In my previous article we walked through the console and looked at building or importing machines. We looked at how you create a catalog and what the options you have there, custom or quick create. We took a look at power management so you have a good understanding of those options. If you want to reread it or came in through this article, there is the previous one – https://robbeekmans.net/euc/citrix-managed-desktops-a-guided-tour-part-1/ This article I will continue the guided tour with the other menu options.
Access and user authentication
We left the tour at the access and user authentication menu option, so let’s start there. As said before, this menu option allows customers to see the url users need to access. it also allows to change the url they use for this, this is done from the Hamburg icon in the top left corner and then workspace configuration. The first tab there is called access and allows a customer to change the url.
The other option here is to manage user access and authentication. There are a few option here and I would like to refer to https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-managed-desktops.html for all the option. You can select whether you want to use a managed Azure Active directory, your on-premises active directory (with a VNET connection) or other options as described in the docs.
Network connections
The next menu option is your network connection, here customers have the option to create a VNET connection. Customers would use this option if they need resources from their on-premises environment or if they want to leverage the Active Directory on-premises.
Connection is rather easy but requires a few steps. I would like to refer to the same Citrix docs again to see the whole setup here.
Something will be added here pretty soon, keep your eyes on social media or Citrix blog for it.
Azure Subscription
Citrix Managed desktops is an Azure-only solution, so to run any workloads you need to have an Azure subscription. But wait, this is where Citrix stands out to some others, Citrix does not require customer to have an Azure subscription for the workloads. Citrix has a managed Azure subscription and if a customer wants, Citrix will deliver a Managed desktop and manage Azure along. That is a true Desktop as a service.
There is something new here, you might have noticed it already. There is a possibility now to also add your on Azure subscription. Citrix has added BYO Azure to the solution. This opens the door to use any Azure region and reserved instances to bring the costs down even more.
Consumption reports
Any desktop as a service solution should offer a reporting module to show the usage data. Customers are paying x amount to run workloads and use services. To get insight in to what is being used a break down can be found in the CSV file.
There are three options here, you can select the following periods of time to filter on before downloading the CSV file.
- Month to date
- 30 days
- all data
Troubleshooting
One of the last option, for now, is troubleshooting. Every environment will experience some issues, small or bigger. So any environment will require troubleshooting tools.
Citrix offers a few option out of the box to troubleshoot the environment. A bastion host is available with all the preloaded tools to troubleshoot. So if you have knowledge and want to take a look yourself, this is where to start.
Of course, if one feels this beyond their knowledge, opening a support ticket is still there and most advisable. depending on the selection made it will show the option available. if other is chosen, only a ticket is available.
General & licensing
The last tab is where the reference to the documentation is found. There is also a link to the licensing usage, where one can see how much licenses have been used in the past period.
The licensing option will take the customer to the Citrix Cloud licensing page where the data is found and where the CSV can be downloaded.
Downloads
Last but not least, the workspace app is downloadable from the console as well, and that is the console from a management perspective.
The next article of the article will be about the monitoring pane for Citrix Managed desktops. part3 is found here https://wp.me/p7hTwD-1mZ
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