How to Capture Citrix Presentation Server Console Debug Output

Summary

This article describes how to capture Citrix Presentation Server Console debug output.

This aids in the troubleshooting of Management Console-related issues (display issues, crashes and so on). Citrix support may ask for the Management Console to be launched in debugging mode.

Procedure

Launch the console with the –debugFile command line option. Citrix recommends creating a shortcut using the following procedure:

Right-click the desktop and choose New > Shortcut from the context menu.
The Create Shortcut wizard starts. In the Type the location of the item field type: %SystemRoot%\system32\java.exe. When prompted to Type a name for this shortcut, type a description such as Console Debugging.
Right-click the new shortcut and choose Properties from the context menu.
On the Shortcut tab, type the following text in the Target field:

java.exe -Djava.ext.dirs=Ext -jar Tool.jar

Change the Start in field to %ProgramFiles%\Citrix\Administration.
Click Change Icon and type:

%ProgramFiles%\Citrix\Administration\ctxload.exe

On the Layout tab, set the Screen buffer size to 9999 lines.
Click OK to save the shortcut.

When the shortcut is launched, two windows are displayed. The first window is a command window containing the debug messages output by java.exe. The second window is the console user interface. If the console hangs or otherwise fails, press CTRL+BREAK in the command window to view the stack trace.

Usage: java [-options] class [args...]
          (to execute a class)
   or java [-options] -jar jarfile [args...]
          (to execute a jar file)

where options include:

-client to select the "client" VM
-server to select the "server" VM
-hotspot is a synonym for the "client" VM [deprecated]
The default VM is client.

-cp <class search path of directories and zip/jar files>
-classpath <class search path of directories and zip/jar files>
A ; separated list of directories, JAR archives,
and ZIP archives to search for class files.
-D<name>=<value>
set a system property
-verbose[:class|gc|jni]
enable verbose output
-version print product version and exit
-version:<value>
require the specified version to run
-showversion print product version and continue
-jre-restrict-search | -jre-no-restrict-search
include/exclude user private JREs in the version search
-? -help print this help message
-X print help on non-standard options
-ea[:<packagename>...|:<classname>]
-enableassertions[:<packagename>...|:<classname>]
enable assertions
-da[:<packagename>...|:<classname>]
-disableassertions[:<packagename>...|:<classname>]
disable assertions
-esa | -enablesystemassertions
enable system assertions
-dsa | -disablesystemassertions
disable system assertions

The Management Console can be launched directly from a command prompt with the following procedure:

Go to \program files\citrix\administration.
Type: java -Djava.ext.dirs=Ext -jar tool.jar.

Note: The above command is case sensitive.

The “jawt.dll can not be found” error message can be ignored.

When you close the Management Console after making changes, you see the following information in the command window:

If an exception occurs it should be caught in the above window.

Below is a screenshot of the expected output.

You can also pipe the results into two test files by using the following command:

java -Djava.ext.dirs=Ext -jar tool.jar 1>output.txt 2>error.txt

To output to a file, enter the following case sensitive command line:

java -verbose -Djava.ext.dirs=ext -jar tool.jar > c:\verbose.txt 2>&1

Note: The output is directed to a file (c:\Verbose.txt).