Desktop EDT Performance - OS Test

Adaptive Transport – a new transport mechanism for virtual servers is faster, reliable and more scalable, and improves application interactivity and quickly delivers HDX content to users on long-haul WAN and Internet over UDP or TCP. While TCP is a default choice for HDX content delivery, Adaptive Transport uses an enhanced version of UDP as the primary data transport protocol i.e., Enlightened Data Transport (EDT) protocol to overcome shortfalls of TCP. This mechanism has been built with the intelligence to automatically understand network conditions and react to changes dynamically. Based on dynamic determination of conditions where TCP would perform better, or should the network not support UDP, or in the event of an EDT failure, the ICA virtual channels intelligently switch from EDT to TCP automatically. Automatic fallback to TCP ensures that there is no connection timeout, faster and uninterrupted session connectivity for the users on WAN and increased session reliability. These benefits make the EDT a standard data transport protocol for HDX content delivery in the virtual environments. With such great user impact, monitoring the performance of sessions that are established via EDT becomes inevitable for administrators. Before a user complains about a problem on an EDT session, administrators need to have the capability to continuously monitor EDT performance and connectivity, and isolate bottlenecks for proactive troubleshooting. This is where the Virtual Desktop EDT Performance - OS test helps!

This test auto-discovers the virtual desktop user sessions that use the EDT protocol, and reports the bandwidth usage, network traffic, and latency of each such session. Using these performance metrics, administrators can measure the experience of users connected over EDT, and accurately isolate bandwidth-hungry and latent user sessions.

Note:

This test will report metrics only if the following configuration is available in the environment:

  • XenApp and XenDesktop 7.13 and above

  • VDA for Desktop OS 7.13 and above

  • VDA for Server OS 7.13 and above

  • StoreFront 3.9 and above

  • Citrix Workspace App for Windows 4.7 and above

  • Citrix Workspace App for Mac 12.5 and above

  • Citrix Workspace App for iOS 7.2 and above

  • IPv4 VDAs only. IPv6 and mixed IPv6 and IPv4 configurations are not supported.

  • NetScaler 11.1-51.21

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 server

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every user who is currently connected to the Nutanix AHV server via the EDT protocol.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

Port

The port at which the specified host listens. By default, this is NULL

Citrix Home

By default, the Citrix Home parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent would automatically discover the location at which the Virtual Delivery Agent VDA; is installed for collecting the metrics of this test. If the Virtual Delivery Agent is installed in a different location in your Citrix environment, then indicate that location in the Citrix Home text box.

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 topic for details on how to use this page.

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 topic for details on how to use this page.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

While monitoring a Nutanix AHV server, the Report By Userflag is set to No by default, indicating that by default, the guest operating systems on the AHV server are identified using the hostname specified in the operating system. On the other hand, while monitoring AHV desktop environments, 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 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.      

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

Number of sessions

Indicates the number of sessions intiated by this user.

Number

The value 0 indicates that the user is not currently connected to the Citrix server.

Bandwidth

Indicates the bandwidth usage of all sessions of this user.

Kbps

Compare the value of this measure across users to know which user is consuming the maximum bandwidth.

Round trip time

Indicates the round trip latency between the virtual machine and this user.

Seconds

Comparing the value of this measure across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who are experiencing higher latency when connecting to a virtual machine via EDT protocol.

Flow window

Indicates the size of the flow window.

KB

The flow window and congestion window are used to control the congestion in the network. The smaller the value of both the windows, the data will be sent without any delay. The larger the value, the data will be added up in the sent queue and it will be sent with delay.

Congestion window

Indicates the size of the congestion window.

KB

Sent packets

Indicates the number of EDT packets sent by this user.

Packets

 

Received packets

Indicates the number of EDT packets received by this user.

Packets

 

Retransmitted packets

Indicates the number of EDT packets that were retransmitted by the user.

Packets

 

Lost sent packets

Indicates the number of packets lost by this user during transmission.

Packets

Ideally, the value of this measure should be zero.

Comparing the value of these measures across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who have extensively lost packets during transmission and reception of packets via EDT protocol.

Lost received packets

Indicates the number of packets lost by this user during reception.

Packets

Sent acknowledgements

Indicates the number of acknowledgements that were received by this user for sending the EDT packets.

 

 

Sent negative acknowledgements

Indicates the number of negative acknowledgements that were received by this user for sending the EDT packets.

 

 

Received acknowledgements

Indicates the number of acknowledgements that were received by this user for reception of EDT packets.

 

 

Received negative acknowledgements

Indicates the number of negative acknowledgements that were received by this user for reception of EDT packets.

 

 

Data transmitted

Indicates the amount of data transmitted by this user.

KB

Compare the values of these measures across all the users connected via EDT protocol to find out which user transmitted/received the maximum amount of data.

Data received

Indicates the amount of data received by this user.

KB

Packet arrival rate

Indicates the rate at which the EDT packets arrived at this user's desktop.

Packets/sec

 

Packet sending period

Indicates the time taken by this user for sending the EDT packets.

Milliseconds

 

Packets in flight

Indicates the number of EDT packets that have been sent by this user but have not yet been acknowledged or confirmed as received by the destination.

Packets

 

Receiver queue size available

Indicates the number of EDT packets in the receiver queue of this user.

Number

 

Sender queue size available

Indicates the number of EDT packets in the sender queue of this user.

Number

 

Out of order packets

Indicates the number of out of sequence packets received by this user.

Number

The out-of-order packets refer to data packets that arrive at the destination out of sequence. In an ideal network, packets arrive in the order they were sent, but due to various reasons, including network congestion, routing changes, or issues with network devices, packets might reach their destination out of order.

The value of this measure is preferred to be low.

Output buffers available

Indicates the number of output buffers available for use by this user.

Number

A high value is desired for this measure.

Output buffers in use

Indicates the number of the output buffers that are currently in use.

Number