Citrix Hypervisor Virtual Machines
The key performance metrics monitored by Applications Manager include those pertaining to CPU usage, memory usage, storage details, network utilization and configuration info at both the Citrix Hypervisor host and VM level. The solution also tracks attributes related to processes, guest OS, event log, etc. at the VM level.
Applications Manager also enables IT administrators to automate the provisioning of Citrix Hypervisor VMs based on threshold breaches. For example, Applications Manager can automatically start/stop/restart VMs in a Citrix Hypervisor farm when the number of active sessions in a Tomcat server or Oracle application server exceeds the specified threshold limit. This automation capability helps IT teams significantly reduce manual intervention and ensure their business-critical applications running in Citrix environments do not experience resource shortage.
- Availability tab lists all the virtual machines present in the Citrix Hypervisors and their availability status. You can also view Availability history of the virtual machines for the past 24 hours or 30 days.
- Performance tab shows some key performance indicators of the virtual machine including CPU Utilization, Memory Utilization, Disk I/O Utilization and Network Utilization along with heat charts for these attributes. This tab also shows the health status and events for the past 24 hours or 30 days.
- List view tab displays all the virtual machines discovered under each Citrix Hypervisor. This view provides an overall idea of the availability and health of all the virtual machines. It also enables you to perform bulk admin configurations. Click on the individual virtual machines listed to view detailed VM metrics.
- Top Virtual Machines tab shows graphs for the top CPU consumers, top memory consumers, top disk I/O consumers, and top network consumers of the Citrix Hypervisor. This section enables you to find out which virtual machines are consuming your server resources and take action accordingly.
Click on the individual monitors listed to view detailed performance metrics of the corresponding virtual machine. These metrics are categorized into 5 separate tabs for easy understanding. Below is an explanation of the metrics shown in these tabs:
Overview
This tab provides a high-level overview of the virtual machine as well as its resource utilization.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Monitor Information |
| Name | The name of the virtual machine |
| Type | Denotes the type you are monitoring. |
| Health | Denotes the health (Clear, Warning, Critical) status of the VM. |
| Last Polled at | Specifies the time at which the last poll was performed. |
| Next Poll at | Specifies the time at which the next poll is scheduled. |
| Availability | Shows the current status of the VM - available or not available. |
| CPU Utilization |
| CPU Utilization | The CPU Usage of the VM as percentage |
Memory
This tab shows metrics about the memory utilization of the virtual machine
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Overhead Memory | Amount of additional host memory allocated to the virtual machine in MB. |
| Target Memory | The maximum memory which is allocated to the virtual machine. |
| Minimum Dynamic Memory | The minimum dynamic allocation of memory to a VM from a pool of memory on the host. |
| Maximum Dynamic Memory | The maximum dynamic allocation of memory to a VM from a pool of memory on the host. |
| Minimum Static Memory | Specifies the minimum amount of static memory allocated to the virtual machine. |
| Maximum Static Memory | Specifies the maximum amount of static memory allocated to the virtual machine. |
Storage
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| VBD (Virtual Block Device) Details |
| Name | Name of this virtual block device. |
| Bootable | Indicates whether this virtual block device is bootable. |
| Device Attached | Indicates whether the device is attached or not. |
| Drive Empty | Indicates whether this device is an empty drive. |
| Mode | The mode the virtual block device must be mounted with. |
| Status Code | Error/success code that is associated with last attach-operation. |
| Storage Level Lock | Indicates whether a storage level lock was acquired. |
| VBD Type | Indicates how the virtual block device appears to the guest. |
| Unpluggable | Indicates whether this virtual block device supports hot-unplug. |
| VDI (Virtual Disk Image) Details |
| Name | Name of the virtual disk image. |
| Description | The description of the virtual disk image. |
| Location | Displays the location information of the virtual disk image. |
| Managed Disk | Indicates whether the virtual disk image is a managed disk image. |
| Missing | Indicates whether the virtual disk image is present on disk. |
| Physical Utilization | The physical utilization of this virtual disk image in GB. |
| Size | Displays the size of the disk as presented to the guest in GB. |
| Read Only | Indicates whether this disk can be mounted only as read-only. |
| Sharable | Indicates whether this disk can be shared. |
| SR Name | The name of the storage repository where the virtual disk image is located. |
Network
The metrics in this category contain the VM network utilization details.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Name | Name of this virtual network interface. |
| MAC Address | Ethernet MAC address of virtual interface, as exposed to guest. |
| Network | The name of the virtual network to which this virtual network interface is connected. |
| IP Address | IP Address of the virtual interface. |
| MTU | Maximum transmission units of the virtual network interface in octets. |
| Active | Indicates whether the device is attached. |
| Data Transmit | Data transmitted on virtual interface in kilo bytes per second. |
| Data Received | Data received on virtual interface in kilo bytes per second. |
| Transmit Errors | Indicates the transmit errors per second on this virtual interface. |
| Received Errors | Errors received per second on this virtual interface. |
| I/O Read | The read bandwidth of the device in kilo bytes per second . |
| I/O Write | The write bandwidth of the device in kilo bytes per second . |
Configuration
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| VM Name | The name of the Virtual Machine. |
| Power | Current power state of the VM. |
| OS Name | Operating System of the VM. |
| Citrix Hypervisor HostName | Displays the name of the Citrix Hypervisor host where the virtual machine is located. |
| HA Always Running | Displays the status of the the virtual machine's HA(high availability). If this value is true, it indicates that the system will attempt to keep the VM running. |
| HA Restart Priority | If ha_always_run is set, this describes the restart priority. |
| Description | Any description of the VM. |
| Is Snapshot | Indicates whether this virtual disk image is a snapshot. |
| Snapshot Name | The name of the VM of which this is a snapshot. |
| Snapshot Creation Time | Date/time when this snapshot was created. |
| User Version | A user version number of this machine. |
| XenTool Status | Indicates the Status of XenTools on the VM |
| XenTool Version | Version Number of the XenTool. |
| XenTool Build | Build Number of the XenTool. |
Guest OS Monitoring
Guest OS monitoring allows to monitor the Processes, Services, Event Logs(if windows VM) in a Virtual Machine monitor. To enable this for a VM monitor, Go to VM Monitor Details page -> Click Monitor Actions -> Click 'Configure OS' option. Provide the server credentials to connect with the OS. Once configured, under the Process / Services tab, the option to Add/Remove the process will be shown. By using this option, we can add process / services for monitoring.
