tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72428378700747343222024-03-06T06:40:36.661+00:00Zenapp.blogspot.comAbout XenApp 5, XenApp 6, Presentation Server, or whatever Citrix call their products this week.Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-81489638719930527732012-09-07T11:49:00.001+01:002012-09-07T12:19:48.649+01:00XenDesktop 5.6 Express–Licensing<p>I’ve just spent a frustrating hour trying to license the <a href="http://zenapp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/installing-xendesktop-56-express.html" target="_blank">XenDesktop express proof of concept</a> farm I built a couple of weeks ago.  The problem was truly strange and appears to be a bug on the Citrix site at the moment.  </p> <p>After installing XenDesktop Express with the Licensing component, it went into a trial period.  So I went about getting a proper license…</p> <p>In the Desktop Studio, under Configuration > Licensing you will see you are still in a trial mode.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-B6Dnz-lOYKw/UEnRGdBakMI/AAAAAAAAA9A/JU7tIYPt6OM/s1600-h/image_thumb3%25255B1%25255D%25255B2%25255D.png"><img title="image_thumb3[1]" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image_thumb3[1]" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-cw_cKypelSM/UEnRHPB6C_I/AAAAAAAAA9I/FpZVpsW-5F8/image_thumb3%25255B1%25255D_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="139" /></a></p> <p>To sort this out, I tried to go here in my local Chromium browser: <a href="http://deliver.citrix.com/go/citrix/activatexdexpress?userId=guest">http://deliver.citrix.com/go/citrix/activatexdexpress?userId=guest</a></p> <p>After entering details you get the chance to download the biggest license ever – nearly 1gb!</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-f28-Ryn6M0E/UEnRHomg0mI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/X-Q3vsbE1-k/s1600-h/image_thumb4%25255B2%25255D.png"><img title="image_thumb4" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image_thumb4" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-4HI78hlzGCg/UEnRIkP6XcI/AAAAAAAAA9U/-DfEZxmYXnY/image_thumb4_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="103" /></a></p> <p>Luckily its a typo.  Mine was 11kb.  This saved itself in my Downloads folder as a file called “XenDesktop_Express_Edition_License.lic”.  </p> <p>I put this in the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Licensing\MyFiles on my XenDesktop service and restarted the license service.  </p> <p>Back in Desktop Studio I selected Add License:</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-o61A4xCfLIY/UEnRJKg5XPI/AAAAAAAAA9g/TVV2sonfyrk/s1600-h/image_thumb5%25255B1%25255D%25255B2%25255D.png"><img title="image_thumb5[1]" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image_thumb5[1]" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-KcNUifgB0Io/UEnRKDY15eI/AAAAAAAAA9o/ybtVPD6llTY/image_thumb5%25255B1%25255D_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="112" /></a></p> <p>Bang.  The “Citrix License Server currently unavailable” bit sounds bad.  I check services.msc and the service has indeed fallen over - in the event log you get this helpful message:</p> <blockquote> <p><font size="1">Faulting application name: lmadmin.exe, version: 11.10.0.9, time stamp: 0x4f02e435 <br />Faulting module name: MSVCP80.dll, version: 8.0.50727.6195, time stamp: 0x4dcddc6c <br />Exception code: 0xc0000005 <br />Fault offset: 0x000038db <br />Faulting process id: 0xb78 <br />Faulting application start time: 0x01cd8ce15b8b4c3d <br />Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Licensing\LS\lmadmin.exe <br />Faulting module path: C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.6195_none_d09154e044272b9a\MSVCP80.dll <br />Report Id: 9aa66add-f8d4-11e1-a99d-02faf2a05cc2</font></p> </blockquote> <p>Then <a href="http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=311593&start=0&tstart=0" target="_blank">this post</a> on the Citrix forums suggested I check my .lic file’s contents, and indeed it is an HTML file!  The download page for the file I actually want in fact. I remove it from MyFiles and the Citrix Licensing service will start at least. So I move and rename my .lic file to .html and open it in the browser I just used and hey presto!</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-8coy7Q9yrhQ/UEnRKzaaq4I/AAAAAAAAA9w/WCfXJsdH1i0/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-q2QssghD0Ls/UEnRLkc1MbI/AAAAAAAAA94/2u8OeND4E2U/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="200" /></a></p> <p>I click “Download your file manually” and it downloads <em>another </em>file called XenDesktop_Express_Edition_License.lic, which this time is the actual file.  Madness.  Saved this in the MyFiles folder on the XenDesktop server again, restart the Licensing service again and refresh the Configuration > Licensing part of the Desktop Studio, and its all working fine:</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-vzOL5aw9cmE/UEnRMo7n8vI/AAAAAAAAA-A/rA7gVKk3P4M/s1600-h/image%25255B7%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-s_8wIvuuLFE/UEnRNmVhOoI/AAAAAAAAA-E/RKGpiyMBMBU/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="644" height="99" /></a></p> <p>I think something needs fixing on Citrix’s website!  </p> <p>One more issue in my case was the licenses were now in the wrong mode.  I could see the Concurrent licenses but also had the message “Can’t find a valid license – no suitable licenses are available”</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-y9GYNOEZMVs/UEnYOxUurgI/AAAAAAAAA-s/7CJ5-x7UWWE/s1600-h/image%25255B4%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-L-ddEtVBWLA/UEnYPjhlTkI/AAAAAAAAA-0/B1V9BsqR0Dw/image_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="644" height="68" /></a></p> <p>To fix this, I selected “Edit Product Version” in the actions tab…</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-KwIKLovtTKo/UEnYQaYTm2I/AAAAAAAAA-8/v-vJ19bxbhg/s1600-h/image%25255B7%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-ew2Sr55m-nU/UEnYReiiL7I/AAAAAAAAA_E/EC0xmx68EFI/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="238" height="244" /></a></p> <p>Then changed the model to Concurrent rather than User/Device Licensing.  No idea how this ended up on the wrong mode…</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-w47jRMKtMeY/UEnYSDbPgwI/AAAAAAAAA_I/sDkmumYNZyU/s1600-h/image%25255B10%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-jYhZTCQJR0E/UEnYS1BIS1I/AAAAAAAAA_U/Ma1kXbwMemE/image_thumb%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="195" /></a></p> <p>Finally!  All licensed.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-0NVmU-0Gg58/UEnYTmUBzaI/AAAAAAAAA_c/lpdZMqwpZ9c/s1600-h/image%25255B16%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-wgjhT2PTr3I/UEnYUQjXxCI/AAAAAAAAA_k/0J9DAaWgvQg/image_thumb%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="644" height="271" /></a></p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-82077797570959537482012-08-24T16:00:00.001+01:002012-09-07T12:21:19.844+01:00Installing XenDesktop 5.6 Express<p>This is a basic implementation of XenDesktop Express 5.6, intended as a proof of concept.  This is the edocs link for XenDesktop 5.6 by the way:</p> <p><a title="http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xendesktop-rho/cds-landing-page-xd56.html" href="http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xendesktop-rho/cds-landing-page-xd56.html">http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xendesktop-rho/cds-landing-page-xd56.html</a></p> <p>XenDesktop 5.6 Express is essentially the trial version of XenDesktop and is limited to 10 VDI machines.  This is a comparison of all the editions:</p> <p><a href="http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xendesktop-snma/cds-overview-editions-overview-wrapper.html">http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xendesktop-snma/cds-overview-editions-overview-wrapper.html</a></p> <p>Download XenDesktop Express from your My Citrix account – this is the direct link at the moment…</p> <p><a title="http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=2308540" href="http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=2308540">http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=2308540</a></p> <p>Click Try It Free and download the zip.  This contains three ISOs, including XenServer.  Extract the XenDesktop56.iso using 7zip or another program.</p> <p>I’m installing the core components of XenDesktop on a XenServer virtual running on a fairly powerful server.  The XenDesktop controller VM has got 2 vCPUs and 2gb RAM, running Windows Server 2008 R2.  On the same XenServer farm, install a Windows 7 VM as well.  This will later become your <a href="http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xendesktop-rho/cds-prep-master-vm-rho.html">master VM</a>.</p> <p>When your XenDesktop server is installed, run AutoSelect from the root of the extracted XenDesktop56 folder, then when this menu eventually comes up, select Install XenDesktop….</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-LhuOdgsf3KI/UDeWldL4EkI/AAAAAAAAA2A/xdapbVlbE6s/s1600-h/image2.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-VQxojek7AKM/UDeWl7NlFRI/AAAAAAAAA2I/bs-Jfr25CJ8/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="178" /></a></p> <p>Accept the EULA…</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-AfEULvnCH1c/UDeWmU2606I/AAAAAAAAA2Q/BM1VjjkUB9M/s1600-h/image5.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-bz04dDttpy0/UDeWmzx5QyI/AAAAAAAAA2Y/96Mwfbxc4kk/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="185" /></a></p> <p>You then have a comprehensive list of options.  You might well just click Next to install everything, but lets have a think about things first…</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-2vioC818eqc/UDeWnV7vKII/AAAAAAAAA2g/xidTvUVzdlg/s1600-h/image8.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-IcoFaMXNu3E/UDeWoDW8NoI/AAAAAAAAA2o/orIvINq5IG4/image_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a></p> <p>For a proof of concept, this might well all be best on the same server, but this is going to be a quite heavy set of applications, and there might be parts of this you don’t need.  If you have a shared SQL Server machine, you can save quite a lot of load on the box by not installing SQL Server Express for instance – but you have extra steps to set up the database elsewhere.  The license server part could well be existing elsewhere if you are running XenApp, though be aware that it needs to be v11.10, the version which shipped with XenApp 6.5, not the XenApp 6.0 version or earlier.  On a production system the other roles might well be split over multiple systems as well.  For this simple implementation, I’ve left everything ticked.</p> <p>The next screen lets you know that the windows firewall is going to be set up to allow the license server ports…</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-g81JRC241FQ/UDeWo_z-56I/AAAAAAAAA2w/l9gmpFbBtqY/s1600-h/image11.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-ynGU9qSlgRM/UDeWpY76ItI/AAAAAAAAA24/H8S1u8Um5rg/image_thumb3.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="185" /></a></p> <p>You then proceed to installation of the Windows features and XenDesktop components.  This takes a while.  Meanwhile in the background I connected to a shared SQL Server 2008 R2 machine, created a database manually and set up a SQL logon on it, with a really hard password.  In User Mappings I gave this login db_owner access to the new database.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-MHzBLWFsRzY/UDeWpzvldbI/AAAAAAAAA3A/4ec4uGJnR48/s1600-h/image171.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-yQBBvFLKsrE/UDeWqRtMJdI/AAAAAAAAA3I/wIGNd-PzbYQ/image_thumb51.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a> and later… <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-WqjB3XuBa80/UDeWqxUsyhI/AAAAAAAAA3Q/JZkQpdujhFI/s1600-h/image20.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-ffNs2Pu6jsg/UDeWsBnvOlI/AAAAAAAAA3Y/6dpFfVCevHg/image_thumb6.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="185" /></a></p> <p>Click Close to configure XenDesktop.  This took a full three minutes to come up…</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-TK_86FFeLto/UDeWsu-wuKI/AAAAAAAAA3g/YfvbxtcwrGM/s1600-h/image10.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-gXYAPemT5i8/UDeWtV0fgyI/AAAAAAAAA3o/upVA3zZ-bTc/image_thumb4.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="168" /></a></p> <p>Note that if you chose to not have the SQL Server Express R2 instance on this server, the whole Quick Deploy option is greyed out.  Assuming it is enabled, click it.</p> <p>Incidentally, this is the information on Quick Deploy:</p> <p><a href="http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xendesktop-rho/cds-quick-deploy-rho.html">http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xendesktop-rho/cds-quick-deploy-rho.html</a></p> <p>As it states, these are the pre-requisites for completing Quick Deploy:</p> <ul> <li>A host with enough storage, CPU and RAM </li> <li>An admin account which can create new machines on the XenServer host </li> <li>Access to the AD domain containing the accounts of users </li> <li>An account on that AD domain with the right to create computer accounts </li> <li>A Master VM running the Virtual Desktop Agent </li> <li>The XenDesktop server you just installed, including all components. </li> </ul> <p>You installed that Windows 7 VM earlier, right?  The one that will be the Master VM.  If not, get installing!  </p> <p>The first step of Quick Deploy is <strong>Site</strong>.  Give your site a name and click next on the Wizard.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-K8cOwBGasmc/UDeWt659cpI/AAAAAAAAA3w/RYVfiLhi7N0/s1600-h/image13.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-tzl0Ekdmfso/UDeWuQMk21I/AAAAAAAAA34/Q0vej3ZU614/image_thumb5.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="175" /></a></p> <p>The next step is <strong>Connection</strong>.  This is the connection to the virtualisation platform – either VMware, Hyper-V, or (more likely) XenServer.  Fill in the details for your environment.  In this case, I’m connecting to XenServer, so I put in <a href="http://[servername">http://[servername</a>] and the root username and password.  It won’t let you proceed unless these details are correct.  After this you will see the <strong>Host</strong> screen, where you pick the Network your VMs should use (assuming multiple networks are defined) and the <strong>Storage </strong>screen where you pick where all the VMs you create will appear.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-KLVhSGjHVZQ/UDeWu4nheyI/AAAAAAAAA4A/aTiXJNxbNe0/s1600-h/image19.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-RyKoYMKRoAc/UDeWvXDYhzI/AAAAAAAAA4I/dEGcZn-tpVA/image_thumb7.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="175" /></a></p> <p>If you have not done this already, get your Windows 7 Master VM ready.  Install the tools for whatever VM host you are on (so, the XenServer tools in my case)…</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-NzQdTBVMofA/UDeWwLXIjAI/AAAAAAAAA4Q/CINOwt5zlAk/s1600-h/image22.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-UmV00quvDRA/UDeWwrADdII/AAAAAAAAA4Y/hFfXTtPlWc4/image_thumb8.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="185" /></a></p> <p>Join it to the AD domain and install any applications you want on all the machines.  Then get the Virtual Desktop Agent installed.  You can get to this by running the AutoSelect utility on the XenDesktop56 disk and clicking Install Virtual Desktop Agent…</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-pwoyfMkl-YY/UDeWxE7-MMI/AAAAAAAAA4g/PydIocW2Yhs/s1600-h/image25.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-BM7slXQsitc/UDeWx03rqoI/AAAAAAAAA4o/HaypHtZCK9c/image_thumb9.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="178" /></a></p> <p>Select Quick Deploy and agree to everything.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-T2tRamiHv44/UDeWyT9ZBZI/AAAAAAAAA4w/CVXFFvo9CKU/s1600-h/image28.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-k-c7NEHRrb0/UDeWy_Ebg6I/AAAAAAAAA44/2tKTpFgQjQw/image_thumb10.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="180" /></a><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-2mXs8pi1L-Q/UDeWzSx234I/AAAAAAAAA5A/3TtnWFWVYag/s1600-h/image31.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9da6xv03fyi2BNtsWEloskWHR8rWx1TxflvSiJbICZtoOAs2ix7cib0CU0iQ8LZCBGTil18tb6dQc9M4PW-yIU4aDu9qQbFCgqcc7fZ1SdZBJB5NMRvPruszb9s7YH-jTuN8K7f4yq_WH/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-IdS8wmADQbs/UDeW0pL7nbI/AAAAAAAAA5Q/ivOYMOyBv5E/s1600-h/image37.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-jqEzY6cbi6s/UDeW1AlyfKI/AAAAAAAAA5Y/hUQ6vmue5Ak/image_thumb13.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a></p> <p>Back to the Quick Deploy wizard on the server, select the Master VM, the location to store the newly created VMs and allow it to create a couple of VMs, giving it a default location </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-sNnLpQYP4VA/UDeW1lsDTVI/AAAAAAAAA5g/3foOc38dUh0/s1600-h/image34.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-zoJnaU-ch34/UDeW2EckyRI/AAAAAAAAA5o/Q8MnLbM5WMs/image_thumb12.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="175" /></a></p> <p>The next step is to allow users or groups to request VMs which do not have a specific user.  Create an AD group and put a test user in it.  Once you have tested this is working, this group will contain all your XenDesktop users.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-1dCtf1rr9_w/UDeW2jtytqI/AAAAAAAAA5w/oiij7_u0P4E/s1600-h/image40.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-_sKDOu2MGGw/UDeW3DwPlBI/AAAAAAAAA54/jfbaHV0q7Tc/image_thumb14.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="174" /></a></p> <p>This churns away for about 10 minutes…</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-GRP483aRxIo/UDeW3oShQdI/AAAAAAAAA6A/IZ_HZTv3tzo/s1600-h/image43.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-hqqVmvYRgd8/UDeW4ZMh5xI/AAAAAAAAA6I/Sfen6Y4wfJI/image_thumb15.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="143" /></a> and eventually… <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-uUjdRvsUf-Y/UDeW44eJZpI/AAAAAAAAA6Q/gLxWuKzD4Ds/s1600-h/image46.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWeyZTQzLJZVLq8y4S3osige7FPbMu4mgZb0yrwKdMeMXctk1BzulJpoikv4fDis6IuKYP7Wbcv2Dkha40zlRH9-JUl-5YKR4oXJ4mnhgWwP8KQbPGAs49qhNgE5xZW8LPylAn8L2ZMMco/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="143" /></a></p> <p>You should now see most of the configuration options in the Desktop Studio…</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-vx7U_LzuH3M/UDeW55MtUGI/AAAAAAAAA6g/P6o7a65aQHI/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Mfz5cDjB5Ac/UDeW6duABQI/AAAAAAAAA6o/88dsUit9A94/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="158" /></a></p> <p>And should also notice its created extra virtual machines in XenServer which can be logged onto via the web interface, which you can now make secure in IIS if you see fit.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-sLHU5l2utss/UDeW7KgK74I/AAAAAAAAA6w/yWVFAp-Goew/s1600-h/image%25255B6%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-QRf2x97jya4/UDeW7seS6BI/AAAAAAAAA64/UUD4TvOfn_o/image_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="190" /></a></p> <p>Then I decided to check it was licensed okay, and the fun really began.  This is the post about that little issue:</p> <p><a href="http://zenapp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/xendesktop-56-expresslicensing.html">http://zenapp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/xendesktop-56-expresslicensing.html</a></p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-63421907454486366862012-08-24T15:18:00.001+01:002012-08-24T15:18:52.649+01:00Storefront 1.2 and Receiver 3.3 – default and featured apps<p>When users are first set up with a new Receiver client pointing at a Citrix StoreFront server, something which might be a bit confusing is that there are no applications displayed at all.  All you see is “Add Apps – Click to add and start using your apps”.  The idea with this is that you don’t see every icon to which you have permission (which is great for admins especially, who tend to have access to more apps than they use) but have to opt in (or “subscribe” in Citrix speak) to everything.  Storefront then does a good job of remembering those subscriptions over different devices.  If you ask me, all this is more about getting a good experience on mobile devices first and then making it consistent over all other devices you use than anything else.</p> <p>Anyway, new users see just this:</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-0H-S3QVTpDw/UDeNPAMO_MI/AAAAAAAAA0s/9tEqiV9sSnY/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-E2MQUfHezHo/UDeNPhTKxfI/AAAAAAAAA00/mUbsJqvHw3g/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="191" /></a></p> <p>When you click the big tempting Add Apps button a menu slides in from the left with folders containing icons, or even better users can search with the box at the top right.  But you might well have apps which just everyone will be interested in, or which you want to flag up.</p> <p>Citrix have provided a bit of an odd way round this, using the Description field in an application's properties.  If you add the words KEYWORDS:Auto to the description using the AppCenter (or whatever your version of the management console for XenApp is called, they keep changing it), StoreFront will pick up on that and new users will get them already pinned by default.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg340om0e8Wyx5sI8An-AQMd3rC3kImxYonJnwUkzWvc4Q0CmLZvhY4FZo49aNUImxTenZWbEeq9mOLDwn4LZO8yYtBAGKTr0Y6nxOin0WdHpwhNlv7f1f8I4FrDGSubLXWLL8xgEuw-az9/s1600-h/image%25255B5%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-clUH_ceH39g/UDeNQ3CZU8I/AAAAAAAAA1E/48HfwBEMwaw/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="191" /></a></p> <p>There is another keyword – “KEYWORDS:featured”.  This will create a subfolder called “Featured” and put another copy of the icon in there.  You can also say “KEYWORDS: Auto Featured” to do both.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-s94ToW1UA5Y/UDeNRZ5qGZI/AAAAAAAAA1M/SNbJgud4AI4/s1600-h/image%25255B11%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-XMjD0bcmAxU/UDeNR4PjgtI/AAAAAAAAA1U/22B34guowrU/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="191" /></a></p> <p>This is what the featured folder looks like, through the web browser this time…</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-0E9B9STdrL4/UDeNSeZl1dI/AAAAAAAAA1c/W0WQHXfLSXk/s1600-h/image%25255B8%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-NyrMFaXryPg/UDeNSh0MtKI/AAAAAAAAA1k/5_TnGuQd8hE/image_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="103" /></a></p> <p>Note that if a user removes an “auto” icon from their list, Storefront remembers that and will only add it back if they do it manually – <a href="http://blogs.citrix.com/2012/07/06/sticky-apps-with-storefront/">this page</a> has a hack to prevent users from removing auto icons, which is highly tempting.  Hopefully a “sticky” keyword will be added in future releases.</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-27961396395906097492012-08-21T12:47:00.001+01:002012-08-21T12:47:53.824+01:00Installing Receiver Storefront 1.2 – Standalone, single server<p>Citrix do love inventing new products!  Even if they then replace ones that work just fine.  Anyway, get used to the fact that Web Interface is going to be retired, because that is the way we’re now going.  Web Interface will not have any new versions – the future is StoreFront!  Or Cloud Gateway Express, I’m a little unclear – to be honest the terms seem to be used interchangeably.  </p> <p>StoreFront is all new and exciting – and oddly old fashioned.  To be honest it looks oddly like Program Neighborhood!  One word of warning – it does not work <em>at all</em> with Citrix Presentation Server v4.0 because there is no way of disabling launch references, which were only introduced in Presentation Server 4.5.  Just an aside – this test system will be with XenApp 6.0</p> <p>To be honest, Web Interface is working fine for now, except for the Chromebooks.  Chromebooks do not like Web Interface, they just claim (rightly) they have no Citrix client installed and give you the chance to download an ICA file, which (again rightly) you are informed cannot be opened in Google Docs.  You need StoreFront, and you also need to download the Receiver plug-in from the Google WebStore on your Chromebook.</p> <p>So this is a quick guide to installing a standalone StoreFront server (just internal in this case, and without any 2 factor authentication) to allow a Chromebook to launch Citrix applications from XenApp.  I should really point out here that should should be just a proof of concept – any serious implementation will have at least two servers and a shared database.  I’m also going to use SQL Express which I would not recommend for live systems if you have full SQL Server available.</p> <p><strong>Preparation</strong></p> <p>Login to <a href="http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/publicindex.asp?destURL=%2FEnglish%2FmyCitrix%2Findex%2Easp%3F" target="_blank">My Citrix</a> and click Downloads</p> <p>Choose CloudGateway from the big drop down list.</p> <p>Select CloudGateway Express from the list.  The other download is the full appliance, and if you have bought that you hopefully know what you are doing!</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-BYz-b3FwbHU/UDN0my7tVUI/AAAAAAAAAu4/qeQVwajNILs/s1600-h/image3.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-nNdX8tmLQnk/UDN0nVLATdI/AAAAAAAAAvA/2Jyk2JjIvRE/image_thumb1%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="53" /></a> </p> <p>Choose StoreFront 1.2…</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-qk6wdTGXV_M/UDN0nvUnZcI/AAAAAAAAAvI/PkLqwt1Rhog/s1600-h/image6.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuC9WWpI_wVt7jGXXZ5Pf8E9EbMMPFnFCQUSM9DUnYyrCLLzcHWN3BXyecYTscAZukdBSr9xgXO72h1dcDIJO276vgEu6K2myg1fWtLG6K4d1OOnSBni25nbih9kdVL9WQ1Ebm3uPY-JZ0/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="64" /></a> </p> <p>Now you have your installers, prepare the target server:</p> <p>Install Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 – I’ve not tested this on Windows Server 2012.  You might want to save time by installing the Web Server role with the IIS6 management options and ASP.NET as well.</p> <p><strong>Installing IIS and a secure web site</strong></p> <p>You can skip this if you wish and go straight to SQL installation, but at this point I am going to get IIS ready. I’ve set up a CNAME record on my internal DNS server called “storefront”, pointing to the server name of this new server. This means I’ll can now use the URL <a href="http://storefront">http://storefront</a>, where I see a big graphic saying IIS and wishing me welcome.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-5JVI7NitY14/UDN0opntr2I/AAAAAAAAAvY/OMoDuHBuncg/s1600-h/image9.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-yHCdJh144k0/UDN0pBGtYpI/AAAAAAAAAvg/VXkHRGlV4Wk/image_thumb3.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="194" /></a> </p> <p>But I want SSL too – StoreFront will have usernames and passwords going through it and <em>really</em> should be secure. I have a Windows Certificate Authority already set up (whose certificates will be trusted by my PCs) so this bit is easy for me. If you don’t have that (and don’t want to put it in place), you could buy a commercial SSL certificate or use a self signed one and make it trusted with Group Policy. But I would consider using SSL somehow.</p> <p>In my case, I launch “Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager”, then select the server on the left, then SSL Certificates. I created a certificate request (2048-bit), generated a certificate for it on my certificate server, completed the request back on my Storefront box, then added a binding on the default website for https and using my new Certificate. Phew. Now the secure URL <a href="https://storefront">https://storefront</a> gives me the nice IIS welcome screen, but with that reassuring “https” in the address bar.</p> <p> <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-XPBugPBVPyY/UDN0poWHLpI/AAAAAAAAAvo/OnhYY4OcpTk/s1600-h/image15.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-oDUhkBW_3L0/UDN1IJ84xaI/AAAAAAAAAvw/MhNmJ8yGOfY/image_thumb5%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="194" /></a> :-)</p> <p><strong>Installing SQL Server Express</strong></p> <p>Unlike the nice simple Web Interface which ran on text files, StoreFront needs a SQL database to work.  Since we are going to install in Standalone mode, the server needs to have an instance of SQL Server on it.  SQL Express 2008 R2 is required – the notes say that SQL Server 2012 is supported as well now, but if you install SQL 2012 Express, the option to “Deploy a single server” is greyed out, saying you need SQL 2008 R2 installed</p> <p>Download SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (with SP1) and run the installer.  Select “New installation…” to start. <br /></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-dht632f4XLA/UDN1Ip2qonI/AAAAAAAAAv4/YQbIW7dkTjs/s1600-h/image11.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-8rstSkHZZas/UDN1I-rQxVI/AAAAAAAAAwA/P8asCkGFNlw/image_thumb3%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="37" /></a> </p> <p>Agree to the License terms when they come up.</p> <p>On the feature Selection screen, you don’t need the Replication or SDK options.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-LrxAemVHEls/UDN1JaQKE6I/AAAAAAAAAwI/LNDsRqB3974/s1600-h/image14.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-OauwGYEvWbE/UDN1J7WkijI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/-JklIvlQ7ec/image_thumb4.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="160" /></a> </p> <p>Leave it on Named Instance, that should work fine.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-HvDwZIF_Uaw/UDN1K5gbdfI/AAAAAAAAAwY/drfNyx4FdcQ/s1600-h/image17.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-r3smOm2fjg8/UDN1La83bfI/AAAAAAAAAwg/-yT3GZOTBRw/image_thumb5.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="139" /></a> </p> <p>Windows Authentication should be okay when it asks about that.  Click the Data Directories tab and make them sensible.  Personally I don’t like the DB files hidden somewhere in Program Files, so I make them like this (but choose whatever you want, this really is about personal preference):</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-kTaxQaNKavY/UDN1LmMFMWI/AAAAAAAAAwo/jfWq5MfHNY0/s1600-h/image20.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-asQMGcxbAsY/UDN1MUNdi0I/AAAAAAAAAww/28T0z8iX36c/image_thumb6.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="110" /></a> </p> <p>Click Next, Next, Next until it actually installs.</p> <p><strong>Installing StoreFront 1.2</strong></p> <p>Extract the installer you downloaded onto your server and run CitrixReceiverStorefront-x64.exe</p> <p>Agree to .net install if needed</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-qejQKrnuYNc/UDN1MiRyhBI/AAAAAAAAAw4/00E4foMZsKI/s1600-h/image2.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-XMmysF-_JPE/UDN1NJ9E4iI/AAAAAAAAAxA/HRiu3-EiKhw/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="89" /></a> .</p> <p>Agree to the EULA</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-yOOUrpDy29o/UDN1Njvk-NI/AAAAAAAAAxI/4ns7CtRiEoQ/s1600-h/image5.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-7LXB07w-fEo/UDN1N0_9tRI/AAAAAAAAAxQ/kYWaGxEm5-I/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="207" /></a> </p> <p>And agree to install windows roles if you did not do this earlier and begin the installation</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Nuh5DMjy6wI/UDN1Od6Wr9I/AAAAAAAAAxY/DikBLBNWAcc/s1600-h/image8.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-gKl8mvhtlhw/UDN1O-6J3eI/AAAAAAAAAxg/3TZTrLQToRg/image_thumb2%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="207" /></a> </p> <p>The product should now install ok.</p> <p>Click Start > Citrix > Citrix Receiver StoreFront</p> <p>Select Deploy a Single Server.  Note this is greyed out if you don’t have SQL Server running locally.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-2cBc9OcZdMQ/UDN1PhmOtlI/AAAAAAAAAxo/g9-AzocdeOA/s1600-h/image23.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-yyrMT6iXrcI/UDN1QHpI52I/AAAAAAAAAxw/vAjzuDsNdJw/image_thumb7.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="215" /></a> </p> <p>I put in the URL I previously got working – there, it was worth all the effort after all!</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-JONsiQFX0i0/UDN1QcCm-uI/AAAAAAAAAx4/w5s__6QL5sk/s1600-h/image26.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-3s29o8LF-jg/UDN1RIC51TI/AAAAAAAAAyA/JkR7zgiI4WM/image_thumb8.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="119" /></a> </p> <p>You then get three options: Authentication, Stores, and Receiver for Web.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-XwtHot2U8e0/UDN1RdzXORI/AAAAAAAAAyI/MBHHXQGDmbU/s1600-h/image29.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-wXu9eHhegls/UDN1SX_SzcI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/ffAwgNDGmDk/image_thumb9.png?imgmax=800" width="228" height="244" /></a> </p> <p>The only button you can click is Create Service (for authentication), so click it.  You then get three options – here are the explanations from the Citrix Edocs site:</p> <ul> <li><strong>User name and password</strong> : This is explicit authentication. Users enter their credentials when they access their stores. </li> <li><strong>Domain pass-through </strong>:  This enables pass-through of domain credentials from users' devices. Users authenticate to their domain-joined Windows computers and are automatically logged on when they access their stores. In order to use this option, pass-through authentication must be enabled when Receiver for Windows is installed on users' devices. </li> <li><strong>Pass-through from Citrix Access Gateway</strong> : With this, users authenticate to Access Gateway and are automatically logged on when they access their stores. </li> </ul> <p>In my case I don’t have an Access Gateway at the moment (though as far as I can tell I am going to need one if I want to use two-factor authentication) and don’t want to use pass-through authentication, so I select User Name and Password to do simple authentication against AD. You might have different needs of course.  It then takes a while creating the service and dumps you back on the first options.  Click Create Store to… well, create the Store.  When prompted, give the store a name:</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-zfy5p7Ss9jM/UDN1S_eOtCI/AAAAAAAAAyY/IadSoPNN0Dg/s1600-h/image32.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-bLrJlrPBdfw/UDN1TeXX2FI/AAAAAAAAAyg/vtuJFp63LjQ/image_thumb10%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="67" /></a> </p> <p>In this test, I have linked to XenApp, entering a server name and HTTP since this test farm is not using HTTPS.  As it notes, passwords will be send unencrypted.  I have a feeling the security guys are going to encourage me to use HTTPS.  Click Create to complete it.  Don’t worry if you have multiple farms and servers, extra configuration can be added later on, it just needs some basic settings to create the Store.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-_jPOknxYc1k/UDN1Tgs1U-I/AAAAAAAAAyo/afa9UsYOfm8/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-CdiifZcwL7s/UDN1UPohKGI/AAAAAAAAAyw/Wdg9SxvsIFE/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="152" /></a></p> <p>The Store you have now created can be used to service the new Receiver client on a PC, but you almost certainly want to create a web site as well.  Click Create Site…</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-pC8Wzhm4dv4/UDN1UngTXeI/AAAAAAAAAy4/y50MoCxQ0Yw/s1600-h/image35.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-0aDvytkk--8/UDN1VEqPK9I/AAAAAAAAAzA/Yt20zwto40E/image_thumb11.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="81" /></a> </p> <p>Lots of stuff appears under the Default Web Site in IIS and I can now go to this URL to access my store:</p> <p><a title="https://storefront/citrix/StoreWeb/" href="https://storefront/citrix/StoreWeb/">https://storefront/citrix/StoreWeb/</a></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-se3ZZhCmtdg/UDN1VUOlm7I/AAAAAAAAAzI/BwSUsRvVRLI/s1600-h/image%25255B9%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-rBJehw0PUCw/UDN1V4OmC7I/AAAAAAAAAzQ/MxpJWn3VU30/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="215" /></a></p> <p>The first time you go to this it will take an age, though it does speed up.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-3ZQkycX8170/UDN1WWcoAwI/AAAAAAAAAzY/NGc3v6UnCaY/s1600-h/image21.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-tStkHd13RVg/UDN1W_nhsaI/AAAAAAAAAzg/7nLDvo35f14/image_thumb7%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="194" /></a> </p> <p>Very nice.  You seem to get these green bubbles no matter what client you want to use.  I can see a request coming down to customise them at some point though.  </p> <p><strong>Final configuration of StoreFront</strong></p> <p>Go back to your server and go into Citrix Receiver StoreFront from the Start Menu again.  You should now see all the options, so clicking Authentication shows you the method you selected.  Feel free to change this if you have changed your mind, or to customise it (by restricting the domains for instance).</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/--9-IEcDjSdc/UDN1XTs3JgI/AAAAAAAAAzo/RRcU3BH2xgM/s1600-h/image24%25255B1%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-_WtRqHkfFFc/UDN1X0HLY8I/AAAAAAAAAzw/FwSMFfeI-9Y/image_thumb8%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="161" /></a> </p> <p>Note the option to manage Merchandising Server.  If you have a Merchandising server installed, you can enter its URL here.  If you have no idea what this is, its a virtual appliance (Citrix are obsessed with these at the moment – basically a XenServer or VMware image of a pre-configured Linux VM running an application) which can distribute and update pre-configured clients.  Its a good way to get the new Receiver client out there, which is incidentally a requirement to actually use this on a PC.</p> <p>Click Stores on the left to look at the Store you created earlier.  The main thing here you might want to do is to configure the server farms which the store will connect to, by selecting Store and clicking Manage Server Farms.  I suppose if you have multiple farms (say, for testing), you might create multiple Store URLs, so the test farms were not connected to the URL your users were logging into.  Note the other options here – an option for configuring Legacy support, so old Agent style clients can connect through the StoreFront system.  You can also connect to Citrix Online and set up Remote Access, which are way beyond this little proof of concept.</p> <p>Click Receiver for Web and you should see your website.  You probably only need one of these.</p> <p><strong>Troubleshooting</strong></p> <p>Just a note in case you are not getting any connections through this, look in the Event Viewer. Under Applications and Services Logs, then Citrix Delivery Services.  If there is lots of errors, panic.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-hhh8J48I9uc/UDN1YqirfbI/AAAAAAAAAz4/Zm0Ic071Usc/s1600-h/image27.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-d0xpyhZaCtI/UDN1Y3K8sUI/AAAAAAAAA0A/cTg_m600YCE/image_thumb9%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="152" /></a> </p> <p><strong>Customising the graphics</strong></p> <p>You <em>know </em>management will ask about this.  </p> <p>The jolly green bubbles graphic is here:</p> <p>c:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\StoreWeb\media\bg_bubbles.jpg</p> <p>(obviously the path will change depending on the store name and where you based your IIS site, but something like this at least, and there will be one per store).</p> <p>Feel free to either replace this entirely or to just edit it.  Here, I think this looks perfect…</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-3LX_w5FyKCk/UDN1Zgs2acI/AAAAAAAAA0I/wMDQXxyMog4/s1600-h/image30.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-DxRLzc1LyLs/UDN1aMUWGcI/AAAAAAAAA0Q/Vuo3kTgOtu4/image_thumb10.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a></p> <p><strong>Content Redirection</strong></p> <p>By default this is turned on when you create a store.  This means that if your Citrix published applications are set up to use content redirection, users who connect to the StoreFront with the Citrix Receiver client will see files open with Citrix rather than any local applications they have.  To turn this off, find this file (its location will be different if you did not call your store “Store”…</p> <blockquote> <p>c:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\Store\web.config</p> </blockquote> <p>Search this file for this string and change the “on” to “off”</p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Courier New">enableFileTypeAssociation="on" </font></p></blockquote> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-21634165101570426722012-08-16T14:07:00.001+01:002012-08-16T14:07:37.028+01:00Publishing Chrome on XenApp 6.x (or not)<p>When I was asked to get Chrome on Citrix, I thought this was going to be easy.  Really, its a web browser.  What could go wrong?  </p> <p>Lots.</p> <p>First problem, Chrome installs into your local AppData folder by default.  In the past people came up with some wacky solutions to this but there is now an MSI download from Google which installs into c:\Program Files (x86)\…</p> <p><a title="https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/business/browser/" href="https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/business/browser/">https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/business/browser/</a></p> <p>Great, problems solved – a Chrome v21 browser which is not installed “per user”.  I I know Google release a new major version every other week or so, so I would rather stream it than install it to install this to my Citrix servers.  Installing it either way  was bizarrely complex as the MSI hangs forever during installation with the message “Please wait while the application is preparing for the first use”.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-8tHuOmyCZuI/UCzwi03tPKI/AAAAAAAAAt8/IoVFzhM23EM/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-g5hH79BAx_A/UCzwjy7N0yI/AAAAAAAAAuE/cgT5xazg2lE/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="125" /></a> </p> <p>On a Citrix server this sometimes means there is another msiexec process running at the same time in another session, but not in this case.  Anyway, I found a solution on <a href="http://projectdream.org/wordpress/2010/05/07/ibm-i-access-7-1-installation-hangs-indefinitively-with-a-windows-installer-coordinator-window/" target="_blank">Lukas Beeler’s blog</a> and resolved my issue by importing some registry settings – save these lines as a .reg file and they should allow the installation to work:</p> <blockquote> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New">Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New">[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\TSAppSrv] </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New">[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\TSAppSrv\TSMSI] <br />"Enable"=dword:00000000 </font></p> </blockquote> <p>Great!  All problems resolved I publish two icons for Chrome on XenApp – one Streamed, one Hosted.  Neither work!  They just sit there not rendering any pages.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Q_vjwzZadxY/UCzwko_m-aI/AAAAAAAAAuI/hYKvbhv8n6w/s1600-h/image%25255B5%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-hFzI11s0YcA/UCzwk-Fc2cI/AAAAAAAAAuM/Z1y-GsFmiB4/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="129" /></a> </p> <p>You can’t even get into settings.  Its useless.  And from what I read, this is basically a known issue!  This is the official Citrix article on this problem, though I sadly don’t get the really professional “aw, snap” message: </p> <p><a href="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX132057/">http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX132057/</a></p> <p>This is one of the many Google Forums articles with this problem I've found: </p> <p><a href="http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=84045">http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=84045</a></p> <p></p> <p>And I try it in a published desktop, which works fine – but I specifically want it as a seamless application.  So I follow the instructions in the Citrix article and add “-no-sandbox” to the command line parameters of the application and suddenly everything works – except I now get a dirty big error telling me I have made the browser less secure – which I have.  In their words, “Stability and security will suffer”, though I would argue its more stable now!</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-vAP9Vvgg3Z0/UCzwlQfkZPI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/BTdTqMt6_OE/s1600-h/image%25255B8%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-JN0hglmby5c/UCzwmIjtptI/AAAAAAAAAuY/tQahPUQ49Y8/image_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="176" /></a> </p> <p>And the solution?  No idea, and if anyone has a solution, do let me know.  The solution is that you publish it in a Desktop or live with using “no sandbox mode”, with the security problems and error.  I’ve read it might work if you use app-v, though others say not.  </p> <p>This is all not endearing me to Chrome though, especially since this appears to have been an issue since at least v12.</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-80948735312573712222012-08-16T07:57:00.001+01:002012-08-16T13:25:25.427+01:00Citrix Online Plug-in 12.3 - the Last Good Client?!<p>In April Citrix released, with very little fanfare, a very interesting version of the Online Plug-in (previously known as the PN Agent) – version 12.3, downloadable from here:</p> <p><a title="http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=2323596&productId=163057" href="http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=2323596&productId=163057">http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=2323596&productId=163057</a></p> <p>As well as the main client (which includes Agent and Web clients), there is the usual web client download and also a metadata file, so you can put the client on a Merchandising Server if that’s how you roll it out.</p> <p>First off, I’ll say this is a great client.  Everyone who wants to retain the use of the blue Agent icon and is using an earlier client should consider it.  v12.0 was buggy as hell but had some decent new features – v12.1 fixed a lot of those bugs (but still had some, especially with IE9).  v12.3 finally gives us a fully working v12.x client, fixing 86 previous bugs!  This is a list of issues resolved:</p> <p><a title="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133066/" href="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133066/">http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133066/</a></p> <p>The reason I am surprised by this client is that it is refreshingly short on new features or a new look and feel.  I’ve never warmed to the Receiver client’s interface and have resisted using the Merchandising Server since it enforced the loss of the Agent icon in the system tray.  Basically, this client is unusual because it doesn’t follow Citrix’s habit of forcing users to change what they use and how they work, but just fixes bugs.  It doesn’t even have a new name!  More of this please Citrix.  I have already fixed a couple of persistent issues by installing v12.3 on users PCs, especially the annoying “pressing ‘L’ in Citrix sometimes locks the Citrix session” bug.  </p> <p>What’s odd is this means they have released the v12.3 client <em>after </em>v13.  Crazy.</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-81709234191593546382012-08-15T14:27:00.001+01:002012-08-15T14:27:33.773+01:00Installing Receiver Storefront 1.2 – Standalone, single server<p>Citrix do love inventing new products!  Even if they then replace ones that work just fine.  Anyway, get used to the fact that Web Interface is going to be retired, because that is the way we’re now going.  Web Interface will not have any new versions – the future is StoreFront!  Or Cloud Gateway Express, I’m a little unclear – to be honest the terms seem to be used interchangeably.  </p> <p>StoreFront is all new and exciting – and oddly old fashioned.  To be honest it looks oddly like Program Neighborhood!  One word of warning – it does not work <em>at all</em> with Citrix Presentation Server v4.0 because there is no way of disabling launch references, which were only introduced in Presentation Server 4.5.  Just an aside – this test system will be with XenApp 6.0</p> <p>To be honest, Web Interface is working fine for now, except for the Chromebooks.  Chromebooks do not like Web Interface, they just claim (rightly) they have no Citrix client installed and give you the chance to download an ICA file, which (again rightly) you are informed cannot be opened in Google Docs.  You need StoreFront, and you also need to download the Receiver plug-in from the Google WebStore on your Chromebook.</p> <p>So this is a quick guide to installing a standalone StoreFront server (just internal in this case, and without any 2 factor authentication) to allow a Chromebook to launch Citrix applications from XenApp.  I should really point out here that should should be just a proof of concept – any serious implementation will have at least two servers and a shared database.  I’m also going to use SQL Express which I would not recommend for live systems if you have full SQL Server available.</p> <p><strong>Preparation</strong></p> <p>Login to <a href="http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/publicindex.asp?destURL=%2FEnglish%2FmyCitrix%2Findex%2Easp%3F" target="_blank">My Citrix</a> and click Downloads</p> <p>Choose CloudGateway from the big drop down list.</p> <p>Select CloudGateway Express from the list.  The other download is the full appliance, and if you have bought that you hopefully know what you are doing!</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-3qHnwosIp0k/UCujJLu_bMI/AAAAAAAAAow/W-y3WN6p1xs/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-jXmZqsmH-NY/UCujJ1uJI_I/AAAAAAAAAo0/vzAJI3_h_O4/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="53" /></a> </p> <p>Choose StoreFront 1.2…</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-beSKeHBeTJk/UCujTZodZJI/AAAAAAAAApA/aYfl7dJbKCY/s1600-h/image%25255B6%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-3CNmfzPTkEI/UCujUFqyWkI/AAAAAAAAApE/EgK84sQw538/image_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="64" /></a> </p> <p>Now you have your installers, prepare the target server:</p> <p>Install Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 – I’ve not tested this on Windows Server 2012.  You might want to save time by installing the Web Server role with the IIS6 management options and ASP.NET as well.</p> <p><strong>Installing IIS and a secure web site</strong></p> <p>You can skip this if you wish and go straight to SQL installation, but at this point I am going to get IIS ready. I’ve set up a CNAME record on my internal DNS server called “storefront”, pointing to the server name of this new server. This means I’ll can now use the URL <a href="http://storefront">http://storefront</a>, where I see a big graphic saying IIS and wishing me welcome.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-ooX7XX6sM94/UCujVIWT51I/AAAAAAAAApM/QpBnGSg4CcA/s1600-h/image%25255B9%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-LBv9GIxaT2g/UCujV2TSLKI/AAAAAAAAApQ/fZOmmaiiom4/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="194" /></a> </p> <p>But I want SSL too – StoreFront will have usernames and passwords going through it and <em>really</em> should be secure. I have a Windows Certificate Authority already set up (whose certificates will be trusted by my PCs) so this bit is easy for me. If you don’t have that (and don’t want to put it in place), you could buy a commercial SSL certificate or use a self signed one and make it trusted with Group Policy. But I would consider using SSL somehow.</p> <p>In my case, I launch “Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager”, then select the server on the left, then SSL Certificates. I created a certificate request (2048-bit), generated a certificate for it on my certificate server, completed the request back on my Storefront box, then added a binding on the default website for https and using my new Certificate. Phew. Now the secure URL <a href="https://storefront">https://storefront</a> gives me the nice IIS welcome screen, but with that reassuring “https” in the address bar.</p> <p> <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-bGW_5Vl4Vcg/UCujWutaLsI/AAAAAAAAApg/TBMoW1c__hw/s1600-h/image%25255B15%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-kFxbpAFuJkA/UCujXmnUvcI/AAAAAAAAApo/ysYs9eU5foU/image_thumb%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="194" /></a> :-)</p> <p><strong>Installing SQL Server Express</strong></p> <p>Unlike the nice simple Web Interface which ran on text files, StoreFront needs a SQL database to work.  Since we are going to install in Standalone mode, the server needs to have an instance of SQL Server on it.  SQL Express 2008 R2 is fine, though SQL Server 2012 is supported as well now.  I’m running SQL Server 2008 R2 Express since I had the installer handy.  Download it (with SP1) and run.  Select “New installation…” to start. <br /></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-OnzocQvZuA4/UCujYreI-aI/AAAAAAAAAps/M3V211kojU0/s1600-h/image11.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-VA4TFX7RTCM/UCujZEEtsxI/AAAAAAAAAp4/h0oRgpzQgvs/image_thumb3.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="37" /></a> </p> <p>Agree to the License terms when they come up.</p> <p>On the feature Selection screen, you don’t need the Replication or SDK options.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-FBXfeGZ36VE/UCujZ-ylqzI/AAAAAAAAAqA/J6JTViuDQQQ/s1600-h/image14.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-xSTs70ZdGN4/UCuja1FwmEI/AAAAAAAAAqE/AqMcyaEAcgU/image_thumb4.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="160" /></a> </p> <p>Leave it on Named Instance, that should work fine.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-tOl2TXfEIns/UCujbw-cucI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/Ee82Tk7GGQE/s1600-h/image17.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-oMgtR70RTWA/UCujcoI4vNI/AAAAAAAAAqY/UovPBpz6-jc/image_thumb5.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="139" /></a> </p> <p>Windows Authentication should be okay when it asks about that.  Click the Data Directories tab and make them sensible.  Personally I don’t like the DB files hidden somewhere in Program Files, so I make them like this (but choose whatever you want, this really is about personal preference):</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-PGFn7MDzuIs/UCujdbtlNDI/AAAAAAAAAqc/a_fvYCERGTg/s1600-h/image20.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-9gevrS37Bo4/UCujd15MocI/AAAAAAAAAqo/adrpsYj1Kvw/image_thumb6.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="110" /></a> </p> <p>Click Next, Next, Next until it actually installs.</p> <p><strong>Installing StoreFront 1.2</strong></p> <p>Extract the installer you downloaded onto your server and run CitrixReceiverStorefront-x64.exe</p> <p>Agree to .net install if needed</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Dtamf0bUVDY/UCuje0ALxaI/AAAAAAAAAqw/JeV06wOjnL4/s1600-h/image2.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-jLLBCqKwSKE/UCujf4qCxsI/AAAAAAAAAq0/gaFRlOw6tXo/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="89" /></a> .</p> <p>Agree to the EULA</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Wjrho1tI2kc/UCujgaVonrI/AAAAAAAAArA/NJuMME2TAeA/s1600-h/image5.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-NUNE87Jmdhg/UCujhNniUtI/AAAAAAAAArI/0MkvLZ9wnDc/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="207" /></a> </p> <p>And agree to install windows roles if you did not do this earlier and begin the installation</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-KOsH-XTrKDA/UCujiPYeWJI/AAAAAAAAArM/pdDraV7Zp40/s1600-h/image8.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Kexm9AyQbD4/UCujir1XI_I/AAAAAAAAArU/55gIg8zUuw8/image_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="207" /></a> </p> <p>The product should now install ok.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Click Start > Citrix > Citrix Receiver StoreFront</p> <p>Select Deploy a Single Server.  Note this is greyed out if you don’t have SQL Server running locally.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-FneW56Pqt_g/UCujjfOhoOI/AAAAAAAAArc/MqvWXpc-aOI/s1600-h/image23.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-3BVuostaxO0/UCujkE0thxI/AAAAAAAAAro/u0K-Fp-DM3Y/image_thumb7.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="215" /></a> </p> <p>I put in the URL I previously got working – there, it was worth all the effort after all!</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-2B5GfuIGAvE/UCujkqB8ZnI/AAAAAAAAArw/EWp47bF8anQ/s1600-h/image26.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-JAzF0yLoccY/UCujluia6UI/AAAAAAAAAr0/XsFrFsgFVAQ/image_thumb8.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="119" /></a> </p> <p>You then get three options: Authentication, Stores, and Receiver for Web.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-kV8gpSmZctA/UCujmZGjYtI/AAAAAAAAAr8/Tvp3siWsvPE/s1600-h/image29.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-5O6n147d1L4/UCujmyg-GUI/AAAAAAAAAsE/PTowD7Ot5Gs/image_thumb9.png?imgmax=800" width="228" height="244" /></a> </p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>The only button you can click is Create Service (for authentication), so click it.  You then get three options – here are the explanations from the Citrix Edocs site:</p> <ul> <li><strong>User name and password</strong> : This is explicit authentication. Users enter their credentials when they access their stores. </li> <li><strong>Domain pass-through </strong>:  This enables pass-through of domain credentials from users' devices. Users authenticate to their domain-joined Windows computers and are automatically logged on when they access their stores. In order to use this option, pass-through authentication must be enabled when Receiver for Windows is installed on users' devices. </li> <li><strong>Pass-through from Citrix Access Gateway</strong> : With this, users authenticate to Access Gateway and are automatically logged on when they access their stores. </li> </ul> <p>In my case I don’t have an Access Gateway at the moment (though as far as I can tell I am going to need one if I want to use two-factor authentication) and don’t want to use pass-through authentication, so I select User Name and Password to do simple authentication against AD. You might have different needs of course.  It then takes a while creating the service and dumps you back on the first options.  Click Create Store to… well, create the Store.  When prompted, give the store a name:</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-2e6vvq_0u6o/UCujnrXbisI/AAAAAAAAAsM/sZ-a5soDVD4/s1600-h/image32.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-9N4I6La-m0k/UCujoZKARiI/AAAAAAAAAsU/kTfDnLB14rI/image_thumb10.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="67" /></a> </p> <p>In this test, I have linked to XenApp, entering a server name and HTTP since this test farm is not using HTTPS.  As it notes, passwords will be send unencrypted.  I have a feeling the security guys are going to encourage me to use HTTPS.</p> <p>Time to create a site to log into.  Click Create Site…</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-KBkzMDfCU0s/UCujo2kAw2I/AAAAAAAAAsg/BMq9OYyaoxM/s1600-h/image35.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-JudfQ-GlrlA/UCujpzEhmOI/AAAAAAAAAso/oboa-ANoldo/image_thumb11.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="81" /></a> </p> <p>Lots of stuff appears under the Default Web Site in IIS and I can now go to this URL to access my store:</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p><a title="https://storefront/citrix/StoreWeb/" href="https://storefront/citrix/StoreWeb/">https://storefront/citrix/StoreWeb/</a></p> <p>The first time you go to this it will take an age, though it does speed up.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-FHcvUfwUI1w/UCujqlvhPAI/AAAAAAAAAss/os_MaJhgORQ/s1600-h/image%25255B21%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-vc9k8jwyh5w/UCujrIsUD7I/AAAAAAAAAs4/bpfCdgBfLfw/image_thumb%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="194" /></a> </p> <p>Very nice.  You seem to get these green bubbles no matter what client you want to use.  I can see a request coming down to customise them at some point though.  </p> <p><strong>Final configuration of StoreFront</strong></p> <p>Go back to your server and go into Citrix Receiver StoreFront from the Start Menu again.  You should now see all the options, so clicking Authentication shows you the method you selected.  Feel free to change this if you have changed your mind, or to customise it (by restricting the domains for instance).</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-58ux5hHMMDM/UCujserOzeI/AAAAAAAAAs8/pYjAWpbsypE/s1600-h/image%25255B24%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-WgEySHwhkL4/UCujs5-ThRI/AAAAAAAAAtE/uUXZDT1m3PI/image_thumb%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="161" /></a> </p> <p>Note the option to manage Merchandising Server.  If you have a Merchandising server installed, you can enter its URL here.  If you have no idea what this is, its a virtual appliance (Citrix are obsessed with these at the moment – basically a XenServer or VMware image of a pre-configured Linux VM running an application) which can distribute and update pre-configured clients.  Its a good way to get the new Receiver client out there, which is incidentally a requirement to actually use this on a PC.</p> <p>Click Stores on the left to look at the Store you created earlier.  The main thing here you might want to do is to configure the server farms which the store will connect to, by selecting Store and clicking Manage Server Farms.  I suppose if you have multiple farms (say, for testing), you might create multiple Store URLs, so the test farms were not connected to the URL your users were logging into.  Note the other options here – an option for configuring Legacy support, so old Agent style clients can connect through the StoreFront system.  You can also connect to Citrix Online and set up Remote Access, which are way beyond this little proof of concept.</p> <p>Click Receiver for Web and you should see your website.  You probably only need one of these.</p> <p><strong>Troubleshooting</strong></p> <p>Just a note in case you are not getting any connections through this, look in the Event Viewer. Under Applications and Services Logs, then Citrix Delivery Services.  If there is lots of errors, panic.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQpJalEpAcMRRL9FKYECduLgIDHtoaYHf2PEIAfLV90i3cmdjB8fsEX9-OZulS4DZ7f-MHs0SGwAEXUAd120NN1KYMAHOz8Q4PP0IsZQM1d6aHfXeMx3oT0KNmH6-cFYodqxpJyTHtHodu/s1600-h/image%25255B27%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-uEInzMxe5qA/UCujuhzfYlI/AAAAAAAAAtY/lWoIUzZ55pA/image_thumb%25255B9%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="152" /></a> </p> <p><strong>Customising the graphics</strong></p> <p>You <em>know </em>management will ask about this.  </p> <p>The jolly green bubbles graphic is here:</p> <p>c:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\StoreWeb\media\bg_bubbles.jpg</p> <p>(obviously the path will change depending on the store name and where you based your IIS site, but something like this at least, and there will be one per store).</p> <p>Feel free to either replace this entirely or to just edit it.  Here, I think this looks perfect…</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-PNaJC2C-kxQ/UCujvlZOQhI/AAAAAAAAAtg/S75zDI4fpHU/s1600-h/image%25255B30%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-BCmu5LkKhrE/UCujwwYLaAI/AAAAAAAAAto/LX-ie2d6Uyo/image_thumb%25255B10%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a></p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-66493361759571229412011-12-04T22:20:00.001+00:002011-12-04T22:20:21.812+00:00Hotfix Rollup Pack 1 for XenApp 6 released (finally)<p>After fixing both killer and smaller bugs on XenApp 6 one at a time for what seems like a year and a half (no, wait, actually its over that…) Citrix has released the first rollup pack of hotfixes for the product.  </p> <p>This is not a feature pack, so there is nothing “new” as such.  Although if you are running a live XenApp 6 farm with no hotfixes installed the “new” thing will be that it will work.  XenApp 6 had a few new features and importantly was tied to Windows Server 2008 R2 (which was much better for Terminal Services than Server 2008 and a hell of a lot more modern than Server 2003) but frankly was not that stable at release.  There are about 22 public hotfixes out at the moment if you don’t install the Rollup Pack but the hotfix apparently includes all of them.  In fact there are 105 hotfixes listed as being included, many of which were only previously released to those who paid for support and had a specific problem, though since they often replaced each other that overestimates the size of it.  Actually, its only about 28mb but if it has the effect on a XenApp 6 farm that the public hotfixes had it will be essential.</p> <p>Rollout is per server – every farm server from the Data Collectors down (but not Web Interface, License, etc) needs the install.  Advice from Citrix is to start with the Data Collectors and rollout very quickly from there, and if you have a test server (or better a test farm) you should test there before installing it anywhere else.  </p> <p>Installation of Hotfixes should be uniform across your farm – the last thing you want is users landing on servers with different patch levels.  Installation Manager is basic but will do just fine as it understands MSP files, which is what you have.</p> <p>We’re testing now – benchmarking shows no real CPU or Memory difference (positive or negative) between a server with all the public hotfixes vs with the rollup pack – at least on a simple tests of about 50 Office 2010 users.  But experience on XenApp recently would show it is best to take the risk and install patches early – personally I’ll have all servers patches to Rollup Pack 1 in a week.  Just in case.  If you are not convinced, check out the list of fixed issues…</p> <p><a title="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130473" href="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130473">http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130473</a></p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-90420708218597515602011-08-18T13:06:00.001+01:002011-08-18T13:06:33.558+01:00Creating a low disk space alert with EdgeSight<p>EdgeSight is most useful when it actively alerts you about issues with your farm, rather than keeping it to itself and waiting for someone to notice.  By default it will take in lots of Alerts but not have any useful actions.  If you have not already done this, consider going to Configure > Alerts > Actions and creating an Alert for each event you are bothered about (in Configure > Alerts > Rules), sending an email if nothing else.</p> <p>By default Edgesight DOES monitor disk space, even in Basic mode.  You can pull off a nice report on free disk space in Browse > System Disk Usage, which is lovely as long as you do this on a regular basis.  If you don’t, and don’t have any other monitoring software, you could have Citrix servers operating with almost no space free.  </p> <p>This is how to monitor for disk space alerts using the Event Log record a full server will generate anyway:</p> <ul> <li>In EdgeSight, log in as an Admin and click Alerts (under Company Configuration) > Rules <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-D-FUPz3lK5M/Tkz-c6b6ftI/AAAAAAAAAoI/fpVRUoq9Ujo/s1600-h/image2.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-vRD-BKT4sqo/Tkz-gektPdI/AAAAAAAAAoM/avCGh61zPoU/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="111" /></a> </li> <li>Click New Alert Rule </li> <li>Select System Alerts and click next </li> <li>Select Windows Event Log and click Next <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-kaUDptLViwA/Tkz-hTqIxsI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/CIYIfjVJvOU/s1600-h/image5.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-4gTBJqBuDOA/Tkz-iRrag3I/AAAAAAAAAoU/FwkfhFfIGhE/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="210" /></a> </li> <li>Give the rule a name (“Disk Space Alert”?), enter System as the Event Log Name, with Type as “Warning”, Source as “srv” and Event ID as “2013”.  This should match alerts you will get on a Windows system with a full drive. <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-zV9wW9Xzvtg/Tkz-iy3sgdI/AAAAAAAAAoY/Ctl84wYPK78/s1600-h/image8.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-12gMVXzbkKg/Tk0AQF2oQ-I/AAAAAAAAAoc/dYhT9HN8vjQ/image_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="202" /></a> </li> <li>Click Next and Next (not Finish – you need an Action too), then select the part of the server tree you want to monitor – probably “All” at the top to select everything.  You might need to click this again on the next screen to select it properly.  Do this and click Next again. </li> <li>Select “Create a new Alert Action” and click Next.  </li> <li>Now you decide what to do – SNMP might be useful here, or sending an alert MS SysOps.  I’m just sending an email, so select “Sent an Email notification” <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-RwUkij2uEOU/Tk0AQnBP4eI/AAAAAAAAAog/_XaJj2nMOmI/s1600-h/image11.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-hbPM0XNyARE/Tk0AQ6JRV2I/AAAAAAAAAok/yIMHgYcrONA/image_thumb3.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="202" /></a>  </li> <li>Enter a name for the Action and a subject, then select an address to send to.  Click Test Action to check you get something. <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-jYqkznTxvDk/Tk0ARbM8RYI/AAAAAAAAAoo/2DbaH-l0oxA/s1600-h/image14.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-06NVh94jZZI/Tk0ASM2szZI/AAAAAAAAAos/ZXvx9cOw1SY/image_thumb4.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="204" /></a> </li> <li>Click Next and Finish and you should see your new alert under Rules and Actions </li> <li>You should now get emails when someone fills your servers up!</li> </ul> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-54867418590555428572011-08-17T13:03:00.001+01:002011-08-17T13:03:39.264+01:00Citrix IMA and MFCom services hung at Starting…<p>Recently we had a bit of a Data Collector Election storm on a XenApp 6 farm, and about the same time noticed that newly built servers joining the farm or being moved from one data centre to another had a problem with the “Citrix MFCOM Service” (MFcom) and “Citrix Independent Management Architecture” (IMAservice) services hung at Starting.  </p> <p>The initial fix was removing them from the farm and rejoining them, which was a little time consuming.</p> <p>We later found that if the local host cache (each server has one of these, its a record of the farm it exists in) was recreated, the server should be able to participate in the farm again.  This required the IMA and MFCOM services to be forced to close since they were hung on starting, so we used this script, with an attempt at a graceful stop of the services (with pings to give it time to stop), followed by TASKKILL to make sure the service was over, then a reboot.  Hopefully this will be useful to someone!</p> <p>Copy the following text into a new batch file and run it (As Administrator, if you use UAC) on a server with hung services, it should sort it out:</p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Courier New">sc stop mfcom <br />ping localhost -n 10 > nul <br />sc stop CitrixWMIService <br />ping localhost -n 5 > nul <br />sc stop imaservice <br />ping localhost -n 10 > nul <br />taskkill /IM imasrv.exe /F <br />taskkill /IM IMAAdvanceSrv.exe /F <br />taskkill /IM mfcom.exe /F <br />dsmaint recreatelhc <br />dsmaint recreaterade <br />shutdown -r -t 10</font></p> <p> </p> </blockquote> <p>Thanks to this post for pointing us in the right direction: <a title="http://www.szeker.net/2011/02/08/citrix-xenapp-6-0-hotfix-xa600w2k8r2x64003-server-hangs-on-shut-down-problem-mfcom-service-hangs-on-starting/" href="http://www.szeker.net/2011/02/08/citrix-xenapp-6-0-hotfix-xa600w2k8r2x64003-server-hangs-on-shut-down-problem-mfcom-service-hangs-on-starting/">http://www.szeker.net/2011/02/08/citrix-xenapp-6-0-hotfix-xa600w2k8r2x64003-server-hangs-on-shut-down-problem-mfcom-service-hangs-on-starting/</a></p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-61207122379991633302011-07-06T14:12:00.001+01:002011-07-06T14:16:35.640+01:00Creating a Server Monitoring Graph in XenApp 6.0 and 6.5<p>Knowing what is going on in your Citrix farm is always difficult when there are more than a few users and servers involved.  Edgesight is very useful for this in XenApp, but it does lack a decent Dashboard function so you can tell at a glance what the load is like on your servers.</p> <p>In previous versions of Citrix I’ve seen people write applications which use MFCOM to find out how many sessions are on each server and write them out to a nice graph – you can then see at a glance whether for instance everyone is on one server, or if a server appears to have rebooted or been left disabled.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-TftCD9LeYAY/ThRfVAL5L3I/AAAAAAAAAoA/BS-3v20hCIw/s1600-h/image%25255B8%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" title="Citrix Server Graph" border="0" alt="Citrix Server Graph" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Blbam1yAUHM/ThRfV4JfdTI/AAAAAAAAAoE/ruZmc-_USjQ/image_thumb%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="644" height="227" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p>The way I do this currently is using a PowerShell script, running as a scheduled task.  This then creates image files which I can display in a webpage.</p> <p>In <a href="http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2010/11/notes-on-powershell-in-xenapp-6.html" target="_blank">this</a> earlier article I showed how you could download and install the Citrix components into PowerShell and use it to control the farm.  Its worth doing this, and also using the PowerShell ISE Editor to write your PowerShell scripts.</p> <p>You should also download something that will let you create graphs from PowerShell.  An easy and free way of doing this is the MS Chart Controls for .NET 3.5 download.  You can download this from here: <br /><a title="http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=14422" href="http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=14422">http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=14422</a></p> <p>The first step is to use Powershell to get a list of the server names that you are interested in, and a list of the active sessions on the farm.  Install the XenApp Powershell SDK from <a href="http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6+PowerShell+SDK " target="_blank">here</a> and run the following from a farm serer. The first line is required to load the Citrix add-ons you just installed to PowerShell:</p> <blockquote> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New">Add-PSSnapin Citrix* <br />$filter = 'xen' <br />$servernames = Get-XAServer | where-object {$_.ServerName -match $filter} | select-object ServerName <br />$sessionsactive = Get-XASession -Farm | where-object {$_.State -eq "Active" -and $_.ServerName -match $filter}</font></p> </blockquote> <p>The value of $filter can be edited to filter on server name – only server names including that string will be measured.  If you set it to just be ‘’, all servers will be used.</p> <p>This should give you a pair of arrays, $Servernames and $sessionsactive, containing all the names and session details.  Now we can iterate through the server names, finding out the number of active sessions for each on and writing it to another array, then finally sorting that array into alphabetical order by server name:</p> <blockquote> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New">$servercounts = @{} <br />foreach ($servername in $servernames) <br />{ <br />    $countActive = @($sessionsactive | where-object {$_.ServerName -eq $servername.ServerName }| Select-Object SessionId -unique)            <br />    $servercounts.add($servername.ServerName, $countActive.Count) <br />} <br />$servercounts = $servercounts.GetEnumerator() | sort Name</font> </p> </blockquote> <p>You now have an array called $servercounts.  If you ran it and exported its contents it would look something like this:                       </p> <blockquote> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New">Name      Value                                                            <br />----      ----- <br />XEN01     28 <br />XEN02     30 <br />XEN03     31 <br />XEN04     28 <br />XEN05     28 <br />XEN06     29 <br />XEN07     28 <br />XEN08     29 <br />XEN09     27</font></p> </blockquote> <p>Finally, time to generate the chart, if that is what you want.  To use the MS Chart Controls (which will need to be installed on the XenApp server too) add these lines to the top of the script:</p> <blockquote> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New">[void][Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms") <br />[void][Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization")</font></p> </blockquote> <p>Then add these lines to the end of the script to create the graph and save it to the c: drive as a PNG file.  Note the lines to create a title for it as well, so you know whether the image is out of date:</p> <blockquote> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New"># create chart object <br />$Chart = New-object System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Chart <br />$Chart.Width = 900 <br />$Chart.Height = 330 <br />$Chart.Left = 10 <br />$Chart.Top = 10 </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New"># create a chartarea to draw on and add to chart <br />$ChartArea = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.ChartArea <br />$Chart.ChartAreas.Add($ChartArea) <br />[void]$Chart.Series.Add("Data") <br />foreach ($server in $servercounts) <br />{ <br />    $dp1 = new-object System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.DataPoint(0, $server.Value) <br />    $dp1.AxisLabel = $server.Name <br />    $Chart.Series["Data"].Points.Add($dp1) <br />}</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New">$title = new-object System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Title <br />$Chart.Titles.Add( $title ) <br />$Chart.Titles[0].Text = date</font><font size="2" face="Courier New"> <br />$Chart.SaveImage("c:\Graph\XenAppFarm.png","png")</font></p> </blockquote> <p>The script is best being signed (or remove the need for signing in PowerShell scripts) and then needs to be scheduled.  I do this with a scheduled task on a XenApp server, which calls a batch file with contents of:</p> <blockquote> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New">call powershell -command "& {C:\Graph\Generate.ps1}"</font></p> </blockquote> <p>Finally you need a way of viewing the image – I just use a HTML file with an automated refresh, such as this:</p> <blockquote> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New"><html xmlns="</font><a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml""><font size="2" face="Courier New">http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"</font></a><font size="2" face="Courier New">> <br /><head> <br />    <title>XenApp Farm</title> <br />    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="60"> <br /></head> <br /><body> <br />    <img src="c:\Graph\XenAppFarm.png">        <br /></body> <br /></html></font></p> </blockquote> <p>Just to recap, here’s the whole sample script:</p> <blockquote> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New"># load the appropriate assemblies <br />[void][Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms") <br />[void][Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization") <br />Add-PSSnapin Citrix* <br /> <br /># get the server names and sessions <br />$filter = '' <br />$servernames = Get-XAServer | where-object {$_.ServerName -match $filter} | select-object ServerName <br />$sessionsactive = Get-XASession -Farm | where-object {$_.State -eq "Active" -and $_.ServerName -match $filter} </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New">$servercounts = @{} <br /> <br /># count active sessions for each server name <br />foreach ($servername in $servernames) <br />{ <br />    $countActive = @($sessionsactive | where-object {$_.ServerName -eq $servername.ServerName }| Select-Object SessionId -unique)            <br />    $servercounts.add($servername.ServerName, $countActive.Count) <br />} <br />$servercounts = $servercounts.GetEnumerator() | sort Name </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New"># create chart object <br />$Chart = New-object System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Chart <br />$Chart.Width = 900 <br />$Chart.Height = 330 <br />$Chart.Left = 10 <br />$Chart.Top = 10 </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Courier New"># create a chartarea to draw on and add to chart <br />$ChartArea = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.ChartArea <br />$Chart.ChartAreas.Add($ChartArea) <br />[void]$Chart.Series.Add("Data") <br /> <br /># add a data point for each server <br />foreach ($server in $servercounts) <br />{ <br />    $dp1 = new-object System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.DataPoint(0, $server.Value) <br />    $dp1.AxisLabel = $server.Name <br />    $Chart.Series["Data"].Points.Add($dp1) <br />} <br /># set the title to the date and time <br /></font><font size="2" face="Courier New">$title = new-object System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Title <br />$Chart.Titles.Add( $title ) <br />$Chart.Titles[0].Text = date</font></p> <font face="Courier New"><font size="2"># save the chart to a file</font> <br /><font size="2">$Chart.SaveImage("c:\Graph\XenAppFarm.png","png")</font></font></blockquote> <p>Resources used to write the above include:</p> <p><a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/richard_macdonald/archive/2009/04/28/3231887.aspx">http://blogs.technet.com/b/richard_macdonald/archive/2009/04/28/3231887.aspx</a> <br /><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.datavisualization.charting.seriescharttype.aspx">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.datavisualization.charting.seriescharttype.aspx</a></p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-50517319029397958952011-07-06T13:13:00.001+01:002011-07-06T13:13:21.247+01:00XenApp 6 – Hotfix 068 fixes UI and server capacity issues<p>Citrix released Hotfix XA600W2K8R2X64068 last week – available here: <a title="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX129741" href="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX129741">http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX129741</a></p> <p>This interestingly includes several previous hotfixes, including the quite recent public hotfix 056, which improved the stability XenApp 6.0 considerably, especially when combined with Windows 2008 R2 SP1.  This fix therefore now addresses 13 separate issues.</p> <p>Most interesting in the list of new fixes for me are those relating to screen flickering, windows maximising over the taskbar and poor server performance over about 70 connections:</p> <ul> <li> <p>Dock bars of published applications might overlap and obscure the local Windows Taskbar. This is the server-side component of the fix. To resolve the issue in its entirety, you must also install a client-side hotfix that contains Fix #206851. <br />[From XA600W2K8R2X64068][#210857]</p> </li> <li> <p>Certain applications can perform slowly when run in seamless mode. <br />[From XA600W2K8R2X64068][#257490]</p> </li> <li> <p>The CPU consumption of the winlogon.exe process can be higher than usual and cause new connection attempts to fail once a server hosts 70 connections or more. Eventually, servers can experience a fatal exception and need to be restarted. <br />[From XA600W2K8R2X64068][#LA0032]</p> </li> </ul> <p>These issues have been seen on and off since we starting to run large number of user sessions on XenApp 6 servers.  Anecdotally, the issue of the Start Menu being obscured by Citrix sessions is quite widespread (though obviously more of an annoyance than anything).  We know that sessions can flicker when being shadowed using Remote Assistance or SCCM if the client version is older than v12.1 – hopefully this is also fixed now. The last one, servers behaving badly with over about 70 connections, is also just what we have seen, with far less user density (number of user sessions on each server) possible than we expected to be the case from benchmarking. We’ll allow more sessions now and see whether the servers behave better.</p> <p>Incidentally, the “client-side hotfix that contains Fix #206851” mentioned in some of the issues fixed was included in the Citrix Online Plug-In v11.2 and is presumably in later releases as well.</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-88807474802517994172011-07-04T14:07:00.001+01:002011-07-04T14:07:33.600+01:00Installing XenApp 6.5 Tech Preview - Part 4 – Configuring the farm<p>This is a test build of the new Tech Preview of XenApp 6.5 from Citrix.  In the previous parts of this guide we set up a <a href="http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2011/07/installing-xenapp-65-part-1-license.html" target="_blank">License</a> server, <a href="http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2011/07/installing-xenapp-65-part-2-web.html" target="_blank">Web Interface</a> server and built the farm’s <a href="http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2011/07/installing-xenapp-65-part-3.html" target="_blank">Data Collector</a>, establishing the farm and its data store.</p> <p>In this part we’ll continue this process by configuring the Web Interface and the first published applications for the farm.  To be honest, this is all highly reminiscent of the process to configure the Web Interface and publish a simple application that was in XenApp 6.  If you’re familiar with it, you should know all this already.  </p> <p>Logging onto our Web Interface box again we launch the Citrix Web Interface Management console from the Start Menu</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-ki2wABaK5cE/ThG6w4Cpj6I/AAAAAAAAAmI/MaGS1WbcID0/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-tJAeoXKG2VA/ThG6xNw70LI/AAAAAAAAAmM/2eC4T2GT5jA/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="253" height="62" /></a> </p> <p>In this we have no sites created yet, and we’re going to create one site under XenApp Web Sites (used for the web interface) and XenApp Services Sites (used for the  Receiver client to create links in the Start Menu and on the desktop.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-PapHQ2zV4Yo/ThG6xt3bYwI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/xuuS82Y7kY0/s1600-h/image%25255B6%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-r6G0f3W_280/ThG6x7tWiTI/AAAAAAAAAmU/ulhfO00AZAI/image_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="137" /></a></p> <p><strong>Creating a XenApp Web Site</strong></p> <p>Right click on XenApp Web Sites and click Create Site. </p> <p>I’m happy with the name of the site, but I want to just type the server name in IE for it to work, so I click “Set as the default page for the IIS zone”.  If there were multiple web interface sites, only one would want this on.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-vAXuK7J-5To/ThG6yec5YxI/AAAAAAAAAmY/1msAYRWq66w/s1600-h/image%25255B9%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2bI8JxgVmv_GI8LQdwkcIJRlcDyM5SRWA-_226g9j82xa8Mi0SlRBjClktyKmCiLSIMgX2qwDDb5T0JVxtksPHZoyl2NjRtKjaZkGIzPjWdkLzvA2B2Tx5hp46qh8P9GsGvHBKAKfHp3/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="111" /></a> </p> <p>The point of authentication is simple since this is just an internal web interface site, so the default of “at web interface” should be fine.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-3PYlkMfJZ_8/ThG6zD6LwlI/AAAAAAAAAmg/n78ngXjbadI/s1600-h/image%25255B15%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-xb0618eW1ro/ThG6zvZcslI/AAAAAAAAAmk/dN4I0jSAVl4/image_thumb%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="145" /></a> </p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>A couple more screens of clicking Next and I can configure my new site, providing the name of the first farm server I just built.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ms5vEMOqen8/ThG6z5YbHcI/AAAAAAAAAmo/BOgX85QkFUk/s1600-h/image%25255B18%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-CYocTir0XDQ/ThG60liCQWI/AAAAAAAAAms/mE40eXnkVzU/image_thumb%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="210" /></a> </p> <p>On the Authentication Methods screen I just leave it as Explicit as I just want it to ask for a username and password.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD2fsv70_X4gAEHUCtjwbwK9JSm8ZkHLFQwPTrP4sf4ftHH92z7b5fSqvBTIQZ4LpZ7uKHlvNcBs2C6KQf0w5hKsmrFfw6QJB-kWB8JdRpKFPXhASVmv3QujjXXkUGkO1C58zDVpbuHr81/s1600-h/image%25255B21%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-9HucyDS-6CE/ThG61qMDXpI/AAAAAAAAAm0/ebxkkV5pbZk/image_thumb%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="189" /></a> </p> <p>I then restrict it to just my AD domain, choose the Full logon screen appearance (apparently it will look like this…)</p> <p></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-_1F0N7MBxFw/ThG62Hdt5FI/AAAAAAAAAm4/bb0u9q5Vhj4/s1600-h/image%25255B24%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-4egf7imrOkI/ThG62vlBvnI/AAAAAAAAAm8/HYQvc2cfPZk/image_thumb%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="113" /></a> </p> <p>The full interface gives some options to change the language and the reconnection options after logon.</p> <p>Then I choose just “online” apps since I don’t stream to clients, then we’re all done with the web site creation.</p> <p>After this I open a browser and go to my server, at <a href="http://xensvr02/">http://xensvr02/</a> – it takes ages the first time and seems to be hung on “Loading…”, but it works after that and is super fast next time.  I can log in okay (since I specified my domain name earlier I don’t need to enter that as part of my username) and I am told, quite correctly, that there are no resources available.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/--iq27nkm5xU/ThG6275dpbI/AAAAAAAAAnA/gMmlWLexagg/s1600-h/image%25255B30%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-2uGzS-f4NRU/ThG63VXRELI/AAAAAAAAAnE/-VniDncoZU8/image_thumb%25255B10%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="89" /></a> </p> <p><strong>Creating a XenApp Services Site</strong></p> <p>Back in the main console of the Web Interface, I right click XenApp Services Sites and click Create Site.  The default names are fine – interesting that Citrix still use the phrase “PNAgent” here, its been abandoned in most other places…</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-2rfH_yA5lwo/ThG632qu9dI/AAAAAAAAAnI/4tcFnOJ_zqM/s1600-h/image%25255B27%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-AZRNWVEBDtI/ThG64UmTnTI/AAAAAAAAAnM/ZV25nB1CEG8/image_thumb%25255B9%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="114" /></a> </p> <p>Next, Next, Next and configure the farm again.  You can go in again later and add multiple farms by the way.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ms5vEMOqen8/ThG6z5YbHcI/AAAAAAAAAmo/BOgX85QkFUk/s1600-h/image%25255B18%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-CYocTir0XDQ/ThG60liCQWI/AAAAAAAAAms/mE40eXnkVzU/image_thumb%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="210" /></a> </p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>I choose “online” applications again and click through to the end of the wizard.</p> <p><strong>Publishing the first applications</strong></p> <p>When I learn a new programming language I always write a “Hello World” app first.  When I produce a new Citrix farm I always publish Notepad first!</p> <p>Log back on to the Data Collector we installed earlier.  I’ve already set up the AppCenter (the new name for the Delivery Services Console), by loading it from Administrative Tools > Citrix > Management Consoles > Citrix AppCenter and choosing to add the local computer.  You should see the new farm name under XenApp in the tree on the left.  Click Applications and it should be empty.  Right click and click Publish Application</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-d9EhifewLnA/ThG648T6pWI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/0SA-Rj1i6Ks/s1600-h/image%25255B33%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-QWQMN9Fpm_Y/ThG65jH23QI/AAAAAAAAAnU/ACY6uRQxHLw/image_thumb%25255B11%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="194" height="88" /></a> </p> <p> </p> <p>Click Next and enter Notepad as the Display Name.  Click Next and the following screen is the same as on XenApp 6 – apps can still stream to server, to client, be hosted or be content or a desktop.  The default (“accessed from a server” – a tradition hosted application) is what we need</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-FcMMLG90CDw/ThG651yCSeI/AAAAAAAAAnY/-7wDizAPlqU/s1600-h/image%25255B36%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Xi4w3-Drbzg/ThG66oaVK6I/AAAAAAAAAnc/GGzgjtOEitY/image_thumb%25255B12%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="120" /></a> </p> <p>Click browse to find c:\windows\system32\Notepad.exe and it should fill in the command line and working directory.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-gJLYzhnImQ4/ThG665W156I/AAAAAAAAAng/C4Ucl6rIevA/s1600-h/image%25255B39%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-LdHabPRcZEg/ThG67ZiOOJI/AAAAAAAAAnk/LMntluB7GZI/image_thumb%25255B13%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="220" height="129" /></a> </p> <p>The next questions are all easy (servers to publish on – there’s only one and no Worker Groups yet, so I pick that server, then my own account to see the app).</p> <p>I can now log into my Web Interface site and see a nice Notepad icon.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-u9Q8W98AUDA/ThG670t78HI/AAAAAAAAAno/XM1XPegMJxU/s1600-h/image%25255B42%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-TBcLjDbaQyE/ThG68W91ZbI/AAAAAAAAAns/ZP7uoYIKnCM/image_thumb%25255B14%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="229" height="203" /></a> </p> <p>When I launch it I get the expected notice that this is a technical preview license – after that, Notepad comes up – quite quickly actually…</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-ilsfFfW8RRM/ThG69FcMGVI/AAAAAAAAAnw/waBeODWDczg/s1600-h/image%25255B47%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-R7ZvNSPLrtE/ThG69Y67V4I/AAAAAAAAAn0/WKa6kp9yW1Q/image_thumb%25255B17%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="416" height="197" /></a> </p> <p><strong>Publishing the AppCenter</strong></p> <p>I’m not going to want to keep logging on to the Data Collector to use the AppCenter, so I publish that too.</p> <p></p> <p>This is the same process as before, it is “accessed from a server”, with the following target:</p> <p>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Citrix Delivery Services Console\Framework\CmiLaunch.exe"</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-uwfKKqIds0E/ThG69itQ6XI/AAAAAAAAAn4/hbpo34JtEl8/s1600-h/image%25255B50%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-F9BqRbHgUwI/ThG6-X6_coI/AAAAAAAAAn8/nR7IM3tuD6g/image_thumb%25255B18%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="108" /></a> </p> <p>This works very nicely and I now have a published AppCenter.  </p> <p>Now we have a working farm I’m going to check out some of the new features of XenApp 6.5 – more soon.</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-53906397296679698192011-07-03T19:36:00.001+01:002011-07-04T12:57:16.785+01:00Installing XenApp 6.5 Tech Preview - Part 3 – Establishing the Farm<p>Building on our production of a license server (<a href="http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2011/07/installing-xenapp-65-part-1-license.html" target="_blank">here</a>) and web interface box (<a href="http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2011/07/installing-xenapp-65-part-2-web.html" target="_blank">here</a>) which can support XenApp 6.5 Tech preview, we’re now going to establish a new farm with the installation of the server which will become the Data Collector and the server hosting the management tools.</p> <p>Please note this cannot be installed over a remote desktop.  If its a VM, use the console (through XenCenter for instance), if its a physical machine, use ILO or a monitor, keyboard and mouse plugged into the box, at least until the main install is complete installed.</p> <p>First, build your server – Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with a static IP (not DHCP).</p> <p>Run Autorun.exe from the root of the installer share you created from the downloaded ISO of XenApp 6.5 Tech Preview.</p> <p>Click Install XenApp Server</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-jw5RtF5RrXM/ThBNFPn-3aI/AAAAAAAAAjw/nt08AVkyUg0/s1600-h/image2.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-NNSNLr96IG4/ThBNFmFifmI/AAAAAAAAAj0/9-26h5HVC-0/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="187" /></a> </p> <p>Click Add Server Roles</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-hBxroIRmcZk/ThBNF3N1SAI/AAAAAAAAAj4/26901-PIU3A/s1600-h/image5.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-wkRrfnWgp_g/ThBNGnl_xKI/AAAAAAAAAj8/azSzJ_grkWQ/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="50" /></a> </p> <p></p> <p>Choose your server edition (I’m personally installing Enterprise, so this will not cover Platinum only features)</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-v-qwGGrRJHY/ThBNG2O0v9I/AAAAAAAAAkA/xUUBOL05L50/s1600-h/image8.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-nLCiGlI_8Zc/ThBNHjFj5JI/AAAAAAAAAkE/X4jhxtIAmeo/image_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="114" /></a> </p> <p>Accept the EULA and click Next, then select just the XenApp role</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-X2zYRh4YleQ/ThBNIG0eh_I/AAAAAAAAAkI/UtrSX_gg9Xs/s1600-h/image11.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-kJJ-4srlm7o/ThBNItPyrbI/AAAAAAAAAkM/gsZVluHIb9A/image_thumb3.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="165" /></a> </p> <p>You can now select the components.  You might choose different options to me so its worth a look.  First, take a look at the options:</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-7cVW337Txpc/ThBNJPkkeHI/AAAAAAAAAkQ/6pLVDJO-K70/s1600-h/image14.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-K-QkEHiFWM0/ThBNJsjNdSI/AAAAAAAAAkU/wNxDp_1qXDg/image_thumb4.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="165" /></a> </p> <p>Personally, I’m not using Single Sign-On, so I don’t select that (though it will STILL install the admin console anyway).  I don’t use Power and Capacity Management either, so I don’t use install the Agent.</p> <p>I do use Edgesight on production systems, but this being a test system I’ll skip the Edgesight Agent too.  I’ll take a look at the new version of Edgesight separately.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>The XML Service IIS Integration is automatically checked if you have IIS installed, where XenApp and IIS share a local port (80 by default).  If you check it, IIS will be installed and configured in this way.  But if you don’t have or need IIS on your XenApp servers (why would you?) and don’t need the extra features IIS has over the Citrix XML Service (like encrypting web traffic), don’t select the Integration checkbox.  There’s a useful discussion of this feature on this Citrix Forums thread:</p> <p><a title="http://forums.citrix.com/message.jspa?messageID=1542227" href="http://forums.citrix.com/message.jspa?messageID=1542227">http://forums.citrix.com/message.jspa?messageID=1542227</a></p> <p>Leave the default components selected (we want the Management Tools on this server and we’re going to have a look at the new Windows Desktop Experience Integration feature.</p> <p>Click Next, Next and Install to begin the installation.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-YOOV3W2_3zc/ThBNKdCSzHI/AAAAAAAAAkY/3aqyarAUtq4/s1600-h/image17.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA0M7yKgCLt82LgWZcS0wcUd7k2I8gIBS80QtOXEXKyIBDkq0vAF8kosV6DehVHv7_g-xmtYT-CD7vfuXll-m9rQLWh0ASk6UiN1OgW6xf1kdxnnMEar-b5asvF0dUQw3aFXnQ3kFtFwah/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="182" /></a> </p> <p>You may get this popup to install device software, it might be more simple if you click “Always trust software from ‘Citrix Systems Inc’”</p> <p>Because this install has been launched from Autorun rather than a script, all the pre-requisites and server roles will be installed for you.  Note you’ve not been asked for Farm details yet – like XenApp 6.5 you install XenApp first into an unconfigured state and then choose whether to join or create a Farm.</p> <p>Click finish at the end of the wizard and click Specify Licensing, then enter the name of the license server you created in <a href="http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2011/07/installing-xenapp-65-part-1-license.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a>…</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-zL7DRYQoD5c/ThBNLEnjbYI/AAAAAAAAAkg/z-pd-y7ibGw/s1600-h/image20.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-TyM-kAT_GW8/ThBNL583uDI/AAAAAAAAAkk/WAsZNZb6FNg/image_thumb6.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="89" /></a> </p> <p>Click Test Connection and it should be successful, then choose the licensing model.  Since this is not a XenDesktop trial, choose XenApp, which should be listed as Recommended.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-fdmvBaaTTIs/ThC2jbXNEbI/AAAAAAAAAko/9ISCOjDexqg/s1600-h/image23.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Iyeg94xPZv4/ThC2kMIFkVI/AAAAAAAAAks/z4E2mFZX2q4/image_thumb7.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="150" /></a> </p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Click Apply and you should have a nice green tick by Licensing.  Now select Configure.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_L65qlGiCOwZebp6M1rkbfibCiKeiWON0BCa89Lr1Kb9zl2_3Y1K2ldancDHU-MYDbXc84uFnXx0aYzmidD-zp9MARZ2E_tQTvg3oNNpch61gsMXffRsvtAcG3uZV_4-Cieq_T8yRFkWJ/s1600-h/image26.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-S0xKUNIzTlI/ThC2lEW-xJI/AAAAAAAAAk0/25hF0u_jMCU/image_thumb8.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="153" /></a> </p> <p>You can now choose whether to join an existing farm or create a new one.  Click Create</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-dvJAXL_ERW4/ThC2laVtInI/AAAAAAAAAk4/zHdq7rPffu4/s1600-h/image29.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL3Dd93QYj0kHPKoDd6d0TgYWoUPLLRVIgQubUZ7Xyip3IqXadppO28yLyBqvRVDrajI4RY65NTDlBt8hl2zCAA0V-uCgl4Ao8zi8Fmd6jBXwtvxF-BqtdHuQfXqEk78ZxEVeYEdtDmvnU/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="80" /></a> </p> <p>Then enter your farm name and your own domain account to be the administrator.</p> <p>At the next section you can choose to have a local SQL Express database (just for test farms or companies who don’t even have a SQL Server), or connect to an existing Database which you should precreate on a SQL Server box.  See <a href="http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenapp-w2k8-tp/ps-database-ref-sql-srvr.html" target="_blank">this link</a> for Citrix’s recommendations regarding the database server.  For this test I’m going to use the New Database option to install SQL Express 2008 on this server.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-tF3F4viSgvk/ThC2mQCpaEI/AAAAAAAAAlA/-L-YpX46UjQ/s1600-h/image32.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-gHYtIhBu66g/ThC2nMK-tCI/AAAAAAAAAlE/05tFUkPw_Zo/image_thumb10.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="89" /></a> </p> <p></p> <p>Choose the shadowing model you want.  Make sure you get this right as it can override what you might choose later on.  Personally I am hoping that shadowing will work properly in XenApp 6.5 and not require you to mess about with Remote Assistance instead.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-YzP0kSzfj3I/ThC2nqg_o2I/AAAAAAAAAlI/ULC_R_mbyZE/s1600-h/image35.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-6CUbfCoD-OU/ThC2oLP286I/AAAAAAAAAlM/Wjg8SdwG7Uo/image_thumb11.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="131" /></a> </p> <p>On the next screen we can choose more options for this installation.  Note the first options, to have a Controller or Session Only server – this is a new feature, where servers can be installed without the components to be a Data Collector (both types of server are capable of hosting published applications).  They’re greyed out because this server <em>needs</em> to be a Controller because its the first one.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-DoGH7MuMR1c/ThC2om5ILwI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/plzk3bZPqUM/s1600-h/image38.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-SUoz-59ofGk/ThC2pLhX-DI/AAAAAAAAAlU/NRiZfk5Gx_g/image_thumb12.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="111" /></a> </p> <p>Click the XML Service and you can change the default XML port.  Unless you have a reason to change it (maybe you’re hosting websites on your XenApp server?!), leave it as port 80.</p> <p>Click the Receiver tab and you can specify the Web Interface URL that you set up in Part 2 of this guide.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-yowhO1MgnOw/ThC2pt9wgfI/AAAAAAAAAlY/zEFE-dkT4vQ/s1600-h/image41.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-FdOSbN1p6ps/ThC2qL9F8CI/AAAAAAAAAlc/fkASvcuUw8w/image_thumb13.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="141" /></a> </p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Click Remote Desktop Users and you can change the default user groups who can log onto the server in remote sessions.  I <em>always</em> untick Add Anonymous Users, which unless you actually want to allow unauthenticated use of Published Applications you should too.  Authenticated Users are anyone with a domain logon, though if the Users group contains Domain Users, they’re already going to be allowed in most environments.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-vMOmUoi75cs/ThC2qt5TczI/AAAAAAAAAlg/0WPPtqQM1Qs/s1600-h/image44.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-ctI9VrWekys/ThC2q13xfJI/AAAAAAAAAlk/BCop4uIM-Nw/image_thumb14.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="123" /></a> </p> <p>Click Next and Apply to set up the Farm…</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-6P9lSZ48-AE/ThC2rVnIIGI/AAAAAAAAAlo/TEbXBppwcQ4/s1600-h/image47.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-vZyK0WB7ck4/ThC2rzQYDBI/AAAAAAAAAls/gpkw4-3dvvY/image_thumb15.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="209" /></a> </p> <p>Then click Reboot at the end…</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-_FnRW1m30no/ThC2sf5sHYI/AAAAAAAAAlw/Y3TuAo4umas/s1600-h/image50.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-14PNwOCJpkU/ThC2s599blI/AAAAAAAAAl0/dpa3SDJFPO4/image_thumb16.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="116" /></a> </p> <p>After the reboot, log in as the account you specified as the administrator (your own account maybe?) and launch the new Management Console – the AppCenter.  Citrix have done their level best to hide it by giving it a new name and putting it in the Administrative Tools folder!</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrM5qOckfbgDP2eUpWW3k3Bu35b-rb3cSuGf5M9JOFC-pIa_fcGi5OMb0ZiIKGcbsh7sek1AixWC_-NfXr9LZKv47KcHp0C0rYg0funNknzZgobcV1mIpGyZCmZx2AbwhfCjqjtR7tl_Bs/s1600-h/image53.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-uI_iARpkFE4/ThC2uPFhPGI/AAAAAAAAAl8/VyNrV8hUTw4/image_thumb17.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="155" /></a> </p> <p>When you launch it and attempt to discover the farm, you might get a message about the Single Sign-On Console – if you are not using this, go to Control Panel, Programs and Features and select the Citrix Single Sign-On Console, right click and Change, Remove, Next, Next and Finish.  If you ARE going to use Single Sign-On, don’t do this!</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-VSZ1K5gJOp4/ThC2ugF4iwI/AAAAAAAAAmA/sbK5Y3_9pa8/s1600-h/image56.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-NRfCFZTPXzA/ThC2u7UftPI/AAAAAAAAAmE/YF7Ft7nNP_k/image_thumb18.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="50" /></a></p> <p>Launch the AppCenter and you should see the Discovery Wizard automatically appear.  Choose Add Local Computer and you should finally see your new farm. </p> <p>In the next part we’ll look at configuring the Web Interface and publishing our first apps.</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-82557954948976592522011-07-03T11:49:00.001+01:002011-07-03T11:49:19.851+01:00Installing XenApp 6.5 Tech Preview - Part 1 - License server<p>Following on from my overview of the XenApp 6.5 Tech Preview (<a title="http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2011/07/xenapp-65-tech-preview.html" href="http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2011/07/xenapp-65-tech-preview.html">http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2011/07/xenapp-65-tech-preview.html</a>), I am now going to build a demo farm and explore some of the new features.</p> <p>For this demo I'll be building a basic set of servers, based on a fairly powerful server running XenServer and 4 virtual machines - a license server, a web interface and an application server. </p> <ul> <li>xensvr01: License server </li> <li>xensvr02: Web Interface </li> <li>xensvr03: Data Collector </li> <li>xensvr04: Application server </li> </ul> <p>The first step for me is the License server - its specified during the setup of the main servers, so its nice to have it in place first, and XenApp 6.5 will require a later version of the Citrix License Server than the v11.6 License server which shipped with XenApp 6.</p> <p>Step one has to be to download the files we'll need – I’ll assume from here on in that this is done and they’re extracted to a nice file share somewhere your servers can all access.</p> <p>All servers built for this are Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (so they’re all 64 bit, as 2008 R2 is 64-bit only). They've all got static IPs and anti-virus programs installed, but otherwise are fresh installs. </p> <p>To set up the license server, I go to my installer share on my first server and execute \Licensing\CTX_Licensing.msi</p> <p>Accept the EULA and click next until it finishes...</p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8B9F525/image4.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image_thumb2" border="0" alt="image_thumb2" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-JPkPrkeyASg/ThBJA7NV86I/AAAAAAAAAjQ/kO69CZ5miMI/image_thumb22.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="96" /></a> </p> <p>You then get a screen to configure the basics of the license server, and I'm keeping defaults. If you vary the license port, do remember what you change it to! Try to remember the “admin” password as well if you can. :-)</p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8B9F525/image9.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image_thumb5" border="0" alt="image_thumb5" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-pTMsx__4nyc/ThBJERmyAZI/AAAAAAAAAjU/b4l2BlcdHtc/image_thumb52.png?imgmax=800" width="223" height="244" /></a> </p> <p>Click the Start Button and select Citrix, Management Consoles and License Administration Console</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8B9F525/image15.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image_thumb7" border="0" alt="image_thumb7" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-t6SMFmy9fA0/ThBJE20L_xI/AAAAAAAAAjY/t3_ihsRo8dU/image_thumb72.png?imgmax=800" width="241" height="244" /></a> </p> <p>Click the Administration tab and enter your admin username and password you set up earlier...</p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8B9F525/image20.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image_thumb10" border="0" alt="image_thumb10" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-vYNLsdnaUy8/ThBJFciHOpI/AAAAAAAAAjc/1VqBVT-AWYA/image_thumb102.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="214" /></a> </p> <p>Click Vendor Deamon Configuration (catchy...) and click import license</p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8B9F525/image25.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image_thumb13" border="0" alt="image_thumb13" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-CAJWryBmvCQ/ThBJF5wk99I/AAAAAAAAAjg/RdWOOVcPHrM/image_thumb132.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="199" /></a> </p> <p>Click Browse and find the license file you downloaded earlier - this is a time limited evaluation license, it should have the expiration date in its name. Click Import license and you should get a nice green message. </p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8B9F525/image30.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image_thumb16" border="0" alt="image_thumb16" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-zFV-pV09EHg/ThBJGTIhC6I/AAAAAAAAAjk/rhhF2lGUzaE/image_thumb162.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="45" /></a> </p> <p>As it says, you need to restart the Citrix License service to get the licenses. Click Start, Administrative Tools, Services. Find the Citrix License service and give it a bounce.</p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8B9F525/image35.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image_thumb19" border="0" alt="image_thumb19" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-GPZ5XlcV6qE/ThBJG1nWJPI/AAAAAAAAAjo/CtSKbEO6INE/image_thumb192.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="146" /></a> </p> <p>Go back to the Dashboard on the web page and you will see you have 99 Platinum and 99 Enterprise concurrent licenses, plus 4000 startup licenses. Interestingly, this seems to be a reduction from the 5000 servers the older license server supported...</p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8B9F525/image39.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image_thumb21" border="0" alt="image_thumb21" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-ccELZueAwTM/ThBJHbAAmnI/AAAAAAAAAjs/LrMcEsoIKls/image_thumb212.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="113" /></a> </p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>And that's it! Not even a reboot in sight. Bear in mind that you also need Terminal Services (sorry, Remote Desktop Services) licenses, though of course RDS has a 120 grace period on a newly built server, which is plenty for this test. I tend to combine RDS License and Citrix License services on a single server in production, though there's no requirement for this.</p> <p>Next phase is to get a Web Interface server up and running, then we can actually establish the farm.</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-86096214771791426322011-07-03T11:43:00.001+01:002011-07-03T11:44:07.932+01:00Installing XenApp 6.5 Tech Preview - Part 2 – Web Interface 5.4<p>Continuing my build of a demo XenApp 6.5 Tech Preview farm, I’m running through the setup of the new Web Interface, v5.4. In truth there’s nothing new in the initial phase of this setup so first I’ll have a look at what Citrix have to say on the subject. </p> <p>The Citrix eDocs site for this version of the Web Interface is here: <a title="http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/web-interface-impington/wi-library-wrapper-impington.html" href="http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/web-interface-impington/wi-library-wrapper-impington.html">http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/web-interface-impington/wi-library-wrapper-impington.html</a></p> <p><strong>New Features:</strong></p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Updated end user interface.</strong> The layout and color scheme for end users has been updated to help improve navigation and readability.</p> <p><strong>Session sharing for VM hosted applications.</strong> The Web Interface now supports session sharing for Virtual Machine (VM) hosted apps. This feature is only available for seamless applications and non-anonymous users.</p> <p><strong>Multiple desktop access for users.</strong> In previous versions of the Web Interface, users could only access a single instance of a desktop per desktop group. Now, users can access multiple instances of desktops in desktop groups. For more information about assigning desktops to users, see the <a href="http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/index.jsp?topic=/xendesktop/xd-library-wrapper.html">XenDesktop</a> version 5 documentation.</p> <p><strong>Improved smart card support for Access Gateway.</strong> Smart card authentication to the Web Interface is now compatible with more environments. The Web Interface can now accept User Principal Names (UPNs) from Access Gateway as well as the user name and domain. Additionally, the Web Interface has been updated to comply with FIPS. This new functionality can only be used with the pass-through authentication for smart card option and you must be logged on as a domain administrator. For more information about configuring smart card support for Access Gateway, see the <a href="http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/index.jsp?topic=/access-gateway/ag-edocs-landing.html">Access Gateway</a> documentation.</p> <p><strong>Ability to set additional default values.</strong> Administrators can configure default values for all bandwidth-related settings, such as audio quality, color depth, bandwidth profile, printer mapping, and window size.</p> <p><strong>ICA File Signing.</strong> The Web Interface digitally signs generated ICA files, to allow compatible Citrix clients and plug-ins to validate that the file originates from a trusted source. </p> </blockquote> <p>Before we can install the Web Interface, we need the J# Redistributable, which is not installed by default. Its on the XenApp 6.5 DVD though, so run it manually from here (use the 64-bit one if this is Windows Server 2008 R2):</p> <p>\Support\JSharp20_SE\vjredist64.exe </p> <p>On J# is installed, run Server Manager from Administrative Tools. Right click Roles, Click Add Roles. Assuming it is not installed, select Web Server (IIS) on and click Next. </p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8C1006B/image24.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image_thumb12" border="0" alt="image_thumb12" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-lHk493L_nUE/ThBH0-xJQbI/AAAAAAAAAik/3nR8mLAfY_w/image_thumb12%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="129" /></a> </p> <p>If Web Server (IIS) was already installed, select it in Server Managed (under Roles), right click and select Add Roles Services.</p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8C1006B/image22.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image_thumb10" border="0" alt="image_thumb10" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-b8jQv67y1_k/ThBH1RGceRI/AAAAAAAAAio/AHmskO4JKMU/image_thumb10%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="109" /></a> </p> <p>Leave the defaults selected, but turn on ASP.NET if not on already (agreeing to the other components turned on by this)</p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8C1006B/image8.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image_thumb2" border="0" alt="image_thumb2" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-yRft_XdmkU4/ThBH12BAM8I/AAAAAAAAAis/kbPzSHG6xzo/image_thumb2%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="178" height="137" /></a> </p> <p>Then scroll down to Management Tools > IIS 6 Management Capability and turn on IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility too.</p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8C1006B/image11.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image_thumb3" border="0" alt="image_thumb3" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-mchPJV0Ad9w/ThBH2UmHx0I/AAAAAAAAAiw/c6DlJ_VzVuE/image_thumb3%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="232" height="157" /></a> </p> <p>Click Next and Install to install IIS with the IIS 6 Metabase option. If you miss these components, the main Web Interface install will fail with a message telling you what you need on. <br />From the XenApp 6.5 installer file share, find the "Citrix Receiver and Plug-ins" folder in the root of the folder and copy it to the local drive of your new Web Interface server. <br />Execute \Web Interface\WebInterface.exe from the file share.</p> <p>Select your language and agree to the EULA.</p> <p>On the Location of Clients page, click "Copy the clients to this computer" and enter the location of the "Citrix Receiver and Plug-ins" folder you copied in earlier</p> <a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8C1006B/image21.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image_thumb9" border="0" alt="image_thumb9" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasun8VZ-41E95P0NICaayRIOzljhmQARpzlp-4LznjzHjRoRdmwZAXKl216mGdU4yqAiCGoE-_l142XfxtGvuBCZJv573e3J6PmVETNJw51peeNxcl_aK6TYCEFlTBO5nRsNLAmeKTTWq/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="215" /></a> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Click Next and Next to install.</p> <p>After Install (should only take a few seconds) leave the checkbox to Start creating sites now selected and click Finish</p> <p><a href="file:///C:/Users/edjakeman/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles8C1006B/image19.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image_thumb7" border="0" alt="image_thumb7" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-OTkLJUhgYdw/ThBH3d2KLeI/AAAAAAAAAi4/hfsGJ7sabEw/image_thumb7%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="180" /></a> </p> <p>At this point we can’t go any further without creating the farm, so we’ll come back to the Web Interface setup in a while</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-16491203003800361352011-07-01T20:21:00.001+01:002011-07-02T10:55:16.539+01:00Is the Citrix Online Plug-in being discontinued?<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-dDhCe0MMSH4/Tg4eQ3h1MkI/AAAAAAAAAgE/WBQ5cJWtLlY/s1600-h/image%25255B4%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="The good old days" border="0" alt="The good old days" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Y9PwM95OKQE/Tg4eRepgvaI/AAAAAAAAAgI/b1mDJxTr-ng/image_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="440" height="184" /></a> I’m currently having great fun playing with the Tech Preview of XenApp 6.5, which should hopefully be finished later this year.  There’s lots of interesting stuff in it, including new versions of every major server and client component of the XenApp suite and some great changes to the core functionality.</p> <p>But where is the PN Agent?</p> <p>Its been called the Citrix Online Plug-in for a while now, but I still call it the Agent.  Its great.  It can make shortcuts on your desktop or Start Menu, plus you can launch apps straight from your System Tray, down there by the clock.  You can use the same icon to logon as different users, change your authentication and session options, launch Connection Center, refresh your apps, or close Citrix down.  I love it.  I’m currently busy replacing all my 12.0 installations (which is full of bugs) with 12.1, which has been out a suspiciously long time with no major updates.</p> <p>To be fair some people choose to click through the Start Menu rather than launch from the system tray, but without being unfair they are generally the people who don’t use computers much.  The expert users figured out ages ago that the “little blue icon” was two mouse clicks less and have no interest in using the Start Menu.</p> <p>So where the heck is the Online Plug-in on the XenApp 6.5 DVD?  Does the lack of a v13 agent-style Online Plug-in mean its been replaced by the Receiver?</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-MExhVxNBuMw/Tg4eR_WMTaI/AAAAAAAAAgM/wMgTOJ-RL3U/s1600-h/image%25255B9%25255D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="The new improved?" border="0" alt="The new improved?" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQ0Qj7SGIYGZXlVRCnciUBnnV2xAJw4tH5qU0yV2zU1A670wojinl2lTvSzPefBsBly7tkMwpx7aCafIBjZTdv_FAWe_pfcvagA4F2Mrf_lUXI3LJCqexlfYkvNGqvc9B2zUe4Z80SjIJ/?imgmax=800" width="373" height="144" /></a> We’ve investigated the Receiver already and discounted it.  We even built a Merchandising Server 2.1 box which we never used as its only any use for the Receiver.  The Receiver takes away that lovely launching apps from the System Tray functionality and does its best to hide the Connection Center.  Considering we only just persuaded lots of out users to move from the aged Program Neighborhood to the Online Plug-in (which they now love) we’ll be <em>really</em> popular if we tell users that they had forget everything and instead stagger through the Start Menu to find their applications.</p> <p>The most annoying thing (apart from a lack of official word from Citrix to actually help us plan) is that some functionality in XenApp 6.5 (such as pre-launching client connections to speed up logons) will only work in v13 of the client – which looks like its going to be Receiver only.  I am hoping this is not the case.  </p> <p>Citrix, are you reading this?  Can we have some information?  Anyway, from this forum I’m not the only one unimpressed by the Receiver’s deliberately reduced functionality:</p> <p><a title="http://forums.citrix.com/message.jspa?messageID=1455633" href="http://forums.citrix.com/message.jspa?messageID=1455633">http://forums.citrix.com/message.jspa?messageID=1455633</a></p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-27050255210516624022011-07-01T12:50:00.000+01:002011-07-04T12:51:58.211+01:00XenApp 6.5 Tech Preview<p>Now at Tech Preview stage, XenApp 6.5 (previously known as Project Iron Cove) has been in development for over a year, and since this beta is now available for public download the final release should available in around August 2011.</p> <p>The downloads can be found here:</p> <p><a href="http://citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1861926&productId=186">http://citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1861926&productId=186</a></p> <p>You'll need a MyCitrix logon which access to XenApp, and make sure you get both parts - the (huge) iso file and the license file.  The ISO is too big to burn to a single layer DVD anyway, so just extract it with 7zip or a similar product to a shared location all your servers can use. </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-JDTHdhCcYDc/Tg90o8Sq_JI/AAAAAAAAAgU/5zjBR0kKXgw/s1600-h/image4.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-eJHXeMs2FP0/Tg90pKls9KI/AAAAAAAAAgY/s71cFo1DGgw/image_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" width="583" height="117" /></a> </p> <p>XenApp 6.5 is clearly less of a revolution than the last two major releases, XenApp 5 and XenApp 6.  Both of these introduced support for new Operating Systems as a big part of the release, and though nearly every main component of XenApp is upgraded in the release of XenApp 6.5, its more of a gradual evolution from version 6.  The look and feel of both the management tools and the front end should be pretty familiar to anyone with a good knowledge of XenApp 6.  </p> <p>New features introduced in XenApp 6, such as PowerShell management capabilities, Active Directory policies and the unified management management console remain and are developed further.  The Operating System requirements for XenApp 6.5 are unchanged – the 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 only (I would strongly recommend SP1 as well).  As in XenApp 6, some components such as Web Interface can probably go on older OSs, but I would personally use 2008 R2 for all server roles.</p> <p>One interesting change in the client tools is that the Citrix Online Plugin v12.1 seems to be replaced by the Citrix Receiver v13 – not something everyone might welcome.</p> <p>This is a version number comparison of the main components between the Tech Preview of XenApp 6.5 and its predecessor, XenApp 6:</p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="544"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217"><strong>Component</strong> </td> <td valign="top" width="160"><strong>XenApp 6</strong></td> <td valign="top" width="165"><strong>XenApp 6.5</strong> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217"> </td> <td valign="top" width="160"> </td> <td valign="top" width="165"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217">EdgeSight </td> <td valign="top" width="160">5.3 </td> <td valign="top" width="165">5.4 </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217">EdgeSight for Load Testing </td> <td valign="top" width="160">3.7</td> <td valign="top" width="165">3.8</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217">License Server</td> <td valign="top" width="160">11.6.1 build 10007 </td> <td valign="top" width="165">11.9.0 build 11007 </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217">Offline plug-in </td> <td valign="top" width="160">6.0.1 (later 6.0.2)</td> <td valign="top" width="165">6.0.37</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217">Online plug-in</td> <td valign="top" width="160">11.2 (later 12.1) </td> <td valign="top" width="165">Citrix Receiver v13</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217">Power and Capacity Management </td> <td valign="top" width="160">2.0</td> <td valign="top" width="165">2.1</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217">Secure Gateway </td> <td valign="top" width="160">3.2</td> <td valign="top" width="165">3.3 </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217">Streaming Profiler</td> <td valign="top" width="160">6.0.0.1</td> <td valign="top" width="165">6.5.0.6 </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217">Web Interface </td> <td valign="top" width="160">5.2 (later 5.3)</td> <td valign="top" width="165">5.4 </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217">Single Sign-On</td> <td valign="top" width="160">4.8</td> <td valign="top" width="165">5.0</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><strong>New Features</strong></p> <p>This is a quick rundown of the new features in XenApp 6.5, as seen in this Tech Preview.  I’ll cover some of these in more depth later, once I’ve documented the installation of a test farm.</p> <ul> <li><strong>New Server types – </strong>this is similar to a feature which was meant to be in XenApp 6, but which never appeared.  That was the idea of having dedicated Data Collectors – XenApp servers which could only be DCs and which presumably would be stripped down.  This is that idea in reverse, with servers being either capable of doing all roles (“Controller Servers”), or only hosting applications (“Session-Only Servers”), and not being Data Collectors.  They lack features such as XML service and don’t participate in Zone Data Collector elections. </li> <li><strong>XenApp Connector for Configuration Manager 2007 – </strong>Lets you use SCCM to manage windows updates and publish applications on the XenApp servers </li> <li><strong>Session Prelaunch</strong> – for client PCs with v13 or later of the client only, Session Linger creates a connection with the farm under configurable conditions, such as a user logging onto a PC.  This sounds great, although those sessions will take up both server resources and concurrent user licenses.  And frankly users can achieve something like this by putting a Citrix application in their Startup folder.  That said, its innovative and will be very useful for some people.  As long as it doesn’t become compulsory. </li> <li><strong>Session Linger – </strong>extending the other end of a normal Citrix session, Linger means that when a user closes all their apps, their connection stays open for while in case they launch another app, saving the time to log back into the farm.  Streamed to Server apps in XenApp 5 and 6 work this way already by default, with a 5 minute linger.  Personally I turn this off already to save load. </li> <li><strong>Fast Reconnect</strong> – unlike Linger and Prelaunch this doesn’t need to be configured. It claims to reduce the time to reconnect to existing sessions. We’ll see. </li> <li><strong>Power and Capacity Management – </strong>This is now enhanced with the ability to power on Hyper-V and VMware based XenApp Servers. </li> <li><strong>Load Evaluator changes – </strong>Load Evaluators are no longer assigned to servers, but to Worker Groups or OUs. </li> <li><strong>Application Streaming support for VHDs</strong> - This feature copies the profile contents into the VHD and mounts it in the RadeCache location at application launch. </li> <li><strong>Application Streaming improvements</strong> – other changes to streaming include handling the AppHubWhiteList registry key better (it was a pain in XenApp 6) and launch time improvements, especially in Outlook apparently!  Outlook 2010 streamed was not good in XenApp 6 so that sounds good. </li> <li><strong>AppCenter</strong> – yes, they’ve renamed the management console AGAIN. </li> <li><strong>Migration Center – </strong>a tool to help migrate from previous versions of XenApp </li> <li><strong>Printer Optimizations</strong> – printing has been getting better and better recently, with the dynamic printer mappings being added to XenApp by a Hotfix and the 12.1 being especially good.  XenApp 6.5 builds on this, further improving printing. </li> <li><strong>Windows Desktop Integration Experience</strong> – A Windows 7 look and feel for published desktops – it has to be said this wasn’t terribly hard to accomplish in XenApp 6, but it sounds easier to turn on.  It’ll be interesting to see whether this includes Aero. </li> <li><strong>HDX Enhancements</strong> – Generally better apparently. </li> <li><strong>Multi Stream ICA Client</strong> – v13 of the client is now multi streamed, meaning it can connect over multiple ports at the same time (this is configurable), improving performance. </li> </ul> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-77284048399113076702011-06-30T13:19:00.001+01:002011-06-30T13:19:49.547+01:00Citrix Online Plug-in v12.1.44.1 brings IE9 support<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4WKRXUZABtJZCr7waMmvJYZXUt8z99GNdNVX_LXFMMSqnZNeSQMplWnJA08bu001L5xkAFYj6YpkFI8Upq3I6eGUu9K1MyVix3kPn8HA2d9gzh2X92P3JI4upfs0PdKNsMlW-OwdPKmud/s1600-h/image%25255B5%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-ROaJfr9Km8k/Tgxp5PH09wI/AAAAAAAAAgA/o9Wsr1x4eHU/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="377" height="226" /></a>Citrix have released a minor upgrade for their now pretty aged v12.1 of the Citrix Online Plug-in, which has been the current version of the client since November 2010.  This is to fix issues which some users had in launching applications after they upgraded to Internet Explorer 9.</p> <p>IE9 is a little annoying at the best of times with Citrix’s Web Interface as it now often asks you to download and open an ICA file instead of just launching your application, but some users have reported that they don’t even get the option to open the ICA file with the old version, v12.1.0.30, due to a sharing violation. The problem was certainly not seen by everyone – I have been using IE9 with more than one Web Interface site for over a month without issue.  Users on the same sites and same browser and OS versions reported issues to me.</p> <p>The new client has no other fixes listed than support for IE9 (which can still display the ICA download popup message – but it actually works now) so a major rollout of this client would probably be unnecessary.  Citrix even state on the notes for this release “Any known issues in Version 12.1 of the product, except for the specific issues resolved in this private online plug-in, still apply.”  Those known issues can be seen here: <a title="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126965" href="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126965">http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126965</a></p> <p>Oddly, the old broken 12.1.0.30 client is still the main plug-in to download – you need to logon to MyCitrix to download the working version.  </p> <p>Full details here:</p> <p><a title="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126653" href="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126653">http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126653</a></p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-87850271858921536532011-06-28T15:11:00.001+01:002011-06-28T15:11:18.792+01:00Installing XenApp 6 Hotfixes<p>Until Citrix release a proper service pack for XenApp 6 (I’ve heard this might still be months off), having your Citrix hotfixes up to date is really important.  Frankly, there are some killer bugs in the initial release of XenApp 6 – luckily the patching system works well.</p> <p>Download the Hotfixes from here:</p> <p><a title="http://support.citrix.com/product/xa/v6.0_2008r2/hotfix/general/public" href="http://support.citrix.com/product/xa/v6.0_2008r2/hotfix/general/public">http://support.citrix.com/product/xa/v6.0_2008r2/hotfix/general/public</a></p> <p>I build my servers using Altiris, but I have found that using Altiris can be an unreliable way of installing Citrix hotfixes.  Instead I now have a file share with the hotfixes in, together with a batch file that installs them all in one go and then reboots once at the end.  Rebooting after every hotfix is not necessary, although the order they are installed in can be important.  </p> <p>The script I use is adapted from one written by Paul Johnson which I got from the forum below, so all credit to Paul for sharing this: <a title="http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=282008" href="http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=282008"> <br />http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=282008</a></p> <p>Note that the script I use does not install every hotfix Citrix have released – some fix issues I have not come across yet, others are for other versions or languages only.  Therefore, this might not be a complete script for you – its worth looking at the other hotfixes on the Citrix site.</p> <p>Anyway, this is the current script!</p> <blockquote> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">@echo off <br />setlocal <br />Change user /install </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">echo Installing XenApp6 Hotfix XA600W2K8R2X64002 (CTX126123)... <br />START /wait msiexec /p \\filesvr01\xenapp$\XenApp6Hotfixes\002-XA600W2K8R2X64002.msp /passive /norestart /Liewa c:\logs\XA600W2K8R2X64002.log <br />timeout /t 10 /NOBREAK </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">echo Installing XenApp6 Hotfix XA600W2K8R2X64010 (CTX126490)... <br />START /wait msiexec /p \\filesvr01\xenapp$\XenApp6Hotfixes\010-XA600W2K8R2X64010.msp /passive /norestart /Liewa c:\logs\XA600W2K8R2X64010.log <br />timeout /t 10 /NOBREAK </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">echo Installing XenApp6 Hotfix XA600W2K8R2X64017 (CTX126958)... <br />START /wait msiexec /p \\filesvr01\xenapp$\XenApp6Hotfixes\017-XA600W2K8R2X64017.msp /passive /norestart /Liewa c:\logs\XA600W2K8R2X64017.log <br />timeout /t 10 /NOBREAK </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">echo Installing XenApp6 Hotfix XA600W2K8R2X64029 (CTX127405)... <br />START /wait msiexec /p \\filesvr01\xenapp$\XenApp6Hotfixes\029-XA600W2K8R2X64029.msp /passive /norestart /Liewa c:\logs\XA600W2K8R2X64029.log <br />timeout /t 10 /NOBREAK </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">echo Installing XenApp6 Hotfix XAE600W2K8R2X64020 (CTX127025)... <br />START /wait msiexec /p \\filesvr01\xenapp$\XenApp6Hotfixes\020-XAE600W2K8R2X64020.msp /passive /norestart /Liewa c:\logs\XAE600W2K8R2X64020.log <br />timeout /t 10 /NOBREAK </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">echo Installing XenApp6 Hotfix XA600W2K8R2X64021 (CTX127036)... <br />START /wait msiexec /p \\filesvr01\xenapp$\XenApp6Hotfixes\021-XA600W2K8R2X64021.msp /passive /norestart /Liewa c:\logs\XA600W2K8R2X64021.log <br />timeout /t 10 /NOBREAK </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">echo Installing XenApp6 Hotfix XAE600W2K8R2X64018 (CTX127023)... <br />START /wait msiexec /p \\filesvr01\xenapp$\XenApp6Hotfixes\018-XAE600W2K8R2X64018.msp /passive /norestart /Liewa c:\logs\XAE600W2K8R2X64018.log <br />timeout /t 10 /NOBREAK </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">echo Installing XenApp6 Hotfix XA600W2K8R2X64012 (CTX126679)... <br />START /wait msiexec /p \\filesvr01\xenapp$\XenApp6Hotfixes\012-XA600W2K8R2X64012.msp /passive /norestart /Liewa c:\logs\XA600W2K8R2X64012.log <br />timeout /t 10 /NOBREAK </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">echo Installing XenApp6 Hotfix XA600W2K8R2X64040 (CTX127523)... <br />START /wait msiexec /p \\filesvr01\xenapp$\XenApp6Hotfixes\040-XA600W2K8R2X64040.msp /passive /norestart /Liewa c:\logs\XA600W2K8R2X64040.log <br />timeout /t 10 /NOBREAK </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">echo Installing XenApp6 Hotfix XA600W2K8R2X64056 (CTX128945)... <br />START /wait msiexec /p \\filesvr01\xenapp$\XenApp6Hotfixes\056-XA600W2K8R2X64056.msp /passive /norestart /Liewa c:\logs\XA600W2K8R2X64056.log <br />timeout /t 10 /NOBREAK </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Cordia New">endlocal <br />shutdown -r -t 0</font></p> </blockquote> <p>I save the script in the same folder as the hotfixes called “installall.bat”.  On a single server I build I’d just run this manually from the console, with a lot of servers to build I would use Citrix’s new Installation Manager (which <em>is </em>basic, but it does work…) to create a new schedule – for instance:</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-notR1_GtJvY/Tgng9pZvXyI/AAAAAAAAAfY/AkF43eNfIpM/s1600-h/deleteme%25255B3%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="deleteme" border="0" alt="deleteme" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-rwIzVWbqgvI/Tgng-RiJVAI/AAAAAAAAAfc/VWf9_YUYRIQ/deleteme_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="585" height="412" /></a> </p> <p>Obviously if a single new update comes out I can then create another batch file to just install that one and reboot, then set Installation Manager to do the whole farm out of hours.</p> <p>Note that you can then use the Delivery Services Console to find servers which are lacking hotfixes.  To see the servers at a glance…</p> <ul> <li>Launch the Citrix Services Delivery Console (installed on manually built servers by default)</li> <li>Set your farm connection up if needed</li> <li>Click your farm name under the XenApp link on the left</li> <li>Select the Hotfix Summary tab</li> <li>You should now see all your servers, along with a useful count of hotfixes installed</li> </ul> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-iATj7Be_1Dc/Tgng-8RnYcI/AAAAAAAAAfg/pm55FeNbOjI/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-9kNi9_HNeT8/Tgng_nYN_wI/AAAAAAAAAfk/EnZYXBMNjUI/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="816" height="538" /></a></p> <p>If you then find a server which is missing hotfixes in the Servers section and click its Hotfix Details tab, you should see a list of the installed hotfixes.  So for the server above with only two hotfixes installed, I can go to it and see this is very out of date!</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-z54uTiwARE0/TgnhAIXMo8I/AAAAAAAAAfs/Z1MXk3rn8LA/s1600-h/image%25255B11%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-alLTDkVRr-4/TgnhAuV3s5I/AAAAAAAAAfw/0YhdijqSgLg/image_thumb%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="519" height="247" /></a> </p> <p>Note if you want to search for a server missing a specific hotfix, Open the DSC, click Search, and select Servers without hotfix:</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Sz4j8e2Uw6I/TgnhBDRATII/AAAAAAAAAf0/V2YDDISOhNM/s1600-h/image%25255B18%25255D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-8kCOTjw9UW4/TgnhBWqLjAI/AAAAAAAAAf4/0NaloFdnzos/image_thumb%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="471" height="243" /></a></p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-20386682851430522752011-04-28T11:21:00.001+01:002011-04-28T11:21:25.428+01:00XenApp 6 and Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2<p>No-one who has had a production XenApp 6 system since mid-last year would claim they have had no issues, but with all the latest hotfixes from MS and Citrix we do seem to be getting closer to stability, and a big part of this is Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2.  </p> <p>This is something of a relief after I tried using the beta of SP1 last year – that broke XenApp altogether!</p> <p>Citrix have said that they support the use of XenApp 6 with 2008 R2 SP1, and I can confirm that I have SP1 servers in production already and they are working perfectly – well, at least no worse than the non SP1 servers! </p> <p>Citrix do have a page of known issues with SP1, though they appear to be fixed if you have installed the first XenApp 6 hotfix</p> <p>Known issues: <a title="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126711" href="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126711">http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126711</a></p> <p>Hotfix: <a title="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX125388" href="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX125388">http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX125388</a></p> <p>Apart from any general improvements and security fixes Microsoft have made, there are several which appear to be included in SP1 and are especially useful for XenApp 6 servers:</p> <ul> <li>KB975777 (delays shutting down systems) </li> <li>KB979530 (connections denied during heavy logon and logoff conditions) </li> <li>KB980663 (stop error during heavy logon and logoff conditions) </li> <li>KB2265716 (server stops randomly if heavily using group policy and SCOM) </li> <li>KB2383928 (remote sessions to not completely exit) </li> </ul> <p>I would still install this post-SP1 patch by the way:</p> <ul> <li>KB2465772 (causes XenApp to stop randomly with lots of 7011 errors about services being unresponsive – a very long standing problem for us) </li> </ul> <p>Personally by the way, I would probably rebuild servers with SP1 installed from the start, rather than add SP1 onto a server which has been in use for a long time.  But then XenApp servers like being rebuilt now and then.</p> <p>As a note, when I installed Service Pack 1 on a server which was already operational and had the EdgeSight Agent running, I then got an EdgeSight Operational Alert:</p> <blockquote> <p>Error:  An unrecoverable, fatal database error has occurred.  Shutting down the Citrix System Monitoring Agent.</p> </blockquote> <p>Nice.  EdgeSight carried on working afterwards though.</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-19124483005052427262011-03-15T12:53:00.000+00:002011-04-28T13:54:41.359+01:00Citrix Web Interface errors: Some of your resources have not been reconnected…<p>We had an annoying message suddenly appear this morning for all web interface users on logging in and out.  When they logged in they were told “Some of your resources have not been reconnected.  Try reconnecting to your resources again and, if the problem persists, contact your system administrator”:</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TbljhshqBGI/AAAAAAAAAe8/MxMKNOKLoSo/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TbljiNGFz7I/AAAAAAAAAfA/bZYzXh4AO6Y/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="627" height="55" /></a> </p> <p>And when they logged out, they were told “Some of your resources have not been logged off.  Ensure you have shut down all your active resources.  If this message does not usually appear at the end of your sessions, contact your system administrator”</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TbljictbfsI/AAAAAAAAAfE/p8DtblxQGJA/s1600-h/image%5B7%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/Tblji7s0nKI/AAAAAAAAAfI/UpZbZw4ErwU/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="663" height="53" /></a> </p> <p>Turns out the users were quite willing to contact their system administrator as well!  Repeatedly.  I especially like the way the second message assumes you might just always see this message and that this would be okay.</p> <p>A bit of Googling turned up that we would get rid of this be turning off Workspace Control.  This is in the Citrix Web Interface Management console – right click your websites, select Workspace Control and uncheck the first checkbox…</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/Tbljjaqna-I/AAAAAAAAAfM/ys8RgCeNY_g/s1600-h/image%5B10%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/Tbljj8btdOI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/ataz26L7-4c/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="240" /></a> </p> <p>This removed the message – and also the Reconnect and Disconnect buttons.  Not the end of the world, but not the intention either.  </p> <p>Then I noticed in the event log on the web interface box lots of Application errors of ID 31003 and 30015.  These had messages of…</p> <ul> <li>All the Citrix XML Services configured for farm Test XenApp Farm failed to respond to this XML Service transaction. </li> <li>The Citrix XML Service at address <a href="http://xensvr01:80/scripts/wpnbr.dll">http://xensvr01:80/scripts/wpnbr.dll</a> [com.citrix.xml.NFuseProtocol.RequestAppData] is not able to process requests</li> </ul> <p>It was just a test farm with one server which was set up in the web interface, and I was installing updates on it and rebooting repeatedly.  Every time it was unavailable the website was giving the message to users logging in and out as a farm was offline – even though none of the users would be logging into that farm.  Once the work was completed the error stopped coming up.</p> <p>A good lesson that when you ignore some errors they fix themselves!</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-63650949108359282202010-12-20T14:49:00.001+00:002010-12-20T14:49:35.929+00:00Streaming Firefox 3.6 on XenApp 6<p>This appears to be a surprisingly simple app to stream on XenApp – so far.  My one criticism is that its not very obvious how to customise the application, but after a bit of research it wasn’t too hard.</p> <p>I’m assuming here you want to turn off any updates (its a stream, so you will need to re-stream it to apply any updates – which given the amount of bugs that are discovered in Firefox is a good idea to do on a regular basis) and you probably want to stop it being the default browser on your systems.  After all, if you DO want it to be the default browser, you are probably not going to stream it – just install it on your XenApp servers properly.</p> <p><strong>Preparation – getting the files to configure</strong></p> <p>Step one is to download the latest installer from http://www.mozilla.org/firefox/.  Install it to a PC manually and have it ready to use on your streaming profiler.</p> <p>Make a copy of this file to edit… C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\firefox.js <br />Remember on a 64-bit system this will appear in c:\program files (x86)…</p> <p>Also get a copy of C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components\nsBrowserGlue.js</p> <p>Finally, create a new text file called override.ini.</p> <p>Put these three text files and the installer together and prepare them before streaming.  Use Notepad++ instead of Notepad so it shows the line breaks properly.</p> <p><strong>Preparation – disabling the default browser check</strong></p> <p>Open your firefox.js file in Notepad++ – search for the phrase “checkDefaultBrowser” and change “true” to “false”</p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Courier New">pref("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser", false); </font></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Preparation – disabling updates</strong></p> <p>Still editing firefox.js in Notepad++, search for “update”.  Find these lines and change “true” to “false”</p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Courier New">pref("browser.search.update", false);</font></p> <p><font face="Courier New">pref("app.update.enabled", false);</font></p> <p><font face="Courier New">pref("extensions.update.enabled", false);</font></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Preparation – pre-configure Proxy settings</strong></p> <p>Assuming you want to specify Proxy settings, search for “share_proxy_settings” in firefox.js.  Change “true” to “false”</p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Courier New">pref("network.proxy.share_proxy_settings",  true); </font></p> </blockquote> <p>You now should now add in a load of lines (assuming they are not already in the file) for your proxy settings.  These are just examples – obviously put in your own settings for proxy server address, port and exceptions:</p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Courier New">pref("network.proxy.ftp", "192.168.1.10"); <br />pref("network.proxy.ftp_port", 80); <br />pref("network.proxy.gopher", "192.168.1.10"); <br />pref("network.proxy.gopher_port", 80); <br />pref("network.proxy.http", "192.168.1.10"); <br />pref("network.proxy.http_port", 80); <br />pref("network.proxy.socks", "192.168.1.10"); <br />pref("network.proxy.socks_port", 80); <br />pref("network.proxy.ssl", "192.168.1.10"); <br />pref("network.proxy.ssl_port", 80); <br />pref("network.proxy.type", 1); <br />pref("network.proxy.no_proxies_on", "localhost, 127.0.0.1, 192.168.0.0/16"); </font></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Preparation – prevent the annoying “Welcome to Firefox version 3.6” home page tab for new users.</strong></p> <p>By default a user in Citrix running Firefox will see an extra tab when they open it for the first time with a page extolling the virtues of the new version they just installed.  This is not needed!  Add this line to the firefox.js file:</p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Courier New">pref("browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone", "ignore");</font></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Preparation – getting rid of the “Do you want to save your tabs” dialog on closing Firefox</strong></p> <p>You probably want to just want your users to open their home page next time you open the browser, so the functionality to open their old tabs is not needed.  Find and amend these lines in firefox.js to stop these messages:</p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Courier New">pref("browser.tabs.warnOnClose", false); <br />pref("browser.tabs.warnOnOpen", false); <br />pref("browser.warnOnQuit", true);</font></p> <p><font face="Courier New">// 0 = blank, 1 = home (browser.startup.homepage), 2 = last visited page, 3 = resume previous browser session <br />// The behavior of option 3 is detailed at: </font><a href="http://wiki.mozilla.org/Session_Restore"><font face="Courier New">http://wiki.mozilla.org/Session_Restore</font></a><font face="Courier New"> <br />pref("browser.startup.page",                1);</font></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Preparation – preventing the “Know your rights” button appearing </strong></p> <p>By default when you open Firefox it will keep producing a bar under the tabs list with a button called “Know your rights” and some text telling you that this is open source software.  Very annoying, but easy to suppress.  </p> <p>Edit C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components\nsBrowserGlue.js in Notepad++ – remove or comment (with “//”) the line:</p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Courier New">var rightsBundle = this._bundleService.createBundle("chrome://global/locale/aboutRights.properties");</font></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Preparation – prevent the “Import your settings data data” wizard</strong></p> <p>The final annoyance, this wizard is launched the first time you open Firefox and isn’t useful in a Citrix environment.  Edit the blank text file called override.ini and add these lines:</p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Courier New">[XRE] <br />EnableProfileMigrator=false</font></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Streaming Firefox</strong></p> <p>Now you have your installer and your three modified text files (override.ini, firefox.js and nsBrowserGlue.js), install is easy…</p> <ol> <li>Open the Citrix Streaming Profiler on your profiler machine.  If you are streaming this to Stream To Server on XenApp 6, this should be a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine </li> <li>Create a new profile </li> <li>Click Next until you get to the Quick or Advanced Install option – choose Advanced </li> <li>Click Next and Next to run an install program </li> <li>Browse to your Firefox installer and select it.  Click next and Launch Installer. <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TQ9s8bjNZAI/AAAAAAAAAeI/VjE_LtDsumo/s1600-h/image%5B2%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TQ9s8zdh5pI/AAAAAAAAAeM/KWYfccSQPNA/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="172" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TQ9s9LEssVI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/NkXi84kEvnw/s1600-h/image%5B5%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TQ9s9luh9-I/AAAAAAAAAeU/CdhaGsML30Q/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="187" /></a> </li> <li>Click Next, Custom, and keep pressing Next until you get to the default web browser checkbox-  uncheck it so its not the default. <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TQ9s97N15eI/AAAAAAAAAeY/LnI1MRX2t4I/s1600-h/image%5B11%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TQ9s-X8zezI/AAAAAAAAAec/2298_lj1kWQ/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="188" /></a> </li> <li>Click Next to install.  Untick the box to Launch Firefox Now and click Finish </li> <li>Click Next and Perform Additional Installations </li> <li>Click Select files and folders and click Next </li> <li>On the left hand side browse to the text files you edited earlier <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TQ9s-v579WI/AAAAAAAAAeg/b_1lQEE4YmI/s1600-h/image%5B14%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TQ9s_A6aZzI/AAAAAAAAAek/iA7GOdRVHDA/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="171" /></a> </li> <li>Copy firefox.js into the profile at “C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref”, overwriting the existing file </li> <li>Copy nsBrowserGlue.js into the profile at “C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\components”, again overwriting the existing file </li> <li>Copy override.ini into the profile at “C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\” – this should be a new file </li> <li>Click Next and Finish Installations </li> <li>Click Next and run Firefox.  You should now be able to check the settings you specified above on updates, default browser, wizards, etc – it should all be pre-configured if the files are right. </li> <li>Close Firefox and click Next. </li> <li>You can probably delete the entry for “Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode) <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TQ9s_aUErqI/AAAAAAAAAeo/kdPNR5xBp7w/s1600-h/image%5B17%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TQ9s_z-2tZI/AAAAAAAAAes/OZ_FocrAb80/image_thumb%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="197" /></a> </li> <li>Click Next and Finish, then save your profile on a network location. </li> <li>Publish an application to your farm, streamed from the profile you just saved – you should get a nice, clean, pre-configured browser. </li> </ol> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-83915509902543784742010-12-06T14:06:00.001+00:002010-12-06T14:06:46.952+00:00EdgeSight 5.3 and the empty reports<p>I’ve just got EdgeSight 5.3 working, running with SQL Server 2008, after an unlikely amount of messing around.  This surprised me as <a href="http://zenapp.blogspot.com/2010/08/installing-edgesight-server-53-with-sql.html" target="_blank">when I last installed this</a>, using SQL Express instead of full-blown SQL 2008, it all went well.  </p> <p>This time I at first tried to be too up to date and used two Windows Server 2008 R2 machines for the website and SQL parts, backed by SQL Server 2008 R2. Turns out that SQL Server 2008 R2 is too advanced for EdgeSight 5.3 – it only supports 2005 and 2008.  I wasn’t sure if Windows Server 2008 R2 was any good either, so went back to 2008.</p> <p>Then I tried using a separate shared SQL Server which didn’t have Reporting Services on, planning to use SQL Express with Advanced Features (including Reporting Services) on the website box.  That didn’t work out either as the version of Reporting Services you get with SQL Express can only report on local databases.</p> <p>So I finally use a shared SQL 2008 (non-R2) server that <em>does </em>have proper reporting services on it, and it still doesn’t work.  It looks like it will, Reporting Services setup went fine, but whenever I look at the reports, they’re blank.  And I notice at the bottom of the page in IE it says “error on page”.  Never a good sign.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPzt73kgcNI/AAAAAAAAAd4/ioFJmpwtA9c/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPzt8YtRQ-I/AAAAAAAAAd8/FSqcvScVKpk/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="644" height="384" /></a> </p> <p>Double clicking on this error gets some errors, generally from the “rsproxy” page, which mean nothing to me…</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPzt84uH2EI/AAAAAAAAAeA/_0LHvOXPEAI/s1600-h/image%5B7%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPzt9bEX8zI/AAAAAAAAAeE/kSP91iMr_bI/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="610" height="404" /></a> </p> <p>I also got an error that parametersController was null or not an object.  Very helpful.  Googling this got me learning too much about Reporting Services without finding anything useful.</p> <p>Then I saw this Citrix article about an older version of EdgeSight which told me the problem…</p> <p><a title="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX119547" href="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX119547">http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX119547</a></p> <p>Basically, its a trailing slash in the Reporting Services URL.  In EdgeSight, I clicked Configure, then Reporting Services, Report Server, took the end slash off the URL, entered my password and clicked Save Changes.  The reports were recreated on the SQL box, which took a few minutes, I did an IISreset on the EdgeSight server and its all working – several weeks after I started trying!  </p> <p>I like the fact this has been a known issue for Citrix since version 5.0 and the interface still doesn’t strip off any slashes at the end of the Reporting Services URL…</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242837870074734322.post-91291610224344245512010-12-02T14:02:00.001+00:002011-05-20T08:49:42.566+01:00Shadowing in XenApp 6<p>The ability of an administrator or helpdesk to shadow their users is about as basic as it gets – a system like XenApp used to distribute applications remotely is unlikely to be serving a group of people in one room.  Yet bizarrely this feature, hardly recent addition to Citrix’s offering, has had quite profound problems in XenApp 6.</p> <p>Broadly, there are a couple of issues.  The first is the Citrix client – versions 11.2 and 12.0 of the online plug-in had serious problems regarding shadowing which have only just been fixed in v12.1, which I am now recommending for anyone who might shadow a user.  The second is the heady technology that is having two monitors.  Basically, it would appear shadowing was only ever tested on machines with a single monitor – either that or Citrix released XenApp 6 knowing it had a major broken feature.</p> <p>In my initial test environment when I started evaluating XenApp 6 I was using the v11.2 client on a pair of PCs with two monitors each so you can understand my initial estimate was the shadowing was in fact completely impossible.</p> <p><strong>The Client bug </strong></p> <p>The v11.2 and v12.0 online plug-ins do appear to support shadowing – mostly.  But when it connects it often only displays part of the user’s screen, with the image clipped at the sides and no way of scrolling, and sometimes it just closes immediately with an Error 120 messagebox.  This was not limited to XenApp 6, I had it on an old Presentation Server 4.0 farm. Apparently there was a workaround to publish the admin console as a non-seamless application, though the v11.0 client usually worked and the new 12.1 client does too.  </p> <p>Basically, upgrade the helpdesk users to 12.1 and the clipping issue should go away.</p> <p><strong>The Dual Monitors bug</strong></p> <p>Ah, the biggie.  Basically, if the user being shadowed OR the user doing the shadowing has more than one monitor, you cannot shadow their seamless applications.  Pretty basic, really.  </p> <p>Shadowing from a PC with one monitor to one with two gives the useful error “Error 7044 – The request to control another session remotely was denied”:</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTklWXXSuyDCOi2qRvp73Db8TnkGpHgF6z9UILrpUZ2YeRB0lT3fbCqICD4aSIWMReETeDMbPpTFbNGqy0DL01kCC3qGwO3p_sk_6lhh6vfnXZQ3k8wyLlJcx519U8VeUBetcSCjHX_jZT/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPem64LLj3I/AAAAAAAAAdM/GlA5PI2QBA8/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="240" height="101" /></a> </p> <p>This sounds like an access issue, but it isn’t.  Its been denied because its not possible.  If you shadow from a PC with two monitors to one with a single monitor you get the real error - “Error 120 – this function is not supported on this system”.  Because it isn’t.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPem7VYaPkI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/Sh-kXlgvuAk/s1600-h/image%5B7%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPem77E6AxI/AAAAAAAAAdU/lqoJIg_g2HM/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="240" height="100" /></a> </p> <p>I’ve raised this with Citrix – they say its a Microsoft issue with shadowing on 2008 R2.  I build a Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services server hosting seamless applications through a web interface and it does indeed do exactly the same thing – sessions started on a PC with two monitors cannot be Remotely Controlled – you get told “Access is denied”.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPem8Vgi7bI/AAAAAAAAAdY/kRsP3PCGawM/s1600-h/image%5B11%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPem8z9UK0I/AAAAAAAAAdc/MmmEZ5i-mAs/image_thumb%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="240" height="124" /></a> </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPem9VgfWHI/AAAAAAAAAdg/TK2pA_hiPkc/s1600-h/image%5B15%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPem-4Q9IvI/AAAAAAAAAdk/ReyqswC1Gg4/image_thumb%5B7%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="198" height="244" /></a>Nice. So I raise it with Microsoft Support who say this is “by design”, not a bug.  Though it might be “redesigned” in the future.  Its actually easy to fix on RDS: </p> <ul> <li>On each RDS server, open “Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration” </li> <li>Right click RDP-Tcp, select Properties </li> <li>Select Client Settings </li> <li>Change the maximum number of monitors to 1.  </li> </ul> <p>Not much good if you specifically want a two monitor Terminal Services session, but it will work for seamless apps.  Anyway, the same fix does nothing for XenApp I’m afraid.</p> <p>Enough of this nonsense.  These workarounds suggest themselves for XenApp 6 which will get shadowing possible in most cases:</p> <ol> <li>Make sure your admin people have the v12.1 online plug-in <br /></li> <li>Publish your XenApp management tools as a Desktop, or even better as a non-seamless application.  This will get around problems caused by your helpdesk and admin staff having two monitors.  You can see instructions on how to force a single published application to be “windowed” rather than seamless here: <a title="http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=265084&tstart=0" href="http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=265084&tstart=0">http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=265084&tstart=0</a>.  But basically you edit the conf\default.ica file in each site on your web interface box to include some extra lines, starting with the name of the published app in square brackets, such as: <br /> <br />[XenApp Console] <br />TWIMode=Off <br />ScreenPercent=85 <br /></li> <li>If a dual monitor user calls up and asks to be shadowed, tell them to close their Citrix applications, disable all but one monitor and launch them again!  Just kidding, though that <em>would</em> work… <br /></li> <li>Ask said user to launch a published desktop which you have configured to be of a specific size – say 1024x768 or 90%.  If this has a Citrix client in it, they can launch apps there and you will be able to shadow the desktop and see its contents. <br /></li> <li>Alternatively, get them to temporarily change their client to open all apps in a specific window size rather than seamless.  So, if they use the online plug-in, right click its icon, select Options, Session Options and select a Window Size: <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPem_BNKCoI/AAAAAAAAAdo/8NSFGspWT0A/s1600-h/image%5B22%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPem_jZ8G8I/AAAAAAAAAds/2mLjRjqtfvY/image_thumb%5B10%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="543" height="171" /></a> <br />…or if they use the Web Interface, get them to go to Preferences, Session Settings and select the Window Size there instead: <br /> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPenAHVhXhI/AAAAAAAAAdw/wb6vKR8TttM/s1600-h/image%5B23%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_F0PlwQhuO2c/TPenA0CpBBI/AAAAAAAAAd0/pyL_-r0g4fM/image_thumb%5B11%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="451" height="259" /></a> </li> </ol> <blockquote> <p>The next session they start you should be able to shadow.  </p> <p>This is, of course, all a bit rubbish.  Hopefully it will get fixed soon, whether its a Citrix or Microsoft fix.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>UPDATE 20/05/2011</strong></p> <p>Thanks for the comments below – I had meant to update this entry anyway.  We <em>did</em> make some progress on this, though it wasn’t great.  We found that indeed Remote Assistance works fine, so have been using it on clients with two monitors.  We also found that the v12.0 client was rubbish for this as well (the XenApp sessions work initially when shadowed but then start flashing dramatically – this is fixed with a v12.1 upgrade).  At least the users could be shadowed, at least the ones on the network could.  Not much use for someone on a remote PC not on our LAN though.</p> <p>The comment below about using Remote Assistance to the <em>server</em> session is interesting though.  I’m off to experiment now…</p> Labmousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845725822582163949noreply@blogger.com6