You still have until this Friday by midnight to get in your video tech tip for the first leg of the XenDesktop Beta Video Tips Contest.
You have to place in the top 10 of one of the four bi-weekly votes to be entered to win the top prize - a 16 GB iPod Touch.

Your video could be as short as a minute or two, so it will not take you long to get it done. Follow this link to get the contest rules.

Most of us know or have heard about Virtual Appliances.  Mostly single purpose virtual machines usually running on some variant of Linux today.  So why is this beneficial?

-          Ease of installation - import the VM and start it up

-          Preconfigured - maybe not fully preconfigured, but much more than having a stack of OS and product CDs and bare metal to start with

-          Reduced maintenance costs - starting with a preinstalled and mostly configured solution tends to reduce the number of errors associated with the install and configuration when done from scratch

So why not a Virtual Application Delivery Appliance (VADA)?  A preinstalled and mostly configured XenApp or CAE server that already has a targeted application published in the virtual machine.  A virtual machine that I get from my ISV that I start on my XenServer server.  Web Interface and PNAgent are already setup with defaults.  I add my users to the published application and start delivering the app.  Kind of a normal virtual appliance, but on digital steroids to enhance performance.

This is already starting to happen!  Our Platform Development Group at Citrix has been increasingly having discussions with ISV alliance partners to do just what is explained above.  Some are doing it; others are looking at the feasibility of doing it with their solution.  They have an application, or multi-component software solution that they want to, or are required to deliver via Citrix Application Delivery, and they want to simplify the process for both the customer and themselves as much as possible.  Maybe the deployment of the solution is a standalone environment and not to be part of a bigger farm.  Maybe there are reasons that their solution should run on dedicated server(s) and they simply join an existing farm.  In either case, by deploying their solution as a VADA (I'll let marketing guys change this acronym later), they can greatly reduce their installation/deployment cycle, and spend more time on training the customer on use of the solution, thus increasing customer satisfaction (VADA Bing VADA Boom!).  Post-installation maintenance should also be lower, being a large percentage of the OS and application installation has been automated by creation of the tested baseline virtual machine image which already contains the OS, XenApp and the published application, all following best practices established in the ISVs controlled lab environment.

So why not just jump on this band wagon today?  As always there's a few "gotchas". 

-          Licensing - while a bit easier on the Linux side, what we are discussing here is Microsoft Servers and Citrix Application Delivery products.  Usually ISVs do not have access to distribute licenses for either of these.

-          Server Virtualization Platform - So which platform does the ISV support (XenServer, VMWare, HyperV).  I think you can see some of the benefits of having a standard virtual machine image format, and why it's good that 2 of the 3 vendors listed are working towards such a standard. 

-          Please add your "gotchas" below.

 Intent of this thread is not to indicate the right or wrong way to approach the above scenario, but to get your feedback and ideas on the concept.  I find this concept very intriguing.  So give us and the other readers of this blog your input below.  Respond with your "gotchas" or respond to others "gotchas" on how they should be resolved.  I'll be sure to send a link to this post to our interested ISV partners, so they get the input.

I kicked it off, help me finish it! 

References:

Satori Group VADA blog post

My first blog on Mobile Devices and The App Delivery Center seemed to get enough hits that I thought I would follow up with a video demo to give a better view of XenApp applications actually being delivered to a mobile device.  Also felt that it would be good to describe the setup used to create the video, so details follow below.  The demo was intended to show a "real world" use case that a lot of us have been through.  The script for the video is that your boss sends you an email asking you to perform a number of tasks in preparation for an upcoming meeting:

-       update a Word document

-       update an Excel spreadsheet

-       verify a CAD document is up to date

-       join a GoToMeeting

All of these tasks are performed in the below video.  Details on the setup:

-       A real ATT 8525 device with the 10.0 WinMo ICA client was used to connect to  a XenApp 4.5 server

-       The server is hosted on the internet, outside of the Citrix network.

-       The Web Interface changes referred to in my Mobile Devices and The App Delivery Center blog post are in use on this demo server, thus you get the better app sizing described in the aforementioned post (http://support.citrix.com/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=136&threadID=91629&tstart=0).

-       Soti Pocket Controller was used to display the screen of the 8525 on my laptop

-       When connected to Soti, an active sync connection is used, which actually provides the network connection for the 8525.  So the native 3G data connection of the 8525 was not used, BUT.

-       I used the EVDO Rev A connection on my laptop to connect to the internet, so even though the device has ATT 3G connection, a Verizon EVDO Rev A connection was actually used in this case, thus a WWAN connection is being used.

-       Camtasia was used to capture the Soti output on my laptop

So now that you know the gory setup to get this capture, the video is below.  Hope this give a better picture of use of the Citrix Mobile ICA clients.

Obviously some clarity of the video was lost during conversion and upload to YouTube.  But I thing you'll get the idea!

Do you have an interesting story to tell about your experience with Citrix products? Are you eager to share the wisdom you have gained about the relationship between business and technology? Would you like to discuss the valuable lessons you have learned about delivering applications with the entire Citrix Community?

Submit your session idea and you could get free admission to the conference ($1395 value) and four nights in the conference hotel (over $800 value) at Citrix Synergy in the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston Texas. Submit your session proposal at the Call for Presentations site now.

You can get a full list of all the technical sessions at Citrix Synergy at this link.

Tell your story, share your vision, make new connections with others in the Citrix Community, and increase your own visibility. We are accepting proposals at the Call for Presentations site until April 4th. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

There was a recent flurry of emails when a Citrix partner wanted to know whether they could redistribute our SDK libraries as a part of the integration with their tool. Brad Pedersen (Chief Architect and Senior Fellow) confirmed that we allow distribution of Citrix libraries with products modified using the SDKs. In fact, we encourage our customers and partners to embed, integrate, and distribute our libraries. This way, we grow the Citrix ecosystem and the community.

I have also posted the revised EULA on the Citrix Developer Network so you don't have to download and install the SDK to read it. The EULA clarifies the above distribution rights.
http://community.citrix.com/display/cdn/Citrix+End+User+License+Agreement

The first entry in the Citrix XenDesktop Video Tip contest has been cross posted to both UTipu.com and YouTube.

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The poster added several notes to explain each step of the video. Unfortunately, notes do not display for embedded videos from UTip.com, so go to this link to watch it with the notes that explain each step.

Here is the YouTube version -

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As you can see, UTipU has a higher screen resolution so you can certainly see more on the UTipU version.

The race for the 16 GB iPod Touch is on now! You can post as many videos as you like, and there are no limits on eligibility. I look forward to seeing more great videos like this one.

XenDesktop Beta Video Tips Contest

Are you taking the plunge into the XenDesktop Beta? Record your experiences as video tips for the Citrix Community and you could win an iPod Touch.

Announcing the XenDesktop Beta Video Tips Contest

The XenDesktop beta has been an an extremely popular download on MyCitrix.com (currently #1 in most popular downloads). Many people are pulling down the code and getting it installed in their labs. A few videos of user experiecnes have already appeared on YouTube.

Here is one video I just came across on YouTube  -

Citrix XenDesktop Performance Comparison

We would like to see even more videos, so we are creating a XenDesktop Video Tip Contest. Record a technical tip of XenDesktop and you could win an iPod Touch!

How to Win

Every other week, we will post what we judge to be the Top 10 videos posted for the past two weeks. We will take a vote on the best videos here on the blog until Wednesday of the following week. The top two video creators as voted by the blog readers will receive an iPod Shuffle. There will be four bi-weekly reviews and EIGHT bi-weekly winners.

You can post videos up until May 9th. Starting on May 15th, we will be taking votes here on the Official Citrix Blog on the eight winners from the bi-weekly voting.  The Top video winner receives a 16 Gb iPod Touch, second place receives an 8 Gb iPod Touch, and Third Place receives a 4 GB iPod Nano.

Contest Setup

Create a screen recording video of one of the following -

- XenDesktop Components Install

- Desktop Setup and Configuration

- Provisioning Server Configuration and Administration

- XenServer Configuration and Administration

- Application Delivery to Virtual Desktops - (Published apps on XenApp, application streaming, etc...)

- Performance Testing and Load Simulation  

- User Experience

- Third Party Integrations (Profile solutions, Microsoft Application Virtualization, Altiris SVS, etc...)

The XenDesktop Beta Getting Started Guide is full of different processes that need to be completed to install and configure XenDesktop. You could record one of these processes and add in some audio narration and notes that detail the steps and your thoughts on the process.

Videos that include notes (also called call outs) and/or narration are preferred and will have a better chance of winning.

Tools

In order to make these videos tips viewable here on the Citrix blog, we are requiring the videos be posted at either UTipU.com or YouTube.com

About UTipU.com

UTipU.com is a website that provides a free Tool (TipCam) that you can download and use to record your screen. TipCam gives you the ability to Zoom, Annotate (draw), or add a voiceover ( or redo a voiceover without redoing the video). You can then upload the video to the UTipU.com website.

Here are a few Tip videos on how to use UTipU.com

Intro to UTipU
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/405/

How to Install TipCam
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/1250/

How to Record Using TipCam
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/1251/

How to add Notes to Your Videos
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/1274/

How to Use Zooming in TipCam
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/329/

Here is a very brief sample video of the Setup Tool for Citrix XenDesktop that I quickly put together as an example.

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If you choose to use an existing tool you already have (Camtasia or ScreenCast from TechSmith for example) you can upload the video to YouTube. Click below for help on Uploading videos to YouTube -

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/topic.py?topic=10524

Tags

For both YouTube and UTipU, please use these tags -
Citrix XenDesktop Video Contest VDI

Please add a tag for the type of video (Install, Desktop Setup, Provisioning Server, XenServer, App Delivery, Performance, User Experience, Third Party).

A few times a week we will highlight new videos that are posted by linking to them from the Official Citrix blog.

We are looking forward to seeing your tips and examples of the creativity, expertise and innovation that is out there in the Citrix Community.

Good luck!

If you have not visited CDN lately, I suggest you give it a view. The team has made some significant usability enhancements as well as interesting content that is being contributed by employees as well as the larger Citrix community. For example, Vishal Ganeriwala has made a recent blog post that describes multiple ways to get a Client IP address from a Citrix session, in last few days the post has been viewed almost 3000 times ! , apparently lots of our users want to learn an easy way to do this. CDN provides a home for Developers and Citrix Pro's to learn and share ideas, code, and scripts for developing new products to integrate with Citrix or enabling and enhancing their Citrix implementations .

The new site also ranks the contributions by popularity, so a special thanks to Venkata Krishnan part of our Citrix Community who contributed a script providing printer driver information on a farm, this script now ranks at the top for popularity on our Script Exchange.  

You will also find featured content, such as new pages and resources describing the exciting new Citrix Workflow Studio , stay tuned for more  announcements around this product. The new site will also provide a location for sharing Workflow Templates and leveraging the power of the community.   

Let us know what you think and more importantly make use of the resources and contribute so we all can benefit.  

Have you ever tried to get the Client IP address for a Citrix or terminal services session and got stuck? I have had several emails asking me on how to do it. Well I thought I might just blog about it. I can think four ways to do it and if you can add to the list then please do via comments. So let's get to the business right away.

1. The simplest way is to use the MFCOM API to get a list of session and enumerate each session to get username and the Client IP address. Here is a code snippet.

Set objFarm = CreateObject("MetaFrameCOM.MetaFrameFarm")
objFarm.Initialize(1)
For Each objSession In objFarm.Sessions
WScript.Echo "User name : " & objSession.UserName
WScript.Echo "IP Address: " & objSession.ClientAddress
Next

You need to be an admin on XenApp (Formerly known as Presentation Sever) Farm to run  MFCOM queries. You can read more and download the MFCOM example here.

2. Use WFAPI SDK WFEnumerateSessions method to get a list of all the sessions on a server and then use WFQuerySessionInformation to extract Client IP for each session on the server I have written a Sample program on how to do it. Follow this link to download WFAPI and Csharp .Net program which enumerates all sessions on a server and their Client IP address.

3. Use native terminal Services API. Similar to WFAPI use TSEnumerateSessions to get a list of sessions on a server and then use TSQuerySessionInformation to extract Client IP address each session on the server.  To read more follow this link to download Terminal Services API sample example written in Csharp .Net.

4. You can also use ICO SDK and  GetClientAddress API to get client IP within a ICO session The ICA Client Object is the framework that exposes the functionality of the Citrix  ICA Win32 Client to third party applications.   The ICA Client Object (ICO) SDK enables developers and administrators to modify the behavior and appearance of a Windows 32-bit Citrix ICA client. The SDK is a series of documents that detail   available application programming interface (API) in the Citrix ICA client Follow this link to download an ICO example which illustrates the use of methods and properties available to get client network name and IP address information using Citrix ICO SDK.

Code snippet for ICO in JavaScript

function GetClientNetworkName(form)
    {
        form.netname.value = document.ICO1.GetClientNetworkName()
    }
    function GetAddrCnt(form)
    {
        form.addrcnt.value = document.ICO1.GetClientAddressCount()
    }
    function GetAddr(form)
    {
        form.addr.value = document.ICO1.GetClientAddress(0)
    }

 Citrix Workflow Studio is an IT process automation solution that enables administrators to compose, automate, and orchestrate rule-based workflows across the Citrix application delivery infrastructure stack. I've found a great Blog from Rich Crusco regarding Citrix Workflow Studio. http://www.frameworkx.com/blogpost.aspx?id=2&c=1128 . Rich provided excellent content and How To's.
 

For CeBit preparation I decided to record a small video for my SE colleagues, CSN Partners and customers in Germany.
YouTube Link: http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=67E7ImMC-R4

?

Citrix Workflow Studio has gained popularity in just few days and technology preview hasn't been released yet!. Google has over 44,000 results for "citrix workflow studio".

Stay tuned for more workflow studio videos and news.

Ian Pratt, one of the founders of the Xen Project, recently gave an inteview at FOSDEM.org about his recent talk at the FOSDEM 2008 conference. FOSDEM is the Free and Open Source Developers European Meeting.
 Here are a few snippets from the interview.

FOSDEM.org site

We have integrated the Citrix Developer Network blog with the official Citrix blog. Please update your CDN RSS feed link to
http://feeds.citrix.com/officialcitrixblog/group/cdn . The integration provides better stats on blog postings and provides a single interface to post blogs. Here are some stats on the popular CDN blogs

This integration also makes it easier for our readers as well to get all blogs at a central place. I am planning to post couple of blogs this week so don't forget to update the feed URL.

Windows PowerShell is an extensible command line interface shell and associated scripting language from Microsoft. To implement you own specialist functions you can use cmdlets for enhancing PowerShell. Cmdlets are specialized .NET classes, which the PowerShell runtime instantiates and invokes when they are run.
For building your own cmdlets I've found C# and VB.NET cmdlet Templates in the web. http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=256835.
(Extract the ZIP File and you should find 2 vsi files. One for C# and one for VB.NET. They are working well with Visual Studio 2008.)

If you now go to Visual Studio and create a new project select Windows Powershell Template as the project template.

Right-click your project and choose, add then New Item. From the list of items choose Windows PowerShell PSCmdlet. This should be the default choice for cmdlets.
Microsoft describes how to extend Windows PowerShell with custom commands in the following MSDN article.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/12/PowerShell/default.aspx?loc=en
After building our solution we need to install assembly with the InstallUtil tool. Open a Visual Studio cmd prompt, navigate to the bin\debug folder of your solution and run:

InstallUtil yourassemblyname.dll
Next load Windows PowerShell and type:

Get-PSSnapIn -registered
(which should list your snapin along with any other snapins currently registered.)
Next enter:

Add-PSSnapIn yoursnapinname
(this will load your snapin)
You should now be able to call your new functions in PowerShell.

In the next couple of weeks (if I will have time) I'd like to develop a cmdlet which allows you to do basic operation tasks within a Citrix Presentation Server or XenApp farm. Things like: list all sessions, get farm name, logoff idle session, etc.
Have fun
Christian

I am going to step away from a moment from my normal blogging topics of XenServer, XenDesktop, and Provisioning Server, and blog about a project I did as a part of my last job within Citrix. This performance testing project hasn't received a lot of airtime with so many other things happening since the project was completed, so I would like to use this forum to highlight these great results.

In the summer of 2007, Citrix and IBM collaborated on joint testing of Citrix NetScaler and WanScaler at the IBM Innovation Center in San Mateo, CA. The goal of this testing was to validate the impact of NetScaler and WanScaler on end user response time for IBM WebSphere Portal, WebSphere Application Server, Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino Web Access. Load simulation was provided by Mercury LoadRunner to simulate multiple users access both WebSphere Portal and WAS over the simulated WAN link.

In this graphic, you see an overview of the test configuration -

Though not shown on this graphic, a Lotus Domino Server was also built for the testing by the staff of the IBM IIC for the testing. 

IBM WebSphere 

In this testing, we found the following results with WebSphere -

IBM WebSphere Portal

(Click on thumbnail to enlarge)

• Citrix NetScaler reduced login for WebSphere Portal by up to 50%

• Citrix NetScaler reduced standard portlet loading times by up to 44%

• Citrix NetScaler reduced Document Preview and Save time by up to 50%

• Citrix NetScaler and WanScaler combined reduced document preview and save time by up to 90%

IBM WebSphere Application Server -

• Citrix NetScaler reduced end user response time for a shopping cart application running on WAS by up to 70%

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(Click on thumbnail to enlarge)

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NetScaler compression and caching capabilities were utilized in this testing. The SSL and TCP off loading functions, EdgeSight for NetScaler and App Firewall functions can also add significant value to any WebSphere Portal or WAS deployment.

For more background on this portion of the test, see this presentation from the IBM WebSphere Portal Technical users Conference.

WebSphere Portal Technical Users Conference 2007 Presentation

Lotus Notes and Domino Web Access

Lotus Notes and Domino were also tested. Using a simulated T1, the testing measure the time it took for a standard Notes 7 client (with default install) to download and open a 5 MB attachment. This took about 44 seconds. See a video of this test at this link -

The next test was done after the cache on the client was completely cleared and the Notes client restarted. The wan simulator was monitored to ensure the file transfered again while a WanScaler appliance was running on each side on the T1 simulated link. In this test, the download and open time was slashed down to 6 seconds!

The amazing part about this test is that the compression and flow control of the WanScaler provided all the acceleration. Since this was the first time the document was downloaded through the WanScaler appliances, the WanScaler caching was not used at all.

The final test for Notes 7 was done with the WanScaler client. This client is used for individual users, not for an entire site like a WanScaler appliance. The WanScaler client download and open time was 14 seconds (compared to 44 seconds for the Notes 7 client with no wan optimization). Unfortunately there is a problem with this video.

Domino Web Access 

Our final test was with Domino Web Access and the Citrix NetScaler. In this test, we downloaded and opened a 7 MB Word document in the DWA client over the simulated T1.

 (Click on thumbnail to enlarge)

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The first test was done with the DWA client with the Domino compression disabled (compression is on by default). In this test, it took about 75 seconds to open the document. See the video here -

In the next test, the same 7 mb document was opened (with local cached completely cleared) again, but this time the DWA compression was enabled. This iteration took about 22 seconds to open the document. Obviously compression helps a great deal, but executing compression on the DWA server takes away CPU cycles needed for processing user requests. See the video here -

For our final test, the DWA client cache was again cleared and DWA compression disabled. The NetScaler was placed in front of the DWA server on the Datacenter side of the simulated T1 link. In this test, the document download and open time was a mere 13 seconds. See the video here -

Some certifications were awarded by IBM as a result of this testing -

Citrix NetScaler in IBM Global Solutions Directory - Ready for IBM Lotus and Ready for IBM WebSphere

Citrix WanScaler in IBM Global Solutions Directory- Ready for IBM Lotus and Ready for IBM WebSphere

As you can see, Citrix NetScaler and WanScaler can dramatically ramp up the performance of IBM WebSphere Portal, WebSphere Application Server, and Lotus Notes and Domino Web Access.

Click here for more info on Citrix NetScaler.

Click here for more info on Citrix WanScaler. 

We had a good turn out for today's webinar on virtual channel SDK. Here is a link to download the slide deck.

There will be a follow up webinar sometime in February which will cover more advance topics for virtual channel developers. Please leave a

feedback on the webinar if you attended and let us know what you will like to see next in the series.

UPDATE: I have uploaded the recording you can now download it

Sign up for Citrix Virtual Channel SDK Webinar.

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/341397335

Citrix Developer Network presents Introduction to Citrix Virtual Channel SDK. Watch and learn directly from the Citrix experts. The one hour webinar will cover
• Brief Introduction to ICA protocol
• What is ICA virtual channel?
• Possible uses of custom virtual channels
• Virtual channel components
• Client-Server data exchange
• Introduction to Virtual Channel SDK
• Sample virtual channel demo

Title: Introduction to Citrix Virtual Channel SDK
Date: Friday, January 25, 2008
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

Shawn Bass wrote a good blog about the new PowerSmart Utility

In his blog, he explained his take on our choice of of using WinRm and server vendors's out of band management products. It's a good read.

One thing I need to clarify is that it is fairly simple to configure this version of PowerSmart to power on HP servers if you follow the user guide. We'd like to hear your experience and improve the tool and its documentation.

Shawn was right that if you just want to give the tool a quick try without reading much, the out of the box default configuration will allow you to try it without much restriction. It will even work in a virtualized environment.  Please see the minimum requirement section of the download page. The trade-off however is that this default configuration won't power on servers. A good default power on mechanism is hard to find because user environments are likely to be very different.  The included HP script won't work with IBM servers for example. We thought this default is a safer option and it can lead the users to think about the best way to power on servers. Plus this default makes it easier for users to have an alternative mechanism to power on servers. For example, users can use windows scheduler to schedule a script to power on servers. Yes, the HP scripts we provided can be easily modified to do so.

We thought about using Wake On LAN as default. But we soon realized that it has many limitations too. Please see the FAQ page for more details. However If you know WOL well or you can get some experts such as Shawn to help, it may very well work for you.  I heard a large company had successfully used WOL to save millions of dollars by powering off idle desktops. In the data center, I expect administrators may have more control over the servers and thus WOL may have a higher chance to be useful.

Please share your experience with others so that we can benefit from each other.

The wait is over. I am happy to announce that Citrix PowerSmart Utility is available for download now at this newly designed Developer Network site. Please visit this page for more information and to download the utility. Be sure to check out the related page section for the FAQ page page and new idea page page.

The new site makes it so much easier to post new projects. I love it. Please try it out. I hope you like it too. I've even left the FAQ page open so that you can edit directly yourself.

A great platform is of no use if no one is using it. We'd love to hear from you and we hope the new platform makes it easier.

I've also posted the same information at my blog post at official citrix blog site. Going forward, I guess I will post more CDN specific information here and general information at Citrix blog site and cross reference. It's the power of the web...

Many thanks to everyone who have contributed to this project!

Merry Christmas and  Happy New Year!

Ray Yang

I am happy to announce that Citrix PowerSmart Utility is available for download at the new Citrix Developer Network web site now. Please visit this page for more information and to download the utility. Be sure to check out the related page section for the FAQ page and new idea page.

Many thanks to everyone who have contributed to this project!

We'd love to hear from you. The new Wiki based Citrix Developer Network is cool. Please check it out.  I've even left the FAQ page open so that you can edit directly yourself. 

Merry Christmas and  Happy New Year!

Ray Yang