Some people have had trouble downloading the XenDesktop Beta (Feb 2008) and I concluded that at least I could help by providing the XenDesktop Getting Started Guide online. The guide is provided with the download kit so this is really just a preview of what you are going to get if you haven’t downloaded already or are having trouble getting it.

The guide is thirty six pages long and includes a couple of diagrams that help explain what XenDesktop is composed of and how it actually works.

The simplistic view of how it fits together is depicted here:

Click this thumbnail to expand. A more detailed view of the components is this:

Just for reference, the PortICA team works on providing the remoting of ICA with XP and Vista from the virtual machines running on XenServer. In this case our software will be running inside VMs on XenServer 2.

The included components in XenDesktop Beta are:

All Citrix components are supplied on the XenDesktop Beta installation ISO images. It is important that you use these versions and not versions that you may have previously acquired.

• Citrix Desktop Delivery Controller Beta.
• Citrix Provisioning Server 4.5 (This is the generic version and it is not specific to this beta release)
• Citrix XenDesktop Setup Tool 2.0 Beta
• Citrix XenServer 4.1 Enterprise Edition Beta
• Citrix Presentation Server Client (XenDesktop) Beta 10.230. (This client incorporates advanced features that are specific to this beta release)
• • XenCenter 4.1 – Beta

Instead of repeating much of what is in the PDF document for Getting Started, I will recommend that you read it instead.

I’ll leave you with some tips from the document that may help.

The document states that it will take about a day to setup this environment. You will need at least four physical machines to test this environment (2 XenServer, 1 XenCenter, and 1 Endpoint). You will need a test domain controller and you will need real copies of either XP or Vista to put on XenServer virtual machines. XenServer 1 runs the infrastructure for getting things working. XenServer 2 runs the actual virtual desktops.

For those of you who are wondering what is new between this Beta and the previous Tech Preview Kit, there is a section towards the bottom of the document that explains:

What’s New in the XenDesktop Beta
XenDesktop Beta is the successor to the XenDesktop Tech Preview Kit. The main changes are listed below.

Vista Support
This release supports both Windows XP and Windows Vista virtual desktops. This means that you can use an
XP endpoint to run a full-screen-only-mode Vista virtual desktop. Vista endpoints are also supported.
Note: Differences in the XP and Vista installation procedures are clearly shown where they occur. See to
the section Installation and Configuration Procedures for details.

User connection experience
The main use case in this release is for the full-screen-only-mode display of virtual desktops on an endpoint device. In this mode, when a user connects to a virtual desktop, the desktop is displayed as a full screen on the user’s machine. The user experience is nearly identical to that produced by using standard Windows XP or Windows Vista locally.

Enhanced XenDesktop Setup Tool Beta
The new XenServer Setup Tool automates many time-consuming setup tasks including:
• Running discovery
• Creating Web sites for Web Interface and the Program Neighborhood Agent service
• Publishing Desktops

What’s happened to…
• Desktop Server – Desktop Server has been renamed as Desktop Delivery Controller.
• Web Interface – Web Interface is still part of XenDesktop, but it is no longer a separately installable product. Web Interface and it related components do not need to be configurable as part of the standard installation procedures.

Supported Active Directory Modes
Active Directory in Windows Server 2003 can now run in both native mode and mixed mode. Previously only native mode was supported. Multiple domain controllers are not supported for this Beta.

ICA features
The following ICA features are available on this beta release through the Citrix ICA Service:
• Session reliability
• SpeedScreen Image Acceleration
• SpeedScreen Browser Acceleration
• Endpoint device drive, LPT, and COM port mapping
• Printing using the Universal Printer Driver
• Secure ICA
• Audio is available when connecting to Windows XP desktops, but not those running on Windows Vista
• Multimonitor support
• Microsoft ClearType support

There is no support for the following ICA features:
• Smart card authentication
• Kerberos single sign-on
• TWAIN mapping
• USB PDA synchronization
• SmartAuditor
• SpeedScreen Multimedia Remoting
• SpeedScreen Flash Acceleration

That’s probably enough information for this one post. There might be more XenDesktop Beta posts coming out later.

For those of you following XenDesktop news, there is now confirmation that the XenDesktop Beta has begun. This is not to be confused with the Citrix XenDesktop Tech Preview which came out last year. Internally this is viewed as being the second wave of XenDesktop made available to customers.

From a very simplistic level, here is how it works. It is interesting that VDI is mentioned on this page.

Confused? Hopefully your question is on the XenDesktop FAQ.

One of the questions seems a bit confusing itself:

	Q	How does Citrix Desktop Server relate to VMware and VDI?
	A	Citrix Desktop Server is a complementary enabler for VMware solutions. VMware has defined the concept of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to describe the use of their ESX Server 3.0 when hosting desktop OS instances. CDS is complementary to VMware’s VDI by fulfilling the role of a connection broker, providing managed- and secure-access to a virtual desktop. For the additional functionality required to build a full VDI solution, VMware has created a partner ecosystem that includes Citrix. Citrix Desktop Server, along with other Citrix products, can be used to deliver a complete VDI solution.

Citrix Desktop Server is the old name. XenDesktop is the new name. Well, the Citrix Desktop Server name is still being used internally and is considered different from XenDesktop in nature. However, I think this will only confuse the market when mentioned externally. There should only be one product definition.

Q	How is Citrix XenDesktop different from Citrix Desktop Server?
	A	Citrix XenDesktop is a new product line. It is an integrated desktop delivery system that includes the next release of Desktop Server technologies, Xen virtualization infrastructure, and virtual desktop provisioning.

The news from the FAQ which is new to me is the dropping of DDI acronym and the acceptance of the VDI term.

Getting back to the point, XenDesktop Beta is now available for trial. For at least a month the Sydney and UK team have worked hard to close down issues for the Beta. It is great that it is now being released.

If you would like the shortcut to the download page, here it is.