VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘xenapp’

There were 2 messages from the Citrix Summit 2008 conference in Orlando this week that really stuck with me. I’ve already posted about the first, “XenServer 5 is ready for the enterprise“. The other message was “Use XenServer to host XenApp”.

Virtualizing XenApp is a concept to get on board with in general, but it’s also logical to assume Citrix can best support and optimize their products when they are used together.

The message is that virtualizing existing and future implementations of XenApp (or Presentation Server) on XenServer can

• Reduce physical server count
• Increase availability
• Increase flexibility
• Improve performance

Let me explain how it was explained to me during a hands on lab. Read the rest of this entry »

User Profile Manager (UPM) is a product currently available for download as a technology preview from Citrix. UPM is Citrix’s answer to one of the biggest challenges facing companies migrating to server based computing (SBC) solutions such as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI): maintaining a unique (or persistent) desktop for each user. Virtualizing persistent desktops for all users would normally require excessive storage requirements and numerous virtualization hosts for large user bases.

Today at the Citrix Summit 2008 partner conference in Orlando, FL I listened to David Wagner, Product Manager, and Sascha Juch, Assistant Manager R&D, present how UPM simplifies the separation of unique user settings from desktop sessions. Therefore, UPM enhances XenApp’s ability to deploy multiple desktops from a single virtual machine image. When the user personality can be streamed to a desktop separately from the OS and applications, the VDI infrastructure requirement is reduced yet the multiple unique user desktop experience is still be achieved.

The administrative benefits of UPM are key as the configurations necessary to achieve this type of user mobility usually consist of a combination of managing roaming profiles, enabling folder redirection, keeping track of registry changes, and performing application customizations. Citrix UPM provides administrators the simplicity of a Windows service install and the centralization of a Group Policy ADM template. For the unique user personality, profiles and settings are stored on a network share. UPM then makes sure only the changes in data between user log ons and sign offs are transferred across the network. As a result, the technology is centrally controlled by the IT department, fast and efficient, and transparent to the desktop users.

Since UPM is still a technology preview and parts of today’s session are subject to the Citrix Partner NDA, I’m providing the following links for more information already available about Citrix User Profile Manager on the web today. Read the rest of this entry »