Citrix Connection Quality Indicator new version!

Description

The Connection Quality Indicator (CQI) is a tool that provides feedback for users when ICA Round Trip Time (RTT), ICA latency, or available bandwidth meets certain conditions. In this way, the CQI can serve the following purposes:

• Assist users by pointing out issues that degrade the user experience.
• Provide real-time data for sophisticated users to find causes for lags in screen refreshes.
• Reduce the number of calls to help desks related to user experience issues.

Supported Operating Systems

• Microsoft Windows 10
• Microsoft Windows 8.1
• Microsoft Windows 7 with Service Pack 1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1

Supported Virtual Delivery Agents

• Server OS Virtual Delivery Agent 7.6.300 and later
• Desktop OS Virtual Delivery Agent 7.6.300 and later

Prerequisites

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1
• Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent 7.6.300 or later must be installed.
• To install or uninstall the tool, the user account must be a member of the local Administrators group on targeted machines.
• Installing the tool over an ICA session is not supported but you can install it through a remote desktop session by using an administrator account.
• The installer program complies with Microsoft User Account Control (UAC). If UAC is enabled, you must run the installer program in elevated mode; that is, with administrative privileges enabled. For more information about UAC, see Microsoft TechNet or visit the Microsoft website and search on keyword UAC.

Installing Connection Quality Indicator

The Connection Quality Indicator must be installed on the Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA).  Installation can be performed by using one of the following two methods:

Double-clicking the MSI package

1. Locate a copy of the MSI package. CQI can be installed using a local copy or from a network share.

2. Double-click the MSI package to launch the CQI setup wizard.

3. The setup wizard window appears. Review and agree to the License Agreement before you continue the installation. You can also print a copy of the License Agreement.

4. To begin the installation, select “I accept the terms in the License Agreement” and then click Install.

5. The setup wizard displays the installation progress.

6. After the wizard completes, click Finish.

The Citrix Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) is enabled by default. Clear the Participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program checkbox to disable the program.

CQI has now been installed on the Virtual Delivery Agent and is ready for use.

1. Locate a copy of the MSI package. You can install CQI by using a local copy or from a network share.

2. Launch a CMD window and navigate to the location of the MSI package.

3. Type MSIEXEC /i “CitrixCQI.msi” to launch CQI’s setup wizard.

4. The setup wizard window appears. Review and agree to the License Agreement before you continue the installation. You can also print a copy of the License Agreement.

5. To begin the installation, select “I accept the terms in the License Agreement” and then click Install.

6. The setup wizard displays the installation progress.

7. After the wizard completes, click Finish.

CQI has now been installed on the Virtual Delivery Agent and is ready for use.

For more information on available parameters, see Command.

To disable the Citrix Customer Experience Improvement Program

Use the “DISABLE_CEIP=1” option with MSIEXEC to disable CEIP.

Uninstalling Connection Quality Indicator

You can uninstall the Connection Quality Indicator by using the following two methods:

Programs and Features

1. Launch Programs and Features and select Connection Quality Indicator.

2. Click Uninstall and follow the prompts.

CQI has now been uninstalled from the Virtual Delivery Agent.

Using MSIEXEC to uninstall

1.  Locate a copy of the MSI package. You can uninstall CQI by using a local copy or from a network share.

2.  Launch a CMD window and navigate to the location of the MSI package.

3.  Type MSIEXEC /x “CitrixCQI.msi” to launch the CQI setup wizard.

4.  The setup wizard appears. Click Next to continue.

5.  The setup wizard provides options, to repair or remove the tool. Click Remove to begin uninstalling CQI.

6.  The wizard prompts for confirmation Click Remove to continue.

7.  The setup wizard displays the uninstallation progress.

8.  After the wizard completes, click Finish.

CQI has now been uninstalled from the VDA.

For more information on available parameters, see Command-Line Options.

Repairing a Connection Quality Indicator installation

You can repair a Connection Quality Indicator installation by using Programs and Features.

1.  Launch Programs and Features and select Connection Quality Indicator.

2. Click Repair and follow the prompts.

Group Policy configuration

Citrix recommends that you use the Windows Group Policy editor to configure CQI. CQI includes administrative templates files (CitrixCQI.admx \ CitrixCQI.adml) in the installation folder. Citrix also recommends that you use the CitrixBase.admx and CitrixBase.adml files to ensure that the options are correctly organized and displayed within the Group Policy Object editor.

See the table below for information on policy templates files and their respective location.

NOTE: You can use admx/adml template files to configure Local GPO and/or Domain-Based GPOs. For information about managing admx files, see Microsoft MSDN article https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530196.aspx#manageadmxfiles_topic2.

To add the CitrixCQI.admx/adml template files to the local GPO

1. After installing the Connection Quality Indicator, copy the template files.

admx:
From : <installation folder>\Configuration\CitrixCQI.admx
to: %systemroot%\policyDefinitions

From : <installation folder>\Configuration\CitrixBase.admx
to: %systemroot%\policyDefinitions

adml:
From: <installation folder>\Configuration\[MUIculture]CitrixCQI.adml
to: %systemroot%\policyDefinitions\[MUIculture]

From : <installation folder>\Configuration\[MUIculture]\CitrixBase.adml
to: %systemroot%\policyDefinitions\[MUIculture]

NOTE: CQI template files are available on local GPO in Administrative Templates > Citrix Components > Virtual Desktop Agent > CQI folder only when the user adds the CitrixBase.admx/CitrixBase.adml to the policyDefinitions folder.

Use the CQI group policy template files to enable and disable CQI, configure notification display settings (e.g. customize notification wording, disable notifications, etc.), and to specify connection threshold settings.

Note: You can configure CQI Group policy settings at the user level as well. Computer configuration, if present, will always take precedence.

Launching CQI on session startup

The CQI installer modifies the system in order to launch the tool automatically on session startup. Depending on the type of VDA, the method used to launch the tool can vary:

For Server VDAs, the AppSetup registry value is modified and the CQI’s launcher.cmd script is appended to it. The location of the registry key containing this value is as follows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

For Desktop VDAs, a value that contains a path to CQI’s executable is added to the Run key. The location of the registry key containing this value is as follows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

To ensure sessions are logged off properly, the LogoffCheckSysModules registry value is modified and CQI’s executable name is appended to it. The location of the registry key containing this value is as follows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI

In order for CQI to be launched for published apps hosted on Desktop VDAs, the following policy must be applied to the VDA.

https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX127874

How to use the Connection Quality Indicator

CQI is launched on session startup and continues to run for the life of the session. It notifies the user of changes to network performance and status.

There are several types of notifications that a user can see while the tool is running:

Collecting Data state:

Poor and Weak states:

Busy states:

Execllent state:

Idle state:

User interaction with CQI for published desktops and apps are similar, with the following exceptions:

When using a published desktop, CQI notifications are displayed in the notification area and as standard notifications.

For published apps only standard notifications are shown because there is no published notification area. If more than one published app is in use within the same session, only the foreground app displays notifications.

The Options panel, which can be accessed by clicking the gear icon in the upper right corner of the notification window, can be used to snooze notifications for a predetermined amount of time, and to reposition notifications on the screen. When you snooze a notification, the time you choose  appears in green as shown below. When the timer expires, standard notifications are shown on the next state change. You can also access the last notification for published apps by clicking the CQI icon  in the notification area, or by using the hotkey combination Ctrl+Alt+H for published apps. Notifications you access this either way remain visible until you close them explicitly.

Use the position setting to move the notification to other parts of the screen. The new position takes effect on the next state change or if you close the current notification and open the previous notification manually by clicking the CQI icon in the notification areas (published desktops) or using the hotkey combination Ctrl+Alt+H (published apps). Your selection is retained by CQI per session type.

Options panel

Notification area icon

Notifications remain visible for a predefined interval when a degraded network condition is present for a prolonged period of time. Short-lived degraded network conditions, although detected by the tool, do not trigger notifications. This behavior is by design and prevents the tool from over-notifying you.

How CQI uses counters

CQI uses three counters to monitor the connection quality between an endpoint and the VDA. Each counter contains a low and a high threshold that the tool uses to determine which type of notification to display. The default values of the thresholds are defined in the  <installation folder>\Configuration\[MUIculture]CitrixCQI.adml file. The counters used by CQI and displayed in the Options panel under “Real Time Data” section are:

• Available bandwidth – Reports how much bandwidth is available for a session to use. CQI monitors the changes of available bandwidth that can reflect the changes in network conditions between an endpoint and the VDA.
• ICA RTT – Indicates the time that elapses between the moment you press a key and the moment the keypress becomes visible at the endpoint.
• ICA Latency – Indicates the time a data packet takes to get from the client-side Winstation Driver (WD) to the server-side WD and back.

Note: ICA RTT is different from network latency.

Network latency is the time a data packet takes to get from a source NIC to its destination NIC and back. Network latency contributes to ICA RTT, but ICA RTT is also affected by other factors such as application performance, system performance, printing activity, media rendering, and large file redirection.

ICA RTT targets user experience rather than network connection quality.

Logging

CQI utilizes two logging options – a plain text file maintained per user session and a Windows Event Log shared across all user sessions running on the VDA.

The plain text log, Citrix.CQI.log, is stored in the  %temp%\Citrix\CQI folder. Apps also maintain a single archived log file, Citrix.CQI.{YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS}.0.log, in the same location. The log file size limit is 5 MB.

The same logging information is written to the Windows Event log. There are two event log channels, Admin and Debug. To see the Debug channel, ensure that the “Show Analytic and Debug Logs” option is enabled.

The CQI logs can be found in the Application and Services Logs\Citrix\VDA\CQI folder within the Event Viewer:

Event logs combine messages from all user sessions on a VDA.

• The admin channel contains only critical messages, error / warnings.
• The debug channel contains the same information as the file logs.

Event log records are separated by network connections and into separate levels and with separate IDs:

How to show more traces in Citrix.CQI.log

The CQI log file, Citrix.CQI.log, does not show all traces by default. To show more traces, find the Citrix.CQI.exe.config configuration file at C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Connection Quality Indicator and change the “LogToFileLevel” key value from 1 to 16. Only those traces whose priorities are lower than or equal to the configured key value can be output to Citrix.CQI.log.

Known Issues

The following table describes the various failure scenarios and the recommended corrective actions.