ENTERPRISE SME TOOLS | Citrix Access Suite 4 for Windows Server 2003: The Official Guide, Third Edition

We consider two classifications of tools in this discussion: system management tools and framework tools. Framework tools are designed to manage virtually all components in the enterprise, including servers, routers, backplanes , and anything with a local management agent. Framework tools can integrate with other tools such as those for help desk call tracking. They are designed to be extensible and often come with a built-in scripting capability to allow them to manage equipment that otherwise wouldn't be. Examples of such tools include HP OpenView, Tivoli Netview, and CA UniCenter TNG. Framework tools can include targeted component programs for doing specific functions, and they often overlap with system management tools. However, they are really intended for large enterprise networks.

Note

The Network Manager for Citrix Presentation Server integrates into some enterprise framework tools, but it is heavily dependent upon host platform and version. Currently, Network Manager requires an enterprise version of Citrix, Microsoft base SNMP service, and compilation of the Citrix MIBs into the framework manager's MIB database. Network Manager support is limited to Windows-based versions of the framework management platforms.

System management tools are far more targeted in scope and typically focus on only part of the infrastructure. Examples of such tools are Resource Manager for Citrix Presentation Server (RM), CiscoWorks-series applications, Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), and Microsoft System Management Server (SMS). System management tools fit well within a large management framework. Since framework tools often sacrifice deep functionality for broad coverage, the combination of the two is often required. This paradigm of cooperative management tools is covered in depth in the white paper entitled "Complementing Enterprise Management Platforms with Microsoft SMS," available from D.H. Brown Associates (http://www.ideasint.com/ra/). Since this book's focus is on Citrix and Terminal Services, we will provide a detailed look at RM and at MOM, along with a brief look at SMS, and leave the evaluation of framework tools to the reader.

Citrix Resource Management

RM is the only management product specifically designed for Citrix and Terminal Services. It is an invaluable tool for collecting information in a session-based format on applications in use and system resources consumed. Its key features include audit trail capability, system monitoring, and billing reports .

To enable a summary database for analysis RM requires an ODBC-compliant database, specifically, Microsoft SQL Server 7 or SQL Server 2000, or Oracle 8 i or 9 i . A wide range of data is captured, including applications used and the time they are in use, as well as logs of connections, disconnections, and duration.

Tip

We recommend creating a file Data Source Name (DSN) (as opposed to a system DSN) because it saves time when setting up multiple servers. The DSN definition file can be placed on a file server and loaded on each Citrix server as needed. We also recommend setting the database to purge data automatically every few weeks or so if billing is not being used. If billing is being used, it will purge the data as part of its process.

Many graphs can be created from various system metrics, such as application ranking and system utilization over time. Figure 9-11 shows some of the report types that are available.

Figure 9-11: Presentation Server RM report

RM tracks over 30 real-time performance metrics and displays them with green, yellow, or red status indicators. One or multiple servers can be monitored from the same screen. Event thresholds can be defined, and when reached, RM can send out an SNMP message, page, or e-mail.

Caution

The default alarm profile was designed for a small server with a light load. A new profile needs to be created after collecting a baseline of information for a few days or weeks. The period should be long enough to get a representative sample of usage. The problem is that certain counters fluctuate wildly, and unless the alarm profile thresholds are set high enough, RM will generate alarms too frequently.

If your organization wishes to use a charge-back model, the RM billing services can be used. Fees can be tracked for connection time and various types of system utilization. Users can be grouped into cost centers for reporting.

When RM is used in a server farm, the data collection service runs in the background of each Citrix server, as shown in Figure 9-12.

Figure 9-12: RM architecture

Microsoft System Management Server

SMS 2003, the current version of System Management Server, provides its services through interaction with the underlying Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), though it does have limited ability to receive and read SNMP and CMIP messages. SMS 2003 adds new features for Enterprise users such as application deployment planning, elevated rights installations, and improved ability to manage assets in light of their overall network context (Active Directory site, location, bandwidth limitation, etc.).

Windows Management Instrumentation

WMI is an implementation of the Distributed Management Task Force's (DMTF) Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) initiative. It utilizes the Common Information Model (CIM), also defined by the DMTF, to represent network nodes in an object-oriented fashion. SMS creates a global view of information resources using information gleaned from the network. It works very well for status reporting and does provide some downstream management in the form of remote control and diagnostics, software inventory, distribution and metering, and hardware inventory.

SMS can provide detailed monitoring functions for Windows-based devices and store its accumulated information in a SQL Server database. A small client program acts as the SMS agent and provides the server with relevant statistical and error information.

SMS 2003 has been enhanced to support thousands of client nodes on a single server instance, though for purposes of practical deployment, you will at least want to run a cluster of two servers.

Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 Management

With Windows Server 2003, the WMI programs are built into the operating system. Active Directory provides a global view of resources and abstracts the resources available from one server to be equally available to all users in a domain, or across domains.

Microsoft Operations Manager

Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 is Microsoft's latest effort to migrate Windows platforms to Enterprise management platform status. It provides true Microsoft "Enterprise" event management and reporting capabilities by integrating event management and alerting from multiple servers into a single entity. MOM works as a snap-in to the Microsoft Management Console for a consistent look and feel and supports virtually every Microsoft server environment, from multiple SMS servers, to Exchange 2003, to Terminal Services. To extend the functionality of MOM, Citrix has released the Citrix Presentation Server Management Pack for the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 (referred to as the Presentation Server Management Pack) and the Citrix Presentation Server Provider for Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) (referred to as the Presentation Server Provider). These products integrate monitoring of Presentation Server 4 servers and server farms into Microsoft Operations Manager and give Citrix customers greater flexibility in managing Presentation Server farms. MOM provides an extensible management interface for interoperability with UNIX systems. Most important for the IT staffer: MOM is essentially ready to run (and generate reports and manage events) out of the box. Specific key features include

– Distributed event management MOM 2005 captures a wide variety of system and applications events from Windows systems distributed across an Enterprise environment and aggregates them into a central event repository. These events can be consolidated to provide administrators with a high-level view of server and service availability while also allowing an operator to drill down easily into the detailed event stream, all from a single console view at their desk.
– Rules Administrator-created rules in Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 allow the system to react automatically to incoming message streams, either to respond to a specific fault scenario with a predefined action, or to consolidate the messages into a more meaningful or significant event. Such rules allow MOM 2005 to react intelligently to anticipated event patterns, triggering actions or administrative alerts. Rules can also link an event sequence to Knowledge Base articles, instantly providing operators with guidance on probable causes, the approved response to a specific problem scenario, and links to additional information.
– Alerts Any MOM 2005 rule can be configured to generate specific alerts with associated severity levels. An alert can represent a single event or multiple events from many sources. At any time, an administrator can drill down on an alert to trace its history, the events associated with it, and any related Knowledge Base articles. In addition, alerts can optionally trigger e- mails , pages, SNMP traps, and scripts to notify specific system operators and other management systems of emerging issues. MOM 2005 now offers a "Maintenance Mode" to suppress alerts on servers undergoing scheduled maintenance.
– Reporting MOM 2005 provides access to a broad range of preconfigured reports and charts . The reports generated allow administrators to review, at a glance, the status of systems and services on the network and to plan changes to the infrastructure based on performance and availability data. MOM 2005 can generate HTML snapshots of all generated reports. These can then be exported to a Web server for access from Web browsers, meeting the requirement to make performance data visible to the user and management communities. MOM 2005 leverages SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services to allow easy generation and multiple export formats (XLS, PDF, HTML, TIFF, CSV, or XML file formats).
– Multiple consoles MOM 2005 adds both an Operators Console and a Web Console. The Web Console is a subset of the full Operators Console.

MOM and Citrix

The Presentation Server Management Pack is a plug-in to MOM 2005 that enables system administrators to monitor the health and availability of Citrix servers and server farms, and anticipate and react quickly to many problems that may occur. The Presentation Server Management Pack interprets and reports on information supplied by the Presentation Server Provider software that runs on Citrix servers, and also on system events generated on the servers. The Presentation Server Management Pack provides system administrators with real-time event and performance monitoring of Presentation Servers and farms from the MOM Administrator console.

Figure 9-13 shows a typical MOM Administrator Console display of open alerts from Presentation Servers.

Figure 9-13: The MOM Administrator Console

The following key features are provided when MOM and the Presentation Server Management Pack are integrated into a Citrix environment:

– Event management The Presentation Server Management Pack captures a variety of events from Citrix servers and server farms. These events are collated and then presented to the administrator via the MOM Administrator Console, allowing an overall view of Presentation Server farm health.
– Performance monitoring You can use the Presentation Server Management Pack to monitor server performance. Rules can be customized and new rules created to set thresholds for key performance attributes in the server farm.
– Extensive knowledge base The Presentation Server Management Pack includes an extensive product support knowledge base, including links to relevant Citrix Knowledge Base articles. Centralized access to information about managing Citrix servers enables administrators to quickly interpret events and trouble-shoot problems.
– Customizable rules and alerts You can configure the Presentation Server Management Pack to alter how it responds to an event. You do this by modifying and extending the rules to best suit your environment. For example, you can configure the rule for the ICA session disconnection rate so that the alert that is triggered is meaningful and appropriate to your site. Citrix Knowledge Base documentation is available to help you with this customization.
– Citrix views Citrix views are available in the Public Views folder. These views allow you to monitor events and alerts raised for servers and server farms, and to identify trends and performance issues occurring on servers and published applications. The four main types of Citrix views are: Health Monitoring views, Discovery views, the Deployment Topology view, and the State view.
– The Citrix notification group The Presentation Server Management Pack includes a notification group, called the Citrix Administrators group. You can configure this group to ensure that the appropriate people are notified about problems with servers and server farms.
– Easy installation The Citrix Management Pack consists of a single file that is available from the Citrix Web site. To install the Presentation Server Management Pack, simply import this file into MOM, using the MOM Administrator Console.

Note	Once installed, the Management Pack cannot be uninstalled . Therefore, Citrix recommends that you follow standard practice and back up the MOM database before installing the Management Pack.

Citrix Views in MOM The views in the Presentation Server Management Pack allow an administrator to monitor events and alerts raised for servers and server farms, and to identify trends and performance issues occurring on Citrix servers and published applications.

Note	In the Presentation Server Management Pack, a fully managed server must run Presentation Server 3.0 Enterprise Edition or later. Servers running MetaFrame XPe Feature Release 2 or 3 may be included as "managed servers"; however, all functions and capabilities will not be supported.

As previously noted, there are four main types of Citrix views: Health Monitoring views, Discovery views, the Deployment Topology view, and the State view. Health Monitoring views provide system administrators with real-time event and alert information, together with performance monitoring details about servers and server farms. Discovery views provide an overview of the structure of your Citrix installation, together with information about individual servers. The Discovery Topology view is a logical MOM diagram of the Citrix environment. The State view defines two roles: the Citrix Server role and the Licensing Server role. The State view monitors alerts per-server relative to the server's assigned role. Table 9-2 provides a summary of the views.

Table 9-2: Citrix Views
View Type	View Name	View Description
Health	Citrix Events	Displays all the events raised by Citrix Presentation Server components on managed Citrix servers.
Health	Open Alerts From Citrix Servers	Displays all unresolved alerts raised against managed Citrix servers by all management packs (not only the Citrix Presentation Server Management Pack).
Health	Open Citrix Alerts	Displays all unresolved alerts raised by the Citrix Presentation Server Management Pack.
Health	Active Sessions	Displays the number of active sessions on each managed Citrix server.
Health	Published Application Load From Load Balancing	Displays the published application load from the Load Manager component. Note that this information is available only if you are using Load Manager in your server farm and you configured the application load level in the Presentation Server Console. For more information about Load Manager, see the Load Manager Administrator's Guide and online help. You must also enable the "Sample published application load from load balancing" rule.
Health	Server Load From Load Balancing	Displays the server load from the Load Manager component. Note that this information is available only if you are using Load Manager in your server farm. For more information about Load Manager, see the Load Manager Administrator's Guide and online help.
Health	Pooled Licenses In Use	Displays the number of pooled licenses in use, as a percentage of the total number of pooled licenses. Note that in releases prior to Citrix Presentation Server 3.0, after you install the Management Pack, this view is empty until 3:55 A.M. the next day.
Discovery	Managed Citrix Servers	Displays all managed Citrix servers in the Citrix Managed Servers computer group.
Discovery	Unmanaged Citrix Servers	Displays all unmanaged Citrix servers in the Citrix Unmanaged Servers computer group.
Discovery	Citrix Product Version	Displays information about the Citrix Presentation Server software versions on each managed Citrix server. After you install the Management Pack, this view is empty until 3:55 A.M. the next day.
Discovery	Citrix Hotfixes	Displays information about the Citrix Presentation Server hotfixes installed on each managed Citrix server. After you install the Management Pack, this view is empty until 3:55 A.M. the next day.
Discovery	Citrix Computer Groups	Displays all farm and zone computer groups configured by the administrator.
Discovery	Citrix Farm and Zone Membership	Displays farm and zone information for each managed Citrix server. After you install the Management Pack, this view is empty until 3:55 A.M. the next day.
Deployment Topology	(default)	MOM Diagram view that provides a hierarchical representation of a Citrix deployment, showing farms, zones, managed and unmanaged servers, and the relationships between them. This view is available only under the MOM Administrator scope.
State	Citrix Server Connections	Session and connection limit.
State	Citrix Server Client Update	Client update.
State	Citrix ServerIMA	IMA, including alerts to do with zone election.
State	Citrix Server Printing	Client printer.
State	Citrix ServerRM	Farm-wide alerts, which are all Resource Manager alerts
State	Citrix LicensingState	License expires soon. Subscription Advantage expires soon. Subscription Advantage has expired . Low on available licenses. Out of available licenses.

With MOM, the Presentation Server Management Pack can collect and analyze data from multiple farms, zones, and servers, and distill critical management information for the Administrator. Additionally, the Presentation Server Management Pack includes a number of predefined Citrix rules and scripts for generating alerts.

The Presentation Server Providers As mentioned in earlier, MOM requires access to the Presentation Server Providers (Presentation Server Provider and Licensing Provider) for WMI to function. The Presentation Server Providers integrate with the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), a standard management infrastructure included as part of Microsoft Windows 2000 and above. WMI is designed to help system administrators manage large, complex enterprise systems, applications, and networks. WMI is a standard for accessing and sharing management information from a variety of underlying technologies in an enterprise environment. It provides system administrators with a single, consistent object-oriented interface to monitor and control system components locally or remotely.

The Presentation Server Providers acts as intermediaries between the CIM (Common Information Model) Object Manager and the system being managed. The purpose of a WMI provider is to extract management information from the underlying system and present this to a WMI consumer (MOM). The Presentation Server Providers supply information that includes:

– Farm data A Citrix server farm is a group of servers managed as a single entity. Details about servers in the farm, zones in the farm, published applications, and pooled licenses are provided.
– Zone data A zone is a grouping of Citrix servers that share a common data collector, which is a Presentation Server that receives information from all the servers in the zone. The name of the zone in which the server operates is provided, together with details about the master and the other servers in the zone.
– Server data Information about the Presentation Server on which the Citrix Presentation Server Provider and/or Licensing Provider is installed is supplied for example, details about the licenses assigned and in use, sessions, and applications running.
– Session data Information about the ICA sessions running on the server is provided, such as session ID and name, together with information about the processes running within a session.
– Citrix license data Citrix license details, such as the status of licenses and the grace period, are provided, together with information about license groups. For example, details about the licenses in the group and the number of pooled connection licenses available and in use.
– Load balancing data If you are using Load Manager, information is provided about the server load level and the application load level on the local server. Note that you must configure the application load level in the Management Console.
– Management Console The server load level is configured by default. For more information about Load Manager, see the Load Manager Getting Started guide and the online help.
– Application data Published application details, such as the name, type, and version number of applications, are provided. Information about applications published on a particular Presentation Server is also supplied.
– User data User details, such as username and account information, are provided, together with information about user groups and membership.
– Static instances The date and time of static instances such as zone elections and disconnected sessions is recorded. This data is useful in monitoring whether or not these events are occurring too frequently.
– Events Information about events that occur, such as when an application is published, deleted, moved, or updated, is provided. Also included are details about the creation, maintenance, and deletion of published application folders, servers, server folders, and sessions, together with many more events.

The Citrix Presentation Server Provider allows you to

– Log off a session Logging off a session terminates the connection and all running programs. The user cannot reconnect to the session.
– Disconnect a session Disconnecting a session terminates the connection between the server and the client. However, the user is not logged off and all running programs remain active. The user can later reconnect to the disconnected session.
– Send messages to users You can send messages to particular sessions.