Big News For Citrix App Layering User Layers
Citrix News, Monday, January 8th, 2024
Citrix user layers provide a very important feature set to Citrix customers. They allow customers to provision non-persistent pooled machine catalogs and at the same time provide a more persistent user experience where users can save files & install applications while still using a non-persistent image and all the benefits that come with that.
User layers achieve this by creating a virtual disk file on a network share that is mounted elastically right before a user logs on. Once mounted, all of the writes that happen on the desktop are then written to the user layer rather than to the underlying virtual machine storage. I personally have a desktop with a user layer and Iove the flexibility it provides where I can install a useful application like Sharefile or a certificate from my home lab and have them persist between logons. For a more detailed explanation of how to design for User Layers please read our TechZone Reference Architecture for App Layering.