While working with the ComTrade Management Pack (XenApp) for OpsMgr 2012 there was an alert about the User Logon Process.

The alert:

Well oké that takes a while!

But what are the phases they talk about?

PHASE 1: USER PROFILE LOADING

The phase starts just after the user credentials are validated and lasts until the profile is downloaded from the profile storage (network share).
Reasons for slow logon phase can be:

• issues with network and profile storage availability;
• high network load;
• big profile size;
• first time use of this profile on the server (the cached version of the roaming profile does not exist);
• corrupted profile.

Additionally, monitoring of Windows user profiles for the presence and amount of the specific file categories is important. Various file categories should be tracked: executable files, media files, and custom files.

PHASE2: APPLYING GROUP POLICY OBJECTS (GPOs)

During this phase, the server applies user settings defined on the Domain Controller.
Reasons for the slow logon phase can be:

• issues with network and domain controller availability;
• issues with required infrastructure (required services and components are either not running or configured as expected);
• system time is not configured correctly;
• high network load;
• high amount of policy settings.

PHASE 3: USER ENVIRONMENT INITIALIZATION

During this phase, network connections are restored and profile settings, such as fonts and screen colors, are loaded. Also, if this is the first time this profile is being used, some extra initialization is applied. The default profile is created, first time use settings are applied for the shell (Explorer), Internet Explorer, Office (particularly Outlook), and any other application that uses Active Setup.
Reasons for the slow logon phase can be:

• corrupted profile;
• issues with restoring the network connection(s);
• first time use of profile on the server.

PHASE 4: LOGON SCRIPT EXECUTION

This phase is measured by how long the USRLOGON.CMD script (located in %SystemRoot%\system32) is being executed. The script’s original function is to address issues with legacy applications that were not written with a multi-user environment, such as Terminal Server, in mind. It uses application compatibility scripts (located in  %SystemRoot%\Application Compatibility Scripts) in conjunction with the %ROOTDRIVE% variable to address these issues. USRLOGON.CMD script is also used as a starting point for custom profiles.
Reasons for the slow logon phase can be:

• issues with application compatibility scripts;
• legacy applications;
• custom profile initialization.

You should differentiate between Terminal Server (RDP client) and Citrix (ICA client) logon. If the user used the RDP connection to log on to the server, this will be the last phase of the logon process.

PHASE 5: CITRIX APPLICATION INITIALIZATION

This phase covers Citrix specific activity before it launches the requested application: launching seamless windows engine shell, auto creation of client printers, and ICA client update process.
Reasons for the slow logon phase can be:

• issues with the client printer (usually third party printer drivers);
• issues with retrieving ICA client version and the rest of the update process.

Original source: here.