How to Make Citrix Logons Faster?

© eG Innovations, Inc. | www.eginnovations.com
How to Make Citrix Logons Faster?
Best Practices for Citrix Logon Time Optimization

Meet Your Moderator
• Questions are welcome through the course of the webinar
─ Use the questions panel on the GoToWebinar chat client to type in your queries
• This webinar is being recorded. You will receive a link to the recording in a few days.
Webinar Logistics
Product marketer for Citrix/VDI monitoring solutions.
Contributing author to various technology publications.
vinod.mohan@eginnovations.com | www.eginnovations.com
Vinod Mohan
Sr. Product Marketing Manager,
eG Innovations

Citrix Logon: The #1 Problem for Citrix Admins
Source: 2018 Citrix Migration Survey
www.eginnovations.com/Citrix-Migration-Trends
Rule of 30 – If your logon times are:
• Under 30 seconds  you’re doing well
• Longer than 30 seconds  something is
probably not quite right

Citrix Logon Slowness: Business Impact
• Slowness at every logon affects the productivity for the
end user
– Healthcare clinicians maybe logging into their terminals
multiple times in a day when they go for patient rounds
• When multiple users log in simultaneously, logon
slowness will affect everyone
– In a factory where a shift starts, hundreds of employees
could be logging in at the same time, causing logon storms

Meet Your Speaker
George Spiers
Citrix Technology Professional
and EUC Architect
Citrix Certified Expert and Microsoft Solutions
Expert. One of the 50 CTPs in the world.
george@jgspiers.com | www.jgspiers.com
 Why are Citrix logons slow?
 How can you make Citrix logons faster?
 How to monitor and detect Citrix logon problems?
Key Questions Answered in this Webinar

Understanding the
Citrix Logon Process
and Implications of
Logon Slowness

What Happens When There is Citrix Logon Slowness?
Users start to complain that their Citrix logons have suddenly become very slow
Helpdesk starts getting user complaints
Helpdesk alerts the Citrix administration team
• Are all users affected or only some?
• Are affected users from a particular area/office?
• Do affected users use particular profiles, applications, or desktops?
• Are there any consistencies or patterns?
Citrix admins begin investigating the cause for logon slowness

What Happens When There is Citrix Logon Slowness?
User experience is
affected
Pressure is on IT to
resolve the problem
Depending on severity
root cause analysis may
take place
Measures will be
drafted to help prevent
reoccurrence
The Consequence

What Causes Citrix Logon Times to Increase?
• Large user profiles
• Many applications are loaded on to Citrix desktops through
App Layering or versioning
• High user density on hypervisors, contending for the same
resources
1
2
3
Before: 30-second logon times, 5000 logons per week = 41.6 hours
After: 45-second logon times, 5000 logons per week = 62.5 hours

How Do I Know When Logons are Slow?
• Your users will generally inform you, but it is always better to be proactive.
Don’t let the user be your alert!
• Citrix Director provides
– Average logon duration
over the past hour
– Logon duration reports
– Alerts if logons breach
defined thresholds
(subject to licensing)

How Do I Know When Logons are Slow? (contd.)
• Third-party Citrix monitoring solutions can enhance your
ability to be proactive by:
– Testing logons to your applications and desktops
– Alerting when infrastructure is down or under stress, which
could impact logon times
– Providing deeper visibility than Director
– Identifying the root cause of logon slowness

Different Interpretations of Citrix Logon Times
• In XenApp and XenDesktop 7.x, Citrix logon processing is split between the XenApp Server
/ virtual desktop, the Delivery Controller, and the Windows OS
– Looking only at logon metrics from the Windows OS will not be sufficient
– Citrix Director provides visibility from Brokering to Interactive Session
– Logon time has to be measured every step of the way across the Citrix stack and Windows OS
Browser access  StoreFront/NetScaler Gateway connection  Authentication  Enumeration
on StoreFront  Application/Desktop Launch  Session Brokering  HDX Authentication to VDA
 Profile Loading  GPO Processing  Logon Script Execution  Desktop Appears
Synthetic simulation techniques can track logon processing from end to end

Logon Differences Between XenApp and XenDesktop
Launch
Desktop
Server OS
DDC brokers connection
to list of online and
registered pooled
desktop (best available)
GPOs
Profile load, etc.
Finish/desktop
landing screen
Desktop OS
Persistent User
DDC brokers
connection to
desktop
Is desktop
online and
registered?
No
Desktop is
powered on
GPOs
Profile load etc.
Finish/desktop
landing screen
Yes
GPOs
Profile load etc.
Finish/desktop
landing screen
Non-persistent
User
DDC brokers connection
to non-persistent online
and registered desktop
(best available)
GPOs
Profile load etc.
Finish/desktop
landing screen
Logons between VDI Desktop
OS & Server OS VDAs generally
take the same routes

Best Practices to Improve
Citrix XenApp and
XenDesktop Logon Times
Windows Optimization
Infrastructure Optimization
Citrix Optimization

Consider Using Auto-Logon Accounts
• This will allow the second real user who
logs on to benefit from quicker logon
times
• Sysinternals can be used to configure
auto-logon
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/sysinternals/downloads/autologon
• Have an account auto-logon after VDA reboots
– Most useful for Server OS VDAs

Use Image Optimizations
• Optimizing an image can shave 20 to 30 seconds off your logon times straight away
Before After
• Image optimization is the practice of tweaking the Windows OS by
turning off unneeded services, scheduled tasks and performing
other tweaks to the OS to improve performance and reduce logon
times for the end-user

Use Image Optimizations (contd.)
• Optimizing is not a one-off procedure, you have to constantly optimize your
images
• New software can install Scheduled Tasks, Services or registry keys that
enable automatic updates or collect data. Prepare, plan, install!
• After installing new software, check these areas:
─ Search the internet, there may be installation guides or general
guidance specific to Citrix environments for the application
that you are installing

Use Image Optimizations (contd.)
• Helpful scripts and tools for optimizing your operating system:
These scripts disable services and scheduled tasks and modify the
registry to optimize system performance on Windows Server 2016
and 2012 R2 running in a Citrix SBC environment
 Windows Server 2016 Optimization Script
www.jgspiers.com/windows-server-2016-optimisation-script/
 Windows Server 2012 R2 Optimization Script
www.jgspiers.com/windows-server-2012-r2-optimisation-script/
 Citrix Optimizer
https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX224676
A PowerShell-based Windows tool to help Citrix admins optimize the
Windows operating system with VDAs

Avoid Logon Scripts
• Logon scripts have a detrimental effect on logon times
• What is the script doing? Can it be moved to a Scheduled Task?
Use the “Configure Logon Script Delay” Group Policy setting
to delay scripts from running until X amount of minutes
after a user has logged on:
Computer Configuration  Policies  Administrative Templates
 System  Group Policy  Configure Logon Script Delay

Keep Group Policy at a Minimum
• Can you justify each policy setting?
• Regularly review Group Policy settings to confirm
they still need to apply
• Merge Group Policy settings under a minimum
number of objects as possible

Avoid Mapping Too Many Network Drives
• Network drive sprawl is common in enterprise environments
• Networks paths that do not exist will affect logon times. House
keeping is important!
• Can you provide top level drives that serve sub-folders controlled
by permissions and access-based enumeration?
• Use Citrix WEM

Avoid Mapping Too Many Printers
• Print queues can get into 1000’s in enterprise environments
• Printer queues pointing to an invisible print server will affect logon
time. Housekeeping is important!
• When passing through printers, Citrix Universal Printer helps
• Use Citrix WEM

Reduce the Number of Applications that Run at Logon
• Autoruns by Sysinternals can be used to check what will run during logon
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

Hypervisor and Storage Recommendations
• Tune the performance of your hypervisors to improve logon time
Hypervisor Useful Links
Power Settings in Citrix XenServer: C-states,
Turbo and CPU frequency
https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX200390
Performance best practices for VMware
vSphere 6.5
https://www.vmware.com/techpapers/2017/Perf_Best_Practices_vS
phere65.html
Performance tuning Microsoft Hyper-V servers https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-
server/administration/performance-tuning/role/hyper-v-server/index
• Use flash storage for your Citrix desktops
– You do not want storage to be a constraining factor during peak load
such as logons during the morning
– Hyperconverged storage (Nutanix) is a good way to go

Active Directory Recommendations
• Active Directory Sites and Services, if incorrectly configured, could impact
logon times.
– For example, you have a UK office subnet associated with your New York Site/Domain
Controllers
• Make sure, as subnets are added,
they are correctly assigned to the
closest Domain Controllers/Site in
your organization

Antivirus Recommendations
• Review the best
practices around
antivirus exclusions,
as they could have a
positive impact on
logons
Product Exclusion
Provisioning Services Server
• ARDBP32.BIN
• StreamService.exe
• StreamProcess.exe
Provisioning Services Target Device
• Vdiskdif.vhdx
• PvsVmAgent.exe
Client/Server OS VDA
• UserProfileManager.exe
• Winlogon.exe
*Always consult with your security team before excluding.
More thorough list: https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2016/12/02/citrix-recommended-
antivirus-exclusions/

Use Session Prelaunch (7.6+)
• Session is pre-prepared when user logs on to StoreFront
• When user clicks to launch application, the majority―if not entire―logon process
would have already completed in background
Delivery Controller & Brokering
• Not always will a user launch a XenApp
application straight away, they may check
emails. In the meantime, let XenApp prepare
the session in the background.
• Prelaunch is enabled by Delivery Group to all users
or subset
• If user does not launch application, session can be
ended after ‘x’ mins/hrs/days
• Receiver for Windows must be installed (SSON
recommended) with EnablePreLaunch=True
Points to note:

Keep an Eye Out for Unregistered Desktops
Problem Effect Best Practice
Unregistered Server VDAs
Reduces the pool of available desktops. Leads
to resource contention amongst users. Set up alerting and
automated actions
for unregistered
desktops
Unregistered Non-Persistent
Desktop VDAs
Unregistered Persistent
Desktop VDAs
Reduces the pool of available desktops. May
cause denial or service for users.
 Director can alert when desktops are unregistered (Platinum feature)
 Third-party tools can take automated action when desktops are unregistered

Implement Brokering Improvements (7.11+)
• Improvements to Latency and SQL Blocking Query
Before XA/XD 7.11
(90ms latency)
XA/XD 7.11+
(90ms latency)
Brokering requests per sec 3.7 12.6
Time to launch 10k users 44m 55s 13m 10s
• Zones (7.7+) allow you to group Delivery Controllers
and VDAs together
 Quicker brokering = quicker logons!

Leverage Caching Optimizations in PVS and MCS
For PVS, use “Cache in device RAM
with overflow on hard disk”
For MCS, use “RAM Cache”
(XenDesktop 7.9+)
PVS & MCS
 Reduces amount of Write IOPS from reaching disk
 Instead IOPS write to RAM on each Target Device
 This will have a positive effect on logons

Take Care of Elastic Layers – Citrix App Layering
• You don’t want to add a 2GB layer as an Elastic Layer
– The likes of Google Chrome, DYMO print label software and scanning software typically have minimal
affect on user logon times
Elastic Layers are mapped to a users session at logon.
The larger the layer, the longer it may take a user to log on!
App Layering
• Make sure the Elastic Layer file share runs off
a file server with a 10GB network to the VDA,
and uses SMB3
• Make sure the share is highly available
─ Unreachable file shares impact logon time

Use Citrix Profile Management: Excluding Files & Folders
Exclude files and directories from synchronizing to the Citrix profile store.
Smaller profile size = quicker logon
You don’t necessarily need to roam everything under the profile!
• Exclusion List – files (CPM v2.0+)
• Enable Default Exclusion List –
directories (CPM v5.5+)
• Exclusion List – directories (CPM v2.0+)
Policy settings:
Citrix Profile Management

Use Citrix Profile Management (3.0+): Profile Streaming
• Streaming filter driver is used to stream files and folders when needed,
rather than cache the entire profile at once
• Registry hive is cached fully
Note:
This cannot be used with App-V
if using “User Publishing Refresh
On Logon”!

Use Citrix Profile Management (5.7.+): Logon Exclusion Check
• You can only predict to a degree which files and folders to exclude from the beginning
• Use Logon Exclusion Check to exclude files and folders from ever reaching the VDA
again
• CPM 5.7 allows you to exclude file/folder from
synchronization
• CPM 5.8 allows you to do the same or else
delete files/folder from Store
Points to Note:

Using Citrix Workspace Environment Management
• WEM is Citrix’s Performance Management and User Environment Management tool for
all XA/XD Enterprise and Platinum Customers
• Reduces logon duration by up to 20-40%
– User logon is enabled first
– After that, other processing steps (such
as profile loading) are executed
• Uses intelligent resource and profile
management to deliver the best possible
user experience and application
response time
• Analyzes user and application behavior in
real time, and intelligently adjusts RAM,
CPU, and I/O in the user workspace
environmentWEM agents are installed on server and desktop VDAs
Workspace Environment Management

How Citrix WEM Works
With WEM
Without WEM
All the processing is
done after logon
Logon speed is
improved
All the processing steps happen before logon

Using WEM Actions to Reduce Logon Time
• Actions are objects such as
Printers, Network Drives and
Registry Entries
– That can be applied to user
sessions AFTER they have
logged on
– Rules and conditions make
assignments flexible

Using WEM Actions to Reduce Logon Time ─ Example 1
Create registry objects which will be stored in HKCU

Using WEM Actions to Reduce Logon Time ─ Example 2
Create printer objects which will map to each session

Using WEM CPU Management: Spikes Protection
• WEM makes it easier to protect your CPUs and users
• One bad process running on a shared desktop could affect the next users
logging on
• Use CPU Spikes Protection to
place a cap on how much
CPU % a process can
consume

Using WEM I/O Management
• WEM has the ability to weed
out and tame bad processes
• Intelligent Optimization
monitors how often a process
triggers Spike Protection and
can lower the priority next
time that process is launched

From Logon Optimization to Logon Monitoring
• Best practices help optimize your infrastructure
and make Citrix logons faster
• When some settings change and new variables
are introduced in the environment, Citrix logon
time is bound to be affected
Monitor
Detect
Resolve
Report
Optimize
 Citrix admins need an effective monitoring
strategy to proactively identify logon time
slowness before end users start complaining
Citrix
Logon

In-Depth Citrix Logon
Monitoring
with eG Enterprise

Synthetic Logon Simulation for Proactive Monitoring
Track logon availability
and performance 24x7
and identify slowness
Identify the cause of
logon slowness

Monitoring Real User Logon Performance
• View logon metrics from XenApp
server and Delivery Controller side
by side
• Diagnose which step is causing
slowness: brokering, interactive
session processing, user profile
loading, logon script execution, etc.
• Easily identify if logon processing
slowness is in the client side or
server side
• Track down the Group Policy
Client-Side Extension that is taking
high processing time

Monitoring Logon Processing by Citrix WEM
Citrix Director only shows
interactive session time. This
does not include WEM agent
processing time.
eG Enterprise monitors
initial processing and WEM
agent processing
Monitor WEM’s external
task processing messages
and identify which task
took more time to execute

Monitoring Large User Profiles
Get alerted to logon
slowness due to large
user profiles
Drill down to see which
of the profiles is large

For more information
On Citrix logon monitoring,
contact eG Innovations:
www.eginnovations.com
info@eginnovations.com
On Citrix logon optimization,
contact George Spiers:
www.jgspiers.com
george@jgspiers.com

Thank You!
https://citrixready.citrix.com/program/webinar/
eg-innovations1.html?pcode=eG
June 26, 2018

How to Make Citrix Logons Faster?

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