PowerShell script that detects disconnected sessions

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hello --

I am using Director to monitor sessions on our server, and if I observe a session in a Disconnected state for an 'extended' period of time, I proceed to log off the user. I am looking into setting up e-mail notifications so that I will be notified of such events.

I am planning on using PowerShell to send the e-mail notifications. What I also need to do is have PowerShell periodically check for disconnected sessions. Does anyone know what command syntax I would be able to use in order to accomplish this task?

Thanks.

[Fabian Meinzer]

Hi

I dont know how to script this, but if you only need it to get idle sessions logged off, you can use the GPOs to define a max idle time. Users will automatically log off after this time

[William Charnell]

You need to load the XenDesktop SDK snap-ins into the PowerShell shell instance, with the 'Add-PsSnapin' cmdlet.

If you just want the broker service cmdlets, you can say:

Add-PsSnapin Citrix.Broker.Admin.V2

or you can add all of the installed Citrix snapins with

Add-PsSnapin Citrix.*

You can also get a shell instance with the right snapins loaded through the 'Launch PowerShell' button on the bottom of the 'PowerShell' tab of the Studio console root node.

Regards
William

[William Charnell]

The 'Get-BrokerSession' cmdlet can be directly used to get a list of the sessions that have been disconnected for at least some target length of time. The result of this can then be used in a PowerShell script to then email to somewhere, or event to automatically log these session off of that is the desired action. The cmdlet parameters to (for example) find disconnected sessions that have been disconnected for 4 hours or more would be:

Get-BrokerSession -SessionState Disconnected -Filter { SessionStateChangeTime -lt "-4:00" }

The edocs help for the cmdlet is at:
http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/citrix-broker-admin-v2-xd7/get-brokersession-xd7.html

and the help for the filter syntax (including time ranges) is at:
http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/citrix-broker-admin-v2-xd7/about_broker_filtering-xd7.html

Regards
William

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hello --

I tried running the Get-BrokerSession from the PowerShell, version 2.0, console, but the error message that I am getting is the following:

The term 'Get-BrokerSession' is not recognized as the name of a cmlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

What would be the correct path to the cmdlet, or is this something that needs to be installed onto the server?

Thanks.

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hello --

I went with the Add-PsSnapin Citrix.* approach, and once that was done, the cmdlet ran without issue.

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hello --

I had one other question. If there are no disconnected sessions, the default result is simply the command prompt. Is there a way to have the output come back with a message that states there are no disconnected sessions?

[Carl Webster1709152473]

No, PoSH doesn't do that. You can do something like:

$Result = Get-BrokerSession -SessionState Disconnected -Filter { SessionStateChangeTime -lt "-4:00" }
If($? -and $Result -ne $Null)
{
#we have a result
}
ElseIf($Result -eq $Null)
{
#no result
}
Else
{
#error
}

[Jason Sorrell]

after gathering the disconnected users, other than via gpo, is there a way to log them off via powershell?
 

[Dan Herman1709153625]

after gathering the disconnected users, other than via gpo, is there a way to log them off via powershell?

 

 

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/citrix-broker-admin-v2-xd7/stop-brokersession-xd7.html

[Paul Cross]

Here's a script I created for killing off disconnected sessions. Basically it checks the state of each machine and then performs the action for that state.

 

For disconnected sessions it checks how long it's been in that state and if it's greater then 90 minutes restarts the session.

 

If you run it directly you get a summary in the window. I call it via a scheduled task on the controller every 30 minutes, I'll paste the batch file code at the bottom.

 

#------------------------------------------------------#

#

# FILE NAME - SessionCheckerV3.ps1

#
# Script that checks the session state of all powered desktops
# and performs the listed action for each state.
#
#------------------------------------------------------#

##Load Citrix modules if not already loaded
$snapins = Get-PSSnapin | where { $_.Name -like "Citrix*" }
if ($snapins -eq $null)
{
   Get-PSSnapin -Registered "Citrix*" | Add-PSSnapin
   Add-PSSnapin "PvsPsSnapin"
}

[int]$disconnected = 0
[int]$unregistered = 0
[int]$poweredon = 0
[int]$poweredoff = 0

foreach ($desktop in Get-BrokerDesktop -MaxRecordCount 10000)
{
 if ($desktop.PowerState -eq 'On')
 {
    $poweredon++

 
     if ($desktop.SummaryState -eq 'Unregistered')
     {
         #If powered-on and unregistered, perform a forceful restart
         #New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -MachineName $desktop.MachineName -Action Reset
        $temp = $desktop.MachineName            
         Write-Host "Unregistered: $temp"

        $unregistered++
     }
 
     if ($desktop.SummaryState -eq 'Disconnected')
     {
         #If powered-on and disconnected, check for sessions older than 90 minutes
         $timediff = (Get-Date) - $desktop.SessionStateChangeTime

            if ($timediff.TotalMinutes -gt 90)
            {
                # if in disconnected state for more then 90 minutes restart vm
                New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -MachineName $desktop.MachineName -Action Restart
            }
        
        $temp = $desktop.MachineName            
         Write-Host "Disconnected: $temp"
        
        $disconnected++
    }

    if ($desktop.SummaryState -eq 'Available')
    {
        #If powered-on and ready, perform a graceful restart
        #New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -MachineName $desktop.MachineName -Action Restart
    }
 }

 if ($desktop.PowerState -eq 'Off')
    {
        #If powered-off, turn it on
        #New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -MachineName $desktop.MachineName -Action TurnOn

        $poweredoff++
    }
}

 Write-Host " -------------------------------------"
 Write-Host " Powered On: $poweredon"
 Write-Host " Disconnected: $disconnected"
 Write-Host " Unregistered: $unregistered"
 Write-Host " Powered Off: $poweredoff"
 Write-Host " -------------------------------------"

 

************************************************************************************************************************************************

BATCH FILE - called via scheduled task

 

************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -File "C:\Scripts\SessionCheckerV3.ps1"

[Paul Cross]

Just a thought. I wrote that for my XD 5.6  environment and haven't actually tested it on XD 7, it should still work though.

[Bit-101]

"..For disconnected sessions it checks how long it's been in that state and if it's greater then 90 minutes restarts the session"

 

Great but what if I only want to shut down the machine or logg of the user?

 

Really appreciate your answer

 

:)

[Bit-101]

But how about this:

 

#———————————————————————

 

# Date : 13-08-2013
# Script name : Force_restart.ps1
# Description : Restart disconnected desktops after 9 hours. Only desktops of a desktop group will be restarted.
# PowerOff disconnected desktops after 10 hours. Only desktops of a desktop group will be restarted.
#
#
# Extra module : citrix*
# VMware.VimAutomation.Core
# VMware.VimAutomation.Vds
#
# Copyright : ©2014 Login Consultants, all rights reserved.
# History : RJA 20140812 Initial version
# RJA 20140813 PowerOff added
#———————————————————————

# Import the required Snap-ins

Add-PSSnapIn citrix*
Add-PSSnapIn VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Add-PSSnapIn VMware.VimAutomation.Vds
# Query all VDI desktops that are in maintenance mode longer then 9 hours.

$forcerebootmachines = Get-BrokerSession -SessionState Disconnected -Filter {SessionStateChangeTime -lt “-9:00″} -HypervisorConnectionName REPLACE WITH GROUP -DesktopGroupName “REPLACE WITH GROUP”| Select-Object HostedMachineName

foreach ($item in $forcerebootmachines)
{
Restart-Computer -Force -computername $item.HostedMachineName
}

# Shutdown VDI desktops that do not respond to restart-computer

$ConfirmPreference=”none”
Set-PowerCliConfiguration -invalidcertificateaction Ignore
Connect-VIServer REPLACE WITH VSPHERE SERVER -notdefault

$forcerebootmachines10 = Get-BrokerSession -SessionState Disconnected -Filter {SessionStateChangeTime -lt “-10:00″} -HypervisorConnectionName REPLACE WITH GROUP -DesktopGroupName “REPLACE WITH GROUP”| Select-Object HostedMachineName

foreach ($item in $forcerebootmachines10)
{
Get-VM -Name $item.HostedMachineName | Stop-VM -Kill
}

:)

[Paul Cross]

"..For disconnected sessions it checks how long it's been in that state and if it's greater then 90 minutes restarts the session"

 

Great but what if I only want to shut down the machine or logg of the user?

 

Really appreciate your answer

 

:)

 

 

Just change the -Action to TurnOff -

 

New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -MachineName $desktop.MachineName -Action TurnOff

 

Not sure about just logging them off but if it's a non-persistent desktop such as a pooled desktop you'd want to reboot it anyway to get it back to a clean state.

[Rajneesh Kumar1709159745]

On 20/08/2014 at 4:34 PM, Paul Cross said:

 

 

Just change the -Action to TurnOff -

 

New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -MachineName $desktop.MachineName -Action TurnOff

 

Not sure about just logging them off but if it's a non-persistent desktop such as a pooled desktop you'd want to reboot it anyway to get it back to a clean state.

Can we add one more step in like if I want to logoff the sessions with disconnected session of one hours for a particular app like ABC  and send the results via email.

[Rajneesh Kumar1709159745]

Can we add one more step in like if I want to logoff the sessions with disconnected session of one hours for a particular app like ABC  and send the results via email.

[Nour Eddine Messaoud-Tetzner1709163271]

On 8/20/2014 at 10:10 AM, Peter Fällman said:

"..For disconnected sessions it checks how long it's been in that state and if it's greater then 90 minutes restarts the session"

 

Great but what if I only want to shut down the machine or logg of the user?

 

Really appreciate your answer

 

?

Get-BrokerSession -MaxRecordCount 2000 | Select-Object BrokeringUserName, MachineName,  ClientAddress, Clientname, CatalogName, SessionStateChangeTime,  SessionState |  Where {$_.SessionStateChangeTime -lt (get-date).AddHours(-3)} | where SessionState -eq 'disconnected'                          

 

 

  more than 3 hours and the cession is disconnected

 

 

 

[Nour Eddine Messaoud-Tetzner1709163271]

Get-BrokerSession -MaxRecordCount 2000 | Select-Object BrokeringUserName, MachineName,  ClientAddress, Clientname, CatalogName, SessionStateChangeTime,  SessionState |  Where {$_.SessionStateChangeTime -lt (get-date).AddHours(-3)} | where SessionState -eq 'disconnected'