XenApp logons and published application usage per user

Summary

This report shows user logons and published applications usage for individual users.

Report depends on the following data collecting rule(s):

Report requires XenApp MP Agent installed on Zone Data Collectors.

To add custom user based events from event log, you need to enable "Publish Custom User Activity Event Log Messages DW" rule and override "LogName" parameter (and optional exclude parameters).

Understanding logon process and description of logon phases

User logon is a complex and resource intensive process on a Citrix XenApp Server system. It is initiated when Citrix farm load balancing algorithm selects the system where published application that user has selected will be started, and ends when the application is running and the user is able to interact with it.

Logon process is broken down into five phases.

Phase 1: User profile loading

The phase starts just after the user credentials are validated and lasts until the profile is downloaded from the profile storage (network share).

Phase 2: Applying group policy objects (GPOs)

During this phase the server applies user settings defined on the Domain Controller.

Phase 3: User environment initialization and Active Setup

During this phase network connections are restored and profile settings, such as fonts and screen colors, are loaded. Also, if this is the first time this profile is being used, some extra initialization is applied. The default profile is created, first time use settings are applied for the shell (Explorer), Internet Explorer, Office (particularly Outlook) and any other application that uses Active Setup.

Phase 4: Logon script execution

The phase is measured by how long the USRLOGON.CMD script (located in %SystemRoot%\system32) is being executed. The script’s original function is to address issues with legacy applications that were not written with a multi-user environment, such as Terminal Server, in mind. It uses application compatibility scripts (located in %SystemRoot%\Application Compatibility Scripts) in conjunction with the %ROOTDRIVE% variable to address these issues. USRLOGON.CMD script is also used as a starting point for custom profile frameworks (i.e. not supported by Microsoft), such as Flex or Jumping profiles.

Phase 5: Citrix Application initialization

The phase covers Citrix specific activity before it launches the requested application: launching seamless windows engine shell, auto creation of client printers and ICA client update process.