CITRIX

What is Citrix? Simply put, Citrix Metaframe allows you to run applications you have at work from anywhere in the world or on your local area network (LAN). You have real time access to run your applications as fast as if you are in the office. It does not matter if you're using a dialup modem, DSL, ISDN, or T1 to access citrix remotely. How does Citrix work? We begin with either an enhanced version of Windows NT 4.0 (Terminal Server Edition) or Windows 2000 with Terminal Services Installed. Then, we add Citrix Metaframe. This product allows multiple users to run multiple applications on the Citrix Server at the same time. When you run applications on the Citrix Server the screen shots are sent to your computer and, in return, your keyboard input and mouse movements are sent to the Citrix Server. How much bandwidth does it take? The average connection uses 10K to 20K of bandwidth per connection. Hence, a 28K dial-up modem is enough to access a Citrix Server. What kind of operating system can I use to access Citrix? DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows CE (Thin Client), Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Unix, and Macintosh. How fast of a computer do I need to access Citrix? Virtually any personal computer can access Citrix (e.g., 386 to Pentium 4). In fact, it does not matter how fast your computer is, it will run with virtually the same speed on Citrix. How do you get additional information about Citrix? Why Citrix - Using Citrix in addition to Terminal Services simply it is Faster, Easier for the users and Reduces administration time. While it is true that Terminal Services allow you to run applications remotely on an NT, 2000 or 2003 server, but that is about all it will let you do. History - Lets start with a history lesson. Citrix originally developed MultiWin technology under Windows NT server 3.51 to allow users to run multiple applications under a product called WinFrame. Bill Gates felt that this was of such value that Microsoft tried to develop the same technology. In the end they failed and decided to license the technology from Citrix. From that agreement MetaFrame was born. Microsoft release for Windows NT 4.0 a product called Terminal Server Edition (TSE) and later embedded services in Windows 2000 called Terminal Services. These products were developed by Citrix engineers. In the agreement between Citrix and Microsoft, Citrix retained the rights to develop and market several other companion products. Some people call these products Citrix, but they are made up of several individual products. Citrix kept most of the goodies for its self. Core Functionality: Citrix Presentation Server Core functionality Citrix Presentation Server Core functionality Citrix Installation Management Services (IMS) Allows of the single installation of a product to multiple servers. Also ensures a heterogeneous installation between servers. Citrix Resource Management Services (RMS) Allows for the monitoring of multiple servers from one central database. Also captures snapshots of what users were running what applications every 15 seconds. All this with less that a 1% utilization of the processor.

Citrix Load Balancing A decision making browse to direct the user to the least busy server with the proper resource to service the users application request. This gives the Citrix Server Cluster (or Farm) a level of fault tolerance. Citrix Web Server Allows the user to launch there applications using an internet browse Groundwork - Now that we have set the ground work, lets talk about why you should use Citrix products in addition to Microsoft Terminal Server Edition (TSE) or Microsoft Terminal Services. Speed: The Microsoft TSE or Terminal Services is based only on the RDP protocol. When you use the Citrix products a more efficient protocol is made available called Independent Computing Architecture (ICA). ICA has been shown to be 2 to 4 times faster than RDP. Using Citrix products you have the option to Cache Bit Maps that can be stored locally on the users computer. Using this bit map caching the server can simply issue an instruction to redraw the required bit map at a specified location rather than constantly resending the same bit maps over and over again. Speed Screen 2 only sends information that changes. Simplified User Integration: Seamless desktop integration of applications Ready Connect Clients You can create a set of diskettes or a download directory and customize the setting to minimize the users need to configure the connection to your Citrix Servers. Load Balancing allows the users request to go to the least busy server with the proper resource to handle the request. Reduced Administration time: Shortcuts to these applications may be pushed to the users desktop and later pulled back if the user does not have the privileges to execute the application. The published application list can be managed from the server, which allows you to manage application for the users desktops without visiting the users desktop.
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The ports used in a Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server environment are as follows:

1494An ICA session is established and maintained over this TCP port. Knowing whether clients are connecting from outside the network or inside this port is necessary for ICA traffic between clients and servers. 80The Citrix XML Service is used by ICA clients to query MPS servers for published applications. 2512Server-to-server communications are exchanged over TCP port 2512. 2513The Management Console uses this TCP port to plug into the IMA. 1604UDP is usually enabled if the MPS server is used in interoperability mode or mixed mode, which means there are MetaFrame 1.8 servers in the farm. It is used by ICA clients to broadcast a query to find the Master ICA Browser. 443Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Relay is used to secure communications between the Web Interface server (formerly NFuse) and MPS servers. 139, 1433, 443MPS servers use these ports to communicate with Microsoft SQL or Oracle databases hosting the Data Store.

Citrix System Requirements Hardware Standard PC architecture 166 Mhz processor or greater 64 MB RAM or greater Minimum 7 MB of free hard drive space on the system drive (C:) Microsoft mouse or 100% compatible mouse VGA or SVGA video adapter with color monitor Video settings at 256 colors and 800x600 screen resolution

Software Internet Explorer 5.X or greater, Netscape 4.5 or greater Windows 95 - release 2, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 service pack 4, Windows XP TCP/IP installed and configured properly to access the Internet with your Internet Service Provider

System Requirements for presentation server 4.5

This section briefly describes the software and hardware requirements and recommendations for installing Citrix Presentation Server. For a complete list of the system requirements for all components of Citrix Presentation Server, see the Installation Checklist for Citrix Presentation Server. For information about system requirements for client devices, see the administrators guide for each client platform.

Software Requirements
You can install Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 on computers running the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 family (with SP1 or SP2): Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Datacenter Edition. Citrix Presentation Server is supported on both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. The procedures in this guide are primarily based on 32-bit operating systems and differences for 64-bit operating systems are noted. For more information about 64-bit issues, see the Citrix Presentation Server Readme. Before you begin installing Presentation Server, it is important to understand how Presentation Server Setup treats software system requirements. If you are performing an installation using any method other than Autorun, you must install all system requirements before you begin Presentation Server installation. If you are installing Presentation Server using the Autorun, some system requirements are installed for you automatically and others are not. You must install the system requirements that are not installed during Autorun Setup before you begin, otherwise the installation fails. As a general rule, Autorun Setup installs most non-Windows system requirements, such as the Java Runtime Environment, .NET Framework Version, and Microsoft Visual J#. It does not install any Windows system requirements that are available from your operating system CD or need to be configured as roles. Likewise, it does not perform any of the pre-installation configurations that you need to perform on your server, such as specify the terminal services role, enabling Internet Information Services (IIS) and so on. Note The installation of Citrix Presentation Server on Windows domain Controllers is not supported. In addition, system requirements must be installed and configured in a very specific sequence. Citrix recommends that you remap server drives, if desired, before you install any system requirements, including .NET 2.0. See the Installation Checklist on the Server CD and Preparing Your Environment on page 48 for information about the installation sequence for pre-requisites. For more information, see Deciding to Change Server Drive Letters on page 42. Citrix Presentation Server supports the 2007 change in Daylight Saving Time in the United States. If your applications are affected by change, make sure that you upgrade your installation of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to the same level as that specified in the Installation Checklist. The Citrix Presentation Server JRE requirement meets the level Sun recommends to resolve potential JRE issues resulting from the Daylight Saving Time change.

Hardware Requirements
The hardware requirements for a Presentation Server deployment are based on the edition of Windows Server 2003 you are using. For more information, see the Microsoft Web site for the latest system requirements for the edition of Windows Server 2003 on which you are deploying your server farm. For information about system sizing, optimization, configuration, and deployment scenarios, see the Advanced Concepts Guide for Citrix Presentation Server. This guide is available from the Support area of the Citrix Web site at http://support.citrix.com. Important You must install the Terminal Server component (in Application Server mode) before you install Citrix Presentation Server. Terminal Server is not installed with Windows by default. The installation of Terminal Server entails using the Manage Your Server wizard to add the terminal services role to your server. Note Citrix recommends that you set the graphics displays for computers running the management consoles to at least 1024 x 768 pixels.

Citrix works on two Main factors: 1.IMA Service 2.ICA Port

Two main architectural elements of MetaFrame Presentation Server enable you to establish the on-demand enterprise, where users access published resources easily and with any client device. Keep these elements, described in the following topics, in mind when designing farms.

Independent Management Architecture (IMA)

Independent Management Architecture (IMA) provides the framework for server communications and is the management foundation for MetaFrame Presentation Server. IMA is a centralized management service comprised of a collection of core subsystems that define and control the execution of products in a server farm. IMA enables servers to be arbitrarily grouped into server farms that do not depend on the physical locations of the servers or whether the servers are on different network subnets. IMA runs on all servers in the farm. IMA subsystems communicate through messages passed by the IMA Service through default TCP ports 2512 and 2513. The IMA Service starts automatically when a server is started. The IMA Service can be manually started or stopped through the operating system Services utility.

Independent Computing Architecture (ICA)

The Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) is the communication protocol by which servers and client devices exchange data in a server environment. ICA is optimized to enhance the delivery and performance of this exchange, even on lowbandwidth connections. The ICA protocol transports an applications screens from the server it is running on to the users client device, and returns the users input to the application on the server. As an application runs on a server, MetaFrame Presentation Server intercepts the applications display data and uses the ICA protocol to send this data (on standard network protocols) to the client software running on the users client device. When the user types on the keyboard or moves and clicks the mouse, the client software sends this data to the application on the server. ICA requires minimal client workstation capabilities and includes error detection and recovery, encryption, and data compression. What is a Farm? A Farm is a group of servers running XenApp that can be managed as a unit, enabling the administrator to configure features and settings for the entire farm rather than being required to configure each server individually. All the servers in a farm share a single data store.

What is a data store? The data store provides a repository of persistent information about the farm that each server can reference, including the following: Farm configuration information Published Application configurations Server configurations Static policy configuration XenApp administrator accounts Printer configurations What is a Zone? A Zone is a logical grouping of XenApp servers that share a common zone data collector. Zones allow the efficient collection of dynamic farm information. Each zone in a farm has exactly one data collector. All of the member servers in a particular zone communicate their dynamic information to the data collector for their zone. The data collector then shares this information with all other data collectors in the farm. What is a zone data collector? A zone data collector is a server that stores and manages dynamic information about the servers in a zone, including: Published Applications usage Server load User sessions Online servers Connected sessions Disconnected sessions Load balancing information The ICA client sends out request for a published application. The Zone Data Collector resolves the connection to the least busy server. By default, a data collector identifies the least-loaded server in the farm and directs the user to it, even if that server is in another zone across a WAN link.