As expected, the new receiver requires some updates to your existing XenApp or XenDesktop environment to work (you’ll need a MyCitrix login to download them).  Additionally, the receiver currently only supports XenDesktop 5.0 and XenApp 6.0 environments running on Windows Server 2008 R2.  Whether that list will be expanded as the receiver matures – given that this is still listed as a tech preview – remains to be seen.

The release of this new receiver, though currently limited to a very small market, could be the start of a much broader shift in how remote users access Citrix environments, and we’re quite excited to finally get our hands on it.  We’ll work on getting our environment set up in the next day or two to give the new receiver – as well as that Chromebook that’s been sitting on my desk – a run for its money.

The Samsung Chromebook Series 5

Chrome OS, which officially launches on June 15th,  is  Google’s much-anticipated entry into the operating system space.  At first glance, it looks like little more than a Chrome browser window.  At second glance, you realize that it really is just a browser on steroids.  This makes perfect sense, because the OS is centered around Google’s (lofty) assertion that the applications we use day to day on our current machines are “legacy” apps, and that the future of computing lies in web-based applications.  While I fully agree with the second part of that statement and am continually impressed by what web apps are able to do these days, many Enterprise applications are far from being web app ready.  That’s where the Citrix Receiver comes into play.  Citrix’s XenApp platform has long been utilized to access published applications on non-Windows operating system,  and Citrix’s announced support for Chrome OS opens up a whole world of possibilities for the new operating system.  Unfortunately, as of this afternoon, the Receiver continues to be missing-in-action from the Chrome Web Store.

Plenty of angry birds, but no Citrix Receiver.

What excites me about Google’s new operating system is how vastly different it is than the competition.  They set out to redefine how we think about personal computing in a web-centric world, and that in turn requires users to change some of their behavior.  I don’t expect Chromebooks to be springing up in large numbers in the legal sector any time soon (despite Google’s compelling Enterprise offers), but they are perfectly suited for mobile users and it won’t be long before people start asking about them for remote access.  I’ll be keeping an eye out of the Citrix Receiver and plan on reporting back on how it handles the XenApp environment once I have it up and running.

(One last thing to note, to be fair, there are some Citrix KB articles that document some of the steps below that I used to help me compile some of this information, but it is not as organized and is disparate.)

Adding a corporate logo to the splash screen

Even if organizations are not doing many advanced customizations, this is a basic task that I see most firms do. It can be done right from the Citrix Web Interface Management console if the Web Interface was running on a Windows Server/IIS box. Completing on the NetScaler is a bit more tedious. Without getting into too many details about where the authentication point is configured (that might only require only one of these logos to be customized) , the two logos in question are as follows:

Citrix Access Gateway logo:

Citrix Web Interface logo:

First thing you’ll want to do is get an SFTP client to login to the NetScaler appliance. I use WinSCP, but any client should do.  The other thing I would recommend procuring before starting is the correct size and file format of your corporate logos . (It is important these logos are the appropriate size or they will get squashed or cut up on the page.) For the ‘Citrix Access Gateway’ splash logo, that would be going with a 265×62 pixel GIF file. Name this file “ctxHeader01.gif“.  For the ‘Web Interface’ logo, that would be a 59×25 pixel PNG file. Name this file “CitrixLogoHeader.png”.  Once you have procured these custom corporate logos, they need to be replaced on the NetScaler appliance itself with the default images.  Once connected to the appliance with an SFTP client, replace the default logos with the newly created ones in the following locations:

1. Citrix Access Gateway logo: <root>/netscaler/ns_gui/vpn/images
2. Web Interface logo: <root>/var/wi/tomcat/webapps/Citrix/XenApp/media*

*Note: This location would be the name of whatever the Web Interface site was named on the NetScaler.  In my example, it was “XenApp”.

Once the files have been replaced, the NetScaler splash page and the Web Interface should be reflected immediately with the updated logos.  The one caveat here is that these logos will be replaced back to default every time the appliance is rebooted.  Not to worry though, there are some basic steps to follow to make sure they are copied back the appropriate location each time, so that they are updated after an appliance reboot.

Follow the basic steps below to complete this:

1. Create “customizations” folder in the following location:  <root>/var/customizations.
2. Copy the custom “ctxHeader01.gif” and “CitrixLogoHeader.png” files to this newly created folder.
3. Browse to <root>\flash\nsconfig and insert the following lines to the bottom of the rc.netscaler file and hit save.

cp /var/customizations/ctxHeader01.gif /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn/images/ctxHeader01.gif
cp /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn/images/ctxHeader01.gif /var/customizations/
cp /var/customizations/CitrixLogoHeader.png /var/wi/webapps/Citrix/XenApp/media/CitrixLogoHeader.png*
cp /var/wi/webapps/Citrix/XenApp/media/CitrixLogoHeader.png /var/customizations/*

*Note: This location would be the name of whatever the Web Interface site was called on the Netscaler

Adding a disclaimer to the NetScaler splash page

Similar to adding a corporate logo, most organizations opt to add some type of disclaimer to the Citrix Web Interface site for legal reasons.  The process to complete this is significantly more tedious when doing this on a NetScaler than doing this on a Citrix Web Interface/Citrix Secure Gateway setup that leverages Windows IIS.   Follow the steps below to add a disclaimer to the NetScaler:

1. Edit the index.html in the location: <root>/netscaler/ns_gui/vpn/index.html.
2. Underneath line 116 in index.html, input the following text with the organizations custom disclaimer and save the file.

<td></td><td></td><td align=”right”><span style=”display:none”><img src=”/vpn/images/LoginButtonRolloverGlow.gif”/></span><input type=”submit” id=”Log_On” value=”" class=”CTX_CaxtonButton” onclick=”ns_check();” onmouseover=”this.className=’CTX_CaxtonButton_Hover’;” onmouseout=”this.className=’CTX_CaxtonButton’;”/></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<!– Disclaimer customization –>
This is a private computer system. It is for authorized use only. Users, whether authorized or unauthorized, acknowledge that there is no right or expectation of privacy with respect to any communication, information, or file sent, received or stored through this computer, e-mail, voicemail or other electronic systems.
<!– End of Disclaimer customization–>
</FORM>
<script language=”javascript” type=”text/javascript”>

3. The disclaimer should apply immediately once the index.html is saved.
4. Again, like the corporate logos in the previous step, this setting will reset if the NetScaler appliance is rebooted.  In the “customizations” (created in the previous step) folder copy the newly edited index.html
5. Browse to <root>\flash\nsconfig and insert the following lines to the bottom of the rc.netscaler file and hit save.

cp /var/customizations/index.html /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn/index.html
cp /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn/index.html /var/customizations/

Deploying the Citrix Online Plugin

One of the most basic customizations that I recommend organizations do is deploy the Citrix Online Plugin from the organizations web interface site instead of the default redirection to the Citrix download page if a client is not detected.  Deploying the client from the Web Interface simplifies the experience for users who are connecting with non firm workstations and ensures the same version that was tested and deployed on firm workstations is deployed to non workstations that require the client.  Again, completing this task from the Windows IIS Web Interface is a fairly straightforward, however the task is not as a straight forward on the Web Interface running on the Netscaler.  Actually, I found the task to be particularly challenging because I could not find good documentation, but below are the steps that worked for me:

1. Create ‘Clients’ folder structure in the following location and copy the Citrix Online Plugin executable in the following path: <root>/var/wi/tomcat/webapps/Citrix/XenApp/Clients/Windows/On-line Plugin/CitrixOnlinePluginWeb.exe*
2. Update the WebInterface.conf file (see below for more details) and uncomment “UpgradeClientsAtLogin=On”
3. Save configuration and reboot NetScaler.

*Note: The folders here are case sensitive.

General Management of the Web Interface running on NetScaler

Most administrators who managed the Citrix Web Interface are accustomed to leveraging the management console that is bundled with the install.  Not only does it allow for basic management of the Web Interface site, over the years Citrix has added more and more functionality within the GUI console to handle most customizations and advanced options that previously required folks to manually update the Webinterface.conf file.  Unfortunately, Citrix takes a few steps back with the integrated Web Interface on the NetScaler.  There is absolutely no management console for it and administrators are forced to make update the Webinterface.conf file to configure any custom settings they might need to make.  This link to Citrix’s eDocs library details out all the parameters that can be configured in the Webinterface.conf file for all the different settings the Web Interface accepts for any additional customization/management that needs to be done.

(As an aside, this post is only talking to VDI and in particular as a desktop replacement and not other use cases that may include, but are not limited to training rooms, war rooms, remote access, etc.)

Licensing is confusing and expensive

The finger is first pointed at Microsoft and their ever changing (confusing) licensing scheme for VDI.   A quick browse of the VDI licensing guide details seven scenarios and the licensing implications for using VDI with respect to each.  Does it really need to be this confusing?  Can’t Microsoft license VDI in the same way they license Terminal Servers to simplify this?  The other hindrance here is the essential requirement that an organization purchase Software Assurance for desktops or purchase a VDA for each user/device connecting to a VDI desktop.  This is a cost of about $100 per user/desktop that some firms have not been used to shelling out.  Most of the firms that I have worked with (specifically the SMBs) don’t purchase Software Assurance for Windows desktops as they purchase Windows OEM licenses from Dell, HP, etc.

Let’s now point the finger at Citrix.  I have a law firm client at the moment that currently leverages XenApp as a desktop replacement and owns a XenApp license for every user in the firm.  “Upgrading” these licenses to XenDesktop using Citrix’s trade up calculator results in the firm paying $20,000 (retail) to convert their existing (140) concurrent use XenApp licenses to named user/device XenDesktop licenses.  Should they want to continue to leverage CCU licenses for XenDesktop, they would have to shell out almost $50,000….  ‘Yes’, they are technically now getting XenDesktop and XenApp as part of the upgrade, but I would contend that if Citrix allowed a 1:1 conversion from XenApp CCU licenses to XenDesktop  CCU licenses (and did not give XenApp for “free” as part of it), it would be more palpable for customers (but clearly less profitable for Citrix) to make the conversion.

Citrix and VMware’s Offline VDI solutions are not there yet

Let me start by acknowledging there are less and less scenarios in which a user is “offline” the days.  However there are still scenarios in which users are offline or have a degraded connection that require a functional offline VDI solution.  Specifically, airplanes, spotty WiFi in hotels (my personal pet peeve) and public spots along with low bandwidth/high latency air cards among other scenarios.  VMware’s botched approach with its Type II hypervisor with checking in/out VMs would not meet expectations of law firm users.  Citrix’s approach with its Type I hypervisor, XenClient, is promising but is still a 1.0 product one year later.  The HCL for XenClient is also limited to a subset of machines and the server piece (Synchronizer) of XenClient is also only available for Citrix XenServer, which also makes it a non starter.  The bottom line is that the current offerings by Citrix and VMware are just not good enough from a usability/manageability perspective for law firms to accept it.

Organization politics and delegation of responsibilities

This section is very specific to the legal space as most firms are structured such that there are “Infrastructure” folks and “Applications” folks that work in individual silos.  The Infrastructure folks are primarily responsible for networking, security, messaging, virtualization, shared storage, sometimes Citrix XenApp, etc. while the “Applications” folks are responsible for Windows desktops, user profile management, software distribution, application integration and the overall user experience.  My experience has been that most Applications folks don’t want to touch the Infrastructure, and Infrastructure folks definitely don’t want to deal with anything user facing.  If a firm were to embark on a VDI initiative, it would require tight collaboration between the two different silos as a successful VDI implementation requires careful infrastructure planning as well as application integration for good user experience.  Of course, fighting organizational politics and contention of responsibilities is left up to a CIO, but I see this is another reason why VDI goes nowhere in law firms.

User Experience is not as good as local desktops

Isn’t this what a desktop is all about?  If a firm invests hundreds of thousands of dollars in a new VDI desktop, and the user perception is that it doesn’t perform as well as the traditional desktop it was replacing, is the project a success?  PCoIP and ICA protocols have improved significantly along with some of the HDX and user experience improvement with the latest versions of XenDesktop and View, however designing a VDI desktop to perform as well as a typical local desktop (4 cores/4 GB RAM) with Windows 7 is still difficult to impossible.  Specifically when it comes to media (audio and video) and resource intensive applications.

The local desktop is still required

Ideally, a VDI environment would leverage a BYOPC or Thin Terminal model in which the local corporate desktop is obsolete and not required.  Users would have their own PC and Thin Terminals to access their “managed” corporate VDI desktop in which all their applications were available to them.  Unfortunately, its not that black and white at law firms.  To start, law firms have hundreds of applications and making them all available through a VDI desktop is very challenging even with application virtualization solutions.  Additionally, the local desktop in some way provides an “insurance policy” for firms to allow for local applications (outside the VDI desktop) in some facet.  This could be business applications such as a browser toolbar required for collaboration, or  Adobe PDF reader to view large PDF files a user brings in on a DVD.  These local applications could also be non-business applications such as DVD video software and iTunes.  The point is that law firms have knowledge workers who have an array of IT demands with respect to their applications and user experience and the local desktop would not get replaced
even with VDI.  I am not saying it is impossible, it would just be very hard.

The fact that the local desktop is still required creates multiple management points for IT as they have to not only manage a VDI desktop, they have to continue to maintain, service, patch, etc. a local Windows desktop.  Citrix and VMware would contend that the capital costs of VDI is not where the savings are, but the operational costs are where all the savings come from.  I am sure there are some fancy marketing charts or Gartner charts that attempt to prove this, but let’s take them at their word.  The challenge here is that most law firm’s would not be replacing their local desktops (with Thin Terminals) should they move forward with a VDI solution.

Honorable Mention

Capital costs for shared storage and virtualization infrastructure, Thin environments with XenApp/Terminal Servers can be built for a fraction of the cost of VDI.

Conclusions

I am going to end this post by saying the success to any VDI environment (or any technology project for that matter) is knowing your use case and business requirements.  This has been drilled into me by my colleague Matt Liebowitz who probably starts every VDI conversation with the phrase “know your use case”.  Too many times technologists lose sight of the business requirements and use cases for a particular technology before attempting to fit a square peg in a round hole.  VDI offers obvious benefits in some areas over a traditional desktop, but it isn’t a one size fits all model.   The use case I focus on in this post (VDI as a desktop replacements) relay my thoughts on why most firms see VDI as an non starter because the challenges associated with implementing VDI outweighs the firm’s business requirements for doing it.  Is VDI a non starter for all law firms?  Absolutely not. There are some scenarios in which a firm’s business requirements and existing desktop circumstances make VDI an attractive and potentially more cost effective approach than a traditional desktop.

Typically I’ve seen firms start small and grow the functions leveraging their NetScalers over time.  They might replace their Secure Gateways with virtual Access Gateways running on the VPX with the idea to add Exchange 2010 traffic to it down the road.

If you find yourself in a similar situation you can use the chart below to size the needed VPX based on some of the most common traffic types.  Also note that it’s very easy to purchase a small model and upgrade later should you have bandwidth requirement changes.

For a copy of the quick-and-dirty Excel spreadsheet I’ve used to calculate bandwidth needs feel free to email me: Clinton Gates

To achieve optimal results when you use Outlook with Remote Desktop Services, pay attention to how you customize your Outlook configuration. For example, in Outlook 2010 you can configure Cached Exchange Mode with Remote Desktop Services.

The article is careful to mention that you’d need to have enough disk space on the server to handle each user’s OST file. Maybe this makes sense for small environments with only one Terminal Server and tidy mailboxes. I can count on less than one hand how many firms fall into that category.

Based on our experience, we recommend disabling Cached Mode on any XenApp server we put in place. At the same time, we want to allow our users to run in Cached Mode on their Windows 7 desktops. How do we achieve this?  Through the use of Loopback Policy, we can ensure that when users log in to a XenApp server, Cached Mode will be disabled.  This policy will override the settings within a MAPI profile that is roamed or flexed to the XenApp server. When the user logs back into their Windows 7 desktop, they are happily working in Cached Mode again.

This is just another example of how technology can change without much fanfare.  For many years, we never hard to worry about this situation. The mere fact that the user was logging in to a Terminal Server with Outlook 2003 meant that Cached Mode would be disabled no matter what. But with Outlook 2010 and Server 2008 R2/XenApp, a successful implementation relies on a successful configuration of the environment. You can download the Microsoft White Paper on the planning considerations of Outlook 2010 on Server 2008 R2 here.

Upgrading to Netscaler 9.3

It was a no brainer upgrading my 9.2 VPX 1000 Netscalers (running the “classic” code) to 9.3 by downloading the update from Citrix and following the GUI wizard.  The process took less than 20 minutes and went without error or any downtime since my Netscalers are setup in an HA pair.  It was pretty straightforward to perform a failover, upgrade, and repeat.

What is important to note is that after version 9.3 there will be no new releases of the Netscaler “classic” code in favor of the “nCore” code.  To provide some background, with the release of Netscaler 9.2 last year, Citrix made their nCore code available to the VPX appliances as it was previously only available for the physical MPX boxes.  At the same time, the existing code set was dubbed “classic” and each new revision of 9.2x was released in both classic and nCore flavors.  The change also bumped up the minimum requirements of the Netscaler VPX from 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM (running on classic) to a heftier 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM if you are running nCore.  For environments leveraging some of the advanced content caching and acceleration features, nCore might make sense, however for ones using the Netscaler for ICA/SSL proxy and application level load balancing, there is limited value in the nCore code.  (I don’t care to go into the specific improvements to the code, architecture that nCore brings over classic, but feel free to read this Citrix Whitepaper if you are interested.)  The notable here is that after version 9.3, Citrix will no longer be releasing updates to the “classic” version of the code, thus forcing you to run nCore going forward.

Integrated Citrix Web Interface on Netscaler nCore

While technically, this has been available since 9.2 version of the Netscaler running nCore, I figured I would mention this feature in this post.  The Citrix Web Interface which is required for any XenApp or XenDesktop solution can be integrated within the Netscaler.  (This Citrix Technote shows you how.)  The ability to spin up Citrix Web Interface sites on the Netscaler appliance is an attractive solution for a number of reasons.  The first is a reduction in at least two Windows 2008 R2 servers that are typically dedicated for the Citrix Web Interface.  While this might not mean much from a licensing perspective when running Windows 2008 R2 Datacenter in a virtualized environment, an argument can be made that the all-inclusive (within the Netscaler) is simpler to manage than Windows 2008 R2 boxes that require patches and anti-virus among other things.  I usually allocate 2 GB of RAM and 1 vCPU for a Windows 2008 R2 server running Citrix Web Interface, so reducing a couple of these servers also provides a nominal reduction of resources to the virtualization solution.

One thing to note about integrating the Web Interface on the Netscaler are the implications about customizing it.  Most organizations brand their Citrix Web Interface to some degree.  This might mean something simple as adding a banner, logo, disclaimer, or something more complex that includes custom fields, embedded links, etc.  Completing these customizations on a Windows/IIS server is significantly easier for Systems Administrators than completing them on the embedded web server of the Netscaler.  While Citrix does provide a GUI driven interface to customize the logo and banner, advanced customizations of the integrated Web Interface can be challenging.

Over the next week, I’ll be upgrading my environment with integrated Web Interface on my 9.3 Netscalers to replace my existing Windows 2008 R2 based Web Interface servers.  I plan to follow up this post with my thoughts, findings and successes/failures in customizing it, so stay tuned.

Windows Installer Error applying transforms. Verify that the specified transform paths are valid.

This happened over and over with every hotfix downloaded.  This server had originally been deployed via System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM 2007) and I was wondering if the installation cache files had been removed and needed to be downloaded from the distribution point again.  The files were correctly in place, but the hotfix wouldn’t run.

Eventually I bypassed the transform file completely by temporarily renaming the “Transforms” value under the following key to “Transforms.old”:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\AD9C782BBE7D2D54AB21D40174D9444F

After that was renamed I was able to successfully install the hotfix, restart and rename the registry key back to the original value.

The Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer for Virtualization certification is designed to certify breadth of knowledge across Citrix virtualization solutions. The CCEE offers experienced IT professionals the opportunity to develop and validate their ability to combine the coordination of operational planning efforts with tactical design expertise and integration know-how.

Niraj and Jeff have a well established reputation for helping law firms adopt thin-client technologies and best practices around enterprise desktop and application management. It is exciting to watch server-based computing strategies mature as new virtual desktop solutions, such as VDI and application virtualization, have become more mainstream. Not only are these new tools offering firms technical improvements, but also significant operational efficiencies and flexibility over traditional desktop and server-based approaches.

On behalf of the team, Congratulations to Niraj and Jeff on your accomplishments!

The user interface has been updated since the original release.  Like the Citrix Receiver for Mac, you can create shortcuts to commonly used applications and desktops.  This is especially helpful if you have a large application set.

Application selection screen showing available applications. Apps with a dark plus sign are already subscribed applications.

You can now switch to another iPad app and back without the client disconnecting.  This is due to the newer Citrix Receiver client being able to take advantage of the multitasking capabilities of the current iOS version.  You still can’t have more than one published app running at a time, but Citrix has a utility called Citrix Doc Finder you can publish to get around that limitation.  The receiver does reconnect pretty fast to disconnected sessions, so even if you don’t use the Doc Finder utility, it’s still not too bad.

Looking through the settings I found a track pad feature.  Instead of trying to click on icons that weren’t meant to be touched by a finger, you can enable the track pad feature which basically enables a mouse curser and turns the touch screen into a giant track pad.  This gives you much more control over the mouse input and makes it much easier to click on menus and buttons.

Full screen desktop showing on screen keyboard and track pad mouse cursor. Notice how I moved my task bar to the top of the screen. This leaves it accessible while the keyboard is displayed.

I looked through the help guide and learned the finger gestures built into the Citrix Receiver.  This makes navigation much easier.  There are gestures for scrolling, arrow keys as well as ALT+TAB.  Also, you can show / hide the on screen keyboard by tapping the screen with three fingers.  I found this to be much more convenient then clicking to through the on screen menu to show or hide the keyboard.  I’m a big fan of using the on screen keyboard as I feel if you have to use an external keyboard with the iPad, you might as well carry around a small laptop.

Based off of these features, I’m much less anti Citrix client on the iPad.  It’s still no substitute for a laptop, but using Microsoft OneNote via Citrix with an iPad is very useable for taking light notes during a meeting.  And for playing Angry Birds when a meeting goes south.