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Citrix Load Balancing Policies XenApp 6.x explained
When I checked the statistics of the VanBragt.Net Virtualization website I noticed that several connections were based on
search for Citrix Load Balancing. That brought me to the idea to write some more about it. In the same time in one of my
project the Load Balancing part came into the picture so I can also share/use my personal experiences in the article. This
article will describe when and why you would like to use Citrix Load Balancing and how you need to configure it.
Before we really start the article handles Citrix Load Balancing Policies which should not be confused with Citrix Load
Evaluators which are often also called Citrix Load Balancing. The Load Evaluators are used to divide users equally over servers
based on user load and/or used resources. However Load Balancing Policies are a step before that process by specifying which
group of servers should be used to start the session on.
Update: As Andrew stated in the comments this component will only work when connecting via Access Gateway, Web
Interface of Cloud Gateway. Old methods (like TCP via HTTP) often used on Thin Clients will ignore the configuration.
In which cases you would like to use Citrix Load Balancing Policies:

- The most common is where the XenApp servers are located on several sites, while also the users on several locations
combined with the fact that the connections to those sites are not the same. For example a user is located on location X,
with a connection of 1024 Kbps to Site A and 256 Kbps line to Site B. In that case you would like to set-up the session to Site A
(and in case of a failure to Site B)
- When you have an active-passive set-up, where Site A is primary and Site B is there for disaster recovery/failure. By default
you want users to start a session in Site A, while in case of failure the users should be assigned to Site B.
- In a case of an active-active setup where you would like to keep the user in the same data center where he connected to.
This is case in one my project. Users are connecting to one of the CAG based on Load Balancing located in one of the sites.
When the user is connected via CAG of Site 1, the session should also be hosted on a XenApp server in Site 1, so now traffic
will flood between the two sites.
- For creating several delivery protocols for streamed applications based on the filters available within Load Balancing Policies.
Maybe there can be more scenarios to use Load Balancing Policies, but these are the most common I can think of. If you have
another scenario let me know so I can add it to the article.
Before I continue describing how to configure Citrix Load Balancing I would like to mention that the method described is
based on Citrix XenApp 6.x. In XenApp 5 for Windows 2003/Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 the same can be achieved but the
configuration is completely different. Im only going to describe the XenApp 6.x in detail. For CPS 4.5 you should configure
zones and use the Zone Preference and Failover Policy in a similar way.
Citrix Load Balancing Policies are logically configured using the Citrix AppCenter where you can find in the root of XenApp
farm view (Load Balancing Policies).
Via the right mouse button menu you can create a new Load Balancing policy. Logically the Load Balancing Policy needs a
(unique) name).
Published on 04 September 2012
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The real Load Balancing configuration exists of two parts:
Filters
Load Balancing Policies
With the first part Filters will be determined in which cases the Load Balancing Policies defined in stage two are carried out.
Filtering can be done based on 4 levels, which can be combined if necessary. So the filters are pretty powerful. Lets go into
those 4 levels a bit more detailed.
Filters
Access Control
This filter is based on accessing the farm using the Citrix Access Gateway. An Access Controller is required for the more
advanced filtering. Only for using an Access Gateway as filter can be used without the Access Controller. Specific Access
Gateway Filters can only be defined within the Access Controller.
Client IP Adress
The second option is based on the client IP-address. Both IPv4 as IPv6 can be used. Also you can specify an IP-address or
an IP-range (combined with wildcards). This is useful for the use case with the different locations, which should be access
a specific site.
Client Name
Using a client name is a third option. Most times this is a difficult one, because you are dependent on naming
conventions that are being used. However I used this one of my customer without an Access Controller. My modifying
the Web Interface code to use a different name convention, you make a differentiation between the Web Interface. We
used two name conventions, one for Datacenter 1 and the second for Datacenter 2.
Users
The last option to use within the filters part is the username. Also wildcards are supported here. This option can be used
if you have for example country codes in the username.
As stated before you can combine those filters. So if would like to have a load balancing policy for on IP range 192.168.10.*
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and Client Name start with WS this is possible.
Load Balancing Policies
The second part is actually applying the settings to the group based on the filtering above. Load Balancing Policies can arrange
two things.
Worker Group Preferences
Probably this is most used part for the Load Balancing Policies, because this suites most of the use cases
specified in the beginning of this article. Within XenApp 6.x Worker Groups are the way to go. Within this part
you specify if the filters apply which Worker Group should be used to start the session on. For example (as
shown in the below figure) you can specify two (or more) worker groups. By default when the filters apply the
session will be started on a server in the Worker Group with priority 1. When this Worker Group cannot honor
the request the session will be started within Worker Group 2. This can be used for the active-standby, the
locations and the active-active setup use cases as stated earlier in the article.
Streamed App Delivery

Secondly you can use the Load Balancing Policies to define the way streamed applications should be delivered to
the users. By default this is configured on the Published Application level, but with Load Balancing Policies you
can override those settings. Can you can set-up that applications are forced to stream to the client, are not
allowed to stream to client or allowed to stream/run on Terminal Server (yes, that term is still used).
Logically more Citrix Load Balancing policies can be defined. Often this is also required for the use case. In my project we
would like that the users connected to the Web Interface in data center 1 was redirected to a server also locatied in data
center 1 (and logically the same applies for data center 2). We made the modification in the Web Interface to use a different
naming schema for the client name. The first Load Balancing Policies was filtered on the WI client name of data center 1,
while the Worker Group for data center 1 has priority one (The data center 2 Worker Group was added as the second priority
to in the case of failure in data center 1 the users are redirected to data center 2). The second policy logically was based on
the WI Client Name of data center 2, assigning the session to the Worker Group for data center 2.
Conclusion
Load Balancing Policies are a separate component within a Citrix infrastructure and are not directly related to the other
Policies of Load Evaluator (as sometimes thought). Load Balancing Policies is mainly used to assign a session to specific group
of servers based on several use case scenarios. Configuration is based on two parts, the filters and the actual load balancing
policy.




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7/8/2014 VanBragt.Net Virtualization - Citrix Load Balancing Policies XenApp 6.x explained
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Comments
Reinhard Travnicek PERMALINK
Hello,
Interestingly the screenshot with the workergroups shows both of the groups with priority 1 , so which Group will be used ? I thought the priority is
evaluated to decide where to put the user first (prio 1) and then second (prio 2).
Am I wrong ?
Reinhard
about 1 year ago
Wilco In reply to: # 4
PERMALINK
You are completely right, one workergroup should have priority two. Will make a new good screenshot and replace the current one
about 1 year ago
AndrewMorgan PERMALINK
Excellent article as always Wilko, just two things to add.
Load balancing policies are only honoured when the client is connecting via a Storefront / Web Interface. If you have ThinClients or devices connecting
via the older "tcp via http" method, these clients will completely ignore the load balancing policy. So for any enterprises that use the above method,
Load balancing policies are out of scope.
Another great use case for load balancing is for user isolation / testing. Lets say a multi tenant customer makes a change to the farm after a test
period. Customer A didn't test correctly and find an issue, but customer b needs this change live.
You could use a load balancing policy to redirect customer A to a worker group of XenApp servers with the previous image while you resolve the issue,
allowing customer B to work with their new change without being disrupted.
You could also use load balancing policies to redirect a group of users to a "test" worker group, with the latest Microsoft hotfixes, or other routine
changes (Assuming you don't make any changes or updates to the XenApp components). This would allow you to conduct testing without having to
move the user to a different working environment.
Thanks for sharing! very useful.
A
about 1 year ago
Wilco In reply to: # 6
PERMALINK
Andrew thanks for the good comments. You are completely right about the connection type. Also good additions on the use cases.
about 1 year ago
Wayne In reply to: # 7
PERMALINK
Great article,thank you!
7/8/2014 VanBragt.Net Virtualization - Citrix Load Balancing Policies XenApp 6.x explained
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Great article,thank you!
about 1 year ago
Gary Smith In reply to: # 6
PERMALINK
@AndrewMorgan, I fully appreciate with your ideas. Load balancing policies are only honoured when the client is connecting via a
Storefront Web Interface and you could also use load balancing policies to redirect a group of users to a "test" worker group are
superb. I didn't have any ideas about these point, but you make me understand.
about 5 months ago
Tridib R Saikia PERMALINK
Great Article.
about 1 year ago
dan PERMALINK
Excellent article! Can I ask why the policies do not work for custom ICA connections because this type of connection is not that dissimilar from a web
interface is it? I.e the client is contacting the XML broker which then finds the least loaded server as opposed to WI where the WI server contacts the
XML broker?
Thanks
Dan
about 8 months ago
anto PERMALINK
hello,
this article was helpfull,because yesterday i just designed my company's load balacing policies.I just want to know the differences between citrix
access gateways and netscalar.In what suituations these components will be used.
about 4 months ago