Slow DEM Folder Redirection

[KenArcher]

I recently ran into an issue where USB drives were not redirecting on initial connection and narrowed it down to slow logons and applied the workaround provided in VMware Knowledge Base. This resolved the USB redirection issue, but got me looking at why the logon was so slow. On average I'm seeing 120s logon time which is considerably higher than what I would expect and the longest segment of the logon process was DEM applying. The DEM logs indicate the slowdown is during the redirection process with 36s for each folder, accounting for 72s of the total logon duration.

2020-03-04 11:00:01.848 [INFO ] Applied Horizon Smart Policies settings:

2020-03-04 11:00:01.848 [INFO ]    Client drive redirection is disabled

2020-03-04 11:00:01.848 [INFO ]    Clipboard redirection is disabled

2020-03-04 11:00:01.848 [INFO ]    Web and Chrome file transfer is disabled

2020-03-04 11:00:37.670 [INFO ] Successfully redirected 'Desktop' folder to '\\SERVER\%username%\Desktop' ('Desktop.xml')

2020-03-04 11:01:13.335 [INFO ] Successfully redirected 'Documents' folder to '\\SERVER\%username%\Documents' ('Documents.xml')

I temporarily disabled redirection and saw a huge improvement in logon time. I then migrated the redirection from DEM to a group policy and the improved logon time continue. So at this point the only slow down is if I redirect via DEM, while other methods are much faster.

Has anyone ever seen this type of behavior or have any tips/tricks I could try to speed up redirection via DEM? I'm not super happy with the idea of using a group policy to redirect because DEM is supposed to be faster.

[Alex_Romeo]

Hi,

Read these KB that are useful for your problem:

Troubleshoot Folder Redirection

Working with VMware Dynamic Environment Manager Logs

ARomeo

[KenArcher]

Thank you for the links, but unfortunately neither provided much insight into this issue. I'm only redirecting the desktop/documents and DEM is not capturing these folders. The DEM logs are currently configured for DEBUG and the only issue I see in the logs are the slow redirection entries. I do see one warning for "ADMX-based settings were not (fully) processed successfully". That warning occurs after the redirection and several other ADMX-based imports, so I don't think that its related. I'm still stumped at this point as to why redirection is slow in DEM but not via a GPO.

[jonathanjabez]

Hi,

Agree with you. DEM should be a faster folder redirection as this is real time streaming of profile data from the DEM Share to VDI sessions. I would like to know more details about your DEM setup.

How do you apply the DEM Flex-engine policies to VDI machines? Do you apply them via Domain GPO or Local GPO?

What type of network share you are using for the DEM? Is it a Filer based share or Windows MSCS File Servers?

It would be appreciated if you can export the Windows Event logs (System and Application) to see what exactly is happening during logon time and see if something else is causing the delay in logon.

/Jon

[KenArcher]

Edit: first set of logs I included where from a pool where redirection happens via group policy. These logs are from an affected logon, where I see the delay shown below. We are applying Flexengine policies via GPO and redirection is to a single file server, no MSCS. I filtered the attached logs to just the last hour, which includes recovering the desktop. This way it filtered out anything that was during the parent build process.

2020-03-05 19:02:48.262 [INFO ]    Web and Chrome file transfer is disabled

2020-03-05 19:03:23.718 [INFO ] Successfully redirected 'Desktop' folder to '\\SERVER\%username%\Desktop' ('Desktop.xml')

2020-03-05 19:03:59.082 [INFO ] Successfully redirected 'Documents' folder to '\\SERVER\%username%\Documents' ('Documents.xml')

[jonathanjabez]

Hi Ken,

Please export the Windows Event Viewer System logs (EVTX file) from an affected logon machine to review the complete sequence of logon.

/Jon

[KenArcher]

Sorry for the confusion. Those two log files are from an affected logon. I originally posted two others accidentally and then replaced them with the correct logs.

[DEMdev]

Hi KenArcher,

I do see one warning for "ADMX-based settings were not (fully) processed successfully".

That's unrelated to the delay you're seeing. ADMX-based settings will not overwrite registry values that are already set via an AD-based GPO. If that happens, this message is logged.

As for the delay, that might very well be related to timeouts on the SMB server due to SMB clients not releasing their oplocks. Could you try configuring a shutdown script through Group Policy to run C:\Windows\System32\net.exe stop /y workstation ? That stops the SMB client service when the Instant Clone VM shuts down, preventing those subsequent timeouts.

[KenArcher]

Adding "C:\Windows\System32\net.exe stop /y workstation" did not resolve the issue for me. I configured it after FlexEngine.exe -s, but do not know if the order matters in this particular case. I'm still seeing delays of 30 seconds or more during redirection.

Client RSOP:

[sjesse]

Whats the storage device behind where the profiles live.

[DEMdev]

Hi KenArcher,

This needs to be configured as a shutdown script rather than a logoff script.

[KenArcher]

I reconfigured as a shutdown script but I'm still seeing over 30s per folder. I saw the same behavior on three subsequent logons.

The FlexEngine profiles are stored on a virtual server on a separate vCenter instance. The datastore is hosted on a Pure Storage array, all SSD with four 10Gbps NICs. The storage network is physically separate from the typical data network. The server hosting the shares we are redirecting to is running on the same vCenter instance / array. IOPS are low and keep in mind we only see slow redirection via DEM, while group policy redirection is fast. Because of that I don't think its a problem on the storage side.

[DEMdev]

Hi KenArcher,

Thank you for testing that workaround for the oplocks issue that can occur with Instant Clones.

To be honest, I have no idea why configuring folder redirection through Group Policy would be fast, whereas doing so through DEM isn't. The DEM agent isn't really doing anything for redirection; we just configure the Windows feature...

I'll try and come up with some ideas, and hope that in the mean time someone else in this thread has a brilliant idea...

[sjesse]

DEMdev​ any use on getting procmon traces with DEM configured vs GPO configured?

[DEMdev]

Yeah, I guess that should be the next step; collect ProcMon traces for both scenarios, and check to see what's different.

[sjesse]

KenArcher​  I saved some the steps that have been shared previously on how to do this if you haven't seen it before

http://stephenjesse.com/2020/02/19/using-procmon-for-troubleshooting-virtual-desktop/

[ijdemes]

Just as a double check, and I know it wouldn't make sense, because GPO folder redirection works (assuming you use the exact same path), but can you try using the IP address of the file server? The reason I ask is because I see some name resolving messages in the event logs you provided.

One other thing I noticed, do you have a file share for each user? I see that you redirect to \\server\%username%\..., or is this a typo (assuming you edited the log)? What happens when you redirect to \\server\share\%username%\...?

[nettech1]

When using Windows folder redirection with GPO there is a 5 sec delay for each folder being redirected unless any of the 3 options are used .

Slow Initial Login When Using Folder Redirection

Is there a default delay when using DEM for folder redirection?

[DEMdev]

Hi nettech1,

If the delay is related to the Move contents... feature (as option 3 in the page you referred to seems to indicate), it does not apply to DEM's folder redirection configuration feature, as we do not support moving existing content.

[EricSturs]

@KenArcher Did this ever get resolved?  I am currently experiencing the exact same issue...