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** Please note that this blog post assumes that you have already reviewed and utilized the "Using VMWare Infrastructure 3 with Dynamic Desktop Controller" found at http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116928 **
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Recently, while at a customer during a XenDesktop 3.0 configuration we found that communication to VirtualCenter's SDK via https would not complete it's handshake. Further research found that the Self Signed Certificate that the VIC/VC uses is created at the time of the Virtual Center install. During the VirtualCenter install, the self signed certificate is created for a term of 3 years. In this case, the certificate for this VirtualCenter had expired on 3/30/2009. If you are attempting to connect with the XenDesktop Setup Wizard, or your XenDesktop DDC is attempting to communicate with VC and you receive a "SSL Handshake Failed" please check your certificate.
The certificate can be found at c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMWare\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL. You will find three files in this directory, rui.crt, rui.key, rui.pfx. Double click on rui.crt to establish whether the certificate had indeed expired. The VMWare document on how to resolve this issue can be found at:
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi_vcserver_certificates.pdf
The Readers Digest Condensed version is to run a Repair on your VirtualCenter which will create a new self signed certificate for three years. You should now be able to communicate into the VirtualCenter with XenDesktop as need be.
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Special thanks should goto Stephen Odanga of FCB for assisting me with finding this information.
A couple of customers have asked me for a comparison of Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services and XenApp 4.5 Feature Pack 1. No, Citrix and Microsoft do not compete, but rather compliment each other with our integration. Please see the comparison matrix here if you'd like to see the value that Citrix XenApp provides on Terminal Services 2008.
Sometime in 2002 or 2003, I sat in a room with several other PeopleSoft IT employees while we considered how we could use the then-new Data Center's resources during rolling brown-outs. Power consumption in California was an issue then and the price of that electricity from Pacific Gas and Electric was increasingly onerous. It led me to wonder: how could we shut off underutilized servers in some of our production server farms to help with the cause? Turn the clock forward to 2008, and some environmentally friendly folks are asking the same question. Although we are not currently blighted by rolling power brown-outs, power consumption, heating and cooling remain issues for everyday IT shops.
Virtualization, whether server or application, can assist us with this issue. Addressing the need for a smaller physical server footprint leads to the idea of less physical server room space. This in turn reduces power consumption issues by giving us less to cool. Now, pair a virtualization solution with a blade chassis from Hewlett Packard and you just might be sitting pretty. However, if you still have 1U, 2U or 3U servers, then what? A utility on the Citrix horizon is "Citrix PowerSmart" which can help you save power with some of those underutilized Presentation Server/XenApp servers. With PowerSmart, Citrix and Hewlett Packard have joined together to provide a utility that assesses whether that server is idle or underutilized, and if so, lower the power consumption. For you admins sitting there wondering why this would matter to you, here's the gig:
While you're saving power with PowerSmart, using blades and virtualizing through the awesome power of paravirtualization via XenServer, your boss and company are taking interest in saving money. How can you be PowerSmart and pennywise? Utility providers such as Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, et al, actually provide incentives and rebates for customers that virtualize. Virtualizing and saving energy with PowerSmart can bring you cost-saving and other benefits we've mentioned above.
But wait, there's more--best of all, Citrix PowerSmart is free!
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For extra credit, some light reading on the subject:
http://h71028.www7.hp.com/ERC/downloads/4AA1-7946ENW.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN
Hewlett Packard Energy Efficient Computing with Citrix PowerSmart:
http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ERC/downloads/4AA1-7655ENW.pdf
Southern California Edison Virtualization Incentives:
http://www.sce.com/RebatesandSavings/LargeBusiness/SPC/default.htm?goto=spc
Pacific Gas and Electric (Northern California) Virtualization Rebates:
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Note: PowerSmart is currently compatible with XenApp 4.5 but is not included in the product downloads or on the media. Citrix PowerSmart is still in Beta and is available for HP customers to use, and is available for download from Citrix Developer Network at the following URL:
http://community.citrix.com/display/cdn/Citrix+PowerSmart+Utility+for+Presentation+Server+%2528Beta%2529
Remember, PowerSmart is compatible with Hewlett Packard servers only. If you have questions, please see the forums at http://support.citrix.com.
Cheers and see you next week,
Jon
I've received a couple of calls from some customers and partners that asked the same following question:
"What is the difference between Application Streaming to XenApp Servers versus Streaming an Operating System?"
The questions continued to come up even in the "Microsoft and Citrix: Better Together Tour" event that I spoke at this Monday at the new Microsoft Office at the Westfield Centre in San Francisco. Therefore, I've decided this would be an excellent first blog. Please allow me to give this a shot at blogging the explanation.
Application Streaming to XenApp Servers (Background):
For those of you that were previously unaware, the artist formerly known as "Citrix Presentation Server" is now called, "Citrix XenApp". In XenApp 4.5, the product has the ability to provide for Server Side Virtualization and Client Side Virtualization. Traditionally, previous versions of CPS/XA were dependant on the network to provide published applications. However, enter in from stage right our new buddy "Application Streaming". Application Streaming allows for you as a customer to install an application into an Isolated Environment. This isolated environment can be compared to a bubble. This bubble contains for all intents and purposes, everything that an application would require to run. This bubble is an island until itself, only to run within the bubble and therefore seperate or isolated from installed applications that are already installed normally on the CPS/XA server.
Imagine if you will, the possiblity to provide applications On-Demand to both XenApp servers and also to client endpoints (Laptops and Desktops). Therefore, these isolated bubbles are stored on a central file repository, NAS or otherwise, ready and ripe for delivery by stream. For example, if I install Microsoft Word 2003 in one isolated environment and Microsoft Word 2007 in another isolated environment, neither applications know about each other because they are in their own bubbles. Now, take it a step further and imagine where you have a sample of 5 XenApp servers that don't have applications installed on them. This is because the applications in their bubbles will be streamed on-demand over to the XenApp server at point of use. So, what does this mean for you as an administrator? Well, really a couple of things. Here is the net-net of it:
1. Centralized code base for apps to be delivered by stream.
2. The ability to bring up a CPS/XA server faster without the pain of having to install the applications.
3. The ability change an application during the production day (Although, this is between you and your maintenance cycle...) and apply patches and revisions as need be.
This is one type of application streaming. That streaming is to XenApp servers. However, you can also stream the same applications over to endpoints as I stated earlier...and therefore providing a delivery mechanism for applications that need to run on the user's physical machine and allowing them to detach from the network.
For a Flash Demo of Application Streaming, please point your browser to:
http://www.citrix.com/site/resources/dynamic/additional/demos/as/as_master.html
Please excuse the demo goober during the start of the video. 
Now that you have an background on Application Streaming to XenApp Servers, now we can begin to explain streaming an operating system.
Streaming an Operating System with Citrix Provisioning Server (Background):
Streaming an operating system to bare metal can be accomplished by using a seperate product called "Citrix Provisioning Server". The 10k foot view is that you are able to provision operating systems based upon workload types. For instance here is a great example, say that your company is at the end of their quarter. Heads are flying, paperwork is spinning and data is being entered into applications that could be fully consuming your server's resources. Well, it isn't practical today to add a server into the mix because of the sheer time it takes to build the server and then load the applications to eventually configure that application. It is pretty time consuming. Enter in our friend, Citrix Provisioning Server. With Provisioning Server you are able to boot a new server in PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) mode, get a DHCP address and have a server OS streamed to your bare metal machine in a matter of a reboot. Therefore, you are adding another server to be used for end of quarter work...and you did it with a few clicks and a reboot.
Using that same example, now jump with me to the future where end of quarter is far from your mind. With a few more clicks and a reboot of all of those servers that were being used for quarter end, you can re-provision those servers to become web servers, applications servers or rather anything that you'd like them to be. The concept here is that a virtual disk runs on a storage device and Provisioning Server then provisions that vdisk to a server or servers identified by their MAC addresses. It's actually really cool stuff and makes delivery of servers for new or previous workloads literally a cinch. One of my customers compared the product to "Multiple Personality Disorder/Reorder for Servers". I received a bit of a chuckle when hearing that. This technology will also be highlighted and utilized heavily in the upcoming release of our new product, Citrix XenDesktop. There are many blogs on Community.Citrix.com that you can spend a great deal of time learning about new technology.
Seeing is believing and I understand that there are those that need to assess the logical and hold the tangible. Originally, we purchased a company formerly called "Ardence" that allowed us to acquire this technology. I suggest that you watch both of these videos below to see Provisioning Server in action.
Citrix Provisioning Server Demo by Pete Downing and Mark Templeton:
http://mfile.akamai.com/8296/wmv/citrix.download.akamai.com/8296/iForum07/Demos/ProvisioningServerDemo.asx
Also, Provisioning Desktop Operating Systems:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moIuHqIc-PQ
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I hope that this has provided a good explanation of the difference between Streaming Applications and Streaming Servers. Should you have any questions, please email me.
Thanks! - Jon
Folks,
This is my first post on the "Official" Citrite Blogs. My blog was one of those displaced after Citrite.org was taken offline. It will take me some time to bring JonEugenio.com back to life after the content at Citrite.org was deleted. Please bear with me as I rebuild the links and such.
More to Come!
-Jon