Slow Opening Excel File with MACRO and LINKS from Network File server on View Desktop compare to physical PC

[iamxCPx]

Hi guys,

This is a weird one.

I just encountered a very strange problem when opening one of the excel files that sits on a Linux file server running Samba shared.

My Physical Laptop has a Dual Core2 Duo 2.27 GHz, 4 GB of RAM and Windows 7 Pro 32-bit.

My View Desktop has 2 vCPU (host CPU at 2.99 GHz/Core with 16 Core), 4 GB of RAM and Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit.

Note: The View Desktop sits on the FusionIO card locally on the server so it's lightning fast.

When I opened that excel file from my physical desktop, it'll takes 3 seconds to open and 5 seconds to Enable the Content (Because it's a big xls file with a bunch of MACRO and LINKS to another spreadsheet)

When I opened that same excel file from View Desktop, it'll takes 18 seconds to open and 1 minute to Enable the Content.

Anyone else happened to have experience the same issue with their View environment?

Do you mind sharing some tips to troubleshoot this?

[vcpguy]

What version of excel are you running on Desktop and VDI ? Are there any network devices between your Physical desktop and the excel file? or any devices between vdi and excel  file ? What kind of pool do you have? Is there a case the file is cached on your Desktop?

[iamxCPx]

Office 2010 Pro on both physical and View.

I also tried on View with Office 2013 Pro and it was the same thing.

So this is how the data travel from Excel to my physical PC.

Excel file --> Linux File Server (Samba Shared) --> vNIC (VMNET3) on Host #2 --> vSwitch (VDI) on Host #2 --> Server Physical Gig NIC on Host #2 --> Cisco Switch --> My Laptop.

And this how the data travel from Excel file to my View Desktop.

Excel file --> Linux File Server (Samba Shared) --> vNIC (VMNET3) on Host #2 --> vSwitch (VDI) on Host #2 --> Server Physical Gig NIC on Host #2 --> Cisco Switch --> Server Physical Gig NIC on Host #1 --.> vSwitch (VDI) on Host #1 --> vNIC (VMXNET3) on View Desktop --> View Desktop.

I just did a test by using a fresh installed windows 7 PRO 32-bit with only Excel 2010 (pretty much the same OS as my laptop) and tested it using the vCenter console and I get:

It'll take 14 seconds to open the excel file and 44 seconds to "Enable the Content".

Again, this is a fresh installed OS with Excel without any View optimization done or persona management or even using View Connection Servers.

So I'm guessing there might be something going on with either the Host NIC or vSwitch so it's not necessarily a View issue?

Note:

As another test, I copied the excel file locally to the C drive of the View Desktop and no issues at all.

So something must be happening over the network between Hosts. Ugh!

[iamxCPx]

Just did another test.

Windows Server 2008 Standard 64-bit VM with Excel 2010

Opening the excel file: 4 seconds.

"Enable the Content": 48 seconds.

Windows XP Pro 32-bit VM with Excel 2007.

Opening the excel file: 4 seconds.

"Enable the Content": 45 seconds.

Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit VM with Excel 2010

Opening the excel file: 9 seconds

"Enable the Content": 1 minute 22 seconds.

And this was the previous tests for comparison.

Windows 7 Pro 32-bit Physical Laptop with Excel 2010

Opening the excel file: 3 seconds

"Enable the Content": 5 seconds.

Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit View Desktop with Excel 2010

Opening the excel file: 18 seconds

"Enable the Content": 60 seconds.

Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit View Desktop with Excel 2013

Opening the excel file: 18 seconds

"Enable the Content": 60 seconds.

Windows 7 Pro 32-bit VM with Excel 2010

Opening the excel file: 14 seconds

"Enable the Content": 44 seconds.

PS:

"Enable the Content" = Enabling Macros and Links on Excel.

It looks like Citrix XenDesktop Users were having similar issues with Macro but they got it fixed.

Excel 2010 Macro are very slow - Application Publishing - Discussions

[iamxCPx · Accepted solution]

Finally be able to locate the problem.

It was the Sophos EndPoint AV for vShield that I deployed for evaluation.

Once I disabled the policy, everything is back to normal.

Couldn't believe that an EndPoint through vShield was causing all this because I tried Symantec and BitDefender for vShield previously and no issues at all.

Oh well.

Hopefully Sophos or VMware vShield team has a solution for me.

Have a good day!

[glowery]

I've been having the same issues with Excel and other office files located on network locations.  We currently use Sophos Endpoint for vShield and have been trying to find out what the problem could be for forever.  What was the policy that you ended up disabling? Was it something in vShield or in the Sophos policies?

Thanks in advance for your answer!