Citrix server monitor

Use this monitor to measure statistics related to the Citrix MetaFrame XP server during the performance test run, enabling you to watch server loading for performance, availability, and capacity planning.

Set up the Citrix monitoring environment

This task describes how to set up the monitoring environment for the Citrix MetaFrame monitor.

  1. Prerequisites

    • Make sure that Citrix Server has been installed and is running.

    • If Citrix Server machine is running Windows 2000, make sure that the server machine is also running the Remote Registry service.

    • If your monitor accesses a server outside of your internal network, you may need to set up a web proxy to collect data from it. For details, see Prerequisite (use a proxy server).

    • Measurements that monitor instances are valid for the currently running Citrix session only. If you run this test again, you will need to reconfigure the measurements that are instance-oriented.

      • To monitor the different instances, ensure that the server login and logout procedures are recorded in the Vuser_init and Vuser_end sections respectively, and not in the Action section of the script. For details, see the Virtual User Generator Help Center.

  2. Map the Network Drive

    From the Controller machine, map a network drive to the Citrix server machine. This ensures that the required authentication is provided to the Controller to access the resource counters.

  3. Launch PerfMon

    Launch PerfMon from the Controller machine to enable the counters on the Citrix server. This allows you to monitor the same counters for the ICA Session object on the Citrix monitor.

  4. Open the Connection with the Citrix Server

    You can configure the Citrix monitor to view ICA Session object counters only if at least one session is being run on the Citrix server. If no "real" user has opened a connection with the Citrix server, you need to first initialize or run a Citrix Vuser against the server, and only then configure the Citrix Monitor and add the ICA Session counters. If you configure the Citrix monitor without first initializing or running a Citrix Vuser (or connecting to the Citrix server as a "real" user), you will not be able to view the ICA Session object.

  5. Configure the Citrix monitor as described in Configure the Citrix MetaFrame monitor.

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Configure the Citrix MetaFrame monitor

This task describes how to configure the Citrix MetaFrame monitor.

  1. From the LoadRunner Enterprise navigation toolbar, click and select Monitors (under Assets).

  2. In the test resource tree, select an existing monitor profile, or click New Monitor Profile and create a new monitor profile.

  3. In the Monitor Profile page, click Add Monitor and select Citrix Server.

  4. In the Citrix Server page, enter the server details:

    UI Elements

    Description
    Server

    The name or IP address of the server whose resources you want to monitor.
    User Name

    The monitored server's user name, if relevant.
    Password

    The monitored server's password, if relevant.

  5. Click Get Counters to display a list of available metrics and counters, and select the relevant measurements that you want to monitor.

    The following sections describe some of the counters that can be measured.

    The following table describes non-virtual counters:

    Measurement

    Description

    % Disk Time

    The percentage of elapsed time that the selected disk drive services read or write requests.

    % Processor Time

    The percentage of time that the processor executes a non-Idle thread. This counter is a primary indicator of processor activity. It is calculated by measuring the time that the processor spends executing the thread of the Idle process in each sample interval, and subtracting that value from 100%. (Each processor has an Idle thread which consumes cycles when no other threads are ready to run.) It can be viewed as the percentage of the sample interval spent doing useful work. This counter displays the average percentage of busy time observed during the sample interval. It is calculated by monitoring the time the service was inactive, and then subtracting that value from 100%.

    File data Operations/sec

    The rate that the computer issues Read and Write operations to file system devices. This does not include File Control Operations.

    Interrupts/sec

    The average number of hardware interrupts the processor receives and services per second. It does not include DPCs, which are counted separately. This value is an indirect indicator of the activity of devices that generate interrupts, such as the system clock, the mouse, disk drivers, data communication lines, network interface cards and other peripheral devices. These devices normally interrupt the processor when they have completed a task or require attention. Normal thread execution is suspended during interrupts. Most system clocks interrupt the processor every 10 milliseconds, creating a background of interrupt activity. This counter displays the difference between the values observed in the last two samples, divided by the duration of the sample interval.

    Output Session Line Speed

    This value represents the line speed from server to client for a session in bps.

    Input Session Line Speed

    This value represents the line speed from client to server for a session in bps.

    Page Faults/sec

    A count of the Page Faults in the processor. A page fault occurs when a process refers to a virtual memory page that is not in its Working Set in main memory. A Page Fault will not cause the page to be fetched from disk if that page is on the standby list, and hence already in main memory, or if it is in use by another process with whom the page is shared.

    Pages/sec

    The number of pages read from the disk or written to the disk to resolve memory references to pages that were not in memory at the time of the reference. This is the sum of Pages Input/sec and Pages Output/sec. This counter includes paging traffic on behalf of the system Cache to access file data for applications. This value also includes the pages to/from non-cached mapped memory files. This is the primary counter to observe if you are concerned about excessive memory pressure (that is, thrashing), and the excessive paging that may result.

    Pool Nonpaged Bytes

    The number of bytes in the Nonpaged Pool, a system memory area where space is acquired by operating system components as they accomplish their appointed tasks. Nonpaged Pool pages cannot be paged out to the paging file, but instead remain in main memory as long as they are allocated.

    Private Bytes

    The current number of bytes this process has allocated that cannot be shared with other processes.

    Processor Queue Length

    The instantaneous length of the processor queue in units of threads. This counter is always 0 unless you are also monitoring a thread counter. All processors use a single queue in which threads wait for processor cycles. This length does not include the threads that are currently executing. A sustained processor queue length greater than two generally indicates processor congestion. This is an instantaneous count, not an average over the time interval.

    Threads

    The number of threads in the computer at the time of data collection. Notice that this is an instantaneous count, not an average over the time interval. A thread is the basic executable entity that can execute instructions in a processor.

    Latency – Session Average

    This value represents the average client latency over the life of a session.

    Latency – Last Recorded

    This value represents the last recorded latency measurement for this session.

    Latency – Session Deviation

    This value represents the difference between the minimum and maximum measured values for a session.

    Input Session Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic for a session in bps.

    Input Session Compression

    This value represents the compression ratio for client to server traffic for a session.

    Output Session Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic for a session in bps.

    Output Session Compression

    This value represents the compression ratio for server to client traffic for a session.

    Output Session Linespeed

    This value represents the line speed from server to client for a session in bps.

    The following table describes virtual channel counters:

    Measurement

    Description

    Input Audio Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the audio mapping channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input Clipboard Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the clipboard mapping channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input COM1 Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the COM1 channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input COM2 Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the COM2 channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input COM Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the COM channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input Control Channel Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the ICA control channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input Drive Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the client drive mapping channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input Font Data Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the local text echo font and keyboard layout channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input Licensing Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the licensing channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input LPT1 Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the LPT1 channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input LPT2 Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the LPT2 channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input Management Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the client management channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input PN Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the Program Neighborhood channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input Printer Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the printer spooler channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input Seamless Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the Seamless channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input Text Echo Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the local text echo data channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input Thinwire Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the Thinwire (graphics) channel. This is measured in bps.

    Input VideoFrame Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from client to server traffic on the VideoFrame channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Audio Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the audio mapping channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Clipboard Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the clipboard mapping channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output COM1 Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the COM1 channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output COM2 Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the COM2 channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output COM Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the COM channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Control Channel Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the ICA control channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Drive Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the client drive channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Font Data Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the local text echo font and keyboard layout channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Licensing Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the licensing channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output LPT1 Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the LPT1 channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output LPT2 Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the LPT2 channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Management Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the client management channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output PN Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the Program Neighborhood channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Printer Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the printer spooler channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Seamless Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the Seamless channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Text Echo Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the local text echo data channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output Thinwire Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the Thinwire (graphics) channel. This is measured in bps.

    Output VideoFrame Bandwidth

    This value represents the bandwidth from server to client traffic on the VideoFrame channel. This is measured in bps.

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See also: