CDFControl is an event tracing tool geared towards capturing Citrix Diagnostic Facility (CDF) trace messages that are output from the various Citrix tracing providers. 

CDFControl v3.13.0.55

Created on: Mar 8, 2007

Updated on: December 10, 2024

Please note:
You can download the required file from the Citrix downloads website by visiting the following link: https://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-tools

New in this Version

• Added support for collecting and parsing mixed-type ETW (Event Tracing for Windows) traces.

• Added support for parsing TraceLogging traces.

• Added a Trace Detail Level track bar to the GUI, allowing users to zoom in and out of traces at different levels. This feature enhances trace viewing and provides greater flexibility in managing trace scales.

• Added a trace filter dropdown next to the Trace Detail Level track bar. Users can now easily access and apply the Tech Support and Module Filters, enhancing their trace analysis experience.

• Added 'Show Filter UI' and 'Reset Filter' icons next to the trace filter dropdown, providing easier access for managing and resetting filters.

• Began collecting the following supplemental data as part of trace capture:

  • System, Application and Citrix Event Logs are collected in the \CaptureInfo\EventLogs folder.

  • Citrix Registry entries are collected in the CaptureInfo\RegistryLogs folder.

  • Citrix Product Information is logged to CaptureInfo\ProductVersionInfo.log.

  • Basic user and machine information are logged to CaptureInfo\MachinInfo.log.

• Fixed an issue with the .etl file size increase caused by padding done by the ETW framework. With the fix, buffers flush when full.

• Changed the minimum supported .Net Framework version to 4.6.2.

• Added default always-on tracing (AOT) modules that are prefixed with AOLog.

• Improved compatibility with Citrix Scout and the Citrix Telemetry Service.

• Updated trace category selection from two levels to allow multiple levels. Trace categories are grouped as per System->Feature->Subfeature.

• Provided an option to exclude certain trace categories for VDA. For example, to exclude "Graphics Redirection", select "All Modules" and then select "Desktop/Server OS VDA"->"Exclude Trace Modules"->"Exclude Graphics Redirection". 

• Provided a trace filter for front line engineers. To access the filter, select "Filter" -> "Front Line View".

• Provided post parsing .xml filter files grouped based on trace categories in the cdfcontrol.xml file. Filter files are available in the "ParseFilters" folder. They can be used for parsing .etl to .csv or for applying filters to trace data in the CDFControl viewer.

• Provided drop-down menu items for easily selecting and applying filters by category. To do so, select "Filter" ->"Load Filter By Category".

• Provided trace controller files (.ctl files) grouped based on trace categories in the cdfcontrol.xml file. Controller files are available in the "TraceControllers" folder. They can be used to capture traces by category via the command line.

• Provided the "Create And Load Filter From CTL File" filter option to generate .xml filter files based on trace providers in .ctl files.

• Improved filtering performance and better filter status display.

• Provided an option to install CDFControl as a standalone service. CDFControl can be installed as a service on any of the systems where it is currently being used for capturing traces - DDC/VDA/PVS/CWA. This feature is configurable from both the UI and command line. To install CDFControl as a service from the UI, select "Tools" -> "CDFControl Service". To install CDFControl as a service from the command line, run the " CDFControl.exe -installservice -guids <the path or name of the file containing GUIDs> -path <the path to store trace logs>" command.

• Updated CDFControl startup tracing to configure and use Windows AutoLogger for capturing startup traces. This will capture startup traces after reboot, useful for capturing issues that occur during startup, for example, driver initialization issues. Citrix CDF Trace Driver is also configured to load early prior to other divers by updating ServiceGroupOrder, so driver trace provider initialization can be captured properly. This feature is configurable from both the UI and command line.

•  Zipped trace message format (TMF) files for faster downloads. When you download TMF files, you first connect to the TMF server and then start to download the TMF file zip package. After the zip package is downloaded, it will be automatically unzipped.

• Added support for writing trace logs to an SMB share folder when remote tracing is performed. This feature is useful for scenarios where the traced machine might stop working properly.

• Added the process name column to the trace viewing interface and CSV files.
• Added support for selecting multiple options in each column title drop-down list on the real-time trace viewing interface.
• Added more options for setting parsing filter rules.
• Introduced a ParseInfo folder when parsing ETL files. The ParseInfo folder logs parsing information about TMF files, parsing options, and CSV files. 
• Formatted CSV file naming to have the same number of digits.
• Added the Parse Folder option to the GUI and added support for parsing a folder through the Windows Command Prompt. 
• Added support for multithreaded ETL file processing through the Parse Trace to File in Parallel or the Parse Folder option. If you select  the Load trace to viewer after parsed to a file option for the multithreaded processing, only one of the CSV files is loaded to the trace viewing interface and the session data is not merged or grouped.
• Accelerated online TMF file parsing.
• Fixed an issue that prevents the Insert Trace function from working properly
• Added support for using TLS 1.2 to access the Citrix Symbol Server.
• Added support for saving TMF files downloaded during parsing to the local cache path at C:\ProgramData\Citrix\CDFControl\TMFCache. This approach accelerates trace parsing.
• Updated .Net Framework from Version 2.0 to 4.5.1. 
• Fixed an issue where CDFControl cannot find the modules of Citrix Workspace app.
• Accelerated trace parsing for .NET programming.
• Fixed an issue where CDFControl reports the error  "TMF file not found for AOT traces."
• Fixed an issue where the LonglongX formatting type is not indexed in TMF caches.
• Added support for multithreading and multiprocessing.  
• Fixed an issue where Parse Trace to File cannot always parse all lines.
• Added CDF metadata support for .NET trace in the Comments field.
• Fixed an issue where a blank filter might cause a null pointer exception.
• Fixed an issue where the CPU field is always 0.
• Fixed an issue where some PVS traces cannot be parsed.
• AOT trace parsing.
• AOT trace highlighting.
• Added a limitation on the number of files of multiple sequential logs captured.
• Changed the color for error highlighting from black on red to yellow on red.
• Added new trace modules for Citrix Receiver and Citrix Workspace app.
• Fixed a crash issue that occurs when parsing Receiver AOT traces.
• Enhanced search to all TMF search paths for certain GUIDs to traverse the TMF file for all platforms.
• Added a setting to highlight errors and warnings automatically.
• Added a setting to enable PVS-specific.NET trace parsing format.
• Made the content of the trace class column more concise.
• Added missing modules for the local app access and printing features.
• Added support for parsing traces by using the time zone of the machine being traced.
• Introduced a warning dialog when you start tracing without selecting any module.
• Changed the default configuration to multiple sequential modes.
• Added the session tree of the DLL dependency list for processes. 
• Added support for PVS.NET trace output with detailed columns.
• Signed binary files with SHA-256 to improve security.
• Changed the directory timestamp to 24-hour format.
• Introduced support for modifying and inserting custom trace messages in the Remote tracing dialog.
• Enhanced remote tracing support on Windows 10.
• Solved User Access Control (UAC) issues on Windows 7 and Windows 10.
• Introduced support to help parse multiple trace files (maximum 63 files) to a single output file. The trace messages are automatically sorted by message timestamp.
• Added a time filter option to help parse only trace messages in a specific time period.
• Moved to a new Citrix public symbol server since Version 3.0.2.0.
• Enhanced filtering to include filtering by column header, multiple rules, parsing filter, and more. Use the column header filter to filter the tracing from the column header; use multiple filtering rules to the current log at the same time; the parsing filter supports filtering by regular expression in real-time tracing and ETL parsing.
• Enhanced overall performance such as lowering memory consumption and increasing parsing speeds.
• Introduced a module filter that allows you to search for specific modules by binary or module name.
• Added support for inserting custom trace statements to a running trace to mark the occurrence of specific events.
• Added a comment column for traces. Use this feature to add your findings to the comments column, save them to a CSV file, and share.
• Introduced session/process information support for remote tracing.
• Introduced support for HPC (High Performance Client) tracing. CDFControl supports collecting HPC tracing logs on Windows machines with Citrix Receiver 4.1.100 or later installed. Internal users can view real-time HPC tracing logs. The original HPC tracing pattern was not changed. You can still enable the original HPC tracing.
• Enabled highlighting. Use this feature to highlight rows in the viewer to distinguish them from others.
• Introduced support for custom column display. Use this feature to decide which columns you want to display or hide. 
• Introduced an Add Filter Logic function for the multi-rules filter. Use this feature to define your own filter logic for multiple rules rather than the fixed AND logic of earlier versions.

Prerequisites

• CDFControl requires Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 2008 R2 SP1 or later, each with .NET 4.6.2 or later installed. 
• Run the tool as a user with administrator privileges for all features to be functional.
• For UAC, only trace capture requires elevation. For more information, see the user guide (CDFControl Menu > Help).
• Windows Remote Management (WinRM) has been enabled and configured properly on remote machines.
• The remote registry service has been enabled on the remote machines.
• File and printer sharing has been enabled on the remote machines.
• PowerShell 3.0 or later is available on the remote machines.
• The machine where the tool runs shares a domain with the remote machines.

Installing CDFControl

To install CDFControl, go to the top of this page to download and unzip the package       to the desired location.  The CDFControl package includes the following for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions:

The CDFControl package includes the following for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions:

• CDFControl.exe
  (Can be run standalone)

• CDFControl.exe.config

The first time you launch the tool, the application extracts the following configuration file to the same folder as CDFControl.exe:

• CDFControl.xml
  (Configuration file)

How to Use CDFControl

See the user guide (CDFControl Menu > Help) for full usage instructions.

Note: Parse Trace consumes more memory than Parse Trace to File. Consider using Parse Trace to File when you parse large ETL files.

CDFControl AOT Features

AOT trace parsing

CDFControl v3.3 and later supports parsing the always on tracing  (AOT) traces.

To parse the AOT traces, do the same as common trace parsing.

AOT trace highlighting

You can highlight AOT traces for differentiation. Choose Tools and then Options. Select the highlighted AOT in the viewer check box to turn on/off AOT trace highlighting. AOT trace highlighting is enabled by default.

Security Permissions Required by CDFControl

Administrator privileges are required for all features to be functional.

Data Modified by CDFControl

• For dynamic TMF download, TMF files are temporarily stored in the user’s temp directory. These files are deleted automatically after use.
• If remote tracing is used, a few temporary files are generated.
  For more information, see the Remote Tracing section in the user guide (CDFControl Menu > Help).
• CDFControl captures traces. As a result, trace files are present on the machine being traced.
• You can export trace template settings to XML and CTL files.

Uninstalling CDFControl

To uninstall CDFControl and undo changes made to the system, delete all files generated in the same folder as CDFControl.exe.

Contact Information

Questions? Concerns? Send any feedback on this tool to  CDFControl Feedback.