To monitor ICA® connections

Last published : Sep 03, 2026
You can monitor active user sessions on your server farm by using the ICA Connections dialog box. This dialog box provides the following information:
  • User name of the person connecting to the server farm
  • Domain name of the server farm
  • IP address of the user device
  • Port number of the user device
  • IP address of the server running Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops
  • Port number of the server running Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops
  1. Navigate to Configuration > NetScaler Gateway.
  2. In the Monitor Connections section, click ICA Connections.
Related information
Maintaining and Monitoring the System

ICA session logs

The ns.log file prints the ICA session logs in the following format:
May  2 09:29:02 <local0.info> 10.106.40.223  05/02/2023:09:29:02 GMT  0-PPE-1 : default ICA Message 141327 0 :  "[Remote ip = 10.10.99.86:514] [EDT] [CGP][ICAUUID=0006ab3454-d7de-1450-9678-c6333447a76] Received response from STA server {sta-server=10.11.40.222:80,type=ResponseData}"
Starting from release version 13.1 build 50.x, the following enhancements are made to the ICA logs:
  • Displays connection types such as TCP, EDT, CGP, and SOCKS.
  • Displays the ICA Universally Unique Identifier (UUID).
  • All the STA logs are displayed as info-level logs.

Enhanced ICA session monitoring with Citrix transaction ID Integration

Starting from NetScaler Gateway release 14.1 build 60.x, the Citrix transaction ID is directly integrated into NetScaler Gateway's ICA process. This integration ensures that a consistent ICA UUID is used across NetScaler Gateway, Citrix Workspace app, and Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) in ICA logs. Previously, the lack of a transaction ID on NetScaler Gateway caused correlation issues during end-to-end ICA session monitoring in NetScaler Gateway, Citrix Workspace app, and VDA environments.
Integrating the Citrix transaction ID into the ICA process offers the following benefits:
  • Streamlined monitoring: Enables comprehensive and consistent end-to-end monitoring of the ICA session.
  • Faster issue resolution: Facilitates quicker identification and resolution of issues by providing a consistent ICA UUID. This enhancement reduces troubleshooting time for administrators and support teams.

Integration of NetScaler Gateway with AoT log server

Starting from NetScaler Gateway release 14.1 build 60.x, NetScaler Gateway and the Always-on Tracing (AoT) log server are integrated. This enables NetScaler Gateway to forward detailed log streams to the AoT log server, enhancing monitoring and troubleshooting. For more information about deploying and integrating the AoT log server with your on-premises NetScaler Gateway, see Export audit logs to HEC endpoints.

Limitations

  • NetScaler Gateway sends the entire System Log to the AoT log server since the syslogAction is bound globally.