Citrix Project Thor Tech Preview 2

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in App-V, Citrix, Microsoft, Provisioning, Receiver, SCCM, SCVVM, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008R2, Windows Server 2012, XenApp

Citrix have released a new version of Project Thor Technical Preview 2.

There is lots of new improvement, lets dig in.

 

Whats new in Project Thor Tech Preview 2

  • Support for the new App-V 5 DT.
  • Numerous Tech Preview 1 customer issues (and “customer experience” issues) addressed.
  • Numerous visual supportability improvements to “hand-hold” the administrator through the initial configuration steps to make the first-use experience simple and delightful.
  • Highly simplified XenApp publishing experience for MSI DT based apps.
  • Full Command Line/Silent install support of the Connector.
  • High-availability built in.
  • Fully supports SCCM 2012 SP1.
  • Fully supports Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.

What is Project Thor

Project Thor Technical Preview (XenApp Connector) extends the deployment capabilities of Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (Configuration Manager), delivering any application, to any user, on virtually any device.

XenApp Connector integration with Configuration Manager provides administrators with a single infrastructure and tool to manage all enterprise applications including on-demand XenApp applications. Use XenApp Connector with Configuration Manager to:

  • Deploy to XenApp servers, farms, and worker groups:
    • MSI-based applications
    • App-V sequences subsequently made available to users as XenApp published applications
    • XenApp published applications (using the XenApp deployment type that XenApp Connector adds to Configuration Manager, seamlessly extending the console)
  • Extend Configuration Manager’s rules-based delivery mechanism to choose the most appropriate deployment type based on the user’s environment.For example, an application might be best delivered as an MSI (installed locally) on a user’s primary device, but deployed virtually using the new XenApp deployment type to enable the same user to access the application from a non-Windows device such as an iPad.
  • Control how users access applications:
    • Configuration Manager Application Catalog
    • Citrix Receiver
    • Citrix Receiver for Web site or Citrix XenApp services site
  • Coordinate updates to XenApp vDisk imagesXenApp Connector fully integrates with Citrix Provisioning Services, allowing you to publish applications that are deployed to a base vDisk for a XenApp image.
  • Maintain high availabilityXenApp Connector uses the optional XenApp Power and Capacity Management Concentrator to manage the power states and load consolidation of XenApp servers when installing Configuration Manager applications or Windows Software Update Management (SUM) updates, with minimal disruption to user sessions.

Components

The XenApp Connector for Configuration Manager 2012 consists of the following components:

  • XenApp Connector service
  • Configuration Manager console extension
  • XenApp Agent service
  • XenApp deployment type handler

The XenApp Connector interacts with these related components:

  • XenApp Group Policies
  • Provisioning Services (PVS) Agent
  • Power and Capacity Management (PCM) Concentrator and Agent
  • Citrix Receiver, Receiver for Web sites, and XenApp services sites

XenApp Connector architectural diagram

XenApp Connector Service

XenApp Connector service is the bridge between a XenApp farm and Configuration Manager and performs the following tasks:

  • Application publishingThe XenApp Connector service manages the association between XenApp servers, applications, and users by creating a published application in XenApp that end users can then install from the Application Catalog and access with Citrix Receiver.The XenApp Connector publishing task processes publishing items that are linked to a XenApp deployment type. Items published to a XenApp device collection appear under the Applications\ConfigMgr12 folder in the XenApp AppCenter console.By default, the Publishing task runs every hour. Use the XenApp Connector Configuration wizard to change the publishing interval. Use the Start menu shortcut (Run Publishing Task) to manually run the task.
  • Synchronization of farm and worker group device collectionsThe XenApp Connector service processes all worker groups in a XenApp farm (and all farms, in multi-farm environments) and creates or updates the corresponding device collections in Configuration Manager. By default, this task runs every 24 hours. Use the XenApp Connector Configuration wizard to change the synchronization interval and the maintenance schedule. Use the Start menu shortcut (Run Synchronization Task) to manually run the task.
  • Software OrchestrationXenApp Connector determines which application deployments are pending for the XenApp workers in the deployment device collection, and then uses the Power and Capacity Management feature to start draining users off the targeted servers.

Configuration Manager Console Extension

The Configuration Manager console extension enables the Configuration Manager console to work seamlessly with XenApp. Installing the console extension adds these items to the Configuration Manager console:

  • A Citrix XenApp Farms node under Assets and Compliance > Device Collections. After synchronizing data from a XenApp farm, XenApp Connector updates the Citrix XenApp Farms node with all XenApp farms, servers, and worker groups.
    • Device Collections > Citrix XenApp Farms > farms
    • Device Collections > Citrix XenApp Farms > farms > Worker Groups > groups
  • A XenApp Publications folder under Software Library > Application Management. Items in this folder are published to XenApp.
  • A Citrix XenApp Client Settings item in Administration > Client Settings, with a Computer Agent setting, Agent extensions manage the deployment of applications and software updates, enabled. That setting enables the Configuration Manager idle policy feature.
  • A Citrix XenApp entry in the Type drop-down menu in all Configuration Manager console pages where deployment types are selected, such as in the Create Deployment Type wizard.

XenApp Agent Service

The XenApp Agent service runs on each server in a XenApp farm. It coordinates application and software installation and updates, through integration with the following components:

  • The XenApp Power and Capacity Management feature. See the PCM Agent and PCM Connector component descriptions in this section for more information.
  • Citrix Provisioning Services. See the PVS Agent component description for more information.
  • The XenApp Agent service can work with the Configuration Manager idle policy feature to defer software installs, allowing the XenApp Agent service to trigger the installation of applications and software updates.

The XenApp Agent service runs at the next known maintenance window or at other times when users need to be notified in advance, such as when a forced logoff is pending.

XenApp Deployment Type Handler

The XenApp deployment type handler detects and manages publications associated with an application configured with a XenApp deployment type. The handler communicates with Receiver and the Self-Service Plug-in, enabling managed devices to subscribe to published applications that are installed by the user through the Application Catalog or that are pushed as a mandatory deployment.

XenApp Group Policies

Computer group policies configure how the XenApp Agent service handles items such as advanced warning messages, forced logoff messages, XenApp Agent service maintenance frequency, and Provisioning Services integration. For more information, see Managing XenApp Connector for Configuration Manager 2012.

Provisioning Services (PVS) Agent

The XenApp Agent service running on a production XenApp vDisk image detects when a new vDisk image is available and delivers the new image after Power and Capacity Management drains the server of user sessions. The PVS agent is required only for shared images and must be installed on the master XenApp image.

Power and Capacity Management (PCM) Concentrator and Agent

For XenApp servers managed by the optional Power and Capacity Management feature:

  • XenApp Connector uses the PCM Concentrator to coordinate the power states and load consolidation of farm servers when installing applications. The PCM Concentrator monitors and manages the XenApp servers in the PCM farm and interacts with the PCM Agent running on each XenApp server to get and set the PCM tier and PCM control mode.
  • The PCM Agent registers host XenApp servers with the PCM Concentrator and acts on requests issued by the PCM Concentrator.

Citrix Receiver for Windows, Receiver for Web sites, and XenApp services sites

After a user subscribes to XenApp deployment type applications using the Configuration Manager Application Catalog, icons for those applications appear in the user’s Start menu, on the Receiver for Windows home page (if Receiver is configured with StoreFront), and on Receiver for Web and XenApp services sites. When the user clicks the icon for a subscribed application, Receiver launches the application.

Note: Receiver for Web and XenApp services sites provide browser-based application access to users accessing applications from managed or unmanaged devices (mobile devices and Macs).

Source

 

Download Citrix Project Thor Tech Preview 2 here (Require MyCitrix ID)

 

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Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Citrix, Microsoft, Provisioning, SCCM, SCVVM, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008R2, XenApp, XenClient, XenDesktop, XenServer

Citrix have released to web a new version of Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1. The new version supports Personal vDisk and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 and finally official support for VmWare vSphere 5.

Citrix Provisioning Services™ uses streaming technology to dynamically deliver server workloads and desktop images on demand to any physical or virtual machine, reducing IT capital and operational costs while increasing business agility.

Provisioning Services 6.1 is a companion release to XenDesktop 5.6 and adds the following new features:

  • Personal vDisk Support: In XenDesktop environments this capability allows user data and desktop configuration changes to be saved between sessions while still giving IT the storage optimization benefits of Provisioning Services Standard Image Mode provisioning.
  • Microsoft System Center 2012 Support: The XenDesktop Setup Wizard, Streamed VM Setup Wizard, and the Image Update feature have been updated to support Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and Virtual Machine Manager.

What’s New in Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1:

  • Support for Personal vDisks — Citrix XenDesktop with personal vDisk technology is a high-performance enterprise desktop virtualization solution that makes VDI accessible to workers who require personalized desktops using pooled-static virtual machines. Target devices that use personal vDisks are created using the Citrix XenDesktop Setup Wizard. Within a Provisioning Services farm, the wizard creates and adds target devices with personal vDisks to an existing site’s collection and assigns an existing shared-mode vDisk to that device. The wizard also creates XenDesktop virtual machines to associate with each device. A new type of catalog exists in Citrix Desktop Studio that allows you to preserve the assignment of users to desktops; the same users are assigned the same desktop for later sessions. In addition, a dedicated storage disk is created (before logon) for each user so they can store all personalization’s to that desktop. Personalizations include any changes to the vDisk image or desktop that are not made as a result of an image update, such as application settings, adds, deletes, modifications, documents, etc.
  •  Support for Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (SCCM) – The vDisk Update Management feature now supports SCCM 2012 environments.
  •  Support for Microsoft System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) – The XenDesktop Setup Wizard and Streamed VM Setup Wizard now support SCVMM 2012 for Hyper-V environments.
  • Provisioning Services support for KMS licensing no longer requires local administrator privileges. Provisioning Services SoapServer KMS licensing now requires the same VHD mount privileges as Microsoft Windows (SE_MANAGE_VOLUME_PRIVILEGE, which is included in Administrators group by default).
    Note: If upgrading from a past release, be sure to reset the privileges accordingly.
  • Hypervisor support for ESX 5.0.

Source

Download Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1 here (Require MyCitrix ID)

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XenDesktop 5.5 Hyper-V Proof of Concept Guide

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, SCVVM, Windows Server 2008R2, XenDesktop

Introduction

A successful XenDesktop 5.5 Proof-of-Concept (PoC) begins with simple preparation. Although XenDesktop supports many different technologies and provides support for desktop, server, and application virtualization, this document focuses on a deployment of XenDesktop 5.5 using Microsoft’s Windows 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V code base for delivering hosted virtual desktops. Hosted VDI virtual desktops demonstrate the brokering technology and the benefit of the HDX protocol. This level can be used to quickly compare the end-user experience and allow basic desktop remoting. This approach is good to validate user requirements with the technology. The PoC environment is expected to be isolated from the production environment, although the production Active Directory domain could be used to contain the computer and user accounts for testing. Preparation for the PoC will include hardware, operating systems, Active Directory accounts, and software licensing.

Windows 7, Server 2008R2, and SCVMM Service Pack 1  Support

Citrix XenDestop5 SP1 and now 5.5 support the use of the Windows 7 client and Windows Server 2008R2 SP1. Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 provides major new features for VDI focusing around key areas such as Dynamic Memory for Hyper-V (see Microsoft Deployment Guide for Dynamic Memory), RemoteFX for assigning virtual GPU’s to XenDesktop Windows 7 virtual machines(see Microsoft Deployment Guide For RemoteFX), and System enter Virtual Machine Manager SP1 for managing VM’s with Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX GPU’s assigned to them (see Migrating to SCVMM 2008R2 SP1). More information about enabling RemoteFX for XenDesktop can be found here. XenDesktop 5 SP1 and 5.5 Quick Deploy support the use of Dynamic Memory configuration and RemoteFX adapters in the master Windows 7 SP1 image. This enables the administrator to create specific feature enabled desktops instantly from a VM template master image using the Quick Deploy Wizard. These new VM guest features should be enabled via the SCVMM 20008R2 SP1 administrative console on the master image prior to using Quick Deploy. Virtual machines currently running as a guest operating system already have the R2 integration services enabled by default. These existing virtual machines will run normally with the host upgraded to SP1. The newer features such as Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX, do require the SP1 version of integrations services applied to those existing virtual machines to take advantage of newer updates and enhancements. For more information on this see http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/cc732470(WS.10).aspx

Read the entire whitepaper, you can find it under Sources in this article. Enjoy /Poppelgaard.

Sources

Download Whitepaper – XenDesktop 5.5 Hyper-V Proof of Concept Guide here

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Turning wow into how for Desktop virtualization

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Hyper-V, SCCM, SCVVM, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008R2, XenDesktop

Tony Sanchez from Citrix and Michael Kleef (Microsoft) and Patrick Jaspers (Microsoft) have made this great presentation, where you get a technical deep dive into following technologies:

  • Microosft Windows Server 2008R2 SP1 Dynamic Memory
  • Citrix XenDesktop 5
  • Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager
  • Microsoft System Center 2007 R2
  • Lync 2010

You will see how easy it is to deploy VDI with XenDesktop 5 in a Hyper-V environment in this session. Great Video.

See the session here

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Microsoft SCVMM 2012+Citrix Netscaler =o)

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Netscaler, SCVVM

Next version of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 is going to be cool and much more Cloud aware. So i will post more info, when i notice it.

Whats new in the upcoming Microsoft SCVMM 2012:

  • SCVMM 2012 will have two main roles: Service Management (lifecycle management of virtual machines and applications inside them) and Fabric Management (configuration management of computing, networking and storage)
  • Communication with the storage layer will happen through SMI-S (Storage Management Initiative Specification) providers. SCVMM 2010 will be able to provision LUNs at the cluster level
  • Capability to create logical networks (abstracting IP subnetting, VLANs, and DNS domains) for private cloud computing
  • Capability to define and assign IP pools to logical networks, as well as MAC address pools to host groups
  • Capability to copy a VM template from SAN to SAN on provisioning
  • Support for Citrix NetScaler as load balancer to create Virtual Private Addresses (VIPs) and assign them to services
  • Support for Citrix XenServer (5.6? 6.0?) and VMware ESX 4.1
  • Hyper-V remote deployment on bare-metal
    A new server will boot from PXE, download a WinPE image, download a VHD, join a domain and install the Hyper-V role all automated and orchestrated from SCVMM 2012.
  • Dynamic Optimization (DO)
    Automatic/Manual workloads balancing across Hyper-V hosts in a cluster, without System Center Operation Manager (SCOM).
    It will compete with VMware Distribute Resource Scheduler (DRS)
  • Enhanced Placement
    New 100 checks and validations used by the workload placing algorithm, including manual rules to detail inter-VMs dependencies, defined by the administrator.
    It will compete with the VMware DRS affinity rules.
  • Power Management
    Hyper-V hosts will be powered off using DO and Live Migration in case of low hardware utilization.
    It will compete with VMware Distributed Power Management (DPM).
  • Administration Delegation
  • Resources Quota
  • Capacity Management
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Blogs i read

Recent Comments

Thomas Poppelgaard

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Hi Steve normal I install the GRID driver to device and when its workin, I disable the default VGA device.

Have you applied latest hotfix to the XS6.1 there are some crucial hotfixes to the GPU pass-through, that could crash the GRID’s, when you power on a VM with GPU pass-through.

Steve

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Just a quick question on your setup. We just got a system similar to yours (R720, 2xGrid K2 cards, XenServer 6.1, XenApp 6.5). The GRID K2 driver installs (320.00), but the device shows up as stopped in device manager. Did you use any special options when installing the nVidia driver? Or somehow remove the default VGA device?

Dan

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Hi Thomas,
Some features in your screenshots (eg create appointments and contacts) seem to be missing from the iOS version of @WorkMail that got released in April, do you know if these features are still coming in a future release? The Android client is far more functional by comparison.
Regards
Dan

Christian Eilskov

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You can see the DHCP options here:

http://www.wyse.com/kb and search for 21501

You can transfer a image using Wyse Device Manager(WDM), the same goes for smaller updates like new ICA client and so.

Thomas Poppelgaard

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Thank you Barry =)
The deep compression codec for Citrix XenDesktop HDX 3D Pro will be intergrated for Citrix XenApp in Excalibur so there is a big difference with bandwidth consumption. This means that XenApp in Excalibur will be the best platform for user density and works great over WAN with high latency as HDX 3D Pro have been known to deliver for several years. Yes i know of cases with WAN optimization, I will gather these and share them.

Best regards
Thomas

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