Expert Insights

EXPERT INSIGHTS

Thoughts shared by CUGC members who are recognized experts in Citrix technologies.

Monitoring License Expiration in LogicMonitor

By Preston Gallwas
When you’re responsible for the care and feeding of your Citrix environment, it is important to keep tabs on your licensing status.   In particular, if you have a license type that expires, it is important to monitor that data point to ensure you don’t ever have a “Bad Day™.” The Citrix licensing documentation explains the different sections of the license files. Specifically, we’re interested in section 3, “INCREMENT,” with the “ CSS_expiry_date ” and “ exp_date ”.   The license counts themselves are actually available from the Citrix WMI provider, if you’re interested in monitoring those. To monitor these dates in LogicMonitor, we’re ...

Scaling and Load Balancing Session Recording

By Hal Lange
One of our favorite and most overlooked products in the Citrix line is Session Recording. It gives an ability to see what is happening with the users and not just hearsay. One of the problems is that if the wrong people have access, it becomes an HR nightmare. I am not here to discuss that issue, but to show the latest frustrations with this wonderful product. Background We have what most people would call a very large environment. With a concurrent peak utilization daily of over 20k users, I can agree. This includes XenDesktop Desktop and Shared workloads across multiple datacenters. Here are the specs used at the beginning after reading the Citrix articles: ...

The Future of Work is Today NOT Tomorrow Part 2: What's In It?

By Lyndon-Jon Martin
Hi folks, this is the second post in my blog series on “ The Future of Work is Today NOT tomorrow. ” My first post is available at: https://www.mycugc.org/blogs/lyndon-jon-martin/2019/03/17/the-future-of-work-is-today-not-tomorrow-part-1 . My first post had a significant impact (a lot more than I initially thought) and the number of folks (worldwide) asking me questions has been pretty incredible. Therefore, I’ve published a few social media posts ahead to visually show what is in my new Citrix Workspace (an example post below) to reduce the tidal, NO, tsunami wave, of questions. The picture above depicts my current Citrix Workspace, but it didn’t ...

When Two Tales Finally Come Together: AppVPN Meets MicroVPN, ADC Meets Endpoint Management

By Thorsten Rood
Ingredients for a modern workplace design with mobile devices It's been a while now that Citrix owns an ADC product that over the course of time gained superior VPN features, including a SAML-capable always-on flavor. Previously known as NetScaler, it's now labeled Citrix ADC/Gateway . It's also years ago now, that Citrix acquired a MDM vendor and made this a UEM solution (unified endpoint management). Previously known as Zenprise, and a while in between also called XenMobile, it's now called  Citrix Endpoint Management . Five years ago, Citrix entered the Smartphone/Tablet world, providing a business suite of enterprise-grade apps such as Citrix SecureMail ...

The Citrix Cloud Connector and the Network

By Bart Jacobs
Let's talk Citrix Cloud. More specifically, the Citrix Cloud Connector and its relationship with your network. So, what is the Cloud Connector? Docs.citrix.com tells us: "Citrix Cloud Connector: Provides communication between the resources in the resource location and the Citrix Cloud." In other words, it's a vital component. It's the bridge between the resources your users do their work on, and the management plane for you as an admin, in the (Citrix) cloud. Citrix recommends deploying two Cloud Connectors per resource location to provide high availability. What is a resource location you may ask? Again, docs.citrix.com tells us: "Resource locations ...

The Future of Work is Today NOT Tomorrow–Part 1

By Lyndon-Jon Martin
Hi, my name is Lyndon-Jon (L-J for short - as most folks call me). I work for Citrix and I'm also proud to be awarded Citrix Technology Advocate 2019. I recently changed focus within my current role to be geared towards customers in the field and with that change comes a different way of working, including rules of engagement, language, culture, etc. I personally don’t like carrying backpacks unnecessarily for any length of time as, on occasion, when my recurring sporting injury flares up, the tension headaches can become incredibly intensive and on a whole new level. Therefore, lugging around a backpack of any size or weight causes further inflammation ...

A Tale of Two Servers: How BIOS Settings Can Affect Your Apps and GPU Performance

By Tobias Kreidl
Introduction Charles Dickens most certainly got it right when he wrote in his quintessential novel:  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or ...

Questions From our Citrix Cloud AMA

By Marius Sandbu
I’m seeing a lot of questions around Citrix Cloud these days. What is it? How can we use it? What is supported? How to design a solution with it? There are always a lot of questions around the technology. So, a couple of weeks ago, we hosted the first (of many) AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Citrix Cloud and we got A LOT of questions during the one-hour session! This blog is just highlighting the questions with some more detailed responses, and hopefully some of this info can answer any questions you might have as well. NOTE: Most answers are from the group that was part of the AMA panel, and might not reflect official answers from Citrix. Where are the Azure ...

The Strength of the Community–Book Project: By the Community, For the Community…You can contribute too!

By Christiaan Brinkhoff
The Strength of the Community – NEW Book Project – By the Community, For the Community… You can Contribute too!   We, as contributors, know how valuable it can be to share with others what we’ve learned and picked up throughout our career, instead of keeping it to ourselves – one of the main reasons behind this initiative .   “By the Community, For the Community…” CUGC stands for Citrix User Group Community, which shares the same spirit and passion as we do within several local and global Citrix communities. Giving people from the community a podium for, and in front of, other community members and beyond. The main reason why this ...

How To: Publish the Classic Printers Folder in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

By Marco Hofmann
Starting with Windows Server 2012 R2, Citrix Administrators have to face the problem, that the new Device And Printers view doesn’t work as expected. Connected network printers are often not visible, or to bring it on point: Invisible to the end user. There are several sources on the internet, that describe this pain, for example: https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX213540 https://discussions.citrix.com/topic/353573-printers-not-appearing-in-xenapp-75-windows-2012r2/ To face that issue, it is a valid workaround to publish the classic Printers Folder known from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, to your end users. In this view, the problem ...
  User Created Printing Windows

Quickly Updating Persistent MCS VDAs

By David Ott
I have to maintain the VDA software on roughly 100 persistent MCS desktops. Every time Citrix came out with a new version of Virtual Apps and Desktops (XenApp/XenDesktop), I would cringe at the thought of having to "touch" every one of them. It usually took me two or more weeks to get through them all.  I finally got tired of that process and decided to script it. It has saved me a ton of time (and from pulling out all of my hair), and I hope it can help others as well. The really short version of how it works: Gets a list of computers from the DDC (or you can manually input the computer names into the script). On each computer it will create two scripts, ...

Citrix ADC–Tips From the Field

By Preston Gallwas
Citrix ADC–Tips From The Field As a consultant, I get the opportunity to work with companies of all sizes and across many verticals.   The needs of customers can vary greatly, from simple ICA Proxy implementations of Citrix Gateway to complex multi-datacenter, cross-continent geo-load balancing.   Despite this, I thought it would be helpful to share some tips that come up often working in the field. How to Tell If a Policy Is Being Hit One of the more frequently asked questions for troubleshooting configuration I receive is “Why isn’t my policy working?”   Of course, this question can have many answers, but more often than not there are a few steps ...

Citrix Workspace Environment Manager (WEM) and SQL Availability Groups - Database Master Key Issue

By Scott (Ozzy) Osborne
I have been meaning to get this out there for a few months now, but since most of my time during the week is spent onsite all over with customers and on pre-sales meetings, I tend to not be home much to get it done. Weekends for me are 100% all about my one and four-year-old princesses and our house remodeling, so needless to say, this leaves me little extra time for writing things like this up, unfortunately. I have posted a few times for others to help so with this being end of the year and it being a bit quieter on this front, I wanted to get it cemented out there formally. Nothing fancy; just getting it on paper now that the new www.mycugc.org blogs site ...
  User Created SQL WEM

Configure iPXE for a Nutanix Environment – Part 1

By Matthias Schlimm
Configure iPXE for a Nutanix Environment – Part 1   Nutanix uses the Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) based on KVM, the open source Hypervisor. iPXE is open source boot firmware, checkout https://ipxe.org/ also used on AHV. I found many links on the web, and these are helpful to start, but I need some tools and knowledge in addition to address all needs. I hope this blog can help you to easily setup your own iPXE environment.   iPXE is very powerful. You can easily create your own bootmenu, and automate it in the backend (I’m a big automation fan). In this blog, I will use a WinPE-Boot ISO pointing to my Ivanti DSM infrastructure to install my VM from scratch on ...

2018, What a First Year as a CTP!

By Patrick Coble
2018, What a First Year as a CTP! What a year this year turned out to be as my first full calendar year as a Citrix CTP (Rookie Year).   I want to first thank Citrix and the Citrix User Group for all their support.   I have got to speak with so many people this year about Security and its relationship to VDI deployments. I couldn’t have done it without everyone in this great community!   Well, what did you do this year? I got to work with a great group of CTPs, CTAs and Citrites on a lot of items to provide feedback to make Citrix “More Better”.   Then I got the opportunity speak at all these events and meet hundreds of people and tell them about Security. ...
  User Created Community CTP

Workspace Environment Manager – Capture Screen

By Carl Behrent
Workspace Environment Manager has a cool little feature for end users to use called ‘Capture Screen,’ it can be accessed by right clicking on the WEM Agent in the System Tray. This utility captures the user's screen and lets them either Save the image or send it straight to a pre-configured email address (Service Desk, etc.). Enable Screen Capture in the WEM Administration Console under: Advanced Settings > UI Agent Personalization > Helpdesk Options By default, the Comments field is greyed out on the end point and needs to be enabled within the WEM Administration Console. To enable the Comments field, you need to put the WEM ...
  User Created WEM

Some Tips for National Cyber Security Awareness Month

By Patrick Coble
Wow, it is National Cyber Security Awareness Month! What Cyber Security things have you done?   I know for most Citrix admins, it is very tough to come up for air when you’re fighting Application Fires and the non-stop upgrades of Windows and Citrix.   I thought I would write up a quick’ish blog on some of the Cyber Security Highlights and then some of the things you might be able to do to help secure your deployment,  after testing, as always and forever.   2018 Cyber Security Highlights Ransomware is still alive and kicking . If you have not seen Martin Zugec's presentation on breaking the Ransomware Kill Chain, you're missing out. The main thing ...
  User Created Security

My Favourite Overlooked vs. Hidden Citrix Workspace App Features

By Lyndon-Jon Martin
There are a number of hidden features or GEMS that are often overlooked by many individuals when I speak to them about Citrix Workspace. Here is a list of my top favourites in no particular order: 1. Lost vs. Compromised Devices So you've lost your BYO and or Corporate device(s)? It's left in a taxi, London tube or overland train. Now what? Let's also assume your smartphone can be found by the manufacturer's built-in app vs. a third party app, but the individual who's found it doesn't call you. Or, worse, it goes offline? What do you do now? Built into the Citrix Workspace HTML5 portal (e.g. https://CUSTOMERNAME.cloud.com/) you can navigate to the ...

How Citrix Supports Digital Transformation In Education

By René Bigler
When I started working in education about 20 years ago, there was one computer in our school: the device was placed on the desk of our accountant, right beside an electric typewriter. Obviously, things have changed a lot since those days. While seemingly yesterday, there were not much more than a couple of personal computers and printers, today, our equipment includes Thin Clients, PCs, Notebooks, Tablets, Smartphones, MFPs, 3D-Printers, Plotters, Cutters, CNC, Projectors, Visualizers, HoloLens, etc. The school has also moved from a Microsoft-only shop to a very diverse place with devices running on Windows, MacOS, ChromeOS, Android, iOS and Linux. Word ...

Be a #CitrixHero – DJ's TOP Tip: OS Optimization

By DJ Eshelman
I get this question a lot: What is the #1 thing you recommend? As some quick background, in addition to independent consulting, I remain on the 'virtual bench' with Citrix Consulting (and have since 2011) so needless to say, I make a LOT of recommendations. In fact, I recently cataloged 335 recommendations in a search for the 'Top 12' that I have made over and over and over again... I call these the Dirty Dozen. After giving a presentation at E2EVC (Experts to Experts Virtualization Conference) it was clear I was on to something. Well, lucky you, CUGC member! You are getting the one I make THE MOST OFTEN...and this time, for free. In fact, this is FIRST of ...