View Citrix SD-WAN analytics data for multi-hop deployment

A multi-hop network deployment has multiple devices between the client and the server, as shown in the following figure. In this type of deployment, the Citrix SD-WAN SE appliances and the Citrix Gateway are added to Citrix ADM, and AppFlow is enabled.

Citrix ADM identifies the appliance from which it receives the data, based on the hop count and connection chain ID. The hop count represents the number of appliances through which the traffic flows from the client to the server. The connection chain ID represents the end-to-end connections between the client and the server.

Citrix ADM uses the hop count and connection chain ID to correlate the data from the appliances, and generates the reports.

For Citrix SD-WAN SE appliances to send the analytics data to Citrix ADM, you should configure the Virtual  IP address of Citrix Gateway as the DPI ICA IP and set the DPI ICA port number to 443.

To configure ICA DPI settings:

1. In the Citrix SD-WAN SE appliance UI, navigate to Configuration Editor > Advanced > Global > Applications > Settings

2. Select Enable Deep Packet Inspection > Enable Deep Packet Inspection for Citrix ICA Applications > Enable Multi-Stream ICA

   

3. In the DPI ICA IP-1 field, enter the Citrix Gateway Virtual IP address and prefix.

4. In the DPI ICA Port-1 field, enter the port number 443.

5. Click Apply and export the configuration to the appliance using the change management process.

In Citrix ADM, for every active ICA session, you can view a session diagram in HDX Insight. The session diagrams provide details about the devices in the connection path. They also provide insight into the client-side / server-side latency between a network device and its immediate next hop. This information enables you to identify the root cause of delay and troubleshoot performance issues.

Citrix SD-WAN SE does not send HDX data records. It provides TCP for HDX information only. The HDX insight data is provided by the HDX insight enabled devices in your network (for example, Citrix ADC or Citrix Gateway).  

The Citrix SD-WAN PE appliance can send TCP for HDX data or HDX insight data, depending on the AppFlow configuration of the appliance. HDX template should be enabled on the Data Center appliance.

Note

In a multi-hop deployment, ensure that only one of the network devices sends HDX insight data. The rest of the network devices can send TCP for HDX data.

To view multi-hop data:

 In Citrix ADM web interface, navigate to HDX Insight > Users > Current Sessions or HDX Insight > Applications > Current Sessions and click the Diagram icon.

The network topology diagram appears.

 Click any network element to display more information.

Note

The information displayed depends on the selected network element.

The following parameters appear for Citrix appliances:

• Name: Name of the Citrix appliance.
• IP Address: IP address of the appliance.
• WAN Latency: Latency caused by the client side of the network. That is, from Citrix appliance to end- user.
• DC Latency: Latency caused by the server side of the network. That is, from Citrix appliance to back-end servers.
• State: Device reachability status.