I would like to deploy an application written in .net running with MS SQL Server 2005. The company told me that in order to run their application through a Terminal Services, I must use Citrix because each user must be running a separate instance of the application on a separate virtual machine. Can I do the same with 2x ApplicationServer using Terminal Services? Or do I need to use 2x with VMWare to get the application to run?
What application are you trying to run? My organization is currently using 2X to deploy an application written in .net with MS SQL Server 2005 as the back-end database. This application works fine even with "vanilla" terminal services: When a user logs into terminal services, TS automatically places the user in a new session and the application launches within these isolated sessions. The application itself was not written specifically for terminal services and there was no change that needed to be made for multiple users to connect at the same time. It is not necessary to run the application in a virtual machine. Does your application require the use of a virtual machine by itself? If it does, I don't see how Citrix alone would solve this issue. To my knowledge, Citrix, like 2X Application Server, simply presents the logged-in user with whatever instance of the program (or desktop) is available in their particular session.
I am running an electronic medical records system. I can't post the name of the system, but I can describe it. I will have about 50 users running this system at the same time. It is designed to be run on individual machines. The core of the system is running on Windows 2003 Server with MS SQL Server 2005 for the database. Each instance of the medical records client is usually run on a separate computer. They told me that running multiple sessions of terminal services on Windows 2003 Server would not work because each session of the client will appear to be running from the same computer. When a second session runs, the medical records system won't run because the first instance of the client is running. So I think they are telling me that the only way to do this is to have individual virtual machines running in Citrix Presentation Server on top of Terminal Services. I am trying to figure out if I can make each instance of the application using 2x ApplicationServer appear to be running from a different computer or different virtual machine. Thanks to anyone that can help.
I think I understand the set-up you are going for. To step back for a moment: You have a piece software with a client/server architecture. The server piece is run on Windows 2003 Server. The client piece is run on individual workstations (presumably running XP or 2000). You want to present the client piece through terminal services? I am guessing you want to do this so that you can provide remote access to your users. How do the users currently run the client? Locally on their workstations?
Thanks for the help so far. >>You have a piece software with a client/server architecture. The server piece is run on Windows 2003 Server. The client piece is run on individual workstations (presumably running XP or 2000). Exactly. The client runs on XP only. It will not run on 2000. >>You want to present the client piece through terminal services? I am guessing you want to do this so that you can provide remote access to your users. I actually have 40 older year old PCs running on 256Mb RAM each and running Win2000. I want to convert these to thin clients so they can be used to run the medical records software without upgrading old PCs. They are also at a remote office, so they would use much less bandwidth using RDP than using the client/server architecture of the medical records software. >>How do the users currently run the client? Locally on their workstations? Yes, the clients are running on local workstations in XP. Thanks in advance for all the help.
To me it sounds like his application is in need of the feature that comes e.g. with citrix that allows you to have a different ip address for every session that is running on a machine with terminal services / multiple desktops enabled. If that's the issue than there is also a way to solve it with 2X ApplicationServer/LoadBalancer combined with another professional 3rd party tool. We have such environments up and running in Germany for some customers who need to start terminal emulation clients from their terminal server to connect to a Unix system. Holger
