I am proudly to presents that Citrix have released Netscaler 9.3 and the WebInterface is now integrated and updated to v. 5.4 bye bye black interface welcome white interface with desktops =O)

Citrix® NetScaler® 9.3 Classic and nCore
IT is transforming from an app-centric, physical-based model to a service-oriented, virtualized delivery model. The impact of this transformation is driving consolidation of datacenter infrastructure with demands for greater device functionality, performance and flexibility. NetScaler 9.3 meets this challenge by delivering a service delivery architecture that enables consolidation of adjacent services, like desktop delivery, data optimization, application visibility, network bridging and identity management.

Key New Features in NetScaler 9.3
• Database load balancing for Oracle MySQL
• AppFlowTM – open, IPFIX standards-based application flow visibility
• New dynamic XenDesktop/XenApp health monitors
• Load balancing for Branch Repeater
• Application Firewall signatures

Integrated Web Interface on NetScaler

Web Interface for NetScaler is available as a General Availability feature in NetScaler Release 9.3.The solution requires the use of NetScaler MPX or VPX
models with nCore.The WI version supported for this is WI 5.4.

NetScaler 9.3 Enhancements

AAA

The following AAA feature enhancements are available in this release.

• Kerberos Support for AAA
• AAA and Microsoft SharePoint

Access Gateway
The following Access Gateway enhancement is available in this release.

• Idle Time-Out

Advanced Policies
The following policy enhancements are available in this release.

• Virtual Server-Based Expressions
• Named Expressions
• Support for Unsigned Long and Double Data Types
• Modifying (Corrupting) HTTP Headers
• Pattern Set Name Length
• Encryption and Decryption of Payloads
• Policy-Based Logging for Responder Policies
• Support for the UTF-8 Character Set
• Matching Text by Using a String Map
• Rules for Names in Identifiers Used in Policies
• Stripping Characters From a String
• Tool for Converting Classic Expressions to the Newer
• Default Expression Syntax
• Identifying a Response That is Associated with anHTTP
• Redirect
• Expressions for Generating the Day of the Week, as Strings,
• in Short and Long Formats
• Enhancements to Expressions That Process Binary Strings
• Rewriting TCP Payloads

AppExpert
The following AppExpert enhancements are available in this release.

• Deployment Files for AppExpert Applications
• Roll Back Support for AppExpert Application Import
• Creating Application Templates from Content Switching
• Virtual Servers

Application Firewall
The following Application Firewall enhancements are available in this release.

• Document Type Definitions (DTD) Support for XML Security
• Checks
• Audit Server Configuration for Application Firewall
• Learning Visualizer for Deployed Application Firewall Rules
• SNMP Traps for Application Firewall Security Checks
• Application Firewall Custom Variables for HTML/XML Error
• Objects
• Cookie Encryption, Cookie Proxying, and Adding Flags to
• Cookies
• Limiting the Number of Files Uploaded to a Web Site
• New Signatures Feature
• Configuration Wizard Added to Application Firewall
• Excluding XML Elements and Attributes from Security
• Checks
• Inverse Regular Expressions
• Adding XQuery Injection Patterns to XPath
• Web-Based GUI Editor for Imported Files
• XML SOAP Array Rule Added to XDOS Check
• Application Firewall/XML Signature Updates
• Importing Cenzic Scan Results as XML File

Compression
The following compression feature enhancements are available in this release.

• Policy Manager for Compression

Configuration Utility
The following configuration utility enhancements are available in this release.

• EdgeSight Monitoring
• IP Address Type Identification in VLAN Configuration
• Dialog Boxes
• Default Policy Format for NetScaler Features
• Viewing SYSLOG Event IDs
• IP Address Range Support
• Customized System User Prompt
• UTF-8 Support in Regular Expression Editors

Documentation
The following documentation enhancements are available in this release.

• NetScaler Documentation on eDocs
• Enhanced Context-Sensitive Online Help

Hardware
The following hardware enhancement is available in this release

• Support for 1G SFP Hot Swap

High Availability
The following high availability enhancements are available in this release.

• Synchronizing Configuration Files in High Availability Setup
• Enhanced Force Failover Warning Message

HTML Injection (EdgeSight Monitoring)
The following HTML Injection enhancement is available in this release.

• Details of Virtual Server and Service

Integrated Cache
The following integrated cache enhancements are available in this release.

• Integrated Cache Support for Single Byte-Range Requests
• Built-in Content Group, Pattern Set, and Policies for the
• Integrated Cache

Monitoring Utility
The following monitoring utility enhancement is available in this release.

• Viewing Dashboard Functionalities on the Monitoring Utility

Domain Name System (DNS)

The following Domain Name System enhancements are available in this release.

• DNS Security Extensions on the NetScaler
• Controlling the Number of Pipeline Requests on an
• Individual Client Connection

NetScaler VPX
Thefollowing NetScaler VPX enhancements are available in this release.

• 3 Gbps Throughput on the NetScaler Virtual Appliance
• (nCore VPX only)
• VMTools Support (nCore VPX only)
• VLAN Tagging (nCore VPX only)

Networking
The following networking enhancements are available in this release.

• RNAT NAT IP Range
• PBR with Multiple Next Hops
• Round Robin Method for Selecting Source IPs for IP Tunnels
• Simple ACL6
• Inbound Network Address Translation (INAT)
• Prefix-Based IPv6-IPv4 Translation
• Pinging Link Local Address from Any VLAN
• Host Name-Based SNMP Managers
• Time-out for Dynamic ARP Entries
• Alias Name for a VLAN
• Option for Tagging or Untagging the NSVLAN
• New vtysh Command

NITRO API

The following NITRO API enhancements are available in this release.

• NITRO API Support for AppExpert Applications
• NITRO API Support for Entity Templates

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
The following Secure Sockets Layer enhancements are available in this release.

• SHA-2 Signature Algorithm Support
• Small Records Processing
• Server Name Indication
• Support for IPv6 Addresses in Online Certificate Status
• Protocol
• Inserting Complete Client Certificate in Online Certificate
• Status Protocol
• Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions
• PUSH Flag-Based Encryption Trigger Mechanism
• Importing an External Key as a FIPS Key (nCore MPX FIPS appliance only)
• SSL Enhancements in the NetScaler Configuration Utility
• Warm Restart Option On 10G FIPS Appliances (nCore only)

System
The following system enhancements are available in this release.

• Enhanced Application Visibility Using AppFlow (nCore and nCore VPX only)
• Rate Limiting Notification (nCore and nCore VPX only)
• Optimizing the TCP Maximum Segment Size for a Virtual
• Server Configuration
• Specifying a TCP Buffer Size Globally and for Virtual
• Servers and Services
• Memory Consumption Statistics for NetScaler Features
• Statistics for Overall System Memory Consumption
• Filtering a NetScaler Trace to Capture Information About an Interface or a VLAN ID
• Time Stamp of the Last Configuration Change
• View System Date in the NetScaler Command Line
• Omitting Device-Specific Information in Output
• Web Interface on NetScaler (nCore and nCore VPX only)

Traffic Management
The following traffic management enhancements are available in this release.

• Load Balancing of Branch Repeaters for WAN Optimization (nCore and nCore VPX only)
• Database Switching (nCore and nCore VPX only)
• XenApp and XenDesktop Load Balancing Wizard Enhancements
• No-Monitor Option for Services and Service Groups
• Hash-Based Load Balancing Method
• Support for Remote Desktop Protocol Load Balancing (nCore and nCore VPX only)
• Policy-Based Routing Domains (nCore and nCore VPX only)
• Graceful Shutdown of Backend Services
• Additional Statistics for Load Balancing Virtual Servers
• Persistence Time-out Option
• Virtual Servers Bound to a Service Group
• Domain-Name-Based Service Groups
• N-tier Cache Redirection
• Sessionless Load Balancing in IP Mode
• Customization of the HTTPONLY Flag (Classic only)
• Enhancement of XenDesktop Monitors
• Link Load Balancing
• Rule-Based Persistence for ANY Type Virtual Servers

Release Notes about NetScaler 9.3
http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx128937

Downloads

Download NetScaler 9.3 Classic or Ncore here (Require MyCitrix ID)
Download Netscaler 9.3 VPX here (Require MyCitrix ID)
Download Webinterface for NetScaler 9.3 here (Require MyCitrix ID)
Download Application Signature Protection for Application Firewall (Require MyCitrix ID)

Alex Juschin (CTP, MVP), Founder of PubForum have asked me to join as a presenter at PubForum in Dublin 13-15 May 2011, which i have gladly acceptet. =O) This is going to be my first visit at PubForum, and i cant wait to attend and perform a great presentation (The Topic is secret). My friend Rene Vester (CTP) is also a part of the PubForum Team, and have presented multiple times, also another friend Jacob Berg have presented at PubForum.

What is PubForum, and why should you attend.

- PubForum Conference is a non-commercial event, which is a very cost efficient and a highly effective way to gain the best Citrix, Microsoft and other companies virtualisation products knowledge, as well to receive the best vendor and independent expert’s training. It is also a chance to meet many independent industry experts, who are also attending the event and the ability to talk directly to the vendors support engineers in a non-formal atmosphere.

- Presenters and Trainers at PubForum include world recognized names in the field of Virtualization – those are Microsoft Most Valued Professionals, Citrix Technology Professionals and escalation Engineers from EMEA/Worldwide headquarters from  companies like AppSense, Citrix, Jetro, 2X, Microsoft, RES and other. Attendees learn the best practices on how to run projects, implement, troubleshoot, plan, optimize and run their infrastructures the most cost effective, environmentally friendly and most performance efficient way.

- Over 20 Sessions and 3 Master Classes on average are delivered during the event. During which there is a unique possibility to approach the Presenters and Trainers, discuss issues, questions and best practices throughout the event. Due to the maximum attendance limit of 100 people no questions and no issues are left unanswered.

- The total cost of this European Wide Experts to Experts (E2E) Event – even including flights, accommodation and the attendee fee itself IS LESS THAN JUST the attendance fee of any similar event of this kind. That is because the Event is run on a non-commercial basis. However, the content, presenters and trainers are of the highest professional level!

- The event was founded in 2003 by Alex Juschin – a worldwide recognized Citrix and Microsoft expert and evangelist (Microsoft Terminal Services MVP and Citrix CTP) and is run with the help of Alex Danilychev – also a Microsoft MVP and CTP and another well recognized Expert in the field of Virtualization Rene Vester, who is also Citrix CTP. There have been already 15 very successful events so far in many cities across Europe. London, Paris, Nice, Lisbon, Frankfurt, Dublin, Brussels to name few.

- The event days are from Friday to mid Sunday which means that it will not affect your business as much as other similar events, which may take up the whole business week!

Check PubForum Agenda here

Register to PubForum here

22 Tips and Tricks for XenClient. *updated 31-03-2011
/Enjoy

1. ctrl+0, ctrl+1, ctrl+2, etc: switch to xenclient, vm1, vm2, etc…
2. ctrl+shift+t: launches a terminal window – necessary for troubleshooting ip address and network
3. alt-tab: rotate between xenclient and terminal windows
4. status-tool: run this command from the terminal window to gather stats – including screenshots – stored in /storage/status-report
5. ifconfig brbridged: run this command to show the ip address for dom0 – physical adapter
6. ifconfig wlan0: run this command to show the ip address for dom0 – wireless adapter
7. xentop: run this command from the terminal window to view performance data
8. vhd-util: run this command from the terminal window to change/check vhd
9. xec: run this command from the terminal window to control vm’s
10. touch /config/ssh_enabled: run this command to enable SSH on the XC Management Console – if not already installed
11. ctrl+q: refresh hypervisor
12. dmesg: show debug messages
13. disktovhd: use this on old pc to make a vhd of your pc or laptop. Create new VM, replace .vhd in /storage/disks. Install XenTools.
14. copy .iso to /storage/iso: mount the .iso in the virtual drive that normally mounts XenTools. Or use Virtual Clone Drive
15. Enable SSH on the Management Console:
    Open the terminal on the console, press: ctrl+shift+t
    In the terminal type: touch /config/ssh_enabled
    IMPORTANT: In the RC there is NO ROOT PASSWORD… Enabling this is on your own risk!!!
    Press ctrl+q to refresh hypervisor
    Find the SSH Interfaces IP Address:
    1) Open the console window once again
    2) type ‘ifconfig | less’
    3) brbridged is the console’s listening IP
16. Find full or half duplex speed for network
    # dmesg | grep -i duplex
17. See performance data
    # xentop
18. Copy your existing laptop or pc to XenClient
    Use disktovhd to make a vhd image of your pc or laptop. Create new VM, replace .vhd in /storage/disks. After that you need to install XenTools and also the appropriate drivers.
19. Mounting an ISO to VM
    Copy the iso using WINSCP to /storage/iso .Push ctrl + q to refresh XenClient. Mount the .iso in the virtual drive that normally mounts the XenTools
20. Soundcard not recognized in VM
    Install Realtek 97 Audio Driver
    http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsCheck.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=23&PFid=23&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
21. Usb devices like fingerprint, bluetooth, webcam are not mapped in VM
    Go out in Dom0, edit the virtual machine. Under USB add the devices that you want to add to the VM.
22. How to Install a Wifi Certificate in XenClient
    Use the following steps to complete the task:  Check CTX127333

    Copy the certificate using a program like WinSCP from Windows machine or SCP from Linux/Unix machine.

    Log on by pressing Ctrl+Shift+T within the XenClient Receiver and using the root password.

    Copy the certificate from dom0 to the service virtual machine by running the following command:
    scpv4v <certificate> 1.0.0.1:/root”
    (Make sure you cd to the directory where you copied the certificate in step1.)

    From the Network icon in the Receiver, the certificate should be available to make the connection.

Citrix NetScaler for Lync Server 2010.

Microsoft® Lync™ ushers in a new connected user experience transforming every communication into an interaction that is more collaborative, engaging, and accessible from anywhere. Citrix® NetScaler® improves the Lync server performance and end user experience through its advanced Application Delivery Controller techniques such as Load Balancing, SSL Bridging & Offload, Advanced Health Monitoring, TCP & SSL Multiplexing, GSLB and High Availability. Deployed in front of the Lync Edge Servers in the DMZ and between the Lync Edge and Front End servers on the internal network, Citrix NetScaler enables a new level of scalability, performance, security, availability and ease of use for Microsoft Lync. At the same time, NetScaler reduces time to deployment, simplifies management and reduces the cost of operations.

Load Balancing

Citrix NetScaler’s advanced Multiplexing software distributes traffic across multiple Lync servers to improve performance and ensure availability. When a
Lync server goes down, Citrix NetScaler routes traffic around it to other servers that are up and running. Citrix NetScaler Load Balancing defaults to the
Least Connections algorithm, but can also be setup to use Round Robin, Least Response Time, Hash Method, Least Bandwidth, Custom Load and Token based algorithms among others.

SSL Bridging & SSL Offloading

SSL bridging enables the NetScaler to bridge all secure traffic directly to the Lync server, without having to import Certificates. When using SSL Briding,
NetScaler does not offload the Certificate processing from the Lync servers, enabling a new level of ease-of-deployment and ease-of-use.

A Citrix® NetScaler® appliance configured for SSL Offloacing accelerates SSL transactions by offloading SSL processing from the Lync servers. Configuring SSL offloading requires an SSL certificate and key pair. Other related SSL capabilities include managing certificates, CRLs, client authentication and SSL
Policies.

Advanced Health Monitoring

The Citrix NetScaler tracks the state of each Load Balanced Lync server in real-time, so that it can divert traffic from an unresponsive Lync server to a
server that is responding. Lync servers are removed from the list of available servers, until they become responsive again. Citrix NetScaler allows for the
creation of custom monitors specific tor Lync servers.

GSLB

The Citrix NetScaler provides Global Server Load Balancing for disaster recovery and ensures continuous availability of applications by protecting
against points of failure in a Wide Area Network (WAN). GSLB performs Load Balancing across geographically disparate data centers, by directing traffic to
the closest or best performing data center.

High Availability

Citrix NetScaler High Availability (HA) provides uninterrupted operation for Lync server traffic, by designating a Primary NetScaler and a Secondary
NetScaler. The Secondary NetScaler monitors the Primary, and if the Primary goes down, the Secondary takes over.

Microsoft Lync 2010 Details

To see the ports and protocols used in a Microsoft Lync Server 2010 environment, go here. A poster of the Lync Server 2010 workloads, describing the relationships and traffic flow can be found here. To download and use the Lync Server 2010 Topology Builder tool, go here

NetScaler for Lync Server 2010 Deployment Guide

Citrix have recently spent some time in Redmond, WA with Microsoft’s Lync 2010 team to certify the Citrix NetScaler for deployment with Lync 2010. The deployment guide walks the user through simple steps of configuring the Citrix NetScaler for Lync 2010. Additionally, the user can download the pre-built configuration for Lync Server 2010 used in the deployment guide and upload it to Citrix NetScaler to serve as an example.

Download the Deployment Guide – Citrix NetScaler for Lync Server 2010 here

Download the Citrix NetScaler configuration here.

Scaling the Data Tier with Citrix NetScaler DataStream Technology

Native support and intelligence of SQL transactions is the key to extending the scalability, availability, and security benefits that the ADC brings to the web tier to the data tier, as noted in Sunil Potti’s blog. Similar to the benefits of HTTP  load balancing, a data tier load balancer should provide these key benefits:

• A native SQL proxy like solution to perform SQL connection management and offload for database scale up scenarios to increase SQL connection limit.
• A TDS protocol and SQL transaction intelligent load balancer that can accurately monitor backend server status including slave replication backlog to
  optimally distribute load in database scale out setups.
• High Availability that can address both Master/Master and Master/Slave replication deployments to complete the database scaling solution. Both scaling approaches also need advanced, clustering-like automated IP failover for lower cost high availability with commodity hardware.
• Database security encompassing transaction activity logging tied to user logins for compliance purposes to be generated from a central location to
  simplify record management.

NetScaler DataStream Technology

Leveraging its expertise in web applications, NetScaler with DataStream technology is the first ADC that justifiably addresses data tier challenges.
With DataStream technology, NetScaler introduces the industry’s first “true” load balancer for data that offers native SQL protocol, data format and
transaction support for scaling database infrastructures. Structured Query Language (SQL) which is the de-facto data format, TDS (Tabular Data Stream) and Oracle MySQL, protocols that are widely deployed, are natively parsed and interpreted in NetScaler’s high speed processing engine, providing all of the
advance policy framework available to act on data connections and transactions. Applying all of the same HTTP acceleration technologies to SQL, NetScaler is able to provide the same benefits to the data tier, such as SQL Connection Multiplexing, SQL Load Balancing, SQL Content Switching, SQL Health Monitoring, Automated Failover and Security.

Features

SQL connection multiplexing: NetScaler’s SQL transaction intelligence enables NetScaler to act as a SQL proxy and terminate SQL connections from both
client and server. Client to server connection multiplexing ratios of 50:1 or more is achievable depending on the application, number of unique database user
logins and character sets in use. SQL Load balancing: Armed with SQL transaction awareness, NetScaler can switch one client’s many SQL transactions in a single TCP connection to several different servers. This delivers more optimal load balancing of SQL traffic since the load distribution is more granular when compared to a TCP load balancer.

• SQL Content switching (read/write split): NetScaler can interpret SQL transactions and decipher between “select”, “drop”, “insert”, “update” and other SQL statements and perform a split between read and write transactions. Splitting the reads and writes simplifies application server deployments by offloading the decision making and policy enforcement to NetScaler.
• SQL Health monitoring: NetScaler intelligently load balances SQL requests, by selecting the database server that will return up-to-date data the fastest at the time of the request and sending the read request to only that server.
• Automated IP failover: NetScaler’s Virtual IP address solution is based on automated IP failover implementation where the virtual IP is assigned to the master node is switched over to the secondary node upon detection of heartbeat/monitor failure.
• Security: NetScaler can apply granular user access policies to each database user. It also provides a consolidated log of all SQL transactions and user
  accesses for complete visibility, without taxing the database server. SQL protocol validation is also available with advanced Policy Infrastructure (PI)
  regular expressions.

As the industry’s first SQL aware load balancing solution, NetScaler addresses the scaling and availability needs of the data tier, leveraging its
HTTP ADC technology for the web tier. NetScaler’s SQL connection multiplexing scales connection limits for database scale up, native SQL load balancing
optimizes database scale-out, SQL transaction logs simplifies database security and replication aware monitors with Virtual IP based failover enables
cost-effective high-availability.

Combine SQL with Netscaler and you have a perfect match =o)