On-Boarding With Citrix NetScaler Cloud Bridge

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Intel® Cloud Builders Guide to Cloud Design and Deployment on Intel® Platforms Cloud On-boarding with Citrix NetScaler Cloud Bridge Audience and Purpose For enterprise IT professionals looking to move data, applications, or integrated solutions from the data center to the cloud, it is often useful to start with the knowledge and experience gained from previous work. This reference architecture describes cloud on-boarding and why it is important. The paper discusses on-boarding considerations, as well as the key software tools and applications to make the effort successful. Finally, the paper presents an example of on-boarding a complex application in the enterprise data center to an external cloud. This example is shown with detailed descriptions and screen shots. This paper should minimize the learning curve for moving enterprise applications to the cloud and highlight important issues to consider before undertaking cloud on- boarding. Intel® Cloud Builders Guide Intel® Xeon® Processor-based Servers Cloud On-boarding with Citrix NetScaler Cloud Bridge Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 Series Intel® Xeon® Processor 5600 Series

Transcript of On-Boarding With Citrix NetScaler Cloud Bridge

Intel® Cloud Builders Guide to Cloud Design and Deployment on Intel® PlatformsCloud On-boarding with Citrix NetScaler Cloud Bridge

Audience and PurposeFor enterprise IT professionals looking to move data, applications, or integrated solutions from the data center to the cloud, it is often useful to start with the knowledge and experience gained from previous work. This reference architecture describes cloud on-boarding and why it is important. The paper discusses on-boarding considerations, as well as the key software tools and applications to make the effort successful. Finally, the paper presents an example of on-boarding a complex application in the enterprise data center to an external cloud. This example is shown with detailed descriptions and screen shots. This paper should minimize the learning curve for moving enterprise applications to the cloud and highlight important issues to consider before undertaking cloud on-boarding.

 

Intel® Cloud Builders GuideIntel® Xeon® Processor-based ServersCloud On-boarding with Citrix NetScaler Cloud Bridge

Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 Series

Intel® Xeon® Processor 5600 Series

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The Need for On-Boarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Typical Use Cases for Cloud On-Boarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Considerations for Cloud On-Boarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Architecture for Cloud On-boarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Implementation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Citrix Open Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Citrix Open Cloud Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Citrix Open Cloud Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Implementation Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Citrix Open Cloud On-Boarding Solution Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Use Case Overview and Test Bed Blueprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Solution Stack for On-Boarding Reference Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Software Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

System Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Hardware Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Technical Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Installation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Data Center Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Cloud Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Use Case Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Use Case Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Execution and Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Set up and Prepare the Data Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

User Requests Applications from Citrix XenApp in Data Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

NetScaler Cloud Bridge Configuration for Data Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

NetScaler Cloud Bridge Configuration for Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Migrate Application from Data Center to Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Instantiate Application in Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

User Accesses Citrix XenApp in Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Things to Consider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Cloud Provisioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Scalability and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Downtime Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Application State. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Network Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

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Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Appendix A: NetScaler Cloud Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Appendix B: Software Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Executive SummaryMoving applications to the cloud can be complex, but upfront planning, useful migration tools, and experience can help simplify the process. Many factors must be considered when moving an application to the cloud: application components, network stack, management, security, and orchestration. Cloud on-boarding is the deployment or migration of data, applications, or integrated solutions of compute, storage, and network resources to a public, private, or hybrid cloud. On-boarding addresses business needs, such as a spike in demand, business continuity, and capacity optimization. Enterprises can use on-boarding to address capacity demands without the need to deploy additional infrastructure. Cloud on-boarding should be considered in the design of overarching, enterprise-wide, cloud infrastructure that supports internal, external, and federated clouds. It provides a very compelling usage for enterprises who want to maximize the elastic capabilities of cloud computing.

This paper summarizes a complete example of cloud on-boarding, as it demonstrates on-boarding of a multipart Citrix XenApp* installation from the data center to a private cloud. The exercise uses Citrix NetScaler Cloud Bridge technology. Citrix XenApp is an on-demand application delivery solution that manages applications in the data center and delivers them instantly to users anywhere, using any device. Citrix XenApp is configured to host Microsoft Office 2010* applications available to client users upon request. The Citrix XenApp installation is a multiple virtual machine (VM) workload that includes an application server, a Web portal, and a database backend. During the on-boarding, the application server VM is migrated to the cloud, and the remaining portions of the application stay in the data center. During the exercise, the most

difficult step was the establishment of full network transparency between the data center and the cloud. In short, we give system administrators a solution to move applications to the cloud seamlessly with minimum manual effort.

Introduction

Cloud on-boarding is the deployment or migration of entire applications, or parts of applications (typically packaged as virtual machines), normally run on internal organizational compute resources, to another internal or external cloud in order to address a spike in demand for business continuity or to optimize capacity.

Before an application can be successfully on-boarded into a cloud, several things must be taken into account. The application itself likely consists of far more components than will initially appear, and some of these components, especially those like directory services that are shared by other applications, likely cannot be moved to the cloud. Therefore, you must establish secure connectivity between the enterprise and the cloud data center. Additionally, you must ensure that mechanisms for applications running in the cloud can continue to use application components still residing in the enterprise. You must also consider the conversion—be it physical-to-virtual (P2V) or virtual-to-virtual (V2V)—from the way the applications run in the enterprise to how they will run within the cloud. As the application essentially runs across different data centers, you need centralized management mechanisms. The general premise of cloud on-boarding is to allow the cloud to act as an additional resource or extension of the data center for the following reasons:

• For occasions when the data center becomes overloaded by demand spikes

• For cost-effective capacity management and seamless load balancing

• For disaster recovery and failure mitigation

On-boarding provides the opportunity to scale not just based on basic aspects such as load, but on real world metrics such as the quality of experience and service (QoS). Cloud on-boarding aligns the traditional safe enterprise computing model with cloud computing; it migrates into the cloud when necessary or accesses the cloud when additional compute resources are required.

The beginning of this paper presents the way cloud on-boarding can address specific needs. It then describes typical use cases for cloud on-boarding and general items to consider before on-boarding applications. Later the paper explains an on-boarding architecture, and how to implement on-boarding. A complete use case example of cloud on-boarding, including details of the setup and installation, follows and the paper concludes with additional items to consider.

The Need for On-BoardingCloud on-boarding addresses three basic needs for an enterprise virtual data center.

First, companies rarely need additional capacity to handle demand spikes (which typically manifest as overload); investing internally to handle peak loads means investment in mostly unused capacity.

Second, companies are hesitant to move all infrastructures to a cloud-computing provider due to security and stability concerns. Cloud bursting, or the extension of the data center on demand based on policy that monitors load, QoS, and so on, alleviates some of the reluctance to shift to a cloud because it provides a hybrid model for enterprises. Cloud on-boarding is a pre-requisite for cloud bursting.

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Third, companies occasionally have a need to migrate an executing workload from one cloud to another based on usage of resources and performance (network bandwidth, storage, management, security, and so on), in which case on-boarding is not triggered by load overflow; instead there is a need for live migration to optimize the resource utilization.

Not all demand spikes on the enterprise virtual data center infrastructure are the same, and there are different characteristics that determine the spikes.

Periodic peaks. These occur multiple times during certain times of the year, for example, quarter finance close, and have two to four times the amount of loads. Peak-to-average ratio of load is 3 to 4, and cloud bursting could be a good option.

Random peaks. These are hard to plan for, especially if the usage is long downloads like software bits, catalogs, pricing sheets, etc. Enterprises typically smooth these spikes out to enhance utilization and to reduce infrastructure costs. Migration to a cloud service provider helps to smooth the spike, and also potentially reduces costs.

One-time, unforeseeable events. These have unpredictable timing and amplitude. Launch of new products, special announcements, natural disasters, scandals, etc. can increase demand on enterprise websites and potentially create a “request surge” at the origin site. Similarly, time-sensitive events drive demand and produce load peaks, and the overflow capacity of the cloud can help.

Today, enterprises handle these by over provisioning the infrastructure. Enterprises can take advantage of on-boarding to the overflow capacity in the cloud, and avoid deployment of enterprise infrastructure for this aggregate demand.

Typical Use Cases for Cloud On-BoardingLet’s explore three typical use case scenarios for cloud on-boarding.

Use case 1: On-boarding simple, self-contained applications or virtual machines. The migration and instantiation of a single, integrated, virtualized application such as a static web application, and simple, self-contained applications, into an external or public cloud.

Use case 2: On-boarding multiple-VM workloads with storage and services residing in the enterprise: the instantiation of a multi-VM workload with interconnections to storage and other enterprise applications. One or more VMs of the workload are migrated to the cloud, but storage and other services (infrastructure, database, and so on) still reside in the enterprise. Network transparency between the two clouds enables seamless execution.

Use case 3: On-boarding multiple-VM workloads with storage: the migration and instantiation of an integrated number of applications and a virtualized workload that interconnect with storage also located in the cloud. This involves the migration of both application workloads and storage to the cloud.

The emphasis of this paper is on the first two use cases, and these will be explained in the following sections.

Considerations for Cloud On-BoardingCloud on-boarding can be complicated; it can require the redesign or re-architecture of application components, network stack, management, security, or orchestration, all dependent upon the application and infrastructure intricacies and complexities.

Before an application can be successfully on-boarded to the cloud, here are some key considerations:

• The application will likely consist of more components and infrastructure dependencies than will initially appear in the cloud environment. Some of these components, like directory services, domain name system (DNS), or dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP), that are shared by other applications simply cannot be moved to the cloud, and cloud applications that require them must integrate back into the enterprise implementation.

• Enterprises want to run applications across multiple cloud service providers in an integrated, secure manner with an integrated management solution. Enterprises must also consider the way the applications run in the enterprise vs. how they will run within the cloud. Cloud on-boarding may involve a conversion from P2V or V2V environments.

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Table 1 shows the logical steps needed to successfully on-board applications, and still maintain the security, transparency, and availability requirements, including seamless network access to IT services from the cloud.

Table 1: Steps for On-Boarding Applications

Steps for On-Boarding Applications

Prepare Identify VMs and application files in the private cloud, and prepare them for migration to the public cloud. Verify that workloads are ready for export. Convert VMs and workloads to the target cloud image format, if needed.

Provision cloud resources Establish relationships with cloud service provider. Determine the best offering, and establish contracts, including agreements, costs, and SLAs. Provision the cloud resources (storage, network, servers, and user accounts).

Secure connectivity and bridging between enterprise and external cloud

Create bi-directional network connectivity between the data centers and clouds. Enable IPSec and VPN connections, and configure L2 bridge for network transparency.

Application migration Migrate the VMs from the enterprise to the cloud. Verify that all files transferred, and that network, storage, and compute configurations remain intact.

End-to-end validation Validate seamless network connectivity to services on either side of bridge for all relevant services to ensure successful execution of the on-boarded services.

Stop service in enterprise and instantiate and monitor in cloud

Stop services in the enterprise and instantiate them in the cloud. Provide uninterrupted service to users’ client access.

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Architecture for Cloud On-boarding

Architecture supporting the use cases described above requires some basic elements including a virtualized data center, one or more remote clouds, some means of connectivity, and devices used to access applications. See Figure 1

Figure 1: Cloud On-boarding Reference Architecture

Here is how the diverse elements in Figure 1 relate to each other:

• The left side of the figure is the representation of the enterprise virtual data center which is assumed to be a virtualized data center. The right is a representation of a remote cloud—either a different data center in the enterprise, or multi-tenant cloud resources at a cloud service provider (public cloud). The two data centers are connected through a WAN, with an external Internet connection. For secure access, VPN connection is enabled between the endpoints with an Internet protocol security (IPSec) tunnel.

• The service provider provides “isolated” but not “dedicated” resources for the enterprise tenant. This means that the enterprise/tenant’s VMs and workloads could coexist with other tenant VMs/workloads on the same physical resources. The isolation is typically network isolation to ensure that the tenant’s network traffic flows are secure and isolated from each other. Physical isolation is enabled by the hypervisor through the VM sandbox. Storage is partitioned to support multitenancy. The network isolation model is not consistent across cloud service providers. Providers like Savvis, OpsCloud, and AT&T provide VLANs for each enterprise tenant (four to five VLANs per enterprise).

However, providers like Amazon provide “proprietary” Layer 2 isolation. The enterprise policy for network isolation thus has a bearing on the service provider selected.

• Typically, the external cloud resources are considered as a logical extension to the “enterprise” resources, and thus adhere to the management, security, and trust models and policies of the enterprise. There would not be “external/public” access to the VMs/workloads in the “overflow” capacity, and public access is through the existing enterprise firewall. This way, the enterprise security, firewall, IDS/IPS controls, and monitoring can be enforced on the overflow capacity traffic as well. In this model, the cloud is

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used as a “back office extension.”

• All traffic on the WAN/Internet with VPN is encrypted for security. The latency of the WAN/Internet and the additional latency due to the encryption/decryption may not be acceptable to certain workloads.

The following sections describe the various solution stack components that have been used in the reference architecture.

Implementation OverviewCloud computing transforms the economics and the nature of IT, changing it from a cost of doing business into an on-demand service that can be used according to the needs of the business. To achieve the highest level of success and savings with IT-as-a-service, businesses must maximize the cloud and their investments in existing technologies, as well as unify on-premise and off-premise resources into a cloud-extended data center.

Citrix Open Cloud

Citrix Open Cloud is a pragmatic approach that makes the move to the cloud simpler and more successful for enterprises and

service providers. The Citrix approach enables businesses to choose solutions that incorporate the expertise and best practices of leading providers, which is implemented on an open infrastructure platform including all of the technologies needed to provide computing power, connectivity, flexibility, and security.

Citrix Open Cloud Platform

Cloud computing infrastructure—whether internal or external, dedicated or multi-tenant—requires a flexible, extensible set of enabling technologies. This set consists of: a virtualization platform that abstracts computing resources; the edge networking infrastructure that optimizes, manages, and secures the network; and the orchestration and self-service tools that enable the infrastructure to respond to the resource requirements of the business. Citrix Open Cloud Platform provides that complete cloud infrastructure.

Citrix Open Cloud Solutions

Citrix Open Cloud Solutions help businesses accelerate the move to the cloud, including on-boarding, disaster recovery, compliance, application development, and test, desktop, and

application virtualization. Cloud providers can help their customers move key workloads to the cloud or extend them there for increased availability and flexibility by combining Citrix Open Cloud Platform with their own expertise and best practices.

Implementation Requirements

Citrix Open Cloud Solutions offer an open, pragmatic approach to cloud computing. Seven turnkey solutions focused on practical cloud use cases and delivered by proven cloud providers, let enterprises immediately take advantage of cloud economics to address pressing business and IT needs. Citrix Open Cloud Solutions let enterprises use existing investments, including third-party virtualization technologies and tools, to migrate application workloads to the cloud without having to overhaul existing applications or their underlying infrastructure.

Citrix Open Cloud is powered by an open and extensible suite of technologies. These technologies enable a range of solutions, from on-boarding application workloads to the cloud, to optimizing application performance, to effectively managing enterprise

Requirement Citrix Open Cloud Solution:

On-boarding Citrix Open Cloud Framework

Enable the on-boarding of any application workload format to the cloud. Currently supported formats to cloud: .xva, .vmdk, .vhd, and .ovf.

Heterogeneous Formats

Automate the on-boarding of production application workloads to the cloud, so these application workloads can be used to create templates for future provisioning, or to instantiate and run the application workloads in the cloud.

Citrix Open Cloud Migration Services

Ability to use identity management infrastructure within the enterprise with the application workloads deployed in the cloud.

Citrix Open Cloud Access Services

Seamlessly connect the enterprise data center and the cloud data center with full security, performance, and network transparency.

Citrix Open Cloud Bridging Services

Enable enterprise SLA support through high availability, global access, optimization, load balancing, and secure remote connectivity.

Edge Networking Services

Easily allocate pooled network, CPU, and memory capacity to bring up server, application, and network appliance instances on demand.

Platform Virtualization

Table 2: Citrix Open Cloud Solutions

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SLAs—all while delivering on the promise of cloud economics, elasticity, and scale. Extensibility and on-demand customization are built into the design of each Citrix Open Cloud technology component to address the unique needs of every enterprise. A high degree of interoperability among Citrix Open Cloud technology components and third-party cloud technologies ensures that there is no lock-in when customers adopt a Citrix solution. Customer choice is a fundamental goal of the underlying technology powering the Citrix Open Cloud Platform.

Citrix Open Cloud On-Boarding Solution Requirements

The Citrix On-Boarding Solution enables seamless on-boarding of applications and workloads to the cloud. It uses a robust virtual platform, VM migration, and open virtualization format (OVF), and key cloud technologies to simplify on-boarding applications to the cloud.

Citrix Open Cloud Framework

Cloud framework services provide the foundational logic to rapidly provision, manage, and control workloads deployed into multitenant, shared infrastructure clouds. The cloud framework ensures policy enforcement and security and provides for integration with existing services such as billing, metering, and self-service portals. Interoperability with other popular cloud interfaces and extensibility of the framework itself provide the flexibility to maximize existing investments when you migrate between clouds.

Citrix Open Cloud Migration Services and Heterogeneous Formats

Citrix Open Cloud Migration Services will use Citrix XenConvert* to seamlessly on-board application workloads to the cloud. The support of the Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) will allow VMs to be packaged into applications workloads.

Citrix XenConvert will on-board application workloads from an enterprise data center that may be running on a different virtualization platform than the key Citrix cloud partners. Examples include virtual-to-virtual application workload migration conversions from .xva, .vmdk, .vhd, and .ovf to a private or public cloud.

Citrix Open Cloud Access Services

Citrix CloudAccess* is a pragmatic solution to the cross-domain authentication problem because it uses existing enterprise infrastructure and works to extend the policy framework that has already been put in place. Features include: Unified Password Management for software as a service (SaaS), single sign-on (SSO) to cloud/SaaS applications, Password Workflow Automation, support for all major SaaS providers, and integration with the cloud with full transparency. Benefits include: improved security across all applications, no end user training requirement, and standardized password policy across both internal and external applications, automatic removal of access to applications for users removed from the enterprise authentication framework, and simplification of password reset for end users.

Citrix Open Cloud Bridging Services

Citrix Open Cloud Bridge* provides a seamless extension of the enterprise network into the cloud, which makes the network stack transparent when you migrate application workloads to the cloud. Citrix Open Cloud Bridge will prevent forklift changes to the network as applications move to the cloud. This feature provides transparent user access across cloud-extended data centers, which optimizes performance of network links between data centers and ensures secure and transparent links from the enterprise data center to the cloud. Citrix Open Cloud Bridge utilizes key capabilities

within Citrix NetScaler*, Citrix Branch Repeater*, Citrix XenServer*.

The Citrix Open Cloud Bridge solution uses Layer 2 bridging and IPSec VPN functionality to create a seamless network bridge between the enterprise data center and the cloud to ensure secure network transparency.

Edge Networking Services

Edge networking services utilize Citrix NetScaler and Citrix Branch Repeater. Citrix NetScaler is an integrated web application delivery controller that functions as an application accelerator through caching and HTTP compression and provides advanced traffic management through Layer 4-7 load balancing and content switching functions. Citrix NetScaler also includes application security through a web application firewall, including PCI-DSS security mandate protection, and secure sockets layer (SSL) VPN. Citrix NetScaler further offloads applications and web servers to ensure application availability, increased security through SSL, and server consolidation. Citrix NetScaler takes the Layer 4-7 load balancer capabilities and applies them worldwide across geographically distributed server farms. Global server load balancing can be shifted from the data center to the cloud, which provides critical business continuity and disaster recovery support in case of site-level disruptions and outages.

Citrix Branch Repeater, available as a physical or virtual appliance, is a WAN optimization solution that provides a high-definition desktop and application experience to branch and mobile users while it dramatically reduces WAN bandwidth costs and simplifies branch infrastructure. Citrix Branch Repeater accelerates desktop and application delivery, decreases WAN bandwidth consumption, and enables server consolidation.

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Platform Virtualization Services

Citrix XenServer is the only enterprise-class, cloud-proven server virtualization platform that delivers the critical features of live migration and centralized multiple-server management at no cost. Citrix XenServer is an open and powerful server virtualization solution that radically reduces cloud computing costs as it transforms static and complex cloud environments into more dynamic, easy to manage IT service delivery centers. Citrix XenServer, created by the inventors of Citrix Xen*, is powered by the industry-standard Xen hypervisor. Citrix XenServer’s heterogeneous format support, the capability to import various VM formats, enables seamless migration strategies to the cloud.

Citrix NetScaler VPX* provides the complete Citrix NetScaler web application load balancing, acceleration, security, and offload features set in a simple, easy to install, virtual appliance. IT organizations of any size can deploy Citrix NetScaler VPX on industry-standard servers—on-demand—anywhere in the data center and cloud.

The following sections describe a working use case of on-boarding using Citrix Open Cloud Bridge technology.

Use Case Overview and Test Bed BlueprintTo fully implement a working use case, we demonstrate the on-boarding of a multipart Citrix XenApp installation from the data center to a private cloud using Citrix Open Cloud Bridge technology. Citrix XenApp is an on-demand application delivery solution that manages applications in the data center and delivers them instantly to users anywhere using any device. Citrix XenApp is configured to host Microsoft Office 2010 applications available to client users upon request. The Citrix XenApp installation

is a multiple-VM workload which includes an application server, a web portal, and a database backend.

For the purposes of this paper, the enterprise data center was built out using the VMware vSphere* stack and the private cloud was built out using Citrix XenServer. Because large complex applications are not easily moved to the cloud, use case 2 was applied, in which one of the VMs was migrated to the cloud and other storage and services remained in the data center. This reflects how many applications will be on-boarded to the cloud. Citrix XenApp Core*, the application-tier of the Citrix XenApp system running in the enterprise, was on-boarded to the private cloud, with no impact to the users.

We used the following steps for the use case scenario that we explored for this paper:

1. Deploy Citrix XenApp in the enterprise on a VMware vCloud* implementation following the guidelines recommended by Citrix for production-level instantiation of Citrix XenApp. The guidelines help ensure that the deployment model mimics what typical Citrix XenApp customers would have in their environments.1

2. Configure Citrix XenApp to host Microsoft Office 2010 applications and to be available to authorized users.

3. Access Office 2010 applications in Citrix XenApp from client devices inside and outside the enterprise data center. This demonstrates Citrix XenApp in the enterprise.

4. Create a seamless network bridge (L2 Bridge)—using NetScaler Cloud Bridge—between the enterprise data center and the cloud to ensure network transparency. This allows the cloud to become an extension of the data center capacity. Enterprise security, trust, and compliance can be enforced on the cloud capacity also.

5. Convert Citrix XenApp Core VM from VMware to Citrix XenServer (V2V conversion) using Citrix XenConvert and migrate to the cloud on the L2 Bridge. The conversion retains the original network stack and configuration.

6. Stop the Citrix XenApp Core service in the enterprise data center.

7. Start the Citrix XenApp Core service in the cloud. Ensure that Citrix XenApp Core communicates with the portions of XenApp remaining in the data center (storage and web portal).

8. Users accessing Office 2010 applications delivered from the Citrix XenApp Core server will experience no differences whether Citrix XenApp Core is located in the data center or in the cloud.

Figure 2 is an overview of this cloud on-boarding use case.

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Figure 2: Cloud On-boarding Reference Architecture

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Solution Stack for On-Boarding Reference Implementation

Here is a summary of the key solution stack components for the test bed, as illustrated in Figure 3.

• VMware vSphere: Hypervisor containing the virtualized compute infrastructure in the enterprise

• VMware vCenter*: Virtualization management tool for the enterprise

Figure 3: On-boarding Test Bed

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2*: Operating system for enterprise and cloud VMs

• Citrix Open Cloud Bridge: Secure network tunnel between enterprise and cloud

• Citrix XenServer: Hypervisor containing the virtualized compute infrastructure in the cloud

• Citrix XenCenter*: XenServer management tool for the cloud

• Citrix XenConvert: Xen VM conversion and migration utility

• Cisco 2921* router: Cisco integrated services router2

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Software Description

The data center was configured using a VMware vSphere (ESXi 4.1) hypervisor3 and the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.4

In the data center, a typical XenApp workload installation was created. This installation used three VMs:

• Citrix XenApp Core application services

• Citrix XenApp data store (with Microsoft SQL Server 2008*)

• Citrix XenApp web portal and Citrix XenApp license server (with Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)*)

In addition to these VMs, three more VMs were used for network and VM management, domain services, and to simulate user access to portals:

• VMware vCenter (VM management)5

• Domain controller (Active Directory*, DNS, DHCP)

• Virtual clients (Simulate user access to Citrix XenApp web portal)

Table 3 shows all of the VMs used as the starting point for the use case.

System Design

To simplify and ease the application migration to the cloud, we preserved the application environment as much as possible and promoted network transparency. We used the same subnet in both data center and cloud (192.168.200.0/24). After the migration, the portion of the application residing in the cloud will require little or no reconfiguration.

We used VMware vSwitch* to assign a static IP address to each VM. Table 4 shows the network IP configuration before the on-boarding exercise.6

Virtual Machine Purpose

Citrix XenApp Core Citrix XenApp Core application services

Microsoft SQL Server Citrix XenApp data store

Web server (IIS) Citrix XenApp Portal

VMware vCenter VM management

Domain controller Active Directory, DNS, DHCP

Virtual clients Simulate client users

Table 3: Virtual Machine Configuration for Data Center

Virtual Machine Physical Hostname Network

Citrix XenApp Core fmsitf01vme01 192.168.200.23

Microsoft SQL Server fmsitf01vme01 192.168.200.20

Web portal (IIS) fmsitf01vme01 192.168.200.21

VMware vCenter fmsitf01vme01 192.168.200.30

Domain controller fmsitf01vme01 192.168.200.11

Virtual clients fmsitf01vme01 192.168.200.25

Citrix XenServer Xenserver1 192.168.200.50

Table 4: Network IP Configuration before On-boarding

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Figure 4 shows the configuration prior to on-boarding.

Figure 4: Configuration Prior to On-Boarding

During the on-boarding process, the Citrix XenApp Core VM was converted from a VMware vSphere VM to a Citrix Xen VM using Citrix XenConvert. Then it was on-boarded from the data center to the cloud. All other data center VMs, including the other Citrix XenApp VMs, remained in the data center.

Table 5 shows the network configuration after Citrix XenApp Core was on-boarded to the cloud.

Server/Node Physical Hostname Data Center Network Cloud Network

Citrix XenApp Storage (Microsoft SQL Server)

fmsitf01vme01 192.168.200.20 -

Citrix XenApp web portal (IIS) fmsitf01vme01 192.168.200.21 -

VMware vCenter fmsitf01vme01 192.168.200.30

Domain controller fmsitf01vme01 192.168.200.11 -

Citrix Open Cloud Bridge fmsitf01vme01 eth0: 192.168.155.40

eth1: 192.168.200.99

Citrix XenApp Core Xenserver1 - 192.168.200.23

Citrix Open Cloud Bridge Xenserver1 - eth0: 192.168.32.40

eth1: 192.168.200.98

Citrix XenServer Xenserver1 - 192.168.200.50

Table 5: Network IP Configuration after On-boarding

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Hardware Description

The hardware configuration consisted of two servers in the data center and two servers in the cloud. The exercise was completed with one server in the data center and one in the cloud. The remaining servers were designated as backups.

Table 6 presents the hardware configuration and details.

System Location Other Info

fmsitf01vme01 Data center System: HP ProLiant DL380 G5*Processor: Two Intel Xeon processors X5410, 2.33 GHz, Memory: 32 GB RAMStorage: One 500 GB SATA HDDNetwork: Two GB Ethernet NICs,Two 10 GB Ethernet NICs

fmsitf01vme02(backup)

Data center System: HP ProLiant DL380 G5Processor: Two Intel Xeon processors X5410, 2.33 GHzMemory: 32 GB RAMStorage: One 500 GB SATA HDDNetwork: Two GB Ethernet NICs,Two 10 GB Ethernet NICs

Xenserver1 Cloud Processor: Two Intel Xeon processors X5570, 2.93 GHzMemory: 32 GB RAMStorage: One 500 GB SATA HDDNetwork: Two GB Ethernet NICs,Two 10 GB Ethernet NICs

Xenserver2(backup)

Cloud Processor: Two Intel Xeon processors X5570, 2.93 GHzMemory: 32 GB RAMStorage: One 500 GB SATA HDDNetwork: Two GB Ethernet NICs,Two 10 GB Ethernet NICs

Network WAN Two Cisco 2921 routers, each supporting 2 VLANs

Table 6: Hardware Setup

Refer to Figure 2 to relate the conceptual design of the VMs and network with the hardware implementation.

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Technical ReviewThis section provides a detailed overview of the actions performed to implement cloud on-boarding. Many of the steps and commands are unique to this particular design, but they should provide enough detail to understand what was done and also to help on-boarding other applications.

For the details about application installation and setup, please see the respective product documentation. Be sure to check product release notes, service bulletins, and knowledge base articles.

Installation Overview

This section discusses the installation process for software prior to testing. The following setup steps assume you have an understanding of how to install and configure Microsoft Windows Server* 2008 R2, VMware vSphere, VMware vCenter server and client, Citrix XenServer,7 and Citrix XenCenter.8

Data Center Installation

1. Install VMware vSphere 4.1 hypervisor on data center systems (fmsitf01vme01 and fmsitf01vme02)

2. Using VMware vSphere, create the following VMs for the Citrix XenApp installation:

a. Windows Server 2008 R2 (for Citrix XenApp Core)

i. Host name: XenApp Core

ii. Apply static IP address

b. Windows Server 2008 R2 Server

i. Hostname: SQLServer

ii. Install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Database

iii. Create the database – Xen

iv. Apply static IP address

c. Windows Server 2008 R2

i. Hostname: XenApp Portal

ii. Enable Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) and Microsoft ASP.NET*

iii. Apply static IP address

3. Create the following two VMs:

a. Windows Server 2008 R2 (for VMware vCenter server)

i. Hostname: vCenter

ii. Install VMware vCenter

iii. Apply static IP address

b. Windows Server 2008 R2 (for domain controller—Active Directory, DNS, DHCP)

i. Install Active Directory Domain Services in accordance with your domain preferences

1. Ensure that the domain administrator can add users to the domain through VPN connections

ii. Enable and install DNS role

1. Configure Forward Lookup zones

2. Configure Reverse Lookup zones

3. Ensure that nslookup resolves in both domains

iii. Enable and install DHCP role

c. Windows Server 2008 R2 (for client users)

4. In Active Directory, create two users: A typical user as “aguy” and an engineering user as “enguser”

5. In Active Directory, create a group “Xen,” and then add the two users to this group

6. Install and configure Citrix XenApp 6.0:

a. Install the Citrix XenApp Server Role Manager

b. Configure Citrix XenApp to use the Microsoft SQL Server installation for the data store

c. Configure Citrix XenApp to use the IIS web server for the web interface, and make it available to users

d. Install and configure Microsoft Office 2010 for hosting

e. Create users “aguy” and “enguser,” and provide each user access to Office 2010 applications

f. Refer to Citrix XenApp documentation for on-demand application setup and configuration

7. Install VMware vCenter

8. Place all VMs into the domain

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Cloud Installation

Install Citrix XenServer hypervisor on Xenserver1 server. This will be the cloud destination for the migrated VM.

Use Case Details

Actors: Administrator, client user

Use Case Overview

The data center and cloud test bed were initialized as described above. During the Citrix XenApp on-boarding exercise, the following use cases were executed:

1. Set up and Prepare the Data Center

2. User Requests Applications from Citrix XenApp in Data Center

3. Establish Secure Connectivity between Data Center and Cloud

4. Migrate Application from Data Center to Cloud

5. Instantiate Application in Cloud

6. User Requests Applications from Citrix XenApp in Cloud

Execution and Results

All the steps that are described above were successfully executed. Documentation of the use cases, including screen shots, is shown in the following sections.

Set up and prepare the Data Center

1. Verify that all data center VMs are created and initialized.

a. XenApp Core

b. XenApp Storage (Microsoft SQL Server)

c. XenApp web portal and license server

d. VMware vCenter

e. Domain controller (Active Directory, DNS, DHCP)

f. Virtual clients (simulate users)

2. All VMs should be able to “ping” all other VMs in the data center.

3. Citrix XenApp is now installed in the data center and ready to deliver applications to users.

Figure 5: Data Center VMs

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User Requests Applications from Citrix XenApp in Data Center

1. Verify that Citrix XenApp is able to deliver Microsoft Office 2010 applications to users. At a client, open Internet browser and navigate to Citrix XenApp web portal (http://fmsitf01iis01).

2. The user is presented with the Welcome page and an opportunity to log on as a user (logon type is “Explicit”) or as an anonymous user (logon type is “Anonymous”).

Figure 6: XenApp Welcome Page

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3. Log on to Citrix XenApp as “enguser.” The logon type is “Explicit.”

Figure 7: XenApp User Log on

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4. User “enguser” can now see his or her available applications. If the user cannot see the applications, ensure that Citrix XenApp is configured properly. During the initial testing of this step, a Citrix XenApp issue was encountered and was resolved by referring to the following technical support article: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX123003.

Figure 8: XenApp Available Applications for “enguser”

5. To stream the application to the user and launch the application, click the application icon.

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NetScaler Cloud Bridge Configuration for Data Center

1. Setup/Import the NetScaler Cloud Bridge appliance in data center.9

2. Using the NetScaler Cloud Bridge GUI or command line Configure the bridge as an internet gateway for data center. In this example, the command line was used:

a. Enable Cloud Bridge

b. Enable L2 Mode

c. Configure IPs

d. Configure GRE Tunnel

e. Configure Bridge

f. Configure and Bind Bridge to VLAN (optional)

g. Configure Route (if needed)

Enable Cloud Bridge Feature:

#enable ns feature OpenCloudBridge

Enable L2 Mode:

#en ns mode l2

Configure IPs:

#add ns ip <ip> <subnet> -type SNIP (public facing or NATed IP)

#add ns ip <ip> <subnet> -type SNIP (private network)

Tunnel Command:

#add ipTunnel tun1 <remoteIP> 255.255.255.255 <localIP> -protocol GRE –secure NO

Create a netbridge:

#add netbridge <tunnalID#>

#bind netbridge <bridgeID#> -tunnel <tunnalID#>

Bind VLANs (optional):

#add vlan <ID#>

#bind vlan <ID#> -ifnum <NIC ID>

#bind netbridge <tunnalID#> -vlan <ID#>

Create route:

#add route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 <gateway> NOTE: If your NSIP (first IP you set) is private you will #have to have a route that points to your external gateway.

NetScaler Cloud Bridge Configuration for Cloud

1. Setup/Import the NetScaler Cloud Bridge appliance in the target cloud.9

2. Using the NetScaler Cloud Bridge GUI or command line Configure the bridge as an internet gateway for data center. In this example, the command line was used:

a. Enable Cloud Bridge

b. Enable L2 Mode

c. Configure IPs

d. Configure GRE Tunnel

e. Configure Bridge

f. Configure and Bind Bridge to VLAN (optional)

g. Configure Route (if needed)

Enable Cloud Bridge Feature:

#enable ns feature OpenCloudBridge

Enable L2 Mode:

#en ns mode l2

Configure IPs:

#add ns ip <ip> <subnet> -type SNIP (public facing or NATed IP)

#add ns ip <ip> <subnet> -type SNIP (private network)

Tunnel Command:

#add ipTunnel tun1 <remoteIP> 255.255.255.255 <localIP> -protocol GRE –secure NO

Create a netbridge:

#add netbridge <tunnalID#>

#bind netbridge <bridgeID#> -tunnel <tunnalID#>

Bind VLANs (optional):

#add vlan <ID#>

#bind vlan <ID#> -ifnum <NIC ID>

#bind netbridge <tunnalID#> -vlan <ID#>

Create route:

#add route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 <gateway> NOTE: If your NSIP (first IP you set) is private you will #have to have a route that points to your external gateway.

3. Configure VMware vSwitch. Ensure that “Promiscuous Mode” is enabled. This allows it to detect all frames passed on the virtual switch that are allowed under the VLAN policy.10 See Figure 9.

4. Verify connection and access to the cloud from the data center and from the cloud to the data center.

- Run a ping test to ensure that each VM can see all the other VMs. Ping XenServer1 from XenApp Core, and so on. - Firewalls may be limiting network traffic. Either disable the firewalls or create rules to allow traffic to flow. - Enterprise virus protection may be blocking network accesses. Disable it or define rules to allow network traffic to flow.

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Figure 9: VMware vSwitch Configuration Properties

Figure 10: Network Details for the Secure Connection between Data Center and Cloud

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Migrate Application from Data Center to Cloud

1. Install Citrix XenConvert on Citrix XenApp Core VM. Citrix XenConvert will convert a VMware vSphere VM to a Xen VM.11

2. Run Citrix XenConvert. Convert Citrix XenApp Core from a VMware vSphere VM to a Xen VM to prepare its movement from the data center to the cloud (VMDK to XenServer Conversion).

a. Set the source to drive C.

b. Set the destination as XenServer1 in the cloud.

c. The conversion process may take several hours to complete, depending on the size of the VM, the network performance, other factors.

Figure 11: Conversion of the Citrix XenApp Core VM using Citrix XenConvert

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Instantiate Application in Cloud

1. Power down the original XenApp Core VM in the data center.

Figure 12: XenApp Core in the Data Center is Powered Off

2. From Citrix XenCenter in the cloud, start the Citrix XenApp Core VM. The VM should be able to startup and connect to the Citrix XenApp data store and web portal located in the data center.

3. Verify that Citrix XenApp can start. Check the application log for errors.

Figure 13: Cloud Configuration

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User Accesses Citrix XenApp in Cloud

1. At this point, when a user requests an application from Citrix XenApp, it is delivered from the cloud and not from the data center. At the same earlier client, open an Internet browser and navigate to Citrix XenApp web portal (http://fmsitf01iis01).

2. The user is presented with the Welcome page and an opportunity to logon as a user (Logon type is “Explicit”) or as an anonymous user (Logon type is “Anonymous”).

3. Log on as “enguser”.

4. Request a Microsoft Office* 2010 application from Citrix XenApp. This time, the application will be delivered from the Citrix XenApp Core server in the cloud rather than from the data center.

Things to ConsiderThe following discussion highlights issues and concerns for cloud on-boarding.

Cloud Provisioning

Consider the time, effort, and resources needed to provision the cloud before on-boarding. Consider how existing SLAs, user accounts, and billing will be impacted. Identify and provision the resources and services needed, including the servers, network infrastructure, and storage. Establish or update existing SLAs, contracts, and costs. Consider how user and identity management will work across the data center and the cloud.

Scalability and Performance

Moving applications to the cloud may impact application performance and scalability. As the application may now be divided between the data center and the cloud, communication between VMs could be impacted by network speed and throughput, especially the performance of the WAN. Application latency can also be impacted. The application may have access to fewer resources or more resources, so

application performance may be expected to improve or degrade.

Applications may have different load balancing concerns after on-boarding. Network traffic flows may be quite different after on-boarding applications.

Downtime Impact

On-boarding an application may impact application availability. Consider the time to migrate applications, including any VM conversion time and VM transfer time over the network. Consider the number and size of the VMs to convert. You may need time to validate and test the application once it has been migrated to the cloud.

Application State

Consider the state of the application, including any data stores, before you attempt cloud on-boarding. You may need to shut down some applications in an orderly fashion before you migrate the application or portions of the application.

Network Transparency

The network architecture can impact on-boarding efforts. In most cases, we want to minimize the disruption and reconfiguration of software after on-boarding.

Proper installation of DNS and Active Directory is mandatory when you set up the enterprise. Advanced knowledge of DNS forward and reverse looking zone configuration is a must as applications typically require both to function properly. A user with domain privileges is a requirement for user and group creation. Consider how DNS, DHCP, LDAP, and so on will operate across both the data center and the cloud.

Think about bundling together applications or groups of applications into simpler units before on-boarding. This may ease application migration to the cloud.

Security Considerations

Firewall and virus protection software may cause issues after the migration of applications to the cloud. Firewall software may limit access to needed network ports. Either disable firewalls or create rules to allow network access. Application firewalls and security settings may need to be reconfigured. Enterprise virus protection may limit network packet flow.

Management

Application management procedures and tools may be impacted by on-boarding. Application monitoring and management tools need to be aware of application migrations. Key features such as a management portal for provisioning, billing and metering information, monitoring capabilities, and basic lifecycle management will allow for tight integration of the data center and the cloud.

Additional InfoIntel® Cloud Builders Program: www.intel.com/cloudbuilders

Citrix Solution Brief: “Citrix Cloud Solution for On-boarding”: www.citrix.com/site/resources/dynamic/salesdocs/Citrix_Cloud_Solution_Onboarding.pdf

NetScaler Cloud Bridge: http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/product.asp?contentID=2311976

NetScaler Cloud Bridge Whitepaper: http://www.citrix.com/cloud-bridge/whitepapers/intro_to_cb

Citrix Cloud Solutions: www.citrix.com/cloud/overview

Citrix Open Cloud Framework: www.citrix.com

Citrix XenApp: www.citrix.com/xenapp

Intel® Xeon® processors: www.intel.com/xeon

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GlossaryDHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is an auto-configuration protocol used on IP networks.

DNS: Domain Name System is a distributed hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or resources connected to the Internet or a private network.

GRE: Generic Routing Encapsulation is a tunneling protocol which can encapsulate a wide variety of network layer protocol packet types inside IP tunnels.

IP: Internet Protocol

IPSec: Internet Protocol Security is a protocol suite for securing IP communications by authenticating and encrypting each packet of a session.

L2 Bridge: An L2 Bridge is a network bridge operating at Layer 2, which is the Data Link or MAC Layer.

LDAP: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is an application protocol for querying and modifying data of directory services for IP networks.

QoS: Quality of Service is the ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance.

SP: Service Provider is a business or entity that provides services to other entities.

SSL: Secure Sockets Layer is a cryptographic protocol that provides security for network communications.

VLAN: A Virtual LAN is a group of hosts that communicate as if they were connected to the same broadcast domain, regardless of their physical location.

VM: Virtual Machine is a software implementation of a computer that executes programs like a physical machine.

VPN: A Virtual Private Network is a network that encapsulates data transfers between two or more network devices

not on the same private network so as to keep data private from other devices on one or more intervening local or wide area networks.

WAN: A Wide Area Network is a computer network that covers a broad area, typically crossing metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries.

Appendix A: NetScaler Cloud BridgeNetScaler Cloud Bridge satisfies the enterprise’s need to combine datacenter security with cloud elasticity and economics by making cloud-hosted applications appear as though they are running on one contiguous enterprise network. With Cloud Bridge in place, administrators, users, tools and the application itself believe that the application resides on the enterprise network.

To address the issues discussed earlier, NetScaler Cloud Bridge provides transparent network and user connectivity between the enterprise datacenter and the cloud-based datacenter:

• Seamless Network: L2 network bridging makes the cloud network a natural extension of the enterprise’s L2 network, making it easy to shift resources to the cloud w/out having to re-architect the application.

• Secured Tunnel: IPSec security ensures that data remains secure as it traverses the network links between the enterprise and the cloud

• Optimized Access: TCP optimizations, compression and data de-duplication minimize WAN-caused performance degradation between enterprise datacenters and the cloud.

• User Transparency: Global server load balancing gives end-users get a single, consistent path to their applications regardless of which enterprise or cloud datacenter happens to be hosting the application at any given time.

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Appendix B: Software VersionsTable B.1 shows the versions of the software applications that were used in the on-boarding example.

Application Version

Citrix XenApp 6

Citrix XenServer 5

Citrix XenConvert 2.1

NetScaler Cloud Bridge 9.3

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 2008 R2

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 4.1.0, 260247

Table B.1. Software Application Versions

Endnotes1. Citrix XenApp 6.0 for Windows Server 2008 R2, http://support.citrix.com/product/xa/v6.0_2008r2/

2. Cisco 2921 Integrated Services Router, https://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10543/index.html

3. Product Support for VMware vSphere, http://www.vmware.com/go/vsphere-help

4. Microsoft TechNet “Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2,” http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd349801(WS.10).aspx

5. VMware vCenter Server, http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-server/support.html

6. VMware Virtual Networking Concepts, http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/virtual_networking_concepts.pdf

7. Citrix XenServer 5.6, http://support.citrix.com/product/xens/v5.6/

8. Citrix XenCenter Knowledge Center, http://support.citrix.com/product/xens/v5.0/topic/xencenter/

9. NetScaler Documentation: http://support.citrix.com/product/nsad/v9.3/#tab-doc

10. VMware Knowledge Base Article “Configuring promiscuous mode on a virtual switch or portgroup,” http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004099

11. Citrix XenConvert Guide, http://support.citrix.com/servlet/KbServlet/download/20644-102-332133/XenConvertGuide.pdf

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Intel® Cloud Builders Guide: Cloud On-boarding with Citrix NetScaler Cloud Bridge

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Intel® Cloud Builders Guide: Cloud On-boarding with Citrix NetScaler Cloud Bridge