Linux has long been favored by the developer community and by industries such as manufacturing, technology, finance, and education. Many organizations choose Linux as their primary platform for secure development because of its highly secure environment and the many development tools that are available. Others go with Linux because it’s a secure, cost-effective solution for publishing apps such as browsers to support internal web resources and SaaS delivery.

With the launch of the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2203 Long Term Service Release (LTSR), I’m pleased to share that the Linux VDA 2203 LTSR is now available. In this blog post, I’ll cover some of the significant enhancements we’ve made since the Linux VDA 1912 LTSR released.

Before we get into the features, please note that Linux VDA 2203 LTSR enables support of some the latest Linux distros. Most Linux distributions supported by Linux VDA 1912 have expired, which can create security risks and challenges to around support from Citrix and OS vendors. We strongly recommend customers move your Linux platform to a long-term support version such as RHEL7.9 (or RHEL8.4 with EUS), Ubuntu 20.04, or SUSE 12.5. Refer our the system requirement documentation to learn about supported distributions.

Now it’s time to take a closer look at the features that we have added from Linux VDA 1912 to the new 2203 LTSR. From cloud enhancements to HDX optimizations, let’s dive into the key features you can take advantage of today.

Embracing Cloud and Simplifying Deployment

Rendezvous and Non-Domain Joined

Citrix DaaS and VDI solutions empower companies to deploy secure, remote apps and desktops to users at scale, all while providing a great experience and simplifying IT management. For a typical Linux deployment, customers can place the control plane in Citrix Cloud and deploy the workloads in preferred locations or in a Citrix-managed DaaS scenario. To simplify the cloud deployment, Linux VDA provides Rendezvous protocol, and the Non-Domain Joined solution.

Until now, installing Cloud Connectors was the only way for customers to deploy on-prem workloads and connect to Citrix Cloud to proxy the HDX and control traffic. With the Rendezvous feature, HDX traffic bypasses the Cloud Connector, significantly decreasing CAPEX and OPEX and improving scalability.

Then, combining the Rendezvous V2 and Non-Domain Joined features, customers can completely remove the Cloud Connector, enabling a connectorless deployment as shown here:

Citrix Machine Creations Services and Citrix Provisioning Services

Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS) gives IT admins easy access to Citrix Studio to create and deliver virtual desktops and server images to enterprise users, either on-premises or with Citrix Cloud. Linux VDA 2203 enables MCS support on Google Cloud Platform and Nutanix AHV. Refer to our documentation on using MCS to deploy Linux VMs for more details.

Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) allows computers to be provisioned and re-provisioned in real-time from a single shared-disk image. It provides an efficient, centralized management solution and can lower costs by reducing the number of disk images to be managed. In the Linux VDA 2203 release, we have added PVS support to the Linux VDA on almost every major distribution of Linux. Check out our Linux VDA PVS documentation for the full details.

GUI-based Easy Install Tool

Citrix introduced a new script in Linux VDA 1912 called Easy Install to help with installation. But there were still manual steps to install and configure the environment, which could lead to incorrect configurations and time spent troubleshooting.

With Linux VDA 2203, Citrix delivers a GUI-based Easy Install tool, which helps admins check the environment, install dependencies, configure domain joined and runtime variables, and verify the variables filled in the GUI. Check out our installation guide for more details.

Please note, you still need to prepare the hypervisor and download and install the Linux VDA package before running this GUI-based Easy Install tool.

New HDX Features

Session Watermarking

This has been a great capability in the Windows VDA, and we are excited to bring it to Linux. Admins can set policies that overlay key identifiable user information for Linux virtual sessions. So if a user were to take a screenshot or photo of sensitive information, it can easily be traced back to the source. For more information, see our text-based session watermark documentation.

Graphics Quality Slider

Citrix HDX automatically tunes the performance and, depending on network condition, balances between image quality and responsiveness. But customers often prefer better image quality, especially when running graphically intensive design applications. The graphics quality slider in virtual Linux sessions helps the user achieve the right balance between image quality and interactivity on their own.

HDX Screen Sharing

Sharing screens from a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops session using popular collaboration tools wasn’t always great, especially if the tools didn’t have an optimization pack. And there might be security and bandwidth concerns for some organizations. With Linux VDA 2203, Citrix allows a user to share the screen with multiple users via HDX sessions. It works across Windows and Linux sessions.

HDX Webcam Video Compression

Universal USB redirection, available with Linux VDA to support webcam usage, requires high bandwidth and low latency for mass, uncompressed, and unoptimized data transfers. With the new Webcam Redirection feature, video conferencing apps running in Linux VDA sessions can use their webcams with HDX webcam video compression, enabling improved performance, especially under poor network conditions.

Browser Content Redirection

Browser content redirection provides the ability to render webpages in the allow list on the client-side, helping to free up valuable server-side resources and saving the bandwidth to your resource locations. See our browser content redirection documentation for more information.

Adaptive Audio

Adaptive audio is enabled by default. With adaptive audio, you don’t need to manually configure the audio quality policies on the VDA. Adaptive audio dynamically adjusts audio sampling bitrates based on network conditions to provide a premium audio experience. Learn more in our adaptive audio documentation.

Supportability Enhancements

IT admins are always thinking about end-to-end monitoring of resource usage. Measuring the user experience in a Linux virtual app or desktop session has become a routine task.

In Linux VDA 1912, you can only monitor the ICA RTT and protocol in the Director. Now, with Linux VDA 2203, you get metrics such as Linux VM info (CPU/RAM/Disk/utilization), session idle time, session reconnection count, and logon duration info. Learn more in our Monitor Linux VMs and Linux sessions documentation.

Also, with this session data query utility, the user can learn more about session quality around session bandwidth, latency, RTT, and virtual channel bandwidth. This helps the admin and end users troubleshoot session issues such as whether a problem is related to network quality or VDA software.

To support easier VDA troubleshooting, the Linux VDA 2203 provides an XDPing tool that automates the process of checking for common configuration issues. And by integrating with Citrix telemetry service, you can easily collect VDA logs from the Director console.

More Support Across the Board

In addition to the enhancements above, we have also added support for other valuable features like the MATE desktop environment. This provides an intuitive and attractive desktop environment with fewer GPU requirements and is a continuation of GNOME 2. Additionally, we have made enhancements to the AD domain join methods, support for smart cards, and support for FAS integration.

Learn More

As you can see, there is a lot you can take advantage of when leveraging Linux VDAs. For organizations looking to deploy Linux VDAs alongside Windows VDAs, check out this HDX blog post for even more great features to take advantage of.

There are too many new Linux features to list in a single blog post. We’ve created a page in Citrix Docs that lists all the historical features, from Linux VDA 1912 to 2203, in one place. Check it out and learn what our latest Linux VDA LTSR has to offer.

Disclaimer: The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and are subject to change without notice or consultation. The information provided is for informational purposes only and is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions or incorporated into any contract.