One of the new exclusive Windows 7 feature is the use of search connectors. Users have the ability to search remote file repositories on the local network or web using Windows Explorer. I've created a Windows 7 search connector to search content into the Citrix Knowledgebase.

Download the CitrixKB CitrixKB.zip search Connector and add http://support.citrix.com and http://api.bing.com to your trusted sites in your Internet Explorer. (Tools -> Internet Options -> Security)

Now you can start your Windows Explorer, click Citrix on the left favorite pane and enter your search string.

The Citrix Cloud offers users the ability to experience the power of Citrix solutions without having to setup and configure their own environemnt. The Citrix Cloud demo environment utilize a number of key Citrix solutions including Citrix XenServer, Citrix XenApp, Citrix NetScaler and Citrix Access Gateway.

Users can register for a demonstration account good for a 2 hour session, or expires 24 hours from the time of the registration. Currently the Citrix Cloud offers demos for the PC's & Mac's plus Citrix Receiver on iPhone and Citrix Receiver for Windows Mobile Professional devices. You can use the link below to register for a demo account from you PC or your mobile device.

Registration URL http://www.citrixcloud.net

When you're ready to meet your local Citrix Field team let us know and we will set up a time to show you why Citrix has always been and will always be the leader in simplified virtualization!

In order to connect Unified Communications (UC) with Cloud we first need to start from a model for business integration that includes the processes and data models defining how a business operates. The best representation I've found of this is a work by Paul R. Smith as shown in the diagram below (redrawn by Marcel Douwe Dekker). Note that there are two distinct areas that define the Business Model, namely Processes and Data.  Business Process Integration is the sum of converging Data and Processes and results in the requirements that define the total operations of each business. This is important because without the analysis of both sides of the business, critical requirements are often missed and a comprehensive Information Technology approach becomes difficult.
 

In the world of UC, elements of each (processes and data), are merged to "provide a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types", including but not limited to "communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, IP telephony, video conferencing, call control and speech control with non real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax)".  As shown in the diagram (above right) both real-time and non real-time communications flow up into the Business Model Integration schema to round out the entire business operations definition.

Unified Communications has been the 'holy grail' for large service providers looking to bridge the gap between IP and voice services over the past 15 years.  Now, with the emergence of Software as a Service and Platforms as a Service, Cloud Providers have the ability to virtualize a solution to fill the requirements of Business Model Integration, but many are not bridging the gap to communications. As depicted in the diagram below, by delivering VMs, Desktops and Applications as well as real-time and non real-time communications in a PaaS model, a foundation for automation can be built for the next generation of Information Technology and Business Model Integration.  The missing link in a complete service offering has been the integration of UC and SaaS.

                                         
 
Unfortunately, Cloud Providers have not been able to grasp the idea of Holistic Cloud Computing yet and therefore have largely been focused on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).  Alternatively, Incumbent Service Providers (AT&T, BT, Telefonica, Unicom, etc) are mainly concentrating on the UC portion of the model, and are not providing SaaS but have relegated this offering to companies such as Saleforce.com, WebEx/Cisco and CitrixOnline.  SaaS providers tend to be monolithic in their offerings providing software applications but do not offer IaaS or PaaS.

The demand is growing for a more holistic approach to providing ubiquitous service.  Incumbent Services Providers have the means (cash, network, and brand) but no sense of urgency and a misunderstanding of their role in PaaS.  Cloud Providers have the technology, but not the UC implementations.  Although beginning to move into the collaboration portion of UC, most SaaS providers tend to focus on a silo of applications and are growing so rapidly they have little desire to broaden their offerings. This creates a tremendous opportunity for Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cloud Providers to quickly gain market share as the demand is left unmet by larger players (i.e. Tier 1 Service Providers and Tier 1 Cloud Providers).  The key to capturing this market is to understand the emerging SaaS model that includes both Web and Windows based applications as well as incorporating UC offerings into subscription services.

Citrix enables IaaS/PaaS with our C3 technology. Microsoft enables a UC suite of applications. Once the redefinition of SaaS is embraced (both Web and Windows apps) Service Providers will enable services through the hosted desktop using the Citrix Service Provider program.

I'm pleased to announce that Workflow Studio 2.0 is now available:

Download Workflow Studio 2.0 (MyCitrix login required)

This release has a number of great new features and is a seamless upgrade from version 1.x. Here are some of the key new features:

• Native XenApp activity libraries (and many other additional activities)
• Remote runtimes
• Simplified management interface
• Enhanced security features
• Simplified installation and configuration
• Improved SDK
• Simplified workflow Designer
• Globalization support

I will post some more blogs over the next few days with more details on the above features and will also be updating the CDN site with many new articles, so subscribe to the Workflow Studio blog and head over to the Workflow Studio CDN site and subscribe for updates on CDN as well.

Feel free to leave feedback in comments or email me directly.

Workflow Studio will be included with XenApp Feature Pack 2

Learn more about Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2

• Official Press Release - http://citrix.com/English/NE/news/news.asp?newsID=1857726
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 release Web Site - http://citrix.com/xenapp/featurepack2
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Executive Video - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/video
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Release Webinar - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/techtalk
• XenApp Expert Series videos for this release - http://citrix.com/xenapp/fp2/expertseries
• XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 Blogs- http://community.citrix.com/blogs/tag/xa5fp2
• Download XenApp technology previews - http://citrix.com/xenapp/techpreviews
• XenApp Product Page - http://citrix.com/xenapp/

Follow XenApp on | | |

As more and more ISVs, IT organizations, resellers, integrators and consultants of all flavors become more aware and familiar with the new virtual appliance packaging capabilities in the DMTF VMAN initiative and the OVF capabilities Citrix is adding to its products, it is useful to identify some of the advanced capabilities of the Project Kensho OVF Tool.

New in the Project Kensho OVF Tool v1.3 is a variety of options aimed at making virtual appliance packages more feature rich.  As a packaged entity, the attributes of the virtual appliance are important. 

Attributes like encryption, compressing files, digitally signing and validating or verifying the content prior to import add tremendous value. 

For example, if an ISV wanted to offer his XenServer based virtual appliance as an OVF, and had concerns about tampering with the OVF xml, the ISV has the option to digitally sign the OVF file.  On import, the user can verify the signature, if the verification fails, this indicates a change to the file from what the ISV produced. ISVs also need to attach end user license agreement (EULA) information.  During import, EULA text is presented to the user to accept or reject.  The ISV has the ability to incorporate whatever text necessary to fulfill the EULA display requirement.

Another example is if an IT administrator must move a VM from one physical location to another and requires an export of the VM to do so.  The contents (virtual disks) of the VM are sensitive and the administrator must secure them.  The administrator can choose to create an OVF and encrypt the contents.  As part of the process, she would like the appliance in a single file format (OVA).  Using the Project Kensho OVF Tool, she has the flexibility to do this. 

On import, there are also a number of options for the end user.  Many are verification and validation whereas others enable the user with mapping the OVF's VM resources requirements (NIC, storage) to the resources available from the XenServer host.

Summing this up, we've produced an Advanced Features video to describe some of these options.

As we can see from these features, the world of advanced virtual appliance creation and consumption is quickly becoming very feature rich and enabling for all parties involved.   

Are you planning to attend Intel Developer Forum 2009 next week? If so, you will see Citrix in every corner of the event!

Stop by the Citrix booth (#501) next week at San Francisco's Moscone Center to see demos of our Citrix Delivery Center solutions. We will also showcase demos of Citrix XenClient, our joint collaboration with Intel to develop a local desktop virtualization platform.

In addition, Citrix will be featured in the Intel Virtualization Pavilion and Intel vPro Zone Communities. Within the Communities we'll showcase XenClient and also how Citrix XenServer leverages the benefits of Intel Xeon processors for Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop workloads. And as if that weren't enough, we will also have a demo of SR-IOV with Citrix XenServer at Intel's booth.

Citrix will also be featured within several breakout sessions at the event. Stop by the session "Hosted, Streamed, and Local Bare Metal Desktop Virtualization with Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenClient" on September 22^nd from 3-3:50pm to hear Peter Blum introduce our desktop virtualization vision and discuss Citrix XenClient.

Also, Simon Crosby is participating in a cloud virtualization panel discussion alongside other industry-leading companies. This session is scheduled for September 22^nd from 5-5:50pm.

In short...or maybe not that short...if you plan on attending the event, you'll have a lot of opportunities to meet with Citrix and learn how Citrix is working with Intel.

We look forward to seeing you there and we guarantee you won't be able to miss us! Learn more about Intel Developer Forum or register to attend here.

Citrix User Group Denmark session on Whats new in Provisioning Server. The Session was delivered by Henrik Poulsen from Citrix Consulting, and Henrik covered whats new and how does Provisioning Server fit into the scheme of a dynamic delivery center.

Dansk Citrix User Group Session om Whats new in Provisioning Server. Sessionen blev leveret af Henrik Poulsen fra Citrix Consulting, og Henrik afdækkede hvad der er nyt samt hvor Provisioning Server passer ind i det store dynamiske delivery center.

Click below to continue to Dansk Citrix User Group:
http://www.dkcug.dk

One of the more unique features about the Project Kensho OVF Tool v1.3 is its ability to manage Hyper-V servers. The Project Kensho OVF Tool can import OVF/VMDK from VMware products directly into Hyper-V servers as well as move content between Hyper-V and XenServer.

To assist with the understanding how quick and easy this is, we've produced a simple video that explains this process:

Some items to note with Hyper-V and XenServer compatibility:

1. When moving Linux workloads around, if the XenServer derived Linux workload is paravirtualized (PV enabled), the workload will not function on Hyper-V. Use an HVM type of VM if the intent of the workload is for cross hypervisor compatibility between XenServer and Hyper-V.
2. When moving Windows workloads around, Windows XP/Server 2003 and higher can be migrated between platforms without driver issues, e.g., one clobbering the other.

Share your experience and use cases on the forum.  Thanks for your interest in Project Kensho and the virtual appliance future of XenServer!

Registration is now open for this years Autumn 2009 CUGtech event in Geilo, Norway on Oct 7th through Oct 9th. It looks like there might also be a discount for the event by registering as a member.

Register here to participate at CUGtech Autumn 2009

• You will have to pay directly to the hotel when checking out Friday, using creditcard or cash.
• Register as a member now and get 50% discount for the membership valid thru 31/12-09.
• Only members can attend Master Classes, and get the special member price for the conference.

Click below to continue to registration:
http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/register/

Here is a nice view of the Geek Wonderland where the event will be hosted.

Geilo, Norway

Click below to learn more about the event:

CUGtech Autumn 2009: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/
Location: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/location/
Transport: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/transport/
Speakers: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/speakers/
Agenda: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/agenda/
Master Classes: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/master-classes/
Register: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/register

Over the holiday weekend I had one of those "come to X" moments, where for X you may insert your deity of choice. Under my customary backlog of tasks to complete, and wanting to also spend time with my family, I was happily at work on Friday night fine tuning powerpoint for a presentation to the industry, when....

(You've all experienced this before) One profile change too many, one cookie too many, one slide too many, one keystroke too many.. or something, and my XP VM decided to toss its legs, feet & boots in the air. With daylight fading fast, spousal impatience on the rise and with a rapidly (Decibels are measured on a log scale) increasing din on the part of my children, I did something that no self respecting hypervisor zealot would do, namely take a leap of faith in another layer of virtualization - App Virtualization.

And the result is that it saved my weekend with my family, and the current state of my work, and enabled me to meet some tough deadlines this week. Here's what I did: First, the diagnosis was that my Windows XP client OS VM (on my Mac) was done for. I could still boot it. Not much else, and not for long. My key concern was how to rescue all of my files and other state in the VM.

This exercise allowed me to validate a theory that I have had in the area of virtualization, which I can now summarize: Lesson 1: Make your VMs stateless. Move all of your documents (more generally, any app specific storage/state) out of the virtual hard disk of the VM and into an appropriate storage layer external to the virtual hard drive of the VM. In my case, all state (every document I work on) is stored in the local file system of my Mac and is continually backed up to the cloud. So my XP VM was simply an operating context for some apps, divorced from the storage for the docs etc that I work on. The fact that my XP VM had become unstable was therefore not a threat to any of my documents/presentations - only to the execution of the apps. Nothing I value was stored in the virtual hard disk of the VM itself.

Now, fancying a challenge, I also chose to upgrade to Win7 in the process of fixing this problem. After all, why not test Win7 in the process? So I created a new Win7 VM (using the MSDN media). That took the expected amount of time, and I easily got to the point where I had a new Win7 OS booted, with access to all my storage, including all my documents. What next? Well, I needed my Apps. Not only the basics, but also Citrix specific apps - for example expense reporting...

I was tempted to send an email to my local Citrix colleagues requesting install media for all my apps. Then I realized that that would not be easy - since I had no email client! : All I needed to do (and did, after a glass of wine) was download Citrix Receiver, turn on "auto update", and enable the appropriate folder sharing to get my content back into the OS. Then I enjoyed the remainder of the weekend with my family.

When I started work this morning, XenApp App Streaming had delivered to me all the apps that I needed, ready to run at full performance, and appropriately configured for the enterprise network and other infrastructure. I had a brand new Win7 desktop, the latest apps, and everything I had ever created, all beautifully merged into a single runtime system.

The recent announcement of the Terremark Cloud offering has raised significant attention especially because of the competitive pricing and EC2 like features of elastic capacity and hourly charges with no commitment. On the surface the Terremark entry price of $0.036 per hour seems very low compared to Amazon EC2 at $0.10 but it's worth picking a few examples to provide a more apples to apples comparison.

..
Not included in the comparison is the difference in storage costs which can be small or very significant depending on the circumstance. Amazon provides up to 160 GB of instance storage for a small image or 850 GB for a large included in the hourly cost. If you have only a small instance say 10GB that adds $ 2.50 to the monthly price at Terremark ( @ .25/GB ) however of you needed the 850 GB included in the Amazon Large image that would add $ 212 to the monthly Terremark costs. Also not included is bandwidth costs, however both charge the same $0.17 GB for data transfer out . ( Although Amazon charges $ 0.10/GB for data in vs Terremark $ 0.17 data in ).

Some the bigger differences will more likely depend on how the VMs are utilized. The numbers stated above assume a full month of 24x31 operation. With Amazon EC2 it's possible to save in S3 ( bundle in Amazon terms ) an instance and then shut down ( terminate ) the VM and the billing stops. With Terremark however although you can shut down the VM, the hourly charges do not stop. Only deleting the VM ends the billing, there does not appear to be an option of saving with the hourly charges turned off and allowing a new instance from the saved image to be started at a later time. This appears to be a big advantage for Amazon although I need to learn more about the Terremark offering to fully appreciate the capabilities.

Certainly economics is not the only factor in selecting a Cloud infrastructure provider. Vendor Lock-in and VM portablity often come up as concerns. Security is also a factor in regard to Cloud computing and this was a motivator for Amazons recent Virtual Private Cloud offering which provides a dedicated VPN connection from a customer premise to an isolated Cloud inside the Amazon infrastructure. I also have to admit I was impressed with a recent tour of the Terremark data center in Miami , this place was like a high tech Fort Knox when it came to security. The entire topic of Cloud security is worthy of specialized consideration not covered in this simple comparison.

Ease of use is another consideration that is worth evaluating. The Amazon Web Console is limited in function but easy to use plus includes access to many partner and community provided ( including Citrix C3 Lab ) templates that are prebuilt and ready to launch. In Amazon EC2 for example its now possible signup and launch your own XenApp server in as little a 15 minutes.

Terremark also provides a web base console that looks straight forward however I have not used it myself yet. Terramark does not provide the same portfolio of 3rd party templates however they do provide more granularity in the size of VMs and RAM plus they offer multiple versions of Windows Server.

As the options for Cloud Computing continue to expand the economic analysis of Cloud vs Premise will extend to Cloud vs Cloud, as Service Providers continue to provide dynamic cloud type offerings.

Cloud Economics 101 Part 1 - Premise vs Cloud vs Colo
Cloud Economics 101 Part 2 - Premise Plus Cloud
Cloud Economics 101 Part 3 - Amazon Reserved Pricing

http://twitter.com/chrisfleck

Get ready for another European Geek Out event at this year's CUGtech event being hosted by Citrix Users Group Norway on Oct 7 through Oct 9 at the Dr. Holms Hotel in Geilo, Norway

This will be HARDCORE technical stuff with some of the best geeks in the world!
Shawn Bass and Benny Tritsch are coming! So are Alex Yushchenko, the founder and master of PubForum! We also have our danish friend Rene Vester from DKCUG on the speakers list! From Citrix we will have speakers from Citrix Support and Citrix Consulting, and from US our dear friends Rich Crusco and Rick Dehlinger are coming.

If you don't know about Citrix Users Group Norway, climb out from under that rock you have been living under, and come and join us at one of Europe's premier independently run Citrix Users Group events.

Click below to learn more:

CUGtech Autumn 2009: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/
Location: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/location/
Transport: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/transport/
Speakers: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/speakers/
Agenda: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/agenda/
Master Classes: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/master-classes/
Register: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/register/

Stay tuned for more announcements about when registration will be made avaialble

Summary

Project Kensho OVF technology provides the Citrix ecosystem with excellent tools to create and consume virtual appliances based on the OVF standard.  Project Kensho OVF technology is currently available in two utilities: 

• Project Kensho OVF Tool
• XenConvert 2.0.1

This article aims to describe basic use cases of each tool and where it fits within the greater context of deploying and consuming virtual appliances using the Open Virtualization Format (OVF).

Background

Project Kensho is a Citrix Labs endeavor tasked with de-risking and improving our understanding at applying DMTF OVF and CIM technology to XenServer. 

In the case of OVF, the standard is new and exciting. Its potential to reduce costs and improve virtual machine deployment for Citrix internal and external partners and customers is enormous.  Today, it is one of the most exciting technologies in the world of virtualization.

Project Kensho OVF technology is present in both the Project Kensho OVF Tool and XenConvert 2.0.1.  Each tool is unique in how it uses OVF and its position in the user community. 

In the simplest terms, the Project Kensho OVF Tool is aimed at OVF based virtual appliance creation and consumption where as XenConvert 2.0.1 is a P2V/V2V conversion utility supporting OVF virtual appliances.

Each offers the user different paths to create, convert and import OVF based virtual appliance content into XenServer.

Project Kensho OVF Tool

First released in October 2008 as an ongoing series of Tech Previews, the Project Kensho OVF Tool targets the creation and consumption of OVF based virtual appliances. This utility is part of the Project Kensho Tech Preview suite consisting of the Project Kensho OVF Tool and the Project Kensho XenServer CIM Interface. 

The Project Kensho OVF Tool is a full featured import/export utility offering users the latest OVF capabilities. The utility accommodates both the XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors and has the ability to directly import VMware OVF/VMDK content without conversion.

Unlike XenConvert, the Project Kensho OVF Tool is not targeted at static file format or physical to virtual conversion.  The utility requires the user to have administrative privilege to the hypervisor.  It interfaces directly with the hypervisor enumerating VM content for export and identifying hypervisor hosts for import.  The Project Kensho OVF Tool's primary function is to manage movement of OVF packages into and out of the hypervisor.

Project Kensho OVF Tool – Appliance Creation (Export)

Virtual appliance producers have the ability to create virtual machine appliances by exporting one or more virtual machine guests as an OVF package from either the XenServer or Hyper-V host. 

OVF supports one or more virtual machines within a single package.  This enables virtual appliance producers with the ability to package entire datacenter suites into a single file.  This is very useful when distributing suites like XenApp or other multi-server products.  Currently, the Kensho OVF Tool is the only Citrix utility capable of exporting OVF content directly from a hypervisor.

When exporting the appliance, the user has the ability to embed an End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) into the OVF.  The EULA is presented during import forcing the consumer to agree or decline the terms of use of the appliance. 

For added security, the user can digitally sign the OVF file and encrypt the virtual disk content.  These features add additional value to the virtual appliance's integrity.  Users can also compress and add a file manifest to OVF package.

Project Kensho OVF Tool – Appliance Consumption (Import)

Consumers of the OVF package have the option to import the virtual appliance into a XenServer or Hyper-V hypervisor.  Among other features, the Project Kensho OVF Tool enables this process with features such as hardware mapping and integrity validation of the OVF package.

Hardware mapping eases post virtual appliance import configuration steps.  For example, a user could map the network interface card (NIC) described in the OVF to the virtual networks unique to the target XenServer. The same support exists for storage and system mapping.

One highly useful feature is the direct import of VMware OVF/VMDK content into a XenServer or Microsoft Hyper-V environment.  This capability reduces time and costs as Project Kensho implements fix up capabilities making migration of the VMDK easier and less time consuming.

XenConvert 2.0.1

As the first mainstream XenServer utility to adopt OVF, XenConvert 2.0.1 applies Project Kensho OVF technology to the conversion process.  As a Physical to Virtual (P2V) and Virtual to Virtual (V2V) converter, XenConvert 2.0.1 now gives virtual appliance users a number of options to either create OVF content for import into XenServer or convert OVF content produced by 3rd party products like VMware. 

Unlike the Project Kensho OVF Tool, XenConvert 2.0.1 does not require administrative rights to a XenServer in order to convert physical or virtual machine assets into formats compatible with XenServer.  The utility can perform its conversion functions without any XenServer interaction.  However, in scenarios where the user chooses to import into XenServer as part of the conversion process, the utility conveniently offers this capability thus requiring the user to authenticate to a XenServer with administrative credentials.

In the P2V scenario, XenConvert 2.0.1 facilitates the creation of an OVF based virtual appliance by using a physical machine as the appliance reference.  This is a unique use case as the creator of the virtual appliance now has another avenue of flexibility in determining the source of the virtual appliance.

One helpful use case is converting an existing XenServer XVA virtual disk to an OVF/VHD package.  This gives virtual appliance users the option to easily convert the XVA to a standards based virtual appliance format.

Another use case is converting from a VMware OVF/VMDK to XenServer.  Kensho OVF technology allows XenConvert to convert and import VMware OVF content into a XenServer environment.  This is very helpful when moving between hypervisors and gives users the freedom of OVF interoperability at the virtual disk level.

There are many more possible use cases employing Project Kensho OVF technology found in XenConvert 2.0.1.  XenConvert 2.0.1 supports OVF packaging options like compression, digital signatures, encryption and archiving the OVF package as well as attaching EULA information to the virtual appliance.

For use cases where P2V and V2V conversion is a must, XenConvert is an excellent tool to convert and import OVF content into XenServer.  And, it represents yet another method of creating and consuming OVF based virtual appliances. 

Conclusion

Project Kensho OVF technology offers users a variety of options whether using the Project Kensho OVF Tool or XenConvert 2.0.1.  Each utility allows creators and consumers of OVF based virtual appliances a variety of paths into XenServer creating flexibility for all users of the technology. 

By providing tools to address the conversion of physical and virtual disk formats to XenServer as well as the import and export of OVF content, Citrix is actively positioning customers and partners for the move into the virtual appliance world.

Summary

This article provides a basic overview of the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) specification as used in Project Kensho and XenConvert.

Background

Virtual Machine deployment and use has exploded in recent years. Many vendors, including Citrix, have been instrumental in the widespread adoption of virtual machines in today's computing climate. New use cases, including the distribution of virtual appliances, require a more standardized way to describe and deliver virtual machines. This article aims to shed some light on OVF as used in currently shipping Citrix products.

What OVF Is

Comprised of the Virtualization Management Initiative (VMAN), the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) standards body created a standard representation of virtual machine metadata named Open Virtualization Format (OVF).  OVF seeks to allow virtual machine hypervisor vendors and the users of virtual machine technology to create and consume virtual machine metadata free from proprietary formats.

Virtual machine metadata includes a virtual machine's name and configured memory as well as CPU, network and storage settings among other attributes. A standards approach to creating and consuming virtual machine metadata eases the ability to move a virtual machine from one platform to another as well as distribute virtual appliances to end users.

However, OVF goes beyond just the description and virtual hardware attributes. OVF allows a virtual appliance vendor to add items like a EULA, comments about the virtual machine, boot parameters, minimum requirements, security attributes and a host of other features.

An OVF is not just limited to a single virtual machine. An OVF can describe multiple virtual machines. These virtual machines can be packaged as a virtual appliance suite all wrapped up in a single file. Creators of the appliances also have the ability to encrypt, compress and digitally sign OVF content.

With these capabilities, there is a wide range of packaging and deployment possibilities when using features provided by the OVF specification found in Citrix utilities.

What OVF Is Not

OVF is not a specification that describes a virtual disk. To import OVF content requires hypervisor compatibility with the associated virtual disk.

For example, to import a VMware produced OVF, which includes a VMDK disk into XenServer, the user needs to convert the VMDK into a virtual disk format compatible with XenServer.. The same process is needed to import a XenServer OVF which includes a VHD into a VMware hypervisor.

To assist end users with dissimilar disk formats, Citrix provides XenConvert 2.0.1 which converts VMware OVF/VMDK content into a XenServer compatible format (OVF/VHD). The Project Kensho OVF Tool enables direct import of OVF/VMDK content into XenServer without converting into an intermediate format. Using this method, the Project Kensho OVF Tool reduces migration time by ~ 40%.

With Microsoft Hyper-V content, no conversion is necessary as XenServer natively supports the VHD format. The Project Kensho OVF Tool facilitates the import and export of OVF based VHD content for users of Microsoft Hyper-V.

OVF File Components

From a file perspective, OVF is not just one file. It is a collection of files representing everything from virtual machine metadata, virtual disks, manifests, certificates and archive files. These files can be encrypted, digitally signed, compressed and archived.

The most apparent file is the metadata file. It is an XML document that has the extension of .ovf. This file contains the metadata describing one or more virtual machines and contains the location of the virtual disks associated with the virtual machines. It also contains information about how to manage the virtual machines during import, EULA information and other capabilities described in the specification. A file of this type could appear as myappliance.ovf.

Accompanying the .ovf are one or more virtual disks. Citrix uses the .vhd format for virtual disks associated with a Citrix produced OVF. The .ovf file provides the location to one or more VHD disks. VHD disks can be relative to the OVF or can be a URL.

The OVF specification defines two specific groups of files:

OVF Package
An OVF package is a group of files required for importing the virtual machine.

• The .ovf file containing the metadata. Example: myappliance.ovf
• One or more .vhd virtual hard disks. Example: myappliance.vhd
• A manifest file describing the package and checksum. Example: myappliance.mf
• If a user chooses to digitally sign the OVF file, a certificate file. Example: myappliance.cert

OVA Package
An OVA package is a single file archive of the .ovf file, .vhd file, .mf file and, if applicable, the .cert file. The OVF specification requires an archive to be in the TapeARchive (TAR) format. TAR is a Unix derived archiving format.

• All files associated with the OVF are included in this file. Example: myappliance.ova

The OVF specification allows users to compress an OVA.

• OVA compression uses the gzip algorithm. Example: myappliance.ova.gz

OVF and XVA

OVF is the natural successor to XVA. Accompanying an XVA package is a file named ova.xml. This is XenSever's proprietary metadata descriptor. Citrix utilities like XenConvert 2.0 convert an XVA into an OVF/VHD combination. XenConvert is useful in creating distributable virtual appliances based on the OVF standard from existing XVA content.

DMTF VMan OVF Specification

There is much more to OVF than the simple description above. To learn more about it, please refer to the OVF specification on the DMTF website.

DSP02431.0.0 Open Virtualization Format Specification

In a recent HP webinar and accompanying ServerWatch posting, Michael Diamant of MoreDirect discussed using Xen to virtualize Exchange, but reported that he had issues with it that were leading him to A Certain Alternative.

Exchange can be a very persnickety workload to virtualize - it was legendary up until recently as one to avoid.

But now that Diamant is stepping up to the challenge, we'd like to point out that there's an alternative to his "alternative," and a better one for his purposes - Citrix XenServer (preferably with Citrix Essentials added for advanced virtualization management).

He reports that he chose Xen because the earliest workloads his company chose to virtualize were Linux-based. But among the added value of Citrix XenServer is its optimization for resource-intensive Windows workloads like Exchange. From our high-performance networking and disk I/O support in XenServer Tools to our tuning and testing, we've made on of our main goals for XenServer to deliver great Windows performance, even on challenging resource-intensive workloads.

How well does XenServer do? Well, don't believe me... believe the numbers, as shown by my colleague Bernie Hannon: performance is excellent, even under significant user load. And the added capabilities of Citrix Essentials for XenServer increase ability and manageability. If you want to see the results in more detail, you can download the technical white paper for more info.

So Xen-driven virtualization is definitely the right choice for Exchange and other resource-intensive Windows workloads. But it has to be the right Xen for the job, and that's Citrix XenServer.

With the new Xen.org announcement, there is a lot of motivation and excitement at Citrix and the Open Source Community. Adding to this, two weeks ago, Citrix released the latest Project Kensho Tech Preview:  Project Kensho 1.3.

This is an exciting time for Citrix as we strive to improve and build virtual appliance creation and consumption capabilities into the XenServer product line. Project Kensho is the primary driver for Citrix's use of DMTF virtualization standards.  As with previous Project Kensho standalone releases, this release includes support for the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) and the Common Information Model (CIM). Two different utilities are provided at the Project Kensho download site:  The Project Kensho OVF Tool and the XenServer CIM interface.  

In the coming days, the Project Kensho team will provide more information and details on these utilities.  However, before getting too involved in the details, let's quickly highlight what each utility offers.

XenServer CIM Interface

The XenServer CIM interface facilitates access to XenServer management functions from standards based APIs.  This greatly simplifies coding for partners and customers who create utilities to run against a XenServer environment and other hypervisors by reducing the amount of code to maintain for each environment. 

There are quite a few improvements in the interface, let's take a look:

Easy to Use:

•  Simple installation onto a XenServer host 
•  Training video describing installation 
•  Fast, attentive and helpful online support

Interoperable:

•  Enable 3rd party manageability of XenServer using standards based interfaces 

Versatile:

•  Provides access to major classes of XenServer functionality 

Accessible:

•  Built on standards based DMTF VMAN specification 
•  Free of charge; anyone can use 
•  Open source; anyone can build management tools for XenServer 

The Project Kensho OVF Tool

Now, OVF is not new to Citrix.  Citrix has been a driver in DMTF in the creation of this specification.  We also see Kensho OVF technology in XenConvert 2.0.  With the Project Kensho OVF Tool 1.3, we open the door wider to a whole new world for Citrix partners and customers.  By leveraging the OVF standard, Citrix is piloting tools to make XenServer family the best of breed in virtual appliance offerings.  In fact, today, the Project Kensho OVF Tool is the fastest and easiest way to import VMware OVF/VMDK content into a XenServer environment.  More impressive, it can take that same VMware OVF/VMDK and import it into Microsoft's Hyper-V as well.  The Project Kensho OVF Tool manages both XenServer and Hyper-V environments whether the task is creating or consuming OVF content. This utility enables virtual appliance  creation and consumption never experienced before via XenServer.

What makes OVF impressive is that it enables software vendors, integrators and end users of virtuallization technology with the ability to package virtual appliances in ways unattainable until now.  This standards based specification gives virtual appliance packagers and consumers a long list of options to ensure secure appliance packaging, package virtual appliance suites, archive into singe files, compress them, attach EULAs, as well as whole host of other capabilities. Imagine what this flexibility can do for your environment!

Below lists the numerous improvements and features in version 1.3:

Easy to Use:

•  Simple installation on a Windows workstation or server class computer 
•  Easy to navigate, user friendly UI  
•  Can learn to use in minutes  
•  Detailed admin guide 
•  Training videos describing installation and virtual appliance packaging/deployment available from CitrixTV 
•  Fast, attentive and helpful online support

Interoperable:

•  Manage XenServer or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual appliance creation and consumption from the same UI at the same time 
•  Consume VMware OVF content produced from any VMware utility in production 
•  Directly import VMware VMDK virtual disks into XenServer or Hyper-V environments in one quick step 
•  Automate fix up of VMware imported virtual machines (Windows or Linux) to boot cleanly into XenServer and Hyper-V environment 
•  Share virtual appliances between Project Kensho OVF Tool and Citrix XenConvert 2.0.1  
•  Compatible with localized Hyper-V hosts 

Versatile:

•  Virtual appliance packaging of one or more virtual machines in to a virtual appliance suite 
•  Compress virtual appliances into smaller files saving space and lowering transport time when copying
•  Create single file archives of a virtual appliance making management of appliance content simple and straightforward 
•  Easy mapping of resources between virtual appliance and hypervisor host during import into XenServer or Hyper-V 
•  Attach EULA to virtual appliance to ensure end user agreement of virtual appliance application content prior to import 
•  Create virtual appliances from virtual machines with snapshots 

Secure:

•  Apply and verify digital signature to OVF to protect against tampering 
•  Encrypt virtual appliance files to protect appliance content from unauthorized use 

Reliable:

•  Create and verify a manifest of each file and its checksum in the appliance package 
•  Verify OVF formatting for errors prior to import 

Accessible:

•  Built on standards based OVF 1.0.0 virtual appliance specification 
•  Free of charge; anyone can use 
•  Open source; anyone can build virtual appliance tools for XenServer 

Today xen.org announced a significant expansion of its charter - the Xen Cloud Platform - with support from the key Xen contributors and project advisory board members, the Linux Foundation and some of the Industry's largest enterprise cloud providers.

The new initiative will unite the Xen community in the delivery of a complete virtual infrastructure platform designed to enable cloud providers to offer rich, enterprise-class infrastructure services.

Why is Xen.org doing this? Is it an act of desperation or capitulation? Is KVM about to eat Xen's lunch?
Does the Xen community fear a "v" imprinted on every Cloud? Having spent the week before VMWorld briefing press and analysts on our intentions, and getting a read of their views, it's likely that a few will see this as a reactive move. But several of the leading journalists and analysts have correctly analyzed our intentions, which I hope to explain in more detail here.

But first,

• This has nothing to do with KVM, which is a nascent type-2 virtualization technology that has yet to be delivered in an enterprise product and that allows Linux to host additional virtual machines. Xen is a bare-metal type-1 hypervisor that uses Linux to host drivers and managment software for the hardware, but that is completely guest OS agnostic. (Xen 3.0 shipped in 2005. Xen.org has also developed a type-2 hypervisor for Linux, Windows and MacOS X).
• A "v" imprinted on every Cloud would indeed be a bad thing, because it would mean that all cloud vendors would be stuck with the same features determined by a single, closed, proprietary stack. So Cloud A would have no value-add over Cloud B, and moreover they would have a built-in tax payable to VMware built into their services, for life.
• Desperation? No. The public IaaS clouds would not exist were it not for Xen, which as an reference industry open standard hypervisor dominates the public cloud. The project has a strong commitment to its installed-base and to delivering features that will enable IaaS clouds to evolve beyond today's virtual private server model toward rich virtual private data centers, by offering a powerful set of enterprise-class infrastructure virtualization features.

The project started with community-based development of the Xen hypervisor, which (in an oft repeated analogy) is the "engine" of a virtualization platform, but not the complete "car" - which has until now been a vendor's combination of Xen and additional components. Now Xen.org develops two complete cars: The Xen Client Intiative already develops a complete client hypervisor product, and the project will develop a complete cloud virtual infrastructure platform.
What defines a cloud platform? It contains a set of virtualization technologies that enable a cloud service provider to:

• Virtualize server resources with isolation and resource guarantees between multiple tenants on the same server
• Virtualize pools of server resources to enable rich enterprise-class services such as high availability and disaster recovery, automatic workload scaling and resource optimization
• Virtualize cloud storage to enable rich, stateful workload lifecycle management including snapshots, fast cloning, and dynamic provisioning across large server infrastructures
• Virtualize network resources to extend multi-tenancy across sets of servers with network isolation and resource guarantees, and an ability to manipulate the virtual topology and insert virtualized layer 3 through 7 networking functions for security, routing, load balancing, app firewalling, protocol optimization and other delivery services.
• Expose via a rich set of open APIs visibility into and control over all resources, so that the cloud service provider can offer its customers - tenants - full control over and visibility into their virtual private data centers.
• Offer complete VM compatibility across all virtualization platforms, to prevent the cloud market from being fragmented and adoption stalling due to incompatibility.
• All in open source, of course, to permit easy adoption by the world's largest clouds.

This is the mission of the Xen Cloud Platform project.

It's important to note that Xen.org is not aiming to commoditize the service and orchestration layers of the cloud that are currently enjoying rich innovation both in open source - for example by Eucalyptus, OpenNebula, Nimbus and others - and commercial vendors - such as VMOps, Platform Computing, Enigmatec and by cloud service providers such as Amazon VPC, RackSpace, GoGrid, and SoftLayer. Think of our goals as being the cloud extension of a hypervisor - an engine for cloud services perhaps, but not the whole cloud.

The xen.org blogs will provide more detail as the project progresses, but as we head into VMworld, here's a reminder for our event hosts:

ICA Proxy for XenApp using NetScaler AGEE.

Citrix NetScaler, a member of the Citrix Delivery Center™, is a purpose-built web application delivery solution that accelerates application performance up to five times while improving security and reducing web infrastructure costs. Access Gateway™, a member of the Citrix Delivery Center, is an only SSL VPN to securely deliver any application with policy-based SmartAccess control. Access Gateway, Enterprise Edition (AGEE) runs on the Citrix NetScaler.

Citrix XenApp™, also a member of the Citrix Delivery Center™ product family, is the industry's de facto standard for delivering Windows-based applications with the best performance, security and cost savings.

By centralizing applications and data in secure datacenters, IT can reduce the costs of management and support, increase data security and facilitate business continuity.

We at Citrix are often asked how to deploy a NetScaler AGEE in front of a XenApp server farm, to proxy application delivery over the ICA protocol, securely. The NS SGEE secures XenApp delivered applications by serving as a proxy for those applications. NS AGEE proxies the ICA connections delivered from XenApp, and then wraps those applications with HTTPS or SSL to secure the traffic before it leaves your organization.

This is possible by following the steps in the deployment guide. This guide is specific to the NetScaler Access Gateway Enterprise Edition (AGEE), which is different hardware & software from the Citrix Access Gateway Standard Edition (AGSE).

Download the deployment guide.

Its Powerful Citrix Developer Network!

ICA Proxy for XenApp using CAG

Citrix Access Gateway™, a member of the Citrix Delivery Center, is an SSL VPN to securely deliver any application with policy-based SmartAccess control.

Citrix XenApp™, also a member of the Citrix Delivery Center™ product family, is the industry's de facto standard for delivering Windows-based applications with the best performance, security and cost savings.

By centralizing applications and data in secure datacenters, IT can reduce the costs of management and support, increase data security and facilitate business continuity.

We at Citrix are often asked how to deploy a CAG in front of a XenApp server farm, to proxy application delivery over the ICA protocol, securely. The CAG secures XenApp delivered applications by serving as a proxy for those applications. CAG proxies the ICA connections delivered from XenApp, and then wraps those applications with HTTPS or SSL to secure the traffic before it leaves your organization.

This is possible by following the steps in the deployment guide. This guide is specific to the Citrix Access Gateway Standard Edition (AGSE), which is different hardware & software from the Citrix NetScaler Access Gateway Enterprise Edition (AGEE).

Download the deployment guide.

Its Powerful Citrix Developer Network!

Best Practices for Deploying and Managing Hyper-V Infrastructure

Date: Thursday, August 27, 2009
Time: 2:00 PM Eastern; 11:00 AM Pacific

Join Microsoft and Citrix as they explore best practices for deploying and managing Hyper-V. Learn how to rapidly provision Hyper-V infrastructure, reduce your Hyper-V storage footprint by over 50%, increase I/O performance by up to 30%, and much more.

Discover how Microsoft System Center together with Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V helps you effectively manage and automate the delivery of virtual and physical infrastructure for your Hyper-V deployments, including how the solutions:

• Rapidly provision virtual and physical infrastructure
• Improve storage utilization with the seamless storage integration
• Conquer VM sprawl and take back control of virtual labs
• Maximize performance and resource utilization

REGISTER NOW.

About the Presenters:

Gordon Mangione; VP, Emerging Virtualization Products; Citrix Systems, Inc.
Gordon Mangione leads the Advanced Products group at Citrix, where he is specifically focused on building products for the Microsoft platform. Previously, Mr. Mangione was responsible for product operations with a focus on engineering, support and services at XenSource before its acquisition by Citrix. Prior to that, Mr. Mangione held several VP roles at Microsoft, where he was responsible for Exchange, SQL Server and incubating the security business.

Dai Vu; Director, Virtualization Solutions Marketing; Microsoft Corporation
Dai Vu leads the team responsible for Hyper-V product marketing and marketing solutions built on Microsoft virtualization products and technologies. His team works closely with solution partners to define, develop, and market joint solutions to drive horizontal and business solution scenarios enabled by virtualization technologies. Previously, Dai was responsible for mid-market/channel strategic initiatives on the Server and Tools Strategy and Planning Team. Prior to Microsoft, Dai was Program Director at IBM and Engagement Manager at McKinsey and Company.

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