Citrix Gateway Service and EDT

In this post I wanted to discuss the use of Citrix Enlighted Data Transport with Citrix Gateway Service. This is a feature that has been available with Citrix ADC for quite some time but it is a new feature for Gateway Service. I wanted to take you through step by step on how to configure EDT and Adaptive Transport with Gateway Service, as well as discuss any system requirements that are needed to get you up and running.

What is Adaptive Transport

Adaptive transport is a proprietary transport protocol that functions well on highly latent networks, which TCP alone finds challenging. This protocol is adaptive and can switch to TCP or UDP based on network conditions in order to ensure the best user experience for users using HDX.

Enlighted Data Transport System requirements

VDA 1912 or later
Rendezvous protocol must be enabled and working ( We cover this next)
Ports UDP 443 and TCP must be open outbound from VDA to the Internet
Adaptive Transport must be enabled
EDT is supported with all supported OS’s. Citrix do recommend the use of Windows 10 and Windows 2019 when running EDT with Citrix Gateway Service
Latest Workspace App Version ( 1908 or above for Parallel connections)

Configuring Rendezvous Protocol

When you are configuring Rendezvous protocol for use with Citrix CVAD Service the following is required.

VDA 1912 or later
Enable the Rendezvous protocol in the Citrix policies in Studio
The Cloud Connectors must obtain the VDA’s FQDN when brokering a session. This can be achieved by using the the following commands in Powershell:
- asnp citrix*
- Get- XDAuthentication

Set the DNS Resolution to True

Set-Brokersite -DNSResolutionEnabled $True

To check that the DNS Settings are configured correctly – Type Get-Brokersite

The DNS Resolution should now be set to True.

Citrix Policy Requirements

Now that the DNS settings are complete, we need to ensure the Citrix Policies are also set for Rendezvous protocol. (The Rendezvous protocol allows HDX sessions to bypass the Citrix Cloud Connector and connect directly and securely to the Citrix Gateway service.)

Please see more detail here: https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops-service/hdx/rendezvous-protocol.html

To set the Citrix policy, Open Citrix Studio and create a new policy for Rendezvous protocol.

Click enable , and also enable Adaptive transport.

Lets also set up Session Reliability setting, as our final policy requirement. Enabling Session Reliability will allow users to automatically reconnect to Citrix sessions after a disruption.

Now that Rendezvous protocol is setup, lets move on to complete the setup to allow for the use of EDT.

Open Microsoft Group Policy Manager, and create a policy that will allow for you to set the Cipher Suite for the VDA workloads. Choose Computer configuration, Network, SSL Configuration, SSL Cipher Suite Order.

https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops-service/hdx/rendezvous-protocol.html