What You Need to Know for ArcGIS Pro Virtualization

[JeffDeWeese]

I just returned from the Esri 2018 User Conference and had a great time. During UC, I encountered many questions about ArcGIS Pro virtualization. For the past 20 years I have worked with Esri customers assisting them with deploying ArcMap using virtualization technologies such as RDSH and Citrix XenApp.

As customers plan their migrations to ArcGIS Pro, it is important to be aware that it is not merely a matter of upgrading to ArcGIS Pro utilizing the same IT solutions within the current IT infrastructure. That's because ArcGIS Pro has a different set of system requirements and one of the key differences is the requirement for a graphical processing unit (GPU).

ArcGIS Pro leverages advanced display technologies such as DirectX and OpenGL which are highly dependent upon a graphics processing capability. This was not an issue in the past with ArcMap in virtualized deployments since ArcMap is GDI-based and for the most part cannot be accelerated by a GPU. However, Because of this specific requirement for ArcGIS Pro, traditional session-based deployment solutions are not the best fit for ArcGIS Pro, and in most cases Esri is recommending the use of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) coupled with GPU management technology such as NVIDIA GRID virtual GPU (vGPU) to provide the IT infrastructure to host virtualized ArcGIS Pro desktops.

A variety of servers and VDI solutions are available, and the ArcGIS Pro system requirements page reflects which ones have been certified by Esri. Also, be sure to review the On-Premises virtualization documentation to determine how to work with your chosen VDI solution.

The key take-away is that infrastructure upgrades will likely be required if ArcGIS Pro is to be delivered using a virtualization platform and will need to include GPU-enabled servers to support the virtualized desktops.

[LakshmananVenkatesan2]

Hi Jeff

Great article. Thanks. Where can I find a test cases to conduct some experiments on ArcGIS pro on different VDI?

Any pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks

LV 

[JeffDeWeese]

Thanks for the feedback. There is a tool available as an add-in for Pro called PerfTools. This tool has many capabilities but with minimal time investment it can be used to pan/zoom to a set of saved bookmarks so you can get a sense of rendering performance with your data and also with varying VDI configurations. Here are some links that provide additional information.

• How can I use the new ArcGIS Pro PerfTools Add-in?
• How To: Use ArcGIS Pro PerfTools to measure performance of adding and rendering new layers
• How To: Use ArcGIS Pro PerfTools to measure bookmark rendering times

[BradleyBrasel]

Great Info!  Can anyone provide any details on the what is required for custom built applications hosted in Citrix, that use similar, underlying .Net framework as ArcGIS Pro?  I am mainly referring to WPF .Net Runtime for ArcGIS based applications.  Are the GPU dependencies still valid? 

Thanks, 

BradB

[JeffDeWeese]

ArcGIS Runtime SDK for .NET uses DirectX to provide high-performance rendering of maps and scenes. The app built using the SDK will leverage the GPU if available and if not, will fall-back to software rendering. I worked on a project a couple years back with a custom Runtime app in a XenDesktop environment and did see performance differences when an actual GPU was available. So, it is possible to run an app without it but will likely be improved with a GPU. You may have to pilot your particular application to determine if the GPUs are required/warranted. That was actually the intent of the testing I was involved with and in the end the customer opted to deploy the GPUs as their application was very "map centric".

System requirements for 100.7.0—ArcGIS Runtime SDK for .NET | ArcGIS for Developers 

[BradleyBrasel]

thanks for the clarifications Jeff. It seems our infrastructure team has added a Tesla P6 and we are running the citrix farm on 7.15 CU3 on WIndows Server 2016. When deployed in an equivalent nonPROD environment, it had none to minimal utilization on the Tesla. I'm no expert, but i do not think the proper hardware/software is being used in combination, and kicking the can down the road will eventually bite us.