Terminal to Desktop Connection Test

A Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a shared environment in which multiple users connect to desktops hosted by virtual machines executing on a Citrix Hypervisor host from remote terminals. One of the key factors influencing user experience in such an environment is the latency seen by the users when connecting to a virtual desktop. High network latencies or packet losses during transmission can cause significant slow-downs in request processing by the desktop. Hence, monitoring latencies between the virtual desktop and individual client terminals is important.

The Terminal to Desktop Connection test is executed by the eG agent on a Citrix Hypervisor host. This test auto-discovers the virtual desktops on the XenServer, the users who are currently logged on to each of the virtual desktops, and the IP address from which they are connecting to the virtual desktops. For each user, the test monitors the quality of the link between the client and the virtual desktop.

Using this test, an administrator can identify user sessions that are being impacted by high latencies or by excessive packet drops. In some cases, a virtual desktop may regard a user session as active, even though the network link connecting the user terminal to the virtual desktop has failed. The Terminal to Desktop Connection test alerts administrators to such situations.

Note:

This test will work only on Windows VMs.

Target of the test : A Citrix Hypervisor

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of outputs for every user currently connected to the virtual desktop

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port at which the specified host listens. By default, this is NULL.
Xen User, Xen Password and Confirm Password	To enable the eG agent to connect to the XenServer API for collecting statistics of interest, this test should login to the target hypervisor as a root user. Provide the name of the root user in the Xen User text box. Root user privileges are mandatory when monitoring a XenServer 5.5 (or below). However, if you are monitoring XenServer 5.6 (or above) and you prefer not to expose the credentials of the root user, then, you have the option of configuring a user with pool-admin privileges as the Xen User. If you do not want to expose the credentials of a root/pool-admin user, then you can configure the tests with the credentials of a Xen User with Read-only privileges to the XenServer. However, if this is done, then the Xen Uptime test will not run, and the Xen CPU and Xen Memory tests will not be able to report metrics for the control domain descriptor. To avoid such an outcome, do the following before attempting to configure the eG tests with a Xen User who has Read-only privileges to the Citrix Hypervisor: Modify the target hypervisor's configuration in the eG Enterprise. For this, follow the Infrastructure -> Components -> Add/Modify menu sequence, pick Citrix Hypervisor as the Component type, and click the Modify button corresponding to the target hypervisor. In the MODIFY COMPONENT DETAILS page that then appears, make sure that the os is set to Xen and the Mode is set to SSH. Then, in the same page, proceed to provide the User and Password of a user who has the right to connect to the XenServer console via SSH. Then, click the Update button to save the changes. Once this is done, you can configure the eG tests with the credentials of a Xen User with Read-only privileges. The password of the specified Xen User needs to be mentioned in the Xen Password text box. Then, confirm the Xen Password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box.
SSL	By default, the Citrix Hypervisor is not SSL-enabled. This indicates that by default, the eG agent communicates with the target hypervisor using HTTP. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to No by default. If you configure the target hypervisor to use SSL, then make sure that the SSL flag is set to Yes, so that the eG agent communicates with the target hypervisor using HTTPS. Note that a default SSL certificate comes bundled with every Citrix Hypervisor installation. If you want the eG agent to use this default certificate for communicating with an SSL-enabled Citrix Hypervisor, then no additional configuration is required. However, if you do not want to use the default certificate, then you can generate a self-signed certificate for use by the target hypervisor. In such a case, you need to explicitly follow the broad steps given below to enable the eG agent to communicate with the target hypervisor via HTTPS: Obtain the server-certificate for the Citrix Hypervisor Import the server-certificate into the local certificate store of the eG agent For a detailed discussion on each of these steps, refer to the Troubleshooting section of this document.
Inside View Using	By default, this test obtains the “inside view” of VMs using the eG VM Agent. Accordingly, the Inside view using flag is set to eG VM Agent by default. The eG VM Agent is a piece of software, which should be installed on every VM on a hypervisor. Every time the eG agent runs this test, it uses the eG VM Agent to pull relevant 'inside view' metrics from each VM. Once the metrics are collected, the eG agent then communicates with each VM agent and pulls these metrics, without requiring administrator privileges. Refer to Configuring the Remote Agent to Obtain the Inside View of VMs for more details on the eG VM Agent.
Domain, Admin User, and Admin Password, and Confirm Password	By default, these parameters are set to none. This is because, by default, the eG agent collects 'inside view' metrics using the eG VM agent on each VM. Domain administrator privileges need not be granted to the eG agent if it uses this default approach to obtain the 'inside view' of Windows VMs.
Ignore VMs Inside View	Administrators of some high security XenServer environments might not have permissions to internally monitor one/more VMs. The eG agent can be configured to not obtain the 'inside view' of such ‘inaccessible’ VMs using the IGNORE VMS INSIDE VIEW parameter. Against this parameter, you can provide a comma-separated list of VM names, or VM name patterns, for which the inside view need not be obtained. For instance, your IGNORE VMS INSIDE VIEW specification can be: xp,lin,win,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside view of all VMs on a Citrix Hypervisor host by default. Note: While performing VM discovery, the eG agent will not discover the operating system of the VMs configured in the IGNORE VMS INSIDE VIEW text box.
Exclude VMs	Administrators of some virtualized environments may not want to monitor some of their less-critical VMs - for instance, VM templates - both from 'outside' and from 'inside'. The eG agent in this case can be configured to completely exclude such VMs from its monitoring purview. To achieve this, provide a comma-separated list of VMs to be excluded from monitoring in the EXCLUDE VMS text box. Instead of VMs, VM name patterns can also be provided here in a comma-separated list. For example, your EXCLUDE VMS specification can be: xp,lin,win,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside and outside views of all VMs on a virtual host by default. By providing a comma-separated list of VMs/VM name patterns in the EXCLUDE VMS text box, you can make sure the eG agent stops collecting 'inside' and 'outside' view metrics for a configured set of VMs.
Ignore Winnt	By default, the eG agent does not support the inside view for VMs executing on Windows NT operating systems. Accordingly, the IGNORE WINNT flag is set to Yes by default.
Webport	By default, in most virtualized environments, the target hypervisor listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabled) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled). This implies that while monitoring an SSL-enabled Citrix hypervisor, the eG agent, by default, connects to port 443 of the server to pull out metrics, and while monitoring a non-SSL-enabled Citrix hypervisor, the eG agent connects to port 80. Accordingly, the webport parameter is set to 80 or 443 depending upon the status of the ssl flag. In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, against the webport parameter, you can specify the exact port at which the target hypervisor in your environment listens so that the eG agent communicates with that port.
Report by User	While monitoring a Citrix hypervisor, the REPORT BY USER flag is set to No by default, indicating that by default, the guest operating systems on the target hypervisor are identified using the host name specified in the operating system. On the other hand, while monitoring a Citrix hypervisor-VDI, this flag is set to Yes by default; this implies that in case of the Citrix hypervisor-VDI model, by default, the desktops will be identified using the login of the user who is accessing them. In other words, in VDI environments, this test will, by default, report measures for every username_on_virtualmachinename.
Report Powered OS	This flag becomes relevant only if the report by user flag is set to ‘Yes’. If the report powered os flag is set to Yes (which is the default setting), then this test will report measures for even those VMs that do not have any users logged in currently. Such guests will be identified by their virtualmachine name and not by the username_on_virtualmachinename. On the other hand, if the report powered os flag is set to No, then this test will not report measures for those VMs to which no users are logged in currently.
Packet size	The size of packets used for the test (in bytes)
Packet Count	The number of packets exchanged between the virtual desktop and the user terminal during the test
Timeout	How long after transmission should a packet be deemed lost (in seconds)
Packet Interval	Represents the interval (in milliseconds) between successive packet transmissions during the execution of this test.
Report Unavailability	By default, this flag is set to No. This implies that, by default, the test will not report the unavailability of network connection between a user terminal and a virtual desktop. In other words, if the Packet loss measure of this test registers the value 100% for any user, then, by default, this test will not report any measure for that user; under such circumstances, the corresponding user name will not appear as a descriptor of this test. You can set this flag to Yes, if you want the test to report and alert you to the unavailability of network connection between a user terminal and a virtual desktop.

Measurements of the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Number of sessions	Indicates the current number of sessions for a particular user	Number	The value 0 indicates that the user is not currently connected to the virtual desktop.
Average delay	Indicates the average delay between transmission of a request by the agent on a virtual desktop and receipt of the response back from the user terminal.	Secs	Comparing the value of this measure across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who are experiencing higher latency when connecting to a virtual desktop.
Minimum delay	Indicates the minimum delay between transmission of a request by the agent on a virtual desktop and receipt of the response back from the user terminal.	Secs	A significant increase in the minimum round-trip time is often a sure sign of a poor link between the desktop and a user's terminal.
Packet loss	Indicates the percentage of packets lost during data exchange between the virtual desktop and the user terminal.	Percent	Comparing the value of this measure across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who are experiencing slowdowns because of poor performance on the network links between their terminals and the virtual desktop.

Note:

If the same user is connecting to the virtual desktop from multiple client terminals, the value of the Number of sessions, Average delay, and Packet loss measures will be averaged across all the sessions of that user. The Minimum delay measure, on the other hand, will display the least value reported for Minimum delay across all the sessions of that user.
When a user logs out, the number of sessions will be reduced by 1. If the number of user sessions becomes 0, the corresponding entry for that user in the eG user interface will be removed after a short period of time.