 5 iterations of standard benchmark profile. Each operation is executed once in each iteration, so the total expected count for each operation is 390 (without first and last iterations). But remote login happens only once on each desktop VM, so the count of remote login is only 130. Latency values of all the operations are recorded and mean, median values are calculated for all the individual operations. Applications response times of a sample test are as following.


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Section 5 - Resource Usage

During a run, the resource usage of hosts involved in the test is collected and reported in section 5. This section includes CPU, Memory, and network usages of the hosts. Average, minimum, and maximum usages of the resources are reported in the table as following.


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Resource utilization at any particular time during the run is plotted in the graphs. Each graph shows the amount of time taken for the complete run on X-axis and the resource usage on the Y-axis. All the resources usage charts have vertical lines which indicate checkpoints like remote-login, pre-run, run, and post-run. Resource usage is collected through vCenter performance counters. For description of all the performance counters, visit here.

View Planner collects and plots graphs for the following host resource details.

Graphs vCenter Performance Counters

CPU usage cpu.usage, cpu.coreUtilization, cpu.utilization

Memory usage mem.usage

Memory mem.active, mem.consumed

Network Usage net.received, net.transmitted

Datastore write latency,

Datastore read latency

datastore. totalWriteLatency,

Datastore.totalReadLatency

Datastore avg write requests per second datastore. numberWriteAveraged

Datastore avg read requests per second datastore. numberReadAveraged

Here is a snapshot of the CPU resource usage graphs from our test.


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https://www.virten.net/2015/05/vsphere-6-0-performance-counter-description/

CPU usage and Memory usage graphs can have spikes to 100%. But if it is for long durations then it can be concluded that CPU or Memory is the bottle neck for the run accordingly.

Getting Optimized VM Consolidation Using View Planner Report

We performed an VDI Capacity Planning with View Planner to find VM consolidation of a host by running standard View Planner work profile applications. We selected the following parameters to track the performance.

Parameter Threshold Description

CPU Sensitive Operations (Group A) <1 95th percentile of the latency values of all the CPU sensitive operations performed during the test. If this parameter is beyond the threshold, we can conclude that CPU is the bottleneck of the test.

Storage Sensitive Operations (Group B) <6 95th percentile of the latency values of all the Storage sensitive operations performed during the test. If this parameter is beyond the threshold, we can conclude that disk Storage is the bottleneck of the test.

OE Ratio >0.90 Ratio of the executed number of operations to expected number of operations. If this parameter is beyond the threshold, we can conclude that all the operations were not successfully executed.


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Parameter Threshold Description

Discarded VM Count <2% Number of VMs which were available during the start of the View Planner test but dropped during the test. If this parameter is more than zero, we can conclude that all the expected Virtual machines were not part of the test.

Memory Usage <90% Memory usage of the host under test is reported. If this parameter is beyond the threshold, we can conclude that Memory is the bottleneck of the test.

Based on the host configuration, we started the test with 144 VMs. Following are the screenshots of QoS and host resource usage from the report of our 144 VM run

From above report snapshots, we can deduce the parameters as shown in the following table

Performance Parameter Parameter Values Threshold Status

CPU sensitive operations (Group A) 0.9193 < 1 Seconds SUCCESS

Storage sensitive operations (Group B) 7.0804 < 6 Seconds FAIL

Ratio of actual to expected operations (O/E ratio)

0.98 > 0.9 SUCCESS

Discarded desktop count 0 < 2% SUCCESS

Memory Usage of any of the desktop hosts <50%(approx.) < 90% SUCCESS


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We can see that QoS of the storage sensitive operations is above the threshold limit. Though all the other parameters have met the criteria, we consider this test to be a failure.

So, we decreased the VM count to 130 VMs in our run profile and performed another test. In the preceding explanation, you can see the snapshots of Section 5 - Resource Usage and Quality of Service of the test. From those snapshots, we can deduce the following.

Performance Parameter Parameter Values Threshold status

CPU sensitive operations (Group A) 0.7661 < 1 Seconds SUCCESS

Storage sensitive operations (Group B) 4.9244 < 6 Seconds SUCCESS

Ratio of actual to expected operations (O/E ratio)

1 > 0.9 SUCCESS

Discarded desktop count 0 < 2% SUCCESS

Memory Usage of any of the desktop hosts ~47%(approx.) < 90% SUCCESS

Based on the reports of our tests, we can say that our host can accommodate 130 VMs without any compromise on performance.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or want to know more, reach out to VMware View Planner team at [email protected]. View Planner team quite actively answer to this community email.


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Date post:	14-Jul-2020
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