My ramblings on technology, faith, music and life in general..

Vmware published an article  a couple of days back on how they believe Thinapp and VMware View enhances Xenapp. My personal belief, on the contrary is that XenApp ELIMINATES the need for View and Thinapp in a lot of  use cases. In many scenarios, customers want “VDI” without really understanding whether it is the right fit and without understanding what else is out there. I will save this argument for another day, but for now, I want to try and go through VMware’s claims on why they feel View and ThinApp enhance XenApp:

1. “Requires only a single application instance: With ThinApp in a XenApp implementation, you need only one copy of the virtualized application stored on a ThinApp file share. With other applications presented with XenApp, you must install the same application on each of the XenApp Servers in your server farm, and each of these native installations must be individually maintained.”  

This claim is totally FALSE. XenApp includes an application streaming utility known as the Application Streaming profiler which I consider to be ThinApp on steroids. There is no need to install the same application on every XenApp server. Application streaming profiles can be stored on file shares just like ThinApp and deployed to servers. To take it a step further, the security model around the delivery of app streaming profile packages is a lot better. Based on my experience with ThinApp, it is great for virtualizing stand alone applications, but when it comes to cross linkages or any application that goes beyond a snapshot, it gets very complex with ThinApp. The application streaming profiler is a much more robust tool.

In addition to the application streaming profiler, the XenApp platinum license also includes Citrix Provisioning Server which provides the ability to have one golden image streamed to thousands of XenApp servers. So when there is an application update that needs to be rolled out to large number of servers, you only need to update the golden image.

2. “Application conflict is eliminated: To avoid application conflicts, Citrix isolates applications from each other via XenApp silos, which requires additional hardware. ThinApp isolates applications with software, not hardware. ThinApp virtual applications are isolated from each other and therefore can be placed on the same XenApp Server.”

Again this is FALSE.  XenApp provides multiple ways of addressing application conflicts. One way is to create silos or worker groups which host certain applications. The other method is to use application streaming profiles to co host conflicting applications on the same XenApp server. For instance you can run Office 2010 and Office 2007 on the same server, or IE 6 and IE 8.

3.  ”Recovery is simpler: If a XenApp Server fails, you have to reinstall the XenApp server. However, if you have stored your virtual applications separately on a ThinApp file share, you have only the baseline XenApp server to reinstall, and you do not have to reinstall the applications.”

My response to the first claim addresses this as well, but to summarize, all of what can be done with ThinApp can be achieved with application streaming profiles. In addition with the help of Provisioning services, we can easily provision additional XenApp servers within minutes since all the servers can boot off the same golden image that is streamed to the server.

4. “Updates are simpler and faster with ThinApp: With a standard Citrix XenApp setup, you must update each natively installed application on each XenApp Server, and you need to take each server offline to update the applications. If you use ThinApp to virtualize applications, you update only the single application on the file share, and ThinApp applications can be updated automatically while in use.”

This once again is a repetition and is already addressed above. Application streaming profiles can also be updated while the application is in use.

5. ThinApp can virtualize IE6, and the migration to Windows 7 is eased: ThinApp allows you to virtualize Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), and you can package IE6 along with a legacy application that depends upon IE6 or an older version of Java. Users can run virtual IE6 alongside a later version of native IE on the same desktop. The migration to Windows 7 or to later Windows versions becomes easier if you have the option of carrying forward any IE6-dependent legacy applications.

Application streaming has the same functionality. In fact, application linkage is a lot easier in the application streaming profiler as compared to ThinApp thanks to Inter-Isolation profiles. One of the clients I was recently working at (which by the way was a VMware shop with NO citrix) wanted to evaluate ThinApp and Application streaming profiler. After seeing the complexity of application linkage in ThinApp, which includes text file editing among other things, they decided to to give XenApp application streaming profiler a shot. We got the application packaged and deployed in less than an hour. They had invested over 10 hrs on ThinApp and failed.

So while XenApp can definitely do IE 6 linked to other legacy apps, the important point is that we can virtualize a lot more legacy apps that are complex in nature as compared to ThinApp.

6. ”Users have their own desktops, with their own operating system and applications: XenApp provides users with a shared operating system and shared applications, and users can conflict with each other. VMware View provides users with their own desktop environments, with their own operating system instance and their own applications. Users do not conflict with each other.”

I am not sure how this claim proves that “VIEW ENHANCES XENAPP”. XenApp does provide users with a shared operation system, but users run their own instances of application within their session. The claim that users conflict with each other is FALSE! Published desktops in XenApp has been around a long time and is a proven solution. Users can have their own customization using profile management solutions. The look and feel can be completely skinned to look like a desktop operating system. This is much more cost effective as compared to a solution like VMware View. Not to mention, if we want to talk apples for apples, Citrix does offer XenDesktop!

7.”You can eliminate physical desktops and cut costs: Eliminating the maintenance of physical desktops saves time and money. See The Business Case for Desktop Virtualization.”

HUH? And XenApp does not? I thought the whole premise of using XenApp is to virtualize your applications and thereby reduce costs on desktop hardware refresh!

8. “The underlying infrastructure is familiar: If you have used VMware vSphere to virtualize your XenApp Servers, you can use your vSphere expertise to run View virtual desktops on the familiar infrastructure.”

Ah! I was waiting for this one. VMware’s favorite point to convince customers to go View! Just like View, XenDesktop also runs on vSphere. Oh but wait, XenDesktop also runs on XenServer and Hyper-V! In addition, in a lot cases, there wont be a need for View or XenDesktop when XenApp is in place!

Bottom line is that View and ThinApp by NO MEANS enhances XenApp. If anything, XenApp eliminates the need for View and Thinapp in a lot of scenarios.

The Beyond Carlton movement has been in force for almost two years now, with the second anniversary of the fire tragedy coming up on Feb 23, 2012. This song is the theme song of the movement. It is a ‘trilingual’, with Hindi, English and a regional language that will help adapt it for various states/regions. We’ve started with Malayalam, with Rahul Soman wielding the pen, and Tamil and Kannada versions are under development.

Please visit and ‘like’ Beyond Carlton’s Facebook Page and express your solidarity with a cause that is as much yours as it is ours.

Music and English/Hindi lyrics: Nitin Dubey
Malayalam lyrics: Rahul Soman
English Vocals and harmonies: George Kuruvilla
Hindi and Malayalam vocals: KB Unnikrishnan
Electric lead and rhythm guitars: Sudeip Ghosh
Bass guitar, acoustic rhythm guitars, drum programming and piano: Nitin Dubey
Additional vocals: Navin Prabhakar and Arunaditya Basu
Special thanks: Sanour Sunny

I am pleased on post an original composition that I worked on in 2011. It is called Mere Dil Mein. The song and credits can be found at the link below. Do provide your feedback!

http://blogswara.in/bls/2012/01/01-mere-dil-mein-hindienglish/

For the past two years, I have only been posting my work on Muziboo, Facebook and Soundcloud. Going forward, my blog and facebook will be the primary source for all my music. I have a number of original compositions on the way, but to get things started, I thought I would post some of my most recent work. Enjoy!

You are My King (Chris Tomlin)

Dirty Diana (Michael Jackson)

Sau Gram Zindagi (Guzaarish)

Forbidden Colors (ryuichi sakamoto)

Everything (Michael Buble)

Earth Song (Michael Jackson)

Rocketeer (Far East Movement)

As cliche’d as this sounds, its hard to imagine that its been a year since Gaby was born. Roshan and I feel so blessed and grateful to God for all the happiness that Gaby has brought to our lives. Every day is an adventure as she learns something new. Now she walks, says words like book, light, calls me Dada, calls Roshan, Mimi, screams in perfect pitch and louder than anyone else in church, her innocent smile is the highlight of our day. While I am on the train on my way back home, all I think about is how she’s going to greet me that night. She has totally changed our life and its been the most amazing year! A lot of you have been following Gaby’s growth and have been very supportive. Roshan and Iwant to thank you for the same. Below are pics from her Birthday Parties.

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Over the past month of so, I’ve been troubleshooting an issue that I felt I should blog about. What we would notice was that when Exchange receives emails with attachments, it took an awfully long time to forward the email to the smart host. An email with a 1Mb attachment would typically take between 10-15 minutes to be delivered to the external recipient. The issue only occurred when send emails to external domains via the smart host. To make things worse, while the mail with the attachment was processed, all other emails would be queued up.

To figure out exactly where the slowness was occuring, I decided to try a different smart host. We noticed that mail delivery was working perfectly with the new smart host. So my initial theory was that this was a smart host specific issue. After opening a ticket with the vendor, they informed me that they believe its an Exchange issue (surprise surprise!).  They sent me debug logs which showed that Exchange would open up an SMTP connection and just keep it open for 10 minutes before actually send ing the data to the smart host. What puzzled me was why I was not seeing the same behavior with the other smart host. You would think that if it was an Exchange bottleneck, the behavior should not be any different irrespective of the smart host.

So I finally decided to do a packet capture on the Exchange Hub Transport server. To my surprise I noticed that all the SMTP traffic including the MIME traffic was fully encrypted. So I quickly checked the Send connector and Smart host authentication was completely turned off. This really confused me as there are no other obvious settings to turn off TLS authentication. I wanted to rule out the possibility that encryption is the cause for slowness. So I did some research and found this article:

http://webbanshee.blogspot.com/2009/09/disable-tls-in-exchange-2007.html

For those who want a summary of the article, Exchange 2010 Hub Transport enables TLS encryption on the Send connectors by default and even if the setting is disabled in EMC, it is not truly disabled. To disable the setting, you need to use powershell and type the following commands:

Get-SendConnector | FL

This will list all the Send Connectors that are configured within the Exchange environment. The next step is to determine the send connector that is being used and look for the IgnoreStartTLS setting. If this setting is set to False (which is true by default), TLS encryption is enabled. This was true in our case. To disable TLS encryption for the send connector, issue the following command:

Set-SendConnector -Identity “Name of Send Connector” -IgnoreStartTLS: $TRUE

After issuing this command, restart the MS Exchange Transport Service. After I did this, mail flow was smooth and mails with very large attachments would take just a few seconds to forward to the smart host.

My conclusion was that there was some issue with TLS encryption between our smarthost and Exchange. We had TLS encryption enabled between Exchange and the second smart host as well and we did not face the same issues. So it seems isolated to the Sonicwall smart host in question.

All in all it was a good feeling to resolve the issue using packet captures. As they say, a packet capture never lies!

Last couple of months have been excruciatingly painful. After about 2.5 yrs of hibernation, I decided to finally wake up and update my certifications and get some new ones as well. It all started with the process of updating my Citrix certifications, but sometime in July, I realized that the PMP examination is changing by the end of August. So I decided I am going to try to get that out of the way as well (STUPID ME!) So I completed the application (which needs to be approved and in some cases also gets audited) and signed up for the exam (against my wife’s recommendation as she felt I did not have enough time to prepare). Just for the record, I think it was one of the dumbest decisions I made, but since I made it, I had to make sure I passed the exam and not lose face in front of my wife (who by the way is always right when it comes to such things).

So it was August 1st. I had two Citrix exams still pending and the PMP. Not to mention regular work from 8-5 and be on call, the baby, and a million other things. I started looking through the course contents for the exam and it was obvious that this is not like the technical certifications that I am used to where by experience, you can still get through with some preparation. The PMP requires a LOT (and I mean a LOT) of hardwork. There is quite a bit to memorize, there is some math, the questions are very wordy, tricky and confusing. Not to mention the exam is also a test of endurance considering you have to attempt 200 questions . I realized that there is no way in hell I am going to achieve this without a gameplan. In order to have a fair shot at passing this exam, I needed to prepare for the exam in a systematic fashion and make a schedule. Somewhere along the way, I made a decision that if I were to pass the exam with my model, I will blog about it and hopefully help others in the process.

The Material

I primarily relied on one book for the entire preparation (partly because I did not have time to read a gazillion books) - Rita Mulcahy’s PMP Exam Prep, Sixth Edition. This book is one of the best exam prep books I have read and has a wealth of information. Even if you do not plan to do the exam, I would recommend every professional who is involved in projects on a regular basis to read this book. There is a lot to gain and I assure you that the way you think about a project lifecycle will change.

In addition to the book, I had some cheat sheets with formulas and key theories (points that are  hard to remember) and a lot of mock questions. PM FastTrack is something you should consider as far as mock questions go. I probably attempted around 3500 questions in 27 days.

The Strategy

The basis of my gameplan was to have milestones for each day to keep monitoring my progress and adjust the schedule accordingly  and also a checkpoint to decide whether I should carry through with this exam or not. My goal for each day was to do a minimum of 100 mock questions, revise my cheat sheets, complete one module of Rita’s book and review questions at the back of the chapter and make condensed notes for the chapter.  I decided that my checkpoint was going to be Aug 22nd, which is when I would decide if I was going ahead with the exam or cancelling it. The way I would decided was based on my mock test scores. If by that point, I was scoring 70% or higher, I felt I had a good chance of passing the test and would go through with it. If not, I would cancel it. I also wanted to develop my schedule such that I had one week to revise. I only wanted to review my condensed notes, mock questions and cheat sheets the last week.

The Execution

Believe me when I tell you that it looks easy when you develop the schedule, but actually executing this schedule was one of the hardest things I have done. My wife had to make a lot of sacrifices to make this work and I hardly got to see my baby. Without their support, there is no chance in hell I could have done this. My preparation would start around 7:40am in the train, when I would try to do 50 mock questions. I would typically find time to do another 30-50 during the day and another 50 on my way back from work on the train. I would get home, and try to sit to study by 8:30pm, finish one module, including notes. (typically 2.5 hrs) and do the questions related to that module. So overall, I would do around 150 questions a day. After having done the test, I feel that the mock tests helped me a great deal in training my brain to see through all the clutter and filter out only the relevant information. I also felt that the notes that I made helped me immensely the last week of preparation and I would urge everyone who takes this test to do the same. Prior to August 6th, my studying was more ad-hoc, reviewing PMP forums on the internet, doing mock tests, watching training videos etc.

My Tips for the Exam

So this section is a summary of the lessons learned (a project close process in PMI language, and since this is the project close process in my PMP ordeal, I decided to use this term):

• Spend plenty of time doing mock tests. I would recommend doing 50-100 questions every day. Do not do questions just from one chapter. Try to attempt all knowledge areas. By the time you sit for the exam, you should have attempted at least 2000 questions.
• Try to read Rita’s book at least twice before attempting the exam.
• Make condensed notes for each of the chapters. Try to focus on just the points while making the notes and not wordy explanations as the whole idea of the notes is revision prior to the exam and trying to recollect the details in your head.
• Review key concepts that you find hard to remember on a daily or weekly basis.
• Spend most time on the Execution and Monitoring and Controlling phases  as that is where a majority of the questions come from.
• Dont get too paranoid over the Earned Value Analysis calculations. They are actually quite simple and hardly 6 questions show up in the exam.
• MEMORIZE the inputs and outputs to each of the processes. I found this very hard to do.
• Have a process in place for your preparation and try to make a schedule. Please allow plenty of time for revision. I would recommend at least a week.
• I attempted the exam after a full day of work (from 5 to 9:30pm). I would strongly recommend that you attempt the exam with a clear head, first thing in the morning if possible.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I would not recommend trying to attempt the PMP in 27 days. The amount of prep time totally depends on your experience, but I think you need a minimum of 2 months to have a good chance of passing. With that said, if you have no choice but to attempt the exam the way I did, the above strategy should help Regardless of how long you take to prepare, I hope this post provides some general guidelines and helps you when you take the exam. Good luck!

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It was a Friday morning.

Although I do not remember the exact date, it was in May 2005 that I received a call early in the morning. I had just returned late during the night before  from  a business trip abroad and was  initially a bit reluctant to pick up the phone. Yet, I thought I will answer the phone  and request the caller to call me later.

“Praise the Lord!”, said the caller before introducing himself as K.K.James  from  Bahrain. The voice was so warm and friendly that I did not feel  like asking him to call me  later! Instead, the call lasted  over one and a half hours or so and in the end, I realized I had developed a close bond with James.

Thereafter, we used to  exchange telephone calls more frequently and it had become a daily routine especially after Vineeth and  Roshan  got married. I got to know James and his family  at close quarters during the period that followed, the turn of events  from the time  their darling daughter Jamie  took ill which eventually  turned out to be leukaemia, the long stays in CMC Hospital, Vellore and  RCC Trivandrum that brought them face to face with the misery and suffering of the unfortunate , the meditation and prayer sessions including retreat sessions at Potta  Retreat Center, the final moments when  they bade farewell to dear Jamie holding her in his arms………….and how they dedicated the rest of their lives in the service of the dear Lord, working  much of their off-duty time among hospital patients, the poor and the needy, irrespective  of  religion, caste or creed doing selfless service  and sacrifice in terms of time, effort and money! Many friends of mine in Bahrain have spoken volumes about the selfless service  rendered by James and  Jessie to the needy, the sick and the  suffering, and those in distress.

In fact, James  explained to me how the pain and suffering that they personally experienced when their dear daughter  was ailing, (and eventually left this world) brought them close to Christ and how this cast a burden on them towards bringing people to Christ before they need Him without the need for having to pay a heavy price for that! ’”Am  I my brother’s keeper ?”, Cain retorted to God when He asked him “Where’s your  brother Abel?”.  James and Jessie believed that they had a duty of care and concern  for the less fortunate, the sick and the suffering, the un-employed and the under-employed, those who had lost their jobs/visas, those who were bereaved…..the list is endless! All their efforts during the last over 10 years of James and his family  were towards reaching  out succour to the suffering and wiping the tears of the distressed! It was their daily routine to spend at least  6 hours on a typical working day, after office hours ,to visit hospitals and homes, extending support and solace to the sick and the suffering, Even during the days that he spent as an inpatient in Sree Chitra Institute, I remember the painstaking efforts that James took towards extending financial support for facilitating heart-surgery for his fellow inpatient.

The tremendous amount of energy  and enthusiasm that flowed from a compassionate heart driven by a concern for people and winning more souls for His kingdom seems to be the real reason for James’ fast paced life towards the last 10 years of his life. Alongside his humanitarian work, James and his family got  closely involved in the  ‘Thursday Prayer Fellowship’, an inter-denominational Prayer Group in Bahrain which  James led from the front over  the last several  years with cent percent commitment , control and prayerful  co-operation and co-ordination. I had the privilege of attending their weekly worship  during May 2010 when I visited Bahrain (along with Latha, my wife) to call on ailing James. I was deeply touched by the love and affection poured on James by its members  when he joined the worship, leading it  despite his physical  weakness.We also remember James, during one of his earlier trips to Dubai, responding to  a prayer request by a chidless couple (for many years ) living in Dubai, rushing to meet them and interceding with the Lord for them. Thank God,  James could get the good news from them before his demise, that they had a child, a gift from the Lord! I have had then personal experience of his conducting  on to me the spiritual energy while praying for my ailment, touching me on my head. James had an empathizing mind and a compassionate heart that made him identify with the person who he was praying for, and interceding with the Heavenly Father.

During the last few days that James spent in Kerala in Ernakulam and  Chettikulangara, despite the decline that he has been passing through and probably looking to and listening to the reaction of onlookers, he never displayed any negative emotions , on the contrary ,re-affirming his faith muttering the words ‘Trust in the Lord’ with a gentle smile on his face.

18 July,2010. That was a Sunday. As we were getting ready  to go to Church, the sad news reached us. The words that immediately came to my mind were ‘Praise the Lord!’! For, James had fulfilled his mission in this world  worthy of his calling and was being re-called to His kingdom by the  Almighty to shoulder higher responsibility.

‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and  not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.’

2 Timothy Ch.4 vs 7|8

As we were pondering as to why this happened to a  person like James, God consoled us with the following verses from Isaiah Ch.57 vs 1|2 reading asunder:

‘The righteous perish and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.’

Looking back a year after dear James left this world for his Heavenly abode, he is  fondly remembered in his absence, just as  he is sadly missed in this world! ’PRAISE THE LORD’,  those words still reverberate in my ears!

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GEORGE P. KURUVILLA (CHANGANACHERRY)