• Log into the TestDrive Portal 
• Launch Horizon Native Client or Web Access link
• Enter TestDrive Account credentials into Horizon login screen
• Launch the MP4H Demo via the Chrome published app
• Enter TestDrive Account credentials into Aria Operations login screen
• Horizon Operations
• Horizon User Troubleshooting

In order to access the end to end demo, please ensure you have the following:

• A valid account in the VMware TestDrive environment, sign up here if you don't yet have an account
• Network access from your device and TCP ports 80, 443, 4172, 8443 and UDP ports 443, 4172, 8443 enabled
• Latest Horizon Client installed, available via direct download here

Open a new Chrome browser window and navigate to the TestDrive Portal at https://portal.vmtestdrive.com/login

Login with your TestDrive credentials.

Once you've logged in, select Digital Workspace under My Products. Then scroll down to the VMware Aria Operations product tile, expand the tile to see your TestDrive Credentials, then click the Launch button on the right.

Under the Native Client section or Web Access sections, click on America Region - Standard and vGPU Demo.

If you have the Horizon Client installed, clicking this link will automatically populate your Horizon Client with the URL to the America Region.

NOTE: If you wish to use the Native Client, make sure you already have it installed on your local client machine.  If you do not have it, you can use the Download link or proceed with using Web Access instead.

At the login screen, enter your TestDrive credentials (visible to you when you expand the Aria Operations product tile in the TestDrive Portal) and ensure that the domain is correctly selected as VMWDP. Once you have entered your username and password, click Login.

After the Aria Operations login screen is launched, use the top drown to choose VMDP, enter your TestDrive username and password, then hit LOG IN.

After you are logged in you should be on the Home Page -> Launchpad.  From the Launchpad, click the Horizon tile located under the Infrastructure section.

From the Horizon launchpad, click the Horizon Overview tile to begin the Horizon Operations demo.  **Note that other tiles can be chosen based on the primary topic or focus of the demo.

After the Horizon World Operations Overview dashboard loads, you have the option to collapse the side columns to provide better visibility of the Dashboard content.

Dashboard Organization:  this dashboard is organized by how users enter the Horizon Service, UAG’s at the top, then Connections Servers, Pools, Farm, and Compliance at the bottom.

Dashboard Purpose: to provide operational insight into how the Horizon Service is Performing, as well as are there any Operation actions that need to be made to maintain availability of the service.

Starting from the Scoreboard at the top of the dashboard, we can see the overall Performance of every desktop and RDS session currently active in the environment (Datacenter KPI), as well as the overall Protocol performance for all connected sessions (Network KPI).  There is also a chart for each metric that trends the performance over time.  Double-clicking any scoreboard metric will provide a chart that allows you to change the time frame for the historical data.

Next, let’s investigate the performance and health of the Unified Access Gateways.  Starting with the UAG Overall Performance widget, we can see the performance score of all UAG’s across the Horizon deployment.  Clicking a distribution ring will display the UAG’s whose performance score meet the distributions bucket range.

Clicking the double arrows in the upper right corner will make the widget larger to more easily view all the available data.

With the widget now larger we can see additional metrics as to what is driving the current lower Performance score.  For UAG’s the Performance score is derived from two other metrics the Net KPI% score, which is the average protocol score for all Users connected to this specific UAG, and the DC KPI% score, which is the performance of the UAG appliance itself.

If we scroll to the right, we can see that the primary reason for the User’s low Net KPI% score, is due to the high Average Session latency of 271ms, and that no Packet Loss (Avg Packet Loss = 0%) has been detected.

Clicking the two double arrows in the upper right corner of the widget will minimize the widget and return to the main dashboard.

Next, let’s look at the health and availability of the Horizon Services running on the UAG.  To do so, use the UAG HTTP Health Check widget to see if any of the UAG’s have a 500-error status, which means the services are not functioning properly.  If all UAG’s are reporting a 200 status, this means that the UAG’s services are healthy and running.

The remaining widgets show different types of availability information.  For example, the UAG Current Session Disparity widget show us how well load-balancing is working in the environment.  The Higher the Disparity, the more imbalance there is in the Connected Sessions between the UAGs.

In this case, Disparity is showing to be between 85%-100%.  Clicking on the distribution bar will show additional data as to why the Disparity is so high.

The UAG Connection Trends Widget allows customers to see the Session counts on the UAG’s over time, which helps to visualize how well load-balancing is working over time.

The UAG Net Performance to Router widget shows if there are any internal network performance issues that could be impacting the User sessions.

The UAG Detailed Breakdown, allows for quick visibility of critical KPI across all UAG in the Horizon deployment.  Click the name of the UAG to take you directly this specific UAG’s Summary Page to perform additional analysis.

The UAG Summary Page will provide in-depth analysis of critical performance metrics for the UAG appliance, the Connected Sessions to the UAG, and the UAG’s Horizon services.

Starting in the top Summary box, we see information related to how many Connected Sessions are currently active, the overall performance of the UAG, and a breakdown of the score into both Network and DC Performance.  Currently there are no performance issues as all of the performance KPIs are showing green.  If there was a performance issue, the offending metrics will change color to indicate the level of impact (yellow, orange, red).

The left side of the Summary page is reserved for configuration related information, such as the UAG appliance details and the current Configuration of the services on the UAG.

The right side of the Summary page is reserved for performance related information.  This is the common pattern used for Summary pages of all Horizon objects, including Horizon Users, Connection Servers, VDI Pools, RDS Farms, etc.

Scrolling down the Summary Page, to the left we can also see additional details at to which Connections Servers are related to the UAG and if they are having any performance or service related issues.  At the bottom right, we can see the list of connected Horizon Users and if there are any performance issues with their sessions.

Once the overview of the UAG is completed, hit the browser back arrow to return to the Horizon World Operations Overview dashboard to continue the demo.

The remaining demo continues with the same flow.  Scroll down the dashboard to review the Connection Server performance and health details next.

Similar to the UAG’s, we also provide Performance and Service health information for the Connection Servers.  However, since Connection Servers do not typically have User sessions tunneled through them, the Connection Server Performance score is just the overall performance of the Connection Server VM itself.

From here, customers can see the overall performance for every Connection Server, the current status of the HTTP Health Checks, how well load-balancing is working, are there any LDAP replication issues on any Connection Server, are there any internal network performance issues, and a detailed breakdown of critical KPIs across all Connection Servers in a glance.

Continue to scroll down the Dashboard to review the VDI Pool Performance and Availability widgets.

Starting from the top left we can quickly review and discover if any VDI Pools are no longer provisioning, which VDI Pools are running out of Available desktops, which Pools have high desktop Error rates, and which Pools have the highest Logon times.

Similar to UAG and Connection Servers, we provide a VDI Pool Detailed Breakdown list that covers most of the critical KPIs across all VDI Pools in a quick glance.  Clicking the Name of the pool will take you to the VDI Pool Summary Page.  However, selecting a row will allow you trend Pool performance issues over time and see if the related vSphere Cluster has any performance issues as well.

The last row shows the Top-N charts that displays which are the most expensive VDI Pools to operate, which Pool has the highest session count, and which Pools are using the most compute in terms CPU and Memory usage.

Continue to scroll down the Dashboard to review the RDS Farm Performance and Availability widgets.

Starting with the Top Left widget, we can determine if there are any hosts in any RDS Farm having performance issues, if there are Farms running out of compute capacity to host additional sessions (should I add a host?), if there are any Farms where sessions are not being properly balanced across the host, and if there are any Farms with hosts in an error state.

From the RDS Farm Detailed Breakdown widget, we can quickly see critical KPIs across all farms and determine if any additional actions need to be taken on the Farm.  Clicking the Farm name will take you to the Farm Summary Page for additional analysis.

Selecting the row of Farm with allow you trend Farm Performance problems over time, as well see if the hosting cluster has any performance issues.

Next, are the Top-N charts that show the most expensive Farms to operate, which Farms have the highest session counts, and which Farms require the most CPU and Memory per session.

Scrolling to the end of the dashboard we can see the overall compliance of the Horizon deployment configuration.

Starting with the top left widget, we can see how many sessions are using BLAST vs PCoIP, a breakdown of the Horizon Client types connected to sessions, if there are any old Horizon Clients connecting to the environment, and if there are any non-conforming Horizon agents in use.

The last row displays any Connection Servers that do not have matching builds, Connection Servers with invalid certificates, Horizon Pod True SSO Connector Errors, and Pod SAML Authenticator Errors.

For the User Troubleshooting demo flow, no dashboard is required.

To begin, simply enter the users AD username in the format vmwdp.com\username in the global search bar and hit enter.  You will see a matching list that includes a User object as well as individual session objects for the specific pools and farms the user is connected to.

Click the User object to continue.

The Summary Page for the selected User will display a detailed analysis of the Performance KPIs for the User’s current and previous Horizon sessions.

In the top Summary widget, the scores reflect the live session performance for the User.  If the User is not connected the boxes will appear grey, but the historical data is still available under the Metrics tab.  This allows for reviewing performance issues of Users previous Horizon sessions, not just active ones.

The User Performance score is a combined calculation of both the DC KPI (Desktop Performance) and Net KPI (Protocol Performance) scores.  This helps to identify if there is a performance problem.  The DC KPI and Net KPI scores then identify where the problem is coming from, is it the desktop, the network, or both?

The Sessions widget displays the current sessions the User has available for troubleshooting.

The Property List displays details about the User’s client and desktop VM they are connected to.

Performance KPI widgets are also available that show the critical KPIs across all sessions.

Selecting the row of a session will update the KPIs to drill down to the specific session performance.  Clicking the name will take you to the Session Summary Page to troubleshoot an individual session.

Click the name of Horizon session you want to start troubleshooting.

Starting with Summary widget, identify if there any connective or logon time issues with the User’s session.

Next, look at the Performance widget and determine if there is a Desktop Performance or Protocol connectivity issue.  If a protocol KPI issue, the widget will change color (Yellow, Orange, Red) to highlight the criticality of the problem.  The Summary widget will identify if the issue is due Latency, Packet Loss, or both.

In this example, we can see the DC KPI score is not 100, but not low enough to trigger a color change (yellow threshold is <90).  Within the available performance metrics, we can see that Peak vCPU Usage and CPU Run Queue are contributing factors to the lower desktop performance score.

To see which process(es) are driving the high CPU, we need to run the Get Top Processes Action.

Use your AD credentials to authenticate the request and click Begin Action.

While this step is not required it helpful to determine when the action has fully completed.  Click the task ID to watch for the task to be completed.

On the Recent Tasks dashboard, click the refresh icon in the upper right corner to see when the task has completed.

Once completed, click the browser back arrow to return to the User’s Session Summary page.

Scroll to the VM Scripted Action Results widget, from the Results drop down select the Get Top Processes Completed result.

The results of the action should be displayed.

If you maximize the widget it will make it easier to read the full list.

In this case we can see that Google Chrome is using the most CPU time.  If desired, you can run the kill process action using the ID provided in this result.

Additionally, you can run the Login Time Analysis action to see the full detailed breakdown of login event timing.

For the Currently Logged in user field, make sure to use the ID of the user logged into the desktop in the format vmwdp\username.  In the Username (admin) field, provide your Testdrive credentials in the same vmwdp\yourusername and password.

Follow the previous procedure on tracking the completion of the action. This usually takes around 45 seconds if you provided the correct credentials.

Minimize the VM Scripted Action Results widget to return to the User Session summary page.

In addition to current performance issues, we can also show if the User desktops is Oversized, Undersized, or Right-sized.

The Oversized Widget is useful for determining which Users have unnecessary compute resources assigned to them, and Admins can make decisions on whether to move the User to a smaller desktop in the future.

The Undersized Widget is useful for showing which Users need more resources than they currently have available to them.  Admins can then make decisions on what corrective actions if any they want to take.

From here you can also explore what critical KPIs are being displayed on the User’s related VDI Pool.

From the Object Browser, expand and click the Horizon VDI Pool that is related to the User’s current session.

This will bring you to the VDI Pool’s Summary Page, where you can explore the Performance metrics and analysis of all the Horizon Sessions in the Pool.

Starting with the Summary widget, here we can see how many users are connected to the pool, the remaining available desktops, how many desktops are in an error state, how many users have high CPU%, high CPU Ready times, high disk latency, low memory, and high protocol latency and packet loss.

The Configuration of the pool is reserved to the left side of the Summary Page, this is useful for determining if there are desktops with mismatched images and other configuration issues that need addressing.

The scoreboard widgets on the right are used for more in-depth analysis of Capacity requirements over time, as well as detailed performance analysis of the each KPI impacting all Users in the VDI Pool.

Scroll down the Summary Page to reveal additional widgets for Pool Cost Analysis, Oversized and Undersized User session counts, a list of the current Horizon Sessions and their performance scores and analysis, as well the related Cluster Performance KPIs.

Expand the Sessions widget to more easily see critical KPIs across all User sessions in the pool.

Scroll to the right to reveal additional data points to review.

This concludes the Horizon User troubleshooting demo.