Citrix^® measurements differ from a normal PerformanceGuard setup by not having PerformanceGuard agents installed on client computers, but instead having them installed on the Citrix servers. This is because the ICA protocol used by Citrix doesn't follow the request-response pattern that's the basis of PerformanceGuard response time measurement.

An extract from www.citrix.com explains:

Citrix ICA stands for Citrix^® Independent Computing Architecture. It is the "thin" protocol that enables Citrix to separate screen updates and user input processing from the rest of the application's logic. When using a Citrix ICA Client, all application logic executes on the server and only screen updates, mouse movements and keystrokes are transmitted via the Citrix ICA session.

PerformanceGuard Citrix measurement is supported from Citrix MetaFrame on Terminal Server Edition, Advanced Server and Windows 2003 Server.

A Typical Citrix Environment

A typical Citrix environment that consists of ICA Clients on users' computers, Citrix servers as well as SAP, mail and file servers. The Citrix servers—not the clients—have PerformanceGuard agents that send performance data to PerformanceGuard.

What Does PerformanceGuard Measure on Citrix Systems?

PerformanceGuard agents on Citrix servers are able to measure:

• The quality of Citrix sessions in terms of:
  • Latency in milliseconds, that is the time it takes for packets to travel from the client to the Citrix server and back
  • Total number of bytes sent from the Citrix server
  • Total number of bytes received by the Citrix server
  • Maximum number of bytes sent from the Citrix server per second
  • Maximum number of bytes received by the Citrix server per second
• Citrix session startup time: The time in milliseconds between the user connecting to the Citrix and the user being logged in to the Citrix session.
• Processes that run on the Citrix server.

View Citrix Performance Information

If you measure Citrix performance, there's plenty of information available depending on your needs:

• Citrix server performance top list
• IP traffic on a Citrix server
• Processes that run on a Citrix server (see also Computer Process Table)
• Usage counters (CPU, memory, ...) for a Citrix server
• Compare all Citrix servers
• Citrix session activity
• Citrix session activity on subnets
• Citrix session quality
• Compare Citrix session quality trends
• Citrix session traffic, latency and startup times
• Compare Citrix session quality against latency, application data, etc.
• Users who've had Citrix sessions with a period of time