Archive
VRC white paper about impact of AV on VDI performance – @LoginVSI, @LoginConsultant
New VRC white paper about impact of antivirus on VDI performance
The independent research initiative Project Virtual Reality Check (VRC) released the long awaited ‘Phase V’ white paper which provides new insights in the impact and best practices of various antivirus solutions on VDI performance.
By testing and comparing different solutions and configurations Project VRC discovered the best practice to perform a pre-scan of the master image before deployment.
Another key finding is that antivirus off-loading architectures makes a big difference from a storage IO point of view, but not always from a session density point of view.
This Project VRC white paper with all Login VSI test results and best practices can be downloaded for free here:
Download the Project VRC white paper
Read other white papers based on tests with Login VSI
//Richard
#Citrix #NetScaler 10 Build 73.5 released
Citrix has released yet another build….
These are the release notes:
Build 73.5
Replaces build: None
Release date: January 2013
Release notes version: 1.0
Language supported: English (US)
Changes and Fixes
Access Gateway
- Documentation: Starting with this maintenance release, for Access Gateway issues, see http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133966.
Application Firewall
- Issue ID 0348647: On a NetScaler appliance that has the application firewall configured, if the client sends a web form with data that contains a plus sign (+), that form field triggers a form field consistency violation. This applies for data that the user types into the form, and for data in hidden fields that was generated by a javascript or sent to the user from the server. To work around this issue, ensure that no field contains a plus sign, or temporarily disable blocking for the form field consistency check.
- Issue ID 0354289: On a NetScaler appliance that has the application firewall configured, chunked requests sent by mobile devices to XML services might receive 400-level HTTP responses.
Configuration Utility
- Issue ID 0324797: The NetScaler configuration utility does not display the queue depth value for the configured priority queuing policies. This issue is observed only in a cluster setup.
- Issue ID 0334292: If you navigate to HTTP Compression >..
Continue reading release notes here!
//Richard
OpenStack vs CloudStack: The Latest Score – #CloudStack, #OpenStack
A little update below from Joe Panettieri, good reading! And thanks Oded Nahum for sharing!
And I must agree that I would not count out CloudStack! 😉
OpenStack vs CloudStack: The Latest Score
OpenStack remains the largest and most active open source cloud computing project, Network World notes. But research from Chinese blogger Qingye “John” Jiangsuggests that momentum is building for CloudStack, and interest in Eucalyptus and OpenNebula remains strong. For cloud services providers (CSPs) and consultants, it’s critically important to track each of the four open source cloud platforms. Here’s why.
During Q4 2012, interest in CloudStack grew faster than rival open source cloud platforms. But Jiang’s data shows that:
- OpenStack has the largest total population, followed by Eucalyptus, CloudStack, and OpenNebula;
- OpenStack has the largest active population during the past quarter, followed by CloudStack, Eucalyptus, and OpenNebula;
- OpenStack has the largest active population during the past month, followed by CloudStack, Eucalyptus, and OpenNebula.
Partner Views
Those findings are important to CSPs and consultants that are selecting cloud platforms upon which to build services. OpenStack has been the poster child for open source cloud computing for more than a year now but the bandwagon has some challenges.
Dell, for one, says OpenStack lacks maturity and the hardware giant won’t launch its public cloud (based on OpenStack) for roughly a year. Dell also alleges that Hewlett-Packard’s own public cloud uses a “dramatically forked” version of OpenStack containing proprietary HP technology.
Still, OpenStack consulting opportunities seem to be emerging rapidly. Mirantis, for instance, has emeged as the largest OpenStack systems integrator. The company’s clientele apparently includes Cisco, Dell, GE, Agilent, NASA, HP, AT&T, The Gap, Axcient and Nexenta.
Moreover, Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) continues to see OpenStack progress. CTO John Engates recently offered his perspectives — including some OpenStack milestones — to ZDnet.
Here Comes CloudStack
Meanwhile, it has been awhile since I’ve heard from the CloudStack community. But the CloudStack chatter will likely grow very loud…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers – #Citrix, #NetScaler, #F5
The application delivery controller has evolved into a key component of the data center architecture, and enterprises should evaluate ADCs based on how they integrate with this architecture and support more-advanced features, such as user and traffic control and monitoring.
Market Definition/Description
Application delivery controllers (ADCs) provide functions that optimize enterprise application environments. The market evolved from the load-balancing systems that were specifically developed to ensure the availability and scalability of websites. Enterprises use ADCs to optimize reliability, end-user performance, data center resource use and security for a variety of enterprise applications.
Magic Quadrant
Source: Gartner (October 2012)
Vendor Strengths and Cautions
A10 Networks
A10 continues to gain market share and brand awareness, especially in Asia, and it is aggressively targeting the North American market. Its product development has placed focus on developing a scalable high-performance platform with a strong feature set but a more limited focus on establishing a data center architectural vision. While strong in its product focus, A10 has demonstrated more limited innovation and still has a more narrow feature support than leading vendors. A10 is a good choice for enterprises seeking a cost-effective…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
Get Ahead with AppDNA – Free Training Available – #Citrix, #AppDNA
Yes, it’s free training for partners!!! Go get it!
Give yourself a head start in 2013 – Register for the free AppDNA course “Simplifying Application Migration with Citrix AppDNA 6.1″
If your organization needs to understand AppDNA software or plans to add the AppDNA product to the sales portfolio, then this 4-hour online course – complete with a virtual lab environment – is for you! Understand the value of AppDNA application migration software, including how to successfully implement it and accelerate customer migrations.
This course is available to partners at no cost through March 31, 2013. Register today and start…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
Jan. Edition of XenDesktop Technical Newsletter Now Available – #XenDesktop, #Citrix
It’s out again with more exciting topics! Check it out!!!
Using XenDesktop? Then you need to get the XenDesktop Technical Newsletter! The newsletter is comprised of the best technical resources from across Citrix Services: Consulting, Technical Support, Education, and Technical Readiness. In its third year the newsletter is designed to help customers run their XenDesktop optimally and get more out of their investment in Citrix desktop virtualization. And its FREE!
I am pleased to announce that the January 2013 edition of the newsletter is now available.
Check out the archive page, where you can access both the current and past issues, as well as subscribe to the FREE monthly newsletter.
The January edition of the newsletter is packed with great content, including:
- Optimal XenApp 6.5 VM Configuration (Blog)
- Introduction to the new Project Accelerator (Blog)
- Deploying XenApp 6.5 using PVS (Blog)
- Insider Troubleshooting tips for Administrators (eBook)
- Whats new with Excalibur (Blog)
- Top Knowledge Center content for December 2012 (Articles, hotfixes, whitepapers, etc…)
- How to configure Access Gateway 5 standalone for use with XD5 (tech note)
- XenDesktop Tools & Hotfixes
- And much more.
If you have any..
Continue reading here!
//Richard
Webinar – #Citrix Mobile Device Management – #CloudGateway – @RobSanders
How to secure native iOS and Android email as well as other apps for business use
Thursday, 24th January 2013, 3:00pm GMT (4:00pm CET)
Citrix provides two new mobile apps to support mobile workers with secure email and web browsing on their BYO and corporate mobile devices – @WorkMail and @WorkWeb.Come to this technical webinar to learn more about how these and other native iOS and Android applications can be securely distributed and managed for your business.
Topics include:
- Managing, securing and controlling web and native mobile applications and data
- Secure mobile containers
- Seamless app integration
- Policy-based access controls
- Application-specific Micro VPN
This live webinar presented by Rob Sanders and will be followed by a live Q&A session.
Space is limited.
Register here!
//Richard
#Citrix #XenApp 6.5 Hosted Shared Desktop Sizing Example
Great Citrix blog post series from Andy Baker!
In this blog series I’m taking a look at scalability considerations for XenApp 6.5 Hosted Shared Desktops, specifically:
- How to estimate XenApp 6.5 Hosted Shared Desktop scalability
- What’s the optimal XenApp 6.5 VM specification?
- XenApp 6.5 Hosted Shared Desktop sizing example
My last post provided guidance on the optimal XenApp virtual machine specification. Now in the last post of the series, I’m going to walk through an example sizing exercise.
Scenario
Company ABC recently completed a user segmentation exercise. The following table includes 8 user groups that have been identified as good candidates for a Hosted Shared Desktop. None of these user groups requires the ability to install applications or the ability to customize their desktop beyond profile based changes. Three separate Provisioning Services images will be created due to application compatibility conflicts identified by Citrix AppDNA.
With Hosted Shared Desktops, it is important to consider the ‘Maximum Number of Concurrent Users’ column rather than the ‘Total Number of Users’ column. Sizing the environment for concurrency rather than the total number of users will help to reduce infrastructure costs without affecting performance or availability.
Sufficient redundancy should be incorporated into the sizing estimate so that a single XenApp server or virtualization host failure does not affect the total number of concurrent users that can be supported (n+1).
Company ABC wishes to use their standard hardware specification…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
#Citrix Knowledge Center Top 10 – December 2012
Citrix Support is focused on ensuring Customer and Partner satisfaction with our products.
One of our initiatives is to increase the ability of our Partners and Customers to leverage self-service avenues via our Knowledge Center.
Find below the Citrix Knowledge Center Top 10 for December 2012.
Top 10 Technical Articles
| Article Number | Article Title |
|---|---|
| CTX129229 | Recommended Hotfixes for XenApp 6.0 and Later on Windows Server 2008 R2 |
| CTX129082 | Application Launch Fails with Web Interface using Internet Explorer 9 |
| CTX132875 | Citrix Receiver Error 2320 |
| CTX804493 | Users Prompted to Download ICA File, Launch.ica, Instead of Launching the Connection |
| CTX105793 | Error: Cannot connect to the Citrix server. Protocol Driver Error |
| CTX133997 | Citrix Receiver 3.x – Issues Fixed in This Release |
| CTX127030 | Citrix Guidelines for Antivirus Software Configuration |
| CTX101644 | Seamless Configuration Settings |
| CTX676151 | How to Install the Citrix ICA Web Clien |
| CTX325140 | Manually and Safely Removing Files that might remain on a System |
Top 10 Whitepapers
| Article Number | Article Title |
|---|---|
| CTX131577 | XenApp 6.x (Windows 2008 R2) – Optimization Guide |
| CTX132799 | XenDesktop and XenApp Best Practices |
| CTX101997 | Citrix Secure Gateway Secure Ticket Authority Frequently Asked Questions |
| CTX133185 | Citrix CloudGateway Express 2.0 – Implementation Guide |
| CTX129761 | XenApp Planning Guide – Virtualization Best Practices |
| CTX134943 | XenDesktop and XenApp Printing – Planning Guide |
| CTX122978 | XenServer: Understanding Snapshots |
| CTX134081 | Planning Guide – Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop Policies |
| CTX128277 | Logon Optimization Guide – XenApp/XenDesktop |
| CTX110351 | User Profile Best Practices for MetaFrame Presentation Server |
Top 10 Hotfixes
| Article Number | Article Title |
|---|---|
| CTX132122 | Hotfix Rollup Pack 1 for Citrix XenApp 6.5 for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 |
| CTX126653 | Citrix Online Plug-in 12.1.44 for Windows with Internet Explorer 9 Support |
| CTX133066 | 12.3 Online Plug-In – Issues Fixed in This Release |
| CTX133882 | Hotfix Rollup Pack 2 for Citrix XenApp 6 for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 |
| CTX135025 | Hotfix XA650R01W2K8R2X64033- For Citrix XenApp 6.5 for Windows Server 2008 R2 |
| CTX116550 | Credential Handling Weakness in Presentation Server Client for Windows |
| CTX135709 | Hotfix XS61E006 – For XenServer 6.1.0 |
Continue reading here!
//Richard
Free eBook – Secrets of the #Citrix Support Ninjas – #XenApp, #XenDesktop, #NetScaler
Secrets of the Citrix Support Ninjas
So we decided to pick their brains and gather a bunch of ‘power tips’ to help administrators like you run better Citrix environments.
The result is this free eBook: Secrets of the Support Ninjas.
It’s a quick, easy-to-browse collection of insider tips and tricks from the people who know best – organized by four products: XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer and NetScaler.
If you only take away a single tip to help you run your environment, it’ll be well worth the download…
Download here!
//Richard
The IT Melting Pot! 