A ControlUp community member has created a comprehensive Training and Operating Manual for the ControlUp Real-Time Digital Experience (DX) Console, originally developed as internal training material but now shared publicly to benefit the wider user community. The manual spans roughly 22 pages and includes detailed explanations, diagrams, and knowledge base references, aiming to deepen understanding of ControlUp’s architecture, setup, operations, and troubleshooting.
The manual covers multiple critical areas for both new and experienced users. It begins with an overview of the console architecture and the data collector pattern, supported by detailed diagrams to visualize the system’s workings. Installation topics include the sequence of setup steps, pitfalls like the “shared-credentials trap,” mechanisms for Multi-Site Association, and agent auto-deployment processes. For everyday operations, the manual highlights powerful console features such as column grouping, Branch Mapping, and registry comparison. It also clarifies common confusions around event logs, particularly the differences between LogName and event ID.
Troubleshooting guidance is a key focus, addressing connectivity challenges including those posed by corporate proxy environments, with practical PowerShell snippets included to assist in resolution. Advanced topics such as script actions with argument extraction from column values are also presented. The manual further differentiates ControlUp’s on-premises variants, specifically IOP, COP, and SOP configurations, which is valuable for users managing hybrid or fully on-premises deployments.
This document is an independent user-created resource and is explicitly noted as unofficial; it does not carry warranty, support, or official endorsement from ControlUp. Users are encouraged to use it as a supplement to official resources and to consult ControlUp’s Knowledge Base and ControlUp Academy for formal guidance. The author invites feedback and corrections from the community to improve the manual’s accuracy and usefulness over time. This shared resource represents a valuable starting point and practical reference for ControlUp console users wishing to deepen their operational knowledge and troubleshooting skills.
For official documentation and further training, users can visit the ControlUp Knowledge Base at https://docs.controlup.com and the ControlUp Academy at https://cuacademy.controlup.com.
Read the entire article here...
ControlUp Agent Related Training & Support Archives
ControlUp Agent training and support-related archives from inside the ControlUp Community on Slack.
How to Use ControlUp Live View to Identify Processes Causing CPU Spikes in VDI Environments
When attempting to diagnose CPU spikes and identify the specific processes responsible using ControlUp, the most effective approach is to utilize the Live view, also known as the VDI page in the ControlUp Web UI. This view provides real-time, granular insights into process-level CPU consumption across virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments. Unlike historical reports, which show aggregated past data such as CPU Utilization Max but lack immediacy, the Live view updates metrics approximately every three seconds, enabling administrators to track CPU spikes as they happen and correlate them with individual processes.
Accessing this Live view requires either appropriate licensing or configuration that may prompt for a user principal name (UPN) login depending on how ControlUp is set up in the organization. When correctly logged in, administrators can drill down into specific machines experiencing CPU spikes and see a detailed, sortable list of CPU-intensive processes. This functionality helps pinpoint the exact processes causing resource bottlenecks, which is critical since the total CPU utilization of a machine does not always equal the sum of all visible processes. This discrepancy arises because kernel interrupts and other system-level operations that consume CPU are not attributed to individual user processes.
Users noted that if access to the Live view is initially unavailable or the relevant VDI tab not visible, it may be due to missing licenses or particular configuration settings controlled by the ControlUp administrator in the environment. In such cases, reaching out to the administrator and providing the UPN for authentication often resolves access issues. Without this, troubleshooting CPU spikes becomes difficult, and users may resort to external scripting solutions like PowerShell, which can be less reliable and less integrated.
Once logged into the Live view, operators can monitor real-time CPU usage per user and process, identify the top five consumers, and respond quickly to performance incidents causing a slowdown in the VDI environment. While the Live view is potent for immediate troubleshooting, storing long-term granular process data in a live manner is impractical due to data volume and cost, so ControlUp uses historical reports for trend analysis. Overall, the Live view is regarded as an essential and powerful feature in ControlUp’s suite for understanding and resolving CPU utilization spikes in virtualized desktop environments.
For further information on configuring and accessing the Live view in ControlUp, administrators can consult the official ControlUp documentation at https://docs.controlup.com and the ControlUp Academy at https://cuacademy.controlup.com. These resources cover licensing requirements, configuration steps, and best practices for effectively using real-time monitoring to maintain optimal VDI performance.
Read the entire article here...
Read the entire article here...
Utilizing Microsoft Teams API with ControlUp UCC dashboards
A user named Seb shared three ControlUp UCC dashboards that use Microsoft Teams API data only - no CU4D agent needed. The dashboards show real Teams call quality and usage before the agent reaches the endpoints. It includes graphs for daily, weekly, and monthly trends, as well as MOS bands and per-user statistics. These dashboards can be customized to specific needs. Other users showed appreciation for Seb's contribution.
Read the entire article here...
Read the entire article here...
Real-Time Output for PowerShell Script Actions
A user asked if it was possible to see live output when running a PowerShell script as a script action. Another user suggested using a function to achieve this, while clarifying that ControlUp Script Actions do not stream output in real time. The first user mentioned seeing live output in other scripts and questioned if it was because they were forcing the output. It was confirmed by another user that this is not the case.
Read the entire article here...
Read the entire article here...
Remediation of VDIs with ControlUp for Compliance
A user asked about using CU4C to remediate vulnerabilities on VDIs. It was suggested that both the CU4C and VDI Agents must be installed based on documentation, but this may change when ControlUp Agent ONE is released.
Read the entire article here...
Read the entire article here...
ControlUp Survey.exe Crashing: AV Exclusions to Blame?
Several users experienced high volumes of crashing with the process 'Survey.exe' but found no active surveys running. One member recommended checking the version of the sip agent installed on the VDI's and to review the AV exclusions, which can be found on the updated documentation page at https://support.controlup.com/docs/av-exclusions-for-controlup. A user also reported having a dump file for the issue. Others suggested that this may be a result of the AV exclusions not being applied properly and causing a loop of 'Survey.exe' starting and crashing immediately.
Read the entire article here...
Read the entire article here...
How to Pinpoint CPU-Heavy Processes Across Your VDI Fleet with ControlUp
This thread walks through a real customer question: how do you find which processes are eating the most CPU across a large VDI estate (200 servers) over a long period, so you know what to optimize?
It starts in ControlUp Dashboards. Using the VDI process data, you can build a widget showing top processes by CPU, then narrow it to the machines you care about using global filters (filter by folder, or switch to query filters with IS / IS NOT). A table beats a bar chart for a top-50 view, and any filters and time frames you set are saved in the URL, so you can bookmark or share the exact view. The built-in Gallery dashboards (notably "Big Screen Dashboard VDI") already include a processes-by-CPU widget out of the box.
The harder part is the one the customer really cared about: getting a meaningful picture across all machines rather than a single noisy spike on one box. The data is stored per process per 5-minute timeslot, not pre-aggregated per machine, so the practical approach that emerged was:
Filter to the folder containing all target machines.
Use CPU usage P95 to strip out short, expected spikes (with a fallback to average CPU, since P95 returned N/A in some environments — a possible bug worth a support ticket).
Add metrics under Advanced: computer_name (unique count) to see how many machines run the process, and process_name (count) to see how often it appeared (each record ≈ a 5-minute aggregate).
The processes worth optimizing are the ones combining high CPU + high machine count + high record count.
Worked example: a process showing ~1,080 records across 197 machines roughly translates to ~90 hours of activity over 7 days, or a few minutes per machine per day. The same method surfaced candidates like CompatTelRunner.exe, WerFault.exe, and WEM-related activity for further investigation. To go deeper, the App Trends and App Statistics reports let you drill into a specific app, and product_name data helps identify what's actually behind generic process names like setup.exe.
A few important caveats came up: averages hide spikes (10% average could be one minute at 100%), process counts are per machine, and hypervisor-level CPU (e.g., XenServer) can disagree with in-VM agent data when hosts are over-provisioned — which is also why a Sizing Recommendations report may suggest removing vCPUs even on a machine that looks maxed out.
Bottom line: use the dashboard to identify the heavy processes (folder filter + P95/avg CPU + machine count + record count), then use the App Trends report to dig into the details per app.
Read the entire article here...
Read the entire article here...
User Experiences Issue with User Sentiment Survey in ControlUp
A user encountered an issue while conducting a survey on User Sentiment during a management call, as only one out of three participants received the survey popup. The user has confirmed that the devices are online and on the latest GA, with all necessary settings in place. After further testing, the user has discovered that the survey was sent but did not display properly. A ticket has been requested to further investigate the issue.
Read the entire article here...
Read the entire article here...
Setting Up Alerts for Mac Devices in Edge DX
A user requested help setting up an alert in Edge DX to be notified when a macOS device shuts down or goes offline. They specifically asked for the exact Data Index, Field, and Condition to use. Instructions were given to navigate to Events → Alert Rules → Add Alert, set Product to Devices, and use the following settings: Method: Static Threshold, Category: Select the _devices data index, Field: last_communication, Operator: Contains, Time Window: 600 seconds (10 minutes minimum), Hits Required: 1, Retrigger Delay: 3600 seconds (1 hour). They were also reminded to add platform=2 for MacOS only.
Read the entire article here...
Read the entire article here...
Creating a Campus-Specific Wifi Dashboard with ControlUp
A discussion took place in ControlUp about building a dashboard for monitoring WiFi network experience based on SSID in four different campuses using the same name but different IP ranges. The suggestion of filtering by subnet on the new 2.18 version was brought up, but it was also recommended to group by BSSID for a better understanding of performance. The use of wildcards in filters and the potential of converting subnets from octets to numbers were also mentioned. @member and @member offered assistance with @member alerting the group of his involvement in creating a Wifi Dashboard but using BSSID instead of IP addresses. A demo tool for testing the desired dashboard was also provided by @member.
Read the entire article here...
Read the entire article here...