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In this section of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve takes you through how to create Hyper-V virtual machines from storage templates.
In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In Part 2, Steve reviewed the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed. In Part 3 of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve covers connecting to Storage Systems via the StorageLink Manager console. In Part 4, he covers how to create storage repositories (SRs) with the StorageLink console.
Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress
StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar
StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv
StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V
Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials
Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management
StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791
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In what could quite possibly be the best quote from any 80s movie, the character Mike Damone said in Fast Times at Ridgemont High "wherever you are, that's the place to be." Well, that's definitely true if you're visiting the new Citrix Community page for Intel.
Within this one page you'll have all information on the Citrix and Intel relationship available at your fingertips...or mouse click so to speak.
Interested in learning about Citrix's latest activities with Intel? We know your time is valuable and that's why we've consolidated all related news, blogs, articles, videos, etc... into the feeds section of this page. We've also created an area that highlights all related forum threads and postings. Look for answers to your burning questions, participate in an existing discussion, or post a new thread. Epitomizing the true nature of community... this page is here for you!
Did you know that Citrix and Intel are working together to jointly develop a bare-metal Type-1 client hypervisor? Learn about and stay up to date on our joint collaboration of Citrix XenClient. View demos, read blogs and let us know what you think about this upcoming solution.
But it doesn't stop there! Get information and results on our joint product validation, benchmarking and scalability tests. You can even let us know how you're working with Citrix and Intel solutions together in our Community Verified area.
You're only one click away from all things Citrix and Intel. Stop by the Citrix Community page for Intel and check back often! And don't forget to follow us on Twitter!
To finish off with another Damone line, "isn't this great?"
In this installment of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve Umbehocker covers how to create storage repositories (SRs) with the StorageLink console.
In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In Part 2, Steve reviewed the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed. In Part 3 of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve Umbehocker covers connecting to Storage Systems via the StorageLink Manager console.
Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress
StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar
StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv
StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V
Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials
Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management
StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791
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In this installment of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve Umbehocker covers connecting to Storage Systems via the StorageLink Manager console.
In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In Part 2, Steve reviewed the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed.
Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress
StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar
StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv
StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V
Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials
Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management
StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791
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Long before Neo said "whoa" ... civilizations throughout history have relied heavily on the wisdom and information provided by oracles.
In The Matrix, the Oracle says "if you can't find the answer, then I'm afraid there may be no tomorrow for any of us." Well, maybe that's a bit extreme in this case... but with the amount of information available within the Citrix Community page for Oracle, I don't think we'll have to worry about finding out.
Not only will this site provide a variety of information and wisdom on the Citrix and Oracle relationship, but you will also have to opportunity to contribute and become an "oracle" yourself. You can even view Oracle apps working on the iPhone with Citrix Receiver. Consider this page a library of resources for all things Citrix and Oracle...or a "shrine of information" so to speak.
From this page you'll have access to news, blogs, community discussions, and Tweets from the Citrix and Oracle communities as well as third-party sites. This information is aggregated into a single area within the page and provides all related information in a simple-to-use format. You can also follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute information.
Got questions? Related discussion forums are also consolidated within this page. Review existing discussion postings and threads to find answers to commonly asked questions. You can even join in the discussion and post new threads. Got knowledge? Become a contributor! The true nature of community is to share information. Remember, it takes a village...or a community in this instance.
We also want to know if and how you're using Oracle in your Citrix environments. Let us know in the Community Verified area. It's easy to use and takes only minutes of your time. Simply identify the Oracle application and Citrix product and you're done!
According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, "each man is a hero and an oracle to somebody." So be a hero within the community and become an oracle for the Citrix & Oracle relationship! Participate in the Citrix Community page for Oracle.
There is a new Express Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V, and it is FREE! Now you can quickly and easily combine the power of Hyper-V- System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Essentials for Hyper-V Express Edition.
http://citrix.com/ehvexpress
Citrix Systems, Inc. is unveiling a new free Express Edition to its Citrix Essentials for Microsoft Hyper-V lineup. The new Express Edition is immediately available for download and includes the game-changing Citrix StorageLink technology. With StorageLink, Windows administrators can dramatically simplify their storage management processes with quick and easy storage configuration and provisioning for their Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center virtual infrastructures. Citrix Essentials helps administrators take full advantage of powerful storage-based features like deduplication, thin provisioning, cloning, snapshots and replication - features that otherwise hide behind layers of proprietary, specialized virtualization storage file systems.
The new free Express Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V is designed specifically for Windows IT professional in the early phases of Hyper-V adoption. It will allow them to take advantage of the benefits of shared storage with Hyper-V and simplify storage management in virtual server environments.
The StorageLink technology featured in all editions of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V provides Windows IT Professionals with the tools necessary to easily manage Hyper-V storage in iSCSI and Fibre Channel (FC) SAN environments, enabling them to leverage advanced storage technologies from leading storage vendors that deliver powerful features for performance, storage efficiency, and business continuity. Industry estimates have shown that by applying storage-saving technologies like deduplication and thin provisioning , Hyper-V customers can often shrink their storage footprint by upwards of 50 percent depending on the nature of their workloads. In cases where virtual machines (VMs) are highly duplicated, like virtual desktop images, many have seen a nearly 90 percent reduction in storage consumption.
The Express Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V supports up to two Hyper-V servers and one storage array. Organizations that download the free Express Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V can easily upgrade to the Enterprise or Platinum Editions. Listed at $1500 and $3000 per server, respectively, the Enterprise and Platinum Editions add dynamic server provisioning, automated lab management, automated stage management, and workflow orchestration.
Of course, Express Edition provides just a small sampling of what is possible to achieve with Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. The Enterprise Edition includes the full version of StorageLink, Dynamic Provisioning Services for Server Operating Systems, and complete WorkFlow Orchestration.
The Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V adds in Lab Manager to provide a complete cost effective virtual lab solution, and Stage Manager to automate the process of migrating newly tested and verified configurations from the virtual lab directly into production. You can download a evaluation copy of the Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V at http://www.citrix.com/ehv.
Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress
StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar
StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv
StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V
Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials
Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management
StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791
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GoToMyPC is adding support for Mac OS X!
I've been been anxiously waiting for "GoToMyMac" since I converted to Macs, and recently Citrix Online made one of my "Mac-user wishes" come true, "GoToMyMac" err GoToMyPC for Mac beta was privately rolled out to some existing customers, aka beta testers.
The official GA date is not available yet, however the development team keeps cranking out awesome features, nearly matching the ones already available on the PC today. In the meantime allow me to share a brief demo video showcasing the new Mac support feature.
best,
Gus
twitter.com/guspinto
This is a deck I used recently to explain Cloud Computing, Citrix and to demystify the C3 offering at iForum Sydney and Melbourne (May 2009). I know that this flies somewhat in the face of those who believe that the definition of cloud is completely and globally understood, but the reality is that "Cloud" is stupidly overloaded. This is my attempt to unpack cloud computing, and to illustrate which parts are most relevant to Citrix, C3 and the enterprise IT shop. Let me know what you think.
– Cheers! Michael
Here are some other important links on Citrix C3.
Microsoft, Intel & Citrix: Dynamics of Enterprise Virtualization
An interactive discussion led by Doug Brown
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Attend this lively discussion with virtualization experts David Greschler, Iddo Kadim & Simon Crosby on the dynamics of enterprise virtualization. Register here.
Topics include:
• Virtualization in the enterprise & upcoming technologies
• Moving beyond consolidation & getting to Dynamic Datacenters
• Cloud computing & how does virtualization fit in
• Desktop Virtualization opportunities, barriers & adoption challenges
Date: Monday, June 22, 2009
Time: 1:00 PM Eastern; 10:00 AM Pacific
Don't miss this opportunity to hear perspectives on the current & future virtualization landscape and what this means for the enterprise.
Register here now.
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Are YOU ready to learn how Citrix can lower your TCO by up to 40%? Become PART of the BUZZ instead of just hearing it!!! Contact us so we can set up a 60min onsite educational meeting so YOU can learn what all the BUZZ is about!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello All! My name is Jessica Demers and I am the Citrix Field Sales Manager responsible for all NON-Federal Citrix business in Maryland & Washington, DC.
Our PRE-SALES Team:
Jose Parada | Lead Territory Manager | 954.229.6849 | jose.parada@citrix.com
- Drives Operational Territory Management | Citrix Florida Headquarter Office
- Conduit for All Citrix Products & Services
Jessica Demers | Field Sales Manager | 410.533.2322 | jessica.demers@citrix.com
- Drives Strategic Territory Management | Local
- Conduit for All Citrix Products & Services
Andrew Kloman | Systems Engineer | 202.579.5231 | andrew.kloman@citrix.com
- Drives Technical Awareness, Helps Architect Solutions, & Runs DC|MD Citrix User Group | Local
- Conduit for ALL PRE-SALES Citrix Products & Services
Lowell Malesky | Application Networking Sales Manager | 703.338.0598 | lowell.malesky@citrix.com
- Drives Strategic Territory Management | Local
- Conduit for All Application Networking Solutions
Sri Subbian | Application Networking Systems Engineer | 301.530.8117 | sri.subbian@citrix.com
- Drives Technical Awareness & Helps Architect Solutions | Local
- Conduit for ALL PRE-SALES Application Networking Solutions
Dan Kuchem | Channel Development Manager | 703.738.8846| daniel.kuchem@citrix.com
- Drives Channel Development & Management | Local
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DC_MD_CitrixRep
The new Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer™ (CCEE) for Virtualization and Citrix Certified Integration Architect™ (CCIA) for Virtualization requirements are now available on www.citrixtraining.ccom. The CCEE and CCIA expand on the administrator-level certifications and provide IT professionals with a clear path for advanced certification in virtualization technologies.
Update paths are available for candidates holding a legacy Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator™ (CCEA) or CCIA certification. With just one or two exams, candidates holding the CCEA or CCIA can easily update to the new CCEE and CCIA for Virtualization.
To learn more, click here
Citrix XenDesktop is a finalist in the Virtualization category for the "Best of TechEd" award from Windows ITPro magazine.
If you are attending TechED 2009 in Los Angeles, please vote for XenDesktop as the "Best of TechED" at this link -
http://windowsitpro.com/awards/teched_finalists_2009.html
(you must be logged into to MSTechEd.com and attending the event to vote).
Follow the Twitter feed for "Best of TechEd 2009" here.
Follow the official TechEd 2009 Twitter feed here
NetScaler Virtual Machine
Today, Citrix announced a virtual appliance version of their NetScaler Application Delivery Controller - the NetScaler VPX, the first of its kind. All of the functions that traditionally were performed in the datacenter can now be performed in the domain of virtual machines. Load balancing, application acceleration, security and offload functionality are now available as a XenServer virtual appliance.
Industry's first Virtual Load Balancer
No other vendor offers this type of software as a Virtual Appliance. By making advanced web application delivery functionality available as a virtual appliance, NetScaler VPX drives convergence of virtualization and networking. In the continued movement toward simple and affordable convergence, NetScaler VPX makes sophisticated application delivery functionality available to any size organization. This breaks down deployment barriers for all types of organizations.
What used to run on a proprietary piece of hardware now runs on any hardware that supports virtualization. Because there is no physical appliance to ship, install or move VPX can be installed at a moment's notice, on any server running XenServer.
The challenge
- Check out The Great NetScaler VPX challenge and get $10,000.
- The Tech Preview will be downloadable from citrix on May 18th.
- If you are running VMWare, you need to run Xen - and why wouldn't you, Xen is free.
NetScaler VPX
When we talk about the Citrix Delivery Center, we are talking about an end-to-end application delivery infrastructure solution. A solution which represents a family of Citrix product lines: Citrix XenServer, Citrix XenApp, Citrix NetScaler and Citrix XenDesktop. It also represents products that add integrated security, management and networking functions, products such as: Citrix Access Gateway, Citrix Branch Repeater and Citrix Desktop Receiver. Overall, the Citrix Delivery Center gives customers the power to adopt virtualization that meets their specific requirements. Customers can choose to optimize delivery of their Web Applications, Windows Applications, Desktop Delivery, Data Center Optimization - individually or in combination. How about all of them?
Now according to a recent Forrester study "49% of enterprises surveyed that are implementing or interested in virtualization solutions indicate that improving disaster recovery/business continuity continues to be a very important motivation for adoption". So what better way to pique their virtualization/business continuity interest than by demonstrating an end-to-end Citrix and Marathon combined solution onsite at the world's largest business software company SAP.
Recently the Citrix Worldwide Consulting Solutions and Business Development teams did just that. We built and demonstrated a Proof of Concept environment that delivered a highly available and virtualized SAP infrastructure using a complete Citrix Delivery Center solution. Within a two week period, the Citrix, Marathon, and SAP teams built and demonstrated a complete Proof of Concept environment. For a quick project overview please refer the data sheet here.
So how did we do it....First we virtualized every Citrix Delivery Center component and the backend SAP NetWeaver application servers using Citrix XenServer. Then we showcased what a remote SAP NetWeaver user would experience accessing the SAP NetWeaver Portal via Citrix Delivery Center while focusing on the high availability/fault tolerant solutions Citrix and Marathon provide. Finally, we simulated a complete failure in the primary site and used the combined NetScaler Global Server Load Balancing feature in conjunction with Marathon's everRun DR product to failover SAP to a secondary data center.
Let's go through the steps that describe the demonstrated user experience:
- Remote SAP NetWeaver Portal user securely connects to the SSL VPN provided by Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition.
- All connections from the remote user client are accelerated using Citrix Branch Repeater Plug-in.
- Remote user is seamlessly presented with the Citrix Web Interface website with on-demand access to virtual desktops, applications, bookmarks and other corporate resources.
- From the Citrix Web Interface page, the remote user launches a virtual Windows XP desktop hosted by Citrix XenDesktop. This desktop is a private virtual image of Windows XP running within a secure data center and maintained from a centralized Windows XP image provisioned dynamically with Citrix Provisioning Server.
- From the secure virtual Windows XP desktop, the remote user launches a published SAP NetWeaver Portal delivered by Citrix XenApp. The published NetWeaver Portal application is separated from the virtual Windows XP Operating System allowing optimal user performance.
- As the remote user navigates the application, all SAP NetWeaver Portal connections pass through a Citrix NetScaler configured to optimize SAP NetWeaver Portal application delivery.
We also demonstrated the following high availability and recoverability solutions provided by Citrix XenServer and Marathon everRun software:
- Level 1: XenServer delivers out-of-the-box high availability, including cost-effective core failover, recovery and restart capabilities for SAP applications running in the virtual environment.
- Level 2: Marathon everRun VM delivers high availability of component-level fault tolerance, eliminating downtime caused by I/O component failures and guaranteeing recovery from system failures.
- Level 3: Marathon everRun VM's Lockstep Technology delivers continuous availability from system-level fault tolerance, eliminating data loss, downtime and transaction loss.
- Disaster Recovery: Marathon everRun DR provides a robust and flexible remote disaster recovery solution providing automated and reliable long-distance protection for critical data and applications, in this case, SAP.
Each piece of the demonstration was broken down into small video segments for this blog. The first video features the Citrix Delivery Center environment for SAP from top to bottom including the remote user login, virtual desktop access, and SAP NetWeaver Portal launch. Then a complete site failure is simulated and the secondary site recovery is shown using Marathon's everRun DR solution with Citrix NetScaler's Global Server Load Balancing feature.
Stay tuned for a detailed reference architecture and video blogs on different High Availability scenarios including everRun VM also demonstrated at SAP Co-Innovation Lab.
Here's the video:
HP just announced their next generation G6 ProLiant and BladeSystem servers powered by Intel Xeon 5500 (Nehalem) processors. My engineering friends suggested that the new Hyper Threading Technology in the 5500 processors is worth reading up on ... see the link in Pat Gelsinger's blog post for more on this front. Previously we talked about HP testing, and new performance characterization work just completed by HP indicates that a 2P HP BL460c G6 server equipped with the Intel Xeon X5570 can provide optimal support for up to 402 users when running HP's most aggressive test workload in a 64-bit HP Server Based Computing environment. The HP test results demonstrated that Hyper-Threading Technology was able to enhance performance by 41%, and that Nehalem provides a 2x performance improvement over the previous platform. Get all the details for yourself in the HP paper here. This BL460c G6 paper is the latest in HP's extensive library of performance characterization papers covering XenApp and XenServer with HP servers.
The HP G6 product release includes six new HP ProLiant servers certified with the new free Citrix XenServer. XenServer is certified on the: HP ProLiant BL490c G6, BL460c G6, DL380 G6, DL360 G6, ML370 G6, and the ML350 G6 models. This takes the total number of XenServer certified ProLiant models to 27!
Yup - HP now offers no less than 27 server platforms certified with XenServer!
Citrix Education is looking for a team of Citrix Engineers to assist in developing questions for the upcoming exam required for Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer™ (CCEE) certification. This is a great opportunity for Citrix Engineers who implement XenApp, XenServer, XenDesktop or Provisioning Server as a virtual solution or for Subject Matter Expert s(SMEs) in Citrix virtualization technologies.
Seven (7) Citrix Engineers will be selected to attend a five-day onsite Item Development Workshop (IDW) at Citrix headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida from Monday, April 20th through Friday, April 24th. During the IDW, participants will help develop questions and simulations to be included in the upcoming exam. Due to the nature of the workshop, participants must attend in person.
Participants will receive credit as a SME for the developed exam, free copies of related courseware and a voucher for this exam.
Participants in the workshop will:
- Receive training on how to write questions for certification exams
- Work alongside our Exam Developers to develop questions
- Work alongside other field experts to review, modify and finalize questions written by other participants of the workshop
No preparation is necessary; simply bring your expertise! If travel is an issue, Citrix Education is offering a limited number of travel scholarships available on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Criteria for IDW participation
In order to be considered for participation, participants must:
- Have Windows Server 2008 and/or Linux operating system experience
- Have Active Directory knowledge
- Have advanced Citrix XenApp, XenServer, XenDesktop and Provisioning Server knowledge
- Have implemented a POC, pilot, lab or production environment that included XenApp, XenServer, Provisioning Server and/or XenDesktop
- Have advanced virtualization knowledge including in depth understanding of networking concepts such as VLANs and storage concepts surrounding SAN, NFS and LUNs
- Provide a reference to confirm your experience with the Citrix products in the virtualization line of sight (XenApp, XenServer, Provisioning Server and XenDesktop)
- Pass the exam development pre-screening by responding to a short survey
- To participate in the survey, please follow this link: https://citrix.websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/s/92g629 You must complete the survey by Friday March 27th in order to be considered for the workshop. (The survey is 15 minutes long, but you do not have to complete the survey in one sitting).
- Participate and pass a phone interview conducted by a member of the Citrix Education team
- Be willing to commit to attending for the duration of the workshop
Once you complete the survey, please contact Kpayah Tamba at Kpayah.Tamba@citrix.com to notify him that you have completed the survey. Please include your phone number, along with the dates and times when it would be convenient for you to be contacted for a phone interview. The phone interview is the final stage of the enrollment process. All interviews must be completed by Wednesday April 1, 2009.
Every organization is cutting costs, looking for ways to save money - 'doing more with less' CIOs are making it clear to their IT organization - find cost savings, in one meeting the CIO said we need to find projects that will save us $2M+ and we need a few of these now!
In all the meetings I have had, Citrix has been at the top end of possible projects that can really save money now! Citrix champions within the IT organization are being called on to expand and accelerate their projects. For a long time these Citrix champions were seen as a niche group within IT, now they are being called upon to lead larger projects as their work has been at the core of saving organizations real dollars as they centralize and virtualize their application environments.
Often, projects around Citrix technology have not been specifically about cost savings, it's usually solving other problems, such as application delivery for challenging apps, providing remote and secure access to applications or giving access to new locations/branches or home users. All these scenarios also include an element of cost saving, using Citrix was always the lowest cost option.
What is not so obvious is that these Citrix projects where not just the best/lowest cost option but also they provided real cost savings to the organization, reducing the TCO for the IT team, and providing best in class ROI. Gartner did some studies that showed Citrix XenApp ROI was less than 9 months. (To get a TCO and ROI calculator done for your organization ask your Citrix partner contact to build one for you.)
Delivering all your Windows apps with Citrix XenApp is at the heart of the real cost savings, Check out the compatibility tool, http://community.citrix.com/citrixready if your app is not listed it you can add it. Saving of over 40% on your desktop management costs can be realized by running all your apps via XenApp.
Whether it's about TCO or ROI, Citrix have always shown excellent results and now that cost savings are the priority, Citrix champions are shinning a cost savings light on their organizations. To find out more about saving real money for your organization and meet some of the real Citrix champions working at our customer sites come to Citrix Synergy in May 2009 http://www.citrixsynergy.com.
Citrix champions speak out! Are you seeing your projects increase in these financially challenging times? Are you shining a cost saving light for your organization?
Installing XenServer on a USB Drive.
I wanted to be able to use my Lenovo T61 to run XenServer but I did not want to give up on my Vista OS since XenServer won't allow you to partition your hard drive.
So I figured I could use my USB drive to boot from, and then have XenServer installed on it. The good news is that it works, but there are some caveats.
If you want to run XenServer from a laptop while preserving your original O.S., this is what you need to do:
1) Find out if your Laptop (or PC) supports Booting from a USB device. Change the order to have your ATAPI CD first, your USB HDD second and your ATA/SATA HDD third
2) Find out if your Laptop (or PC) supports Virtualization Technology (e.g.: on T61 press F1 for BIOS utility, Config, CPU, and hit Enter under Virtualization Technology to enable it.
3) Because USB support is not preloaded by the mkinitrd image, some steps are required prior to installing XenServer. To get XenServer to boot from a USB drive, follow the steps described on this article written by Chris Wolf, Virtualization Review magazine's "Virtual Advisor". I disabled my Internal hard drive prior to doing these steps to ensure that I did not accidentally wiped off its contents
Installing and Running XenServer 4.1 on an External USB Drive
May 9, 2008 - by Chris Wolf
Source: http://virtualizationreview.com/columns/article.aspx?editorialsid=2618
"I often get asked about running hypervisors from portable storage devices and in this column, I'd like to talk about a method for installing and running XenServer 4.1 from a portable USB hard drive. This is useful if you are testing multiple hypervisor solutions and do not want to multi-boot the hypervisors on local server storage. Since XenServer Express Edition is free, you can evaluate the product for as long as you like and eventually upgrade the license if you want to unlock the product's enterprise-class features.
Of course, the physical host server is going to need to meet XenServer 4.1's system requirements. Servers with support for hardware-assisted virtualization (one of XenServer's hardware requirements) should also support USB device boot. Many USB flash drives offer enough storage space for a XenServer installation (16GB is required per the official requirements). Note that the actual software installation will only consume about 2GB. However, keep in mind that USB flash drives perform considerably slower than traditional hard disks. So if performance is a consideration, I highly recommend using a 2.5" external USB drive. In preparation for this article, I used a Seagate external USB 2.0 40 GB hard disk.
While not required, I disabled all internal hard disks in the test server's BIOS so that the XenServer installation would only see the external USB drive. This prevents accidentally installing XenServer on an internal server hard disk.
At this point, you should be ready to install XenServer 4.1. You can do so by following the installations steps documented in the XenServer 4.1 Installation Guide. Note that you will only be prompted to select the installation drive if the system can see multiple attached drives. If you take the cautionary step to disable all locally attached physical drives, you will not see this option. If multiple drives are present, you will also be prompted to select the drive for virtual storage, which again should be the external USB drive.
Once the XenServer installation completes, you will be prompted to hit Enter to reboot the server. This is where the trouble will begin. USB support is not preloaded by the mkinitrd image, by default, which will eventually cause a kernel panic and automatic reboot when XenServer starts. Note that if you are not seeing XenServer boot, that's probably because the USB drive was listed farther down in the boot order than another system drive. You can select to boot from the USB drive by clicking the hotkey to access the boot options menu and selecting to boot from the USB drive at that point. For example, the boot options menu on many Dell servers is accessed by hitting the F11 key when the server boots.
To get XenServer to successfully boot on an external USB drive, follow these steps:
1. When the server boots, hit the hotkey for the boot options menu.
2. Ensure that the XenServer installation CD is in the CD-ROM drive.
3. In the boot options menu, select the option to boot from the CD-ROM.
4. As soon as the Welcome to XenServer setup screen loads, immediately press the F2 key to view the advanced setup options.
5. Now type shell and hit Enter.
6. When the system finishes booting, run the following command to create a temporary folder where you will mount the external USB drive:
mkdir /tmp/sda
7. You will now mount the USB drive to the temporary location. Note that I'm assuming the USB drive is the only drive attached to the system and therefore is mounted as /dev/sda. To mount the first partition of sda to the /tmp/sda folder, run this command:
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /tmp/sda
8. You will now need to copy the sys/block drivers from the setup environment to the USB drive. However, you will first need to change the driver file permissions prior to the copy. To do this, run this command:
chmod -R 664 /sys/block
9. You can now copy the contents of /sys/block to the USB drive. To do this, run this command:
cp -R /sys/block/ /tmp/sda/sys/block/
Note: Disregard the resultant "Input/Output error" message. The file copy will complete successfully.
10. Next you need to change the root location to /tmp/sda. You can do this by running the command:
chroot /tmp/sda
11. Now let's change to the /boot folder on the USB drive. To do this, run the command:
cd /boot
12. Now we will rename the original primary initrd image file because the new image file will have the same name as the original file for ease of configuration. To rename the primary initrd image file, run this command:
mv initrd-2.6.18-53.1.13.el5.xs4.1.0.254.273xen.img initrd-2.6.18-53.1.13.el5.xs4.1.0.254.273xen.img.old
13. Next, we'll create a new initrd image that includes the USB driver. To do this, run this command:
mkinitrd --with-usb initrd-2.6.18-53.1.13.el5.xs4.1.0.254.273xen.img 2.6.18-53.1.13.el5.xs4.1.0.254.273xen
14. At this point, you will now be able to successfully boot XenServer from an external USB drive. To reboot, the server, type exit and hit Enter and then type reboot and press Enter. Remember to select the external USB drive from the boot options menu when the server boots.
When the XenServer system successfully boots, you should see that the post installation script that XenServer attempts to run will fail. The post install script will try and configure the third partition created during the XenServer installation as a data store for VM files, but will fail in the process. Since the script fails to add a local data store, you'll just need to do this manually. Note that this assumes that you have enough additional storage on the external USB drive for VM storage.
If you plan to use local storage for VMs, follow these steps:
1. Login to the XenServer console using the root account and the root account password you specified when you installed XenServer.
2. Run fdisk -l to view the available partitions on the attached USB drive. The command execution and output is shown below:
[root@xensrv1 ~]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 38154 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3907 4000752 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 3908 7814 4000768 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 7815 38154 31068160 83 Linux
3. As you can see, most of the drive's storage blocks are allocated to /dev/sda3. This is the partition you will configure as a local data store for VM files. Next, you need to query the host universal unique identifier (UUID) which is generated when XenServer is installed. To do this, run this command:
cat /etc/xensource-inventory
The command execution and its output is shown here:
[root@xensrv1 /]# cat /etc/xensource-inventory
PRODUCT_BRAND='XenServer'
PRODUCT_NAME='xenenterprise'
PRODUCT_VERSION='4.1.0'
BUILD_NUMBER='7843p'
KERNEL_VERSION='2.6.18-53.1.13.el5.xs4.1.0.254.273xen'
XEN_VERSION='3.1.0'
INSTALLATION_DATE='2008-05-05 17:44:15.745293'
PRIMARY_DISK='/dev/sda'
BACKUP_PARTITION='/dev/sda2'
INSTALLATION_UUID='d3e7e1e6-80f3-4241-a6cf-3bf83971c0e6'
CONTROL_DOMAIN_UUID='3e5b935a-c14e-4059-aae5-45bb87b8b864'
DEFAULT_SR_PHYSDEVS='/dev/sda3'
DOM0_MEM='752'
MANAGEMENT_INTERFACE='xenbr0'
4. Note the INSTALLATION_UUID value listed in the cat command's output. You will need it to create the new local storage repository. You can now add the local storage repository by using the xe sr-create command with the following syntax:
xe sr-create content-type="localSR" host-uuid=<INSTALLATION_UUID> type=ext device-config-device=<disk partition> shared=false name-label "<friendly label>"
On my test system, the following values were used:
INSTALLATION_UUID: d3e7e1e6-80f3-4241-a6cf-3bf83971c0e6
Disk partition: /dev/sda3
Friendly label: "Local USB Storage"
The full command used to configure the local storage repository in my test environment is shown below:
[root@xensrv1 /]# xe sr-create content-type="localSR" host-uuid=d3e7e1e6-80f3-4241-a6cf-3bf83971c0e6 type=ext device-config-device=/dev/sda3 shared=false name-label "Local USB Storage"
The remaining configuration can be performed with the XenCenter management server, which can be installed on any Windows system in your environment. XenCenter is the GUI-based central administration tool for XenServer environments. You can get more information on XenCenter on the Citrix XenServer page.
You should now be able to login to XenCenter and manage the new XenServer with its available local USB storage. At this point, you are ready to install a VM on the local storage. Of course, if you do not have additional room on the local disk, you can configure network storage (i.e. NFS, iSCSI, Fibre Channel) and store VM files on the network storage array.
Now you can create a new VM by clicking the "New VM" object in the XenCenter toolbar and entering the required information in the New VM wizard.
When you're done testing, just shut down any running VMs and shut down the XenServer. If you disabled any local hard disks in the system BIOS, just re-enable them and your test server is returned to its original configuration. "
May 9, 2008 - by Chris Wolf
Source: http://virtualizationreview.com/columns/article.aspx?editorialsid=2618
This year more than ever there is pressure on budgets and staff to optimize your existing infrastructure. Join Forrester Research and Citrix in this webinar and find out what are the three key actions IT management needs to take in 2009 to:
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Webinar: The Top Three IT Moves in 2009
Date: Thursday, February 12
Time: 11:00am (Pacific) / 2:00pm (Eastern)
Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/954442933
Now that a new year has begun, it is time to think about change. What did you do well in 2008, that you would repeat in 2009? What will you do differently?
Forecasting bad economic news for 2009 is old, and we all know it is going to be a tough year. I can think of several people I know personally that have already been affected. Among the predictions and forecasts from analysts is that IT spending will slow down. 2009 will be a tough year, and with spending on hold, if I was an IT infrastructure guy or a service provider, with all of the virtualization technology available, I would take more than a few minutes to rethink my strategy.
2009 Forecasts that cloud computing and virtualization will grow. It is not just a prediction that I believe in because I work for a virtualization company, I believe in it because I am an operations guy at heart and this virtualization stuff is real.
One of the things I am going to continue to do in 2009, is make use of XenServer and its tangentially related products. At Citrix, I spend a lot of time with my head buried in a lab working on several projects at a time. At any given time I may need to bring up Windows servers and clients, *nix Servers, install a partners product into a server, or install some enterprise application for testing. All of these I did in 2008 without spending any money on hardware. I had an existing Dell 2950 III that I use for XenServer. I can bring up, bring down any number of hosts at any time, for any purpose, without having to fill a rack with hardware that sucks the power grid dry, and depreciates in value the second I order it.
Not only have I done a great job of saving money on capital expenditures in my lab, I have also saved a lot of energy and rack space. In addition, with faster time-to-deployment and more resources at hand, I have increased my productivity immensely.
I work with our internal Citrix IT and Training departments who both make use of Citrix Virtualization technology – this has proven to increase their productivity as well, while reducing cost.
Looking forward, I know I will be able to keep costs and spending down to almost nothing this year as I make continued use of Citrix Virtualization technology. As an operations guy at heart, nothing brings greater joy in slashing a budget and saving money going into 2009 while increasing productivity.