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User Experience Monitoring for Citrix Infrastructures
Why, What and How?
Bala VaidhinathaneG [email protected]
© eG Innovations, Inc | www.eginnovations.com
Moderator
Christine AckleyDirector of Marketing OperationseG [email protected]
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eG Innovations
Leading provider of IT performance monitoring, diagnosis and reporting software
Specialists in Citrix performance monitoring and management
Citrix Premier Technology Partner since 2004
Our solutions are used in some of the largest Citrix deployments in the world
© eG Innovations, Inc | www.eginnovations.com
Today’s Presenter
Bala VaidhinathanCTOeG Innovations
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Agenda
Why is Citrix user experience monitoring important?
What are the key aspects of Citrix user experience
you should track?
How to monitor Citrix user experience?
Going beyond performance monitoring
Live solution tour of eG Enterprise
Q & A
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48%
45%
7%
The most performance sensitive service
Similar in performance demands as other services
Not that performance sensitive
Citrix – One of the Most Performance Sensitive Enterprise Applications
Source: 2016 Citrix Performance Survey, http://www.eginnovations.com/solutions/sign-in?whitepaper=36
93% believe that Citrix is one of the performance sensitive services in enterprise networks.
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What are the Biggest Citrix Performance Challenges?
Source: 2016 Citrix Performance Survey, http://www.eginnovations.com/solutions/sign-in?whitepaper=36
10%
26%
27%
28%
32%
34%
48%
51%
53%
54%
56%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Not able to monitor GPU
No simple way to forecast/plan
No visibility into applications used in virtual…
Too many silo tools
No visibility outside Citrix tiers
Lack of end to end performance view
Lack single dashboard for Citrix tiers
Need better monitoring of Citrix XenApp
Users notice issues before you do
Diagnosis is too slow/complex
Citrix being blamed for everything
Not able to measure the user experience
62%
Up
Down
Not able to measure user experience
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Logon is slow
Application is slow to
launch
Session gets disconnected
Keystrokes don’t show up on time
Multimedia playback is
choppy
UserExperience Printing
doesn’t work
What Constitutes Citrix User Experience?
User Experience Monitoring
How long did Citrix logon take? If slow, why? Profile? AD? GPO?
How long does app launch take?
What is a user’s screen refresh latency?
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Ranking Citrix User Experience Problems
18%
25%
36%
39%
41%
45%
48%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Screen refresh is slow
Video playback is slow
User disconnects
Printing problems
Speed of access
Slow application launches
Frozen sessions
Slow logins
52%
Source: 2016 Citrix Performance Survey, http://www.eginnovations.com/solutions/sign-in?whitepaper=36
Slow logons
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Emulates users Imposes the same workload
again and again Provides a measure of
experience EVEN when there is no real load
Monitors real users Actual workloads Direct measure of what
users are seeing
Synthetic Monitoring
How to Monitor Citrix User Experience
Real User Monitoring
User Experience Monitoring
Simulate logon; launch different applications
Synthetic monitoring from multiple locations
Real user monitoring from the client, network, server
Must use a combination of both approaches
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The eG Citrix Logon Simulator
• Periodically simulates a logon session for Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop
– Uses browser scripting in IE and simulates the exact process that the user goes through
– Black box approach; external view
– Verifies that the entire Citrix delivery infrastructure is working, the Citrix session is established, and the application is launched
• The simulated session detects logon issues proactively
• Run 24/7 against a Citrix farm (XenApp/XenDesktop)
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How eG Citrix Logon Simulator Works
Test
Real User
Using
Simulated Session
From
Real Endpoint
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The eG Citrix Logon Simulation – In Action
Simulated logon into Citrix via NetScaler
Applications enumerated on the StoreFront console
Launching application on StoreFront
Wait for application to launch before logging off
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Feature Highlights
• Real-time simulation and testing of user session
• Complete visibility of logon process by testing entire Citrix delivery infrastructure
• Simulates exact same steps of a real user
• 24/7 logon testing allows simulation whenever and wherever needed
• Can be run from local or remote system
• Automated alerts accurately pinpoint logon issues
• Supports Citrix XenApp versions 6.x and 7.x, XenDesktop 7.x
• Simple to deploy – no recording/scripting; Deploy in minutes
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Complete Session Emulation: Going Beyond Logon Monitoring
Simulated logon into Citrix via
NetScaler Applications enumerated on the StoreFront console
Launch application on StoreFront
Login to SAP Portal
Access HR information
Perform tasks:Approve, Revoke
Logout of SAP Portal
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Complete Session Emulation – Record & Replay
Record a script to simulate a user session
Open the same application that a user access (e.g.,
browser, Citrix receiver)
Indicate what actions to perform
Specify what to match in the
response
Name the transaction step
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Emulates users Imposes the same workload
again and again Provides a measure of
experience EVEN when there is no real load
Monitors real users Actual workloads Direct measure of what
users are seeing
Synthetic Monitoring
How to Monitor Citrix User Experience
Real User Monitoring
User Experience Monitoring
Simulate logon; launch different applications
Synthetic monitoring from multiple locations
Real user monitoring from the client, network, server
Must use a combination of both approaches
© eG Innovations, Inc | www.eginnovations.com
Domain Controller
Web Interface
User Device
Database Server
License Server
Hypervisor + Virtual Desktop
Controller
3
1 7
6
2
4
10
5
9 11
8
Steps Involved in Citrix Logon
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Domain Controller
Web Interface
User Device
Database Server
License Server
Hypervisor + Virtual Desktop
Controller
3
1 7
6
2
4
10
5
9 11
8
Where Citrix Logon Has to be Measured
In the XenApp server / virtual
desktop
At the Delivery Controller
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Monitoring ICA Virtual Channels
Virtual Channel Monitoring
What is the screen refresh lag?
How much bandwidth is the user session consuming?
How much of this is:
Audio bandwidth?
Video bandwidth?
Printer bandwidth?
Drive bandwidth?
Framehawk
DCR
Thinwire
Multimedia
Flash
Generic USB
CDM
Audio
Lync
PrintingMobile SDK
Mobile Sensors
SmartcardClipboard
KB& Mouse
ICA
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What are the Main Causes of Citrix Problems?
27%
29%
30%
31%
37%
40%
42%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Virtualization platform
Server OS
Network in the data center
Citrix tiers
Storage
Infra services (AD, Profile, etc.)
Enterprise applications
Network connection to the user terminals
53%
Source: 2016 Citrix Performance Survey, http://www.eginnovations.com/solutions/sign-in?whitepaper=36
Network connection to user terminals
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Monitoring Citrix Application Launch
Virtual Application Monitoring
How long did it take to launch an application?
What are the most popular applications?
What are the most CPU/memory intensive applications?
For how long was an application accessed?
1/19/2017
Oracle Confidential –Internal/Restricted/Highly Restricted
30
Going beyond User Experience Monitoring
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When is a Citrix User Happy?
Well-planned infrastructure & service delivery
Proactive resolution before services are
impacted
Reliable
Fast mean-time-to-repair (MTTR)
Available at all times High response time
Available Performing Well
High throughput
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Auto-Baselining for Proactive Alerting
Automatically computed baseline based on time of day, day of month
behavior enables proactive detection of problems
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StoreFront
Fire
wal
l
Fire
wal
lNetScaler
Desktop Delivery
Controller
Virtual Machine
Infrastructure
Virtual Desktop
Agent
XenMobile Saas, Web,
Mobile, Data
Provisioning
Services
XenApp
Profile Store
License Server
Data Store
Domain Controller
Cloud
Switch SAN
Where is the Root-Cause?
What is the root cause of the service problem?Network? VMware? AD? SQL? Storage? Profile Server?
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A few of the servers are handling most of
the sessions
Capacity Optimization Example
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eG Enterprise – Summary
Monitor all aspects of Citrix user experience
Visibility into Citrix and non-Citrix tiers - performance, usage
Auto-baselining for proactive alerting
Correlation across tiers for root-cause diagnosis, lower MTTR
Dashboards to see KPIs of interest in real-time
Reports customized to different stakeholders
On-the-go mobile access for rapid troubleshooting
© eG Innovations, Inc | www.eginnovations.com
Dramatically simplify and accelerate application
performance management. Deliver peak performance, user satisfaction and ROI.
User Satisfaction
IT Productivity
Higher serviceuptime
Simplicity
Cost control & ROI
Total Citrix
Performance
Management
“
”
Total Citrix Performance Monitoring Benefits
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