One solution is synthetic user testing utilizing EG Innovations’ Citrix Logon Simulator (CLS) module. Testing from on prem or in the cloud, CLS utilizes a synthetic user which actively logs on to your environment with an interactive session to verify your users can get to the applications they need, as many times a day as you wish.
Got a complex NetScaler environment you want to make sure is functional? If your users go through it, so does the Citrix Logon Simulator (CLS) Synthetic user. Got a new FAS authentication solution keeping you up? The CLS Synthetic user will test that as it logs in to your environment every 15, 30, 45 minutes; or hourly! Is your network team always making firewall changes which could impact the Citrix service? Or are you just interested in user load time and want to see actual data for all times of the night? This service has it in spades, with active alerting when issues arise, and the data to back it up.
Figure 1 – Watch the EG CLS user click each step of the way – exactly the same as your users
The CLS Simulation clicks through each portion of the logon process and records the duration of each step. From launching storefront, to logging in (even with MFA!), to waiting for your apps to load – you can visibly watch it perform each step. This gives you excellent data on how your environment is performing day and night.
Figure 2 Each step is recorded in detail
It also can be an invaluable troubleshooting tool – giving your technicians a clear indicator of where the logons failed, immensely speeding up troubleshooting when problems do occur.
Figure 3 Failures are easy to spot
Reporting is excellent – with multiple months of data for each step – critical to know if it’s business as usual or detecting trends of improvement or decline and helping you to prove the user experience of your systems.
Figure 4 Recording of the Application Enumeration time shows how your Controllers are responding to requests
Figure 5 Detailed reporting on length of logon time, separated out form all other activities
Concerned about a certain Published Application not always launching correctly, but no way to tell when or why using your current tools? CLS does that too – launching Published Applications with an optional add-on module to interact with them. Using this, CLS can perform complex tests such as opening Outlook and sending an email, or logging onto an ERM product with a third-party credential and then browsing records to fully verify the functionality of an app. Multiple apps can be tested and compared next to each other to truly understand the performance differential, if it exists. Multiple datacenter’s can also be easily compared – showing differences between your user experience depending on the location.
Figure 6 – Easily digestible comparisons between Published Applications in the same datacenter, or different!
As it authenticates, enumerates, and logs in – CLS spends 24 hours a day proving the functionality of your Citrix stack, not just if the servers are “up”. Utilizing this data, you can be confident in the reliability of your service, ease troubleshooting if issues arise, and provide reporting to those upstairs to prove it. I wouldn’t want to be without it in any production environment.
What are you waiting for? Get simulating!
