Citrix VDA Status - OS Test
Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) is installed on a virtual machine that runs the applications or virtual desktops for the user. The VDA enables connections between the applications/desktops and the users only when the connections are brokered by Citrix. The VDA enables the virtual machines to register with Delivery Controllers and manage the High Definition experience (HDX) connection to a user device. If the VDA failed to register with a delivery controller, it would not be possible for the delivery controller to broker a connection to the target virtual machine. The target virtual machine would therefore become an unusable resource. The VDA issues with respect to registration are logged in the event log of the target virtual server. Some of the most common issues that are logged into the event log are the virtual desktop not added to the correct desktop farm, the virtual desktop firewall not configured properly, DNS configuration failure, Time synchronization failure, WCF failure etc. The eG agent integrates with the XDPing to collect the metrics that details on what exactly was the reason behind the registration issues i.e., what was the service that failed. The Citrix VDA Status - OS test helps administrators to figure out which service has failed leading to VDA registration issues!
This test monitors the VDA installed on the target virtual machine and reports whether the services such as user authentication, active directory authentication, DNS lookup, WCF endpoints etc are successful or not. This test also reports the errors and warnings available in the event log when registration failure occurs.
Note:
This test reports metrics only if the connections to the applications and desktops are brokered via Citrix XenDesktop 7.x.
This test is disabled by default. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick 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 server
Agent deploying the test : A remote agent
Outputs of the test : One set of results for the virtual machine monitored.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
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Test period |
This indicates how often should the test be executed. |
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Host |
Specify the HOST for which this test is to be configured. |
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Port |
Specify the port at which the target host is listening. By default, this is NULL |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Report Powered ON |
You can set the Report Powered ON status to Yes, so that the test reports an additional measure, Is VM powered on?, revealing whether a guest OS is currently running or not. The default status of this flag is set to Yes for a Hyper-V server. For a Hyper-V VDI server on the other hand, the default status of this flag is No. This is because, in such environments, the virtual desktops will be in the powered-off state most of the time. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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:
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| Measurement | Description | Measurement Unit | Interpretation | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Machine account status |
Indicates the current status of the account of the machine on which the VDA was installed. |
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The values that this measure can report and its corresponding numeric equivalents are listed in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current status of the account of the machine. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only. |
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User authentication status |
Indicates the current status of the User authentication service. |
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The values that this measure can report and its corresponding numeric equivalents are listed in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current status of the user authentication service. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only. |
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Domain controller time sync status |
Indicates the current status of the Domain controller time sync service. |
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The values that this measure can report and its corresponding numeric equivalents are listed in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current status of the Domain controller time sync service. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only. |
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WCF endpoint status |
Indicates the current status of the WCF endpoint service. |
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The values that this measure can report and its corresponding numeric equivalents are listed in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current status of the WCF endpoint service. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only. |
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VDA windows service status |
Indicates the current status of the VDA Windows service. |
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The values that this measure can report and its corresponding numeric equivalents are listed in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current status of the VDA Windows service. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only. |
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DNS lookup status |
Indicates the current status of the DNS lookup service. |
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The values that this measure can report and its corresponding numeric equivalents are listed in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current status of the DNS lookup service. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only. |
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Windows firewall status |
Indicates the current status of the Windows firewall service. |
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The values that this measure can report and its corresponding numeric equivalents are listed in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current status of the Windows firewall service. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only. |
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Registration status |
Indicates the registration status of the VDA. |
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The values that this measure can report and its corresponding numeric equivalents are listed in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the registration status of the VDA. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only. |
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Has valid license? |
Indicates whether the VDA license is valid or not. |
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The values that this measure can report and its corresponding numeric equivalents are listed in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether the license is valid or not. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only. |
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Errors in event log in last one hour |
Indicates the number of errors detected in the event log for the server during the last 1 hour. |
Number |
Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0. |
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Warnings in event log in last one hour |
Indicates the number of warning messages that were logged in the event log for the server during the last 1 hour. |
Number |
Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0. |
