NetScaler as a Virtual Appliance is Now Available for ESX and ESXi

NetScaler VPX is now available for ESX and ESXi. 

http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1689968

Migrate Provisioning Server Devices

I was rebuilding a PVS infrastructure with a new database and ran into an issue with the migration.  I was trying to decide whether it would be faster to migrate the existing database or start from scratch and rebuild everything.  Nothing was in production yet and after a little research, migrating the existing PVS database to the new server could be tricky.  Instead, I decided to start from scratch and export my devices from the old PVS database and import them into the new.  Citrix wrote this helpful guide on how to export to a .CSV and I was able to get everything transferred over quickly without any issues. 

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX118832

So, if you're migrating to a new database server and want to start fresh with a newly created farm, this is for you.  Take advantage of this opportunity to perform a redesign without having to recreate all of your devices.

vSphere Update 1 Breaks EMC Storage Viewer

The EMC storage viewer has always been a handy interface to peer into your VMware storage in the vcenter interface.  Due to depreciated changes in the plugin framework, this no longer works after update 1.  Rumor has it that version 2.1 of the plugin should be out any day now and this newer version should be fully compatible with Update 1. 

For more information on the EMC Storage Viewer, check out this article by Mr. Sakac:

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/04/where-to-get-the-emc-storage-viewer-vcenter-plugin.html

XenDesktop 4 is now Available

XenDesktop 4 is available today with FlexCast, HDX, and more.  Check out the Citrix Blog for more information:


http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2009/11/16/XenDesktop+4+is+here!

EMC FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering)

There's a new functionality on the horizon with EMC Storage Arrays and the way that they handle their data.  The standard way to provision storage has always been to size your performance requirements correctly and statically assign a RAID Group with a certain number of disks running either SATA or Fibre Channel, and most recently EFD (Electronic Flash Drives).

With FAST, the goal is basically to allow EMC customers to get the best value out of their storage.  This works by letting the array automatically provision and re-provision data to the most appropriate storage tier based on  performance requirements.

Take a look at this video to see how the performance increases using FAST and EFDs.  The example is using Symmetrix, however, note that it mentions that their medium class (CLARiiON) and NAS class (Celerra) arrays will be supported as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofKBDvo8214

Issue Provisioning Disks with the XenDesktop Setup Wizard

I had an issue when running the XenDesktop Setup Wizard where the wizard wouldn't connect to the provisioning server.  This is because many of the ports have changed recently due to port collision issues.  To resolved this it is necessary to edit the SetupToolApplication.exe.config file and change the following settings. 


The default installation path is C:\Program Files\Citrix\XenDesktop Setup Wizard.
 Create a backup copy of this file.
 Within the section of the file:

a. Replace:
endpoint address="http://localhost:8000/pvs/mapi/commandset"
with:
endpoint address=http://localhost:54321/pvs/mapi/commandset 

b. Replace:
endpoint address="net.tcp://localhost:8001/pvs/mapi/commandset"
with:
endpoint address="net.tcp://localhost:54322/pvs/mapi/commandset"

You could read further about fixing the issue in this Citrix Support Document


http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121658

Citrix Updates

Some new updates out recently for Xenapp and Provisioning Server


Hotfix Rollup Pack 5 for XenApp 5.0 on Server 2003

http://support.citrix.com/product/xa/v5.0_2003/

Citrix Provisioning Server 5.1 SP1

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX122799