For quite a few years, I've developed a set of Visio stencils that I've used, along with many of my coworkers, to create detailed design architectures for a Citrix solution. The stencils have morphed over the years and I have now consolidated them into a single package.  This one stencil has just about everything you will need to create detailed Citrix solution diagrams.  Included are items for the following products:

• XenApp
• XenDesktop
• XenServer
• NetScaler (includes rack-mountable stencils and NetScaler MPX)
• WANScaler (including the new Branch Repeater)
• Access Gateway
• Application Firewall
• Provisioning Server
• EdgeSight
• Password Manager
• Workflow Studio

I'm always looking for ideas on what's missing so there can be one comprehensive stencil set for Citrix solutions. Drop a comment and let me know what else is needed.

Download Visio Stencils here

I just came back from BriForum in Chicago and besides the awesome event that was, one more thing came to attention, half of the Notebooks being carried around by attendees and speakers were Macs.

Carried away by the energy of the event I decided build something for our Citrix Community. A dashboard app that makes easier for our visitors to read the latest posts and collaborate with their comments.

 Meet the Citrix Blogs Widget

 With version 1.0 you get:

• The latest 30 Citrix Blog posts
• Adjust view from Full to Summary
• Collaborate with your comments
• Open posts on Safari or Firefox
• Spotlight Search (Instant search)
• Push updates (no refresh required)
• Watch blogged videos
• Check for updates
• Send feedback

Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.4 or greater

Download via CDN:

Citrix Blogs Widget

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Special thanks to Chris Anthony group for designing our dashboard logo! Thank you guys so much!!!

The last time I wrote about XenServer and XenApp, I focused on a whole set of items like manageability, availability, flexibility and utilization.  This time, I want to focus directly on utilization as based on the feedback I've received it seems it's the one many people are interested in.

Even before the scalability numbers of XenApp and XenServer came out, I had numerous conversations about virtualizing XenApp.  And now that Citrix is showing the XenServer overhead for virtualizing XenApp, those conversations have increased, but I think some critical points are being lost.  A couple of months ago, Citrix did scalability tests to identify that XenServer has roughly a 7-8% overhead when virtualizing 64-bit XenApp, and roughly 20% when virtualizing 32bit XenApp servers.  I was like WOW, 64bit is great, barely any overhead.  But how many people are actually running a truly 64bit environment?

Most people have the hardware, as it has been sold for years. Most people also have access to the 64bit version of Windows and XenApp. So why aren't we all jumping on the 64bit bandwagon? Because it's the applications. Unfortunately, many applications that XenApp environments run are 32bit, and some are still 16bit!  This conversion to 64bit applications will take time (Does anyone else remember the 16bit versus 32bit migration that happened years ago? It wasn't an overnight thing. It took time. And yet there are still 16bit apps out there.)  So this fact makes it highly unlikely that organizations will be able to convert their XenApp environments into complete 64bit setup. This means many will stay with 32bit only or else have mixed 32/64 bit environments.  So let's focus on the 32bit environments, are they virtualization candidates?

Maybe And most likely Yes.

Take a look at many XenApp deployments and what resource do you typically exhaust first?  RAM.  It is because in Windows 2003, we are limited to 4GB of addressable RAM.  So, when we hit that limit, everything else in the system is wasted (processor, IO and networking).  And I've seen some applications take enormous amounts of RAM. Just the other day I was working on some detailed Visio drawings and Visio took 1GB of RAM.  Yes, I said gigabyte.  (Of course the drawing was about the Simpsons and how Homer stays at the forefront of technology - He even had a blog called "Mr X. - All the Muck That's Fit To Rake").  So, a 20% overhead on 32bit systems? I probably wouldn't notice as my entire server is barely utilized except the RAM.  

RAM is easy to install and one of the cheapest things to add to a server.  Use the same hardware and increase the RAM to at least 8GB.  Now, try to run 2 virtual XenApp servers.  You might not double your user concurrency, but you will get pretty close, which will equate to hardware and power savings.

So take a look at your physical XenApp servers. Is the RAM fully utilized? What about the processor utilization levels?  I bet more likely than not the RAM is fully committed and the processors are running at 10-40% utilization. 

Daniel

(Homer Simpson Quote: "I want to share something with you: The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.")

Within Citrix,  I'm on the team called Worldwide Consulting Solutions whose overall goal is to provide our customers with the tools and resources to successfully implement Citrix solutions.  Talk about an easy task .  The interesting thing about this goal is our customers. Our customers are potentially any Citrite, Citrix partner or Citrix customer.  Within this team, we have something called the Solution Center.  It is essentially a lab, but with some serious requirements.  The Solution Center lab must do the following:

1. Be capable of supporting integration tests and scalability analysis with Citrix products and 3rd party solutions
2. Be capable of supporting our readiness activities where many of Citrix's field personnel are trained and tested on our latest products and solutions
3. Be capable of providing temporarily systems for solution testing for our consultants and SEs, where they can test a feature, or look into a potential solution for our customers.

This is quite a task.  The challenge with the lab is provisioning these systems out on an as needed basis. From week-to-week the environment changes based on the needs of projects, training and testing initiatives.  Let me explain how this process works now:

1. A user would make a request for hardware based on a SharePoint web page. This page contains numerous fields so the Solution Center team can figure out what hardware to provide for the project. Items include dates, server type, OS, quantity, applications, HW requirements and an overall description.  Once a user submits this request, it is up to the Solution Center team to work out the logistics.
2. The Solution Center team takes the requests and tries to identify available hardware based on a master scheduling SharePoint page. Once hardware is identified, the new systems are built based on the user's specifications with SysPrep and Ghosting techniques. Currently, the group is building a library of XenServer virtual images to simplify this process.  
3. Once the system is built, the user is notified with IP Addresses and connection procedures.  The entire time from request to delivery can be up to 2 business days.   

This group as they have a very difficult job and they do it great, but one would think there would be a better way.  We have started to build XenServer virtual images libraries to more quickly build the requested environment, but there still is a manual process involved that slows the entire system provisioning down. Is it possible to create a self-service system that would not require manual work from the Solution Center staff?  What if we could cut down the time to build these environments from days to minutes while providing 24x7 service?  A self-service system like this would allow the team to weasel out of this time consuming work.  "Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals! Except the weasel." (Homer Simpson).  

During Synergy we heard all about Citrix's vision for a Dynamic Delivery Center on the big screen (It looked like a really big TV).  And again, Homer provides us with a good recommendation, "When will I learn? The answer to life's problems aren't at the bottom of a bottle, they're on TV!"  So, we started drinking the Kool-Aid and we are going to see if the Kool-Aid tastes good.  Can we turn the Solution Center Lab into a Dynamic Delivery Center?  We will all find out together as we have just started to work on this project.

I will continue to blog about our challenges and successes throughout the project, which will contain analysis, PoC, design and implementation.  You will see

• Our requirements are (and they are challenging)
• Our overall architecture design
• How we implemented it
• The final outcome
  

This is going to be a fun project allowing us to get into the details of all of the Citrix solution stack.  So, stay tuned for Part 2: Analysis

Daniel

(Homer Simpson Quote: I want to share something with you: The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.)

Citrix Hands-on Technical Workshops are also being made available with on demand streaming video. The very popular Citrix Hands-on Technical Workshops allow you to Learn step-by-step from the product experts how to navigate through the features and capabilities of Citrix's portfolio of products, and there all now being made available on demand!

Continue to Synergy on Demand

iForum Track breakout sessions from this year's Citrix Synergy conference are being made available to you. That's right, if you missed out on attending the Synergy event in Houston, don't despair, because Citrix will be offering access to the content with on demand streaming video. This year's breakout sessions offer detailed technical content, best practices, demos and helpful tips on Citrix products as well as information you need to optimize and enhance your existing environment.

Continue to Synergy on Demand

I'm not sure where or when this conversation took place, but PC World had an interview with Simon Crosby, the CTO of the Virtualization and Management Division at Citrix, about future plans to build on Hyper-V. It was an interesting read, and I think that it helps reinforce a point of view in that no one company is going to have a hold on the virtualization market, it is going to have to be about interoperability, as we have only just begun to mold whatever form this market may become.

Continue at Source: Citrix CTO Mum on Plans to Build on Microsoft's Hyper-V

In a previous series of articles I gave you look at the Partner Tech Preview of Citrix Workflow Studio, which was only available to Citrix Partners. I am very excited to announce that the release of the Community Tech Preview of Citrix Workflow Studio should be available everyone very soon! So while we wait for it to be released, I am going to highlight what has been added to the Citrix Workflow Studio Community Tech Preview that was not in the Partner Tech Preview. Also, I would like people to understand that a Tech Preview is a working product, but by no means is it the final product; it's the feedback from the community that will help make it a product we all will want it to be, which is why it is a preview and not a demo or a beta.


You can view the individual Citrix Workflow Studio Partner Tech Preview articles from the below links:

Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 1
Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 2
Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 3
Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 4
Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 5
Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 6


You can download the complete Citrix Workflow Studio Partner Tech Preview from the below link:


Introducing Citrix Workflow Studio - The Complete Introduction


You can download the Overview of the Citrix Workflow Studio 1.0 Community Tech Preview from the below link



Continue to Download: Citrix Workflow Studio 1.0 Community Tech Preview - A Quick Overview

Citrix is pleased to announce the availability of Workflow Studio 1.0 Tech Preview which is our Community Technology Preview for the product.
You can download the product from the below link once you have a My Citrix account (Which you should. It only takes a minute. We promise.)

Continue to Download: Citrix Workflow Studio 1.0 Tech Preview

In addition to the scheduled sessions for the 23rd and 24th,

http://xen.org/files/xensummitagenda.pdf

they have added a NEW! track to be held on the 22nd

http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix08/training/tutonefile.html#s4

Introduction to the Open Source Xen Hypervisor

Todd Deshane and Patrick F. Wilbur, Clarkson University; Stephen Spector, Citrix

Who should attend:

System administrators and architects who are interested in deploying the open source Xen hypervisor in a production environment. No prior experience with Xen is required; however, a basic knowledge of Linux is helpful.

The Xen hypervisor offers a powerful, efficient, and secure feature set for virtualization of x86, x86_64, IA64, PowerPC, and other CPU architectures, and has been used to virtualize a wide range of guest operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Solaris, and various versions of the BSD operating systems. It is widely regarded as a strategically compelling alternative to proprietary virtualization platforms and hypervisors for x86 and IA64 platforms.

Take back to work:

How to build and deploy the Xen hypervisor.

Topics include:

• Xen architecture overview
• Building a Xen hypervisor from Xen.org
• Installation and configuration
• Virtual machine creation and operation
• Performance: tools and methodology
• Best practices using Xen

Continue to Xen Summit: http://xen.org/xensummit/