eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by VmgCountryTest

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) hosts desktop environments on a centralized server and deploys them to end-users on request. The virtual desktops in VDI are accessed by users from different cities, countries and regions of the world at any time. As VDI offers better user mobility, ease of access, flexibility and greater security, it is VDI administrator's responsibility to ensure a consistent experience for all users, regardless of their geographic location. When server resources are shared by users from multiple countries , excessive resource and bandwidth utilization by users from a specific country could impact the performance for users from other countries. Therefore, continuous monitoring of the activities of each and every country's users to the virtual desktops on the server is critical. Towards this end, the VmgCountryTest test assesses the traffic between the server and the user terminals and reveals the experience of users from different countries.

This test continuously monitors the CPU and memory resources taken up by a user's session on the virtual desktop for each country. The results of this test can be used in troubleshooting and proactive monitoring. For example, when a user from a particular country reports a performance problem, administrators can quickly check the bandwidth utilized by that particular country's user, the CPU/memory usage as well as the resource usage of user sessions established from other countries. The administrator also has access to details on the number of application processes launched by the users from each country and time taken for the same. This information can be used to spot a particular country from which the maximum number of application processes are launched on the virtual desktop.

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each country from which users are logging in to a virtual desktop on the Citrix XenServer VDI.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
No_of_sessions Indicates the total number of user sessions established from this country. Number  
CPU_usage Indicates the percentage of CPU utilized during the user sessions established from this country. Percent A high value for this measure is a cause of concern.

Comparing the value of this measure across cities helps administrators in identifying the country from which too much of CPU resources are being utilized.
Memory_usage Indicates the percentage of memory utilized during the user sessions established from this country. Percent A high value for this measure is a cause of concern.

Comparing the value of this measure across cities helps administrators in identifying the country from which too much of memory resources are being utilized.
IO_reads Indicates the rate of I/O reads done during all user sessions established from this country. KB/sec Comparison across the cities helps identify the country from which the most I/O-intensive operations are performed during user sessions.
IO_writes Indicates the rate of I/O writes done during all user sessions established from this country. KB/sec
Total_iops Indicates the rate at which the I/O reads and writes done during all user sessions established from this country. KB/sec  
Avg_session_refresh Indicates the average time interval measured at the client between the first step (user action) and the last step (graphical response displayed) of the user's interactions with this Virtual desktop. The value reported is the average of the latencies for all the current user sessions established from this country. Seconds This is a measurement of the screen lag that a user experiences while interacting with the virtual desktop. In other words, is the latency detected from when the user hits a key until the response is displayed.

Comparing the value of this measure across users from different cities will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify if the screen lag is significantly higher for any of the cities when users from that particular are interacting with the virtual desktop.
Max_session_refresh Indicates the maximum time interval measured at the client between the first step (user action) and the last step (graphical response displayed) of the user's interactions with this virtual desktop during the sessions established from this country. Seconds Ideally, the value of this measure is preferred to be low.
Avg_ica_network Indicates the average latency experienced by a user from this country when transmitting/receiving data over the ICA channel. The value reported is the average of the latencies for all the current user sessions established from this country. Seconds Ideally, the value of this measure is desired to be low.
Max_ica_network Indicates the maximum latency experienced by a user from this country when transmitting/receiving data over the ICA channel. Seconds Ideally, the value of this measure is desired to be low.
Input_bandwidth Indicates the average bandwidth used for client to server communications for all the sessions of a user from this country. Kbps  
Output_bandwidth Indicates the average bandwidth used for server to client communications for all the sessions of a user from this country. Kbps  
Total_bandwidth Indicates the total bandwidth used for communication between the server and the client for all the sessions of a user from this country. Kbps  
Output_bandwidth_usage Indicates the percentage of bandwidth used for server to client communications for all the sessions of a user from this country. Percent Compare the value of this measure across cities to know which country's users are consuming the maximum HDX bandwidth.
Frame_rate Indicates the rate at which frames are processed during user sessions established from this country. Frames/sec FPS is how fast your graphics card can output individual frames each second. It is the most time-tested and ideal measure of performance of a GPU. Higher the value of this measure, healthier is the GPU.
Framehawk_frame_rate Indicates the rate at which frames are processed by the Framehawk virtual channel, if it is enabled for user sessions from this country. Frames/sec This is a good measure of the effectiveness of Framehawk in optimizing the bandwidth usage over the virtual delivery channel. A low value is desired for this measure.

Note:

This measure will report the value 0 if Framehawk is not enabled for a user from a country or if the device from which the user is accessing the application does not support Framehawk.
Framehawk_latency Indicates the latency experienced during user sessions established from this country when the Framehawk virtual delivery channel is used. Seconds This measure will report the value 0 if Framehawk is not enabled for a user from a country or if the device from which the user is accessing the application does not support Framehawk.
Total_audio_bandwidth Indicates the total bandwidth used while transmitting and receiving sound/audio by users from this country. Kbps Comparing this value across cities will reveal which country's users are sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive sound/audio files over the ICA channel.

To minimize bandwidth consumption, you may want to consider disabling client audio mapping.
Total_media_bandwidth Indicates the total bandwidth used for flash data traffic between users from this country and this virtual desktop. Kbps  
Total_print_bandwidth Indicates the total bandwidth used by a user from this country to issue print jobs to a desktop printer and receive response from the desktop over the ICA channel. Kbps Comparing the value of this measure across different cities will reveal which country's users are issuing bandwidth-intensive print commands over the channel.

If bandwidth consumption is too high, you may want to consider disabling printing. Alternatively, you can avoid printing large documents.
Total_app_launch_count Indicates the count of application processes launched during the user sessions established from this country. Number By comparing the value of this measure across cities, administrators will be able to find out the country from which maximum number of application processes are launched.
Total_app_launch_time Indicates the time taken for launching application processes during the user sessions established from this country. Seconds An unusually high value for this measure may require investigation.
Total_logon_count Indicates the number of user logons from this country. Number  
Total_logon_time Indicates the time that users from this country took to logon to the server. Seconds The value of this measure should be low.