• What's up?
• KB Articles of the Month
• Ask our MVPs!
• Learning Zone
• On the Spot
• Rumors on the SBC Space

1. What's up?

Hi there!

Last month I mentioned Michael Burke as a new member of the MSTerminalServices.org author team, and this month three new people have joined. First is Rich Brumpton, second is Duane Bradley, and third is Patrick Rouse who is also in the "On the Spot" section of this month. (I did the interview with him before I knew he would join us as a writer).

Only a few more days to go to get your hands on a really nice MSTerminalServices.org shirt! All you need to do is sign up for the newsletter. The offer expires on November 30th. To register just click the link here.

Pubforum Amsterdam has been a blast. It was great to see so many SBC enthusiasts coming together to socialize about the technology and having some fun on the side. Alex announced that as from next year there will only be 1 Pubforum per year, and it will be a blast. Next year's Pubforum will be in May and the event will take place in the sunny Lisbon, Portugal.

That's all for now!

Catch you later!

2. KB Articles of the Month

Here are some interesting and useful Terminal Services related articles posted by Microsoft in the last month:

• Windows Base Terminal devices take multiple Terminal Services client access licenses

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253292/en-us

• You receive a "Stop 0x000000ab" error message when a Terminal Services client computer logs off from a Terminal Services session on a Windows Server 2003 SP1-based Terminal Services computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918673/en-us

• You cannot establish new Terminal Services connections to a Windows Server 2003-based terminal server

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886675/en-us

• Client computers cannot obtain a permanent Windows 2000 Terminal Services Client Access License (CAL) from a Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services Licensing server

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837211/en-us

3. Ask our MVPs a question

QUESTION: Hello Stefan,

I have been put in charge of next year's budget for a few Terminal Servers. We plan to have 100 concurrent users and I have been looking for info everywhere. Some say 25 users per box, some say 50 and some claim 150 users on a box. I am extremely confused as to how many servers to budget for; can you help?

Regards, Confused Connie

ANSWER: Dear Connie,

This is probably the most difficult question to answer. The first thing you need is a mindset change. Sizing servers is mostly about applications, and not about users. As strange as this may sound (because most servers are sized to the number of users) you better get used to it.

An application can make or break a server. A single application can consume 100% of a processor, so 2 sessions can take possession of a dual CPU machine. These days, with CPU control in Citrix CPS 4.0 or using a third party CPU controller application you're in the clear, but be very careful when not using these.

Other applications can consume so much memory due to poor programming or by design, that you eat up all the available user mode memory space on a server (2GB in total by default). Some weird ones may not even run a second session on a server at all. (Not TS aware).

To start with, make an inventory on all the applications you will run. Try to get your hands on a server or a powerful desktop and start testing the behavior of your applications and try to have them run some real data that your users actually use. That way you can draw a safe conclusion if you need 1, 2 or maybe 4 servers for your 100 users.

Keep in mind that it's always a good thing to have 1 extra server, just for redundancy.

Good luck with the budget!

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:

• Virtual IP addressing in Citrix Presentation Server 4.0

Date - November 1, 2006; Author - Rich Brumpton; Section - Articles & Tutorials: Virtualization

In this article Rich gives us an in-depth view on how Virtual IP addressing really works. It will save you a bundle of time to get the logic behind it, should you ever have an application requiring this functionality to get it running.

• Terminal Server Session Sharing Explained

Date - November 8, 2006; Author - Patrick Rouse; Section - Articles & Tutorials: General

In this article Patrick explains the in's and out's of session sharing on terminal server.

5. On The Spot

This month we have an interview with Patrick Rouse. Patrick is a well-known figure for those who use the Microsoft Terminal Server newsgroups to get information and support on terminal server issues. The interview was taken during Briforum Europe.

Stefan: Welcome Patrick, and thanks for taking the time to answer some questions on this interview. Can you tell us how you got into the SBC part of the IT industry?

Patrick: It all started back in 1994 when I was working for the Marines as a Radio repair man. People came to me with computer problems, and I thought I might just give it a shot. It turned out it was not rocket science and after the army I got my first real IT job back in '96 at a small medical device manufacturer hosting 25 nodes.

After doing that for a few years, in '98 it was time to move on, and I went to California to work for Transamerica who had a 1700 node network running Novell, a mainframe and Citrix Winframe.

Then in '99 or 2000 (I don't remember the exact date) I got the chance to work as an IT manager for a charity organization, and had to provide remote access via dial-up on 2k TSE.

Stefan: What got you started in the newsgroups?

Patrick: I started there like everybody else back in 2001 to get help for myself on TS issues and helped out on some questions from others where I could. By 2003 I was answering most of the questions as I had grown quite knowledgeable on the subject.

Stefan: What made you create a website about Terminal Services?

Patrick: It started as a simple website just to host the links of common questions I got in the newsgroups. That way I could answer questions wherever I was, just by looking them up.It was only later that I started adding more content to it

Stefan: Do you have any plans for the future with your website?

Patrick: Yes, certainly. Jason Conger's session here at Briforum Europe inspired me on the possibilities on reporting on the Citrix RM database using SQL and I plan to build some extra stuff where Jason did not come to yet.

I also intend to extend the site with a web shop to resell preferred applications which I personally believe are a worthy extension to Terminal Server.

Stefan: So you're a Microsoft MVP, a Provision Networks MVP, and last October awarded as a Citrix CTP. How do you feel about all these programs, and what do they do for you?

Patrick: I got nominated for MVP back in 2003 for the work I did in the Windows IT PRO website and the posting in the newsgroups. It gave me the opportunity to meet the people behind the product and to be able to get and give feedback on the product to the makers. The same goes for the Provision program; an excellent way to talk to the people behind the product and talk to them about improvements and stuff.

I can't tell much for the Citrix CTP program yet, but I feel confident that it will be the same. A good way to talk to them about the product, and to relay messages I get from my customers and people from the forums and newsgroups to address and to help them make better products.

The good thing in being in all these programs is to be able to give honest advice to my customers as I am a strong believer in best "bang for your bucks", and these programs help me get in depth information to come to the best conclusion for a specific situation.

Stegan: Thanks again for taking time to talk to us, and I hope we will read up on some great information in your articles on various SBC topics.

Patrick: It's a pleasure talking to you, and I will do my best on those articles.

6. Rumors on the SBC Space

For community events, the year is closed now. For next year we have Briforum USA in Chicago in April and Pubforum Europe in Lisbon, Portugal in May. Rumors are still going strong that Briforum Europe 2007 might be Amsterdam!

Citrix Iforum was a great event, although Presentation Server 4.5 (Ohio) was not released. The most important hot news from Iforum is the plans for Project Trinity. Basically it will provide a direct ICA session to the XP desktop (PortICA). That will create some creativity for some. ICA to the real desktop, or to a VDI running on VMware? Only time will tell I think.

See you next month!