eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by VmgPcoIPSessionTest

PCoIP - PC over IP - is a proprietary protocol for remote workstation and desktop resolution. VMware View supports PCoIP to deliver virtual desktops to users connecting to the VDI. Since PCoIP recognizes different types of content and then uses different compression algorithms based on the content type, it is often considered ideal to deliver on the VDI promise of a rich user experience.

The key factors influencing user experience in such cases are the latencies experienced by the user while connecting to the desktop via PCoIP and the bandwidth used when a user interacts with a virtual desktop. High latency and excessive bandwidth consumption can often slowdown access to desktops, thereby significantly delaying subsequent user operations. Hence, monitoring the latency and bandwidth usage of the PCoIP communication channel between the user terminal and the virtual desktops is essential.

This test auto-discovers the virtual desktops on the ESX host and the users who are currently connected to each desktop via PCoIP. For each such user, the test monitors the communication between a user and the virtual desktop, and reports the following:

  • The latency experienced by each user session;
  • The bandwidth used by the incoming and outgoing data/audio/multimedia traffic transacted by the PCoIP communication channel between each user and virtual desktop;

Using this test, an administrator can identify user sessions that are being impacted by high latency and abnormal bandwidth usage. In addition, the test also reveals the type of traffic that is causing excessive bandwidth usage, thereby providing pointers to how the client configuration can be fine-tuned in order to reduce bandwidth consumption and improve performance.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
Round_trip Indicates the round trip latency between the virtual desktop and this user terminal. Secs Comparing the value of this measure across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who are experiencing higher latency when connecting to a virtual desktop.
Data_received Indicates the rate at which data was received by this user from the virtual desktop. Kbit/Sec Comparing the value of each of measures across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who are consuming the maximum bandwidth. Once you zero-in on the user, you can compare the Data received rate of that user with the Data sent rate to know when the user consumed more bandwidth - when receiving data or while sending data?
Data_sent Indicates the rate at which data was sent by this user to the virtual desktop. Kbit/Sec
Aud_data_rec Indicates the bandwidth used while transmitting sound/audio to this user. Kbit/Sec Comparing these values across users will reveal which user is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive sound/audio files over PCoIP.
Aud_data_sent Indicates the bandwidth used while receiving sound/audio from this user. Kbit/Sec
Img_data_rec Indicates the bandwidth used when sending imaging data to this user. Kbit/Sec Comparing these values across users will reveal which user is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive images over PCoIP.
Img_data_sent Indicates the bandwidth used when receiving imaging data from this user. Kbit/Sec
Img_dec_capab Indicates the currrent estimate of the decoder processing capability. Kbit/Sec  
Inc_bandwidth Indicates the overall bandwidth used by incoming PCoIP packets. Kbit/Sec Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user is performing bandwidth-intensive operations over the PCoIP channel.
Out_bandwidth Indicates the overall bandwidth used outgoing PCoIP packets. Kbit/Sec
USB_data_rec Indicates the bandwidth used when this user received USB data over the PCoIP channel. Kbit/Sec Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive USB data over the PCoIP channel.
USB_data_sent Indicates the bandwidth used when this user sent USB data over the PCoIP channel. Kbit/Sec
Rec_packets Indicates the percentage of received packets lost. Percent A high value for these measures is indicative of a bad network connection between the user terminal and the virtual desktop.
Trans_packets Indicates the percentage of transmitted packets lost. Percent
Img_Frame Indicates the rate at which the imaging frames were encoded over a sampling period of a second while sending across the PCoIP channel. Frames/sec