Virtual Desktop Blog
Wednesday, 04 February 2009 14:37 | 
Author: Nico van Meurs | 
Rachel Zhu of NetApp is releasing a series of blogs about the integration of NetApp in Citrix XenDesktop environments. The Citrix Storage Delivery Services Agent is being used for this integrating the two products.
The first blog sums up the advantages of using NetApp in combination with XenDesktop. The most advantages can be held when you use a lot of "assigned" images in XenDesktop;
- Storage Efficiency - NetApp Deduplication and thin provisioning provide outstanding storage efficiency. Citrix is now part of the NetApp 50% guarantee program. Citrix NetApp adapter have the capability to do thin provisioning and deduplication.
- Rapid Deployments - Deploy thousands of VM in a few seconds by using Volume clone of a NFS volume. Use LUN clone in iSCSI or FCP deployment.
- Performance - PAM can improve disk read by 60%.
- Disaster Recovery - Use SnapMirror to protect your data (VMs, user data and images). XenServer uses snapshots to backup and recover a VM.
The next blog covers the actual integration of NetApp and XenDesktop.
Read the complete blog here.
The first blog sums up the advantages of using NetApp in combination with XenDesktop. The most advantages can be held when you use a lot of "assigned" images in XenDesktop;
- Storage Efficiency - NetApp Deduplication and thin provisioning provide outstanding storage efficiency. Citrix is now part of the NetApp 50% guarantee program. Citrix NetApp adapter have the capability to do thin provisioning and deduplication.
- Rapid Deployments - Deploy thousands of VM in a few seconds by using Volume clone of a NFS volume. Use LUN clone in iSCSI or FCP deployment.
- Performance - PAM can improve disk read by 60%.
- Disaster Recovery - Use SnapMirror to protect your data (VMs, user data and images). XenServer uses snapshots to backup and recover a VM.
The next blog covers the actual integration of NetApp and XenDesktop.
Read the complete blog here.
Comments (0)
Wednesday, 04 February 2009 14:31 | Author: Nico van Meurs |
Citrix just released a press release in which the enhancements of XenDesktop 3 are being announced. The biggest thing is the integration of the new HDX High definition technology which will, according to Citrix, dramatically improve the users experience for XenDesktop and XenApp. Citrix HDX builds on existing technology from the Citrix Delivery Center and consists the following;
- HDX MediaStream: Accelerates multimedia performance by sending compressed streams to endpoints and playing them locally.
- HDX RealTime: Enhances real-time communications using advanced bi-directional encoding and streaming technologies to ensure a no compromise end-user experience.
- HDX 3D: Optimizes the performance of everything from graphics-intensive 2D environments to advanced 3D geospatial applications using software and hardware based rendering in the datacenter and on the device.
- HDX Plug-n-Play: Enables simple connectivity for all local devices in a virtualized environment, including USB, multi-monitor, printers and user-installed peripherals.
- HDX Broadcast: Ensures reliable, high-performance acceleration of virtual desktops and applications over any network, including high-latency and low-bandwidth environments.
- HDX IntelliCache: Optimizes performance and network utilization for multiple users by caching bandwidth intensive data and graphics throughout the infrastructure and transparently delivering them as needed from the most efficient location.
Furthermore some cool new features are announced like the integration of the new Citrix Profile Manager. And the capability to manage the provisioning of physical pc's from XenDesktop.
The product will be available this month!
You can read the complete press release here.
Click here for the press release about the Citrix HDX technology.
- HDX MediaStream: Accelerates multimedia performance by sending compressed streams to endpoints and playing them locally.
- HDX RealTime: Enhances real-time communications using advanced bi-directional encoding and streaming technologies to ensure a no compromise end-user experience.
- HDX 3D: Optimizes the performance of everything from graphics-intensive 2D environments to advanced 3D geospatial applications using software and hardware based rendering in the datacenter and on the device.
- HDX Plug-n-Play: Enables simple connectivity for all local devices in a virtualized environment, including USB, multi-monitor, printers and user-installed peripherals.
- HDX Broadcast: Ensures reliable, high-performance acceleration of virtual desktops and applications over any network, including high-latency and low-bandwidth environments.
- HDX IntelliCache: Optimizes performance and network utilization for multiple users by caching bandwidth intensive data and graphics throughout the infrastructure and transparently delivering them as needed from the most efficient location.
Furthermore some cool new features are announced like the integration of the new Citrix Profile Manager. And the capability to manage the provisioning of physical pc's from XenDesktop.
The product will be available this month!
You can read the complete press release here.
Click here for the press release about the Citrix HDX technology.
Comments (0)
Friday, 30 January 2009 10:29 | Author: Nico van Meurs |
I just got certified on Citrix XenDesktop by passing the Citrix exam 1Y0-A03.. yeah! :)
For anyone who is planning to take this exam in the near future, here are my experiences:
The exam contains 60 questions. Most are multiple choise and a few are dragging and dropping certain tasks in the right order. I found the exam pretty easy. I passed with 79% without having any reallife experience with the product. I do have quite some experience with Provisioning Server and XenServer.
The exam covers the full XenDesktop suite, so this includes XenServer, Desktop Delivery Controller, Provisioning Server, XenApp, Access Gateway Standard and Wanscaler. Most of the questions are about XenServer, Desktop Delivery Controller and Provisioning Server. I think WanScaler only showed up in one question.
For the exam to pass, knowing the complete communication flow between all products is very important. You also need to know the exact role of any component and how this role fits in the complete suite.
As preparation for the exam I used the following documents;
- Desktop Delivery Controller Admin Guide
- Provisioning Server Admin Guide
- XenDesktop Getting Started Guide
- Best Practises XenDesktop with Provisioning Server
- XenServer Admin Guide
Next to that my advise is to install the product in a lab environment and play around with it a little. Make sure you run through the admin consoles and check every option. A lot of questions are about installing and configuring the product. When installing the product use the XenDesktop getting started guide, if you run through this guide you'll cover most of the questions being asked at the exam.So for anyone that's going to take the exam, good luck!! And feel free to let me know if this info was of any use…
For anyone who is planning to take this exam in the near future, here are my experiences:
The exam contains 60 questions. Most are multiple choise and a few are dragging and dropping certain tasks in the right order. I found the exam pretty easy. I passed with 79% without having any reallife experience with the product. I do have quite some experience with Provisioning Server and XenServer.
The exam covers the full XenDesktop suite, so this includes XenServer, Desktop Delivery Controller, Provisioning Server, XenApp, Access Gateway Standard and Wanscaler. Most of the questions are about XenServer, Desktop Delivery Controller and Provisioning Server. I think WanScaler only showed up in one question.
For the exam to pass, knowing the complete communication flow between all products is very important. You also need to know the exact role of any component and how this role fits in the complete suite.
As preparation for the exam I used the following documents;
- Desktop Delivery Controller Admin Guide
- Provisioning Server Admin Guide
- XenDesktop Getting Started Guide
- Best Practises XenDesktop with Provisioning Server
- XenServer Admin Guide
Next to that my advise is to install the product in a lab environment and play around with it a little. Make sure you run through the admin consoles and check every option. A lot of questions are about installing and configuring the product. When installing the product use the XenDesktop getting started guide, if you run through this guide you'll cover most of the questions being asked at the exam.So for anyone that's going to take the exam, good luck!! And feel free to let me know if this info was of any use…
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Monday, 26 January 2009 17:26 | Author: Nico van Meurs |
Citrix did a bunch of scalability tests on their XenDesktop product, the results of these tests are published in a XenDesktop 2.1 Scalability Analisys document. This document is very useful for companies that are currently in a PoC phase with XenDesktop and have questions about scalability of the product before rolling out to production.
The document covers the Platinum edition of XenDesktop, so this includes Provisioning Server and the modified version of XenApp. EdgeSite for Loadtesting is being used for stresstesting of the environment.
They also released this document for customizing EdgeSite for Loadtesting to work with XenDesktop.
While reading through the document I noticed something odd; for stresstesting on the XenDesktop workstations scripts are being used to emulate user workload by doing some standard tasks in products like Word, Excel etc.. Only this software is actually not installed or streamed to the XenDesktop workstations, but published from XenApp. So this means that most of the user workload is being processed on the XenApp server instead of the workstations.
But as the scalability of XenServer (as in how many workstations can I host per server) depends a lot on your application set, these numbers are quite relative anyway. More important are the results about the Desktop Delivery Controller and Provisioning Server, because these results are not binded to a certain application/user scenario they can be used in any environment.
The complete document can be downloaded here.
The document covers the Platinum edition of XenDesktop, so this includes Provisioning Server and the modified version of XenApp. EdgeSite for Loadtesting is being used for stresstesting of the environment.
They also released this document for customizing EdgeSite for Loadtesting to work with XenDesktop.
While reading through the document I noticed something odd; for stresstesting on the XenDesktop workstations scripts are being used to emulate user workload by doing some standard tasks in products like Word, Excel etc.. Only this software is actually not installed or streamed to the XenDesktop workstations, but published from XenApp. So this means that most of the user workload is being processed on the XenApp server instead of the workstations.
But as the scalability of XenServer (as in how many workstations can I host per server) depends a lot on your application set, these numbers are quite relative anyway. More important are the results about the Desktop Delivery Controller and Provisioning Server, because these results are not binded to a certain application/user scenario they can be used in any environment.
The complete document can be downloaded here.
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Thursday, 22 January 2009 16:14 | Author: Nico van Meurs |
Project Virtual Reality Check (VRC) is a joint venture of Log•in Consultants and PQR, who have researched the optimal configuration for the different available hypervisors (hardware virtualization layers). The project arises from the growing demand for a founded advice on how to virtualise Terminal Server and Virtual Desktop (VDI) workloads. Through a number of researches, Log•in Consultants and PQR show you the scaling possibilities for Terminal Server environments as well as Virtual Desktops.
The results of these researches are being published in a serie of whitepapers. The first whitepapers are available for download as of today!
- XenServer Platform Performance Index v1.0
- VMWare Platform Performance Index v1.0
- Hyper-V Platform Performance Index v1.0
- Bare-Metal Platform Performance Index v1.0
The Project Virtual Reality Check website can be visited here.
Before you can download the whitepapers you have to register.
The results of these researches are being published in a serie of whitepapers. The first whitepapers are available for download as of today!
- XenServer Platform Performance Index v1.0
- VMWare Platform Performance Index v1.0
- Hyper-V Platform Performance Index v1.0
- Bare-Metal Platform Performance Index v1.0
The Project Virtual Reality Check website can be visited here.
Before you can download the whitepapers you have to register.
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Friday, 16 January 2009 13:14 | Author: Nico van Meurs |
Intell Published a a case study from a global financial services firm that’s currently implementing a new workstation infrastructure, in which Citrix Provisioning Server is used to provision over 100.000 (thick and thin) workstations!! This is probably the largest Provisioning Server implementation ever…Next to Provisioning Server, Microsoft App-V and Appsense Environment Manager are being used for application streaming and user personalization.
The new infrastructure comes in place of their current VDI environment. With the use of Provisioning Server they plan to solve the issues and complexities they experience in their VDI implementation, like;
- No full support for USB devices
- Multimedia performance
- Scalability issues
The Case Study can be downloaded here.
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) and is still busy designing and implementing SBC and VDI environments at customers, based on Citrix products. Besides consultancy Eelco is frequently asked for troubleshooting jobs and infrastructural challenges.