Manage Appliance - AL Test

Local storage is a layer repository where the Citrix App Layering Manager appliance creates, composites, and stores layers and layered images. The local storage also stores temporary files during the creation of Layers and Layered Images, and for persistent files, for example, Layers and Image Templates. App Layering Services (such as Management service, Layering service and BITS server service) running on the appliance use the local storage for performing their jobs. The lack of adequate, well-tuned storage resources can therefore severely impair service operations and availability. To avoid this, administrators should continuously measure overall storage performance of the App Layering services. The Manage Appliance - AL test helps administrators in this regard!

This test monitors the App Layering Services running on the target appliance and for each service, reports the current status. This test also reveals the amount of local storage utilized by each service and the amount of free space on local storage. By analyzing these metrics, administrators can instantly figure out if any of the services had stopped running due to inadequate storage space at the earliest before users complain.

Target of the test : Citrix App Layering Manager

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each App Layering Service running o the target Citrix App Layering Manager.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The IP address of the host for which the test is being configured.

Port

The port at which the host listens. By default, this is 443.

Username and Password

To pull out metrics, this test needs to be configured with credentials of a user with Read-only permissions to the target appliance. Specify the Username and Password of such a user in the Username and Password text boxes.

Confirm Password

Confirm the Password by retyping it here.

Domain

Specify the name of the domain to which the specified user belongs to. For instance, eginnovations\mpriya.

SSL

Indicate whether/not Citrix App Layering Manager is SSL-enabled. By default, this flag is set to No.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise 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. 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:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Status

Indicates the current status of this service.

 

The values that this measure reports and their corresponding numeric values are listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Running 10

Need attention

5
Not running 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values discussed in the table above. However, the graph of this measure is indicated using the numeric equivalents only.

Total local storage

Indicates the total amount of local storage allocated for this service.

GB

 

Used local storage

Indicates the amount of local storage utilized by this service.

GB

A low value is desired for this measure.

Available local storage

Indicates the amount of local storage that available for use by this service.

GB

A high value is preferred for this measure.

Local storage usage

Indicates the percentage of local storage utilized by this service.

Percent

A value close to 100% indicates that the storage space allocated for the service is being depleted rapidly.