Retrieving Citrix Sessions - Load Balanced Env.

Sanjeev_Harrish

Active Member
Hi,

We're getting conflicting views on whether you are able to retrieve OneWorld sessions running on Citrix Servers in a load balanced environment. Anyone out there running Citrix servers like this and able to retrieve sessions?
 
Sanjeev,
What exactly do you mean by retrieve sessions ? do you mean last and custom user settings ? if so, have you tried to place the home directory of the users on a server that is not in the citrix farm so settings can be saved and retrieved every time the user logs on and off ?
dave


NT 4.0 SP5, SQL 7.0, One World B7321 SP12.4, Citrix 1.8 (XE soon)
 
Thanks for replying - let me make myself a little clearer...

We're running Citrix clients on Handheld devices (barcode readers)over a RF network. These devices are Windows CE devices. In short, the handhelds go into powersave mode every so often. When a user switches the device back on, it asks whether you'd like to reconnect to Citrix Server. If you select yes, you are back at the OneWorld sign on screen. Ideal situation would be that you are taken back to the screen you were at prior to losing the connection? I know this is possible in a environment which isn't load balanced - is it possible in a load balanced one?
 
Sanjeev,
this may be a silly question but do you have the users configured to reset or disconnect on the user config screen in user manager for domains on the citrix server ? it should be disconnect and you should probably also say connect from any client.
dave

ps: I still believe you must have user's home directories on a server that is not in the farm.

NT 4.0 SP5, SQL 7.0, One World B7321 SP12.4, Citrix 1.8 (XE soon) <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by got_to_love_jde on 3/1/01 05:36 AM.</FONT></P>
 
Sanjeev_Harrish,
Concerning your question on reconnecting to a Citrix Server
Session.....
Citrix servers allow clients to disconnect from published applications
and reconnect to them later. When a client disconnects from a published
application using the Disconnect option, the session on which the
application was running remains active on the Citrix server (even on
Load Balanced machines). To reconnect to the same session, the Master
ICA Browser must send the client to the Citrix server with the client's
disconnected session. When a client selects a published application to
run, the Master ICA Browser checks its list of disconnected sessions in
its database against the name of the selected published application and
the identifier for the client. If both pieces of information match an
entry in the list of disconnected sessions, the Master ICA Browser sends
the address of the server containing the client's disconnected session
to the client and the client reconnects to the disconnected session. If
no match - no reconnection - it will connect client to least busy server
that contains the published application and creates a new session.
Note however that if users frequently disconnect and reconnect to
sessions on load balanced Citrix boxes rather than logging off, the load
might not be distributed evenly among the servers in the Farm.
Also be aware that all clients connected to a Citrix server use the
same amount of processor resources (basically clients that run
processor-intensive app's have the same weight in a user-load
calculation as those using non-processor intensive applications). You
can compensate for differences in load balancing if you have clients
reconnecting by adjusting the User Load parameters on the servers before
changing the load balancing parameters on the Advanced tab. Be sure to
make adjustments to ALL servers in the Farm - making changes to just one
will do nothing.
Since you have handheld devices that are doing the "disconnect" you
should first adjust the disconnect time on the Citrix boxes to do the
disconnect just prior to the handheld disconnect time - that way the
client can reconnect.
Best of Luck,

Lisa G. Stinebuck
Senior Service Delivery Technician
Logical EBOC Cincinnati
513-412-7950 x1021
[email protected]



-----Original Message-
 
Re: RE: Retrieving Citrix Sessions - Load Balanced Env.

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for your post which was certainly very useful. Things have moved on a great deal since I posted this problem. We are able to 'reconnect' to sessions now. We still have an issue though which someone may be able to assist with.

Briefly, when a handheld device disconnects from the Radio Frequency network, Citrix server still sees the sessions as 'active'. So in the meantime, if the handheld user switches the unit on again Citrix sees it as another connection and launches the application again. If however, you switch off the unit and wait for around 3 minutes, the Citrix 'disconnects' the device and you're able to reconnect. I'm actually speaking to Citrix regarding this matter but so far we've not had much joy.

Kind Regards,

Sanjeev
 
RE: RE: Retrieving Citrix Sessions - Load Balanced Env.

Sanjeev Harrish,
Glad I could help. Keep me informed on what the final outcome is
with the handheld device(s) as I have never had to deal with them
reconnecting in a live environment.

Lisa G. Stinebuck
Senior Service Delivery Technician
Logical EBOC Cincinnati
513-412-7950 x1021
[email protected]
 
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