Users - Top Users Report

In physical desktop environments, keeping track of the user activity on each desktop is a difficult task. Moreover it becomes too tedious to figure out which user is continuously engaged in the maximum utilization of the resources. The Users - Top Users Report provides a solution for this. Using this report, you can easily figure out the users who are consuming more resources on a physical desktop.

To generate the Users - Top Users report, do the following:

1. Select the Top Users option by following the menu sequence: REPORTS BY FUNCTION -> Domain-specific Reports -> Physical Desktops -> Users.

2. Figure 1 will then appear.

   

   Figure 1 : Selecting the criteria for the Users - Top Users 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. Then, select a criterion for analysis from the Analyze By list box. Using this report, you can analyze the user activity on one/more physical desktop components, or those that are part of a segment, service, or a zone. This way, you can assess the impact of the user activity on the physical desktops that are part of a particular service/segment/zone, and accordingly take decisions. 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. 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 button next to the Components list. The Components pop up window will then appear using which you can view almost all the components in a single interface and Select the ones for which the report is to be generated. You can narrow your search further by using the Search text box. Specify the whole/part of the component name to search for in this text box, and click the icon next to it.
   • Service: Select this option if the components for which a report is to be generated are involved in the delivery of a business service. Then, select a Service.
   • Segment: Choose this option if the physical desktops to be evaluated are part of a segment. Then, pick a Segment for analysis.
   • Zone: Pick this option for a report on the performance of physical desktops that are included in a zone. Then, choose a Zone.
5. By default, Physical Desktop Group is chosen from the Component Type list.
6. Select the components for which the report is to be generated from the Components list box. By default, all components of the chosen Component Type will be selected from the Components list. If there are still too many components in the list to choose from, you can narrow your search further by using the Search text box. Specify the whole/part of the component name to search for in this text box, and click the icon next to it. The Components list will then be populated with all component names that embed the specified search string. Select the component of your choice from this list.
7. By default, Graph option is chosen from the Report Type list indicating that a graphical report will be generated by default. For a data report, select the Data option. If Graph option is selected, then an additional Graph Type list box will appear. By default, Distribution option will be chosen from this list box.
8. If Graph option is chosen as the Report Type and the Distribution option is chosen from the Graph Type text box, then an additional Criteria list box will appear in the report configuration section. This implies that across all the physical desktops of the chosen Component Type, the distribution of users will be represented graphically for the chosen Criteria. Likewise, if Data option is chosen as the Report Type, then a Based On Criteria option will appear which implies that the generated report will be sorted in descending order by default, based on the chosen option.
9. If Data option is chosen as the Report Type, then, an additional User text box will appear. By default, All Users option is chosen from this list indicating that this report will be generated based on the activity of all users of the target physical desktops environment over a period of time. If you wish to generate the report for a user of your choice, then, pick that user from this list.

10. By default, the report provides the details of only the Top-10 users’ activity. Accordingly, Top-10 is displayed as the default option of the Show Top list. You can choose a different top-n / last-n option from the Show Top 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. Specify the report Timeline. 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 system, 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.

12. 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 an option from the Components list. 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 Top Users report

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. By default, No is chosen from this list.

    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. 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 tests of the Physical Desktop Group component type is reported for the users who are currently active/logged in on a physical desktop. For each user who has logged into the physical desktop, the tests report a variety of statistics. The count of desktops may be dynamic, which may change often; implying that, whenever a user who is logged in currently, may opt to log out and may not login at all during the next measurement period. In such case, the tests will neither report metrics for those physical desktops nor will those desktops be displayed in the eG monitoring console. This is why, the desktops are considered to be 'dynamic'.
16. By default, this report compares the Avg value of the chosen measure across all physical desktops. 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 for a physical desktop during the given timeline and the total number of times the test was executed for that physical desktop during the same timeline. In case of dynamic physical desktops however, the Avg values so computed may not reveal the ‘true picture of performance’. This is because, the test may not report metrics for dynamic physical desktops throughout a given timeline. For example, two users - namely, ‘A’ and ‘B’ have logged into the different physical desktops belonging to a Physical Desktop Group component. During its first measurement period; the CPU Utilization for a user logged on a physical desktop is registered as 2% and 8% respectively. Assume that the second time the test of the physical desktops component ran, it captured 5% as the CPU Utilization of user ‘A’. User ‘B’ however was inactive on the physical desktop during the second measurement period, and hence, the physical desktop 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’ logged on a physical desktop and 4% (8/2=4) again for user ‘B’ logged on a physical desktop. If you notice, unlike user ‘A’ logged on the physical desktop, where 8% of CPU was utilized over a period of time, in case of user ‘B’ logged on a physical desktop, 8% of CPU was utilized at one shot! Logically therefore, user ‘B’ logged on the physical desktop has to be ranked above user ‘A’ logged on the physical desktop in terms of CPU utilization. However, since the default Avg value computation does not clearly bring out this difference, both physical desktops (user ‘A’ and ‘B’) are treated at par in this report! This is why, in case of dynamic physical desktops, you may want to set the Weighted Average flag to Yes. In this case, the eG Enterprise system expresses Avg as the ratio of the sum total of the measure values reported by a desktop during a given timeline and the ‘total number of times that desktop 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’ logged on to physical desktop will continue to be 4 (3+5=8/2=4), but the same for user ‘B’ logged onto physical desktop will be 8 MB (8/1=8). In this report therefore, user ‘B’ logged on physical desktop will be placed above user ‘A’ logged on physical desktop, thereby accurately pointing you to the physical desktop that is consuming maximum CPU resources.
17. If you wish to view the user activity on a chosen physical desktop, then you can use the Desktop Search text box. Provide the name of the desktop of your choice in this text box to view the entire user activity on that particular desktop for the chosen time period.
18. If you wish to view the exclude the activity of a user on a chosen physical desktop, then you can use the Exclude User text box. Provide the name of the user of your choice in this text box to exclude the activity of the user from the scope of report generation.

19. 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 Save - PDF. 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.
20. Click the Done button once you have made the necessary changes in the More Options drop down window.

21. Finally, click the Run Report button. Figure 3 will now appear.

    

    Figure 3 : The Top Users report

    If you have chosen Foreground Generation - HTML from the Report Generation list and Graph from the Report Type list, then, clicking on the Run Report button will invoke Figure 3, which will comprise of the following:

    • A distribution pie chart in Figure 3 reveals the users based on the utilization of the resource (chosen from Based on Criteria). The distribution ranges are obtained by applying the first of the configured functions for the chosen option from the Based on Criteria list. For instance, assume that CPU Utilization is the option chosen from Based on Criteria list. Say that you have configured to display the Avg and Max of CPU Utilization in a Data report. Typically, both these configured values will appear only in the Data report. In the case of a Graph report however, the first of the two functions - i.e., Avg of CPU Utilization - alone is calculated for the physical desktop of every user. The resulting pie chart enables administrators to determine, at a glance, which user in the environment is consuming excessive resources. Clicking on a particular legend or range in the pie chart lists the users that fall within the value range represented by that color of slice (see Figure 4). Against the chosen range, the user who falls within the range and the actual values for each of the configured functions (both Avg and Max, in our example) for the chosen option from the Based on Criteria list is displayed.

      

      Figure 4 : The data that appears upon clicking on the slice of the pie chart

    • Adjacent to the pie chart in Figure 3, you will find a bar chart that indicates the users with maximum utilization based on a chosen performance realm (i.e., the Based on Criteria) during the specified Timeline. For example, for the CPU Utilization, this bar chart reveals the users with maximum CPU utilization. Like the pie chart, the values for the bar chart are also calculated by applying the first of the configured functions on the chosen Criteria. Clicking on the bar corresponding to a user results in a graph that reveals the CPU utilization of the user over a period of time (see Figure 5).

      

      Figure 5 : Viewing the CPU utilization of a user over a chosen time period

22. If the Timeline option is chosen from the Graph Type, then the report generated will appear as shown in Figure 6.

    

    Figure 6 : The User Activity report when the Timeline option is chosen

23. If you have chosen Foreground Generation - HTML from the Report Generation list and Data from the Report Type list, then, clicking on the Run Report button will invoke Figure 7.

    

    Figure 7 : The generated report in Data format

24. Figure 7 shows a tabular Users - Top Users report for a chosen Physical Desktop Group component. By default, for every user displayed in this table, the following metrics will be displayed:

    • The Avg Physical CPU utilization
    • The Avg Free memory
    • The Avg Disk utilization
    • Time is Session
    • The Max Disk capacity
    • The Avg Reads from Disk
    • The Avg Writes to Disk
    • The Avg Data Reads from Disk
    • The Avg Data Writes to Disk
    • The Max incoming connections to the system
    • The Max outgoing connections from the system and
    • The Avg Bandwidth used
    • The Avg TCP Round Trip Time

    While these default metrics cannot be changed, you can, however, configure functions other than Avg to be executed on the values reported by these metrics. Similarly, additional metrics can also be configured for display in the report. Though the generated report is initially sorted based on the column selected from the Based On Criteria list, the displayed report can once again be sorted based on any column. Simply clicking on the arrow button present in each column will ensure you that the report is sorted based on the chosen column.

25. Clicking the icon against a user reveals the activity of the user on the physical desktop in a graphical format as shown in Figure 6.