Unhappy User Experience of VM

[nasterizer]

Ok I need everyones help here. Basically I have setup our VDI solution using ESX 3.5 VDM 2 using Wyse V90L's to connect to VM. I have setup to VM packages. The first package is basically your WinXP SP2 with basic apps like MS Office, Adobe Reader and Multimedia programs. Nothing out of the ordinary. The second was built upon the first except for some graphic intensive map applications.

Now even people using the first build (very basic package) have major complains about performance. They get black squares often where the graphics just dont show. There is also a lag in the responsiveness of most apps. Basically its really heavy.

Now were getting complaints and users are requesting regular PC's as a replacement. Where does my problem lie? Is it in the initial image that was created? Could it be it was created incorrectly? Network load is fine with pleanty to spare.

Again, I need any feedback I can get so dont hesitate.

[jasonms]

What kind of storage are you using?

How many users? Number of servers? How do the performance charts in VC look?

Do you have same problem when connecting with a fat client?

[nasterizer]

Well actually im using local server storage since y SAN isnt in place yet. I have 2 HP BL480c with dual quad core and 32 GB of memory. Each server has about 20 VM's on it. Yes it is the same when i connect from a fat client but with a slight slight improvment. Any suggestions??

[mpryor]

The black squares are a result of bitmap caching on the thin client, and there not being enough space to save the files. Disable bitmap caching and the black squares will disappear.

[jasonms]

Have you done any testing with a fresh build? It seems like it would be worth doing at this point.

I would also try connecting directly to a VM with RDP on a fat client (no VDM) just on the off chance that the CB is causing problems.

[mittim12]

What kind of resources have you assigned to the guest. Are they single processor or dual processor and how much memory has been assigned?

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[nasterizer]

I have the machines with single processor and 640MB of memory. Using RDP I get a good session with good performance. I dont know why the CB is causing such a lag.

[markbenson]

This is a well known issue with Windows XP/e and VDM. Turn off RDP bitmap caching on the VDM Client and the black squares problem will go away. This is what mpryor has already said.

Let us know how you get on.

Mark.

[nasterizer]

Disabling the bitmap cache worked perfectly. Thanks guys. But I still have performance problems. I really think its the base image I'm using. Is there anywhere that I can find an XP image specifically for ESX that I can download and check? Or maybe someone from here can provide one of their own.

I really need to solve this issue. Thanks in advance.

[mittim12]

Take a look at this document and see if it helps

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[nasterizer]

I actually built my base VM with this document but the only thing is I didnt use the LSI driver. Would that cause this huge of a performance problem?

[TomHowarth · Accepted solution]

have a mosey on over to DABCC.com a lot of the optimisation techniques I have used for years in Server Based Computing environemnts (Citrix) are of great use in the VDI environment where the concepts although diferent are similar enough to be useful.

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[azn2kew]

Have you thought of 3rd party WAN/LAN optimization such as Expand Networks, Riverbed, Certeon, etc..I know Expand Networks is pretty good with VDI performance check them out. Could it be your storage is on local disk that has limited in performance comparing to traditional SAN. If you try SANMelody for your SAN solution that migh boost up performance as well if you check them out.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[MainlineVCS]

Wyse also offers TCX which is a multimedia accelerator that pushes multimedia requests down to the Thin Client, instead of doing it over the wire.

Just a suggestion.

[heybuzzz]

,

Did you solve your problem? If so was it your "Golden Image"?

[ferdis]

Hi,

I got also VDI solution based on Wyse V90L. I got VMware View 3.0.1 build-142034 on ESX 3.5. U3 with 12 pieces of Wyse V90Ls. I got exactly the same problem with black boxes on terminals when connected to VMware View client. How did you managed to resolve this? I changed some registries but nothing happened. Another very sad thing is RDP performance. It is not going well. Very slow responses. Did you solve this?

Thank you,

Frantisek

[Fab75]

About black boxes, someone has already answered above, anyway try disabling bitmap caching on rdp client properties. Anyway, this is a problem of terminal services connection, View is impacted as it uses rdp protocol.

About performance, try to have a look at pdf docs on vmware site (View deployment guide...) , there's a lot of hints on how to set up your environment. RDP can be impacted by many things... are you on a L.AN|WAN? Did you check your network latency?, And so on....

[Warrenjc]

hi can someone helpme

i need to

Disable bitmap caching or Turn off RDP bitmap caching on the VDM Client but i don't how can someone helpe me or maybe a link with the steps