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Automating Test in a Citrix DaaS Deployment

September 14, 2022

Login VSI, our namesake and original technology, was not built during this new DaaS world. That’s why we introduced Login Enterprise – leveraging all that made Login VSI an industry standard with new capabilities for today’s cloud-native world.

We’ve made the Login Enterprise platform more flexible, allowing you to connect to today’s technologies and be ready for technologies that haven’t even been invented yet. To accommodate a more diverse and distributed workforce, SSL supports you in leveraging the technology for on-premises, cloud environments, and remote locations.

Kudos to Daniel for a great step-by-step guide using Login VSI. This blog covers how you can do the same and more with our new platform and how much easier automated testing can be with Login Enterprise.

155 Lines of Code and How to Eliminate Them

With seven years in various technical roles at Login VSI, I know you’ve always been able to connect to Citrix Cloud – it just hasn’t been easy. In fact, I wrote a blog in 2017 and shared how my friend, Santiago Cardenas, wrote some nifty PowerShell scripts that bootstrapped the process. The background is relevant because we’ve learned a lot of lessons over the past 5 years working with technology vendors, like Citrix, VMware, and Microsoft, and hundreds of customers.

Figure 1. Connecting to Citrix Cloud

To make advanced scripting expertise from my buddy Santiago a thing of the past, the next release of Login Enterprise introduces a generic web browser driver that interacts with ANY web front end if the result is a Windows Session at the end of the connectivity. The connector will support identification and interaction with any username/password fields, as well as the potential to expand into Multifactor Authentication (MFA) solutions.

The next issue was controlling the number of test users in an automated way. Part of the solution was bypassing our old management console and modifying some simple configuration files. But you also need the ability to control launchers centrally.

Login Enterprise includes new launchers that communicate bidirectionally. With two-way communication, you can control launchers through a central management REST API and automate without a bunch of coding experience. You can also generate the necessary code examples through a Swagger UI interface for all your endpoints.

The last thing Daniel wanted to do was control the scale down of the user session. Login VSI didn’t have this capacity at the time, and uniform logoff was normally sufficient. I will, however, bring this to the attention of our product team as they are always exploring ways we can make our customers’ lives easier.

The primary purpose of this exercise was to allow him to collect “DaaS Monitoring and Citrix Analytics for Performance.” This is common with most customers who pair the ability to interact with the environment with a user workflow and machine data. You want to understand WHY the virtual users could indicate you are not getting the expected performance. Login Enterprise also removed subjective user data from the root cause analysis process and created a reproduction scenario that makes it possible to eliminate user experience issues BEFORE you introduce them.

While Daniel required 155 lines of code to orchestrate his testing practice, with Login Enterprise, it’s much simpler. I’ll demonstrate automating your testing parameters below.

Setting up Your Test Configuration

From the management console, you’ll be adding a test configuration. Do you want to run testing constantly, on a schedule, or specified amount? To remain consistent with the testing that Daniel was trying to orchestrate, I would recommend the following for those wanting a similar configuration.

You can set things like duration, frequency, number, and pattern of Login. This configuration eliminates the need for 155 lines of code!

Figure 2. Manage tests interface (if you don’t like interfaces, simply add testing configurations through an API)
Figure 3. Control how long users spend in the sessions through a workflow.

Now say you wanted to “load” test the environment like the old days. Login Enterprise’s load testing configuration includes a PowerShell script to call our public API. You don’t need scripting experience to instantiate or call out when the time is right. You can do it automatically from your change management process.

Figure 4. Testing automation stubs are generated automatically when you add a new load or application test into Login Enterprise.

Let’s now control the volume and frequency of Login against the environment. This can be done from the management interface or programmatically. You can see an illustration of these controls in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Configuration for load tests is slightly different as they are reactive to a request to start. Continuous testing, you tell it in advance, proactively.

You will be able to visualize this programmatically, but for those of you that like to view the results within the console:

Figure 6. The red arrow indicates a visual representation of a user volume increasing when analyzing the test results.

When we released Login Enterprise four years ago, getting data faster through automation was one of our operating principles. I hope this blog demonstrates the improvements in Login Enterprise when easily getting data through automation. We want to increase the number of administrators and systems engineers capable of running robust tests against their environment, thereby improving the overall user experience.

Ready for a High Performing Citrix DaaS Environment?

Login VSI can help you reduce the costs associated with VDI/DaaS and maintain the consistent performance of your Citrix environment from the cradle to the grave. If you’re ready to see how Login Enterprise can help, request a demo or contact us for more information.

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