Citrix Datastore Backup and Recovery

In this post I’m going to show you how to automatically backup and restore your Citrix DataStore Database on SQL Server Express. First you’ll need to download and install Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and then connect to your server.

Backup :

Right click your Citrix Datastore Database and select Tasks – Backup.

Use the default settings on the General and Options tab. If you’re using SQL Server Express select Script Action to File from the Options tab. If you’re running a full blown SQL Server select Script Action to Job.

Save the SQL Server Script file in your preferred location. In this example I’ll be using C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft SQL Server.

Open up Notepad and paste the content below (double click to mark and copy). These commands will automatically backup the SQL Database and then copy the XA6DB.bak to a network share. This way you can easily go back in time and restore your database even if your SQL server has crashed.

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VirtuAll User Environment Manager (VUEM)

VirtuAll User Environment Manager (VUEM) was finally released in the beginning of this month. I’ve covered VUEM before in this post Virtual User Environment Manager – A Sneak Peak and this Interview with Pierre Marmignon – CitrixTools.Net. This tool is a fantastic present to the Community and will let you eliminate your login scripts once and for all!

To test VUEM in a isolated environment I spun up some servers in RackSpace Cloud (Getting started with Rackspace). The installation and configuration are straight forward and Pierre have also created a Quick Start Guide. This tools is an perfect addon to Citrix User Profile Manager and does some awesome stuff that’s hard to do with Microsoft Group Policy Preferences (GPP). E.g. dynamically adding icons to Quick Launch, Pin to TaskBar and Start Menu as you can see in the image below.

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Citrix Access Gateway 5.0 – No walk in the park

When the Citrix Access Gateway 4.6 (CAG) VPX Virtual Appliance was announced in Febrary 2010 the Citrix Community became very excited. The day when I finally got my hands on the product I got disappointed when I discovered that it only supported Citrix XenServer. Most of our customers have VMware in their DMZ and nobody was interested in replacing their working Citrix Secure Gateway before there where Citrix Access Gateway VPX support for VMware.

At this time it wasn’t a big issue, because the iPad hadn’t been released for sales in Norway so the pressure wasn’t too heavy on the IT apartments. The workaround was to create a XenApp Service site without any kind of 3 party authentication to begin testing the iPad in some environments.

At Citrix Synergy 2010 in Berlin there where some buzz about Citrix Access Gateway VPX 5.0 being released in the end of October 2010 with support for VMware ESX. Once again very excited, but turned down once more by the fact that it required an update of the Citrix Receiver to version 4.2.1. The Citrix Access Gateway VPX 5.0 was released 28th of October and we waited almost 1.5 month for the Receiver that was released 17th of December. I know this is not only Citrix’s fault since they were waiting for the App to get approved by Apple after the release of IOS 4.2.1.

The cool thing about the new Citrix Receiver for iPad is that it makes it possible to launch ICA files from Safari which means all Citrix Secure Gateway (CSG) solution with Citrix Web Interface 4.6 (WI) or higher will work even with 3 party authentication. So why should we upgrade to Citrix Access Gateway VPX 5.0?

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Secret Tips To Become More Productive

In last week’s post I talked about the importance of setting goals. I’m happy to see that you have taken action. The eBook download have double since last week. Today we’re going to talk about what YOU can do to free up some time to reach your 2011 goals.

The biggest problem today are information overload and because of all these distractions, we waste our precious time. If you follow the simple tips listed below I’m pretty sure you can save at least 30 minutes each day.

Reading email :

Read email only two times a day, the best time is at noon and end of work. I will warn you that it’s hard, but for the email addicts that constantly check their emails 100 times a day will be overwhelm on how effective this simple step is.

Email, IM and other notifications :

  • Turn off email envelope icon in taskbar, email alert and the “You got mail” sound
  • Turn off email push to your smart phone and iPad
  • Sign out of instant messaging or set status to Don’t disturb
  • Turn off Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin email notifications

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Boost your Citrix Career and Increase your Value

First of all Happy New Year. It has been a awesome year growing from 7.000 to 20.000 visitors per month, 50.000 YouTube views and more than 3.000 eBook downloads. All this because I choose to Take Action.

This year I want to help you to take action to boost your career and maybe increase your salary. Don’t be the one that always says “I should have done this, I should have done that”. Be the one that set goals and Take Action. Write down your goals for 2011 and set them as a wallpaper on your computer & smart phone. A daily reminder of your goals will lead to amazing results.

If you are not aware of it, the world is missing a lot of Citrix educated people. I have seen this myself interviewing people and I know other countries have the same problem. This means that if you have the proper Citrix certifications you will stand out from the rest, boost you career and most likely increase your salary. It gives you freedom and the possibility to work from anywhere in the world. I’m spending 4 months of combined work and vacation each year in Brasil.

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Citrix XenDesktop 5 using Hyper-V and SCVMM

In this video tutorial I’ll show you how to install and configure Citrix XenDesktop 5 (XD5) with Microsoft Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). The process is pretty straight forward if you do them in the right order.

I’m installing SCVMM on the same server as XD5 which means you’ll need to install XD5 first to get the latest versio of Microsoft SQL Express. Always remember to install the SCVMM Admin Console on the server(s) hosting XD5.

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