Welcome to Kraft Kennedy

Wyse unveiled the “Xenith” thin client device last week at Synergy.  And unlike Wyse’s other thin client devices for Citrix that run Windows XPe or Windows CE, the “zero” client runs an ultra thin firmware (<5 Mb).  This thin firmware means the device boots up instantly and has minimal management.   A demo at Synergy last week showed the thing boot up in less than 5 seconds.  What else separates the Xenith from traditional thin client devices?   Full HDX support including HDX MediaStream (including Flash), HDX Plug-n-Play (USB redirection) and HDX RealTime (bi-directional audio). The expectation being that as Citrix upgrades and improves HDX features in the future, the Xenith’s firmware will be able to be upgraded to provide this support.  Firmware and asset management can be done through Wyse Device Manager and availability is expected in June with a price point at around $330.

The Xenith isn’t out yet, but seems very promising with HDX support, thin firmware, minimal management and an attractive price point.  If a firm is considering a VDI environment with XenDesktop in the next 6 months, the Wyse Xenith is definitely worth a look.

This week at Citrix Summit/Synergy, Citrix finally revealed details behind their much anticipated client (bare metal) hypervisor.  To recap, for the folks who are not following, this will finally bring “offline VDI” to XenDesktop.  It will also match (and potentially beat) VMware’s current offline VM checkin/check out functionality currently available in View.

Continue reading…

One of the great features of desktop virtualization (VDI) being touted by the industry is the ability to manage and update all of your desktops from a single central master image.

Citrix’s solution to the single image process is accomplished by a product called Provisioning Services (PVS). This software is the result of their purchase of a company called Ardence back in 2007. Provisioning Services is an often misunderstood piece of software, and its great benefits and potential are not necessarily apparent to everyone.

PVS works by streaming a master (read-only) image from the server to a target server or workstation. Any subsequent writes are then sent back to the PVS server and written to a cache file. The reads and writes are sent back and forth between the PVS server and target in a constant stream over the network. The easiest way to grasp this is to imagine that the cable connecting the hard disk inside of the server to the motherboard (and thus the CPU and RAM) is replaced by a network cable running back to the PVS server. The operating system sees the PVS disk as though it were a normal hard disk, and everything is done entirely transparent to the OS. The magic happens when the server is powered up; instead of booting from a local disk it is instead set to boot to the network card (PXE, BOOTP) which talks to a service on the PVS server, which streams the assigned operating system image to the target. The target device starts up immediately, as though it was booting from a local disk.

The beauty here is that this single read-only image can be simultaneously streamed to multiple diskless targets, both physical and virtual. This central image can now be maintained in one place. This makes tasks such as installing updates or new software quick and easy. After installing an update into the master image, all machines running that image will boot up into the updated image on next restart. To put that in perspective, think of the time and effort required to push out something such as a service pack to Windows or Microsoft Office to your entire firm. Now imagine simply installing that update once and having every machine in your environment receive that update on next reboot, without any additional effort.

Look for a follow-up post discussing the benefits that Provisioning Services can bring to a XenApp implementation.

With Server Based Computing and consolidation becoming increasing prevalent along with the enormous buzz of VDI, I think it is worth debunking some of common myths of XenApp and Terminal Server.  Below are the most common misconceptions that I continue to hear from IT folks today on the limitations of XenApp/Terminal servers that I have debunked from real world experience supporting and working with different terminal server environments.

Myth 1: Application compatibility is a huge problem on Terminal Servers.
There might have been some truth to this myth a decade ago, but in reality this is just not a big problem in the 2003/2008 world.  From my first hand experience, I can say that an application that works on XP will work on 2003, what works on Vista, will work on 2008, etc.  Are there some exceptions?  Of course.  However, these applications are few and far between, yet the “application compatibility” myth continues to circulate. This myth was probably true in the NT/2000 OS where applications did not do a good job of differentiating between “user” and “computer” parts of an installation.  Since Windows XP, application developers have done a better job writing “user” specific information in the user profile and “machine” specific information in Program Files, or HKLM.  I would probably attributed to the “Fast User Switching” feature introduced in XP.  Whatever the reason, this is just not a problem anymore.

Continue reading…

Last month, I posted my findings on the beta releases of XenApp 4.5/5.0 HRP5 for Windows 2003 and the 11.2 Plug-in.  Today, Citrix released the final Citrix XenApp Online Plug-In 11.2 (formally called XenApp client).  See my previous post on more detail on the new features and changes this client; another notable change in this client is the removal of the Program Neighborhood. 

Program Neighborhood (PN.EXE) was primarlily leveraged to create connections directly to XenApp servers (as opposed to connecting through a Web Interface or the PNAgent).  With the removal of the Program Neighborhood, Citrix has made it very clear that they do not want support this functionality.  Fortunately, there IS a way to work around this issue if you decide to upgrade to 11.2 client and are still required to make a connection directly to a XenApp server.  The trick is to create an ICA file. Copy and paste the template below into notepad and substitute the approriate server name denoted below as “servername.domain.com”.  Save the file with a .ICA extension and voilà.  You can now connect directly to a XenApp server with the 11.2 client.

Macs continue to gain traction in the personal computing space.  This in turn has required Windows administrators to become more familiar with Macs and the limitations they may have when connecting to a typical corporate Windows environment.  In the past, Citrix has done an OK job providing Mac support for XenApp through a basic ICA client.  Specifically, they created a functional no-frills client that supports the latest, as well as past, Mac Operating Systems.  The client primarily supported ICA connections through an ICA file.  The Program Neighborhood Agent functionality did not exist and published applications (not desktops) launched through Citrix Web Interface were presented in a kludgy window.  This changes with the release of the 11.0 plug-in (formally called client). 

Primarily, the 11.0 plug-in finally enables seamless functionality of published applications on Macs.  Seamless published applications (opposed from the desktop) present themselves to the user as if they are running locally.  This in turn allows the user to run published and local applications side-by-side for an improved experience.  More importantly, this seamless functionality opens the door for corporate environments who serve applications through the Program Neighborhood Agent or Citrix Web Interface to give Mac clients a user experience that is in line with what Windows clients have supported for years. 

Also included in this update is the introduction of Citrix’s Dazzle interface.  It looks like Citrix has larger plans for Dazzle suite, but from a client perspective, applications served through the Program Neighborhood website are presented in an iTunes like interface.  I think the logic Citrix is following is that users would be acclimated easily to an application delivery interface that mimics iTunes on the assumption that most users are already familiar with iTunes. The interface is clean, intuitive and even gives the user the ability to add the application to the OS X dock. The “Add” function threw an error for me when I was testing testing the client , but in theory it *should* work.  I’ll post the fix when I come across it, but this bug doesn’t takeaway from the huge functionality upgrade in this client.

It is unfortunate Citrix took years to finally give Macs the same support that the Windows client has had for years, but better late then never, right?  Download it here.

Dazzle interface of the 11.0 Mac plug-in:

Among the benefits of a server based computing (SBC) environment, are the potential savings that exist when purchasing cheaper desktops or terminals on the client side. The logic being that because applications are being run on a server, the client just needs enough horsepower to present the server based applications to the user. Of course this might not be a driving factor of deciding to go to a SBC environment but it could result in some cost savings over a traditional desktop environment.

Organizations that start to design a SBC environment will most likely entertain Wyse terminals or other equivalent terminals that can run the ICA or RDP protocol to present a XenApp/VDI environment. These terminals have a small profile, are low power and reduce management overhead over traditional desktops. The obvious drawbacks are the lack of flexibility these terminals provide because they don’t run Microsoft Windows. In the scenario a Windows application does not run/will not run in the Terminal Server or VDI environment, there is no option to run it locally on a terminal. This variable is large enough for organizations to opt for traditional Windows desktops to serve as “thin clients” resulting in minimal or no cost savings on the client side (from a power and hardware perspective).

Recently, Dell released the Optiplex 160 series line of desktops. They are classified as “Tiny Desktops” because of their ultra small form factor. About the size and weight of a textbook, they can be configured with Windows (XP or Vista) and leverage the low power Intel Atom processor found in most netbooks. (Dell claims 87% power efficiency over traditional PCs.)

The 160 series bridges the gap between Wyse terminals and traditional Windows PCs with its low power draw and tiny form factor. However, it has a seemingly inflated price, which starts at $567. For some reason, Dell has priced it only a couple of hundred bucks less than a modestly configured traditional desktop. Price seems to be a limiting factor right now but does open up another option on the client side for an organization moving to a SBC environment.