citrix systems

mugsy269

Hi I am going for an IT Support job interview next week and have been told any knowledge of citrix systems would help me. However I have heard of it but have no idea what it is or does. Can anyone explain it or give me info on it that a dummy would understand.

Thanks in advance

p.s
great forum I can see myself using this a lot as I begin my studies towards my MCSA

Mishra

It would be best if you researched this knowledge yourself by going to www.citrix.com or simply goggling the term.

Wikipedia is also good for general knowledge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrix

mugsy269

Thank you I have looked on wilkepedia but am finding it very confusing finding out in simple terms what it is and does. I will keep looking tho and im sure I will get my head round it

Mishra

mugsy269 wrote:

Thank you I have looked on wilkepedia but am finding it very confusing finding out in simple terms what it is and does. I will keep looking tho and im sure I will get my head round it

Citrix makes a lot of products but their main product is Citrix Presentation Server which is a terminal server product that has different features. Most companies use it as a way to distribute less secure applications in a secured environment.

http://www.usyd.edu.au/webservices/manage/citrix.shtml

Here is a great reference by typing "what is citrix" in google.

Sorry to be rude, just wanting to teach you the research methods first then answer any questions later.

paintb4707

Citrix Presentation is definitely confusing at first. I think the best way to explain it is, it's like streaming an application from another computer/server as if you were actually sitting in front of it. For example, if you have Word 2007 on your workstation at work, you could stream it to your personal computer at home. Additionally, network resources are accessed the same in which you would see all the saved documents on your work computer when opening a file from that streamed instance of Word 2007.

I do have a question for Mishra though. Since I've only experienced the client side of Citrix, how does this work in regards to licensing? For example if you have 10 co-workers with access to Office 2007 from one central server, does each user need their own license or do they share a single one? I would assume you need open licensing for something like this?

ajs1976

You would need to have a license of office for each user, not just one license for the server. You also need to have terminal Server CALs and Citrix connection licenses.

Mishra

The only time I've ever seen virtualization include licenses is if you are running Ms Virtual Server then they give you 4 Windows Server licenses for you for free. Although I have never seen that in true documentation... It is hard to understand licensing for products as google really doesn't ever give you much.

Other than that you should always assume that it requires licenses for each connection.

paintb4707

ajs1976 wrote:

You would need to have a license of office for each user, not just one license for the server. You also need to have terminal Server CALs and Citrix connection licenses.

Terminal server CALs AND Citrix licenses? That's just way too much. Sorry for my ignorance but I don't understand why you would want to use Citrix if you have to pay for terminal server CAL's on top of it. I would rather have clients use terminal server alone for application sharing. I really don't see any additional benefits. And if you needed remote security, there's always VPN + RDP.

dtlokee

paintb4707 wrote:

And if you needed remote security, there's always VPN + RDP.

That's not going to be a scalable solution, and the cost of setting up 10 computers for people to make RDP connections will be greater than the cost of terminal server licenses (of course you still need to buy the server).

paintb4707

dtlokee wrote:

paintb4707 wrote:

And if you needed remote security, there's always VPN + RDP.

That's not going to be a scalable solution, and the cost of setting up 10 computers for people to make RDP connections will be greater than the cost of terminal server licenses (of course you still need to buy the server).

Sorry but I don't see what you mean. You need client 10 computers either way, whether it be for RDP or Citrix. And you also need a server, whether it be for terminal or citrix presentation. If you're using Citrix, you're still buying the terminal server CALs. How could it be a greater cost to subtract Citrix licenses and use terminal server alone?

dynamik

You also need to figure things, such as ease of administration (time), into the equation as well. A single user can easily suck up a few hundred dollars of an admin's time over the course of a year. I could see it being advantageous to shell out a little more in licensing for a centrally administered solution.

dtlokee

paintb4707 wrote:

dtlokee wrote:

paintb4707 wrote:

And if you needed remote security, there's always VPN + RDP.

That's not going to be a scalable solution, and the cost of setting up 10 computers for people to make RDP connections will be greater than the cost of terminal server licenses (of course you still need to buy the server).

Sorry but I don't see what you mean. You need client 10 computers either way, whether it be for RDP or Citrix. And you also need a server, whether it be for terminal or citrix presentation. If you're using Citrix, you're still buying the terminal server CALs. How could it be a greater cost to subtract Citrix licenses and use terminal server alone?

If you want 10 people to work from home with an application like Microsoft Office (and need it secured), how would you do it? I'm a Cisco guy but I'm pretty sure Windows XP isn't going to let you make 10 RDP connections at the same time... Citrix will allow you to do this and more.

paintb4707

dtlokee wrote:

paintb4707 wrote:

dtlokee wrote:

paintb4707 wrote:

And if you needed remote security, there's always VPN + RDP.

That's not going to be a scalable solution, and the cost of setting up 10 computers for people to make RDP connections will be greater than the cost of terminal server licenses (of course you still need to buy the server).

Sorry but I don't see what you mean. You need client 10 computers either way, whether it be for RDP or Citrix. And you also need a server, whether it be for terminal or citrix presentation. If you're using Citrix, you're still buying the terminal server CALs. How could it be a greater cost to subtract Citrix licenses and use terminal server alone?

If you want 10 people to work from home with an application like Microsoft Office (and need it secured), how would you do it? I'm a Cisco guy but I'm pretty sure Windows XP isn't going to let you make 10 RDP connections at the same time... Citrix will allow you to do this and more.

Why would a single person need 10 RDP connections? 1 RDP connection would allow access to whatever app you have installed on the terminal server. Like I said, VPN + RDP would be secured.

paintb4707

dynamik wrote:

You also need to figure things, such as ease of administration (time), into the equation as well. A single user can easily suck up a few hundred dollars of an admin's time over the course of a year. I could see it being advantageous to shell out a little more in licensing for a centrally administered solution.

Terminal server is central as well though. It's only one install of Office just like it would be in a Citrix environment.

Not that I'm trying to argue but I'm just trying to understand what the advantage is of paying so much for Citrix when terminal server could perform the same task for a lot less.

dtlokee

paintb4707 wrote:

dynamik wrote:

You also need to figure things, such as ease of administration (time), into the equation as well. A single user can easily suck up a few hundred dollars of an admin's time over the course of a year. I could see it being advantageous to shell out a little more in licensing for a centrally administered solution.

Terminal server is central as well though. It's only one install of Office just like it would be in a Citrix environment.

Not that I'm trying to argue but I'm just trying to understand what the advantage is of paying so much for Citrix when terminal server could perform the same task for a lot less.

I misunderstood what you said, I thought you were suggesting using RDP to a PC like Windows XP, not to a terminal server. My apologies. Even if you use Terminal Server you still have licensing, but like you said it's most likely redudnant to have temainal server and Citrix.

stupidboy

mugsy269 wrote:

Hi I am going for an IT Support job interview next week and have been told any knowledge of citrix systems would help me. However I have heard of it but have no idea what it is or does. Can anyone explain it or give me info on it that a dummy would understand.

Thanks in advance

p.s
great forum I can see myself using this a lot as I begin my studies towards my MCSA

I have spent many years working with Citrix. If you have used MS RDP (Terminal Services) then at heart that is what Citrix can offer.

Citrix is a much more refined product, check out http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX106319 to grab a copy of the Administrators Guide. This will give you a feel for Presentation Server (or Xen APP or what ever they are calling this week).

Hope this helps.

ajs1976

paintb4707 wrote:

ajs1976 wrote:

You would need to have a license of office for each user, not just one license for the server. You also need to have terminal Server CALs and Citrix connection licenses.

Terminal server CALs AND Citrix licenses? That's just way too much. Sorry for my ignorance but I don't understand why you would want to use Citrix if you have to pay for terminal server CAL's on top of it. I would rather have clients use terminal server alone for application sharing. I really don't see any additional benefits. And if you needed remote security, there's always VPN + RDP.

ICA is still a little better then RDP. A lot more management. Policies that will let you control more of the environment then Group Policies will. Printer management.

If you want a secure solution Citrix has products (Secure Gateway and Access Gateway) that are integrated and require less work to maintain than a VPN.

The major benefits of Citrix Presentation server (now XenApp) kick in when you are talking about enterprise environments when you have multiple servers. Installation Manger, Resource Manager, Load Balancing, etc.

amyamandaallen

just my 2 cents...

but having worked in a citrix enviroment for 6 years then moving to a job that uses VPN's I would never go back to citrix.

it has a few advantages ( maybe its better in later versions ) but the niggles ussually kill it for the poor git supporting it....I should know.

the only real advantages were that you could do alot more 'admin' type things that were on a larger scale but as I said things like printer hassles made it 'interesting'

I did the class for citrix ps3 and if its done properly, with fully compliant hardware, and fully compatible programs it work like a dream...its just the real world.

as you can tell I dont miss it but it sure kept me in work for 6 years!