Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

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

Getting started

To get started, just click the chat button in the upper-right corner of the Dynatrace menu bar to contact a Dynatrace ONE Product Specialist. Dynatrace ONE will make sure you have what you need to monitor your Citrix platform.

Prerequisites

• Any version of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, or Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop version 7.5 or later.
• Citrix VDA running on Windows Server 2012 or later
• Connection from the Citrix VDA server to the Dynatrace SaaS environment, a Dynatrace Cluster ActiveGate or a OneAgent instrumented web server that is configured to allow beacon forwarding.

Extension installation

After the extension has been added to your license

1. Get the install file (CitrixAgent.zip) from your Dynatrace ONE Product Specialist via live chat.
2. Extract the contents of the file.
3. In Dynatrace, generate the Beacon URL and the Application ID. You can get it by creating a new custom application (select Deploy Dynatrace and then Monitor a custom application). Provide a descriptive name and select your preferred icon.
4. Select Settings, Add new technology monitoring, and Add OneAgent plugin.
5. Select Upload plugin and upload custom.python.citrixAgent.zip.
6. Install the OneAgent on the Citrix server.
7. Install the OneAgent for Citrix on the Citrix server:
   • Default UI installation: Double-click on the .msi file to start the installation.
   • Silent installation:

     msiexec.exe /i CitrixAgentInstaller.msi /[quiet/passive] BEACONURL=["endpoint url"] APPLICATIONID=["application_id"] INSTALLDIR=["installation dir"]
     

     Example silent installation:

     msiexec.exe /i CitrixAgentInstaller.msi /quiet BEACONURL="https://endpoint.url.com" APPLICATIONID="9d52578a-a518-4e73-b9e8-0dfb696b1af4" INSTALLDIR="c:\Program Files\Dynatrace\CitrixAgent"
     

After the OneAgent for Citrix is installed, it can take up to 24 hours to get the first user session, because it requires a new Citrix session to start.

OneAgent for Citrix troubleshooting

The OneAgent for Citrix log file is located at <INSTALL_DIR>/citrixAgent.log

No UEM data

Check the log file for:

1. ErrorCode '35', [SSL connect error]
   The SSL certificate for the Beacon URL is not valid/trusted.
   You have these options:

   • Import the server certificates into the machine default CA certificate store
   • Use a valid certificate for your beacon URL, which is trusted by the machine CA certificate store
   • Disable certificate validation (insecure, see Advanced parameters below)

2. Couldn't connect to services GenericQuery(Name: ApplicationLaunch, Resource: root\Citrix\EUEM

   • Make sure you are using a supported version of Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop

Proxy

OneAgent for Citrix uses libcurl, so it accepts proxies as environment variables:

• HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy.example.com:80
• HTTPS_PROXY=https://proxy.example.com:443

Other issues

Open a support ticket explaining the issue. Attach the citrixAgent.log file.

Advanced parameters

The parameters for the OneAgent for Citrix are located in the Windows Registry, at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dynatrace\DCA

• BeaconUrl
• ApplicationId
• InstallDirectory
• LogLevel: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR
• VerifyCertificates: - 1: Enable Beacon certificate validation (Default) - 0: Disable Beacon certificate validation (Insecure)

Metrics

The following metrics are captured by the extension:

• Open sessions
• Active sessions
• Latency
• Output session bandwidth

In addition to the above metrics, the extension also captures user sessions and user actions based on the Citrix sessions.