When Ardence and Reflectent joined the Citrix Family, we knew it would be some time before we would have room for the family to get together.

... See the new office pictures posted by Rich on Frameworkx.com:

http://www.frameworkx.com/blogpost.aspx?id=2&c=1385

cheers,
Gus

Our search for the Nirvana Device has led me to Las Vegas and CTIA 2008.  Citrix has been working with a number of partners around the concept of the Nirvana Device, and a lot of them are here this week.  The plan is to try and get as many demo devices that I can and report my findings in my blog as related to their use from my hotel room at the show.  So let's start off with my current baseline config of my remote office in my hotel room in Vegas. 

Device: OQO, maker of the Model 2 UMPC (www.oqo.com), and a Citrix Alliance partner.  You may have seen them at iForum or Citrix Summit over the last year.

I've actually been using OQO Model 2 as my primary device over a year now, and UMPCs such as the Model 2 used with Citrix App Delivery work great.  In the FTL office, I dock the Model 2 and the doc has 2 VGA outputs, so I run a dual monitor setup and drive a 21" and 19" monitor from my desk.  I also have a doc at home connected to my home office monitor via a KVM switch.  So when working from home, I simply KVM from my home PC and use the same device that I use from work.   At the CTIA show, I'm docked and connected to the Philips flatscreen TV in my hotel room.  Of course, the form factor of the Model 2 is also great when attending meetings at the office, or working from home on the couch (note: I'm over 40 and have no problem seeing text on the OQO's native screen, but some will have issues clearly seeing text on a device this small, reading glasses may be required by some J).  The Model 2 I have has built in EVDO Rev A from Verizon, which works great when on the road or at home (using it from my hotel room as I type this entry).  I can see this type of devices being used by others like myself that just prefer a small form factor UMPC, as well as some good tactical usages with Citrix customers, where a standard sized laptop is just to big.  Some pics of the baseline remote office setup below:

 
 
As you can see, several of the Nirvana Device concepts that Chris Fleck mentioned in his original post (Original Nirvana Device Post) are already in play.  Being the Model 2 is a UMPC and not a smart phone, I'm cheating a little, but:
-          I am docked and using the hotel's flat screen TV as a larger monitor

-          I am using an external Bluetooth mouse and keyboard

-          I am using a WWAN connection for my network

-          I am using Citrix App Delivery to do my work

While I don't plan on giving up my OQO any time soon, I am going to see what I can find at the show that I could use in the same basic configuration that I'm using the OQO in.

Off to my 2^nd meeting of the day, and hopefully will return tonight with some more Nirvana Device candidates to try out. 

As a follow up to Sridhar's post about Future of XenApp for UNIX I'll like to dig a little deeper on what options there are for publishing Linux applications and desktops though the existing Citrix UNIX product offerings.

There are a variety of methods on how this can be achieved and they are all generally variations on the use of XAU/CPSU as a broker to serve the Linux applications/desktops to ICA clients from the environment they are run in.

The simplest way to achieve this is to use separate Linux servers to run the applications/desktops and publish the mechanism to access these on the XAU/CPSU server. Any of the existing platform versions of XAU/CPSU (Solaris x86/x64, Solaris SPARC, AIX POWER or HP/UX PA-RISC) can be used in this method. The publishing mechanism is commonly a shell script that uses remote shell access (eg rsh, ssh) which is made easier if network user accounts are available but this is not a requirement. Other things to think about is session load balancing, if a multi-server XAU/CPSU farm is used to broker session there are advantages to tying individual Linux servers to particular XAU/CPSU servers. If there are differences in the performance characteristics of the Linux servers this can be evened out through XAU/CPSU load balancing tools.

A variation of the above is to make use of Solaris 10 x86/x64 Linux Container technology. This is a capability introduced in Solaris 10 where Linux applications are run in a Linux container on the Solaris 10 system. A Linux Container is effectively a Solaris kernel with Linux kernel interfaces (system calls, /proc, etc) with standard Linux distribution user-land components (utilities, etc) and Sun claims a high-level of binary compatibility with Linux distributions. In this variation XAU/CPSU can be installed on the same Solaris 10 x86/x64 server that hosts the Linux Container and through shell scripting mechanisms already mention access to the Linux applications/desktop can be achieved. Now that Solaris 10 x86/x64 is officially supported on HP, IBM and Dell hardware as well of course on Sun's own x86/x64 hardware there is a range of hardware vendor supported options here.  

Another variation is the use one of the x86/x64 server virtualization solutions to virtualize both the XAU/CPSU and Linux servers. The requirement here is the support for both Solaris x86/x64 and Linux x86/x64 virtual machines. The example below shows how it might be achieved with XenServer virtalizing Linux and Solaris 10 servers once Sun completes their paravirtualized kernel and drivers. However, any other server virtualisation technology that can virtualize the Linux and Solaris servers can be used to provide a similar solution.
 

 

Options in this area are appearing all the time and and some may well warrant investigation.  One recent announcement from Transitive offers capabilities to run Solaris SPARC binaries on Linux x86/x64.
 
So I hope I have shown there are ways to architect a solution to publish Linux Applications/Desktops with existing XAU/CPSU offerings but do please do tell us what you think.

Oh good memories from Citrix Summit this year! Personally I can't wait till Synergy and do all the underground videos again.
For those who haven't seen it yet, I'm sharing with the Citrix community the most popular and funniest video (14k views) that we did at Summit 2008, Rich and I checking out what's inside the Citrix backpack.

Have Fun!

Road to Synergy ahead of us!

Cheers,
Gus

Yesterday Citrix announced a new XenServer pricing modelthat is already creating headlines across the industry. XenServer is the first server virtualization product to do away with the complex and outdated per CPU socket pricing, moving to a per server model.  Administrators no longer need to worry about counting the numbers of sockets, cores, CPUs etc - servers is what matters.

Part of the Citrix DNA is to simplify and streamline the whole customer experience - in addition to building intuitive and easy to use products, we extend the ease of use concept to how the product is evaluated, purchased and supported.  Citrix XenServer doesn't have a plethora of confusing options and add-on packs - everything is bundled into one or more editions within the product line, dramatically reducing the size and complexity of our price lists and the purchasing & ownership experience.

We noticed that selling based on per 2 CPU sockets was causing confusion in the marketplace, especially between sockets, CPUs, and CPU cores.  In the days of multiple core CPUs does pricing per physical CPU make sense?  How many administrators know exactly how many sockets are in their organization - (everyone knows the number of servers) - Per server just makes sense.

So for XenServer 4.1 each license is an entitlement to support a unique physical server within the organization. In addition we support both annual (12 months  usage) and perpetual licenses.  We're defining per server as industry standard 2 and 4 socket servers, as these represent apprximately 99% of all servers - 8 CPU (and above) servers are specialized systems and we continue to offer unique pricing.

Moving forward you're going to see a continued focus on ease of use, making Citrix XenServer the best server virtualization choice!

I have outlined in a previous article written on Frameworkx.com named "Citrix leaves adolescence, enters adulthood" the history of Citrix and how far they have come, pointing out the long road for the 19-year-old company that is now reaching maturity; I see this new post as sort of an extension to that one and I hope you can do the same.

I browse Citrix website a lot and once and awhile I find things that are really valuable, like this page that lists every single significant event in the history of Citrix.

1989:
Incorporated in Delaware (April)
Edward Iacobucci (founder) set up first office in Richardson, Texas
Microsoft granted Citrix OS/2® license
Introduced Citrix ICA
Secured $3 million in first-round venture capital ($1 per share)
Relocated to Florida (Coral Springs)
Hired first 5 engineers
Employees: 18

1990:
$3 million second-round financing secured
Attended first tradeshow: COMDEX Spring
Debut of Citrix MULTIUSER OS/2
Employees: approximately 30

1991:
Shipping of first product: Citrix Multi-User
$5 million third-round financing secured
Net revenues: $300,000
Employees: approximately 40

1992:
Citrix multi-user V.2.0 shipped.
Licensing agreement with Microsoft for Windows NT Server
Application access agreement with Novell
Introduction of A+ Server Series, delivering Netware support
650 resellers signed up
Net revenues: $1.8 million
Employees: approximately 50

1993:
WinView for Networks shipped
WinView v.2.2 shipped
Tech-Data signed as first national distributor
Launch of Authorized Reseller Program
Net revenues: $5 million
Employees: approximately 65

1994:
Five-year anniversary celebration
WinView v.2.3 and TCP/IP for WinView shipped
Internet initiative with FTP software
Networld + Interop: Best of Show for WinView 2.3
Named to the Industry 100 (Soft*letter)
Net revenues: $10 million
Employees: approximately 65

1995:
Launch of Citrix WinFrame
Tektronix and Wyse became Citrix OEMs
Launch of the Windows-based Terminal (WBT) concept
Citrix named remote computing market leader (GartnerGroup)
IPO Dec. 8; stock opened at $15, closed at $30
Net Revenues: $14.5 million
Employees: approximately 80

1996:
Expansion of Citrix WinFrame® product line (WinFrame/Access, WinFrame/Enterprise)
Ingram-Micro signed as distributor
Launch of CSN channel program (Citrix Solutions Network^TM)
Citrix ICA agreements with Microsoft (for Internet Explorer) and Sun Microsystems
Inc. 100: Citrix ranked #18
Market capitalization: $1.1 billion
Net revenues: $44 million
Employees: approximately 146

1997:
Opened new headquarters building in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Citrix and Microsoft announced 5-year joint marketing/development and licensing of Citrix MultiWin^TM for $175 million
Datapac acquisition completed; the first acquisition by Citrix which established Citrix's Pacific sales, marketing and development organization
Market capitalization: $2.2 billion
Net Revenues: $123.9 million
Employees: approximately 300

...The list of years go on and on until present day (1989-2008). It's so cool to see the evolvement of the company and better yet I can say that I'm proud to be someone who made part of this history, in fact many of my friends that are still working for Citrix are very proud of that as well.

To continue learning about Citrix achievements over the years, check out Citrix website here.

regards,

Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | gus.pinto@citrix.com

If you don't know, GoToAssist is Citrix's web-hosted solution for Remote Support and as they are getting ready to release the express version of the product, they have invited everyone to join their beta program.

Beta testers will get unlimited free use of GoToAssist Express Beta in exchange for tracking bugs, making feature requests and sharing their opinions on the product.I have taken a few screenshots to let you drool all over them...  

       

     

Now pick up your jaw off the floor and create an account to start using it today!

Sign-up here: https://express.gotoassist.com/

On a site note, I found out that the guys from GoToAssist have a slick blog separate from the official Citrix community site.  

Check it out: http://blog.gotoassist.com/

regards,
Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Gus.Pinto@citrix.com

Gus Pinto and I caught Derek Slayton Product manager for Citrix Workflow Studio who just came down to Ft Lauderdale and we couldn't pass the opportunity to learn more about WFS and share with CDN members.

Watch this short video on Frameworkx site.

http://frameworkx.com/blogpost.aspx?id=1&c=1389

The product beta has been out for awhile know with a huge number of downloads.

This is your chance to speak up and voice your opinion on XenDesktop. Take a few minutes to complete the XenDesktop Beta survey. This will help Citrix to enhance the product and uncover improvement opportunities. Your feedback is extremely important!

 http://citrix.websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/15/xenbeta.htm

 

regards,
Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Gus.Pinto@citrix.com
www.frameworkx.com

* If you haven't downloaded XenDesktop Beta yet, you can get your copy here.

Day 2 of my search for the Nirvana Deviceat CTIA 2008 ended a few hours ago, and we have some cool products to talk about.  Let's see how they do when we replace my OQO Model 2 with Nirvana Device candidates from the show. 

This entry focuses on one of our newest Citrix Alliance partners, Celio Corp and their recent product launch of the Redfly Mobile Companion (http://celiocorp.com).

 
Pic 1: Celio Corp booth at CTIA, including Citrix collateral at the booth. 
 

Pic 2: Redfly demo at the booth connecting to XenApp 4.5. 

The Redfly is a definitely a device cut from the cloth of Chris Fleck's original Nirvana Devicepost.  The Redfly is a portable docking station for Windows Mobile devices, thus a Mobile Companion, and has a built in mouse, keyboard and monitor.  So you wanna run those BIG win32 apps from you WinMo device, but want a bigger screen, checkout the Redfly.  It doesn't have a CPU, memory or an OS.   You connect your WinMo device to the Redfly by either USB or Bluetooth.  If connected via USB, the battery in the Redfly will also charge your WinMo Device (8 hours of battery life), if it allow USB charging.  Once the Redfly software is installed on your WinMo device, it will detect when it is attached to the Redfly, change the effective screen resolution to 800x480 and enable the Redfly's mouse and keyboard transforming the user experience similar to that of a lot of UMPCs.

Pic 3: Redfly attached to an ATT Tilt in my hotel room at the Today screen. 

In this scenario, the ICA client is installed on the ATT Tilt, and all processing involved and required storage is provided by the Tilt.  Again, think of the Redfly as a docking station with a built in mouse, keyboard and monitor that you carry on trips as a companion. 

The 800x480 resolution of the Redfly easily enables me to connect to a virtualized Citrix desktop or published application, in this case a published Microsoft Server 2003 desktop with the Luna interface enabled.  As you can see from the picture below, this device has very good potential for use with  both published applications as well as XenDesktop connections when using a WinMo device.

Pic 4: Picture taken as I was working on the text for this entry.   

The Redfly has a number of other very useful features that really enhance its usability in my opinion.   
First off, there is a VGA out port on the back of the Redfly that enables you to output the screen to a larger monitor, overhead projector or hotel TV as shown in the picture below.  

Pic 5: Redfly using its VGA output to the hotel's flat screen TV. 

You'll notice that the entire screen of the TV is not used and that the 800x480 resolution is maintained even when output to a larger monitor.  Basically, you can use the Redfly as a VGA output device for you WinMo device if you like, very cool.  But I would like to see the Celio guys enable you to change the resolution being displayed when VGAing out to a larger monitor.  Well see what happens in subsequent releases. 

So you can use the Redfly's native screen or output to a larger screen, what about upping to a bigger keyboard and external mouse?  Well, they've thought of this as well.  There are also 2 USB ports on the back of the Redfly that you can plug in USB mice and keyboard.  Even cooler IMO is that I can plug a USB stick into this slot and the device will associate this new storage as "remote storage" on the WinMo device.  And you may have guessed it, ICA will now have access to this USB drive as part of its client drive mapping.  For those concerned about security of such a use case, you can always disable this virtual drive mapping from the XenApp admin console.

Pic 6: Shot of the USB Flash card reader files maped into the XenApp desktop session via virtual client drive mapping.  This is the actual flash card that contains the pics in this post plugged into the back of the Redfly with a USB flash card reader. 

There are a number of other cool features on the Redfly, such as special function keys that are mapped to normal phone functions like Send and End calls, but I'll
let you check out their site for these.  As I stated in my initial post on my blog, when I look at devices in this space, my first thoughts are how Citrix customers can leverage such technology to enhance their use of Citrix products.  So how to I rate this one, I like it.  I see it as a true enabling technology when used with mobile devices to access XenApp or XenDesktop.  IMO, the Redfly Mobile Companion enables a lot of the concepts that we discuss in the Nirvana Device concept.  While it's not a Nirvana smartphone, IMO it takes a lot of today's WinMo devices and gets them a lot closer to the Nirvana use paradigm.   Having the option to use the Redfly as a companion to provide a bigger screen with its mouse and keyboard, or use it as a VGA output device with an even larger external mouse and keyboard is an interesting advantage if this is what you are looking for. 

Reality check: note that this entire post was produced using the ATT Tilt phone, 3G WWAN network, from the Redfly's mouse, keyboard and native monitor connected to a XenApp published desktop.  And it worked really well!  Albiet, I'm used to using UMPC devices with smaller screens and keyboards, it will take some getting used to for some.  So if you looking to lighten your load when traveling, and would like an ICA companion to go with you mobile phone so you can leave your laptop behind, you might want to check out the Redfly from Celio Corp. 

We'd appreciate your thoughts on the use of these types of devices with XenApp and soon XenDesktop.  I'm sure the Celio guys will also be interested in your input, pro or con.  At the end of the day, there is no one Nirvana solution for everyone, but is the Redfly going down the right path for Citrix users looking to further leverage ICA on mobile devices?    

Citrix Command Center is a management and monitoring solution for the complete line of Citrix application networking products including Citrix NetScaler, Citrix Application Firewall, Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition, and Citrix WANScaler.

• Centralized management and performance reporting of the entire range of Application Networking products, including the Citrix NetScaler, Citrix WANScaler, Citrix Application Firewall and Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition devices.
• Centralized Configuration Management to configure multiple NetScalers from a single location. This reduces the possibility of mis-configurations, saves time and cost, and enhances manageability of a diversified NetScaler deployment substantially.
• Change Management and Configuration Auditing, which provides comprehensive visibility into the configurations of the managed NetScalers, allows administrators to track changes and synchronize changes across devices.
• Centralized SSL Certificate Management, which provides real time visibility into the status of all SSL certificates deployed on the managed NetScaler devices, and provides a central console from which administrators can renew and install new certificates.
• Alarm and Event Management, which provide NetScaler and WANScaler administrators the ability to configure granular thresholds for different aspects of system performance, be alerted when those thresholds are hit, and respond back quickly to changing traffic patterns or issues on the devices.
• Performance Monitoring and Reporting, using which administrators can generate historical reports, troubleshoot issues, and gather data that will help in capacity planning, resource utilization, uptime calculations, application loads etc.
• Security Auditing and Accounting, which ensures that only users authorized to use the Command Center are permitted to do so. Administrators can also specify highly granular rules and operations, that would allow partitioning of users into groups which can use only subsets of the Command Center's functionality, on an administrator specified subset of devices.

To ensure scalability of Command Center in user environments, version 3.1 also supports the following:

• Ability to run the Command Center server with an external instance of Oracle 10g or MySQL, allowing higher data storage scalability, and offering better data resiliency through clustered instances of these backend databases.
• User authentication through external AAA tools such as RADIUS, Active Directory and TACACS+, allowing for easy user and group management within Command Center

Command Center provides a rich HTML user interface to allow users to access the server remotely and centrally manage NetScaler deployments from remote locations.

Command Center can be installed on servers running Windows 2000+SP4 or Windows 2003, and Red Hat Linux AS/ES 3.0/4.0.

Citrix Command Center Brochure

Citrix command Center Download

regards,
Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Gus.Pinto@citrix.com
http://www.frameworkx.com

Test Drive Citrix Storage Delivery Services Adapter for NetApp Data ONTAP

Sign-up here: http://www.citrixtestride.com/

Here is great summary and videos on how to integrate with GoToAssist/GoToMeeting/GoToMyPC SDKs from Terry Holland (Sr. Manager of Integration Services, Citrix Online division).

GoToAssist Integration Presentation Available for Viewing:
The following recorded presentation describes all the techniques for integrating GoToAssist. Topics include how to automate the launch of a GoToAssist session for end users, how to streamline support agents' tasks and how to integrate and locally save session data. After the general overview (20 min), there is a section on how to approach integration with a CRM system (10 min) and a final section on the out-of-box Database Integration (10 min). Total viewing time is 40 min.
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/334585120

GoToAssist Integration Services Website:
http://www.gotoassist.com/intServices.html

GoToMeeting Corporate Integration Presentation Available for Viewing:
The following recorded presentation describes all the techniques for integrating GoToMeeting Corporate. Topics include an overview of integration options, the Organizer API and the Administrator/Reporting API. The presentation also includes some examples. Total viewing time is 20 mins.
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/605056742

GoToMeeting Corporate Integration Services Website:
https://www.gotomeeting.com/pre/corp/integration.tmpl

GoToMyPC Corporate Integration Presentation Available for Viewing:
The following recorded presentation describes all the techniques for integrating GoToMyPC Corporate. Topics include an overview of integration options, the out-of-box Provisioning Tool, the Administrator API and the Reporting API. Total viewing time is 20 mins.
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/295522528

GoToMyPC Corporate Integration Services Website:
https://www.gotomypc.com/corp/integration.html

Please leave us feedback on our Citrix online SDKs.
Thanks

A common question we get from the field is "Can I upgrade some of my XenApp Enterprise licenses to Platinum?". The answer is yes but you need to read the entire article to see if it makes sense in your environment. You need to look at both your capital expenditure and operational expenditure to make this decision.

Before I get into the issues, let me briefly explain how XenApp licensing works as mixing editions can affect license consumption. When a user launches an application (or a published desktop), the XenApp server requests the license server for a XenApp license based on its edition. If there are licenses available, the license server grants the license request and associates that license with the end user's device id (The device id is generated by the ICA Client on the end point device and is ultimately passed to the license server). Hence any subsequent connections from the same device for the same type of edition license will be shared. (Note: In case the end users are going through a published desktop and using PN Agent to get to their applications, the XenApp server will pass through the end point device id to ensure only one license is consumed by one device).

When you mix editions, you need to be aware of these issues

• License consumption - An end user launching applications from the same end point device but connecting to both an Enterprise server and a Platinum server at the same time will consume 2 licenses - one for the Enterprise connection and one for the Platinum connection. This is because the license server treats each edition license as an independent product license with no relationship between them. Hence as far as the license server is concerned, a Platinum license and an Enterprise license have no relationship. If you split your application access so that a user cannot launch applications from both the edition servers at the same time, you can avoid this double consumption. This might mean you have your Platinum users going only to a dedicated group of XenApp Platinum servers and your Enterprise users going only to a dedicated group of XenApp Enterprise servers.

• Product Functionality - Platinum has more functionality than Enterprise and hence it adds complexity if you plan to use any functionality that is available in only Platinum edition e.g. if you like the application monitoring capability of EdgeSight and want to monitor the ICA end user experience metrics, then you will not be able to do so for connections to Enterprise servers. As we add more functionality to Platinum, such problems might aggravate in your environment.

• Administration overhead - In order to avoid double license consumption, you will end up separating your user groups (as described above) adding to the administrative burden e.g. you might be publishing the same application on both your Enterprise and Platinum servers because you need to provide access to that application for both your Enterprise and Platinum users.

• User Experience - You need to be aware that end users connecting to applications served by Platinum servers might be getting a better overall experience (e.g. Password manager is filling up their application credentials etc) and users connecting to Enterprise servers will not have that functionality.

Net Net, be aware of these operational issues when mixing product editions.

The next find on our quest for the Nirvana Smartphoneis the i-mate Ultimate 6150 (i-mate 6150 web site) shown below.   The 6150's native screen resolution is VGA 640x480, making it natively more suitable for displaying Win32 apps via XenApp than most QVGA screens. 

Pic 1: 6150's browser connected to Web Interface ready to authenticate.  

Pic 2: 6150 running a full published desktop at 640x480.  I probably should have cleaned the screen before taking the picture

So what makes the 6150 a Nirvana Devicecandidate (Original Nirvana Device Post), it's got video output natively built into the device.  The 6150 comes with a VGA adapter cable that connects into the side of the device, so you can then connect it to a monitor that accepts VGA input.  The 6150 comes with software that when activated changes the device resolution to 1024x768, turns the 6150's screen into a touchpad mouse and displays the 1024x768 output to the connected monitor.  Unfortunately, the cable that I have with my demo device is only about 4ft long and did not reach to the table that was working from, so I'm using my Bluetooth mouse and keyboard instead.  Might be something for the i-mate team to look at. 

Pic 3: 6150 External output software.

Pic 4: 6150 connected to the hotel's flatscreen TV, running a published desktop from XenApp.  MS Word is open and I'm working on this text using this setup.  The 6150 is the at the base of the TV in this pic.

All of the work to create this post will be using the 6150 connected to a published desktop in my hotel room using the flat screen TV as an external monitor (except for photo resizing which I will do with my OQO, being I don't have photo shop installed on our XenApp demo server).   Seems like a real world use case to me.

In general, I like the 6150, and it is the closest device I've gotten my hands on to date to hit Chris Fleck's Nirvana deviceconcept.  Personally, I like devices to have a QWERTY keyboard on the native device as well, and I hope to get a chance to try the i-mate 8150 down the road, which does have a QWERTY and VGA out capability.  I also like the fact that the VGA feature is native to the device, so I don't need to carry anything extra but the VGA cable.  Flip side is that unlike the Redfly (Celio Redfly post), if I don't have a monitor handy, let's say in the airport, I'm restricted to the native screen of the 6150.  Hey, if i-mate gives me a really long cable, maybe I can plug into one the TVs in the airport that always running CNN

So how do I rate the 6150 as a Nirvana device candidate, again I give it an "I like it".  I think I'd like the 8150 even better with the QWERTY keyboard, but in terms of it being a smartphone that I can run XenApp applications natively and then attach it an external monitor to extend the usability, it passes my initial hotel acid test.  At the end of the day, a Nirvana SmartPhoneis a personal choice.  So if you're interested in the concept, I'd say that the i-mate 6105 is one to have a look at. 

As always, give us your feed back on this topic.  I've got a few more entries on more devices from the show to come.  Hopefully one will be the Nirvana Smartphone you're looking for to use with XenApp or soon XenDesktop, and you can leave the laptop at home on that next business trip.  As with all of the devices being tried, we will get some more hands on time with them when I get back to FTL.  We'll try and update if we find anything new.   

As I stated in my previous post, there is no one Nirvana devicethat will fit everyone's tastes, so here's another twist on the topic. 

Impatica Showmate  is a device, call it a "puck", that you make a Bluetooth connection to from your smartphone using its Screen Projector software that you install on your smartphone.  A VGA cable is connected between the Showmate and the monitor you want to use.  You must register your mobile device with the Showmate.  Simply start the installed client on mobile device, enter in a few numbers from the bottom of the Showmate to register.  Then you just choose what registered Showmate device you want to connect to and hit select.  Your screen then pops up on the monitor the Showmate is connected to. 

 
Pic 1: Picture of the Showmate "puck", and VGA and USB power ports. 

Impatica was in the BlackBerry booth at CTIA showing their Showmate working with BlackBerry phones.  As part of the demo environment, they had the Rove Mobile Citrix Client on demo BB, and showed how they can remote the ICA presentation to an external monitor.  As you can see from the show pics below, they have some novel ideas about using this type of setup on portable LCD screens and such that you would find in police squad cars or utility trucks.  Great idea, especially when matched with the Rove Mobile Citrix Client to get access to all kinds of data from the secured data center. 

Pic 3: Michael Doyle, Impatica Director, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer showing the Impatica Showmate at CTIA 2008.

Pic 4: Showmate displaying a BlackBerry screen onto a portable LCD monitor inside a customer UI, mock of a law enforcement unit.  You can see the ICA session imbedded in the customer UI.

To stay consistent, I put the Impatica Showmate through the same hotel acid test I did with the other vendors.  I must note that the Windows Mobile Impatica ScreenProjector client that I'm using as I type this is still in Beta.  I used the Showmate with 2 devices, a Dell Axim X51v and an ATT 8525.  Latency on the X51v was very noticeable at times on the X51v, but response was good when using the 8525.  Note sure if this is related to old .vs. newer hardware/Bluetooth stacks, or the fact that the X51v has a larger resolution.  In general basic text entry like I'm doing now is pretty good.  Again, thanks to the Impatica team for getting us this beta to try.  I'm sure they still have some tuning tweaks up their sleeves before GA. 

The script is the same, in this case I'm using the Dell Axim X51v connected to the Showmate via Bluetooth to VGA out to the hotel's flat screen TV.  This picture below is an actual picture of the creation of the text for this blog using a XenApp connection to a published desktop, and running MS Word on that desktop over ICA.  This is where I stop and take the picture

Pic 5: Show mate connecting the Axim X51v running the ICA cleint to the hotel TV, and bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

The Showmate form factor is interesting in that you can see the device, or derivative of this device being imbedded in other devices to meet different goals, as shown in there show demo pciture above with a custom UI on the mountable LCD screen.  Imagine the use case of a utility working or law enforcement office having a mobile device that when in there car or truck is having applications and data delivered to them via XenApp or XenDesktop.  But once they exit their vehicle, they take the  mobile device with them and continue to have the same apps and data delivered to them, just on the native screen of the mobile device.  Whether it be a policeman on foot, or a utility working working on a transformer in the bucket of his boom truck.  A very interesting modular device approach IMO.  But at the same time, I can see road warriors carrying the Showmate with them to do presentations from their mobile phone, or use in the hotel as I am.  You can read more on their website, but they already have a lot of road warriors using their Showmate today.  They also have a product that compresses PowerPoint presentations, and then an optimized viewer to run the presentation from the mobile device.  You can get more details on this from their website.   

So does the Showmate pass the Hotel acid test?  Yes, I've been able to create this post using the Showmate, and my mobile device, and it does provide benefits described around a Nirvana Deviceuse case.  So it's definitely another option, with it's own twist on the Nirvana Device seach. 

Like this twist, tell us why or why not.  As always, we are looking for your input on defining the Nirvana Devicefor use with XenApp and XenDesktop.  

So our search for the Nirvana Smartphone, or companion device at CTIA 2008 comes to an end with this post.  Our friends at i-mate have gotten us another device to put through the Hotel Acid Test.  In this case an i-mate Ultimate 9502.  I'll let you check out the full specs on their website, but this device packs VGA 640x480 resolution onto a 2.8" screen.  The clarity of the screen is very good, allowing you to clearly read the text, but again, some may need to pull out the reading glasses when not connected to an external monitor.  Stand-alone pics below: 

Pic 1: 9502's browser connected to Web Interface.

Pic 2: 9502 connected to a published desktop.

So how did it do in our Hotel Acid Test, not bad.  While the VGA resolution is a little tight on the native screen, it works well when output to a larger monitor.  As with the 6150, there is no noticeable latency when outputting the video to the TV.  The 9502 uses a RCA audo video cable to output to the external monitor, and it's not quite as clear as the 6150 which uses a VGA cable, but still very usable.  The icons are a little fuzzy, but I'm having not problem using this setup.  You also get a fade-in effect of the letters when typing, but again, not a big deal IMO.  Again, the network connection is 3G WWAN on ATT, and latency while using Word is not an issue at all, very responsive. 

Pic 3: 9502 connected to hotel TV using RCA audo/video cable. 

You are currently limited to the 640x480 resolution even when attached to an external monitor, which is fine for most Win32 apps, or desktops.  But it sure would be nice to have 1024x768 or larger functionality down the road.  The VGA 640x480 resolution could also be less than optimal if connecting to an overhead projector while giving a presentation. 

But in general, I'm liking this device as well.  Seems to have a good mix features that's making using it with XenApp for this post rather comfortable.  Very quick and responsive as I'm typing this post.  Maybe not the ultimate Nirvana Smartphone, but definitely a potential contender in today's market.  I can definitely see certain road warriors leaving their laptop at home if they have this in their pocket. 

Being this is my last post, I had to try my favorite test on a mobile device, viewing a 3D AutoDesk design from XenApp on a mobile device over ICA, you gotta love SpeedScreen!  We gotta get another video of this demo out, but this time running to an external monitor!  A still shot shown below. 

Pic 4: AutoDesk Design Review delivered by XenApp to the 9502 output to the hotel TV.  I cut the flash on this pic so the screen didn't wash out as much. 

Unfortunatley, you get not sense of the performance with a still pic.
Got some comments on this use case, give us your feedback. 

If you are a Web developer or an IT administrator then AppFirewall feature of NetScaler can give you sound sleep at night and save you from some redundant implementation security within each application. Application Firewall by default provides following security features

• Start URL check. Examines the URLs to which incoming requests are directed, and blocks connections to URLs that are not listed in the Start URLs list, or that a user has not reached by navigating to them from listed start URLs.

• Cookie Consistency check. Examines cookies returned with user requests to see that they match the cookies your web servervset for that user. If a modified cookie is found, the cookie is stripped from the request before the request is forwarded to the web server.

• Form Field Consistency check. Examines the structure of the web forms returned by users to your web server, and verifies that the structure of the web form and any default data are unchanged.

• Buffer Overflow check. Examines requests to detect attempts to cause a buffer overflow on the web server.

• Field Formats check. Examines the data a user returns using a web form on your web site and verifies that the data being returned for each field is valid for that field.

• Deny URL check. Examines the URLs to which requests are directed, and blocks connections to all URLs specified in this list.

• Cross-Site Scripting check. Examines requests and responses for scripts that attempt to access or modify content on a different web site than the web site where the script is located. When it finds such a script, it either renders the script harmless before forwarding it to its destination, or blocks
  the connection.

• SQL Injection check. Examines requests that contain form field data for attempts to inject SQL commands into a back-end SQL database, and when it detects injected SQL code, either renders the injected SQL code harmless before forwarding it to the web server, or blocks the request.

• Credit Card check. Examines web server responses, including headers, for credit card numbers. If it finds a credit card number in a response, it either removes the credit card number from the response before sending it, or blocks the response.

• Safe Object check. Allows you to create classes of protected content, such as social security numbers, and protects them in much the same manner as it does credit cards.

The SAP Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides a blueprint for services-based, enterprise scale business solutions that are adaptable, flexible, and open. Enterprise Services Architecture takes the concept of service-oriented architecture to a new level by transforming Web services into enterprise services. Bringing Citrix and SAP Enterprise Services Architecture together reduces the dependence on customized applications, and increases flexibility and reduces time to deployment while reducing operational expenses.

This Citrix / SAP Enterprise SOA Deployment Guide was created out of a joint engagement between Citrix and SAP at the Co-Innovation Laboratory in Palo Alto, California, USA. This deployment guide walks through the step-by-step configuration details of how to configure the Citrix NetScaler for use as front-end to SAP Portal for end-user traffic, that is HTTP ~ HTML. To further complement the value of the Enterprise SOA, this guide walks through the details of how to configure the Citrix NetScaler for use as a front-end to the SAP Composite Application Framework and SAP ERP Web Services platforms, providing a flexible load balancer and HTTPS encryption point for machine to machine web service traffic. With this deployment Citrix becomes an integral and flexible part of the SAP Enterprise SOA "Applistructure" bringing together applications and technology for a fast, flexible and highly effective service oriented IT infrastructure.

Watch this Load Balancing Tip:

Tap into the power of AppExpert

I'm running my Sony on a WWAN connection (cellphone connection) in Florida and connecting to our engineering XenDesktop server and virtual machine all the way out in the UK and I was stunned by the amazing performance! "Oh Hail SpeedScreen!"

regards,
Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Gus.Pinto@citrix.com
http://www.frameworkx.com

An interview/conversation with Derek Slayton Product manager for Citrix Workflow Studio. Derek just came down to Ft Lauderdale and we couldn't pass the opportunity to learn more about WFS and share with our friends and visitors.

regards,
Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Gus.Pinto@citrix.com
http://www.frameworkx.com

I can't express in words how excited I am to again be working on the inside at Citrix. So I'll just leave it at "Hello World"  =)

CmdShell
                     Echo "Hello World!"

PowerShell
                     write-host "Hello World!"

VBScript
                     Wscript.echo "Hello World!"

JScript
                     document.write('Hello World!');

C++
                     std::cout << "Hello world!\n";

C#
                     Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");

Rich was so excited about saying hello, he forgot to get the "USER FOCUS" on his post....

So here it goes....

// Hocus Pocus, grab the focus
   winSetFocus(...)

LOL

See you at Geek Speak Live!

cheers,

Gus Pinto
Frameworkx.com

Intel's "Cliffside" technology enables a single physical Wi-Fi adapter to function like two independent Wi-Fi adapters.

I don't know of any software out there, it may exist though, that allows a single Wi-Fi adapter to be able to connect to multiple wireless networks. The only exception to that would be is if the adapter had multiple radios in either the same or different bands.

The other really exciting thing I can see from "Cliffside" is what it can do for us with virtual machines.

Here is a real scenario that "Cliffside" could have helped solve:

A good friend of mine over at Siemens, Scott Hembroff, ran into a bit of a problem that involved the local host needing to be able to connect to the Siemens Wireless network, but yet also be able to connect a running virtual machine on to another Wireless network. This problem could have been solved with some really crafty voodoo magic, but the big hurdle had to do with the security of the other wireless network and how they locked down MAC addresses and Machine ID's. Basically to solve the problem we ended up using a USB Wireless adapter that we did not let the local host install, we only installed it on the guest. This allowed for the security measures in place on the other Wireless network to not be comprised, but yet allow us to have the physical host exist on two different Wireless networks.

If "Cliffside" had been around when we were tackling this problem, who knows, we might not have even thought twice about what to do. With that being said, it doesn't look like "Cliffside" in its current advertised feature set from Intel, could have solved the problem, as they are intending the second partition to only be used as a PAN. I get it, but why wouldn't you go all the way with the ability of true duality?

This is a good starting point, but if our computers are to be fully virtualized or are running more than one virtual machine, we are going to need to be able to connect to more than one wireless network, and the virtual machines are going to have to have be able to do that from one physical/virtual wireless adapter.

 

You might have not noticed and/or you're probably still waiting for iForum in late October, iForum have moved and it's now in May. Citrix is hosting iForum now within a much bigger conference named Synergy.

So what does that mean?

iForum is now a track within a industry wide event, an event that has many tracks for the Virtualization, App Delivery and Networking crowds.
iForum didn't change names, the industry grew bigger, so big iForum could no longer contain all the content to cover all the 3 key audiences people would be looking for.

So now we have Synergy the event that is bringing together:

iForum Track, Get the scoop on Citrix products from A to Xen. The iForum Track delivers all the best of iForum: architectural insights, tips and tricks, and best practices that will help you get the most out of your Citrix environment. Highlights include:

-Technical sessions
-Customer case studies
-Demos
-Citrix Technical Workshops

Application Delivery Track and Expo Learn how to make everything work together, from the data center to the desktop. Highlights include:

-Architectural best practices
-Technical sessions on hot topics including VDI, green computing, Web 2.0
-Answers Pavilion-industry experts take your questions, live
-Application Delivery Expo - see product demos from industry vendors

IT 2.0 Business Symposium Exclusively for CIOs You're crunched for time, so we condensed C-level strategy and networking into an exclusive, engaging, one-day event-featuring a one-day pass for reduced registration fee. Highlights include:

-Keynote and CIO networking lunch with best-selling author Nicholas Carr, former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review
-High-level, strategic sessions on virtualization, networking and integrated application delivery
-Private CIO reception offering a unique networking opportunity with your peers
-Access to leading industry analysts from Gartner, IDC and more

Geek Speak Live! Meet industry tech geeks, analysts and bloggers at the ultimate "unconference", where participants choose the topics and run the sessions. It's an informal forum for sharing ideas and learning from one another.

I will talk a heck of a lot more about this one in the future; keep tuned for our videos and stuff! That's right, Geek stuff!

~snip~

If you're still waiting for iForum in October, dude seriously, get with the program!

iForum is in MAY, Geek Speak is in MAY, Expo is in MAY, even for all my exec friends, yes IT 2.0 is in MAY - All in one conference named: SYNERGY.

Oh before I forget.... iForum - ops - I mean Synergy, is in Texas, Huston - ops - I mean Huston, Texas!

I know what you're thinking why oh why did Citrix choose Huston? I don't know and still asking myself this question, but anyways, I've heard they have great beer down there, and trust me great stuff happens over a beer! 

Cheers,
Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Citrix Technology Professional
gus.pinto@citrix.com

AutoCAD Map 3D, first introduced in the mid 1990s, has become the leading engineering platform for creating and managing geospatial information, bringing together the CAD and GIS worlds so that spatial data can easily be integrated with design drawings. The software is widely used by utilities, government agencies and industries dealing with natural resources.

Citrix and Autodesk have just completed extensive verification and field testing using XenApp Presentation Server 4.5 to provide on-demand access to AutoCAD Map 3D 2009, which has now been validated as Citrix Ready. This is a great example of how Citrix multimedia virtualization technologies such as SpeedScreen Progressive Display and SpeedScreen Image Acceleration optimize the ICA protocol to provide an excellent user experience with graphical applications while increasing security and dramatically reducing management and workstation costs.

To learn more about the Citrix and Autodesk partnership and this solution, check out today's press release and this new web site: http://www.citrixandautodesk.com/.

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization

Some of you may be familiar with the BarCamp concept. BarCamps are "user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants".


BarCamp.org is a great site for background on this concept. You can find the "rules of BarCamps" below.

If you are familiar with the concept of BarCamps, you know that most of them are focused on web development. There have been a few BarCamps on IT in general, investing, self help and other topics. This is just a great way to get people together to talk tech. Since so many of us are going to be at Synergy anyway, I thought this would be a great way to get together to hear from a broad range of people on a wide variety of tech topics.

Here is a video from the first BarCamp in Orlando last year -

-

-
Geek Speak Live is a part of Synergy for the first time this year. Geek Speak will span all three days of the Synergy event, and have discussions lead by several of the Citrix Technology Professionals and other industry technologists. (James Rabey blogged about Geek Speak Live here) The goal is to extend Geek Speak Live to include community generated content and discussions with this "mini-BarCamp".


We are working on a plan to hold a "mini-BarCamp" immediately after the Geek Speak Live session on the second night of Citrix Synergy. We will set up a page (probably on CDN) that lists the speaking slots where you can sign up for a slot. Some BarCamps only allow sign up for the session slots on the day of the event, while others allow sign up on a wiki before the event begins. We are going to stick with the Wiki for this first one to give those who participate a chance to plan ahead.

The goal for this is to give the technical audience at Synergy a chance to get together to discuss whatever technical content most interests you. No marketing slides, no features and benefits, just hard core technical discussions about any IT topic that interests you and the attendees. You can run a white board discussion, present a technical presentation on your latest project, or show a demo of your newest creation with an SDK. Anyone can sign up for a slot. You may be an IT admin, a technology consultant, a Citrix technical employee, a technical employee of a Citrix partner (or competitor), or a student who loves technology and wants to share it. We do not yet know how many speaking slots there will be (that depends on the room and amount of time we get).

Once we get final approval to use some rooms at the convention center where Synergy is hosted, we will be putting together a committee to run the mini-"BarCamp" event. This committee will include both Citrix employees and members of the community. We will need volunteers to help with coordination of the event on site, food and drink setup and live blogging and video of the sessions. We are also working on setting up a network gaming area in the lounge for use after the event concludes later in the evening.

As I have stated before on this blog, feedback is the Breakfast of Champions. If you have any thoughts on this event, please post them in the comments or send me an email at citrixblogger @ citrix . com (just remove the spaces).

You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

Use of the Citrix ICA client on mobile devices that have VGA resolution  or larger, or companion devices such as the Celio Redfly changes the game a bit when using the Citrix ICA client to connect to full Win32 applications delivered by Citrix Xenapp.  The increased resolution can leverage some configuration changes on the ICA client to get more optimal usage.  Below are some tweaks that you can do to get a more "Nirvana" like experience with such devices.  This setting was used in the demo blog entries previously posted. 
Most Win32 applications are usable at a VGA 640x480 resolution, so I recommend running ICA in full screen mode on mobile devices that support VGA resolution.  This allows the user to get rid of the program bar at the top of the screen and the navigation tool bar at the bottom of the ICA client.  Comparison pictures below (Note: screen clarity is degraded in the below screen shots, native screen is clear).  Caution, when you run in full screen mode, you will not have access to the local keyboard button, thus if you device does not have a QWERTY keyboard, you should have a Bluetooth keyboard connected.  

 HP iPaq 210 running ICA connection to SAP Enterprise Portal without the Full Screen option set.  Notice the screen space that is lost at the top and bottom of the screen. 

HP iPaq 210 running ICA connection to SAP Enterprise Portal with the Full Screen option set.  This allows you to leverage the full resolution of the device. 

To set the Full Screen option, simply follow the steps below.  Note that this is a global option and all of the apps you launch will come up in Full Screen mode.  

In the Programs area, start "ICA Client":
  

This should launch the ICA Client UI into your browser.

Select "Edit Global Settings" from this screen:  

Select "Edit Preferences" on the next page:

  

Scroll down to the "Enable Full Screen" check box and select it:

  

Scroll down to the bottom and select the "Save" button:

  

So if you have a mobile device that supports VGA 640x480 resolution or higher, you might try the above settings to get a better user experience.  Also, if you need to access another application on the mobile device while running a XenApp or XenDesktop session in Full Screen mode, you can always hit the Windows button on your device to pull up the devices start menu as shown below.

    
  

Provisioning a new server in the Data Center from Bare Metal has always been a challenge. There have been some advances, but they still fall short of where we need to be for a truly self configuring and provisioning dynamic data center.

We have many methods, in which to remotely manage a bare metal server in the data center, we can call someone in the data center, use a networked KVM, use a Lights Out device, or some other creative technology.

Short of having our servers being delivered to us pre-configured for our environment, for the most part we still have to at some point connect to the server to set it up so that it will be ready to be provisioned for whatever purpose it is intended for.

I was having a flashback last week about a story I heard way back when, that was sparked by the announcement of Citrix XenServer being embedded on HP Servers. I have to tell you I don't even know if the following story is true, but here goes. The rumor was about negotiations between Citrix and Compaq way back when and how they were pondering using ICA as the protocol for connecting to their ILO devices. Like I said this rumor was from years ago, but I have never really forgotten about the "what if" scenarios if that had happened.

I love what Lights Out devices do for us, but I have never been a fan of the sluggish interface, when it comes to a console connection to the server, as the protocol used is not optimized for low speed or high latency connections. If you have ever tried to connect to a Lights Out device let's say in England or in Australia, and let's say you were Florida, then you will certainly know what I mean when I say that the current protocol for console connections to a Lights Out device isn't the greatest experience.

Also, trying to identify and manage a data center that has servers that are racked but not yet assigned or configured to be able to be provisioned can be a tough task to get a handle on, or one that can get out of control very fast.

There have been advances in Lights Out technologies that allow them to be managed from Active Directory, but it isn't a complete solution to the problem, as there is still a lot of initial work that has to go into being able to get the device into Active Directory first before one can even begin to manage it.

We need to be able to take server provisioning to the next level, and be able to drop a server onto the network, turn it on, and have it self-configure and self-provision. We have the server provisioning piece down quite well with Citrix Provisioning Server. It's the self-configuration of a bare metal server that we need to look at next, if we truly want to be able to drop ship in servers to meet the growing data center demand.

In a recent post, What Cloud Computing Really Means, on the New York Times website, Eric Knorr and Galen Gruman give us a glimpse of the many definitions of cloud computing.
 

 

"Today, with such cloud-based interconnection seldom in evidence, cloud computing might be more accurately described as "sky computing," with many isolated clouds of services which IT customers must plug into individually. On the other hand, as virtualization and SOA permeate the enterprise, the idea of loosely coupled services running on an agile, scalable infrastructure should eventually make every enterprise a node in the cloud."

Their article goes into identifying the components of what cloud computing is all about.

Here is a breakdown of those components:

• Software as a Service
• Utility computing
• Web services in the cloud
• Platform as a service
• Managed Service Providers
• Service commerce Platforms
• Internet integration

Continue at Source: What Cloud Computing Really Means

Microsoft and Citrix are hosting a killer virtualization seminar in The City on the 21^st of April.

I highly recommend all of you tech dudes in the bay area to get in the loop and learn more about Virtualization technologies today and the road ahead.

Here's the schedule for the day:

8:30 - 9:00	Breakfast and Registration
9:00 - 9:05	Welcome and Introductions
9:05 - 10:20	Collaboration in Virtualization - The Microsoft Vision [Peter Meister]
10:20 - 11:35	Citrix Virtualization Vision and Industry Insights [Simon Crosby]
11:35 - 11:45	Break
11:45 - 12:20	An inside look at Hyper-V and Virtualization Licensing [Manjnath Ajjampur]
12:20 - 12:45	Q & A and Raffle

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that attendees could win an 80 GB Zune!

Want to Hear directly from top virtualization executives about how the value of Citrix and Microsoft solutions can benefit you today and into the future?

Well, now here's your chance!

Virtualization of applications, desktops and servers represents an exciting new frontier for IT. Join Citrix® and Microsoft® to learn how their combined forces offer the leading virtualization solution that is highly interoperable, transforms your data center into a delivery center, and lowers costs. Citrix's new server virtualization technology and next-gen Windows® and desktop virtualization offerings and the new Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 and Hyper-V hypervisor make an unbeatable combination that many customers are choosing as their virtualization solution today.

Hear directly from top virtualization executives from both companies about how the value of Citrix and Microsoft solutions can benefit you today and into the future.

Find out what the buzz is all about!

Register now. Seating is limited.

Event Date	City	State	Registration
04/16/2008 (Wednesday) 8:30 AM - 2:45 PM CST	Irving	TX
04/17/2008 (Thursday) 8:30 AM - 2:45 PM CST	Houston	TX
04/21/2008 (Monday) 8:30 AM - 12:45 PM PST	San Francisco	CA
04/22/2008 (Tuesday) 8:30 AM - 12:45 PM PDT	Irvine	CA

* Every attendee receives a Microsoft Virtualization book signed onsite by author Robert Larson!

* Win an 80GB Zune! [1 winner per city; must complete evaluation form to enter drawing]

 

Several hotfixes to support new versions of Adobe Flash when using SpeedScreen Flash Acceleration have recently been released in hotfix rollup packs. Here's a summary of the most current hotfixes, handling Flash versions up to 9d:

• HRP2 for XenApp Presentation Server 4.5 for Windows Server 2003 32-bit Edition: PSE450W2K3R02 (see KB article CTX116289)
• HRP2 for XenApp Presentation Server 4.5 for Windows Server 2003 64-bit Edition: PSE450W2K3X64R02 (KB article CTX116294)
• HRP4 for Presentation Server 4.0 for Windows Server 2003: PSE400W2K3R04 (KB article CTX113484)
• Limited release hotfix PSE400R04W2K012 for Presentation Server 4.0 for Windows 2000 Server (KB article CTX115555)

Support for Flash 9e is in the works (see Secrets for Optimizing Flash Performance - Part 3).

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization

PubForum is a non commercial Microsoft Terminal Services / Citrix / Virtualization and Server Base Computing Event. The idea of PubForum is to bring the best people of Server Based Community together, have Know-How exchange, good time in discussions and socialising.

PubForum started 2003 with just 4 people and since then grew to a well recognized Event with sometimes over 100 attendees. PubForum took places in cities like London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Paris, Munich and Nice, Lisbon.

While PubForum was initially meant to be bi-annually, the decision was made to make it only once a year to put all the interesting sessions of the year in 3 very packed days.

May 9 - 11, 2008 in Dublin, Republic of Ireland

Don't miss out, as this event is no longer a bi-annual event!

Continue at Source: PubForum

Brandon Shell (MVP) has done an awesome job and converted top 5 MFCOM VB Scripts to PowerShell. Here is a list of scripts he has contributed

• [Find-CitrixUser.ps1 (Powershell)]
• [Get-CitrixPrinterInfo.ps1 (Powershell)]
• [Find-CitrixIdleUser.ps1 (Powershell)]
• [Get-CitrixSessionUser.ps1 (Powershell)]
• [Set-CitrixPSVersion.ps1 (Powershell)]

If you are new to PowerShell then I would highly recommend visiting his site and learning more about Citrix and PowerShell samples. You can visit him at http://bsonposh.com/

Brandon and I are also planning to do a series of Webinar on MFCOM and PowerShell. I will post more information on signup and date tomorrow.

please let us know via comments what PowerShell scripts you would like to see on Script Exchange and we will try our best to get those samples out there.

UPDATE: I had couple of emails asking me on how to contribute to Script Exchange and share with the community. Watch this video to see how easy and simple it is to contribute.

Stay tuned
Vishal Ganeriwala
http://community.citrix.com/cdn

The PowerShell open source reimplementation for "others" (Mac, Linux, Solaris, etc...) and Windows (including Windows Mobile and Windows CE)

With what we can do with Citrix Workflow Studio and the Citrix Delivery Center already, can you imagine the possibilities of what we can do with PASH, as Windows Poweshell has already become the language of choice for administration, intergration, and automation.

Here are some screen shots of PASH in action:

 

 

 

Continue at Source: Pash - cross platform PowerShell is out in the wild! Announcement

There are millions of gaming consoles out there, they should be being leveraged to deliver the fullest set of media possible, and it is possible to do without changing a thing, sort of!

The gaming console has evolved into being much more than just for gaming, it is becoming a media conduit for access to all kinds of media.

I am going to blur the line on the definition of media and include web, applications, and desktops as a type of media, because they are also media.

The ongoing perception is that the gaming console should only be focused on being a gaming console. Also, there is the argument that if gaming consoles started to have to worry about adding new features that they would lose focus of what they were intended to be in the first place.  Well, I do agree to a point that it should first and foremost be what it was originally designed for, a gaming console. Another argument is the fear that if the gaming console becomes too much like a PC, you now would have to worry about installing applications, getting updates for applications, and then there is the whole virus issue. I believe that there is a middle ground to the issue, in that the industry has been delivering applications for a while now, companies like Citrix and Microsoft have pioneered the application delivery industry, there is no need to develop applications for a given platform.

I titled this article in reference to the XBOX 360, but it also applies to the Wii and the PS3, as these gaming media consoles are capable of internet connections, they have the ability to support USB and Wireless peripherals such as a keyboard and mouse, and they all support a high enough video resolution that the on screen user experience would not be diminished. We are already seeing the user experience on small form factor and mobile devices being greatly enhanced with true web browsing, remote applications, and remote desktops.

 Also, I used reference to the ICA and RDP protocols for good reason, as these protocols have already solved the problems of application and desktop delivery. In a minimalistic approach and a starting point, we could leverage these protocols to access a remote desktop to computers on our home networks, just as Microsoft is doing with their Media Center Extender abilities already with the XBOX 360. In a grander vision, it would be something truly amazing to be able to utilize them to also access published applications that exist on the internet or the work place, over secured connections of course, which these protocols already do.

Is the gaming console in jeopardy of becoming something much bigger, and quite possibly becoming a Cloud Computing Device, it's hard to say, but I for one hope that we see the convergence and use of remote desktop and remote application abilities given serious thought for the gaming console.

Frameworkx Community Blog - What if the XBOX 360 supported the RDP Protocol?

Sure you've all seen Windows XP running on the Asus EeePC, and today I wanted to show you not XP but Windows Vista running on this neat little device. Since pictures are worth more than 1000 words, here you go:
 

You're probably asking yourself now; is this Photoshop or how the heck did we get Vista to work on an EeePC?

There's no magic, trick or Photoshop, we are simply using Citrix XenDesktop. XenDesktop allowed us to virtualize the Windows Vista operating system and present it to any device installed with a Citrix client, this technology is also known as VDI.

This is a slick technology that enables people to be productive from basically anywhere and almost any device.

Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Citrix Technology Professional
gus.pinto@citrix.com

I have put together a list of posts on Windows PowerShell resources that I have been collecting, that I use to help start people in the right direction when diving into Windows PowerShell. I hope you find the following list of reference material as useful as I have.

Windows PowerShell 1.0 - Installation Files
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - Documentation Pack
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - Quick Reference
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - Graphical Help File
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - How it Works
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - In Action
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - Converting VBScript Commands
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - Cmdlets and PSCmdlets
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - How to Create a Cmdlet
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - Snap-ins
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - How to Register Cmdlets, Providers, and Host Applications
Windows PowerShell 1.0 - Cmdlet Development

Here is a link to the Windows PowerShell 1.0 collection based on the Tag:

Windows PowerShell 1.0 - The Reference Collection  

For those who know what a SlingBox is then you know what I mean when I say that it ranks up there with Tivo as being one of the all time media gadgets.

 
For those of you who do not know what a SlingBox is or who SlingMedia is, I suggest you experience it for yourself, they have a great demo of their products on their site, SlingMedia.

My purpose in this post is to not only convey my bummed out-ness that the SlingCatcher has been delayed, but it is also to let you know how I think about how their products align with what we do here at Citrix.

 

We are all about application delivery, virtualization, and some could argue even content delivery. Take for example the WanScalar and LanScalar products, I think they easily fit into the content delivery space as well as they do in application delivery. This is where I also think SlingMedia fits into the content delivery space. They currently have the SlingBox which you attach to your choice of television tuners, and you can then stream that content in real time to either a PC or Mobile device. There soon to be released, I so want one, SlingCatcher is going to be a standalone device that you can connect to your choice of displays to watch streamed content from a SlingBox. This is starting to sound like what we at Citrix do for applications and desktop, hmmm!

Now all we have to do is wait for them to release the SlingCatcher, to see what their Thin Client can really do, as I would really love to be able to GoToMyTV or GoToMyMedia =)

Check it out for yourself:

SlingMedia

Also Check out:

Frameworkx Community Blog - SlingCatcher - When are we going to be able to tune in

Part of the draw for this year's event is a lineup of industry luminaries as keynote speakers - a who's who of the technology elite. In addition to featuring industry analyst-, customer-, and partner-led sessions, Synergy will kick off with a round of keynote speeches delving into the intersection of IT and business from experts who drive change and innovation in the industry.

The Best Selling Author
Nicholas Carr, the best-selling author of "Does IT Matter?" and "The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google," challenges the conventional wisdom about business and technology. The former executive editor of Harvard Business Review, Carr has been called an "exceedingly lucid" speaker by Computerworld, and his featured keynote at Citrix Synergy promises to spark lively debate.

The Strategist
Count on Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft Server and Tools Business, to offer expert insight into the future direction of information technology, which Microsoft calls Dynamic IT. Muglia oversees a vast pipeline of innovation and is equally comfortable in the business and technical fields. He'll share strategies for making IT a stronger partner to business - using tactics he has honed through extensive experience working closely with his teams and Microsoft customers to drive his division's growth and technology leadership.

The Architect
Vishal Sikka, chief technology officer of SAP AG, leads the company's technology and architecture strategy across its product portfolio and its forward-thinking efforts around emerging technologies.  Sikka plays a leading role in the long-term direction of SAP's research efforts and is chartered with mapping SAP's next-generation architecture.  Sikka will share his perspective on business agility, adaptable business processes and how virtualization will accelerate innovation in business.
 
The Visionary
Known for creating fireworks onstage, Mark Templeton is the face of Citrix. As president and CEO, he helped propel Citrix into the business and technology spotlight. Templeton has his finger on the pulse of market trends, and his keynotes offer a compelling look at the cutting-edge technologies that drive customer growth. At Citrix Synergy, Templeton will offer his perspective on what the future holds for application delivery and its potential to impact the way business is conducted.

The Emmy Award-Winning Comedian
Dana Carvey, best known for his flawless impersonations, will headline the closing night party. A repertory member of Saturday Night Live (SNL) for seven seasons, Carvey is best known for his characters the Church Lady, Weekend Update's Grumpy Old Man, and Hans, of the Hans and Franz bodybuilding duo. In addition, Carvey received widespread praise for his uncanny and exaggerated comedic impersonations of political figures such as former president George Bush. Carvey has had a variety of television and movie roles, including a starring role as Garth, Wayne Campbell's "Excellent Cohost," in Wayne's World. In 1993, Carvey won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for SNL.

This is where the light dims, clouds start forming, light beams down from the sky, and it's all focused on you!

The Participant
Born as a user conference more than 10 years ago, it is the Attendees that are going to play a direct role in this year's event.
This is your chance to be a participant and not just an attendee, you will be able to pick the topics and facilitate the sessions.
You have a chance to play an active role in your conference experience by being part of Geek Speak and BarCamp

Geek Speak
You pick the topics, you run the discussions, you call the shots! Join tech geeks, analysts and bloggers at the ultimate "unconference".

BarCamp
You are the host. BarCamps are user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants.

Plus, you'll get a chance to check out the cool tools and gadgets-part of the event's "Tips, Techniques, Tools, and Toys" theme.

Here is a list of sites for you to really dive in and let Virtualization, Networking and Application Delivery meet You!

Citrix Synergy
Geek Speak at Citrix Synergy
BarCamp at Geek Speak
Citrix Community Blog

First of all, I feel compelled to introduce to all of you the CTP Award as many in this industry and even other Citrix employees don't know about this award given to exceptional professionals who excel on sharing knowledge freely about Citrix products and solutions.

What's the Citrix Technology Professional Award?

Citrix recognize and awards the most active and recognized individuals in the industry. Citrix presents the CTP Award to thank individuals for their exceptional contributions to technical communities worldwide. CTPs are active in the technical community, whether in a newsgroup, as a user group host, a conference speaker, or a respondent in forums, all users can be confident that the information shared by a CTP will be of the highest caliber and will help every user make the most of the technology.

Citrix also benefits from engaging with CTPs through conferences, conference calls, CTP Summit, and other events. CTPs share with Citrix their independent, real-world feedback with us, therefore helping Citrix better understand users' needs, improve current products, and develop future technology.

Who Are the CTPs?

CTP Member	Website
Alex Danilychev	http://www.ishadow.com/
Alex Yushchenko	http://www.pubforum.net/
Bernhard Tritsch	http://www.wtstek.com/
Brian Madden	http://www.brianmadden.com/
Charles Aunger	http://charlesaunger.eknowlogy.com/
Douglas A. Brown	http://www.dabcc.com/
Gus Pinto (alumni)	http://www.frameworkx.com/
Jeroen van de Kamp	http://www.loginconsultants.nl/
Jim Kenzig	http://www.thinhelp.com/
John Kellett	http://www.johnkellett.co.uk/
Rick Dehlinger	http://www.iqurious.com/
Ron Oglesby	http://www.ronoglesby.com/
Shawn Bass	http://www.shawnbass.com/
Stefan Vermeulen	http://www.printingsupport.com/mambo/
Tahir Saleem	http://www.tenera.no/
Thomas Koetzing	http://www.thomaskoetzing.de/
Ulrich Stamm	http://www.dcug.de/

Most in this list are personal friends of mine and I have to say I'm proud to be part of this industry, and sure enough they all deserve our thank you and admiration.

Keep up the good work guys!

See y'all in Seattle next week!

Cheers,
Gus Pinto

Find and meet up with other Citrix Technology Professionals like yourself who are interested in personal collaboration, creating a Citrix Community, or hosting a Citrix User Group.

MeetUp is a site dedicated to getting people to meet. How does it work? You have an interest, Citrix, find a local group, and meet up with people who share in your interest of Citrix. You can either start a meet up or you can find people who have started a meet up in your area or the world if you wish.

You can also go to http://citrix.meetup.com to Find Citrix Users and Citrix MeetUps near you...

Here is a map showing meet up possibilities for Citrix

Here is a list of areas to choose meet up possibilities from by City for Citrix

Here is a user in Bedford, MA, USA who is looking for a Citrix MeetUp

I would love for everyone to be able to attend Citrix Synergy, Citrix Geek Speak, and Citrix BarCamp, but I also know that this is not always possible for many reasons. If you are one who cannot attend, don't think that because you can't go that you can't be a part of it all. It is you and the many other great Citrix Technology Professionals who make this industry the greatest one to be a part of. You can now find other Citrix Technology Professionals wishing to MeetUp and start your own TechTalk, GeekSpeak, or BarCamp in which you and your peers can pick the topics and agenda, and who knows maybe we can grow the Citrix Community in many new directions we never thought possible.

Here is a list of links to some upcoming Citrix Community Events:

Citrix Synergy
Geek Speak at Citrix Synergy
BarCamp at Geek Speak

Here is a list of Citrix Community sites:

Citrix Community
Citrix Community Blogs
Citrix Community Forums
Citrix Developer Forums Citrix Support Forums
Frameworkx Community Blogs

We will be flying up to Settle, WA to attend this year's MVP Global Summit 2008 at Microsoft. This is an NDA event, but we will do our best to report to you from the event on what looks like is going to be a great conference. I will do my best to keep Gus out of trouble, as we all know how he loves NDA's =)

For those who of you who are unfamiliar with the MVP Global Summit event, here is an overview of this year's event.

MVP Global Summit 2008

Over the course of four days, hosted at the Washington Trade and Convention Center in Seattle and at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, the MVP Global Summit gives you exclusive access to more than 400 sessions and panel discussions and a range of networking opportunities, as well as Microsoft top executives such as Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer, and Ray Ozzie, chief software architect.

What is the MVP Global Summit?

The MVP Global Summit is a four-day invitation-only event hosted at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle and at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. With more than 400 sessions and a variety of networking opportunities, the MVP Global Summit enables Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) and Regional Directors (RDs) to:

• Connect with other MVPs and RDs
• Engage with Microsoft product managers
• Provide valuable feedback directly to Microsoft on its products and technologies.

Highlights for 2008 include:

• Event closing technical discussion by Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect
• Keynote by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive officer
• Deep technical sessions by competency
• Cross-competency electives
• Highly dynamic and interactive sessions, where you'll be able to define topics, attend, or host
• Additional activities designed to promote networking and meet attendees' diverse informational and business needs
  
  Microsoft 2008 MVP Global Summit
  Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
  Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
  Microsoft MVP - Rich Crusco
  

So if you see down bellow Rich pointed out that we are going to be in Seattle and Redmond next week attending the Annual Microsoft MVP Summit.

As Rich pointed out the event is 100% NDA, and we won't be able to share minimum if anything from what's being talked about with the general public.

However you can still make a different, having us be your voice during the meetings by sending us your questions and comments that we can relay to the Microsoft Terminal Services Group.

So if you could ask anything to the guys who are responsible for Terminal Services at Microsoft, what questions would you ask?

cheers,
Gus

View these demos of our flagship product, XenApp (Presentation Server) Platinum Edition 4.5 - the standard for delivering Windows applications at the lowest cost - anywhere. Each of these demos is in Flash format, and provides a narrated guide to the various aspects of the application delivery system that offers both application virtualization and application streaming for optimal application performance.

On February 11, 2008, Citrix announced that it changed the name of its Presentation Server™ product line to XenApp™. This new name was chosen to highlight the product line's growing application virtualization capabilities and to support the customer need for end-to-end virtualization. When the next product line release, Project Delaware, becomes generally available, the XenApp name will be used more fully. Until that time, and in these videos, you will see the Presentation Server name. To be clear, XenApp is not a new product, it's the new name for Presentation Server.

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Presentation Server Platinum Edition

A general introduction to XenApp (Presentation Server) Platinum Edition. Learn what Application Virtualization is all about, and see the features that Platinum Edition adds.

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64-Bit Benefits

Learn how moving to the 64-bit version of XenApp (Presentation Server) can greatly increase the number of users per server, without purchasing any additional hardware.

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Smart Auditor

SmartAuditor uses flexible policies to trigger recordings of XenApp sessions automatically to monitor and examine user activity, demonstrate internal control, ensure regulatory compliance and conduct security audits of applications.

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SpeedScreen Progressive Display

Choose from four different scenarios, zoom in and out on different displays. See how SpeedScreen technology allows users to productively access highly graphical applications!

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SmartAccess

Citrix SmartAccess, powered by the Citrix Access Gateway, as provided in Citrix Presentation Server Platinum Edition. See how you can control remote access along a sliding scale!

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View these demos of XenApp Individual Feature Demos for our flagship product, XenApp (Presentation Server) Platinum Edition 4.5 - the standard for delivering Windows applications at the lowest cost - anywhere. Each of these demos is in Flash format, and provides a narrated guide to the various aspects of the application delivery system that offers both application virtualization and application streaming for optimal application performance.

On February 11, 2008, Citrix announced that it changed the name of its Presentation Server^TM product line to XenApp^TM. This new name was chosen to highlight the product line's growing application virtualization capabilities and to support the customer need for end-to-end virtualization. When the next product line release, Project Delaware, becomes generally available, the XenApp name will be used more fully. Until that time, and in these videos, you will see the Presentation Server name. To be clear, XenApp is not a new product, it's the new name for Presentation Server.

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Web Interface

See how Presentation Server makes windows applications available to local or remote users via an easy to use website.

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Two Factor Authentication

By using strong authentication methods provided by our partners, administrators have an extra line of defense against malicious software, keyloggers, and network intruders.

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Client Heterogeneity

Presentation Server enables users on a variety of devices - including Windows, Linux, Mac, or PDAs - to access their applications from anywhere.

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Management Pack for MOM 2005

The Citrix plug-in for Microsoft Operations Manager allows centralized monitoring and reporting of farm-wide events.

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Resource Manager

Offering straightforward management and reporting capabilities for even the largest Presentation Server deployments.

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Installation Manager

Easily deploy and publish applications across all of your Citrix servers.

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Web Interface for SharePoint

Dramatically improve performance and security by giving users access to their applications with this SharePoint Web Part.

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SmoothRoaming

See how Citrix provides personal access continuity across devices, locations, and networks.

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Application Performance Monitoring

Using the Citrix EdgeSight agent, administrators can keep tabls on their Presentation Servers - as well as on all other servers and clients on their network.

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Single Sign-On

Citrix Password Manager provide enterprise Single Sign-On capabilities, centralized credential management, and Self Service Password Reset.

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Many customers who use Citrix XenApp (formerly known as Citrix Presentation Server) have leveraged Resource Manager for performance metrics and reporting on the health of their Citrix XenApp environments. The capability of measuring end-user experience and having visibility into an application's availability, performance and functionality on Citrix XenApp is becoming increasingly important.

EdgeSight for XenApp enhances Resource Manager's capabilities by capturing, aggregating and reporting on end-user and application experience all in a single, easy-to-use interface. The end result is the ability to monitor and measure the successful delivery of an application to any user, over any network, to any device.

This white paper will provide a high-level overview on how to successfully transition your Citrix management architecture from Resource Manager to EdgeSight 4.5 for XenApp. The key areas of focus include:

• Overview of Resource Manager & EdgeSight Architecture
• Feature Comparison & EdgeSight Benefits
• EdgeSight Planning Considerations
• Transition Strategy and Key Points

To learn more and to read the entire article please refer to the rest of the article at its source: CTX116798 - Resource Manager to EdgeSight Migration

Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Citrix Technology Professional
gus.pinto@citrix.com

This page contains links to all current Citrix products documentation, you can literaly get to it with 1 or 2 clicks!

Forget about searching, bookmark this address:

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116089

Rich's recent post sparkled a long thread debating if the hame Citrix Technology Professional is the right name for the Award Citrix currently gives to exceptional individuals in our community.
 
I wanted to know what the general public thinks of that, if they like the current name or they choose something different.
 
I put together a quick poll so you guys can voice it up, and let us know what you think! 

What is the best name for the Citrix Award, currently known as CTP?	Choose
Citrix Technology Professional (No Change)
Citrix Most Valuable Professional (Citrix MVP)
Citrix Very Important Professional (Citrix VIP)

 

cheers,
Gus

*It seems like Citrix MVP has the lead!? I will keep the polls open for another week!

Citrix has set a launch date and pricing for its desktop virtualization platform.

XenDesktop will start shipping May 20, at the Citrix Synergy conference. The company will offer three versions: Standard, Enterprise and Platinum. The latter will include more advanced management tools, including EdgeSight Monitoring, to keep track of how the system performs.

Pricing will begin at $75 per concurrent user.

Citrix calls XenDesktop a desktop delivery solution, which allows companies to virtualize Windows desktops in the datacenter and then deliver them on demand to office workers in any location.

The promise is to lower complexity and management costs by as much as by 40 percent compared to a traditional desktop, according to Citrix.

To do that Citrix wants to separate the management of operating systems and applications, which will solve the problem of virtual desktop "image sprawl".

XenDesktop will centrally manage the operating systems: end users will get a new desktop at each login.

"If you take the applications out of the equation you'll be able to use the same image for thousands of users, instead of one for every user," said Dave Austin, director of product marketing at Citrix in EMEA.

The centralization of the desktop will also offer significant improvements to traditional Citrix customers.

Continue at Source: http://www.frameworkx.com/

Application Profiling

Introduction:

I can turn you into an Application expert in 5 minutes by reading this post.  Just do what the experts do, or even the not-so-experts.  They pay meticulous attention to the requests from clients and the responses from servers, both headers and body content.  You do this the old fashioned way by taking a trace.  There are better tools out there, some free, some not-so-free.

Running a trace:

Running a trace will help you 'profile' the application. It is recommended that you do this before placing the Citrix Application Switch in-line of the Application traffic. This will gather important information about the Application that will help you understand it's basic operation at Layer 7, and help you begin to understand what it is that needs to be accelerated - cached, compressed, load balanced, ssl offloaded, etc.

Running a trace exposes the flow of transactions between all points of interest. Traces are especially helpful when digging in to find what is contained within the headers being exchanged between the client and the application.

Taking a trace with wireshark:

The free network protocol analyzer called wireshark, http://www.wireshark.org, will capture packets for you on the localhost, whether it's windows or linux. By filtering the stream of packets by IP Address, right clicking and selecting 'Follow TCP Stream' inside of wireshark, you can see the headers for both requests and responses.

Taking a trace with the Citrix Application Switch:

If the Citrix Application Switch is already in place, a trace can be run directly on the Citrix Application Switch. Running a trace will expose the flow of transactions between all points of interest, especially the client, load balancing VIPs and backend servers. Traces are especially helpful when digging in to find out if the proper headers are being exchanged between client & VIP and VIP & backend servers. A trace can be run directly on the Citrix Application Switch. Once downloaded this file can be opened and request and response headers read with Wireshark, a free network trace utility, http://www.wireshark.org. From the Citrix Application Switch GUI, navigate to NetScaler -> System -> Diagnostics -> New Trace -> Run. 

Viewing headers with Paros:

Paros was originially written for web security, but has value when viewing request and response headers, cookies and the like. Through Paros's proxy nature, all HTTP and HTTPS data between server and client, including cookies and form fields, can be intercepted. There is an additional option of trapping and modifying data before sending it on to the server, or client. Paros can be found at http://parosproxy.org. Free.

Viewing headers with Live HTTP Headers:

Live HTTP Headers, http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/, was developed for use with the Firefox web browser. It is a free add-on and allows you to view HTTP header information in real time. Free.

Viewing headers with IE Analyzer:

IEInspector HTTP Analyzer, http://www.ieinspector.com, is a tool that allows you to monitor, trace, debug and analyze HTTP/HTTPS traffic in real-time. It works with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Not-Free.

Viewing headers with IE Watch:

IEWatch, http://www.iewatch.com, is another plug-in for Microsoft Internet Explorer that helps you profile your web applications. You can use this tool to dig deep into the inner workings of web applications to find hidden issues. Not-Free.

Watch this Application Profiling Tip:

Tap into the power of AppExpert

Citrix SDK guru's have converted more top downloaded MFCOM VB scripts to PowerShell-MFCOM Scripts. Bradon Shell has created 3 more PowerShell Scripts which are really useful.

*[Get-CitrixApplication.ps1 (Powershell)]
Returns Citrix Application Objects for AppName passed or RegEx

*[Set-CitrixServerLogon.ps1 (Powershell)]
Sets the Server to Enable or Disable Logons

*[Get-CitrixAppServer.ps1 (Powershell)]
Gets All the Servers for Specific App

If you are learning PowerShell then I highly recommend subscribing to his blog at http://bsonposh.com/.

Jason Conger one of the Citrix SDK guru's has also contributed a really cool MFCOM-PowerShell script.

Find-App.ps1

Here is a description of the script
"If you have a lot of published applications in several nested folders, it can be a challenge to locate exactly which particular folder contains a particular application. This script takes a parameter as a search pattern. The script then searches the published application directory structure and returns the full path to all applications that match the search pattern parameter. This saves time clicking through all the folders trying to find a published application."

If you are a Citrix SDK guru then feel free to contact me via comments or email. I would love to hear your experiences with our SDKs.

Vishal G
http://community.citrix.com/cdn/script-exchange/

As many of you have already seen, Citrix's annual Global User Conference has had some major changes this year.  The first major change is that the event has been up-leveled to cover much more than the user conference but to be an industry conference around Virtualization, Networking and Application Delivery.  The second major change is that the event is just around the corner - May 20 - 23 in Houston (moved from the usual October timeframe).

Synergy will be sub-divided into 4 sub-conferences including:

iForum User Conference - The latest information on Citrix products from A-Xen.  This is similar to the classic iForum that we are all used to taking place in the fall.  The focus here will be on technical content, customer case studies, demos, hands-on and much more.  If you liked the standalone iForum in the past you'll love the iForum portion of Synergy.

App Delivery Industry Expo - No one vendor can solve all your app delivery problems.  This conference will feature more than 50 vendors showcasing multi-product solutions, demos, architectural best practices and technical sessions on all kinds of topics covering the broader industry. 

Geek Speak Live! - The "un-conference" intended for technical experts to share their ideas on virtualization, networking, green computing, automation, app delivery and many more topics. 

IT 2.0 Business Symposium - A conference aimed at the busy executive on key topics that he is faced with in today's wild world of IT. 

So what's in store for XenApp at iForum 2008?  Only the best lineup of technical sessions ever!   Keep in mind that it's still early and things could still be tweaked slightly but the current working titles and descriptions for the XenApp related session are:

Citrix XenApp, Windows Server 2008 and Your Environment

Learn the best practices for implementing Citrix XenApp on Windows Server 2008, gathered from early adopters like Citrix IT and Beta customers.  Also hear a special guest speaker from Microsoft describe the benefits of Windows Server 2008 and XenApp together!  This session will cover:

• What's new in the upcoming "Delaware" release - our first release that supports Windows Server 2008
• How Windows Server 2008 will enable Delaware to be the best Windows application delivery solution we have ever produced
• Best practices for migrating to XenApp on Windows Server 2008
• How to manage a mixed Windows Server 2003 and 2008 environment
• What's new in the upcoming update to our Windows Server 2003 version

Unlocking the Value of XenApp Platinum through Enhanced User Experience

Come and see the future look and feel of Citrix XenApp.  This session will explore all the tools necessary to craft a world-class user experience that is intuitive, seamless, consistent and adaptable.  This session will cover:

• The End User Experience Initiative at Citrix.  Find out what products are involved, what changes are being planned and when you can expect to see them.
• See the new look of XenApp Platinum.  Learn about the project to create a consistent look and feel across all of the Platinum components and learn how these changes will affect your organization.
• See the new XenApp Web User Experience.  Learn the new features and functionality planned for the upcoming release of XenApp. Learn ways to customize the new experience to fit best in your environment.
• See the future of the Citrix User Experience.  Learn what's coming next!

Tuning XenApp Farms for Optimal Performance and System Health

Join Citrix XenApp product tuning experts for an in-depth view of the tools and tips that you need to keep your farm running in tip-top condition.  In this session we will cover:

• Application Performance Monitoring - a cornerstone component of XenApp Platinum edition built on the industry's top monitoring solution, Citrix EdgeSight.
• Health Assistant - XenApp's built-in capability for monitoring the health of critical system services that allows you to take steps to address issues and mitigate system down time.
• Other important tuning parameters around IMA, ICA and printing.

An In-Depth Look at Citrix XenApp Platinum from Use Cases to Implementation

Join us for an in-depth tour of the industry's most comprehensive end-to-end application delivery solution - Citrix XenApp Platinum.  XenApp Platinum includes everything that the expanding or established business needs to deliver applications to users in a single secure, easily managed, easy-to-use and low cost solution.  This session will cover all aspects of XenApp Platinum including use cases and implementation highlights for client-side app virtualization, end-user application performance monitoring, SmartAccess, SmartAuditor, Single Sign-on, EasyCall and WAN Optimization.

Application Virtualization: Deliver all Windows Applications with Isolation and Streaming

Application Virtualization packages applications and streams them into an isolation environment on the servers in your datacenter and now directly to end user (client) machines.  This eliminates application conflicts and simplifies app updates.  This session will cover:

• Best technical practices to exploit applications streaming benefits
• Guidelines for successful application delivery implementations
• How to combine Microsoft App Virtualization sequences with Citrix XenApp
• A case study illustrating the how to and the business value

XenApp - Advanced Design and Configuration

Back by popular demand, and always an iForum favorite, this in-depth technical session will cover critical design considerations for any XenApp environment from architecture and networks to servers and farm scalability.  Whether you're planning an upgrade or a new implementation of XenApp, Platinum Edition, you'll want to have a full understanding of these advanced concepts and best practices.  This session will cover:

• Methodically approach the network-related aspects of XenApp
• Address WAN or other network issues to ensure successful implementation
• Plan and design your server farm zones for high scalability
• Optimize the server farm for maximum stability and high performance

Building Green Citrix XenApp Farms by Maximizing Server Scalability

Server consolidation has both economic and environmental importance, and businesses and government agencies alike face increasing pressure to reduce space, as well as electrical and cooling costs within the datacenter. This session will discuss per-server capacity planning and provide methodologies and techniques for maximizing and measuring per-server user scalability. We'll also discuss how Citrix XenApp adds capabilities for pinpointing and resolving scalability bottlenecks.  In this session you will learn:

• How to configure XenApp for higher user density through memory management features and technology
• Techniques for monitoring application performance and alleviating server bottlenecks
• How to leverage 64-bit Windows server platforms for dramatic increases in server capacity

Solving Security and Compliance Headaches with Citrix XenApp

Painful and becoming more painful: security and regulatory compliance!  This technical session will explain how XenApp and its end-to-end application delivery elements address these security and regulatory challenges. In this session you will learn:

• How to protect user data
• How to address regulatory compliance and risk management challenges including Sarbanes Oxley, HIPAA, FDIC, HSPD-12 and more
• How XenApp mitigates risk and makes compliance easier

Flash!  Got Media? - Exciting Solutions for Multimedia Application Delivery

How are virtualization technologies evolving to address the new generation of rich media applications? Supporting Flash Applications, 3D graphics, animation, VoIP and video are increasingly important in the enterprise. Find out about the Citrix Multimedia Virtualization Initiative and the latest capabilities from Citrix and our ecosystem partners. Learn how to optimize video playback and deliver high-resolution images.  Get a glimpse at new technologies under development to handle the most advanced multimedia requirements and emerging RIA platforms 

Printing Virtualization with XenApp and XenDesktop - Roadmap and Best Practices

Enterprise printing infrastructures are complex and getting more so. As if the day-to-day management of print servers, printer drivers, application compatibility issues, and print performance issues wasn't hard enough, the additional moving parts needed for application and desktop virtualization can exacerbate these issues. Printing virtualization is a strategy that can help. In the same way that application and desktop virtualization decouple and facilitate centralized management, virtualized printing infrastructures can help tame your printing challenges. This session will explore the concept of printing virtualization and some of the key technologies that Citrix is developing to enable it. We'll also have a look at the product roadmaps and discuss best practices for today and the future. In this session you will learn:

• Printing virtualization strategy
• Key printing technologies:  XML Paper Specification (XPS) and Universal Print Server (UPS)
• XenApp & XenDesktop printing feature roadmaps
• Printing best practices for today and tomorrow 

In addition to those sessions, there are others planned that include a lot of helpful information on XenApp and its interaction with other Citrix products.  These include:

Citrix XenDesktop: How and When to Add XenDesktop to XenApp Implementations

Provide Global Availability for XenApp using Citrix NetScaler Global Load Balancing

XenApp and XenServer - Better Together

Technical best practices for integrating Provisioning Server for Datacenters with XenApp to deliver the Dynamic Datacenter

Citrix XenApp delivery to branches: Architectural Choices

Citrix Solutions for the Optimized Branch

Utilizing EdgeSight to Ensure the Best Application Experience in XenApp Infrastructures

Testing 1-2-3, Testing 1-2-3: Ensuring reliable, scalable XenApp infrastructures through automated load and regression testing

So book your ticket for Houston today and get set for the best iForum ever which will be part of the even broader and more content rich Citrix Synergy!  To register, go to http://community.citrix.com/synergy-registration

Want to understand the differences between Presentation Server 4.5 and Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003? Take a look at the new 14-page Citrix Presentation Server on Windows Terminal Services: A Feature Analysis  just completed by the Citrix Technical Marketing Team. But this is not just the Citrix perspective on what is different between the products. This document was co-developed with a couple of members from the Microsoft Terminal Services team (blog), so it is the view of Citrix *and* Microsoft on the products.

The analysis looks at these 5 areas:

• Centralized Control
• Application Compatibility
• Optimized User Experience
• Comprehensive Access
• Enterprise Scalability

By the way, If you combined download counts for earlier versions of the Presentation Server and Terminal Services side-by-side evaluation docs previously available on citrix.com, that combined count would rank as one of the top 5 most downloaded docs in the past 12 months... out of nearly 750 docs on the citrix.com site.
 
You can also see more Citrix coverage at the tag Windows Server 2008 on the Official Citrix Blog.

Take a read of the new feature analysis and let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

UPDATE 30 January 2009:
Since writing this post, the name of Presentation Server was changed to XenApp. Here is the new doc:

• Citrix XenApp on Windows Terminal Services: A Feature Analysis
  

A key part of my job as Product Strategist for Multimedia Virtualization is to stay tuned in with the evolving needs of our customers for graphics and multimedia technologies. Citrix has many different ways of collecting such market input, and your comments on my blog posts are one source that I particularly appreciate. Another highly valuable source of input is the Citrix Customer Advisory Community, a global group of customers who provide their perspectives and opinions in an online community forum. What are they saying about their needs around graphics and video?

The technology referred to most frequently in a recent dialogue with the Citrix Customer Advisory Community was streaming video. At least a third of respondents specifically mentioned Adobe Flash. Obviously - and this was no surprise - Flash has been widely adopted in the enterprise for employee training and corporate communications. And Flash content has become prevalent on the Web. Many Citrix customers are publishing a web browser or a complete Windows desktop to their users, so Flash support is becoming increasingly important to them. As I noted in my blog post Secrets for Optimizing Flash Performance - Part 2, significant improvements to Flash support were introduced in XenApp 4.5. And there's more to come. One of the priorities of the Citrix Multimedia Virtualization Initiative is to adapt our RAVE (Remote Audio and Video Extensions) technology to further optimize the delivery of Flash videos and animations while dramatically increasing server scalability. We are also looking ahead to Silverlight, an important new technology from Microsoft.

A wide variety of graphics-intensive applications were named by the Advisory Community. Several were OpenGL applications like Dassault CATIA, which will be well handled by Citrix's new Virtual Design Studio product based on our Pictor technology. Others were DirectX based applications such as Autodesk AutoCAD/Inventor and Bentley MicroStation, for which our new Apollo accelerated bitmap remoting technology will be very well suited. Customers in the Healthcare space mentioned 3D echocardiograms and high contrast CT scans that generate large graphics models requiring hardware acceleration, again a great opportunity for Apollo technology.

Customers running 2D and lightweight 3D graphics applications commented on the excellent graphics performance of XenApp Presentation Server 4.5, thanks to the new SpeedScreen Progressive Display technology. Applications mentioned included SolidWorks eDrawings, Intergraph PDS and SmartPlant, AutoCAD Map 3D and ESRI ArcGIS. SpeedScreen Progressive Display is truly a needle-mover for the vast majority of graphics applications being used by our customers today.

Some customers are using client-side application virtualization (also known as "application streaming") to deliver graphics applications. They get the benefits of centralized management and application isolation while fully leveraging the capabilities of the user's PC.

Tickers that scroll horizontally were mentioned a couple of times. Today's SuperCaching algorithm is optimized for vertical scrolling, but we've been doing some research into an enhanced algorithm that will accommodate scrolling in any direction. It will be interesting to test out the new algorithm with applications like on-screen "readerboards" that display text in this way.

What are your priorities for multimedia virtualization, including graphics, streaming media and real-time communications? What experience have you had delivering graphics applications with SpeedScreen Progressive Display? What are your plans for adopting unified communications, voice chat or desktop video conferencing ? I look forward to your comments!

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization

A couple of customers have asked me for a comparison of Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services and XenApp 4.5 Feature Pack 1.  No, Citrix and Microsoft do not compete, but rather compliment each other with our integration.  Please see the comparison matrix here if you'd like to see the value that Citrix XenApp provides on Terminal Services 2008.

Ok, I think this would be an interesting one for the community. Audio (voice & sound) content is becoming more important to customers - day-to-day applications that require clear audio (e.g., listening to a voicemail attached in your email), VoIP/softphone calls, dictation applications, etc. If you have applications or use cases that require audio (voice or sound) over XenApp, please read on...
Take a listen to the recorded audio clip (no video) below - the clip was recorded over XenApp to an ICA client. As you listen to the clip, think about whether the audio quality is, in your opinion, good enough for you day-to-day use? After listening to the audio clip, please vote in our poll below. By the way, it's recommended that you watch/listen to the clip from a locally installed browser.

Oh, and if you cannot see the voting buttons (green checks).... you'll need to login to vote. And if you don't have a login, you can easily create one here.

What's your impression of the audio quality in the sample audio clip?	Choose
Poor – if it's my only option, then I cannot use it with my voice/audio application
Bearable – I can use it to communicate with others, but only if I have to
Acceptable – I can use this on a daily basis
Great – When can I have this?

If you have questions, please click on my name and feel free to contact me!

Microsoft and Citrix Evangelists hang out in Redmond on the Channel 9 - Code Trip bus and showing off their wicked cool gadgets!

Rock On!!!
Gus Pinto

P.S. For more stuff on our visit to Microsoft and MVP Summit 2008 check out Frameworkx.com

 

GUS PINTO: It's noticeable the steady growth of conversations around virtualization within organizations and in the Internet today, more specifically around server and desktop virtualization.

Microsoft is readying up Hyper-V, and a lot of technologies to allow these technologies to actually happen for the large enterprise. It's going into market in partnership with Citrix and its Xen Hypervisor.

I guess the question is, what is your true feeling about virtualization in the enterprise on the server and desktop base? Is this just really hype or is this something you guys truly believe is going to happen?

RAY OZZIE: No, it's absolutely fundamental. It is absolutely going to happen.

I would say you have to take desktops separately. The logic behind virtualization on the desktop is completely separate from what it would be on the server, and in some ways it's different within the on-premises world versus the cloud. So, I'll just touch upon those independently.

Before I do that, though, let me just say that from a TS perspective, Terminal Server based deployment will always be more efficient than virtualization. It was a designed-in, multi-tenant model within the OS. So, if there are applications and solutions that fit the TS model, that's just a terrific model to use, and I would encourage organizations to use that model.

Within the enterprise, virtualization, the simplest and most straightforward way is to just make the best use of the datacenter resources that you can from a consolidation perspective. This is we are absolutely taking it seriously.

There are two phases of that consolidation. Phase one is bringing things together, meaning if you have a scale-up cluster or a scale-up, some expensive configuration of hardware, how can you package much usage on that piece of hardware as you can? The other one is then movement of images amongst the different machines within the back-end. You'll see investments progressively from us in both of those realms.

Taken to the extreme within the cloud, virtualization is absolutely critical. Virtualization is key to making the best use and securely isolating properties from multiple customers that might not use even a full inexpensive CPU, and moving them geographically or whatever to provide resilience and robustness. So, it is something that's extremely important.

On the client I'll only say that the uses of it, the way that the Mac uses it to run Windows and stuff, it's clever. Parallels, they're very clever technologies.

The way that you'll see us take advantage of it over time more and more on the client is our mechanisms around ensuring compatibility. App compat is a very, very challenging thing, and you want to continue to make progress with the operating system. We look to it as another tool in the toolbox to try to help in the compat world without -- enabling innovation while still enabling assurance of compatibility.

~snip~

I will be posting the Video with Q&A shortly.

Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | gus.pinto@citrix.com

In a previous post, I wrote about putting together a barcamp-like event after the GeekSpeak Live session on the second day of Citrix Synergy. We have approval now to extend GeekSpeak Live with these additional sessions. It looks like we will have one large space (up to 80 people) and five or so other small spaces for small discussions. We plan to have food (likely pizza, soft drinks and beer) and shirts for all attendees. We hope to have at least four 30-40 minute blocks for sessions, which means 20 or more sessions.

Now, we need session speakers. Anyone can sign up who is attending the Synergy event. You can speak about any IT topic you would like. The only rules are it must be an in depth technical topic (not a product or marketing pitch). This is open to attendees, customers, alliances partners, resellers, Citrix Technology Professionals and Citrix employees. Any one attending the Citrix Synergy event is eligible to speak and attend.

I am working with Vishal Ganeriwala (who runs the CDN) to create a wiki page for session sign up. Once we have the schedule finalized, we will post the new wiki page and the speaker sign up. If you have an idea for a topic but do not feel comfortable presenting it yourself, please post it in the comments or email me at citrixblogger @ citrix.com . We will post any topics ideas we receive on the wiki (once it is up) and here on the Official Citrix Blog.

The goal for GeekSpeak Live is to get a wider range of technical topics and to give you the chance to participate in creating the content for the event. Share your experiences and lessons learned with everyone at GeekSpeak, and we can all learn something new and useful.

You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

Several striking aspects:

• All presentations about security in a virtualized environment were mobbed.  People were pretty angry when turned away at the doors of the presentation rooms, but fire marshall regulations prevented people from standing at the back.  It appears this is the "next interesting thing" in security, and there is great curiosity.  On the reality side, there were very few products / technology for sale to address the potential issues.  I believe there are a great many startup companies currently in stealth mode in this area.
  
• The days of radical and revolutionary change in security from the late '90's and early '00's are way over.   The big vendors seem to be just pulling together "fix it all" suites as best they can through acquisitions.
  
• Michael Chertoff's presentation was a tad scary: he mentioned that government agency computers are all interconnected, and that security is not consistent across all agencies (some have 24/7 monitoring for security and some don't).  This is bad for the obvious reason - just like in the movies, the bad guys can find an innocuous-looking, under-protected entrance and get to the agencies of interest.  The other scary part was that Mr. Chertoff seemed to think 24/7 monitoring was the main thing.  I'd tend to focus on preventative measures, vulnerability assessment, intrusion detection, user training, Identity and Access Management, strong authentication and other areas as well, but they were not mentioned.
  
• Bruce Shneier's presentation on security rationalization was provocative.  He focused on the separation between reality, feelings and models by "experts" when it comes to assessing security risks.  One example was the Tylenol scare, and it was successfully addressed from a commercial standpoint by adding hermetic seals to bottles.  It made people feel better.  The reality is that a syringe could inject poison pretty easily, but people feel better.  He also introduced the notion of "security theatrics", where the media and security vendors exaggerate risks and cause people to feel bad when the reality just doesn't match.  Interesting concept.

RSA Conference is growing: attendance was estimated at 17,000

Alex Danilychev interviews Thomas Koetzing a fellow MVP and CTP also known as the Web Interface Guru.

They are two of the greatest people in the Citrix Community, they have given so much of their free time on forums and posting about citrix technologies, it was great to hear from them in person.

By the way, Alex and Thomas will also be speaking at Synergy and Geek Speak Live! on May 20 to 23 in Houston, TX.

GeekSpeak is your chance to have one on one conversation with some of the rock stars in the Citrix Community.

The Citrix XenDesktop Beta gave us a sneak peek at its highly anticipated Citrix XenDesktop product. Citrix will officially begin shipping to customers worldwide at the upcoming Citrix Synergy 2008 event on May 20.

XenDesktop, which will be co-marketed with Microsoft ( Microsoft and Citrix Expand Alliance to Deliver Virtualization Solutions from Desktops to Datacenters ), is a groundbreaking new desktop delivery solution that allows companies to virtualize Windows desktops in the datacenter and deliver them on-demand to office workers in any location. Unlike first-generation virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) technologies, XenDesktop is a comprehensive end-to-end desktop delivery system that offers an unparalleled end-user experience, dramatically simplifies desktop management and reduces the cost of traditional desktop computing

Continue at Source: Citrix Systems to Unveil XenDesktop at Citrix Synergy 2008

EasyCall has received a 2008 VON Magazine Innovator Award. The VON Magazine Innovator Awards is the foremost listing of innovative companies that represent the future of the Internet Communications industry.

EasyCall is a new technology that improves worker productivity and saves phone costs by making communications capabilities like click-to-call available from any enterprise application with no changes to existing phone systems or applications. EasyCall enables the simplest and most intuitive way of integrating communications into any application as a core property of a company's existing application delivery infrastructure.

"The VON Magazine Innovator Awards recognize the Internet Communications industry's best and brightest companies, and we're pleased to include Citrix as an inaugural winner," said Bill Sell, publisher, VON Media Group. "Companies like Citrix should take pride in their accomplishments because the selection committee unanimously chose EasyCall as a standout example of an advanced communication solution." 

Continue at Source: Citrix EasyCall Receives Inaugural VON Magazine Innovator Award

Citrix offers a variety of technical Webinars and Webcasts with their TechTalk and On-Demand series of online events. You can join in on a TechTalk Webinar or Watch an On-Demand Webcast, the choice is up to you.

These events are another way for you to participate and learn about technology and application delivery. Citrix is also excited to announce some new ways for you to particiapte and learn about technology, GeakSpeak Live (the un-conference event) at Citrix Synergy will be an event that will allow for you to meet in an informal group and collaborate about topics you choose, and give you a chance to make a difference in making it more of an event that you get out of it what you want.

Continue to Source:

Citrix Webcasts

Learn more about Upcoming Citrix Events:
Citrix Synergy
Citrix GeekSpeak
Citrix BarCamp

Here is a video of Gus's Citrix Super (Hero) flight training lesson on his first attempt at learning how to fly in an indoor skydiving facility.

Here is a video of Gus's Citrix Super (Hero) flight training lesson on his second attempt at learning how to fly in an indoor skydiving facility.

Here is a video of Rich's Citrix Super (Hero) flight training lesson on his first attempt at learning how to fly in an indoor skydiving facility.

Here is a video of Rich's Citrix Super (Hero) flight training lesson on his second attempt at learning how to fly in an indoor skydiving facility.

Citrix Workflow Studio unlocks the potential in Microsoft PowerShell and the Windows Workflow Foundation by providing an easy to use, graphical interface for workflow composition that virtually eliminates scripting. Citrix WFS can now leverage the use of PowerShell to manage IIS7 7.0 through the use of the IIS 7.0 PowerShell Provider.

If you want to use the IIS 7.0 PowerShell Provider in an existing PowerShell command window you have to register the IIS snap-in manually. You can do this by simply executing the IISConsole.PSC1 file located in the "$env:programfiles\IIS\PowerShellProvider" directory:

PS C:\> & "$env:programfiles\IIS\PowerShellProvider\iisConsole.psc1"

The IIS 7.0 PowerShell Provider is a PowerShell Snap-In that allows you to manage IIS7 configuration and run-time data. It gives easy access to Web-Sites, Application Pools, Web Applications, Virtual Directories, request in flight, Worker Processes and .NET Application Domains within Worker Processes.

• Create Web-Sites, Web Applications, Virtual Directories and Application Pools
• Change Simple Configuration Properties on Web-Sites, Application Pools, Web Applications and Virtual Directories
• Add and Change Complex Configuration Settings
• Query Run-time Data (Web-Site State, Application Pool State, Currently Executing Requests)
• Execute Advanced Configuration Tasks, Scripting, Integration with other PowerShell Snap-Ins and features
• Search and Discover Configuration Settings

You can use the IIS 7.0 PowerShell Provider in Citrix Workflow Studio through the use of the built in task support for Windows PowerShell. The "Add-PSSnapin", "PowerShell Command", and "PowerShell Script" tasks are provided as out of the box tasks for the use of interacting with Windows Powershell in Citrix Workflow Studio.

Download at Source:

PowerShell Provider for IIS 7.0 (x86)
PowerShell Provider for IIS 7.0 (x64)

Brandon Shell (http://bsonposh.com) and I are going to do a free webinar on PowerShell and Citrix

UPDATE : Tuesday 29th April 1PM - 2PM EST.

UPDATE 28th April : International direct dial + 1 617 801 6700

We are targeting audiences with following skill.
Basic Powershell, Basic Citrix Admin Skills and Basic MFCOM experience in VB script.

Here is the rough agenda for the webinar

Powershell Basics (about 20 mins)

Object Based
Self Teaching Get-Help , Get-Command, Get-Member

• Properties
• Methods
  New-Object
• ComObject
• .NET Class

Managing Citrix Servers via PowerShell and MFCOM (about 20 mins)

Most Properties Return Objects (like Servers, Applications, Sessions)
Creating MFCOM object in Powershell
$variable = New-Object -com <MFCOM COM Name>
Examples
$mfobject = New-object -com 'MetaframeCOM.MetaFrameFarm'
$mfobject.Initialize(<int parameters>)
With just these two lines you can start exploring you Citrix Environment
$mfFarm = New-object -com 'MetaframeCOM.MetaFrameFarm'
$mfFarm.Initialize(1)
Getting Key Info To get From Farm Object
$mfFarm | Get-Member -MemberType Property # Gets just Properties
Admins
Applications
FarmName
Servers
Sessions
LicenseServer
Printers
Zones

Space is limited
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/114744868

XenApp and the soon to be released Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will have Workflow Tasks for XenApp included in the Customer Tech Preview.

Stay Tuned Here: Citrix Developer Network - Citrix Workflow Studio

Get Updates Here: Citrix Updated - Citrix Workflow Studio

XenServer and the soon to be released Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will have Workflow Tasks for XenServer included in the Customer Tech Preview.

Stay Tuned Here: Citrix Developer Network - Citrix Workflow Studio

Get Updates Here: Citrix Updated - Citrix Workflow Studio

XenDesktop and the soon to be released Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will not have Workflow Tasks for XenDesktop included in the Customer Tech Preview.

A future release of Citrix Workflow Studio after the release of the Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will have support for XenDesktop.

Stay Tuned Here: Citrix Developer Network - Citrix Workflow Studio

Get Updates Here: Citrix Updated - Citrix Workflow Studio

NetScaler and the soon to be released Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will have Workflow Tasks for NetScaler included in the Customer Tech Preview.

Stay Tuned Here: Citrix Developer Network - Citrix Workflow Studio

Get Updates Here: Citrix Updated - Citrix Workflow Studio

WanScaler and the soon to be released Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will not have Workflow Tasks for WanScaler included in the Customer Tech Preview.

A future release of Citrix Workflow Studio after the release of the Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will have support for WanScaler.

Stay Tuned Here: Citrix Developer Network - Citrix Workflow Studio

Get Updates Here: Citrix Updated - Citrix Workflow Studio

Virtual Machine Manager and the soon to be released Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will have Workflow Tasks for Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager included in the Customer Tech Preview.

No Way! Yes you read that right, Citrix is going to include support for Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager in Citrix Workflow Studio.

Stay Tuned Here: Citrix Developer Network - Citrix Workflow Studio

Get Updates Here: Citrix Updated - Citrix Workflow Studio

The soon to be released Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview might have Workflow Tasks for VMware included in the Customer Tech Preview.

 

What The? Yes you read that right, Citrix might be going to include support for VMware in Citrix Workflow Studio. I am not saying they are or are not going to, but it is a very real possibility!

Stay Tuned Here: Citrix Developer Network - Citrix Workflow Studio

Get Updates Here: Citrix Updated - Citrix Workflow Studio

Provisioning Server and the soon to be released Citrix Workflow Studio Customer Tech Preview will have Workflow Tasks for Provisioning Server included in the Customer Tech Preview.

Stay Tuned Here: Citrix Developer Network - Citrix Workflow Studio

Get Updates Here: Citrix Updated - Citrix Workflow Studio

The Citrix EdgeSight Team has released Service Pack 4 for the ES 4.5 platform. You can download the full installers from the following link http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116690.

Some improvements and fixes that are addressed:

Agent Fixes and Enhancements
• Addressed a problem where, when attempting to run the PhotoshopElementsEditor.exe from Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0, the following message appears: "Attempt to access invalid address."

• Addressed a problem that prevented processes from running when Imprivata was installed.

• Addressed an issue that caused Sentillion Context Management to crash.

• Addressed a problem where the user associated with an Event Log alert was not always displayed on the real-time alert pages and reports.

• Added support logging for diagnosing problems with the Terminal Services service.

• Corrected a problem where network Round-trip Time (RTT) and Delay were not captured correctly in some applications.

• Addressed an incompatibility with SoftGrid Virtual Application Server when launching the default application.

Server Fixes and Enhancements
• Addressed a run-time error in the Alert real-time report when displayed using Excel 2007.

• Addressed timeout errors in the User Group pages and reports.

• Addressed a problem where the user associated with an Event Log alert was not always displayed on the real-time alert pages and reports.

• Addressed a problem that occurred while grooming session data.

• Addressed a timeout error in the Presentation Server Session Wizard.

• Addressed a problem where the License State Hash could become corrupted immediately after an installation.

• Addressed a column labeling issue concerning units of measure in the Network Bandwidth reports (Devices > Network > ICA).

The following issue was discovered:
• Issue: There is an incompatibility with McAfee Host Intrusion Protection 7.0 and the EdgeSight Agent.

Workaround: Do not install the agent on devices where this McAfee firewall is running.

One of the most intriguing keynote speakers at Citrix Synergy is Nicholas Carr. Carr became very well know in 2003 for his article "IT Doesn't Matter".

DOES IT MATTER?

Nicholas Carr poses this question in his 2004 book "Does IT Matter" , a follow up to his very controversial 2003 Harvard Business Review article - "IT Doesn't Matter". In this very controversial article and book, Carr argues that technology itself does not give you a competitive advantage and that IT should focus on risk management and cost management. Carr does admits in interviews that failure to keep up in the use of technology can put a company at a significant competitive disadvantage.

Carr's original article created alot of controversy within the IT industry. He has posted a thorough article that links to those who agree and strongly disagree with his thoughts on his website. You can find links to both sides of the discussion on this page. You can find an interview he did with ZDNet on this controversy below -

-

-

(If you cannot view the video, you can see it at ZDnet's website)

Carr's most recent book is called "The Big Switch:Rewiring the World from Edison to Google". Carr's description of
"The Big Switch" is below -

Here is a short video interview Carr recently did for the Search Engine Strategies conference (in London) on this new book -

-

-

Carr blogs about these topics and many more at is personal blog site - The Rough Type.
Finally, Carr created a short little video regarding his keynote at Citrix Synergy.

-

-

Nicholas Carr provides a unique insight in the current state and future of IT. You can hear more from Nicholas Carr at Synergy.

I will be posting about other keynote speakers and sessions speakers later.

You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

In order to learn more and help improve our Citrix Technology Professional award, I got together with the father of the Microsoft MVP Program, a true hero to all MVPs around the world. I'm talking about Sean O'Driscoll. Sean is the General Manager for Community Support and MVP Program at Microsoft and I asked a few questions to the guy who made Microsoft MVP so valuable.

He was kind enough to stop by and chat with us right after his keynote on the MVP Summit 2008. Luckily Rich taped it all so we could share it with you guys.

Check out Sean's website:
http://communitygrouptherapy.com/

regards,
Gus Pinto

 
Anyone interested in learning more about the open source Xen solution built by the community at Xen.org can attend the North American Xen Summit in Boston, MA, June 23 - 24 as part of the USENIX 2008 Annual Technical Conference. The USENIX event is from June 22 - 27 with training sessions from the 22 - 24 and a conference from the 25 - 27. Xen Summit is held on the 23rd and 24th with a special Xen Training Day on the 22nd. For more information and to register for Xen Summit, go to http://xen.org/xensummit/.

 

A top request from most customers that I talk with is how to use EdgeSight to monitor the XenApp/Presentation Server environment. One thing that needs to be remembered about EdgeSight is that it monitors all applications that are launched on the device that is being monitored. This in turn includes the core applications that keep a XA/PS infrastructure up and running efficiently.

Here is a link to a fantanstic article on setting up Alerts in EdgeSight to monitor the necessary core apps.
EdgeSight Alerting for Citrix Presentation Server - CTX116449 - http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx116449

Below is a snippet taken from the document.

Infrastructure Health

There are many components that contribute to the overall health of a Presentation Server farm. By creating real-time alerts for the following processes as detailed below, an administrator can quickly determine the health of a particular server or the entire farm.

What to Monitor

Process Name	Process Description
imasrv.exe	Citrix IMA Service
xte.exe	Citrix XTE Service
hcaservice.exe	Citrix Health Monitoring and Recovery
termsrv.exe	Terminal Server Service
smaservice.exe	Citrix SMA Service
imaadvancesrv.exe	Citrix Services Manager

How to Monitor

There are several recommended alert rules that can be created for each process, all of which are defined in the alert rules setup as Application Alerts. Each alert informs the administrator of a particular problem.

• High application resource usage

After setting the CPU time (percent) or Memory usage (Kbytes) values for the particular process, EdgeSight will fire an alert when it detects that the process has exceeded those configured values. Processes consuming a high amount of CPU or memory could impact the overall performance of the server and have a negative impact on the end user experience.

• Process fault

This alert will notify administrators when the process configured in the alert rule has faulted due to an unhandled exception within the process. The details collected by EdgeSight give a total picture of what was occurring on the server when the fault occurred without expending time and resources trying to reproduce the problem.

• Thrashing application

By configuring the thread queue length value for a process in this alert, administrators can quickly be notified if there are any processor bottlenecks that may be degrading server performance. Thread queue length is invaluable in determining applications that are bottlenecked on a system as the parameter indicates the number of CPU work items currently waiting for the threads of the application to process them.

Here is a quote of the announcement on Microsoft Technet

Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.
We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer. 

Thanks to everyone here who installed the public betas - you not only gave us detailed feedback but also helped each other out with timely troubleshooting. Through the beta program we found several important issues and were able to confirm some essential fixes. We couldn't have done this without you.

We will still be monitoring this forum during the next few weeks in case you have more feedback about the release of Windows XP SP3.

On behalf of myself, Shashank Bansal and Windows Serviceability, many thanks.

Chris Keroack
Release Manager, Windows XP Service Pack 3
Windows Serviceability

Continue at Source: Microsoft Technet

In this podcast you will learn the benefits of Virtualizing XenApp (Presentation Server) with XenServer...

Listen | Download

Now that Citrix XenApp is the new name for Citrix Presentation Server, Citrix Education has made significant updates to the nomenclature of its Presentation Server 4.5 courses, exams and related certifications. Here is what you need to know:

• Effective April 11, 2008, the nomenclature of Presentation Server 4.5 courses, exams and related certifications have been updated to reflect the new XenApp product line name.
• Updates are limited to nomenclature only; course/exam content and certification requirements have not changed.
• New course/exam releases will adopt the XenApp name starting with Project Delaware
• No changes have been made to titles of Presentation Server 4.0 exams and courses.
• Certification records of existing Presentation Server 4 certificants have been updated to reflect the new certification name.
• Candidates who have already been certified and would like to receive certificates with the new designation, can request a new certificate by accessing their account on the Certification Manager website.
• All future certificants will receive certificates with the new nomenclature. The table below details the updated Presentation Server courses, exams and certifications, with new nomenclature: 

Old Name	New Name
CCA for Citrix Presentation Server 4	CCA for XenApp (Presentation Server 4)
CCEA for Citrix Presentation Server 4	CCEA for Citrix XenApp (Presentation Server 4)
CCIA for Citrix Presentation Server 4	CCIA for Citrix XenApp (Presentation Server 4)
CTX-1259AI Citrix Presentation Server 4.5: Administration	CTX-1259AI Citrix XenApp (Presentation Server 4.5): Administration
CTX-1264AI Citrix Presentation Server 4.5: Support	CTX-1264AI Citrix XenApp (Presentation Server 4.5): Support
1Y0-259 Citrix Presentation Server 4.5: Administration	1Y0-259 Citrix XenApp (Presentation Server 4.5): Administration
1Y0-264 Citrix Presentation Server 4.5: Support	1Y0-264 Citrix XenApp (Presentation Server 4.5): Support
CTX-4100AI Citrix Presentation Server 4.5: Skills Update	CTX-4100AI Citrix XenApp (Presentation Server 4.5): Skills Update

Questions on these changes can be directed to training@citrix.com.

Project Delaware, the next release of Citrix XenApp (the new name of Presentation Server) will bring advanced, world class Windows Application Delivery to the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 platform.

XenApp for Windows Server 2008 will continue to provide a complete application delivery system that offers both client-side and server-side application virtualization for optimal application performance and flexible delivery options.

Delaware will also bring new features and capabilities that make it the most comprehensive Application Delivery solution available.

To get in the ERP (Early Release Program) you can sign-up here:

 

This white paper will discuss how customers can achieve faster deployment, higher reliability, easier management, and reduced server foot print by virtualizing Citrix XenApp using XenServer.

Download Whitepaper

You can also listen to the postcast around this subject:

Listen to podcast

cheers,
Gus

Join Citrix Education at the Citrix Synergy Conference in Houston, May 20-23, 2008. Stop by the booth and learn more about these special offers:

• SAVE up to $750 on a Citrix Training Pass (CTP)
  Customers who participate in a Citrix Technical Workshop (HOT Sessions) at Citrix Synergy will receive a coupon for 15% off of a Citrix Training Pass - a savings of up to $750! For more information, click here.
• WIN a trip to Nassau, Bahamas!
  Citrix Education is giving away a trip to Nassau, Bahamas at Synergy. To enter, customers must complete the entry form found in their attendee bag and drop it off at the Citrix Education booth during Exhibit Hall hours. The drawing will be held at the Exhibit Hall theatre on Thursday, May 22nd at 1:00pm and attendees must be present to win. To learn more, click here.
• Citrix Exam "Take 2" Special Offer
  At Citrix Synergy, customers will have the opportunity to take the latest Citrix Exams at an on-site testing center and get a second chance to pass - free! If needed, test takers will receive an exam retake voucher for the same exam, which can be redeemed at any Prometric testing center worldwide. For more information, including a list of exams and registration details, click here.

Haven't registered for Synergy yet? Click here to sign up!

At Citrix Synergy, customers can take the latest Citrix Exams at our on-site testing center and get a second chance to pass - free!  If needed, customers will receive an exam retake voucher for the same exam, which can be redeemed at any Prometric testing center worldwide.

The following list of Citrix Exams will be available at Synergy. Click on the exam number for detailed exam information, including related certifications and preparatory recommendations:

• A01 Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition 4.0: Administration
• 256 Citrix Presentation Server 4.0: Administration
• 259 Citrix Presentation Server 4.5: Administration
• 264 Citrix Presentation Server 4.5: Support
• 306 Citrix Access Gateway 4.2 with Advanced Access Control: Administration
• 308 Citrix Access Gateway 4.5 Advanced Edition: Administration
• 309 Citrix Access Gateway 8.0 Enterprise Edition: Administration
• 731 Citrix NetScaler 8.0: Administration
• 900 Citrix Provisioning Server 4.5: Administration

Registration Information
To reserve a spot for this special offer, customers must pre-register by May 16th, 2008.

Don't miss this opportunity to get Citrix Certified with the no-risk assurance of a free exam retake!