Introduction

With a design in hand, a network administrator or engineer can prepare for Citrix MetaFrame XP installation. Usually, this process begins with procuring the software and hardware that meet the capacity and availability requirements specified in the design. When the equipment and software have all been obtained, the solution is ready to be installed.

Complex designs could require multiple servers in one or more server farms. Although installing a single server can be done rather easily in a single afternoon, the process of deploying tens or hundreds of servers can become tedious. Servers that participate in a server farm are much easier to manage when they are configured identically. However, manual installations provide too many opportunities for human error. Therefore, when you re faced with a multiserver rollout, a best practice is to deploy an automated installation process.

Automating an installation could be impossible when you re looking at upgrading an existing Citrix MetaFrame 1.8 server farm. The installer should be sensitive to the order of the upgrade process and how to run a mixed farm environment during the installation project. Mixed farms can exist indefinitely. However, a farm that has been fully upgraded to MetaFrame XP can be managed more effectively when it is switched to native mode.

Single-Server Installation

The first step in implementation is installing the Citrix MetaFrame XP server. Beginning with the installation of Windows 2000, several factors can affect performance and reliability of services. The hard disk configuration and logical layout, in addition to redundancy if...