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

In the Dynatrace menu, go to Hub.
Find and select Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
Select Download to get the extension ZIP file. Don't rename the file.
Extract the contents of the ZIP file.
In the Dynatrace menu, go to Settings > Custom extensions > Upload extension.
Upload the ZIP file you extracted earlier.
Install OneAgent on the Citrix VDA.
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

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:

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.