At Citrix Synergy 2019, we made several exciting announcements around the Citrix Workspace, especially some great updates for our Linux install base. We announced support for Linux VDA on Google Cloud, giving customers more choice, we featured hand-on demos of some of the latest and greatest for Linux VDA, and we delivered a session that featured a key customer’s real-world story and best practices on delivering Linux Workspace to their end-users. We wanted to give a big thank you to Synopsys, a leading EDA software company, for sharing their story.
Coming on the heels of Synergy, our June release delivers multiple key features, highlighting our constant innovation for Linux users and our commitment to enhancing Linux VDA with each current release. So let’s take a look!
Support for Google Cloud Platform
What does it mean that we’re launching Citrix Workspace for Google Cloud?
Now you have a choice to deploy Linux VDA workloads on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). In other words, Citrix can deliver Linux virtual desktops and applications securely in your workspace, on a new cloud platform, to better support your hybrid or multi-cloud strategy.
Support for Google Cloud Platform also helps to extend Citrix Workspace and was a key demand, especially from our develop community.
As of the 1906 release, Linux VDA adds support for GCP. Below is a screenshot of a Linux application, running on GCP.
Enhanced Configuration for Smart Card Authentication
The use of smart card is typical in industries with regulatory requirements such as the public sector, healthcare, and financial services.
With Linux VDA 1906, Citrix is further enhancing configuration for smart card authentication. Now, when you run the ctxsmartlogon.sh script for configuring the smart card environment, you can specify the path to a smart card driver other than Coolkey, like Gemalto.
Support for PBIS
Active Directory is required for authentication and authorization in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops infrastructure. The Kerberos infrastructure in Active Directory is used to guarantee the authenticity and confidentiality of communications with the Delivery Controllers. In previous releases, Linux VDA supported Winbind, SSSD, Centrify, and Quest as domain-joining methods on Linux.
With Linux VDA 1906, you can use PowerBroker Identity Services (PBIS) as an alternative choice to join Linux VMs to the Windows domain.
Choice of Printer Drivers
Printer choice has been a key demand with Linux environments. With 1906, we’re bringing even more feature parity with Windows VDA when it comes to printing. Going forward, you can now choose to configure the printer driver mapping and compatibility policy in Citrix Studio rather than configuring on each Linux VDA.
Greater Resilience
Resilience is a system’s ability to return to its original state or move to a new desirable state after being disturbed.
Linux VDA 1906 introduces a resilience-related capability — a monitor service daemon — to ensure Linux VDA deployment is more resilient and robust.
The monitor service daemon monitors key services through periodic scanning. When detecting exceptions, the daemon restarts or stops service processes and cleans up process residuals for releasing resources. The detected exceptions are recorded in the /var/log/xdl/ms.log file. For more information, see monitor service daemon.
You can try these new features today by upgrading to Linux VDA 1906! Follow me on Twitter at @ChuXiaolu, and let us know in the comments below what you think of the latest Linux VDA enhancements.
