Managing Session Metrics (Optional)

Overview

Session Metrics are Windows performance metric data that are collected by the Engine throughout a Test Run. They are user-defined, so you can collect any Windows counter that the Virtual User has access to. When the Test Run starts, the Engine collects all of these user-defined performance counters for the duration of the Test and reports them back to the Appliance as part of your Test results. Session Metrics are displayed in charts for Load Tests and Continuous Tests.

Administrators can collect additional performance metrics from Windows Performance Monitor (PerfMon) and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to display with EUX Score and Application metrics. When enabled, Session Metrics are captured every 5 seconds by default.

The system captures and displays the percentage of CPU and Memory Utilization by default. For details, see Built-In Session Metrics.

Why Use Session Metrics?

Tech Tips

When you enable Session Metric collection using Custom Metrics Groups, adding additional metrics to a Group increases resource consumption. This may impact the expected EUX Score and VSImax results. For this reason, consider capturing a benchmark of your EUX and VSImax before enabling Session Metrics. This will help assess the impact of collecting the session metrics you’re interested in. You can also change the way Session Metrics are gathered in the Test definition by setting the proportion of your end-user Test targets that will gather Session Metrics.

Before you create a WMI query, define the performance counters you want to collect. This will minimize query overhead. For better performance, choose PerfMon over WMI when a specific session metric is available in both sources.

Built-in Session Metrics

There are two built-in Session Metrics that Login Enterprise comes pre-configured with. These are "CPU utilization" and "Memory utilization". Both of these metrics are expressed as a percent.

• CPU Utilization is simply the PerfMon counter "Processor Information", "% Processor Utility", "_Total".

• Memory Utilization is a hybrid counter. There is no native PerfMon counter that expresses memory utilization as a percent. We use "Memory", "Available MBytes" from PerfMon, and use WMI to capture the query "SELECT Capacity FROM Win32_PhysicalMemory". The WMI query returns bytes, so we convert to MB and calculate 100 * (capacity - available) / total to get the in-use percentage.

Creating Custom Session Metrics

The first step you need to take is to define the performance counters you want to collect.

• For performance counter details about PerfMon, see Performance Counter Details for PerfMon.

• For performance counter details about WMI, see Performance Counter Details for WMI.

Windows Performance Monitor (PerfMon)

Performance Counter Details

Windows Performance Monitor (PerfMon) is a Windows tool designed for analyzing the performance of applications and the overall system. It offers a variety of performance counters covering CPU usage, memory usage, disk activity, and network performance. Each counter will have details such as its name, description, and instance information.

The steps below explain how to find details about specific performance counters in PerfMon on your Windows system:

1. Launch PerfMon: Open Performance Monitor on your Windows system. You can usually find it in the "Administrative Tools" or by searching for "perfmon" in the Start menu.

2. Add the Desired Counter: In PerfMon, click "+" to add a performance counter. Choose the performance object (category), counter (specific metric), and, if applicable, instance (e.g., for a specific process).

Suppose you want to monitor the "% Idle Time" performance counter for logical disks. This metric reports the percentage of time during the sample interval that the selected disk instance, or aggregate of all disk instances, was idle. In the following example, the red outline indicates the 'counterCategory,' the yellow outlines the 'counterName,' and the purple highlights the 'counterInstance'. Make sure you have copied the counterCategory, counterName, and counterInstance of your performance counter, for example, in Notepad, as you will need them in further steps.

You can adapt the formula for other performance counters depending on your monitoring scenario.

Once you’ve identified the PerfMon performance counters you’d like to collect with Login Enterprise, you need to create and import your Session Metric definition.

To create a PerfMon Session Metric in the Login Enterprise UI, see Creating a PerfMon Session Metric Definition in the UI.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

Performance Counter Details

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a powerful management framework in Windows for monitoring, configuration management, event handling, and remote administration of your system. WMI provides more detailed information than PerfMon, making it preferred in certain scenarios.

To identify available WMI performance counters, start by collecting available WMI classes. To do this, open the PowerShell console on your Windows system.

1. Using the Start Menu:

   • Click on the "Start" button.

   • Type "PowerShell" in the search bar.

   • Click on "Windows PowerShell" or "PowerShell" to open the PowerShell console.

2. Using Run:

   • Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.

   • Type "powershell" and press Enter.

To retrieve a list of all available WMI classes that can be queried, use the following command:

Get-WmiObject Win32_PerfFormattedData | Select-Object -Unique __Class | Format-Table -AutoSize

In this output, some examples of significant WMI classes related to performance monitoring include:

• Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_Processor

  • Provides processor performance information, including CPU usage, interrupts, and related statistics.

• Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_Memory

  • Offers performance data related to system memory usage, including available bytes, cache size, and memory-related rates.

• Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfDisk_LogicalDisk

  • Provides performance data related to logical disks, including metrics for disk transfer rates, queue lengths, and average response times.

• Win32_PerfFormattedData_GPUPerformanceCounters_GPUEngine

  • Contains GPU engine performance data, offering metrics for GPU utilization, video decoding, and processing activity.

• Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_System

  • Offers performance data related to the overall system, including metrics such as context switches, system calls, and other counters.

• Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process

  • Provides performance data related to individual processes, including CPU and memory usage.

• Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_NetworkAdapter

  • Includes performance data related to network adapters, offering metrics such as bytes sent and received per second, packet rates, and error counts.

• Win32_PerfFormattedData_Counters_VMwareBlastImagingCounters (specific to VMware Horizon only)

  • Contains performance data related to VMware Blast Imaging, offering metrics for imaging operations and bandwidth usage in a VMware Horizon environment.

Suppose you want to query the PhysicalDisk class. This WMI class provides performance data specifically related to physical disk drives on a Windows system. It includes various performance counters that allow you to monitor the performance and activity of individual physical disk drives. You can collect such metrics as DiskReadsPerSec (the rate at which read operations are performed on the disk) and DiskWritesPerSec (the rate at which write operations are performed on the disk), among others.

To retrieve all counters for the WMI class (in this example, PhysicalDisk), run the following command:

Get-WmiObject -Query "SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfRawData_PerfDisk_PhysicalDisk"

The SELECT * part of the query specifies that you want to retrieve all properties or counters available for each instance of the PhysicalDisk class, so the output may be extensive.

If you are looking for specific counters or properties, you can modify the query to include only the ones you are interested in. Suppose you want to collect the DiskWritesPerSec and DiskReadsPerSec metrics.

To retrieve specific counters (DiskWritesPerSec, DiskReadsPerSec), modify the command in the following way:

Get-WmiObject -Query "SELECT DiskWritesPerSec, DiskReadsPerSec FROM Win32_PerfRawData_PerfDisk_PhysicalDisk"

You can replace DiskWritesPerSec and DiskReadsPerSec with the specific counters you want to retrieve. By specifying only the desired properties in the SELECT statement, you focus the data returned and limit the performance overhead when polling the target system.

Once you’ve defined the performance counters for a WMI Session Metric definition, you need to create a WMI Session Metric definition.

To create a WMI Session Metric in the Login Enterprise UI, see Creating a WMI Session Metric Definition in the UI.

Creating a Session Metric

1. In the Login Enterprise sidebar menu, navigate to Configuration > Session metrics:

2. In Metrics, click the green “+” on the right to add a session metric.

3. In the Create new session metric window, provide the general information for your session metric:

Creating a PerfMon Session Metric Definition

1. In Settings, provide the following information for a PerfMon session metric definition:

2. Save your settings to apply the changes. If you have more metrics to add, continue following the steps for each.

Once you’ve created a PerfMon Session Metric definition, you need to create a Group for Session Metric Definitions.

Creating a WMI Session Metric Definition

In Settings, provide the following information for your WMI session metric definition:

Adding a Measurement

1. To create a new measurement, click Add Measurement and provide the following information:

2. Save your settings to apply the changes. If you have more metrics to add, continue following the steps for each.

Once you’ve created a WMI Session Metric definition, you need to create a Group for Session Metric Definitions.

Creating a Group for Session Metric Definitions

A Group is a collection of previously specified session metrics. Note that at the test level, you can connect only one Group. The Group can have as many session metric definitions as you would like, but the test can only contain one group. To create a new Group for Session Metric definitions:

1. In Session metrics, select Groups from the tab menu.

2. Click the green “+” on the right to add a Group.

3. In the Add new group window, provide the general information:

4. Save your settings to apply the changes. If you have more Groups to add, continue following the steps for each.

Once you’ve created a Group, you need to add Session Metric Definitions to a Group.

Adding a Session Metric Definition to a Group

1. In Session Metric Groups, select Definitions from the tab menu.

2. Click Add session metric definitions.

3. Select the checkboxes next to the Session Metric definitions to add them to a Group, and click Add.

4. Click Save.

Once you’ve added Session Metric definitions to a Group, you need to link the Group to a Test. This way, the Test will capture the metrics specified in the Group.

Removing a Session Metric Definition from a Group

1. Go to your preferred Session Metric Group, and select Definitions from the tab menu.

2. Select individual definitions or select all by using the checkbox in the Name column.

3. Click Remove. The removed definitions will remain in the list but appear greyed out, indicating they are marked for removal.

4. Click Save to apply the changes. The greyed-out rows will disappear once the changes are saved.

Linking a Group to a Test

1. In the Login Enterprise Sidebar menu, navigate to Configuration > Manage tests.

2. In Manage tests, select Continuous tests or Load tests from the dropdown.

3. Click on the test.

4. In Test settings > Session metrics > Metrics group, select the Session Metric Group from the dropdown.

Viewing Session Metrics

For general guidelines on how to analyze your Continuous Testing and Load Testing Session Metrics, consult Viewing Session Metrics.

Additional Resources

To learn how to export raw data, including Session Metrics, see, e.g., Exporting Raw Data for Continuous Tests.