hands-on lab exercise guide -...

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614: Monitoring Your Entire Citrix Environment with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager and Comtrade

Hands-on Lab Exercise Guide

Comtrade:

John Lee

Bogdan Viher

Citrix:

Evin Safdia

May 2015

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................. 2

Overview .......................................................................................................................................... 3

Scenario........................................................................................................................................... 5

Module 1: XA/XD & SF MPs ............................................................................................................. 6 Lab Preparation ............................................................................................................................ 7 Exercise 1: Broker Service Availability ........................................................................................ 11 Exercise 2: Health State Views ................................................................................................... 17 Exercise 3: Logon Process Monitoring........................................................................................ 20 Exercise 4: Delivery Groups ....................................................................................................... 25 Exercise 5: Machines ................................................................................................................. 31 Exercise 6: StoreFront ................................................................................................................ 36

Module 2 : License Server MP ....................................................................................................... 40 Exercise 1: Citrix License Server Health ..................................................................................... 41 Exercise 2: Citrix License Usage ................................................................................................ 44

Module 3 : NetScaler MP ............................................................................................................... 48 Exercise 1: SSL Certificates ....................................................................................................... 49 Exercise 2: Network .................................................................................................................... 54 Exercise 3: Access Gateway ...................................................................................................... 57 Exercise 4: System Settings ....................................................................................................... 60 Exercise 5: Appliance Availability ............................................................................................... 63 Exercise 6: Performance Views .................................................................................................. 67 Exercise 7: Tasks ....................................................................................................................... 71 Exercise 8: Load Balancing ........................................................................................................ 75

Module 4 : XenMobile MP .............................................................................................................. 79 Exercise 1: XenMobile Tomcat Service Availability ..................................................................... 80 Exercise 2: Device Manager Properties ...................................................................................... 86 Exercise 3: Performance Views .................................................................................................. 91 Exercise 4: XenMobile Database Availability .............................................................................. 93 About Comtrade ......................................................................................................................... 99 About Citrix ................................................................................................................................. 99

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Overview

Hands-on Training Module

Objective

This training will provide hands-on environment monitoring experience by using the Comtrade Management Pack Suite for Citrix.

Prerequisites

Working knowledge of SCOM, familiarity with Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop, StoreFront, NetScaler and related products.

Audience

Citrix Partners and Customers

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Lab Environment Details

Figure 1 - VMs used in the Lab

The Student Desktop is accessed remotely using Citrix Receiver running on your laptop. All

Windows applications such as XenCenter (the XenServer GUI management tool), are accessed

from the Student Desktop.

Required Lab Credentials The credentials required to connect to the lab VMs and complete the exercises are shown below:

User Name TRAINING\Administrator

Password Citrix123

Lab Guide Conventions

This symbol indicates particular attention must be paid to this step

Special note to offer advice or background information

reboot Text the student enters or an item they select from a dropdown menu is printed like

this

VMDemo Filename mentioned in text or lines added to files during editing

Start Bold text indicates reference to a button or object

Focuses attention on a particular part of the screen (R:255 G:20 B:147)

Shows where to click or select an item on a screen shot (R:255 G:102 B:0)

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Scenario In this lab you will be monitoring a Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop, XenMobile and NetScaler

environment along with some of the components that are needed to make the these environments

work effectively. The goal of this lab is to familiarize you with the Comtrade Management Pack

Suite of tools that will help you monitor and manage a Citrix Workspace Suite to identify and resolve

issues and that will in turn reduce unplanned outages, provide the IT staff and Citrix Administrators

with the information they need and to reduce unplanned outages.

During this lab, you will interact with the Citrix environment to put a load on the system so you can

visualize how you are using the environment. The load will be that of a typical user running an

application that impacts the system.

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Module 1: XA/XD & SF MPs

Overview This module will show you how the Storefront MP monitors the Stores as well as the XenApp/XenDesktop environment from an infrastructure perspective as well as an end user perspective.

Exercises in this module:

Exercise 1: Broker Server Availability Exercise 2: Health State Views Exercise 3: Logon Process Monitoring Exercise 4: Delivery Groups Exercise 5: Machines Exercise 6: StoreFront

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Lab Preparation

Overview

Because of the nature of lab environments, you must take several steps to prepare for the following exercises. First, stop a service on DC2 to generate a specific alert in the Operations Console and then launch a video within XenApp & XenDesktop sessions to generate load.

Step by step guidance

Estimated time to complete this exercise: 10 minutes.

Step Action

1.

From the Student Desktop, launch Remote Desktop Connection Manager.

2.

Double-click DC2 to connect to the DC2 desktop.

3. From the DC2 desktop, click Start.

4. From the Start screen, type services to search and then click Services when it appears.

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5. In order to generate an alert in the SCOM console, we will stop the broker service on

DC2.

From the Services window select the Citrix Broker Service and then click Stop.

6. From the Student Desktop launch Internet Explorer.

7. In Internet Explorer, navigate to http://connect.training.lab/Citrix/StoreWeb.

8. Log in as administrator with password Citrix123.

9. Launch the Windows 81 Desktop.

http://connect.training.lab/Citrix/StoreWeb

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10. From the Windows 81 Desktop Start Screen, click Desktop.

11. Launch Internet Explorer.

12. In Internet Explorer, navigate to weather.com.

13. In the Citrix Receiver – Flash dialog box, select No, don’t optimize content and click

OK.

14. On the weather.com website, scroll down and play a video. By selecting a video, the

website will cycle through the available videos, putting a load on the system.

15. Switch back to Internet Explorer on the Student Desktop. Do not minimize the Windows

81 Desktop session.

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16. Click Apps at the bottom.

17. Launch Iexplore.

18. In the new Internet Explorer session, navigate to weather.com.

19. In the Citrix Receiver – Flash dialog box, select No, don’t optimize content and click

OK.

20. On the weather.com website, scroll down and play a video. By selecting a video, the

website will cycle through the available videos, putting a load on the system.

21. Keep both the Windows 81 Desktop Session and the Internet Explorer session running

and do not minimize their windows.

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Exercise 1: Broker Service Availability

Overview

This section is to show you how easy it is to identify a stopped service and how to get it restarted.

View the topology that is automatically discovered by the Management Pack and kept up to date.

Use the Health Explorer to drill down to root cause events.

Visualize the alert from the XenApp/XenDesktop MP to show that the service has stopped.

Go to the XAXD service alert and restart the service



Step Action

1.

Switch to the Remote Desktop Connection Manager.

2.

Double-click scom to connect to the SCOM desktop.

3. Launch the Operations Console.

4.

Select Monitoring in the lower left corner of the Operations Console.

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5. Expand the Comtrade Citrix Library plugin and select the Comtrade Citrix

Management Topology. This will show you the discovered topology of the Citrix

environment along with the status.

6. Drill down to through the different objects in the topology to visualize what is automatically

discovered by the Comtrade Management Packs.

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7. Right click on the “XAXD Sites” object in the topology and select Health Explorer.

This will bring up a new window that will show you the root cause of why the topology is

showing there is a problem with the top-level object.

8. Select the Broker Services Status – CitrixSite1 (XAXD Site) object in the tree. Review

the error description on the right-hand side of the screen.

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9. Right-click on the Broker Services Status – CitrixSite1 (XAXD Site) object in the left

panel and select View Alerts for CitrixSite1… to bring up the alerts.

.

10. Double-click the DC2.training.lab critical alert.

11. Review the General, Product Knowledge and Alert Context tabs to get the details

about the alert.

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12. From the Product Knowledge tab, click Start the Service to restart the service.

Additionally, the service can be started by selecting the message, the topology object or

the service listed under the Comtrade Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop-> Controller->

Delivery Controller Services and selecting the “Start Service” task on the right hand side.

13. In the Run Task – Start Service dialog, click Run.

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14. Verify the Start Service task complete successfully and click Close.

15. Close the Alert Properties dialog box and the Alerts Window. Optionally you can wait to

see that the alert clears itself.

Exercise Summary This exercise shows you how easy it is to identify a problem and to resolve an issue. Although this

was a simple task, it does highlight how easy it is to use the Comtrade MPs. In addition, if you are

already familiar with SCOM and Management Packs, you can see that this functions just like any

other management pack.

Additionally, this highlights that the operations staff can handle the day-to-day issues that occur in a

Citrix environment without having to get the Citrix Administrator involved.

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Exercise 2: Health State Views

Overview

Review health State for XAXD o Describe each of the screens and the detailed view

Show how Health Explorer can be used on each of the views



Step Action

1.

From the Operation Console, expand the Comtrade Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop

plug-in and select XenApp/XenDesktop Health State.

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Step Action

2. Note the 4 separate screens in the result pane to give you a complete overview of the

health of the environment:

The Site State, Delivery Controller State and Delivery Group State show the health

of each of the components configured in the environment.

The hypervisor Connection state shows that the XD environment can connect to

the hypervisor. This is hypervisor agnostic and does not depend on which

hypervisor you use in your environment.

3. Right click on any one of the objects and mouse over Open, click Health Explorer for …

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Step Action

4. The Health Explorer window will open. Click on the X next to “Scope is only unhealthy

child monitors”.

This will allow you to navigate through all of the monitors for that particular object.

5. Review the Health Monitors for you selected object.

6. Close Health Explorer.

Exercise Summary Health dashboards are a great way to get immediate status information about the environment.

These dashboards also allow you to navigate via the health explorer to get to the root cause of what

is causing a problem or to view the rules that are monitoring a particular object.

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Exercise 3: Logon Process Monitoring

Overview

This section will highlight the logon process monitoring of the Management Pack. The Management Pack monitors 8 separate logon phases that occur during the logon process. As users log into the environment, the Comtrade MP monitors each user and how long it takes them to log into the environment. Earlier you created two sessions. The system has logged how long it took you to log into the environment so you can visualize your logon’s. If there was a problem in any one of the phases or with the total logon time, an alert would be generated.



Step Action

1.

From the Operations Console window, expand the Comtrade Citrix XenApp and

XenDesktop plug-in and select XenApp/XenDesktop Alerts.

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2. Double-click one of the logon alerts (please note that we set some threshold values low

to generate this alert just for these exercises).

3. Review the information on the General tab. Click the Alert Context tab.

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4. The Alert Context tab provides the user name and how long it took them to log in (total

time) and each of the logon phases. This will help you identify where a user was having a

problem during their logon process. Click the Product Knowledge tab.

5. The Product Knowledge tab provides details of what occurs during each login phase and

information on how to troubleshoot and resolve issues.

6. Close the Alert Properties window.

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7.

Select Reporting in the lower left of the Operations Console.

8. Select the Comtrade Management pack for Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop (EndUser)

Reports. You may have to expand the navigation pane to locate this object.

9. Double-click User- Logon Activity (Troubleshooting) to run this report.

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10. In the report window, select TRAINING\Administrator for the User Name. Select First

day of this month as the From date and Today as the to date. Click Run.

11. The report will generate, displaying logon duration for each phase of logon activity.

Review the report.

12. Close the report window.

13. Explore the other End User reports. Look at the report descriptions by selecting the report

(single click) and view the details at the bottom of the page.

One report to take note:

The Delivery Group – Logons per week (Plan & Manage) - use a time range from

the beginning of March until today.

Exercise Summary The Management Pack monitors the logon process for each user and identifies 8 separate phases

of the logon process. These metrics can be used to identify particular problems during a user’s

logon.

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Exercise 4: Delivery Groups

Overview

Delivery Groups o Show how the Comtrade MP automatically discovers the XA/XD environment and

keeps the topology up to date. o Delivery Group state

Describe the value of this screen and the detailed view o Explore the Performance views for the delivery groups



Step Action

1.

Click Monitoring in the lower left corner of the Operations Console.

2. Select Comtrade Citrix Management Topology under the Comtrade Citrix Library.

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3. Click the + sign to expand the tree underneath CitrixSite1.

4. Click the + sign to see the services under DC1.training.lab or DC2.training.lab

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5. Expand Applications and then Excel 2013 to view the delivery group and servers that

are publishing the application.

6. Expand the CitrixSite1 to see the Delivery Groups and the connectivity to the hypervisor.

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7. Expand the Comtrade Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop plug-in and Delivery Groups.

Select Applications to view the applications being published.

8. If any of the applications were unhealthy you could view any of the following by right-

clicking and selecting the Open menu:

o Alert view to see the alerts

o Diagram View to see the delivery group and the servers in the delivery

group

o Event View to see the events from the event log

o Performance View to see the performance statistics

o Health Explorer to get to the root cause of what is causing the object to

change it status

9. Click on Reporting in the lower left-hand portion of the Operations Console.

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10. Select the Comtrade Management pack for Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop Reports.

11. Review and launch some of these reports to become familiar with them. Each report will

display a description at the bottom when selected.

Some reports to note:

Delivery Group – Active Session (Top N): This report shows you which delivery

groups have the most active sessions

Delivery Group – Active Session (Trending): Looks at a specific Delivery Group

to show you the over Active Session trending information and will draw a trend line

over the selected date range and project out into the future the trend based on

historical data.

Delivery Group Desktop OS Random – Ready Pool Setting Optimizer: Based

on historical data shows the desktop usage by time of day. This reports helps you

determine your optimal settings for your Ready Pool setting.

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Exercise Summary This exercise provided you with an overview of the delivery groups’ health, utilization and

performance. Not only can you get specifics of what is happening now, but you can also see

historical information to help you with your planning and optimization of the environment through the

reports.

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Exercise 5: Machines

Overview

This section will show you how to gain insight into what is going on with the VDI’s in terms of

registration and the performance and health of your OS Machines.

The Comtrade MP monitors the OS Machines remotely. A data collector is not required on the OS

Server machines. This data is gathered by a Proxy node and fed up to the SCOM management

server.

One of the common issues is where the desktop fails to register. Citrix views VDI’s that are starting

up are in the unregistered state (which is normal). Sometimes these desktops fail to finish the

registration process and therefore are “Unregistered Desktops”. The Comtrade MP identifies these

unregistered desktops by monitoring the desktops from the start of the VDI until it becomes

registered. If the desktop never registers, it will be flagged as an unregistered Desktop.



Step Action

1.

From the Operations Console, click Monitoring.

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2. Expand Machines under Comtrade Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop. Select Failed

Registrations.

This view gives you a view of the current unregistered desktops. If there were any

unregistered desktops, the alerts would be shown here. By selecting the alert you can

see the details about the unregistered desktop as well as some links to articles that will

help you resolve your registration issues. Due to the difficulty in generating a Failed

registration, the lab does not have any registration failures, but we wanted to show you

where these would show up if they were to occur.

3. The MP monitors for other issues with the Server OS Machines. Select Server OS

Machine Alerts to see if there are any alerts.

4. Double-click the Server OS Machine CPU Utilization alert and view the alert details.

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5. Navigate through the tabs. The Product Knowledge tab has suggestions on how to

resolve the issue.

6. Now we will demonstrate the ease of overriding a threshold value.

Close the alert. Right-click on the Server OS Machine CPU Utilization alert and select

Overrides -> Override the Rule -> For all objects of class: Comtrade MPXAXD

Machine Agent Proxy Computer Role.

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7. You will see that the Threshold parameter is already checked. Type in 70 as the Override

Value for the Threshold override. Click OK. Now the threshold value has been changed

for all instances of the OS Server Machines.

8. From the navigation pane, select Server OS Machine Performance. This view allows

you to graph and compare the Citrix Load Index for the OS Machines.

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9. The Server OS Machines view shows the health and details of each of the Server OS

Machines. Check the box under Show for CitrixSite1 at the bottom of the window.

The graph will now be displayed:

Exercise Summary This section gave you a quick overview the features in the MP to view Registration failures and to

get health and performance information about the Server OS Machines.

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Exercise 6: StoreFront

Overview

StoreFront is the front end to the Citrix environment and an important component. The Comtrade MP has a synthetic transactions to test the StoreFront authentication, Stores, receivers, XAXD infrastructure and each individual XML Broker. The synthetic transaction is automatically generated by the MP and tests the infrastructure (but it does not launch the application or desktop). This section will allow you to explore the StoreFront MP to see what type of performance data is available so you can see the overall performance trends.



Step Action

1.

From the navigation pane, expand the Comtrade Citrix StoreFront plug-in. Review the

Alerts, StoreFront Health State and StoreFront Topology view. Each of these views

provides relevant information and allows you to drill down to view the Health state,

performance views, and details about the selected object, similar to what you have done

in the previous exercises.

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Step Action

2. Expand Brokers, and select Broker Server Performance.

This view allows you to compare the Broker Response time (time to enumerate the

applications or desktops). Using this view you can determine if a particular XML broker is

have performance issues compared to other Brokers in the environment.

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Step Action

3. Select Broker Server State.

This view shows you the health of each of the Brokers. Note that the Detail view at the

bottom of the screen gives you details about each of the brokers.

4. Similarly, explore the Stores and Web Receivers sections to view the state of these

components as well as the performance metrics being collected. Note the performance

metrics for:

Stores

o Login Time

o Initial Response Time

o Get Resources Time

Web Receivers - Website Load Time

5. Expand the Servers section to view StoreFront services performance metrics, the service

state and the server state.

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Exercise Summary This exercise provided a quick overview of the StoreFront MP. This MP identifies if there are any

issues with the environment whether people are using the environment or not because the synthetic

transactions checking the environment every 5 minutes. Because these transactions are running

locally on the StoreFront server it allows the MP to monitor each individual XML broker and let you

know if you have a slow, hung or down XML broker. Additionally you can get the performance

statistics for how long each phase of the authentication and enumeration process.

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Module 2 : License Server MP

Overview This module describes the functionality of the Comtrade License Server MP. This section will show you that the Comtrade MP is monitoring the Citrix license usage and the License Server services. By monitoring the Citrix license usage, you can look at the historical license usage and see the trend of your license usage (as a percentage and as a license count). Notification of any service issues will warn you of any errors with your license server.

Exercises in this module

Exercise 1: Citrix License Server Health Exercise 2: Citrix License Usage

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Exercise 1: Citrix License Server Health

Overview

Show the License server topology and the overall health of the Citrix License Server.



Step Action

1.

From the Operations Console, expand the Comtrade Citrix License Server Plug-in and

select License Server Topology.

2. Click Yes in the warning dialog.

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Step Action

3.

Navigate through the topology to see the different objects in the topology. Note that you

can see the license details when selecting a particular license (at the bottom of the tree).

4. From the navigation pane, select License Server State.

This view provides an overall picture of the license server status.

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Step Action

5. From the navigation pane, expand Services and review each of the 4 views. These views

provide information regarding the state of the different components and performance data

about the Daemon and Services.

Exercise Summary

The License Server MP monitors the services and components of the license server to make sure

everything is running so the licenses can be obtained. If there were any issues an alert would be

generated.

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Exercise 2: Citrix License Usage

Overview

This section will show how you can gain visibility into your Citrix license usage and the trend of your license usage. Also, let you know if you have any old licenses that have expired.



Step Action

1.

Expand Licenses under Comtrade Citrix License Server and navigate through the three

different views.

Note that you can see the license count, percentage in use, and in use metrics

for each license.

You can also see the state, which gives you the details for each of the licenses in

the Detail view when you select a particular license.

2. Select the Reporting view in the lower left corner of the Operations Console.

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3. Select the Comtrade Management Pack for Citrix License Server Reports object.

4. Double-click Citrix License Summary.

5. For the From drop-down, click Today and select This year > First day.

6. Click Add Object…

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7. Click Search, then select AD.training.lab and click Add.

8. Verify AD.training.lab appears under selected objects and click OK.

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9. Click Run to generate the report.

10. This report will show you all of your Citrix licenses in a histogram and the max as a

percentage and a count and the total number of licenses.

You can also use the hotlink on the license to bring up the Citrix License Usage report to

see the historical usage of the license as a percentage and as a License in use count. If

you click on the “Citrix XenDesktop Platinum, User/Device” hot link, you will see the

license usage over time.

11. Close the Report.

Exercise Summary This exercise shows you how to get license summary reports as well as the historical view of the

license usage. This is helpful to determine when you may run out of licenses.

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Module 3 : NetScaler MP

Overview This module will show you how the NetScaler MP enables you to measure, monitor and manage advanced application delivery through NetScaler appliances. The NetScaler MP gives insight into health and performance from of your network resources. The NetScaler MP uses the NITRO API to gather information about the device. Using this API allows the MP to collect deep information about the NetScaler remotely (no component needs to reside on the appliance).


Exercise 1: SSL certificates Exercise 2: Network Exercise 3: Access/ NetScaler Gateway Exercise 4: System Settings Exercise 5: Appliance availability Exercise 6: Performance Views Exercise 7: Tasks Exercise 8: Load balancing

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Exercise 1: SSL Certificates

Overview

This section is to show you how easy it is to identify the expiry date of the SSL certificate. This exercise will also show you how to override default thresholds to generate SSL certificate expiry alerts.



Step Action

1.

From the Operations Console, click Monitoring.

2. Expand Comtrade Citrix Netscaler and select Topology.

3. Expand NS1.training.lab, SSL and Certificate.

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Step Action

4. Select the ns-server-certificate Icon.

5. Observe the Detail View information at the bottom of the screen. Scroll to the end and

note the Certificate validity date.

6. Right-click Certificate and select Health Explorer.

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Step Action

7. In the Health Explorer window, click the X next to Scope is only unhealthy child monitors.

8. Expand Configuration – ns-server-certificate (object), right-click SSL Expiration

Configuration State Monitor and click Monitor Properties.

9. In the Monitor Properties window, click the Overrides tab.

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Step Action

10. Click the Override… button and select For the object:ns-server-certificate.

11. Please note the check box for Override next to Warning Threshold is checked and the

value for the Override value is 10000 (the default is 20).

Note: This threshold the number of days before the certificate expires to generate a warning alert. We are setting this to 10,000 days just to generate an alert for this exercise.

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Step Action

12. Since we have already created an override for this threshold we will not have to create a new Management Pack to store the threshold. If we were changing a different monitor or rule we would want to create a new MP to store the modified value.

This is done by selecting “New” near the bottom of the screen under “Management Pack”. This will allow you to create a new Management Pack to keep your override values.

Note: by creating a separate Management Pack for your override values, this allows the values to take effect even if the NetScaler MP is updated to a newer version.

13. Click Next then Create (wait a few minutes to for the system to create the new MP).

Then select Apply followed by OK.

14. Go to the Alert View and observe the SSL certificate alert. It may take a few minutes for the alert to appear.

15. Open the alert and review the alert details

16. Open the NetScaler topology view and observe warning on the SSL Certificate Icon

Exercise Summary

This lab reviewed the monitoring of the SSL certificates and their expiration date. Also this lab

shows you how easy it is to modify a threshold using the SCOM console.

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Exercise 2: Network

Overview

This section is to show you how easy it is check the health status of Interfaces, IPs and VLANs on your NetScaler Appliance. This exercise will show you how to check Network interface cards on your NetScaler Appliance.



Step Action

1.

In the NetScaler topology view, expand Network and then expand Interface.

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Step Action

2. Observe status of an interface card by selecting a card and observing the Detail view in the bottom of the screen. Scroll down to read all information.

3. Expand the IP folder and then expand the IPv4 folder.

4. Observe all the IPs monitored and review the Details View for information.

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Step Action

5. Expand the VLAN folder, and then VLAN 1 folder.

6. Observe the VLAN components monitored and review the Details View for information.

Exercise Summary

This lab shows the networking components that are monitored on the NetScaler device.

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Exercise 3: Access Gateway

Overview

This exercise demonstrates monitoring of the NetScaler Gateway functionality and its performance.



Step Action

1.

In the NetScaler topology view, expand the Access Gateway folder and the Virtual Server folder.

2. Expand the NG-VIP virtual server component. Right-click the 192.168.10.11_LDAP

server and select Health Explorer.

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3. Click the X next to Scope is only unhealthy child monitors. Observe different monitors the close the Health Explorer window.

4. Highlight the NG-VIP Virtual server and run the Performance View in the task pane on

the right side of the window. You may have to expand the Task Pane.

5. Expand the Counter column to the full size and then check the Show box for Current

AAA User.

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6. This graph show number of users connected to the NetScaler using VPN. Currently no users are connected.

7. Close the Performance view window.

Exercise Summary

There are many performance statics that are available through the NetScaler MP. Take a few

minutes to explore some of these metrics.

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Exercise 4: System Settings

Overview

This exercise demonstrates monitoring and alerting on changes to any of critical NetScaler system settings. Any change to these settings will trigger alert that informs you about the change.



Step Action

1.

In the NetScaler topology view, expand the System folder and the Memory Pool folder.

2. Explore the Memory Pools sections.

3. Drill down and observe Settings for the different objects.

Notice that all of the settings are uploaded and can be viewed. These settings can also be viewed from the NetScaler Plug-in (separate views for each configuration type).

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4. On the Student Desktop, launch Internet Explorer and navigate to: http://192.168.10.2

5. Login as nsroot with password nsroot.

6. From the Configuration tab, expand System and click on Settings.

7. Select Change TCP parameters.

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8. Scroll down to the bottom of the TCP section and uncheck the SYN Attack Detection check box.

9. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click OK.

10. Return to the Operations Console in the Remote Desktop Connection Manger window.

11. Under Comtrade Citrix Netscaler, open the Alerts view.

12. Notice the new alert indicating the configuration change. Click this alert and view the alert details.

Exercise Summary Knowing when a setting has been changed is important to make sure that it is an authorized

change. Also having all of the settings available to view saves time from having to go to a separate

tool to view the configuration.

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Exercise 5: Appliance Availability

Overview

This exercise demonstrates monitoring and alerting on NetScaler availability. If the appliance becomes unavailable, down or unreachable, alert will be triggered to inform you about the outage.



Step Action

1.

From the Operations Console, switch to the Netscaler Appliances view and observe the status of the NetScaler Appliance.

2. From the Student Desktop, launch Citrix XenCenter.

3. In XenCenter, click Add New Server and enter the following information:

Server: <Use the Server IP address from the lab launch page>

User name: <Use the User name from the lab launch page>

Password: <Use Password from the lab launch page>

Click Add.

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4. Select the NS1 VM and click the Networking tab.

5. From the Networking tab, click Deactivate.

6. Return to the Operations Console in the Remote Desktop Connection Manager window

and open the Alerts view under Comtrade Citrix Netscaler.

7. Several new alerts will appear in the Active Alerts section. Double-click the NetScaler

Appliance Availability alert to view it.

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8. Review the Alert details.

9. Switch back to XenCenter.

10. Click the Activate button.

11. Return to the Operations Console inside the Remote Desktop Connection Manager

window. Close the Alert Properties window. After several minutes, you will notice the alerts clearing.

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Exercise Summary

This exercise highlights that the MP monitors the availability of the appliance. Early detection can

be critical to minimize any outage or in the case of a High Availability configuration, minimize having

a single point of failure.

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Exercise 6: Performance Views

Overview

This section demonstrates live monitoring of various NetScaler Appliance performance parameters. Information on the device performance is collected and show in real-time.



Step Action

1.

In the Operations Console, expand Performance Views under Comtrade Citrix Netscaler

and select CPU.

2. Observe the CPU usage.

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Step Action

3. Select Interface.

4. Select the Received and Dropped Packet Rate counters to view them. You may have to

expand the “Counter” column to view the counters and select the counters for the “1/1” Target.

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Step Action

5. Select Load Balancing.

6. Observe the different monitors for Load Balancing.

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Exercise Summary

In this exercise you viewed a couple of the performance statistics for the NetScaler. Take a few

minutes and review the other performance statics that are available. You can see that there is

variety of performance statistics that give you great detail about the NetScaler device.

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Exercise 7: Tasks

Overview

This section demonstrates how you can execute various tasks against the NetScaler Appliance and observe their output.



Step Action

1.

From the Operations Console, select NetScaler Appliances.

2. Scroll to the right and expand the Task Pane. Click Events.

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Step Action

3. Run the Events task by clicking Run. Review the task output in the resulting window and click Close.

4. Expand the Task Pane and click ICA Connections. Run the ICA Connections task by

clicking Run. Review the task output in the resulting window and click Close.

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Step Action

5. Expand the Task Pane and click SSL Virtual Servers. Run the SSL Virtual Servers task by clicking Run. Review the task output in the resulting window and click Close.

6. Expand the Task Pane and click System Session. Run the System Sessions task by

clicking Run. Review the task output in the resulting window and click Close.

Fun fact: usrNetScalerMonitoring user is the user that the Management Pack uses to access the NetScaler information.

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Exercise Summary The variety of tasks that are available gives you deeper insight into the NetScaler appliance.

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Exercise 8: Load Balancing

Overview

This exercise will demonstrate monitoring of the NetScaler load balancing feature. Current NetScaler configuration is load balancing two StoreFront servers traffic. Disabling one of these StoreFront servers NetScaler will start redirecting all traffic to the other StoreFront server. When this happens, an alert will be generated. A way to demo load balancing monitoring is to stop a Web server on the StoreFront IIS servers.



Step Action

1.

From Remote Desktop Connection Manager, double-click SF2 to connect to the SF2

desktop.

2. Open the Server Manager.

3. Select IIS on the left.

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Step Action

4. Right-click on SF2 server listed and in popup list, select Internet Information Services

(IIS) Manager.

5. Select SF2 and then from the actions pane on the right, click Stop.

6. In the Remote Desktop Connection Manager Window, switch back to the SCOM

desktop.

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Step Action

7. In the Operations Console window, click Alerts, and observe alerts generated by this

action.

8. You should see Load Balancing Service – State monitor.

9. Select the alert to view Alert Details at the bottom of the window.

10. Switch back to the SF2 desktop.

11. From IIS Manager, click Start in the Actions pane on the right side.

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Step Action

12. Go back to the SCOM desktop, the alerts will clear after a few moments.

Exercise Summary The NetScaler MP monitors the Load Balancing feature of the NetScaler and alerts you if there is a

failover.

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Module 4 : XenMobile MP

Overview This module will show you how the XenMobile MP enables you to monitor the availably of essential XenMobile infrastructure as well as detect un-compliant mobile devices.


Exercise 1: XenMobile Tomcat service availability Exercise 2: Device manager properties Exercise 3: Performance views Exercise 4: XenMobile database availability

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Exercise 1: XenMobile Tomcat Service Availability

Overview

This exercise will demonstrate monitoring of the XenMobile Tomcat service availability. Stopping the service will result in an alert being triggered.



Step Action

1.

In the Operations Console, expand Comtrade Citrix XenMobile and click on XenMobile

Topology.

2. Click on XenMobile Device Manager (MDM).

3. Observe the object health state as well as information in Detail View.

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4. Expand the Task Pane on the right and click on Stop Service under XenMobile Tomcat Service Tasks.

5. Click Run to stop the tomcat service.

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6. Verify the task completed successfully and click Close.

7. Go to XenMobile Alerts on the left.

8. Click the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager Tomcat Service alert to view the Alert

Details. Please note that the alert may take up to 5 minutes for the alert to show.

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9. On the left, switch back to the XenMobile Topology view.

10. Select XenMobile Device Manager.

11. Expand the Task Pane on the right and click Start Service under XenMobile Tomcat

Service Tasks.

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12. Click Run to start the tomcat service.

13. Verify that the task completed successfully and click Close.

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14. Return to the XenMobile Alerts view from the menu on the left.

15. Go to XenMobile Alerts and wait for the alert to clear.

Exercise Summary

This exercise shows that the MP is monitoring the critical XenMobile components and generates an

alert if any issues are found.

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Exercise 2: Device Manager Properties

Overview

This exercise will demonstrate monitoring of the XenMobile device properties such as Rooted devices, weak passwords or memory encryption. This exercise will demonstrate how easily you can detect devices that are not compliant with your policies.



Step Action

1.

On the Student Desktop, switch to Internet Explorer and navigate to

http://192.168.10.26/zdm.

2. Log in as Administrator with password Citrix123.

3. Click the Devices tab.

4. Double-click on the first device in the list.

5. Select the Properties tab.

6. Double-click on Jailbroken/Rooted property.

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7. Select Yes and then click Update.

8. Click OK to close the Edit an android device window.

9. Notice that the Jailbroken/Rooted indicator has turned red in the list of devices .

10. Return to the Operations Console in the Remote Desktop Connection Manager.

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11. On the Alerts page, a new alert for Too many rooted devices will be listed. Click this

alert.

12. Review the Alert Details at the bottom.

13. Right-click on the alert, and open Health Explorer.

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14. In the Health Explorer window, select Rooted Device Compliance Monitor and click on

State Change Events tab.

15. Scroll down and observe the Diagnostic Task Output. Displayed is a list of noncompliant

devices.

16. Close the explorer.

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Exercise Summary The XenMobile MP monitors the mobile devices to make sure they are in compliance. You will be

notified if a particular percentage of the devices are not compliant, plus you can get a list of non-

compliant devices.

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Exercise 3: Performance Views

Overview

This section demonstrates live monitoring of various XenMobile performance parameters. Information on the device performance is collected and shows in real-time.



Step Action

1.

From the Operations Console, Select Device Manager Performance on the left side navigation menu.

2. Select the various XenMobile performance rules from the options at the bottom of the

screen.

3. Review the graph data.

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Exercise Summary

Take a few minutes to review the performance information to see how this is useful to get details

about the overall environment.

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Exercise 4: XenMobile Database Availability

Overview

This exercise will demonstrate monitoring of the XenMobile Database availability. Detaching the database will simulate loss of DB connectivity will result in an alert being triggered.



Step Action

1.

In the Operations Console, switch to XenMobile Topology on the left.

2. Observe the health sate of DB:Sql1.training.lab.

3. From Remote Desktop Connection Manager, double-click sql1 to connect to the sql1

desktop.

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4. Click Start.

5. From the Start Screen, type in SQL to search. Click SQL Server 2014 Management

Studio when it appears.

6. Click Connect.

7. Expand Databases, right-click zdm, mouse over Tasks and click Detach…

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8. In the popup window, check “Drop” checkbox and click OK

9. Return to the scom desktop.

10. Select XenMobile Alerts from the menu on the left side of the Operations Console

window.

11. You should receive Citrix XenMobile Device Manager Database Not Reachable alert,

Click the alert.

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12. Review the Alert Detail.

13. From the Remote Desktop Connection Manger window, switch back to the SQL1 desktop.

14. Right-click on Databases and select Attach.

c

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15. In the Attach Databases window, click Add.

16. Select the zdm.mdf file and click OK.

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17. Click OK in the Attach Databases window.

18. This will restore the connection to XenMobile database, which will remove the alert in the

SCOM console.

Exercise Summary The MP monitors all aspects of the XenMobile environment to give visibility into the critical infrastructure components to the compliance of the mobile devices to the performance information.

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Revision: Change Description Updated By Date

1.0 Original Version John Lee/Adnan Koro/

Evin Safdia May 2015

About Comtrade

Comtrade Management Products is a recognized leader in enterprise application and infrastructure

management for bringing native integration to Microsoft System Center and HP Operations

Manager. Our management product line delivers strong, immediate value for customers and

includes best in class solutions for the entire Citrix stack – XenApp, XenDesktop, XenMobile,

XenServer, NetScaler, StoreFront, Web Interface, Provisioning Services, License Server and

CloudBridge.

About Citrix

Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a cloud company that enables mobile workstyles—empowering people to

work and collaborate from anywhere, securely accessing apps and data on any of the latest

devices, as easily as they would in their own office. Citrix solutions help IT and service providers

build clouds, leveraging virtualization and networking technologies to deliver high-performance,

elastic and cost-effective cloud services. With market-leading cloud solutions for mobility, desktop

virtualization, networking, cloud platforms, collaboration and data sharing, Citrix helps organizations

of all sizes achieve the speed and agility necessary to succeed in a mobile and dynamic world.

Citrix products are in use at more than 330,000 organizations and by over 100 million users

globally. Annual revenue in 2012 was $2.59 billion. Learn more at www.citrix.com.

http://www.citrix.com/

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