As Windows Server 2008 R2 is now RTM and is only available as x64 edition, you need to ask yourself how Windows x64 effects application delivery because sooner or later you will succumb.
Although a general adoption of x64 is still a long way gone, many companies are beginning to actively pursue evaluating Windows x64 and testing applications on it. But considering Windows Server 2008 x64 on a very high level, there are pitfalls you need to be aware of.
Continue reading ‘What does WoW64 mean for Application Management?’
After having published the XmlServiceReader, I have described how to use this tool to customize health check in XenApp Health Monitoring and Recovery (HMR). In this article I will cover health checks that to not apply to a single server but assure the operation of the farm as a service independently of individual servers.
Continue reading ‘Leveraging the XMLServiceReader for Custom Health Checks’
After publishing the XmlServiceReader and writing about the shortcomings of the health check for the XML service provided by Citrix, I like to expand on the process of creating a custom health check using the XmlServiceReader.
Continue reading ‘Using the XmlServiceReader with Health Monitoring and Recovery (HMR)’
You may well ask why I created a tool to send arbitrary requests to the XML service and parse the reply in scripts – which is, by the way, called XmlServiceReader. First of all, I did not like the tool included with the Health Monitoring and Recovery of Presentation Server and XenApp – called RequestTicket.exe – due to its limitation to being executed on the same host as the XML service is located. Furthermore, this tools has a hard-coded request and does not allow customization of the request sent to the XML service.
Continue reading ‘What does XMLServiceTester.exe in HMR do?’
Since I have released the XmlServiceExplorer and XmlServiceDigger, I have received several requests for another tool allowing for custom health checks against the XML service, e.g. see this comment. The XmlServiceReader is a command line tool sending arbitrary requests to the XML service and printing the reply to the same window. This output can be checked in a script to determine whether the reply is valid and the service fully operational.
Continue reading ‘Health Checking the XML Service with Custom Requests’
In a previous article, I described how Windows XP and Server 2003 handle folder views, why those configured for network drives are lost upon logoff and how to correct this behaviour. The last article explained the new design for storing folder views introduced by Windows Vista and Server 2008. But it only hints at a solution using a profile management product and lacks a proper description how to achieve this. Fortunately, Citrix User Profile Manager (UPM) can be configured to resolve this issue which I will expand on in this article.
Continue reading ‘Fixing Folder Views on Vista/Server 2008 using Citrix UPM’
In one of my previous articles I explained how Windows handles folder views and how to preserve these settings for network shares when using roaming profiles across multiple machine. A reader has pointed me to the fact that the described behaviour seems to have changed beginning with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
Continue reading ‘How Vista/Server 2008 Handle Folder Views’
Lately, I have been working in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) space a lot. I have noticed everybody talking about offline capabilities and how badly needed this feature is in VDI. In my eyes, offline VDI is a mix up of two topics: offline provisioning and VDI. In this article, I’d like to expand on this to explain my scepticism as to the applicability of VDI to mobile devices.
Continue reading ‘Does “Offline VDI” Make Sense?’
I am proud to announce the availability of the user profile whitepaper for Citrix User Profile Manager (UPM) 2.0. It has been a lot of new and updated content to reflect the changes in UPM 2.0 compared to the Tech Preview. Continue reading ‘User Profile Whitepaper for Citrix User Profile Manager 2.0′
After writing and publishing the XmlServiceExplorer, I was asked several times just how much information is disclosed by the XML service. There were also comments (to one of my articles and in Brian’s forums) about a possible security breach caused by offering the access lists of all published applications which I described in a tutorial to the XmlServiceExplorer. Although it is possible to suppress the access lists being disclosed by the XML service, the switch is not documented. Continue reading ‘Reading Farm Information from the XML Service’
