Citrix Technical Videos site launches with how-to videos for Presentation Server

Written on Dec 10 2006 Filed under: Citrix, Videos 10,478 views, 13 comments

by Brian Madden

At BriForum in Washington last April, David Wagner, a Citrix Product Manager and I discussed the concept of technical "how-to" videos from Citrix. The idea was that the Citrix Presentation Server group wanted to create a series of short videos (20-45 min.) that talk about how different aspects of the product work, complete with hands-on examples. Think of this ultimately as something like a video admin guide.

Instead of creating these internally, Citrix is looking to the community. Right now several videos have been posted from Shawn Bass and me, and I know that Doug Brown and some other folks are working on more videos.

Whether this program continuea will depend on the success and reception of this first batch of videos. Quite frankly some of these videos may be "too basic" for many of this site's readers, but there are a lot of things that are pretty cool nonetheless. (And this is a great resource for bringing more people up to speed on these technologies. I know I personally have pointed several people to the farm design video when they asked me basic questions about the role of a data collector.)

Another one of my videos is about Citrix's SpeedScreen technologies, and in it I show side-by-side examples of the various aspects of SpeedScreen and the differences that can be seen over various connection speeds. This is a really cool example of how video can take this one step further than the instruction manual.

Right now there are seven videos posted that cover the following topics:

• Printing
• Citrix Policies
• Farm Design
• SpeedScreen Technologies
• Presentation Server Architecture
• Licensing
• Migrating from pure Terminal Services to Presentation Server.

One of the really cool things about these videos is that what is presented is up to the person creating the video, not Citrix. So even though these videos are of objective technical content, we (as the people making them) were given the freedom to say what we wanted and to present the content in the way that we wanted.

Unfortunately the Citrix Tech Videos website doesn't have a link for feedback, so I'd say if you have any ideas for future topics, please post them here and I'll pass them along. I can personally say that these videos were really fun to do, and I hope that this program grows.

Comments

Jeff Rohrer wrote PS 4.5

on 12-11-2006 1:48 PM

Are plans in the works for PS 4.5 videos?

Steve Demcher wrote Optimizing Printing Video

on 12-11-2006 2:57 PM

Watched the printing video. I found the portion of the video covering the use of PerfMon most educational. Shawn covered how to monitor printer bandwidth, which counters to select, which values to adjust to make sense out of the data, what happens when you apply or don't printer bandwidth policies. I would like to see a video detailing, Scripting with MFCOM. Great job to all involved!
 
Steve - NJ

Brian Madden wrote Upcoming Video Ideas

on 12-11-2006 4:33 PM

I can with with confidence that any newly-produced videos will focus on Presentation Server 4.5. Most (if not all) of these initial seven also apply to PS 4.5 environments.

I know that Citrix isn't doing anymore this month, but I think they will do another batch after the first of the year. Topics have not yet been chosen, but here's a list of potential ideas that I floated:


x64 Presentation Server
The new Access Management Console (or whatever they end up calling the MMC-based management console)
Web Interface 4.5
Program Neighborhood Agent
Advanced Load Management
How session reliability works and is configured
Using the MOM management pack
Understanding the new CPSCOM scripting interface
PS 4.5 admin configuration change logging


Like I said, this is just a bunch of random ideas I had. Which ones would you like to see?

Brian

Tony Agona wrote RE: PS 3

on 12-11-2006 7:57 PM

Hi everyone including Mr Madden
I am a Citrix newbie n an MCSA. Just want to thank Brian very much for the awesome video presentation on the installation of Presentation Server 3. They are unselfish tecnies like Brian who make life easy for IT Pros the world over! I would like to ask anybody or Brian for some clarification on the installation.........Do you have to change the User Mode of Terminal Services to Install when doing this (installing Metaframe FR3)?? Also in application installation on the Metaframe, do you have to change the TS mode too?? Is it a good idea to run the Metaframe on a DC?? Does the server have to necessarily be a member server in a domain or just a stand alone server?? I have an EVAL Metframe XPe on a standalone server in a workgroup and the domain defaults to the local machine........can you use this in a production enviroment like this workgroup or even domain.....Apologies for asking too many questions the forst time round.
Tony Agona MCSA/MCP/A+/Network+/Security+/C&G

Patrick Rouse wrote RE: PS 3

on 12-11-2006 11:52 PM

Terminal Server and Citrix Presentation Server work fine on a standalone server, however if an Active Directory Environment exists, it's best to make the TS a member server so you can take advantage of Group Policy and maintain one set of credentials.

Whenever possible, terminal server should not be installed on a domain controller.  Citrix PS4 will not install on a domain controller. Instances where TS is installed on a DC are when small offices are putting in their first server for a limited number of users, have no plans for growth and limited budget.  Customers like this who want to use Citrix can use Access Essentials, which can be installed on a single server, even a DC.

If you want to test the latest version of Citrix Presentation Server, a developer edition of PS4 can be downloaded for free from www.mycitrix.com.  There's also a tech preview of 4.5 available.

robert nelson wrote RE: Upcoming Video Ideas

on 12-14-2006 5:18 PM

I'd like to see them in this order from most interested in to least.
 
 
The new Access Management Console (or whatever they end up calling the MMC-based management console)
How session reliability works and is configured
Advanced Load Management
Web Interface 4.5
Program Neighborhood Agent
Understanding the new CPSCOM scripting interface
PS 4.5 admin configuration change logging
Using the MOM management pack
x64 Presentation Server

 
Thanks for the videos Brian and Shawn, this is a great idea. Very great.

Milo Gancarz wrote The printing video is recorded with very low sound volume

on 12-26-2006 6:51 PM

One of the videos is recorded very quietly - in comparison to other videos.  With both the WM player and the general system sound volume on 100%, I could hardly hear Shawn Bass in his Optimizing Printing in Presentation Server 4 environments video.  There was no way to comment on the Citrix site - would the author or someone else mind asking the Citrix folks to correct this?
 
Thanks
Milo Gancarz
 
The video link from Citrix site is (hi res) http://mfile.akamai.com/8296/wmv/citrix.download.akamai.com/8296/TechVidEnc/Configuring_Printing_in_PS4_high.wmv

Tony Agona wrote RE: PS 3

on 01-04-2007 3:44 PM

Hi all maybe someone can help me here. What is the simplest way to publish a citrix recource in a public network. Is it mandatory that the PS is protected by a Secure gateway server? Do you need to install and enable web extensions to use the use the secure gateway in PS3 and PS4.......BTW what server is actually published to the internet??  The Secure Gateway or the Web interface?? I have tried using the configuring the SG from the server side firewallsetting in the WI admin console with no success!! I keed getting the error message the the TA is unavailable ...I have installed and configurewd the SGS/TA/Web Interface integrated with the PS....is there something I need to do.......Web extension???/

Brian Madden wrote RE: PS 3

on 01-04-2007 5:08 PM

Please do not post technical questions here. Instead, post them to the appropriate forum at [link=http:
Thanks,
Brian

Guest wrote [Deleted]

on 01-05-2007 1:52 PM

From Holland wrote cannot

on 01-25-2007 10:07 AM

cannot be found link is dead? any one a copy for me or new location?

Guest wrote Thanks for the videos

on 04-24-2007 11:42 AM

I would like to thank both Brian and citrix for making these videos. I am new to citrix and am taking my CCA & found these videos very helpful. Looking forward to the new videos

Guest wrote Dead link

on 10-10-2008 3:10 AM

The link dosn't seem to be working anymore. Anyone know if these have been moved to a new location on the site?

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