Erin Penney
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The Citrix user’s guide to Parallels RAS

Switching software isn’t always as easy as flipping a switch.

As much as a new solution can benefit the business, studies have shown that organizations’ biggest challenge when changing software is getting employee buy-in.

Learning new technology can take months, and even then, employees may not use it if they think it complicates their jobs.

There’s good news, though.

User adoption starts with understanding.

If you’re moving to Parallels RAS from Citrix, we’re here to help. Our Citrix migration tool has you covered for the technical side of things, and for your own understanding, here’s a map of familiar terminology and concepts to help you quickly get the lay of the land—during setup and beyond.

Looking for first-hand insights to help with a software shift? Get your free trial to explore how Parallels RAS makes remote work simple through virtual application and desktop delivery.

15 Parallels RAS terms for Citrix users to know

Familiar with Citrix, but making the switch to Parallels RAS? You’ll notice a few differences in terminology. Let’s explore common terms that you might know and how they line up with what you’ll see in Parallels RAS.

Want to learn more? Explore how Parallels RAS stacks up against Citrix on a technical level—and how it cuts down on infrastructure complexity.

1. Farm

You might be familiar with: A machine catalog, a collection of identical (virtual or physical) machines that can host a supported desktop or server operating system.

Here, you’ll see: A RAS farm, a collection of virtual or physical components maintained as one logical entity with a unique database and licensing.

2. Site

You might be familiar with: A CVAD site, which manages a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop deployment and comprises delivery controllers, core components, virtual delivery agents (VDAs), host connections, machine catalogs, and delivery groups.

Here, you’ll see: A RAS site, which manages your deployment based on physical location and comprises, at minimum, a RAS connection broker, RAS secure gateway, agents installed on RD session hosts, virtualization servers, and Windows PCs.

*You can have more than one RAS site per farm!

3. User assignment

You might be familiar with: A delivery group, a collection of machines from one or more catalogs that can be assigned to specific users.

Here, you’ll see: Publishing, which assigns resources like virtual desktops, applications, documents, web apps, and network folders based on filtering rules that give administrators complete control over which users get access.

4. Central broker

You might be familiar with: The delivery controller, which works through an SQL server database to act as the central management component of any site. Each site can have one or more delivery controllers.

Here, you’ll see: The RAS connection broker, which acts as the central management component and provides access to published applications and desktops, and balances application traffic. Each site can have a secondary connection broker as well.

5. Host agents

You might be familiar with: A VDA, which is installed on each machine in a site and allows the machine to register with the delivery controller to establish a connection and access resources.

Here, you’ll see a few different things:

6. Host pool

You might be familiar with: A machine catalog—similar to a farm—that acts as a collection of virtual or physical machines that can host supported desktop or server operating systems.

Here, you’ll see: A collection of RAS agents, both RDSH and VDI, that publish applications and desktops and maintain OS versioning by using templates to provision virtual machines (VMs).

7. Provisioning

You might be familiar with: Citrix Provisioning (PVS), a hypervisor-less service that streams an image of a master VM to host users’ machines. This service also communicates with the central broker to share resources with users.

Here, you’ll see: A unique machine creation system that generates VM images based on preconfigured templates, complete with an operating system and apps already installed.

This system knows to provision and de-provision workloads based on a combination of sessions needed and thresholds set by the IT team.

8. Gateway

You might be familiar with: The Citrix NetScaler Gateway, which allows users to secure outside connections with SSL.

Here, you’ll find: The RAS Secure Gateway, a single port for all Parallels RAS data that provides secure connections for users. It’s handled by high-availability load balancing features within Parallels RAS to avoid overloading the system.

9. Remoting protocol

You might be familiar with: HDX, the default remoting protocol for Citrix deployments built on the Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol.

Here, you’ll find: A version of Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) with additional virtual channels.

10. Client

You might be familiar with: The Citrix Workspace App, formerly Citrix Receiver. If the app isn’t available locally, you can also use an HTML5 receiver to connect.

Here, you’ll find: The Parallels Client, which gives users access to their apps and desktops on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, Chrome, iOS, and iPadOS.

Users can also access the Parallels Web Client, a browser-based way to view and launch apps and desktops.

11. Printing

You might be familiar with: A few different things.

Here, you’ll find: RAS Universal Printing, which uses one universal printer driver to connect Parallels RAS sessions with local printing devices—no print server needed.

12. Management console

You might be familiar with: Multiple management consoles, including the web-based Web Studio and the Windows-based Citrix Studio.

Here, you’ll see: One centralized management console, the RAS Console. It gives you the ability to manage farms, sites, session hosts, resources, client connections, and more in one location.

13. Web portal

You might be familiar with: Citrix Secure Workspace Access, or Citrix StoreFront, a system with single sign-on (SSO) access to on-prem web apps.

Here, you’ll see: The RAS Management Portal, a web-based system hosted by the secure gateway and designed to give admins access to configuration and daily activities on any device.

14. Profile management

You might be familiar with: Citrix Profile Management, an in-house solution to connect users’ profile information.

Here, you’ll see: A unique combination of FSLogix and Microsoft User Profile Disk Manager, integrated with Parallels RAS to store and manage users’ profile information.

15. Environment management

You might be familiar with: Workspace environment management (WEM), which handles applications, printers, drives, tasks, and more.

Here, you’ll see: A fluent combination of Windows device groups, Replace Desktop mode, and session settings, which work together to handle everything a user needs.

Got the essentials of Parallels RAS?

Now that you’ve got the basics under your belt and a cheat sheet of essential terms on hand, it’s time to put your knowledge to the test.

It’s time to sign up for a free trial of Parallels RAS to explore how it can help your organization make remote and hybrid working models simpler, keep devices secure, and save time and money spent on extra administration work.

Ready to test your knowledge of Parallels RAS? Sign up for your 30-day free trial now!