Jarian Gibson » XenDesktop

XenDesktop Remote PC Feature

Jarian Gibson — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:37:28 +0000

Today at Citrix Synergy Citrix announced the Remote PC feature of XenDesktop. This adds another delivery method to the FlexCast model. A lot of people’s reaction have been how is this different from what we have already been doing and that this is not a new feature. This is not a new concept, but addresses challenges with the old/current methods. In the blog post I am going to go over the challenges with past/current methods, how this is different, and what additional features Remote PC provides to XenDesktop.

Providing users access to their physical PCs has been done by either publishing RDP to them in XenApp or installing the XenDesktop VDA and assigning them to their PC. Using either of these methods work, but also provide some challenges. Below are some high level challenges with current methods.

Challenges with XenApp using RDP to connect to PC:

Double hop connection – User launches RDP client using HDX and then connects to their PC using RDP.
User has to remember name or IP address of their PC
User does not get full HDX experience
- Smart Access
- HDX Policies
User is not able to remote power on PC if PC is powered off

Challenges with exiting XenDesktop Brokering to Remote PC:

Issues with XenDesktop VDA and video drivers
- Resolution issues
- Multi monitor issues
Screen doesn’t always black out when connection is made
User is not able to remote power on PC if PC is powered off

The challenges above are resolved by the new XenDesktop Remote PC feature. After the Synergy Keynote I stopped by the Solutions Expo for an overview of the XenDesktop Remote PC feature. Gabe Carrejo of Citrix gave me a great overview and demo of this new feature.

How does XenDesktop Remote PC address these challenges?

Allows full HDX experience to physical PCs
Provides new WDDM Display Driver
- Respects local display adapter
- Uses ThinWire
  - Billions of devices
  - High latency
  - Remote Aero
Power Management feature – power on PC if PC is powered off
- Wake on LAN prototype using Intel AMT technology
RDC Service for touch less administrator PC assignment
- Creates Machine Catalog and Desktop Group
- Maps PC to user automatically

The XenDesktop Remote PC feature will be available to all XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum licensed customers in XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1. This gives you a new distributed virtual desktop delivery method in the FlexCast model allowing you to leverage existing PCs for XenDesktop. Today it is a private technical preview. If you have a customer that is a good use case for this, contact your local Citrix team or Gabe Carrejo to get access to the technical preview. You can contact Gabe via Twitter (@CitrixGabe) or by email.

I am happy that Citrix has released/added this feature to XenDesktop. I have customers trying to do Remote PC using the methods above with challenges. This new feature will address those challenges.

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: XenDesktop Tagged: Remote PC, XenDesktop

HDX Flash Redirection Issue with Internet Explorer on XenDesktop 5.5

Jarian Gibson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:15:01 +0000

I have recently come across an issue with HDX Flash Redirection in a few customers environments. The issue would cause Internet Explorer to completely lockup in an HDX/ICA connection to the desktop. In this blog post, I am going to go over what I have seen around this issue and the possible workarounds and fixes.

What is the issue?

Internet Explorer can lockup when going to a site with Flash content. No matter what the size of the Flash content is, Internet Explorer will lockup. I have seen the most lockups with small Flash banners. You can continue to work in the virtual desktop, but Internet Explorer is unusable until you end the process in Task Manager. I have seen the issue on Windows 7 virtual desktops with Internet Explorer 8 running on XenDesktop 5.5 when using the Receiver 3.0 and Receiver 3.1. There are reports in the Citrix Support Forums that the issue also happens with Internet Explorer 9. Windows XP and XenApp 6.5 have also be reported to have the issue. You can view the Citrix Support Forums post here – Receiver 3.0 and IE 8 Behavior and HDX and IE8 Freezing/Crashing. I have tested XenApp 6.5 and XenDesktop 5.5 but was only able to reproduce the issue on Windows 7 with Internet Explorer 8 in XenDesktop 5.5 when connecting with the Receiver 3.0 or Receiver 3.1. I have not tested Windows XP or Internet Explorer 9.

You can connect to the same virtual machine while Internet Explorer is locked up with a Remote Desktop Connection and Internet Explorer will work fine. You also connect to the virtual machine console while Internet Explorer is locked up and Internet Explorer will work fine.

What are the workarounds?

The workarounds I have tested and confirmed that work are:

Downgrade from Receiver 3.0 or Receiver 3.1 to Online Plug-in 12.x
Downgrade the XenDesktop VDA to 5/5 SP1
Create the UseAudioSyncing (DWord with value 0) Registry Key in HLKM\Software\Citrix\HDXMediaStreamForFlash\Server for 32bit or HLKM\Software\Wow6432node\Citrix\HDXMediaStreamForFlash\Server for 64bit
Disable Flash Redirection – Internet Explorer would pause for a few seconds but still works

What is the fix?

Citrix support has confirmed this is a bug and they are working on a hotfix to fix the issue. You can open a support case with Citrix support and get a private hotfix to address the issue. If you open a case, request private hotfix# LA0691. I have opened a support case myself with Citrix and received the private hotfix. I can confirm the private hotfix has fixed the issue (so far no reports after a week when issue was happening every day) at the customers I have come across the issue at. I have also not been able to reproduce the issue in my tests after installing the hotfix in my test environment.

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: XenDesktop Tagged: Flash, HDX, Internet Explorer 8, XenDesktop 5.5

With the new XenDesktop CCU License options will XenApp only be sold with XenDesktop?

Jarian Gibson — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 05:07:22 +0000

With Citrix’s recent XenDesktop trade up program announcement and adding concurrent user licenses for XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum, will XenApp licenses no longer be sold in the future? Will we soon see the end of XenApp being sold as separate product and only sold with XenDesktop licenses? In this blog post I am going to go over why I think XenApp will start being sold only as part of XenDesktop licenses.

Why do I think XenApp will only be sold with XenDesktop?

With XenDesktop licenses I mean the entire flexcast model. Not just desktops, but XenApp usage as well. After all, with XenDesktop you can use any flexcast usage scenario with Enterprise or Platinum licensing.

Now that Citrix offers XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum licenses in a concurrent user model, all XenDesktop license use cases/scenarios are covered. If you had shift workers across the globe/different time zones, there wasn’t really a XenDesktop license model that would work. XenDesktop users in the US working one shift could not share a XenDesktop license with users in Europe working another shift. Now with the new XenDesktop concurrent Enterprise and Platinum license models, users across the globe/different times zones could share XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum licenses.
New license purchases/additional license purchases will most likely be XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum concurrent user licenses instead of XenApp Enterprise or Platinum licenses. If you are purchasing new/additional licenses why purchase just XenApp Enterprise or Platinum licenses when you could pay a little more and get XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum concurrent users licenses? When purchasing XenDesktop licenses you get flexcast with different options for delivering desktops and applications.
Having a single product license would make licensing less complex. You would no longer have to worry about XenApp vs XenDesktop, concurrent vs per user/device. You would decide how you need licensing in a single product for concurrent or per user/device and not have to worry about XenApp vs XenDesktop licenses. Purchase a XenDesktop license that best fits your needs and decide how you want to use flexcast.
Everything is now about the desktop, everyone is focused on the desktop, and everyone is interested in the desktop. Even on Citrix’s website there is a product category where XenApp is listed under the desktop category.

I don’t see concurrent user licenses as the only license option. Per user/device licenses make sense for most environments. Concurrent user licenses make sense for some environments. Examples would be environments that have over 4 to 5 users to 1 license concurrency rate and/or environments that users aren’t accessing XenApp or XenDesktop for long periods of time.

What about XenApp Fundamentals and Advanced Edition?

For XenApp Fundamentals I could see that staying as is. XenApp Fundamentals is for very small business’s and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I don’t come across XenApp Fundamentals a lot. Most customers I deal with for XenApp are Advanced, Enterprise, or Platinum edition.

Now XenApp Advanced edition I could see changing a few different ways. I see XenApp Advanced licensing changing in one of the following ways:

XenApp Advanced edition being included with XenDesktop VDI edition only. No longer available to be purchased separately. Only allowed to be used for delivering XenApp applications to a virtual desktop. No flexcast.
XenDesktop VDI edition being changed to XenDesktop Advanced edition. Flexcast for XenDesktop Advanced but your options are only hosted virtual desktops, hosted shared desktops on XenApp, hosted applications on XenApp, and streamed applications from XenApp. No streaming to physical desktops using Provisioning Services or offline desktops with XenClient. Basically XenApp Advanced edition features + XenDesktop VDI edition features but with Provisioning Services for virtual desktops and virtual XenApp servers along with Profile Management for both XenDesktop and XenApp. Go back to the XenDesktop licensing model of Express, Advanced, Enterprise, and Platinum editions.

With Citrix now selling XenDesktop concurrent licenses for Enterprise and Platinum editions, I could see the only way to get XenApp in the future could be as part of a XenDesktop license. I have already been asked this by a few people and have seen some others tweet the same thought since the latest XenDesktop trade up program announcement. Now don’t get me wrong even if in the future XenApp will only be sold as part of a XenDesktop license, I still see XenApp as the use case for the majority of users out there. Just because there could possibly only be one license, doesn’t mean there is only one use case. You will still have flexcast and all the delivery options that come with it.

Now XenDesktop really has ”flex licensing” to go along with flexcast.

What are your thoughts on the new XenDesktop concurrent user license options?

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: XenApp, XenDesktop Tagged: Licensing, XenApp, XenDesktop

Using XenDesktop 5 with VMware

Jarian Gibson — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 06:00:31 +0000

Last year I blogged about using VMware with XenDesktop. That article was focused on XenDesktop 4 and VMware integration. With the recent release of XenDesktop 5, it’s time for an updated article. In this blog post I am going to go over using XenDesktop 5 with VMware.

vCenter HTTPS Access

1. If it doesn’t already exist, create a DNS entry for your vCenter server. Another option would be to create a host file entry on your XenDesktop Delivery Controllers and Provisioning Servers for your Virtual Center/vCenter server.

2. Using your browser connect to the FQDN of the vCenter server. You should get a warning about the website’s security certificate. Click continue to this website (not recommended).

3. Click the Certificate Error in the Security Status bar and select View certificates. Once you can see the vCenter certificate, Click Install Certificate.

4. When the Certificate Import Wizard comes up, select Place all certificates in the following store and click Browse.

5. When Select Certificate Store comes up, select Show physical stores then expand Trusted People and then select Local Computer and click Ok.

6. When the Certificate Import Wizard completion screen comes up, click Finish.

7. You will get prompted when the import is successful, click Ok.

8. Close the browser and reopen it. You should be able to browse to your vCenter server without getting any certificate errors.

vCenter role for XenDesktop

When setting up the XenDesktop role in vCenter, the permissions listed in the Citrix eDocs are from the SDK programming guide and some permissions are not what is actually shown in the add a new role dialog box. Differences in permissions are noted below in bold.

Create a role in vCenter with the following permissions:

Datastore Permissions
- Allocate space
- Browse datastore
- File management is listed in Citrix eDocs but it is Low level file operations in vCenter

Network Permissions
- Assign network

Resource Permissions
- Assign virtual machine to resource pool

System Permissions – These permissions are automatically added when you create a role in vCenter.
- Anonymous
- Read
- View
Task Permissions
- Create Task

Virtual Machine/Configuration Permissions
- Add existing disk
- Add new disk
- Change CPU count
- Configure Resource is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Change resource in vCenter
- Memory
- Remove disk

Virtual Machine/Interaction
- Power Off
- Power On
- Reset
- Suspend

Virtual Machine/Inventory
- Create is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Create New in vCenter
- Create from existing
- Delete is listed the Citrix eDocs but is Remove in vCenter
- Register

Virtual Machine/Provisioning
- Clone is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Clone virtual machine in vCenter
- Disk Random Access is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Allow disk access in vCenter
- Get VM Files is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Allow virtual machine download in vCenter
- Put VM Files is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Allow virtual machine files upload in vCenter

Virtual Machine/State
- Create snapshot
- Revert to snapshot

If you want XenDesktop to tag the virtual machines, you must also add the following permissions:

Global
- Manage Custom Fields is in the Citrix eDocs but it is Manager custom attributes in vCenter
- Set Custom Field is in the Citrix eDocs but it is Set custom attribute in vCenter

To use XenDesktop Setup Tool with Provisioning Services, you will have to add the following permissions in addition to what is listed above:

Virtual Machine/Provisioning
- Clone Template
- Deploy Template

Now that we have the XenDesktop role created, assign a domain account to the role. For this article the example domain account is Citirx_services.

One question I am always asked when using XenDesktop with VMware by customers is how to limit virtual machine creation to a certain cluster or servers within vCenter. Follow the steps below to control where virtual machines are deployed within your VMware infrastructure.

Assign the XenDesktop role at the Datacenter level but do not propagate by unselecting Propagate when adding the role.
Assign the XenDesktop role at the Cluster level but do not propagate by unselecting Propagate when adding the role. If you want to control virtual machine creation at the Cluster level then leave Propagate selected. Assign the XenDesktop role to Servers within a Cluster if you want to limit virtual machine creation to certain Servers within a Cluster.
Assign the XenDesktop role to the Networks you want the virtual machines to have access to.
Assign the XenDesktop role the to Datastores you want virtual machines to be created in.
If you are also using folders within vCenter in the VMs and Templates view make sure to also assign the XenDesktop role to the folders you want virtual machines created in.

You should now be able to control where the virtual machines are placed when they are created. See the screenshot below for an example of controlling where virtual machines get created.

In the example above, virtual machines will only be created within the Citrix\Desktops folder on a single server within the VDILab cluster in a single Datacenter in vCenter. The virtual machines will only use the VDI Network and will only be created on the LeftHand_Lab Datastore.

When you create virtual machines using Machine Creation Services or XenDesktop Setup Tool with Provisioning Services, configure the following on the Host screen:

Host type: VMware virtualization
Address: https://vCenter.domain.com/sdk – example vCenter name
Username: domain\citrix_services – example service account for XenDesktop role created in vCenter
Password: password for citrix_services account – example service account password for XenDesktop role created in vCenter

This article was created using vCenter/ESX 4.1, XenDesktop 5 with Machine Creation Services, and Internet Explorer 8.

This blog post was a collaboration with Shane Kleinert (@shanekleinert, CitrixIRC, @CitrixIRC). I would like to give a big thanks to Shane for the team work on this article.

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: VMware, XenDesktop Tagged: VMware, vSphere, XenDesktop, XenDesktop 5

Using XenClient to Update Provisioning Services vDisk Images

Jarian Gibson — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:35:42 +0000

In December of 2009 I wrote about Upgrading Provisioning Services vDisk Target Device Software, Virtual Machine Tools, and Network Drivers. In that blog post I wrote about using the Reverse Imaging, Hyper-V Direct VHD boot, and XenServer Direct VHD boot options for updating Provisioning Services vDisk Target Device Software, Virtual Machine Tools, and Network Drivers. With the recent releases of Provisioning Services 5.6 SP1 and XenServer 5.6 FP1 I decided to test out using XenClient to update the Provisioning Services images. In this blog post I am going to go over another option for updating Provisioning Services vDisk images using XenClient.

Since The Citrix Blog post came out on How to run a NetScaler VPX on XenClient RC2 I have been thinking about other ways to use XenClient for a testing/lab tool and/or as a maintenance tool. When updating Provisioning Services images I have set up a single Hyper-V server at customers with XenDesktop deployments on VMware for the Hyper-V Direct VHD boot option, used the XenServer Direct VHD boot option by setting up a XenServer NFS storage repository, and have even thought about dual booting my laptop with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 for the Hyper-V Direct VHD boot option. I have even considering installing Hyper-V on Provisioning Server for the Hyper-V Direct VHD boot option thanks to my friends over at The Generation V and their blog post Using Hyper-V for PVS vDisk Offline Maintenance. Now with XenClient there is another option for maintenance on Provisioning Services images.

How to update Provisioning Services images using XenClient

Create a new virtual machine on XenClient (Hard drive size doesn’t matter size disk will be deleted after virtual machine creation and select Create VM & Install OS later).
Get the IP address of your XenClient machine. To do this you can hit Ctrl+Shift+T to break out to the terminal on your XenClient machine and run ifconfig.
SSH to your XenClient machine (login with the password set up during install) and change directory to /storage/disks to get the UUID of the virtual machine’s VHD file you just created in step 1. If you have more than one virtual machine on your XenClient machine you can also open the /config/vms/ *.db files and look for the virtual machine name and disk 1 values to get the VHD UUID.
Make a copy of the vDisk image (.VHD and .PVP files) you want to update.
Copy the vDisk image VHD file over to your XenClient machine (using a secure file transfer tool such as WinSCP) /storage/disks directory.
Follow the instructions in Citrix Knowledgeable Article CTX127075 – Attempting to Use a Virtual Hard Disk on XenClient 1.0 Creating using XenConvert or from a Pre-Release XenClient System Fails with Error Code 199 or the XenClient virtual machine will not boot and you will get Error Code 199. Rename the VHD using the same UUID.vhd file name from step 3.
Boot the virtual machine in XenClient.
Update the XenServer tools (Remove Provisioning Services Tools, install XenServer tools, and reboot) and then Provisioning Services Target Device software (Reboot after install).
Check Provisioning Services Target Device NIC binding by running Program Files\Citrix\Provisioning Services\BindCfg.exe and then shut down the virtual machine.
Copy the vDisk image VHD file back to your Provisioning Services vDisk store.
Rename the vDisk image VHD file back to match the name of .PVP.
Import the vDisk into the Provisioning Services console.
Assign the vDisk image to a Target Device.
Boot the Target Device and test to make sure everything is working fine.
Assign to the remaining Target Devices and boot or reboot them to get the updated vDisk image.

I have tested this process with Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 2008 R2 images running on XenServer 5.6 when I upgraded from XenServer 5.6 to XenServer 5.6 FP1 and Provisioning Services 5.6 to Provisioning Services 5.6 SP1.

So now you have another option for updating Provisioning Services images. If you have a desktop or laptop with XenClient installed, try out this process the next time you need to upgrade XenServer tools or Provisioning Services Target Device software.

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: Provisioning Services, XenApp, XenClient, XenDesktop Tagged: Provisioning Server, Provisioning Services, XenApp, XenClient, XenDesktop

XenApp needs an “Application Director” like XenDesktop has the Desktop Director

Jarian Gibson — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 03:20:16 +0000

In an earlier blog post, XenDesktop 5 Announced…Lots of New Features, I discussed the new features of XenDesktop 5 and wrote about the Desktop Director. In that blog post I linked to the Citrix TV Tour of Desktop Director video and as I keep watching that video I keep thinking how something like the Desktop Director could be used with XenApp. Then I was recently in a XenDesktop one day training class and got to see XenDesktop 5 up close. In this one day of training I was able to get hands on with XenDesktop 5 and its various new features. As I was working with one of the new features, Desktop Director, I thought to myself XenApp needs an “Application Director” just like the Desktop Director.

What is the Desktop Director?

The XenDesktop Desktop Director lets you manage, monitor, and remotely connect to/shadow XenDesktop sessions all from a single web-based console. The Desktop Director lets help desk and lower level support staff perform day-to-day operations of user’s desktops. One place to see what’s going on in a XenDesktop environment and gives a complete view of the environment. Searches can be performed in the Desktop Director Console to easily drill down to a single user/desktop session for troubleshooting purposes. All the data in the Desktop Director is only kept for 24 hours. If you want historical data for reporting purposes you will need to setup and configure EdgeSight.

Why does XenApp need an “Application Director”?

Having an Application Director for XenApp with the ability to manage, monitor, and shadow XenApp sessions, published applications, and published desktops from a single console for day-to-day operations would be a very nice value add to XenApp. Along with sessions, published applications, and published desktops; XenApp server’s performance metrics should be displayed as well. I see it as a great tool for help desk and lower level support staff instead of publishing the Delivery Services Console and/or shadow taskbar along with giving them access to the EdgeSight console. As we all know, EdgeSight can be a beast to navigate thru if you don’t know what you are looking for. Help desk and lower level support staff would have better ease of use in a more simplistic console with the Application Director.

What about EdgeSight?

Taking things one step further why not evolve EdgeSight into a “Citrix Director” type product where the Desktop and Application Directors are integrated into it? If you are a non-Platinum XenApp or XenDesktop customer you only get the data from the consoles for 24 hours. If you are a Platinum XenApp or XenDesktop customer or upgrade to Platinum then the consoles point to a Citrix Director server where you can get more information and have historical data for your XenApp and/or XenDesktop deployments. Currently EdgeSight can also monitor NetScaler but what about XenServer and Branch Repeater? Integrate the XenServer, NetScaler, and Branch Repeater products into the “Citrix Director” so you can get complete monitoring of your entire Citrix infrastructure from a single product.

I like the look and feel of the Desktop Director. It is very easy to navigate through and get the information you need. Create an Application Director for XenApp and then take the same approach with EdgeSight and give it an overhaul to a “Citrix Director” type product with the same look and feel as the Desktop Director. What do you think a “Citrix Director” type product should look like?

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: XenApp, XenDesktop Tagged: Desktop Director, XenApp, XenDesktop

XenDesktop 5 Announced…Lots of New Features

Jarian Gibson — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 02:31:33 +0000

Citrix Synergy has been going on this week in Berlin. A lot of good announcements were made this week at Citrix Synergy Berlin. On of the biggest announcements was XenDesktop 5. On Citrix TV you are able to watch some of the sessions from anywhere. This morning I was able to watch the What’s new in XenDesktop? The best desktop virtualization solution is now even better. I took lots of notes during the session so in this blog post I am going to go over the new features in XenDesktop 5.

Watching the What’s new in XenDesktop? session this morning XenDesktop 5 was unveiled and some demonstrations were done by the Citrix XenDesktop team. Aaron Cockeril Sr Dir Product Management and Ken Bell Senior Architect XenDesktop gave us really good demonstrations and an overview of the new features in XenDesktop 5.

XenDesktop 5 New Features:

Runs on Windows Server 2008 R2
Integrated Consoles – Desktop Studio (MMC based Admin Console) and Desktop Director (Web-based Help Desk Console)
Designed for Automation – PowerShell Integration, Displaced the old DSMAINT, DSCHECK, etc commands
Storage Integration/Optimization – XenServer and ESX NFS based, Hyper-V CSV based
Improved Client Experience - Same consistent look and feel across multiple devices using single web page for access
Optimized Printing – 90% reduction in bandwidth – HDX Nitro Project Laser
Adaptive Orchestration and Intelligent QoS – HDX, Webcam Video Compression
Site-based deployment – SQL Mirroring, SQL Clustering, HA VM
Increased Scale – No more dedicated farm master (ZDC) or dedicated brokers, distributed across Delivery Controllers
Increased Resilience – Delivery Controller to desktop pool/hypervisor with failover/failback between Delivery Controllers
Simplified Desktop Groups – User mappings are to the desktops, not to the desktop groups

Citrix XenDesktop 5 now only has 2 main consoles. The Desktop Studio console and the Desktop Director console. With these new console XenDesktop 5 now is simpler to deploy, simpler to maintain, and simpler to manage. The Desktop Studio console is for the administrators while the Desktop Director console is for the help desk staff. Finally a single console to administer XenDesktop.

Desktop Studio Console

The Desktop Studio is console is the administrative console for XenDesktop 5. In the Desktop Studio console is where all the action happens for configuring, deploying, and maintaining the XenDesktop infrastructure. The Desktop Studio console looks a lot more improved than XenDesktop 4 admin consoles. It’s an MMC 3.0 based console. Everything you do in the Desktop Studio console can be done with PowerShell. When you do tasks in the Desktop Studio console the console displays a full log of all PowerShell commands performed. You can copy and paste the commands and start working on your PowerShell scripts to administer your XenDesktop infrastructure.

The Desktop Studio console gives the options to quick deploy desktops, join an existing deployment, perform a desktop deployment, or do an application deployment (VM Hosted Apps). All your desktops are provisioned and deployed in the Desktop Studio console. No more XenDesktop Setup Wizard, it’s integrated in the Desktop Studio console. Once images are deployed updates are a lot simpler in the Desktop Studio console. There is a wizard to update the desktops with rollout policies to update on user logoff, notify the user then restart in x amount of minutes, or update immediately. You also have rapid rollback to revert to the previous image instantly.

Provisioning Services is also now integrated into the Desktop Studio console. You take an existing virtual machine/master image and Provisioning Services uses that master image to copy the first image and then makes thin copies to deploy out. The thin copies are a much smaller in size than the master image. Each thin copy has an identity file with changes made in differencing disk. You can choose to keep the differencing disk or throw the changes away like standard mode images today.

Along with integrated Provisioning Services, XenDesktop 5 has improved storage integration. XenDesktop 5 now has improved use of local storage where you can quick deploy virtual desktops within minutes using the XenDesktop 5 quick deploy feature. Also storage optimizations for file based storage – NFS based storage for XenServer and ESX and CSV based storage for Hyper-V. XenServer 5.6 Feature Pack 1 also looks to add more improvements for XenDesktop 5. From the release notes of XenServer 5.6 Feature Pack 1 – XenDesktop performance improvements Further enhances the best-in-class performance for XenDesktop on XenServer including local storage caching for better TCO and increased scalability via performance tuning in the control domain (requires a future version of XenDesktop to use).

For a video tour of Desktop Studio see – Citrix TV Tour of Desktop Studio

Desktop Director Console

The Desktop Director console is designed for help desk staff. The Desktop Director console is web-based and accessible from any browsers. User access is created/granted in the Desktop Studio console. There is no backend database for the Desktop Director console, instead it queries the virtual desktop agents, Delivery Controllers, and hypervisor hosts live. No historical data is kept. EdgeSight is still needed for historical data. By default the Desktop Director is deployed on the Desktop Controllers but can be deployed on any IIS server.

The Desktop Director console allows fast resolution of issues for your help desk staff by giving them a single comprehensive view with an instant overview, diagnostics, and monitoring of your XenDesktop 5 deployment. From the demo this morning it looks like the HDX Monitor may be built into the Desktop Director as well. The Desktop Director now has built-in XenDesktop session shadowing that is integrated with the Microsoft Remote Assistance technology. Desktop Director users can build custom searches and filters for querying the XenDesktop 5 deployment.

For a video tour of Desktop Director see – Citrix TV Tour of Desktop Director

With XenDesktop 5 a lot of issues and complaints in the previous versions have been addressed like Windows Server 2008 support, simplified/single management console, and easier deployment. XenDesktop was tough to beat already and now with the release of XenDesktop 5 it just became event tougher to beat. I can’t wait to get my hands on it and start working with it.

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: XenDesktop Tagged: XenDesktop

XenDesktop Deployments…Single or Multiple Hypervisor Infrastructure?

Jarian Gibson — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:39:16 +0000

While working on a XenDesktop project in a huge VMware shop, I started thinking if a single hypervisor should be used or if multiple hypervisors should be used in XenDesktop deployments. Then I was on a conference call with Scott Lane, Senior Systems Engineer for Citrix in the Great Plains Area and also a co-author on this post, about the same XenDesktop project and we started discussing thoughts on this. A number of factors came to mind like cost of the hypervisor (VMware licenses for the XenDesktop project are adding a nice chunk of change to the cost of the deployment), hypervisor features, etc. In this blog post I am going to talk about things to consider about different hypervisors for XenDesktop deployments.

I often go into shops that already have large VMware infrastructures deployed and talk about XenDesktop. When I’m talking to the customer or potential customer about XenDesktop I always mention that with XenDesktop VDI, Enterprise, or Platinum Editions they will also get XenServer Enterprise Edition. This always gets mixed results. Most think I’m trying to push VMware out the door when I talk about XenServer. This is not the case at all. When I talk about XenServer I am focused on the XenDesktop environment and nothing else in their environment. I tell the customer that you may want to look at XenServer for the provisioned XenDesktop virtual Windows desktops and XenApp servers and then use their existing VMware infrastructure for the XenDesktop infrastructure components. Use XenServer that is included with XenDesktop for your XenDesktop Windows desktop and XenApp server infrastructure and continue to use your VMware infrastructure for everything else.

I also talk about the open architecture of XenDesktop and that they can choose between Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware vSphere hypervisors for the XenDesktop virtual desktops. I talk about Hyper-V as another option and the benefits of using Hyper-V for the hypervisor in XenDesktop deployments especially when the customer is talking about deploying Windows 7 and Windows 2008 virtual machines in their XenDesktop infrastructure. Some think that having multiple hypervisors is too much to manage or there is a big learning curve. Most customers I have worked with that are strong in virtualization find XenServer pretty easy to learn. With tools like System Center Virtual Machine Manager that can manage ESX/vSphere and Hyper-V from a single console make management of multiple hypervisors easy for multiple hypervisor deployments. When System Center Virtual Machine Manager supports management of XenServer, all three hypervisors will be managed from a single console.

XenDesktop deployments on Citrix XenServer considerations:

Included with XenDesktop, no extra cost for the hypervisor
XenServer redundancy built-in (no management server to deploy)
- CTX122458 – How to Integrate XenServer Redundantly into a XenDesktop Infrastructure
- The Generation V – How XenDesktop recovers from a XenServer failed pool master
XenCenter is easy to use for both server virtualization and desktop administrators
Single vendor to call for technical support
XenServer 5.6 features has made XenServer a more complete product
- Dynamic Memory Control
- Enhanced CPU compatibility for XenMotion
- Enhanced snapshots, including full system state and one-click revert
- Automation for Workload Balancing
- Administrative Delegation, Logging and Audit Reports
XenServer virtual machine tools have to be installed and maintained
XenServer can direct boot VHD files to update XenServer tools and Provisioning Services tools
- Citrix Knowledge Center Article CTX123395 – How to Update Provisioning Server Target Device Software using a Network File Share with XenServer
- The Citrix Blogs – PVS 5.1 Direct VHD Boot using XenServer
New option in XenServer 5.6 to select network boot when building virtual machine template
XenServer has built-in optimizations for XenApp
Citrix Virtual Appliances are released on XenServer first
Having XenServer already in place makes you already prepared for Multi-GPU Passthrough for HDX 3D Pro Graphics and Distributed Virtual Switching (DVS) that are coming in tech preview/private beta soon.
- Citrix Knowledge Center Article CTX125574 - XenServer 5.6 Multi-GPU Passthrough for HDX 3D Pro Graphics
- The Citrix Blogs – Private beta release of XenServer distributed virtual switching (DVS) coming soon!

XenDesktop deployments on Microsoft Hyper-V R2 considerations:

System Center Virtual Machine Manager is needed to manage hosted virtual desktops
Server and Desktop administrators who already use System Center products will already be familiar with the look and feel of System Center Virtual Machine Manager console
System Center Essentials 2010 could be used for smaller XenDesktop deployments (for XenDesktop deployments under 500 seats when supported)
Management server (System Center Virtual Machine Manager or Essentials 2010) can be single point of failure for management of hosted virtual desktops
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Edition is free with features like Live Migration, Host Clustering, etc but needs System Center Virtual Machine Manager or Essentials 2010 to manage hosted virtual desktops
System Center Virtual Machine Manager or Essentials 2010 console needs to be installed on XenDesktop Delivery Controllers and Provisioning Servers for management and for use with XenDesktop Setup Wizard
Windows 7 virtual desktops and XenApp servers running on Windows 2008 have integration components built-in to the operating system. No need for 3rd party virtual machine tools to install and maintain.
Hyper-V can direct boot VHD files to update Provisioning Services tools
- The Citrix Blogs – New Way to Upgrade with PVS 5.1 and Hyper-V
Legacy NIC needed for network boot/Provisioning Services and Synthetic NIC for all other traffic
Network boot enabled in virtual machine settings
Windows 7 and Windows 2008 on Hyper-V are better together
Citrix and Microsoft relationship
- Citrix Knowledge Center Article CTX124687 – XenDesktop with Microsoft Hyper-V Design Guide
- The Citrix Blogs – Seven Things I Learned Testing XenDesktop with Hyper-V
- Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V for site recovery/disaster recovery
System Center Virtual Machine Manager for mixed vSphere and Hyper-V deployments with XenServer support coming in the future for a possibly mixed environment of all 3 hypervisors
Having Hyper-V already in place makes you already prepared for RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory that are coming in service pack 1

XenDesktop deployments on VMware vSphere considerations:

Added cost of VMware infrastructure
Has per processor/core licensing (systems that have processors with over 6 cores need Advanced or Enterprise Plus licenses)
- VMware Multi-Core Pricing & Licensing Policy
- VMware vSphere 4 Pricing, Packaging, and Licensing Overview
vSphere/vCenter server is needed to manage virtual desktops
Management server (vSphere/vCenter) can be single point of failure for management of hosted virtual desktops
VMware ESXi is free but needs vSphere/vCenter server/agents to manage hosted virtual desktops
- Citrix Knowledge Center Article CTX124952 – Citrix Statement of Support for VMware ESXi and Citrix XenDesktop
vSphere/vCenter has to be setup to allow HTTP access, default SSL certificate imported (VI 3.5), or SSL certificate needed (vSphere 4) for XenDesktop Delivery Controller access/management and for use with the XenDesktop Setup Wizard
- Jarian Gibson – Using XenDesktop with VMware
- The Citrix Blogs – Secret to getting Virtual Center to use an Enterprise CA SSL certificate
VMware integration issues with Provisioning Services Target Devices – VMXNet3 driver issues with Windows Vista, 7, and 2008
- Citrix Knowledge Center Article CTX125361 – ESX Target Device Fails to Boot
VMware integration issues with XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent – Video driver issues with Windows Vista and Windows 7
- Citrix Knowledge Center Article CTX124877 – Unable to Connect to XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent on Vista or Windows 7 with WDDM Driver
- Citrix Knowledge Center Article CTX123952 – Unable to Connect to XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent on Windows 7 with VMware Tools ESX 4.0 Update 1 – also had to do this when installing XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent on Windows 7 or install would fail
VMware virtual machine tools have to be installed and maintained
VMware virtual machine has to be reversed imaged to update virtual machine tools or Provisioning Services tools – Hyper-V or XenServer instance in VMware environment could also do this
Network boot enabled in virtual machine BIOS by editing virtual machine properties to enter BIOS on next boot
Need at least a 1MB disk attached or Target Device will BSOD
- Citrix Knowledge Center Article CTX119739 – Provisioning Server and VMware ESX Interoperability Guide
Most matured hypervisor with largest data center footprint

So as you can see a number of factors come into play when choosing a hypervisor for your XenDesktop infrastructure. Some customers I have worked with have stayed with their current hypervisor and kept a single hypervisor infrastructure all on VMware vSphere. While other customers I have worked with have gone with multiple hypervisor infrastructures having the XenDesktop infrastructure components on VMware vSphere and the virtual desktops on Citrix XenServer. I have even had one customer put everything relating to Citrix on Citrix XenServer and kept the rest of their infrastructure on VMware vSphere. I will be doing an install next month in a pure XenServer environment (They have been running Xen since long before the Citrix acquisition). The demo lab at my office and what we use for workshops is a mix of Citrix XenServer for the virtual appliances and Microsoft Hyper-V R2 for everything else. Microsoft Hyper-V R2 is getting more consideration and interest lately and I expect to start doing more and more XenDesktop deployments on Hyper-V soon.

For XenDesktop deployments do you stick with a single or have multiple hypervisors? Every environment is different and everyone has their own take on this. With the way the economy has been customers are looking at other options instead of paying a premium for what they currently have. Especially since cost for and deployment of a XenDesktop infrastructure are a huge factors these days. Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V R2 are getting more and more interest and gaining ground every day as the feature sets become more and more comparable with VMware vSphere. With XenDesktop having an open architecture you have options when it comes to the hypervisor. The hypervisor is becoming a commodity anyway, right?

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: Hyper-V, VMware, XenDesktop, XenServer Tagged: ESX, Hyper-V, vSphere, XenDesktop, XenServer

Using EdgeSight in Provisioned XenDesktop Environments

Jarian Gibson — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:26:47 +0000

When using EdgeSight in provisioned XenDesktop environments you have a few options when using the EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent. Monitoring provisioned XenDesktop environments is pretty straight forward and fairly easy to setup with minimal requirements. In this blog post I am going to go over what the requirements are for provisioned XenDesktop environments and how to setup the EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops agent.

What is required to use the EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent when provisioning XenDesktop desktop images?

The EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops agent requires an EdgeSight Agent Database Broker and an Agent Data File Share for EdgeSight data or local persistent disk when used in provisioned XenDesktop environments. What this means is you need to setup an EdgeSight Database Broker and an Agent Data File Share for EdgeSight data or a local persistent disk attached to each XenDesktop desktop instance, whether streaming the XenDesktop desktop image to virtual or physical machines, for the EdgeSight data.

The EdgeSight Agent Database Broker is a separate instance from your EdgeSight server that runs on a Windows server 2003 (SP1 or later) or Windows Server 2008 virtual or physical machine. Depending on the size of your XenDesktop infrastructure you may have a single or multiple EdgeSight Agent Database Broker instances. The EdgeSight Agent Database Broker on a Windows server can broker about 80 EdgeSight for Virtual Desktop Agents. I have read that the EdgeSight Agent Database Broker can also be installed on a Windows workstation virtual or physical machine and supports about 40 EdgeSight for Virtual Desktop Agents but the install guide only talks about using Windows Server. When you are using Standard vDisk mode with the write cache on a shared location from your Provisioning Servers or in the target device RAM, you will need to use the EdgeSight Agent Database Broker and the Agent Data File Share for EdgeSight data.

The local persistent disk is already setup if you using the Standard vDisk mode with write cache on target device hard drive. If don’t have this setup, you are either placing the Provisioning Services write cache in the target device RAM or on the Provisioning Servers/shared location. Along with EdgeSight data, you can also store Windows Event Logs, Crash Dumps, Windows Page File, and Application Streaming rade cache on the local persistent disk.

Installing the EdgeSight Agent Database Broker

Installing the EdgeSight Agent Database Broker is pretty straight forward except the following:

When installing the EdgeSight Agent Database Broker, the XenDesktop Farm name or Desktop Group name must be specified on the Agent Location dialog. In smaller farms this can be the XenDesktop Farm name but in larger farms Desktop Group names should be used. Remember whatever you enter in Pool Name field needs to be entered on the Advanced Settings install dialog when installing EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent.

Setup the Agent Data File Share for EdgeSight data with the following permissions:
- Authenticated Users need the following Share permissions
  - Change and Read
- Authenticated Users need the following NTFS permissions:
  - List Folder/Read Data
  - Read Attributes
  - Read Extended Attributes
  - Create Folders/Append Data
  - Delete
  - Read

Installing the EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent to use with EdgeSight Database Broker

Installing the EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent to use with the EdgeSight Database Broker is pretty straight forward except for the following:

When installing the EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent, the vDisk must be in Private Mode.
At the Advanced Settings dialog, you must enable Configure the agent for virtual desktops. When you enable Configure the agent for virtual desktops you must also enter the Agent Data File Share where the EdgeSight data will be stored, the Pool Name (XenDesktop Farm or Desktop Group name depending on the size of your farm but must match what you entered during the EdgeSight Agent Database Broker), and the EdgeSight Agent Database Broker server.

Once the EdgeSight Agent Database Broker, Agent Data File Share for EdgeSight data, and EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent are install and running, you should see a folder and file structure like the following on the on the Agent Data File Share for EdgeSight data:

Installing the EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent to use with a local persistent write cache disk

Installing the EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent is the same process as installing it on a non provisioned XenDesktop desktop except for the following:

When installing the EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent, the vDisk must be in Private Mode.
At the Agent Location dialog, change the default location of the data files folder to your persistent local disk. Default location is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Citrix\System Monitoring\Data\ for Windows XP or C:\ProgramData\Citrix\System Monitoring\Data for Windows 7. Change this to your local persistent disk. For example if my local persistent disk is E:\, I would change the data files folder to something like E:\Citrix\System Monitoring\Data.

At the Advanced Settings dialog, leave Configure the agent for virtual desktops unchecked.

How do I use the EdgeSight for Virtual Desktops Agent with provisioned XenDesktop desktops in Private Mode?

All you have to do is set the REG_DWORD IgnorePVSMode to 1 in the registry at HKLM\Software\Citrix\System Monitoring\Agent\Core\4.00. Thanks to David Sachon from Citrix for helping me out in the Citrix Support Forums.

For more information see the Citrix Blog post – How to EdgeSight While you XenDesktop and the Citrix Knowledge Center article CTX124851 – EdgeSight for XenDesktop Best Practices.

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: EdgeSight, Provisioning Services, XenDesktop Tagged: EdgeSight, Provisioning Server, Provisioning Services, XenDesktop

Using XenDesktop with Hyper-V

Jarian Gibson — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:06:47 +0000

Recently I have worked with Hyper-V and SCVMM in my lab to get more hands on with Hyper-V R2. I also recently started working with XenDesktop and Hyper-V using the lab manuals I received when I attended Citrix and Microsoft VDI Training back in November. Using XenDesktop with Hyper-V is a pretty straight forward process. In this blog post I am going to go over the process of using XenDesktop with Hyper-V.

XenDesktop Delivery Controller and Hyper-V

Allowing the XenDesktop Delivery Controller (XDDC) to manage virtual desktops on Hyper-V, you need System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) in your environment. You need to install the SCVMM console on your XDDC.

The requirements for the SCVMM console when used with XenDesktop are:

Windows 2003 (XenDesktop limitation)
.Net 2.0 – XDDC install installs .Net 3.5 SP1
Powershell 1.0 or greater

You can install the SCVMM console before or after installing the XDDC. If you install the SCVMM console before installing the XDDC, the XDDC install will automatically install the SCVMM plugin to allow you to choose Microsoft Virtualization for the hosting infrastructure when creating a desktop group.

If you install the SCVMM console after installing the XDDC, the XDDC install will not install the SCVMM plugin and you will not be able to choose Microsoft Virtualization for the hosting infrastructure when creating a desktop group.

To add the SCVMM plugin for the XDDC after the XDDC install, you need to do the following:

Go into Control Panel
Click Add/Remove Programs
Select Citrix Pool Management
Click Change next to Citrix Pool Management
Click Next on Welcome to the Citrix Pool Management Setup Wizard screen
Click Modify on Citrix Pool Management Setup Modify, Repair or Remove installation screen
Change the Microsoft SCVMM Plugin to Will be install on the local hard drive on the Citrix Pool Management Setup Custom Setup Screen and Click Next
Click Install on the Citrix Pool Management Ready to Install screen
Click Finish on the Completing the Citrix Pool Management Setup Wizard
Now you should be able to see Microsoft Virtualization for the hosting infrastructure when creating a desktop group

See the following screenshots to modify the XenDesktop installation for Microsoft virtualization

Provisioning Services, XenDesktop Setup Wizard, and Hyper-V

Allowing the XenDesktop Setup Wizard to communicate with/create desktops on Hyper-V from your Provisioning Servers, you need to also install the SCVMM console on your Provisioning Servers. Your Provisioning Servers can be Windows 2003 or 2008 with Powershell 1.0 or greater (Download and install for Windows 2003 or install as a feature for Windows 2008). Once you have the SCVMM console installed, you can create desktops using the XenDesktop Setup Wizard on your Hyper-V infrastructure.

As you can see, using XenDesktop with Hyper-v is pretty straight forward. A lot easier if you install the SCVMM console before installing the XenDesktop Delivery Controller.

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: Hyper-V, Provisioning Services, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, XenDesktop Tagged: Hyper-V, Provisioning Server, Provisioning Services, SCVMM, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, XenDesktop