Wednesday, June 18, 2008
BriForum Day 2 XenDesktop Getting Started Session
XenDesktop Getting Started - Rick Dehlinger from iQurious Corporation
Cool company name "iQurirous"
XenDesktop 2 was released in May at Citrix Synergy
ICA to the desktop, none of this double-hop ICA to CPS, RDP to XP BS.
Single instance storage for desktop images via Provisioning Server.
ICA Features Included
- UPD is included
- Session Policies
- SSL Encapsulation
ICA Features not Included
- Functionality that require services interaction
- Speedscreen
- Multimedia
Components
- Desktop Delivery Controllers run the IMA protocol, farm definition, desktop broker, once client is connected to XP the controller is out of the picture.
- Access Gateway is used for Internet access
- Can be used with XenServer, VMware and Hyper-V.
- Includes PVS for image management
- Positioning XenApp as delivery of applications into the VDI image via streaming or published app
Editions
- Express - Free for 10 CCU - Includes Desktop Delivery Controller and XenServer Standard
--- Works with CSG but advertised as not working with SSL tunneling via Access Gateway
- Standard - unlimited CCUs
---Desktop Controller
---XenServer Standard
---Supports ICA/SSL encryption with AG Standard 2010 appliances only or CSG
---$75 per CCU
- Advanced - unlimited CCUs
--- Includes Provisioning Server
--- $195 per CCU
- Enterprise
--- Adds Publishing for XenApp
--- $295 per CCU
- Platinum
--- Full universal VPN license
--- Edgesight for end points
--- EasyCall
--- $395 per CCU
--- One GoToAssist agent per 200 CCU
Setup
1. Setup hardware and hypervisor
2. Setup PVS
3. XenDesktop Setup Wizard for provisioning VMs in XenServer and PVS including AD computer accounts.
4. Setup Desktop Delivery Controllers
5. Publish desktop delivery groups
6. Connect
Cool company name "iQurirous"
XenDesktop 2 was released in May at Citrix Synergy
ICA to the desktop, none of this double-hop ICA to CPS, RDP to XP BS.
Single instance storage for desktop images via Provisioning Server.
ICA Features Included
- UPD is included
- Session Policies
- SSL Encapsulation
ICA Features not Included
- Functionality that require services interaction
- Speedscreen
- Multimedia
Components
- Desktop Delivery Controllers run the IMA protocol, farm definition, desktop broker, once client is connected to XP the controller is out of the picture.
- Access Gateway is used for Internet access
- Can be used with XenServer, VMware and Hyper-V.
- Includes PVS for image management
- Positioning XenApp as delivery of applications into the VDI image via streaming or published app
Editions
- Express - Free for 10 CCU - Includes Desktop Delivery Controller and XenServer Standard
--- Works with CSG but advertised as not working with SSL tunneling via Access Gateway
- Standard - unlimited CCUs
---Desktop Controller
---XenServer Standard
---Supports ICA/SSL encryption with AG Standard 2010 appliances only or CSG
---$75 per CCU
- Advanced - unlimited CCUs
--- Includes Provisioning Server
--- $195 per CCU
- Enterprise
--- Adds Publishing for XenApp
--- $295 per CCU
- Platinum
--- Full universal VPN license
--- Edgesight for end points
--- EasyCall
--- $395 per CCU
--- One GoToAssist agent per 200 CCU
Setup
1. Setup hardware and hypervisor
2. Setup PVS
3. XenDesktop Setup Wizard for provisioning VMs in XenServer and PVS including AD computer accounts.
4. Setup Desktop Delivery Controllers
5. Publish desktop delivery groups
6. Connect
BriForum Day 2 Designing VMware for the Enterprise Session
Designing VI3 for the Enterprise - Ron Oglesby - With Glasshouse
Order of design decisions is most important.
Design is most important.
Get all of the key people together to bang out all of the architectural decisions in one or two days. This includes server, network, storage and security people.
Hardware that gets purchased should be the last decision. You need to know network and storage requirements before you know how many NICs, HBAs etc..
Define Critical Success Factors
- What must be true/happen for this design to be successful
Don't use Cisco Etherchannel, the default VMware NIC teaming is best.
Don't use resource pools - he has seen too many cases where resource pools cause slow performance and he has went in and removed the resource pools and it fixed their issues.
Order of design decisions is most important.
Design is most important.
Get all of the key people together to bang out all of the architectural decisions in one or two days. This includes server, network, storage and security people.
Hardware that gets purchased should be the last decision. You need to know network and storage requirements before you know how many NICs, HBAs etc..
Define Critical Success Factors
- What must be true/happen for this design to be successful
Don't use Cisco Etherchannel, the default VMware NIC teaming is best.
Don't use resource pools - he has seen too many cases where resource pools cause slow performance and he has went in and removed the resource pools and it fixed their issues.
BriForum Day 2 XenDesktop Deep Dive Session
XenDesktop Deep Dive - Rick Dehlinger from iQurious Corporation
This session dove into the architecture of XenDesktop.
-IMA Data store
-Citrix Licensing
-ICA/SSL
-Web Interface is required for connectivity
-Single zone, single data collector
-Administered from AMC and PSC (Old style java console) for policy management
-Requires AD but there are no schema updates
-Desktop Delivery Controller DDC
--Server 2k3
--Terminal Service enabled in app mode - doesn't make since, no users connect to this server over RDP. Must have something to do with the IMA being on
there
--.NET 3.5
-Virtual Desktop Agent
--Win XP, Vista
--32 bit only
--single IP address
--Adds 7 services and drivers for ICA, Printing and other services
-Provisioning Server - Not required but definitely makes like easier
-XenServer/VMware ESX - No functionality lost if VMware is used in place of XenServer
-XenDesktop Setup Wizard
-Web Interface - goes on the DDC - Can also use the new Citrix App Receiver or PNAgent - There are also some thin clients - Login Desktop
These two sessions on XenDesktop have gotten me very excited about this product. I want to build a lab with this at the office ASAP.
It would be cool to build a XenServer one and a VMware one to compare the scalability.
This session dove into the architecture of XenDesktop.
-IMA Data store
-Citrix Licensing
-ICA/SSL
-Web Interface is required for connectivity
-Single zone, single data collector
-Administered from AMC and PSC (Old style java console) for policy management
-Requires AD but there are no schema updates
-Desktop Delivery Controller DDC
--Server 2k3
--Terminal Service enabled in app mode - doesn't make since, no users connect to this server over RDP. Must have something to do with the IMA being on
there
--.NET 3.5
-Virtual Desktop Agent
--Win XP, Vista
--32 bit only
--single IP address
--Adds 7 services and drivers for ICA, Printing and other services
-Provisioning Server - Not required but definitely makes like easier
-XenServer/VMware ESX - No functionality lost if VMware is used in place of XenServer
-XenDesktop Setup Wizard
-Web Interface - goes on the DDC - Can also use the new Citrix App Receiver or PNAgent - There are also some thin clients - Login Desktop
These two sessions on XenDesktop have gotten me very excited about this product. I want to build a lab with this at the office ASAP.
It would be cool to build a XenServer one and a VMware one to compare the scalability.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
BriForum Day 1 PVS Session
DAY ONE SESSION ONE - PROVISIONING SERVER IN THE REAL WORLD - PRESENTED BY MICHAEL THOMASON
Michael works for Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, specializing Citrix/Terminal Services.
Session started out very boring, I was wanting some in depth info and some cool stuff I haven't leaned or thought of yet. He went though some uses and case studies on how they use it to deploy Office and a healthcare app called Cerner.
Provisioning Server database - vld.mdb - will be moved to SQL in PVS 5.0. Not sure when 5.0 will be released.
He uses and recommends client HD caching instead of "Cache on Server" or "Client RAM Caching". He has had issues with client RAM and server side caching.
You could tell he had been working with the product before Citrix acquired it because he was going back and forth between using Ardence and Provisioning Server. I have found myself doing this a lot with some of our clients.
From the description of the session he was going to cover "How to configure "static configurations" which will survive a reboot (i.e. Citrix local host cache, application data, etc.)" he never went over any of that. I was also hoping he would go into the challenges of getting XenApp to boot properly and having uniqueness for each XenApp server.
He is developing a tool called DPM. Dynamic Personality Manager. This tool automates deploying XenApp with PVS. Doing things like changing the event log paths and some other PVS specific things that he does when streaming XenApp.
Event though I didn't learn anything new, overall he did a good job, it is hard to cover everything in 70 minutes.
Michael works for Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, specializing Citrix/Terminal Services.
Session started out very boring, I was wanting some in depth info and some cool stuff I haven't leaned or thought of yet. He went though some uses and case studies on how they use it to deploy Office and a healthcare app called Cerner.
Provisioning Server database - vld.mdb - will be moved to SQL in PVS 5.0. Not sure when 5.0 will be released.
He uses and recommends client HD caching instead of "Cache on Server" or "Client RAM Caching". He has had issues with client RAM and server side caching.
You could tell he had been working with the product before Citrix acquired it because he was going back and forth between using Ardence and Provisioning Server. I have found myself doing this a lot with some of our clients.
From the description of the session he was going to cover "How to configure "static configurations" which will survive a reboot (i.e. Citrix local host cache, application data, etc.)" he never went over any of that. I was also hoping he would go into the challenges of getting XenApp to boot properly and having uniqueness for each XenApp server.
He is developing a tool called DPM. Dynamic Personality Manager. This tool automates deploying XenApp with PVS. Doing things like changing the event log paths and some other PVS specific things that he does when streaming XenApp.
Event though I didn't learn anything new, overall he did a good job, it is hard to cover everything in 70 minutes.
BriForum Day 1 Keynote
Well I am here at BriForum 08 and I am very excited to be here. This is my first BriForm but it is the 6th BriForum and the atmosphere here is like no other IT conference I have been to. You can tell everyone here is passionate about virtualization. There are no sales/marketing sessions here just in depth technical.
They did a great job of providing long power strips under every other row of chairs for everyone to plug into for laptop power.
The wireless access was good when I first arrived but after about an hour of everyone getting on it became almost unusable. I was going to try to do some live blogging but no Internet access I had to type everything in Notepad then post it to the blog later.
There are close to 500 people here from all over the world. There were around 400 last year so this conference is just going to get bigger.
I have already met three guys from the Netherlands that were very cool. They work for a small consulting company like Varrow.
I am going to try to post a blog entry everyday on the sessions I went to and what I learned at each.
Funny quote that was displayed on the screen before one of the session "Programming is like sex, one mistake and you spend the rest of your life supporting it."
They did a great job of providing long power strips under every other row of chairs for everyone to plug into for laptop power.
The wireless access was good when I first arrived but after about an hour of everyone getting on it became almost unusable. I was going to try to do some live blogging but no Internet access I had to type everything in Notepad then post it to the blog later.
There are close to 500 people here from all over the world. There were around 400 last year so this conference is just going to get bigger.
I have already met three guys from the Netherlands that were very cool. They work for a small consulting company like Varrow.
I am going to try to post a blog entry everyday on the sessions I went to and what I learned at each.
Funny quote that was displayed on the screen before one of the session "Programming is like sex, one mistake and you spend the rest of your life supporting it."
BriForum Day 1 TS Load Balancing Session
DAY ONE SESSION THREE - TERMINAL SERVICES 2008 LOAD BALANCING AND SECURITY - THORSTEN ROOD
65 MINUTES OF DEMO - NO PRE-STAGED CONFIG ASIDE FROM AD AND VMs.
This was a very boring session, not a very good presenter, a very monotone voice.
One thing that was interesting is that he recommended to never use NLB for load balancing TS. He recommends that if you can't afford a hard ware load balancer use DNS round robin.
65 MINUTES OF DEMO - NO PRE-STAGED CONFIG ASIDE FROM AD AND VMs.
This was a very boring session, not a very good presenter, a very monotone voice.
One thing that was interesting is that he recommended to never use NLB for load balancing TS. He recommends that if you can't afford a hard ware load balancer use DNS round robin.
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