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Configuring VDI Experience

Overview

To successfully deploy VDI Experience, you must install and configure several components across various nodes of your virtual infrastructure. These components include:

  • Inbound connectors — Integration components that allow external systems to send data to the Nexthink platform. Their purpose is to enrich the existing data collected by Nexthink by bringing in additional context, typically from third-party tools or enterprise systems.

  • Collector — An agent that provides the full range of VDI metrics, giving you everything from virtual infrastructure insights, to comprehensive information about your Nexthink instance. This agent is intended for company-managed client devices and VMs, which enables comprehensive visibility into user experience.

  • VDI Client Extension — A lightweight agent that offers a limited set of metrics. It is designed for personal or self-managed employee devices where full Collector installation is not feasible.

The following figure shows a simplified representation of typical on-premises and cloud-hosted VDI infrastructures, highlighting which components to install on each node.

The numbers indicate the order in which you should install components on nodes in your virtual infrastructure. Nexthink recommends following this sequence for a smooth and consistent setup, and to ensure that data is sent correctly from each node to the next.

The connection lines show the path of metrics collected in the vdi_session and vdi_event tables, specific to VDI Experience. To learn about these metrics, refer to the VDI Experience NQL capabilities and NQL data model documents.

Example of an on-prem hosted VDI
Example of a cloud-hosted VDI

Depending on what components you install, the system will collect different metrics. To learn what metrics are provided by each installation scenario, refer to the VDI Experience NQL capabilities documentation.

Installing and testing Connectors

Install the applicable connectors for your on-prem or cloud integrations.

For a list of metrics provided by connectors, refer to the Metrics from Connectors documentation.

1

Install connectors

Install the relevant inbound connectors to enable data integration from third-party platforms, such as CMDB, HR systems, and ITSM tools. You have two options to choose from, depending on the type of integration you have:

This step ensures that contextual data is available to enrich insights within the VDI Experience module.

Install the relevant inbound connectors for all your integrations to ensure that all metrics are sent to your Nexthink instance.

2

Test connectors

Verify that the following NQL data model fields are correctly populated:

  • desktop_broker

  • desktop_pool

  • disk_image

To do this, run the following query in the Investigations module:

devices
| list virtualization.desktop_broker, virtualization.desktop_pool, virtualization.disk_image

If the query returns valid data, it means your connector configuration is correct.

However, if there is a problem with the connector, run the following query to see when your device was last updated by the connector:

devices
| list virtualization.last_update
| sort virtualization.last_update desc

If there hasn't been a recent update—for example, within the last three days—there is likely a problem with the connector configuration that needs to be addressed.

Refer to the specific inbound connector documentation in Inbound connectors to understand how to ensure a correct configuration. If needed, contact Nexthink support or your Nexthink representative.

Installing and testing the Collector on VMs

Install Collector on your VMs, and ensure that it is configured correctly and that data is being sent.

For a list of metrics provided by Collectors on VMs, refer to the Basic configuration scenario - Remote-only insights documentation.

1

Install Collector on VMs

Prepare your VMs as follows:

  1. Burn Collector onto the golden image used for VM provisioning to ensure consistent deployment.

  2. Distribute Collector to your VMs to enable the collection of performance and experience data from the virtual desktop layer.

See the Installing Collector on Windows documentation to learn how to perform the installation.

2

Test Collector on VMs

Run the following query in the Investigations module to see a list of VMs with an unsupported desktop virtualization platform, such as those from an unsupported vendor or because of a Collector version that does not yet support VDI reporting:

devices
| where virtualization.vdi_reporting in [not_supported, null] and hardware.type == virtual
| list device.name, collector.version, virtualization.vdi_reporting

Execute the following query to see a list of VMs running a supported desktop virtualization agent where the data can be reported if the VDI Experience product is enabled:

devices
| where virtualization.vdi_reporting == inactive

To troubleshoot, check the VMs returned by the previous queries. To see a list of VMs with a supported desktop virtualization agent, and where Collector is already sending data to VDI experience, run the following query:

devices
| where virtualization.vdi_reporting == active

Run the following query to see the network RTT values for active sessions:

session.vdi_events during past 48h 
| where state == active 
| list vdi_session.name, remote_protocol, device.name, user.name, network_rtt

Installing and testing the Collector and VDI Client Extension on client devices

Install Collector on company-managed client devices. Deploy the VDI Client Extension on personal or employee-managed client devices.

For a list of metrics provided by the Collector and VDI Client Extension on client devices, refer to the Intermediate configuration scenario - Limited visibility setup and Advanced configuration scenario - Full visibility setup documentations.

1

Install Collector on client devices

For client devices that are centrally managed by your organization, distribute Collector across all applicable devices using your preferred software deployment tools.

See the Installing Collector on Windows documentation to learn how to perform the installation and mass deployment.

2

Install VDI Client Extension on client devices

For personal or self-managed client devices, make the VDI Client Extension available for installation. This lightweight agent provides limited yet valuable client-side metrics without requiring full Collector deployment.

See the Installing Nexthink VDI Client Extension documentation for details about the extension and installation instructions.

3

Test Collector and VDI Client Extension

Client device Collector agents communicate with the "main" VM Collector. Allow virtual channels on the VM to enable client device metrics.

Refer to your vendor's documentation to learn how to enable virtual channels.

Run the following query in the Investigations module to see a list of endpoint devices that have Collector or the standalone VDI Client Extension running on them:

session.vdi_events
| summarize client_cpu_usage = client.cpu.normalized_usage.avg() by client.device.name
| where client_cpu_usage != null

After running the query, select a device identifier in the list, and use Retrieve all > Devices to see a list of device names. If a device is not on the list, it means it does not have an appropriate version of Collector and it does not have the VDI Client Extension installed on it.

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