Enterprise Deployment of Server Based Computing Utilizing Citrix MetaFrame XP Support Model Prepared by: Ron Oglesby Table of Contents Introduction. 3 Support Model Overview.. 4 Engineering Team. 4 Operations Team. 5 Team Structures. 7 Engineering Team Structure. 7 Skill Sets Required in the Engineering Team.. 8 Engineering Team.. 8 Operations Team Structure. 9 Skill Sets Required in the Operations Team.. 9 Operations Team.. 10 Conclusion. 11 Introduction This document is intended to outline an ideal support and engineering model used to support an Enterprise class Server Based Computing deployment. In this document, the resources required to support the SBC environment on an ongoing basis are defined in the following ways: * A listing of teams within the support structure and their responsibilities/functions within the environment * A high level decomposition of the skills required within in team * A listing of individual team members and their required skill sets. These documents along with the initial design document will give XYZ Customer a good idea of the overall staff requirements to maintain and scale an enterprise class farm. Support Model Overview The support structure is divided into two categories, the SBC or Citrix Engineering Team and the Operations or Support Team. Each of these teams has different functions within in the environment but some responsibilities will overlap between the teams. Engineering Team The Engineering Team is responsible for providing solutions to end user requirements and is in charge of the overall SBC architecture. Designs, changes, new implementations, application testing and farm change control are all the responsibility of the Engineering Team. This team will also provide third level support to the Operations Team for issues that can not be resolved through first and second level support. Some of the functions assigned to the Engineering Team include: * Application engineering * DR/Business resumption planning * Operating System and MetaFrame "base" build development * Testing hot-fixes and service packs * Server image maintenance * Developing standards for the environment and clients * Maintaining the development environment * Deploying images and applications from development-test-production * Application update testing with the application owner or vendor * Managing Citrix licensing * Designing IIS/NFuse configuration and maintenance procedures * Designing SQL data store configuration and maintenance procedures * Maintaining Citrix administrators group security * Design and implementation of the NFuse portal * Developing custom deployment and user scripts * Developing and maintaining group policy objects * Third-level troubleshooting of escalated issues * Developing mandatory and hybrid profiles * Testing and certifying print drivers * Trend analysis for server performance and capacity * Deploying new servers * Developing maintenance and reboot schedules and scripts * Organizing and documenting changes to production environment * Scheduling production updates with the Operations Team * Testing and certifications of new Citrix clients. For the most part, the engineering functions are "back-end" functions. This team will provide solutions to the Operations Team and eventually the end user. All new changes are tested at this level and deployment processes are developed here before moving the changes into production. Once the solution is deployed to production it becomes the Operations Team's responsibility to manage, maintain and troubleshoot the environment. The Engineering Team is responsible for deploying a solid solution and providing third level support to the operations team for changes that need to be implemented. Operations Team The Operations Team is in charge of the day to day maintenance of the Citrix servers and farm. The monitoring of server performance, maintenance of hardware and operating systems and the troubleshooting of Citrix issues initially all fall within their responsibility. In simple terms, the Operations Team maintains what the Engineering Team designs and deploys. The Operations Team will have many different skill sets and levels of expertise. These are generally broken down into two roles, server support functions and end user support functions. The skill sets required for these two roles will vary greatly and will be discussed later in the document. Some of the functions assigned to the Operations Team include: * Managing published applications * Managing the IIS NFuse servers * Managing and backing up the SQL data store * Managing user profiles * Managing logon scripts * Re-deploying or recovering Citrix servers * Scheduling and maintaining server cycling * Identifying problematic servers * Monitoring server performance * Monitoring event and Insight Manager logs * Adding new users * Analyzing support ticket trends * Managing print drivers within the farm * Maintaining virus software * Managing published application settings * Supporting client/browser * Resetting/Managing user sessions * Troubleshooting login and connection issues * Handling client requests for profile modifications * Supporting client printing * Organizing and documenting changes to production environment * Scheduling production updates with the Engineering Team The list of Operations functions contains the day to day tasks within the production farm. The Operations Team will use guidelines and procedures created by the Engineering Team to maintain the farm and its infrastructure. Changes to the farm or servers will be requested by the Operations Team, approved and tested by the Engineering Team, then deployed with the cooperation of both teams. Team Structures Each of the teams will require a certain level of expertise. The Engineering Team will be recognized as the SBC or Citrix experts and are responsible for the overall stability of the farm and management of the processes and procedures used to run the farm. The Operations Team on the other hand will be required to have a level of expertise that will allow them to follow these procedures to maintain the environment and support the servers and users. Typically the Engineering Team is much smaller than the Operations Team but will consist of resources with very strong skill sets. The number of resources required in each of the Teams will vary depending on several factors: * Size of the farm * Number of end users * Geographical locations of servers and users * Number of applications and changes that are required on a regular basis * Experience of team members * Stability of existing environment * Policies and procedures in the environment * Number of on-going projects and deployments. For the purposes of this document we will assume a fairly stable farm of 200 Citrix servers with a base of 100 supported applications. This farm consists of ongoing application changes and new application requests, along with two data centers housing Citrix servers. Engineering Team Structure The Citrix Engineering Team for this farm will contain four or five members including an Engineering Team Lead. The members of this team will have a high level of expertise with Citrix and the Operating System on which it runs, a general knowledge of networking and the environment in which the Citrix servers reside, and application and troubleshooting skills. The team members should also be able to function in a structured and controlled environment and have the ability to design solutions around and within a defined set of parameters. The Team Lead will have overall responsibility for technical solutions coming from the engineering team. He will also participate in, and supervise or sign off on, all technical projects within the Engineering Team. The Team Lead should have a mix of technical abilities and project management skills along with the ability to view the "big picture". Skill Sets Required in the Engineering Team Ideally the Team Lead will have the strongest Citrix and Terminal Servers skills in the group and will make decisions on technical projects based on their knowledge of the servers and their environment. Other skills will be required within the team and some skills will need to be found outside the team. At times the Engineering Team will need to go outside the group for these specific skills such as a DBA or Security Analyst. Below is a chart that lists the skill sets required by team members. These skills may be mixed and matched within the team. Skills are listed using the following scale: Familiarity: Rudimentary knowledge of the process or tool to perform a predefined task. Understanding: General knowledge of a process or tool that allows the design of a simple solution or successful troubleshooting of a simple problem. Knowledge: Proficiency with a process or tool to design most solutions or the ability to troubleshoot most problems. Expertise: Comprehensive knowledge to design detailed solutions and troubleshoot complicated problems for a particular process or tool; "The buck stops here." Engineering Team Sill Sets and Experience Role Skills Required Number Required Citrix Team Lead * Knowledge of Applications * Expertise of Tools * Expertise of Citrix * Expertise of Windows 2000 * Knowledge of scripting * Knowledge of Project Mgmt * Knowledge of Environment 1 Sr. Citrix Team Members * Knowledge of Applications * Knowledge of Tools * Expertise of Citrix * Knowledge of Windows 2000 * Knowledge of scripting * Understanding of Project Mgmt * Knowledge of Environment 2 Jr. Citrix Team Members * Knowledge of Applications * Knowledge of Tools * Knowledge of Citrix * Knowledge of Windows 2000 * Understanding of scripting * Familiarity of Project Mgmt * Understanding of Environment 0-1 Operations Team Structure The Operations Team for this farm is integrated directly into the normal support structure for the network. Members of the Operations Team will all have a general knowledge of the Citrix environment and be able to provide basic troubleshooting for problems. Within the Operations support structure though a subset will more than likely become the operational experts and be used for the majority of the troubleshooting and maintenance. This team should also have a technical Team Lead that will have overall responsibility for the management of the environment. This lead should work closely with the Engineering Team Lead to help coordinate and schedule changes within the environment. The Team Lead for the Operations Team should be expert enough with the environment that he could be a senior member of the Engineering Team. This person's skill set should include expertise in Citrix and the operating system along with knowledge of proper project management and change control procedures. Skill Sets Required in the Operations Team All members of the network support staff will have some general knowledge of Citrix but will generally not deal with the routine maintenance. These staff members are generally located in the helpdesk and are not what we are describing in the following sections. Instead all helpdesk personnel should have a basic knowledge of Citrix, Printer creation, sessions, and basic trouble shooting to determine what type of problem the user is experiencing. The staff that maintains the Citrix servers and environment should have more experience or more training with regards to Citrix. These team members will maintain the environment based on policies and procedures developed in the Engineering Team. Troubleshooting and problem isolation will also be their responsibility. Basic "fixes" and workarounds are generally developed by this team. If a problem is found that requires a change in the environment or a problem can not be resolved at this level it should be escalated to the Engineering team where a resolution can be found and if necessary a system or design change made. Below is a chart that lists the skill sets required by team members. These skills may be mixed and matched within the team and obviously some team members will be stronger at one skill and weaker at others. Skills are listed using the following scale: Familiarity: Rudimentary knowledge of the process or tool to perform a predefined task. Understanding: General knowledge of a process or tool that allows the design of a simple solution or successful troubleshooting of a simple problem. Knowledge: Proficiency with a process or tool to design most solutions or the ability to troubleshoot most problems. Expertise: Comprehensive knowledge to design detailed solutions and troubleshoot complicated problems for a particular process or tool; "The buck stops here." Operations Team Sill Sets and Experience Role Skills Required Number Required Team Lead * Understanding of Applications * Knowledge of Tools * Expertise of Citrix * Expertise of Windows 2000 * Understanding of scripting * Knowledge of Project Mgmt * Knowledge of Environment 1 Sr. Team Members * Understanding of Applications * Understanding of Tools * Knowledge of Citrix * Knowledge of Windows 2000 * Understanding of scripting * Familiarity of Project Mgmt * Understanding of Environment 1-2 Jr. Team Members * Understanding of Applications * Understanding of Tools * Understanding of Citrix * Understanding of Windows 2000 * Familiarity of scripting * Familiarity of Project Mgmt * Familiarity of Environment 3-4 As illustrated in the above skills matrix, these team members need the basic ability to troubleshoot common problems and situations within the MetaFrame environment. Help desk calls that cannot be resolved should be escalated to this team and troubleshot until a root cause for the problem is found. If the cause is found, it can then be fixed or escalated to the Engineering Team for review. These team members can also be multipurpose team members and have duties outside of Citrix. It is preferable that their expertise is Citrix and that they have the time available to support the Citrix environment. Conclusion The support requirements for a large server farm are much like any other software in the enterprise. For example, if Exchange is used in an enterprise environment, the enterprise usually has a dedicated Exchange Team. The Operations Team will have a general knowledge of the product and how it functions and can resolve small issues. The helpdesk will take calls from users on general connectivity issues and problems with the client. Problems that cannot be fixed at the helpdesk or by the Operations Team are then escalated to the Exchange Team for a resolution. This division between teams allows expertise to be built within a specific job function. Focusing on the same types of tasks consistently increases the team's job proficiency. The Operations Team will become familiar with all the maintenance procedures and be able to handle most small problems that arise. The Engineering Team becomes very good at designing solutions, testing applications, working with application owners to build stable scalable servers for clients. This highly developed support structure will result in a stable, easy to manage, Server Based Computing environment. Ron Oglesby Senior Technical Architect RapidApp Office 312.372.7188 Mobile 815.325.7618 email roglesby@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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