When I was working on my ultimate Citrix XenDesktop internals cheat sheet just a couple of weeks ago I also got asked (thanks, Jamie) if I would consider updating my printing internals cheat sheet. After giving this some thought – which took me about a minute – I decided this was a great idea and got right to it. Although printing, especially on SBC environments is quite stable, in the sense that not a lot has changed throughout the last couple of years when it comes to the architecture, pathways, traffic flow and so on, I managed to rewrite a great deal (almost all) of the material published earlier and to include a bunch of new facts, figures and ‘nice to knows’ along the way. All this, together with the renewed look and feel, freshly created images and the addition of a Table of Contents will greatly enhance your reading experience, I’m sure. If you download a .PDF copy that is.
Demystifying the Citrix XenApp logon, enumeration and launch steps — new details included
This continues to be a topic of interest. Not only is it interesting and fun (right?) to know what is going on underneath the hood once you fill in your user credentials, it can also be very helpful when it comes to troubleshooting certain issues. While I have written about the login, enumeration and launch processes before, again I managed to include a couple of subtle changes/details.
What’s new… Printing in Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp 7.9? A more in-depth look.
While there have been some major announcements at Synergy, like the Microsoft / Citrix pact including Azure, Office 356, Windows 10 VDI and more, some huge improvements to MCS regarding I/O storage optimizations, including MCS provisioning for the Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor, the Federated Authentication Service, which was also (very) well received, I’d like to focus on a few smaller enhancements. Though ‘small’ does not mean less important, au contraire – as the French would say.
E2EVC… The one in Lisbon. The XD 7.6 HA (im) possibilities – presentation video!
A few moths ago, back in November 2015, Wilco van Bragt and I gave a presentation at E2EVC in Lisbon, Portugal. Our session was named: The XenDesktop 7.6 HA and Failover (im) possibilities, suggestions are welcome. We talked about some of the options we had (for example, Zones were not optional back then) in making our workloads highly available (Load Balancing included) using features and technologies like: StoreFront MultiSite configurations, Connection Leasing, Application groups and more. Next to that we also touched on some of the things still missing, at least according to our point of view. You can watch the full recording here.
Citrix NetScaler… The basics continued, part three. High Availability!
I think we are all familiar with the term High Availability, or HA in short. It simply means that if a single machine or system fails we will have another equally configured system, or multiple, in standby mode or actively participating a.k.a. active / active, ready to take over when needed. This way we won’t loose any of the functionality that the failing, or failed, machine was providing us with. Which in the case of the NetScaler could be anything from a Gateway to Load Balancing, SSL offloading, Content Switching and more. Needless to say that the Citrix NetScaler has some nifty build-in HA capabilities as well.
Citrix NetScaler… The basics continued, part two. Static routes, SNIP and MIP!
Before we jump into what a static route actually is and why we would like, or need, to configure one we must first have a basic understanding of the so-called SNIP, or Subnet IP Address, in full. And while we are at it, we will have a quick look at the MIP, Mapped IP Address, as well. Both er important to understand how traffic flows through a NetScaler device.
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.