Thin Client - Citrix and Terminal Services Resource Center

Tuning and Performance:

Improving Citrix End User Experience
Citrix MetaFrame Installation and Tuning Tips MFTips.pdf

Improving Citrix performance over high latency connections:

Citrix Document ID: CTX708444

Methodology in a Box by Douglas Brown that includes Best Practices REG files that will help you optimize your MetaFrame Server performance.

Advanced Print Manager 4.0 is a great printer mapping program also from Douglas Brown. I highly recommend installing and using this very useful tool. It will save you hours of work in the first ten minutes of using it.

MetaFrame Applications Tips

Microsofts Terminal Services Application Compatibility Notes

Office XP Deployment on Windows Terminal Services.

Office 2000 Installation on MetaFrame:

Prior to installing Office 2000, you must install the Terminal Server Transform file from the Office Resource Kit (ORK).

Then install office using that transform file.

The steps are:
Obtain the Office Resource Kit.

Office XP Resource Kit

Office 2000 Resource Kit - Look for ORKTool.exe

Then using Add/Remove programs, or with the system in Install mode (change user /install), install the Terminal Server Tools from the Office Resource Kit. Then using Add/Remove programs, or with the system in Install mode, install the desired Office components with the transform, using the command line:

"Office 2000 path\Setup TRANSFORMS="ORK path\TermSrvr.mst"

The TermSrvr.mst is the transform file. If you manually switched to Install mode, switch back to execute mode (change user /execute) after the installation For example, you might install the ORK to its default location on C. Then you want to install Office from a CD in the D drive. Your command line would be:

D:\Setup.exe TRANSFORMS="C:\Program Files\ORKTools\ToolBox\Tools\Terminal Server Tools\TermSrvr.MST"

Visio 2000 Install and slow startup fix:

NOTE: You must perform the installation of Visio 2000 from the server computer if you are installing to a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server or later.

Log on to the Terminal Server computer.
Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
On the Install/Uninstall tab, click Install.

If you are using Windows 2000, click Add New Programs.
Browse to the installation source folder for Microsoft Visio 2000 (CD or network share). Begin the installation process, and follow the instructions on your screen.
When the installation is finished,
add the following key and value in the registry.

Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe). Locate the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Install\Software\Visio\Visio 2000\Application\

On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:

Value Name: Featuremgmt
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: 0

Quit Registry Editor.

MetaFrame XP Management Tips

Configuring Load Evaluators:
To avoid saturating a servers performance, Evaluators should be configured to include CPU Utilization, Memory Usage and Server User Load.

The settings below work quite well in a large busy Citrix Farm. We never worry about overloading a server when we put it back online during peak hours.

CPU Utilization = 60, 10
Memory Usage = 60, 10
Server User Load = 70
Scheduling = Set to Offline M,W,Fr 6pm to 5am for reboots.

Scheduling Configuration: Create and configure 2 Load Evaluators with the settings shown above. Evaluator1 and Evaluator2. Assign half of the servers in your Farm to Evaluator1, set Scheduling to go offline M,W,F,Su 6pm - 5am for reboots at 2am or about. And have Evaluator2 configured just like the fist one, except configure the Scheduling for Tu,Th,Sat 6pm - 5am for reboots at 2am or about.

Citrix Management Console MetaFrame XP:   When publishing an application with MetaFrame XP CMC, you CANNOT browse to network drives to add the application executable using a UNC path. In MetaFrame 1.8 you were able to browse network mapped drives to publish executable's.

What is an ICA file:   An ICA file is typically stored on a Web server and contains information used by the ICA client to logon to a published application or a particular server. Typically, a web page will present a link, when clicked, will launch the .ICA file from the web server, which actually launches the ActiveX ICA client on your PC by association. In summary, the .ICA file delivers information to the ActiveX client, such as the ICA browser server name or IP address and the published application name, and/or server name or IP address. Note: NAT (Network Address Translation) is supported with the use of .ICA files. Read more about ICA files

MetaFrame XP: Bug report:   Do not set the Management Console password with a first character of capital "S", the Management console will not work if you do. However there may be a fix for it by now.

MetaFrame 1.8 Management Tips

MetaFrame 1.8 and NAT (Network Address Translation):   You can access any MetaFrame Server through a firewall that uses NAT. To configure the MetaFrame Server for NAT, simply go to a command prompt on the MetaFrame Server and use the command altaddr.exe. Example altaddr /set x.x.x.x The x.x.x.x represents the external IP address.

ICA Gateway MetaFrame 1.8:   Did you know that you can pool Citrix MetaFrame licenses across subnets. Yes thats right, you can now pool all of your Citrix licenses and load balance applications across WAN and LAN subnets. Just setup an ICA Gateway on each subnet. One Gateway will point to the other gateway and vise-versa. This is also a good way to set your environment up for site redundancy, and automatic disaster recovery.

Easy editing of ICA files on MetaFrame 1.8:   Just right mouse click on an ICA file from any MetaFrame server and choose properties. Citrix has added the ICA properties to the shell extensions to make editing ICA files a breeze.

Quick Links

schiara@thin-world.com