Port Checks Test

This test primarily checks whether the critical TCP ports on the Citrix Virtual Apps server are up/down, and reports the responsiveness of each configured port to client requests. However, these checks might not be adequate at all times; you could have a case where the Citrix Virtual Apps server port is up but the server is still not responding. When a connection is made to the Citrix Virtual Apps server, it will typically send a message "ICA" to the client. This check connects to the port and then validates the response from the Citrix Virtual Apps server to see if the ICA stream is being received by the client. Hence, this test additionally reports the ICA connection availability.

Target of the test : A Citrix Virtual Apps server

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each port that is to be monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
  1. Test period - How often should the test be executed
  2. Host - The host for which the test is to be configured.
  3. port – The port number at which the specified HOST listens to. By default, this is 1494.
  4. TARGETPORTS – Specify either a comma-separated list of port numbers that are to be tested (eg., 1494,1495,1496), or a comma-separated list of port name:port number pairs that are to be tested (eg., ica:1494,smtp:25,mssql:1433). In the latter case, the port name will be displayed in the monitor interface. Alternatively, this parameter can take a comma-separated list of port name:IP address:port number pairs that are to be tested, so as to enable the test to try and connect to Tcp ports on multiple IP addresses. For example, mysql:192.168.0.102:1433,egwebsite:209.15.165.127:80.
  5. TIMEOUT - Here, specify the maximum duration (in seconds) for which the test will wait for a response from the server. The default TIMEOUT period is 60 seconds.
  6. ISPASSIVE - If the value chosen is yes, then the server under consideration is a passive server in a cluster. No alerts will be generated if the server is not running. Measures will be reported as “Not applicable” by the agent if the server is not up.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

TCP connection availability:

Indicates whether the TCP connection is available or not.

Percent

An availability problem can be caused by different factors – e.g., the server process may not be up, a network problem may exist, or there could be a configuration problem with the DNS server.

Response time:

Indicates the time taken by the server to respond to a request.

Secs

An increase in response time can be caused by several factors such as a server bottleneck, a configuration problem with the DNS server, a network problem, etc.

ICA connection availability:

Indicates whether ICA connection is available or not.

Percent

While the value 100 for this measure indicates that the ICA stream is being received by the client, the value 0 indicates that it is not.