Optimize Amazon WorkSpaces performance with the EUC Metrics Portal

Amazon WorkSpaces is a fully managed desktop virtualization service for Windows, Amazon Linux 2, and Ubuntu, that allows you to access resources from any supported device and has no up-front commitment costs. Amazon AppStream 2.0 manages the AWS resources required to host and run your applications, scales automatically, and provides access to your users on demand.

When managing WorkSpaces and AppStream 2.0 deployments, collecting metrics on system resource utilization can provide significant value. Administrators can use the data to make comprehensive decisions about their fleet. Detailed systems utilization data improves cost optimization efforts and lowers Time to Resolution (TTR) on service desk tickets for end users.

The AWS End User Computing Metrics Portal is an upcoming release for the AWS Samples GitHub portal. This project helps administrators collect system performance metrics for Windows, Amazon Linux 2, and Ubuntu systems. The metrics collected will include CPU, RAM, disk, network, and streaming agent performance. For CPU and disk metrics, the information will also include the specific processes driving the utilization. This will help administrators understand precisely which aspects of their end user’s workloads are driving resource consumption. IT users will be empowered to view the performance metrics in the course of assisting end users with service desk tickets. Administrators can also use this data to right-size their WorkSpaces and AppStream 2.0 deployments based on resource utilization.

The EUC Metrics Portal accomplishes this by utilizing multiple AWS services, along with the third party Telegraf™ agent by InfluxDB. There is no cost for the project itself, only for the AWS resources used.

If you are interested in learning how you can use the EUC Metrics Portal to gain a deep understanding of resource utilization on your WorkSpaces and AppStream 2.0 deployments, join us at re:Invent. We are hosting a builders’ session, “EUC213: Optimize Amazon WorkSpaces performance with the EUC Metrics Portal” at MGM Grand | Level 1 | Terrace 151, Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday, November 29, at 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (PST). You can find the details of this session, reserve your seat, and add to your personal agenda by visiting the re:Invent 2023 session catalog page and sign up for EUC213-R1.

This is a hands-on builders’ session. Please bring your laptop in order to participate! This session is intended for end user computer administrators and IT professionals. You do not need an AWS account. We provision AWS accounts for the duration of the workshop.

Attendees will be hands-on within the first 20 minutes of the session. Attendees will operate a lab environment where they will configure the EUC Metrics Portal on WorkSpaces, generate testing metrics, and view those metrics in real time. There will be multiple End User Computing experts during the workshop to help facilitate. They’ll be present to answer questions, and work with you one-on-one as needed. At the end of this workshop, we’ll open it for audience questions and discussion. We look forward to seeing you there and helping you get started with the EUC Metrics Portal.

Dan is a Senior AWS End User Compute Solutions Architect, focusing on helping customers configure and optimize end-user computing solutions. Dan also focuses on EC2, Microsoft, and Linux based workloads. Dan has been at AWS since March 2016, and was a Premium Support escalation engineer and Specialist Technical Account Manager prior to becoming a Specialist Solutions Architect.