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Health Check

October 28, 2019
Contributed by:  C

The Health Check feature enables you to automate the process of generating and uploading the server status report to CIS. After enrolling a pool to Health Check, you will receive notifications in XenCenter regarding the health of the pool. This feature allows you to proactively monitor the health of Citrix Hypervisor systems based on the report that CIS generates.

To use the Health check feature, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

  • Connect to your pool using the version of XenCenter shipped with the version of Citrix Hypervisor or XenServer you use in your pool, or a later version of XenCenter
  • XenCenter must have access to the internet
  • The Health Check Service is installed and running on the XenCenter machine. For more information, see the Health Check Service later in this topic.
  • If using Active Directory (AD), you must have Pool Operator or a higher role

Enrolling a pool to Health Check

When you connect any eligible pool (or standalone hosts) to XenCenter, you are prompted to enable Health Check. Alternatively, you can select Tools > Health Check from the XenCenter menu at any time to enable Health Check.

To enroll a pool to Health Check, on the Health Check Overview dialog, click Enroll now. This action opens the Health Check Enrollment dialog which allows you to configure Health Check settings based on your requirements. The Health Check feature operates at a pool-level. After enrolling a pool to Health Check, all pool members inherit the same configuration. It is not possible to have different settings between hosts in the same pool.

The following sections guide you through the configuration settings you need to provide to enroll your pool to Health Check.

Health check upload schedule

Specify the schedule at which you would like to upload the server status report to CIS. The Health Check Enrollment dialog displays some values by default. You can modify these values based on your preference. You can specify the frequency, time, and day of the week you would like to automatically upload the server status report to CIS. XenCenter uses the local time on the machine where it runs when creating the schedule. The Health Check service uses its local time when checking if an upload is due.

The Health Check service checks every 30 minutes whether an upload is due for a Citrix Hypervisor server. If an upload is due, the Health Check Service generates a server status report and uploads it to CIS. Because the Health Check service only runs once every 30 minutes, upload times might not align exactly with your schedule.

Note:

You can also generate a health check report on demand. For more information, see the section Uploading server status report on demand.

The Health Check schedule for a Citrix Hypervisor server is stored on the server in UTC. You can view the schedule configured for a server by running the xe pool-param-list command on the Citrix Hypervisor server.

Citrix Hypervisor credentials

When the pool is enrolled to Health Check, the Health Check Service periodically connects to the pool and checks whether an upload is due. You must provide Citrix Hypervisor credentials that the Health Check Service can use to establish a connection to the pool. You can use existing credentials or specify new credentials in the Citrix Hypervisor Credentials section.

Click Test Credentials to verify the credentials.

Authentication with Citrix Insight Services

To successfully upload the server status report and to retrieve CIS analysis report, authenticate your uploads with CIS by providing your Citrix credentials. If you do not have a Citrix account, visit www.citrix.com to create an account. Your Citrix credentials are used to get an authentication token. The token is stored on the pool master. Citrix credentials will not be stored by Citrix Hypervisor or XenCenter. You can use the same credentials to authenticate multiple pools. If you have previously authenticated with CIS, click the Use existing authentication button. Click OK to confirm the settings.

Reauthenticating with CIS might solve the issues of repeated failures to upload and failures to retrieve the Health Check analysis reports. To do this, perform the following steps.

  1. From the Tools menu, click Health Check, and then click Edit Health Check settings.
  2. In the Authentication with Citrix Insight Services section, select Authenticate using Citrix credentials and provide your Citrix credentials.

These credentials will be used to get a new authentication token which will be used in the future to upload the server status report and to retrieve analysis reports.

Viewing CIS analysis reports

After you have successfully enrolled your pool to Health Check, the Health Check Service automatically uploads the server status report based on the settings you have specified during enrollment. A summary of the status will be displayed on the Health Check Overview page. It contains information about the last successful upload and the schedule configured during enrollment.

When the CIS analysis report is ready, you receive an email notification from CIS. The Health Check Overview dialog also displays any issues detected by CIS and provides a link to the analysis report. Click View report analysis to see the detailed report on the CIS website.

In addition, the Health Check Overview dialog allows you to perform the following operations:

  • Edit Health Check settings to review and edit your current enrollment settings
  • Disable Health check to disable Health Check for the selected pool
  • Request an additional upload now to upload an SSR on demand. For more information, see Uploading Server Status Report on demand.

Uploading server status report on demand

XenCenter generates a server status report and uploads it to CIS based on the schedule that you configured during Health Check enrollment. If you prefer to perform an on-demand upload for a pool you have enrolled to Health Check:

  1. From the XenCenter menu, select Tools and then Health Check.

  2. On the Health Check Overview dialog, select the pool. Click Request an additional upload now.

    Note: There must be a delay of at least 30 minutes between upload requests.

  3. The status of the upload will be displayed on the Health Check Overview page. Click View report analysis to review your report.

For more information, see Creating a Server Status Report.

Health Check Service

The Health Check Service is installed by default during XenCenter installation. It is responsible for establishing a connection to your Citrix Hypervisor pool using credentials provided during Health Check enrollment. The Health Check Service periodically checks whether an upload is due for a host and initiates report generation and the upload process.

If you didn’t install the Health Check service during XenCenter installation and now want to use this feature, rerun the XenCenter installer and follow the on-screen instructions. After the Health Check Service is installed on your XenCenter machine, the service starts up automatically.

Health Check

October 28, 2019
Contributed by:  C

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