Why does Citrix use eG Enterprise for End-to-End Monitoring at Citrix Summit & Synergy?

© eG Innovations, Inc | www.eginnovations.com
Why does Citrix use eG Enterprise for
End-to-End Monitoring
at Citrix Summit & Synergy?
Bala Vaidhinathan
CTO, eG Innovations
Eric Haavarstein
CAO, xenappblog

Eric Haavarstein
CAO
xenappblog
Moderator

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Today’s Presenter
Bala Vaidhinathan
CTO, eG Innovations
bala@eginnovations.com

• Best approach to Citrix User Experience
Management
• How eG simplifies performance management of
your Citrix Service
• Why does Citrix use eG Enterprise for End-to-End
Monitoring for their Partner and User
Conferences
• What is new in eG 6.3?
• Q&A
Agenda

eG Innovations
• Leading provider of IT performance monitoring,
diagnosis and reporting software
• Founded in 2001
• Citrix Premier Technology Partner since 2004
• Specialists in Citrix performance monitoring and
management
• Our solutions are used in some of the largest
Citrix deployments in the world
• Global footprint across Five Continents
www.eginnovations.com

Customer Successes
FINANCE
GOVERNMENT MANUFACTURING
HEALTHCARE

Customer Successes
INSURANCE
UTILITIES SERVICE PROVIDERS
LEGAL

Awards and Recognition

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.

Citrix User Experience
Management

Visibility into User Experience is a Big Need
Top Challenges of Citrix Administrators
2018 Citrix Performance Survey

Logon is
slow
Application
is slow to
launch
Session gets
disconnected
Keystrokes
don’t show
up on time
Multimedia
playback is
choppy
User
ExperiencePrinting
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?

Ranking Citrix User Experience Problems
Source: 2018 Citrix Performance Survey,
17%
18%
25%
28%
33%
38%
44%
59%
Video playback is slow
Screen refresh is slow
Speed of access
Printing problems
User disconnects
Slow application launches
Frozen sessions
Slow logons
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Increase from 52% - 2016

What Affects Citrix User Experience?
Where is the Problem?
Backend-tiers supporting
Citrix (Active Directory,
storage, database,
virtualization, etc.)
Citrix Servers (XenApp,
XenDesktop, PVS, license
server, etc.)
Client side (end-user
terminals/workstations)
Network (bandwidth, jitter,
latency, packet loss)

Four Approaches to Monitoring
Citrix User Experience
Network
Server SideClient Side
Simulation

Comparing the Different Approaches
User Experience
Monitoring
Real time
user
experience
Visibility into
ICA virtual
channels
Server-side
diagnostics
Network
diagnostics
Client-side
diagnostics
Session
simulation
Monitoring from
the network
Monitoring from
the server side
Monitoring from
the client side
Limited
Limited

 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
Monitoring Citrix User Experience with eG
Real User Monitoring
User Experience
Monitoring
 Simulate logon; launch
different applications
 Synthetic monitoring
from multiple locations
 Real user monitoring
from the client, network,
server
 eG uses a combination of
both approaches

eG Enterprise – Live User Experience
Monitoring Demo

Why Citrix chose eG

Citrix Services Delivery Overview
Access Layer
NetScaler Gateway Storefront Services
Control
Layer
Delivery Controller License Server Directory Servers SQL Server
Physical/Virtual
Resources
VMware Horizon | Citrix XenApp | Oracle | SAP | Microsoft | Enterprise Apps ...
Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop (WAAS) IT Services
User Groups / Consumers / Customers
Trading | Accounting | Online Banking | Patient Records | ...
Internal/External Customer-Facing IT Services
Infrastructure
Health
Application
Health
Business Transaction Health /
End-User Experience
Pooled Desktops | Hosted Apps | Shared Desktops | XenClient | Remote PC

Pitfalls of Siloed Approach
Access Layer Control
Layer
Delivery Controller License Server Directory Servers SQL Server
Physical/Virtual
Resources
VMware Horizon | Citrix XenApp | Oracle | SAP | Microsoft | Enterprise Apps ...
Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop (WAAS) IT Services
User Groups / Consumers / Customers
Trading | Accounting | Online Banking | Patient Records | ...
Internal/External Customer-Facing IT Services
Infrastructure
Health
Application
Health
Business Transaction Health /
End-User Experience
Pooled Desktops | Hosted Apps | Shared Desktops | XenClient | Remote PC
NetScaler Gateway Storefront Services

StoreFront
Firewall
Firewall
NetScaler
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?

Citrix Monitoring Requirements:
• End-to-End
• Get centralized Total Service monitoring from one console for
all involved elements
• All-encompassing
• Ability to see all your information with one single-pane-of-glass
• Intelligent & Scalable
• Provide insights to pinpoint the root cause of problems rather
than providing data
• Automated
• Discovery, monitoring, and script-based actions for self-healing
• Proactive
• Provide trustworthy alerts, in advance
• Simple to use
• IT helpdesks (non-experts) can use the tool for problem triage

Unified Monitoring of Everything Citrix
Complement & Extend Citrix Performance Management Solutions
NetScaler
Insight Center/MAS
Multiple Admin
Consoles
Director/
EdgeSight
Citrix Products
eG Enterprise
Citrix Monitoring

eG Enterprise – Live Demo

eG Enterprise – Reach, Depth and Speed
Visibility into all the Citrix tiers
In-depth (domain specific) monitoring of each tier
Visibility into non-Citrix tiers supporting Citrix
Insights into all aspects of user experience
Auto-baselining for proactive alerting
Correlation across tiers for root-cause diagnosis
Reporting customized to different stakeholders
On-the-go mobile access

What’s new in eG 6.3
DEPTH
 XenApp & XenDesktop
monitoring
 Citrix Logon Simulator
 NetScaler monitoring
REACH
 PVS monitoring
 XenMobile monitoring
 Citrix Cloud monitoring

Enhancements to
XenApp & XenDesktop Monitoring
 Support for EDT protocol
 Deeper user logon monitoring
 Outlook add-in monitoring
 User connection quality indicator
 Monitoring XenApp on Linux
 Improved discovery

Monitoring Support for Citrix Adaptive
Transport
What is Adaptive Transport?
• Adaptive transport is a new data transport mechanism for XenApp and
XenDesktop 7.13 and above
• It is faster, more scalable, and
more interactive on long-haul
WAN and internet
connections
• It improves application
interactivity and data
throughput
• By using adaptive transport, ICA virtual channels automatically respond
to changing network conditions
ICA channels intelligently
switch the underlying
protocol between the new
Citrix protocol called
Enlightened Data Transport
(EDT) and TCP to deliver the
best performance

Monitoring Support for Citrix Adaptive
Transport (contd.)
Measure the performance of
XenApp and XenDesktop sessions
connected over EDT protocol
Monitor bandwidth,
roundtrip time, packet
retransmission, dropped
packets, congestions, etc.
View session-wise EDT
performance metrics in the DD

In-Depth Monitoring of Citrix User Logon
Performance for XenApp Server & XenDesktop VM
Get deeper visibility to identify user logon slowness
arising from server startup, client startup, Group
Policy, connectivity between VM and DC, and more
View user profile size metrics as part of
Session Start-Up Details test.
(Note: These metrics were earlier part of
Citrix Server layer)

Outlook Add-in Monitoring in XenApp and
XenDesktop
Find out the which add-ins were
loaded during Outlook time and
how much time they took
Why Monitor Outlook Add-Ins?
Many organizations deliver Microsoft Outlook via Citrix. Sometimes,
slowness in loading Outlook add-ins could be misunderstood as a problem
in Citrix.
eG Enterprise provides visibility of Outlook add-ins and their load times.
View the details of
the Outlook add-in

User’s Connection Quality Indicator
• Many a time, slowdown in Citrix access is wrongly blamed on the Citrix
server-side infrastructure, whereas the actual cause could be a problem
elsewhere:
– For e.g., the connectivity between the user terminal and the Citrix
environment
• Citrix offers a tool called Connection Quality Indicator, (which is installed
on the Windows machine where Citrix VDA is installed) and provides real-
time feedback to the user about their connection strength to XenApp and
XenDesktop (https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2017/02/22/citrix-connection-is-slow-not-really/)
• eG Enterprise 6.3 can now display the Connection Quality Indicator
measures as part of user session activity metrics in XenApp server and
XenDesktop VM layer model itself
– No installation of any additional software needed on VDAs
– Citrix admins can monitor the user’s Connection Quality Indicator proactively

User’s Connection Quality Indicator (contd.)
Report on user’s connection
quality (strong/weak/poor)
XenApp Server Component
Report on user’s connection
quality (strong/weak/poor)
VDI Component

User’s Connection Quality Indicator (contd.)
Connection
Quality Indicator
Alert in eG
Enterprise
Bandwidth (MBps) Latency (ms) ICA RTT (ms)
None None <= 0 < 0 < 0
Strong Normal > 8 <= 60 <= 80
Weak Minor > 1 & <= 8 >60 & <= 150 >80 & <= 180
Poor Major Any condition
other than the
above
Any condition
other than the
above
Any condition
other than the
above
Citrix recommended computation of user’s connection
quality indicator
Strong: Network and servers are operating normally
Weak: Possible network congestion or servers might be busy
Poor: Network or servers may be experiencing problems

Monitoring Support for Linux VDA
• Citrix allows the delivery of Linux
virtual desktops and applications
using the Linux Virtual Desktop
Agent (VDA)
• Linux virtual desktops and
applications can be created
based on an RHEL, CentOS, SUSE,
or Ubuntu distributions
• eG Enterprise 6.3 now supports monitoring of Linux VDAs
Note: Metrics monitored for Linux VDA are limited in comparison to Windows
VDAs. This is because of the limitation in metrics exposed by Citrix APIs.

NetScaler Monitoring
Enhancements
 Monitoring support for NetScaler SDX appliance
 Enhancements to monitoring NetScaler VPX instances
 New tests to measure VPN connections
 Configuration tracking support for NetScaler

Monitoring NetScaler SDX
Monitor NetScaler SDX availability, performance and
hardware health, and also the VPX instances
What is NetScaler SDX?
It is a hardware appliance with virtualization support to consolidate up to
115 independently-managed NetScaler instances

Enhancements to NetScaler VPX Monitoring
New test that indicates the current
effective state of the Virtual Server
bound to this Service Group in the
NetScaler device
Statistics of individual load
balancing group members are
aggregated and reported under
the group ‘Summary’ descriptor

Enhancements to NetScaler VPX Monitoring
(contd.)
Additional info in the detailed
diagnosis of load balancing
service group members view to
report weight, server ID and
hash ID of the Virtual Server

Monitor VPN Sessions Connective Via NetScaler
• eG Enterprise 6.3 allows monitoring the number of VPN
sessions connecting via NetScaler
Track the number of VPN
sessions, new logins and
session logouts
Detailed diagnosis lists the
user and session details of
the VPN connections

Configuration Change Tracking for NetScaler
• eG Enterprise can now track config changes in NetScaler
VPX/MPX components
• Some of the new config change tracking tests include:
– AppExpert responder actions and policies
– AppExpert rewrite actions and policies
– Cache redirection
– Content switching
– DNS records
– GSLB services, sites, virtual servers and parameters
– Load balancing
– NetScaler Gateway
– SSL services

Configuration Change Tracking for NetScaler
(contd.)
Example: View config details of
NetScaler SSL certificates and
identify changes
Example: View config details of
NetScaler DNS records and
identify changes

Provisioning Server Monitoring
Enhancements
 TFTP performance and availability monitoring
 UDP port listeners availability monitoring

TFTP Performance & Availability Monitoring
• For the Provisioning Server to start a target device, a boot file is downloaded by
the Provisioning Services’ MBA or PXE-compliant boot ROM, when the device is
turned on
• In many cases, the bootstrap file is
downloaded from the TFTP server and
loaded to the target device using the
TFTP service available in PVS
eG Enterprise monitors the
availability and response time
of the TFTP server as part of
PVS layer model
• It is important to monitor the availability and performance of the TFTP service in
PVS to ensure there is not disruption in the bootstrap file downloading activity

UDP Port Listeners Availability Monitoring
New test to check the
availability of UDP port
listeners (DHCP and TFTP)

XenMobile Monitoring Enhancements
• Two new tests in the XenMobile Applications layer to test the
number of successful and failed application launches
• Helps with auditing, compliance and also troubleshooting
Track successful and failed launches
by application and by user

Support for Monitoring
Citrix Cloud
 Monitoring the Citrix Cloud Delivery Controller
 Monitoring the Citrix Cloud Connector

Monitoring
• Citrix Cloud is a cloud management platform that allows
organizations to deploy cloud-hosted desktops and apps to end-users
• The Citrix components deployed in the datacenter in a traditional on-
premises environment are split into two groups in a Citrix Cloud
deployment:
S.No. Plane Component Deployment Managed By
1 Control Plane
Delivery Controller, StoreFront,
NetScaler Gateway, SQL Server,
Studio, License Server, Director
Citrix Cloud Citrix
2 Resource Plane
XenApp Server, XenDesktop
VDA, Active Directory, Citrix
Cloud Connector
On-premises, public cloud,
private cloud, or hybrid
cloud infrastructure
Customer/
Partner
• The Citrix Cloud Connector serves as a channel for communication between
Citrix Cloud and the resource plane, enabling cloud management without
requiring any complex networking or infrastructure configuration

Citrix Cloud Architecture
Microsoft, in partnership with Citrix, offers XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop
Essentials where the resource plane is hosted on Azure public cloud and the control
plane is hosted and managed by Citrix in the Citrix Cloud. Customers can directly buy
these Citrix services from Microsoft.
Control
Plane
Resource
Plane
Citrix Cloud Connector
• The Citrix Cloud team will maintain updates on all control plane components
• Customers will only need to worry about updating the VDAs in the resource plane

How eG Enterprise Monitors Citrix Cloud
• eG Enterprise 6.2.1 already had the capability to monitor all
components in the resource plane, regardless of whether it is
deployed on-premises, or in the public/private/hybrid cloud
• eG Enterprise 6.3 introduces the new capability to provide
out-of-the-box monitoring of:
– Citrix Cloud Delivery Controller hosted in the control plane
– The Citrix Cloud Connector deployed in the resource plane
• eG Enterprise 6.3 adds dedicated component types and
purpose-built layer model to monitor the Cloud Delivery
Controller and Cloud Connector

Monitoring the Citrix Cloud Delivery Controller
• eG Enterprise monitors the Cloud Delivery Controller in an agentless manner
• OS-level information (resources, processes, etc.) will not be available for the Cloud
Delivery Controller because it is in the Citrix-hosted and -managed control plane
eG Enterprise provides a layer model
for Cloud Delivery Controller similar
to the one used for monitoring an on-
premises Delivery Controller

Monitoring the Citrix Cloud Connector
• The Cloud Connector is installed on a machine running Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows
Server 2016. eG Agent should be installed on this box for monitoring the Cloud Connector.
• There will be two Cloud Connectors (installed on two different machines) in a typical Citrix
Cloud setup. This is used for high availability and failover.
Monitor the availability,
response time, and content
validity metrics of the Cloud
Connector service
Monitor the health, availability
and performance of the
Windows server & OS where the
Cloud Connector is installed

Dramatically simplify and
accelerate application
performance management.
Deliver peak performance,
user satisfaction and ROI.
User Satisfaction
IT Productivity
Higher service
uptime
Simplicity
Cost control & ROI
Total Citrix
Performance
Management
“
”
eG’s Total Citrix Performance Monitoring
Benefits

Thank You!
www.eginnovations.com
info@eginnovations.com +1 (866) 526 6700

Why does Citrix use eG Enterprise for End-to-End Monitoring at Citrix Summit & Synergy?

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