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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
XenApp is the leader in application hosting and virtualization delivery, allowing users from different platforms such Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices to connect to their business applications. Using XenApp, you can deploy secure applications quickly to thousands of users.XenApp 6.5 brings with it exciting new features such as a brand new management console, Instant App access, Multi-stream ICA, Single Sign-on and SmartAuditor enhancements, and more.Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6.5 provides comprehensive details on how to design, implement, and maintain Citrix farms based on XenApp 6.5. Additionally, you will learn to use management tools and scripts for daily tasks such as managing servers, published resources, printers, and connections.Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6.5 starts by introducing the basics and new features of the brand new version such as installing servers and configuring components, and then teaches you how to publish applications and resources on the client device before moving on to configuring content redirection. Author Guillermo Musumeci includes a use case throughout the book to explain advanced topics like creating management scripts and deploying and optimizing XenApp for Citrix XenServer, VMware ESX, and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines. It will guide you through an unattended installation of XenApp and components on physical servers. By the end of this book you will have enough knowledge to successfully design and manage your own XenApp 6.5 Farms.
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Table of Contents
Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6.5
Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6.5
Copyright © 2012 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: June 2011
Second Edition: July 2012
Production Reference: 1160712
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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Cover Image by Jarosław Blaminsky (<[email protected]>)
Credits
Author
Guillermo Musumeci
Reviewers
Christopher Buford
Shankha Mukherjee
Peter Nap
Acquisition Editor
Dilip Venkatesh
Lead Technical Editor
Kedar Bhat
Technical Editor
Madhuri Das
Project Coordinator
Yashodhan Dere
Proofreader
Mario Cecere
Indexer
Monica Ajmera Mehta
Production Coordinator
Aparna Bhagat
Cover Work
Aparna Bhagat
About the Author
Guillermo Musumeci is a Windows Infrastructure Architect, specialized in Citrix and Virtualization, with 17 years of experience and passion for designing, building, deploying, and supporting enterprise architectures using Citrix, Microsoft, and VMware products.
He worked as Project Manager and Consultant in medium to large Citrix and virtualization projects in America and Europe, and now he works as Citrix SME (Subject Matter Expert) for one of the world's top financial companies in Asia, where he lives with his wife and two kids.
Guillermo is the founder and developer of the popular site CtxAdmTools, which provides free Citrix, VMware, and Microsoft automation tools to manage Citrix environments, Active Directory, Virtual Machines, and more. Also, he is the author of the book Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6.0.
He holds more than 25 Citrix, Microsoft, and VMware certifications, and has passed more than 50 certification exams.
When he is not working he loves to cook with his son, particularly homemade Italian food, or walking around Singapore with his family, tasting new food, and clicking pictures.
Acknowledgement
This book is dedicated to my beautiful wife Paola and my amazing kids, Stefano and Ornella. All of you are my number one source of happiness. I love you all!
Also I want to dedicate this book to my grandparents, Vicenta, Sarito, Nino, and Lorenza, and my parents, Carolina and Juan Carlos. Thank you for teaching me important values that made me who I am.
Also, I want to thank my sisters, our families, and friends for their support.
In particular I want to give a big thank you to all our new friends in Singapore!
Finally I want to thank all the people from Packt Publishing, who helped me on this book, principally the Project Coordinator, Yashodhan Dere, for their amazing help. Thank you!
About the Reviewers
Christopher Buford is a Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer in Virtualization (CCEE) and Citrix product consultant, with 13 years of experience with Citrix products.
His experience includes XenApp, XenDesktop, NetScaler, Provisioning Server, Universal Profile Manager, Business Practices, and Technical Documentation. He also has experience in architecting, designing, and implementing Citrix Solutions. He has worked with several Fortune 500 companies as well as small to mid-sized Businesses as a Citrix subject matter expert.
He is currently a Citrix consultant for SMB Technology Solutions, LLC. SMB Technology Solutions, LLC is an Atlanta, GA-based boutique virtualization consulting company, specializing, in the small-midsized business arena. SMB Technology Solutions focuses on the South Eastern United States.
He really loves the ability to bring historically enterprise-level technologies to the SMB market. He feels great to be able to apply years of enterprise experience to the small business market. They are instrumental in helping level the playing field for the smaller guys.
Christopher was also chosen as a reviewer for the forerunner of this book, Getting Started with Xenapp 6.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the following individuals for my success.
First of all, I would like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I would also like to thank my loving family; my beautiful wife Carol Buford, for her support. My children, who are the main reasons for my pressing towards the goal, daughters Ceterra, Chrisha, Christiana, and Taliyah, and grandson Jordan, and of course my parents, Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Buford, for their guidance and for always being there for me.
I would also like to thank the following mentors, friends, and colleagues for driving me towards excellence:
Mr. Alonzo James III—Zo, "Technological Genius" you are one of the very few people who have technical brilliance along with "real world" common sense. Thanks for sharing the knowledge, and thanks for being such a great friend.
Mr. Dexter Oliver—Thanks Dex, "I.T. Manager Extraordinaire" for your guidance, mentoring, and wisdom, and for keeping me spiritually grounded and assisting me in keeping focus on what really counts.
Mr. Scott Tucker (Citrix Technology Consultant)—Scott, I have learned so much from you in our technology battles and ("hashing" things out) conversations, Thanks a bunch buddy.
Shankha Mukherjee has five years experience in Citrix XenApp (new name for Presentation Server). He has worked on almost all the versions of Citrix XenApp, starting from Metaframe XP. He is currently working as a Level-2 administrator for WINTEL (Windows Intel / Citrix XenApp / VMware), giving support to client infrastructure, remotely.
Shankha Mukherjee is a B-Tech Engineer in Information Technology.
He has also reviewed the book, Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6.
I am thankful to Yashodhan Dere and Amey Kanse for providing me this opportunity.
Peter Nap is a very experienced Server Based Computing Consultant and Infrastructure Architect. He is 38 years old, lives in the Netherlands, and is currently employed as an Infrastructure Architect for Logica. He has 13 years of work experience in various large and small businesses, including Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands.
Last year, Peter was migrating a company to XenApp 6.5 in combination with Citrix Provisioning 6.1 and hosted on physical blades.
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Preface
XenApp is the leader in application hosting and virtualization delivery, allowing users from different platforms such Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices to connect to their business applications. Using XenApp, you can deploy secure applications quickly to thousands of users.
XenApp 6.5 brings with it exciting new features such as a brand new management console, Instant App access, Multi-stream ICA, Single Sign-on and SmartAuditor enhancements, and more.
Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6.5 provides comprehensive details on how to design, implement, and maintain Citrix farms based on XenApp 6.5. Additionally, you will learn to use management tools and scripts for daily tasks such as managing servers, published resources, printers, and connections.
Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6.5 starts by introducing the basics and new features of the brand new version such as installing servers and configuring components, and then teaches you how to publish applications and resources on the client device before moving on to configuring content redirection.
Author Guillermo Musumeci, includes a use case throughout the book to explain advanced topics like creating management scripts and deploying and optimizing XenApp for Citrix XenServer, VMware vSphere, and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines. It will guide you through an unattended installation of XenApp and components on physical servers.
By the end of this book, you will have enough knowledge to successfully design and manage your own XenApp 6.5 Farms.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Getting Started with XenApp 6.5, provides an introduction to XenApp 6.5 and discusses the new features in the product. This chapter also covers the requirements to deploy XenApp 6.5.
Chapter 2, Designing a XenApp 6.5 Farm, explains Citrix farm terminologies and concepts, and how to design a basic XenApp architecture and a basic pilot plan to deploy XenApp. Also, how to choose applications and implement them on XenApp is discussed with the help of a case study.
Chapter 3, Installing XenApp 6.5, describes how to install and configure XenApp 6.5, including XenApp, Licensing Service, and Web Interface roles using the new XenApp Server Role Manager. Configuring Remote Desktop Services, installing the new Citrix AppCenter management console, and learning about Controller and Session-host modes are also discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 4, Advanced XenApp Deployment, explains unattended install of XenApp servers and customizing the Web Interface.
Chapter 5, Using Management Tools, presents the Citrix AppCenter Console, License Administration, and Citrix Web Interface Management Consoles. It shows other tools like Citrix SSL Relay Configuration tool, Shadow taskbar, and SpeedScreen Latency Reduction Manager. Finally, it shows how to create and manage Citrix administrator's accounts.
Chapter 6, Application Publishing, discusses how to publish different types of resources in XenApp: hosted and streamed applications, content and server desktops. Also, it discovers content redirection, from server to client and client to server, and explains how to set up and update file type associations.
Chapter 7, Application Streaming, explains the installation, configuration, and delivery of streaming applications. It describes system requirements and components for application streaming. It chooses plugins for application streaming and describes how to profile and publish Microsoft Office 2010 on a XenApp farm.
Chapter 8, Managing XenApp Policies, describes XenApp policies and how to create, manage, and apply Citrix policies. It explains the use of the Group Policy Management Console, Citrix AppCenter Console, and Local Group Policy Editor to manage Citrix Policies. Also, troubleshooting Citrix Policies is discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 9, Printing in XenApp Environments, describes Windows and Citrix XenApp printing concepts. It explains how to assign network printers to users using Citrix policies. It presents the new XenApp Printing Optimization Pack. It shows how to manage printer drivers, use the Citrix universal printer, and implement printers. It also explains printing for mobile users.
Chapter 10, Multimedia Content on XenApp, explains how to optimize user sessions for XenApp using different Citrix HDX features like HDX MediaStream Multimedia Acceleration, HDX 3D Technologies to improve image display, HDX MediaStream for Flash, and more. It describes how to configure HDX MediaStream for Flash on the Server and different multimedia, audio, and video settings using Citrix policies.
Chapter 11, Managing Sessions, describes sessions and explains how to manage and monitor sessions using Citrix AppCenter Console, including viewing and shadowing of sessions. It discusses how to customize user environments in XenApp and limit concurrent connections. It also shows how to optimize user sessions, redirect local Special folders in sessions, and maintain session Activity using Session Reliability, Auto Client Reconnect, and ICA keep-alive.
Chapter 12, Scripting Programming, shows how to install and configure PowerShell to manage XenApp farms and how to use cmdlets to manage XenApp servers. It explains how to use PowerShell commands from inside VB.NET and C#.NET code. It discusses how to convert MFCOM scripts to PowerShell and access MFCOM objects and manage previous versions of XenApp from PowerShell.
Chapter 13, Receiver and Plugins Management, presents Citrix Receiver, including features and compatibility, and explains how to install Citrix Receiver for Windows and Macintosh. It describes how to deploy a Citrix Merchandising Server on VMware, XenServer Virtual Machines, and configure Merchandising Server and Receiver Plugins.
Chapter 14, Virtualizing XenApp Farms, explains how to deploy XenApp 6.5 in a virtualized environment, including advantages and disadvantages of virtualization, virtual machine performance, host scalability, and more. It describes how to deploy XenApp 6.5 on Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware vSphere virtual machines, and how to clone XenApp 6.5 virtual machines.
What you need for this book
The following are the software requirements for this book:
Who this book is for
If you are a system administrator or consultant who wants to implement and administer Citrix XenApp 6.5 farms, then this book is for you. This book will help both new and experienced XenApp professionals to deliver virtualized applications.
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Chapter 1. Getting Started with Citrix XenApp 6.5
Citrix XenApp is the leader of application virtualization or application delivery. Several years ago, when the word Virtualization didn't exist, people used to talk about application hosting. Citrix was founded in 1989 and they developed the first successful product in 1993 called WinView. It provided remote access to DOS and Windows 3.1 applications on a multi-user platform. Citrix licensed Microsoft's Windows NT 3.51 source code from Microsoft; and in 1995 they shipped a multiuser version of Windows NT based on the MultiWin engine, known as WinFrame. This allowed multiple users to logon and execute applications on a WinFrame server. In 1996 Citrix licensed the MultiWin technology to Microsoft, establishing the foundation of Microsoft's Terminal Services.
I remember perfectly the first time I was in touch with application hosting was in 1997, and I was working at Microsoft in Argentina as Technical Support Engineer. I was invited for MCSE certification training on a Saturday morning. We had been building a lab with several machines, when I saw several Microsoft Beta CDs on a table.
I took one of them called Hydra and I asked the guy in charge of the training about it, and he told me that the CD contained an application to convert a Windows NT 4.0 into a sort of mainframe. I asked him if we could install it on a machine and he told me we did not have enough RAM to install it. I recall walking inside empty offices to open computers and remove the RAM so that we could install Hydra on a computer.
It was couple of years later, in 1999, when I discovered that Hydra is Windows 4.0 Terminal Server Edition. I was working with my first Citrix server and that was when I first fell in love with application hosting.
In this chapter we will learn:
Introducing XenApp 6.5
When Citrix introduced XenApp 6.0 in March 2010, they rewrote the code completely for the Windows 64-bit platform (2008 R2). This job provided a great opportunity to optimize the code for performance and scalability and to provide new features. Now with XenApp 6.5, released in August 2011, Citrix has introduced more features, performance improvements and the new faster application launch.
XenApp 6.5 looks like an enhanced version of XenApp 6.0, but there are several differences in the farm architecture, so there is no direct upgrade from XenApp 6.0 to 6.5, forcing us to create a new farm for XenApp 6.5 servers.
Here are some of the highlights of the new XenApp 6.5:
On previous versions of XenApp when a user opens the first session, they will need to wait several seconds until the login script is processed, policies are applied, and profile is loaded. If the user opens a second application in the server, this application launches almost instantly.
This is the idea behind the Session Pre-Launch feature. When a user logs on into the farm (or by XenApp policy) a pre-launch session is created on the XenApp server, just waiting for the user to log on.
The same happened when the user closed the session. Session is kept open for a specific amount of time (defined by Session Limit policy).
Enabling these policies XenApp reduces delay, improving the user experience, but also consumes hardware resources (memory and CPU) and use licenses. We are going to discuss this feature in the next chapter.
Windows Desktop Experience Integration: This new XenApp 6.5 feature is installed by default when we install the XenApp server role. This feature gives XenApp 6.5 a Windows 7 appearance. This option was available on the XenApp 6.0 Service Provider Automation Pack and provides PowerShell scripts to manage multiple desktop options (Themes, Wallpaper, Start Menu and Taskbar, and so on).PowerShell Support: We can use Microsoft PowerShell to automate common XenApp management tasks. Citrix dropped support for MFCOM (the programming interface for the administration of XenApp servers and farms on previous versions) on XenApp 6.0 and added PowerShell 2.0 support. The new Citrix XenApp 6.5 PowerShell SDK introduced several improvements, including the ability to run cmdlets remotely, Chapter 12, Scripting Programming, is dedicated to scripting programming using PowerShell.New Management Console: Only one console is something all administrators asked for years. Citrix introduced the Citrix Delivery Services Console in XenApp 6.0, and then replaced it by the new AppCenter on XenApp 6.5. The new management console has been completely redesigned. We still need a separate console to manage Web Interface servers and Licensing. We are going to explore the new AppCenter in Chapter 4, Advanced XenApp Deployment, and Chapter 5, Using Management Tools.Citrix HDX Technologies: Introduced in XenApp 6.0 and improved in XenApp 6.5, HDX technologies provides better multimedia and high-definition experience with support for more USB devices than ever before. Citrix HDX offers great improvements in both audio and video quality. New video conference capabilities and advanced Adobe Flash support are included too. Also, HDX provides multi-monitor support, improving application compatibility when we use multiple monitor. Chapter 11, Managing Sessions, is dedicated to improving the multimedia experience of users using Citrix HDX technologies.Improved Printing Performance: The XenApp Printing Optimization Pack for XenApp 6.0, released in October 2010, is now included in XenApp 6.5. This feature improves printing speed, reduces bandwidth required for printing, and improves the user experience when printing to redirected client printers. We are going to talk about printing in Chapter 9, Printing in XenApp Environments.Multi-stream ICA: Another new feature included in XenApp 6.5 is the option of delivering XenApp ICA traffic over up to four TCP/IP streams. Now instead of prioritizing the entire ICA pipeline over HTTP traffic, we can apply a granular control for QoS (Quality of Service) routing. This feature is extremely useful to optimize network for audio and visual applications.Active Directory group policy integration: Another great addition on XenApp 6.0. Now we can manage XenApp policies and configure XenApp servers and farm settings using Active Directory Group Policies (GPO). Chapter 9 is dedicated to XenApp policies and provides extensive information on how to use Group Policy Management Console to manage Citrix policies.Windows Service Isolation for streamedapplications: This new feature, included on XenApp 6.0, allows applications to install Windows services and so that they can be profiled and streamed. This new option increases the number of streamed applications supported. Applications such as Microsoft Office 2010 or Adobe Creative Suite install a windows service. Now we can profile and stream them and other applications, using the new service isolation technology. We can learn about Application Streaming in Chapter 7, Application Streaming.ImprovedsupportforWindowsPortableUSBDevices: This feature allows users to plug in their USB devices such as cameras, scanners, and other devices and access them from their published applications on XenApp 6.0 and XenApp 6.5.MicrosoftApp-Vintegration allows us to manage and deliver both Citrix and Microsoft application delivery from a single point. Also App-V managed applications can now be delivered via Citrix Dazzle. Administrators can now distribute App-V Plug-In to end point devices using Citrix Receiver.Multi-lingualUserInterface(MUI): MUI is another feature introduced in XenApp 6.0. This feature allows multinational companies to deploy one XenApp server to serve users who need access to their applications in their local language.CitrixReceiver: The new Citrix Receiver 3.0 for Windows supports several languages and provides support for new Plug-Ins including Single Sign-On, WAN Acceleration, App-V, and more. This new version includes support for Session Pre-Launch, Internet Explorer 9.0, and more. Also, there is a new Receiver for Mac and mobile users. We can use Receiver on the iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, or other devices to access applications hosted on XenApp 6.0 or 6.5. We are going to learn about Citrix Receiver in detail in Chapter 11.CitrixDazzle: Citrix called Dazzle the first self-service "storefront" for enterprise applications. Dazzle allows corporate employees 24x7 self-service access to the applications they need to work. End users now can subscribe to XenApp applications (including App-V packages) using Dazzle on PC or Mac.In addition to these major features and enhancements, XenApp 6.5 includes other features like updated Web Interface, Single Sign-on and SmartAuditor enhancements, new 32-bit color support, Windows 7 smart card support, and so on.
XenApp feature overview
This section provides summary descriptions of some of the most popular XenApp features. This section will help new Citrix customers to understand major features on last versions of XenApp (XenApp 4.5, 5.0, 6.0, and 6.5).
System requirements
The most obvious requirement to install XenApp 6.5 is a 64-bit operating system. No more 32-bit operating systems are supported. XenApp 6.0 was only available for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, and XenApp 6.5 is available for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 with two exceptions: Web Server and Core editions. We cannot install XenApp in these two Windows versions.
If we want to deploy XenApp on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R1 (x86 and x64) we must choose to use XenApp 5.0. Citrix XenApp 6.5 does not support mixed farms. Mixed farms are XenApp farms that contain more than one server operating system version.
Until previous versions Citrix supported XenApp farms that contained different versions of Windows and/or of XenApp. XenApp 6.5 cannot co-exist with any previous versions in the same farm, even with XenApp 6.0. We can have two separated farms and use web interface to provide users access to both farms using one single interface.
We can keep XenApp 5.0 or 6.0 and 6.5 servers together on the same farm for a migration, but this is not recommended (and supported) by Citrix for a long term implementation.
During the wizard-based installation, the XenApp Server Role Manager automatically installs prerequisites for the selected roles. Also, we can choose to install XenApp from command-line installations or using unattended scripts. In that case, we must deploy the prerequisites before starting XenApp role installation.
We can use ServerManagerCmd.exe command, PowerShell cmdlets or Microsoft's DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) tool to deploy prerequisites such as IIS or .NET Framework.
The XenApp Server Role Manager deploys the following software, if it is not already installed:
If the server already has the IIS role services installed, the Citrix XML Service IIS Integration component is selected by default in the wizard-based XenApp installation, and the Citrix XML Service and IIS share a port (the default port is 80).
If the IIS role services are not installed, the Citrix XML Service IIS Integration component is not selected by default in the wizard-based installation. In this case, if we select the checkbox, the Server Role Manager installs the following IIS role services. (If we do not install these services, the Citrix XML Service defaults to standalone mode with its own port settings, which we can configure using the XenApp Server Configuration Tool.)
Data store databases
The data store database is a repository of persistent XenApp farm information, including server's information, published applications, administrators, and more static data.
The following databases are supported for the data store:
For more information about supported database versions, see Document ID CTX114501 at http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX114501
We are going to use Microsoft SQL Server to configure the Citrix data store in this book because it is the most popular option. We are going to install and configure a SQL Server as data store database in Chapter 3.
Citrix AppCenter console
The Citrix AppCenter, formerly known as Citrix Access Management Console in XenApp 4.5 and 5.0 and Citrix Delivery Services Console in XenApp 6.0, is a tool that integrates into the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and enables us to execute management Using Citrix AppCenter. We can set up and monitor XenApp servers and farms, published resources and sessions, configure policies, and provide users access to applications.
Also we can manage load balancing, troubleshoot alerts, diagnose problems in our farms, view hotfix information for our Citrix products, and track administrative changes.
By default, the console is installed on the same XenApp server where we install the XenApp server role; but we can install and run the console on a separate computer.
If we want to administer multiples farms of the different XenApp versions, we need to install multiple versions of management consoles on the same computer.
To install the Citrix AppCenter console (or the Citrix Delivery Services Console in XenApp 6.0) on a computer, from the XenApp Autorun menu, select ManuallyInstallComponents|CommonComponents|ManagementConsoles. We are going to install the Citrix AppCenter Console in Chapter 3.
We can install Citrix AppCenter Console or Citrix Delivery Services Console in the following operating systems:
Also, the XenApp Server Role Manager deploys the following software, if it is not already installed:
Note
If we install the AppCenter Console on a computer that previously contained the Microsoft Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and an earlier version of the Delivery Services Console, we may also need to uninstall and reinstall the Citrix XenApp Group Policy Management Experience (x64) program in order to use the GPMC to configure Citrix policies.
License server
The Citrix License Server is a small component required in every XenApp deployment. It can be installed on a XenApp server or shared XenApp infrastructure server (more about this in the next chapter) for testing or smaller environments or on large environments, in one dedicated server.
Citrix licenses are required to allow users to connect to the XenApp farm.
We can download and install the latest Citrix License Server or use the version included on the ISO of XenApp 6.5. Minimum license server version number is 11.9.
We are going to install and configure the Citrix License Server in Chapter 3.
Clients
Citrix XenApp Receiver (formerly known as Citrix Plug-In and ICA Client) is a light software client that allows us to access published applications and desktops on XenApp farms and servers from almost any client device, including Windows and Macintosh computers and mobile devices such as Android and Blackberry phones, Apple iPhone and iPad devices.
We need to install the most recent version of any Citrix Receiver to guarantee availability of all features and functionality of XenApp 6.5 to our users. XenApp Receiver version 13.0 is the minimum version recommended to use all features of XenApp 6.5.
To install Citrix Receiver, we need to connect to www.citrix.com and then go to Downloads option. We need to choose CitrixReceiver, and then install the right CitrixReceiver for our platform.
Summary
In this chapter, we learned some new features about XenApp 6.5. Specifically:
We discussed these new exciting features and in particular the Citrix AppCenter console, the 64-bit support, the new installation process using roles-based setup and more. Also, we enumerated system requirements.
In the next chapter, we are going to discuss how to design a XenApp 6.5 farm and how to implement some of these new features.
Chapter 2. Designing a XenApp 6.5 Farm
Now that we have learned about the features of XenApp and the new features of XenApp 6.5, it's time for us to start the design of our XenApp 6.5 farm. The most important step before any XenApp deployment is, to understand the features of the product and design the architecture.
In this chapter, we will take a look at the case study that we will use in the book to implement XenApp 6.5: Brick Unit Constructions.
In this chapter we will cover the following topics:
Case study: Brick Unit Constructions
John Charles Empire established a small construction company near Washington DC in 1973. His company started building small homes in the state of Maryland and currently is one of the most important construction companies in the area. In the last 10 years, they increased the revenue, the amount of employees, and construction sites, and now they have several construction sites around the state.
Managing the software installed on computers and other devices in the field is a nightmare for the small IT department of the company and their manager, William Empire, son of John Charles.
When William read about the new XenApp 6.5, he thought the product could help the company manage the distributed and complex environment of Brick Unit Constructions.
Farm terminology and concepts
Now is the moment to define the terminology which we are going to use in this book. If you are new in the XenApp world, please pay attention to this section. Except when noted, all following terminology applies to both XenApp 6.0 and XenApp 6.5.
Applications can be made available by installing in the server or streaming to the client. Both XenApp 6.0 and 6.5 supports only Windows 32-bit or Windows 64-bit applications. Running 16-bit applications is not supported.
XenApp offers three methods for delivering applications to user devices, servers, and virtual desktops:
XenAppserverfarm is a logical collection or group of XenApp servers that can be managed as a single entity. Usually Citrix define three types of farms:
Farmarchitecture defines the plan for the design of the server farm and zones based on current requirements and considers future expansion plans. Farm architecture requires a strong understanding of the network topology, scalability, failover, and geographic location of the sites and users in the company.
