That's why we've worked together to develop the Citrix Community page for SAP, a dedicated, one-stop shop for all things Citrix & SAP! So while we'll never say there is "too much" information on the Citrix and SAP relationship, we will say having a single place to access all information on the relationship is "wonderful".

On this page we've consolidated all related blogs, news, videos, etc... from Citrix, SAP and third-party sites in our feeds section to save you time on staying up to date on the Citrix and SAP happenings. You can even follow us on Twitter!

There's even a discussion forum dedicated to SAP-related discussions. Look for the answers to your questions within existing threads or post a new question in our discussion forum. Do you have technical questions about an SAP implementation? Do you want to learn more about the validation and performance results of SAP NetWeaver with Citrix XenApp and Citrix NetScaler? Do you want to learn more about Citrix's relationship with SAP? If you said yes, then this is the site for you!

Visit this page to learn the latest and greatest information about our relationship including press announcements, product validations, joint activities and resources...and don't forget to participate in our Community Verified initiative! Let us know how you're working with SAP in your Citrix environment from the convenient console located within the page.

So...why don't you come up and see us some time? And oh yeah...don't forget to participate in the discussion! Stop by the Citrix Community page for SAP today!

Hello World! This must be one of the strangest feelings I have had in my career, as for the first time I am now on the other side of the fence. My name is Harry Labana, it's a beautiful Sunday morning and after a crazy first week I am getting a chance to reflect on my first week at Citrix as the new CTO of the XenApp product group. So to begin, here's a little background to my story. I grew up in the UK of Indian decent and after working for a few years in the UK after University, I spent the last 13 years traveling the canyons of Wall Street with various firms, the last 9 of which have been as a Vice President with Goldman Sachs leading and working on numerous infrastructure, software development and management initiatives.

In particular, I have focused very heavily in the Windows world, and have been through the gamut of real world challenges this brings. From software distribution/packaging, OS upgrades, provisioning, software development, server/application/client virtualization, migrations/integrations, fair share of disasters, hardware, remote access, hosted applications and of course virtual desktops- I think I got most of it - I have been beaten into understanding the realities of execution responsibility at global scale. Fortunately, over the last few years I've also had the opportunity to work with many of the leading established vendors and emerging startups in the Application and Desktop virtualization industry and this has allowed me to learn from smart people with so many perspectives. By virtue of working in financial services, I've also been able to refine these perspectives by talking with investors, analysts and bankers in this space which has equipped me to be a VERY vocal Citrix Customer Council member for a number of years. So I guess Citrix had enough and decided to allow me to help chart their future direction, which is an immensely exciting opportunity, for which I am grateful and where I hope to make a difference by bringing a seasoned customer perspective.

As I reflect on what's happened in our industry over the years, a key observation is how I have seen Citrix technologies evolve from the early adoption days in the 90's as a band aid solution, to many customers now using Citrix as a strategic delivery platform and even greater numbers now considering the technology for the very first time. It is these early customer thought leaders that have done some really amazing things with the technology and enabled us to become a 1.6 billion dollar company by creating so much value for their clients. It seems to me that we are now also at the early stages of the next innovation cycle and early adopters are catching on. I recall sitting at a Synergy session in Houston last year where the topic was a discussion on Desktop Virtualization. I remember what felt like a cynical question about who's actually doing this and a call for a raise of hands. There was silence in the room and I got a nudge from one of my former team mates, and I raised my hand. I won't get into details, but the point is that I think customer thought leaders have and will continue to innovate and find use cases and solutions that we have not even conceived of yet because they are looking to build competitive advantage for their firms because they are driven by an opportunistic mentality that looks beyond teething constraints. Over time this innovation diffuses to the masses, and that's ok in many cases and lost opportunity for others. Working with customers and the broader community, I am convinced that we will continue to evolve our products to enable broader adoption of our technology stack so customers can solve real world problems.   

As I alluded to, I think it's very easy to play cynic, and I could have easily written an article about stuff many vendors can't do or theorize what will happen or what will not happen. I have learned that to build real world solutions requires skill, experience, judgment and the courage to reach out to customers and users who want to be part of the solution. I hope that many of you will be comfortable reaching out to me harry.labana@citrix.com and telling me what you really think as we build upon our current success and evolve our story. I promise I will incorporate your views into my thinking even if I don't agree.

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120718

XenServer 5.0 Update 3 Software Development Kit Guide

Handling pool master changes
1. Subscribe to updates in the list of hosts servers, and maintain a current list of hosts in the pool
2. If the connection to the pool master fails to respond, attempt to connect to all hosts in the list until one
responds
3. The first host to respond will return the HOST_IS_SLAVE error message, which contains the identity of
the new pool master (unless of course the host is the new master)
4. Connect to the new master

// This is an error return code from XenServer. 

// We only use the retry loop to reauthenticate if we receive:
//    - SESSION_INVALID
//    - HOST_IS_SLAVE
// Otherwise we just rethrow the exception
    if (    !(SESSION_INVALID)
        && !(HOST_IS_SLAVE) )

    {         throw;     }
 

XenCenter works by remembering the list of hosts in the pool - i.e. what the list of hosts/IPs was at the time of the last XenCenter login. When the one it thinks is master isn't available, it tries the others in the list to see if any of them have become masters.

Ok, rather than bore you with copious platitudes about why and how HP is one of our most important partners, let's get right to Introducing the NEW Citrix and HP Community site and the cool resources available here and now. To quote my esteemed colleague "there's a Community for that!". 

Like all of the partner communities on the Citrix community portal, you will receive real-time feeds on all things HP and Citrix, get a glimpse at he most requested documents, latest hot-fixes & patches and participate in our forums.  I thought I would take a minute and highlight some new items to welcome you to the page.

First we need to mention the recent validation of Citrix XenServerwith HP Virtual Connect Flex-10. See the links in the highlights section. Virtualizing network infrastructure will soon become the next holy grail in our industry (previously discussed here) and HP and Citrix XenServer are delivering today!

Are you perhaps wondering if that new HP software you are considering is being used by others within Citrix environments? Find out now in the Community Verified portlet, and yes, you can share what HP and Citrix solutions you are using with the community via this portlet. Contribute and enrich the Citrix and HP community- share your experiences.  

Ok - now it is your turn. After you have explored the feeds, forums, knowledge and technical resources, on the Citrix and HP Community tell us what is missing, or new content sources you would like to see here ... We will be evolving this site based on your input! Brent. 

XenDesktop でも、 mmhook.dll アクセス違反が発生することがあります。

アプリケーションが、マルチモニタに対応していない場合は、以下のKBを参考にしてください。

マルチモニタ構成のワークステーションでアプリケーションが異常終了する
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX111790

解決しない場合

Mmhookにつきましては、CDF側から何らかの情報が得られると考えられますので、
CDFおよびダンプを同時に設定し、データをご取得いただけますようお願いいたします。

なお、ツールといたしましては、
Debugging Tools for Windows に含まれる ADPlusをお試しいただき、
万が一取得できない場合は、User Mode Process Dumperにてお試し下さい。

ADPlus を使用した "ハング" および "クラッシュ" のトラブルシューティング方法
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/286350/ja

ADPlus -crash -pn RptDir.exe

User Mode Process Dumper Version 8.1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e089ca41-6a87-40c8-bf69-28ac08570b7e&DisplayLang=en
※ Exception Codes には "Access Violation" を指定してください。

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

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

Follow me on Twitter.

Hi Everyone,

Just two days ago we released the Citrix Receiver 1.0.1 to AppStore, the rockstar feature for this release was the inclusion of Access Gateway Enterprise Support.

Today we were able to identify a bug on the Citrix Receiver app that affect users running NetScaler 9.1, causing the application to suddenly exit.

Gladly right after identifying the bug we were able to quickly fix it, so a new build (v1.0.2) has been produced, tested and will be submitted today to Apple. Expect an update to be available in the next few days.

In the meantime for admins and users attempting to deploy the Receiver with AGEEs, follow the steps provided in the Admin Guide. The Citrix Receiver for iPhone Admin Guide can be downloaded here. Setup steps in the document work perfectly for users running AGEE 8.x and AGEE 9.0.

For help and questions, don't hesitate to visit our support forums or feel free to send me a direct email

best,
Gus

twitter.com/guspinto

Hi Everyone,

I would like to take a moment and introduce you to the Citrix Receiver for iPhone Admin guide. This document will come handy when planning for iPhone deployments in your company. Inside you can find:

• Product Requirements

• How to configure iPhone secure access via:
  • Access Gateway Strandard Edtion
  • Access Gateway Enterprise Edtion
  • Citrix Secure Gateway

• How to provide access information to end users

• Basic troubleshooting steps

• Known Issues

Download the Citrix Receiver for iPhone Admin Guide

best,
Gus

twitter.com/guspinto

VDAがXPとのことですので、User Profile Hive Cleanup Service　の適応を
ご検討いただければと存じます。
なお、User Profile Hive Cleanup Service　のインストール後に
現象が発生する際には、イベントログへも有益なエラー情報等が
出力されることも予想されます。その際には、再度、お手数ですが
イベントログも含め、返信いただければと存じます。

Platform support

• Added support for iPhone OS 3.0

• Support for Access Gateway Enterprise Edition  <-- Yay!
   

Usability Improvements

• 3x improvement in time for App list retrieval

• Visual feedback for mouse clicks

• When the keyboard is visible (during the session) the session can be scrolled up so that the keyboard does not obscure the session

• When a phone call arrives, the on screen icons are rearranged to appear in the correct locations
   

Security Improvements

• User's password is stored in the built-in iPhone keychain
  
  

---

Download Citrix Receiver 1.0.1 : AppStore (via iTunes)
For more Technical details visit : http://community.citrix.com/iphone

best,
Gus

twitter.com/guspinto

Jetデータベース（.mdb）の破壊の原因と対処KB一覧

http://www.users.gr.jp/blogs/fullmoon/archive/2004/11/25/6267.aspx

I posted a high-level training video (webinar style) about the trial release of HDX MediaStream for Flash on Citrix TV (the Underground channel) a few weeks ago. Meant to blog about it sooner, but now you know!  

Derek

P.S. If you've had a chance to evaluate the trial release, please complete our brief survey.

We always make a pretty big deal of XenDesktop being an open desktop virtualization solution.  Particularly on the subject of hypervisor support, XenDesktop treats the 3 big vendors equally (Microsoft, VMware, plus our own XenServer).  But, just like in life, some are more equal than others!  Just using your existing production server virtualization infrastructure can unnecessarily drive up the cost and complexity of your XenDesktop deployment. The point is that Citrix has made a commitment to leverage XenServer and Citrix Essentials to the n^th degree to make it the best platform for XenDesktop.  That is besides the obvious fact that Citrix Essentials for XenServer is built into XenDesktop (so that makes it free, as in free beer). See more on XenDesktop editions at: http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/subfeature.asp?contentID=1685000 

So it is pretty important that XenDesktop users consider the benefits of Citrix Essentials 5.5 and XenServer 5.5 which are now available for download. XenDesktop 3 has been tested on XenServer 5.5 and is fully compatible and supported by Citrix.  And if you are already using XenServer 5, just click on the "check for updates" link.  A download is available on http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/lp/lp_1688615.asp. 

Here are some key benefits of XenServer which establishes it as the obvious choice for a XenDesktop deployment:

The StorageLink™ technology in Citrix Essentials ensures that XenServer is certified to work seamlessly with virtually every third-party storage infrastructure, array and backup system on the market today. The 5.5 release also adds the ability to fast clone and provision virtual machines, simplifying volume virtual desktop deployment. Watch a video covering these and other technologies on our blog: http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=71237761

For more details, please refer to http://www.citrix.com/essentialsxenserver 

When using XenDesktop on XenServer, Citrix is there to support the entire solution.  In a mixed XenDesktop + VMware solution, troubleshooting and support will often be more costly and complex. 

XenServer is better integrated into XenDesktop than ESX, making for a better overall management experience for IT.  ESX introduces unneeded complexity to a desktop virtualization solution. XenServer will require less patching and maintenance due to a simpler and more elegant design.  For example, in the past 2 years since its release, XenServer 4.0 has required just 5 patches (link).  By comparison, in the 18 months since its release, VMware has issued 200+ patches (link) and updates for ESX 3.5.  Many VMware users were also bitten by the high-profile Update 2 bug last August (link). 

And, just to remind you once again, Citrix Essentials for XenServer is included in every XenDesktop license.  

Now that I have convinced you to give XenServer 5.5 a try, I should mention how easy it is to move your desktop VMs over.  XenServer's Enhanced Conversion Tools make it a breeze to convert virtual machines created in the VMDK format (commonly used by VMware) into the VHD format. The new XenConvert tools also make it easy to seamlessly convert between any of the common open virtualization format packages, including OVF (open virtualization format), OVA (open virtual appliance) and XVA (XenServer virtual appliance). For more details, have a look at: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/richcr/2009/06/23/Citrix+XenConvert+2.0.1+Released%21 

The bottom line is that there is really no reason not to give XenServer a try for virtual desktops.  It has always been provided as part of XenDesktop and, now, the new features of XenServer 5.5 and Citrix Essentials 5.5 are compelling reasons to choose it for any virtual desktop deployment.

We invited all of Citrix Ready thin client vendor partners to demonstrate to the Citrix community what makes their solutions unique in our first-ever Citrix Ready Challenge. In order to participate in this challenge, vendors had to create a short video up to three minutes long that highlights the compelling advantages for their product line with XenDesktop.

The winners will be decided based on several categories by our team of judges ( Sumit Dhawan, Chris Fleck, Doug Brown)

On of the important categories is "Best overall offering (User Community Vote)". We want you to rate videos on Citrix TV and choose the winner in this category. The Winners will be announced in the first week of August. I will have more details in subsequent blogs.

We have created a page where you can easily view and rate all the videos.
http://www.citrix.com/citrixreadychallenge

Here are direct links to all the videos on Citrix TV by participating thin client partners (list alphabetically)

10Zig

• 10ZiG Thin Client demo - XenDesktop
• 10ZiG at Citrix Synergy

Devon IT

• XenDesktop/TC5 benefits
• Google Earth and YouTube on XenDeskop

IGEL

• IGEL demos XenDesktop at Citrix Synergy

HP

• HP Thin Clients with XenDesktop
• Management with HP Thin Clients
• HP Protects Your Business
• Experience the HP Difference

Wyse

• XenDesktop Demo at Synergy - Wyse

If you have any questions regarding the contest, please let me know via comments.

Visit Citrix Ready Catalog for more partner products.

Best Practices for Citrix XenDesktop with Provisioning Server

http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx119849

Throttle Commands to Virtual Machine Hosting Infrastructure. When sending a high number of power on/off
commands to the virtual machine hosting infrastructure (VMware Virtual Center, XenCenter, Hyper-V), the hosting
infrastructure could become overwhelmed and unresponsive for a short period of time while all of the requests are queued
and processed. By default, the communication between the pool management service on the DDC and the hosting
infrastructure is throttled to 10% of the total pool. For example, if there are 500 VMs in the desktop group, only 50 VM
power operation requests will be sent at a time. When pools grow even larger, (over 1000 desktops), this could result in
approximately 100+ power on/off requests being sent concurrently to the hosting infrastructure.
The hosting infrastructure may become overloaded during the following scenarios:
9
• When the idle pool count significantly increases for a concurrent peak time
• There is a small duration between logon and logoff events. For example, a company employs a three shift
working day. A group of users will logon in the morning and logout when their shift is finished. The next shift of
users will begin to logon at the same time that the previous group logs off resulting in a very small window where
large numbers of users log on and logoff (5-15 minutes).
It may be necessary to throttle the number of power requests sent to the virtual machine infrastructure at a single time.
To modify the number of concurrent requests, edit the following configuration on each DDC. This example throttles the
number to 20 concurrent commands.
• Open C:\Program Files\Citrix\VmManagement\CdsPoolMgr.exe.config
• Add the following line in red:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="LogToCdf" value ="1"/>
<add key="LogFileName" value ="C:\cdslogs\VMManager.log"/>
<add key="LogDebug" value="1"/>
<add key="MaximumTransitionRate" value="20"/>
</appSettings>
</configuration>
• Save the file and restart the DDC. The DDC or the Pool Management Service must be restarted for the new
value in the .NET configuration file to be read by the DDC.
The value ("MaximumTransitionRate" value="20") included in this example should only be considered as a point of
reference when configuring the concurrent command values. This value will vary based on each environment's unique
hardware platform and use case. Citrix recommends that each organization properly test the configuration before
determining the optimal balance between the number of concurrent commands that can be serviced and the
performance/responsiveness of the hosting infrastructure when sending power commands from the DDC.

So, who do I think is right? That is easy - they both are!

First I want to say thank you to both of these guys for getting a discussion going. If I can paraphrase Brandon's side of the argument it would be "Why do I need Workflow Studio? I have Windows PowerShell." This is a question I have gotten a lot and I want to take some time to address it here.

Workflow Studio is designed to run on top of PowerShell. PowerShell 1.0 is a pre-requisite and many of our activities are written in PowerShell. Like Brandon, I think that PowerShell is an excellent scripting language and I personally can't wait for the day when everything is in PowerShell and there is no more need for VBScript. I believe every Windows administrator should learn PowerShell and use it regularly. I am doing what I can to drive all Citrix products to expose an SDK in PowerShell.

So wait a minute then... if the Product Manager for Workflow Studio is saying to use PowerShell then what is Workflow Studio for?

There is no reason that you should have to decide between the two technologies. If you are a Citrix customer then you have Workflow Studio at no additional cost. Workflow Studio has a great SDK for consuming PowerShell libraries, so you can leverage your existing PowerShell libraries with Workflow Studio. Here are some other things you can do with Workflow Studio:

1. Workflows are stored centrally in a SQL database making sharing and re-use across your team much easier
2. Workflows are automatically versioned when stored in the database. If you update a workflow that has been deployed, a copy is automatically created so you can continue to reference and use the previous version.
3. Workflow Studio is integrated with a task scheduling interface to automate the execution of your workflows based on schedule.
4. Workflow Studio has a simple, graphical, drag and drop interface. Most likely not everyone on your team is a PowerShell expert. Workflow Studio provides a simple interface that lets those not familiar with PowerShell be productive with it as well.
5. Workflow Studio can easily integrate with things that aren't PowerShell (native libraries support VBScript, WMI, and running batch files. You can also use 'off-the-shelf' activity libraries for Workflow Foundation as well.)
6. Workflow Studio is designed to support persistence. For simple, quick jobs, someone who is familiar with PowerShell and the cmdlets necessary to complete a given task will be more effective using the PowerShell command line interface. If the task requires several levels of approvals over hours, days, or even months then Workflow Studio and its underlying persistence and tracking engine from Workflow Foundation is a better tool for the job.

And remember, everything in Workflow Studio is exposed via PowerShell, so you can build your own interfaces to your workflows in PowerShell.

I would love to get more feedback on this topic in the comments. Let me know if you agree or disagree. Ultimately these are both just tools and if they don't help you do your job then they are meaningless. Let us know how we can make both technologies work better for your organization.

Oh yeah! A new version of the Citrix Virtual Desktop Agent version 3.1.3236 has been released.
Thanks Mr. Shawn Bass for picking this up =)

Here is a list of fixes in this release:

Redirected COM ports cannot be accessed outside of a user's logon session. This enhancement allows you to issue a "net use com4: \\client\com1" command to add a global device link named "COM4" to the redirected COM1 port, allowing processes outside of the user's logon session to access the COM port. To enable this enhancement, you must set the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Citrix\PortICA\Serial
Name: CreateGlobalDevice
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: <greater than zero>

[From XDE310VDA002][#206151]

After reconnecting to a disconnected session, mapped COM ports might no longer be available.

[From XDE310VDA002][#208370]

Printers do not autocreate when a virtual desktop agent is started from a halted state instead of from an idle state.

[From XDE310VDA002][#208395]

After installing Version 3.1 (Build 3231) of the virtual desktop agent, logon times might take in excess of one minute.

[From XDE310VDA002][#210159]

After installing Version 3.1 (Build 3231) of the virtual desktop agent on Windows XP, the Citrix Audio Service fails to start.

[From XDE310VDA002][#210166]

After configuring XenDesktop according to Knowledge Center Article CTX118976 (Configuring XenDesktop to Function Properly Without an Organizational Unit in Active Directory), the virtual desktop agent fails to register.

[From XDE310VDA002][#210798]

You can download the Citrix Virtual Desktop Agent from the below link:
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121590

In the first part of this blog series we looked at specific details on Citrix Delivery Center and the Disaster Recovery demonstration for SAP NetWeaver. In this posting we will cover different High Availability solutions also demonstrated at SAP. In addition to this blog series, please refer the Reference Architecture document that provides all the technical details about Citrix and Marathon solutions implemented for SAP.

Getting back to High Availability, Citrix XenServer and Marathon Technologies everRun VM for XenServer provide solutions that covers a broad spectrum of High Availability requirements  ranging from maintenance to complete system-level fault tolerance. Given the breadth of High Availability solutions, IT administrators are bound to find a Citrix XenServer High Availability solution to meet their application availability needs.  

When looking for an HA solution, various factors such as application criticality and business impact must be considered before choosing a particular solution for an application. A more detailed report on determining availability requirements can be found here.  
In our Proof Of Concept environment at SAP, we showcased all levels of High Availability offered by XenServer and everRun VM. First let's look at the out-of-the-box High Availability solutions that XenServer alone delivers:

• XenMotion: XenMotion supports live migration of running virtual machines from one XenServer to another. The primary purpose of XenMotion is to prepare for planned server maintenance.  The end user will not experience any interruption in application performance in XenMotion.
• XenServer High Availability (HA) - Level 1: XenServer HA provides High Availability by automatically restarting failed virtual machines on a different XenServer host within the same resource pool.  The end user will experience an interruption in service as the virtual machine restarts.

In addition, Marathon Technologies everRun VM for XenServer provides High and Continuous Availability for critical virtual machines hosting business applications like SAP NetWeaver Portal:

• everRun VM for XenServer-- Level 2: Marathon Technologies everRun VM Level 2 delivers High Availability from component-level fault tolerance, eliminating downtime caused by I/O component failures and guaranteeing recovery from system failures. The solution identifies faulty I/O pathways before they become a problem and responds to a wide range of I/O and component failures. Active validation of all components on primary and secondary hosts ensures smooth recovery following any primary host component failure.  
• everRun VM for XenServer - Level 3: Marathon Technologies everRun VM Level 3 provides Continuous Availability from system-level fault tolerance, eliminating data loss, downtime and transaction loss. It offers all of the benefits of Level 2 and adds two important attributes:
  a.    Zero downtime, even with complete XenServer host failure.
  b.    Preservation of application and memory states during failure.

The following video features the Marathon everRun VM Level 3 High Availability solution demonstrated at SAP Co-Innovation Labs, Palo Alto. Again, for more technical details on the implementation, please take a look at the Reference Architecture.

We recently went through another successful round of XenDesktop Tech Talk webinars.  From May 18 through 20, we conducted a series of well-attended 3-day technically-oriented webinars specifically around virtual desktops.  I know sitting in an hour long webinar might not be the most exciting experience for everyone, but its amazing to see the turnout on anything related to virtual desktops these days!  Not only did the webinars draw 200+ live attendees each, we've received numerous archived views already.  It's pretty exciting to see that webinar stats continue to rise from day to day.  So, for all those that might have missed the live versions of the show, here are the topics and links to the archived sections:
 
May 18th: Effectively planning a technical migration from physical PCs to Citrix XenDesktop.  Watch on Demand
May 19th: Citrix XenDesktop 3 Architecture and HDX User Experience: A Comparison Versus VMware. Watch on Demand
May 20th: Citrix and Intel: Manage Once and Stream to Many Local Desktops. Watch On Demand. Watch on Demand
 
And as a teaser, I've chosen the top 3 Q/A topics from each of the webinars:

Effectively planning a technical migration from physical PCs to Citrix XenDesktop.

Q: Migrating from physical desktops to virtual desktops, how do you calculate how many users you can get on a server?
You should assess the following:
•    Target virtual desktop OS type - Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
•    Desktop hardware requirements (CPU, memory, network) to apply the right configuration to virtual machines
•    Storage space
This information, along with server hardware details, will allow you a better sizing estimate. It is best to run a scalability test on at least a single server.

Q: If the master image gets updated on Saturday after all users have logout, will there be any delay in OS delivery when the users come in next Monday?
If the master image has been updated on Saturday and you know how many logons you have simultaneously on Monday, you can adjust the setting "Idle Pool" of a Desktop Group. This Desktop Group setting allows you to configure how many idle desktops (booted and waiting at the Windows logon screen) you want in your pool at certain times of the day. You can also configure a peak period to cover the time at which most users will be logging on to their desktops. This period starts at the beginning of your business day.

Q: How is a dual monitor connected?
There is no requirement for any specific configuration on the endpoint device to support dual or multiple monitors for a virtual desktop. Multiple monitors are detected on endpoint device and virtual desktop is displayed across all monitors. A single virtual desktop can span up to 8 monitors in a rectangular shape (e.g. 1x8, 2x4), where each monitor must have the same resolution.

Citrix XenDesktop 3 Architecture and HDX User Experience: A Comparison Versus VMware.

Q: if VMware ESX is the VM hosting infrastrucure for XenDesktop, can XenDesktop still be able to deliver similar user experience ?
A: Absolutely.  XenDesktop is built on an open architecture platform and will work with VMware ESX and HyperV, the inherent HDX technologies will continue to deliver the superior user experience across these platforms.

Q: VMWare claims that its new PC-over-IP protocol will be superior to ICA. Is this really a valid claim?

A: No, this is not a valid claim.  PC-over-IP is still being tested as a technology and has not been tested in real customer scenarios.  While there are vendor claims for features like Local Keyboard & Mouse Echo, these capabilities are exist already in XenDesktop.  In addition, per Citrix's internal and 3rd party testing, XenDesktop, which leverages ICA, still uses only a fraction of the bandwidth required for PC-over-IP.  For more related information on the superiority of HDX, visit: User Experience Blog Article and HDX Flash Support Article.

Q: How do I solve the road warrior without internet ?  Is there a checkout feature now or being planned? (like VMware?)
A: Citrix's announcement of XenClient will specifically to address the needs of the road warrior.  XenClient is a Type 1 hypervisor-based local client solution and will allow both corporate and personal OS environments to fully leverage local computing resources and graphics processors to ensure the highest performance and multimedia experience for all offline users.  Read more here.

Citrix and Intel: Manage Once and Stream to Many Local Desktops.

Q: How do you use one image for several different models of workstations (different video, network card)?
A: You will need to manage one image for each distinct model of a workstation.  In other words, a separate OS image for one workstation with a particular video or network card, and a different OS image for another with a different video or network card hardware set.

Q: How many endpoint devices can be streamed from a single vdisk?
A: From a vDisk... infinite to the IO limits of the storage where the vDisk is stored.  Now a PVS server can easily handle booting 500 devices whether doing one image or multiple standard images.  The scalability depends on storage, network and the server itself.

Q: How long does the whole process take (from the user turning on the machine to actually using the machine)?  
A:  With virtual machines (running different OS's like XP, Vista, etc) provisioned and ready for access inside the data center, the whole process - from the time the user logs onto his or her virtual desktop until he or she is able to use it - is nearly instantaneous.  This, of course, does not take into account the network latency and lag effects.
 
By the way, if you're interested in learning more and seeing some independent reviews of XenDesktop versus other virtual desktop solutions, visit this page.
 

Multi-tab Browser Support

One of the limitations in the trial release of HDX MediaStream for Flash is that only one tab per browser process can be accelerated. This is a bigger issue in Internet Explorer 7 where all tabs run in the same process. In Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) some tabs run in different process.

But there is a way to force IE8 to run all tabs in separate processes. Follow this link to learn more about how to configure IE8 in such mode.

In the final release of HDX MediaStream for Flash, multiple tabs will be supported in both IE7 and IE8 out of the box.

Is HDX MediaStream for Flash running?

HDX MediaStream for Flash is so seamless that you may not even know it's running. Of course, that's by design. There are, however, a number of ways to know if it is running. My personal favorite is looking at a cyan block of color where the Flash player is shown. The cyan color shows for a little bit before the Flash player shows up.

We also created a diagnostic tool for HDX MediaStream for Flash. This tool can tell you if it is running correctly and if not, it can tell you what could be wrong. The information it collects can be easily sent to our support email alias to help our engineers assist you with your questions.

This tool is open source and can be downloaded here.

It's easy to see how HDX MediaStream for Flash makes it easier for IT to choose XenApp and XenDesktop for application management and desktop delivery while preserving the experience that users are accustomed to. Stay tuned for more in my "Did you know" series on HDX MediaStream for Flash.

More of my blog posts on HDX MediaStream for Flash:

HDX MediaStream for Flash Tech Preview
Window-less Mode support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Volume Synchronization in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Windows Scaling Support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Multiple Tab Support and Diagnostics with HDX MediaStream for Flash

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