dCloud : The Cisco Demo Cloud

dCloud: The Cisco Demo Cloud

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 1 of 17

Virtual Experience Infrastructure with Citrix XenDesktop v3 Last Updated: 29-NOV-2012

About This Cisco Solution

Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) is a Smart Solution that delivers the new virtual workspace by unifying

virtual desktops, voice, and video. Cisco VXI, combined with industry-leading Citrix XenDesktop software, accelerates desktop

virtualization adoption and provides the foundation for the next-generation virtual workspace.

For more information, visit www.cisco.com/go/vxi.

About This Demonstration

This preconfigured Cisco Virtual Experience Infrastructure demonstration includes:

● Scripted scenarios demonstrating the powerful capabilities of the Cisco Virtual Experience Infrastructure using a hosted

virtual desktop (HVD) with the latest technologies

● Real-time voice and video quality before and after the Cisco VXI solution using the Cisco Virtual Experience Clients (VXC)

6215 and 2112

● User and administrative-level access to the demonstration environment for customization of the demo flow and emulation of

customer environments

Demonstration Requirements

The table below outlines the requirements for this preconfigured demonstration.

Table 1. Demonstration Requirements

Required Optional

● Router, supported, registered and configured for dCloud

● Laptop

● Cisco VXC 6215 with a supported USB camera

● Cisco VXC 2112

● Cisco Unified IP Phone 9971 with a camera and power cable

● One monitor, keyboard, and mouse with a KVM switch or two of each, if

no KVM switch is available

● None for this release

Demonstration Configuration

This demonstration contains preconfigured users and components to illustrate the scripted scenarios and features of the Cisco

Virtual Experience Infrastructure Smart Solution.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 2 of 17

Table 2. Preconfigured User Information

User Name User ID Password Endpoint Devices / Type Phone Extension

Adam McKenzie amckenzie C1sco12345 9971 with camera, VXC 2112 +1 408 555 6016 6016

Anita Perez aperez C1sco12345 VXC 6215 with camera +1 408 555 6017 6017

George Orwell gorwell C1sco12345 VXC 2112, VXC 6215 with camera +1 408 555 2006 2006

Charles Holland (Optional) cholland C1sco12345 6941 +1 408 555 6018 6018

Jim Li (Optional) Jli C1sco12345 8861, VXC 6215 +1 408 555 6019 6019

Table 3. Demonstration Server Information

Application URL

Use provided IP address if you are unable to connect with the DNS name

Username Password

dCloud User Interface (UI) Home Page

Demonstration access and information

http://dcloud.cisco.com/ Cisco.com username Cisco.com password

Cisco Unified CM Administration http://cucm1.dcloud.cisco.com/ccmadmin

(IP address: 198.18.133.3)

administrator C1sco12345

Cisco Unified Presence http://cup1.dcloud.cisco.com

(IP address: 198.18.133.4)

administrator C1sco12345

Citrix XenDesktop Desktops http://xd1.dcoud.cisco.com

(IP address: 198.18.133.8)

Any Preconfigured User C1sco12345

Demonstration Preparation

Follow the steps below to schedule a demonstration and to configure and connect your devices. Use the Show Me How links for

more information on the preparation activity.

1. Browse to dcloud.cisco.com/ to access the dCloud UI and log in with your Cisco.com credentials.

2. Register your endpoint router, if not previously registered. [Show Me How]

3. Schedule and start a demonstration immediately [Show Me How] or for a future date or time [Show Me How].

4. Perform a connection test from the demonstration location before performing any demonstration scenario. [Show Me How]

5. Verify your demonstration has a status of Active under My Demonstrations on the My Dashboard page in the dCloud UI.

6. You must wait at least 10 minutes after the demonstration becomes active to allow for additional background

configuration changes to complete.

7. Connect your router and laptop. [Show Me How]

8. Provision the phone you will use for the demonstration with the MAC Address for the appropriate user and phone type. Use

the Phone Provisioning Tool [Show Me How] or directly access Cisco Unified CM Administration [Show Me How]. After the

provisioning completes, connect the IP phone to your router.

For the scripted scenarios, Adam McKenzie will be using a Cisco 9971 IP Phone.

9. Connect VXC 6215 client to your router, if applicable to the scenario you are demonstrating. [Show Me How]

VXC 6215 Upgrade. If needed, your VXC 6215 will automatically upgrade when you turn on the device. The upgrade

process may take up to 30 minutes to complete, and your device will reboot several times during this process.

10. Connect VXC 2112 client to your Cisco IP Phone, if applicable to the scenario you are demonstrating. [Show Me How]

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 3 of 17

Scenario 1: Before VXI – Real-time voice and video quality

This scenario demonstrates voice and video quality, prior to implementing the Cisco VXI Smart Solution, using a preconfigured

user with the VXC 2112 or 6215. This user will not use any VXI techniques for local media termination, so the voice and video

traffic will be hairpinned inside the display protocol through the virtual desktop in the data center.

Figure 1. Voice and Video Traffic Hairpinned

There are multiple issues with this type of architecture, including:

Heavy CPU utilization in the data center

Heavy bandwidth utilization in the data center

Increased latency and jitter

No QoS

No CAC

No survivability for voice services in the branch

Emergency calling is lost

Demonstration Steps

This scenario uses either the Cisco VXC 6215 or the Cisco VXC 2112 to illustrate real-time voice and video quality, prior to

the Cisco VXI Smart Solution being implemented.

If you are using a VXC 6215, you must first distribute a package to redirect the USB before you can demonstrate the

performance.

If you are using VXC 2112, the USB redirect is not required and you can skip steps 1 – 14.

1. From My Dashboard page under My Demonstrations, click View Demo.

2. From the Topology menu, locate the vxcm server and choose Remote Desktop from the dropdown list.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 4 of 17

Alternate remote desktop method. You may also remote desktop to the vxcm server by expanding Servers. In the Server

Name column, locate the vxcm server and click Remote Desktop in the Remote Access column of that row.

3. On the login window, enter C1sco12345 as the password for dcloud\administrator.

4. On the desktop, double-click the Cisco VXC Manager 4.9.0 shortcut.t pane, expand CiscoVXCManager > Device Manager

> SUSE Linux.

5. In the right pane, locate your Cisco VXC device. Look for your specific device in the Platform column.

Figure 2. Cisco VXC Manager – Device Manager

6. Right-click on the device and select Package Distribution Wizard from the dropdown list.

7. On the first window, select Other Packages. Click Next.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 5 of 17

Figure 3. Package Distribution Wizard – 1st window

8. On the second window, select USB_redirect. Click Next.

Figure 4. Package Distribution Wizard – 2nd

window

9. On the third window, accept all defaults. Click Next.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 6 of 17

Figure 5. Package Distribution Wizard – 3rd window

10. On the fourth window, click Next to create each update in the database.

Figure 6. Package Distribution Wizard – 4th window

11. On the fifth and final window, click Finish to exit the wizard.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 7 of 17

Figure 7. Package Distribution Wizard – 5th window

12. At the bottom of the VXC Manager window, if you cannot clearly see the names of the tabs click the “plus” sign in the upper

right of the lower section of the window to expand the section.

Figure 8. Cisco VXC Manager – Expand View

13. At the bottom of the window, click the Deployed Packages tab and verify the USB_redirect package was deployed before

continuing.

Figure 9. Cisco VXC Manager – Deployed Packages

14. Minimize the vxcm (Remote Desktop) window.

15. Verify your USB camera is connected to an available port on your VXC device before continuing.

For the VXC 6215, if you connect your camera after you power on the device, it may freeze and you need to perform a hard

reset of the VXC 6215 by disconnecting the power supply.

For the VXC 2112, you must connect the device to the phone before you connecting your camera.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 8 of 17

16. On the login window, use the following credentials: Username: gorwell, Password: C1sco12345, Domain: dcloud.

17. The before-vxi-xen-win7-dg hosted virtual desktop (HVD) will load and you will be logged into the HVD for the “Before VXI”

scenario.

18. Click Start and type resource monitor. Click on Resource Monitor.

Figure 10. Search for Resource Monitor

19. On the HVD, double-click Cisco Unified Personal Communicator 8 icon . It may take a few minutes before the login

window to appear.

20. Login to Cisco Unified Personal Communicator using the following credentials: Username: gorwell, Password: C1sco12345,

Domain: dcloud.

21. After you are logged in, go to File. The Options menu item may be grayed out when you initially connect. Wait until the

Options menu is available before continuing.

22. Go to File > Options and select Video.

a. Under Video device, select your Camera.

b. Under When I’m in a call, select Show my video automatically.

c. Under Adjusting video, set the bandwidth range to 384 kb/s up, 768 kb/s down.

d. Unselect Optimize video quality for your computer.

e. Click OK.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 9 of 17

Figure 11. Cisco UPC – Video Options

23. From the contact list, right-click on Adam McKenzie and click Call with Video > Work.

Figure 12. Cisco UPC – Search field

24. In the HVD Resource Monitor, you will see that the CPU and Network usage are very high as the call is using the resources

from the HVD. The video quality is not very good and there is a delay in screen refreshes.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 10 of 17

Figure 13. Cisco VXC 6215 Before VXI – CPU performance

Figure 14. Cisco VXC 6215 Before VXI – Network performance

Increased CPU and Network utilization. If you increase the video quality within the video setting, you will see an increase

in CPU and Network utilization.

25. End the call.

26. If you have more than one VXC 6215 and will use a different VXC 6215 device for Scenario 2:

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 11 of 17

a. Click Start > Logoff.

b. You can now proceed to the remaining scenarios in this demonstration script.

27. If you only have one VXC 6215 and will use the same device for Scenario 1 and 2 you need to logoff the HVD and reboot the

VXC 6215:

a. Click Start > Log off.

b. Click Computer > Shutdown. Click Restart.

c. You can now proceed to the remaining scenarios in this demonstration script.

28. If you are using the VXC 2112:

a. Click Start > Log Off.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 12 of 17

Scenario 2: After VXI – Real-time voice and video quality with VXC 6215

The Cisco VXC 6215 is a Unified Communications enabled thin client which allows users to access their virtual desktop using ICA,

RDP, or PCoIP desktop protocols to make and receive voice and video calls using a headset when used in combination with Cisco

UPC running in the user’s HVD. This scenario demonstrates voice and video quality after VXI using the preconfigured user Anita

Perez (aperez). This user has been configured to use VXI techniques for local media termination, so the voice and video traffic will

no longer be hairpinned inside the display protocol through the virtual desktop in the data center.

Figure 15. After VXI – No Hairpinning of Voice and Video Traffic

There are many important points to note with this architecture, including:

Voice and video media is terminated locally on the VXC 6215 in the CSF based engine, not hairpinned inside the display

protocol and virtual desktop.

The VXC CSF Engine obtains its configuration (CUCM address and device name) from the Hosted Virtual Desktop using

the display protocol’s API – this means that the VXC will automatically register to CUCM with the correct extension of the

user who logged into the HVD.

QoS operates the same as a normal video-capable IP phone.

CAC is restored.

Emergency calling location is restored.

No CPU and bandwidth is used in the data center for voice and video.

In the current release, call preservation is provided – if the virtual desktop or WAN link becomes unavailable, the call will

continue; assuming the remote party is still reachable. In a future release SRST will be available so the calls can still be

made and received in the event that the HVD environment is unavailable.

Demonstration Steps

1. On the VXC 6215, login using the following credentials: Username: aperez, Password: C1sco12345, Domain: dcloud.

2. On the Desktops tab and click vxi-xen-win7-dg to open the “after VXI” Hosted Virtual Desktop (HVD).

3. Click Start and type resource monitor. Click on Resource Monitor.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 13 of 17

4. On the HVD, double-click Cisco Unified Personal Communicator 8 icon .

5. Login to Cisco Unified Personal Communicator with the following credentials to: Username: aperez; Password:

C1sco12345.

6. In the Search field, enter 6016 to display Adam McKenzie.

7. Right-click on Adam McKenzie and click Call > Work.

8. In the HVD Resource Monitor, you will see that the CPU and Network usage are much lower as the call is using the resources

from the physical VXC 6215 and not the HVD.

9. The example in the following figure shows CPU usage of 28% BEFORE VXI versus 1% AFTER VXI.

Figure 16. CPU Usage – Before and After VXI

10. The example in the following figure shows Network usage of 34 Mbps BEFORE VXI versus 20 Kbps AFTER VXI.

Figure 17. Network Usage – Before and After VXI

11. Disconnect the HVD session by clicking Start > Disconnect. You will see the video call is still active between the 9971 and

the VXC 6215.

12. End the call from the 9971.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 14 of 17

Scenario 3: After VXI – Real-time voice and video quality with VXC 2112

This scenario demonstrates voice and video quality after implementing VXI using the Cisco VXC 2112. The VXC 2112 is a zero-

client backpack which can be attached to the back Cisco Unified IP Phone (8961, 9951, and 9971 models). For this scenario, the

VXC 2112 is used with the 9971 IP Phone and the VXC 6215 is also utilized with preconfigured users. You can show the

customer the voice and video quality using multiple VXC units. The customer will also be able to see that the voice and video are

no longer hairpinned inside the display protocol through the virtual desktop in the data center.

Demonstration Steps

1. On the VXC 2112, when the login screen appears login with the following credentials: User name: amckenzie; Password:

C1sco12345; Doman: dcloud. Some information is already populated due to the INI file from the VXCM server.

2. If not already logged on to the VXC 6215 as Anita Perez, when the login screen appears login with the following credentials:

User name: aperez; Password: C1sco12345; Doman: dcloud. Some information is already populated due to the INI file from

the VXCM server.

3. When the HVD is fully loaded, click Start and type resource monitor. Click on Resource Monitor.

4. On the HVD, double-click Cisco Unified Personal Communicator 8 icon .

5. Use the following credentials to login to Cisco Unified Personal Communicator: Username: amckenzie; Password:

C1sco12345.

Make sure the CUPC login process has finished before continuing. To confirm the process has completed verify the File >

Options menu is not grayed out.

6. Check the Use my desk phone for audio at the bottom of the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator window for controlling

the Cisco IP Phone 9971.

Figure 18. Cisco VXC 2112 – Cisco UPC Deskphone Control Setting

7. Right-click on Anita Perez and click Call > Work.

8. The following figures are from a call between the VXC 2112 HVD (Adam McKenzie) and the VXC 6215 HVD (Anita Perez)

showing that the media goes from the 9971 IP Phone to the VXC 6215 and it is not hairpinned in the HVD.

The video window was actually open on the HVD in the following figures. However, the Windows print function did not

recognize the video window.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 15 of 17

Figure 19. Cisco VXC 2112 – CPU usage

Figure 20. Cisco VXC 2112 – Network usage

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 16 of 17

Figure 21. Cisco VXC 6215 – CPU usage

Figure 22. Cisco VXC 2112 – Network usage

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 17 of 17

Appendix – Demonstration Options

This appendix contains additional demonstration options available.

Connecting Apple iPad To Endpoint Router

In the scripted scenarios, we connect the Apple iPad to the demonstration using Cisco AnyConnect. However, you may also

connect the Apple iPad to your dCloud configured router [Show Me How].

VMware View

Although not scripted, you also have an option of using VMware View within this dCloud demonstration. The table below contains

the preconfigured VMware View users.

Table 4. Preconfigured VMware View User Information

Name User ID Password

Monica Cheng mcheng C1sco12345

Mukul Kumar mkumar C1sco12345

Nancy Fox nfox C1sco12345

Neela Patel npatel C1sco12345