Configuring the XML Service
The NFuse XML Service is actually installed as part of Service Pack 2 for MetaFrame 1.8. You will notice that during the installation, you are asked whether you would like to install and configure the XML Service. The default configuration (listening port 80) should not pose an issue because Web server software typically is not configured to run on a Terminal Server. In my environment, I have configured the XML server on all MetaFrame servers to use port 80.
If you did not elect to install and configure the XML Service during the Service Pack 2 setup, you can do so at any time simply by running the following commands to configure and start the service:
ctxxmlss /r80 net start “Citrix XML Service”
If the service is already installed and you would like to change the default listening port, then simply run the following sequence of commands:
net stop "Citrix XML Service" ctxxmlss /u ctxxmlss /r80 net start "Citrix XML Service"
You can easily test to see whether a MetaFrame server is running the XML service by performing a telnet to port 80 (or an alternate port, if the default was not used) on the server—consider this as an example:
telnet RADIUM 80
If a connection is established, then hitting any key should produce a message similar to the following:
HTTP/1.1 400 Bad request Server: Citrix Web PN Server Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2000 05:55:39 GMT Connection: Close
After you have installed SP2 and configured the XML Service, you will have the minimum support required to configure an NFuse environment. At this point, the XML Service on each of my MetaFrame servers should be ready to accept requests from an NFuse-enabled Web Server.
Feature Release 1 Additions to the XML Service
Although the Citrix XML Service will provide basic message brokering between an NFuse 1.5 Web server and a MetaFrame 1.8 server, two key security features will not be available without an FR1 license on the MetaFrame server:
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Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) communications support between the NFuse-enabled Web server and the XML Service—This secures the communications channel between the Web server and the Citrix server farm.
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User authentication through session tickets—Session tickets provide a mechanism by which a user can be logged on to an application without having to explicitly place the user's credentials in the generated ICA file. Tickets are valid for only a single logon or until their expiry date has been reached. Session tickets require that the XML service be installed on all MetaFrame servers within the Citrix server farm that will be publishing applications that are accessible through NFuse.
For my initial NFuse installation, I am not going to activate FR1, but instead I will simply use the XML Service features available with SP2. I will look more closely at these security features in the article “Citrix NFuse 1.5: Part 3 – Security.”