We are excited to announce that the Citrix Session Recording service is now generally available! This powerful web management console is seamlessly integrated with Citrix DaaS, providing IT admins with compliance, security, and troubleshooting capabilities for their Citrix DaaS environments. This service offers a unified and streamlined admin experience and a smaller on-prem Session Recording footprint. While you still manage your Session Recording servers, Microsoft SQL server, and file storage, you can leave the rest to Citrix.

If you missed any of our past Citrix Session Recording service blog posts, you can check them out here:

For a general overview of Citrix Session Recording service, check out the video below. Refer to the product documentation for detailed technical information.

We’re grateful to the 50 customers who have participated in our public preview. They’ve leveraged both screen recordings and event-based recordings, and we’ve found email alerts to be among the most-used feature. Of the organizations that took part in the preview, we saw organizations deploy a wide range of Session Recording server distribution types, from the 1912 LTSR to the latest 2209 Current Release.

In addition to policy configurations and recording playback admin logging, we found that the recording file life cycle management features were popular in the preview. Customers loved the service’s search features, which enabled them to search recordings in a single console.

In this blog post, I also wanted to cover some key findings from the preview and some frequently asked questions so you’re better equipped to deploy Citrix Session Recording in production or QA. I also want to enable you to have broader discussions with your own teams and leadership around Citrix DaaS.

Frequently Asked Questions

Customers have actively engaged throughout the preview, and here are questions we heard the most from them.

Why did my cloud client installation fail?
It’s most likely due to an SSL certificate-related issue such as no certificate bonded to the Session Recording server or the domain name the SSL certificate is issued to is not the same as what’s recognized by the cloud client. By default, the cloud client assumes the local FQDN as the domain name, but you can specify a custom domain name if it’s not the case.

Does Citrix Session Recording service have the same policy capabilities as the on-prem version?
Yes. All policy types are supported in Citrix Session Recording service, and it’s streamlined to help you configure/update policies in a large-scale deployment.

How is customer data managed?
Because customers still manage the MS SQL server and recording file storage, customers control all recording data, including admin logging data.

What is the playback experience like?
The playback experience for Citrix Session Recording service is equivalent (and even better than) what you get with the on-prem native player or web player.

More Than a Management Console

You might think the major benefit of Citrix Session Recording service is that it aggregates the functions of multiple on-premises MMC consoles into the cloud.

But it’s not just a lift and shift from on prem to cloud.

For example, Citrix Session Recording service provides load balancing site management, which allows admins to configure and monitor from a site level. You can also search from all recordings within a site, with multiple conditions, which can dramatically increase efficiency. Additionally, archiving and deleting recordings is no longer a time-consuming overhead with the modernized Archive/Delete push-button fashion or schedule-based automatic workflow.

More importantly, the power of cloud can accelerate technology innovations, paving the way for an even more scalable and flexible service. We have more exciting features planned to help IT admins reduce the amount of low-value work they do so they can focus on core business priorities.

Setting Up Citrix Session Recording Service

If you are ready to take the next step and get started with the service, we have four onboarding videos that walk you through exactly how to set up your Session Recording servers, configure policies, and assign admin permissions. Take a look at the videos below to help you get started.

Step 1: Connect to Session Recording Servers

Step 2: Define Server Properties

Step 3: Configure Recording Policies

Step 4: Assign Permissions to Administrators

What’s Next

Customer requirements and feedback are always critical for us as we work to make Citrix Session Recording service even better. Moving forward, we’ll be looking to improve the onboarding process experience; simplify deployments of all sizes; and build a high-trust model.

Look out for that and even more from the team in the future. Stay tuned! I hope you’ve learned something in this blog and are ready to get your hands dirty by getting started today!

Disclaimer: The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and are subject to change without notice or consultation. The information provided is for informational purposes only and is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions or incorporated into any contract.