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

Ups and downs to the Citrix Reciever:

What’s the upside?
•  The Receiver is the last Citrix client you will ever need to install – The Receiver has a premise based Server component that will act as staging area and control facility for propagating Plugin updates out to the end users. The receiver will periodically check the Server for updates and, provided you allow it, will update with the newer Plugins as they become available.
•    More frequent release of enhancements – Plugins will be released independently and on their own schedules meaning we’ll be able to bring enhancements to market when they are ready without having to wait for a periodic client release.
•    More granular control over what gets installed on the clients – Administrators will be able to control which users get which Plugins and when.
* Note: A standalone Plugins Pack will be made available for those who would like to continue to manage their client updates with existing methods.

What’s the downside?
In order to make room for these changes we need to remove\deprecate some of our legacy features:
1: Thinwire 1 – Thinwire 1 is a low-level graphics virtual channel that was replaced by Thinwire 2 back in MetaFrame 1.8 FR1 (August 2000). Removing TW1 from the Windows client means that you won’t be able to connect to a MetaFrame 1.8 Server with the newer client. See, I told you we were reluctant to remove anything.
2: Program Neighborhood –Program Neighborhood has been around since the early days of WinFrame. PN is a launch pad for XenApp Applications. When launched it connects with the XenApp Server and lists the Apps that are available for the user. PN was effectively replaced by PNAgent (Now the XenApp User Experience Plugin), which provides the same functionality with a far superior interface by integrating the XenApp delivered Apps transparently into the users Desktop. We removed PN from an active enhancement path several generations ago but we’ve been keeping it alive in maintenance mode to give our customers time to move on to the newer and better XenApp Plugin. There is more to the story but I think I’ll post that as a separate Blog entry.

You can read the entire post here.

I personally can’t wait to get my hands on the Citrix Reciever, i have been looking for this product for ages.. i can’t understand why it has taken so long, but i do love the fact that it is just around the corner now.

On a final note i wish you all a happy new year

René Vester

Wilco did a great review of the upcoming Citrix Provision Server 5 beta 2. I guess this is another example of how much Citrix has opened up with their CTP program, good job

Wilco have had his hands on PVS 5 beta 2 and has been allowed to publish a review.

There are a lot of new cool features a few of my personal favorites are:

• Farm Hierarchy

Probably one of the most requested improvement in the software is the possibility to create a hierarchy within the console. Version 5 has the following components Farms, Sites and Device Collections available.
A farm is group of servers sharing the same database (just like a XenApp farm) On the farm level the following services are running ore configured:
Citrix License Manager server
Provisioning Server Database
Shared Storage
a Console
a server running the PXE service.

Because on farm level the same database, shared storage and PXE services are running it’s the sites are more a logical separation than this can be used for more geographical locations. Sites represent and manage logical groupings of Provisioning Servers, Device Collections, and site-specific stores. Device Collections simplifies device management by performing actions at the collection level rather than at the target device level.

• vDisk format

Just like all Citrix virtualization products Citrix Provisioning Server will be using the Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk format (VHD).

• Improved Target Device Status

More information is displayed about the devices connected like name, IP address, MAC address, status, current server assignment and current vDisk assignment.

• Improved Upgrade possibilities

Upgrading to a new version of Ardence was removing the software and re-installing the software again (and often also rebuilding the vDisks). With Provision Server 5 there are now several improved upgrades paths.

Have a look at the complete article here:
http://sbc.vanbragt.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=687&Itemid=232

/René Vester

And i think alot of us struggled with a good way to perform this task. I think it is a pretty good guide i will however try to find the time to make a Video explaining the procedure.

This is Sunil Kumar’s howto: 

To accomplish this perform the following steps in the Provisioning Server (PVS) console in XenDesktop.

1. Create a group for the client target devices in PVS and move target devices in the PVS group.  We created a group called "Sales".  The PVS target devices will have been created by the XenDesktop Setup Tool.  Note this step is mostly for convenience.
2. In the vDisk create a class name and a type name. In our case we used a classname of "SalesClass" and a type name of "SalesType".  These names can be whatever you want but must match the names used in later steps.
3. In one of the target devices in the PVS group set the class name as the name listed above. In our case the name is "SalesClass".  Note that the client target devices do not have a type name.
4. Copy and Paste the class name for all the other target devices in the PVS group.  Right-click on the target device and select Copy.  Be sure to only copy the class name as selecting and pasting other choices could cause problems.
5. Make copy of the vDisk and rename it.  Put this vDisk in the same vDisk repository already configured.  This should be done from Windows Explorer and not the PVS console.
6. Add the new vDisk in the PVS console by right clicking on the PVS host, selecting "New vdisk" and select "Existing" to add this new vDisk.
7. In the copied vDisk set the class and type to the values used above.  In our case it was "SalesClass" and "SalesType".
8. Increment the build number in the new vDisk.  The build number is how PVS knows which vDisk is newer.
9. Set the new vDisk to private image mode.  This is required to make changes to the vDisk.
10. Assign a desktop VM (target device) to the new vDisk.  Be sure the new desktop VM is set to boot from virtual disk.
11. Boot the desktop VM and make updates.  In this step you will make any updates you desire to the base image.
12. Shutdown the desktop VM and set to standard mode.  We need to set the mode back to standard so it can be shared across multiple virtual desktops.
13. In the PVS console enable "Check for new versions of a virtual disk" in the PVS host "Options" tab.  This will require the PVS streaming service to be restarted.  This step only needs to be done once as this is set for each PVS host.
14. In the old and new vDisk check "Enable automatic updates" in the Disk Mode tab.  This step only needs to be done once per vDisk.
15. To check for an update immediately, right click on PVS host and select "Check for disk updates" followed by "Check for updated virtual disks".
16. When the virtual desktop VMs boot they will be assigned the new vDisk.  When users log off their virtual desktop, the virtual desktop VM will be restarted and will pull down the new updated vDisk image.

Have a look at the complete guide at:
http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=39944198

/René Vester