Windows Server2012 Hyper-V Cookbook
It is a practical book for discovering the new Hyper-V v3.0 with all the features displayed and explained in a clean and understandable way. It’s a must have for everyone working with Microsoft virtualization.
You can buy it at PacktPub, click here for the link. ISBN 978-1-84968-442-2 .
A few months ago I was asked to review the book Citrix XenServer 6.0 Administration Essential Guide, which I did.
Now, the book Citrix XenServer 6.0 Administration Essential Guide is available!!
This book is the start for using XenServer 6 in a clear, practical way. The writer of the book is Daniele Tosatto, who is a Citrix specialist who works and lives in Italy.
ISBN:9781849686167
Citrix released Provisioning Services 6.1 to be prepared for XenDesktop 5.6.
It’s possible to use the XenDesktop 5.6 Personal vDisk functionality within Provisioning Services 6.1.
What’s New in This Release?
Starting with this release, see http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131938 to view a list of fixed issues and hot fixes since the previous Provisioning Services release.
In this Provisioning Services release, the following known issues has been identified:
XenDesktop 5.6 includes the following new features and enhancements:
Since the portfolio of Citrix increases, the number of products increases which are brought under the Citrix umbrella.
For security purposes, it’s important to know which ports are needed to make a product function as promised and secure.
To help with this, Citrix has a made a document for the following products with their ports:
See the document at: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX101810
Citrix has launched the XenDesktop 5.5 update rollup for x64 and x86 agents.
Update name: Rollup XD550VDAWX64100 (Version 5.5.100) – For Citrix XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent Core Services x64 and Rollup XD550VDAWX86100 (Version 5.5.100) – For Citrix XenDesktop Virtual Desktop Agent Core Services x86
The update applies to the following Operating Systems:
This rollup introduces the following fixes that have not been previously released:
HDX 3D Pro Printing
HDX MediaStream Site Administration
HDX Plug and Play Session/Connection
Installing, Uninstalling, Upgrading Smart Cards
Logon/Authentication System Exceptions
See for more information:
x64 http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130968
x86 http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130966
Citrix released Citrix Access Gateway 5.0.4
A lot of people waited for this release because the biggest new feature is the possibility to customize the website layout.
At version 5.0.3 and earlier the layout wasn’t customizable, which let the layout of the website look like this:
Traditional layout of CAG 5.0.3. website and earlier
With CAG 5.0.4. you can also choose for the prefined Citrix receiver ‘look’, see below:
But, you can also build your own layout.
This can be done by adding different layers to the website.
It was fun and interesting attending the Citrix Synergy 2011 at Barcelona! People from every corner of the world came to see Citrix Synergy.
See below the first picture of the Forum, where all the (breakout) sessions took place. The second picture is the Auditorium where Mark Templeton gave his keynote.
Forum Auditorium – Forum
Mark’s keynote at Wednesday was very energetic and gave the Citrix vision of the future. To watch the keynote, click this link:
My highlights:
Receiver: a long time Citrix has used different terminology for PNagents, Online-plugins, Webl-plugins, Receivers, and so on. But from now, to make it easier for everyone, they use Receiver as the client software for client perspective.
Citrix Receiver Storefront: The good old Webinterface will fade away and make place for the Citrix Receiver Storefront, which is part of the Citrix Cloud Gateway. The look and feel is changed dramatically, to enable one uniform layout to all types of devices, such as Iphone, Ipad, Android, Windows, Windows Phone 7, and so on.
The Citrix Cloud Gateway Express is free for use, to enable access to XenApp / XenDesktop from internal (LAN) of external access (Cloud/anytime, anywhere). It will be easier to set-up deployment, especially for BYO.
Keep in mind, SQL is needed for deployment.
RingCube: By acquiring RingCube, XenDesktop 5.5 has a great new feature called Personal vDisk. This great feature enables a personal touch to a pooled Desktop by adding a layer at user level. Normally only a private vDisk could have this feature.
XenClient 2: XenClient 2 supports much more (chipsets) hardware, so not only Intel V-Pro are supported anymore. Although, Intel V-Pro gives better performance, especially on the Graphics (GPU).
XenServer 6: More optimized for XenDesktop integration, with the optimized Intelli Cache you will move the IO from shared storage to local storage, by using a great caching technology.
VDI HDX 3D PRo gives the possibility to enable CAD support for VDI desktops as needed by using GPU-passthrough from XenServer side.
XenApp 6.5: The biggest advantage for user experience is added to XenApp 6.5. It is called “session Pre-launch” which allows the session to start earlier, so the user doesn’t have to wait longer then before.
Also the HDX technology improved further, which optimizes WAN connections for usage of XenApp 6.5, enabling a high responsive session up to a network latency up to 300 ms.
Multi-Stream ICA adds more virtual ports to a session, so the user experience stays stable by separating file transfer, print traffic and other components to different streams. This will be notable when sending large printjobs or big file transfers throughout the session.
The Windows experience is enhanced by adding a Windows 7 look and feel for the user session in a Hosted Desktop Shared environment.
Branch Repeater 6.0 VPX: This version adds more performance, support and WAN optimization. The user experience keeps solid on low bandwidth locations by using traffic shaping techniques like ICA deduplication and adaptive protocol acceleration.
I’m attending the Citrix Synergy 2011 event at Barcelona!
First I will visit the Citrix Summit, which starts on 24 october till 25 october. After this I visit the Citrix Synergy from 26 october till 28 october.
I get back with news and pictures after the event.
Welcome to my blog about Citrix.
I will post news items and howto’s from the world of Citrix.
Keep watching the site!