Author: Carl Stalhood

Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) 1912 LTSR CU9

Last Modified: Apr 30, 2024 @ 11:22 am

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Change Log

Hardware

Hypervisor Host Hardware

  • G0-EUC Moore’s law of Windows 10 1903 – Newer versions of Windows 10 have lower density than older versions
  • Citrix Blog Post Citrix Scalability — The Rule of 5 and 10: Simply take the number of physical cores in a hypervisor host, multiply it by 5 or 10, and the result will be your Single Server Scalability. Use 5 if you’re looking for the number of Virtual Desktop VMs you can host on a box, and use 10 if you’re looking for the number of Virtual Apps user sessions you can host on a box.

Virtual Machine Hardware

  1. Operating system version support: VDA 1912 LTSR Cumulative Update 8 supports Windows 10 64-bit (1607 and newer), Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2012 R2.
    • Windows 11 is not supported in CVAD 1912, but it is supported in CVAD 2109 and newer.
    • For older operating systems (e.g., Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2), install VDA 7.15 with the latest Cumulative Update. VDA 7.15 will work with newer Delivery Controllers (e.g., Delivery Controller 1909 and 1903).
  2. Microsoft TechNet Blog – Say No to Windows 10 Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC)
    • No Edge
    • From January 2020, Microsoft Office 365 will not be supported on LTSC
    • Non-security operating system fixes and enhancements may not get back-ported to LTSC
  3. CTX224843 Windows 10 compatibility with Citrix Virtual Desktops (XenDesktop)

  4. Hypervisor Support – CTX131239 Supported Hypervisors for Virtual Desktops (XenDesktop) and Provisioning Services
  5. Firewall – the UDP-based EDT protocol is enabled by default. Make sure the UDP ports are open for ICA/HDX:
    1. UDP 1494
    2. UDP 2598
    3. UDP 443 – from Internet to Citrix Gateway.
    4. UDP 443 can also be used by internal ICA connections if VDA SSL is configured.
    5. For EDT through Citrix Gateway, make sure your Citrix ADC firmware is up to date, preferably 12.1 or newer. Then enable DTLS on the Gateway Virtual Server.
  6. VDA virtual machine sizing:
    1. For Windows 10 virtual desktops, give the virtual machine: 2+ vCPU and 4+ GB of RAM
    2. For Windows 2016 RDSH, give the virtual machine 8 vCPU, and 24-48 GB of RAM
    3. See Daniel Feller Sizing Windows 2016, Windows 2012 And Windows 10 Virtual Machines
  7. If using RAM caching (MCSIO or PvS), add more RAM for the cache
  8. Remove the floppy drive
  9. Remove any serial or LPT ports
  10. If vSphere:
    1. To reduce disk space, reserve memory. Memory reservations reduce or eliminate the virtual machine .vswp file.
    2. The NIC should be VMXNET3.
    3. For vGPU, if vSphere 6.7 Update 1 or newer, set vgpu.hotmigrate.enabled Advanced vCenter Server Setting to true. (source = William Lam How to enable vGPU vMotion in vSphere 6.7 Update 1)
  11. For User Personalization Layer (UPL), Secure Boot is not supported.
    1. When creating a new VM, on the Customize Hardware page, switch to the tab named VM Options.
    2. Expand Boot Options and deselect Secure Boot. You can also disable Secure Boot after the machine is created. Or you can switch the Firmware to BIOS instead of EFI but you can only do that while creating the machine.
  12. For Citrix App Layering, switch to BIOS instead of UEFI:
    1. When creating a new VM, on the Customize Hardware page, switch to the tab named VM Options.
    2. Expand Boot Options and change Firmware to BIOS. Note: you can only do this when creating a VM. Changing an existing VM will prevent it form booting.
  13. If this VDA will boot from Citrix Provisioning:
    1. For vSphere, the NIC Adapter Type must be VMXNET3.
    2. For vSphere, configure the CD/DVD Drive to boot from IDE instead of SATA. SATA won’t work with PVS.
    3. Make sure you remove the SATA Controller after you change the CD/DVD Drive to be IDE.
  14. Install the latest version of hypervisor drivers (e.g. VMware Tools).
  15. The vSphere Activity Monitoring Feature with NSX Guest Introspection feature uses a TDI driver (vnetflt.sys), which might cause a “Connection Interrupted” message when users log off of Citrix. See CTX221206 “Connection Interrupted” error message displayed while logging off ICA session.

If vSphere, disable NIC Hotplug

  1. Users could use the systray icon to Eject the Ethernet Controller. Obviously this is bad.
  2. To disable this functionality, power off the virtual machine.
  3. Once powered off, right-click the virtual machine, and click Edit Settings.
  4. Switch to the tab named VM Options.
  5. Expand Advanced and then click Edit Configuration.
  6. Click the button labelled Add Configuration Params.
  7. For the Name, enter devices.hotplug.
  8. For the Value, enter false. Then click OK.
  9. The VM can then be powered on.

Windows Preparation

  1. Computer Group Policy – Make sure the Master VM is in the same OU as the Linked Clones so the Master VM will get the computer-level GPO settings in its registry. Run gpupdate on the master after moving the VM to the correct OU. When Clones are created from the Master, the computer-level GPO settings will already be applied, thus eliminating timing issues.
  2. If Server OS, disable IE Enhanced Security Configuration in Server Manager > Local Server.
  3. Optionally, go to Action Center (Windows 2012 R2) or Control Panel > Security and Maintenance (Windows 10/2016/2910) to disable User Account Control, and enable SmartScreen.

    1. In Windows 10 1703 and newer, search the Settings app for Change User Account Control settings.
    2. SmartScreen is configured in Windows Defender Security Center > App & browser control.
  4. Run Windows Update. Do not skip this step. Many VDA installation problems are fixed by simply updating Windows.


    1. Defer Feature Updates – For Windows 10, since Citrix VDA does not immediately support new Windows 10 versions, configure Windows Update to defer feature updates.


  5. Add your Citrix Administrators group to the local Administrators group on the VDA. Computer Management.
  6. The Remote Desktop Services “Prompt for Password” policy prevents Single Sign-on to the Virtual Delivery Agent. Check registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services. If fPromptForPassword = 1 then you need to fix group policy. The following GPO setting will prevent Single Sign-on from working.
    Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Remote Desktop Services | Remote Desktop Session Host | Security | Always prompt for password upon connection
    Or set the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\Portica\AutoLogon (DWORD) = 0x1. This registry value only applies to Single-session OS (aka Desktop OS), not Multi-session OS (aka Server OS). (source = comments)
  7. For Remote Assistance in Citrix Director, configure the GPO setting Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | System | Remote Assistance | Offer Remote Assistance. See Jason Samuel – How to setup Citrix Director Shadowing with Remote Assistance using Group Policy for more details.

Install Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) 1912 Cumulative Update 8

Mixed versions – You can upgrade the VDAs before you upgrade the Delivery Controllers resulting in VDAs being newer than the Delivery Controllers. You can upgrade the Delivery Controllers before you upgrade the VDAs. In other words, you can mix and match VDA and Delivery Controller versions. However, for LTSR compliance/support, upgrade all of them to the same version as soon as you can.

CLI Install:

Command Line Install Options are detailed at Install using the command line at Citrix Docs.

The Citrix Telemetry Service seems to cause problems. You can use the Command Line Installer to exclude Telemetry Service as detailed at VDA upgrade cmdlet at Citrix Discussions.

XenDesktopVDASetup.exe /quiet /noreboot /masterimage /Enable_HDX_PORTS /Enable_REAL_TIME_TRANSPORT /optimize /controllers "xdc01.corp.local xdc02.corp.local" /Exclude "Citrix Telemetry Service"

CTX234824 Citrix VDA Commandline Helper Tool: a GUI to configure the VDA installation options.

Scripted Upgrade:

To automate the upgrade of VDA software on persistent machines, see Dennis Parker at How to automate unattended VDA upgrade at Citrix Discussions for a sample script. Also see Updated VDA Install / Upgrade / RDS Install / Desktop / Server / App Install Script by Kris Davis.

GUI Install:

  1. Virtual Channel Allow List is not enabled by default in VDA 1912 but is enabled by default in newer versions of the VDA. This blocks Zoom, Skype, WebEx, etc. See Citrix Docs for more details.
  2. Run AutoSelect.exe from the 1912 CU9 ISO.

    • Alternatively, you can download the standalone VDA package and run that instead. Go the main Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1912 Cumulative Update 9 download page. Expand the section labelled Components that are on the product ISO but also packaged separately. There is also a VDA installer called Single-session OS Core Services that is designed for Remote PC deployments.
  3. Click Start next to either Virtual Apps or Virtual Apps and Desktops. The only difference is the product name displayed in the installation wizard.
  4. On the top right, click Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Multi-session OS (aka RDSH, aka Server OS), or Windows Single-session OS (aka virtual desktop, aka Desktop OS), depending on which type of VDA you are building.

  5. In the Environment page, select Create a master MCS Image or Create a master image using Citrix Provisioning, and click Next.

  6. In the Core Components page, if you don’t need Citrix Workspace App (formerly known as Receiver) installed on your VDA, then uncheck the box. Workspace app is usually only needed for double-hop ICA connections (connect to first VDA, and then from there, connect to second VDA). Click Next.
  7. In the Additional Components page:
    1. Single-session OS (not Multi-session OS) has a new option for Citrix User Personalization Layer (UPL). This component comes from Citrix App Layering but does not need any of the App Layering infrastructure.

      1. Do not enable User Personalization Layer if you are also using Citrix App Layering.
      2. Warning: A Citrix Policy setting activates Citrix User Personalization Layer by setting the UNC path to where the User Personalization Layers should be stored. The Citrix Policy setting should only be deployed to non-persistent machines. If you deploy the Citrix Policy Setting to your Master Image, then your Master Image will be hosed and you must rebuild it from scratch.
      3. UPL requires Secure Boot to be disabled. You can do that by editing the VM, switch to the VM Options tab, and expand Boot Options.
    2. There’s an option for Citrix Files for Windows, which installs an agent that can display files from Citrix Content Collaboration (aka ShareFile). See CTX228273 Install and Use Citrix Files for Windows.
  8. Click Next.
  9. In the Delivery Controller page, select Do it manually. Enter the FQDN of each Delivery Controller. Click Test connection. And then make sure you click Add. Click Next when done.
  10. In the Features page, only the top box is checked by default. If you want to use the other features, check the boxes.
    • There’s an option for MCS IO, which is the driver for MCS Memory Read Caching (aka Storage Optimization). In VDA 1912, the MCS IO driver is now the exact same driver as the driver used in Citrix Provisioning. If you want the MCSIO feature, then VDA 1912 and newer are strongly recommended since they don’t have the same performance problems as 1811 and older (including 7.15). If you have fast storage (e.g. All-Flash Array), then you usually don’t need the MCS IO feature.
  11. Then click Next.
  12. In the Firewall page, click Next.
  13. In the Summary page, click Install.

  14. The machine might need to reboot a couple times.

    1. After the reboot, and after logging in again, you might see a Locate ‘Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 LTSR CU9’ installation media window. Don’t click anything yet.
    2. Go to the Citrix_Virtual_Apps_and_Desktops_7_1912_8000.iso file and mount it.
    3. Go back to the Locate ‘Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 LTSR CU9’ installation media window.
    4. On the left, expand This PC and click the DVD Drive.
    5. Click Select Folder.
    6. Installation will resume. Repeat these instructions after each reboot.
  15. Note: NT SERVICE\CitrixTelemetryService needs permission to login as a service.
  16. In the Diagnostics page, you can optionally check the box next to Collect diagnostic information, click Connect, enter your Citrix account credentials, and then click Next.
  17. In the Finish page, click Finish to restart the machine again.

  18. From CTX225819 When Launching an Application Published from Windows Server 2016, a Black Screen Appears for Several Seconds Before Application is Visible
    • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Citrix\Citrix Virtual Desktop Agent\DisableLogonUISuppression (DWORD) should be set to 0.

Microsoft FSLogix

If you need to roam the user’s Outlook .OST file (Outlook Cached Mode), Outlook Search Index, OneDrive cache, OneNote data, SharePoint data, Skype data, and/or Teams data, then download, install, and configure Microsoft FSLogix. FSLogix has more Office roaming features than Citrix Profile Management. A common architecture is to enable FSLogix Office Container for the Office cache files and use Citrix Profile Management for all other roaming profile files and registry keys.

Microsoft FSLogix is free for all Microsoft RDS CALs, Microsoft Virtual Desktop Access per-user CALs, and all Microsoft Enterprise E3/E5 per-user licenses. Notice that per-device licenses are excluded. See Licensing Requirements at Microsoft Docs.

Do the following to install Microsoft FSLogix on the VDA machine:

  1. Go to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/fslogix/install-ht and click the download link.
  2. Extract the downloaded .zip file.
  3. In the FSLogix \x64\Release folder, run FSLogixAppsSetup.exe.
  4. Check the box next to I agree to the license terms and conditions and click Install.
  5. In the Setup Successful page, click Restart.
  6. Make sure the Windows Search service is set to Automatic and Running.
  7. If Office is already installed, then repair the Office installation after installing and starting the Windows Search Service.

FSLogix is configured through Group Policy or by editing registry values on each FSLogix Agent machine.

Citrix Desktop Service

To prevent Citrix Desktop Service (BrokerAgent) from starting and registering with the Delivery Controllers before the boot process is complete, see Jeremy Saunders Controlling the Starting of the Citrix Desktop Service (BrokerAgent).

Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP)

Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) is enabled by default. To disable it, create the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\Telemetry\CEIP\Enabled (DWORD), and set it to 0 (zero). Also see CEIP at Citrix Insight Services at Citrix Docs.

See https://www.carlstalhood.com/delivery-controller-cr-and-licensing/#ceip for additional places where CEIP is enabled.

Connection Quality Indicator

The Connection Quality Indicator tells the user the quality of the connection. Position of the indicator is configurable by the user. Thresholds are configurable through group policy.

Download it from CTX220774 Connection Quality Indicator and install it. The article is very detailed.

Group Policy templates are located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Connection Quality Indicator\Configuration. Copy the files and folder to <Sysvol>\Policies\PolicyDefinitions, or C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions.

Find the Group Policy settings under Computer Config | Policies | Administrative Templates | Citrix Components | Virtual Desktop Agent | CQI

Version 1.2 adds the GPO settings to the user half of a GPO, which lets you disable CQI for some users and enable it for others.

Notification display settings lets you customize the user notifications, or disable them.

Connection Threshold Settings lets you set the notification thresholds.

Adaptive Transport

Adaptive Transport is a HDX/ICA protocol feature that tries to use UDP ports (EDT protocol) if they are open, and falls back to TCP ICA if UDP connection is not successful. On higher latency connections, EDT (UDP) tends to perform better than traditional TCP ICA.

The Citrix Policy setting HDX Adaptive Transport defaults to Preferred, which means Adaptive Transport is enabled by default.

The newer Citrix EDT protocol use UDP Ports 1494/2598 for HDX connections to the VDA. The UDP ports should already be open in the VDA’s Windows Firewall. In other words, HDX/ICA uses both TCP and UDP ports.

For EDT (and Adaptive Transport) through Citrix Gateway, make sure your Citrix ADC firmware is up to date, preferably 12.1 or newer. Then make sure DTLS is enabled on the Gateway Virtual Server. DTLS is the UDP version of SSL/TLS.

Slow Logons

Citrix Discussions Xenapp 7.9: Wait for local session manager: “I have a Xenapp 7.9 environment on Windows 2012 R2. When logging in through Citrix I got message “Wait for local session manager” for 20-30 seconds. When logging in to the server with RDS, I do not have to wait for this.”

“Add the following 2 registry keys to your VDA server – then try connecting to it using ICA to see if the issue still occurs:

Add reg keys in “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Citrix\GroupPolicy”
Dword: “CacheGpoExpireInHours” – Value = 5-24 (# of Hours) ***start with value of 5***
Dword: “GpoCacheEnabled” – Value = 1

Restart the machine after adding these registry keys and attempt an ICA connection (at least twice) to see if that helps the Login delay.”

 

Marvin Neys at XenApp slow logon times, user get black screen for 20 seconds at Citrix Discussions says that deleting HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UFH\SHC at logoff reduces logon times from 40 seconds to 6 seconds.

Remove-Item HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UFH\SHC

 

For additional logon delay troubleshooting, see Alexander Ollischer XenApp/XenDesktop – “Please Wait For Local Session Manager” message when logging into RDS. He found some Windows Updates that caused a logon delay.

 

VDA recalculates WMI filters on every reconnect. CTX212610 Session Reconnect 30 sec Delay – DisableGPCalculation – WMI Filters indicates that recalculation can be disabled by setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\Reconnect\DisableGPCalculation (DWORD) to 1. Note: this registry value might stop Citrix Policies from being re-evaluated when users reconnect (source = Citrix Discussions).

Verify that VDA registered with a Controller

  1. If you restart the Virtual Delivery Agent machine, or restart the Citrix Desktop Service…
  2. In Windows Logs > Application log, you should see an event 1012 from Citrix Desktop Service saying that it successfully registered with a controller.
  3. If you don’t see successful registration, then you’ll need to fix the ListOfDDCs registry key.
    1. See VDA registration with Controllers at Citrix Docs.
    2. See The Most Common VDA Registration Issues & Troubleshooting Steps at Citrix Blogs.
  4. You can also run Citrix’s Health Assistant on the VDA.

  5. See CTX220772 Technical Primer: VDA Registration for a very detailed explanation of the VDA Registration process.

Citrix Workspace app

If you want to run Workspace app on the VDA machine, then upgrade it to your desired version, either a Current Release version, or a Long Term Service Release (LTSR).

  • Workspace app LTSR does not support Browser Content Redirection (BCR). Current Releases do support Browser Content Redirection (BCR).

Download and install Workspace app:

  1. Download Workspace app 2303 (Current Release), or Workspace app 2203.1 LTSR Cumulative Update 3.

  2. On the VDA, as administrator, run the downloaded CitrixWorkspaceApp.exe.
  3. In the Welcome to Citrix Workspace page, click Start.
  4. In the License Agreement page, check the box next to I accept the license agreement, and click Next.
  5. In the Enable Single Sign-on page, check the box next to Enable single sign-on, and click Install.
  6. In the Installation successful page, click Finish.
  7. Click Yes when asked to restart now.

Citrix File Access 2.0.4 for Workspace app for Chrome

  1. If you support Workspace app for Chrome (Chromebook) and want published applicatons to open files on Google Drive, install Citrix File Access on the VDAs. Get it from the Citrix File Access for Chrome.
  2. Go to the extracted Citrix_File_Access_2.0.4, and run FileAccess.msi.
  3. In the Please read the File Access License Agreement page, check the box next to I accept the terms, and click Install.
  4. In the Completed the File Access Setup Wizard page, click Finish.
  5. File Access is listed in Apps & Features or Programs and Features as version 2.0.4.34.
  6. File Access has a default list of supported file extensions. The list can be expanded by editing the registry on the VDA. See CTX219983 Receiver for Chrome Error: Invalid command line arguments: Unable to open the file as it has an unsupported extension.
  7. To open a file from Google Drive, right-click and and open the file using Citrix Workspace app.

Remote Desktop Licensing Configuration

On 2012 R2 and newer RDSH, the only way to configure Remote Desktop Licensing is using group policy (local or domain). This procedure is not needed on virtual desktops.

  1. For local group policy, run gpedit.msc. Alternatively, you can configure this in a domain GPO.
  2. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Licensing.
  3. Double-click Use the specified Remote Desktop license servers. Change it to Enabled, and enter the names of the RDS Licensing Servers (typically installed on Delivery Controllers). Click OK.
  4. Double-click Set the Remote Desktop licensing mode. Change it to Enabled and select Per User. Click OK.
  5. Optionally, you can install the Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser Tool. In the Server Manager > Add Roles and Features Wizard, on the Features page, expand Remote Server Administration Tools, expand Role Administration Tools, expand Remote Desktop Services Tools, and select Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser Tool. Then Finish the wizard.
  6. If it won’t install from Server Manager, you can install it from PowerShell by running Install-WindowsFeature rsat-rds-licensing-diagnosis-ui.
  7. In Server Manager, open the Tools menu, expand Remote Desktop Services (or Terminal Services), and click Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser.

  8. The Diagnoser should find the license server, and indicate the licensing mode. If you’re configured for Per User licenses, then it’s OK if there are no licenses installed on the Remote Desktop License Server.

Several people in Citrix Discussions reported the following issue: If you see a message about RD Licensing Grace Period has expired even though RD Licensing is properly configured, see Eric Verdumen No remote Desktop Licence Server availible on RD Session Host server 2012. The solution was to delete the REG_BINARY in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod only leaving the default. You must take ownership and give admin users full control to be able to delete this value.

C: Drive Permissions

This section is more important for shared VDAs like RDSH (Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019).

The default permissions allow users to store files on the C: drive in places other than their profile.

  1. Open the Properties dialog box for C:.
  2. On the Security tab, click Advanced.
  3. If UAC is enabled, click Change permissions.
  4. Highlight the line containing Users and Create Folders, and click Remove.
  5. Highlight the line containing Users and Create files (or Special), and click Remove. Click OK.
  6. Click Yes to confirm the permissions change.
  7. If you see any of these Error Applying Security windows, click Continue. This window should appear multiple times.
  8. Click OK to close the C: drive properties.

Pagefile

If this image will be converted to a Citrix Provisioning vDisk, then you must ensure the pagefile is smaller than the cache disk. For example, if you allocate 20 GB of RAM to your Remote Desktop Session Host, and if the cache disk is only 15 GB, then Windows will have a default pagefile size of 20 GB, and Citrix Provisioning will be unable to move it to the cache disk. This causes Citrix Provisioning to cache to server instead of caching to your local cache disk (or RAM).

  1. Open System.
    1. In Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016, you can right-click the Start button, and click System.
    2. In Windows 10 1703 or newer (or Windows Server 2019), search the Start Menu for advanced system settings.
    3. Another option is to open File Explorer, right-click This PC, and click Properties. This works in Windows 10 1703 and newer.
  2. Click Advanced system settings.
  3. On the Advanced tab, click the top Settings button.
  4. On the Advanced tab, click Change.
  5. Uncheck the box next to Automatically manage paging file size for all drives. Then either turn off the pagefile, or set the pagefile to be smaller than the cache disk. Don’t leave it set to System managed size. Click OK several times.

Direct Access Users

When Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) is installed on a machine, non-administrators can no longer RDP to the machine. A new local group called Direct Access Users is created on each Virtual Delivery Agent. Add your non-administrator RDP users to this local group so they can RDP directly to the machine.

From CTX228128 What is the HKLM\Software\Citrix\PortICA\DirectAccessUsers registry function: The HKLM\Software\Citrix\PortICA\DirectAccessUsers registry key determines which Local group the VDA references to determine if a user should be allowed Unbrokered RDP access. Members of the Local Administrators group will always be granted access. If the Registry Key does not exist, or gets deleted, VDA will always allow the Unbrokered RDP Connection. The Registry key and local group are created as part of the VDA installation process.

Windows Profiles v3/v4/v5/v6

Roaming Profiles are compatible only between the following client and server operating system pairs. The profile version is also listed.

  • v6 = Windows 10 (1607 through 1903), Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019
  • v5 = Windows 10 (1511 and older)
  • v4 = Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2
  • v3 = Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
  • v2 = Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
  • v2 = Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

For Windows 2012 R2, install Microsoft hotfix 2890783, and set the UseProfilePathExtensionVersion registry value to 1.

CTX230343 Reset Profile Options Is Greyed Out In Citrix Director states that the UseProfilePathExtensionVersion registry value is required on Windows 2012 R2 to enable Director users to reset profiles.

Registry

EDT MTU Discovery

EDT MTU Discovery prevents EDT packet fragmentation that might result in performance degradation or failure to establish a session. This feature requires the following:

  • Citrix Workspace app 1911 for Windows or newer
  • Citrix ADC 13.0.52.24 or newer
  • Citrix ADC 12.1.56.22 or newer

Set the following registry value on the VDA:

  • Key = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Wds\icawd
    • Value (DWORD) = MtuDiscovery = 1

Faster Login

From CTP James Rankin The ultimate guide to Windows logon time optimizations, part #6: DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout tells the logon process to wait for a shorter time before switching from session 0 to the actual session in use.

  • Key = HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
    • Value (DWORD) = DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout  = 1

Black Screen when launching Published Apps on Windows Server 2016

From CTX225819 When Launching an Application Published from Windows Server 2016, a Black Screen Appears for Several Seconds Before Application is Visible: Citrix and Microsoft have worked together together to deliver code fixes for both Windows Server 2016 and Citrix Virtual Apps. Microsoft is targeting their KB4034661 patch for the third week of August 2017. This fix requires a registry edit to enable.

  • Key = HKLM\SOFTWARE\Citrix\Citrix Virtual Desktop Agent
    • Value (DWORD) = DisableLogonUISuppression = 0

Published Explorer

From Citrix CTX128009 Explorer.exe Fails to Launch: When publishing the seamless explorer.exe application, the session initially begins to connect as expected. After the loading, the dialog box disappears, and the Explorer application fails to appear. On the VDA, use the following registry change to set the length of time a client session waits before disconnecting the session:

  • Key = HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI
    • Value (DWORD) = LogoffCheckerStartupDelayInSeconds = 10 (Hexadecimal)

Screen Saver

From Citrix CTX205214 Screensaver Not Working in XenDesktop: By default, Screen Saver doesn’t work on Desktop OS. To enable it, on the VDA, configure the following registry value:

  • Key = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\Graphics
    • Value (DWORD) = SetDisplayRequiredMode = 0

Smart Cards

From CTX231942 Windows 10 April 2018 Update (v1803) – Citrix Known Issues – Smart Card Service (SCardSvr) will run only if a Smart Card reader is connected. As ICA sessions redirect the Smart Card, it finds the service not to be running and fails.

  • Key = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Cryptography\Calais
    • Value (DWORD) = AllowServiceAccessWithNoReaders = 1

Logon Disclaimer Window Size

From XenApp 7.8 – Session Launch Security/Warning Login Banner at Citrix Discussions: If your logon disclaimer window has scroll bars, set the following registry values:

  • Key = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432node\Citrix\CtxHook\AppInit_DLLS\Multiple Monitor Hook
    • Value (DWORD) = LogonUIWidth = 300
    • Value (DWORD) = LogonUIHeight = 200

Login Timeout

From Citrix CTX203760 VDI Session Launches Then Disappears: VDA, by default, only allows 180 seconds to complete a logon operation. The timeout can be increased by setting the following:

  • Key = HKLM\SOFTWARE\Citrix\PortICA
    • Value (DWORD) = AutoLogonTimeout = decimal 240 or higher (up to 3599).

Also see Citrix Discussions Machines in “Registered” State, but VM closes after “Welcome” screen.

From Citrix CTX138404 Application Connection Starts but Disappears after Timeout: after loading the application, the dialog box disappears and the application fails to appear.

  •  Key = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI
    • Value (DWORD) =ApplicationLaunchWaitTimeoutMS = decimal 60000

Workspace app for HTML5/Chrome Enhanced Clipboard

From About Citrix Receiver for Chrome 1.9 at Citrix Docs: To enable enhanced clipboard support, create a REG_SZ registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\Virtual Clipboard\Additional Formats\HTML Format\Name=”HTML Format”. Create any missing registry keys. This applies to both virtual desktops and Remote Desktop Session Hosts.

Workspace app for HTML5/Chrome Upload Folder

The Workspace app for HTML5 (or Chrome) lets upload files.

By default, the user is prompted to select a upload location. If you use the Upload feature multiple times, the last selected folder is not remembered.

Citrix CTX217351 How to Customize File Upload and Download Using Receiver for HTML5 and Receiver for Chrome. You can specify a default uploads location by editing HKLM\Software\Citrix\FileTransfer\UploadFolderLocation on the VDA. Environment variables are supported. When this value is configured, users are no longer prompted to select an upload location. The change takes effect at next logon.

Note: HTML5/Chrome Workspace app also adds a Save to My Device location to facilitate downloads.

4K Monitors

From Citrix Knowledgebase article CTX218217 Unable to span across multiple monitors after upgrade to 7.11 VDA, Black/Blank screen appears on the monitors while connecting to ICA session:

  1. Calculate the video memory that is required for monitors using the following formula:
    SumOfAllMons (Width * Height) * 4 / 0.3, where width and height are resolution of the monitor. Note: There is no hard and fast rule that will work for all cases.
    Example: Consider the resolution of monitor 1 is 1920*1200 and monitor 2 is 1366*768. Then SumOfAllMons will be (1920*1200 + 1366*768)
  2. CTX115637 Citrix Session Graphics Memory Reference describes how multi-monitor resolution is determined.
  3. Open the registry (regedit) and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\vbdenum
  4. Increase the value of “MaxVideoMemoryBytes” REG_DWORD value to the above calculated memory.
  5. Reboot the VDA.

Citrix Policies also control graphics performance.

COM Port Threads

CTX212090 COM Port Intermittently Inaccessible During ICA Sessions: increase the default value of “MaxThreads” under the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\picaser\Parameters from 20 to a value greater than the number of COM port connections you want to support. For example, if a VDA server supports 100 sessions and each session opens two COM ports, the value of “MaxThreads” should be greater than 200.

NVIDIA vGPU GRID License

Allow NVIDIA vGPU GRID License to apply after the session is started. (Source = Jan Hendrik Meier NVIDIA GRID license not applied before the user connects – License Restriction will not be removed until the user reconnects)

  • Key = HKLM\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\GridLicensing
    • Value (DWORD) = IgnoreSP = 1

Legacy Client Drive Mapping

Citrix CTX127968 How to Enable Legacy Client Drive Mapping Format on XenApp: Citrix Client Drive Mapping no longer uses drive letters and instead they appear as local disks. This is similar to RDP drive mapping.

The old drive letter method can be enabled by setting the registry value:

  • Key = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\UncLinks (create the key)
    • Value (DWORD) = UNCEnabled = 0

When you reconnect, the client drives will be mapped as drive letters (starts with V: and goes backwards).

Print Driver for Mac/Linux Clients

From CTX140208 Client printing from Mac and Linux clients on Windows 10, Server 2012 R2, and Server 2016. By default, Non-Windows clients cannot map printers due to a missing print driver on the VDA machine.

  1. Download the HP Color LaserJet 2800 Series PS driver directly from Microsoft Catalog as detailed at CTX283355 Client Printing from Linux/MAC is not working on Windows Server 2016 and 2019. The Catalog is at https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/. Then search for hp color laserjet 2800. Pick the 6.1.7600.16385 driver version 💡
  2. Extract the .cab file using 7-zip or similar.
  3. In Windows 10 1803+, open Printers & scanners. On the right (or scroll down) is a link to Print Server Properties.
  4. In older versions of Windows, you can get to Print server properties from Devices and Printers.
    1. In Windows prior to Windows 10 1703, click Start, and run Devices and Printers.
    2. In Windows 10 1703, open Printers & scanners, then scroll down, and click Devices and printers.

  5. In the Printers section, highlight a local printer (e.g. Microsoft XPS Document Writer). Then in the toolbar, click Print server properties.
  6. Switch to the Drivers tab and click Change Driver Settings.
  7. Then click Add.
  8. In the Welcome to the Add Printer Driver Wizard page, click Next.
  9. In the Processor Selection page, click Next.
  10. In the Printer Driver Selection page, click Have Disk and browse to the .inf that you extracted from the .cab file.

  11. Select HP Color LaserJet 2800 Series PS and click Next.
  12. In the Completing the Add Printer Driver Wizard page, click Finish.

SSL for VDA

If you intend to use HTML5 Workspace app internally, install certificates on the VDAs so the WebSockets (and ICA) connection will be encrypted. Internal HTML5 Workspace app will not accept clear text WebSockets. External users don’t have this problem since they are SSL-proxied through Citrix Gateway.

Notes:

  • Each Virtual Delivery Agent needs a machine certificate that matches the machine name. This is feasible for a small number of persistent VDAs. For non-persistent VDAs, you’ll need some automatic means for creating machine certificates every time they reboot.
  • As detailed in the following procedure, use PowerShell on the Delivery Controller to enable SSL for the Delivery Group. This forces SSL for every VDA in the Delivery Group, which means every VDA in the Delivery Group must have SSL certificates installed.

The following instructions for manually enabling SSL on VDA can be found at Configure TLS on a VDA using the PowerShell script at Citrix Docs.

  1. On the VDA machine, run certlm.msc.
  2. Right-click Personal, expand All Tasks, and click Request New Certificate to request a certificate from your internal Certificate Authority. You can use either the Computer template or the Web Server template.

    • You can also use group policy to enable Certificate Auto-Enrollment for the VDA computers.
  3. Browse to the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops ISO. In the Support\Tools\SslSupport folder, shift+right-click the Enable-VdaSSL.ps1 script, and click Copy as path.
  4. Run PowerShell as administrator (elevated).
  5. Run the command Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted. Enter Y to approve.
  6. In the PowerShell prompt, type in an ampersand (&), and a space.
  7. Right-click the PowerShell prompt to paste in the path copied earlier.
  8. At the end of the path, type in -Enable
  9. If there’s only one certificate on this machine, press Enter.
  10. If there are multiple certificates, then you’ll need to specify the thumbprint of the certificate you want to use. Open the Certificates snap-in, open the properties of the machine certificate you want to use, and copy the Thumbprint from the Details tab.

    In the PowerShell prompt, at the end of the command, enter ‑CertificateThumbPrint, add a space, and type quotes (").
    Right-click the PowerShell prompt to paste the thumbprint.
    Type quotes (") at the end of the thumbprint. Then remove all spaces from the thumbprint. The thumbprint needs to be wrapped in quotes.
  11. There are additional switches to specify minimum SSL Version and Cipher Suites. Also see Citrix CTX226049 Disabling Triple DES on the VDA breaks the VDA SSL connection.
  12. Press <Enter> to run the Enable-VdaSSL.ps1 script.
  13. Press <Y> twice to configure the ACLs and Firewall.
  14. You might have to reboot before the settings take effect.
  15. Login to a Controller, and run PowerShell as Administrator (elevated).
  16. Run the command asnp Citrix.*
  17. Enter the command: 
    Get-BrokerAccessPolicyRule -DesktopGroupName '<delivery-group-name>' | Set-BrokerAccessPolicyRule ‑HdxSslEnabled $true

    where <delivery-group-name> is the name of the Delivery Group containing the VDAs.

  18. You can run Get-BrokerAccessPolicyRule -DesktopGroupName '<delivery-group-name>' to verify that HDX SSL is enabled.
  19. Also run the following command to enable DNS resolution. 
    Set-BrokerSite –DnsResolutionEnabled $true

  20. Since the UDP-based EDT protocol is enabled by default, open port UDP 443 to the VDAs.

You should now be able to connect to the VDA using the HTML5 Workspace app from internal machines.

The Citrix blog post How To Secure ICA Connections in XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6 using SSL has a method for automatically provisioning certificates for pooled virtual desktops by enabling certificate auto-enrollment and setting up a task that runs after the certificate has been enrolled.

  • From Russ Hargrove at A note on VDA certificates in 7.14 at Citrix Discussions: Citrix installs a new “Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop HDX Service” certificate in the Personal store which breaks the automation of the Enable-VdaSSL.ps1 script. To fix the problem, modify the task scheduler powershell script to: 
    Enable-VdaSSL.ps1 -Enable -CertificateThumbPrint (Get-ChildItem -path cert:\LocalMachine\My | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Subject -eq ""} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Thumbprint) -Confirm:$False
  • For certificate auto-enrollment on non-persistent Remote Desktop Session Hosts (aka Multi-session OS, aka Server OS VDAs), see Non-Persistent Server SSL to VDA by Alfredo Magallon Arbizu at CUGC. 
    # First of all, make registry coherent with the listener status
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Wds\icawd" -Name "SSLEnabled" -Value 1 -Type DWORD
# Then, shut down the listener, as it is not configured
C:\Scripts\EnableSSL\Enable-VDASsl.ps1 -Disable -Confirm:$false
# Finally, configure and start listener
C:\Scripts\EnableSSL\Enable-VDASsl.ps1 -Enable -CertificateThumbPrint $Cert.Thumbprint -Confirm:$false
    • You can launch the above script from a scheduled task that triggers when certificate auto-enroll is complete. 
      SCHTASKS.EXE /CREATE /RU "SYSTEM" /SC "ONEVENT" /EC
"Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient-Lifecycle-System/Operational"
/MO
"*[System[Provider[@Name='Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient-Lifecycle-System']
and (EventID=1006)]]" /TN "yourtaskname" /TR "powershell.exe
-ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File yourscript.ps1"

Anonymous Accounts

If you intend to publish apps anonymously then follow this section.

  1. Anonymous accounts are created locally on the VDAs. When VDA creates Anon accounts, it gives them an idle time as specified at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\AnonymousUserIdleTime. The default is 10 minutes. Adjust as desired.
  2. Pre-create the Anon accounts on the VDA by running "C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICAConfigTool\CreateAnonymousUsersApp.exe". If you don’t run this tool, then anonymous users can’t login.
  3. You can see the local Anon accounts by opening Computer Management, expanding System Tools, expanding Local Users and Groups and clicking Users.
  4. If you want profiles for anonymous users to delete at logoff, then you’ll need to add the local Anon users to the local Guests group.
  5. If you open one of the accounts, on the Sessions tab, notice that idle timeout defaults to 10 minutes. Feel free to change it.

Group Policy for Anonymous Users

Since Anonymous users are local accounts on each Virtual Delivery Agent, domain-based GPOs will not apply. To work around this limitation, you’ll need to edit the local group policy on each Virtual Delivery Agent.

  1. On the Virtual Delivery Agent, run mmc.exe.
  2. Open the File menu, and click Add/Remove Snap-in.
  3. Highlight Group Policy Object Editor, and click Add to move it to the right.
  4. In the Welcome to the Group Policy Wizard page, click Browse.
  5. On the Users tab, select Non-Administrators.
  6. Click Finish.
  7. Now you can configure group policy to lock down sessions for anonymous users. Since this is a local group policy, you’ll need to repeat the group policy configuration on every Virtual Delivery Agent image. Also, Group Policy Preferences is not available in local group policy.

Antivirus

Install antivirus using your normal procedure. Instructions vary for each Antivirus product.

Microsoft’s virus scanning recommendations (e.g. exclude group policy files) – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822158.

Citrix’s Recommended Antivirus Exclusions

Citrix Tech Zone Endpoint Security and Antivirus Best Practices: provides guidelines for configuring antivirus software in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environments.

Citrix Blog Post Citrix Recommended Antivirus Exclusions: the goal here is to provide you with a consolidated list of recommended antivirus exclusions for your Citrix virtualization environment focused on the key processes, folders, and files that we have seen cause issues in the field:

  • Set real-time scanning to scan local drives only and not network drives
  • Disable scan on boot
  • Remove any unnecessary antivirus related entries from the Run key
  • Exclude the pagefile(s) from being scanned
  • Exclude Windows event logs from being scanned
  • Exclude IIS log files from being scanned

See the Blog Post for exclusions for each Citrix component/product including: StoreFront, VDA, Controller, and Citrix Provisioning. The Blog Post also has links to additional KB articles on antivirus.

Symantec

Symantec links:

Trend Micro

Trend Micro Slow login on Citrix environment after installing OfficeScan (OSCE): The following registries can be used to troubleshoot the issue. These registries will allow a delay on the startup procedure of OSCE until the system has launched successfully. This avoids deadlock situations during login.

Citrix CTX136680 – Slow Server Performance After Trend Micro Installation. Citrix session hosts experience slow response and performance more noticeable while users try to log in to the servers. At some point the performance of the servers is affected, resulting in issues with users logging on and requiring the server to be restarted. This issue is more noticeable on mid to large session host infrastructures.

Trend Micro has provided a registry fix for this type of issue. Create the following registry on all the affected servers. Add new DWORD Value as:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TmFilterParameters] “DisableCtProcCheck”=dword:00000001

Trend Micro Links:

Sophos

CTX238012 Logon process to VDAs is extremely slow when Citrix UPM is enabled. Set the following registry:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Sophos\SavService\Application
    • DisableAsyncScans (DWORD) = 1

Sophos Endpoint Security and Control: Best Practice for running Sophos on virtual systems: we’ve amassed the following practical information about how you can optimize our software to work with this technology.

Sophos Endpoint Security and Control: Installation and configuration considerations for Sophos Anti-Virus on a Remote Desktop Services server: It maybe desirable to disable the Sophos AutoUpdate shield icon

Sophos Endpoint Security and Control: How to include current version of Sophos in a disk image for cloned virtual machines: This procedure will make sure that the produced target/cloned computers:

  • Get their distinct identity with Enterprise Console, under which they can be subsequently managed.
  • Have the desired version of Sophos Anti-Virus already installed and configured on the created image.

Palo Alto Traps

  • Install Traps Agent for Windows:
    • Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) installation—Intended for non-persistent endpoints that replicate (also referred to as spawn) from a golden image which has Traps installed.
    • Temporary session—Intended for either physical or virtual endpoints (such as a Remote Desktop Server) that repeatedly revert to a snapshot (or image) on which Traps is not installed.

Windows Defender Antivirus

Configuring Microsoft Defender Antivirus for non-persistent VDI machines – Microsoft Blog

Disable Network protection and configure Citrix’s antivirus exclusions (source = Citrix CTX319676 Users sessions are getting disconnected – Connection Interrupted)

Deployment guide for Windows Defender Antivirus in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment – Microsoft Docs

Onboarding and servicing non-persistent VDI machines with Microsoft Defender ATP

Cylance

CTX232722 Unable to launch application with Cylance Memory Protection Enabled. Cylance must be run in compatibility mode in order to the VDA and Cylance to run on the same machine. See the article for detailed instructions.

Optimize Performance

VDA Optimizer

Installation of the VDA might have already done this, but there’s no harm in doing it again. This tool is only available if you installed VDA in Master Image mode.

  1. On the master VDA, go to C:\Program Files\Citrix\PvsVm\TargetOSOptimizer, and run TargetOSOptimizer.exe.
  2. Then click OK. Notice that it disables Windows Update.
  3. See CTX125874 How to Optimize XenDesktop Machines for the list of registry values changed by the TargetOSOptimizer tool. You can use Group Policy Preferences to set these values.

Windows 10 / Windows 2012 R2 / Windows 2016 / Windows 2019 and newer

Download Citrix Optimizer and run it.

Citrix Daniel Feller links:

James Rankin Improving Windows 10 logon time:

David Wilkinson links:

Citrix Links:

Microsoft links:

Optimization Notes:

Applications

Choose installers that install to C:\Program Files instead of to %appdata%. Search for VDI or Enterprise versions of the following applications. These VDI versions do not auto-update, so you’ll have to update them manually.

Seal and Shut Down

If this VDA will be a master image in a Machine Creation Services or Citrix Provisioning catalog, after the master is fully prepared (including applications), do the following:

  1. Go to the properties of the C: drive, and run Disk Cleanup.
  2. If Disk Cleanup is missing, you can run cleanmgr.exe instead.
  3. Windows 10 1703 and newer has a new method for cleaning up temporary files.
    1. Right-click the Start button, and click System.
    2. Click Storage on the left, and click This PC (C:) on the right.
    3. Click Temporary Files.
    4. Check boxes, and click Remove files.
  4. On the Tools tab of the local C: drive Properties, click Optimize to defrag the drive.
    `
  5. Run slmgr.vbs /dlv and make sure it is licensed with KMS and has at least one rearm remaining. It is not necessary to manually rearm licensing since MCS will do it automatically.
  6. Run Delprof2 to clean up local profiles. Get it from http://helgeklein.com/download/.
  7. Machine Creation Services and Citrix Provisioning require DHCP.
  8. Session hosts (RDSH) commonly have DHCP reservations.
  9. Base Image Script Framework (BIS-F) automates many sealing tasks. The script is configurable using Group Policy.

  10. Shut down the master image. You can now use Studio (Machine Creation Services) or Citrix Provisioning to create a catalog of linked clones.

Uninstall VDA

Uninstall the VDA from Apps & Features or Programs and Features.

Then see CTX209255 VDA Cleanup Utility.

To run the VDA Cleanup Tool silently:

  1. Execute VDACleanupUtility.exe /silent /noreboot to suppress reboot.
  2. Once the VDACleanupUtility has finished executing, setup Auto logon for the current user.
  3. Reboot.
  4. After reboot, tool will launch automatically to continue Cleanup.

Another option is to delete CitrixVdaCleanup value under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce. Then after reboot, run VDACleanupUtility.exe /silent /reboot to indicate that it’s running after the reboot.

Related Pages

EUC Weekly Digest – December 21, 2019

Last Modified: Nov 7, 2020 @ 6:34 am

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Interesting EUC items from last week:

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

Citrix VDA

Citrix WEM and Profile Management

Citrix StoreFront

Citrix ADC

Citrix Endpoint Management

Citrix Hypervisor

VMware

Other

For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

For a list of updates at carlstalhood.com, see the Detailed Change Log.

Delivery Controller 1912 LTSR CU9 and Licensing

Last Modified: Apr 30, 2024 @ 11:19 am

92 Comments

Navigation

💡 = Recently Updated

Change Log

Upgrade

If you are performing a new install of Delivery Controller, then skip to the next section.

Starting in August 2018, XenApp and XenDesktop is renamed to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) and versioning changed to YYMM format.

You can in-place upgrade directly from any Delivery Controller version 7.0 or newer.

During the upgrade of Delivery Controller, be aware that a database upgrade is required. Either get a DBA to grant you temporary sysadmin permission or use Citrix Studio to generate SQL scripts that a DBA must then run in SQL Studio.

  1. NVIDIA – ensure your NVIDIA Virtual GPU software supports the version of CVAD that you are upgrading to.
  2. Consider Utilizing Local Host Cache for Nondisruptive Database Upgrades at Citrix Docs.
  3. License Server Upgrade – Before upgrading to Delivery Controller 1912 Cumulative Update 8, upgrade your Citrix License Server to 11.17.2.0 Build 46000. Citrix now requires Licensing telemetry as described in CTX477614 Citrix License Telemetry FAQ

    • You can run LicServVerify.exe from the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) ISO to verify that the License Server is compatible. Example syntax is: "E:\x64\XenDesktop Setup\LicServVerify.exe" -h myLicenseServer -p 27000 -v

  4. LTSR – Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) 1912 is a Long-Term Support Release (LTSR), which receives periodic (usually twice per year) Cumulative Updates with bug fixes, but no new features. See Lifecycle Milestones for Citrix Virtual Apps & Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
  5. Delivery Controller OS Compatibility – 1912 Cumulative Update 8 Delivery Controller is supported on Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2012 R2.
    • Windows Server 2022 is not supported with CVAD 1912. CVAD 2109 and newer support Windows Server 2022.
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 is no longer supported by CVAD 1912 and newer.
  6. VDA OS Compatibility – Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) 1912 is only supported on a limited number of Windows operating system versions, specifically, Windows 10 (1607+), Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019.
    • Windows Server 2022 is not supported with CVAD 1912. CVAD 2109 and newer support Windows Server 2022.
    • Windows 11 is not supported with CVAD 1912. CVAD 2109 and newer support Windows 11.
    • If you have older VDA machines running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you can leave their VDA software at version 7.15 (with latest Cumulative Update). Citrix supports VDA 7.15 to communicate with Delivery Controllers 1912.
  7. SQL Server Express LocalDB – the 1912 Cumulative Update 8 Delivery Controller installer does not upgrade the Local Host Cache database engine. After the Delivery Controller is upgraded to 1912 Cumulative Update 8, see Replace SQL Server Express LocalDB at Citrix Docs.
  8. SCOM Agent – If StoreFront is installed on the Controller, and if the Citrix SCOM Agent for StoreFront is installed, stop the Citrix MPSF Agent service. See CTX220935 Cannot Perform a StoreFront Upgrade if Citrix SCOM Management Pack Agent Service is Running.
  9. Close PowerShell and Consoles. Make sure all Citrix Consoles and PowerShell consoles are closed. StoreFront won’t upgrade if any are running. If StoreFront fails, then the StoreFront configuration is wiped out and you’ll have to revert to snapshot.
  10. Other Users – Use Task Manager > Users tab to logoff any other user currently logged into the machine. Or reboot the machine.
  11. Snapshot. Take a snapshot of the Delivery Controller machine before attempting the upgrade.
  12. Download the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1912 LTSR CU9 ISO.
  13. Run AutoSelect.exe from the 1912 CU9 ISO.
  14. On the top left, in the Upgrade section, click Studio and Server Components.
  15. In the Licensing Agreement page, select I have read, understand, and accept the terms, and click Next.
  16. In the Ensure Successful Upgrade page, read the steps, check the box next to I’m ready to continue, and click Next.
  17. If you see a License Errors page, then you need to upgrade your License Server.
  18. In the Preliminary Site Tests page, click Start Preliminary Tests.
  19. The tests will take a few minutes. Click Next when done.
  20. In the Firewall page, click Next.
  21. In the Summary page, click Upgrade.
  22. If you see a Running Processes window, close the listed programs, and click Continue.
  23. Click OK when asked to start the upgrade.
  24. The machine might need to reboot a couple times.

    1. After the reboot, and after logging in again, you might see a Locate ‘Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 LTSR CU9’ installation media window. Don’t click anything yet.
    2. Go to the Citrix_Virtual_Apps_and_Desktops_7_1912_8000.iso file and mount it.
    3. Go back to the Locate ‘Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 LTSR CU9’ installation media window.
    4. On the left, expand This PC and click the DVD Drive.
    5. Click Select Folder.
    6. Installation will resume. Repeat these instructions after each reboot.
  25. If the upgrade fails:
    1. Look for MetaInstaller log files under %localappdata%\Temp\Citrix\XenDesktop Installer\MSI Log Files.
    2. Look for StoreFront log files under C:\Program Files\Citrix\Receiver StoreFront\Admin\logs.
    3. Citrix has a MSI Log Analyzer.
  26. In the Diagnostics page, you can optionally enable Collect diagnostic information (aka Call Home). If so, click Connect and login with a Citrix Cloud account. See Citrix Insight Services at Citrix Docs for more information on this feature.
  27. In the Finish page, check the box next to Launch Studio, and click Finish.
  28. SQL Server Express LocalDB – the 1912 CU9 Delivery Controller installer does not upgrade the Local Host Cache database engine. After the Delivery Controller is upgraded to 1912 CU9, see Replace SQL Server Express LocalDB at Citrix Docs.

Studio – Upgrade Database, Catalogs, and Delivery Groups

  1. After Citrix Studio launches, if you have sysadmin permissions on SQL, then click Start the automatic Site upgrade. If you don’t have full SQL permission, then get a DBA to help you, click Manually upgrade this site, and follow the instructions.

    • If you choose to Manually upgrade this site, then note that there might not be an upgrade for the Logging Database schema, depending on what version you are upgrading from.

    • Run the DisableServices.ps1 script before upgrading the database.
    • The .sql scripts must be run in SQLCMD mode. Re-enable SQLCMD mode for each script.
  2. After all Controllers and VDAs are upgraded, in Citrix Studio, view your Catalog for the current functional level (Set to VDA version). Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) 1912 let you upgrade your Catalogs and Delivery Groups to functional level 1811.

    1. Don’t upgrade the Catalog or Delivery Group until all VDAs with the Catalog and Delivery Group are VDA version 1811 or newer.
    2. Right-click the Catalog, and click Upgrade Catalog.
      Note: you might not see the Upgrade Catalog option until you reboot the Delivery Controller.

    3. Review the message regarding suitability of the upgrade and then click Upgrade.
    4. Then upgrade the Delivery Groups by right-clicking on a Delivery Group and clicking Upgrade Delivery Group.
    5. Review the suitability message and then click Upgrade.

Other Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops components can also be in-place upgraded:

New Install Preparation

Periodic updates/upgrades

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) 1912 is a Long Term Service Release (LTSR).

OS Compatibility

Delivery Controller 1912 Cumulative Update 8 is supported on Windows 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019.

  • Windows Server 2022 is not supported in CVAD 1912, but it supported in CVAD 2203 and newer.
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 is no longer supported in 1912 and newer.

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) 1912 Cumulative Update 8 is only supported on a limited number of Windows operating system versions, specifically, Windows 10 (1607+), Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019.

  • Windows Server 2022 is not supported in CVAD 1912 but it supported in CVAD 2109 and newer.
  • Windows 11 is not supported in CVAD 1912 but it supported in CVAD 2109 and newer.
  • If you have older VDA machines running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you can install VDA software version 7.15. Citrix supports VDA 7.15 communicating with Delivery Controller 1912.

Installation Automation

If you want to automate the install of Delivery Controllers, see Dennis Span Citrix Delivery Controller unattended installation with PowerShell and SCCM.

Citrix Licensing

Upgrade your Citrix License Server to 11.17.2.0 build 46000.

  • Citrix now requires Licensing telemetry as described in CTX477614 Citrix License Telemetry FAQ. The build must be 40000 or newer and you must upgrade within 6 months of release.
  • You can run LicServVerify.exe from the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) ISO to verify that the License Server is compatible. Example syntax is: "E:\x64\XenDesktop Setup\LicServVerify.exe" -h myLicenseServer -p 27000 -v

Multiple License Types – Multiple license types (but not multiple editions) are supported in a single farm. See CTX223926 How to Configure Multiple License Types within a Single XenApp and XenDesktop Site.

SQL Databases for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

  • Citrix article CTX114501 – Supported Databases for XenApp and XenDesktop Components
  • SQL 2019 is supported with CVAD 1912 Cumulative Update 1 and newer. It’s not supported with the base .0 version of CVAD 1912.
  • Citrix CTX209080 Database Sizing Tool for XenDesktop 7
  • Three databases – There are typically three databases: one for the Site (aka farm), one for Logging (audit log) and one for Monitoring (Director).
    • The name of the monitoring database must not have any spaces in it. See CTX200325 Database Naming Limitation when Citrix Director Accesses Monitoring Data Using OData APIs
    • If you want Citrix Studio to create the SQL databases automatically, then the person running Studio must be a sysadmin on the SQL instances. No lesser SQL role will work. sysadmin permissions can be granted temporarily and revoked after installation.
    • Alternatively, you can use Citrix Studio to create SQL scripts and then ask a DBA to run those scripts on the SQL server. In that case, the person running the scripts only needs the dbcreator and securityadmin roles.
    • It is possible to create the three databases in advance. However, you must use the non-default collation named Latin1_General_100_CI_AS_KS
  • SQL High Availability Options:
    • Basic Availability Groups – Build two SQL 2016 (or newer) Standard Edition servers, and create three Basic Availability Groups, one for each database. Each Basic Availability Group has its own Listener.
    • Database Mirroring – Build two SQL 2014 or older Standard Edition servers, and configure Database Mirroring.
    • AlwaysOn Availability Group – Build two SQL Enterprise Edition servers, and create one AlwaysOn Availability Group with one Listener.
    • Failover Clustering – Build two SQL Enterprise Edition servers, and configure SQL Database Failover Clustering.
  • Cloud – Azure SQL is not supported. AWS RDS is supported by AWS, but not by Citrix. You’ll need to build your own SQL Servers on IaaS VMs.

Windows Feature

Installing Group Policy Management (GPMC) on the Delivery Controllers lets you edit Citrix-targeted Group Policy Objects (GPOs) directly from the Delivery Controllers.

Citrix has a Citrix Group Policy Management Plug-in that adds the Citrix Policies node to the Group Policy Editor. The Citrix Group Policy Management Plug-in is included with the installation of Citrix Studio, meaning that running GPMC on the Delivery Controller automatically grants you access to the Citrix Policies node in the GPOs. If you edit GPOs on a machine that doesn’t have Citrix Studio installed, then you won’t see the Citrix Policies node in GPOs until you manually install the Citrix Group Policy Management Plug-in.

vCenter Service Account

Create a role in vSphere Client. Assign a service account to the role at the vCenter Datacenter or higher level. Delivery Controller will use this service account to login to vCenter.

Delivery Controller New Install

  1. A typical size for the Controller VMs is 2-4 vCPU and 8+ GB of RAM. If all components (Delivery Controller, StoreFront, Licensing, Director, SQL Express) are installed on one server, then you might want to bump up memory to 10 GB or 12 GB. 5 GB is the minimum memory.
  2. From Local Host Cache sizing and scaling at Citrix Docs:
    1. For LHC LocalDB, assign the Controller VMs a single socket with multiple cores. SQL LocalDB uses max four cores on one socket. Configure the Delivery Controller VM with four cores per socket.
    2. Add two cores for LHC.
    3. Add at least three more Gigs of RAM and watch the memory consumption.
    4. Since there’s no control over LHC election, ensure all Controllers in the site/farm have the same specs.
  3. Operating System: Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) 1912 Cumulative Update 8 is supported on Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2012 R2.
    • Windows Server 2022 is not supported until CVAD 2203.
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 is no longer supported in CVAD 1912 and newer.
  4. Make sure the User Right Log on as a service includes NT SERVICE\ALL SERVICES or add NT SERVICE\CitrixTelemetryService to the User Right.
  5. Download the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1912 LTSR CU9 ISO.
  6. On two Delivery Controllers, to install the Delivery Controller software, run AutoSelect.exe from the mounted 1912 CU9 ISO.
  7. Click Start next to either Virtual Apps or Virtual Apps and Desktops. The only difference is the product name displayed in the installation wizard.
  8. On the top left, click Delivery Controller.
  9. In the Licensing Agreement page, select I have read, understand, and accept the terms, and click Next.
  10. In the Core Components page, you can install all components on one server, or on separate servers. Splitting out the components is only necessary in large environments, or if you have multiple farms and want to share the Licensing and Director components across those farms. Notice that StoreFront is no longer in this list. Click Next.
  11. In the Features page, uncheck the box next to Install Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Express CU31, and click Next.
  12. In the Firewall page, click Next.
  13. In the Summary page, click Install.
  14. After installation is complete, in the Diagnostics page, you can optionally Collect diagnostic information by clicking Connect and entering your Citrix Cloud or MyCitrix.com credentials. Click Next.
  15. In the Finish page, click Finish. Citrix Studio will automatically launch.
  16. Ensure the two Delivery Controller VMs do not run on the same hypervisor host. Create an anti-affinity rule at vSphere Cluster > Configure > VM/Host Rules > Add. Set the Type to Separate Virtual Machines.
  17. Citrix Tech Zone Endpoint Security and Antivirus Best Practices: provides guidelines for configuring antivirus software in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environments

Create Site – Create Database

There are several methods of creating the databases for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD):

  • If you have sysadmin permissions to SQL, let Citrix Studio create the databases automatically.
  • If you don’t have sysadmin permissions to SQL, then use Citrix Studio to generate SQL scripts, and send the scripts to a DBA.

Use Citrix Studio to Create the Databases Automatically

  1. Launch Citrix Studio. After it loads, click Deliver applications and desktops to your users.
  2. In the Introduction page, select An empty, unconfigured site. This reduces the number of pages in this Setup wizard. The removed pages will be configured later.
  3. Enter a Site Name (aka farm name), and click Next. Only administrators see the farm name.
  4. In the Databases page, if you are building two Delivery Controllers, click Select near the bottom of the same page.

    1. Click Add.
    2. Enter the FQDN of the second Delivery Controller, and click OK. Note: the Delivery Controller software must already be installed on that second machine.
    3. Then click Save.
  5. If the person running Citrix Studio has sysadmin permissions to the SQL Server, then enter the SQL server name/instance in the three Location fields, and click Next.
  6. If you don’t have sysadmin permission, then jump to the SQL Scripts section below.
  7. On the Licensing page, enter the name of the Citrix License Server, and click Connect. If you installed Citrix Licensing with your Delivery Controller, then simply enter localhost.
  8. If the Certificate Authentication appears, select Connect me, and click Confirm.
  9. Select your license type, and click Next. If you see both User/Device and Concurrent, then you usually must select User/Device licenses. Also see CTX223926 How to Configure Multiple License Types within a Single XenApp and XenDesktop Site.
  10. In the Summary page, if your databases are mirrored or in an Availability Group, each database will show high availability servers, and the name of the Mirror server. Click Finish.

  11. It will take some time for the site to be created.
  12. Once done, skip to the Second Delivery Controller section.

Use Citrix Studio to create SQL scripts

  1. If you don’t have SQL sysadmin permissions, then change the selection to Generate scripts to manually set up databases on the database server. Change the database names if desired, and click Next.
  2. In the Summary page, click Generate scripts.
  3. A folder will open with six scripts. Edit each of the scripts.
  4. Near the top of each script are two lines to create the database. Uncomment both lines (including the go line). Then save and close the file.

  5. Once all of the scripts are edited, you can send them to your DBA.
    1. On the Principal SQL Server, open the file Site_Principal.sql.

    2. Open the Query menu, and click SQLCMD Mode to enable it.
    3. Then execute the script.
    4. If SQLCMD mode was enabled properly, then the output should look something like this:
    5. If you have a mirrored database, run the second script on the mirror SQL instance. Make sure SQLCMD mode is enabled.
    6. Repeat for the Logging_Principal.sql script.
    7. You’ll have to enable SQLCMD Mode for each script you open.


    8. Repeat for the Monitoring_Principal.sql script.
    9. Once again enable SQLCMD Mode.


    10. The person running Citrix Studio must be added to the SQL Server as a SQL Login, and granted the public server role, so that account can enumerate the databases.

  6. Back in Citrix Studio, click the Continue database configuration and Site setup button.
  7. In the Databases page, enter the SQL server name, and instance name, and click Next.

  8. On the Licensing page, enter the name of the Citrix License Server, and click Connect. If you installed Citrix Licensing with your Delivery Controller, then simply enter localhost.
  9. If the Certificate Authentication window appears, select Connect me, and click Confirm.
  10. Then select your license, and click Next. See CTX223926 How to Configure Multiple License Types within a Single XenApp and XenDesktop Site.
  11. In the Summary page, if your databases are mirrored, each database will show high availability servers, and the name of the Mirror server. Click Finish.

  12. It will take some time for the site to be created.

Second Controller

During Site creation, you might have selected more than one Delivery Controller. In that case, simply run Citrix Studio on the already configured additional Delivery Controllers. If Citrix Studio is already open, close it and reopen it to see the farm configuration.

Otherwise, additional Delivery Controllers need to be added to the SQL databases.

  • If you have sysadmin permissions to SQL, let Citrix Studio modify the databases automatically.
  • If you don’t have sysadmin permissions to SQL then use Citrix Studio to generate SQL scripts and send them to a DBA.

To use Citrix Studio to create the SQL Scripts:

  1. On the first Delivery Controller, if StoreFront is installed on the Controller, then delete the default StoreFront store (/Citrix/Store) and recreate it with your desired Store name (e.g. /Citrix/Company).
  2. On the second Delivery Controller machine, install Delivery Controller as detailed earlier.
  3. After installation, launch Citrix Studio on the second controller, and click Connect this Delivery Controller to an existing Site.
  4. Enter the name of the first Delivery Controller, and click OK.
  5. If you don’t have full SQL permissions (sysadmin), click No when asked if you want to update the database automatically.
  6. Click Generate scripts.
  7. A folder will open with six scripts. If not mirroring, then the top three scripts need to be sent to a DBA. If mirroring, send all six.
  8. On the SQL Server, open one of the .sql files.

  9. Open the Query menu, and click SQLCMD Mode.
  10. Then execute the SQL script.
  11. If SQLCMD mode was enabled properly, then the output should look something like this:
  12. Repeat for the remaining script files.
  13. Back in Citrix Studio, click OK.
  14. In Citrix Studio, under Configuration > Controllers, you should see both controllers.

SSL for Delivery Controller

SSL certificates should be installed on each Delivery Controller to encrypt the traffic between StoreFront and Delivery Controller. The traffic between StoreFront and Delivery Controller contains user credentials.

The SSL certificate on each Delivery Controller needs to match the FQDN of the Delivery Controller.

  • If StoreFront is installed on the Delivery Controller, then you have two FQDNs to consider: the Delivery Controller FQDN, and the StoreFront FQDN. Make sure the certificate matches the Delivery Controller FQDN, but it’s usually not necessary for the same certificate to also match the StoreFront FQDN.
    • The StoreFront certificate is usually hosted on a Citrix ADC SSL Load Balancing Virtual Server. Users connect to Citrix ADC instead of directly to the StoreFront servers. The StoreFront certificate only needs to be valid between the user and the ADC.
    • For the connection between ADC and StoreFront server, ADC does not validate the certificate so the certificate on the StoreFront server can be anything. That means you can install a certificate that matches the Delivery Controller FQDN, but there’s no need for the certificate to match the StoreFront FQDN.

To enable SSL for a Delivery Controller:

  1. Run certlm.msc, go to Personal > Certificates, and create or install a server certificate that matches the Delivery Controller’s FQDN. This can be an internally-signed certificate if the StoreFront server trusts internally-signed certificates.
  2. If IIS is installed on the Delivery Controller, then simply run IIS Manager, go to Default Web Site, click Edit Bindings, and add an https binding using the chosen certificate.

If IIS is not installed on the Delivery Controller, then we need to build a command line to bind the certificate to Citrix Broker Service. Binding Your SSL Server Certificate to the Citrix Broker Service by Ray Kareer at CUGC has a script to automate this process.

  1. Open a command prompt as administrator.
  2. Enter the following text but don’t press Enter yet. 
    netsh http add sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:443 certhash=
  3. Right after certhash= paste the certificate thumbprint using the following procedure:
    1. Go to certlm.msc > Personal > Certificates.
    2. Double-click the certificate you want to bind.
    3. On the Details tab, scroll down to Thumbprint and copy the thumbprint.
    4. Paste the thumbprint into the command line we’re building.
    5. Remove the special character at the beginning of the thumbprint.
    6. Remove the spaces.
  4. Add the following to the command line: 
     appid=
  5. Michael Shuster at HowTo: Enable SSL on Citrix Delivery Controllers – Easy Method says you can run the following PowerShell to get the Broker Service GUID. 
    Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Select-String -Pattern "broker service"
  6. Paste the GUID for Citrix Broker Service that you got from the Get-WmiObject. Make sure the GUID has curly braces on both sides with no space between appid and the left curly brace.
  7. Press <Enter> to run the command.
  8. If you entered everything correctly, then it should say SSL Certificate successfully added.
  9. To confirm the certificate binding, run the following: 
    netsh http show sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:443

Studio – Slow Launch

From B.J.M. Groenhout at Citrix Discussions: The following adjustments can be made if Desktop Studio (and other Citrix management Consoles) will start slowly:

  • Within Internet Explorer, go to Tools – Internet Options – Tab Advanced – Section Security, and uncheck the option Check for publisher’s certificate revocation

After adjustment Desktop Studio (MMC) will be started immediately. Without adjustment it may take some time before Citrix Studio (MMC) is started.

Registry setting (can be deployed using Group Policy Preferences):

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinTrust\Trust Providers\Software Publishing
    • “State“=dword:00023e00

Concurrent Logon Hard Limit

From Samuel Legrand XenApp 7.14 – (Really) Manage a DR! – Citrix Policies has a setting called Concurrent Logon Tolerance. However, it is not a hard limit, meaning once the limits are reached, it continues to let users connect. You can configure the Controllers to make it a hard limit by setting the following registry value:

  • HKLM\Software\Policies\Citrix\DesktopServer
    • LogonToleranceIsHardLimit (DWORD) = 1

Local Host Cache

If you have 10,000 or fewer VDAs per zone (up to 40,000 VDAs per multi-zone site/farm), you can enable Local Host Cache (LHC) instead of Connection Leasing. LHC allows new sessions to be started even if SQL database is unavailable.

From Local Host Cache sizing and scaling at Citrix Docs:

  1. For LHC LocalDB, assign the Controller VMs a single socket with multiple cores.
  2. Add two cores for LHC.
  3. Add at least three more Gigs of RAM and watch the memory consumption.
  4. Since there’s no control over LHC election, ensure all Controllers have the same specs.
  5. The Docs article has scripts for monitoring LHC performance.

From XenApp 7.12, LHC and a reboot at Citrix Discussions:

  • If the rebooted DDC is the elected one, a different DDC will take over (causing registration storm) and when the DDC gets back, it will take over brokering causing second registration storm. Site will sort itself out and all will work.
  • If the rebooted DDC is not the elected one, it will not impact any functionality.
  • If you turn the DDC down when site is working, and start it during outage, LHC will not trigger on that machine. This DDC will not impact the LHC unless it would become the elected one. In that scenario it will take control, however not start LHC and resources would not be available.

Trentent Tye at Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp 7.15 – The local host cache in action has a video showing LHC in action.

As mentioned by Citrix Docs, make sure PowerShell Execution Policy is set to RemoteSigned, Unrestricted, or Bypass.

If you did a fresh install of Delivery Controller 1912, then Local Host Cache should be enabled by default. In PowerShell, you can run Get-BrokerSite to confirm.

If not enabled, you can run some PowerShell commands to enable Local Host Cache:

Set-BrokerSite -ConnectionLeasingEnabled $false
Set-BrokerSite -LocalHostCacheEnabled $true

George Spiers Local Host Cache XenApp & XenDesktop shows the Event Log entries when LHC is enabled.

Database Maintenance

Enable Read-Committed Snapshot

The Delivery Controller Database can become heavily utilized under load in a large environment. Therefore Citrix recommends enabling the Read_Committed_Snapshot option on the Delivery Controller databases to remove contention on the database from read queries. This can improve the interactivity of Studio and Director. It should be noted that this option may increase the load on the tempdb files. See Citrix article CTX137161 How to Enable Read-Committed Snapshot in XenDesktop for configuration instructions.

Change Database Connection Strings

Sometimes the database connection strings need to be modified:

  • When moving the SQL databases to a different SQL server
  • For AlwaysOn Availability Groups, to add MultiSubnetFailover to the SQL connection strings
  • For SQL mirroring, to add Failover Partner to the SQL connection strings

Here are general instructions for moving the database and assigning the correct permissions:

  1. Backup the three Citrix databases on the original SQL server, and restore them on the new SQL server. See Microsoft’s documentation for details.
  2. In SQL Management Studio > Security > Logins, add the Delivery Controller computer accounts (e.g. CORP\DDC01$)
  3. When adding the SQL Login, on the User Mapping page, select the three Citrix databases (Site database, Monitoring database, and Logging database)
  4. For each of the three Citrix databases, add the Delivery Controller computer account to the various database roles as listed below. The Site database has many more roles than the Logging and Monitoring databases.
    • Site database – ADIdentitySchema_ROLE
    • Site database – Analytics_ROLE (7.8 and newer)
    • Site database – AppLibrarySchema_ROLE (7.8 and newer)
    • Site database – chr_Broker
    • Site database – chr_Controller
    • Site database – ConfigLoggingSchema_ROLE
    • Site database – ConfigLoggingSiteSchema_ROLE
    • Site database – ConfigurationSchema_ROLE
    • Site database – DAS_ROLE
    • Site database – DesktopUpdateManagerSchema_ROLE
    • Site database – EnvTestServiceSchema_ROLE
    • Site database – HostingUnitServiceSchema_ROLE
    • Site database – Monitor_ROLE
    • Site database – MonitorData_ROLE
    • Site database – OrchestrationSchema_ROLE (7.11 and newer)
    • Site database – public
    • Site database – StorefrontSchema_ROLE (7.8 and newer)
    • Site database – TrustSchema_ROLE (7.11 and newer)
    • Monitoring database – Monitor_ROLE
    • Monitoring database – public
    • Logging database – ConfigLoggingSchema_ROLE
    • Logging database – public

From Citrix Docs Update database connection strings when using SQL Server high availability solutions: Citrix offers several PowerShell scripts that update Delivery Controller database connection strings when you are using SQL Server high availability database solutions such as AlwaysOn and mirroring. The scripts, which use the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops PowerShell API, are:

  • DBConnectionStringFuncs.ps1: The core script that does the actual work. This script contains common functions that the other scripts use.
  • Change_XD_Failover_Partner_v1.ps1: Updates (adds, changes, or removes) the failover partner. This script prompts for the failover partner location (FQDN) for each database. (Providing a blank failover partner removes the failover partner. You can also use the ClearPartner option to remove a partner.) Do not set the failover partner to the same location as the principal database server.
  • Change_XD_To_ConnectionString.ps1: Uses the provided connection strings to update the connection strings to the databases. This script ensures that certain Citrix services are up and running, and then updates those services in the correct order on all Controllers in the site. Enclose connection string information for each database in quotes.
  • Change_XD_To_MultiSubnetFailover.ps1: Toggles the addition and removal of MultiSubnetFailover=true. If you use AlwaysOn Availability Groups, Microsoft recommends that the connection string include MultiSubnetFailover=true. This option speeds up recovery when a high availability event occurs, and is recommended for both single and multi-subnet environments. Run this script once to add the option. Run the script again to remove it.
  • Change_XD_To_Null.ps1: Resets all the connection strings on the localhost because something has gone wrong. By resetting the connection strings to null, this script places the Controller into an “initial” state. If you run Studio after running this script, you’ll be asked if you want to create a site or join an existing site. This is useful if something has gone wrong and a reset is needed. After the reset, you can try again to set the connection strings.

Here are the DB Connections that must be changed. Make sure you include all of the DB Connections shown below. You can get the full list of database commands by running Get-Command Set-*DBConnection. When changing the DB connections, AdminDBConnection must be the last to be set to NULL, and the first to be configured with the new connection string. Repeat these instructions on all Delivery Controllers in the farm.

Remove the existing Database connections

At the Delivery Controller, open PowerShell as Administrator and run the following commands to clear the existing database connections.

## Disable configuration logging for the XD site:
Set-LogSite -State Disabled

## ## Clear the current Delivery Controller database connections
## Note: AdminDBConnection must be the last command
Set-ConfigDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-AppLibDBConnection -DBConnection $null    #7.8 and newer
Set-OrchDBConnection -DBConnection $null      #7.11 and newer
Set-TrustDBConnection -DBConnection $null     #7.11 and newer
Set-AcctDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-AnalyticsDBConnection -DBConnection $null # 7.6 and newer
Set-HypDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-ProvDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-BrokerDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-EnvTestDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-SfDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DataStore Monitor -DBConnection $null   #Monitoring Database
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DBConnection $null                      #Site Database
Set-LogDBConnection -DataStore Logging -DBConnection $null       #Logging Database
Set-LogDBConnection -DBConnection $null                          #Site Database
Set-AdminDBConnection -DBConnection $null -force

Specify the new Database connection strings

Run the following commands to set the new connection strings. Adjust the variables to match your desired connection string. For example, if you wish to add “;MultiSubnetFailover=True” to the connection strings, then set the $csSite variable to "Server=$ServerName;Initial Catalog=$SiteDBName;Integrated Security=True;MultiSubnetFailover=True". Repeat this for the $csLogging and $csMonitoring variables.

## Replace <dbserver> with the SQL server name, and instance if present, e.g "ServerName\SQLInstanceName". If no SQL Instance name is mentioned, this commandlet will try to connect to the default SQL instance.
## Replace <dbname> with the name of your restored Database
## Note: AdminDBConnection should be first

$ServerName = "<dbserver>"
$SiteDBName = "<SiteDbName>"
$LogDBName = "<LoggingDbName>"
$MonitorDBName = "<MonitorDbName>"
$csSite = "Server=$ServerName;Initial Catalog=$SiteDBName;Integrated Security=True;MultiSubnetFailover=True"
$csLogging = "Server=$ServerName;Initial Catalog=$LogDBName;Integrated Security=True;MultiSubnetFailover=True"
$csMonitoring = "Server=$ServerName;Initial Catalog=$MonitorDBName;Integrated Security=True;MultiSubnetFailover=True"

Set-AdminDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-ConfigDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-AcctDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-AnalyticsDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite # 7.6 and newer
Set-HypDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite 
Set-ProvDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-AppLibDBConnection –DBConnection $csSite # 7.8 and newer
Set-OrchDBConnection –DBConnection $csSite # 7.11 and newer
Set-TrustDBConnection –DBConnection $csSite # 7.11 and newer
Set-BrokerDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-EnvTestDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-SfDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-LogDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-LogDBConnection -DataStore Logging -DBConnection $null
Set-LogDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-LogDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-LogDBConnection -DataStore Logging -DBConnection $csLogging
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DataStore Monitor -DBConnection $null
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DataStore Monitor -DBConnection $csMonitoring
Set-LogSite -State Enabled

Test the new Database connection strings

Run the following commands to verify connectivity to the database:

## Copy these variables from the previous step
## If you haven’t closed your PowerShell window, then the variables might still be defined. In that case, just run the Test commands
$ServerName = "<dbserver>"
$SiteDBName = "<SiteDbName>"
$LogDBName = "<LoggingDbName>"
$MonitorDBName = "<MonitorDbName>"
$csSite = "Server=$ServerName;Initial Catalog=$SiteDBName;Integrated Security=True"
$csLogging = "Server=$ServerName;Initial Catalog=$LogDBName;Integrated Security=True"
$csMonitoring = "Server=$ServerName;Initial Catalog=$MonitorDBName;Integrated Security=True"

Test-AcctDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Test-AdminDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Test-AnalyticsDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite # 7.6 and newer
Test-AppLibDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite # 7.8 and newer
Test-BrokerDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Test-ConfigDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Test-EnvTestDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Test-HypDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Test-LogDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Test-LogDBConnection -DataStore Logging -DBConnection $csLogging
Test-MonitorDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Test-MonitorDBConnection -Datastore Monitor -DBConnection $csMonitoring
Test-OrchDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite # 7.11 and newer
Test-ProvDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Test-SfDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite
Test-TrustDBConnection -DBConnection $csSite # 7.11 and newer

Director Grooming

If your Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is not Premium Edition, then all historical Director data is groomed at 30 days.

For Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium Edition, by default, most of the historical Director data is groomed at 90 days. This can be adjusted up to 367 days by running a PowerShell cmdlet.

  1. On a Delivery Controller, run PowerShell elevated (as administrator).
  2. Run Get-MonitorConfiguration to see the current grooming settings.
  3. Run Set-MonitorConfiguration to change the grooming settings.

View Logging Database

To view the contents of the Logging Database, in Studio, click the Logging node. On the right is Create Custom Report. See Citrix article CTX138132 Viewing Configuration Logging Data Not Shown for more info.

The Logging Database can be queried using Get-LogLowLevelOperation. See Stefan Beckmann Get user who set maintenance mode for a server or client for an example script that uses this PowerShell cmdlet.

Logging Database Grooming

By default, the Logging Database does not groom old entries. You can enable grooming in Citrix PowerShell by running the Set-LogSite cmdlet with the -LoggingDBPurgeDurationDays parameter. More info at Schedule periodic data deletion at Citrix Docs.

Citrix CTX215069 Troubleshooting and managing Oversized Configuration Logging database: The article’s queries can be used to determine the number of configuration operation types performed by Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Administrator, and to analyze the content of the Configuration Logging database when it is considered oversized. A grooming query is also provided to delete data older than a specified date.

Export/Import Configuration

Ryan Butler has a PowerShell script that can export configuration from one Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops farm and import it to another.

Kaspars Vilde at XenDesktop/XenApp 7.X Applications – Exporting / Importing at Citrix Discussions has scripts to export published apps from one farm and import to another farm.

Studio Administrators

Full Administrators

  1. In the Studio, under Configuration, click the Administrators node. The first time you access the node you’ll see a Welcome page. Feel free to check the box to Don’t show this again, and then click Close.
  2. On the Administrators tab, right-click, and click Create Administrator.
  3. In the Administrator and Scope page, Browse to a group (e.g. Citrix Admins) that will have permissions to Citrix Studio and Director. These groups typically have access to all objects, so select the All scope. Alternatively, you can create a Scope to limit the objects. Click Next.
  4. On the Role page, select a role, and then click Next. For example:
    • Full Administrator for the Citrix Admins group
    • Help Desk Administrator for the Help Desk group
    • Machine Catalog Administrator for the desktop team
  5. In the Summary page, click Finish.

Help Desk

  1. In Citrix Studio, under Configuration, click the Administrators node. On the Administrators tab, right-click, and click Create Administrator.
  2. In the Administrator and Scope page, Browse to a Help Desk group that will have permissions to Citrix Studio and Director. Select the All scope. And click Next.
  3. On the Role page, select the Help Desk Administrator role, and then click Next.
  4. In the Summary page, click Finish.
  5. When administrators in the Help Desk role log into Director, all they see is this.

    To jazz it up a little, add the Help Desk group to the read-only role.
  6. Right-click the Help Desk Administrator, and click Edit Administrator.
  7. Click Add.
  8. In the Scope page, select a scope, and click Next.
  9. In the Role page, select Read Only Administrator, and click Next.
  10. In the Summary page, click Finish.
  11. Then click OK. Now Director will display the dashboard.

Customer Experience Improvement Program

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops enables CEIP by default. If desired, you can disable it in Citrix Studio:

  1. On the left, go to the Configuration node.
  2. On the right, switch to the Product Support tab.
  3. Click End.
  4. Click Yes.

Citrix Studio collects data for Google Analytics. You can disable this in the registry at HKLM\Software\Citrix\DesktopStudio\GAEnabled = 0.

Each Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops component has a separate configuration for disabling Customer Experience Improvement Program:

vCenter Connection

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops uses an Active Directory service account to log into VMware vCenter. This service account needs specific permissions in vCenter. To facilitate assigning these permissions, create a new vCenter role and assign it to the service account. The permissions should be applied at the vCenter datacenter or higher level.

Import vCenter Root Certificate

If the vCenter certificate is valid and trusted, then you can skip to the Hosting Resource section.

For newer versions of vCenter, you can import the root certificate that signed the vCenter Server/Appliance certificate.

  1. Point your browser to the root path of the vCenter Server URL.
  2. On the bottom right, click Download trusted root CA certificates.
  3. Extract the downloaded files.
  4. Go to \certs\win.
  5. Sort the files by date, and double-click the newest .crt file.
  6. On the General tab, click Install Certificate.
  7. In the Welcome to the Certificate Import Wizard page, change the Store Location selection to Local Machine, and click Next.
  8. In the Certificate Store page, click Browse.
  9. Select Trust Root Certification Authorities, and click OK.
  10. In the Completing the Certificate Import Wizard page, click Finish.
  11. If you close your browser and reopen it, and then go to the vCenter URL, there should no longer be any certificate errors.
  12. Skip to the Hosting Resource section.

Import vCenter Certificate

If the vCenter certificate is valid and trusted, then you can skip to the Hosting Resource section.

Alternatively, you can import the actual vCenter Server certificate (instead of the root). This is the only option for older self-signed vCenter certificates.

Newer versions of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) have the ability to import the vCenter certificate thumbprint into the database so every Delivery Controller trusts it. However, it is difficult to update the thumbprint whenever the vCenter certificate changes. It might instead be more reliable to use the older method of configuring the Trusted People store on the Delivery Controllers. Whenever the vCenter certificate is changed, you’ll need to repeat these steps.

  1. Get the vCenter certificate.
    1. Open a browser and point it to the vCenter URL. Note: this procedure to get the certificate won’t work in Internet Explorer.
    2. If Google Chrome, click the Secure box in the address bar, and then click Certificate.
    3. On the Details tab, click Copy to File.
    4. In the Welcome to the Certificate Export Wizard page, click Next.
    5. In the Export File Format page, either format will work. Click Next.
    6. In the File to Export page, browse to a new file, and click Next.
    7. In the Completing the Certificate Export Wizard page, click Finish.
  2. On the Delivery Controller, run certlm.msc. This opens the MMC console with the Certificates snap-in already added and pointing to Local computer.
  3. On the left, right-click the Trusted People node, expand All Tasks, and click Import.
  4. In the Welcome to the Certificate Import Wizard page, click Next.
  5. In the File to Import page, browse to the certificate you saved earlier, and click Next.
  6. In the Certificate Store page, click Next.
  7. In the Completing the Certificate Import Wizard page, click Finish.
  8. Click OK to acknowledge that the import was successful.
  9. Repeat these steps on the second Delivery Controller. It is important that you import the certificate on all Delivery Controllers before you add the Hosting Resource in Citrix Studio.
  10. If you open a browser and point o the vCenter Server, there should be no certificate errors.

Hosting Resources

Hosting Resources are used by both Machine Creation Services (MCS) and by Citrix Provisioning’s CVAD Setup Wizard.

A Hosting Resource = vCenter + Cluster (Resource Pool) + Storage + Network. When you create a machine catalog, you select a previously created Hosting Resource and the new virtual machines are created on the Cluster, Storage, and Network defined in the Hosting Resource object. If you need some VDA machines on a different Cluster+Storage+Network, then you’ll need to define more Hosting Resources in Studio.

Citrix CTX131239 Supported Hypervisors for Virtual Desktops (XenDesktop) and Provisioning (Provisioning Services). vSphere 7 is supported in CVAD 1912 CU2 and newer.

  1. In Citrix Studio, expand Configuration and click Hosting. Right-click Hosting, and click Add Connection and Resources.
  2. In the Connection page, for Connection type, select VMware vSphere.
  3. Notice there’s a Learn about user permissions blue link to an article that describes the necessary permissions.
  4. In the Connection address field, enter a vCenter URL similar to https://vcenter01.corp.local/sdk. The URL must contain the FQDN of the vCenter server.
  5. Enter credentials of a service account that can log into vCenter.
  6. In the Connection name field, give the connection a name. Typically, this matches the name of the vCenter server.
  7. If you are not using Machine Creation Services (MCS), and instead only need the vCenter connection for machine power management, change the Create virtual machines using selection to Other Tools.
  8. If you intend to use MCS, leave Create virtual machines using set to Studio Tools.
  9. Click Next.

  10. In the Storage Management page, click Browse and select a vSphere cluster.
    • Note: as detailed at CTX223662, make sure there’s no comma in the datacenter name.
  11. Select Use storage shared by hypervisors.
  12. Beware of Optimize temporary data on available local storage. From Mark Syms at XA 7.9 MCS with RAM Caching at Citrix Discussions: “If you use just MCS caching to local storage then the VM is not agile at all and cannot be moved even when powered off as it has a virtual disk permanently associated with a single host.”
  13. Click Next.
  14. In the Storage Selection page, OS and Personal vDisk must be selected on at least one datastore.
    • For maximum virtual machine placement flexibility, only select one datastore per Hosting Resource. To select additional datastores, run this wizard again to create a separate Hosting Resource for each datastore.
    • When creating a Machine Catalog, you select a Hosting Resource. If the Hosting Resource only has one datastore selected, then you know which datastore the new VMs will be placed on. However, if the Hosting Resource has multiple datastores, then the datastores are selected round robin, and you don’t have any control over which datastore is selected for each new machine.
    • Personal vDisk datastore still must be selected in version CVAD 1912 LTSR even though Personal vDisk has been replaced by User Personalization Layer.
  15. If you selected the temporary data on local storage option, on the bottom, click Select, and choose the datastores you want to use for disk caching. By default, all local datastores are selected. Click Next when done.
  16. In the Network page, enter a name for the Hosting Resource. Since each Hosting Resource is a combination of vCenter, Cluster, Network, and Datastores, include those names in this field (e.g. vCenter01-Cluster01-Network01-Datastore01).
  17. Select a network and click Next.
  18. In the Summary page, click Finish.
  19. If you need to rename Storage, Network, or Datacenters in vCenter, see Citrix CTX225019 XA/XD 7.13: Renaming Storage, Network or Datacenters When Used With MCS or PVS. Either run Update-HypHypervisorConnection -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\Connections\MyConnection", or right-click the Hosting Resource and click Edit Storage. You can cancel the wizard.

If you have multiple datastores for your VDAs, then create multiple Hosting Resources (one for each datatstore):

  1. Run the Add Connection and Resources wizard again.
  2. You can use the existing vCenter connection.
  3. This time, select a different datastore. Remember, don’t select more than one datastore per Hosting Resource.
  4. Give the Hosting Resource a name that indicates the chosen datastore.

When you later create a MCS Machine Catalog:

  1. Select the Hosting Resource for the datastore where you want the VDAs to be placed.
  2. You can create multiple Machine Catalogs, with each of them on different datastores. You can then combine the Catalogs into a single Delivery Group.
  3. Later in the MachineCatalog wizard, you’re given an option to enable MCS memory caching and select a cache size. This is similar to the Citrix Provisioning (PVS) option “Cache in RAM with overflow to disk”. Only enable MCS memory caching if your storage is not “all flash” and thus needs IOPS reduction. This MCS memory caching requires the MCSIO driver to be selected when installing Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent software on the VDA machines.

Citrix License Server

Upgrade Citrix License Server to version 11.17.2.0 build 46000, which might be newer than what’s on the CVAD ISO.

New License Server

If you’re building a new standalone Citrix License Server:

  1. Citrix now requires Licensing telemetry as described in CTX477614 Citrix License Telemetry FAQ. The build must be 40000 or newer and you must upgrade within 6 months of release.
  2. Extract the downloaded Citrix Licensing 11.17.2.0 build 46000.
  3. Run CitrixLicensing.exe
  4. In the Software License Agreement page, check the box next to I have read, understand, and accept the terms, and click Next.
  5. In the Install Location page, click Next.
  6. In the Configure Ports page, click Next.
  7. In the Configure Customer Success Services Renewal page, click Install.
  8. In the Summary page, click Finish.

Upgrade License Server

Upgrade your Citrix License Server to 11.17.2.0 build 46000 if it isn’t already.

  1. Citrix now requires Licensing telemetry as described in CTX477614 Citrix License Telemetry FAQ. The build must be 40000 or newer and you must upgrade within 6 months of release.
  2. Go to the downloaded Citrix Licensing 11.17.2.0 build 46000 and run CitrixLicensing.exe.

  3. If you see the Subscription Advantage Renewal page, make a selection, and click Next.
  4. In the Upgrade page, click Upgrade.
  5. Click Finish.
  6. After upgrading Citrix License Server, in Citrix Studio, go to Configuration > Licensing.
  7. If you login to the Citrix Licensing Manager (:8083), the top of the page shows the version number.

  8. On the right, click Authenticate Certificate.
  9. Change the selection to Connect me, and click Confirm.

Citrix Licensing Manager

Newer versions of License Server come with a new management web site. The older licensing console has been removed.

  1. From the Start Menu, run Citrix Licensing Manager. Or go to https://<My_Licensing_Server>:8083
  2. You might be prompted to login.

    • To eliminate this login, add the License Server URL to the Local Intranet zone.
  3. Licensing Manager might prompt you to register with Citrix Cloud.

    1. On the Settings > Usage and Statistics page, in the Share usage statistics with Citrix section, click Register.
    2. You’ll see a screen with a registration code. Click the Copy button and then click Register to be take to Citrix Cloud.
    3. After logging in to Citrix Cloud, on the top left, click the menu (hamburger) icon and then click License & Usage. If you don’t see this link, you might have to logout and log back in.
    4. In the License & Usage service, switch to the Registrations tab.
    5. Click the blue Register button in the middle of the page.
    6. Paste in the copied code and then click Continue.
    7. Click Register.
    8. Back in the on-premises Licensing Manager, it will eventually show as Registered.
    9. On the same Usage & Statistics page, scroll down, and then click Upload now. This should cause data to upload to Citrix Cloud and show up in Citrix Cloud License & Usage.
  4. Licensing Manager has a Dashboard page.

    • Click the arrow next to a license to see when it expires and the number of licenses in use.
  5. If you click the gear icon on the top right…
  6. On the Account tab, you can add License Server Administrators.
  7. The Update Licenses tab lets you check for license renewals and download them.

Activate Citrix License

The easy way to install and activate a Citrix license is through Citrix Studio:

  1. In Citrix Studio, expand Configuration, right-click Licensing, and click Allocate Licenses.
  2. Enter the LA- license code, and click Show.
    • You can find your LA- code at http://mycitrix.com, click All Licensing Tools, and click View Licenses.
  3. Then click the Allocate licenses button.

    • Another method of allocating licenses is in the Citrix Licensing Manager at https://MyLicenseServer:8083 > Install Licenses tab.
  4. After licenses are installed, right-click the Licensing node, and click Edit Product Edition
  5. Change the edition to match your licenses. If you see both Virtual Apps and Virtual Desktops licenses, you must select Virtual Desktops. If you see both Concurrent and User/Device, then you must select User/Device. Click OK when done.
  6. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops supports mixed licensing in a single site/farm. See the following:

License Server CEIP

Citrix License Server enables CEIP by default. In newer versions of Citrix License Server it’s not easy to completely disable it. You might have to block it on the outbound firewall.

  1. In the Citrix Licensing Manager (https://MyLicenseServer:8083), click the gear icon on the top right.
  2. Switch to the Usage and Statistics tab and make selections in the Share usage statistics with Citrix section.

Citrix License Management Service

Citrix License Server includes the Citrix License Management Service. This service assists with license management and support:

  • Allocating new licenses if you are about to exceed your license capacity
  • Rescinding old licenses after an upgrade
  • Managing duplicate licenses in a Disaster Recovery (DR) environment

Citrix License Server Monitoring

Citrix License Server has historical usage reporting:

  1. Run Citrix Licensing Manager from the Start Menu. Or use a browser to connect to https://MyLicenseServer:8083
  2. On the Historical Use tab, use the drop-down menus to select a license type, select dates, and export to a .csv file.
  3. At the bottom of this page is a link to change the retention period.

Jonathan Medd Monitor Citrix License Usage With PowerShell.

Lal Mohan – Citrix License Usage Monitoring Using Powershell

Jaroslaw Sobel – Monitoring Citrix Licenses usage – Graphs using WMI, Powershell and RRDtool. This script generates a graph similar to the following:

Remote Desktop Licensing Server

Install Remote Desktop Licensing Server

Do the following on your Delivery Controllers:

  1. In Server Manager, open the Manage menu, and click Add Roles and Features.
  2. In the Installation Type page, select Role-based or feature-based installation.
  3. Click Next until you get to the Server Roles page. Check the box next to Remote Desktop Services, and click Next.
  4. Click Next until you get to the Role Services page. Check the box next to Remote Desktop Licensing, and click Next.
  5. Click Add Features if prompted.
  6. Then finish the wizard to install the role service.

Activate Remote Desktop Licensing

  1. After RD Licensing is installed, in Server Manager, open the Tool menu, expand Terminal Services (or Remote Desktop Services), and click Remote Desktop Licensing Manager.
  2. The tool should find the local server. If it does not, right-click All servers, click Connect, and type in the name of the local server.
  3. Once the local server can be seen in the list, right-click the server and click Activate Server.
  4. In the Welcome to the Activate Server Wizard page, click Next.
  5. In the Connection Method page, click Next.
  6. In the Company Information page, enter the required information, and click Next.
  7. All of the fields on the Company Information page are optional, so you do not have to enter anything. Click Next.
  8. In the Completing the Activate Server Wizard page, uncheck the box next to Start Install Licenses Wizard now, and click Finish. Since the session hosts will be configured to pull Per User licenses, there is no need to install licenses on the RD Licensing Server.
  9. In RD Licensing Manager, right-click the server, and click Review Configuration.
  10. Ensure you have green check marks. If the person installing Remote Desktop Licensing does not have permissions to add the server to the Terminal Server License Servers group in Active Directory, ask a domain admin to do it manually. If you have the proper permissions, click Add to Group.
  11. Click Continue when prompted that you must have Domain Admins privileges.
  12. Click OK when prompted that the computer account has been added.
  13. Click OK to close the window.

Citrix Scout

Delivery Controller includes Citrix Scout that can be launched from the Start Menu.

The tool can run a manual collection, run a trace, schedule periodic collection, or run a Health Check.

Health Check:

  1. When you select machines, it might tell you to enable PSRemoting.
  2. Winrm is usually not enabled on desktop machines. Login to the machine, open command prompt as administrator, and run winrm quickconfig. It’s also possible to use Group Policy to enable winrm.
  3. Scout 1909 and newer lets you add a StoreFront machine.
  4. Go back to Citrix Scout and click Continue.
  5. Click Start Checking.
  6. You can click View Details to view the issues it found.

Collect:

  1. The wizard is identical to the Health Check wizard, except there’s another screen to upload the data.

  2. If Citrix Cloud credentials, then you need to Generate a token.
  3. After logging into Citrix Cloud, copy the token.
  4. Go back to Citrix Scout and paste the token. Click Continue.
  5. Click Start Upload.
  6. Click View Analysis.

Links with more information:

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Health Check

Sacha Tomet Finally 1.0 – but never finalized!: XenApp & XenDesktop 7.x Health Check script has now Version 1.0.

Pavan900 posted a PowerShell-based Health Check script at Citrix Studi – Colors for Maintenance Mode at Citrix Discussions.

Andrew Morgan – New Free Tool: Citrix Director Notification Service: The Citrix Director Notification service sits on an edge server as a service (or local to the delivery controller) and periodically checks the health of:

  • Citrix Licensing.
  • Database Connections.
  • Broker Service.
  • Core Services.
  • Hypervisor Connections.

And if any of these items fall out of bounds, an SMTP alert is sent to the mailbox of your choice for action. The tool will also send “All Clear” emails when these items are resolved, ensuring you are aware when the service has resumed a healthy state.

Matt Bodholdt XenDesktop 7.x Controller Service Status Script at CUGC – PowerShell script that checks the following:

  • Lists Controllers with boot time
  • Licensing status
  • Service status on each Controller
  • DB Connections
  • Controller Available Memory
  • Hypervisor Connections Status

Related Pages

EUC Weekly Digest – December 14, 2019

Last Modified: Nov 7, 2020 @ 6:34 am

Leave a comment

Interesting EUC items from last week:

Citrix VDA

Citrix HDX

Citrix StoreFront

Citrix Workspace app

Citrix ADC

Citrix ADM

Citrix Hypervisor

Citrix Cloud

VMware

For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

For a list of updates at carlstalhood.com, see the Detailed Change Log.

EUC Weekly Digest – December 7, 2019

Last Modified: Nov 7, 2020 @ 6:34 am

Leave a comment

Interesting EUC items from last week:

Citrix App Layering

Citrix StoreFront

Citrix Workspace app

Citrix ADC

Citrix Endpoint Management

Citrix Cloud

VMware

Microsoft

For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

For a list of updates at carlstalhood.com, see the Detailed Change Log.

Migrate NetScaler config to new appliances

Last Modified: Feb 13, 2025 @ 3:27 am

90 Comments

Navigation

Changelog

  • 2024 May 22 – added link to NetScaler Docs Migrate the configuration of a NetScaler instance across SDX appliances
  • 2022 Sep 11 – added a note about question marks ( ? ) in the config
  • 2022 Sep 9 – added /var/download
  • 2022 Sep 1 – added /var/netscaler/locdb
  • 2022 Aug 10 – check management services to make sure TLS12 is not disabled.
  • 2021 Sept 8 – added KEK key files

Overview

This article details one method of migrating a Citrix NetScaler ADC configuration from an old appliance pair to a new appliance pair while preserving the IP addresses. It requires a brief outage to move the IP addresses from the old pair to the new pair. Keeping the existing IP addresses avoids needing to make any changes to DNS, NAT, firewall, and routing.

Notes:

  • The new appliances must be connected to the same networks as the old appliances. If not, then the IP addresses need to change.
  • If you migrate the entire configuration at once, then the SNIPs can also be migrated.
    • The new appliances won’t have a SNIP until cutover time, so DNS will not work on the new appliances until cutover.
  • It’s much easier and quicker if you don’t migrate the NSIPs, so the new appliances will need new NSIPs.
  • You can use temporary SNIPs to validate connectivity on the new appliances.
  • Firmware versions can usually be different on the new appliances as compared to the old appliances.
    • If the old appliances are 10.5 or older, and if you have NetScaler Gateway with a customized logon page, then you’ll have to redo the customization as a Portal Theme on the new appliances.
    • GSLB Sites (MEP) can usually have different firmware versions.

Here’s a summary of the migration process. See the rest of this article for details.

  1. Prepare new appliances by connecting them to the network and pairing them together.
  2. Export files (e.g., SSL certificates) from old appliances and import to new appliances.
  3. Export configuration from old appliance and modify the configuration for later import to the new appliances.
  4. During a brief outage window, disable the old appliances (power off or disconnect), then run the config on the new appliances.
  5. Test the new appliances. If a problem is discovered, then you can roll back by disabling the new appliances and re-enable the old appliances.

Prepare New appliances

If VPX (not on SDX):

  1. Import new VPX appliances into your hypervisor.
    • If vSphere, change NIC to VMXNET3.
  2. Configure anti-affinity for VPX appliances in the same hypervisor cluster.
  3. Configure new management IP Addresses in the virtual machine console.
    • Default gateway should be on the NSIP subnet. The default gateway will be changed to a data VLAN during the cutover.
  4. In the Welcome Wizard, don’t configure any SNIPs. And DNS won’t work without SNIP.
  5. Install licenses on the new VPX appliances.
    • If pooled licensing, enter ADM IP address instead of DNS name to avoid needing DNS/SNIP configuration.
  6. Optional: configure VPX CPU Yield.

If VPX on SDX:

  1. Configure switch ports for LACP port channel and VLAN trunking.
  2. Connect the physical SDX hardware to port channels or individual interfaces.
  3. In SDX SVMs, create Channels and confirm that the channels are distributing.
  4. In SDX SVMs, upload desired VPX XVA firmware virtual appliance.
  5. In SDX SVMs, create new instance and connect the instance to channels.
    • New management IP address for each instance.
    • Default gateway should be on the NSIP subnet. The default gateway will be changed to a data VLAN during the cutover.
    • Enable NSVLAN if the VLAN trunk doesn’t have a native untagged VLAN.
    • For HA pair, create each instance on separate SDX appliances.

If MPX:

  1. Configure switch ports for LACP port channel and VLAN trunking.
  2. Connect the physical MPX hardware to port channels or individual interfaces.
  3. Use LCD, LOM, serial cable, or 0/1 Ethernet crossover to configure new NSIP for each MPX appliance.
    • Default gateway should be on the NSIP subnet. The default gateway will be changed to a data VLAN during the cutover.
    • Enable NSVLAN if the VLAN trunk doesn’t have a native untagged VLAN.
  4. In the Welcome Wizard, don’t configure any SNIPs. And DNS won’t work without SNIP.
  5. Upgrade firmware to desired version.
  6. At System > Network > Interfaces, configure LACP and confirm that the channels are distributing.
  7. At System > Network > Interfaces, disable all interfaces that are not plugged in.
  8. At System > Network > Channels, enable tagall and other channel configs to match the old appliances. Repeat these interface/channel configurations on the secondary node.
  9. Install licenses on the new MPX appliances.
    • If pooled licensing, enter ADM (or ADM Agent) IP address instead of DNS name to avoid needing DNS/SNIP configuration.

For all ADC models:

  1. Create new DNS names for the new NSIP IP Addresses.
  2. Ensure you can SSH (e.g., Putty) and SCP (e.g., WinSCP) to the new NSIPs and old NSIPs.
  3. In the Welcome Wizard, don’t configure any SNIPs. And DNS won’t work without SNIP.
  4. Configure NTP and Time Zone on each node before you pair them together.
    • Enter NTP IP address instead of DNS name to avoid needing DNS/SNIP configuration.
    • From CLI, run shell, then run ntpdate command with NTP Server IP address to sync the local time with NTP server. NTP Sync needs to be disabled before you can run this command.
  5. Pair the two new appliances together.
  6. Configure a new password on the RPC Nodes at System > Network > RPC. Do it on both nodes.
  7. Set NSIP to Secure Access Only at System > Network > IPs, edit NSIP, checkbox at bottom of page. Do it on both nodes.
  8. Configure VLANs without SNIPs.
  9. For dedicated management subnet, configure PBRs.
  10. If you have channels that are not configured with a native, untagged VLAN, then configure tagged High Availability Heartbeats for non-NSIP interfaces by marking one VLAN as untagged and enabling the tagall option on the channel.
    • From CLI, run show ha node to confirm that there are no interfaces on which heartbeats are not seen.
  11. Use new temporary SNIP addresses to test VLAN connectivity
    • Bind the temporary SNIP to VLAN and channel and try to ping it.
    • Remove temporary SNIP when done testing.
  12. Install custom Management certificates that match new NSIP DNS names.
  13. If Default SSL Profile is enabled on old appliance, then enable it on new appliance pair.
  14. Add new pair to Citrix ADM.
  15. Add new pair to SNMP Manager.
  16. Add new pair to ControlUp Monitoring or any other Citrix NetScaler ADC monitoring tool.
  17. If any RADIUS authentication, and if RADIUS is not load balanced, then add the new NSIPs as RADIUS Client IP Addresses on the RADIUS servers.
    • If RADIUS is load balanced, then SNIP is the RADIUS Client IP, and the SNIP will be moved over during cutover.

Export/Import Files

Enact a change freeze to prevent any changes to the old appliances so that the files and Running Configuration don’t have to be downloaded again.

A full backup of the ADC will contain every file you need to upload to the new appliances.

  • On Windows, you’ll need a tool like 7-zip to extract the .tgz file.
  • Inside the backup folder are the files that you’ll need to upload to the new appliances.

Use WinSCP to transfer the following files from the old appliances to the same place on the new appliances.

  • Certificate files and DH files from /nsconfig/ssl
    • UNIX is case sensitive but Windows is not. While downloading, if you see a message about overwriting files, that’s probably because you have two files with the same name but different cases.
    • Don’t upload the files that start with ns- (e.g. ns-server.cert) since those are management certificate files.
  • LDAP certificate verification files from /nsconfig/truststore, if exists.
  • KEK files from /flash/nsconfig/keys. This is more likely to be needed when moving a 13.0 and newer configuration.
  • Custom monitors (e.g. nsldaps.pl) from /nsconfig/monitors, if exists. Grant execute permission to the uploaded .pl files.
  • Login Schemas from /nsconfig/loginschema.
  • /var/download has Bot signatures, WAF signatures, and Responder HTML Page imports. Signatures have their own method of export/import. Import these objects manually using the ADC GUI.
  • Location database from /var/netscaler/locdb.
  • Custom Portal Themes from /var/netscaler/logon/themes, if exists.
    • There’s no need to download the built-in themes. Only download the non-built-in themes.
    • On the new appliances, create Portal Themes with the same names and same template as the old appliances.
    • Then upload the Portal Theme files to the new appliances and overwrite the default files.
  • VPN bookmarks from /var/vpn/bookmark, if exists.
  • Gateway logon page customizations from /var/vpn/vpn, if any.
    • Try to redo these customizations as Portal Themes instead of uploading to the new appliances. The .js files in NetScaler 11.0 and newer are quite different from NetScaler 10.5 and older.
  • /nsconfig/ntp.conf for NTP server configuration.
  • /nsconfig/rc.netscaler if it contains anything other than ntpd.
    • If this file contains customizations for the Gateway logon page, then try to redo them as a Portal Theme.
    • After uploading this file to the new appliances, reboot the new appliances so the commands are executed. Or you can manually run rc.netscaler after you chmod +x to the file.
  • /nsconfig/nsafter.sh if it exists.
    • If this file contains customizations for the Gateway logon page, then try to redo them as a Portal Theme.
    • After uploading this file to the new appliances, reboot the new appliances so the commands are executed. Or you can manually run nsafter.sh after you chmod +x to the file.
  • SSH Banners, like /nsconfig/issue.net, /nsconfig/issue, and /nsconfig/motd.

To test the Portal Themes, you can create a temporary Gateway Virtual Server with a temporary VIP. Remove the temporary configuration when done testing.

Export Configuration

Export running configuration from the old appliances by going to System > Diagnostics > Running Configuration and then click the link to Save text to a File.

Edit the downloaded nsrunning.conf file to prepare it to be executed on the new appliances:

  • Remove all NSIP and hostname lines, including IPv6 and MAC addresses. These lines start with the following:
    • set ns config -IPAddress
    • set lacp -sysPriority 32768 -mac
    • set ns hostName
    • add ns ip -type NSIP – leave the other “add ns ip” commands, especially the SNIP (-novserver) commands
    • add ns ip6 -type NSIP
  • Remove the nsroot line that starts with:
    • set system user nsroot
  • Remove all interface commands that start with:
    • set interface
  • Adjust all channel commands that start with the below. Remove the lamac parameter. Change the LA number to match the new hardware.
    • add channel
    • set channel
  • Fix VLAN binding commands for new channels/interfaces.
  • Edit set snmp mib command, if it exists.
    • set snmp mib
  • Remove PBR commands for NSIP that start with. Or you can adjust the commands for the new NSIPs.
    • add ns pbr NSIP
  • Remove High Availability / Cluster commands that start with:
    • add HA node 1
  • Remove RPC Node commands that start with:
    • set ns rpcNode
  • Review the add route commands to make sure they are correct for the new appliances.
  • Search for set ssl service and look for the ones that start with ns (e.g., nshttps-127.0.0.1-443). If any of them have the parameter -tls12 DISABLED, then remove that parameter.
  • Search the entire config file for question marks ( ? ). Question marks do not import correctly from the CLI so you’ll have to fix them in the GUI after the import is complete.

Make sure the name of the modified configuration file is all lower case and doesn’t have any spaces. The batch command doesn’t work if there are upper case letters or spaces.

Upload the modified config file to /tmp on the new primary appliance.

Optional: review the SSL commands and look for any bindings of custom ciphers to SSL vServers. After the cutover, the new appliances will have your custom ciphers but unfortunately will also have the DEFAULT ciphers. To speed up the post-cutover process, you can pre-create the CLI commands that unbind the DEFAULT cipher groups. Here’s an example command:

unbind ssl vserver MySSLvServer -cipherName DEFAULT

Cutover

Decide how you will disable the old appliances. Here are some options:

  • Shutdown MPX Ethernet interfaces on network switch – if rollback, it’s easy to unshut the interfaces
  • Power off old VPX appliances, including on SDX – if rollback, it’s easy to power them on again
  • If old appliances have dedicated management network (no SNIP on management network), then you can go to System > Network > Interfaces and disable them – if rollback, easy to re-enable
  • Power off old MPX appliances – if rollback, is somebody available in the data center to power them on again?

Before outage – Before the outage window, do the following on the old appliances:

  • Backup the old appliances and download the backup files.
  • Review the old appliances and record what’s up or down – After cutover, you’ll confirm up/down is the same on the new appliances.
    • Look in Traffic Management > Load Balancing > Virtual Servers for up/down status, including the number of UP services.
    • Go to Authentication > Dashboard to see which authentication servers are reachable

Outage – During outage window, do the following:

  • Disable the old appliances.
  • SSH to the new primary appliance and run the batch command to run the commands in your modified configuration file. For example: 
    batch -fileName /tmp/nsrunningmodified.conf -outfile /tmp/outfile.txt
  • Review the outfile for errors. Some warnings can be ignored. You can use WinSCP to access the out file. Or cat it.

After running the batch command, do the following to fix the imported configuration.

  • Default Route – Remove extra Default Route, if any.
    • System > Network > Routes. If there are two 0.0.0.0 routes, then remove the one for the NSIP subnet. Check it on both nodes.
  • Question Marks – for any line that had a question mark ( ? ), fix the config in the GUI. The question marks are probably missing if you did copy/paste into an SSH session instead of running the batch command.
  • VIPs are UP? – Ensure VIPs (Load Balancing, Content Switching, Gateway) are up or down as noted on the old appliance.
    • Traffic Management > Load Balancing > Virtual Servers.
  • Go to Authentication > Dashboard and ensure the status matches the old appliance.
    • If needed, fix LDAP Password in load balancing monitor and in LDAP Policies/Servers.
    • If needed, fix RADIUS Secret in load balancing monitor and in RADIUS Policies/Servers.
  • Portal Themes – Point your browser to the Citrix Gateway logon pages and verify Portal Themes customizations are correct.
  • GSLB MEP – Set GSLB RPC nodes with Secure checked.
    • System > Network > RPCs. Check the Secure box. Change RPC password.
  • DEFAULT ciphers – If Default SSL Profile is enabled, then remove DEFAULT cipher group from SSL Profiles that have custom Ciphers.
    • System > Profiles > SSL tab. Edit each profile. In SSL Ciphers section, remove DEFAULT if it’s not the only cipher.
  • If Default SSL Profile is not enabled, then remove DEFAULT cipher group from all SSL Virtual Servers that have custom ciphers.
    • E.g. Traffic Management > Load Balancing > Virtual Servers. Edit an SSL Virtual Server. Scroll down to the SSL Ciphers section. If you see both DEFAULT and something else, then remove DEFAULT.
  • SSL Labs – Use SSL Labs to test externally reachable VIPs.
  • HA failover – Do a High Availability failover and verify that the same VIPs and authentication servers are UP on new primary appliance.

EUC Weekly Digest – November 23, 2019

Last Modified: Nov 7, 2020 @ 6:34 am

2 Comments

Interesting EUC items from last week:

Microsoft

Citrix VDA

Citrix App Layering

  • Download Citrix App Layering 1911 – Offload compositing option (faster packaging) for vSphere, 7.15 CU5 support
    • After upgrading Citrix App Layering, manually enable Offload Compositing on your existing connectors.

Citrix WEM and Profile Management

Citrix StoreFront/FAS

Citrix Workspace app

Citrix ADC

VMware

Other

For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

For a list of updates at carlstalhood.com, see the Detailed Change Log.

EUC Weekly Digest – November 16, 2019

Last Modified: Nov 7, 2020 @ 6:34 am

4 Comments

Interesting EUC items from last week:

Citrix VDA

Citrix MCS

Citrix StoreFront

Citrix Session Recording

Citrix ADC

Citrix Gateway

Citrix Cloud

VMware

Other

For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

For a list of updates at carlstalhood.com, see the Detailed Change Log.

EUC Weekly Digest – November 9, 2019

Last Modified: Nov 7, 2020 @ 6:34 am

Leave a comment

Interesting EUC items from last week:

Citrix VDA

Citrix HDX

Citrix Gateway

VMware

Microsoft

For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

For a list of updates at carlstalhood.com, see the Detailed Change Log.

EUC Weekly Digest – November 2, 2019

Last Modified: May 15, 2021 @ 11:30 am

Leave a comment

Interesting EUC items from last week:

Citrix HDX

Citrix Workspace app

Citrix Cloud

VMware

Other

For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

For a list of updates at carlstalhood.com, see the Detailed Change Log.