Powershell Script to monitor Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.x Health

Like my previous script for monitoring a XenApp 6.5 Farm, this script is based on the scripts written by David Ott and Jason Poyner. I decided to add to these foundations and make it something that can be used throughout the day.

I created this as an easy way for Citrix Admins and others Admins and/or Users to get a quick look of the current XenDesktop and XenApp usage as well as the basic health of the XenApp Servers, Sessions, Latency, etc. I use it as an augment to Citrix Director. 

This is in no way meant to be used for a deployment of more than 10 XenApp Servers or 50 XenDesktop Computers, but it's up to you, of course.

The page will provide with some basic reporting. Some of the reports may not be useful for Dynamic Deployments that use Provisioning Services or Machine Creation Services. 

The script features the following:

• Shows a table of the each XenApp Servers stats, such as average CPU and Memory usage, sessions, Server Uptime, Registration State, Maintenance State, Agent Version, and Pending Reboot. 
  
  
  
• Shows if the Application or System Event Logs on the XenApp Servers has any Critical or Errors Events during a configurable time span. The events can be filtered based on key phrases in the messages portion of the Event. There is a text file named EventstoIgnore.txt used for excluding Event Descriptions that you want to ignore. Partial entries can be used, examples provided. Clicking on the field will pull up a window showing snippets from the logs.
  
  
  
• Shows how many Services are not running, per server. This can be configured to monitor which services are important to you. There is a text file named ServicestoMonitor.txt used for adding names of the service(s) to monitor. Partial names are accepted, examples are provided. Clicking on the field will pull up a window showing which services are not running.
  
  
• Shows Total XenDesktop and XenApp Sessions and License Usage as well as how many session failures have occurred in the last 15 minutes and how many unregistered computers that are not in maintenance mode. Alerts will be emailed if there are more than 5 session failures or 5 unregistered computers, by default, which can be changed to what ever you like.
  
  
• Shows a Graph for current Sessions, Total, Active and Disconnected. Clicking on the chart will show a window with the current sessions. There is a chart for XenDesktop Sessions and one for XenApp Sessions.
  
  
  
• Shows a graph of the Top 10 Latency in any of the Sessions over 10ms. There is a chart for XenDesktop Sessions and one for XenApp Sessions.
  
  
  I find this useful when a remote user, or sometimes a local user, calls and says everything is responding slowly in their Session. The first thing I look at is the latency chart since I support remote users that connect using the Internet and Wide Area Networks.
  
  In addition to the charts, the script will alert you if there are 5 or more sessions that are over 300ms latency. The number of sessions and the latency value can be changed via a variable in the User Variables section. I use this as a heads up that there is either Internet and/or Wide Area Network congestion.
  
  
• Includes basic reports such as XenDesktop and XenApp usage, Citrix Receiver Versions, XenDesktops not used in last 60 days, all XenDesktop and XenApp Delivery Groups, and all XenApp Published Applications, etc.
  

Before you begin: 

The User Variables Section has values that need to be set before running the script. Each variable is annotated in the script.

The script has several arguments that I broke up to increase the speed at which you can collect stats. The Latency and XenApp info can take some time to run depending on the number of Servers, Desktops and/or Sessions.

What I do is schedule the different arguments to run at different time spans. For example, I run the Latency arguments once a minute. I run the "XAInfo" once every fifteen minutes and the "Current" argument once every two minutes.

Valid Arguments for the script are: FirstRun, RunReports, XDLatency, XALatency, XAInfo or Current. 

A description of each is listed below:

• FirstRun: This will run all routines of the script. This will run every part of the script in order to populate all required files for the HTML page to display correctly. This only needs to be ran once.
  
  Usage: XDandXAHealth.ps1 FirstRun
  Task Schedule Note: This does not need to be scheduled, it is ran manually one time. Be sure to run it from the folder in which the script is located.
  
  
• RunReports: This will run Daily Reports such as XenDesktop and XenApp Usage for Yesterday, Last 7 days, and Last 30 Days as well as Client Version Reports and XenDesktop Delivery Groups idle for x days. This should be ran at least once per day, preferably at 12AM. Be sure to run it from the folder in which the script is located.
  
  Usage: XDandXAHealth.ps1 RunReports
  Task Schedule Note: Only needs to be ran once a day, sometime after midnight.
  
  
• XDLatency: This will collect XenDesktop Session Latency and create a graph to display in the final HTML output page. Be sure to run it from the folder in which the script is located. 
  
  REQUIREMENT: Remote Registry must be enabled on the XenApp or XenDesktop Computer in order to read the Performance Counters. This can be achieved with a Group Policy.
  
  This argument can be scheduled to run once per minute, it'll probably take longer than a minute to run, but Task Scheduler will just run it at the next scheduled time. 
  
  If you do not want to collect latency counters at all, just do not schedule these arguments and simply set the "$CollectLatency" variable to "$false" so the FirstRun argument skips it.
  
  Usage: XDandXAHealth.ps1 XDLatency
  Task Schedule Note: Can be scheduled to run once every minute.
  
  
• XALatency: This will collect XenApp Session Latency and create a graph to display in the final HTML output page. Be sure to run it from the folder in which the script is located.
  
  REQUIREMENT: Remote Registry must be enabled on the XenApp or XenDesktop Computer in order to read the Performance Counters. This can be achieved with a Group Policy.
  
  This argument can be scheduled to run once per minute, it'll probably take longer than a minute to run, but Task Scheduler will just run it at the next scheduled time. 
  
  If you do not want to collect latency counters at all, just do not schedule these arguments and simply set the "$CollectLatency" variable to "$false" so the FirstRun argument skips it.
  
  Usage: XDandXAHealth.ps1 XALatency
  Task Schedule Note: Can be scheduled to run once every minute.
  
  
• XAInfo: This will gather all of the XenApp Servers metadata, such as CPU Usage, Memory Usage, Active and Disconnected Sessions, Critical or Error Events in the Event Logs, etc. Be sure to run it from the folder in which the script is located.
  
  This could be ran at least once every 10 minutes, for small deployments. If you have a large deployment of XenApp, you may need more time for this portion of the script to complete. Again, this solution is not for deployments with more than 10 XenApp Servers and more than 50 XenDesktop computers.
  
  If more time is needed for your Scheduled Task be sure to update the User Variable named, $EventLogCheck, to match your Scheduled Task Interval. This is how far back the script looks for Critical or Errors in the Event Logs and before it displays an error in the HTML that the script has not been updated recently.
  
  Usage: XDandXAHealth.ps1 XAInfo
  Task Schedule Note: Can be scheduled to run at least once every 15 minutes. 
  
  
• Current: This will gather all current XenApp and XenDesktop Sessions and creates the HTML output page. Be sure to run it from the folder in which the script is located.
  
  This can be ran has often as you like as it just polls the DDC and updates two graphs, four text fields and creates the HTML.  I schedule it to run every two minutes.
  
  The routines for the "Current" argument will always run, regardless of which argument you choose. 
  
  Usage: XDandXAHealth.ps1 Current
  Task Schedule Note: Can be scheduled to run at least once every 1 minutes. 

Getting it ready to run:

• $DDCName = "DDC.domain.local" ### Change this to one of your Desktop Delivery Controllers
• $SQLServer = "SQLServer.domain.local" #### Change this to your sql server where the Citrix Monitoring Database is hosted - if it is an instance use: servername\instance
• $SQLDBName = "CitrixXA7Monitoring" #### Change this to your Citrix Monitor Database name containing the Citrix monitor data tables, this is installed by Director, your name will most likely be different.
• $UseCustomDB = $true ### $true Indicates you want to use the Custom DB option, if you do not want to save the latency data to a Database, set this to $false and only the CSV file is created
• $CollectLatency = $true ### $true Indicates you want to collect Latency counters and diplay a graph of the Top 10 Latency over 10 ms
• $DatabaseName = "XDXALatency" #### Your Custom Database name containing the latency table, you will need to create this manually, and only if you choose to save the Latency data to a SQL DB
• $HTMLServer = "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Monitoring\" ### This is where the script will copy the HTML and other files to, DON'T FORGET THE TRAILING BACKSLASH "\"
• #$HTMLServer = "\\WebServer\c$\inetpub\wwwroot\Monitoring\" ### You can also use a UNC path for the $HTMLServer variable if you want, DON'T FORGET THE TRAILING BACKSLASH "\"
• $HTMLFilename = "default.htm" ### File name for the file that gets created and copied to web server folder
• $LogoImage = "CitrixLogoSmall.png" ### logo file used for the HTML Page replace with your own if you want
• $favicon="health.ico" ### Browser page icon, replace with your own if you want
• $MonitorName = "Your Citrix Deployment Name" ### The name of the Monitor Page, used in emails and the web page
• $DirectorURL = "https://Director.domain.local/Director/" ## URL of your Citrix Director
• $SSRSURL = "https://SSRS.domain.local/reports/report/XenDesktop%20Users%20Average%20Latency" ### SQL Server Reporting Server Latency Report URL
• [string]$smtpServer = "SMTP.domain.local" ### Your SMTP Server
• [string]$emailFrom = "CitrixMonitor@domain.local" ### The From Email Address for errors
• [string]$emailTo = "youremailaddress@domain.local" ### The To Email Address for errors
• [int]$FailedConnMinutestoCheck = "15" ## Time span to show failed connections, in minutes
• [int]$MStoBeConsideredLatent = "300" ## Latency in MS to be considered an issue.
• [int]$NumOfLatencytoCauseAlerts = "5" ## Number of Sessions to be considered a problem if they are equal to or over the $MStoBeConsideredLatent value
• [int]$LatencyMinutestoCheck = "15" ## Time span to show failed connections, in minutes
• $EventLogCheck = "15" ### How far back to look for Critical or Error events in the Event Logs, in minutes, match your scheduled task for the Current argument at a minimum
• $UpdateInterval = "15" ### If the HTML page has not been updated in x minutes, there will be an alert on the HTML page to let you know the script is not running correctly, match your scheduled task for the Current argument at a minimum
• $DesktopOSTypes = "Windows 7","Windows 8","Windows 10","Red Hat Enterprise Linux" ### OS Names of the Workstations used in your XenDesktop deployment, see notes below to determine OSTypes.
• $ServerOSTypes = "Windows 2012 R2","Windows 2016","Windows 2019" ### OS Names of the Windows Servers used in your XenApp deployment, see notes below to determine OSTypes.