“The best way to predict the future is to look at it,” and that’s just what we’re doing with Citrix Director in Citrix Cloud. Read on to learn more about application instance prediction.

Citrix Director is the monitoring and troubleshooting web console for Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop. It helps administrators managing XenApp and XenDesktop environments monitor and troubleshoot machines/infrastructure, applications, and sessions.

But what about Citrix Cloud? Can administrators monitor and troubleshoot their applications and sessions deployed on Citrix Cloud?

Yes, you can (and you can also do a lot more)!

Citrix Director is now available on Citrix Cloud for administrators to monitor and troubleshoot their machines, applications, and sessions deployed using XenApp and XenDesktop service on Citrix Cloud.

Resource utilization prediction remains one of most sought-after features due to the difficulty of accurate forecasting. The need for forecasting also remains high since an accurate understanding of resource utilization can improve scheduling, performance optimization, load balancing, and recognition license utilization, which can help businesses to increase revenue.

Most of the research into resource forecasting has been conducted using simulation or limited real-time measurements, but these methods have provided only limited results. But with Citrix Cloud, you have the ability to predict future resource usage accurately, and admins can now organize required resources and licenses on each resource.

Before we dive into application instance prediction features, let’s try and understand some basics supported by Director for Cloud deployment

  • Log in to Citrix Cloud and navigate to your XenApp & XenDesktop service profile by selecting a particular customer and you can see “monitor,” which is what Citrix Director is called in the XenApp & XenDesktop service in Citrix Cloud.
  • The Dashboard allows administrators to see the real-time graphical representation of the health and usage of the site they are monitoring. Administrators can view data over the past hour for user connection failures, machine failures for both VDI (Desktop OS) and RDS (Server OS), as well as the number of connected sessions and average logon duration of all connections that occurred in the last hour.
  • Trends gives an overview of the different parameters of the deployment over time. This helps in analyzing and predicting issues.

Your Citrix Cloud Crystal Ball: Application Instance Prediction

Predictive analytics uses technology to predict the future and influence it. Citrix Director for Citrix Cloud uses historical usage data to extrapolate and make application instance predictions about the future and take actions that would affect those results. This feature is especially useful for administrators to organize required resources and licenses on each resource.

The first predictive analysis feature, application instance prediction predicts the number of hosted application instances likely to be launched per Site or Delivery Group over time.

Application instance prediction is available in the Trends > Capacity Management tab that displays the hosted application usage for the chosen time period. The historical graph contains the peak concurrent application instances values plotted for the chosen period.

To get the predicted graph, select “Predict.” A dotted line prediction graph is displayed as an extension of the historical graph. The predicted peak concurrent application instances values are plotted with the timeline extended into the future for the chosen time period.

You can predict the application instances for time periods of the next 7 days, one month, or one year. Custom ending dates are not supported.

Prediction is done using machine learning algorithms that are based on data models created with existing historical data. The predictions are therefore as accurate as the quality of the existing data.

Take a look at this demo:

The accuracy of prediction is indicated by the tolerance level that is displayed as a tooltip over the predicted graph. It indicates the amount of possible variation of the actual values from the predicted values.

The tolerance level can be high if the available data,

  • does not follow a regular pattern,
  • is missing for certain periods or
  • is insufficient

Prediction for a year captures the monthly and quarterly patterns coupled with the overall trend for the year. Similarly, monthly prediction captures the daily and weekly patterns along with weekly trends such as reduced activity over weekends.

Sufficient historical data must be available for prediction as follows:

  • 14 days data for 7 days’ prediction,
  • 35 days data for one month’s prediction, and
  • 84 days data for one year’s prediction.

Note:

  • You can export the historical graph only, but not the predicted graph.
  • Third-party Cookies should be enabled in Browser to load Director(“Monitor”)
  • If Ad Blocker is installed for the browser, ensure its disabled for citrix.cloud.com
  • Custom report after upgrade: Custom Report queries saved in Director are not available after a Cloud upgrade.
  • Learn more here, please refer to the product documentation.