Citrix Server Test

This test generates statistics relating to a Citrix server.

Target of the test : Any Citrix server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every Citrix server being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
  1. TEST PERIOD – How often should the test be executed
  2. Host – The host for which the test is to be configured
  3. Port Refers to the port used by the Citrix server
  4. separate process - By default, this parameter is set to Auto. This implies that by default, this test auto-discovers the operating system on which the target Citrix server is running. Based on the auto-discovered OS, the test uses either the eG agent process itself to collect the required metrics or spawns a separate process for this purpose. If the target server is discovered to be executing on a Windows 2012(or earlier) platform, then the eG agent process itself will collect the metrics reported by this test. On the other hand, if the target server is found to execute on Windows 2012 (or above), then a separate process is spawned for metrics collection. Alternatively, you can set this flag to true or yes. In this case, metrics collection is performed by a separate process, regardless of the operating system of the Citrix server. If you set this flag to false or no on the other hand, then the eG agent process collects the metrics, regardless of the operating system of the Citrix server.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Application enumerations

Represents the number of application enumerations per second

Enums/Sec

The Citrix Program Neighborhood allows a user to get a listing of all available applications published in the farm.  This enumeration of resources takes place automatically every time the user launches the Citrix Program Neighborhood. This metric reflects the rate of application enumerations. An unusually high number of numerations can slow down a Citrix server.

Application resolutions

Represents the number of application resolutions per second

Resolutions/sec

When the user clicks the link to a published application, the link is resolved to an application. This metric reflects the workload on the server in terms of application accesses. The rate of application resolutions depends on the number of users connecting to the farm, duration for which the average user stays logged on, and the number of published applications. If the rate of application resolutions is excessively high, consider creating multiple zones in the farm to reduce the load on the data collector.

Datastore connection failure:

Indicates how long the Virtual Apps server was disconnected from the datastore.

Mins

The data store of the Virtual Apps server hosts centralized configuration data for a server farm. The data store is critical for central administration of the server farm. Hence, any loss of communication between a Virtual Apps servers and its data store can result in inconsistencies in the configuration data. A high value of this measure is hence a cause for concern as it indicates that the Virtual Apps server has been disconnected from the datastore for a long time.

Datastore reads

The rate of data read from the IMA data store 

KBytes/Sec

This metric reports the workload on the data store. Since it is a central repository for a farm, slowdown of the data store can impact the performance of the farm. Data store traffic is usually high during server startup.

Datastore writes

The rate of data written into the IMA data store

KBytes/Sec

This metric reports the workload on the data store. Since it is a central repository for a farm, slowdown of the data store can impact the performance of the farm.

Dynamic store reads

The rate of data read from the IMA Dynamic store 

KBytes/Sec

The dynamic store maintains information that changes frequently such as current sessions, disconnected sessions, server load, etc. This metric denotes the read rate of data from the dynamic store.

Dynamic store writes

The rate of data written into the IMA Dynamic store 

KBytes/Sec

The dynamic store maintains information that changes frequently such as current sessions, disconnected sessions, server load, etc. This metric denotes the rate at which data is written to the dynamic store.

LH cache reads

The rate of data read from the IMA Local Host Cache 

KBytes/Sec

Each server has a subset of the data store called the local host cache. The local host cache performs two functions:

  • It permits the server to function in the absence of a connection to the data store.
  • Improves performance by caching information used by ICA clients for enumeration and application resolution.

The larger the cache, greater the hits to the cache and fewer data store accesses. Comparing the read rate from the local host cache and the data store, the administrator can assess the cache efficiency.

LH cache writes

The rate of data written into the IMA Local Host Cache written/sec

KBytes/Sec

 

Zone elections

Indicates the number of zone elections that have occurred

Number

Zones in a Citrix farm serve two purposes - (a) to collect data from member servers in a hierarchical structure; (b) efficiently distribute changes to all servers in the farm. The first server in a farm is the data collector of the farm by default. Elections within a zone are used to determine the data collector for the zone. Frequent zone elections in a zone can result in increased network traffic.

Zone elections won

Indicates the number of times a Citrix server has won a zone election

Number