Citrix XenApp 6.5 User Guide
For Windows and OS X
Table of Contents
Target Audience ....................................................................................................................... 3
Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................. 3 Windows: .............................................................................................................................................. 3 OS X: ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Installing Client ........................................................................................................................ 4 Downloading the Client: .................................................................................................................. 4 Launching the Installer ................................................................................................................... 6 Windows: ............................................................................................................................................................ 6 OS X: ..................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Launching Apps ........................................................................................................................ 9 Logging in ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Performance Tips ................................................................................................................. 11 Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................... 12
Special Note 1: Security Warning and Local Drive Access ...................................... 13 Windows: .......................................................................................................................................... 13 Mac OS X: ........................................................................................................................................... 15
Special Note 2: Firefox 30+ Special Requirements .................................................... 16
Help and Support .................................................................................................................. 16
Target Audience This document is designed for students enrolled in a class that provides access to the College of Science and Math Citrix Server.
Prerequisites
Windows: Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 IE 8 – 11, Google Chrome, and Firefox are all supported
OS X: 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, and 10.10 Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox are all supported
Installing Client
Downloading the Client: Open a web browser and go to: http://science-‐citrix2.kennesaw.edu
Click here to go to the client download page.
This link will take you to the following page:
First agree to the terms and conditions
Then click the download button to begin the download of the client for your platform. This page auto detects your operating system.
Make sure to save the file to a place on your computer that is easily accessible.
Launching the Installer
Windows: Double click on the installer icon to begin the installation of the Citrix Receiver. You will need to approve the execution of the installer by clicking yes in the Windows UAC prompt. The install will start automatically after double clicking and approving the installer to run.
OS X: Mount the Citrix Installer disc image (DMG file) that was downloaded above by double clicking the file. The mounted disc image contains two shortcuts, double click the icon named “Install Citrix Receiver.pkg”
Click here when installation is complete
This will launch the installer for
OS X
Click the Continue button a couple of times, then agree to the terms, then install. Before the install will begin, you will be asked for your password. Installation MUST be performed by a computer administrator account.
After install, you might occasionally see a screen asking for your work email or server address. Just cancel out of this screen, as we do not support this method of access for the Science and Math Citrix Server. Only access through the web portal at http://science-‐citrix2.kennesaw.edu is supported. While it is possible to download the Citrix Receiver directly from the Citrix website, this version may not be compatible with the College of Science and Math Citrix Server. Only the version available on the page http://science-‐citrix2.kennesaw.edu will be supported fully.
Launching Apps
Logging in Launch a web browser and navigate to https://science-‐citrix2.kennesaw.edu and login with your KSU NetID Credentials. Please note that this is not the same as your KSU ID number. If you are having problems with your NetID, please visit http://netid.kennesaw.edu. Once logged in, you will be presented with folders that coincide with your current enrollment.
In this example screen shot, you see the contents of the Math Apps folder. Now you see the icons of the Apps you have available. Single click* the icon to launch the app. If this the first time you have launched an app after installing the receiver, you MAY get a warning asking if it is OK to open .ICA files. Click yes/open. If you are asked with what program you want to open the file with, the receiver is not installed properly and needs to be reinstalled.
* It is important to remember that the application icons on the page are not actually shortcuts on your desktop, they are only links on a webpage that initiate the download of a file that tells the Citrix Receiver what application to launch for you. If you double click the icon, will effectively be trying to initiate to simultaneous sessions of the same app started at the same time. This can increase the chances that your app will hang during launch and cause you to have to trouble shoot your connection issue.
Performance Tips Files that you are working on need to exist on the server, not on a flash drive or the local hard drive of the PC that you are accessing Citrix from. It is perfectly acceptable to copy files from your local machine to the server farm, but to not attempt to run any analysis until the file has been transferred to the server, and then copy the resultant data set that you need to keep either to your own drive or local disk after it has been saved to the server hard drive. To use an analogy to visualize why it is not a good idea to run code on data stored on a remotely stored drive, we can use means of transportation as examples.
• Data that exist in the processor cache memory would be available to the processor immediately, like a light speed warp drive on the Star Ship Enterprise.
• Data that exist in system ram is akin to being a military jet airplane. That is to
say, still very fast, but much slower than that of the processor cache.
• Data that exist on the server hard drive would be like a commercial airliner. Once again, still quickly available, but much slower than system RAM and a snails pace compared to the processor cache.
• Data that exist on Owldrive, which is a network share available on Citrix and
on other campus PC’s, would be like a fast sports car. This is where you start to get into transfer speeds that really bring down the speed of the task you are running. The best thing to do is copy data from here to the server hard drive (the server hard drive is basically your “My Documents” directory on the server farm.) If you are on campus, connected to an Ethernet network connection (not wireless!!!!) your mapped local drives from your desktop are about the same as the Owldrive, as long as you do not use your local PC while the data is transferring.
• Using the transportation analogy takes a drastic dive here. If you were
connected to Citrix over the Internet, data that exist on your local drives would be like walking, barefoot. And if you are using a flash drive or USB hard drive, consider it crawling. At this point, you are starving the processor for data to the point that it might think it is hung when in reality your data is still just transferring. This is also affected by time of day. During normal business hours, data traffic off campus is heavily congested.
This is why data on a mapped drive really should be copied to the server farm before it is processed. It will not only make the server more efficient for you, but also for the other users on the farm.
Troubleshooting • If you are asked to download an ICA file when you click on your selected app,
then something has gone wrong with the Citrix Receiver install. Re-‐download and re-‐install the Citrix Receiver.
• The only supported access to the CSM Citrix Server is through the web site at https://science-‐citrix2.kennesaw.edu. While it is POSSIBLE to connect the receiver directly to the Citrix Server farm, it is NOT supported.
• (This only works on the Windows Platform) If a program that had previously worked stops working for you, the most likely cause is a hung session from an improper/interrupted logoff. In order to see if your old session is still running, and to terminate it if it is, then log into the Citrix Server and run a different app. Once the new app starts, look in the system tray (by the time and date in lower right corner) and find the Citrix Receiver icon there. Right click this icon and select Online Sessions, the Connection Center. Click the app in the ICA connection window that is not working for you, then click the terminate button. Close the connection center and try to re-‐launch the app that was having the issue. (For a graphical representation of this procedure, refer to the windows portion of the section “Special Note: Security Warning and Local Drive Access”.)
Special Note 1: Security Warning and Local Drive Access On occasion, Citrix will pop up a security warning asking if you want to allow an application to access information on a device attached to your computer. If you do not allow this, you will not be allowed to save to devices on your local computer, and will only see the option to save your files on the server.
If you missed this step, or inadvertently selected “Block Access” or one of the other options, then you will need to go into the settings of the Citrix Receiver to specifically re-enable the Read & Write option. This is different on each platform.
Windows: 1. Log into the Citrix server normally
and launch any available app that you have available to you.
2. Once launched, you will have a new icon in your taskbar for the Citrix receiver. Right click on that icon and select “About”
Windows
OS X
3. This will bring up the “About Citrix Receiver” window. Click on the arrow next to “Advanced”, and then click on “Connection Center”.
4. Now you will see the “Connection Center”. Click on the name of the server that you are connected to. In this example picture, it is CSM-‐C5. Then click the preferences button, this will open up the Citrix Reciever Preferences window.
5. Click the File Access tab at the top of the Citrix Reciever Preferences window, then select Read and Write, then click Apply and OK. Close your open application and log out of Citrix and reboot your PC. You should now see your local drives in the applications save and open dialog boxes.
Mac OS X: 1. Log into the Citrix
server normally and launch any app that you have available to you.
2. Once launched, make sure the application window is selected, and you should have “Citrix Receiver” listed as the active app in the menu bar next to the Apple logo. Click on that menu and select “Preferences…”
3. This will bring up the Citrix Receifver Preferences window. Click on the Devices icon, and select “Read and Write”, then close the window.
4. Proceed to log out of Citrix and close any open Citrix Receiver windows that you have open, and log back in to your app with local drive access.
Special Note 2: Firefox 30+ Special Requirements
Mozilla has started implementing stricter security in the newer versions of Firefox. As of version 30, users will need to explicitly enable the Citrix ICA Client. To do this, open the Add-‐ons menu by (1) typing in about:addons in the URL bar, then (2) click on “Plugins” on the left side. This will bring up the list of installed plugins in your browser. (3) Click on the drop down menu next to the Citrix ICA Client and select “Always Activate”.
Help and Support
For Help and Support, you should use the support form located at http://csm.kennesaw.edu/resources/citrix-support-request.php. Please be sure to include your operating system and web browser version in any support request. Any applicable error messages will help expedite your request.
1
2 3