MCS VDAs created using Prepared Images do not have MCSIO active and do not have the pagefile redirected to the MCSWCDisk
Article ID: CTX695460
Updated On:
Description
- The VDA software was installed on the master VM with Machine Creation Services (MCS) storage optimization (MCS I/O) feature enabled.
- This master VM was then selected later in Web Studio to create a prepared image.
- The prepared image was used to create a new machine catalog
- The Machine Catalog was configured with the option selected “Enable and configure write-back cache for optimum I/O performance”
The VDAs which were created from this Prepared Image were checked and it was observed:
- The pagefile was located on the C drive instead of the MCSWCDisk drive.
- Task manager did not show Non pooled memory use increasing to a volume greater than configured "Memory allocated to cache (MB)", no matter how much was data written to the C drive.
Cause
The SAN policy by default was configured to Offline Shared.
This caused the write cache drive to remain offline during boot, which left the write cache drive as ineligible for use as a write cache.
The VDA then booted up with MCSIO not active, and the pagefile not redirected.
Resolution
The master VM was booted and SAN policy was reconfigured to online all.
- Run elevated command prompt and open diskpart.
- Diskpart > san policy=OnlineAll
A new prepared image was created in Web Studio using an updated snapshot from the master VM.
When this new Prepared Image was used to create machine catalogs MCSIO was active and the page file redirected to the MCSWCDisk
Issue/Introduction
MCSIO feature was selected in the master VM during VDA install, and the machine catalog was created with the option selected “Enable and configure write-back cache for optimum I/O performance”, but MCSIO was not active, and the page file was not redirected to the write cache drive.
Additional Information
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops/install-configure/create-prepared-image-machine-catalogs.html
