Configuration of VmgPervDiskTest

The personal vDisk retains the single image management of pooled and streamed desktops while allowing people to install applications and change their desktop settings.

Unlike traditional Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployments involving pooled desktops, where users lose their customizations and personal applications when the administrator alters the base virtual machine (VM), deployments using personal vDisks retain those changes. This means administrators can easily and centrally manage their base VMs while providing users with a customized and personalized desktop experience.

Personal vDisks provide this separation by redirecting all changes made on the user's VM to a separate disk (the personal vDisk) attached to the user's VM. The content of the personal vDisk is blended at runtime with the content from the base VM to provide a unified experience. In this way, users can still access applications provisioned by their administrator in the base VM.

But, what happens if a personal vDisk runs out of space? Simple! Users will no longer be able to hold on to their customizations, allowing them access to only the base VM and the applications installed therein! This outcome beats the entire purpose of having personal vDisks! If this is to be avoided, then administrators should continuously monitor the usage of the personal vDisks, proactively detect a potential space crunch, determine what is causing the rapid erosion of space on the personal vDisk, and fix the root-cause, before desktop users complain. This is where the VmgPervDiskTest helps.

For each Windows virtual desktop on the cloud, this test tracks the status and space usage of its personal vDisk and promptly reports errors / abnormal space usage. This way, administrators can accurately identify personal vDisks with very limited space, which virtual desktop such personal vDisks are associated with, and what is consuming too much disk space – user profiles? Or user applications?

The default parameters associated with this test are:

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

• In the HOST text box, specify the nick name of the Cloud Desktops component for which this test is to be configured.

• Specify the port at which the specified host listens to in the PORT text box. By default, this is NULL.

• To obtain the ‘inside view’ of performance of the cloud -hosted Windows desktops - i.e., to measure the internal performance of the Windows virtual desktops - this test uses a light -weight eGVMAgent software deployed on each of the desktops. Accordingly, Inside View Using parameter is by default set to eGVMAgent (Windows).

• Report Powered OS flag is relevant only for those tests that are mapped to the Inside View of Desktops layer. If this flag is set to Yes (which is the default setting), then the ‘inside view’ tests will report measures for even those Windows virtual desktops that do not have any users logged in currently. Such desktops will be identified by their name and not by the username_on_virtualdesktopname. On the other hand, if this flag is set to No, then this test will not report measures for those Windows virtual desktops to which no users are logged in currently.

• Report By User flag is set to Yes by default. The value of this flag cannot be changed. This implies that the virtual machines in VDI environments will always be identified using the login name of the user. In other words, in VDI environments, this test will, by default, report measures for every username_on_virtualmachinename.

• Since this test runs for a ‘Cloud Desktops’ component, Is Cloud VMs flag is set to Yes by default.

• DD FREQUENCY refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD FREQUENCY.

• To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, eG embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test, by default, for a particular server, choose the On option against DETAILED DIAGNOSIS. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

  The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability.

  • Both the bad and normal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

• If multiple components of the same component type are awaiting configuration, then an APPLY TO OTHER COMPONENTS button will appear in this page. Clicking on this button will allow you to apply the configuration to all/selected components of that type.

• Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the UPDATE button will register the changes made.

When changing the configuration for specific servers, a “*” beside the text box corresponding to the parameter signifies that these values have to be manually configured by the user. The parameter values that require to be configured will typically be prefixed with a “$” or contain a series of “*”. A value of “none” in the parameter value indicates that the corresponding parameter value can be changed if required.