Recently we started evaluating Citrix Edgesight, on a enviroment we are currently building, consisting of XenApp5 2008 x64 and XenDesktop 4 Farms.

After the installation of the EdgeSight agent, suddenly a bunch of applications running within a Java Virtual machine stopped functioning. Throwing the “Could not launch the java virtual machine” error.
These Java apps tried allocating quite some memory using these java arguments (eg: XX:MinHeapFreeRatio=20 -XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=35 -XX:NewRatio=2″   initial-heap-size=”32m” max-heap-size=”1024m”)

After some investigation a colleague (Hugo Trippaers) found out that there was only 0,9 GB of memory allocatable on our Citrix XenApp machines using the memtest32.exe tool. While our other servers happily reported 1,5 GB of allocatable memory (Within WOW64). (Physical Machine = HP DL380G6 with 48 GB of memory, uh should be enough?)

After some deeper digging using memalloc.exe, I discover some substantial differences in memory allocation between our XenApp Servers with the edgesight agent installed and servers without the EdgeSight agent.

XenApp servers with Edgesight Agent 5.2 SP1 x64: memalloc.exe with edgesight
XenApp Servers without edgesight: memalloc.exe – without edgesight

The main difference here is all the Citrix hooks being loaded, see below.
This apparently consumes so much memory that it was not possible for java to allocate enough memory.

For more insights on WOW64 look here:  http://blogs.msdn.com/gauravseth/archive/2006/04/26/583963.aspx

By default 32bit applications within WOW64 can leverage the full 4 GB of memory availlable, which is not possible on a native 32 bit system because of the separation of kernel and user space.
Applications need to be compiled with /largaddressaware (Visual Studio : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wz223b1z(VS.80).aspx) or patched using editbin (http://bilbroblog.com/wow64/hidden-secrets-of-w0w64-ndash-large-address-space/), to fully use the 4 GB availlable otherwise they can only allocate 1,6 GB of memory.

We will open a case with Citrix on this; to be continued.

Citrix hooks being loaded when edgesight is installed:

Address 61200000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module e:\program files\EdgeSight\Agent\Agent\Core\rsintcor32.dll
Address 61201000, length 18000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module e:\program files\EdgeSight\Agent\Agent\Core\rsintcor32.dll
Address 61219000, length 9000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module e:\program files\EdgeSight\Agent\Agent\Core\rsintcor32.dll
Address 61222000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module e:\program files\EdgeSight\Agent\Agent\Core\rsintcor32.dll
Address 61223000, length 4000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module e:\program files\EdgeSight\Agent\Agent\Core\rsintcor32.dll
Address 61300000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module e:\program files\edgesight\agent\agent\edgesight\esint32.dll
Address 61301000, length 8000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module e:\program files\edgesight\agent\agent\edgesight\esint32.dll
Address 61309000, length 3000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module e:\program files\edgesight\agent\agent\edgesight\esint32.dll
Address 6130c000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module e:\program files\edgesight\agent\agent\edgesight\esint32.dll
Address 6130d000, length 2000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module e:\program files\edgesight\agent\agent\edgesight\esint32.dll
Address 67f60000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\CtxSbxHook.DLL
Address 67f61000, length 58000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\CtxSbxHook.DLL
Address 67fb9000, length a000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\CtxSbxHook.DLL
Address 67fc3000, length 4000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\CtxSbxHook.DLL
Address 67fc7000, length 7000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\CtxSbxHook.DLL
Address 6db20000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4148_none_5090ab56bcba71c2\MSVCR90.dll
Address 6db21000, length 96000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4148_none_5090ab56bcba71c2\MSVCR90.dll
Address 6dbb7000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4148_none_5090ab56bcba71c2\MSVCR90.dll
Address 6dbb8000, length 2000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4148_none_5090ab56bcba71c2\MSVCR90.dll
Address 6dbba000, length 4000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4148_none_5090ab56bcba71c2\MSVCR90.dll
Address 6dbbe000, length 5000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4148_none_5090ab56bcba71c2\MSVCR90.dll
Address 751e0000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\twnhook.dll
Address 751e1000, length c6000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\twnhook.dll
Address 752a7000, length 3000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\twnhook.dll
Address 752aa000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\twnhook.dll
Address 752ab000, length e000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\twnhook.dll
Address 752b9000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\twnhook.dll
Address 752ba000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\twnhook.dll
Address 752bb000, length 6000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\twnhook.dll
Address 752c1000, length 5000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\twnhook.dll
Address 75320000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4016_none_d0893820442e7fe4\MSVCR80.dll
Address 75321000, length 63000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4016_none_d0893820442e7fe4\MSVCR80.dll
Address 75384000, length 2b000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4016_none_d0893820442e7fe4\MSVCR80.dll
Address 753af000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4016_none_d0893820442e7fe4\MSVCR80.dll
Address 753b0000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4016_none_d0893820442e7fe4\MSVCR80.dll
Address 753b1000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4016_none_d0893820442e7fe4\MSVCR80.dll
Address 753b2000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4016_none_d0893820442e7fe4\MSVCR80.dll
Address 753b3000, length 3000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4016_none_d0893820442e7fe4\MSVCR80.dll
Address 753b6000, length 5000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4016_none_d0893820442e7fe4\MSVCR80.dll
Address 753c0000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\scardhook.dll
Address 753c1000, length 1d000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\scardhook.dll
Address 753de000, length 4000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\scardhook.dll
Address 753e2000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\scardhook.dll
Address 753e3000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\scardhook.dll
Address 753e4000, length 3000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\scardhook.dll
Address 753f0000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\wdmaudhook.dll
Address 753f1000, length 2000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\wdmaudhook.dll
Address 753f3000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\wdmaudhook.dll
Address 753f4000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\wdmaudhook.dll
Address 753f5000, length 2000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\wdmaudhook.dll
Address 75400000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\System32\cxinjime.dll
Address 75401000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\System32\cxinjime.dll
Address 75402000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\System32\cxinjime.dll
Address 75403000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\System32\cxinjime.dll
Address 75404000, length 2000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\System32\cxinjime.dll
Address 75420000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\Sfrhook.dll
Address 75421000, length 2000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\Sfrhook.dll
Address 75423000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\Sfrhook.dll
Address 75424000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\Sfrhook.dll
Address 75425000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\Sfrhook.dll
Address 75426000, length 2000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\Sfrhook.dll
Address 75430000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\mmhook.dll
Address 75431000, length f000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\mmhook.dll
Address 75440000, length 2000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\mmhook.dll
Address 75442000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\mmhook.dll
Address 75443000, length 3000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\mmhook.dll
Address 75450000, length 1000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\mfaphook.dll
Address 75451000, length 2c000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\mfaphook.dll
Address 7547d000, length 9000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\mfaphook.dll
Address 75486000, length 4000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\mfaphook.dll
Address 7548a000, length 4000, state 1000 MEM_COMMIT, type 1000000 module E:\program files\Citrix\system32\mfaphook.dll

Today I started to lock down the permissions the Xen Desktop Delivery Controllers (DDC) have on vCenter. There is not much documentation on this. Except for the kb article on VMWare Infrastructure 3 and XenDesktop which is lean and mean. But then i stumbled on this great blog post: http://theether.net/kb/100114

Which describes the solution to the error “This virtual machine could not be retrieved from the hosting infrastructure”
The solution basicly describes the proper permissioning for the accunts which access Virtual Center from the DDC and this even works for vCenter 4!

In VirtualCenter:

- Select View | Administration

- Click Add Role
- Enter the name XenDesktopGlobal
- Check Global | Manage Custom Attributes
- Click OK

- Click Add Role
- Enter the name XenDesktopDataCentre
- Check Datastore | Browse Datastore
- Check Virtual Machine | Inventory | Create
- Check Virtual Machine | Provisioning | Deploy Template
- Check Resource | Assign Virtual Machine to Resource Pool
- Click OK

- Click Add Role
- Enter the name XenDesktop
- Check Global | Set Custom Attribute
- Check Virtual Machine | Interaction | Power On
- Check Virtual Machine | Interaction | Power Off
- Check Virtual Machine | Interaction | Suspend
- Check Virtual Machine | Interaction | Reset
- Click OK

- Select View | Inventory | Hosts And Clusters

- Select Hosts & Clusters
- Select the Permissions tab
- Right click and select Add Permission from the context menu
- Select XenDesktopGlobal for Assigned Role
- Click Add
- Select the account used in the Logon Information properties of the Desktop Group
- Click OK
- Click OK

- Select the Datacentre that contains the virtual desktops
- Select the Permissions tab
- Right click and select Add Permission from the context menu
- Select XenDesktopDataCentre for Assigned Role
- Click Add
- Select the account used in the Logon Information properties of the Desktop Group
- Click OK
- Click OK

- Select the Cluster or Resource Pool that contains the virtual desktops
- Select the Permissions tab
- Right click and select Add Permission from the context menu
- Select XenDesktop for Assigned Role
- Click Add
- Select the account used in the Logon Information properties of the Desktop Group
- Click OK
- Click OK

Source: http://theether.net/kb/100114

I was pretty impressed when trialling Flash HDX myselfs… seeing is believing The movies below are not mine, but linked from youtube.com. It’s worth trialling yourselfs, you won’t be disappointed.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Download the Technology preview of Citrix HDX Mediastream for Flash here.

We will try not to disapoint you. We have some very interesting projects comming-up which involve very mission critical XenApp and XenDesktop environments. We will post our hands-on experiences here! So stay tuned !

Haven’t tried it myselfs so i’m curious to your experiences, please leave a comment, thanks.
Overview of latest xendesktop patches here: http://support.citrix.com/product/xd/v3.0/

Citrix is working on a hotfix to have XenDesktop working with vSphere 4. Currently people are experiencing issues with the Desktop Delivery Controller (DDC) to communicate properly with the vSphere SDK webservice. Also the XenDesktop Setup Wizard, which automates creation of Virtual Desktops, seems to be broken.

A partial workaround seems to be availlable; reapply the hack to enable /SDK over plain HTTP and HTTPS.

Change “c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\proxy.xml”

The section should look similar like this:

<e id=”1″>
<_type>vim.ProxyService.LocalServiceSpec</_type>
<serverNamespace>/sdk</serverNamespace>
<accessMode>httpAndHttps</accessMode>
<port>8085</port>
</e>

The hotfix, when availlable, will be posted here. More info can be found in this support thread of the Citrix Forums

Viance is the new product line of XenDesktop optimized endpoint devices from Wyse.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wyse also announced a mobile Viance product, the Wyse Viance Pro Mobile. The questions is how this will work in the real-world, since you’ll need to have connectivity to XenDesktop farm in order to work.

Product Page Wyse Viance Thin Client
Product Page Wyse Viance Pro Mobile

Since we do a lot a of VMWare and Citrix we looked at both VDI products. VMware relies for 100% on a remote display protocols but Citrix has bought Ardence which now has been rebranded into Citrix Provisioning Server.
Ardence / Citrix Provisioning Server is able to stream a full-blown OS over the network to physical and virtual machines. It actually mounts a disk over the network.

Check the video below for a very cool demo

Ardence Demo

So with Ardence all the limits of remote display protocols are gone for demanding applications.

Next to this all VDI vendors are fighting for the best remote display protocols. Microsoft bought Calista, VMWare Teradici (www.teradici.com) and Citrix is extending the ICA Virtual Channels with all kinds of nifty extensions like Flash HDX (Still techpreview) and 3D rendering using GPU’s at the server side. We did a PoC with Flash HDX which offloads flash rendering to the client and this rocks, although still beta with some quirks. Finally full quality Flash on XenDesktop and XenApp. Another nice feature of XenDesktop is that it supports smartcards from the endpoint device

What’s new in FP1 of Xendesktop 3:
http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/subfeature.asp?contentID=1686118

How does the Citrix VDI solution work?

It is actually based on a bunch of existing (proven) technologies:

- Ardence OS Streaming
- Application hosting / streaming from XenApp
- ICA into a client OS (XP / Vista / Window 7), sort of single user Citrix box.

VDI into the Physical Standardized Desktop

OS Streaming on the LAN based on Citrix Provisioning Server (rebranded from Ardence). Citrix Provisioning server streams a single disk image over the LAN to multiple desktops which then are able to run a full-blown OS without the limitations of remote display protocols and leveraging local computing power. By default the streamed disk image is non persistent and the OS on the desktop will return to the initial state after a reboot. When required dedicated, read-write images can be provisioned, however this breaks the single image storage advantage.

The application are then delivered onto the desktop using (“traditional”) XenApp either streaming or hosted.

And all personal settings are stored in a traditional roaming profile, profile management however will be necessary to keep al the bloat out. This can be done using Citrix Profile manager which comes with XenDesktop or your favorite profile manager.

VDI into a virtual Infrastructure

The same happens applies when you want to run Virtual Desktops in Virtual Infrastructue like XEN, VMWare or Hyper-V (All supported by XenDesktop). Not sure when vSphere 4 will be supported. The main difference is that you’ll need to access the Virtual Desktop using ICA/HDX and all the limitations involved. But the major limitation of flash over ICA is due to be solved with Flash HDX, which rocks. You’ll need to see this for yourselves, it’s 100% like running Flash locally.

XenDesktop 3 Architecture

Check www.brianmadden.com on all the pro/cons of the different VDI solutions.