Performance degrades when enabling Citrix (Branch) Repeater Traffic Acceleration

An interesting problem where a customer has a PoC environment to see if Citrix Repeaters would add value to the Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop implementation over a WAN connection with the help of a Citrix Repeaters 8540 on each end.

Whenever the Traffic Acceleration mode was enabled performance of the XenApp/XenDesktop connection was worse then having Traffic Acceleration disabled. Movies would play frame by frame, it would take ages to move a AutoCAD object from A to B within a drawing.

The ‘receiving’ Citrix Repeater’s Log mentioned Fragmented IP Packets are being received.

Contributing to Citrix Education

Last week I was off to Citrix Systems, Santa Clara for attending the next Citrix NetScaler-based CCA exams IDW (Item Development Workshop). An IDW is a workshop that lasts about a week in which you and others will create exam questions (or items) that will appear on the next (or revised) Citrix exam(s). In this particular IDW we are concentrating on the follow-up exams of the old Citrix NetScaler 1Y0-A11 and Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise 1Y0-A13 which are based on the Citrix NetScaler 9 software version.

Unfortunately we forgot to take a picture of all the participants together, so to name a few: from left to right: Lourdes Soler (Citrix), Henny Louwers, Stuart Souter, Alejandra Garcia (Citrix), Craig Pickford and Robert Zehnder.

Citrix NetScaler with SSD (first impression)

The Citrix NetScaler MPX 5500-7500 and 9500 appliance models now ship with Solid State Drives and says (good?)bye to the platter disk for these particulair models. This was anounced by Citrix back in februari this year: http://blogs.citrix.com/2012/02/09/citrix-netscaler-moves-to-solid-state-drives-for-future-mpx-5500-7500-and-9500-shipments/

Citrix has been using Solid State Drives in the MPX 17500/19500/21500 platforms for a longer time but they are only used for mounting the /flash volume. In the MPX 5500/7500/9500 the /flash volume is mounted on a CompactFlash Card. The (platter) Hard Disk Drive which is now being replaced by an SSD is used for the /var volume, this is where all the data and logs files are kept.

I now have a set of Citrix NetScaler MPX 5500 series which has been delivered with such Solid State Drives. The SSD in question is a Samsung 2.5” 128GB SSD (SATA3.0Gbps) which is known as a Samsung 470 series. This particulair SSD can perform sequential reads up to 250 MB/sec and sequential writes at 220 MB/sec. In comparison to the latest releases of Solid State Drives those numbers are not amazing. More information of the SSD : http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-5PA128/US-specs

[BUG] “Unexpected Response” Access Gateway Enterprise in NetScaler build 9.3-53.5

If you are using Citrix Receiver on iOS or Android to access pulished applications on Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise (NetScaler) do not upgrade to the latest firmware which is 9.3-53.5.

Users will get an “Unexpected Response” on an iOS device when they try to login to a Citrix Access Gateway environment. On Android the error statement is “The Citrix Access Gateway you are connecting to is not configured for this device. Please contact your administrator.”

Publish RSA Self-Service Console through NetScaler

This week I was at a customer which would like to publish the RSA Self Service Console so that users can self-service their RSA tokens, passwords and accounts and create some sort of redundancy with multiple RSA Authentication Servers. RSA has limited documentation on publishing the RSA Self-Service Console using a reverse proxy, especially Citrix NetScaler.

First of all, what you need to be aware of is that the RSA Servers works in a Primary/Replica model in which only the Primary can be written to by users, all other RSA Servers are read-only replica’s. So you can not use the replica servers for changing tokens, resetting passwords or enabling accounts. Replica’s can only be used for authenticating purposes.

Retain Customization after applying White Theme on Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise

There is a Citrix knowledge base article on how to apply the White Theme on a Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition, right here: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX123607

There is a Citrix knowledge base article on how to retain Custom Settings on a Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise webpage, right here: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX123780

But the problem is when you do both (Apply White Theme and wish to retain your customization) there is none.

Problem is that both actions copy the content to /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn directory where the White Theme is copied last.

What you basically can do is edit the file /nsconfig/rc.netscaler to add the following rule: cp -r /var/vpn/vpn/* /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn. Make sure your customized content is copied to the /var/vpn/vpn directory.

So if you apply the White Theme and wish to retain the white settings the content of your /nsconfig/rc.netscaler should look like this:

tar -zxvf /var/white.gz -C /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn/images
cp -r /var/vpn/vpn/* /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn

Exam 1Y0-A15 Engineering a Citrix Virtualization Solution

Yesterday I cleared exam “1Y0-A15 Engineering a Citrix Virtualization Solution”, I only used the day before to prepare, using the 1Y0-A15 prep guide from the Citrix Training website. I had my mind set on reading the XenDesktop materials such as the Administrator guides on the Citrix eDocs site, I use all the other products extensively almost daily except for XenDesktop. So my focus for this exam was on XenDesktop.

I love the fact that ‘almost’ everything you need to know for a Citrix exam can be found in the Citrix Product Guides, I just don’t like reading from the eDocs site, it’s just not pleasant. You can’t bookmark anything. Can we just get the Citrix Administrator Guide back in PDF format? I know you can create PDF’s from the eDocs site but it creates a horrible PDF format.

So, I ditched the eDocs site and start setting up my own XenDesktop environment on my Citrix XenServer @ Home. That is way more fun learning offcourse! Citrix PVS, coffee, DDC’s, coffee, WI’s, coffee, Windows XP VM’s, coffee, etc. I went all out.

About the exam.

I love the simulation part, except for the fact that you really can’t go wrong on these. It’s kind a like a one way street because items that you do’nt need to succesfully complete the simulation are disabled, for instance certain buttons are dead so you can’t actually go there. That means that you can only choose certain items that you know are correct. Citrix should enable all buttons in a simulation to create a full simulation.

After 7 simulation items there was a second part that consisted of 54 traditional questions (multiple-choice/drag and drop tasks/etc).

So, on more exam (1Y0-A16) to go to become Citrix CCIA for Virtualization. Very curious about exam 1Y0-A16.

1Y1-A21 Basic Administration for Citrix NetScaler 9.2

I love Citrix NetScaler . So, I registered this exam for Friday the 13th of august. If you are interested in taking this exam act fast because slots are limited! Prepare for a lot of questions which is not unusual for Citrix Beta exams.

Official Citrix Community Blog statement about taking this exam which seems to be removed now:

Are you interested in testing your knowledge of NetScaler 9.2? Now you can with the new beta exam 1Y1-A21 Basic Administration for Citrix NetScaler 9.2. While in beta, this exam is available FREE of cost!

Topics covered:
•    Planning the Network Deployment and Architecture
•    Initial Configuration and Installation
•    Managing and Securing NetScaler
•    Auditing and Monitoring
•    Configuring High Availability
•    Basic Troubleshooting

Exam A21 is a requirement for the CCA for Citrix NetScaler 9.
There are a limited number of seats for this exam. Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis, so don’t delay!

Registration info: To register for this exam, please go to Pearson VUE web site (www.vue.com/citrix).

While in beta, an exam preparation guide is NOT available. Refer to the preparatory training: CNS-203-1 Basic Administration for Citrix NetScaler 9.2

Beta Exam Results: You will not receive your score until the beta period is complete, the test results are analyzed, and a passing score is established.

Exam Feedback: While taking the beta exam, you are encouraged to provide feedback to training@citrix.com. Please include the beta exam number in the subject line.
Act now to take advantage of the beta exam while it is available for free!

Good luck!

UPDATE: Seems like the original page has been removed from Citrix Communities. Exam is still available on VUE, so act fast if you are interested in this exam.

1Y1-A18: Basic Administration for Citrix XenApp 6

Just got back from taking exam “1Y1-A18: Basic Administration for Citrix XenApp 6” which was ok. Once again I think Citrix is asking way too many questions in a beta exam. This time almost 200 questions! So be prepared for this mentally and physically because it is a long time in a chair that’s meant to be sat on for 15 minutes I think. At least at the testing center where I was today. It took me about 3 hours to get through this exam, so I don’t feel my back anymore by now . But that’s the life of a IT guy, sitting in the worst chair an IT department can find in a 2 mile radius for the duration of a project.

The questions on the exam were a bit repetitive but overall short and to the point as with most Citrix exams.

Good luck anyone taking the beta or final exam.

Citrix Access Gateway 5.0 beta program

I’ve signed up for the “Citrix Access Gateway 5.0 beta program” because I’m very curious about the new version. This is the Standard and Advanced line of Access Gateway solutions from Citrix. I’ve had a small peak on the new features within the beta product line and have to say that it will be hard for customers making a right decision on which Access Gateway solution to choose with all the flavors that will be out there.

It is about time that the old 4.x version got an update, however I thought it was a good decision from Citrix the integrate the new Web Interface in the 4.x product. This made the product last a little longer. It seems that Citrix Access Gateway are a bit out of focus with Citrix development and that Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise, Citrix NetScaler (VPX) get all the attention. Unfortunately there are still a lot of Citrix Access Gateway Standard and Advanced customers out there, at least here in Holland.

So, if you are interested in testing the beta product, here you go: Link!