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#Citrix #Receiver 3.4 and 11.7 = is the #SmartAccess story more real now? – #CloudGateway, #AGEE, #NetScaler, #StoreFront
Citrix has now released version 3.4 of the Receiver for Mac and Windows, but what is the main added value with this release?
First of I’d like to ask you to review my previous post where I questioned the Citrix SmartAccess story that I believe is not there end-to-end and that really is a lacking feature for scenarios where you’d for instance want to support more BYOD models etc. You need to determine the person accessing the service and also what what type of device it is, trusted or not etc. And I in the previous post I argued that Citrix doesn’t deliver according to their SmartAccess story;
#Citrix #SmartAccess = A complete story or not? – #NetScaler #AGEE #EPA
And for you that haven’t read about the new Receiver 11.7 or OS X and 3.4 for Windows check these posts:
Receiver for Windows 3.4 released
Receiver for Mac 11.7 Released
The table below is from the previous SmartAccess post and my theoretical review right now is that the SmartAccess story for Windows and Mac OS X clients have improved. As you can see in the two rows for Receiver 3.3 and 11.6 where you would access through a Receiver through an AGEE you would NOT be able to perform host checks using the EPA scans.
This was just not possible though the native Receiver didn’t have that capability to trigger the EPA scans. And the EPA plugin itself was not available in the native Receiver on the OS X, it was bundled into the Access Gateway plugin.
| Client | Access method | EPA/Host-check possible on AGEE | Comment |
| Windows with Citrix Receiver for Windows 3.3 | Receiver 3.3 | NO | You’ll never be able to do host-checks on this device if Receiver access is used due to that the Receiver does not have EPA scan capabilities. |
| Windows with Citrix Receiver for Windows 3.4 | Receiver 3.4 | YES | Now when the Receiver is communicating with the Access Gateway plugin and shares login credentials then you can leverage the AGEE plugin to perform EPA scans and then allow different session policies and profiles depending on the EPA scan result, and at the same time of course also pass that through to StoreFront/WI and into XenApp/XenDesktop.It does however then require that you get the AGEE plugin installed on the devices, which may be another dilemma… |
| OS X with Citrix Receiver for Mac 11.6 | Receiver 11.6 | NO | You’ll never be able to do host-checks on this device if Receiver access is used due to that the Receiver does not have EPA scan capabilities. |
| OS X with Citrix Receiver for Mac 11.7 | Receiver 11.7 | YES | Now when the Receiver is communicating with the Access Gateway plugin and shares login credentials then you can leverage the AGEE plugin to perform EPA scans and then allow different session policies and profiles depending on the EPA scan result, and at the same time of course also pass that through to StoreFront/WI and into XenApp/XenDesktop.It does however then require that you get the AGEE plugin installed on the devices, which may be another dilemma… |
Try it! – Profile Management Configuration Check Tool (UPMConfigCheck)
Ok, how often don’t you hear or see that technology just have been implemented with the “Next -> Next -> Finish” methodology? Now Citrix has introduced a tool to check whether you’ve configured your environment the most optimal way or not! Great!
“UPMConfigCheck is a PowerShell script that examines a live Profile management system and determines whether it is optimally configured.
UPMConfigCheck requires PowerShell 2. UPMConfigCheck is designed to run on XenApp servers and on XenDesktop virtual desktops with Profile management installed. Supported operating systems are the same as for Profile management.
These include:
• Windows XP
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Server 2008 / Windows Server 2008 R2
32-bit and 64-bit operating system versions, where available, are supported.”
Download it here and here you find a good blog post about it!
//Richard
Analysts: Windows 8 downgrade rights crucial to success
It’s an interesting point of view! Do you think that Win8 has the risk of becoming Microsofts next “Vista”?
Unless they really pull things off and gets Surface, app developers and Metro usable then I can certainly see that it may be a risk. I for sure didn’t like it but perhaps it just takes time to get used to, but is it then a success? It didn’t take many minutes to fall in love with OS X and my MacBook Air!
Analysts: Windows 8 downgrade rights crucial to success
Only future will tell…
//Richard
The IT Melting Pot! 