In the last few years, the way we work has changed and has evolved to the point that we now have the opportunity to access personal data not just when we are at our personal office desk. Thanks to new technologies such as smart phones and tablets, more and more users are now able to have the feeling of being able to work everywhere and anywhere. However, despite the advances, this feeling is not always supported by the real ability to operate this way.
In the current post-PC age, we need to change the approach.
Citrix is a market leader for end-user virtualization. In the range of products offered to IT customers, we are now able to implement a powerful solution such as XenDesktop 5.6, which allows users to have the published desktops and/or applications on platforms that can be Windows aware (for example, Android or Apple iOS), without losing agility and the rich user experience of the original.
With this book we'll cover the main implementation aspects, advanced features, and all the activities required to tune the infrastructure and enrich the final user impact.
At the end of this book, we're going to explain XenDesktop PowerShell, with real-case practical implementation; by this, any virtualization engineer will improve and consolidate his knowledge of XenDesktop.
Chapter 1, XenDesktop Installation and Configuration, presents the prerequisites to install the platform, the differences between the two most important architectures, operations to perform during the installation phase, and the first configuration step for each component.
Chapter 2, Deploying Virtual Machines for XenDesktop, shows the way to interface XenDesktop with hypervisor hosts for farm and VM base image creation. This part will also include the second configuration phase for the XenDesktop components.
Chapter 3, Master Image Configuration and Tuning, is focused on configuration and optimization operations realized on the base desktop image for future deployments.
Chapter 4, User Experience – Planning and Configuring, helps the customers to implement all basic and advanced features of user experience (ICA and HDX).
Chapter 5, Configuring Additional Architectural Components, performs implementation and optimization activities for infrastructural satellite components such as Citrix Merchandising Server or the Citrix Branch Repeater virtual appliance.
Chapter 6, Creating and Configuring a Desktop Environment, explains administrative tasks for the desktop environment such as catalog creation, power management, resource allocation.
Chapter 7, Deploying Applications, shows the way to assign and publish applications only to specified users; we'll also explain interfacing with XenApp 6.5 and Microsoft App-V.
Chapter 8, XenDesktop Tuning and Security, performs optimization activities to enrich quality level for VDI. In this chapter, we'll also learn how to secure the XenDesktop system components.
Chapter 9, Working with XenDesktop PowerShell, will be an advanced guide to the XenDesktop PowerShell modules; with these, we'll realize high-level configurations by command line.
Chapter 10, Configuring the XenDesktop Advanced Logon, explains the operations to implement the secure and strong authentication for the Citrix XenDesktop architectures.
At the end of every chapter there will be a laboratory, a set of practical exercises used to test the comprehension of the chapter by the readers. Every laboratory will be a link to the exercises written in its next chapter, in order to implement a full functioning environment, without constraining the users in a predefined configuration, giving the ability to operate with a little bit more of a freedom regarding the operations to perform.
The prerequisites required to install the components are as follows:
At least Windows 2008 with Service Pack 2 (32 or 64 bit); preferably Windows Server 2008 R2 (only 64 bit)
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
For Web Interface, IIS (7.0 for W2K8 SP2, 7.5 for W2K8 R2) web server and ASP.NET 2.0
Visual J# 2.0 SE
Visual C++ 2008 Service Pack 1
100 MB of disk space for each of these components – Web Interface, Controller, and SDK
50 MB of disk space for each of these components – Desktop Studio and Desktop Director
40 MB for licensing
This book is for system engineers who have just had an approach with previous Citrix XenDesktop releases. Some parts cover normal administration tasks, but the most of the book implements advanced features and techniques that require working knowledge about systems, servers, and desktop virtualization.
Because of its step-by-step method, users who approach virtualization for the first time can use this book as a practical integration of parallel theoretical studies.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "Once all the configurations are complete, under the temporary folder where we copied the JAR file, we will have a .war file and a .xml file."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
Set-ConfigDBConnection -DBConnection $null Set-AcctDBConnection -DBConnection $null Set-HypDBConnection -DBConnection $null Set-BrokerDBConnection -DBConnection $null
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Click on the Content… button first, then click on Add, and select your language."
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[email protected]>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.
If there is a book that you need and would like to see us publish, please send us a note in the SUGGEST A TITLE form on www.packtpub.com or e-mail <[email protected]>.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/support, selecting your book, clicking on the errata submission form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded on our website, or added to any list of existing errata, under the Errata section of that title. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.
Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at <[email protected]> with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.
You can contact us at <[email protected]> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.