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Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops monitoring

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 server 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 the Dynatrace menu, go to Hub.
  2. Find and select Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
  3. Select Download to get the extension ZIP file. Don't rename the file.
  4. Extract the contents of the ZIP file.
  5. In the Dynatrace menu, go to Settings > Custom extensions > Upload extension.
  6. Upload the ZIP file you extracted earlier.
  7. Install OneAgent on the Citrix VDA.
  8. Install the Citrix MSI on the Citrix server:
    • 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
    • Navigate to Deploy Dynatrace > Monitor a 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 > Monitored Technologies > Custom extensions > Citrix Virtual Apps & Virtual Desktops

The parameters are:

ParameterDetails

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:

Basic metrics

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

Default metrics

  • Active sessions
  • App Sessions
  • Brokered Sessions
  • Database Avg. Transaction Time
  • Database Connected
  • Database Transaction Errors
  • Database Transactions
  • Desktop Sessions
  • Expired Launches
  • Expired Registration
  • Get ICA File
  • Get icon
  • Hard Registrations
  • Latency
  • List resources
  • Local Profile Setup Duration
  • Login attempts
  • Logon Duration
  • Notifications per second
  • Open sessions
  • Output session bandwidth
  • Registration Avg. Request Time
  • Registration Rejects
  • Registration Requests
  • Soft Registrations
  • Total Jobs Completed
  • Total Jobs Created
  • Total Jobs Failed

Advanced metrics

  • Active sessions
  • App Sessions
  • Brokered Sessions
  • Database Avg. Transaction Time
  • Database Connected
  • Database Transaction Errors
  • Database Transactions
  • Desktop Sessions
  • Expired Launches
  • Expired Registration
  • Get ICA File
  • Get icon
  • Hard Registrations
  • Latency
  • List resources
  • Local Profile Setup Duration
  • Login attempts
  • Logon Duration
  • Notifications per second
  • Open sessions
  • Output session bandwidth
  • Registration Avg. Request Time
  • Registration Rejects
  • Registration Requests
  • Soft Registrations
  • Total Jobs Completed
  • Total Jobs Created
  • Total Jobs Failed

Real User Monitoring

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

Related topics
  • View this extension at Dynatrace Hub.