I like, no wait, I love lists… there, I’ve said it. But no, really, I think (bulleted) lists are one of the best ways to share facts and knowledge. That’s also why I used multiple lists in my book, dozens of them containing hundreds of bulleted (FMA) facts. Throughout the various chapters I highlight multiple so-called ‘FMA facts’, 116 in total to be exact and I conclude each chapter with a list of key takeaways. This post is meant to share with you most of the FMA Facts that I came up while writing The FlexCast Management Architecture, though I did slightly alter quite a few of them.
The Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop FMA Services complete overview – new 7.12 Services included
The release of XenApp/XenDesktop version 7.12 introduced couple of new FMA services (primarily used by LHC) — time for an update. As you might be aware, I have written multiple articles on the FlexCast Management Architecture in the past (including my book) talking about its core services, their responsibilities, capabilities, communication channels/interfaces and so on. Throughout the past two years I also came up with a nice graphical overview (at least I like to think so) representing a Delivery Controller including all main FMA services. This article/post is meant to provide you with a continues update on the FMA and its primary core services, graphical overview included. Each time something changes you’ll read about it here – as soon as NDA has been lifted of course.
Citrix Synergy SYN508 – Houdini’s guide to Citrix printing, slide deck
Last Tuesday I gave my first ever Citrix Synergy presentation. It was a so-called Expo Theater session as part of the ‘Meet the Experts’ program over at the Citrix booth. Exiting to say the least. Luckily it went well and I received some very positive feedback. Afterwards multiple attendees approached me asking for the slide deck. I promised to make it available on basvankaam.com as soon as possible. So here it is. Just imagine the slide animations being in there as well. If you have any questions and/or other remarks please let me know by leaving a comment, a PM on Twitter, or just send me an email. Thanks everybody.
How to configure zones in XenDesktop and XenApp 7.7 plus some extra’s!
Yes, Zones are back! This seems to be a very popular quote on Twitter and Linked-In ever since Citrix released XenApp/XenDesktop 7.7 last week. And to honest, I’m exited as well. Are these the zones we were, or are used to in XenApp 6.5? No. But they’re close. After I installed XenDesktop 7.7 the morning after its release, I had 3 zones up and running within 5 minutes, and that’s only because I didn’t read the ‘manual’ up front. Let’s have a look and see what we come up with along the way. I took the bullet approach on this one. Scroll down for some screenshots on how to configure XenDesktop / XenApp zones.
Citrix IMA vs. FMA… XenDesktop components and terminology cheat sheet
This post is meant to provide you with a quick comparison, a cheat sheet if you will, between the two architectures. As you all (should) know by now, with the introduction of XenDesktop 7.x XenApp became part of the Flexcast Management Architecture, or FMA in short, and with this came certain terminology and conceptual changes. Here I would like to show you how each former 6.5 (IMA) XenApp component has its equivalent in the FMA world. Although technically there are some differences, on the functional side of things there is not much between them. To be clear, I’m not focusing on features that are in IMA and (still) not in FMA.
Citrix Synergy 2015, here’s what to expect. Or not.
Next week I will be in Orlando attending my first ever Citrix Synergy and as you can imagine there’s a lot to be excited about and look forward to. To name a few… there will be dozens of technical deep dive and Geek Speak sessions, meeting up with community friends, getting to know new people, the Keynote, new and (hopefully) surprising product announcements, dinner parties, other parties :) the welcome reception, TechEdge, the closing appreciation party in the Universal Studio’s etc. And besides all that I also have my very own Match.Geek sessions to look forward to (exiting stuff). Yes, I think it’s safe to say that we will all have a great time in Orlando, once again. Like many others, I have my expectations and hopes on what will be announced at Synergy this year, so without further ado I’ll list them here.
The glass is half full… 50+ reasons why I think it might be time to move to XenApp 7.6!
In this post I’ll list a whole bunch of reasons why I think it might be time to move your current XenApp IMA setup onto the new and enhanced FMA, which, depending on your license, could be either XenApp and/or XenDesktop. I’m sure you’ll find some of my arguments a bit to far-fetched or perhaps plain stupid even, and that’s fine. Feel free to comment. As the title implies I’m trying to take a positive approach here, so I won’t focus on any of the features (still) left out. Eventually we will all migrate, it’s only a question of when. Note that the below comments are in a random order.
Connection Leasing vs. Local Host Cache. Conclusion? CL doesn’t stand a chance!
When Citrix re-released their XenApp and XenDesktop products not that long ago, things changed. XenApp’s Independent Management Architecture, IMA, was no more and got replaced by XenDesktop’s Flexcast Management Architecture, or FMA. With it some of the functionality and features loved and used by many disappeared as well. Features like Sessions Lingering, Anonymous Users, Pre-Launch and a few more, were missed, and for some this even became one of the main reasons not to migrate at that time. Luckily Citrix has again reinstated some of the most popular features known to XenApp 6.5, again, not all, but some, in its latest XenApp release, version 7.6.
Citrix XenDesktop 7.5… What’s new?!
You know what’s funny? Last weekend (Saturday the 25th of January 2014 to be exact) when Citrix leaked its introduction video, with regards to the new Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.5 releases, it was all XenApp from there on, not a word, with a small exception here and there, on the new XenDesktop 7.5 release. I guess we were all just flabbergasted (what a cool word) with the re-introduction of XenApp, most of us anyway. Also, due to the rise of mobile computing, and mobility in general, It’s (and going to be) more and more about the applications then anything else, which, when you think about it, makes sense. I found some spare time and I’d like to spend a minute or two looking at some of the new features and functionality introduced with the release of Xendesktop 7.5.