Tricky MF XP license Q....

[pontusn]

I got an environment with lots of old DOS clients. So far they have all connected directly to a load balanced desktop but now we wanna separate the applications on different server groups.
This means they can no longer connect to a desktop - instead we plan to use NFuse and have the DOS clients connect to a published Internet Explorer that takes the users to the NFuse site.

Now, to avoid double logins, we want to use a generic account to launch IE. This will bring the NFuse site up where they will login and get their apps.

Potential problem: When connecting to the IE session with the generic (guest/anonymous?) account, a MF Connection license will be comsumed. When the user then launches Word via the NFuse site - will another license now be consumed?

Will the same happen for a "thin client" computer not having a local browser ?


Thanks for ideas on this one......

 

[ahalecitrix]

The answer is yes.

When the DOS client connects to IE the MetaFrame farm will see it as a connection from that client. Then when they connect through NFuse to Word or whatever that will use another connection because it will see it as a connection from the MetaFrame server (a different client machine from the DOS client). The same will hold true for the thin client device when it connects to IE on MF and then to NFuse.

What I'm not sure of, because I've never paid attention before, is whether when you have two DOS clients connected to IE on one MetaFrame server and then connect to an app if it would consume one connection or two for both since it is connecting from the same client name (the MetaFrame server).

I would suspect that if both clients happen to launch Word from NFuse and connect to the same server that would consume only one connection, but if they connect to separate servers they would consume two.

Except now I've confused myself thinking about it. I wish I could test that out at the moment but I can't. I think you would actually end up only using one connection per MetaFrame server that clients were connecting via NFuse from. If I'm right you would just need to make sure you had enough extra licenses to account for each MetaFrame server as a client. That's an interesting scenario. Try it and let me know. You can observe the license consumption from the CMC.

 

[pontusn]

Ahalecitrix - thanks for the ideas. Listen to this.... I tested the forst scenario to make sure two licenses really are used when connecting and guess what happened... only ONE license is comsumed! In the CMC I can see two different sessions (different Session IDs), logged in as two different users (one generic account using IE and one normal account using word) running two different apps - and still one connection license is used (MF XP). Somehow, the client on the Citrix server must use passthrough-technology somehow to figure out that I am actaully the same client all the way.

I am just a bit worried that this is not the way it should be and that I might be violating the licenses if I implement this solution....hmm.....

More thoughts on this anyone.... ?

 

[ahalecitrix]

The way Citrix is made by design I don't think you can violate the licensing. I was able to test this somewhat today although I don't have NFuse.

What I observed was what I thought would be the case. Once connected to a Citrix session from my laptop I use one license. If I connect again from the Citrix session I consume another license. Make sure you refresh the license screen after you make the connection to Word from IE.

I'm connecting at this site to a published desktop and then through Program Neighborhood on the MetaFrame server to another session. I don't have NFuse running at this site so I wasn't able to test the way you have it configured. I suppose it may be counting the login to NFuse as a connection and then subsequent connections to published apps from NFuse as the same connection.

I'm not 100% on that. Now its bugging me. I'll have to do some research. Test it out some more and let me know what you find.