Virtual Desktops Agents Test

The Virtual Desktop Agent runs on the computers that host the virtual desktops you want to deliver to your users. It provides the ICA service that manages communication between virtual desktops and endpoint devices, and between virtual desktops and delivery controllers. Without this agent, the DDC will not be able to communicate with virtual desktops. It is therefore essential to periodically verify the availability of the virtual desktop agent. This test enables administrators to run this availability check on each virtual desktop within each desktop group managed by the DDC.

Target of the test : A Citrix Delivery Controller v3/4

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every virtual desktop managed by the Citrix Delivery Controller v3/4.

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 set to 80.
Virtual Desktop Agent Port	Specify the port using which the DDC connects to the virtual desktops. By default, 8080 is displayed here.
Report By Groupname	By default, this flag is set to Yes, indicating that this test reports a set of measures for every desktopgroup:virtualdesktop combination, by default. To ensure that this test reports a set of measures for every virtualdesktop alone, set this flag to No.
Only PoweredOn VMs	By default, this flag is set to Yes, indicating that this test reports the availability of the virtual desktop agent on powered-on VMs alone. To know the availability of this agent on powered-off VMs as well, set this flag to No.
Report by Controller Name	By default, this flag is set to Yes. This implies that every desktopgroup:virtualdesktop pair for which this test reports metrics will be prefixed by the controllername as well. Every descriptor will hence be of the following format by default: Controllername->desktopgroup:virtualdesktop. If you want to remove the controllername prefix from the descriptors, then, set this flag to No.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Virtual desktop agent availability	Indicates whether the virtual desktop agent is available on this virtual desktop within this group.	Percent	While the value 100 indicates that the virtual desktop agent is available, the value 0 indicates that it is currently unavailable. If a virtual desktop agent is unavailable, DDC will not be able to communicate with the corresponding virtual desktop, thereby affecting the quality of the user experience with the XenDesktop solution. Note that if a virtual desktop agent is available, but the desktop is in maintenance mode, then the value of this measure will be 100. However, if the virtual desktop agent is currently unavailable, and the virtual desktop is in the maintenance mode, then this measure will report Not available.