Installation guide

30 Implementing Windows Terminal Server and Citrix MetaFrame on IBM ^ xSeries Servers
The customer wanted efficient multi-CPU servers with a small form factor with the ability to
add additional capacity quickly. Using our guideline of 90 users per server with dual
processors, and scaling this value by 80%, we specified a maximum of 70 users per server.
IBM BladeCenter was chosen as the appropriate server solution. The customer chose to start
with four HS20 servers, to support the existing user load with some additional capacity in the
event of a server failure or maintenance. The client/server application was load balanced
across the servers by using MetaFrame XPe’s load balancing capability. As additional
capacity is required, additional HS20 servers can be installed into BladeCenter.
Figure 4-2 Citrix MetaFrame XPe farm running on IBM BladeCenter
The customer was not able to perform a full-capacity planning pilot for the client/server
application. Each HS20 was fitted with dual processors to provide additional scalability. Using
our memory formula, we calculated that we needed 1178 MB of RAM (128 MB + 70 x 15 MB).
We installed an additional 30% of RAM for short-term requirements. The customer also
wanted to run backup and restore and virus protection software. Therefore, another 32 MB of
RAM was required. This gave us a total of 1714 MB of RAM as a minimum. Allowing for the
granularity of memory packaging, the customer decided to configure the server with 2 GB of
RAM.
The customer used Citrix’s bandwidth guideline to size the frame-relay link as a Committed
Information Rate (CIR) of 600 Kbps. However, the customer felt that it was unlikely that 30
concurrent users would access the application from the remote office overseas at the same
time, so the link CIR was reduced. The customer may increase the frame-relay link speed in
the future if their carrier reports high utilization. We informed the customer that users,
particularly those working across a WAN, obtain increased performance and user experience
by activating bitmap caching on all ICA clients and using SpeedScreen Latency Reduction.
The terminal server was installed as a stand-alone server. The server object was placed in its
own Organizational Unit in the Active Directory. Placing the server object in its own OU
allowed it to be secured by Group Policy Objects. A sample Group Policy Object is provided in
5.2, “Group Policy Object (GPO) and profile configuration” on page 37.
As discussed previously, a license server is a Windows Server 2003 server on which Terminal
Services Licensing is enabled. This server tracks the number of licenses that are purchased
and must be installed for WTS to operate. It was important this server is not a terminal server
in the farm and is always available.
The customer configured the Windows Terminal Server using a drive partitioning scheme that
we find useful. The operating system was placed on the C: drive, with data on the D: drive.
Client/server application
deployed via Citrix to
remote desktop
IBM BladeCenter with each
HS20 blade running
Windows Server 2003 and
Citrix MetaFrame XPe