Several ControlUp community members discussed how to configure a trigger to automatically log off idle users from Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) hosts using the ControlUp Agent for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). One common solution is to leverage existing trigger packs within ControlUp, which include triggers designed to log off a user session after a specified period of inactivity. These triggers can be customized based on time thresholds that fit the organization’s session management policies.
An example script and detailed guidance were shared from ControlUp’s official script library, which provides automation for disconnecting or logging off idle sessions. This script can be adapted and deployed within ControlUp's automation policies to monitor session activity and log off users automatically when idle thresholds are met. The relevant resource is available at https://www.controlup.com/script-library-posts/disconnect-or-log-off-idle-sessions/.
Additional insights were shared from a ControlUp blog post that focuses on session resource optimization through automation. This post outlines best practices and practical examples of using ControlUp automation to manage session states efficiently, including auto-logout for idle sessions. The blog can be found here: https://www.controlup.com/blog/controlup-automation-session-resource-optimization/.
While native solutions like DaaS IQ might offer built-in functionality for auto-logging off idle users, many organizations have adopted ControlUp triggers as a practical workaround until formal approval or integration of native options is completed. The combination of ControlUp’s flexible triggers and scripting capabilities allows administrators to enforce session timeout policies effectively within AVD environments, optimizing resource utilization and enhancing security.
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VDI Related Training & Support Archives
VDI training and support-related archives from inside the ControlUp Community on Slack.
Understanding ALERT RULES Licensing and Usage in ControlUp One EVENTS Tab
Within the ControlUp One platform, the EVENTS tab includes an ALERT RULES section that is specifically designed for ControlUp for Desktops (CU4D). Users who do not have a CU4D license will encounter a license error when accessing the ALERT RULES tab, even though other areas like OVERVIEW and EVENT DETAILS function normally. This is because the ALERT RULES feature is directly tied to CU4D licensing and capabilities.
The ALERT RULES in ControlUp One covers alerting for CU4D, ControlUp for VDI (CU4VDI), and Synthetic Monitoring; however, the creation and management of alert rules within this tab are exclusive to CU4D. For alerting related to ControlUp for VDI and Synthetic Monitoring, users must configure those alerts within their respective products. Once alerts are configured in each solution, they will be aggregated and displayed together in ControlUp One for centralized monitoring.
In summary, the ALERT RULES function in the ControlUp One EVENTS tab is dedicated to CU4D alert creation, and attempting to access this function without the proper CU4D license will trigger a license error. Alert management for CU4VDI and Synthetic Monitoring requires using those individual products’ alerting tools, after which their alerts become visible collectively within the ControlUp One interface. This division maintains clear licensing boundaries and functional segregation across ControlUp’s different monitoring products.
For more information, see ControlUp’s official documentation on alerting and licensing at https://docs.controlup.com and explore the ControlUp Academy for training on alert configuration and best practices at https://cuacademy.controlup.com.
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Automating VDI Registration in ControlUp Console
Automating the addition of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) machines to the ControlUp console upon agent installation can streamline management and monitoring processes. While ControlUp for Desktops offers a command-line installation method that automatically registers machines, a similar approach for VDIs requires specific configuration.
To achieve automated registration of VDIs, you can utilize the Install-CUAgent PowerShell cmdlet, which is part of the ControlUp Automation module. This cmdlet allows for the download and installation of the ControlUp Agent on local machines, including VDIs. By providing the necessary authentication key during installation, the agent registers the machine with your ControlUp environment. For non-domain-joined machines, an API authentication token is required. ([support.controlup.com](https://support.controlup.com/docs/install-cuagent-install-an-agent?utm_source=openai))
For non-persistent VDIs, such as those created from a master image, it's essential to configure the agent to handle these scenarios appropriately. By setting the agent as a master image, it ensures that new VDIs created from this image will automatically register with the ControlUp console, preventing duplicate entries and maintaining an accurate device inventory. ([support.controlup.com](https://support.controlup.com/v1/docs/agent-outbound-communication?utm_source=openai))
Additionally, enabling folder synchronization with your VDI infrastructure can further streamline management. This feature ensures that VDIs are correctly registered and prevents stale machines from cluttering the interface. By integrating with your VDI environment, ControlUp can automatically detect and manage VDIs, enhancing the efficiency of your monitoring and management processes. ([support.controlup.com](https://support.controlup.com/docs/connecting-to-your-vdi-infrastructure?utm_source=openai))
By implementing these methods, you can automate the addition of VDIs to the ControlUp console, ensuring accurate device registration and efficient management of your virtual desktop environment.
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How to Diagnose Microsoft Teams SlimCore Optimization in Citrix and Other VDI Environments Using PowerShell Scripts
This discussion highlights two PowerShell scripts developed to aid tracking and diagnosing Microsoft Teams SlimCore Optimization specifically within Citrix environments, with potential applicability to Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Windows 365 (W365), and VMware Horizon sessions. SlimCore is an optimized media stack used in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) scenarios to enhance Teams call performance by offloading audio and video processing to the client side.
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How to Initiate Remote Assist for VDI Sessions in ControlUp and Upcoming Improvements to Global Search and Enrich Plugin
In ControlUp, currently the primary method to start a remote assist session for a VDI user involves navigating through the interface by selecting VDI > Details > drilling down to the specific pool, or by using the search grid to find a user, then right-clicking their session, choosing Session Management, and finally selecting Remote control. This workflow contrasts with some other remote support tools, such as ScreenConnect, which offer a global search feature enabling quick retrieval of any active session—physical or virtual—directly by searching the user's name.
The new global search functionality in ControlUp primarily directs users to the session activity reports rather than live session data. This design choice was intentional to focus on long-term historical data rather than real-time session information. However, multiple community members highlighted the benefit of extending the global search to include live VDI sessions, which would allow quicker identification and management of active sessions and streamline remote assist workflows, particularly for VDI.
The need for this improvement is tied to efforts by some organizations to consolidate tools, replacing separate remote assist products with ControlUp. The current process for VDI sessions is seen as less efficient compared to physical endpoints, where the user’s device appears directly in the global search, facilitating straightforward remote control initiation. Adding real-time VDI session data to the global search would align ControlUp’s user experience with that of other remote support tools and simplify support staff workflows.
Additionally, the community suggested expanding ControlUp’s Enrich plugin—already valued for integrating with ticketing systems and enhancing remote support capabilities—to cover VDI environments. This expansion is confirmed to be on ControlUp’s roadmap and is expected to be developed later in the year, promising to further enhance VDI support operations.
For more detailed guidance on starting remote control sessions and using ControlUp’s search features, users can consult the official ControlUp documentation at https://docs.controlup.com and explore the ControlUp Academy resources at https://cuacademy.controlup.com.
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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.
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ControlUp Synthetic Monitoring Workflows and Workarounds
A user named Alexander asked Nathan about a known limitation with ControlUp Synthetic Monitoring - specifically, that the server_name is often empty for NetScaler Gateway scouts. Nathan recommended a few different workarounds for auto-restart and suggested adding more fields to the webhook payload for debugging. The suggested workflow was to use resource and query ControlUp Real-Time DX / CVAD for machines or sessions matching the published resource.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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