Citrix

Tips for installing XenApp 5.0 64bit on Server 2008 64bit (Release Preview) with screenshots

Dave Caddick — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:26:53 GMT

A few weeks back I was asked to setup a demo Server for the Citrix Synergy event here in Sydney that was to be XenApp 5.0 64bit (Delaware – Release Review) on a Server 2008 64bit installed on a DL680 Blade Server with 32Gb of RAM. Now it would have been nice to have had some time to really put this unit under pressure and see what sort of load it could handle but unfortunately I didn’t get the time for that.

However, seeing as some of you might be thinking of doing something similar I thought it worth sharing my experiences, as hopefully this might at least save you some time?

Please be aware that these issues were discovered installing the “Release Preview” ONLY and they should be resolved when the RTM code of XenApp 5.0 (Delaware) is released.

Sun Java Runtime 1.5.0_11 (Update 11) does not appear to be recognized if x64 is installed? Wizard installation routine appears to be only checking for x86 install ONLY?
The Wizard installation routine can be somewhat annoying because it would appear to scan for prerequisites at initialization (and then keeps quiet about it) but if things are missing it only informs you when you hit the snag some way through? This then requires you to cancel setup entirely and restart installation to get past “check/error” message…….
I did not read through all the prerequisites (show me an Admin who would? ;-)) and yet it would appear to only mention .NET 3.0 is a prerequisite when .NET 3.5 is also required?
When the installation of the management consoles started I kept getting an error:

Eventually I just cancelled this piece and let everything continue from here – I was unable to find the prerequisite component, and didn’t need Password Manager anyway… ;-) (NOTE: this component was not in the Support Folder)
I have found what I believe is correct file at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=DE37BFE4-7A5A-4767-BBE1-267418E0F1E7&displaylang=en but now that I review this I think this is not correct……
Installing Licensing Server on the x64 appears to “break“ WI, so this was removed and placed on a std. Server 2003 – see error below
Installed .NET 3.0 via Roles Console before rebooting and trying to install .NET 3.5
Funnily enough the system insists on adding .NET 3.0 through the Roles and yet you can start 3.5 via the executable....
I had to revisit IIS about 4 times to add additional functionality and then restart installation again… very annoying, but ultimately my own fault for not reading the install guide? Here are some examples of what you’ll need to remember to install?
And I did like the look of Server 2008’s IIS Manager – quite flash ;-)

Login Consultants benchmarking tool to compare VDI vs. SBC?

Dave Caddick — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:31:03 GMT

My only disappointment is that we are currently in the middle of moving our current Solutions Centre from one Office location to the other so it'll be some while before I get a chance to test this.

It certainly looks quite impressive and it does have some lofty aims, but from a brief look through as well as their well deserved reputation based on Flex Profiles I'm sure this will stand up to it's promises.

Test Scenario’s
With login VSI you can compare many different scenarios:
• VDI vs. SBC
• VMware, XenServer or Hyper-V running virtual desktops or Terminal/Citrix Servers
• Virtualized XP desktops versus virtualized Vista Desktops
• Performance impact of application streaming technologies
• Impact of (different) virus scanners
• Performance impact of tuning parameters
• Different VDI platforms
• Different Storage platforms
• Impact of changes or updates like service packs or security fixes
• Hardware differences
• x64 vs. 32 bits
• Etc…

I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone who does have the facility to test?

Login Consultants develop presentation virtualization benchmarking tool

Monday, May 12, 2008 | 0 Comments |

The consulting firm Login Consultants just opened the beta program of the first benchmarking tool for presentation virtualization: Login Virtual Session Index (VSI).

The product will measures the performance of a remote desktop session served by a Microsoft Terminal Services / Citrix XenApp server or a VDI virtual machine.

To run the tool it's required to have a 4 tiers infrastructure: a domain controller for the authentication a file server for logging user sessions, a server to host the TS/XenApp/VDI service and a workstation to launch the user sessions.

The firm is also working to introduce support for application streaming.

Enroll for the beta here.

virtualization.info: Login Consultants develop presentation virtualization benchmarking tool

Thinstall to be reborn as ThinApp under VMware's new management?

Dave Caddick — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:45:25 GMT

So along with Alessandro I'm curious as to why the name ThinApp has been chosen as it does have more than a passing resemblance to Citrix's new XenApp?

I wonder if this is any indication of the coming marketing campaigns in the push for customers attention in the Desktop Virtualization market? ;-)

VMware ThinApp is the final name for Thinstall technology

In January 2008 VMware, a hardware virtualization company, acquired an application virtualization startup called Thinstall.
The plan is to use the Thinstall technology to stream virtualized applications on the virtual desktops that VMware spawns through its connection broker: the Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM).

So fare VMware has been pretty fast in rebranding the Thinstall Application Virtualization Suite: the beta program for the new version is open since end of February and the testers can already download the beta 2.
The final version of the product, temporarily called Project North Star, is expected for the H2 2008.

The only information missing so far was the final name that VMware wants to use.
Now Micheal Keen, Director and Senior Solutions Architect in the Enterprise Architecture group at Alliance Technologies, reveals that the final name is ThinApp.

Duncan Epping further validates the news reporting that a former Thinstall employee confirmed.

The choice is interesting considering that Citrix just renamed its Presentation Server product in XenApp.

virtualization.info: VMware ThinApp is the final name for Thinstall technology

Future vision of VDI? What if the Hypervisor was cheaper and flexible enough to run on BladePC's/BladeWS's - could vMotion/XenMotion then switch on demand?

Dave Caddick — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:58:13 GMT

I am sure this is not really what VMware had in mind when they were touting VMware OnDemand? I'm guessing they had more of an idea that it would combine some of the benefits of ACE with ESX? ;-)

I have just got back from some training in Houston and while listening to a question from a colleague from the UK where he asked if "VDI was going to be able to use the full suite of Hypervisor functionality like vMotion..." and that got me thinking...

Some of the Conventional Wisdom around the place holds that VDI by itself will likely not be able to cover all of any one customers needs and most will more than likely need to look at quite possibly a number of different approaches to cover ALL employees and ALL Applications.

So with this in mind I'd be interested in your thoughts on the following idea?

Just a few thoughts around VDI??

Let's say that we stock a couple of decent servers with loads of resources and allows us to run quite a few VDI instances? OK? So one of the possible issues with the classic VDI so far is that if a user places a bit too much pressure on the resources then it has the potential to impact on all other users, being as it is a shared resource? (This is still one of the classic gotcha's in Terminal Server and Citrix PS - the session is sticky and it stays with the same server unless a logout/login occurs)

So one idea I'm kicking around is the possibility that if a user started something like a 120Mb Excel spreadsheet that might consume quite a bit of CPU then would it be possible to use the vMotion to transfer him to a BladePC, if they started 3 or 4 of them (or they needed more resources?) then transfer them to a BladeWS.....?

Seamlessly!! with the user completely unaware that this has happened!!

Now the fundamentals of vMotion (or XenMotion for that matter?) requires shared boot storage - BUT I don't think it needs to be NFS or iSCSI, etc. - the Citrix Provisioning Server or OS Streaming method like Neoware IM would probably work just as well in this scenario? As this then leaves the Virtual HardDisk/Storage in a common area accessible by the Vitrual Desktops regardless of whether they are running on VDI's, the BladePC's or the BladeWS's.

The other point is the similarity of CPU would possibly cause an issue, and this probably extends beyond just Intel/AMD? This appears to be a fundamental of vMotion/XenMotion? So this might not fly today, but it is possible that with improvements in the Hypervisors this issue might be overcome at some stage soon?

Anyway, what do you think of the *idea/concept*? As a user requires more CPU and resources they might be able to be transferred from shared resources (VDI on ESX) to individual resources (BladePC) and then high powered resources (BladeWS) - once the high intensity workload has finished then the user would be transferred seamlessly back through the stack to a VDI instance on the ESX server.

Please bear in mind that this is only a concept at the moment and there are clearly problems and issues to be overcome - but the main reason for this post is to ask if you think it has legs? What do you think?

Clearly the ESX/Hypervisor would need to be able to run on hardware outside of it’s current Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) but with Xen this might not be such an issue?

Is wonder if this is where XenDesktop is headed? ;-)

Live Demos of VDM2 from VMware and XenDesktop from Citrix

Dave Caddick — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 03:41:02 GMT

In some cases the regular methods of "Going to Market" with a new product is fraught with pitfalls as it is conceived by Marketing and/or Product managers who then seem to loose sight of what the Customer is actually after - I've always thought it better to get the product and solution in front of the customer as quickly as possible and let them make up their mind and give feedback?

In all fairness, with some of the larger Vendor's there is so much red tape and bureaucracy this makes it nigh on impossible to actually create demo sites like this that Gareth has created - so kudos to him for getting this created.

What Gareth has alluded to but possibly failed to qualify was, if you don't have a Citrix ICA client installed then you might also want to think about downloading that elsewhere than from his hosted servers as that will also be quite quicker at over 17Mb for the web client?

Xendesktop or VDM2? Compare them for yourself

When the beta code for VDM2 was first released I wanted to push them both out over the Internet, however there was a red tape / NDA issue.

Now that VDM2 is released I can put both of them out together. All of the components are running as virtual machines on one ESX host. The XP clients are identical in terms of their configuration and resources.

The two URLs are https://oasxendesktop.oas.co.za for the Citrix XenDesktop and https://VDM2.oas.co.za for the VMware VDM2.

username is demo
password is also demo.

The latency is likely to be pretty awful for those abroad. It is slow but usable in South Africa but I am interested in seeing how the performance is from Europe, I think our under-sea cable terminates in Europe so it will probably be even worse in North America.

We have unfortunately also been having to contend with an inordinate number of power cuts, so please bear with our Third World infrastructure. Crises notwithstanding, I will try to give you some more details on the configuration some comparisons on the two different mechanisms tomorrow.

Stop Press:
Whoa, the reason that the Xendesktop demo worked was that most people already had a Citrix client. The VMware VDI agent is 6MB in size and getting that over our slow link will be hopeless.
Try to download and install it from http://garethcharlotte.googlepages.com/VMware-vdmclient-2.0.0-403.exe , this is hosted by google and should come down fairly quickly worldwide.

VMware and CITRIX for South Africa

Developing Applications for Server 2008? How to make sure they are compatible with Terminal Server and the other new features:-

Dave Caddick — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:45:05 GMT

Back when I was focused on Citrix Servers and helping people get the best out of existing Terminal Server and Citrix Server installations it was somewhat surprising how many Applications AND Developers all do their own thing in whatever way they like with no regards to Standards like these.

There was similar material from Microsoft regarding Server 2003 and I always kept the details in template email ready for when asked. Anyway, these links below should start you off in the right place?

Windows Server Software Logo Program Online Forum

Participate in the Windows Server Software Logo Program Online Forum where you can chat with other developers, post questions, and discuss technical topics, problems, and suggestions. This forum is monitored by Microsoft staff who can answer both business and technical questions.

Windows Server 2008 Home page

Home page for the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

Get Windows Server 2008 RC0

Download an evaluation copy of Windows Server 2008 RC0.

Certification Tool for x86

The tool to run Windows Server 2008 certification in-house, the same tool the test vendors use.

Certification Tool for x64

The tool to run Windows Server 2008 certification in-house, the same tool the test vendors use.

Works with Tool

This highly-automated tool will help you quickly determine baseline compatibility with Windows Server 2008

System State Analyzer Tool

Create two snapshots of fixed drives, registry settings, drivers, and services at different points in time and compare them to view differences.

Windows Server 2008 Application Compatibility Cookbook

The Cookbook covers the most common application compatibility issues and provides tips how to modify your applications or redesign them to help provide a quality experience with Windows Server 2008 and/or the Windows Vista operating system.

Top 10 Steps for Developing Applications on Windows Server 2008

This document details the top 10 issues to avoid when developing applications for Windows Server 2008.

Windows Server 2008 Software Logo Specifications

Technical requirements of a server application and its client components must meet in order to become Certified for Windows Server.

Windows Server 2008 Software Logo Test Framework

The Framework describes tests that verify an application's compliance with Works with Windows Server 2008 requirements.

Windows Server 2008 Works with Specifications

Technical specification outlining requirements that allow server applications to receive the Works with Windows Server 2008 designation.

Windows Server 2008 Works with Test Framework

Includes detailed information for technical managers and testers preparing software applications for the Works with Windows Server 2008 program detailed information verification tests.

Windows Server 2008 Technical Library

Microsoft TechNet page with detailed information on Windows Server 2008 technologies.

Developer Curriculum for Windows Server 2008

Designed for software developers and solution architects, this fast-paced seminar series provides on-demand webcasts and labcasts about the new features and technologies in Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft ISV Zone

Portal for ISV developer training and events on MSDN.

Microsoft INNOVATE ON Windows Server

Change of location

Dave Caddick — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:08:46 GMT

Hi All,

I have been posting both at this site as well as at my new blogging home of www.techagility.info for a few weeks now, and although I still have some tweaking to do on the graphics side of things, it's time to open the doors for all. I will probably still drop the odd post this way, but essentially all is now going to the new site.

So the home page is at www.techagility.info and if you are after the feed then you can find it at www.techagility.info/feed

See you there? ;-)

Pricing for ESX Server 3i (stand alone) to be less than $500?

Dave Caddick — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:28:47 GMT

So Allessandro is certainly well connected in the Virtualization space and as XenSource will be clearly getting some serious airtime in just over 2 weeks time at the newly re-badged iForum (oops, Application Delivery Expo) hosted by Citrix then I'm sure that VMware will be trying to make sure that it has some choice announcements just before and even during the last week of October.

Note to self - must be less cynical ;-)

For those who will be attending iForum 2007 in Las Vegas, please drop me a note if you'd like to have a chat, as I'll be attending as an employee of Neoware Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of HP)

virtualization.info:
VMware Infrastructure 3.5 and ESX Server 3i to be available since December 2007 with new prices and editions

Wednesday, October 03, 2007 | 1 Comments

The upcoming major update in VMware Infrastructure 3.x, called 3.5, and new ESX Server 3i will be available to general public in December 2007, virtualization.info has learned. An official announcement is expected next week.

virtualization already broke the news about new features and enhancements that will appear in VI 3.5, including ESX Server 3i integration into servers from popular OEMs like Dell, IBM, HP. But the biggest news emerges only now: VMware will also sell ESX Server 3i as stand-alone product, with support for SATA storage devices, at less than $500.

What will change in details with new VI 3.5 offering:

ESX Server 3i becomes the lowest entry-level for enterprise virtualization. It will have just basic capabilities (VMFS and vSMP) and will not be manageable by a VirtualCenter.

more at source...

virtualization.info: VMware Infrastructure 3.5 and ESX Server 3i to be available since December 2007 with new prices and editions

Proposed VDI Solution comes under fire?

Dave Caddick — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 02:22:43 GMT

Brian Madden and Gabe Knuth have been looking deep at a possible VDI Solution for a University and they have shared their experiences, I must say it's an Excellent Post - nothing like igniting the fires just before iForum? ;-)

On Brian and Gabe's behalf I take exception to those who have commented on this post and are giving them a hard time on their *recommendations* to the University - especially those who feel free to shoot them down without offering any other alternative AND simply hiding behind the "Guest" ID

It is great to see someone come out and be completely open about this process and bring it to the public domain where we can all have our 2cents worth - and for this they deserve and have my thanks, as we're all trying to keep up with all the multitude of different options and potential solutions to help customers get the most out what they've got.

This is seriously only a small section of this, if you have any interest in VDI Solutions you should take the time to read through the full Post and all the comments

VDI for hundreds of apps and thousands of users? A case study where we recommended this instead of a Terminal Server-based solution

Posted by Brian Madden on September 26, 2007.

A very strange thing happened yesterday. Gabe and I were working with a customer—a university—and we ended up recommending a VDI solution instead of a Terminal Server-based solution. Afterwards I was feeling, “Wow! I can’t believe I just did that!” But I really feel it makes sense. And in fact I think it might continue to make sense more and more, and now I’m wondering if VDI can start to come out of the niche and into the mainstream?

Let’s start at the very beginning. Gabe and I worked with this university six months ago. They were not using any server-based computing or streaming or anything like that. It was a brand new environment. They had four scenarios (or “use cases”) they wanted to enable:

There are 1200 lab workstations throughout campus. Users need to be able to walk up to any one of them and access any of 200 applications. The users also need access to their own data and profiles.
They want to publish a remote desktop via server-based computing to people so that they can access the “lab workstation” from their dorm rooms or off campus.
They want to publish individual applications (as opposed to a full desktop like in Scenario 2) to users on their own computers.
Longer term, they want people to be able to run these applications locally on non-university-controlled workstations (i.e. student laptops), and they want this to work offline.

The initial plan

For Gabe and me, these four scenarios were perfect for a combination of traditional Terminal Server-based application delivery and application streaming.

We were thinking they could use something like SoftGrid to isolate and stream all (or most) of their applications. Then they could add some Terminal Server and a third-party application publishing tool to deliver individual applications. Our initial suggestions for each scenario above were:

Use SoftGrid to stream the applications so they run locally on each lab workstation. Install the few non-SoftGrid-compatible applications natively on the workstations.
Use Terminal Server, along with Citrix Presentation Server or one of the cheaper alternatives, to publish server-based computing desktops. A combination of SoftGrid and local installs would be used to get the applications onto these Terminal Servers, much like the lab workstations.
The same Terminal Servers, running Citrix or whatever, can be used to deliver seamlessly published server-based applications to desktops and laptops.
For the applications that can be sequenced with SoftGrid, they could also be streamed to Windows clients for local offline execution.

That was our recommendation and plan six months ago. Let’s look at how that worked out.

more at source...

Citrix's WANscaler set to debut in the UK?

Dave Caddick — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:04:56 GMT

So according to theinquirer.net Citrix has only just started shipping the WANscaler to the UK? Is this a reflection on the UK's plentiful bandwidth, such that it doesn't really need the WANscaler? or is it a reflection of how long it takes Citrix UK to develop a go-to-market strategy? Mmmm....?

Citrix wants WAN stake

WANscaler: awful name, useful product

By Martin Veitch: Friday, 28 September 2007, 5:20 PM

CITRIX SYSTEMS has started shipping its WANscaler Client appliance in the UK for the first time.

Acquired when Citrix bought Orbital Data last year, WANscaler is aimed at optimising performance for branch offices through compression and accelerating protocol performance.

Despite the unfortunate name, it should sell like hot cakes to firms that already run Presentation Server or Terminal Services, as a way serve applications across wide area networks.

Security is also built in “at both ends of the wire”, said Citrix’s Dave Austin.