Citrix released Citrix Workspace Cloud (CWC) earlier this week. Most people I talk to agree that CWC is one of the most innovative solutions in the industry right now. You can read more about my thoughts on CWC here.

In this post, I want to focus on one of the components of CWC namely Citrix Lifecycle Management (CLM). CLM provides customers and partners alike an orchestration and automation engine that they can use to build an end to end infrastructure that meets industry and their own best practices on ANY cloud.It also helps you manage and monitor the environment as well as conduct operational tasks and upgrades.

What is truly great about this solution is that CLM is not limited to deploying Citrix infrastructure. It can be used to deploy Microsoft infrastructure (AD, SQL etc), partner solutions (Atlantis USX, LoginVSI, Xangati etc) in addition to Citrix infrastructure (XenApp/XenDesktop/Netscaler/Storefront etc). There are various blueprints that are already pre populated and the list will continue to grow. In addition customers and partners can create their own blueprints based on their own best practice. Because blueprints are leveraged, deployments are easily reproducible and error free. For instance, a senior architect could develop a complex blueprint and then once complete, hand off to a junior resource who could very easily deploy the same blueprint anywhere he pleases with consistent results. From a partner perspective, this makes deployment of solutions extremely simple and consulting engagements and proof of concepts should end up being much more successful and predictable.

In the next part of the blog, I would like to walk through an on premises deployment of an on premises XenDesktop POC that I built leveraging CLM.

Once you log into CLM. The first thing you want to do is to go ahead and define your resource zones. Today CLM supports the resource zones listed below. In my case, I leveraged an on premises XenServer 6.5 host.

The next step in the process is to install the CLM connector on Windows Server 2012 R2 server. This is similar to a CWC deployment. The connector is what facilitates communication between the CLM orchestration engine and your resource zone. Once the connector is installed, you define the connection details for your host and you are all set. As you can see from the screenshots below, I defined two resource zones in my lab, both XenServers.

Now that we have our resource zones, the next step is to go through the blueprint catalog and pick the one we want to deploy. As mentioned earlier, there is a pretty good list of blueprints already available and this list will continue to grow over time. Once you know the blueprint you’d like to use, you click the “+” symbol to add the blueprint to your library.

For the purposes of my test, I used the XenApp and XenDesktop Proof of Concept Blueprint and added it to my library. The blueprints that I choose will show up under the “Design and Deploy” tab. Within “Design and Deploy” you now click on “Actions” next to the selected blueprint and choose “Deploy”. Note that you have the ability to edit, clone or share the blueprint if you want to. This will allow you to customize the blueprint as you please.

Once you hit “Deploy”, you are provided a description of the blueprint along with the various infrastructure components. After reviewing the details, click “Start Deployment Setup” and give the deployment a name. You can also choose an existing deployment profile if you’ve gone through this process before.

As part of the template I chose, I have some additional options like providing a KMS Server address, configure a Netscaler, create a server VDI instance etc. I have stuck to the defaults for the test. I also specified the resource zone that I would like the solution to be deployed on.

Next, you’ll see a pre deployment checklist based on the resource zone you selected. Review this carefully!! One of the key pieces to having this work properly is to make sure you have a Windows Server 2012 R2 template ready on your XS host. Below are some things to keep in mind:

• Make sure the image is sysprepped with the /generalize /shutdown /unattend options. Use the unattend file to provide login credentials among other things. A sample unattend file can be found here.
• Make sure RDP access is enabled in the template
• Make sure the Windows Firewall allows outbound connections on port 443
• Install the latest XenServer tools and reboot the machine as many times as needed to ensure the process is complete.

On the next screen, hit edit on each of the VMs and define the various parameters. Some of the key things you need to make sure include selecting the right VM template, NIC and providing the correct credentials. I have included screenshots for one of the VMs below.

After going through the configuration for each of the VM’s hit “Next” and provide additional configuration parameters in relation to the domain, XenDesktop and computer names. You can also import a config file to fill these parameters. Once complete, give the deployment profile a name and description.

On the next screen, review the configuration and hit “Deploy”. This starts the deployment process. If you look at your hypervisor host you will notice that VM’s being to get created.

Next click on the “Manage” tab and click on your current deployment to check the progress of the deployment. You will obtain a detailed breakdown of each step of the process.

You will also be notified via email as each VM is successfully created and also when the whole deployment is complete.

The entire process in my case took about 2 hours on really old hardware. I will be redoing this test in the coming weeks on much faster SSD drives to see how much time I can shave off.

In addition to allowing you to deploy solutions, CLM also has inbuilt monitoring and alerting. You get a snapshot of how the VMs are performing and you can also set thresholds for the alerts.

CLM also allows you to define operational tasks such as installing updates, running certain scripts etc right from within the CLM engine. These tasks can also be scheduled.

You can also define rules for dynamically tearing down, scaling up and also failover/fallback rules with the CLM engine. In the future I plan to play around with these a little more.

Final Thoughts

I am truly excited about the potential this platform holds and the value it brings to customers and partners. CLM helps automate the deployment, manage and monitor the environment and tear down whether you want to deploy just within your datacenter, a public cloud, private cloud or a hybrid cloud. In other words it helps through the entire lifecycle of a deployment. The simplicity of the platform along with the blueprints ensures that you dont need to have expert level skills on any of the solutions to deploy the blueprints. I would encourage everyone to try it out. I am sure if you do, you will end up being just as impressed as I am today!

NS Insight Center 11 was released earlier this month, and with this release Geo Maps is now available for HDX Insight. It was earlier available for Web Insight only. For those of you not familiar with HDX Insight, it is a tool from Citrix that provides end to end visibility from an end user experience perspective for ICA connections that are proxied through the Netscaler. So for instance, if a user reported a slow Citrix session, HDX Insight would help you determine if it is a client side issue (workstation/ISP etc), server issue, application issue, network issue etc. It also provides breakdown on how the bandwidth consumption within the ICA channel (printing/usb/screescrapes). More information on HDX Insight can be found here.

With the 11.x release of NS Insight center, a new feature called Geo Maps has been added to HDX Insight. Geo maps as the name suggests provides a pictoral representation of all the locations from where users are connecting from. By click on any location, you get a summary of the end user experience metrics for that region. This helps you identify performance issues isolated to a specific region quite easily. In addition you can also quickly determine if users are connecting from regions that you dont expect and thereby potentially mitigate a security threat. Geo Maps is an extremely neat addition to HDX Insight and a feature that will greatly benefit customers, specially customers with employees spread across the globe!

Installation and Configuration

My focus in this blog is the configuration of Geo Maps. For basic instructions on how to install Netscaler Insight Center, please refer to this edoc

With regards to Geo Maps. Below are the steps that you need to follow:

Download maxmind “GeoLite City” data base (http://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/legacy/geolite/)

Upload database to NS Insight Center (dat file) under Configuration –>Netscaler Insight Center –> Geo Database Files

Also, you need to check “Enable Geo data collection for Web and HDX Insight”  for the Device added in the inventory.

Once you’ve followed the steps above, reboot Insight Center and you should be all set. I am yet to test whether Geo Maps shows up under Director as well. Will update the post once I have more information on that. Hope this helps!

The IT landscape has changed a lot the past 5 years. Security is the top concern of most enterprises that I deal with, some being constantly attacked/hacked on a daily basis. IP theft is a major concern with executives and top engineers travelling around the world with highly sensitive data. Up until recently, the options were pretty limited. Typically IT departments provide travelling users encrypted laptops that are fairly locked down, and users leverage VPN to access enterprise applications.The data  still resides on these laptops. In a scenario that the laptop is compromised, not only could there be IP theft, but with the VPN access, a malicious user could connect back to the corporate network and cause havoc. There have been a number of incidents in foreign countries where laptops have been stolen and data breached.

A Chromebook running Citrix Receiver is a great option to solve this problem.

Chromebooks are secure by design

First off, Chromebooks are inherently secure due to the following reasons:

Sandboxing

Since each application on a chromebook runs in a restricted sandboxed environment, if that application is compromised for whatever reason, it cannot affect other applications that are running or the base OS in any way. The threat is effectively contained.

Verified Boot

When a chromebook boots, it does a check to make sure the system has not been tampered and that there is no corruption of any sort. If it detects either of the two, it will try to self heal and if that fails, the system wont boot.

Data Encryption

While you don’t typically store data on Chromebooks. they still have built in TPM chips which ensure that any data that is cached on the device (browser cookies, temp files etc) are fully encrypted and protected

Device Management

Another benefit of using Chromebooks is that they can be fully managed via the Chrome Management platform. Every OS feature and every Chrome browser function can completely controlled and locked down.

Citrix Receiver for Chrome

I purchased my first chromebook about 18 months ago and remember feeling so underwhelmed back then with the device. I didn’t like the fact that offline capabilities were very limited. The display options were not that great compared to a regular ultra-book. When it came to accessing enterprise applications using Citrix Receiver, again there were some limitations in terms of capabilities as compared to Windows/Mac/Linux.

Chromebooks have certainly come a long way since then, In addition to having addressed display and other hardware limitations and being extremely secure as discussed above, they are also enterprise ready by enabling end users to be productive, thanks to Citrix Receiver for Chrome.

Citrix Receiver allows users to securely access all their enterprise applications running in the datacenter. In addition, users can be subjected to various posture assessments prior to providing them access to the resources thanks to the Netscaler, which acts as a secure reverse proxy for all Citrix traffic. Depending on the results of the posture assessment, granular controls can be applied, for instance an authenticated user connecting from a trusted device (appropriate av definitions/service packs etc) and a trusted network can be allowed to print and map drives while a user who fails the assessment can be provided a read only environment with no ability to print/clipboard/map drives.

While we’ve had HTML5 Receiver for Chrome for a while now, the latest version (1.7) is extremely feature rich including USB redirection, file upload and download, access to google drive, bi directional audio, h264 video rendering, clipboarding, printing. These features provide users the same experience that they are used to on a desktop/laptop while providing a much more secure and mobile platform.

All in all, I strongly believe Chromebooks running Citrix Receiver is the perfect solution for enterprises trying to find the most secure and mobile solution for their travelling users. If you havent yet tested a Chromebook, I highly recommend you do! The Toshiba CB35 is a great choice!

General Announcements

Citrix Offers Customers the Key to Securing Their Confidential Information

Citrix announced it is simplifying the way sensitive documents are shared. Citrix ShareFile customers can now send encrypted emails from Microsoft Outlook to secure the content of messages in compliance with industry regulations such as HIPAA. Since the capability works from within the inbox, emails can be securely exchanged with clients and vendors without disrupting current processes. The capability, tailored for small and medium-sized organizations today, joins data protection innovations like ShareFile Restricted StorageZones for enterprises in a portfolio of Citrix solutions designed to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes – from small to large.

Citrix Powers “Always-On” Branch Workspaces

Citrix announced the CloudBridge Virtual WAN Edition, which reduces the cost of delivering applications, documents and IT services to branch offices by up to 80 percent, while ensuring nearly 100 percent application availability. The new CloudBridge Virtual WAN solution provides businesses with the flexibility to employ multiple cost-effective WAN technologies, offering the ability to scale WAN bandwidth at dramatically lower cost than traditional approaches. The solution also ensures the best possible user experience by securely sending mission-critical, delay-sensitive data over the highest performing path. The new CloudBridge Virtual WAN solution extends the CloudBridge platform and its integration with the company’s HDX and application acceleration technologies, to offer the most cost effective and highest performance solutions for securely delivering mobile workspaces with the applications, documents and IT services people need to work better in remote and branch offices.

Citrix Sponsors OpenStack Foundation To Help Drive Cloud Interoperability Standards

Citrix announced that it has become a Corporate Sponsor of the OpenStack Foundation. By joining the foundation’s community of contributors, Citrix demonstrates its continued commitment towards driving interoperability among standards-based cloud platforms and meeting the increasing demand for choice and flexibility in private, public and hybrid cloud solutions. NetScaler™ and XenServer™ solutions from Citrix are used as core infrastructure for some of the largest cloud infrastructure providers in the world, and this announcement brings the power of these products to customers choosing to build their clouds on OpenStack.

Feature Pack 1 for XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6 is Now Available

Citrix continues to add more functionality to our feature-rich, industry-leading XenApp and XenDesktop product lines with the release of Feature Pack 1, which is now available for download on Citrix.com.

While efforts for Feature Pack 1 were publically announced at Citrix Summit, our annual channel partner conference in January, today XenApp and XenDesktop customers with active Subscription Advantage (SA) or Software Maintenance (SWM) as of March 25, 2015 will be eligible to enhance their existing app and desktop virtualization solution

Citrix Expands vGPU Hypervisor Support

A large user base of Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop continues to be successfully deployed and officially supported on VMware’s popular vSphere hypervisor for non-graphics workloads. Citrix will offer the same level of quality support to customers who deploy XenApp or XenDesktop for NVIDIA GRID vGPU, starting from day one that VMware vSphere 6 is generally available (March 12, 2015) with the capability.

Announcing the DesktopPlayer for Windows and Mac Tech Previews!

After Citrix released DesktopPlayer for Mac last year, one of the major capabilities customers asked for was support for Windows devices, which would allow users to run DesktopPlayer on MacBooks and Windows laptops and PCs.

This customer feedback reinforced our vision for client virtualization and, as a result, we accelerated development of extending the functionality of DesktopPlayer for Mac to Windows devices. At Citrix Summit 2015, we announced and demonstrated a forthcoming preview of this solution with the DesktopPlayer for Windows Tech Preview. Today, we are excited to announce the availability of the DesktopPlayer for Windows Tech Preview!

This Tech Preview adds Windows platform support to DesktopPlayer by enabling users to access a local virtual desktop on their Windows laptop or PC, regardless of wireless network conditions – or even if no network connection is available. Moreover, the Tech Preview preserves existing user data, apps, and settings with an easy, non-disruptive install. Users can also switch between local (DesktopPlayer) and hosted (XenDesktop) virtual desktops with ongoing synchronization of data and profiles for a seamless experience on any device.

VCE Announces a new VDI Integration Service for Citrix that Accelerates Mobile Workspace Deployments

VCE announced a new VDI integration service for Citrix that accelerates mobile workspace deployments by combining app and desktop delivery from Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop with the power of NetScaler SDX. With this announcement, VCE and Citrix are drawing upon our industry leadership and strong partnership to offer our mutual customers a simple rapid path to app and virtual desktop delivery via private or hybrid cloud, with users enjoying an unmatched experience with the freedom to work from anywhere.

Best Practices/Reference Architecture Documents/Blogs

An Introduction To Session Recording (XA/XD 7.6 Feature Pack 1) – Installation, Configuration and User Experience 

On March 31st, Citrix released the much anticipated XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6 Feature Pack 1. Among the goodies included, one of the new additions in terms of functionality is Session Recording. For those of you who are new to what session recording is, I recommend this blog by Paul Murray. At a high level, session recording allows organizations to record on-screen activity within a published application or hosted shared desktop. While the benefits are fairly obvious, some of the most common use cases for auditing purposes, troubleshooting application issues, understanding workflow within an application and potentially improve processes and lastly compliance purposes. What I am covering in this blog is how to get your feet wet with the product by setting up a single server session recording environment and test functionality. I will not address HA, scalability and other design considerations in this article. Please review edocs for details on these.

Citrix Director Tool: Automated Daily and Weekly Custom Report Emails

This post, we details how you can send custom reports as email in addition to built-in reports available in the Director Trends page.

Citrix XenApp vs VMware Horizon – User Experience

Have you ever been running late for a meeting, but you first needed to modify a PowerPoint, print a document or transfer a file to a USB device? Every second that passes feels like an eternity. But even without the pressure of being late, a system that lets you complete your work faster is perceived as better and has a higher user acceptance.

NetScaler Troubleshooting with Citrix Insight Services

Citrix has developed tools and online analysis capabilities to help you collect environment information, analyze that information and receive tailored recommendations based on your Citrix environment and configuration.The tools are focused on a single mission–data collection–and their impact to your environment is minimal in terms of disk space, prerequisites and performance impact during the data collection process. Citrix Insight Services analyzes the data captured in the support bundle and provides you with Tailored Recommendations, specific to your environment. To leverage Citrix Insight Services, you’ll need to harvest a NetScaler tech support bundle.

Taking DaaS to the Next Level: A New Cisco-Validated Design for Citrix-Based DaaS

Deploying and scaling a business-ready Desktops-as-a-Service (DaaS) environment can become time-consuming and complex, particularly across multiple datacenters and clouds. Citrix and Cisco understand that management scale and simplicity is critical to the service provider business model, and have teamed to develop a new DaaS solution architecture as a Cisco Validated Design (CVD) titled “Desktop-as-a-Service for Service Provider 2000-Seat Virtual Desktop Infrastructure”. The complete CVD for Citrix Service Providers is available here. It gives service providers an excellent starting point for implementing a comprehensive DaaS solution. This blog summarizes the solution architecture, its components, and the testing performed to provision tenants and subscribers.

Now Available: The XenMobile 10 MDM Migration Tool!

Citrix released the migration tool to move from XenMobile version 9 to version 10. This is now available for download at MyCitrix.com. The Migration tool is embedded in the XenMobile 10 Server and the option can be selected during theFirst Time Use configuration.

Now LIVE! The Citrix XenApp Migration Web Service Beta

Designed to simplify the XenApp migration experience, Project Serenity is an easy-to-use web service you can use to help your existing XenApp 6 or 6.5 customers extract their current farm configurations (settings and policies) and select the specific configurations they would like to import into a new XenApp 7.6 site using their MyAccount credentials.

Spring Forward to Receiver for Windows 4.2.100

Citrix billed Receiver for Windows 4.2 as the best ever Receiver for Windows due all the great new features we were able to add.  Since the release of Receiver for Windows 4.2, we on the Citrix Receiver team have listened to your feedback and have worked on making further improvements, so that more of you can take advantage of its advanced features. Citrix is pleased to announce that Receiver for Windows 4.2.100 is now available with more than 45 fixes and enhancements to help you get the most out of your Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop experience.

XenMobile Timeouts: How Do They Work?

This blog focuses on WHY we would configure timeouts one way or another to get the balance between user experience and security that we are after.

Smart Card Configuration Guidance

A 237 page Smart Card configuration document, entitled “Configuring Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 and NetScaler Gateway 10.5 with PIV Smart Card Authentication” has been published and is now available as PDF on Citrix.com. The guide’s intent is to describe how to configure a smart card “test environment” from beginning to end. It covers smart card configuration with XenApp, XenDesktop and NetScaler Gateway.  The document includes an introduction to the problem set and marches its way through detailed configuration guidance including certificate management and numerous screen shots of configuration settings.

What’s in a Name? (The Art of Renaming a Site Database)

Ever wondered if it’s possible to rename your existing FMA Site Database without making a complete mess of your environment? No?? It turns out it’s a relatively simple matter, but one that requires a few more steps then you might initially think…

XenApp/XenDesktop Site Design (v2015)

In this blog, the author talks about FMA Site Design, which applies to both XenApp & XenDesktop 7.x, which use the FMA architecture. The author tries to shed some light on some interesting designs we’re doing in the field when there is more than one data center.

Guide for Microsoft Lync 2013 in VDI environment

With the release of the Feature Pack 1 for Citrix XenDesktop 7.6, we now support audio and video optimization for Microsoft Lync 2013 Client and Server deployments using the Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack for Lync. This level of Lync optimization is unique in the market. While the optimization pack is the best way to deliver Lync to end-users in most scenarios, XenApp and XenDesktop also provide additional options which should be considered as part of the project planning phase. This deployment guide discusses all options in detail, provides best practice recommendations and step-by-step installation instructions.

UDP Audio Through A NetScaler Gateway

Citrix Receiver can now use User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to support audio remoting of a XenDesktop session through a Netscaler Gateway. This blog details some of the configuration specifics.

Support Articles/Bug Fixes

• XenDesktop/Provisioning Services Hypervisor Citrix Product Support
• Preparing For NPAPI Being Disabled by Google Chrome
• Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 on XenServer 6.5 Design Guide
• Recommended Hotfixes for XenApp 7.x
• Troubleshooting ICA Session Performance
• How to Customize App Shortcuts with Receiver for Windows
• When Switching Between Aero and Non-aero Themes Within a Virtual Desktop Session, the Mouse Pointer Movement Becomes Slow
• How to Create Custom Theme for Logon Page of NetScaler Gateway Virtual Server
• How to Configure NetScaler Web Logging on Windows
• How to Set Up DNS for GSLB Using NetScaler as the Authority
• Configuration Steps for Initial Setup of Command Center
• FAQ: XenMobile 10 Migration Tool
• How to Prompt a User with an Expired Password Warning Message Using PowerShell
• PVS Write Cache Sizing Considerations
• Configuring Security Features of Session Recording

Upcoming Events

Feb 19 – Jun 23 Seminar Series: Managing the Unmanageable: How to Secure the Enterprise

Join us at this live security-focused seminar series to learn about how to secure sensitive data on managed and under-managed devices, measures that enforce security across unmanaged apps and network, models that control access to sensitive data, specific to application usage and access, and how to develop and enforce policies to “manage the unmanageable.”

Register Now  |  Download Invitation  |  Contact for More Info

Mar – May 7 In-person Master Class Seminar Series: Protect Your Mission Critical Web Apps With Citrix NetScaler

Join us for this in-person master class. We will demo and discuss best practices to secure your network and apps against threats.

Register Now  |  Download Invitation  |  Contact for More Info

Ongoing (Tuesdays, Thursdays) Weekly Deminars: Citrix Workspace Suite

Take a close look at the capabilities of Citrix Workspace Suite in these twice weekly technically-focused, demo-led webinars.
Register Now  |  Contact for More Info

Ongoing (Wednesdays) Weekly Deminars: NetScaler

Join us to understand how Citrix NetScaler can empower your organization with the most comprehensive set of application security, acceleration, load balancing, and monitoring tools.

Register Now  |  Contact for More Info

Ongoing (Wednesdays) Weekly Deminars: Empowering Mobility with XenMobile and ShareFile

See how Citrix can empower your organizations to provide secure, remote access to company resources through mobile app and device management as well as data sharing.

Register Now  |  Contact for More Info

On Demand Webinars

Solution Webinar: Move From Cisco ACE to a Software Defined World

Solution Webinar: Discover the Power of Application Centric Infrastructure

Master Class: How to Upgrade from XenApp 6.5 to XenApp 7.6

Solution Webinar: How to Effectively Replace BlackBerry Devices and Gain User Acceptance

Master Class: NetScaler VPX. Spotlight: Admin Partitions

Solution Webinar: Mobile Workspace Delivery – Any App, Any Device, Any Network, Any Cloud

Solution Webinar: Top Use Cases for App Virtualization

Solution Webinar: How to Build a Solid BYO Policy and Mitigate Security Risks

Solution Webinar: Don’t Settle for “Good Enough” Email for Mobile Employees

Solution Webinar: Managing the Unmanageable: The Network Security Perspective

Solution Webinar: One Company’s Journey to Mobilize Their Workforce with Enterprise Mobility Management

Master Class: NetScaler Deployment Modes and Server Load Balancing

 Master Class: What’s New in Citrix XenMobile 10.0

Solution Webinar: Enable SDN and Dev Ops with Cisco ACI and Citrix NetScaler

 Desktop Master Class: Deliver Microsoft Lync with XenApp and XenDesktop

 Solution Webinar: 5 Things VMware Doesn’t Want You to Know About Horizon View

Introduction

On March 31st, Citrix released the much anticipated XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6 Feature Pack 1. Among the goodies included, one of the new additions in terms of functionality is Session Recording. For those of you who are new to what session recording is, I recommend this blog by Paul Murray. At a high level, session recording allows organizations to record on-screen activity within a published application or hosted shared desktop. While the benefits are fairly obvious, some of the most common use cases for auditing purposes, troubleshooting application issues, understanding workflow within an application and potentially improve processes and lastly compliance purposes. What I am covering in this blog is how to get your feet wet with the product by setting up a single server session recording environment and test functionality. I will not address HA, scalability and other design considerations in this article. Please review edocs for details on these.

Components: The Nuts and Bolts

So what makes up the session recording infrastructure? There are essentially six components:

• Session Recording Agent – This piece needs to be installed on every Server OS machine that is used to publish applications and hosted shared desktops. The session recording agent is the component responsible for capturing the on screen activity, recording it and transferring the content to the recording server.
• Session Recording Server – There are two components that make up the session recording server namely the broker and the storage manager. The broker is responsible interacts with the session recording player and handles requests for files, search queries etc and also interacts with the session recording policy console to make sure the appropriate recording policies are enforced for every XA/XD session. The storage manager as the name suggests is responsible for managing the recorded session files received from the recording agents.
• Session Recording Player – This is a windows player that allows authorized users to view recorded sessions. Users also have the ability to search for sessions via the recording server and play them back.
• Session Recording Database – SQL database that stores the recorded data.
• Session Recording Policy Console – The policy console allows an administrator to define policies governing the sessions that are recorded and the ones that are not and also whether the users are informed when the session is recorded. You can filter based on server, user groups etc.
• Session Recording Authorization Console – The session recording authorization console allows administrators to enable Role Based Access Controls. For instance, you can specify who is allowed to view recordings, who can modify policies etc.

Installation: So how do we get this thing to work!

After having gone through the process of installing and configuring session recording, I have to admit that its not the typical next -> next -> next process. You have to pay attention to the instructions and make sure all the pre-requisites are in place. Else you will be going back and forth a number of times. All the installation components are available as a single zip file via MyCitrix under the XA/XD FP1 download section. Once you extract the zip file you will find three folders as shown below. I will walk you through the installation of each of these components.

 Session Recording Administration Components

Under the Session Recording Administration Components, you will find two files, “SessionRecordingAdministrationx64” and “Broker_Powershellsnapin_x64”. You can choose to install all the session recording administration components on a single server or split them up. I installed all the components on a single Windows Server 2012 VM in my environment. I believe you can install these components on Server 2008 R2 as well.

The Broker powershell snap-in allows you to script various parameters of session recording and configure options via command line. Its a straightforward installer with nothing to configure as part of the install process.

“SessionRecordingAdministrationx64” installer is what installs the core infrastructure and there are a number of gotchas that you have to take care of prior to running the installer:

• On the windows server you plan to install the administration components, make sure the following Windows server components are installed:

• Make sure you have access to a SQL server (Express, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2) and make sure the NT Authority\System account has sysadmin SQL server role permissions. I used SQL 2012 Express Edition and I installed it on the same server.
• Having SQL Management studio installed really helps as well!.
• If you install SQL server on a stand alone server you need to make sure SQL Server Browser service is running and that the TCP/IP protocol is enabled under the SQL server Network Protocol configuration.
• You need to download and install certain components from the  SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 Feature pack namely SharedManagementObjects and CLR Types. You can find the download here
• Make sure a valid computer certificate is present on the server. The recording server uses SSL/HTTPS by default for communication (and rightly so)

Once you’ve got these pieces installed (I really wish these were documented better as I had to waste a lot of time during the configuration process) you are all set to run the installer. Some screenshots below:

Once all the components are installed, you need to run the Session Recording Server Properties executable which allows you to configure a number of parameters such as the folder where the recordings are stored, which certificate to use for encryption, file threshold parameters and session duration, allow playback of live sessions and what notifications (if any) is sent to the user when a session is being recorded. Below are the screenshots.

The next step is to run the Session Recording Authorization Console and make sure the appropriate users are given access to administer the environment.

Now, run the session recording policy console and define the appropriate policies to filter what server/user sessions are recorded, whether they are notified and which sessions are not recorded.

And with that, the server components are installed and configured!

Session Recording Agent

As mentioned earlier, the session recording agent needs to be installed on your server workloads that are used to publish applications and desktops. In my case I used a server 2012 machine with the XD 7.6 VDA installed that was a template for my server workload deliver group. You need to install ASP.NET and the Microsoft Message Queuing (including subcomponents) features prior to installing the agent. Once the agent is installed, launch Session Recording Agent properties and specify the recording server name/ip address and the port that is used by the recording server.

Session Recording Player

The player needs to be installed on a desktop OS, Windows 7 in my case. No special configuration is required while running the installer. Once the installation is complete, you need to launch the session recording player and go into Tools –>Options to specify the recording server info. Once this is configured, an authorized user can search for user sessions and play back recorded sessions.

User Experience

If notification is turned on via policy, the user will notice a warning message (customizable) every time they launch an app or hosted shared desktop. This obviously can be disabled.

Director Integration

Session Recording can also be integrated with Citrix Desktop Director whereby recording can be turned on or off for a specific user session. To enable this integration, run the following command on the server running Director and specify the session recording server and protocol information.

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\tools\DirectorConfig.exe /configsessionrecording

Conclusion

While the installation process was a little tedious, once its up and running, it is an extremely useful tool with minimal configuration moving forward. I have installed the agent in my Server workload template and control whether a session is recorded or not via policy. Works like a charm! I would highly encourage everyone to try out this functionality and provide feedback.

If you think back how managing a Citrix environment used to be about 10 years ago, a typical Citrix administrator had one product to worry about – Metaframe/Presentation Server. Even with that single product, administrators found it difficult to maintain Citrix environments due to the effort it required. Fast forward to 2015 and now the infrastructure supporting our Mobile Workspaces has many moving parts (XenApp, XenDesktop, XenMobile, Sharefile, Netscaler). Planning and completing infrastructure upgrades in large organizations can take months and sometimes years.

Wouldnt it be nice if someone could magically make all of the Citrix infrastructure a black box so to speak that you didnt have to worry about so your valuable resources can start focusing on the things that mattered to the business as opposed to working on mundane operational tasks. In addition, wouldnt it be nice to always be evergreen and have the latest and greatest features at your disposal as opposed to waiting and figuring out how to upgrade your environment. These challenges are exactly what Citrix plans on solving with Citrix Workspace Cloud (CWC).

CWC is a hosted control plane that is fully supported end to end by Citrix. It includes all the infrastructure components required to deliver a mobile workspace to the end user. An IT admin would be able to launch a web based management console and provision a workspace that encompasses windows apps, mobile apps, windows desktops, data and manage their mobile devices all from a single pane of glass. The customer would still maintain the supporting infrastructure such as Active Directory, DNS etc thereby maintaining the security boundary that most require. Additionally there is no requirement for a VPN tunnel between the Citrix Control Plane and the customer’s data center. Instead the Workspace Cloud Connector is installed on a Windows server in the customer data center that communicates via SSL with the Citrix Control Plane. Citrix will also handle lifecycle management which will help customers automate the entire infrastructure deployment by providing you blueprints that follow industry best practices. The solution will also include end to end monitoring capabilities for your infrastructure and provide you true visibility into how resources are being consumed.

CWC makes total sense for an SMB customer or a mid-market customer with limited resources to administer their IT environment and probably have limited infrastructure to host these solutions. Such customers typically prefer an on demand hosted model where they pay based on consumption, which is exactly what CWC is! But how about Enterprise customers who have large dedicated Citrix teams who have very defined processes and workflows. I would argue that there is a place for CWC even in that space. Most enterprise customers have multiple Citrix farms/sites, some of mine having upwards of 30 XA/XD farms/sites. Now if you want to design a totally redundant and highly available infrastructure, think of the number of servers involved and the operational challenges on a month to month basis. With CWC the IT organization would be able to reduce their data center footprint and reduce OpX significantly.

CWC can also be looked at as a great DR solution. Many of my customers today spend millions on hot standy DR data centers that are rarely actually utilized. What if you could setup the barebones DR infrastructure leveraging CWC and then spin up additional capacity only in a true DR scenario. This could lead to significant CapX and OpX savings.

I have always been a proponent of new technology solutions, but only when it makes business sense to my customers. I believe CWC is promising in that regard and for that reason I am truly excited for what the future holds!

If you plan on attending Citrix Synergy 2015, be sure to take a look at my recommended sessions this year. There are some great sessions by Joe Vaccarro, Harsh Gupta and the rest of the CWC team covering the solution in depth. Watch out for some awesome announcements too!!!

– George

Having attended quite a few conferences, I know how frustrating it can be when you attend a session with high hopes, only to find out that the content was not what you expected. With this in mind, I spent some time this year going through the Citrix Synergy session catalog and picking the ones that I feel are most relevant to attendees and then separating them into three tracks:

• Management/Leadership
• Virtualization
• Mobility/Networking/Cloud

My hope is that this helps attendees make better decisions as they build their Synergy schedules. I will try and update this if more sessions are added to the catalog. For now, here are my picks arranged by day. All the sessions are hyperlinked for further info.

May 12^th Management/Leadership

SYN105: Leverage Citrix Workspace Cloud for your enterprise IT needs

May 12^th, 2:00-2:45pm

Joe Vaccaro

SYN112: How Nationstar Mortgage saved $1.3 million on desktop virtualization by changing their approach to storage and disaster recovery

May 12^th, 2:00-2:45pm

Josiah Foster

SYN311: Citrix on Citrix: the internal Smart Workplace

May 12^th, 2:00-2:45pm

Paul Martine

SYN102: Best practices for a successful BYOD, CYOD, or COPE program

May 12^th, 3:00-3:45pm

Matt Brooks

SYN103: Using mobile workspaces to deliver business mobility

May 12^th, 3:00-3:45pm

Natalie Lambert

SYN106: 2020 technology landscape from the CTO Council

May 12^th, 3:00-3:45pm

Martin Duursma

SYN117: The state of Citrix-based DaaS – going hosted or hybrid? You get to choose

May 12^th, 3:00-3:45pm

Ken Oestreich, Penny Gralewski

SYN231: Cost and complexity: myth or fact?

May 12^th, 4:00-4:45pm

Stuart Moore

SYN201: Data loss prevention and enterprise file sync and sharing: is your data safe?

May 12^th, 5:00-5:45pm

Jay Tomlin

May 12^th Technical (Virtualization)

SYN105: Leverage Citrix Workspace Cloud for your enterprise IT needs

May 12^th, 2:00-2:45pm

Joe Vaccaro

SYN502: I’ve got 99 problems, and folder redirection is every one of them

May 12^th, 2:00-2:45pm

Shawn Bass, Aaron Parker, Helge Klein

SYN503: Getting the most out of NetScaler Gateway

May 12^th, 3:00-3:45pm

Anton Van Pelt, Thorsten Rood

SYN218: Agile delivery and lifecycle management of Citrix workloads across multiple clouds with Workspace Cloud

May 12^th, 4:00-4:45pm

Jie Feng, Kalias Jawadekar

SYN417: StoreFront PowerShell documentation deep dive

May 12^th, 4:00-4:45pm

Sam Jacobs

SYN230: HDX update: what’s new

May 12^th, 5:00-5:45pm

Derek Thorslund

SYN319: Tech update for XenApp and XenDesktop—May 2015 edition

May 12^th, 5:00-5:45pm

Dan Feller

SYN505: The anatomy of a high-performance, GPU-enabled virtual desktop

May 12^th, 5:00-5:45pm

Dane Young, Thomas Poppelgaard

May 12^th Technical (Networking/Mobility/Cloud)

SYN105: Leverage Citrix Workspace Cloud for your enterprise IT needs

May 12^th, 2:00-2:45pm

Joe Vaccaro

SYN117: The state of Citrix-based DaaS – going hosted or hybrid? You get to choose

May 12^th, 3:00-3:45pm

Ken Oestreich, Penny Gralewski

SYN214: What’s new with NetScaler

May 12^th, 3:00-3:45pm

Graham Melville

SYN208: CloudBridge: what’s new and what’s hot

May 12^th, 4:00-4:45pm

Gopinaith Durairaj

SYN218: Agile delivery and lifecycle management of Citrix workloads across multiple clouds with Workspace Cloud

May 12^th, 4:00-4:45pm

Jie Feng, Kalias Jawadekar

SYN201: Data loss prevention and enterprise file sync and sharing: is your data safe?

May 12^th, 5:00-5:45pm

Jay Tomlin

May 13^th Management/Leadership

SYN244: The a-ha! moment: what to do when your business finally “gets it”

May 13^th 1:30-2:15 pm

Jeff Lung (American Family Insurance)

SYN310: Choose the right cloud model and accelerate time-to-value with Workspace Cloud

May 13, 1:30-2:15pm

Alex Balcanquall

SYN201: Data loss prevention and enterprise file sync and sharing: is your data safe?

May 13^th 2:30-3:15pm

Jay Tomlin

SYN241: Enabling apps, desktops and data as a service with Workspace Cloud

May 13^th 2:30pm-3:15pm

Harsh Gupta

SYN238: Next-generation security: the inside story

May 13^th 3:30-4:15pm

Joe Nord

SYN222: Meet Octoblu – A new IoT platform from Citrix

May 13^th, 4:30-5:15pm

Chris Matthieu

SYN304: Managing employee and corporate devices

May 13^th 4:30pm – 5:15pm

Nick Nintalan

SYN325: Introduction to Citrix Melio (formerly Sanbolic)

May 13^th, 4:30-5:15pm (W314B)

Andy Melmed

May 13^th Technical (Virtualization)

SYN239: Professional graphics delivery with HDX 3D Pro—performance and best practices

11:00-11:45am – May 13^th

Rachel Berry

SYN318: Terminal Server versus VDI: 2015 edition

11:00-11:45am – May 13^th

Brian Madden

SYN234: Delivering Lync and other audio-video applications

1:30-2:15pm – May 13th

Derek Thorslund

SYN319: Tech update for XenApp and XenDesktop—May 2015 edition

May 13, 1:30-2:15pm

Dan Feller

SYN410: Maximizing XenDesktop high availability with a pod architecture

May 13, 1:30pm – 2:15pm

Dan Allen

SYN507: The Citrix 7X experience

May 13, 1:30-2:15pm

Thomas Koetzig

SYN241: Enabling apps, desktops and data as a service with Workspace Cloud

May 13^th 2:30pm-3:15pm

Harsh Gupta

SYN324: HDX: refresh your basic and advanced knowledge

May 13, 2:30-3:15pm

Marcel Calef

SYN238: Next-generation security: the inside story

May 13^th 3:30-4:15pm

Joe Nord

SYN509: How Group Policy impacts logon performance

May 13^th 3:30 – 4:15pm

Helge Klein

SYN217: Workspace Cloud for enterprises: a technical overview

May 13^th 4:30-5:15pm

Alex Balcanquall, John Cattaneo

SYN325: Introduction to Citrix Melio (formerly Sanbolic)

May 13^th, 4:30-5:15pm

Andy Melmed

SNY501: Geek Speak Tonight!:

May 13^th, 5:30-7:30pm

Steve Greenberg, Joe Shonk

May 13^th Technical (Networking/Mobility/Cloud)

SYN101: Learn why companies are choosing ShareFile with StorageZones to balance mobility and collaboration needs with data security requirements

11:00-11:45 – May 13^th

Bill Carovano

SYN310: Choose the right cloud model and accelerate time-to-value with Workspace Cloud

May 13, 1:30-2:15pm (

Alex Balcanquall

SYN201: Data loss prevention and enterprise file sync and sharing: is your data safe?

May 13^th 2:30-3:15pm

Jay Tomlin

SYN403: Troubleshooting common issues with XenMobile WorxMail

May 13^th, 2:30-3:15pm

Juan Zevallos

SYN210: Scale WAN bandwidth while increasing reliability with CloudBridge virtual WAN solution

May 13^th 3:30-4:15pm

Karl Brown

SYN238: Next-generation security: the inside story

May 13^th 3:30-4:15pm

Joe Nord

SYN222: Meet Octoblu – A new IoT platform from Citrix

May 13^th, 4:30-5:15pm

Chris Matthieu

SYN304: Managing employee and corporate devices

May 13^th 4:30pm – 5:15pm

Nick Nintalan

SNY501: Geek Speak Tonight!:

May 13^th, 5:30-7:30pm

Steve Greenberg, Joe Shonk

May 14^th Management/Leadership

SYN110: How well do you know your end users?

May 14^th, 8:30-10:15, 10:30-12:15pm

Renee Flores, Adam Miller

SYN225: Best practices for configuring Citrix products to meet security objectives

May 14^th, 10:30-11:15am

Jon Spallone

SYN236: Revolutionize remote access to existing physical desktops using XenDesktop

May 14^th, 10:30 – 11:15am

SYN401: Top ten ShareFile enterprise features IT teams can’t live without

May 14^th, 10:30-11:15am

Peter Schultz

SYN219: What’s new in XenServer 6.5: performance, scalability and TCO reduction

May 14^th, 11:30am – 12:15am

Marc Trouard-Riolle

SYN240: Centrally manage and secure local virtual desktops on Macs and PCs with DesktopPlayer

May 14^th, 11:30am – 12:15am

SYN102: Best practices for a successful BYOD, CYOD, or COPE program

May 14^th, 2:30pm – 3:15am/May 12^th, 3:00-3:45pm

Matt Brooks

SYN108: Your desktop in their cloud—choosing a DaaS partner

May 14^th, 2:30pm – 3:15am

Simon Bramfitt

SYN220: Exploring GPU virtualization technologies and where to use them

May 14^th, 3:30-4:15pm

David Cottingham

SYN105: Leverage Citrix Workspace Cloud for your enterprise IT needs

May 14^th, 4:30-5:15pm

Joe Vaccaro

May 14^th Technical (Virtualization)

SYN232: Get the most out of AppDNA for app migrations and updates

May 14^th, 8:30-9:15am

Sheldon Lachambre

SYN409: Dissecting the XenApp/XenDesktop logon process

May 14^th, 8:30-9:15am

Helge Klein

SYN320: Never let me down again: the future of XenApp and XenDesktop upgrades

May 14^th, 9:30am – 10:15am

Dan Feller

SYN406: Architecting Citrix for Google Compute Cloud

May 14^th, 9:30-10:15am

SYN225: Best practices for configuring Citrix products to meet security objectives

May 14^th, 10:30-11:15am

Jon Spallone

SYN236: Revolutionize remote access to existing physical desktops using XenDesktop

May 14^th, 10:30 – 11:15am

Gabe Carrejo

SYN405: Architecting innovation with Cisco and Citrix (best practices)

May 14^th, 10:30am – 11:15am

Robert Briggs

SYN513: Working with XenDesktop and HP Moonshot: field experience

May 14^th, 10:30am – 11:15am

Carl Webster

SYN240: Centrally manage and secure local virtual desktops on Macs and PCs with DesktopPlayer

May 14^th, 11:30am – 12:15am

SYN323: The golden image: provisioning and image management update

May 14^th, 11:30am – 12:15am

Stuart Moore

SYN228: Getting more out of XenApp and XenDesktop monitoring services

May 14^th, 2:30-3:15pm

Jarian Gibson

SYN220: Exploring GPU virtualization technologies and where to use them

May 14^th, 3:30-4:15pm

David Cottingham

SYN314: Lessons learned on the way to 50,000 users

May 14^th, 3:30-4:15pm

Paul Stansel

SYN315: Application layering for XenApp single Image management

May 14^th, 3:30-4:15pm

Douglas Brown

SYN321: Technical deep dive on Receiver

May 14^th, 3:30-4:15pm

Manu Chauhan

SYN404: NetScaler Gateway with Citrix desktops and apps: the ultimate how-to guide for successful deployments

May 14^th, 3:30-4:15pm

Lucas Araujo

SYN412: Faster deployments: XenDesktop Setup Wizard (XDSW) and the Streamed VM Setup Wizard

May 14^th, 4:30-5:15pm

Rahul Davila

SYN414: Architecting Citrix on Microsoft Azure

May 14^th, 4:30-5:15pm

Loay Schlbat

SYN514: Turn XenApp and XenDesktop into capacity on demand with Provisioning Services automation

May 14^th, 11:30am – 12:15am

Paul Stansel

May 14^th Technical (Networking/Mobility/Cloud)

SYN307: Performance of a NetScaler in a combined XenDesktop and XenMobile environment

May 14^th, 8:30-9:15am

Kirk Manzer, James Richards

SYN511: Notes from the field: XenMobile deep dive and demo

May 14^th, 8:30 – 9:15am

Thorsten Rood

SYN209: Optimize XenDesktop and enterprise apps across a virtualized WAN with CloudBridge

May 14^th, 9:30-10:15am

Steve Schall

SYN303: Best practices for deploying end-to-end management with XenMobile

May 14^th, 9:30-10:15am

Raghu Govindaswamy

SYN406: Architecting Citrix for Google Compute Cloud

May 14^th, 9:30-10:15am

SYN512: How to implement XenMobile 10: tips from the field

May 14^th, 9:30-10:15am

Anton Van Pelt

SYN305: Reference architecture for Workspace Suite

May 14^th, 10:30-11:15am

Kirk Manzer

SYN402: Choosing the right email client and understanding mail flow

May 14^th, 11:30am – 12:15am

Roberto Moreno

SYN108: Your desktop in their cloud—choosing a DaaS partner

May 14^th, 2:30pm – 3:15am

Simon Bramfitt

SYN105: Leverage Citrix Workspace Cloud for your enterprise IT needs

May 12^th, 2:00-2:45pm/May 14^th, 4:30-5:15pm

Joe Vaccaro

SYN218: Agile delivery and lifecycle management of Citrix workloads across multiple clouds with Workspace Cloud

May 14^th, 4:30-5:15pm

Jie Feng, Kalias Jawadekar

At Summit 2015, Mark Templeton announced the prototype of a mouse named code named “X1”. The mouse is specifically designed for the iOS platform. As many of you probably know, Apple does not support pairing a bluetooth mouse with iOS devices. The X1 mouse bypasses this limitation by allowing users to pair the mouse with the Citrix Receiver app thereby enabling them to use the device with published applications, VDI and Hosted Shared Desktops.

If you look at the enterprise landscape, iOS still dominates the mobile market. While it has always been possible to access Windows applications and desktops via Citrix Receiver, its debatable whether the users are actually productive. With the mobility pack, desktops can be re-skinned to suit the form factor, but it was still not quite where it needed to be in terms of productivity. Not to mention, most native windows applications that have not been customized for the mobile form factor were generally not very usable other than viewing data. Thanks to these limitations, most of us generally had to carry a laptop in addition to our mobile device to get real work done.

The X1 mouse has fundamentally solved these problems. Users can now be fully productive on iOS devices  as they can not only view data, but can also quite easily edit and manipulate data. windows applications and desktops (both VDI and hosted shared) are a lot more usable and functional.  Walking around with just a tablet is now a reality. I really believe that the X1 mouse will encourage mobility and help move forward Citrix’s vision of a Software Defined Workspace!