Category Archives: SmartScale

Citrix Workspace app is released Hello World

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Introduction
What is Citrix Workspace app? It brings together all your LOB tools which in todays modern world consists of (virtual/micro/installed/mobile) apps, SaaS, desktops & content. I’ve embedded a sample of what this actually looks like below.

Overview
The new Citrix Workspace app way more than purely an upgrade of Citrix Receiver e.g grey to blue icon and a skin change, this NEW Citrix client app release is simply extraordinary, working for Citrix I can be considered bias however once you actually begin to consume the Citrix Workspace app you’ll understand exactly what I mean. Citrix Workspace app is for me all about an experience, and that experience is extraordinarily AWESOME! As I begin consuming my LOB (Line of Business) tools wherever I am + want and in a setting/context that suites me (home, Paddington vs. partner offices, trains, taxi e.t.c) the chosen LOB tool delivered context can change dependant upon criteria (I won’t be covering this today) or how IT (say YES!) has chosen to deliver the LOB tool through Citrix Access Control Service – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/access-control/get-started.html.

I now have all my content available all in the same AWESOME app thank you Citrix Content & Collaboration aka ShareFile. I can upload, download and even favourite particular content e.g “L-J’s H1/2 Citrix Partner Tech Super Deck” which is then available directly from the home view/tab. In the below example I am uploading the LeasePlan Citrix SD-WAN case study – https://www.citrix.co.uk/customers/leaseplan-en.html and the actual video is available at – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hq-yryxfS0 take a look and remember to listen to the outcomes Citrix SD-WAN provides LeasePlan.

How do I get started today?
Firstly I will do a more detail blog post on getting it all up and running with use cases time dependant of course.

1.Start by navigating to https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app.html and then goto Citrix.com and login with your access details, next navigate to https://www.citrix.com/downloads/workspace-app/ and download Citrix Workspace app for your chosen end-point. If you are running a TP of Citrix Workspace app code base please UNINSTALL it prior to installing the GA production code base as a few community individuals I know had issues upgrading from TP code base. I would like to state for the record I upgraded from PRODUCTION Citrix Receiver to the Citrix Workspace app for Mac 1808 on my Mac without ANY issues see below tweet.

2. Please carefully read the System Requirements for your chosen platform here is the link for Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/system-requirements.html and Windows https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/system-requirements.html.

3. Review the installation guidance for Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/install-configure.html and Windows – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/install.html.

4. Please carefully read the configuration of Workspace app for Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/configure.html
 and Windows – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/install.html e.t.c. for other platform and if you are looking for multi-monitor support or Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/improve-user-experience.html#using-multiple-monitors for Windows – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/improve.html#multi-monitor-support, and securing communications between Workspace app and your StoreFront for Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/secure-communications.html and Windows – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/secure-communication.html (Pay attention to deprecated cipher suites node) and finally if your are you a Smart Card user pay attention to the recitations at the bottom of both docs for Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/requirements-for-smartcard-authentication.html and for Windows – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/authentication/config-smart-card.html and for WIF 5.4 (yes I know really however some of you still may need it while your upgrading to XAD 7.x platform) https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/secure-communication/config-smart-card–for-web-interface.html.

5. Sign-up vs. Login to Citrix Cloud today and trial vs. acquire a Citrix Cloud service e.g ShareFile Service or the XAD Service and if you want to aggregate on-premises LOB apps into the new Citrix Workspace experience then setup “Site Aggregation” today. To learn how please read this CTXS blog post and watch the embedded YouTUBE video which provides a how-to overview at – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2018/08/03/site-aggregation-for-citrix-workspace-is-now-ga/.

Thats all folks for now on the technical overview its brief I know so I will follow-up in future with more detailed overview + how-to e.t.c either here or on the https://www.mycugc.org website in the experts area.

Upgrading to Citrix Workspace from Citrix Receiver for smart devices

In Closing
I work for Citrix, I have been a Citrix + IaaS advocate for well over a decade (now SD-WAN swell) so I am mostly likely bias you’ll think however Citrix Workspace app is truly AWESOME and way more than what you see at a glance, I encourage you all to begin consuming it today to see for yourself just what I am talking about and why I personally say its “AWESOME“.

2017 UKI #CitrixPartnerLove Challenge #6 Traffic Flows

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

You can download the image at https://lnkd.in/dN74-97 to print.

Understanding the Citrix Cloud, its Services, Architecture & Connectors (Draft)

The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to better understand Citrix Cloud, Connector technology and the overall architecture required to setup, configure and test delivering virtual apps and desktops powered by XenApp & XenDesktop Service prior to deploying in a PoC, Pilot or Production environment by the author of this entry. The views, opinions and concepts expressed are those by the author of this entry only and do not necessarily conform to industry descriptions or best practises. The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Shortened Names
HIGH-AVAILABILITY – h/a
XENAPP – xa
XENDESKTOP – xd
XENAPP/XENDESKTOP – xad
VIRTUAL DELIVERY AGENT – vda
HIGH DEFINITION EXPERIENCE – hdx
CITRIX CLOUD – cc
INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE – iaas
CITRIX CLOUD CONNECTOR – connector

The Three Primary Cloud Types (Draft Section)
Firstly i’d like to provide my definition of public, private vs. hybrid cloud and in my personal view things like SaaS, PaaS have naturally been spin out or off from IaaS e.g Public Cloud.

Public Cloud is whereby a ISP provides you with SPLA licensing (OS, Application, Service), compute, storage and network capabilities which in turn enables you to create your very own VM instances running in a virtual datacentre on the ISP’s h/w and example providers may include AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform e.t.c

Private Cloud is where you the organisation owns there own OS, Application or Service licenses as well as the physical hardware that allows you to create your own VM instances within your virtual datacentre. In this scenario the h/w is could (a) be purely Colocatied (Colocation) at ISP with or without managed services over and above the Colocation and example providers could include Rackspace, Qubems, Peer1 or (b) your h/w is hosted within your own custom and purpose built data centres facility or comms room dependant upon the organisations size and IT/Technology requirements.

Hybrid Cloud is when public and private clouds are connected securely over a IPSec R/A, L2L or SSL VPN connection.

What is and how Citrix Cloud works
Citrix Cloud is an evergreen, managed control plane from Citrix that provides the traditional Citrix management technologies to delivery e.g Virtual Apps & Desktops as Services thereby reducing overhaul management updates & upgrades. This means that Citrix is responsible for the availability of your Citrix management infrastructure in there Control Plane including ensuring that it is on the latest up to day and production version of e.g XAD to deliver DaaS and or virtual apps. Citrix customers and partners are responsible for what is known as a resource location which is where your apps, network and data resides and can exist in a public, private or hybrid cloud deployment scenario and each resource location is securely connected to the control plane using the Citrix Cloud Connector which initiates an outbound HTTPS connection so your completely in control of your apps, network & data within your resource location(s) at all times.

If I have not technically explained what is and how Citrix Cloud works successfully then please feel free to watch the below embedded YouTUBE video.

Please note that Citrix Workspace Cloud is now know as Citrix Cloud

Citrix Cloud Services as of Jan 2017
The following is my own technical spin/view of each of the Citrix services you can review the Citrix official view of each service at – https://www.citrix.com/products/citrix-cloud/services.html.

XenApp and XenDesktop Service – HDX virtual app & desktop delivery from any supported resource location running server/workstation VDA(s) while all the XenApp/XenDesktop mgmt infrastructure (Studio/Director) resides in your tenant/account at https://citrix.cloud.com.

XenMobile Service – Deploy Secure Apps (MAM), MDM to control your organisation devices with no need to deploy the XenMobile v/a even at your resource location all you need is either an IPSeC VPN tunnel or the Connector to enumerate users in AD to be assigned to delivery groups.

ShareFile Service – Follow-me data now controlled within one WebUI.

NetScaler Gateway Service – Provides a simple and easy deployment method to gain external remote access to virtual apps & desktops from your resource location(s) via the Citrix Cloud Connector.

Smart Tools Service previously Lifecycle Management – Design, build, automate, auto check & update your resource locations with Citrix validated blue prints.

Secure Browser Service – Provides a secure remote virtual browser(s) to access web (internal vs. external), SaaS apps from the Citrix Cloud with zero configuration, with only a link to access your published web apps via the HTML5 Receiver.

Citrix Cloud Labs – My personal favourite as this area of Citrix Cloud allows you get to test out some of the latest Citrix Innovations from our Labs team as services e.g AppDNA Express; Citrix Provisioning for Microsoft Office 365; IoT Automation; Citrix Launch for Microsoft Access; XenMobile MDX Service and Session Manager

Connector Architecture & Security
The following diagram depicts the H/A deployment of Citrix Cloud Connector for use with the XenApp and XenDesktop Service from Citrix Cloud. Please note that this is a simple architectural diagram that does not include a NetScaler in resource location so the assumption is that you users will connect to their virtual apps and desktops either from within the actual Resource Location or via the NetScaler Gateway service hosted and managed by Citrix Cloud. My personal preference is to leverage a NetScaler physical or virtual appliance within your resource location as the benefits of a NetScaler far exceed and go above and beyond that of a simple ICA Proxy gateway for XenApp/XenDesktop. Perhaps a follow-up blog article why I presume NetScaler in the resource location from my personal view point only or I may decide to update this blog article.

To better understand how to best secure or harden your Cirix Cloud implmentation and its services please refer to – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/overview/get-started/secure-deployment-guide-for-the-citrix-cloud-platform.html for leading best practises, process & procedures and configuration requirements.

Citrix Cloud Connector
The following is deep dive overview of Citrix Cloud connector technology for all the services with the exception of the Smart Tools service which leverages its own connector which is used to check your Citrix workloads, scale up/down and or even build or tear down workloads in resource location(s) via blueprints.

Installation & Troubleshooting
You must download and only install the Citrix Cloud Connector for your resource location from “Identity and Access Management” that matched your domain forest, don’t mix and match these! The installation is fairly straight forward and simple as descriobed and outlined at http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/citrix-cloud-connector/installation.html, once the installation completes wait for the connectvity test to pop-up and complete successfully prior to navigating back to Citrix Cloud to validate that the Connector has scuessfully registered with Citrix Cloud+.

You can also perform automated installation leveraging the following command line arguments when installing the Connector “CWCConnector.exe” /q /Customer:Customer /ClientId:ClientId /ClientSecret:ClientSecret /ResourceLocationId:ResourceLocationId /AcceptTermsOfService:true.

Although the Connector communicates outbound on HTTPS 443 it make also require one or more of the following ports outbound only as described at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/overview/get-started/secure-deployment-guide-for-the-citrix-cloud-platform.html for one or more of the Citrix Cloud Services so please consultant the documenation for each Service carefuly for high security enviroments to ensure that the organisations firewall ACL’s for the PoC are correctly configured.

You can install hypervisor tools, anti-virus software (Tested as of 26/10/2016++ McAfee VirusScan Enterprise + AntiSpyware Enterprise 8.8) on your VM instances that have the Citrix Cloud Connector technology installed however it is not recommended to install any other software or unnecessary system services nor should you allow any domain users access unless they are a Domain or System administrator of the Citrix environment. In summary treat these Connectors as you would your XAD Controller(Broker).

The installation logs are available at “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\CitrixLogs\CloudServicesSetup” and post the installation its consolidated to the following location “%ProgramData%\Citrix\WorkspaceCloud\InstallLogs“.

Understanding Credential Handling
Coming…http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service/technical-security-overview.html

Monitoring your Citrix Cloud Services
1. http://status.cloud.com/ is your friend and will provide you with vital up to date information about the Citrix Cloud platform (control plane or SaaS tier) and each of its Services e.g XenApp and XenDesktop Service or Smart Tools.
2. Monitor the following Connector services described below ++
3. The leading best practises is for the Citrix Cloud Connectors to not be offline longer than two weeks as the connectors are regularly updated from Citrix Cloud with the latest updates (Evergreen) which is why each resource location requires at a bare min 2x or a pair of Connectors.

Connectivity & High-Availability
The Citrix Cloud Connector firstly should always be implemented in pairs at a minimum within any resource location and installed onto either Windows Server 2012 R2 or 2016 AD joined VM instances. The connectors are stateless and brokering requests are load-balanced via Citrix Cloud to the connectors within your resource location(s) and if a connector does not respond the queued tasks are redistributed to the remaining connector(s). As the connectors are stateless this also means that they do store any mgmt configuration for Citrix Workloads at the resource location as this is held within the Citrix Cloud by the Service that you are utilising e.g XenApp and XenDesktop Service.

+If you setup a PoC with a single Connector it will probably display as amber for a period of time prior to turning green as you have only configured 1x Connector for your resource location. You can check your Connector status for your resource locations by navigating from https://citrix.cloud.com/ to https://citrix.cloud.com/identity and under “Domains” select your domain forest(s) and expand it and you can review your Connectors name e.g servername.dommain e.g connector1.x1co.eu and its status (red, amber or green).

The leading best practise for h/a at your resource location is for your Citrix Cloud Connectors to be implemented as N+1 for redundancy – – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%2B1_redundancy.

Logs & Services++ of the Connector
The Connector logs are stored at “C:\ProgramData\Citrix\WorkspaceCloud\Logs or use %ProgramData%\Citrix\WorkspaceCloud\Logs” for verifying ongoing communication and helping with troubleshooting. Once the log(s) size exceeds a certain threshold its deleted BUT Administrators are able to control the log retention size by adjusting the following entry in the Windows registry “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\CloudServices\AgentAdministration\MaximumLogSpaceMegabytes” to meet your organisations logging/auditing requirements.

The core four primary functions/roles of the Connector are Authentication, Proxy, Provisioning and Identity which are powered by the following Citrix Cloud services listed below (as of Jan 2017). You can view a detailed architecture technical diagram of the Connector under the XenApp and XenDesktop Service online documentation at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service/technical-security-overview.html.

Connector Functions/Roles
For a more accurate diagram please check out – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service/technical-security-overview.html

Authentication Proxy Provisioning Identity
↕
NetScaler
Unified Gateway		 StoreFront
(Optional)

↕
Hypervisor 
Server VDA
 Server 2012 R2, 2016		 Desktop VDA
Windows 10
↕

Active Directory, DNS

I’ll update this section with what each of the Connector services actually does

Citrix Cloud AD Provider
Citrix Cloud Agent Logger
Citrix Cloud System
Citrix Cloud WatchDog
Citrix Cloud Credential Provider
Citrix Cloud WebRelay Provider
Citrix Cloud Config Synchronizer Service
Citrix Cloud High Availability Service
Citrix Cloud NetScaler Cloud Gateway
Citrix Cloud Remote Broker Provider
Citrix Cloud Remote HCL Server
Citrix Cloud Session Manager Proxy

Citrix Cloud PoC Guide for the XenApp and XenDesktop Service
I have writen a fairly detailed blog article describing how-to deploy the XenApp and XenDesktop Service here.

Deploying a Citrix Cloud – XenApp and XenDesktop Service PoC

The following content is a brief and unofficial overview of how-to front your virtual apps & desktops powered by Citrix Cloud XenApp & XenDesktop Service and the NetScaler Gateway Service using an Azure (IaaS) resource location. The views, opinions and concepts expressed are those by the author of this entry only and do not necessarily conform to industry descriptions, best practises. The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Shortened Names
XENAPP – xa
XENDESKTOP – xd
VIRTUAL DELIVERY AGENT – vda
HIGH DEFINITION EXPERIENCE – hdx
VIRTUAL DESKTOP – vd
THINWIRE COMPATIBLE MODE – tcm also known as ecm or thinwire+
SELF-SERVICE PASSWORD RESET – sspr
VIRTUAL GPU – vgpu
PROOF OF CONCEPT – poc
XENAPP AND XENDESKTOP SERVICE – xad service
CITRIX CLOUD CONNECTOR – CC Connector
ACCESS CONTROL LISTS – acl
FIREWALL – f/w

What is Citrix Cloud?
Firstly this blog post will be updated through-out Nov, Dec 2016 as I still have a few minor additions and adjustments to make but in principle this blog post should help you stand up a Citrix Cloud – XAD Service PoC successfully with your chosen resource location.

Citrix Cloud provides a control plane that includes Citrix technologies as services e.g XenApp and XenDesktop Service that allows Citrix SysAdmin’s to setup, configure and deliver virtual apps & desktops to users on any device, anytime and from any location from your chosen resource location which could be hosts runnings in a data centre running XenServer, Hyper-V, Acropolis*, vSphere vs. hyper-converged appliances (Nutanix*, Atlantis) or it could running in an IaaS or public cloud providers e.g Azure or AWS e.t.c

Your resource location of choice is connected to the Citrix Cloud control plane through something called the Citrix Cloud Connector which is installed onto a supported Windows server OSes that is domain-joined in pairs which runs a services that communicates to the control plane outbound on HTTPS/443 which also has the added benefit of NOT requiring any type of VPN (SSL, R/A or IPSec GRE Tunnel)!

Adopting Citrix Cloud introduces an evergreen or SaaS-style update(s) approach to the Citrix infrastructure components as an example within the XenApp and XenDesktop Service e.g the controller, licensing server, storefront are hosted and managed by Citrix and auto updated (evergreen) thus reducing infrastructure updates, upgrades so IT can focus on other workspace projects e.g implementing Skype for Business – http://axendatacentre.com/blog/2016/04/25/deploying-skype4b-2015-offloaded-from-a-citrix-hdx-virtual-app-or-desktop/ or daily tasks, activities thus reducing System Administration time which equates to cost savings or shifting more IT time onto providing the very best near to local like delivery and user experience as they have more time.

The Goal of this PoC
In this blog post I will describe how-to setup and deploy the “Citrix Cloud – XenApp and XenDesktop Service” using Microsoft Azure as my resource location of choice for this PoC to deliver virtual apps & desktops (Server based) including enabling remote access in its simplest form using the NetScaler Gateway Service which enables secure, remote access to virtual apps & desktops from anywhere with an internet connection using the Citrix Receiver or the HTML5 Receiver all without having to deploy a NetScaler in your resource location – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service/netscaler-gateway-as-a-service.html and accesing a published Skype for Business 2015 HDX optimised virtual app powered by the HDX Optimisation Pack 2.x.n – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/hdx-optimization/2-1.html published from a Windows Server 2012 R2 OS server to virtual desktop powered by Windows Server 2016.

Traffic Flows, Metadata & Credential Handling
The following provides insight into the traffic flows when/how users connect to there virtual apps & desktop when using the Citrix Cloud – XenApp and XenDesktop Service.

NetScaler Gateway Service
http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service/netscaler-gateway-as-a-service.html

XAD Service
http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service/technical-security-overview.html

Comparing services and pricing is available at – https://www.citrix.com/products/citrix-cloud/subscriptions.html

Pre-requisites & System Requirements
0. Trial Checklist – http://docs.citrix.com/content/dam/docs/en-us/workspace-cloud/downloads/apps-desktops-trial-checklist.pdf which via the XAD Service eDoc root at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service.html.
1. An Azure subscription with sufficient credits and compute resources for your own personal requirements for your own PoC. You’ll also need to understand the concepts of Azure so I’d suggest you begin with reviewing the online documentation available at – https://azure.microsoft.com/ or visit VMFocus blog at https://vmfocus.com/2016/11/07/70-533-implementing-microsoft-azure-infrastructure-solutions-prep-exam-experience/ and scroll to the prepartion text in bold.
2. A Citrix Cloud account with access to the XAD Service check out – https://www.citrix.com/products/citrix-cloud/ for details and information about a trial.
3. Citrix Cloud Connector downloaded from your XAD Service to your Azure resource location onto a shared folder e.g network share on your Windows domain controller or file server. For the basic’s of how-to download and install check out the installation overview at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/citrix-cloud-connector/installation.html.
4. Download the VDA’s from https://apps.cloud.com/downloads which is only accessiable once your have sucessfully authenticated at https://citrix.cloud.com/.
5. A Windows Server 2012 R2 VM running at a min “Active Directory”, “DNS” and the “Citrix Cloud Connector” and one more VM optional only if you want to keep costs down but preferred to match a real-work scenario would be to have a second Windows Server 2012 R2 VM running the “Citrix Cloud Connector” so that you have a pair of connectors talking to Citrix Cloud.
6. A pair of Windows Server 2012 R2 one to be used for or as a +hosted shared server virtual desktop and the other to deliver virtual apps e.g Skype for Business 2015-16 HDX Optimised Doc’s – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/hdx-optimization/2-1/hdx-realtime-optimization-pack-overview.html, video overview at – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpOSi_FkA7c.
7. A Windows Server 2016 VM to be your second +hosted shared server virtual desktop (Preferred choice for me :-)) so you can demonstrate publishing virtual apps into both +virtual desktops and demonstrate Windows Server 2016 as a DaaS VD or just a show and tell back to your organisations management to begin thinking moving to Windows Server 2016 from 2008 R2 or 2012 R2.

Deploying your Citrix Cloud Connectors
1. Prior to starting your installation please be sure to switch “Enhanced Security Configuration (ESC)” off during the installation.
2. Right-click on the CC Connector and run as Administrator.
3. Enter in your Citrix Cloud Administrator access details and you’ll receive a list of available customer accounts in your case you should only have one so select it and continue.
4. The installation will install the required software components and prior to finishing it will perform “connectivity test” this will take up to 60 seconds.
5. Make some coffee or tea if you’re British or a British South African born while the Citrix Cloud Connector communicates with the Citrix CLoud control plane successfully registers.
6. Navigate to Citrix Cloud select from the menu bar in the top left-hand corner “Identity & Access Management” on the “Domains” tab you should now see your domain with a status of “Ready ✓” if you see amber anywhere this is because one of your connectors is not in a ready state or you only have 1x connector in your choosen resource location.
7. Don’t proceed until your connector(s) are in a Ready ✓ state in Citrix Cloud, this is very important!

Deploy your Virtual Apps & Desktops
1. At https://citrix.cloud.com/ select under “Services List” parallel to the “XenApp and XenDesktop Service” click on “Manage” blue button. Note that you can also get to mgmt consoles by clicking the menu icon top left-hand corner and from the list select the service that you wish to administer e.g XAD Service.
2. You’ll now be redirected to https://apps.cloud.com/ and scroll to the bottom of the webpage to identify what your cloud hosted StoreFront server address is e.g https://tttemea10.xendesktop.net/Citrix/StoreWeb/, right click and say open in a new tab.
3. Now click on the downwards arrow on “Manage” and you’ll see two options e.g “Service Creation” and “Service Delivery”. Please click on Service Delivery which should take you to https://apps.cloud.com/delivery and you’ll see the below available options. Simply toggle to select your preferred delivery options for delivery of your virtual apps & desktops choosing in this case to utilise the Citrix Cloud – XAD Service cloud hosted StoreFront and or NetScaler Gateway Service. I will follow-up with another blog post in the future covering off deploying this PoC BUT using StoreFront and NetScaler (Unified) Gateway in your chosen “resource location” BUT for now I am keeping it clean and simple. Please verify that your toggle’s match what you see in the below image prior to proceeding (Also see the 3rd tip!!!). If want to use StoreFront – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service/setting-up-storefront.html and NetScaler – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service/getting-started.html#par_anchortitle_1403 in your resource location the read the provided links above.


TIP/HINT 1: You can choose to toggle off “Session Reliability”.
TIP/HINT 2: Where you configure the XAD Controller point this to the Citrix Cloud Connector.
TIP/HINT 3: The NetScaler Gateway Service is sold separately from the XAD Service as of 2017 Q1 ref – https://www.citrix.com/products/citrix-cloud/subscriptions.html

4. Now click on the downwards arrow on “Manage” and now please click on Service Creation which should take you to https://apps.cloud.com/manage you’ll notice a spinning icon in the middle of your screen for a few seconds and then your securely hardened Studio console will be avaiable to you published using the latest HTML5 Receiver which includes auto screen resizing dynamically (change the browser window size :-)), copy and paste.
5. Create your “Machine Catalog(s)” as per normal if your unsure then follow the steps as outlined at http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-11/install-configure/machine-catalogs-create.html then return back to Citrix Cloud published Studio. Create three machine catalog’s if following the blog post 1x machine catalog for virtual apps powered by Win Srv 2012 R2, 2x virtual desktops one powered by Win Server 2012 R2 and one by 2016. Once you have created your machine catalog’s then check that the VM within each “Machine Catalog(s)” have a successful Registered State if the VM(s) in your each catalog(s) don’t register then review my quick troubleshooting guidance below at the end of this blog article.
6. Next create a “Delivery Group” almost like normal once agian if your are unsure the how-to is avaiable at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-11/install-configure/delivery-groups-create.html remeber agin if following this blog post 1x delivery group for virtual apps powered by Win Srv 2012 R2 and 2x delivery groups for virtual desktops powered by Win Server 2012 R2 and 2016 BUT there is one very important exception which is that once you select the machines and you get to the user section be very sure to select “⚹Leave user management to Citrix Cloud. This makes the Delivery Group available as an offering when configuring your Citrix Cloud Workspaces.” – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/overview/get-started/creating-and-publishing-a-workspace.html.


⚹

6. Now that you have created a Machine Catalog, Delivery Group you need to assign users to these resources so click the menu icon in the top left-hand corner and select “Workspaces“. You’ll see “My First Workspace” just ignore it for now and select the “+ Workspaces” icon it’s large you just cannot miss it! Note that workspaces are now referred service offerings which you assign to users from your Library – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/overview/get-started/assigning-users-to-offerings-using-library.html.
7. Enter in a name for your workspace e.g PoC Workspace.
8. Select “✎ Manage” under your Workspace name and now from the available “Citrix Cloud Services” list select the “XenApp and XenDesktop Service” and you’ll see your delivery group(s) dependant if you completely followed this blog post on the right-hand side so simply select your virtual apps and virtual desktops that you wish to publish to this workspace, it’s your choice but in this PoC we’ll be selecting all avaiable delivery groups to delivery virtual apps & desktops. Once selected click on “Update Workspace” blue button above.
9. Your workspace now contains virtual apps & desktops that can be consumed by subscribers e.g users.
10. Now that you have created your first Workspace e.g PoC Workspace in Citrix Cloud using the XenApp & XenDesktop Service all that is left to do is to add users BUT in a Citrix Cloud world they are known as “subscribers“!
11. Select your e.g PoC Workspace once more and click on “Subscribers” tab and you’ll see a domain list below on your left-hand side so select your “domain” and to your right you’ll see an input field type in your subscriber’s username e.g lynd which will then query your AD via the Citrix Cloud connector securely and it will find and return your user(s) e.g lyndon-jon@x1co.eu and once it is listed select the user(s) from your query and they will be added to the list below, now repeat the process to add all other test/poc subscribers or AD test/poc security groups to your e.g PoC Workspace and then click on the “Update Workspace” blue button above to save the subscribers to this workspace.


TIP/HINT: You can also select AD Security Groups not just AD users.

Initial Test
Your users/subscribers should now be able to login to the Cloud hosted StoreFront available at e.g https://YOURCUSTOMERNAME.xendesktop.net using an HTML5 internet browser or Citrix Receiver.

HDX Policies
Please assign your policies as you prefer to users, delivery groups e.t.c. You’ll also notice that I have not applied a FPS limit to every policy only the ones that are balanced as most often these need to adjusted to be fit for purpose for standard office workers to enable user density gains on the backend and bandwidth savings while maintaining a decent and good UX. My personal preference is “HDX Adaptive Display v2“.

HDX Adaptive Display v2 HDX Adaptive Display v2 (Balanced) Thinwire Compatible Mode Thinwire Compatible Mode (Balanced) H.264
1.”Use video codec for compression” then select the option to be “For actively changing regions“ 1.”Use video codec for compression” then select  “For actively changing regions“
2. “Preferred color depth for simple graphics” then select “16 bits per pixel” and also try 24.		 1.”Use video codec for compression” then select the option to be “Do not use video codec“ 1.”Use video codec for compression” then select the option to be “Do not use video codec“
2. “Preferred color depth for simple graphics” then select “16 bits per pixel” and also try 24.
3. “Frames Per Second” then enter in a value of “25-30“.		 1.”Use video codec for compression” then select the option to be “For the entire screen“
2. “Frames Per Second” then enter in a value of “30” (Optional)
My personal preferred choice My 2nd personal preferred choice

Advanced Remote Access using a NetScaler in your Resource Location with(out) StoreFront
The following has been tested using the latest NS firmware 11.1 available in the Azure marketplace as of 05/03/2017.

1. Login to NetScaler admin WebUI using the following firmware 11.1.x.n
2. Check that your appliance is correctly licensed.
3. Select the “Unified Gateway” wizard.
4. Enter in your assigned VIP (private IP addr or in Azure NSIP:8443) and enter in a vServer friendly name e.g myUG
5. Select to “Install Cert” a valid public CA signed cert either *.pfx vs. *.pem.
6. Configure LDAP either use an exciting or add a new server for LDAP auth and choose the “Server Logon Name Attribute” as userPrincipalName .
7. Select “Portal Theme” and select “RfWebUI”
8. Now under the under “Applications” select and add “XenApp/XenDesktop” and now enter in your resource location or Cloud-Hosted StoreFront “FQDN” and select “Test Connection” which should retrieve and auto configure the required settings and thereafter a green bar will appear if successful if not then manually configured based upon the following guidance below.

– Enter in “Site Path” e.g /Citrix/StoreWeb/
– Enter in your Sign Sign-on Domain e.g x1co.eu
– Enter in “Store Name” e.g Store
– Enter in “Secure Ticket Authority (STA) Server” which will be the Citrix Cloud Connector IP addr
– StoreFront server IP Addr:

Option 1 – If using the cloud-hosted StoreFront FQDN e.g https://*.xendesktop.net then please use the IP addr of the Citrix Cloud Connector in your resource location.
Option 2 – If using a StoreFront server in the resource location please use its IP addr.

9. Do not configure a “Xen Farm” please just select and “Continue” and complete steps to finish the Wizard.
10. The dashboard overview of “Unified Gateway” should indicate all up and green.

Remote PowerShell SDK for the XenApp and XenDesktop Service
Coming but have a read of – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/xenapp-and-xendesktop-service/remote-powershell-sdk.html in the intermin.

Troubleshooting Guidance
VDA Registration Issue
1. Make sure that forward and reverse DNS is setup correctly for the VDA’s and the CC Connectors.
2. Check that the following Citrix Cloud services “Citrix Remote Broker Provider” and “Citrix Cloud Agent System, Logger & WatchDog“are successfully started on your Citrix Cloud Connector(s) VM instances.
3. Ensure that HTTPS/443 is NOT disabled outbound on any of your CC Connectors either via the Windows Firewall or your hardware or virtual f/w ACL’s.