Hey did you hear, XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 released and boy does it pack some punch! Two features especially stick out for me...

• VM hosted apps - enables customers to host and deliver applications from centralized virtual machines running desktop operating systems for the fastest rollout of apps and 100% app compatibility.
• Power and capacity management - introduces policy-based server workload management and maintenance enabling IT to instantly optimize server farm performance and reduce power consumption.

Now, take these features and couple them with the power of Provisioning Services! If you have not tried to leverage Provisioning Services with your XenApp infrastructure, you are truly missing out! Imagine being able to stream one application workload (OS and applications) to one, ten, one hundred or more XenApp servers whether physical or virtual. Yes, ONE APPLICATION WORKLOAD! The best part, you can manage these application workloads centrally from one console. Take this logic and couple it with Power and capacity management and now you have a truly dynamic XenApp farm! No more over provisioning farms and no more overkill with hardware! You can now provisioning XenApp farms with ease based on capacity enabling huge cost savings in the datacenter. Application workloads when you need them!

Recently, Provisioning Services 5.1 Service Pack 1 was released and we made some improvements to enhance XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2. Provisioning Services 5.1 Service Pack 1 will support VM hosted apps and enable you to stream one application workload to one, ten, one hundred or more virtual machines. Image that! This feature will now be part of XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Enterprise and Platinum. This will make your VM hosted apps a breeze to implement and drastically reduce the management overhead!

Provisioning Services 5.1 Service Pack 1 also introduced some minor licenses changes to accommodate the VM hosted apps feature but also simplified the way you leverage Provisioning Services with XenApp. No more need to download a license key and license file for Provisioning Services. Now, just download your XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Enterprise or Platinum license and Provisioning Services will just work! Here is what enabled when leveraging Provisioning Services with XenApp:

• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Enterprise: unlimited streaming of VM hosted apps virtual machine application workloads.
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Platinum: unlimited streaming of VM hosted apps virtual machine application workloads and unlimited streaming of physical or virtual XenApp servers.

Provisioning Services comes packed with great features as well! Check it out:

• Offline database support: Provisioning Services hosts continue operation even in the event of a Provisioning Services database failure or outage.
• Server maintenance mode: Place a Provisioning Services host into "maintenance mode" to automatically move streaming sessions to other Provisioning Services hosts in the farm.
• Offline vDisk maintenance: Boot Provisioning services VHD images directly in XenServer or Hyper-V for "offline" maintenance without the need for a streamed device.
• Multiple partition vDisks: Image systems that have multiple physical/logical drives into a single vDisk.
• Standard image NIC teaming: Enables teaming of NICs on provisioned systems using Intel or Broadcom based NIC teaming drivers.
• Auditing and enhanced logging: Provides enhanced ability to monitor system and administrator activity.

If you have been using Provisioning Services, thanks! If you have not... what are you waiting for, this is a must have feature for every XenApp farm! Time to optimize and streamline your farm leveraging the most powerful XenApp to date, XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2!

Learn more about Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2

• Official Press Release - http://citrix.com/English/NE/news/news.asp?newsID=1857726
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 release Web Site - http://citrix.com/xenapp/featurepack2
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Executive Video - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/video
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Release Webinar - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/techtalk
• XenApp Expert Series videos for this release - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/expertseries
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Blogs- http://community.citrix.com/blogs/tag/xa5fp2
• Download XenApp technology previews - http://citrix.com/xenapp/techpreviews
• XenApp Product Page - http://citrix.com/xenapp/

Follow XenApp on | | |

Best Practices for Deploying and Managing Hyper-V Infrastructure

Date: Thursday, August 27, 2009
Time: 2:00 PM Eastern; 11:00 AM Pacific

Join Microsoft and Citrix as they explore best practices for deploying and managing Hyper-V. Learn how to rapidly provision Hyper-V infrastructure, reduce your Hyper-V storage footprint by over 50%, increase I/O performance by up to 30%, and much more.

Discover how Microsoft System Center together with Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V helps you effectively manage and automate the delivery of virtual and physical infrastructure for your Hyper-V deployments, including how the solutions:

• Rapidly provision virtual and physical infrastructure
• Improve storage utilization with the seamless storage integration
• Conquer VM sprawl and take back control of virtual labs
• Maximize performance and resource utilization

REGISTER NOW.

About the Presenters:

Gordon Mangione; VP, Emerging Virtualization Products; Citrix Systems, Inc.
Gordon Mangione leads the Advanced Products group at Citrix, where he is specifically focused on building products for the Microsoft platform. Previously, Mr. Mangione was responsible for product operations with a focus on engineering, support and services at XenSource before its acquisition by Citrix. Prior to that, Mr. Mangione held several VP roles at Microsoft, where he was responsible for Exchange, SQL Server and incubating the security business.

Dai Vu; Director, Virtualization Solutions Marketing; Microsoft Corporation
Dai Vu leads the team responsible for Hyper-V product marketing and marketing solutions built on Microsoft virtualization products and technologies. His team works closely with solution partners to define, develop, and market joint solutions to drive horizontal and business solution scenarios enabled by virtualization technologies. Previously, Dai was responsible for mid-market/channel strategic initiatives on the Server and Tools Strategy and Planning Team. Prior to Microsoft, Dai was Program Director at IBM and Engagement Manager at McKinsey and Company.

REGISTER NOW

If you're thinking about implementing Provisioning Services (even if you haven't had a chance to look at the new features yet), investing one hour in this TechTalk will save you that much and more during implementation. This TechTalk will help you to understand how simple it is to implement Provisioning Services and in particular how the new features can make your job easier.

Topics below are the basis for an upcoming TechTalk:
• How are the partitions resized when you build a vDisk with multiple physical/logical drives?
• How does the Offline Database Support work? What features would be enabled in case I can't connect to the Provisioning Services database?
• How can I take advantage of the User Assigned Virtual Disks? Does it work with all vDisk modes?
• How do I configure a LUN to be accessed by multiple PVS Servers without using a network share?
• How can I benefit from the Enhanced Logging to verify what is going on behind the scenes and troubleshoot my environment?

Register now for this TechTalk on Thursday, August 27th at 1PM Eastern standard time.

Elisabeth Teixeira - Principal Engineer - Worldwide Technical Readiness

You can follow me at http://twitter.com/lizteixeira
You can read my blogs at http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/elisabetht

Okay, I'm the first to admit it's been quite a while since I updated my Facebook status, so I never thought I'd say this ... but I'm tweeting. And yes, I said "tweet"...it only took me about a week to stop saying "twit".

But the good news is that there's a lot to talk say about our relationship with SAP and I'm not doing this alone. Joining me will be the rest of the Citrix/SAP alliance team and together we'll be updating our fellow followers on the latest and greatest happenings within the relationship.

There's some really exciting stuff coming down the road...don't you want to be one of the first to hear (or read) about it? 

Come on! Get in with the in crowd. Follow us on Twitter! 

Also, don't forget to check out the Citrix Community page for SAP. On this page we've consolidated all related blogs, news, videos, etc... from Citrix, SAP and third-party sites in our feeds section to provide a one-stop-shop for all things on the alliance.

We want to know how you're using Oracle in your Citrix environments. Let us know in the Community Verified area within the Citrix Community page for Oracle.

It's easy to use and takes only seconds of your time. On the right side of this page you'll see the following section:

All you have to do is select the "Vote" button next to the response that most closely represents your Citrix experience. From there you'll see a listing of all of the Oracle apps other community members have posted...paving the way for you to add your input...or if you can't find the app you're looking for, take the road less travelled and submit a new product! Simply identify the Oracle application and Citrix product and you're done!

You should be finished in less than a minute and in the end you'll have shared your experiences with the rest of the Citrix Community. Your input and implementation validation may help other members take a step in the right direction by selecting Citrix solutions to work alongside Oracle apps. Not bad for a minute's work, right?

So what are you waiting for? Enquiring minds want to know. Visit the Citrix Community page for Oracle and share your compatibility knowledge.

...and one more thing, don't forget to follow us on Twitter!

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!

After going through the Direct VHD Boot process for HyperV which was a feature of PVS 5.1 the next question that came up was "Does it work with Xenserver?" and the answer that came back was "It technically should work but it is not officially supported yet." So we decided to do the next logical thing and give it a try.
( "New way to upgrade with PVS 5.1 and HyperV"
http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/trevorm/2009/07/28/New+Way+to+Upgrade+with+PVS+5.1+and+HyperV )
The process works similar to HyperV but there are a few details to consider before using this feature with Xenserver.
First the XS storage repository being used needs to support VHD so that would include a NFS share or EXT2/3(Local SR, SAN, or ISCSI) SR partitions not LVM.

We will need the following items to get started:
-PVS 5.1 Server
-Xenserver 5.5 with a EXT or NFS Storage Repository
-Windows 7 RC PVS VHD image captured from a PC(in my case a wyse Rx0)
-SCP ssh client utility

1. First we will start by copying our win7 VHD file using SCP ssh utility from our PVS store to the Xenserver storage repository. In our case is a Local SR formatted with EXT3.

2. In XenCenter create a new VM from a template(vista or 2008) and make sure to choose the correct SR for the disk which is EXT or NFS. Uncheck the box to start automatically.

3. Rename the PVS VHD file we copied over with the same name as the one which was created by our VM. We can do this at the xenserver host console or in my case the SCP ssh utility console.
We should see a new VHD disk created for our new VM and the VHD we copied from the PVS server. For my SR the path is /var/run/sr-mount/"new uuid".vhd

4. Power on the virtual Machine. Windows 7 will boot up and start installing the default drivers for xenserver using plug n play. It will not find the new scsi device driver but you can ignore for now. Then when prompted to reboot choose to manually reboot later.

5. Before rebooting go to the command prompt and run bcdedit /set loadoptions "PV|=2000" to modify boot.ini and then reboot.

6. Uninstall PVS client from add remove programs then reboot.

7. Install the Xenserver 5.5. Tools and then reboot. It will finish adding the drivers at next boot up so I rebooted a second time. (may not be necessary)

8. Install the PVS 5.1 client but before rebooting (very important) You will be prompted to choose which NICs you want PVS to bind to. Choose all inactive and active nics. If you using a XP or 2003 image you might need to manually start "c:\program files\citrix\provisioning services\bindcfg.exe"

9. Next go to the command prompt and run bcdedit /deletevalue loadoptions then Shutdown.

10. Now we copy our updated VHD back to PVS.

11. Rename our VHD file to the appropriate name and then add back into the PVS console.

12. You now have a updated PVS VHD file which can be streamed to a physical server/PC, Xenserver host VM,
or directly booted in Xenserver.

**Eventhough this process seemed to work fine it is not yet officially supported and testing has been limited.
**To save time in updating pvs client or NIC software you could use NFS which will provide you the ability to present the NFS SR to the PVS server and Xenserver. Doing this would allow you to skip the steps of copying the VHD to and from the Xenserver SR.
**The use of Xenconvert as a method to move the VHD to and from the Xenserver in this process could be a great option but we are still testing that out for this process.

When Citrix XenDesktop is brought up in conversation, it is most often in reference to being deployed with a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution. But XenDesktop is not limited to delivering only virtual desktops - XenDesktop delivers an exceptional user experience with physical desktops just as well. In fact, organizations still utilize physical desktops instead of virtual desktops for niche roles, such as for dedicated, resource-intensive applications like computer-aided design (CAD) and financial trading. Blade PC hardware is often chosen for its benefits in satisfying security requirements, providing desktop hardware consolidation and in serving as a dedicated, high-performance machine. As we discuss in this post, XenDesktop is a perfect pairing for a Blade PC environment and our design considerations whitepaper provides information to IT professionals seeking a smooth deployment.

In this XenDesktop on Blade PCs Design Considerations whitepaper, we provide our experiences from implementing XenDesktop on HP Blade PC hardware within the Worldwide Consulting Solutions lab at Citrix headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale. Within the document, you will find topics such as: 

• The direct applicability of key components of XenDesktop Platinum to Blade PCs, including XenApp, Provisioning Services and EdgeSight for EndPoints.
• A high-level architecture describing the Provisioning Services streaming process to Blade PCs and user access to the XenDesktop environment.
• Setup considerations and configuration information for implementing each XenDesktop component, including the Desktop Delivery Controller, the various Citrix desktop clients, Provisioning Services vDisk creation, management of a Blade PC environment, and more.
• Other in-depth, technical tips for administrators setting up and working with XenDesktop on a Blade PC environment.

Citrix XenDesktop already comes with Blade PCs from vendors. Try out additional XenDesktop features on your Blade PCs and experience the clear benefits for your organization.

Provisioning Services High Availability Considerations - Part 4

In the previous Provisioning Services High Availability Considerations blog, I spoke about placing your vDisks on a Network Attached Storage (NAS). Now I will talk about placing your vDisks on a Storage Area Network (SAN).

Placing your vDisks on a Storage Area Network (SAN) - iSCSI

Using a SAN to store the vDisks and access it by means of the iSCSI protocol provides a reliable way with good performance at a moderate cost to purchase, implement and maintain. This solution will provide highest levels of reliability.

What should we consider with this solution?

• Requires software to manage the storage array.
• iSCSI Initiator and MultiPath software must be installed and configured on each PVS; iSCSI Target software must be installed and configured on the File Server(s).
• A Cluster or Parallel File System is required to ensure the integrity of the partition/LUN containing the vDisks.
• I/O for vDisk input (loading from the share) and vDisk output (delivering to the Targed Devices) is handled by the same network link.

What are the recommendations?

• NIC - teaming should be used to increase the reliability and the I/O between the Provisioning Servers, File Server and Target Devices.

Dedicated NIC - teams should be used for loading the vDisks and for delivering the vDisks to the Target Devices.

Placing your vDisks on a Storage Area Network (SAN) - Fibre Channel

Using a SAN to store the vDisks and access it by means of Fibre Channel provides a very reliable way with the highest levels of performance and reliability at highest cost. This solution will provide high degree of scalability to support increasing number of Target Devices.

What should we consider with this solution?

• Additional Hardware (HBAs) required for every Provisioning Server.
• Requires software to manage the storage array.
• A Cluster or Parallel File System is required to ensure the integrity of the partition/LUN containing the vDisks.

What are the recommendations?  NIC - teaming should be used to increase the reliability and to I/O between the PVS Servers and the Target Devices.

Normally using a SAN for vDisk storage with Provisioning Services requires that a shared file system be placed in front of the SAN to coordinate multiple server access to the NTFS formatted LUN(s).  Using Provisioning Services 5.1 you can use a SAN without a shared file system in some instances (you can have "read-only" vDisk storage). The desired boot modes for PVS target devices are important when using this feature since Provisioning Services only allows read-only shared access to the SAN LUN(s). Let's see what are the main considerations when using this new feature:

• You need to install Microsoft iSCSI initiator on all PVS servers that access the SAN.
• It is only for Standard Image mode, Private Image mode is not supported.
• If cache is located on server disk, a separate shared storage location that has read-write access is needed for write cache files.

I encourage you to attend this TechTalk session called:  "Simplifying Implementation of Provisioning Services"

Hope to see you there on Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 1:00PM eastern time.

Elisabeth Teixeira - Principal Engineer - Worldwide Technical Readiness
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lizteixeira
Follow me in the Blogs: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/elisabetht

If you have been using provisioning services for any amount of time you have come to realize the benefits of how easy and quick it can be to update a OS image compared to the old school methods. In the past the exception to this would be if you needed to update the PVS client software, nic driver, or some applications that use network filter drivers you would have to "reverse image" your vdisk back to a local hard drive uninstall the pvs client software, install new pvs client software, reboot and then recapture the entire vdisk. For someone with only one vdisk this was not that big of a deal but for those that had 50+ different vdisk this was a major job. In the release of PVS 5.1 we now have a new feature to address these type of vdisk updates "Direct VHD Boot". This feature allows you to take the PVS VHD files and boot them up directly with in Microsoft's 2008 HyperV manager and update your pvs client software or nic drivers without having go through the above mentioned process.
This feature also allows you to maintain a common image between a physical target device and a HyperV VM you might want to stream to for a Xendesktop environment ... so one VHD image for both physical and virtual(streamed and hosted).

Below I will take you through the process of using this new feature.
1. For this example I have taken a windows7 pvs image which I created for a Wyse Rx0 series thinclient ( see below)

2. If you don't already have one go ahead a setup a 2008 server with HyperV enabled. Make sure you have plenty of space.
3. Copy the pvs image over to your HyperV server. You need both the vhd and pvp files.

4. Open HyperV Manager or SVMM on your 2008 server and create a new Virtual Machine.

5. Do not create a virtual hard disk. Select "Use an existing virtual hard disk" as seen below and browse to the location where you copied the VHD and PVP file.

6. Uncheck the box below that says "start the virtual machine after it is created.

7. Under your VM settings for your newly created VM Remove the current network adapter.

8. Add a legacy network adapter.

9. Assign the legacy adapter to the physical adapter on the host. In my case it is "external"

10. Start the new Virtual Machine.

11. Let the system install the new drivers and reboot

12. Uninstall PVS target device software and then reboot

13. Install Hyper-V's Integration services

14. Install Provisioning Services target device software.

15. If you do not get prompted to choose the NIC to Bind to as seen below. You will need to go to the pvs program files directory and run bindcfg.exe manually to get this menu.

16. Shutdown VM
17. Set it to boot to legacy NIC first

18. Now rename and Copy the modified VHD image back to the PVS server vdisk directory.

19. Add updated vhd as a existing vdisk

20. We now assign the new updated vdisk(vhd) to our Physical Client or Virtual Client(hyperv) In this case I am using a wyse Rseries thinclient to stream the windows7 image locally.

21. Set your vdisk to Standard Image Mode if not already.

22. You now should be able to boot your physical device(pxe/iso) and boot up the update vdisk(vhd)

23. Here is a Pic of the Wyse Rx0(no flash drive) booting from the win7 vdisk(vhd). This is booting over the wireless network via a Asus330g bridge. Not something we usually recommend for production but a pretty cool demo.

***If you are going to be upgrading from a 4.x version of PVS you will also need to run VHDConverter.exe against your vdisk to convert to the new VHD vdisk format.

In this section of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve takes you through how to create Hyper-V virtual machines from storage templates.

In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In Part 2, Steve reviewed the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed. In Part 3 of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve covers connecting to Storage Systems via the StorageLink Manager console. In Part 4, he covers how to create storage repositories (SRs) with the StorageLink console.

Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress

StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar

StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv

StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V

Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials

Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management

StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791

Follow me on Twitter.

Within this one page you'll have all information on the Citrix and Intel relationship available at your fingertips...or mouse click so to speak.  

Interested in learning about Citrix's latest activities with Intel? We know your time is valuable and that's why we've consolidated all related news, blogs, articles, videos, etc... into the feeds section of this page. We've also created an area that highlights all related forum threads and postings. Look for answers to your burning questions, participate in an existing discussion, or post a new thread. Epitomizing the true nature of community... this page is here for you!  

Did you know that Citrix and Intel are working together to jointly develop a bare-metal Type-1 client hypervisor? Learn about and stay up to date on our joint collaboration of Citrix XenClient. View demos, read blogs and let us know what you think about this upcoming solution.

But it doesn't stop there! Get information and results on our joint product validation, benchmarking and scalability tests. You can even let us know how you're working with Citrix and Intel solutions together in our Community Verified area.

You're only one click away from all things Citrix and Intel. Stop by the Citrix Community page for Intel and check back often! And don't forget to follow us on Twitter!

To finish off with another Damone line, "isn't this great?"

In this installment of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve Umbehocker covers how to create storage repositories (SRs) with the StorageLink console.

In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In Part 2, Steve reviewed the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed. In Part 3 of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve Umbehocker covers connecting to Storage Systems via the StorageLink Manager console.

Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress

StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar

StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv

StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V

Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials

Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management

StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791

Follow me on Twitter.

In this installment of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve Umbehocker covers connecting to Storage Systems via the StorageLink Manager console.

In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In Part 2, Steve reviewed the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed.

Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress

StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar

StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv

StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V

Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials

Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management

StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791

Follow me on Twitter.

In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In this next installment, Steve reviews the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed.

The Enterprise Edition includes the full version of StorageLink, Dynamic Provisioning Services for Server Operating Systems, and complete WorkFlow Orchestration.

The Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V adds in Lab Manager to provide a complete cost effective virtual lab solution, and Stage Manager to automate the process of migrating newly tested and verified configurations from the virtual lab directly into production. You can download a evaluation copy of the Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V at http://www.citrix.com/ehv.

Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress

StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar

StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv

StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V

Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials

Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management

StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791

Follow me on Twitter.

StorageLink is one of the components of the new Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V product.

Steve Umbehocker of the StorageLink Development team recently recorded a series of videos that guide you step by step through installing and configuring StorageLink. The first video, Installing StorageLink, is below.

The Enterprise Edition includes the full version of StorageLink, Dynamic Provisioning Services for Server Operating Systems, and complete WorkFlow Orchestration.

The Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V adds in Lab Manager to provide a complete cost effective virtual lab solution, and Stage Manager to automate the process of migrating newly tested and verified configurations from the virtual lab directly into production. You can download a evaluation copy of the Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V at http://www.citrix.com/ehv.

Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress

StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar

StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv

StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V

Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials

Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management

StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791

Follow me on Twitter.

I'm pleased to announce that we have just released a new version of the Brief Troubleshooting Guide (BTG) via the Knowledge Center.
http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx106727

For those of you unaware, the Brief Troubleshooting Guide is intended as the first resource for Citrix Administrators/Engineers to troubleshooting technical issues for all Citrix products/technologies. The BTG gives guidance on where to start if a Citrix Administrator/Engineer is not very familiar with the product. The BTG is not in any way supposed to be comprehensive, but will help you gather the right information quickly, allowing YOU and Citrix Technical Support to resolve your issue promptly.

This release of the BTG is Bigger, Better and Bursting with new ways to help you troubleshoot all Citrix products.
All sections of the BTG were completely overhauled and lots of new products were added, for example:

• Citrix Offline App Plug-in
• Citrix Receiver for Windows
• Citrix XenServer
• Citrix Repeater Client
• Command Center
• EdgeSight for NetScaler
• EdgeSight for Load Testing
• Citrix User Profile Manager
• Citrix EasyCall
• Provisioning Services for Datacenters and Desktops
• Workflow Studio

Please download the latest BTG from http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx106727
For feedback, suggestions, corrections - BTG@citrix.com

David
Twitter: citrixreadiness

There is a new Express Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V, and it is FREE! Now you can quickly and easily combine the power of Hyper-V- System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Essentials for Hyper-V Express Edition.

http://citrix.com/ehvexpress

Of course, Express Edition provides just a small sampling of what is possible to achieve with Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. The Enterprise Edition includes the full version of StorageLink, Dynamic Provisioning Services for Server Operating Systems, and complete WorkFlow Orchestration.

The Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V adds in Lab Manager to provide a complete cost effective virtual lab solution, and Stage Manager to automate the process of migrating newly tested and verified configurations from the virtual lab directly into production. You can download a evaluation copy of the Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V at http://www.citrix.com/ehv.

Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress

StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar

StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv

StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V

Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials

Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management

StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791

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Provisioning Services High Availability Considerations - Part 3

In the previous Provisioning Services High Availability Considerations blog, I spoke about placing your vDisks on a Windows Network Share (CIFS). Now I will talk about placing your vDisks on a Network Attached Storage (NAS).

Placing your vDisks on a Network Attached Storage (NAS)

Using a single Network Attached Storage (NAS) to store the vDisks is an easy way of implementing a central vDisk store at moderate cost. This solution will enhanced reliability and give you a greater degree of scalability to support an increasing number of Target Devices.

What should we consider with this solution?

• No redundancy for NAS outages (all PVS Target Devices stop responding).
• Requires software to manage the storage array. RAID arrays must be configured on the storage array and assigned to each PVS Server.
• I/O for vDisk input (loading from the share) and vDisk output (delivering to the Targed Devices) is handled by the same network link. This affects the overall performance of the solution.

What are the recommendations?

• Network Interface Card (NIC) - Teaming should be used to increase the reliability and the I/O between PVS Servers, File Server and Target Devices.
• Where feasible dedicated NICs should be used for loading the vDisks and for delivering the vDisks to the Target Devices.
  
  
  
  Elisabeth Teixeira. Follow me on Twitter:http://twitter.com/lizteixeira

In the previous Provisioning Services High Availability Considerations blog, I spoke about placing your vDisks Local on the Provisioning Server. Now I will talk about placing your vDisks on a Windows Network Share.

Placing your vDisks on a Windows Network Share (CIFS)

Using a single Windows Network share (CIFS) to store the vDisks is a very easy way of implementing a central vDisk store at minimal cost.

What should we consider with this solution?

• There is no redundancy for file server outages (all PVS Target Devices stop responding).
• Limited scalability to support a increasing number of Target Devices.
• I/O for vDisk input (loading from the share) and vDisk output (delivering to the Targed Devices) is handled by the same network link. This affects the overall performance of the solution.

What are the recommendations?

• Network Interface Card (NIC) - Teaming should be used to increase the reliability and the I/O between PVS Servers, File Server and Target Devices.
• Where feasible dedicated NICs should be used for loading the vDisks and for delivering the vDisks to the Target Devices.
  

The following diagram outlines a basic Provisioning Services + Windows File Share (CIFS) architecture:

Elisabeth Teixeira.

Follow me on Twitter:http://twitter.com/lizteixeira