Citrix StoreFront 3.9 is available now. It introduces a number of new features to help you and your users use the Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop solutions. I will work through them in this post.
SAML Authentication to StoreFront
StoreFront 3.6 introduced support for Citrix Federated Authentication, which enabled SAML authentication via NetScaler Gateway. In 3.9, we enhance the support by adding direct SAML authentication to StoreFront. It supports Microsoft AD FS v2.0~v4.0 and NetScaler Gateway as identity providers (IdP).
To enable direct SAML authentication to StoreFront,
- Start the Admin Console and navigate to the store you would like to configure
- Select “Manage Authentication Methods” from the actions pane
- Select “SAML Authentication”
- Select “Identity Provider” to configure the IdP details
- Select “Service Provider” to obtain information needed to set up the trust for the Service Provider in your IdP
You will need to configure Citrix Federated Authentication Service to enable your users to access their applications and desktops. Please see StoreFront 3.9 documentation for further details.
Better NetScaler Gateway Integration
NetScaler Gateway (NSG) 11.1.21.51 supports exporting configuration for multiple NSG vServers. StoreFront 3.9 extends the NSG configuration importing feature (introduced in StoreFront 3.6) to process the multi-vServer configuration and enables administrators to import selected vServer configuration.
First, you have to set up your StoreFront stores for LAN acces. From the screen shot below, you can see that I have set up three stores in this example.
You can then use the XenApp and XenDesktop wizard from the NetScaler Administration UI to create multiple NetScaler Gateway vServers. In my example, I create two vServers to integrate with Store and Test respectively. For details on how to set up NetScaler Gateway vServers, please see Jobin’s blog post.
After that, you can download the configuration file using the Administration UI. In my example, I select to export configuration for all vServers.
When you import the configuration file to StoreFront Administration Console, the console shows the list of vServers available to import.
Another improvement is to support adding a GSLB URL for a NetScaler Gateway object in StoreFront using PowerShell. This is achieved by adding an optional parameter -GSLBurl for Add-STFRoamingGateway and Set-STFRoamingGateway cmdlets. This enhancement is primarily to support large deployment where GSLB is used to load balance multiple NetScaler Gateways, in which case each gateway has two URLs. This feature can also be used to support any deployment that requires two URLs for each gateway. Please see StoreFront 3.9 documentation for further details.
Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP)
StoreFront 3.9 automatically enrolls you to participate the Citrix Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). Anonymous statistics and usage information are sent to Citrix to help improve the product quality and performance. You can change your participation in CEIP at any time using a registry setting HKLM:\Software\Citrix\Telemetry\CEIP. For detailed information about what data is collected and the registry setting to configure your participation, please see StoreFront 3.9 documentation.
Support for Adaptive Transport
StoreFront 3.9 supports Adaptive Transport for HDX available in XenApp/XenDesktop 7.13. For further details of Adaptive Transport for HDX, please see Derek’s blog post and
