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vinocalk's avatar
vinocalk
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Feb 05, 2014

APM - Citrix and OWA iapp question

I have recently used the following iApps to build out a remote access solution using APM and it works great. I do have a couple of questions about these iapps though.

 

f5.microsoft_exchange_owa_2007 - Why does this template not configure portal access when OWA is listed in F5 documentation as being a good example of what portal access is for?

 

f5.citrix_xenapp_xendesktop.2012_06_27 - Why does this template not implement a Application Access Remote Desktop for Citrix remote desktop functionality when Citrix remote desktop is a good example of what Application Access Remote Desktops are for are they not?

 

Im completely happy with the performance of what I have implemented using iapps and UAT testing is going well but its coming to handover to support \ documentation time and I need to train up the rest of the team (from architects to support) on our implementation and APM as a whole and I cannot answer these questions!

 

Any help greatly appreciated!

 

APM
citrix
design
devops
iApps
microsoft
security

5 Replies

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  • Greg_Crosby_319's avatar
    Greg_Crosby_319
    Historic F5 Account
    Feb 05, 2014

    Hi Vinocalk,

     

    The Citrix iApp should create and implement a Citrix remote desktop profile when replacing Web interface servers and using APM (answer yes to question "Will you be using APM or Edge Gateway to securely proxy application traffic and authenticate users into your Citrix environment?", and yes to question "Do you want to replace Citrix Web Interface servers with the BIG-IP system?"). This setup uses F5's dynamic webtops to display available published applications rather then Citrix's web interface server. Also, there is a newer iApp located on devcentral which include support for Xendesktop 7 and storefront if you are interested.

     

    • vinocalk's avatar
      vinocalk
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Feb 06, 2014
      Greg - Thank you very much that answers the citrix side of my question perfectly. I can confirm that we have NOT replaced the citrix web interface servers in our implementation hence why I see no remote desktop config. Thank you also for the news about the new iapp but I think I will stick with what I have depolyed. I actually managed to get StoreFront working. I think it was just a case of frigging the SSO config. I will however add to my documentation that a new iapp exists that could aid compatibility with Xendesktop 7 as and when that upgrade happens. Thanks again!
  • mikeshimkus_111's avatar
    mikeshimkus_111
    Historic F5 Account
    Feb 05, 2014

    Vinocalk,

     

    The iApp templates are designed to cover the most common/requested deployment scenarios. The OWA 2007 APM portal deployment is one that was never popular enough to warrant an iApp.

     

    There is a possibility that we would do this in the future, but it would most likely be a standalone iApp that would apply only to OWA 2010 and 2013.

     

    I recommend chatting about this with your F5 sales engineer, so that they can promote your request to the iApp developers.

     

    thanks

     

    Mike

     

    • vinocalk's avatar
      vinocalk
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Feb 06, 2014
      Mike many thanks for your answer. I guess I was wondering why Portal Access was not F5 best practice for deploying OWA. After reading up a bit more about Portal Access I guess it is maybe a bit overkill for most F5 \ OWA deployments as OWA is designed to face the internet so should be security hardened therefore negating the need for all the URL \ JavaScript rewriting? I guess also that Portal Access can help optimize OWA connectivity by using caching etc. but this is probably only really necessary in very busy traffic scenarios? Am I on the right track?
    • mikeshimkus_111's avatar
      mikeshimkus_111
      Historic F5 Account
      Feb 06, 2014
      Portal Access means that client connections never get forwarded to the OWA servers; simple pre-authentication is enough for many users but some may want this extra security. I'm actually not sure what Portal Access provides as far as optimization...LTM's caching, compression, and tcp profiles do an excellent job of that.