ArcGIS with Citrix- Performance and Known Issues

[SarahBurnham]

Hi

We are currently looking to deploy ArcGIS on Citrix across our Authority. Does anybody have any experience of running ArcGIS on Citrix as opposed to Desktop clients? We are especially interested in known issues/  performance and optimum settings for improving speed, which initial testing has shown to be very slow. We will be running on a minimum version of 9.3, but possibly 10.

Any help or advise would be much appreciated!

Thanks

[BruceRichardson]

We are having this problem with XenApp 5.5/Win2003/ArcGIS 10 and we have set it to 16-bit.  So that does not seem to solve the issue.  Any other ideas?

If anyone is experiencing visual artifacts with ArcGIS 10.x (or prior release) on Citrix, reducing Application Color Depth to 16-bit color seems to address a number of these issues.
(Citrix Access Management Console > Farm > Application > ArcMap > Properties > Advanced > Appearance > Colors > Set to 16-bit)

Most notably, recently we found that Citrix clients running ArcGIS 10.0 / XenApp 4.x / Windows 2003 Server are unable to render the "ArcGIS Online" browser from within ArcMap. Reducing ArcMap color depth to 16-bit addresses this issue.

* The issue does not surface with ArcGIS Desktop 10.0 / XenApp 5.x / Windows 2008 Server.

I'll continue to post these "tips" as we run across them.

[DanChristiansen]

We're having performance issues with our Citrix ArcGIS Desktop environment after upgrading to ArcGIS v10.  Here's our setup:

Our IT group has mapped the following directory for all users in their profile:
[INDENT]\\<user's office>\Userdata\[/INDENT]
is mapped to...
[INDENT]F:\[/INDENT]
Each user's "Documents" folder is set to:
[INDENT]F:\users\<username>\[/INDENT]
Therefore, the Default Geodatabase Location is located on their office server and is:
[INDENT]F:\users\<username>\ArcGIS\Default.gdb[/INDENT]
Our Citrix server is located in a different office than most of the users' client machines.

Were noticing that it's taking 25-45 seconds every time a user clicks the "Add Data" button just to bring up the dialog window.  Presumably, this is because ArcMap is needing to connect to the user's home office to enumerate their Default Geodatabase Location.  I imagine other tools are slow as well, but haven't tested extensively.  I tried taking an existing MXD, changing the DGL to a folder local to the Citrix server, then saving the MXD, closing and re-opening ArcMap, opening the same MXD, and testing the Add Data button.  It performed the same (~ 30 second to bring up the dialog).  I'd like to know why this is still slow. 

One workaround we found is to expose Windows Explorer on the Citrix server to each user.  If they launch this Windows Explorer application, then Disconnect the F drive and leave their Windows Explorer session open, then open ArcMap, the Add Data window comes up immediately (< 2 seconds).  This is a big improvement, but it's less than ideal for a workaround.  I'd like to know what other settings/configuration are in ArcGIS that are pointing to my F drive.  Any ideas?

I noticed some posts in this thread about "Special Folder Redirection".  I verified that the "Use My Documents and Desktop folders" option is disabled.

Finally, we've noticed that we have the same behavior outside of Citrix.  If users take their laptop and work in a different office, they notice the same slowness until they disconnect their F drive.

I called ESRI tech support about this issue today.  They said that the DGL and Home directories were functions aimed at making GIS more user-friendly for novice users.  I would argue they should recognize that their customer base is not primarily novice users and make these functions optional for most of us who suffer as a result.  If you agree, you should vote on the following suggestions on the Ideas site:
[INDENT]Change Default Geodatabase Location[/INDENT]
[INDENT]Change Default Home Folder[/INDENT]

[JohnGravois]

Hi Dan,

While you have already ensured that the Citrix server does not use Special Folder Redirection to write files to the client machine itself, a Windows policy which allows content to be stored on another server in the same satellite office is going to cause the same performance issues in ArcMap.

It would certainly be nice if you could change a setting in our application to modify the default location of the geodatabase, but centralized file management is one of the principal benefits of a Citrix system and this benefit is undermined when you store user profiles on a machine which utilizes a WAN connection to communicate with your Citrix server.

[DanChristiansen]

FYI, I worked with a rep from ESRI to replicate my issue above.  They have created the following NIMS:

• NIM073486:  Add Data takes a long time to initialize when the My Documents folder is redirected to a network location.


• NIM073492:  Opening a new or existing document takes a long time when My Documents folder is redirected to a Network Location.

Further, they said: "We understand that this issue is impacting performance in several areas and will do our best to address it in an upcoming service pack or release."

[KevinMayall]

I thought it was worth noting in this thread a reference to this new article:

FAQ:  What are the requirements for ArcGIS Desktop support on Citrix?
http://support.esri.com/en/knowledgebase/techarticles/detail/39489

[JeffDeWeese]

Hello,

My understanding is that add-ins are stored in the user profile in c:\users\<user>\Documents\ArcGIS\AddIns\Desktop10.0\<GUID>

Perhaps the profiles are currently setup where this information is not being retained once the user logs out so probably need to check with the adminstrator as to how profiles are configured and determine if the profile is getting cleared for some reason or there are write permissions issues.

Here is some additional information, for example, creating a well known location for multiple users to share: http://help.arcgis.com/en/sdk/10.0/arcobjects_net/conceptualhelp/index.html#/Advanced_add_in_concept...

Jeff DeWeese
Esri - Sr. Technical Architect

[JeffDeWeese]

All - FYI, there is a new Esri Citrix Best Practices technical article available:http://support.esri.com/en/knowledgebase/techarticles/detail/39490

It supercedes the 39489 article and contains additional content as wel....

Jeff DeWeese
Esri - Sr. Technical Architect

[saraemani]

I thought it was worth noting in this thread a reference to this new article:

FAQ:  What are the requirements for ArcGIS Desktop support on Citrix?
http://support.esri.com/en/knowledgebase/techarticles/detail/39489

we have the same problem. The folder path is not persisting in the Addin manager. were you able to solve it.

[danan]

Does Esri have plans to offer ArcGIS for Desktop via Software As A Service (SaaS)? Preferably coupled with a metered / utility licensing model. Pay only for what you use. That's when you unlock the full potential of the Cloud. Seems like many customers struggle to deploy ArcGIS Desktop via Citrix. Might be nice to leap-frog and outsource config and maintenance to someone with that specific expertise.

I created an entry for this on ideas.arcgis.com--a feedback channel more customers should participate in:

http://ideas.arcgis.com/ideaView?id=08730000000bx0DAAQ

I'm still puzzled when I learn various GIS colleagues don't know about ideas.arcgis.com. It's a powerful tool for influencing Esri's Product Roadmap. The ability of the Ideas site to shape products that fit customer needs rises in proportion to the number of people using it. So use it. What a neat thing to be able to quantify customer interest for various features and then apportion developer resources appropriately. Because those resources are finite. Or discover and implement a cool customer Idea even if its ranked popularity isn't high--just because it's something that Just Makes Sense to do or is The Right Thing To Do for customers.

[BartPouteau]

We're running ArcMap 9.3 on XenApp and have been having issues with licenses not being checked back in by the 10 License Manager when Arcmap closses. I've set the timeout variable but it hasn't solved the problem.  I'm guessing it's because these licenses are "inactive' as opposed to "hung".  I've been trying to determine the sequence of events that causes this to happen (i.e. user closes Citrix without closing ArcMap first) but so far there doesn't seem to be any pattern.

Has anyone else been having similar problems?

Bart