How to Avoid the Top 7 Mistakes Made When Managing Citrix Performance

Raymond OteroManager of End-User Computing Anexinet Raymond.otero@anexinet.com

Srinivas RamanathanCEOeG Innovationssrinivas@eginnovations.com

Moderator

Christine AckleyDirector of Marketing OperationseG InnovationsChristine.Ackley@eginnovations.com

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Logistics

Raymond OteroManager, Infrastructure Delivery & End-User Computing Anexinet Raymond.otero@anexinet.com

Today’s Presenters

Citrix – Use cases and need for performance management

Top 7 mistakes when managing Citrix performance and how to avoid them

Solution Tour: eG Enterprise for Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop

Agenda

FAST FACTS

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Anexinet – Fast Facts

Anexinet Client Service Model consists of three Solution Areas led by a Vice President of Delivery:

Application Solutions - develop application and processes that integrate disparate systems

Business Intelligence Solutions - access business critical information for dynamic and accurate decision making

Infrastructure Solutions - deliver highly available converged infrastructure solutions for missions critical applications

Each “Solution Area” consists of core Practice areas

Anexinet – Solutions Portfolio

Server, Storage, NetworkHP, EMC, Cisco, Oracle/Sun, EnterasysBlade TechnologiesNetworking and ConvergenceSAN (ISCSI/FC/FCOE), NASEnterprise Systems Management

Virtualization and OS PlatformsSoftware Defined DataCenterVMWare, XenServer, Hyper-V, IVMMicrosoft – Azure, O365, SCCM, Hyper-V, AD/ADFS, Exchange, LyncUNIX – HPUX, Linux, Solaris

Data Protection, Security, & ResilienceBackup and RecoveryArchiving, Discovery, and ComplianceSecure Data Access and EncryptionDisaster Recovery and BCP

End User Computing & MobilityVirtual Desktop InfrastructureProfile and Persona ManagementApplication Virtualization/StreamingMobile Device/Application ManagementBYOD and NAC

Anexinet – Infrastructure Solutions

EUC Solution Partners – Virtualization and Mobility Infrastructures

WorkspaceMobile | Virtual | Secure

Desktops Collaboration

Personal

Anexinet – EUC Solutions

Leading provider of IT performance

monitoring, diagnosis and reporting software

Specialists in performance monitoring and management for Desktop and Application Virtualization

Citrix partner since 2003, VMware partner since 2007

Our solutions are used in some of the largest Citrix/VDI deployments in the world

About eG Innovations

How to Avoid the Top 7 Mistakes Made When Managing Citrix Performance

Raymond OteroManager of End-User Computing Anexinet Raymond.otero@anexinet.com

Citrix Technology Use Cases

Source: 2016 Citrix Performance Survey, http://www.eginnovations.com/solutions/sign-in?whitepaper=36

Citrix Services are Business Critical

Very important Somewhat important Not that important

96%see Citrix as being business criticalIf the Citrix service slows down or has an outage, business is impacted.

Web Applications Citrix ApplicationsRequest content, download and browse on the client – scrolling on the client.

Highly interactive, accesses to the server/remote desktop.

Request / response based, forms filled out on the client, submitted at the end;

Forms filled on the server – every keystroke goes to the server.

Response time requirement: < 4 seconds Response time: < 150 msecs

Sessions used to retain context. Session used to keep the interaction going.

Multiple connections, compression, caching, pre-fetching etc. to speed download.

Single connection, optimization limited to compression.

Throughput requirements higher – download pages, display content.

Throughput less important, interactivity more important.

Infrastructure slowness causes slower access. Infrastructure issues can disconnect sessions, keystrokes don’t show up on time, screen painting is slow. Users get frustrated.

User Experience for Citrix, More Important than for Web Applications

The most performance sensitive service Similar in performance demands as other services Not that performance sensitive

Citrix – One of the Most Performance Sensitive Applications

MemoryCPU Disk Network

Adequate for simple, client-server applicationsX Not sufficient for complex, modern applications

Citrix Performance Monitoring is NOTMonitoring of Server Resources

Rachel Berryex-Product Manager,

Citrix Systems

Kevin GoodmanCEO,

FsLogixYAM – Yet Another Monitor

Evaluating Citrix Monitoring Options

User Experience is a Key to Citrix Success

Logon is slow

Application is slow to

launch

Session gets disconnected

Keystrokes don’t show up on time

Multimedia playback is

choppy

UserExperience Printing

doesn’t work

1. Look for performance monitoring tools with Citrix domain expertise.

Citrix Performance Monitoring Tips

Handling Citrix Performance Complaints

My desktop is not working…I cannot login

to my desktop My applications launch very

slowly…

Handling Citrix Performance Complaints

Who gets the first call?

Who is blamed?

It’s always you - the Citrix Administrator

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

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Where do Most Citrix Problems Lie?

Network StoreFront onESX

Active DirectorySQL

XenApp onVMware ESXDelivery Controller on

VMware ESX

License Server

Profile Server

EnterpriseApps

vCenterOracle

Client

SANSwitch

What is the root cause of the service problem?Network? VMware? AD? SQL? Storage? Profile Server?

Where is the Root-Cause?

1. Look for performance monitoring tools that have Citrix domain expertise.

2. When users complain that “Citrix is slow”, the problem could be anywhere in the infrastructure. End-to-end visibility is a key to rapid troubleshooting.

Built-in Citrix Monitoring Tools

Integrated monitoring tool with Citrix XenApp 6.5 No longer included with Citrix products EdgeSight

NetScaler Insight

Multi Admin Consoles

Director/EdgeSight

Citrix Products

Monitoring tools in Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop 7.x

Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop sessions tracking Deep insights into Citrix logon process Drill downs into applications used

Director

How many users are connected

Are there many connection failures?

Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop sessions tracking Deep insights into Citrix logon process Drill downs into applications used

Director

Citrix Director is a good troubleshooting tool, not a monitoring tool.

What applications are running in a user’s session

Insights into application and bandwidth usage

Network performance visibility: is a slowdown due to the user’s network or your data center network?

NetScaler

NetScaler Insight gives you the network-centric view. What if your problems are on the servers/desktops, or in the virtual platform or storage?

Citrix Director / EdgeSight

VMware VCOPS - Virtual

Task Manager - Windows

Event Viewer - Windows

EMC Ionix - Storage Cisco UCS Manager - Hardware

CiscoWorks - Network

For End-to-End Visibility, You Need …

Lack of integration makes monitoring & diagnosis slow and manual.

1. Look for performance monitoring tools that have Citrix domain expertise.

3. Built-in tools provided in the Citrix stack are useful, but not always sufficient for managing performance end-to-end.

Virtual Server Management Solutions … Monitor the Virtualization platform only – not the connection brokers,

storage, network, profile servers, terminal servers, … Track VMs and not users

No way to map a user to a VM Workload of VM dependent on who is logged in

Monitors a desktop from the outside (black box!) No understanding of what is happening inside the desktop What applications are running? Is high CPU usage because of load or a faulting application?

Virtual Desktop Management = Virtual Server ManagementVDI – New Challenges, New Solutions

1. Look for performance monitoring that has Citrix domain expertise.

4. Virtual desktops are VMs, but you can't use monitoring tools you've used for virtual servers to monitor virtual desktops.

Introducing eG Enterprise

A couple of transactions are seeing errors.

One of the services is having a critical issue.

Monitoring Services, Not Silos

Some of the transactions are seeing slowness.

Monitoring the User Experience

Seems to be an issue with the VMware server

hosting virtual desktops.

Analyzing Performance End-to-End

The issue seems to be inside the virtual desktop (not in

the virtual platform)

Pin-Pointing the Cause of the Problem

Two of the desktops – user alan’s and james’ are seeing

issues.

TCP retranmsmit ratio is

very high – this points to a network connection issue to

the desktop.

Root-Cause of the

problem

Effects of the problem

Making Diagnosis Simple

Identify & resolve problems preemptively,

before users call!

Network? Database?

Application?

VMware?Citrix?Web?

eG Enterprise is a General Practitioner for your Citrix infrastructure.

Service Owner

eG Enterprise Citrix Service Manager

5. You don't always have to involve your experts in problem diagnosis, if you invest in service monitoring and auto-correlation.

Insights into browser-based accesses

Domain-Expertise with Citrix

Network latency is affecting Citrix user

experience

Insights into network latency and its impact on Citrix performanceDomain-Expertise with Citrix

Total login time as seen by the Delivery

Controller

Breakdown of login time into phases

Visibility into Citrix logon process – from the Delivery ControllerDomain-Expertise with Citrix

Group policy processing is what is

taking time

Details of the CSE that is causing logon

slowness

Visibility into the Citrix logon process from XenAppDomain-Expertise with Citrix

HDX Channels Bandwidth used Audio bandwidth Video bandwidth Printer bandwidth Drive bandwidth Framehawk frames/s

User & Application Activity Top users by CPU, memory,

IOPS Top applications by CPU,

memory, popularity, IOPS URLs accessed by users

User Experience Logon time Profile load time App launch time Screen refresh latency Network RTT

Citrix Tier-wise Visibility NetScaler StoreFront Provisioning Services Delivery Controller License server Data store

Supporting Infrastructure Virtualization platform Storage Network in DC Network to user terminals Infra services – AD, DNS

Sessions Who logged in, when What applications did

they access When disconnects happen Idle time in session

Citrix Monitoring Capabilities

Integrated Monitoring of Everything Citrix

Complement & Extend Citrix Performance Management Solutions

NetScaler Insight

Multi Admin Consoles

Director/EdgeSight

Citrix Products

eG Enterprise Performance Monitoring

Before Migration

After Migration

Use Cases for Performance Monitoring:

Migration Analysis

Answers key questions about Citrix

usage: who, when, how long, what?

Compliance and Audit

A few of the servers are handling most of

the sessions

Capacity Optimization

Use Cases for Performance Monitoring: Capacity Planning

5. You don't always have to involve your experts in problem diagnosis if you invest in service monitoring and auto-correlation.

6. Performance management is more than just about troubleshooting problems.

Assess

DesignDeploy

Maintain Plan

Performance Monitoring

When Should Performance Monitoring be Considered?

Baseline the infrastructure from the very beginning

Mitigate risk of failure down the line

Process vs. costly ad-hoc fixes

Ensure scalability & deliver ROI

1. Look for performance monitoring that has Citrix domain expertise

3. Built-in tools provided in the Citrix stack are useful, but not always sufficient for managing performance end-to-end

4. Virtual desktops are VMs, but you can't use monitoring tools you've used for virtual servers to monitor virtual desktops

5. You don't always have to involve your experts in problem diagnosis if you invest in service monitoring and auto-correlation.

6. Performance management is more than just about troubleshooting problems

7. Don’t look at performance management just AFTER you have deployed the Citrix infrastructure

Dramatically simplify and accelerate application

performance management. Deliver peak performance, user satisfaction and ROI.

User Satisfaction

IT Productivity

Higher serviceuptime

Simplicity

Cost control & ROI

Total CitrixPerformanceManagement

“”

Total Citrix Performance Monitoring Benefits

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How to Avoid the Top 7 Mistakes Made When Managing Citrix Performance

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