Best Practice for User Profiles for XenApp and XenDesktop
Citrix has released a whitepaper for User Profiles for Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop.
The user’s profile plays a critical role in determining the how successful the user experience is within a virtual desktop or virtual application scenario. Profiles includes if and how user settings are saved, as well as logon time. Even a well-designed virtual desktop/application solution can fail if users are frustrated due to lengthy logon times and lost settings!
Most commonly, user profiles are based on Microsoft, Citrix, or third-party technologies such as AppSense Environment Manager. Although other options exist, for the purposes of this document, the aforementioned user profile solutions are discussed herein as related to functionality with XenApp and XenDesktop.
Many XenApp environments today employ Terminal Services (Remote Desktop) roaming profiles. However, when adding or transitioning to XenDesktop within that same environment, this same user profile may or may not be suitable. This document focuses on user profile solutions for existing XenApp environments that are adding or transitioning to XenDesktop.
To facilitate selection of the optimal user profile option, this guide addresses the following areas:
- User Profile Types and Characteristics
- Choosing the Optimal User Profile Option for XenApp and/or XenDesktop
- Sample Scenarios
- General Recommendations