Install XenServer Tools in Ubuntu 10.04

XenServer supports a lot of Linux and Windows operating systems out of the box, but Ubuntu isn’t one of them. This means that running Ubuntu is slower, because it uses HVM (hardware-assisted virtualisation) instead of PV (paravirtualization). This article will explain how to create a paravirtualized Ubuntu 10.04 VM with the XenServer Tools installed. Many thanks go to the author of the article “Ubuntu 10.04 LTS paravirtualised on Citrix XenServer” (link no longer available).

We start with creating and installing a VM with HVM.

• Create a VM from the Other install media template
• Attach the Ubuntu 10.04 ISO to the DVD drive of the VM
• Start the VM
• At the disk partitioning stage make sure to replace Ext4 with Ext3, or create a specific boot partition with Ext3
• Select at least the OpenSSH server package to be able to log in to the VM remotely
• Finish installation and boot the VM

We now create a new console and edit the boot settings.

• Connect to the VM using SSH
• Create a new console for Xen

sudo cp /etc/init/tty1.conf /etc/init/hvc0.conf
sudo vi /etc/init/hvc0.conf

• Replace all occurrences of tty1 with hvc0
• Read /boot/grub/grub.cfg

sudo vi /boot/grub/grub.cfg

• Copy the contents of menuentry near the bottom to a temporary text file, to be used as input for the makepv.sh script that we will use later on

menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-server' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
        recordfail
        insmod ext2
        set root='(hd0,1)'
        search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 02899ea9-1876-4e7b-8ef8-2b09b598cedb
        linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-server root=UUID=02899ea9-1876-4e7b-8ef8-2b09b598cedb ro quiet
        initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-server
}

• Make special note of /boot/vmlinuz…, root=UUID=… and /boot/initrd.img…
• Shutdown the VM

As an extra precaution, please create a snapshot of the current VM. If the next steps fail – for some people they do – you can revert easily to the VM you now have.

We now convert the VM to PV.

• Connect to the XenServer host with SSH
• Copy the makepv.sh script (download from here) to the XenServer host and make it executable

chmod +x makepv.sh

• Run the makepv.sh script, replacing my-vm-name with the actual name of your VM

./makepv.sh my-vm-name

Finally we install the XenServer tools.

• Boot the VM and log in with SSH
• In XenCenter, attach xs-tools.iso to the DVD drive of the VM
• Mount xs-tools.iso, install the correct XenServer Tools package (replace amd64 with i386 if necessary) and unmount xs-tools.iso

sudo mount /dev/cdrom1 /mnt
sudo dpkg -i /mnt/Linux/xe-guest-utilities_5.5.0-466_amd64.deb
sudo umount /mnt

• In XenCenter, detach xs-tools.iso from the DVD drive of the VM (this ensures that XenServer does not complain about too many bootable devices)
• Reboot the VM and log in with SSH
• Make sure the services run at boot time

sudo update-rc.d -f xe-linux-distribution remove
sudo update-rc.d xe-linux-distribution defaults

• Reboot the VM for the last time
• Restart XenCenter to be able to log in to the console of the VM

Thanks to www.jansipke.nl for the info :)

Access Management Console 4.5 "Missing Presentation Server"

My customer ask me why he cannot see the Presentation Server in Access Management Console (version 4.5). Upon troubleshooting, i found out that the Presentation Server dll should be registered in orders to see it in AMC.


Below is the code i use:



cd \Program Files\Common Files\Citrix\Pres*
%windir%\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\regasm pse.core.dll /codebase 

And then it works :)

Citrix Connection Test Tool - Part 1

I found this very nice tool to do a stress test into you Citrix XenApp server servers. Also help in doing capacity planning of your Citrix farm.


Introduction
“Citrix Connection Test Tool” provides various connection methods for scalability test and other tests which require a number of sessions to be established. The tool enables testers to establish as many numbers of ICA sessions as they want by creating or duplicating session settings on Presentation Server Client.


What you can do with this test tool 
Using “Citrix Connection Test Tool” helps those who want to run multiple connections test to Citrix Presentation Server. With this tool you can establish the desired amount of ICA sessions from one machine in effective way so that you can measure the scalability on your testing environment.

The tool contains the major three functions and one extra helping tool. The basic purpose of this test tool is to establish multiple connections to Presentation Server in order to test load balancing, logon performance, and so on. These introduced functions in this tool might accomplish various test cases in different ways depending on how you use this tool. Those functions are explained below.


Custom Application Creator (“Custom App.” tab)
You can create the desired amount of Custom ICA Connection for testing on the client machine which runs this tool. Each Custom ICA Connection is newly created with this tool. Each Custom ICA Connection has different account information which has user name with a sequential number at the end of its own (e.g. user0, user1, user2…). You can also run test by launching all the created Custom ICA Connection sequentially in automatic manner.


Customer Application Duplicator (“Cust. App Dup” tab)
You can create the certain amount of Custom ICA Connection by duplicating existing one that is already created in Citrix Presentation Server Client. It is easy to use the existing setting in Client settings. Each duplicated Custom ICA Connection has different account whose user name has sequential number at the end of its own, so each Customer ICA Connection will have different session ID when testing. You can also run test by launching all the duplicated Custom ICA Connection sequentially in automatic manner.


Application Set Test (“App.Set Test” tab)
If you wish to run connection test with some published application on the particular Application Set, you can use “Application Set Test” to do so. You can run connection test by selecting a certain published application in Application Set. This won’t create any new Application Set, but take the information from the selected Application Set to establish the desired amount of ICA sessions to the aimed Citrix Presentation Server Farm.


Account Creator (“Account Create” tab)
Account Creator simplifies your account creation for this test tool. This function creates Domain or Local accounts whose user name have a sequential number at the end of its own name. These accounts should be easily cooperated with the above testing functions. Account Creator is provided by separated binary so that you don’t have to install any runtime environment on Domain Controller or any Servers who owns credentials for testing.


Requirements:
Before using Citrix Connection Test Tool, you need to have runtime environment. You can choose either way of the followings depending on your testing environment allowance.

• Install Visual Basic Runtime (Version 6)
• Register DLL module (TABCTL32.OCX via REGSVR32)

On the next part of this guide is the step by step on how you can use this tool.

SharePoint 2010 Top Performance Killers

SharePoint 2010 - Part 4

This is part four of the Sharepoint Introduction series To read parts 1-3 click the following respective links.

• SharePoint - Part 1
• SharePoint - Part 2
• SharePoint - Part 3

Content

A fundamental output of users and business collaboration activities is content. The content capability delivers functionality that supports the management of content throughout its life cycle. SharePoint interoperates with or replaces other content management systems.

Support for Content and Interaction with Content

The content capability offers the following components, features, and functionality to support a tremendous range of content and a diverse set of modalities with which to interact with content.

Support for a tremendous range of content

• Documents
• Records
• Web Content
• Rich media: Audio, Video

Interaction with content

• Viewing
• Editing
• Coauthoring
• output (Word Automation)

Following are some important points related to support for content and interaction with content:

• Users can store just about any type of content in SharePoint, including content that has been traditionally stored in distinct systems.
• SharePoint provides numerous modalities in which users can interact with content, including viewing (in the browser or in client applications), output, editing, and even concurrent coauthoring, with the Office Web Apps.

Document and Records Management

The content capability offers the following components, features, and functionality to enable an enterprise to manage documents and records:

• Content Organizer: Document routing
• Unique document IDs and permalinks
• Document sets
• In-place records management
• Cross-farm content policy and rules
• Access, information rights
• Retention, legal holds, disposition
• Location-based policy
• Automatic application of metadata

Following are some important points related to document and records management:

• Document and records management features are integrated into every site.
• You can specify document routing rules that allow documents to be dropped into a library and then automatically moved to the appropriate library based on metadata and business logic.
• You can create document sets, which are collections of documents that can be treated as a unit, with a collective version history and metadata that applies to the collection.
• You can specify metadata, retention schedules, record declarations, and legal holds and apply them consistently. SharePoint provides for multistage disposition of documents. Policies can be location-based.
• SharePoint can automatically apply metadata based on a document’s location and other business logic.

Definition of Content and Metadata

The content capability offers the following components, features, and functionality to define content and metadata, and thereby to create and manage content:

Structured and unstructured content

• Blogs, wikis, discussion forums
• Defined content types with metadata, workflows, templates, and rights management

Managed Metadata Service

• Tags: Taxonomy & folksonomy
• Multilingual metadata
• Enterprise content types

Use of metadata

• Tagging content: Manual and automatic
• Visibility of tags: Item, site, client
• Metadata-driven navigation
• Search refiners

Following are some important points related to definition of content and metadata:

• SharePoint supports content that is unstructured and free-form, such as blogs, wikis, and discussion forums, as well as highly structured content and everything in between.
• The Managed Metadata Service (MMS), new in SharePoint 2010, provides a central repository and management capability for what are generally called tags. Tags are arranged in a hierarchical structure that can be delegated to appropriate business owners. Tags can be centrally driven (taxonomy) or user submitted (folksonomy) or both, and tags are enabled for multiple languages.
• The MMS also deploys content types across sites, site collections, Web applications, and farms so that an enterprise can maintain better control over the definition of and metadata associated with content, as well as information management policies for that content.
• You can use metadata (tags) in numerous ways, and SharePoint 2010 provides a variety of methods with which to tag content and view tags. You can even have tags applied to content automatically, based on the item’s location or other rules. Additionally, you can use metadata to create dynamic navigation and to provide search refiners.

Manageability and Extensibility

The content capability offers the following components, features, and functionality to enable an organization to manage and extend SharePoint:

Manageability

• Deploy across sites, site collections, Web applications, and farms
• Secure, configure, and audit use of metadata

Remote binary large object (BLOB) storage

Integrate with other systems and legacy repositories

• Open, highly documented, extensible platform
• Support for interoperability standards
• XML, SOAP, RSS, REST, WebDAV, and WSRP

Some important points related to manageability and extensibility of the content

capability are as follows:

• The MMS and other services related to the content capability are manageable and governable across your entire enterprise.
• SharePoint can store content in remote systems, including the file system, using remote BLOB storage.
• SharePoint is a platform that you can extend in numerous ways, and it supports many interoperability standards.

SharePoint 2010 - Part 3

This is part three of the Sharepoint Introduction series To read parts 1 and 2 click the following respective links.

• SharePoint - Part 1
• SharePoint - Part 2

Communities

The communities capability encompasses much of what people think of as business collaboration.

Enterprise Collaboration

The communities capability offers the following components, features, and functionality to enable collaboration between users.

List

• Fundamental construct in which content is stored
• Out of box lists: Calendar, contacts, tasks, announcements, surveys

Libraries

• Fundamental construct in which documents are stored
• Version control, check in, check out, document workflows

Alerts and Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

• Business process automation: Workflows
• Out of box workflows
• Document routing
• SharePoint Designer 2010

SharePoint Foundation delivers much of the out of box enterprise collaboration functionality that makes up the communities capability.

Identity and Profile

The communities capability offers the following components, features, and functionality to define a user and the user profile:

• My Sites
• User profiles
• Active Directory and other sources
• Attributes: Biography, job title, location, contact information, previous projects, interests, skills
• Photos, presence, and contact card
• Organizational relationships
• Manager, teams, colleagues (Add a Colleague)
• Expertise: Assigned or professed (Ask Me About)
• Social data mining
• SharePoint teams
• Office Communicator contacts
• E-mail communication patterns and content

Colleague and keyword suggestion

Following are some important points related to identity and profiles:

• My Sites are the social networking hub for interacting with individuals in an organization, designed to help build relationships between users and to connect people in an organization.
•  User profiles are a collection of attributes that can be synchronized with Active Directory and other sources. Users can also define their own attributes. A user’s My Site exposes the user’s profile, and SharePoint enables the organization and the individual to manage the visibility of profile attributes to various audiences.
• User photos, presence, and contact information is displayed throughout the SharePoint UI.
• Relationships are defined by authoritative sources, such as Active Directory, by user membership in teams, and by users who can add their own colleagues.
• Expertise can be defined centrally and by the user through the Ask Me About section of their profile.
• SharePoint can discover and suggest areas of expertise by mining the user’s memberships, contacts, e-mail communication patterns, and e-mail content.
• Through such mining activities, SharePoint can suggest keywords and colleagues to help users refine their profile.

User-Generated Content and User Feedback

The communities capability offers the following components, features, and functionality so that users can generate unstructured content and provide feedback regarding content of any type:

User-generated content

• Blogs, wikis (with rich media), discussions, podcasting, videos
• Status update --> My Network feed
• Activity --> Recent Activities feed

User feedback

• Share & Track tab on the ribbon

Tags

• Social/content tagging and expertise tagging
• Tag cloud control
• Tag profiles: Communities of interest around a tag

Ratings

Note board: Comments and questions

Social bookmarking

Following are some important points related to user-generated content and user feedback:?->- 

• User-generated content typically refers to less-structured forms of content, including blogs, wikis, and discussion forums. It also refers to microblogging activities such as when users update their status or even simply author a document.
•  User feedback encompasses activities and channels through which users give input on content. User feedback information can help users discover and make use of content based on what others think of the content.
• The note board is similar to the “wall” in Facebook. A user’s My Site has a note board, but any site, library, list, or document can also have a note board.
• Social bookmarking is a way to share favorite sites with a community of users and to discover new sites and resources from colleagues with similar interests. It replaces the My Links feature in SharePoint 2007. 

Business Communities

By combining the power of collaborative capabilities with social computing technologies, SharePoint enables an organization to achieve the goals of both the customer (user base) and manager (IT) of the technology.

Manageability and Extensibility

The communities capability offers the following components, features, and functionality to enable an organization to manage and extend SharePoint:

Security, privacy, and compliance

• Centralized configuration and management of business policies
• Monitoring, auditing, and reporting
• Balance governance with empowerment

Extensibility

• Enterprise social networking with SharePoint is manageable, secure, and compliant.