If you haven't noticed, XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 has been announced and with it comes the new Power and Capacity Management feature. By now I hope you downloaded the Tech Preview release or at least had a chance to watch these videos which explain the feature in detail (How it works, Tech Talk recording, my interview on it, our architect Juliano's interview on it).

The following are the enhancements we made to Power and Capacity Management since we released the Tech Preview version.

• High availability for concentrator
• We now support both physical and virtual servers in the same workload group
• In determining the maximum session capacity of a server, the system now takes the lowest of what the administrator has set or what the load evaluator computes based on the current load
• In addition to SQL Server 2005, we now "officially" support SQL Server 2008
• Minor visual enhancements

Juliano and I will be blogging further on these to clarify what these enhancements are and to offer up other deployment considerations. Stay tuned to the XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 blog roll for more information beginning next week Monday.

And thanks to all of those who participated in the technology preview and provided feedback. We can't tell you how critical it is to us. Speaking of which, we invite you to pre-register for the Windows Server 2008 R2 Technology Preview coming sometime next quarter

Learn more about Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2

• Official Press Release - http://citrix.com/English/NE/news/news.asp?newsID=1857726
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 release Web Site - http://citrix.com/xenapp/featurepack2
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Executive Video - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/video
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Release Webinar - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/techtalk
• XenApp Expert Series videos for this release - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/expertseries
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Blogs- http://community.citrix.com/blogs/tag/xa5fp2
• Download XenApp technology previews - http://citrix.com/xenapp/techpreviews
• XenApp Product Page - http://citrix.com/xenapp/

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You may have seen our announcement today on XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 and Vinny Sosa's blog post. One of the things that Vinny mentioned is that we have opened up pre-registration for the tech preview of XenApp on Windows Server 2008 R2. You should definitely check it out and provide us feedback. I am the Product Manager for this release and I wanted to reach out to you, the members of our community and invite you to give me your feedback directly. After you sign-up you will receive confirmation of your registration and when the release is available we will notify you via e-mail to let you know where to get it, how to report issues and how to provide input to the team directly. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Also, check out Orestes's post and let us know your Windows Server 2008 R2 adoption plans.

Learn more about Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2

• Official Press Release - http://citrix.com/English/NE/news/news.asp?newsID=1857726
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Web Site - http://citrix.com/xenapp/featurepack2
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Executive Video - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/video
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Webinar - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/techtalk
• XenApp feature matrix by platform, version and edition - http://citrix.com/xenapp/comparativematrix
• XenApp Expert Series videos for this release - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/expertseries
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Blogs- http://community.citrix.com/blogs/tag/xa5fp2
• Download XenApp technology previews - http://citrix.com/xenapp/techpreviews
• XenApp Product Page - http://citrix.com/xenapp/

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I am posting the Q&A for the TechTalk we had on XenApp Power and Capacity Management. It was well attended (more than 50 customers and partners) with lots of time for Q&A. Check out the webinar recording if you were not able to attend.

(You can follow me on twitter)

Q) How does a combination of XenServer with virtual XenApp work? So, is it possible to first shut down the unnecessary XenApp servers and then the unnecessary physical servers running XenServer?

A: Power and Capacity Management does not manage the XenServers themselves. It only manages XenApp servers. So, if you have no virtual XenApp servers running on a XenServer it will still be powered on. Why? You may still have non-XenApp workloads running there like web servers or e-mail servers, etc. But you can use other management tools to power manage the hypervisor.

Q) Will it be possible to install the PCM agent in a "standard" provisioning server image?
A: Yes. Power and Capacity management works with Wake on LAN which is how provisioning server works to deliver images to bare metal. Wake on LAN is supported in addition to virtual machines for Power and Capacity Management.

Q) So, Can I provision my XenApp servers with provisioning server and the collector gets the different names of the server or is a special configuration needed?
A: Yes. When you install the agent, there is a configuration for Wake on LAN or Virtual machines. You select Wake on LAN and configure accordingly for the image you are creating.

Q) Must I also choose "Wake on LAN" if the provisioned XenApp server is a virtual server on XenServer?
A: You can have a single PVS image to work across physical or virtual deployments. Even when using PVS, if you are booting servers via XenServer, you would choose XenServer. If you are booting via Wake on LAN on the physical hardware then you would choose Wake on LAN

Q) Can PCM and SCOM work together?
A: Out of the box, we are not planning any integration with operations manager. However, everything being done through the GUI can be done through WMI, so this can be customized.

Q) Should the concentrator be installed on a XenApp server?
A: No. You do not want to install this on a XenApp server that hosts users sessions. You won't be able to power manage it if you do. Also, concentrators can manage servers across farms so you want a farm-independent server if you can do so.

Q) Instead of number of sessions, is there a way to set the Capacity by percentage of Server resource utilization e.g. CPU, RAM, Page File Usage?
A: Yes. We are enabling you to use nominal capacity (sessions) or load evaluator and have this all calculated as a percentage of load evaluator. This will be enabled in the final release but is not available in the technology preview.

Q) In terms of new session distribution, what takes precedence, the XenApp load evaluator or the Power and Capacity Management evaluator?
A: Power and Capacity Management takes precedence for server power on/off and consolidation only. For load distribution, the XenApp load evaluators are used.

Note that PCM adjusts the load evaluation for servers that are not selected to receive sessions. PCM will keep up to "Minimum Available Servers" available for logon. Other servers' load evaluators will be set to 20,000 (you will see that if you run QFARM /load).

Q) I am wondering how server monitoring will have to be modified to allow for servers "shutting down" and suppressing alerts. Do you have any examples of solutions?
A: EdgeSight already differentiates between planned and unplanned reboots. Since reboots initiated by PCM will be planned reboots, you should be able to create alerts only for unplanned reboots

Q) Can you please explain the process of draining a server. We publish the desktop so we have some users logged on for 8+ hours. Also we have shift workers.
A: PCM selects up to "Minimum Available Servers" to accept logons. All other servers have their LE values set to 20,000 and therefore won't be selected to host apps/desktops. When an available server reaches the optimal load, the server with highest load, but under optimal load, is chosen to receive logons.

Draining is a  side-effect of the model above. As shift workers start to login, they will do so on the highest loaded servers under optimal load policy. As the previous shift logoff, their servers will automatically drain until empty. The new shift will only consume enough servers to meet its demand.

Q) If you provision server through PVS with the agent already installed and configured for a workload called "office 2003", if you want to change the workload to "office 2007" would you need to change or create a new PVS image to reflect this change?
A: Workloads can be assigned via GPO, so it's possible to use the same PVS image for more than one PCM workload. In the example above, if Office was virtualized via App-V or Streaming, then the same image could be used.

Don't forget to register for next Thursday's (July 23rd, 1-2pm EDT) TechTalk on XenApp power and capacity management. We will not bore you to death with slide ware. Majority of the presentation will be a live demo with lots of time for Q&A. You will learn

• How to better manage your XenApp capacity (and subsequently save some power as well)
• How to simplify XenApp server maintenance (software patching etc) by understanding how capacity management does load consolidation
• How this feature can simplify migrating users to new XenApp server farms
• And how easy it is to implement this solution in your "existing" XenApp server farms

What if, you can dynamically scale up or scale down your XenApp servers based on user load? What if, you could avoid over-provisioning your XenApp servers but also meet the occasional peak capacity demand? What if, you can consolidate XenApp user sessions on fewer servers to reduce power consumption and simplify server maintenance? These are the type of questions we heard from our customers and partners that led to the creation of XenApp Power and Capacity Management feature. The Technology Preview is available now and you can evaluate it on Presentation Server 4.5 and XenApp 5 releases.

So, how does it work? XenApp administrators can define server workloads/silos, specify the capacity requirements for each workload and sit back to watch the system automatically consolidate sessions across fewer servers, power up servers as needed and power down idle capacity. Or, admins can just turn the light off when no one is home e.g. create a simple schedule to power on servers at 8 am in the morning and power them down at 7 pm in the evening. Try it out and let us know.

Watch my Citrix TV video showcasing this technology at Synergy 2009. We think this technology will play a key role in our vision towards autonomic farm management and would like to hear more from you. Check out the Tech Preview and give us your comments/feedback. You can use the support forum for any technical issues with this release.

NOTE: For this Tech Preview release, we are supporting Wake-on-LAN power control for physical servers and using the XenServer API power commands for XenServer virtual workloads. We do support Microsoft Hyper-V and VMWare ESX for load consolidation but this Tech Preview release does not support power management for these virtualization platforms.

I recently had a conversation with Tom Reed from Marathon Technologies about their everRun solution. Marathon verified their everRun VM solution to be Citrix Ready for Citrix XenApp. As a high availability solution, many of you might wonder why you would need high availability in a XenApp environment. The purpose of this discussion is to address this curiosity. And thanks to Tom for having this conversation.
Sridhar: With load balancing available as part of XenApp why do you need high availability software?

Tom: Load balancing and high availability are two different things. With load balancing you are able to distribute the load across many servers, so your system runs more efficiently but this doesn't protect you from downtime. By adding high availability software into the mix, such as Marathon's everRun, you can lower the number of help desk calls due to power failure, component failure, or other common sources of downtime.

Sridhar: What components of XenApp infrastructure would benefit from everRun's High Availability offering?

Tom: Any single point of failure in your XenApp infrastructure would clearly benefit. For example, the Data Store, License Server, Zone Data Collector, and "Application Silo" servers hosting critical applications.

Sridhar: For what types of "application silos" would you recommend your level 3 protection?

Tom: In short, any application where users can't tolerate any downtime. The beauty of everRun software is that it is application agnostic. This means any application that is critical can be protected with our "level 3" protection. Level 3 will be available in Q2.

Sridhar: What happens if your data store is unavailable in the DR site?

Tom: Your users won't be able to connect correctly. If there was an update provided to the farm, a number of things such as printer drivers etc would become out of date.

Sridhar: Can everRun be used to protect Citrix Access Essentials, the SMB solution of XenApp?

Tom: Absolutely! We can provide the same automated high availability protection for CAE that we provide for XenApp Enterprise and Platinum Editions.

Sridhar: Thanks Tom for your time today and to the readers, we thank you for your interest.

To learn more about this joint solution, join Sridhar and Tom, along with Peter Blum from the Citrix XenServer team at this upcoming complimentary webinar:

Virtualize and Fortify XenApp for Lower Costs & Higher SLAsHow can you get an even better return on your XenApp investment? Virtualize it with Citrix XenServer^TM. Then fortify it with Marathon everRun®.Date: March 18, 2009
Time: 8:30 am PST, 11:30 am EST, 4:30 pm GMT
Duration: 60 minutes
Speakers: Sridhar Mullapudi, XenApp Senior Product Manager, Citrix Systems
Peter Blum, XenServer Principal Technical Marketing Manager, Citrix Systems
Tom Reed, Senior Solutions Architect, Marathon Technologies

Register Today!

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By: Sridhar Mullapudi and Vinny Sosa

Everyone is downsizing and in the middle of some pretty big cost cutting initiatives focused on "doing more with less". Chances are you're involved in this kind of project at your own company. Your team might have gotten smaller, your workload larger and to top it all off, your CTO has asked you to go back to your vendors and get some leverage, try to work out a way to reduce costs or even get more value for the same dollars. They might even be contemplating dropping yearly maintenance program renewals to help save cash. In keeping with the theme of large economic stimulus packages, Citrix is announcing a XenApp 5 Feature Pack which will be made available in mid-March. The primary goal of this release is basically to give you more value with much less in the way of resources, budget and time. Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack gives customers a huge chunk of value on top of what they already have. Plus, if you're planning on buying XenApp soon, we just sweetened the deal for you. Here's what's included:

• XenServer for XenApp... Free? -- Yup, you read that right. You may have seen our announcement earlier today and learned that we're now giving you XenServer virtualization technology at no additional charge. You'll be able to virtualize your entire XenApp deployment from web interface to IMA. No need to virtualize Citrix XenApp with those other guys (err... vMwhat?). Plus, you can virtualize anything in your data center. Have at it. You can use XenServer for free with all editions of XenApp so you save big.
  
• Manage your whole farm from a single image with provisioning services -- as if server virtualization were not enough, we've also added in server provisioning which lets you manage all of your XenApp hosting servers using a single image. You can spin-up and repurpose physical or virtual XenApp servers on the fly. You can even reboot to get a squeaky-clean image - again, no need for third party software. Plus, you reduce your overall effort for managing your XenApp farm. This is included in XenApp Platinum edition.
• Right-size your servers with load testing services -- Server provisioning and virtualization wouldn't be complete without knowing exactly how much capacity you're managing. Load testing services is a toolset for creating realistic simulation scripts that help you benchmark your XenApp hosting servers. You can create scripts easily (no coding, no kidding, unless that's your thing) and then run those scripts as real sessions on XenApp servers. Since it's included with XenApp Enterprise and Platinum editions, there's no need for third party benchmarking software, or the additional 3^rd party training, maintenance, and support. Plus, by knowing your true capacity, you have less idle capacity sitting around so you save money, not to mention, being able to address business requests faster.
• Offline licensing for application streaming and single sign-on at no additional charge -- Application streaming for desktops and servers has been available for Enterprise and Platinum customers since our 4.5 release. However, customers had to buy licenses to help them support offline usage of applications. Not anymore. In XenApp 5 Feature Pack, we've made application streaming available to Advanced edition customers. Even better, there's no need to buy separate licenses to enable offline application access. Now all XenApp users can take their applications offline. For Platinum edition customers, we've also added the offline/desktop use license for Single sign-on at no additional charge. This could save you a ton of money in help desk support costs. Plus, if you haven't been using the self-service password reset feature then you've been missing out on additional costs savings. These licensing changes save a ton of cash and give you a complete application delivery solution for all of your users and all of your applications. Why pay separate maintenance and support fees or manage solutions from multiple vendors when it's so easy with Citrix XenApp?
• Eliminate profile reconciliation issues with profile management -- this is a pretty handy addition. Profile management maintains and consolidates a user's roaming profile so that you don't get any first write/overwrite issues. Additionally, it gives users a faster logon and seamless experience when accessing their applications from any device or location. This is going to reduce your support costs. Profile management is included in XenApp Enterprise and Platinum editions.
• Reduce telco costs with EasyCall voice services and click-to-conference features -- You can reduce data center costs if you're using EasyCall by migrating from the physical appliance to the new virtual appliance included with XenApp 5 Feature Pack. If you haven't been using EasyCall, it's a great way to reduce your telco costs by letting users leverage your low cost corporate long distance contract to make calls when they are working remotely or on-the road. Citrix has also added a click-to-conference feature that allows you to start a conference call from your computer with up to 50 people. That could help you save money from those conferencing services that you pay for by the minute. In XenApp 5 Feature Pack, it'll be available in all editions of XenApp. Again, no additional charge.
• Workflow studio orchestration - Citrix is also releasing Workflow Studio orchestration, an automation tool designed to help tie together multiple Citrix products and automate common IT tasks. It's a v1 but keep your eyes on this one as it will simplify your life as the library of Citrix API's grow with future versions.

Mind you, this list is in addition to all of the great technologies that are already a part of XenApp today like secure application access, application performance monitoring, SmartAuditor session recording, preferential load balancing, branch optimization, Citrix HDX and printer management. All of the new features will be available mid-march 2009 and can be accessed by anyone with active subscription advantage as of March 9, 2009 (this includes anyone who bought XenApp after March 9, 2008). As a quick reference, here's a table of the new features that shows availability by edition:

Compared to purchasing XenApp and all of these solutions separately, whether from Citrix or some 3^rd party, you'd be paying upwards of $900 per user and over $100 per year in maintenance fees, not to mention support contracts, training and other costs. In addition, you still need to factor in the overall line of business cost savings you get from increased efficiency and the like. To top it all off, XenServer can be used for any number of servers you wish and we haven't counted that ether. Obviously there's substantial value that's been added to XenApp in this feature pack – over $300 of value per license and over $40 of subscription advantage value per license per year.

Are you a loyal customer that renews subscription advantage like it's an unshakable New Year's resolution? Well, if you've been trying to justify subscription advantage, I think the justification is clear. If you've been waiting for a reason to move to XenApp 5 then wait no longer. And if you aren't a Citrix customer yet, then take note of how important our customers are to us and let us be your partner in 2009 and beyond.

Learn more at Citrix.com/upgradetoxenapp5. Stay tuned for weekly blogs on XenApp 5 Feature Pack. As always, let us know your thoughts, questions and feedback below.

This post is part of a multi-part series on XenApp 5 Feature Pack:

• Part 1: Citrix Releases its own Economic Stimulus Plan with XenApp 5 Feature Pack
• Part 2: Manage your entire server farm from a single image with XenApp 5 Feature Pack
• Part 3: Profile Management, new in XenApp 5 Feature Pack! When does it make sense for your business?
• Part 4: Single Sign-on for any user! New in XenApp 5 Feature Pack! 
• Part 5: XenApp 5 Feature Pack Transforms Server Sizing from an Art to an Exact Science!

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On Oct 15th we released HRP03 for PS 4.5 on Windows Server 2003 and XenApp 5 on Windows Server 2003. Traditionally XenApp HRPs (Hotfix Rollup Pack) are a bundle of bug fixes and hence not that exciting. But in HRP03, in addition to XenApp bug fixes we included IMA optimizations that provide the following benefits.

Improved Performance

• Faster load balancing (up to 65% in >250 server farms)
• Time to bring up a large global farm with multiple sites is dramatically reduced (the farm-wide start up time was improved by 25% on physical machines and 59% on VMs in >50 server farms)
• Improved replication of session and load data over slow WAN links

Higher availability

• Provide user access resiliency (avoids periods when new users are denied application access for several minutes)
• Fewer data store corruptions
• Data collector election resiliency (69% improvement in election time with 2,000 applications and 95% improvement with 50,000 sessions)
• Better diagnostics
• Optimized caching of user and group information on XML brokers to better handle environments with tens of thousands of users

These updates are further explained within CTX118658 and CTX118659. Also check out the 10 minute webinar explaining the technical details of these optimizations.

As promised in the TechTalk "Learn What's New in Citrix XenApp 5 to Address Your Windows Application Delivery Needs", I am posting the link to the power point and summarizing the attendee Q&A.

XenApp 5 Upgrade/Migration Q&A

Q: What is the upgrade path from PS 4 or PS 4.5 to XenApp 5?

A: Please see the migration guide for moving from PS 4 or PS 4.5 to XenApp 5. Also view the webinar on best practices to upgrading/migrating to XenApp 5.

Application Streaming Q&A

Q: I still don't understand the difference between publishing an app and streaming an app.

A: Streaming puts the application on the target device like the server or the client. It's merle y a delivery method. Publishing is how an administrator controls which applications are available to what users and how. When publishing an application you can choose how the user gets access to that application - it can be either streamed to the user's end point (desktop/laptop) or streamed to the server and accessed using the XenApp hosted client. So streaming is a delivery vehicle, publishing is delivery control.

Q: Can you describe the application profiling process for those of us that are unfamiliar with it?

A: You simply run the profiler, follow the instructions, and install the application. It's actually pretty simple.

Q: Is there a document on the web to research how to setup a streaming application in XenApp to test it and "play"?

A: The Streaming admin guide is actually very well written for this purpose.

Q: Is 4.5 application isolation the same as in 5.0?

A: It is actually very different. We added new features in 5.0 like inter-isolation communication and also made significant application compatibility enhancements.

Q: Does the application profiler capture windows services?

A: Not yet.

Q: So would streaming improve the performance of apps in a limited bandwidth environment?

A: ICA is the thinnest way of delivering client\server applications. You would stream to the server and then remotely display from there to the client. Streaming is best used for applications that need to be used offline such as productivity apps. In this case, streaming simplifies their delivery and management and offload their resource needs from the server to the client. The application would use it's native networking requirements when you stream to the client. Hence, streaming to the client does not improve bandwidth. it improves management, maintenance, and application compatibility. Streaming tot he server does it all.

Q: Do I need to buy the Access Gateway in order for me to be able to stream an app over the WAN?

A: No. Application Streaming is part of XenApp Enterprise & Platinum editions. You can optionally buy the Citrix branch repeater to improve application streaming performance for branch office users.

Q: Does application streaming support isolation of Windows services?

A: Not Available

Web Interface Q&A

Q: Does new Web Interface work with PS 4.5

A: Yes

Q: Can the new Web Interface be used with both XenApp & XenDesktop?

A: Yes. Use Web Interface 5.0.1 that supports both XenApp and XenDesktop

Q: What Platforms does Web Interface 5.x support?

A: It supports both Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

Licensing Q&A

Q: Does the license server need to be upgraded when moving from 4.5 to 5?

A: Yes. Remember that the latest LS is backward compatible with previous versions of XenApp

Q: Will I need new licenses for running XenApp 5?

A: The SA Eligibility date for XenApp 5 is August 27th 2008. Hence if your XenApp licenses are current on SA by that date, you should be set.

Q: How can I get a 90-day evaluation license for XenApp5?

A: Please contact a local reseller (find yours at http://www.citrix.com/partners/locator) or you can call 800-4CITRIX. We are also planning on offering a preconfigured Evaluation Virtual Appliance for the Windows Server 2003 platform sometime in Q4.

Q: Can I mix and match XenApp edition licenses? Platinum is cost prohibitive as an existing Advanced customer but I could possibly see a benefit for supporting some of my users with Platinum features

A: Check out my blog on this topic

Q: If you stream an application to a XenApp server and then publish that application as a XenApp hosted application, does that only use one concurrent license or two?

A: It uses one license. Only one CCU license is consumed per client device when accessing hosted XenApp applications.

Q: Do you need a separate license for streaming ?

A: You can use a XenApp Enterprise or Platinum licenses for streaming applications to desktops/laptops or you can purchase additional add on streaming licenses.

XenApp clients Q&A

Q: Any news on making an ICA client for the iPhone?

A: Check this blog for more details

Q: Is PN Agent still available in XenApp 5?

A: Yes. It is called XenApp applications

Q: What is the minimum ICA client version supported by XenApp 5?

A: To avail all the new functionalities, you need to use XenApp hosted client version 11.0 and streamed client version 1.2

Q: I understand that the name has been changed but will Program Neighborhood Agent be still available with XenApp 5?

A: Yes

Misc Q&A

Q: What are the key differences that separate PS 4.5 and XenApp 5?

A: Please see the feature comparison matrix.

Q: Are there any enhancements to terminal server roaming profiles and management of them?

A: Check out our User Profile Manager Tech Preview. It will be released in Q4 2008 for general use.

Q: Have you made improvements to the Resource Manager that was available in Presentation Server? Our company has always had need to query database directly, to cross-reference our own HR and account databases against the network ID trapped by Citrix.

A: The new Resource Manager that was made available in XenApp 5 is built on Citrix EdgeSight technology. It provides better reporting capabilities than previous version.

Q: Is an additional appliance required to implement EasyCall?

A: Yes. EasyCall requires the EasyCall appliance. XenApp includes the user licenses and hence you just need to purchase the appliance for using EasyCall in your XenApp environment.

Q: I've read XenApp 5 has improvements on multi-monitor support. What do these improvements contain?

A: Support for higher resolution similar as Microsoft increased the video buffer on Windows Server 2008 to enable us to support larger video spaces.

Q: Is there a new version of Secure Gateway?

A: Yes. Secure Gateway 3.1

Q: Has the 128-bit encryption option in the ICA protocol been discontinued? We currently require this for some published apps and would prefer not to be forced into an SSL VPN solution.

A: No. It is still available

Q: Does the new Installation Manager work on 64 bit?

A: Yes. It is supported on Windows Server 2008 x32 and x64.

Q: Can we install XenApp in a virtualized environment (XenServer) or it a better practice to install it on physical server?

A: Check out this blog on this topic

Q: Will the WANScaler be out of product line and replaced with WAN optimizer software in each client?

A: The WANScaler client is the new Citrix Accelerator client and can be deployed on laptops and desktops to improve branch office user and roaming user experience.

Q: We use PS 4.5 today with Oracle DB. How will oracle DB be supported in XenApp 5 ?

A: Oracle Database is still supported as a data store option in XenApp 5
 

As promised in the TechTalk, here is the the link to the power point and following is the summarized attendee Q&A.

Web Interface Q&A

Q: Can Web Interface front end both XenApp and XenDesktop?

A: Yes. Use the latest Web Interface 5.0.1 that supports XenApp and XenDesktop

Q: Does the account unlock feature of Web Interface require password manager?

A: Yes

Q: Can you use Web Interface 5.x with PS 4.5?

A: Yes

Q: What are the companies you listed in your presentation that are doing Web Interface customizations

A: www.extentrix.com and www.techstur.com

Q: Web Interface changes are great, but what my users really want is PNAgent support via CSG. When is that going to happen?

A: This is supported with the latest XenApp client and Secure Gateway 3.1

XenApp clients Q&A

Q: Will there be a XenApp client for BlackBerry?

A: Since our Blackberry client partner ROVE suspended support for ICA Client, we are working with a new partner to provide similar support. Stay tuned.

Q: Can you use the new XenApp Plugin with PS 4.5?

A: Yes

XenApp Upgrade/Migration Q&A

Q: Can we upgrade from PS 4.0 to XA 5.0 or do we need to upgrade to PS 4.5 first?

A: You can move directly from PS 4.0 to XA 5.0. For specific details, refer to the upgrade/migration white paper and attend the "Upgrading/Migrating to XenApp 5 TechTalk" as well.

Misc Q&A

Q: What is Citrix Branch Repeater?

Q: Citrix Branch Repeater is an appliance that combines our WAN optimization technology with Windows Branch infrastructure services. Visit the branch repeater page for more information. 

I am doing a TechTalk on "What's new in XenApp 5" on Tuesday, Sept 30th 2008. This is an hour long presentation (with Q&A) that is repeated and hence you can pick the time slot that works for you (either 10AM EDT or 2PM EDT). As this is a TechTalk, it will be technical in nature explaining not only the benefits of the new features but also the technical details on implementing them.

I am also co-speaking with Al on the TechTalk "Enhancing the User Experience with Citrix XenApp 5" which is geared towards the new XenApp 5 features that will enhance the end user experience when accessing XenApp applications. In the Q&A you probably can ask Al if he will provide us with his private copy of XenApp client for iPhone. I can't wait to see that go public.

And there are 2 other XenApp 5 TechTalks on our streaming enhancements and best practices for upgrading/migrating to XenApp 5. Don't miss them! All the TechTalks are repeated to let you pick the time slot that works for you.

Finally the much awaited release of XenApp 5 can now be downloaded from MyCitrix download page (needs MyCitrix credentials).

XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2008 needs a full install and since this is the first time we are supporting Windows Server 2008 platform, there is no upgrade from previous versions. And, this comes in a DVD. No more Server CD and Component CD. Everything is one DVD for the Windows Server 2008 platform. And don't forget to check out this technical guide for a step by step approach in migrating to XenApp 5.

XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2003 does not require a full install and supports upgrading from previous XenApp versions (4.0 and above). In fact there have been no server side updates and the core server install still uses Presentation Server 4.5 install. All the new functionality can be implemented using the new clients and components (like Web Interface 5.x, EdgeSight 5.x, Streaming Profiler/Client 1.2 etc). So, why did we call this release XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2003 and not something like Presentation Server 4.5 Feature Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003? Let's not go there  and I think that deserves a blog post of its own. Anyhow, the good news is that all this new functionality on Windows Server 2003 can be adopted without doing a fork lift upgrade/migration. Again, for step by step instructions on implementing the new functionality, check out the technical guide for migrating to XenApp 5.

Btw, don't miss out on the first ever XenApp 5 virtual event on Sept 9th. More than 2500 customers and partners (and still counting) have already registered for this online virtual event.

This morning we announced Citrix XenApp 5. You can visit the product page for details on everything related to XenApp 5. Here you can download the updated feature matrix, XenApp 5 & Windows Server 2008 feature analysis, Top 8 reasons to upgrade and a link to register for the upcoming XenApp technical Webcasts. The technical Webcasts will cover XenApp 5 functionality as well as best practices for migrating/upgrading to XenApp 5.

The XenApp 5 bits will be uploaded to MyCitrix download page on Sept 4th. And, don't forget to register for the Sept 9th first ever live XenApp virtual event!

Get an in-depth look at the upcoming XenApp release in our first Citrix Delivery Center Live virtual event. Attend keynote sessions with live Q&A, chat live with Citrix product experts, participate in forums, network with other attendees, visit the expo hall, view content online and download information. Think of this event as a virtual Synergy for XenApp. Register for this worldwide virtual event happening on September 9th 2008.

This event will explore the following topics

•    How XenApp liberates applications and the end user
•    What's new with XenApp 5
•    XenApp and Windows Server 2008
•    Leveraging XenApp to reduce IT TCO
•    When to add XenDesktop to XenApp
•    What XenServer can do for XenApp
•    How NetScaler optimizes XenApp

Since I blogged about Health Monitoring and Recovery (a.k.a. Health Assistant) feature of XenApp, I received several requests on the internals of the 10 test packs. So, here you go.

• Logon/Logoff test

This test detects failures (typically external to XenApp) that cause users to rapidly logoff the system and potentially create a black hole in the farm. The test will monitor logons and logoffs to a XenApp server. If logoffs are rapid and consistent, the test will throw an error condition.

This test has the following three unique parameters that must be updated through command line arguments. These arguments can be managed centrally using the Access Management Console.

1. SessionTime -  specifies the time spent in each session.  If the amount of time spent in the session is less than this value, it is treated as an error.
2. SessionThreshold - specifies the session error threshold at which the service should throw an error condition.
3. SampleInterval - specifies the time for which the session time sampling is done.  After each interval, the monitor checks to see if the SessionThreshold has been reached.  If it has, it will signal an error when queried by the logon monitor test.

• Terminal Services test

This test enumerates the list of sessions running on the server and queries session information (such as user name).  It is similar in functionality to the "quser" utility. The test communicates directly with Terminal Services by using the "WTSEnumerateSessions" API call.

• IMA test

The IMA test queries the IMA service to ensure that it is up and running by performing an app enumeration on the IMA service. It uses an internal API call to enumerate the applications.

• XML Ticket request test

This test queries the Citrix XML service on the local machine.  The service responds with XML data that includes a XenApp ticket. This ticket is checked for validity. If the ticket check fails or if a server/port fails to respond to the request (e.g. a socket timeout occurs) the test returns an error. This test communicates directly with the XML service through a TCP socket via the Winsock API.

• Microsoft Print Spooler test

The Print Spooler test attempts to ensure MS printer spooler reliability.  It will enumerate printers on the local server, enumerate printer drivers and printer processors using Microsoft Windows APIs.  Exercising these tasks is fundamental to ensure that the MS printer service is running smoothly.  The reason we enumerate these three different items is because enumerating just printers may not give us any information as we will only be able to enumerate printers that an administrator gives Local Service permission to read. However, drivers and processors can be enumerated by Local Service.

• Citrix Print Manager Service test 

This test is responsible for ensuring that the Citrix Print Manager service is operating properly.  The Citrix Print Service test calls internal APIs to ensure reliability.  Specifically, the test will use RPC to call Citrix Print Manager service to enumerate all printers on the local machine. If enumeration does not complete successfully the test will throw an error condition.

• Check DNS test

By default this test will run a forward DNS lookup that is guaranteed to go over the wire to the local machine's DNS server. Optionally, users may run a reverse DNS lookup. For either test, we gather the locally configured information and then make a DNS query to compare the results.   

The forward DNS lookup will gather the IPv4 address of the local machine from the installed NICs. The test will then make a DNS query based on the locally configured hostname and compare the resulting IP address to the one we grabbed locally. If these two IP addresses do not match, the forward DNS lookup will throw an error. 

The reverse DNS lookup will gather the hostname from the local machine.  It will also take the locally configured IPv4 address.  Using the local address, it will convert it to the reverse DNS address and query for the hostname.  The test will then compare the resulting hostname with the one it originally queried from the local machine. The reverse DNS look up will not be set to run by default as many organizations neglect configuring this and which may lead to false negatives. 

Successful completion of this test will ensure DNS is working properly on the local server.

• ICA Listener test

The responsibility of the ICA Listener Test is to ensure clients can make a successful connection to the local server via the ICA protocol.  We will validate this functionality by pinging the ICA listener and monitoring the response.  When idle, the ICA listener emits the text "ICA". By looking for these characters we can verify that the ICA listener is in a good state.

• Check XML Threads test

The Check XML Threads test will run as a monitor test.  This means that we will look for unwanted behavior over a period of time.  The Check XML Threads test will look for too many XML worker threads to be running for a prolonged time period.  By default we set this time to be one minute.  If the test determines that the worker threads are past the default threshold of 10 threads for over a minute this will indicate that the XML service is being stressed too much.  The administrator may wish to add an extra server to handle some of the load.  When the threshold is met, the corrective action will execute. 

This test aims to monitor XML service trafic load.  When the service is overloaded, Web Interface connections will suffer. This test will alert administrators that they may need to address XML performance. This test will make use of a new performance counter that we added with the test pack. The performance counter will measure the number of active worker threads running in the XML service. There were recent changes made to the XML service where worker threads are not killed when they are done being used. Instead, they are kept alive but are made idle. This change was made to improve performance. However, the old performance counter still reflects the total number of worker threads. This value is not what we are interested in because there may exist worker threads that are idle. With data from the new performance counter, the test will simply poll the counter for the number of worker threads that are actually doing work.

• Check Local Host Cache test

The Check LHC test is responsible for recognizing and responding to LHC corruptions and inconsistencies on the local machine that could result from stale data left when removing a server and/or published app.  LHC corruption refers to compromised integrity of LHC object(s). The test will check what the object size should be versus the actual size of the object.  LHC inconsistencies occur when there are duplicate entries or when entries do not match the datastore objects. To verify inconsistencies we focus on four contexts:  MfServer, CommonServer, MfApp, and CommonApp. If we detect an error when running these checks, we perform an LHC refresh. After the refresh is complete, we check the integrity and consistency to ensure that the problem has been resolved. If the problem persists, the administrator configured corrective action will be executed.

On August 5th, I am presenting with Microsoft Terminal Services product manager on XenApp and Windows Server 2008. We will talk about Windows Server 2008 platform enhancements, new features in the upcoming XenApp release and some best practice tips that we learned from our early adopters. Click here to register for the Microsoft TechNet webcast.

• Title: Learn Best Practices for Citrix XenApp and Windows Server 2008 from Early Adopters (Level 200)
• Presenters: Sridhar Mullapudi & Max Herrmann
• Webcast Length: 60
• Date/Time: 8/5/2008 8:00:00 AM Pacific
  

Delaware Release Preview now includes EdgeSight functionality. Customers and partners who have downloaded the Delaware Release Preview can now download just the EdgeSight update to evaluate enhancements to application performance monitoring. And this is the first release of EdgeSight that adds support for Windows Server 2008 platform. The Release Preview quick start guide has been updated to include step by step instructions of installing the EdgeSight components.

Key new features in this release are

• Active Application Monitoring - It lets administrators monitor the responsiveness and availability of production applications being by Citrix XenApp. Simple scripts can be recorded and replayed to interact with a live application just as a user would, monitoring the time taken to complete tasks and produce alerts if the application becomes unresponsive, or unavailable. We built this functionality using EdgeSight for Load Testing technology. Existing scripts can be imported from EdgeSight for Load Testing or new scripts can be recorded within the Active Application Monitoring console.

• New UI design for easier troubleshooting
  • Farm Monitor - View the status of farms, folders and servers using the same topology created in the Access Management Console.
  • User Trouble-shooter - Enter a users' name to identify their sessions and applications. All performance information is retrieved in the context of that session's start and stop time and resources used to simplify the identification of performance problems
  • Report Browser - Quickly find all reports related to a specific metric such a CPU, Memory or Network

• Enhanced XenApp integration
  • ICA Channel Instrumentation -  Enables an administrator to view the bandwidth being consumed by each of the virtual channels within ICA enabling the cause of high utilization to be identified.
  • Health Assistant Integration - All Health Assistant alerts are now displayed in the EdgeSight console

And XenApp Enterprise edition customers can use this release to evaluate the resource management functionality.

Resource Manager has been a feature of XenApp Enterprise edition since MetaFrame/WinFrame days. At a high level, it monitors your XenApp servers and farm and provides visibility into the health of your XenApp environment. With our acquisition of Reflectent, we now have EdgeSight technology that not only does server monitoring but also monitors the applications and the experience of the end users who are accessing the applications. The common question I heard when we acquired Reflectent was "What are you going to do with Resource Manager?". You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. So here is the long version of that answer.

Resource Manager on Windows Server 2008

For our upcoming XenApp on Windows Server 2008 release (Project Delaware), we will be re-architecting Resource Manager with EdgeSight technology. Instead of maintaining 2 different technology platforms for similar functionality, we are retiring the existing IMA based Resource Manager technology and replacing it with EdgeSight technology. This way Enterprise edition customers can retain their existing resource management functionality and get some additional functionality when they transition to the EdgeSight platform. Remember that Platinum customers still get the entire EdgeSight for XenApp functionality and resource management is just a subset of it (we will have the Enterprise vs. Platinum feature set comparison table when we release Delaware). Hence the same EdgeSight platform can enable resource management functionality or the full application performance monitoring functionality based on the XenApp license type.

Resource Manager on Windows Server 2003

Since there are thousands of customers using existing IMA based Resource Manager on Windows Server 2003, we will still be maintaining and supporting it but will not be adding new functionality. Since the upcoming EdgeSight release will support both 2003 & 2008 Windows platforms, XenApp Enterprise edition customers on Windows Server 2003 should plan to start migrating to the EdgeSight platform.

On April 30th we released Project Delaware Release Preview that received great comments and feedback. Check out my blog and comments on the release preview. In the past 3 weeks, we had around 5000 downloads of Release Preview with customers and partners actively discussing the release at our support forum. And we have already started incorporating their feedback for the final RTM release!
 
Project Delaware is the first release of XenApp on Windows Server 2008. Our main goal for Delaware is not just adding new features and functionalities but making sure this is the best XenApp release in terms of product quality. Hence we had a private Beta in late 2007 with some of our early adopter customers and are now running a public Beta for a broader feedback. And customers planning to move to Windows Server 2008 have already started using the Release Preview and hence can migrate fast when we release the final product. For financial and legal reasons, I  can't be specific on the exact release date but I can say that it will be out in the second half of 2008.

Tell us what you think about the Release Preview - what are you experiences so far?  We'd love to hear from you.

Delaware Release Preview has been released to web. Download the bits, documentation and the license file to kick off your evaluation of XenApp on Windows Server 2008. This will help with your Windows Server 2008 migration plans when we release the final build. Nearly 2000 customers and partners have registered for it and have been anxiously waiting.

Since this is Beta code, you might find some issues and hence please make sure you at least scan the Installation checklist and Readme. The easiest way to install the Release Preview is to follow the Quick Start guide. It is a step by step guide (with screen shots) to complete the installation. You will need a new/upgraded license server (version 11.5) and a new license file to evaluate this release. There is a support forum to discuss all issues related to this Release Preview.

Some functionality like Application Performance Monitoring enhancements (powered by EdgeSight), an updated IM, an updated Resource Manager etc is missing from this beta and should be available in the final release. Try the Release Preview and leave us your comments.