Connector Status - Cloud Test

The Citrix Cloud Connector serves as a channel for communication between Citrix Cloud and resource locations, enabling cloud management without requiring any complex networking or infrastructure configuration. The connector removes all the hassle of managing delivery infrastructure and enables you to manage and focus on the resources that provide value to end users.

To maintain highly available connection to Citrix Cloud Control Plane and to manage load, two or more Cloud Connectors are installed in each of the resource locations. If one Cloud Connector is unavailable for any period of time, the other Cloud Connectors can maintain the connection. Connectivity between the connector and the control plane may get lost due to various reasons such as when the connector is in maintenance mode or the version of connector is outdated or the type of connector is not compatible, etc. Anyway, unavailability of connection between the Cloud Connector and the Citrix Cloud Control Plane will deny access to resources in the resource locations to run critical applications on the cloud. This can have an adverse impact on the user experience with the site. To avoid this, administrators should periodically check the connectivity between the connectors and the site, proactively detect potential problematic reasons, and immediately initiate measures to pre-empt such abnormalities. This is what the Connector Status - Cloud test does.

This test auto-discovers the connectors that connect the resource locations and the target site, and for each connector, reports the current status, type, and overall status. These metrics help administrators to instantly find out whether each connector is connected to the target control plane or not. In the process, this test also reveals whether maintenance is enabled for each connector or not. and whether each connector is up-to date. In addition, this test, for Summary descriptor, reports the total count of connectors on each resource location, the count of connectors that are connected to the target site and disconnected from the target site, the number of connectors that are enabled with maintenance and disabled with upgrade.

Target of the test : A Citrix Cloud Control Plane

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every pair of resource location:cloud connector that is connected to the target Citrix Cloud Control Plane

This test also reports a set of measures for Summary descriptor.

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 this test is to be configured.

Port

Refers to the port at which the specified host listens to.

Customer ID

When configuring the Citrix Cloud service, you should have created an API client on the cloud, so that any external program can communicate with the cloud. This API client is tied to a customer ID. The Citrix Cloud API requires this customer ID, when calling REST APIs. To determine the customer ID that is mapped to the API client you created, refer to Determining the Customer ID Mapped to an API Client.

Secure Client File Path

When creating the API client on the cloud, you will be provided with an ID and a Secret for your client. Downloading this information saves a file named secureclient.csv. The eG agent uses the ID and Secret stored in this file to connect to the Citrix Cloud API. This is why, you will have to configure the Citrix Cloud Connectivity test with the full path to the secureclient.csv.

Note:

Before specifying the path of the secureclient.csv file, make sure that the API client is created and this file downloaded by a valid Citrix cloud user with Read-only administrator rights to virtual apps/desktops. To know how to create this user on the cloud, refer to theCreating a New Citrix Cloud User for Monitoring PurposestopicTo know how this user can create an API client on the cloud, refer to Creating API Client on the Citrix Cloud.

Proxy Host and Proxy Port

If the Citrix Cloud Connector communicates with the Citrix Cloud via a proxy, then, you also need to configure the eG agent on the connector with the proxy server details. This will enable the eG agent to connect to the Citrix cloud without a glitch, and pull metrics. To facilitate this communication. do the following:

  • Specify the IP address/fully-qualified host name of the proxy server, against PROXY HOST.

  • Specify the port at which the Proxy server listens for requests from the eG agent, against PROXY PORT.

By default, both these parameters are set to none, indicating that the eG agent does not communicate with the Citrix Cloud via a proxy.

Note:

  • Before configuring these test parameters, make sure that the proxy server settings are imported to the eG agent side from the connector. To know how to achieve this, refer to Configuring the eG Agent with Proxy Server Settings.

  • To know what values you should configure these parameters with, do the following:

    • Login to the system hosting the Citrix Cloud Connector being monitored.

    • Open the Internet Explorer browser on that system, and click on the icon provided at the right corner of that browser.

    • Clicking the icon will invoke a menu. Choose Internet Optionsfrom the menu. Then, select the Connections tab in the Internet Options window that appears.

    • Now, click the LAN Settings button. This will open the Local Area Network (LAN) Settings window. In the Proxy Server section of this window, you will find that the Use a proxy server for your LAN check box is enabled. Configure the PROXY HOST and PROXY PORT parameters with the IP address and port numbers displayed in the Address and Port text boxes (respectively) under that check box.

    • If the Use a proxy server for your LAN check box is not enabled, then it means that the connector is not communicating with the cloud via a proxy. In this case, you need not change the default configuration for these parameters.

Region Endpoint

By default, US is chosen from this list indicating that this test will report metrics for those organizations whose users and resources are located in the United States region. Sometimes, the eG agent may collect the required metrics with a minor time delay due to the users and resources being monitored are in a different region. To avoid such time delays and to ensure end-user proximity and offer the best user experience, administrators are allowed to change the region based on where most of the users and resources are located. For instance, if the users and resources are located in the Asia-Pacific South region or approximately nearer to the Asia-Pacific South region, then, administrators need to choose 'AP-S' from this list. However, from this list, administrators are required to choose only the region that they had chosen when they signed in for the first time after onboarding their organization to the target Citrix Cloud.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Status

Indicates the current status of this connector in this resource location.

 

The numeric values that correspond to the above-mentioned measure values are as follows:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Connected 1
Disconnected 2
Unknown 3

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the current status of each connector. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure if enabled, reveals the fully qualified domain name and ID of the connector, the type and current and overall status of the connector, the current status of connector version, the current and expected versions of the connector, whether the connector is in maintenance mode or not, whether upgrade is disabled for the connector or not and the resource location of the connector.

Overall status

Indicates the overall status of this connector.

 

The numeric values that correspond to the above-mentioned measure values are as follows:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Good 1
Warning 2
Error 3
Outdated 4
Unknown 5

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the overall status of each connector. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure if enabled, displays the details about the alerts such as the type of object for which the alert was raised, the ID, type and title of the alert, etc.

Connector type

Indicates the type of this connector.

 

The numeric values that correspond to the above-mentioned measure values are as follows:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Windows 1
Unified 2
Undefined 3

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the type of each connector. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents.

Version state

Indicates the current version status of this connector.

 

The numeric values that correspond to the above-mentioned measure values are as follows:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Normal 1
Outdated 2
Hotfix 3
NotInstalled 4
Unknown 5

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the version status of each connector. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents.

Is maintenance enabled?

Indicates whether/not maintenance is enabled for this connector.

 

The numeric values that correspond to the above-mentioned measure values are as follows:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Yes 1
No 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating whether/not maintenance is enabled for each connector. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents.

Is upgrade disabled?

Indicates whether/not upgrade is disabled for this connector.

 

The numeric values that correspond to the above-mentioned measure values are as follows:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Yes 1
No 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating whether/not upgrade is disabled for each connector. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents.

Is connector upto date?

Indicates whether/not this connector is upto date.

 

The numeric values that correspond to the above-mentioned measure values are as follows:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Yes 1
No 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating whether/not each connector is upto date. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents.

The following measures are reported only for Summary descriptor.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Total connectors

Indicates the total number of connectors available in this resource location.

Number

 

Connected connectors

Indicates the number of connectors that are currently connected to the target cloud site from this resource location.

Number

 

Percent of connected connectors

Indicates the percentage of connectors connected to the target cloud site from this resource location.

Percent

 

Disconnected connectors

Indicates the number of connectors disconnected from the target cloud site.

Number

 

Maintenance enabled connectors

Indicates the number of connectors that are enabled with maintenance policies.

Number

 

Upgrade disabled connectors

Indicates the number of connectors for which the upgrade is disabled on this resource location.

Number