How to Achieve Great Citrix User Experience

© eG Innovations, Inc | www.eginnovations.com
User Experience Monitoring for Citrix
Infrastructures
Why, What and How?
Bala Vaidhinathan
eG Innovations
bala@eginnovations.com

Moderator
Christine Ackley
Director of Marketing Operations
eG Innovations
Christine.Ackley@eginnovations.com

Logistics
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 A copy of this presentation is posted on Slideshare:
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eG Innovations
 Leading provider of IT performance
monitoring, diagnosis and reporting
software
 Specialists in Citrix performance monitoring
and management
 Citrix Premier Technology Partner since 2004
 Our solutions are used in some of the largest
Citrix deployments in the world

Today’s Presenter
Bala Vaidhinathan
CTO
eG Innovations
bala@eginnovations.com

Agenda
 Why is Citrix user experience monitoring important?
 What are the key aspects of Citrix user experience
you should track?
 How to monitor Citrix user experience?
 Going beyond performance monitoring
 Live solution tour of eG Enterprise
 Q & A

48%
45%
7%
The most performance sensitive service
Similar in performance demands as other services
Not that performance sensitive
Citrix – One of the Most Performance Sensitive
Enterprise Applications
Source: 2016 Citrix Performance Survey,
http://www.eginnovations.com/solutions/sign-in?whitepaper=36
93% believe that Citrix is one of the
performance sensitive services in
enterprise networks.

What are the Biggest Citrix Performance
Challenges?
10%
26%
27%
28%
32%
34%
48%
51%
53%
54%
56%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Not able to monitor GPU
No simple way to forecast/plan
No visibility into applications used in virtual…
Too many silo tools
No visibility outside Citrix tiers
Lack of end to end performance view
Lack single dashboard for Citrix tiers
Need better monitoring of Citrix XenApp
Users notice issues before you do
Diagnosis is too slow/complex
Citrix being blamed for everything
Not able to measure the user experience
62%
Up
Down
Not able to measure user experience

Logon is
slow
Application
is slow to
launch
Session gets
disconnected
Keystrokes
don’t show
up on time
Multimedia
playback is
choppy
User
ExperiencePrinting
doesn’t
work
What Constitutes Citrix User Experience?
User Experience
Monitoring
 How long did Citrix logon
take? If slow, why? Profile?
AD? GPO?
 How long does app launch
take?
 What is a user’s screen
refresh latency?

Ranking Citrix User Experience Problems
18%
25%
36%
39%
41%
45%
48%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Screen refresh is slow
Video playback is slow
User disconnects
Printing problems
Speed of access
Slow application launches
Frozen sessions
Slow logins
52%
Slow logons

 Emulates users
 Imposes the same workload
again and again
 Provides a measure of
experience EVEN when
there is no real load
 Monitors real users
 Actual workloads
 Direct measure of what
users are seeing
Synthetic Monitoring
How to Monitor Citrix User Experience
Real User Monitoring
User Experience
Monitoring
 Simulate logon; launch
different applications
 Synthetic monitoring
from multiple locations
 Real user monitoring
from the client, network,
server
 Must use a combination
of both approaches

Synthetic Monitoring
with eG Enterprise

The eG Citrix Logon Simulator
• Periodically simulates a logon session for Citrix XenApp
and XenDesktop
– Uses browser scripting in IE and simulates the exact
process that the user goes through
– Black box approach; external view
– Verifies that the entire Citrix delivery infrastructure is
working, the Citrix session is established, and the
application is launched
• The simulated session detects logon issues proactively
• Run 24/7 against a Citrix farm (XenApp/XenDesktop)

How eG Citrix Logon Simulator Works
Test
Real User
Using
Simulated Session
From
Real Endpoint

The eG Citrix Logon Simulation – In Action
Simulated logon into
Citrix via NetScaler
Applications enumerated
on the StoreFront console
Launching application on
StoreFront
Wait for application to
launch before logging off

eG Logon Simulator

Feature Highlights
• Real-time simulation and
testing of user session
• Complete visibility of logon
process by testing entire
Citrix delivery
infrastructure
• Simulates exact same steps
of a real user
• 24/7 logon testing allows
simulation whenever and
wherever needed
• Can be run from local or
remote system
• Automated alerts
accurately pinpoint logon
issues
• Supports Citrix XenApp
versions 6.x and 7.x,
XenDesktop 7.x
• Simple to deploy – no
recording/scripting;
Deploy in minutes

Complete Session Emulation: Going Beyond
Logon Monitoring
Simulated logon
into Citrix via
NetScaler Applications
enumerated on the
StoreFront console
Launch application
on StoreFront
Login to
SAP Portal
Access HR
information
Perform tasks:
Approve, Revoke
Logout of
SAP Portal

Complete Session Emulation – Record & Replay
Record a script to
simulate a user session
Open the same
application that a
user access (e.g.,
browser, Citrix
receiver)
Indicate what
actions to perform
Specify what to
match in the
response
Name the
transaction step

eG Transaction Simulator

Monitoring Real User Experience
with eG Enterprise

Domain Controller
Web Interface
User Device
Database Server
License Server
Hypervisor + Virtual Desktop
Controller
3
1 7
6
2
4
10
5
9 11
8
Steps Involved in Citrix Logon

Domain Controller
Web Interface
User Device
Database Server
License Server
Hypervisor + Virtual Desktop
Controller
3
1 7
6
2
4
10
5
9 11
8
Where Citrix Logon Has to be Measured
In the XenApp
server / virtual
desktop
At the Delivery
Controller

Monitoring Real User Logon
with eG Enterprise

Monitoring User Latencies with
eG Enterprise

Monitoring ICA Virtual Channels
Virtual Channel Monitoring
 What is the screen refresh lag?
 How much bandwidth is the
user session consuming?
 How much of this is:
 Audio bandwidth?
 Video bandwidth?
 Printer bandwidth?
 Drive bandwidth?
Framehawk
DCR
Thinwire
Multimedia
Flash
Generic USB
CDM
Audio
Lync
Printing
Mobile SDK
Mobile Sensors
Smartcard
Clipboard
KB& Mouse
ICA

What are the Main Causes of Citrix Problems?
27%
29%
30%
31%
37%
40%
42%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Virtualization platform
Server OS
Network in the data center
Citrix tiers
Storage
Infra services (AD, Profile, etc.)
Enterprise applications
Network connection to the user terminals
53%
Network connection to user terminals

Monitoring Citrix Application Launch
Virtual Application
Monitoring
 How long did it take to
launch an application?
 What are the most
popular applications?
 What are the most
CPU/memory intensive
applications?
 For how long was an
application accessed?

1/19/2
017
Oracle Confidential –
Internal/Restricted/Highly Restricted
3
0
Going beyond User
Experience Monitoring

When is a Citrix User Happy?
Well-planned
infrastructure &
service delivery
Proactive resolution
before services are
impacted
Reliable
Fast mean-time-to-
repair (MTTR)
Available at all times High response time
Available Performing Well
High throughput

Auto-Baselining for Proactive Alerting
Automatically computed baseline
based on time of day, day of month
behavior enables proactive
detection of problems

StoreFront
Firewall
Firewall
NetScaler
Desktop Delivery
Controller
Virtual Machine
Infrastructure
Virtual Desktop
Agent
XenMobile Saas, Web,
Mobile, Data
Provisioning
Services
XenApp
Profile Store
License Server
Data Store
Domain Controller
Cloud
Switch SAN
Where is the Root-Cause?
What is the root cause of the service problem?
Network? VMware? AD? SQL? Storage? Profile Server?

A few of the servers
are handling most of
the sessions
Capacity Optimization Example

Capacity Planning Example

eG Enterprise – Summary
Monitor all aspects of Citrix user experience
Visibility into Citrix and non-Citrix tiers - performance, usage
Auto-baselining for proactive alerting
Correlation across tiers for root-cause diagnosis, lower MTTR
Dashboards to see KPIs of interest in real-time
Reports customized to different stakeholders
On-the-go mobile access for rapid troubleshooting

Dramatically simplify and
accelerate application
performance management.
Deliver peak performance,
user satisfaction and ROI.
User Satisfaction
IT Productivity
Higher service
uptime
Simplicity
Cost control & ROI
Total Citrix
Performance
Management
“
”
Total Citrix Performance Monitoring
Benefits

Free Trial
http://www.eginnovations.com/freetrial
Send an Email
info@eginnovations.com
Call Us
+1 (866) 526 6700
Next Steps

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How to Achieve Great Citrix User Experience

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