Looking 4 HP Procurve Guru to help with QoS

[d2thez28]

I am using some HP Procurve PoE switches that have some built in QoS functions. I'd like to use those functions to apply DCSP values to Citrix packets to tag them AF41 so our edge routers recognize them as such.

Thus far, using the built-in features have proven to be unsuccessful (using Wireshark to verify packet headers). Is anybody here a guru with Procurve switches and can help me get this enabled?

 

[theevilsharpie]

You didn't give a whole lot of information, but in general, I mark packets with their appropriate DSCP values on the end nodes themselves, and the only thing the switch does is translate those markets to the appropriate 802.1p values so the packet is prioritized within the switch infrastructure.

In your case, rather than getting the switch to mark a particular packet with a DSCP value, try performing the marking from within the Citrix hosts.

 

[d2thez28]

I have never provided the DCSP via machine before. Is there software of GroupPolicy that can do this?

Also, I realized my switch as 2 VLANs and the one for voice is working as expected because its ports are "tagged." My data VLAN's ports (on which Citrix resides) is using ports that are "untagged." Can I have 2 VLANs with the same ports being "tagged?"

 

[theevilsharpie]

If you want specific suggestions, you're going to need to list the version of Windows you're using and the model of HP switch you have.

 

[jlazzaro]

you aren't going to have the intelligence on an access layer switch to classify and mark application specific traffic, nor would you want to manage these policies at this layer. also, i don't think Citrix can automatically mark ICA traffic and doing so on an OS level might be management/configuration nightmare.

common practice would be to classify, mark, and queue the Citrix traffic at your edge routers. these edge routers typically terminate the bottlenecks in the connection path so it's most appropriate here. i don't think it's necessary to have Citrix traffic marked and prioritized on your originating LAN-side...your Gigabit+ switch uplinks should not be experiencing enough congestion to necessitate QoS of Citrix traffic.

we do this for VoIP traffic because its extremely delay sensitive and priority queued at every point in the network.

Edit:

here is a Cisco document on Citrix QoS, specifically geared towards their VXI architecture:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/VXI/VXI_NQOS.pdf

also, it seems you need the Citrix NetScaler Repeater to mark XenApp / XenDesktop traffic OUTSIDE of your existing route/switch architecture.