Designing and Deployinga Citrix BasedEnterprise GIS

Bob MiltonCalifornia State Office

FY 2009 Architecture Data Center in Sacramento

5 Citrix servers, 64 bit OS Upgrading to Xeon 5500 In June

Dell/EMC Storage Area Network 15 Tb of GIS data

SqlServer 2005 AD Kerberos Pass-through Authentication Access controlled through AD groups

40 concurrent users (Average) 300+ Users

Life Cycle

Existing Bureau lifecycle Servers => 5 years Desktops => 3

years

Citrix Server

ObjectiveMatch or exceed Desktop

performance

Recommended Lifecycle with Citrix: Servers => 3 years Desktops => 5

years

Sizing Current version of ArcGis is 32 bit, and not

well threaded Many GIS operations will fully saturate a core ,

which affects other pre-existing threads on that core

Example:Editors performing 5 minute edit operations between “saves”Someone launches several exports to pdf

Citrix Server

SizingTypical Load

2 duo cores

Typical Load +5 new exports to pdf

2 duo cores

Existing threads spread among the cores

Pre-existing threads are impacted

Citrix Server

Sizing ESRI Recommendations:“…. it is recommended to use Intel Xeon

5470 3330 MHz 8 core (2 quad-core chips) with 48 GB RAM ……. and can provide capacity for up to 120 concurrent Citrix users …..”

My Recommendation:Unless you segregate your users

Don’t Do it!

Citrix Server

Sizing

EitherDesign for overcapacity (Its cheap!)

OrSegregate your users between Real

time processing needs (editing) from near Batch processing needs (Display,

Query, Analysis)

Citrix Server

ICA App

ICA Print

WWW

FTP

Copy

W

A

N

ICA App

ICA PrintWWWFTPCopy

Router

True Quality of Service Implementation (QOS)

ICA App

ICA Print

WWW

FTP

Copy

Router

CASO

FieldOffice

• Service level agreement with ISP specifies latency criteria

Prioritized TrafficISP

Address latency not bandwidth!

Distance Matters!

ICA App

ICA Print

WWW

FTP

Copy

W

A

N

ICA App

ICA PrintWWWFTPCopy

Router

NetworkingQuality of Service Implementation

ICA App

ICA Print

WWW

FTP

Copy

Router

CASO

FieldOffice

• ICA Application is segregated from ICA printing

• Bulk traffic is restricted to use no more than 80% of the “pipe”

• Latency should remain <100 ms during peak loads

Traffic Shaping

ICA App

ICA Print

WWW

FTP

Copy

W

A

N

ICA App

FBMS

ICA PrintWWWFTPCopy

Router

ICA App

ICA Print

WWW

FTP

Copy

Router

CASO

FieldOffice

• Don’t oversubscribe the “reserved” pipe

NetworkingQuality of Service Implementation

Problem

Fileservers

Tape

Backup

ArcSDEcasovct

Citrix/WTS

1 Gb Switch

DiskSAN

Citrix Design

Local Domain Control•Data Centers offer many services that need to be authenticated

•Many services and scripts run AD LDAP queries(Ex: what office is a user from?)

•Local Domain Controls reduces lag and

Improves

Performance

Keyb

oard

and

mou

seAppl

icat

ion

Displ

ay

ArcSDEcasodev

4Gb Switch

GisServer

ImageServer

ArcSDEcasoext

Test

Data Center AD Domain Controller

DC

DC

WAN

Kerberos Authentication

Citrix DesignTerminal Service Profile

•Provide a consistent user Profile•Deploy Enterprise Settings

•Stored in profile

•Exception: Test ServersX:\Documents and Settings\userid

\\blm\dfs\ca\so\eGIS_Profiles\userid

Fileserver Citrix Farm

X:\Documents and Settings\userid\ Application Data\ESRI\ArcCatalog

Test

Test

Test

Standardizing BuildsObjectives

Keep all servers in a build identical Minimize the number of active

builds Some uncooperative apps may have to

be on a separate build

Do Not Manually Change Production Servers

Standardizing BuildsMicrosoft Deployment Toolkit 2008

Operating system deployment• Virus• OS Patches• Scheduled jobs

Installs and configures the OS including installing Citrix.

Standardizing BuildsCitrix Installation Management

• Automation• Can quickly build new servers (including

virtual)• Same order and procedure every time

• Standardization• All servers built from the process are

guaranteed to be the same• Systems build documentation

• Build steps are used to document the system configuration

Agent Deployment &

Launched through Start Menu

Or Desktop Icons

(Seamless Application Window)

Start > All Programs > Citrix > Arcgis

Launching Apps:

Browser Deployment

http://ilmcasoctws.blm.doi.net/

Launching Apps:

Configuration Management and Testing

All system changes are managed through CM

Request for change (ex: ArcGis extension) Test (A virtual server is created for each test) Approve or Deny (duplicates, doesn’t work, causes

problems) DeployUsers access the test server through:Start > All Programs > Citrix > Test

Managing printers and plotters

Use Native drivers for plotters, and primary GIS printers

Manage Drivers•The local print server, local client, and all Citrix servers should use the same driver

•Use old Citrix print naming convention. (The new naming convention includes the session id in the print name which is then stored in the .mxd.

Folder/File DesignStatewide Folders\\blm\dfs\ca\gisimage

Office Folders\\blm\dfs\ca\oo\

gisimage

User Folders\\blm\dfs\ca\oo\loc\

MyCitrix

•Field Offices manage their Folders•All folders are physically in Sacramento

Implementation Started in the fall of 2004 Complete migration of all GIS data and

work to a Citrix base EGIS architecture

Staggered Office by Office Implementation (16 Field Offices, 30+ Remote Offices)

Target, 1 office cutover per week Migrated office “as is”. No data

Cleanup

Field Office setup Citrix client, User folders, print drivers)

Backup Field Office Data Restore to Data Center User Orientation, Citrix FAQ File Replication, Turn off shares, Redirect Dfs links and M:\ drive

mapping

Field Office Citrix Deployment

1

WEEK

1 Hour

No Change to data pathingNo broken .mxd’s

Design Considerations

Open Architecture Publish command prompt, explorer,

etc User acceptance window Staggered implementation