Application Process Launches Test

When a user complains that it is taking too long to launch applications on Citrix, administrators must be able to quickly identify the applications that are being currently accessed by that user, know how much time each application took to launch, and thus pinpoint that application that is the slowest in launching. The Application Process Launches test provides these valuable insights to the administrators. This test auto-discovers all the applications that are currently launched on the Citrix server, and for each discovered application, reports the average and maximum time that application took to launch. This way, the test points administrators to applications that are slow in launching. Detailed diagnostics provided by the test also reveals the users who are currently accessing the applications and the launch time of the application as perceived by each user session; in the process, the test accurately pinpoints which user was attempting to launch the application when the slowness was observed.

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 the desired Component type, set Performance as the Test type, choose the test from the disabled tests list, and click on the < button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Target of the test : Any Citrix server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every application on the Virtual Apps server that is currently launched. This can be an application published on a Virtual Apps server or that which runs within a published desktop on the Virtual Apps server.

Configurable parameters for the test
Test period - How often should the test be executed Host - The host for which the test is to be configured. port – The port number at which the specified HOST listens to. By default, this is 1494. domain name, domain user, domain password, and confirm password – A Citrix Virtual Apps server (v6.5) can run in the controller mode or the worker mode. In the controller mode, the Virtual Apps server can perform all farm management tasks. However, in the worker mode, a Virtual Apps server can only host user sessions. By default, the domain name, domain user, domain password, and confirm password parameters are set to none. If the Virtual Apps server being monitored is the controller in a farm, then this default value will automatically apply. In other words, in this case, you can leave the values of these parameters as none. On the other hand, if the target Virtual Apps server is a worker in the farm, then first, you will have to configure the name of the domain in which the Virtual Apps server operates in the domain name text box. Then, you need to configure the test with the credentials of a user with Citrix Farm Administrator rights, using the domain user and domain password text boxes. Finally, you will have to confirm the domain password by retyping it in the confirm password text box. Note: If the Virtual Apps server is a worker in the farm, then, in addition to configuring the domain name, domain user, domain password parameters, the following pre-requisites should also be fulfilled for this test to report metrics: Make sure that the Citrix Virtual Apps Commands Remoting service is running in the Controller server. The port 2513 must be open on the Controller server in the farm. REPORT BY DOMAIN NAME – By default, this flag is set to Yes. This implies that by default, the detailed diagnosis of this test will display the domainname\username of each user session that logged out. This default setting ensures that administrators are able to quickly determine the domains to which the users who logged out belonged. You can set this flag to No if you want detailed diagnosis to display only the username of the users who logged out. server version – By default, this parameter is set to XA6 for this test. Do not change this default setting. exclude – By default, this parameter is set to none. This means that the test will monitor all the applications that are launched on the Virtual Apps server, by default. If you want the test to disregard certain applications when monitoring, then provide a comma-separated list of process names that correspond to the applications you want to ignore, in the exclude text box. For instance, your specification can be: winword.exe,js.exe,taskmgr.exe. Your specification can include wild card patterns as well. For example: win,js,task DD FREQUENCY – 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. 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
Launch count:	Represents the number of instances of this application that have been launched currently.	Number	Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know which users are currently accessing the application and the time it took for every user to launch the application.
Avg time to launch application:	Indicates the average time taken by this application to launch.	Secs	Compare the value of this measure across applications to know which application took the longest time to launch. User experience with this application will naturally be poor.
Max time to launch application:	Indicates the maximum time taken by this application to launch.	Secs	Compare the value of this measure across applications to know which application registered the highest launch time during the last measurement period. To know which user experienced this delay in launching, use the detailed diagnosis of the Launch count measure.