Now, time for some updates…

As more clients begin moving their control plane to Citrix Cloud, I felt it was appropriate to do some testing and identify what code changes would be necessary to support automation with Cloud Connectors. As it turns out, not much was required, and I was able to create a new revision in short order.

I am happy to announce that the latest version (Rev. 1.9), released to web on December 22, 2018 now supports Citrix Cloud, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD), and XenApp/XenDesktop 5, 6, 6.5, and 7.x! This release has been tested with all modern and current versions of 7.x, including the recently released CVAD 7 1811.

The newly published Citrix Chained Reboot Installation and Configuration Guide now includes instructions for integrating with Citrix Cloud, using the PowerShell Secure Client. Download the latest versions of the scripts and this guide using the links below!

Thanks so much and have a Happy New Year!

Dane Young, MBA
My Twitter | My LinkedIn

Then I thought to myself…Writing a Windows Server 2019 with Citrix Cloud article would seem somewhat boring or passé, what would make it more interesting? Deployment in Azure with NVIDIA graphics accelerated NV instances for GPU-intensive applications on Windows Server 2019, and throw in some single-user Windows 10 LTSC 2019 or 1809 (formerly HDX 3D Pro) for good fun. Well, that blog post may come at a later time, but for now I simply didn’t have enough time as there are a few more steps required. Microsoft has not yet released images for WS 2019 or Win 10 LTSC 2019/1809 in the Azure Marketplace, so I would need to upload custom images to my Azure subscription. For now, I’ll start with a simple blog post demonstrating just how easy it is to get Windows Server 2019 stood up, with apps and desktops published via Citrix Cloud Apps and Desktops Service. You’ll also get to see a bit of the Workspace web experience, which as many of you already know, takes the place of StoreFront for CR and LTSR traditional deployments.

To get started, we will need even fewer components (reference the previous post for more details):

• Virtualization platform
• Windows Server 2019 ISO
• Valid e-mail address to request a Citrix Cloud trial

I’ll spare you the obligatory introductory overview showing how to Install and Configure Windows Server 2019 from an ISO, you can find that in my previous post. From that template I have deployed a new server named WS19CC01 (Cloud Connector 1) which will be used as my single server for this basic deployment. Again, for production deployments, Citrix and I would recommend multiple Cloud Connectors, and the VDAs should be deployed on separate systems. However, for basic evaluations it absolutely works to deploy all components on a single system. Here’s a great diagram showing the Citrix Cloud architecture with the Cloud Connectors and VDAs:

For more details, see: https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops-service

Getting Started:

In this blog post, I’ll walk you through setting up a Citrix Cloud account. If you already have a trial or permanent account for Citrix Cloud (specifically the Apps and Desktops Service), you can certainly use that. Since I already have a fully configured permanent account, I wanted to show what the process looks like from the beginning. So, I reached out to my friends at Citrix to spin up a brand new clean environment and got everything requested and approved straight away, so you can see that process, starting from scratch.

You can see below that I have a Windows Server 2019 server deployed, renamed, and joined to the domain:

Setting Up a Citrix Cloud Account:

First, navigate to http://citrix.cloud.com in your web browser. In the bottom left, click Sign up and try it free.

Select the appropriate option. For my new environment, I selected “I’m new to Citrix”:

Fill out the sign-up form with valid company contact details:

If you’ve previously used the business address, you may need to click Continue creating a new account:

Select your appropriate region. This is where your Citrix Cloud backend resources will be made available from. Accept the Terms of Service and click Continue.

Citrix will send you an automated e-mail message:

Check your e-mail and click Confirm Your Account:

When you do, you’ll be prompted to create a Password:

It will take a minute or two for the account to be provisioned and setup. Be patient:

Once done, you’ll be able to click the Sign In button to proceed:

Requesting a Trial of the Apps and Desktops Service:

Login with the username and password previously created:

You’ll see an initial welcome screen and can take a tour if you’d like. Otherwise, close or click Maybe Later:

For a brand new account, only the Smart Tools Service will be configured, but all others will be listed under Available Services:

Scroll down to see the complete list of Available Services. To get started, click Request Trial in the Virtual Apps and Desktops card/tile:

Provide answers to the 4 or 5 questions listed and click Request:

Once the trial has been requested, you can see it listed in the My Services section and click View Trial Status:

You’ll see there are several steps in the request process. This is where my friends at Citrix came in, to approve the trial request. This process can take longer than 24 hours, so just be patient!

Initial Configuration:

Once the trial has been provisioned, you should see a couple more cards in the My Services view, with a countdown timer in the top right of the Virtual Apps and Desktops service. Let’s click “Manage” on that card to get started:

First time going to this view, you’ll see a bit of a welcome screen with more information and a tour:

You’ll also see a pop-up for the Guide Center which can be helpful if you’re just getting started. To get started, click Install Connectors:

The browser will prompt you to Run or Save the connector. I’ll show you what happens if you’re impatient like me, and just click Run (don’t do that!):

Citrix Cloud Connector installer will launch:

However, since you didn’t Run As Administrator to elevate UAC, the installer will fail.

Go back to the download page but this time, Save the Connector file.

Provide a file path to download the Connector:

Click Open Folder once the download has completed:

Right click the file and click Run as administrator to elevate UAC.

Click Yes to the UAC prompt:

The installer will launch again, but this time properly elevated:

A quick connectivity test will commence, validating the Connector can talk to Citrix Cloud:

Click Sign In:

Use your Citrix Cloud credentials to Sign In:

The installation will kick off with a spinning wheel that will appear momentarily.

The installation will commence immediately following:

If successful, the following screen will appear. Click Close:

The Connectivity test will kick off automatically:

The test will take a moment to run:

Once completed with the connectivity test, click Close:

Back in the browser, you can click the Close bottom in the top right for the Cloud Connector download dialog:

Installing and Configuring the VDA:

Scroll down to review the next steps in the process. We’ll move to Step 2: Register resources (install the VDA). There are also super helpful videos if you want to learn more about any of these steps in the process!

The VDA and other installation media can be found in the Downloads section in the top right. Review the pop-up and click Downloads:

You’ll see a list of all the Downloads available. Click Download next to Virtual Delivery Agent:

Click Download File under the Server OS Virtual Delivery Agent 1808.2:

If you haven’t learned your lesson, you’ll click Run to the download prompt:

Otherwise, you’ll click Save -> Save As:

Specify a download location and click Save:

Once complete, click Open folder:

Right click the VDA installer and click Run as administrator to elevate UAC:

Click Yes:

The splash screen for Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 will load momentarily:

Select Enable Brokered Connections to a Server and click Next:

Leave defaults and click Next:

Select the following three components (Supportability, User Profile Manager and WMI Plugin):

Specify the Fully Qualified DNS Name (FQDN) of the Cloud Connector. Click Test Connection:

Test should pass successfully (green check). Click Add:

Once added, click Next:

Select all features and click Next:

Allow the firewall to be configured automatically by clicking Next:

Review and click Install:

A reboot will be required. Click Close:

Windows will restart automatically:

Once restarted, the installation will resume automatically:

Once installed, configure Call Home (or not) and click Next:

Review and click Finish to restart:

Windows will restart automatically:

Creating the Catalog and Delivery Group:

Once restarted, let’s go back to Citrix Cloud in a browser and review where we left off. The next step is to create the catalog (Step 3). Click Step 3:

A prompt will pop-up showing that you need to click the downward arrow next to Manage:

Doing so, you will see two options (Azure Quick Deploy and Full Configuration). Click Full Configuration to launch Studio in an embedded browser window:

The first time you launch Studio through Citrix Cloud, you’ll see the following prompt:

Navigate to Machine Catalog, right click and select Create Machine Catalog:

Review the welcome screen and click Next:

Select Server OS and click Next:

Select Another service or technology and click Next:

Click Add computers and browse Active Directory for the Server. Add it to the list and click Next:

Name the Catalog and click Finish:

The Catalog will take a minute to create:

Navigate to Delivery Groups, right click and select Create Delivery Group:

Click Next:

Click Next:

IMPORTANT: Leave the following option selected to manage these entitlements through Citrix Cloud directly: Leave user management to Citrix Cloud (this option obviously is not available in the traditional deployment of Citrix Apps and Desktops 7. Click Next:

Click Add -> From start menu:

Select the appropriate applications (Notepad and RDP Client). Click OK:

Review and click Next:

Name the Delivery Group and provide a Display Name and click Finish:

The Delivery Group will take just a moment to create:

You will see the newly created Delivery Group in studio. Next, we’ll click the three lines (Menu icon) in the top left to go back to the Library section of Citrix Cloud:

Subscribing the Users:

In the menu, click Library:

We’ll see the two recently created resources. In the Library view, all Applications from a Delivery Group will be grouped together, and the Desktop will be created separately. You can click the cards/tiles to see more details:

Applications view shows the two Apps:

Desktops view shows the Server OS published Desktop:

You’ll see a little gray icon that’s a checkmark in the bottom left. Click that icon and you’ll see a new option appear to Manage Subscribers:

Browse for the appropriate group, in my example, Domain Users:

It will take just a moment to provision:

Once completed, the Subscribers have been successfully Added:

Repeat the same process to Subscribe users to the Desktop:

When you’re done, you should have at least one Subscriber to each offering. Click the three lines (Menu icon):

Configuring Citrix Workspace:

Select Workspace Configuration from the menu:

Optionally you can take a tour. For now, I’ll just click the X in the top right:

Review the options for Workspace Configuration (including Branding and Customization) and click Service Integration:

By default the Virtual Apps and Desktops service is not Enabled for the Workspace Configuration service. Click the three dots on the right next to this entry in the list:

Click Enable:

Review the dialog and click Confirm:

Once configured, you’ll see a confirmation banner at the top. Once successfully Enabled, click the Menu in the top left:

Click Virtual Apps and Desktops:

Finally, we’ll review where we are in the process. At this point, we’re at Step 5 and ready to launch Apps and Desktops via the Workspace URL. Click the link next to Step 5:

Validate Functionality by Launching Apps and Desktops through Workspace:

The Workspace web portal will launch:

Sign in with credentials on your domain:

Click Detect Workspace:

Since I had previously installed the Citrix Workspace App (Receiver), it passes straight through to the Workspace interface (previously provided by StoreFront in my prior post):

Navigate to the Apps -> All Apps section and launch an application (RDP Client):

The application loads, as indicated by the spinning wheel on the card/tile:

The Citrix client launches:

And the App is presented!

We’ll do the same for Notepad. Click the icon:

Notepad launches:

Notepad loads as a published application:

Navigate to the Desktops section and launch the desktop:

The Desktop loads:

The Desktop launches:

After just a moment, the Windows Server 2019 desktop will be available to you:

Well, that’s a wrap! In this blog post, and the previous blog post which you can find here, I have shown how to get up and running with Current Release and Cloud variations of Citrix Apps and Desktops. This is a basic environment perfect for evaluation use, but not ideal for a scale-out production deployment. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!

Take care and enjoy Windows Server 2019 with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop Service, powered by Citrix Cloud!

Dane Young, MBA
My Twitter | My LinkedIn

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 General Availability (GA) released on October 2^nd 2018. In this blog post, I’ll show how getting started Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops has never been easier! If you’re not familiar, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is the rebranding of XenApp and XenDesktop, Citrix flagship product for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Remote Desktop Services (RDS) deployments. In a production deployment, you may decide to break up the logical components of the Citrix architecture, as demonstrated in the Technical Overview on Citrix Product Documentation:

In this blog post, I’ll demonstrate how easy it is to get started, running all core roles on a single Windows Server 2019 virtual machine, including: StoreFront, Delivery Controller, SQL Database, Studio, Director, Licensing, and the Server VDA. This single server deployment is perfect for basic evaluation environments and minimizes the complexity normally associated with a multi-node, multi-tier architecture. The only component in the above diagram that I will not be deploying/configuring is the Citrix Gateway (component provided by NetScaler).

To get started, we need three main components:

• Virtualization platform (in this blog post I’ll show how to deploy using VMware Workstation, but in reality this could be any leading Type 1 or 2 hypervisor)
  • This process could easily be performed in a public cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, etc. I will not be tying into the hypervisor connection for this post, so the virtualization platform is irrelevant.
• Microsoft Windows Server 2019 ISO (the following file was downloaded from the Volume License Service Center, VLSC: SW_DVD9_Win_Server_STD_CORE_2019_64Bit_English_DC_STD_MLF_X21-91656.ISO)
• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1808.2 or later (the following file was downloaded from MyCitrix: Citrix_Virtual_Apps_and_Desktops_7_1808_2.ISO)
  • This is the minimum version required to support Windows Server 2019. Read more in this blog post…

Install and Configure Windows Server 2019

To get started, we’ll build a clean Windows Server 2019 virtual machine from scratch. Mount the Windows Server 2019 ISO to a new virtual machine and fire it up. Press any key:

Windows boot sequence will start:

Accept the defaults and click Next:

Click Install now:

Select Windows Server 2019 Datacenter (Desktop Experience) and click Next:

Accept the license terms and click Next:

Click Custom:

Select the unallocated space and click Next:

The installation will proceed and may take up to 10 minutes:

Once completed, the virtual machine will reboot:

Windows will finalize the setup process:

Once started, an Administrator password must be set:

Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL to login:

Login with the Administrator username and password previously set:

The first time you login, a prompt will popup for the network and a notification for Windows Admin Center (new in Windows Server 2019):

Mount the VMware Tools installation media and you’ll see a prompt in the bottom right. Click it:

Click Run setup64.exe:

Click Next:

Leave Typical selected and click Next:

Click Install:

The installation will take a couple minutes:

Click Finish

Click Yes to restart:

Windows will restart automatically:

After restarting hit CTRL+ALT+DEL:

Login with the Administrator username and password:

Server Manager will launch automatically. From here, we’ll rename the server and join the domain. Click the Local Server tab on the left and click the default servername (“WIN-xyz123”):

Click Change:

Name the server (in my case, WS19CTX01) and specify the domain to join:

Specify credentials to join the domain:

Click OK to confirm domain join was successful:

Click OK to confirm restart is required:

Click Close:

Click Restart Now:

The server will restart automatically:

Once rebooted, hit CTRL+ALT+DEL but instead of logging in with the default Administrator username/password, login with an account on the domain you previously joined:

After logging in, you may receive a prompt to adjust VMware Tools settings, which will require you to login again:

In Server Manager, navigate to Local Server again, and click the “On” link next to IE Enhanced Security Configuration:

Change both settings to Off and click OK to save these settings:

Install Citrix Delivery Controller Role

Next, we’ll go ahead and install the Citrix Delivery Controller role on the server, using the process described below.

Mount the Citrix installation media and click the popup in the bottom right:

Click Run AutoSelect.exe:

Click Yes to the UAC prompt:

The splash screen for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops will load briefly:

Next to Virtual Apps and Desktops, click Start:

In the top left, click Delivery Controller to start the initial installation:

The necessary installation files will take a minute to load (spinning wheel next to Get Started):

Accept the license agreement and click Next:

Leave all components selected (default) and click Next (in a more complex deployment, these roles can be broken out to separate servers):

Select all features (default) and click Next:

Configure the firewall automatically (default) and click Next:

Click Install:

After a couple prerequisites have been installed, a reboot will be required. Click Close to start the reboot:

The reboot process will start automatically:

After the reboot, login and the Citrix installation should resume where it left off:

This installation process may take several minutes to complete:

After installation, select your preference for Smart Tools or Call Home (I will not configure it at this time). Click Next:

That’s it! The default components have been installed. Leaving Launch Studio selected, click Finish:

Configure Citrix Site in Studio

Once Studio launches, we’ll finalize the Citrix Site configuration. Let’s continue…

Click Deliver applications and desktops to your users:

Name the site, in my case I’m simply using WS19 to indicate this is a brand new site for Windows Server 2019. Click Next:

The Database names will populate automatically, but these can be changed if desired:

By default, Citrix will allow a 30-day trial. Click Next:

For now, I’ll select No machine management. We can always come back and configure a hypervisor connection later. Click Next:

Leave both options unselected (default) and click Next:

Click Finish to start the database creation process:

It will take a couple minutes to create the databases, Citrix site, StoreFront server group, and all other default settings for the new environment:

Once configured, you will have an empty site, ready to be populated with Machine Catalogs, Delivery Groups, and other options. At this point you can minimize Studio, we’ll come back to it later:

Install Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) Role

Now that the Delivery Controller role has been installed and configured, we’ll install the Virtual Delivery Agent, turning this server into a Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) virtual machine for serving up applications and desktops.

Next, we’ll With the Citrix installation media still mounted, double click to launch the installer again.

Click Yes to the UAC prompt:

This time, we’ll select Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Server OS in the top right:

Select the bottom option (Enable Broker Connection to a Server) as we will not be using any image management features for this basic setup. Click Next:

Leave Citrix Workspace App unselected (formerly Citrix Receiver) and click Next:

Select Citrix Supportability Tools, Citrix User Profile Manager, and Citrix User Profile Manager WMI Plugin and click Next:

For the Delivery Controller configuration, we will point the VDA back at itself, using the Fully Qualified DNS Name (FQDN). Type the FQDN and click Test Connection:

If the installer can communicate to the Delivery Controller role successfully, a green check will appear. Click Add:

Confirm the Delivery Controller has been added and click Next:

Select all Features and click Next:

Allow the Firewall to be configured Automatically (default) and click Next:

Review the installation summary and click Install:

Click Close to restart the server:

The server will restart automatically:

After a reboot, login and the installation should resume:

Once installed, configure Call Home (I’ve opted not to participate). Click Next:

Leave Restart machine selected and click Finish:

The server will restart automatically:

Configure Machine Catalog and Delivery Group in Studio

Next, we’ll finalize the VDA configuration in Studio and publish our first Apps and Desktops. Let’s continue…

Once restarted, login and open Citrix Studio from the Start Menu:

Click Yes to the UAC prompt:

You’ll see the empty site that has basic configuration settings.

Right click the Machine Catalog tab and click Create Machine Catalog:

Review the Introduction to learn more and click Next:

Select Server OS and click Next:

Leave the defaults, since we will not be configuring any image or power management features at this time:

In the Machines tab, click Add Computers and type the server name in the dialogue to add it to the list from Active Directory. Once added, click Next:

Name the Catalog and click Finish:

It will take a moment to create the catalog, but you will see a progress dialogue at this time:

Once the Machine Catalog has been created, right click Delivery Groups and click Create Delivery Group:

Review the Getting started information and click Next:

Select the server from the recently created Machine Catalog and click Next:

Click the Add button and search for an Active Directory group to use for entitlements for this Delivery Group (for example, Domain Users). Once added, click Next:

Click Add -> From Start Menu to select the applications that will be published from this Delivery Group:

Scroll down to find the appropriate applications (for example Notepad and the RDP client) and click OK once selected:

Click Next:

Click Add to publish a desktop from this server VDA:

Provide a Display name for the Desktop (as it appears in StoreFront). Click OK:

Review and click Next:

Review and name the Delivery Group. Click Finish:

If all steps were performed correctly, you should now see the new Delivery Group visible in Studio:

Validate Functionality by Launching Apps and Desktops through StoreFront

To confirm that everything has been setup correctly, I’ll go ahead and install the Citrix Workspace App (formerly Receiver) and test access to Apps and Desktops from StoreFront.

By default, the StoreFront site has been configured, but a redirect has not yet been setup in IIS (we can configure that manually at a later time). The default store is created at: http://<servername>/Citrix/StoreWeb. We can open a browser and navigate to this URL:

If StoreFront is functioning properly, I get a prompt to Detect Receiver:

Since it’s not already installed, I’ll check the box to accept the license agreement and click Download:

Click Run:

Click Yes to the UAC prompt:

Click Start:

Accept the agreement and click Next:

Optionally select Enable Single Sign-on and click Install:

The installation process may take a couple minutes:

Once completed, click Finish:

Once installed, click Continue and Citrix Receiver should be detected:

StoreFront loads and detects Receiver (Workspace App) has been installed:

Provide a username/password in the following format: DOMAIN\Username and click Log On:

By default no Apps or Desktops will show in the Favorites view. Click around to see the Apps and Desktops now available via StoreFront:

On the Apps view, Notepad and Remote Desktop Connection client will be available. Click Notepad to validate published applications work properly:

The published application will start, as indicated by Citrix Receiver:

Notepad will launch from the VDA as expected:

Validate functionality by launching the RDP client as well:

On the Desktops tab, click the published desktop to validate functionality:

The Desktop Viewer will appear while the connection is established:

Since I logged in as an administrator, Server Manager launched automatically (for non-privileged accounts this will not launch by default):

That’s it! In this blog post, I have demonstrated how simple and easy it is to get up and running with Citrix on Windows Server 2019. This is a basic environment perfect for evaluation use, but not ideal for a scale-out production deployment. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!

Take care and enjoy Windows Server 2019 with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop!
Dane Young, MBA
My Twitter | My LinkedIn

Updated: Video recording of this session is already online! If you missed it, be sure to watch using this link…

I’ve been attending VMworld for several years now, and have always enjoyed geeking out, learning about cool new technologies, new versions, announcements and features coming from a premier innovator in the industry, VMware. In the last couple years, I’ve even had the honor and privilege to present and participate in panel discussions at the conferences that I love dearly, including VMworld.

Talking with peers and clients about the show this year, it’s obvious that most technical attendees desire less marketing in presentations, and more technical know-how, to help them be successful in their organizations. So much so, that there’s a specific question in the Survey about the overuse of marketing (scale of 1-5): “This session DID NOT include too much commercialization/promotion of company or product”

Several EUC folks I talked to had the same exact comment about a particular “Deep Dive” session that was anything but Deep, and perhaps a Dive (but not in the right way). Time to step up the game and leave the precursory 15+ Marketing 101 overview pages hidden in backup slides of the deck.

One thing we heard loud and clear this week, was that EUC fans are happy to have Brian Madden back in the saddle, doing what he does best, leading a community of followers down the path toward greater technical enlightenment. My co-panelists and I were honored to have him moderate a session on Monday afternoon called #WIN3530PU: EUC Champions Panel: Everything You Were Afraid to Ask About VDI. My favorite part of this discussion was the live Q&A from the audience, hearing from attendees about their challenges and sharing insights about our thoughts on solutions to those challenges. Here are some picture highlights from the panel (click any picture to enlarge):

At the bottom of this post, I’ve shared a Google Sheets link for anyone that wants to read the full set of feedback results (don’t worry, there’s nothing confidential in there!). But first, a couple highlights…

Average value? 4.14 (out of 5)

This session DID NOT include too much commercialization/promotion of company or product? 4.48 (out of 5)

Average speaker ratings? All 4.07 or higher (out of 5) for Subject Matter Expertise, Encouraged Engagement, and Presentation Skills. Nice!

Comment highlights:

Give us more sessions with Brian

Wonderful session, lots of good content for anyone in the VDI/EUC space, provided value to folks new to the space as well as those with considerable knowledge & experience

The panel might not want it, but it could/should be longer. This discussion easily could have been two hours.

Like the open panel discussions over the slide show scripts

I would have liked it to go longer

I think it’s safe to say that the attendees got what they wanted and would like to see more of these style sessions with Brian, I know I would too! Always good to learn from community friends in an interactive and engaging BriForum-like format!  If you’re interested in seeing more of this, please help me and the community spread the word, so Brian can get some budget approved to do more EUC Community events like we had in a very speakeasy style last night.

To everyone who has been engaging with me this week, in person or on social media, thank you! It’s truly been a privilege to attend the show and experience all that VMworld 2018 US has to offer.

Click here to see the Google Sheets results.

Thanks and take care,

Dane Young, MBA
My Twitter | My LinkedIn

After a short break, I’m happy to announce that under the new Citrix User Group Community (CUGC) structure, the Bay Area is at it again! If you haven’t already jumped in to the CUGC members only site, go check out https://www.mycugc.org/page/bay-area and register for an account today!

It is with great joy and honor that I am excited to announce Citrix, a couple customers, coworkers, colleagues and I will be re-launching the Bay Area Citrix User Group Community (CUGC). A huge shoutout to everyone involved in kicking this off again, you know who you are! The first meetup scheduled is less than a month away, on June 27th 2018 from 5PM-8PM in San Jose. See below for more details and links to RSVP. Whether you can make it or not, be sure to tell a friend to keep the momentum building! I hope to see you there.

Bay Area Citrix User Group
Kickoff Meeting

Wednesday, June 27, 2018
5:00 PM – 8:00 PM PT

The Farmers Union
151 W. Santa Clara Street.
San Jose, CA 92126  

Networking. Technical Content. Latest Updates.
Be in the know!

Click Here for Details and Registration

Network with Citrix Peers

Post-Citrix Synergy Updates

ControlUp Technical Presentation

CUGC Roundtable

Tasty Food & Great CUGC Giveaway!
$100 Amazon Gift Card

Sponsored Giveaway!
Amazon Echo

*End-User members can opt-in for sponsor giveaways during registration. 

Free. Register today. Space is limited.
Registration guarantees your place at the meeting and your membership in the official Bay Area Citrix User Group Community.

Sponsored by

To receive e-mail notifications of events and activities in the future, sign up today for the Bay Area Citrix User Group Community.

Hope to see you there!

This week I was down in Anaheim for our Citrix Technology Professionals (CTP) meetings and Synergy 2018. The trip was awesome. Incredibly valuable, and a great time to reconnect with friends. Monday started with our annual CTP meeting, where we were joined by Citrix Technology Advocates (CTA) members for the first time. The CTA/CTP meeting on Monday included briefings David Henshall (CEO), Jeroen van Rotterdam (SVP of Engineering), and PJ Hough (Chief Product Officer), followed by 4 hours of the UnConference style discussions with product managers and Citrites. But for me, the highlight from day one was captured in my LinkedIn post…

I can’t thank them enough for all the hard work Perrine Crampton and now Ron Oglesby have put into making the CTP program so great. It truly is an honor and marker in my career to be part of something great.

Tuesday kicked off with the Opening Keynote from David Henshall and a number of the Citrix leaders, which you can watch online here.

There were many key announcements during the keynote, which you can hear and see many demos if you watch the recording. I created a summary slide of the top topics from Day 1 across Experience, Choice and Security categories from David Henshall, PJ Hough, Steve Wilson, and Calvin Hsu. If you didn’t hear it during the keynote, you’ll be excited to know that all key features and product announcements will be delivered and generally available within the next 90 days! This is great, really happy to hear Citrix say this from the stage.

The top product/feature that stole the show was Citrix Workspace App, which was demoed and discussed in a number of breakout sessions following the keynote. Click to watch the demo video:

The remaining days were filled with breakout sessions, and Super Sessions with Condoleezza Rice and Michael Lewis.

To be fair to Citrix, I must provide some constructive criticism and critique for next year to get better. I genuinely missed not having a Technology Keynote, and the clients I spoke to missed it too.
Here’s what we saw last year at Citrix Synergy 2017 (click for link and recording), and I really think Citrix should have included something similar this year, to go one level deeper than what was covered in the Opening Keynote.

Where was the deeper dive information that would have been covered in the general session Technology Keynote? Well…unfortunately hidden in nuggets of information throughout the breakout sessions. If you searched hard enough, you could find this information!

Due to embargoes, many sessions weren’t attended as well as they should have been, as the titles and session descriptions should have included more descriptive phrases and terms to learn more about technology that wasn’t revealed until the keynote. An example of this was the session I attended Tuesday afternoon with Steve Wilson and Chris Fleck, where they covered a technical details everyone should know about the new Citrix Workspace App. If you read the session title and description here, you’ll notice there was no mention of Citrix Workspace App…Since they didn’t use that product name in the title or description, it wasn’t well attended (in my opinion it should have been standing room only). Fortunately, if you missed this session, you can catch it online here:

The rest of the sessions I attended were all very informative, and many of them are already available on YouTube, as you can see above. If you want to review the Session Catalog and create weekend viewing playlist, you can use this link and find your favorites on YouTube.  Here are the session numbers that filled my schedule: SYN236, SYN106, SYN226, SYN131, SYN231.

The rest of the event was filled with client events, lunch and learn workshops, customer appreciation dinners, the notorious M7 Global Partners Synergy Party, watching colleagues present, and roaming the Expo floor. I was even able to grab dinner and catch up with the VMware End User Computing (EUC) Champions group and catch up with Shawn Bass and Brian Madden. You can see a number of my picture highlights below, or check out my Twitter profile to see the top highlights over the last week.

Watching my friend and CTA, Donald Wong, do a fireside chat, talking about his organization’s move to Citrix Cloud.

Lunch and learn events with clients:

Celebrating the official launch of Citrix Workspace Hub with Gunnar Berger, Richard Sah and Jim Pinsky (from NComputing).

FSLogix receives best of show and best new technology awards from TechTarget.

Dinner with the VMware EUC Champions team:

The Entisys360 crew, studiously watching colleague Troy Couch present on Hybrid Cloud architectures (yes, this picture was staged).

While there were many announcements and great times for all of us at Citrix Synergy this year, what makes me most excited is our clients. The connections we have with our customers, helping them on their journey toward organizational transformation is incredibly satisfying and gives me energy.

If you’d like to learn more about Synergy or any other events, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or Twitter. Looking forward to seeing you at the next industry event!

Thanks and take care,

Dane Young, MBA
Strategic Business Advisor | Entisys360
My Twitter | My LinkedIn
Citrix Technology Professional (CTP)
NVIDIA GRID Community Advisor (NGCA)
VMware vExpert & EUC Champion
www.entisys360.com
+1-916-573-5111 Office

We look forward to seeing you at the GPU Tech Conference! If you’re here, feel free to reach out via Twitter profile links below. If you’re not, book your pass for GTC Europe, October 9th – 11th 2018 or in San Jose in 2019!

Jared Cowart | @XenJCC
Benny Tritsch | @drtritsch
Ruben Spruijt | @rspruijt
Thomas Poppelgaard | @_Poppelgaard
Dane Young | @youngtech

Many of my clients had various single-monitor use cases, and for those scenarios, the Raspberry Pi was a perfect fit, with its ability to drive a 1920 x 1200 resolution monitor at 60 frames per second. The performance in these scenarios has been well received, due to the optimizations that Citrix enabled, and the Raspberry Pi’s built-in H.264 decode engine. Equally of interest, in light of the recent Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities, the Raspberry Pi based endpoint devices are not affected. I am excited to announce that the biggest limitation of the Raspberry Pi to this point, lack of good performance multi-monitor support, has now been overcome with the first Commercially available Multi-Monitor Raspberry Pi from NComputing! This solution can now deliver high-performance to the secondary monitor at 60 frames per second, leveraging the power and H.264 decode engine of the Pi Zero.

Bringing the Pi Zero to Life as a Secondary Display Adapter

The journey to a Commercially available Multi-Monitor Raspberry Pi first started back in May of 2017, right around Synergy timeframe. On May 19^th, Muhammad Dawood wrote the article, Multi-monitor on the HDX Ready Pi? HOW? Find Out Here! In this article, Muhammad shared the results of his Innovation Days work, creating a multi-monitor solution using a low power, low cost Pi Zero board. The super cool demo video of this Hackathon style solution can be found below:

It was only a matter of time before the first Thin Client manufacturer would take this concept and make it commercially available, in an Enterprise-ready hardened enclosure. Well, that’s exactly what NComputing have done with the RX-HDX + Secondary Display Adapter!

For the first time being revealed on the internet, below you will find a short 6-minute demo video of the user experience running two 1080P monitors (1920 x 1080):

Below you will find the full 12-minute video, including the unboxing of the RX-HDX + Secondary Display Adapter, side-panel views, initial setup, and 6-minute demo video of the user experience:

I am incredibly excited about the possibilities of this device, which has a Suggested Retail Price of $119 for the RX-HDX + an additional $49 for the Secondary Display Adapter. Quantity based discounts are available, to bring the price point per endpoint even lower! As Citrix gets closer to releasing the Workspace Hub functionality, this device will prove to be a crucial component of the Digital Workspace of the future.

The Raspberry Pi 3 Based NComputing RX-HDX

The Raspberry Pi Zero Based Secondary Display Adapter

 Summary and More Information

If you’d like to learn more about this device, you can find product sheets, features and functionality on NComputing’s website here. If you’d like to request a product quote to order these units, feel free to reach out. My full contact details can be found below.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this device and its fit within the Citrix ecosystem! As always, if you have feedback, questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to comment below.

Thanks and take care,

Dane Young, MBA
Strategic Business Advisor | Entisys360
My Twitter | My LinkedIn
Citrix Technology Professional (CTP)
NVIDIA GRID Community Advisor (NGCA)
VMware vExpert & EUC Champion
www.entisys360.com
+1-916-573-5111 Office

FSLogix Presentation for Portland CUGC – AUGUST 2017

About Me…

Dane Young, MBA
daneyoung.com
Twitter: @youngtech
Virtualization Practice Manager
Entisys360
entisys360.com

Objectives

About FSLogix
Unified Base Image Management
Java Control
Profile Containers
Office 365
FSLogix with Citrix App Layering
Demo
Q&A

About FSLogix

Best of Citrix Synergy: Application and Desktop Virtualization

Who are we?

FSLogix is a leading provider of next generation solutions for cloud and virtual desktops

Four modules (only buy what you need):

1. Masking
2. Java Conflict Management
3. Profile Containers
4. Office 365 Containers

FSLogix™ Office 365 Containers – Customers

Citrix and Microsoft Recommend FSLogix

Citrix and Microsoft Ignite Session (September, 2016)
Recommends FSLogix to Address OST Cached Exchange Mode with Office 365 on Virtual Desktops
https://myignite.microsoft.com/videos/39768

MSFT and RDS Gurus Study

“…a significant improvement in user experience when searching in Outlook in non- persistent RDS environments using FSLogix.”

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/rds-outlook-data-fslogix

Unified Base Image Management

Massively reduce your number of managed images
Completely eliminate silo farms
Reduce or eliminate application virtualization

Java Control

Supports both Applications and Applets
Automatic redirection for end users
No packaging or sequencing
Assign specific versions of Java to certain Apps or URL’s

Profile Containers

Persist critical files in pooled VDI and XenApp
Eliminate Folder Redirection
Speed up user logins
Enterprise File Sync & Sharing
OneDrive, ShareFile, etc.
Enable Indexing and Search
Search Roaming for Pooled VDI and XenApp

Comparative Login Data

42.98 seconds vs. 7.78 seconds

The Technical Problem of O365 in VDI

You MUST have Outlook in Cached Exchange Mode to get the performance required
Behavior of .OST on WAN and LAN links:
All operations take longer
Write operations can take 4x longer than read operations
Outlook has slower performance than Exchange client
Timeouts on client operations
As a result, Cache Data (.OST), Personal Folders (.PST) and Personal Address Book (.PAB) on
a network share that are accessed remotely are also unsupported configurations.

Introducing FSLogix™ Office 365 Containers

The industry’s first Container based email optimization solution
Simple Drop-In Installation and AD Configuration using GPOs
Increase Employee Productivity an average of 40 Hours Annually
Reduce File Server Utilization by 80%
Eliminate Network Traffic from Login Storms
Real-time email performance for virtual and published desktop users on Citrix, Microsoft, VMware, and AWS
Optimize Exchange, Google Mail, and Microsoft Office 365
OST Stored in VHDX on SMB Share with Search Roaming

FSLogix with Citrix App Layering

How many groups are you supporting?
How far can you consolidate?
Engineering – Marketing – Operations – Sales – NA Sales – APJ Sales – LATAM Sales – Finance – Facilities – Support – Product Mktg – Field Mktg – QA – IT – HR – EMEA Sales – Corp Mktg – Executive

Unified Base Image Management

Install all applications, versions and drivers into one unified base image for all PCs and VMs.

Image Masking and Filtering

FSLogix leverages Active Directory to tailor a desktop for each user or group
Managing users and applications are as simple as managing AD Groups
Different versions of the same application can be delivered to different groups
Install all applications, versions and drivers into one unified base image for all PCs and VMs.
FSLogix driver installs into base image, and is transparent to the hypervisor and OS

Image Masking and Filtering

… and so on for each user or group in the enterprise.
Install all applications, versions and drivers into one unified base image for all PCs and VMs.

FSLogix with Citrix App Layering

Create Fewer Layered Images
Reduce Elastic App Layers
“Wicked Fast” Logon Times
FSLogix Apps
Layered Image
Profile Disks
Departmental Elastic App Layers

Demo

Customer Testimonial – Neovia Logistics

Customer Testimonial – Equity Bank

Q&A

Let’s face it. There’s been a tremendous amount of talk about Cloud in recent years. Some Cloud products and solutions deliver on their promises, while others fail to achieve the desired business outcomes our clients have come to expect. Working with clients over the last several years, I’ve learned a lot about taking input and gathering data (strategic initiatives, goals, requirements, objectives), and developing various technical and business solutions to address these requirements. Working for a short time at a software manufacturer (and a much longer time in partnership with hardware/software manufacturers), I’ve also learned a bit, and gained a tremendous amount of respect for folks building and developing products in the market. There are a lot of correlations between developing tactical and strategic solutions, and building products, but several things are much different. It’s been a wild ride, and I’m excited to share more with you!

Let’s talk a little bit about the current challenges in the market, and what we’ve built to address these challenges with our Entisys360 Workspace Cloud offering.

Entisys360 Workspace Cloud Announcement Video

Entisys360 Debuts Workspace-as-a-Service Solutions for Mid-Market and Enterprise Organizations

Read the press release here…

CONCORD, Calif. and IRVINE, Calif., March 22, 2017
Entisys360, an award-winning IT consultancy specializing in the deployment and delivery of advanced IT infrastructure, virtualization and “Cloud First” solutions, today announced the introduction of Entisys360 Workspace Cloud, a Workspace-as-a-Service (WaaS) offering that is designed to help mid-market and enterprise organizations embrace desktop transformation through a digital workspace that empowers and drives workforce productivity.

“Today’s workers are becoming increasingly mobile and want access to their desktops, applications and data from any device, on any network, located anywhere in the world,” said Mike Strohl, CEO, Entisys360. “This is driving IT organizations to restructure their operations in order to adapt to meet the needs of workers who are spending more than half of their time away from their desks. The new Entisys360 Workspace Cloud solution is one of several offerings we will be unveiling in the coming weeks that address these challenges and provide our clients with all of the functionality they need to make mobility, application and desktop virtualization a likeable, lovable experience.”

Built as a fully-managed, subscription-based digital workspace for public and private cloud environments, Entisys360 Workspace Cloud leverages core Citrix technologies to deliver a complete and reliable end user experience. The offering enables on-demand scalability in order to address unpredictable changes in the business and consumption patterns; supports migration of on-premises apps to the cloud; and, minimizes the pain typically associated with updating antiquated virtual infrastructure technologies.

“Entisys360 Workspace Cloud is an integral component of our ‘Cloud First’ strategy, which is defined by our commitment to helping our clients remain at the forefront of technology innovation, and staying one step ahead by meeting tomorrow’s business needs, today,” said Matt General, CTO, Entisys360. “Each Entisys360 Workspace Cloud engagement begins through envisioning whereby we work with our clients to explore and identify their organization’s interests, challenges, requirements and strategies as they relate to workforce enablement in a digital workspace. Next, we help them realize the possibilities afforded by the solution, both present and future, and as it applies to delivering an always on workspace that is accessible from anywhere and on any device. From there, we design and implement a solution that maps to the goals and objectives they have set for their digital workspace environment.”

Dane Young, Virtualization Practice Manager, Entisys360 adds, “Having spent decades serving mid-market and enterprise organizations, we understand the complex nature of these types of IT environments, and we are able to vet out today’s cloud services offering better than most in order to deliver flexible solutions that solve our clients’ unique business challenges.”

Entisys360 Workspace Cloud features a customizable enterprise workflow automation solution with a user self-service portal that provides greater speed for IT organizations to rapidly deliver desktops, applications and data to end-users. “The time-to-value afforded by the Entisys360 Workspace Cloud offering is a tremendous benefit for IT organizations who will no longer have to spend days or even weeks provisioning virtual applications or desktops – once the organization is on board, new workspaces can be quickly provisioned with the simple click of a button,” continued Young.

Read the press release here…

Entisys360 Workspace Cloud Interview and Q&A

Read the full interview and Q&A here…

We sat down with Dane Young, Virtualization Practice Manager at Entisys360, to learn more about the Entisys360 Workspace Cloud offering. We were pleased to learn how the offering has all of the functionality that mid-market and enterprise organizations need to make mobility, application and desktop virtualization a likeable, lovable experience.

Q: Let’s begin the conversation by asking how Entisys360 defines Workspace-as-a-Service?

A: Cloud computing is driving enterprises to re-think IT. Numerous statistics and projections from the industry’s leading analyst firms demonstrate the shift from traditional on-premises infrastructure to cloud-based services. Analysts predict, in fact, that in the next couple of years more than half of the applications running in public cloud environments will be considered mission critical by the organizations that use them. Furthermore, analysts expect than more than a third of new software investments being made by the world’s largest vendors will shift from cloud-first to cloud-only.

Through Entisys360 Workspace Cloud, we are helping our clients embrace desktop transformation through a digital workspace that empowers and drives workforce productivity by providing their end-users with always-on, anytime access to applications, desktops, and mobility via any device, from anywhere in the world.

Entisys360 Workspace Cloud is an integral component of our “Cloud First” strategy, which is defined by our commitment to remain at the forefront of technology innovation, and stay one step ahead of our clients by meeting tomorrow’s business needs, today.

It is important to note that we do not define Entisys360 Workspace Cloud as a VDI or Desktop-as-a-Service solution, but rather a fully-functioning workspace environment that enables IT organizations to embrace public, private, and hybrid cloud-based infrastructures.

Q: How does Entisys360 Workspace Cloud deliver on “Cloud First” business priorities?

A: Entisys360 Workspace Cloud is available as a private or public cloud subscription-based service model. Because there is no need to invest in new on-premises infrastructure to support this model, Entisys360 can shift the burden from CAPEX costs to the more predictable OPEX costs, while at the same time helping our clients develop strategies for migrating away from existing CAPEX infrastructure and toward a “Cloud First” mindset.

Read the full interview and Q&A here…

Summary and Conclusion

By now you should have a better understanding of how we are addressing the current challenges we face every day with our clients around Mobility, Application, and Desktop Virtualization. My Pride. My Joy. Delivered as a Service. We have purpose built this solution to be targeted toward mid-market and enterprise clients, who naturally have very challenging business, technical and operational requirements. With our incredible team of engineers and account executives, we know just how much work it takes for organizations to be successful in this rapid pace, cloud and mobile era. Over the coming months we will be sharing more about our solutions and offerings in Digital Workspace, Digital Transformation and Enterprise Managed Services. Digital Transformation is incredibly relevant with our customers who are looking to accelerate their adoption of IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS), DevOps, Big Data, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Internet of Things (IoT). Stay tuned to learn more about what we’re doing there!

As I mentioned, I’m very excited and look forward to many more successes as we move forward. If you have any questions, comments, or want to leave feedback, feel free to do so below. Also, you can reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Please talk with your Entisys360 account executive to setup a private briefing to learn more about our Entisys360 Workspace Cloud offering, or any of our other solutions! If you are not currently an Entisys360 customer, you can e-mail cloud@entisys360.com to learn more.

I look forward to sharing more, my lessons learned, and how we’re addressing our clients most challenging problems in the market today.

Thanks and take care,

-@youngtech