Goliath Performance Monitor v11.7 POC Install Guide

Transcription

1 Goliath Performance Monitor v11.7 POC Install Guide Goliath Performance Monitor Proof of Concept Limitations Goliath Performance Monitor Proof of Concepts (POC) will be limited to monitoring 5 Hypervisor and 30 Windows Virtual Machines. If your evaluation or POC process requires a different configuration than the licensing allows for, please contact your account manager, Goliath Sales or Goliath Support as follows for assistance: Sales sales@goliathtechnologies.com Phone: Support support@goliathtechnologies.com Phone:

2 Legal Notices Inc. All rights reserved. Goliath Technologies believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS. GOLIATH TECHNOLOGIES MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Use, copying, and distribution of any Goliath Technologies software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. VMware, ESX, ESXi, vcenter, and vsphere are either trademarks or registered trademarks of VMware Corporation. Citrix, Xen, XenServer, and XenCenter are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Citrix Systems Inc. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners. Support, Sales, Renewals and Licensing For information on new sales, licensing and support renewals you can sales@goliathtechnologies.com For additional information about Goliath Technologies products and services, go to For customers and partners with an active support agreement or end users evaluating the product, you can use the support web board or support@goliathtechnologies.com for information about software patches, technical documentation, and support programs. Note: A valid support agreement is necessary to receive new release and software updates. 2

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4 Table of Contents Prerequisites & Deployment Planning...6 A. POC Planning...6 B. Deployment Architecture...7 C. Goliath Performance Monitor Prerequisites...8 D. Goliath Service Accounts E. Goliath Firewall Settings F. Goliath Antivirus Exclusions/Filters Installation A. Are You Ready to Install? B. Goliath Performance Monitor Server Installation Steps Configuration A. VMware vsphere B. Citrix XenServer C. Microsoft Hyper-V D. Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.X Agent Deployment A. Automated Agent Installation/Update via the Goliath Console B. Gold Image, Master Image or VM Template Agent Installation C. Auto-Agent Deployment Post Configuration A. Topology View B. Alerts C. Reports Product Overview A. Inventory B. Dashboards C. Topology View D. XenApp/XenDesktop Session Display E. Alerting F. Log Management G. Reporting H. Application Availability Monitor

5 Administration A. Security B. Database Retention C. Maintenance Mode D. License Key Support A. Server Logs B. Agent Logs Appendix A. Inventory Filter B. Full Deployment Examples C. Configuring Citrix XenServer Storage & GPU Monitoring

6 Prerequisites & Deployment Planning As you look to evaluate Goliath Performance Monitor, below you will find information on how to plan for the deployment and what accounts and specifications are required. If you have any questions on these items please feel free to reach out to These items were designed to make your evaluation as simple and seamless as possible. A. POC Planning As mentioned previously, Goliath Performance Monitor Proof of Concepts (POC) will be limited to monitoring 5 Hypervisor and 30 Windows Virtual Machines. Below are suggestions and recommendations on how you can plan for the POC limitations successfully: 1. Identify a subset of the Citrix environment that you want to monitor. We suggest: a. A Smaller sized delivery group (20 machines give or take) b. Machines that have a similar naming convention c. A subset that is representative of the full environment (users, apps, configuration etc.) d. Sessions hosts with activity. Many of the metrics we gather are based on users working in their session. Having real activity is the best way to see the full value of the technology. 2. Identify the hypervisor host(s) that those Citrix machines reside on 3. Identify VMs hosted on the hypervisor servers that will be excluded from the POC 4. Gather the hostname and IP Addresses for one of each Citrix Role Server Type: a. Delivery Controller b. Storefront c. License Server d. SQL Server e. Domain Controller f. PVS Server (if applicable) 5. If this is a Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x, identify an account with read-only administrative rights to the Citrix environment a. We will configure our technology to use this account on an ongoing basis, some customers prefer creating a service account for this purpose 6. Identify an account that has local administrator rights to the subset of the environment where we will be installing a. This account is not stored, it is only used one time to deploy our agent technology 7. Identify server and address to send alerts and reports to a. Usernames and passwords (if required) for connecting to server in order to send automated messages b. Configuration requirements for connecting to the server 6

7 B. Deployment Architecture The below image features an example of the Goliath Performance Monitor architecture. At a high-level, there is one central goliath server that communicates to a SQL database. For evaluations, the technology ships with local SQL Express. All of the machines/devices that you would like to monitor then connect into the technology, so we can start collecting data. 7

8 C. Goliath Performance Monitor Prerequisites The below grid includes the Goliath Performance Monitor prerequisites required for installation. Note: On the Goliath Server, if it is running Windows Server ,.NET 3.5 needs to be installed from the Features Wizard prior to the product installation as.net 4.5 is not backwards compatible. International users: For installations in environments requiring foreign language versions of Windows, Goliath requires that the base installation be performed with the English version of Windows OS. Localization should be done using language packs only, no localized Windows OS install. Component Requirement Goliath Server Goliath Virtual Machine or Physical Server Minimum of 8 vcpu Performance Windows Server 2008 R bit Minimum of 12 GB RAM Monitor Server (English version of Windows required for Goliath server) Minimum of 25 GB Disk Available.NET 3.5 Framework Static IP address PowerShell 3.0 and newer Internet Explorer 11 Database Microsoft SQL Express 2008 R2 is the embedded database packaged with the product Firewall Goliath Server TCP 80* opened inbound and outbound for web console connection TCP 8282* opened inbound for agent connection to agent location Goliath Intelligent Agent TCP 8282* opened outbound for agent connection to the Goliath Server Hypervisor HTTP 443 opened outbound for connection to VMware HTTP 80 opened outbound for connection to Citrix XenServer TCP 8282* opened outbound for connection to Microsoft Hyper-V * Default ports listed and can be modified. Agent Specifications Virtual Machine or Physical Server Windows NT SP6a-2016, Unix/Linux & Mac 0.1% CPU of CPU core 1.5 MB on Disk ~ 30 MB RAM on Windows Server, Linux/Unix, Mac ~ 50 MB RAM on Citrix XenDesktop ~ 80 MB RAM on Citrix XenApp Application Availability Monitor Launch Endpoint OS: Windows Server 2008 R bit, Windows 7-10 Specs: Minimum of 2vCPU and 2 GB RAM Dependency: Goliath Agent deployed Web Browser: Internet Explorer 11 Appropriate Client: Citrix Receiver or VMware Horizon version 4+ User Account Control: Disabled at the System level, not through Control Panel IE Enhanced Security: Disabled for Administrators and Users Trusted Sites: Add Citrix Portal to whitelist for trusted sites and the security zone set to Low to bypass file downloads Windows Endpoint Account: Dedicated account that must be logged in/disconnected to the endpoint at all times. This can be the same as the Citrix account, especially if you re automating logons using integrated Windows authentication o Platform Test Account: Dedicated Citrix/VMware Horizon/Microsoft test account with rights to applications or desktops to be launched Hypervisor Monitoring VMware vsphere 4.0 to current Service account with Read Only Rights Citrix XenServer Citrix XenServer 5.5 to current Service account with Read Only Rights NVIDIA GRID K1/ K2 card monitoring supported Microsoft Hyper-V Windows Server 2008 R Administrator level Credentials to access the Hyper-V Hosts/Servers 8

9 Citrix XenApp Versions 4.5 to current Citrix XenDesktop Versions 7.0 to current VMware Horizon Versions 6.0 to current Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop Monitoring Service Account with Read Only Citrix Admin Rights and Local Admin Rights on the Delivery Controller required for Citrix 7.X Inventory & Metric Collection. Please note, if you will also be implementing the Application Availability Monitor, Full Citrix Admin Rights are required Citrix Enterprise and Platinum license required for XenApp 6.5 ICA Channel collection Windows Server 2008 R supported (For foreign language support, ensure Windows installation is English version, then install foreign language pack on top.) PowerShell 2.0 required Full Microsoft SQL suggested Service Account with Read Only Citrix Admin Rights and Local Admin Rights on the Delivery Controller required for Citrix 7.X Inventory & Metric Collection. Please note, if you will also be implementing the Application Availability Monitor, Full Citrix Admin Rights are required Windows 7 10, 2008 R (For foreign language support, ensure Windows installation is English version, then install foreign language pack on top.) PowerShell 2.0 required Full Microsoft SQL suggested VMware Horizon Monitoring Service Account with Read Only Admin Rights and Local Admin Rights on the Connection Server Windows 7-10 (Desktop), 2008 R (Server) (For foreign language support, ensure Windows installation is English version, then install foreign language pack on top.) PowerShell 2.0 required Windows Mobile Device/Tablet Full Microsoft SQL suggested Additional Monitoring Windows % CPU 1.5 MB on Disk ~ 30 MB RAM 9

10 D. Goliath Service Accounts Please see the below guidelines for rights needed within Goliath Performance Monitor. One account can be created with all rights. Infrastructure Component Rights Notes VMware vcenter Read-only Needs to be defined at the vcenter level, not at Datacenter or lower for read-only Citrix XenServer Read-only Needs to be defined at the XenServer level, not at Datacenter or lower for read-only Microsoft Hyper-V Administrator Local admin rights required Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop Read-only Citrix Admin, 7.X** Local Admin on DDC At least read-only admin rights within Citrix Studio and local admin rights on the delivery controller. If using PVS, this account also needs to be a PVS farm admin. ** If also using the Goliath Application Availability Monitor, Full Citrix Admin Rights are required E. Goliath Firewall Settings I. Goliath Intelligent Agent: (Includes Citrix XenApp Servers, Citrix XenDesktop VDI s, Virtual Machines, and Workstations) Source Destination TCP Port Traffic Notes Agent Location Goliath Server 8282 Outbound Agent connection. Default port listed, port can be modified. Monitoring Endpoints/Workstations that reside outside your network will require the following: NAT policy on the firewall to allow agent communication inbound via TCP 8282 (default port, this can be changed) Public IP address of the firewall II. Goliath Server Source Destination TCP Port Traffic Notes (Anywhere) Goliath Server 8282 Inbound Agent connection. Default port listed, port can be modified. (Anywhere) Goliath Server 80 Inbound Web console connection. Default port listed, port can be modified. Goliath Server (Anywhere) 80 Outbound Web console connection. Default port listed, port can be modified. III. Goliath Hypervisor Monitoring Source Destination HTTP Port Traffic Notes Goliath Server VMware 443 Outbound VMware connection Goliath Server Citrix XenServer 80 Outbound Citrix XenServer Connection 10

11 F. Goliath Antivirus Exclusions/Filters While not a-typical, we have been exposed to client environments which require antivirus filtering, or exclusion rules needing implemented due to the antivirus software conflicting with the Goliath Intelligent Agent. For that reasoning, we do recommend implementing exclusion rules which consist of the following: Main Goliath Server o Directory Exclusions: \Program Files (x86)\monitorit\** This is the install directory of the Goliath Server, the local Agent, and relevant files (please include all subfolders/files) Ensure recursive exclusions for the subfolders is allowed o Process Exclusions: RPMAgent.exe This is the process which is launched by the Agent s Service RPMCCS.exe This is the process which is launched by the Server s Service AgentService.exe Process supporting the Agent s Windows Service Java.exe Supports hypervisor API communication MonitorITService.exe - Process supporting the Goliath Server s Windows Service Stunnel.exe (Optional component) Used to support sending alerts and notifications via SSL/TLS enabled mail servers Please Note: Directory level exclusions are required on the Goliath Server due to the fact that some files are created dynamically in the Goliath application directories. VMs/Servers with Agents on them (Citrix machines, VMs, etc) o Directory Exclusions: Path: \Program Files\MonitorIT Ensure recursive exclusions for the subfolders is allowed o Process Exclusions: RPMAgent.exe This is the process which is launched by the Agent s Service AgentService.exe Process supporting the Agent s Windows Service Please Note: File level exclusions should not be combined with Directory exclusions o OPTIONAL (if Directory exclusions are not allowed) File \Program Files\MonitorIT: AgentEvents.dll AgentService.exe Lua5.1.dll Mfc90.dll mfc90u.dll mfc100.dll mfcm90.dll mfcm90u.dll mfcm100.dll Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest Microsoft.VC90.MFC.manifest MISNMP.dll msvcm90.dll msvcp90.dll msvcp100.dll msvcr90.dll msvcr100.dll PSInterface35.dll PSInterface40.dll 11

12 PSInterfaceLink.dll RpmAgent.exe Uninstall.exe Goliath Master Agent: o Directory Exclusions: Path: \Program Files\MonitorIT Ensure recursive exclusions for the subfolders is allowed o Process Exclusions: RPMAgent.exe This is the process which is launched by the Agent s Service AgentService.exe Process supporting the Agent s Windows Service Java.exe Supports hypervisor API communication Please Note: File level exclusions should not be combined with Directory exclusions o OPTIONAL (if Directory exclusions are not allowed) File \Program Files\MonitorIT: AgentEvents.dll AgentService.exe Lua5.1.dll Mfc90.dll mfc90u.dll mfc100.dll mfcm90.dll mfcm90u.dll mfcm100.dll Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest Microsoft.VC90.MFC.manifest MISNMP.dll msvcm90.dll msvcp90.dll msvcp100.dll msvcr90.dll msvcr100.dll PSInterface35.dll PSInterface40.dll PSInterfaceLink.dll RpmAgent.exe Uninstall.exe 12

13 Installation This section includes step-by-step instructions for installing the base Goliath Performance Monitor technology A. Are You Ready to Install? To complete the installation of Goliath Performance Monitor (GPM), please ensure you have the following items available and prepared: 1. Goliath Performance Monitor installation file (gpmserver_setup64.exe) 2. Your license key (for POC s the key is eval ) 3. Static IP applied to the server hosting Goliath Performance Monitor 4..NET 3.5 Installed if using Windows Server 2012 R2 or newer as this is not enabled by default 5. Confirm the Prerequisites listed above B. Goliath Performance Monitor Server Installation Steps In the following section, we will install the Goliath Performance Monitor Server. Please run the Setup program on the system you want to be designated as the Goliath Server computer. 1. Exit all programs 2. To install GPM, run the downloaded executable, gpmserver_setup64.exe 3. The executable will start the install process and display a Welcome installer, click Next to begin the installation 4. Read the End User License agreement and if you agree with the terms, select I agree to the terms of this license agreement and click Next. If you do not agree or do not wish to continue, select I do not agree to the terms of this license agreement and click Cancel to exit the installer. 5. The license key for POC s is EVAL and should be defined by default. This license key will enable the full featured version for 30 days, select Next to continue. 13

14 6. Please verify and or specify the STATIC IP Address or DNS Name for the Goliath Performance Monitor Server and Web Interface Console Port. When finished select Next to continue. 7. The wizard will verify that the Console Port is available. If it is, Goliath Performance Monitor will then connect to it, if not you will be asked to enter a different port and report step #7 above. 8. Next, confirm the location where the Goliath Performance Monitor program will be installed. When the appropriate location is confirmed or entered, click Next to continue. a. The default location is C:\Program Files (x86)\monitorit 14

15 9. Verify that the installation settings are correct, if so select Next to proceed with the installation or Back to make the appropriate modifications. 10. During the installation process, a progress bar will show the progress of installing the Goliath Performance Monitor, as seen in the figure below. You will also see the installation of the SQL Express database installation take place if applicable. Please Note: At some points during the installation your screen may go blank. This is a normal part of the installation process. 15

16 11. Once Goliath Performance Monitor and SQL Express are successfully installed the install program will display a message that the installation is complete. Click Finish to exit the install program. 15. You have successfully installed Goliath Performance Monitor and can now launch the application. 16

17 Configuration Now that Goliath Performance Monitor is installed, next you ll want to configure monitoring. Please see the appropriate sections below for configuring your VMware vsphere, Citrix XenServer, Citrix XenApp and or XenDesktop environments. When going through the product configuration steps, we recommend configuring the relevant hypervisor first, and then Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop to follow. Note: In this document, we refer to XenApp as being published applications and desktops and XenDesktop as being VDI. When configuring VMware and XenServer, for the hosts/pools that you choose to monitor Goliath will populate the technology with all the machines and storage associated. When configuring XenApp & XenDesktop, for the sites that you choose to configure Goliath will populate the technology with all the sessions hosts and or VDI within the site. C. VMware vsphere This section will walk you through the discovery and configuration process for adding VMware vsphere ESX/ESXi and their subsequent virtualized guest machines and storage to your Goliath Performance Monitor inventory. 1. From the Configuration Wizard, select the option for Virtual Server If the wizard is not already displayed on the screen, it can be found by clicking the Settings link in the top right-hand corner of the technology and then choosing the Configuration Wizard option. 2. Choose VMware and then select the Next button 3. You will be prompted for the connection information on the Provide Credentials page. Enter in the IP Address or FQDN of the vcenter server or host that you would like to connect to, along with authentication. Select Next once completed 17

18 4. The technology will then discover the hosts connected to the vcenter specified, select the Hosts that you wish to add for into the technology for monitoring and then choose Next to continue 5. If you would like to add in another vcenter environment or host, select Add more virtual servers and then Next to repeat the wizard steps. Otherwise, choose the option for Start Monitoring and then click Next 6. Another prompt will appear, if you are finished configuring monitoring click Finish. Otherwise, if you would like to add in additional VMware Hosts/vCenter or configuration Citrix XenServer or XenApp & XenDesktop monitoring, click the button Configure More to return to the beginning of the wizard. 18

19 D. Citrix XenServer This section will walk you through the discovery and configuration process for adding Citrix XenServer and their subsequent virtualized guest machines and storage to your Goliath Performance Monitor inventory. 1. From the Configuration Wizard, select the icon for Virtual Server a. If the wizard is not already displayed on the screen, it can be found by clicking the Settings link in the top right-hand corner of the technology and then choosing the Configuration Wizard option. 2. Check XenServer and then select the Next button 7. You will be prompted for the connection information on the Provide Credentials page. Enter in the IP Address or FQDN of the Pool Master or an individual host that you would like to connect to, along with authentication. Select Next once completed 3. Select the Hosts that you wish to add for monitoring and select Next 19

20 8. If you would like to add in another Pool Master or host, select Add more virtual servers and then Next to repeat the wizard steps. Otherwise, choose the option for Start Monitoring and then click Next 9. Another prompt will appear, if you are finished configuring monitoring click Finish. Otherwise, if you would like to add in additional XenServer Hosts/Pools or configure VMware or XenApp & XenDesktop monitoring, click the button Configure More to return to the beginning of the wizard. Please see Appendix B for configuring Storage and GPU Monitoring on your XenServer hosts. 20

21 E. Microsoft Hyper-V This section will walk you through the configuration process for adding your Microsoft Hyper-V environment to the technology. 1. From the Configuration Wizard, select the icon for Virtual Server a. If the wizard is not already displayed on the screen, it can be found by clicking the Settings link in the top right-hand corner of the technology and then choosing the Configuration Wizard option. 2. Choose Hyper-V and then select the Next button 3. You will be prompted for the connection information on the Provide Credentials page. Enter in an account that has admin rights to the Hosts and VMs. Please note, this account will only be used for one-time authentication and will not be saved in the database. Select Next once completed 4. The technology will then prompt you on how you would like to add your Hyper-V environment. The Manual option is suggested if you will just be adding in a few systems. If adding in 4 or more, it is suggested to do discovery via Active Directory. Select the option that makes the most sense for your use case and then click Next 21

22 5. According to the option you chose, follow the below instructions: a. Manual i. Click the Add button on the side of the pane ii. Enter the hostname & IP address for the Host/VM that you d like to add into the technology and then click Apply iii. Repeat steps i & ii for each Host/VM that you d like to add. When finished and ready to proceed click Next b. Active Directory i. The technology will connect to your Active Directory and discover all of the OUs. Navigate through the list and select all of the machines that you would like to add into the technology. When finished, click Next 6. The technology will then use the credentials provided earlier to install the agent onto the specified machines. When the installation is complete, click Next 7. If you are finished configuring monitoring, click Finish. Otherwise, if you would like to add in additional Hyper-V Hosts/VMs or configure XenServer, VMware or XenApp & XenDesktop monitoring, click the button Configure More to return to the beginning of the wizard. 22

23 F. Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.X These steps will take you through the configuration process to begin monitoring Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop to automatically collect Delivery Group Inventory, User Session Data, and enable Citrix session monitoring. The wizard will also assemble the Network Topology view which will take about 5-10 minutes to create upon completion of the wizard. 1. From the Configuration Wizard, select the icon for XenApp & XenDesktop If the wizard is not already displayed on the screen, it can be found by clicking the Settings link in the top right-hand corner of the technology and then choosing the Configuration Wizard option. 2. If your environment has more than 20 XenApp Session Hosts or XenDesktop VDI click the button for Inventory Filter which will prevent the technology from discovering your entire environment. If not, please proceed to step 3. If you are choosing to monitor a specific delivery group, click the dropdown menu in the Include section and choose XenApp Delivery Group or XenDesktop Delivery Group and then enter the full name of the delivery group after the filter type indicator. i. Example: If a VDI delivery group was named Windows 10 VDI it would appear as follows on the screen XenDesktop Delivery Group:: Windows 10 VDI If you are choosing to monitor machines based on their naming convention, click the dropdown menu in the Include section and choose XenApp Server or XenDesktop VDI and then the naming convention of your machines. Wildcards are accepted at the beginning or end of the name string but can only be used on once end or the other. i. Example: If your VDI machines are named VDI-TECH001 VDI-TECH100, and you only want to monitor the first 20 VDI machines it would appear as follows on the screen XenDesktop VDI:: VDI-TECH00*, VDI-TECH01*, VDI-TECH020 For full documentation on the Inventory Filter please see the Appendix Click OK when finished 3. Select Citrix XenApp or Citrix XenDesktop as appropriate and then select the Next button 4. You will be prompted for the connection information on the Add your Citrix Delivery Controllers, Storefronts & NetScaler s page 23

24 5. Click the Add button on the right-hand side and complete the requested information for the Delivery Controller: Enter the Hostname of one of your delivery controllers and then the IP address Click the drop-down menu in the Role field and choose Delivery Controller Provide admin credentials in the form of domain\user. These credentials will be used for one-time authentication to install the Goliath Agent An account with Citrix Admin Rights within Citrix Studio is required for metric collection on an ongoing basis. If the account you would like to use is the same as the above account click Apply. If you would like to use a separate account uncheck the box for Also Use and enter the appropriate credentials. When finished click Apply 6. Click the Add button on the right-hand side and complete the requested information for a Storefront Server: Enter the Hostname of one of your storefront/web interface servers and then the IP address Click the drop-down menu in the Role field and choose Storefront Enter the hostname for one of the Citrix Site Delivery Controllers connected to this storefront. Provide admin credentials in the form of domain\user. These credentials will be used for one-time authentication to install the Goliath Agent 24

25 7. If you would like to add in other role servers like NetScaler, domain controllers, license servers, SQL Servers, PVS servers etc. (which is recommended for complete performance data in the Topology view) click the Add button on the right-hand side and complete the requested information: Enter the Hostname of one of the role server and then the IP address Click the drop-down menu in the Role field and choose Other Role Server Provide admin credentials in the form of domain\user. These credentials will be used for one-time authentication to install the Goliath Agent Repeat the above until all role servers are added. It is recommended for POC s to only deploy to one role server per type. 25

26 8. When all machines have been added, click the Next button to continue. The Goliath Agent will now be deployed to the Delivery Controller, Storefront Server and any other role server defined. When deployment is finished click the Next button. 6. The Save and Finish screen will now appear, select Finish to close the configuration wizard and enter the technology. Please Note: Upon completing this section, please allow 3-5 minutes for your session hosts/vdi machines to auto-populate into the technology and the current sessions that have been established in the environment. The Network Topology view will take about 5-10 minutes to render based on the size of the environment. To see examples of what a correct deployment looks like, please see Full Deployment Examples section in the Appendix. 26

27 Agent Deployment This section with provide instructions on how to deploy the Goliath Intelligent Agent to your VMware, XenServer, Hyper-V and Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop Environment. Please see the section that is applicable to your environment. Note: The Goliath Intelligent Agent is required to collect the following metrics from your Windows machines: Event logs Processes Services Performance Counters & Utilization trends File/folder level analysis In addition to the above, the Goliath Intelligent Agent is required to collect the following metrics from your Citrix Session Hosts/VDI: End User Experience Metrics (network latency, ICA RTT, Connection Speed, etc.) ICA/HDX Latency Logon Duration There is no reboot required when installing or updating the agent. G. Automated Agent Installation/Update via the Goliath Console Below are instructions for installing the Intelligent Agent install/update on Windows 2008 R2 or newer and Windows 7 and newer machines from the Goliath console. This section is recommended for statically built machines, if your machines are created via Gold Image, Master Image or VM Template please see the appropriate section below. 1. Open Goliath Performance Monitor and select the Configure tab and then the Inventory submenu. 2. At the bottom of the page, click the Manage Agents button. 3. If this is the first time an agent is being installed to a server, select the Deployment Settings button and enter administrative credentials (domain\user) in order to access the server. If you are updating an agent that is connected to the product already, please proceed to the next step. 4. Select the server(s)/machines(s) that you would like to install/update the agent on and click the Install/Update Agents bottom at the bottom of the screen. 5. Depending on the number of agents that are being installed or updated, the process may take about 2-10 minutes to complete. You will be prompted when the installation/update is complete. 6. Once the installation is complete, click the Close button to return to the Inventory page. Here, you can confirm the agents are connecting in by confirming that there is a green box in the stat column for that machine. Please note, you may need to refresh the screen after a few minutes. 27

28 H. Gold Image, Master Image or VM Template Agent Installation This section will guide you through the process of installing or updating the Goliath Intelligent Agent in your Gold Image, Master Image or Template for Windows 2008 R2 or newer, and Windows 7 and newer. For evaluation purposes, if the image/template is not able to be modified please skip this section follow the directions in the next section for Auto-Agent Deployment. 1. Launch the Goliath Intelligent Agent setup installer (InstallAgent.exe) and click Next a) This can be copied to the image from the goliath server at C:\Program Files (x86)\monitorit\agent\windows 2. Enter the IP Address or FQDN of the Goliath Server. 3. Enter the Goliath Agent Port used for communication and click Next. The default agent port is The installer will ask whether the machine where the installer is currently running is a Gold Image, Master Image or Template. Select the radio button for Yes and then click Next 5. Confirm the agent install directory and click Next. This should remain C:\Program Files\MonitorIT unless there is no C drive. If using Citrix PVS, DO NOT INSTALL TO THE WRITE CACHE DRIVE. 6. Confirm the installation setting then click Next to start the installation. 7. After 1-2 minutes the installation will complete, click Finish. a) Please note, once selecting finish it may take a minute for the installer window to close. 8. No additional steps are required to be added to your normal closing process for the agent. Follow your normal process for provisioning the Image or Template. I. Auto-Agent Deployment Below are instructions for installing the Intelligent Agent install using the Agent Auto-Deployment functionality which will automatically install the agent based on your current reboot schedule. This installation method is typically used as a work-around for environment where the Images/Template cannot be modified. 1. Open Goliath Performance Monitor and select the Configure tab and then the Groups submenu 2. Select the entry for the delivery group in which the agent will be installed on and click the Edit button at the bottom of the page 3. A new window will appear, choose the button named Inventory Management located in the middle of the screen 4. Check the Enable Agent Auto-Deployment box at the top of the page 5. Enter administrative credentials, these credentials will be used to access the machine and run the installation files 6. Optionally, edit the Agent Install Directory. Please do no install the agent into the write cache drive if using Citrix PVS. 7. Chose the Deployment Schedule that fits your current configuration: 28

29 a) The option for Auto-Deploy Agent if Off-line Longer Than will attempt to reinstall an agent that has been offline longer than the specified time. For example, if your VDI machines reboot every time a user logs off and the machines take about 2 minutes to come back online you would enter 4 minutes. b) The option for Auto-Deploy Agent by Schedule will attempt to install the agent at the specified date/time. For example, if your XenApp session hosts reboot every day between 2:00 am and 4:00 am you would want to specify 5:00 am. 8. When finished click the Apply button to save the schedule 9. Lastly, click the Save button to apply the schedule to the machines in the group 10. Repeat steps 2-9 for each delivery group that needs to be modified Note: If the Agent Auto-Deployment fails to install the agent on the first attempt, it will try two more times. If the third attempt fails, the technology will not try again until the following day. Post Configuration The previous sections have detailed the prerequisites and instructions for getting the technology fully installed and configured. The below section highlights additional items the Goliath Team recommends configuring in order to exercise the technology to its fullest. J. Topology View The main source of the Topology view configuration comes with enabling the Citrix API integration. However, the below sections include instruction for adding your NetScaler and storefront servers to the view. I. Enable NetScaler Monitoring Navigate to the Configure>Inventory page Identify the NetScaler entries that were previously added in One by one edit each entry and at the bottom of the pane choose the NetScaler role and the appropriate Citrix Sites it relates to and click save In about 5-10 minutes the NetScaler(s) will appear in the topology view II. Enable Storefront Monitoring Navigate to the Configure>Inventory page Identify the storefront entries that were previously added in One by one edit each entry and at the bottom of the pane choose the Storefront role and the appropriate Citrix Sites it relates to and click save In about 5-10 minutes the storefront machine(s) will appear in the topology view K. Alerts Upon installation, the technology ships with over 100 embedded monitoring conditions, referred to as rules, based on industry best practices and standards. These monitoring rules can be used for historical reporting, as well as, real-time alerting and are enabled out of the box. This section highlights the alerts 29

30 that the Goliath Team suggests enabling and how to enable them I. Configure the SMTP Server Parameters Before any s or SMS text messages can be set, you must first define the SMTP Server(s). This is a global setting and only needs to be configured once. 1. Select the Settings link in the top left hand corner, and then the SMTP Setup under the User & setup sections 2. A pop-up window will open, on this page you will define the following: a. Specify the SMTP server address for where s should be sent for transmission. This can be an IP address or a domain name. The default port for the SMTP server is 25, to override this default port, append a colon character followed by the override port number. For example, to use port 26 versus the default port 25, " :26" or "mail:26". b. Specify the originating address in the format of name@mydomain.com c. If your SMTP Server requires authentication, check the box at the bottom of the page and enter the username and password credentials for the originating address in the two fields. The username must be in the format of name@mydomain.com 3. When finished, click the OK button. The Goliath server will then validate a connection to the SMTP server. Please note, if you re using Office 365 or another hosted service please reach out to support@goliathtechnologies.com for specialized instructions. II. Importing Additional Citrix Alerts In addition to the out of the box alerts, there are also additional monitoring rules that can be imported into the technology. This section will review how to import them in and apply them to the applicable machines Navigate to the Configure>Monitoring rules page At the bottom of the page, click the button for Import/Export Rules and then select the radio button for import Select the alert sets that you would like to add into the technology based on what you are currently monitoring in the technology. Multi-select is supported using the native shift & control keyboard functions. Keep all default settings and click OK when done. We recommend the following: o Active Directory o Citrix Licensing Server o Citrix Provisioning Server o Citrix Storefront o ** Please note, the rule sets for Citrix Sessions, Citrix Delivery Controller and Windows Health have already been added into the technology. Next, navigate to the Configure>Groups Page You will see the rule sets you added displayed on this page with a type of Secondary Edit each rule set to add the applicable servers/devices for monitoring. 30

31 III. Suggested Alerts to Enable This section lists out the recommend monitoring rules to enable in the next section. For Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop 7.X, all monitoring conditions starting with Citrix Delivery Controller. These conditions cover all of the core Windows Services and Event logs to monitor. For Citrix XenApp 6.5, all monitoring conditions starting with Citrix XenApp 6.5. These conditions cover all of the core Windows Services and Event logs to monitor. For Citrix XenApp, the Citrix XenApp - Session & Server Performance rule with the following thresholds defined: o ICA Latency: 250ms for 5 mins o Network Latency: 250ms for 5 mins o Logon Duration: 60 seconds For Citrix XenDesktop, the Citrix XenDesktop VDI Session & VDI Availability rule with the following thresholds defined: o ICA Latency: 250ms for 5 mins o Network Latency: 250ms for 5 mins o Logon Duration: 60 seconds The CPU Utilization rule If you imported in any additional Citrix Role Server monitoring like SF, LIC, or PVS we suggest enabling those as well. IV. Enable Notifications This section reviews how to enable alerting for each monitoring rule. Before proceeding, please make sure that the SMTP Server Parameters were configured Select the Configure tab, and then the Monitoring Rules sub menu 2. Select the alert condition in which you d like to enable or text message notifications 3. Click the Edit button at the bottom of the page 4. A new pane will open, choose the Notifications tab 5. The subsection for will be selected by default, click the checkbox at the top of the subsection to enable notifications. 6. Click on the Address text box, a popup window will appear, define the address(es) for the recipients of the notification. Multiple addresses are to be separated by a comma. When finished click OK 7. Click on the Subject text box to edit the default subject. Please note, by default you will see characters like &N in the subject, this is a part of our macro functionality. A full list of macros is provided in the Appendix at the end of this document. 8. By default, all alert notifications will include the following details. If you would like to customize the information displayed in the notification, click the Customize Text button to open a new pop-up window where you can enter the specific information to be sent. Macro substitution is also supported in this field. When custom text is defined, there is a green check mark to the right of the Customize Text button to indicate this. Default information: a. Name of the Server where the condition was found b. Description defined in Goliath for the Server where the condition was found c. IP Address of the Server where the condition was found

32 d. The group in which the Server resides in Goliath e. Name of the alerting condition that was triggered f. Description of the alerting condition that was triggered g. Alert Resolution Notes, if any, that were defined in the alerting condition that was triggered h. Status/specific details on what was breached 9. When finished, you can click the Test button to confirm that s can be sent to the included recipients. 10. Click Save when ready to enable this configuration. L. Reports In addition to real-time troubleshooting, the technology also offers historical reporting. The reports can be configured to run on a scheduled basis and ed to management or also run on an ad-hoc basis. This section will review how to configure scheduled reporting to be ed. Please note, in a full production instance some of these reports may be configured to run on a monthly/weekly basis but since this is an evaluation, we ll scheduled the reports to run every 2-3 so you can see a good sample set a data. I. Reports to Schedule This section lists the reports the Goliath Team suggests scheduling and why. Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop ICA Latency Report ICA Latency is a great indicator of end user end performance. This report consolidates all of the data Goliath is collecting onto 1 page so once can easily keep track of a user s performance. Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop End User Experience Repot This report brings ICA Latency, Logon Duration, and connection speed into 1 report. Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop Logon Duration Report This report now only displays how long it took for a user to sign into their session but also breaks down the logon into the various stages as well. Application Failures Report Use this report to identify common application failures taking place in the environment and use the data provided to relay back to the application owner so they can address the issue. II. Schedule Reports This section includes instructions for scheduling reports. Navigate to the Report>Schedule page Using the Report Type drop-down menu, select Citrix XenApp or Citrix XenDesktop Reports as appropriate Click the button for Choose Report Options A new pane will appear, use the report drop down menu to select the report you would like to schedule You can then customize the fields to display and how to sort the report. Click OK when finished 32

33 At the bottom of the report pan choose: o The report frequency o Date/Time of the first scheduled report o The timeframe of data to include in the report (this usually aligns with the frequency) Select how you would like to receive the report ( with a link or an attachment) Click the Specify details button to enter the recipients of the report and define the subject Click the Schedule button to save the configuration and add it to the queue Product Overview Now that the base installation and configuration has been completed, the below sections will review important areas of the technology in which you should review and focus on while evaluating. 33 M. Inventory This section will review the functionality and details displayed on the Inventory page. The inventory page of the technology is a management screen where one can see what machines/devices are being monitored in the technology and how. To navigate to this page, click on the Configure tab and then the Inventory on the submenu option. The screen itself is displayed as a grid which lists all of the machines and devices currently brought into the technology. The first column Gph includes a graph button, if this button is clicked it will open a pop-up window which displays current and historical metrics for the machine selected. The next column OS provides insight into what type of machine/device it is, for example, Windows or Linux virtual machine, VMware or XenServer host. If the machine is a XenApp session host or XenDesktop VDI the OS column will show those icons as well. Please note, the Citrix icons are only displayed when the Citrix API integration is configured. If you are not seeing any Citrix specific metrics throughout the technology, you ll want to check here to see if the monitoring has been enabled. If hypervisor monitoring is enabled, the VM column will display the device type like host, powered on VM, powered off VM, template, and storage. The technology includes a grouping system where you can organize your inventory to make navigation and searching easy to use. The group that the machine belongs to will be displayed on this page as well. By default, when machines are added into the technology either manually or via a hypervisor integration they are placed into the Auto Register Group. For Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop, once the Citrix API is enable the technology will group the machines by their delivery group. To the right of the group is the Stat, Agent Ver and Log columns. The Stat column is used to show the status of the agent s connection. You will see a green square for a connected agent, red square for a disconnected again, and an empty square if no agent is deployed. If the agent is connected into the technology, one can click on the square to force a restart of our agent service remotely. The Agent Ver includes the version of the agent being used. As the technology is enhanced, new versions of the agent will be released, and the agents will need to be updated. Lastly, the Log column is a series of checkboxes. Clicking on a log checkbox for a given machine will enable agent logging. The Goliath Support Team will

34 normally request these logs when troubleshooting a specific issue. If there is a green checkmark displayed in that column it means that logging is currently enabled. At the bottom of the screen lives a series of buttons. These buttons are for performing tasks on the page like adding, editing, deleting and searching machines. N. Dashboards This section with review some of the main displays that our customers will look to when monitoring their environment. I. Heat Map The Heat Map display will show color representations of the status of inventory items in the environment. The color of the status indication is driven by the Severity configured on the associated Monitoring Rule. To navigate to this page, click on the Dashboard tab and then the Dashboard on the submenu option. The Categories section is displayed by default, this page will organize your inventory based on its type (host, vm, storage, etc). On the other hand, if you do not want to see the display in this fashion, by clicking the Status section all of the machine will appear. Items shown on the Heat Map can be filtered by GPM Groups by navigating to the Groups tab and selecting or deselecting the Groups to view. Additionally, the items can be filtered further using the check box options in the bottom right hand corner to display Faults Only or Faults at Top. If neither of these options are selected the machines will be listed in alphabetical order. From the Categories or Status tabs there are icons for each inventory item. These icons from left to right indicate the type of item (Virtual Host, Virtual Machine), operating system or server type (Windows, Linux, XenCenter, Citrix), Status based on Severity of current alerts (if any), a link to Server Snapshot Metrics for that inventory item, and an indication of Agent connectivity. The Alerts tab shows an overview of the current alerts triggering in the environment based on defined Monitoring Rule thresholds. From this tab, Severity of alert is shown, the server or device name triggering the alert, the alert type, time and date of first and last alert event, an overall count of number of times this alert has triggered for this server or device, and a description of the status. Clicking on the notification bell icon will show a full description of the alert that triggered: 34

35 The description includes the server or device name that triggered the alert, the associated Monitoring Rule (or Watch Name), a description, the type of rule, a status indicating what thresholds resulted in the alert status, and any remediation actions taken on an automated basis. Clicking on the notepad icon will show a screen with a list of prior status indications: This screen will include the server or device name, the Monitoring Rule or Watch that triggered the alert, a description of the Monitoring Rule, notes indicating previous status changes, and a New Notes field that will carry any knowledge base style notes that were added to the Monitoring Rule. 35

36 II. CPU/Memory/Storage Clicking on Dashboard tab and then the CPU submenu option will show a sortable list of all of the CPU Performance metrics across the environment including virtual machines and virtual hosts. Clicking on Dashboard tab and then the Memory submenu option will show a sortable list of Memory Utilization metrics across the environment including virtual machines and virtual hosts. Clicking on Dashboard tab and then the Storage submenu option will show a sortable list of all of the Storage Utilization metrics across the environment including from both the logical side (Windows or Linux VM disk utilization) on the Servers tab and from the underlying datastore or LUN perspectives on the Virtual Storage tab. Our customers will typically use these screens as NOC displays and enable our cycle displays feature to rotate through the screens on an interval basis. III. Performance Graphs From the View tab and clicking on the Performance Graphs submenu option allows the creation of dashboard-style performance graphs from any of the Hypervisor, PerfMon, and Network Device data Goliath Performance Monitor is collecting. There are three sections to this display, the Dashboards menu on the top-left and the Charts menu on the bottom-left. The largest pane in the center of the page is where the dashboards will be displayed. A Dashboard is a collection of Charts that are shown side-by-side. Both Charts and Dashboards are organized via a folder structure in the appropriate menus. By default, the technology ships with out of the box dashboards for VMware, Citrix XenServer, and Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop. From the Dashboard section, the Plus adds the currently selected Dashboard to the display. The square adds a new Dashboard and prompts for the settings. The ellipsis allows additional functionality such as folder management and renaming or deletion of existing Dashboards. From the Charts section, the Plus adds the currently selected Chart to the open Dashboard or Display. The bar graph button creates a new Chart. The ellipsis allows additional functionality such as folder management and renaming or deletion of existing Charts. When adding a new Chart, metrics can be selected via Inventory item or Metric category. This display automatically filters available metrics based on what is active in the environment. Only inventory items that have a particular metric will show up under that metric. Similarly, only metrics that are available on an inventory item will show up under that item. When adding a metric to a Chart, the Windows section will show available Windows Performance Monitor/PerfMon counters. The VMware and XenServer sections will show available metrics from their respective hypervisor integrations. Network elements will show available metrics based on SNMP configuration within GPM. Note that Hyper-V metrics show up under the Windows PerfMon 36

37 counters. Up to 20 metrics can be added per Chart. Metrics can be displayed as a Bar, Horizontal or Vertical Line, Pie, or Area Chart. With a Dashboard open, click on the Sprocket or Gear button to adjust the Chart settings. From the resulting screen adjustments to the date and time range, Chart type, and Chart metrics can be made. For date and time changes there is also a checkbox to apply the same date and time range to all Charts on the current Dashboard. Also, both the left Dashboard/Chart section and the bottom Chart list section can be hidden to the left and bottom of the screen via the arrow buttons or reopened. Closed Charts on a Dashboard can be re-added from the bottom Chart list utilizing the Plus button: 37

38 O. Topology View The Topology View provides access to a high-level overview of the Citrix environment(s). This view is automatically built and scales to any size environment, including support for multiple environments as well. There are some basic prerequisites for deployment including proper Goliath Performance Monitor licensing, Goliath Agents installed to the Citrix Role Servers, Citrix API integration enabled on the Delivery Controllers, and identification of the StoreFront server(s) in inventory. To access the Topology View, click on Dashboard and then Topology. This will show a screen similar to the following: At the top left, the Citrix site can be selected via the drop-down list. Additionally, the layers of the Topology View are displayed below the drop-down list, upon initial load of the Topology View the Infrastructure layer will display: The Infrastructure layer contains the physical infrastructure that makes up the Citrix environment. The Delivery layer shows a logical representation of the environment via Delivery Groups, Machine Catalogs, and underlying PVS Images. The Machine layer isolates the view to one Delivery Group or Machine Catalog (showing the association between them) and then displays the underlying Hypervisor infrastructure responsible for delivery of this/these images. From initial load of the Topology View, alerts triggering throughout the Citrix environment are shown on the right side and are initially sorted by criticality and volume: 38

39 The servers and devices that make up the Citrix environment will show indications of status via circles around the inventory item. Lines between items show the criticality level of upstream and downstream impact of alerts that are triggering in the environment. The colors used for representation of criticality of alert are driven by underlying Monitoring Rules. Clicking on any server or device in the display will isolate the view on the right to that item: The right pane will show information relating to the specifics of the inventory item that is selected including service status for Citrix Role servers in the environment. 39

40 Topology View can be zoomed via the mouse scroll wheel, zooming is centered on where the mouse pointer is currently located. This view can be moved via clicking and dragging in the blank space. User Connection Faults, Concurrent Users and Sessions, and Current End User Experience Faults are shown at the bottom of the Infrastructure layer of Topology View: Clicking on the Delivery layer of Topology View will move to a more logical representation of the Citrix environment: The Delivery layer shows the Topology View broken down by Delivery Group and Machine Catalog: The right pane shows alerts and metrics based on Delivery Group and Machine Catalog. 40

41 The bottom of the screen now shows Concurrent Users and Average Logon Duration broken down by Delivery Group. An overall indication of Citrix Receiver version mixture across the environment is also displayed. Hovering over these graphs will show a dialog box with more detailed information. Clicking on any Delivery Group or Machine Catalog will drill down to the Machine Layer: This layer shows the Delivery Controllers, Delivery Group, Machine Catalog, PVS Image, and underlying Hypervisor Infrastructure that is hosting this configuration. 41

42 Again, any item in this view can be clicked on and will show metrics and alerts relating to that item on the right side of the display: P. XenApp/XenDesktop Session Display Citrix sessions connected to the environment can be monitored by clicking on the View tab and then the XenApp/XenDesktop Sessions submenu option. This display will show all active, disconnected, and logged off sessions in the Citrix environment. These sessions can be evaluated to determine the cause of delays, latency, and other end user experience issues. The display is divided into three sections, App Servers, Published Apps & Desktops, and Virtual Desktops. The App Servers sections shows all of the Citrix session hosts in the environment including how many users and sessions are connected, overall XenApp Server Load, CPU, and Memory utilization. Published Apps & Desktops will show all current and historic application and desktop connections to the Citrix environment including the session host name, user account, Citrix Receiver version, logon duration, ICA Latency, application name, and the connect and logoff/disconnect time and dates. Virtual Desktops will show all of the VDI machines in the environment including those that are currently in use, logged off, disconnected, powered off, or available. Similar to the Published App & Desktops view, this screen also shows the user account, logon duration, and ICA Latency metrics. In addition, CPU and Memory metrics are shown. Clicking on any session from the Published Apps & Desktops or Virtual Desktops view will drill down deeper into the additional data points that are gathered around the Citrix session. The default pane displayed first 42

43 is the connection details in the Connection Performance tab which will show full details of the connection state including ICA Latency, ICA RoundTrip Time, Network Latency, Connection Speed, and Inbound/Outbound Bandwidth Used. In addition, the ICA/HDX Channel tab will further detail Inbound/Outbound Bandwidth by subchannel within the ICA Protocol. The ICA Protocol is effectively a tunnel established to the Citrix environment that allows remote connection to a Windows environment. Within this protocol are separate channels that handle the various aspects of a Windows connection, including USB, File Transfer, Printing, Scanning, Video Traffic (ThinWire), Clipboard, and other aspects of the Citrix connection including internal reliability pieces such as Framehawk. The ICA protocol is designed to be highly resilient to latency and will attempt to mask underlying network issues in order to guarantee the highest possible end user experience. Here is a graphical representation of what the ICA Protocol and underlying channels looks like: The Logon Duration tab details the entire Citrix logon process including all 33 stages of the process. This allows troubleshooting delays experienced during logon to the Citrix environment and will isolate delays with Group Policy processing, User Profile management, Logon Script processing, establishment of Citrix connections, delays with the Citrix Delivery Controller and environment, and slow processing on the Citrix Receiver. The connection details screen will also show nvidia GRID card performance in the vgpu Performance tab. These metrics include Frames per Second, Memory, and GPU Compute utilization. Please note that currently the memory & GPU compute metrics are only supported when using XenServer hypervisor. The Server Performance tab shows the underlying session host or VDI machine performance isolated to the duration of the user session. This automatically shows the session host or VDI that the user was connected to for this session and combines underlying Hypervisor infrastructure metrics into the view based on which virtual host was housing the session host or VDI machine at the time of connection. Metrics such as CPU and Memory Utilization, Disk and Network Performance, and Agent Status are available from the Server Performance screens. The Application Performance tab shows the Windows processes that were running within the Citrix environment during the users connection. Session Properties shows a selection of other data captured from the user session. 43

44 As mentioned previously, the Connection Performance tab shows metrics relating to the performance of the ICA session. The screen looks like the following: To understand what these metrics reference, review the following diagram: Network Latency is the delay associated with the users connection to the Citrix environment. ICA Latency is the users communication through the network and ICA protocol to the underlying operating system housing the Citrix workload. Typically, ICA latency will be close to this metric but will also include XenApp/VDI and Operating System processing delays. ICA RoundTrip Time will typically be at least twice the ICA Latency as it includes the data traveling back to the user from the Citrix environment indicating the entirety of the Citrix communication path. For information on troubleshooting Logon Duration and ICA Latency please see the following guides: The Citrix Administrator s Technical Guide to Understanding and Troubleshooting Citrix ICA/HDX The Complete Guide to Understanding the Citrix Logon Process Q. Alerting Goliath Performance Monitor Alerting is configured via the Monitoring Rules available in the Configure tab and the Monitoring Rules submenu option. Each Monitoring Rule has configurable thresholds that when breached can trigger alerts both via the Goliath Performance Monitor web interface (see the 44

45 Dashboards section of this document) and through SMTP ( /sms text), SNMP, Syslog, and other protocols. By default, the following conditions come out of the box with the technology for each platform. Windows Monitoring: VMware & XenServer Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop Hypervisor Monitoring: Monitoring: Application & System Host resource utilization Delivery Controller Service & Error and Warning Events Event Log Errors Resource utilization Virtual Machine utilization Citrix Profile Management Errors Process utilization Storage Utilization Session & Server Performance (ICA Latency, Logon Duration, etc.) Group Policy Failures Printing & Print Driver Errors Profile & Registry Failures In addition to the out of the box monitoring, additional monitoring rules can be imported for Citrix Storefront, License, PVS monitoring and more. Users can also create their own custom monitoring conditions by selecting New at the bottom of the page. All out of the box monitoring rules are preconfigured using industry best practices and standards. However, in order to keep the alerts actionable for your specific environment and reduce the number of alerts triggered, all thresholds can be adjusted and configured so that spikes over a threshold will be required to sustain for a period of time before triggering an alert. In addition, configuration of the frequency of alerting can be configured in the Scheduling tab when editing a Monitoring Rule. This allows configurations such as Alert Every Time which will send an alert for each occurrence of a Monitoring Rule threshold being passed. From this tab, configuration for maximum number of alerts, minimum notification interval, and number of events within a period of time can also be configured to limit alerts from any particularly noisy Monitoring Rules that may be configured in the environment. Configuration of notifications is handled via the Notifications tab within a Monitoring Rule. The SMTP Server Parameters for all button configures SMTP connection parameters that are utilized throughout Goliath Performance Monitor. Adjustments to groups, destination addresses, and the subject line and body text of s can also be configured via this tab. For full documentation on enabling notifications please see the link provided here. For full product documentation on configuring new monitoring rules, please see the Performance Monitor>Explanation of Features & Functionality>Monitoring Rules & Alerts section of the Goliath Resource Center R. Log Management Goliath Performance Monitor can collect, evaluate, and present Windows Event Logs in various ways. The information collected can be utilized for troubleshooting efforts within the environment being monitored. Event Logs can be searched across multiple computers/servers simultaneously in order to see errors or events taking place across the environment to ease with troubleshooting. Log management is accessed via the Log Management tab in the Goliath Performance Monitor 45

46 navigation bar. This tab has the following sub-tabs: Event Log Events Event Log Archives Syslog Messages Syslog Archives Event Log Events shows a live feed of Event Logs that are currently being collected via Monitoring Rules configured in the environment. This view shows the following information: Source Windows Event Log (Application, Security, System, etc.) Type of Event (Error/Warning/Information) Server/Computer Name Event Log Source Date/Time Event ID User Name Event Description The information presented in Event Log Events is based on Event Log entries that are collected via an EventLogWatch Monitoring Rule. Event Log entries of this type are stored in the database of the GPM server. Event Log Archives brings up a menu that allows selection of various Event Log operations. This menu has the following options: Manage Archive Schedules View Archived Event Logs View Monitored Events View Current Event Logs Set Maximum File Size Manage Archive Schedules allows configuration of regularly scheduled archiving of Windows Event Logs based on time, Event Log size, or number of Event Log entries. These archived Event Logs can be stored on the GPM Server, a UNC path, or locally (on each machine where the agent is installed). These Event Log archives are stored in flat files that are compressed. Options are available to schedule archiving of various forms of Windows Event Logs including deeper Event Logs under the Applications and Services Logs in Windows: To configure specific Applications and Service Logs to capture and evaluate, click on the ellipsis next to User Custom Logs : 46

47 Then click on the New button: Find the file location of the Applications and Service Log to be added by right-clicking on it in Windows Event Viewer and selecting Properties: Copy the Log Path: And paste it into the Specify Custom Event Logs window within GPM: 47

48 Format the entry with the description first followed by a comma and then the path name. Ensure any variables are replaced with specific paths, for example %SystemRoot% should be entered as C:\Windows\System32. Configure the Event Log archiving schedules in the following screen: Click on New to configure a new archiving schedule. To edit an existing schedule, find it in the drop down list and click Edit. Configure the Logs to Archive, scheduling details, archiving action, and select the machines to archive logs from and then click Save. Archive Action allows Clearing Logs, Archiving Locally (on the machine where the agent is running), or Archiving Centrally (UNC Path or Goliath Server, based on Specify Central Archive setting). Once logs have been archived they can be viewed or searched via the View Archived Event Logs option. This screen allows selection of the Event Logs to view and configuration of filters for the results. Use the Specify Archive button to identify the archive to be searched. The computer tree at the bottom of this screen can be utilized to specify the machine Event Logs to be searched. 48

49 S. Reporting Goliath Performance Monitor has the ability to retain data for as long as you wish. Therefore, the Reports tab of the technology allows our customers a few different types of reporting. The Schedule submenu option allows one to schedule reports to automatically run at predetermined times, resulting in an exported file or an . Additionally, custom Collection Sets can be configured via the Mange submenu option to allow trend reporting on any PerfMon counter, hypervisor metric, or other metrics collected by GPM. Lastly, the View submenu displays reports that have already been generated along with the ability to run reports on an ad-hoc basis by analyzing any of the blue reports or by clicking new at the bottom of the page. Currently, the technology ships with preconfigured reports that can consolidate Alerts, show Application Failures, give a representation of overall Citrix environment performance, indicate end user experience issues, identify Group Policy and Registry issues, monitor Drive Utilization, confirm CPU and Memory capacities, show user profile errors, detail server configurations, confirm printing health, evaluate Windows Event Logs, report on Uptime and Availability, and report on a wide variety of other aspects of the Goliath Performance Monitor deployment and monitored environment Reports can also be branded with logos and text to customize them for companies and environments. To view sample reports, please the our Proactive IT Performance Reporting for Citrix, VMware & NetScaler webpage. T. Application Availability Monitor Goliath Application Availability Monitor (GAAM) is fully integrated into the Goliath Performance Monitor technology. GAAM allows proactively logging into Citrix, VMware Horizon View, or Remote Desktop Services (RDS) environments on a scheduled and automated basis to ensure that these environments are functioning for real users in the environment. This functionality is completely centrally managed and maintained via the Goliath Performance Monitor server. Synthetic user sessions can show up in the Goliath Performance Monitor interface side-by-side with real user sessions. A full product overview of the GAAM technology is available in the Goliath Application Availability Monitor POC document. 49

50 Administration U. Security This section reviews how to configure role based security within the technology. By default, there is no security enabled Open the technology and click the Settings link in the top right-hand corner 2. Once on the settings page, choose the option for Security and User Accounts 3. To create a new user account, click the New button in the middle of the pane 4. To have users log in with non-domain credentials, specify a username and password and the appropriate choices and rights they will have click save and then skip forward to step 8. a) Allow Administration: Grants the user administrator privileges i) Full Rights: Grants the user full administrative privileges ii) Limited Rights: Restricts the user from configuring Security, database settings, and modifying SMTP parameters iii) View Only: No administrative rights granted b) Allow Analysis: Grants the user rights to analysis features in the product i) Full Rights: Grants full analysis rights to view, edit and create graphs, reports and other analysis items ii) View only: Restricts user from making modifications c) Allow Server/Device Maintenance: Grants the user rights to manage server and device schedules i) Full Rights: Grants full rights to view and edit maintenance schedules ii) View Only: Restricts user from making modifications iii) Allow Agent Install/Download: Grants the user rights to download and install an agent d) Restrict Access to Only These Groups: Restricts the user from viewing a particular inventory group e) Restrict Access to Only These Servers/Devices: Restricts the user from viewing particular servers and or devices f) Restrict Access to Only These Watches: Restricts the user from viewing particular monitoring rules and alerts 5. To have user s logon with domain credentials, select the check box for Use Active Directory 6. Then select the button to browse Active Directory 7. Select the users you want to add to the product by selecting the check box for the AD group or a specific user within a group and click ok a) Please note, if you are choosing individual user accounts to add into the technology they will need to be select one at a time. If more then one is selected the technology will only add the last one selected. The same goes for OUs and Groups 8. Define the appropriate rights for the user, as mentioned above, and hit save. Repeat steps 3-7 to add in multiple users/groups. 9. When all the users/groups have been added, check the box to enable security at the bottom of the page 10. Select Apply and you have completed setting up Security for Goliath Performance Monitor. Refresh the page to be prompted with the sign in page.

51 V. Database Retention This section will review how to edit the current database retention settings. Please keep in mind that when deploying the technology with the embedded SQL Express database there is a 10 GB limit which explains why some of the default retention settings may be lower then expected. 1. Open the technology and click the Settings link in the top right-hand corner 2. Once on the settings page, choose the option for Database Maintenance 3. A new pane will appear, this pane includes the current retention settings. By default, automatic data purge is enabled and follows the settings for each data point defined in the dropdown menu. To change a setting, use the dropdown to modify the retention and then choose Apply at the bottom of the page to save the changes. 4. By default, the purging of stale VMware and XenServer inventory is not enabled, if you have configured either of those platforms please check the box at the bottom of the page to enable it and set the retention to 1 day. W. Maintenance Mode This section will review how to configure and edit maintenance schedules. This maintenance function allows you to specify schedules, either one time or repeated, when you want to suppress monitoring and alerting on selected servers/devices. Typically, you would do this when servers/devices are going to be unavailable due to some planned maintenance and you do not want to monitor these nor generate any alert notifications during maintenance down times. IV. Maintenance Mode Configuration Pane: 1. Navigate to the Maintenance Mode Configuration pane by going to Settings and then Maintenance Mode Configuration. 2. The Maintenance Mode Configuration pane will appear. This pane is split into two parts: 51

52 a. Current Maintenance Schedules which will show displays any current or scheduled maintenance periods including the starting date/time, the duration, and whether the schedule is repeated. The servers/devices affected by the maintenance schedule are listed in the drop-down box. The schedules are sorted automatically by the Starting Date/Time with the most recent first. b. Specify Maintenance Schedule for Servers/Devices is where you specify new schedules. V. Create a New Maintenance Schedule: 1. Under the Specify Maintenance Schedule for Servers/Devices section, define the date and time when you want the new maintenance schedule to be in effect. a. Date is MM/DD/YYYY; and time is HH:MM in 24 hour format. b. When the current time on the MonitorIT Server equals the Start Date/Time, the maintenance period is automatically in effect and the given monitoring and alerting is suppressed on the associated servers/devices. 2. Click the Duration field to enable the drop downs and specify how long you want the maintenance period to be in effect. a. At the end of the duration, the maintenance period automatically expires and monitoring, and alerting is enabled for the associated servers/devices. b. If there is no Repeat Every field parameter defined, the schedule is deleted. 3. Click the Repeat Every field to enable the drop downs and specify if you want the maintenance schedule to be automatically repeated and rescheduled whenever it expires. a. This field should be blank if you only want to define a maintenance schedule that is effective one time. Schedules that do not repeat are automatically deleted when they expire. b. The Month choice reschedules for the same day of the month in the appropriate succeeding month; for example, a Repeat Every of 1 month would reschedule say February 6 to March 6, and March 6 to April 6, and so on. 4. In the Description field, enter any optional text to describe your new Maintenance Schedule. 5. Select the radio button for All Monitoring Rules to disable all monitoring and alerting during this Maintenance Schedule 6. Select the radio button for Select Monitoring Rules and then click the Select button to select one or more alerts that you d like to disable for this Maintenance Schedule. 7. The Groups: Servers/Devices Tree lists all eligible servers and devices that can be put into maintenance mode. a. Press the + image to expand a primary group and see its associated servers/devices. b. Press the - image to compact the group. c. Click the checkbox to select or unselect a server/device for this Maintenance Schedule. d. Use the Open All & Close All buttons to expand and compact all of the primary group folders e. Use the Select All & Unselect All buttons to select or unselect all of the servers/devices that are in an open primary group folder 8. When your new Maintenance Schedule is configured as desired, select Apply to save the schedule 52

53 VI. Edit/Delete an Existing Maintenance Schedule: 1. To edit an existing maintenance schedule, under the Current Maintenance Schedules section, select the maintenance schedule you would like to modify, and then select the Edit button. The Maintenance Schedules current configuration will now be displayed in the Specify Maintenance Schedule for Servers/Devices section and will allow you to make the desired changes. Click Apply when ready to save. 2. To delete an existing maintenance schedule, under the Current Maintenance Schedules section, select the maintenance schedule you would like to remove, and then select the Delete button. A prompt will appear asking you to confirm the deletion of the Maintenance Schedule, select OK to confirm. 3. To make a copy an existing maintenance schedule, under the Current Maintenance Schedules section, select the maintenance schedule you would like to duplicate, and then select the Duplicate button. The Maintenance Schedules current configuration will now be displayed in the Specify Maintenance Schedule for Servers/Devices section and will allow you to make the desired changes. Click Apply when ready to save. X. License Key This section will review how to check the expiration of your current license key, as well as how to apply a new key if one has been provided. I. Checking the Current License Key 1. Open Goliath 2. In the top right-hand corner, click the Settings link 3. In the bottom right hand corner, under Licensing and Support select Version & License Count 4. A new pane will appear, this pane will include: a. The version number of Goliath you are running b. Whether the technology is fully licensed (no expiration) or if the key has an expiration data c. The license counts for the key II. Applying a New License Key 1. Open Goliath 2. In the top right-hand corner, click the Settings link 3. In the bottom right hand corner, under Licensing and Support select Enter a New License Key 4. Paste the above key into the text box and click ok 53

54 Support If you are having an issue with the technology, please reach out to for assistance. Depending on what the issue may be, a support engineer will most likely request logging from you to gain insight into what may be taking place. The below section will discuss the multiple types of logging there is and how to enable it and collect it to send onto a support engineer. Y. Server Logs This section will review how to collect server logs. Server logs are enabled by default and track all items that the technology is doing. These logs will typically be requested by a Goliath engineer when there is an issue with the technology. I. Confirm Logging is Enabled 1. Click the Settings link in the top right hand corner of the technology 2. Under the Tools & Logs section, select the Server Logs option a. If you are running Goliath Server version or older, the logs will be located under the Logs section and then MonitorIT Server Logs 3. Confirm that the checkbox in the bottom right corner labeled Log to Disk is checked II. Gather the Server Logs 1. On the Goliath server, open Windows File Explorer and navigate to the Bin directory within the Goliath install directory a. The default location is set to C:\Program Files (x86)\monitorit\bin, if you changed the drive in which Goliath was installed, please replace C with the appropriate drive letter 2. Sort the folder by the date modified column to bring the most recent items to the top 3. Retrieve the file(s) labeled MonitorITServer.log, it is suggested to send at least 5 logs a. Please note, there are also logs labeled MonitorITService which are often confused with the server logs. Please make sure to only retrieve the files labeled MonitorITServer 4. Please zip the files and send them to engineer who has requested them or support@goliathtechnologies.com Z. Agent Logs This section will review how to enable and collect agent logs. Agent logs are not enabled by default and are typically enabled upon request from a Goliath engineer when troubleshooting an issue with metric collection Navigate to the Configure> Inventory page 2. To see if logging has already enabled, look at the Log column for the specifc machine. If there is a green checkmark in that column then logging is enabled and you can skip to step 4. If there is no checkmark, please proceed to the next step. 3. If Logging is not already enabled: a. Click the check box and a popup will appear b. Select the check box for Agent Log to Disk

55 c. Select Close d. For the best results, please wait minutes before continuing to Step 4 4. Click on the check mark for the agent you had been collecting data for 5. Click the button for Upload Agent Logs 6. The logs will be located on the Goliath Performance Monitor server at C:\Program Files (x86) \MonitorIT\AgentLogs\{MACHINE NAME} 7. Inside that directory the logs are organized by host as text files. 8. Please zip and us the log files If you need to manually collect the Agent Log files: 1. Agent Logs must be enabled before you will be able to collect them. (See steps above) 2. On the machine that has the Goliath Agent installed, navigate to the C:\Program Files\MonitorIT folder. 3. The logs will have a filename that matches MonitorITAgent*.log 4. Please zip and us the log files Appendix AA. Inventory Filter This feature of Goliath allows one to filter in or out particular elements from their VMware, XenServer and Citrix environment. With our API integrations, Goliath is able to populate the entire inventory, but due to the size of your environment, you may not want to see and monitor all components. In this section, I will explain how to use the inventory filter. 55

56 The INCLUDE section: Select a Server or Group TYPE from the dropdown list. Then type a commadelimited list of Server or Group names you want included in Inventory. All other Servers or Groups not listed for the selected TYPE are ignored. Start each Inventory specification on a new line. Multiple entries of the same or different TYPE allowed. The wild-card, asterisk character, '*', is accepted as the first or last character in a name. The EXCLUDE section: Select a Server or Group TYPE from the dropdown list. Then type a commadelimited list of Server or Group names you want excluded from Inventory. All other Servers or Groups not listed for the selected TYPE are included in inventory. Start each Inventory specification on a new line. Multiple entries of the same or different TYPE allowed. The wild-card, asterisk character, '*', is accepted as the first or last character in a name. BB. Full Deployment Examples I. XenApp/XenDesktop Sessions There are few screens that will indicate that the Citrix API has been enabled and is working: Configure>Inventory View>XenApp/XenDesktop Sessions CC. Configuring Citrix XenServer Storage & GPU Monitoring I. Enable Citrix XenServer Storage Monitoring In order to start collecting information on your host and VM storage, please make sure the following is enabled. 1. Log into Citrix XenCenter 56

57 2. Select a host where you want to enable/confirm storage metric collection 3. Click the Performance tab 4. Select Actions and then New Graph 5. Name the graph Storage Performance, sort the list by type (Z->A), and select all datasources with a type of Storage 6. When finished, select Save 7. Repeat these steps for all of the hosts that you will be monitoring in Goliath Performance Monitor II. Enable Citrix XenServer NVIDIA Grid Monitoring In order to start collecting information on your host and VM storage, please make sure the following is enabled. 1. Log into Citrix XenCenter 2. Select a host where you want to enable/confirm NVIDIA Grid metric collection 3. Click the Performance tab 4. Select Actions and then New Graph 5. Name the graph NVIDIA Performance, sort the list by type (A->Z), and select all datasources with a type of GPU 57

58 6. When finished, select Save 7. Repeat these steps for all of the hosts that you will be monitoring in Goliath Performance Monitor 58