Citrix and Curriculum Software

[KWestos]

We will be trialling Citrix after Easter. Anyone know of any issues relating to curriculum software running on Citrix that we need to be aware of. Any printers not liking Citrix, etc.

 

Any information would be hugely appreciated

[SpuffMonkey]

Got most things running on ours - though obviously multimedia is a problem

[KWestos]

Got most things running on ours - though obviously multimedia is a problem

 

In what way is it a problem?

 

Are you using thin clients or re-using old PC's?

 

many thanks

[localzuk]

We've been using it now for a few months, works great, so long as you have your servers specced properly and have decent thin clients capable of running the speedscreen type stuff.

 

Only thing I've come across problems with was software called 'MathMania' and 'WordMania' as it is 3d software and chewed through resources (as in, 2 copies open kill a dual quad core 2.8ghz server with 4GB ram). Your best bet is to thoroughly test every package before you go live with it, and create a profile for use with your terminal servers that excludes those programs that are trouble.

 

The only other issues I've had were some HP drivers causing the print spooler to freeze, but switching to the universal print driver fixed that.

 

How many clients and servers are you going to be running (and what spec servers)?

[Ric_]

As it happens, I just finished building an x64 Server 2003 XenApp server today. I was amazed that only 3 pieces of our software wouldn't play on x64!

 

The only two things that are a 'problem' are Pro Desktop (3D view is a little clunky) and Autograph (no 3D charts - requires hardware OpenGL support).

[Jamoire]

Kar2ouche was the only thing we didnt get running, had a problem with Birchfield Lessons Kits but just needed to change a line in a config file in each kit to get them running.

[KWestos]

 

How many clients and servers are you going to be running (and what spec servers)?

 

We are going to trial 20. But we envisage moving 3 of our ICT suites over to it. I've taken advantage of the HP deal at the moment. I will be having 8 BL460C blades. 2GB RAM, Quad core Zeon. Not hugely beefy, but we intend using only one server for every 20 machines. With plenty of servers left for future projects.

 

8 Blades and and a blade enclosure cost us £7,500, an absolute bargain. About £6,500 off!

 

With the money saved, this will pay for all the Xenapp and MS licenses and remote access

[localzuk]

We are going to trial 20. But we envisage moving 3 of our ICT suites over to it. I've taken advantage of the HP deal at the moment. I will be having 8 BL460C blades. 2GB RAM, Quad core Zeon. Not hugely beefy, but we intend using only one server for every 20 machines. With plenty of servers left for future projects.

 

8 Blades and and a blade enclosure cost us £7,500, an absolute bargain. About £6,500 off!

 

With the money saved, this will pay for all the Xenapp and MS licenses and remote access

 

2GB of RAM for 20 machines is too low. You want to utilise the max 3.5GB of 32bit windows, or more if you go with 64bit. Also, what speed hard disks are you using? 15k RPM are a good choice for terminal services.

[Ric_]

I agree that 2GB of RAM is far too low. Terminal servers need lots of RAM and very fast hard disks.

 

The new XenApp 5 Feature Pack has just added Citrix EdgeSight to Enterprise edition upwards. This allows for capacity testing - I was playing with this today and it seems quite good. It will show you that you won't get anywhere near 20 concurrent connections though with 2GB RAM - try nearer 10!

[KWestos]

2GB of RAM for 20 machines is too low. You want to utilise the max 3.5GB of 32bit windows, or more if you go with 64bit. Also, what speed hard disks are you using? 15k RPM are a good choice for terminal services.

 

Sorry, got completely wrong info regarding the spec of the servers, they are:

 

BL460c, 1 x Xeon 5420 (2500/1333-2x6MB) Quad Core, 4GB (2x2GB), Hot Plug SFF SAS

Diskless, Smart Array Controller E200i/128MB BBWC.

 

Hard drives: HP Single Port hard drive - 72 GB - SAS (only 10,000 RPM)

 

I will have between 4 and 8 of these blades (eventually), - will they be OK. Also, the speed of the hard drives is only 10,000RPM, how much of a difference will this make?

[Ric_]

@KWestos: The 10k disks might not be too much of a problem since you've gone for a decent controller card with plenty of cache and you are only looking at 20 concurrent users.

[localzuk]

I agree with _Ric. One of those blades should support 20 users fine, but not much more. We have similar spec servers (only difference being dual processors instead of a single one) and RAID 1 disks (I'm assuming you are doing this too?). And they can handle around 25 with reasonable speed, any more and every person complains. 20 is the optimal maximum.

[SpuffMonkey]

In what way is it a problem?

 

Are you using thin clients or re-using old PC's?

 

many thanks

 

Thin clients. As others have said - running software that eats up resources can be a problem - so multimedia editing and heavy screen updating for entire classes can lead to slowing down. Our install runs AppSense over the top - so that individual programs can be restricted on their consumption of resources - so that the whole she-bang doesn't come to a halt.