Windows Services - VM 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
  1. Test period - How often should the test be executed
  2. Host - The host for which the test is to be configured.
  3. port - The port at which the host listens. By default, this is NULL.

  4. inside view using - By default, this test communicates with every VM remotely and extracts “inside view” metrics. Therefore, by default, the inside view using flag is set to Remote connection to VM (Windows).

    Typically, to establish this remote connection, eG Enterprise requires that the eG agent be configured with domain administrator privileges. In high-security environments, where the IT staff might have reservations about exposing the credentials of their domain administrators, this approach to extracting “inside view” metrics might not be preferred. In such environments therefore, eG Enterprise provides administrators the option to deploy a piece of software called the eG VM Agent on every Windows VM; this VM agent allows the eG agent to collect “inside view” metrics from the Windows VMs without domain administrator rights. Refer to Configuring Windows Virtual Machines to Support theInside View Using the eG VM Agent for more details on the eG VM Agent. To ensure that the “inside view” of Windows VMs is obtained using the eG VM Agent, set the inside view using flag to eG VM Agent (Windows). Once this is done, you can set the domain, admin user, and admin password parameters to none.

  5. domain, admin user, admin password, and confirm password – By default, this test connects to each virtual guest remotely and attempts to collect “inside view” metrics. Accordingly, the inside view using flag is set to Remote connection to VM (Windows) by default. To obtain a remote connection, the test must be configured with the privileges of an administrative user to the domain within which the guests reside. The first step towards this is to specify the DOMAIN within which the virtual guests reside. The admin user and admin password will change according to the domain specification. Discussed below are the different values that the domain parameter can take, and how they impact the admin user and admin password specifications:

    • If the VMs belong to a single domain:  If the guests belong to a specific domain, then specify the name of that domain against the domain parameter. In this case, any administrative user in that domain will have remote access to all the virtual guests. Therefore, an administrator account in the given domain can be provided in the ADMIN USER field and the corresponding password in the ADMIN PASSWORD field. Confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.
    • If the VMs belong to different domains: In this case, you might want to provide multiple domain names. If this is done, then, to access the guests in every configured domain, the test should be configured with the required user privileges; this implies that along with multiple DOMAIN names, multiple ADMIN USER names and ADMIN PASSWORDs would also have to be provided. To help administrators provide these user details quickly and easily, the eG administrative interface embeds a special configuration page. To access this page, simply click on the encircled '+' icon that appears alongside the . To know how to use the special page, refer to Configuring Users for VM Monitoring.
    • If the inside view using flag is set to ‘eG VM Agent (Windows)’: On the other hand, if the inside view using flag is set to eG VM Agent (Windows), then it implies that the inside view can be obtained without domain administrator privileges. Therefore, set the domain, admin user, and admin password parameters to none.
  6. 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.

  7. 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. 

  8. 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.

  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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 the IGNORE PROCESSES IN DD specification. For instance, your specification can be: *ccSvcHst.exe*,*js.exe*,*java.exe*
  13. 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.

  14. DETAILED DIAGNOSIS - To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG suite 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 11 : 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 12 : 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 13 : 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 14 : The detailed diagnosis of the New manual services stopped measure