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Citrix Merchandising Server 2.2

Citrix have released a new version of Merchandising Server to XenServer and VmWare

What’s New

Merchandising Server 2.2 provides the following enhancements:

  • Support for 2048-bit or greater key size SSL certificates.
  • Support for Citrix Receiver on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
  • Support for LDAPS.
  • Increased security. Merchandising Server now uses Apache Tomcat 6.0.32, Apache HTTP Server 2.2.17, and OpenSSL 1.0.0d.

XenDesktop 5.5 and vSphere 5.0 Architecture Overview

Citrix Consulting have created this great whitepaper on which design considerations when you are designing a high-level architecture of a Xendesktop 5.5 and vSphere 5 solution.

Introduction

Many organizations are looking for a better way to manage and deliver desktops to their end-users, and increasingly look to desktop virtualization as an alternative to traditional desktop deployment. When designing a desktop virtualization solution, IT organizations need to decide how to create an infrastructure pairing hypervisor technology with desktop delivery technology. With the release of XenDesktop 5.5 and VMware vSphere 5, Citrix Consulting Solutions is providing a first look at the high-level architecture of a XenDesktop 5.5 and vSphere 5 solution by showing how the two components fit together to create a desktop delivery solution that provides end users with key functionality such as:

  • Through Citrix Receiver, IT organizations are able to provide users with access to their virtual desktop environment from any client, including Windows, Mac and Linux workstations and the latest iOS, Android, RIM and webOS tablets and smartphones.
  • Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 release, including XenApp 6.5 provides the virtual desktop users with the best-in-class user experience through Citrix HDX technologies. Including over 150 new HDX features, Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 delivers high performance personal desktops and applications with all the flexibility, performance and user experience of a PC even over challenging network conditions.

Download XenDesktop 5.5 and vSphere 5.0 Architecture Overview whitepaper here

Citrix Branch Repeater 6.0

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

Design Considerations for Virtualizing Provisioning Services

Introduction

Today, IT architects strive to virtualize most server workloads in the datacenter. When designing a virtual desktop solution with Citrix XenDesktop or Citrix XenApp, there are conflicting schools of thought with regard to implementing Citrix Provisioning Services as virtual servers. As architects begin to standardize on a virtualized platform, the imminent question that always appears to arise is ‘Should Citrix Provisioning Services be installed on a Physical or Virtual Server?’ In the past, it was always considered a best practice to have Citrix Provisioning Services installed on a physical server. Now with advances in virtualization technology, there are several options available that make virtualizing Provisioning Services a reality in the enterprise.

Citrix Consulting Solutions has been involved in multiple scenarios where Provisioning Services was successfully virtualized within XenDesktop and XenApp environments on all three major hypervisors (Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware vSphere). The most notable reference of these successful implementations was accomplished in partnership with Cisco and is documented within the Cisco Validated Design documents. In each circumstance, the Provisioning Services virtual server was designed to ensure that it was adequately able to handle the assigned workload and ensure that the virtual Provisioning Services server was not the major restricting factor within the environment.1

Based on the experience of the Citrix Consulting Solutions team, this document provides detailed design considerations for virtualizing Provisioning Services such as:

  • Ensure that the hypervisor host is able to distribute processing power across multiple CPUs.
  • A 10Gbps network is the most conducive environment for virtualizing Provisioning Services and the respective Provisioning Services network traffic.
  • If a 10Gbps network is not available, consider link aggregation at the hypervisor level to provide more available bandwidth for the virtual Provisioning Services machine.
  • Consider utilizing SR-IOV or Pass-Through to minimize the virtualization overhead associated with network intensive virtual machines, such as Provisioning Services.
  • Always configure Provisioning Services in a high-availability configuration with multiple virtual machines distributed across different hypervisor hosts.
  • Virtualize Provisioning Services on an x64 version of Windows to take advantages of Windows System Cache.

In summary, Provisioning Services workloads can and have been successfully virtualized in both XenDesktop and XenApp deployments if the design considerations outlined in this document are thoroughly evaluated.

download the full whitepaper – Design Considerations for Virtualizing Provisioning Services here