WHITE PAPER. Using Autodesk software in a Citrix environment as a remote user

Transcription

1 August 2012 WHE PAPER. Using Autodesk software in a Citrix environment as a remote user Citrix Systems and Autodesk have partnered to provide customers with greater efficiency and flexibility in their use of Autodesk s applications running on Citrix XenApp. But what is Citrix XenApp and how does this enhance security, simplify desktop management, improve performance for remote users, and generally create a more scalable and adaptable infrastructure to run Autodesk applications on?

2 Using in a Citrix 1 Introduction Citrix Systems is a market leading cloud, networking and virtualisation vendor offering technologies that are transforming how people, businesses and work and collaborate in the cloud era. Autodesk now support the running of many of their software applications on Citrix XenApp. XenApp is an Application Virtualisation solution whereby desktop application software is run on powerful servers which users can access from a Windows PC, Mac, tablet or handheld device. The connection between user and server may be a LAN, WAN, VPN or internet connection. Because large CAD models do not get transferred to the user, Citrix XenApp particularly benefits remote users working over slow WAN and VPN connections. The benefits of Citrix will depend on the organisation, users and type of use but centralisation of resources in this way can lead to improved performance, greater reliability and greater flexibility. So access might be more easily provided to the software for a wider range of users, as it does not need to be installed on their own PCs. Each individual user s PC may not need to be so powerful in processing capacity so overall costs may be reduced. Upgrades to software can be more easily managed centrally. It is for these reasons that some organisations have already adopted Citrix XenApp for some applications and user environments, particularly where they have dedicated departments. Citrix XenApp and Computer Aided Design Computer Aided Design applications typically require more powerful computer systems to operate effectively. They need fast processors to handle the complex calculations taking place, high performance graphics to reproduce high resolution images and update them as the user interacts with the system, fast networking to transfer those files over, and fast data storage to cope with large design files. While traditionally provided in the form of highly specified workstations, all of these requirements can also be met in a server environment. But the key question is whether the user experience will be good enough; whether interacting with a remote server will result in the screen updating fast enough. It requires careful consideration as to what the economies are in systems and management. In order to experience first-hand the use of Autodesk products within a Citrix environment using realistic data sets, Excitech visited IMSCAD; their specialist Citrix partner to investigate further. The Test Environment IMSCAD had a Citrix test environment in place which was being used for testing of Building Design Suite Ultimate and Product Design Suite Ultimate for Autodesk. The server was a HP Proliant DL580 with 2x 10-core, 2.6GHz Xeon processors, 32GB RAM, 1x Quadro 4000 card. The server was running Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop running on the XenServer hypervisor. Testing was performed in XenDesktop sessions, with XenApp delivering CAD applications. Although Excitech was in the same building as the server, the connection was relatively slow. The team used a Dell Precision Mobile Workstation connected to a wireless access point, which was connected to the server via the internet. The wireless network was an effective performance bottleneck and offered a maximum 10Mb/s network bandwidth to the server. Slow compared to modern LAN speeds, but better than a typical basic broadband connection. For the purpose of this testing, no WAN optimization tools were deployed between the Citrix server and test users. Such tools could help to improve performance further in low bandwidth or high latency scenarios.

3 Using in a Citrix 2 Performance The first task was to time certain I/O and processor intensive operations in Revit and compare them to the same operations locally on the notebook using another copy of the same data set. There was no discernible difference in speed when opening a Revit model, saving a Revit model, or creating a new Revit view. Therefore, running Revit Architecture on Citrix XenApp was no slower on these processor and I/O intensive tasks. The majority of the testing was designed to gain an appreciation of what the user experience was when running Autodesk Revit Architecture and 3ds Max on Citrix XenApp during tasks such as orbiting, panning, zooming and adjusting 3D section boxes. It is not realistic to time these operations but a major loss of responsiveness in this area will be very obvious to users and may lead to major dissatisfaction with Autodesk software on Citrix XenApp and even the ultimate failure of a Citrix implementation. During the test it was identified that Revit on Citrix XenApp performance in these tasks had a slight, but perceivable lag. This delay was noticeable, but not considered as a problem. Overall, the experience was reasonably responsive and most importantly; completely useable. The operations were compared repeatedly, alternating between running Revit Architecture locally and on Citrix XenApp to ensure the conclusions were accurate. Of course no two users are the same and what one will happily accept the next might find intolerable, but Excitech s view was that in this test environment the software was useable and users would have no cause to complain about performance or responsiveness. The use of demanding applications such as AutoCAD, Revit Architecture and 3ds Max running on traditional PCs over a WAN carries its own performance penalties with very slow Open, Save and Sync times. Compared to locally installed applications accessing remote data sets, Citrix XenApp users will experience LAN-like speeds when Opening, Saving and Syncing, at the cost of a slight but perceivable lag. For many remote users this will be a trade-off well worth accepting. All performance testing undertaken was for remote/mobile access over the WAN and therefore not reflective of performance when installed on a LAN. In discussions with IMSCAD it was concluded that organisations deploying Autodesk Applications on Citrix over the LAN could expect a 30-60% improvement in this level of performance. Further Remote testing Later in the testing we returned to Excitech s head office where some of these tests were repeated to see how working remotely affected performance. Performance was in fact better than that in IMSCAD s office due to Excitech s 100Mb leased line internet connection, thus removing the bottleneck of IMSCAD s wireless network. There was still a slight, but perceivable lag, but the performance was even more acceptable, even closer to workstation performance and even less likely to give offence. AutoCAD 2D drafting was also tested and the results were completely acceptable. Compatibility To a large extent, there were no compatibility issues running Autodesk Revit Architecture on Citrix XenApp. What was seen on the screen was exactly the same. There was one minor exception, a glitch with transparent objects (windows and an adjacent building) appearing through solid objects. When highlighted to IMSCAD they have confirmed that this was a simple driver issue which has subsequently been resolved.

4 Using in a Citrix 3 It is important to note that not all Autodesk products are compatible with Citrix XenApp yet. Please see Appendix 1 for compatible products. Server Load and Sizing Broad guidelines are available for the servers providing CAD application support in Citrix XenApp. Much can be made of the concept that by providing a server suitable of supporting an example group of eight users, it could support more or fewer depending on what activities they were undertaking and whether they were concurrently active. If half the time they are not interacting with the Autodesk application then there is more capacity for others. But, of course if they all do something complex simultaneously then they may see performance decrease significantly. Conclusions beyond the fact that one or two users on this server provided acceptable performance cannot be made. However, further work on this continues. Conclusion Subject to sizing it has been proven that running AutoCAD, Revit Architecture and 3ds Max on Citrix XenApp is a viable proposition. The solution is particularly suitable for remote and roaming users who would otherwise suffer when working over a slow WAN connection. What performance they lose in terms of a slight loss of responsiveness they will more than make up for in terms of faster Load, Save and Sync times. More work needs to be done on sizing, because there can be no one size fits all sizing recommendations (as Excitech currently offers for workstations), sizing needs to be done on an individual basis.

5 Using in a Citrix 4 Appendix 1: List of compatible Autodesk products available on Citrix Xenapp Compatible Products AutoCAD 2012 AutoCAD Architecture 2012 AutoCAD MEP 2012 AutoCAD Mechanical 2012 AutoCAD Raster Design 2012 AutoCAD MAP3D 2009 AutoCAD Plant 3D 2012 AutoCAD P&ID 2012 AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite 2012 AutoCAD Electrical 2013 AutoCAD Ecscad 2013 AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Revit Architecture 2012 Revit Structure 2012 Revit MEP 2012 Autodesk Design Review 2012 Autodesk Inventor Products 2013 Excitech Design Technology Centre, 8 Kinetic Crescent, Innova Business Park, Enfield, Middlesex, EN3 7XH United Kingdom P: I: +44 (0) F: W: E: [email protected]