App Volume Details - OS Test
In some virtual desktop infrastructures, hosting of applications is performed using VMware App Volumes to remove, update, or install applications for users in real time. A VMware App Volume is a real-time application delivery system that enterprises can use to dynamically deliver and manage applications. Applications are bundled in AppStacks and delivered by attaching a standard VMDK file to a virtual desktop. The Appstacks are provisioned to the target VDI server using App Volumes Manager (Web-based interface) that is integrated with Active Directory (AD) and vSphere. The App Volumes Manager centrally manages the applications, Appstacks and App Volumes. The 24x7 availability of the App Volumes Manager is imperative to ensure that users have uninterrupted access to the AppStacks that are attached when a user logs in to the target VDI server. If the App Volumes Manager is inaccessible or an AppStack is not attached on time or not attached properly, then, the user experience in accessing the AppStack may seriously suffer. This in turn can impact the productivity of the users and overall user experience with the VDI server. To avoid such inconveniences, it is important for the administrators to continuously monitor the availability of App Volumes Manager and Appstacks attachment to the RDS server. This can be easily achieved using the App Volume Details - OS test.
This test instantly reveals the inaccessibility of the App Volumes Manager which helps administrators to quickly resolve the issue and restore the availability of the App Volumes Manager before the users complain. In the process, this test also reports whether/not all the Appstacks are attached to the RDS server. This way, the test informs administrators of non-attachment of Appstacks (if any). In addition, this test reports the number of Appstacks attached, the applications attached with the Appstacks and the time taken for attaching the Appstacks. By analyzing these measures, administrators can figure out if the Appstacks attachment took longer time than expected, and if it too long, initiate remedial measures to fix the same.
Note:
This test will report the measures only if the applications are provisioned to the target VDI server through VMware App Volumes Manager.
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 Nutanix AHV VDI server
Agent deploying the test : A remote agent
Outputs of the test : One set of results for the target virtual server that is being monitored.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
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Test Period |
How often should the test be executed |
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Host |
The host for which the test is to be configured. |
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Port |
The port at which the specified host listens. By default, this is NULL |
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Prism Element IP |
If the eG manager had discovered the target Nutanix AHV server by connecting to the Nutanix Prism Element, then the IP address of the Nutanix Prism Element server used for discovering this Nutanix AHV server would be automatically displayed against the Prism Element IP parameter; similarly, the Prism Element User and Prism Element Password text boxes will be automatically populated with the Prism Element user credentials, using which Nutanix AHV discovery was performed. If this Nutanix AHV server has not been discovered using the Nutanix Prism Element, but you still want to monitor the Nutanix AHV server via the Prism Element, then select the IP address of the Prism Element server that you wish to use for monitoring the Nutanix AHV server from the Prism Element IP list. By default, this list is populated with the IP address of all Nutanix Prism Element hosts that were added to the eG Enterprise system at the time of discovery. Upon selection, the Prism Element user and Prism Element Password that were pre-configured for that Nutanix Prism Element will be automatically displayed against the respective text boxes. On the other hand, if the IP address of the Prism Element server of interest to you is not available in the list, then, you can add the details of the Prism Element server on-the-fly, by selecting the Other option from the Prism Element IP list. This will invoke the MANAGER DISCOVERY - VIRTUAL PLATFORM SETTINGS page. Refer to the Configuring eG Enterprise to Monitor Nutanix AHV |
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Prism Element User, Prism Element Password and Confirm Password |
If the eG manager had discovered the target Nutanix AHV server by connecting to the Nutanix Prism Element, then the IP address of the Nutanix Prism Element server used for discovering this Nutanix AHV server would be automatically displayed against thePrism Element IP parameter; similarly, the Prism Element User and Prism Element Password text boxes will be automatically populated with the Prism Element user credentials, using which Nutanix AHV discovery was performed. If this Nutanix AHV server has not been discovered using the Nutanix Prism Element, but you still want to monitor the Nutanix AHV server via the Prism Element, then select the IP address of the Prism Element server that you wish to use for monitoring the Nutanix AHV server from the Prism Element IP list. By default, this list is populated with the IP address of all Nutanix Prism Element hosts that were added to the eG Enterprise system at the time of discovery. Upon selection, the Prism Element User and Prism Element Password that were pre-configured for that Prism Element server will be automatically displayed against the respective text boxes. On the other hand, if the IP address of the Prism Element server of interest to you is not available in the list, then, you can add the details of the Prism Element server on-the-fly, by selecting the Other option from the Prism Element IP list. This will invoke the MANAGER DISCOVERY - VIRTUAL PLATFORM SETTINGS page. Refer to the Configuring eG Enterprise to Monitor Nutanix AHV |
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SSL |
By default, the Nutanix Prism Element server is SSL-enabled. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to Yes by default. This indicates that the eG agent will communicate with the Prism Element server via HTTPS by default. |
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WebPort |
By default, the Nutanix Prism Element server listens on port 9440. This implies that while monitoring a Nutanix AHV server via the Prism Element server, the eG agent connects to port 9440. |
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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 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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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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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 |
This flag is set to Yes by default. The value of this flag cannot be changed. This implies that the virtual machines in VDI environments will always be identified using the login name of the user. 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 thereport by user flagis 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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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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Is App Volume manager accessible? |
Indicates whether the App Volumes Manager is currently accessible or not. |
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The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current accessibility status of the App Volumes Manager. The graph of this measure however, is represented using the numeric equivalents only. The detailed diagnosis of this measure reveals the details of the Apps Volume Manager. |
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Total AppStacks attached |
Indicates the total number of AppStacks attached to the VDI server. |
Number |
Appstack is a read-only volume containing one or more Windows applications. Once provisioned, an individual AppStack or multiple AppStacks can be mapped to a user, a group of users, or computers at login, or in real-time and to computers only at the time of startup. The detailed diagnosis of this measure displays the details of the Appstacks attached to the App Volumes Manager. |
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Total applications attached in AppStacks |
Indicates the total number of applications attached in the AppStacks that have been attached to the target VDI server. |
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The detailed diagnosis of this measure displays the details of the applications bundled in the Appstacks. |
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Are all AppStacks attached? |
Indicates whether/not all the appstacks are attached to the target VDI server. |
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The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether all Appstacks are attached to the App Volumes Manager or not. The graph of this measure however, is represented using the numeric equivalents only. |
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All AppStacks attachment time |
Indicates the time taken for attaching the Appstacks to the target VDI server. |
Seconds |
Ideally, a low value is desired for this measure. |
The detailed diagnosis capability of the Is App Volume manager accessible? measure, reveals the IP address of the Apps Volume Manager.
Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the Is App Volume manager accessible? measure
The detailed diagnosis capability of the Total AppStacks attached measure, reveals the IP address detail of the Apps Volume Manager.
Figure 2 : The detailed diagnosis of the Total AppStacks attached measure
The detailed diagnosis capability of the Total applications attached in AppStacks measure, reveals the name of the Appstack to which the applications are bundled with, name and version of the applications, and the name of the application publishers.
Figure 3 : The detailed diagnosis of the Total applications attached in AppStacks measure
The detailed diagnosis of the All AppStacks attachment time measure, displays the time taken during at which each Appstack was attached.
Figure 4 : The detailed diagnosis of the All AppStacks attachment time measure
