Under MSDN Microsoft has launched a new site called http://gps.cloudapp.net this site is awesome! The site will allow you to search for group policy settings, filter by Internet Explorer version, office version and others and browse by registry or by policy.

But this tool makes it much easier to find the right settings and apply them either with registry hacks or policy objects.

This is a quick example of a search on hide drives which is pretty commonly used but still..

There is not much more to it, but a great tool for sure, one of my new favorite online tools

The tools is naturally powered by Azure

So as some of you may know, a couple of weeks back i changed from my former employer to a new company Conecto A/S. I moved to Conecto to join a few others like me in a dream to build the best Citrix Technology Consultant business, first in Denmark and later … the world ofcourse
This in no way means i am not still focused on what goes on with VMware and especially Microsoft. It just means that from a consulting and implementation viewpoint i will be working deeply with Citrix Technologies and focusing more on features, architecture and analysis on the other products. This is simply done because i must admit it is impossible to be an expert within all three major virtualization vendors, so i have chosen to work with features, technologies and analysis on all the three major vendors and focus my implementation specialization on Citrix technologies. If i come across cases which fit better with another vendor there are highly skilled people out there to refer to.

So what..

So, what does this change have to do with the BlackBerry Receiver?.. Well for a long time Conecto has been a leading implementer of BlackBerry solutions in Denmark, and highly specialized in optimizing Citrix ICA traffic for thin connections like GPRS and 3G. This has positioned Conecto as a strong and experienced mobility partner. This fact mixed with the more recent focus on becoming the most specialized and competent Citrix Partner gives great synergies, i think a lot of us tried out the Citrix Receiver for the iPhone, i am loving the Citrix Receiver for iPad, with its more usable screen features. And ever since i started with Conecto i have grown more and more fond of my BlackBerry device, not because it has a huge appstore, or touch screen, or any of that stuff i love in the iPhone, but because it works.. it makes sure my emails are always synced, my contacts and gives me access to internal company ressources. So in short i have grown very fond of BlackBerry when it comes to productivity, work stuff(when it comes to looking cool and trendy, the BB sure does not keep up with Apple, perhaps they should work together?). 

And now.. Citrix announced the release of their BlackBerry Citrix Receiver, and i have to say it looks great, i wanted to share a few screenshots with you all which i made on my BB device this morning:

First we have the new Citrix icon in the BlackBerry Menu, and after configuring my CitrixCloud account i was presented with the Citrix Application list on the right.

Next we can see i choose to add the Microsoft PowerPoint application to my favorite applications, i will get back to why. And last but not least the information showing supported systems, in this case XenApp and XenDesktop.

Sadly i was unable to take screenshots after launching the application, but i have to say it works splendidly, perhaps even better than the iPhone receiver with the Zoom features and then the TrackBall/Pad for Mouse control. The mouse interaction is alot more natural than we have it in the iPhone receiver.

So.. what apps work?

Marketing answer is .. ALL APPS! .. all windows apps on the blackberry dream come true! ..  the real answer is the same as with the iPhone and Windows Mobile receiver.. all applications which can be navigated easily without use of shortcut-keys and a minimum need for zooming in and out. And the Perfect applications?.. applications designed for the End-point device screen. SoftwareFX announced an interesting thing at Citrix Synergy. They announced XenApp Gadgets i wrote more about this here. In short this solution allows for manufacturing of applications designed for a specific endpoint, and then easily integrating with backend databases etc. This gives the user in the far end the best experience and the information needed in the right format. But i chose to add Powerpoint as a favorite, because in presentation mode, that is actually usable to show something to a customer or colleague. Easy navigation from slide to slide, and great visualization using slides. So a good fit as well.

So whats included now?

Tim Graf was kind enough to put out a blogpost with detailed information and these are the features:

• Favorites Apps
• Multiple farm support
• Zoom Control
• Pan/Scroll/Cursor movement
• Enterprise access using BES
• Support for 3G as well as WLAN
• Auto configuration of receiver by Email
• Supports touch capabilities including Gesture support
• Support for XenApp Cache, Delaware and Parra releases
• Support for XenDesktop 4.0
• Capability to reconnect to any XA/XD Session created from any device

Also linking to this introductory video: http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/2280

To download the Client look here(accessing this URL from your BB Device should prompt install): http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1865165&productId=1689163

Rene Vester

However it has given a few hiccups in the systems that lies behind. One of these problems is the “invalid host” error when allocating new licenses.

The cause of this problem is that the licenses we are receiving are now bound to different products, so not all licenses can be allocated to the normal Citrix license-server and therefor when we try to allocate our licenses we get the “invalid host” error.. not very descriptive, but there there is a workaround available.

The issue typically looks like this:

Resolution (as pr. http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx120645)

1. Log on to My Citrix.
2. Highlight Choose a toolbox and select Activation System/Manage Licenses from the list.
3. From the current tool dropdown list, select View Licenses.
4. Next to the unallocated license you wish to allocate, click on the link Click to allocate.
5. Follow the prompts to allocate the license.
6. When prompted to Select Licenses to Allocate, highlight one product, such as "XenApp Platinum" and click on Filter products. Only XenApp Platinum should be appearing now. <<—very important to filter
7. Enter the quantity to allocate, enter the Hostname of the license server and, at the bottom of the page, select Allocate.
8. Download the license file.
9. Repeat steps 1 through 8 for the remaining products.
Note: In case you own WANScaler hardware appliances, you must allocate the WANScaler Client licenses to the Host ID of your hardware appliance (you can find the Host ID on your WANScaler under system tools). In case, you do not own WANScaler hardware appliances yet, there is no need to allocate the WANScaler Client licenses.

This product is known and mentioned for XenApp in the above mentioned support article, however i have now heard about the same issue with quite a lot of the customers who upgraded to XenDesktop Platinum from their XenApp. So the issue also exists with XenDesktop licenses.

/Rene Vester

This is GREAT news, i think it is just what we need.. a hands-on lab with guided exercises to give everyone a better understanding of VDI and especially XenDesktop and the Hyper-V platform integration.

Personally i spend a lot of time working with companies on Proof of Concepts to decide whether or not Virtual Desktops deliver the value-add their company needs. I think this is virtual lab is a great innovation in the quest to spread understanding of both the several hyper-visors available and the concepts needed to build a viable Virtual Desktop proof of Concept.

Deciding whether or not Hypervisors A or B is the best platform for your organization may not be easily decided over this virtual lab, but i think it clearly shows what Hyper-V can offer in the aspect of a virtual desktop host. And let there be no doubt, when you are talking about virtual desktops, the cost of the hypervisor is a parameter.

Citrix XenDesktop to me is the best positioned Virtual Desktop broker in the market. This is from my point of view because of the close integration with the older brother Citrix XenApp, this integration makes it possible to spread your virtual desktops over a dynamic virtual desktop platform, and the much cheaper “shared virtual desktop” platform which Citrix XenApp delivers.

What i do not understand is why VMware has not tried to incorporate terminal services(now RDS) support in a much better way to help accommodate the users which does not need to have their own OS, and by that lowering the total cost of the deployment… but that’s just me.. i do not buy the hype, i did the math.. And if you do VDI without doing the math.. “Oh boy..”

To get more information on this new lab cooperation between Citrix and Microsoft have a look here: http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=116033898

Click here to try out the lab: https://cmg.vlabcenter.com/default.aspx?moduleid=281742e3-2613-42da-bd58-2c3578f039b4

or watch the video here:

I guess i could put in a guide to solve the challenges here but i chose not to. Citrix and MS did a good job on guiding through the challenges and delivering a good lab to work in.. good job!

I Really wish we could see this from more virtualization vendors! this is the way to show off your product!

You can download the entire document here: http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx123684

Some of my thoughts after reading:

• Great to see the XenDesktop solution based on ESX!
• Great and honest in-depth description of problems encountered
• Why say scaling to 5000 when you only launch 3268 sessions? i get that 5000 sounds better but 3268 is cool enough
• Very impressive PVS scaling i will be looking into the mentioned changes.

What do you guys think? is this possible?

What interest me most.. whats the price pr. Concurrent Device?

But worth a read for sure for everyone considering VDI.

/René Vester

I have had the pleasure of testing this new version and i must say that it is an incredible client. This Receiver really brings some much needed functionality to the mobile device platform. And though i am a big fan of the iPhone i really hope Citrix will manage to bring this level of functionality and features to the other emerging mobile device platforms like Android. Citrix has a tech preview out of their Android receiver it can be found here: http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/Citrix+Receiver+for+Android

Bringing it back on topic, the Receiver for iPhone has been out for quite some time now and have been downloaded more than 300.000 times. The receiver was a 1.0 up until now! With the release of version 2.0 i actually see a lot of cool features which will help make it a more usable platform for companies and organizations.

I have chosen to highlight a few of the new features:

Support for Multiple Accounts

This is a great feature and embraces the opportunity to also allow users access from more than organization or allow applications to be delivered from the Cloud.. or SaaS providers or what you will call it To support this there has also been implemented a search function to allow users to find the apps they need.

New interface

The new client has a completely different interface for applications, favorites, online help and much more. These are really great changes with an even more iPhonish look and feel, and more useful to users and better administrated by administrators.

Better Support for Citrix complementing technologies

With the new release and some from 1.0.3 there is now an integrated support for Access Gateway Standard, Advanced and Enterprise and of course Support for XenDesktop 4.

Usability improvements

There is a lot of improvements on the usability side of things, just to mention a few it is great to work with the options to Change the initial zoom value, hide status bar, change session resolution and one of the really cool features when working on the iPhone.. a “Caffeine option” a built in feature to help keep the screen active.

Another cool thing which i am a big fan as most who have read this blog will know.. SMS stuff.

2-factor support has been improved and revolutionized

Of course Citrix quickly added support for traditional tokens primarily the RSA tokens. But one of the cool new features, is support for SMS Based 2-factor solutions like SMS PASSCODE. I have written about SMS PASSCODE several times here, here, here and here. The integration allows for the users to log in securely into the company applications using 2-factors on their mobile devices without having to memorize the SMS based 2-factor code from an SMS and then type it into an application. It is based on a technology in which the SMS recieved on the mobile device contains a link which is allows sending the code into the Citrix Reciever application. I do not have a demo-site for this feature ready at the moment but i hope i will have one soon. Until then you can test the SMS PASSCODE solution here on their demo site.

More than i love the technology i love the convenient way in which users can access their applications.. POWER TO THE USERS! Power to convenience!

If you want more information have a look here at Chris Flecks blog post: http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2009/12/21/Feature+Rich+Citrix+Receiver+2.0+for+iPhone+is+in+the+App+Store

and on the matter of mobility Vinny Sosa did a blog post here: http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2009/12/11/Mobilizing+your+apps+-+Part+I+-+Session+Resolution

And of course keep up to date on the iphone receiver site here: http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/Citrix+Receiver+for+iPhone

Rene Vester

There are a lot of really cool features in the new release i cant wait to test them out:

One feature i am really missing is pass-through, for many customers it is not really acceptable to have the users type in username and password more than once, and i guess implementing Password Manager to solve this is not really an option

With the new release of the Receiver for windows the supported list of plug-ins has also grown:

I hope to find time to write a full hands-on review after i get back from Florida, but for now it is available from the download-section of MyCitrix. You can find it here: https://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/results.asp?productID=1689163 (You need to log in to MyCitrix)

Will do a hands-on review at first possible opportunity.

Rene Vester

Citrix Hosted an unfiltered discussion with two renowned CTPs, Jeroen van de Kamp and Ruben Spruijt. They are the two people behind the Virtual Reality Check where they have had support from both their organisations Log-in Consultants and PQR in this joint venture.

The Virtual Reality Check material has been made public at: www.virtualrealitycheck.net

The recorded webcast can be seen at: https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=136904&sessionid=1&key=3CD0F47C5FAAC232A296EA11E6B953C1&sourcepage=register

Happy viewing, and for those coming to Citrix Summit/Synergy/VC there will be an opportunity as well to listen to and talk to Ruben and Jerome on the matter of Virtual reality check

Rene Vester

David de la Puerta from The Tolly Group was kind enough to inform me that they have just released report on the Virtual Desktop implementation of VMware View 3 Premier and Citrix XenDesktop 2.1.

I think it seems to be a thorough test which has been done to create a background for the report. What i do like about this report is that is has a new angle to the review process, instead of how many concurrent users will the solution hold, it seems very much that the focus has been to find the most easy to setup and easy to use platform.

The key findings as to why VMware View 3 Premier is the better choice is the following:

1. Installed more rapidly and with considerably fewer steps and less manual intervention
2. Provides simpler image management that makes more efficient use of disk
3. Requires no manual configuration of Microsoft AD or DHCP
4. Allows management of all VDI functions through a single Web-based GUI
5. Provides equivalent end-user experience on LAN as Citrix for Microsoft Office applications.

So all in all a very different perspective to the benchmarking of products, but again all the angles and perspectives gives a clearer view on the topic at hand, and i think there can be no doubt that the Virtual Desktop implementation, sizing and management is going to have a strong focus over the next couple of years.

You can find the report here: http://www.tolly.com/DocDetail.aspx?DocNumber=209101

My personal remarks to the report will also have to include that i never liked comparing guns to bows and arrows and in my oppinion VMware View 3 is better compared with the XenDesktop version3 which has just been released, however as the focus has been on the implementation and not the typical feature-race, i think the report is still very much valid. I have not done a similar test myself, so for now i will keep my focus on independent reports like the The Tolly Group report, and the http://VirtualRealityCheck.net which i have also mentioned earlier. (edited, the tests were conducted in early december 2008, thats why the XenDesktop 2.1 was the latest available.)

On a side note, The Tolly Group is working on a series of “Best Practice” guides for Virtual Server performance, and are looking for input from the virtualization community, you can get more information her: http://www.tolly.com/DocDetail.aspx?DocNumber=RFP1101

René Vester

The Virtual Reality Check is a great performance baseline giving the community the option to compare Citrix XenServer, VMware ESX 3.5 and Microsoft Hyper-V.

The objectives for the VRC has been:

• How does various Microsoft Windows Client OS’s  scale as a virtual desktop?
• How does a VDI infrastructure scale in comparison (virtualized) Terminal Server?
• Which performance optimization on the host and guest virtualization level can be configured, and what is the impact of these settings on user density?
• With the introduction of the latest hypervisor technologies, can we now recommend running large scale TS/CTX workloads on a virtualization platform?
• How do the two usage scenarios compare, that is Microsoft Terminal Server [TS] only, versus TS plus XenApp?
• How do x86 and x64 TS platforms compare in scalability on bare metal and virtualized environments?
• What is the best way to partition (memory and vCPU) the Virtual Machines the hypervisor host, to achieve the highest possible user density?

I think the PQR and Log-in team has done an excellent job that we all can benefit from. The materials and results can be reviewed at www.virtualrealitycheck.net i would encourage anyone working with any of these technologies to have a look at the findings.

However i still think that any experience and performance measurement which is done should be announced, the VRC is a comprehensive test and my guess is there will not be many of those, but i am sure Ruben, Jerome and the team would also love to hear from others who have experiences in these areas.

Rene Vester