While a mandatory based profile solution was the original approach (something we leveraged in the earliest releases), we are not going to return to that method. Let me explain why and get your thoughts and opinions on this.

One request that has been commonly voiced has been around a mandatory style implementation. While previously we had leveraged a mandatory profile as the base, for many reasons we moved away from that approach. One key reason was to save time that the merging process required (the copying of the mandatory down first and then copying of all the net changes). All in the spirit of logon speed. Another key reason is that it really was not a mandatory profile anymore. Profile management captured all the net changes from that base mandatory. So no settings were enforced or re-written at next logon. Basically it was a holder of starting settings when a profile was loaded. But the net changes were always re-applied over the base so nothing was ever enforced. So in the end, you needed to leverage Group Policy to enforce any permanent settings anyway.

It's also been explained that having a mandatory approach enables customers without Group Policy delegation to have a means to control the profile settings. And mandatory by itself is a great solution albeit the limitations on the breadth of personalization - which the amount of personalization afforded by a mandatory solution is probably adequate for many scenarios. While you can redirect folders like My Documents, Favorites, Cookies and others, the ability to change anything registry related is prevented e.g. wallpapers, application configurations and such. But if you try to combine this with something like Profile management to enable those changes, how are you going to restrict what does not get saved? You would need to create an exclusion list of all the settings you want enforced (and thus excluded from being saved). Doable on a few settings but it will get unwieldy really fast. And I am willing to bet it's going to be harder than Group Policy to manage before long. In the end, it seems capturing all the settings and using Group Policy to enforce setting as required is the way to go and thus the direction for our profile management solution.

Finally, let's address the capability of having a base profile to start with. We do offer a template profile capability which you could think of as a Global Default User profile. When a user logs onto Windows and does not have an existing profile (be it local, mandatory, roaming or TS), Windows creates a new profile for that user based on the Default User profile located on that current machine. The fun of this is unless you want to sync all the Default User profiles across all the machines a user might likely log onto for the first time, the starting profile will different (although often only slightly) from user to user. Might not be a big deal initially or on smaller scales, but will be more problematic as your environment expands and grows.

The purpose of the template profile is to enable a consistence starting point for a new profile being created no matter the machine. The template profile can leverage a copy of the mandatory profile you use today but you just need to rename the NTUSER.MAN back to NTUSER.DAT (so no you can't use the same one as both the template and a mandatory). And the template profile has to be complete (e.g. the entire directory structure and NTUSER.DAT). Also keep in mind that this is used for profile creation. So changing the template is fine, but only affects new profile being created and not existing ones. Need to change or enforce a setting for all users? Then we are back to using Group Policy for those situations.

So that is where we stand today with our Profile management feature (a feature of both XenApp (Enterprise and Platinum) and XenDesktop (Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum). Of course this is always open to debate and discussion if you have scenarios that illustrate weaknesses to this approach that Citrix should pay more attention to addressing.

Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003 has a very cool feature called Secure Clipboard Control. The technical folks may know this feature as "Read-Only Client Drive Mapping and Clipboard", but the end results are the same: it further mitigates risks of data leakage.

Granting remote users CDM access is great because they can open local files with server published apps. But they also have the ability to save server documents locally thereby increasing the probability that confidential data leaks out beyond the enterprise. Some customers have tried to tackle this problem by disabling CDM and clipboard altogether, but that does not offer users flexibility - what if administrators want to only let users save documents back on the server? This is where the new Secure Clipboard Control setting can help. It is a really simple feature for administrators to configure, yet provides an added level of flexibility (users can save documents to the server, but cannot save documents to the local device) administrators didn't have before.

To enable the feature in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdm\Parameters, create a DWORD value with value name ReadOnlyMappedDrive and value data 1.

To enable one way clipboard In registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\Virtual Clipboard, create a DWORD value with value name ReadOnly and value data 1.

After rebooting the server all users that connect will only be able to read documents from their mapped drives and will only be able to copy and paste text into a published application. Data that is copied into the published application clipboard (via CTRL-C) will not show up in the client's clipboard paste buffer. Whenever the user tries to save a file to a mapped drive they will get an error saying they don't have permission to write to the location because XenApp has the drive open in read-only mode.

For now both settings are server wide so remote users will have to be confined to specific machines where the settings are enabled. You can find out more about this feature at CTX123002 and in Citrix eDocs here.

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 feature matrix by platform, version and edition - http://citrix.com/xenapp/comparativematrix
• 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/

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I was away for a couple of week, but I'm back and very excited to tell you about the HDX Plug-n-Play for USB storage device. HDX Plug-n-Play for USB storage is another HDX/High Definition eXperience feature introduced in XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2. I believe this new feature will really eliminate many headaches for XenApp administrators and end users alike. So imagine, users now have the ability to plug-in their USB thumb drive/USB stick and use it with their XenApp delivered application at any time; before launching the application or while they are in the middle of working with the application. Effectively, users now have a local-like experience when interacting with a USB stick or USB disk drive.

For those not familiar with how USB storage worked prior to Feature Pack 2, let me explain... Let's say you are working with Microsoft Powerpoint delivered to you via XenApp. A co-worker stops by, hands you a USB stick and asks for a copy of the Powerpoint. Naturally, your instinct tells you to plug in that USB stick, go to Powerpoint - File - Save As... <bzzzz - wrong!>. Prior to Feature Pack 2, users must first plug in the USB stick before starting the Powerpoint. Otherwise, XenApp would not recognize and map the thumb drive in the session. Needless to say, it's not very natural, and couldn't be any less instinctive.
Many customers & admins I talked to are raving about this new feature in XenApp! They are excited because they no longer need to "re-train" users how to use USB drives with XenApp. IT no longer have to field support calls on why they don't see the USB stick in the application. Applications delivered with XenApp become ever more transparent to the end users...and that's a great thing!

How do I enable this feature? This feature is enabled by default. So, if you have policies to not allow use of USB sticks, you'll need to disable this feature in the registry by following the instructions below or in eDocs.

On XenApp 32-bit edition
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Citrix\Policies\DisableUSBRedirection
On XenApp 64-bit edition
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Citrix\Policies\DisableUSBRedirection

Type: DWORD
Values:
1 = redirection disabled
0 = redirection enabled

Now, I also want to point out that this feature, like the HDX MediaStream for Flash is currently available on XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2003. Support on Windows Server 2008 is forth-coming and I'll be sharing more information on this site in the near future.

So, there you go... XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 makes life easier for admins and end users, again! And if you missed my first post on how XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 delivers a local-like experience with Adobe Flash content, take a look at HDX MediaStream for Flash
But wait! Tomorrow, Ola Nordstrom from our Security team will post our HDX Easter-egg feature called Secure Clipboard Control. Very cool feature for customers who require better control of information flow in an XenApp session. So, stop back tomorrow!

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 feature matrix by platform, version and edition - http://citrix.com/xenapp/comparativematrix
• 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/

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At Citrix Education, we are often asked the following question:

What is the difference between CXA-201-2I Implementing Citrix XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008 and CTX-1259BI Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 and XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2003?

The easiest answer to this is simply, the operating system. CTX-1259BI applies to XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2003 and CXA-201-2I applies to XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008. However, the more complicated answer is...a lot of smaller differences, like features.

During the development of courseware, Citrix products, including XenApp, continue to evolve and change. We manage this constant change in two primary ways:

1. We plan an update/maintenance cycle
2. We include features late in development (if they have been announced)

These two approaches, while capturing most changes, cannot reflect all changes to the product. That's why you may see a difference between what the courseware describes and what you can actually view in the live product. This, essentially, is the other fundamental difference between CXA-201 and CTX-1259. They each represent XenApp (on a different OS) at different times in XenApp evolution.

CXA-201-2I, available October 2, 2009, is the latest full course update on Citrix XenApp. It contains the most current and complete picture of XenApp on Windows Server 2008. CXA-201-1I, was the first release for the WS 2008 platform, and released in May of 2009. The features included in that course reflected XenApp 5 and nothing that has happened since...clearly, it was time for an update! Learn more about the delta between CXA-201-1I and CXA-201-2I (document also posted below).

In November 2009, we will release an update to CTX-1259BI. It will contain information including Feature Pack 2. Because it is available after the release of CXA-201-2I, it will become the course with the most current feature set of XenApp (WS 2003). Learn more about the delta between CTX-1259BI and CTX-1259CI (document also posted below).

In short, the main difference is the OS. The best choice for which class to take should be based on the OS on which you wish to learn. Or, if you are preparing for a platform migration from 2003 to 2008, we recommend CXA-201. To stay up to the minute current on new XenApp features, you can always reference the XenApp product pages.

If you have any questions or suggestions for the next release of XenApp courseware, please send them to training@citrix.com. We want to hear from you!

CXA-201 version overview

CTX-1259 version overview

The most common request we get for Power and Capacity Manager is the support for other power management APIs... With XenApp 5.0 Feature Pack 2, we only support Wake-on-LAN and XenServer API. We will extend this list in upcoming versions.

In the meanwhile, your only option is to use WMI events to trigger power-on commands to your computer management infrastructure.

I've tested the following using Powershell V2. The script has to run in the Concentrator:

Register-WmiEvent -Namespace "ROOT\Citrix\XenAppPCM" -SourceIdentifier "PowerEventAction" -Query "Select * from __InstanceModificationEvent within 10 where TargetInstance ISA 'Server' and TargetInstance.PowerActionState=4" -Action {
   $servers = Get-WMIObject -Namespace "ROOT\Citrix\XenAppPCM" -Query "Select * from Server Where PowerActionState=4"
   foreach ($s in $servers)
   {
     #Launch power action command to the server management infrastructure here
     Write-Host $("Server: " + $s.Name + " MAC: " + $s.MacAddress)
   }
}

PCM classes in WMI are registered under ROOT\Citrix\XenAppPCM namespace. The script above registers a listener that triggers when PCM changes a server "PowerActionState" attribute to 4 – this state indicates PCM needs additional capacity for a workload.

Another interesting event in PCM WMI is "NotEnoughCapacityEvent". This event triggers when all servers in the workload are on-line, but policies would require additional servers to become on-line. You could use this to trigger provisioning of additional servers in that workload.

PCM WMI classes are pretty feature rich. In fact, all console operations issue WMI operations under the covers. You can find the MOF files after installing the Concentrator, at %WINDIR%\System32\WBEM\PCMConcentrator_v2.0.50727.mof and %WINDIR%\System32\WBEM\Framework\root\Citrix\XenAppPCM\PCMConcentrator_SNVersion_1.0.2.0.mof

You may also take a look at the Powershell WMI Explorer from thepowershellguy.com (link), it's a pretty decent WMI browser using nothing but Powershell!

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/

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The launch of Windows 7 fills me with dread and excitement. The dread comes from coordinating Citrix Global Platinum sponsorship of this launch with North America Roadshows, Virtual Live Events, TechEd EMEA and local launch events. The excitement comes from the promise of Windows 7 after the relative disappointment of Vista (I must stress the word "relative"), as the performance of Windows 7 is definitely promising to live up to the hype.  

So, why would Microsoft invite Citrix to be a Global Launch Partner for an operating system launch?

Normally when you want a new OS, you just go on the web, buy a new PC, and use the CD to install the OS or, if you are like me and technologically incompetent, you get your IT Department to install it. However, the technology landscape has shifted. Now there is an alternative way to get your instant Windows 7 desktop with Citrix and Microsoft Desktop Virtualization, which delivers Windows desktops as an on-demand service to any user, on any device, anywhere.

The combination of Citrix and Microsoft gives customers the fastest way to deliver Windows 7 realizing benefits of increased efficiency and simplified IT Management. In addition Citrix HDX Technology offers up to 10X better Flash multimedia performance compared to alternative solutions, delivering a user experience that is indistinguishable from a local PC.

7 Ways to get up to speed on Citrix and Microsoft Desktop Virtualization for Windows 7

1. Check out the Citrix Desktop Virtualization Live, "Secrets, Lies and VDI" event on the 20^th October - register here

2. Attend the "Harness The Power of Virtualization" events with guest speakers from Citrix, Microsoft, Intel and HP - register here

3. Microsoft New Efficiency Virtual Live Event

4. North America Windows 7 Roadshows in 65 Cities for Technical Decision Makers and IT Professionals

5. Microsoft Tech EMEA

6. Check out your local events

7. Check out Win7 Community Central to see how the Citrix Partner Ecosystem helps deliver Windows 7 - Click here

Please join us for two webinars covering XenApp Fundamentals sales and technical topics. The new sales topic is "Extending Terminal Services with XenApp Fundamentals".  We will expand on several newly published case studies that illustrate why customers still have a need for a remote access solution that meets both their performance and security requirements.  These case studies highlight instances where customers had initially implemented Terminal Services as a stand alone solution, and why they saw a need to add XenApp Fundamentals to their application environment. 

Our technical topic will be "XenApp Fundamentals for HP Proliant Servers with Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 - Technical Overview".  This session is a technical review of the implementation options for deploying XenApp Fundamentals with Windows Small Business Server on HP Servers. We have many partners who have already implemented this solution and are pleased to have Terry Sheehy,who is an independent IT consultant, join us to share some best practices. This topic was originally presented several months ago and is being repeated due to popular demand. 

Yesterday I've posted Part 1 of this series, talking about Capacity Estimation. Today I will describe the Power Management schedule policies. PCM use these policies to determine how many servers should be powered down, how sessions will consolidate or spread among the online servers, and when to power on additional servers to handle unexpected load.

The load policies for a workload vary during the day - you need more capacity during working hours than over the weekend. PCM configurations are entered over a weekly table period. Each entry has a start time four settings described below.

You will find this configuration on the PCM console. Select any workload, and then the "Schedule" tab. Each entry configures the following policies:

Minimum session capacity (Min Capacity): specify how many sessions, connected or not, should be on-line. The minimum session capacity is probably the easiest policy to understand and define. It describes the typical session utilization of that workload over time. For example, if you expect 1000 users connected to a workload during the day, and 250 over night, you will configure Min Capacity to 1000 from 8 to 5, and 250 from 5 to 8. It's that simple.

PCM will start as many servers as needed to support the Min Capacity policy. Servers are selected randomly, although you may control the selection order using the server tiers - I will cover tiers in more details at another post.

The session capacity is the sum of the estimated capacity of each online server in that workload. See Part 1 for in-depth description of load estimation.

Min Capacity is ignored if "Power Management" is disabled for that workload.

Minimum available servers (Min Servers): specify how many servers will handle logon requests. At first glance this seems similar to Minimum session capacity, but there's more to it.
PCM works its magic by setting the IMA load index to 20,000 value, indicating to IMA load balancer that the server is not available to take additional sessions. In the PCM console, you can see each servers selection state - select a workload and the "Servers" tab. At the left side of the "Sessions" column, you will find a small icon that can be:

• Circle: Load consolidation has disabled logons on this server. The IMA load index is set to 20,000.
• Green Triangle: Load consolidation has enabled logons on this server. The IMA load index is calculated based on the Load Evaluator.
• Yellow Triangle: Load consolidation has enabled logons on this server, but the load is higher than the optimal load. The IMA load index is still calculated based on the Load Evaluator.

The Min Servers policy defines how many servers with "green triangles" you will see in that workload - servers with enabled logons and under the optimal load. In the picture, I have Min Servers set to 1. Server 1 is draining, Server 2 is accepting logons, and Server 3 is above the optimal load (of 70%).

The value of this parameter should be related to expected user logon concurrency. If you set this value too low, then a small number of servers have to process too many logon requests, increasing the average logon time. If you set Min Servers too high, then sessions will spread to too many servers.

As a rule of thumb, you should set Min Servers to a higher number just before a shift starts - say, at 7:00AM - and reduce it after the logon peak has passed.

But how should I estimate this value? Well, you may start with a conservative high number and work your way back until user logons are impacted. Edgesight is a terrific way to get this data. Another way is to calculate the expected concurrent logons per server, based on peak logon rate and the logon time. For example, if average logon time is 30 seconds, and peak logon rate is 2 users/second, you should expect 15 concurrent logons if Min Servers is set to 1 (30 seconds/logon divided by 2 users/second). If you want to limit servers to process at most 5 concurrent logons, you will need Min Servers set to 3.

Min Servers policy is ignored if you disable load consolidation in the workload.

Online session reserve (Session Reserve): specify how many sessions should be available at on-line servers. Available sessions are calculated as "Session Capacity" minus connected sessions. For example, if a server has session capacity of 100 and 30 sessions, available sessions would be estimated as 70.

PCM counts all server sessions, including console and disconnected sessions.

Session reserve is used to create a buffer of available sessions for unexpected session influx. Servers take a while to boot, therefore you need to start powering on servers before the workload is fully loaded.

When the session reserve policy is violated, PCM will start sufficient number of servers to bring the policy back to compliancy.

Session Reserve can be estimated based on server power on time, and the maximum unexpected connections influx you have to support via SLA. For example, let's say your servers take 5 minutes to power on, and your DR strategy requires the workload to take up to 60 users/minute if a site fails. Your session reserve has to be set to 300 - the expected number of sessions before the 1st offline server can become available.

In the example above, PCM may issue additional power-on commands before the 1st server comes online. Let's say each offline server can take 100 sessions. When the number of available session falls under 300, the 1st server is started. If connections continue to come in, and available sessions fall under 200, the 2nd server is started, since the 1st server alone wouldn't be sufficient to get the session reserve policy back into compliancy.

Online session reserve is ignored if you disable power management in the workload.

Maximum session capacity (Max Capacity): specify a high water mark for capacity in the workload. This is an advanced setting, most workloads won't have to bother (default is "infinite"). This is used if you want to specify a session reserve, but stop adding servers after a certain point.

For example, assume your servers have session capacity of 100. A workload has 400 sessions at peak utilization. You have an SLA to support up to 600 sessions during DR events. You also have 7 servers assigned to this workload, but you can only power on 6 at a time due to power constraints - the 7th is there in case any other breaks. In this case, you may define Maximum session capacity as 600. Even if the session load gets above 500 (breaching the Session Reserve policy) PCM will not start the 7th server as it would violate the maximum capacity policy.

OK, that completes the PCM weekly schedule policy configuration. Next, in Part 3, I will talk about sites, tiers, and computer managers.

Power and Capacity Manager (PCM) is a feature of XenApp 5.0 Feature Pack 2. In this multi-part post, I will deep-dive on PCM configuration and trade-offs. I will assume you have basic understanding of the feature, please look here for an introduction.

To use Power and Capacity effectively, you will have to define the power management and load characteristics of your workloads. You have to strike a balance: if you are too aggressive, you may overload servers or cause connection failures. If you are too conservative, you will limit the manageability gain and power cost savings.

All PCM policies are defined per "workload". A workload is a group of computers that publish the same set of applications. You configure the PCM workload name during the agent installation, and you can modify it editing HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Citrix\XenAppPCM\WorkloadName

There are two important set of configurations in PCM: the Session Capacity estimation and the Weekly power management schedule. I will describe Capacity Estimation in this post, and the Weekly Power Management schedule in Part 2.

PCM policies are based on "Session Capacity" of each server and workload - i.e., how many sessions each server in a workload can host. The most basic concept in PCM is "Load Consolidation": instead of spreading sessions to all servers in the workload we load a few servers up to an "optimal load". Optimal load is defined as a percentage of the server session capacity, so we must estimate the later accurately. Also, most PCM policies reference "session buffers" and "available sessions", both require server capacity estimation.

Our first attempt was to use the server Load Evaluators to estimate capacity. XenApp uses load evaluators to determine which server will process a connection request. The Load Index varies from 0 (no load) to 10,000 (maximum), so couldn't we use the load index (divided by 100) as load percentage? Not really. A server with 50 sessions and a load index of 5,000 won't necessarily behave well with 100 sessions. The key problem is that load index is only used to find the least loaded server, and the session capacity is irrelevant most of the time. Therefore most XA environments stick to the Default Load evaluator (cap at 100 sessions), even though the servers never host more than 30-40 sessions.

We felt that overloading the load evaluator to estimate capacity was dangerous. We wanted a "soft" estimation, that wouldn't cause problems if it was underestimated. Therefore PCM defines a new configuration called "Typical Session Capacity", which tells PCM how many sessions to expect for a particular hardware specification.

In the PCM console, select a workload, then the "Capacities" tab. Over there you will see one row per hardware specification - for example, in my XenServer setup I see "VM: Intel Xeon E5345 @ 2.33 GHz, 1 core, 512 MB". Select the hardware spec, then "Server Profile Properties..." in the actions pane.

You should configure the typical load as the number of sessions you know a server can host without impacting user performance. PCM will force IMA to load a few servers up to an optimal load, so this number has direct impact on how much sessions will consolidate. The safest way to estimate this value is to start with the session high-water mark on your existing servers, and work your way up if you believe the server can handle more.

As an example, let's say you define typical load at 50 sessions. If you left the default optimal load configuration (70%), PCM will load servers up to 35 sessions before enabling other servers. Once all servers reach the optimal load, the load balance will behave as before - finding the least loaded server. Therefore, there's little risk in underestimating the typical load - at worst you will be back to pre-PCM load balancing!

OK, but what happens if the IMA load index gets to 10,000 before the server hit the optimal load? Good question! PCM constantly adjust the server capacity based on the IMA load index. For this dynamic estimation, we assume the load index is linear: each session contribute the same way to the index, and that new sessions will continue to do so - i.e, capacity = 10,000 * Current Sessions / IMA Load Index . PCM then use the smallest of the static and dynamic estimations. In the example above, if IMA load index was 5,000 with 10 sessions, PCM would reduce the capacity estimation to 20.

We have also exposed an advanced configuration if you want to use the IMA load index as the primary method to determine server load. This requires a more careful construction of the load evaluator - you have to adjust it so that the load index grows smoothly from 0 to 10,000. You would use this method if the session capacity varies too much - say, it's usually 100, but sometimes it can go up to 150. You would be wasting the last 50 sessions using the previous approach.

To model such load pattern, go to the "Server Profile Properties" and select the "Advanced" checkbox. Enter the "Estimated Session capacity limit" - it would be 150 in this example. Now PCM will use the Typical session capacity only when the server is off-line or with zero sessions. Otherwise, it will use the IMA load index and the "estimated session capacity limit".

Why not set the typical session capacity to 150 in the example above? Well, if most of the time servers get loaded at 100, then PCM will over-estimate the server capacity when servers are offline. This will cause some grief during unexpected load events, when servers must be powered on to cover unexpected incoming sessions. So keep the "typical" value to what is the norm, and use the "estimated limit" to get an extra mile adjusting load evaluators.

Stay tuned for Part 2, with a deep-dive on the PCM power management schedule!

 Update: Part 2 (Policies) posted here.

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 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 | | |

I heard a great phrase recently "an embarrassment of riches" . I thought to myself...that is definitely what XenApp has become. There's nothing you can't do with it now. When it comes to virtualizing applications, you can deliver from a Windows Terminal Server, you can stream to a server or a client, and now with VM Hosted Apps, you can deliver from a workstation if the other two methods are not suitable. The user gets a seamless application that looks like it is running locally without ever being the wiser on what back end infrastructure is hosting the application. These days, you will be hard pressed to find an application that cannot be delivered with XenApp.

If you did not read my last post, I talked about considerations that you should take into account before selecting VM Hosted Apps (new in XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2) as your application delivery solution. If you are still deciding whether VM Hosted Apps is right for you, then go back to my first blog to help you with that decision. If and when you are convinced, come back and read below where I tell you how to set it up.

VM Hosted Apps components for application virtualization

These are the components that make up a VM Hosted Apps infrastructure:

• Physical or virtual workstations with either Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 installed. The Virtual Desktop Agent software and applications must be installed on these machines.
• A Desktop Delivery Controller which is the brains behind that operation. It brokers connections to virtual desktops.
• An IIS web server with the Web Interface software installed. The user connects to this web site to display the application.
• Citrix Receiver, or the online plug-in standalone, installed on the client device

If you are already familiar with XenDesktop, then these are the exact same components that deliver desktops. The only difference between a VM Hosted Apps and a XenDesktop infrastructure is the license. No really, it's true! You need a XenApp license to deliver applications and you need a XenDesktop license to deliver desktops.

Follow me as we dig into this a bit deeper. The first component you need to install is the Desktop Delivery Controller (DDC) software which must be installed on a Windows 2003 Server only (we're working on WS 2008 support so hang tight). Use the software version that comes with XenApp Feature Pack 2 on the VM Hosted Apps media. It will require a database in order to complete the installation of the DDC. You can use Access, SQL, Oracle, IBM DB2 just like XenApp. But don't try to make it part of the same farm sharing the same physical database as XenApp, because it won't work. It must exist in a separate farm database.

Administering application virtualization with VM Hosted Apps

Next, you will administer the environment using the Delivery Services Console, formerly the Access Management Console (Yes we renamed it... again). You can use the console that is installed on the DDC by default or you can install the console on a separate machine. You are actually installing a rebranded XenDesktop Console which means that if you already have XenDesktop you can use this new console to manage that as well. Since this console cannot be used to administer your XenApp farm, to make administration easier , install both consoles on the same machine. When you do this, they will aggregate together in the same MMC snap-in automatically. We know customers hate separate consoles but it could not be helped in this release. If the two consoles are installed on the same machine, then administration will be less of a hassle.

Publishing VM hosted virtual applications

To publish a VM Hosted App, it is nothing like publishing an application with XenApp. It is more like publishing a virtual desktop with XenDesktop. You run the Desktop Group creation wizard in the console and check the box "Use Desktop Group for VM Hosted Apps".

Don't forget to name the Desktop group the same name as your application and change the default XenDesktop icon to an application icon. The application name and icon you select is displayed to users when they log into Web Interface. Selecting this box however, does not make an application available to users. Here is how you actually publish the application.

• First, install the Virtual Desktop Agent software on the workstation image or vdisk you are creating.
• Then after you install the desired application, place a shortcut for this application in the "SeamlessInitialProgram" folder located under \Program Files\Citrix\ICA Service.

You should only put one application shortcut in this folder, if other helper applications are needed, you can install them on the workstation and they will be called by the main application when necessary. If you are using Provisioning services to dynamically provision desktops, then make sure these steps are complete on the workstation image before you save the virtual disk. If you are not using PVS, then be aware that you will need one virtual workstation for each simultaneous user because multiple users cannot launch applications from the same workstation.

The last step is to make the application available to users by modifying your Web Interface site to add the VM Hosted Apps farm and point to the Desktop Delivery Controller. Web Interface is actually installed on the Desktop Delivery Controller by default. You can use that Web Interface server or you can use Web Interface from a standalone web server, as long as it is version 5.2 or above. You must have a XenApp web (aka web interface) or services site (aka pnagent site) configured in order to deliver your applications.

That's it! Now if you run into trouble, apply the same troubleshooting methodology that you would for XenDesktop.

Cris Lau the Product Manager for XenApp Feature Pack 2, hosted a TechTalk on how to configure VM hosted Apps in which Sr. Software Engineer Madhav Chinta demonstrated how to configure and publish a VM hosted application.

If you are a Citrix Partner you will soon have access to an Education sponsored Technical Readiness Learning Lab Series that focuses on VM Hosted Apps. The Learning Lab series offers you the opportunity to watch a CitrixTV video about how to configure VM Hosted Apps, then we'll let you log into a hands-on lab environment in the cloud so that you can play around with this feature using a step by step lab guide. Stay tuned for that!

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 | | |

We have posted some initial XenApp workflows that demonstrate the capabilities in the new XenApp activity library. You can use these workflows to backup applications on your farm and then restore them to specific servers in your farm. These workflows are useful for backup purposes and also can aid in migrating applications between farms (e.g. QA to production).

XenApp-Backup Applications
XenApp-Restore Applications to Server

As always feel free to leave feedback in comments or email me directly.

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 | | |

If you would like to install Workflow Studio in an unattended fashion or if you just want to learn more about the installation process, there is now an article available on the community site:

http://community.citrix.com/display/wf/Workflow+Studio+2.0+Installation+Overview

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 | | |

I am sure by now you have heard about this great new way of virtualizing applications with XenApp called VM Hosted Apps - now in Feature Pack 2.  We have been talking it up  everywhere  from Citrix sponsored events, such as Synergy, to blog postings, to webinars, etc.  The feature allows you to deliver applications to end-users from a virtual workstation.  The traditional method of delivering  applications with XenApp  is to install or stream the application to the server or to the client device.  This new feature is by no means designed to replace this traditional method. As a matter of fact, we expect VM Hosted Apps to be far from mainstream. 

VM hosted apps isn't one of those features that you simply spin up and see what happens.  First, it has totally different components than the typical XenApp customer is used to.  In this version, you'll have a Desktop Delivery Controller(DDC) that uses a separate farm database and new MMC snap-in that is separate from the traditional XenApp infrastructure.  Your application is installed and delivered by a workstation that communicates with the DDC which is responsible for brokering connections to the virtual workstation.  It's not hard but it certainly isn't as simple as the rest of the XenApp infrastructure. That doesn't change the fact that  VM Hosted Apps is a brilliant idea....  I want to encourage you to check it out and so to help make it easier, I've included a few helpful hints below.

To have an  efficient setup, you will need

• Some type of server virtualization  infrastructure. You can pay for one from those _other_ guys or you can use XenServer which is free! Your choice but it's a pretty obvious one.  That is,  unless you plan on purchasing extra cooling devices after placing numerous amounts of physical desktops in your data center (RE: Blade PC's). 
• You will need one workstation for each concurrent user. Once you decide where to  host the workstations, you will need to determine how you are going to get the workstation operating system  onto the physical or virtual machines.  It supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. 

The best way to illustrate how important a decision this is, is with an example.   Lets say you are the administrator for a large company with thousands of end users.  The company wants to deliver a  highly  specialized application that is not Terminal Services compatible.  The application vendor only supports this app on Windows XP.  VM Hosted Apps is the feature for you only if  you are sure that the app won't work on Terminal Services, or that Streaming the application is not appropriate either. 

Now that Citrix provides three methods of delivering applications, your  thought pattern should follow something like this.  

• Can I install or stream the app to my XenApp Terminal Server?
• Can I have it streamed to the client device? 

If the answer is "No" to both questions, then VM Hosted Apps is the logical choice.  Aside from the new skill sets that your Citrix Administrators  will need to attain to administer this appropriately i.e. XenDesktop, Provisioning services, XenServer, you need to consider the Microsoft aspect.  You will need to purchase Microsoft's VECD licenses to license those virtual desktops.  One good thing about VECD licenses is that one  license is good for 1 physical device and connections to 4  windows virtual machines.  The bad news is, you must renew the licenses yearly.  So you will be paying  repeatedly unlike Terminal Services licenses where you pay just once.  

Once you know what you are getting into when using VM Hosted Apps, and you determine that this solution is right for you, here are some best practices that might help you stay out of the long dark rabbit hole that troubleshooting a bad setup can get you.  Make sure your DNS and Active Directory are flawless.  Virtual Desktops find and register with Desktop Delivery Controllers using something called a Service Connection Point (SCP).  SCPs are a feature of Active Directory and allow services to be published so that they are found by different components.  If you keep getting strange errors in your event viewer that relate to Active Directory, I highly suggest you  fix them before embarking  on a VM Hosted App  setup.  Use utilities like Active Directory Explorer to help you determine the state of  Active Directory.  The next culprit that could derail your setup is DNS.  Forward and reverse look up must be configured and working properly. 

Now lets  go back a bit.  One of your first decisions was how you were going to deliver  those 100 desktops/virtual machines to your end-users that needed to use that specialized application.  Will you build 100 desktops manually? Even though you can use private virtual machines for each user you should try to avoid it if you don't need it.  Instead, the most efficient way to do this is with Provisioning services.  You will get Provisioning services for use with VM hosted apps in XenApp Enterprise Edition or higher. Use Provisioning services to create a virtual disk with the OS already installed and configured and then stream that OS from the centralized vdisk to create as many virtual workstations as you need.  It will even spin up these machines on demand. The downside is, if you don't already know how to use PVS, this is yet another skill set that you will need to attain to support VM Hosted Apps.

As a readiness instructor, my job is to deliver the naked truth. While at times it may seem like I am describing  reasons not to  use this feature, this couldn't  be further from the truth.  VM Hosted Apps is a powerful feature and if you already know how to setup XenDesktop and PVS, then this should be a breeze for you.  If not, learning how to set it up will give you the bonus of preparing you for the world of desktop virtualization in general so it is certainly not niche expertise. As homework (I am a teacher after all), go to to Citrix eDocs and do your homework before you do ANYTHING.  Then get on that white board and draw a design depicting where these new components that you just learned about are going to fit in your environment. Then get out your calculator, calculate your budget needs and get organized. Again great feature ...but if you want to succeed you've got to do your homework! I am working on CitrixTV recordings to walk you through the setup so look out for that.

Since this feature has generated so much buzz, I just posted Part 2 to take you through the components and configuration.

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

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 | | |

Planning is done, content is ready, now we are in the middle of rolling out the XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 training to the support teams worldwide.

By Sept 29th, the date in which XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 will be available for download as mentioned in the Official Press Release, we plan to have a majority of Support engineers trained.

The 2 1/2 day XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 comprehensive training course covers all new features as outlined by Vinny Sosa in his What's new in XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 in plain English blog. A majority of the course is spent "hands on" installing, configuring, break/fixing and troubleshooting the various new features.

Then 3-5 months post release we plan to deliver a follow up "Advanced" session on common issues encountered.
The agenda for the Advanced session will be based on common/troublesome support issue logged in our CRM, Support Forums and Tech Support Twitter accounts, here and here.

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/

David
Twitter - http://twitter.com/citrixreadiness
Citrix Support on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/citrixsupport

In a previous post announcing the availability of Workflow Studio 2.0 I listed the new features that are available. Here is a closer look at the first feature mentioned:

Native XenApp activity libraries

With the 2.0 release of Workflow Studio, we now include 18 activities for managing application virtualization scenarios with XenApp. These activities provide access to your XenApp farm, servers, applications, and even sessions.

These 18 activities were designed around two key use cases:

1. Backup/Restore of applications - By providing access to retrieve current published applications as well as publishing new applications, these activities provide the ability to do automated configuration backups, QA to Production migrations, and help automate version upgrades. View sample workflows that address this use case for backup and restore.
2. Manage logons - Many customers expressed the need to be able to automatically manage access to their XenApp servers. We also received feedback that the way customers most often manage logons is through the use of customized load evaluator rules. We included activities that help manage logons for automated maintenance of XenApp servers.

These activities are installed by the activity library installer and leverage the new Commands for PowerShell to interface with XenApp. Everything you need to build a XenApp workflow is included in the installer, but to run the workflow you will need to meet two requirements:

1. You must install either Workflow Studio or a Runtime on a XenApp server in your farm as these commands do not support remote connections. The XenApp server you install it on just needs to be a member of the farm and does not need to be serving applications.
2. These activities only support XenApp 4.5 HRP3 and later. If you need access to prior versions of XenApp, you will need to use MFCOM. More information on how to use Workflow Studio with MFCOM is available in this Workflow Studio SDK MFCOM example.

Keep in mind that we also support native activities that run VBScript and PowerShell scripts. If there is something missing from our activity libraries that you want to automate you may be able to do so through a script and not actually need a native activity for a given task.

The Workflow Studio 2.0 Video Tutorial Series provides an introduction, an architectural overview, and an installation/configuration guide for getting started and should help save you time as you consider how to deploy Workflow Studio.

I'm sure our customers and partners will find other unique use cases. Feel free to leave feedback in comments or email me directly to let me know what you are doing with the product (or what you would like to be able to do.)

Workflow Studio is included with XenApp 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 | | |

You can quote me! "Personally I have forgotten how to dial my office phone. And I never slave over SAP entering home phone expenses for expensive business calls. Every EasyCall saves me time and, more often than not, saves Citrix a ton on telephone expenses."

EasyCall is a simple solution from Citrix and, quite frankly, a hidden gem of a feature. Using a client plugin and a Xen-based virtual appliance that brokers calls with your VoIP system, EasyCall makes calls for users with a simple click anywhere on their screen. It even enables conference calls for up to 50 users! Now in EasyCall 3.0, users can even configure the Follow Me feature which tries to find them using a list of numbers they configure. Did I mention that it works with a lot of different telephone systems? And did I mention that users just need a phone that rings? No need to mess with softphones for remote access....though it works with those too. And now, NetScaler users can add click to call numbers to web applications..it's simple with EasyCall. What it all comes down to is that EasyCall is like a softphone, but without any additional cost.

To get EasyCall, just download and install XenServer and add the EasyCall Virtual Appliance to your XenApp, XenDesktop or NetScaler setup. Download it and go.

What's new in EasyCall 3.0? Call forwarding so you can both make and receive calls remotely; authentication supports for BYOC (Bring your own computer) users; a user portal accessible from browsers and even iPhones for managing conferencing, call forwarding, and locations; Win 7 and Snow Leopard support; dial-in access to EasyCall conferences; net call links for EasyCalling specific company telephone numbers; and delivery via Citrix Receiver 1.1! All in five languages!

Congratulations and thank you to all those folks that created this new version! Please check it out and let us know what you think. We welcome any and all feedback!

Learn more about Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2

• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Blogs- http://community.citrix.com/blogs/tag/xa5fp2
• 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
• Download XenApp technology previews - http://citrix.com/xenapp/techpreviews
• XenApp Product Page - http://citrix.com/xenapp/

Follow XenApp on | | |

If you haven't noticed, XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 has been announced and with it comes the new Power and Capacity Management feature. By now I hope you downloaded the Tech Preview release or at least had a chance to watch these videos which explain the feature in detail (How it works, Tech Talk recording, my interview on it, our architect Juliano's interview on it).

The following are the enhancements we made to Power and Capacity Management since we released the Tech Preview version.

• High availability for concentrator
• We now support both physical and virtual servers in the same workload group
• In determining the maximum session capacity of a server, the system now takes the lowest of what the administrator has set or what the load evaluator computes based on the current load
• In addition to SQL Server 2005, we now "officially" support SQL Server 2008
• Minor visual enhancements

Juliano and I will be blogging further on these to clarify what these enhancements are and to offer up other deployment considerations. Stay tuned to the XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 blog roll for more information beginning next week Monday.

And thanks to all of those who participated in the technology preview and provided feedback. We can't tell you how critical it is to us. Speaking of which, we invite you to pre-register for the Windows Server 2008 R2 Technology Preview coming sometime next quarter

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 | | |

In case you missed it, on September 16, 2009, Citrix announced our much anticipated release of XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2. My colleague, Vinny Sosa, did an awesome job detailing the three categories of focus for the release in his blog post. Over the next few days, I will be sharing more of my thoughts about the HDX (High Definition Experience) features that will lay to rest any fears you have about performance and user experience with regards to hosted application delivery! I'll talk about the why these features are important to our customers, and more importantly, what you need to enable and configure these features for your XenApp infrastructure.

The first topic I want to cover is HDX MediaStream for Flash. So, what is it and why is it important? Well, instead of using your XenApp server to process and render the Flash application or video (impacts your server scalability - bad), HDX MediaStream for Flash leverages resources available on the user's Windows device. Thus, resulting in two key benefits: 1) users are happy (good) because they have a local like experience with the Flash content (no more A/V sync issues or video jitter), and 2) administrators can free up server resources to do more important things or accommodate more users. Needless to say, I'm very excited about this feature in Feature Pack 2. And hopefully by now, I've piqued your interest as well.

Ok, so... here is the even more exciting part - enabling HDX MediaStream for Flash for XenApp.

First, let's look at the system requirements:

On your XenApp server,

• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003
• Internet Explorer (7 & 8) with ActiveX support

On the user's Windows client device, you'll need:

• Adobe Flash Player 10 installed
• Citrix online plug-in 11.2

Second: enabling HDX MediaStream for Flash.

Well, once you've install XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2, HDX MediaStream for Flash is enabled on your XenApp server by default. That's it - very simple! Now, if you need to disable this feature, you can do so through the Group Policy Object Editor.

And what happens if the user doesn't have sufficient resources to render the Flash content locally? In that case, XenApp will intelligently fall-back to the server-side rendering that exists in XenApp prior to Feature Pack 2.

See? Short, sweet and simple. My next blog will cover HDX Plug-n-Play for USB storage, and a bit of an Easter-egg feature called Secure Clipboard control! So, stay tuned!

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 feature matrix by platform, version and edition - http://citrix.com/xenapp/comparativematrix
• 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 | | |

You may already know about this feature as it was previously called User Profile Manager. Profile management is the new name for User Profile Manager. This technology is a feature of both XenApp (Enterprise and Platinum Editions) and XenDesktop (Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum Editions). For a more detailed overview of what Profile management is and how it works to improve application virtualization, please read this article. For this article I will focus on the improvements in this updated feature that will first be available in XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2.

The improvements added into this release have focused around improved logging, Citrix product line integrations and Windows 7 support (really just testing and validation as the profile mechanism did not significantly change in this release from Vista and Windows Server 2008). And of course we have fixed many of the known issues and support concerns.

We've introduced EdgeSight counters to add visibility into the logon process and activities. Here is a summary of the counters that are provided:

• Logon Duration - this is the total logon time.
• Local Profile Setup Duration - aka the time to set up the user's local profile. Basically this compromises of the following steps:
  • Does the user have a local profile - if not create one
  • Is a profile migration required? If so migrate the profile
  • The time to copy down files from the user store to the local profile location
  • Synchronize with user store. This is only needed at logon for a new profile. While a Microsoft roaming profile copies a new roaming profile back to the network at logoff, Profile management performs this activity during that first logon.
  • At this point Profile management gets notified that this profile is ready to be managed
• Time to Start Monitoring - this is the gap from the last step of notifying Profile management that a profile is ready to be monitored and until monitoring actually starts (meaning the user is allowed to start their session). This consists of processing the NTFS change journal entries (basically a start point for monitoring file changes). The purpose of this counter is to help narrow the area causing longer than expected logon times. This should be fairly short time period and if not, you know something is happening out of the ordinary here. How short should it be - defining your baseline will provide you that measurement.
• Logoff Duration - this is the total logoff time
• Stop monitoring profile - NTFS change journal processing. This time should be very short
• Logon Bytes - total bytes in the user's profile copied down at logon
• Logoff Bytes - total bytes from the user's profile copied to user store at logoff
• Processed Logon Files - total number of files in the user's profile copied down at logon. How many files and their respective size grouping.
• Processed Logoff Files - total number of files from the user's profile copied to user store at logoff. How many files and their respective size grouping.

We also focused and extended on XenDesktop and Provisioning Server testing and validation. A key aspect of this was the new log file redirection capability. Now administrators can configure the log file to any local drive instead of the default %WINDIR%/system32/LogFiles/ location. This addressed the critical issue of capturing a log file from a local drive that is reset at logoff. The log file being just another changed file from the session is thus lost when system is reset at logoff.

I also would like to add clarification around the extended synchronization capability. Extended Synchronization was introduced in the User Profile Manager v2.0 release. It become apparent we were not clear enough in the context of its purpose and often it was being leveraged beyond its scope and ability. It was designed to enable personalization settings that are not properly stored in the user's profile location to be captured as part of the user profile. So-called "bad applications", for example, store settings in non-standard locations. However, the capability was not documented clearly in the Version 2.0 administrator's guide, which resulted in attempts to use the feature in ways for which it was not designed. We have clarified the supported scenarios in this release.

Extended synchronization is not intended to manage multi-user access to these files or folders (for example, we are not compensating for an application that is not multi-user aware). Nor is it intended to become a file and folder synchronization mechanism (for example, one that allows you to synchronize the entire contents of c:\docs across machines). It is intended purely to extend personalization settings that exist outside the default user profile location and thus provide a consistent experience across all resources accessed by the user.

This latest version (2.1) will be available for download on September 29th 2009 via MyCitrix. So now that you know a little more about Profile management, I recommend you check back on the 29th to MyCitrix and grab a copy (logon required) to evaluate and consider for your environment. Please note that it is important to review the current profile technologies available and ensure a good match with your business needs. There are a broad range of solutions and ensuring a good match is critical in order to properly balance the administrative needs with user personalization needs. You should review this best practices guide covering profile options such as mandatory, roaming and of course Profile management.

Finally, if you would like to learn more about Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 here are some useful links:

• 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/

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