Troubleshooting Tools
for Citrix Environments
Jared Cowart
Agenda
• Introductions
• Overview of Citrix Resources
• Overview of Citrix Troubleshooting Tools
• Questions
Overview of Citrix Resources
Citrix Knowledge Center
Citrix eDocs
Citrix XenDesktop Support Forums
Citrix Blogs
My Citrix Portal
Citrix TV
Citrix Tools As A Service (TAAS)
Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute
Product-Specific Tools
Other Troubleshooting Areas
• Performance Monitoring Tools
• PerfMon
• EdgeSight and Resource Manager
• Installation troubleshooting
• Msiexec with Logging options (msiexec EXE /L*v C:\Install.log) Search for
"Return value 3"
EdgeSight
• Check the EdgeSight
server status at
Configure  Server
Configuration 
Status.
EdgeSight
Agents save the data and logs at \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Citrix\System Monitoring\Data or C:\Program Data\Citrix\System
Monitoring\Data (Vista/2008)
2010-01-25 13:05:30 Core
2010-01-25 13:05:30 Core
2010-01-25 13:05:30 Core
2010-01-25 13:05:30 Core
.
Service
Service
Collector
Collector
----- Starting Agent on ATL3DAN-XA version 5.1.1104.0 ----Current service state is 'START_PENDING'
Starting...
Database connection is local.
2010-01-25 13:08:18 Core
2010-01-25 13:12:11 Core
2010-01-25 13:12:13 EdgeSight
2010-01-25 13:12:13 EdgeSight
2010-01-25 13:12:13 EdgeSight
2010-01-25 13:12:13 Core
2010-01-25 13:12:13 Core
Worker
Worker
Configuration
Configuration
Configuration
Collector
Worker
Worker 103 running with trigger 22 had status of 0x00000000..
Running worker 104 - 'Init Worker' with trigger 24.
Alert configuration has changed
Worker schedule configuration has changed
Client configuration has changed
64 settings loaded..
Worker 104 running with trigger 24 had status of 0x00000000.
EdgeSight Agent Worker Function Log Files Explained -CTX112209
Database Tools
• SQL Profiler and Query Analyzer to capture real-time SQL
Events
• TracePlus
• Examine Event Logs for Database errors
• Use Netstat to display network connection information like
addresses and ports
• Use DSDiag to look for excessive amount of records in
context IDs - CTX112510
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
• Troubleshooting Tools for Citrix Environments
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX107572
• Citrix Tools and Resources
http://support.citrix.com/page.jspa?pageID=tools
• MS Windows Sysinternals
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx
Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute
XenDesktop Tools
XenDesktop 5 Logon Process & Communication Flow
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The user device submits credentials to the Web Interface site.
Web Interface passes the user credentials to the controller.
Controller verifies user authorization by performing a Microsoft Active Directory
query with the end user’s credentials.
Controller queries the site database for the end user’s assigned desktop groups,
named instance uses ports 1434 and 1433.
Using the desktop group obtained from the database, controller queries the
hypervisor about the status of desktops within that group.
Controller identifies to Web Interface the desktop it assigned for this particular
session.
Web Interface sends an ICA file to the online plug-in, which points to the virtual
desktop identified by the hypervisor.
Online plug-in establishes an ICA connection to the specific virtual desktop that
was allocated by the controller for this session.
Virtual Desktop Agent verifies the license file with the controller.
Controller queries Citrix license server to verify that the end user has a valid ticket.
Controller passes session policies to the Virtual Desktop Agent (VDA), which then
applies those policies to the virtual desktop.
Online plug-in displays the virtual desktop to the end user.
Administrator and helpdesk personnel use Desktop Director and Studio tools to
manage the desktops from the management server.
Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute
Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute
CDF Marker On Demand
•
CDFMarker is a small utility which allows you to send a customizable CDF trace statement into a running CDF trace, on demand, on either XenApp Servers or
XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agents.
•
There are three main use cases for CDFMarker:
•
There could be a delay between when you start your CDF trace and when you actually encounter the event which you are interested in. During this time,
thousands of CDF trace statements could have been written to the trace. CDFMarker lets you send a CDF trace statement on demand, so you could send a
message just before the event occurs, and another just after it. You can then just search for the CDFMarker CDF statements and get straight to the area of the
trace you are interested in.
•
If you are running a circular CDF trace and are waiting for an event to occur, it can be difficult to figure out exactly where in the CDF trace you should be looking. If
you have CDFMarker running in the System Tray, you can press the hotkey (Ctrl+M) or double click the System Tray icon to quickly send a message into the trace
to mark the event.
•
You can use CDFMarker from the command line along with Performance Monitor Alerts to send a CDF trace message whenever a specific event occurs, in the
same way Performance Monitor can be used with Userdump to create dumps of spiking processes (see CTX117428 - How to Use PerfMon and Userdump to
Capture Intermittently Spiking Process Dumps).
•
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124577
Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute
XDPing Tool
•
The XDPing tool is a command-line based application which automates the process of checking for the causes of common configuration issues in a XenDesktop environment. The tool can be used
to verify configuration settings on both the XenDesktop Broker and VDA machines, both from the console and remotely.
•
Information and status of Network Interfaces and Network settings. (Console Only)
•
Performs DNS lookup and reverse lookup on the IP address of the device.
•
Information on Time synchronization and time check for Kerberos Authentication (Console Only)
•
User information for login User (Console Only) - Including User details, Authentication type used, Group Membership.
•
Machine information (Console Only)
•
Environment information (Computer Name, operating system version, Domain)
•
Domain membership verification (Membership = Verified, SID:S-X-X-XX-XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXX [OK])
•
Information on XenDesktop Services (Windows Communication Foundation Endpoints) installed and confirms if each installed service is responsive. (Console Only)
•
Displays information on the Windows Firewall installed on the VDA and checks if the important ports are configured correctly.
•
Queries the local event log to check for known events that are related to XenDekstop.
•
Provides client bandwidth and response time information from the VDA to the client.
•
Displays information on the Windows Firewall installed on the VDA and checks if the important ports are configured correctly.
•
Queries the local event log to check for known events that are related to XenDekstop.
•
Provides client bandwidth and response time information from the VDA to the client.
Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute
XenDesktop Session Parser
Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute
Citrix User Profile Manager (UPM) Log Parser
Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute
XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent Troubleshooting
Utility