PCoIP Session - OS Test
PCoIP - PC over IP - is a proprietary protocol for remote workstation and desktop resolution. Citrix supports PCoIP to deliver virtual desktops to users connecting to the VDI. Since PCoIP recognizes different types of content and then uses different compression algorithms based on the content type, it is often considered ideal to deliver on the VDI promise of a rich user experience.
The key factors influencing user experience in such cases are the latencies experienced by the user while connecting to the desktop via PCoIP and the bandwidth used when a user interacts with a virtual desktop. High latency and excessive bandwidth consumption can often slowdown access to desktops, thereby significantly delaying subsequent user operations. Hence, monitoring the latency and bandwidth usage of the PCoIP communication channel between the user terminal and the virtual desktops is essential.
The PCoIP Session - OS test auto-discovers the virtual desktops on the Citrix Hypervisor host and the users who are currently connected to each desktop via PCoIP. For each such user, the test monitors the communication between a user and the virtual desktop, and reports the following:
- The latency experienced by each user session;
- The bandwidth used by the incoming and outgoing data/audio/multimedia traffic transacted by the PCoIP communication channel between each user and virtual desktop;
Using this test, an administrator can identify user sessions that are being impacted by high latency and abnormal bandwidth usage. In addition, the test also reveals the type of traffic that is causing excessive bandwidth usage, thereby providing pointers to how the client configuration can be fine-tuned in order to reduce bandwidth consumption and improve performance.
This test is relevant only where VMware View is used to broker connections between the user and the desktops. Hence, this test is disabled by default. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence: Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick Citrix Hypervisor - VDI as the Component type, set Performance as the Test type, choose this test from the disabled tests list, and click on the >> button to move the test to the enableD tests list.
Target of the test : A Citrix Hypervisor
Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent
Outputs of the test : One set of results for every user who is connected to a virtual desktop via PCoIP
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Test period |
How often should the test be executed. |
Host |
The host for which the test is to be configured. |
Port |
The port at which the specified host listens. By default, this is NULL. |
Xen User, Xen Password and Confirm Password |
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:
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. |
SSL |
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:
For a detailed discussion on each of these steps, refer to the Troubleshooting section of this document. |
Inside View Using |
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. |
Domain, Admin User, and Admin Password, and Confirm Password |
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. |
Ignore VMs Inside View |
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. |
Exclude VMs |
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. |
Ignore Winnt |
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. |
Webport |
By default, in most virtualized environments, the target hypervisor listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabled) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled). This implies that while monitoring an SSL-enabled Citrix hypervisor, the eG agent, by default, connects to port 443 of the server to pull out metrics, and while monitoring a non-SSL-enabled Citrix hypervisor, the eG agent connects to port 80. Accordingly, the webport parameter is set to 80 or 443 depending upon the status of the ssl flag. In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, against the webport parameter, you can specify the exact port at which the target hypervisor in your environment listens so that the eG agent communicates with that port. |
Report by User |
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. |
Report Powered OS |
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. |
Measurement | Description | Measurement Unit | Interpretation |
---|---|---|---|
Round trip time |
Indicates the round trip latency between the virtual desktop and this user terminal. |
Secs |
Comparing the value of this measure across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who are experiencing higher latency when connecting to a virtual desktop. |
Data received rate |
Indicates the rate at which data was received by this user from the virtual desktop. |
Kbit/Sec |
Comparing the value of each of these measures across users will enable administrators to quickly and accurately identify users who are consuming the maximum bandwidth. Once you zero-in on the user, you can compare the Data received rate of that user with the Data sent rate to know when the user consumed more bandwidth - when receiving data or while sending data? |
Data sent rate |
Indicates the rate at which data was sent by this user to the virtual desktop. |
Kbit/Sec |
|
Audio data received |
Indicates the bandwidth used while transmitting sound/audio to this user. |
Kbit/Sec |
Comparing these values across users will reveal which user is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive sound/audio files over PCoIP.
|
Audio data sent |
Indicates the bandwidth used while receiving sound/audio from this user. |
Kbit/Sec |
|
Imaging data received rate |
Indicates the bandwidth used when sending imaging data to this user. |
Kbit/Sec |
Comparing these values across users will reveal which user is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive images over PCoIP. |
Imaging data sent rate |
Indicates the bandwidth used when receiving imaging data from this user. |
Kbit/Sec |
|
Imaging decoder capability rate |
Indicates the currrent estimate of the decoder processing capability. |
Kbit/Sec |
|
Incoming bandwith |
Indicates the overall bandwidth used by incoming PCoIP packets. |
Kbit/Sec |
Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user is performing bandwidth-intensive operations over the PCoIP channel. |
Outgoing bandwidth |
Indicates the overall bandwidth used by outgoing PCoIP packets. |
Kbit/Sec |
|
USB data received rate |
Indicates the bandwidth used when this user received USB data over the PCoIP channel. |
Kbit/Sec |
Comparing the values of these measures across users will reveal which user is sending/receiving bandwidth-intensive USB data over the PCoIP channel. |
USB data sent rate |
Indicates the bandwidth used when this user sent USB data over the PCoIP channel. |
Kbit/Sec |
|
Received packets lost |
Indicates the percentage of packets received by this user that were lost. |
Percent |
A high value for these measures is indicative of a bad network connection between the user terminal and the virtual desktop. |
Transmitted packets lost |
Indicates the percentage of packets transmitted by this user that were lost. |
Percent |
|
Imaging encoded frames |
Indicates the number of imaging frames that were encoded per second. |
Frames/Sec |
|