Since this will officially be my first blog post as a Citrix CTP, I would like to start by thanking everybody for your support during the last couple of years and of course for all the congratulations and well wishes I have received since the official announcement last week. It has been a truly wonderful experience! Having said that, let’s get back on topic. This is not going to be a MCS vs. PVS kind of blog post; there are plenty of good ones out there already, instead I will assume that you already choose MCS over PVS. However, while the choice has been made you still have some doubts as to weather MCS is up to the task at hand. Throughout this post I will summarize some things to think about and questions to ask when and before implementing Citrix MCS.
Installing and configuring Citrix XenDesktop on the Nutanix computing platform!
Have you checked out the ‘Citrix XenDesktop on Nutanix’ reference architecture solution design document?! No? You should! The Citrix Validated Solution (CVS) provides prescriptive guidance for these components including design, configuration and deployment settings thereby allowing customers to quickly deploy a desktop virtualization solution using Citrix XenDesktop. Validation was performed by extensive testing using Login VSI to simulate real-world workloads and determine optimal configuration for the integration of components that make up the overall solution. Everything in the solution document has been installed, configured, tested and verified by the Citrix Consulting APAC team. Can’t wait? Scroll down!
XenDesktop (MCS) Personal vDisks
So, I’m back from my holiday (Tenerife Spain) but still have a couple of days off from work, although I’ll probably be back working by the time this goes online, anyway… Since I’m preparing for, and putting together a presentation on XenDesktop 7 which is due on October 1st I thought it might be smart to invest some of my spare time to get things organized. As I’m working on my slides, in which I also highlight Machine Creation Services, MCS in short, as part of the XD7 architecture, I came across Personal vDisks, kind of a hard one to miss I guess. Now, I’m not sure if this will make it into my presentation since it’s not a direct XD7 feature (although it has been updated to version 7.x have a look here) and it has been ‘on the market’ for over a year and a half, I still think it’s definitely one worth having a look at.
FlexCast Management Architecture
Or FMA in short. Did you hear? Citrix officially launched XenDesktop 7 just a few weeks ago. One of the biggest releases in years! Of-course I’m just kidding, who could have missed that?! Citrix also announced XenApp 6.5 FP 2 which will be released in June, once again enhancing and extending XenApp’s life, a good thing if you ask me. Although it seems that the Independent Management Architecture (IMA) will probably be around for many more years to come, it’s all FMA from now on when it comes to future developments. I thought it might be a good idea (and time) to have a closer look at FMA. Is it new technology? No. Is it improved? Definitely! Detailed overview? Scroll down!