MSTerminalServices.org Monthly Newsletter of December 2007 Sponsored by: 2X

Welcome to the MSTerminalServices.org newsletter by Stefan Vermeulen, MVP and Citrix CTP. Each month we will bring you interesting and helpful information on MS Terminal Services and server based computing. We want to know what all *you* are interested in hearing about. Please send your suggestions for future newsletter content to: SVermeulen@MSTerminalServices.org

1. Top 10 SBC News Items during 2007

1. Citrix buys Xensource.
With this acquisition Citrix buys its way into the virtualization space. The previous message for Presentation Server was the "Application virtualization" message. With the Xensource technology Citrix is going head to head with VMware. I am curious about tests on how well the Xensource Hypervisor does against Vmware.

2. Microsoft surprises the world by introducing their own Hypervisor in Windows Server 2008.
You can download the latest beta for Windows Server 2008 and have a look at it. The project codename was Viridian, but the final product is called "Hyper-V". It will not be an isolated product, but part of Windows Server 2008. How good the 2008 kernel will behave as a host, only time will tell. (I think we can all remember the power of VMware GSX, which required a Windows server as a host, and the saturation that happened when running a few VMs. VMware GSX is freeware nowadays.

3. Oracle cannot stay behind and introduces "Oracle VM" as their Hypervisor solution.
At first they shocked everybody by stating that all Oracle products would only be supported on their own solution, but reality soon kicked back in and now support for VMware has been stated. What can we expect from this one? Well, it's also a Xen kernel so I am curious on how well it does against Citrix's Xensource and against Microsoft Hyper-V. I think we can expect some tests in 2008 to see where the money goes. Will VMware buckle or will they remain king of the hill?

4. Provision Networks is acquired by Quest Software.
Provision Networks is a Terminal Server add-on vendor which operates in price fighting against Citrix. Their list of functionality is quite extensive. This takeover can take it to the next level when it comes to market share. I think we can expect some interesting market shifting in 2008.

5. Neoware is acquired by HP.
This clearly shows that Thin Clients are becoming main stream and big business. Neoware TCs are pretty popular and together with HP's Thin Client line will take quite the market share for these devices. If VDI becomes mainstream, more and more desktop machines will be replaced with Thin Client devices. Let's face it; why would a user need a desktop PC anyway?

6. Windows Server 2008 will be released in February 2008.
This is of course not news for 2007, but with server 2003 being almost 4 years old, it's time for something new. I think the success rate will be very dependant on the performance. Let's face it, Vista has not been adopted by the masses due to the resources it takes, and the crippled backward compatibility. A lot of companies use Terminal Services to deploy legacy apps. I hope that Server 2008 TS will do what 2003 does and more. If it does not, Microsoft will have a serious problem. The launch will also include Visual Studio 2008 and SQL server 2008.

7. Aurema is acquired by Citrix
This acquisition will bring further power to the Presentation Server's functionality. Until now it was OEM'd and now that Citrix has to the Full Monty at its disposal, we can expect full integration of the CPU and memory management modules. Will that bring more users to the box versus the OEM integration? Time will tell. I hope future tests will show the results.

8. Microsoft releases Service Pack 2 for Window Server 2003.
The release came as a surprise, and so did some of the stuff it broke on Terminal Servers. The vendors responded fast to fix them and after a few months it was safe to apply. Will we see Service Pack 3 for Windows Server 2003 next year? Only if the Server 2008 release will not be successful, I think.

9. UPHClean remains beta for the rest of its lifetime.
This tool is one of the most popular tools out there. Locked profiles remained on the server, causing disk pollution and profile issues. I think over 90% of the Terminal Server/Citrix servers out there run this tool. So why beta? Microsoft has decided to integrate a new NT service in Windows Server 2008 called "Windows Server 2008 Profile service". This means that all Window Server 2003 servers out there will probably be running a beta tool for years to come.

10. Microsoft releases Vista, and a bit after that they release the Remote Desktop 6.0 Client.
With this new client it is finally possible to go for multi-monitor span up to 4096 x 2048. This gives advanced users (a lot of them in helpdesks/call centers) the chance to do proper multi-monitor usage of their TS sessions. Full blown usage of all the RDP 6 functionality will require connecting to Windows Server 2008 though.

2. KB Articles of the Month

• The Terminal Server component is not available in the Windows Components Wizard in Windows Small Business Server 2003
• Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server stops responding
• Licenses are listed as either "Windows 2000 Server-Terminal Services CAL Token (Per-Device)" or "Windows 2000 Terminal Services Client Access License" in the Terminal Server licensing tool on Windows Server 2003-based computers
• Error Event 1109 Appears in the Event Log When Terminal Services Clients Disconnect
• "The local policy does not permit you to logon interactively" error message when users try to connect to a Windows Small Business Server 2003-based computer by using the Remote Desktop client
• HOW TO: Use Group Policy to Permit Users to Redirect and Play Audio in a Remote Desktop Session to Terminal Services in Windows Server 2003
• White Paper: Terminal Services and Printing
• A Windows Server 2003-based terminal server cannot locate the Terminal Services license server

3. Ask our MVPs a question

QUESTION: Stefan; I am having a problem with users closing their Citrix application, or getting disconnected but the session does not close or is left in a disconnected state. What can I do about this, as all this manual session resetting is eating up my day?

Regards,
Session Steve

ANSWER: Dear Steve,
To find out what process is causing the session to remain open, go to the Citrix management Console and look at the processes belonging to the user who is left in a disconnected state. Right click the executable involved and select "kill". That kill command will then properly log off the disconnected session and if you see the same behavior in other open sessions you have found the so called "bad app" which needs to be fixed.
In order to help Citrix properly log off this ghost process at an application close, create the following registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI]
Value Name: LogoffCheckSysModules
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value: BadApp.exe

If you have multiple processes that need to be killed at log off, separate them via a comma; badapp.exe,badapp2.exe etc. Citrix has created a more in depth explanation on this behavior in this article.

4. Learning Zone

We have a great group of articles in the Learning Zone that will help you get a handle on your most difficult configuration issues. Here are just a few of the newer and more interesting articles:

• How to Configure the Citrix Program Neighborhood Agent
  Date - Nov 21 2007; Author - Patrick Rouse; Section - Articles : General
  In this article Patrick goes into detail on how to set up the Citrix PNA client in detail. After this article you should be able to easily configure and use PNA to predefine the user's desktop with published applications, without requiring extensive configuration like on the full PN client.
• What's new with Remote Desktop?
  Date - Dec 5, 2007; Author - Robert J. Shimonski; Section - Articles : General
  Robert will explain what is new in the 6.0 Remote Desktop client like Server authentication, Network Level authentication and other visual updates and enhancements.

5. Tip of the Month

Hacking is a pretty loaded subject to talk about in the SBC world, so we do not see much of that. There are tools out there for gaining access, and it's for the best that you actually know they exist and how they function, and better how to protect your environment against them. The guys from Learnsecurityonline have put together a little movie based demonstration on how the hacker tools work. I would suggest that you take a good look at it here.

6. Blog Posts

• The Microsoft Terminal Server team has blogged about the Terminal Services Licensing Diagnosis Snap-in extension.
• They also have blogged about the Changes to Remote Administration in Windows Server 2008.
• Citrix has seen the light and has opened up a true place for their employees to blog on whatever they feel fit to tell. You might find a gem or two there on best practices or get an update on technology during beta phase. I would suggest that you add the page to your favorites.
• Mark Elliott has written a killer tool to back up and restore Citrix policies. I think a lot of people will find this very useful for duplication environments, where especially this part took quite some time to replicate.
• Nicolas Dille has written an article about "Emulating a Redirecting Load Balancer for WI and PNA." He will describe how to set up a test environment for this, without the need for a hardware load balancer. Set it up and take with you on your virtualized setup on a laptop.
• For the Dutch viewers of this newsletter I would like to mention the release of a Dutch language pack for Citrix Web Interface 4.6.

7. Events / Links of the Month

Last month I mentioned the public release of Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate 0. This month Microsoft has even publicly released RC1. This will be the last public beta download before the product will hit RTM, with the official release date set on February 27th 2008 (RTM = Ready To Manufacture). So if you want to take one last swing at it during the Christmas holiday, get your copy here.

For those of you who will be downloading it especially for the Hyper-V technology, make sure to read this article from Microsoft explaining the technology in more detail. Catch up on it here.

One of the biggest changes in Windows Server 2008 will be the usage of group policies. The team from Microsoft has put together an extensive document about it, and it will make interesting reading material:

An Overview of Group Policy Preferences