Posts

Ingmar Verheij

Review of Denamik Analyzer

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Denamik introduces the Denamik Analyzer, an add-on to the Denamik LoadGen product. With Denamik LoadGen one can perform load- and stress tests on hosted shared and hosted private infrastructures like Citrix XenApp and XenDestop.

While the LoadGen executes a test and gathers data about the performance metrics and response times, visualizing and analyzing the data required a third party solution and knowledge about the performance indicators. The Denamik Analyzer now enables you to analyze the captured data, create and save charts and start creating a report in minutes.

I’ve had the opportunity to play with an early release of the Denamik Analyzer in my lab and get some hands-on experience.

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Ingmar Verheij

Unable to install/activate LoadBot (Denamik LoadGen)

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Author : Ingmar Verheij

Denamik LoadGen can perform load- and stresstest on SBC and VDI environments by to simulate users. To distribute the load systems called ‘LoadBots’ are used to generate the load, resulting in an architecture with horizontal scaling capabilities.

Before a system is called a LoadBot an agent needs to be installed. The installation of the LoadBot is done from the central management console, the Director. The installation is pushed to the remote system and results in a small service running in the background.  The LoadBot can be (de)activated on demand from the central management console.

In this article I’ll explain the steps involved when installing (or activating) the LoadBot software on a remote machine. There are some common issues (like name resolution, firewall configuration, etc.) that I’ll explain as well.

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Daniel Nikolic

Our partner Denamik has released Denamik LoadGen 2.3

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Our partner Denamik has released a new version of Denamik LoadGen. The execution of massive load and stress tests is now easier than before. You can now record your own user action scripts from within LoadGen, and setup LoadBots to handle the execution of these scripts. LoadGen allows you to manage LoadBots to create remote sessions and evaluate your IT environment under stress. A built-in reporting facility will give you instant results.

What is new in LoadGen 2.3:

  • Rewrite of installation and activation of LoadBots
  • Rewrite of internal functions of the DUAF language to speed up interaction with XenApp desktops
  • Introducing the possibilities to add your own libraries to DUAF scripts

Feel free to check out Denamik LoadGen 2.3, it’s free up to 15 virtual users.

Daniel Nikolic

BatStat – The SBC / VDI laptop accu status tool

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While running a Citrix / XenApp or Terminal Server Published Desktop on a Windows laptop, the user is unable to check the laptop’s battery status. This may lead to a serious inconvenience when the battery runs out: the laptop will shut down and the user’s session will be terminated / disconnected. We have encountered this inconvenience on some of our projects, and developed a way to solve it. Our solution involves two elements: RES and BatStat.

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Ingmar Verheij

Exchange 2003 Management Pack Storage Add-On

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During an implementation of System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) a customer asked me how he can retrieve information about Exchange mailbox stores for trend analysis. Unfortunately the managemeng pack supplied by Microsoft does not collect the size of Mailbox Stores in the datawarehouse.

So I’ve created an add-on for the Microsoft Exchange 2003 Management Pack which adds a rule for collecting the size of Mailbox Stores.

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Daniel Nikolic

DeNamiK LoadGen 2.1 is released!

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DeNamiK is proud to present the DeNamiK LoadGen 2.1. With the DeNamiK LoadGen it’s possible to perform the following actions:

  • Load test
  • Stress test
  • Performance test
  • Constant monitoring
  • Benchmark
  • Reporting

With the DeNamiK LoadGen 2.1 there are lots of new features and improvements. Let’s name just a few:

  • ICA File support
  • Performance Counter module 2.0
  • Internal processes are optimized

The DeNamiK User Action Framework for XenApp has been updated:

  • More DUAF functions which will help you create more reliable scripts
  • Status updates possible from the LoadBots to the Director and to the reports
  • XML reports available

Also one of the best changes: the LoadGen moved from .Net Framework 1.1 to:

  • DeNamiK LoadGen Director: .Net Framework 3.5
  • DeNamiK LoadBots: .Net Framework 2.0

Read the whole article on the website of DeNamiK!

Daniel Nikolic

Ingmar Verheij

Your machine(s) everywhere

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Citrix Synergy starts tomorrow in San Francisco. From wednesday 12 may till friday 14 may all updates, new features and other news is presented to the public. One thing that’s excites me most is the upcoming XenClient, a baremetal hypervisor.

Combined with a VDI solution like XenDesktop the XenClients enables the customer to take the VM outside the datacenter en get it onto his desktop / laptop using his local resources. Altough this sounds a bit like we were used to work, and in fact it is, there is a big difference.
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Ingmar Verheij

Printer drivers in a multiuser environment.

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If you’re familiar with the challenges of printer drivers in a multiuser environemnt you can skip the first part of this post.

The challenge of printer drivers in a multiuser environment
The first terminal server implementation i’ve done was a Windows NT 4 Terminal Server. This is where i’ve learned (the hard way) that printer drivers and a multiuser enviroment is a snake pit. Finding the right driver for the printer is a difficult job which was done by trial-and-error.
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Daniel Nikolic

Windows 2003 Cluster – Heartbeat instellingen

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Het is mogelijk om een cluster uit te rollen met een crossover kabel. Het enige vervelende is dat je een melding krijgt wanneer je één van de nodes herstart, dit omdat hij de "Heartbeat" kwijtraakt met de andere node.

Door middel van het volgende Q artikel kun je ervoor zorgen dat de melding verdwijnt. Waar dit artikel op neer komt is dat er een aanpassing gedaan dient te worden op de autoduplex mode van de heartbeat netwerkkaart op beide nodes.

Daniel
http://www.pepperbyte.com

Daniel Nikolic

SQL 2005 – Reporting Services – VMWare ESX

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Zo; net thuisgekomen van een avond load testen bij een klant van ons. Wij hebben een implementatie gedaan van SQL 2005 en Reporting Services voor een Management Informatie Systeem. Wij hebben SQL 2005 geïnstalleerd op een virtuele machine binnen VMWare ESX. Doordat SQL 2005 beter kan in zijn jasje zit als 64-bit versie hebben we zowel Windows 2003 als SQL 2005 als 64-bit geïnstalleerd. De machine heeft 2 procs. en 6GB intern geheugen. Vrij ok zou je zeggen….

De laatste paar dagen ben ik bezig geweest met een tool die zeer snel internet acties opneemt. Deze recorder gaat straks deel uitmaken van DUAF. Ik heb dus een flink aantal scripts gemaakt die de gebruikers activiteiten op dit Management Informatie Systeem simuleert. De scripts werkten goed, dus om terug te komen bij de loadtest…. die ging vrij slecht, met 50 gebruikers ging de machine goed onderuit, pagina’s laden via de Reporting Services van SQL duurde zo’n drie tot vier minuten! Dit zijn dus gewoon asp.net webpagina’s.

Na het toevoegen van twee extra procs. en 2GB geheugen ging het een stuk(-je) beter, maar niet denderend veel beter. Ik moet de meetresultaten nog analyseren en dan kom ik hier op terug. Voor nu;

Later….