Installation guide
Chapter 3. Running a Windows Terminal Server and MetaFrame pilot 19
Table 3-2 Windows Server 2003 and Citrix MetaFrame Counters to record in a pilot
Object and counter Instance Description What to see for acceptable user
performance in the pilot...
Processor
% Processor Time _Total This shows how much time the CPUs are
busy executing a non-idle thread. This
parameter can be monitored per CPU by
selecting the appropriate CPU instance.
Average values are less than 80%. If
the value is constantly more than
80%, you need either a faster CPU
or fewer concurrent users per
terminal server.
Interrupts/sec _Total The number of interruptions that the CPUs
receive.
Low values. The acceptable value
depends on the processor type and
the workload. You should establish a
baseline.
System
Processor Queue
Length
--- Instantaneous count of the number of
threads waiting to be serviced by a CPU.
All the CPUs share the same queue.
Should be smaller than twice the
number of processors for acceptable
user response
.
Memory
Available MB --- Available memory (including virtual
memory).
High values. High values mean
more memory is available to be used
more concurrent users and
applications.
Pages/sec --- The number of pages read or written to
disk to resolve memory references to
pages that were not in memory at the time.
Low values. The value on average
should not be more than 20. A
constantly high value may indicate a
lack of memory.
Terminal services
Active Sessions --- The current number of active users
accessing the terminal server. This should
be plotted against the other performance
values so you can extrapolate your servers
performance.
You should try and have a minimum
of 10 active users so you can
extrapolate some meaningful
performance data.
Terminal services session
% Processor Time Remote
Desktop
Protocol
(RDP) or
ICA
session
number. *
The amount of Processor Time for each
user session. This per user value can
assist you in determining whether one
user’s set of applications is more CPU
intensive than another.
A small value as a percentage of the
total % Processor Time. A larger
value for a particular user indicates
one user is running a particular CPU
intensive application.
Total Bytes (per
second)
RDP or
ICA
session
number. *
The ICA or RDP network bandwidth per
user transmitted and received on the
network between the client and server. You
can use Excel to multiply each value by
0.008 to obtain a Kbps value so you can
determine terminal server wide area
network (WAN) requirements.
The amount of bandwidth varies
depending on the graphical nature of
the users session. See 3.2.3,
“Interpreting your pilot bandwidth
requirements” on page 21, for more
details on bandwidth.