Citrix StoreFront 3.6 has just been released. It is available for download here. There are a number of cool features available in this release.
Federated Authentication Support
Since the introduction of Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD) support in StoreFront 2.6 for XenApp 6.5, we have been asked many times when we would have the similar support in XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x. Citrix Federated Authentication Service is the KCD replacement for XenApp/XenDesktop 7.9 and StoreFront 3.6 supports it. For further details, please see Andrew Innes’ blog article.
Non-Domain Joined Server Deployment
Previously, StoreFront could only be installed on servers that were joined to an Active Directory domain. StoreFront 3.6 supports installation and configuration of StoreFront on non-domain joined server. In this deployment, authentication is delegated to delivery controllers. Also, server group is not supported. This makes single server deployment and proof of concept much easier.
Load Balancing Non-Identical Sites
In previous versions of StoreFront, when configuring multi-site aggregation for load balancing, all of the aggregated delivery controllers have to publish exactly the same resources. With StoreFront 3.6, you can now load balance aggregated delivery controllers even when the published resources are not exactly the same. This is also configurable from the Administration Console.
NetScaler Gateway Configuration Simplification
Many customers have found that configuring StoreFront to work with NetScaler Gateway is not easy. Most notably, some of the information has to be entered twice in StoreFront and NetScaler Gateway. Any typos would result in lengthy troubleshooting. StoreFront 3.6, in conjunction with the upcoming NetScaler HDX Proxy announced at Synergy, devises a streamlined process for this configuration. The flow is illustrated in the following diagram.
StoreFront administrator first sets up StoreFront for local access and provides the NetScaler Gateway administrator with the StoreFront URL. The NetScaler Gateway administrator bootstraps the NetScaler Gateway and enter the StoreFront URL to retrieve the StoreFront information. They carry on to complete the rest of the NetScaler Gateway, e.g. authentication and Secure Ticket Authorities (STA), etc. They can then export a gateway configuration file to be imported by the StoreFront management console or PowerShell. During the import process, StoreFront validates the input, including the STA information and automatically configures the relevant store for remote access.
This feature eliminates manual input of duplicated information and simplifies the StoreFront/NetScaler Gateway configuration process. Please note that this feature requires NetScaler HDX Proxy to be released in NetScaler 11.1.
