Lab: Part 31 – Configure NetScaler Gateway Service for XenApp and XenDesktop Service in Citrix Cloud

Configure NetScaler Gateway Service for XenApp and XenDesktop Service in Citrix Cloud.

In this article, we will review how to configure Citrix Cloud to allow our users to connect to resources.

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What is NetScaler Gateway Service in Citrix Cloud?

NetScaler Gateway is often deployed to access and secure Citrix applications. Such deployment requires design, maintenance, upgrades and administration which can quickly be overlooked by organizations. With NetScaler Gateway Service in Citrix Cloud, Citrix hosts NetScaler and manages it for you. You don’t have to think about high availability and scalability as those are inherent features. Citrix will automatically scale the gateway for you based on the usage. The traffic will go through Citrix Cloud, then to your network via Citrix Cloud Connector and reach the selected resource.

NetScaler Gateway Service requires Citrix Cloud-hosted StoreFront (Citrix Workspace) and can be deployed in only few minutes with minimal efforts.

Architecture

Getting started

In this article you will learn the following:

• Configure NetScaler Gaterway Service in Citrix Cloud
• Learn how to customize Citrix Workspace in Citrix Cloud

You need to have:

• An active Citrix Cloud subscription
• XenApp and XenDesktop Service configured in Citrix Cloud (See Lab: Part 29 – Configure XenDesktop And XenApp Service with Microsoft Azure and Citrix Cloud)
• Azure AD and Citrix Cloud Identity And Access Management configured (see Lab: Part 30 – Configure Identity and Access Management in Citrix Cloud with Microsoft Azure AD)
• Windows 10 Client virtual machine available, registered to Citrix Cloud and started (see Lab: Part 28 – Getting started with Citrix Cloud and Lab: Part 27 – Getting started with Microsoft Azure)

Configure NetScaler Gateway Service

With the XenDesktop Service trial, you also get NetScaler Gateway Service trial for the same amount of time. Select Manage to start the configuration. You will be redirected to https://gateway.cloud.com/.

Select Configure under Virtual Apps and Desktops.

Go to Service Integrations to make sure that XenApp and XenDesktop Service previously created is Enabled.

Citrix allows for some customization in Citrix Workspace. Not much to be honest but you can configure your own logo and a custom link color.

In Authentication, leave everything by default. We have configured Azure AD in  Lab: Part 27 – Getting started with Microsoft Azure.

In access, you can change the Workspace URL. For some reasons, at the time of this article, it was not possible to do that action.

Make sure that the XenApp And Desktop Service is NetScaler Gateway Service.

Go to our Workspace URL. The first time we will be prompted to detect Receiver.

If you don’t have it, Citrix Workspace supports the HTML5 receiver, so you are all good by default.

The logon page includes the custom logo specified earlier.

Logon with AD Azure Credentials. If you have properly configure Citrix Cloud Identity and Access Management and if you Azure AD is reachable from Citrix Cloud, you will be able logon.

The Windows 10 client virtual machine that we created in Lab: Part 29 – Configure XenDesktop And XenApp Service with Microsoft Azure and Citrix Cloud is visible.

You can select the arrow to have more details about the desktop.

Here you can see that the machine name is W10-01 which is matching the previous articles.

Click on the icon to start the desktop.

The connection opens successfully. You can also check in Citrix Cloud XenDesktop Service that the session is started.

Back in the NetScaler Gateway Service console, you can now see a new integrated service.

Congrats! You are now able to configure NetScaler Gateway Service in Citrix Cloud.

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