Author Archive

As we meet with customers here in the Los Angeles area we are sure to point out free Citrix Training opportunities available online at http://www.citrix.com/freetraining.  These courses are self paced online products that allow customers to become more familiar with technical details and framework conventions for Citrix products.  The opportunity to better inform customers is really the opportunity to better assure the success of our customers as they work to leverage Citrix XenDesktop technologies to meet use case requirements for business.

We are excited to announce that Citrix Education is offering during the upcoming Los Angeles Citrix Technology Exchange event on Dec. 1st (see below) a single $5000 classroom training voucher, and two online training vouchers as door prizes to be awarded to attendees of the event!  The $5000 classroom voucher will allow the winner to choose from a number of training courses available from Citrix CALC training centers across the U.S.  The online training voucher will allow the winner to choose a single self-paced online training course for completion.

Going forward throughout 2012, every Citrix Technology Exchange event taking place throughout the Southern California region will raffle off a single online training voucher to winning attendees!

As well, all Citrix Technology Exchange attendees will receive 15% off of any single purchase of Citrix Training.  This 15% discount is available for 90 days after the event (fortunately we hold Technology Exchange events every quarter!).  The one time purchase has no limit on the amount of training purchased.  An organization can purchase onsite training for up to 10 employees, classroom training sessions, or online training sessions for as much of the service they feel necessary to consume!

So, in summary Citrix Training has offered up three door prizes to the Los Angeles Citrix Technology Event on Dec 1st (details and registration link can be found here), a single $5000 voucher for classroom training, and two self-paced online training vouchers.  Throughout 2012 all Citrix Technology Exchange attendees in Southern California will receive 15% off of one time purchases of Citrix Training service, with no limit on the amount of purchase.

Kenny Queen, Citrix Education Field Manager – Western and Central US will be on hand at the event answer any of your questions.

Not bad huh!  See you at the CTE!

When I was a kid listening to the radio I would hear the announcer come on the air and shout Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! NHRA Drag Racing with Big Daddy Don Garlitz!  I have that same feeling in my mind as I post this information about our next round of user groups in Los Angeles.  We will be hosting our largest event to date, and we will be changing the name a bit, which we are prone to do at Citrix!

On Thursday December 1st, 2011 we will be hosting a full day Citrix Technology Exchange event at the Hilton Universal City, Los Angeles.  There will be 12 technical sessions focused on Citrix Virtualization and Networking technologies.

Thanks to our Platinum Sponsor for the event, RES Software, three attendees of the LA Citrix Technology Exchange will receive full access passes to Synergy San Francisco 2012!  This is $1500 ticket to one of the great technology events taking place in the world today.  We are absolutely stoked to offer this opportunity to our attendees!  Thank you RES Software!  All attendees of the event will receive a $500 discount toward purchase of Synergy San Francisco 2012 passes.  We will also be raffling off two iPad 2 devices.  We expect there will be more prizes offered by the additional event sponsors.

Rick Dehlinger will be presenting and hosting a Geek Speak session to close out our event.  Bring your questions and opinions for feedback!  Take the LA Technology Exchange Q4 Survey, tell us what you want more information on for this event!

We will be starting the day early, registration opens 7:30am!  Stay tuned for updates as to RSVP for the event.  We look forward to seeing you there.

Scheduled Break Out Sessions (so far) are referenced below.

Technical Breakouts Citrix Virtualization:

RES Software: Workspace Manager

RES Software:  Automation Manager

Rick Dehlinger:  Architecting for Change

Alex Danilychev:  VDI in a Pizza Box

Rick Berry:  Troubleshooting XA6 – XA6.5 and Flash Redirection

Jonathan Eugenio:  Citrix Edgesight Update

Technical Breakouts Citrix Networking:

Secure Remote Access for XenDesktop and XenApp with Global Server Load Balancing

MS SQL, MySQL Load Balancing with Netscaler

Netscaler Cloud Bridge, Connecting Your Datacenter to Cloud Delivery Environments

Netscaler SDX, Single Platform for All Datacenter Service Requirements

Additional Vendor Technical Sessions:

Liquidware Labs:  Distributed Compute Monitoring for VDI Implementation

Whiptail:  Solid State Drive Revolution for VDI!

Morning Keynote:

Wyse Technology:  Morning Keynote Zero Client Presentation

Afternoon Keynote:

Trevor Mansell:  Cisco Citrix Partnership Lunch Keynote

Closing Geek Speak Session:

Geek Speak:  Hosted by Rick Dehlinger

Registration:

Please be aware that space will be limited.  You can register for the event here.

See you there!

I will list this post within the Tools and Links categories for the site.  There have been a number of CTX articles released recently which may well offer value to your administrative efforts.  Please see the links below, and tell me what you think.  I have been reading up on latest product releases and will have more links and reading material to follow up as we move into the new year!

Citrix Consulting:  Desktop Virtualization Best Practices Webinar Series

The Best XD 5.5 Technical Deck of ALL TIME!

Technical Guide for Updating to XenApp 6.5

How to Configure Application Pre-Launch in XenApp 6.5

Provisioning Services Live Site Database Migration

Installation of Access Management Console based on XenApp versions (.Net can getcha!)

CAG 5 Advanced Controller and iPad/iPhone Access

Citrix Quick Launch (longing for the days of PN, this will take you back!)

Thanks to all of you who took time to attend the latest round of Citrix User Groups here in the Los Angeles area.

We covered a range of topics during these sessions: VDI Compute Resource Assessment by Liquidware Labs, Task Automation by RES Software, Updates on XD 5.5 and XA 6.5.  You can download the PowerPoint presentations from Citrix and Liquidware Labs below.  I will have the RES PPT posted as soon as I receive another copy….

LiquidWare Labs LA CUG PPT

RES Software Automation Manager

Citrix What’s New in XA 6.5 XD 5.5

The LWL presentation focused on the technical considerations we should keep in mind as we look to migrate application services into the data center.  LWL offers the opportunity to project CPU, RAM, NIC, and Disk requirements for central hosting from the data center.  What we are finding in the field is that users in the office setting rarely tax the physical compute resource available from their physical desktops.  As we aggregate these physical devices into the data center however, it is important to have insight into the compute requirements needed to get this work done.  The purpose of this work is to “right size” the investment required based on analysis of current compute requirements.  Customers will find that guessing as to these requirements can be a very expensive proposition for the business.  Look before you leap with LWL!

The RES Software presentation focused on their Automation Manager product.  RES Automation Manager leverages a database repository to automate common tasks for the network administrator.  An example of this would be the “thin provisioning” of a gold image based not on the retention of a images in storage, but instead the exact build process maintained within the DB which can be delivered to any Windows OS workload to match production readiness.

The Citrix presentation focused on new features to be found in XA 6.5 and XD 5.5.  Desktop Director 2.0 offers delegated administration via common browser, while combining both XA and XD session visibility into a single admin console.  Fast App Launch was demonstrated, this is the ability to leverage the initial user logon to an endpoint with Receiver 3.0 installed, to simultaneously launch an application from the XA 6.5 farm environment.  Fast App Launch takes advantage of session sharing from your XA farm to allow for the immediate launch of applications, no more Citrix splash screen, just an immediate application launch for the user, pretty slick!  We also discussed the new multi-stream ICA protocol, details can be found in the slide deck.  If you have additional questions, and would like to follow up with local Citrix Sales Team for LA, contact Nathaniel Chadbourne.

We would also like to thank additional sponsors for the event: NetApp, Wyse, Tricerat,  and WhipTail

We are planning the next round of LA CUGs to take place the 1st week of December 2011.  Stay tuned for details!

I have received feedback from some telling me it would be a good idea to include some additional links to sites that I use to collect information on Citrix products.  This will be my first post in this regard.  I expect going forward I will update this post with additional information as I find it (or it is recommended).

TED Talks Simon Sinek “How great leaders inspire action”

Virtualization Jedi (Paul Wilson)

RES Guru

Daniele Tosatto

Brian Madden

Douglas Brown

Daniel Feller

Citrix TV

CitrixTools

Citrix Blogs

Citrix Developer Network

Citrix Labs

Citrix XenServer Central

Citrix XenClient Central

Citrix Knowledge Center

Citrix eDocs (Documentation)

MTM Citrix Consultants Blog

Shawn Bass

Ruben Spruijt (PQR)

Jim Moyle

Jason Conger

Jarian Gibson

Henry Louwers

Alexander Ervik Johnsen

Simon Bramfitt

This will be my first post to a new category on the site, Tools, Tips, Tricks, and Links.

This past week I was having a bit of trouble in my own lab.  I was speaking to a colleague who asked, “do you have MedEvac?”  I just stared blankly into my IP Phone.  What was this person talking about?!  Well, I set about finding what MedEvac was and found a few other items along the way.  I have included these in a list below.

In a general sense these tools offer service for XA 4.5 and XD4 and above.  Click through the tools to review any potential they may offer to assist you in your own Citrix environments.  The Disclaimer is that you do everything at your our risk.  Read everything carefully, proceed with caution, do not disrupt production, and enjoy!

CTX123005 Citrix UPM Log Parser

CTX124577 CDFMarker On Demand -For XenApp and XenDesktop

CTX124918 SsOnExpert -Single Sign-On XenApp Plug-in Troubleshooting Tool

CTX123278  XDPing Tool Video 1

CTX124949  Citrix Logoff Sessions 2.2

CTX122536  Citrix Quick Launch

CTX107935  MedEvac 2.5

CTX122962  Citrix Printing Tool

CTX125471  XenApp 6 Migration Tool

CTX122741  CDFAnalyzer

CTX111961  CDFControl Video

CTX113472  Citrix ICA File Creator

CTX111344  Citrix License Path Utility

CTX122450  Citrix Port Check Utility

CTX120629  Citrix Profiler Template for SQL 2000

CTX120630  Citrix Profiler Template for SQL 2005

CTX116063  XenAppPrep Integration Utility for XenApp and Provisioning Services

CTX119347  Client IP Extraction Module -ISAPI -For NetScaler

CTX124811  CtxCPMDiag -For Password Manager Agent

CTX110341  CtxHideEx32

CTX119955  CTX Reports

CTX123935  CtxsLicChk -Citrix License Check Utility

CTX124406 DSCHECK -XenApp Data Store Checker Tool Commands

CTX114916  DSInfo 1.2

CTX124815  DSRepCheck -SQL Replication Test Tool -For XenApp 6

CTX106232  DSView

CTX122146  EdgeSight Database Size Estimation Tool

CTX122568  EdgeSight Load Testing XenApp Using Office 2007

CTX121355  Enabling Remote Installation for Citrix Receiver

CTX111343  Endpoint Analysis Antivirus Scan Package Autoupdate Scripts

CTX106280  FTACLN

CTX123058  HDX Experience Monitor for XenDesktop Video 1

CTX123197  Health Monitoring and Recovery Test Pack

CTX116532  JetTest

CTX124446  LBDiag -XenApp 6 Load Balancing Diagnostic Tool

CTX125089  MFCOM to Powershell Script Searcher

CTX118693  MigrateToSqlExpress

CTX121569  NetScaler CPU tight-loop (LCT) monitor

CTX121568  NetScaler CPU Usage Conditional Profiler

CTX122317  Nsconmsg to Excel Tool

CTX110629  PDBFinder for 32-bit and 64-bit Platforms

CTX116474  Print Detective

CTX106317  QueryDC

CTX111656  SQL Replication Test Tool Version 4.2

CTX122204  SysPool Tool

CTX111072  SystemDump 3.1 for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms

CTX114179  TSUserLog

CTX122318  Wireshark for Netscaler

CTX124805  XenApp Console Discovery Repair

CTX121339  XenApp Template for BGInfo

CTX124963  XenDesktop 4 Client Identity Pack

CTX124012  XenDesktop Session Parser

CTX124379  XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent Troubleshooting Utility

CTX121564  XenServer Database Tool

CTX109374  StressPrinters 1.3.2 for 32-bit and 64-bit Platforms

CTX111068  MessageHistory

CTX111901  TestWER (Test Windows Error Reporting)

As you can imagine, I am often times asked to share my opinion on Citrix vs. VMWare.  From my perspective our two companies are in completely different businesses.  Citrix delivers applications, while VMWare delivers operating systems.  There is a very big difference between the two.

There are other differences, which are technical and have serious consequences for your business and the productivity of your network environment.  Microsoft has released a video presentation today which delves further into these differences.  Please enjoy this video here!

Big Release Day Today!

To be clear I have borrowed all of the links below from Dustin Segura, who is a young fellow on the upswing in life, and is deserving of his hard work being recognized! Please enjoy these links in the same spirit.  We are looking forward to seeing all of you at the next round of user groups, and to answer any questions you might have regarding these items below.

XenApp 6.5

HDX is even better in XenDesktop 5.5

Where does Citrix RingCube fit?

New Receivers for Windows and Mac (OS X Lion) raise the bar along with Citrix XenDesktop 5.5!

Citrix XenClient 2 released, Find out what’s new.

Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 Enhances User Personalization & High-Definition Experience over the LAN or WAN.

XenDesktop 5.5 – Optimizing for the Private Cloud

Citrix SoCal Users Group – Captain America Invite and Summer… http://conta.cc/rfTc6P via #constantcontact

Citrix User Groups were held June 15th and 16th in Pasadena, Woodland Hills, and Long Beach.  These sessions focused on Citrix Provisioning Server Do’s and Don’ts, Citrix Cloud Gateway, and Citrix Cloud Bridge.  We also hosted a panel discussion focusing on recently released Cisco Reference Architectures for XenDesktop which leverage Citrix, Cisco, and NetApp technologies.  Please find links below to download PowerPoint presentations from the event.  Unfortunately, given time constraints we did not have time to dive into the new Citrix Licensing Server supporting XD5 SP1.  I will offer a separate post for Licensing issues here to the site.  Please forward your licensing questions to the local Citrix Sales Team for any follow up you may require on this item.

The Provisioning Server Tips and Tricks presentation I offered during the session can be found here, June_2011_LACUG_RTEPreso_v1.  This deck offers insight into the network and server configurations you should consider when delivering OS workloads via Citrix Provisioning Services.  Slides are also included referencing Citrix Licensing Server 11.9 functionality appended to this deck.  Again, I will tag a second post to the site to reference this issue.

Citrix Cloud Gateway presentation can be found here, NetScaler Cloud Gateway – User Group Synergy Update.  Business is about applications, Netscaler Cloud Gateway is technology focused on managing identity in the context of both SaaS as well as Enterprise application delivery to the network from a single touch point for for IT Administrators, and SSO for users.

Citrix Cloud Bridge presentation can be found here, NetScaler Cloud Bridge – Synergy Update.  Citrix Cloud Bridge is technology focused on easing the burden for organizations seeking to leverage the infinite capacity off-premise clouds provide.  Citrix Cloud Bridge offers a seamless network between your current data center and that of the cloud by way of Layer 2 bridging, encrypted tunnel, accelerated data traffic management, Global Server Load balancing in support of user transparency, and application flexibility in that businesses can choose what elements of the application stack are delivered from the data center or the cloud.

I mentioned during the CUGs that the one video I would reccommend regarding cloud compute issues was Simon Crosby’s keynote from Synergy 2011 in San Francisco.  You can find the link to this presentation here.  Simon is a past presenter at our Citrix User Group sessions here in Los Angeles.  His insights and leadership on the issues of cloud computing are shaping the realities of cloud computing today.  You can read more of what Simon has to say on cloud computing by following his blog at http://blogs.citrix.com/author/simoncr/.

We would like to thank the sponsors who help make all of our Citrix User Group activtity possible.

• Cisco:  We encourage all of you to learn more about Cisco Unified Computing Systems.  Two-U blade servers that offer up 42 DIMM slots for RAM, up to 80Gbps of network and data throughput capacity available from the blade chasis.  Up to 40 chasis managed from a single touch point for ongoing administration!  This technology is new to market, but it is a game changer!  Cisco RA for XD can be found here.
• NetApp:  These folks are changing the way we work with storage.  NetApp offers a grow-as-you-go approach to storage which matches our own philosophy at Citrix.  The ability to overlay a disparate storage environment with a single management framework to more effectively deliver storage services offers value to Citrix customers.  You can review NetApp FlexPod information here, NetApp FlexPod-XenDesktop.
• Wyse:  We all owe a debt of sorts to Wyse.  It’s the patented technology that Wyse has made available to the world (at no charge), which has underpinned the thin client market as we know it today.  What Wyse started, the rest have followed. Wyse and Cisco have partnered to better leverage Cisco UCS. The Wyse Xenith Zero Client is reducing complexity for business and improving delivery of remote application and desktop technology for Citrix customers.
• Tricerat:  These folks have been delivering printing solutions for remote application and desktop technologies for 14 years.  If you have printing complexity in your environment, which presents challenges to your organizations productivity, there is not better answer that Tricerat and ScrewDrivers!  Tricerat also offers a workspace management tool purpose built for managing user settings and profile space.  This is an important level of abstraction within the application delivery stack that too often goes unnoticed by customers, until the network is delivered that is.  You can find information on profile management solutions from Tricerat here.
• eGInnovations:  eGInnovations offers resource monitoring for the entire enterprise.  While Citrix Edgesight offers visibility into XenApp and XenDesktop processing environments, eGInnovation products offer visisbility into all of the surrounding network, physical server hosts, database processing platforms, gateways, IIS, file server functionality.

And of course we would like to thank all of you for your attendance and feedback.  We look forward to seeing you again during our next round tentatively scheduled for September 15th and 16th 2011.  Have a great summer!