Application Delivery Management

Troubleshoot Web Insight issues

With the Citrix ADM Web Insight dashboard, you can visualize your application usage and monitor all web applications that the Citrix ADC instances serve. Using Web Insight, the ADC instances send HTTP and SSL transaction data to the ADM configured as an AppFlow collector. AppFlow is the flow export standard used to identify and collect application and transaction data in the network infrastructure.

This document helps you troubleshoot common Web Insight deployment issues.

If the ADM Web Insight dashboard (ADM GUI > Analytics > Web Insight) fails to display reports, the issue might be one of the following:

  • Web Insight configuration issue
  • Connectivity issue between Citrix ADC and Citrix ADM
  • Counter issue
  • License issue
  • Observation point ID issue
  • Missing AppFlow params issue

Configuration issue: Citrix ADM Web Insight does not display reports

Complete the following steps to troubleshoot this issue:

  1. Ensure the AppFlow feature is enabled in the Citrix ADC instance. For details, see Enabling AppFlow.

  2. Check Web Insight configuration in the ADC instance:

    1. Run the show running | grep -i <appflow_policy> command to check the Web Insight configuration on policy. Ensure the bind type is REQUEST. For example: bind lb vserver afsanity -policy afp -priority 100 -type REQUEST
    2. Run the show appflow action command to check the Web Insight configuration on action. Ensure the -webinsight option is enabled
    3. Check the appflowlog parameter in LB/CS/CR virtual server appropriately. Ensure this parameter is enabled.

Connectivity issue between Citrix ADC and Citrix ADM: Citrix ADM Web Insight does not display reports

Complete the following steps to troubleshoot this issue:

  1. Check AppFlow collector status in Citrix ADC. For details, see How to check the status of connectivity between Citrix ADC and AppFlow Collector.
  2. On the ADC GUI, check if the AppFlow policies are getting hits. Run the command show appflow policy <policy_name> to check the AppFlow policy hits. You can also navigate to System > AppFlow > Policies in the GUI to check the AppFlow policy hits.
  3. Validate any firewall blocking AppFlow ports 4739 or 5557.

Counter issue: Citrix ADM Web Insight does not display reports

Complete the following steps to troubleshoot this issue:

  1. Ensure there are no AppFlow configuration and connectivity issues. For more information, see the solution sections in this topic for configuration issue and connectivity issue between Citrix ADC and Citrix ADM.

  2. On the ADC instance, on shell prompt, run the nsconmsg -g appflow_tmpl -d current command and check the following counters:

    • appflow_tmpl_v4_l7_clt2ns_complete
    • appflow_tmpl_v4_l7_srvr2ns_complete
    • appflow_tmpl_v46_ulfd_client_eot
    • appflow_tmpl_v46_ulfd_server_eot

    If any of the counters are missing, take a trace on the ADC instance. Next, confirm the transaction is complete and the response is being served from the origin server. If the transaction is proper and some counters are missing, file a bug.

License issue: Citrix ADM Web Insight does not display reports

With this issue, the license for the particular virtual server for which you want to view Web Insight report, appears “No” under System > Licensing & Analytics > Configure License.

webinsight-troubleshoot-1

Complete the following steps to troubleshoot this issue:

  1. In the ADC instance, ensure AppFlow policy hits are increasing and the instance is sending AppFlow records to ADM
  2. Check if the corresponding virtual server is licensed. If the virtual server is not licensed, ADM drops AppFlow records. As a result, Web Insight reports do not appear.

Observation point ID issue: Citrix ADM Web Insight does not display reports

This issue appears because the observation point ID is not unique.

Note: An observation point ID is the identifier for the Citrix ADC from which AppFlow records are being exported. By default, the Citrix ADC IP is the observation point ID.

Complete the following steps to troubleshoot this issue:

  1. In the ADC instance, ensure AppFlow policy hits are increasing and the instance is ending AppFlow records to ADM.
  2. Check if corresponding virtual server is licensed.
  3. Ensure configuration is not copied from once ADC instance to another. When copied, the configuration might create an exporter ID issue, causing the ADM to drop AppFlow records.
  4. Log in to the ADC instance and run the unset appflow param -observationpointId command.

Missing AppFlow params issue: Citrix ADM Web Insight does not display reports

This issue appears because ADM drops AppFlow records due to missing data.

Complete the following steps to troubleshoot this issue:

  1. Ensure in the ADC instance, AppFlow policy hits are increasing and the instance is ending AppFlow records to ADM.
  2. Check if corresponding virtual server is licensed.
  3. Ensure configuration is not copied from once ADC instance to another. When copied, the configuration might create an exporter ID issue, causing the ADM to drop AppFlow records.
  4. Ensure the following AppFlow params are enabled on the ADC instance:
    1. HTTP method logging
    2. HTTP domain name logging
    3. HTTP URL logging
    4. HTTP host logging
    5. HTTP Content-Type header logging

Citrix ADM Web Insight miscellaneous issues

  • Issue: On the HTTP client, the page does not load when AppFlow is enabled.
  • Solution: Complete the following steps to troubleshoot this issue:

    1. In the AppFlow action command, disable the “pageTracking” feature set appflow action <name> -pageTracing disable. This action has no effect on the functionality.

    If the issue is not fixed, do this step:

    1. In the same action, unset the clientsidemeasurement feature set appflow action <name> -clientsidemeasurements disable. If this step resolves the issue, capture traces on the ADC instance and file a bug.
  • Issue: The ADC appliance crashes when AppFlow is enabled.
  • Solution: Complete the following steps to troubleshoot this issue:

If backtrace (BT) has AppFlow functions, the issue might be in the AppFlow feature. If the BT is in feature-specific code, the issue might be in those features that use AppFlow to send data to the collectors. In the latter case, disable any feature-specific AppFlow Configuration and verify. Do not disable the AppFlow feature globally as this step does not give much insight into the issue.

Troubleshoot using counters

Check the following AppFlow counters for any AppFlow or Web Insight related issues.

Counter Description
appflow_tot_record_drop AppFlow records dropped due to an invalid collector. Usually happens when the collector configuration changes, and the existing connections use the old collector configuration.
lstream_tot_trans_written This counter must increment for every transaction that is to be logged.
lstream_sent This counter increments for every transaction log that is sent.
Troubleshoot Web Insight issues