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Configuration of CtxXpUserTest
This test tracks every user connection from the Citrix client to the server, and monitors the resource utilization of every user on the Citrix server.
Note:
This test will report metrics only if the XenApp server being monitored uses the .Net framework v3.0 (or above).
The parameters associated with this test are as follows:
In the USERNAMES text box, specify the name of the user whose performance statistics need to be generated. If you specify "All" here, then the eG agent will report statistics pertaining to all users who are currently logged in. When a user logs out, statistics will no longer be reported for that user. Multiple user names can be specified as a comma-separated list. In such cases, the eG agent will report statistics for the users listed in the arguments only. When a user is not logged in, all the measures reported for that user will be zero values.
If the Citrix server for which this test is being configured belongs to a Citrix farm, then provide the name of the Citrix farm server that controls it, in the FARMNAME text box. While specifying the FARMNAME, ensure that you provide the same name that was specified against the HOST/NICK NAME field while managing the Citrix farm server using the eG Enterprise system. In the event of a name mismatch, eG will be unable to extract the required measures for this test. By default, ‘none’ will be displayed here.
A Citrix XenApp server (v6.5) can run in the controller mode or the worker mode. In the controller mode, the XenApp server can perform all farm management tasks. However, in the worker mode, a XenApp server can only host user sessions.
By default, the DOMAIN NAME, DOMAIN USER, DOMAIN PASSWORD, and CONFIRM PASSWORD parameters are set to none. If the XenApp server being monitored is the controller in a farm, then this default value will automatically apply. In other words, in this case, you can leave the values of these parameters as none. On the other hand, if the target XenApp server is a worker in the farm, then first, you will have to configure the name of the domain in which the XenApp server operates in the DOMAIN NAME text box. Then, you need to configure the test with the credentials of a user with Citrix Farm Administrator rights, using the DOMAIN USER and DOMAIN PASSWORD text boxes. Finally, you will have to confirm the domain password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.
Worker groups are collections of XenApp servers, residing in the same farm, that are managed as a single unit. You can publish applications to a worker group. If you want to know the worker group to which every auto-discovered application has been published, then set the SHOW WORKER GROUPS parameter to Yes. Once this is done, then the descriptors (i.e., the auto-discovered applications) of this test will be grouped by the name of the worker group to which they belong. By default, this parameter is set to No.
By default, the APPSBYNAME parameter is set to NO, - i.e., the detailed diagnosis for a user reports the process name(s) being run by the user. If this parameter is set to YES, the agent compares the full process command including arguments with the published application information and reports the process that the user is running plus the application that the user is accessing.
The APPSBYNAME parameter is particularly relevant if a virtual client like the Softgrid client is deployed on Citrix. In this case, all the user processes will run the Softgrid client (ie., sfttray.exe) and by just monitoring the process names, administrators will not be able to differentiate Microsoft Word instances from Microsoft Excel instances being served by the Softgrid client. Setting this parameter to YES ensures that the detailed diagnosis reveals both the process being executed and the application executing it (e.g., MSWord (sfftray) - in this example, MSWord is the published application name, and sfftray is the Softgrid client executable that is streaming this application from a Softgrid server).
By default, the SHOWPUBLISHEDDESKTOPS flag is set to No. If set to Yes, then the detailed diagnosis of the test, which typically lists the resource-intensive processes/applications accessed by a user, will additionally indicate the exact published desktop that has been used by the user or used to access the application.
By default, the REPORTTOTAL flag is set to No. If set to Yes, then the test will report measures for only a Total descriptor. For this descriptor, the test will report the aggregate resource usage across all users to the Citrix server. The default setting (No) of the flag on the other hand, implies that the test reports a set of metrics for each user to the server, by default.
By default, the REPORTBYCLIENTNAME 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.
On the other hand, if the REPORTBYCLIENTNAME flag is set to No, then user names will be the descriptors of the test, and the User name column in the detailed diagnosis will display a ‘-’ (hyphen).
By default, the test rediscovers the applications running on a Citrix server, every 15 minutes; this is why, the APPS REDISCOVER PERIOD is set to 15 by default. You can override this default setting by specifying a different duration (in minutes) in the APPS REDISCOVER PERIOD text box.
Typically, when monitoring a Citrix server/farm on which numerous applications have been deployed, the processing overheads of this test may increase every time the test performs application discovery. You may hence prefer to rediscover the applications on these servers/farms only during such times the user activity/load on the server/farm is low. To schedule application rediscovery during the ‘low-activity’ time window of a XenApp server, you can use the CTXAPPDISCTIMERANGE parameter. Here, specify a time range in the following format: Starting Hrs-Ending Hrs. The Hrs here should be in the 24-hour format. For instance, to make sure that the test performs application rediscovery only during 8PM and 11PM every day, your CTXAPPDISCTIMERANGE specification will be: 20-23. Note that you cannot suffix your ‘Hrs’ specification with ‘Minutes’ or ‘Seconds’.
By default, the CTXAPPDISCTIMERANGE is none; this implies that applications are by defaut rediscovered only in the frequency specified against APPS REDISCOVER PERIOD. However, if a valid time range is provided against the CTXAPPDISCTIMERANGE parameter, then this time range will automatically override the APPS REDISCOVER PERIOD.
By default, the SEPARATE PROCESS parameter is set to Auto. This implies that by default, this test auto-discovers the operating system on which the target Citrix server is running. Based on the auto-discovered OS, the test uses either the eG agent process itself to collect the required metrics or spawns a separate process for this purpose. If the target server is discovered to be executing on a Windows 2003 (or earlier) platform, then the eG agent process itself will collect the metrics reported by this test. On the other hand, if the target server is found to execute on Windows 2008 (or above), then a separate process is spawned for metrics collection. Alternatively, you can set this flag to true or yes. In this case, metrics collection is performed by a separate process, regardless of the operating system of the Citrix server. If you set this flag to false or no on the other hand, then the eG agent process collects the metrics, regardless of the operating system of the Citrix server.
- By default, the REPORT BY DOMAIN NAME flag is set to Yes. This implies that by default, the detailed diagnosis of this test will display the domainname\username of each user who accessed an application on the server. This way, administrators will be able to quickly determine which user logged into the server from which domain. If you want the detailed diagnosis to display only the username of these users, set this flag to No.
- By default, the ENABLE BROWSER MONITORING flag is set to No, indicating that the eG agent does not monitor browser activity on the XenApp server. If this flag is set to Yes, then, whenever one/more IE (Internet Explorer) browser instances on the XenApp server are accessed, the detailed diagnosis of the User sessions measure will additionally reveal the URL being accessed via each IE instance and the resources consumed by every URL. Armed with this information, administrators can identify the web sites that are responsible for excessive resource usage by an IE instance.
By default, the COLLECT EXTENDED METRICS parameter is set to No, indicating that the test will report only a standard set of user experience metrics. To enable the test to collect additional metrics per user, set this flag to Yes.
Using the SHOW ALL DESKTOP PROCESSES flag, you can indicate whether the test should report top resource-intensive processes alone or all processes running in the background when the user accesses an application. By default, this flag is set to No, indicating that this test will report only top three resource-intensive processes e.g. CPU, Memory and IO Reads processes from the desktop OS processes. This helps the administrator optimize the database. To report all the processes, you need to set this flag to Yes.
To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG system 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 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:
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.
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