VDBench: A Benchmarking Toolkit for Thin-Client Based Virtual Desktop Environments

The recent advances in thin client devices and the push to transition users´ desktop delivery to cloud environments will eventually transform how desktop computers are used today. The ability to measure and adapt the performance of virtual desktop environments is a major challenge for ´´virtual desktop cloud´´ service providers. In this paper, we present the ´´VD Bench´´ toolkit that uses a novel methodology and related metrics to benchmark thin-client based virtual desktop environments in terms of scalability and reliability. We also describe how we used a VD Bench instance to benchmark the performance of: (a) popular user applications (Spreadsheet Calculator, Internet Browser, Media Player, Interactive Visualization), (b) TCP/UDP based thin client protocols (RDP, RGS, PCoIP), and (c) remote user experience (interactive response times, perceived video quality), under a variety of system load and network health conditions. Our results can help service providers to mitigate over-provisioning in sizing virtual desktop resources, and guesswork in thin client protocol configurations, and thus obtain significant cost savings while simultaneously fostering satisfied customers.