This is the second part of an ongoing series around enhancing Citrix MCS within Azure. The first post focused on optimizing identity disk costs via PowerShell and Azure Automation. This is post will tackle one of the biggest impacting performance optimizations you can make to machines within Azure: Accelerated Networking. Accelerated Networking is defined by... Continue Reading →
Enhancing Citrix MCS and Microsoft Azure – Part 1: Identity Disk Cost Optimization
Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS) is commonly utilised to deploy non-persistent workloads into Microsoft Azure, providing image management and provisioning at scale. MCS in Azure uses on-demand provisioning which means for pooled or newly provisioned workloads (in the case of dedicated) that when the machine is not powered on, it simply does not exist. The... Continue Reading →
The “why does it…” of Citrix WEM Cache
Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM) has continually had challenges in non-persistent environments when dealing with WEM Cache management. Administrators and consultants have been struggling with consistency in WEM processing when the Cache is in play. If we take a trip down memory lane, it is important to revisit a couple of fundamentals about the WEM... Continue Reading →
FSLogix Cloud Cache – Lessons learned in Azure
The long-awaited dream of FSLogix Cloud Cache is now one that I am willing to suggest is a reality. The technology is amazing in what it has promised for so long, and to be fair, functionally it has been pretty good for a while. It has been the performance tax, and inconsistency of that impact... Continue Reading →
Citrix Workspace, Azure AD & DSAuthAzureAdNestedGroups
Citrix Cloud and Azure Active Directory is a logical combination for many customers. The integration makes sense to provide a high level of security and access controls via the Microsoft Azure AD Conditional Access engine. There have been instances, where integration with Azure Active Directory has not always consistently behaved as one might expect, in... Continue Reading →
Citrix WEM Cache Problems…. Again.
I have been beating my head against the wall with WEM Cache issues for what feels like a lot of years now, customer after customer, deployment after deployment hurt in one way, shape or form until the WEM cache is taken care of on boot. If the cache is appropriately slapped, then WEM does what... Continue Reading →
Azure Site Recovery and MCS Provisioned Workloads
Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is Microsoft’s multi-faceted solution for performing services such as Disaster Recovery (DR), Business Continuity Planning (BCP) execution and migration services (these days primarily wrapped into the Azure Migrate service). When deploying dedicated/persistent machines on the Microsoft Azure platform, it is often desirable to protect these workloads via ASR, providing cross-region failover... Continue Reading →
Securing and Optimizing Access to Azure Storage Accounts with Azure Endpoints
When working with Azure files, it is important to ensure that traffic destined for your files shares is both secured and routed in an optimal fashion. There are several options for securing and changing network flows for services in Azure, with a focus on Azure files, below is a breakdown of the options and some... Continue Reading →
Automating Active Directory Domain Join for Azure Storage Accounts with Container Workloads
Having the ability to Active Directory Domain Join (ADDS) an Azure Storage account has changed the game for many organizations deploying file service into Azure. I wrote previously about the options for storing container workloads such as FSLogix Containers in Azure, one of them being native Domain Joined Storage accounts. There are a few steps... Continue Reading →
Navigating Azure Storage options for FSLogix Containers
User hosting solutions in the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform are the latest in a long trend of workloads to now be at the forefront of conversations, specifically those that benefit from leveraging FSLogix Containers. This post aims to address the current options available for hosting FSLogix Containers in Microsoft Azure, with some pros and cons... Continue Reading →