# Citrix Performance Measurement

> Why Citrix measurement puts the agents on the Citrix servers rather than on the client computers.

Source: https://docs.capaone.com/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-performance-measurement/  
Product: PerformanceGuard — a separate CapaSystems product; do not apply this page to any other.

Citrix[^®] measurements differ from a normal PerformanceGuard setup by *not* having PerformanceGuard agents installed on client computers, but instead having them installed on the Citrix servers. This is because the ICA protocol used by Citrix doesn't follow the request-response pattern that's the basis of PerformanceGuard response time measurement.

An extract from www.citrix.com explains:

*Citrix ICA stands for Citrix*[^®]: *Independent Computing Architecture. It is the "thin" protocol that enables Citrix to separate screen updates and user input processing from the rest of the application's logic. When using a Citrix ICA Client, all application logic executes on the server and only screen updates, mouse movements and keystrokes are transmitted via the Citrix ICA session.*

PerformanceGuard Citrix measurement is supported from Citrix MetaFrame on Terminal Server Edition, Advanced Server and Windows 2003 Server.

# **A Typical Citrix Environment**

![](/attachments/performanceguard/6e58aced-b455-4d8d-86f5-e565a6147c28.png)

A typical Citrix environment that consists of ICA Clients on users' computers, Citrix servers as well as SAP, mail and file servers. The Citrix servers—*not* the clients—have PerformanceGuard agents that send performance data to PerformanceGuard.

# **What Does PerformanceGuard Measure on Citrix Systems?**

PerformanceGuard agents on Citrix servers are able to measure:

- The quality of Citrix sessions in terms of:

  - Latency in milliseconds, that is the time it takes for packets to travel from the client to the Citrix server and back
  - Total number of bytes sent from the Citrix server
  - Total number of bytes received by the Citrix server
  - Maximum number of bytes sent from the Citrix server per second
  - Maximum number of bytes received by the Citrix server per second
- Citrix session startup time: The time in milliseconds between the user connecting to the Citrix and the user being logged in to the Citrix session.
- Processes that run on the Citrix server.

# **View Citrix Performance Information**

If you measure Citrix performance, there's plenty of information available depending on your needs:

- [Citrix Top X List](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-top-x-list/)
- [Citrix IP Traffic Table](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-ip-traffic-table/)
- [Citrix Process Table](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-process-table/) (see also [Computer Process Table](/performanceguard/analyze/computer-search/computer-process-table/))
- [Citrix Usage Graph](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-usage-graph/)
- [Citrix Servers Histogram](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-servers-histogram/)
- [Citrix Sessions Table](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-sessions-table/)
- [Citrix Subnets Histogram](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-subnets-histogram/)
- [Citrix Sessions Quality of Service](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-sessions-quality-of-service/)
- [Citrix Trend Graph](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-trend-graph/)
- [Citrix Sessions Histogram](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-sessions-histogram/)
- [Citrix Server Graph](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-server-graph/)
- [Citrix User Search](/performanceguard/i-want-to-know/i-want-to-know-if-citrix-works-ok/citrix-user-search/)