XenDesktop 5.6 System Requirements
These topics describe the requirements for installing XenDesktop components, including the Controller, database, Desktop Studio, Desktop Director, Citrix Licensing, and the Virtual Desktop Agent. Active Directory and host requirements are also described, and the client software provided with this version of XenDesktop is listed. For the requirements for other XenDesktop components, see the documentation for each component.
For each requirement the minimum version needed is stated, together with any later versions that are also supported.
This article describes how to configure Control Domain (dom0) memory in XenServer 6.1.0 or later.
Administrative access to a XenServer host console either directly, via SSH, or by using the Console tab in XenCenter.
Steps:
On the XenServer host, open a local shell and login as root.
Enter the following command:
/opt/xensource/libexec/xen-cmdline –set-xen dom0_mem=M,max:M
NOTE: represents the the amount of memory, in megabytes, to be allocated to dom0. This value should be between 1024 and 4096, depending on the number of VMs that are expected to run and the total amount of memory of the host.
IntelliCache is a XenServer feature that can be used in a XenDesktop deployment to cache temporary and non‐persistent operating‐system data on the local XenServer host. IntelliCache is available for Machine Creation Services (MCS)‐based desktop workloads that use NFS storage.
In a typical XenDesktop configuration (without IntelliCache), desktop VMs read the operating‐system data from a master image on a costly shared storage array. When IntelliCache is enabled, a portion of the virtual‐machine runtime reads and writes occur on low‐cost local storage: XenServer caches the operating‐system files on its local hard drive in a Read Cache.
Persistence and Persistent connections: A load balancing stateless protocol, such as HTTP, disrupts the maintenance of state information about client connections if persistence is not configured. Different transmissions from the same client might be directed to different servers even though all the transmissions are part of the same session. You can configure persistence on a load balancing virtual server that handles certain types of Web applications, such as shopping cart applications.
In a load balancing configuration, you assign weights to services to indicate the percentage of traffic that should be sent to each service. Services with higher weights can handle more requests; services with lower weights can handle fewer requests. Assigning weights to services allows the NetScaler appliance to determine how much traffic each load balanced server can handle, and therefore more effectively balance load.
Note: If you use a load balancing method that supports weighting of services (for example, the round robin method), you can assign a weight to the service.
XenApp
XenApp Design Principles
XA_-_Planning_Guide_-_Virtualization_Best_Practices
XA6(6.X) Windows Server 2008 R2 optimization Guide
Application Deployment XA or XD
XenApp 6.x Planning Guide Virtualization Best Practices
XenApp and XenDesktop Best Practices
XenDesktop
Citrix XenDesktop 7.1 on Microsoft Hyper-V Server® 2012 High-Level Design
Citrix Virtual Desktop Handbook XenDesktop 7.x
Use Latest CPU Technology when installing citrix on vmware:
When possible, deploy vSphere on CPUs that support second generation CPU virtualization. This includes processors from both AMD and Intel. Second generation CPU virtualization not only supports hardware assisted CPU virtualization (Intel VT-x and AMD AMD-V), but also introduces the hardware assisted memory management unit (MMU). AMD refers to this technology as rapid virtualization indexing (RVI) or nested page tables (NPT). On Intel processors this feature is called extended page tables (EPT).
IMA Service and Citrix SMA Service fail to start and MFCOM Service is unresponsive, when the state of the status is Starting.
The reason in the Event viewer mentions that the SMA and IMA Service failed to start because a dependent Service or Service group could not be started.
When you start the MFCOM Service manually, it times out with the following error message:
“1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion”
I want to share a list of all citrix best practices documents that contain usefull information when you have to write a XenApp of XenDesktop design.
design part
best practice guide
active directory
Edoc-Recommendations for Active Directory Environments
application virtualization
virtual application management with microsoft application virtualization 4.5/4.6 and system center configuration manager 2007R2 2012 search for app-v and configmgr whitepaper
bandwidth
ctx124457 performance assessment and bandwidth analysis for delivering xendesktop to branch offices
Session sharing is a mode in which more than one published application runs within a single ICA/HDX connection. Session sharing occurs when a user has an open session and launches another application that is published on the same XenApp server; the result is that the two applications run in the same session. Session sharing is configured by default when you specify that applications appear in seamless window mode.
Inconsistent results may occur when applications are configured for different requirements, such as encryption and color depth.
