Windows Services - OS Test

This test tracks the status (whether running or have stopped) of services executing on Windows virtual machines.

This test is disabled by default for Hyper-V VDI server. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick Hyper-V VDI as the desired Component type, set Performance as the Test type, choose the test from the disabled tests list, and click on the < button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Target of the test : A Hyper-V / Hyper-V VDI server

Agent executing the test : An internal agent

Output of the test : For a Hyper-V server, one set of results will be reported for every powered-on Windows VM on the server.

For a Hyper-V VDI server, one set of results will be reported for the user who is currently logged into each Windows virtual desktop on the server

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test period	This indicates how often should the test be executed.
Host	Specify the HOST for which this test is to be configured.
Port	Specify the port at which the target host is listening. By default, this is NULL
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.
Report By User	For the Hyper-V monitoring model, the Report By User flag is set to No by default, indicating that by default, the guest operating systems on the Hyper-V server are identified using the hostname specified in the operating system. On the other hand, for the Hyper-V VDI model, this flag is set to Yes by default; this implies that in case of VDI servers, by default, the guests will be identified using the login of the user who is accessing the guest OS. 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.
Ignore VMs Inside View	Administrators of some high security Hyper-V 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 Hyper-V 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.
Ignore Services	Provide a comma-separated list of services that need to be ignored while monitoring. When configuring a service name to exclude, make sure that you specify the Display Name of the service, and not the service Name you see in the Services window on your Windows VM.
Ignore Processes in DD	The detailed diagnosis of the Processes using handles above limit in the VM measure reveals the top-10 processes in a VM that are using handles above the configured limit, the number of handles used by each process, and the break-up of the handle count by sub-handles (i.e., the count of file handles, disk handles, etc.). For processes that typically open thousands of handles, storing granular, sub-handle-level information pertaining to these handles may impose additional strain on the eG database. In such cases, you can reduce the strain on the eG database by configuring in the Ignore Processes in DD text box, a comma-separated list of process names/process patterns for which sub-handle-wise breakup need not be collected and stored in the eG database. The default value in this text box is ccSvcHst.exe. This implies that, by default, the detailed diagnosis of the Processes using handles above limit in the VM measure will only provide the total number of open handles for ccSvcHst.exe process, but not the sub-handle-level information. If required, you can choose to exclude the sub-handle-wise breakup from the detailed diagnosis for more processes by including these process names/patterns as part of theIgnore Processes in DD specification. For instance, your specification can be: ccSvcHst.exe,js.exe,java.exe
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 reported by the test:
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
New automatic services started	Indicates the number of Windows services with startup type as automatic, which were running in the last measurement period.	Number	The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the services (with startup type as automatic) that are running.
New automatic services stopped	Indicates the number of Windows services with startup type as automatic, which were not running in the last measurement period.	Number	To know which services stopped, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure (if enabled).
New manual services started	Indicates the number of Windows services with startup type as manual, which were running in the last measurement period.	Number	Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to identify the services that are running.
New manual services stopped	Indicates the number of Windows services with startup type as manual, which stopped running in the last measurement period.	Number	To identify the services that stopped, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

The detailed diagnosis of the New automatic services started measure lists the services that were started recently, the startup type, process ID, and the complete path to the executable that controls the service.

DDnewautomaticservicesstarted-final

Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the New automatic services started measure

The detailed diagnosis of the New automatic services stopped measure lists the services that were stopped recently, the startup type, process ID, and the complete path to the executable that controls the service.

DDnewautomaticservicesstopped-final

Figure 2 : The detailed diagnosis of the New automatic services stopped measure

The detailed diagnosis of the New manual services started measure lists the services that were started recently, the startup type, process ID, and the complete path to the executable that controls the service.

DDnewmanualservicestarted-final

Figure 3 : The detailed diagnosis of the New manual services started measure

The detailed diagnosis of the New manual services stopped measure lists the services that were stopped recently, the startup type, process ID, and the complete path to the executable that controls the service.

DDnewmanualservicesstopped-final

Figure 4 : The detailed diagnosis of the New manual services stopped measure