Troubleshoot user issues
Use the Director’s Help Desk view (Activity Manager page) to view information about the user or session:
Clicking View Details from the Activity Manager for a user opens the User Details page. Clicking View Details from the Activity Manager for an endpoint opens the Endpoint Details page.
If the user has started several sessions, the session selector helps select a session.
Choose a session to view the details.
- Check details about the session, user’s logon experience, session startup, connection, and applications.
- you can Shadow the user’s machine.
- Record the ICA session.
- Troubleshoot the issue with the recommended actions in the following table, and, if needed, escalate the issue to the appropriate administrator.
Troubleshooting tips
| User issue | Suggestions |
|---|---|
| Logon takes a long time or fails intermittently or repeatedly | Diagnose user logon issues |
| Session startup takes a long time or fails intermittently or repeatedly | Diagnose session startup issues |
| Application is slow or does not respond | Resolve application failures |
| Connection failed | Restore desktop connections |
| Session is slow or not responding | Restore sessions |
| Record sessions | Record sessions |
| Video is slow or poor quality | Run HDX channel system reports |
Note: To make sure that the machine is not in maintenance mode, from the User Details view, review the Machine Details panel.
Trends for Session Performance metrics
The Session Performance tab has enhanced troubleshooting workflows starting with the ability to correlate real-time metrics in identifying issues within user sessions. Trends for the session metrics like ICARTT, ICA Latency, Frames Per Second, Output Bandwidth Available, and Output Bandwidth Consumed help indicate how these metrics have performed over time.
Note:
The graph is plotted only for the duration for which the session is connected.
ICARTT - ICARTT is the time interval between a user’s action and the graphical response displayed on their screen.
ICA Latency - ICA Latency is basically the network latency. This parameter indicates if the network is sluggish.
Frames Per Second - Frames Per Second is an important metric that indicates the session responsiveness.
Output Bandwidth Available - Output Bandwidth Available is a measure of the total bandwidth available to transmit data from the VDA to the endpoint.
Output Bandwidth Consumed - Output Bandwidth Consumed indicates the actual amount of data transmitted from the VDA to the endpoint to display sessions to users.
Analyzing Output Bandwidth Available and the Output Bandwidth Consumed helps check if sufficient bandwidth is available for serving sessions and to detect if a session is affected by insufficient bandwidth.
This feature helps correlate multiple performance metrics in a single view and reduces the mean time for resolution of session experience issues.
Search tips
When you type the user’s name in a Search field, Director searches for users in the Active Directory for users across all sites configured to support Director.
When you type a multiuser machine name in a Search field, Director displays the Machine Details for the specified machine.
When you type an endpoint name in a Search field, Director uses the unauthenticated (anonymous) and authenticated sessions that are connected to a specific endpoint, which enables troubleshooting unauthenticated sessions. Ensure that endpoint names are unique to enable troubleshooting of unauthenticated sessions.
The search results also include users who are not currently using or assigned to a machine.
- Searches are not case-sensitive.
- Partial entries produce a list of possible matches.
- After you type a few letters of a two-part name (user name, family name and first name, or display name), separated by a space, the results include matches for both strings. For example, if you type jo rob, the results might include strings such as “John Robertson” or Robert, Jones.
To return to the landing page, click the Director logo.
Access Citrix Insight Services
You can access Citrix Insight Services (CIS) from the User drop-down list in Director to access extra diagnostic insights. The data available in CIS comes from sources including Call Home and Citrix Scout.
Upload troubleshooting information to Citrix Technical Support
Run Citrix Scout from a single Delivery Controller or VDA to capture key data points and Citrix Diagnostics Facility (CDF) traces to troubleshoot selected computers. Scout offers the ability to securely upload the data to the CIS platform to assist Citrix Technical Support on troubleshooting. Citrix Technical Support uses the CIS platform to reduce the time to resolve customer-reported issues.
Scout is installed with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops components. Depending on the version of Windows, Scout appears in the Windows Start menu or Start Screen when you install or upgrade to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
To start Scout, from the Start menu or Start Screen, select Citrix > Citrix Scout.
For information on using and configuring Scout, and for FAQ, see CTX130147.