Citrix Receiver 1.1 for HTML5

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Citrix, HDX, Receiver, VDI-in-a-box, XenApp, XenDesktop

Citrix have released a new Citrix Receiver for HTML 5, lets dig in whats new.

About Receiver for HTML5 1.1

Receiver for HTML5 integrates with Access Gateway and StoreFront to enable users to access desktops and applications directly through their web browsers. Resources provided by XenDesktop, AppController, and XenApp are aggregated in a StoreFront store and made available through a Receiver for Web site. Users without Citrix clients installed on their devices log on to the site using HTML5-compatible web browsers and access their desktops and applications directly in browser tabs.

What’s new

Receiver for HTML5 supports a wider range of web browsers with the addition of support for Internet Explorer and Safari.

Known issues

The following is a list of known issues in this release. Read it carefully before installing the product.

SSL Relay support requires connections through Access Gateway

Users cannot connect to applications provided by XenApp deployments that include the SSL Relay without using Access Gateway. To work around this issue, ensure that all users, including users on the local network, connect to the Receiver for Web site through Access Gateway. [#289816]

Limitations

Receiver for HTML5 does not support client drive mapping.

Receiver for HTML5 user experience

Receiver for HTML5 enables users who cannot install Citrix Receiver on their devices to access their desktops and applications through their web browsers. Users without Citrix clients installed on their devices log on to Receiver for Web sites using HTML5-compatible web browsers and access their resources directly in browser tabs.

Users must connect to Receiver for Web sites through Access Gateway to access desktops provided by XenDesktop, web and SaaS applications provided by AppController, and applications provided by most supported versions of XenApp. For more information, see System requirements for Receiver for HTML5 1.1.

By setting a XenApp policy, you can enable local access through Receiver for HTML5 to applications provided by XenApp 6.5 Feature Pack 1 without routing connections through Access Gateway. For more information, see Install and configure Receiver for HTML5.

To access their desktops and applications using Receiver for HTML5, users navigate to a Receiver for Web site using a HTML5-compatible browser running on a supported operating system. By default, when a user accesses a Receiver for Web site from a computer running Windows or Mac OS X, the site attempts to determine whether Citrix Receiver is installed on the user’s device. If Citrix Receiver cannot be detected, the default configuration enables users logging on to the site with a supported browser to use Receiver for HTML5. When users running Chrome OS log on to a Receiver for Web site, Receiver for HTML5 is always used.

When a user accesses a desktop or application through Receiver for HTML5, the resource starts in a new browser tab or window, according to the user’s browser settings. A floating toolbar containing controls for Receiver for HTML5 is displayed in the tab or window. The clipboard button enables users to copy and paste text between the local clipboard on the device and the resource running in the browser. Users can send the CTRL+ALT+DELETE key combination to their desktops and applications using the lock button.

Source

Download Citrix Receiver 1.1 for HTML5 here

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Project VRC – Virtual Reality Check Phase V – Antivirus on VDI

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Citrix, Project VRC, VDI-in-a-box, VMware, vSphere, Windows 7, Windows 8, XenDesktop

@RSpruijt (Ruben Spruijt), @TheJeroen (Jeroen van de Kamp) and@ProjectVRC have created the whitepaper Phase 5 of the Virtual Reality Check where they focus on the impact and best practice for antivirus on VDI.

This is a must read whitepaper if you are working with VDI

project vrc phase 5

Goal of Project VRC phase IV

The primary goal of Project Virtual Reality Check phase IV is to investigate the overall scalability impact of Application Virtualization solutions within VDI. The three biggest and most commonly used vendors in the VDI market space are investigated: Citrix Application Streaming, Microsoft App-V and VMware ThinApp. These three solutions were compared in different streaming configurations. This whitepaper does a true deep dive on Application Virtualization impact within VDI.

Depending on the use case scenario, Project VRC discovered that this impact can be significant. Test results show that Application Virtualization has impact on the VDI user density, which can be decreased by 20% to 45% when Office is completely virtualized. This should be considered as a worst case scenario. When only a couple of specific (business) applications is virtualized, the session density decreases by only 3 to 12%. In practice the Application Virtualization overhead will be highly dependent on how often virtualized applications are started, and how much file IO and registry access they generate: specifically the creation of the virtualization ‘bubble’/environment for the application can have a significant overhead.

Description

In this white paper Project VRC investigates the impact of antivirus solutions on VDI. The following questions were asked:

  • What is the performance/capacity impact of the most well-known AV solutions when used in a VDI environment?
  • How do AV solutions designed for virtual environments with so called “off-loading” architectures compare with conventional solutions from a performance perspective?
  • How does the disk IO impact compare with the different AV solutions, conventional and off-loading architectures?
  • What is the performance impact in stateless desktop environments in comparison to stateful desktops?
  • What possibilities are there for performance tuning and how does this affect the overall impact on performance impact?

Source

Brian Madden article

Download the Project VRC – Virtual Reality Check Phase V – Antivirus on VDI here

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Citrix Receiver 5.7 for iOS

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Apple, Citrix, CloudGateway, iOS, Netscaler, Receiver, Reciever, ShareFile, VDI-in-a-box, XenApp, XenDesktop

Citrix have released a new version of Citrix Receiver 5.7 for iOS

What’s New in Version 5.7

In addition to general usability and performance improvements, this release adds these features:

· On iOS 6 operating systems, support for the Bluetooth keyboard, as well as fixes for rotation issues and Access Gateway timeout issues.

· On iPhone 5 devices, support for the new screen size.

· First-time use updates, including support for Access Gateway URL input.

· Improved performance when logging on, including reduced time for enumeration of applications.

· Support for multiple stores. Log into multiple accounts at one time, including both a PNA or Web Interface account and a StoreFront account with App Controller running simultaneously within Receiver. A new icon enables you to switch between accounts.

· SAN SSL certificate support.

· Enhanced client-side logging. Enable “Advanced Logs” in the Advanced Settings to help troubleshoot problems.

· New options for sending feedback, including the option to request for help from Support and to send feature requests to Citrix.

· Enhancements in the extended keyboard ribbon. Add and view extended keys more easily, including “sticky” keys for multi-key combinations.

· Support for Citrix @WorkMail™ and @WorkWeb™ for iOS-based devices that let users easily access their email, calendar, and contacts, as well as intranet web sites. You upload the mobile apps to AppController and users subscribe to these two apps from Receiver.

· Support for CloudGateway AppController 2.5, including:

· Policies for MDX-enabled mobile apps. Enable policies while wrapping apps, including policies that support device security, networks, and the ways apps interact with documents and web sites. You can also limit or block device functions, such as copy and paste, the camera, and GPS location services. These policies provide support for iOS apps, including @WorkWeb and @WorkMail.

· Ability to manage the your device inventory, including locking user devices, erasing application data and documents from user devices, and removing devices from the inventory list in AppController.

· Ability to configure workflows, including multiple workflows before you add applications. When you configure applications, you can select the appropriate workflow.

· Policies for Web and SaaS apps, including policies that support blocking of compromised devices, wireless network settings, the requirement for users to connect to an internal network to access apps, and the ability for users to have network access.

Source

Download Citrix on your AppStore or this link

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Citrix VDI-in-a-box 5.2

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Citrix, Group Policy, HDX, Hyper-V, Lync, Microsoft, VDI-in-a-box, VMware, vSphere, Windows Server 2012, XenServer

Citrix have released a new version of the VDI-in-a-box 5.2

Whats new in VDI-in-a-Box 5.2

This release provides support for new Microsoft operating systems and technologies, adds support for new hypervisor versions, and integrates VDI-in-a-Box more closely with other Citrix products. The new features and enhancements include:

  • Support for new hypervisor versions. VDI-in-a-Box now supports Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012, XenServer 6.1, and vSphere 5.1.
  • Citrix Cloud Gateway StoreFront support. StoreFront users can access their VDI-in-a-Box desktops through StoreFront services provided by Cloud Gateway. StoreFront is a unified application and data store that allows Windows, web, SaaS and mobile applications to be aggregated and delivered to any user on any device anywhere. VDI-in-a-Box is now even more accessible on more devices through StoreFront and can be delivered alongside all your other applications. For more details, see Use StoreFront with VDI-in-a-Box.Download StoreFront from the VDI-in-a-Box download page on the Citrix web site.
  • Microsoft Lync support. The Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack for Microsoft Lync offers clear, crisp, high-definition video calls in conjunction with Microsoft Lync. Users can seamlessly participate in audio-video or audio-only calls to and from other HDX RealTime users and other standards-based video desktop and conference room systems. For more details, see Optional components.
  • Image export. Published images can easily be exported for use with Citrix XenDesktop and other purposes on the hypervisor. For more details, see Manage images.
  • Licensing management through a Citrix license server. If you are already using Citrix Licensing, you now have the option to also manage VDI-in-Box licensing through your central license server. For more details, see License VDI-in-a-Box.
  • Multiple data stores. A third data store can be configured. This allows separate storage of personal vDisks (the personalized data and applications used for personal desktops), enabling you to use faster storage for this to optimize performance. For more details, seeStore data in more than one data store.
  • Windows Server 2012 virtual desktops. Support is provided for Windows Server 2012 images as virtual desktops using RDP connection only.
  • Automated desktop agent upgrade. After upgrading VDI-in-a-Box, you can update the desktop agents on your existing images with a single click. For more details, see Migrate from VDI-in-a-Box 5.0.x or 5.1.x to VDI-in-a-Box 5.2.
  • Citrix Desktop Lock. Use the Desktop Lock when users do not need to interact with the local desktop. In this access scenario, the virtual desktop effectively replaces the local one, allowing the user to interact with the virtual desktop as if it is local. This enables you to use workstations as thin clients to connect to VDI-in-a-Box. For more details, see Access VDI-in-a-Box from user devices.Download the Desktop Lock from the VDI-in-a-Box download page on the Citrix web site.

Source

Download Citrix VDI-in-a-box 5.2 here (Require MyCitrix ID)

Documentation of VDI-in-a-box 5.2 (eDocs)

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Citrix Profile Management 4.1.2

Written by Thomas Poppelgaard. Posted in Citrix, Profile Management, VDI-in-a-box, XenApp, XenDesktop

Citrix have released a new version of Citrix Profile Management 4.1.2, if you are using Citrix Profile Management then its might time to update your software because of bellowed fixes.

New Fixes in This Release 4.1.2

  1. This fix corrects an issue that prevents profiles from being deleted when users log off.
  2. The migration of Windows roaming user profiles to Citrix profiles fails for Windows roaming files configured using a GPO.
  3. In certain configurations, after modifying a file on client device A, logging off, and then logging on to client device B, the previous version of the file is deleted from device B without synchronizing the updated version to device B. Only after logging off from device B and then logging back on will the updated file be present on device B.

Source

Download Citrix Profile Management 4.1.2 here (Require MyCitrix ID)

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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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