One of the new exclusive Windows 7 feature is the use of search connectors. Users have the ability to search remote file repositories on the local network or web using Windows Explorer. I've created a Windows 7 search connector to search content into the Citrix Knowledgebase.

Download the CitrixKB CitrixKB.zip search Connector and add http://support.citrix.com and http://api.bing.com to your trusted sites in your Internet Explorer. (Tools -> Internet Options -> Security)

Now you can start your Windows Explorer, click Citrix on the left favorite pane and enter your search string.

The Citrix Cloud offers users the ability to experience the power of Citrix solutions without having to setup and configure their own environemnt. The Citrix Cloud demo environment utilize a number of key Citrix solutions including Citrix XenServer, Citrix XenApp, Citrix NetScaler and Citrix Access Gateway.

Users can register for a demonstration account good for a 2 hour session, or expires 24 hours from the time of the registration. Currently the Citrix Cloud offers demos for the PC's & Mac's plus Citrix Receiver on iPhone and Citrix Receiver for Windows Mobile Professional devices. You can use the link below to register for a demo account from you PC or your mobile device.

Registration URL http://www.citrixcloud.net

When you're ready to meet your local Citrix Field team let us know and we will set up a time to show you why Citrix has always been and will always be the leader in simplified virtualization!

We've scheduled a Technical Overview Webinar for Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V at three different times to accomodate for all partners, we will record and post the Webinar online if you can't make any of these times on October 5. Click on the link below to register.

Citrix Service Provider Technical Overview - Essentials for XenServer/Hyper V
Monday, October 5, 2009
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM EDT: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/228005408

2:00 PM - 3:30 PM EDT: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/975636224

9:00 PM - 10:30 PM EDT: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/126336201

In order to connect Unified Communications (UC) with Cloud we first need to start from a model for business integration that includes the processes and data models defining how a business operates. The best representation I've found of this is a work by Paul R. Smith as shown in the diagram below (redrawn by Marcel Douwe Dekker). Note that there are two distinct areas that define the Business Model, namely Processes and Data.  Business Process Integration is the sum of converging Data and Processes and results in the requirements that define the total operations of each business. This is important because without the analysis of both sides of the business, critical requirements are often missed and a comprehensive Information Technology approach becomes difficult.
 

In the world of UC, elements of each (processes and data), are merged to "provide a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types", including but not limited to "communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, IP telephony, video conferencing, call control and speech control with non real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax)".  As shown in the diagram (above right) both real-time and non real-time communications flow up into the Business Model Integration schema to round out the entire business operations definition.

Unified Communications has been the 'holy grail' for large service providers looking to bridge the gap between IP and voice services over the past 15 years.  Now, with the emergence of Software as a Service and Platforms as a Service, Cloud Providers have the ability to virtualize a solution to fill the requirements of Business Model Integration, but many are not bridging the gap to communications. As depicted in the diagram below, by delivering VMs, Desktops and Applications as well as real-time and non real-time communications in a PaaS model, a foundation for automation can be built for the next generation of Information Technology and Business Model Integration.  The missing link in a complete service offering has been the integration of UC and SaaS.

                                         
 
Unfortunately, Cloud Providers have not been able to grasp the idea of Holistic Cloud Computing yet and therefore have largely been focused on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).  Alternatively, Incumbent Service Providers (AT&T, BT, Telefonica, Unicom, etc) are mainly concentrating on the UC portion of the model, and are not providing SaaS but have relegated this offering to companies such as Saleforce.com, WebEx/Cisco and CitrixOnline.  SaaS providers tend to be monolithic in their offerings providing software applications but do not offer IaaS or PaaS.

The demand is growing for a more holistic approach to providing ubiquitous service.  Incumbent Services Providers have the means (cash, network, and brand) but no sense of urgency and a misunderstanding of their role in PaaS.  Cloud Providers have the technology, but not the UC implementations.  Although beginning to move into the collaboration portion of UC, most SaaS providers tend to focus on a silo of applications and are growing so rapidly they have little desire to broaden their offerings. This creates a tremendous opportunity for Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cloud Providers to quickly gain market share as the demand is left unmet by larger players (i.e. Tier 1 Service Providers and Tier 1 Cloud Providers).  The key to capturing this market is to understand the emerging SaaS model that includes both Web and Windows based applications as well as incorporating UC offerings into subscription services.

Citrix enables IaaS/PaaS with our C3 technology. Microsoft enables a UC suite of applications. Once the redefinition of SaaS is embraced (both Web and Windows apps) Service Providers will enable services through the hosted desktop using the Citrix Service Provider program.

Have you ever looked into the App Streaming execution cache and said, "good grief!  What are all those GUIDs!"?  GUIDs are great, for the programmer.  For the administrator, they can be a bit more mysterious. 

I recently wrote a utility to decode the GUID data of the Application Streaming execution cache, displaying the decoded information to the console, but neater than TTY, it also updates the Windows Explorer display of that space so the "secret" information is exposed in permanent fashion and via the GUI, which is good stuff.   The utility is released to the Citrix Developer Network, in source code form so you can tweak it if you'd like. 

Download from here, look for the "Rade Cache Decode" link at the bottom of the page.

For background, I have written about the GUIDs before and how they are key to the streaming system maintaining the separation between "profiles" that you can publish and execution "targets" that the streaming system uses to actually use to run stuff.   There is more on this in this post.

Public credit

The idea for this tool actually came from very smart people at Sepago, Sascha Juch and Helge Klein, who I work with on Citrix Profile Management (the artist formerly known as Sepago Profile).   They also clarified for me that despite MSDN documentation claiming "system" attribute is necessary for this explorer magic to work, marking the directories read-only gets the job done.  Tested and true!  Thank you guys.

Update: Dieter Schmitz at Sepago is the gentleman who came up with the idea.  Thank you Dieter.

What does RadeCacheDecode do?

Application Streaming can store one or more execution Targets for each App Streaming profile. This level of indirection allows a single set of "Applications" and icons to be published even if more than one execution image is required.  This is common for a profile that supports both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. While the application is profiled twice to create two targets, there is only ONE profile to publish and only one set of "applications" from an Access Management Console perspective.  

A necessary consequence of this is that the execution targets have names that don't necessarily have any resemblance to the name of the profile from which they came.   Targets can be associated with execution systems for a variety of configurable options and these can change from version to version of the profile. 

That is, just because a specific target was right for Windows XP German yesterday doesn't mean that it won't also be right for English AND German tomorrow.   Even ignoring "one to many" advantages of execution targets to profiles, the streaming system STILL would use some abstract term to keep track of the execution targets. 

If you're editing a profile in the Streaming Profiler and you SAVE, all the identifiers of the execution units remain unchanged.  BUT - If you Save-As, you'll get new identifiers.   "By spec", the thing that was "saved as" is a New profile and will mature separately from the original - even if the before and after profiles have the same name.  Putting it a bit differently: Two profiles with the same name are not necessarily the same profile, the unique identifiers in the profile define the uniqueness of the execution units and in theory, or the profile itself.  The studious reader will see below where at least parts of this break down.The short version: Thanks to the use of GUIDs, the streaming cache manager will never confuse two execution targets, even if they come from different profiles that have the same name.

*What about the administrator?*GUIDs are there just to make the RadeCache space hard to digest.  After enough time looking at the Citrix internal showcase farm, you get used to the idea that the execution Target that starts with "1B3" is the MS Office 2007 profile execution target that is used for Windows Vista and Windows 7.  Type 1b3, hit tab and you get the right one.  Not ideal.  Here's what it looks like in the Windows explorer.

Okay, we know that 1B3* is the MS Office 2007 execution target for Windows Vista and Windows 7.  What are the other 5 execution targets? 

What you need is something to look up each GUID and to TELL YOU which profile it came from.  Yes, it would be BETTER if the streaming client itself had left you a clue, but it doesn't.  Notice that when the streaming client created these directories it KNEW what profile it came from and there can be at most ONE profile in the entire globe that has that GUID.  Did it leave you a hint, a small hint?  NOPE!.

Ahh, the fun life of being a XenApp adminstrator. 

HELP IS ON THE WAY!

The location of the application hub is generally "known" to the admin, but to know which GUID is associated with which profile, takes some work.  Once the running application terminates, not even the streaming client knows where the GUID came from.  It's just a directory that exists in the right place, but the link that says that the "1b3" target is somehow related to MS Office is gone, there's nothing there.  

Making it easier

For offline execution, the streaming system stores information that provides the secret decoder information required to convert GUIDs to profiles.  The Deploy space holds a copy of the Application Hub content and stores it in a place that has a fixed location (registry configurable and readable from the utility).  The RadeCacheDecode utility looks at the Deploy space, sees what execution targets exist for which profiles and uses this information to "decode" the GUID entries in the RadeCache.  This should make more sense by example.

Command line execution (readonly)

If RadeCacheDecode is run with the -r (readonly) switch, the utility processes the subdirectories of the RadeCache space, and for each tries to figure out what Deployed profile goes with that execution target.

Example output:RadeCacheDecode -r092b3450-e543-4541-837a-c374cc4e73cc_1 (GoView1067)

1b345768-25fd-45d4-b689-f3984f9221ee_5 (Office20071067)

274bd686-a305-45d9-a479-a127338586b1_1 (project20071067)

4d971270-cbac-4366-8c4a-b11f6f867a58_1 (AdditionalOffice1067)

76dc5736-0c5d-4600-a7e9-a3a41c3b5c51_6 (-not-deployed-)

a9984581-0e41-44b6-861f-b6d748dacb93_1 (Visio20071067)

Okay, we have now decoded the 4 of the 5 remaining execution Targets on my notebook.

Making it really useful!

Consider the technique that the Windows Explorer uses change each user's "Documents" directory into "My Documents".  This same activity can be used to permanently improve the readability of the RadeCache space. 

When thinking this was a good idea, I tried it out by manually creating files and while I was initially intrigued, my first conclusion was that it had negatives that outweighed the positives.  If you read the MSDN docs on the desktop.ini, it leads you to believe that the directories have to be marked "System" for this Desktop.ini stuff to work.  It isn't so.  Marking the directory readonly will do the job and with that, we have a solution!  Why is "system" bad?  Answer: it makes directories disappear from normal directory searches 

"readonly" works, so we have a solution.

This time, run the utility without the -r (readonly) switch and it will WRITE to the RadeCache space to mark all of it's subdirectories with "decoded" versions of the GUIDs.  The directories are marked readonly so the desktop.ini stuff comes into play with Windows Explorer and a file named "desktop.ini" is added to each execution Target's directory to create a "friendly name" to go with the mysterious true GUID_ver name.

The end result is that the next time the Windows Explorer browses to this space, you will see a nice version of the GUIDs - with the name of the profile placed in parens after the GUID. Sometimes it is necessary to force a refresh in Windows explorer to get it to reload the friendly names.

Here's a picture of the output

We're making good progress.  It is much easier to see these profile hinting entries than just plain GUIDs.

How does it work?

The entry above that says "not deployed" is the hint.  Since the Deploy space is at a known location, the decoder utility KNOWS where to look up the execution target GUIDs.  While the streaming client doesn't know what guid goes with what once the applications terminate, the DEPLOY space knows!  The Application Hub also knows, but unfortunately, the decoder utility doesn't know where THE (think plural) Application Hubs are located.  The Deploy space is fixed and given large offline streaming usage, this becomes pretty easy to inspect.

The utility loops through the subdirectory space of RadeCache.  For all directories that look like a GUID_v entry, it considers them an execution target and then goes looking for GUID_v content in the Deploy space.  When it finds a hit, the name of the containing directory in the Deploy space tells the decoder utility the name of the profile from which the GUID_v came.

Awesome!  Works good.

What's wrong with this picture

The studious reader will notice that the Deploy space is named based on the NAME of the profile that is deployed.  The Decode utility leverages this fact to figure out what profile a given GUID came from.

This naming in the Deploy space violates the premise that two profiles with the same name, but with different GUIDs are different profiles!  Dig into the internals of a .profile file (it is XML) and you will see that the profile also has a GUID.  GUIDs aren't just for guaranteeing uniqueness of the execution targets, they also guarantee the uniqueness of the profile layer.

Good news: the caching system is correctly using GUIDs and will "never" get confused.

The Deploy space SHOULD be done based on the GUID of the profile and all the sub-directories below the Deploy space SHOULD be GUIDs (with no version).  They SHOULD be, but they AREN'T and this means that the premise of two profiles with the same name, but different GUIDs are different is somewhat not precisely correct when considering offline content. 

In reality, this doesn't come up because admins tend to stick all of their profiles onto a single Application Hub and this means that the name of the profile is a unique key.  Still, know that this isn't right and know that I've been chasing a "fix" for this for over 2 years - so far, with no fruit.  The App Hub side is fine based on name.  The Deploy space should be GUID based.  Okay, I'm off my soapbox.

Enhancements

Good enhancements to RadeCacheDecode would expand the profile search to go beyond the Deploy space and also consult the network Application Hub.   The utility should also use the COM based SDK whose webpage it is posted in.  That is, the utility looks in subdirectories of the Deploy space to figure out which profile holds a file with the right name.  This breaks the separation of the profile as a programatic thing from looking behind the curtain.  I could have coded it that way, but it just seemed like a lot of work to open up a bunch of XML files to peek for GUIDs, when all I wanted to know was presence (is it there, or not?).

The "ultimate" enhancement to RadeCacheDecode is to change the streaming service itself so that when it creates RadeCache directories, it creates the desktop.ini file directly.  As of Streming Client version 5.2 (XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2), this does not happen - but now we know how...

To achieve almost the same thing, you could run RadeCacheDecode on a timer via some automated means.  It needs to be run with power so it can see and write to the RadeCache space, but if you do this, your desktop.ini entries should always be pretty much correct.  I coded the utility to WRITE only if the existing stuff is not "correct", so you can run it repeatably and the desktop.ini files will only be written occasionally.  This was probably overkill.

If you find it useful, let me know...

Joe Nord

Citrix Systems Product Architect - Application Streaming

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 | | |

There has been a LOT of activity on the VMware blog since someone took the initiative to ask the VMware community which is the best VDI solution on ESX, View or XenDesktop. I have been fascinated with this discussion! The opinions are coming in from every direction and I thought it was time to put in my own 2 cents, from a my perspective as Citrix employee. I figured the the easiest way to respond was to separate the facts from conjecture.  

Conjecture 1: You can only use Provisioning Server with XenServer.   
Fact 1: Provisioning Server is totally independent of Hypervisor. In fact, it is also independent of Storage type/manufacturer and doesn't even care what operating system is being delivered to the Virtual Machine (or endpoint or server). 

Conjecture 2: XenDesktop is more complex to install and manage than VMware View. 

Fact 2: Make sure you are comparing apples to apples when it comes to the install experience. They are more similar than the folklore seems to represent. XenDesktop is a complete package including hypervisor, single image provisioning, app virtualization, user profile management, delivery controller, etc. However, XenDesktop is totally modular so you only install what you need. If you want to create a little proof of concept just showing user experience - usually the first step for customers - then you could set up View and XenDesktop with the Desktop Delivery Controller very easily in a short amount of time. But if you plan to scale this environment to say a couple hundred users or more, sooner or later you will need the advantages of single image management, application delivery, profile management etc. Obviously it will take more time to implement these features of the product. It will take about the same amount of time to purchase and/or build out an equivalent View environment based on our experiences in our labs. When you look at all the components of View, you find 5+ different install points (see red arrows below) and the same number of management consoles with a lot fewer features overall.

   Fact Con

Conjecture 3: XenDesktop Virtual Desktop uses more RAM than View-based Virtual Desktop

Fact 3: Desktop VMs on ESX will use the same amount RAM whether delivered by XenDesktop or View. When a desktop is configured on a VM, it is assigned a certain amount of RAM. This would be the same whether you are accessing desktop from XD or View. Given the same OS, applications, and users, the RAM usage on the ESX VM will be exactly the same. OS Streaming may actually reduce RAM footprint but, at worst, it would not impact RAM usage. 

Conjecture 4: XenDesktop is more expensive than VMware View.

Fact 4: When it comes to pricing, remember you have to compare APPLES to APPLES and meet the needs of an enterprise deployment. I won't break out the spreadsheet right now but if you add in the price of the ESX licenses and 3^rd party products to make View an equivalent solution with app delivery, profile management, etc., perceived price differences in fact will reverse in our favor quite dramatically. And as always, you get real WAN usability and low LAN bandwidth utilization with XenDesktop - not something you can easily go out and buy as an add-on for View. 

I saw some other comments that were essentially comparing XenServer with ESX. Since the discussion was related to ESX, I won't get into the hypervisor wars (not this time anyway!) Let's be real frank about this: Many of our installs are on ESX and they work great! Some of the guys that posted to this subject can back me up on this. But we've also seen a stunning change in some of the market research - the number of cases where XenServer is being considered for desktops has grown significantly in the last few months, and the number of "ESX only" shops is declining fast. 

Lastly, while I differ with most of what one VMware Community member, Rkelly, posted re View vs. XenDesktop, I have to say I agree with his final point for the IT team in any VMware shop:  "Download the trial versions of both products and see for yourself" .

If you would like to see the discussion in its entirety (including my response), here it is: 

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/206485;jsessionid=AEA74E768250EACA071B6476BB003137?start=0&tstart=0

I came across this issue the other day while preparing for a Lunch & Learn for our support guys on Smart Access with Access Gateway. While I was clearing out some configurations in the AMC, this error popped up while trying to delete a web resourse. Not very informative.

The web resource was of type Citrix Web Interface 4.2 or later.

Running AAC 4.5 AAC450W004 (latest verion/patch), so thought I'd be ok.
After looking at my policies, filters to see if there was any references I found that the resource was still tied to the
XenApp farm at the AAC farm level.

AAC Farm -> Presentation Server Farms -> Web Interface

Once I unassociated the web resource from the XenApp farm I was able to delete it.
Knowledge Center article on the way...

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

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.

I will be writing a series of blog entries detailing recently released Citrix Knowledge Center technotes and hotfixes for Citrix products. The technotes are either newly authored or updated articles.

This blog entry will concentrate on Provisioning Server.

Technotes

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

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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Actually, 201,745 to be exact. That's the number of downloads we've had for the Citrix Receiver for iPhone since we launched on March 30th. That's the day Citrix started down the path of re-defining Mobility not as a singular device but as a strategy. I'm so excited to be at the center of it all. Around here, most folks call me Pete so please don't hold back. I'm the Product Manager for Mobility... one of a handful of folks here at Citrix that is driving our mobile strategy.

I remember back to late December in 2008 when my Director reached out to me and asked if I would take the lead on the Citrix Receiver for the iPhone. Like many of you my first response was "... why would someone run a session on a screen that's 320x480?" I accepted for the sake of the challenge and intrigue. Then I bought myself an iPhone. The light bulbs went off immediately and I saw the possibilities unfold before me. Then Blackberry Storm and Google Android devices started gaining headway and I was hooked. The development from the Engineers at Citrix Labs enabled me to see this was much bigger than the iPhone and "an app for that...". We needed a strategy and the technology that could let customers use these powerful devices to access virtual applications and virtual desktops. With the right software and peripherals, these "tech toys" could be more powerful than a full-featured PC when accessing applications and desktops hosted on ample servers in the data center.

Since then, we've adopted a fast prototyping and engineering model that utilizes short and multiple iterations. This allowed us to speed up delivery of Receiver for iPhone. Now, over 200,000 downloads later, we begin to see the fruit of our labor. Using this same successful model established just over a year ago we are realizing the benefits again with the Receiver for Windows Mobile devices which will be released this week. The end goal is to release Receivers for mobile devices that exhibit much of the same usability features and functionality as the Receiver for iPhone. In the coming months I look forward towards introducing new Citrix Receiver platforms. Stay tuned to my blog and that of Vinny Sosa for more information as the strategy unfolds. Here's to 200,000 and beyond!

Follow me on Twitter @PeteYaguno

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NetScaler Application Firewall devices are commonly deployed as a cluster of devices behind (hopefully) a NetScaler loadbalancer or Application Delivery Controller (ADC), as we like to call them now. Content Switching or URL based routing decisions are typically done on the load balancer, but some topologies require the flexibility of performing this action from the firewall tier itself. In this case, the firewall is directly connected to the web server tier without a loadbalancer in between.

The NetScaler Application Firewall can do content switching using the AppExpert policy engine based on any incoming request parameters to direct traffic to backend servers. Upgrading to the Platinum edition will make all NetScaler features available in an integrated platform enabling consolidation of server tiers. This feature is available in NetScaler 9.0 Build 69.x onwards as well as the 9.1 release.

Citrix is sponsoring Oracle OpenWorld! Starting on October 11th at San Francisco's Moscone Center, Citrix will showcase our desktop virtualization solutions and promote recent Oracle application validations with Citrix NetScaler and Citrix XenApp. At the event we'll also feature Citrix Receiver for the iPhone running Oracle applications.
Don't miss your chance to learn about our desktop virtualization vision and how our solutions work alongside Oracle solutions.

The following are the Citrix speaking sessions at Oracle OpenWorld:

Delivering Oracle Applications with Citrix Desktop Virtualization Solutions
Different users have different computing needs. Learn how desktop delivery solutions from Citrix can provide cost-effective application and desktop management solutions for all users.
@ October 12th - 11:30am (Booth #2137)

Desktop Virtualization - Five Years Forward
Desktop virtualization will have a pivotal impact over the next five years. Learn how your organization can use these solutions today and to plan for the future.
@ October 13th - 3:30pm (Booth #2137)

If you're planning to be at Oracle OpenWorld, attend our speaking sessions or stop by the Citrix booth (#229) to meet with the team and learn how we're working with Oracle to improve application delivery and user experience. Learn more about Oracle OpenWorld or register to attend here.

And...drum roll please...here's your chance to attend the event at no cost! If you're a Citrix customer and are interested in attending Oracle OpenWorld, we are offering 50 "Discover" passes to the event. These are available on a first come, first served basis. Contact the Oracle Alliance Team today to secure your pass and take advantage of this offer!
 

The Citrix Web Services team has been hard at work updating Citrix TV to incorporate some great new features and functionality. The latest version of Citrix TV was released last night and I think you will be very pleased with this update. 

The first thing you will notice is the new Home page. This page highlights featured videos along with the latest and most watched videos. At the top of the page is the option to browse by channel, video series or tags. Within each of those areas you can change the sort order of the display or search within that group of videos.

There are some new options for viewing a video series. From the Home page you can see the most watched series and the Browse by Series page displays all to the series within Citrix TV. Clicking on a series title takes you to a page where you see all of the videos in that series and there is the option to "Watch All" of the videos in the series without clicking on each video. You can subscribe to a series RSS feed and you can share a series on other sites.

Be sure to check out the updated site to see all of the changes. We are very interested to get your feedback so please let us know what you think.

http://www.citrix.com/tv

In the previous Provisioning Services High Availability Considerations blog, I briefly spoke about using Provisioning Services 5.1 with read-only shared access to a SAN LUN(s). Now I will provide a step-by-step overview of how to implement this feature.

Let's start with pre-requisites that I mentioned in my last blog:

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

Steps on the SAN:

You will need to create a volume on the SAN interface front end and then set access type for the volume to read/write, later you will make the volume read-only through NTFS attributes. In my example, I will use NetApp, your case might be different. The storage devices are called iSCSI targets and the clients are called iSCSI initiators.
 
Make sure it is online:

Now we move to the Provisioning Services server:

Initially, you will need to use iSCSI Initiator to login to the SAN volume on only one of the Provisioning Services server while in read/write mode. If you are using Windows Server 2008 the iSCSI software Initiator and components are built into the OS, if using Windows Server 2003 iSCSI software Initiator is available as a download package from the Microsoft website. In my example I am using Windows Server 2008, so I just enabled the service from the Admin tools.

 
Depending on your settings you may get a UAC warning, go ahead and approve. The iSCSI Initiator is our Provisioning Services server; under the general tab you will see the Initiator Name that you will need to provide as "Initiator" to your SAN. 

Go back to your SAN and add the "Initiator Name" to Initiator group:

Back to your Provisioning Services server, from the iSCSI Initiator Properties you need to go to the Discovery tab and add the portal by specifying the IP address to the iSCSI target:
When the LUN first appears on Windows you will have an uninitialized volume, therefore you have to switch it Online and let it get initialized. Next step you need to do is format the volume:Once you formatted the volume and assigned a drive letter/mount point, next step you will copy all the vDisk image files (.vhd) and associated properties files (.pvp) to the volume, no need to copy the Lock files. Before you copy the files, make sure all properties for the vDisks that will reside on the volume are set correctly (including High Availability).
Next step is to make the volume read-only. You can use diskpart.exe, verify the volume number, select it and then set the attribute to read-only. In case you want to verify if it was set correctly you can type "detail volume" and verify that "Read-only" is set to "Yes".

Now you will log off from the volume on that one Provisioning Services server, from the iSCSI Initiator click on "Details" and then" Log off..."

In case you get an error message about the volume being in use, go to Disk Manager and switch that disk Offline.You will log on to the target again and make the volume a persistent target.  You must log off and then re-login to the volume to get NTFS on the server to re-read the volume attributes, so that it will recognize the volume as read-only. Making the volume a persistent target will ensure the volume is accessible when the server reboots: 

Just mount the iSCSI volume on all the other Provisioning Services servers; it is now safe since the volume is set to read-only. Also, in order to facilitate your job, have all servers to mount the volume using the same drive letter or mount point; if not you will need to adjust that from the Provisioning Services Console. You should be all set after creating a store and pointing the Path to the SAN volume and adding the vDisk to the pool. Don't forget if you are using Difference disk mode you must enter a default write cache path for the store that does not point to the read-only SAN volume, this also applies if you are going to use write cache on the PVS server (cache on server disk).

You might be thinking, what if I am using a NetApp array as the back-end storage attached via Fibre Channel? There is no reason why this should not work since the LUN appears as a drive to Windows, so Provisioning Services should have no problem using it. When using Fibre Channel the iSCSI initiator is not required, so vendor specific software for the FC device should be used.

If you want more details about this subject, I encourage you to watch this TechTalk session called:  "Simplifying Implementation of Provisioning Services"

"Elisabeth Teixeira - Principal Engineer - Worldwide Technical Readiness

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

Follow me in the Blogs: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/elisabetht

The first releases of Citrix Application Streaming had isolation on the brain.  If you don't know what else to do, ISOLATE!  Don't let the app hit anything that might be important.  If you don't know if it's important or not, then it's important!  Protect it! 

This over protective behavior is being relaxed, the first step was in the XenApp XenApp 5.0 (Delaware) release where streaming client 1.2 was released which changed file system isolation to auto-ignore non-boot disk drives and soon, in the XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 release where the version 5.2 streaming profiler and client change the default file system rule from "isolate" to "ignore".

Isolation rules review

When a user stores documents to disk under Application Streaming, the isolation system inspects the file operation to decide whether that operation should be isolated, ignored or redirected.  Details on each of these can be found here in the Citrix documentation library and here in my previous blogs.  All rules are named from the perspective of the streaming system, so "ignore" means don't change it - let it go to the file system without modification.

What isn't obvious, is what the isolation system does with disk volumes beyond the boot volume.  This behavior changed in streaming profiler version 1.2 (XenApp Delaware) so that the over paranoid behavior of the original Tarpon technology would instead leave users data alone.  Notice that I'm assuming users put data on drive D: while the OS is on drive C:.  This change has been beneficial to most customers and really helps engage the desktop, though I have seen a few that needed this to not occur and this oversight will soon be corrected to be backwardly consistent - for profiles created at the 1.1 level. 

To be clear, space beneath the user profile is and always has been "ignored", which means the normal places for users to store documents have no isolation collisions.  It's the non-normal places that require attention.

In App Streaming 5.2 which isn't out yet, the isolation will be further relaxed.

In addition to ignoring non-boot disk volumes, the isolation system will change it's default rule from "isolate" to "ignore".  Notice that this will happen only for NEW profiles.  If you have existing profiles, their behavior is already defined.  

Example user of Citrix showcase internal farm

Consider an example user, we will call him "Nabeel", because - well, that is his real name.  Nabeel is a Citrix executive and he travels a lot.  When he travels, he does lots of presentations and ... uses Citrix Application Streaming to run MS Office 2007.

In the example case, he was on a 3 week trip to Asia where he visited lots of Citrix sites and lots of customers.  With the magic of Application Streaming, he was able to use MS PowerPoint "offline" on the airplane to refine his presentations and also update the PPTs throughout the journey.  All of this worked super! 

Presentations updated all over the world, presented all over the world.  Everything was well received, and then he came home....

When he returned to Fort Lauderdale, he used Windows explorer to zip up all the files from the 3 weeks of presentations and e-mailed them out to the people he had met.  The receiving people noted that the presentations were mere skeletons.  CONTENT FREE if you will.  Everything worked on for many weeks was "as it was" 5 weeks earlier before he put Application Streaming onto the notebook.  OOOPS!

My phone rings...

What happened?  Answer: the files were all stored to the \Citrix2007 directory and since this is not a space that is "known safe", the isolation system isolated it.  From the view of the powerpoint application under isolation, it saw the correct and current version of the document.  But look at the real disk and the files were their original selves.   BAD.

Step 1: Where did the good files go?

That one is easy:

Consider the layers of glass.  The answer is that the file is in the top layer of the layers of isolation.  Find it in  %APPDATA%\Citrix\RadeCache\GUID\Device\C\Citrix2007

Step 2: How to make this not happen again...

Harder.  Insufficient answer is to add an ignore rule for Citrix2007 to the profile.  No good.

Not a problem for stream to server

Before going deeper, it should be said that this problem never comes up for stream to server.  In a server environment, "users" do not have the power to create directories off of the ROOT.  Users can store documents to %USERPROFILE% and that's about it.  Server side, this problem doesn't exist.

Stream to desktop

Client side, "users" tend to be "administrators" and this creates new problems.  "Users" like storing stuff to folders off of the root.  This makes it really easy to know what you need to backup.  

The isolation system not knowing how to handle the \Citrix2007 directory isolated the operations and this is far too over protective.

App Streaming 5.2 (Yellowtail)

In the upcoming release, the default file system rule for new profiles is changed from "isolate" to "ignore".  The default rule set then includes \Windows, \Program files and similar "important" directories as places that should be isolated at runtime.  I'll add that the profiling time rules and the execution time rules have to vary a bit to make this occur.  The streaming system takes care of this automatically.  Profiling time remains paranoid by default, isolating most everything.  Runtime becomes much more relaxed - making the isolated application execution more consistent in behavior with locally installed, while maintaining "protection" of spaces that the application should not be allowed to write per the layers of glass.

File system permissions still apply

If the user tries to write to a space that they aren't allowed, the file system permissions remain in place.  A user will only be able to write to or read from the real \Citrix2007 if they have DACLs in place that make this permissible.  This is a file system statement, not a isolation system.  In the "ignore" case, what happens is that the isolation system sends the I/O operation down to the file system without change and the file system will then decide if the user is allowed to access those files. 

This change greatly improves the offline streaming experience.

Joe Nord - Citrix Systems Product Architect - Application Streaming

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 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 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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You may have seen our announcement today on XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 and Vinny Sosa's blog post. One of the things that Vinny mentioned is that we have opened up pre-registration for the tech preview of XenApp on Windows Server 2008 R2. You should definitely check it out and provide us feedback. I am the Product Manager for this release and I wanted to reach out to you, the members of our community and invite you to give me your feedback directly. After you sign-up you will receive confirmation of your registration and when the release is available we will notify you via e-mail to let you know where to get it, how to report issues and how to provide input to the team directly. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Also, check out Orestes's post and let us know your Windows Server 2008 R2 adoption plans.

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 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 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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• VM hosted apps - Lets you deliver Windows applications from centrally hosted virtual machines running Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The name is a bit misleading in that you can even use physical machines or blade PC's to host the applications in question. This feature is great for regulated applications and those which have performance bottlenecks, peripheral compatibility and general compatibility issues on Terminal Services. It's also great for applications where your ISV won't support them on Terminal Services. So far, everyone agrees that hosting applications on XenApp servers is still the most cost-effective way of delivering apps and that they'd rather stream applications to the users device before going VM hosted apps. But if you go the VM hosted apps route, you'll still get better TCO than native application deployment with remote installation. One thing is, for VM hosted apps, you'll need Microsoft VECD licenses, not Terminal Services CALS. Most environments will have a mix though so just keep this in mind as you consider it. Plus, we've announced pre-registration for the tech preview of XenApp on Windows Server 2008 R2. Available to Enterprise and Platinum customers. You'll want to check familiarize yourself with VECD using the licensing guide which I found helpful.
  
  
• Windows 7 and Windows Mobile support - In this release, we now support access from Windows 7 devices to server and VM hosted apps (we call these online apps), as well as streamed applications running on the users desktop (we call them offline apps). We've also released an updated profiler which includes Windows 7 as an option. Plus, we'll be releasing an updated Windows Mobile client shortly. Keep an eye on Pedro Llaguno's blog for more information on this one. Available to all customers or any edition.
  
  
• Streamed application performance - I interviewed Joe Nord a few weeks ago on this and he mentioned that the engineering team has really focused on performance improvements and bug fixes for this release rather than adding a ton of new features. In fact, when I pressed him on the topic of performance after the show, he told me about some internal tests where we saw improvements ranging from 22% to 33% faster initial launch times and 50% to 65% improvements for subsequent launch times. Definitely worth a look whether you're using it or not. Available for Advanced, Enterprise or Platinum Customers.
  
  

Enterprise Class Management - Better management of your application virtualization solution

• Power and Capacity Management - My personal favorite feature in this release. If you didn't get the chance to play with the technology preview, this feature will certainly shock you. It has the potential to save you a bunch of money on electrical expenses. You install an agent on your XenApp servers (whether virtual or physical) and Power and Capacity Management turns them on and off when capacity is needed based on rules you create. You tell it how much capacity you always want available on standby and it just keeps turning on servers as users log into your farm to maintain that buffer capacity. Plus, you can manage multiple farms from a single implementation. But Power management is only half of this feature. The other half is capacity management. This feature will help to keep sessions consolidated on fewer servers while maintaining adequate user performance. This is awesome for when you need to perform server maintenance - now you don't have to wait for users to log off or bump them. You can even tell capacity management to drain sessions on servers for you so you can come back later and perform your maintenance. You can even configure capacity management to drain old server images and replace them with new server images (say one with a new application or hotfix configured). Simply amazing. It's the only XenApp-aware power management solution available to my knowledge. Available to Enterprise and Platinum customers running XenApp on Windows Server 2003.
  
  * Provisioning Services - some key enhancements which you might already be aware of but certainly worth mentioning are multi-partition and dual NIC support for provisioning images. Plus there are some wonderful new fault tolerance improvements that have been made such as server maintenance mode which let's you transfer image management between multiple provisioning servers in the event you need to bring one down for maintenance. And of course, Provisioning services can be used to manage VM hosted applications. Enterprise edition customers can use Provisioning services to manage VM hosted apps only. Platinum customers can use Provisioning services to manage VM hosted or server hosted apps.

  
  * Service Monitoring - New server metrics make Service monitoring in XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 a must have. Service monitoring now measures the performance of XenApp servers running on XenServer by giving you visibility into the performance of the hypervisor. This will help you better determine the right mix of physical and virtual servers in your environment. In addition, you can now measure application start up time for streamed applications - a nifty feature for testing those new performance improvements we've made with your own apps. Service monitoring is available to Platinum customers.

  
  
• Workflow Studio 2.0 - This latest release is what you XenApp administrators have really been waiting for. We've finally got the API's you need to expose custom workflows that include XenApp. So as an example, you can now simplify the process of adding users or even publishing new resources. One of my favorite examples is creating a provisioning app that let's HR add the users they want to the apps they need based on the department they need to be added into. I haven't seen this done but it is possible with Workflow studio and a little elbow grease. You can even expose specific functions like session management features so that they can easily be accessed from your Windows Mobile or iPhone. This is only going to continue to get better as time goes on. And if you haven't heard, we have PowerShell Commandlets for XenApp in tech preview as well. You can learn more about Workflow Studio 2.0 from Pete Schulz, Product Manager and a good friend of mine to boot. He just posted a blog post last night on this very topic. Workflow studio is available to Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum edition customers.
  
  

High Definition Experience - Ensuring best performance and usability

• HDX MediaStream for Flash - This technology was available as a tech preview and Juan Rivera has blogged about it extensively. He also recorded a XenApp Expert Series video for us on the topic. Basically, it leverages the processing power on the users Windows device to render Flash content and applications. This offloads the server and also improves performance and fluidity for the user. Nobody else has this kind of technology. What's more, if the users device isn't capable of rendering the content, it will automatically fall back to server-side rendering. We call that Adaptive orchestration (nobody else gives you that either). It's available in Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum Edition and for XenApp running on Windows Server 2003.
  
  
• HDX Plug and Play for USB storage devices - We've supported USB drive mapping before. This is just a bit different in that users can plug in their USB drive even if they are already in a session and it will be mapped automatically without their having to restart their session. It's a great usability feature and is available to Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum customers and for XenApp running on Windows Server 2003.
  
  
• Profile management - Profile management has seen some bug fixes and platform support enhancements. Plus we've added a number of counters to Service monitoring that expose the performance of user profiles within your environment to give you a better idea of how performance bottlenecks in user profiles can be affecting the performance of your applications. Stay tuned to Dave Wagners blog for more on this feature. Profile management is available in Enterprise and Platinum Edition.
  
  
• EasyCall voice services - EasyCall is probably one of my favorite features that hasn't caught on yet but I know it will cause it has the potential to save customers money and make life easier for users. In the previous XenApp release, we introduced this as a Xen-based virtual appliance available to Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum edition customers. Basically, EasyCall let's users hover their mouse over any phone number on their screen and then click to call that number. This is accomplished using a plugin on the users device. The plugin communicates call requests to the EasyCall virtual appliance and then the appliance tells the VoIP system to call the user at their current location and then to call their destination number. It's not just a cool feature though. It saves money by using your corporate rate to let users make business related calls rather than using their residential long distance rates. It's also great for customer service and sales people to reduce the amount of first minute charges for misdialed calls. In this release, we added a feature called Find Me which lets users configure phone numbers that EasyCall will use to redirect their calls to if they are not available, trying each one in order. Basically, you can do away with the softphone using EasyCall. EasyCall is available to Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum edition customers.
  
  Let me know if you have any questions. Check out other Feature Pack 2 Blogs or you can also check out the resources below.
  
  

  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 | | |

Check out this recorded tech talk for coverage and information on the latest features of
Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2.

Learn more about 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 | | |