CitrixSAPGui640Best Practices
CitrixSAPGui640Best Practices
40 Using
Citrix Presentation Server 4
Danny Wannagat
SAP Competence Center
Citrix Systems GmbH
Table of Contents
This white paper covers important technical information about installing and
configuring SAPGui 6.40 for Windows® on Citrix Presentation Server 4. Please
always heed SAP and Citrix product documentation and the latest Citrix Knowledge
Base articles.
Please visit the websites referenced in the white paper, consult SAPNotes listed at the
end, or contact your Citrix and SAP partner for the latest information.
2. SAPGui 6.40 Overview
When SAPGui is referenced in this whitepaper, we are talking about SAPGui for
Windows.
2.1. New with SAPGui 6.40
Improving accessibility
For more information on this topic, see Note 740785.
Improved usability
In addition to various minor improvements to the usability of UI elements, we have
enhanced the usability of lists.
Revised icons
The designs both of the program icons of the SAP GUI and of the icons used by
applications within the SAP GUI were optimized.
Installation compression
SAPSetup no longer transfers individual files but entire archives to the clients. This
reduces the dataset that is to be transferred.
Inclusion of Adobe Template Designer in the SAP GUI installation
To simplify the development of form-based applications, Adobe Template Designer
is delivered with the SAP GUI.
2.2. SAPGui 6.40 Limitations on Citrix Presentation Server
Because of the modular SAPGui architecture, there are many different types of
SAPGui patches available. All of them can be found in the SAP Support Portal at
http://service.sap.com
The most common are the SAPGui Patch and the SAPGui Setup Patch. But there are
also hotfixes for different business modules available within the Support Portal. We
recommend checking the SAP Support Portal for all available updates for SAPGui-
related modules utilized in your environment.
We recommend installing an SAP Setup Server first. But you don’t need to install the
Install Server services; you only need the Install Server Fileshare. The benefit here is
that all necessary SAPGui and SAP Setup patches can be integrated into the Setup
Server. This is the only way to use the latest installer patch.
When you install from an SAP Setup Server, please disable the following registry key:
"HKLM\SOFTWARE\SAP\SAPSetup\SAPstart\AutoUpdate"
on your Citrix server after the installation. If this key is present, SAPGui will try to
connect to the update server each time it is started. And if updates are available, they
will be automatically installed on the environment. Citrix does not recommend
allowing auto-update functionalities. All updates should be tested and validated prior
to final installation in the Citrix environment, and this task should be performed by an
administrator, not a user.
Please take a look at the Citrix Presentation Server Installation Guide and Advanced
Concepts Guide for additional information about AIE.
To update an older SAPGui version to 6.40, it is important to avoid installing the new
version on top of an older version. The preferred method in a Citrix environment is to
begin with a clean drive.
A setup scenario with unattended setup routines is very helpful to deploy updates and
maintain the whole environment. A lot of problems and issues have occurred in the
past because of uninstalling and reinstalling applications.
SAPlogon.ini
SAPshortcut.ini
SAProute.ini
SAPmsg.ini
SAPlogon.ini and SAPshortcut.ini are the most important Ini Files on a Citrix
environment because all connection configurations are stored within them. The
challenge here is to deploy the right configuration file to your users.
To deploy the right Ini Files to your users, there are different scenarios available. If
you only need one SAPlogon.ini File, the most frequently used scenario is to place it
on a central fileserver that all users can access, and set the environment variable on all
your Presentation Servers to point to the central file.
If you need different Ini Files for users or user groups, you can deploy the right Ini
Files to the users’ home directory with a login script, and set the environment variable
to point to the userhomedrive (f.e. h:\sapini\saplogon.ini)
If you store the SAPlogon.ini file in the Windows directory, which is not
recommended by Citrix, please be aware that Terminal Server copies Ini Files from
the system’s Windows directory to a user-specific Windows directory
(%userprofile%\windows). This is another function of the Terminal Server Install
Mode (Shadow Key). But this Ini File is only deployed once, so changing the Ini on
the system drive does not automatically update the user’s Ini File.
4. SAPGui 6.40 Configuration and Tuning
In this chapter we talk about possible SAP configurations on the Citrix server. This
doesn’t mean that all of them are right for your environment. And the list does not include
everything you can configure with SAPGui. However, these configurations and settings
are based on Citrix’s experiences in implementing numerous projects and reflect questions
that customers often ask.
As of Patch 2 for SAPGui 6.40, you can display the additional windows title by setting the
'ShowAdditionalTitleInFo' registry key. This is necessary to allow Citrix Password
Manager™ to distinguish between different SAP back ends.
HKCU\Software\SAP\SAPGUI Front\SAP Frontend Server\\Administration
Key: ShowAdditionalTitleInFo
Type: REG_DWORD
Value:1
How to deploy the necessary configurations to your users depends on your environment
and how you use user profiles, login scripts and policies.
Please take a look at the Citrix documentation and also the Advanced Concepts Guide.
You will find a lot of information about user profiles, policies, the shadow key, etc.
4.2. SAPWorkdir
The SAPWorkdir is the SAPGui Temp Directory. All temp files and history files are
stored within the SAPWorkdir. It is not possible to separate the content of the
SAPWorkdir. For example, you cannot save the SAPGui History at one location and
the Temp files at another.
4.3. Tuning
When we talk about application tuning in a Citrix / Terminal Server environment we talk
about performance enhancements. This means better usage of CPU and memory, and lower
bandwidth consumption.
Currently there are no special SAPGui configurations known to change the memory and CPU
consumption of SAPGui.
The new CPU and DLL management functions of Presentation Server 4 are able to enhance
the performance and scalability of Citrix Presentation Server.
But results also depend also on the number of users and their work behavior in your
environment.
Another tuning field is the network traffic traveling between users running the ICA® client
and Citrix Presentation Server. Here you have to decide which graphic depth and resolution
you need. Less color depth and lower resolution reduce the traffic sent between the ICA client
and the Citrix server.
The new visual design of SAPGui 6.40 shown below has some more memory overhead than
the classic design. But normally only the Enjoy mode has a good user acceptance.
ICA Virtual Channels also consume network bandwidth, so we recommend disabling all
virtual channels you don’t need. We also recommend restricting the printing virtual channel to
a defined value. This prevents printing from using up all available bandwidth for the user’s
ICA connection.
As of Patch Level 10 for SAPGui 6.40, it is possible to distinguish between two front-
end printing solutions, as described below.
5.1. SAPLPD
SAPLPD is the SAP front-end printing tool that is frequently used in Terminal Server
environments. And for a long time it was the only front-end printing solution available
from SAP. The problem with SAPLPD is that it was not designed for a multi-user
environment like Presentation Server. It was designed as a standalone print service.
But because of customer requests for a front-end printing solution, it was used.
If you have to use SAPLPD because your environment is not at the necessary patch
level to use the recommended control printing, please heed the following
recommendations.
The printer name has a limitation of 40 characters. This is an SAP back-end database
limitation. So if you use Citrix client printer mapping and SAPGui, it could be that
your printer name is too long, and that you will have SAPLPD errors. Also, the new
printer names used with the Presentation Server 4 universal printer driver could raise
issues here.
In addition to the normal SAPGui patches, there are SAPLPD patches available from
SAP. Please take a look at the http://service.sap.com for information.
- SAPLPD must not be entered as a service on the server, since the SAPLPD print
program must be restarted for every user for every print output.
We highly recommend using the new SAP front-end printing technology for your
Citrix environment.
(SAPNote 821519)
From a technical point of view, the new front-end printing is based on the controls
that have already been used in SAPGui for a long time. Controls are DLLs that run in
the process context of SAPGui. The new print control receives the print data and
transfers it to the underlying printing system of the operating system. When you work
with SAPGui for Windows, you can continue to use the SAPWIN device type that
allows you to use any printer with a Windows driver. SAPLPD no longer exists as a
separate process. This eliminates the Terminal Server environment problems
mentioned at the start.
Import the support package or implement the correction instructions. Import the
relevant kernel patch. Import the relevant GUI patch.
Kernel patch for Release 6.20: dw Patch 1942 (see Note 854044)
for Release 6.40: dw Patch 63
SAPGui 6.20 Patch 56
SAPGui 6.40 Patch 10
In your Citrix environment you don’t need to do configurations. After installing the
necessary back-end and front-end patches, you can directly use the new printing
subsystem.
5.3. Front-end Printing with Citrix Universal Printer Driver
Because of the new design of the Citrix® Universal Printer Driver, only the EMF format
is supported. Normally the SAPGui sends all print data as RAW. This results in a printer
issue, with the print job stuck in the print spooler on your server. To change the data
format of the SAPGui you have to implement the following registry key.
(SAPNote 858883)
It occurs with SAPLPD used for front-end printing services as well as with the new
control printing technology.
Before you implement the registry key below, please make sure that you can print to a
printer using the native driver instead of the UPD driver. And that the problem only
occurs while printing to a printer using the Universal Printer Driver in Presentation
Server 4.
Don’t be confused: the SAPLPD Registry Key is right for SAPLPD printing as well as for
control technology printing. The new control printing uses the “old” SAPLPD registry
keys for compatibility reasons.
To force the SAPGui to send the data as EMF data, please add the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SAP\SAPlpd\SAPLPD
Type: String
Name: SwinDataType
Value: EMF
To run SAPGui as published application, you have different options. You can deploy a full
server desktop, but your users will have to start SAPGui manually. A better approach is to
deploy applications in seamless mode. This is a very good way to integrate published
applications running on Citrix Presentation Server into the user’s desktop environment.
You can publish the following SAP executables:
SAPlogon.exe
SAPlgpad.exe
SAPshcut.exe
SAPgui.exe
For all published applications you need a configured SAPlogon.ini file for your users.
For the SAPshcut.exe you also need to have the SAPshortcut.ini.
7. Troubleshooting
In the past Citrix has been able to identify and fix some graphic issues while running SAPGui
as a published application in seamless mode. Before attempting to fix any issues, please
install the latest SAPGui patch and the latest ICA client.
If you can reproduce the problem at the server console or over RDP, please open a support
case with SAP. If the problem only occurs with ICA, please open a support case with Citrix
Technical Support.
8. Additional Information
SAPNotes are available from the SAP Service Marketplace, which is only accessible to SAP
customers and partners.
Link: http://service.sap.com/notes
© 2005 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix®, ICA®, Citrix Presentation
Server™ and Citrix Password Manager™ are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or
more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark
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