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Customers & Partners: Get Certified at Synergy

Take one of our latest exams at regular price at the Citrix Testing Center and receive an extra exam of your choice at no cost! The free exam may be used for retakes or advancement toward your desired credential. Now through May 1, pre-register to take an exam at the Citrix Testing Center and receive an extra 20% off the exam price!

Special Registration Discount for Citrix Certified Attendees

As an exclusive benefit for Citrix Certified professionals, we are offering a discounted rate of $1495 USD for a Synergy All-Inclusive conference pass - that's $400 off the current list price!* If you are Citrix Certified, contact Synergy Headquarters at citrixsynergy@citrixevents.com to validate your certification and request the special promo code for discounted registration.

As a Citrix training student or certification candidate, you may be interested in the many additional training and certification opportunities at Synergy, including:

• Hands-on learning opportunities delivered via new and innovative learning methods
• On-site testing opportunities and a "buy one get one" certification offer
• A chance to win access to unlimited training and virtual practice labs for one year at no cost

Click here to learn more and register for these exciting opportunities!

Register for Synergy now

*Citrix customers (non-Partners) only, does not include Citrix Certified Sales Professionals

Partners: Receive bonus training when you register for Citrix Summit in Las Vegas, May 3-4
All partners who register for Citrix Summit will receive the Virtualization Starter Pack*, a bundle of self-paced online training courses designed to help you learn more about the latest virtualization solutions. This package features four training courses and seven days of content, with a separate retail value of $6000 USD! This package includes:

• 2 days of XenDesktop - a $2000 value

• 2 days of XenServer - a $2000 value

• 2 days of Provisioning Services - a $2000 value

• 1 day of Essentials for XenServer training

*Training access will be distributed in July, with vouchers valid through the end of 2009. Partners are entitled to one pack per paid registration. If you're a salesperson, learn about CCSP 2009 at Summit and give your Virtualization Starter Pack to your most valued technical resource.

Register for Summit between March 25 - May 1 and receive this great value.

 
We're going to have another exciting round of Geek Speak Live! at this year's Synergy! As many of you know, Geek Speak is a series of informal discussions led by technically minded folks about topics that interest us all; for example, "TS vs. VDI" and "IT in the Cloud." This year we have four different session formats planned: a Geek Speak day session track, Geek Speakeasy sessions during Expo Hall, Geek Speak Tonight!, and a Geek Speak Happy Hour.

For details about the different session formats, check out http://www.citrixsynergy.com/geekspeaklive

We've got several Citrix Technology Professionals (CTPs) and other industry experts lined up on the agenda to do what they do best...lead interesting discussions! Speakers include:

- Alex Danilychev  
- Bernhard Tritsch  
- Brandon Shell
- Brian Madden  
- Charles Aunger
- Gabe Knuth 
- Gus Pinto
- Jason Conger  
- Jeroen van de Kamp  
- Joe Shonk
- Michael Keen
- Rich Crusco
- Rick Dehlinger  
- Ruben Spruijt  
- Shawn Bass  
- Steve Greenberg
...and more!

And this time, we're going to have the Citrix CTOs mixing it up even more with the CTPs. The following CTOs are planning their GSL sessions as we speak:

- Abolfazl Sirjani
- Brad Pedersen
- Chris Fleck
- Ian Pratt
- Jason Lieblich  
- Kurt Roemer  
- Martin Duursma
- Michael Harries
- Simon Crosby  

You can vote on your favorite session topics and suggest new ones through our Geek Speak Live Topic Voting Tool. Just log onto the site to cast your votes!

We will also have sponsor sessions taking place at the Geek Speakeasy. These sessions will be led by:

- Microsoft
- HP
- Dell
- Intel
- NetApp
- Wyse
- Stratus
- AppSense
- IGEL
- Symantec
...and more!

We'll be posting more details about the Geek Speak session speakers, topics, and schedule soon, so please stay tuned to the Citrix Community and Synergy sites to find out the latest. Note that speaker and session details may be subject to change prior to the event.

Be there -and- be square! Hope to see you at this year's event.

Laura Whalen

Citrix Systems, Inc.

From 360is blog (http://360is.blogspot.com/2009/03/xenserver-administration-poster.html) you can find a very handy administration poster on XenServer.

From blog...

Since XenServer was made freely available for downloada few weeks ago, there has been a surge in companies new to virtualization, taking their first steps into this area. As you would expect, this has resulted in lots of questions on the user forum and calls to our help desk.

360is have produced a XenServer administrators poster, in A4 format, for both new and experienced admins to download for free. Do let us know what you think, and make any suggestions for improvement via the normal channels.
 

Thanks.

Stephen Spector
Community Manager, Xen.org

SAP certifies NetScaler v9.0 and Branch Repeater/WANScaler v4.5 solution

On 3/31/2009, SAP certified Citrix NetScaler v9.0 and Citrix Branch Repeater/WANScaler v4.5 as an integral solution to improve the delivery of the SAP applications. For SAP Portal, the Citrix NetScaler & Branch Repeater/WANScaler solution improved response time to clients. For downloads and backend operations from SAP Composite and ERP servers, response time was also improved.

SAP customers have hundreds of branch offices with a mixture of small and large offices, and a global distribution. It is important to have a solution which optimizes, simplifies and accelerates the delivery of the SAP applications. During certification testing it was proven that the NetScaler and Branch Repeater/WANScaler products improve performance of SAP applications through acceleration, provide security through HTTPS connections, and provide reliability & high availability through load balancing.

Read more about NetScaler here.

Read more about Branch Repeater/WANScaler here.

Tap into the power of AppExpert!

As part of the Citrix Technical Support team, Jacob Salassi is not only a senior escalation engineer, he's also an appliance technical relationship manager (TRM). Jacob gave us a glimpse into the following sessions he'll be presenting at Citrix TechEdge during Citrix Summit and Citrix Synergy 2009: End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center, with a focus on Citrix NetScaler, and then his in-depth session will cover Advanced troubleshooting of Citrix NetScaler.

Q. How has NetScaler improved from a support perspective over the past year?

Jacob: With the release of 8.1 and 9.0 we have seen big gains in overall feature sets, UI improvements, and stability improvements. Along with that have come enhancements and additions to logging (TCP logging for example), and the various tools we in support employ to troubleshoot issues. A hotly awaited change in 9.0 was the addition of the ability to use filters in nstrace.sh which allows us to capture much smaller sniffs and avoid post-capture filtering while still preserving the entire session and its related packets.

Q. What NetScaler and Citrix Delivery Center tips will attendees learn at your session this year? 

Jacob: My sessions will take an administrator through overall troubleshooting methods and techniques, to a simple XenApp deployment example, and then to troubleshooting that same deployment using the techniques that have been learned.

Q: What NetScaler Tech Tip can you give people now?

Jacob: Always disable unused interfaces on BOTH nodes of an HA pair. It's common for administrators to forget about the secondary node which may cause HA to behave improperly in the event of a failover.

Q. What new tools or techniques are you using to troubleshoot NetScaler?

Jacob: Having more experience and spending more time using and developing troubleshooting tools has been a huge benefit for me. We now have tools to automate many things we had to do manually in the past, and this really helps our customers provide us with the data we need to resolve their issues.

Q. What types of cases have you worked on this past year? Why?

Jacob: I don't like the restrict myself to any particular kind of case, and the issues around NetScaler can be of a huge variety. This year some of the stand out issues have been dynamic routing deployments, as well as some very large, exotic, and sensitive deployments where resolving an issue quickly is absolutely a requirement.

About Jacob Salassi

Jacob's been with Citrix Technical Support for just under two years. His first position at Citrix was as an escalation engineer. He was then promoted to lead escalation engineer, and then to senior escalation engineer where he joined the TRM team. He holds certifications in Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA) for NetScaler. When Jacob is not troubleshooting a hot issue, he's listening to his motorcycle scream around the track at 15,000 RPM.

Do you have a NetScaler troubleshooting area that you would like Jacob to focus on during his presentation? Leave a comment.

Check out more posts in the Citrix TechEdge 2009 series.

In my last post I told you about the breakout session on Workflow Studio I will be doing and I hope to see you there:
http://community.citrix.com/x/FYG1Aw

If you are coming to Synergy I will also be hosting a Learning Lab on Workflow Studio and Citrix Receiver. The Learning Lab format gives us 3 hours to dive into the details, so if you want to learn more about building workflows to orchestrate the Delivery Center - sign up now!

Here are the details:
Title: Hands-on with the Citrix Delivery Center - featuring Workflow Studio orchestration and Citrix Receiver
Session Number: iForumLL706
Track(s): Learning Labs
Room: Premier Ballroom 306

This workshop provides attendees a chance to get hands-on experience with Receiver and Workflow Studio in a Citrix Delivery Center environment. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding for the architecture of these products and best practices for deploying them. Attendees will learn how to create and configure workflows that orchestrate functionality like power management, user provisioning, dynamic resource allocation, disaster recovery and product automation. Attendees will also learn how to configure the Receiver and leverage it to easily provide user access to applications and desktops—simplifying client management for IT.

Prerequisites:
Basic understanding of Citrix XenApp, Citrix NetScaler and Windows administration.
Students are required to bring their own laptops.

This session is held:
• Tuesday, May 5 at 11:30 a.m.
• Tuesday, May 5 at 3:00 p.m
• Wednesday, May 6 at 11:30 a.m.
• Wednesday, May 6 at 3:00 p.m.

I have a lot of ideas for posts that I think will only be interesting to the software developer - the third audience of Workflow Studio. I started wondering just how many people reading this blog would consider themselves to fall into this category. Go back and read the post on the Three Audiences of Workflow Studio and then vote here to tell me which group you fall into. If you cross over more than one of them, pick the one you are most interested in reading about.

Which audience are you?	Choose
IT Operations
Server Administrator
Software Developer

Here we are again, for another Provisioning Services for XenApp Best Practice.  This best practice focuses on integrating applications into the vDisk image.  Pretty simple Yes or No answer.

But this is one of the major challenges with creating a base XenApp image is determining what to include and what not to include.  Of course, you need the operating system and XenApp and Provisioning Services tools, but beyond that what is recommended and why?  Take the following scenario: due to business reasons, an environment has three sets of XenApp servers hosting different line-of-business applications.  All three line-of-business applications are dependent on Microsoft Excel for viewing and editing integrated spreadsheets.  Should Microsoft Excel be part of the base image or should it be a streamed application?  There answer is... there is no right or wrong answer; it is all dependent on other factors within the environment. Don't you just love answers like that?

The decision to include core applications is oftentimes a result in the belief that the base image should contain the greatest number of items that are common between XenApp servers.  If every server requires the same application, more network bandwidth will be used when the application is streamed to every server as part of the application streaming process.  Also, application streaming, in the default configuration, does not initially start as fast as a previously installed application because the application must be sent across the wire.  Thus, users will experience latency while the application is streamed for the first time (this latency can be overcome with application pre-caching, as explained in the Application Cache section).

There is also a business aspect to this decision. In some organizations, one set of administrators is responsible for applications and another set is responsible for the XenApp configuration. By separating the applications from the base image, the technical solution can align more closely with the organizational structure of the business.

Regardless of the decision on which applications to include and exclude in the base image, the following are general best practices for the base image:

• All relevant operating system and XenApp hotfixes and service packs should be included in the base image.
• The most common operating system and XenApp configuration should be used for the base image. If 80% of the servers require a specific setting while another 20% do not, the base image should include the special setting.
• The base image should include all appropriate XenApp plugins.  If application streaming will be used, the streaming plugin should be installed as part of the base image.
• Depending on the usage of server certificates, the appropriate root certificate should be part of the base image.  

What do all of you think? Do you install the common applications into the base vDisk, or do you rely on XenApp application streaming? How many unique XenApp images do you have in your environments? 

As always, stay tuned for more best practices regarding Provisioning Services and XenApp.  

• vDisk Type
• vDisk Cache
• Active Directory
• Application Integration
• Application Streaming Cache
• System-level settings: Page file, drive remapping and multiple drives
• Image Management
• Local Database Storage (event viewer, EdgeSight, AntiVirus updates)
• Plus more if we get some good ideas on other areas of focus.

Daniel - Sr. Architect
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/djfeller
Follow me in the Blogs: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/danielf

Streaming a Full OS to a ThinClient ... Step by Step

Provisioning Server(PVS) has been a amazing addition to the citrix "Dynamic Delivery Center" line up.  It is a game changing technology that has a wide range of use cases.

So for those of you not familiar with PVS .... The brief of it is.  We virtualize the Disk IO allowing you to host a full OS image in your data center and stream simultaneously to thousands of diskless Endpoints. (PCs, Servers, Thin clients, Virtual or physical) windows or linux

This is not another Altiris, SMS, or Ghost imaging solution. We do not stream the full image down to the endpoint we only send the blocks of information that the client requests into memory when they request them.

Common Use Cases-

1.  PCs .. Distribute processing power out to the edge but still manage centrally with one image.

2.  VDI .. Reduce storage 90%, dramatically reduce application and single image management.

3.  Datacenter.. Web and Application Server Farms- One Image, Consistency, flexible and dynamic.

4.  Thin Clients - Stream full OS to Thin Client- One image, no protocol limitations, central management.

So in this blog I want to address the specific use of streaming a full XP OS image to a Thin Client. There is usually a lot of confusion around this use case so hopefully we can clear it up some.

1.       First thing we need to do is make sure the Thin Client we are going to stream to has the following. In the examples you will see the Wyse V90L and HP 57xx Platforms.

           a.       Hardware capacity to run the OS and application locally on device.  CPU 800mhz+, 256mb+

           b.      Verify it has a standard IDE or EIDE interface that we can connect a hard drive to or if the

                   thinclient vendor has a Flash option that gives you at least 4GB of space that will work also.

           c.       Make sure you have the XP drivers for the hardware platform or if streaming linux

                     have the linux hardware drivers.

           d.      I am going to be using a Wyse V90 and a HP 5730 but as long as your TC can meet the above

                   requirements you should be able create a image successfully.

List of Required items:

    -Laptop eide harddrive

    -Eide hdd ribbon cable

    -If using a 80 pin ide HHD you will most likely need a converter to 40 pin eide as seen here. I would use a 40 laptop drive if the TC has a 40pin IDE interface to avoid having to use a converter.                                                                

       -Small Phillips screw driver

       -External usb cd/dvd drive

       -PVS 4.5/5.0 sp2 server running

Note *Microsoft XPe can be used but since every xpe image is custom for each manufacture you are never sure what you are going to get.  Sometime you can just install the pvs client and run image builder and it works fine but if it is missing some core components you will be scratching your head wondering why things are not working.   

2.       Open up TC and identify IDE slot and remove eide flash card if one exists.

3. Connect EIDE hard drive  
       
 

4.       Connect the USB DVD/CD Drive to use to install OS

5.        Insert XP CD, boot from CD and install the OS, add hardware drivers for platform.

  You will need to get these from your TC vendor. If they have a xpe version of the hardware you should  be able to copy them over from the xpe image.

6.        Install PVS client software into the image

7.       Add MAC address and Hostname of TC into the pvs console 

     8.       Right Click on client and choose properties> Set client to boot from HDD  

9.       Right Click on Vdisk Pool >Create vDisk  for our VHD image

10.    Right Click on Client >Properties>Vdisk Tab > Add  the vdisk we just created in step 9

 11.   PXE or ISO boot thin client and run image builder to start creating image.

  12.   You now should have a xp vdisk for you thin client. You can set the Vdisk to standard mode which enables you to stream this one vdisk to thousands of thinclients.  So not much different from doing this with a PC or a Server but just make sure you have requirements in step 1 covered and you should be fine.   

Garr Reynolds, writer of one of the best books I have ever read on presentation design and speaking (Presentation Zen) is speaking at Citrix Synergy on the topic of simplicity and thinking differently about business and technology.

Register for Citrix Synergy now.

Well, my first blog on migration strategy provoked a few interesting reactions, which is good, because we did need to find out whether our proposal for a migration strategy was going to be acceptable. No-one wants to go to market with a product where the pain of upgrading outweighs the gain from the new features.

The messages that came back were:

• Network admins don't like adding OUs just to upgrade a product. Cloning an OU, with all its settings (GPOs), isn't a trivial operation. Find another way to co-exist with older versions.
• Upgrades without downtime are preferred for some scenarios. But we need to handle a "big bang" too.
• Don't force profiles for different OS types to be stored together on a single User Store.

So I'm going to outline an improved scheme, which allows us to do all of these things, and also run through a few typical migration scenarios.

The basic idea is to use AD groups to separate Profile management users into those who are allowed to use specific features, and those who are not. It's an optional feature in UPM v2 - if you don't set up a group, UPM v2 processes logons for all users.

When Profile Management v3 comes along, you'll need to configure a group for all your UPM v2 users - V2USERS - and another group for all your Profile Management v3 users - V3USERS. These groups are actually lists of groups, so you can configure more than one AD group to be part of V2USERS, and similarly for V3USERS.

(Note that V2USERS (and V3USERS) should be set up in larger deployments to identify those users licensed to use Profile Management.)

If you're not sure what I mean by V2USERS, here's the ADM template for UPM v2 in the Group Policy Management Editor:

First, here's the Big Bang Scenario. I assume that some downtime is acceptable, maybe a holiday weekend, but we will do most of the work prior to that time.

• Replace the ADM template with the new Profile Management v3 template. The template is designed to be compatible with UPM v2, so your UPM v2 machines continue to operate normally.
• Configure all of the Profile Management v3 features OFF. (This will be the default setting, anyway)
• start migrating all the machines from UPM v2 to Profile Management v3. Fit this in with your normal maintenance and update schedules, take as long as you like. Until you enable Profile Management v3 features, everything will operate at UPM v2 functional level.
• Optionally, set V3USERS to just include the members of a small pilot group. Wait for the Active Directory Group Policy changes to propagate throughout the network (e.g. over a weekend). You don't need to prevent access for any other users while this is happening. Back up the profiles of the pilot group. then let the pilot group test out UPM.
• Once you're happy with the pilot group results, ensure that you've backed up everybody's profiles, and...
• use the next scheduled maintenance window to add the remaining licensed users to V3USERS. Allow sufficient time for the AD changes to propagate, and let the users log on again.

Second, here's that scenario modified to work with the phased upgrade, where you can't move all your machines or your users to the new version. You could use this approach where you have several datacenters or geographically distributed users.

The steps to upgrade are now:

• Replace the ADM template with the new Profile Management v3 template. The template is designed to be compatible with UPM v2, so your UPM v2 machines continue to operate normally.
• Configure all of the Profile Management v3 features OFF. (This will be the default setting, anyway)
• upgrade a few machines to Profile Management v3. (Or install brand new machines with Profile Management v3.) Initially, V3USERS is set to contain an empty group, so nobody gets processed under "v3 rules".
• publish new apps (XA) and desktops (XA / XD) using the Profile Management v3 machines. These apps and desktops will be identical to the old ones, except for the names, which will identify them as for use by Profile Management v3 users
• When your selected users log on (e.g. using Web Interface), they now choose the new applications (use Web Interface to enforce this, based on user name or group menbership). Consequently, their sessions run wholly on the Profile Management v3 machines.  At the moment, they're still using UPM v2 rules.
• ensure that you've backed up everybody's profiles, and...
• move the users out of V2USERS and into V3USERS. Allow time for the group changes to propagate to the Profile Management v3 machines. Next time they log on, they'll be processed using v3 rules.
• repeat with the next batch of machines. Migrate the next group of users, as above.

Eventually all your users and machines will be migrated.  It's more work, because you have to keep updating V3USERS and maintain two sets of applications and desktops (but you can automate that because you can export app definitions from XenApp).  The upside is that you can take your time over the upgrade.

(Remind me - Why do I have to go through all this palaver to migrate?  See my previous blog post[\~billp:/2009/03/20/Long term planning for Profile Management], but basically profiles for different Profile Management versions don't mix.  If user Ginger uses one machine with Profile Management v3 to handle his profiles, then all the machines he uses must use that version, else profiles will get corrupted.)

We had a question on the support forums about modifying the database used for Workflow Studio, which defaults to 'WFDB'. All the SQL scripts are provided for you in the Workflow Studio install, and we anticipated our customers wanting to have multiple databases on a single server or just changing the name from the default 'WFDB' name. In fact, if the SQL Admin wants more control they can customize as much as needed.

I wrote up an article to cover the process:
http://community.citrix.com/display/wf/Customizing+Your+Workflow+Studio+Database

If anyone tries this and runs into problems let me know

Canonical URLs

The Citrix NetScaler can be placed in front of a webserver farm that is running Apache. The same re-write rules that run on Apache, can be implemented on the Citrix NetScaler. On some Apache web servers there is more than one URL for a resource. Usually there are canonical URLs (which should be used and distributed as a best practive) and those which are just shortcuts, internal ones, etc. Independent of which URL was supplied with the request, the user should only see the canonical one URL in the response.

Example : converting URL /~user to /u/user.

Apache rewrite:

RewriteRule   ^/~([^/]+)/?(.*)    /u/$1/$2[R]

AppExpert rewrite:

Add responder action act1 redirect  '"/u/"+HTTP.REQ.URL.AFTER_STR("/~")' -bypassSafetyCheck yes
Add responder policy pol1 'HTTP.REQ.URL.STARTSWITH("/~") && HTTP.REQ.URL.LENGTH.GT(2)' act1    
Bind responder global pol1 100

Tap into the power of AppExpert!

Canonical Hostnames

The Citrix NetScaler can be placed in front of a webserver farm that is running Apache. The same re-write rules that run on Apache, can be implemented on the Citrix NetScaler.

The goal of the following rule is to force the use of a particular hostname, in preference to other hostnames which may be used to reach the same site. For example, if you wish to force the use of www.example.com instead of example.com, you might use a variant of the following rules.

Example : changing example.com to www.example.com

Apache rewrite:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}   !^www.example.com 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}   !^$
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^80$
RewriteRule ^/(.*)         http://www.example.com:%{SERVER_PORT}/$1 [L,R]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}   !^www.example.com 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}   !^$
RewriteRule ^/(.*)         http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R]

AppExpert rewrite:

add responder action act1 redirect '"http://www.example.com:"+CLIENT.TCP.DSTPORT+HTTP.REQ.URL' -bypassSafetyCheck yes
add responder policy pol1 '!HTTP.REQ.HOSTNAME.CONTAINS("www.example.com")&&!HTTP.REQ.HOSTNAME.EQ("")&&!HTTP.REQ.HOSTNAME.PORT.EQ(80)&&HTTP.REQ.HOSTNAME.CONTAINS("example.com")' act1
bind responder global pol1 100 END

add responder action act1 redirect '"http://www.example.com"+HTTP.REQ.URL' -bypassSafetyCheck yes
add responder policy pol1  '!HTTP.REQ.HOSTNAME.CONTAINS("www.example.com")&&!HTTP.REQ.HOSTNAME.EQ("")&&HTTP.REQ.HOSTNAME.PORT.EQ(80)&&HTTP.REQ.HOSTNAME.CONTAINS("example.com")' act1
bind responder global  pol1 100 END

Tap into the power of AppExpert!

最近になってやっとではありますが「The Citrix Blog」で日本語のブログ記事が書けるようになりました。ということで、ぼちぼちっとではありますが、新製品や新機能にフォーカスして、多少技術的な観点からみた投稿記事を書いていきたいと思います。

さて、今回は第一弾として、2009年1月にリリースされました「Profile management」について、全3回の投稿により、既存のユーザープロファイル管理技術との比較を含め、見ていきたいと思います。

その壱.    ユーザープロファイルの管理とその課題

その弐.    Profile management 製品概要

その参.    Profile management トラブルシューティング概要

Profile management とは

Profile management とは、ユーザープロファイルを高い信頼性と性能で管理することが可能な、ユーザープロファイル管理を最適化するソリューションです。この Profile management は単独製品としてのリリースではなく、Citrix XenApp (ENT/PLT)、および Citrix XenDesktop (ADV/ENT/PLT) を使用するユーザーに対する一機能として提供されます。つまり、Citrix XenApp (ENT/PLT)、Citrix XenDesktop (ADV/ENT/PLT) に対する有効な Subscription Advantage をもつユーザーは「My Citrix」サイトからダウンロードして利用することができます。

さて、この製品ですが、みなさまもご存じのように、ドイツの「Sepago GmbH」から2008年5月にユーザープロファイル管理の技術を買収することで、Citrix の製品ラインナップに加わったものになります。Citrix での製品履歴としては、2008年5月に Citrix User Profile Manager 1.0 を Technology Preview 版としてリリース、2009年1月に Profile management (Citrix User Profile Manager 2.0) を製品版としてリリースしています。

それでは、まずは既存のユーザープロファイル管理とその課題から見ていきたいと思います。

How many of you have worked with or started designing a XenDesktop solution?  Chances are you have tons of questions about the best way to design the environment for growth, scalability and stability.  I know this because I, like so many others, are asked the same questions.  For example

• Should I install or stream applications into the virtual desktop?
• Where should the Provisioning Services write cache go?
• How should I design my Web Interface implementation to provide seamless integration without causing confusion for my users?
• How do I provide better availability to the TFTP server used to deliver the Provisioning Services bootstrap file?

Thomas Berger and I started gathering these questions to build the XenDesktop Design Handbook.  The current release of the Handbook is focused on Operating System, Application and Virtual Desktop delivery design decisions, but this is only a start. Over the coming months, we will continue expanding into different design decision areas commonly discussed in a XenDesktop solution including: virtualization infrastructure and implementation practices. We will discuss the Citrix Consulting Best Practices about these topics and encourage you to submit your related questions .  Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you 

Daniel - Sr. Architect

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/djfeller
Follow me in the Blogs: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/danielf

XenServerでの仮想マシンのコピーを行う時どのようにしていますでしょうか？通常はXenCenterから仮想マシンのエキスポート、インポートを使っている人が多いかとおもいます。もし仮想マシンのディスクをVHDというファイル形式で作成されている場合、VHDのファイルをコピーすることも可能です。その際に注意するべき点を踏まえて、手順を書いてみましたので参考になればと思います。VHD形式で仮想ディスクを作成する場合はSRをNFSにするか、Local SRをextで作成しなおす必要があります。

xvaファイルでの操作

• エキスポート
  シャットダウンしている仮想マシンを右クリックして、Export as Backupを選択して、エキスポートを指定します
• インポート
  XenCenterで、XenServerを選択して、右クリックして、Import VMを選択して、インポートしたい仮想マシンを選択します
  
  

VHDファイルのコピー(XenServer -> XenServer)

仮想マシンのディスクをVHDファイルで持たせるにはSRをあらかじめNFSで設定しておく必要があります また、Local SRであればextで再作成する必要があります。詳しくはこちらを参照ください。

1. コピー元の仮想マシンのStorageタブの仮想ディスクのプロパティでNameとDescriptioinを設定し
   ておきます
2. コピー元のVHDファイルを探します
   

   [root@xs503 ~]# xe vm-disk-list vm=ddc21 <--ddc21という名前の仮想マシンの仮想ディスク（VDI)をリストします
   Disk 0 VBD:
   uuid ( RO)             : b65be04e-e7cc-f71d-aa67-a5db057adaf8
       vm-name-label ( RO): ddc21
          userdevice ( RW): 0
   
   
   Disk 0 VDI:
   uuid ( RO)             : ef707d10-2da7-4149-b5ad-c5d12e23fe9c　<-- このUUIDが仮想ディスク名になります。
          name-label ( RW): ddc
       sr-name-label ( RO): Local File SR
        virtual-size ( RO): 8589934592
   
   
   [root@xs503 ~]# xe sr-list type=ext  <-- ext形式のストレージをリストします。
   uuid ( RO)                : d8e9523d-23be-6203-0550-76d6df40f029  <-- このUUIDがext形式のストレージとなります。
             name-label ( RW): Local File SR
       name-description ( RW):
                   host ( RO): xs503
                   type ( RO): ext
           content-type ( RO): local SR
   
   [root@xs503 ~]# ls -lah /var/run/sr-mount/d8e9523d-23be-6203-0550-76d6df40f029/ef707d10-2da7-4149-b5ad-c5d12e23fe9c.vhd  <-- 仮想ディスクのファイルサイズや更新日を確認します。
   -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4.1G Apr  7 20:24 /var/run/sr-mount/d8e9523d-23be-6203-0550-76d6df40f029/ef707d10-2da7-4149-b5ad-c5d12e23fe9c.vhd

   
   
3. コピー先のXenServerのSRにリンクを設定します。あとでコマンドを打ちやすいように。
   

   [root@xs501 ~]# xe sr-list type=ext  <-- ext形式のストレージをリストします。
   uuid ( RO)                : b3cbfe22-c84f-1bc9-68a5-711eb93f14a6  <-- このUUIDがext形式のストレージとなります。
             name-label ( RW): Local File SR
       name-description ( RW):
                   host ( RO): xs501
                   type ( RO): ext
           content-type ( RO): Local SR
   
   [root@xs501 ~]# cd /var/run/sr-mount/
   [root@xs501 sr-mount]# ln -s b3cbfe22-c84f-1bc9-68a5-711eb93f14a6/ link  <-- リンクを設定します。
   [root@xs501 sr-mount]# ls link/
   830e58d1-709c-42bb-b9fd-310400d2b4a0.vhd
   c9ead5de-ff80-4f24-a938-ec06db78597a.vhd
   ca3ffca6-3513-4d2f-a2ae-4e1478af5014.vhd

   
   
4. コピー元のXenServerから、VHDファイルをコピー先のXenServer(192.168.1.241)にコピーします
   

   [root@xs503 d8e9523d-23be-6203-0550-76d6df40f029]# scp ef707d10-2da7-4149-b5ad-c5d12e23fe9c.vhd 192.168.1.241:/var/run/sr-mount/link/ <--scpでXenServerからXenServerにコピーします。
   root@192.168.1.241's password:
   ef707d10-2da7-4149-b5ad-c5d12e23fe9c.vhd                                       100% 4126MB  21.3MB/s   03:14
   [root@xs503 d8e9523d-23be-6203-0550-76d6df40f029]#

   
   
5. コピー先のXenServerで、コピーしたVHDファイルをSRに認識させます。
   

   [root@xs501 ~]# xe sr-scan uuid=b3cbfe22-c84f-1bc9-68a5-711eb93f14a6  <-- コピー先のXenServerのSRでは新しくコピーしてきた仮想ディスクの認識していないので、認識させます。
   [root@xs501 ~]# xe sr-param-list uuid=b3cbfe22-c84f-1bc9-68a5-711eb93f14a6 <-- 認識されたか確認します。VDIsにコピーしてきた仮想ディスクのUUIDがあればOK
   uuid ( RO)                    : b3cbfe22-c84f-1bc9-68a5-711eb93f14a6
                 name-label ( RW): Local File SR
           name-description ( RW):
                       host ( RO): xs501
         allowed-operations (SRO): forget; VDI.create; VDI.snapshot; plug; destroy; VDI.destroy; scan; VDI.clone; unplug
         current-operations (SRO):
                       VDIs (SRO): ef707d10-2da7-4149-b5ad-c5d12e23fe9c
                       PBDs (SRO): 60e3a493-2da2-9fbb-77ff-9d68a7cede2f
         virtual-allocation ( RO): 8606732288
       physical-utilisation ( RO): 29132607488
              physical-size ( RO): 484164509696
                       type ( RO): ext
               content-type ( RO): Local SR
                     shared ( RW): false
               other-config (MRW):
                  sm-config (MRO): devserial: scsi-SATA_ST3500630NS_5QG2VTXB
                      blobs ( RO):

   
   
6. コピー先のXenServerで、XenCenterで新規に仮想マシンを作成します（Start VM automaticallyはチェックオフしておきます）
7. コピー先のXenServerのStorageタブで、先ほど作成した仮想マシンからディスクを削除します
8. コピー先のXenServerで、先ほどコピーしたVHDをアタッチします。アタッチするときに、Noneと出てきますのでファイルサイズで判断してアタッチします。複数のVHDファイルを同時にコピーすると、どのVHDファイルがどの仮想ディスクか分からなくなる場合があるので１つづつコピーしてアタッチしていったほうがいいかと思います。
9. 仮想マシンのStorageタブの仮想ディスクのプロパティで、後で分かりやすいようにNameとDescriptioinを設定しておきます
   
   

VHDファイルのコピー(Windowsマシン -> XenServer)

• WinSCPで、scpか/sftpモードで転送します
  scpでログインすると、4G以上のファイルをリストできないようです
  sftpコマンドでログインして、ファイルを転送すると、scpで転送するより遅いようです
  但し、WinCSP 4.2.1で若干ましになっているようです。4.1.xはかなり遅いです

• CygWinでscpコマンド/sftpコマンドを使用する
  まだ試してないですが、XenServer -> XenServerと同じくらいのスピードはでると思われます。

VHDをコピー後、仮想マシンを作成して、コピーしたVHDファイルをアタッチする必要があります。詳細はVHDファイルのコピー(XenServer -> XenServer)を参照してください

VHD形式で仮想ディスクのバックアップを持つと、xvaのエキスポート、インポートよりはるかにコピーにかかる時間がすくないですし、仮想ディスクを作成するときに割り当てたサイズのファイルを作らず、動的にサイズを増やしていきますので、仮想マシンの移動が楽になります。ただ、仮想マシンからディスクI/Oパーフォーマンスとしては、ボリューム単位で仮想ディスクを割り当てるほうがよいといわれています。

ユーザープロファイル管理

Profile management によるユーザープロファイル管理の第一回目として、まずは既存のユーザープロファイル管理について、少し復習していきましょう。

ユーザープロファイル

ユーザープロファイルとは、ユーザーごとのデスクトップ設定をローカルコンピュータ、もしくはリモートコンピュータに保存して、再利用する機能です。ユーザープロファイルは、ユーザーが初めてコンピュータにログオンした際に、ユーザーごとに作成され、ログオフ時にそのユーザーのデスクトップ設定が保存されます。保存されたデスクトップ設定は、そのユーザーの次回ログオン時に復元され、再利用されます。

ユーザープロファイルの内容

ユーザープロファイルはユーザーデータとアプリケーションデータを含むフォルダ階層(ユーザーフォルダの名前空間)とレジストリハイブから構成されています。ユーザープロファイルの内容などに関する詳細についてはマイクロソフト社による「移動ユーザーデータ管理の展開ガイド」をご参照頂ければと思いますが、「アドレス帳」や「ドキュメント」などがユーザーデータ、「AppData」などがアプリケーションデータのフォルダ階層となります。また、レジストリハイブは「NTUSER.DAT」として保存され、ユーザーセッション時には「HKEY_CURRENT_USER」として展開されます。また、ユーザープロファイルの内容は、Windows Vista、Windows Server 2008以前と以後では、フォルダ構造が異なり、Windows Vista、Windows Server 2008でのユーザープロファイルを「バージョン2プロファイル」、それ以前のWindows 2000、Windows XP、Windows Server 2003でのユーザープロファイルを「バージョン1プロファイル」とここでは区別して説明します。

[参考] 移動ユーザーデータ管理の展開ガイド(http://www.microsoft.com/japan/technet/windowsvista/library/fb3681b2-da39-4944-93ad-dd3b6e8ca4dc.mspx)

ユーザープロファイルの種類

ユーザープロファイルにもいくつか種類があります。ここでは基本となる4つのユーザープロファイルと2つの特別なユーザープロファイルについて見ていきます。

ローカルユーザープロファイル: ユーザーが最初にコンピュータにログオンした際に、デフォルトのローカルユーザープロファイルから作成され、そのコンピュータのローカルハードディスクに保存されるプロファイルです。ローカルユーザープロファイルに対する変更内容は、変更を行ったコンピュータにのみ反映されます。

ローカルユーザープロファイルの保存先

• Windows 2000
• Windows XP
• Windows Server 2003

• Windows Vista
• Windows Server 2008

移動ユーザープロファイル: 管理者により作成され、ユーザーのログオン時にネットワーク上の任意のファイルシェアからロードされ、ユーザーのログオフ時にネットワーク上の任意のファイルシェアに保存されるプロファイルです。移動ユーザープロファイルに対する変更内容は、ユーザーセッション中は、ユーザーがログオンしたコンピュータ上にキャッシュされ、ユーザーのログオフ時にネットワーク上のファイルシェア上に保存されているユーザープロファイルに反映されます。移動ユーザープロファイルでは、ユーザーのログオフ時に、フォルダ階層内に含まれる各ファイル・フォルダの更新日時をもとに、変更があったファイル・フォルダ単位で更新が行われます。また、レジストリに対する更新については、レジストリハイブ全体として更新されます。このレジストリハイブ全体として更新するというところが、後述する移動ユーザープロファイルに対するProfile managementを利用する利点となる部分ですので覚えておきましょう。

固定ユーザープロファイル: 個々のユーザー、ユーザーグループ全体に特定の設定を指定するために使用することが可能な移動ユーザープロファイルです。固定ユーザープロファイルの動作と移動ユーザープロファイルの動作の違いは、ユーザーがログオンしたコンピュータ上にキャッシュされたユーザーセッションでの変更内容が、ユーザーのログオフ時に破棄されることです。

一時ユーザープロファイル: 移動ユーザープロファイル利用時など、何らかのエラーにより、ユーザープロファイルを読み込めない場合に作成される一時的なユーザープロファイルです。一時ユーザープロファイルもユーザーのログオフ時には、ユーザーがログオンしたコンピュータ上にキャッシュされたユーザーセッションでの変更内容は破棄されます。

All Users: 全ユーザープロファイルで使用される共通のユーザーデータを含む特別なユーザープロファイルです。

Default User: 新規にユーザープロファイルが作成される際のデフォルトとなるユーザープロファイルです。

ユーザープロファイル管理での課題

既存のユーザープロファイル管理を行う上で、みなさまもご存じのように、いくつかの課題があります。ここではユーザープロファイル管理での代表的な課題をいくつか取り上げ、それらの課題について見ていきたいと思います。

最後の書き込みが優先される (Last Writer Wins Problem): 移動ユーザープロファイルでは、ユーザーセッションの終了時に、ファイルシェア上に保存されたユーザープロファイル (フォルダ、ファイル、レジストリハイブ) に対して、ユーザーセッションでの変更内容を更新することは先に説明した通りですが、同一のユーザープロファイルを使用した状況で、複数のセッションへ接続した場合にはどうなるでしょうか?　この問題を簡易に説明するため、任意のユーザーが1つのコンピュータから別サイロで構成される2つのCitrix XenAppセッション(ターミナルサービスセッション)に接続している状況を仮定します。1つ目のセッションをユーザーが終了した際にそのセッションでのユーザープロファイルに対する変更内容に基づき、ファイルシェア上のユーザープロファイルは更新されます。次に、2つ目のセッションをユーザーが終了した際にも同様にそのセッションでのユーザープロファイルの変更内容に基づき、ファイルシェア上のユーザープロファイルは更新されます。通常、異なるアプリケーションを利用している場合は、ユーザープロファイルの更新により変更されるファイル、フォルダの重複は、あまり発生しないものと想定されます。そのため、2つのセッションを別々に閉じた際も、あまり問題は発生しないものと考えられます。しかしながら、レジストリはどうでしょう。レジストリもファイル、フォルダの更新と同様、異なるアプリケーションを利用している場合は、変更されるレジストリキーの重複は、あまり発生しないものと想定されますが、移動ユーザープロファイルではレジストリハイブ全体として更新されてしまうため、先に終了したセッションでのレジストリの変更内容が後続のユーザーセッションの終了により、レジストリハイブごと上書きされてしまうといった現象が発生します。これがユーザープロファイル管理での課題の一つである、最後の書き込みが優先される問題 (Last Writer Wins Problem) です。

ユーザープロファイルの肥大化とログオン・ログオフ時間への影響: ユーザープロファイルの肥大化もユーザープロファイル管理での課題の一つです。ユーザーがユーザーセッション中でユーザープロファイル内に任意のファイルを保存するような場合や任意のアプリケーションがユーザープロファイル内に一時ファイルを作るなどによりユーザープロファイルは肥大化していきます。当然ですがユーザープロファイルの肥大化により、ユーザープロファイルのデータ転送量も増大して、それにともない、ユーザーのログオン・ログオフ時間へも影響がでます。また、Citrix XenApp (ターミナルサービス) 環境では、「一時記憶された移動プロファイルのコピーを削除する」グループポリシー設定の適用を行う場合が多く、ユーザーのログオン時に、ファイルサーバーからユーザープロファイル全体のコピーが都度発生することにより、ユーザープロファイルの肥大化時の、ログオン・ログオフ時間への影響も問題となります。

ユーザープロファイルの不整合: ユーザープロファイルの不整合もユーザープロファイル管理での課題の一つです。例えば、ネットワーク上でのユーザープロファイルデータの転送エラーや不正な処理を行うアプリケーションの影響により、ユーザープロファイルに不整合が発生する場合があります。最近では、このような例であげた状態があまり発生しないように思われがちですが、実際問題として、ユーザープロファイルの不整合が発生するといった状況は、未だ比較的多く発生しているのではといった所感があります。

モバイルユーザーの管理: モバイルコンピュータに対するユーザープロファイルの管理、バックアップもユーザープロファイル管理での課題の一つです。モバイルコンピュータの利用が増加していますが、一元的に、モバイルコンピュータのユーザープロファイル管理をすることはなかなか難しいのが現状です。

異種プラットフォーム間での相互運用性: 異種プラットフォーム間でのユーザープロファイルの相互運用性もユーザープロファイル管理での課題の一つです。バージョン1プロファイルとバージョン2プロファイルではフォルダ階層が異なるため、同一のユーザープロファイルを使用した場合にはプラットフォーム固有の設定による影響が出てきます。異種プラットフォーム間でのユーザープロファイルの相互運用性に関する詳細については、マイクロソフト社による「移動ユーザーデータ管理の展開ガイド」をご参照頂ければと思いますが、プラットフォーム固有の設定による影響の一例として、Windows XP上のデスクトップ上に作成されたショートカットがWindows Vistaへログオンした場合に無効となっているといった状況が発生するなどの事象の発生が予想されます。

[参考] 移動ユーザーデータ管理の展開ガイド(http://www.microsoft.com/japan/technet/windowsvista/library/fb3681b2-da39-4944-93ad-dd3b6e8ca4dc.mspx)

ユーザープロファイルのアンロード: ユーザーのログオフ時に、ユーザープロファイルのアンロード処理に関する問題が発生する場合があり、ユーザープロファイル管理での課題の一つとなっています。例えば、ユーザーセッション中で任意のプロセスが、ある任意のファイルやレジストリに対するハンドルをリリースしないことにより、ユーザープロファイルのアンロード処理に失敗して、ユーザーセッションの終了処理の途中で止まった状態になってしまうなどの状況が発生します。

不正な処理を行うアプリケーションによる影響: ユーザー固有の構成データなどをユーザープロファイルの外部に保存するアプリケーションの設計により問題が発生する場合があります。

ユーザープロファイル管理に対する施策

上述したように既存のユーザープロファイル管理を行う上でいくつかの課題があります。ここではこれらの課題に対する代表的な施策についていくつか見ていきたいと思います。

複数のユーザープロファイルの利用: 言語環境やバージョンの異なる複数プラットフォームへの接続や複数の異なるサイロへの接続の際に、複数のユーザープロファイルを利用する方法があります。これにより、異種プラットフォーム間での相互運用性について、対処することは可能となりますが、当然、個々のユーザーが複数のユーザープロファイルを利用することにより、管理性が煩雑になるといった問題が発生します。

フォルダリダイレクションの利用、特定フォルダの除外: ユーザープロファイル内の特定のフォルダの保存場所を任意の場所 (ローカルコンピュータ、ネットワーク上のファイルシェア) にリダイレクトすることで、これら特定のフォルダをユーザープロファイルと分離します。また、「特定のディレクトリを移動プロファイルから除外する」グループポリシー設定の適用により、移動ユーザープロファイルに含まれている特定のフォルダがファイルシェアにコピーされないように設定する方法などがあります。

ユーザープロファイルのサイズの制限: ユーザープロファイルの肥大化を防ぐ目的のため「プロファイルのサイズを制限する」グループポリシーの設定により個々のユーザーのプロファイルサイズの上限とユーザープロファイルサイズが上限に達した場合のシステムの応答を設定することができます。

User Profile Service: ユーザーのログオフ時にレジストリハイブがロードされたままになっているユーザーを監視、レジストリハイブを開いたアプリケーションを特定して、そのレジストリハイブに対するハンドルを強制的に開放します。Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008ではWindowsサービスとしてこのサービスが動作しています。また、Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows XPでは「User Profile Hive Cleanup Service」のインストールにより利用が可能となります。

グループポリシーによる制御: ユーザープロファイルの管理に関するグループポリシーの適用により、柔軟にユーザープロファイルの管理を行うことが可能です。

ユーザープロファイルの再作成: ユーザープロファイルに関する問題解決にユーザープロファイルの再作成を利用している場合もあります。

それでは次回は、Profile management を利用するとで、これらユーザープロファイル管理での課題に対して、どう対応することが可能かも含めて見ていきたいと思います。

Nelson Esteves has moved through the ranks as part of the Citrix Technical Support team. He started out as a level one support engineer on the XenApp team, and now is an Escalation Engineer for the NetScaler and Advanced Access Gateway (AAG) support team. Nelson will be presenting the following sessions at Citrix TechEdge during Citrix Summit and Citrix Synergy 2009: End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center, with a focus on Citrix Access Gateway, Enterprise Edition (AGEE), and then his in-depth session will cover Integrating and troubleshooting Citrix Access Gateway, Enterprise Edition.
Q. How has AGEE improved from a support perspective over the past year?

Nelson: AGEE has evolved to a bigger and better product. With the 9.0 release we are able to meet most of users demands such as full Microsoft SharePoint Integration as well as Branch Repeater acceleration. From a support perspective, the new filtering capabilities of network tracing on the appliance is great not to mention the ability for more granular control such as choosing packet type and size.

Q. What AGEE and Citrix Delivery Center tips will attendees learn at your session this year?

Nelson: During the breakout session, attendees will learn with great detail how pre and post-authentication scans work and how to configure them properly. They'll also learn how AGEE integrates with XenApp via Web Interface. I'll show what's involved on the login process to Web Interface and how Smart Access works in the background. In addition to all that they'll learn how to successfully decrypt a network trace and how to troubleshooting SSL errors when launching a published application via a pre-recorded troubleshooting video. The CDC presentation will explain how AGEE integrates with XenDesktop as well as Web Interface and NetScaler.

Q. What new tools or techniques are you using to troubleshoot NetScaler?

Nelson: The new filtering system when taking network traces was a great addition, and it made troubleshooting a lot faster since we can now select what we want to filter instead of having to handle very large network trace files.

Q. What types of cases have you worked on this past year? Why?

Nelson: I have handled cases related to VoIP issues via the VPN, SSL Errors when launching applications, Microsoft SharePoint integration issues, and several others. Most of the VoIP issues had to do with the software being used since it didn't have an option for VPN configuration. We need to make sure the call manager server receives the VPN user Intranet IP and not its local IP. SSL Errors were due to clients either not having the proper certificates installed or misconfiguration on the AGEE or Web Interface (missing STA, wrong STA URL, missing STA port, etc.). SharePoint integration has been challenging since the release of 9.0, but now we have corrected all the errors we have encountered.

About Nelson Esteves
Nelson has been with Citrix Technical Support for a little over three years. He started as level one support engineer working on core products such as XenApp, Password Manager, Installation Manager and Resource Manager. He was then transferred to the Web Security team working with Web Interface and Access Gateway. One year later he was promoted to the frontline NetScaler support team, and about a year after that he became an Escalation Engineer supporting NetScaler, Application Firewall and AGEE. He holds certifications in A+, Net+, MCP, CCNA and CCA for Citrix NetScaler 8 Platinum Edition. He's also pretty quick on his feet, as an amateur soccer player, and has played in local tournaments and traveled with the Florida select team.Do you have an AGEE troubleshooting area that you would like Nelson to focus on during his presentation? Leave a comment.

Check out more posts in the Citrix TechEdge 2009 series.

** Please note that this blog post assumes that you have already reviewed and utilized the "Using VMWare Infrastructure 3 with Dynamic Desktop Controller" found at http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116928 **

...

Recently, while at a customer during a XenDesktop 3.0 configuration we found that communication to VirtualCenter's SDK via https would not complete it's handshake.  Further research found that the Self Signed Certificate that the VIC/VC uses is created at the time of the Virtual Center install.  During the VirtualCenter install, the self signed certificate is created for a term of 3 years.  In this case, the certificate for this VirtualCenter had expired on 3/30/2009.  If you are attempting to connect with the XenDesktop Setup Wizard, or your XenDesktop DDC is attempting to communicate with VC and you receive a "SSL Handshake Failed" please check your certificate.

The certificate can be found at c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMWare\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL.  You will find three files in this directory, rui.crt, rui.key, rui.pfx.  Double click on rui.crt to establish whether the certificate had indeed expired.  The VMWare document on how to resolve this issue can be found at: 

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi_vcserver_certificates.pdf

The Readers Digest Condensed version is to run a Repair on your VirtualCenter which will create a new self signed certificate for three years.  You should now be able to communicate into the VirtualCenter with XenDesktop as need be.

...

Special thanks should goto Stephen Odanga of FCB for assisting me with finding this information.

Securing Web Applications with an Application Firewall

I have been working with Application Firewalls for quite a few years - many times to protect web applications published in languages and character sets that I didn't understand. Frequently, I have seen these Application Firewall deployment projects get bogged down in pursuit of the perfect policy set.

I have also seen many situations in which this process and application changes actually break these applications.

The NetScaler Application Firewall deployment can also be subject to these issues since the appliance provides extensive application firewall features. Even with the learning capabilities, creating the ideal set of security policies for any application can be a trial and error process that can take significant time.

In this blog, I would like to share an implementation methodology that shortens the deployment, and helps avoid breaking the applications to be protected. Experience has shown that approaching the configuration of the Application Firewall in stages is the key to timely success. This methodology is effective for all types of applications and their needs.

To alleviate the time and risk of varying degrees of policy complexity, break the task into stages. That is, separate the policy configuration into groups of ascending risk.  While some may raise the point that a simplified protection policy set is not complete, it must be remembered that protection stages will build upon each other, and will be better than allowing unfiltered access while all policies are in learning or logging/warning mode.

The benefit of staging is that a basic set of policies are made operational.  Then, the following stages will consist of conducting a repeatable process of "policy tightening" procedures as required by the application.

Stage I

When configuring the NetScaler Application firewall policies, start with some of the basic protections.  Activating the simple, generic policies almost never produce false positives.  These typically include:

• Protect against Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attacks
• Protect against SQL Injection attacks
• Protect against Buffer Overflow attacks
• Prevent Credit Card Leakage
• Prevent access to system files
• Alter the contents of the server headers

Activating these policies will typically not break applications.  As such, a small user community - with etc/hosts overrides - can be used to validate the configuration over a fairly brief validation period.

More importantly, this is a great start. These policies create security effectiveness that can typically be rated as a level seven on scale of zero though nine (you can never get to a perfect "10" in security).

Stage II

The next stage will include applying policies that require more application validation to determine the application specific relaxation adjustments ("policy overrides").

But first, don't forget to ask yourself if this application actually requires tightened policies.

If so, Stage II protections should be sequenced - Cookie Tampering prevention should be blocked first. Then, move on to blocking tampering with the values of parameter and/or hidden form fields.

Start with cookie poisoning prevention ("Cookie Consistency"). It will be likely require the least number of relaxations. This will build on the Stage I successes most rapidly.

To do this, use the learning process to identify the cookies that are legitimately altered between the response and request process. Minimally, relaxations will be required for cookies that are set and modified by third party monitoring services. Again, because of the staging, this learning can happen while the basic policies are in place and actively applying their protection mechanisms.

If further tightening is required, focus on creating policies that prevent users from tampering with the values of parameter and hidden form fields. This is achieved by activating "Field Consistency" learning in the NetScaler application firewall. Depending on the architecture of the application or a frequent use of client side scripting, these policies carry a higher risk of blocking legitimate requests. These policies thus require a more extensive learning period and associated relaxation overrides.

It should also be noted that these Stage II policies and their relaxations do have a tendency to be susceptible to producing false positives as applications change, and should be re-evaluated in conjunction with major application changes.

Stage III and Beyond

If the application is contains super sensitive information, and undergoes frequent changes, further security configuration may be required.

Stage III typically involves enforcing field formats and enforcing user navigation paths. Adding restrictions to field input types, such as date formats, and more, will require further time for learning these application attributes. Be aware that these policies will also be more likely to be sensitive to application changes.

Enabling the "Start URL" facility allows users to access only the specifically stated URL types. Due to the flexibility inherent in application architectures, however, these restrictions may require modification to include additional request types present in a particular application.

Lastly, carefully consider activating "URL Closure" to control the flow of access by users. Enforcement of this policy set disallows users from navigating to locations not previously offered by an application response. These policies may require significant application validation if client side scripts modify URLs, or if FLASH objects contain links.

The above policies tend to bend the needle towards the nine level and will be more likely to cause false positives during policy refinement or when the application changes. Leaving these to Stage III, however, allows continued protection afforded by the policies of Level I and Level II during the refinement, however.

Summary

Personally, when I plan my application firewall deployments, I always attack the assignment in the phases outlined above. I focus on the quick return policies first. Then I take time to consider if the sensitivities of the specific application even warrant the extra effort of going all the way to Stage III. This last question can produce some interesting answers that pit my application security ideals against the practicalities driven by the depth of my current to-do list.

And then, of course, this staged approach may be completely ignored in situations in which a specific application just suffered from an attack through a specific Level III vulnerability. Such situations may warrant overriding the staged approach and focusing on addressing the impacted vulnerability immediately.

Also, don't forget to sign on to MyCitrix and download the Application Hacking Kit and actually try some of the most common application attacks on the BadStore application!

As we continue to discuss Provisioning Services best practices for XenApp, I want to talk about a question I hear a lot, especially when people see the value of Provisioning Services and XenApp Application streaming "Should I pre-deploy my streamed applications into the Provisioning Services vDisk?"  If Provisioning Services wasn't in the picture, I would say let the streaming infrastructure manage the application streaming delivery, but Provisioning Services must be taken into account because the act of application streaming has a direct impact on the provisioned server. 

The streamed application is a change to the base vDisk image. These changes are stored within the write cache for each provisioned XenApp server.  Depending on the size of the application, the simple process of delivering an application on top of a Provisioning Services' streamed XenApp server can make the write cache grow by many gigabytes as shown in the following diagram:

For example, if an application has a new patch or a new file update, simply updating the application profile will be adequate.  When a user tries to start the application on a provisioned XenApp server, most of the application cache is correct except for a file or two.  Those two items will be updated from the application hub, and will only slightly increase the size of the write cache. However, if a large update to an application is performed, like adding a service pack to Microsoft Office, then it would be advantageous to refresh the application cache on the vDisk because these updates impact a large percentage of the files in the cache. When the application is executed, all of the updated files will be streamed down and placed in the write cache.

As always, stay tuned for more best practices regarding Provisioning Services and XenApp.  

• vDisk Type
• vDisk Cache
• Active Directory
• Application Integration
• Application Streaming Cache
• System-level settings: Page file, drive remapping and multiple drives
• Image Management
• Local Database Storage (event viewer, EdgeSight, AntiVirus updates)
• Plus more if we get some good ideas on other areas of focus.

Daniel - Sr. Architect
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/djfeller
Follow me in the Blogs: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/danielf

Welcome to Desktop 2020!   This is a blog to discuss where the desktop is going over the next 3-5 years.  Whether you are a tree-huggin' Mac-head, a Gates groupie, or a "just give me a Terminal Window" Linux lover, this is your place to pontificate, elucidate, or proselytize (or just read and shake your head in disbelief). 

Seeing as this is a Citrix blog, it's going to be no surprise that I will be taking the DaaS/SaaS position but that still leaves a lot of latitude for user experience/OS/TCO discussions. Well, the discussion has to start somewhere so here's where I'm coming from...

I gotta start from my own experience, that being with my Lenovo laptop. You know the old Amex tagline "Don't leave home without it"?  Well that's me with my ultraportable.  It's light enough to come with me everywhere; I can type on it in coach and it has enough guts to run all my apps.  Here's the thing about it though:  I actually had zero choice in laptops when I joined Citrix; it was this PC or nothing.  I just got lucky this time around.  I used to worry that if the screen started getting pixel cancer, I would end up with the boat anchor discarded by my VP when he got his MacBook Air (wait for a later post on "Laptop Bling").  Salvation has come in the form of a BYOPC program that Citrix announced last year. This means that, if my personal (oops I meant corporate asset) laptop dies, I can go buy something similar and get reimbursed. I won't be allowed go to IT for hardware support but, frankly, I have never done that anyway.  So, making the big assumption that the program doesn't get turfed by the Bush-economy, I am good to go. I think that this is a growing trend.  Why put a bunch of expensive, super-depreciating assets on the company books if you don't have to? 

What will make BYOPC work properly for those who are not keen on re-imaging hard drives?  You need to deliver a centralized corporate desktop to the employee-owned laptops.  Hard thing to do when you are in an airplane a lot like some folks. What works for me is this idea of dropping a client-side hypervisor on my laptop, allowing me to swing between corporate image and personal OS installation on the fly (on the net or off).  (I'll save the Type 1/Type 2 debate for some other time.)  I figure this is the best of both worlds.  I can download a movie to watch in Coach Class and pause it to update a PowerPoint in the corporate image (I put this in for the boss!).  The method to deliver the corporate image and the OS type is kind of up to the IT department.  Frankly I wouldn't care much as long as the corporate desktop isn't a real pig. When you look at this from a dollars and cents perspective, it probably works for the company too since besides not having the assets on the books, you don't have to maintain dozens of different OS's and apps on dozens of different hardware configs.   I've seen some numbers from analysts and IT departments and it represents some serious dinero.  

Personally, I am going to stick to the ulta-portable with whatever Windows version I am keen on at the time.  Citrix has a tech preview of the Citrix Receiver for the iPhone.  No question it's cool but, as much as I like mine, I figure I can take a minute to boot up my laptop to edit PPTs. I am thumb-typing well enough to answer emails with "OK", "Yes", or even, "Can it wait until next week?" but I am probably using my laptop for most emails too. 

Bottom line is that choice is a good thing. Give me endpoint independence.  I probably spend more time with my laptop than my family; don't make my laptop an arranged marriage. The technology is here to support employee-owned laptops; the ROI looks pretty good and ALL THE COOL COMPANIES are doing it!

Get your test machines ready! We're pleased to announce the beta release of the next version of XenServer, code-named "Project George", is expected to be available at the end of April (the standard disclaimer applies: actual release will be determined by test results). Watch this space or subscribe to this RSS feed for an announcement that the beta is available.

We're doing this pre-announcement because the George beta will only last a few weeks and therefore it's critical we get your feedback as early as possible once the beta hits your hands. The only requirement for accessing the beta will be a MyCitrix account.

Project George contains several highly-requested new features:

• Active Directory integration. Specify the AD domain to use for authentication by the pool and use your AD credentials to connect to the pool via XenCenter and ssh. You control which AD users/groups are allowed access.
  
• Workload balancing. Guest and host performance metrics are used to create star ratings for individual VM placement and balancing recommendations for resource pools to achieve optimal performance.
  
• LVHD. Fast cloning and snapshots are now supported on all SR types through integration of our software VHD stack and LVM-based Storage Repositories (SRs).
  
• StorageLink integration. CLI-only support for a new StorageLink Gateway SR that adds native standards-based support for HP MSA, HP EVA, EMC Clariion, and NetApp storage arrays over iSCSI and Fibre Channel with automated initiator/fabric/array management.
  
• Expanded guest OS support. RHEL 5.3, Debian Lenny, and SLES 11 Linux guests.
  
• Enhanced beta problem reporting system. We've deployed an enhanced problem reporting system for use with the George beta. The forums will still be used for discussion but issues with the product can now be reported via a Jira-based ticketing system that supports designating issues as public or private. No more having to FTP your Server Status Reports (aka bug-tools)!
  

Carl, on behalf of the XenServer engineering team

Over the past few weeks, you may have read about the new XenApp 5 Feature Pack.   And you've probably realized that Citrix didn't make any changes to core XenApp but instead added value to XenApp by incorporating additional features into each of the editions.

As a systems architect or admin, you'll need to make decisions about which features make sense for your environment, both from a business and technical standpoint.  Especially if you are licensed for Platinum, the available feature set is extensive, and realistically, not every feature is applicable to every environment.

To make it easier to implement the new XenApp 5 Feature Pack, the latest document in the Technical Guide to Upgrading/Migrating series has been published.  As with previous editions, this easy-to-follow format provides the basic steps that are required to upgrade or migrate, as well as references to other documents. 

Drum roll, please . . .

You can now access the Technical Guide to Upgrading/Migrating to XenApp 5 Feature Pack: CTX120635.  And, if you missed the original TechTalk delivery on March 31^st, you may wish to view the replay.  

Please let me know how the TechTalk and/or Technical Guide helped you and how they can be improved for the next release.

Mark Angelo of Lanamark has clearly just signed a deal with Symantec and/or Parallels for Lanamark's capacity planning tools (which look pretty interesting).  Either that, or Mark and his pals at Parallels know more about virtualization than VMware, Citrix, the Xen community, Microsoft and Virtual Box. 

Mark correctly points out that Symantec has a portfolio of interesting point products that are relevant in the delivery market.  Altiris SVS, nSuite, Appstream and possibly other technologies that we don't know about are all relevant in the market - particularly Altiris, which is a well established vendor in the PCCLM space.   He states that Symantec is going to announce a compelling portfolio that competes with VMware, Citrix and Microsoft.  And he states that a good acquisition by Symantec would be virtualization vendor Parallels.

As far as the Symantec play with its Endpoint Virtualization Suite is concerned, Mark has correctly observed that Symantec brings some interesting assets to the table.  They are a player in PCCLM, and presumably their customers are demanding that Symantec respond to the clear strategic trajectories of the major application and desktop delivery vendors.  At the same time, Symantec is a good partner of ours in many areas.  I think it's fair to say that we're very comfortable that customers will prefer our solutions in those areas where Citrix has always played a strategic role - delivery of apps and desktops as a service - but that customers will have environments that include Symantec even in those scenarios, and we will work with Symantec to enable customers to succeed wherever that is the case.

Where Mark's enthusiasm about his new found friends leads him toward hyperbole, is the role of Parallels. Mark says:

"Enter Parallels. While Parallels has taken its time to build a bare-metal hypervisor, the company knew that it could not bring a second rate product to market given the fierce competition. So instead of launching Parallels Server prematurely, Parallels continued to build and refine a virtualization offering that is technologically superior to anything currently available on the market"  [followed by a feature list that is .. pretty unremarkable in any virtualization context]

While Parallels is a very respectable vendor that owns the "microslice" web hosting market world wide as well as being the initial leader in type 2 virtualization on the Mac, they have very limited credibility in the enterprise.  Could they get there with "technology that is superior to anything currently available on the market"? Sure.  So what's this magical technology? A type 2 hypervisor that is becoming bare-metal capable over time?  Perhaps I'll leave it to my friends at VMware to respond to that one. 

At the end of the day, the argument that Mark is advancing is similar to those I've recently heard from Red Hat about the superiority of KVM.  Just as with Parallels, I have no problem with KVM. It's just another (currently immature, but advancing) virtualization technology that will be in Linux, that presumably will become great over the timescale that all software becomes great.  Open source KVM will, by virtue of cross pollination, be compatible with Xen, and via our contribution of VHD support, possibly even be compatible with Hyper-V.  (Parallels is none of those.)  But both are just another way to virtualize a server.  No more, no less, no magic.

But look at the competitive landscape: With ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V the hypervisor itself is free, and in the case of XenServer, the complete virtual infrastructure is free.  So arguing about another way to use Intel VT seems like a waste of time.  The conversation that I find myself engaged in with our customers relates to a much larger issue in the enterprise:  How can Citrix Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V enable IT and lines of business to automate the lifecycle of their workloads, automatically orchestrate complex data center storage networks,  data networks and their XenServer or Hyper-V based vitual infrastructure to offer an agile IT infrastructure service to the business.  Users and application owners need direct role-based access to a lights out IT environment that is agile and accountable, yet that takes advantage of virtualization features offered by multiple vendors.   So, much as I enjoyed using Parallels on my Mac, I thinkit is important to up-level the vendor view of customer challenges beyond simply OS virtualization.   

Finally, while on the topic of Parallels, I've recently switched to Virtual Box which apart from being open source (like Xen)  has a great UI and excellent performance, useability and simplicity.  With Parallels initial lead now being challenged by both Virtual Box and VMware Fusion, I can't see any reason why I would recommend it.   That said, Parallels support has been excellent, when I've had to use it, and their disk utilities are very useful.

Welcome to the Citrix Improv, where we try to find some humor in the serious business that we are in.
Being an IT guy can be a rough business. You never know what is going to happen over the course of the day...

In this first series, we are going to look at IT's worst nightmares
The first episode in this series is the CEO Cuts IT Budget
Enjoy!

The landing page for Geek Speak Live Synergy 2009 is now available on the Citrix Developer Network.
The page is meant to be a focus point for the aggregation of all the different components for Geek Speak Live at Synergy 2009. You can now see the complete list of speakers and sessions listed here by session type and session scheduling time.

http://community.citrix.com/display/cdn/Geek+Speak+Live+Synergy+2009

Yes, we still have the main page on the Citrix Synergy site,
http://www.citrixsynergy.com/geek_speak_live.php

And there is still the main schedule on the Citrix Synergy site,
http://www.citrixsynergy.com/about.php?id=8

While the schedule on the Citrix Synergy site is complete, schedules can sometimes be a little overwhelming, and by having this dedicated site in the CDN, it will allow us to give focus on Geek Speak as opposed to the whole Synergy event. Synergy is an incredible event, and sometimes you just need to digest events in pieces. By having a place where we can add information about Geek Speak, and give you an opportunity to give feedback, comments, or suggestions; we hope to make your Geek Speak Experience even better.

The Geek Speak Live! Session Topics Voting Tool is now available.

http://www.citrixsynergy.com/topics.php

With the topic voting tool you can vote on all existing topic ideas or even suggest new ones. The idea behind the tool is to have a list of topics that can be used as a Geek Speak Session that was conceived and promoted by you the attendees. The whole premise behind Geek Speak is to allow everyone to have a voice and to hear from others on topics that are most important to you and your peers. In Geek Speak fashion the tool will allow for you give a vote of liking on a scale of 1,2, or 3, with 3 being I like it a lot!

To be able to vote or suggest a topic, you will need to have an account.
You do not have to be attending the event to participate in topic voting tool,
Nor do you have to be registered to attend the synergy event for you to be able to participate
It's easy to get started, when you go to click to vote, you will be prompted to login
This is where you can create an account for the topic tool,
Once again you do not need to register for the event!

We would love to hear from you on the current topics, and maybe even on some new ones,
Click the link below to access the tool and start casting your votes!

http://www.citrixsynergy.com/topics.php

One of the great things we are doing with the Topic Voting Tool is to allow for anyone to be able to participate in on what topics most interest them or are important to them. You do not have to be attending Citrix Synergy to participate. You just need to create an account for the voting tool. If you are attending Citrix Synergy, you will still need to create an account, as this is a separate tool and is not incorporated into the registration process. You can begin by choosing to vote or not to vote, it's up to you. You can also give feedback on a topic to maybe give it more focus, or to make it have a broader scope, the choice is yours. Here are some simple steps to begin the voting or commenting:

Click here to go to the Geek Speak Topics Voting Tool: http://www.citrixsynergy.com/topics.php


The first step is to either Signup or Login:

If you don't have an account click on Signup:

If you do have an account click on Login:

If you are using Internet Explorer 8 and you see this:

In IE8 click on Compatibility Mode button:

In my last post, Geek Speak Live Synergy 2009 - Topics Voting Tool User Accounts
I showed you how to create a user account and login to the Topics Voting Tool.
This time I'm going to show you a little more about the interface for the tool.

Note: Anyone can search and browse through the topics, you do not have to be logged in for that.

But once you are logged in you will be able to add topics, watch topics, and add comments.

Click here to go to the Geek Speak Topics Voting Tool: http://www.citrixsynergy.com/topics.php

Search Topics

The Search Topics box will search for key words in current topics

Add Topic

The Add Topic button is used to create or suggest a topic

Topic Category

The Topic Category dropdown will filter by topic category

Topic Status

The Topics Status dropdown will filter by topic status

Popular Topics

The Popular Topics tab is sorted by top votes

Recent Topics

The Recent Topics tab is sorted by most recent

Watch Topics

The Watch Topics tab is a list of topics you choose to watch

My Topics

The My Topics tab is a list of topics you have submitted

My Comments

The My Comments tab is a list of topics you have commented on

Add Comment

The Add Comment dialog box where you add a comment to a topic

A new topic has been added to the Geek Speak Topics Voting Tool.

Topic: VDI with XenApp and the Cost of Using Real Desktop Virtualization
Speaker: Charles Aunger

Click below to view the Geek Speak Topic:
http://www.citrixsynergy.com/topic.php?id=68

For more information about Geek Speak Live check out the following:
Geek Speak Live at Synergy 09
Geek Speak Live Synergy 2009 - Speakers and Schedule
Geek Speak Live Synergy 2009 - Topics Voting Tool How To
Geek Speak Live Synergy 2009 - Topics Voting Tool User Accounts

A new topic has been added to the Geek Speak Topics Voting Tool.

Topic: Simple but Cool Citrix API Tips & Tricks
Speaker: Alex Danilychev

Click below to view the Geek Speak Topic:
http://www.citrixsynergy.com/topic.php?id=69

For more information about Geek Speak Live check out the following:
Geek Speak Live at Synergy 09
Geek Speak Live Synergy 2009 - Speakers and Schedule
Geek Speak Live Synergy 2009 - Topics Voting Tool How To
Geek Speak Live Synergy 2009 - Topics Voting Tool User Accounts

A new topic has been added to the Geek Speak Topics Voting Tool.

Topic: The Future of Remoting Protocols
Speaker: Brad Pedersen

Click below to view the Geek Speak Topic:
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In a recent post I posted some data to show that we are getting terrific performance results for XenServer and Intel Nehalem based servers.  In the first formal set of tests we found that the bottleneck on performance lies in the fact that the hypervisor still has to perform I/O on behalf of all guests, and so the system scaling limit is the rate at which we can scale the internal I/O stack.  I postulated that we would get some impressive numbers for  Nehalem based platforms using IOV enhanced 10Gb/s NICs, and contacted our friends at  Solarflare, asking if they would help to run some numbers using their 10Gb/s NICs, which offer a powerful direct hardware-to-guest acceleration path that avoids the necessity for the hypervisor to process I/O on behalf of the guests - allowing guests to interact with the hardware directly.Below is a summary of the initial findings for the  the Nehalem tests using XenServer 5.0 and Solarflare I/O acceleration.  Thanks to Steve Pope of Solarflare for his help.  It turns out that with a smart I/O architecture such as the Solarflare offload stack, when guests interact directly with I/O safe hardware, we can dramatically change the system performance, and basically saturate a 10Gb/s link, in both directions at the same time! :

Here's how the experiment is set up.  We have 2 physical servers, A and B, connected back to back with Solarflare 10G Ethernet gear. Each server is running XenServer 5.0 Update 3 with a single 8 logical core Nehalem CPU.

To create a traffic workload between the servers we ran  NetPerf TCP_STREAM pairs between Linux RHEL 5 guests (each pair spans server A and server B) and measured the aggregate throughput both with and without acceleration.

Non-accelerated

The configuration used 4 guests transmitting from A to B and 4 guests from B to A.  Raw results were: 

• (A -> B) 1094 + 1068 + 1046 + 1128 = 4336 Mbps
• (B -> A) 1019 + 1028 + 1050 + 1021 = 4118 Mbps

Total: 8.45 Gbps; Bottleneck: Hypervisor CPU

In other words, we confirmed the hypothesis that there is plenty more system capacity but that the hypervisor is I/O bottlenecked on behalf of the guests.

Accelerated
As previously, the configuration used 4 guests transmitting from A to B and 4 guests from B to A.  Raw results were:

• (A->B) 2355 + 2318 + 2296 + 2289 = 9258 Mbps
• (B->A) 2285 + 2295 + 2315 + 2350 = 9245 Mbps

Total: 18.50 Gbps

In the accelerated scenario we have basically maxxed out bidirectional I/O on a single 10Gb/s link, with only 4 guests! This is awesome.  I should mention also that the Solarflare architecture is remarkably clean and avoids much of the pain of dealing with SR-IOV (which deserves a full post in its own right, and I'm half way through noodling on).

StorageLink is one of the components of the new Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V product that was just released last week.

I recently recorded a technical deep dive presentation and demo with Pete Benoit, the Senior Director of Engineering for StorageLink. You can watch the hour long presentation and demo below -

You can download the StorageLink Install Guide here. The StorageLink User guide is here and you can download the Powershell guide here.

UPDATE: I added the Deep Dive webinar video to my SkyDrive on Windows Live. You can download it here

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Topic: When to Use Server Side App Virtualization or App Streaming
Speaker: Shawn Bass

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Topic: When to Use which Virtualization Platform?
Speakers: Steve Greenberg, Joe Shonk

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Topic: Security, Compliance, and Privacy in the Citrix Delivery Center
Speakers: Kurt Roemer, Charles Aunger

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Load Balancing Auto-Configuration for SAP using Workflow Studio and NetScaler

At the tail end of our certification process at SAP, Citrix engaged in a unique opportunity to make use of the SAP APIs, using Workflow Studio to auto-configure the Citrix NetScaler for Load Balancing. The way it works is, Workflow Studio polls the SAP API, reads the response, and then based on the results in the response, configures the NetScaler Load Balancing groups that map directly to the SAP servers running in the server farm.

SAP has a community group dedicated to the development of their APIs, please reference the latest blog post Catching Up with Deployment and Operations Automation, describes the SAP APIs.

The SAP Community Definition Group (CDG) - titled "PCDG 97 NetWeaver Infrastructure APIs for Network Solutions" - is focused on automation of network-application integrated configuration and operation. As the group title implies, the SAP NetWeaver technology platform includes APIs, which are used by the NetScaler ADCs (load balancers) to auto-configure themselves as proxies for multi-instance SAP application systems. Using Citrix Workflow Studio, the SAP APIs are polled on a regular basis so that the NetScaler ADCs can react to SAP application instance changes during production runtime.

If another application instance is brought up, let's say for providing more computing capacity for an increasing end-user load, or if an instance is brought down temporarily for maintenance, Workflow Studio communicates with the NetScaler ADC to adjust load balancing automatically without any manual administrator intervention. There is no more wait, or lengthy change management required to provision applications.

Workflow Studio, NetScaler and SAP API Use Cases:

Use Case 1: (auto-configure new SAP services).

Workflow Studio sends a URL request to the SAP Message Server, and receives a response. Workflow Studio parse's the response, looking for specific SAP generated patterns. WFS then uses this information to configure a Load Balancing Virtual Server inside of the Citrix NetScaler.

Use Case 2: (dynamic configuration).

Workflow Studio repeatedly queries the SAP API. WFS studio can determine hostnames, ip addresses, port numbers, and whether an SAP server is coming online or going down. When a SAP server comes online/goes down - WFS detects this change, and then takes action on the Citrix NetScaler, to add/remove the SAP service from the Load Balancing group - automatically.

Use Case 3: (graceful shutdown).

Workflow Studio queries the SAP API, determines a SAP server is going down, and based on the response, waits until all existing sessions have been retired, before removing the server from the Load Balancing group . During the shutdown period, no new sessions are added to that SAP server, providing a graceful shutdown of the SAP service. This way, there are no TCP resets sent to existing sessions. New logins are routed to a different server.

Read the SAP article here.

Tap into the power of AppExpert!

SharePoint Template

AppExpert Templates are nothing new for NetScaler. However, with a new release of NetScaler comes an updated, new and improved NetScaler AppExpert Template for use with Microsoft SharePoint applications.

AppExpert Templates are a simple approach to configuration management for complex enterprise applications. In one simple view, you can view what is most important to you in terms of application delivery. No more confusing and complex rules to define, reducing the time to deploy, easing management and improving the bottom line.

Improvements to the template include additional optimizations for Image Management, Scripts, SOAP and FrontPage. Caching and Compression policies have been optimized, along with the addition of a section for rewrite. There is a redirect policy for converting HTTP to HTTPS on the fly, to enable secure traffic to/from the Microsoft SharePoint applications.

All of these improvements can be found in the new Microsoft SharePoint template, and a description of the template can be found in the updated SharePoint Deployment Guide.

Download the updated Microsoft SharePoint AppExpert Template here (NS v9.0 b66 required).

Download the updated Microsoft SharePoint Deployment Guide here.

Its Powerful - AppExpert!

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Topic: IT in the Cloud
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Topic: XenDesktop 3.0: One Year Later, What Does the VDI Landscape Look Like Now?
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Topic: Technology Trends Toward Solving Application Compatibility
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Pagefiles, partitions and drives are an interesting combination of items to talk about regarding Provisioning Services and XenApp. Each one will have a direct impact on your environment.  First, let's be clear, Provisioning Services does support many of these items, but when I design a Provisioning Services solution (or any solution for that matter), I'm always reminded of a message a professor told me once.  The professor was a fan of the group KISS and he always wanted you to follow the KISS motto... "Keep It Simple Stupid", but I'll be a little more polite and say "Keep it Short and Simple".  Keeping it simple is how we will design the following items.

Pagefile

The first area deals with the page file.  Before we got into provisioning and virtualization, I would see many people put the page file on a different drive letter than their OS or applications.  At first glance you would think, OK, they want the page file to respond fast. But the page file was only on a different drive letter at the logical layer. At the physical layer, the page file was still on the same physical disk as the other partitions.  So, my question was "Why are you moving the page file? You are causing yourself more work for no benefit."  The same holds true in Provisioning Services.  

The pagefile is undergoing constant modification by the operating system. As physical memory is paged, it is stored in the pagefile. Upon reboot, the contents of the pagefile are not important, and it is overwritten on subsequent startups. In a Provisioning Services environment, the pagefile will be located on the vDisk, but any change made to the file will be recorded in the write cache, because the vDisk image is read-only. Assigning the pagefile to a different partition within the vDisk is not recommended, because there is no speed benefit. You are just causing yourself more work.

 
Multiple Partitions

On the heels of the page file decision is whether to use multiple partitions.  Does this look familiar?  

• One Partition Server
  • Partition 1: Operating System, Pagefile, Applications
• Two Partition Server:
  • Partition 1: Operating System, Pagefile
  • Partition 2: Applications
• Three Partition Server
  • Partition 1: Operating System
  • Partition 2: Applications
  • Partition 3: Pagefile

Provisioning Services can deliver an image with one or two partitions, but not three. Plus, based on the Pagefile section above, there is no gain from having a separate pagefile partition on a provisioned XenApp server as the pagefile changes will be stored in the write cache.
 
Although two partitions are supported, it does increase the complexity of the environment and does not offer any performance benefit to the environment. There is a Citrix article (CTX116698) that explains how to provision a server with multiple partitions, but why go through the hassle.  Keep It Simple.  

 
Drive Remapping

Finally we get to remapping XenApp server drives. Remember, this is when you change the C drive of the XenApp server to the M Drive. D becomes N and so on.  Why would you do this you might ask?  Well, the most common justification for this design consideration was for users to have their client drives mapped within their XenApp sessions as C and D. However, this approach should be re-examined. Remapping server drives is not considered a best practice for XenApp environments because:

• Drive remapping is no longer an option in XenApp 5 running on Windows 2008 Server.
• Giving users access to their local C and D drives within a XenApp session is considered a security risk. If the applications are hosted on the XenApp servers, the data should be in the data center for best application performance.
• It makes the environment more difficult to setup, maintain and troubleshoot
   

 So remember, Keep it Short and Simple (KISS):

• Page file: don't create a special vDisk partition
• Partitions: Use a single partition
• Drive Remapping: Don't do it.  

 
What do you think? Agree or disagree? BTW, we will be revisiting the page file topic again in an upcoming blog when we discuss Local Database Storage.  How does the page file fit with local databases? Well, you will just have to stay tuned.

As always, stay tuned for more best practices regarding Provisioning Services and XenApp.  

• vDisk Type
• vDisk Cache
• Active Directory
• Application Integration
• Application Streaming Cache
• System-level settings: Page file, drive remapping and multiple drives
• Image Management
• Local Database Storage (event viewer, EdgeSight, AntiVirus updates)
• Plus more if we get some good ideas on other areas of focus.

Daniel - Sr. Architect
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A couple months ago, I posted about a VMware-sponsored report that compared View 3 to an older version of XenDesktop. I've gotten a lot of good feedback on that response, and a lot of agreement that sponsored third-party analysis needs to be absorbed with a cautious eye. I don't think it at all means  that sponsored work isn't valuable or useful, but it needs to have a sound, transparent methodology and provide enough data and detailed context that it actually ends up being useful to the audience.

Regardless, any paid-for review is going to be viewed with skepticism, right? So that's why I'm so excited about this completely independent, non-sponsored pair of reviews that were conducted by Infoworld:

• "VMware View is good news, bad news: VMware's VDI solution makes virtual desktops real, but not particularly easy to manage" This is a brand new review of VMware View, with a final score of 7.5.
• "Citrix hits the VDI high notes: Citrix XenDesktop 2.0 leverages streaming applications, server virtualization, and swift tools for a scalable and manageable virtual desktop infrastructure solution" This review is a little older, from September 2008, based on our first "real" release of XenDesktop, and we scored an 8.3 way back then. Since then, we've added many new features and capabilities for both user experience and manageability.

We were really pleased with the XenDesktop review when it first came out, but we lacked the context of how it compared to an in-depth review of VMware's product. Now that the review of View is out, I personally think the score is even more impressive.

So if you're skeptical about paid reviews, have a look at the two independent reviews above! Then come back to www.citrix.com/xendesktop and learn more about the product and our latest enhancements.

As part of the Citrix Technical Support Escalation team that focuses on Debugging/Code analysis, Kapildev Ramlal is constantly learning new technologies and thinking of ways to help improve the support process at Citrix. Kapildev will be presenting the following sessions at Citrix TechEdge during Citrix Summit and Citrix Synergy 2009: End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center, with a focus on Citrix XenApp, and then his in-depth session will cover Troubleshooting tools and methodology for Citrix XenApp 5 environments.
Q. How has XenApp improved from a support perspective over the past year?

Kapildev: Over the past year XenApp has improved significantly from a performance standpoint. With the release of hotfix rollup pack 3 for XenApp 4.5 and the release of XenApp 5.0, there has been some tremendous IMA improvements. As we know, IMA is the backbone of XenApp, and is considered the most critical component of the Farm. From our internal stress testing, we have found that IMA is now more stable than it has ever been in the past, so I expect to see less support cases opened regarding performance issues.

Q. What XenApp and Citrix Delivery Center tips will attendees learn at your session this year?

Kapildev: I hope that attendees would pick up several troubleshooting tips and techniques that they can readily use in their own environments. For my session, I've updated several tools and techniques as things have evolved a bit with the release of Windows Vista and Server 2008. For example, I include tips on how to enable local debugging on Windows Server 2008, which can be extremely useful for live debugging and analysis. It is becoming more common to see servers with 16+GB of RAM, so learning how to debug and analyze complex server related issues live, can save precious time on a trip to Citrix or Microsoft.

Q. What new tools or techniques are you using to troubleshoot XenApp?

Kapildev: We have had some improvements with our internal tool development process, and because of them, we now have a lot more public Citrix tools available for use on our Citrix Knowledge Center. These tools not only help automate time consuming tasks, but they also help expedite the time it takes to resolve problems.

Q. What types of cases have you worked on this past year? Why?

Kapildev: I have covered several synchronization and memory related cases over the past year. I believe this is mainly due to the wide variety of applications that can be run on a XenApp server. Because of this, the chances for a rogue application or driver causing problems on a system will be increased. Surprisingly not all of these cases were Citrix problems. In most of these cases, which I have worked on, the problem usually turned out to be a problem with a 3rd party application, and usually that 3rd party vendor already had a fix for the problem.

About Kapildev Ramlal
Kapildev has been with Citrix Technical Support for about five years. He started as a technical support engineer, and had a strong motivation for learning programming, C/C+, and Windows internals. One year later, he transitioned into the Global Escalation team as an Escalation Engineer. On the Escalation team, he's been able to learn debugging user mode and kernel mode Windows components, and has been actively assisting with analyzing complex development analysis cases. He's also developed several software application utilities for Citrix including CDFControl, Print Detective and TSUserLog (to name a few). He holds certifications in Network, A+, MCP, CCA. When he's not learning a new technology, he loves to be playing music.

Do you have an XenApp troubleshooting area that you would like Kapildev to focus on during his presentation? Leave a comment.

Check out more posts in the Citrix TechEdge 2009 series.

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Topic: Client Hypervisors: What, How, When, Why, and Who?
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Topic: Journey to the Center of Terminal Server & XenApp
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Topic: What Citrix Needs to Do to Support Managed Service Provider (MSP) Models
Speakers: Chris Fleck, Martin Duursma, Michael Keen

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Our pursuit of interoperability and portability for virtual infrastructure has pased a new milestone:  The Tech Preview of the free XenConvert 2.0 utility is now available for free download.  We'd love to get your feedback on its features. 

For starters, XenConvert 2.0 supports direct import of VMware VMDK virtual hard disks into XenServer, including all v2v operations.  It has also productized the Citrix Project Kensho implementation of the DMTF portable application packaging format, OVF (Open Virtual machine Format), which Citrix has helped to develop and standardize.  OVF virtual appliance packages will now directly import in to XenServer to instantiate a complex virtualized application stack, together with all of its relevant infrastructure resource requirements. 

XenConvert's v2v capabilities mean that even VMware dependent OVFs will be able to be imported into XenServer, which in turn means zero switching cost to XenServer.   Since XenServer itself is also free, my guess is XenConvert 2.0 puts you well into the black on your next virtualization project.  Finally, any VM you import into VHD files for use by XenServer can also be used in our provisioning services engine (the artist formerly known as Citrix Provisioning Server for Data Centers) to allow you to dynamically stream a VM onto any hypervisor and even bare metal!

Here are some other nifty features that the XenConvert team have added :

• •  Offline conversion of VMware VMDK into OVF/VHD for future import into XenServer via XenConvert or Hyper-V via Project Kensho
  • P2V conversion of native workloads into OVF/VHD for direct or offline import into XenServer via XenConvert or Hyper-V via Project Kensho
  • XVA (XenServer internal runtime format) to OVF/VHD for direct or offline import into XenServer via XenConvert or Hyper-V via Project Kensho
  • Substantially improved import transfer time of OVF/VHD files into any XenServer SR
  • OVF Signing for security and to check that packages have not been tampered with since creation

XenConvert is rapidly becoming a vital component in our tool bag because it offers customers portability between virtualization platforms, native and clouds.  It offers the industry a powerful answer to proprietary virtualization solutions.  More cool features will be included when XenConvert 2.0 ships for real, likely within the next 90 days.  Give it a whirl and give us your feedback.

I want to make everyone aware that we will soon be releasing XenDesktop 3 Feature Pack 1 with some new feature enhancements that will make your virtual desktop evaluations go even better and smoother. Here is a quick summary of what you will find in the Feature Pack 1. For more details visit - http://www.citrix.com/xendesktop.

Flash gets HDX'ed
 
Did you know that over 99% of desktop users use the Adobe Flash player? Almost every webpage you go to has a Flash banner-ad. Most of XenDesktop banner ads are Flash-based. Flash provides a lot of mainstream content for most users, and guess what, it is one of the culprits for poor performance, high bandwidth utilization and low user density with virtual desktops. If you are evaluating virtual desktop solutions, Citrix XenDesktop 3 Feature Pack 1 will enable you to carry out your user acceptance testing and evaluations with Citrix HDX technology that accelerates the delivery of Flash content over virtual desktops. Citrix HDX MediaStream for Flash technology enables the local endpoint device to handle processing of Flash media, freeing up server resources, optimizing network bandwidth and providing the best PC-like performance for Flash content. I am a happy virtual desktop user myself with this technology implemented for my XenDesktop. This technology is a trial release that will be able to use with your virtual desktop evaluations as soon as it is available. We have kept it simple - just install the Feature Pack 1 and it will guide you through the process of installing the Trial Release of HDX MediaStream for Flash. In addition to Flash, Feature Pack 1 will include other optimizations for media-rich content that accelerates the performance of Silverlight, QuickTime video, graphics rich websites, animations and other on-screen motion. 
 

They call it "multi"-media for a reason - it's more than what you see
 
Screen-capture rate, bandwidth for screen updates, screen scraping, bitmap codec, remote display, etc. - all of these seem to be the areas of discussion and debate within virtual desktops. But that's only part of what makes up a rich multimedia desktop. How about audio and in particular, VoIP? Only XenDesktop 3 Feature Pack 1 enables users to run their VoIP soft-phones and use microphones and headsets within their virtual desktop and collaborate and communicate with other users. This new HDX RealTime technology increases user satisfaction with their virtual desktops. Feature Pack 1 is our first step towards our vision and enables the use of soft phones for LAN connected users. Citrix will continue to invest in enabling VoIP soft-phones within virtual desktops accessible from any device, anywhere.  
 
Unmatched Smart Card integration
 
If you are managing IT in industries such as healthcare, government and even large scale design and manufacturing, you understand the importance of Smart Cards and how Smart Cards have become an industry-leading standard for implementing two-factor authentication for internal users. XenDesktop 3, http://www.citrix.com/xendesktop3, is the only virtual desktop solution with seamless integration with Smart Cards for Windows-based end points. Feature Pack 1 will make the Smart Card integration complete with further enhancements including broad support for Linux-based endpoints and the ability for users to roam from one device to another - even with a different card reader - and have their virtual desktop session follow them. Some of our large customers are in the process of implementing XenDesktop 3 with Smart Card integration to implement secure virtual desktops for users that can be accessed from any device - making it a low cost 'hoteling' workplace where devices and office locations do not matter and users get to their personalized desktops from any device anywhere.  
 
Get ready for Windows 7
 
And finally, if you are planning to migrate to Windows 7 and want to get a head start on your virtual desktop implementation, Feature Pack 1 comes with an early release of our support for the Windows 7 beta as well. Citrix HDX technologies are all enabled, including the latest HDX MediaStream for Flash, HDX Plug-n-Play and HDX RealTime. We plan to have the Feature Pack generally available at Citrix Synergy (http://www.citrixsynergy.com) in about 2+ weeks.
 
We will be demonstrating the new capabilities and more at the event - go ahead and register if you would like to know more about it. Whether you are currently using XenDesktop in production or just beginning a proof-of-concept, plan to download and install the Feature Pack to get the latest advancements and best performance.

If you have a Direct3D based application that consumes a lot of CPU running on Windows Server 2003, consider hosting it on XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2008. The reason? Under WS08, Direct3D apps can take advantage of graphics processing hardware on the server to do the graphics rendering. As a result, you'll likely find that you can provide better performance to your users and increase the number of concurrent users per server compared to using software rendering (see my earlier blog post). The one key limitation is that the apps must run in 16-bit (5-6-5) color mode ("High color") since the solution does not currently support 24-bit or 32-bit color. Also, running on a hypervisor is not yet possible, until the hypervisor and graphics vendors introduce GPU virtualization technology.

DirectX hardware acceleration can be used together with the Progressive Display feature of HDX 3D. One customer recently commented that the bandwidth requirement to deliver a particular Direct3D graphics application with good performance using these technologies was 1.5 Mbps for the first user plus 0.5 Mbps for each successive user. This has made XenApp a very attractive platform for delivering the application to their remote users.

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, HDX Multimedia Virtualization

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Topic: Workflow Studio Orchestration
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Topic: Windows 7/2008 R2 Virtualization: Native .VHD (aka Boot from .VHD)
Speaker: Joe Shonk

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Topic: Client Side Virtualization: How It Helps, How It Makes Things Worse
Speakers: Ian Pratt, Simon Crosby

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The upcoming release of Feature Pack 1 for XenDesktop 3 in early May marks two significant steps forward in the delivery of Adobe Flash content from XenDesktop.

First of all, a Trial Release of HDX MediaStream for Flash is being introduced that offloads the rendering of Flash content to the user's Windows PC or Windows XP Embedded desktop appliance. This results in a "high definition" user experience when using Internet Explorer to access Flash content including animations, videos and applications. And it reduces server and network load, resulting in higher scalability. The Trial Release, suitable for "proof-of-concept" evaluations, will give the market an early look at the industry's first and only Flash acceleration solution for virtual desktops.

Comments from customers who participated in our alpha program for this new technology were extremely positive. One wrote: "It's a lot of fun impressing my co-workers with the performance, especially with our training content. Another way I like to 'flex the muscles' of Flash acceleration is to go to www.gametrailers.com, open a high definition Flash video in a published IE instance and watch it run with super smooth performance with nearly no impact on the Citrix server. It's jaw dropping to those who are familiar with the old limitations of Flash and Citrix." Some people have even been using this technology for Flash-based video conferencing (yes, you can plug in a webcam!) and to run Adobe Flex applications. And by the way (I'm sure Sridhar will blog about this), the Trial Release supports XenApp, too!

Secondly, Feature Pack 1 also introduces improved performance for server-side video rendering. This is valuable for customers unable to run the Flash Player on the user's access device. With Feature Pack 1, you'll notice a marked improvement in video quality thanks to an increase in frame rate and other optimizations. Besides benefiting server-rendered Flash content, this improves QuickTime and Silverlight video playback, too. In fact, it also delivers a better experience with PowerPoint animations and similar effects. And even when available network bandwidth is less than ideal, XenDesktop continues to deliver a decent video experience while other solutions degenerate into a "slide show".

81% of Citrix customers surveyed need to deliver training videos and eLearning courses to their users, and many of these are Flash-based. Add to that the widespread use of Flash on web sites and the growth of Flash-based applications, and there's no doubt that these two big advances in Flash content delivery will be a hit.

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, HDX Multimedia Virtualization

The approach for applications delivered from a third party off-premise data center is a growing rapidly.  According to one estimate it was an $8.8 Billion market in 2008, growing to $17.6 Billion by 2011.  The bulk of this growth will happen in the Small to Medium Business (SMB) segment.  According to Gartner, Small Business is defined as 1-99 employees while Medium Business is 100-499 employees.  This emerging market for applications delivery and data management is not fulfilled by shrink wrap applications purchased at the local Office Depot.

Recent research points to the fact that the SMB is fed up with trying to maintain these applications and also fed up with having to employ a staff of IT managers just to keep the wheels from falling off their business. These companies have been forced to look very closely at their expenses during this protracted economic recession and high on their list of budget cuts is IT as it represents hard cost and intangible value.  A few of the continuing issues that IT has been unable to solve on-premise (in the SMB) is the simplified management/storage of data, office productivity application upgrades, database management and web site enhancements.  As a result, these traditional on-site IT functions are rapidly moving off premise.

Some of the small businesses I've spoken to recently are trying to set up simple CRM systems, Voice over IP and Business Class email.  They are looking to 3^rd parties for the implementation of these systems in order to offload the IT function as they are really only interested in the services themselves.  They want support of the services but not the burden of employee overhead and the ongoing headache of data center facilities issues.  They told me it is becoming more and more difficult to find IT managers who are competent and who understand the complexities of their business.  These companies tend to be in the 20-199 employee range which cuts across both Small and Medium business.

So these companies have a real dilemma in that they want to take advantage of all the innovation in information technology but don't want to pay for a full time staff to implement it.  As the notion of off premise applications delivery or Software as a Service has gained more awareness, this becomes at least one option for consideration.  But what of the custom applications that a Law firm has developed to search through client files?  Or what about the data files that are used to run multi-million dollar CNC machines in a manufacturing shop?  How about a 30 employee insurance retailer with home grown software for CRM?  Most of these companies are already dealing with the mess created by an IT employee who wrote custom code for their core business and then bailed to take a higher paying job somewhere else.

For the past 5-10 years small outsourcing IT companies called System Builders have been growing their businesses at break neck speeds because of the demand previously mentioned.  These nimble firms provide IT expertise jobbed out to the SMB at rates that undercut a full time on-site staff.  They have become a viable alternative to high priced IT employees who used to work directly for the SMB. 

In some cases, the SMB has his own data center on premise but it is configured and maintained by these System Builders.  When we consider the 500 Million end points (SMBs worldwide) who are in need of this type of service it's not surprising that alternatives approaches are being used.  One such alternative is SaaS and service providers who support this segment are also growing at double digit rates.  Configuring and maintaining a data center is one thing, but who provides the delivery mechanism and support for software delivered as a service? 

At the uber-SaaS level companies like Salesforce.com come to mind.  But when it comes to niche applications, business continuity and business customization a support tier must be involved in order for the SMB to get what they need. There are three distinct priorities for the SMB in this regard; Integration and support, working with a few trusted vendors, and tiered service offerings.  System Builders and Managed Service Providers (MSP) fill these requirements and are absolutely necessary in order for the eco-system to be balanced.  Without these partners, the SMB is left to solve his own problems which is contrary to the current trends.

Just as the SMB has a specific focus for their collective businesses, System Builders and MSPs are also focused on the delivery of applications, data storage and services to support each of these.  Therefore, a second tier must be introduced to handle the aggregation of these tens of thousands of System Builders and MSPs for training, license reporting, product fulfillment and marketing.  Software and Hardware Distributors fulfill this role.  Distributors usually have multiple products at their disposal, work across regional boundaries, move vast amounts of product and can provide better volume discounts as a result. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) use these distributors as the first tier of the channel in order for them to concentrate on the development of the applications themselves.

ISVs sell to their authorized Distributors who in turn train and support the System Builders and MSPs.  Each player in the chain provides a unique value proposition and in the end work together for the benefit of the end user to complete the requirements for software and services.  This model is also proving to be the most cost effective way to provide Information Technology/Systems to the SMB space.

So if you are a System Builder, MSP or even an SMB looking to solve your business problems related to IT, Citrix has some pretty interesting solutions that all come through our (you guessed it) Distribution channel.  Check out how to get in contact with one through our web site.

Inside tip from Citrix Online: Check out www.goview.com. This is an easy way to record, edit and share content, available as a free limited beta. (If you register and it's full, just wait until they allow more people in.) We're finding tons of ways to use it. 

First, How It Works:

1. Click "record" and it starts recording audio and everything on your screen.
2. Click "stop" and it provides a URL you can use to share your recording.
3. If desired, you can edit your recording, add title slides, or export it.

10 Cool Ways to Use it: 

1. Training: Create short training videos. It's so simple, anyone can create a fast recorded training explaining how to do something on your computer and send it out to customers, co-workers or customize for an individual customer. 
2. Marketing Demos: This is an easy way to create demos highlighting product functionality for use on web sites or wherever. 
3. Sales: Answer prospect questions. If you have frequent questions that require detailed explanation - show, don't just tell. Record the answer on your screen and send the link to your prospect.  
4. Customer Service: Answer questions faster. Record snippets answering frequent questions and send those out to people. If you can't reach someone, send them a video answer.  
5. QA, Catch Bugs: Use it to record funky or malfunctioning behavior and report it. 
6. Collaboration: An employee recently sent me a screen recording of proposed survey functionality so I could approve it. This is great. You can show how something might work on your computer and send out a link to get other people's feedback. 
7. Record a presentation: Record and talk through your presentation then share it. 
8. Side-by-Side Comparisons: I recently recorded a comparison of myself using GoToMyPC to work remotely vs. a competitor and shared it in an internal meeting. It helped drive home my point which was how fast and easy GoToMyPC is for after-hours remote work. 
9. IT, Help Desk and Support: Tired of answering the same questions? Record the on-screen steps to take and refer people to those. 
10. Usability: You could record someone interacting with your web site or product and then share that with others.  
What have I missed?  I'd love to hear how other people are using GoView.

DID YOU KNOW that today is the Citrix 20th Anniversary? Happy anniversary, Citrix, and congratulations to every Citrite and member of the Citrix community whose contributions over the years have brought Citrix to where it is today! Here are some thoughtful wishes, interesting observations, and great memories from some of our Citrix Technology Professionals:

From Steve Greenberg:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CADD2KihcEQ
Blog:   http://thinclient.net/blog/

From Jason Conger:   
Blog:   http://www.jasonconger.com/Citrix-turns-20.aspx

From Michael Keen:   
Blog:   http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=10574

From Alexander Ervik Johnsen:
Blog:  
http://www.ervik.as/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1602:happy-20th-anniversary-to-citrix&catid=1:latest&Itemid=139

From Ulrich Stamm:
Blog:   http://www.circleofexpertise.com/coeblog.html

From Joe Shonk:
Blog:   http://www.theshonkproject.com/index.php?option=com_content

From Jim Kenzig:
Video:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABn6t5Ly1T0
Blog:   http://kenzig.blogspot.com/2009/04/congratulations-to-citrix-20th.html

From Xavier Sánchez:
Blog and video:   http://www.ctxdom.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=208:feliz-20-aniversario-citrix&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=61

Your Video Anniversary Message to Citrix:

Citrix has achieved many milestones in our twenty-year history. To celebrate the occasion, we're creating a video montage of our customers, partners, Citrix Technology Professionals, and the wider Citrix community that we will share with the global team of Citrix employees in late April. We'd like to invite you to share your thoughts, observations, and wishes, by uploading a 20-second video message, including fond memories or anecdotes about your relationship with Citrix. The deadline for video submissions is Thursday, April 23th.

To upload your 20-second QuickTime or WMV video, please visit: http://web.citrix.com/go/videopostcard/

Laura Whalen

Citrix Systems, Inc.

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Topic: Image Lifecycle Discussion
Speaker: Jason Lieblich

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Topic: Communicating with End-User Devices from the Datacenter
Speaker: Jason Conger

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Topic: Unleashing the Power of Powershell
Speaker: Brandon Shell

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Welcome to the Citrix Improv, where we try to find some humor in the serious business that we are in.
Being an IT guy can be a rough business. You never know what is going to happen over the course of the day...

In this first series, we are going to look at IT's worst nightmares
The second episode in this series is the Thieving Virus
Enjoy!

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Topic: Got Access? Citrix and access from consumer electronic devices
Speaker: Rich Crusco

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Topic: Amazon EC2 Demos with XenApp
Speaker: Vishal Ganeriwala

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Topic: Project "Virtual Reality Check" Results Revealed
Speakers: Ruben Spruijt, Jeroen van de Kamp

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New NetScaler Technology Speeds Applications that Push Data to Users, Achieving Greater Real-time Interactivity with Fewer Servers Required

This groundbreaking new capability was specifically designed to address the demands that today's interactive Web 2.0 applications are placing on server infrastructures. While Web 2.0 applications are ushering in a new era of enhanced functionality and responsiveness for end users, they are highly inefficient when it comes to server computing resources. In order to create a rich interactive experience, Web 2.0 applications need to maintain a one-to-one user connection to backend servers for extended periods, which severely taxes datacenter resources and adversely impacts performance and scalability. NetScaler is the first application delivery controller to streamline this process by "pushing" data directly to thousands of users concurrently, offloading web servers from this burdensome task. As a result, server costs for delivering Web 2.0 applications can be reduced by five to ten times.

Rich Web Experience at a Fraction of the Cost

These new capabilities allow NetScaler to free up backend servers from inefficient connection management tasks, thus shrinking the number of servers needed. This reduced server footprint in the datacenter improves server utilization and allows a smaller set of servers to accomplish the same business tasks, cutting server costs by up to 90 percent by decreasing power, cooling and operational overhead.

Read more.

Its available now.

Its powerful - AppExpert!

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Topic: An Application Delivery Blueprint
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Topic: Application and Desktop Delivery Solutions in 50 Minutes
Speaker: Ruben Spruijt

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Topic: Configuration Logging, Health Monitoring and Recovery, and Resource Manager Re-Architected with EdgeSight Technology
Speaker: Jason Conger

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Topic: Why All Remote Access Solutions Are Broken
Speaker: Martin Duursma

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A new topic has been added to the Geek Speak Topics Voting Tool.

Topic: How to Create a Virtual Strategy for Real Success in SAP
Speakers: Matt Lull, Chris Carter

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Topic: Terminal Server vs. VDI
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Topic: Branch Optimization with the Citrix Delivery Center
Speakers: Sheryl Buscheck, Sai Allavarpu

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Topic: What Should Citrix Do for "Managed" WAN Optimization Services?
Speakers: Sheryl Buscheck, Tim Simmons, Satya Vardharajan, Sai Allavarpu

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Topics: Up Close with the Citrix Technology Professionals
Speakers: Citrix Technology Professionals

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Congratulations to the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalists!  The Citrix Ready team is pleased to announce this year finalists:

The finalists were chosen based on the following criteria:

• Impact on Citrix's Business 
• Commitment to the Citrix Relationship
• Customer Satisfaction
• Channel and Field Commitment
• Marketing Commitment

The winner will be announced at:

Citrix Synergy

May 4-7, 2009

MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada

Over the next few days we will blog about each of the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalists.  Make sure you come back to learn more on why these partners were chosen as the finalists.

We have this great cost savings (TCO) story on desktop virtualization. I've got the PPT, the PDFs, analyst quotes, the whole package.  But I am finding that before I ever get to talking to customers about cost savings, some genius in the room brings up the obvious question:  What's the point of getting the TCO pitch if there is no budget for virtualization servers, thin clients, and Microsoft licensing? It's a good point: this stuff is pretty expensive to set up in the data center.   My answer is to look no further than their existing PC replacement budget.  I bet all of you have a corner of the office building that looks like this photo below. People are throwing out these things on a 3 or 4 year cycle which, for you math-challenged, is 25%-33% per year.  They have to be replaced by something; generally it's with another PC that looks pretty much the same as the old boat anchor to the tune of $600-800 each! 

For me that's money that should be spent on desktop virtualization. For most vendors, desktop virtualization solutions end up costing more than $800 a person when you add up the cost of licensing, thin clients, virtualization servers and Data Center upgrades. So, even if you spent the entire desktop replacement budget, you will only be updating 20-25% of the end users, leaving the majority of users missing out on TCO benefits. Kind of a bad deal when you think about it.   

Some of the bright guys at Citrix came up with an idea to centralize ALL of the desktops while staying within the current year's PC replacement budget.

First, you delay replacement of the endpoint by using the processing power of the endpoints to reduce the number of hypervisor servers required in the datacenter. XenDesktop streams the OS from the data center directly to more current PCs that were not slated for replacement. The "walking wounded" PC's get repurposed to receive hosted desktops and the ones that are really, truly hosed get replaced by a few thin clients. Here's the 5-step program guaranteed to free up those skids full of old PCs:

1.       Examine existing PC inventory to determine capabilities to support streamed or hosted desktops.

2.       Relatively new PCs (less than 3 years old) can run centralized, streamed desktops. Users will experience similar performance to existing environment but will benefit from faster boot times and better overall reliability. In most enterprises, this will cover up to 80% of the existing endpoints.

3.       Older PCs (more than 3 years old) will be repurposed to support hosted desktops. Users will experience much better performance than before since the endpoint will only be used for display, keyboard, mouse, and network connection. The actual desktop will run on hypervisor servers in the datacenter. In most enterprises, this will cover up to 20% of the existing endpoints.

4.       Non-functional or obsolete PCs will be replaced by thin clients running hosted desktops. In most situations, this would represent less than 5% of the existing endpoints.

5.       As the PC's receiving streamed desktops age, they will be migrated to hosted desktops, effectively doubling their lifespan. As these PC's fail or become obsolete, they will be replaced by thin clients displaying hosted desktops.

Using this methodology, PC's are slowly replaced over a 5-8 year timeframe and hypervisor servers are gradually added  into the data center to support thin clients. This approach has the benefits of minimizing and spreading out acquisition costs, immediately reducing TCO, and gradually reducing power and cooling costs by introducing thin client endpoints over time.  

Here's a quick budget spend bar chart for 1000 desktops ($800 replacement cost), assuming existing 3-year replacement cycle, full use of PC repurposing along with a generous licensing discount on XenDesktop from your friends at Citrix.   

This works for me. I've got the entire PC population centralized and I haven't spent the entire IT budget to get there. In fact, I got there using one year's desktop refresh budget item. More importantly, my TCO arguments apply to 3-4X as many user endpoints than they did before.   

The lesson is: don't wimp out with a small pilot; centralize the whole PC population with a quarter of the upfront cost that VMware would quote. 

So, folks, what do you think of this idea of moving the entire desktop population to a centralized model?  It's sure to take a bit of rethinking around support strategy. On my next blog, I will take the next step and spend some time describing the cost savings story behind XenDesktop.    

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Topic: Federal Government and Cloud Computing

Those of you who work in the federal sector know changes like cloud computing take a lot of time in the federal sector to come about due to the amount of bureaucracy inherent in the system.

The goal of this discussion is identify the elements that will cause the tipping point for the adoption of cloud computing in our government.

The following are some topics that can be used to initiate the discussion.

1. What is cloud computing mean in the federal sector? (Cloud as service, cloud as platform, what will it do?)

2. Define what the current dominate design is for cloud computing today, and predict where key innovations will drive the technology when it is widely accepted in the federal government.

3. Determine what the technology roadmap is going to look like over the next 3 to 5 years? What key innovations are necessary to make the adoption of cloud computing in the government a reality?

4. Discuss what the best practices might be for adopting cloud computing initiatives. (Lower cost, improve compliance, simplification, and increased productivity).

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With Citrix Synergy fast approaching, it's time to get the word out on an exciting addition to the Citrix Booth.  This year we've carved out an area where attendees can go deep (very deep) with not only Citrix product architects and gurus, but industry experts from Intel, Marathon and Oracle.  Our experts have been prepped that no question on the topic of the hour is too technical; so bring your implementation questions, and we'll whiteboard up best practice solutions to get you moving toward a successful deployment. 

Our schedule runs whenever the Expo hall is open, so please come by and try to stump our experts.  As you can see, we have some meaty topics for your enjoyment.

~~~~~

Ask the Experts Schedule

Sunday May 3^rd

7:00 PM - To VPN or not to VPN

7:45 PM - Citrix XenServer on Intel® Server Products: Your recipe for Virtualization Success

8:30 PM - EdgeSight Scalability and Resiliency

9:15 PM - How XenDesktop Works

Monday May 4^th

7:00 PM - Supporting External Users with Smart Card Authentication

7:45 PM - HA Design Decisions in Virtualized Environments

8:30 PM - Considerations to Maximize XenDesktop Performance

9:15 PM - Real-World PVS Deployment Considerations

Tuesday May 5^th

12:30 PM - StorageLink Deployment Considerations

1:15 PM - Delivering Oracle Applications with Citrix XenApp and Citrix NetScaler

2:00 PM - Deploying Branch Repeater and Access Gateway Plugins

2:45 PM - XenApp Server Scalability

Wednesday May 6^th

12:30 PM - XenApp Application Streaming Deep Dive

1:15 PM - Fault Tolerant SAP Delivery with the Citrix Delivery Center

2:00 PM - Leveraging NetScaler for Disaster Recovery

2:45 PM - Deploying Branch Repeater for XenApp 

The PowerShell SnapIn for XenServer Snapshots Tool is the newest addition to the XenServer Code Share section on the Citrix Developer network submitted by Shannon Ma.

http://community.citrix.com/display/xs/PowerShell+SnapIn+for+XenServer+Snapshots

As a follow-up to my Snapshotting with the XenServer 5.0 SDK post, I've written a PowerShell snapin that will allow you to take and revert snapshots with XenServer. You can download the source code and binaries here. You must have the .NET Framework 3.5 installed before you can use it. To install the snapin you will need to run the following command after you've downloaded and extracted the ZIP file:

You can find additional information about this tool on the link above and on Shannon's website below:

http://shannon.neutex.net/2008/11/06/hot-off-the-compiler-powershell-snapin-for-xenserver-snapshots/

FUD!  An acronym used in industry to invoke Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt!  It's a marketing term that is based on emotion and is very affective when placed in the right context.  FUD is used in Press Releases, Marketing collateral and even in Keynote addresses.  Its main purpose is to throw off the status quo and create a mind shift for what is perceived to be right and true.  According to Wikipedia, "FUD is generally a strategic attempt to influence public perception by disseminating negative information designed to undermine the credibility of their beliefs."

So what is the FUD about Cloud Computing and Hosting Providers using SaaS as a delivery mechanism for applications?  Well first we have to look at the negative press of late regarding the cost of deployment.  From a recent NY Times article, a quote regarding a McKinsey & Co report states "Its study uses Amazon.com's Web service offering as the price of outsourced cloud computing, since its service is the best-known and it publishes its costs. On that basis, according to McKinsey, the total cost of the data center functions would be $366 a month per unit of computing output, compared with $150 a month for the conventional data center."  According to this data, Cloud Computing is not cost affective and therefore "a faulty assumption".  This article goes on to state, "We should focus on things we know work now, and virtualization works". Since I work for Citrix it would seem only natural that I would also take this stance in support of everything virtual.  But what the article and (McKinsey) data don't explain is that Amazon EC2 is virtualization.  Isn't it?

It sure seems like we spend an inordinate amount of time in the IT world polarizing one system against another.  The truth is Cloud Computing is an evolution of what has been going in the virtualization world for years.  If you believe the Forrester statistics, about half of the server/computing world are virtualized today.  While that number is staggering it also leaves a huge opportunity for companies to deliver applications via a virtualized approach.  The Forrester data also shows "Firms surveyed showed growing interest in pay-per-use-hosting of virtual servers, one of many types of cloud service offerings in the market."  This statement would seem to be contrary to the McKinsey report.  So who is telling the truth?  The reality is it's too early to tell because the eco system has not yet been fully defined.  But one thing is for sure, companies both big and small are looking for ways in which to do business differently in regards to their IT costs. 

The "nirvana" of Cloud Computing would be any single device would be able to access any single application securely and seamlessly with the only cost being usage on an hourly basis.  No IT infrastructure cost.  No IT labor cost.  Just one utility bill and instant access to any application.  Well we're not there yet and we need a roadmap to make that happen.  It starts with what we have and builds from there.   Large enterprise companies are already deploying private clouds. The future is bright but there are several steps to go before nirvana is achieved.  This brings us to the core of this blog.

Wouldn't it make sense to engage the hosting service providers who are in business today when it comes to Public Clouds?  With over 5,000 worldwide these providers are the core to a cloud based offering.  In the purest sense, each uses the cloud on a daily basis to deliver their applications to the thousands of businesses and end points in their subscription network.  The hosting providers making real money have already virtualized their applications and in some cases their data centers as well.  In order for these hosting providers to grow rapidly they will need a utility based offering to expand their data center and minimize upfront costs.  They are looking at companies like Amazon and Microsoft to do just that.  And why not, if they already have a sustainable business model, using Cloud Computing Utilization as a means for growth makes a lot of sense. 

For sanity sake, we should use a company like Rackspace as a baseline for this type of business.  These guys were one of the few successful IPOs in 2008 for IT (or for any segment for that matter).  In December of '08 they posted revenues of $540 Million with Operating Income of $40 Million.  That doesn't sound like a business with a flawed operating model.  Rackspace does three types of business; Managed Hosting, Cloud Hosting and Email Hosting.  This is a killer combination and one of the reasons that they continue to grow despite the FUD about Cloud Computing.

System Builders (who usually service the SMB with IT services) are also great candidates for Cloud Computing.  Tens of thousands of these small IT shops could access the huge server farms and storage arrays available from Cloud Computing companies to produce an offering to their end customer for critical functions such as business continuity.  This helps the System builder to expand their model without having to spend capital to do it.

I've spoken to several Hosting Providers and System Builders recently about this model and they are cautiously optimistic about it.  Notice I didn't say they are fearful of it.  Why?  Because they know the value of what they produce for their end customers is in their value added services and not in utility based pricing.  The SMB especially wants 'one throat to choke' when something goes haywire with their data or applications.  These Hosting Providers and System Builders have built a rapport with their customers and have become their trusted advisor.  So will the SMB go directly to the big cloud in the sky for help with their IT solutions... not likely in the near term... but will Hosting Providers and System Builders use Cloud Computing to expand their existing offering and prolong capital outlay... you better believe it!

Has it all shaken out yet?  No way.  Will there be modifications to the existing pricing structure, usage characteristics and even end customers? Most definitely.  FUD will not answer the critical questions that need to be answered to make Cloud Computing a reality.  But neither will statements about nirvana happening in the next few months.

The next time you hear "Cloud Computing is here now and it will change forever the way we do IT" just ask yourself what the eco system looks like today, how it will evolve and who stands to benefit most by adopting the uber data center?  Sure there is a model for success, but it will not be a radical departure from the business models used today.  Just ask the ASPs of 2000.  Or better yet, talk to the folks who are actually using Rackspace or Amazon EC2/S3. You'll get a better understanding of why they continue to succeed... despite all of the FUD.

Our GoToWebinar team puts on web events with leading industry experts and invites target audiences to attend. What you might not know is that they also record these webinars and now post them to iTunes where they are available as free podcasts that anyone can listen to at any time. Some of the speakers and topics include:

• Seth Godin and the Future of marketing on the 14 trends that are changing the way we do business.
• Selling in Tough Times, an interview with Jim Dickie of CSO Insights
• The ROI of Moving Training Online
• Communicating Effectively with your Employees
• Make Training Online as Effective as in Person with Roger Courville, founder of the 1080 Group
• Presentations That Make the Sale
• Managing a Mobile and Remote Workforce
• Using Webinars to Engage Prospects with webinar expert Ken Molay
• Increase Reach with Webinars, an interview with Webinar guru David Cleary
  

Note that to listen to the podcasts, you have to have iTunes.  While you're in iTunes, a couple of other business podcasts that I enjoy and recommend:

• Harvard Ideacast: Generally short, interesting interviews with business authors and academics.
• TEDTalks: The conferences are hard to get into and sell out way in advance, but you can watch the very diverse and often compelling presentations on innovation and ideas as podcasts for free.

The Citrix XenApp Publishing Extension Tool is the newest addition to the XenApp Code Share section on the Citrix Developer network submitted by Shannon Ma.

http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/Citrix+XenApp+Publishing+Extension+1.0

The XenApp Publishing Extension allows you to easily publish apps to your XenApp farm from a single right-click.

For more information on the XenApp Publishing Extension, please visit Shannon Ma's blog at http://shannon.neutex.net.

Jerome Reid manages both the Citrix Technical Support escalation team and the frontline teams for XenServer and Provisioning Server in the Dublin, Ireland office which assists customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Jerome will be presenting the following sessions at Citrix TechEdge during Citrix Summit and Citrix Synergy 2009: End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center, with a focus on Citrix XenServer, and then his in-depth session will cover Disaster recovery and automation with XenServer.

Q. How has XenServer improved from a support perspective over the past year?

Jerome: Much work has been done over the past year to improve the support processes for XenServer. We now have a dedicated team in each GEO with responsible for managing cases that are referred to our engineering team. This support escalation team ensures that our customer issues are prioritized correctly with engineering and that our customers are aware of their case status. Escalation is also able to bring pre-release solutions in the form of private fixes to customers which allows us to be confident at the earliest opportunity that the fixes for bugs are really addressing the reported issues. We have also been working hard in support to understand the key areas in the product that can be improved from a support and supportability perspective. We have projects designed to allow us to capture this information and carry it to the engineering team. This is a key driver for product development going forward. Q. What XenServer and Citrix Delivery Center tips will attendees learn at your session this year? Jerome: The session will provide the key information you need to consider when implementing a disaster recovery plan for a XenServer deployment. We'll review how to use the different backup and restore mechanisms provided with XenServer 5.0, including VM metadata backup, XenServer host backups and database backups. In addition we'll automate the different backup mechanisms using Xenserver consoles and CLI scripting, and show how to leverage the XenServer CLI for task automation via scripting.

About Jerome Reid
Jerome has been with Citrix Technical Support just over five years. He began as an escalation engineer in the Dublin, Ireland office supporting EMEA customers. He then took on management of the XenApp escalation support. Recently he's been responsible for managing the Server Virtualization and Provisioning support team. In this role he's responsible for managing the support case lifecycle for these technologies from when a customer first logs a call with technical support until a resolution is provided. He graduated from Waterford Institute of Technology with a degree in Software engineering, and has his CCA. He enjoys spending time with his family of three children, two girls and a boy, age nine, six and two. He's also training for his private pilots license.
Do you have an XenServer troubleshooting area that you would like Jerome to focus on during his presentation? Leave a comment.

Check out more posts in the Citrix TechEdge 2009 series.

This is the first of my 6 part blog series highlighting the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalists. The winner will be announced at our Citrix Summt and Synergy event May 3-7 at the MGM Grand.

Please join me in congratulating XTS for being named one of six finalists for the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Award. When we told Eric Speigel, CEO of XTS they were a finalist he was thrilled.  Here is what he had to say about their nomination:

"We are more than excited to be selected as a finalist for the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Award. This selection highlights the value of our Citrix Ready partnership and demonstrates the value we bring to our shared customers."   

XTS is the leading provider of enterprise-class analytics software for advanced planning and management of Citrix and other virtualization environments. They have a unique, non-intrusive data warehouse architecture provides visibility into usag