Remote Desktop Simulation Tools

Microsoft has recently released a very interesting tool, that can be useful in scoping the performance and capacity of a Remote Desktop deployment.

It is all Server 2008 and above based – Hyper-V of course and I am sure it is RDS centric, however I wonder how creative I can be in applying its capabilities to other scenarios or hosting systems.  As I can see this being very useful in making comparisons between supporting layers.

The Remote Desktop Simulation Tools

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c3f5f040-ab7b-4ec6-9ed3-1698105510ad&displaylang=en

 

A quote from the download page:

The Remote Desktop Load Simulation toolset is used for server capacity planning and performance/scalability analysis.
In a server-based computing environment, all application execution and data processing occur on the server. Therefore it is extremely interesting to test the scalability and capacity of servers to determine how many client sessions a server can typically support under a variety of different scenarios. One of the most reliable ways to find out the number or users a server can support for a particular scenario is to log on a large number of users on the server simultaneously. The Remote Desktop Load Simulation tools provide the functionality which makes it possible to generate the required user load on the server.

A minimal test environment requires:

1. Target Remote Desktop Server
2. Client Workstations
3. Test Controller Host

Importing Kensho OVF to ESX

My main focus has been in taking OVF content from other vendors and consuming that with Citrix Kensho (the OVF Tool or XenConvert 2.x) – however lets turn the tables.

OVF is a format that describes virtual appliances; these could be single or multiple machine.  In doing so, OVF describes the virtual hardware and physical requirements of each machine.

In the spirit of supporting the development of interoperability between vendors I also consider how other vendors consume OVF appliances.

I have my personal opinion of how things should work, but the DMTF VMAN is a committee, therefore there are many opinions.

At the same time, the promise of interoperability is as much in the hand of the consume of an appliance as it is in the creator, as it is in the operating system of the machine in the appliance.

Lets look at using VMware Products (as released today 10/9/2009) to consume a Citrix Kensho created OVF appliance. 

Well, I am going to be honest – at this time VMware does not translate other vendors hardware descriptions into VMware equivalents – therefore VMware cannot import OVF content that does not adhere to the VMware way of describing the hardware of a virtual machine.

So, knowing that, is there a workaround?  Yes, there is.

In my example I am going to use XenConvert to create an OVF Appliance from a XenServer XVA (that is an export of a XenServer VM), modify that using a VMware created OVF, and then import to ESX.

Mind you, this is not for the easily sickened, nor is it something you want to do every day.

First of all, I begin by downloading the Citrix Merchandising Server virtual appliance. I also use XML Notepad, ESX, and VMware Converter.

[1] Expand the Merchandizing bz2 zip archive. (WinRAR can do this, and others as well)

[2] Use Citrix XenConvert 2.x to convert from “Xen Virtual Appliance” to “Open Virtualization Format (OVF) Package”

Do not create an OVA, just an OVF.

[3] Using the VMware Client:

a. Create a shell VM using Linux / RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 (32-bit)

b. Select the VM that was created and export it to an OVF appliance

· VI3 = Select VM, File, Virtual Appliance, Export

· vSphere4 = Select VM, Export

[4] Open both folders containing the OVF appliance from XenConvert and the OVF appliance from VMware.

Note that both folders contain common items: a virtual disk file, and a .ovf metafile that describes the settings of the appliance.

[5] Copy the VHD from the XenConvert created appliance to the folder of the VMware created appliance

[6] Open the .ovf XML metafile from both appliances using XML Notepad

[7] Open the two references to the virtual disk

There are two important sections that need to be modified in the VMware OVF so that it will properly ‘see’ the VHD. The ‘name’ of the virtual disk and the ‘format’.

[8] Copy the disk reference sections from the XenConvert created appliance to the VMware created appliance.

[9] Save the changes

[10]If the VMware appliance folder contains a file ending in .mf – delete it

[11]Using VMware Converter import the modified VMware OVF appliance.

Only VMware Converter can both consume the OVF and convert the VHD to VMDK.

a. Open VMware Converter

b. Select Convert Machine

c. Choose virtual appliance, browse to the modified OVF

d. Select Next

e. Complete the import wizard

The preceding steps converted the Merchandising Server XVA based appliance to OVF and then used a VMware derived OVF to import the appliance to VMware. The operating system within the appliance still needs to be repaired to allow the machine to boot and run.

Hopefully, I will have a solution for that in the near future.  As there are currently many challenges inherent within the operating system of the machines themselves that prevent true interoperability.

Enabling Citrix Merchandising Server paravirtualized vm to run on Hyper-V

Here is my scenario:

I have a fully paravirtualized Linux virtual machine (Merchandising Server) that is made to run on a xen hypervisor (the family of hypervisors that enable Linux VMs to boot kernel-xen and run in a truly paravirtualized and highly efficient way).

I want to move that vm over to another hypervisor (non-xen) for a client demonstration.

Warning:  This might seem a bit convoluted, but it really isn’t difficult.  However there are a few tools involved.  The steps that apply to your situation all depends on how easy it is to get your virtual disk into a format that you can mount and edit the boot volume.  Follow these instructions at your own risk, a positive outcome is not guaranteed.  The resulting VM will most likely not be supported if it has problems.

Collecting the elements:

I am going to use a few things that I need to obtain (download) and tools that need to be installed.

• The Citrix Merchandising Server Virtual Appliance
• The Hyper-V Linux Integration Components ISO (v1, not R2)
• Citrix Project Kensho OFT Tool
• Citrix XenConvert
• Some Linux distribution “Live CD” (i use Debian Live)
• A Hyper-V Host

Why so many tools?

The Merchandising Server is the appliance that I am using for the example.  XenConvert is to convert the XVA (XenServer export format) into an OVF based appliance.  The Kensho OVF Tool is to import the OVF into Hyper-V.  The Linux distribution “Live CD” is to mount the virtual disk of the example appliance so we can modify the Grub boot loader and drop a file.  And the v1 Linux Integration Components have the magic PV kernel shim that we need.

Details, details, missing details.  What gives?

I am going to state right now that; I am not going to go into deep and gory details describing each and every click that is required with each tool.  If you read my blog, I assume a couple things: that you have a clue, or you want one.  And that you are not afraid of figuring things out, or trying and failing (I am also implying that you know how to make back-ups of things before you go mucking them up).

The business at hand:

1. Expand the Merchandizing bz2 zip archive. (WinRAR can do this, and others as well)
2. Use Citrix XenConvert 2.x to convert from “Xen Virtual Appliance” to “Open Virtualization Format (OVF) Package”
   • Do not create an OVA, just an OVF.
3. Use Citrix Kensho OVF Tool to Import the OVF Package from step 2 to a Hyper-V host.
   • Or you could just copy the VHD from step 2 to your Hyper-V host and create a new VM.
   • Do not boot the VM at this time.
4. Attach the Live CD ISO to the VM
5. Set the boot order to boot from DVD first
6. Remove the default Network Adapter and add a Legacy Network Adapter
7. Add a second DVD drive
8. Attach the Hyper-V (v1) Linux IC ISO to the second DVD drive of the VM
9. Boot the VM into the Live CD and log in to its console
   • Debian will auto logon as ‘user’.
10. switch to root:  sudo –i
    • This is specific to Debian Live
11. Discover the IDE disks:
    • cd /dev
    • ls hd*
12. Mount the virtual disk (the vhd)
    • make a mount point folder:  mkdir /mnt/mine
    • mount the disk to the folder:  mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/mine
13. explore the volume
    • cd /mnt/mine
    • ls
    • Mine looks like a /boot volume:
    • 
14. Mount the Linux IC DVD drive (mine is the second dvd on controller 2):
    • mkdir /mnt/cdrom
    • mount /dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom
15. Copy the kernel shims from the ISO to the virtual disk
    • cd /mnt/cdrom/shim
    • cp *.* /mnt/mine
16. Edit the device.map
    • cd /mnt/mine/grub
    • nano device.map
    • Before:
    • After:
17. Edit the GRUB bootloader to load the shim and the kernel.
    1. nano menu.lst
    2. comment the ‘hiddenmenu’ option and increase the timeout so I can test.
       • 
    3. Create a new entry specific to the shim and the distribution kernel-xen
       • Notice that the kernel is the shim copied from the previous step and the existing kernel and initrd load as modules of the shim.
       • 
    4. Modify the default selection to point to my new entry.
       • The default entry begins counting at “0”
       • 
18. Unmount the virtual disk and the cdrom
    • cd /
    • umount /dev/hda1
    • umount /dev/hdd
19. Shutdown the virtual machine and remove the ISOs from the DVD drive (also remove the second virtual dvd drive).
20. Boot the virtual machine, note the new menu selection that was created – this is the kernel that should boot.
    • 

Note: If you run VMware – you might want to use a standard x86 kernel, not the pae.

HyperV networking works on Server 2008 R2 guest but not Server 2008 guest

The Scenario:

Hyper-V R2 (Server 2008 R2) host, Server 2008 guest (not R2), Server 2008 R2 guest

The situation plays out like this:

I create a VM and install Server 2008 R2 Standard.

The external network, connecting me to the internet, works fine and the guest OS automatically has a working network device and connection.

I shut down this VM and leave it off.

I then create another VM, exactly the same, choosing the same external network as above. This time I install Server 2008 Standard (non-R2).

The server does not find its network card, and therefore cannot connect to the internet. When I look at the guest OS, there is a yellow splat in the device manager for the virtual network adapter.

 

My first question in response to this:

Did you install the Integration Components within the VM?

 

Here is why:
Server 2008 has the ICs built in to the OS (they are extremely similar to device drivers).

But, versioning issues can come into play - the host and guest must match for optimum performance.

With the release of R2 the ICs included backward compatibility - thus allowing an R2 VM to 'just work' when you install it onto a Hyper-V v1 (2008, but not 2008 R2) host.

Now, when you have a Server 2008 VM on an R2 host - the VM built-in ICs are older than the host ICs - thus the ICs in the VM need to be updated.

Using the Hyper-V manager Console, open the console of the VM and choose Action, Install Integration Services - then respond to any prompts.

Thank you “Kelly AZ” for describing this problem so well in the TechNet forum.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverhyperv/thread/c08e2f66-802b-43b0-aa9c-589695c31678/

Importing VMware Studio with Citrix OVF Tool to Hyper-V

This is something that I just had to try.

I imported the VMware Studio 2 Beta virtual appliance to a Hyper-V R2 host using Citrix OVF Tool.  Quite fun actually, and pretty easy.

Yes, I did a video, just to prove it.

http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/1070

First, the preparation:

Begin by creating a Network Share for your OVF Library.

Create a folder under that for the VMware Studio appliance download.

Download the VMware Studio 2 virtual appliance and place it in the folder you created.

Download and install the Citrix OVF Tool.

http://community.citrix.com/display/xs/Kensho

(please download the admin guide as well – it hides behind the “show documentation” link).

Read the Admin Guide.

Second, Run the Citrix OVF Tool.

Add your library share.

Add your Hyper-V host (I am assuming that you read the admin guide and set up Windows Remote Management properly).  Also shown here: http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/971

Select the Import tab of the OVF tool.

Select and then right-click the VMware Studio OVA and select Convert to OVF.

After the convert process has finished select the VMware Studio OVF, Select the target Hyper-V Host, then select the mapping button.

Complete the VM requirement to host resource mapping wizard.

Select the check box to run the Operating System Fix-up (this is important).

Begin the import.

After the import completes open the Hyper-V manager, and open the settings of the imported vm most likely called “Virtual Hardware Family”

Remove the “Network Adapter”, then add a “Legacy Network Adapter”, and select the virtual network that it should be attached to.

Now you can boot the VMware Studio appliance and complete the setup.

There you have it, simple as that, running on Hyper-V.