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.

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.