VDA – Page 2

@XDtipster – Linux VDA setup on CentOS 6.6 Pt.3

July 23, 2015 by Bas van Kaam Leave a Comment

Average time to read: 5 minutes

Welcome to the third and final part of my Linux VDA on CentOS 6.6 Blog series… (Nearly there!!!) If you have just stumbled across this post and would like to go back and review what has come before just click on these links: Part 1 – Installing and preparing the Linux OS and Part 2 – Installing and configuring the Linux VDA. Once again, I hope you enjoy the final part in the series and, as always, please sound off in the comments if you have any questions or feedback.

@XDtipster – Linux VDA setup on CentOS 6.6 Pt.2

July 22, 2015 by Bas van Kaam Leave a Comment

Average time to read: 4 minutes

Now that we have our Linux OS installed and prepared as per part 1 of this guide. It’s time to move onto part 2 and install and configure the Linux VDA for registration with a Site Controller… Once again, I hope you enjoy the read and please sound off in the comments if you have any questions or feedback :-)

@XDtipster – Linux VDA setup on CentOS 6.6 Pt.1

July 21, 2015 by Bas van Kaam Leave a Comment

Average time to read: 10 minutes

Mick1 With the Linux VDA set to drop very shortly as part of the XenApp & XenDesktop 7.6 FP2 release. It seems like a good time to share the high level, yet detailed, set-up process I followed when successfully carrying out internal testing. Taken from various sources including the tech preview RHEL install guide, my colleague Lee Bushen’s detailed SLED based lab set-up guide and a tonne of Google searches and read-through’s, I hope this collection of posts can save people some time and be used and referenced as one of the definitive Linux VDA setup guides for CentOS 6.6.

Citrix IMA vs. FMA… XenDesktop components and terminology cheat sheet

May 26, 2015 by Bas van Kaam 1 Comment

Average time to read: 2 minutes

This post is meant to provide you with a quick comparison, a cheat sheet if you will, between the two architectures. As you all (should) know by now, with the introduction of XenDesktop 7.x XenApp became part of the Flexcast Management Architecture, or FMA in short, and with this came certain terminology and conceptual changes. Here I would like to show you how each former 6.5 (IMA) XenApp component has its equivalent in the FMA world. Although technically there are some differences, on the functional side of things there is not much between them. To be clear, I’m not focusing on features that are in IMA and (still) not in FMA.

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

April 12, 2015 by Bas van Kaam 4 Comments

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.

12 services that make up the Citrix XenDesktop Flex Management Architecture!

March 26, 2015 by Bas van Kaam 1 Comment

Average time to read: 6 minutes

The Flex Management Architecture is a service-orientated architecture, it consists out of ten, or twelve depending on your point of view, primary services in total. Let me explain, when administering a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) for example, the Broker Service, a.k.a. the Desktop service, and the PortICA service both live on your desktop OS based VM’s, which are then part of the FMA as well, making it twelve services in total. Here I’ll provide you with a rundown of all services that make up the FMA including their responsibilities and some background information. I’ve included some artwork as well.

Troubleshooting the XenDesktop FMA… Citrix Scout deep dive – Part one!

March 17, 2015 by Bas van Kaam 5 Comments

Average time to read: 18 minutes

About two weeks ago I wrote (slides included) about my talk at the Dutch Citrix User Group (DuCUG) where I presented about troubleshooting the FMA. I also mentioned that when we do have to deal with CTX Support, and note that I’m not trying to sound negative here, we need to understand what to do when we are asked to inventory our Sites or to (CDF) trace certain components / modules for example. I also went into a bit more detail regarding CDF traces and the accompanying modules and trace messages that come with it, including some of the steps we can take to interpreted the collected data ourselves. That’s what I’d like to discuss in this (short) two part series as well, let’s have a closer look at Scout, CDF tracing / control, some of the FMA services (PortICA) etc… I’ll start out with some of the basics and take it from there.

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

December 15, 2014 by Bas van Kaam 1 Comment

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).

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

October 6, 2014 by Bas van Kaam 11 Comments

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.

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