Q&T is a key component in the HDX Broadcast technology stack for optimizing the delivering application and desktop virtualization over a wide area network. It intelligently analyzes the queue of drawing commands and omits those that are not needed to provide an accurate, responsive display to the user. By optimizing what commands need to be sent, this saves bandwidth on the network, as well as processing time on the client.

Imagine this sequence of events. The application is rendering 4 frames per second. Each frame has a size of 100Kb.

Based on the frame rate, it will take 400Kb/s of bandwidth to deliver a local-like user experience. But if you only have 200Kb/s of bandwidth, this is what you would get:

The frame rate dropped to 2 frames per second since that's all you can send with the available bandwidth. But the worst part is that your session lost its interactivity. Because the system is still sending all the frames the application is rendering.

With queuing and tossing, the system drops frames in between to maintain the interactivity the user expects. With 200Kb/s of bandwidth, this is what you get with queuing and tossing enabled:

You are still getting 2 frames per second but the timing of the frames is aligned with what the application is intending to do. Therefore it offers a much better user experience.

To better illustrate this feature, the following video shows the interactivity benefits of queuing and tossing when editing a PowerPoint slide on a limited bandwidth connection.

Join me and my friends on twitter - Juan Rivera, Derek Thorslund, XenApp Team, XenDesktop Team

I am posting the Q&A for the TechTalk we had on XenApp Power and Capacity Management. It was well attended (more than 50 customers and partners) with lots of time for Q&A. Check out the webinar recording if you were not able to attend.

(You can follow me on twitter)

Q) How does a combination of XenServer with virtual XenApp work? So, is it possible to first shut down the unnecessary XenApp servers and then the unnecessary physical servers running XenServer?

A: Power and Capacity Management does not manage the XenServers themselves. It only manages XenApp servers. So, if you have no virtual XenApp servers running on a XenServer it will still be powered on. Why? You may still have non-XenApp workloads running there like web servers or e-mail servers, etc. But you can use other management tools to power manage the hypervisor.

Q) Will it be possible to install the PCM agent in a "standard" provisioning server image?
A: Yes. Power and Capacity management works with Wake on LAN which is how provisioning server works to deliver images to bare metal. Wake on LAN is supported in addition to virtual machines for Power and Capacity Management.

Q) So, Can I provision my XenApp servers with provisioning server and the collector gets the different names of the server or is a special configuration needed?
A: Yes. When you install the agent, there is a configuration for Wake on LAN or Virtual machines. You select Wake on LAN and configure accordingly for the image you are creating.

Q) Must I also choose "Wake on LAN" if the provisioned XenApp server is a virtual server on XenServer?
A: You can have a single PVS image to work across physical or virtual deployments. Even when using PVS, if you are booting servers via XenServer, you would choose XenServer. If you are booting via Wake on LAN on the physical hardware then you would choose Wake on LAN

Q) Can PCM and SCOM work together?
A: Out of the box, we are not planning any integration with operations manager. However, everything being done through the GUI can be done through WMI, so this can be customized.

Q) Should the concentrator be installed on a XenApp server?
A: No. You do not want to install this on a XenApp server that hosts users sessions. You won't be able to power manage it if you do. Also, concentrators can manage servers across farms so you want a farm-independent server if you can do so.

Q) Instead of number of sessions, is there a way to set the Capacity by percentage of Server resource utilization e.g. CPU, RAM, Page File Usage?
A: Yes. We are enabling you to use nominal capacity (sessions) or load evaluator and have this all calculated as a percentage of load evaluator. This will be enabled in the final release but is not available in the technology preview.

Q) In terms of new session distribution, what takes precedence, the XenApp load evaluator or the Power and Capacity Management evaluator?
A: Power and Capacity Management takes precedence for server power on/off and consolidation only. For load distribution, the XenApp load evaluators are used.

Note that PCM adjusts the load evaluation for servers that are not selected to receive sessions. PCM will keep up to "Minimum Available Servers" available for logon. Other servers' load evaluators will be set to 20,000 (you will see that if you run QFARM /load).

Q) I am wondering how server monitoring will have to be modified to allow for servers "shutting down" and suppressing alerts. Do you have any examples of solutions?
A: EdgeSight already differentiates between planned and unplanned reboots. Since reboots initiated by PCM will be planned reboots, you should be able to create alerts only for unplanned reboots

Q) Can you please explain the process of draining a server. We publish the desktop so we have some users logged on for 8+ hours. Also we have shift workers.
A: PCM selects up to "Minimum Available Servers" to accept logons. All other servers have their LE values set to 20,000 and therefore won't be selected to host apps/desktops. When an available server reaches the optimal load, the server with highest load, but under optimal load, is chosen to receive logons.

Draining is a  side-effect of the model above. As shift workers start to login, they will do so on the highest loaded servers under optimal load policy. As the previous shift logoff, their servers will automatically drain until empty. The new shift will only consume enough servers to meet its demand.

Q) If you provision server through PVS with the agent already installed and configured for a workload called "office 2003", if you want to change the workload to "office 2007" would you need to change or create a new PVS image to reflect this change?
A: Workloads can be assigned via GPO, so it's possible to use the same PVS image for more than one PCM workload. In the example above, if Office was virtualized via App-V or Streaming, then the same image could be used.

The long waited XenApp Plugin and Dazzle for Mac OS X has been released to the general public!

Mac users can access their hosted applications from their desktop or a web interface with the new XenApp Plugin for Mac.

You will find new in this release, Citrix Dazzle - an easy way to choose exactly which applications you need, when you need it - apps, your desktop, or any IT delivered service. Simply browse or search for the app or IT service you need. Users decide the folders that appear in their Applications folder. Simply click to create, then drag and drop any app or IT service.

Here's a list of new features:

• Dazzle - is provided to enable users to browse, select and launch applications from a native Mac UI.
• Improved Multi-monitor support.
• Browser plug-in - enables Web Interface to determine the plug-in installed in the system and offer to upgrade if appropriate. Also, no more .ica files in the downloads folder!
• System preferences - plug-in preferences are now set via a system preferences pane.
• Cleartype remoting.

Install instructions:

If you are currently running version 10 of the Mac ICA Client, you can upgrade to the latest build by just running the new installer.

Downloads:

XenApp Plugin 11.0

Admin Guide

Desktop Virtualization is about user experience and agility, Server Virtualization is about consolidation and cost savings. It's amazing to me how so many people still confuse and believe Desktop Virtualization is just a straight forward extension of Server Virtualization that will just naturally evolve from their existing Server Virtualization infrastructure, without realizing that these are two very different use cases requiring a different approach.

In my second month as CTO of our XenApp business at Citrix, I have been able to talk to a range of people about their desktop and application virtualization strategies. Some are brand new Citrix customers, some are not even aware that Citrix is so much more than thin client remote access and some are real thought leaders who challenge my thinking everyday. Having been a customer at numerous top tier Wall Street firms and implementing Citrix technologies for many use cases including Desktop Virtualization at scale. I've lived through the pain that this sort of thinking causes in the real world and feel it's time to share some experiences and to help my twitter followers decipher some of my cryptic Desktop Virtualization!=Server Virtualization tweets.

In the physical world, do your server administrators manage your desktop infrastructure?
Let's start with a basic question. If you are a very small shop, perhaps a single administrator does it all. However as you scale up, different teams start to form to address specialized use cases acquiring specialized skill sets along the way. Even at the smaller firms I've worked at, the backend operations folks very quickly separate themselves from the front office folks. The workflows and mindsets of these people are quite different. Let's diverge for a second and think about how security teams function in an enterprise vs. let's say the server team. Does the server team care about security? Sure. Would the server team let the security team design their server infrastructure? Of course not! Why? I'd hazard a guess that a super secure inflexible system would be developed by these folks that would be too slow to react to dynamic business needs. In other words overkill, despite the best intentions of a security focused person. This why desktop teams design desktop experiences........

The management workflow for desktops is different.
It has been my observation that even in large enterprises that have invested in server virtualization, they don't reboot thousands of servers at the same time. They usually schedule these events in small clusters during maintenance windows to avoid impacting many users who share servers. Desktops however are a different animal. After every patch Tuesday, I'd want to reboot all of my machines in large batches, just like I do today in the physical world as they impact only single/limited users. This type of reboot scale quickly puts a demand on the virtualization infrastructure that it is usually not designed for in a server world. In other words the Hypervisor workloads are very different and you have to worry more about many VM's performing the same operation at around the same time (e.g. OS/anti-virus updates).

Desktops require a different security model.
Taking the same example, desktops require a lot more flexibility with reboots. A lot more ad-hoc user driven reboots happen. This usually breaks the often rigid administrative and security permission model in the server virtualization world, which serves a different purpose. I recall many a debate as to why reboot permissions on the virtualization infrastructure needed to be allocated to the helpdesk to support Desktop Virtualization users. Something that was a struggle for Server Virtualization teams to accept as they were of a mind set that servers were highly controlled environments. Brut force did the trick in the end

Desktop scale means rethinking your virtualization infrastructure.
Think about the number of desktops you have in your organization vs. the number of servers. If you have 2000 server VMs one would most likely say that's a lot of servers, but would not say that for 2000 desktops. If you had 10,000 desktops that's a decent amount that is not uncommon at many customer sites. However 10,000 servers would be considered to be a very large server site. Therefore if you want to invest in Desktop Virtualization at scale, it's a totally different ball game when it comes to managing and scaling the virtual infrastructure. Regardless of Hypervisor choice, I found I had to split away from the core server team design and develop an infrastructure that would support a desktop experience at scale.

Optimize virtual infrastructure for user experience.
Delivering a desktop user experience requires you to focus on minimizing response time instead of maximizing throughput like server virtualization. There is also a greater burden to support virtual peripherals, and VM Management is far more critical. In my experience this was like talking alien to the server guys, and they just couldn't get their head around it or just couldn't be bothered accommodating this desktop thing in their server virtualization design, I still haven't figured that part out...........

Desktops management is different and does not require the high end features of Server Virtualization that add to cost.
As I was writing this I came across Brian Madden's blog today that touches upon this point. Based on what I have seen I agree most of the bells and whistles that people get excited about with server virtualization, just don't apply to Desktop Virtualization and add to costs and complexity. For example live migration on a desktop is such an edge case that I just don't buy the investment justifies the gain. To me this is a desktop use case. I remember many debates arguing how best to implement Desktop Virtualization. The best piece of advise I got from one of my mentors was to think of this as 'it's a desktop'. Be very clear this is a desktop, and understand that is what you are trying to implement. Don't overcomplicate things that you wouldn't normally do for a desktop. If you get your organization to understand this and behave accordingly I believe it will resolve many debates about how best to implement. Simply put your questions and actions in the context of it's a desktop.

So I hope many of you will now begin to develop an appreciation for why Desktop Virtualization is not Server Virtualization. You can't force a round peg into a square hole. They have different drivers. Desktop Virtualization is about user experience and agility. Server Virtualization is about consolidation and cost savings. With these very different goals in mind it will be no surprise to me that trying to implement Desktop Virtualization with a Server Virtualization mindset is highly likely to result in frustration. Desktop teams know what it takes to deliver a desktop experience. While it's true that there is overlap with traditional server roles, this is just an organizational evolution that will happen over time IMO. Desktops guys after so many years playing PC jockey are relevant again and will need to become empowered to create successful Desktop Virtualization implementations that are designed from the ground up to deliver a desktop experience. Don't forget it's a desktop!

In case you have ever needed to administer a XenApp server but were not near a PC, this app is for you. In the past this typically meant a drive to work or home, then boot-up the PC launch the AMC, you know the gig. Now there is a better way, if you haven't found it already there is a free Mobile Console app from Extentrix that allows an Admin to see who's logged on, log them off, reset the session, or send a message. All without leaving your chair or even booting a PC. The app UI is designed to work with the iPhone, but because it's actually a Windows app running on XenApp you can also access it from any device that has a Citrix Receiver ( or ICA Client ). You can download it free here .

Aside from solving your problem to administer XenApp servers, think about what other apps that could be built or modified to fit a mobile form factor and delivered to your users with the same infrastructure you already have. For more ideas check out the XenApp CDN pages for tips on building custom mobile apps for XenApp. What mobile app do your users need ?

I moved to California from London just over 11 months ago. Obviously there is a significant cultural and climatic shift involved and a settling in period is a necessity to find your feet. Having travelled all over the world I have embraced as many aspects of different cultures and enjoyed experimenting.

One such aspect I have noticed here in California and in fact right throughout the US is the love of cheese.  A meal  smothered in cheese is normally accompanied by a side dish of, guess what, MORE cheese. Normally I reserve this dairy delight for a cracker or with some wine but 'Here' it is on everything.

Ordering a Cheeseburger with no cheese always raises a quizzical look from the waitress and a thought process which starts with "You are weird" and progresses to "Is he a serial killer?". Even the lactose intolerant demand that their lunch, dinners and daily snacks have heavy cheese content. Asking colleagues, "why do they have so much cheese on their food?" the simple answer was, "it tastes so good with cheese".

One technically gifted colleague decided to explain this using the analogy that Citrix XenApp and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services(the technology formerly known as Terminal Services) have the same relationship as cheese and hot meals(zzzz). The hot meal is the platform, Microsoft, and the cheese is the value-add, XenApp, which brings the  meal to life. Beating this analogy to a quick death, then Citrix has a number of cheeses, Citrix XenDesktop, Essentials for Hyper-V and Branch Repeater which embrace and extend the Microsoft Platform to supply a sumptuous meal.

All of these great combos can be found here at the New Microsoft/Citrix Community Portal where 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 you can tell us if our cheese is good or if it stinks - let me remind you that all the best cheeses stink  

PS Does eating cheese in the evening give you nightmares? 

Thinwire is one of the cornerstone components in the HDX technology stack for delivering application virtualization. It is responsible for remoting 2D graphics across the network efficiently to provide a rich user experience. This component has been part of XenApp for many years. Many of the HDX technologies like image acceleration, progressive display, queuing and tossing and super cache are built on top of the Thinwire Virtual Display Adapter. The following video gives you a quick introduction on Thinwire and its role in the HDX technology stack:

Join me and my friends on twitter - Juan Rivera, Derek Thorslund, XenApp Team, XenDesktop Team

 
I was out on PTO (vacation) last week and have to admit I did a little work while away.  It dawned on me how awesome it was to take advantage of our implementation of SaaS and Application Delivery through the Cloud. 

I take this stuff for granted sometimes but with the market exploding around off-premise services and using the Internet as a means to access everything from applications to support I wanted to share my experience from a users perspective.  After all, it's the user who ultimately will determine whether or not Cloud Computing actually works.

Citrix uses Single Sign On (SSO) as a feature of XenApp so I first logged into our corporate portal with one click and then accessed my profile using two factor authentication.  Immediately I was configured with secure access through our Access Gateway product.  I was presented with a portal of applications I could access for the user profile preset from our IT group.  I also had access to all of the data files and Sharepoint files under my user name and password.  I wanted to check my blog for comments so I used the internally controlled corporate web site to get to my landing page (didn't have to sign in again because of SSO).  I then opened up an Excel spread sheet where I log some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) metrics.  The spread sheet was part of my personal directory structure loaded on the corporate XenServer farm so I can access it from anywhere even though I created it from a local PC in Florida.

Next I checked my Citrix Online Webinar metrics page to view participants who were accessing the recorded webinars I had done a couple of weeks ago.  I was having some problems viewing them so I called our IT Hotline and they immediately had me start a GoToAssist session.  It took about 30 seconds for them to see that I didn't have the Windows Media Player loaded so we accomplished that while on the call and it solved my problem.  I decided to set up a meeting for when I returned from vacation with some sales folks in Europe so I opened a GoToMeeting session, added participants and it automatically saved the meeting (date/time/participants) to my Outlook Calendar.

Just for grins I wanted to show my family one of my blogs so I disconnected the laptop I was on from the cabled connection and it switched over to the wireless router at my son's apartment.  I never lost the connection and everything (Outlook, IE, Excel) continued to work seamlessly... and STILL connected to my corporate server.  I passed the laptop around to get comments... family can be brutal sometimes .

I answered a couple of emails and then logged off so I could get back to my vacation.  I was 2,500 miles from my office, connected via wireless router/cable modem from a PC I didn't own, accessing files and applications in my corporate environment.  The cool thing was you couldn't tell I was out of the office!  All of this possible because I was using Citrix Online, Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenServer to get to my information.  And all of it over the open Internet.

It would take another couple of pages to go through all of the technology wizardry that allowed me to "work" through Citrix Cloud Center technology... but at the end of the day that doesn't matter to the user, does it?  I'm just glad we have the technology to do what I need to do, whenever I need to do it .  The other cool thing is I get to sell the stuff I use and it works... flawlessly.  This IS the next big thing for Cloud providers who want to use state of the art technology and get it at a decent price.  That's why we created the Citrix Service Provider Program and I'm proud to be a part of the team!

Please take a minute and complete the poll below so that we can continue to evolve our program... 

When Citrix XenDesktop is brought up in conversation, it is most often in reference to being deployed with a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution. But XenDesktop is not limited to delivering only virtual desktops - XenDesktop delivers an exceptional user experience with physical desktops just as well. In fact, organizations still utilize physical desktops instead of virtual desktops for niche roles, such as for dedicated, resource-intensive applications like computer-aided design (CAD) and financial trading. Blade PC hardware is often chosen for its benefits in satisfying security requirements, providing desktop hardware consolidation and in serving as a dedicated, high-performance machine. As we discuss in this post, XenDesktop is a perfect pairing for a Blade PC environment and our design considerations whitepaper provides information to IT professionals seeking a smooth deployment.

In this XenDesktop on Blade PCs Design Considerations whitepaper, we provide our experiences from implementing XenDesktop on HP Blade PC hardware within the Worldwide Consulting Solutions lab at Citrix headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale. Within the document, you will find topics such as: 

• The direct applicability of key components of XenDesktop Platinum to Blade PCs, including XenApp, Provisioning Services and EdgeSight for EndPoints.
• A high-level architecture describing the Provisioning Services streaming process to Blade PCs and user access to the XenDesktop environment.
• Setup considerations and configuration information for implementing each XenDesktop component, including the Desktop Delivery Controller, the various Citrix desktop clients, Provisioning Services vDisk creation, management of a Blade PC environment, and more.
• Other in-depth, technical tips for administrators setting up and working with XenDesktop on a Blade PC environment.

Citrix XenDesktop already comes with Blade PCs from vendors. Try out additional XenDesktop features on your Blade PCs and experience the clear benefits for your organization.

@CitrixKCForums - The Citrix Support Forums ( http://forums.citrix.com/support )
@CitrixCommunity - The Community & CDN Forums ( http://forums.citrix.com/cdn )


http://twitter.com/chrisfleck

1. Best User Experience - Wyse http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/377
User experience has always been a key concern for IT planning to rollout XenDesktop to new users. Increasingly these users are knowledge workers with higher demands and expectations. This includes things like boot-up time, peripheral support and no compromise Multimedia.

Doug Brown : I loved how Wyse was able to show off not only video running through XenDesktop but also a real time video camera! This use case has become more and more needed in today's world! Nicely done!
Sumit Dhawan : The collaboration function demonstrated was impressive. Nicely done.
Chris Fleck : I liked the Wyse demonstration of full Webcam functionality, this is a growing requirement for knowledge workers moving from PC's.

2. Best Management - IGEL http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/530
A key driver for desktop virtualization is the control it affords IT administrators and the cost savings it achieves. Thin clients form a key component of the broader value equation. Example of demonstrations to illustrate management and TCO can include Management console and functionality

Doug Brown : The video was short and sweat and in the short time IGEL was able to show how simple it is to use their management tools to make changes and rollout users. Impressive!
Sumit Dhawan : The best demonstration on management, and creatively shared.
Chris Fleck : IGEL gave a informative demonstration of their management console and capability that would be useful for Thin Client deployments with XenDesktop.

3. Best Security – HP http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/688
Security is a key driver in the adoption of desktop virtualization. In a world where security concerns gains increasing importance, please demonstrate how your company's device complements the security associated with XenDesktop. Examples can include, but are not limited to, support for Smart Cards and the ability to harden, lock down and securely manage endpoint devices.

Doug Brown : I thought HP went above and beyond in their video detailing their security enhancements to XenDesktop. By far the best video detailing security along with being very well produced.
Sumit Dhawan : Solid videos showcasing security - no one came close in demonstrating the security capabilities
Chris Fleck : HP added features such as USB port control and Smart Card support are important to many customers considering XenDesktop as a more secure and controlled environment.

4. Best Form Factor 10ZiG http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/672
Show how your company's device brings the ideals of form and function together to deliver a XenDesktop access device that is not only cool to look at gets users excited about getting their hands on, but is easy and useful, delivers a better user experience, can lower cost of ownership and is more secure.
Doug Brown : Not only are the 10ZiG clients small and pretty but I liked how 10ZiG showed how easy it is to hide them away behind a users monitor. Pretty cool stuff...
Sumit Dhawan : Small, good fit behind the monitor - and a great demo of form factor
Chris Fleck : The 10ZiG devices are small and look good.

5. Best Innovation HP http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/677
Innovation is a key way for partners to differentiate their offerings to add value above and beyond that provide by XenDesktop. This category is for partners to highlight complementary hardware or software features that have been added to achieve greatest value add to XenDesktop customers.

Doug Brown : I was very impressed with everything HP packed in to their videos. They truly showed us the amazing innovations they are making with their thin clients.
Sumit Dhawan : The video was comprehensive showcasing the end to end approach - a hallmark for innovation
Chris Fleck : HP innovations around multi-monitors, device management and quick-release mounting feature are all great examples of how to enhance Thin Client deployments.

6. Support for Locally Streamed Desktop Devon IT http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/676/
Citrix has recently highlighted the ability of XenDesktop to be used to stream the operating system to the endpoint for local execution. The submissions in this category will highlight how the partners' solutions are ideally suited to receive streamed desktops. Examples of ways to illustrate value are inclusion of the Operating System streaming client and the ability to include hardware resources (CPU, GPU) required for local execution.

Doug Brown : DevonIT did an amazing job showing us a streamed XenDesktop and they explained it all and showed it all in a really "cool" fashion. Good stuff!
Sumit Dhawan : DevonIT demonstrated this the best - showing the most challenging use case
Chris Fleck : DevonIT makes use of the Citrix Provisioning Server Streaming OS feature of XenDesktop yielding a great admin and user experience.

7. Best overall Video ( Expert Panel Vote ) Devon IT http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/673

Doug Brown : DevonIT went above and beyond in this video. It was funny, explained their total value add and did I mention it was just downright funny? A must watch and many kudos to them. A stellar video! (Unless you try to steal one of their thin clients and get hit in the face with it!)
Sumit Dhawan : Creative, fun, informative - and excellent use of marketing. Great way to drive traffic by making the front screen of the video appealing for the target audience to click on
Chris Fleck : DevonIT's video presentation was a creative and informative way to highlight the benefits of Thin Clients including XenDesktop and the TC5. A sign of more to come ?

8. Best overall Video ( User Community Vote ) Devon IT http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/673

The Community spoke with their views, votes and comments, the DevonIT views are at 1028 and counting, with an average of 4 stars.

Congratulations to DevonIT and all the category winners ! Well Done. Thank you for participating in the challenge and thanks to the Citrix community that voted with their views and rankings. ( and thanks Vishal Ganeriwala for putting this challenge together )

Ever got frustrated with how long it takes to email a large report or presentation after incorporating your manager's feedback? Or found yourself in a plane wishing the email downloaded faster when the flight attendant asks you to turn off your 3G-equipped laptop? Or wished for a solution that could deliver email 50 times faster?

Did you know our WAN optimization solution, Citrix Branch Repeater, delivers superior user experience and application performance not only for branch office users but also for remote and teleworkers?

No one feels the need for speed more than a remote user or a teleworker with a low-bandwidth or a high- latency network connection. These users typically use an SSL VPN, such as Citrix Access Gateway, to connect to their corporate network and access email, intranet portals, other applications and data. When your IT augments secure remote access (Access Gateway) infrastructure with Branch Repeater, you can benefit from both secure and accelerated remote access.

Well, now we have two reports that demonstrate ways to use Branch Repeater to augment your Access Gateway infrastructure and the resulting benefits of accelerating secure remote access.

You can download the Turbocharge Access Gateway Performance Report - CTX121034 from the Citrix Knowledge Center. The report explores the benefits of using Access Gateway and Repeater plug-ins for Citrix Receiver together:
• 50x faster Microsoft Outlook and Exchange (MAPI) workflows
• 50x faster Microsoft SharePoint (HTTP) workflows
• 30x faster Windows File Shares (CIFS) workflows

I think you will want to try out the benefits of turbocharged remote access. Check out the Turbocharge Access Gateway Deployment Guide and Reference Architecture - CTX121035 if you want to conduct a POC (proof of concept) or a demo to convince your IT or other decision makers. You will be your end-users hero for providing them with an accelerated yet secure remote access.

VM hosted apps will be a new way of virtualizing applications that will be available in the next Feature Pack for XenApp. Harry Labana blogged about it yesterday. Bring yourself up to speed and then register for the TechTalk scheduled for September 23rd.

You can also stay updated on XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 by tuning in to our twitter account (@xenappjunkie) and by keeping an eye on our blog feed. This month, you can expect a XenApp Expert Series video with one of the developers on the project (Modesto Tabares). Stacy Scott, one of our resident experts has also let me know that she'll be entering the blog foray on this topic so stay tuned for her (WARNING: She's super sharp so be prepared for some serious stuff). I'll be announcing everything on our blog feed and on Twitter.

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Download technology previews for other XenApp technologies

You may have seen an earlier blog post on application virtualization with VM hosted apps from Harry Labana, CTO of XenApp (@harrylabana) titled "Seamless applications beyond Terminal Services, does it help?". You probably have some questions on this technology as well. Well, let me be the first to give you a bit more background on this feature. Your comments and feedback are always appreciated.

Why VM hosted apps for application virtualization?

Today, you use XenApp to deliver virtual applications in 2 ways - hosted or offline. With offline delivery, you use application streaming technology to place the app in an isolated container running on the users PC. With hosted delivery, you stream or install an application onto XenApp servers and users connect to these servers to access the application via a highly optimized protocol (e.g. Citrix ICA powered by HDX technology). Each user gets their own memory space but they all share the same instance of the operating system - that being Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008. Now, with VM hosted delivery, you stream or install an application into an image or virtual machine and users connect to their own instance of the virtual machine in order to access the application (pooled VM's are the best way to do this). Applications virtualized with VM hosted apps are run in a dedicated environment for each user with dedicated memory AND their own instance of the operating system such as Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.

Why is this important? Well, as the folks who invented application virtualization and who have been doing it the longest, we've learned throughout the years that not every application can run in a server-hosted or Terminal Services environment. There are some apps that users needed to take offline with them and others that simply wouldn't run well in a multi-user environment for a number of reasons. This is why we added application streaming technology to XenApp a few years ago. Still, there were some applications that customers wanted to host in the data center but which didn't run well in Terminal Services. An example could be a custom application that had proprietary data in it and putting the app on the desktop would put the data at risk. Another example could be an application that is unsupported by the ISV in a Terminal Services environment. And yet another example might be a health care application that is certified to run on the desktop and putting it in a multi-user environment would lead to a breach of HIPAA compliance. Whatever the reason, VM hosted applications provides another alternative.

Application management with VM hosted apps

With VM hosted apps, you'll create a virtual machine or desktop image (vDisk) into which you install the given application and any helper apps needed. This image can be running Windows XP, Vista or Win7. There are some configuration steps you need to go through to set up the image properly but they are minor (e.g. placing a shortcut to the app in a special folder, installing a software agent, etc.). Once the image is created, you'll use our management tools to publish the application. Basically, what you are doing is publishing a desktop pool, assigning it the icon of the application you want to make available, giving it a friendly name, and defining the users and conditions that the application will run in. You can configure the application to run as a VM, on a blade PC or even a PC running in the datacenter. The only reason I see for running it on a blade or a PC is for applications that require a GPU or have specific hardware requirements that can't be virtualized at this time. You'll get better ROI if you can virtualize.

One thing to note is that this is being done in an independent console snap-in for this release so you'll want to use the MMC to bring everything together. In addition, the control mechanism for VM hosted apps requires and independent farm. Not to worry though... this is all hidden from the user because it all comes together via XenApp Web and XenApp Services or what our old-timers know as Web Interface and PNAgent sites. You simply add the VM hosted apps farm to your Web Interface or PNAgent site and when a user logs in to Citrix Receiver or to Web Interface they'll see all of their apps in a single list - VM hosted, server hosted or streamed. When users open an application, it will appear in seamless mode with no components of the remote desktop showing - just like other server-hosted applications delivered with XenApp. In this release, users can access a single published application within a virtual machine instance but we are investigating ways to improve on the flexibility here for future releases.

From a licensing perspective, the plan is to make this feature available to XenApp Enterprise or Platinum customers. On the Microsoft side, you'll need a Microsoft VECD license to stay in compliance with hosting Windows virtual desktops. It's important to note that VM hosted apps DOES NOT allow you to run a full virtualized desktop session such as what you would have with XenDesktop. It wasn't built for such a purpose and it doesn't work technically. You can, however, leverage the same infrastructure for VM hosted apps to deliver virtual desktops if you purchase XenDesktop licenses and you can use same VH hosted apps console to manage the delivery of those desktops to users. One of the best things about this is that if you choose to extend your XenApp deployment with VM hosted apps you're essentially putting yourself in the position to easily adopt Essentials for Xen and Hyper-V as well as XenDesktop in the future.

If you're trying to figure out if VM hosted apps is for you, it'll become pretty obvious very quickly that there is a decision tree involved here that has variables associated with it like application compatibility, criticality, overall cost and ROI among the many. We'll reveal the elements of this decision tree in future posts but one thing your should certainly take away is that server hosting (XenApp on Terminal Services) is still your best bet for the lowest cost application delivery. In fact, you'll probably find yourself using this is a stop-gap for some of your apps that you'll need to deliver quickly to give you some time to do proper validation and testing for hosting on XenApp servers. In any case, stay tuned for more information on this topic as I'm sure it will be sought after.

Availability of VM hosted apps

We're planning to release the VM hosted apps feature in the next Feature Pack for XenApp which is planned for Q3 2009. In the meantime, you can learn more about it by staying tuned to our twitter account (@xenappjunkie) and by keeping an eye on our blog feed. This month, you can expect a XenApp Expert Series video with one of the developers on the project (Modesto Tabares) and Cris Lau will be doing a TechTalk scheduled for September 23rd so reserve your seat today. Stacy Scott, one of our resident experts has also let me know that she'll be entering the blog foray on this topic so stay tuned for her (WARNING: She's super sharp so be prepared for some serious stuff). I'll be announcing everything on our blog feed and on Twitter.

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UPDATED July 31, 2009 - Clarified that pooled VM's are supported, separate farms are used not separate IMA database, consoles come together via MMC.

VM Hosted Apps will be introduced in Q3 2009 as part of Feature Pack 2 for XenApp. This brand new and unique application virtualization capability will extend our reach by delivering applications from a more diverse set of operating systems, further reducing application compatibility issues for our customer base and reducing time to value.

XenApp Enterprise and Platinum customers will be able to host Seamless applications from Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 in addition to Windows 2003 and Windows 2008. Applications will be able to be delivered from hosted virtual machines running desktop OS's and/or physical and blade PCs

I'm pretty excited by this new capability as our customers can now deliver a broader set of applications leveraging their existing XenApp investment. There are applications that couldn't be delivered on Terminal Services due to license restrictions. There are applications that consume too many resources on Terminal Services that make them a poor choice for a multi user operating system. There are applications that require devices like USB, biometric keyboards etc. Now there is a complimentary way to deliver these troublesome applications with XenApp.

It has been my experience, that sometimes you just want to get an application deployed quickly into the field. It could be business critical or something you just need to test briefly. Managing these one offs in distributed environment leads to inefficiencies over time even in organizations who have invested in lots of tools and processes. This is why centralized management has been an ability that has really resonated with customers and driven adoption of our application delivery model. However, application validation for a multi user environment can lead to a longer time to value, and depending on the use case this could mean going back to the distributed model when you need it quickly. So now with VM hosted apps the benefits of a centralized XenApp infrastructure can be realized much faster for a broader set of applications.

Here are some more details. Each user will have a 1-1 mapping to their VM Hosted Apps in the initial release. However in subsequent releases we will enable multiple published apps per user. The management experience will allow you to manage your traditional farms side by side. The infrastructure required to deploy this leverages our desktop virtualization technology. More details will be released as we get closer to the release date, and a number of information sessions are being planned, so stay tuned and check out Vinny Sosa's upcoming blog "TYPE TITLE HERE", pressures on Vinny to get it done.......

At Citrix we want to enable our customers to deliver all their hosted applications with us, and added this to round out the application delivery system.So what do you think? How would you like to see this evolve?

With everybody I speak to and in everything I read it is obvious to me that Windows 7 is the next major Windows desktop OS uplift that is around the corner. Good, bad or indifferent, I don't think most people will argue that many people have skipped Vista, but clearly the sentiment is different with Windows 7. For years investments in desktop uplifts have been put off, and I believe that will change sooner than we expect. I've spoken to a number of key decision makers and ground floor engineers and consistently hear that many are actively planning how to adopt Windows 7 to replace what is now an old but good XP operating system. I hear talk of PC uplifts, application virtualization, compatibility, repackaging, systems management upgrades, the list goes on. I think great! Finally we are on the verge of an uplift that will allow us to move forward. Then I think back to my previous experiences with the realities of migrations and the debate over desktop virtualization.

It's fascinating to see so much debate evolve over whether to adopt desktop virtualization or not. I wonder if the binary debate over desktop virtualization is causing artificial confusion as budgets for 2010 and early Windows 7 adoption start to be planned over the coming months. Does the broad desktop community really understand why some people are implementing desktop virtualization today? Are uninformed myths and legends being created? I believe so. Having lived through this, I thought I'd share some of my experiences.

Back in 2004 is when I began my desktop virtualization journey. I already practiced and knew that remote desktops and applications with XenApp had been around for years, but I had some new use cases to solve for. I wanted to get around many of the constraints of a multi user operating system to enable better 'session isolation'. With this capability my users would be able to connect to their remote desktop sessions from anywhere with a Desktop-like experience. I found that this 'session mobility' coupled with session isolation was well received by mobile users who wanted to travel and were frustrated with the old way due to the time it would take to log into desktops due to roaming profiles and login scripts. Session mobility enabled these users to be more agile so they could travel and make fast, light-weight connections back to their desktops. As this evolved, more light bulbs started to go off. What if large, high power desktops could be removed to enable more user density per floor and lower cooling costs? What if thinner greener buildings could be constructed? What if disaster recovery sites could become easier to maintain? Could central management of desktops enable more efficient support models? Could PC lifecycles be extended? Could this capability enable faster and cheaper expansion into new global markets? So much was possible with this new desktop capability, and really it was not that different from the traditional way of remote apps and desktops, just different in that session isolation was key to deliver a desktop like experience. In addition, the benefits far out weighed the constraints when thinking about the business opportunity, and knowing that things would continue to evolve.  

So heads spinning, ideas buzzing, all the what-if constraints started to be thought through. Very quickly when looking at how to solve this problem, the key issue at stake was what's the best and most mature way to deliver the user experience. To cut a long story short, At the time ICA was the clear choice. So a trip to Citrix HQ was planned, arguments were had, this secret PortICA project was brought to my attention that had no use cases around it. A few months later, after a few drinks a few of us including Citrites were walking past Trinity church on Wall Street. Citrix at the time had an umbrella project called project Constellation, and there were three primary user types being thought of for this new desktop opportunity. "Bingo! we'll call it project Trinity," as a joke and it felt like it was a project Constellation theme. This is a true story, and it was just our internal fun name for the project. I couldn't believe it when Citrix announced it at iForum. I was sitting at the back of the room with a huge grin. I remember the Customer Council sessions at that conference, and enquiries from the Marketing team that there may be religious reasons for this, if only they knew..... The rest is history, and today Trinity has evolved into XenDesktop.

So five years on, I see many customers that are thought leaders beginning to adopt this new model and many more people thinking about it or confused about the use cases. Now that Windows 7 is around the corner, I think the time is now to really sit down and understand the desktop virtualization opportunity, if you haven't already. Understand your use cases, where it makes sense for you, where it doesn't and the big picture. Keep in mind how the industry is investing to enable even more capabilities to drive new use cases and lower TCO. Windows 7 means a fresh opportunity to redefine the desktop after so long. Even in the current economic climate customers continue to invest in desktop virtualization, because they understand the strategic significance that greater flexibilty and agility brings today. Now that may not apply to every desktop environment today, but desktop investments are about to get a shot in the arm. I would hate to be in a position of having to go back asking for budget exceptions if I hadn't thought about how desktop virtualization fits into my organization and invested in the wrong areas during upcoming refreshes.

With the release of Citrix Receiver for iPhone 1.02 including AG and RSA support, the ability to securely deliver any app, anywhere, is closer than ever to reality ( we already cover WinMo, Symbian and close to BlackBerry and Android ). One question I have been pondering with Martin Duursma and few others on the team is what is next ? It's great we can get to all these other Windows and RIA apps, but the app many of us use most is email. The question is, what is missing from the native iPhone email or Outlook ? What features would be most useful for a mobile app that we would use all the time from any device?

The native iPhone email client does a good job, but not everything. Attachment viewing is limited and sometimes crashes if the file is too big. You can't write an email and attach a file from your PC or file server. Also many company IT policies do not even allow iPhone access because of security concerns and lack of data / device control. Many of these obstacles could be overcome if the app was hosted on XenApp provided there was fast access and a great user experience. There are probably many new features that could enhance the email experience but you don't even know you want it or need it. Xobni is a good example of an Outlook value-add that I find useful even though I didn't even know I needed it before I started using it every day. So there must be mobile email features that would make your life easier, more productive, or just provide a better experience. What if you had an app that was optimized for the device real estate and mobile scenario ( ie just the functionality that you are likely to need when using your mobile device vs when using a laptop/desktop). If you could have the Nirvana app that was continuously available as a hosted app. Imagine the possibilities !    

Some things that come to mind are listed below, do you agree or have more for the list ? Please add your votes and comments.

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Find out more about the deployment of Windows Small Business Server with XenApp Fundamentals, one of the most widely used SMB application delivery applications in the world.  Our featured speaker will be Terry Sheehy who is an independent IT consultant who specializes in HP Solutions on Windows platforms.
 
 
XenApp Fundamentals for HP Proliant Servers with Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 - Technical Overview

 
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
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So I finished a round of reboots from having my demo/lab systems up for around 3 weeks. Of course, like any competent admin, I upgraded to the latest MS patches, butt (pun intended) like an incompetant admin, I didn't test (but I don't have a test lab at this point....hmmm, sounds like an excellent use case for XenServer Platinum!).

During the update, I also allowed .Net 3.5 SP1 to update itself. BAD MISTAKE! Read the notes...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951847
You see, this contains patches to ASP.Net 2.0, which integrates into some of the technologies Citrix provides.

Eventually what occurred is that the following systems failed, due to the dependencies on ASP.Net v2.0.50727:

Access Gateway Advanced Edition 4.5 HF04
XenDesktop DDC v3.0
Edgesight 5.1

The CPM Service also relies on ASP.Net v2.0, but so far looks stable after the update.

Now I don't fault our products at all, however, I would like is to be able to selectively choose which .Net framework gets updated via Windows Updates, instead being forced to update the entire family. It restricts my choice as an admin. Since MS chooses to bundle the entire family of updates now, I won't be installing .Net updates ever again.

To correct the problem, I went to each server and:
1. Open CMD
2. Navigate to \Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
3. "aspnet_regiis.exe -i"
4. Reboot

I've also heard this breaks Sharepoint as well until you run the above commands....so go figure, it breaks MS products too!

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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