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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
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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.
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.
We are looking for presentations that address trends, technologies, needs and solutions in the following three conference tracks:
IT 2.0 Business Symposium Track: Strategic Considerations for the Business IT Professional
Sessions in this track will cover how application delivery and its underlying technologies - virtualization, application networking and optimization are transforming the IT industry and IT organizations. Topics in this track are intended for senior IT leaders. Sessions such as "The IT Department in 5 Years", "The Talent You Need: Engineers and Architects for the New IT World", and "Key Considerations for Infrastructure Consolidation" should be designed to help IT professionals survive and thrive in today's dynamic.
iForum Track: The Latest on Citrix Products from A to Xen
Sessions in this track will give attendees the latest scoop on Citrix products - from Access Gateway to XenServer. Topics that give attendees architectural insight, tips and tricks, and technical product detail - such as "Extending Virtualization to the Desktop" and "NetScaler for the Enterprise" to Industry Best Practices and Customer Case Studies - are well-suited for the range of Citrix customers who will attend this track.
Application Delivery Industry Track: Hot Topics and Solutions in Application Delivery
Realizing that no single vendor can address all of a customer's application delivery challenges, this track will bring together both hot topics and realistic approaches for making everything from the datacenter to the desktop work in the real world. Topics that provide insight and advice in this area - including "Making it All Work Together" and "VDI Comparisons" as well as "Best Practices in Green Computing" and "Considerations for Data Security and Compliance" - are ideal for the technical and business savvy attendees who will attend this track.
GeekSpeak - Geek Speak Live! Meet industry tech geeks, analysts and bloggers at the ultimate "unconference," where participants choose the topics and run the sessions. It's an informal forum for sharing ideas and learning from one another. Click here to read more about GeekSpeak Live, and here to find out the details of the GeekSpeak BarCamp.
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.
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!
Back in October of last year, Dell announced at the Gartner IT Expo a new solution called Dell On-Demand Desktop Streaming as part of their Flexible Computing Solutions. This is a bundled solution that includes Citrix Provisioning Server for Desktops. Here is the description of this solution from Dell.
On-Demand Desktop Streaming differs from similar offerings by providing centralized IT control and data security without compromising end-user productivity. It also incorporates the company's breakthrough EasyConnect™ technology, making client deployment easier by removing manual licensing and enabling an instant boot to the server.
"Dell's On-Demand Desktop Streaming solution can eliminate many of the security risks associated with viruses, spyware and hacking attempts," said Lee Steinsdoerfer, technology director, Zion-Benton Township High School, Zion, Ill. "We have fewer security concerns and can focus our resources on other pressing needs."
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Additional features of Dell's On-Demand Desktop Streaming include:
- Virus resistance, making malware less of a concern because each re-boot restores the original image.
- Image roll-back, which allows IT administrators to roll out a new OS or application and restore the previous production image if there is a problem.
- Support for up to 100 end users with one server, versus a blade PC for every user, making manageability and maintenance easier.
- Standard Image Mode, which can deliver one standard image across all systems for quick and easy changes while minimizing impact on network resources.
- Flexibility to easily expand, change or move users or redeploy data center infrastructure for other uses. |
The Dell blog, Direct2Dell put up a post and video of the new solution in which "Bharath Vasudevan and Aaron Prince from the Solutions Engineering team walk you through a demo of a 100-client setup".
(You may need to update your Windows Media Player to see the player with the post. If you see a red x above instead the media player window, here is the link to the video.)
Dell created a Deployment Guide for the On Demand Desktop Solution. Here is a list of components of the solution as listed in the deployment guide:
Hardware and Software Requirements
Following are the basic requirements for hardware and software:
Streaming Server: Dell PowerEdge™ 2950
Standalone server configuration: At least one Dual Core Intel® Xeon® 5160 processor, 4 GB of 667-MHz RAM, and at least six 10,000 or 15,000 RPM SAS hard drives, with two drives in a RAID 1 configuration and the remaining drives in a RAID 10 configuration. Dell recommends no more than 100 users per server.
HA configuration: Minimum of two identically configured servers with at least one Dual Core Intel® Xeon® 5160 processor, 4 GB of 667-MHz RAM, and at least two 10,000 or 15,000 RPM SAS hard drives in a RAID 1 configuration (see "Storage Sizing Guidelines"). Dell recommends that the number of servers allow failure of one server with no more than 100 users per remaining server.
NAS Server (HA Configurations Only): Dell PowerEdge™ 2900
At least six 10,000 or 15,000 RPM SAS or 7200 RPM SATA hard drives, with two drives in a RAID 1 configuration and the remaining drives in a RAID 10 configuration (see "Storage Sizing Guidelines"). Up to 10 hard drives are supported, with two drives in an optional Flex Bay. Dell recommends no more than 200 users per NAS server.
Server Operating System: Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003 R2 Standard or Enterprise Edition (32-bit) for streaming servers and Windows Storage Server 2003, x64 Standard or Enterprise Edition for NAS servers.
Clients: Dell OptiPlex™ 755 or Dell OptiPlex 755 FLX (diskless)
For the ideal experience with multiple or memory-intensive client applications, Dell recommends 2 GB of RAM to reduce the likelihood of memory swapping across the network.
Client Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (32-bit or 64-bit) with SP2, Windows Vista® Business (32-bit or 64-bit), or Windows Vista® Ultimate (32-bit)
Streaming Software: Ardence Software-Streaming Platform (Citrix Provisioning Server for Desktops), version 4.1 SP2(DELL)
Licenses: Through EasyConnect™ Technology, the Dell clients are licensed for On-Demand Desktop Streaming. Importing and installing licenses from Citrix are not required.
NOTE: A hard drive must initially be installed in at least one client computer to create the master client vDisk image. The hard drive may be removed if desired after the vDisk image has been created.
Dell also put together a Performance Characterization whitepaper for the joint offering. This is a very detailed document that includes numerous metrics under increasing loads, including client boot time, client retires, server cpu utilization, memory utilization and disk queue length. If you are curious about the performance and scalability of Citrix Provisioning Server in this Dell Solution, take a few moments to review this whitepaper.
If you are considering making a change in desktops and want to dramatically lower support costs, this new joint solution from Citrix and Dell is worth taking the time to evaluate.
The new Xen Desktop will have an edition that includes three components - The Broker, XenServer, and Citrix Provisioning Server. Citrix Provisioning Server (formerly known as Ardence OS Streaming) often confuses people when they first hear about it. OS Streaming can be a difficult concept to grasp for many people at first. Once you do finally see the light, your jaw tends to drop as your eyes open wide. This video on YouTube is definitely a jaw dropper -
I heard this from a friend that this video was a huge hit at Microsoft Tech Ed in Orlando a few months ago. Justin Zarb blogged about it on Technet.com .
Its a pretty great demo, having the ability to stream individual operating systems over a 100mb LAN. The Citrix Stand at Tech Ed has been very entertaining and had some good information about the product set.
This video has been around for a while, so many of you may have already seen it. You may not have seen this next video. This video demonstrates the high availability option for Citrix Provisioning Server.
Citrix Provisioning Server is a key component of the upcoming Citrix XenDesktop release. There will be an edition of XenDesktop that includes both Provisioning Server and the XenServer hypervisor to provide a complete solution for desktop virtulization.
If you missed iForum 2007, there was a great demo of Provisioning Server at the keynote. You can watch the demo with Mark Templeton and Pete Downing here .
In this video, Pete Downing first takes two CPS 4.0 Servers and instantly upgrades them to CPS 4.5 (while removing the local hard drives). Next, Pete will drag and drop provision 9 CPS Servers, 11 IIS Servers, 5 SAP Servers and 5 Microsoft SQL Servers (all diskless) in a matter of minutes. For his finale, Pete then streams out the XenServer Enterprise hypervisor to all 30 servers and brings up all the OS images as virtual machines. Now that is OS Streaming Gone Wild!
BTW, if you missed the "Jellied Cat" video that Mark T. played during the keynote, here it is.
How long before we have jellied cat cars? <grin>
I am looking for more content specifically for Provisioning Server, so stay tuned.
UPDATE: Some additional third party content on Provisioning Server from the comments (Special Thanks to Wilco)-
Performance of CPS server based on Citrix Provisioning Server (http://sbc.vanbragt.net/mambo/white-papers/performance-of-cps-based-on-citrix-provisioning-server.html)
Explanation how tow run a CPS with Ardence OS Streaming
Beside I also have a review of the product it self:
http://sbc.vanbragt.net/mambo/deployment/ardence-os-streaming-4.html
Also take a look at http://www.virtuall.nl/videos/Ardence/ where Ruben Spruijt published some nice demo video's of the product.
One more link I have come across - http://www.Ardenceguru.com
Update2: One more link. Here is a presentation on the old Ardenc site that covers how Provisioning Server works with Citrix Presentation Server.