When designing a desktop virtualization solution, it is important to understand user workloads and profiles as well as the density numbers that the solution can support. In our testing we used three Login VSI workload/profile levels, each of which was bound by specific metrics and capabilities, with two targeted at graphics-intensive use cases. The following explains how we defined the terms “profile” and “workload” in our testing:
- Profile—The configuration of the virtual desktop such as the number of vCPUs and the amount of RAM configured on the desktop that is available to the user.
- Workload—The set of applications used in the PAAC testing of Dell EMC VDI solutions (for example, Microsoft Office applications, PDF Reader, Internet Explorer and so on).
- Developer Workload—For the purposes of this testing a standard Knowledge Worker workload was customized to run activities representative of a software developer working in the FSI. Two separate workloads were developed, one using Microsoft Visual Studio IDE with C++ code and the other using the Eclipse IDE with Java. These custom workloads performed the following tasks: Visual Studio with C++
- Launching and closing the Visual Studio IDE during each segment.
- Opening multiple files and the C++ solution.
- Scrolling, zooming, cut and paste, saving, and write activities.
- Compile and debug activity of a C++ program per segment.
Eclipse with Java
- Launching and closing the Eclipse IDE during each segment.
- Opening multiple java projects and files.
- Scrolling, zooming, cut and paste, saving, and write activities.
- Three compile activities of a stand-alone Java program and a debug activity per segment.
As both development environments launch first run startup wizards for each user, the development environments were initially launched as part of the prepare segment of the workload to avoid the wizards being run during the standard segments of the workload.
Load-testing on each profile was carried out using an appropriate workload that was representative of the relevant use case. The load-testing is summarized in the following table:
Workload name | Application set |
Task Worker (RDSH Apps) | 2-7 apps |
Knowledge Worker | 5-9 apps and 360p video |
Custom Knowledge Worker | 5-9 apps and 360p video, Visual Studio IDE with C++ code |
Custom Knowledge Worker | 5-9 apps and 360p video, Eclipse IDE with Java code |