WCF EndPoints Test

The Windows Communication Foundation (or WCF) is an application programming interface (API) in the .NET Framework for building connected, service-oriented applications.

WCF is designed in accordance with service oriented architecture principles to support distributed computing where services are consumed by consumers. Clients can consume multiple services and services can be consumed by multiple clients. Services are loosely coupled to each other. Services typically have a WSDL interface (Web Services Description Language) which any WCF client can use to consume the service, irrespective of which platform the service is hosted on. WCF implements many advanced web services (WS) standards such as WS-Addressing, WS-ReliableMessaging and WS-Security.

A WCF client connects to a WCF service via an Endpoint. Each service exposes its contract via one or more endpoints. An endpoint has an address, which is a URL specifying where the endpoint can be accessed, and binding properties that specify how the data will be transferred.

Communication between virtual desktop machines and DDC controllers uses Microsoft’s WCF. If virtual desktops are unable to connect to the WCF endpoints or cannot consume the services provided by the endpoints, then virtual desktop registration will fail; consequently, users may be denied access to critical desktops. 

Using this test, you can be promptly alerted to the unavailability of any WCF endpoint or the inability of virtual desktops to consume services provided by any endpoint.

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 each WCF endpoint providing communication services between the DDC and virtual desktops.

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.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Connection status

Indicates whether connection to this endpoint is available or not.

 

This measure reports the value Ok if the connection to the endpoint is available. The value Error, on the other hand, is reported if the connection to the endpoint is unavailable. The numeric values that correspond to the above-mentioned states are as follows:

State Numeric Value
Ok 1
Error 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned states to indicate whether connection to the endpoint is available or not. However, the graph of this measure will represent the states using their corresponding numeric equivalents only – i.e., 0 and 1.

Service status

Indicates whether virtual desktops are able to consume services provided by this endpoint.

 

This measure reports the value Ok if the endpoint services are available for consumption. The value Error, on the other hand, is reported if the endpoint services cannot be consumed. The numeric values that correspond to the above-mentioned states are as follows:

State Numeric Value
Ok 1
Error 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned states to indicate whether endpoint services can be consumed or not. However, the graph of this measure will represent the states using their corresponding numeric equivalents only – i.e., 0 and 1.

Note:

This test integrates with XDPing to report metrics. The XDPing tool is a command-line based application which automates the process of checking for the causes of common configuration issues in a XenDesktop environment. The tool can be used to verify configuration settings on both the XenDesktop Broker and VDA machines, both from the console and remotely.

To enable the eG agent to integrate with XDPing, you need to download the XDPing tool from the URL: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX123278, and then, copy it to the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\eGurkha\bin directory on the agent host.