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Gareth James a blogger at DABCC.com did an amazing job of walking us through how to install and configure Citrix Provisioning Server.
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To see more articles from Gareth please visit his blog here: Gareth's Blog
Cheers,
Gus Pinto
Microsoft MVP - Virtualization
Twitter/GusPinto
Provisioning Server and the soon to be released Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will have Workflow Tasks for Provisioning Server included in the Customer Tech Preview.
Stay Tuned Here: Citrix Developer Network - Citrix Workflow Studio
Get Updates Here: Citrix Updated - Citrix Workflow Studio
Provisioning a new server in the Data Center from Bare Metal has always been a challenge. There have been some advances, but they still fall short of where we need to be for a truly self configuring and provisioning dynamic data center.
We have many methods, in which to remotely manage a bare metal server in the data center, we can call someone in the data center, use a networked KVM, use a Lights Out device, or some other creative technology.
Short of having our servers being delivered to us pre-configured for our environment, for the most part we still have to at some point connect to the server to set it up so that it will be ready to be provisioned for whatever purpose it is intended for.
I was having a flashback last week about a story I heard way back when, that was sparked by the announcement of Citrix XenServer being embedded on HP Servers. I have to tell you I don't even know if the following story is true, but here goes. The rumor was about negotiations between Citrix and Compaq way back when and how they were pondering using ICA as the protocol for connecting to their ILO devices. Like I said this rumor was from years ago, but I have never really forgotten about the "what if" scenarios if that had happened.
I love what Lights Out devices do for us, but I have never been a fan of the sluggish interface, when it comes to a console connection to the server, as the protocol used is not optimized for low speed or high latency connections. If you have ever tried to connect to a Lights Out device let's say in England or in Australia, and let's say you were Florida, then you will certainly know what I mean when I say that the current protocol for console connections to a Lights Out device isn't the greatest experience.
Also, trying to identify and manage a data center that has servers that are racked but not yet assigned or configured to be able to be provisioned can be a tough task to get a handle on, or one that can get out of control very fast.
There have been advances in Lights Out technologies that allow them to be managed from Active Directory, but it isn't a complete solution to the problem, as there is still a lot of initial work that has to go into being able to get the device into Active Directory first before one can even begin to manage it.
We need to be able to take server provisioning to the next level, and be able to drop a server onto the network, turn it on, and have it self-configure and self-provision. We have the server provisioning piece down quite well with Citrix Provisioning Server. It's the self-configuration of a bare metal server that we need to look at next, if we truly want to be able to drop ship in servers to meet the growing data center demand.
Back in October of last year, Dell announced at the Gartner IT Expo a new solution called Dell On-Demand Desktop Streaming as part of their Flexible Computing Solutions
. This is a bundled solution that includes Citrix Provisioning Server for Desktops. Here is the description of this solution from Dell.
On-Demand Desktop Streaming differs from similar offerings by providing centralized IT control and data security without compromising end-user productivity. It also incorporates the company's breakthrough EasyConnect™ technology, making client deployment easier by removing manual licensing and enabling an instant boot to the server.
"Dell's On-Demand Desktop Streaming solution can eliminate many of the security risks associated with viruses, spyware and hacking attempts," said Lee Steinsdoerfer, technology director, Zion-Benton Township High School, Zion, Ill. "We have fewer security concerns and can focus our resources on other pressing needs."
...
Additional features of Dell's On-Demand Desktop Streaming include:
- Virus resistance, making malware less of a concern because each re-boot restores the original image.
- Image roll-back, which allows IT administrators to roll out a new OS or application and restore the previous production image if there is a problem.
- Support for up to 100 end users with one server, versus a blade PC for every user, making manageability and maintenance easier.
- Standard Image Mode, which can deliver one standard image across all systems for quick and easy changes while minimizing impact on network resources.
- Flexibility to easily expand, change or move users or redeploy data center infrastructure for other uses. |
The Dell blog, Direct2Dell put up a post and video of the new solution in which "Bharath Vasudevan and Aaron Prince from the Solutions Engineering team walk you through a demo of a 100-client setup".
(You may need to update your Windows Media Player to see the player with the post. If you see a red x above instead the media player window, here is the link to the video.)
Dell created a Deployment Guide for the On Demand Desktop Solution. Here is a list of components of the solution as listed in the deployment guide:
Hardware and Software Requirements
Following are the basic requirements for hardware and software:
Streaming Server: Dell PowerEdge™ 2950
Standalone server configuration: At least one Dual Core Intel® Xeon® 5160 processor, 4 GB of 667-MHz RAM, and at least six 10,000 or 15,000 RPM SAS hard drives, with two drives in a RAID 1 configuration and the remaining drives in a RAID 10 configuration. Dell recommends no more than 100 users per server.
HA configuration: Minimum of two identically configured servers with at least one Dual Core Intel® Xeon® 5160 processor, 4 GB of 667-MHz RAM, and at least two 10,000 or 15,000 RPM SAS hard drives in a RAID 1 configuration (see "Storage Sizing Guidelines"). Dell recommends that the number of servers allow failure of one server with no more than 100 users per remaining server.
NAS Server (HA Configurations Only): Dell PowerEdge™ 2900
At least six 10,000 or 15,000 RPM SAS or 7200 RPM SATA hard drives, with two drives in a RAID 1 configuration and the remaining drives in a RAID 10 configuration (see "Storage Sizing Guidelines"). Up to 10 hard drives are supported, with two drives in an optional Flex Bay. Dell recommends no more than 200 users per NAS server.
Server Operating System: Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003 R2 Standard or Enterprise Edition (32-bit) for streaming servers and Windows Storage Server 2003, x64 Standard or Enterprise Edition for NAS servers.
Clients: Dell OptiPlex™ 755 or Dell OptiPlex 755 FLX (diskless)
For the ideal experience with multiple or memory-intensive client applications, Dell recommends 2 GB of RAM to reduce the likelihood of memory swapping across the network.
Client Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (32-bit or 64-bit) with SP2, Windows Vista® Business (32-bit or 64-bit), or Windows Vista® Ultimate (32-bit)
Streaming Software: Ardence Software-Streaming Platform (Citrix Provisioning Server for Desktops), version 4.1 SP2(DELL)
Licenses: Through EasyConnect™ Technology, the Dell clients are licensed for On-Demand Desktop Streaming. Importing and installing licenses from Citrix are not required.
NOTE: A hard drive must initially be installed in at least one client computer to create the master client vDisk image. The hard drive may be removed if desired after the vDisk image has been created.
Dell also put together a Performance Characterization whitepaper for the joint offering. This is a very detailed document that includes numerous metrics under increasing loads, including client boot time, client retires, server cpu utilization, memory utilization and disk queue length. If you are curious about the performance and scalability of Citrix Provisioning Server in this Dell Solution, take a few moments to review this whitepaper.
If you are considering making a change in desktops and want to dramatically lower support costs, this new joint solution from Citrix and Dell is worth taking the time to evaluate.
The new Xen Desktop will have an edition that includes three components - The Broker, XenServer, and Citrix Provisioning Server. Citrix Provisioning Server (formerly known as Ardence OS Streaming) often confuses people when they first hear about it. OS Streaming can be a difficult concept to grasp for many people at first. Once you do finally see the light, your jaw tends to drop as your eyes open wide. This video on YouTube is definitely a jaw dropper -
I heard this from a friend that this video was a huge hit at Microsoft Tech Ed in Orlando a few months ago. Justin Zarb blogged about it on Technet.com .
Its a pretty great demo, having the ability to stream individual operating systems over a 100mb LAN. The Citrix Stand at Tech Ed has been very entertaining and had some good information about the product set.
This video has been around for a while, so many of you may have already seen it. You may not have seen this next video. This video demonstrates the high availability option for Citrix Provisioning Server.
Citrix Provisioning Server is a key component of the upcoming Citrix XenDesktop release. There will be an edition of XenDesktop that includes both Provisioning Server and the XenServer hypervisor to provide a complete solution for desktop virtulization.
If you missed iForum 2007, there was a great demo of Provisioning Server at the keynote. You can watch the demo with Mark Templeton and Pete Downing here .
In this video, Pete Downing first takes two CPS 4.0 Servers and instantly upgrades them to CPS 4.5 (while removing the local hard drives). Next, Pete will drag and drop provision 9 CPS Servers, 11 IIS Servers, 5 SAP Servers and 5 Microsoft SQL Servers (all diskless) in a matter of minutes. For his finale, Pete then streams out the XenServer Enterprise hypervisor to all 30 servers and brings up all the OS images as virtual machines. Now that is OS Streaming Gone Wild!
BTW, if you missed the "Jellied Cat" video that Mark T. played during the keynote, here it is.
How long before we have jellied cat cars? <grin>
I am looking for more content specifically for Provisioning Server, so stay tuned.
UPDATE: Some additional third party content on Provisioning Server from the comments (Special Thanks to Wilco)-
Performance of CPS server based on Citrix Provisioning Server (http://sbc.vanbragt.net/mambo/white-papers/performance-of-cps-based-on-citrix-provisioning-server.html)
Explanation how tow run a CPS with Ardence OS Streaming
Beside I also have a review of the product it self:
http://sbc.vanbragt.net/mambo/deployment/ardence-os-streaming-4.html
Also take a look at http://www.virtuall.nl/videos/Ardence/ where Ruben Spruijt published some nice demo video's of the product.
One more link I have come across - http://www.Ardenceguru.com
Update2: One more link. Here is a presentation on the old Ardenc site that covers how Provisioning Server works with Citrix Presentation Server.