Application Integration

Application Integration

The application and content publishing features of MetaFrame remain unchanged in MPS 4.0. Citrix has introduced new features to better utilize the available resources for application use. All of these options have already been discussed in this chapter. In the following sections, we look at some specific configuration options in more detail. The new features are

• Application Isolation Environments This feature was discussed in the "Isolation Environments" section of this chapter. In this section, we review how to install and uninstall an application from an isolation environment.

• Memory Optimization This feature was discussed in the "MetaFrame Presentation Server Architecture" section of this chapter.

• Virtual IP Address Support This feature was also introduced earlier in this chapter. In this section, we review the circumstances under which these settings may need to be implemented.

• Virtual IP Loopback Address Support This feature was discussed earlier.

• Client IP Address Pass-through A new feature not prominently mentioned is MetaFrame's capability to pass the client IP address through to a server application. This feature is intended only to satisfy those applications that require a unique IP address for identification purposes. This address cannot be used for any form of binding or addressing. We describe the configuration process in this section as well.

Installing Applications within an Isolation Environment

There are two ways of isolating an application in your MetaFrame environment. The first is to associate the published application with an isolation environment either when the application is first published or after the fact by modifying the isolated application setting for that published application.

The other way to isolate an application is to install it into the desired isolation environment. When an application appears to be a candidate for isolation, this is the configuration Citrix recommends because it ensures everything related to that application is isolated. Even if the isolation environment fails to correct an application that is associated with the environment, installing the application into that environment may correct the issues. If necessary, an application should be uninstalled and then reinstalled directly into an isolation environment. Citrix supports installing applications into an isolation environment in one of three ways:

• Using Installation Manager. Installation Manager includes a new option allowing you to choose to install a package into a specified isolation environment.

• Using a third-party product such as Microsoft SMS.

• Using the AIESetup.exe utility.

Citrix does not support application installations into an isolation environment through a Microsoft RDP connection.

Note

MPS 4.0 does not support the isolation of services. Citrix silently disables any services that are installed as part of an isolated application install.

AIESetup is a command-line tool that allows you to perform an application installation into an existing isolation environment. It is recommended that each isolated application run within its own isolation environment. This minimizes conflicts and simplifies the process of removing the application at a later date.

The AIESetup utility has the following syntax:

 aiesetup [/d] [/n] [/q] [/w] <Isolation Env. Name> <Installer Name> [app parameters] 

/d Disables the automatic application discovery process that otherwise initiates when the application installation completes. The application discovery process is intended to assist in the publishing of the application by searching the server for any installation-created shortcuts and extracting the application startup information and writing to the Data Store. When publishing the application, you then have the option of using this information when adding the application to the isolation environment. If you omit /d , you are prompted at the end of installation as to whether you want to run this process.

/n Disables automatically placing the server into install mode prior to installing the application. If this setting is not specified, AIESetup performs the equivalent of a change user /install command.

/q Installs in quit mode. All AIESetup prompts are suppressed.

/w Waits for the setup program to complete before continuing. This is most often used when launching AIESetup from a script and you want to proceed only after the application installation is complete.

<Isolation Env. Name> Indicates the name of the isolation environment into which this application is being installed. Include quotes around the name if spaces exist.

<Installer Name> Indicates the name of the installation program.

app parameters Specifies optional installation parameters for the installer program. If the installer program is a Microsoft Installer binary (.MSI), you should use msiexec .exe /i <installer .MSI> followed by the MSI parameters.

To install an application using AIESetup, you must have the following rights:

• Administrative access on the MetaFrame server

• Rights to manage isolation environments in the farm

• Rights to publish and edit applications in the farm

After installing the application into the isolation environment, you need to go into the Management Console and publish the application. When publishing the application, choose to isolate the application and then select the option specifying the application has already been installed in the environment. Choose the installed application from the list, verify any application parameters, and then continue to complete the setup.

Alert

You are expected to know and understand the process of installing an application into an isolation environment, including permissions using AIESetup. You should also know the different methods of installing an application into an isolation environment.

Uninstalling an Application from an Isolation Environment

An application that has been installed into an application isolation environment cannot be removed using Add/Remove Programs. Instead, a manual process is required to ensure that all of the associated application binary and Registry additions have been successfully removed.

The simplest way to remove an application is to remove all of the file and Registry root folders created for the isolation environment. This is one reason why it is recommended that only a single application be installed into an isolation environment.

You remove all applications from an isolation environment as follows :

1. Remove the published application.

2. Locate the installation root folder for the isolation environment. The default is C:\Program Files\Citrix\AIE\<Isolation Env. name>.

3. Open the Registry. Remember all of the warnings regarding incorrect use of the Registry. Locate the Registry root folder for the isolation environment. The default is HKLM\Software\Citrix\AIE\<Isolation Env. name>.

Caution

If you completely remove the isolation environment, you also delete any user-specific information stored in the per-user profile root. Make sure that all necessary data is backed up before removing an isolation environment.

Virtual IP Addressing

You can provide a unique IP address for those applications that

• Have a dependency on the use of Windows sockets for communications

• Require a unique IP address per application instance or must use a specific fixed TCP port number

When these conditions are met, you need to enable the assignment of virtual IP addresses for multiple instances running on the same server to function properly.

Virtual IP addresses are defined in the Virtual IP Address Configuration property of the server farm. See the earlier section "Changes and Additions to the Presentation Server Management Console" for details on this and other IP address configuration choices.

When determining the number of IP addresses to assign to each server, you must take into consideration the maximum number of concurrent users who will be logged on to the server at any given time. When virtual IP addresses are assigned, they are assigned to each user session, regardless of whether they run an application that requires a virtual IP. If insufficient addresses are available, a user may receive an error message stating that no virtual IP addresses are available for the session. Failure to acquire a virtual IP does not prevent the user from logging on to the server or running any of his or her published applications. It will likely cause any applications dependent on the virtual IP address to fail.

After defining the IP address range, you can assign processes to use the assigned virtual address within the farm properties. You cannot make these changes within the individual server properties. The only IP address options supported at the server level are

• Enable or disable the use of virtual IP address assignment.

• Use the farm settings for logging or define them for the server.

• Enable virtual loopback assignment. We discuss this setting next .

When logging is enabled at the farm or server level, the assignment and release of the IP address are logged for each user session within the Application log.

Alert

Remember that a unique IP address is assigned to every user session on a server that is providing virtual addresses, not just those user sessions running applications that require a virtual IP.

Virtual Loopback Addressing

The use of a virtual loopback address is required if an application

• Requires access to the Windows loopback address (localhost or 127.0.0.1)

• Uses a specific TCP port number on this address

In this case, multiple instances of such an application conflict when they attempt to run unless loopback address virtualization is enabled. To enable this setting, you can either designate the desired servers in the farm within the server farm's Virtual Loopback Configuration properties or select Enable Virtual Loopback for This Server within the Virtual IP Configuration properties. When this setting is enabled, the server is automatically added to the list maintained at the farm level. Unlike virtual IP addresses, there is no possibility of a session being unable to receive a virtual loopback address.

Client IP Address Pass-through

For those applications that require access to a unique IP address for identification or validation, the capability to pass through the IP address of the client device has been included in MPS 4.0. When the application queries for an IP address, the server automatically provides the associated address of the client. Client IP address pass-through should not be used if any of the following are true:

• The client is connecting using a protocol other than TCP/IP.

• The clients disconnect active sessions and then reconnect to those sessions from another client. The reconnected session returns an IP address that does not match the current client's address.

• A client is accessing the application through a pass-through client. The IP address returned is the address of the server on which the pass-through is occurring, not the local client IP address. This results in the application receiving a nonunique address if multiple pass-through clients are accessing the same application.

This setting must be enabled through the Registry. Being sure to follow all precautions regarding Registry use, you need to create the following Registry key (if it doesn't exist):

HKLM\Software\Citrix\VIP\

Next, you need to create the following two values:

UseClientIP:REG_DWORD:0 (disabled) or 1 (enabled)

 HookProcessClientIP:REG_MULTI_SZ:<list of executable names that require client IP access> 

You must restart the server for the changes to take effect.