There are 2 parts that you need in order to develop applications that utilize mobile capabilities on a XenApp 6.5 server:

1. The XenApp 6.5 Mobility Pack – this is the part that goes on the XenApp 6.5 server.
2. The Citrix XenApp 6.5 Mobile Application SDK – this is the part you use to develop mobile applications.

XenApp 6.5 Mobility Pack

When you install the Mobility Pack, 2 new services are added to your XenApp server:

1. Citrix Location and Sensor Virtual Channel Service – this service enables a server side application to leverage Location and Sensor capabilities.
2. Citrix Mobile Receiver Virtual Channel Service – this service enables a server side application to use mobile device capabilities.

These 2 virtual channels are kept separate for security reasons.  Maybe you want to have mobile device capabilities available, but you cannot enable GPS features due to security compliance.  Location services are disabled on the Citrix Receiver by default. The way to enable the location capabilities is via Citrix policies.  In order to use these policies, you will need to install the Citrix Group Policy Client-Side Extensions.  These extensions are part of the XenApp Mobility Pack .zip file.

This policy is located under ICA\Client Sensors\Location. Notice that by default, location is disabled.

Citrix XenApp 6.5 Mobile Application SDK

So, the requirements for the Citrix XenApp 6.5 Mobile Application SDK state that you need Windows 7 64 bit (and the MSI is even named XenApp65MobileApplicationSdk64), but it installs to ..\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\MobilitySDK\.  I tried installing the SDK on a Windows 7 32 bit system as well and it worked, so I’m not sure if something absolutely will not work on 32 bit.

I’m using Visual Studio for the examples.  It appears that Visual Studio Express (free) will work as well, but I haven’t tested that myself.

Anyway, the documentation that comes with the SDK is pretty comprehensive so I’m not going to rehash it here.  Since I will be showing you some of the examples using .Net, I do want to point out that you will need to run one of the following commands on your development machine in order for things to work:

Regsvr32 cmpcom.dll

Regsvr32 cmpcom64.dll

Notice that there is a 32 bit or a 64 bit DLL register. So again, not sure why Windows 7 64bit is a requirement for development. Anyway, make sure you run the appropriate command above as administrator, otherwise you may receive an error stating “The module was loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with error code 0×80070005” (which is a permissions error).

Compiling Examples

The final part of this article will focus on compiling and using the examples that come with the SDK.  The one I’m going to point out here is the picker example.  This example uses the native device’s UI to display a list of options.  The example is actually a console application that has no graphics, so it is actually using the local device’s display mechanisms rather than trying to do some trickery on the XenApp server side.  So, here we go…

1. Browse to \Program Files (x86)\Citrix\MobilitySDK\samples\native\showpicker
2. Double click on showpicker.sln to open the solution in Visual Studio
3. Build the solution by pressing F6
4. This will create an executable in \Program Files (x86)\Citrix\MobilitySDK\samples\native\Win32\Debug\showpicker.exe
5. Copy this showpicker.exe to your XenApp 6.5 server (I copied mine to \Program Files (x86)\Mobility\picker\showpicker.exe)
6. Publish the application via Citrix AppCenter
7. Launch the published application using an Android device (or emulator) with the latest Citrix Receiver installed.

NOTE: You may receive an error message that states “The program can’t start because MSVCR100D.dll is missing from your computer…”  Here’s why – the solution was built in debug mode.  Thus, debug DLL’s (notice the “D” in the DLL name) need to be on the XenApp 6.5 server.  Here is what you can do:

Copy:

• From: \Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\redist\Debug_NonRedist\x86\Microsoft.VC100.DebugCRT\msvcr100d.dll on your development machine
• To: \Windows\SysWOW64\msvcr100d.dll on your XenApp 6.5 server

• Jeff Muir - Debugging XAMA SDK Applications
• Andrew Borzycki - Debugging applications remotely with Visual Studio

The Result

Here is what the end result looks like.

Once you pick one of the colors, the console application will give you feedback on the chosen item.  When the appropriate receiver is available for iOS, then the native iOS selector would be shown with no code changes on the developer’s part.  That is pretty cool!

In the next article on this topic, I will show you how to use mobile device orientation to change what is displayed to an end user.  The example will include data and graphics.  Stay tuned…

As of this writing, only the Android version of the Citrix Receiver is supported (iOS is on the way).  Since I do not own any Android devices and I was anxious to get started, I had to set up an emulator and install the Citrix Receiver to get going with the SDK.  Here is how I did it.

Install the Android SDK

Go to the Android SDK download page (http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html) and pick the correct installer for your platform. I’m using Windows, so I chose the .exe installer file.  After you run this .exe, you still do not have the emulator.  The reason for this is the Android SDK archive initially contains only the basic SDK tools. It does not contain an Android platform or any third-party libraries. You must install the Platform-tools and at least one version of the Android platform using the SDK Manager.

I installed the Android SDK Platform-tools and all options for Android 4.0.3.

After the install completes, be sure to add %ProgramFiles%\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools to your PATH environment variable.  This will be handy later for installing the Citrix Receiver.

Create an Android Virtual Device

After the installs complete, you can launch Android Virtual Device Manager (AVD Manager). This can be found in the Windows start menu under Android SDK Tools \ AVD Manager. AVD Manager is used to create various virtual devices running the Android OS.

As you can see, I created an Android 4.0.3 device with 100 MiB of local storage. The more storage you add to your AVD, the longer it will take to boot. Since this AVD is only being used for XenApp 6.5 testing, I only allocated 100 MiB. The first boot of your AVD will take a little longer than subsequent boots.

Download the Citrix Receiver for Android

Now that we have a functioning Android emulator, we need to get the Citrix Receiver installed. The first thing we need to do is download the .apk (Android Package) file. Normally, I would just go to http://www.citrix.com/receiver and choose “Android”. But, as of this writing, when you do that, you are redirected to the Android Marketplace. Unfortunately, Android Marketplace does not work on the Android Emulator. So, here is what you can do instead:
Go to http://www.citrix.com/downloads and choose “Receiver for Android” from the drop down list. From there, you can select the Android client and download the .apk.

Install the Citrix Receiver for Android

Ok, so now we have a functioning Android emulator and the Citrix Receiver downloaded. The final step is to install the Citrix Receiver onto the emulator. Here’s how:

1. Copy the .apk file to %ProgramFiles%\Android\android-sdk\tools
2. Open a command prompt and change the directory to %ProgramFiles%\Android\android-sdk\tools
3. With the AVD you created running, execute the following command:

adb install <name of Citrix Receiver>.apk

You now have a fully functional Citrix Receiver running on an Android emulator.  My next post shows you how to set up a development environment to utilize the Mobile Application SDK and compile some of the examples.

Turning a Hobby and a Passion into a Job

All that being said, joining Splunk allows me to turn a hobby and a passion into a full-time job.  On top of that, I get to work with a close friend, co-presenter, and fellow CTP/MVP Brandon Shell on a daily basis.  We will be working on building Splunk solutions around the Citrix Enterprise stack.

What Lies Ahead

This website is going to stick around and I’ll be writing more articles and open-source code.  I also plan on writing some Splunk articles here and on the official Splunk blogs.  I’m looking forward to what’s ahead!

Brian Madden wrote an analysis on this acquisition already, but I wanted to share how this service can be used to supplement a Citrix Service Provider’s (CSP) architecture. 

File Transfer to the Cloud

One challenge that many CSP subscribers face is data upload to the cloud.  Now, Citrix has client drive mapping that can help transfer files from the subscriber’s local workstation to the CSP cloud, but explaining the nuances of client drive redirection to subscribers can be a challenge.  Plus, the Citrix virtual channel for client drive mapping is not optimized for file transfers.

Now, image if the subscriber had a special folder on their workstation where they can put a file and it “magically” shows up in the CSP cloud.  That would be cool and ShareFile makes this possible (to be fair, DropBox could be used to do the same thing).

Mobile Device Synchronization and Offline File Access

People use multiple devices to access CSP cloud resources.  Imagine ShareFile synchronization components being available as a Citrix Receiver plugin.  Then, certain files could be made available on mobile devices.  Picture this, you need to access an Excel spreadsheet you created in the CSP’s cloud from your iPad and you do not have WiFi or 3G access available.  Normally, you would be out of luck.  But, if this file was synchronized to your iPad via ShareFile, you would have mobile offline access to the file. 

Sharing Files with non-CSP Subscribers

ShareFile allows you to create a custom-branded, password-protected space where you can exchange business files with clients easily and securely.  This is kind of ShareFile’s forte.  CSP subscribers oftentimes want to share a file beyond the boundaries of the CSP’s firewall.  ShareFile makes this as easy as sending an email.  Since everything is encrypted along the way, could this also be used as a make-shift email encryption mechanism?  The following graphic depicts all the pieces together:

This utility is a PowerShell script that performs the following:

• Checks to see if XenApp 6.0 is installed or not, and if the XenApp 6.5 installer is available.
• Prompts for a password to silently run the install process after reboot.
• Uninstalls XenApp 6.0 components. By default these include the Online-Plugin, Management Consoles, and XenApp Application Delivery role. Other components are included in the script and can be enabled for automatic removal.
• Installs XenApp 6.5 and, by default, joins the server to the farm as a worker.
• Verifies the join is successful by checking to see if the IMA service is running.

You can download the tool from Citrix’s website -> http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130614

Note: before you get started, be sure to check out this post on how to install the Citrix XenApp 6 PowerShell Cmdlets.

Exporting Citrix XenApp 6 Published Applications

The first thing we need to do is export some published applications from an existing XenApp 6 farm. In this example, I will only export applications in a certain folder instead of the entire application inventory.

Get-XAApplicationReport * | ?{$_.FolderPath.StartsWith("Applications/Testing")} | Export-Clixml c:\testingApps.xml

Explanation

So, there are 3 parts to this export.

1. Get-XAApplicationReport gets all properties of a published application. If you are familiar with MFCOM, the Get-XAApplicationReport command is similar to calling LoadData(1) on an application object.

   FYI – There is a command called Get-XAApplication, but that command doesn’t get all properties of a published application.

   Anyway, if you don’t use the Get-XAApplicationReport command, you won’t get all your application properties and you will be sad.

2. ?{$_.FolderPath.StartsWith("Applications/Testing")} looks at each application object that Get-XAApplicationReport returns and filters out all applications whose folder path does not start with “Applications/Testing”.

   Note to Citrix – it would be nice to have some filtering built into the Get-XAApplicationReport command. You will notice in the example, that I have to get all the published applications in a farm and filter out what I do not want. That is a pretty expensive operation. It would be better to just get what I want from the get go.

3. Export-Clixml saves it all to a XML file called testingApps.xml.

Importing Citrix XenApp 6 Published Applications

Now that you have the applications exported to a XML file, you can import those applications to another farm. Here is one way to do this:

Import-XmlCli c:\testingApps.xml | New-XAApplication -ServerNames [servers] -WorkerGroupNames $null

The cool thing about this is that you can override settings during an import. For instance, the original farm I exported from had published applications assigned to Worker Groups rather than Servers. In the destination farm, I want to publish the applications to Servers rather than Worker Groups. You can actually override a multitude of properties during the import process which will make your life easier.

Note: if you do not create the folder structure beforehand, you will get the following error when you try to import:

New-XAApplication : Cannot find folder with path Applications/Testing (0x80160001)
At line:1 char:70
+ Import-Clixml C:\testingApps.xml | New-XAApplication <<<<
    + CategoryInfo : InvalidResult: (Applications/Testing:String) [New-XAApplication], CitrixException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ComApp.GetFolderId,Citrix.XenApp.Commands.NewAppCmdlet

So, check out this article on migrating a folder structure.

Note: before you get started, be sure to check out this post on how to install the Citrix XenApp 6 PowerShell Cmdlets.

Export Specified Folders

You can export your entire folder structure, or just certain parts of it.  In the example below, I will export only the “Testing” folder (see the screen shot below).

Here is how to export just the “Testing” folder and its subfolders using PowerShell to a XML file called “TestingFolders.xml”:

Get-XAFolder -FolderPath "Applications/Testing" -Recurse | Export-Clixml c:\TestingFolders.xml

Explanation

Well, the cool thing about PowerShell is that it is pretty readable, so I don’t think this command needs a lot of explanation. However, let’s look at the resulting XML file.

  Applications/Testing/Microsoft Office
  Applications/Testing/Sales
  Applications/Testing/Utilities
  Applications/Testing/Utilities/Microsoft
  Applications/Testing/Utilities/Citrix

No rocket science there either. It is just a list of folders. You could easily hand craft one of these XML files to create a folder structure. What I am going to do here is modify the folder path so that the folders get created in the “Applications/QA” folder and then save the file as “QAfolders.xml”. Here is what the XML file looks like now:

  Applications/QA/Microsoft Office
  Applications/QA/Sales
  Applications/QA/Utilities
  Applications/QA/Utilities/Microsoft
  Applications/QA/Utilities/Citrix

Import Folders

Now that you have your XML file, it is relatively easy to import. Here is how to do it:

Import-Clixml c:\QAFolders.xml | New-XAFolder

Here are the results:

Next Steps

So all this folder structure stuff is fine, but wouldn’t it be nice to import some apps into those folders? Of course it would. Here is how to export and import XenApp 6 published applications using PowerShell.

Here we go with the keynote:

Citrix announced today that they have acquired a Cloud control panel company called EMS Cortex. EMS Cortex makes a web-based cloud control panel that automates the provisioning of an array of Microsoft Products including Exchange, SharePoint, OCS, Web Hosting, SQL Server, DNS, RDS, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Hyper-V.  The EMS Cortex control panel also automates the provisioning of Citrix XenApp applications and desktops.  I am personally very excited about this news because I use Cortex in my current job at Xcentric.

What is EMS Cortex?

In a multi-tenant hosting environment, it is very important to have a strict provisioning routine to ensure consistency.  EMS Cortex makes a web-based control panel to automate the provisioning process used in multi-tenant hosting environments.  Cortex provisions Active Directory OUs, user accounts, groups, file shares, SharePoint sites, Citrix XenApp resources, etc.  Through the use of Cortex, you no longer have to visit multiple consoles to provision users – just set up the user in Cortex and the rest is taken care of.  This is good because Cortex removes the human error factor.

As I mentioned before, we use Cortex at Xcentric.  Cortex is the centralized provisioning engine for our multi-tenant hosting environment.  There are a lot of good things about Cortex and some things I wish I could change (I’ve already started talking with Cortex about the things I wish I could change).  I’m hopeful that we, the community, will see even more Citrix-focused integration points in future releases.

How EMS Cortex Works

Cortex is a multi-tier application consisting of the following components:

• SQL Database – for configuration, users, customers, auditing and reporting.
• Web Services – for real time interaction with Active Directory and other hosted services.
• Provisioning Engine – via Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ), provisioning requests are dispatched to the provisioning engine.

The Cortex web application is loosely coupled with the other Cortex components. This loose coupling provides several security benefits, as the web server has no dependency on Active Directory it can essentially operate outside of the managed domain.  Cortex can also manage multiple domains.

Image source: http://ems-cortex.com/architecture/how-cortex-works.aspx

What will Citrix do with EMS Cortex?

Now, the things I’m about to share are purely off the top of my head and are not necessarily the direction Citrix intends on taking this product (although I hope they do).

Virtual Machine automation – ok, I kind of cheated on this one because Cortex already integrates with Hyper-V.  But this automation is solely based on System Center Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager.  So, it would be cool to provision VMs for XenServer and *gasp* VMware.  SCVMM is somewhat sketchy with VMware ESX and vSphere and there is currently no SCVMM integration with XenServer (although, there were some screenshots of SCVMM and XenServer at Synergy last year – not sure where that is now).  So, either SCVMM will have to amp up on vendor support or Cortex will need to go native API for vendors besides Microsoft.

Cloud bursting – this one goes along with the Virtual Machine automation.  Citrix has been working with Amazon Web Services, SoftLayer, and even has their Citrix Cloud Center (C3).  So, it would be cool to see some hooks built in for platforms like these.  Imagine being able to provision an tenant in one of the vendor clouds instead of provisioning local resources.

Access Gateway Policy provisioning – Cortex provides a lot of self-service functionality for tenants.  It would be cool to give tenants the ability to define Access Gateway policies tailored to their own needs without the help of a system administrator.

XenDesktop integration – currently, Cortex only supports hosted apps and desktops via XenApp.  It would be nice to see integration with XenDesktop.

PowerShell – the current API for Cortex is a mixture of web services and a somewhat proprietary API for the  MSMQ.  It would be cool to see some PowerShell cmdlets to interface with the provisioning lifecycle.

Workflow Studio – Citrix Workflow Studio is all about infrastructure automation/orchestration.  Wouldn’t it be cool if Workflow Studio has activities to create a user that utilized the Cortex provisioning engine?  Workflow Studio already has an activity to create Active Directory users, but imagine an activity that used Cortex to create a user instead – thus provisioning all the other “stuff” like Exchange, SharePoint, file system, website access, etc. as well.  That would be cool.

Storage provisioning – one piece that we still have to provision manually at Xcentric is dedicated storage for each tenant.  It would be cool to see some kind of storage provisioning system – maybe pull in the StorageLink group?

Single tenant support – For the near term, the Cortex Cloud Control Panel will be offered as a standalone product on a subscription basis, as it was prior to the acquisition.  Cortex is great for multi-tenant environments, but it is also very helpful in a single tenant environment.  So, it would be cool to see Cortex rolled into one of the editions of XenDesktop or XenApp.

Postini integration – this is another feature that currently isn’t offered by Cortex.  Granted, Google gives you a cool utility to sync users with LDAP directories, but it would be even cooler if Cortex worked with Postini API’s directly.

I could keep making this list for a while.  Needless to say, I’m very excited about this acquisition.