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    Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7.X, 7 18xx & 7 19xx Monitoring Configuration Guide

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    Heather McLeod
    • Updated

    This article was updated to support v11.8 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.  

    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.
      1. If it is not listed within the product, you can add it by clicking the ‘New’ button at the bottom of the page and completing the appropriate information. (name, ip address, domain, etc)
      2. mceclip0.png
    3. Next, identify whether or not an agent has been installed onto the Delivery Controller. You can do this by looking in the ‘Stat’ column for that inventory entry. If there is a green box in that column, you can proceed the Step 11. 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 we’ll need to first deploy an agent to the Delivery Controller. This can be done by selecting ‘Manage Agents’ at the bottom of the page.
    5. When the ‘Manage Agent’ screen appears, select the Delivery Controller(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 the ‘Install/Update Agents’ button at the bottom of the screen 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 ‘stat’ 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 ‘Stat’ 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 inventory entry and click the ‘Edit’ button at the bottom of the page.
    13. When the edit pane is open for the Delivery Controller, under the ‘Enable Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop Monitoring Options’ section add in Citrix Service account and check the boxes for which components you would like to enable monitoring for and inventory population as appropriate to your environment.
      1. Is using Published Apps & Desktops, please also check the box for "Enable Citrix Delivery Group/Farm Inventory Auto-Update"
      2. mceclip1.png
    14. After all of the above settings have been applied, select the ‘Save’ button to close the Delivery Controller and apply the changes.
    15. Once the Delivery Controller settings are saved, restart the MonitorIT Agent Service.
      1. This can be done by clicking the green box in the ‘Stat’ column and approving the agent restart prompt.
    16. After about 2-5 minutes if you ‘Refresh’ the inventory page you should now see your XenApp/XenDesktop inventory indicated by the 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 bottom 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
      2. 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 ‘Stat’ column for that inventory entry. If there is a green box in that column, you can proceed the Step 11. 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 bottom of the page.
    5. When the ‘Manage Agent’ screen appears, 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 the ‘Install/Update Agents’ button at the bottom of the screen 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 ‘stat’ 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 ‘Stat’ 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.
      4. mceclip0.png
    14. Repeat Step #2 to confirm and or add in your NetScaler(s) if applicable.
      1. Once the agent for the NetScaler(s) is connected, select the inventory entry and click the ‘Edit’ button at the bottom of the page.
      2. 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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