Citrix PVS Target Test

A device, such as a desktop computer or a virtual machine, that boots and gets its OS image from a PVS virtual disk on the network, is considered a target device. After a target device is created in a Citrix farm, the target device is turned on and configured to boot from the network and communicate to the Citrix Provisioning Server. Then, a virtual disk (vDisk) is assigned to the target device, and a bootstrap file is configured to provide the required information for the target device to boot from the assigned vDisk. The target devices boot whenever the configuration settings are changed/updated. Whenever a target device boots, it should boot quickly without consuming more data on the disk. This will avoid significant delays in offering applications and delivering services to end users. If the target devices are taking prolonged duration to boot from the assigned disk on the network, then the applications on the devices may become unavailable to users, which in turn will seriously impact experience of the users with the target devices. To avoid this, administrators should continuously monitor the target devices for any delays and excessive data usage during booting process. The Citrix PVS Target test can help administrators in this regard!

This test auto-discovers the target devices connected to the Virtual Apps server and, for each target device, reveals the amount of data that is read and written during the boot process. In addition, this test also captures how long each target device took to boot from the assigned disk and the number of times that each target device retried to boot. This way, administrators can instantly identify the target device that is slow during the boot process and inquire the reason and resolve the same at the earliest.

Target of the test : Citrix Virtual Apps Server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each target device connected to the Citrix Virtual Apps server that is to be monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed. By default, this is 15 minutes.

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 6:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD Frequency.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Read data

Indicates the amount of data read during the boot phase of this target device.

MB

Comparison across the target devices will reveal the target device that read maximum data during booting process.

Write data

Indicates the amount of data written during the boot phase of this target device.

MB

Comparison across the target devices will reveal the target device that read maximum data during booting process.

Retry count

Indicates the number of times that this target device attempted to boot.

Number

 

Boot time

Indicates the time taken by this target device to boot.

Seconds

The value of this measure should be very less.

Volume size

Indicates the total size of the volume allocated to this target device.

MB