HOW TO SIZE A CITRIX SERVER ?

[verspieren]

Hi,

i would like to know if there is a white paper or a tool to size a citrix server depending the number of users and the applications .... ?


Many thanks for your help.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

The Microsoft paper is here;

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/administration/terminal/tscaling.asp

And there are a few items of interest here;

http://www.ccaheaven.com/download.htm

But all you're going to get from any source is rough guidelines, as Terminal Services, more than anything, depends on your own environment. This is the area you need to plan and get everything down on paper before you begin; List all the required apps and the number of users expected to use each app simultaneously - then add some for headroom.

Too many Citrix projects are subject to "feature-creep", where departments ask for extras after you've begun implementation, and the extras prove to be the "straws that break the camel's back". Any feature-creeping should have a new test plan for each feature that should be carried out in a "sterile" test lab.

You can allow the standard 128Mb for the server and 16Mb per Microsoft Office user (conservative...), but any other apps need to be monitored over a period of time with a small pilot group of users. Perfmon is sufficient for baselining applications, but you may wish to investigate more powerful tools such as Lakeside's Systrack - if you are not purchasing MetaFrame XPe. RM in XPe allows you to monitor Citrix-specific counters - but the metrics that are of most concern are the Operating System's under stress, so RM is not essential.

Simple batch files and scripts emulating user activity (logging on, firing up the app, following some automated steps then logging off, etc) are fine for initial benchmarking, but to get meaningful results, you cannot beat having a set of human "Guinea-pigs" - users who will actually be using the software in the enterprise when you do the final rollout. This applies to MS Office users as well - if your users typically fire up 6 Word Documents, an Excel Spreadsheet or 2, a Powerpoint presentation, Outlook, several instances of Internet Explorer and maybe an Adobe *.pdf (a common combination, IME), then you will find that their memory usage is very high. This is why I tend to recommend a minimum of 2Gb RAM for a Terminal Server.

Non MS-Office apps need quantifying in their own rights - individually. It does not save time to test the load of these apps in conjunction with each other, in fact it costs more time trying to work out which is the rogue app - or rather, the biggest rogue app. Integration testing is very important, of course, and should happen after you have baselined each app. This is the longest part of a Citrix implementation - but can save a lot of time at the sharp end (rollout and support).

If you keep user data off the Terminal Servers through folder redirection, etc, then you won't need much by way of disk space - a pair of mirrored 18Gb drives should suffice (although I know plenty of people that still use 9Gb drives).

Lastly, Dual CPUs tend to offer the best price/performance ratio; e.g. It's better to have a pair of dual servers than a single quad not only because you can support more users in real terms, but also because you can implement Citrix Load-Balancing (XPa) for higher availability. Using the same logic, I would recommend 4 duals over a pair of quads or a single 8-way, etc., although I am currently investigating using VMWare as a way of running multiple Citrix servers on a multi-way box.

I hope this answers your question - and is helpful.

 

[verspieren]

Hi, many thanks for theses pieces of information ...

 

[MikeKap]

I have a whitepaper on server sizing using SysTrack 3.1 if you would like a copy, please send me an e-mail (kapski@yahoo.com). You can download a free copy of SysTrack from the Lakeside website. SysTrack's Application Profile module tracks each application's CPU, Memory and I/O activity and also monitors the Active/Loaded ratio. Using these pieces it is relatively straight-forward to figure out the best case and worst case scenerio for each application. Additional consideration needs to be given to the application mix in your environment and your user's habits. Good luck and let me know if you'd like the whitepaper.

Regards, Mike
kapski@yahoo.com

 

[verspieren]

Hi,

i'm interresting about this tools so if there is no problem for you could you send me the link or the tools at ( avcedlyr@yahoo.Fr )

Many thanks,
Cedriko.

 

[Zach27]

Hi

I am now in a midst of sizing up a Citrix metaframe server. This application that i am publishing is jave based. Each time a user accesses it thru the application server, a JVM will be iniatiated, initial studies state each JVM will take up 64MB RAM. 10 of such JVM will slow the application server to a crawl.

Now the case is, if currently all remote users access this application thru VPN with all kinds of bandwidth, by using a Citrix Metaframe server, how much of a performance uplift can i see?

Lastly, can i have the tools or whitepaper for sizing up of Citrix Server, eijilee27@hotmail.com

Thanks a million

Tech Newbie
Zach