Citrix No Longer Supports Device Services
Citrix ended support and licensing of Citrix Device Services in January of 2004. This program was included on ThinManager CDs as one method of providing the ICA (Independent Computer Architecture) protocol for communication between the Terminal Server and ThinManager Ready Thin Clients. This article outlines the effects of this software being discontinued on ACP ThinManager systems and ThinManager Ready Thin Clients.
Impact
- If you are using the ICA protocol with Citrix MetaFrame, there is no impact.
- If you are using RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) there is no impact.
- If you have Citrix Device Services already installed, licensed, and activated on a Terminal Server, there is no impact unless and until you rebuild the Terminal Server. If you want to rebuild an existing Terminal Server or add a new Terminal Server and use Citrix Device Services, this is not possible due to the lack of Citrix Device Services licensing and support.
Alternatives
- One can use RDP instead of ICA from Citrix Device Services as the Client Communication Protocol. RDP is installed and activated by default on each Windows Terminal Server when Terminal Services is enabled. RDP support is built into ThinManager v2.4.1 and above. The RDP connection can provide sound and high color (16-bit) if connected to a Windows 2003 Terminal Server. This is an improvement over Device Services that lacked sound support and only displayed 256 colors on the client.
- Users with older versions of ThinManager can upgrade to the latest version of ThinManager that includes RDP support either through the Comprehensive Support Program or by purchasing upgrades for all activated licenses.
- Users who don't want to upgrade to the current version of ThinManager can use the RDP Module, downloaded from www.thinmanager.com, with firmware v02.05.124 or later, and use the RDP connection to a Windows 2000 or 2003 Terminal Server.
- A customer wanting to use the ICA protocol instead of RDP can purchase Citrix MetaFrame and use it with the ICA protocol.
Serial Communications
One feature of Citrix Device Services that may be missed is the COM port mapping using the "net use comX:" command. If this was used to redirect serial data from the ACP Enabled Thin Client to the Terminal Server session, one has two options:
- The COM port can be mapped using the RDP Serial Port Redirection Module. This requires Windows 2003 Terminal Server and v02.05.124 or later firmware. The module redirects the COM in the session to the COM on the ThinManager Ready Thin Client without additional configuration.
- Citrix MetaFrame can be purchased and the ICA COM port mapping can still be used with the ICA protocol.
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