Desktop Sessions Details Test

Every user who is logged into a virtual desktop, may not actively use that desktop. In a cloud-based virtual infrastructure, it is common for users to just log into desktops, and leave them unused for long time periods. Such desktops are a huge resource drain, as they continue to consume resources, regardless of the level of activity on them. Moreover, with many organizations these days providing the work-from-home option to their employees, identification of idle users is paramount, as such users themselves are deemed unproductive resource consumers. Also, this is a good indicator to whether/not the work-from-home facility is effectively used by employees or is abused! Besides, since idle users unnecessarily hold on to desktops, users with genuine needs may not have any desktops to work with. If administrators can quickly identify these idle users and the desktops they are logged into, they can rapidly pull the desktops from such users and assign them to users who can use them effectively. The Desktop Sessions Details test turns the spotlight on these idle users. For each user session on a virtual desktop, this test reports the total duration of the session and the percentage of time for which the session was active. The test also reports the total idle time during the session. From these statistics, administrators can accurately identify those users who are wasting the desktops assigned and resources allocated to them.

Target of the test : An Amazon Cloud Desktop Group

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every user who is currently logged into a desktop

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The nick name of the Amazon Cloud Desktop Group component for which this test is to be configured.
Port	Refers to the port at which the specified host listens to. By default, this is NULL.
Inside View Using	To obtain the 'inside view' of performance of the desktops - i.e., to measure the internal performance of the cloud-based virtual desktops - this test uses a light-weight eG VM Agent software deployed on each of the desktops. Accordingly, this parameter is by default set to eG VM Agent.
Report Powered OS	If this flag is set to Yes (which is the default setting), then the 'inside view' tests will report measures for even those desktops that do not have any users logged in currently. Such desktops will be identified by their name and not by the username_on_desktopname. On the other hand, if this flag is set to No, then this test will not report measures for those desktops to which no users are logged in currently.
Report By User	This flag is set to Yes by default. The value of this flag cannot be changed. This implies that the cloud-based virtual desktops in environments will always be identified using the login name of the user. In other words, in cloud environments, this test will, by default, report measures for every username_on_desktopname.
IsCloudVMs	Since this test runs for a 'Amazon Cloud Desktop Group' component, this flag is set to Yes, by default.
Idle Time	Specify the time duration (in minutes) of inactivity beyond which a session is considered to be “idle” by this test. By default, this parameter is set to 30 (minutes). This implies that by default, the test counts all sessions that have been inactive for over 30 minutes as idle sessions.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Total time in session	Indicates the time that has elapsed since this user logged into this desktop.	Mins
Active time in last measure period	Indicates the percentage of time in the last measurement period during which this user actively used this desktop.	Percent	Ideally, the value of this measure should be 100%. A low value for this measure denotes a high level of inactivity recently.
Time since last activity	Indicates the time that has elapsed since this user performed an action on this desktop.	Mins	A high value for this measure indicates that the user has been idle for a long time. Compare the value of this measure across users to know which user has been idle for the longest time.
Total idle time in session	Indicates the total time for which this user was idle during the session.	Mins	If the value of this measure is the same as the value of the Total time in session measure for a user, it means that the user has been idle throughout the session. If the value of this measure is close to the value of the Total time in session measure for a user, it implies that the user has been idle for a long time. If the value of this measure is much lesser than the value of the Total time in session measure for a user, it means that the user has been active for most part of the session.
Is session idle for a long time?	Indicates whether/not the session established by this user is idle for longer time than the time specified against the Idle Time parameter.		The table below indicates the values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric equivalents: Measure value Numeric Value No 0 Yes 1 Note: By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating whether this user's session is idle for longer time. However, in the graph of this measure, this will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalent only.