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

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.

Joe - Streaming Product Architect @ Citrix - expains what's new with Application Streaming on the next release of XenApp for Windows Server 2008.

If you think I missed something in this interview, let me know (gus.pinto@citrix.com) and I will hunt down Joe to cover more topics you guys want to know about.

cheers,
Gus Pinto

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.

Project Delaware, the next release of Citrix XenApp (the new name of Presentation Server) will bring advanced, world class Windows Application Delivery to the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 platform.

XenApp for Windows Server 2008 will continue to provide a complete application delivery system that offers both client-side and server-side application virtualization for optimal application performance and flexible delivery options.

Delaware will also bring new features and capabilities that make it the most comprehensive Application Delivery solution available.

To get in the ERP (Early Release Program) you can sign-up here:

In this interview, Willie Wright, one of the original developers of XenApp's CPU Management Technology, talks to Prasanna Padmanabhan about the history of MalooCPU, Delaware improvements as part of Preferential Load Balancing and some longer term research in the area of general resource management.

Some you may have listened to this one, but our podcasts don't support comments yet. So I thought I'd put it in here as a blog post, so that we now have a way to hear back from you. 

If you haven't already seen this, Thomas Koetzing (one of our CTPs) has reviewed the new WI 5.0 that will be shipped with Delaware. This review is from a private build we sent to the CTPs. Check the review here. For all the others who want to get the new WI, we will have a Delaware release preview in the near future.

Before I get into Delaware details, let me give you the inside scoop on the project name. For those who haven't figured it out by now, all our XenApp releases are named after rivers. Project Delaware will be the first major release to support Windows Server 2008 and we have been working on this release for almost 2 years. It has been a great journey and we know its importance. It resembles the journey that George Washington took to cross Delaware river in 1776 as part of the American Revolution. And that's why we named it project Delaware. There you go, a useless fun fact about project Delaware.

When we talk about Delaware, we mention how we are embracing and extending the Windows Server 2008 TS platform. Our first goal was to take all the great functionality we have on XenApp and move it to Windows Server 2008. And we are leveraging the new TS re-architecture (where TS has been split into Local Session Manager and Remote Connection Manager to provide better stability and reduce the security threat surface) and security enhancements like UAC and service specific SIDs. We will also be supporting XPS printing protocol, ClearType font smoothing (great for applications like Office 2007), Special Folder Redirection (when user's click on "My Documents" or "Desktop" in a published application, they can be redirected to their local device folders - pretty cool) and IPv6 support through Secure Gateway.

When it comes to extending the platform, we will have a brand new Web Interface with lots of end user usability enhancements, key application streaming enhancements, EdgeSight 5.0 and Preferential Load Balancing. In the coming months, I will go through the details of each one of these features. Except for Preferential Load Balancing and Special Folder redirection, other features should be available for Windows Server 2003 customers as well. Btw, if you haven't registered, please register to receive notifications and updates when we have our Delaware Early Release.

There's a lot of excitement around project Delaware, the first "XenApp" release for the new Windows Server 2008 platform. In this video, I talk about Preferential Load Balancing or PLB, a new feature in Delaware, that brings improvements to CPU Management and Load Balancing.