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Windows server 8 experiences - Part 1 Server Manager With the release of Windows Server 8 beta it’s time to look at new and improved features that are interesting where I am focused on the VDI / RDS world. In this blog series I will try to point out what’s new and why it’s cool or … npt. The first thing we need to do to get to a point where we can actually do something...

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Hyper-V v3–Change is good! On my first blog post about Hyper-V R2 which you can find here I received a lot of reactions and I always appreciate it to get any type of response (except the 380 spam comments per day). Most of the people agree with the statements and some don’t. I’d like to start this article with stating that it was not my intention...

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Hyper-V R2 for VDI? Think again! The reason for this article is to explain why I don’t like Hyper-V R2 in a production scenario especially for VDI. In a next article I will go into detail about why I think Hyper-V v3 is likely and hopefully going to proof me wrong! The people I work with closely know I tend to hate Hyper-V R2 for production (VDI) scenario’s...

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Departmental apps with RES Automation Manager When working in Enterprise or even multi tenancy environments we would still like to maintain a single image for our entire infrastructure. This will ensure a lower TCO and have a simple and easy to use platform to maintain. When we started working on our cloud desktop offering the “Qwise Nebula Worqspace” over a...

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Cloud Gateway Part 2 – Cloud Gateway Express... Citrix Cloud Gateway Express (CG Express) is a new product and will be completely replacing the Citrix Web Interface and its functionality somewhere near 2015. If you are, just like I was, thinking that this is just another update with a new marketing name you are seriously underestimating what Citrix has done here....

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Windows server 8 experiences – Part 1 Server Manager

4

Posted by Barry Schiffer | Posted on 08-03-2012

Category : Microsoft, Server 8

Tags: ,

With the release of Windows Server 8 beta it’s time to look at new and improved features that are interesting where I am focused on the VDI / RDS world. In this blog series I will try to point out what’s new and why it’s cool or … npt.

The first thing we need to do to get to a point where we can actually do something is to install roles and features. This is a complete different experience to what we have seen in earlier versions.

When you log on to the Windows 8 Server the Server Manager is started, this behavior did not change but the difference is that it’s now a very usable tool.

In the left picture below you can see the startup screen of the server manager, as you can see I already installed some features. In the picture on the right you can see the local server information, this is where you can configure the server name, IE security, Windows updates etc etc.

Screen Shot 2012-03-08 at 09.16.33Screen Shot 2012-03-08 at 09.19.32

 

 

 

 

 

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Hyper-V v3–Change is good!

1

Posted by Barry Schiffer | Posted on 22-02-2012

Category : Hyper-V, Microsoft, VDI

Tags: , ,

On my first blog post about Hyper-V R2 which you can find here I received a lot of reactions and I always appreciate it to get any type of response (except the 380 spam comments per day). Most of the people agree with the statements and some don’t. I’d like to start this article with stating that it was not my intention to bash Hyper-V as a product, I really think Hyper-V is a great hypervisor, it’s the management what is creating the issues.

So now with the upcoming version of Hyper-V v3, which will be released as a beta version on the 29th, I’d like to look at what’s changing in regard to my earlier article. Of course the complete hypervisor management architecture consist of Hyper-V and SCVMM 2012.

The focus of this article is (again) mainly on what it means for VDI scenarios however I think that most of the conclusions will go for whatever scenario.

So what’s new in Server 8, Hyper-V and SCVMM 2012 and why does it matter!

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Hyper-V R2 for VDI? Think again!

5

Posted by Barry Schiffer | Posted on 21-02-2012

Category : Hyper-V, Microsoft, VDI, XenDesktop

Tags: , , ,

The reason for this article is to explain why I don’t like Hyper-V R2 in a production scenario especially for VDI. In a next article I will go into detail about why I think Hyper-V v3 is likely and hopefully going to proof me wrong!

The people I work with closely know I tend to hate Hyper-V R2 for production (VDI) scenario’s and I will start with explaining why. The short version is that you need to many components to manage the hypervisor which leads to technical issues.

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Departmental apps with RES Automation Manager

2

Posted by Barry Schiffer | Posted on 03-02-2012

Category : Automation Manager, Provisioning Services, RES, XenApp, XenDesktop

Tags: , , , ,

When working in Enterprise or even multi tenancy environments we would still like to maintain a single image for our entire infrastructure. This will ensure a lower TCO and have a simple and easy to use platform to maintain.

When we started working on our cloud desktop offering the “Qwise Nebula Worqspace” over a year ago we ran into issues with applications that don’t like App-V but were very keen on managing only one Provisioning Services image . As we were already working with RES Automation Manager the first thing to look at was the functionality offered by Automation Manager (AM) and we found a solution for this! I will tell you how and when this helps in this article!

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Cloud Gateway Part 2 – Cloud Gateway Express review

4

Posted by Barry Schiffer | Posted on 03-01-2012

Category : Citrix, CloudGateway

Tags: ,

Citrix Cloud Gateway Express (CG Express) is a new product and will be completely replacing the Citrix Web Interface and its functionality somewhere near 2015.

If you are, just like I was, thinking that this is just another update with a new marketing name you are seriously underestimating what Citrix has done here. Of course on a functional level it will do the same as the Web Interface, offer a portal for access to XenApp and XenDesktop resources, however the way in which Citrix is doing this is completely different and way more Enterprise ready then what we have seen before with the Web Interface.

What I like most of all is that there seems to be a vision behind the way the management consoles are designed. There is a familiar feeling in regard to the XD 5 Desktop Studio when I use the CG Express console. The modular design in XD 5 where we first configure a host connection which we can then use for a Machine Catalog which itself can be used in a Desktop Group looks a lot like the store –> Web Store > Gateway idea of the CG Express.
I really hope we will see more of this in future product releases like the next XenApp version.

In Barcelona during Synergy Citrix was talking a lot about making it simpler not only to use it but also easier to manage. I believe that with the CG Express Citrix has done exactly this, it’s much simpler to use and manage but also it scales much better in an Enterprise environment than before with the Citrix Web Interface!

Continue reading to see how I came to my conclusion.

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Cloud Gateway Part 1 – Versions explained

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Posted by Barry Schiffer | Posted on 02-01-2012

Category : Citrix, CloudGateway

Tags: ,

Let’s start with explaining the somewhat confusing naming conventions you will find in the documentation regarding Citrix Cloud Gateway. When you look at the Citrix product pages Citrix refers to the names Cloud Gateway Express and Cloud Gateway Enterprise. When you dig only a little  bit deeper suddenly they start talking about stuff like “Storefront Services” and “AppController”. To make it even more confusing, in some docs you will find all the names mixed and matched.

Let’s start with making things simple and short

  • Citrix CloudGateway Express comprises of two components 1. Storefront Services and 2. Gateway Services
  • Citrix CloudGateway Enterprise comprises of three components 1. Storefront Services, 2. Gateway Services and 3. AppController

When you go to the download page of the Citrix Cloud Gateway Express you are actually downloading the Storefron Services component, when you go to the Cloud Gateway Enterprise page you download the AppController.

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How to satisfy your Citrix XenApp/Desktop users?

Posted by Barry Schiffer | Posted on 29-12-2011

Category : Citrix, Provisioning Services, XenApp, XenDesktop

Tags: , , ,

Over the last few years we have worked with a lot of customers and partners who use(d) Citrix products. Not all of them are, to say the least, “happy” with it. My article focuses on “how did that happen?”.

It all started some years ago with Presentation Server nowadays called XenApp. We have heard them all “XenApp is slow”, “XenApp is unstable”, XenApp is hard to use and one of the best “don’t virtualize your XenApp servers”.

I will not go in to details about all of the issues customers are experiencing because this article would end up as a book. What I want to focus on is the big picture.

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