This technology focuses on searching the world wide web Internet. The user uses a search engine such as the likes of Google, Yahoo, Bing or one of the other many search engines. The user enters some words into Google's search box and when the 'search' key is pressed, the results appear within a few seconds.
This search information is not stored on the user's computer, that is, there isn't a massive store of all the websites Google knows about hiding in the user's computer. In reality what happens is when the user presses 'Search', their search request is sent to a data centre, where a series of very powerful computers search their data banks for the relevant information that matches the users search request.
Once this information is found, it is sent back to the user's computer, where it is displayed as the search results, as shown by the screenshot below. The grunt of the operation, that is, where all the processing of information is carried out, is in the data centre and not on the user's computer.
It's the data centre computers which sift through the billions of information files in its data banks to determine what closely meets the user's request for information. Once the information is found, it is sent back to the user's computer where the user's web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome present that information as a series of results.
In the Google search example it is important to understand the importance of where the information processing takes place. As this is paramount to how Thin Client technology also works. In the Thin Client world, the processing of information takes place away from the user's computer, typically on a powerful set of computers in a data centre, just like the search engine example earlier. Instead of web pages being sent to the user's computer, the thin client technology works with applications and the presentation of these applications.
So an application such as a word processor in thin client technology doesn't exist on the user's computer. The word processor exists on a powerful set of computers in the data centre from where all the processing is done. The thin client technology represents the word processor to the user's computer, as though it was actually installed on their computer. The first screenshot below, shows an application running remotely which for all intents and purposes looks like it is actually installed and running on the computer, when in fact it is not.
At the bottom right of this screenshot there is an icon circled in red, which is the Citrix plug-in icon and this when clicked, will show the application is actually running remotely.
Later on this section, the steps taken to connect to the application shown in this screenshot, will be shown. The thin client technology captures the keyboard strokes the user makes and their mouse movements from their mouse attached to their computer, sending these to the powerful set of computers at a data centre to process.
The powerful computers at the data centre apply the users captured keyboard strokes and mouse movements to the word processor application and the resulting change in how the applications user interface changes, that is how what the user would see on their screen changes, is sent back to the user's computer. At the user's computer, the thin client software creates an image of how the changes made to the word processor looks.
The screenshot below, provides an overview of how the changes are propagated. This is all done in milliseconds and gives the impression that the word processing software is actually installed and running on the user's computer when it is in fact running on another computer far, far away. Still not sure of how thin client technology works? Well let's access an application remotely from a powerful computer in a data centre for real.
To reiterate what has been covered so far, in the world of Thin Client technologies like Citrix Virtual Apps, use a computer to remote control an application installed on another computer. The other computer does all the grunt of processing the application and dealing with the users inputs that is, changes in their mouse movements along with keyboard strokes and dealing with outputs, that is, changes to the applications user interface, which is, how the application is presented to the user.
So there could have a computer in New York City which has word processing software installed and a user could connect to this computer say from a computer in London and use the word processor without having the word processing software actually installed resident on our computer in London.
The Thin Client software on both computers will make it appear as though the word processing software is on the computer in London even though the actual word processing application is on a computer in New York. Every time the user moves the mouse or press a key to type into the word processor at the computer in London, the Thin Client software sends this information to the computer in New York, which also has Thin Client software running on it.
The Thin Client software on the computer in New York calculates the change to the screen when the mouse has been moved, or when keys have been pressed and recalculates the changes to the screen representing the word processor. This is then sent to the computer in London, where the thin client software redraws the changes to the screen.
This happens in milliseconds and gives the user the experience of the word processing software being resident on the computer in London when in fact it is actually resident on the computer in New York. The screenshot below shows a computer which looks like it's running a word processing application in London, when it's actually connecting to the application on a computer in New York City.
Understanding the principles of technology can be easier to grasp by using analogies, as this makes something which otherwise would have been completely alien, understandable. So for an analogy to describe how Thin Client technology works, one scene from the James Bond film 'Tomorrow Never Dies' provides a good understanding. In this film there is a scene, where James Bond, played by Piers Brosnan uses his phone as a remote control to drive his BMW whilst crouched uncomfortably in the rear foot well of the car around a multi-storey car park as he's being pursued by some ruthless individuals.
James Bond's phone displays a picture from one of the forward facing cameras mounted on the BMW. He uses the remote control's touchpad, to control the car. As the car moves around the multi-story car park the pictures are sent back to his phone, which displays them on the phones screen. The phone itself isn't actually driving the car, it is just sending signals to the car's on-board computer and this computer is then doing all the thinking and carrying out the appropriate actions such as turning the steering wheel, accelerating, braking and so on.
In essence the phone is a dumb device which only sends the driving movements James's makes on the phones screen to the car's on-board computer and in return, the phone receives pictures from the car's cameras. The remote control by itself doesn't actually drive the car, that's done by the computer on board the car. Looking at this from a Thin Client perspective, the phone would be a computer which has special Thin Client software running on it.
The BMW's on-board computer is like the computer the Thin Client device connects to, which has the applications installed.. The BMW's on-board computer does all the calculations from the instructions it receives from the remote control and sends updates to the phone, in terms of video images to show how the BMW is progressing.
Likewise, the computer, the Thin Client device connects to, does all of the processing and sends image updates to the Thin Client device. Whilst the Thin Client approach looks at processing the application logic remotely, that is running the actual application on a different computer to where the user is using it and in turn presenting the user with images of what is happening remotely.
The Fat Client approach looks at processing the application locally, that is on the computer being used by the user. This is the typical approach used by most computer users, where they use a computer at home for instance, which does all the application processing.
The screenshot above Thin Client versus Fat Client , the word processing software on the thin client is running on a powerful computer in the data centre. Whilst with the fat client approach, the software is running on the computer itself.
They've also made a few improvements and enhancements. When the next version of Windows Server was released, NT4. Citrix Systems kept some of their technology outside of this joint project, which allowed them to develop their Citrix MetaFrame product. For more information, see their documentation. Citrix Provisioning formerly Provisioning Services is an optional component that is available with some editions.
It provides an alternative to MCS for provisioning virtual machines. PVS communicates with the Controller to provide users with resources. It provides a single secure point of access through the corporate firewall. In deployments where virtual desktops are delivered to users at remote locations such as branch offices, Citrix SD-WAN technology can be employed to optimize performance.
Repeaters accelerate performance across WANs. Citrix SD-WAN can prioritize different parts of the user experience so that, for example, the user experience does not degrade in the branch location when a large file or print job is sent over the network. HDX WAN optimization provides tokenized compression and data deduplication, dramatically reducing bandwidth requirements and improving performance.
A site is made up of machines with dedicated roles that allow for scalability, high availability, and failover, and provide a solution that is secure by design. A site consists of VDA-installed servers and desktop machines, and the Delivery Controller, which manages access. The VDA enables users to connect to desktops and applications. It is installed on virtual machines in the data center for most delivery methods, but it can also be installed on physical PCs for Remote PC Access.
The Controller is made up of independent Windows services that manage resources, applications, and desktops, and optimize and balance user connections. Each site has one or more Controllers.
Because sessions are affected by latency, bandwidth, and network reliability, place all Controllers on the same LAN, if possible.
Users never directly access the Controller. The VDA serves as an intermediary between users and the Controller. When users log on using StoreFront, their credentials pass through to the Broker Service on the Controller.
The Broker Service then obtains profiles and available resources based on the policies set for them. Citrix recommends that administrators place an SSL certificate on StoreFront to encrypt the credentials coming from Citrix Workspace app. After the credentials are verified, information about available applications or desktops is sent back to the user through the StoreFront-Citrix Workspace app pathway.
When the user selects applications or desktops from this list, that information goes back down the pathway to the Controller. The Controller then determines the proper VDA to host the specific applications or desktop. The VDA accepts the connection and sends the information back through the same pathways to Citrix Workspace app. A set of required parameters is collected on StoreFront.
As long as the site was properly set up, the credentials remain encrypted throughout this process. This connection bypasses the management infrastructure Citrix Workspace app, StoreFront, and Controller. If a connection is lost, the Session Reliability feature enables the user to reconnect to the VDA rather than having to relaunch through the management infrastructure. Session Reliability can be enabled or disabled in Citrix policies. The Controller then sends this information to the site database and starts logging data in the monitoring database.
Using Studio, administrators can access real-time data from the Broker Agent to manage sites. Director accesses the same data plus historical data stored in the monitoring database.
Within the Controller, the Broker Service reports session data for every session on the machine providing real-time data. The Monitor Service also tracks the real-time data and stores it as historical data in the monitoring database. Studio communicates only with the Broker Service. It accesses only real-time data. Director communicates with the Broker Service through a plug-in in the Broker Agent to access the site database.
You set up the machines that deliver applications and desktops with machine catalogs. Then, you create delivery groups that specify the applications and desktops that will be available using machines in the catalogs , and which users can access them.
Optionally, you can then create application groups to manage collections of applications. Machine catalogs are collections of virtual or physical machines that you manage as a single entity. These machines, and the application or virtual desktops on them, are the resources you provide to your users. All the machines in a catalog have the same operating system and the same VDA installed. They also have the same applications or virtual desktops.
Typically, you create a master image and use it to create identical VMs in the catalog. Alternatively, you can use your own existing images. In that case, you must manage target devices on an individual basis or collectively using third-party electronic software distribution ESD tools. Delivery groups specify which users can access which applications, desktops, or both on which machines.
Delivery groups contain machines from your machine catalogs, and Active Directory users who have access to your site. You might assign users to your delivery groups by their Active Directory group, because Active Directory groups and delivery groups are ways to group users with similar requirements. Each delivery group can contain machines from more than one catalog, and each catalog can contribute machines to more than one delivery group.
However, each individual machine can only belong to one delivery group at a time. You define which resources users in the delivery group can access. For example, to deliver different applications to different users, you might install all the applications on the master image for one catalog and create enough machines in that catalog to distribute among several delivery groups.
You can then configure each delivery group to deliver a different subset of applications that are installed on the machines. For more information, see Create delivery groups. Application groups provide application management and resource control advantages over using more delivery groups. Using the tag restriction feature, you can use your existing machines for more than one publishing task, saving the costs associated with deployment and managing more machines.
A tag restriction can be thought of as subdividing or partitioning the machines in a delivery group. Application groups can also be helpful when isolating and troubleshooting a subset of machines in a delivery group.
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