As previously announced, three legacy Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator™ (CCEA) and Citrix Certified Integration Architect™ (CCIA) certifications will expire on June 30, 2010. After this date, these credentials will no longer be current and will be listed as "expired" on Certification Manager transcripts. These certifications are:

• CCEA for MetaFrame XP Presentation Server

• CCEA for MetaFrame Access Suite3.0

• CCIA for MetaFrame XP Presentation Server

So how do you update or keep your certification valid if you hold one of the above?

Before Expiration Date of June 30, 2010

• You may take advantage of update paths* for the new Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer™ (CCEE) and CCIA for Virtualization, available in January 2010. With the update path, only one exam is required for updating to CCEE and one additional (two total) exams are required for CCIA. To learn more about the update paths, visit www.citrix.com/CCEEupdate or www.citrix.com/CCIAupdate

After Expiration Date of June 30, 2010

• If you have achieved three or more requirements towards the Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator (CCEA) for Citrix XenApp (Presentation Server 4), complete the track. Doing so will extend the validity of your CCEA and enable you to take advantage of the CCEE and CCIA update paths.

• If you have not made any progress towards updating your CCEA or CCIA, begin completing requirements for the new CCEE for Virtualization. The new, streamlined requirements consist of a total of five exams, and if you possess any of the recent Citrix Certified Administrator™ (CCA) or Citrix Certified Advanced Administrator™ (CCAA) certifications, you may have already fulfilled part of the requirements.

*PLEASE NOTE: The update path is recommended for seasoned professionals who possess knowledge of, or hands-on experience in, Citrix virtualization technologies. For those without experience in these technologies, following the complete CCEE and CCIA paths is recommended. Please note that individuals with versions of the CCEA and CCIA for XP expired in 2005 are not eligible to use the update path and are encouraged to take one of the two courses of action indicated above now. Visit Certification Manager to confirm your certification status.

If you have any questions about this expiration notice, or about how to maintain your certification status, contact training@citrix.com.

At Citrix Education, we are often asked the following question:

What is the difference between CXA-201-2I Implementing Citrix XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008 and CTX-1259BI Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 and XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2003?

The easiest answer to this is simply, the operating system. CTX-1259BI applies to XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2003 and CXA-201-2I applies to XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008. However, the more complicated answer is...a lot of smaller differences, like features.

During the development of courseware, Citrix products, including XenApp, continue to evolve and change. We manage this constant change in two primary ways:

1. We plan an update/maintenance cycle
2. We include features late in development (if they have been announced)

These two approaches, while capturing most changes, cannot reflect all changes to the product. That's why you may see a difference between what the courseware describes and what you can actually view in the live product. This, essentially, is the other fundamental difference between CXA-201 and CTX-1259. They each represent XenApp (on a different OS) at different times in XenApp evolution.

CXA-201-2I, available October 2, 2009, is the latest full course update on Citrix XenApp. It contains the most current and complete picture of XenApp on Windows Server 2008. CXA-201-1I, was the first release for the WS 2008 platform, and released in May of 2009. The features included in that course reflected XenApp 5 and nothing that has happened since...clearly, it was time for an update! Learn more about the delta between CXA-201-1I and CXA-201-2I (document also posted below).

In November 2009, we will release an update to CTX-1259BI. It will contain information including Feature Pack 2. Because it is available after the release of CXA-201-2I, it will become the course with the most current feature set of XenApp (WS 2003). Learn more about the delta between CTX-1259BI and CTX-1259CI (document also posted below).

In short, the main difference is the OS. The best choice for which class to take should be based on the OS on which you wish to learn. Or, if you are preparing for a platform migration from 2003 to 2008, we recommend CXA-201. To stay up to the minute current on new XenApp features, you can always reference the XenApp product pages.

If you have any questions or suggestions for the next release of XenApp courseware, please send them to training@citrix.com. We want to hear from you!

CXA-201 version overview

CTX-1259 version overview

• Listen to archived episodes:
  • Episode 4: HDX MediaStream for Flash with Juan Rivera
  • Episode 3: An Overview of HDX with Derek Thorslund
  • Episode 2: Profile Management with David Wagner
  • Episode 1: Power Management with Sridhar Mullapudi

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VM hosted apps will be a new way of virtualizing applications that will be available in the next Feature Pack for XenApp. Harry Labana blogged about it yesterday. Bring yourself up to speed and then register for the TechTalk scheduled for September 23rd.

You can also stay updated on XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 by tuning in to our twitter account (@xenappjunkie) and by keeping an eye on our blog feed. This month, you can expect a XenApp Expert Series video with one of the developers on the project (Modesto Tabares). Stacy Scott, one of our resident experts has also let me know that she'll be entering the blog foray on this topic so stay tuned for her (WARNING: She's super sharp so be prepared for some serious stuff). I'll be announcing everything on our blog feed and on Twitter.

Follow XenApp on | | |

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You may have seen an earlier blog post on application virtualization with VM hosted apps from Harry Labana, CTO of XenApp (@harrylabana) titled "Seamless applications beyond Terminal Services, does it help?". You probably have some questions on this technology as well. Well, let me be the first to give you a bit more background on this feature. Your comments and feedback are always appreciated.

Why VM hosted apps for application virtualization?

Today, you use XenApp to deliver virtual applications in 2 ways - hosted or offline. With offline delivery, you use application streaming technology to place the app in an isolated container running on the users PC. With hosted delivery, you stream or install an application onto XenApp servers and users connect to these servers to access the application via a highly optimized protocol (e.g. Citrix ICA powered by HDX technology). Each user gets their own memory space but they all share the same instance of the operating system - that being Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008. Now, with VM hosted delivery, you stream or install an application into an image or virtual machine and users connect to their own instance of the virtual machine in order to access the application (pooled VM's are the best way to do this). Applications virtualized with VM hosted apps are run in a dedicated environment for each user with dedicated memory AND their own instance of the operating system such as Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.

Why is this important? Well, as the folks who invented application virtualization and who have been doing it the longest, we've learned throughout the years that not every application can run in a server-hosted or Terminal Services environment. There are some apps that users needed to take offline with them and others that simply wouldn't run well in a multi-user environment for a number of reasons. This is why we added application streaming technology to XenApp a few years ago. Still, there were some applications that customers wanted to host in the data center but which didn't run well in Terminal Services. An example could be a custom application that had proprietary data in it and putting the app on the desktop would put the data at risk. Another example could be an application that is unsupported by the ISV in a Terminal Services environment. And yet another example might be a health care application that is certified to run on the desktop and putting it in a multi-user environment would lead to a breach of HIPAA compliance. Whatever the reason, VM hosted applications provides another alternative.

Application management with VM hosted apps

With VM hosted apps, you'll create a virtual machine or desktop image (vDisk) into which you install the given application and any helper apps needed. This image can be running Windows XP, Vista or Win7. There are some configuration steps you need to go through to set up the image properly but they are minor (e.g. placing a shortcut to the app in a special folder, installing a software agent, etc.). Once the image is created, you'll use our management tools to publish the application. Basically, what you are doing is publishing a desktop pool, assigning it the icon of the application you want to make available, giving it a friendly name, and defining the users and conditions that the application will run in. You can configure the application to run as a VM, on a blade PC or even a PC running in the datacenter. The only reason I see for running it on a blade or a PC is for applications that require a GPU or have specific hardware requirements that can't be virtualized at this time. You'll get better ROI if you can virtualize.

One thing to note is that this is being done in an independent console snap-in for this release so you'll want to use the MMC to bring everything together. In addition, the control mechanism for VM hosted apps requires and independent farm. Not to worry though... this is all hidden from the user because it all comes together via XenApp Web and XenApp Services or what our old-timers know as Web Interface and PNAgent sites. You simply add the VM hosted apps farm to your Web Interface or PNAgent site and when a user logs in to Citrix Receiver or to Web Interface they'll see all of their apps in a single list - VM hosted, server hosted or streamed. When users open an application, it will appear in seamless mode with no components of the remote desktop showing - just like other server-hosted applications delivered with XenApp. In this release, users can access a single published application within a virtual machine instance but we are investigating ways to improve on the flexibility here for future releases.

From a licensing perspective, the plan is to make this feature available to XenApp Enterprise or Platinum customers. On the Microsoft side, you'll need a Microsoft VECD license to stay in compliance with hosting Windows virtual desktops. It's important to note that VM hosted apps DOES NOT allow you to run a full virtualized desktop session such as what you would have with XenDesktop. It wasn't built for such a purpose and it doesn't work technically. You can, however, leverage the same infrastructure for VM hosted apps to deliver virtual desktops if you purchase XenDesktop licenses and you can use same VH hosted apps console to manage the delivery of those desktops to users. One of the best things about this is that if you choose to extend your XenApp deployment with VM hosted apps you're essentially putting yourself in the position to easily adopt Essentials for Xen and Hyper-V as well as XenDesktop in the future.

If you're trying to figure out if VM hosted apps is for you, it'll become pretty obvious very quickly that there is a decision tree involved here that has variables associated with it like application compatibility, criticality, overall cost and ROI among the many. We'll reveal the elements of this decision tree in future posts but one thing your should certainly take away is that server hosting (XenApp on Terminal Services) is still your best bet for the lowest cost application delivery. In fact, you'll probably find yourself using this is a stop-gap for some of your apps that you'll need to deliver quickly to give you some time to do proper validation and testing for hosting on XenApp servers. In any case, stay tuned for more information on this topic as I'm sure it will be sought after.

Availability of VM hosted apps

We're planning to release the VM hosted apps feature in the next Feature Pack for XenApp which is planned for Q3 2009. In the meantime, you can learn more about it by staying tuned to our twitter account (@xenappjunkie) and by keeping an eye on our blog feed. This month, you can expect a XenApp Expert Series video with one of the developers on the project (Modesto Tabares) and Cris Lau will be doing a TechTalk scheduled for September 23rd so reserve your seat today. Stacy Scott, one of our resident experts has also let me know that she'll be entering the blog foray on this topic so stay tuned for her (WARNING: She's super sharp so be prepared for some serious stuff). I'll be announcing everything on our blog feed and on Twitter.

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UPDATED July 31, 2009 - Clarified that pooled VM's are supported, separate farms are used not separate IMA database, consoles come together via MMC.

XenApp Expert Series - Informational, News, Interviews (2009) The show where we interview the experts to get you the latest research and technology news on XenApp application virtualization. Host Vinny Sosa (@vinnysosa) interviews Citrix Engineer and Graphics Guru Juan Rivera (@juancitrix) on the HDX MediaStream for Flash and graphics remoting. How it works, why is it important and general technical musings are prevalent in this information packed episode. Episode 4, Season 1.

View this Episode and Subscribe to the XenApp Expert Series

Follow XenApp on | | |

Download XenApp technology previews

XenApp Expert Series - Informational, News, Interviews (2009) The show where we interview the experts to get you the latest research and technology news on XenApp application virtualization. Host Vinny Sosa (@vinnysosa) interviews Citrix Engineer and Graphics Guru Juan Rivera (@juancitrix) on the HDX MediaStream for Flash and graphics remoting. How it works, why is it important and general technical musings are prevalent in this information packed episode. Episode 4, Season 1.

Listen to this episode

• Listen to archived episodes:
  • Episode 3: An Overview of HDX with Derek Thorslund
  • Episode 2: Profile Management with David Wagner
  • Episode 1: Power Management with Sridhar Mullapudi

Follow XenApp on

Download XenApp technology previews

Learn more about Citrix HDX

XenApp Expert Series - Informational, News, Interviews (2009) The show where we interview the experts to get you the latest research and technology news on XenApp application virtualization. Host Vinny Sosa (@vinnysosa) interviews Product Strategist Derek Thorslund (@derektcitrix) to help everyone understand the HDX Technology stack. This is part one of multiple videos that will dig deeper into HDX technologies. Episode 3, Season 1.

View this Episode and Subscribe to the XenApp Expert Series

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Download XenApp technology previews

Learn more about Citrix HDX

Last month we released the Power and capacity management tech preview for XenApp. If you're using server-side application virtualization and delivery with XenApp, then you'll want to check it out. We've put out a couple of blog posts (1 | 2), a demo, and a couple of videos on it including a XenApp Expert Series video and audio episode with Sridhar Mullapudi (Product Manager). We also have a new episode coming up in July with Juliano Maldaner (the Architect). What's more, both of these rock stars are getting together to do a TechTalk on this same topic.

The TechTalk is going to cover the features, functions and components of Power and capacity management and the guys will also talk about how to deploy it for virtual server infrastructures or physical machines using Wake on LAN. They'll even provide some tips on using this technology to help with migrations.

The great thing about this vs. the other content we've created already is that there's a Q&A at the end so if you're interested in the technology, now's the time to ask your questions.

Stay Updated! Follow XenApp... XenApp on Twitter | XenApp TV-Radio | XenApp Tech Previews

XenApp Expert Series - Profile Management Part 1 - Informational, News, Interviews (2009) The show where we interview the experts to get you the latest research and technology news on XenApp application virtualization. Host Vinny Sosa (@vinnysosa) interviews Citrix Product Manager Dave Wagner on the Profile Management feature of Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop and why this is key technology in the application and desktop virtualization stack. This is part 1 of 2 where we will bring Dave and/or another expert in to dive deeper into Profile Management. Episode 2, Season 1.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: My intro would have been funnier but I totally screwed it up. I have a strict one take policy on the show though so it stayed as is. Dave is a great character. He has been with Citrix for 8 years 6 months 15 days and 7 hours by the start of this recording. While here, he has managed a number of products including Access Essentials, MetaFrame for UNIX, Conferencing Manager, MetaFrame x64, Desktop Broker/Server, Password Manager, Profile management, Web Interface, and the Linux Client. He doesn't have a Twitter account (yet!). He says he's still too busy jumping on the JAVA/Linux Desktops/Webify Everything bandwagons. After which he needs to jump on the Facebook bandwagon. He loves photography followed closely by video games ... xBox addict at the moment but that usually shifts around every few months. Why? He says he likes video games primarily because it annoys everyone else to think that it's a total waste of his time. Join us for this interesting episode with David Wagner.

Listen to this episode

• Listen to archived episodes:
  • Episode 1: Power Management with Sridhar Mullapudi

Follow XenApp on Twitter

Download XenApp technology previews

XenApp Expert Series - Profile Management Part 1 - Informational, News, Interviews (2009) The show where we interview the experts to get you the latest research and technology news on XenApp application virtualization. Host Vinny Sosa (@vinnysosa) interviews Citrix Product Manager Dave Wagner on the Profile Management feature of Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop and why this is key technology in the application and desktop virtualization stack. This is part 1 of 2 where we will bring Dave and/or another expert in to dive deeper into Profile Management. Episode 2, Season 1.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: My intro would have been funnier but I totally screwed. I have a strict one take policy one the show though so it stayed as is. Dave is a great character. He has been with Citrix for 8 years 6 months 15 days and 7 hours by the start of this recording. While here, he has managed a number of products including Access Essentials, MetaFrame for UNIX, Conferencing Manager, MetaFrame x64, Desktop Broker/Server, Password Manager, Profile management, Web Interface, and the Linux Client. He doesn't have a Twitter account (yet!). He says he's still too busy jumping on the JAVA/Linux Desktops/Webify Everything bandwagons. After which he needs to jump on the Facebook bandwagon. He loves photography followed closely by video games ... xBox addict at the moment but that usually shifts around every few months. Why? He says he likes video games primarily because it annoys everyone else to think that it's a total waste of his time. Join us for this interesting episode with David Wagner.

View this Episode and Subscribe to the XenApp Expert Series

Follow XenApp on Twitter

Download XenApp technology previews

1. In the left pane of the Advanced Configuration tool, select Policies.
2. From the Contents tab, select the policy you want to apply.
3. From the Actions menu, select Policy > Apply this policy to.
4. In the Policy Filters dialog box, select Client Name.
5. Select Filter based on client name.
6. Select Add to add specific client names. Type Xen_iPhone* and enter. Make sure Allow is selected in the Client Name filters window.

Here are some example of things you can change, control and optimize for iPhone users:

• Remove Visual Effect like wallpaper
• Control session limits (e.g. virtual channel controls for clipboard, sound, com, display, etc.)
• Control client devices (Audio, drives, ports, etc.)
• Control encryption
• Assign a service level 

Now, bear in mind... I haven't played with this extensively so some of these settings may not even affect the iPhone user simply because the feature is not available for Receiver for iPhone (e.g. some SpeedScreen/HDX settings). It doesn't hurt to turn some of these off though and experiment. And the ultimate of course is controlling encryption and security settings. Also, once we release our next rev of the Receiver for iPhone which will have improved support for Access Gateway, I am hoping it will allow the assignment of policies based on Access Gateway connections. So at that point you can filter applications for iPhone users as well as control the experience they have with applications when they connect to a XenApp server.

KEWL!

XenApp on Twitter | XenApp TV-Radio | XenApp Tech Previews

This is a tech talk that will be taking place on July 9, 2009. One of our propeller heads will be geeking out on how Citrix ICA (a key feature of Citrix HDX Broadcast) and the CGP protocol function. The discussion, from what I hear, is also going to dissect ICA packets and include best practices for ICA acceleration that will make your overall network traffic more efficient. One of the things I'm particularly interested in hearing about is why single session bandwidth testing isn't accurate.

~snip

In this TechTalk, you'll learn about:

*ICA protocol overview

*ICA bandwidth requirements and testing recommendations

*How Common Gateway Protocol (CGP) relates to ICA

*ICA Performance across the WAN with and without Citrix Repeater

Registration Info

Date: Thursday, July 9, 2009
Time: 1:00pm Eastern/10:00am Pacific
Register for "Decoding the Mysteries of ICA" 

Other Information

XenApp on Twitter | XenApp TV-Radio | XenApp Tech Previews

お客様を訪問したり、イベントなどでお客様と会話したりする時に時々感じることなのですが、Citrix XenAppに関するご理解がMetaFrameの時代のままであることが時々あります。実際かなりの進化を遂げているのですが、頻繁に名前が変わりますのでここで簡単にまとめてみます。私も改めて思いましたが、日本でリリースしてから、ほぼ10年がたっている製品なのです。

お客様のMetaFrame、いえXenAppに対するご理解が、どのバージョンのものかはそれぞれだと思いますが、時々このような声を頂く場合があります。

「アプリケーションによっては動作しないんですよね？」
「アプリケーションストリーミングを一度使ったことがあるけれど、オフラインでは使えないんですよね？」
「一度、動画やマルチメディア系のアプリケーションを動かそうとしたけれど、、、」
「やはり印刷面が弱いですんか？」

確かに、以前はあったかもしれませんが、現在最新バージョンXenApp 5.0 FP1です。過去にあった懸念事項などは本当に大幅に改良されています。例えば、印刷まわりですが、日本のプリンタベンダ様と検証等を一緒にはじめたのがちょうど、MetaFrameXP FR1頃だったと思います。私は、その頃サポートエンジニアとして勤務していましたが、ラボにあるプリンタベンダから送られてきた10種類以上のプリンタに囲まれて、汗をかきながら、検証作業の支援を行っていた事を覚えていますし、色々なプリンタベンダ様をご訪問して当時のMetaFrameXPの印刷の機能を説明にまわりました。

それからほぼ8年がたっています。本当に機能改良されている部分がたくさんありますので、一度に紹介することができないのですが、これらのビデオは、その機能の一部を紹介しています。英語もクリアですので英語の勉強もかねて一度ご覧になっていただければと思います。

ちなみに、Mythとは「間違った理解」とかそういう意味です。

XenApp Myth Busters - Value of Application Delivery
http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/291

XenApp Myth #1 - My apps don't work with XenApp
http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/259

XenApp Myth #2 - Apps don't work offline
http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/257

XenApp Myth #3 - Doesn't Support Multimedia
http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/256

XenApp Myth #4 - Doesn't support printing and local devices
http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/255

XenApp Myth #5 - User expereience not as good as installed
http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/290

Myth Busters - Video series summary
http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/269

I've been working on the ICA on iPhone project recently and I had to move a new build from my development machine to my test server frequently. At first I tried RDP. But it is painfully slow to copy my binary to the test server for me. Then I tried ICA and it worked much better. The experience made me appreciate the efficiency of ICA more.

Seeing is believing, I've captured my experience in a video. If you use client drive mapping, you might be interested in checking out this video.

Dicscover more Citrix related videos at the Citrix utipu video site

Ray Yang

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