Load Balancing Citrix StoreFront with Azure Load Balancer

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Sometimes there is a requirement to Load Balance StoreFront using a method other than NetScaler. Although rare (in my experience!) this does occasionally happen when NetScaler is perhaps not being used for Remote Access –  in an internal only environment for example. In this post I will explain how to Load Balance StoreFront using the native Azure Load Balancers. We start with a simple setup: 1x Domain Controller 2x Citrix StoreFront Servers – in an availability set called “EUS-StoreFront” 1x […]

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GSLB for NetScaler Gateway across Azure Locations

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In this post I’ll be going through how I have configured GSLB for NetScaler Gateway in Azure, and the various elements required for this type of configuration. Firstly – I began by setting up the background infrastructure to demonstrate this test. Namely, 2x Active Directory DCs within two Azure Locations (Eastern US (EUS), and South Central US (SCUS)). These were on a Virtual Network setup for each location, joined with a Site to Site VPN utilizing Virtual Network Gateways. Next, I […]

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Quick Post! – Using NetScaler responder policies/actions and backup vServers to notify users of Service Downtime

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NetScaler, as I am sure you are aware, is a superbly powerful Application Delivery Controller. One of the most useful features is the use of Responder Policies/Actions, and Backup vServers to indicate that a service is down or to provide access to an alternative service for end users. Let’s say – you have a load balancer configured that balances two Web Servers, which you then present for users to access. This load balancer could be configured with monitoring to check […]

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Upcoming CUGC User Share Webinar!

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Improving the Resiliency of Your XenDesktop Environment – StoreFront Multi Site and NetScaler GSLB for StoreFront Thursday, February 22, 2018 – 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST (6:00 PM to 7:00 PM GMT) This Webinar focuses on improving XenDesktop environment resiliency using StoreFront Multi Site and NetScaler GSLB. This will cover the setup of these methods, the benefits and pitfalls, and show some practical demonstrations. There will be a Q and A afterwards. Dave Brett (CTP) will be joining as moderator for this […]

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Testing out Project Honolulu

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Recently I have been testing out something new – Project Honolulu from Microsoft. I first heard about this on Twitter (thanks to Eric @XenAppBlog), and was interested in what it could offer straight away. Project Honolulu is a new way to manage Windows Server – using a web based method, that does not rely on the traditional Server Manager GUI. Functionality is similar, and offers the usual range of configuration options, as well the ability to manage roles and features as […]

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XenDesktop Site Failover – asking the community…

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Recently I’ve been doing a lot of work on large deployments that require active/active or active/passive setups, whereby options to fail over to a DR site are either required as part of the design, or presented as future enhancement to the customer. Most of these have been fairly open questions – “How can we achieve this?” for example. It’s a question that is almost completely subjective; it depends entirely on business needs, and what the available budget is. Subjective elements […]

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Citrix Workspace Environment Management – IO Management

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I’ve been blogging a lot this year on the merits of Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM) and the various features it provides. Another feature is I/O Priority – which enables us to manage the priority of I/O operations for a specified process: To demonstrate this, I am going to run IOMeter (a storage testing tool – that consumes, but also measures CPU utilisation during testing), and SuperPi (a tool that calculates Pi to a specified number of digits – and […]

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Citrix Workspace Environment Management – Process Management

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After testing out the excellent CPU and Memory management features in Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM), I wanted to blog about how processes can be controlled using the software. Prior to starting this test, I have a basic Citrix XenDesktop environment configured, a WEM environment configured, and the relevant group policies in place to support this. To prevent processes from running, we browse to System Optimization, and then Process Management: From here we can enable process management: Next – we […]

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Citrix Connection Quality Indicator

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Overview Connection Quality Indicator is a new tool from Citrix designed to inform and alert the user to network conditions that may affect the quality of the Session they are using.  Information is provided to the end user via a notification window which can be controlled using Group Policy. Installation is supported on the following platforms: See https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX220774 for more details. Test Environment My environment consists of a basic Citrix XenDesktop 7.12 installation: 1x Desktop Delivery Controller (Local Database) 1x […]

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Testing out the Atlantis USX Community Edition

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Recently I’ve been using the Atlantis USX Community Edition, which is a free edition of the Atlantis USX Software – specifically for the purposes of testing and learning how the USX can improve the performance of a virtual desktop. Atlantis provide a number of testing guides and videos on the USX Community Edition landing page  – and also a testing guide, which outlines how to benchmark the software. For this post I wanted to demonstrate the results I’m getting in […]

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