XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1
Citrix have released XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1 to download
Whats new in XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1
Citrix XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1 follows the December 2010 XenDesktop 5 release with a number of bug fixes and quality improvements for hosted VDI desktop deployments as well as support for new Microsoft Server 2008R2 SP1, Microsoft Hyper-V 2008R2 SP1, and Windows 7 SP1 platforms.
In addition, this release provides suport for XenServer IntelliCache which dramatically reduces the infrastructure cost for XenDesktop deployments by reducing the IO load on the central storage by as much as 90% and thus improving storage efficiency.
Finally the Service Pack 1 will also include new tools to ease the migration from XenDesktop 4 deployments and setup wizard for leveraging a Citrix Provisioning Services to provisioning server-hosted virtual desktops in a XenDesktop 5 deployment.
New Features in XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1
- Licensing enhancements. Version 11.9 of the License Server supports user/device licensing, manages license checkout information, and provides information that enables you to check out the least number of licenses. For further details, including any changes to system requirements, see Licensing Your Product. You can use Desktop Studio to track and manage license usage and license models, and also to access the License Administration Console; for further details see Managing Licensing.
- Support for XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2. This includes support for IntelliCache. For further details see Using IntelliCache with XenDesktop.
- Blade power management. Support is provided for third party plug-ins for blade servers. You can add machines to an Existing catalog by using theImport List option to specify a .csv file in which machines are specified by unique ID instead of by name. The set of power management options available in Desktop Studio is based on the capabilities reported by the plug-in.
- Support for Microsoft SCVMM R2 Service Pack 1 and Hyper-V 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.
- Support for VMware VSphere 4.1 Update 1.
- Fixes for the XenDesktop 5 issues listed at http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124164.
For details of how to install this service pack, see Installing and Upgrading to XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1.
Known issues specific to this service pack are listed below. For details of known issues with XenDesktop 5, see Known Issues in XenDesktop 5.
Using IntelliCache with XenDesktop
IntelliCache makes hosted VDI deployments more cost-effective by enabling you to use a combination of shared storage and local storage. Performance is enhanced, and network traffic is reduced. The local storage caches the master image from the shared storage; this reduces the amount of reads on the shared storage. For shared desktops, writes to the differencing disks are written to local storage on the host and not to shared storage.
Citrix recommends that you use a high performance local storage device to ensure the fastest possible data transfer.
To use IntelliCache you must enable it in both XenServer and XenDesktop.
To enable IntelliCache in XenServer
Select Enable thin provisioning (Optimized storage for XenDesktop) when installing XenServer. Citrix does not support mixed pools of servers that have Intellicache enabled and servers that do not.
For further information on using IntelliCache, refer to the chapter called XenServer and IntelliCache in the Citrix XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2 Installation Guide, available from http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX129387.
To enable IntelliCache in XenDesktop
IntelliCache is disabled by default in XenDesktop. You can enable it when you are adding a host, provided the XenServer pool is XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2 or later. You can update the setting only when the host is created; you cannot disable IntelliCache at a later date. The option to enable IntelliCache is not available if you are configuring a site using Quick Deploy.
- When you are adding a XenServer host and you are prompted for the type of storage to use, select Shared.
- Select Use IntelliCache to reduce load on the shared storage.
Download Citrix XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1 here
Download Citrix XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1 – Express edition here
Download Citrix XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1 – VDI edition her
Download Citrix XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1 – Enterprise edition her
Download Citrix XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1 – Platinum edition her
Ressources
Citrix XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1 – Issues Fixed in This Release
XenDesktop 5 Service Pack 1 Downloads Reference List
