choosing the best approach for monitoring citrix user experience: should you monitor from the...

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Monitoring Citrix User Experience From the Network? Server? Client?

Choosing the Best Approach


Agenda

• Why monitor user experience in Citrix environments?

• What does Citrix user experience comprise of?

• Four approaches to monitoring user experience:

• Choosing the best approach

• Live demo: eG Enterprise for Citrix user experience monitoring

1. From the network

2. From the server side

3. Using simulation

4. From the client side

1

2

3

4


Why Monitor Citrix User Experience?

93% believe that Citrix is one of the performance sensitive services in enterprise networks

2016 Citrix Performance Survey


Visibility into User Experience is a Big Need

Top Challenges of Citrix Administrators

2016 Citrix Performance Survey


What Constitutes Citrix User Experience?

Logon is slow

Application is slow to

launch

Session gets disconnected

Keystrokes don’t show up on time

Multimedia playback is

choppy

UserExperience Printing

doesn’t work

Administrators need to answer key performance questions:

– How long did Citrix logon take?

– If slow, why: Profile? AD? GPO?

– How long does app launch take?

– What is a user’s screen refresh latency?

and more…


What Affects Citrix User Experience?Where is the Problem?

Backend-tiers supporting Citrix (Active Directory,

storage, database, virtualization, etc.)

Citrix Servers (XenApp, XenDesktop, PVS, license

server, etc.)

Client side (end-user terminals/workstations)

Network (bandwidth, jitter, latency, packet loss)


Citrix Monitoring Goals

• Continuously measure user experience during Citrix sessions

– Identify issues proactively before users complain

1

• Diagnose where the bottleneck is

– Get actionable insights for troubleshooting and problem resolution

2


Four Approaches to Monitoring

Citrix User Experience

Network

Server SideClient Side

Simulation


#1 Simulation of Citrix Sessions

• Synthetic test of end-users accessing a Citrix session

• Provides a measure of user experience when there are no real Citrix users

• Impose a predefined workload repeatedly

– Tests user experience at different times, from different locations

• The simulation includes every step taken by a real user


#1 Simulation of Citrix Sessions (contd.)

• Tests the availability of the entire Citrix delivery infrastructure

Delivery Controller

NetScaler

StoreFront

XenApp Server

Database Server

License Server

Domain Controller

SimulatedUser Session


#1 Simulation of Citrix Sessions (contd.)

Simulated logon into Citrix via

NetScaler Applications enumerated on the StoreFront console

Launch application on StoreFront

Login to SAP Portal

Access HR information

Perform tasks:Approve, Revoke

Logout of SAP Portal• Test results can be compared against

baselines, and with different sites and locations

• Synthetic test is run on a target computer and the entire sequence of operations is recorded

• The recording is played back at regular intervals


#1 Simulation of Citrix Session (contd.)

What it Provides What it Lacks

• User experience: Only for simulated users – when there is no real user logging into a Citrix server/desktop

• Real users may be seeing different issues (GPO, profile size can be different, etc.)

• Diagnostics: Can test and understand user experience before product rollouts

• Black-box approach: Limited diagnosis capability. Can’t say if the issue is on the server, network or client side

• Useful for benchmarking the Citrix infrastructure and testing readiness from various locations

• Not a measure of real user experience. Not sufficient for troubleshooting performance issues.


#2 Monitoring from the Network

• Network TAP set up between network nodes to monitor session traffic.

• Port mirrors and SPAN ports can also be used as an alternative to network TAP.

*SPAN = Switch Port ANalyzer

*TAP = Test Access Point


#2 Monitoring from the Network (contd.)


• User experience: Key metrics include network latency, ICA session latency, session login, bandwidth usage

• Lacks visibility into server-side or client-side issues

• Diagnostics: Limited data; provides information only from the network perspective

• No access to critical metrics such as memory leaks in the server, CPU spikes, virtualization problems, GPU utilization, etc.

• Can tell you that there is slowness

• Cannot tell you why it is slow – because most of the Citrix processing happens on the server side


#3 Monitoring from the Server Side

Server (XenApp, XenDesktop, PVS,

license server, etc.)

Citrix end-user terminal

HTTP/S

Metrics collected from Citrix servers and

supporting infrastructure

Agent installed

• Requires agents to be deployed in the server infrastructure

• Metrics collected by integration with built-in Citrix and Windows instrumentation / APIs (OData, NITRO, WMI, etc.)


#3 Monitoring from the Server Side (contd.)

• Provides deep insight into ICA channel metrics for every user and every session in real time and covers all aspects of Citrix user experience

Session Resources & Diagnosis

– CPU

– Memory

– I/O reads and writes

– Page faults

Session Activity

– Session startup (server & client)

– Disconnects

– Application launch

– Active/idle time

HDX Channel

– Screen refresh latency

– Client network latency

– I/O bandwidth (media, print, audio)

– Framehawk frame rate

Breakdown of Logon Time

– Brokering

– Authentication

– Profile load

– Script execution

Only for XA & XD

v7.x



• Also provides deep diagnostics to troubleshoot user experiencing issues because of visibility into the functioning of all Citrix tiers:

– High StoreFront enumeration time

– Connection Broker failures

– High RAM cache utilization in Provisioning Server

– Delivery Controller not synched with the domain

– Data Store connection failure

– License Server running out of Citrix licenses

and more…



• Provides diagnostics to isolate issues occurring in the backend tiers supporting Citrix:

– Long running queries– Latches, locks, buffer,

memory, cache metrics– Index fragmentation, SQL

recompilation– Database growth

Database

– Memory ballooning

– VM CPU ready

– VM memory swap

– VM sprawl

– Resource usage metrics

Virtualization

– LUN capacity

– I/O reads and writes

– Disk pool metrics

– Cache metrics

– Hardware health

Storage

– Network delay

– Packet loss and errors

– Bandwidth usage

– TCP retransmissions

– Connection drops

Network




• User experience: Granular details for every Citrix user and every session

• No visibility into problems originating from the client terminal

• Diagnostics: Pinpoints if the issue is with the server, network, AD, storage, virtualization, or other infra tiers

• No diagnostics for workstation issues impacting user experience

• Well-suited for monitoring, diagnosis and troubleshooting of majority of Citrix user experience problems

• Cannot tell if a workstation issue if affecting a specific user


#4 Monitoring from the Client Side

• Uses agents installed on all Citrix end-user terminals (workstations/desktops/laptops) to collect data

Citrix end-user terminal

Agent installed

• Agent on the terminal must be ICA-aware – i.e., capture all network data and analyze or overload client method calls to collect ICA channels metrics

Metrics collected from Citrix end-user terminals

Server (XenApp, XenDesktop, PVS,

license server, etc.)


#4 Monitoring from the Client Side (contd.)

• Provides workstation-specific metrics:

– Client-side latency

– Application usage

– Wait time

– Crashes, errors

– Top processes

– CPU and memory

– Disk queue length

– Recent boots & health events

– Hardware & software inventory

Challenges:• Cumbersome to install and manage agents across all user

endpoints• Unnecessary to process and store a ton of monitoring data

collected from all endpoints• Metrics may be biased by workstation configuration


#4 Monitoring from the Client Side (contd.)


• User experience: Metrics obtained from every client workstation

• Different clients may have different configurations; Metrics can be biased by client configuration

• Diagnostics: Limited only to the client side issues (e.g., something running on the client affecting the user experience)

• No visibility into Citrix servers where most of the processing happens, or to network issues

• Provides a good measure of user experience. Effective for diagnosis of problems originating from the client terminal.

• Does not provide sufficient visibility for diagnosis of performance issues that are not related to the client (i.e., server or network)


Evaluating the Different Approaches


Comparing the Different Approaches

User Experience Monitoring

Real time user experience

Visibility into ICA virtual channels

Server-side diagnostics

Network diagnostics

Client-side diagnostics

Session simulation

Monitoring from the network

Monitoring from the server side

Monitoring from the client side

Limited

Limited


Impact of Client-side vs. Server-side Problems

• Affects user experience for ALL Citrix users connected to the server

• Affects user experience only for the respective user

Client-side Problem Server-side Problem

Hence server-side monitoring is more important


Citrix Monitoring – Beyond User Experience and Diagnostics

Right-Sizing

Planning

Auditing

Optimization

• Analyze usage patterns

• Load-balance your Citrix farm

• Measure resource utilization against availability

• Get the most out of your infrastructure

• Predict when you will run out of resources

• Forecast future requirements

• Make information available for audits

• Get reports for regulatory compliance

These are possible only with server-side monitoring


Choosing the Best Approach

• Server-side monitoring is sufficient to detect and troubleshoot ~90% of Citrix issues– Most issues happen on the server side and user impact is greater

• Complement with monitoring network bandwidth and connectivity to detect network level issues

• Add client-side monitoring only when specific users complain of frequent problems, and when all server and network possibilities are ruled out

• Simulation of Citrix session is good to have for proactive monitoring when there are no real users


eG Enterprise Citrix User Experience Monitoring


eG Enterprise for Citrix Monitoring

• Total performance monitoring solution purpose-built for Citrix environments

• Embeds years of domain expertise acquired from addressing monitoring needs of some of the largest Citrix deployments in the world

Selected by Citrix as the exclusive Citrix monitoring solution for Citrix Synergy ’15 & ’16 and Citrix Summit ’16 & ’17

Citrix Ready certified for all products in the Citrix stack


Deployment Architecture

Delivery ControllerStoreFront

XenApp Server

License Server

Domain Controller

NetScaler

Active Directory

StorageHypervisor

Network

Virtual Desktops

eG ManagerAdministrator

Citrix Environment

Agentless Monitoring

Agent-based Monitoring


The eG Universal Monitor

• A single monitor license for Windows, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, VMware, Tru64

• A single price, regardless of OS or server configuration – 2, 4, 8, 16 CPUs

• A single monitor for monitoring any application

• A single price to manage multiple applications on the same server

• Auto-upgradeable

• Agentless monitoring option

• 100% web-based – HTTP/HTTPS


Citrix Monitoring Capabilities

• Logon time• Profile load time• Application launch time• Screen refresh latency• Network retransmission

time

User Experience

• Bandwidth used• Audio bandwidth• Video bandwidth• Printer bandwidth• Drive bandwidth• Framehawk frames/second

HDX Channels

• Top users by CPU, memory, IOPS, GPU

• Top applications by CPU, memory, IOPS, GPU

• URLs accesses by users

User & Application Activity

• Who logged in and when• What applications did

they access• When disconnects happen• Idle time in session

Citrix Sessions

• NetScaler• StoreFront• Provisioning Services• Delivery Controller• License server• Data store

Visibility into Citrix Tiers

• Virtualization platform• Storage• Network in data center• Network to user

terminals• Infra services – AD, DNS

Visibility into Supporting Infrastructure


eG Enterprise Dashboards & Reports

Intuitive Dashboards: Monitor Every User, Every Session and Every Infrastructure Tier Simulated Testing of User Logon Issues

Complete Break-down of Real User Logon, Session Startup and Client Startup Metrics Built-in & Customizable Reports


Going Beyond Server-Side Metrics

• Provides network connectivity metrics that help isolate network issues affecting user experience

– Monitoring of NetScalers

– Integration with NetScaler Insight

– Simulation from multiple locations

• Allows installing agents on end-user workstations on demand

– When there are persisting user experience issues on specific terminals

– When server and network issues are ruled out


eG Enterprise Differentiators

End-to-end monitoring of heterogenous and distributed Citrix environments

Deep performance visibility and diagnostics for every layer and tier

Actionable insights and root cause diagnosis for faster troubleshooting


For More Information

More details

http://www.eginnovations.com/freetrial

Send an Email

[email protected]

Call Us

UK: +44 (0)20 7935 6721

NL: +31 (0)70-2055210

USA: 866 526 6700 x1


www.eginnovations.com

http://www.eginnovations.com/

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