Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide. Citrix EdgeSight for Endpoints 5.4 Citrix EdgeSight for XenApp 5.4

Transcription

1 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide Citrix EdgeSight for Endpoints 5.4 Citrix EdgeSight for XenApp 5.4

2 Copyright and Trademark Notice Use of the product documented in this guide is subject to your prior acceptance of the End User License Agreement. A printable copy of the End User License Agreement is included on your product installation media. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Companies, names, and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Citrix Systems, Inc Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix is a registered trademark, and Citrix Presentation Server, Citrix XenApp, Citrix XenDesktop, and EdgeSight are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Trademark Acknowledgements Adobe, Acrobat, and Flash are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the U.S. and/or other countries. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Server, and Internet Explorer are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Document Code: April 1, 2011 (MS)

3 CONTENTS Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Overview Before You Begin Implementing Solutions with EdgeSight Resolve System Performance Problems Identify and Resolve Session Problems Resolve Application Problems Resolve Network Problems Proactively Manage Hardware and Software Assets XenApp Capacity Planning Track Usage Capture and Store Data for Long Term Use Using Citrix EdgeSight Data and Reports Overview Citrix EdgeSight Server Console Citrix EdgeSight Terms and Concepts Accessing and Using Historical Reports Browsing for Reports Searching for Reports Accessing and Using Real-Time Data Using Monitoring Tools Using the Farm Monitor Using the Dashboard Using the Alert Console Using the Alert List Using Troubleshooting Tools Using the User Troubleshooter Using the Device Troubleshooter Citrix EdgeSight Active Application Monitoring Using Real-Time Reports Real-Time Report Components

4 4 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide Saving Real-Time Reports Displaying Real-Time Reports Customizing Reports Accessing and Using Process Fault Data Capturing Context at the Onset of a Performance Problem Data Displayed By Agent and Device Type Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Using EdgeSight to Resolve System Performance Problems System Performance Scenario Displaying Recent System Performance Displaying Recent Alerts Displaying the Historical Performance for a Device Display Asset Changes Display Resource Utilization Information Using EdgeSight to Resolve Session Performance Problems Session Performance Scenario Displaying Recent Session Performance Displaying Round Trip Time Data Displaying Client and Server Session Startup Time Data Using Citrix EdgeSight to Resolve Applications Problems Application Problem Scenario Problem Notification and Initial Investigation Using Real-time Data to Discover Problem Context Displaying Recent Hardware and Software Changes Using Crash Reports to Investigate Application Problems Comparing Overall Device Performance to Peers Handling Non-responsive Applications Monitoring Applications Using Active Application Monitoring Using Citrix EdgeSight to Resolve Network Problems Network Problem Scenario Identifying Network Problems Comparing Current and Historical Network Delay For a Single Device Comparing the Network Delay for a User with Other Users Finding Machines with High Network Volume Finding Network Segments with Slow Response Times

5 Contents 5 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Using Citrix EdgeSight for Planning and Implementation Using EdgeSight for Capacity Planning Capacity Planning Scenario Displaying the Current Resource Utilization of Machines Managing Application Rollout Application Rollout Scenario Displaying Current and Prior Resource Usage Displaying Prior and Current Alerts Managing Multiple Application Versions Multiple Application Version Scenario Displaying the Process Version Displaying Machines Running the Same Process Version Managing Licensing and Compliance Licensing and Compliance Scenario Displaying Application Usage Using Citrix EdgeSight to Track Usage Monitoring License Usage Monitoring Published Application Usage Monitoring Session Duration Using Citrix EdgeSight Data for Analysis and Record Keeping Archiving Data Defining Archive Requirements Selecting Data for Archiving Determine Archiving Frequency Warehousing EdgeSight Data Data Warehousing Components Citrix EdgeSight Data Warehousing Strategy Select Data for Warehousing Determine Warehousing Frequency Determine Data Storage and Disk Configuration Needs Index

6 6 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide

7 CHAPTER 1 Overview Before You Begin Citrix EdgeSight is a performance and availability management solution for XenApp, Presentation Server, XenDesktop and endpoint systems. Citrix EdgeSight monitors applications, sessions, devices, and the network in real time, allowing you to quickly analyze, resolve, and proactively prevent problems. EdgeSight also monitors Citrix License Servers and displays license usage information. This document provides guidelines and scenarios for using EdgeSight to ensure that end users in your enterprise have the required application and network resources to work more productively. Citrix XenApp was formerly Citrix Presentation Server. For the purposes of this document, XenApp is used as the primary product name and, unless otherwise indicated, refers to both XenApp and Presentation Server systems. This chapter describes solutions which can be implemented using EdgeSight and lists prerequisites for effectively using this guide. This document assumes that you are working in an environment where the EdgeSight Server is installed and has been running with some alerts configured for at least one week. It is recommended that the server collect data from a minimum of 20 to 30 devices. This provides you with sufficient data to be useful in working with the scenarios. Implementing Solutions with EdgeSight Citrix EdgeSight collects and displays performance and availability information that allows you to isolate and resolve a wide range of application, device, network, and session problems. This document presents scenarios based on different types of problems and tasks. As you use these scenarios, refer to the EdgeSight Server online help for procedures on how to use the EdgeSight Server Console and for definitions of the data displayed in reports. Before using these scenarios, review Chapter 2, Using Citrix EdgeSight Data and Reports for basic instructions on using historical and real-time reports, monitors. and troubleshooters to display data.

8 8 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide Resolve System Performance Problems EdgeSight allows you to identify, investigate, and define a resolution for performance issues affecting one or more systems from a single user interface. You can use EdgeSight to display notifications of performance anomalies, display system performance metrics over time, display hardware and software changes on systems, and display how systems are using resources such as memory, CPU, and disk. See Chapter 3, Using EdgeSight to Resolve System Performance Problems for details. Identify and Resolve Session Problems It is difficult to determine the source of a user s reported Citrix application problem because performance metrics are only currently available at the system level, not at the user session or network level. The first challenge is to locate the server accessed by the user and session. Support personnel may guess the server farm and server based on the application (applications may be grouped by server farms). Once they locate the suspected server, they do not have performance characteristics for that particular user and session. Instead, they can only assess the overall server performance, which may not reflect the problem seen by the user. If the problem is not the server, important network data is not available, such as client latency, log-in time or response time, and volume with back-end servers. In short, their ability to isolate and identify a user-reported performance problem is time-consuming and costly. Citrix EdgeSight for XenApp allows support personnel to quickly identify the server accessed by a user and session and then display relevant performance information. Also, a wide range of network-related reports are available that provide information on ICA client traffic, ICA session latency, volume, delay, and round-trip time. See Chapter 4, Using EdgeSight to Resolve Session Performance Problems, for more information on using EdgeSight to diagnose and resolve session problems. Note that the session data collected and displayed depend on the installed versions of the EdgeSight Agent, the XenApp or Presentation Server, and the ICA client. For example, end-user experience monitoring metrics are not collected for Presentation Server systems prior to version 4.5. For more information on data collection and display by EdgeSight Agent type and version, see the Citrix EdgeSight Administrator s Guide.

9 Chapter 1 Overview 9 Resolve Application Problems EdgeSight allows you to identify, investigate and define a resolution for application problems such as errors, crashes, lack of response (hangs), thrashing, and general performance issues. You can use EdgeSight to display problem notifications, display what was happening on the system at the time of the problem, list recent software and hardware changes, and compare application performance across multiple systems. You can also proactively monitor critical XenApp applications using EdgeSight Active Application Monitoring. See Chapter 5, Using Citrix EdgeSight to Resolve Applications Problems for details. Resolve Network Problems EdgeSight allows you to identify, investigate and define a resolution for network problems such as network delay, high round trip times, or Web errors. EdgeSight allows you to compare current and historical network performance for one system or across multiple systems, to find systems with high network volume, and to identify network segments with slow response times. See Chapter 6, Using Citrix EdgeSight to Resolve Network Problems for details. Proactively Manage Hardware and Software Assets EdgeSight does more than just help you solve problems; it can also help you in planning and implementing improvements in your enterprise. With EdgeSight, you can perform capacity planning, rollout new applications, manage multiple versions of applications, and implement licensing and compliance policies. See Chapter 7, Using Citrix EdgeSight for Planning and Implementation for applicable scenarios. XenApp Capacity Planning Administrators need to know when they will run out of capacity and need to add servers to their XenApp farm. Because there are many variables, including user activity level, number of applications running on the server, number of active sessions, and system resource capacity, administrators must use their judgment. For example, they may add 6 users at a time and when server capacity approaches 60 to 70 percent, they add a new server. This approach can be inefficient and does not enable active planning, such as determining how many servers should be purchased by quarter for the upcoming year.

10 10 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide In other cases, the number of users may remain stable but new applications are added to the servers in the farm. Administrators may not know what impact the new application will have on performance and the maximum number of supported concurrent users. Additionally, administrators need to know if a new application causes a compatibility issue with any other applications running on the server. Currently, they lack the granular data necessary to understand these issues. EdgeSight for XenApp allows administrators to closely monitor resource usage over time and also configure real-time alerts so that they are notified when certain usage levels are exceeded. Administrators can also focus on the performance of new applications and receive timely notification of process hangs and faults. See Chapter 7, Using Citrix EdgeSight for Planning and Implementation, for more information on using EdgeSight for capacity planning. Track Usage EdgeSight allows you to track the usage of Citrix licenses, published applications, and the duration of sessions. You can display reports with current and historical Citrix License usage information, such as total, available, and in use license counts by product family or individual product. Usage is tracked for all Citrix license types. For published applications, information is collected on application launches and on unique users. Session duration can be displayed by farm or by user group, and can be filtered for specific devices or users. All of these capabilities allow you to determine what Citrix products or published applications are being used and who is using them. See Chapter 8, Using Citrix EdgeSight to Track Usage for more information on using EdgeSight to track usage. Capture and Store Data for Long Term Use EdgeSight provides archive reports which can be transferred to long term storage for using in analysis and record keeping. By archiving or warehousing data, you can have continued access to long-term historical data while ensuring optimum performance from your EdgeSight Server. See Chapter 9, Using Citrix EdgeSight Data for Analysis and Record Keeping for guidelines on archiving and warehousing EdgeSight data.

11 CHAPTER 2 Using Citrix EdgeSight Data and Reports This chapter describes how to access various types of Citrix EdgeSight data, both from the EdgeSight Server and EdgeSight Agent databases. Overview EdgeSight collects performance and availability data on each device running the EdgeSight Agent. By default, 3 days of historical data is retained on the agent database (7 days for a virtual desktop). Data is retained for a longer period in the event that the agent has problems communicating with the server or the system running the agent is not connected to the network. Data stored in an EdgeSight Agent database can be accessed from the EdgeSight Server Console, as described in Accessing and Using Real-Time Data on page 16. Data is consolidated and uploaded to EdgeSight Server where it is used as the basis for reports, which display data using tables, charts, and graphs. EdgeSight provides a broad range of standard reports. In addition, custom reports can be created. For more information on using reports, see Accessing and Using Historical Reports on page 15. Each EdgeSight Agent continuously and unobtrusively compares critical performance parameters and conditions against thresholds. When an abnormal condition is detected, such as high memory usage, excessive network delay, or a process fault, the agent generates an alert. If the alert criteria match a configured alert rule, the agent sends a real-time alert to the associated server. Alerts not matching an alert rule are uploaded with the rest of the day s data. For more information on displaying real-time alert information, see Accessing and Using Process Fault Data on page 26. Process fault alert rules enable the capture and storage of crash files. For more information on using crash files, see Accessing and Using Process Fault Data on page 26.

12 12 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide Citrix EdgeSight Server Console You interact with Citrix EdgeSight Server through the Citrix EdgeSight Server Console. The console provides you with a powerful and flexible tool for displaying availability and performance information about XenApp and end-user systems in your enterprise. When using the console, you browse pages supplied by a Web server which display reports generated from data stored in the Citrix EdgeSight database. A wide range of standard reports are available. After an EdgeSight Administrator adds you as a console user, you will receive an with login information. Depending on how authentication is configured for the server, your login information can be in the form of an address and password or it can be your Active Directory username and password. To display the console, bring up a browser and point it to the URL for the EdgeSight Server log on page. Log on to the console using your user name and password. The EdgeSight Server Console has the following components. Tabs Use the tabs at the top of the content area to select the type of data you want to display or operation you want to perform. The tabs are as follows: Getting Started This tab provides overview information for each tab. Click on each tab name to display descriptions of tab features. A checkbox allows you to disable the display of this tab on your subsequent logins. Monitor This tab allows you to perform real-time monitoring of performance counters on specified devices and to display information on alert conditions. Troubleshoot This tab allows you to perform real time troubleshooting using troubleshooting tools and real time reports. The real time reports display data directly from an agent database. Plan and Manage This tab allows you to display summary reports which provide an overview of your environment. Summary

13 Chapter 2 Using Citrix EdgeSight Data and Reports 13 information can be displayed for devices, XenApp servers, users, processes, and the network, including web sites and transactions. Track Usage This tab allows you to display reports on usage of Citrix licenses, on published application launches and users, and on session duration. Browse This tab allows you to browse or search lists of reports and to display reports. You can also display report properties and subscriptions. Configure As a non-administrative user, you can edit your profile, and display reports you have designated as favorites. If you have administrative privileges on the server, the operations available on this tab allow you to additionally configure companies (including agent options, alerts, devices, and security), configure the server (including licensing, authentication, database grooming, and company creation), and monitor server status (including messages, jobs, services, and agent database broker activity). Navigation Tree Use the Navigation Tree at the left of the content area to select the specific type of operation you want to perform or the type of report you want to display. On the Configuration tab, click the icon or the corresponding page name to expand or contract that portion of the list. Menu Bar Use the Menu Bar at the top of the content area to perform common operations on the current page, such as bookmarking a page, refreshing a page, or printing a page. When displaying a report, you can add the report to the list of favorite reports or subscribe to the report. Filter Bar Once a report or monitoring page is selected, use the Filter Bar to filter data. Depending on the report or page selected, filter by department, group, time period, process, device, user, site, and other data types. Filter data to isolate information based on particular classes of processes, devices, or users and to quickly identify problems or trends. You can also filter data on non-report pages such as the Current Alert List or the administrative and configuration pages. Click Go to apply filter parameters. (You can run reports without having to click Go by setting the Automatically Run Reports setting to Yes when editing your profile.) Help Link Click the Help link at the top right of the console to invoke context-sensitive online help. In addition to context-sensitive help, the help system also provides reference material, such as glossaries of report counters and a definition of SQL views.

14 14 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide Citrix EdgeSight Terms and Concepts A company is the primary organizational unit on an EdgeSight Server. A single server can support multiple companies. Companies are broken down into departments. Departments are organized as a hierarchical tree with a default root department (All), and device-specific subdepartments (XenApp Farms, XenDesktop Farms, and Endpoints) which are created on installation. The structure of the XenApp Farms subdepartment is determined by the XenApp or Presentation Server farms. The structure of the XenDesktop Farms subdepartment is determined by the Desktop Delivery Controller (DDC). Additional Endpoint subdepartments can be created automatically as agents register with the server, or can be created manually by a user with administrative privileges. Configuration information is associated with agents based on their department. Each department corresponds to a set of systems running Citrix EdgeSight Agents. These systems are referred to as devices. In addition to the department structure, you can organize devices by custom groups. A custom group is a user-defined collection of devices. Membership in a group can be based on the associated departments, device characteristics, or queries. Note that the console user interface uses the term group in report names to indicate both departments and custom groups. In addition to groups of devices, you can also create user groups which are collections of XenApp, XenDesktop, or endpoint users. Many reports containing data on user experience can be filtered by user groups, allowing you to monitor system performance for a group of users with specific characteristics. Users log on to the console to display reports or perform administrative tasks. (Note that reports use the term user to indicate a XenApp or XenDesktop user associated with a session.) Each user is assigned a role (such as the default roles of Administrator, Report Viewer, License Server Monitor Administrator, and License Server Monitor Viewer) which has an associated set of permissions. These permissions determine what actions a user can take and what pages are displayed on the console. For example, a user with a role of Report Viewer can display reports but cannot display pages under the Company Configuration or Server Configuration menus or perform administrative functions on the server. Users can display reports from the console or can receive them based on a subscription which specifies the distribution or a report by or to a file share. (This is an effective means of distributing targeted information to people in the organization without requiring them to log on to the console.) Subscriptions are distributed based on a defined schedule.

15 Chapter 2 Using Citrix EdgeSight Data and Reports 15 Accessing and Using Historical Reports EdgeSight provides a set of historical reports that display availability and performance data. Historical reports are useful when examining trends over long time periods or across large numbers of devices. You can browse or search for reports, or use these features in conjunction with one another. All reports are available from the Browse tab. As you work with EdgeSight, you may find that you use some reports frequently. Add these reports to your Favorite Reports page for easy access. Display the report and click on the Add to Favorite Reports link in the menu bar. See the Working with Reports and the Favorite Reports online help topics for more information. Browsing for Reports You can browse for reports by time frame, data type, object type, or report type. As you select a browse term, you refine the list of reports, making it easier to find the report you want. Browse terms are cumulative, and the browse terms selected are shown at the top of the report list. For example, if you want to find out which applications were recently experiencing the most problems, select Process as the object type, then select Stability as the data type. This results in a very manageable list of reports detailing process availability, errors, hangs, and faults. Or, if you wanted to display data about session startup time, select Session as the object type and Performance as the data type. The Data Type menu changes to display a list of performance metrics, including Client Startup Time and Server Startup Time. As you work with EdgeSight, you may find that you use some reports frequently. Add these reports to your Favorite Reports page for easy access. Display the report and click on the Add to Favorite Reports link in the menu bar. See the Working with Reports and the Favorite Reports online help topics for more information. Searching for Reports You can search for reports on the Browse tab by entering search terms and clicking Search. (Do not enclose search terms in quotes.) The search function looks not only at report names, but report descriptions and labels. Once you have performed a search, you can choose the scope of subsequent searches (all reports or only those currently listed). This allows you to refine the list until you find the report you want to display.

16 16 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide Accessing and Using Real-Time Data EdgeSight provides a wide range of tools and reports allowing you to access remote devices and display real-time data stored in an EdgeSight agent database.you can display real-time data from the Monitor, Troubleshoot, or Browse tabs using the following tools and reports: Monitor Tab The tools on this tab allow you to quickly detect and begin investigating problems in your environment. Once an issue has been detected, you may want to use the tools and reports available from the Troubleshoot tab to more thoroughly investigate the issue. See Using Monitoring Tools on page 17 for more information. Farm Monitor The Farm Monitor allows you to browse through a XenApp or XenDesktop Farm and display real time data about alerts for one or more devices. The top portion of the Farm Monitor displays recent alert information. The lower portion of the Farm Monitor displays detailed contextual data about activity on the device at the time of a selected alert, including performance counters, sessions, processes, and network usage. Dashboard The Dashboard allows you to display performance counters in real time information for specific devices based on a saved configuration. This allows you to quickly detect changes in performance and resource usage on critical machines in your environment. Alert Console and Alert List The Alert Console provides you with a graphical overview of recent alert activity. This allows you to identify trends in alert conditions across your environment. The Alert List displays information about incoming real-time alerts from XenApp and endpoint devices. When an abnormal condition is detected, the agent on the device generates an alert and, if an alert rule is configured, sends a notification to the associated EdgeSight Server. Troubleshoot Tab The tools and reports on the this tab allow you to drill down into real-time data for a specific device or user. See Using

17 Chapter 2 Using Citrix EdgeSight Data and Reports 17 Troubleshooting Tools on page 20 for information of using the troubleshooters. User Troubleshooter The User Troubleshooter allows you to display detailed performance data for sessions across a XenApp Farm for a specified user over the last three days. Device Troubleshooter The Device Troubleshooter allows you to display detailed real-time performance data for a device. Real-time Reports Real time reports display information from the specified EdgeSight Agent database in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format. See Using Real-Time Reports on page 21 for information on displaying real-time reports. Track Usage Tab The License Usage Summary report displays the latest license usage information (in use, available, and total) for product groups or individual products. You can drill down to display breakdowns by license version. For more information on using this report, see Chapter 8, Using Citrix EdgeSight to Track Usage, Browse Tab The real-time reports available on the Troubleshoot tab are also included in the report list on the Browse tab. In addition to the troubleshooters and reports, tools are provided that allow you to perform a trace route, display a process list for a device, or find the EdgeSight Server associated with a device. Since remote access to EdgeSight agents enables you to affect the machine behind the firewall, remote access has some requirements that must be met: Downloaded controls may be required You will be prompted to download controls when initially using monitoring or troubleshooting tools, or realtime reports. Ensure that your browser settings will allow you to perform downloads. Administrative privileges Because you are directly accessing the EdgeSight Agent database, administrative privileges are required on the device you are accessing. Using Monitoring Tools The tools on the Monitoring tab are designed to provide timely notification of alert conditions or of performance problems on critical machines.

18 18 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide Using the Farm Monitor The Farm Monitor helps you monitor alert conditions occurring on XenApp and XenDesktop systems within farms. The farm structure shown on the monitor is read directly from the farms.when an alert condition is detected by an EdgeSight Agent running on a device, an alert is generated. An alert icon is displayed for each farm and device which has encountered an alert condition. You can display alerts for varying time periods ranging from 15 minutes to 6 hours. Click on a farm to display all alerts for that farm, or click on a device to only display alerts for that device. From here, you can display several types of information: Click on the menu icon for an alert and select Alert Detail to display an alert details popup window. Details include a description of the alert condition, the specific parameter in the alert rule, and the alert count. Click on the menu icon and select Alert Excel Sheet to display a remote report in a new window. This report contains details about the alert and the system context at the time of the alert. Click on an alert to display alert context information in the Device Information pane. On the Process and System tabs, two charts are displayed per counter; one showing the value at the time of the alert and one showing the current value. Click on either chart to show an expanded version. On the Session, Process, and Network Summary tabs, click on the chart icon for a row to display counter details for any item. Click on the chart popup to show an expanded version. See the Farm Monitor topic in online help for more information on using and customizing the monitor. See the Citrix EdgeSight Administrator s Guide for information on configuring real-time alert rules. Using the Dashboard The real-time Dashboard allows you to display real time information for specific devices and counters based on a saved configuration. This allows you to quickly detect changes in performance and resource usage on critical machines in your environment. Creating or editing a dashboard configuration requires that you be an administrator on the EdgeSight Server. See the Citrix EdgeSight Administrator s Guide or the Real Time Configurations topic in online help for more information on creating configurations.

19 Chapter 2 Using Citrix EdgeSight Data and Reports 19 To use the dashboard, select a configuration and click Start Updating. The color of the icons displayed for each counter indicate how the current counter value compares to the threshold. (Click Show Legend to display the legend for the icons.) Position the cursor over a counter to display the current value, or click on a device to display detail charts for all counters. If you observe a condition that requires further investigation, you have the following options: CLick on a device to display the detail charts and click on the report icon to display a Real-time Device Summary report in a new window. Click on the screwdriver icon to display the Device Troubleshooter. Using the Alert Console The Alert Console provides you with a graphical overview of recent alert activity. This allows you to identify trends in alert conditions across your environment. By default, the console displays the last three days of alert activity for all devices.you can filter the display to focus on specific groups of devices, types of alerts, or alert content. See the Alert Console online help topic for more information on using the console. Using the Alert List The Alert List displays information about incoming real-time alerts from XenApp and endpoint devices. When an abnormal condition is detected, the agent on the device generates an alert and, if a matching alert rule is configured, sends a notification to the associated server. Click the plus icon to expand an alert to show details. You can also click the menu icon and select Real-time from the pop-up menu to display a real-time report with alert details and system context. Consider the following when using the Alert List: Real-time alert data is available on the console for three days if the default database grooming configuration is used. Real-time alerts are designed to notify you of critical events which require action. In most cases, underlying problems have been addressed or escalated before alerts are removed from the database. Some alerts require extensive data collection, such as process faults or snapshots. Although the alert may be displayed on the console, the associated crash files are only available on the console after data collection is complete and the files have been uploaded to the server. In some cases, depending on the event, the state of the machine running the agent may not allow for data collection. In these cases, the alert will appear on the console, but crash files are not available.

20 20 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide See the Alert List online help topic for more information on using the list. Using Troubleshooting Tools The tools on the Troubleshooting tab are designed to allow you to drill down into real-time data for a specific device or user. Using the User Troubleshooter The User Troubleshooter allows you to display detailed performance data for sessions across a XenApp Farm for a specified user over the last three days. The troubleshooter looks for sessions based on the following information: Domain and username (domain\user). This field is required. A device name (optional). This is the name of the XenApp server hosting the session. The session status: all, active, or logged off (optional). Use the drop down menu to select they types of sessions to display. Once you have identified the user, click Find Sessions to search for matching sessions. For each session, an icon indicates whether the user is currently connected to the session or logged off. Click on any session to display detailed information on performance counters. On the Session Summary, Channel Detail, System Summary, and System Network Summary tabs, click on any counter chart to expand it. On the Process Detail tab, click the chart icon for any process to display performance counters for that process. The Stability tab displays alert data. See the User Troubleshooter online help topic for more information on using the troubleshooter. Using the Device Troubleshooter The Device Troubleshooter allows you to display detailed real-time performance data for a device. You can either search or browse for a device. The search function is dynamic; as you enter a device name, the device list is updated to show matching devices. (Wildcard searching is not supported.) When you have located the device, click Go to display information about the device. On the System Summary and System Network Summary tabs, click on a performance counter chart to expand it. You can then click on a data point in the expanded chart and display details in a data grid. On the Process List and Network Summary tabs, click on a chart icon to display performance counters for the selected process. The Stability tab displays alert data. See the Device Troubleshooter online help topic for more information on using the troubleshooter.

21 Chapter 2 Using Citrix EdgeSight Data and Reports 21 Citrix EdgeSight Active Application Monitoring Citrix EdgeSight Active Application Monitoring enables an administrator to create and monitor application response metrics for applications delivered by XenApp systems. This software allows the administrator to record and create virtual user scripts and define tests. When the tests are run, virtual user ICA sessions are generated on the target XenApp servers. The results of the tests provide application response and availability information. The administrator also creates real-time alert rules to notify users of application service level performance issues. EdgeSight Console users are notified of application response and availability problems through the following real-time alerts: Application Response Failure and Application Response Time. You can use the Farm Monitor to display alert information and the server context at the time of the alert. You can also use the User Troubleshooter to display information about the test session associated with the alert. The user specified should be that used for the test session. The following historical reports display Active Application Monitoring data: Application Response Failures, Application Response Time, and Application Response Time for a Test. Citrix EdgeSight Active Application Monitoring is installed and run separately. See the Citrix EdgeSight Installation Guide for installation instructions. See the online help provided with the Active Application Monitoring controller for information on defining and managing test operations. Using Real-Time Reports You can use real-time reports (Troubleshoot tab > Real-time Reports) to display data from EdgeSight Agents running on XenApp, XenDesktop, or endpoint devices. These reports display information from the selected agent database using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. These reports are interactive, customizable, and extensible. While historical reports help you assess trends across groups of systems, realtime reports help you resolve performance problems on specific systems. Realtime reports provide data that is both granular and recent, allowing you to investigate problems thoroughly and in a timely fashion. By connecting directly to an agent database, the data available is of a finer granularity than that stored in the server database. By displaying the remote data in an Excel spreadsheet, you can customize and build your own views and graphics into the large amount of data that is captured by agents. Real-time reports display data in both 5 minute slices and 5 or 15 second slices depending on how large a time period of data is selected when generating the report. In addition, data is available as it is collected, with no need to wait for data to be uploaded to the server.

22 22 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide EdgeSight provides the following types of real-time reports: Device Summary Various summary graphs for a quick overview of what has been happening on the machine. Alert List Detailed alert information for the device over specified time period, including system performance and context at the time that the alert condition occurred. System Performance Displays memory, processor, network, and I/O statistics. Also displays the default perfmon performance counters. System Compare and XenApp Summary Displays performance counters from multiple devices for use in comparing system performance. The data is presented by device and also by counter, allowing you to view overall performance for each system or to directly compare counter values across systems. Network Performance Detailed network performance information (volume, round trip time, and delay) by host, application, protocol, or user over the specified time period. XenApp User Summary System, session, and application performance counters for a specified XenApp user and system. The following scenario describes how you might use real-time reports to resolve a performance problem: There are indications that a device is at risk for experiencing performance problems. These indications could include the device appearing as a leader in a memory usage report, a sharp increase in the number of memory-related alerts, or a user calling you and complaining of a system problem. A first step might be to invoke the Device Summary report to inspect the overall state of the system. You can adjust the time frame of the report to show more data as required. To adjust the time frame, navigate to the Start sheet, change the start and end times and click Update. (By default, the start time is set for 7:00 AM of the current day, and the end date is set to the current date and time.) Spikes in resource usage may indicate a specific area and time frame for further investigation. Next, you can display the System Performance report and look at memory-related performance counters. Double-clicking on a data point in the chart displays process performance for the related time period which may expose high memory usage by a particular process. After drilling down to display process performance data, you can select another counter to display using the Counter drop-down menu or change the number of processes display by changing the value in the Top field. This enables you to broaden your investigation to look at different aspects of performance and a larger set of applications.

23 Chapter 2 Using Citrix EdgeSight Data and Reports 23 You can also approach the problem from the point of view of looking at specific alert conditions. Display the Alert List report and double click on a memoryrelated alert to display performance counters and device context before and after the alert was generated. Three graphs are displayed showing CPU, memory, I/O, and network statistics. The red line on the graphs indicates the time that the alert condition occurred. A table of applications and tasks indicates what applications the user was using prior to and slightly after the alert occurred. In some cases, you may want to compare the device performance with another device to determine whether the problem is specific to the device in question. Use the System Compare report to display basic performance data for multiple devices, or the XenApp Summary report to display basic performance data and session data for multiple systems. You can first compare the overall performance for each device and then directly compare specific counters on both devices. You can specify a list of devices in which you are often interested and set the start and end date and time to capture the last fifteen minutes of data. The resulting report serves as a very powerful real-time dashboard. Once the spreadsheet is configured the way you want it, you can save it for reuse at a later date. As you can see, real-time reports provide quick access to detailed data and give you a means to investigate a problem from multiple perspectives. Real-Time Report Components Each real-time report is made up of multiple Excel sheets of the following types: Start Displays the Device Selection dialog, which is preloaded with the name of the selected device and start and end dates and times. Use the Start Date and End Date fields to adjust the time frame for the report. Click Update to redisplay the chart after entering the new dates or changing the device name (directly from the spreadsheet). By default the spreadsheet sets the start date to 7:00 am of the current day and the end-date to the time that the report is requested. Chart Displays charts showing performance counter data. Click on data points in charts to drill down to related or more detailed data. Depending on the report, there may be multiple chart pages. Data Displays the data underlying the charts. For many of the charts different granularities of data are displayed depending on how large a time period is queried from the remote device. If you select a large period time and the agent were to try to return a large dataset then it would take too much memory, time, network bandwidth and, most importantly, would overburden the remote device. Note that in some spreadsheets the data is captured and populates the same sheet as the graph, while other spreadsheets record the entire recordset as a separate underlying sheet. It depends on how the data is organized on the remote database and how it is retrieved.

24 24 Citrix EdgeSight User s Guide Saving Real-Time Reports Because the EdgeSight Server Console uses embedded Microsoft Excel software, you cannot save a real-time report using the Save button in the Excel toolbar. To save a real-time report: 1. Display the real-time report you want to save. 2. Press F12. The Save As dialog is displayed. 3. Change the location and file name as required and click Save. Displaying Real-Time Reports Real-time reports are available on the Troubleshoot tab on the EdgeSight Server Console. When you first invoke a remote report after logging in to the console, you must select a device, or, in the case of the XenApp User Summary, a user and device. Once a device is selected and credentials are provided, the report is generated using a default time frame of the current day, starting at 7:00 AM and ending with the current time. You can edit the start and end dates and times to display more or less data. Select the Start tab, edit the Start Date and End Date values, and click Update to regenerate the report. The amount of data available for display depends on the agent configuration. The default is to retain 8 days of data. Different granularities of data are displayed depending on how large a time period is queried from the remote device. Many of the charts in the real-time reports are interactive. Double-click on a data point to drill down to more detailed information. The following table describes what details are available for display. Report Click on To display details about Alert List A specific alert CPU, memory, I/O, and network statistics at the time of the event, plus end-user application context System Performance A data point in any chart Process performance on the selected device System Compare or XenApp Summary Network Performance A data point in the endpoint performance chart for a device A data point in a volume chart A data point in a delay/rtt (round trip time) chart Process performance on the selected device. The XenApp Summary report also includes session performance data. Connection and transaction volume by host, application, protocol, or user Connection and transaction delay by host, application, protocol, or user XenApp User Summary A data point in any chart Process/session performance