As you might have noticed, lately it has been rather quite on basvankaam.com. But not to worry, I’m still here. While the number of blog posts from my end have been somewhat on the low side, I have kept myself busy *understatement* to say the least. Besides preparing three presentations (still a lot of work to do on those as well), which are all due in the next 2 months (Citrix Synergy included) I have been working on a big private project, a book!
Citrix NetScaler… The basics continued, part seven. Split Tunneling!
It has been a while but here is some more NetScaler madness for you, on Spilt Tunnelling this time. Hopefully I’m not boring you guys just yet (because there are a few more coming). Split tunnelling is a feature specific to SSL VPN’s and controls how the client (plugin) decides what traffic must (or may) be sent through the VPN tunnel and what traffic may be sent out directly on its local network, usually involving Internet facing traffic.
Citrix Machine Creation Services… What to consider!
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.
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.
An in-depth look at the Citrix FMA Server VDA… The one that (almost) got away!
Ever since the introduction of XenDesktop 7, where the FMA took over and XenApp was integrated, a lot has been written with regards to its components, services, agents and so on. What surprises me though, is that the Server VDA is (almost) never mentioned, while this is, or at least was a brand new component. Never before was it optional to install a (relatively) lightweight agent onto a XenApp server, it was basically all or nothing.
Application Layering questions? I got answers. Graphical cheat sheet included!
Application virtualization (mostly App-V & Thinapp) has been around for some time now, application layering however, is still relatively new. Although assumed by some and theoretically possible in some cases, application layering is not meant as a replacement for application virtualization. In fact, you could say that they go hand in hand. Today there are multiple layering solutions available, and while the concept is the same they all take a (slightly) different approach. By the way, if it’s the (graphical) cheat sheet you’re interested in, I would suggest you scroll down.
Continue ReadingCitrix NetScaler… The basics continued, part six. Content Switching!
Average time to read: 6 minutesIf you have been following this series up till now, meaning you actually have read part one through five, then Content Switching should be a relatively easy concept to grasp. If you understand what a vServer is, how a service and server object are bound to each other and that we use monitors to constantly check if all is up and running then you are basically good to go. All we need now is a content switch vServer and a basic load balance setup and take it from there.
Citrix printing internals cheat sheet… Part one!
Average time to read: 9 minutesA user clicks print, what happens next? When Citrix is thrown in the mix things work a bit differently. Although the Microsoft print basics still apply, and I’ll discuss them shortly, the way that print traffic will, or can be, routed throughout your environment depends on, one: the physical setup of your machines and printers and, two: the Citrix (print) policies configured. Due note that I will only focus on native Citrix printing and won’t go over any of the third party solutions out there.
Citrix NetScaler… The basics continued, part five. Global Server Load Balancing!
Average time to read: 6 minutesFrom a NetScaler perspective Global Service Load Balancing (GSLB) can seem pretty intimidating. In short, GSLB is used as a way to manage and control the traffic flow between two (or more) separate physical locations (data centers) that are, in most cases, geographically dispersed. This can be for either load balancing purposes, high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery and so on. The mechanism behind GSLB is based on Microsoft DNS.
Houdini’s guide to Citrix printing… My contribution to the first ever Virtual Expo!
Average time to read: < 1 minuteThis was/is the title of my presentation, which I presented at the first ever Virtual Expo powered by Xenappblog.com on September 30th 2015. And what a ride it turned out to be. A great event with some top-notch speakers, awesome content and for me personally it was my first ever webinar. Have a look at the recording below. I really enjoyed some of the research involved, making the slides and of course presenting all this during the Virtual Expo conference, a great initiative. Let me know what you think. Note that I’m also working on a detailed blog post to go with it, give me a few weeks. And yes, I know, I’ll make sure to keep an eye on my mouse pointer the next time :)