Citrix Monitor Service Test

The Citrix Monitor Service monitors the Flexcast system. Citrix FlexCast is a delivery technology that allows an IT administrator to personalize virtual desktops to meet the performance, security and flexibility requirements of end users. Currently, there are five different FlexCast models available.  

  • Hosted Shared - hosts multiple user desktops on a single server-based operating system.
  • Hosted VDI - provides each user with their own individual desktop operating systems.
  • Streamed VHD - allows Windows 7, Vista, or XP  desktops to be run locally on an end user’s desktop computer. Desktops are based on a single golden image and provisioned using Provisioning Services.
  • Local VM – allows Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, or XP desktops to run locally within a hypervisor on the end user’s laptop. The virtual desktop image in its entirety is delivered to the hypervisor to allow for offline connectivity.
  • On-Demand Apps - delivers Windows applications from the data center.  Allows software applications to be delivered  online or offline. Does not provide end users with a virtual desktop.

This test periodically monitors the load on the Citrix Monitor 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 execution of transactions on the database

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 the Citrix XenDesktop 7 being 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 host listens to. By default, this is 80.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Database average transaction time

Indicates the average time taken by the service to execute database transactions.

Secs

Ideally, the value of this measure should be low. A high value indicates that the 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 i.e.,whether this service is in contact with the database.

 

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:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Yes 1
No 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values to indicate whether/not the Citrix Monitor 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 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 Monitor Service is executing the transactions.

Errors/Sec

A low value is desired for this measure.

Database transactions

Indicates the rate at which the database transactions are executed by the Citrix Monitor Service.

Trans/Sec