Last week, when we launched Access Gateway VPX and Branch Repeater VPX, I blogged about the feedback customers gave us. In this blog, I want to discuss the feedback from channel partners from a few focus groups and meetings over the past few quarters.

Traditionally, vendors talk about competitive dynamics when discussing customers. That is normal because new product launches often don't fundamentally change partners' practices of or decisions about any given vendor. Such product launches don't really sway the partners to favor one product over others or switch from one vendor to another.

Now that seems to be changing. Rather than seeking just industry-leading technologies that address customers' problems, channel partners are seeking solutions that will help transform their sales and services productivity and profitability. With physical appliances, partners often faced the following challenges:

1. How many NFR (not-for-resale) units of physical appliances should a partner purchase? This is the classic dilemma a partner faces when forecasting their sales and POC (proof-of-concept) pipeline. Purchase too many physical NFR units and they are faced with the possibility of idling - and depreciating - NFR units after the spike in sales or POC pipeline gives way to normal baseline sales trends. Purchase too few physical NFR units and they are faced with the possibility of missed sales opportunities, especially considering that any order of physical NFR units will at best take a few days -  weeks if you are internationally located - to ship. Either way, partners are forced to take on additional risks - CAPEX budget or lost revenues - something they would like to take out of their productivity and profitability equation.
2. What should a partner do if the customer asks them to leave behind the POC equipment for a few more days so they can kick the tires and play around with the POC? This is another dilemma a partner faces: damned they are if they oblige the customer because that ties up their limited equipment, which can't be used in other sales or POCs; damned they are if they don't oblige the customer because that is not the brightest approach to building customer relationship, satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Should a partner really have to stock each of their vendor's physical NFR units? When a partner practices selling WAN optimization or secure access SSL VPNs from multiple vendors, they often would like to be able to use the same server hardware for demonstrating any vendor's WAN optimization or SSL VPN solution. Why? Because using standardized commodity server hardware truly transforms the cost-benefit-risk equation, and in doing so their productivity and profitability.This is where virtual appliances come in to the picture. A partner forecasts their baseline POC pipeline and budgets for physical NFR units to meet part or whole of the baseline demand. For any spikes or variability in demand, the partner leverages virtual appliances to build flexibility and agility in their POC delivery model - all without adding risk to their business or operational model. No more paying for NFR units and then writing them off as depreciation later. 

Virtual appliances do change the operating model for partners by allowing them to leverage commodity server hardware for running any network virtual appliance from any vendor.

With virtual appliances, partners now can have customers spare their server hardware, deploy virtual appliances on that server hardware for their POCs, and let the customers play with the POCs as long as they want; all while the partner moves on to their next sale and POC!

After listening to partners feedback, we are offering free NFR instances of Access Gateway VPX and Branch Repeater VPX to our channel partners. This goes a long way to help partners realize the efficiencies and profitability discussed above.

If you are a partner, let us know how you are planning to leverage virtual appliances to transform your business and operating model.

Finally, don't mistake 'virtualized platforms' with 'virtual appliances'; not all so-called 'virtual appliances' are created equal; more on that in my next blog!

Sai Allavarpu

Storage plays a key role in determining the performance and cost of desktop virtualization deployments. XenServer, with StorageLink, offers a powerful framework for best-in-class storage systems to offer virtualization optimized features that can be directly exploited through API calls from the virtualization platform, either using CIM or vendor-proprietary plug-ins. But there are a host of features and implementation choices for storage that can dramatically change the price/performance of a virtual desktop deployment, and who better to help articulate those than the storage vendors themselves?

With this in mind, we invited all of our storage vendor partners to demonstrate to the market what makes their solutions unique, in our Citrix Ready StorageLink Challenge. We asked them to prepare a short video that showcases their product capabilities and its integration with StorageLink. Six partners have responded thus far (and I believe one or two more may be in the works) - DataCore, GreenBytes, HP, LSI, NetApp, and Nexenta. We will be picking a winner on April 19th.

Submissions will be judged in four categories.

• Best storage for Desktop Virtualization deployments
• Best storage savings (TCO)
• Best performance
• Most innovative video

We know we're going to have a hard time picking between these vendors. The judges are Chris Wolf (The Burton Group), John Fanelli (Citrix Solution & Community Marketing), and myself Simon Crosby (Citrix CTO for Data Center and Cloud), plus our Citrix community members via their ratings for each video and the overall view count per video. While this challenge is about products, technology, and integration, we think it should be fun as well. All the videos are posted Here

So please watch the videos and give them your votes!

有了这样一套高可用性的XenServer环境，就可以开始在上面搭建XenDesktop环境了。首先搭建域控。仅仅为了赶时髦，我选用了win 2008 R2，在上面搭建了AD,DNS,DHCP服务。方法没有太大的变化，用dcpromo命令然后按照向导走就可以了。然后搭建XenDesktop的DDC服务器，给环境里面追加了一台win2003，DDC的安装也是按照向导走下去就好了。别忘了用域的管理员身份登录安装，因为安装的最后一步要在AD里面登录Farm的相关数据。最后追加工作站一台winXP。将winXP加入域，然后装上VDA，XenDesktop环境就准备好了。

因为环境建立在XenServer上，常用的OS都事先预备好template的话，展开一个环境就变的很轻松。只要import template到XenServer上然后从template展开新的OS就可以。不必花时间从CD开始安装。做template的时候推荐最后执行sysprep。

为了终端用户能够访问，还需要在DDC上建立desktop group把工作站加入到group中发布给终端用户。建立desktop group时，向导会询问使用什么虚拟服务器。XenDesktop支持XenServer，Microsoft Hyper-V和VMWare ESX。还可以选择不使用虚拟服务器管理，而直接指向工作站。但是不使用虚拟服务器的情况下，XenDesktop将无法管理工作站的电源，也就无法使用待机工作站的设定。通过待机(idle)设定可以让XenDesktop自动管理工作站的启动，可以选择设定工作时间，最繁忙和工作时间外，3个时间段设置几台待机工作站。待机工作站将被自动启动等待用户的连接。

访问XenDesktop的工作站非常容易，下载并安装Citrix online plug-in，输入DDC服务器的地址，登录后选择一个Desktop Group就可以了。
桌面虚拟环境给终端用户带来的好处很多，但是给系统管理员能带来什么变化呢。把物理机上的桌面搬到虚拟环境里。如果只用XenDesktop，管理员仍要为每个用户预备桌面系统，需要管理的桌面数量并没有减少。如何能体现集中管理带来的好处呢。这就是很多系统把XenDesktop和Provision Server组合起来使用的理由。下一回，将说明PVS环境的构筑并演示通过PVS来管理可以让管理员只管理一个映射文件就可以实现对所有的桌面系统的管理。

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) contains a whole chapter called HITECH. This catchy acronym stands for Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health and makes you wonder if "they" construct the acronym before deciding on what information to convey. It basically mandates a number of fairly stringent disclosure requirements for HIPAA covered entities and their business associates  in the case of privacy  breaches leading to the disclosure of patient data. The act is intentionally aggressive in order to entice health care providers and insurance companies to be really cautious about patient privacy and record security.
I am at HIMSS in Atlanta this week and I notice that ARRA, HITECH, HIPAA and other related topics are front and center in many sessions and for many vendors on the floor.
Under HITECH, the burden of proof is on the side of the covered entity to prevent a breach, discover the breach, and then disclose the breach to the patients and - in some cases - to the secretary of health and human services. If the breach is affecting 500 or more patients in a state or region, the covered entity must notify the patients via public media and notify HHS immediately. 
So, let's define what a breach really is, and then what you can do to never having to call your local newspaper for the disclosure ad.

Under HITECH, a breach is an "unauthorized acquisition, use, or disclosure that compromises the security or privacy of the health record". There's also something in the language that this must pose a significant risk of financial, reputational, or other harm to the individual. Note that I am not a lawyer, but I did stay in a holiday..... tonight. Kidding aside, I did listen to Gerry Hinkley and Deven KcGraw during their HIMSS session this week - both are legal experts in this field.

So, having a laptop with unencrypted, and personally identifiable patient information stolen would be a breach. If, however, the data is secured with federally accepted levels of encryption (and the security of the key is not compromised), OR the data does not include certain items such as DOB or the patient's ZIP code, it's not a breach.
As you can see, the devil is in the detail. So, how can you take steps to avoid that painful disclosure? For one, ensure that the patient information never leaves your data center. Leverage desktop or application virtualization and disable clipboard and local disk access on the client device. Many electronic health applications can only print through the server, so that client connected printers are not needed and can also turned off without compromising functionality. If mobile access to the data is needed, consider the Citrix Receiver for the iPhone or mobile access platform of your choice to deliver the information without delivering the data.
Even without HITECH, these are important considerations for any Electronic Medical Records (EMR) rollout. When done correctly, you could allow your doctors, nurses, and staffers to use the laptop, netbook, tablet, iPad of their choice without having to worry about IT managing the myriad of devices or any of them leaving the premises.

Now, unfortunately, this is only one aspect of HITECH. The other aspect involves the unauthorized access  of patient records by employees who have legitimate access to the systems, but are basically snooping around. HITECH covers privacy breaches, not just security breaches.  Looking up your own lab results, or the chart of your friend's sick kid is an example of a well intentioned, but illegal breach. Looking up the local football player's records to determine if that hamstring injury has healed before Sunday's game is also an illegal breach, but not an innocent one.  Identifying those scenarios actually requires intelligent data mining to assess whether access was justified for a person to do their job or constitutes a breach. While you can't fix the latter category through application or desktop virtualization, you can confidently use virtualization technology to prevent breaches through the loss of devices or data without restricting mobility. One less thing to worry about in the complex world of healthcare regulation.

Questions? Comments?
Follow me on twitter: @florianbecker

Citrix Support is focused on ensuring Customer and Partner satisfaction with our products.
One of our initiatives is to increase the ability of our Partners and Customers to leverage self-service avenues via our Knowledge Center.

Find below the Citrix Knowledge Center Top 10 for February 2010.

Top 10 Technical Articles

Top 10 Whitepapers

Top 10 Hotfixes

Top 10 Presentations

Top 10 Tools

David
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Cloud computing challenges many long-standing paradigms of the PC computer era. In my last post, I discussed the technical challenges facing the OVF standard in virtual system portability. Even if we assume that OVF will overcome the technical barriers, an even larger one looms: licensing.

The dominant licensing model for PC software over the last 25 years centers on hardware systems. Whether a vendor strictly enforces their license or not, the EULA for desktop software typically permits installation and use on a single computer. The paradigm example of this remains the Windows and Office products from Microsoft - the license key is tied to various properties of the hardware through "product activation".

In response to the complex problems this model presents to businesses, Microsoft offers the volume licensing paradigm. Even in this model, the license counts are still tied to hardware characteristics. The most obvious example is the licensing of Windows Server by number of processors on a target system. However, in a cloud infrastructure, the underlying hardware is inherently shared with other tenant virtual systems. It becomes impossible to accurately determine the actual processing power available to a given virtual system. Volume licensing was never conceived as a virtual system licensing scheme, nor has Microsoft ever claimed it as an appropriate solution.

The applicability of traditional licensing models to cloud infrastructures is questionable at best. An obvious limitation it creates for OVF is its use in software distribution. Imagine a world where most ISV's distribute their data center software as ready-made, bootable OVF images. When it comes time to update or upgrade systems, customers can apply updates or simply migrate to a new self-contained and fully validated image. The cost savings across the industry to ISV's and customers avoiding costly installation and basic configuration steps would probably be on the order of billions of dollars over the typical software lifecycle.

Such a world cannot exist today for Windows-centric data centers or application developers. The only redistributable Windows OS is the trial version that cannot be converted to a permanent license. If Microsoft supported a "bring your own license" (BYOL) model, such images could be converted to permanent installation status. Vendors could then leverage the vendor-neutral OVF standard to distribute turn-key products.

More generally, licensing requirements still impede adoption of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) built around OVF to host employee desktops as virtual systems in the data center. IT departments are starting to consider the cost and security advantages of VDI. Citrix is starting to see more substatial uptake with our XenDesktop offering in this area. However, broader adoption of VDI is impeded by the cost of licenses. Part of the cost for Windows is that Microsoft requires the special subscription Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) license on top of other costs. The situation for Mac OS X is more dire - Apple simply doesn't support virtualization of the desktop OS.

The existence of legacy licensing models that use dongles, MAC addresses, processor identifiers, and the like are less common today, but we still see customers foiled by such problems. This is particularly true when it comes to migration of existing systems into the cloud. However, even if most ISV's change EULA's and licensing schemes to officially support a cloud-based world, the optimal use of OVF as a tool of the IT cloud will remain impeded by the realities of how the OS components are licensed.

How do these licensing concerns impact your use of virtualization technologies? Have you encountered licensing problems trying to migrate to a cloud platform? Would you use a ready-made OVF images if Citrix or other vendors made them available?

Earlier today (March 1st, 2010), we announced the launch of Branch Repeater VPXand Access Gateway VPX. Back in the spring of 2009, at Synergy, Citrix announced the vision and strategy to virtualize our entire application networking portfolio. We followed up on that promise by delivering NetScaler VPX in September 2009, and now by delivering software virtual appliances for our networking appliances, Branch Repeater and Access Gateway.

Since the spring of 2009, I met with many customers, analysts and partners and saw a recurring theme emerging from those meetings. Many customers have already seen the benefits of virtualization in the data center, especially for servers. Having extended those benefits to desktops by pursuing desktop virtualization, they are now looking for ways to make the delivery network and branch infrastructure simple, flexible, agile and cost-effective. Check out the Access Gateway VPX demo on CitrixTV at http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/1706 or on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOVj3-xT4S8.

Initial feedback from customers indicates that VPX offers a great opportunity to tackle the cost, complexity and service delays in branch offices. Consider this: with hardware appliances, enterprises are required to procure hardware appliances, wait a few days for the delivery and ship them to hundreds of branch offices or sites. It gets worse when there are branch offices without skilled or any IT staff; IT has to fly in staff to such sites to deploy WAN optimization services. Together all these factors contribute to costly and time-consuming branch set up. VPX transforms the entire branch set up process, not to mention the management of WAN optimization in the branch. No more appliance ordering and procurement, shipment to branch offices, flying in IT staff to branches. One could even remotely distribute, configure and deploy Branch Repeater VPX on existing servers in the branch, with skilled IT staff never setting a foot in that branch!

Another example was that of recent snowstorms or natural disasters, when many workers work from home and overwhelm SSL VPN licenses or capacity. This is precisely when ordering or shipping additional hardware appliances is not going to be effective. Access Gateway VPX can help with such situations by dynamically provisioning additional virtual appliances on existing servers to meet the surge in remote user demand.

While we often tend to focus on the benefits of IT simplicity and agility, there is another customer benefit that often doesn't get as much attention. The procurement and supply chain groups think VPX enables them to consolidate hardware vendors, benefit from volume discounts and streamline supply chain and procurement processes. Many customers need to address the availability of parts and supplies in the remotest of the branch offices on any continent. Who is more likely to have a sales or parts office in such locations? Server vendors such as HP or Dell, or pure-play SSL VPN or WAN optimization vendors?

Do you share similar experiences and opportunities? What other use cases and opportunities do you see for VPX in your environment?

Later, in a follow-on blog, I will share the insights that some of the partners shared - something that makes me truly believe that VPX will transform channel productivity and profitability, spurring partners to pause and think about vendor alignments.

You will also see a series of blogs from the Branch Repeater and Access Gateway teams 

Stay tuned, for these are the exciting times in the world of convergence of virtualization and networking.

Cheers!
Sai Allavarpu

高可用性的XenServer环境应包括最少两台XenServer服务器和一个共享存储设备。XenServer的硬件，我采用的是Dell PowerEdge R710，内存加至16GB。iSCSI的存储设备则用下面4种硬/软件设备构成:

1. 一台旧PC(Dell PowerEdge SC1420,内存加至4GB)装上windows 2003，再装上SANmelody
2. Highpoint的RAID卡RocketRAID2314
3. Century的支持e-SATA的外置硬盘抽取盒EX35PM8B-PE
4. 8块500G的SATA内置硬盘

RAID卡设置选用了速度较快的RAID10，8块500 GB硬盘的可用空间为物理容量的1/2，4TB。除了SANmelody价值2万人民币左右，其他的都很便宜。整个存储系统在3万人民币之内。最便宜的支持iSCSI的硬盘阵列恐怕也要这个价格的1倍以上。而且我们的测试结果，这个廉价的存储设备的读写速度甚至高于低端的硬盘阵列。SANmelody的硬盘Cache功能起了很大的作用。如果不用SANmelody而改用没有硬盘Cache的iSCSI软件，读写速度则会低很多。事实上，这套存储系统是2年前作的。现在有4台XenServer和2台VMWare的ESX服务器在使用它。两年之间没有出过大问题。

安装好SANmelody并设置好RAID后，在OS的硬盘管理里让Windows认识新硬盘，并为其创建Partition。注意不要为Partitation设置盘符。这样SANmelody就可以认识硬盘空间。为了下一步的设置，还需要在SANmelody的管理工具里面设置Storage Server, Application Server和Volume。SANmelody的设置大家可以参考它的产品说明。我为iSCSI存储系统和XenServer之间创建了专用的局域网。并且采用了有iSCSI优化功能的Dell PowerConnect 5424交换机。

XenServer的安装不是很难，只要别忘记打开BIOS里面的Virtualization Technology功能，然后按照XenServer安装CD的提示一步一步装下去就好了。在安装过程中，只能配置一块网卡的IP地址，剩下的网卡需要在安装后手工配置。XenServer安装完成后，找一台Windows工作站装上XenCenter然后连接XenServer安装过程中设定的IP地址。连接上XenServer后在Console标签按Enter键就可以进入XenServer的命令模式。按照以下步骤来设置其他网卡的IP地址。

1. 用xe pif-list命令来寻找需要设置的网卡的uuid
2. 用xe pif-reconfigure-ip uuid=<第1步找到的uuid> mode=<dhcp或是static> ip=<IP地址> netmask= gateway=
3. 用xe-toolstack-restart命令或是重启XenServer让设定生效

我的XenServer服务器有3块网卡，第1块接入公司网络，在安装过程中设定。第2块接入Provision Server的测试用局域网，用上述命令设定。第3块接入iSCSI专用局域网也用上述命令设置。还有最好在把XenServer加入Pool前设置网址，加入Pool之后xe pif-list命令会列出Pool内的所有网卡，比较难于寻找需要设定的网卡的uuid。确认XenServer和iSCSI存储系统之间的网络通信以后，建立XenServer Pool，然后把另外一台XenServer加入到Pool。建立Pool的XenServer将成为Pool Master。然后就可以开始在XenServer上设置iSCSI存储了。设置顺序如下。

1. 在XenCenter里右击第一台XenServer选择New Storage...
2. 选择Virtual disk storage里的iSCSI，然后点击Next
3. 在Name里输入任意的名字，Target Host里面输入iSCSI存储系统的IP地址。我的iSCSI存储没有设置CHAP，所以让Use CHAP保持关闭状态。
4. 点击Discover IQNs就应该看到iSCSI存储系统的信息自动表示在左侧的list box里面
5. 点击Discover LUNs按键。马上到iSCSI存储系统端，右击SANmelody的Application Servers选择Map New Virtual Volume将事先预备好的Volume设置给XenServer的iSCSI Channel。注意XenServer的iSCSI Channel只在Discover LUNs执行的期间中表示在SANmelody设置画面里，如果Discover LUNs执行结束并出现了time out错误，在SANmelody里面也就看不到iSCSI Channel了。如果看不到的话，就回到XenCenter再点击一次Discover LUNs按键。
6. 回到XenServer端，再次点击Discover LUNs。这次Target LUN列表里面看到iSCSI存储。
7. 点击Finish结束第一台XenServer的iSCSI设置
8. 在XenCenter里面，左侧的列表里选择刚刚创建的iSCSI存储，右侧的General标签的Status下面第一台XenServer应该是Connected状态，而第二台XenServer应该是出错的，并且有Repair link。点击Repair，并且到SANmelody端确认Volume和Channel的对应关系，如果没有设定的话，设定好再回到XenCenter重新点击Reqair。第2台XenServer也成为Connected状态的话，iSCSI就设定好了。

在这样一个高可用性的XenServer环境，可以自由选择在哪台XenServer上启动虚拟机，也可以让XenServer根据负荷自动选择在哪里启动。打开High Availablity功能还可以实现当一台XenServer出现问题时，把所有虚拟机自动转移到另外一台虚拟机上。最令管理者高兴的是，用XenMotion动态迁移，可以将运行状态的虚拟机从一台XenServer迁移到另外一台XenServer上，而不带有停止服务的风险。管理者可以不必等到夜深人静的时候也可以交换硬件设备了。

NetScaler SMS Authentication

Citrix NetScaler, the industry's most popular load balancer, can also be configured to use SMS authentication, with Citrix Receiver, XenApp and XenDesktop. Our partner SMS passcode makes the SMS software, it is easy to install and easy to use. The Citrix Reciever already supports SMS Authentication.

In previous posts we show how Authentication can be done at the Citrix Server Web Interface, or using LDAP. Now that Citrix Receiver runs on a variety of mobile devices, you can use SMS Authentication and Receiver on your device of choice.

The technology leader in SMS Authentication now supports Citrix. Read more about it here.

We used the previous infrastructure for this Proof Of Concept, because it was already setup with XenApp and XenDesktop. The only new piece was the SMS Passcode server.

Guides

Download the Deployment Guide - ICA Proxy for Citrix Receiver with SMS Authentication.

Citrix Products used in this POC

XenServer
XenApp
NetScaler AGEE
Citrix Receiver
SMS Passcode

Read more about SMS Authentication

Text Message Based Authentication

Watch it live

Tap into the power of AppExpert!

No, this is not a posting about Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) or even PCI device pass-through in Xen. It's about acknowledging that in the area of Desktop Virtualization there remains much to be done by all vendors to convince customers that our solutions can really deliver the benefits that we articulate.

It's about cutting through the hype, and not the hypervisor. It's about the creation of a forum in which all vendors can participate to share ideas, answer user, customer and community questions, and lay out a roadmap that shows how they will deliver on more complex use-cases for desktop virtualization. The forum is the next Geek Speak Virtual live webcast on Tuesday, March 2 at 1-2:30 PM EST, called "Desktop Virtualization Vendors Speak Out!". Shawn Bass will moderate a panel of five technical desktop virtualization experts from Citrix, Microsoft, Quest, Symantec, and VMware. This is your opportunity to get your questions answered by our panel, without marketing fluff. The panel has been chosen specifically to address technical questions and to articulate remaining technical challenges. Specifically, the panelists have agreed to make their best effort to avoid product vs. product banter. During the event, they will discuss a set of agreed-upon topics, and there will be a live online Q&A and online chat - a format which has worked well and proven popular in previous Geek Speak virtual events.

We have over 1,000 attendees registered so far. You can register here.

感谢大家的支持，准备把这个做成一个连载。把我创建这个统合测试环境的过程和自己的感想记录下来。
首先，介绍一下硬件环境。真正的硬件很简单，两台物理机，一台装win2008 r2上面准备装Provision Server(PVS)。另外一台是XenServer虚拟机环境。XenServer上带有两块网卡，一个网卡连入公司的网络，另一个和PVS服务器组成局域网。

昨天，我给测试组介绍了这套系统。当时一位同事对虚拟环境作了另一番解释。觉得非常好，转载一下。传统的PC系统可以分为4大部分，Hardware，OS，Application和User Profile。如果想对下位的系统作更改，就意味着要把它上面的系统全部重做。比如说，要换新硬件，买了新的PC不用说，OS，Application都要重装。User Profile可以从备份复原，如果没有备份，以前的设定也就都没有了，都要重新设定。而虚拟环境就是要把这4个部分全都虚拟并把它们分离开来。这样做的好处就在于，终端用户和自由的选择组合，而不必重新安装上位的系统。用Citrix的虚拟方案来说，硬件部分用XenServer来虚拟，OS部分可以用XenDesktop和PVS来实现虚拟，Application部分是XenApp的担当，最上层的User Profile可以用Roaming User Profile，如果OS本身的功能不满意，可以尝试Profile Manager (http://www.citrix.com/site/jumpPage.asp?pageID=1453077)。在这样的虚拟桌面环境下，就算买了台新的PC，只要有Online plug-in就可以立刻连接通过XenDesktop连接XenServer或PVS上的桌面。同时由于应用程序运行在XenApp系统上，用户可以自由选择XP还是Win7桌面系统而不必重新安装应用程序。从管理员角度来说，4大部分的分离带来的好处也很多，更换硬件之后只要安装XenServer然后把Export的虚拟机再import进去就好了。如果采用了PVS服务器连Export/Import都不用了。
好了，话归正传。XenServer担当了硬件的虚拟，作为整个系统的基础。如果它崩溃就意味着整个系统的停止。所以需要对这个部分加强，计划用两台物理机组成一个XenServer的Pool，所有的虚拟机文件都保存在共享存储器上。当其中一台XenServer出现问题，那台XenServer上的虚拟机都会在另外一台XenServer上被启动。这就是XenServer的High Availability功能。这个共享存储器将是虚拟硬件系统的核心。XenServer支持iSCSI,NFS和FTTH。FTTH太贵买不起，NFS速度不是很理想。所以我就以iSCSI为核心构筑存储系统。很多大公司都有自己存储系统，比起几年前价格也下来很多，但仍价值数十万人民币。如果以测试目的申请了，不但不批还得挨老板批。

犹豫了很久最终决定选用HDD Box连接到一台旧计算机上自己搭建存储系统。iSCSI存储系统的速度的瓶颈在于硬盘的读写速度。网络速度早已实现1Gb，而硬盘最多不过几十个MB的速度。使用有硬盘读写Cache功能的SANMelody (http://china.datacore.com/)可以改善这个问题。
下一回介绍XenServer的iSCSI设定方法。

Need the best and latest information for troubleshooting/optimizing your XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer or NetScaler products. Then don't miss TechEdge 2010 hosted by Citrix Technical Support's top experts from the Escalation engineering team. Over the years, customers have said this is the event for learning the latest troubleshooting tools, methodologies and fixes for your desktop virtualization, server virtualization and network optimization without hearing all the marketing fluff.

What you'll learn:

• Debugging a Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop environment
• Troubleshooting XenDesktop deployments
• Troubleshooting an integrated XenDesktop and XenServer environment
• XenServer storage management and troubleshooting
• Citrix Provisioning Services stream process architecture and advanced troubleshooting
• Troubleshooting performance issues in a virtualized environment
• Netscaler VPX implementation and troubleshooting
• Optimizing NetScaler for enterprise web applications
   

Complete event schedule and class descriptions

Who can attend?

All customers with active support or maintenance agreements as of the first day of the event, all partners who have registered for Citrix Summit, Citrix technology professionals (CTP) and Citrix certified professionals.
 

When and where?

The event will be held prior to Citrix Synergy at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco, California. on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 from 8:00 am to 5:20 pm.
 

Hands-on Learning Labs

In addition to attending TechEdge on Tuesday, May 11, we encourage you to stay for Citrix Synergy (Wednesday, May 12 - Friday, May 14). This year at Synergy you will have a chance to expand on the content covered at TechEdge with hands-on experience. The Citrix Technical Support Escalation Team has assembled several cross-product troubleshooting scenarios involving XenDesktop, XenApp and XenServer. The scenarios will provide you with an opportunity to get hands-on experience with custom and third party utilities under the guidance of the troubleshooting experts. For more information about Synergy visit http://www.citrixsynergy.com and stay tuned for session details on the Hands-on Learning Labs coming soon.

Learn More

• Want to learn more about TechEdge 2010, http://www.citrix.com/techedge.

Stay tuned for more on TechEdge with presenter close-up interview blog posts coming soon. Please let us know your thoughts, questions and feedback.

7年前加入Citrix的时候还只有MetaFrame一个产品，现在产品已经开始走向多元化，并开始提出整套的假想化解决方案。那么以XenDesktop为中心的Citrix桌面假想化方案是个什么样子呢。让我们结合实际的环境构筑看看它的实力。
作为我们测试的一环，我正在搭建一套心目中的理想的Citrix桌面假想环境。整个系统的核心是XenDesktop 4.0和Provision Server 5.1 SP2。如果仅仅是测试目的一台XenServer就可以了。但是考虑到持续使用，我将Provision Server构筑到一台物理机上，而XenDesktop的DDC和Workstation以及域控等其他服务器都将构筑在另一台XenServer上。

有了这样一个XenDesktop和PVS的统合环境，管理员就可以通过管理一个PVS的standard image来管理几百台假想桌面。使用XenDesktop Setup Wizard可以在很短的时间发布大量的假想桌面给终端用户。

The Los Angeles Citrix User Group is holding their next event this week on Feb. 24-25, in Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley, CA! To kick off the event, Pete Downing, Citrix Product Manager, will be the keynote speaker.
Topics that will be covered in the two-day agenda include Provisioning for XenServer and XenDesktop, an update on XenClient, and dialog around upcoming Citrix Cloud Computing initiatives. Additionally, representatives from AppSense, Akamai, Intel, and Tricerat will be there to chat and answer any questions you might have.

Two Citrix Geek Speak Local sessions will also be included as part of this event on Feb. 24. The LA User Group has invited the following three esteemed Citrix Technology Professionals (CTPs) to lead these sessions:  Alex Danilychev, Joe Shonk, and Steve Greenberg.

Event Schedule

The User Group and Geek Speak Local sessions will take place at the following times and locations:

Citrix User Group Event & Geek Speak Local
Day/Time:  Feb. 24 from 8:30-11am PT
Location:  Microsoft Offices, 333 South Grand Ave, Suite 3300, Los Angeles

Citrix User Group Event & Geek Speak Local
Day/Time:  Feb. 24 from 2-5pm PT
Location:  Motion Picture Association of America Offices, 15301 Ventura Blvd Building E, Sherman Oaks

Citrix User Group Event Only
Day/Time: Feb. 25 from 2-5pm PT
Location: Pepperdine University Howard Hughes Center, 6100 Center Drive, Los Angeles

Registration is still open, so if you're based in or around southern California and you are a Citrix customer or enthusiast, this is the event for you and I hope you can attend!

For more details and to register for the event, click here.

Additional Resources

• For more information about Geek Speak Local events, click here.
• For more information about the Citrix User Group Community, click here.
  
  

Laura Whalen
Citrix Systems, Inc.

Hello Everyone,

I am happy to announce that Citrix will be releasing the next exciting , feature-packed versions of Citrix Receiver and Merchandising Server software on March 1st, just one short week away! Below are just a few of the new enhancements for the 1.2 release:

Receiver for Windows 1.2:

• Includes new language support - Nine languages: English, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Russian, traditional and simplified Chinese
• Full support for Dazzle , the new "iTunes-like" application store

Receiver for MAC 1.2:

• Automatically configure and update the new Citrix online plug-in
• Full support for Dazzle, the new "iTunes-like" application store

Merchandising Server 1.2:

• Expanded Administrator Console browser support: Internet Explorer 8 in native mode, Firefox, and Safari
• One-step download of new plug-ins. (Note: only plug-ins compatible with your version of Merchandising Server are downloaded)
• Ability to configure a back-up Active Directory server in case your primary server is down

Note: The current version of Merchandising Server virtual appliance can be imported into the Citrix XenServer virtual machine environment. We are working on releasing a version of the Merchandising Server that can be imported into VMware's ESX virtual machine environment, stay tuned for updates!

Why upgrade to Receiver?

First of all because it is a time-saving, slick, new tool that administrators and end users are finding a great deal of value in. Those customers that have already upgraded to Citrix Receiver are finding value in three main areas, are you one of them?

1. Faster, smoother rollouts of new desktops, whether they are physical or virtual
2. Ease of client management, version and configuration control
3. A single end user experience for everything Citrix

How do you upgrade from your existing XenApp Online Plug-in? Simple!

1. Download and import the Merchandising Server
2. Either push the Receiver client using your favorite ESD tool, or use the built in download page to enable end user self-service
3. Use the built-in plug-in download feature of MS to get the latest and greatest Online Plug-in
4. Configure a single rule and delivery with the new online plug-in
5. Your upgrade is now complete!

現在、XenServerは基本的な機能について無償で提供されています。無償な反面、トラブルの場合、サポート契約をしていなければ、自力で解決するしかありません。しかしながら、XenServerのトラブルも、ある程度までは自力で解決することができます。

トラブルの際にまずすること

「状態レポート(status report)」を必ず取ります。問題の発生したホストだけではなく、その属しているプールの全ホストの情報を含めて取ります。できれば、問題の発生している状態で取ります。取り方は次のリンク先の通りです。

「XenCenter 4.x以降およびXenServer 4.x以降でステータスレポートを実行する方法」
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121857

「状態レポート」には、その時のホストの状態が残され、ある種の障害記録となります。「状態レポート」によって、何が発生したのかを後で確認することができます。もしサポートが必要になった場合にも、この障害時の「状態レポート」があれば、サポートでも確認することができます。

プールの全ホストの情報を含めて取ることは重要です。プールマスターホストの情報は必須です。操作がメンバホスト上で行なわれたとしても、その情報は必ずプールマスターホストを通して行なわれます。プールマスターホストのログを見ることによって、全体的な操作を理解することができます。

どう解決する？

1. マニュアルを確認する

マニュアルを見ることで解決できる問題があります。特にネットワークのトラブルは、まずマニュアルを確認した方がいいでしょう。

「XenServer 5.5 管理者ガイド」
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX122051

2. Hotfixを確認する

Hotfixが出ていないかを確認します。問題が既に修正されている場合があります。

「Public Hotfixes」
http://support.citrix.com/product/xens/v5.5/hotfix/general/?lang=ja

3. Kowledge Baseの確認

Kowledge Baseに技術文書として既に出ていないかを確認します。「Search」から検索するのが簡単です。
http://support.citrix.com/product/xens/v5.5/

4. Support Forumの確認/投稿

XenServerのSupport Forumでは、全世界からトラブルが報告され、その解決策について話し合われています。発生している問題が既に報告されているかもしれません。確認してみましょう。開発者も常日頃チェックしており、直接、開発者とやり取りすることができるかもしれません。Support Forumで報告された問題が、Hotfixとして提供されることもあります。

「XenServer/Essentials(英語)」
http://forums.citrix.com/category.jspa?categoryID=101
「XenServer/Essentials Japanese (日本語)」
http://forums.citrix.com/category.jspa?categoryID=176

5. ソースコードを確認(上級)

無償版のXenServerのソースコードは公開されています。自力で問題と解決策を見つけることもできます。

「XenServer Source Downloads」
http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/lp/lp_1688623.asp

We discussed the recent flurry of reporting on the fact that Novell is also developing for KVM, and it was good to see that Alessandro found this as unsurprising as I do. Novell SUSE Linux is, after all an enterprise Linux distribution. And KVM is just a kernel.org driver that comes with mainline Linux. So it's logical to expect Novell's customers to be aware of KVM and to expect them to ship and support it - like any other mainline feature. Indeed Novell's activity on KVM has never been a secret - they announced a preview of KVM support in SLE 11 and have a roadmap for offering full support in due course.

Novell is also behind an interesting open source project (that is not part of SLE), AlacrityVM, that aims to improve KVM performance and to feed back those changes to mainline Linux. It's not another hypervisor, but a way to help improve KVM. Type-2 hypervisors such as KVM have to bear the cross of lugging all the baggage of the host as well as the guest OS stacks, making the overall system sub-optimal for some workloads like HPC or real-time media because the Linux kernel scheduler can't help much. By contrast, the type-1 Xen hypervisor offers several schedulers, including a virtualization-tuned work-conserving earliest deadline first (EDF) scheduler specifically for a mix of soft-real time workloads with batch workloads. (As an aside, at XenSource we ran our Asterisk PBX as a VM on a Xen server that also ran our website and mail server, for a couple of years.)

Novell is one of the key contributors to Xen, and has a seat on the Xen project Advisory Board. But as important as their support for Xen, is their support for SLES on Xen. Yesterday Citrix and Novell announced a partnership in which Novell will offer full Support on XenServer for SLES and more than 4,500 enterprise applications certified as Novell Ready on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Importantly, SLES as a guest is hypervisor agnostic and Novell offers support for SLE also on Hyper-V and VMware. Citrix and its partners will gain access to the PlateSpin portfolio to help customers become more effective in their virtualization deployments.

Meanwhile Red Hat is forging down a KVM-based path, and while its official support policy calls for RHEL 5 Xen support until 2014, I've heard numerous customers complaining that Red Hat has been strong-arming them to switch to KVM before the users believe it is ready. Several told me they are considering switching to Oracle Enterprise Linux (for compatibility reasons) or to SLES. I can't blame Red Hat for wanting to reduce the number of kernels it has to support, and its guest kernels for Xen have always lagged well behind those of Novell and Oracle in adopting key patches required for stability and performance - one of the key reasons in my view that Oracle decided to take control of its own destiny with OVM and OEL.

It's important to realize that for a Linux vendor, KVM significantly simplifies the engineering, testing and packaging of the distro. KVM is a driver in the kernel, whereas Xen, even with paravirt_ops support in the Linux kernel, requires the vendor to pick a particular release of Xen and its tool stack, and then integrate that with a specific kernel.org kernel, and exhaustively test them together - rather than just getting a pre-integrated kernel and hypervisor from kernel.org. So it is entirely reasonable to expect that over time the distros will focus on KVM as a hypervisor. I think KVM is extremely powerful in this context. But ultimately the choice depends on how the end-user wants to acquire/consume virtualization.

If the use case involves the customer buying, installing and running Linux to achieve virtualization, KVM will eventually do a fine job. If on the other hand, the user expects to deploy a virtualization platform that is entirely guest OS agnostic, using a complete virtual infrastructure platform then a type-1 hypervisor that is OS agnostic (xen.org Xen Cloud Platform, Citrix XenServer, OracleVM, VMware vSphere) is what they will go for. I have previously made the case that OS-bundled hypervisors have both inherent advantages and disadvantages in penetrating the market: The opportunity is to supplant the existing OS footprint with a new version of the OS that includes virtualization. The disadvantage is that no OS vendor has yet done a good job of virtualizing its competitors' products, and indeed strategically is never likely to do so. Let's be blunt: thus far they have done a mediocre job at best.

A key point that many analysts miss is that Xen is intended to be a reference open source hypervisor. The "reference" part of this means that Xen implementations may vary, but they all will offer a consistent, high performance, secure, scalable hypervisor that is committed to compatibility with all guest VMs for both Xen and all other hypervisors. No proprietary hypervisor vendor will make this promise, and the Linux community has not made this promise for KVM. Indeed the very notion of a commitment to both backward and forward compatibility at a binary interface (virtual hardware) is generally viewed as anathema by the Linux community. KVM is part of a "Linux vs Windows vs Solaris" fight, and as such will end up with a footprint that is representative of the Linux footprint. KVM will not run Hyper-V VMs directly, as Xen Cloud Platform does today, for example. Only Xen is committed to complete compatibility at the virtual machine ABI, whereas every other hypervisor is betting that it can lock customers in by creating yet another layer of incompatibility between different software stacks. Pretty sad.

Getting back to Novell, and whether or not a Chameleon can change its spots, the answer is pretty obvious: "Huh?". Most Chameleons don't have spots, but they are great at blending in with any environment. SLES is supported and optimized as what Novell calls a "Perfect Guest" on Xen, Hyper-V, VMware and probably eventually KVM - great, that is, at blending into any environment.

This is just one of the verbatims we've heard in our "call downs" of the many Citrix Service Providers in our growing new business.  With a few hundred CSPs now signed Citrix in true form has once again engaged our channel. 

"We are proud to be Citrix partners", and "Citrix has really turned the corner and aided our business tremendously with the CSP program" are typical of the responses we've had as we meet with our partners to better understand their business and technical needs.  In response to our product announcements for access and load balancing using NetScaler VPX one partner told us, "If we never have to buy another physical device that would be perfect".  As we've discussed the continuing adoption of XenServer a partner said, "XenServer has gotten to the point where it can really compete with VMWare and we use it all the time.  Please tell the [XenServer] Engineers what a fine job they have done". 

When discussing open Internet connections and the delivery of applications a partner told us, "RDP is not strong enough [for application delivery] in an Internet environment.  Many hosting companies have been using XenApp but have not been able to grow [their business] because of the lack of subscription licensing. [Now] they can grow quickly".

Another partner said that they are working on connections to the most difficult remote locations in the world including satellite Internet to Oil Rigs.  The company they are working with tried every kind of environment to see how robust [the Citrix] technology was.  "They couldn't find any problems with our solution and now we are working on a major deal [for subsciption licenses] as a result".

Lastly and probably most importantly our newest CSP partners kept saying over and over again, "It is the people at Citrix that continue to make a difference to us.  No matter what the problem is, we know that Citrix will help us to resolve it."  In some cases our field SEs have stepped in to insure that the partners needs were met even in time zones half way around the world.  This type of dedication and support is unique to Citrix our partners tell us.

There are several internal projects we are working on for the CSP program and I can also testify that our internal team work is just as robust as the support we give to our partners.  I can't say enough about the "can do" attitude I continue to see from our Engineers, Product Managers, Channel Sales and Marketing, Licensing, Product and Alliance Marketing teams.  The people who work at Citrix see the need and meet it.  With new releases of products upcoming we'll have a whole new reason to thank the folks who make all of this a reality for our customers.

Keep up the great work gang!  The partners and customers really appreciate it.

Well, not quite, but as a physicist working on the grand unified theory would say: The arrows are pointing into the right direction.
While patient care is not delivered virtually quite yet, the experts in the field of Health Information Management and Systems will have their annual gathering in Atlanta in early March (http://www.himss.org) to ensure we'll get there in the future. If you haven't been to the HIMSS show yet - it is an exciting conference with well over 20,000 attendees.
Questions on health record portability, privacy, interoperability, and the plain old task to get physicians to warm up to the idea of using a computer as the primary means of documenting clinical information will be at the center of the discussions, while musings on whether the federal government is going to pay for your healthcare IT initiative are sure to be overheard as well.
I myself will make my way up to Atlanta to find out what's going on in the industry and I seek to speak to many attendees and presenters on application delivery challenges in this unique field. Stay tuned on these pages for regular updates and follow me on twitter for a play by play of my HIMSS journey.
Before I pack my bags and decide whether or not to include foul weather gear and snow shoes, please let me know what specific topics around healthcare IT you are interested in.

Twitter: @florianbecker

Florian

Hi XenServer Community,

Some things strike me as common sense. Here are some personal recommendations for VM best pracitices ...

1. No screen savers (however still good to lock virtual screen).
2. No power saving (i.e. turn monitor off after 20 mins).
3. No defragging VMs at the same time. Defragging is a process of a physical disk.
4. Schedule antivirus scans (bad to have 30 VMs in one SR doing intensive I/O at the same time).

Regards,
James Cannon

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