Technical Overview: Next Generation (Hudson) MetaFrame Presentation

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Technical Overview:

Next Generation (Hudson)

MetaFrame Presentation

Douglas A. Brown

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NDA

 You have seen this slide countless times and you will see it countless times more in each and every break out you attend. Simply because you fail to read this slide in its entirety does not remove your obligation to keep confidential all material

information disclosed to you by the presenter of this material. You may find this content funny, you may find it boring, you

may even walk out of this presentation, none of that will change the fact that the material presented is covered under our

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Agenda

 Installation Requirements

 Feature Enhancements

 Performance Improvements

 Management / Licensing Controls

 Web Interface 3.0

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Agenda

 MetaFrame Access Suite Console

– Alerts

– My Views (Custom Dashboards)

– Report Center

– Diagnostics Facility

– MetaFrame Access Suite

 Delegated Administration

 Zone Preference and Failover

 Enhanced Policies

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Installation Requirements

 _{Windows 2000 Server}

– 166+ Pentium, 256MB RAM, 2GB Drive

 Windows 2003 Server

– 550/733MHz, 256MB RAM, 2GB Drive

 Presentation Server

– 400MB Disk for Enterprise Edition

– 250MB Disk for All client software

– 50MB Disk for Management Console

 Data Store

– Access, SQL 2000 MSDE, Oracle, IBM DB2

 _{Directory Service}

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Feature Enhancements

 Simplified Licensing for all Access Suite Products

 Citrix Documentation Center

 Management Console for the Access Suite

 View Applications, Servers, Zones in all Farms

 Monitor Performance of Server Farms

 Enhanced Support for Large Farms

 Zone Preference and Failover

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Feature Enhancements

 Enhanced Delegated Administration

 Digital Dictation Support

 Enhanced Multimedia Support

– SpeedScreen Multimedia

– SpeedScreen Flash Acceleration

– SpeedScreen Image Acceleration

 Improved User Logon

 Session Reliability

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Feature Enhancements

 Dynamic Session Reconfiguration

 Disabled Applications now hideable

– Property of the Published application

 Basic Support for RDP Clients

 XPE Resource Manager Improvements

– Enhanced Delegated Administration

– Scheduled Reports

– Visual Management Console mapping

 XPE Installation Manager Improvements

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Feature Enhancements

 Windows 32bit Client Improvements

– Flash Acceleration

– Multimedia Enhancements

– BiDirectional Audio Support

 ICA Java Client Improvements

– Seamless Windows

– Session Sharing

– Included in Follow Me Roaming

– Universal Print Driver version 1 support

– Root Certificates for SSL Included

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Citrix Document Center

 Document_Center.pdf

 Located in the /documents directory on all CD’s in

the Access Suite

 Adobe Acrobat Reader is required

 Documentation for all Access Suite Products is

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Management Console

 Requirements:

– Java 2 Runtime Environment Version 1.4.1_02 or later. The Java 2 Runtime Environment is available on the Presentation Server CD-ROM in the Support\JRE14102 directory.

– .NET Framework 1.1 is required

– Administrator Rights to install

 Snap-In Extensions for

– Web Interface

– Secure Gateway

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Digital Dictation Support

 To use WinScribe or Philips SpeechMike software

– Install the WinScribe or Philips SpeechMike software before

installing MetaFrame Presentation Server. Otherwise, WinScribe or Philips SpeechMike Recorder fail to run within client sessions.

– If you install WinScribe or Philips SpeechMike software after installing Presentation Server, you must run Repair from the MetaFrame Presentation Server Autorun screen to fix the issue.

 Advanced and Enterprise Presentation Server only.

 Enable Microphone with User Policy

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Enhanced MultiMedia Support

 Internet Explorer

 Windows Media Player

 Real One Player

 Windows 32 client Required, local Codec Required

 Image Acceleration

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Improved User Logon

 Eliminates the Scrolling Status Bar on login

– Reduces Network Traffic while trying to load user profile

– Greatly Improves user login time

 DO NOT CONFIGURE

– Administrative templates for Active Directory

– System Disable Boot, Remove Boot Logoff Status Messages

– System Verbose vs Normal Status Messages

– These settings will conflict with the User Logon MPS Settings

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Session Reliability

 Session Remains open for view in Network Failure

 ICA Session Time to Live on Disconnect

– Configured as a server policy, default 180 (3 Minutes)

 Currently Not available with Secure Gateway

 Currently requires 8.x Windows 32client

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Workspace Control

 Settings for PNAgent or for Web Interface users

– Logon (disconnected only, all active)

– Disconnect (All at once)

– Reconnect (disconnected only, all active)

– Logoff (For Web Interface only, or all applications also)

 Win 32 client and Java 8.x clients are supported

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Performance Improvements

 Significantly Faster Login Time

– 20 Second Logon compared to 1-2 Minutes in some tests

 Media Acceleration

– Tests up to 85 percent less bandwidth

– Real media performance at the client

– Throttling and Buffering like a local application

 Reduced Bandwidth of IMA traffic

 LHC refresh significantly improved

 Scalability tests up to 1000 servers

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Web Interface 3.0

 2003 IIS 6.0, 2000 IIS 5.0 SP4

 Requires .NET Framework 1.1, J# 1.1

 Name Changes NFuse -> Web Interface

– Nfuse.conf is WebInterface.conf

 Secure Computing Safeword out of box support

 Workspace Control Support

 RDP Support

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Current MPS Licensing

 Licenses ‘live’ in the Data Store

– Citrix licensing at the farm level

 Users check out one license per farm

– Applicable for multiple connections to a

single farm

– User accessing 2 farms gets 2 licenses

 License management

through CMC

License 1BLV Z1

BLV Z2

STL Z1

License 1

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Current MPS Licensing

 Organizations base infrastructure

design around farms and ‘deal’ with licensing

 Organizations create/manage

multiple farms when they need differentiated/isolated licensing

 Paper agreements sometimes

implemented where technical constraints are a hindrance to business

Architecturally speaking…

License 1BLV Z1

BLV Z2

STL Z1

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Next Generation Suite Licensing

 _{Licenses ‘live’ on the}

licensing server

– License server usage configured at the farm or server

 Users check out one license per

license server

– Applicable for multiple

sessions to a multiple farms – User accessing 2 license

servers gets 2 licenses

 License management

through LMC (web browser)

License 1BLV Z1

BLV Z2

STL Z1

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Next Generation Suite Licensing

 Enterprise licensing model now possible

– Licensing can now be above/outside of the farm level structure

– Licensing infrastructure will be shared across Access Suite

 Licensing traffic removed from IMA

– Thinner, less frequent server to server, server to persistent store communications

 Licensing traffic added outside IMA

– Less network traffic related to licensing (verify)

 Result: now you have choices in how you build/manage licensing, allowing you to better match business requirements

Architectural impact…

License 1BLV Z1

BLV Z2

STL Z1

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Citrix License Server

Citrix License

Server

License File

Company = “ABC Corp”

License Service Host = “Server123”

Product = “MetaFrame”

Exp date = “Perpetual” Version = “2003.1103” Model = “CCU”

1. Install “Citrix License Server” on any Windows 32-Bit OS (UNIX to follow)

2. Download (“fulfill”) license files from Citrix

3. Copy licenses onto License Server host

License Server

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Citrix License Server

High Availability:

• Easy license backup and restore

• 96-hour grace period

Scalability:

• 200 license check-ins/outs per second

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Citrix License Server

Limitations:

•

Licenses CANNOT be shared

across hosts

•

Logon performance

•

Single-threaded program

• Memory is least important

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Overview

Enter license code

Fulfillment System

1. Initial Purchase

Select items To fulfill

Save license file to License Server Receive package

w/ license code

Login to MyCitrix

Receive e-mail w/ license code

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License Management Console

 A web based tool that allows you to interact with the Citrix License Server that hosts your Citrix licenses

– Current Usage

– Historical Usage

– Configuration

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Customer Deployment Scenario:

1 license server for 1 farm

MetaFrame Access Suite Servers Citrix License Server Management Console via web browser Client

Devices _{servers may}All product

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Customer Deployment Scenario:

1 license server for N farms

MetaFrame Access Suite Servers Citrix License Server Management Console via web browser Client Devices Client Devices Licensing is not tied to server farms

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Customer Deployment Scenario:

N license servers for N farms

MetaFrame Access Suite Servers Citrix License Server Management Console via web browser Client

Devices _DevicesClient

Citrix License

Server

Any server may

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‘Improved Large Farm Support’

 _{Farm sizes and quantities are increasing}

 Enterprise deployments are maturing

 _{Use cases/deployment scenarios becoming}

more complex

 _{Customer satisfaction! Some customers expressed}

concerns about…

– Supporting more servers in a zone

– Supporting farms that span WAN’s

– Needing tools for detecting and resolving corruption of datastores (persistent store AND LHC)

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‘Improved Large Farm Support’

 Reducing IMA network traffic, especially

between zones

– Removing licensing traffic from IMA

– Removing inter-zone sharing of load levels

 ZDC’s will query other ZDC’s for load where necessary

 Option to revert to ‘old school’ comms if necessary

– Polishing RM farm metric collection process

– Dynamic datastore replication enhancement

 In case of a ZDC election, servers update the new ZDC with multiple-record updates in one IMA message

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‘Improved Large Farm Support’

 Expected results

– Much cleaner support for farms that span WAN’s

– Less backend bandwidth required for MetaFrame function and administration

– More responsive admin tools in very large farms / limited bandwidth connections between members

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‘Improved Large Farm Support’

 Reducing traffic between servers and the

persistent store

– Improving Directory Change Notification polling / update mechanisms

 Now using a time-stamp / delta based mechanism for DCN polling updates

– Less network traffic between servers and PS

– Better PS server scalability

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How? (cont.)

‘Improved Large Farm Support’

 _{Improve reliability and performance as farm}

sizes/load increase

– Tweaking credentials ticketing process

 _{Credentials ticketing through IMA vs. XML service}  _{Gracefully handle errors in ticketing process}

– Providing datastore verification tools

 DSCHECK (/C)

 _{DSMAINT VERIFYLHC}

– Better reliability when something on an individual server breaks

– Better visibility into datastore corruption issues IF they happen

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Management Console for

MetaFrame Access Suite

 MetaFrame

Presentation Server

3.0 extends your ability to manage your

MetaFrame

deployment with the MetaFrame Access Suite Console

implemented as a

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Management Console for

 Management functionality

is provided through a number of snap-in management tools

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Management Console for

 Extensions are available to

help you:

– View applications, servers, and zones in multiple farms

– Manage sessions across multiple farms

– Monitor the performance of your server farms

– Create reports analyzing your MetaFrame Presentation Server deployment

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Management Console for

 You can also use the Access Suite

Console to launch:

– The Management Console for MetaFrame Presentation Server

(previously called the Management Console for MetaFrame XP)

– The Web Interface Console (previously called the Web Interface Admin Tool)

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Management Console for

 The Access Suite Console and the Presentation

Server Console can be installed on any 32-bit

Windows workstations (Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP)

 You must be a MetaFrame administrator to use the

Access Suite Console.

 Administrators can have varying levels of access to

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Management Console for

 Important: Do not run the Access Suite Console in two sessions simultaneously on one computer using the same user account. Changes made on the

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 The first thing needed is to choose

which farms are to be managed

 Import them into the console by selecting Run discovery.

– You need only enter the name of one server in each farm that you want to view

– You are required to re-run Run discovery if you add and or remove objects from a managed farm

 Note You can add only servers running

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MetaFrame

Access Suite Console

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Alerts

 If a MetaFrame Presentation Servers experiences

issues resulting in an Resource Manager Alert then you will be presented with that alert, no matter

where you are in the console

 Click the Alerts

link and the Access Suite

Console will take you to the

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Alerts

 Double Click on the server triggering the Alert to link

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Alerts

 Right click on the Metric in question and click

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MetaFrame

Access Suite Console

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My Views

 With My Views you are

now able to create custom views of:

– Farms

– Zones

– Servers

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

My Views

– Farms

– Zones

– Servers

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My Views

– Farms

– Zones

– Servers

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My Views

– Farms

– Zones

– Servers

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My Views

 You are able to save these customized views for fast,

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My Views

 You can now view details

about all user sessions in the server farms, which can be displayed in various

ways:

 For example, you can view by:

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

My Views

ways:

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My Views

ways:

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

My Views

 You can now create

a custom view which allows you to:

– Place all MetaFrame Access Suite items in different parts of the screen

– Customize the

background graphic to identify each customized view

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My Views

 _{You can add a Dashboard}

view to give administrators a live status/health display of servers, folders & farms

 _{You can display such items}

as:

– CPU Load

– Active Sessions – Available Memory – And many more

 Uses WMI via IMA to

obtain live information from the servers

 Only for MetaFrame

Presentation Server 3.0 Enterprise servers running

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Access Suite Console

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Report Center

 The Report Center extends the reporting capabilities

in Resource Manager by allowing Administrators to:

– Easily generate reports from a variety of real-time and

historic data sources

– Scheduled reports

– Reports can be published to a web site, emailed and

or saved as a HTML or .CSV file, for later use

For example, quarterly data for server uptime, CPU utilization, or

application availability are commonly compared to agreed figures in a

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

 The Report Center contains several

report types, including:

– Application Availability report - Lists the published applications in a farm and the percentage of time when they were available, in a planned down state, and in an unplanned down state.

– Server Availability report - Lists the servers in a farm and the percentage of time when they were available, in a

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

– Server Performance report - Displays, for

the server selection, the average CPU

utilization, the minimum memory available, and the maximum number of concurrent connections. The report also contains

details of the most heavily loaded servers.

– Application report - Provides details of all

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

– Application Usage report - Shows the most

frequently used applications, the number of times each application was accessed, and the maximum number of concurrent users.

– Client Type report - Shows the number of

MetaFrame Presentation Server Clients for different platforms in use throughout the server farm, and presents this information

graphically as a proportion of all clients in the farm.

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

 The Report Center utilizes the farms

SummaryDB/IMA for report

generation data (depending on report)

 Only for MetaFrame Presentation

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Report Center

 _{All these reports can be emailed, published to a web}

site, and or saved as an HTML and or CSV file for later use

 _{The follow three steps need to be completed in order}

to generate, schedule a report

– Configure mail server settings

– Generate specifications

– Create report schedule

 _{These reports are generated from the information}

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

 The first thing that will need to be done is to specify

the SMTP mail server settings, to allow emailing of reports

 Click the Report Center

node in the MetaFrame Access Suite Console

 Click Define mail server

in the Other Tasks box

 Enter the SMTP mail

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

 Reports can be run in a variety of ways

– You can generate specification that allows you to predefine the source of data in your reports and the format of your reports

– You can generate report in which you define the source of data and look and feel every time you run the report

 Click the Report Center

node in the MetaFrame Access Suite Console

 Click Generate

specifications in the

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

 Click the Report

Center node in the MetaFrame Access Suite Console

 Click Generate

specifications in the

Common Tasks box

 The following defines how simple it is to generate a

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Report Center

 You are prompted to

create a connection to the desired farm’s

Summary Database

– If you have previously generated a report you will find existing

connections

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

 You are required to select the

OLE DB Provider to connect to the SummaryDB through

– If you will be connecting to a

SummaryDB running on Microsoft SQL then use

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server

 Click the Connection tab to

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

 Select the farm you

would like to monitor

 Click Next to

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Report Center

 The next screen you

will be prompted to select the items to report upon.

 In this example, we

are creating an

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

 _{You are prompted to}

define the following:

– time period the

report covers

– The number of

items to be displayed

– If a graph is

displayed

 _Click_Next_to

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Report Center

 You are now

prompted to define if the report will be:

– Stored for later use

– Published to a folder

and or share

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

 You are prompted to

save and or discard the report

 If you are saving the

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Report Center

 Verify the settings

are as desired and

click Finish to run

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Report Center

 Report specifications

can be found in the

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Report Center

 You now have the ability to schedule a specification

to be run and published

 Click the Create schedule link in the Common Tasks

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Report Center

 Enter the

specification you would like to

schedule

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Report Center

 Enter the schedule

details:

– Schedule task

 Daily

 Weekly…

– Start time

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Report Center

 You are allowed to

password protect reports

 If desired enter the

appropriate password

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

Report Center

 Enter a name for the

schedule report

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Report Center

 Verify all settings are

correct and click

Finish to continue

 Reports will be run

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Report Center

 The

following is an example of an

Application Usage

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Report Center

 The

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Diagnostics Facility

 With the Diagnostics Facility you are now able to easily generate technical reports for local analysis and or to send off to Citrix Technical Support for problem analysis

 Wizards guide you through the

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

 The first thing needed is to configure the folder for

diagnostic information and specify the FTP server path and port to Citrix Technical Support

 Click the Diagnostics Facility node then click Set

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Diagnostics Facility

 Specify the appropriate locations in the Set Package

Details windows and click OK when Finished

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 You can now select modules for tracing, create

trace logs, package the information, and save it locally or FTP the package to Citrix

 On the desired

server click

Diagnose Problems

 Click Start

Trace

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

 Select the module

settings to use to create the trace log

– For new traces select Create new trace settings

radio button

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 Select

Sequential or

Circular logging, the maximum log file size and click

Add to select

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

 Select the

Modules you would like to monitor and or have been

requested by Citrix Technical Support

 Click OK when

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 Verify all setting

all as desired

and click Next to

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

 Verify all settings

are as desired

and click Finish

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 Switch to the Diagnostics Facility node to view any

Trace Sessions. To package and send the logs, Right click on

the desired Trace and

click Stop

Trace

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

 Select the Stop and Copy button to start the copy

of all the logs to the destination directory.

Note: If you are

diagnosing multiple servers then this can be a lengthy

process. To copy the logs at a later

date click the Stop

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

 You can select collect system diagnostic

information, for local analysis and or to send off to Citrix Technical Support for problem analysis

 On the desired

server click

Diagnose Problems

 Click Collect

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

 Choose the type

of systems information to collect

 Click Next when

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 Verify and the

settings are as desired

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 Verify everything

completed successfully

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Access Suite Console

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 The MetaFrame

Access Suite node allows you to view the applications, zones, and servers in multiple farms in your enterprise.

 The console is

populated when

you Run

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MetaFrame Access Suite

 Expand the MetaFrame

Access Suite node to find the items found during the

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 By right clicking on an

item you are able to perform additional tasks

 The following is just a

few tasks associated with published

applications:

– View connected users

– Disabling the use of an application

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MetaFrame Access Suite Console

few tasks associated with a server:

– View Users

– View Sessions

– Trace Sessions

– View Sever Health

– View information

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few tasks associated with published

applications:

– View connected users

– Disabling the use of

an application

– View information

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Management Console for

Server

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Enhanced Delegated Administration

 _{With Enhanced}

Delegated

Administration,

you can restrict an administrator’s

permissions to perform certain tasks to selected objects (servers, applications,

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 You can now delegate tasks to MetaFrame

administrator accounts based of objects

(Applications, Policies, Printers, Servers, Zones…)

– You delegate tasks by associating MetaFrame administrator accounts with permissions to perform selected tasks.

– Permissions you set on nodes (Policies, Printer Management, and so on) apply farm wide.

– Permissions you set on folders (Applications, Servers, and any folders within) apply only to the applications and servers contained within the selected folder.

For example, you can create two separate “session administrator” accounts and give one account permissions to manage user

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Enhanced Delegated Administration

 You must be logged on to the Presentation Server

Console as a full authority administrator in order to create, delete, and configure MetaFrame

administrator accounts

 You cannot grant permissions to applications and

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 You can also delegate tasks based on server farm

zones.

 Delegating farm administration tasks based on

zones allows you to leverage qualified staff in

different geographic areas to manage the servers in those areas.

For example, if you have a zone that is located in a different time zone,

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Enhanced Delegated Administration

 To delegate tasks

based on server

group(s) or zones, you must take the following three steps:

– Under the Servers

folder, create a new folder for each zone or group of servers for which you want to

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– Move the server

icons from the

Servers folders to the new zone

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Enhanced Delegated Administration

– Select each folder and

delegate tasks as appropriate

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– Add, Remove or Edit the

desired Administrator with the appropriate Tasks

– _Click_OK_{when finished}

 _Note_{: You can use}_Zones

on a farm's Properties

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MetaFrame Presentation

Server

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Zone Preference and Failover

 A new policy rule

enables you to direct user connections to

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 When users open

applications, the policy

directs their connections to the server with the highest zone preference and lightest load

 Note: The Zone Preference and Failover rule is a

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Zone Preference and Failover

 MetaFrame Presentation Server directs user

connections to zones according to the connection

order assigned to each zone in the Zone Preference and Failover policy rule

 The connection order levels, in order of preference,

are:

– Primary Group. Use for zones to which you want

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Zone Preference and Failover

 There are ten levels of backup groups, from 1 to 10

 Backup Group 1 has highest preference among the backup groups

– No Preference. Use for zones

that users are directed to after Backup Group 10.

– Do Not Connect. Use for zones

to which you do not want users to

– Backup Group. Use for zones to which you want

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Zone Preference and Failover

 It all works like this:

– When a user launches an application, the zone data

collector first queries the zones in the user’s Primary Group

to locate the server in that group with the smallest load

– If the application isn’t available in the Primary Group zones, the data collector then queries the zones in Backup Group 1 and so on, following the connection order you set

 Note: This cuts down on the amount of IMA calls are send

across busy WAN links

Tip!

- To reduce network traffic in large

farms with multiple zones, Citrix recommends that you use the Zone Preference and Failover policy rule to direct users’ requests for

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Zone Preference and Failover

 To configure Zone

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 Expand the User

Workspace folder

 Expand the Connections

folder

 Select the Zone preference

and failover policy

 Select the Enable radio

button to turn on the Zone Preference and Failover

(130)

13 0

Zone Preference and Failover

 Click to select the

desired Zone in the

Zone list box

 Click to select the

desired zone preference

in the Set connection

(131)

13 1

 Repeat the above steps

for every desired zone

(132)

13 2

 Once you have configured the policy you are required

to assign users to it. This can be down on a client IP address, client name or user basis

 Select the desired

method

 Click OK when

finished

 Note: You cannot

(133)

Management Console for

Server

(134)

13 4

Extended Policies

 New policy rules give a

broader control over:

– Bandwidth limits

– Zone connection

preferences

– Audio options

(135)

13 5

Extended Policies

 You can use new policy rules to do such things as:

(136)

13 6

Extended Policies

(137)

13 7

Extended Policies

(138)

13 8

Extended Policies

(139)

13 9

Extended Policies

(140)

14 0

Extended Policies

(141)

14 1

Extended Policies

(142)

14 2

Extended Policies

(143)

14 3

Extended Policies

(144)

14 4

Extended Policies

(145)

14 5

Extended Policies

– Control audio sound quality used by client devices

(146)

14 6

Extended Policies

 Once you have

created your Policies you can now apply them to...

– Client IP Address

– Client Name

– Severs

(147)

14 7

Extended Policies

 Once you have

created your

Policies you can apply them to...

– Client IP Address – Client Name

– Severs

(148)

14 8

Extended Policies

 Once you have

created your

– Client Name – Severs

(149)

14 9

Extended Policies

 Once you have

created your

– Client Name

(150)

15 0

Extended Policies

 Once you have

created your

– Client Name

– Severs

(151)

(152)

15 2

Two Types of Data



Static - Data Store (DS)

– Information that changes infrequently

– Farm configuration and settings

 Published applications, licenses strings, load evaluators, Citrix administrators, etc.

– Local Host Cache (LHC) is a subset of data contained in the DS



Dynamic - Data Collector (DC)

– Information that changes frequently

 Sessions, disconnected sessions, load, etc.

(153)

15 3

Data Store Selection and Design



Database Types

– _{Indirect (Access, MSDE)}

– Direct (SQL, Oracle, DB2)



For WAN environments, use DB replication

– _{Data store access consists primarily of reads, writes}

are very infrequent.

– Avoid high latency reads across the WAN by having

(154)

15 4

Data Store Power

 CPU power affects the following actions:

 Installing a server into the farm

 Adding a license to the farm

 Uninstalling a server from the farm

 Starting IMA on multiple servers

 LHC coherency check

Farm Size (servers) 80 160 250 350 500+

Dual PIII 700 MHz w/ 1 GB RAM √ √

Dual P4 1.6 GHz w/ 4 GB RAM √ √ √

Quad P4 1.6 GHz w/ 4 GB RAM √ √ √ √ √

(155)

15 5

Data Store Misconceptions



Access data stores cannot have more than 10

servers in a farm -

Incorrect!



An 8-way must be used for the data store if

the farm has more than 250 servers -

Incorrect!

– 250-server farms can use data stores on duals for FR2 and FR3

– FR3 places even less load on the data store



Farms cannot span WANs -

Incorrect!

(156)

15 6

Data Store Misconceptions

 _{Users cannot login to the farm when the DS}

is down - Incorrect!

– Logins are not dependent upon the DS

– MetaFrame servers will go into a 96-hour license grace period

 _{Slow logins when DS is busy -}_Incorrect!

– _{Logins are not dependent upon the DS}

 _{Must rebuild farm if the DS is down for}

96 hours – Incorrect!

– _{Has no impact on the server farm}

 _{Supports Merge Replication -}_Incorrect!

(157)

15 7

Zone Design

 _Zones

– Zones are analogous to Active Directory Sites

 They should not be based on subnets!

– DCs are used to manage data flow between zones

 Information flows upstream

 Keep servers from having to perform resolutions across the WAN

 Communication only occurs between DCs

– Zones can span WANs

 Number of Servers in a Zone vs. # of Zones

– Fewer zones are better!

 DCs must replicate changes to all other DCs in the farm. Bandwidth consumption is directly proportional to the number

of zones

(158)

15 8

Data Collector Sizing

 _Memory

– All data in the data collector is kept in memory

– Memory consumption increases with server farm size – IMA typically uses 150 MB of RAM in a 250-server farm

 _CPU

– Typically, a dual processor machine can support a zone with more than 300 servers

– CPU usage increases as

 number of servers in the zone increases

 number of zones increase

 number of users launching applications increases

(159)

15 9

Data Collector Misconceptions

 _{Do not put more than 100 servers in a zone -}_Incorrect!

– This is a recommended starting point (zones scale much higher)

 _{Data collectors are the only servers that communicate with}

the DS - Incorrect!

– All servers communicate equally to the DS

 _{More zones = more scalability -}_Incorrect!

– More zones use more bandwidth and place a higher load on the DCs

 _{If a data collector goes down, there is a single point of failure -}_Incorrect!

– A new DC is elected immediately, seamlessly and without intervention from the Administrator

 _{Server Location in the ICA client must point to data collectors -} Incorrect!

(160)

16 0

IMA Communication - Startup

Data Collector Data Collector

KB Read = 402 + 6.82*(Srv-1)

KB Read = 402 +6.82*(Srv-1)

KB Read = 402 +6.82*(Srv-1) KB Read = 402

+6.82*(Srv-1) KB Read = 402

+6.82*(Srv-1)

KB = 14.5 +(0.3*Apps)

KB = 6.3 +(0.15 Apps) KB = 6.3

+(0.15*Apps) KB = 6.3

+(0.15*Apps)

(161)

16 1

IMA Communication – Idle Farm

Member Server Member Server

Data Collector Data Collector

IMA Ping=0.04 KB every minute

LHC=0.2 KB every 30 minutes

LHC=0.2 KB every 30 minutes

IMA Ping=0.04 KB every minute

(162)

16 2

IMA Communication – User Connection

0.6 KB

0.9 KB

Member Server Member Server

Data Collector Data Collector Data Store

(163)

16 3

IMA Communication – New DC Election

Member Server Member Server

Data Collector Data Collector

KB = 6.3 +(0.2*Con) +(0.1*Discon) +(0.15*Apps)

KB = (14.5 +(0.4*Con) +(0.2*Discon) +(0.3*Apps))

Data Store ICA Client

(164)

16 4

CMC Change Notification

Data Collector Data Collector

Data Store

Citrix Management Console

Member Server Member Server Member Server Member Server Member Server Member Server Member Server

1) Change is made on the Citrix Management Console

2) The member server writes the change to the DS and forwards the information to the DC

(165)

16 5

Monitoring MetaFrame XP Farms



Use Performance Monitor

– FR2 introduced MetaFrame XP PerfMon counters



Use Resource Manager

– RM can leverage the PerfMon counters in the form of Server Metrics

 Use the RM Summary Database to tell you exactly what is going on and when



Citrix MOM Plugin

(166)

16 6

Data Store Tuning

 _{Increase SQL Server Worker Threads}

– Increase worker threads if there are more than 250 servers in the farm.

 _{Auto Grow Settings for TempDB}

– _{Set initial size between 0.5 – 1 MB per MetaFrame XP Server}

 _{SQL Clustering}

– Provides redundancy but does not give a performance boost

 _{Oracle 9i RAC (formerly Oracle Parallel Server)}

– Gives increased performance and redundancy

 _{NIC Teaming}

– _{Watch the throughput on the data store’s network card. Consider teaming} an additional NIC for increased throughput.

 _{RAID tuning}

(167)

16 7

Data Store Best Practices

 LHC Polling Interval

– Changed from 10 minutes to 30 minutes to help alleviate load on the DS - HKLM\ Software\Citrix\IMA\DCNChangePollingInterval

 If DS is overloaded, this interval can be increased

 _{Cycled booting}

– No longer necessary with FR3

 IMA Service start time reduced from 8 minutes to 40 seconds for 250-server farms

 Purging the temp database

– Restart SQL Server to clear TempDB

 Printer driver replication

– Use printer driver replication, but do not add the drivers to the auto-replication list.

 Replicate drivers in small batches during off-peak hours

(168)

16 8

Data Collector Tuning



Monitor CPU and memory utilization

– Set alerts using Resource Manager

– If the CPU reaches a high threshold during normal farm operation, consider adding an additional processor



Consolidate zones when possible



To place more than 512 servers in a zone:

– \\HKLM\Software\Citrix\IMA\Runtime\MaxHostAddressCacheEntries



Avoid excess data collector elections

(169)

16 9

Resource Manager

 Summary DB

– Does not rely on # of servers in the farm

 Database Connection Server (DCS)

– The only server in the farm that has a connection to the Summary DB server

– During a Summary DB update, all servers in the farm send a flat file of farm activity information to the DCS

– The DCS serially adds records from the flat files it received to the Summary DB

 Farm Metric Server (FMS)

(170)

17 0

Resource Manager Utilization



Summary DB

– During an update, the database server uses approximately 15% CPU on a dual PIII 800

– A typical update of 24 hours of data for a 250-server farm takes approximately 60 minutes



DCS

– During an update, the DCS uses approximately 30% CPU

(171)

17 1

RM Communication – Summary DB Update

Data Collector

Data Collector Database

Connection Server

Farm Metric Server Summary

Database

52KB

(172)

17 2

RM Communication – Status Update

Member Server Member Server

Data Collector Data Collector Database Connection Server Farm Metric Server Summary Database ICA Client Device 0.14 KB .34 KB Application Count Server Status Metric Status 0.14 KB

KB = 0.34 + (.02*Srv)

(173)

17 3

MetaFrame XP Feature Release 3

Performance Enhancements

 Improvements in FR3 on a 250-server farm

 Install Time 326%

 Uninstall Time 925%

 Adding Licenses 456%

 IMA Service Start Time 917%

 CMC App Node 138%

 Client Enumeration 50%

(174)