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 →
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 →
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 →
Azure and Ubiquiti VPN with Dynamic IP Address
I am a huge fan of the Ubiquiti network solutions, I leverage a few of their components in my home network and lab environments – USG, Cloud Key, a couple of managed switches and a single beast of an Access Point which serves my entire household of lab belting, Netflix hammering, educational streaming (thanks COVID)... Continue Reading →
Impacts of CVAD 2003 support changes and LTSR 1912 relevance
A significant number of changes on support stances are being introduced with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2003 Current Release. These changes will directly impact the supportability of many environments and need to be considered when scoping or performing any form of upgrade/implementation works. The most impactful change is the new stances on public cloud... Continue Reading →
Azure AD and Citrix Workspace SSO
For those customers integrating Azure Active Directory with Citrix Workspace as their primary Identity Provider (IdP), there are some changes that have been implemented which will result in some potentially unwanted behaviours in relation to the sign-on experience. The expected behaviour would be as follows: Scenario 1 I attempt to access my Citrix Workspace URL.... Continue Reading →