13 Nov 07 Citrix Presentation Server 4.5…Upgraded!
Overview:
Presentation Server 4.5 is the newest Citrix platform for application delivery. In a nutshell, Citrix gives your organization the flexibility to change applications/programs on demand, without changing the overall environment. Citrix also allows remote offices and home users the ability to connect to the office for email, applications, etc.
Upgrade Process:
Depending on the version you are currently running, the best overall method for installing PS 4.5 would be to build a box in parallel to your current Citrix box. This may not be an option for some people, but is highly recommended to ensure a proper transition/delivery with no downtime. We started our upgrade by establishing a new Citrix farm on a new server and kept the old farm supporting our user group. Once the new farm was up and running, we began the process of moving applications/settings/configurations from the old farm to the new farm. Once all the applications were moved/copied to the new farm, we created a client deployment package which installed the new network neighborhood client and new farm settings.
Application Deployment:
Deploying applications in PS 4.5 using Access Control Manager is a breeze.
Depending on your remote users’ connections, you can customize everything from screen size to how much bandwidth you want to allocate to each application. Many organizations like to deploy a desktop to remote users, to give them that “on-the-network” feel. We decided to deploy our applications just as applications; we categorize these apps in a folder structure to simplify the use. Doing this allows us to eliminate most of the temp files that build up on user and also give the users only what they need/use.
Printing Setup:
Printing can be a nightmare with Citrix.
With the release of Presentation Server 4, Citrix enhanced the print subsystem on Presentation Server. We use a combination of the UPD (Universal Print Driver) and a printing Policy to control how printing is to be deployed/used. During our research here and here, which are great resources for Citrix, we installed a few common/universal drivers on our server and mapped them to all of our printers.
Daily Maintenance:
There is much speculation out there on whether your Citrix server should be rebooted as part of a nightly task. After testing and research, I have decided to schedule a reboot nightly (be sure to use the TSSHUTDOWN command). The script also cleans all temp directories. We also created a script that will perform a disk defrag of all drives on the server. This is done on a weekly basis (During low activity time) to keep things optimal for daily performance.
Backup Strategy:
When deciding on a backup plan, I had to ponder a few options. Do I spend the money and buy a new backup software license for the server? Or do I spend a little extra and get an identical hot-swap HDD? Our Citrix server is setup with a RAID 1 configuration. Considering our Citrix server does not house any files or data, we decided to use the hot-swap method (which is not supported by Dell or Microsoft). Basically, this is a 3rd HDD kept offline (after a mirror update has been completed) and used as the primary drive when a corruption or HDD failure occurs. The only downside is the performance of the server while the mirror updates the second drive. But all things considered, this is much quicker than doing a full system restore.
Many great resources can be found right here, but please check this and this out!
