The Citrix Session Recording team closed out 2022 strong with enhanced capabilities both on premises and in the cloud. We have focused on listening to customers and have been adding enhanced capabilities to streamline management and storage.
We recognize that storing recorded files in Citrix Session Recording can be challenging. In some environments, storage might be limited, and it can be expensive and time consuming to invest in more. Also, adding new recordings increases the need for storage space. It’s always our top priority to help you make most of your storage.
Over the past year, we have worked to make this happen. One enhancement we added was to reduce the recording file size with dynamic recording capabilities, which can start and stop recordings as you wish. Another enhancement we added to assist you with managing storage effectively was storage consumption reports.
Now, with the release of Citrix Session Recording 2212, we’ve introduced a new feature that can reduce recording file size — lossy video codec! We have also added an enhancement for admin logging that requires reviewers to provide justifications when playing back video to strengthen security. Let’s take a closer look at these enhancements, which are available both on premises and in the cloud.
Lossy Video Codec
Historically, Citrix Session Recording generates recording files by replicating HDX graphics data in ICA sessions under the hood, and the data are rarely ever touched. If the recordings are the same length, the recording file size is usually determined by the graphics mode selected by HDX. In some use cases, video codec for compression (H.264 or H.265) is used to optimize the user experience with graphics-intensive applications, which can lead to larger recording files.
The Citrix Session Recording team has worked closely with the HDX team to reduce recording file size. When using video codec compression for an active region, a customer could drop fast-changing transient data from a recording file and see a black screen that shows when you play back the recording. You can learn more in our product documentation.
To give customers more flexibility, the Citrix Session Recording team began exploring alternative ways to generate recording files and created a native recording engine with lossy video codec, based on Windows APIs. Lossy video codec lets admins adjust compression options to reduce the size of recording files based on their needs. It also accelerates navigation of recorded sessions during playback. Admins can find the settings in Session Recording Agent Properties, as shown in the image below. There, you’ll find three parameters you can configure:
- Video fluency: This corresponds to FPS; a lower value means a smaller recording file size and a slower video stream.
- Video image quality: This corresponds to compression ratio; a lower value means a higher compression ratio, which leads to a smaller recording file size with a video that’s not as sharp.
- I-Frame interval: This corresponds to the frequency of I-Frame; a higher value means less I-Frame insertion, which leads to a smaller recording file size.
The cursor refresh rate configuration is also supported. You can find more details about lossy video codec in our Session Recording product documentation.
Recording Playback Justification
Recordings are highly confidential assets that contain employees’ personal activities within their company-assigned virtual working environments. To protect employee privacy, the recordings review and examining process must be designed carefully to ensure only authorized people can view playbacks. The entire review history should also be auditable to enhance information security. That’s why we introduced recording playback justification.
With this feature, Session Recording admins can enable playback justification logging in Session Recording server properties, as shown below.
Once enabled, when someone who has Session Recording player authority opens a recording to watch, they will be asked to give a justification before the recording can be played. The image below shows a Session Recording native player.
This feature is also available in Session Recording service. Please note, Session Recording server version 2212 is required to use this feature.
Playback justifications are saved into Playback logging, under Admin Logging, so they can be easily audited later.
Getting Started
The Session Recording team is hard at work and looking forward to continuing to enhance the admin experience throughout 2023. Take advantage of the lossy video codec and playback justification capabilities today to improve your auditing and playback needs. You can download and upgrade to Citrix Session Recording 2212 to try it yourself! And as always, we look forward to your feedback.
