How Mux routed around a major network outage

Some technologies and plans are designed to address the worst-situation scenario. If everything is constantly on the operate normally, then they’ll not be apply, and that’s a great factor. To illustrate Mux Video‘s automatic reaction to network failures when conducting dynamic CDN selection at the beginning of each video playback.

On June 24, at 10:30 UTC, Verizon made an erroneous update for their border gateway protocol (BGP) routing bulletins from the major Internet interchange (AS701) that designed a small ISP in Pennsylvania the most well-liked path for a lot of the web traffic within the Northeastern U . s . States. This brought to significant network congestion and errors, leading to degraded performance for a few of the largest CDNs (Cloudflare, Fastly) and ISPs (Linode, Amazon . com), and as a result affecting those sites and services they host.

This publish will show you how Mux Video performed throughout the incident and just how dynamic CDN selection might help lessen the impact of network outages.

How CDN Switching Works

Mux Video uses Citrix Intelligent Traffic Management (ITM) to recognize the perfect CDN every time a viewer initiates video playback. ITM depends on Citrix Radar data and Mux data metrics collected from vast sums of users all over the world to construct an image of methods the web has been doing across a number of dimensions (CDN, network, geography, etc).

Mux’s ITM setup identifies the network connected using the Ip of every video viewer and selects the perfect CDN for your network according to round-trip-time (RTT) performance data collected by Radar.

A rise in network congestion or errors is symbolized by a rise in RTT measurements. When the RTT for that preferred CDN increases to the stage that it is no more favorable, then Citrix ITM will start recommending another CDN in the group of supported CDNs. We presently make use of the Fastly and StackPath/Highwinds CDNs, and therefore are while adding more.

CDN switching is automatic and driven entirely by alterations in Radar data. It has the advantage of reducing congestion with an already congested path and supplying a faster path for individuals using the alternate route.

How Did Mux Video Perform?

Throughout the outage, RTT performance on AS701 for that Fastly CDN spiked from 11ms to 80ms meanwhile, RTT performance for that StackPath/Highwinds CDN rose only moderately from 12ms to 26ms. We observed disruptions on another Verizon-managed ASN, AS22394.

Citrix ITM started directing Mux Video traffic in the AS701 and AS22394 systems towards the StackPath/Highwinds CDN at 11:00 UTC. We presently make use of a Fastly origin shield before our media origin, so there is a slight handicap put on StackPath/Highwinds to utilize cost and gratifaction benefits of serving from Fastly. However, within this situation the handicap was replaced through the poor RTT occasions around the Fastly network during these ASNs throughout the incident. StackPath/Highwinds still requested the press through our Fastly origin shield surviving in a Fastly point-of-presence (POP) near our origin.

Using capability reference resources to build your API platform

Defining API guidelines and creating tooling for checking and submission with individuals guidelines are essential. They’re key milestones in almost any team’s or organization’s API journey.

But do you know the other abilities that constitute an entire API platform?

Its not all organization needs every capacity, but it’s advantageous to possess a look at the general landscape. Within this publish, we have a “mile wide and inch deep” consider the potential abilities within an API platform, proven within the graphic below, and just how they connect with one another

The benefits of getting a capacity reference resource is it helps teams:

• Identify the most crucial abilities (the “must-haves”) when a company starts on its API journey, along with the ones to think about later
• Explore exterior commercial/free tools that offer the needed abilities
• Assess if multiple abilities in the same vendor could be leveraged for optimal cost

There's two overarching concerns which should shape an API platform’s evolution: business strategy and technical strategy.

Business Strategy

• Do you know the business objectives and motorists?
• Do you know the high-level needs?
• Do you know the timelines?
• Do you know the connected (chance) costs and risks?
• Can there be alignment from stakeholders around the vision for that platform?
• What's the API delivery roadmap?

This ought to be the guiding light for the API platform. Moving straight to the technical strategy/implementation with no obvious business strategy will probably result in failure.

Technical Strategy

How can the company goals be performed through tech components within an optimal way?

How are technology choices impacted by constraints on sources/time/skills?

Your method for public versus. internal APIs.

The next factors/deliberations, which it's important to make:

• Build versus. buy versus. use OSS for any capacity.
• Self-host and manage versus. SaaS versus. a hybrid offering.
• What's going to be automated versus. manual?
• Selection of tech stack(s) for just about any capacity that'll be built.
• Selection of vendor(s) for any capacity that won't be built.
• Single offering from the vendor for thoseOrmost abilities versus. combine abilities from various sources.
• Key Abilities of API Platforms

Documentation/Developer Portal - This is an essential capacity from your API consumer’s perspective. It enables API consumers and application developers to uncover and use APIs and connected assets (SDK, Mail carrier collections, code snippets, support forums, etc.). API management solutions typically incorporate a developer portal.

Product Manager - This is an essential capacity from your API product manager’s perspective. It offers UI/API/declarative way to configure policies on APIs, create product groupings, do lifecycle operations, monetize APIs, and much more. API management solutions have an API (product) manager.

Traffic Manager - A traffic manager may be the run-time that enforces all policies configured by an API manager. It is really an central a part of an API management solution. There's also many standalone, fight-tested, open-source API gateways available which you can use to produce a custom API management solution.

Analytics - This capacity is pertinent and helpful to various audiences, including API developers, application developers, API managers, and processes teams. The kinds of reports/metrics include API usage, errors, performance, top users, revenue, yet others. This capacity is carefully linked to the gateway, which feeds the information.

Org/Env/User Mgmt - The API management solution will typically be utilised by multiple sectionsOrsolutionsOrgeos and have to have the constructs to group and isolate some users from others inside a safe way. Also, it’s present with have multiple environments for development, testing, staging, and production, which needs to be achievable using the solution.

API Access - Any the majority of the API platform’s abilities ought to be accessible via APIs for DevOps/automation purposes as well as for creating custom applications.

XenServer 7.1 CU2 awarded Common Criteria EAL2+ status

Security is really a main concern for the customers, and Citrix includes a lengthy good reputation for demonstrating the safety in our solutions and products by submitting them for independent Common Criteria security certification. I’m excited to announce the most recent accessory for our listing of certifications: XenServer 7.1 CU2 continues to be awarded Common Criteria EAL2  status.

Common Criteria (CC) certification is a vital qualification for government customers in lots of countries, but non-governmental customers also frequently regard CC certification as something which constitutes a product more appealing. Whether or not the certification doesn’t affect your industry, the connected security guidance might be useful for the deployments. Certification is performed in approved facilities in a single country and it is then recognized through the governments of 30 countries around the world without further testing or certification needed.

Certified products, including Citrix’s XenApp, XenDesktop, NetScaler and XenServer, are on the public Common Criteria portal.

That Which Was Different This Time Around?

We’ve shifted the XenServer certification tactic to Canada the very first time after a period of certification within the United kingdom. Using the proceed to Canada, we selected our previous certification partner, DXC Technology because the evaluation facility. DXC also evaluated XenApp and XenDesktop in 2018.

We updated XenServer to incorporate the FIPS-validated Citrix crypto module.

We stored the EAL 2  certification level, as with previous XenServer evaluations. Also, with recent alterations in Common Criteria, EAL 2  has become the greatest level recognized with no Protection Profile underneath the new Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement.

Just like our other evaluations, with this Common Criteria evaluation we used automated testing, supplying a regular, well defined, repeatable method for look at the safety needs.?This permitted us to operate the tests much earlier, prior to the discharge of XenServer 7.1 CU2 itself, and thus lead towards the overall product quality.

Free up your laptop with the Citrix Ready workspace hub

Early this past year, we released the Citrix Ready workspace hub, a condition-of-the-art, enterprise-grade endpoint device that allows users to gain access to Citrix sessions. Using the Citrix Ready workspace hub, Citrix sessions running on the mobile phone could be cast to the large display linked to a workspace hub, improving collaboration while keeping security controls.

Using the Citrix Ready workspace hub 1904 software update, we required things one step further and enabled people to make use of the hub to cast their Citrix session much more easily, with Browser Content Redirection. Now we’ve gone one better, using the discharge of the 1906 software update for that Citrix workspace hub and also the Citrix Workspace application, which enables using add-ons when screen casting.

These enhancements provide the best results to two kinds of users:

1. Customers who wish to make use of a mouse and keyboard linked to a Citrix workspace hub tool and work from their mobile phone after screen casting.
2. Citrix Workspace hub users like receptionists or bank tellers who share screens using their customers and wish these to input information right into a kiosk.

This selection becomes effective automatically after upgrading the Citrix workspace hub and also the Citrix Workspace application towards the 1906 release.

For Mac users, it's important to grant permission to simulate the mouse and keyboard. What this means is with macOS versions 10.14 (or later), you have to permit the application - Citrix Casting - to manage the pc. It's important to open “System Preferences” and click on “Security & Privacy.” After allowing “Citrix Casting” to manage the pc, the part is going to be on your laptop.

Presently, whenever a customer is applying a keyboard attached to the Citrix Ready workspace hub, the default keyboard layout may be the U.S. layout and can't be altered. We intend to address this inside a future release.

Identify the best links to transfer your data with Citrix SD-WAN

Citrix SD-WAN uses an formula to decide on the links by which data packets are sent, and it is expected to decide on the best links, after bandwidth allocation is prioritized. But to do this in a manner that offers the best finish-consumer experience, you need to make certain to tweak the factors for evaluating link health.

Does which means that when your Citrix SD-WAN does not have the best parameters in position, a hyperlink which was working correctly and that were evaluated as stable could not be completely functional?

Yes.

Based on the evaluation criteria from the links, penalties does apply, which can lead to bandwidth reduction and disuse from the link.

It’s vital that you learn how to personalize parameters and also the acceptable limits for link selection. However, to do this inside a acceptable way and also to ensure there isn’t any negative impact, it’s imperative the criteria accustomed to assess the links’ health are fine-tuned, respecting the hyperlink characteristics and also the limits the applications support. Within this blog publish, I’ll recommend ways to obtain the most from Citrix SD-WAN (and also the links) and generate a high-quality consumer experience.

Assessing Links with Citrix SD-WAN

Citrix SD-WAN might help assess whether a contracted link is delivering the agreed-upon service level. When looking for link quality, you need to consider parameters like stability, jitter, latency, congestion, and bandwidth. Once the parameters are aligned, Citrix SD-WAN will make sure an excellent consumer experience, rich in bandwidth aggregation and availability.

Oftentimes, the complexness from the provider’s infrastructure might also affect link quality. Internet links without dedicated bandwidth, for instance, want more attention simply because they have a tendency to oscillate more, and proper performance isn’t always possible.

With Citrix SD-WAN, you are able to collect metrics that demonstrate the efficiency of every link in milliseconds (link monitoring is performed both in directions - upload and download). And if you need to reveal that a hyperlink isn’t delivering what’s been guaranteed, you’ll have all the details you have to act.

Criteria for Link Classification

With Citrix SD-WAN, a hyperlink has a minimum of two pathways: one for download (WAN-to-LAN) and something for upload (LAN-to-WAN). The caliber of the virtual pathways depends upon the caliber of the hyperlinks linked to them. Citrix SD-WAN monitors and scores each.

Before we go any more, let’s review some concepts around link classification. Citrix SD-WAN will classify the road to be in a single of 4 states, both in directions (upload and download). These classifications, detailed below, could be visualized with the pathways statistics within the monitoring dashboard:

Bad - Automatically the considered for packet loss (Bad) uses the algorithms specified below. The hyperlink rating badly will occur whenever these conditions happen to be exceeded.

• 3 lost from last 4
• 4 from last 10
• 5 from last 20
• 6 lost from last 30
• 11 lost from last 200

Whenever a virtual path enters a poor condition, the road Probation Period is began automatically to find out once the link can go back to Good.

Dead - Proven in red, Dead signifies that communication using the link doesn't seem possible. It’s measured according to non-response time, that is 150ms automatically. For Dead occasions, where there's no communication within the path, the Citrix SD-WAN waits ten seconds automatically (Path Probation Period) prior to trying to make use of the hyperlink again.

Congestion - Symbolized in red inside a different column from the dashboard, Congestion implies that there's congestion at some stage in the hyperlink. This recognition is performed through jitter monitoring, which matches the record variation from the delay within the delivery of information inside a network. Congestion, generally, takes place when a tool within the cloud needs to buffer packets since it does not have enough bandwidth to deliver them. This threshold is activated automatically when jitter is more than 20ms.

The penalty this is a 20 % bandwidth reduction, specified for that link and every 100ms cycle. If jitter doesn’t go back to the required value, yet another 20 % reduction is used. Penalties will still be applied, which could slowly move the connect to an unusable condition. Jitter checking cycles happen every 100ms, whether or not the link is totally penalized. When the link returns to functional condition in line with the specified parameters, it'll go back to its normal condition of usage.

Content is more than just files and data

Digital transformation requires companies to pay attention to delivering an engaging worker experience that extends from the very first day at work towards the technology used every single day by employees. The worker experience is really a differentiator inside a tight talent market helping increase productivity and engagement, leading to better business outcomes and greater client satisfaction.

Technology and just what employees use daily - and just how they will use it - differs between roles and responsibilities however, almost everybody at the office creates and uses content each day. From presentations to memos to data analysis, companies have never-ending levels of content. The information is stored in a number of places, which requires employees to invest upward of 20 % of time looking for it. Even though many vendors aspire for enterprises to maneuver all of their content into one, cloud-based location, the truth is content will still be disparate and there won't be any single supply of content.

Submissions are not only files and knowledge. Content includes the conversations which happen inside a messaging platform along with the notes inside a Crm (CRM) system and also the analysis and dashboard inside a data virtualization solution. As information gets to be more decentralized, companies need a strategy to not only aggregate files and knowledge but additionally gather the rest of the causes of content into one intelligent solution. Simple content aggregation isn't enough to enhance the worker experience.

At Citrix, we're centered on supplying our customers an easy method to operate. Our Citrix Workspace solution offers users everything they should be engaged and productive in a single experience. By acknowledging a realistic look at customer environments and technology needs, Citrix Workspace provides purposeful and impactful innovation that will help all customers on their own digital transformation journey.

Citrix Workspace is made to transform the worker experience - not only how files and knowledge are stored and shared. Citrix Workspace re-imagines how content in most its forms could be surfaced and actionable in one location, extending the need for systems of record and apps with intelligence, automation, and collaboration. We offer an extensive solution that addresses business challenges and improves productivity and engagement by organizing, guiding and automating work.

• Organize: Citrix Workspace supplies a unified and omnichannel experience to any or all users by aggregating all relevant content, data, apps, and desktops they have to obtain work done. Secure access controls enable organizations to safeguard their most sensitive assets. IT will get the visibility and controls needed to reply to the brand new ways people wish to work.
• Guide: Citrix Workspace helps guide and concentrate work by reduction of noise and organizing the continual stream of knowledge and tasks users enter a prioritized and private feed. And Citrix embraces the plurality of user encounters by reaching employees within their preferred collaboration tools. Citrix also provides digital virtual assistance, which supplies access immediately to relevant content and business data. Users could possibly get quick solutions to frequent, everyday, routine queries, can automate tasks like establishing conferences, could possibly get key sales insight, or look up co-workers.
• Automate: Citrix Workspace provides intelligent automation using a machine learning-powered system that continuously improves and identifies possibilities to simplify and automate batch repetitive tasks and workflows to enhance the worker experience.

A developer conference focused on the future of work: Citrix Converge

At Citrix Synergy 2019, we announced the intelligent experience for that Citrix Workspace, that will launch later this season. The most recent evolution of Citrix Workspace provides actionable notifications and intuitive microapp workflows which are more popular business applications. By eliminating context switching and distractions, workers are empowered to become productive and work more proficiently.

Because watch is exclusive, you will find numerous applications that may be linked to Citrix Workspace. Therefore, Citrix is enabling customers and partners to personalize and extend the Workspace by creating their very own microapps and application integrations. Developers may use APIs and “low-code” tools for connecting any company application as well as an intuitive workflow builder to produce microapps for this.

That is why we’re hosting Citrix Converge - to assist developers know how the Citrix Workspace platform functions and the way to use low-code tools to produce compelling integrations.

This invitation-only event - happening October 2-3, 2019, at our campus in Santa Clara, CA - brings together technical staff from system integrators, ISVs, developers and people to:

• Connect - along with other developers and partners thinking about building integrations for Citrix Workspace.
• Be Inspired - see what others have built and comprehend the number of options from the Citrix Workspace platform.
• Learn- building low-code microapps and integrations around the platform.
• Build - integrate systems and implement use installments of interest to attendees while in the event.

During the period of the 2-day event, we’ll combine technical talks regarding how to integrate having a hackathon to place everything into practice. As you’d expect, you will see prizes to find the best integrations built! And, as you may also expect, you will see pizza, beer, and lots of coffee.

More details:

• The big event costs nothing, but we ask that you simply cover your personal transportation and lodging costs.
• Worried you cannot exist? We’ll be recording all of the talks and publishing them, so you can get all of the content, wherever you're.
• Unsure when the event is perfect for you? Should you know very well what REST APIs and JSON are, and the way to make API calls, you’ll your style in.
• Are you currently wondering what you could integrate? Most contemporary SaaS systems and applications having a REST API could be integrated directly with no single type of code. Other applications may require a little custom transformation layer that exposes a JSON REST API for Citrix Workspace.