Windows User Logon Details – OS Test

Compare the value of this measure across users to know which user has the maximum number of open sessions. In the event of an overload, this will point you to that user who is contributing the most to the workload of the virtual desktop.

If this measure reports a high value consistently, it could indicate a slowdown in the logon process.

Compare the value of this measure across users to know which user’s logon is taking the longest.

A high value indicates authentication delays.

If Logon duration is abnormally high, then compare the value of this measure with the other time measurements displayed under Logon Phase to determine whether/not the logon delay can be attributed to a delay in user profile loading.

One of the common reasons for long profile load times is large profile size. In such circumstances, you can use the User Profile test to determine the current size of this user's profile. If the profile size is found to be large, you can conclude that it is indeed the size of the profile which is affecting the profile load time.

Another reason would be the absence of a profile. If the user does not already have a profile a new one is created. This slows down the initial logon quite a bit compared to subsequent logons. The main reason is that Active Setup runs the IE/Mail/Theme initialization routines.

Sometimes, profile loading can be delayed by an interim delay between when the User profile phase ends and when the next phase - i.e., the Group policy processing phase - begins. To verify whether/not such an interim delay has occurred and to assess its impact on the profile loading process, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure. The detailed diagnosis reveals the time that elapsed between when the User profile phase ended and the next phase began. Compare this interim delay with the value of this measure to understand whether/not the interim delay is the reason for the delay in profile loading.

Note:

By default, this test does not report the User profile duration measure. If you want the test to report this measure, then make sure that Audit process tracking is enabled on each virtual desktop that you want monitored. The Audit process tracking setting determines whether/not to audit detailed tracking information for events such as program activation, process exit, handle duplication, and indirect object access. To enable this setting, do the following:

1. First, check whether/not the setting is already enabled. For that, login to the managed server.

2. Go to the command prompt.

3. Run the following command at the prompt:

   Auditpol /get /category:*

4. If this command returns the value No auditing, it implies that the Audit process tracking setting is not enabled on the server.

5. In this case, proceed to enable the setting by issuing the following commands at the prompt, one after another:

   Auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Creation" /success:enable

   Auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Termination" /success:enable

   Auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Creation" /failure:enable

   Auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Termination" /failure:enable

6. After enabling the Audit process tracking setting, ensure that the size of the security log is increased to 100 MB. This is required because, once Audit process tracking is enabled, the security log will be flooded with numerous Process creation and Process termination events. If the security log is not sized adequately, then it will not be able to capture these events. Consequently, the test will not be able to report this measure. To avoid this, it is imperative that the security log size is increased.

Group policies impact logon performance.

If Logon duration is abnormally high, then compare the value of this measure with the other time measurements displayed under Logon Phase to determine whether/not the logon delay can be attributed to a delay in group policy processing.

Typically, group policies can be processed in the foreground or background. While background processing of group policies have little to no impact on logon performance, foreground group policy processing can cause logon delays. Particularly, if foreground processing is done synchronously, the user's logon experience is bound to suffer. This is because, when foreground processing is synchronous, the user is not presented with the logon prompt until computer GP processing has completed after a system boot. Likewise, the user will not see their desktop at logon until user GP processing completes. This can increase startup time as seen by the user.

Other factors that can impact group policy processing time and consequently, the logon time are, long-running WQL queries and group policy scripts.

Sometimes, group policy processing can be delayed by an interim delay between when the Group policy phase ends and when the next phase - i.e., the Group policy script execution phase - begins. To verify whether/not such an interim delay has occurred and to assess its impact on group policy processing, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure. The detailed diagnosis reveals the time that elapsed between when the Group policy phase ended and the next phase began. Compare this interim delay with the value of this measure to understand whether/not the interim delay is the reason for the delay in group policy processing.

Note:

By default, this test does not report the Group policy processing time measure. If you want the test to report this measure, then make sure that Audit process tracking is enabled on the VMware Horizon View RDS server. The Audit process tracking setting determines whether/not to audit detailed tracking information for events such as program activation, process exit, handle duplication, and indirect object access. To enable this setting, do the following:

1. First, check whether/not the setting is already enabled. For that, login to the managed server.

2. Go to the command prompt.

3. Run the following command at the prompt:

   Auditpol /get /category:*

4. If this command returns the value No auditing, it implies that the Audit process tracking setting is not enabled on the server.

5. In this case, proceed to enable the setting by issuing the following commands at the prompt, one after another:

   Auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Creation" /success:enable

   Auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Termination" /success:enable

   Auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Creation" /failure:enable

   Auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Termination" /failure:enable

6. After enabling the Audit process tracking setting, ensure that the size of the security log is increased to 100 MB. This is required because, once Audit process tracking is enabled, the security log will be flooded with numerous Process creation and Process termination events. If the security log is not sized adequately, then it will not be able to capture these events. Consequently, the test will not be able to report this measure. To avoid this, it is imperative that the security log size is increased.

The values reported by this measure and their corresponding numeric equivalents are described in the table below:

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the current status of the Group policy. However, in the graph of this measure, the values will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents i.e., 1 to 3.

Compare the value of this measure across users to know which user’s logon process spent maximum time in retrieving account information.

To know which domain controller and DNS is being used, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Compare the value of this measure across users to know which user’s logon process spent maximum time in connecting to Active Directory. Besides impacting authentication time, high LDAP bind time may also affect group policy processing.

Compare the value of this measure across users to know which user’s logon process spent maximum time in domain controller discovery.

Compare the value of this measure across users to know which user’s logon process spent maximum time in accessing the group policy object file.

To know which files were accessed and the time taken to access each file, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure. With the help of the detailed diagnostics, you can accurately isolate the object file that took the longest to access, and thus delayed the logon process.

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know which were the successful client side extensions for a user, and which group policy was processed by each extension.

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know which were the client side extensions that resulted in the generation of warning events at the time of processing. You will also know which group policies were processed by each extension.

Ideally, the value of this measure should be zero. A sudden/gradual increase in the value of this measure is a cause of concern.

If a non-zero value is reported for this measure, then use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know which client side extensions resulted in processing errors. You will also know which group policies were processed by each such extension. Moreover, the error code will also be displayed as part of detailed diagnostics, so that you can figure out what type of error occurred when processing the client side extensions.

Compare the value of this measure across users to know which user's logon process spent maximum time in client side extension processing.

If this measure reports an unusually high value for any user, then, you may want to check the value of the LDAP bind time to active directory measure for that user to figure out if a delay in connecting to AD is affecting group policy processing. This is because, group policies are built on top of AD, and hence rely on the directory service's infrastructure for their operation. As a consequence, DNS and AD issues may affect Group Policies severely. One could say that if an AD issue does not interfere with authentication, at the very least it will hamper group policy processing.

You can also use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know which client side extension was used to process which group policy for a particular user. Detailed diagnostics also reveal the processing time for each client side extension. This way, you can quickly identify the client side extension that took too long to be processed and thus delayed the user logon.

Several components of Group Policy rely on a fast network connection. If a fast connection is unavailable between a VM and the DOC, group policy processing can be delayed. This is why, if the Group policy processing time measure reports an abnormally high value, you may want to check the value of the Is bandwidth between VM and domain controller slow? measure to determine whether the network connection between the VM and domain controller is slow.

If the network connection between the VM and domain controller is slow for a user, then this measure will report the value Yes. If it is fast, then this measure will report the value No (connection is fast).

The numeric values that correspond to the above-mentioned measure values are as follows:

Note:

• By default, this test reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the quality of the network link between the VM and the domain controller. In the graph of this measure however, the same is indicated using the numeric equivalents only.

• To determine whether the network link is slow or fast, the Group Policy service compares the result of the estimated bandwidth to the slow link threshold (configured by Group Policy). A value below the threshold results in the Group Policy service flagging the network connection as a slow link. This measure reports the status of this flag only. To know the slow link threshold that the Group Policy has configured for this link, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Foreground and background processing are key concepts in Group Policy. Foreground processing only occurs when the machine starts up or when the user logs on. Some policy areas (also called Client Side Extensions (CSEs)) can only run during foreground processing. Examples of these include Folder Redirection, Software Installation and Group Policy Preferences Drive Mapping. In contrast, background processing is that thing that occurs every 90 or so minutes on Windows workstations, where GP refreshes itself periodically. Background processing happens in the background, while the user is working and they generally never notice it. While background processing does not impact performance, foreground processing can extend start and login times.

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in the table below:

Note:

By default, this test reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate when the group policy of a user was applied. In the graph of this measure however, the same is indicated using the numeric equivalents only.

Foreground processing can operate under two different modes - synchronously or asynchronously. Asynchronous GP processing does not prevent the user from using their desktop while GP processing completes. For example, when the computer is starting up, GP asynchronous processing starts to occur for the computer, and in the meantime, the user is presented the Windows logon prompt. Likewise, for asynchronous user processing, the user logs on and is presented with their desktop while GP finishes processing. The user is not delayed getting either their logon prompt or their desktop during asynchronous GP processing. When foreground processing is synchronous, the user is not presented with the logon prompt until computer GP processing has completed after a system boot. Likewise the user will not see their desktop at logon until user GP processing completes. This can have the effect of making the user feel like the system is running slow. In short, synchronous processing can impact startup time, where asynchronous does not. Foreground processing will run synchronously for two reasons:

• The administrator forces synchronous processing through a policy setting. This can be done by enabling the Computer ConfigurationPoliciesAdministrative TemplatesSystemLogonAlways wait for the network at computer startup and logon policy setting. Enabling this setting will make all foreground processing synchronous. This is commonly used for troubleshooting problems with Group Policy processing, but does not always get turned back off again.

• A particular CSE requires synchronous foreground processing. There are four CSEs provided by Microsoft that currently require synchronous foreground processing: Software Installation, Folder Redirection, Microsoft Disk Quota and GP Preferences Drive Mapping. If any of these are enabled within one or more GPOs, they will trigger the next foreground processing cycle to run synchronously when they are changed.

It is therefore best to avoid synchronous CSEs and to not force synchronous policy. If usage of synchronous CSEs is necessary, minimize changes to these policy settings.

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in the table below:

Note:

By default, this test reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate when the group policy of a user was applied. In the graph of this measure however, the same is indicated using the numeric equivalents only.

If the user's session has been reconnected, then this measure will report the value Yes. If not, then this measure will report the value No.

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in the table below:

Note:

By default, this test reports the Measure Values to indicate whether/not the user reconnected to an earlier disconnected session. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the numeric equivalents i.e., 0 or 1.

If this measure shows 0, it indicates that the current profile size has not exceeded the quota size. The value 1 indicates that the current profile size has exceeded the quota size.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, lists all the files that have exceeded the default file size limit of 100 MB.

AppX files are application packages used to install Windows Store apps (UWP apps) in Windows 8 and later versions.

In case of higher values of this measure, users may experience delays when attempting to open files with specific AppX applications.

A higher value of this measure indicates/could potentially lead to bottlenecks.

A Machine GPO, or more formally Computer Configuration GPO, refers specifically to the subset of a GPO that contains settings targeted to computer objects (the machines) in Active Directory. These settings apply regardless of the user who is logged into the machine.