- Dell introduces the First Multi-User 2U Rack Workstation for Virtualized 3D Applications on Citrix XenDesktop on
- smsPasscode 6.1 released with new enhancements
- Citrix and NVIDIA team up on GPU hardware virtualization
- Igel announces new ARM-based System on Chip (SoC) thin client
- NComputing introduces new cheap HDX thin Clients for Citrix Desktop and App Virtualization Deployments
IBM Lotus Notes and Lotus iNotes 8.5.2 on Citrix XenApp 4.5/5.0
This white paper provides an overview and recommendations for how to get the most from the IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.2 client on the Citrix XenApp 5.0 server. Specifically, it shows that by tuning the environment, you can realize significant improvements when running the Notes client on XenApp. This is true for both the standard and the basic configurations of Lotus Notes. Moreover, the new support for Microsoft Windows 2008 SP2 by Notes 8.5.2, together with memory improvements, means increased scalability to even higher numbers than before at a much reduced cost. We also present the testing environment, tuning parameters, and the workflows that were executed to gather the scalability data on Notes 8.5.2.
Click here to download the WhitePaper
Overview of troubleshooting tools for Citrix
There are several troubleshooting tools for Citrix environments out there, some from Citrix and from many 3-parties.
Here is a overview of many good tools to troubleshoot with and some to do configuration in Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop, Xenserver and Provisioning Server.
THE LIST IS BEING UPDATED ONCE A MONTH, SO PLEASE CHECK BACK
Citrix XenDesktop Troubleshooting Tools:
| XD Ping Tool | The XDPing tool is a command-line based application which automates the process of checking for the causes of common configuration issues in a XenDesktop environment. The tool can be used to verify configuration settings on both the XenDesktop Broker and VDA machines, both from the console and remotely. |
| Citrix Xnapshot |
Citrix Xnapshot is a profiling and monitoring utility focused on the Citrix XenDesktop Environment. It collects a wealth of information about the underlying system and its configuration, such as BIOS information, Registry information, Device Drivers, Windows Services, Installed Hotfixes, Citrix Binaries, and Citrix XenDesktop Farm information. The data collected is organized in such a way to make it easy for various Xnapshot collections to be compared against each other to quickly highlight any changes in the environment. The Xnapshot application itself provides the facility for viewing and comparing these reports. |
| CDFCheck 1.0 | Cmd is a small utility which allows you to determine the CDF Module which a binary file uses, if any. |
| When reproducing XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent issues in a lab environment it can be a time-consuming task to make frequent changes to Virtual Desktop Agent settings, such as changing its farm membership, checking Virtual Desktop Agent and ICA software versions, and viewing other pertinent information such as current farm, registered Desktop Delivery Controller (DDC), Desktop Group, hostname, IP address, log settings, and so on. | |
| XenDesktop Session Parser |
XenDesktop Session Parser is a useful tool that allows an administrator to historically track and retrieve detailed connection data for each user and workstation from a central point. |
| Citrix XenDesktop 4.0 Client Identity Pack contains tools to obtain information on a XenDesktop 4.0 Virtual Desktop Machine relating to the identity of the client machine (if any) that is connected to the desktop using ICA. | |
| his tool is designed to provide detailed information about the various HDX technologies, their performance and diagnostics information. The HDX technologies covered by this tool are:
Thinwire (Graphics), Audio, MediaStream, Flash, USB, Branch Repeater |
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Citrix Printing Tool 3.1 helps configuring and troubleshooting the Citrix Printing subsystem on XenApp, XenApp Online Plugin, and XenDesktop. |
XenServer Tools:
| Citrix Project Kensho |
Kensho OVF technology is now available from within XenServer 5.6. We still take feed back and provide limited support for the Project Kensho OVF Tool 1.3's Hyper-V functionality. Bring your issues and comments to the forum. We'd love to hear from you. |
| XenServer Virtual Machine Performance Utility. | PerformanceVM is a XenServer virtual machine that helps troubleshoot performance related issues, such as poor performance caused by storage I/O and network I/O. The virtual machine, built on Debian Linux, equips with following test utilities and is accessible using a Web based user interface |
| Citrix Xnapshot 1.0 | Citrix Xnapshot is a profiling and monitoring utility focused on the Citrix XenDesktop Environment. It collects a wealth of information about the underlying system and its configuration, such as BIOS information, Registry information, Device Drivers, Windows Services, Installed Hotfixes, Citrix Binaries, and Citrix XenDesktop Farm information. The data collected is organized in such a way to make it easy for various Xnapshot collections to be compared against each other to quickly highlight any changes in the environment. The Xnapshot application itself provides the facility for viewing and comparing these reports. |
| XenServer Workload Balancing Administration Tool |
The XenServer Workload Balancing Administration Tool lets you monitor the Workload Balancing (WLB) server status and manage properties specific to the WLB server, such as WLB services, accounts, and logging. This utility runs on the WLB server and is not part of XenCenter. You must be a local administrator to run this tool |
Misc/General Tools:
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Tool Name |
The purpose of this tool |
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AccessEnum gives you a full view of your file system and Registry security settings. AccessEnum uses standard Windows security APIs to populate its listview with read, write, and deny access information. This tool can be used to troubleshoot access and rights issues. |
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Simple GUI tool to allow quick management of published applications on a Citrix Server farm. |
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AppManagmentTool - Perform Common Application Management Tasks with this MFCOM Utility |
Perform common application management tasks faster and easier with this handy MFCOM utility. Use the AppManagement tool to manage applications. This tool is written in C#.net and uses an Mfcom.dll to query the IMA. |
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Monitors connections to a Terminal Server and reboots it once all users are logged off or disconnected. Can also automatically run a script before reboot. |
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CHFARM -Available with the Citrix Presentation Server installation Presentation Server Administration Guide - Appendix A |
An administrator can use CHFARM to move a server from its current server farm. The server can be moved to an existing server farm or can be moved into a new farm which is created at the same time that the server is moved. CHFARM can be used to isolate problems and prove whether the data store is involved, or causing the issue. |
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Citrix Enterprise Tracer 5.8 enables IMA debugging trace information under the instruction of Citrix Technical Support. |
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Common Diagnostics Facility (CDF) - Available with the Citrix Presentation Server installation |
The Common Diagnostic Facility (CDF) is a utility available as part of the Access Suite Console that allows administrators to collect traces for problem analysis/diagnosis. Traces can be collected on all retail binaries from MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 onwards without the need for stopping and starting services or disrupting users. Traces can be started and stopped remotely through the Access Suite Console, and can be easily packaged and uploaded to Citrix Technical Support to assist in problem diagnosis and resolution. Usage: Generally this tool is used on the advice of Citrix Technical Support in relation to a specific support case. |
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CDF Viewer is a utility that allows you to view the output of a diagnostics log file that is created when a CDF trace session is completed using either the MetaFrame Access Suite Console or the CDF Viewer itself. |
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CDFControl is a software debugging utility that captures Citrix Diagnostic Facility (CDF) trace output messages that are output from the various Citrix product modules. |
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The CTXDataXP utility for MetaFrame XP that gathers Farm information: IPconfig, qfarm, hotfix information, published applications clicense, queryDC, queryDS, queryHR, odbcdata, MDAC version, MetaFrame Server version, qwinsta, and the winmsd report. This utility gathers real data and pertinent information that is required to isolate, troubleshoot, and resolve issues. |
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Delprof is a command-line utility that you can use to delete user profiles on local or remote computers running Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. User profiles can grow large and may take up considerable disk space, especially if there are several users using one computer. |
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Used to analyze Network traces taken in the pcap format. This tool can capture data “off the wire” or can read data saved in files from previous captures. Displayed data can be filtered to narrow down your search to traffic to and from a particular IP address. Understanding the protocol you are analyzing (such as TCP/IP) is a prerequisite to understanding the results of this tool. |
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This tool is for comparing text files. |
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The FarmAppUtil tool saves all the application properties with users and servers assigned to those applications in an XML file. The tool also creates a text file with a folder structure. The XML file created from the application can be modified and used for republishing all the applications and also recreate the folder structure in the new farm. |
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fc.exe - Native to Windows 2000, Windows 2003 and NT4.0 |
Can be used to compare ntuser.dat files. |
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Permissions issues, such as user can not perform a task but an administrator can. |
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Finds application running on Presentation Servers by application executable or published application name. |
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Finds application running on you presentation servers by user name or client ID. |
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ICAPORT -Installed with Presentation Server |
Use icaport to query or change the TCP/IP port number used by the ICA protocol on the server. The default port number is 1494. The port number must be in the range of 0–65535 and must not conflict with other well-known port numbers. |
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Simple GUI tool that traces window messages, like spy++ or Winspector, but easier to use. Consists of two executable files (32- and 64-bit). Simply start the exe, select via tick boxes which messages should be traced and click start. |
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The MFHotfixutil tool can be used for listing and storing all hotfixes on MetaFrame servers in the form of an XML file. It can also compare the hotfixes present on two servers and list the hotfixes that are not on both servers. This tool is written in C#.net and uses Mfcom.dll to query the IMA. |
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MSGHOOK.EXE V4.0.1.0 - Presentation Server 4.x Server CD - Support - Debug: Windows 2003 |
MsgHook.exe (Message Hook) is an executable from Citrix Independent Management Architecture. MsgHook is a command line utility that displays all IMA traffic on a member server - Note: Execute msghook only if information is requested by a Citrix Technical Support representative or a Citrix engineer. When invoked, this command significantly reduces Presentation Server performance. |
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The PDBFinder Deluxe utility simplifies finding rare program database (PDB) or debug (DBG) files (symbols) or determine a hotfix corresponding to a given module name and date. |
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Process Explorer shows information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. Can be used for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work. |
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PsExec is a light-weight telnet-replacement that lets you execute processes on other systems, complete with full interactivity for console applications, without having to manually install client software. |
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Qfarm (query farm) - Installed with Presentation Server |
Use it to display information about servers within an IMA based server farm For Example: display the current load on each server with qfarm /load, list all currently active servers in the farm with qfarm /online. |
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Command line tool to query a session's client IP. Used to allow one login script to process specific commands for specific IP addresses or IP segments. |
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Displays information about processes running on a terminal server. You can use this command to find out which programs a specific user is running, and also which users are running a specific program. |
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Displays information about sessions on a terminal server. The list includes information not only about active sessions but about other sessions that the server runs. |
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Displays a list of all terminal servers on the network. |
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Displays information about user sessions on a terminal server. |
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- Presentation Server installation CD - Support - Debug |
The QueryDC utility is used to determine the data collector for a given zone. Without any parameters, Querydc defaults to the host server’s zone and returns the zone name and name of the current zone data collector. |
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- Presentation Server installation CD - Support - Debug |
Use this utility to display information about member servers in the farm. Executing queryhr with no parameters lists all servers in the farm. Queryhr obtains information from the local host cache. |
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Regmon traces activity on the registry, like Processes writing/reading different registry keys. In case of a failed access it gives the appropriate reason such as "access denied" or "not found". It also uses filters to limit the output to what is the activity of certain processes or on certain keys. |
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This tool compares two registry snapshots. |
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Runs an application in another session, that is from the console start an app in another users session. |
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Enables you to remotely control an active session of another user. |
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wbemtest.exe - Native to Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 |
Troubleshooting Issues that Involve WMI Data. This would mainly include issues with licensing, the Access Suite Console, Suite Monitoring and Alerting or the Presentation Server Management pack for MOM. The tool can be used to test basic functionality of WMI providers. |
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log file monitoring tool file finding and text searching tool |
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Schedules commands to run within the next 24 hours. |
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Fiddler is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler is designed to be much simpler than using NetMon or Achilles, and includes a simple but powerful JScript.NET event-based scripting subsystem. |
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.NET Memory Profiler is a powerful tool for finding memory leaks and optimizing the memory usage in programs written in C#, VB.NET or any other .NET Language. It allows you to retrieve information about all instance allocations performed on the garbage collected heap (GC heap) and all instances that reside on the GC heap. The retrieved information is presented in real-time, both numerically and graphically. Using the new unmanaged resources tracker, information about unmanaged resources such as HBITMAP, HWND and unmanaged memory is also presented. |
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A network protocol analyzer that captures network packets for display. Useful when troubleshooting network issues related to performance, disconnects, etc. |
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Terminal Services Log |
Terminal Services Log is an application that allows you to monitor Users, Applications, Farm & Application Licenses, File Audit and more. |
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A network protocol analyzer that captures network traffic for display. Useful when troubleshooting network issues related to performance, disconnects, etc. |
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ObserveIT is like a security camera on your servers. Record every user action in each session: Terminal, Citrix, RDP, VMWare and more! |
Citrix Application Isolation Environments
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Dependency Walker (Depends) is a useful GUI tool for pointing to an executable on a system and listing all the DLLS required by that DLL, it will highlight any missing DLLs or conflicts. |
Dependency Walker (Depends) is a useful tool for trouble-shooting application errors, file registration errors, memory access violations, and invalid page faults. Also useful for troubleshooting Application Isolation Environment issues. |
Citrix Independent Management Architecture (IMA)
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Tool Name |
The purpose of this tool |
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Citrix Enterprise Tracer 5.8 enables IMA debugging trace information under the instruction of Citrix Technical Support. |
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This script will terminate all IMA connections to an SQL 2000 database. |
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IMAPORT - Installed with Presentation Server |
Use imaport to query, set or reset the IMA - TCP/IP port. Important: If you change port number 2513 on the first server in the farm on which you install MetaFrame Presentation Server, you cannot join additional servers to the server farm. |
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MSGHOOK.EXE V4.0.1.0 Presentation Server 4.x Server CD - Support - Debug: Windows 2003 |
MsgHook.exe (Message Hook) is an executable from Citrix Independent Management Architecture. MsgHook is a command line utility that displays all IMA traffic on a member server - Note: Execute msghook only if information is requested by a Citrix Technical Support representative or a Citrix engineer. When invoked, this command significantly reduces Presentation Server performance. |
Citrix Installation Manager
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Tool Name |
The purpose of this tool |
| The GIDWIM GUIDE from Ervik.as | A guide for application delivery, application streaming and Installation Manager |
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A tool to update Installation Manager package fileshares. |
Citrix Web Interface
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Tool Name |
The purpose of this tool |
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This tool is an Active Server Page (ASP) script for use by Citrix Web server administrators. This tool inspects a Web server running Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) and reports on its status as an NFuse Classic Web server, a Citrix Secure Gateway Secure Ticket Authority (STA), or a MetaFrame server providing the Citrix XML Service through IIS. |
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CTXXMLSS - Available with the Citrix Presentation Server installation |
By default, the Citrix XML Service shares a port with IIS. The CTXXMLSS command can be used to change to a different port, or revert back to sharing with IIS |
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Internet Explorer: Used to see all the HTTP communication between a Web browser and a Web server. This includes GET requests, cookies, Referer URLs, HTTP Codes (404, 200, 500, and so on) Etags, Compression Encoding, etc. This tool is invaluable when a Web site or Web application is not behaving as it should, and you need to see what is going on “behind the scenes”. An understanding of the HTTP protocol is required to get the most out of this tool. |
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RSATest Web page is used when you have a Secure Gateway implementation where an RSA backend server does the second method authentication. This page is used to assert proper communication between Secure Gateway/Logon Agent objects and RSA backend server. |
Microsoft Specific Tools for RDS
If you miss some great Tools, please drop us a comment to get it included!
How to enable Windows 7 Theme in Citrix XenApp 6
This article will give you an overview of how to enable the Windows 7 desktop experience on a XenApp 6 Server.
The default desktop delivered by a XenApp 6 server (or Windows 2008 R2 server) is a desktop intended primarily for an administrator to manage a server. As many of you probably have been doing for the last decade or so if you have used a published desktop with Citrix XenApp(MetaFrame or Presentation Server). The look and feel of such a desktop is different in many ways from how a Windows Desktop OS looks and feels, it has no support for themes and a number of accessory applications like the Windows Media Player, Snipping tool and other tools are not available.
Here is a quick guide on how to enable a Windows 7-like experience, Microsoft documentation states that you need to add the Desktop Experience feature to the machine that you are going to deploy this on (or image, provisioning services vhd image etc).
This can be done easily by using the built in Server Manager in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 or you can add the lines below to your machine preparation script or OS config.
import-module ServerManager
Add-> WindowsFeature Desktop -> Experience
The Windows Desktop experience feature adds support for themes and it also installs the accessory apps that I mentioned above. Once this feature is installed and you reboot the server, you need to start the Themes service (and ensure that its startup type is configured as Automatic). To do this, you can copy the lines below to a script/workflow step that gets invoked after the machine is rebooted during the worker machine (or image) preparation process.
Set-Service -Name Themes -StartupType Automatic
Start-Service Themes
If you were working on an image, you can now create virtual worker machines from this image. Citrix recommends placing all the worker machines that are reserved for a specific tenant in an Active Directory OU created for that tenant.
You should also create a GPO that will set a specific theme and wallpaper for all users (assuming for now that all of the tenant's users get the same theme and wallpaper and are not allowed to change this). The PowerShell code for this is shown below. This code creates a domain GPO that sets the theme to the Win7 Basic theme and allows you to specify a path to a wallpaper file that is present on the local server.
import-module grouppolicy
#Create a new domain GPO
$gpo = new-gpo -name <Name of the GPO>
#Set the policy for Themes
$gpo | Set-GPRegistryValue -Key "HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization"
-Type String -ValueName ThemeFile -Value "%windir%\resources\Ease of Access Themes\basic.theme"
#Set the policy for wallpaper
$gpo | Set-GPRegistryValue -Key "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System"
-Type String -ValueName WallPaper -Value <path to a local wallpaper file>
Once the GPO is created you can link it with the OU that contains the users.
Now, when a user logs in to a hosted desktop, the desktop looks like the picture below. See the difference?
Note: The wallpaper policy might not take effect. However, Microsoft has already released a hotfix for this issue - KB 977944, which you need to install on the worker machine.
A review of mycitrixcloud.net aka Citrix Virtual Computing Demo Center
Doing demos of products is my job, I travel around all the time doing demos and showing mostly Citrix demos.
Today, was no exception and as I was hooking up my gear, XenClient, regular laptop, ipad and iphone, I found out that the stupid hotel broadband needed logon credentials, which is common...
I did not turn on my Citrix Access Gateway before traveling today, and thus I had to work with the backdoor to the demo center, which is a F5 Firepass solution, well, that did not work great! So, the little Aruba box that I travel around always fixes the tunnel for me, but it uses regular IPSec and just won't work when the Internet Connection requires a logon.
Enter mycitrixcloud.net! This solution saved my day, it's so good that I decided to do a little review of it, right away!
First thing you need to do is to put up your browser( I used IE ) since I'm not sure if it supports FireFox, Opera or Safari for that matter...
Log On with a valid MyCitrix.com account!
After logging in you are presented with a easy to use Dashboard. It shows current activity.
The Dashboard also features a good deal of Resources and Tools, for you to read. Thumbs up for this, because it's actually relevant information!
There is a Historical Usage overview, to see different types of usage over time.
To Setup a new demo environment, simply Click on New Environment and fill out the required information. Choose XenDesktop 4 etc... if you want to demo XenDesktop 4, App-V and XenApp 6.
Another cool thing for me that lives in Norway is that I can actually show a Demo with latency, meaning that I can choose between 3 different Data Centers in the US.
Latency from Oslo to the Washington Data Center is around 120 ms.
So in the review I choose to use the Washington Data Center and have the demo automatically delete after 4 hours. There you can choose from different hours and up to 2 days duration.
After the input that is nescessary to start, Click on the Provision button to start building the demo environment. Depending on the Provisioning Schedule it takes around 20-30 min to complete, which was the case for me.
Once it's finished it looks like this, and you will also get an email with connection instructions, these are also shown here.
This really saved my demo day, and the customers got a great show, with XenDesktop 4 over the Atlantic with Citrix HDX showing HD movies with Pink Floyd from YouTube and other applications.
Ervik.as gives the MyCitrixCloud.net 9/10 - minus for build time, but heck, I can wait 20 min 
Citrix XenApp 6 Tuning admx Group Policy for Windows 2008 R2
The new ADMX file for tuning of Citrix XenApp 6 and Remote Desktop Services Tuning Group Policy for Windows 2008 R2 from Ervik.as is here!
I have received a lot of requests to make a new set of GPOs for Citrix XenApp 6.0 and Remote Desktop Services running on Windows Server 2008 R2, as a follow up to the very popular Citrix XenApp and Terminal Server Tuning Tips Group Policy v1.0
There is a lot of tuning in this GPO, I will update it when new tunings are found and post updates to the download section of Ervik.as.
I've made the GPO in admx format (not backup sets!!!), so that it can work 100% with Windows Server 2008 R2 and the Group Policy Manager. It also integrates perfectly with AppSense and RES, so if you use these User Environment Tools, you can simply import the ADMX file and deploy. Also since the admx file format is in XML it's also quicker to load than regular adm files.
How to install:
Download -> Ervik.as - Citrix XenApp 6 and RDS Tuning Policy.zip , from the link on this page. (This GPO is in admx file format!)
Extract the zip file down to the c:\windows\PolicyDefinitions - catalog
Please not that the settings is by default turned off, so you need to enable the tunings that you want to take place!
UPHClean is natively embedded into Windows Server 2008 (User Profile Service), so that is why you won't find it available for download anywhere.
Also, another Best Practice, is that I recommend that you Disable Data Execution Prevention on Windows Server 2008 R2.
Here is how you can do that:
Warning! you have to use the following command line to disable it
- bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff
If you can't see the Download Image above click here to DOWNLOAD
Change Log:
| Version | Date | Change |
| 1.1 | 17.09.2010 | Added Citrix Dazzle HTTP Tuning and IE TAB tuning |
If you got any good XenApp 6 or Remote Desktop Services/Terminal Server tuning tips that you want to include in the GPO, please post them in the comments field below, thanks!
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