Initially, with the introduction of StoreFront it relied solely on its authentication service for user authentication purposes. This, as you might be aware is different from Web Interface, which will directly contact one of the configured Delivery Controllers where the Broker/XML service will take over. Since Web Interface is still widely deployed and used in (large) production environments (and StoreFront now also supports XML based user authentication) I would like to talk, in a bit more detail about both authentication methods available today.
E2EVC… The one in Lisbon. The XD 7.6 HA (im) possibilities – presentation video!
A few moths ago, back in November 2015, Wilco van Bragt and I gave a presentation at E2EVC in Lisbon, Portugal. Our session was named: The XenDesktop 7.6 HA and Failover (im) possibilities, suggestions are welcome. We talked about some of the options we had (for example, Zones were not optional back then) in making our workloads highly available (Load Balancing included) using features and technologies like: StoreFront MultiSite configurations, Connection Leasing, Application groups and more. Next to that we also touched on some of the things still missing, at least according to our point of view. You can watch the full recording here.
The ultimate Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet!
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.
Continue ReadingEnd of Life… to Migrate or not to Migrate?
Average time to read: 16 minutes
What if you want to merge four separate XenApp 6.0 Farms into one and upgrade to 6.5 along the way? Just one of many challenges at work :-) This made me think about some of the possible migration and upgrade scenario’s out there. With Excalibur on the horizon and multiple ‘End of Life’ dates passed (can be found on the Citrix Product Matrix, give it a Google) I guess there won’t be many admins migrating their 4.5 / 5.0 Farms to 6.0. I mean, why would they? 6.0 isn’t that different from 6.5 and we all know an even newer version will be released shortly. I know… there are some distinct differences between the two and I can also think of several reasons on why not to migrate, but you get my point right?!