When you need to patch the base OS or update any applications such as Hypervisor tools or .NET installed on the OS Layer you create a new OS Layer version and perform this work with the use of an Installation Machine.
Speeding up Citrix PVS merge and boot times with VHDX, UEFI and ReFS
Citrix Provisioning Services is one of those components I love to sit down and play with to try and make operations such as vDisk booting faster. Since the release of Citrix PVS 7.7 there has been a few great enhancements that we can easily implement today to achieve better all-round performance with vDisks and Target Device VMs.
Get an A+ rating score on NetScaler 11.1-12.1
Whilst this guide specifically uses NetScaler v11.1 many of the tweaks that secure the NetScaler configuration can be applied to prior versions or later versions. This has also been tested on NetScaler 12.0.57.24. This guide shows how to obtain an A+ rating score from SSL Labs for your NetScaler Gateway vServer.
Azure Multi-Factor Authentication with NetScaler Unified Gateway
MFA/Azure Multi Factor Authentication (previously PhoneFactor) is a multi-factor authentication technology that can be used with IIS, VPNs, OWA, ADFS, Office 365 and NetScaler to name a few using either the LDAP or RADIUS protocols from Azure cloud or on-premise. MFA has the ability to verify a users identity by calling their phone, texting their phone or using an app for verification. Using a phone for the second factor allows you to make use of something everyone will likely already have without additional bits of hardware whilst making it a great deal harder for attackers to break into accounts.
Citrix 7.x Policy discrepancy error
Remember the old IMA versions of Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop where you had to create separate policies for computer settings and user settings? In FMA Citrix 7.x XenApp & XenDesktop platforms, Citrix made it simpler merging both computer and user policies in to one. When creating policies you no longer need to worry about what is a user setting vs. computer. However this merging is merely at the GUI level. At the data level the policies are still split in to two for reasons such as backwards compatability.
Installing and Configuring Unidesk 3.4 on Hyper-V
Unidesk is a leader in layering technologies. Using Unidesk you can layer applications right on top of a gold OS image layer. This seriously simplifies application and desktop management within Citrix environments such as solving the extra overhead often seen with managing multiple gold images/silos for different applications or departments.
Machine Creation Services Storage RAM and Disk Cache
Citrix Machine Creation Services as of XenApp/XenDesktop 7.9 provides the ability to write to memory with overflow to disk just like what is available with PVS using RAM w/ overflow to HDD. This greatly decreases write I/O so you don’t have to rely as much on the underlying storage or worry about hitting a storage bottlenecks as you scale the desktop environment.
Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM)
Workspace Environment Manager (previously Norskale as many people may be familiar with) is a recent acquisition by Citrix that will fill the gap when it comes to Citrix offering a UEM solution. WEM is available for all Enterprise and Platinum XA/XD customers with active Software Maintenance (Customer Success Services) and is available for download today. WEM 4.0 was the initial release.