CITRIX NEWBIE - Server Requirements!

[JMCColorado]

Hi,

I am a Windows 2000 System admin and I am working for a company that will be installing Citrix to serve an aplication that we are currently developing. I will be taking Citrix certification training soon, but I need to order the servers now. I am completely unfamiliar with Citrix at this point. The specs are that we need the server to be up at all times. So I am thinking about a cluster. Is this the best option? Also, there will be a max of 40 people on at once - What kind of server hardware will I need? I really appreciate any help I can get!

Thanks,

Joshua

 

[MVC]

Hello Joshua ,

the system requirements you need are mentioned in the pdf-file on this place :

http://download2.citrix.com/ctxlibrary/products/pdf/xp_deployment_whitepaper.PDF

greetings ,

MVC

 

[MVC]

By the way , Joshua

I wouldn't make a cluster.
just install 2 citrix servers that are exactly the same ( except offcourse the IP-address ) Place the data of the users on other servers.( if possible use DFS ) . Then give your users 2 ICA-connections . 1 to each citrix-server . When one server falls out , the users always have another connection ( server ) availible.

greetings ,

MVC

 

[Hof]

If you use MetaFrame XPa with load balancing you don't have to give your users 2 ICA-connections. Just publish the application load balanced on both servers and the user will automatically be connected to the server with the lowest load when both servers are running and you still have redundancy so if one server goes down the users can run their apps on the other one.

/Hof

 

[CitrixEngineer]

I was in your position 5 years ago. Be prepared for a steep learning curve. Citrix "in the field" is a different animal to the tamed beast in the classroom. Note that NO classroom on any course in Windows or Citrix EVER has a printer. There's a good reason for this...

A couple of points;

1. Load Balancing is High Availability, not a failover like clustering. MetaFrame doesn't work well with software clustering, which is a kind of DNS round-robin. However, it's good enough for most requirements.

2. Read as much as you can about policies and profiles. The more you understand these before implementation, the better. There's a nice 168-page whitepaper on M$'s site, which is a great cure for insomnia.

3. Build a test server and use it (see my 2 FAQs on this - this is my "pet" subject!)

4. Roll out slowly and gradually, phasing in groups of users at a time. Don't be tempted to roll out 200 users just because 10 are OK. My management made this mistake in the first rollout I ever did. I had to roll back 190 thin clients almost immediately.

5. If you don't KNOW that something will work with Terminal Server, don't use it until you have exhaustively tested it.

6. Keep coming back to Tek-Tips

I hope your first rollout goes considerably smoother than mine! CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk