HELP with Citrix Environments.

[michaelpmcclure]

Hey List,

I need to take a poll of those of you using Citrix with OneWorld Xe. Please tell me whether you use the normal environment (i.e. PD7333) with your users on Citrix or the Terminal Server environment (i.e. WPD7333). I have a consulting firm here that is trying to convince me to use the normal environment for all of my users. Since this is contrary to what all documentation says to do, I need some help in making the decision. Right now I am opposed to this idea since 95% of my users are on Citrix.

 

[joshlitt]

We use the normal environments on our Citrix Boxes (i.e. PD7333, PY7333,
DV7333), I was told that you want to get away from using those
environments. From what I have been told the "W" environments were
developed for WAN environments back in 7.3.3.2. Now that XE has been
released the mappings and connections have all been re-worked and are
now much better. Our consultant that we use just did a job that was
using the "W" environments, that he switched to the normal environment.
His results were apps that took 15 seconds to open now took 3 seconds to
open, your performance is going to be slower and you will use more
Enterprise Server with the "W". We also have a high percentage
(90%-95%) on Citrix and have no problems with the environments. From
what I have seen and heard I would go with what the consultant is
telling you, and no I am not a Consultant, just an everyday Admin.

Josh Littrell
CNC Engineer
AS/400, W2K Citrix MF XP, XE SP17.1

 

[mjb]

When you say normal environment are you refering to FAT Client - desk top installs as opposed to thin client using citrix?

 

[mjf]

80 users on 2 Citrix boxes all using PD7333

Regards

Marty Fleming
Business Analyst
Richmond Limited

Phone: +64 +6 8786464 Ext 8168
Fax : +64 +6 8780959
Mobile: +64 +21 478946
Email: mailto:[email protected]

OneWorld: Xe SP16.1
Database: Oracle 8.1.6.3
Enterprise Server: Compaq Proliant 8500R W2K





OneWorld: Xe SP16.1
Database: Oracle 8i
Enterprise Server: Compaq Proliant 8500R W2K

 

[Mr_Bigglesworth]

We also use the PD environment. I believe the WPD environment maps certain business functions to the Enterprise server instead of the Citrix box. Most sites find this uneccessary.


XE, SQL 2K, Win 2K, Citrix, JAS

 

[JakeR]

The out of the box setup is with a W. We have changed back to PD environment based on various consultants recommendations. Works without a problem.

 

[tgore]

We use PD7333 & PY7333. We are just starting out so we ony have two CITRIX boxes and about 25 users, but haver not had any problems.

 

[altquark]

You should really consider using the PD environments - ie those WITHOUT the BSFN mappings as opposed to the W environment - the business function mappings in the W environment is set up for a Generic implementation, and does not take into consideration certain processing options that you might require.

The original requirement for the W environment, when I first introduced Citrix to JDE in 1998 with my colleague, was due to the fact we used a Quad Pentium Pro 200 MHz machine as a Terminal Server - pretty much as fast as JDE would provide to us back then - and a $40k box ! This proved to be horrible for scalability, as we couldn't fit more than 5 users on ! As such we recommended (see whitepaper on JDE website) that we map business functions to the server to alleviate some of the CPU off the Terminal Server.

Of course, nowadays its possible to get Dual 2.8GHz Xeon P4 processors for <$10k with ridiculous amounts of memory ! Therefore, these machines scale extremely well without the necessity for mapping business functions. Indeed, a Dual PIII 700MHz with 2Gb RAM should easily handle 32 users - and could theoretically scale to 40+ users. The latest Compaq DL380 Dual 2.8GHz machine (with 6Gb RAM and 15K RPM drives, Write Back Cache and Gigabit Ethernet) can handle more than 100 concurrent users at blistering speeds with no slowdown in performance. I priced this machine at <$9k yesterday.

It will be interesting to see how far OneWorld price performance will go with Citrix/Windows Terminal Services and these latest Intel boxes.

Hope that helps !