Welcome to Kraft Kennedy

Several weeks ago I posted about my shiny, new Chromebook and the notable lack of a Citrix receiver for the Chrome OS, despite it being unveiled at Citrix Synergy back in May.  It appears my weeks of patient waiting have finally paid off: earlier today, Citrix released a “tech preview” of its receiver for the Chrome OS via the Chrome Web Store.

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.

It’s not too often that I get excited by the release of a new product.  I’ve certainly never waited outside a store to be one of the first people to have a new device, and, in fact, I almost always wait a few months until the bugs are worked out before I commit to buying something. When I got an invitation from Google a few weeks ago to be part of their Chromebook pre-release, however, I jumped on the opportunity about as quickly as I could.
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Sometime last year, Citrix released support for an integrated Web Interface for the NetScaler nCore.  This was a welcome addition to the already versatile NetScaler appliance.  Most of my clients had leveraged a couple Windows Server 2008 R2  hosts to serve as the Citrix Web Interface and used a NetScaler to load balance them.  Integrating the Web Interface function within the NetScaler itself seemed like a no brainer as it reduces two Windows hosts (which need to be patched, managed, maintained, etc.) and unifies management on the NetScaler appliance itself.  The idea of replacing the Web Interface on a NetScaler sounds like a great idea at first blush, but the Web Interface is usually branded and customized to at least some degree that poses a challenge.  Specifically, most of my clients perform at least some level of customization to their Web Interface.  This might be something as simple as adding a logo or disclaimer, deploying the Online Plugin, or something more involved that includes adding multiple links and changing to a custom skin.  Citrix’s own documentation is lacking when it comes to making these customizations on the NetScaler and Web Interface in the form of disparate knowledge base articles.  In practice, most Citrix administrators (myself included) would likely feel more comfortable customizing a Web Server running under the IIS platform over one running on Apache Tomcat, so in this post I step through different ‘basic’ customizations that I expect every organization would want to do if they had a NetScaler nCore running the integrated Web Interface.

(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.)
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Why is VDI as a desktop replacement a non starter for so many law firms?  I attempt to answer this question pointedly in this post based on my experience over the last 18 months when talking to different law firms about VDI.  However, let me take a step back and frame the question.  While I don’t have actual statistics, I would make the statement that most law firms are still on Windows XP and have thought about or are planning a Windows 7 desktop in the near future.   Invariably, this will result in the firm entertaining a VDI (for desktop replacement) solution for their planned Windows 7 desktop.  The conversation usually doesn’t get far after that….  Why is that?  This post is a look at why VDI environments are non starters in law firms or specifically, why they have not seen the traction that the industry (Citrix, VMware, Gartner) would have you to believe.  I’ll preface once again that VDI might be seeing traction in other industries, however I’ll focus on the five reasons why I feel VDI is not gaining traction in the legal space.

(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.)
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Recently I’ve been asked by a number of clients to help size and implement Citrix NetScaler VPX virtual appliances.  Citrix positions the NetScaler devices as a ‘high-speed load balancing and content switching, data compression, content cashing, SSL acceleration, network optimization, application visibility and application security’ platform.  With it’s high number of functions firms find themselves trying to size which VPX (sold in 200, 1000, and 3000 Mbps models) they’ll need.

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

Another month, another new build of the Netscaler.  It seems that every month Citrix has a new incremental build of the Netscaler.  A few weeks ago, version 9.3 of the Netscaler (and along with the VPX) was released.  While these incremental builds are usually not blog worthy, 9.3  introduces some features, changes that are important to note as well as my thoughts on upgrading from a previous version.

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.
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I was recently involved in a project to improve performance in a XenDesktop 4 / Provisioning Server 5.6 environment where users were reporting slow logon times and sluggish performance, and SAN statistics showed higher IOPS than we would have liked. The environment consists of two Desktop Delivery Controllers (DDCs) on Windows 2003 R2 and two Provisioning Servers (PvSs) on Windows 2008 R2, all virtual and spread across two Dell R710 vSphere 4.1 hosts that also host approximately 25 other servers, and 125 production and a handful of test/pilot Windows 7 VMs spread across four additional R710 vSphere 4.1 hosts. All hosts utilize a single EqualLogic PS6000X. Both the vDisk and write cache were located on a file cluster that had one node on each of the same two hosts as the DDCs and PvSs. The cluster’s sole purpose was to facilitate high availability in the event of a single PvS failure.

As I investigated the performance issues I reviewed quite a bit of product documentation, best practice guides, forum posts, etc. and spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Citrix technical support. Still, the issues remained. I then attended a VDI summit at Microsoft and was fortunate enough to speak to a Citrix engineer who happened to be presenting. As we took a walk down the hall I described the issues and environment, and by the time we got back he’d identified the problem and the solution. Though at first blush locating the vDisk and write cache on a highly available network share appears to make sense, doing so eliminates PvS’s use of the Windows system cache.
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Kraft Kennedy’s Niraj Patel and Jeff Silverman have recently achieved the Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE) for Virtualization certification. This industry recognized certification demonstrates technical expertise with products such as Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp.

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!

Last week, I installed the Citrix XenClient on a test laptop and got a chance to play around with it further.   To recap, this is Citrix’s Type 1 client side hypervisor to solve the offline VDI problem that currently exists for XenDesktop.  I posted six months ago when the product was announced at Synergy, but last month Citrix released the 1.0 version of the product, so I figured I would give it a whirl.
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The rumors have been going on for years.  The Citrix Secure Gateway is no longer going to be developed or supported.  This rumor was prevalent four years ago when XenApp 4.5 was released and continues to be bounced around today.  ‘No’, Citrix has not stopped developing the CSG and the rumors have never been substantiated.  Citrix has actually been incrementally updating it with updated releases of XenApp and XenDesktop.

So why do I think is this rumor relevant again?  Last week, Citrix released the Citrix Access Gateway VPX 5.0.  Along with this release came a significant licensing change that cuts into the CSG’s value.  The Access Gateway’s “Platform License” ($995 retail) includes unlimited connections to XenApp/XenDesktop through the Access Gateway.  The “Universal” CALs (Access Gateway licenses) still exist, but now differentiate the VPN, Smart Access other traditional AG features.
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