Citrix Teams Status - OS Test

How often should the test be executed.

The host for which the test is to be configured.

The port at which the specified host listens. By default, this is NULL.

To enable the eG agent to connect to the XenServer API for collecting statistics of interest, this test should login to the target hypervisor as a root user. Provide the name of the root user in the Xen User text box. Root user privileges are mandatory when monitoring a XenServer 5.5 (or below). However, if you are monitoring XenServer 5.6 (or above) and you prefer not to expose the credentials of the root user, then, you have the option of configuring a user with pool-admin privileges as the Xen User. If you do not want to expose the credentials of a root/pool-admin user, then you can configure the tests with the credentials of a Xen User with Read-only privileges to the XenServer. However, if this is done, then the Xen Uptime test will not run, and the Xen CPU and Xen Memory tests will not be able to report metrics for the control domain descriptor. To avoid such an outcome, do the following before attempting to configure the eG tests with a Xen User who has Read-only privileges to the Citrix Hypervisor:

• Modify the target hypervisor's configuration in the eG Enterprise. For this, follow the Infrastructure -> Components -> Add/Modify menu sequence, pick Citrix Hypervisor as the Component type, and click the Modify button corresponding to the target hypervisor.
• In the MODIFY COMPONENT DETAILS page that then appears, make sure that the os is set to Xen and the Mode is set to SSH.
• Then, in the same page, proceed to provide the User and Password of a user who has the right to connect to the XenServer console via SSH.
• Then, click the Update button to save the changes.

Once this is done, you can configure the eG tests with the credentials of a Xen User with Read-only privileges.

The password of the specified Xen User needs to be mentioned in the Xen Password text box.

Then, confirm the Xen Password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box.

By default, the Citrix Hypervisor is not SSL-enabled. This indicates that by default, the eG agent communicates with the target hypervisor using HTTP. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to No by default. If you configure the target hypervisor to use SSL, then make sure that the SSL flag is set to Yes, so that the eG agent communicates with the target hypervisor using HTTPS. Note that a default SSL certificate comes bundled with every Citrix Hypervisor installation. If you want the eG agent to use this default certificate for communicating with an SSL-enabled Citrix Hypervisor, then no additional configuration is required. However, if you do not want to use the default certificate, then you can generate a self-signed certificate for use by the target hypervisor. In such a case, you need to explicitly follow the broad steps given below to enable the eG agent to communicate with the target hypervisor via HTTPS:

• Obtain the server-certificate for the Citrix Hypervisor
• Import the server-certificate into the local certificate store of the eG agent

For a detailed discussion on each of these steps, refer to the Troubleshooting section of this document.

By default, this test obtains the “inside view” of VMs using the eG VM Agent. Accordingly, the Inside view using flag is set to eG VM Agent by default. The eG VM Agent is a piece of software, which should be installed on every VM on a hypervisor. Every time the eG agent runs this test, it uses the eG VM Agent to pull relevant 'inside view' metrics from each VM. Once the metrics are collected, the eG agent then communicates with each VM agent and pulls these metrics, without requiring administrator privileges. Refer to Configuring the Remote Agent to Obtain the Inside View of VMs for more details on the eG VM Agent.

By default, these parameters are set to none. This is because, by default, the eG agent collects 'inside view' metrics using the eG VM agent on each VM. Domain administrator privileges need not be granted to the eG agent if it uses this default approach to obtain the 'inside view' of Windows VMs.

Administrators of some high security XenServer environments might not have permissions to internally monitor one/more VMs. The eG agent can be configured to not obtain the 'inside view' of such ‘inaccessible’ VMs using the IGNORE VMS INSIDE VIEW parameter. Against this parameter, you can provide a comma-separated list of VM names, or VM name patterns, for which the inside view need not be obtained. For instance, your IGNORE VMS INSIDE VIEW specification can be: *xp,*lin*,win*,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside view of all VMs on a Citrix Hypervisor host by default.

Note:

While performing VM discovery, the eG agent will not discover the operating system of the VMs configured in the IGNORE VMS INSIDE VIEW text box.

Administrators of some virtualized environments may not want to monitor some of their less-critical VMs - for instance, VM templates - both from 'outside' and from 'inside'. The eG agent in this case can be configured to completely exclude such VMs from its monitoring purview. To achieve this, provide a comma-separated list of VMs to be excluded from monitoring in the EXCLUDE VMS text box. Instead of VMs, VM name patterns can also be provided here in a comma-separated list. For example, your EXCLUDE VMS specification can be: *xp,*lin*,win*,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside and outside views of all VMs on a virtual host by default. By providing a comma-separated list of VMs/VM name patterns in the EXCLUDE VMS text box, you can make sure the eG agent stops collecting 'inside' and 'outside' view metrics for a configured set of VMs.

By default, the eG agent does not support the inside view for VMs executing on Windows NT operating systems. Accordingly, the IGNORE WINNT flag is set to Yes by default.

While monitoring a Citrix hypervisor, the REPORT BY USER flag is set to No by default, indicating that by default, the guest operating systems on the target hypervisor are identified using the host name specified in the operating system. On the other hand, while monitoring a Citrix hypervisor-VDI, this flag is set to Yes by default; this implies that in case of the Citrix hypervisor-VDI model, by default, the desktops will be identified using the login of the user who is accessing them. In other words, in VDI environments, this test will, by default, report measures for every username_on_virtualmachinename.

This flag becomes relevant only if the report by user flag is set to ‘Yes’.

If the report powered os flag is set to Yes (which is the default setting), then this test will report measures for even those VMs that do not have any users logged in currently. Such guests will be identified by their virtualmachine name and not by the username_on_virtualmachinename. On the other hand, if the report powered os flag is set to No, then this test will not report measures for those VMs to which no users are logged in currently.

In a Citrix application delivery infrastructure, VDA enables the target machine to register with the Delivery Controller and establishes and manages the connection between the machine and the user device. The VDA communicates session information to the Broker Service in the Delivery Controller through the broker agent in the VDA. If the VDA is not registered with a valid Delivery Controller or is in the "Unregistered" state, then, communication between the target machine and user device will not be established. As a result, users will be unable to login to the target machine and access their business-critical applications. This in turn can seriously impact user's productivity and degrade overall user experience with the application delivery service. To prevent such an outcome, administrators need to intelligently find out the registration status of VDAs on the target machine and take the remedial actions if the VDA is in the "Unregistered" state. To help administrators in this regard, eG Enterprise offers 'Automation Actions'. These actions are governed by the 'Automation Action Enabled' flag.

This flag, if enabled, automatically initiates user-configured actions when the VDA is in the "Unregistered" state, so that the status of VDA is restored before it impairs application delivery to users. Such an action can restart the Citrix services running on the target machine, or completely restart the machine.

Note:

The 'Automation Action Enabled' parameters, once configured, will apply only to the chosen component. These settings will not be applied to other components even if the Apply to other components button is clicked in the Specific Test Configuration page.

This parameter is applicable only if the Automation Action Enabled parameter is set to Yes.

Sometimes, the VDA on a machine may fail to register with the Delivery Controller if one/more Citrix services on the target machine are down. As a result, users will be denied access to that machine and all critical business applications running on it. This will adversely impact user productivity and overall experience with the application delivery service. To prevent such anomalies, administrators can configure this test to automatically restart Citrix Services on a target machine, if the value of the Registration status measure for that target is "Unregistered". For this, administrators should set the Restart Citrix Services flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No.

Note that this test will be able to restart only the Citrix services whose startup type is set as "Auto".

This parameter is applicable only if the Automation Action Enabled parameter is set to Yes.

Sometimes, restarting the Citrix services on the target machine may not be sufficient to resolve registration issues. In such a case, administrators can configure the test to automatically restart the target machine. This can be achieved by setting the  Restart Machine When Unregistered flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to  No.

Note that, we strongly recommend against restarting the target machine, as such an action may seriously impact the availability and functioning of other business-critical applications running on the machine. You are therefore advised to set this flag to Yes, only if you must.

This parameter is applicable only if the Automation Action Enabled parameter is set to Yes.

Specify the duration (in minutes) that this test should maintan between consecutive user-configured automated actions. By default, this parameter is set to 30 (minutes). This implies that by default, the test will wait for 30 minutes before triggering an automated action if the value of Registration status measure is "Unregistered".

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD FREQUENCY.