Virtual Apps and Desktops in 2020

My colleagues Mayank Singh and Rob Beekmans, both Architects in Technical Marketing, packed a ton of good information into this video If you want to see what's new with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, Citrix Managed Desktops, and Citrix SD-WAN in 2020 (so far) and have 91 minutes, I recommend watching the whole thing. Here are a few demos and sections that I want to provide shortcuts to.
 

 
Microsoft Teams Optimization

• Starts here https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=2196
• Optimizing Teams requirements
• Delivery controller 1906.2 and newer
• VDA 1906.2 and newer
• Windows 10 x64 1906 - 1909
• Windows 2012 R2 and newer
• BCR_x64.msi
• More info in Citrix Docs
• High-Level Architecture https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=2380
• Demo of a video call between the Netherlands and India both unoptimized and optimized https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=2537
• Citrix TechZone article to learn about optimizing a variety of other Unified Communication solutions

Browser Content Redirection (BCR)

• Browser Content Redirection renders whitelisted webpages on the endpoint and seamlessly feeds it back into the session.  Offloading video rendering to endpoints provides both a great user experience as well as reduces backend VDA resources.
• Supported VDA browsers: Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Edge (new Chromium). Edge is in Tech Preview.
• Overview and configuration starts here https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=2925
• Configuration and demo video of watching YouTube without and with BCR https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=3250
• Learn more in Citrix Docs

FSLogix and Office 365

• FSLogix will only save data for a single session. It does not support accessing multiple sessions and consolidating to its profile container. Use Citrix User Profile Manager to write back profile data to FSLogix when accessing more than one session at a time https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=1985

Machine Creation Services (MCS)

• What is it and how does it work? https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=656
• Machine Creation Services Input-Output (MCSIO). Deeper dive into MCS workings. It was revamped in version 1903 for on-prem hypervisors and Azure. Allows for placement of the master and caching disk on different storage. This allows you to use HDD (vs SSD) which scales higher (more users per machine) and provides better response time for users https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=1239
• Publishing an app or desktop using Citrix Managed Desktop (Citrix TechZone) and MCS.  Keep in mind Managed Desktops has a simplified web wizard vs Studio https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=754
• Azure on-demand provisioning using MCS. It creates machines on power-on which means you only pay for what you use. Overview and demo using Apps and Desktop Service https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=1073

Citrix App Layering

• Background on image management and how it was historically done vs the app layering way https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=1565
• Elastic layers https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=1777
• User layers https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=1820
• There are several types:
• Full
• Office 365
• Session Office 365
• Learn more in Citrix Tech Zone and check out this User Layer video (8 minutes).
• Use Azure Files to store layers https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=1882 and see Citrix TechZone for more

Business Continuity

• Using Remote PC (access to the physical computer at your office). A look at the conceptual architectures available https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=254

I hope this furthers your understanding of what's new in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.  Stay tuned for a bunch of exciting announcements in the second half of 2020.

Brian @sagelikebrian

Citrix Receiver - Azure Servers - TCP Resets Client Side

Purpose:

This post explains an issue that occurred to me when trying to establish connections to Citrix VDAs (Server 2016) in Azure. Within our environment we have a VPN tunnel to connect our primary datacenter to our Azure tenant. The VPN tunnel is a very important piece to this puzzle.

Symptom:

Once the VDA is built, they are registering to the Delivery Controllers and apps/desktops are published you are attempt to establish a connection via published app or desktop the client has issues keeping the connection. Specifically once the application/desktop is launched, Citrix receiver/workspace launches and tries to establish a connection and gets stuck at "Connection in progress...."



Reviewing network trace logs through firewalls and wireshark you will notice TCP Resets on the client side.


Resolution:

The easiest option here is to disable Enlightened Data Transport aka HDX Adaptive Transport within the Citrix Studio policies for the delivery group(s) that are hosted on Azure.



Cause:
This article details it best but the primary reason is because of IP fragmentation isn't handled correctly over the VPN tunnel. Disabling EDT addresses this issue.

https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX231821

As of right now I don't have a way to get this to work correctly if you want EDT turned on.


SageLike Post ID: SL0021

Applies to:

Citrix VDA's hosted within Azure that has a VPN tunnel connecting Azure to the on-premise infrastructure.

References:
https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX231821

Okta SSO - Error "Non-HTTPS url redirect is not supported in webview"

Purpose:
This post explains how to address the error "Non-HTTPS url redirect is not supported in webview" when using Okta SSO with Azure AD or other Azure SSO

Symptom:
When users try to log into their applications when Okta is implemented they get an error that states "Non-HTTPS url redirect is not supported in webview" This error may only occur on certain application but not all of them. Below is an example for SSO for MS Visual Studio.



Resolution:

Within your Okta administrative console navigate to Security>Authentication and scroll down to the Desktop Single Sign-On portion. Within there navigate to the Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) Web applications. Within this configuration area review what you have setup and most likely this configuration is setup for http://oktaserver.domainname.com/iwa.

Cause:

The redirect from the Okta cloud to your on-prem SSO servers is not encrypted. 

SageLike Post ID: SL0019

Applies to:

Okta SSO and Azure AD