SQL Server Magazine

For many years, Citrix Systems' MetaFrame thin-client solution has helped administrators manage enterprise applications from a central location and has let users access those applications from just about anywhere. Citrix recently released a new version of its thin-client solution called Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0. This new version comes on the heels of its predecessor, Citrix MetaFrame XP Presentation Server, Feature Release 3 (FR3), which Citrix released only a year earlier. The close proximity of these two versions begs the question: Should you upgrade to MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 if you just upgraded to MetaFrame XP Presentation Server FR3? What about if you're still using MetaFrame XP FR2 or earlier-is an upgrade advisable then? To help answer these questions, let's look at the enhancements that both versions have brought to this thin-client solution. The enhancements new to MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 include

The enhancements added to MetaFrame XP Presentation Server FR3 and still present in MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 include

Centralized Licensing
The Citrix licensing software is a much-needed add-on that has finally arrived. This software, which ships with MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0, gives you a central point from which to manage the licenses for all Citrix products. You can install the Citrix licensing software on any server; it doesn't need to be installed on a dedicated box. For example, I installed the licensing software on the server that runs MetaFrame's Independent Management Architecture (IMA) data store.

You manage and monitor the licenses through the License Management Console, which is a Web-based application. You can track license usage in real time, or you can run reports on historical license usage. You can even set alerts to notify you when licenses are about to expire.

Better Delegation of Administrative Roles
As your server farm grows and spreads out geographically, the need for more specific delegation of administrative roles arises. MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 addresses this need by letting you customize permissions based on servers or applications. For example, suppose you have administrators throughout the world. You can grant your administrators in Europe the privileges necessary to manage the servers in Europe but disable their ability to control the servers in North America and vice versa.

To assign administrative privileges to a specific group of servers, first open the Management Console for Presentation Server 3.0, right-click the Servers node, click Create New Folder, name the folder, and add the servers you want this administrator to manage to the folder. Then, click the MetaFrame Administrators node, right-click the administrator's name, and click Properties. In the Properties dialog box, select Permissions in the left pane. As Figure 1 shows, you can then expand the Servers node, select the folder you created, and assign the administrative privileges in the right pane.

Improved Session Reliability
Have you ever had a session on your PC drop because your IP connection failed for a split second? Have you ever had a session on your wireless handheld device drop because you lost the signal? When a session loses network connectivity in MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0, the session freezes instead of drops. The session freezes until the network connection is restored (at which time you can again access the GUI) or the specified wait period ends. (By default, the session will freeze and wait up to 180 seconds for the connection to be restored. If the connection isn't restored in that time frame, the session drops.)

Session Reliability is enabled by default. If you want to disable this feature or modify the wait period, open the Management Console for Presentation Server 3.0, right-click your server-farm node, then click Properties. In the Properties dialog box, select Session Reliability in the left pane. As Figure 2 shows, you can then disable Session Reliability or change the wait period in the right pane.

New SpeedScreen-Based Features
SpeedScreen is a technology that Citrix created to improve the performance of published applications over slow communications links. You'll find a new SpeedScreen-based feature or an improvement to an existing one in almost every major release. For example, in MetaFrame XP Presentation Server FR3, Citrix introduced SpeedScreen Browser Acceleration, and in MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0, Citrix introduced SpeedScreen Flash Acceleration and SpeedScreen Multimedia Acceleration. These three features are important enhancements.

SpeedScreen Browser Acceleration improves the performance of published applications that use GIF and JPEG images in HTML pages. Examples of such applications include Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 5.5 or later, Microsoft Outlook, and Outlook Express. SpeedScreen Browser Acceleration causes the HTML pages to load text first so that you have immediate access to the information. As the HTML pages receive the image packets in the background, the image starts to progressively compose until you see the completed sharp image. The HTML pages also enable responsive scrolling, which means you can start scrolling immediately-you don't have to wait until the page loads in its entirety.

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