Troubleshooting Performance issues in Windows Virtual Desktop (CDRN)


Introduction:

In this article we will look at identifying and resolving the most common performance issues that can occur in Windows Virtual Desktop Environments. Following the provided steps in this article, you will be able to identify issues relating to capacity, constraint and overall performance lag.

There are four (4) Key areas when troubleshooting performance in WVD. These are:

CPU
DISK
RAM
Network

I have listed these four core components in a particular way to spell the out a WVD troubleshooting acronym I have created called “ CDRN” .

CPU Troubleshooting:

CPU related constrains are quite common with session based desktops. This can be for a number of reasons and web browsers can be one of the culprits if hardware rendering is left enabled.

You can view CPU usage using the Sysinternals Process Explorer or the Task Manager.

If the CPU is flat lining or spiking above 70% continually, it is more than likely that the CPU is constrained.

Sysinternals process Explorer helps you delve into the detail to understand what applications / Services are consuming large amounts of CPU resource. This allows you to kill said service or identify if there are too many users on one Host.

CPU Graph – Sysinternals Process Explorer – Sysinternals Process monitoring – CPU CPU Troubleshooting key points:

Low RAM can cause the CPU to spike and increase disk activity (paging RAM).
Hardware rendering not disabled in the web browser and users are streaming the latest and greatest TV shows can hamper CPU performance.
Enabling the CPU time column allows you to see which process has been consuming resource over what time.

Enabling the CPU time column

CPU Contention Symptoms:

This a non exhaustive list of potential symptoms you may experience when CPU is under contention.

Slow switching between windows
loading cursor for long periods of time.
Slow logon and Log Off
Applications not responding
Web pages jumpy and loading slowly.

Disk Troubleshooting

There are two areas when it comes to disk related performance issues.

The first is the OS disk of the virtual machine. It is quite common for IT admins to forget about the OS disk and concentrate on compute sizing. When sizing incorrectly, you will experience issues with overall useability. The smaller disk sizes have lower throughput and IOPs availble which is not great for multi session deployments.

You need to size the OS disk in accordance with the total number of users per host.

Most deployments should using P15 or higher to ensure there is enough IOPS to serve all the user applications.

Choosing the wrong sized virtual machine could result in limiting the potential throughput allowed by the...

Top