The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and test delivering virtual apps and desktops powered by XenApp & XenDesktop 7.9 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.
Shortened Names
XENAPP – xa
XENDESKTOP – xd
XENAPP/XENDESKTOP – xad
VIRTUAL DELIVERY AGENT – vda
HIGH DEFINITION EXPERIENCE – hdx
INDEPENDENT COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE – ica
EXPERIENCE 1st – x1
VIRTUAL DESKTOP – vd
VIRTUAL APPS – va
THINWIRE COMPATIBLE MODE – tcm also known as ecm or thinwire+
What’s New THAT You Probably Missed!
So firstly I thought I’d start with what consultants, IT Professionals and most importantly CTX SysAdmins been an ex-one myself may miss with the latest XenApp & XenDesktop 7.9 release and then cover the what’s new e.g most commonly known as a blog article up.
1 – Windows 10 support under the XAD 7.6 Long Term Service Release (LTSRP) – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2016/06/13/a-sneak-peek-behind-the-scenes-of-the-long-term-service-release-ltsr/ but the detail about been compliant is avaiable at the following CTX article titled “CTX205549 XenApp and XenDesktop Servicing Options (LTSR) FAQ” – http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX205549 and then search for How do I get a Windows 10 VDA that is 7.6 LTSR compliant? on the web page. The following Citrix LTSR Assistant tool note its “Tech Preview – v1.0.0.32” but has been updated as of 10 June 2016 and can be downloaded at – http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX209577 but its NOT recommended when using with a production enviroment so against your UAT enviroment to ensure that your actual Citrix XAD PROD enviroment is XAD 7.6 LTSR compliant. For more in-depth information check out – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-6-long-term-service-release/xad-whats-new.html which provides a link to the Windows 10 statement for CTX205549.
2 – Support for Windows 10 in the HDX 3D Pro VDA
3 – Federated Authentication Service or FAS leverages a MS CA to dynamically issue certs to logon users as if they where using a smart card and extends Citrix authentication capabilities is must read for any real (CTX) SysAdmin and security experts – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-9/secure/federated-authentication-service.html.
4 – New default HDX graphics behaviour within XAD 7.9 is to support the use of Thinwire Compatible Mode or more commonly referred to as Thinwire+ and then to utilise “Use video codec for compression” when preferred e.g when playing a video which makes alot of sense to me so I am very happy to see this new default behaviours kudos to the HDX engineers that would on HDX Graphics Modes! Great job again 🙂
5 – HDX 3D Pro support for Intel CPUs with Intel Iris Pro graphics 5th & 6th Generation check out the following eDoc article for the full details – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-9/hdx/gpu-acceleration-desktop.html. For a good overview and demonstration of this new GPU support for XAD 7.9 powered by XenServer 7.0 yes that is correct XenServer 7.0 watch the following YouTube clip. Also please be sure to check out the latest XenServer 7.0 documentation at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenserver/xenserver-7-0.html there is some seriously new very cool stuff which I will cover in another up and comming Blog article time permitting between work and family life.
6 – The HTML5 Receiver 2.0 introduces a enhanced floating toolbar and you can now control its behaviour by completely hiding it or an individual icon only so check out the how-to at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/receiver/html5/2-0/about-this-release.html and after that it descirbes the new Client side appswitcher feature which also means CTX SysAdmins dont have to install the Client side appswitcher seperately on your VDAs.
7 – The following guides are for XAD 7.6+ and onwards although not actually classed as NEW they are often missed I find:
The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and test delivering virtual apps and desktops powered by Citrix Workspace Cloud (CWC) – App’s & Desktop Service with a AWS EC2 resource location 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 necessary 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
AMAZON WEB SERVICES – aws
SECURITY GROUPS – sg
ELASTIC COMPUTE CLOUD – ec2
HYBRID CLOUD PROVISIONING – hcp
XENAPP – xa
XENDESKTOP – xd
XENAPP/XENDESKTOP – xad
VIRTUAL DELIVERY AGENT – vda
HIGH DEFINITION EXPERIENCE – hdx
INDEPENDENT COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE – ica
CITRIX WORKSPACE CLOUD CONNECTOR – cwc connector/agent
EXPERIENCE 1st – x1
VIRTUAL DESKTOP – vd
VIRTUAL APPS – va
INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE – iaas
CITRIX WORKSPACE CLOUD – cwc
CITRIX LIFECYCLE MANAGE
Video Citrix Workspace Cloud: How It Works
PoC Introduction & Overview (This is a Public Draft Blog Article & May Contain Some Errors)
In this particular instance I will be deploying a Citrix Workspace Cloud (CWC) PoC using the Apps & Desktop service which is Citrix online service and is essentially made up of five compoments in my personal view these are people (Users, Consultants & SysAdmins), the Control Plane which is hosted by Citrix and is high available and accessible at – https://workspace.cloud.com/, Resource Locations which could be private, public (IaaS) or hybrid clouds which host and run your actual CItrix workloads e.g servers or desktops OSes with the VDA’s installed and optionally StoreFront and or NetScaler Unified Gateway, Receiver for access to your published virtual apps & desktops and finally the CWC connector which makes everything just work safe & securely.
Please note that I will update this blog post with a how-to re deploying NS for remote access from AWS EC2.
What you need
For this PoC I may refer to AWS and XenServer concepts as my home lab is deployed in a Hybrid Cloud model e.g some of my Citrix workloads are in hosted in AWS EC2 (N.Virgina) while others are running on a XenServer 6.5 SP1+ host at my house in London. You don’t have to use AWS like I am for your PoC you could use any IaaS provider e.g Azure, Rackspace, Peer1 or even on-prem with your own host(s) running XenServer, Hyper-V and of course vSphere :-).
1 – CWC trial account entitling you to the CWC Apps & Desktop Service and Identity & Access Management e.g for adding users from your domain and to download the CWC Connector.
2 – Your resource location of choice mine is AWS from here on in through-out this blog article.
3 – 1x Windows Server 2012 R2 I’ll call this VM WDC01 running AD, DNS at a minimum and the Citrix Receiver (http://receiver.citrix.com), CWC Connector downloaded on the desktop (explained later).
4 – 1x Windows Server 2012 R2 domain joined and I’ll call this VM CXA01 with the latest XA 7.8+ Server VDA (https://www.citrix.com/downloads.html which requires a valid Citrix.com customer/partner account with access details ) downloaded.
5 – AWS security groups (on-prem f/w ACL) to allow outbound traffic on TCP 443 (HTTPS) to the Internet, allow HTTPS/ICA/HDX/RDS traffic including HDX RealTime ports for audio and video between all VM’s within your chosen network.
6 – Some suggested test application examples could be Microsoft’s Office 2016 or OpenOffice, Notepad ++, The Gimp, Autodesk Viewer. WaRnInG!!! Disclaimer – Please refer to the ISV’s EULA for terms of usage prior to downloading, installing, configuring and publishing virtual apps to test and play with!.
7 – *Create friendly DNS entries to be used later for WDC01 e.g DNS entry of cwccontroller.axendatacentre.com or your could stick with host name.domainname format it’s your choice. Note: Be sure to setup and configure not just fwd. but also reverse DNS within resolution/look-up!
Setting up your Resource Location
1 – Login as the Domain Admin on WDC01 and navigate to https://workspace.cloud.com and sign in with your trial access details provided by Citrix.
2 – Select from the list on the very TOP left-hand corner Identity & Access Management next click the plus/+ sign and follow the onscreen prompts to download the CWC Connector/agent.
3 – Before installing the CWC Connector/Agent please be sure to read the following documenation – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-cloud/workspace-cloud/what-is-a-workspace-cloud-connector-/workspace-cloud-connector-technical-details.html. Once downloaded double click on the CWC Connector/agent and when prompted enter in your CWC trial access details and the installation will complete successfully if the access details provided are correct and if 443 HTTPS is enable outbound to the Internet from WDC01 to https://workspace.cloud.com.
4 – Take a short 1-3 min comfort break then refresh your web page for https://workspace.cloud.com and navigate back to Identity & Access Management and you should see your domain appear within the list, then you may proceed. If you don’t check your firewall ACL’s locally on the Windows server or virtual f/w at the edge of your VPC network and also check your AWS Security Groups are setup correctly to allow in/outbound access on HTTPS/443.
Note: If you turn off WDC01 you’ll receive and error at this page and manage & monitor tabs within the Apps & Desktop Service are NOT accessible until access is restored! Likewise if you only have 1x CWC Connector/agent then you may see an amber warning under domain within Identity & Access Management as you only have 1x CWC Connector/agent and it suggested even for a PoC to install 2x instead of 1x.
5 – Login as a Domain Admin on CXA01 and mount the XA 7.8+ VDA media by right clicking and left clicking on Mount then navigate to Windows Explorer and double click on D drive that has recently mounted with the XA 7.8 installation media and then proceed to select to install the Server VDA from the splash screen or if your downloaded the Server VDA *.exe (suggested & recommended) from Citrix.com then double click to install the VDA. In each case you’ll require 2x reboots as per normal like on-prem installations however now on CXA01 there is one exception at the controller step type in cwccontroller.axendatacente.com* or the hostname.domainname for WDC01 (Point to the CWC Connector/agent that you previously installed) and then continue with installation and once the installation is completed on CXA01, then verify that the VDA has registered and is communicating with WDC01 e.g cwccontroller.axendatacentre.com by reviewing CWC service or the event logs within Computer Management. Tip: Install to enabling remote connections initially to get your head around how the CWC Apps & Desktop Service actually works.
6 – You’ve now successfully completed setting up your XenApp worker for your chosen resource location in my case it’s an AWS EC2 located out of N.Virginia. If your curious about the CWC connector there is a tech overview avaiable at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-cloud/workspace-cloud/what-is-a-workspace-cloud-connector-/workspace-cloud-connector-technical-details.html be sure to review it.
7 – Now we need to continue with creating a machine catalog, delivery group in the hosted Studio and obviously publishing your virtual apps & desktop (server based).
Create a Machine Catalogue and Delivery Groups to publish Virtual apps & desktops
1 – Now go back to the homepage at https://workspace.cloud.com and to the right of the Apps & Desktop Service click “Manage” to launch the management interface which provides you with an Overview page (Scroll to the bottom to find out your cloud hosted StoreFront address. Tip: If you get an red bar with an error message check that your CWC Connector/agent at your resource location is up and available and showing as green for your domain at the Identity & Access Management tab!.
2 – Scroll to bottom of the overview web page to find out exactly what your cloud hosted StoreFront addr is. It should follow the following format https://{TENANT NAME}.xendesktop.net/Citrix/StoreWeb/. Right click on it to open a new tab and to remain at https://apps.cloud.com/. You should be able to login using your test AD security group. Tip: You won’t see any published virtual apps or desktops currently as you have not created a machine catalogue or delivery group.
3 – Go back to the Manage Apps & Desktops Service web page and click Manage or Monitor this will embed a custom, hardened published app version of Studio or Director using the HTML5 Receiver so please ensure that you are utilising an HTML5 compliant internet browser that supports the HTML5 Receiver.
4 – Assuming you’ve clicked on Manage firstly navigate to Hosting Connections create a connection to your chosen resource location either on-prem or cloud (Private or Public) details for setting up hosting connections are available at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-8/manage-deployment/connections.html. Once setup wait 1-2 min before proceeding you don’t have to by the way! I do.
5 – Click Machine Catalogue and create as per normal for detailed on how-to please refer to – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-8/install-configure/machine-catalogs-create.html. Tip: I’d suggest as its your first time using the CWC Apps and Desktop service create your machine catalogue with a single VM with the VDA installed to allow remote connections as described earlier to allow you to get around how the CWC Apps and Desktops Service actually works. You don’t have to either it’s your choice.
6 – Click Delivery Groups and create as per normal aswell and please refer to – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-8/install-configure/delivery-groups-create.html for guidance delivering virtual apps (Skype for Business 2015 also implment the HDX Optimisation Pack 2.0 check out – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2016/01/12/citrix-and-microsoft-unveil-v2-solution-for-skype-for-business/ for more information) & desktops (Windows Server 2012 R2). TIP: The name you provide your Delivery Group filters through to the Workspaces at – https://workspace.cloud.com/workspaces and becomes the default name of your published virtual & desktops services that you will assign to your subscribers (users) workspace.
7 – You’ve now successfully setup a Machine Catalog and Delivery Group using the CWC Apps & Desktop Service to published a virtual apps & desktop, however prior to accessing your virtual apps & desktops you’ll need to create a Workspace and add subscribers (users) including which published resources your subscribers (users) are able to access otherwise they wont be able to login nor access any published resources.
You should have the Server VDA and CWC Connector now installed see the below example image below.
Create a Workspace to Delivery published virtual apps & desktops
1 – A workspace consists of a collection of services from CWC e.g Secure Documents (ShareFile), Apps & Desktop Service (XenApp/XenDesktop) and so forth that SysAdmins can combine together to form e.g a Pre-Sales workspace that may consist of a virtual apps e.g Skype for Business 2015 that is also offloaded with the HDX Optimisation Pack 2.0 – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/hdx-optimization/2-0/hdx-realtime-optimization-pack-about.html and a virtual desktop e.g a dedicated Windows 10 or 2012 R2 desktop. A workspace also consists of subscribers (users) who access the workspace which contains published resources created by Citrix SysAdmins. Please ref to http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-cloud/workspace-cloud/get-started/creating-and-publishing-a-workspace.html which explains how-to create a workspace, define subscribers and published resources.
2 – Once you have created a Workspace and assigned subscribers, resources then users can login at https://{TENANT}.xendesktop.net/Citrix/StoreWeb/ from there resource location and gain access to there virtual apps & desktops.
3 – Managing your newly created Workspace is easy following this useful online document from eDocs – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-cloud/workspace-cloud/get-started/manage-a-workspace.html.
Example of my virtual desktop (Server based) delivered by CWC using the XenApp 7.8 VDA. I also use the same theme for my complete XenApp 7.8 deployment in AWS yes I have both deployed and configured 🙂
A first for me
This is the first time I’ve written a blog post (primarily) completed in the air traveling from somewhere between London – England, Oslo – Norway and Stockholm – Sweden.
Disclaimer
This blog article should be considered to be a draft still and therefore may contain errors and I will be updating and adjusting it time permitting and adding in how-to front this CWC Apps & Desktop service deployment in my AWS EC2 resource location with NetScaler Unified Gateway – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT739UoR8d0.
The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and test delivering Skype for Business 2015 as a Citrix virtual app or an app within a virtual desktop powered by Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop 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.
Shortened Names
SKYPE FOR BUSINESS – skype4b
XENAPP – xa
XENDESKTOP – xd
XENAPP/XENDESKTOP – xad
VIRTUAL DELIVERY AGENT – vda
HIGH DEFINITION EXPERIENCE – hdx
VIRTUAL DESKTOP – vd
VIRTUAL APPS – va
REALTIME MEDIA ENGINE – rtme
REALTIME CONNECTOR – rtc
Introduction
The following blog article provides a basic understanding of how to deploy Skype for Business 2015 with the HDX Optimisation Pack 2.0 within a Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop environment which offloads the audio and video to the users local end-point running Citrix Receiver and the HDX RealTime Media Engine on supported Windows, Mac or Linux OSes. This offloading capability is powered by latest v2 HDX Optimisation Pack 2.0 architecture which can be found at – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2016/01/12/citrix-and-microsoft-unveil-v2-solution-for-skype-for-business/ joint worked on between Citrix and Microsoft.
Why Customers Virtualize Skype for Business with Citrix
Understanding the HDX Optimisation Pack 2.0 vs. a Non-Optimised Deployment
The following is an oversimplified diagram which is also not intended to be 100% accurate but should provide you with a better understanding of the differences between an non-optimised vs. optimised delivery of a Skype4B virtual app from a Citrix environment.
Non-Optimised
Optimised with the HDX Optimisation Pack 2.x.n
VM
running Windows OS
VDA
7.x.n
Skype4B
Client + Media Engine
Internet
End-point
+ Citrix Receiver
VM
running Windows OS
←
→
VDA 7.x.n
ICA/HDX Virtual Channel*
↑
↓
Skype4B
Client
HDX
RealTime Connector powered by HDX Optimisation Pack 2.x.n
←
→
Internet
↑
↓
←
→
End-point
+ Citrix Receiver (Windows, Mac or Linux) *
HDX
RealTime Media Engine (RTME) powered by HDX Optimisation Pack 2.x.n
Deploying the HDX Optimisation Pack 2.0 for Skype for Business 2015 for XenApp/XenDesktop
0. Initiate a video call using Skype for Business from your PC using Skype for Business as a published virtual app on its own or in a virtual desktop between yourself and another individual with Skype4B installed locally on their PC or Mac. Open task manager locally and on the XenApp server or virtual desktop and watch the CPU, memory and bandwidth consumption during your video call and remember to adjust screen size during the call between small, medium and full screen.
1. Install Skype for Business 2015 client within your virtual desktop (*server or desktop Windows OS).
2. Publish the Skype4B 2015 virtual app or the virtual desktop that contains app.
3. Connect to the virtual app or desktop and verify that you can open and login to your Skype4B and ensure that its functioning as normal obviously it’s not optimized but will still perform video/audio calls thanks to the HDX technologies.
4. Close Skype4B 2015 and now install the HDX RealTime Connector e.g HDX_RealTime_Connector_2.0_for_Skype_For_Business.msi downloaded from Citrix.com.
5. Disconnect from the virtual desktop*.
6. Close any ICA/HDX sessions and close Citrix Receiver
7 Next install the HDX RealTime media engine HDX_RealTime_MediaEngine_2.0_for_Windows.msi downloaded from Citrix.com.
8. Start Citrix Receiver and reconnect to your published virtual Skype4B app or virtual desktop with Skype for Business 2015 installed and you should see the HDX RealTime Connector stating “Optimised.
9. Re-initiate your video call to the same user as in step 1 above and you’ll notice the difference immediately as the video will be crisp and sharp and again open task manager and repeat the same process and you’ll see the CPU, memory and bandwidth are low on the back-end but locally on your end-point the CPU, Memory and bandwidth increases to medium as the audio and video is now been processed locally on your end-point thanks to the RTME.
Deploying the HDX Optimization Pack 2.1 for Skype4B 2016
Follow the all the steps above BUT for use with the Skype for Business 2016 you need to use the “Click-to-Run” installer and adjust the configuration.xml file for the installation to use “current” switch for the default installation behavior as Office 365 ProPlus default installation behaviour is to use “Deferred for Office 365 ProPlus. To learn how-to reconfigure the XML file in greater detail please refer to – https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219426.aspx for help.
Example of an HDX Offloaded Skype4B 2015 Video Call
The following picture depicts a Skype for Business 2015 video call HDX Offloaded using the HDX Optimization Pack 2.x.n between two Windows 10 virtual desktops hosted in different locations in the EU delivered to myself and a Citrite colleague in different locations within London. I myself was at partners customer event in the City using public Wi-fi that 200+ other people were connected to and using, he was at home in SW London connected to the internet over his home internet connection.
Microsoft on the Optimization Pack v2 Architecture
I’d suggest watching the following broadcast on YouTube entitled “SfB Video Broadcast: Ep 9. VDI” from the Skype for Business team providing a Microsoft perspective on the offloading capabilities for Skype4B with the Citrix Optimisation Pack 2.0. As a final thought discovery more about Skype4B at there YouTube channel which is accessiable at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfL-WUXlvFjLsUs4UCpPrsA.
The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and test delivering virtual apps and desktops powered by XenApp 7.8 in AWS EC2 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 necessary 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
AMAZON WEB SERVICES – aws
SECRUITY GROUPS – sg
ELASTIC COMPUTE CLOUD – ec2
HYBRID CLOUD PROVISIONING – hcp
XENAPP – xa
XENDESKTOP – xd
XENAPP/XENDESKTOP – xad
VIRTUAL DELIVERY AGENT – vda
HIGH DEFINITION EXPERIENCE – hdx
INDEPENDENT COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE – ica
FEATURE PACK – fp
EXPERIENCE 1st – x1
VIRTUAL DESKTOP – vd
VIRTUAL APPS – va
INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE – iaas
CITRIX WORKSPACE CLOUD – cwc
CITRIX LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT – clm
THINWIRE COMPATIBLE MODE – tcm also known as ecm
Experience Deploying My 1st Virtual Desktop & Apps in AWS
The following screenshot is of a virtual desktop (Windows Server 2012 R2 powered by XenApp 7.8) hosted in AWS EC2 located in N.Virginia, US delivered Windows 8.1 (Yes I know I need to get to Win 10 :-)) laptop running Citrix Receiver Windows 4.4 in London, England with the HDX Thinwire Compatible Mode graphics mode configured with a Preferred Color Depth set to 16-Bit and the performance is very good considering what Ive configured I then adjusted my HDX policies to then switch to HDX SuperCodec (H.264) the UX gets even better providing an even closer HD local like experience in my personal view only so give it ago for yourself.
The HDX policies overview is documented below so for now back to my experience deploying XenApp 7.8 on AWS.
It was substantially easier than I anticipated or even expected as the AWS documentation is easy to understand I believe however that maybe due to the fact I used to previously work for a Managed Services ISP in City of London so many concepts related to Managed Hosting, IaaS, Private and Hybrid Cloud come quiet naturally to me.
Introduction to Provisioning XenApp Workloads on AWS EC2
Citrix has had the capability to deploy virtual applications and desktops powered by XenApp 6-7.x.n for quiet sometime utilising the traditional Manual CTX SysAdmin approach then Citrix introduced a concept entitled Hybrid Cloud Provisioning (HCP) under the unified FMA architecture for XAD some time ago which allows CTX SysAdmins the capability to expand there existing Citrix workloads e.g virtual apps and desktops (server based only) to IaaS providers e.g AWS or often generically referred to as the Cloud by adding in a secure new hosting connection within Studio for AWS the requirements include providing the Connection URL, API key and Secret key from your AWS EC2 account ref – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-6/xad-connections.html. You can utilise this exact same concept to provision XenApp based workloads from within a AWS EC2 XenApp 7.x FMA Site as described in detail in the following deployment guide entitled “Deploy XenApp 7.5 and 7.6 and XenDesktop 7.5 and 7.6 with Amazon VPC” available at – http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX140427. Finally if I have not explained well enough what hybrid cloud provisioning actually is powered by XenApp 7.x then this short and simple YouTube video from Citrix below should hopefully re-enforce your understanding of HCP.
You can still utilise hybrid cloud provisioning within XenApp 7.8 today and Citrix continues to evolve with its next generation cloud 1st approach of provisioning of Citrix workloads within IaaS, Private and Hybrid clouds with Citrix Workspace Cloud (CWC) its now known as Citrix Cloud. How does it work? Once more there is a fantastic YouTube video which demonstrates setting up, configuring, publishing and delivering a Windows virtual application utilising CWC by one of Citrix’s CTO its well worth watching!
Finally you can utilise Citrix Lifecycle Management (CLM) to automate the deployment and auto scaling of your Citrix workloads on AWS EC2, however this topic is currently not in scope for this blog article however I may update this blog article in the future to include provisioning XenApp on AWS EC2 powered by Citrix Lifecycle Management (CLM).
Pre-requisites & System Requirements for Deploying a XA 7.8 PoC in AWS EC2 (Draft + The Basic’s Only)
0. Check that your XAD license entitlement is correct at – https://www.citrix.com/go/products/xendesktop/feature-matrix.html to provision XenApp workloads on AWS EC2. As of writing and publishing this blog article you require XenApp or XenDesktop Enterprise or above licensing in order to provision workloads on AWS and also Azure.
1. You need an AWS account, Credit card
2. Choose your EC2 region e.g N.Virgina
3. Create your “Security Groups” which acts as a virtual firewall for ICA 1494, 2598 Session Reliability, HTTPS 443, RDS 3389 (SysAdmin access)
4. Lunch an single instance from the EC2 dashboard under “Create Instance” this will be your mgmt. VM
5. Decrypt the passwd & login your mgmt. VM install your require roles e.g AD, DNS as a min requirement for XA 7.x
6. Lunch another single instance from the EC2 dashboard under “Create Instance” this will be your XA PoC VM
7. Download the media from Citrix.com and any FP’s and install all the components onto your XA PoC VM (Studio, Director, Controller, MS SQL Express, StoreFront, License server)
7. Install the latest VDA (existing connections) once ready launch Studio and create your Site, configure your machine catalogue and delivery groups.
8. Modify SFS default.ica file to include your external static IP and check your Windows f/w rules to ensure 1494 is correctly configured to allow traversing NAT’s
9. Navigate to https://AWS-XA-PoC-VM/Citrix/StoreWeb/ and login as a domain admin or user and launch a virtual app and or desktop.
10. Shutdown and turn off your VM’s within your AWS VPC when you are finished with your tests to ensure that your cost(s) are kept to a minimum.
Begin with the following HDX policies listed below to enable TCM/ECM/Thinwire+/Thinwire Compatible Mode and be sure to check out CTX202687 described below in-line with the Very High Definition Experience HDX Policy template.
Policy Name
Default Value
Comment
Preferred color depth for simple graphics
24 bits per pixel
Legacy Mode
Target frame rate
30 fps
Legacy Mode
Use video codec for compression
Do not use Video codec
Force ECM on explicitly by turning H.264 off (Testing)
2. Configuring the super codec (H.264) is actually very easy select the Very High Definition Experience form the HDX templates in Studio and create a policy from it applying again to your test security group (preferred) or domain users it’s your choice. Please note that this policy will enable H.264 however it will default to TCM if you connect from a device that does not support H.264.
3. Finally for all those advanced CTX consultants and SysAdmins out there check the following CTX article – http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX202687 entitled “HDX Graphics Modes – Which Policies Apply to DCR/Thinwire/H.264 – An Overview for XenDesktop/XenApp 7.6 FP3” which documents each policy for each HDX encoding or graphics mode supporter by XAD 7.8
What is the Remote Display Analyzer?
A simple summary sourced from https://www.rdanalyzer.com/ – “Use Remote Display Analyzer to easily analyze the result of your configuration and change settings on the fly to assess the best possible end user experience for every user, on every device on every location“. It’s also recognised as Citrix “community tool in EUC” – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2016/03/17/community-tool-remote-display-analyzer-for-xenapp-xendesktop/.
What’s New At A Glance
1: The re-introduction of Zones within the FMA architecture is a leading key NEW feature known as “Multi-geo Zone”.
2: Application Limits (AppLimits) allows you to limit the number of application instants launched which is also shown in existing views/counts within Director.
3: MCS provisioning support in Microsoft Azure for XenApp workloads.
4: Proactive e-mail notifications, alerts and Integrated Windows Authentication for SSO for Director
5: Installation improvements allowing SysAdmins to choose the SQL databases names and server(s) during the creation Site creation.
6: New API support for provisioning VMs from hypervisor templates
7: HDX Optimization Pack 2.0 for offloading of Lync 2013, Skype for Business 2015 within a virtual ICA/HDX session.
8: API support for managing session roaming.
9: Windows 10 support for VDA’s and Studio.
10: HDX Ready has been overhauled for Citrix’s supported thin clients.
Database
You can now choose to deploy your XAD SQL databases for on one or more SQL database server(s) during the creation of your Site including defining the names for each DB instance.
Understanding Zones
Its important to understand a few key things which is that FMA Zones are NOT IMA Zones and the second point to stress is that this is an re-introduction feature of Zones within the Flexcast Management Architecture (FMA) that has powered XAD platform since the 7.x.n release and that this is a v1 or version 1 release. I would very strongly encourage anyone reading this blog post to watch the embedded YouTube by Craig Hinchliffe a PM within Citrix focused on XenApp & XenDesktop.
Some important notes prior to watching the video:
1. The official documentation for Zones is available at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-7/manage-deployment/zones.html
2. Zone in-geo support for XAD 7.x FMA Site’s over secure WAN’s e.g London, Paris, Munich as there is a latency challenge as described at – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2016/01/12/deep-dive-xenapp-and-xendesktop-7-7-zones/.
3. There is ALWAYS a Primary Zone and then two types of Satellite Zones. The first Satellite Zone consists of VDA’s and N1+ controllers and second type of Satellite Zone consists of VDA’s and a single only controller.
4. A Satellite Zone consisting of VDA’s ONLY is NOT Supported!
5. Zones can be managed by Studio or PoSH.
6. In the event of a connection failure over the secure WAN connecting a Primary & Satellite Zone Connection Leasing (CL) is the default fallback until access to Primary Zone is restored enabling access to the SQL database(s), Controller(s), StoreFront server(s) in the Primary Zone. The CL functionality is exactly the same as XAD 7.6 so please be sure to https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2014/11/11/xendesktop-7-6-connection-leasing-design-considerations/.
7. SuGgEsTeD create a Secure WAN connection between two or more geographic locations to create your Zone utilising the CloudBridge Connector which is a feature of the NetScaler which allows you to creates secure L2L IPSec VPN tunnels between two separate data centre’s, thus saving you during a PoC implementing additional virtual or physical appliances to create secure L2L IPSec VPN simple re-use your NetScaler if the appliance is correctly licensed so please refer to the NetScaler datasheets at https://www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/products-solutions/citrix-netscaler-vpx-data-sheet.pdf, https://www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/products-solutions/netscaler-data-sheet.pdf.
8: VDA’s will default to registering to Controller(s) within there own zone! A VDA in the primary zone will only ever attempt to register with controller(s) in the Primary Zone and VDA’s in the Satellite Zone will register there local or (preferred) controller(s) by default. In the event of a controller failure the VDA’s will register the secondary controller in the Satellite Zone if one doesn’t exist the VDA’s will then register with the controller(s) in the Primary Zone.
9: The SuGgEsTeD number of Zones per Site is 10 https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2016/01/12/deep-dive-xenapp-and-xendesktop-7-7-zones/.
Missing or No Zones Feature Post Upgrade of XAD 7.6 FP3 to 7.7
After upgrading from XA/XD 7.6 FP3 to XA/XD 7.7, the MultiGeo Zones feature does NOT appear in Citrix Studio. To resolve this behavior, in an Elevated rights PoSH Window, navigate to “C:\Program Files\Citrix\XenDesktopPoshSdk\Module\Citrix.XenDesktop.Admin.V1\Citrix.XenDesktop.Admin\StudioRoleConfig” and run the following “Import-AdminRoleConfiguration .\RoleConfigSigned.xml”. Now close both the PoSH window and Studio and re-open Studio and you should notice that the Zone’s feature is now available under App-V Publishing. The following PoSH cmdlet and two other known issues can be found at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-7/what-is-new/known-issues.html.
AppLimits or Application Limits
Once you have configured your application limits – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-7/install-configure/delivery-groups-manage/applications-manage.html per published XenApp app begin your testing and your notice that your users receive the following error message Cannot start “APP NAME”. If you want to better understand why the user received these error messages open the event viewer on the XenApp worker and search for the following event ID’s 1117 which translates to “The Citrix Broker Service failed to broker a connection for user ‘DOMAIN\USER’ to application ‘APP NAME’. The maximum allowed instances of this application in the site are already running” and 1118 “The Citrix Broker Service failed to broker a connection for user ‘DOMAIN\USER’ to application ‘APP NAME’. The user is already running the maximum number of instances of this application that they are allowed.“.
This year Citrix Summit 2016 was hosted at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada – USA. As this is a Citrix partner NDA event i’ll direct you to some of useful announcements published on Citrix.com so happy reading 🙂 and i’ll be following up with some technical blog articles covering XenApp/XenDesktop 7.7, NetScaler Unified Gateway 11.x.n and XenMobile Server 10.3 that where released at Citrix Summit 2016.
The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and test HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 2.0 with XAD 7.7+ 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 necessary conform to industry descriptions or best practises.
Shortened Names
XENAPP XENDESKTOP – xad
REALTIME MEDIA ENGINE – rtme
REALTIME CONNECTOR – rtc
USER INTERFACE – ui
UNIFIED COMMUNICATION – uc
HIGH DEFEINTION EXPERIENCE – hdx
SKYPE FOR BUSINESS – skype4b
What’s New
1: Native Skype for Business 2015 UI supported.
2: Authentication and SIP signalling handled exclusively by the Skype for Business client
3: Fallback mode is controlled by a registry entry at the following location “Key: HKLM\Software\Citrix\HDXRTConnector or HKCU\Software\Citrix\HDXRTConnector Value: DWORD DisableFallback” but please ref to – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/hdx-optimization/2-0/about.html for what value needs to be inserted and be sure to read the Registry WaRniNg notification.
3: Improved audio-video quality (resilience to packet loss, echo cancelation)
4: Call and video call buttons added to the contact card
5: Automatically join meeting audio controls
6: Adheres to the Skype for Business Server settings surrounding making audio, video calls from endpoints.
7: Web proxy support with limitation as described at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/hdx-optimization/2-0/hdx-realtime-optimization-pack-about.html#par_richtext_3
8: ….*
Example of an Offloaded Skype for Business 2015 Published Citrix Virtual Desktop
The below is an example of the HDX Optimization Pack 2.0 implemented with Skype for Business 2015 client using and the latest Citrix Receiver and HDX RealTime media engine on my end-point which is a Dell Latitude E6420 running Windows 8.1. My initial test results within my IaaS home lab have been very good and I’m currently doing more testing with a few colleagues and will update this blog update as when/how time permitting with the feedback and results.
An Introduction & System Requirements (Basic’s)
The Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack consists of client and server component’s and requires the following system requirements between Citrix
Receiver for Windows 4.x; Receiver for Mac 12.x; Receiver for Linux 13.x; Skype for Business 2015 Server, Business Online or Lync 2013 Server; XenDesktop 7, 7.5, 7.6 Feature Pack 1, Feature Pack 2, and Feature Pack 3. XenDesktop 7.7; ◦XenApp 6.0, 6.5, 6.5 Feature Pack 1, and 6.5 Feature Pack 2 and Feature Pack 3 , XenApp 7.5, 7.6 Feature Pack 1, Feature Pack 2, and Feature Pack 3, XenApp 7.7 with a full detailed list and overview available at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/hdx-optimization/2-0/hdx-realtime-optimization-pack-system-requirements.html.
Why Use The Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack for Lync Performance Comparison
Client Side
The Citrix HDX RealTime Media Engine is a component that integrates within the Citrix Receiver thus providing a wide range of support device types (Windows, Mac and Linux) and offloading capabilities thus improving the UX for end-users while also improving bandwidth consumption and the density of XenApp (RDS) workloads.
Server Side
The Citrix HDX RealTime Connector (RTC) is installed alongside the Microsoft Skype for Business within a virtual desktop which allows for communication (signalling) through an Citrix ICA virtual channel between the virtual desktop and the users end-point running Citrix Receiver (RTME).
If you have any issues POST your deployment initially first verify that the RealTime Connector connectivity status which should state Connected indicating that there is a connection over the ICA virtual channel and that both client and server side components match. For a more in-depth view and images alongs with other useful troubleshooting info please check out –
http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/hdx-optimization/2-0/hdx-realtime-optimization-pack-troubleshooting.html and if not appears to help be sure to read the limitations node in eDocs and the feature matrix as described earlier in this blog article.
Skype for Business Broadcast Series
I’d suggested that you begin with watching the SfB Video Broadcast: Ep 9. VDI archive from the Skype for Business YouTUBE channel at – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfL-WUXlvFjLsUs4UCpPrsA before watching the rest of the broadcast recordings in the archive if your looking to understand more about deploying Skype for Business on XenApp, XenDesktop with the HDX Optimisation Pack 2.0.
The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and test Linux VDA 1.1 (NOTE: The HDX 3D Pro video is a preview only from the Citrix YouTube channel) with XAD 7.3 FP3+ 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 necessary conform to industry descriptions or best practises.
Preview of HDX 3D Pro with a Linux VDA
Please note that the following YouTUBE video represents a preview only of HDX 3D Pro with the Citrix Linux VDA.
An Introduction & Overview
Citrix released the Linux VDA 1.0 which enables and allows for the safe, secure delivery of Linux based virtual desktops that are controlled by Citrix Studio however VM provisioning and on-going image management is maintained by traditional Linux tools these include but are by no means limited to Puppet or Chef.
What’s New
1. Obviously my fav is “Support for Thinwire Compatible Mode” 🙂
2. The Linux VDA supports dual monitor out-of-the box with maximum resolution of 2560×1600 per monitor and can be configured to support up to 9 monitors.
3. Improved Active Directory and Centrify support*
4. Further extended OS support for Redhat and SuSE Linux enterprise editions. Please read the following for CTX blog article re support issues for other Linux OS disto’s at – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2015/10/16/supporting-linux-distributions.
5. Linux XDPing which is available at – http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX202015.
6. Support for Linux Dedicated VDI Desktops which in the initial Linux VDA 1.0 released targeted a hosted shared VD approach as Linux is a multi-user OS.
7: * For a comprehensive overview of all the features in the Linux VDA 1.1 please check out – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2015/10/23/whats-new-in-linux-virtual-desktop-v1-1/.
Use Case(s)
Its essentially about providing customers with the choice and flexibility to delivery either a VD that is based upon Windows OS with Microsoft Office 20xn, 3rd party apps OR a supported Linux OS with OpenOffice/Libra Office, 3rd party apps.
Pre-requisites & System Requirements for Deploying the Linux VDA 1.1 (Draft + The Basic’s Only)
1: Download one or both Linux VDA’s for there Redhat or SuSE along with the script which is available at the Linux VDA download area – http://www.citrix.com/downloads/xenapp/components/linux-virtual-desktop-11.html.
2: The following Citrix Receivers are currently supported: Windows Receiver version v4.2+, Linux Receiver version v13.0+, Mac OSX Receiver v12+, Android Receiver v3.4+, iOS Receiver 5.9.4+, HTML5 Receiver 1.6 (via Access Gateway).
3:…..
The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and test HDX Broadcast now with Thinwire Compatible Mode with XAD 7.3 FP3+ 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 necessary conform to industry descriptions or best practises.
My Own View/Opinion
ThinWire Compatible Mode can be implemented to replace the Citrix SuperCodec (H.264) in my personal opinion for numerous use cases hOwEvEr based upon your organisations end-user use cases and or scenario’s by department and role you should always test which graphics mode/encoder(s) are most suitable within your environment by department or role to meet your end-user’s X1 UX expectations on a daily basis.
What is Thinwire Compatible Mode?
If your new to Citrix I’d suggest that before reading any further to get a better understanding of what Thinwire Compatible Mode (TCM) is and does i’d suggest that you read the following entitled “HDX technologies for optimizing application and desktop delivery” available at – http://www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/products-solutions/citrix-hdx-technologies.pdf. Its the latest graphics encoder/mode available within Citrix XAD 7.6 FP3 supported on the following OSes Windows 8.x, 10 and Windows Server 2012 R2.
Use Cases for TCM
1. Lower powered endpoint devices that can support Receiver but do not support Citrix’s SuperCodec which requires an H.264 decoder
2. Delivery of virtual apps and desktops over low bandwidth networks e.g remote branch offices that have limited internet uplink capacity based upon there geographic location i.e. ISDN, 3/4G or low capacity ADSL.
3. Delivery of 3D apps over LAN networks offers a great X1 UX which a fuzzy-first approach as described at – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-6/xad-hdx-landing/thinwire-compatibility-mode.html search for “Build to lossless” on that web page. You should always thoroughly test between both TCM/H.264 graphics modes to ensure that your end-users X1 UX meets there expectations and requirements day to day.
4: Greater user density on Windows Server 2012 R2 for XenApp based workloads.
– Intelligent bitmap matching for a bitmap-only provider. As much as possible, previously sent bitmaps are reused resulting in lower bandwidth.
– Emulated 16-bit mode, further reducing bandwidth for typical workloads.
– Ultra-low server CPU usage, improving scalability.
– Designed for port to Linux (already used by the Citrix Linux VDA)
– …
Demonstration of Thinwire Compatible Mode
TBC…
Pre-requisites & System Requirements for Deploying a Basic/Intro Thinwire Compatible Mode policy (Draft + The Basic’s Only)
1: Download and install the latest component’s for XAD 7.6 FP3 within a test/poc environment and not in a PROD environment!
2: Currently the XAD 7.6 FP3 VDA’s provide support for TCM with the following Windows OSes Windows 8.x, Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012 R2 OSes.
3: Citrix Receiver You can utilise the latest or older Citrix Receiver’s including the HTML5 Receiver with Thinwire Compatible Mode encoder.
4: Create the following policy in Studio below to enable TCM within a ICA/HDX session:
– Create a new policy
– Search for the following policy entitled “Use video codec for compression” select it and set the following value – “Do not use Video codec” which will force the ICA/HDX session to utilise Thinwire Compatibility Mode.
– Assign the policy to your test “Delivery Group” with either a virtual desktop (Win 8.x, 10 or Server 2012 R2) and save the new policy.
– Login to ReceiverforWeb or Citrix Receiver and launch your virtual desktop ensure that your test user was assigned to the test delivery group which you assigned the TCM policy to/against.
Tuning Thinwire Compatible Mode
You can easily tune TCM to utilise less bandwidth with a single policy entitled “Preferred colour depth for simple graphics” but still delivery a really good eXperience 1st User eXperience for your end-users. Simply modify the TCM policy that your created earlier in this blog article and search for and add “Preferred colour depth for simple graphics” and select either “16 bits per pixel” or “24 bits per pixel” then click next and next again saving the policy. Now disconnect from your existing ICA/HDX session to your test virtual desktop and re-launch it and if you’ve opted for 16 bits per pixel in the policy above you’ll notice a difference straight away BUT the UX is still acceptable graphically for knowledge/task workers and more importantly its still as responsive and usable.
There are obviously many other policies that can be applied to make even more efficiencies so for a full list including detailed notes of what to configure please refer to and check out the following CTX article entitled “HDX Graphics Modes – Which Policies Apply to DCR/Thinwire/H.264 – An Overview for XenDesktop/XenApp 7.6 FP3” available at – http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX202687. I have embedded the basics into a simple HTML table below with how to explicitly enable ECM for testing purposes.
Force ECM on explicitly by turning H.264 off (Testing)
Example of Tuning between 8 (red), 16(amber) and 24(green) Bit Modes of Thinwire Compatible Mode below but please note that the image is not in a high resolution JPEG format!
