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Foglight for Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp 7.3.0 - User Guide

Getting started Setting up data collection agents Monitoring the performance of your XenDesktop environment

Setting up data collection agents

Foglight for Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp relies on XenDesktop and NetScaler Agents to collect data from the monitored system. When you install Foglight for Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp, you need to create appropriate agent instance to collect performance information from your environment.

Foglight for Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp includes a set of dashboards that allow you to monitor your XenDesktop® or XenApp® environment and manage monitoring agents. The XenDesktop Environment dashboard consists of several tabs, each focusing on a specific aspect of your monitoring needs.

The Administration tab allows you to create and manage monitoring agents. To access this tab, on the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose XenDesktop > XenDesktop Environment, and then open the Administration tab.

Figure 3. Administration tab

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Exploring administration tasks
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Exploring and managing monitoring agents
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Configuring agent properties

Exploring administration tasks

On the Administration tab, the Tasks area contains links to several administrative tasks that you can initiate from this tab.

Figure 4. Tasks area

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Discover XenDesktop Infrastructure: Run the XenDesktop Discovery Wizard to locate a XenDesktop® environment and create and configure a monitoring agent. This wizard automatically discovers your XenDesktop infrastructure, and creates the following agents:
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XenDesktop Agent
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VMware Performance Agents
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Host Agents
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Multi-Host Process Monitoring Agents
This is the first task you need to perform when working with Foglight for Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp. For more information, see Discovering XenDesktop sites.
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Monitor ICA Sessions using the NetScaler Agent: Run the NetScaler Discovery Wizard to locate a NetScaler® gateway and configure a monitoring agent. This task is only required if your XenDesktop environment has a NetScaler installer. For more information, see Creating NetScaler Agent instances.
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Review VMware Performance Agents: Review the list of monitored XenDesktop sites in the Review VMware Agents dialog box that appears when you click this link.
If you have Foglight for VMware installed and deployed, for each XenDesktop site, the list displays the XenDesktop site name, the address of the associated virtual center, and the name of the VMware Performance agent that monitors the virtual center. If the virtual center is not currently monitored, but you have Foglight for VMware installed, you can create a VMware Performance agent by clicking the link in the VMware Agent column, and completing the steps in the Agent Setup Wizard that appears.
 
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TIP: Foglight for VMware allows you to monitor VMware virtual center by tracking resource consumption of individual physical and virtual elements in your integrated environment, and alerts you of issues that are likely to compromise your system stability. For more information, see your Foglight for VMware documentation.
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Review Host Agents: Review the list of the hosts associated with the monitored XenDesktop sites in the Review Host Agents dialog box that appears when you click this link.
If you have Foglight for Infrastructure installed and deployed, for each host in your XenDesktop environment, the list displays the associated XenDesktop site name, its type, the host name, and the name of the Foglight for Infrastructure Host agent that monitors that host. If the host is not currently monitored, but you have Foglight for Infrastructure installed, you can create a Host agent by clicking the link in the Host Agent column, and completing the steps in the Add Monitored Host wizard that appears.
 
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TIP: Foglight for Infrastructure monitors physical hosts and helps you analyze and prevent potential performance bottlenecks. Use it to understand the state of your system health, and to track the levels of resource utilization such as CPU, network, and memory consumption for individual objects in your integrated environment. For complete information, see your Foglight for Infrastructure documentation.

Discovering XenDesktop sites

A XenDesktop® environment contains one or more License Servers and delivery Controllers, and can be associated with a vCenter® server. Given a XenDesktop domain and host names, the XenDesktop Discovery Wizard allows you to locate these components and to create monitoring agents.

 
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NOTE: Unlike the Create XenDesktop Agent wizard, the Discover XenDesktop Wizard offers to create VMware Performance agents for the detected vCenters, or Windows or Unix agents for the discovered servers, in addition to creating a XenDesktop Agent instance. For more information about the Create XenDesktop Agent wizard, see Creating XenDesktop Agent instances .

This results in two or more agent instances: a XenDesktop Agent (to monitor the XenDesktop server), one or more VMware Performance agents (to monitor the associated vCenters), and one or more Windows® or UNIX® agents (available with Foglight™ for Infrastructure, to monitor OS-level resources).

 
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NOTE: The VMware Performance Agent is provided with Foglight for VMware. The Windows and Unix agents are provided with the Foglight for Infrastructure. Ensure these components are installed and enabled in your environment before running the XenDesktop Discovery Wizard. For complete information, see the Foglight for VMware and Foglight for Infrastructure documentation.
To start monitoring XenDesktop servers:
1
Log in to the Foglight browser interface.
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On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click XenDesktop.
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Open the Administration tab.
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Under Tasks, click Discover XenDesktop Infrastructure to launch the XenDesktop Discovery Wizard.
The XenDesktop Discovery Wizard appears, showing the Prepare page. The page lists one or more hosts that are running Agent Manager instances.
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Review the information on the Prepare page.
 
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IMPORTANT: Before proceeding with this step, you must ensure that a WinRM or DCOM remote connection is enabled on the XenDesktop Delivery Controller node. Both WinRM and DCOM connections are supported, but WinRM is recommended.
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If you want to configure WinRM or DCOM settings automatically, click one of the following links to download the appropriate script:
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Script for WinRM setting
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Script for DCom setting
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Script for WinRM GPO setting
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If you want to configure these settings manually, see the Agent Manager Guide for guidelines.
When done, click Next.
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On the Select Agent Host page, select the running Agent Manager that you want to manage the monitoring agent that you are about to create, and click Next.
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On the Discovery Configuration page, provide the following information needed to connect to the XenDesktop environment:
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Agent Name: Specify the name of the XenDesktop agent. If you want to specify a different name than the default name already provided (for example, XenDesktop 1), type it in this box.
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Domain: Type the name of the domain to which the XenDesktop host belongs.
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Delivery Controller: Type the name of the XenDesktop host. This value must include a fully qualified domain name.
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Storefront Servers (Optional): Type a comma-separated list containing the names of StoreFront servers that provide access to desktops and applications. This step is optional.
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User Name: Type the user name of the XenDesktop Delivery Controller login domain account (or the XenDesktop management account).
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Password: Type the password associated with the above user name.
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Collect Process Performance Metrics: Select this check box if you want the XenDesktop agent to collect virtual machine process metrics from the host.
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Collect Session metrics when NetScaler data not available: Select this check box if you want the XenDesktop agent to collect session metrics when NetScaler data is not available. If you select this option and NetScaler data becomes available, the NetScaler data is displayed.
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XenDesktop Lockbox Password: Type the password of the XenDesktop lockbox. This box only appears if your XenDesktop lockbox is protected with a password. This lockbox stores your XenDesktop credentials. For more information about credentials, see the Administration and Configuration Help.
When done, click Next.
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On the All Inventories page, select one or more hosts that you want to monitor, and click Next.
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On the Discovery VMware Agent page, the top table shows the vCenters that are not currently monitored. For each vCenter in that table, click the Configure Agent column to set up a VMware Performance agent for the vCenter.
The bottom table shows the monitored vCenters.
You can choose to set up your VMware Performance agents in this step, or later on using the VMware Performance Agent tab on the Administration tab of the XenDesktop Environment dashboard.
When done, click Finish.
The XenDesktop Discovery Wizard closes.
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(Optional) Enable the IP mapping for the controller server, to set up the connection between storefront and delivery controller.
a
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Administration > Agents > Agent Status.
The Agent Status dashboard opens.
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Select an XenDesktop agent that you want to edit, click the Edit icon, and then click Edit Properties from the context menu.
The Edit Properties dialog box opens.
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Click Modify properties for all XenDesktopAgent agents.
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In the Delivery Controller IPs, multiple IPs with comma textbox, type the IP address of the delivery controller.
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Click Save.
The Edit Properties dialog box refreshes and saves the IP address.
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NOTE: In FIPS-compliant mode, you need to import the delivery controller certificate into FglAM. For more information, see Managing certificates for SSL encryption .

Creating NetScaler Agent instances

 
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IMPORTANT: If your XenDesktop environment does not include NetScaler, you can disregard the information in this topic and skip this step.

NetScaler Agents collect ICA (Independent Computing Architecture) session information from monitored Citrix® NetScaler® gateways using Citrix® AppFlow®. When the NetScaler Agent package is successfully deployed, you can create one or more NetScaler agent instances, activate them, and start their data collection. To perform these steps in a single operation, use the NetScaler Discovery wizard, accessible from the Tasks area on the Administration tab of the XenDesktop Environment dashboard.

To create and activate a NetScaler Agent instance, and start collecting data:
1
Log in to the Foglight™ browser interface.
2
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose XenDesktop > XenDesktop Environment.
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On the XenDesktop Environment dashboard that appears in the display area, open the Administration tab.
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In the Tasks area, click Monitor ICA Sessions using the NetScaler Agent to launch the NetScaler Discovery Wizard.
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In the NetScaler Discovery Wizard, on the Select FglAM page, select the host running the Agent Manager that you want to use to manage the agent instance you are about to create, and click Next.
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On the Discovery Properties page, provide the following information.
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NetScaler IP Address: The NetScaler IP address.
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NetScaler User Name: The user name required to access NetScaler.
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NetScaler Password: The password of the user account required to access NetScaler.
When done, click Next.
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On the AppFlow Configuration page, observe and configure the following parameters, as required. The NetScaler Agent needs this information to collect AppFlow data.
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(1) AppFlow Source IP: Shows the AppFlow Source IP that NetScaler uses to send NetFlow packets. The agent can handle multiple IPs automatically.
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(2) AppFlow Destination IP, (2) AppFlow Destination Port: Provide the IP address and port number the Agent Manager can use to receive AppFlow data sent by NetScaler.
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(3) NetScaler Management IP: Shows the NetScaler IP address.
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Unmonitored Access Gateway Servers: Select one or more NetScaler Gateway Servers that you want to monitor.
If you select a NetScaler Gateway Server that is already monitored by another agent, a message appears. You can either override the existing configuration, or clear your selection.
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Monitored Access Gateway Servers: If any NetScaler Gateway Servers are already monitored, they appear listed here.
When done, click Finish.
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NOTE: To setup NetScaler agent in FIPS-compliant mode, you need to import NetScaler certification into FglAM default JRE. For more information, see Managing Certificates for NetScaler Agent .
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