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In a previous post
I posed the question "If you could wave a magic wand and have any one single feature in the next release of Citrix XenApp, what would it be?".
It is clear many of you would like to wave that magic wand. There have been just over 650 votes and 26 comments so far. This post has been in the Top 5 in total post views since it was posted. Clearly there is a lot of interest in this topic.
I guaranteed you in that post I would share the results with the XenApp product team and I have done that. I also promised to follow up on the feature requests.
I am still working on getting a high level developer or software architect to talk about "live migration of individual sessions". I do have some further info on "Speed Screen Multimedia across all client platforms", the second most popular option in our poll.
Derek Thorslund, our Multimedia Virtualization Strategist, has written numerous posts about SpeedScreen Multimedia and related technologies. According to Derek, support for SpeedScreen Multimedia Acceleration on the Linux client is currently being developed. Derek was not able to give me a definitive time line for the general release of this capability, but I think they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, our Technology Licensing Partners now have access to a Technology Preview of SpeedScreen MultiMedia Acceleration for the Linux client. I will keep prodding Derek to provide more info as this project reaches completion.
In case you are not aware, SpeedScreen Multimedia Acceleration is currently available for the Win32 Client and the Windows CE WBT client (according to the client matrix). You can see in that document that Image Acceleration, Flash Acceleration and Browser acceleration are all support on multiple clients beyond Win32 and Win CE CBT.
Here are a few relevant blog posts on this topic in case you have not seen them -
SpeedScreenMultiMedaiAcceleration and Rave Video
How Do I Know if RAVE is Working?
What is SpeedScreen Image Acceleration?
Secrets of Optimizing Flash Part 1
Secrets of Optimizing Flash Part 2
Secrets for Optimizing Flash Part 3
Secrets for Optimizing Flash Part 4
Secrets for Optimizing Flash Part 5
New HRP Enhances Flash Support
SpeedScreen Progressive Display Delivers PACS Images
For deeper background technical information, here are some Knowledgebase articles on this topic
Troubleshooting the SpeedScreen Multimedia Acceleration Feature
Windows Media Player Cannot Play the file\
And finally, here is a technical video (narrated by Brian Madden) I found on the SpeedScreen topic -
Deep Dive into Citrix XenApp SpeedScreen Technologies
(47 minute video)
If you could wave a magic wand and have any one single feature in the next release of Citrix XenApp, what would it be?
While XenApp has literally hundreds of features that have been added over the last 10 years as the product has evolved from MetaFrame 1.0,1.8, XP, FR1 though FR3, 3.0, then 4.0 and now 4.5, is there one feature you really want to have but have not seen yet?
I pulled in a few ideas I have received into a poll. If you would like to add others to the list, post them in the comments and I will add your suggestion. I am looking for big home run features, but ideas that help you in your day to day job are fine as well.
From my past experience, many of you just do not have the time to keep up with every feature added to XenApp/CPS over time, especially if you are migrating to every other release. I have a theory about that as well (but I am saving that theory for a later post). It will be interesting to see if any feature ideas are submitted that have already been added in a past release.
Of course, there is no guarantee anything on this list can or will be included in the future (since I am not on the XenApp product team). I do guarantee I will communicate the results of this poll to that team.
This is a very preliminary list based on an informal survey I took recently. Instead of editing it, I am just posting it to get the discussion (and voting) started. If you want to add a feature to this list, post it in the comments and I will add it. Focus on the problem you need to solve.
| If you could wave a magic wand, what feature would you put into the next release of XenApp? | Choose |
|---|---|
| SpeedScreen Multimedia support across all client platforms |  |
| Enhanced smart phone integration | |
| Enhanced Mac integration | |
| Live migration of individual sessions | |
| Diff tool for Microsoft and Citrix patch levels on all servers | |
| Integration with third party app virtualization solutions (MAV or SVS) | |
| Greatly enhanced scalability | |
| Security Analysis and Lockdown Tool | |
| Pool of Pre-Launched Sessions for Faster Launching | |
| Management through an Active Directory OU | |
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UPDATE:Two Additional Choices offered based on comments.
If there is a lot of interest in this poll, I will post follow ups on the features requested and similar polls for other products. My goal here is to get unfiltered feedback from you about what you want to see in the product and how we can improve the product to solve the problems you face.
UPDATE:The response to date on this poll has been excellent. Votes are still coming into the poll. I have sent a screen shot of the results to date to a member fo the XenApp team to ensure the product team is aware of these requests. I am working to get some members of that team to discuss of these requests and the comments posted here.
If you are interested in running ICA client on Linux, I've created two short videos showing the step by step instructions. Unlike windows ICA client, installing Linux version of ICA client requires more steps although it is relatively straight forward after you watch the video I hope. I used Ubuntu Linux as an example. Other Linux distributions may work slightly differently.
How to install ICA client
Citrix PowerSmart Utility is created to help XenApp users conserve energy. To learn more about this project, please visit the project site.
To try out the utility however requires access to physical servers with certain capabilities, such as HP ILO2 support for example. I understand not everyone has easy access to these machines. To make it easier for people to understand the utility, I created a short demo video. The video shows how to configure this utility and see it in action.
Are you interested in running Autodesk products on Citrix XenApp (previously known as Presentation Server)? If you do, please read on.
Citrix and Autodesk have been working together to make sure our products can work well together. It's exciting to work in this project because both Autodesk and Citrix users can really benefit from such efforts.
AutoCAD Map3D 2009 is now Citrix-ready for XenApp. It is the first fruit of this effort. And if successful, you can expect more Autodesk products to become Citrix Ready. If you like the direction we are going, I'd appreciate your help by giving us feedbacks.
The joint site is at http://www.citrixandautodesk.com/. You can find useful information such as installation guide, FAQ, sales contact etc.
There are some post-installation changes you will need to make after installing Map 3D on XenApp. To make it easier, I wrote a script to automate such steps. The up to date script can be found here.
I created a short video demo of map 3D running on XenApp.
One of the most common questions I here from customers is "Does this app work on Citrix?". One of the goals of the Citrix Ready program is to help our customers and ISV alliance partners answer this question.
So how does an ISV answer this question when they are doing a sale into a customer? A lot of ISVs do not have access to a XenApp or CAE environment to really answer this question. Even if they did, they may not have any expertise to setup/configure XenApp or CAE to do testing.
To help this scenario, we have been working on the creation of MyCitrixLab. An online lab environment available to Citrix Alliance ISV Partners to Citrix Ready verify their application in both XenApp/CPS and CAE environment.
MyCitrixLab is currently in Beta testing with a few soon to be Citrix Ready ISV Alliance partners and is planned to go live by Synergy 2008. If you're an ISV and have interest in use of MyCitrixLab to help get your application Citrix Ready verified, please send an email to CitrixReady@citrix.com. Or feel free to look me up at Synergy in the Geek Speak Lounge at Synergy where we can give you a early look.
So what is MyCitrixLab:
- An online lab environment accessible via the internet that meets the configuration requirements specified in the Citrix Ready Verification Test Kits.
- Lab scheduling environment that allows an ISV alliance partner to schedule a 3 or 7 day lab environment for use with Citrix Ready Verification.
- SharePoint portal that contains additional information on use of the lab and helpful lab guides.
- FAQ - additional information on the use of the lab
- Verification Assist Guides that provide "extra details" on the use of the lab for a specific Citrix Ready Verification Kit. Step by step screen shots walk an ISV partner through each required step to complete the tests in a test kit if they are not familiar with a Citrix environment.
- Administrator guides for products
- Links to the Citrix Ready Verification Test Kits
- Discussion site that lab users can leave tips and tricks on use of the lab for other users.
- Lab Environment
- All of the actual lab servers/workstations area running on XenServer
- Citrix Presentation Server/XenApp preconfigured lab environments
- Lab environments uses of CPS 4.0 or 4.5 both 32bit and 64bit labs
- CPS servers in a farm preconfigured
- 2 client systems preconfigured for use with the CPS farm (1 XP and 1 Vista)
- 1 Domain controller for the isolated lab environment
- 1 SQL servers to use with apps the require a SQL database
- Citrix Access Essentials preconfigured lab environments
- Lab environments uses CAE 2.0
- 1 CAE server preconfigured
- 2 client systems preconfigured for use with the CPS farm (1 XP and 1 Vista)
- 1 Domain controller for the isolated lab environment
- 1 SQL servers to use with apps the require a SQL database
Note that this lab environment is reserved for use by Citrix Alliance ISV Partners solely for the intent of Citrix Ready verification of their product, so they can help properly answer the above questions "Yes, my app is Citrix Ready for XenApp and CAE!".
The current architecture of MyCitrixLab limits it use in most cases to ISV partners, being it is secured and isolated in such a way that no direct inbound ICA connections can be made from the internet, as well as being securely isolated from other labs being hosted in the environment. This level of isolation today prevents device and other IHV vendors from using the lab. Only the XP and Vista clients in the isolated lab environment have access to the CPS or CAE server's via ICA.
Some screen shots of MyCitrixLab below:
Pic 1: Logon/Sign Up page
Pic 2: WI Server page with scheduler shown
Pic 3: CPS lab server
Pic 4: Vista lab client system
Pic 5: MyCitrixLab SharePoint Portal
Satori Group uses XenServer, XenApp or Citrix Access Essentials to simplify and streamline delivery of their solution to their customers using Citrix virtualization technologies. Nice implementation of the VADA concept.
"Working closely with Citrix and Microsoft, Satori Group developed a virtual appliance for delivering a complete application solution to customers. Virtual appliances are preinstalled, pre-configured, ready-to-run enterprise applications packaged with an operating system inside a virtual machine. In contrast, a virtual machine, by itself, does not include applications."
Full release: Satori Group Partners with Citrix to Create Virtual Appliances for Turnkey Application Delivery
Our search for the Nirvana Device has led me to Las Vegas and CTIA 2008. Citrix has been working with a number of partners around the concept of the Nirvana Device, and a lot of them are here this week. The plan is to try and get as many demo devices that I can and report my findings in my blog as related to their use from my hotel room at the show. So let's start off with my current baseline config of my remote office in my hotel room in Vegas.
Device: OQO, maker of the Model 2 UMPC (www.oqo.com), and a Citrix Alliance partner. You may have seen them at iForum or Citrix Summit over the last year.
I've actually been using OQO Model 2 as my primary device over a year now, and UMPCs such as the Model 2 used with Citrix App Delivery work great. In the FTL office, I dock the Model 2 and the doc has 2 VGA outputs, so I run a dual monitor setup and drive a 21" and 19" monitor from my desk. I also have a doc at home connected to my home office monitor via a KVM switch. So when working from home, I simply KVM from my home PC and use the same device that I use from work. At the CTIA show, I'm docked and connected to the Philips flatscreen TV in my hotel room. Of course, the form factor of the Model 2 is also great when attending meetings at the office, or working from home on the couch (note: I'm over 40 and have no problem seeing text on the OQO's native screen, but some will have issues clearly seeing text on a device this small, reading glasses may be required by some J). The Model 2 I have has built in EVDO Rev A from Verizon, which works great when on the road or at home (using it from my hotel room as I type this entry). I can see this type of devices being used by others like myself that just prefer a small form factor UMPC, as well as some good tactical usages with Citrix customers, where a standard sized laptop is just to big. Some pics of the baseline remote office setup below:
As you can see, several of the Nirvana Device concepts that Chris Fleck mentioned in his original post (Original Nirvana Device Post) are already in play. Being the Model 2 is a UMPC and not a smart phone, I'm cheating a little, but:
- I am docked and using the hotel's flat screen TV as a larger monitor
- I am using an external Bluetooth mouse and keyboard
- I am using a WWAN connection for my network
- I am using Citrix App Delivery to do my work
While I don't plan on giving up my OQO any time soon, I am going to see what I can find at the show that I could use in the same basic configuration that I'm using the OQO in.
Off to my 2nd meeting of the day, and hopefully will return tonight with some more Nirvana Device candidates to try out.
Most of us know or have heard about Virtual Appliances. Mostly single purpose virtual machines usually running on some variant of Linux today. So why is this beneficial?
- Ease of installation - import the VM and start it up
- Preconfigured - maybe not fully preconfigured, but much more than having a stack of OS and product CDs and bare metal to start with
- Reduced maintenance costs - starting with a preinstalled and mostly configured solution tends to reduce the number of errors associated with the install and configuration when done from scratch
So why not a Virtual Application Delivery Appliance (VADA)? A preinstalled and mostly configured XenApp or CAE server that already has a targeted application published in the virtual machine. A virtual machine that I get from my ISV that I start on my XenServer server. Web Interface and PNAgent are already setup with defaults. I add my users to the published application and start delivering the app. Kind of a normal virtual appliance, but on digital steroids to enhance performance.
This is already starting to happen! Our Platform Development Group at Citrix has been increasingly having discussions with ISV alliance partners to do just what is explained above. Some are doing it; others are looking at the feasibility of doing it with their solution. They have an application, or multi-component software solution that they want to, or are required to deliver via Citrix Application Delivery, and they want to simplify the process for both the customer and themselves as much as possible. Maybe the deployment of the solution is a standalone environment and not to be part of a bigger farm. Maybe there are reasons that their solution should run on dedicated server(s) and they simply join an existing farm. In either case, by deploying their solution as a VADA (I'll let marketing guys change this acronym later), they can greatly reduce their installation/deployment cycle, and spend more time on training the customer on use of the solution, thus increasing customer satisfaction (VADA Bing VADA Boom!). Post-installation maintenance should also be lower, being a large percentage of the OS and application installation has been automated by creation of the tested baseline virtual machine image which already contains the OS, XenApp and the published application, all following best practices established in the ISVs controlled lab environment.
So why not just jump on this band wagon today? As always there's a few "gotchas".
- Licensing - while a bit easier on the Linux side, what we are discussing here is Microsoft Servers and Citrix Application Delivery products. Usually ISVs do not have access to distribute licenses for either of these.
- Server Virtualization Platform - So which platform does the ISV support (XenServer, VMWare, HyperV). I think you can see some of the benefits of having a standard virtual machine image format, and why it's good that 2 of the 3 vendors listed are working towards such a standard.
- Please add your "gotchas" below.
Intent of this thread is not to indicate the right or wrong way to approach the above scenario, but to get your feedback and ideas on the concept. I find this concept very intriguing. So give us and the other readers of this blog your input below. Respond with your "gotchas" or respond to others "gotchas" on how they should be resolved. I'll be sure to send a link to this post to our interested ISV partners, so they get the input.
I kicked it off, help me finish it!
References:
Satori Group VADA blog post
Citrix has partnered with Nokia on ICA clients for their Symbian devices for years. I recently did an interview with the Nokia team on use of the Citrix ICA client for Series 60 3rd Edition devices such as E61, E70 and E90 devices for their Nokia Forum Pro. These ICA clients can be downloaded from http://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?dID=2755&downloadID=165587&pID=186.
Snippet from the interview below:
Helping enterprise IT departments
The Citrix XenApp Client for S60 3rd Edition devices offers some very clear benefits to IT departments as well, Marano adds. "From an IT perspective, the flexibility of mobile devices can be scary," he says. "How do you encourage people to use them, but also make sure that they are used properly and securely? With this solution, the same infrastructure being used today for external laptops and desktops can be used to deliver applications to the Series 60 3rd Edition devices. Minimizing the number of technologies used to deliver business-critical data to end users regardless of device type, by standardizing on a single platform, is a key factor to consider."
The interview gives a good overview of use Nokia S60 devices, but also provides a pretty good overview on the use of mobile devices as a whole with XenApp.
The full PDF interview can be found at: http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Developers/Success_Stories/Enterprise_&_productivity/Dev_succ_Citrix_SC_v1.0.pdf
My first blog on Mobile Devices and The App Delivery Center seemed to get enough hits that I thought I would follow up with a video demo to give a better view of XenApp applications actually being delivered to a mobile device. Also felt that it would be good to describe the setup used to create the video, so details follow below. The demo was intended to show a "real world" use case that a lot of us have been through. The script for the video is that your boss sends you an email asking you to perform a number of tasks in preparation for an upcoming meeting:
- update a Word document
- update an Excel spreadsheet
- verify a CAD document is up to date
- join a GoToMeeting
All of these tasks are performed in the below video. Details on the setup:
- A real ATT 8525 device with the 10.0 WinMo ICA client was used to connect to a XenApp 4.5 server
- The server is hosted on the internet, outside of the Citrix network.
- The Web Interface changes referred to in my Mobile Devices and The App Delivery Center blog post are in use on this demo server, thus you get the better app sizing described in the aforementioned post (http://support.citrix.com/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=136&threadID=91629&tstart=0).
- Soti Pocket Controller was used to display the screen of the 8525 on my laptop
- When connected to Soti, an active sync connection is used, which actually provides the network connection for the 8525. So the native 3G data connection of the 8525 was not used, BUT.
- I used the EVDO Rev A connection on my laptop to connect to the internet, so even though the device has ATT 3G connection, a Verizon EVDO Rev A connection was actually used in this case, thus a WWAN connection is being used.
- Camtasia was used to capture the Soti output on my laptop
So now that you know the gory setup to get this capture, the video is below. Hope this give a better picture of use of the Citrix Mobile ICA clients.
Obviously some clarity of the video was lost during conversion and upload to YouTube. But I thing you'll get the idea!
After I found the XenDesktop Caveman video, I came across this video. Again, I am not sure who made this, thought since it says "Access TV" I am assuming it was some employees in Europe. It is worth a chuckle or two.
In case you are interested, here is a link to BitBurger.