Applications Test

With XenDesktop 7, you provide users with access to information by publishing the following types of resources that can be virtualized on servers or desktops:

• Applications installed on servers running Delivery Controller - 5. When users access them, the published applications appear to be running locally on client devices.
• Streamed applications installed in application profiles and stored on a file server in your App Hub. Users access the profile and virtualize the applications on their client desktops.
• Data files such as Web pages, documents, media files, spreadsheets, and URLs. In XenApp, the combined total of data types you publish is referred to as content.
• The server desktops, so users can access all of the resources available on the server.

All these types of resources are called Published applications.

Whenever users to a virtual desktop complain that they are unable to access one/more published applications, administrators should be able to quickly troubleshoot and figure out the reason for this – is it because the application is disabled on the site? Or is it because the application is not even visible to users?

In addition, administrators should also be able to periodically check how popular an application is (in terms of usage) and accordingly reset its CPU priority level, so that such applications always command more CPU resources and users  have no problems accessing or continuously using such applications.

The Applications test enables users to perform these checks. This test points administrators to applications that are currently enabled on the site and those applications that are not visible to the users. In addition, this test reports the number of instances of an application that is currently running and the CPU priority level of each application, so that administrators can accurately isolate popular applications and their CPU priority level.

Target of the test : A Citrix Delivery Controller 7.x

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each application that is to be monitored.

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. By default, this is 80.
Username	In order to monitor the target Delivery Controller 7, eG requires a special user with the following privileges; The All scope and read-only privileges The Allow log on locally security privilege on the Delivery Controller host The steps for assigning such privileges to a user are discussed in the Pre-requisites for monitoring the Citrix Delivery Controller 7.x. Specify the name of such a user, here.
Password	Specify the password for the user specified in the Username text box, here.
Confirm Password	Confirm the Password by retyping it here.
Domain	Here, specify the domain to which the user specified in the Username text box belongs to.
Show Site Wise Information	By default, this flag is set to Yes, indicating that the monitored server is the site server of a broker site. For a server which is a site, this test will report metrics at the site-level - accordingly, a set of metrics will be reported for each delivery group managed by every broker in the site. On the other hand, if the monitored broker is only a member of a site and not the site server, then set this flag to No. In this case, the test will not report any metrics.
DD Frequency	Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD Frequency.
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
Is application enabled?	Indicates whether/not this application is enabled on this site.		The values that this measure reports and their corresponding numeric values are: Measure Value Numeric Value No 0 Yes 1 Note: By default, this measure reports the values Yes or No while indicating whether the application is enabled or not in this site. However, the graph of this measure will represent the same using the corresponding numeric equivalents of 0 and 1 only. The detailed diagnosis of this measure if enabled, lists the name and type of the application, the location of the program file and the working directory.
Is application visible to users?	Indicates whether/not this application is visible to the users of this site.		The values that this measure reports and their corresponding numeric values are: Measure Value Numeric Value No 0 Yes 1 Note: By default, this measure reports the values Yes or No while indicating whether the application is visible or not in this site. However, the graph of this measure will represent the same using the corresponding numeric equivalents of 0 and 1 only.
Instances currently running	Indicates the number of instances of this application that are currently running in this site.	Number	Comparing the value of this measure across all the applications will help you to identify the application that is most often used by the users. The detailed diagnosis of this measure if enabled, lists the name of the application, the application type, the name of the catalog and delivery group to which the machine belongs, the zone to which the delivery group belongs, the machine ID, the user accessing the application, the client name and IP address, the protocol used for establishing the session, the start time of the session, the number of sessions – if the session is a Single session or a Multiple session etc.
CPU priority level	Indicates the priority level that is set for the resource usage of this application.		The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are: Measure Value Numeric Value Low 0 Below Normal 1 Normal 2 Above Normal 3 High 4 Note: By default, this measure reports the above mentioned values while indicating the priority level with which the application has to be processed. However, the graph of this measure will represent the same using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.

The detailed diagnosis of the Is application enabled? measure lists the name and type of the application, the location of the program file and the working directory.

Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the Is application enabled? measure

The detailed diagnosis of the Instances currently running measure lists the name of the application, the name of the application, the application type, the name of the catalog and delivery group to which the machine belongs to, the machine ID, the user accessing the application, the client name and IP address, the protocol used for establishing the session, the start time of the session, the number of sessions – if the session is a Single session or a Multiple session etc.

Figure 2 : The detailed diagnosis of the Instances currently running measure