Yesterday, during the Citrix Synergy 2019 Keynote it saw the light of day, although it’s not generally available, yet. Based on the information (publicly) shared, here’s a rundown of what we know so far. Plus a few personal notes.
Continue ReadingThe ultimate Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet – Version 2.0
Average time to read: 87 minutes
About two and a half years ago I published the ultimate Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet, version 1.0 and it turned out to be a big hit. In the meantime, it has been viewed over 80.000 times already. All the more reason to start working on version 2.0. Since I have been writing about Citrix technologies for the last couple of years I have built up a broad archive, which I can now partly (re) use and re-write to come up with an even more detailed edition, version 2.0 of the Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet. I would strongly advice you to download a .PDF copy – If you like the blogpost, you’ll love the .PDF, trust me! It includes a full Table of Contents making it easier to navigate.
For your convenience – 100+ Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop FMA facts listed!
Average time to read: 15 minutesI 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.
Citrix XenDesktop Essentials – all facts listed!
Average time to read: 4 minutesA couple of days ago Citrix shared with us the pricing and purchasing options of their latest Citrix Cloud based service, XenDesktop Essentials. This post is meant to clear up a few misconceptions and to answer one or two questions you might have. Due to license restrictions, Microsoft didn’t allow Windows desktops to be offered from multi tenant cloud platforms. As a result of current changes to their Windows 10 PUR, or Product Use Right agreement this has now changed. Windows 10 desktop machines are soon to be available from the Azure cloud/Marketplace Read on to learn more…
The Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop FMA Services complete overview – new 7.12 Services included
Average time to read: 15 minutesThe 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.
The long awaited… XenApp and XenDesktop 7.12 Local Host Cache
Average time to read: 8 minutesFinally, it’s here, with XenApp and XenDesktop version 7.12 Citrix has re-introduced the Local Host Cache functionality. A long awaited feature by many Citrix admins globally. Though many of us are familiar with the LHC feature within 6.5, LHC as part of the FlexCast Management Architecture, which is basically what we are talking about here, is architected differently, or built from the ground up even. This has resulted in a more robust solution, immune to corruption (at least that’s the general idea) also needing less maintenance. Let’s have a look and see what it is about.
Citrix XenApp single machine setup – Cheap, fast and supported!
Average time to read: 8 minutesWe all know that Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop are both well established within larger enterprises. Smaller companies however, also often rely on Citrix (using XenApp mostly) to securely deliver their applications and/or desktops to their end-users. Today I would like to focus on how to deliver XenApp hosted applications and desktops while minimizing costs and maximizing both performance and manageability. Note that this is not going to be a Microsoft RDSH vs. Citrix debate, instead I will assume that XenApp licenses are already in-place.
Citrix licensing (and Microsoft) demystified? I need your help!
Average time to read: 20 minutesLicensing can be complicated, not only do we need to consider XenApp and/or XenDesktop licenses; we also have to deal with Microsoft licensing, if we like or not. Throughout this chapter I will focus on the different types of Citrix licenses available, how they get applied from a XenApp / XenDesktop perspective and what other types of (Microsoft) licenses we need to take into consideration, like RDS, VDA (and no, this is not the Citrix VDA), CDL etc.
How to configure zones in XenDesktop and XenApp 7.7 plus some extra’s!
Average time to read: 8 minutesYes, 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!
Average time to read: 5 minutesEver 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.