Troubleshooting Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop logon duration is challenging because it’s a complex process, it’s asynchronous, meaning multiple things are happening simultaneously, and it’s also variable. Some logons will have 33 sub-steps in the process, and others will have more than 50. Any technology that doesn’t offer visibility into all the sub stages can only show that there is a general problem and not the true root cause of the issue.

One of the single biggest issues that Citrix administrators are forced to deal with is the sheer complexity of their Citrix systems. Not only is there complexity associated with the Citrix software itself, but the Citrix software also has a dependency upon a number of supporting infrastructure components. All of this complexity can make troubleshooting extraordinarily difficult whenever problems arise. An inexperienced administrator may not even know where to start.

I’ve had the chance to work in the cloud, virtualization, and application delivery industry for quite some time. The most amazing thing I’ve seen has been the evolution around delivery technologies specifically aimed at improving user experience and performance. Still, with varying operating systems, evolving desktop environments, and the constant challenges around applications – there’s still one major challenge when it comes to these ecosystems.

Theresa Miller is a Healthcare IT Blogger and one of the few individuals in the world to hold the following three prestigious virtualization awards: Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), Citrix Technology Professional (CTP) and VMware vExpert. In this blog, Theresa describes a real-world example of a top 5 not-for-profit healthcare organization with over 1200 locations used Goliath Performance Monitor to troubleshoot and resolve a major incident impacting their MEDITECH users.

The New Topology View for Citrix Monitoring and Citrix Troubleshooting gives an IT administrator an out if the box solution to troubleshoot Citrix from a 50,000 foot view, down to the individual user. It’s an industry first capability to view their entire global hybrid IT infrastructure from a single pane of glass whether it is on premises and or in Amazon AWS or Azure.

We all want seamless rollouts of Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop and we use a number of tools to achieve that reality. I have found a unique software that allows me to proactively understand the performance impact of Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop on the IT infrastructure and ultimately end user experience early in the Citrix deployment lifecycle. In this post I will show you four examples of how I use the software to avoid potential issues.

USACI is a Managed Service Provider (MSP) provides Software as a Service (SaaS) and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solutions over Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop. They also offer public and private cloud services via their product, XenWinGo. The breadth of services which the organization offers can place a lot of pressure on their Citrix help desk professionals.

Healthcare IT faces both complexity and urgency when dealing with end user experience issues that impact their EHR environments. In addition to the usual issues of frustration, delays, and inefficiency, patient care is impacted when healthcare workers can’t access critical applications via Citrix XenApp, Citrix XenDesktop, or VMware Horizon.

As an IT pro, making sure that the end users have a good experience is one of the most important parts of the job. It’s so important in fact, that there are numerous tools available for monitoring the performance of end user sessions. In most cases, such monitoring tools work by examining a series of performance counters in an effort to quantify the end user experience. In reality, however, performance data and what the end users actually experience can be two very different things.

Ensure VDI Connections For End Users-03It’s amazing to see just how far we’ve come in terms of connectivity and how we leverage digital resources. As standalone analog devices give way to connected digital devices, the latter will generate vast amounts of data that will, in turn, allow us the chance to refine and improve our systems and processes in previously unimagined ways.