Application Launches Test

When a user complains that it is taking too long to launch applications on Citrix, administrators must be able to quickly identify the applications that are being currently accessed by that user, know how much time each application took to launch, and thus pinpoint that application that is the slowest in launching. The Application Launches test provides these valuable insights to the administrators. This test auto-discovers all the applications that are currently launched on the Citrix server, and for each discovered application, reports the average and maximum time that application took to launch. This way, the test points administrators to applications that are slow in launching. Detailed diagnostics provided by the test also reveals the users who are currently accessing the applications and the launch time of the application as perceived by each user session; in the process, the test accurately pinpoints which user was attempting to launch the application when the slowness was observed.

This test is disabled by default. To enable the test, select the Enable/Disable option from the Tests menu of the Agents tile, select Component type as Citrix Virtual Apps, pick this test from the disabled tests list, click the < button, and click Update to save the changes.

Note:

If an application is launched by a user using the Run as Administrator option, this test will not report the launch duration of such an application as the eG agent does not have privileges to track applications launched with administrator privilege.

Target of the test : Any Citrix server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every application (published and non-published) on the Virtual Apps server that is currently launched

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. report by domain name - By default, this flag is set to Yes. This implies that by default, the detailed diagnosis of this test will display the domainname\username of each user who logged into the Citrix server. This way, administrators will be able to quickly determine which user logged in from which domain. If you want the detailed diagnosis to display the username alone, then set this flag to No
  5. server version - By default, this parameter is set to XA6 for this test. Do not change this default setting.
  6. exclude – By default, this parameter is set to none. This means that the test will monitor all the applications that are launched on the Virtual Apps server, by default. If you want the test to disregard certain applications when monitoring, then provide a comma-separated list of process names that correspond to the applications you want to ignore, in the exclude text box. For instance, your specification can be: winword.exe,js.exe,taskmgr.exe. Your specification can include wild card patterns as well. For example: *win*,js*,*task
  7. 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.
  8. 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

Application launches:

Represents the number of instances of this application that have been launched currently.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know which users are currently accessing the application and the time it took for every user to launch the application. 

Launch duration :

Indicates the average time taken by this application to launch.

Secs

Compare the value of this measure across applications to know which application took the longest time to launch. User experience with this application will naturally be poor.

Max time to launch application:

Indicates the maximum time taken by this application to launch.

Secs

Compare the value of this measure across applications to know which application registered the highest launch time during the last measurement period. To know which user’s experience with this delay in launching, use the detailed diagnosis of the Application launches measure.