Introduction:
Citrix Endpoint Management’s Workspace Environment Management (WEM) solution enables a set of rest APIs for automating the management of WEM-managed Windows devices. It’s easy to control and optimize the resources (such as CPU, memory, and I/O) of Windows devices with Citrix virtual apps and desktops training.
With intelligent resource management and Profile Management, Workspace Environment Management ensures that Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktop deployments have the most incredible possible performance, user login, and application response times. An all-software, driverless approach is available.
Workspace Environment Management monitors and analyses user and application behaviour in real-time, then dynamically changes RAM, CPU, and I/O in the user workspace environment to ensure the best possible experience for the end-user.
Installation & Configuration:
As a recommendation from Citrix, you should always use the newest WEM. Installation and configuration of the Infrastructure services, the Administration console, and the Agent are necessary steps in the WEM deployment process. Installing and configuring these components follows the following steps.
- Infrastructure services
- Administration console
- Agent
- Installing Infrastructure Services
- Set up a WEM database on your computer
- Establish infrastructure services configurations
- Install the management console
- Establish configuration sets
- Include the template for group policies.
- Configure the agent
- Include the agent in the configuration set you already generated.
Hardware and Software Requirements:
Citrix WEM consists of a Management Console, an Agent Host, and a Broker and is integrated with Active Directory and SQL. For the sake of clarification:
- Citrix WEM Administration Console – This application can be installed on either a Windows client or a Windows server operating system. This console will be used to administer the WEM installation, including creating and managing policies and the assignment and design of resources. The WEM Administration Console establishes communication with the broker. Prerequisite software includes.NET 4 (whole package or client profile) and Microsoft Sync
Framework 2.1.
Windows XP Service Pack 3 32/64bit, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 32/64bit, Windows 7, 8 & 10 32/64bit, Windows Server 2003 32/64bit, Windows Server 2003 R2 32/64bit, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016 (WEM 4.1).
- Hardware Prerequisites: A dual-core processor with at least 2GB RAM is required. Disk space requirements are minimal, at 40MB minimum and 100MB during installation.
Installation of the WEM Administration Console on the following operating systems will be deprecated in a future Current Release of XenApp and XenDesktop (the next CR following the next LTSR):
- Windows XP SP3 32bit and 64bit.
- Windows Vista SP1 32bit and 64bit.
- Windows 8. x 32bit and 64bit.
- Windows Server 2003 32bit and 64bit.
- Windows Server 2003 R2 32bit and 64bit.
- Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2.
- Citrix WEM Agent Host: The Agent Host establishes a connection to the broker or Infrastructure Services and enforces the WEM Administration Console settings. To administer VDAs, this can be installed on Windows Desktop OS or Server OS VDAs. On the Infrastructure Services server, this component cannot be installed.
Prerequisite software includes.NET 4 (whole package or client profile) and Microsoft Sync
Framework 2.1.
Windows XP Service Pack 3 32/64bit, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 32/64bit, Windows 7, 8 & 10 32/64bit, Windows Server 2003 32/64bit, Windows Server 2003 R2 32/64bit, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016 (WEM 4.1).
Hardware Prerequisites: The agent consumes an average of 10MB of RAM. Disk space requirements are minimal, at 40MB minimum and 100MB during installation.
- Citrix WEM Infrastructure Services – WEM Broker is a Windows server application connecting the Agent Host/Administration Console and SQL/Active Directory. This component cannot be installed on a server part of an Active Directory domain.
Prerequisite software includes.NET Framework 4.5.2, SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 SP3 (installed during setup), and Microsoft Sync Framework 2.1. (installed during setup).
Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016 are required operating systems (WEM 4.1). Prerequisite hardware includes:
- Four virtual CPUs.
- Eight gigabytes of memory.
- A minimum of 80 megabytes of disc space for up to 3000 users.
- SQL Server – WEM stores all configuration information in a SQL database. SQL databases must be at least 50Mb in size. WEM requires administrative access to the SQL server instance during database setup and read/write access after that for proper operation. SQL Server 2008 R2 or a later version of SQL Server is supported.
- Active Directory – AD is necessary to push settings to your users. WEM needs read access to the Active Directory to make preset settings for users.
- Citrix License Server – WEM 4.0/4.1 requires Citrix License Server 11.14 or later.
- XenApp/XenDesktop – Any version of XenApp or XenDesktop that is currently supported will work with WEM 4.0/4.1.
Conclusion: Final Thoughts!
To conclude, WEM, the Citrix Workspace Environment Manager (WEM), is a software solution that optimizes Citrix virtual apps and desktops training, workspace performance, improves application delivery and increases Citrix environment scalability.
