In this article, I present my self-developed NSKek-tool with a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). This provides Netscaler administrators with an intuitive way to securely decrypt service passwords without having to dive deep into the technical matter. This tool combines classic cryptographic methods - HMAC, AES-CBC and the dynamic derivation of a Key Encryption Key (KEK).
In times when data security and ease of use must go hand in hand, the targeted decryption of sensitive information plays an important role. The NSKek-tool presented here offers an elegant solution: it not only enables the decryption of service passwords, but also provides a graphical interface that allows Netscaler administrators to easily select and process their key files.

As I was personally genuinely interested in the technical preview for Citrix Gateway Service for StoreFront, I registered for it. I quickly got in touch with the Citrix team on this topic and would like to thank Abhishek Singh in particular for his great cooperation. This article is intended to clarify which deployment scenarios this solution is suitable for and what else can be expected from it in the future.

Microsoft is forcing its customers to switch to the "new Teams" by mid-2024! The feedback so far is that customers are once again beta testers, and extensive tests have not even been carried out by Microsoft. There are problems with Microsoft FSLogix and the Outlook add-in. The "new Teams" on a Server 2019 or Server 2022 is yet another challenge. I have developed a Powershell scripts that installs Teams on Server 2022, Server 2019, Windows 10 and Windows 11 multiuser and also takes the Outlook add-in into account. 

The new driver for MCS, MCSIO v2, has been available since Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop version 1903. However, two important performance counters "Cache memory used" and "Cache disk used" are missing in this new version to read out current values. In addition, the performance counter path has changed from \Citrix MCS Storage Driver to \Citrix MCS(*). Unfortunately, the currently used cache disk size can no longer be determined, but only the current size of the cache disk file (mcsdif.vhdx). I have developed a Powershell script that at least gives me a quick overview of the RAM and disk cache status.

There are often misconceptions among customers about what the data flow or process is when making a Citrix HDX connection. Basically, it is simple, but sometimes misconceptions persist. My experience shows me that pictures often explain more than language. This is the second part and explains the process from external via the Citrix Gateway. Not every tiny detail is explained now, but it should clarify the basic process better.

There are often misconceptions among customers about what the data flow or process is when making a Citrix HDX connection. Basically, it is quite simple, but sometimes misconceptions persist. My experience tells me that pictures often explain more than language. This is a two-part article and the first part is about the internal connection setup for a single FQDN configuration and then the second part is about how the whole thing works externally. Not every tiny detail will be explained now, but it should clarify the basic process better.