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Citrix MetaFrame XP Access Suite is a complementary product suite to Microsoft's Terminal Services (included with Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Services Edition, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows Server 2003) discussed in Chapter 2. Today, Citrix serves nearly fifty million users, facilitating a seamless user experience in heterogeneous computing environments, as well as application delivery across bandwidth-restricted connections.
Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite is comprised of five software products:
MetaFrame XP Presentation Server (MetaFrame XP)
MetaFrame Presentation Server for UNIX (MetaFrame for UNIX)
MetaFrame Password Manager
MetaFrame Conferencing Manager
MetaFrame Secure Access Manager (MSAM)
Citrix Password Manager and Conferencing Manager
Password Manager and Conferencing Manager are the newest members of the Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite. Password Manager provides a simple and elegant single sign-on solution for MetaFrame XP environments (although it also works in non-Metaframe environments), and Conferencing Manager provides an all-inclusive collaborative conference interface that leverages the shadow features of MetaFrame XP. These two products further enhance the user experience of the server-based computing environment.
In this chapter, we discuss the evolution of the MetaFrame Access Suite and dissect its Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol. We also cover the enhancements that MetaFrame Access Suite brings to Terminal Services, including:
Secure, encrypted access for all enterprise users from any location, without having to open firewall holes. MetaFrame Secure Gateway provides a secure infrastructure by which users can access the SBC environment literally from anywhere, any time, any place, regardless of the firewall configurations (assuming the environment allows SSL [port 443] traffic). Although Terminal Services RDP traffic is encrypted, it requires that port 3389 be open both on the Data Center firewall and at the user's location(s).
True Application Load Management. Microsoft's built-in Network Load Balancing can be effective for environments with 100 users or less, but enterprise environments absolutely require a more robust and flexible approach to determining which users are placed on which servers under what circumstances.
MetaFrame Web Interface wizard-based deployment tool (formerly called NFuse). Not only does this tool provide an automated approach to deploying access to the SBC environment, but, just as handy, it provides an automated approach to deploying the ICA client itself. Conversely, the deployment and installation of the Remote Desktop Client with Terminal Services can be a daunting task when thousands of users need an update to the client.
Universal Access to applications from any client device, to applications on Windows or UNIX platforms. Although Microsoft now supports client access from Macintosh OS X and Windows clients, Citrix not only provides support for Mac and Windows, but also support for over 200 client operating systems, including most flavors of UNIX and Linux, DOS, and embedded devices.
Enterprise management tools. Citrix provides Resource Manager, Installation Manager, and Network Manager, as well as a host of embedded management tools that present administrators with critical information as well as the automation of enterprise SBC server environments.
Table 3-1 shows the value-add features that Citrix MetaFrame XP add to a Windows Server 2003 environment.
Application publishing | One-to-many shadowing | Customized billing reports | User collaboration |
Program Neighborhood | Cross-server shadowing | Track user access to applications | Panning and scaling (handhelds) |
Anonymous user support | Shadowing indicator | Centrally install applications | Pass-through authentication |
Content publishing | Auto client update | Distribute service packs | Seamless windows |
Content redirection | Universal print driver | Package customized install | Multimonitor support |
Novell NDS support | Web-based client install | Web Interface for MetaFrame | Application save position |
Delegated administration | Support for multiple farms | Non-Windows client access | End-to-end security |
Centralized management console | Auto client printer detection | Integration with Network Management consoles | MetaFrame Secure Gateway |
Connection control | Resource-based Load Management | Support for direct asynch | SSL/TLS 128-bit encryption |
CPU prioritization | Schedule application availability | Client drive remapping | Support for digital certificates |
Support for 1000+ servers in farm | Specify client IP range | Text-entry prediction | Socks 4 and 5 proxy support |
Many-to-one shadowing | Application monitoring | Instant mouse-click feedback | SpeedScreen 4 browser acceleration |
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