Last week, when we launched Access Gateway VPX and Branch Repeater VPX, I blogged about the feedback customers gave us. In this blog, I want to discuss the feedback from channel partners from a few focus groups and meetings over the past few quarters.

Traditionally, vendors talk about competitive dynamics when discussing customers. That is normal because new product launches often don't fundamentally change partners' practices of or decisions about any given vendor. Such product launches don't really sway the partners to favor one product over others or switch from one vendor to another.

Now that seems to be changing. Rather than seeking just industry-leading technologies that address customers' problems, channel partners are seeking solutions that will help transform their sales and services productivity and profitability. With physical appliances, partners often faced the following challenges:

1. How many NFR (not-for-resale) units of physical appliances should a partner purchase? This is the classic dilemma a partner faces when forecasting their sales and POC (proof-of-concept) pipeline. Purchase too many physical NFR units and they are faced with the possibility of idling - and depreciating - NFR units after the spike in sales or POC pipeline gives way to normal baseline sales trends. Purchase too few physical NFR units and they are faced with the possibility of missed sales opportunities, especially considering that any order of physical NFR units will at best take a few days -  weeks if you are internationally located - to ship. Either way, partners are forced to take on additional risks - CAPEX budget or lost revenues - something they would like to take out of their productivity and profitability equation.
2. What should a partner do if the customer asks them to leave behind the POC equipment for a few more days so they can kick the tires and play around with the POC? This is another dilemma a partner faces: damned they are if they oblige the customer because that ties up their limited equipment, which can't be used in other sales or POCs; damned they are if they don't oblige the customer because that is not the brightest approach to building customer relationship, satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Should a partner really have to stock each of their vendor's physical NFR units? When a partner practices selling WAN optimization or secure access SSL VPNs from multiple vendors, they often would like to be able to use the same server hardware for demonstrating any vendor's WAN optimization or SSL VPN solution. Why? Because using standardized commodity server hardware truly transforms the cost-benefit-risk equation, and in doing so their productivity and profitability.This is where virtual appliances come in to the picture. A partner forecasts their baseline POC pipeline and budgets for physical NFR units to meet part or whole of the baseline demand. For any spikes or variability in demand, the partner leverages virtual appliances to build flexibility and agility in their POC delivery model - all without adding risk to their business or operational model. No more paying for NFR units and then writing them off as depreciation later. 

Virtual appliances do change the operating model for partners by allowing them to leverage commodity server hardware for running any network virtual appliance from any vendor.

With virtual appliances, partners now can have customers spare their server hardware, deploy virtual appliances on that server hardware for their POCs, and let the customers play with the POCs as long as they want; all while the partner moves on to their next sale and POC!

After listening to partners feedback, we are offering free NFR instances of Access Gateway VPX and Branch Repeater VPX to our channel partners. This goes a long way to help partners realize the efficiencies and profitability discussed above.

If you are a partner, let us know how you are planning to leverage virtual appliances to transform your business and operating model.

Finally, don't mistake 'virtualized platforms' with 'virtual appliances'; not all so-called 'virtual appliances' are created equal; more on that in my next blog!

Sai Allavarpu

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Are you using Windows 7 yet? Has your organization migrated yet?  Have you been reading all there is to know about Windows 7 migrations?  Then I must ask why you didn't attend the Ask the Architect TechTalk on February 25th.  Not only did we talk about the expected challenges most will face during the migration, but we also focused on how we can overcome these like we've never been able to do before, thanks to advances in technology like desktop virtualization and application virtualization. 

First, if you want to hear what was discussed, it's not too late. You can watch the Windows 7 Migration recording.  The great thing about the recording is that you can repeat sections over and over again. To get an idea of the topics covered, the following is the Q&A from the live event:

Q: How do you suggest we migrate from physical profile to virtual profile as we have no virtual desktops yet

A: You can' migrate from Win XP to Win 7 profiles. You have to pull sections from the old profile and import them into the new profile via with tools like Citrix Profile Management or AppSense.  Of course, you have to test as some of the locations might change between OS versions. If you want a lot more information regarding profiles, then I suggest you attend this upcoming Ask the Architect TechTalk about Profiles.

Q: How does USMT tool fit into migrating with XenDesktop?

A: The User State Migration Tool would be difficult to use in this scenario.  As I've seen it used, it essentially snapshots your Windows XP image and then has Windows 7 link into the old image.  This means we would have to store all of the Windows XP items from all of your users, this could be a lot of space.  Also, I always prefer to start users with a clean slate when moving to a new operating system to help optimize their environment.  Of course, we would pull a few important items over, but it is still more optimized than if you would try to reuse the entire environment. 

Q: In my company (tele-marketing) we are using an application which requires the use of audio-resources, will it work fine with virtual desktops ?

A: Sound does work with XenDesktop virtual desktops. You can even use microphones and have 2-way conversations within the virtual desktop. However, not knowing the applications/audio requirements you will really need to test the application to make sure it performs as expected.

Q: What about IE6 to IE8 app incompatibility when you move to Win7.  We find lots of apps not compatible with IE8.  Same for vendor apps.

A: Unfortunately, you will need to find a way to run IE6. Since Windows 7 already has IE8 installed, you really can't move backwards.  You have two other options:

Option 1: Use a hosted IE6 from a Windows 2003 XenApp server.

Option 2: Use published IE6 from a Windows XP desktop that is delivered as a VM Hosted Application via XenApp.

Q: what are the software options for streaming apps?

A: The two most common application streaming options are to use XenApp Application Streaming or Microsoft App-V.  Both can easily be integrated within the XenDesktop images.

These were just a few of the questions discussed during the Ask the Architect TechTalk.  If you want to hear more, then feel free to listen to the recorded webinar.

Daniel

Lead Architect - Worldwide Consulting Solutions
Follow Me on twitter: @djfeller
Blog for Next-Gen Desktop: Ask The Architect
Questions, then email Ask The Architect
Facebook Fan Page: Ask The Architect

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 With the iPad D-day looming you may be justifying ( or rationalizing ) whether or not you are buying an iPad in the first wave and what are you going to use it for. As noted on previous blogs lots of prospects have come up with business reasons to buy and use the iPad at work. I think this will grow rapidly as the early adopters show up to work with them ( BYOC ), find them to be useful and show them to their colleagues.

Personally I am looking at the iPad for both Work and Play.

For work I anticipate using it for a few tasks including:
Conference room meetings - light weight and non intrusive, I expect my laptop will stay in the office and my paper notebook becomes obsolete. The VGA adapter for presentations is a must have.
Short Trips - When meeting locally and not expecting to create much content I expect to bring the iPad.
Demo's Demo's Demo's - The iPad will be ideal for showing colleagues, customers and partners the benefits of Desktop Virtualization.
Day Extender - I am not sure yet how often I will use the iPad vs my laptop when working from home. I expect a mix of both.
For Play :
Surfing - Fast access to the internet will be the primary use I envision. For extended periods I do have concerns about how I will hold it and how it compares to a laptop.
Reading - I was planning to buy a Kindle for eBooks... I hear kindle readers rave about e-ink for extended use but I will now plan to use the iPad unless it causes a problem.
Photos - Looking forward to using and sharing my photo library on the iPad.
Videos - Im not a big video/movie watcher, but this may increase if its really easy.

As for which model, I am looking at the WiFi 16G . My work docs and apps will be hosted at work, my music, podcasts etc will be on my iPhone, so I haven't figured out why I need too much local storage. For network, the 3G option is nice but I think I will instead be getting a Sprint 4G Overdrive ( MiFi ). This gets me fast access for my Laptop and iPad, plus even a better connection for my iPhone when the ATT network isn't cooperating.

Learn how to make the iPad work for your organization at Citrix Synergy. 

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In my previous two posts, I've described how XenApp for 2008 R2 configuration can be defined as XenApp Template-based Management, and how it can be defined as Group Policy integration in XenApp for 2008 R2. Today I will cover some common questions I get when explaining this new configuration model. Please feel free to add yours in the comments sessions below, if I didn't cover here.

Why XenApp has two ways to configure settings?

The Group Policy and the IMA policy system are in fact the same - settings coming from either will merge in a single, predictable Resulting Setting of Policies.

One way to think about it is that IMA has an additional GPO associated with the farm itself, and stored in the IMA data store. This GPO is what you edit when you change Policies in Delivery Services Console.

In case of setting conflicts, which policy document will take precedence?

Group Policy takes precedence over IMA; and IMA takes precedence over Local Group Policies. If you configure a GPO setting "SecureICA minimum encryption level" to RC5 128 bits, then you cannot override this configuration at the farm GPO or LGPO level.

How can I track from where settings are coming from?

The best way to track applied settings of a computer or session is to run a Resulting Set of Policies Logging report from GPMC. This report will show all Citrix settings configured via policy, and which Group Policy object - including the IMA GPO and filters - has actually won the merging calculation.

The policy report doesn't show the value I'm looking for!

RSoP doesn't display settings that policies have not configured. If you are looking for a specific setting, and it doesn't show on reports, then the value being enforced is "default". You can read the setting description in the policy editor to find what the default value for each setting is.

How does it work exactly?

When you edit a Group Policy object using GP Editor, we store your configuration in a file called \\<domain>\SYSVOL\<domain>\Policies\<guid>\<Machine or User>\Citrix\GroupPolicy\Policies.GPF. When you edit Policies in the Delivery Services Console, we store this same GPF structure in the IMA data store.

Every time Group Policies are evaluated on a XenApp server - server reboot; user logon; and randomized refresh intervals - we will retrieve these GPF files from SYSVOL and the datastore. Our Client-side Extension then evaluates filters and merges the results into a single RSoP, in the system registry (HKLM\Software\Policies\Citrix). Various software components then read the registry values and enforce the settings.

This diagram shows the conceptual model behind XenApp for 2008 R2 policy system.

What is the "Unfiltered" policy, how filtering works?

You will always find a Policy named "Unfiltered" when you edit any GPO. There's nothing special to it - it's just a default policy rule that applies to all machines and users in scope of that policy.

What is the "scope of the policy"? Group Policy Objects are linked to one or more Organizational Units in GPMC. GPOs may also have WMI filters. Only servers and users that are under OUs linked by that policy, and that match the optional WMI filters will process the policy. Other computers and users will ignore it. This is standard GPO processing.

The IMA Policy scope is the farm itself - i.e., settings added to the "Unfiltered" IMA policy will apply to all servers and users in that farm.

We've added an additional filtering system, allowing you to create additional settings and rules within each GPO. When you select "New..." in our policy editor, you will enter a set of configuration, and rules to apply that configuration. For example, you may set Bandwidth limits for end-point devices of a certain IP range; or restrict clipboard access for users of a specific AD security group.

We've created this extra filtering system for two reasons: first, we have additional filters related to the endpoint itself - AAC, endpoint IP, endpoint name - that are not available in WMI; second, some of our customers have very large number of policies (over 1000), and Group Policies wouldn't scale to those levels.

If you have a very large number of rules based on endpoint IP or name, then you should use the Citrix filtering rules - for example, setting a different Default Printer per endpoint name. Other than that, either way works fine. As a rule of thumb, you should minimize the overall number of Group Policy Objects, as a large number of GPOs may impact logon times.

Should I use Group Policies or configure settings in the DSC?

You should use Group Policies if you can. If you have some control over the server OU structure, and has the necessary delegation to Group Policies, GPO integration will give you the best user experience. You can leverage GPMC and AGPM functionality, and perform server management actions exclusively in Active Directory consoles.

However, if you have no delegated access to AD, then you can still fully manage your farm through the IMA policy.

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I often get the question about support for Windows 7 in Citrix Single Sign-On (previously known as Password Manager). So, I figured I could use this short post to let you know that the upcoming version of Single Sign-On, to be released as part of Citrix XenApp for Windows Server 2008 R2 will include support for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

If you were one of those asking that question, it is likely because you have not had a chance yet to download the Tech Preview of XenApp on Windows Server 2008 R2. Do so, and you will be able to experience a better Single Single-On that now also works in both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

You can follow me on Twitter at @aurelianolopez

Learn more about XenApp for R2 and other XenApp happenings:

• Download the tech preview for XenApp for Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Register for the TechTalk hosted by Sridhar Mullapudi.
• XenApp Technology Previews
• XenApp blogs
• XenApp Videos and TV
  
• Follow XenApp on | | |
  
  

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We've heard it loud and clear that most XenDesktop implementations are based on either:
•Totally new Citrix implementation based on XenDesktop only
•Existing XenApp environments that are adding XenDesktop, whether based on XenDesktop for a distinct
group of pilot users or presenting XenApp hosted apps through XenDesktop

For the latter, administrators are faced with determining if/how to reuse the existing infrastructure to make the transition smooth. If you've already seen the Adding XenDesktop to an Existing XenApp Environment white paper or Adding XenDesktop to Existing XenApp Environments TechTalk, you already know how to transition the Citrix features and components, but how should you transition the user profiles?

As you may have noticed, Citrix is encouraging a much more open architecture than we have in the past. We want you to successfully implement XenDesktop, and if Microsoft profiles or Citrix Profile management enable you to do that, great. If a third-party profile solution such as AppSense facilitates XenDesktop, so be it.

Many environments use Terminal Services roaming or mandatory profiles to support XenApp, which is a fine solution. But, that same profile configuration can't be used as is for XenDesktop because a Terminal Services profile is loaded only by computers that have Terminal Services installed; XenDesktop VDAs don't incorporate Terminal Services.

What does that mean? For example, for Terminal Services roaming profiles, that means that user settings, such as folder views, stored in the user profile can't be applied to other computers, such as the local computer or XenDesktop VDAs, unless . . . some configuration adjustments are made. Could you point a network roaming profile to the same location as the existing Terminal Services roaming profile? Technically, yes. But do you want to do that? Maybe, maybe not.

If your users will be accessing multiple resources, i.e., XenApp and XenDesktop VDAs, at the same time, then calling the same roaming profile can create last writer wins issues. Because this type of profile saves everything, not just deltas, during each logoff, only the changes incorporated during the last session that closes down are retained; interim profile writes are overwritten. Users don't like it when settings are "mysteriously" overwritten.

There may be operating system differences. For example, settings within a profile used to support XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2003 differ slightly when compared to Windows 7. And how GPOs are applied. And . . . well you get it. All the more reason that choosing the right profile solution is extremely important to ensure the best user experience!

Yikes, this is getting complicated!

If you're spending too much time in Profile-ville, mark your calendar for the User Profiles for XenApp and/or XenDesktop TechTalk Solving User Profile Challenges for XenApp and/or XenDesktop TechTalk to be held on April 6th. See you there!

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My earlier blog focuses on finished applications. What if you want to write a DocFinder like application yourself. I've written a complete sample application that can get you started.

The sample application includes reusable styles that you can use in your web based or WPF based applications.

Please visit Citrix CDN code share site to download the sample application with complete source code and see more details.

Ray (Ruiguo) Yang
Check out my other blogs
Subscribe to my blog RSS feed
twitter me @rayyangcitrix
email me at ray dot yang at citrix dot com

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Thousands of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are asking this question.  The hosting business is burgeoning, but if there is only one degree of separation, what is the value from one MSP to another.  At a recent conference I attended Lance Crosby, the CEO of SoftLayer said it plain and simple, "We are focused on the Infrastructure as a Service model.  Making money off of hosting Exchange is not our business model.  We are the Cloud Data Center that hosting providers should be using."  In other words, do what you do best, and let someone else spend the money to capitalize for growth.

So if focus is the key to success... and SoftLayer has become a $100 million business in just 4 short years by applying this principle... then how does a MSP get better focus?  Well let's start with what customers are asking for.  In a recent report published by Microsoft, SMBs are focused on how to get more from their business by spending less on their IT.  Hosted Exchange is about getting more professional and going to a business grade email system.  These same SMBs are smart enough to realize that there is an opportunity cost to doing IT themselves, even if it is just to set up and maintain an Exchange server.  So they outsource this drudgery to a local hosting provider and spend the savings in headcount on another sales person or engineer or manufacturing guy.  That's not a hard sell and so many SMBs are doing this it has actually created a herd mentality to move in this direction.  Why not use this as the spring board for other services.  Take for instance DR?

Most SMBs carry some kind of property and casualty insurance on their business, but don't think twice about backing up their own mission critical data on CDs or an external drive sitting in a broom closet somewhere.  And so as the old adage goes, you don't need life insurance unless you die.  Well you don't need a disaster recovery plan until your building burns down with your back ups inside with all of your other equipment.  This is a great place to start for hosting providers who are looking for the next thing. 

Why not be your customer's DR plan?  You already have a trusted relationship with the subscribing customer and it makes sense that you'd help him address the problem he does not know he has.... doesn't it?

But don't stop there!  If you are truly a "trusted advisor" then you need to talk to your customer about a bundle of services that includes a business productivity suite like Microsoft Office - an extension of Exchange and a total Disaster Recovery plan that enables him to have a peace of mind every time he walks away from the building.  Why is it important to have this discussion at the same time you ask?  Because if you offer a bundle that includes Office through single instance management, you will be able to back up the customer's data as an extension of your datacenter.  If you're going to capitalize with servers and RAID drives (or better yet let someone like SoftLayer do it for you)  why wouldn't you offer a virtual Office suite and charge for subscription based applications along with the DR? The two go hand-in-hand and you will add more value to your customer with a higher margin for yourself.

To do this you have to develop a plan to sell the bundle first.  Talk to your customers about how valuable their data is and what it would cost to replace it.  Then have a discussion about how easy it would be to bundle a service so that they can get access to any of their applications on-demand and have a source for backing up all of the data at the same time.  If you do the calculations correctly, your customer will thank you for providing a plan to recovery in the event of a disaster and a way to access applications and information from anywhere... including remote locations like a home office or even on the road.

Those margins are out there waiting for you.  All you have to do is match the demand with your solution.

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As mentioned in Sai's post last week, Access Gateway is now available as a virtual appliance. This brings all the benefits of server virtualization to the network appliance space: rapid deployment, high availability, and quick recovery in response to hardware problems.

Virtualizing Access Gateway also dramatically lowers the cost of an Access Gateway solution, enabling more customers to afford the value it brings to any Citrix deployment: strong authentication, network-layer tunneling, endpoint interrogation, and adaptive access control just to name a few. But, as I have heard from many of you since the initial launch of Access Gateway several years ago, requiring a per-CCU license for ICA connections still made Access Gateway comparatively expensive, given that the Windows-based Secure Gateway component allowed unlimited connections to XenApp for free. The per-user license cost prevented many of you from deploying Access Gateway.

That's why when we launched Access Gateway VPX, we also fundamentally changed the pricing and packaging for the Access Gateway product line. All Access Gateway appliances now include free, unlimited secure access to XenApp hosted applications and XenDesktop hosted desktops.

Previously, all connections through Access Gateway required an Access Gateway CCU license, even if the connection was just a simple SSL relay of the ICA traffic between a client and XenApp or XenDesktop. Now when you buy any Access Gateway appliance (physical or virtual), you receive an Access Gateway Platform License that unlocks the full capacity of the underlying hardware to be used for SSL encapsulation of XenApp or XenDesktop (ICA/HDX) connections.

If you already own an Access Gateway that's covered by Warranty or Maintenance, you're also entitled to get a free platform license using the Upgrades/Fulfillment toolbox on MyCitrix. The platform license works on Access Gateway appliances running firmware version 4.6 or later, and will also work on NetScaler appliances starting with version 9.2, which is expected later this month.

You'll still need an Access Gateway CCU license if you're going to make use of the more advanced features like VPN tunneling, Endpoint Analysis, SmartAccess, HTML rewrite, or File Type Association. But there's good news here as well: the price of the Access Gateway Universal CCU license has dropped from a starting price of $170 down to $100, and if you own Access Gateway Standard Edition CCUs, you can upgrade them to AG Universal licenses for free.

So, if you ever passed up the opportunity to try out Access Gateway in the past because it was too expensive, it's time to take another look. Want to see Access Gateway VPX in action? The video demo below shows how Access Gateway VPX offers a convenient and economical way to deliver secure remote access to hosted applications or virtual desktops using off-the-shelf hardware.

Jay

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In the spirit of the Golden Gate, Citrix Education wants to help bridge the gap between you and the industry's only conference focused on the convergence of the hottest technologies of the day - virtualization, networking and cloud computing. Synergy San Francisco, May 12-14 2010, will deliver the focused and in-depth information about today's technologies needed to radically simplify computing and deliver IT as an on-demand service. Be one of the first 25 customers to purchase 2 Citrix Training Passes (CTP) and receive a full conference pass to Synergy San Francisco - for free! Learn More

Citrix Partners are also eligible to participate. The first 25 partners to purchase 2 CTPs for re-sell will get a free pass to both Summit and Synergy San Francisco. Find out how 

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I often get the question about support for Windows 7 in Citrix Single Sign-On (previously known as Password Manager). So, I figured I could use this short post to let you know that the upcoming version of Single Sign-On, to be released as part of Citrix XenApp for Windows Server 2008 R2 will include support for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

If you were one of those asking that question, it is likely because you have not had a chance yet to download the Tech Preview of XenApp on Windows Server 2008 R2. Do so, and you will be able to experience a better Single Single-On that now also works in both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

You can follow me on Twitter at @aurelianolopez

Learn more about XenApp for R2 and other XenApp happenings:

• Download the tech preview for XenApp for Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Register for the TechTalk hosted by Sridhar Mullapudi.
• XenApp Technology Previews
• XenApp blogs
• XenApp Videos and TV
  
• Follow XenApp on | | |
  
  

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３月になり各種シトリックスのクライアントモジュールがアップデートされました。

シトリックスのクライントモジュールは現在Citrix Receiverという総称になっています。Receiverに対してplug-inという形で各種機能が提供されます。過去シトリックスのクライアントといえばICAクライアントといわれていましたが、こちらは現在online plug-inという名前になりました。そのほかにアプリケーションストリーミングのためのoffline plug-inやSSL VPN(Access Gateway)plug-inなどがあります。plug-inに関してはReceiverを使わなくても単独でのインストールも可能です。ただReceiverを使えば、Marchandising Serverという仮想アプライアンスを利用してplug-inのサーバーでの集中管理を行うことができます。

またReceiverに関しては、Windowsだけでなく各種プラットフォーム向けにも提供されておりWindows/Mac版以外はReceiverに各機能がセットになって提供されます。そして今回のリリースでReceiver for Windowsが日本語環境で正式サポートされるようになりました。またMac版に対しても新しくReceiver for Macが提供されWindows版と同様にMarchandising Serverによるplug-inの集中管理が可能になりました。ただし、Receiver for Mac自体はまだ日本語環境ではサポートされていません。

Mac版のonline plug-inは11.1にアップデートされ、Mac OS 10.6(snow leopard)にも正式対応しました。こちらは過去の平田さんのblogにあるように日本語環境でもサポートされます。（設定メニューは英語です）

http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=94437446

なお、Mac版にて日本語入力を行う場合は今回のバージョンより、ローカルのMacの日本語入力プログラム（ことえりなど）からのみのサポートになりました。リモートのIMEによる入力はサポートされません。日本語入力する場合は一回Macの別の横の長方形のWindowsに表示されて確定後にリモートのデスクトップ・アプリケーションに送信されます。

ちなみにReceiver for MacはIntel Macのみサポートですが、

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/receiver-mac-12/rec-mac-12-sys-reqs.html

Mac用online plug-inはPowerPC Macもサポートされています。

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/plugin-mac/mac-sys-reqs.html

以下ダウンロードリンクです。

Citrix Receiver for Windows - Version 1.2

http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1862706

Citrix Merchandising Server - Version 1.2

http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1862705&productId=1689163

Citrix Online Plug-in for Mac - Version 11.1

http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1862769&productId=186&c1=sot2755

Citrix Receiver for Mac - Version 1.2

http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1862707&productId=1689163

Dazzleもアップデートされ日本語環境サポートになりました。Dazzleは自分でXenApp/XenDesktopの公開アプリケーションやデスクトップを管理する（セルフサービス）ためのフロントエンドGUIです。Dazzleを利用するために既存のXenApp/XenDesktopのシステムの変更や追加のサーバーは必要ありません。

Dazzle 1.1.1
http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1862768

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AppExpert framework provides various bind points for logical evaluation of request and response traffic. These bind points are evaluated in system defined order which ensures the logical flow of application intelligence defined on NetScaler. Following shows the bind points and order of evaluation:

The evaluation goes on with the above order and in between these system defined bind points. In between this processing one can switch to a policylabel which is treated as a soft or user defined bind point. Once policies bound to soft bind point are evaluated, system will start following the system defined order for further evaluation.

Goto expression is used to control the flow of policy evaluation and it also acts as a logical tool to get to the appropriate policy without going through everything bound sequentially. When binding the policy, you assign it a priority level to specify when it is invoked relative to other policies in the bank. In addition to assigning a priority level, you can configure an arbitrary evaluation order for policies in a bank by specifying Goto expressions. A Goto expression indicates the next policy to be evaluated, typically within the same policy bank. Goto expressions can only proceed forward in a bank to avoid looping scenarios. Here is a view of Goto processing order:

Correct usage of Goto expression will always simplify the configuration and will result in correct behavior. It also enhances system performance by ensuring that correct set of required policies are evaluated.

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Storage plays a key role in determining the performance and cost of desktop virtualization deployments. XenServer, with StorageLink, offers a powerful framework for best-in-class storage systems to offer virtualization optimized features that can be directly exploited through API calls from the virtualization platform, either using CIM or vendor-proprietary plug-ins. But there are a host of features and implementation choices for storage that can dramatically change the price/performance of a virtual desktop deployment, and who better to help articulate those than the storage vendors themselves?

With this in mind, we invited all of our storage vendor partners to demonstrate to the market what makes their solutions unique, in our Citrix Ready StorageLink Challenge. We asked them to prepare a short video that showcases their product capabilities and its integration with StorageLink. Six partners have responded thus far (and I believe one or two more may be in the works) - DataCore, GreenBytes, HP, LSI, NetApp, and Nexenta. We will be picking a winner on April 19th.

Submissions will be judged in four categories.

• Best storage for Desktop Virtualization deployments
• Best storage savings (TCO)
• Best performance
• Most innovative video

We know we're going to have a hard time picking between these vendors. The judges are Chris Wolf (The Burton Group), John Fanelli (Citrix Solution & Community Marketing), and myself Simon Crosby (Citrix CTO for Data Center and Cloud), plus our Citrix community members via their ratings for each video and the overall view count per video. While this challenge is about products, technology, and integration, we think it should be fun as well. All the videos are posted Here

So please watch the videos and give them your votes!

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You have always seen NetScaler receiving request from clients and then forwarding the request to backend servers. On return path it receives responses from backend server and maps it to right client on frontend. Thus invoking a request right from NetScaler becomes a special feature and a capability which is extremely powerful. This feature is provided by AppExpert framework and known as HTTP Callout. Being part of AppExpert framework this capability can be invoked by any feature or layer which supports the framework. HTTP Callout is a unique tool for generating HTTP requests from NetScaler. HTTP callouts are extremely powerful in obtaining information from external applications running over HTTP. You can send a HTTP request on fly to external server or a vserver/service configured on NS. HTTP callouts are configured as special policy objects. After configuring an HTTP callout object, you can invoke it from policies and other functions that use advanced expressions.

An HTTP callout object has following components:
• Parameters that identify the application to be queried
• Parameters that NetScaler uses to create an HTTP request
• Or a single parameter that contains a fully-formed HTTP request
• Parameters for extracting data of interest from HTTP response

An HTTP callout is invoked from any policy expression on AppExpert framework by compounding the existing policy expression with a new expression "SYS.HTTP_CALLOUT(CalloutName)". After invoking the Callout particular policy processing is kept on hold till NetScaler receives response on Callout request. The response from Callout could be of following nature:

TEXT
NUMERIC
BOOLEAN

Thus further operation done on Callout result has to be specific to nature of return type. This needs to be taken care of while configuring the Result Expression in Callout object as well. Only HTTP.RES based advanced expressions can be used to build the result expression. The expression must conform to the return type of the invoked policy. For example, if the return type of the HTTP callout policy is TEXT, the following expression is valid:

SYS.HTTP_CALLOUT(CalloutName).CONTAINS("String")

If the return type is NUM, then expression could be:

SYS.HTTP_CALLOUT(CalloutName).EQ(100)

Callout configuration is driven from following simple commands on CLI:

add policy httpCallout myCallout
set httpCallout myCallout -ipaddress 10.102.3.10 -port 80 -returnType text -httpMethod GET -hostExpr "'/10.102.3.10/'" -urlStemExpr "'/mysite/index.html/'" -parameters name(HTTP.REQ.HEADER("Name")) -resultExpr HTTP.RES.BODY(100)

Every feature which supports AppExpert Advanced Expressions supports HTTP Callout. Invoking an HTTP callout from NetScaler and sending request to external server adds additional processing load on NetScaler. In cases where callout requests are made often, it is better to cache callout responses. You could configure a caching policy in NetScaler to cache the response received by HTTP callout. Upon subsequent callout request the response is served from Cache based on the cache parameter configuration. Thus callout does enjoys runtime in memory HTTP Caching benefits on NetScaler which improves system performance further.

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Did you know that Workflow Studio exposes most of its functionality via PowerShell?

Do you want to:

• Run workflows from an external system such as Microsoft's System Center
• Build a self-service portal for your users
• Create an installer for custom activities you have built

If so, you will want to have a look at the Automation Guide posted on the Workflow Studio SDK page

If you build something cool let me know about it...

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In the area of Citrix where I work, we're going through a desktop refresh. But, my three year old Dell D610 running XP is humming along nicely, thank you.  Normally, anyone would be really excited to get the latest technology on their desk, but I'm more than happy to be at the end of the refresh line. Why? I use XenDesktop.

My old Dell is just the way I like it. Since I work in channel marketing, I have a bunch of applications like CorelDraw, InDesign, Quark and much to the discomfort of my co-workers, Photoshop. Yes, I can migrate all of that stuff to a new environment and yes, Windows 7 is really nice. 

Guess what?  I have Windows 7!  With XenDesktop, I just click over to my published apps in the Windows 7 environment and continue to toil away knowing I don't have to worry about patches, updates or putting my valuable work efforts into an unsecure area.  In fact, with my dual screens... well, you get the picture.

Jump on over to Citrix TV and check out some of the videos about XenDesktop.  There's a lot to love in this product. 

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To disable SpeedScreen Multimedia Acceleration on an endpoint device

Change the following ICA parameter in the registry or in the ICA file:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\ICA Client\Engine\Lockdown Profiles\All Regions\Lockdown\Virtual Channels\Multimedia
Name: SpeedScreenMMA
Type: REG_SZ
Data: False

To disable SpeedScreen Multimedia Acceleration on Desktop Delivery Controllers:

1. At a command prompt, cd to C:\Program Files\Citrix\Desktop Delivery Controller.
2. Execute PorticaSetDefaults.exe /o <filename.xml> to create an editable settings XML file.
3. Open the xml file created in the previous step and locate the SpeedScreen Multimedia section.
4. Change the entry for <Enabled>true</Enabled> (default) of the SpeedScreen Multimedia section to <Enabled>false</Enabled>.
5. Save your changes.
6. Reimport the settings using Porticasetdefaults /i. The settings will take effect the next time a Virtual Desktop Controller registers against this Desktop Delivery Controller.
7. Repeat the previous step on every Desktop Delivery Controller that conducts VDA registrations.

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Today I had the pleasure to meet and have lunch with Astronaut Steve Swanson along with a few Professors and students at FAU where he is an Alum. Steve was a great inspiration for the students and told some great Apollo 13 type stories as well as his thoughts on innovation in the Space program. I also got speak to Steve 1:1 about Astronauts using Virtual Desktops ( from Citrix XenDesktop ) in space and asked if he got to try it out. It turns out his last mission was March '09 before the first NASA trial in Dec '09, however he was well aware of this project from his colleagues who were involved and got to use it. Steve does not have a planned next mission at point but he is looking forward to trying it out himself and I am looking forward to his feedback. Aside from the mission tasks what would they would be using it for, the answer ? Surf the Net !

Turns out I saw the launch of the Shuttle he was flying last March..

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If you have read some of my recent blogs, you know that I have been spending time testing XenDesktop 4 and Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V. I thought I would take a moment and highlight the top seven things I have learned during this testing. Some of these items I briefly mentioned in my previous blog Optimizing Windows 7 for FlexCast Delivery posted a few weeks ago.

1. Use Fixed-Size VHDs for the Drives

This tip perhaps has the greatest impact on performance. Quite honestly I had no idea about how much of a difference disk alignment influences performance until I started testing with a dynamic VHD. When using local disks for storage, this is generally not noticeable. However, when using block-level SAN storage, the difference could be significant. Using a fixed disk VHD prevents both fragmentation and disk alignment issues by pre-allocating all the required space when the file is created and not requiring that extra footer at the end of the file and effectively creating a SAN friendly file.

Numerous resources are available on internet to discuss this topic, but for the sake of simplicity, I will try to give a brief synopsis here. The smallest block of data written by the SAN is called a "stripe" and it normally crosses several sectors on the underlying LUN. The NTFS file system is formatted with blocks of data or clusters. A file is written to a cluster, which in turn causes a write to the SAN "stripe". When the data block written from the virtual hard disk aligns with the SAN stripe, then only one disk is affected during the write. If that SAN stripe resides on a RAID1 or RAID10 array, then two writes will occur (a 2x write penalty) because the writes will be written on the primary disk and then again on the mirror disk. If SAN is on a RAID5 array, a three data disks and a fourth parity disk will be accessed causing four writes (4x write penalty) in a single parity RAID5 configuration.

When the data block is out of alignment with the SAN, that same single disk write is spread across multiple disks. For instance, if that write is on a RAID1 or RAID 10 array the single write operation becomes four write operations on the SAN. If it is on a RAID5 single parity array, the write operation becomes eight operations on the SAN. As you can see, a single write operation can quickly create a backlog of write operations on the SAN.

Unfortunately, the dynamic VHD file format needs to manage the size of the file, so at the end of each VHD file, is included a 512 byte footer. Every time a data block is added to the dynamic VHD, the footer is moved to the end of the file. Since the VHDs are normally written in 2MB blocks, the addition of this footer is virtually guarantees alignment issues with underlying SAN storage as it changes the offset of the file next to it. To further add to the overhead, as the file expands, the additional data blocks will be placed at the next available location on the NTFS partition, causing fragmentation of the file across multiple stripes.

2. Format VHDs with the Windows 7 Diskpart Utility

Windows XP setup and Diskpart utility create the boot partition with a 31.5 byte offset that causes misalignment with block-level disk subsystems. The Diskpart utility included with Windows 7 / Server 2008 has been corrected to create the boot partition at a more alignment-friendly offset. In essence, if the disk is over 4GB the utility will set the offset to 1024KB by default. If it is under 4GB, which is the case for most write-cache drives, it will set the offset to 64KB by default. I recommend manually creating the partition for VHDs and verifying it as well. To learn more about Windows Server 2008 disk alignment and how to configure it correctly with Diskpart, see the Microsoft KB #929491.

3. Include the .BIN File in the Disk Space Calculations

Microsoft Hyper-V always allows a machine to be placed in a suspended state, such that the contents of the machine's RAM is saved to disk for later retrieval when the machine is resumed, similar to hibernation on a laptop. In order to prevent possibility that disk space is not available in the future for saving the RAM contents, when a virtual machine is started, Hyper-V creates a .BIN file that is equal in size to the RAM configured for the virtual machine. This .BIN file cannot be disabled or deleted and must be present for the virtual machine to start. The file is also stored in the same folder as the virtual machine's configuration file. Therefore, when calculating the necessary disk space on a SAN to support virtual machines, be sure to add in space equal to the RAM of the virtual machines.

4. Configure Two Network Interfaces When Using Provisioning Services

The default network adapter for a Hyper-V virtual machine is the synthetic adapter, which is optimized for a virtualized environment. However, this adapter is purely virtual and cannot be associated with any BIOS-level hardware, virtualized or not. Since PXE booting requires a BIOS-level interface, the synthetic adapter cannot be used. Instead, Hyper-V includes a legacy network adapter that includes a BIOS-level integration and that supports PXE booting. The legacy network adapter must be added to the virtual machine and set as the default boot device.

To provide the best performance, the guest image should include both adapters so that the legacy adapter is used for PXE booting and the higher-performing synthetic adapter is used to pass the network traffic after the operating system boots. Both adapters can be connected to the same logical network since the synthetic NIC has precedence over the legacy network card in the route table.

5. XenDesktop Integration with VMM is Still Developing

The System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) server provides numerous APIs for integrating with Hyper-V. XenDesktop supports the standard APIs for starting, suspending, resuming, and creating virtual machines. However, XenDesktop 4 does not utilize the Microsoft VMM GetRating API for any desktop-related operations. Without the support for the GetRating API, the XenDesktop infrastructure cannot intelligently placing virtual machines when creating or starting them.

When creating virtual machines with the XenDesktop Setup wizard, the wizard retrieves a list of hosts managed by the VMM server and then evenly distributes newly created machines across all the hosts that VMM has registered with it. In situations where the machines are being created on identical host hardware and for the first time, this behavior is desirable. However, if the host capacity is not identical or if they already have virtual machines the Setup wizard may overburden the host.

If you need to deploy additional virtual machines to unequally loaded hosts, one option is to use a VMM staging server, which has only servers of equal capacity registered with it. The XenDesktop Setup wizard can then be pointed to the VMM staging server. After the wizard completes, re-register the Hyper-V hosts with their permanent production VMM server, and adjust the desktop group properties as appropriate in the XenDesktop farm.

6. Virtual Machine Manager Design is Critical

Microsoft recommends protecting against failure by virtualizing the VMM Server and placing it on a highly-available cluster. However, this approach only protects against hardware failure, not against software failure. In situations where the VMM server is running but the service fails to respond communications between XenDesktop and VMM Server come to a halt. When the communication link is broken, the XenDesktop DDC stops sending connections to the desktops hosted on that VMM Server. As of now, protection against this type of failure is currently not available without the creation of custom detection and complex failover routines. For the time being, the best approach is to limit the number of desktops managed by a single VMM Server to around 1,000 so that it will not get overloaded.

7. Windows 7 Behaves Well When Virtualized

Windows 7 is a virtualization-aware operating system. Windows 7 includes several features which improve its performance in a virtualized environment. First, Windows 7 includes the Hyper-V Host Integration Services as part of the base operating system. Second, Windows 7 notifies the hypervisor when it is idle so the hypervisor does not schedule guest operations. Finally, Windows 7 provides improved storage and optimized page file management. When compared to Windows XP, an operating system that has no idea it is being virtualized and is supposed to reach end-of-life this year, Windows 7 is an attractive solution.

If you found this blog useful and would like to be notified of future blogs, please feel free to follow me on twitter @pwilson98.

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