TOPIC
Citrix Broker SDK - Desktop and Application Entitlement Policy
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Controls end-user entitlement to desktop and application sessions provided
from a pool of shared machines.
LONG DESCRIPTION
The site's entitlement policy defines rules controlling users' entitlements
to desktop and application sessions from pools of shared machines. Each pool
is defined by a desktop group.
The entitlement policy comprises a set of rules. Each rule grants users a
single entitlement to a desktop or application session in a specified
desktop group. The policy can be applied only to groups of desktop kind
Random. For desktop entitlements multiple rules can apply to the same group,
however for application entitlements only a single rule can apply to a given
group.
When the user starts a session by selecting an entitlement the behavior
depends on the session-support property of the desktop group:
o For single-session groups the user is temporarily assigned a machine
selected at random from the group to provide their session. When the
session ends, the machine is returned to the pool of available machines.
o For multi-session groups the user session is provided by the machine
that is least loaded within the group when the session is launched.
If multiple desktop entitlement rules for the same group contain the same
user, the user can have as many desktop sessions from the group concurrently
as they have entitlements.
Although only a single application entitlement rule can be defined for a
group, a user can still launch multiple applications from that group because
the applications all run within that entitlement's single session.
Rules for desktop and application session entitlements are distinct. Desktop
entitlements are managed through the BrokerEntitlementPolicyRule SDK object,
and application rules through the BrokerAppEntitlementPolicyRule object.
Desktop entitlement rules can be created only for desktop groups with
delivery types DesktopsOnly or DesktopsAndApps, whereas an application
entitlement rule can be created only for delivery types AppsOnly or
DesktopsAndApps.
For desktop groups with delivery type DesktopsAndApps, typically one or more
desktop session entitlement rules together with a single application session
entitlement rule exist.
For an entitlement granted by the entitlement policy to be available to a
user, the site's access policy must also grant them access to the desktop
group.
ENTITLEMENT POLICY RULES
Each entitlement policy rule has the following key properties:
o The desktop group to which it applies (one rule only ever applies
to one group)
o The users to whom the entitlement is granted
Additionally for desktop entitlement rules, the following properties exist:
o The published name of the entitlement (visible to the user)
o Any properties that a desktop session launched using the entitlement
should use that differ from the defaults specified on the desktop group
If multiple desktop entitlements are available to a user from the same group
the resultant desktop session properties may differ depending on which
entitlement the user selects to start the session.
Each rule can be individually enabled or disabled. A disabled rule is
ignored when the entitlement policy is evaluated.
USER FILTERS (FULL)
Each rule has two user filters, an include filter and an exclude filter:
o The include filter contains users and user groups that are granted
an entitlement to a session
o The exclude filter contains users and user groups that are denied
an entitlement to a session
If the include filter of a rule contains multiple instances of a user
(either explicit or implicit), they get only one entitlement by that rule.
Entries in the exclude filter take priority, so if a user appears explicitly
or implicitly in both filters, access is denied. Typically, you use this
filter to exclude a user or group of users who would otherwise gain access
because they are members of a user group specified in the include filter.
Because all rules are independently evaluated, the exclude filter can only
exclude users who would otherwise gain an entitlement through the same
rule's include filter. That is, if a user is in a rule's include filter but
not its exclude filter, the rule is guaranteed to grant that user a session
entitlement irrespective of whether the user appears in the exclude filter
of other rules.
If a filter contains a user group that contains other users and groups, the
filter implicitly includes all of those users and groups.
By default the exclude filter is disabled.
To maintain entitlement policy rules that can be fully displayed and edited
with Citrix Studio, use the simplified user filter model below and do not
use the exclude filter.
USER FILTERS (SIMPLIFIED)
The included user filter described above also supports a simplified usage
model where the filter itself is disabled. When this is done, any user who
has access to the desktop group through the access policy is implicitly
granted an entitlement to a session through the entitlement policy rule
without the need to list the user in the rule's include filter.
This is useful in cases where the access policy for the desktop group
already explicitly specifies the users who should have access.
Even if the include filter is disabled, the exclude filter can still be used
to deny the entitlement from users who would otherwise gain access through
the access policy alone.
ADDITIONAL DESKTOP ENTITLEMENT RULE PROPERTIES
Desktop entitlement rules specify the following additional properties:
o PublishedName
o Description
o IconUid
o ColorDepth
o SecureIcaRequired
The published name, description, and icon UID properties apply to the
desktop entitlement itself and determine the way in which the entitlement is
presented to the user in, for example, StoreFront.
The color depth and secure ICA properties apply to the desktop session that
is obtained when the entitlement is used.
In all cases, these properties can be explicitly specified. However, a null
value (the default) means that the corresponding property is taken from the
desktop group to which the rule applies. This inheritance from groups is
dynamic; if the property of the group changes, the property of the
entitlement changes too.
NOTES
If a rule grants an entitlement to a user group, the session entitlement
applies to the individual user who selects the entitlement. However, this
does not prevent a different user in the same user group from using the
same entitlement concurrently. So, a rule that grants an entitlement to a
user group containing multiple users allows each user concurrent access to a
single session from the desktop group.
The total number of entitlements defined by the policy may exceed the number
of machines available, or the maximum allowed sessions, from the desktop
group. A user attempting to use an entitlement when no further resources are
available receives a no-desktop-available error.
If a session launched through an entitlement is active when the entitlement
rule is deleted, the session continues unaffected. However:
o When the user ends the session, they cannot start a new one if the
deleted rule was their only entitlement to a session in that group
o If the user disconnects the session, they cannot reconnect to it