After we published XenApp / XenDesktop 7.6 a few weeks ago, are now a lot of customers and partners work to their existing Citrix infrastructure on an upgrade. While my lab environment upgrade, I realized that this common infrastructure management task is an important aspect that is often overlooked when the desktop and application virtualization solutions evaluation
Typically every 6 -. A new version published 12 months, Citrix and VMware product, a feature pack, or at least a Hotfix Rollup Pack. In case you want to use the new functions / improvements, one or more infrastructure components, such as the controller or the agent runs on each of the workers, need to be improved. But these changes may be rolling out a smooth ride or a bit of an adventure, depending on the provider. we
By the end of 2010, the FlexCast Management Architecture (FMA), with the release of XenDesktop 5.0. FMA is radically different from the former Independent Management Architecture (IMA), the driven XenApp 6.5 and earlier versions. With the merging of XenApp and XenDesktop in the following years, FMA is now the basis for all Citrix desktop and application virtualization products like XenApp / XenDesktop 7.6. One of the advantages of the FMA is that upgrades and migrations are radically simpler than in IMA in the past.
For organizations that have not yet adopted FMA architecture, see the XenApp upgrade page for detailed information on how to quickly get FMA.
in this blog post I would like to compare the process of upgrading an existing infrastructure in Citrix XenDesktop / XenApp and VMware Horizon.
Let's start with VMware Horizon .
For Horizon 5.x to version newly released update 6, VMware recommends following the instructions provided in the Upgrade Guide. If it is to read the documentation obvious that there are strong interactions between the various components, but very limited backward compatibility. This forces administrators Horizon site in a fixed order to update and substantially once (aka Big Bang), rather than in a phased approach, otherwise core features remain unavailable until all components have been updated. For example, an improved composer not provide / manage all virtual desktops with an older Agent installed. Since Composer is not backwards compatible with older versions of the Connection Server, providing has to be disabled at an early step of the upgrade. After all components have to be upgraded deployment reactivated. This effectively prevents the Admin from creating or managing linked-clone VMs for the duration of the upgrade. Another example is Security Server, which is not compatible with an old Connection Server, and would not let the fact that all remote user sessions.
The following is a visual summary of the can find VMware Horizon upgrade procedure. Please note that in order to keep the diagram readable, I have only the most important steps / subtasks (here full version) included.
Let us now focus on Citrix XenDesktop / XenApp .
If 5.6 or 7.x XenDesktop / XenApp to the new version 7.6, we recommend that after the upgrade documentation that can be found in eDocs.
The most obvious difference when updating an FMA-based infrastructure, when compared to VMware Horizon (and older IMA-based environments) is that for each component within a XenApp or XenDesktop site +/- 1 Main Version for support is production use. This means that each component can be upgraded independently based on your convenience, which makes it much easier planning and performing upgrades
This means (for example) .:
- If you would like to receive the latest controller functions, but still Windows XP workers (which are 5.6 FP1 only supported with XenDesktop), but only the controller to 7.6 upgrade and desktops without prejudice.
- When the need for some new HDX features, but do not want to touch the controller, simply update the respective virtual desktops or desktop catalogs.
of course you will not get the full benefit from the new version until you have upgraded all components. For example, the following message is displayed when a new controller function for a delivery group filter that has not been upgraded:
But I think that's much awaited Behavior.
, it is important to keep in mind that the XenApp / XenDesktop is migration process, that it is not annoying substantially, which means that the controller is no downtime of the site for the upgrade is required. So, while one controller has been updated and restarted, the remaining systems will keep the environment available to the administrators to meet their SLA commitments, allows. were half way through the controller in a site updated, the site database as need to be upgraded, causing the placement of new sessions will be interrupted for a few seconds.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that with XenApp / XenDesktop 7.x version of the operating system and the Citrix software were (unlike previous versions of XenApp) decoupled. So assuming you are on Windows Server 08 R2 and XD 5.6. You can update the website XD 7.6 without updating the operating system. Then when you are ready for the OS upgrade, you can be XD 7.6 installed on the Server 2012 R2 Add to this new controller for site and one of the controllers Windows 08 R2 eject. Rinse and repeat until the entire site on Windows 2012 is R2. This adds another layer of flexibility for the upgrade process and allows you to perform the upgrade / migration to the rate that is optimal for your business, rather than Citrix Force to finish the upgrade in one fell swoop.
Below you will find a chart outlines the upgrade procedure (incl. All tasks) for the current versions of XenApp and XenDesktop.
further we have worked hard to simplify the component upgrade experience. With the latest versions of each step wizard is driven and super easy (IMHO). Below is a short video of the update of a controller including XenDesktop / XenApp Web site and a XenApp worker can.
XenDesktop Controller upgrade
XenApp worker Upgrade
If your workers 6.5 XenApp be executed and you would you like to XenApp to migrate 7.6, they make sure to check out the "How to" guide to the updated XenApp 6.5 workers available to XenApp 7.6 in eDocs.
[1945003Zusammenfassung]
The following table summarizes the main differences of Citrix XenApp / XenDesktop and VMware Horizon, in terms of infrastructure upgrades:
-Thomas
Follow me on Twitter @ tberger80.
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