Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop Fundamentals

Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop Fundamentals

People think that the XenApp is delivering the applications of windows and XenDesktop is providing the Windows desktop. However, the XenApp can also deliver the desktops as well. The major difference is that the XenApp is one-to-many Windows Server and XenDesktop is one-to-one windows desktop machine.

The fundamental difference is that: a

• XenApp users share the CPU, memory and disk resources on the same server whereas the XenDesktop users get the single CPU, memory and disk.
• The Citrix App users get Windows Server look and feel whereas the Desktop users get the feel and look of Windows Desktop.
• The previous users can use all the apps present on server whereas the XenDesktop users can only use the apps which are present on their desktops.

Citrix Components

•  Xenapp
• Xendesktop
• Xenserver
• Provisioning server
• Netscaler

Citrix XenApp allows users to connect to their corporate applications.It helps hosting applications on central servers and allows the users to interact with them remotely and deliver them to users devices for local execution.

Xendesktop separates the physical machine from the desktop environment using the client-server model.XenDesktop is the VDI – Virtual Desktop Infrastructure software provided by Citrix.

XenServer is a hypervisor and is also known as VMM – Virtual Machine Manager. It allows the installationof many operating systems simultaneously using the virtualization techniques. XenServer uses the Xen hypervisor to virtualize each server on which it is installed, enabling each to host multiple Virtual Machines simultaneously with guaranteed performance.