Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 and Citrix XenApp 7.7

Citrix have released a new version of Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 and XenApp 7.7

My first impressions of this release is, this is the release you should update to if you are running Citrix XenDesktop 7.x, the speed improvements in the GUI is incredible, its snappy realiable and makes you work without waiting it for loading when you click around the catalogs and the delivery groups. The 7.7 release is an important release from Citrix where Citrix is now fully supporting Microsoft Azure, so you can provisioning VDI or XenApp machines on Microsoft Azure with MCS technology. Another long waited feature is “Zones” this feature will be loved by customers that have branch offices where there is a requirement to install local Citrix infrastructure components such as Studio, Director, Site database, Zones was very common used in IMA architecture and now its finally implemented in FMA, great job Citrix. These are just some of the all the new huge improvements and this is the best release of XenApp/XenDesktop. Other new product release that is included in the XenDesktop/XenApp 7.7 media is HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 2.0, License Server 11.13.1, Profile Management 5.4, Citrix Provisioning 7.7, Citrix Receiver 4.4 is not in the iso, but you have to download this seperated, which i highly recommends.

What a great year to finish with and happy updating and I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 & Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 contains following software updates and new features and enhancements, this blog post covers all whats new in the architecture and components. Citrix Provisioning 7.7 is covered in a seperated article here.

Whats new in release 7.7 FMA

This product release includes the following new and enhanced features.

Zones

Deployments that span widely-dispersed locations connected by a WAN can face challenges due to network latency and reliability. Configuring zones can help users in remote regions connect to local resources without forcing connections to traverse large segments of the WAN. Using zones allows effective Site management from a single Citrix Studio console, Citrix Director, and the Site database. This saves the costs of deploying, staffing, licensing, and maintaining additional Sites containing separate databases in remote locations.

Zones can be helpful in deployments of all sizes. You can use zones to keep applications and desktops closer to end users, which improves performance.

For more information, see the Zones article.

Improved database flow and configuration

When you configure the databases during Site creation, you can now specify separate locations for the Site, Logging, and Monitoring databases. Later, you can specify different locations for all three databases. In previous releases, all three databases were created at the same address, and you could not specify a different address for the Site database later.

You can now add more Delivery Controllers when you create a Site, as well as later. In previous releases, you could add more Controllers only after you created the Site.

For more information, see the Databases and Controllers articles.

Application limits

Configure application limits to help manage application use. For example, you can use application limits to manage the number of users accessing an application simultaneously. Similarly, application limits can be used to manage the number of simultaneous instances of resource-intensive applications, this can help maintain server performance and prevent deterioration in service.

For more information, see the Manage applications article.

Multiple notifications before machine updates or scheduled restarts

You can now choose to repeat a notification message that is sent to affected machines before the following types of actions begin:

Updating machines in a Machine Catalog using a new master image

Restarting machines in a Delivery Group according to a configured schedule

If you indicate that the first message should be sent to each affected machine 15 minutes before the update or restart begins, you can also specify that the message be repeated every five minutes until the update/restart begins.

For more information, see the Manage Machine Catalogs and Manage machines in Delivery Groups articles.

API support for managing session roaming

By default, sessions roam between client devices with the user. When the user launches a session and then moves to another device, the same session is used and applications are available on both devices. The applications follow, regardless of the device or whether current sessions exist. Similarly, printers and other resources assigned to the application follow.

You can now use the PowerShell SDK to tailor session roaming. This was an experimental feature in the previous release.

For more information, see the Sessions article.

API support for provisioning VMs from hypervisor templates

When using the PowerShell SDK to create or update a Machine Catalog, you can now select a template from other hypervisor connections. This is in addition to the currently-available choices of VM images and snapshots.

Support for new and additional platforms

See the System requirements article for full support information. Information about support for third-party product versions is updated periodically.

By default, SQL Server 2012 Express SP2 is installed when you install the Delivery Controller. SP1 is no longer installed.

The component installers now automatically deploy 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 runtimes, as well as 2008 and 2010 runtimes. Visual C++ 2005 is no longer deployed.

You can install Studio or VDAs for Windows Desktop OS on machines running Windows 10.

You can create connections to Microsoft Azure virtualization resources.

The product ISO no longer includes versions of the Citrix Receiver for Mac and the Citrix Receiver for Linux. You (or your users) can download and install the Citrix Receivers from the Citrix website. Alternatively, you can make those Citrix Receivers available from your StoreFront server (see the Make Citrix Receiver installation files available on the server section in the StoreFront 3.0.x documentation, or the equivalent documentation for the StoreFront version you are using).

Whats new in Citrix Director 7.7

The Citrix Director version provided with this release contains the following new and enhanced features:

Proactive monitoring and alerting

You can now configure proactive alerting and notifications when thresholds are reached. This enables quicker responses even when you are not viewing the monitoring console.

For more information, see Alerts and notifications.

SCOM integration

Deployments that use Microsoft System Center 2012 – Operations Manager to monitor deployments can now view alerts provided by the Operations Manager on the Dashboard and in other high level views in Citrix Director. For example, if connections to supported hypervisors fail, the administrator can check Citrix Director for Operations Manager alerts. After reviewing alert details in Citrix Director, the administrator can then switch to the Operations Manager console for additional troubleshooting, if needed.

For more information, see SCOM alerts.

Windows Authentication

Citrix Director now supports Integrated Windows Authentication. For single sign-on, a user’s Windows credentials are automatically used to access Citrix Director. This support allows users to log on to their machines using any credential provider and supporting hardware, and use that logged-on identity to access Citrix Director.

For more information, see Use Citrix Director with Integrated Windows Authentication.

Desktop and Server OS usage

The Trends view now shows the usage of Desktop OS by Site and by Delivery group, and it shows the usage of Server OS by site, by Delivery group, and by Machine. This gives you a real-time view of your OS usage, enabling you to quickly assess your site’s capacity needs.

For more information, see Monitor historical trends across a Site.

Application limits in Citrix Director

Application limits configured in Studio are shown in existing views and counts in Citrix Director. For example, the User Connection Failures on the Dashboard will indicate when a connection attempt fails because it would exceed an application limit.

For more information, see Application limits.

What’s new in HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 2.0

Citrix Licensing Manager – Enables downloading and allocation of license files from the License Server on which the Citrix Licensing Manager is installed. You can specify a date range for the historical usage and export it to a CSV file. The CSV file provides daily usage information including the number of licenses in overdraft. License Server VPX does not support the Citrix Licensing Manager.

Simple License Service is replaced – The Citrix Licensing Manager replaces the Simple License Service web UI.
Partial allocation of licenses – When using the Citrix Licensing Manager to download your licenses, you can specify how many licenses to download for a product. Previously, the Simple License Service allowed only a complete download of licenses for a product.
Citrix Licensing Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) and Call Home support for License Server VPX – Voluntary data collection programs in which Citrix products gather anonymous or identified configuration, performance, error, and usage data from your deployment and automatically send the data to Citrix. For more information, see “Citrix Licensing Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) and Call Home” in Technical overview.
License Administration Console defaults to Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure – When the License Administration Console installs, it defaults to https

What’s New in Profile Management 5.4

When upgrading Profile management, the installer removes the old version along with the WMI Provider, and then installs the new version. If you perform the upgrade after separating the two components, the WMI Provider is not upgraded. In this case, install it separately to ensure the two components remain compatible with each other and your VDAs. You must provide the standalone WMI MSI file or installer for Versions 7.5 and 7.6 of the VDA so that the correct version of the WMI Provider installs after upgrading Profile management.

If you upgrade to Profile management 5.4 on a VDA earlier than version 7.7, use profilemgt_x64/x86.msi to do so. If you upgrade on a Version 7.7 VDA, Profile management 5.4 and WMI Provider 5.4 are automatically installed (by profilemgt_x64/x86.msi and UpmVDAPlugin_x64/x86.msi).

Source

Download Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 here (Require MyCitrix ID)

Download Citrix XenApp 7.7 here (Require MyCitrix ID)

Download Citrix Profile Management 5.4 here

Download Citrix HDX Optimization Pack 2.0 here

Download Citrix License Server 11.13.1 here (For Windows or VPX appliance)

Download Citrix Windows Receiver 4.4 here

Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 1.4 for Microsoft Lync 2010

Citrix have released a new version of Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 1.4 for Microsoft Lync 2010.

Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack for Microsoft Lync version 2010 provides a highly scalable solution for delivering real-time audio-video conferencing and VoIP enterprise telephony through Microsoft Lync in XenDesktop, XenApp, and VDI-in-a-Box environments. HDX RealTime Optimization Pack leverages your existing Microsoft Lync infrastructure and inter-operates with other Microsoft® Lync® endpoints running natively on devices.

HDX RealTime Optimization Pack consists of both client and server components:

The client component, called Citrix HDX RealTime Media Engine, is integrated with the Citrix Receiver on the endpoint device and performs all signaling and media processing directly on the user device itself, offloading the server for maximum scalability, minimizing network bandwidth consumption and ensuring optimal audio-video quality.
The server-side (and virtual desktop) component, Citrix HDX RealTime Connector, is a connector to the Microsoft® Lync® client that drives the RealTime Media Engine on the endpoint. The RealTime Connector runs in the virtual server environment alongside Microsoft® Lync® and communicates signaling information over a Citrix ICA virtual channel to the RealTime Media Engine running on the user device.

What’s new in 1.4

Citrix added support for the Meet Now feature of Microsoft Lync. Your users can join a meeting through optimized voice and video or by phone.
Citrix added support for LogiTech C920 carmeras for Windows and Linux Ubuntu desktops and HP ThinOS on HP terminals.When using a LogiTech C920 camera with the Optimization Pack, the CPU on the terminal sending the video doesn’t limit the video resolution of the camera. The terminal can send up to HD (720P) video to the other parties in the call (depending on the codec used in the call, the processor speed of the recipient, and the network restrictions set by the Lync administrator).

Source

Download Citrix Optimization Pack 1.4 for Microsoft Lync 2010 here (Require MyCitrix ID)

Citrix Optimization Pack 1.3 for Microsoft Lync 2010

Citrix have released a new version of Optimization Pack 1.3 for Microsoft Lync 2010

Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack for Microsoft Lync version 2010 provides a highly scalable solution for delivering real-time audio-video conferencing and VoIP enterprise telephony through Microsoft Lync in XenDesktop, XenApp, and VDI-in-a-Box environments. HDX RealTime Optimization Pack leverages your existing Microsoft® Lync infrastructure and inter-operates with other Microsoft® Lync® endpoints running natively on devices.

HDX RealTime Optimization Pack consists of both client and server components:

The client component, called Citrix HDX RealTime Media Engine, is integrated with the Citrix Receiver on the endpoint device and performs all signaling and media processing directly on the user device itself, offloading the server for maximum scalability, minimizing network bandwidth consumption and ensuring optimal audio-video quality.
The server-side (and virtual desktop) component, Citrix HDX RealTime Connector, is a connector to the Microsoft® Lync® client that drives the RealTime Media Engine on the endpoint. The RealTime Connector runs in the virtual server environment alongside Microsoft® Lync® and communicates signaling information over a Citrix ICA virtual channel to the RealTime Media Engine running on the user device.

What’s new in Optimization Pack 1.3 for MS Lync 2010

We’ve added two authentication methods: TLS-DSK and Kerberos.
We’ve simplified logon so your users aren’t prompted for credentials as often.
We’ve added menu options to Microsoft Outlook and as Smart Tags in other Microsoft Office applications:
- Start a Call
- Start a Video Call
- Select a Number
For more information about Smart Tags in Office applications, see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306422.

Fixed issues

You can now run the Citrix HDX RealTime Connector with Remote PC Access on a 64-bit machine. [#16345]
When you log on, the User Name field is now blank and you no longer see the SIP Address of Record (AOR) populated in that field. [#16219]
During logon, you are not prompted for credentials by the Citrix HDX RealTime Connector because Single Sign-On (SSO) is implemented in most cases. [#16198]
During logon, the Citrix HDX RealTime Connector implements Single Sign-on when you use the domain-name\user-name format for User Name in Lync and select Save Password. [#16054]
We’ve optimized LyncMonitor.exe in Citrix HDX RealTime Connector to use less CPU, so you can be more flexible with your XenApp deployments. [#15966]
When the Citrix RealTime Media Engine is accessing devices on a terminal configured for the Norwegian language, the RealTime Media Engine can now use the devices. [#15751]
The Save password functionality has been fixed. [#15712, #150]
You can now see the entire People Options button in the Group Conversation) window. [#15658, #15313, #132]
For the Citrix RealTime Media Engine, the Citrix Merchandising Server and StoreFront MetaData file is now called CitrixHDXRealTimeMediaEngineMetadata.xml. [#15348]
For the Simplified Chinese version of the Citrix HDX RealTime Connector, you can now access the correct Help page. [#15312, #132]
For the Citrix HDX RealTime Connector, you can now restart the video with the Start My Video button when the video is stopped during an ad-hoc conference call. [#15308]
For the Citrix HDX RealTime Connector, you can add an additional user to the call with the Add User button. This button was previously occasionally unavailable. [#15268, #136]
For the RealTime Connector and the RealTime Media Engine, the Media Engine successfully registers when set to automatic configuration. The registration also succeeds when the domain of the user’s SIP Address of Record is different from the primary domain served by the Citrix HDX RealTime Connector. [#14986, #124]
For the RealTime Connector and the RealTime Media Engine, the Media Engine successfully logs on if NTLM in Lync is disabled because the TLS-DSK and Kerberos authentication methods are now available. [#14298]

Source

Download Citrix Optimization Pack 1.3 for Microsoft Lync here (Require MyCitrix ID)

Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 1.2 for Microsoft Lync

I have been looking for this release for a while and couldn’t find the HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 1.2 for Microsoft Lync.

Its available now for download at Citrix, lets digg in, whats new in this release.

About HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 1.2

HDX RealTime Optimization Pack provides a highly scalable solution for delivering real-time audio-video conferencing and USB or VoIP enterprise telephony through Microsoft® Lync® in XenDesktop, XenApp, and VDI-in-a-Box environments. HDX RealTime Optimization Pack leverages your existing Lync infrastructure and inter-operates with other Lync endpoints running natively on devices.

HDX RealTime Optimization Pack consists of both client and server components:

The client component, called Citrix HDX RealTime Media Engine, is integrated with the Citrix Receiver on the endpoint device and performs all signaling and media processing directly on the user device itself, offloading the server for maximum scalability, minimizing network bandwidth consumption and ensuring optimal audio-video quality.
The server-side (and virtual desktop) component, Citrix HDX RealTime Connector, is a connector to the Microsoft Lync client that drives the RealTime Media Engine on the endpoint. Connector runs in the virtual server environment alongside Microsoft Lync and communicates signaling information over a Citrix ICA virtual channel to the RealTime Media Engine running on the user device.

What’s new in 1.2

MacOS support for HDX RealTime Media Engine
Windows 8 support

Fixed issues in 1.2

When using RealTime Media Engine for Mac, sometimes the video window displays as a white window for a user who left a Lync conference call after being in the call for 15-20 seconds. The workaround is to close the window. [#14619]
Sometimes the participant list displayed in multi-party calls can exclude newly added participants for some users in the conference call. [#14586, #14576]
In certain situations PIP displays a black square instead of the local video view when RealTime Media Engine is running on Ubuntu terminals. Toggle PIP. [#62]
If an administrator installs RealTime Connector for a user, the first time the user right-clicks, menu items are sometimes displayed in English instead of the local language. Instruct your users to exit and restart Lync. After restarting Lync, right-click menus appear in the local language.
RealTime Connector is loaded in Fallback mode the first time after installation. The workaround for this is to restart Lync and the software will then work in optimized mode.

License requirements:

“A good friend of mine asked for which licenses the Optimization Pack is available for XenApp & XenDesktop, so I want to share this with you all.”

Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack is a part of following XenDesktop license:

Citrix XenDesktop VDI, Enterprise, Platinum license.

http://www.citrix.com/products/xendesktop/features/editions.html
The features is called Unified communications for XenDesktop

Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack is a part of following XenApp license:

Citrix XenApp Fundamentals, Advanced, Enterprise & Platinum license.

http://www.citrix.com/products/xenapp/features/editions.html
The feature is called HDX RealTime for XenApp

Source

Download Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 1.2 for Microsoft Lync here (Require MyCitrix ID)

Citrix VDI-in-a-box 5.2

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)