HPE Moonshot have been around for some time now, and I have been very lucky working together with HPE and testing their server cartridges that are compatible with Citrix solutions. Last year, at HPE Discover in London, I wrote an article about how Citrix internally are using HPE moonshot and which server cartridges were available at that time and how financial customers are benefiting from these solutions.
Citrix have released a new version of Citrix XenDesktop 7.11 and XenApp 7.11 and is now available for download.
Citrix raises the bar of for user experience and new product release of following technologies
This release is an important release no matter if you are working daily with Office application such as Excel, Word or Browsers and even highend applications such as CAD. The features in 7.11 have important improved user experience from the VDA to the Receiver that improves dramtically the user experience. NVIDIA NVENC technology is now part of VDA and supports even multiple monitors. The admin can now monitor RTT within Director this feature have been something I have asked for very long time and now finally its in the product, customer will love this new feature so its fast to see where the issue is in a infrastructure with which users that have latency issues. Version 7.11 is the release that fully supports Microsoft Windows Server 2016 that is soon GA, this means you can install Delivery components on Windows Server 2016, VDA on Server 2016, use Azure N-series with support for Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V Discrete Device Assignment (DDA) or you can use it onpremises with Hyper-V. Support for UWP is HUGE and I am very excited about this technology and this also used in Microsoft Hololens so cant wait to a Receiver for hololens so you can publish UWP apps to Hololens 😉 Imagine that. I can keep going on with all these new features lets dig in below and learn whats new, its incredible that Citrix raises the bar and comes with huge improvements and they this each 3 months 🙂 yes each 3months, you read it correct. If you dont have a plan for this in your company I highly recommend you build a strategy on how you upgrade you Citrix environment frequently to get these awesome new features.
Earlier this year I have seen several customers having issues with AutoCAD in Citrix not defaulting to the primary display adapter, so the GPU wouldn be fully functioning and Autodesk AutoCAD 2016/2017 would turn off hardware acceleration. This issue have been seen on NVIDIA Gpus such as GRID, NVIDIA also have a official KB on this http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4092/ and issue is also seen with INTEL gpu such as Iris Pro Graphics more specific on solutions with HPE Moonshot 710p and 710x.
Issue is identified on both Citrix XenApp 7.x (Windows Server OSs) and Citrix XenDesktop 7.x (Workstation OSs)
“The primary display adapter is not shown as the default in a Citrix environment.”
I am happy to share that Autodesk have finally fixed this “bug” with Citrix and now the GPUs will work correctly with Autodesk AutoCAD 2016 and Autodesk AutoCAD 2017 when you apply below hot fix for the product you have.
This hotfix for citrix applies to the following releases with the AutoCAD 2016 Service Pack 1 already installed:
this hotfix for citrix applies to the following release:
Apply this Service Pack to the following Autodesk products running on all supported operating systems and languages. Be sure to install the correct Service Pack.
This Service Pack can be applied to AutoCAD 2017 installed as a standalone application, AutoCAD-based Vertical products, and the Autodesk Design Suites listed below.
AutoCAD and Verticals Products:
Autodesk Design Suites:
Display
Open and Save
PDF Import
Xref
General
Download the Autodesk AutoCAD 2017 Service Pack 1 here
Download Accumulated hotfix 4 for AutoCAD 2016 based products here
Hi All
Its time to update your NVIDIA GRID K1, K2, M6, M60 environment.
NVIDIA have released new drivers that supports Windows 10 + fix several bugs.
If you want to test Server 2016 then the new Windows 10 drivers works, I have just tried and they work but they are not “certified” so test this with your own risk, please. Always test this in a test environment and this is not for production environments, unless you want to be early innovators 😉
#HINT – Windows 10 is not supported on Citrix XenServer 6.2 only on Citrix XenServer 6.5.
## HINT – Linux drivers are only available with Tesla M6, M60.
NVIDIA have released a new version of vGPU 352.83-354.80 for NVIDIA GRID 1.0 (K1, K2) GRID 2.0 Tesla M6 and Tesla M60 platform.
Included in this release is
Important:
The GRID vGPU Manager and Windows guest VM drivers must be installed together. Older VM drivers will not function correctly with this release of GRID vGPU Manager. Similarly, older GRID vGPU Managers will not function correctly with this release of Windows guest drivers
If you have a NVIDIA GRID K1, K2 vGPU GRID manager installed in Citrix XenServer. Upgrade with below methodology:
Upgrading an existing installation of the NVIDIA driver on Citrix XenServer 6.2, use the rpm -U command to upgrade:
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-6.2-352.83.i386.rpm Preparing packages for installation...
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-6.2-352.83.i386.rpm Preparing packages for installation...
The recommendation from NVIDIA is to shutdown all VMs using a GPU. The machine does continue to work during the update, but since you need to reboot the XenServer itself, it’s better to gracefully shutdown the VMs. So after your VMs have been shutdown and you upgraded the NVIDIA driver, you can reboot your host.
[root@localhost ~]# xe host-disable [root@localhost ~]# xe host-reboot
run lsmod | grep nvidia
Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:
Check driver version is 352.83, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.
If you have a NVIDIA GRID K1, K2, M6, M60 vGPU GRID manager installed in Citrix XenServer. Upgrade with one of below methodology:
Upgrading an existing installation of the NVIDIA driver on Citrix XenServer 6.5, use the rpm -U command to upgrade:
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-6.5-352.83.x86_64.rpm Preparing packages for installation...
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-6.5-352.83.x86_64.rpm Preparing packages for installation...
The recommendation from NVIDIA is to shutdown all VMs using a GPU. The machine does continue to work during the update, but since you need to reboot the XenServer itself, it’s better to gracefully shutdown the VMs. So after your VMs have been shutdown and you upgraded the NVIDIA driver, you can reboot your host.
[root@localhost ~]# xe host-disable [root@localhost ~]# xe host-reboot
Select Install Update… from the Tools menu
Click Next after going through the instructions on the Before You Start section
Click Add on the Select Update section and open NVIDIA’s XenServer Supplemental Pack ISO
“NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-6.5-352.83.x86_64-supplemental-pack.tar.bz2 ”
“NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-6.5-352.83.x86_64-supplemental-pack.tar.bz2 ”
Click Next on the Select Update section
In the Select Servers section select all the XenServer hosts on which the Supplemental Pack should be installed on and click Next
Click Next on the Upload section once the Supplemental Pack has been uploaded to all the XenServer hosts
Getting Started
Click Next on the Prechecks section
Click Install Update on the Update Mode section
Click Finish on the Install Update section
After the XenServer platform has rebooted, verify that the GRID package installed and loaded correctly by checking for the NVIDIA kernel driver in the list of kernel loaded modules.
run lsmod | grep nvidia
Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:
Check driver version is 352.83, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.
To update the NVIDIA GPU VIB, you must uninstall the currently installed VIB and install the new VIB.
To uninstall the currently installed VIB:
xorg service by running the command:/etc/init.d/xorg stopvmkload_mod -u nvidiaesxcli software vib remove -n nameofNVIDIAVIBYou can now install a new NVIDIA GPU VIB[root@lesxi ~] esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-VMware_ESXi_6.0_Host_Driver_352.83-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585.vib
[root@lesxi ~] esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-VMware_ESXi_6.0_Host_Driver_352.83-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585.vib
After the ESXi host has rebooted, verify that the GRID package installed and loaded correctly by checking for the NVIDIA kernel driver in the list of kernel loaded modules.
[root@lesxi ~]# vmkload_mod -l | grep nvidia Preparing packages for installation...
run nvidia-smi
Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:
Check driver version is 352.83, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.
When the hypervisor vGPU GRID manager is updated next is updating the Virtual Machines vGPU.
Update your Golden Images and reprovisioning the new virtual machines with updated vGPU drivers, if you have stateless machines update vGPU drivers on each.
#HINT – Express upgrade of drivers is the recommended option according to the setup. If you use the “Custom” option, you will have the option to do a “clean” installation. The downside of the “clean installation” is that it will remove all profiles and custom settings. The pro of using the clean installation option is that it will reinstall the complete driver, meaning that there will be no old driver files left on the system. I most of the time recommends using a “Clean” installation to keep it vanilla 🙂
#1 Linux driver is not available with Citrix XenServer 6.2 or 6.5 and ESX for K1/K2. This is only available with GRID vGPU for M60
GRID vGPU with Linux guest VMs is supported on Tesla M60 and M6, with the following distributions:
Download vGPU 352.83-354.80 for XenServer 6.2 for GRID K1 / K2 her
Download vGPU 352.83-354.80 for XenServer 6.5 for GRID K1 / K2 her
Download vGPU 352.83-354.80 for vSphere 6 for GRID K1 / K2 here
vGPU Grid Manager + Drivers are only available to customers and NVIDIA NPN partners.
Download if you are a NPN partner
Download if you are a GRID 2.0 customer
vGPU 352.83-354.80 for XenServer 6.2 for Tesla M6 / M60
vGPU 352.83-354.80 for XenServer 6.5 for Tesla M6 / M60
vGPU 352.83-354.80 for vSphere 6 for Tesla M6 / M60
For more information about the update from NVIDIA GRID – vGPU 352.83-354.80 contact me.
Citrix technology professional – CTP, and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional MVP, Thomas Poppelgaard provides professional services. Write to me on my email thomas@poppelgaard.com or call on my cell +45 53540356
Citrix have released a new version of Citrix XenDesktop 7.8 and XenApp 7.8 and is now available for download.
Citrix raises the bar of for user experience and new product release for Storefront 3.5, Provisioning Services 7.8, Citrix Receiver 12.1.10 for Mac (OSX), License Server 11.13.1.2 for Windows, XenApp Secure Browser Deployment Kit, AppDNA 7.8, Session Recording 7.8.
This is WILD Citrix released 7.7 in 30th December 2015 with so many features and already two months after we got a major release out.. If you havent upgraded your 7.x environment 7.8 is worth a try.
HINT! – Remember first thing you do is downloading the new version of Citrix License Server 11.13.1.2 cause this is a requirement for below products to work.
The product release includes the following new and enhanced features.
Version 7.8 of the VDA for Server OS and the VDA for Desktop OS include the following enhancements:
Framehawk. Opens UDP ports 3224-3324. Framehawk uses a bidirectional UDP port range (default is 3224-3324) to exchange Framehawk display channel data with Citrix Receiver. For more information, see Framehawk virtual channel.
Citrix App-V Publishing Components. Installs components required if you will use applications from Microsoft App-V packages. For more information, see App-V.
The following new and enhanced HDX technologies features are included in the VDAs:
AppDNA 7.8 includes the following enhancements:
The folllowing new features are available with Provisioning Services 7.8:
System Center Virtual Machine Manager Generation 2 VMs can be provisioned through Provisioning Services. Generation 2 VMs are optimized for modern workloads, that is, the operating system does not carry the overhead of legacy drivers, devices and x86 architectures.
How does it work?
Virtual machine (VM) generation determines the virtual hardware and functionality available to the VM. Within a Hyper-V environment, there are two types of supported VMs: generation 1 and generation 2. Generation 2 VMs possess a simplified virtual hardware model, and support Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware rather than BIOS-based firmware.
In previous versions of Hyper-V, only Generation 1 VMs were supported. With the introduction of Windows Server 2012 R2, there are two generations of VMs to choose from when you create a VM. With Generation 2 VMs,the following functionality was introduced:
This release of Provisioning Services provides continued hardening for UEFI support. UEFI represents a standard firmware interface for PCs, and is designed to replace BIOS (basic input/output system). With these enhancements, Citirx Provisioning Services provides:
StoreFront includes the following new features and enhancements.
Updated StoreFront management console – The StoreFront management console contains a significant number of changes, which enable:
New administration PowerShell SDK:
The existing cmdlets prefixed with DS are deprecated. They are still available and supported in StoreFront 3.5 to enable a gradual transition to the new SDK.
Configuration export and import:
You can export the entire configuration of a StoreFront deployment. You can import the exported configuration to a deployment with the same StoreFront version for restoration or replication.
Self-service password reset (SSPR):
Users can unlock their Active Directory accounts or reset their passwords using StoreFront. This requires XenApp 6.5.
Zone-based optimal gateway routing:
XenApp 7.7 and 7.8 and XenDesktop 7.7 and 7.8 support applications or desktops from different zones in a single site. You can configure a different NetScaler Gateway for HDX connections to applications or desktops from a different zone.
Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) powered zone preference:
You can configure GSLB in NetScaler 11.0-65.x and above to supply zone preference information to StoreFront. Along with this feature, you can configure StoreFront to direct the startrequests to the most preferred XenApp or XenDesktop farms or sites for the user location.
Background Server Health Check:
StoreFront runs periodic health checks on each Citrix XenDesktop 7.8 and Citrix XenApp 7.8 broker to reduce the impact of intermittent server availability. You can control the frequency of the health check.
TLS 1.2 support
This StoreFront release supports TLS 1.2.
Download Citrix XenDesktop 7.8 and Citrix XenApp 7.8 here and all the above medias included in the product release. (requires MyCitrix ID)