Almost everyone who uses virtual applications and desktops has heard of Citrix. Citrix has helped many enterprises to make the jump to virtualized services and reduce the need for expensive hardware. Now that more companies use virtual services it’s important to adopt tools that can monitor those services.
Here is our list of the seven best Citrix monitoring tools:
- SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (FREE TRIAL) Server and application monitoring tool that can monitor Citrix Virtual Apps and Virtual Desktops. It comes with graphs and an email/SMS alert system.
- ManageEngine Applications Manager (FREE TRIAL) Application monitoring software with monitoring for Citrix Virtual Apps. It monitors information including status, transaction time, number of requests processed, database connections, and more.
- eG Enterprise (FREE TRIAL) Performance monitoring software with support for Citrix Virtual Apps and Virtual Desktops. It monitors session disconnects, packet loss, errors, and more. It includes automatic root-cause diagnosis.
- Paessler PRTG Network Monitor Free network monitoring tool with sensors for monitoring Citrix. It includes a custom alerts system with email, SMS, push, and Slack notifications.
- ControlUp Network monitoring tool that can monitor Citrix Virtual Apps and Virtual Desktops. It monitors performance, compares server configurations at a glance, and more.
- Dynatrace Application performance monitor with automatic application discovery. Monitors CPU, memory, traffic, user load, and more. It can also monitor physical resources that support your Citrix services for any indication of performance degradation.
- SysKit Monitor Server and application monitor that can automatically detect Citrix servers. It monitors performance data such as CPU usage, memory usage, IO reads, IO writes, and more.
The Best Citrix Monitoring Tools
1. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (FREE TRIAL)
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is a server and application monitoring tool that allows you to monitor Citrix Virtual Apps and Virtual Desktops. Metrics you can monitor include CPU load, CPU usage, performance counters, processes, services, end-user experience, and more.
The monitoring experience is highly visual with lots of visualization options like graphs and charts from which to choose. For example, you can generate a graph of CPU load and see how the value changes over time through the dashboard. If you want something that’s easier to read then you can view CPU load as a dial.
Configurable alerts allow you to make sure that you never miss important performance events. You can configure alerts to produce email and SMS notifications. Alerts are threshold-based that let you know when VM performance reaches a problematic level.
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor functions well as both a Citrix monitoring tool and as a general server monitoring solution. You can build the entire monitoring experience around your environment and your preferences. The platform starts at $2,995 (£2,275). You can download the 30-day free trial.
2. ManageEngine Applications Manager (FREE TRIAL)
ManageEngine Applications Manager is an application monitoring tool with Citrix Virtual Apps or Citrix Virtual Apps monitoring. Information you can monitor includes status, transaction time, number of requests processed, database connections, XML broker loads, and more.
Monitoring end-user experience with the ManageEngine Application Manager is also incredibly simple. You can click on the End User Experience tab to monitor user experience of user-profiles using applications on a Citrix Virtual Apps server. Here you can see how long it took to authenticate a user. If you click on the Session Performance tab you can view the amount of latency the user experienced.
To ensure a responsive monitoring experience, ManageEngine Applications Manager has configurable alarms. You can set alarm thresholds so that you receive a notification when an application experiences performance issues. For example, if an application’s latency crosses 75%. Notifications can be sent by email, SMS, and trap.
Overall, ManageEngine Applications Manager is great for managing Citrix applications and delivering a high-quality user experience for users. You need to contact the company directly to view the pricing information for ManageEngine Applications Manager. You can download the 30-day free trial.
3. eG Enterprise (FREE TRIAL)
eG Enterprise, by eG Innovations, is a performance monitoring tool for enterprises that supports Citrix Virtual Apps, Virtual Desktops, Cloud, NetScaler, StoreFront, PVS, and more. eG Enterprise can be used to monitor the user experience of Citrix application users. The platform can detect issues like slow logons, session disconnects, and keystroke lag.
When it comes to monitoring Citrix Virtual Apps, you can view performance data and monitor session disconnects, packet loss, re-transmits, and errors in real-time. You’ll be able to see users who are experiencing a subpar user experience and take action to remedy the problem.
If there’s a problem in your environment then automatic root-cause diagnosis will show you why the problem has occurred. The software uses machine learning to detect which components in your infrastructure triggered alerts and list their severity. The root cause is marked as red and can be viewed on the topology map.
For Citrix licensing, eG Innovations charges per user. This works out to the price of a coffee per day (~$30/month). Other vendors charge per application session. If the user accesses Word, Outlook, and Excel through Citrix Virtual Apps, this makes three sessions, so you would be charged accordingly. With eG Enterprise, the user can have an unlimited number of sessions, only the user is charged. You can download the 30-day free trial.
4. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is an infrastructure monitoring software that is compatible with Citrix Hypervisor hosts and virtual machines. PRTG Network Monitor has a range of sensors that you can use to monitor various components of your Citrix environment.
For example, the PRTG Citrix Hypervisor Host Sensor allows you to monitor your host for CPU load, hard disk usage, memory utilization, and network utilization. If you want to take a closer look at the virtual machines themselves then you can do so with the Citrix Hypervisor Virtual Machine sensor. The sensor can monitor CPU usage, memory usage, read and write speed, and network load.
The alerts system allows you to set trigger conditions for notifications. For example, if the CPU load of host goes above a certain percentage then you can configure an alert to notify you. Notifications tell you when to take action to minimize the impact on your resources/users. Notifications are available via email, SMS, push notification, Slack message, SNMP trap, Syslog message, and more.
PRTG Network Monitor can be downloaded as a free tool if you’re using less than 100 sensors. There are paid versions available if you need more devices. The pricing model scales up according to the number of sensors you need to support. Prices start at $1,600 (£1,223.83) for 500 sensors. You can download a 30-day free trial.
5. ControlUp
ControlUp is a real-time infrastructure monitoring tool that can monitor all versions of Citrix Virtual Apps and Virtual Desktops. You can monitor your virtual environment through a table view that allows you to view performance at a glance. The layout also helps when it comes to application troubleshooting as well. You can compare configurations of servers so that if a server is failing you can find the root cause.
If there is a problem with an application then you can create a report to take a closer look at the problem. You can use reports to evaluate user experience, user activity, application activity, and resource usage to see how Citrix performance could be optimized.
If you’re looking to guarantee the best service not just for monitoring Citrix applications and servers but physical devices as well then ControlUp is worth investigating. Contact the company directly to request a quote. You can download the free trial version from this link here.
6. Dynatrace
Dynatrace is an application performance monitoring platform that can automatically discover applications and microservices. Dynatrace has an extension that provides in-depth monitoring capabilities for Citrix systems. Metrics you can monitor include CPU, memory, traffic, user load, screen latency, retransmissions, and connectivity.
When using Dynatrace, the Thin Client Analysis Module (TCAM) allows the user to monitor the physical resources that support Citrix Virtual Apps. Hardware data you can monitor include CPU utilization, physical disk utilization, memory utilization, number of terminal services sessions, and number of active terminal services sessions.
There are a number of features included with Dynatrace that help to optimize virtual resource usage. For instance, you can view the number of active Citrix sessions to see the load that Citrix servers are handling. Likewise, viewing screen latency tells you if users are experiencing performance degradation.
Dynatrace is a natural choice for enterprises in hybrid computing environments trying to maintain the performance of Citrix applications. However, you need to contact the company directly for a quote. Start a 15-day free trial.
7. SysKit Monitor
SysKit Monitor is a server and application monitoring solution with real-time Citrix monitoring. SysKit Monitorautomatically detects Citrix servers and enables the user to monitor user activity (login activity, session state), application usage, and server performance from one location. Performance data can be viewed as graphs so you can see how user activity and performance changes over time.
Where it comes to monitoring applications on a Citrix Virtual Apps server you can measure CPU usage, memory usage, IO reads, IO writes, and more. You can view these metrics live or look at historic data to help you identify when performance slips. There are also alerts to notify you when a performance event occurs that needs your attention.
There are three versions of SysKit Monitor available to purchase: Standard, Professional, and Enterprise. The Standard version starts at $199 (£152.22 per server. The Professional version starts at $299 (£228.71) per server with features like license reports and event log reports.
The Enterprise version costs $449 (£381.69) per server and includes features like performance reports and a web application. You can download the 30-day free trial.
Choosing a Citrix Monitoring Tool
If you’re using virtual resources then monitoring them is a must if you want to maximize long-term performance. We’ve listed some of the top Citrix monitoring tools on the market, to suit a variety of users. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise there’s a tool out there to meet your needs.
For smaller companies solutions like Paessler PRTG Network Monitor are a natural choice. In enterprises that are willing to spend more tools like SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor, ManageEngine Applications Manager, and Dynatrace act as all-in-one solutions for monitoring Citrix performance.
