Citrix Broker Service Test
The Citrix Broker Service brokers connections from endpoint devices to desktops and applications. By closely monitoring how this service interacts with the broker’s MS SQL database, you can be forewarned of potential delays in servicing user requests for desktops.
This test periodically monitors the load on the Citrix Broker Service, the connectivity between the service and the database, and the health of transactions performed by the service on the database, so that you can receive real-time updates on the following:
- The sudden unavailability of connection to the database;
- A service overload;
- Failure of transactions to the database;
- Delays in the completion of transactions on the database
Target of the test : A Citrix Delivery Controller 5.x
Agent deploying the test : An internal agent
Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Delivery Controller being monitored.
| 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 DDC listens to. |
| Measurement | Description | Measurement Unit | Interpretation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Brokered sessions |
Indicates the number of virtual desktop sessions that are brokered by the Citrix Broker Service. |
Number |
This is a good indicator of the load handled by the service. |
||||||
|
Database average transaction time |
Indicates the average time taken by the broker to execute a database transaction from the Citrix Broker Service. |
Secs |
Ideally, the value of this measure should be low. A high value indicates that the broker service is taking too much time to execute transactions on the database; this can cause significant delays in connection brokering. |
||||||
|
Is database connected? |
Indicates whether the database is connected or not. |
|
This measure reports the value Yes if the database is connected and No if it is not. The numeric values that correspond to these measure values are as follows:
Note: By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values to indicate whether/not the Citrix Broker service is connected to the database. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents – 1 and 0 only. If the database is unavailable, the broker service may not be able to perform critical database transactions; this may adversely impact the user experience with the service and with the broker as a whole. |
||||||
|
Database transaction errors |
Indicates the rate at which the database transactions are failing while the Citrix Broker Service is executing the transactions. |
Trans/Sec |
A low value is typically desired for this measure. |
||||||
|
Database transactions |
Indicates the rate at which the database transactions are executed by the Citrix Broker Service. |
Trans/Sec |
|
||||||
|
Deregistration requests |
Indicates the number of de-registration requests received by the Citrix Broker Service from the virtual desktops. |
Number/req |
|
||||||
|
Expired launches |
Indicates the rate at which virtual desktops are timed out while waiting to be connected to the clients, as detected by the Citrix Broker Service. |
Launches/Sec |
|
||||||
|
Expired registrations |
Indicates the number of virtual desktop registrations that have expired. |
Number |
|
||||||
|
Expired registrations per sec |
Indicates the rate at which virtual desktop registrations with Citrix Broker Service expire, through inactive communication. |
Registrations/Sec |
|
||||||
|
Hard registrations |
Indicates the rate at which the virtual desktop agents are hard-registered i.e., forcefully registered with the Citrix Broker Service. |
Registrations/Sec |
|
||||||
|
Registration average request time |
Indicates the average time taken to process a virtual desktop registration request in Citrix Broker Service. |
Secs |
If the value of this measure increases consistently, it denotes that the registration process is bottlenecked. If the situation is allowed to persist, it can seriously hamper user experience with the desktop service. |
||||||
|
Registration rejects |
Indicates the rate at which the Citrix Broker Service rejects registration requests from virtual desktops. |
Rejects/Sec |
|
||||||
|
Registration requests |
Indicates the number of registration requests received by the Citrix Broker Service from the virtual desktops. |
Number |
|
||||||
|
Registration requests per sec |
Indicates the rate at which the Citrix Broker Service receives registration requests from the virtual desktops. |
Requests/Sec |
|
||||||
|
Soft registrations |
Indicates the rate at which virtual desktop agents are soft-registered i.e., registered during installation with the Citrix Broker Service. |
Registrations/Sec |
|
||||||
|
Icon cache writes |
Indicates the number of icons cached for connection leasing by the Citrix Broker Service. |
Number |
For best performance, user connections to regularly used icons should be in the cache. However, if the cache does not have adequate space, then very few user connections will be cached - sometimes, many of the regular connections themselves may not be in the cache. In such a situation, if the database becomes unavailable, many application/desktop launches will fail owing to the absence of cached connections. Therefore, to ensure that the value of this measure remain high - i.e., to ensure that sufficient user connections to icons are present in the cache - you need to make sure that the cache is adequately sized. |
||||||
|
Lease sync skipped |
Indicates number of lease cache synchronization cycles that were skipped as a result of the previous cycle not completing on time. |
Number |
The leases generated on each Controller are uploaded to the Site database for periodic synchronization to other Controllers on the Site. If a non-zero value is reported by this measure, it means that one/more synchronizations have been missed. This in turn implies that outdated lease information is at the disposal of the other controllers on the site. This in turn can cause inconsistencies in connection leasing behavior across the site. |
||||||
|
Lease uploads |
Indicates the number of leases uploaded and synchronized across the site for connection leasing by the Citrix Broker Service. |
Number |
Ideally, the value of this measure should be high. |
||||||
|
Lease writes |
Indicates the number of leases cached for connection leasing by the Citrix Broker Service. |
Number |
|
