Desktop virtualization – Page 2

Citrix FMA Internals… Power Management – Presentation video + slides!

Average time to read: < 1 minute

A few moths ago, back in June, Mick Glover and I gave a presentation at the E2EVC in Berlin. Our topic was FMA Power Management. We talked about what it is, how it works, where to configure it, some specifics you need to be aware of before considering or implementing Power Management, what some of the advantages are, some of the things still missing and we gave a few examples on some more advanced Power Management features using PowerShell including a brief look into the future of Power Management.

Continue reading Citrix FMA Internals… Power Management – Presentation video + slides!

HP Moonshot revisited. Well… by me anyway

Average time to read: 12 minutes

During the last year or so I have had my eye on the HP Moonshot platform. I followed what other community members had to say about it, how HP marketed the product and of course the announced partnership between HP and Citrix, introducing the Workspace Pod series at Summit not that long ago. I was rather skeptic, and I guess I still am. On the other hand, I also acknowledge that times are changing and that, if the use case fits, HP Moonshot might be a valuable solution, it just depends.

Continue reading HP Moonshot revisited. Well… by me anyway

How to: Get up to speed with Windows Azure. Deploying your personal test lab, fast!

Average time to read: 15 minutes

During the last couple of weekends I have been playing with Microsoft Azure. Once I was up to speed with the basics and concepts involved I was surprised how easy it was to set up a small test lab environment. Without using any automated setup and/or configuration scripts, it only took me a few hours to set up a fully functional test environment including Active Directory, DNS, a Certificate Authority, a XenApp/XenDesktop/Director Site, StoreFront/Receiver, Control-up and a few in place policies. Best of all, during the first 32 days it’s completely free of charge, at least for the first 150 euros. And I can tell you; those 150 can get you a long way if spend wisely. Make sure to check my 20+ takeaways and lessons learned near the end.

Continue reading How to: Get up to speed with Windows Azure. Deploying your personal test lab, fast!

The glass is half full… 50+ reasons why I think it might be time to move to XenApp 7.6!

Average time to read: 7 minutes

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.

Continue reading The glass is half full… 50+ reasons why I think it might be time to move to XenApp 7.6!

Want to know what’s trending with VDI & SBC? Current and future insights!

Average time to read: 4 minutes

You might have heard about something called Project VRC, or Project Virtual Reality Check, in full. The results of this independent and truly unique survey will provide us with many new insights into the usage of desktop virtualization and related technologies around the world. Last year over 1300 people participated, you can download the full 2013 / 2014 report here, and this year we (Ruben Spruijt en Jeroen van de Kamp) would like to repeat this survey to see how our industry has changed and to take a look at the future of VDI and SBC in 2015. To give you an idea on how they are doing, I’ve summarized the results up till now (also published on Twitter). Some interesting results so far, still over two weeks to go though.

Continue reading Want to know what’s trending with VDI & SBC? Current and future insights!

XenDesktop 7.x internals continued… The Server VDA in more detail.

Average time to read: 3 minutes

Although the new FMA based Server VDA has been built from the ground up it still has a lot of similarities when compared to the ‘old’ ICA protocol stack deployed with XenApp 6.5 and earlier versions. However, unlike XenApp, the VDA (Virtual Delivery Agent) directly communicates with the Delivery Controller, it does this through the Broker Agent, basically the same way as we are used to with the desktop VDA (PortICA).

Continue reading XenDesktop 7.x internals continued… The Server VDA in more detail.

The ultimate Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet!

Average time to read: 31 minutes

Ever wondered what happens after a user fills in his or her username and password? What the difference is between internal and external user authentication, resource enumeration and the accompanying launch process? Or what about Web-Interface and StoreFront, do they both have the same authentication mechanism? What are the differences between the server and desktop VDA’s? What about the VDA and XenDesktop internals, what happens inside a VDA when a resource is launched? How does a connection get brokered? Read about this and more during the next 8 (mini) chapters.

Powered by Nutanix! Check out the new Dell hyper-converged XC series!

Average time to read: 4 minutes

Back in June, the 24th to be exact, Nutanix announced their global (OEM) agreement with Dell. Here’s what Nutanix had to say about it back then “This strategic Relationship Significantly Expands Access and Distribution of Nutanix Solutions with Dell’s World-Class Hardware, Services and Marketing” Today at Dell World they revealed the new Dell XC Series, Web-scale Converged Appliances equipped with Nutanix Software. The general availability date is set for next week at November the 11th.

Continue reading Powered by Nutanix! Check out the new Dell hyper-converged XC series!

Troubleshooting Citrix XenDesktop & XenApp 7.x ? Read this !

Average time to read: 15 minutesWhen I was thinking about what to write next I thought it might be a good idea to use something ‘from the field’, an issue that I’ve been involved in personally during the past two weeks or so. Then I figured, why just discuss one specific use case when there is so much more to tell. So I won’t, instead I’ll focus on troubleshooting in general and use my ‘real world’ example as a reference throughout this article.

Continue reading Troubleshooting Citrix XenDesktop & XenApp 7.x ? Read this !

Connection Leasing vs. Local Host Cache. Conclusion? CL doesn’t stand a chance!

Average time to read: 7 minutes

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.

Continue reading Connection Leasing vs. Local Host Cache. Conclusion? CL doesn’t stand a chance!