Xenapp 6.5

This forum seems largely abandoned but I figured I would post here anyways. I'm taking the Xenapp 6.5 1Y0-A20 exam on Friday. Wish me luck, big empty forum!

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ajs1976

Good luck

lunchbox67

Good luck ... it's something I need to do also

N2IT

Good luck. Citrix has always peaked my interest but never enough exposure to it.

pumbaa_g

Best of luck, which material are you studying from?

whatthehell

Cheers and good luck

XOXO,
Big Empty Forum

ptilsen

Good luck. I haven't looked into the certification, but I was actually fairly disappointed by the XenApp implementation I worked on. Citrix does a few things no one else really does that I think have a lot of use, but I didn't like the difficulty of configuration compared to, say, just plain RDS/Terminal Services. However, this is all based on fairly brief exposure in a rushed situation in which I didn't have time to really get to learn it.

Either way, it's out there and it definitely has it's uses. Good luck!

onesaint

Good luck!

We use Xen now for all our virtualization, but it's Xen in RHEL, which I'm under the impression is a whole different beast than Xenapp.

pumbaa_g

Iristheangel I thought you were working on MCITP:EA have you switched tracks? I am on 643 currently so once I complete MCITP:EA then planning to give shot to Citrix. Would really appreciate any pointers on reference/study material so that I can start hoarding it up

Iristheangel

I'm still working on my MCITP:EA, but my boss said that if I pass the Xenapp test before the end of the month, he will pay for it. I've been using the Xenapp 6.5 administrator's guide as well as having little mini-power sessions with my boss where he teaches me the ropes. It's the most unorthodox way that I've studied so far but I think I'll pass

ChooseLife

Best of luck! I entertained the idea of pursuing the Citrix certification track back in the day when I was administering it, but eventually moved to other technologies.. That was in the days of MetaFrame/PresentationServer version 2/3/4... To this day I often get contacted by recruiters seeing Citrix on my LinkedIn profile, so it seems to be hot. In other words, looks like a great opportunity for you, Iristheangel, good luck!

ajs1976

ChooseLife wrote: »

Best of luck! I entertained the idea of pursuing the Citrix certification track back in the day when I was administering it, but eventually moved to other technologies.. That was in the days of MetaFrame/PresentationServer version 2/3/4... To this day I often get contacted by recruiters seeing Citrix on my LinkedIn profile, so it seems to be hot. In other words, looks like a great opportunity for you, Iristheangel, good luck!

I've been told there is not a lot of demand, but when a position comes up it is very hard to find someone with the right experience.

ajs1976

onesaint wrote: »

Good luck!

We use Xen now for all our virtualization, but it's Xen in RHEL, which I'm under the impression is a whole different beast than Xenapp.

Xen on RHEL is similiar to XenServer. XenApp is something different. XenServer is server virtualization where XenApp is application virtualization, an extension to

When Citrix acquired XenSource (?) it released the XenSource product as XenServer and renamed Presentation server to XenApp. When it released the desktop virtualization product it was named XenDesktop.

Citrix marketing loves to rename its products. Metaframe --> MetaFrame XP --> MetaFrame presentation server --> Presentation server --> XenApp. Its very annoying.

Iristheangel

Alright, I passed. Not by much at all but a pass is a pass. Whatever. I'll take it

ptilsen

Well done! How hard was it? How much total time do you think you put into it? What do you think of Xenapp, having now spent some time getting to know it?

Iristheangel

I have been working with XenApp for about four weeks now. I wouldn't say this test was hard at all. Even a noob can look at the questions and answers and use common sense to answer at least half right. Since you only have to get 61% to pass, it's not really hard to study up to get to the point of passing.

ptilsen

Thanks for the feedback. That makes a lot of sense. From what little I've seen of some practice questions, it seemed like anyone with any knowledge of session virtualization (RDS & terminal services) could almost pass it off of that knowledge and educated guessing. If you had to ballpark (you do!), how much cumulative time would you say you spent on it over the four weeks? Twenty hours? Forty?

How do you feel about the actual technology? Having learned it, would you be more apt to implement or recommend it over (well, on top of) Remote Desktop Services or another solution (e.g. VDI)?

Iristheangel

20 hours would be about right. I definitely would recommend it over RDP since it's less bandwidth intensive and there's a lot of pros to it. Citrix created a great product that's DEFINITELY useful. I can understand the shift from PCs to thin clients for the average business user. I think learning more Citrix while getting myself through my MCITP:EA will definitely round me out. After I get both, I'm heading back to my real loves: Networking and security

pumbaa_g

I am just wondering since I am still studying for 643 how much difference is there between Remote Desktop Services in Wintel environments and Citrix? Till now what I have seen in Windows Remote Desktop Services I like but using Hyper V with Remote Desktop Services for VDI I am not sure about especially with the clunkiness of Hyper V. I am still partial to Vmware and its ease of use. Any thoughts?
I may be wrong as I am not able to use Hyper V on my Desktop and that may give me a lopsided view on things.

whatthehell

Congratz on the pass!

So sounds like you didn't use any kind of reading material to pass it? Just labbing?

ptilsen

@Pumbaa, XenApp 6.5 actually runs on top of RDS, and previous versions have run off Terminal Services. XenApp is middleware for Windows, in a sense. It provides a bunch of features and enhancements, including and perhaps most notably, an alternative protocol to RDP.

As far as VDI, which is different, Citrix, MS, and VMware all offer solutions that can integrate with their hypervisor or (for VMware and Citrix) run on other hypervisors. XenApp and RDS are session virtualization solutions, as opposed to system or application virtualization solutions. Session and desktop virtualization can compete or work side-by-side, depending on the needs of the environment and what ends up getting implemented.

QHalo

Iristheangel wrote: »

I have been working with XenApp for about four weeks now. I wouldn't say this test was hard at all. Even a noob can look at the questions and answers and use common sense to answer at least half right. Since you only have to get 61% to pass, it's not really hard to study up to get to the point of passing.

Impressive to say the least. Congrats and thanks for the review. I was about to start the XA6 stuff before I found out they were retiring it. Citrix seems to retire exams very quickly.

JubeiYagaru

I'm sitting here in my office at one of the Citrix locations in Ft.Lauderdale, wondering if maybe I should take the time to work on my certs as well. Maybe today I'll grab a machine out of lockup and start messing with it.

pumbaa_g

ptilsen for your insights

really helpful