Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops monitoring

Deprecation notice

This extension documentation is now deprecated and will no longer be updated. We recommend using the new Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops extension for improved functionality and support.

Learn how to monitor your Citrix platform using the Citrix VDA extension.

Starting with Dynatrace OneAgent and ActiveGate version 1.231, we are upgrading the Extension Framework (also referred to as the plugins framework) from Python 3.6 to Python 3.8.

  • Consequences: Some Dynatrace extensions running in your environment may stop working and require redeployment of a new version prepared for Python 3.8.
  • Symptoms:
    • No data is provided for affected metrics on dashboards, alerts, and custom device pages populated by the affected extension metrics.
    • Extension logs display errors. Most often this will manifest itself as Python ModuleNotFoundError in the PluginAgent log.
    • Sometimes the Python virtual machine crashes.
  • Impact: This issue affects only those extensions that use native libraries called from Python code distributed with the extension.

For remediation details, see Dynatrace Extensions.

Prerequisites

To enable Dynatrace monitoring, your Citrix environment must include the following:

  • Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (any version) or Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop (version 7.5 or later)
  • Citrix VDA running on Windows Server 2008 or later
  • OneAgent (full-stack or infrastructure mode) installed on the VDAs
  • Connection from the Citrix VDA to one of the following Dynatrace components:
    • Dynatrace SaaS environment
    • Dynatrace Cluster ActiveGate
    • OneAgent-instrumented web server that is configured to allow beacon forwarding.
    • Dynatrace Environment ActiveGate with beacon forwarding enabled

Install the extension

  1. In Dynatrace Hub, select Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
  2. Select Download to get the extension ZIP file. Don't rename the file.
  3. Extract the contents of the ZIP file.
  4. Go to Settings > Custom extensions > Upload extension.
  5. Upload the ZIP file you extracted earlier.
  6. Install OneAgent on the Citrix VDA.
  7. Install the Dynatrace Citrix Agent MSI on the Citrix VDA:
    • The installer will automatically detect the OneAgent installation folder and copy the appropriate files.
    • There are no parameters to be set on the installer.

Configure the extension

  1. Create a new Custom Application
    • In Dynatrace, go to Custom Applications > Create custom application.
    • Give your application a descriptive name, chose an icon, then select Monitor custom application.
    • Select Instrumentation wizard and keep a note of the Beacon URL and Application ID that are generated for your custom application.

All extension configuration is done via the Dynatrace interface at Settings > Monitoring > Monitored technologies > Custom extensions > Citrix Virtual Apps & Virtual Desktops

The parameters are:

Parameter

Details

Metric Collection

Select from Basic, Default or Advanced. This controls the number of metrics that are collected for each Citrix host in Dynatrace

Real User Monitoring

Select from Enabled or Disabled. Enables RUM data to be collected from the VDAs. If this is disabled the citrixagent.exe process will not run.

Beacon URL

The Beacon URL, from the custom application you created earlier.

Application ID

The Application ID, from the custom application you created earlier.

Proxy Address

Optional, a proxy address in case you need to use a proxy to access the Beacon URL from the VDAs.

Proxy Username

Optional, The proxy username

Proxy Password

Optional, The proxy password

Log level

The log level, when troubleshooting select DEBUG

Verify Certificates

Verify that the Beacon URL certificates are trusted. If unchecked, any certificate will be accepted

Metrics

The following metrics are captured by the extension:

Metric

Citrix Component

Perfmon Counter

Collection level

Active sessions

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA)

\ICA Session(*)\Latency - Last Recorded

Basic, Default, Advanced

Latency

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA)

\ICA Session(*)\Latency - Last Recorded

Basic, Default, Advanced

Output session bandwidth

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA)

\ICA Session(*)\Output Session Bandwidth

Basic, Default, Advanced

Latency per Session

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA)

\ICA Session(*)\Latency - Last Recorded

Basic, Default, Advanced

Bandwidth per Session

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA)

\ICA Session(*)\Output Session Bandwidth

Basic, Default, Advanced

Notifications per second

Delivery Controller

\CitrixBrokerAgent\TotalNotifications

Default, Advanced

App Sessions

Delivery Controller

\CitrixBrokerAgent\CitrixBrokerAgent

Default, Advanced

Desktop Sessions

Delivery Controller

\CitrixBrokerAgent\TotalDesktopsSession

Default, Advanced

Logon Duration

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA)

\Citrix Profile Management\Logon Duration

Default, Advanced

Local Profile Setup Duration

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA)

\Citrix Profile Management\Local Profile Setup Duration

Default, Advanced

Total Jobs Completed

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA)

\Citrix Printing\Total Jobs Completed

Default, Advanced

Total Jobs Failed

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA)

\Citrix Printing\Total Jobs Failed

Default, Advanced

Total Jobs Created

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA)

\Citrix Printing\Total Jobs Created

Default, Advanced

Brokered Sessions

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Brokered Sessions

Default, Advanced

Database Avg. Transaction Time

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Database Avg. Transaction Time

Default, Advanced

Database Connected

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Database Connected

Default, Advanced

Database Transactions

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Database Transactions/sec

Default, Advanced

Database Transaction Errors

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Database Transaction Errors/sec

Default, Advanced

Expired Launches

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Expired Launches/sec

Default, Advanced

Expired Registration

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Expired Registration/sec

Default, Advanced

Hard Registrations

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Hard Registrations/sec

Default, Advanced

Registration Avg. Request Time

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Registration Avg. Request Time

Default, Advanced

Registration Rejects

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Registration Rejects/sec

Default, Advanced

Registration Requests

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Registration Requests

Default, Advanced

Soft Registrations

Delivery Controller

\Citrix Broker Service\Soft Registrations/sec

Default, Advanced

Get ICA File

Storefront

\Citrix Receiver for Web\Get Ica file Calls Total

Default, Advanced

Get icon

Storefront

\Citrix Receiver for Web\Get icon Calls Total

Default, Advanced

List resources

Storefront

\Citrix Receiver for Web\List resources Calls Total

Default, Advanced

Login attempts

Storefront

\Citrix Receiver for Web\Login attempts Calls Total

Default, Advanced

Real User Monitoring

In addition to the above metrics, the extension also captures user sessions and user actions based on the Citrix sessions. This is only captured when the extension runs from a Citrix VDA.