I am working with a customer who have a very large VDI estate with both Windows and Linux based VDI endpoints.
As part of network planning and optimisation my customer are strategically looking to move to a trusted tag based or Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP).
Of course on Windows this pretty easy via Group Policy using policy based QoS and on Windows Embedded (WES) based VDI endpoints this is no different.
The question has come up on how to QoS on Linux (TinyOS) and Mac based VDI endpoints.
As you might or might not be adware as part of the Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack there is a MediaEngine which runs on the local VDI to offload the audio/video processing from the server to the endpoint in order to optimise the media quality. Do note that the application sharing workload/traffic does remain in the virtual windows session on the Citrix server.
There are essentially some registry settings that must be applied in the user’s windows profile on the Citrix server which specific which DSCP values to use for audio and video at the endpoint:
- On the VDA, locate or create a registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Citrix\HDXRTConnector\MediaEngine\Networking
- Under this key, create three DWORD values: AudioTOS, VideoTOS, RtcpTOS. Set them to the desired value of the IP TOS byte. Restart Skype For Business.
- Note that registry settings control the full TOS byte, so if you want to use a particular DSCP value, multiply it by 4.
- RtcpTOS is applied to RTCP packets for both audio and video, the other values are applied to RTP packets for audio and video, respectively.
What about QoS on Mac OS in generally I hear??? I have a fair idea how to get this to work too however it is not easy!
REFERENCE
HDX RTOP Realtime Media Engine DSCP QoS Configuration
https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX215691
https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX215691
