1. Citrix GIS Application Migration: Lessons Learned for Developers and Users
Welcome.
Overview of the process of getting applications into the central FS environments
Presenting work of others (some may be in the room) and I do not have all the answers
John Zastrow, Tetra Tech;
Chris Jacobson, Forest Service;
Jay Frankland, Forest Service;

2. Consolidation Background
What is Citrix?
Allows remote users to operate applications installed on a remote computer
Results in applications looking and behaving as though installed on local machine
Benefits
Reduce agency infrastructure and application support costs
Increases tools available for many users
Allows parallel processing through virtual instances

3. GIS Migration Project
Created process to evaluate and migrate desktop GIS (and related) tools to central environment
Collected tools from broad user base and made them available to all users
Processed tools that meet selection criteria and pass testing for production
Jay please expound as needed. Hopefully you have something prepared that you can drop in.

4. Initial GIS Submission
Evaluation Considerations for Centralization
Tool is not more appropriately a desktop resource (e.g. data loggers, GPS utilities)
Tool functions in conjunction with or in support of ArcGIS and/or Geospatial data
Equivalent functionality is not provided elsewhere in a more robust or comprehensive tool
A commercial or freeware license could be unequivocally obtained
No technical or performance issues preclude installation (such as occurred with Erdas Imagine and ArcGIS Image Analyst, due to their graphic-intensive nature)
So, what does it take to get a tool included for evaluation to be migrated to the central environment?

5. Basic Process
Step 1 assesses basic centralization requirements to determine if tool is appropriate for inclusion in Citrix. Gathers documentation in preparation for Step 2
Step 2 determines if the tool will deploy and run under Citrix. If not, can the issues be addressed. If issues can be addressed, deployment packages are created for Step 3
Step 3 verifies outcomes of initial testing and prepares materials to be reviewed by Change Management Board in Step 4
Step 4 makes final go/no go decision and pushes tool into productions
Responsible Parties:
The tool sponsor is involved throughout process
Step 1: GIS Migration team and later the eGIS Support team
Step 2: Independent Tester Team
Step 3: QA Assurance Group
Step 4: Change management board

6. Process Responsibilities
Tool sponsor is involved throughout process
Step 1: GIS Migration team and later the eGIS Support team
Step 2: Independent Tester Team
Step 3: QA Assurance Group
Step 4: Change Management Board
There is a process available for requesting servers imaged at PHE available through the Enterprise Operations group for development
When submitting an application, you are not throwing the tool over the fence to someone else. The tool sponsor is involved throughout process
Step 1: GIS Migration team and later the eGIS Support team
Step 2: Independent Tester Team
Step 3: QA Assurance Group
Step 4: Change management board
Albuquerque, NM
- PHE is development environment for testing and software developers
- PRP is pre-production and is for quality assurance testing before applications are deployed into production
- FSEDC is the Forest Service Enterprise Data Center or the production data center an is located in Kansas City.
There is a process available for requesting servers imaged at PHE available through the Enterprise Operations group for development

7. Forest Service Centralized GIS
Local Site
Data Center
File Server
(EFS)
Oracle Content Database
Local Printers and Plotters
Citrix Server
Farm
Oracle and
ArcSDE
GIS Services available at the data center include GIS software, the Enterprise File System for storing file-based spatial and tabular data, Oracle and SDE for storing spatial data in a relational database, ArcGIS Server for serving web-based maps and applications, and the Oracle Content Database for permanent storage of file-based data.
Desktop
PCs
ArcGIS
Server

8. Environments Albuquerque, NM Kansas City, MO
Development environment (PHE) - testing and software developers
Pre-production (PRP) - quality assurance testing before deployment into production
Kansas City, MO
Forest Service Enterprise Data Center (FSEDC) production data center

9. Status All FS regions submitted GIS-related tools
110 unique tools evaluated in Step 1
~ 50 progressed into testing (ArcGIS 9.2 sp4 and sp6)
10 failed due to compatibility with Citrix itself
Others suffer a variety of issues
~ 40 tools in production under 9.2sp6
Almost done 9.3 testing
Some tools are replaced by native 9.3 functions
4 previously working tools break under 9.3
All Forest Service regions have submitted tools into this process and all have been evaluated. and are processed. About 110 GIS-related applications (extensions as well as applications) have been considered. About half progressed to the point of testing, and many of these have been formally tested under ArcGIS 9.2 sp4, sp6 and now 9.3.
Some were rejected because their functionality was covered by other tools, Some were stand-alone and not suitable for the environment. Some were blocked because licenses could not be obtained for use in a data center supporting many users, and others were scripts that could be supported in the environment.
Of these, 40 tools are currently in production under ArcGIS 9.2 sp6. About 5 are wrapping up testing under 9.3. Some of the tools under 9.2 have been replaced by functions in 9.3, and about 4 do not work under 9.3. In total, of all the tools submitted that met the initial criteria (Step 1), only 10 have been blocked due to Citrix compatibility.

10. Lessons Learned: Issues
Surprising Few, but Many are Blocking
Application Issues:
Hard coded paths
Customizations outside of common environment variables
File extension collisions for specialized applications
Packaging Issues:
Some applications do not support “silent” install mode
Application issue2:
Some ArcGIS extensions, especially open sourced extensions, have new exceptions when other tools are also installed. For example, ENVI Reader automatically associates *.dat with ENVI Raster so ArcObject tries to recognize .dat file as an ENVI Raster. But Taudem also sets its general intermediate file as .dat and throws exception if this association is checked in Raster File Formats Properties.
So extensive testing is essential before deployment on production.
Packaging Issues NOTES:
Some applications do not support “silent” install mode. This is essential to deploy an application across multiple servers within the farm without having to manually install on each server.
.exe file usually has more problems than .msi file in silent install/uninstall.
Even those tools that install with .bat files silently may not deploy with the Citrix package installer.
.MSI’s work 99% of the time

11. Lessons Learned: Best Practices
Application Configuration
Avoid requirements to read/write from local path – DO NOT hardcode paths
DO NOT hardcode environment variables (directories, user settings)
Reduce space disk usage: limited space on profile areas (FS specific issue)
Assume that you cannot access anything on c:\ (except maybe profile space)
- Permission examination: does this tool require write/modify permission to a local path? The work around is to grant permission in batch file using 'cacls'.
- For ArcGIS toolbar/commands: does its installation associate ArcMap/Arc Catalog component category in registry? (many open sourced tools ask user to 'Add from file...' manually before using the tool, but Citrix users usually do not have the privilege to do this.)
Does Service Pack matters for ArcGIS extensions? When servers are upgraded from 9.2 SP4 to SP6, there was nothing special found in re-testing. But not guaranteed.
- If your citrix server is Windows based, use MSI whenever possible. It will avoid a lot of potential issues in silent install/uninstall. If exe is the only option and batch script cannot work as desired, we can use AutoIT script to generate a package which automates the installation on multiple server 'silently'.
Add registry entry for ArcMap/ArcCatalog component category. You can use 'add from file...' to get the extension name in popup window, find the item in windows registry and export the item to txt file.
Do not use hard-coded environment settings (directories, user settings) and there a limitation on profile space areas (this is a FS specific issue).
No apps should count on being able to access c:, except for profile space.

12. Lessons Learned: Best Practices
Packaging for Submittal
Create .msi installers
Have the installer register the extension – loading from files causes problems in Citrix
Document your application:
Dependencies, known issues, service pack requirements
Create a user guide: helps users and testers
Provide sample data (inputs and expected outputs)
- Permission examination: does this tool require write/modify permission to a local path? The work around is to grant permission in batch file using 'cacls'.
- For ArcGIS toolbar/commands: does its installation associate ArcMap/Arc Catalog component category in registry? (many open sourced tools ask user to 'Add from file...' manually before using the tool, but Citrix users usually do not have the privilege to do this.)
Does Service Pack matters for ArcGIS extensions? When servers are upgraded from 9.2 SP4 to SP6, there was nothing special found in re-testing. But not guaranteed.
- If your citrix server is Windows based, use MSI whenever possible. It will avoid a lot of potential issues in silent install/uninstall. If exe is the only option and batch script cannot work as desired, we can use AutoIT script to generate a package which automates the installation on multiple server 'silently'.
Add registry entry for ArcMap/ArcCatalog component category. You can use 'add from file...' to get the extension name in popup window, find the item in windows registry and export the item to txt file.
Do not use hard-coded environment settings (directories, user settings) and there a limitation on profile space areas (this is a FS specific issue).
No apps should count on being able to access c:, except for profile space.

13. Contact Chris Jacobson ISO Data Center Migration Program,
GIS Tools/Citrix Team Leader