This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Top-Ten ICA Client Setup Tips
As a summary to the information provided in this chapter, the following is a list of the most important tips related to the setup and deployment of the ICA client:
Do not use custom ICA connections for users. Because of the flexibility of published applications, it is highly recommended to set up application sets for the clients rather than custom ICA connections. You can easily add or remove applications centrally from an application set. If you deploy ICA clients using custom ICA connections to applications and servers, however, you must manually go to each workstation to make a change.
Use the new .MSI version of the Citrix ICA client for client deployment. More and more companies are starting to deploy their applications using .MSI files. .MSI files can make application deployment very easy, especially for companies that have Windows 2000 workstations and Active Directory. Many third-party vendors also make tools that can help you customize .MSI files, such as Veritas WinINSTALL.
Use the web version of the client for NFuse. The web version of the client is a much smaller version that includes the majority of the features of the full version but is designed for accessing Citrix applications through a web browser. For the greatest ease of client deployment, set up a Citrix NFuse server and deploy the web version of the ICA client to the users through the web.
Train users to use the Connection Center. The Connection Center is a very useful tool on which it is important to train your users. Using the Connection Center, they can better manage the connection they have to the server and help themselves out of connection issues instead of having to call the help desk.
Enter a Static WINS entry for the ICA hostname. Make sure you make a static WINS entry on your WINS servers for ICA. Point the address to your MetaFrame XP data collector. This is the default hostname that the ICA client will attempt to query to list the MetaFrame XP farms on the network.
Set domain names for your workstations using DHCP. Using DHCP you can push down a DNS domain name to your workstations. When your workstations attempt to ping an address, they will automatically add this domain name to the end of the hostname. If your domain name is yahoo.com and your workstations are set to this domain name, for instance, when you try to ping a hostname, such as ica, from your workstations, they will attempt to add the yahoo.com domain name to the host name (that is, ica.yahoo.com).
Enter a static DNS entry for the ICA hostname. After you have made sure your workstations are set to the correct domain name, go to your internal DNS servers and add an address entry for the ICA hostname that points to your primary data collectors.
Download the latest client. Many important changes have been made to the ICA client over the years. Version 6.2 release 985 of the ICA client has several significant changes, including an MSI version and a switch in search order for farms so that the client searches for the ica hostname first to retrieve the list of farms.
Use the settings in the APPSRV.INI file to lock down your Program Neighborhood. Using settings in the APPSRV.INI, you can restrict access to certain sections of the Program Neighborhood, making it easier to set up and support the client.
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Use DNS names for server locations. Set up a primary and secondary DNS server on your internal network and then use DNS hostnames for your server locations that you use on the ICA clients.