We performed this test with the Login VSI Knowledge Worker workload on a 16-node compute cluster (see Table 4). We created the desktop VMs using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops MCS linked clone technology provisioned on PowerStore storage volumes with connectivity through NVMe/TCP. The VDI desktops used the Citrix Thinwire+ display protocol. We populated each of the 16 R750 compute hosts with 225 desktop VMs for a total of 3,600.
Login phase
The following figure shows the performance of the Dell PowerStore storage appliance during the login phase of Login VSI:
Steady-state phase
Once all the simulated users were logged in and performing their daily tasks, the load was still over 55K IOPS at 0.35 ms of system latency. The following figure shows the steady-state workload:
User experience
The baseline score for the Login VSI test was 604. This score falls in the zero to 799 range rated as "Very Good" by Login VSI. For more information about Login VSI baseline ratings and baseline calculations, see VSImax baseline scores.
The blue line in the following figure shows that the system reached a VSImax average score of 802 when 3,599 sessions were loaded. This value is well below the VSI threshold score of 1,604 set by the Login VSI tool.
VSImax was never reached during the testing, which typically indicates a stable system and a better user experience. The VSI Maximum response times increased considerably during the end of the test, indicating that there was a constraint on the computing resources. Login VSI metrics indicated that the constraint was not within the storage platform.
The Login VSImax user experience score for this test was not reached. When manually interacting with the sessions during the steady-state phase, the mouse and window movement were responsive, and video playback was good. No "stuck sessions" were reported during the testing, indicating that the system was not overloaded at any point. For more information about Login VSI metrics, see Appendix A.