Adobe Connect VMware Horizon VDI Test Results
We recently had an opportunity to test Connect in a VMware Horizon VDI environment; here are the results:
We were able to setup and complete some basic testing of an Adobe Connect hosted live environment accessed by a VMware Horizon VDI client. The client was located in a VMware lab environment. See the following for the VDI technical specifications:
Horizon View Lab Technical Specifications (View side) :
- ESXi host = 6.7 version , 3 CPUs x 2.20GHz and RAM = 16 GB
- VDI Machine = Agent version is 7.10 , vcPU = 2 x 395Mhz and RAM = 4 GB
- VDI machine associated with the type of pool = Automated Floating Linked Clone
- Display protocol used to launch the VDI machine = VMware Blast
At the time of testing, no any applications were opened except Adobe Connect on the VDI client.
The tests were done on an Adobe Connect hosted cluster located in North America on a sandbox account. We did a number of tests to confirm the assumptions and understand the variables regarding how an Adobe Connect client runs in the VMware Horizon VDI environment. Adobe Connect has settings for quality that affect both the video (webcam) being shared as well as screen sharing. I have indicated the quality in the Settings column in the table below. The VDI client tested was the participant not the host in these tests.
| Test Type | VDI CPU | VDI RAM | Settings |
| Idle Room | 30% | 58% | There was no activity in the room of any kind. |
| Webcam no content | 55% | 56% | Adobe Connect video quality set to standard (see layout screenshot labelled “Webcam only”) |
| Webcam no content | 70% | 56% | Adobe Connect video quality set to high no change in pod size |
| Screen Share no webcam | 60%-80% | 56% | Adobe Connect screen share quality set to high with the monitor that was shared resolution set to 1400×1050 (see layout screenshot labelled “Screen share only”) |
| Screen Share no webcam | 40%-60% | 56% | Adobe Connect screen share quality set to high with the monitor that was shared resolution set to 1024 x 768 |
Summary
We can draw a few conclusions from these tests.
- Firstly, the quality setting for the video had an effect on the CPU utilization.
- Secondly, even though the quality of the screen share was set to high the resolution of the monitor that was shared also had an effect on CPU utilization. In other words the higher the resolution the higher the CPU utilization.
- Thirdly, we can infer that it is prudent to make sure that all students on VMware-based clients shutdown all other applications while engaging with an Adobe Connect Virtual classroom to avoid resource contention.
We may also infer the following about how Adobe Connect functions in the VMware Horizon VDI environment with reference to the effects a GPU might have on CPU utilization. We did not have an environment with GPU capability during this test but Adobe Connect engineering suggests that GPU capability would have an effect on CPU utilization: The Adobe Connect Meeting application uses DirectX for a lot of drawing and if the system has a GPU, it should be able to take advantage of it. The Adobe Connect HTML5 client, would be browser dependent. Edge (including the new version based on Chrome) does use DirectX heavily including text rendering and should benefit from a GPU.