Now from a single DVD you can . . . → Read More: XenApp 5 FP 2 First Impressions]]> I did my first XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 upgrade/install today and I have to say that for the fist time the installer is actually quite nice.  If you hadn’t heard, Citrix has finally combined all of the components of XenApp into a single ISO image.

Now from a single DVD you can install XenApp 5.0 with HFRU5, Password Manager, EdgeSight, SmartAuditor, Web Interface, etc.  It made my upgrade process so easy all I had to do was run through the wizard select the components I wanted to upgrade and after a reboot all was done.

Even on a new installation I was able to save quite a bit of time as all of the components for Password Manager and EdgeSight were installed as a part of the overall XenApp installation.

Great job Citrix on getting all of this stuff together in one place!

There are two . . . → Read More: XenServer Multipathing with IBM DS4800]]> I was recently tasked with configuring multipathing in Citrix XenServer 5.5 for use with an IBM DS4800 SAN.  At first glance I thought, piece of cake, I’ve done quite a few setups like this with Dell, EMC, and HP storage gear so the IBM should be the same right?  WRONG!

There are two multipathing drivers that have been available since XenServer 5.0 SP2.  They are the DMP (dynamic multipath) and MPP (multipath proxy).  DMP is the one that is used by default.  In fact when you go into XenCenter and enable the check box for ‘multipathing’ you are essentially turning on DMP.  Normally this works well but the IBM DS4800 and other storage controllers that use RDAC (redundant disk array controller) need a little more.

If you just go through and enable the DMP driver you’ll be able to see, format, and use the storage from the DS4800… but what you’ll eventually notice is that the LUN will continually failover to another path using a different storage controller.  This is called thrashing and its not a good thing.

To stop the thrashing you’ll need to do one of two things:  1) tell the DS4800 to disallow AVT (automatic volume transfer) or 2) tell the XenServer to pick a path and stick with it until a failover is necessary (i.e. STOP THE ROUND ROBIN)

The first option of disabling AVT is actually the easier of the two and is done on the storage controller itself.  Don’t worry you can set this by LUN or even by host so you won’t be in danger of tampering with your other SAN attached systems.  The way to do this in the IBM DS4800 is to change the host type to something that doesn’t perform AVT.  The host type of Linux VMware Cluster or LNXCLUVMWARE should do the trick.

The second method of chaning the driver over from DMP to MPP is not as easy.  If you go out and do some searches on the matter you’ll find that Citrix states in CTX121364 ”This is the real RDAC driver supported by IBM and other vendors” about the MPP driver.  What you won’t find in that article are steps to enable and actually use the MPP driver.  Your searching might even land you at CTX118791 where you might find specific reference to the IBM DS4xxx.  But once again you’ll be hard pressed to actually find out how to get this thing working.

I recently spoke with the XenServer support team and got some instructios on how to enable the MPP driver in place of the DMP driver.  Its not an official CTX article yet but my understanding is that they are working on it.  Even when it does get released it won’t be for the faint of heart.  I should also point out that the cute little “4 of 4 paths active’ notification that you see in XenCenter ONLY works with DMP so once you switch over to MPP you’ll lose that information.

Changing the host type on the storage controller is definately the easiest and it will allow you to continue to see the multipathing information in XenCenter.  But it definately seems to struggle with performance.  I think this is largely due to the fact that XenServer is still trying to use round robin multipathing but the IBM DS4800 is not allowing access to the LUN through one of the controllers… meaning up to 50% of your I/O requests from XenServer will not be fullfilled.

The testers also put the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows to the test to see if there was any . . . → Read More: Office Suite Scalability on Terminal Services]]> A colleague of mine recently pointed me to this great article on the scalability of office productivity suites on terminal services. The tests reviewed OpenOffice 2.1, Microsoft Office 2003, and Microsoft Office 2007.

The testers also put the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows to the test to see if there was any difference.  You can view the study in its entirety or you can just skip ahead to the results.

The bottom line of the tests show that you will get the highest number of active sessions with Microsoft Office 2003.  Suprisingly Microsoft Office 2007 isn’t all that far behind.  I ususally hear rumblings of how Microsoft Office 2007 is a memory hog but this test seems to debunk that myth.

I completely agree that licensing can . . . → Read More: Underutilized Features of XenApp Platinum]]> Anyone who has worked with or around Citrix licensing knows that there is an incredible amount of value that can be obtained by either upgrading or purchasing XenApp Platinum Edition licenses.  But most people who go the route of Platinum licenses aren’t utilizing all of the features.

I completely agree that licensing can be a real pain sometimes especially when there are frequent changes as there seem to have been lately with  Citrix XenApp licensing.  I would love to post a simple listing of what products are included with the XenApp Platinum license… but unfortunately it just isn’t that simple.  It turns out that for some products like EdgeSight portions of the product are included with Advanced and Enterprise with the all of the individual product features being exposed only in the Platinum license.

OK so I admit that I may not have cleared up any licensing mysteries here, but that wasn’t my goal.  On with the show.  Here are what I feel are the most often overlooked features or products in the XenApp Platinum suite.

Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing- If you can honestly tell me that you have never had to answer the question “how many users can I expect to get on a single XenApp server” then I would say you haven’t built too many XenApp environments.  Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing is an amazing product that allows you to record and replay interactions with XenApp published applications.  Once you have your set of instructions compiled you can then setup a test by replaying those instructions over and over again until you find the breaking points or performance thresholds you are looking for.

Citrix Password Manager- Quite possibly my favorite Citrix product   I use Password Manager EVERYDAY for single sign-on to what feels like about 1000 different applications.  Password Manager as you may have guessed is a single sign-on product that also has self service password functionality.  I find that right out of the box (without complex scripting) I have a very high success rate with configuring applications for single sign-on.  Furthermore, Citrix has expanded the licensing terms of Password Manger to extend its reach to both desktop and offline users!  If you are constantly setting, forgetting, and resetting password on websites you NEED to try Password Manager.

Citrix SmartAuditor- If you have ever worked in any type of support role you know how difficult it can be to diagnose or troubleshoot a problem without some vision into what the end user is seeing.  SmartAuditor can address this problem area by recording sessions and allowing for storage and playback at a later date.  SmartAuditor may also help to address some compliance issues you may have because you can now have a complete visual representation for auditing instead of combing through logs from multiple systems.  I do have to say that I really liked the older name of this product:  Project IRIS (ICA Record ICA Surveillance).

I should point out that I purposely left out the XenApp Platinum features that require additional appliances.  I should also point out that EdgeSight for Load Testing is actually available to XenApp Enterprise and XenApp Platinum customers.

Ok so there are more than just a few problems…  Basically Hot Desktop doesn’t work with Password Manager Agents 4.6.265 and 4.6.266.

When using either . . . → Read More: Hot Desktop Functionality Broken in Password Manager Agent]]> In working on a new deployment of the Hot Desktop feature within Citrix Password Manager I discovered that there are a few problems with the latest Password Manager agents.

Ok so there are more than just a few problems…  Basically Hot Desktop doesn’t work with Password Manager Agents 4.6.265 and 4.6.266.

When using either one of these two agents you will find that Hot Desktop installs without incident but the process that executes the session.xml functions only appears to be triggered on the first logon after a reboot.  That’s a BIG problem because the whole idea behind Hot Desktop is the fast switching from one user account to another!  So if you have to reboot each time a user logs off just to prepare the system for the next user then you probably aren’t shaving very much time off of the logon process.

The good news is that Password Manager Agent 4.6.264 DOES work properly with Hot Desktop.  The bad news… it doesn’t support the new XenApp Platinum licensing model for desktop and offline usage.  As it turns out this isn’t that big of a problem because it’s not very likely that you would need the Hot Desktop functionality in a disconnected or offline mode.

I briefly spoke with Citrix support and they verbally acknowledged that in fact they were aware the functionality was missing or broken in the two latest agents.  I didn’t get a very clear sense of when or if a fix would be available but I did hear that a new release of Password Manager might be on the horizon.