Summary

This article contains information about Citrix XenDesktop 5 Support Statement for Microsoft KMS and MAK activation with Machine Creation Services (MCS).

Background

XenDesktop 5 introduced a new technology for creating virtual desktops simply and easily for the VDI use case. This is referred to as Machine Creation Services (MCS).

KMS Activation Support

KMS-based Windows 7 activation does not work with MCS by default, but the following workaround has been tested and is fully supported by Citrix.

Citrix have released this Performance Benchmark Report  where Citrix demonstrates how powerfull Citrix Branch Repeater is combined with XenDesktop / XenDesktop.

** Note that the results is made with Branch Repeater v. 5.7 and the current version thats out is v 6.0.5 so with latest Branch Repeater + XenDesktop 5.6 and Receiver 3.2 you should get even better results.
Enjoy /Poppelgaard

Executive Summary

Desktop virtualization has grabbed the attention of the global IT community like never before. Server and desktop virtualization let IT simultaneously offer lower costs and greater access to the employees. The Bring Your Own PC (BYOC) movement, along with technologies such as XenDesktop and XenClient provide an opportunity to use any device – even computers owned by the employee – and work on the corporate desktop from anywhere, anytime.

The convenience and cost benefits of “work-shifting”come with its own set of challenges for corporate IT—two of those being security and user-experience. A significant number of remote users access virtual services from insecure locations, such as coffee-shops, airports, hotels and homes. These internet connections often have lower speeds, higher latency, and packet loss. Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp use the HDX™ technology to ensure high definition user-experience, no matter where the user works.

HDX WAN Optimization powered by Citrix Branch Repeater and HDX SmartAccesspowered by Citrix Access Gateway are integrated into the XenDesktop solution. Using the Repeater plug-in together with the Access Gateway plug-in, mobile users enjoy accelerated, secure remoteaccess to XenDesktop and XenApp. This paper describes the enhanced experience enjoyed with this “turbocharged Citrix” environment.

If you have a PC/notebook that is compatible with XenClient 2 HCL and you are the lucky person with a AMD graphic card, you are now able to enable passthrough the AMD graphic to the virtual machine and delivering “true” 3D graphics.

Summary

This document describes how to install the AMD plugin and ioemu update packages on the AMD Graphics-enabled platforms running XenClient 2.1

Background

XenClient 2.0 and 2.1 supported AMD Radeon™ HD 6470M and the FirePro™ M5950 graphics solutions on several of the Hewlett-Packard platforms listed on the XenClient hardware compatibility list. By installing the AMD plugin and ioemu update packages described in this article, support for these graphics solutions is now also provided for Dell Precision platforms. In addition, some power management issues have also been addressed with these updates.

Requirements

You need a USB drive to perform this upgrade as described. The update packages add up to about 3.5 MB so a small-capacity device will be fine.

If you are still running XenClient 2.0, it is recommended that you upgrade to the latest 2.1 release found on our XenClient download page.Download it now

If you have already created any virtual machines (VMs), please make sure that you have all VMs turned off before installing the packages.

In addition to the two update packages, the source file for the ioemu file is also provided on the download link. The source file is ioemu-src_git-r8017-xc.7430.556.31.5_all.ipk

Procedure

The following steps detail how to install these updates on XenClient for your AMD Graphics-enabled platform.

Figure 2

This will display a list of storage devices on the system. Identify which device ID is assigned to your USB device. In our example it is sdb and the only partition it has is sdb1.

(Note that on your system this might be different depending on what devices might be present. To make sure you select the correct device, look for some information that describes your USB device. In our example we have an 8-GB USB device. In the output of the fdisk command, 8036 MB is a good indicator of that being the USB device.)

mkdir /mnt/usb

After the system reboots, you can enable 3D graphics on the system.

Symptoms

If you do not configure the antivirus software correctly on your computer, the performance of the Agent Database Server might decrease or not function correctly.

Following are the symptoms, which indicate that the antivirus software is interfering with the normal operation of the EdgeSight Agent Database Server:

Cause

The EdgeSight Database Agent Server provides database hosting and log file mirroring for EdgeSight Agent for VDA devices. Each EdgeSight agent for VDA device connects directly to the EdgeSight Agent Database Server for persistent storage. The FB Monitor synchronizes the Agent’s data folder to the shared network. It maintains a copy of the Agent’s data folder.

Most antivirus products are configured to scan all the files on the disk. If an antivirus program scans the continuously active EdgeSight database, it impedes the normal functioning of EdgeSight.

The EdgeSight Agent for VDA or EdgeSight Agent Database Server might become very slow and consume more resources.

The EdgeSight Agent for VDA can also be prevented from initializing due to the Agent’s remote database being scanned or locked by the antivirus software.

This might have a negative impact on the overall performance of the device, which is being monitored.

Resolution

Configure the required antivirus software such as, TrendMicro, Symantec, Norton, or McAfee with specific settings to ensure that the antivirus software does not scan the EdgeSight data folder or processes. Ensure that this configuration is specified for all the devices that are running the EdgeSight agent. You might have to contact the security administration team of your organization to ensure that these exceptions are enforced enterprise-wide.

Use the following procedure to prevent the antivirus software from scanning EdgeSight data folder or processes:

Note: Regardless of whether you are currently experiencing any of the preceding symptoms, Citrix recommends you to complete the following procedure before deploying any EdgeSight Agents.

More Information

Refer to the EdgeSight Installation Guide and the following Knowledge Center articles for more information about antivirus configuration settings:

CTX111062 – Required Antivirus Software Configuration for the EdgeSight Agent

CTX114906 – Required Antivirus Software Configuration for the EdgeSight Server

Overview

XenDesktop offers IT administrators many options in order to implement virtual desktops. These options are tailored to balance flexibility that many demanding end users require with the security and standardization that IT administrators need. Citrix Personal vDisks have been incorporated into XenDesktop 5.6 which can allow even greater flexibility in achieving the goal of providing end-user personalization while maintaining the control of a centrally managed desktop image.

Traditionally, the most impactful enterprise option for virtual desktops involved deploying large numbers of desktops based on a centrally managed master desktop image. These desktops offer excellent density and service levels, however offered limited personalization options to end users. In many enterprises, the desire for complete personalization eclipsed the benefit of a small set of centrally managed desktop images. This led many IT administrators to fall back to providing Dedicated Desktops.

While a Dedicated virtual desktop may meet the needs of demanding end-users, they can present a set of unique challenges to the IT administrators. In large environments, these desktops will need to be administered by an enterprise desktop management tool. These tools, in turn, offer their own level of complexity and overhead that can significantly alter the return on investment of any virtual desktop implementation. Perhaps even more importantly, Dedicated Desktops present a significantly greater initial storage footprint as well as ongoing storage burden to the enterprise. Over time, the cost of shared enterprise storage may even erode the value of consolidation and centralized management.

Recognizing the need for virtual desktops offering comprehensive personalization, yet still preserving the consolidation benefits of Pooled or Streamed desktops, Citrix is introducing Personal vDisk technology into the 5.6 release of XenDesktop. Deployed via an enhanced Virtual Desktop Agent and working with upgraded XenDesktop Controllers, Personal vDisks allow the separation of user configuration and application changes from the base image of the virtual desktop. This allows IT administrators to deploy images based on a centrally managed image that still offers end users the ability to personalize as well as accommodate departmental applications, without resorting to dedicated virtual desktops.

Source

Read the full whitepaper “Citrix Personal vDisk Technology Planning Guide” that Adeel Arshed from Citrix have created.