A SmartAuditor deployment can range anywhere from a small Citrix environment to a large multi-server, Enterprise setup. Many factors come into play when planning your SmartAuditor deployment. For example, the number of recorded users, application types, and available hardware should all be considered prior to your SmartAuditor installation.
This article will cover the various SmartAuditor deployments you can choose from that best fit your XenApp environment. Please note that SmartAuditor is not limited to only the deployments described in this article, but this will help provide a better understanding of the flexible possibilities available for deployment. For more information on scaling your SmartAuditor Server, please refer to the article Building a Highly Scalable SmartAuditor Server.
Single Server Deployment
In the case of a small environment, SmartAuditor can be deployed using a single XenApp. In addition, a large farm may use this setup if the intention is to only record sessions running on a single XenApp. Please note that depending on the number of sessions being recorded and the amount of data being processed, performance on XenApp may be slightly affected. In a single-server deployment, all SmartAuditor components will be installed on XenApp including the SmartAuditor Agent, Server, Policy Console, and Database. Furthermore, while you can install and run the SmartAuditor Player on this server, it is recommended to be deployed on a separate Windows XP or Vista workstation due to the memory consumption and high graphical nature of the application.
Figure 1 below illustrates a single-server SmartAuditor deployment:
Figure 1 - Single Server Deployment for SmartAuditor
Server Farm Deployment
In a larger environment, it is common to group the XenApp servers into a farm. The SmartAuditor Agent must be installed on each XenApp in the farm that is intended to record ICA sessions. Since the load on the SmartAuditor Server will most likely be heavier than on a single-server deployment, it is recommended to install the SmartAuditor Server on a dedicated Windows 2003 Server not running XenApp. Furthermore, installing the SmartAuditor Database on a dedicated SQL Server computer is encouraged. The SmartAuditor Policy Console is simply a workstation application and can be installed on a Windows XP, Vista, or 2003 computer. Since this is a lightweight application, you can also install the SmartAuditor Policy Console directly on the SmartAuditor Server. However, in the case of security precautions, a dedicated Policy Console computer may be required. As mentioned earlier, the SmartAuditor Player should be deployed on a dedicated Windows XP or Vista workstation.
Figure 2 below illustrates a server farm deployment.
Figure 2 - Server Farm Deployment
Multiple SmartAuditor Servers Deployment
In some SmartAuditor environments, the recorded ICA sessions may be very large or have a high graphic intensity. Applications such as a CAD design program will generate much more session recording data than a simple everyday application, such as Microsoft Office. The rate at which the SmartAuditor Server can process the incoming data, in addition to storing this data, helps determine the number of recordings a single SmartAuditor Server can handle. In the case when the SmartAuditor Server cannot process the data quickly enough, the data may be stored in the server's incoming queue (via MSMQ) until the backlog of messages is cleared.
In order to alleviate the load on your SmartAuditor Server, you can create multiple SmartAuditor Servers within your single server farm. With this, you can create a balance by having a dedicated SmartAuditor Server for every X number of XenApp servers (where X is dependent upon the session recording data load for the SmartAuditor Server). Each XenApp running the SmartAuditor Agent will need to be configured to point to its dedicated SmartAuditor Server. There is no limit to the number of SmartAuditor Servers you can install in a XenApp Farm.
Note: SmartAuditor Servers are independent of each other; there is no load balancing across the SmartAuditor Servers. Each SmartAuditor Agent is statically configured to point to a single SmartAuditor Server.
A single SmartAuditor Player and Policy Console can be used, but can only point to a single SmartAuditor Server at a time. This means you would need to point to each SmartAuditor Server individually and configure a recording policy via the Policy Console. Similarly, when searching for recordings in the SmartAuditor Player, you can only search on a single SmartAuditor Server. To view the other recordings, you would have to point to another SmartAuditor Server and run another search. Search results are not combined between SmartAuditor Servers.
Figure 3 illustrates a multiple SmartAuditor Server environment.
Figure 3 - Multiple SmartAuditor Servers Deployment
Another deployment containing multiple servers would involve having a single, centralized SmartAuditor Database that is used for multiple SmartAuditor Servers. The advantage here would be that you only have to maintain one database and you will only need a single policy configured that will be used by all SmartAuditor Servers. Additionally, if you wish to view recordings via the SmartAuditor Player across the various SmartAuditor Servers, it is recommended to store the session recording files in a centralized location for all SmartAuditor Servers to contact.
Figure 4 illustrates a multiple SmartAuditor Server environment:
Figure 4 - Multiple SmartAuditor Server Deployment with centralized SmartAuditor Database
In order to configure your SmartAuditor Servers to use a single SmartAuditor Database, you will need to perform the following steps:
- Add the appropriate security permissions of your SmartAuditor Server computer to the SmartAuditor Database on your SQL Server
- Open SQL Server Management
- Create a new Security Login for your SmartAuditor Server(s) in the form Domain\<SmartAuditor_Server>$
- In the Properties of your SmartAuditor Server account, add the 'db_owner' membership role for the CitrixSmartAuditor database.
- Configure all SmartAuditor Servers to point to the SmartAuditor Database. You can point to the SmartAuditor Database during the SmartAuditor Server install. To change the SmartAuditor Database location of an existing SmartAuditor Server:
- Open Regedit.
- Browse to HKLM\Software\Citrix\SmartAuditor\Server\
- Edit SmAudDatabaseInstance to reflect your SmartAuditor Database location.
- Restart the SmartAuditor Storage Manager Service.
- Create a centralized file repository to store session recording files
- Create a folder and ensure you designate the proper permissions for your SmartAuditor Servers to read/write from. Refer to the Storage Directories section of Configuring Security Features of SmartAuditor for the correct permissions required by SmartAuditor.
- Open the SmartAuditor Server Properties dialog for each SmartAuditor Server and under the Storage tab, edit the file storage directories to reflect the file repository you created.
Multiple Farm, Single SmartAuditor Server Deployment
In some instances, a Citrix environment may be segmented into multiple XenApp farms. However, for the purposes of using SmartAuditor to record ICA sessions, a customer may wish to have a single data point to store all of the recorded session data. Such a use case would require a single SmartAuditor Server to host all XenApp farms. Since the SmartAuditor Server is independent of the XenApp farm, it can support multiple farms without additional configuration. Simply install the Citrix SmartAuditor Agent on all desired XenApp servers and configure the Agent to point to your SmartAuditor Server.
As discussed earlier, the number of recorded sessions a SmartAuditor Server can handle is dependent on the number of recorded sessions, application type, and hardware. For more information on scaling your SmartAuditor, please reference the article Building a Highly Scalable SmartAuditor Server.
Figure 5 illustrates a multiple farm, single server deployment.
Figure 5 - Multiple Farm, Single SmartAuditor Server Deployment
