The appeal of Linux virtual desktops has reached new heights, becoming the go-to choice for a variety of tasks such as developer operations, high-demand graphic workloads, and deployment of web and SaaS applications.
These virtual desktops not only offer superb performance but also contribute to substantial cost savings. By seamlessly integrating the Citrix Linux Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) into either a Citrix Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) or Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environment, the management and provisioning of both Windows and Linux Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDIs) become incredibly efficient.
This integration strategy is clearly resonating with our users, as evidenced by a 30% increase in Linux VDA adoption just within this year.
Watch this video for more information about the Citrix Linux VDA:
Citrix continues its efforts to simplify processes for easier onboarding and more effective troubleshooting. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the administrator experience features introduced in recent Linux VDA releases.
Simplify Your Deployment with Enhanced Easy Install Features
The easy install feature (ctxinstall.sh) has been available for a few releases now. This tool assists administrators in setting up a functional Linux VDA environment by installing the necessary packages and customizing the configuration files. If you are new to the Citrix Linux VDA and want to quickly set up Linux virtual desktops, the “easy install” option is the best choice.
Prior to the Linux VDA 2303 release, saving the current configuration for future deployments or adjusting specific runtime settings such as DDC/LDAP/FAS lists post-installation/provisioning wasn’t very intuitive for admins.
Starting with the Linux VDA 2303 release, we added ctxinstall.conf as the configuration file for easy install. This allows you to set, save, and synchronize the values of all environment variables needed for the GUI and ctxinstall.sh.
When you need to change specific runtime parameters, such as the DDC list, you can simply modify the ctxinstall.conf with the new values, then run the easy install setup script silently. The VDA service will be updated and restarted without further interaction. It’s also possible to update a batch of VDAs at a scheduled time using 3rd party Linux tools.
Improve Troubleshooting Efficiency with Enhanced XDPing
XDPing is a comprehensive health check and troubleshooting tool. It carries out over 150 tests on the Linux VDA environment, ranging from the hypervisor, dependencies, and settings, to service status.
Registering the Linux VDA to a cloud connector or delivery controller is a critical process that can occasionally fail for various reasons. Starting with 2303, the XDPing tool can assist in analyzing your VDA registration status and troubleshoot the root cause.
Single-session persistent VDI has proven to be the most popular deployment model type for developers, due to the ability to customize their environment or run certain tasks for extended periods of time. Developers frequently working with root privileges can sometimes corrupt a Linux virtual desktop environment; with XDPing, they can now request a repair rather than a replacement or restore from a backup, saving time and valuable resources. In 2305, Citrix has enhanced XDPing to enable administrators to extract the Linux VDA settings such as configuration, database, and binary permission info at any time, and compare any two settings to identify what changes occurred between them.
Citrix is committed to investing in the Linux VDA offering and the Linux VDA 2305 release comes with many new features. We encourage you to start testing these new capabilities in your environments today! If you haven’t incorporated Linux into your environment yet, you can request a demo here. Even if your organization doesn’t utilize Linux-native apps, Linux VDI solutions remain an ideal choice for all types of users, perfectly catering to the delivery of web and SaaS applications.
