Presenting Citrix XenApp 7.6 & Citrix XenDesktop 7.6… What’s new?!

Hi everybody, as you might have heard by now Citrix announced XenApp and XenDesktop version 7.6 build on top of the their new and improved Flexcast Management Architecture. I took the liberty to summarize some, if not all, of the newly announced features and enhancements that both products will bring to the table, sparing you the marketing propaganda surrounding it. If you feel I left anything out, drop me a line and I’ll include it, and of course this goes for the Citrix employees as well :-) Here goes:

Both products are build on top of Citrix’s third generation FMA, which can be deployed on premises, in the cloud or using a combination of both which we refer to as a Hybrid architecture.

Application Pre-launch, is back!

Session Lingering is back!

Check out this article on Pre-launch and Lingering :

http://blogs.citrix.com/2014/04/15/part-3-new-and-improved-session-pre-launch-and-lingering-coming-to-xenapp-and-xendesktop/

Configure Pre-launch and Lingering :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop-76/xad-dg-manage-sessions.html#xad-dg-manage-sessions__prelaunch-linger

Unauthenticated (anonymous) users, also see :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop-76/xad-dg-create.html#xad-dg-create__dg-users

When creating or editing Delivery Groups containing Server OS machines, you can now allow users to access applications and desktops without presenting credentials to StoreFront or Citrix Receiver. For example, when users access applications through kiosks, the application may require credentials, but the Citrix access portal and tools do not.

Database connection leasing will be introduced to replace IMA’s LHC. It won’t be the same but it’s a step in the right direction for sure. The connection leasing feature supplements the SQL Server high availability best practices by enabling users to connect and reconnect to their most recently used applications and desktops, even when the Site database is not available. Read all about it, see :

http://blogs.citrix.com/2014/04/09/part-2-simplifying-connection-high-availability-for-xenapp-and-xendesktop/

and this one with regards to configuring and managing Connection Leasing :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop-76/xad-connection-leasing.html#xad-connection-leasing

The overall audio, video and graphics experience will be greatly enhanced as well, as per Citrix: New high-performance graphics acceleration using GPUs provide high quality DirectX/2D rendering

Build-in support for unified communications such as Lync Server 2013 and generic redirection of the latest USB 3.0 peripherals like webcams, headsets and Lync phones for Windows devices :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/hdx-realtime-optimization-pack-15/lync-optimization-pack-15.html

Connection throttling settings. To improve performance, you can now specify the maximum number of simultaneous actions, simultaneous Personal Storage inventory updates, and actions per minute that can occur on a host connection :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop-76/xad-connections.html#xad-connections__edit

An enhanced HDX Mobile SDK. Windows applications will be ‘mobilized’ even faster then before and will also include features like GPS location awareness, picture and video capture and screen rotation re-factoring.

Get rid off IOPS all together using Citrix’s new and improved Provisioning Services 7.1 with cache in RAM and spill over to disk functionality. Will depend on License type.

Enhanced HTML 5 technology, combined with the new Google Chrome Receiver, support for Receiver for Chrome 1.4 and Receiver for HTML5 1.4. Check the below links for more information. Receiver for Chrome 1.4 :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/receiver-chrome-14/receiver-chrome-version-wrapper.html

Receiver for HTML5 1.4 :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/receiver-html5-14/receiver-html5-version-wrapper.html

Improved Printing experience.

Linux virtual apps & desktops as part of their Citrix Linux VDA project. You’ll find dome more details here :

http://www.citrix.com/news/announcements/aug-2014/citrix-offers-technology-preview-of-linux-virtual-apps-and-deskt.html

Several Director enhancements which simplify management and monitoring :

• Real time alerts on license utilization.
• Historical app usage reports.
• In depth tracking of hotfix inventory.
• Enhanched filtering capabilities.
• Director is also compatible with XenApp 6.5

Reporting in Studio has also been enhanced. It now displays more details with regards to licensing, updating PvD images and overall error reporting.

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance and Common Criteria evaluation requirements. As stated on their news website, it is the only application and desktop virtualization platform offering both options.

Application folders, you can organize applications in folders, which makes it easier to administer large numbers of applications in Studio. By default, applications in a Delivery Group appear in a single folder. From the Delivery Group display in Studio, you can create additional folders and move applications into them. Citrix product documentation on managing Application folders :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop-76/xad-dg-manage-apps.html#xad-dg-manage-apps__app-folders

Enhanced security with regards to granular policies to configure Clipboard content filtering and directional control. IT can now allow or disallow users to copy content into, or out of, their virtual workspace.

As you might be aware the Platinum edition will include, as it did already, Citrix’s full version of AppDNA which has again been improved (AppDNA 7.6). It now includes the following new features: multiple builds assessment, interoperability testing, application dependency mapping, and group policy object (GPO) settings detection. See its product page for full details :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/dna/dna-76.html

A new Citrix Connector 7.5 for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop-75/cn-75-landing.html

Citrix announched their new Citrix Customer Experience Improvement Program : http://www.citrix.com/cms/ws/ceip/

As stated and published earlier, a new reference architecture for deploying XenApp and XenDesktop on Microsoft Azure, complete with sizing and costing data, has been released as well. It builds on top of the Citrix Workspace Services vision on Azure realised earlier this year.

StoreFront 2.6. The updated StoreFront console simplifies the StoreFront configuration for the following features :

• User subscriptions
• Set session timeout for Receiver for Web
• Show domains list in logon page

StoreFront 2.6 includes a whole bunch of new and impoved features, Receiver for Web My Aps folder view, enhanced smart card authentication and a lot more, see :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/dws-storefront-26/dws-version-wrapper.html

The new provisioning services, updates to Citrix Receiver, StoreFront and HDX, AppDNA, the System Center Connector and multiple monitoring consoles all seamlessly integrate with XenApp 6.5.

Their new XenApp Tech Info page : http://www.citrix.com/products/xenapp/tech-info.html

XenApp 6.5 migration tooling. The XenApp 6.5 migration process helps you more efficiently and quickly transition from a XenApp 6.5 farm to a Site running XenApp 7.6 (or a later supported release).  Check out this page :

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-xendesktop-76/xad-xamigrate.html#xad-xamigrate

Version 7.6 is available for download now ! Go to : http://www.citrix.com/downloads.html?posit=glnav select your product and log in with your My Citrix account.

Bas van Kaam

Field CTO EMEA by day, author by night @ Nerdio

Father of three, EMEA Field CTO @ Nerdio, Author of the book Van de Basis tot aan Meester in de Cloud, Co-author of the book Project Byte-Sized and Yuthor of the book: Inside Citrix – The FlexCast Management Architecture, over 500 blog posts and multiple (ultimate) cheat sheets/e-books. Public speaker, sport enthusiast­­­­­­­­: above-average runner, 3 x burpee-mile finisher and a former semiprofessional snooker player. IT community participant and initiator of the AVD User group Community world wide.