Application Delivery Management

Gateway Insight

In a Citrix Gateway deployment, visibility into a user’s access details is essential for troubleshooting access failure issues. As the network administrator, you want to know when a user is not able to log on to Citrix Gateway, and you want to know the user activity and the reasons for logon failure, but that information is typically not available unless the user sends a request for resolution.

Gateway Insight provides visibility into the failures encountered by all users, regardless of the access mode, at the time of logging on to Citrix Gateway. You can view a list of all available users, number of active users, number of active sessions, and bytes and licenses used by all users at any given time. You can view the end-point analysis (EPA), authentication, single sign-on (SSO), and application launch failures for a user. You can also view the details of active and terminated sessions for a user.

Gateway Insight also provides visibility into the reasons for application launch failure for virtual applications. This enhances your ability to troubleshoot any kind of logon or application launch failure issues. You can view the number of applications launched, the number of total and active sessions, the number of total bytes and bandwidth consumed by the applications. You can view details of the users, sessions, bandwidth, and launch errors for an application.

You can view the number of gateways, number of active sessions, total bytes, and bandwidth used by all gateways associated with a Citrix Gateway appliance at any given time. You can view the EPA, authentication, single sign-on, and application launch failures for a gateway. You can also view the details of all users associated with a gateway and their logon activity.

All log messages are stored in the Citrix ADM database, so you can view error details for any time period. You can also view a summary of the logon failures and determine at what stage of the logon process a failure has occurred.

Points to note

  • Gateway Insight is supported on the following deployments:

    • Access Gateway

    • Unified Gateway

  • The Citrix ADM release and build must be the same or later than that of the Citrix Gateway appliance.

  • One hour of Gateway Insight reports can be viewed for Citrix ADC instances with Enterprise license. A Platinum license is required to view Gateway Insight reports beyond one hour.

Limitations

  • Citrix Gateway does not support Gateway Insight when the authentication method is configured as certificate-based authentication.

  • For Gateway Insight reporting, geo location information is not provided from the Citrix ADC appliance.

  • Successful user logons, latency, and application-level details for virtual ICA applications and desktops are visible only on the HDX Insight Users dashboard.

  • In a double-hop mode, visibility into failures on the Citrix Gateway appliance in the second DMZ is not available.

  • Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) desktop access issues are not reported.

  • Gateway Insight is supported for the following authentication types. If other authentication type is used other than these, you might see some discrepancies in Gateway Insight.

    • Local
    • LDAP
    • RADIUS
    • TACACS
    • SAML
    • Native OTP

Enabling Gateway Insight

To enable Gateway Insight for your Citrix Gateway appliance, you must first add the Citrix Gateway appliance to Citrix ADM. You must then enable AppFlow for the virtual server representing the VPN application. For information about adding device to Citrix ADM, see Adding Devices.

Note

To view end-point analysis (EPA) failures in Citrix ADM, you must enable AppFlow authentication, authorization, and auditing user name logging on the Citrix Gateway appliance.

To enable AppFlow for a virtual server in Citrix ADM

  1. Log on to Citrix ADM.

  2. Navigate to NetworksInstances, and select the instance for which you want to enable AppFlow.

  3. From the Select Action list, select Configure Analytics.

  4. In the Configure Insight page, under Configure Analytics, select Citrix Gateway.

  5. Select the virtual server for which you want to enable AppFlow, and click Enable AppFlow.

  6. On the Enable AppFlow screen, in the Select Expression list, click true.

  7. Next to Transport Mode, select the Logstream check box.

    Enable AppFlow

    Note

    You can choose either IPFIX or Logstream as transport mode.

  8. Click OK.

To enable AppFlow authentication, authorization, and auditing user name logging on a Citrix Gateway appliance by using the GUI

  1. Navigate to Configuration > System > AppFlow > Settings, and then click Change AppFlow Settings.

  2. In the Configure AppFlow Settings screen, select AAA Username, and then click OK.

Viewing Gateway Insight reports

In Citrix ADM, you can view reports for all users, applications, and gateways associated with the Citrix Gateway appliances, and you can view details for a particular user, application, or gateway. In the Overview section, you can view the EPA, SSO, Authentication, and Application Launch failures. You can also view a summary of the different session modes used by users to log on, the types of clients, and the number of users logged on every hour.

To view EPA, SSO, authentication, authorization, and application launch failures

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight.

  2. Select the time period for which you want to view the user details. You can use the time slider to further customize the selected period. Click Go.

  3. Click the EPA (End Point Analysis), Authentication, Authorization, SSO (Single Sign On), or Application Launch tabs to display the failure details.

    View EPA details

To view a summary of session modes, clients, and the number of users

In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight, scroll down to view the reports.

Gateway insight session summary

Activity graph

Viewing Gateway Insight reports for users

You can view reports for all users associated with the Citrix Gateway appliances. You can view the EPA, authentication, SSO, and application launch failures for a user. You can also view the details of active and terminated sessions for a user.

To view user details

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight > Users.

  2. Select the time period for which you want to view the user details. You can use the time slider to further customize the selected period. Click Go.

  3. You can now view the number of active users, number of active sessions, bytes, and licenses used by all users during the time period.

    View user details

    Scroll down to view a list of available users and active users.

    User details graph

    On the Users or Active Users tab, you can click a user in the Username column to display the EPA, authentication, SSO, and application launch failures and other details for that user.

Viewing Gateway Insight reports for applications

You can view the number of applications launched, the number of total and active sessions, the number of total bytes and bandwidth consumed by the applications. You can view details of the users, sessions, bandwidth, and launch errors for an application.

To view application details

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight > Applications.

  2. Select the time period for which you want to view the application details. You can use the time slider to further customize the selected time period. Click Go.

You can now view the number of applications launched, the number of total and active sessions, the number of total bytes and bandwidth consumed by the applications.

Application details

Scroll down to view the numbers of sessions, bandwidth, and total bytes consumed by ICA and other applications.

Application details graph

On the Other Applications tab, you can click an application in the Name column to display details of that application.

Viewing Gateway Insight reports for gateways

You can view the number of gateways, number of active sessions, total bytes and bandwidth used by all gateways associated with a Citrix Gateway appliance at any given time. You can view the EPA, authentication, single sign-on, and application launch failures for a gateway. You can also view the details of all users associated with a gateway and their logon activity.

To view gateway details

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight > Gateways.

  2. Select the time period for which you want to view the gateway details. You can use the time slider to further customize the selected time period. Click Go.

You can now view the number of gateways, number of active sessions, total bytes, and bandwidth used by all gateways associated with a Citrix Gateway appliance at any given time.

Gateway details

Scroll down to view the gateway details such as Gateway Domain Name, Virtual Server Name, NetScaler IP address, session modes, and Total Bytes.

Gateway details summary

You can click a gateway in the Gateway Domain Name column to display the EPA, authentication, single sign-on, and application launch failures and other details for a gateway.

Exporting reports

You can save the Gateway Insight reports with all the details shown in the GUI in PDF, JPEG, PNG, or CSV format on your local computer. You can also schedule the export of the reports to specified email addresses at various intervals.

Note

  • Users with read only access cannot export reports.
  • Geo map reports are exported only if the Citrix ADM has internet connectivity.

To export a report

  1. On the Dashboard tab, in the right pane, click the export button.

  2. Under Export Now, select the required format, and then click Export.

To schedule export:

  1. On the Dashboard tab, in the right pane, click the export button.

  2. Under Schedule Export, specify the details and click Schedule.

To add an email server or an email distribution list:

  1. On the Configuration tab, navigate to System > Notifications > Email.

  2. In the right pane, select Email Server, to add an email server, or select Email Distribution list to create an email distribution list.

  3. Specify the details and click Create.

To export the entire Gateway Insight dashboard:

  1. On the Dashboard tab, in the right pane, click the export button.

  2. Under Export Now, select PDF format, and then click Export.

Gateway Insight Use Cases

The following use cases show how you can use Gateway Insight to gain visibility into users’ access details, applications, and gateways on Citrix Gateway appliances.

A user is not able to log in to the Citrix Gateway appliance or to the internal web servers

You are a Citrix Gateway administrator monitoring Citrix Gateway appliances through Citrix ADM, and you want to see why a user is unable to log in, or at what stage of the login process the failure has occurred.

Citrix ADM enables you to view the user login error details in the following stages of the login process:

  • Authentication

  • End-point analysis (EPA)

  • Single sign-on

In Citrix ADM, you can search for a particular user and then view all the details for that user.

To search for a user:

In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight and, in the Search for Users text box, specify the user you want to search.

Authentication failures

You can view authentication errors such as incorrect credentials or no response from the authentication server. If you have set up two-stage authentication, you can see whether the primary, secondary, or both stages of the authentication have failed.

To view the authentication failure details:

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight.

  2. In the Overview section, select the time period for which you want to view the authentication errors. You can use the time slider to further customize the selected time period. Click Go.

    Authentication failure

  3. Click the Authentication tab. You can view the number of authentication errors at any given time in the Failures graph.

    Authentication failure graph

Scroll down to view details of each authentication error such as Username, Client IP Address, Error Time, Authentication type, Authentication Server IP Address, and more from the table on the same tab. The Error Description column in the table displays the reason for the logon failure, and the State column displays at what stage of a two-stage authentication the failure occurred.

Authentication failure details

You can click a user in the Username column to display the authentication errors and other details for that user.

You can customize the table to add or delete columns by using the downward arrow as indicated in the following screenshot.

Authentication failure customized view

EPA failures

You can view EPA failures in the pre-authentication or post-authentication stage.

Important:

  • EPA failures are reported only when classic expressions are configured.
  • EPA failures are not reported if advanced expression is configured in the pre-authentication or post-authentication policy.
  • EPA failures are not reported if EPA is configured as one of the factors in an nFactor authentication flow.

To view EPA failure details:

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight.

  2. In the Overview section, select the time period for which you want to view the EPA errors. You can use the time slider to further customize the selected time period. Click Go.

    EPA failure

  3. Click the EPA (End Point Analysis) tab. You can view the number of EPA errors at any given time in the Failures graph.

    EPA failure graph

Scroll down to view details of each EPA error such as Username, NetScaler IP Address, Gateway IP Address, VPN, Error Time, Policy Name, Gateway Domain Name and more from the table on the same tab. The Error Description column in the table displays the reason for the EPA failure, and the Policy Name column displays the policy that resulted in the failure.

EPA failure details

You can click a user in the Username column to display the EPA errors and other details for that user. You can customize the table to add or delete columns by using the downward arrow.

Note

Citrix Gateway doesn’t report the EPA failures when the “clientSecurity” expression is configured as a VPN session policy rule.

SSO failures

You can view the all the SSO failures at any stage for a user accessing any applications through the Citrix Gateway appliance.

To view the SSO failure details:

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight.

  2. In the Overview section, select the time period for which you want to view the SSO errors. You can use the time slider to further customize the selected time period. Click Go.

    SSO failure

  3. Click the SSO (Single Sign On) tab. You can view the number of SSO errors at any given time in the Failures graph.

    SSO failure graph

Scroll down to view details of each SSO error such as Username, NetScaler IP Address, Error Time, Error Description, Resource Name and more from the table on the same tab.

SSO failure details

You can click a user in the Username column to display the SSO errors and other details for that user.

You can customize the table to add or delete columns by using the downward arrow.

After successfully logging on to Citrix Gateway, a user is not able to launch any virtual application

For an application-launch failure, you can gain visibility into the reasons, such as inaccessible Secure Ticket Authority (STA) or Citrix Virtual Apps server, or invalid STA ticket. You can view the time the error occurred, details of the error, and the resource for which STA validation failed.

To view the application launch failure details:

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight.

  2. In the Overview section, select the time period for which you want to view the SSO errors. You can use the time slider to further customize the selected time period. Click Go.

    Application launch failure

  3. Click the Application Launch tab. You can view the number of application launch failures at any given time in the Failures graph.

    App launch failure graph

Scroll down to view details of each application launch error, such as NetScaler IP Address, Error Time, Error Description, Resource Name, Gateway Domain Name, and more, from the table on the same tab. The Error Description column in the table displays the IP address of the STA server and the Resource Name column displays the details of the resource for which the STA validation has failed.

App launch failure details

You can click a user in the Username column to display the application launch errors and other details for that user.

You can customize the table to add or delete columns by using the downward arrow.

After successfully launching a new application, a user wants to view the total bytes and bandwidth consumed by that application

After you have successfully launched a new application, in Citrix ADM, you can view the total bytes and bandwidth consumed by that application.

To view total bytes and bandwidth consumed by an application:

In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight > Applications, scroll down and, on the Other Applications tab, click the application for which you want to view the details.

Byte bandwidth consumption

You can view the number of sessions and the total number of bytes consumed by that application.

Sessions view

You can also view the bandwidth consumed by that application.

Bandwidth view

A user has logged on to Citrix Gateway successfully, but is unable to access certain network resources in the internal network

With Gateway Insight, you can determine whether the user has access to the network resources or not. You can also view the name of the policy that resulted in the failure.

To view user access for resources:

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight > Applications.

  2. On the screen that appears, scroll down, and on the Other Applications tab, select the application to which the user was unable to log on.

    View user access for resources

  3. Scroll down, and in the Users table, all the users that have access to that application are displayed.

Different users might be using different Citrix Gateway deployments or might log on to Citrix Gateway through different access modes. The administrator must be able to view details about the deployment types and access modes

With Gateway Insight, you can view a summary of the different session modes used by users to log on, the types of clients, and the number of users logged on every hour. You can also determine whether a user’s deployment is a unified gateway or classic Citrix Gateway deployment. For unified gateway deployments, you can view the content switching virtual server name and IP address and the VPN virtual server name.

To view the summary of session modes, type of clients, and number of users logged on:

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Analytics > Gateway Insight.

  2. In the Overview section, scroll down to view the Session Mode, Operating Systems, Browsers, and User Logon Activity charts display the different session modes used by users to log on, the types of clients, and the number of users logged on every hour.

Session summary

Session summary graph

Gateway Insight