Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop, and VDI in general, are among the most important applications running over a company’s WAN. And like other applications running over the WAN, the performance of XenApp and XenDesktop can be greatly impacted by insufficient bandwidth, long latency, or high packet loss rates when used at local offices or by remote workers.
Consequently, it’s important to test VDI prior to deployment to make sure the end user experience will be suitable for the needs of your users and to tune the system for optimal performance for your network conditions. Once the system has been rolled out, it is necessary to continue to monitor its performance and test what-if scenarios such as opening a new office, adding additional bandwidth, handling more users, or switching to a wireless network.
Apposite, of course, makes network emulators that allow you to simulate the network connection to any local office or remote user. Goliath Technologies makes a product that monitors XenApp and XenDesktop to ensure that the system is operating well and take action when it detects problems. Together, these two tools are a powerful combination that make it easy to see exactly how XenApp / XenDesktop will work under different network conditions.
The two companies have created a joint webinar showing the use of the Linktropy WAN emulator to simulate the WAN connection between client and server together with MonitorIT to monitor and report on Citrix performance over the simulated WAN. You can watch it here: https://goliathtechnologies.webex.com/goliathtechnologies/lsr.php?RCID=d6ced939a7db8004e2e8cfcf1d995f7b
Please contact either Goliath or Apposite if you would like more information on using Linktropy and MonitorIT together to test your Citrix deployment.