Antivirus Software Configuration for the EdgeSight Agent Database Server

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Edgesight, Mcafee, Microsoft

Symptoms

If you do not configure the antivirus software correctly on your computer, the performance of the Agent Database Server might decrease or not function correctly.

Following are the symptoms, which indicate that the antivirus software is interfering with the normal operation of the EdgeSight Agent Database Server:

  • You might observe that the Agent for VDA devices is unable to start up due to Database Shutdown. These devices depend on successful connection to the remote EdgeSight database, Firebird database, supplied by the EdgeSight Database Agent.
  • You might observe a prolonged high CPU usage or a significant increase in the Thread Queue Length associated with the following EdgeSight Agent Database process:
    FBServer.exe
  • You might observe prolonged high CPU usage or a significant increase in the Thread Queue Length associated with the antivirus software processes.
  • You might observe a significant change in the Disk I/O performance. For example, if the percent of Disk Write time or Disk Write Queue Length increases significantly.
  • A real-time troubleshooting utility from any Internet Explorer Web console to the device slows down and Internet Explorer might not respond.

Cause

The EdgeSight Database Agent Server provides database hosting and log file mirroring for EdgeSight Agent for VDA devices. Each EdgeSight agent for VDA device connects directly to the EdgeSight Agent Database Server for persistent storage. The FB Monitor synchronizes the Agent’s data folder to the shared network. It maintains a copy of the Agent’s data folder.

Most antivirus products are configured to scan all the files on the disk. If an antivirus program scans the continuously active EdgeSight database, it impedes the normal functioning of EdgeSight.

The EdgeSight Agent for VDA or EdgeSight Agent Database Server might become very slow and consume more resources.

The EdgeSight Agent for VDA can also be prevented from initializing due to the Agent’s remote database being scanned or locked by the antivirus software.

This might have a negative impact on the overall performance of the device, which is being monitored.

Resolution

Configure the required antivirus software such as, TrendMicro, Symantec, Norton, or McAfee with specific settings to ensure that the antivirus software does not scan the EdgeSight data folder or processes. Ensure that this configuration is specified for all the devices that are running the EdgeSight agent. You might have to contact the security administration team of your organization to ensure that these exceptions are enforced enterprise-wide.

Use the following procedure to prevent the antivirus software from scanning EdgeSight data folder or processes:

Note: Regardless of whether you are currently experiencing any of the preceding symptoms, Citrix recommends you to complete the following procedure before deploying any EdgeSight Agents.

  • Exclude Agent File Share location.
    The Agent Database Server specifies the Agent File Share location as the disk location to store copies of data of the Agent devices. Data stored in this location includes log files and INI files. If the Agent File Share is on another computer and not on the Agent Database Server then the antivirus exclusion details should be specified on the computer, which owns the actual storage disk.

 

Computer Details Location
Computers with Window Server 2008 operating system %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Citrix\System Monitoring\Data\
All other computers %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Citrix\System Monitoring\Data\
  • Exclude the following agent folders from being scanned. 
    Note    : Check a few agent devices to confirm the exact folder locations. These folders contain the EdgeSight agent database file and many log files.
    Following are the default locations of the data folder on the EdgeSight Agent Database Server :
  • Exclude the following EdgeSight agent executable files or processes from being scanned:
  • <Program Files>\Citrix\System Monitoring\Agent\Core\Firebird\bin\fbserver.exe
  • <Program Files>\Citrix\System Monitoring\FBMonitor\FBMonitor.exe

More Information

Refer to the EdgeSight Installation Guide and the following Knowledge Center articles for more information about antivirus configuration settings:

CTX111062 – Required Antivirus Software Configuration for the EdgeSight Agent

CTX114906 – Required Antivirus Software Configuration for the EdgeSight Server

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EdgeSight for NetScaler 2.1

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Edgesight, Netscaler

Citrix EdgeSight for NetScaler 2.1 is now available as a final product and not a beta anymore.

Citrix EdgeSight for NetScaler builds application visibility into the application delivery infrastructure, providing end-user performance monitoring for Web applications and enabling IT managers to proactively manage performance and availability based upon actual user experience.

EdgeSight for NetScaler transparently monitors Web application performance, both as transaction requests and responses traverse the Web application elivery infrastructure, and as the responses execute on the end users’ Web browsers. By directly monitoring both the Web application delivery infrastructure and the Web pages themselves, EdgeSight for NetScaler provides IT managers with unique and granular visibility to the key components of application performance.

Feature highlights for this release are:

  • Simplified Installation – Automated setup wizard, post installation setup wizard
  • NetScaler Configuration - Simplified EdgeSight wizard, ability to enable/disable on CS/LB vserver
  • Cool Dashboard - Application View, Client View, Improved Geo Location based details
  • Application Definition - Endpoint becomes Application
  • Application Dashboard - Global Vs Regional View, Response Time Calculation ,Browser Performance, Server Processing Time
  • Administrative Changes - Application View, Grouping within Application , Application Pages

 

Download Edgesight for NetScaler 2.1 Beta here

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Walk-through Guide – Installing EdgeSight 5.4 with SQL 2008 R2

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Edgesight, XenApp

Citrix have created this great walk-through guide Howto install Citrix EdgeSight 5.4 with SQL 2008 R2.

Background

  • Machine name is Windows-YC5LBMH.
  • The SQL Server 2008 R2 is already installed, and Report Server is local.
  • All accounts used are local not domain because it is in a lab environment. Normal installation utilizes Domain Accounts instead.

Installation of EdgeSight

After setting up a brand new virtual machine on Windows 2008 R2 64-bit:

  • Install the IIS and Message Queue
  • Install the SQL Server 2008 R2 (with Reporting Services)

Complete the following steps to install EdgeSight:

  • Start the EdgeSight Installation. The account Windows-YC5LBMH\rsno that belongs to User and Administrators group is used, and is logged on for using the Windows Integrated Authentication during the installation.

  • Select English.
  • Click Continue.

  • You will get an option to select either Web Server and Database or Database only. For a new installation select the Web Server and Database option, as shown in the following screen shot:

  • Click Next.
  • Ignore the following SSL warning because you do not intend to use SSL for the lab session. Click OK.

%temp% now contains the msibootstrapper2CSM_MSI_Install.log. After the Preparing to Install dialog box, there is the Citrix License Agreement dialog box.

  • Click Next.
  • Select Typical, if you wish to use the default settings and the allocated database space requirement is 500MB * (8+1) which is 4.5 GB.
  • For the test environment select Custom to specify the size of the EdgeSight database filegroups.

  • Create a user Credential 1 rsno before continuing with the Installation of EdgeSight:
  • Create this user account as a system administrator role account.
    You must create a user rsno as a administrator account that is registered with SQL Server with the minimum SQL Server roles.Note: At the end of the install, you must remove the DBCreator and SecurityAdmin from“rsno user and all the reports continues to generate correctly.

  • Select dbcreator and securityadmin for the rsno account.

  • Log on as Windows-YC5LBMH\rsno that has permissions in SQL and Windows-YC5LBMH computer as shown in the preceding screen shot. Because you have logged in as rsno to utilize the integrated Windows authentication in SQL, you have to be an administrator to execute the EdgeSight installation. 
    Note    : The SQL server is local and is on the same server.

  • Click Test Connect, and verify if the connection to the SQL database is successful.
    Note the Temp folder has the MSI log (msibootstrapper2CSM_MSI_Install.txt), the size is dependent on the amount of text generated with your installation (i.e. yours will not be exactly at 500KB).
  • Click Next.

  • Check the msibootstrapper2CSM_MSI_Install.txt for the following entries before you click Next in the SQL Server Database Selection dialog box.

  • For this installation, you can change the database name to ES54, as shown in the following screenshot:

  • Click Next.
  • Enter the credential 2 esno, and click Validate.The second credential esno is used to run the RSSH services the script host of the EdgeSight Web Server. It is also used to grant access to the EdgeSight database. All access by the EdgeSight Web Server except for Reporting Services uses esno credentials to access and write to the SQL database.

Note: The esno user is setup as shown in the following screen shot:

The DEFAULT size for database file is 500 MB. There are 8 filegroup files with one transaction log (4.5 GB total).

  • Change the values to 20 MB and 50 MB arbitraryly to save space.

  • Select the Server installation location. The default path is selected in the following screen shot:

  • Click Next.

  • Click Install.
    Note    : You might receive many entries in the installation log before clicking Install:

Note: After clicking on Install, the following entries are logged in the installation log:

Progress check (random) 1

Progress check (random) 2

Progress check (random) 3
The following screen shot indicates that the SQL database is created:

Progress check (random) 4
The following screen shot indicates that the Web server pages are copied to the installation location:

The EdgeSight Server 5.4 installation is complete.

  • Click Finish.

SQL Database

  • Note the size of the ES54 database which contains the static data in the various tables. it is approximately 256 MB.

  • Credential 1 rsno created the database and therefore the owner of ES54 database is rsno.

  • Credential 2 esno granted access to the ES54 database and therefor the Database role membership is [db_datareader; db_datawriter; db_owner; ztmanager; ztoperator; ztpublic].
    Note    : zt* roles are created by EdgeSight, and is used for reports.

The other Database role membership for esno are shown in the following screen shot:

Post Installation Setup Wizard

Complete the following steps after installation:

Note: You must be able to configure the email settings and use it if you are using an administrator’s email account. The user name is stored as a credential to the EdgeSight database.

  • Create an Initial Company.
    Every device that reports to the EdgeSight server must identify the company name else the device is reported as another company. When you access the EdgeSight Web Server, the TimeZone specified is used that is if you want historical data for computer X, from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m.then it is relative to the EdgeSight Web Server time.

  • Create the SuperUser Account.
    Note: All information here are fictional; the Email/Login is stored as a user account on the EdgeSight database.

  • Configure the Email Settings.

  • Configure Agent Support and Licensing.

Final Validation Screen of the Post-Installation Setup Wizard

  • Use the superuer account and logon to the EdgeSight server:

Report Server is currently empty and does not contain any EdgeSight reports and schedules.

  • Specify the rsno credentials for Report Server Credentials and esno credentials for Data Source Credentials.
    Note    : Most customers choose to use one account for both credentials.

  • Clear the User Report Server Credentials option to allow two credentials.

  • Click Save Changes.

The “Reporting Services is not configured or is configured incorrectly” message appears. The “Reporting Services Configuration Status – Webpage Dialog” Window appears. If the Windows does not appear and times out after 20 minutes, then there is a delay in the communication from the EdgeSight Web server to SQL Server Reporting Services. 
Note: Ensure that the SQL Server Agent is started. This is required for publishing the schedules.

After the SQL Server Agent is started, the Reporting Services Web page displays the EdgeSight Reports.

  • Double-click and open the Citrix folder. The string that appears, is the computer GUID.

If you share the Reporting Services Web site and Web service with multiple Edgesight Web servers, then more than one entry appears on this screen.

The Reporting Services data source to the EdgeSight database is stored here. You need not change this information because the EdgeSight Web Console Reporting Services configuration updates the required information.

You can run a report from Reporting Services report page. 
Note: This is useful if there is a problem with reports and you want to know if EdgeSight or the Reporting Services is having a problem.

Example

Run the alert report with the following values:

  • -5 and -4 represents relatives days back from the execution date
  • Filter as 1
  • FilterName as Departments “All”
  • There is only one company “es,” thus the CompId is always 1.
  • DrillQSItems can be any text.

Run the same report from EdgeSight Web Console:

IIS Setup after EdgeSight is Installed

The following screen shot shows the /edgesight Home page:

The following screen shot shows the .NET Authorization Rules page:

The following screen shot shows the .NET Compilation page:

The following screen shot shows the .NET Globalization page:

The following screen shot shows the .NET Profile page:

The following screen shot shows the .NET Trust Levels page:

The .NET Users information was not available.

The following screen shot shows the Application Settings page:

The following screen shot shows the Connection Strings page:

The following screen shot shows the Machine Key page:

The following screen shot shows the Pages and Controls page:

The following screen shot shows the Providers page:

The following screen shot shows the Session State page:

The following screen shot shows the SMTP E-mail page:

The following screen shot shows the Authentication page:

The following screen shot shows the Compression page:

The following screen shot shows the Default Document page:

The following screen shot shows the Directory Browsing page:

The following screen shot shows the Error Pages:

The following screen shot shows the Handler Mappings page:

The following screen shot shows the HTTP Response Headers page:

The following screen shot shows the Logging page:

The following screen shot shows the Mime Types page: 

The following screen shot shows the Modules page:

The following screen shot shows the Request Filtering page:

The following screen shot shows the SSL Settings page:

The following screen shot shows the Session State for the default Web site:
Note that the value for timeout on session cookies is set as 20 minutes.

The following screen shot shows the Authentication for the default Web site:

The following screen shot shows the Compression page:

The following screen shot shows the Default Document page:

The following screen shot shows the Handler Mappings for the default Web site:

The following screen shot shows the HTTP Response Headers page:

The following screen shot shows the ISAPI Filters page:

The following screen shot shows the Logging page:

The following screen shot shows the Modules page:

The following screen shot shows the Request Filtering page:

The following screen shot shows the Application Pools page:

Doubles-click on EdgeSight to view the details:

This document applies to:

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Citrix EdgeSight 5.4

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Edgesight

New Features for EdgeSight 5.4

This release of the product includes the following new features:

  • EdgeSight Agent support for XenApp 6.5 for Windows 2008 R2. The EdgeSight for XenApp 6.x Agent x64 5.4 is supported on both XenApp 6.0 and XenApp 6.5 for Windows 2008 R2 systems.
  • Support for SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2.
  • Reporting on user/device license usage in the license trend and usage reports available on the Track Usage tab.
  • The ability to export a list of user/device licenses currently checked out from a selected license server. The User/Device License Listis available on the Track Usage tab.
  • The addition of advanced EdgeSight Agent properties used to throttle the number and frequency of event log message alerts for each log type (Application, Security, and System).
Important: Note that EdgeSight Server 5.3 requires SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008. If you are upgrading EdgeSight Server from a release prior to EdgeSight 5.2 using SQL Server 2000, you will also need to upgrade your SQL Server installation.
Note: If you are upgrading EdgeSight Server from a release prior to EdgeSight 5.2, note that support for the EdgeSight Virtual Desktop Agent is not enabled by default. To enable support after upgrading, open the EdgeSight Server Console and go to Configure > Server Configuration > Settings and set EdgeSight for XenDesktop Support toOn.

New and Revised Reports and SQL Views

The User/Device License List is the only new report included in this release. There are no new SQL views, but the vw_lsm_archive_license_statistics (License Server Monitor Archive) SQL view was revised to remove unused fields and add fields related to user/device license data. The following fields were removed: license_type, grace_period, component_list, subscription_advantage, overdraft_protection, days_to_expire, and perm_license_count. The following fields were added: total_user_count and total_device_count. Use of the revised SQL view requires EdgeSight Server 5.4 and Citrix License Server 11.9.

EdgeSight Agents Supported for Upload to EdgeSight Server

Only the following agent types and versions are supported for upload to EdgeSight Server:

  •  EdgeSight for Endpoints 5.2 or higher
  • EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops 5.2 or higher
  • EdgeSight for XenApp 5.2 or higher
  • EdgeSight for XenApp 6 Agent x64 5.3 (64-bit) running on XenApp 6.0 systems.
  • EdgeSight for XenApp 6.x Agent x64 5.4 (64-bit) running on either XenApp 6.0 or XenApp 6.5 for Windows 2008 R2 systems.
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EdgeSight for Load Testing with XenDesktop & Login VSI

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Edgesight, XenDesktop

This whitepaper is an Implementation Guide for utilizing EdgeSight for Load Testing with XenDesktop 5 and Login VSI workloads

Introduction

With the release of XenDesktop 5, Citrix announced support for EdgeSight for Load Testing 3.8 with XenDesktop 51 workloads. Prior to the release of XenDesktop 5, load testing XenDesktop Hosted Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) desktops was most commonly performed using the Login Consultants’ Login VSI2 benchmarking tool. The Login VSI workload, included within the Login VSI tool, has become a common point of reference for VDI benchmarking. As part of Citrix XenDesktop Platinum, administrators have access to EdgeSight for Load Testing. EdgeSight for Load Testing can be utilized to create custom XenDesktop workloads for scalability testing, but given the popularity of the Login VSI workload and analysis tools, XenDesktop Platinum administrators may wish to integrate EdgeSight for Load Testing with the Login VSI workload3. By leveraging EdgeSight for Load Testing with the Login VSI workload, administrators can synchronize the performance monitoring of the XenDesktop infrastructure machines with the Login VSI workload execution timelines to correlate the Login VSI data analysis and XenDesktop infrastructure performance. In addition, EdgeSight for Load Testing provides the administrator with a collective view of each virtual desktop executing the VSI workload for monitoring purposes as shown in Figure 1.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the configuration steps required to leverage EdgeSight for Load Testing to launch XenDesktop connections that execute the Login VSI workload within the virtual desktop. This paper provides configuration guidance for integrating EdgeSight for Load Testing with both the Login VSI 2.14 and 3.0 versions.

Please note:

1 Only XenDesktop 5 is supported with EdgeSight for Load Testing, XenDesktop 4 is not supported. 2 For more detailed information regarding the Login VSI tool, please reference http://www.loginconsultants.com/ 3 Login Consultants’ Login VSI tool contains the Login VSI workload, VSI Launcher, and analysis tools. This paper focuses on using EdgeSight for Load Testing as an alternative to the VSI Launcher. 4 Login Consultants Login VSI 2.1 is no longer supported by Login Consultants

Download whitepaper here

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Blogs i read

Recent Comments

Dan

|

Hi Thomas,
Some features in your screenshots (eg create appointments and contacts) seem to be missing from the iOS version of @WorkMail that got released in April, do you know if these features are still coming in a future release? The Android client is far more functional by comparison.
Regards
Dan

Christian Eilskov

|

You can see the DHCP options here:

http://www.wyse.com/kb and search for 21501

You can transfer a image using Wyse Device Manager(WDM), the same goes for smaller updates like new ICA client and so.

Thomas Poppelgaard

|

Thank you Barry =)
The deep compression codec for Citrix XenDesktop HDX 3D Pro will be intergrated for Citrix XenApp in Excalibur so there is a big difference with bandwidth consumption. This means that XenApp in Excalibur will be the best platform for user density and works great over WAN with high latency as HDX 3D Pro have been known to deliver for several years. Yes i know of cases with WAN optimization, I will gather these and share them.

Best regards
Thomas

Barry Schiffer

|

Hi Thomas,

Nice work! Awesome to see these results on XenApp! Is there any noticable difference between XA 6.5 and Excalibur that you are aware of? Do you have experience with WAN Optimization and how this helps to reduce bandwidth further?

Kind regards,

Barry

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