WHITE PAPER Citrix Branch Repeater VPX and XenServer How to set up a self contained Branch Repeater VPX demo environment with WAN emulation. www.citrix.com
Contents Introduction... 3 Products and Tools Required... 3 XenServer Requirements... 4 Demo Virtual Network Topology... 4 Configuration XenServer Host... 5 Configuration Branch Repeater VPX 1... 6 Configuration Branch Repeater VPX 2... 7 Configuration WANem WAN Emulator... 8 Configuration Windows Server VM... 15 Configuration Windows Client VM... 17 Configuration WANem WAN Emulation Settings... 18 Configuration Final Branch Repeater VPX Settings... 19 Conducting a WAN Acceleration Demonstration... 20 Conclusion... 22 Page 2
Introduction This guide is intended to be a quick step-by-step walk through of the setup and configuration of a self-contained Branch Repeater VPX demo environment with WAN Emulation. This environment is designed such that it can be easily replicated to a laptop or portable drive for customer or tradeshow demonstrations. Some skill set and environmental assumptions are made in this guide and are required prior to configuration of the demo environment; XenServer 5.5 is installed and configured on the recommended hardware configuration (see below). XenCenter 5.5 is installed and configured on a physical client machine for management. The Branch Repeater VPX(s) are imported and licensed when possible. The Windows Server VM has been created and a Windows Server operating system installed. The Windows Client VM has been created and a Windows Client operating system installed. The WANem ISO image has been downloaded and burned to a CDROM or DVD. (link provided above) Products and Tools Required 1 x XenServer 5.5 1 x XenCenter 5.5 2 x Branch Repeater VPX 1 x Windows Client VM (Windows XP or higher) 1 x Windows Server VM (Windows 2003 or higher) 1 x WANem v2.2 ISO Page 3
XenServer Requirements 1 multi-core processor 4 GB of RAM o 1gb Branch Repeater VPX recommended o 1gb Branch Repeater VPX recommended o 384mb Windows Server recommended o 384mb Windows Client recommended o 256mb WANem WAN Emulator recommended 150gb available local disk space (for virtual hard disks.) o 60gb - Branch Repeater VPX recommended o 60gb Branch repeater VPX recommended o 10gb Windows Server VM recommended o 5gb Windows Client VM recommended o 0gb - WANem WAN Emulator 1 physical network adapter 1 CD/DVD Drive Demo Virtual Network Topology Page 4
Configuration XenServer Host Start XenCenter 5.5 and connect to the XenServer. Highlight the XenServer name node and then click on the Network Tab. Create four new virtual networks by clicking on the Add Network button. Follow the creation steps once per virtual network. Name them logically along with identifications of 1-4 Page 5
Configuration Branch Repeater VPX 1 While shutdown, configure Branch Repeater VPX 1 networking such that Device0 and Device1 is attached to Virtual Network 1 and Virtual Network 2. From the console, using the set adapter command, configure the IP addressing of the Branch Repeater VPX 1 accelerated pair (apa) as; -IP: 192.168.1.11 -Subnet: 255.255.255.0 -Gateway: 192.168.1.1 Finish by issuing a restart command. Once the Windows Client is configured later in this guide, log into the Branch Repeater VPX 1 web admin tool at http://192.168.1.11 and install a license. See the Branch Repeater VPX Admin Guide for detailed steps on licensing. To acquire a FREE Branch Repeater VPX Express License, log into MyCitrix. Page 6
Configuration Branch Repeater VPX 2 While shutdown, configure Branch Repeater VPX 2 networking such that Network Device0 and Device1 is attached to the Virtual Network 3 and Virtual Network 4. From the console, using the set adapter command, configure the IP addressing of the Branch Repeater VPX 2 accelerated pair (apa) as; -IP: 192.168.1.13 -Subnet: 255.255.255.0 -Gateway: 192.168.1.1 Finish by issuing a restart command. Once the Windows Client is configured later in this guide, log into the Branch Repeater VPX 2 web admin tool at http://192.168.1.13 and install a license. See the Branch Repeater VPX Admin Guide for detailed steps on licensing. Page 7
Configuration WANem WAN Emulator Create a new VM in XenCenter by right clicking on the XenServer s name and choosing New VM. The New VM Wizard will start. Scroll to the bottom of the list and select Other Install Media. Click Next. Page 8
Give the WANem virtual machine a simple yet descriptive name. Select Physical DVD Drive as the location for the WANem install media. At this time, be sure the CD/DVD containing the WANem ISO image is inserted into the DVD drive. Click Next. Page 9
Chose the local server as the home for the WANem virtual machine. Click Next. Configure the WAN virtual machine to use 1 virtual CPU and 256 megabytes of memory. Click next. Page 10
Do not chose or create any virtual disks. Click Next. Using the Delete button, remove all network adapters that may automatically appear in the interface list. Then click Add and to add Virtual Network 2 and Virtual Network 3. Click Next. Page 11
Check the Start VM Automatically checkbox. Click Next. The WANem virtual machine will start. Select the new WANem virtual machine node on the left, and then the Console tab. Your console window should look something like this. When asked, do not choose to configure interfaces via DHCP. Enter an n and press enter. Page 12
Do not configure the Ethernet adapters yet. Press Esc. Choose a new UNIX root password. Retype it to confirm and press <enter>. When you see the WANemControl@PERC command prompt, enter the exit2shell command and press enter. Page 13
At the Knopix prompt (root!tty1:/#) zero the IP information for the two Ethernet adapters and then create a bridge adapter (br0) by entering the following: ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 up <enter> ifconfig eth1 0.0.0.0 up <enter> brctl addbr br0 <enter> Now, add the two Ethernet interfaces (eth0 and eth1) to the bridge adapter (br0) by entering the following: brctl addif br0 eth0 <enter> brctl addif br0 eth1 <enter> Now assign the new bridge adapter (br0) an IP address of 192.168.1.12 by entering the following: ifconfig br0 192.168.1.12 netmask 255.255.255.0 <enter> Return to the WANem prompt by entering the following: wanem <enter> Page 14
Configuration Windows Server VM While shutdown, configure Windows Server VM to have a single virtual network adapter (device0). Also ensure that device0 is attached to Virtual Network 1. Start the Windows Server VM and log in with Administrator credentials. From the properties of the Local Area Connection, configure the IP addressing of the Windows Server as; -IP: 192.168.1.10 -Subnet: 255.255.255.0 -Gateway: 192.168.1.1 Finish by clicking OK twice. Page 15
Right click on the desktop and create a new folder called Public. Share the folder and ensure permissions are set accordingly for access across the WAN. Copy some random test documents and images to this folder. These files will be used to generate CIFS traffic from the Windows Client VM. Page 16
Configuration Windows Client VM While shutdown, configure Windows Client VM to have a single virtual network adapter (device0). Also ensure that device0 is attached to Virtual Network 4. From the properties of the Local Area Connection, configure the IP addressing of the Windows Client as; -IP: 192.168.1.14 -Subnet: 255.255.255.0 -Gateway: 192.168.1.1 Finish by clicking OK twice. Test WAN connectivity by attempting to ping the Windows Server VM across the virtual WAN. Test by opening a command prompt and entering; ping 192.168.1.10 <enter>. Note the ping response time (ms). Page 17
Configuration WANem WAN Emulation Settings Log into the console of the Windows Client and open Internet Explorer. Connect to WANem at http://192.168.1.12/wanem. Note: the URL to the WANem management console is case sensitive. Click on Basic Mode on the WANem management console toolbar. Ensure that br0 appears in the Bridges pull down. Chose a Bandwidth level for both eth0 and eth1. A T-1/DS- 1 has been chosen in this example. Enter a packet delay (ms) for both eth0 and eth1. 100ms for both directions have been chosen in this example. Click Apply Settings. Page 18
Configuration Final Branch Repeater VPX Settings Log into the console of the Windows Client and open Internet Explorer. Connect to the Branch Repeater VPX s at http://192.168.1.11 and http://192.168.1.13. If the Branch Repeater VPX is not licensed yet, click on Manage Licenses and install a valid license before continuing. To acquire a FREE Branch Repeater VPX Express License, log into MyCitrix. Repeat this on step for both Branch Repeater VPX s. Click on the Adjust Using Bandwidth Management link. You must configure the Branch Repeater VPX s Bandwidth Scheduler. Enter values in the Send and Receive Bandwidth Limit boxes equal to approx 95% of the configured WAN link speed you chose in WANem. In this example, WANem was configured to emulate a T-1/DS-1 therefore; 1.544 x.95 = 1470. Select Softboost, Full Bandwidth and then click Update. Repeat these steps on both Branch Repeater VPX s Page 19
Conducting a WAN Acceleration Demonstration Open another Internet Explorer window. Connect to the client side Branch Repeater VPX admin sole at http://192.168.1.13 and log in. Click on the Usage Graph node. Click on the Auto Refresh Toggle link to enable refreshing of the WAN traffic graph. Minimize the browser. Within the Windows Client VM console, Click on Start Run. Connect to the Public file share on the Windows Server VM by entering \\192.168.1.10\Public <enter>. If needed, enter the proper administrator credentials and password. The Public file share will appear showing the test files copied earlier. Select all of the files and then right click on them. Select Send To My Documents. A file copy will begin across the virtual WAN generating CIFS traffic. Page 20
Maximize the Branch Repeater VPX web admin console and click on the Usage Graph node. Notice the WAN and LAN traffic graphs. Blue indicated accelerated traffic. Click on the Active Connections node. The new accelerated connection will appear. Notice the bytes transferred and effective compression ratio. Page 21
Conclusion This demonstration can easily be repeated with different traffic types and WAN configurations. A well-rounded demonstration should include a variety of bandwidth levels (dial-up, T1, T3, DS3) as well as a variety of packet latency profiles (0ms, 100ms, 250ms and 500ms). For easy portability, these virtual machines can now be exported and copied to a portable hard drive or other media for easy re-import into another XenServer host. Be sure to visit the Citrix Community to keep up on all inside product news, best practices, tools and guides like this one. About Citrix Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the leading provider of virtualization, networking and software as a service technologies for more than 230,000 organizations worldwide. Its Citrix Delivery Center, Citrix Cloud Center (C3) and Citrix Online Services product families radically simplify computing for millions of users, delivering applications as an on-demand service to any user, in any location on any device. Citrix customers include the world s largest Internet companies, 99 percent of Fortune Global 500 enterprises, and hundreds of thousands of small businesses and prosumers worldwide. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies worldwide in more than 100 countries. Founded in 1989, annual revenue in 2008 was $1.6 billion. 2010 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix, Access Gateway, Branch Repeater, Citrix Repeater, HDX, XenServer, XenApp, XenDesktop and Citrix Delivery Center are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. Page 22