This product release includes the following new, modified, and enhanced features.

Note:

New product names and version numbers were introduced in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1808. That information is retained in this article for reference. For more information, see New product names at the end of this article.

Delivery Groups: New Studio interface for creating machine restart schedules

In earlier releases, you used Studio to create a restart schedule for machines in a Delivery Group. To create multiple schedules, you used PowerShell cmdlets. Now, the updated Studio interface enables you to create and manage one or more restart schedules. For details, see Create and manage restart schedules for machines in a Delivery Group.

Citrix Scout: AOT traces on network shares

In earlier releases, Always On Tracking (AOT) traces that were saved to network shares were not included in collected diagnostics. Now, those traces are included. For details, see Citrix Scout.

Machine catalogs: New functional level

A new machine catalog functional level has been added. The default remains 7.9 (or newer). Keep that default, unless all of the VDAs in the catalog are version 1811 or later supported versions. For more information, see VDA versions and functional levels.

Machine Creation Services (MCS) provisioning to AWS dedicated hosts

This release adds support for Machine Creation Services (MCS) provisioning to AWS dedicated hosts. An administrator can create a catalog of machines with host tenancy defined through PowerShell. See AWS host tenancy support.

Support for AWS IAM roles

Citrix Studio supports the ability to configure an AWS Hosting Connection to use IAM roles by specifying role_base_auth in place of Access Key and Secret Key. An IAM Role defining the policy and permissions required by Citrix should be attached to AWS hosted Delivery Controllers or Cloud Connectors instances.

Citrix Director 1811

Logon Performance – Profile Drilldown

The Logon Duration panel in the User Details pages now includes information on the Profile load phase drill down of the logon process. Profile Drilldown provides useful information about user profiles for the current session that can help administrators troubleshoot high profile load issues. A tool tip with the following user profiles information is displayed:

• Number of files
• Profile size
• Number of large files

A detailed drill down provides information about the individual folders, their size, and the number of files. This feature is available on Delivery Controller version 7 1811 or later and VDAs 1811 or later. For more information, see Diagnose user logon issues.

Microsoft RDS license health

Director now displays the Microsoft RDS (Remote Desktop Services) license status on the Machine Details panel in the Machine Details and the User Details page for Server OS machines. An appropriate message is displayed for the license status. You can hover over the info icon to see further details. For more information, see the Microsoft RDS license health section in Troubleshooting Machines.

Hypervisor alerts monitoring

Director now displays alerts to monitor hypervisor health. Alerts from Citrix Hypervisor and VMware vSphere are supported. Hypervisor alerts help monitor the following states/parameters:

• CPU usage
• Memory usage
• Network usage
• Hypervisor connection unavailable
• Disk usage (vSphere only)
• Host connection or power state (vSphere only)

Hypervisor alerts monitoring is available for Platinum licensed Sites. This feature requires Delivery Controller version 7 1811 or later. If you are using an older version of Director with the latest version of the Site, only the hypervisor alert count is displayed. To view the alerts, upgrade Director. For more information, see the Hypervisor alerts monitoring section in Alerts and Notifications.

Key RTOP Data display

Director now displays key RTOP (RealTime Optimization Pack) 2.6 data in the HDX panel of the User Details page. This helps monitor the following status of the RTOP pack for each user:

• Status (optimized, fallback)
• RTC version
• RTME version on user device
• Packet loss metrics

Application Probing access through Citrix Gateway

You can now use Director’s Application probing feature to probe Citrix Virtual Apps from anywhere. You can use this flexibility to run the Citrix Application Probe Agent on end point machines that are hosted in a different network. You can access the Site you want to probe through the Citrix Gateway. To do this, while configuring the Citrix Application Probe Agent, type the Citrix Gateway URL in the StoreFront URL field. Citrix Gateway automatically routes the request to the corresponding Site StoreFront URL. This feature is available for Citrix Gateway version 12.1 or later, and Delivery Controller(s) 1811 or later. For more information about Application probing setup, see Application probing.

Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) 1811 for ServerOS and ClientOS

Version 1811 of the VDA for Windows Server OS and the VDA for Windows Desktop OS includes the following enhancements (in addition to the VDA installation and upgrade items listed above):

Display graphics mode indicator

The Display graphics mode indicator policy has been updated to replace the display lossless indicator policy.

This setting configures the graphics mode indicator to run in the user session. It allows you to see details about the graphics mode in use, including graphics provider, encoder, hardware encoding, image quality, progressive display status, and lossless text.

By default, the Display graphics mode indicator policy is disabled. It replaces the Display lossless indicator policy of earlier releases, which was enabled by default.

For more information, see Display graphics mode indicator.

DPI matching on Windows 10

DPI matching allows the Windows 10 desktop session to match the DPI of the endpoint when using Citrix Workspace app for Windows.

Note:

This setting is off by default. DPI matching is enabled whenever the DPI scaling setting is set to No. When using VM hosted apps, the DPI is set to 100% by default.

Client drive mapping performance improvements

Client drive mapping now supports the transfer of data from the host to the client as a stream. This enhancement ensures that the file transfer adapts to the changing network throughput conditions. It also uses any available extra bandwidth to scale up the data transfer rate. By default, this feature is enabled. These improvements require Citrix Workspace app for Windows 1811 or later.

To disable this feature, set the following registry key and then restart the server:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Currentcontrolset\services\picadm\Parameters

Name: DisableFullStreamWrite

Type: REG_DWORD

Value:

0x01 – disables

0 or delete- enables

HDX adaptive throughput

HDX adaptive throughput intelligently fine-tunes the peak throughput of the ICA session by adjusting output buffers. The number of output buffers is initially set at a high value. This high value allows data to be transmitted to the client more quickly and efficiently, especially in high latency networks. Providing better interactivity, faster file transfers, smoother video playback, higher framerate and resolution results in an enhanced user experience.

Session interactivity is constantly measured to determine whether any data streams within the ICA session are adversely affecting interactivity. If that occurs, the throughput is decreased to reduce the impact of the large data stream on the session and allow interactivity to recover.

This feature is supported only on Citrix Workspace app 1811 for Windows or later.

Important:

HDX adaptive throughput changes the way that output buffers are set by moving this mechanism from the client to the VDA. Therefore, adjusting the number of output buffers on the client as described in Knowledge Base article CTX125027 has no effect.

Citrix also tested file transfer performance under the same network conditions by copying a 400 MB compressed file from the Server to the Client. These were the results:

• XenApp & XenDesktop 7.15 LTSR
  • Time to complete: 19 minutes 28 seconds
  • Average transfer speed: 2.74 Mbps
• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 1811
  • Time to complete: 4 minutes 40 seconds
  • Average transfer speed: 11.40 Mbps

Watch below video and see a great overview on why you should upgrade from 7.15 LTSR to 7 1811

Virtual display layout

This feature lets you define a virtual monitor layout that applies to the remote desktop and to virtually split a single client monitor into up to eight monitors on the remote desktop. You can configure the virtual monitors on the “Monitor Layout” tab in the desktop viewer. There, you can draw horizontal or vertical lines to separate the screen into virtual monitors; the screen is split according to specified percentages of the client monitor resolution.

You can set a DPI for the virtual monitors that will be used for DPI scaling or DPI matching. After applying a virtual monitor layout, resize or reconnect the session.

This configuration applies to all subsequent applicable connections from this client, only to full screen single monitor desktop sessions, and does not affect any published applications.

Federated Authentication Service logon evidence support

The Federated Authentication Service (FAS) is now able to receive logon evidence passed to it from Citrix Gateway and StoreFront. The evidence can be validated to ensure that it was issued by a trusted Identity Provider (IdP). A new FAS Assertion SDK is provided to support this feature. For more information about the logon evidence feature, see Citrix Federated Authentication Service Logon Evidence Overview.

Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) 1811 for Linux

Version 1811 of the Linux VDA includes the following new features and enhancements:

HDX 3D Pro hardware encoding

Previously available as an experimental feature, adjusting average bit rates based on bandwidth estimates is now fully supported. In addition, support for image sharpening is added. For more information, see Configure graphics.

File transfer

This release supports file transfers between the Linux VDA and the client device. This feature is available when the client device runs a web browser that supports the HTML5 sandbox attribute. The HTML5 sandbox attribute allows users to access virtual desktops or web browser apps using Citrix Workspace app for HTML5 or Citrix Workspace app for Chrome. For more information, see File transfer.

Soft keyboard

Starting with this release, the soft keyboard feature is available in a Linux virtual desktop or application session. The soft keyboard shows or hides automatically when you enter or leave an input field. For more information, see Soft keyboard.

Double-hop single sign-on authentication

Starting with this release, you can use Citrix Workspace app for Linux and Citrix Receiver for Linux 13.10 to access virtual desktops and applications from within a Linux virtual desktop session, without entering user credentials for a second time. For more information, see Double-hop single sign-on authentication.

Citrix Provisioning 1811

This release includes updates to the Provisioning Server’s Windows firewall ports. See the fixed and known issues for additional information about this release of Citrix Provisioning.

Note:

Use the most recent version of the Citrix License Server for the latest features. If you are upgrading from an existing version to the newest version, the most recent version of the license server is available by using the product software. When you do not upgrade to the latest version of the license server, the product license enters the 30-day grace period. For more information, see Licensing.

Open all default Provisioning Server’s Windows firewall ports

The Citrix Provisioning Server installation now includes the option to open all the default server’s Windows firewall ports. This configuration is useful for administrators who want to facilitate the installation process by automatically opening all Citrix Provisioning ports, without manually specifying which ports to open.

During installation, use one of the following options in the Default Firewall Ports installation screen:

• Automatically open all Citrix Provisioning ports
• I will open the CPV ports manually

Tip:

The screen is only available if the Windows firewall is active.

Enable asynchronous I/O using the Provisioning Console

This release improves asynchronous I/O streaming functionality by allowing you to enable it for a vDisk directly from the Provisioning Console. In the vDisk properties screen, select Asynchronous IO.

Tip:

For more information, see Improving performance with asynchronous I/O streaming.

Citrix Storefront 1811

StoreFront 1811 includes the following new features. For information about bug fixes, see Fixed issues.

Unified user experience

StoreFront supports both the classic and unified user experiences. At this release the unified experience has been updated to align it more closely with Citrix Workspace, and to extend its functionality. For more information see Citrix Receiver unified user experience.

Before

After

If you have customized the unified experience, your customizations are preserved when you upgrade to this version of StoreFront. Check that the appearance of your customizations is still suitable with the new unified experience. We recommend that you make users aware of the changes to the unified experience which the upgrade introduces, described in Citrix Receiver unified user experience.

Support for FAS logon evidence and launch disposition data

StoreFront supports passing logon evidence and launch disposition data to Federated Authentication Service (FAS) for evaluation:

• StoreFront can now capture logon evidence, and supply it to the FAS for validation when users attempt to launch VDAs. This allows customers to use FAS plug-ins to verify that authentication occurred at a trusted identity provider (IdP).
• StoreFront can now supply launch ‘disposition’ data to FAS when VDAs are launched. This allows customers to provide access disposition data, which plug-ins on the FAS server can convert into role and security context for identity evaluation.

For more information on how these features can be used, see Citrix Federated Authentication Service Logon Evidence Overview.

StoreFront Authentication SDK

The StoreFront Authentication SDK has been updated to support improvements in collection of Federated Authentication Service (FAS) logon evidence.

The StoreFront Authentication SDK documentation is now available on Citrix Developer Documentation https://developer-docs.citrix.com/.

StoreFront PowerShell SDK

The StoreFront PowerShell SDK has been updated to support improvements in collection of Federated Authentication Service (FAS) logon evidence. The object representing the Authentication service, returned by Get-STFAuthenticationService, has a property “AuthenticationOptions”. This has a new property “CollectFasEvidence” which is false by default. This must be enabled to use the new logon evidence feature.

The StoreFront PowerShell SDK documentation is republished as version 1811 on Citrix Developer Documentation https://developer-docs.citrix.com/.

New product names

If you’ve been a Citrix customer or partner for a while, you’ll notice new names in our products and in this product documentation. If you’re new to this Citrix product, you might see different names for a product or component. The new product and component names stem from the expanding Citrix portfolio and cloud strategy.

Implementing this transition in our products and their documentation is an ongoing process.

• In-product content might still contain former names. For example, you might see instances of earlier names in console text, messages, and directory/file names.
• It is possible that some items (such as commands and MSIs) might continue to retain their former names to prevent breaking existing customer scripts.
• Related product documentation and other resources (such as videos and blog posts) that are linked from this product’s documentation might still contain former names.

Your patience during this transition is appreciated. For more detail about our new names, see https://www.citrix.com/about/citrix-product-guide/.

New product and component version numbers

In this release, the StoreFront version number is displayed in the management console user interface in the same numeric format as Citrix Virtual App and Desktops (1811). The file version continues to use the 3.x format (3.17). For a full description of this format, see New product and component version numbers.

Deprecation of TLS versions

The deprecation of StoreFront support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 protocols was announced at StoreFront 3.14 and XenApp and XenDesktop 7.17, see CTX23226.

Customers can now also upgrade to Citrix Workspace app, which supports the TLS 1.2 protocol.

At StoreFront 1811, Citrix further recommends disabling TLS 1.0 and 1.1 support in the Web Server hosting StoreFront. You should enforce this via group policy objects, which create the necessary registry settings on the StoreFront server to disable older protocols like TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1. See also the Microsoft TLS/SSL Settingsreference topic.

Citrix Session Recording 1811

This release extends the diversity of events that Session Recording can capture and provides centralized configuration of event logging policies.

• File renaming, creation, deletion, and moving operations can be logged. Previously available as an experimental feature, logging of file renaming operations is now fully supported. Moreover, file creation, deletion, and moving operations can also be logged. All file operations in target folders can be logged and tagged in the recording. For more information, see Log events.
• Centralized configuration of event logging policies. Instead of editing the registry on each VDA for logging the insertion of USB mass storage devices and application starts and ends, you can now create policies in the Session Recording Policy Console to log the events. For more information, see Event logging policies.

Citrix Applayering 1812

his release includes the following features and improvements.

• Hyper-V connector supports OS import: Until now, you needed to copy your OS image to the Network File Share for import into an OS Layer. You can now use the Hyper-V connector configuration to import the OS. (UNI-53490)
• Clone App layers: You can clone an App layer to produce another layer with the same properties. A cloned layer works like any other layer. (UNI-51485)
• Improved performance of Nutanix connector: Performance improvements were made to the Nutanix connector. The connector uses caching more effectively and decreases App layer Version creation times. (UNI-67742)
• Second network card can be used with PVS: With this release a second NIC can now be added to the Platform Layer for images published to PVS. (UNI-65760)
• Privileges are now checked for VMware vSphere connector configuration: When you create or edit a vSphere connector configuration, privileges on the user account are verified when you select the TEST or SAVEbuttons. (UNI-48176)

Labs features in this release

Labs features are previews of potential functionality for future releases. While a feature is in Labs, you should notuse it in production. There is no guarantee that Labs feature will remain in the product, nor that the feature will work as originally designed if and when they are released.

The Labs features available in this release include the following:

• App layers can be assigned as Elastic layers on layered images that use a different OS layer: Until now, Elastic layer assignments required that the App layer assigned use the same OS layer that was used to create the App layer. Now you can try assigning an App layer as an Elastic layer on a layered image that uses a different OS layer.
  

  Important:

  There is no guarantee that an App layer will work on a different OS layer than the one used to create it. If there are issues, you can disable this feature and allow the App layer to be used only with the OS that you used to create the layer.

To use a Labs feature, you need to enable the feature first.

Supported platforms

For information about platforms supported by Citrix App Layering, see System requirements.

Upgrade path

You can upgrade from any previous Citrix App Layering 4.x version to the current release.

Citrix Licensing 11.15 build 26000

What’s new in the License Server build 26000

Enhanced user/device license usage reporting:

More user/device license usage data is collected when you opt into data collection and Call Home. A list of users and a list of devices currently assigned licenses and their last use timestamp are collected. Enhanced license usage insights help you plan and purchase licenses based on usage data and history.

Force your data uploads to immediately confirm license usage:

By using Upload now in the Citrix Licensing Manager when you’ve enabled the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), you can upload usage data without waiting for the normal Citrix daily upload. Being able to upload data at any time helps you troubleshoot issues in a timely manner. The only restriction is that you wait five minutes between uploads. For more information, see Usage and statistics.

HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 2.7

Resolved issues

This release contains fixes to many customer-reported issues and continues to add stability and ease of use to the HDX RealTime Optimization Pack.

Issues fixed in this release.

Additional platforms

Citrix now support new versions of operating systems, Citrix Workspace apps, and the Microsoft Skype for Business server.