Tag: VDI

Microsoft® Lync™ 2013 VDI Plug-in v1.0.1

With Lync™ 2013, Microsoft has introduced a new VDI Plug-in for Windows devices. This Tech Preview release enables the Microsoft® Lync™ 2013 VDI Plug-in to be used with the Citrix Receiver for Windows 3.x and XenApp 6.x. The Tech Preview consists of a new plug-in to the Citrix Receiver for Windows called the Display Adapter Plug-in. This new plug-in supports the Remote Desktop Protocol Geometry Tracking Extension used by Lync 2013 and related Windows components to insert and correctly position child windows for rendering Lync video. With this architecture, all Lync media processing is done on the user’s Windows device, maximizing XenApp server scalability and ensuring optimal audio-video quality.

Note: This technology preview software is made available to you in accordance to the terms and condition you agreed to in the End User License Agreement (EULA). The technology preview is for evaluation use only. It not supported in a production environment.

Documentation

You can find documentation around this plug-in here.

Download

You can download this plug-in here at the Citrix download section. A valid My CitrixID is required!!!

Communication ports used by VDI-in-a-Box 5.1

Citrix has created an overview of the communication ports used for their VDI-in-a-Box software.

The following table lists a brief description of each component and what network ports and protocols are used: Continue reading “Communication ports used by VDI-in-a-Box 5.1”

Security guidelines for virtual desktops

This white paper provides an overview of the technologies and procedures that are available to help secure a Citrix based virtual desktop environment. Furthermore, recommendations for low and high security environments are provided. While many areas are covered, this document is not intended to be a comprehensive planning and configuration guide, or as a training guide. Furthermore, it is recommended that all changes are fully tested within a dedicated test environment before being implemented into production.

This white paper is split into the following sections:

  • Endpoint Security: Focuses on endpoint devices used to access a Citrix environment.
  • Access Security: Focuses on techniques for securing the Web Interface / Storefront network communications.
  • Authentication Security: Available authentication techniques are described in detail within this section.
  • Session Security: Focuses on techniques for securing the virtual desktop network communications.
  • Virtual Desktop Security: Outlines how virtual desktops can be secured.
  • Infrastructure Security: Techniques for securing the network communications between infrastructure components as well as security related monitoring and networking is described. In addition important items about organizational security are outlined.

Read and download the PDF here at the Citrix knowledgebase.

Citrix VDI-in-a-box 5.1 released

Citrix has released version 5.1 of it's VDI-in-a-box product recently. This post gives an overview of several articles written by Citrix to configure and use this product to the fullest of it's capabilities.

 

personal vDisk FAQ

Q: How does personal virtual Disk work?

A: Unlike traditional Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) dedicated pooled deployments, where users lose their customizations and personal applications when the administrator alters the base virtual machine, deployments using personal vDisk retain those changes. This means administrators can easily and centrally manage their base virtual machines while providing users with a customized and personalized desktop experience.

Personal vDisk provides this separation by redirecting all changes made to the user’s virtual machine into a separate disk attached to the user’s virtual machine (the personal vDisk). The content of the personal vDisk is blended at runtime with the content from the base virtual machine to provide a unified experience. In this way, users can still access applications provisioned by their administrator in the base virtual machine.

Continue reading “personal vDisk FAQ”

Citrix released hotfix for VDI

Hi guys,

Citrix has released a Hotfix Rollup Pack 1 for VDI-in-a-Box 5.0.

This fix repairs the following issue:

Users receive the following error message when trying to connect to VDI-in-a-Box desktops through an HDX connection: “You cannot access this session because no licenses are available.”

You can download the hotfix here.

VMware vSphere 4 versus vSphere 5 for VDI desktops licensing cost calculator

Hi guys,

Brian Madden has taken the time to make an excellent spreadsheet to calculate the license costs between vSphere 4 and vSphere 5. Check this page to download the spreadsheet.

Until next time.

Greetz,
Jack

Microsoft Windows Thin PC 1.0

Microsoft has released Windows Thin PC (WinTPC), a new Windows 7 version tailored for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) access, making it Generally Available (GA) at July 1st this year for customers who use Microsoft Software Assurance (SA). Continue reading “Microsoft Windows Thin PC 1.0”