Photo by F.D.E. Comite via Flickr.com, Creative Commons license
For Nimsoft Monitor
If you use Citrix for server based computing (SBC) or desktop virtualization (VDI), you probably already know that Citrix recommends monitoring a network for:
- Availability
- Performance
- Quality
And you know that availability, performance, and quality are in the eye of the beholder.
The end user’s experience with Citrix components and services, such as XenDesktop, XenApp, and Provisioning Services (PVS), are often affected by available bandwidth and network latency.
Citrix recommends monitoring both available bandwidth and latency “at short intervals (i.e. 30 seconds or less), because even short periods of bandwidth congestion or high latency will impact users (ICA/HDX connections) or PVS targets.”
Available Bandwidth:
Ideally, this is maximum physical bandwidth minus currently used bandwidth but you don’t live in an ideal world or work with an ideal network. In the real world, TCP congestion-control protocols cause the available bandwidth to depend on the latency of a network connection.
ICA Latency:
Citrix High Definition User Experience (HDX) includes the Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol to deliver high definition virtual desktops for XenDesktop and XenApp users. The ICA protocol adjusts to low bandwidth to still deliver a good user experience. But – remember, we’re not in an ideal world – PVS cannot make the same adjustment.
The result of low available bandwidth and high ICA latency? A Xendesktop/XenApp user moves her mouse and…several…seconds…later the cursor finally finds its way across the screen.
Lag makes users mad. CA Nimsoft Monitor has xendesktop and xenapp probes that can help you keep your users glad because you can monitor ICA latency and respond to issues before they become persistent problems that slow your users down.
For more information on Nimsoft Monitor probes and their metrics, see the probe guides at docs.nimsoft.com.
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