Agents Administration - Tests
 

Configuration of CtxXcXAGPUAppTest

In GPU-enabled Citrix XenApp environments, if users to virtual applications complain of slowness when accessing graphic applications, administrators must be able to instantly figure out what is causing the slowness - is it because adequate GPU resources are not available to the host? Or is it because of excessive utilization of GPU memory and processing resources by any of the applications on the host?  Accurate answers to these questions can help administrators determine whether/not:

  • The host is sized with sufficient GPU resources;

  • The GPUs are configured with enough graphics memory;

Measures to right-size the host and fine-tune its GPU configuration can be initiated based on the results of this analysis. This is exactly what the CtxXcXAGPUAppTest test helps administrators achieve! 

To help with better utilization of resources, you can track the GPU usage rates of your instances for each application on the host. When you know the GPU usage rates, you can then perform tasks such as setting up managed instance groups that can be used to autoscale resources based on needs.

The default parameters associated with this test are:

  • The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed. By default, this is 15 minutes.

  • Specify the HOST at which this test is to be configured.

  • Specify the PORT at which the HOST listens.

  • By default, Auto is selected from GPU VENDOR drop-down list indicating that this test would automatically discover the vendor name of the GPU card installed on the target server and collect performance metrics. However, you can select NVIDIA from this list if NVIDIA GPU card is installed in the target server. Choosing NVIDIA from this list will enable this test to use nvidia-smi commands to collect performance metrics from the NVIDIA GPU card.

  • By default, NVIDIA Home parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent would automatically discover the location at which the nvidia-smi is installed for collecting the metrics of this test. If the nvidia-smi is installed in a different location in your virtual environment, then indicate that location in the NVIDIA Home text box.

  • By default, REPORT BY DOMAIN NAME flag is set to Yes. This implies that by default, this test will report metrics for every domainname\username configured for this test. This way, administrators will be able to quickly determine which user logged in from which domain. If you want the test to report metrics for the username alone, then set this flag to No.

  • By default, REPORT BY CLIENT NAME flag is set to No. If set to Yes, this test will report metrics for each client machine from which users logged into the XenApp server - i.e., the host name of the client machines will be the descriptors of this test. In this case therefore, the User name column of the detailed diagnosis of this test will indicate the names of the users who logged into the XenApp server.

  • The DD FREQUENCY refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD FREQUENCY.

  • To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, eG embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test, by default, for a particular server, choose the On option against DETAILED DIAGNOSIS. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

    The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

    • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability.

    • Both the bad and normal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

  • If multiple components of the same component type are awaiting configuration, then an APPLY TO OTHER COMPONENTS check box will appear in this page. Clicking on this check box will allow you to apply the configuration to all/selected components of that type.

  • Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the UPDATE button will register the changes made.

When changing the configuration for specific servers, a “*” beside the text box corresponding to the parameter signifies that these values have to be manually configured by the user. The parameter values that require to be configured will typically be prefixed with a “$” or contain a series of “*”. A value of “none” in the parameter value indicates that the corresponding parameter value can be changed if required.