Citrix have released a new version of Branch Repeater 6.0.3 for appliance, Citrix Xenserver, Microsoft hyper-v and VMware vSphere

Release 6.0.1 is the maintenance software release for the Citrix Branch Repeater 6.0.

This maintenance release contains bug fixes and new features.

Maintenance Release Highlights in 6.0.1

In addition to the bug fixes, this maintenance Release includes the following features:

Support for Multi-Stream ICA

This release supports the new XenApp 6.5/XenDesktop5.5 “Multi-Stream ICA” feature, which uses up to four connections per user, one for each ICA priority level. By demultiplexing the ICA stream, traffic-shaping policies can be applied to different-priority streams independently allowing bulk traffic to be held back and the interactive traffic passed through with greater precision, resulting in greater responsiveness and thus a better user experience.

Collection of Diagnostic Data

This feature is a new tab in the “System Maintenance: Diagnostics” page that gathers up diagnostic data for Citrix Support and packages it into a single compressed archive that Support can analyze.  The process can take as long as 20 minutes, and gathers data from older versions of the software as well as the current one. Do not use this feature unless requested to by Support.

Download Branch Repeater Appliance Software Release 6.0.1 here

Download Repeater Appliance Software Release 6.0.1 here

Download Branch Repeater VPX for XenServer and VMware vSphere Software Rel 6.0.1  here

Citrix Consulting have released a whitepaper called Citrix Branch Repeater VPX Scalability Analysis.

The Whitepaper is about Scalability Testing and Design Considerations for Implementing Branch Repeater VPX 6 with XenDesktop 5

Overview

The Branch Repeater VPX is now included in XenDesktop Platinum edition for no additional cost

As IT administrators begin evaluating the cost savings and performance improvements that Branch Repeater VPX can bring to their XenApp or XenDesktop environment, questions regarding scalability and implementation recommendations usually arise – especially when evaluating the decision between a physical or virtual Branch Repeater appliance. Citrix Consulting Solutions embarked on a project to assess scalability considerations for the Branch Repeater VPX model 45 (45 Mbps) to provide such implementation and configuration recommendations. As part of this project, scalability testing was conducted with the Branch Repeater VPX hosted on Citrix XenServer in both the data center and the branch office connected over a 45 Mbps simulated WAN link. The goal was to identify the scalability considerations of the Branch Repeater VPX and hosting hypervisor within the environment when optimizing HDX traffic for delivering virtual desktops with XenDesktop.

To perform the scalability analysis, Branch Repeater VPX resources such as vCPU, memory and disk I/O were studied along with the XenServer CPU to provide scalability guidance under high bandwidth usage scenarios. Unique XenDesktop session traffic up to 45Mbps was simulated and sent across the WAN for acceleration by the Branch Repeater VPXs. As a result of the test scenarios, the following topics have been identified as the key scalability factors to consider when deploying Branch Repeater VPX for XenDesktop workloads:

Key Observations

• During first pass testing, where all XenDesktop session traffic is unique to the Branch Repeater VPX pair, it was determined that throughput can be constrained by the number of vCPUs assigned to the Branch Repeater VPX as illustrated by high vCPU usage. As the bandwidth being optimized by the Branch Repeater VPX reached the licensed 45Mbps limit, the CPU utilization exceeded 80%. Even higher CPU usage must be expected for highly compressible workloads. The BranchRepeater VPXs showed a sharp decrease in CPU usage when multiple appliances were load balanced with a NetScaler VPX.
• During second pass testing or ‘warm runs’, where most data has already been compressed by the by the Branch Repeater VPX instances, throughput is constrained by disk I/O when Disk Based Compression (DBC) is primarily used. With a high amount of compressible second pass data, the disk I/O increases causes a reduction in the compression ratios obtained by the Branch Repeater VPXs. Disk I/O consists of predominantly writes for the first pass and reads for the second pass. The disk reads for the Branch Repeater VPX increased 4x between the first and second passes.

It was determined that the amount of memory assigned to the Branch Repeater VPX directly impacted the amount of data compression the Branch Repeater VPX was able to provide for the workloads that leverage Memory Based Compression (MBC).

The testing concluded that although the XenServer hypervisor is managing and routing all the network traffic between physical NICs and virtual appliances, the resources on the hypervisor were not significantly impacted when processing the licensed limit of 45Mbps (WAN-side).

Key Recommendations

• Virtual CPU Utilization:  Allocate 2vCPU, the maximum supported configuration, to each Branch Repeater VPX instance. To allow Branch Repeater VPXs to scale to a higher number of users and branch offices, it is recommended that multiple instances be load balanced by a NetScaler physical or virtual appliance in a hot-hot configuration to support increased throughput, performance, and high availability.
  
• Disk I/OTo measure performance impact due to high disk I/O while leveraging disk based compression for large amounts of second pass data it is recommended to deploy VPX in a test environment to monitor disk usage for realistic workloads leveraging DBC. To achieve better disk performance utilize faster disks when possible and potentially upgrade to physical Branch Repeater appliances if high disk utilization is reached. For better second pass Disk I/O a read optimized RAID configuration, such as RAID 10, is recommended.
• Memory Usage: Allocate each instance of the Branch Repeater VPX with the 8GB of RAM configuration when possible to support a higher number of simultaneous connections for workloads that leverage higher amounts of Disk Based Compression (DBC).
  
• Hypervisor Overhead: It is recommended that the hypervisor CPU be actively monitored. While a single hypervisor can support multiple Branch Repeater VPX instances, this will still not provide the highest levels of high availability as provided by the physical appliances. The limitations of hosting multiple Branch Repeater VPX instances on the same hypervisor is not expected due to hypervisor CPU overhead but by either VPX CPU usage, disk throughput and memory available. Therefore it is recommended that while leveraging the hypervisor hosting VPX to host other workloads, VPX instances are assigned dedicated disks if possible.

Click here to download and read the whitepaper

The long waited Citrix Branch Repeater 6.0 is out for download. Here is whats new in this release.

Release 6.0 is a major software release for the Citrix Branch Repeater. This release contains a number of new features along with bug fixes.

Release 6.0 is the first production release of the Branch Repeater 6.x software, which introduces traffic shaping, enhanced reporting, improved Windows Filesystem and Outlook/Exchange acceleration, and many other features.

Release Highlights

This major release of Repeater and Branch includes a significant number of new features, including:

• Smart Acceleration
  Now traffic can be prioritized based on a variety of different parameters including service class, protocol, QoS parameters, IP address or range, port, etc.  Applications are automatically detected and QoS features can be applied to all traffic including unaccelerated protocols like UDP.

• Extensive Reporting on WAN Bandwidth Utilization
  Repeater administrators will have a vastly improved view into WAN operations and bandwidth utilization with several new dashboards and graphs.
• ICA Prioritization based on Desktop Group or Published Apps
  XenDesktop and XenApp administrators can prioritize traffic on a WAN link based on an individual’s desktop group or a specific XenApp published application.
• Over 500 Pre-Defined Service Classes
  Repeater and Branch Repeater 6.0 includes and automatically detects over 500 pre-defined applications on the WAN.  Priorities can be assigned to the pre-defined service classes so unintended traffic like games can be given very low priority or blocked.
• And Many More Features
  Support for new features in the next releases of XenDesktop and XenApp, new printing acceleration enhancements, SMB2 and encrypted MAPI acceleration, acceleration for Outlook and Exchange 2010 and support for the Citrix License Server.

New Features in Release 6.0

• Traffic shaping which expedites WAN traffic according to user-selectable policies. Both accelerated and non-accelerated traffic are shaped to give full control over the link. Traffic shaping replaces the “Repeater QoS” feature.
• Traffic classification and reporting give greater visibility into WAN traffic. • Multi-stream ICA support provides a better user experience for XenApp and XenDesktop by combining acceleration with enhanced traffic shaping.
• Vista/Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 Filesystem acceleration. New SMB2 accel- eration features increase remote filesystem performance.
• Windows filesystem acceleration. Signed SMB can now be accelerated.
• Enhanced MAPI Acceleration. Encrypted connections between Outlook and Exchange Server can now be accelerated.
• Support for multiple links. In previous releases, Branch Repeater had a single-link model. Release 6.0 supports up to ten independent links, each with its own link speed, so traffic can be shaped precisely on every link.
• Remote license server support. Release 6.0 allows a remote network license server to supply the Branch Repeater licenses, simplifying deployment.
• Dashboard page provides a quick view of current system status.
• “Features” page. The product’s enable/disable toggles have been combined on a single page.
• Simplified menu structure. The number of top-level menu categories has been reduced. Entries within a category are now alphabetized. Similar functions have been combined into a single page, such as “Advanced Deployments,” which con- tains the functionality of the old high-availability, WCCP, group-mode, and proxy-mode pages.

Compatibility

Note: The Repeater Plug-in is not included with release 6.0 Plug-ins from prior releases will interoperate with Appliances running release 6.0

Note: Branch Repeater with Windows Server is not included in release 6.0 Branch Repeater with Windows Server Appliances from prior releases will interoperate with Appliances running release 6.0

Supported Products

Bellowed figure shows supported products and platforms for Citrix Branch Repeater

Supported Branch Repeater VPX Configurations

Release 6.0 is supported on Branch Repeater VPX running on both XenServer (5.5 and 5.6, but not 5.6 FP1) and VMware vSphere ESX/ESXi 4.1 hypervisors.

Note: The User’s Guide incorrectly states that VMware vSphere ESX 4.0 is supported. The correct list is “ESX 4.1 and ESXi 4.1.”

Note: The User’s Guide incorrectly states that the “Enable Bridging” feature is on the “System Status” page, when it is on the “Features” page.

RAM and vCPU requirements have increased with this release. See Figure 2 and Figure 3.

Licensing

Release 6.0 supports both remote license servers and locally installed licenses. If you are upgrading an existing system with a local license, it will continue to work.

Branch Repeater VPX supports two license types: remote and local licenses

• Production licenses use remote licenses hosted on a Citrix license server. Production licenses include retail, CSP, and annual licenses
• Non-production licenses (such as VPX Express and Eval licenses) are installed locally on the Branch Repeater VPX virtual appliance
• Annual and CSP licenses need to be installed on your license server

Sources (require MyCitrix ID)

Download Release notes for Citrix Branch Repeater 6.0 here

Download Quick Installation Guide for Citrix Branch Repeater 6.0 here

Download User Guide for Citrix Branch Repeater 6.0 here

Download Branch Repeater VPX for Citrix XenServer and VMware vSphere Software Release 6.0 here

Download Citrix Branch Repeater Appliance Software Release 6.0 here

Synopsis

• Video use and desktop virtualization are two fast growing technologies in the enterprise, with Citrix XenDesktop and Qumu representing two leading solutions.
• While desktop virtualization solves many IT challenges, IT must also address the performance and bandwidth issues they will face with the explosive use of video by large number of users in branch locations over WAN connections.
• Tests show that using Qumu VideoEdge reduces WAN traffic for live streams by a significant margin. For instance, for a 100 person branch office, VideoEdge produces a 99% reduction in utilized bandwidth (or savings equal to (n x s) ‐ s where “n” is the number of branch clients, and “s” is the original stream bitrate).

Introduction

The Promise and Challenge of Video on Virtual Desktops

Desktop virtualization continues to win mindshare of IT professionals. For many applications, it offers an excellent method to secure data, provide a consistent user experience, centralize computing resources, and reduce software maintenance costs. However, such benefits do not come without tradeoffs. The transfer of graphical data representing the user interface from a virtual desktop in the datacenter to a remote user’s Citrix Receiver running on a physical desktop can lead to an increase in network traffic. The network load grows significantly when a virtual desktop is rendering rapidly changing images (frames), as is the case with video playback. Running such common desktop applications as media players by many clients simultaneously, strains the network and may affect the performance of other business applications, especially during peak hours.

The core of the problem is that wide area networks (WANs) between branch offices and data centers often do not have the capacity to carry the amount of traffic associated with hundreds of remote users simultaneously accessing a video, such as a live webcast, in a virtual environment. As video becomes more popular within the enterprise, unique methods will need to be employed to maintain WAN performance for virtual desktops.

Citrix XenDesktop provides several methods for enhancing video delivery and rendering on virtual desktops. Among these methods is client‐side rendering using HDX Flash Redirection for Flash video. We examined this method closely in a Qumu whitepaper titled “Optimization of streaming video delivery in Citrix XenDesktop deployments with Qumu VideoEdge”. In that paper we described how Qumu VideoEdge, when deployed at branch offices utilizing Citrix XenDesktop and Flash Redirection, can dramatically reduce WAN traffic.

Deploying a WAN optimization solution like Citrix® Branch RepeaterTM is another powerful method for enhancing video delivery. Branch Repeater is a branch optimization solution that provides a high‐ definition desktop and application experience to branch and mobile users while dramatically reducing bandwidth costs and simplifying branch infrastructure. Branch Repeater accelerates desktop and application delivery, decreases bandwidth consumption, and enables server consolidation by compressing, caching, and prioritizing traffic for all TCP‐based applications, including virtual desktops and applications. Available as both a physical and a virtual appliance, Branch Repeater accelerates the ROI associated with centralizing and virtualizing desktops and applications while supporting more users on existing bandwidth and simplifying branch infrastructure.

In addition, distribution technology, such as Qumu VideoEdge, can provide further benefits, especially for live video. This whitepaper presents results of Branch Repeater testing in the Qumu performance lab with and without Qumu VideoEdge. Based on the test results, we explain the benefits of using Qumu VideoEdge, specifically for live video and for prepositioning of video‐on‐demand files.

Citrix and Qumu solutions

Citrix has been a market leader in providing desktop virtualization solutions for years. Citrix XenDesktop with HDX Technology was specifically designed to optimize network utilization and improve the end‐ user experience for graphically intensive rendering. HDX takes advantage of Citrix SmartRendering technology and provides two methods of delivering video streams to the player: server‐side and client‐ side fetching. For server‐side fetching, which is available for Flash and Windows Media, the video stream is obtained by the server and then sent over ICA in its native highly compressed format. While often providing significant bandwidth savings over sending screen updates over ICA, it still requires considerable WAN bandwidth to carry the streams when tens or hundreds of users watch the video from the same branch.

For client‐side fetching, which is available for Flash streaming, the client pulls the Flash content directly from the stream source, bypassing ICA altogether. This is the preferred method for Flash streaming on LANs, but it still does not completely resolve the WAN bandwidth issue. When the stream originates from a data center, and is sent to players in a branch office, each player creates a separate connection over the WAN, causing the bandwidth to grow linearly as each new user joins a video session.

Qumu VideoEdge is a proxy‐cache server specifically optimized for video delivery to remote users. For video‐on‐demand, it provides file caching at the branch, thus preventing the end‐user from pulling video over the WAN unnecessarily. VideoEdge can cache content passively (on the first request) or preposition it if scheduled by a content publisher or network administrator. For live streaming, a VideoEdge installed in a branch location receives a single stream from the origin over the WAN, and then “splits” it to tens or hundreds of clients on the branch LAN. Deploying VideoEdge with Citrix HDX Flash Redirection is therefore an ideal scenario that completely frees up the WAN from carrying video to Citrix Receivers in the branch.

The figures below describe how video crosses the WAN and reaches the virtual desktop. Figure 1 shows the stream flow with HDX Flash Redirection, but without VideoEdge. In this case, all client players in the branch receive video streams directly from the origin Flash Server in the Data Center, causing each stream to consume WAN bandwidth.. Branch Repeater HDXTM technology optimizes on‐demand video streamed via ICA, as well as video delivered directly to the client outside the ICA channel. However, live video streams cannot utilize de‐duplication.

Figure 2 shows the same stream flow with a VideoEdge deployed at the branch. For both live and on‐ demand streaming, the video is served to clients on the LAN directly from the VideoEdge, meaning only a single stream (or none if the on‐demand video is cached) crosses the WAN.

Citrix Branch Repeater HDX WAN Optimization technology accelerates and optimizes WAN traffic for virtual desktops, such as Citrix® XenDesktopTM. The Branch Repeater solution is deployed symmetrically on both sides of the WAN. Some of the technologies used by the Branch Repeater to reduce network traffic include data de‐duplication, adaptive compression, and protocol optimization. Among these methods, data de‐duplication has the greatest impact on video traffic. When a client requests a chunk of data that was previously sent over the WAN, the data will be served by the Branch Repeater at the branch. This technology is applicable to all TCP‐based video protocols and formats. While this is an excellent solution for WAN optimization, it does not cover live video streams. When Branch Repeater is used in concert with Qumu VideoEdge, the joint solution provides bandwidth reduction for all video use cases in the enterprise.

The use cases and deployment scenarios described in the following sections of this document assume that the video content is played by the Flash player and HDX Flash Redirection is configured on the client HDX Receiver.

Use cases for Branch Repeater and Qumu VideoEdge

Video on Demand

As discussed earlier, Citrix Branch Repeater significantly reduces bandwidth requirements on the WAN. In tests run in the Qumu performance lab, we observed consistent reduction of WAN bandwidth usage by greater than 98%. Branch Repeater could achieve this number because after a Flash video file was streamed (over the RTMP protocol) by a client in the branch, all subsequent streaming requests from the branch required no more than 1‐2% of the bandwidth consumed by the initial request.

On networks where Branch Repeater is deployed, Qumu VideoEdge provides the following additional benefits:

• VideoEdge, in conjunction with Qumu Video Control Center, can preposition files at the branch during off‐peak hours, thus relieving the WAN from pulling even a single copy of the file during peak times.
• From a simplified point of view there are up to three network segments that the video stream crosses: o from the source (streaming server) to the data center Repeater and a WAN router o the WAN itself o from the branch LAN switch to the player
• When a player plays a cached video from a branch VideoEdge, there is no data traffic on any segments of the network other than on the branch LAN. This is different from the scenario without a VideoEdge when the WAN bandwidth is optimized by a Branch Repeater, but the network segment between the video source and the Repeater in the Data Center is not. In a situation in which the video source is not at the data center (in a branch or on the Internet), each client connection results in a connection from the Data Center to the video source, potentially overloading that segment of the network.
• Because the video file is on the same LAN as the player, latency is minimal.

Qumu VideoEdge in Citrix Deployment for Live Streaming

As described earlier, WAN optimization solutions by themselves optimize and accelerate on‐demand video far better than live video streaming. This is due to the fact that live streaming does not result in repeating data patterns across the WAN, so WAN optimizers cannot leverage techniques such as data de‐duplication for such scenarios.

To dramatically reduce required WAN bandwidth for live video, Qumu VideoEdge can be deployed in remote branches. As demonstrated in Figure 2, unlike the scenario in which Branch Repeater is used on its own, VideoEdge ensures that only 1 stream per branch location crosses the WAN. From there, VideoEdge splits the original stream into as many streams as are requested by clients on the LAN. This approach leads to a reduction in WAN bandwidth per branch equal to:

(n x s)‐ s where “n” is the number of branch clients, and “s” is the original stream bitrate.

Testing

Test Methodology and Environment

To demonstrate the bandwidth savings provided by VideoEdge in Citrix deployments, a test environment was built in a Qumu lab. The test environment simulated a Data Center, WAN Cloud and a Branch Office.

The Data Center included the following:

• Data Center Repeater VPX
• Wowza Server VM The WAN Cloud included:
• WANem WAN Emulator VM The Branch Office environment included the following:
• Branch Repeater VPX  Qumu VideoEdge 1.1  Windows XP Professional Client 1‐3 VM’s with Flash Player 10.1

The following diagram depicts the test environment:

Methodology

For live streaming, clients request media content from the Wowza media server. The traffic flow from each client to the Wowza server is inline and flows from a client to the Branch Repeater, and from there towards WANem eth1 interface. WANem eth0 interface then sends each client request to the data center Repeater, and on to the Wowza server.

WANem is configured to have bandwidth limited to 1581 Kbps and delay time of 100 ms for each interface eth0 and eth1. Repeaters are also configured to send and receive bandwidth at 1471 Kbps.

As our main focus is to measure media WAN optimization, and in particular Flash video, Repeaters are configured to create a “Flash service policy”. Flash service policy settings are set to “true” for “accelerate” and “compression” is set to “disk”. All other service policies, including the default service policy, are disabled for “accelerate”. This in effect maintains acceleration only for Flash media traffic on port 1935 bi‐directional from client to the Wowza server. All http/https traffic is set to “non‐accelerate”.

Prior to each test, all caches are reset on the Repeaters.

To measure WAN optimization, ffmpeg is utilized on the Wowza server to create a live event. Clients 1 through 3 request Flash media content from the Wowza Server using HTTP requests, and WAN and LAN traffic is observed on usage graphs in the Monitoring section of the Repeater.

Test Results

Test 1 – Live Video without VideoEdge

For a live event, Client 1 immediately connects to the session, followed by Client 2 three minutes later, and Client 3 three minutes after that.

Our tests found that, when Branch Repeater was used on its own for live events, bandwidth usage increased linearly by about 600 Kbps for each client. Since the bandwidth was limited to 1581 Kbps, when the third client connected to the live event, the video quality for all three clients was negatively affected since the WAN could not accommodate the 1800 Kbps needed for the event.

Test 2 – Live Video with VideoEdge

For live events utilizing VideoEdge, WAN traffic was about 600 Kbps throughout the event, as VideoEdge split the single stream that crossed the WAN into 3 separate streams to deliver to the clients on the LAN. As expected, the utilized WAN bandwidth was not affected at all by the number of clients, so as additional clients requested the stream, WAN consumption remained the same. Therefore, the number of clients that can access a live video is only limited by the processing capacity of the VideoEdge appliance at the branch (typically 1500 or more connections, depending on the model).

Conclusion

Citrix Branch Repeater is a fantastic solution for reducing WAN bandwidth requirements and accelerating almost all TCP‐based applications, including on‐demand video streaming. Branch Repeater may be deployed together with Qumu VideoEdge in order to experience the full promise of video communications, including live‐video support for virtual desktops. The joint solution has further benefits for on‐demand video, such as video prepositioning, that significantly reduce the WAN bandwidth required to carry video to branch offices. With Qumu handling and serving video traffic locally, the WAN bandwidth is freed up for Branch Repeater to optimize and accelerate native and virtual apps even more efficiently. As video increasingly becomes a strategic application in the enterprise, the joint Citrix and Qumu solution is designed to ensure remote employees get the freedom to utilize the power of video without impacting other business applications.

Download whitepaper here

Fred Donovan from Citrix have updated the whitepaper - Communication Ports Used by Citrix Technologies to version 1.5 (April 2011)

Overview

This document provides an overview of ports that are used by Citrix components and must be considered as part of Virtual Computing architecture, especially if communication traffic traverses network components such as firewalls or proxy servers, where ports must be opened to ensure communication flow.

References

The assignments are listed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), updated regularly, and revised when new information is available and new assignments are made. The specific location of the port numbers list is available at the following Web site: http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers.

Microsoft Article “Network Ports Used by Key Microsoft Server Products”.

Microsoft Article ID 832017 “Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system”.

Download WhitePaper - Communication Ports Used by Citrix Technologies here

Command Center is a central manager for Citrix NetScaler, Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition and Citrix Branch Repeater appliances.

New Features in Version 4.1

• MS SQL 2008 Support
• Distributed Agents enhanced to Support Syslog, Entity monitoring and Cert Mgmt
• NITRO for Command Center – JAVA and C# API Support
• Triggers based on Alarm age
• Simplified SSL server certificate procedure from CC client for Command Center Server
• Appfw Signature syslog analytics support
• Schedule AppFW Dashboard support
• AppFw transaction id will be displayed in syslog view page
• Session timeout setting in HTML UI
• Start in Options in UI
• Show system name/hostname instead of IP address
• NetScaler upgradation task to support 9.3 upgradation
• SNMP authentication failure trap to display source IP
• Branch Repeater restart task enhancement
• Add trap action template for event and alarm triggers
• CC SNMP agent runs on port 8161
• Ability to configure SNMP trap port
• Ability to configure multiple Maps with same name

Command Center Features

• Fault Management and Event Aggregation
• Historical Reporting and Performance Graphs
• Real-Time Entity Monitoring Dashboard
• Central Configuration Management
• Central Configuration Audit
• Advanced Alert Thresholds
• High Availability Deployment Support
• Automated Task Rollback
• Central Certificate Management
• Distributed Agents for better scalability

Supported Operating Systems
Command Center can be installed on servers with the following operating systems

• Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2003 with SP2
• Red Hat Linux ES 4.0/5.x
• CentOS 5.5

Supported Databases
Command Center supports the following databases

• MySQL 5.1.x with InnoDB storage engine
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008
• Oracle Database Server 10g

Supported Devices
Command Center supports the following devices

• NetScaler Enterprise and Platinum edition devices, running OS versions 8.x and 9.x
• Branch Repeater/ Repeater devices, running OS versions 4.3.2+ and CBRwWS 2.0+
• Access Gateway Enterprise Edition devices, running OS versions 8.x and 9.x

Licensing
Command Center is available to manage NetScaler Enterprise and Platinum edition, Access Gateway Enterprise Edition and Citrix Branch Repeater devices.

Documentation
Administrations Guide
Installations Guide
Release Notes
User Guide

Download Command Center 4.1

Download Command Center 4.1 here (requires MyCitrix login)

Today, Citrix raised the bar again, announcing a new addition to its popular Citrix XenDesktop that promises to juice performance even further for employees accessing their virtual desktops, apps and data over a wide area network (WAN).

Starting today, any customer who buys the Platinum Edition of XenDesktop gets a powerful new WAN optimization virtual appliance at no additional charge that can be deployed quickly and easily in any branch office to boost XenDesktop performance for branch users. The new solution, powered by the breakthrough Citrix Branch Repeater VPX virtual appliance, is specifically architected for accelerating and optimizing the delivery of virtual desktops, apps and data for end users, while reducing bandwidth utilization for IT administrators.

Citrix XenDesktop, combined with the HDX WAN Optimization technology from Branch Repeater – accelerates the delivery of virtual desktops and provides a high definition experience to branch office workers (See 3rd Party Performance Report: XenDesktop vs View with and without WAN Optimization). They have led the transformation of desktop virtualization and WAN optimization markets with innovative and integrated use of these technologies.

• XenDesktop Platinum will include the new HDX WAN optimization feature, powered by Branch Repeater VPX – at no additional charge. You can deploy the new HDX WAN Optimization virtual appliances in unlimited number of branch offices with WAN links up to 45Mbps, if you buy XenDesktop Platinum, are current on XenDesktop Platinum SA or trade up to XenDesktop Platinum. This will allow XenDesktop Platinum customers to accelerate and optimize, on WAN links of up to 45Mbps bandwidth, delivery of virtual desktops and virtual apps, as well as native apps such as Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, SharePoint, and other data or application traffic.

• The new HDX WAN Optimization feature runs as a virtual appliance on either Citrix XenServer of VMware vSphere. In related news, the standalone Citrix Branch Repeater VPX virtual appliance is also now available for both XenServer and VMware hypervisors.
• Unlimited number of VPX appliances in any number of branch offices to accelerate any and all traffic beyond XenDesktop Platinum traffic… if you buy XenDesktop Platinum, are current on XenDesktop Platinum SA or trade up to XenDesktop Platinum in those branch offices.

So the answer is if you wan the perfect VDI solution on the market its Citrix XenDesktop 5 Platinum Edition, these new features makes its shines brighter than the SUN =o)

Enjoy the ride of the virtual desktop with the power of Citrix. Go Virtual, go Anywhere,  go fast. fasten your seatbelt this ride is going to be thrilling.

Read more about Citrix Branch Repeater
Read more about Citrix XenDesktop

I have noticed today that Citrix have updated their webpage, and i noticed a cool new Citrix Advertise “Work on anywhere, On any device, thats the power of virtual computing” yes this is the topics we se over and over at the Citrix Synergy events ;o).

I recommend you look at this cool webpage, where Citrix explains what Virtual Computing, Virtual Desktop, High-Definition Desktop, Virtual Servers and Networking means to them and how Citrix can solve these things.

look more at http://simplicityispower.citrix.com/

I have noticed that Citrix have created a new portal where you can try all Citrix products in a trial periode, which is GREAT stuff

I have attached the bellowed schema, so you can see which products that you can try out.
Go Ahead try Citrix if you havent done it yet.