Any CITRIX gurus in the hizzouse?

[VeeKaChu]

Specifically what I need to know is, can you open two instances of the client from a single workstation?

My company has an electronic trading application. Unfortunately, it's nature is such that you can only run one instance of it at a time on a NT/2000 workstation.

My boss has charged me with finding a package that will allow us to run multiple instances of the OS from a single workstation in order to view concurrent iterations of our software (for our helpdesk). I do not believe this to be possible for NT/2000, at least from a software standpoint. Supposedly there is a HARDWARE fix that will allow this.

He initially wanted me to look into CITRIX, until I explained to him that it did the opposite- allowing multiple clients/workstations to log into and run apps from a single machine/server.

However, we could use CITRIX for what he wants to do if it allowed multiple instances of the client on a single workstation- I think it does, but I'm not sure (I've worked ina couple of places that used it, but it was a few years ago and I can't remember, and there's scant practical info on this on the web...)

Thanks for any and all replies.

[EnemyWithin]

Yes, you can run multiple clients on one workstation, but I'm not sure if that will fix your problem. Some applications will not install properly to run in a terminal session. It really comes down to why you cannot run the software multiple times on the same workstation. The same reason might also prevent it from running multiple times from the same terminal server.

You could easily test this without Citrix. On a Windows 2000 server, just enable Terminal Services for administrators and install the application. Then you can use an administrator account to open up multiple sessions to the server and test the application.

Terminal services (under Windows 2000) and Citrix are very similar, but Citrix has more features (like seamless applications). Personally, I can't justify the cost of Citrix over the basic W2K TS.

[Twizted]

Windows 2003 has more features that make it "Citrix" like in appearance and how it works, since Citrix helped with some of the development for it.

[VeeKaChu]

Originally posted by EnemyWithin
You could easily test this without Citrix. On a Windows 2000 server, just enable Terminal Services for administrators and install the application. Then you can use an administrator account to open up multiple sessions to the server and test the application.

EW- sorry, but my days of doing Wintel support are far behind me- are you saying that with Terminal Services enabled on a W2K server one can open multiple sessions/connections to it from a single workstation? That kind of sounds like what we're looking for.

Does it need to be a "Terminal Server" package, or can any W2K server do this with the Terminal Service enabled? I have a copy of W2K-AS I can install if he'll let me, to test this.

I'll also query him as to why our app doesn't like multiple iterations on a single WS, though I'm guessing it's a security thing (might even be regulatory), as it is a trading package.

Thanks!!

[EnemyWithin]

Yes, you can open up multiple terminal sessions from one workstation to a server...as many as you like in fact. This is only limited by how many sessions the server can handle. You can use the Remote Desktop Connection app that comes with Win XP, or download it to install on Win9x/W2K. There is also a browser client that I use called TSAC (Terminal Services Advanced Client). The functionality is provided via an activex control. You can set it up on your local intranet (or make is accessible via the Internet), and then have your clients run the sessions in a browser (i.e. http://intranet/tsac). You could even create a TSAC webpage that runs 2/3/4 sessions on one page. An example of doing this comes with the TSAC package.

Terminal services under W2K comes in 2 flavors...administration mode and client mode. This is available with every version of W2K server (you don't need a special package like in NT4). In administration mode, you can open up to 2 (maybe 3?) simultaneous sessions using an account that has administrator access. This is free with W2K and will allow you to (loosely) test the application to see if it will work under these conditions. If you determine that it will work, then you can change the server over to client mode for full testing. Switching to client mode is a huge change in the way the server functions and shouldn't be done lightly (I only use dedicated TS servers in client mode).

In client mode, you will need to re-install the application using add/remove programs (or from the command-line run "change user /install" before running the Setup routine). This will setup the registry settings properly for the multi-user environment. Client mode will also require you to license the server properly within 90 days(?) or the sessions will stop functioning. This means you will need to register your TS service with Microsoft (and get an activation code for free). Then you will need to purchase your TS client access licenses for around $80(?) each.

Be warned that some programs do not install properly to support a multi-user environment. Only proper testing will determine if it will work.

[Tripwire]

Citrix works really well because (this is what I love about it), it is almost totally platform independent! Only OS that it can't run on yet is Mac (but they are working on that). You can run Citrix in DOS mode and then go to windows apps, it is just too cool!

Windows Terminal Client is good too, but it can't be used on anything but windows OSs (I don't think it will run apps on win 3.1 or win95).