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    Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Monitoring Configuration Guide

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    Heather McLeod
    • Updated

    This article was updated to support v12.0 and newer of Goliath Performance Monitor.

    The below sections will take you through the configuration process to begin monitoring Virtual Apps and or Virtual Desktops to automatically collect Delivery Group Inventory, User Session Data, enable Citrix session monitoring and assemble the Topology View.

    Prerequisites

    Before continuing, please review the Goliath Performance Monitor Prerequisites.  

    Article Contents

    1. Monitoring Configuration
    2. Topology View Configuration
    3. Post Configuration: What’s Next?

    Monitoring Configuration

    Please Note: in this document we refer to Virtual Apps as being published applications and desktops and Virtual Desktops as being VDI

    Before proceeding, if you are licensed for VMware vCenter or Citrix XenServer for hypervisor monitoring, it is required to configure the hypervisor monitoring first, before attempting to configure the Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops environment(s). If this has not been done, please reference the appropriate configuration articles to do do. 

    1. Navigate to the Configure tab, and select the Inventory sub menu
    2. On the inventory page, locate the Delivery Controller.
      • If it is not listed within the product, you can add it by clicking the New button at the top of the page and completing the appropriate information (name, ip address (not FQDN), domain, etc) as displayed in the following image:
        mceclip1.png
    3. Next, identify if an agent has been installed to the Delivery Controller. You can do this by looking in the Agt column for that inventory entry. If there is a green box in that column, you can proceed to step 11, below. If there is no box in that column, or the box is red, please proceed to the next step.
    4. In order to enable Citrix monitoring and inventory collection, first deploy an agent to the Delivery Controller. This can be done by selecting Manage Agents at the top of the page.
    5. When the Manage Agent dialog opens, select the Delivery Controller(s) you would like to deploy an agent to.
    6. The first time an agent is deployed to a server, you must choose the Deployment Settings button and enter one-time local administrator credentials in order to copy over and run the install files. These credentials are not saved anywhere in the database. Once an agent connection has been establish this step is not needed.
    7. Click the Install/Update Agents button at the bottom of the dialog to begin the agent installation.
    8. You will see a prompt notifying you to enter credentials if this is the first agent deployment, click OK the bypass and begin the agent installation.
    9. Depending on the number of Agents that are being installed, the process may take a few minutes to complete (do not refresh the page).
      • As the agent installation succeeds green checkboxes are displayed next to device name in the table. 
    10. Once all agents have been installed, a prompt is displayed. Click Close at the bottom of the dialog to return to the inventory page.
    11. Next confirm the agents are connecting to the product by looking at the Agt column and identifying a green box. This process could take1-3 minutes and you may need to refresh the page.
      • Please note, if you do not see an icon in the Agt column after 5 minutes, confirm that the Goliath Server is accepting inbound TCP communication on all firewall levels (Domain, public, private) and that the server where the agent is installed is allowing outbound TCP communication for all firewall levels.
    12. Once the agent for the Delivery Controller is connected, select the checkbox to the left of the DDC name entry and click Edit.
    13. When the edit pane is open for the Delivery Controller, under the Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop Monitoring section, add a Citrix Service account credentials and check the boxes for which components you would like to enable monitoring.
      • If using Published Apps & Desktops, please also check the box for Enable Citrix Delivery Group/Farm Inventory Auto-Update
        mceclip2.png
    14. When complete, click Save.
    15. Next, restart the MonitorIT Agent Service. To do this, click the green box in the Agt column and approve the agent restart prompt.
    16. After about 5 minutes if you Refresh the inventory page you will now see your XenApp/XenDesktop inventory indicated by the blue circle Citrix icon in the ‘OS’ column.

    mceclip3.png

     

    Topology View Configuration

    1. Navigate to the Configure tab, and select the Inventory sub menu
    2. On the inventory page, locate the Storefront Server(s).
      1. If it is not listed within the product, you can add it by clicking the New button at the top of the page and completing the appropriate information. (name, ip address, domain, etc) - repeat this step for each Storefront Server if you have more then one.
        mceclip0.png
    3. Next, identify whether or not an agent has been installed onto the Storefront Server(s). You can do this by looking in the Agt column for that inventory entry. If there is a green box in that column, you can proceed to step 11 below. If there is no box in that column, or the box is red, please proceed to the next step.
    4. In order to enable monitoring we’ll need to first deploy an agent to the Storefront Server(s). This can be done by selecting Manage Agents at the top of the page.
    5. When the Manage Agent dialog opens, select the Storefront Server(s) that you would like to deploy an agent to.
    6. The first time an agent is deployed to a server, you must choose the Deployment Settings button and enter one-time local administrator credentials in order to copy over and run the install files. These credentials are not saved anywhere in the database. Once an agent connection has been establish this step is not needed.
    7. Click Install/Update Agents at the bottom of the dialog to begin the agent installation.
    8. You will see a prompt warning you to enter credentials if this is the 1st agent deployment, click ok the bypass and begin the agent installation
    9. Depending on the number of Agents that are being installed, the process may take a few minutes to complete (refresh the page)
      1. You will see green checkboxes appear as the agent installation succeeds
    10. Once all agents have been installed, you will receive a prompt that the installation is complete. You can click the Close button at the bottom of the screen to return to the inventory page.
    11. Once on the Inventory screen, you can confirm that the agents are connecting into the product by looking at the Agt column and identifying a green box. This could process could take a 1-3 minutes, you’ll need to refresh the page as well.
      1. Please note, if you do not see any icon in the Agt column after 5 minutes, confirm that the Goliath Server is accepting inbound TCP communication on all firewall levels (Domain, public, private) and that the server where the agent is installed is allowing outbound TCP communication for all firewall levels.
    12. Once the agent for the Storefront Server(s) is connected, select the inventory entry and click the ‘Edit’ button at the bottom of the page.
    13. A new pane will appear, at the bottom of the pane you will see a section labeled "Topology Mapping".
      1. Use the Citrix Role Server drop-down menu and choose the option for Storefront
      2. Next, click in the white space for the "Member of Topology Maps" field. You will then have checkbox options to chose which topology maps you want to add the storefront server to. 
      3. Click Save and repeat the these steps for any additional Storefront Servers. Please note, it can take about 30-60 mins for the servers to appear in the Topology View.
        mceclip4.png
    14. Repeat Step #2 to confirm and or add in your NetScaler(s) if applicable.
    15. Once the NetScaler(s) are listed, select the inventory entry and click the Edit button at the top of the page.
    16. A new pane will appear, at the bottom of the pane you will see a section labeled Topology Mapping.
      1. Use the Citrix Role Server drop-down menu and choose the option for Netscaler
      2. Next, click in the white space for the Member of Topology Maps field. You will then have checkbox options to chose which topology maps you want to add the storefront server to. 
      3. Click "Save" and repeat the these steps for any additional NetScalers. Please note, it can take about 30-60 mins for the servers to appear in the Topology View.

     

    Post Configuration: What’s Next?

    Now that Citrix monitoring has been enabled in Goliath Performance Monitor, to start collecting user session data and alerting on faults taking place you’ll need to deploy an agent onto your session hosts and VDI’s. Please see additional documentation. 

    Please note: If you are using PVS or MCS to deploy your Citrix environment, the agent will need to be installed into the Gold and or Master Image(s). 

     

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