What is Citrix Meta Frame works ?

[mindsweeper]

How does Citrix Meta Frame works with Win Nt terminal Server? Basic principles and requirements ?

 

[Voyager1]

MetaFrame is basically an add-on that enhances and expands the capabilities of Windows NT Terminal Server or Windows 2000 Terminal Services. In essence, terminal server (or services) separates the execution of a program from the user interface: execution remains on the server while screen/mouse/keyboard are sent to the user's workstation. Terminal Server accomplishes this using RDP - Remote Desktop Protocol which is basically a modification of X.100 - the same protocol used for Net Meeting, etc. MetaFrame (from Citrix Systems) uses ICA - the Independent Computing Architecture for the same purposes - and more. ICA was specifically designed for this function, in contrast to RDP.

MetaFrame requires minimal resources over and above what Terminal Server itself requires. My recommendations are to 1) Check out the Citrix Solutions forum here at Tek-Tips and 2) Take a look at the product information and white papers at

http://www.citrix.com.

Hope this helps... - Bill

"You can get anything you want out of life, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want" - Zig Ziglar

 

[ianf]

The most useful thing the Metaframe does in addition to the services provided by Terminal Server is that it has a client for X-windows, the most common UNIX/LINUX desktop system.

There are few extra things that Metaframe can do in a 100% windows environment over and above Terminal Server. It is slightly better at what it does, but for the money, in a 100% MS environment I wouldn't bother. The real advantages are in a mixed platform environment. Ian

"IF" is not a word it's a way of life

 

[CitrixEngineer]

I'd have to disagree ianf ;-)

IMO, published applications, the feature-rich clients load-balancing, some degree of client printer control, client drive mapping, clipboard, low bandwidth (etc, etc) far outweigh the vanilla Terminal Services (originally written by Citrix!).

I also admin MetaFrame for UNIX at a growing number of sites - very useful for delivering X apps to the various platforms, and far more efficient and bandwidth-lean than connecting to an exported x-display.

If you have 100+ users, the benefits are in the fact that all apps are administered at the server, and there is less chance that a support engineer will have to go and fix a user-induced problem.

In fact, the S/E doesn't have to visit the user at all - worth the money in my books

CE