slow login with appstack mount

[matteoabrile]

Hello,

I have many users that spend much time to login in VM if I assign also 1 app to users, If I assign same app direct to VM, they login immeditaly. Then I have few users that login fast also if they have app assign direct to users. What I can search for investigate on problem ? I use 2.10.

Thanks

M.

[iforbes]

Take a look at this thread:

App Volumes 2.9 and ESXi 6

[matteoabrile]

Hello,

I have host with 5.5.

Thanks

M.

[Ray_handels]

It depends on what you consider as slow.

When you log in and the application is assigned to the user instead of the machine what happens is that the machine talks to the Appvolumes manager to see which appstacks are assigned. The Appvolumes manager talks to the VCenter to reconfigure the machine, vcenter reconfigures and after that the machine is being "released" to log in.

If you only have 1 appstack this process will still take up to 10 seconds to execute so logon times are extended by approx 10 seconds due to appvolumes.

What happens in the other case is that reconfigure takes ages extending the entire process by 3 seconds per appstack which could result in more than 40 seconds waittime for multiple appstacks. This has now been redused but still takes up to 1 second per appstack to execute setting in an appstack.

[matteoabrile]

Hello,

consider I mount only 1 app,and  I see on vcenter that it mount 3/4 sec, meanwhile user stay more time before login, also after vcenter finish work on vm. Consider for login with 1 app, user spend about 2 minutes.

Maybe problem user not local admin ? becouse I have other user in Group "Domain Admins" that spend 3/4 sec to login... but I try add to this group user spend much time and no change.

I don't understand what I can check to found where is probelm.

Thanks

M.

[Ray_handels]

Not being an admin nomally isn;t an issue for slow logon times.

Could you please ttry and check the exact time it takes to log in with and without the appstack? There is regkey in Appvolumes that tells the agent to wait for 180 seconds if it can't attach the appstack. If your timeout is indeed 2 minutes this isn't the issue.

Because an admin logs in quite quickly, could it be that you have a lot off policies on the OU the VDI resides in? Does the user have a decent amount of policies? What happens if you disable them, just for testing purposes.

The thing is that a "normal" machine stores the policies localy and policies are being applied the first time a user connects to the domain. Consequitive times will be faster after that first time.

When  you look at a VDI machine these settings are not stored into the local policy store and thus it takes quite some time to load them. Also, writable volumes don't store policy settings. This gives quite some quircky events as we found out quite some time ago .

[matteoabrile]

Hello,

I check if user login without app attach spent not more 5 seconds, same user spend 2 minutes +/- with app attach. Not only first login, but everytime he can logoff/login.

Thanks

M.

[iforbes]

Hey Ray. You explained the process if AppStack assigned to a user. What if the assignment is to a computer? Any difference in logon time?

[matteoabrile]

If I attach AppStack to VM, User can login very fast... 2/3 sec... problem is only if I attach AppStack to User.

[Ray_handels]

Yes, that's because assignment to a computer is done during startup. So even before the user logs in the appstack is attached.

What happens when you assign to a user is that it is being attached during login which off couse slows down the login process.

Only thing with attaching to a machine is that you need to be 100% sure which user logs into what machine otherwise you end up with applications attached to a machine that a user does not need.

If you have a 2 minute logontime my guess is you need to check the appstack to see what you are doing there. Could it be that there is some kind of network attachment inthere or a file copy from a network source the user has no permission to? It could well be that you are getting a TCPIP network timeout (which I believe is 2 minutes right??)

And unfortenately both user and compuetr assignments aren't supported (yet). I know that VMWare was looking into it but hasn't been implemented to this day so its either user or machine.

[iforbes]

Thanks Ray. Great explanation.

[matteoabrile]

Hello Ray, where I can found log that can show me what occur when appstack attach during login ? because if I see on vCenter seem spend very few time to attach...

Thanks

M.

[Ray_handels]

You should check the Appvolumes log on the VDI you log into.

It is located in the C:\Program Files (x86)\CloudVolumes\Agent\Logs\svservice.log (it was previously called Cloudvolumes, they haven't changed the name yet). Log time is specified in UTC I though. Do keep that in mind when checking timestamp.

I would suggest using some sort of log viewer though, CMTrace works like a charm but is a SCCM tool. Using Notepad it is quite hard to look into that file.

[matteoabrile]

Hello,

I found LOG inside VM, I know that try for much time attach App, and put user in standby login meanwhile wait successfully operation... I check and wait more 4.30min, every line i see in log can't attach App, it wait 180sec... and then write contact administrator... but after start again... and seems work... after 4 min +/- start and I can see App mounted.

What could my problem ? inside log... not give explain on problem...

Thanks

M.

[Ray_handels]

Are you using google translate to type the information inhere? It is quite hard to get the correct information out of it to be honest.

My guess is that the logging shows that login is being delayed for 180 seconds because appstacks cannot be attached, am I right?

You could try and use the following reg key. After implementing this key the agent wont wait for 180 seconds but x seconds (the value you use for the reg key) to proceed with login.

It could cause applications not to work anymore, so please handle with care.

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\svservice\Parameters\VolWaitTimeout = x ( i would suggest starting with 5 here).

[matteoabrile]

yes, you understand correct.

It wait 180 sec, then login and I can see app attach. I don't understand it can't attach app for 180sec and after login I can see app attach. why it wait 180 sec ? with other user, without different, it connect immediately.

Thanks to your help.

M.

[matteoabrile]

Hello,

I confirm with apply "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\svservice\Parameters\VolWaitTimeout = 5", I solve problem. Now I can also attach 2 app without problem, login open +/- 5/6 sec...

What problem can I have using this string ? regarding you why I have this problem ?

Thanks

M.

[Ray_handels]

Good question.

If you want a 100% definitive answer I would suggest creating a ticket with VMWare, I dont know exactly what happens .

What Appvolumes does when logging is that it checks to see if an appstack is fully attached to the system and is being processed as intended. Normally this process takes up to 1 second (I have seen it take more time but this mostly is due to services being added and started in the appstack or writable volume) but sometimes this process seems to go wrong. When this happens, the Appvolumes agent waits for 180 seconds until it says "Ok, I've waited long enough, let's just log in".

I don't know exactly why they did this. Because i have never seen an appstack that took this long to be processed. Waiting for a few seconds for the appstack to be processed, okay, waiting for 3 minutes, not okay (at least that is my feeling).

What could happen is that information from the appstack is not being deployed. But if the application works as intended I would just keep it this way or ask for support from VMWare/Appvolumes.

[matteoabrile]

Hello Ray,

thanks very much for your help I open TT in VMware to investigate on problem.

Bye

M.