Server OS Machines Test

Server OS Machines are VMs or physical machines based on the Windows Server operating system used for delivering applications or hosted shared desktops to users.

This test auto-discovers the Server OS Machines in the site and reports the session load on, resource usage of, and current state of each machine. This way, administrators can quickly identify machines that are experiencing heavy load and those that are consuming resources abnormally.

Target of the test : A controller in a Citrix Virtual Apps/Desktops Site 7.x

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each server OS machine running in the delivery controller site.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The IP address of the host for which the test is being configured.

Port

The port number at which the specified Host listens to. By default, this is 80.

Controller IP Address

To monitor a site and pull metrics on its performance, the eG agent communicates with a delivery controller in that site. If the target site contains only one controller, then, you need to configure the Controller IP Address parameter with the IP address of that controller, so that the eG agent can use that controller for monitoring the site. Note that in this case, if the controller stops functioning for any reason, the eG agent will not be able to monitor the site any longer. Some sites may be configured with multiple delivery controllers to ensure high-availability, and to optimize and load-balance user connections. When monitoring such a site, you have the option of configuring the Controller IP Address parameter with a comma-separated list of controllers. For instance, the list should be in the following format: 192.160.1.10,198.160.1.11,198.160.1.12. In this case, the eG agent checks the availability of each configured controller at run time, picks the controller that is up and running at that time, and communicates with that controller for collecting metrics on site performance. This way, you can ensure that the non-availability of a single controller, does not impact site monitoring.

Controller Port

Specify the port number of the delivery controller in the site with which the eG agent should communicate for collecting performance metrics.

Username
and Password

To connect to a delivery controller and pull out metrics from it, the eG agent requires Farm Administrator rights. In order to configure the eG agent with Farm Administrator privileges, specify the credentials of the Farm Administrator in the Username and Password text boxes. This user should also be assigned the Allow log on locally privilege on the Citrix Virtual Apps/Desktops Site 7.x host. The steps for assigning the Allow log on locally privilege are explained in the Pre-requisites for monitoring the Citrix Virtual Apps/Desktops Site 7.x topic.

Confirm Password

Confirm the Password by retyping it here.

Fully Qualified Domain Name

Here, specify the fully-qualified name of the domain to which the specified controller belongs.

SSL

Indicate whether/not the controller used for metrics collection  is SSL-enabled. By default, this flag is set to Yes.

Report by Delivery Group

If you want the results of this test to be grouped by delivery group then set this flag to Yes. In this case therefore, the delivery groups containing the server OS machines will be the primary descriptors of this test; expanding them will reveal the secondary descriptors – i.e., the server OS machines in each delivery group. If you want the results of this test to be indexed only by the names of the server OS machines, then set this flag to No.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Power state

Indicates the current power state of this server OS machine.

 

The values this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in then table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Unknown 0
Unavailable 1
Off 2
On 3
Suspended 4
Turning on 5
Turning Off 6
Suspending 7
Resuming 8
Unmanaged 9

Using the detailed diagnosis of the Power state measure you can view the complete configuration details of the server OS machine.

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values in the table above to indicate the power state of a server OS machine. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Maintenance mode

Indicates whether/not this machine is in the maintenance mode currently.

 

The values this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in then table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Off 0
On 1

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values in the table above to indicate whether/not a server OS machine is in the maintenance mode. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Pending image update

Indicates whether/not image updates are pending on this machine.

 

The values this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in then table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
No 0
Yes 1

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values in the table above to indicate whether/not image updates are pending on this server OS machine. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Is this physical machine?

Indicates whether this server OS machine is a physical or virtual machine.

 

The values this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in then table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
No 0
Yes 1

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values in the table above to indicate whether/not a server OS machine is a physical machine. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Total sessions

Indicates the total number of user sessions on this server OS machine.

Number

This is a good indicator of the current session load on a server OS machine. Compare the value of this measure across machines to know which machine is overloaded with sessions.

Load evaluator index

Indicates the load evaluator index of this machine.

Percent

 A server’s load index may be the aggregate of:

  • Various computer performance counter based metrics, namely CPU, Memory and Disk Usage
  • Session Count

It is designed to indicate how suitable a XenApp Worker is to receive a new user session. It is the Delivery Controller’s responsibility to calculate the load index based on the aggregate of the normalized load rule indexes generated by the various load rules. As only the Delivery Controller can determine the session load, a server’s overall load index is calculated on the Delivery Controller and not the Virtual Delivery Agent.

By comparing the value of this measure across server OS machines, you can figure out whether or not load is uniformly balanced across all servers in the site.

CPU

Indicates the CPU load evaluator index of this server OS machine.

Percent

A high value is indicative of excessive CPU usage by the machine over time.

Memory

Indicates the memory load evaluator index of this server OS machine.

Percent

A high value is indicative of excessive memory usage by the machine over time.

Disk

Indicates the disk load evaluator index of this server OS machine.

Percent

A high value is indicative of excessive disk usage by the machine over time.

Session count

Indicates the session count load evaluator index of this server OS machine.

Percent

A high value indicates that the machine has been consistently handling many user sessions.

Registration state

Indicates whether this server OS machine is registered or not.

 

The values this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in then table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Unknown 0
Registered 1
Unregistered 2

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values in the table above to indicate whether/not each machine is registered or not. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Powered on machines

Indicates the number of machines in this desktop group that are currently powered on.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which machines are currently powered on.

Powered off machines

Indicates the number of machines in this delivery group that are currently powered off.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which machines are currently in the powered off.

Using the detailed diagnosis of the Power state measure you can view the details of the server OS machine such as the IP address, DNS name, OS of the machine, the server hosting the machine, and the current status of that machine. 

Detailed diagnosis for Power state measure

Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the Power state measure