Citrix Adds More Beef to its Virtualization Menu Citrix Delivers Essentials for Your Hyper-V Datacenter Just for the Record XenServer 5.5: Enterprise Ready Hypervisors: Not Just for Servers Anymore Everyday Virtualization Pure Performance: XenServer Roars Off the Line Something for Nothing: Citrix Gives Away XenServer SPONSORED BY Project6 7/14/09 1:10 PM Page 1 LUNCH BREAK SERIES Lunch Break BY DANIELLE RUEST AND NELSON RUEST SERIES Citrix Delivers Essentials for Your Hyper-V Datacenter Although expensive, this package greatly enhances the functionality and usability of an enterprise Hyper-V environment. lready competitive, the work with any given feature. Turn- Turning Essentials server virtualization mar- ing to documentation for help can be ket has become even more a problem if you don’t have a PDF into a virtual A so since XenServer vendor reader. You’ll have to install one first, appliance would Citrix joined forces with software since Citrix only provides the docu- heavyweight Microsoft to deliver mentation in PDF format—not a best help streamline advanced virtualization management practice by any means. installation. for enterprise datacenters. Even more surprising, Citrix hasn’t The result is Citrix Essentials, an made Essentials available as a virtual CEHV provides three core func- add-on management tool available hard disk (VHD) or a VM in Open tions for Hyper-V resource pool man- in two versions: Citrix Essentials for Virtualization Format (OVF). This is agement that aren’t available through XenServer (CEXS) and Citrix Es- striking since Citrix created Project any other tool in Microsoft virtualiza- sentials for Hyper-V (CEHV). For an Kensho for OVF Files. Kensho is a tion infrastructure deployments. at-a-glance look at the features avail- free tool for converting OVF VMs n Advanced StorageLink able in each of two CEXS and CEHV to Hyper-V and XenServer formats. Technology enables rapid provision- editions, see Table 1. For this review, Turning Essentials into a virtual appli- ing of VMs using high-speed copying we evaluated the CEHV versions. ance would help streamline instal- capabilities native to your storage area The CEHV editions require lation. Microsoft and several other network (SAN). StorageLink connects Microsoft’s System Center Virtual organizations offer VHDs for some to your storage arrays, leveraging the Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM). of their more complex products, and SAN’s snapshot and cloning capabili- SCVMM provides support for the Citrix should have followed suit here. ties to generate VMs from existing Windows PowerShell scripts used to provision commands you generate Table 1 Citrix Essentials Features by Version and Edition through Essentials components. Note Product Feature Essentials for XenServer Essentials for Hyper-V that the XenServer editions offer more Enterprise Platinum Enterprise Platinum functionality, including the ability to Edition Edition Edition Edition provision host servers as well as virtual StorageLink Management n n n n machines (VM), than their Hyper-V Workflow Studio Orchestration n n n n counterparts. This explains some of Multi-Hypervisor Interoperability n n n n the pricing differential between the two versions. Microsoft Management Support n n Installation, via Windows Installer Automated Lab Management n n files, isn’t difficult—once you figure out High Availability Support n n where to start. Citrix doesn’t specify which product to install first or say Price per Physical Server $2,500 $5,000 $1,500 $3,000 which components are required to 1 2009 Citrix Lunch Break Series LUNCH BREAK SERIES Lunch Break SERIE S templates stored on a logical unit The ability to decrease VM disk footprints number (LUN). Note that SCVMM includes the ability to do this, too, while providing fully functional environ- but StorageLink enhances this feature ments to massive numbers of users by creating direct connections and makes this tool worth its weight in gold. leveraging the SAN’s thin provisioning capabilities. n Dynamic Provisioning This can be a major problem since when running server and desktop Services (DPS) use provisioning developers often take shortcuts. For virtualization. DPS’ ability to decrease server farms to pre-populate VMs example, they might use an Adminis- VM disk footprints while providing based on a single-source VHD file trator account to perform every task, fully-functional environments to mas- and differentials. Using differentials, even end user testing. This could result sive numbers of users makes this tool DPS can generate hundreds, even in deployed software not working as worth its weight in gold. thousands, of VMs, with these tak- expected when users access it with And gold is what you’ll need to ing up only a fraction of the space limited rights. But with LabManager, obtain and run CEHV. At a base price of normal VMs. VMs are stored in a organizations can generate custom of $1,500 per server for the Enterprise vDisk (in VHD format) on a central environments based on corporate Edition and $3,000 per server for storage container. The contents of the standards. Users then can use these the Platinum Edition, it is an expen- vDisk are streamed for processing on templates to request and generate sive product to introduce into your the endpoints. Because the contents their own complete testing environ- datacenter—and this doesn’t include originate from a central vDisk, end- ments. Those requests move through the expense of SCVMM, needed for points need only RAM, as opposed a workflow that requires proper CEHV. However, we cannot imagine to a local disk drive, to run the image. authorizations before the users can organizations running Hyper-V with- Moreover, DPS can stream desktop proceed. This tool is a must for any out this fundamental tool. and server VMs. Both CHEV editions organization that performs a lot of require the use of a central SQL Server internal development and wants to use Danielle Ruest and Nelson Ruest are IT database to store end user and provi- Hyper-V as its virtualization platform; professionals focused on technology futures. sioning data. only VMware’s vCenter Lab Manager Both are passionate about virtualization n Automated Lab Management provides comparable functionality. It and continuous service availability. They relies on Citrix LabManager to pro- is also useful for new technology tests have authored multiple books, including vide end user self-service for labora- and infrastructure component staging. Virtualization, A Beginner’s Guide and tory provisioning. This improves upon Overall, these three key CEHV Windows Server 2008: The Com- the functionality available through components add a lot of value to plete Reference, both for McGraw-Hill SCVMM’s self-service portal, which datacenters relying on Hyper-V. Lab- Osborne, and the MCITP Self-Paced allows a user to create and manage Manager is much like its competitor Training Kit (Exam 70-238): Deploy- only one machine at a time. This from VMware, but it offers the added ing Messaging Solutions with Micro- means that when users need a complex advantage of supporting Hyper-V. soft® Exchange Server 2007 and Exam environment, such as one featuring Ac- StorageLink is a powerful tool that 70-652: Configuring Windows Server tive Directory domain controllers as leverages SAN features in support of Virtualization with Hyper-V for MS well as SQL, Exchange and SharePoint machine virtualization. But the best Press. Feel free to contact them at infos@ servers, you must either pre-build it or part of CEHV is DPS. Administra- reso-net.com with any comments let them build it themselves. tors are sure to find this tool a boon or suggestions. 2 2009 Citrix Lunch Break Series LUNCH BREAK SERIES Lunch Break BY ANNE STUART SERIE S Just for the Record A fast-growing medical practice chooses a virtual desktop infrastructure to support a mandated move into digital record-keeping. ichael Love can sum up the reasons behind his organization’s move to M a virtual desktop infra- structure in one three-letter acronym: EMR. “Everything was driven by us going to electronic medical records,” says Love, who is assistant director of information technology at the Jack- sonville, Fla.-based Borland-Groover Clinic, which specializes in digestive and liver disorders. The fast-growing medical practice operates in about 15 locations ranging from Jacksonville, located in the state’s northeast corner, to Delray Beach, nearly 300 miles down the East Coast. The medical chain had been running on Citrix Presentation Server 4 for Windows 2000 (later renamed Citrix XenApp) for several years, which, Love says, “was working fine for us.” Then came the industry-wide move toward EMR—that is, patient records maintained digitally rather than on paper, which proponents say can cut burden of EMR—or of some key environment, which was really scary,” costs while improving care (see “EMR software products. For example: “We Love acknowledges (currently, the Primer,” page XX). For the Borland- use QuickBooks,” says Love, referring clinic’s network is about 80 percent Groover clinic, the EMR drumbeat to Intuit Inc.’s business-accounting thin clients). Ultimately, though, the had become too insistent to ignore by software. “The newest version was 9. demands of moving to an EMR envi- mid-2008: “The CFO and our other We were on 6. We couldn’t upgrade ronment prompted them to consider a executives finally said, ‘We have to do because 9 wouldn’t run on Windows virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). something to get there,’” Love recalls. 2000.” The Borland-Groover IT team The problem: By that time, Micro- The clinic’s IT team considered a quickly narrowed its focus to Citrix soft no longer supported Windows variety of options for its fast-growing, XenDesktop. By this time, the EMR 2000. Adding salt to the wound, that widely scattered employee base.