By now, you've probably been hearing or reading a lot about Citrix's relationship with Intel...or at least we're hoping that's the case!

Most of the recent news has been focused on our joint collaboration in the development of Citrix XenClient. XenClient is one of the most exciting projects in Citrix's history and we can't wait to see how the project changes the definition of desktop virtualization. With that said, there are optimization activities currently underway with our Citrix Deliver Center products, such as Citrix XenServer and Citrix XenDesktop that are worth talking about too!

Intel and Citrix have a long history of working together to deliver end-to-end solutions for the enterprise. From how Citrix XenServer works with Intel Xeon processors to how Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop work alongside Intel vPro technology to our joint development of Citrix XenClient, there is a great story in this partnership.

At Citrix Synergy 2009, Tom James, Business Development Manager, Digital Office Platform Division from Intel presented how solutions and technologies from Intel work with Citrix Delivery Center. For those of you who weren't able to attend Synergy or those who could but didn't have a chance to check out this session, it's available here for your viewing pleasure.

In this webinar you will learn:

• About recent server consolidation testing conducted in the Citrix Lab with Citrix XenApp, Citrix XenServer and Intel Xeon 5500 Series processors
• About the upcoming local desktop virtualization platform - XenClient - Citrix is developing in conjunction with Intel and how we see it changing the client landscape moving forward
• About the other collaboration areas from a technical perspective and how they add customer value
  

Check out the webinar!

For those familiar with XenApp, you already know a key capability of XenApp is delivering Windows applications to many different client devices. Most of us probably don't think about it much, but this capability translate into a couple of really important benefits for our customers, especially in today's economic climate:

1. You easily can deliver Windows applications to endpoints running variety of OS'es (Windows, Linux, netbooks like the eeePC and of course, the iPhone - coming soon). One example is companies are implementing work-from-home programs to eliminate commute time, reduce electric consumption and consolidate office real estate. Users can work from home, using their own computer. They have a Windows PC - no problem. Mac - sure, we've got a client for that too. eeePC? check out the link above.
2. You can also extend the life of those equipment & extend your hardware refresh cycle - imagine having the ability to run a Office 2007 or your favorite business critical apps on a legacy Pentium II desktop.

That said, I'd like to take a poll on what OS you're using to access XenApp. Please login to vote!

What OS is your XenApp plugin (new name for ICA client) running on?	Choose
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows Server 2003/2008
Windows 2000/98/ME
Mac OS
Linux
UNIX
Java
Windows CE/PPC
EPOC/Symbian
Other (IBM OS/2, Windows 16-bit, DOS)

Lately main stream media picked up on the fact that we're building an ICA client for the iPhone. Several stories emerged, many pointing back to Al's blog as well as our most popular blog post ever by Chris Fleck.

Some have questioned if we were really working on a client or just some vaporware.

I can safely tell you that what you've heard is true, we're building an ICA client for the iPhone, but that's not all. We're not just building an ICA client for another mobile platform, we're redefining the mobile experience for Citrix users, we're building a Citrix Receiver for the iPhone.

iPhone is remarkable for its design and simplicity and we do not intend to change that, in fact, we find ourselves inspired by all its novelties.

Our goal in delivering a Citrix Receiver to an iPhone is to ensure a completely seamless transition from personal to enterprise, all in one device. Virtually millions business critical application run today on Citrix XenApp, and soon enough all of them will be at your fingertips in an iPhone near you.

We are following the very same guidelines every other native iPhone app follows, and to ensure that, we have teamed up with our friends at Apple to deliver nothing but the smoothest experience to our users.

The Citrix Receiver for iPhone will not only look and feel native to this platform but it will leverage many of the software and hardware advancements incorporated into this ingenious device. Expect a rich combination of multi-touch gestures, great usage of the iPhone's accelerometer and many more.

Our timeline can not yet be disclosed, however I can share with you that the first edition of the Citrix Receiver will be released to the App Store within the first half of 2009. In the meantime, we are building an iPhone community site within CDN, allowing us to contribute and share information with the industry as well as a mainline of communication between our development team and the community; this new site will be available soon, stay tuned.

The Project name is Braeburn (Project Braeburn), I'm the Product Architect, Al Grandville - Product Manager, and a highly skilled team of our finest Mac developers; we form the squad in charge of getting the Citrix Receiver released into the wild. On the new iPhone community site you will be able to chat, ask questions and exchange ideas with all of us.

Stay tuned, iPhone magic is coming soon!

best,
Gus

A brand new feature that is included in EasyCall 2.1 is EasyCall Conferencing.

EasyCall Conferencing is a web assisted call back service. You simply click on a URL and enter your phone number to join a conference call. You no longer need to enter two sets of numbers (conference bridge, access code) to join the conference.

Most employees, even for internal conferences, utilize toll free conference solutions for meetings. That's incredibly expensive.

EasyCall Conference uses your company phone system to join people together. When people inside the company uses EasyCall Conference, there's no cost whatsoever. And even if the phone system dials out to an external caller, the company only needs to pay the long distance charge, which is typically around $0.03 per minute.

In my eight and a half years at Citrix, one constant I have seen in successful large rollouts is extensive detailed testing both during a pilot and prior to final rollout. In my opinion, it is essential to test the applications running with actual work flow processes (including file transfers and printing) over the same networks as production (or a simulated network with the same characteristics).

Ideally, after a detailed pilot program is completed and a final architecture design is built, the entire load should be simulated prior to moving into production. This approach reduces the risks of a rollout by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the design prior to putting real users on the system. In the past, many companies avoided this step because load simulation tools were often very expensive. In many cases the available tools were extremely difficult to script to work with applications running on Citrix XenApp.

EdgeSight for Load testing is designed to overcome these issues to allow you to reduce the risks of your production rollouts of XenApp. EdgeSight for Load Testing is built specifically for Citrix XenApp and simplifies the process to build workflow scripts with a wide variety of applications.

The presentation below gives you a brief overview of EdgeSight for Load Testing.

(click here to see the presentation in full screen)

You can find the EdgeSight for Load Testing Installation Guide here and the User Guide here. You can get troubleshooting help for EdgeSight for Load Testing at this link.

XenApp enables IT organizations to reduce the costs of delivering applications by centralizing management, security and control of apps and data. Application virtualization technology provides a flexible application delivery system that can select the best method to deliver an application dynamically, based on the user, application and network.

This next embedded presentation digs down much deeper into the application virtualization technology included in Citrix XenApp 5.0 .

(click here to see the presentation in full screen)

You can download the Delivery and Streaming Best Practices document here and the Office 2007 Profiling document here. The Administrator FAQ is here and you can find a Troubleshooting document here.

You can download a complete virtual appliance of Citrix XenApp 4.5 at this link.

EdgeSight Monitoring for Citrix XenApp provides health and availability monitoring, problem diagnosis and trending analysis for your Citrix XenApp farm. This presentation gives you greater insight into how EdgeSight works and what it can do for you XenApp farms.

(click here to see the presentation in full screen)

You can get instructions on how to download the EdgeSight Evaluation Virtual Appliance here. Teh EdgeSight Install Guyide is here and the Admin Guide is here. You can also check out the EdgeSight Application Monitoring Guide here.

One of the unique new features of Citrix XenApp is Smart Auditor. The Smart Auditor feature of Citrix XenApp gives you the ability to capture all application screens of specific users or applications based on a number of different factors. This information can be used for compliance, activity monitoring and problem resolution. This presention goes under the cover of the Smart Auditor feature to give you an inside look.

(click here to see the presentation in full screen)

You can learn more from the Smart Auditor's Administrator's Guide.

Now that XenApp 5 has been released to web, you will be probably looking to migrate your current farm or just create a test one. Jo Harder did an amazing job of putting together an all-you-need-to-know document that will help you understand all the technical aspects and requirements for installing XenApp 5 as well as step-by-step procedures on how you can migrate to XenApp 5.

XenApp Migration Reference Table

XenApp 5 Operating System and Platform Support

Farm and Server Interoperability Scenarios

 
 
Download the full document here

In the age where Agua or Aero-glass interfaces are somewhat as important as the underlining kernel, same rules have been applying to Scripts and utilities, after all not everyone wants to be using complex scripts and endless command-line combinations.

For those who are not so keen on Scripts and CLI, our French friend Pierre Marmignon created an app that doesn't solve a new problem, but tackles it more elegantly. Pierre has created an GUI app that (bulk) imports/exports all your published applications.

If you have an useful Citrix app or utility that you would like to share with the world by showcasing it here on the Citrix communities, feel free to send an email to: gus.pinto@citirx.com with the title Community App.

Back in april I stumbled upon and brought forward a nice finding on our internal showcase farm, an application named ICAPipe later renamed to Citrix Fast Launch.

I posted some demos and an interview with the creators of the tool, shortly after announced that we had the intent of releasing the app as a utility on CDN with forum support.

As you probably know, it's been 2 months and the utility has not being released, and the reason why, is very simple.

The demand this app has generated was tremendous, but despite of the community demand, many customers would not be able to take advantage of this app simply because it's not officially supported, therefore making it not suitable for production environments.

We were set with a dilemma, release the app anyways, assuming web support would suffice or review our release process and attempt to sneak CFL in the XenApp product roadmap.

I can tell you that in the meantime we've been putting the app thru many tests, while identifying the scenarios users could benefit from it, and at the same time, talking to our engineering group trying to lockdown a possible target for this application to be introduced as part of our product.

Of course, there is no guarantee Citrix Fast Launch will be included in the future, however one thing is certain, you as customers can influence these decisions, helping us identify where does faster launch times fit on your list of priorities.

With that been said, here are some questions for you...

Community Release vs. Product Integration?	Choose
I'm OK with a community release supported on CDN forums
Integrated is preferred but a community release is better than nothing
No rush, I can wait until it becomes officially part of XenApp
I cannot implement apps in production without official support

Would faster launching times impact your decision of deploying XenApp?	Choose
Yes
No

Installation of the EasyCall Gateway

 
The EasyCall Gateway is an easy to implement and manage solution that communication-enables the enterprise applications.  The EasyCall Gateway appliance is deployed as an adjunct to the corporate telephone system.  The EasyCall Gateway client software is installed, streamed, or published to user desktops to communication-enable Windows XP or Vista applications.   
Note: For detailed information on the EasyCall Gateway features and configuration, refer to the EasyCall Gateway Administrator's Guide.

Unpacking the System

 Inspect the box in which the EasyCall Gateway was shipped and note if it was damaged in any way. If the appliance itself shows damage, you should file a damage claim with the carrier who delivered it. Verify that the contents of the box match the packing list. If an item on the packing list is missing from the box, contact Citrix Customer Care.
 

Materials Needed for Installation

• An ethernet cable to connect the appliance to your network.
• If using QSIG integration with the telephony system, one to four crossover voice DS1 cable(s). Your telephony system vendor can specify the number of cables required.

EasyCall Gateway Implementation Guidelines

EasyCall Gateway implementation must follow these guidelines:
• EasyCall Gateway integration supports only one protocol (QSIG or SIP) at a time. A site that uses more than one protocol will need one EasyCall Gateway per protocol type.
• You cannot share a EasyCall Gateway between two telephony systems, even if the two systems use the same protocol.
• The number of EasyCall Gateways needed for a site is based on the user load and the trunking used for integration. You can implement multiple EasyCall Gateways to support larger user bases.
• In a private network with multiple telephony systems, the EasyCall Gateway can be installed at a central location to serve users at satellite locations
  

Setting Up the Hardware

The EasyCall Gateway connects to your network inside the firewall. The connection can be through a hub or switch. The EasyCall Gateway does not support connection to a server load balancer or a connection that straddles two networks.
"Interface 1" refers to the left-most ethernet port when facing the front of the EasyCall Gateway.

To physically connect the EasyCall Gateway

1.     Install the EasyCall Gateway in a rack if it is rack-mounted.  For more information, see "Rack-Mounting the Appliance" on page 11.
2.     Connect the power cord to the AC power receptacle. For power requirements, see "Appliance Specifications" on page 19.
3.     Physically connect the EasyCall Gateway to your network. The interface used for connection depends on the trunking type and whether you will use DHCP to assign an IP address to the EasyCall Gateway. For SIP trunking, always use Interface 1. For QSIG trunking, use Interface 1 to initially configure the appliance using its default IP address (10.20.30.40) or use Interface 2 to use a DHCP-assigned IP address.
 • To initially connect to the appliance via its static IP address, configure its IP address on the 10.20.30 net (netmask 255.255.255.0) and connect the appliance to your network with an Ethernet twisted pair cable.
 • To assign an IP address to the appliance through DHCP, provision the host name of the EasyCall Gateway on your DHCP server and connect the appliance to your network with an Ethernet twisted pair cable.
4.   To access the administration tool, open https://10.20.30.40:8443 in a Web browser.
      For instructions on changing the preconfigured IP address, see "Configuring TCP/IP  
      Settings" on page 4.
5.   Connect the PRI span in the EasyCall Gateway to your telephony system. Consult
      your telephony system vendor regarding the number of connections required.
6.   Power on the EasyCall Gateway.

Introduction

This document assumes the administrator is familiar with the basic concepts and components of Citrix EasyCall. This document is targeted to the steps and requirements for successfully building a Citrix EasyCall Proof-of-Concept environment and does not address all the intricacies or interactions of XenApp environment. The goal is to provide a working example of the technology.  
An EasyCall Proof-of-Concept environment is expected to be isolated from the production environment (if possible). 
A successful EasyCall Proof-of-Concept environment has five parts. The five parts covered in this document are pre-installation check list, installation of the EasyCall Gateway, configuring the EasyCall Gateway, installation of the EasyCall agent (agent can be installed local, streamed, published, and a web services API), and call test scenarios. Each of these parts is discussed in the sections below.

Pre-Installation Requirements

 
The successful Proof-Of-Concept (POC) begins with simple preparation, if completed correctly will allow for the completion of the POC in a timely manner. Below is a list of pre-installation requirements that are recommended.  

Firewall Requirement

 
The firewall used for the EasyCall Gateway must allow TCP traffic over port 8443 for communication with the EasyCall Agent or Web Services API.

If SIP trunking is used, the telephony system and the EasyCall Gateway must not be separated by a firewall or NAT. 

Basic Network Connectivity

• Interface 1 IP address:

(By default, Interface 1 (left port) is configured with the static IP address 10.20.30.40 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and Interface 2 (right port) is configured for DHCP.  Interface 1 must always be used for SIP trunking.)

• Subnet mask:
• Default gateway IP address:
• DNS server (s): 
   

Citrix License Server

 
Review Citrix License Server documentation at http://support.citrix.com/licensing/.

One of the first question is to ask if the site has a current Citrix License Server.  If they have a current server we can use it and install evaluation licenses.  The preferred method would be to setup a new Citrix License Server just to support the POC.  That way when the POC concludes the Citrix License Server can be removed without effecting production.  
The items below are setting for the EasyCall Gateway UI for Citrix License Server: 

• Do you have a Citrix License Server? (yes/no)
• Citrix License Server IP address:
• Citrix License Server host ID/MAC address:
• Use Citrix Presentation Server Platinum Licenses? (yes/no)  
  Citrix Licenses can be downloaded through the following url and links:

http://www.citrix.com >support >downloads >licensing components  

Telephony System

 
EasyCall Gateway listens for SIP messages on UDP port 5060 (default port).  The PBX side of the port is configured by the customer.  See the EasyCall Gateway Integrator's Guide for specific PBX requirements.

Select the telephony system used at the site: 
Please see EasyCall PBX Integration list for currently supported PBXs and configurations. 

Call Setting Configuration

Settings below are from the EasyCall Gateway UI:

• External Trunk Access Code: (example 9, 8, 0)
• Country Code: (example 1 for U.S., or 44 for the U.K.)
• Area Code:
• International Dial Prefix: (example 011 for U.S. or 00 for the U.K.)
• Domestic Dial Prefix: (example 1 for the U.S.) 

Call Setting Customization

Other local area codes or overlays: (this is used if there are multiple local area codes for large cities/areas) :

• Area code: (does local dialing require the area code? Yes/no), (Domestic prefix? Yes/no)
• Numbers to be recognized as extensions: (example 3, 4, or 5 digits)
• Extensions preceded by: (example #, /, Ext., Ext:, other) ("Ext" includes all variations of capitalization)
• Extension prefix?
• Dial private network numbers as an: External or Internal number 

Directory Source Configuration

Settings below are from the EasyCall Gateway UI, you can also add multiple directory sources within the EasyCall Gateway configuration.  During a POC it would be best to add one LDAP source either from an Microsoft Active Directory connection or a CSV file located on a FTP server.

• LDAP server IP address and port number: (LDAP server port defaults to 389.  If you use an indexed database, using port 3268 will significantly speed the LDAP queries.)
• LDAP Bind DN and password: (example - ou=administrator,dc=ace,dc=com)
• LDAP Base DN: (example - ou=Users,dc=ace,dc=com)
• LDAP Attribute Fields: (example - Display Name=cn, Surname=sn, FirstName=givenName)  These fields will vary depending on the setup the LDAP environment.

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

POCs are an activity that sales engineers perform on a routine basis.  It's the best way to show the value of a product within a customer's environment.  I created this guide to help anyone (Citrites, partners, customers) who is interested in setting up a POC of EdgeSight 4.5.

Are my notes perfect?  It would be nice to be perfect, but I'm human.

Should you deploy this in a production environment?  Never

Can I contact Citrix Tech Support for assistance with this document?  Unofficial = Unsupported

If you have any questions, compliments, corrections, etc. about this document, please post a comment to the blog and I will respond.

Download the POC Guide here.

Joe Shonk, a technologist who spends tons of his time helping out the broad Citrix community, posted an really cool and simplistic (pictoral) article on how to publish multiple applications to Citrix XenApp servers without any scripts or extra tools, really cool stuff on his site.

  Check it out his post and his site:

  http://www.theshonkproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35

Enjoy the reading...

Gus Pinto
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This is a wicked cool session where our guys in EMEA teach you the core of Application Streaming technology.

If this is something on your radar, I highly recommend watching this videocast.

Watch it offline

cheers,
Gus Pinto
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Citrix Fast Launch is an application/extension that expedites the launching of applications virtualized with Citrix XenApp.
We will be releasing it soon as a freeware on the CDN site.

Stay tuned for more!
Gus Pinto

*Check out the latest video with the creators of Citrix Fast Launch!

XenApp and the soon to be released Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will have Workflow Tasks for XenApp included in the Customer Tech Preview.

Stay Tuned Here: Citrix Developer Network - Citrix Workflow Studio

Get Updates Here: Citrix Updated - Citrix Workflow Studio

View these demos of XenApp Individual Feature Demos for our flagship product, XenApp (Presentation Server) Platinum Edition 4.5 - the standard for delivering Windows applications at the lowest cost - anywhere. Each of these demos is in Flash format, and provides a narrated guide to the various aspects of the application delivery system that offers both application virtualization and application streaming for optimal application performance.

On February 11, 2008, Citrix announced that it changed the name of its Presentation Server^TM product line to XenApp^TM. This new name was chosen to highlight the product line's growing application virtualization capabilities and to support the customer need for end-to-end virtualization. When the next product line release, Project Delaware, becomes generally available, the XenApp name will be used more fully. Until that time, and in these videos, you will see the Presentation Server name. To be clear, XenApp is not a new product, it's the new name for Presentation Server.

Web Interface

See how Presentation Server makes windows applications available to local or remote users via an easy to use website.

Two Factor Authentication

By using strong authentication methods provided by our partners, administrators have an extra line of defense against malicious software, keyloggers, and network intruders.

Client Heterogeneity

Presentation Server enables users on a variety of devices - including Windows, Linux, Mac, or PDAs - to access their applications from anywhere.

Management Pack for MOM 2005

The Citrix plug-in for Microsoft Operations Manager allows centralized monitoring and reporting of farm-wide events.

Resource Manager

Offering straightforward management and reporting capabilities for even the largest Presentation Server deployments.

Installation Manager

Easily deploy and publish applications across all of your Citrix servers.

Web Interface for SharePoint

Dramatically improve performance and security by giving users access to their applications with this SharePoint Web Part.

SmoothRoaming

See how Citrix provides personal access continuity across devices, locations, and networks.

Application Performance Monitoring

Using the Citrix EdgeSight agent, administrators can keep tabls on their Presentation Servers - as well as on all other servers and clients on their network.

Single Sign-On

Citrix Password Manager provide enterprise Single Sign-On capabilities, centralized credential management, and Self Service Password Reset.