eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by VmgIcaSessionTest

Besides RDP, users can also connect to the virtual desktops via a web interface, using the ICA (Independent Computing Architecture) protocol. The key factors influencing user experience in this case are the latencies experienced by the user while connecting to the desktop and the bandwidth used when a user interacts with a virtual desktop. High latency and excessive bandwidth consumption can often slowdown access to desktops, thereby significantly delaying subsequent user operations. Hence, monitoring the latency and bandwidth usage of the ICA communication channel between the user terminal and the virtual desktops is essential.

The Desktop ICA Channel Status test is executed by the eG agent on an ESX host. This test auto-discovers the virtual desktops on the ESX host and the users who are currently connected to each desktop via ICA. For each such user, the test monitors the communication between a user and the virtual desktop, and reports the following:

  • The latency experienced by each user session;
  • The bandwidth used by the incoming and outgoing data/audio/multimedia traffic transacted by the ICA communication channel between each user and virtual desktop;

Using this test, an administrator can identify user sessions that are being impacted by high latency and abnormal bandwidth usage. In addition, the test also reveals the type of traffic that is causing excessive bandwidth usage, thereby providing pointers to how the client configuration can be fine-tuned in order to reduce bandwidth consumption and improve performance.

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
Session_avg_latency Indicates the average client latency over the lifetime of this session. Secs Comparing the value of this measure across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who are experiencing higher latency when connecting to a virtual desktop.
Session_dev_latency Indicates the difference between the minimum and maximum measured latency values for this session. Secs  
Input_audio_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used while transmitting sound/audio to this user. Kbps Comparing these values across users will reveal which user is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive sound/audio files over the ICA channel. To minimize bandwidth consumption, you may want to consider disabling client audio mapping.
Output_audio_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used while transmitting sound/audio to this user. Kbps
Input_com_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used when sending data to this user's COM port. Kbps Comparing these values across users will reveal which user's COM port is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive data over the ICA channel.
Output_com_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used when receiving data from this user's COM port. Kbps
Input_driver_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used when this user performs file operations on the mapped drive on the virtual desktop. Kbps Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user is performing bandwidth-intensive file operations over the ICA channel.If bandwidth consumption is too high, you may want to consider disabling client drive mapping on the client device. Client drive mapping allows users logged on to a virtual desktop from a client device to access their local drives transparently from the ICA session. Alternatively, you can conserve bandwidth by even refraining from accessing large files with client drive mapping over the ICA connection.
Output_driver_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used when the virtual desktop performs file operations on the client's drive. Kbps
Input_printer_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used when this user prints to a desktop printer over the ICA channel. Kbps Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user is issuing bandwidth-intensive print commands over the ICA channel.If bandwidth consumption is too high, you may want to consider disabling printing. Alternatively, you can avoid printing large documents over the ICA connection.
Output_printer_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used when the desktop responds to print jobs issued by this user. Kbps
Input_session_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used from this user to the virtual desktop for a session Kbps Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user and which virtual desktop is performing bandwidth-intensive operatons for a session.
Output_session_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used from the virtual desktop to this user for a session. Kbps
Input_session_comp Indicates the compression ratio used from this user to the virtual desktop for a session. Number Compression reduces the size of the data that is transacted over the ICA channel. Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which client has been configured with a very low and a very high compression ratio. In the event of high bandwidth usage over an ICA channel, you can set a higher compression ratio for the corresponding client and thus reduce bandwidth consumption.
Output_session_comp Indicates the compression ratio used from the virtual desktop to this user for a session. Number
Input_speed_screen_data Indicates the bandwidth used from this user to the virtual desktop for data channel traffic. Kbps Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user has been transmitting/receiving bandwidth-intensive data channel traffic.
Output_speed_screen_data Indicates the bandwidth used from virtual desktop to this user for data channel traffic. Kbps
Input_speed_screenMulti Indicates the bandwidth used from this user to virtual desktop for multimedia traffic. Kbps Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user has been transmitting/receiving bandwidth-intensive multimedia traffic.
Output_speed_screenMulti Indicates the bandwidth used from the virtual desktop to this user for multimedia traffic. Kbps
Input_hdx_mediaStream Indicates the bandwidth used from this user to virtual desktop for flash data traffic. Kbps Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user has been transmitting/receiving bandwidth-intensive flash data.
Output_hdx_mediaStream Indicates the bandwidth used from the virtual desktop to this user for flash data traffic. Kbps
Input_usb_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used from this user to the virtual desktop for the USB port-related traffic. Kbps Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user has been transmitting/receiving bandwidth-intensive USB traffic.
Output_usb_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used from the virtual desktop to this user for the USB port-related traffic. Kbps
Last_recd_latency Indicates the last recorded latency of this user session. Secs Comparing the value of this measure across user sessions will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who experienced high latencies recently.
Input_se_line_speed Indicates the average line speed of all the sessions of this user to the desktop. KB/Sec  
Output_se_line_speed Indicates the average line speed of all the sessions from the desktop to this user. KB/Sec  
Bandwidth_usage Indicates the percentage HDX bandwidth consumption of this user. Percent Compare the value of this measure across users to know which user is consuming the maximum HDX bandwidth.
Input_thinwire_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used from this user to the virtual desktop for ThinWire traffic. Kbps Typically, ICA traffic is comprised of many small packets, as well as a some large packets. Large packets are commonly generated for initial session screen paints and printing jobs, whereas the ongoing user session is principally comprised of many small packets. For the most part, these small packets are the highest priority ICA data called Thinwire. Thinwire incorporates mouse movements and keystrokes.

Compare the value of these measures across users to know which user's keystrokes and mouse movements are generating bandwidth-intensive traffic.

Output_thinwire_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used from this user to the virtual desktop for ThinWire traffic. Kbps
Input_seamless_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used from this user to the virtual desktop for published applications that are not embedded in a session window. Kbps Compare the value of these measures across users to know which user is accessing bandwidth-intensive applications that are not in a session window.
Output_seamless_bandwidth Indicates the bandwidth used from this user to the virtual desktop for published applications that are not embedded in a session window. Kbps
Resource_shares Indicates the total number of resource shares used by this user. Number By comparing the value of this measure across users, you can identify the user who is hogging the resources.
Frame_rate Indicates the rate at which frames are processed during this user session. 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 Indicates the rate at which frames are processed by the Framehawk virtual channel, if it is enabled for this user session. Frames/Sec The Framehawk virtual channel optimizes the delivery of virtual desktops and applications to users on broadband wireless connections, when high packet loss or congestion occurs.

Note:

This measure will report the value 0 if Framehawk is not enabled for a user or if the device from which the user is accessing the application does not support Framehawk.

Framehawk_nbandwidth Indicates the bandwidth consumption of this user session when the Framehawk virtual delivery channel is used. Kbps This measure will report the value 0 if Framehawk is not enabled for a user or if the device from which the user is accessing the application does not support Framehawk.
Framehawk_latency Indicates the latency experienced by this user session when the Framehawk virtual delivery channel is used. Secs This measure will report the value 0 if Framehawk is not enabled for a user or if the device from which the user is accessing the application does not support Framehawk.
Framehawk_nwloss Indicates the percentage of packet loss experienced by this user session when the Framehawk virtual delivery channel is used. Percent This measure will report the value 0 if Framehawk is not enabled for a user or if the device from which the user is accessing the application does not support Framehawk.
Connection_strength Indicates the connectivity of this user with the Citrix environment.   The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Poor connection 1
Weak connection 2
Strong connection 3
None 4

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above. In the graph of this measure however, the value of this measure is represented using their numeric equivalents only.