DABCC, Inc. & Premitech

(1)

DABCC, Inc. &

Premitech

DABCC, Inc. &

Premitech

(2)

Agenda

Troubleshooting Network Performance Issues

Items that affect Slow logons

Introduction to Performance Guard from Premitech

Citrix Print Process

Printer Auto-creation Flow (client side)

Printer Auto-creation Flow (server side)

Introduction to Advanced Print Manager from

DABCC

Troubleshooting Network Performance Issues

Items that affect Slow logons

Introduction to Performance Guard from Premitech

Citrix Print Process

Printer Auto-creation Flow (client side)

Printer Auto-creation Flow (server side)

(3)

(4)

Workshop Agenda?

Common issues relating to sluggish performance

1.

Page File

2.

Disk

3.

Processor

4.

Registry

5.

Slow Login times

Common issues relating to sluggish performance

1.

Page File

2.

Disk

3.

Processor

4.

Registry

(5)

Windows Page File

What is it and how do I manage it?

Windows Page File

The Windows page file is an interesting beast

that is very much misunderstood

First lets clear up a few common

misconceptions:

1.

If you have RAM to spare then the page file is NOT used?

False

! Even if you have more RAM than once would ever use

Windows still writes a portion of memory to the page file, per user.

2.

Windows is smart enough to only use one copy of an .exe or .dll file

per system?

False

! The Windows page file uses a technology called

“copy-on-write” that each time a users loads and application it loads a version

of the .exe and the .dll into memory and hence back to the page file.

If a another user loads the same application then another copy of

the .exe and associated .dll’s are loaded to memory and page file.

This becomes a nightmare.

The Windows page file is an interesting beast

that is very much misunderstood

First lets clear up a few common

misconceptions:

1.

If you have RAM to spare then the page file is NOT used?

False

! Even if you have more RAM than once would ever use

Windows still writes a portion of memory to the page file, per user.

2.

Windows is smart enough to only use one copy of an .exe or .dll file

per system?

(6)

Windows Page File

The “best practice” for setting a page file in a

Terminal Services world is around 1.5 to 2.0 times the

amount of physical RAM.

To view the Page File usage you can monitor the

following counter:

–

Paging File | % Usage | _Total

If you find you the system is paging a lot you can

1.

Add more physical memory

2.

Store the Page file on its own SCSI channel and drive

–

Consider using a solid state memory drive (www.TiGicorp.com)

–

3

rd

Party tools (RTO Software’s TScale 3.0 - www.rtosoft.com)

–

Make sure the page file has enough room and is not being required to

grow. It is recommend to set the page file anywhere between 1.5 and

2.5 times the amount of physical RAM in the system.

The “best practice” for setting a page file in a

Terminal Services world is around 1.5 to 2.0 times the

amount of physical RAM.

To view the Page File usage you can monitor the

following counter:

–

Paging File | % Usage | _Total

If you find you the system is paging a lot you can

1.

Add more physical memory

2.

Store the Page file on its own SCSI channel and drive

–

Consider using a solid state memory drive (

www.TiGicorp.com

)

–

3

rd

Party tools (RTO Software’s TScale 3.0 -

www.rtosoft.com

)

–

Make sure the page file has enough room and is not being required to

(7)

Drive Subsystem

Do I have a bottleneck?

Drive Subsystem

Local HDD only contains system files and

executables

Application data is best stored on SAN, NAS

or just a plane old file server

To view if the drive subsystem is the problem

you will want to monitor the following

counters:

–

Physical Disk | % Disk Time

–

This counter shows you how busy your server’s hard

drives are. A value of 100% would indicate that the disks

are 100% busy, meaning that you might need faster disks,

more memory, or fewer users.

Local HDD only contains system files and

executables

Application data is best stored on SAN, NAS

or just a plane old file server

To view if the drive subsystem is the problem

you will want to monitor the following

counters:

–

Physical Disk | % Disk Time

–

This counter shows you how busy your server’s hard

(8)

Drive Subsystem

–

Physical Disk | Current Disk Queue Length

–

If your % Disk Time counter is at or near 100, you will want

to monitor this counter. It will tell you how many disk

requests are waiting because the disk is too busy.

–

What to do if you find HDD to be the bottleneck?

–

Get faster drives (10k or 15k)

–

New RAID controller (more on board cache)

–

Solid state RAM HDD

–

Tweak the cache configuration on your RAID card.. .50 read / 50

write is best.

–

Physical Disk | Current Disk Queue Length

–

If your % Disk Time counter is at or near 100, you will want

to monitor this counter. It will tell you how many disk

requests are waiting because the disk is too busy.

–

What to do if you find HDD to be the bottleneck?

–

Get faster drives (10k or 15k)

–

New RAID controller (more on board cache)

–

Solid state RAM HDD

–

Tweak the cache configuration on your RAID card.. .50 read / 50

(9)

Processor?

Do I have a bottleneck? How do I manage it?

Processor?

Do I have a bottleneck? How do I manage it?

Processor | % Processor Time | _Total

–

This counter shows how busy the processors are.

–

If it pegs at 100% then you will want to verify you do not have

a memory bottleneck and or that the page file is being used to

heavily before you go out an buy faster or more processors

System | Processor Queue Length

–

This counter shows how many requests are backed up while

they wait for the processor to get freed up to service them.

Disable “features” that chew up resources.

–

Windows Luna support

–

Windows “fancy” graphics

–

Office background spell checking

–

Many more…

Processor | % Processor Time | _Total

–

This counter shows how busy the processors are.

–

If it pegs at 100% then you will want to verify you do not have

a memory bottleneck and or that the page file is being used to

heavily before you go out an buy faster or more processors

System | Processor Queue Length

–

This counter shows how many requests are backed up while

they wait for the processor to get freed up to service them.

Disable “features” that chew up resources.

–

Windows Luna support

–

Windows “fancy” graphics

–

Office background spell checking

(10)

Slow Logon Times

What can be done?

Slow Logon Times

What can be done?

How long does it take your users to logon?

What is a slow logon?

What is a responsible expectation?

What factors affect login time?

What steps can we take to speed up the

process?

What factors affect login time?

(11)

Slow Logon Times

Are your end users complaining about slow

logons?

How do you find out how long it takes them to

truly logon?

–

Stopwatch?

–

Trust the end-user?

–

Premitech Performance Guard!

Are your end users complaining about slow

logons?

How do you find out how long it takes them to

truly logon?

–

Stopwatch?

–

Trust the end-user?

(12)

Concurrent Users & Login times

(13)

Top 10 hotspots (this case: worst

logins)

Top 10 hotspots (this case: worst

logins)

Login

time

(ms)

Start time

End time

Nam

e

Domai

n

Client IP

Init App.

16171 04-03-2004 19:42:02 04-03-2004 20:12:25 CNI DK 172.20.99.19 icast.exe w:\lotus\notes\notesstart.exe dkclu00004 %username% _w

14640 05-03-2004 11:37:19 05-03-2004 11:40:38 ASJ DK 172.20.99.2 icast.exe "v:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe"

11562 08-03-2004 19:53:19 08-03-2004 21:19:26 metm DK 172.20.99.23 icast.exe w:\lotus\notes\notesstart.exe dkclu00004 %username% _w

(14)

Slow Logon Times

Logon times will very from company to

company and end-user to end-user

There is not a hard set rule on how fast or

slow a logon should be… The best thing we

can do is follow the following best practices

and set the proper expectations!

Logon times will very from company to

company and end-user to end-user

There is not a hard set rule on how fast or

(15)

Slow Logon Times

What is a responsible expectation?

Perception is reality but reality cannot be

changed only set with the proper

expectations.

Logon times will vary from user to

end-user

Logon times will vary from Terminal Services

server to Citrix MetaFrame Presentation

Servers

Perception is reality but reality cannot be

changed only set with the proper

expectations.

Logon times will vary from user to

end-user

Logon times will vary from Terminal Services

server to Citrix MetaFrame Presentation

(16)

Slow Logon Times

What factors contribute to them?

Slow Logon Times

Logon times are affected by the following

items.

1.

Citrix vs. Terminal Services

2.

Profiles

3.

Login scripts

4.

Applications that are loading during logon

Logon times are affected by the following

items.

1.

Citrix vs. Terminal Services

2.

Profiles

3.

Login scripts

(17)

Slow Logon Times

Based on the items that can affect an

end-users logon time an administrator needs to

step through them and follow the following

best practices

Does it take the same amount of time on a TS

box as a MPS box?

–

If so then you will need to dive deeper as the slowness is not

related to either TS and or MPS.

–

If not then you will need to dive deeper into the differences

between TS and MPS.

Based on the items that can affect an

end-users logon time an administrator needs to

step through them and follow the following

best practices

Does it take the same amount of time on a TS

box as a MPS box?

–

If so then you will need to dive deeper as the slowness is not

related to either TS and or MPS.

–

If not then you will need to dive deeper into the differences

(18)

Slow Logon Times

Features of MPS to be aware of

Slow Logon Times

Terminal Services keeps getting better but

Presentation Server still adds WAY more

value!!!

The following additional items are part of a

MPS login and in return could slow the

perception of logon.

–

Time zones support

– Slows down a login time considerably. If

you have end-users that will be roaming from zone to

time-zone then it is best to use the Citrix Policy to enable time time-zone

support

–

Printers

–client printers are auto-created during logon. Each

printer will need to be analyzed and auto-created during logon.

This takes time! It is recommended to set MPS to auto-create

printers in the background in order to allow end-user to get to work

quicker.

Terminal Services keeps getting better but

Presentation Server still adds WAY more

value!!!

–

Time zones support

– Slows down a login time considerably. If

you have end-users that will be roaming from zone to

time-zone then it is best to use the Citrix Policy to enable time time-zone

support

–

Printers

–client printers are auto-created during logon. Each

(19)

Slow Logon Times

Features of MPS to be aware of

Slow Logon Times

–

Client Drives –

By default all local client drives are auto-created

during logon. Depending on the number of client drives you will

want to auto-create only what is needed. This can be done by

auto-creating only:

–

Local drives

–

Network drives

–

CDROM

–

Floppy

–

Citrix Policies is the best way to define what client drives are to

be auto-created and from whom.

The following additional items are part of a

–

Client Drives –

By default all local client drives are auto-created

during logon. Depending on the number of client drives you will

want to auto-create only what is needed. This can be done by

auto-creating only:

–

Local drives

–

Network drives

–

CDROM

–

Floppy

–

Citrix Policies is the best way to define what client drives are to

(20)

Slow Logon Times

MPS login and in return could slow the

–

COM & LPT ports –

by default MPS analyzes and auto-connects

any devices connected to COM and or LPT ports. Unless you

are using a device requiring one of those ports then it is a best

practice to disable it.

Citrix Policies are the best way to define what client drives are to

be auto-created and from whom.

Use the SMC Console found in the Citrix Server SDK –

www.citrix.com/cdn

–

COM & LPT ports –

by default MPS analyzes and auto-connects

any devices connected to COM and or LPT ports. Unless you

are using a device requiring one of those ports then it is a best

practice to disable it.

Citrix Policies are the best way to define what client drives are to

be auto-created and from whom.

Use the SMC Console found in the Citrix Server SDK –

(21)

Slow Logon Times

Profiles

Slow Logon Times

Profiles

A profile exists for all users logging it to a

Terminal Services box and in most cases

slow logons are caused by large and

unmanaged profiles.

Decide upon what the best type of profile is

for your environment

–

Mandatory

–

Roaming

–

Hybrid

–

Flex

A profile exists for all users logging it to a

Terminal Services box and in most cases

slow logons are caused by large and

unmanaged profiles.

Decide upon what the best type of profile is

for your environment

–

Mandatory

–

Roaming

–

Hybrid

(22)

What to do about slow logon times?

Profiles

Verify the size of a users profile

Verify what information is being stored in a

profile. Some of the common items that chew

up a lot of space are:

–

Temporary Internet Files

–

Temp files

–

Desktop data

–

My Documents

Microsoft Active Directory item direction

works great for addressing these issues

(found as a GPO)

Verify the size of a users profile

Verify what information is being stored in a

profile. Some of the common items that chew

up a lot of space are:

–

Temporary Internet Files

–

Temp files

–

Desktop data

–

My Documents

(23)

Profiles

Look into 3

rd

party profile replacements:

–

Simplify Profile (RegSet) – from triCerat, Inc.

http://www.tricerat.com

–

Flex Profile – Log.In Constants

http://www.loginconsultants.nl

–

Custom solution – Citrix Consulting Services

Contact your local Citrix partner or visit the Citrix Consulting Booth

Use Microsoft’s User’s Profile Hive Cleaner

(UPHClean) to remove stuck profiles from the

users registry

Look into 3

rd

party profile replacements:

–

Simplify Profile (RegSet) – from triCerat, Inc.

http://www.tricerat.com

–

Flex Profile – Log.In Constants

http://www.loginconsultants.nl

–

Custom solution – Citrix Consulting Services

Contact your local Citrix partner or visit the Citrix Consulting Booth

(24)

What to do about slow logon times?

Programs Launching at Startup

Identify applications and services being

started during logon:

–

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\

CurrentVersion\Winlogon\

Value: AppSetup

Data: This is a comma-separated list of executables that run

at session startup

–

Key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Value: The name of a program to run

Data: The path of the program to run

–

Startup folder for both user and all users

Identify applications and services being

started during logon:

–

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\

CurrentVersion\Winlogon\

Value: AppSetup

Data: This is a comma-separated list of executables that run

at session startup

–

Key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Value: The name of a program to run

Data: The path of the program to run

(25)

What to do about slow logon times?

Login Scripts

Login script – Over time login scripts can

become big, cumbersome and littered with a

slew of conditionals that can slow down a

users login considerably.

It is a best practice to go through all login

scripts and consolidate what is possible and

remove what is not needed!

Login script – Over time login scripts can

become big, cumbersome and littered with a

slew of conditionals that can slow down a

users login considerably.

It is a best practice to go through all login

(26)

Performance Guard®

(27)

End user PCs connecting via ICA Client

Citrix MetaFrame Windows 2000/3

Back end systems

Performance data Latency,

Round Trip Deviation, Bytes Sent/Received

…

Response Time, Request per Second, Sent/Received Bytes, Connections Resent

….

Performance Guard Citrix

Architecture

(28)

Process Information

Standard Measurements

Latency

Roundtrip Deviation

Sent / Received Bytes

Received / Sec

Login time

User Session Information

Backend Response Time

Error Transmissions

Process Information

CPU

Memory

Thread

Disk Read / Write I/O

Features

Alarms

Top 10

SLA Reports

Trends

History

(29)

Performance Guard at Work

Network problems

Response time elevated

for both applications

Application problems

(30)

Comparison Across Locations

(31)

SAP Fat vs. Thin Client

Blue is SAP accessed form the web client

(32)

Top 20 Server Traffic help with Load

Balancing

(33)

Concurrent Users & Sent Bytes

(34)

Citrix Server CPU Ulitization

(35)

Response time vs. # of requests

(36)

ERP Users Experiencing Response

Times of 50 ms

(37)

Citrix Users Experiencing Response

Times below 50 ms

(38)

Ongoing SLA Monitoring / Application

Utilization

(39)

A Close look at Citrix

Autocreated Printers

(40)

ICA Printing Virtual Channel

ICA

Transport

Protocol

Client Printer Mapping

Client Drive Mapping

ICA Display

Client LPT Port Mapping

Downstream Audio

ICA

Protocol

can

support

for up to

32 virtual

channels

Printing over ICA uses a unique virtual channel

(41)

(42)

Printer Definitions

Auto-created

(Requires the client network)

–

Locally Attached

–

Info stored in HKLM

–

Locally Defined

–

Info stored in the user’s profile

Autoconnected

–

Imported print queues assigned to users

–

Retained in the data store

Manually Mapped

–

Mapped from inside the session

–

Retained in the users’ profile

–

HKCU/Printers/Connections

Auto-created

–

Locally Attached

–

Info stored in HKLM

–

Locally Defined

–

Info stored in the user’s profile

Autoconnected

–

Imported print queues assigned to users

–

Retained in the data store

Manually Mapped

–

Mapped from inside the session

(43)

Printer Autocreation

•

Server Requests the printer

information

•

Wfica indexes and enumerates

the client’s printer information.

•

The ICA virtual channels are

used to communicate with the

server. (CTXCTL)

SD

ESC

DLT

(44)

Printer Autocreation: Client Side

The basic questions MPS needs to be answered……

–

What port?

–

Printer name?

–

Which print driver?

Answered by Wfica(ICA client engine)

The basic questions MPS needs to be answered……

–

What port?

–

Printer name?

–

Which print driver?

(45)

Printer User Interface (on local client)

–

Locally Attached

– Black Ice PDF Writer – Canon Bubble-Jet – Panasonic KX-P6500

–

Locally Defined

(46)

Auto-created

–

Locally Attached

–

Info stored in

(47)

Auto-created

–

Locally Defined

(48)

Printer Autocreation: Server Side

Session Initialization Autocreated Printers Allowed? Approved? OR Mapped?

Driver Match in

Registry? Silent Install? Organized Printer Data Printer Already Exist? Build Print Queue Additional Printers? End Process NO NO NO NO YES YES YES NO YES YES NO

Complete Auto-creation process!

FR2

–

A driver can only be mapped OR

restricted.

FR3 & MPS3

–

A print driver can be restricted

AND

M

apped

(49)

Client informs the server what virtual

channels it supports.

Wfshell: IMA flags are checked

–

Per server or per farm restrictions

–

Check for Feature Release license

Ctxlogon:

–

Asynchronous or Synchronous

Wfshell:

–

List the client side printers

–

Get the user’s SID

Client informs the server what virtual

channels it supports.

Wfshell: IMA flags are checked

–

Per server or per farm restrictions

–

Check for Feature Release license

Ctxlogon:

–

Asynchronous or Synchronous

Wfshell:

–

List the client side printers

–

Get the user’s SID

(50)

Wfshell:

–

Checks to see if the printer is allowed

–

Determines if printer info resides in Profile

–

Checks for the printer in HKLM\CCS\Cntrl\Print\

Printers

–

Calls are made to build the printer

Cdmprov.dll: Calls into Spoolsv.exe

–

Locates the server driver

–

Checks for mapping

–

Checks for native driver

Wfshell:

–

Checks to see if the printer is allowed

–

Determines if printer info resides in Profile

–

Checks for the printer in HKLM\CCS\Cntrl\Print\

Printers

–

Calls are made to build the printer

–

Locates the server driver

–

Checks for mapping

–

Checks for native driver

(51)

Driver Match in

Registry?

Silent Install?

Build Print

Queue

NO

YES

–

Locates the server driver

–

Registry HKLM\CCS\CNTRL\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers\Version-3\

printer model name

–

Silent Install

(52)

•

With FR3 & MPS 3.0 you can disable the silent install process

(53)

Try avoiding version-2 kernel mode drivers

Give users write access to %systemroot%\system\spool to

handle third-party printer drivers that are not 100% TS aware

NEVER install untested printer drivers on a production

server/farm

Do not install ALL native printer drivers on the server (unneeded

growth of the datastore, and will slow down logon performance)

Use mappings when available

Use UPD when at all possible

Scheduled spooler restart and spool dir cleanup during server

reboot is fighting problem symptoms, not the problem source

Try avoiding version-2 kernel mode drivers

Give users write access to %systemroot%\system\spool to

handle third-party printer drivers that are not 100% TS aware

NEVER install untested printer drivers on a production

server/farm

Do not install ALL native printer drivers on the server (unneeded

growth of the datastore, and will slow down logon performance)

Use mappings when available

Use UPD when at all possible

Scheduled spooler restart and spool dir cleanup during server

reboot is fighting problem symptoms, not the problem source

Best Practices on Keeping a Stable Spooler

(54)

Advanced Print Manager™

Terminal Services Printer Driver Management

(55)

Terminal Services Printer Driver Management

Complete Printer

Driver error

monitoring and

mapping solution

Perform in minutes

what can take hours

or even days

Designed to monitor

the following

solutions:

–

Citrix® MetaFrame®

Presentation Server

–

Microsoft® Windows®

Terminal Services

Complete Printer

Driver error

monitoring and

mapping solution

Perform in minutes

what can take hours

or even days

Designed to monitor

the following

solutions:

–

Citrix® MetaFrame®

Presentation Server

–

Microsoft® Windows®

(56)

Advanced Print Manager™

“Heck, this is my presentation and I can do what I

want and now I want to not bore you with any

more PowerPoint so I will show you the goods…”

- Douglas Brown

“Heck, this is my presentation and I can do what I

want and now I want to not bore you with any

(57)

On Sale NOW!

For sales & pricing

information please

email:

[email protected]

and or visit:

www.dabcc.com/apm

On Sale NOW!

For sales & pricing

information please

email:

[email protected]

and or visit:

www.dabcc.com/apm

To download an evaluation please

(58)

Any Questions?

(59)