eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by CbrScalerTest

The performance of a Citrix Branch Repeater is often judged based on how well it handles its workload - i.e., how well it accelerates traffic over LAN and WAN links and how many connections it has accelerated over a period of time. A sudden increase in workload coupled with improper configuration can be disastrous - not just in terms of branch repeater performance but also in terms of branch user experience with local and wide area networks. It is therefore best to keep track of the variations in the workload of the branch repeater, so that potential overload conditions can be detected, and also monitor key configuration settings such as compression algorithms employed by the branch repeater, so that ineffective configurations can be isolated and reset. The CbrScalerTest test enables these checks.

This test continuously tracks the load on the branch repeater, measures the effectiveness of the repeater by reporting the amount of data and connections it has accelerated, and also brings poor compression algorithms to light by revealing changes in compression ratios over time.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
Load_1min Indicates the average load of the branch repeater during the last minute. Percent This measure represents the percentage of processes that are ready to be run. This value is computed by taking the 1-minute load average, multiplying it by 100, and then converting that value to an integer.

You may want to observe changes in the value of this measure over time to understand whether/not there is a consistent increase in workload - if so, it could be indicative of a probable overload.
Load_5min Indicates the average load of the branch repeater during the last 5 minutes. Percent This value is computed by taking the 51-minute load average, multiplying it by 100, and then converting that value to an integer.

You may want to observe changes in the value of this measure over time to understand whether/not there is a consistent increase in workload - if so, it could be indicative of a probable overload.

Wan_Out_Octets Indicates the total amount of accelerated data transmitted over WAN links during the last measurement period. KB A high value is desired for these measures, as it denotes high acceleration activity over WAN, which could significantly improve the responsiveness of the WAN links.

A consistent drop in these values could indicate a processing bottleneck with the branch repeater or a misconfiguration that is stalling the repeater's traffic acceleration efforts.

Wan_In_Octets Indicates the total amount of accelerated data received over WAN links during the last measurement period. KB
Lan_Out_Octets Indicates the total amount of accelerated data transmitted over LAN links during the last measurement period. KB A high value is desired for these measures, as it denotes high acceleration activity over LAN, which could significantly improve the responsiveness of the LAN links.

A consistent drop in these values could indicate a processing bottleneck with the branch repeater or a misconfiguration that is stalling the repeater's traffic acceleration efforts.

Lan_In_Octets Indicates the total amount of accelerated data received over LAN links during the last measurement period. KB
Send_Compression_Ratio Indicates the compression rate of the accelerated data transmitted during the last measurement period. Percent One of the techniques that the Citrix Branch repeater uses to accelerate data transmissions and receptions is compression. A compression algorithm scans the data to be compressed, searching for strings of data that match strings that have been sent before. If no such matches are found, the actual data is sent. If a match is found, the matching data is replaced with a pointer to the previous instance. In a very large matching string, megabytes or gigabytes of data can be represented by a pointer containing only a few bytes, and only those few bytes need be sent over the link.

Ideally, the compression algorithm should be able to deliver high compression ratios. So, if the value of these measures drop consistently, it could indicate the usage of a poor compression algorithm. You may then want to consider fine-tuning the compression algorithm to ensure a high compression ratio.

Rece_Compres_Ratio Indicates the compression rate of the accelerated data received during the last measurement period. Percent
Accelerated_Connections Indicates the number of connections that were currently accelerated. Number If the number of Accelerated_Connections is more than the number of Non_Accelerated_Conn, it is a sign of the good health of the branch repeater.
Non_Accelerated_Conn Indicates the number of connections that were not accelerated currently. Number
Operation_status Indicates the current operational state of the branch repeater.   The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values have been detailed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Up 1
Busy 100
Down 101
License Expired 102

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the operational state of the branch repeater. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.