Desktop Group Overview Report

To assess the resource consumption of the monitored Physical Desktop Group available in the target environment, you can use the Desktop Group Overview report.

To generate this report, do the following:

  1. Select the By Desktop Groups option from the Overview sub node by following the menu sequence: REPORTS BY FUNCTION -> Domain-specific Reports -> Physical Desktops -> Resource Usage.

  2. Figure 1 will then appear.

    Figure 1 : Generating the Desktop Group Overview report

  3. Choose a Report Type (Graph or Data) for generating the report. The default Report Type is Graph. A Data report helps in generating the report in a tabular format.

  4. Here, select a criterion for analysis from the Analyze By list box. Using this report, you can analyze the overall resource utilization of one/more physical desktop group components, or those that are part of a service or a segment. The options provided by the Analyze By list box are discussed hereunder:

    • Component: Select this option to choose the component(s) from across all the managed components in the environment.
    • Service: If you want to generate a report for one/more components involved in the delivery of a service, select the Service option from Analyze By, and then pick the required Service from the drop-down list that appears
    • Segment: If you want to generate a report for one/more chosen components that belong to a segment, select the Segment option from Analyze By list box, and then pick the Segment from the drop-down list that appears.
    • Zone: To generate a report for one/more components that are included in a zone, pick the Zone option. A Zone drop-down list will then appear, from which you would have to select the zone to which the components of interest to you belong. A Sub zone flag also appears. Indicate whether the components present within the sub-zones of the chosen zone are also to be to be considered for report generation, by setting the Sub zone flag to Yes.
  5. By default, Physical Desktop Group option will be chosen from the Component Type list.
  6. In the Component list box, all the components pertaining to the chosen Component Type will be listed. Select the component for which this report is to be generated. If the Components list consists of too many components, then viewing all the components and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the Components button next to the Components list. A Components pop up window will then appear using which you can view almost all the components in a single interface and Select the ones to be included in this report.
  7. By default, All Metrics option is chosen from the Metrics list indicating that this report will be generated for a pre-configured list of resource utilization criteria such as CPU, Disk etc. If you wish to generate this report for a chosen resource utilization criteria alone, then pick the criteria from this list.

  8. Then, specify the Timeline for the report. You can either provide a fixed time line such as 1 hour, 2 days, etc., or select the Any option from the list to provide a From and To date/time for report generation.

    Note:

    For every user registered with the eG Enterprise, the administrator can indicate the maximum timeline for which that user can generate a report. Once the maximum timeline is set for a user, then, whenever that user logs into eG Reporter and attempts to generate a report, the Timeline list box in the report page will display options according to the maximum timeline setting of that user. For instance, if a user can generate a report for a maximum period of 3 days only, then 3 days will be the highest option displayed in the Timeline list - i.e., 3 days will be the last option in the fixed Timeline list. Similarly, if the user chooses the Any option from the Timeline list and proceeds to provide a start date and end date for report generation using the From and To specifications, eG Enterprise will first check if the user’s Timeline specification conforms to his/her maximum timeline setting. If not, report generation will fail. For instance, for a user who is allowed to generate reports spanning over a maximum period of 3 days only, the difference between the From and To dates should never be over 3 days. If it is, then, upon clicking the Run Report button a message box will appear, prompting the user to change the From and To specification.

  9. In addition to the settings discussed above, this report comes with a set of default specifications. These settings are hidden by default. If you do not want to disturb these default settings, then you can proceed to generate the report by clicking the Run Report button soon after you pick the criteria for generating the report. However, if you want to view and then alter these settings (if required), click on the button. The default settings will then appear in the MORE OPTIONS drop down window (see Figure 2). The steps below discuss each of these settings and how they can be customized.

    Figure 2 : The default settings for generating the Desktop Performance report

  10. By default, the report provides the details of only the Top-10 Physical Desktop Group components that consume high resources. You can choose a different top-n / last-n option from the Show list, if need be.

    Note:

    By default, the values displayed in the Show list range from top-10 to Last-10. This is because, the Showtop parameter in the [infos] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the <eg_install_dir>\manager\config directory) is set to 10, by default. You can, if required, configure the Show list to display a different range of options. For this, specify a different number against the Showtop parameter, and save the eg_report.ini file.

  11. Using the Weighted Average flag, you can indicate how the Avg value is to be computed for a chosen measure for the purpose of this report. The status of the Weighted Average flag is relevant only if the Test chosen is a descriptor-based test, and the descriptors are dynamic in nature. For instance, the Citrix Users test in our example auto-discovers the users who are currently active on a Citrix XenApp farm. For each user who has logged into the Citrix XenApp, the test reports a variety of statistics. Unlike descriptors such as disk partitions or processors that rarely change, the users are dynamic descriptors, which may change often; in other words, a user who is logged in currently, may opt to log out and may not login at all during the next measurement period. The Citrix Users test will neither report metrics for the inactive descriptors nor display it in the eG monitoring console. This is why, users in the Citrix Users test are considered ‘dynamic descriptors’.
  12. By default, this report compares the Avg value of the chosen measure across all selected descriptors. Since the Weighted Average flag is set to No by default, this Avg is computed as the ratio of the sum total of the measure values reported by a descriptor during the given timeline and the total number of times the test is executed during the same timeline. In case of dynamic descriptors however, the Avg values so computed may not reveal the ‘true picture of performance’. This is because, the test may not discover or report metrics for dynamic descriptors throughout a given timeline. For example, take the case of the Citrix Users test. Say, two users - namely, ‘A’ and ‘B’ have logged into the Citrix XenApp server. During its first measurement period; the CPU Utilization for a user session is registered as 2% and 8% respectively. Assume that the second time the Citrix Users test ran, it captured 5% as the CPU Utilization of user ‘A’. User ‘B’ however was inactive during the second measurement period, and hence, was not discovered at all. If the Weighted Average flag is set to No by default, then, this report will plot the Avg value of 4% (3+5=8/2=4) for user ‘A’ and 4% (8/2=4) again for user ‘B’. If you notice, unlike user ‘A’, where 8% of CPU was utilized over a period of time, in case of user ‘B’, 8% of CPU was utilized at one shot! Logically therefore, user ‘B’ has to be ranked above user ‘A’ in terms of CPU utilization. However, since the default Avg value computation does not clearly bring out this difference, both user ‘A’ and ‘B’ are treated at par in this report! This is why, in case of dynamic descriptors, you may want to set the Weighted Average flag to Yes. In this case, the eG Enterprise expresses Avg as the ratio of the sum total of the measure values reported by a descriptor during a given timeline and the ‘total number of times that descriptor was active’ during the same timeline. This implies that if the Weighted Average flag is set to Yes in the example above, the Avg value for user ‘A’ will continue to be 4 (3+5=8/2=4), but the same for user ‘B’ will be 8 MB (8/1=8). In this report therefore, user ‘B’ will be placed above user ‘A’, thereby accurately pointing you to the top user who is consuming maximum CPU resources.

  13. Next, indicate the report Time Period.

    Note:

    By default, the Time Period is set to 24 hours. Accordingly, the From and To parameters in the [timeframe] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the <eG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory) are set to 00:00 and 24:00 respectively. If need be, you can override this default setting by configuring a different timeframe against the From and/or To parameters.

  14. If the timeline specified for the report needs to exclude the data collected during the Weekends, then set Exclude weekends to Yes (Satruday,Sunday). If not, select No.

    Note:

    By default, the weekend constitutes Saturday and Sunday. To override this default setting, do the following:

    • Edit the eg_report.ini file in the <eg_install_dir>\manager\config directory.
    • In the [measure_group] section of the file, the exclude_weekend parameter is set to Saturday,Sunday by default. You can modify this by setting the exclude_weekend parameter to a comma-separated list of other days of the week - say Friday,Saturday.
    • Save the file after making the required changes.

  15. In large environments, reports generated using months of data can take a long time to complete. Administrators now have the option of generating reports on-line or in the background. When a report is scheduled for background generation, administrators can proceed with their other monitoring, diagnosis, and reporting tasks, while the eG manager is processing the report. This saves the administrator valuable time. To schedule background processing of a report, you can either select the Background Save - PDF option or the Background Save - CSV option from the Report Generation list. In this case, a Report Name text box will appear, where you would have to provide the name with which the report is to be saved in the background. To process reports in the foreground, select the Foreground Generation - HTML option from this list.

    Note:

    • The Report Generation list will appear only if the EnableBackgroundReport flag in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the [EG_INSTALL_DIR]\manager\config directory) is set to Yes.
    • The default selection in the Report Generation list will change according to the Timeline specified for the report. If the Timeline set is greater than or equal to the number of days specified against the MinDurationForReport parameter in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Background. On the other hand, if the Timeline set for the report is lesser than the value of the MinDurationForReport parameter, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Foreground. This is because, the MinDurationForReport setting governs when reports are to be processed in the background. By default, this parameter is set to 2 weeks - this indicates that by default, reports with a timeline of 2 weeks and above will be processed in the background.

  16. Click the Done button if any changes were made to the More Options drop down window.

  17. Finally, click on the Run Report button to generate the report.

  18. If the option chosen from the Report Type is Graph and the Report Generation list is Foreground Generation - HTML, then, clicking on the Run Report button will invoke .

    Figure 3 : The generated Desktop Group Overview Report

    The generated report (see Figure 3) consists of a series of bar graphs (if All Metrics option is chosen from the Metrics list of Figure 1) displaying the top-10 components based on their resource utilization.

  19. If the option chosen from the Report Type is Data and the Report Generation list is Foreground Generation - HTML, then, clicking on the Run Report button will invoke Figure 4.

    Figure 4 : The generated report in a tabular format

    The generated report contains a Desktop Group Resource Details section that lists the Maximum and Average values of the resources utilized by each physical desktop over a chosen period of time. This report helps administrators figure out the exact peak resource utilization as well as the uptime of the chosen Physical Desktop Group components. Clicking on a component will redirect you to the Overview Report which helps you analyze the performance of that particular physical desktop over a period of time.