Very Strange Citrix Problem going on 6 months HELP!

From: Tim Schoch (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 07/14/04 

Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 09:33:51 -0700

Is this problem only affecting the thin clients? What
brand of thin client are they? I have seen many cases
with WYSE Terminals that in office applications, they
perform very poorly. To be more specific, in MSACCESS a
database with a form causes serious lagtime. When a user
on a WYSE Terminal uses the mouse to select a field in the
form, it will lock the session and the cursor will blink
very rapidly for about 15-60sec. You may want to look
into that if the issue is similar.

>-----Original Message-----
>Ok, got a big problem here, so hopefully someone can
>help,we've been at this for a loooong time.
>
>Got a client, maybe 200 users or so, about 100 are
>on Citrix using thin clients. I have nice servers, all HP
>DL380's, Dual 3.06 Xeons, 2 gig ram, 4 36 gig hard
>drives. My specific server configurations are:
>
>2 domain controllers replicating to each other. Both are
>running active directory, Win'2000 Service Pack 3, DNS,
>and DHCP, which is giving out DNS addressing.
>
>4- Citrix servers running Office, Lotus, ACT, and BPCS.
>
>1- EMC SAN, clarion unit.
>1- Print server
>1- SQL server for terminal services licensing.
>(also got lotus server, bpcs server, and etc)
>
>OK, so, here is the problem. The client had a citrix
>environment running on off-brand/generic servers, and
>they upgraded to these new HP DL380's, a day later, they
>got major network lag using Citrix, it hangs when opening
>programs, typing gets real slow, and etc.
>
>My team was brought in to repair this problem. We got
>some rental servers, and put them on the live network,
>and took down the current dl380 servers and rebuilt them
>from scratch, everything was formatted and redone. Same
>problem appeared when we tested it.
>
>The specific problem that we have found is that it seems
>to work fine, until someone opens up word or something,
>and clicks on the little open document button (the little
>folder icon near the file menu), then everyone hangs for
>90-180 seconds. You dont get the problem if you go to
>file explorer or My network places. Also, it slows down
>as more people log in, and is eventually unusable, at
>about 10 people, giving a near 4 minute login. No prolems
>on any other servers with logging in, and browsing the
>network, only the citrix boxes.
>
>Now, if you log in onto the server itself, on the local
>machine account, you dont get the error, even if all the
>citrix users are hung up, your running great.
>
>I am also running a login script, and changed it from
>a .cmd to a kixtart script, and all it does it map about
>4 drives, and copy BPCS user data to a local drive at the
>very first login.
>
>So, here is what I have done:
>-rebuilt all the servers from scratch
>-Applied all the patches
>-removed printers
>-removed local serial connections
>-upped the paging size
>-verified DNS, active directory, and etc with 2 other
>engineers
>-Changed the NIC card
>-applied registry tweaks
>-disaled all non-essential services
>-changed and rewrote the login script
>-reinstalled the storage (san)
>
>The logs are not showing any errors, so I've got nothing
>to go off of. The client is running a mix of swtiches and
>hubs. Intel Express hubs connect all the workstations,
>and the servers are on Cisco 2900 series switches and HP
>2524 switches.
>
>So, anyone have any idea? This system has been completely
>rebuilt by completely different people, and we have the
>same problem. We even have a Citrix expert that helped
>write one of the first ICA clients that is working with
>us, and he is baffled. It doesnt make any sense at all,
>but i gotta get it working. Anyone?????
>
>Could it be network trouble, maybe the switches? I dunno,
>going nuts, its 3:00 am, and I am still working on this,
>I'm going to end up in some looney bin soon.
>.
>