Network Validation Test Procedure: Network Validation Test for EMC Education Services Virtual Data Center Version:

12 Revision Date: Monday, 05-OCT-2009 Author: Christopher Perkins

The education delivery team has requested that we validate your site for the presentation of lasses through network access to our Education Service group's Virtual Data Center. In order to ensure that the class will be able to be run at your location we will need to perform bandwidth and functional tests. The test procedure is relatively quick, taking only about 10 minutes. The only hardware which you will require to complete the testing is a computer with Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer. We recommend that your perform the test from the room where you intend to present the class during standard business hours in order to accurately reflect the performance which students are likely to experience.. The Virtual Data Center's remote access solution uses a Citrix Access Gateway web interface and a Citrix MetaFrame farm to deploy our education lab's resources to remote classes. Please note that our remote access system is designed to work with Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer clients. Since our remote access tool is Microsoft Active-X based, clients using other browsers (such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera, andSafari) or running within an alternative operating system (such as BSD, Linux, Macintosh, and UNIX) are not supported and will not work. To avoid connection problems, please be sure that any local client-side firewalls and pop-up blockers are disabled. Please note that that the client network's firewall must pass bidirectional traffic on port 80 (for access to the web presentation page) and port 443 (for the encrypted ICA secure session, which is encapsulated within SSL). If they aren't open, it can't work.
Bandwidth Test:

In our experience the ideal performance is obtained at a sustainable throughput of approximately 1.5 megabits/second. This means that the "recommended value" typically requires a T-1 or better connection. We have also found that when rates are below a minimum of 750 kilobits/second, the classes experience extremely slow response, severe operational delays, and loss of connection due to drop-outs and time-outs. These problems have been so severe that students were unable to complete their lab exercises. Therefore, your site must have greater than 750 kilobits/second performance in order to successfully host the class.

Aleternatively you can also check the bandwidth using the below link.

http://pcpitstop.com/internet/bw.asp - Select any of the servers listed for the speed test

Once the test is done, the results are displayed below as shown.

Functional Test:

Please configure the client systems and complete a functional test. It is vital to note that the clients must have the current ICA browser plug-in installed. This is a standard Active-X plug-in for the Internet Explorer browser which enables it to communicate with the Citrix MetaFrame. You may download and install it as part of the procedure below. Please do not skip this installation. Without it, the students can not connect to the published applications. 1. Launch MS Internet Explorer. 2. Select "Tools" on the menu-bar. 3. Select "Internet Options" on the pull-down menu. 4. Select the "Security" tab. 5. Set the "Internet" zone security to "Medium". 6. Set the "Local Intranet" zone security to "Medium". 7. Select the "Advanced" tab. 8. Scroll down to the "Security" section. 9. Uncheck the "Do not save encrypted pages to disk" box. 10. Check the "Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder when browser is closed" box. 11. Connect to the homepage at https://vdc.emc.com. 12. Log-in as account "test" with the password "test123". 13. Install the Citrix plug-in when prompted to do so. 14. Once the plug-in is installed in the browser, close and re-launch MSIE. 15. Reconnect to the homepage at https://vdc.emc.com. 16. Log-in as account "test" with the password "test123". 17. Double-click the published application for "Windows Server Test". 18. Log-in to the remote host as "administrator" with the password "test123". 19. If the desktop opens on the remote host, then your test is successful. 20. Log-off the remote host by clicking [START] and selecting "Log off". 21. Click [Logout] on the web-page. If you are able to complete all of the above steps successfully, then your site is validated for remote access into our Virtual Data Center. If not, you should contact your EMC training registrations representative to reschedule the training for another more suitable location.