11. Publishing Resources through the Management Console

Publishing an application on a MetaFrame XP server makes it available to ICA Client users (with proper authorization). You can publish applications across multiple servers in the server farm. With Citrix Load Manager, part of the XPa and XPe server, you can balance connections to guarantee users will connect to the least-loaded MetaFrame XP server.

With application publishing, you can:

       Increase your control over application deployment

       Shield users from the mechanics of the Windows server environment

       Push application icons and shortcuts to user desktops through Program Neighborhood

       Configure File Type Associations for Client to Server Content Redirection.

The Management Console for MetaFrame XP simplifies application publishing. With the Citrix Management Console, you can publish applications on any server in the MetaFrame XP server farm, including servers that are temporarily out of operation.

Types of Applications You Can Publish

MetaFrame XP supports publishing of the following types of applications.

Standard Applications

You can publish any application that can run on the Windows console (32-bit Windows applications, 16-bit Windows applications, DOS applications, POSIX applications, and OS/2 applications).

Citrix Installation Manager Applications

To publish Citrix Installation Manager Applications, you must install Citrix Installation Manager on your network. Citrix Installation Manager performs remote unattended installation of applications on Citrix servers. Using Installation Manager, you can simultaneously install an out-of-the-box application on all Citrix servers on your network from a single point without manual intervention. You can install applications on servers regardless of their physical location, network connection type, or individual hardware setup.

Citrix Installation Manager can push application installations to Citrix servers and it can uninstall applications. Publishing a Citrix Installation Manager application causes each server that you specify, to download and install the application. Deleting a published Installation Manager application uninstalls the application from each server that you specified to run the application.For more information on Installation Manager, please refer to the Installation Manager Chapter later in this document.

Content Publishing

Content Publishing was added to MetaFrame through Feature Release 1 and it required that you have a FR1 licenses installed and activated.This feature allows you to publish document files, media files, Web URLs, and any other type of file from any network location. Icons for published content appear in Program Neighborhood, on the desktop, and in Web Interface 2.1. Users can double-click published content icons to access content in the same way they access published applications.

Using Published Applications

When you publish an application, configuration information for the application is stored in the IMA data store for the server farm. The configuration information includes properties of the ICA connection, including its name, users who can connect to the application, and client-side session properties that include window sizes, number of colors, level of encryption, and audio settings.

To the ICA Client user, a published application appears very similar to an application running locally on the client device. When the users access applications through a Web Interface application portal, the applications they are authorized to access appear as icons on a customized Web page. Web Interface connects the users client device to the application and downloads the appropriate ICA Client, if necessary, to the users device.You can also configure the client to utilize the Program Neighborhood Agent to seamlessly add published application icons to the users local desktop, programs group or system tray and even add local file type associations that point back to published MetaFrame XP applications.