I'm an administrator of a rather large citrix/TS network (40+ servers). my experience is citrix is a very slick method of
delivering "productivity windows applications(Office type, email, department-type applications etc..) to users that either are
scattered all over the place or if a company has several types of desktop OS's (*nix, MAC, windows) or older hardware.
Citrix has clients for all types of OS's and also provides Java and ActiveX plug-in's for browser based solutions. I've
implemented both and found them a god-send for my remote users. We can use client-auto update to push out new citrix
clients when needed. This is the positive side. People who are sick of the client/server world don't realize the
Thin-client solutions can be every bit of a PITA as client server if a person try's to deploy applications onto a
Citrix/Windows solution without 1st evaluating what they need. My advice is to stick with productivity applications and
stay away from CAD, memory and CPU intensive applications, graphic type of programs, streaming media and sound types of
solutions. Yes you can buy add-in's but it would cost $$. If you try to just integrate the 16 bit POS applications, adhoc types
of database query app's, better check to see if you benefit package offers therapy, thin-client ain't for you!
IIRC, most of the classes i took at a local community college involved compiling programs, trying stuff out. This is bad
for many reasons but it would eat CPU and memory. Now your affecting the whole lab instead of one user.
*Horror story of Citrix/Metafrme*
They released a product called Metaframe XP, this is a method of centralizing licensing, maintenance of published applications,
which servers use these app's and users that are granted rights to them. This is all fine and dandy, it looked great
on the white board but after implementing metaframe XPe 1.0 to some servers. We ran into a case where one of the clients
wasn't connecting too good to the Citrix/MF server. Called Citrix and they recommend deploying
FR(future release 1)/SP 1. Low and behold we did that and in a couple of days we had other users calling they were
unable to log into a non-FR1/SP 1 metaframe server. Called citrix and they stated a person has to upgrade all
metaframe servers in the farm to sp1 with 48 hours. OK! WTF i say, its like saying you need to create a new microsoft
domain or Novell tree everything a hotfix or service pack comes out. The only other way to have a gradual upgrade
of a service pack is to create a new farm and migrate every server into the new farm. PITA!"
Citrix can be a god-send for remote users and many platforms, watch out for what we just mentioned above. This is
the windows side and I'm open-minded enough to look at other solutions that are mentioned in the replies from the OS
community. AS with any service your trying to deliver, if your trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, it just won't work.
I'm so pissed at citrix we are looking at alternatives because its a F*****n nightmare to migrate and maintain this.
less than 10 servers i can see but as when it comes to a very large user base as I have. I'm screwed.
YOu mention 500 user stations, that'd represent about 5 - 6 four cpu with 2 to 4 gig of memory server class boxes. the rule i've used
is 25 or so users per cpu. There are 3 types of users(casual, medium and power user)
casual (1 - 2 app's, casual login's) 3 - 7 meg of memory per session
medium (2 - 5 app's, frequent login's) 8 - 12 meg of memory per session
power (3 - 8 app's, primary desktop(Secretary types) 15 - 25 meg per session
Truely watch out, its a double edged sword. I'm glad you posted this cause i'm going to check out other thin-client
solutions mentioned in the replies. Any other questions let me know.
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I'm an administrator of a rather large citrix/TS network (40+ servers). my experience is citrix is a very slick method of delivering "productivity windows applications(Office type, email, department-type applications etc..) to users that either are scattered all over the place or if a company has several types of desktop OS's (*nix, MAC, windows) or older hardware. Citrix has clients for all types of OS's and also provides Java and ActiveX plug-in's for browser based solutions. I've implemented both and found them a god-send for my remote users. We can use client-auto update to push out new citrix clients when needed. This is the positive side. People who are sick of the client/server world don't realize the Thin-client solutions can be every bit of a PITA as client server if a person try's to deploy applications onto a Citrix/Windows solution without 1st evaluating what they need. My advice is to stick with productivity applications and stay away from CAD, memory and CPU intensive applications, graphic type of programs, streaming media and sound types of solutions. Yes you can buy add-in's but it would cost $$. If you try to just integrate the 16 bit POS applications, adhoc types of database query app's, better check to see if you benefit package offers therapy, thin-client ain't for you! IIRC, most of the classes i took at a local community college involved compiling programs, trying stuff out. This is bad for many reasons but it would eat CPU and memory. Now your affecting the whole lab instead of one user. *Horror story of Citrix/Metafrme* They released a product called Metaframe XP, this is a method of centralizing licensing, maintenance of published applications, which servers use these app's and users that are granted rights to them. This is all fine and dandy, it looked great on the white board but after implementing metaframe XPe 1.0 to some servers. We ran into a case where one of the clients wasn't connecting too good to the Citrix/MF server. Called Citrix and they recommend deploying FR(future release 1)/SP 1. Low and behold we did that and in a couple of days we had other users calling they were unable to log into a non-FR1/SP 1 metaframe server. Called citrix and they stated a person has to upgrade all metaframe servers in the farm to sp1 with 48 hours. OK! WTF i say, its like saying you need to create a new microsoft domain or Novell tree everything a hotfix or service pack comes out. The only other way to have a gradual upgrade of a service pack is to create a new farm and migrate every server into the new farm. PITA!" Citrix can be a god-send for remote users and many platforms, watch out for what we just mentioned above. This is the windows side and I'm open-minded enough to look at other solutions that are mentioned in the replies from the OS community. AS with any service your trying to deliver, if your trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, it just won't work. I'm so pissed at citrix we are looking at alternatives because its a F*****n nightmare to migrate and maintain this. less than 10 servers i can see but as when it comes to a very large user base as I have. I'm screwed. YOu mention 500 user stations, that'd represent about 5 - 6 four cpu with 2 to 4 gig of memory server class boxes. the rule i've used is 25 or so users per cpu. There are 3 types of users(casual, medium and power user) casual (1 - 2 app's, casual login's) 3 - 7 meg of memory per session medium (2 - 5 app's, frequent login's) 8 - 12 meg of memory per session power (3 - 8 app's, primary desktop(Secretary types) 15 - 25 meg per session Truely watch out, its a double edged sword. I'm glad you posted this cause i'm going to check out other thin-client solutions mentioned in the replies. Any other questions let me know.