Application virtualization, IoT and Cloud Computing, Blog of Sacha Thomet

Monthly Archives: May 2015

GeekOvation – PVS Script on Top3

geek-zone-150x150My Citrix PVS Health Check PowerShell Script was nominated into the final round (Top3) of the Citrix GeekOvation Award. This means I have to present my “geeky solution” on Citrix Synergy 2015 in Orlando on the SYN501 Geek Speak Tonight Session. To be honest to speak in front of so much people is a new thing for me … and it makes me “a bit” twitchy …

To be nominated for this Award was not just a big surprise for me, I see this also as a honor and glory for my work. I would say it’s not so a big thing this script and it isn’t rocket science.

Dear GeekSpeak Tonight audience, please check out my PVS Health Check Script and provide me feedback if you want. Also have a look to my XenApp / XenDesktop Script

At this place  I want to say thank you to Jason Poyner who gave me the idea for such kind of Script with his XenApp6 HealthCheck and where I took some code lines for the HTML output. To Martin Hartmann who helped me by learning PowerShell and of course to Aaron Parker (http://stealthpuppy.com) who was  the assigned CTP helping me polish off my presentation materials.

Update 14.5.2015:

I won – thank YOU

geekovationI won the competition and seems that I’m the not-yet-known Geek #1 this Year! Thanks you all! When I saw the work from to other two guys, I had the feeling to have no chance, not just because I’m the only not-native english speaker. David Ott with a great PowerShell script to modify the user profile and Shane O’Neil with the C-Sharp code to have a self healing VDI, GREAT!

Read this blog post from Shane and Paul, if you are interested on more PVS PowerShell stuff: http://blogs.citrix.com/2015/04/07/wait-you-mean-pvs-has-powershell and watch the recording of “SYN514: Turn XenApp and XenDesktop into capacity on demand with Provisioning Services automation”

I’m sure I also had luck to win, and now I have the chance to go to Las Vegas Citrix Synergy 2016. I also want to thank ControlUp for the AppleWatch they sponsored for the GeekOvation Winner.

About the code

Like already mentioned the idea about the health check with the HTML output comes from Jason Poyner. The main script with all the logics it’s from me. The hardest thing when you Script with PoSh on PVS that it doesn’t return proper PS Object, that mean’s you doing a lot of format-cut stuff to get what you want. If you want to know more about that read Paul’s blog section “PVS comes with a PowerShell add-in that is not an easy beast to tame.

What’s next?

I’m currently working on a Script which shows PVS retries during a variable timeframe (day, week or month) and create a graphic output, in this way you can see at which time you maybe have a traffic jam on your network.

I also made a script to export/import target’s into PVS and another one for export and import in XenDesktop, if I have time I’ll polish and publish this here.

Citrix X1 Prototype Mouse – hands-on

On Citrix Summit in Las Vegas back in January 2015 Citrix presented the X1 Prototype Mouse. This mouse is not just another mouse with a Citrix logo on it. It’s a mouse that works in Citrix Receiver with iOS-Devices! Yes it’s the truth, normal bluetooth mice doesn’t work with the Citrix receiver on iPad.

Even when I was not on Citrix Summit, with the social media channels I was pretty fast to get that Info and I was the 7th on the order form to request this cool gadget for a described use case.  I want to demonstrate this in my company because we are currently in a VDI initiative project with up to 2000 VDIs.

Today almost 4 months later I received my Citrix X1 Prototype Mouse and can start test and maybe show off in my company 🙂 To be honest, the design don’t give me the chance to show off …

Mouse MouseBottom
The X1 Mouse appears in a nasty 80ties style, the power switch on the bottom has three possible positions, up- and down for ON and OFF in the middle.

Connect the mouse to the iPhone? Really? 4,7 inch ? 

Not only the iPad is the only use case for the mouse, remember 2010 the Vision of the Nirvana Device and the Motorola NirvanaPhone . With the new version of the Citrix Receiver for iOS you can connect a Screen on your iPhone, a Bluetooth Keyboard, that mouse and you can work with the iPhone as “Thin Client” on you television connected with Airplay or on your 24″ Office Screen connected with a Lightning VGA adapter.

I made some quick hands-on test:

I’ve used the following infrastructure to test:

  • XenDesktop 5  on Windows 7 x64, Citrix Webinterface behind Netscaler Gateway.
  • XenDesktop 7.6 on Windows 7 x64, Citrix Webinterface behind Netscaler Gateway.
  • XenApp 7.6 Desktop on Windows 2008 R2, Citrix StoreFront 2.6 behind Netscaler Gateway.

For all tests I used my Apple iPad mini with the R1 Receiver which is mandatory necessary to use the X1 Prototype Mouse. I didn’t install anything special on XenDesktop or XenApp.

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iPad Mini, Belkin Keyboard, Citrix X1 Prototype Mouse

 

 

The next points where I mention what is ok and what needs improvement I will complement as soon as I have new points.

What works fine:

  • No issue to connect and use the mouse if you follow the instructions from Citrix.
  • I can use the X1 mouse inside my virtual desktop like a normal mouse, I can launch applications from start menu, change the active cells in MS Excel – most things I usually do with my mouse works.
  • I can configure in mouse pointer options a “mouse track” which also works fine.

What currently doesn’t work or need still improvement:

  • I tried to resize an Internet Explorer window and was irritated because the mouse pointer doesn’t change his  shape on the edge of the window to a “double-arrow”:
    mouseedge-expected

    Expected mouse pointer on window edge, with a classic mouse on my macbook

    mouseedge-UNexpected

    Unexpected mouse pointer on window edge, from iOS with the X1 Prototype mouse

     

  • Most mouse properties (Mouse speed, pointer scheme, etc.) has no effect.
  • I can see my mouse pointer in my R1 Receiver for iOS on the Webinterface but I cannot click anything. Possibly I need for this the X1 Web Receiver (StoreFront 2.7)  and not my legacy Webinterface …

 

Conclusion: For iOS the Citrix X1 Mouse can be a game changer, but to be honest that what is now possible with this mouse on iOS is already long time possible with an Android Tablet and a commercial of the shelf bluetooth mouse.

By the way, the X1 Mouse can also be used with other OS than iOS, so if you have an X1 Mouse but you decide that your iPad is to small to work you can use your “cool” mouse with a computer that supports Bluetooth 4.0 as a classic mouse.

 

Update 5.5.2015 06:10 GMT+1:

From now it’s possible to use the normal Recevier with the X1 mouse:

X1-Receiver-info X1-Receiver

Update 5.5.2015 22:20 GMT+1:

The final version of the X1 mouse will be launched on Citrix Synergy: http://blogs.citrix.com/2015/05/05/the-mouse-that-roared-for-business and what sounds exciting:
“…this is a unique Bluetooth Low Energy mouse (BTLE) with custom firmware that provides full-function mouse support to specific Citrix Mobile apps including Citrix Receiver, GoToMyPC, ShareConnect and WorkDesktop.”