Customer demand for Linux virtual desktops and applications keeps increasing across key verticals like finance, manufacturing, and government. Key user personas include developers, designers, and even typical knowledge workers. The primary demands are to run domain-specific software in a highly secure environment, improve software development efficiency, and significantly lower overall TCO.
In order to maximize stability and predictability of the environment, a large proportion of customers choose the Long Term Service Release (LTSR), such as LTSR 1912 and 2203. These are releases that are field-proven at scale and allow customers to standardize on for at least five years of mainstream support, however, the feature set is fixed at release time with Cumulative Updates (CUs) made available over time to address product issues.
With the launch of the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2402 LTSR, we’ve elevated the security and admin experience for the Linux VDA. I’m pleased to share the feature enhancements among LTSR 1912, 2203, and 2402 releases. You will see the significant improvements we’ve made across these releases to help plan your migration to the latest state-of-the-art 2402 LTSR! This is especially true for customers still running on 1912 LTSR, as we know, the LTSR 1912 will reach end-of-life by December of 2024.
The graphic below showcases the top features of the Linux VDA 2402 LTSR. We will take a deeper dive into these features later in the blog.
Linux distribution support
First, let’s look at the supported Linux distribution changes, which are super critical to Linux users. We strongly recommend customers move their Linux OS platform to a long-term support version from the respective vendors to eliminate security risks and challenges around support from Citrix and OS vendors.
I also want to point out that starting from 2203 CU4, Citrix will backport selected minor releases to some released LTSRs. For example, we backported RHEL/Rocky 8.6/8.8 to LTSR 2203 via CU4, which obviously mitigates the gap between the Citrix Linux VDA LTSR and Linux distributions.
Refer to our system requirement documentation for more details.
Key features in the Linux VDA 2402 LTSR
Now, let’s dive into some key features you can take advantage of with LTSR 2402.
TLS 1.3 support: if the operating system on the client device and the session host supports it, you can now use TLS 1.3 to secure your HDX traffic using one of the following cipher suites: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 or TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256.
Clipboard policy enhancement: Citrix Linux VDA enhanced Clipboard Policies to limit the clipboard size or the content format such as text, image, etc., which brings a more flexible and secure manner to use the clipboard redirection feature.
Session watermark flexible settings: Session watermark creates a text overlay in the HDX session that can help deter sensitive information from being captured on endpoints. Admins can customize the content and format easily in LTSR 2402.
HDX transport layer improvements: HDX adaptive throughput feature and a new EDT congestion control mechanism. These HDX transport enhancements achieve higher throughput and reduce latency, especially in a high latency network, which provides better interactivity, faster file transfers, smoother video playback, higher frame rate and resolution, and thus results in an enhanced user experience as showcased in the screenshot below.
New 3D graphics capabilities:
- H.264/H.265 lossless hardware acceleration allows encoding of YUV444 video stream.
- AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) hardware encoding lets you receive higher quality images at the same bandwidth utilization and higher FPS on lower bandwidths when compared to H.264 / H.265.
- Shared GPU acceleration on a multi-session Linux VDA enables shared GPU acceleration on a multi-session Linux VDA to accelerate OpenGL 3D applications, which results in better utilization of GPU hardware investments.
Browser Content Redirection (BCR): It’s extended to server fetch and client rendering mode. This option is useful when the client doesn’t have access to the web server such as with accessing intranet sites from external devices. BCR redirects web pages from a browser running on the virtual desktop to the browser on the client device, which prevents the execution/rendering of whitelisted web pages in the virtual desktop. Wildcards are supported when admins configure whitelist web pages.
Admin experience enhancements:
- We have refactored the easy install tool (ctxinstall.sh) to cover both installation and runtime environment setup purposes. We recommend every customer try (or retry) this refactored tool to check how flexible you can install, configure, and reconfigure your VDA environment. Not only is it a manually running script, it can also be integrated into your automation tools saving development efforts.
- XDPing is a highly integrated troubleshooting tool. It’s automatically installed with the VDA package. Now, we have added an analysis module to check and analyze your VDA registration status and provide insights. We have also extended the XDPing test categories to include the dependency, Kerberos, and PAM checks.
- Admins can monitor user sessions in Citrix Director or Citrix Monitor. The Linux VDA now provides more metrics to show ICA latency and Policies in the session details page. Check the details and screenshot here.
Below, I’d like to share a high-level view of feature enhancements across these three LTSRs, so you can easily find the most valuable enhancements for your business needs. New features introduced in a release are in bold.
| Scope | 1912 LTSR | 2203 LTSR | 2402 LTSR |
| (Non) domain join
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| User authentication choice |
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| Desktop env. choice |
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| Clipboard & File transfer |
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| USB & Content redirection |
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| Printing |
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| Graphic |
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| HDX 3D Pro |
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| Multimedia |
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| Session |
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| Security |
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| Administration |
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| Misc. |
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Learn More
We’ve created a page in Citrix Docs that lists all the historical features, from Linux VDA 1912 to 2402, in one place. Check it out and learn what our latest Linux VDA LTSR has to offer.
Whether you’ve used the Linux VDA for years or are just thinking about implementing it, now is the perfect time to take advantage of the security, flexibility, and cost savings Linux virtual apps and desktops deliver. Try the Linux VDA 2402 LTSR today in your Citrix DaaS and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environments!
Should you have any product feedback, please reach out to vda-linux-feedback@citrix.com. Your feedback is always appreciated, and important to the future of the Citrix Linux VDA.
Disclaimer: This publication may include references to the planned testing, release and/or availability of Cloud Software Group, Inc. products and services. The information provided in this publication is for informational purposes only, its contents are subject to change without notice, and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for products remains at the sole discretion of Cloud Software Group, Inc.
