WEM CPU Management Test

Workspace Environment Management (WEM) uses intelligent resource (RAM, CPU, and I/O) and profile management technologies to deliver the best performance, desktop logon, and application response times for Citrix Virtual Apps/XenDesktop deployments. CPU Management Settings offered by WEM lets you limit CPU capacity that cab used by individual processes in the Virtual Apps environment where a large number of processes are running across all cores and using up as much CPU as they require. CPU spike protection feature of WEM CPU Management Settings is designed to reduce the impact on user experience by processes that consume an excessive percentage of CPU. When CPU spike protection is enabled, if a process reaches a specified threshold, WEM automatically lowers the priority of the process for a certain time. Then, when a new application is launched, it has a higher priority than the lower-priority process and the system will continue to run smoothly. Likewise, CPU clamping feature in WEM prevents processes using more than a specified percentage of the CPU’s processing power. If a process reaches the specified CPU percentage, WEM “throttles” (or “clamps”) that process, thus preventing processes from consuming large amount of CPU. This way, overall VM performance degradation due to CPU heavy processes can be prevented, and user experience can be improved in the Virtual Apps/XenDesktop environment where all users would be effected by a rogue process consuming too much CPU.

To obtain a clear picture of the impact of CPU management features of WEM on Virtual Apps / XenDesktop VM performance, you can use the WEM CPU Management test. This test reports the total number of processes and the unique processes that are affected by CPU spike protection feature. These metrics help you find out how many CPU-intensive processes are currently running in the environment. In the process, this test also reveals the configured CPU usage limit, how long the CPU usage limit is being violated by the processes and how long the processes are at lower priority due to violation of CPU usage limit. This way, the test alerts you if the priority of any process has been reduced because of CPU Spikes Protection. Besides, this tests also captures the count of processes that have been throttled owing to CPU clamping.

Target of the test : A Citrix Virtual Apps server

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Citrix Virtual Apps server that is being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed. By default, this is 5 minutes.

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

Port

Refers to the port used by the target Citrix Virtual Apps server . By default, this is set to 1494.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. 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

Processes affected by WEM CPU spikes protection

Indicates the total number of processes affected by WEM CPU spikes protection.

Number

A high value for this measure indicates that more number of CPU-intensive processes are running in the Virtual Apps environment.

Unique process affected by WEM CPU spikes protection

Indicates the number of unique processes affected by WEM CPU spikes protection.

Number

 

CPU usage limit

Indicates the percentage of CPU usage that any process instance must reach to trigger CPU spike protection.

Percent

This limit is global across all logical processors in the server, and is determined on an instance-by-process basis. Multiple instances of the same process do not have their CPU usage percentage added when determining CPU spike protection triggers. If a process instance never reaches this limit, CPU spike protection will not be triggered.

Limit sample time

Indicates the time period during which a process exceeds the CPU usage limit before its CPU priority is lowered.

Seconds

 

Idle priority time

Indicates the time period during which the CPU priority of the process is lowered.

Seconds

 

Processes configured for CPU clamping

Indicates the number of processes configured with CPU clamping.

Number

CPU clamping is best reserved for controlling processes that are notoriously bad at resource management, but that cannot stand to be dropped in priority.

CPU Clamping prevents a process from consuming more than a set percentage of a processor’s resources.

Processes throttled by WEM CPU clamping

Indicates the number of processes throttled by WEM CPU clamping as they exceeded the configured CPU usage percentage.

Number