As my friend Orestes pointed out, I forgot to add the acquisition of sepagoPROFILe.... so here it goes.

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In a virtualized world, where users can get to their desktops and applications from practically any location or device, you need to leverage "user profile" technology to ensure users get a consistent experience every time. When users log on to their virtual desktop or launch a virtual application, they want to see everything just as they left it, with their own personal settings, shortcuts, toolbars, templates, desktop wallpapers and favorites. The more complex and varied the user access scenarios, the more challenging it becomes for IT to manage these user profiles.

User Profile Manager, available today as a Tech Preview, provides an easy, reliable, high-performance way to manage user personalization settings in Windows environments. It requires minimal administration, support and infrastructure, while providing users with fast logon and logout.
—

The download of User Profile Manager is available now...

Download Here

We were rocking out to AC/DC playing over ICA using Apollo, an YouTube video with audio and a phenomenal quality. Video taken on Geek Speak Lounge.

Oh Hail Apollo!

Cheers,
Gus Pinto
Synergy Underground

Sadly this year I missed PubForum, Rich however, made it all the way to Dublin and brought us some awesome pictures and videos, you can check them out on his blog.

I stayed in Fort Lauderdale really jealous of Rich. However the guys (AlexY/AlexD) who organize PubForum were kind enough to think of people like me and all those who didn't make to Dublin, for the BeerForum, ops.... I mean PubForum.

They recently posted all the videos and presentations for PubForum 2008, and you can do exactly what I did, download them all.

One session in particular caught my attention, Simon Frost, a colleague of ours here at Citrix, presented on the topic "AppReceiver", and he did a fantastic job explaining how Citrix will aggregate all its clients into one universal application receiver client.

You can meet all the rock start who put together this awesome user group event, during Citrix Synergy in Huston from May 20th to 23rd.

See you in Huston.

Cheers,

Gus Pinto
Microsoft MVP - Virtualization
Twitter/GusPinto

Today I had the opportunity to interview John Fanelli, the VP of Solutions and Community at Citrix, we talked a little about his background, the current overall team guidance, as well as the future of Citrix Communities and programs.

I hope you guys enjoyed this video as much as I did chatting with him.

cheers,

Gus Pinto
Microsoft MVP - Virtualization
Twitter/GusPinto

In this video I share a closer view of the new site on the Citrix Community named Citrix VideoTips.

I also explain a bit of the web application interface as well as how this site will integrate and expand the other sites within the Citrix community.

If you have any questions feel free to post them here on comments or email me: gus.pinto@citrix.com

cheers,

Gus Pinto
Microsoft MVP - Virtualization
Twitter/GusPinto

We just got our FlipVideo cameras, and to test it out Chris taped my office to show the world the cool gagdets I have and how hard I work... *grin*

You can actually win on of this cool cameras during Synergy! Find out how...

See you all in a few days

Gus Pinto
Microsoft MVP - Virtualization
Twitter/GusPinto

What are the rules for the contest?-         

• No video from the keynote.

• No video from any breakout sessions.

• Ask customers/friends/colleagues to withhold their last name and company to protect them from legal liability.

• Do not Interview any Press or Analysts.

• The video clips have to be less than or around 5 minutes.

• Citrix may use these videos for promotion purposes and can decide not post a video if we find the content inappropriate.

Can you give me few examples of video clips to record?
You can record interesting XenApp or XenServer demos or partner product demonstration at the exhibit hall. You can interview your friends, colleagues or vendors and capture their view about the Synergy. Just be innovative and record fun, cool and informative videos. Show us Synergy through your eyes.

How will I recognize you at the registration desk?
Here is my picture. Click to enlarge.

How will I win a Flip Video?
I will upload all the videos to YouTube and tag them Citrix_Synergy08_flipcontest. The top 3 most viewed videos on YouTube will win the Flip Video. The contest will end on 6^th of June 2008 at 6 PM EST.

I have a question not answered above where do I ask it?
Just post a comment on this blog post and I will get back to you

This whitepaper recently released by out guys in consulting covers the design considerations on how policies can impact your XenApp (Presentation Server) 4.5 environment...

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There are numerous ways to apply a configuration or security setting onto a group of servers within a Citrix Presentation Server environment. Because policies are so unique, diverse and customizable, there is no single, correct method toward policy design. However, this document will give the key areas to consider when deciding on the appropriate approach to implementing a setting using a policy.  
This design consideration will look at the following types of policies and the comm on practices associated with them:

• Citrix Presentation Server policies: These policies are defined within the management console on Presentation Server and only apply to connections using the Citrix ICA protocol but not the Microsoft RDP protocol. Presentation Server policies also allow for the configuration of Presentation Server-specific options like Session Printers and Progressive Display. The power of these policies is that they have the ability to be filtered based on users, location and even the method for launching the published applications. Many of these filters are only available within Presentation Server.
  
  
• Active Directory Policies: These policies are configured within Active Directory. They are applied to organizational units (folders), domains, sites, etc. within the Active Directory structure. A single Active Director y policy can consist of a computer policy and a user policy. A computer policy consists of settings that affect the physical computer and impact all users logging onto the computer while a user policy affects the user and is applied on all systems the user logs on to. Local server policies and custom policies are types of Active Director y policies and are described as:
  
  
  • Local Server Policies and Settings: Local Server policies are similar to Active Directory policies, except they are managed on a server-by-server basis and configured locally on that specific server, where Active Directory policies are managed centrally and can impact hundreds or thousands of users or computers with a single application of a policy.
    
    
  • Custom Active Directory Policy Templates: Custom ADM templates, like the Citrix icaclient.adm template, are Active Directory or Local Server policies used to make configuration settings. They can be custom registry settings or simply standard policies re-organized as two examples. The concept of custom templates is supported, but depending on the author of the custom template, supportability by either Citrix or Microsoft might not be available. Organizations will have to verify the supportability of custom ADM templates. Also, any custom template used might already have settings configured, potentially causing issues with the environment. It is highly recommended to test custom policies in a test environment before implementing in production.

The following five areas are the basis f or the design decisions for an enterprise deployment of Presentation Server. These types of policies will be impacted by the following design areas:

• Policy Type
• Policy Integration
• Policy Filters
• Policy Prioritization
• Policy Precedence
  
  

Download it here

Application developers are leveraging Ajax to deliver the next generation of Web applications. In this white paper learn:

• What Ajax is (and isn't)
• How Ajax applications differ from traditional web applications
• How Citrix NetScaler can increase the performance of Ajax applications while reduce the cost of hosting Ajax applications
  
  
  
  

Gareth James a blogger at DABCC.com did an amazing job of walking us through how to install and configure Citrix Provisioning Server.


                         Watch Video

To see more articles from Gareth please visit his blog here: Gareth's Blog



Cheers,

Gus Pinto
Microsoft MVP - Virtualization
Twitter/GusPinto

If you are attending IT professionals TechMentor event this week in Orlando then I would recommend you go and check out Bradon Shell's session on "Automating Citrix Server Administration with Windows PowerShell"

"In this session you'll learn how to use Powershell to make Citrix server management easier. We'll also walk through the Citrix road map and how Powershell fits in. We will cover several different common administrative tasks and show how Powershell can make these tasks faster and easier to perform, including publishing applications, unpublishing applications, getting application information, and getting servers online. We'll look at using the PowerShell pipeline, and see how to make your scripts output information that can be piped to other scripts. Finally, you'll learn how to use MFCOM, get information from it, and look at some of the gotchas you'll need to be aware of when dealing with it"

Brandon and I have recently done a webinar on PowerShell and Citrix MFCOM. You can view the Webinar at this URL
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/114744868

UPDATE:
I have got several emails asking me if there will be any session on PowerShell and MFCOM during Citrix Synergy event . There is no specific session on PowerShell and MFCOM but we have speakers giving advance classes on MFCOM SDK and Hands on training with MFCOM SDK during Synergy. If you still have questions regarding PowerShell and MFCOM then come by during my Geek Speak session and I will try my best to answer them

Out of curiosity I decided to collect the communication ports for any given technology within the Citrix XenApp platform.... It turned out I didn't have to look much further, I found them on Vinny's blog, posted a while back right here on the Citrix blogs, however his post only got a handful of views, since I think Vinny did a great job and tons of people need this kind of information, I'm extending his collection and sharing it out with a broader audience...

This is an extremely helpful list to have always handy:

Application Performance Monitoring (powered by Citrix EdgeSight)

• EdgeSight Agent to Edgesight Server - TCP 80/443 (Payload and alerts)
• EdgeSight Web console (non-IMA) to RSCorSvc on EdgeSight Agent - TCP 9035
• EdgeSight Agent internal communication - TCP 9036 (client-side database)
• EdgeSight database - SQL 1433 (configurable)

Client-side Application Virtualization -

• Streaming Client to Application Hub (File Server/Share) - SMB 445

EasyCall

• To client - HTTP(S)-TCP 8443 (PSync)
• To Admin console (non-IMA) - TCP 443
• To LDAP Directory- TCP 389
• To PBX - port varies by vendor

Independent Management Architecture (IMA) Services - TCP 2512, 2513

Licensing Service - TCP 27000, 27009 (configurable)

Server-side Application Virtualization

• Management Console (Using IMA) - TCP 2512, 2513
• Application requests - TCP XML 80, 8080 or 443 (configurable)
• Access to Applications Virtualized on the Server - ICA-TCP 1494, 2598 (Session Reliability)

Single Sign-on (powered by Citrix Password Manager)

• Management Console (non-IMA) or Agent to Password Manager Service - TCP-443
• Management Console (non-IMA), Agent or Service to credential store
  • Network File Share Credential Store - TCP/UDP 445 (CIFS) or TCP/UDP 135-139 (NetBIOS)
  • Active Directory Credential Store - TCP/UDP - 389, 636, TCP - 3268, 3269
  • Novell File Share Credential Store - TCP/UDP - 524  

SmartAccess (powered by Citrix Access Gateway)

• Standard and Advanced Edition
  • Client connections- TCP-SSL 443 (configurable)
  • Advanced Access Control (AAC) to Appliance communication - TCP 80 or 443 (configurable), 9001, 9002, 9005
  • Management Console
    • to Appliance (non-IMA) - 9001, 9002, 9005
    • to AAC - IMA-TCP-2513
    • Enterprise Edition
    • To client - SSL-TCP 443
    • To internal network - SSL-TCP 443, Native Authentication port (i.e. RADIUS 1812, LDAP 389), Native application ports (i.e. ICA-1494)
    • Management console (non-IMA) - SSH-TCP 22, HTTP(S)-TCP 80/443

SmartAuditor

• Management (non-IMA) - Use local console on Agent or on Server.
• Agent to Broker (Recording and Policy Check) - TCP 80/443 (configurable)
• Player to Broker - TCP 80/443 (configurable)
• Agent to Server (Metadata and Video)- Microsoft Message Queuing,
  • Default - TCP: 1801; RPC: 135, 2101*, 2103*, 2105*; UDP: 3527, 1801 (*These port numbers may be incremented by 11 if the initia choice of RPC port is being used when Message Queuing initializes. A connecting QM queries port 135 to discover the 2xxx ports.)
  • Over SSL- TCP 80,443

WAN Optimizer -Guidance provided was to get it from Admin Guide

• Appliance to Appliance - Pass-through native application port (e.g. ICA-1494, HTTP-80, LDAP-389)
• Management Console (non-IMA) - TCP 80
• Client to Appliance - TCP 443

Web Interface

• Client connections - TCP 80/443 (configurable)
• Server-to-server - TCP XML 80/8080, 443 (using SSL Relay)

Management console (partially IMA) - DCOM 135 (+ configurable high port range), IMA-TCP 2513, TCP 80/443

---

! Please be advised that these have been gathered from product documentation and can change on future product releases.

---

Nice work Vinny boy!
Keep an eye on this guy's blog!!!



Cheers,

Gus Pinto
Microsoft MVP - Virtualization
Twitter/GusPinto

I'm truly impressed with Microsoft Live Mesh services, it's an awesome approach to cloud computing, however, the service relies on RDP and we all know RDP is not fine tuned for HPRD (high-performance remote desktop).

I'm showing on this screencast a comparison of GoToMyPC and Live Mesh Remote Desktop side by side, and I add my thoughts on how Microsoft can partner with Citrix to deliver superior quality for this unique platform.

cheers,

Gus Pinto
Microsoft MVP - Virtualization
Twitter.com/GusPinto

Alright, latelly I have received quite unsual number of emails from readers asking about virtualizing and remoting usage when deliverying Microsoft Office 2007.

Office is the application most frequently delivered with XenApp. 

I will share two papers on this topic today.

One to show some of the many benefits of delivering Office applications with XenApp. It will also explain how XenApp can eliminate challenges associated with migrating to the new Office builds, allowing you to deliver the new versions immediately and at a fraction of the cost of a traditional deployment.

Download: Using XenApp 4.5 to rapidly deliver Office 2007



And for those looking for more information on how to deliver Office 2007 using XenApp streaming technology, you can download this advanced guide that has every technical detail needed.

Download: Streaming Office 2007 using XenApp 4.5



Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Gus Pinto

Nothing like seeing a product in action...

I could crank out dozen of posts but they would all be very superficial until I could actually show you guys this solution in action.

Instead of going down the written path alluding to the product's functionality, I will share with you a couple of demos showing some of the gained functionalities when OEMing the Xen hypervisor within the Dell PowerEdge servers.

Check out these two demos from XenSource.com:

Fast Virtual Machine Cloning Demo

Hot Add/Remove Resources Demo



cheers,

Gus Pinto
Follow Me

This part we will understand more about the OEM relationship between Citrix and Dell including factory integration with Dell PowerEdge servers and OpenManage Systems Management software.

Instead of typing it away, I will share a video where Simon Crosby elaborates on this topic.

cheers,
Gus Pinto

Dell has recently announced it will integrate XenServer as the hypervisor for their PowerEdge line of servers. I have gathered some more information on how this will actually work out...



Dell factory will integrate Citrix XenServer into Dell PowerEdge platforms, Citrix and Dell provide a simpler deployment and management environment that speeds adoption of flexible, cost-saving server virtualization technology, making it the optimal choice for virtualization on Dell systems.  

Highlights include:

• Quick Start-up - An embedded hypervisor and intuitive interface into Citrix XenServer Dell products ensure easy installation.
• OpenManage Integration - The only virtualization solution integrated with Dell OpenManage, Citrix XenServer management console allows users to monitor and manage physical and virtual machines from a single console, with simple drag and drop controls.
• High performance - With a thin layer of code, true 64-bit hypervisor architecture and full use of hardware virtualization optimization from Intel and AMD, Citrix.
  
  
  
  cheers,
  
  Gus Pinto
  Follow Me

It's been over a month since I came back to Citrix, so I decided to do a quick video and share some of my thoughts around the company I found when I got back as well as the latest things I've been working on...

Have a great weekend!

Gus Pinto
Follow Me

This is an in-depth look on Virtual Desktop provisioning and lifecycle management using XenDesktop technologies.



cheers,

Gus Pinto
Twitter/GusPinto

The March of Dimes Walk for Babies is in full swing. The Citrix office in Silicon Valley and the Citrix Online team have both recently created teams to help the March of Dimes Walk for Babies.

Wes Wasson, our SVP of Marketing, recently spoke at the March of Dimes March for Babies in the Bay Area in Northern California.

I know from personal experience the importance of research into birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. My daughter was born 7 weeks premature after many complications, and weighed about four pounds at birth. She was just about the size of my hand.

Find a March for Babies in your area.