The Challenges of running Citrix Linux VDAs

It does not look that long however the first version of the Linux VDA is already released almost six years ago. Citrix did work hard on the Linux VDA and added lots of functionality and enhancements in those six years. What I hear out of the field Linux VDAs are still a niche market, but the demand is growing especially in engineering companies. When you are a Windows guy (just like me) and start working with delivering Linux VDAs you will see there is still a (big) gap that (can) bring some challenges. In this article I will give my opinion where I see challenges with a Citrix Linux VDA.

Quick Post: Determine VDI datacenter location and perform actions based on location

For one of my customers we were optimizing actions, configurations and connections between the datacenters. One of the goals was to connect the VDIs in the datacenter to supporting components in the same datacenter while using one central image (PVS vDisk in this case). Not a big thing in my mind, but shortly somebody asked something similar. So probably there is a demand for it. In this short quick article I will share what I have set-up.

Using a webcam within a Citrix session

With the COVID-19 crisis the use of video meeting “products” became even more important than it already was in 2020. Logically the higher demand also caused that such functionality also needed to be started within a Citrix session. Beside the big ones like Zoom and Teams, there are also lot of other platforms. Although the use of webcam in Citrix is not rocket science, I noticed several questions/issues at customers. In this article I will dive into the requirements and configuration required to use a webcam within a Citrix session.

DuCUG 2019-02

Our second 2019 event (DuCUG 2019-02, now also known as event #17) held at the Sta@rt near the Apenheul. Traditionally Niek Boevink opened the event with a nice, interesting and funny presentation. Of course again a big thanks to the platinum sponsors.

E2EVC Berlin 2019 Day 3

Last day of E2EVC Berlin 2019 Already. My experiences are written in the blog.

E2EVC Berlin 2019 Day 2

Second day of E2EVC started at a really decent time 10:30. Where are the days that at 9:00 we should be there. In this blog my day 2 experiences of E2EVC Berlin 2019.

E2EVC Berlin 2019 Day 1

The alarm clock rung at 3:30am to drive to the airport heading to Berlin for the E2EVC Berlin. Wonderful weather in Berlin and a wonderful event location. My experiences of the first day of the E2EVC Berlin are written down in this blog.

DuCUG 2019-1

On 15 March 2019 the first DuCUG event took place again at the Oude Duikenburg in Echteld. A location where we were already several times. It’s almost the home of the DuCUG. In this blog you read my experiences of the day.

Citrix VAD Communication Ports

The infrastructure of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly known as XenDesktop and/or XenApp) exists of several components. Also Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops need to communicate with other components within the total IT infrastructure. In this article I will go through the several components and their communication ports with other components.

Different NetScaler Gateways within a single portal solution

In the earlier article How to combine multiple Citrix environments within different domains I discussed the possibilities to combine multiple Citrix environments available within different domains. With one of the solutions was based on SAML authentication, which has the disadvantage that you still have two access points. In this article I will go into more details which options you have to combine such a solution into a single portal.

Combining Citrix Sites within different domains

Logically the number of sites is part of each Citrix Design. This topic is also addressed in the Citrix Virtual Desktop Handbook. There are three reasons specified in the handbook which validate the use of multiple sites: network, risk tolerance and security. The guideline however is to keep the number of XenDesktop sites (should we now call those Virtual Apps and Desktop sites?) should be kept to a minimum to reduce architectural complexity and administrative effort. I totally agree on this topic, but next to design environment other factors are there causing that multiple Citrix sites are in the picture which are not designed with multi-sites in mind. Reasons could be the acquisitions/mergers of companies or out-sourcing a business application to an Application Service Provider (ASP). In this article I will focus on this kind of multisite scenarios and what the options are to combine those from an end-user perspective.

DuCUG 2018-2

On the 16th of November the second DuCUG of 2018: 2018-2 was held. In this blog my experiences of the DuCUG 2018-2.

Citrix Federated Authentication Service (FAS) Tips and Tricks

For one of my customers I needed to set-up a Citrix FAS environment for using SAML authentication to achieve a single username and password (and providing this information once). To verify that the goals would be reached I first set-up Citrix FAS into my own (demo)environment, followed by a production environment on the customer infrastructure. I did this based on instructions created by fellows in the Citrix community and logically the Citrix documentation. In this article I’m not going to create another configuration article as those are already available. I will point you to these articles and share in this article tips and tricks of occasions I encountered. Most are already available somewhere on the Internet, but it is scattered and not always issue to found.

First Look at the Citrix Workspace Hub using Citrix Casting

During Citrix Synergy 2018 Citrix announced the Citrix Workspace Hub. The Citrix Workspace Hub is the successor of the HDX Ready Pi announced at Citrix Synergy 2016. However the Citrix Workspace Hub is offering more functionalities than the HDX Ready Pi. Where the HDX Ready Pi is just offering Thin Client functionalities, the Workspace Hub can also leverage the possibility of Citrix Casting. In a previous article I already looked at the Thin Client functionality. In this article I will share my experiences with Citrix Workspace Hub using the Citrix Casting possibilities. The article will be based on the nComputing Citrix Workspace Heb as this one is provided to me as being a Citrix CTP.

Why the Citrix Cloud is not ready for all (Enterprises) yet

As a consultant I’m mostly engaged at the larger companies (large for the Dutch market) the Citrix Cloud was not come along my path a lot. Logically I followed the progress and enhancements made to the services. Recently I got involved at a smaller customer with currently did not have a Citrix environment yet (the party they acquired are using Citrix, so that’s why Citrix came into play). A perfect fit for Citrix Cloud as the environment is pretty small and the IT organization is not really familiar with Citrix. As size does not matter, the organization had to comply with specific regulations that are similar as Enterprise organizations. However during the design phase and Proof of Concept phase we found out that there are still gaps between the on-premises and the cloud offering, that could cause that the Citrix Cloud solution is not ready yet for all/your organization(s).

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