Three root cause analysis methods to help solve VDI issues
From performing a manual assessment to working with VDI vendors' proprietary tools, IT professionals have options for figuring out why problems are happening in their deployments.
For IT professionals who deploy VDI, it's important to be able to not only resolve issues, but to understand why an issue happened in the first place by analyzing the root cause.
The right root cause analysis methods can not only help IT pros pinpoint why VDI issues are happening, but can also prevent those problems from reoccurring and save time, which also saves money. Root cause analysis also helps ensure the long-term success and stability of a VDI deployment by improving uptime and functionality for enterprise users.
To realize the benefits of this approach, root cause analysis, IT pros must have good root cause analysis methods, which means putting the right tools in place for troubleshooting. It also includes monitoring the VDI deployment with the right processes and data collection so they can deep dive into any issues that may arise.
What root cause analysis methods exist?
Understanding the root cause of any problem isn't always simple. With the complexities that come with VDI, it can be even more difficult. IT pros will quickly realize they must proactively plan their root cause analysis methods to expedite analysis.
The prepared IT pro understands that the journey to finding the root cause of a problem begins with understanding the architecture and deployment design. This level of understanding can lead them to the right systems to research and analyze when assessing and diagnosing any VDI problem.
Quiz: Prove your knowledge of monitoring tools for VDI
Monitoring tools use features like synthetic user monitoring to help IT prepare for any VDI health issues. Do you know all the various VDI monitoring strategies? Take this quiz to find out.
There are many root cause analysis methods IT can use to determine VDI problems, including:
Manual discovery. Performing a manual server analysis can be very time-consuming, but it is still a viable option for determining the root cause of a problem. An IT pro who jumps into the issue manually and immediately has a good chance of getting to the bottom of the problem quickly. The goal should be to reproduce the issue the user is experiencing, and then collect error messages, evaluate event logs and research how to solve the problem.
Use proprietary tools available through a VDI vendor. Every vendor with a VDI product offers its own proprietary tools for monitoring, assessment and analysis. Citrix, for example, includes several tools, such as Citrix Director, which help IT track nine major areas, including user sessions, historical trends and connection failures.
VMware's monitoring tool is vRealize Operations for Horizon. IT can use vRealize Operations for Horizon to search for problems at any level of the deployment, including the hypervisor.
Some vendors include monitoring tools for free in their products, while others may charge an additional fee or offer paid licensing upgrades.
Savvy IT pros know their time and their users' time is invaluable.
Depending on the depth of the vendor's tool set, IT can gain visibility into the root cause of a problem much faster. Even though proprietary tools generally make it easy for IT to see what the issue is, it's not always easy to find out why the issue occurred.
Try third-party options. Savvy IT pros know their time and their users' time is invaluable. The right third-party tool speeds up root cause analysis to help IT solve problems more quickly. As a result, they should leave no stone unturned with monitoring.
There are a host of options available for IT to choose from, including Liquidware Stratusphere UX, Quest Foglight for Virtualization and eG Innovations VDI Performance Assessment. Not all products are created equal, so it's important to look through the options closely.
