CVA-500 Architecting a Citrix Virtualization Solution

This 5 day instructor-led training class is presented by Citrix training partners to their end customers. Channel Partners nationwide hire proven AMS Subject Matter Expert Citrix Certified Instructors (CCI’s) to teach on-site or on-line classes.

This class teaches Citrix architects how to analyze and design a comprehensive
Citrix virtualization solution. Based on the Citrix Consulting Services Methodology, this class will provide students with the key considerations for managing the project, assessing environment readiness and risks and designing the appropriate solution according to Citrix best practices.  Students will gain real-world insight from the field and practice assessment and design exercises based on challenging, enterprise-level scenarios.

This course is intended for IT professionals, such as Server, Network and Systems Engineers. Systems Integrators, Systems Administrators and Application Engineers are also appropriate candidates for this course.

Students should have experience and knowledge of the following products and classes to ensure the successful completion of this class.

Experience with or understanding of the following Citrix products:

• Citrix XenAppTM 4.5 or higher
• Citrix XenServerTM 5.0 or higher
• Citrix Provisioning ServicesTM 5.0 or higher
• Citrix XenDesktop 3.0 or higher
• Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition 9.0 or higher
• Citrix Branch Repeater 5.0 or higher
• Citrix EdgeSight for Endpoints 5.0
• Citrix EdgeSight for XenApp 5.0

Experience using the following Windows Server and Microsoft technologies:

• Active Directory
• Terminal Services
• DHCP
• DNS
• Group Policy Objects
• SQL Server
• Performance monitoring tools
• Troubleshooting tools

Experience with, or strong understanding of, the following:

• Server virtualization, including hypervisor configuration and virtual machine management tools
• Server hardware, including NIC configuration, power, cooling and
  rack enclosure configurations
• Virtual networking, including VLANs and addressing
• Enterprise-level storage technologies
• Citrix XenApp application virtualization
• Citrix XenDesktop, including Provisioning Services
• SSL VPN functionality

Completion of the following courses or demonstrate equivalent knowledge:

• CXA-201I – Implementing Citrix XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008
• CXS-200I – Implementing Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition 5.0
• CXD-200I – Implementing Citrix XenDesktop 3
• CXA-300I – Advanced Administration for Citrix XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008
• CVE-400I – Engineering a Citrix Virtualization Solution

Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to:

• Describe the phases of the Citrix Consulting Methodology and
  distinguish between Assessment and Design projects.
• Determine the type of information to be collected about the
  existing desktop infrastructure and supporting processes.
• Describe how applications can be delivered within a Citrix
  virtualization infrastructure.
• Identify the server performance metrics that determine whether a
  server is a good virtualization candidate.
• Identify areas of the network architecture that should be
  included in an infrastructure assessment.
• Identify which factors to check when assessing security and the
  user authentication process.
• Gather data about testing, control and support processes, as
  well as user issues, backup and recovery plans in an environment.
• Define the purpose of the conceptual architecture diagram,
  documentation and validation process.
• Evaluate and recommend delivery methods for application types.
• Recognize tuning and optimizations that can improve the
  performance of the operating system and server.
• Describe the design considerations for the Desktop Delivery
  Controller and Citrix XenDesktop farms.
• Identify options for providing Provisioning Services bootstrap
  redundancy and available network optimizations for Provisioning Services.
• Determine the optimal shared storage design to provide high
  availability for vDisks and the optimal vDisk type to implement in an
  environment.
• Determine the appropriate network design for a XenServer
  implementation in an environment.
• Determine how to configure an Access Gateway implementation for
  an environment.
• Describe general ICA protocol optimization techniques.
• Evaluate design considerations for integrating Branch Repeater
  into an Access Gateway design.
• Recognize how risk can impact a virtualization solution.

Class Outline

1. Project Management

• Overview
• Objectives
• Citrix Consulting Methodology
  • Phases
  • Analysis
  • Design
  • Build/Test
  • Rollout/Support
  • Milestones, Checkpoints and Guidelines
  • Assessment and Design Projects
    • Assessment Projects
      • Key Benefits
      • Timeline
      • Design Projects
        • Key Benefits
        • Timeline
        • Key Activities
          • Project Team Overview
            • Roles and Responsibilities
            • Requirements and Expectations
            • Statement of Work Review
            • Project Kickoff
            • Requirements Gathering
              • Business Requirements
              • Technical Requirements
              • Findings Presentation
            • Management Consoles in XenApp 5.0
            • Documentation

2. Business Goals

• 3-to-5 Year Plan
• Growth
• IT Projects

3. User Community

• User Groups
• Endpoints
  • Operating Systems
  • New Endpoints
  • Replaced Endpoints
  • Repurposed Endpoints
  • Reused Endpoints
  • Usage Habits
  • User Locations
  • User Satisfaction

4. Operating System Delivery

• Desktop Images
• Image Build Process
• Desktop Maintenance

5. Application Delivery

• General Applications
  • Productivity suites
  • Foundational applications
  • Special Applications
    • Resource Intensive
    • Challenging
    • Custom
    • Application User Groups
    • Application Virtualization

6. Server Virtualization

• Current Solution
• Physical Server Assessment
  • Data collection
  • Excluded Servers from Virtualization
  • Consolidation Scenarios

7. Infrastructure

• Server Hardware
• Network Architecture
• Windows Server and Active Directory
• Enterprise Storage
• Databases

8. Security and Personalization

• Authentication
• Permissions
• A/V
• Logon Scripts
• Profiles
• Active Directory Policies

9. Operations and Support

• Monitoring and Management
• Testing and Change Control
• Support
• Disaster Recovery

10. Conceptual Architecture

• Executive Summary
• Enterprise Design

11. Virtualization Infrastructure Design

• Virtualized Components
• Server Hardware
  • Hardware Configuration
  • Blade Considerations
  • Network Configuration
    • Addressing and VLANs
    • NIC Performance and Redundancy
    • Network Terminology
    • Internal and External Networks
    • Physical Network Connectivity
    • High Availability
    • Storage
      • Capacity and Performance
      • Storage Types
      • Storage Terminology
      • Resource Pool Design
      • Capacity Planning
      • Physical Server Migration

12. Operating System Delivery Design

• Provisioning
• Services Operating System
• Hardware
• Capacity Planning
• HA
• Cache
• Farm Design
• A/V
• Bootstrap Redundancy
• Device Collections
• Optimization
• SQL Database
• vDisk Storage Location
• Enterprise Storage
• vDisk Type
• Write Cache Encryption

13. Application Delivery Design

• Applications
• Integration
• Application Streaming Cache
• Without Caching
• Pre-Caching
• Optimizations

14. Desktop Delivery Design

• Desktop Delivery Controller
• Farm Design
• Virtual Machine Specifications
• Desktop Groups
• Desktop Images
• Internal and External Users
• Pooled Users
• Dedicated Users
• Profiles Design
• Policy Design
• Desktop Monitoring

15. Access Design

• Resource Delivery
• Access Scenarios
• Internal Site Access
• External Site Access
• Access Gateway
  Deployment Modes
• Server Load Balancing

16. Delivery Optimization

• ICA Acceleration
  • Bandwidth Allocation
  • Compression
  • Quality of Service
  • Virtual Channels
  • WAN Acceleration
    • ICA Traffic Types
    • Printing Traffic
    • File Access Traffic
    • Multimedia Traffic
    • Display Traffic
    • Application Types
    • Front Buffer
    • Back Buffer
    • Branch Repeater Deployment Modes
    • Hardware Architecture
    • Network Architecture
    • Infrastructure Services
    • Protocol Analysis
    • Branch Repeater and Access Gateway Integration
      • Deployment Modes
      • Branch Repeater with Access Gateway in One-arm Mode
      • Branch Repeater Alternative Mode
      • Repeater Plug-in Integration
      • Acceleration Rules
      • HTTP Traffic Considerations
      • Firewall Rules
      • Roaming Branch Users

17. Business Continuity Design

• Component Failover
• Site Failover

     Capstone Exercise

To Hire a proven Citrix Virtualization Subject Matter Expert and Citrix
Certified Instructor who also teaches this class, call 800-798-3901 today!