Category: XenApp/XenDesktop

Navigation:

• Change Log
• VDA Virtual Machine Hardware
• Windows Configuration
• Install/Upgrade Virtual Delivery Agent 7.6.9000
  • Connection Quality Indicator
  • Change Controller Registration Port to something other than port 80
  • Verify VDA Registration with Controller
• Receivers:
  • Citrix PDF Printer 7.11.0 for Receiver for HTML5
  • Citrix File Access 2.0.3 for Receiver for Chrome
• Framehawk Configuration
• Remote Desktop Licensing Configuration
• Reduce C: Drive Permissions
• Configure Pagefile for Provisioning Services
• Direct Access Users Group – allow non-administrators to RDP to the VDA
• Enable Windows Profiles v3/v4
• Registry Settings – screen saver, published Explorer, 8dot3, HTML5 Clipboard, HTML5 Upload Folder, 4K Monitors
• Restore Legacy Client Drive Mapping
• COM/LPT Port Redirection
• Print Driver for Mac and Linux Clients
• HTML5 Receiver – SSL for VDA
• Anonymous Accounts
• Antivirus
• Optimize Performance
• Seal and Shut Down
• Troubleshooting – Graphics
• Uninstall VDA

💡 = Recently Updated

Change Log

• 2020 Nov 7 – updated Install VDA section, for version 7.6.9000 (update 9).
• 2019 Aug 30 – updated Install VDA section, for version 7.6.8000 (update 8).
• 2019 Feb 8 – updated Install VDA section, for version 7.6.7000 (update 7).
• 2018 Aug 15 – updated Install VDA section, for version 7.6.6000 (update 6).
• 2018 Feb 8 – updated Install VDA section, for version 7.6.5000 (update 5).
• 2017 Dec 8 – in Registry > Login Timeout section, added link to Citrix CTX138404 Application Connection Starts but Disappears after Timeout

Hardware

1. For virtual desktops, give the virtual machine: 2+ vCPU and 2+ GB of RAM
2. For Windows 2008 R2 RDSH, give the virtual machine 4 vCPU and 12-24 GB of RAM
3. For Windows 2012 R2 RDSH, give the virtual machine 8 vCPU, and 24-48 GB of RAM
4. If using PvS RAM caching, add more RAM for the cache
5. Remove the floppy drive
6. Remove any serial or LPT ports
7. 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.
8. If this VDA will boot from Provisioning Services:
   1. Do not enable Memory Hot Plug
      
   2. For vSphere, the NIC must be VMXNET3.
      
   3. For vSphere, configure the CD-ROM to boot from IDE instead of SATA. SATA comes with VM hardware version 10. SATA won’t work with PvS.
      
9. Install the latest version of drivers (e.g. VMware Tools)
   1. If Windows 7 on vSphere, don’t install the VMware SVGA driver. For more details, see CTX201804 Intermittent Connection Failures/Black Screen Issues When Connecting from Multi-Monitor Client Machines to Windows 7 VDA with VDA 7.x on vSphere/ESXi.
      

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. On the VM Options tab, expand Advanced and then click Edit Configuration.
   
5. Click Add Row.
   
6. On the left, enter devices.hotplug. On the right, enter false.
7. Then click OK a couple times to close the windows.
   
8. 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 a timing issue.  💡
   
2. If RDSH, disable IE Enhanced Security Configuration in Server Manager > Local Server.
   
3. Optionally, go to Action Center (Windows 8.1 or 2012 R2) or Security and Maintenance (Windows 10) to disable User Account Control and enable SmartScreen .
   
4. Run Windows Update.
   
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 | Remotes Desktop Services | Remote desktop Session Host | Security | Always prompt for password upon connection

   Or set the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\ PorticaAutoLogon (DWORD) = 0x10.
7. For Windows 7 VDAs that will use Personal vDisk, install Microsoft hotfix 2614892 – A computer stops responding because of a deadlock situation in the Mountmgr.sys driver. This hotfix solved a Personal vDisk Image update issue detailed at Citrix Discussions.
8. If this VDA is Windows Server 2008 R2, request and install the Windows hotfixes recommended by Citrix CTX129229. Scroll down to see the list of recommended Microsoft hotfixes for Windows Server 2008 R2. Ignore the XenApp 6.x portions of the article. Also see https://www.carlstalhood.com/windows-server-2008-r2-post-sp1-hotfixes/.
   
9. To remove the built-in apps in Windows 10, see Robin Hobo How to remove built-in apps in Windows 10 Enterprise.
10. 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.
    
11. If you intend to use Citrix’s SCOM Management Packs for XenApp/XenDesktop, make sure WinRM is enabled on the VDA by running winrm quickconfig. Or you can enable WinRM using Group Policy.
    

Install/Upgrade Virtual Delivery Agent 7.6.9000

1. Console – For virtual desktops, make sure you are logged into the console. The VDA won’t install if you are connected using RDP.
2. Windows 10: VDA 7.6.9000 is not compatible with Windows 10. Instead install VDA 7.15 Update 6. Delivery Controllers must remain on 7.6.9000.
3. 8.3 file names – Make sure 8.3 file name generation is not disabled. If so, see CTX131995 – User Cannot Launch Application in Seamless Mode to fix the AppInit_DLLs registry keys.
4. .NET Framework – Make sure .NET Framework 4.5.2 is installed.
5. Download – Go to the downloaded XenApp/XenDesktop 7.6.9000 and run AutoSelect.exe. Or you can use one of the standalone installers from the same download link.
   
6. Click one of the XenApp or XenDesktop buttons. It doesn’t matter which one you click.
   
7. Click one of the middle Virtual Delivery Agent boxes depending on which OS type you’re installing this on.
   
8. In the Environment page, select Create a Master Image, and click Next. Master Image includes Profile Management, while the other option does not.
   
9. For virtual desktops, in the HDX 3D Pro page, if you don’t have a GPU, select standard VDA, and click Next.
   
10. In the Core Components page, if you don’t need Citrix Receiver installed on your VDA, then uncheck the box. Receiver is usually only needed for double-hop connections (connect to first VDA, and then from there, connect to second VDA). Click Next.
    
11. In the Delivery Controller page, select Do it manually. Enter the FQDN of each Controller. Click Test connection. And then make sure you click Add. Click Next when done.
    
12. In the Features page, click Next. 7.6.9000 VDA does not include Personal vDisk.
    
13. In the Firewall page, click Next.
    
14. In the Summary page, click Install.
    
15. For RDSH, click Close when you are prompted to restart.
    
16. After the machine reboots twice, login, and installation should continue.
17. If you see a Locate ‘XenDesktop LTSR CU9’ installation media window, click Cancel.
    
    1. Mount the XenApp_and_XenDesktop_7_6_8000.iso.
       
    2. Run AutoSelect.exe.
       
    3. Click the Virtual Desktop Agent box to resume installation.
       
18. Installation will continue.
    
19. After installation, click Finish to restart the machine again.
    
20. If 8.3 file name generation is disabled, see CTX131995 User Cannot Launch Application in Seamless Mode to fix the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\AppInit_DLLs registry value.
    

VDA Components

VDA 7.6.9000 includes the following component versions. These components are on a different LTSR program.

• VDA 7.6.9000 comes with Citrix Profile Management LTSR 7.15.6000.
• VDA 7.6.9000 comes with Citrix Receiver LTSR 4.9.8000, but can be upgraded to 4.9.9000.

Connection Quality Indicator

The Connection Quality Indicator tells the user the quality of the connection. For example:

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 settings under Computer Config | Policies | Admin Templates | Citrix Components | Virtual Desktop Agent | CQI

Controller Registration Port

Some environments will not accept the default port 80 for Virtual Delivery Agent registration, even though registration is authenticated and encrypted on port 80. To change the port, do the following on the Virtual Delivery Agent:

1. Open Programs and Features.
   
2. Find Citrix 7.6 LTSR CU9 – Virtual Delivery Agent, and click Change.
   
3. Click Customize Virtual Delivery Agent settings.
   
4. Edit the Delivery Controllers, and click Next.
   
5. On the Configure Delivery Controller page, change the port number, and click Next.
   
6. In the Summary page, click Reconfigure.
   
7. In the Finish page, click Finish. The machine automatically restarts.
   
8. You must also change the VDA registration port on the Delivery Controllers by running BrokerService.exe /VDAPort.

Controller Registration – Verify

1. If you restart the Virtual Delivery Agent machine, or restart the Citrix Desktop Service…
   
2. In Windows Logs \ Application, you should see an event 1012 from Citrix Desktop Service saying that it successfully registered with a controller. If you don’t see this then you’ll need to fix the ListOfDDCs registry key.
   
3. You can also run Citrix’s Health Assistant on the VDA.
   
4. See CTX220772 Technical Primer: VDA Registration for a very detailed explanation of the VDA Registration process.

Citrix PDF Printer 7.11.0 for Receiver for HTML5/Chrome

1. To allow printing from Receiver for HTML5/Chrome, install Citrix PDF Printer. Get it from the Receiver for HTML5 download page in the Additional Components section. Note: this PDF Printer is only used by Receiver for HTML5 and Receiver for Chrome.
   
2. Go to the extracted CitrixPDFPrinter_7.11.0 and run CitrixPDFPrinter64.msi.
   
3. In the Please read the Citrix PDF printer License Agreement page, check the box next to I accept the terms and click Install.
   
4. In the Completed the Citrix PDF Universal Driver Setup Wizard page, click Finish.
   
5. In Programs and Features, it is shown as version 7.11.0.11.
   
6. Configure a Citrix Policy to enable the PDF printer. The setting is called Auto-create PDF Universal Printer in the user half of a Citrix Policy GPO.
   

Citrix File Access 2.0.3 for Receiver for Chrome

1. If you support Receiver for Chrome (Chromebook) and want to open files on Google Drive using published applications, install Citrix File Access on the VDAs. Get it from the Receiver for Chrome download page, in the Additional Components section.
   
2. Go to the extracted Citrix_File_Access_2.0.3, 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 Programs and Features as version 2.0.3.33.
   
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 Receiver.

Framehawk Configuration

To enable Framehawk, see https://www.carlstalhood.com/citrix-policy-settings/#framehawkconfig

Remote Desktop Licensing Configuration

On 2012 R2 RDSH, the only way to configure Remote Desktop Licensing is using group policy (local or domain). This procedure also works for 2008 R2 RDSH. 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 XenDesktop 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. In Server Manager, open the Tools menu, expand Terminal Services and click RD Licensing Diagnoser.
   
7. 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 2008 R2 and RDSH Windows 2012 R2.

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 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 Provisioning Services 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 Provisioning Services will be unable to move it to the cache disk. This causes Provisioning Services to cache to server instead of caching to your local cache disk (or RAM).

1. Open System. In 2012 R2, you can right-click the Start button and click System.
   
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 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.

Windows Profiles v3/v4/v5

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

• v6 = Windows 10 (1607) and Windows Server 2016
• 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

Windows 8.1 and 2012 R2 don’t properly set the profile version. To fix this, ensure update rollup 2887595 is installed. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2890783. After you apply this update, you must create a registry key before you restart the computer.

1. Run regedit.
2. Locate and then tap or click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlset\Services\ProfSvc\Parameters
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then tap or click DWORD Value.
4. Type UseProfilePathExtensionVersion.
5. Press and hold or right-click UseProfilePathExtensionVersion, and then tap or click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then tap or click OK.
7. Exit Registry Editor.

Then, Windows 8.1 creates a user profile and appends the suffix “.v4” to the profile folder name to differentiate it from version 2 of the profile in Windows 7 and version 3 of the profile in Windows 8.

Registry

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 = LogoffCheckerStartupDelayInSeconds (DWORD) = 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 = SetDisplayRequiredMode (DWORD) = 0

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 = LogonUIWidth (DWORD) = 300
  • Value = LogonUIHeight (DWORD) = 200

Login Timeout

From Citrix CTX203760 VDI Session Launches Then Disappears: XenDesktop, 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 = AutoLogonTimeout ( DWORD) = decimal 240 or higher (up to 3600).

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 =ApplicationLaunchWaitTimeoutMS (DWORD) = decimal 60000

HDX Flash

From Citrix Knowledgebase article CTX139939 – Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 – Citrix Known Issues: The registry key value IEBrowserMaximumMajorVersion is queried by the HDX Flash service to check for maximum Internet Explorer version that HDX Flash supports. For Flash Redirection to work with Internet Explorer 11 set the registry key value IEBrowserMaximumMajorVersion to 11 on the machine where HDX flash service is running. In case of XenDesktop it would be the machine where VDA is installed.

• Key = HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\HdxMediaStreamForFlash\Server\PseudoServer
  • Value = IEBrowserMaximumMajorVersion (DWORD) = 00000011 (Decimal)

From Citrix Discussions: Add the DWORD ‘FlashPlayerVersionComparisonMask=0’ on the VDA under HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Citrix\HdxMediaStreamForFlash\Server\PseudoServer.  This disables the Flash major version checking between the VDA and Client Device.

Mfaphook – 8.3 File Names

1. Open a command prompt.
2. Switch to C:\ by running cd \
3. Run dir /x program*
4. If you don’t see PROGRA~1 then 8.3 is disabled. This will break Citrix.
   
5. If 8.3 is disabled, open regedit and go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows.
6. On the right is AppInit_DLLs. Edit it and remove the path in front of MFAPHOOK64.DLL.
   
   
   

Receiver for HTML5/Chrome Enhanced Clipboard

From About Citrix Receiver for Chrome 1.9 at Citrix Docs: To enable enhanced clipboard support, set 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.

Receiver for HTML5/Chrome Upload Folder

The Receiver 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 Receiver also adds a Save to My Device location to facilitate downloads.

4K Monitors

Citrix CTX201696 – Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp – Support for Monitors Including 4K Resolution and Multi-monitors: Up to eight 4K monitors are supported with the Std-VDA and RDS VDA irrespective of underlying GPU support, provided the required policies and/or registry keys are correctly configured. Currently the Std-VDA for XenDesktop and RDS-VDA for XenApp does not support resolutions higher than 4094 in any dimension.

Framehawk currently does not support 4K monitors. At the time of writing, the number of monitors supported is 1, the use of more monitors will cause the graphics mode to change from Framehawk to Thinwire to support multi-monitor.  The maximum resolution supported by Framehawk is currently 2048×2048.

From CTX200257 – Screen Issues Connecting to 4K Resolution Monitors: Symptom: A blank or corrupt screen is displayed when connecting to Windows 7 or 8.1 Standard XenDesktop Virtual Delivery Agents on a client which has one or more 4K resolution monitors.

1. Calculate the video memory that is required for 4K monitor using the following formula:
   Sum of total monitors (Width * height * 4 * X) where width and height are resolution of the monitor.
   X = 2 if VDA is Windows 7 OR X = 3 if VDA is Windows 8\8.1
   Suppose a Windows 7 VDA is connecting to a client that has dual 4K monitors (3840×2160), then video buffer should be: (3840 x 2160 x 4 x 2) + (3840 x 2160 x 4 x 2) = ~132MB
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\vd3v
4. Increase the value of “MaxVideoMemoryBytes” REG_DWORD value to the above calculated memory.
5. Reboot the VDA.

Citrix Policies also control graphics performance.

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 = UNCEnabled (DWORD) = 0
    

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

COM/LPT Port Redirection

To signal Citrix’ intention to deprecate COM and LPT support in a future major release, policy settings for COM Port and LPT Port Redirection have moved from Studio to the registry, and are now located under HKLM\Software\Citrix\GroupPolicy\Defaults\Deprecated on either your Master VDA image or your physical VDA machines. The registry values are detailed in Citrix Docs.

Print Driver for Non-Windows Clients

This section applies to Windows 2012 R2, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 VDAs.

From Mac Client Printer Mapping Fix for Windows 8/8.1 and Windows Server 2012/2012R2. By default, Non-Windows clients cannot map printers due to a missing print driver on the VDA machine.

1. Requirements:
   • Internet Access
   • Windows Update service enabled
2. Click Start and run Devices and Printers.
   
3. In the Printers section, highlight a local printer (e.g. Microsoft XPS Document Writer). Then in the toolbar click Print server properties.
   
4. Switch to the Drivers tab. Click Change Driver Settings.
   
5. Then click Add.
   
6. In the Welcome to the Add Printer Driver Wizard page, click Next.
   
7. In the Processor Selection page, click Next.
   
8. In the Printer Driver Selection page, click Windows Update. The driver we need won’t be in the list until you click this button. Internet access is required.
   
9. Once Windows Update is complete, highlight HP on the left and then select HP Color LaserJet 2800 Series PS (Microsoft) on the right. Click Next.
   
10. In the Completing the Add Printer Driver Wizard page, click Finish.
    
11. Repeat these instructions to install the following additional drivers:
    • HP LaserJet Series II
    • HP Color LaserJet 4500 PCL 5

SSL for VDA

If you intend to use HTML5 Receiver internally, install certificates on the VDAs so the WebSockets (and ICA) connection will be encrypted. Internal HTML5 Receivers will not accept clear text WebSockets. External users don’t have this problem since they are SSL-proxied through NetScaler 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 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 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. Unfortunately this does not work for Remote Desktop Session Host.

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

1. On the VDA machine, run mmc.exe.
2. Add the Certificates snap-in.
3. Point it to Local Computer.
4. 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.
   
5. Browse to the XenApp/XenDesktop 7.6.9000 ISO. In the \Support\Tools\SslSupport folder, shift+right-click the Enable-VdaSSL.ps1 script and click Copy as path.
   
6. Run PowerShell as administrator (elevated).
   
7. Run the command Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted. Enter Y to approve.
   
8. In the PowerShell prompt, type in an ampersand (&), and a space.
9. Right-click the PowerShell prompt to paste in the path copied earlier.
10. At the end of the path, type in -Enable
11. If there’s only one certificate on this machine, press Enter.
    
12. If there are multiple certificates, 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.
    
13. If this VDA machine has a different service already listening on 443 (e.g. IIS), then the VDA needs to use a different port for SSL connections. At the end of the command in the PowerShell prompt, enter -SSLPort 444 or any other unused port.
    
14. Press <Enter> to run the Enable-VdaSSL.ps1 script.
15. Press <Y> twice to configure the ACLs and Firewall.
16. You might have to reboot before the settings take effect.
    
17. Login to a Controller and run PowerShell as Administrator (elevated).
18. Run the command asnp Citrix.*
    
19. 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.
    

20. You can run Get-BrokerAccessPolicyRule -DesktopGroupName '<delivery-group-name>' to verify that HDX SSL is enabled.
    
21. Also run the following command:

    Set-BrokerSite –DnsResolutionEnabled $true

    

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

Anonymous Accounts

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

1. Anonymous accounts are created locally on the VDAs. When XenDesktop 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. You can 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 Virtual Delivery Agent will create them automatically when users log in.
   
3. You can see the local Anon accounts by opening Computer Management, expanding System Tools, expand Local Users and Groups and clicking Users.
   
4. 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 lockdown 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 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 Provisioning Services. The Blog Post also has links to additional KB articles on antivirus.

Symantec

Symantec links:

• Symantec TECH91070 Citrix and terminal server best practices for Endpoint Protection.
• Symantec TECH197344 Best practices for virtualization with Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1.2 and later
• Symantec TECH180229 Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 – Non-persistent Virtualization Best Practices
• Symantec TECH123419 How to prepare Symantec Endpoint Protection clients on virtual disks for use with Citrix Provisioning Server has a script that automates changing the MAC address registered with Symantec.
• Citrix Blog Post How to prepare a Citrix Provisioning Services Target Device for Symantec Endpoint Protection

Trend Micro

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\TmFilter\Parameters] “DisableCtProcCheck”=dword:00000001

Trend Micro Links:

• Trend Micro Docs – Trend Micro Virtual Desktop Support
• Trend Micro Docs – VDI Pre-Scan Template Generation Tool
• Trend Micro 1055260 – Best practice for setting up Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in OfficeScan
• Trend Micro 1056376 – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Virtual Desktop Infrastructure/Support In OfficeScan

Sophos

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 Anti-Virus for Windows XP+: 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 Anti-Virus for Windows 2000+: incorporating current versions in a disk image, including for use with 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.

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 and newer

• VMware OS Optimization Tool plus Login VSI’s tuning template, which is now built into VMware’s tool. See VMware Windows Operating System Optimization Tool Guide Technical Paper for details on this tool.
  
• Daniel Feller Optimize VDI: Windows 10 Default Apps (Original, Anniversary And Creator Updates) lists the built-in UWP apps that should be removed.
  
• James Rankin Improving Windows 10 logon time:
  • Use Remove-AppXProvisionedPackage to remove Modern apps. See the article for a list of apps to remove. Also see James Rankin Everything you wanted to know about virtualizing, optimizing and managing Windows 10…but were afraid to ask – part #3: MODERN APPS
  • Import a Standard Start Tiles layout (Export-StartLayout)
  • Create a template user profile
• Citrix’s Windows 10 Optimization Guide – remove built-in apps, delete Scheduled Tasks, disable services, etc.
• Citrix’s Windows 8 and 8.1 Virtual Desktop Optimization Guide contains the following:
  • A list of services to disable
  • A list of computer settings
  • A list of scheduled tasks to disable
  • A script to do all of the above
• Carl Luberti (Microsoft) Windows 10 VDI Optimization Script
• Microsoft’s Windows 8 VDI optimization script.
• Desktop Virtualization Best Practice Analyzer (BP Analyzer)
  

Optimization Notes:

• If this machine is provisioned using Provisioning Services, do not disable the Shadow Copy services.
• Windows 8 detects VDI and automatically disables SuperFetch. No need to disable it yourself.
• Windows 8 automatically disables RSS and TaskOffload if not supported by the NIC.

RDSH 2008 R2

Citrix CTX131577 XenApp 6.x (Windows 2008 R2) – Optimization Guide is a document with several registry modifications that are supposed to improve server performance. Ignore the XenApp 6 content and instead focus on the Windows content.

Citrix CTX131995 User Cannot Launch Application in Seamless Mode in a Provisioning Services Server when XenApp Optimization Best Practices are Applied. Do not enable NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation

Citrix CTX213540 Unable To View Printers In Devices And Printers Win 2012 R2 – don’t disable Device Setup Manager Service

Norskale has Windows 2008 R2 Remote Desktop and XenApp 6 Tuning Tips Update.

Windows 7

Microsoft has compiled a list of links to various optimization guides.

It’s a common practice to optimize a Windows 7 virtual machine (VM) template (or image) specifically for VDI use. Usually such customizations include the following.

• Minimize the footprint, e.g. disable some features and services that are not required when the OS is used in “stateless” or “non-persistent” fashion. This is especially true for disk-intensive workloads since disk I/O is a common bottleneck for VDI deployment. (Especially if there are multiple VMs with the same I/O patterns that are timely aligned).
• Lock down user interface (e.g. optimize for specific task workers).

With that said the certain practices are quite debatable and vary between actual real-world deployments. Exact choices whether to disable this or that particular component depend on customer requirements and VDI usage patterns. E.g. in personalized virtual desktop scenario there’s much less things to disable since the machine is not completely “stateless”. Some customers rely heavily on particular UI functions and other can relatively easily trade them off for the sake of performance or standardization (thus enhance supportability and potentially security). This is one of the primary reasons why Microsoft doesn’t publish any “VDI Tuning” guide officially.

Though there are a number of such papers and even tools published either by the community or third parties. This Wiki page is aimed to serve as a consolidated and comprehensive list of such resources.

Daniel Ruiz XenDesktop Windows 7 Optimization and GPO’s Settings –

Microsoft Whitepaper Performance Optimization Guidelines for Windows 7 Desktop Virtualization

Seal and Shut Down

If this session host will be a master image in a Machine Creation Services or Provisioning Services 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. On the Tools tab, click Optimize to defrag the drive.
   `
3. Run slmgr.vbs /dlv and make sure it is licensed with KMS and has at least one rearm remaining. It is no longer necessary to manually rearm licensing. XenDesktop will do it automatically.
   
4. Run Delprof2 to clean up local profiles. Get it from http://helgeklein.com/download/.
   
5. Machine Creation Services and Provisioning Services require DHCP.
   
6. Session hosts commonly have DHCP reservations.
   
7. Base Image Script Framework (BIS-F) automates many image sealing tasks. The script is configurable using Group Policy.  💡
   
9. Shut down the master image. You can now use Studio or Provisioning Services to create a catalog of linked clones.
   

Troubleshooting – Graphics

If Windows 7 on vSphere, don’t install the VMware SVGA driver. For more details, see CTX201804 Intermittent Connection Failures/Black Screen Issues When Connecting from Multi-Monitor Client Machines to Windows 7 VDA with VDA 7.x on vSphere/ESXi.

For Citrix Policies that control graphics codecs, see https://www.carlstalhood.com/citrix-policy-settings/#graphics

From Citrix Knowledgebase article CTX200257 – Screen Issues Connecting to 4K Resolution Monitors in DCR Mode:

1. Calculate the video memory that is required for 4K monitor using the following formula:
   Sum of total monitors (Width * height * 4 * X) where width and height are resolution of the monitor.
   X = 2 if VDA is Windows 7 OR X = 3 if VDA is Windows 8\8.1\10
   Example: Suppose a Windows 7 VDA is connecting to a client that has dual 4K monitors (3840×2160), then video buffer should be: (3840×160 x 4 x 2) + (3840 x 2160 x 4 x 2) = ~115MB
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\vd3v
4. Increase the value of “MaxVideoMemoryBytes” REG_DWORD value to the above calculated memory.
5. Reboot the VDA

From Citrix Discussions: To exclude applications from Citrix 3D rendering, create a REG_DWORD registry value “app.exe” with value 0 or a registry value “*” with value 0.

• XD 7.1 and XD 7.5:
  • x86: reg add hklm\software\citrix\vd3d\compatibility /v * /t REG_DWORD /f /d 0
  • x64: reg add hklm\software\Wow6432Node\citrix\vd3d\compatibility /v * /t REG_DWORD /f /d 0
• XD 7.6 both x86 and x64:
  • reg add hklm\software\citrix\vd3d\compatibility /v * /t REG_DWORD /f /d 0

Wildcards are not supported. The asterisk * here has a special meaning “all apps” but is not a traditional wildcard. To blacklist multiple apps e.g. both appa.exe and appb.exe must be done by creating a registry value for each app individually.

This is most problematic in Remote PC since most physical PCs have GPUs. I recently had to blacklist Internet Explorer to prevent lockup issues when switching back to physical.

Uninstall VDA

Uninstall the VDA from 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

• Provisioning Services Master Device Preparation
• Catalogs / Delivery Groups
• Citrix Policy Settings

Navigation

• Change Log
• Preparation
• Delivery Controller 7.6 LTSR CU9 Upgrade
• Delivery Controller 7.6 LTSR CU9 New Install
  • Create Site
  • Second Controller
• Other 7.6 LTSR CU9 Updates
• Studio – Slow Launch
• Database Maintenance:
  • split databases, change db connect strings, read-committed snapshot, Director grooming, etc.
• Studio Administrators
• vCenter Connection
• Citrix Director
  • Director on Standalone Server
  • Director Tweaks
  • Director – Multiple XenDesktop Sites
  • Director – Saved Filters
  • Director – Custom and Scheduled Reports
• Citrix Licensing Server
  • Upgrade Licensing Server and Enable CEIP
  • Licensing Server High Availability using GSLB
  • Citrix License Server Monitoring
• Remote Desktop Licensing Server
  • Install Remote Desktop Licensing Server
  • Active Remote Desktop Licensing Server
• Health Check

💡 = Recently Updated

Change Log

• 2020 Nov 7 – updated all Upgrade and Install sections for version 7.6.9000 (update 9)
• 2019 Aug 29 – updated all Upgrade and Install sections for version 7.6.8000 (update 8)
• 2019 Feb 7 – updated all Upgrade and Install sections for version 7.6.7000 (update 7)
• 2018 Aug 14 – updated all Upgrade and Install sections for version 7.6.6000 (update 6)
• 2018 Feb 8 – updated all Upgrade and Install sections for version 7.6.5000 (update 5)

Preparation

Citrix Licensing – If you are going to use an existing Citrix Licensing Server, upgrade it to 11.15.0.0 build 27000.

 SQL Databases

• Citrix CTX209080 Database Sizing Tool for XenDesktop 7
• Citrix article CTX114501 – Supported Databases for Citrix Products
• XenApp and Desktop typically connect to three databases: one for the Site (aka farm), one for Logging (audit log) and one for Monitoring (Director).
  • The monitoring database name 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 role will work.
  • As an alternative, you can use Citrix Studio to create SQL scripts and then run those scripts on the SQL server. In that case you only need the dbcreator and securityadmin roles.
  • It is possible to create the databases in advance. However, you must use the non-default Latin1_General_100_CI_AS_KS collation. Then use Citrix Studio to configure the database tables.
• Citrix recommends SQL Mirroring because it has the fastest failover.
  • SQL Mirroring requires two SQL Standard Edition servers and one SQL Express for the witness server.
  • You can setup SQL Mirroring either before installing XenDesktop or after installing XenDesktop. If after, then see Citrix CTX140319 to manually change XenDesktop’s database connection strings How to Migrate XenDesktop Database to New SQL Server.
  • To setup SQL Mirroring, see Rob Cartwright: Configure SQL Mirroring For Use With XenDesktop, XenApp, and PVS Databases.
  • If you try to stretch the mirror across datacenters, the SQL witness must be placed in a third datacenter that has connectivity to the other two datacenters. However, stretching a single XenApp/XenDesktop site/farm and corresponding SQL mirror across datacenters is not recommended.
• AlwaysOn Availability Groups and SQL Clustering are also supported. However, these features require the much more expensive SQL Enterprise Edition.

 Windows Features

• Installing Group Policy Management on the Delivery Controller lets you edit GPOs and have access to the Citrix Policies node in the GPO Editor. Or you can install Studio on a different machine that has GPMC installed.
• vSphere Web Client – if you will connect to vSphere Web Client from the Controller machine, Flash Player is only available for IE if you install the Desktop Experience feature. Or you can use Google Chrome.

 vSphere

• Create a role in vSphere Client. Assign a service account to the role at the Datacenter or higher level.
• If the vCenter certificates are not trusted, import the vCenter server certificate into the Trusted People store of the Delivery Controller.

Delivery Controller – Upgrade to 7.6.9000

1. Media – The latest update for 7.6 is 7.6 LTSR Cumulative Update 9, which is also known as 7.6.9000. You can do a fresh, full install of 7.6.9000 or you can upgrade 7.6.x to 7.6.9000. Download LTSR CU9 (7.6.9000).
2. LTSR compliance – To remain compliant with LTSR (5 years of support), you must install the exact versions detailed at Cumulative Update 9 (CU9) at Citrix Docs. If you upgrade a single component beyond LTSR, then you must upgrade all components to the latest release. Citrix LTSR Assistant can determine your LTSR compliance.
   • LTSR Assistant downloads its configuration from ctxsym.citrix.com, so you don’t have to update LTSR Assistant after installing a new Cumulative Update.
     
3. SQL Permissions – During the upgrade of Delivery Controller, you will be prompted to upgrade the database. Ask a DBA to grant your AD account (the account doing the upgrade) temporary sysadmin Server Role on the SQL Server. If the DBA is unwilling, then immediately after the upgrade, use Citrix Studio to generate SQL scripts, and ask the DBA to run those SQL scripts.
   
4. Other Users – Use Task Manager > Users tab to logoff any other user currently logged into the machine.
   
5. On one of your existing Controllers, run AutoSelect.exe from the XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6 LTSR CU9 (7.6.9000) media.
   
6. On the top left, click Studio and Server Components to begin the upgrade.
   
7. In the Software License Agreement page, select I have read, understand, and accept the terms, and click Next.
   
8. In the Ensure a Successful Upgrade page, check the box next to I’m ready to continue, and click Next.
   
9. In the Firewall page, click Next.
10. In the Summary page, click Upgrade.
11. In the Finish page, check the box to Launch Studio, and click Finish.
12. When Studio launches, you will be prompted to upgrade the database. If you have sysadmin permissions on SQL, then you can click Start the automatic Site upgrade. If you don’t have sysadmin permissions, then you need to click Manually upgrade this site, generate SQL scripts, and get a DBA to run the SQL scripts.
    
13. Once the database is upgraded, you can then upgrade the remaining Delivery Controllers.

Other XenApp/XenDesktop components can also be in-place upgraded:

• StoreFront
• Director
• VDAs
• Citrix Policy Management Plug-in
• Profile Management Group Policy Templates
• Receiver Group Policy Templates
• Workspace Environment Manager
• AppDNA
• Provisioning Services
• SCOM Management Packs
• Session Recording

Delivery Controller 7.6.9000  – New Install

1. Sizing – A typical size for the Controller VMs is 2-4 vCPU and 8 GB of RAM.
2. Media – The latest update for 7.6 is LTSR Cumulative Update 9, which is also known as 7.6.9000. You can perform a fresh, full install of 7.6.9000, or you can upgrade 7.6.x to 7.6.9000. Download 7.6 LTSR CU9 (7.6.9000).
3. LTSR compliance – To remain compliant with LTSR (5 years of support), you must install the exact versions detailed at Cumulative Update 9 (CU9) at Citrix Docs. If you upgrade a single component beyond LTSR, then you must upgrade all components to the latest release. Citrix LTSR Assistant can determine your LTSR compliance.
   • LTSR Assistant downloads its configuration from ctxsym.citrix.com, so you don’t have to update LTSR Assistant after installing a new Cumulative Update.
     
4. On two Controllers, install the Delivery Controller software from the XenApp/XenDesktop 7.6 LTSR CU9 media. Go to the downloaded XenDesktop 7.6.9000 ISO, and run AutoSelect.exe.
   
5. Click Start next to either XenApp or XenDesktop. The only difference is the product name displayed in the installation wizard.
   
6. On the top left, click Delivery Controller.
   
7. In the License Agreement page, select I have read, understand, and accept the terms, and click Next.
   
8. In the Core Components page, you can leave everything checked to install all components on one server. Or you can install different components on different servers. StoreFront, Director, and Licensing are typically installed on separate servers so they can more easily support multiple sites/farms.
   
9. In the Features page, uncheck the box next to Install Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP3 Express, and click Next.
   
10. In the Firewall page, click Next.
    
11. In the Summary page, click Install.
    
12. In the Finish page, click Finish. Studio will automatically launch.
    
13. Ensure the two Controller VMs do not run on the same hypervisor host. Create an anti-affinity rule.
    

Create Site – Create Databases

There are several methods of creating the databases for XenApp/XenDesktop:

• If you have sysadmin permissions to Microsoft SQL, let Citrix Studio create the databases automatically.
• If you don’t have sysadmin permissions to Microsoft SQL, then do one of the following:
  • Use Citrix Studio to generate SQL scripts and send them to a DBA.
  • Use PowerShell to generate SQL scripts and send them to a DBA.

Database Mirroring

If you are not using database mirroring then skip to the next section.

You can setup SQL Mirroring either before configuring XenDesktop or after configuring XenDesktop.

• If before, then the empty databases (Site, Logging, Monitoring) must use the Latin1_General_100_CI_AS_KS collation, which is not the default.
• If SQL Mirroring is already setup then XenDesktop will detect it and set the database connection strings accordingly. Or you can manually change the database connection strings later as detailed at Citrix CTX140319 How to Migrate XenDesktop Database to New SQL Server.
• If you use Citrix Studio to create SQL scripts that populate the databases, then there will be separate SQL scripts for the Primary and Partner.

To verify mirroring after the XenDesktop configuration has completed, run the PowerShell cmdlet get-configdbconnection and ensure that the Failover Partner has been set in the connection string to the mirror.

Use PowerShell to Create SQL Scripts

From Sinisa Sokolic XenDesktop 7.x DB creation with locked SQL Servers: Citrix Studio 7.6 only creates one SQL Script at a time. In a typical two-Controller configuration, that means you need 4 SQL scripts: one for each Controller, one for Monitoring, and one for Logging. That’s four round trips between you and the DBA. You can instead use PowerShell Commands to generate three of the SQL scripts now rather that doing one at a time:

Get-XDDatabaseSchema -SiteName SITENAME -DataStore Site -DatabaseName DBNAME -DatabaseServer DBSERVERNAME -ScriptType FullDatabase > c:\prep\dev_create_site_script.sql

Get-XDDatabaseSchema -SiteName SITENAME -DataStore Logging -DatabaseName DBNAME -DatabaseServer DBSERVERNAME -ScriptType FullDatabase > c:\prep\dev_create_logging_script.sql

Get-XDDatabaseSchema -SiteName SITENAME -DataStore Monitor -DatabaseName DBNAME -DatabaseServer DBSERVERNAME -ScriptType FullDatabase > c:\prep\dev_create_monitor_script.sql

Use Studio to Create the Database

Or use Citrix Studio to create the SQL Scripts:

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 the Setup wizard. The other Setup Wizard 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 Database page, enter the name of the SQL server where the database will be created. Enter a name for the new Database. No spaces in the database name.
5. If the person running Studio is a sysadmin on the SQL server then you can click Test Connection and click Yes when asked to automatically create the database.
6. If you are not a sysadmin, then click Generate database script.
   
7. A folder will open with two scripts. The top script needs to be sent to a DBA.
   
8. On the Principal SQL Server, open the query file (Script_For_Database…sql).
   
   
9. At the top of the script, is a commented line that creates the database. Either uncomment it or copy it to a second query window and execute it. Or in the case of mirroring, the database is already created so there’s no need to create the database again.
   
10. Open the Query menu and click SQLCMD Mode.
    
11. Then execute the rest of the script.
    
12. If SQLCMD mode was enabled properly then the output should look something like this:
    
13. If you have a mirrored database, run the second script on the mirror SQL instance. Make sure SQLCMD mode is enabled.
    
14. The person running Citrix Studio must be added to the SQL Server as a SQL Login, and granted the public server role.
    
    
15. Back in Citrix Studio, click the Test connection button.
    
16. Click Close once the tests have passed. Then click Next.
    
17. On the Licensing page, enter the name of the Citrix License Server, and click Connect.
    
18. If the Certificate Authentication appears, select Connect me, and click Confirm.
19. Then select your license, and click Next.
    
20. In the Summary page, make your selection for Customer Experience Improvement Program, and click Finish.
    

Verify Database Mirroring

If your database is mirrored, when you run get-brokerdbconnection, you’ll see the Failover Partner in the database connection string.

Second Controller

There are several methods of adding a second Controller to the databases for XenApp/XenDesktop:

• If you have sysadmin permissions to SQL, let Citrix Studio modify the databases automatically.
• If you don’t have sysadmin permissions to SQL then do one of the following:
  • Use Citrix Studio to generate SQL scripts and send them to a DBA.
  • Use PowerShell to generate SQL scripts and send them to a DBA.

From Sinisa Sokolic XenDesktop 7.x DB creation with locked SQL Servers: The PowerShell Commands to generate the SQL scripts that add a Controller to the databases are shown below:

Get-XDDatabaseSchema -AdminAddress CONTROLLERNAME-SiteName SITENAME -DataStore Site -DatabaseName DBNAME-DatabaseServer DBSERVERNAME -ScriptType AddController > C:\prep\dev_add_controller_site_script.sql

Get-XDDatabaseSchema -AdminAddress CONTROLLERNAME-SiteName SITENAME -DataStore Logging -DatabaseName DBNAME-DatabaseServer DBSERVERNAME -ScriptType AddController > C:\prep\dev_add_controller_logging_script.sql

Get-XDDatabaseSchema -AdminAddress CONTROLLERNAME-SiteName SITENAME -DataStore Monitor -DatabaseName DBNAME-DatabaseServer DBSERVERNAME -ScriptType AddController > C:\prep\dev_add_controller_monitor_script.sql

Or use Citrix Studio to create the SQL Scripts:

1. On the first Delivery Controller, if desired, delete the default StoreFront store (/Citrix/Store) and recreate it with your desired Store name (e.g. /Citrix/CompanyStore).
   
2. On the second Delivery Controller, install XenDesktop as detailed earlier.
3. After running Studio, 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 elevated SQL permissions, click No when asked if you want to update the database automatically.
   
6. Click Generate scripts.
   
7. A folder will open with two scripts. The top script needs to be sent to a DBA.
   
8. On the SQL Server, open the query (Script_For_Database…sql).
   
   
9. Open the Query menu, and click SQLCMD Mode.
   
10. Then execute the XenDesktop script.
    
11. If SQLCMD mode was enabled properly then the output should look something like this:
    
12. Back in Citrix Studio, click OK.
    
13. In the Studio, under Configuration > Controllers, you should see both controllers.
    
14. You can also test the site again if desired.
    

Other LTSR CU9 Updates

The components installed on the 7.6.9000 Delivery Controllers should already be at their .9000 versions.

Studio

If Citrix Studio 7.6.x is installed on separate machines, upgrade it to 7.6.9000. You can run the installer from the 7.6.9000 ISO’s AutoSelect.exe program, and then click Studio and Server Components.

StoreFront

If StoreFront 3.0.x is installed on separate servers, upgrade it to 3.0.9000. You can run the installer from the 7.6.9000 ISO’s AutoSelect.exe program, or from the 7.6.9000 ISO under \x64\StoreFront.

Director

If Director 7.6.x is installed on separate servers, upgrade it to 7.6.9000. You can run the installer from the 7.6.9000 ISO’s AutoSelect.exe program, or from the 7.6.9000 ISO under \x64\DesktopDirector.

After upgrading Director, run the following command from an elevated command prompt:

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\tools\DirectorConfig.exe /upgrade

Also upgrade Citrix Group Policy Management on the Director server to 2.5.9000 (aka 7.6.9000). Find CitrixGroupPolicyManagement_x64.msi on the 7.6.9000 ISO under \x64\Citrix Policy

Other Components

Other upgradeable components on the 7.6.9000 ISO include:

• Virtual Delivery Agent 7.6.9000 – Upgrade this on all master images and all persistent machines.
• Citrix Group Policy Management 2.5.9000 – Upgrade this on any Microsoft Group Policy Management machine that is used to manage Citrix Policies in Microsoft GPOs.
• Universal Print Server 7.6.9000 – Upgrade this on any Print Server that has Citrix Universal Print Server installed.
• Citrix License Server 11.15.0.0 build 27000

Platinum Components

Other upgradeable components on separate ISOs include the following. Download them from XenDesktop 7.6 LTSR Cumulative Update 7 – Platinum Edition.

• Citrix Provisioning Services 7.6.10
• Citrix Session Recording 7.6.9000

There is no longer an LTSR version of Citrix AppDNA, so you can upgrade the latest version Citrix AppDNA 1906.

Receiver 4.9.7000 qualify for a different LTSR program. See Citrix Docs for the minimum Receiver versions.

For Windows 10 VDAs, VDA 7.9 is “compatible” with LTSR, but VDA 7.9 doesn’t receive LTSR benefits (5 years of support). See Citrix Blog Post Adding Windows 10 Compatibility to XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6 LTSR. If you need Windows 10 support, you should be installing VDA 7.15.1000, or whatever the latest version is.

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 Desktop 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

Database Maintenance

Split the Databases

Once the site is configured, split the Monitoring and Log data into separate databases.

1. In Citrix Studio, on the left click the Configuration node.
2. In the middle, click the Monitoring datastore to highlight it. On the right, click Change Database.
   
3. Repeat for the Logging datastore.

 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.

 Enable Read-Committed Snapshot

The XenDesktop Database can become heavily utilized under load in a large environment. Therefore Citrix recommends enabling the Read_Committed_Snapshot option on the XenDesktop 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
• When enabling mirroring after the databases have already been configured in Studio.

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

Director Grooming

If XenDesktop is not Platinum Edition then all historical Director data is groomed at 7 days.

For XenDesktop/XenApp Platinum 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 applet.

1. On a Delivery Controller, run PowerShell and run asnp Citrix.*
   
   
2. Run Get-MonitorConfiguration to see the current grooming settings.
   
3. Run Set-MonitorConfiguration to change the grooming settings.
   

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 and then click Close.
2. On the Administrators tab, right-click, and click Create Administrator.
   
3. In the Administrator and Scope page, specify a group (e.g. Citrix Admins or Help Desk) that will have permissions to Studio and Director. 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 the Studio, under Configuration, click the Administrators node. On the Administrators tab, right-click and click Create Administrator.
   
2. In the Administrator and Scope page, specify a Help Desk group that will have permissions to Studio and Director. 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.
    

Provisioning Services w/Personal vDisk

From Citrix docs.citrix.com: The Provisioning Services Soap Service account must be added to the Administrator node of Studio and must have the Machine Administrator or higher role. This ensures that the PvD desktops are put into the Preparing state when the Provisioning Services (PVS) vDisk is promoted to production.

vCenter Connection

XenDesktop uses an Active Directory service account to log into vCenter. This account needs specific permissions in vCenter. To facilitate assigning these permissions, create a new vCenter role and assign it to the XenDesktop service account. The permissions should be applied at the datacenter or higher level. CTX214389 How to Define VMware vSphere User Privileges for XenApp and XenDesktop defines the minimum permissions needed for various activities in XenDesktop: MCS, PvS, Power Management, and AppDisks.  💡

Import vCenter Certificate

If you replaced the certificates on your vCenter server, then skip this section.

If vCenter is using a self-signed certificate, in order for Delivery Controller to trust the vCenter certificate, you must import the vCenter certificate on both Delivery Controllers.

1. On each Delivery Controller, run mmc.exe. Open the File menu and click Add/Remove Snap-in.
   
2. Move the Certificates snap-in to the right by highlighting it and clicking Add.
   
3. Select Computer account and click Next.
   
4. Select Local computer and click Finish.
   
5. Click OK.
6. After adding the snap-in, right-click the Trusted People node, expand All Tasks and click Import.
   
7. In the Welcome to the Certificate Import Wizard page, click Next.
8. In the File to Import page, browse to \\vcenter01\c$\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL and select crt. Click Next.
   
9. In the Certificate Store page, click Next.
10. In the Completing the Certificate Import Wizard page, click Finish.
11. Click OK to acknowledge that the import was successful.
12. Repeat these steps on the second Controller. It is important that you do both Controllers before adding the vCenter connection.

Hosting Resources

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

1. In Studio, expand Configuration and click Hosting. Right-click it and click Add Connection and Resources.
   
2. In the Connection page, select VMware vSphere as the Host type.
3. Enter https://vcenter01.corp.local/sdk as the vCenter URL. The URL must contain the FQDN of the vCenter server. If the vCenter certificate is self-signed, ensure it is added to the Trusted People certificate store on all Delivery Controllers. Ensure the entered URL has /sdk on the end.
4. Enter credentials of a service account. Click Next.
   
5. Enter a name for the hosting resource. Since each hosting resource is a combination of vCenter, Cluster, Network, and Datastore, include those names in this field (e.g. vCenter01-Cluster01-Network01-Datastore01).
6. In the Cluster page, click Browse and select a cluster or resource pool.
7. Select a network and click Next.
   
8. On the Storage page, select a datastore for the virtual machines.
9. If desired, change the selection for personal vDisk to use a different storage. Click Next.
   
10. In the Summary page, click Finish.

Citrix Director 7.6.9000

Director on Standalone Server

If you are installing Director 7.6.9000 on a standalone server, see Citrix CTX142260 Installing or Upgrading to Citrix Director 7.6.200

1. If you intend to install Director on a standalone server, start with running AutoSelect.exe from the XenApp/XenDesktop 7.6.9000 media.
   
2. On the top right, click Citrix Director.
   
3. It will ask you for the location of one Controller in the farm. If you have multiple Director servers, point each Director server to a different Controller in the same farm. From Citrix Docs: Director automatically discovers all other Controllers in the same Site and falls back to those other Controllers if the Controller you specified fails. Then finish the installation wizard.
   
4. If you upgraded an existing Director installation the upgrade, run the following command from an elevated command prompt:

   C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\tools\DirectorConfig.exe /upgrade

   

5. Also install Citrix Group Policy Management 2.5.9000 (aka 7.6.9000) on the Director server. Find CitrixGroupPolicyManagement_x64.msi on the 7.6.9000 ISO under \x64\Citrix Policy
   
   

Director Tweaks

Prepopulate the domain field

From http://www.xenblog.dk/?p=33: On the Controllers having the Director role installed, locate and edit the ‘LogOn.aspx’ file. By default you can find it at “C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\Logon.aspx”

In line 328 or line 358 you will have the following. To find the line, search for ID=”Domain”. Note: onblur and onfocus attributes were added in newer versions of Director.

<asp:TextBox ID="Domain" runat="server" CssClass="text-box" onfocus="showIndicator(this);" onblur="hideIndicator(this);"></asp:TextBox>

In the ID=”Domain” element, insert a Text attribute and set it to your domain name. Don’t change or add any other attributes. Save the file.

<asp:TextBox ID="Domain" runat="server" Text="Corp" CssClass="text-box" onfocus="showIndicator(this);" onblur="hideIndicator(this);"></asp:TextBox>

This will prepopulate the domain field text box with your domain name and still allow the user to change it, if that should be required.

Session timeout

By default the idle time session limit of the Director is 245 min. If you wish to change the timeout, here is how to do it.

1. Log on to the Director Server as an administrator
2. Open the ‘IIS Manager’
3. Browse to ‘\Sites\Default Web Site\Director’ in the left hand pane.
4. Open ‘Session State’ in the right hand pane
5. Change the ‘Time-out (in minutes)’ value under ‘Cookie Settings’
6. Click ‘Apply’ in the Actions list

SSL Check

From http://euc.consulting/blog/citrix-desktop-director-2-1: If you are not securing Director with an SSL certificate you will get this error at the logon screen.

To stop this:

1. Log on to the Director Server as an administrator
2. Open the ‘IIS Manager’
3. Browse to ‘\Sites\Default Web Site\Director’ in the left hand pane.
4. Open ‘Application Settings’ in the right hand pane
5. Set EnableSslCheck to false.
   

Disable Activity Manager

From docs.citrix.com: By default, the Activity Manager in Director displays a list of all the running applications and the Windows description in the title bars of any open applications for the user’s session. This information can be viewed by all administrators that have access to the Activity Manager feature in Director. For Delegated Administrator roles, this includes Full administrator, Delivery Group administrator, and Help Desk Administrator.

To protect the privacy of users and the applications they are running, you can disable the Applications tab from listing running applications.

• On the VDA, modify the registry key located at HKLM\Software\Citrix\Director\TaskManagerDataDisplayed. By default, the key is set to 1. Change the value to 0, which means the information will not be displayed in the Activity Manager.
• On the server with Director installed, modify the setting that controls the visibility of running applications. By default, the value is true, which allows visibility of running applications in the Applications Change the value to false, which disables visibility. This option affects only the Activity Manager in Director, not the VDA. Modify the value of the following setting:
  UI.TaskManager.EnableApplications = false

Large Active Directory

From CTX133013 Desktop Director User Account Search Process is Slow or Fails: By default, all the Global Catalogs for the Active Directory Forest are searched using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). In a large Active Directory environment, this query can take some time or even time out.

1. In Information Server (IIS) Management, under the Desktop Director site, select Application Settings and add a new value called Connector.ActiveDirectory.ForestSearch. Set it to False. This disables searching any domain except the user’s domain and the server’s domain.
2. To search more domains, add the searchable domain or domains in the Connector.ActiveDirectory.Domains field.
   

Site Groups

From Citrix Blog Post Citrix Director 7.6 Deep-Dive Part 4: Troubleshooting Machines:

If there are a large number of machines, the Director administrator can now configure site groups to perform machine search so that they can narrow down searching for the machine inside a site group. The site groups can be created on the Director server by running the configuration tool via command line by running the command:

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\tools\DirectorConfig.exe /createsitegroups

Then provide a site group name and IP address of the delivery controller of the site to create the site group.

Director – Multiple XenDesktop Sites

1. Run IIS Manager. You can launch it from Server Manager (Tools menu) or from the Start Menu or by running inetmgr.
   
2. On the left, expand Sites, expand Default Web Site, and click Director.
   
3. In the middle pane, double-click Application Settings.
   
4. Find the entry for AutoDiscoveryAddresses and double-click it.
   
5. If Director is installed on a Controller, localhost should already be entered.
6. Add a comma and the NetBIOS name of one of the controllers in the 2^nd XenDesktop Site (farm). Only enter one Controller name. If you have multiple Director servers, you can point each Director server to a different Controller in the 2^nd XenDesktop Site (farm). From Citrix Docs: Director automatically discovers all other Controllers in the same Site and falls back to those other Controllers if the Controller you specified fails.
7. According to Citrix CTX200543 Desktop Director Access Fails After XenDesktop 7.5 is Upgraded to 7.6, the addresses should be NetBIOS names, not FQDN. Click OK.
   

Director – Saved Filters

From Scott Osborne and Jarian Gibson at Citrix Discussions: In Director, you can create a filter and save it.

The saved filter is then accessible from the Filters menu structure.

The saved filters are stored on each Director server at C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Director\UserData. Observations:

• Each user has their own saved filters.
• The saved filters are not replicated across Director servers. You can schedule a robocopy script to do this automatically.
• When upgrading Director, the saved filters are deleted?

You can instead configure multiple Director servers to store the filters on a shared UNC path: (h/t CTP Jarian Gibson)

1. Create and share a folder (e.g. DirectorData).
   
2. The Director server computer accounts need Modify permission to the share.
   
3. On each Director server, run IIS Manager.
4. Go to Sites > Default Web Site > Director. In the middle, double-click Application Settings.
   
5. Change the Service.UserSettingsPath setting to the UNC path of the new share.
   
6. Repeat this on other load balanced Director servers.

Director – Custom and Scheduled Reports

The Monitoring database contains more data than is exposed in Director. To view this data, the Monitoring service has an OData Data Feed that can be queried.

You can use Excel to pull data from the OData Data feed. See Citrix Blog Post – Citrix Director – Analyzing the Monitoring Data by Means of Custom Reports. This particular blog post shows how to use an Excel PivotChart to display the connected Receiver versions.

Or for Linqpad, see Citrix Blog Post – Creating Director Custom reports for Monitoring XenDesktop using Linqpad

Go to Citrix Blog Post Obtain XenDesktop Custom report through Citrix Director and download the tool. Once installed you can create custom reports from within Director.

Citrix Licensing Server

Upgrade

If you installed the Licensing Server that came with XenApp 7.6.9000, then it is already 11.15.0.0 build 27000.

If you have a standalone Licensing Server, then install or upgrade it to 11.15.0.0 build 27000.

1. Go to the 7.6.9000 ISO, and run AutoSelect.exe.
   
2. Click Studio and Server Components to begin the upgrade.
   
3. In the Licensing Agreement page, select I have read, understand, and accept the terms, and click Next.
4. In the Ensure a successful upgrade page, check the box next to I’m ready to continue, and click Next.
5. In the Firewall page, click Next.
6. In the Summary page, click Upgrade.
7. In the Finish page, click Finish.
8. If you login to the License Administration Console, on the Administration tab, it shows it as version 11.15.0.0 build 27000.
   
9. You can also view the version in the registry at HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Citrix\LicenseServer\Install.
   

Licensing Server HA using GSLB

From Dane Young – Creating a Bulletproof Citrix Licensing Server Infrastructure using NetScaler Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) and CtxLicChk.ps1 PowerShell Scripts. Here is a summary of the configuration steps. See the blog post for detailed configuration instructions.

1. Build two License Servers in each datacenter with identical server names. Since server names are identical, they can’t be domain-joined.
2. Install identical licenses on all License Servers.
3. Set the DisableStrictNameChecking registry key on all Citrix Licensing servers.
4. Synchronize the certificate files located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Licensing\WebServicesForLicensing\Apache\conf. They must be identical on all Licensing Servers.
5. Download CtxLicChk.exe from http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX123935 and place on all Licensing Servers.
6. Schedule the PowerShell script CtxLicChk.ps1 on all Licensing Servers. Get this script from the blog post linked above.
7. Configure NetScaler:
   1. Configure GSLB ADNS services.
   2. Add wildcard Load Balancing service for each Citrix Licensing Server.
   3. Configure service TCP monitoring for ports 27000, 7279, 8082, and 8083.
   4. Create Load Balancing Virtual Server for each Licensing Server.
   5. Set one Load Balancing Virtual Server as backup for the other.
   6. Repeat in second datacenter.
   7. Configure GSLB Services and GSLB Monitoring.
   8. Configure GSLB Virtual Servers. Set one GSLB Virtual Server as backup for the other.
8. Delegate the Citrix Licensing DNS name to the ADNS services on the NetScaler appliances.
9. Configure Citrix Studio to point to the GSLB-enabled DNS name for Citrix Licensing.

Citrix License Server Monitoring

Citrix Licensing 11.13.1 and newer has historical usage reporting:

1. Run Citrix Licensing Manager from the Start Menu. Or use a browser to connect to https://MyLicenseServer:8083
   
2. Use the drop-down menus to select a license type, select dates, and export to a .csv file.
   
3. The Update Licenses tab lets you check for renewals and download them.
   
4. On the top right is a gear icon where you can set the historical retention period.
   
   

http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2011/01/monitor-citrix-license-usage-with-powershell.html.

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 XenDesktop Controllers:

1. In Server Manager, open the Manage menu and click Add Roles and Features.
   
2. Click Next until you get to the Server Roles Check the box next to Remote Desktop Services and click Next.
   
3. Click Next until you get to the Role Services Check the box next to Remote Desktop Licensing and click Next.
   
4. Click Add Features if prompted.
   
5. 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 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. Once the local server can be seen in the list, right-click the server and click Activate Server.
   
3. In the Welcome to the Activate Server Wizard page, click Next.
   
4. In the Connection Method page, click Next.
   
5. In the Company Information page, enter the required information and click Next.
   
6. All of the fields on the Company Information page are optional so you do not have to enter anything. Click Next.
   
7. 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.
   
8. In RD Licensing Manager, right-click the server and click Review Configuration.
   
9. 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.
   
10. Click Continue when prompted that you must have Domain Admins privileges.
    
11. Click OK when prompted that the computer account has been added.
    
12. Click OK to close the window.
    

Health Check

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

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.

Related Pages

1. • Configure RDSH VDAs to use Remote Desktop Licensing Server

Navigation

• Change Log
• Requirements
• Licensing Pack
• XenApp/XenDesktop Pack
  • Install Citrix XAXD Pack
  • Citrix XAXD Pack Action Account
  • MP Agent Installation Account
  • SCOM Proxy Agent
  • Director URL
  • Push Citrix XAXD Agent
  • Install Citrix Machine Proxy Agent
  • New Reports in 3.14, 3.9 and 3.8
  • Customize Management Pack
  • SLA Dashboards
• StoreFront Pack
  • Install Citrix StoreFront Pack
  • MP Agent Installation Account
  • SCOM Proxy Agent
  • Probe Account
  • Push Citrix StoreFront Agent
• Provisioning Services Pack
  • Install Citrix Provisioning Services Pack
  • MP Agent Installation Account
  • SCOM Proxy Agent
  • Farm Account
  • Push Citrix Provisioning Services Agent
• Citrix SCOM Management Pack – NetScaler

Change Log

• 2018 May 27 – StoreFront Probe Account – added link to CTX222920 Error: “StoreFront Store Service Probe Failed” While Using Citrix SCOM Management Pack for StoreFront
• 2017 Dec 3:
  • Updated XAXD Pack Install for version 3.14.
    • Installing XAXDAgent from SCOM Console seems to fail on service logon account configuration.
  • Updated StoreFront Pack Install for version 1.13.

Requirements

• XenApp/XenDesktop Platinum Edition with current Subscription Advantage
• XenApp/XenDesktop version 6.0 or newer
• Citrix Licensing Server 11.13.1 or newer
• System Center Operations Manager 2012 or newer

Citrix provided an overview of the SCOM Management Packs during a breakout session at Synergy 2016.

Licensing Pack

See Citrix Docs for Full Documentation of the Licensing Pack.

1. Download the Citrix SCOM Management Pack Bundle and extract it.
   
2. Extract the Citrix_SCOM_Management_Pack_for_LicenseServer.zip file.
   
3. In SCOM Console, go to Administration, right-click Management Packs, and click Import Management Packs.
   
4. Click Add, and click add from disk.
   
5. Browse to the extracted License Server Management Pack, and select all three files. Click Open.
   
6. Click Install.
   
7. Click Close when done.
   
8. Go to Administration > Device Management > Agent Managed.
9. Double-click your license server.
10. On the Security tab, check the box next to Allow this agent to act as a proxy, and click OK.
    
11. If you go to Monitoring > Citrix License Server > License Server State, you’ll eventually see your license server.
    

XenApp/XenDesktop Pack

See Citrix Docs for Full Documentation of the XenApp/XenDesktop Pack.

Links:

• Citrix Blog Post What’s New with the Citrix SCOM Management Packs – Nov 2017: The noticeable features additions are XenApp and XenDesktop Zone monitoring, enhanced XenApp and XenDesktop Site Database availability monitoring, Application usage reports and monitoring the validity of certificates used by StoreFront.
  
• Citrix Blog Post New Citrix SCOM Management Packs Are Available! details the performance improvements in version 3.12 of the XenApp/XenDesktop Management Pack.
  
• Citrix Blog Post Check Out What’s New with Citrix SCOM Management Packs! details the performance improvements in version 3.11 of the XenApp/XenDesktop Management Pack.
  
• Citrix Blog Post Configuring SCOM Aggregation Retention Times for XenApp/XenDesktop. Default for hourly aggregations is 400 days. This can be changed to 100 days to reduce database usage.
• Citrix Blog Post XenApp & XenDesktop Management Packs for SCOM Explained: With 5,000 VDAs, Average CPU usage of MPXAXDAgent was ~ 24% and Average Memory usage of MPXAXDAgent was ~ 2 GB
• Citrix Blog Post Automatic Recovery of XenApp and XenDesktop Services!: how to configure the Management Pack to automatically recover Citrix services.
  

To upgrade:

• Install the updated SCOM Pack on the SCOM Server.
• Run the Install MPXAXD Agent task, and override the UpgradeAgent parameter to true.
• In-place upgrade the Machine Agent.
• Import updated SLA Dashboard Management Pack.

Install/Upgrade Citrix XenAppXenDesktop Pack

To install or upgrade:

1. To upgrade, simply run the installer again as detailed in the next step.
2. Download the Citrix SCOM Management Pack Bundle.
   
3. On the System Center Operations Manager server, run Citrix_SCOM_Management_Pack_for_XenAppXenDesktop.exe.
   
4. In the Welcome to the setup wizard for Citrix SCOM Management Pack for XenApp and XenDesktop page, click Next.
   
5. In the View Relevant Product Configuration page, click Next.
   
6. If upgrading, the installer will detect the older version. Click Next to begin the upgrade. For new installs, skip to the next step.
   
7. In the License Agreement page, check the box next to I accept the terms, and click Next.
   
8. In the Destination Folder page, click Next.
   
9. In the Configure Post-Install Actions page, check the box next to Automatically import the Management Pack. Feel free to uncheck Enable the product to send anonymous usage statistics to Citrix. Click Install.
   
10. In the Completed the setup for Citrix SCOM Management Pack for XenApp and XenDesktop page, click Next.
    
11. In the All post-install actions were successfully executed page, click Finish.
    

Citrix XAXD Pack Action Account

1. Create a new account. This account must be an administrator on all monitored Citrix machines: Controllers, VDAs, etc.
   
2. In Citrix Studio, add the action account with Read-only permissions.
   
   
   
   
3. In SCOM console, go to Administration workspace, right-click, and click Create Run As Account.
   
4. In the Introduction page, click Next.
   
5. In the General Properties page, change the account type to Windows.
6. Give the account a display name and click Next.
   
7. In the Credentials page, enter the previously created action account credentials and click Next.
   
8. In the Distribution Security page, best practice is to select More secure. But you’ll need to manually specify every agent that should receive these credentials. Click Create.
   
9. In the Completion page, click Close.
   
10. In the Administration workspace, go to Run As > Profiles.
11. Double-click Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop Monitoring Account.
    
12. In the Introduction page, click Next.
13. In the General Properties page, click Next.
    
14. In the Run As Accounts page, click Add.
    
15. Select the previously created action account, and click OK.
    
16. Click Save.
    
17. In the Completion page, if the Run As account is configured for Secure Distribution, then click the link to specify Agents to receive the credentials.
    
    

MP Agent Installation Account

Several of the Management Packs require an additional agent to be installed on top of the SCOM agent. Create an Active Directory account that will be used by the agent installer to connect to the file share on the System Center Operations Manager server. This configuration is used by several of Citrix’s Management Packs.

1. In Active Directory, create a new regular account for Management Pack Agent installation.
   
2. On the System Center Operations Manager server, open Computer Management.
   
3. Edit the CitrixMPShareUsers local group.
   
4. Add the MP Agent Installation Account. Also add the Citrix Admins group. Click OK.
   
5. In SCOM Console, go to the Administration workspace, right-click, and click Create Run As Account.
   
6. In the Introduction page, click Next.
7. In the General Properties page, change the account type to Windows.
8. Give the account a display name and click Next.
   
9. In the Credentials page, enter the previously created Agent Installation account credentials, and click Next.
   
10. In the Distribution Security page, best practice is to select More secure. But you’ll need to manually specify every agent that should receive these credentials. Click Create.
    
11. In the Completion page, click Close.
    
12. In the Administration workspace, go to Run As > Profiles.
13. Double-click Citrix Management Pack Network Share Account.
    
14. In the Introduction page, click Next.
15. In the General Properties page, click Next.
    
16. In the Run As Accounts page, click Add.
17. Select the previously created Management Pack Agent installation account, and click OK.
    
18. Click Save.
    

SCOM Proxy Agent

All Microsoft SCOM Agents running Citrix Agents must be marked as a Proxy Agent.

1. In the SCOM Console, go to the Administration workspace, expand Device Management, and click Agent Managed.
2. Double-click your SCOM Agent.
   
3. On the Security tab, check the box next to Allow this agent to act as a proxy, and click OK.
   

Director URL

1. On the SCOM server, run XenApp and XenDesktop MP Configuration.
   
2. In Management Pack 3.12 and newer, the first time you launch the tool, you’ll be taken to the Configuration encryption tab. Click Set, and enter a permanent password. Note: the password will later be entered in clear text when running a SCOM Task to install or upgrade the agent.
   
   
3. For environments with more than 100 Delivery Groups, 600 Server OS machines, and 1,500 applications, see Configuring SCOM Administrator at Citrix Docs to configure the SCOM Connector by specifying a SCOM Administrator on the SCOM Administrator tab.
   
4. On the Director URL tab, click Add.
   
5. Enter the XenDesktop Site name (farm name).
6. Enter the Director URL for the farm, and click OK twice.
   

Push Citrix XAXD Agent

To push the XAXD Agent:

1. In the SCOM Console, go to Monitoring workspace, expand Citrix Library, and click XenApp/XenDesktop Delivery Controller Computers.
2. Select a Delivery Controller.
   
3. On the bottom right, in the XAXD Delivery Controller Computer Role Tasks pane, click Check Installation Prerequisites.
   
4. Click Run.
   
5. Review the report, and then click Close.
   
6. Now click the Install Citrix MPXAXD Agent task.
   
7. If desired, you can override the Task Parameters. See the documentation for details.
8. In 3.12 and newer, you must override the Encryption Password parameter, and specify the password you entered in the Configuration Tool.
9. If upgrading, set UpgradeAgent to true. Then click Run.
   
10. When done, review the task output, and then click Close.
    
11. If you see an Error about the service logon account…
    
    1. Then go to the Delivery Controller, open Services, and reconfigure Citrix MPXAXD Agent service to run as a local administrator that has read-only permissions in Citrix Studio.
       
12. The agent will eventually report as Healthy.
    
13. You can verify configuration by running the Check Requirements and Configuration task. You might have to also run the Update Configuration task.
    
    
14. If you scroll down, you’ll see the agent version.
    
15. Citrix CTX224736 Citrix SCOM Management Pack for XenApp and XenDesktop 7.x – Disabling monitoring of VDA Services in large environments: In large environments, with 500+ Server OS machines, disable monitoring of VDA services on Server OS machines.
    
16. Citrix CTX225735 Citrix SCOM MP Agents – Support Information Logging: The information in the SCOM MP Agent log files might be insufficient to troubleshoot certain issues. You can set additional product logging by modifying the log level registry key.
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Comtrade\<SCOM MP Agent>
      • LogLevel (REG_SZ) = ERROR, WARN, INFO, or DEBUG
    • The log files are located at %ProgramData%\Citrix\SCOM MP Agent\logs
    • Logging configuration for some agents is located in the mp_config.ini file.
17. Citrix CTX230082 Citrix SCOM Management Pack for XenApp and XenDesktop – Monitoring failure on connections live for more than 24 hours. If any Session A in the monitored environment last longer than 24 hours, any new sessions that start after the 24-hour retention period but before Session A ends will not be monitored properly.  💡
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ComTrade\XenDesktop MP Agent
      • ConnectionEventsMaxAgeInHours (DWORD) = number of hours you expect the longest connections in the monitored environment to last

Install Citrix Machine Proxy Agent

To monitor the performance of the VDAs, install the Citrix Machine Agent on any Windows Server 2012 or newer machine (Windows Server 2008 R2 is not supported). This Agent will use PSRemoting to connect to a Delivery Controller to enumerate the VDAs in the farm. The Agent will then use WinRM to pull performance data and session data from the VDAs.

1. Enable PSRemoting on the Delivery Controllers.
   
2. On the VDAs, run winrm quickconfig.
   
3. The Machine Agent uses an account to connect to Delivery Controller and VDAs. You can use the same Action Account created earlier for the Management Pack. This account must be a read-only administrator in XenDesktop and it must have administrator permissions to all Controllers and VDAs.
   
   
4. To verify WinRM, run Command Prompt as the action account.
   
   
5. Run winrm identify -r:http://myvda.corp.local:5985 -auth:Kerberos. It should connect.
   
6. Go to any Windows Server 2012 or newer machine that you want to run the VDA Machine Agent on. The Machine Agent uses WinRM to connect to the VDAs. One option is to install it on one of the Delivery Controllers.
7. Connect to \\scom01\CitrixMPShare.
8. Copy XenDesktop Machine MP to the local machine.
   
9. Run Support.exe /checkprereq to verify prerequisites.
   
   
10. Then run MPXAXDMachineAgent.exe.
    
11. In the Welcome to the setup wizard for Citrix SCOM Management Pack Machine Agent for XenApp and XenDesktop page, click Next.
    
12. The installer will detect the previously installed version. Click Next.
    
13. In the End User License Agreement page, check the box next to I accept the terms, and click Next.
    
14. In the Destination Folder page, click Next.
    
15. In the Destination Data Folder page, click Next.
    
16. In the Agent Service Account page, enter the service account (action account) credentials, and click Next.
    
17. In the Delivery Controllers page, enter the hostnames of the Delivery Controllers you want this agent to monitor, and click Install.
    
18. In the Completed the setup wizard for Citrix SCOM Management Pack Machine Agent for XenApp and XenDesktop page, click Finish.
    
19. In SCOM console, go to Monitoring > Citrix Library > XenApp/XenDesktop Machine Monitoring.
20. Select a Proxy computer.
    
21. On the bottom right, run the Update Configuration task.
    
22. Then run the Check Requirements task.
    

If the Machine Agent Proxy Computer is monitoring a large environment, then see the following. Environments with more than 100 Delivery Groups, 600 Server OS machines, and 1,500 applications are considered large.

• Monitoring large environments at Citrix Docs.
• Configuration for large XenApp and XenDesktop environments at Citrix Docs.
• CTX219486 Adjusting XenApp/ XenDesktop Machine Agent Configuration in Large Citrix Environment for details on the values that can be set at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Comtrade\XenDesktop MP Machine Agent.
  

New Reports

3.14 adds new Application – Usage report as described in Citrix Blog Post What’s New with the Citrix SCOM Management Packs – Nov 2017.

3.9 adds two new Reports as described in Citrix Blog Post Monitor Site Infrastructure & Delivery Group Availability with Citrix SCOM Management Pack for XenApp and XenDesktop:

• Site – Infrastructure Availability report – availability of a Site infrastructure over time. Availability is determined by health (availability) of most important Citrix services on the Delivery controller computers, and availability of configured hosting connections.
  
• Delivery Group – Availability – availability of desktops provided with the selected Delivery Group
  

3.8 adds two new Reports as described in Citrix Blog Post Analyzing Application/Desktop Usage with Citrix SCOM Management Pack for XenApp and XenDesktop.

• Application – User Activity report – see for a selected application which users have been using it and when. For each specific usage you also get usage duration, IP address of the client computer, and machine name on which the application was running.
  
  
• Delivery Group – Desktop User Activity report – shows which users have been using desktop and when for each selected Delivery Group. It is almost identical to the “Application – User Activity” report, except that the delivery group is selected instead of application and you get desktop usages in the specific delivery group instead of application usages.
  
  

Customize Management Pack

Citrix Blog Post Increasing the Application Discovery Limit in Citrix SCOM Management Pack: That limit is around 1,500 applications. Now, you can discover more than 1,500 applications using the following method. We have tested the discovery of up to 4,500 applications in our lab environment.

The existing management pack has five discoveries for applications. Each discovery can discover approximately 300 applications. We have created a custom management pack that includes an additional 10 discoveries to be able to discover a total of 4,500 applications. See the Blog Post for the download link.

SLA Dashboards

The XAXD Pack has an extra Management Pack that adds SLA Targets and dashboards.

1. In SCOM Console, go to Administration workspace, right-click Management Packs and click Import Management Packs.
   
2. Click Add and then click Add from disk.
   
3. Connecting to the online catalog is not required.
4. Browse to C:\Program Files\Citrix\XenDesktop MP (orC:\Program Files\Comtrade\XenDesktop MP) and select the Citrix.XenApp.And.XenDesktop.SLADashboards Management Pack. Click Open.
   
5. Click Install.
   
6. Click Close when done.
   
7. Go to the Monitoring workspace, expand Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop, expand Dashboards, and click Delivery Group SLA Dashboard.
8. On the right, click the gear icon, and click Configure.
   
9. In the General Properties page, click Next.
   
10. In the Scope page, click Add.
    
11. Select the Desktop OS  Delivery Group Health and Server OS Delivery group Health SLAs and click Add. Then click OK.
    
12. Click Finish.
    
13. On the left, click the Site SLA Dashboard.
14. On the right, look for the lower gear icon and click Configure. You might have to click the Site SLAs pane first.
    
15. In the General Properties page, click Next.
    
16. In the Scope page, click Add.
    
17. Select Site Health and click Add. Then click OK.
    
18. Click Finish.
    
19. If you go to Authoring > Service Level Tracking, you can create more SLAs. See the documentation for details.
    
20. The XAXD pack also adds a bunch of reports.
    

StoreFront Pack

Full documentation at http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/scom-management-packs/storefront/1-12.html.

Install Citrix StoreFront Pack

1. Download the Citrix SCOM Management Pack Bundle.
   
2. On the System Center Operations Manager server, run Citrix_SCOM_Management_Pack_for_StoreFront.exe.
   
3. In the Welcome to the setup wizard for Citrix SCOM Management Pack for StoreFront page, click Next.
4. In the View Relevant Product Configuration page, click Next.
   
5. The installer could detect an older version. Click Next.
   
6. In the License Agreement page, check the box next to I accept the terms and click Next.
7. In the Destination Folder page, click Next.
8. In the Configure Post-Install Actions page, check the box next to Automatically import the Management Pack, and click Install.
   
9. In the Completed the setup for the Citrix SCOM Management Pack for StoreFront page, click Next.
10. In the All post-install actions were successfully executed page, click Finish.
    

MP Agent Installation Account

Configure the MP Agent Installation Account as detailed earlier for the XAXD Pack.

SCOM Proxy Agent

All Microsoft SCOM Agents running Citrix Agents must be marked as a Proxy Agent.

1. In the SCOM Console, go to the Administration workspace, expand Device Management and click Agent Managed.
2. Double-click your SCOM Agent.
   
3. On the Security tab, check the box next to Allow this agent to act as a proxy, and click OK.
   

Probe Account

The StoreFront Management Pack logs into StoreFront using an account. StoreFront must be configured with Explicit Authentication.

1. On the SCOM server, run StoreFront MP Configuration.
   
2. In Management Pack 1.11 and newer, the first time you launch the tool, you’ll be taken to the Encryption Password tab. Click Set, and enter a permanent password. Note: the password will later be entered in clear text run running a SCOM Task to install or upgrade the agent.
   
   
3. On the StoreFront availability tab, click Add.
   
4. Enter credentials that can log into StoreFront. Make sure the userPrincipalName suffix or domain name matches one of the allowed domains configured on StoreFront (Source = CTX222920 Error: “StoreFront Store Service Probe Failed” While Using Citrix SCOM Management Pack for StoreFront). Click OK twice.
   
5. Click OK.

Push Citrix StoreFront Agent

1. If the StoreFront Server is Windows 2008 R2, install Microsoft hotfix 2847346 Svchost.exe running NSI service leaks memory and non-paged pool memory leak Tag NSpc. Also see Citrix CTX225624 Citrix SCOM MP for Storefront causes high memory utilization on Windows Server 2008 R2.
   
2. In the SCOM Console, go to Monitoring workspace, expand Citrix Library, and click StoreFront Computers.
3. Select a StoreFront server.
   
4. On the bottom right, in the StoreFron Server Computer Role Tasks pane, click Check Installation Prerequisites.
   
5. Click Run.
6. Review the report, and then click Close.
   
7. Now click the Install Citrix MPSF Agent task.
   
8. If desired, you can override the Task Parameters. See the documentation for details.
9. In 1.11 and newer, you must override the Encryption Password parameter, and specify the password you entered in the Configuration Tool.
10. If upgrading, override UpgradeAgent, and set it to true.
11. Then click Run.
    
12. When done, review the report, and then click Close.
    
13. The agent will eventually report as Healthy.
    
14. You can verify configuration and version by running the Check Requirements and Configuration task. You might have to also run the Update Configuration task.
    
    

Provisioning Services Pack

Full Documentation is at http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/scom-management-packs/provisioning-services/1-19.html.

Install Citrix Provisioning Services Pack

1. Download the Citrix SCOM Management Pack Bundle.
   
2. On the System Center Operations Manager server, run Citrix_SCOM_Management_Pack_for_ProvisioningServices.exe.
   
3. In the Welcome to the InstallShield wizard for Citrix SCOM Management Pack for Provisioning Services page, click Next.
4. In the View Relevant Product Configuration page, click Next.
   
5. If an older version is detected, click Next to upgrade it.
6. In the License Agreement page, check the box next to I accept the terms, and click Next.
7. In the Destination Folder page, click Next.
8. In the Configure Post-Install Actions page, check the box next to Automatically import the Management Pack, and click Install.
   
9. In the Completed the setup for Citrix SCOM Management Pack for Provisioning Services page, click Next.
10. In the All post-install actions were successfully executed page, click Finish.
    

MP Agent Installation Account

Configure the MP Agent Installation Account as detailed earlier for the XAXD Pack.

SCOM Proxy Agent

All Microsoft SCOM Agents running Citrix Agents must be marked as a Proxy Agent.

1. In the SCOM Console, go to the Administration workspace, expand Device Management, and click Agent Managed.
2. Double-click your SCOM Agent.
   
3. On the Security tab, check the box next to Allow this agent to act as a proxy and click OK.
   
4. If you have many Provisioning Services servers, you can run Provisioning Services MP Configuration from the Start Menu, and enable Proxy using this tool.
   
5. In Management Pack 1.17 and newer, the first time you launch the tool, you’ll be taken to the Configuration encryption tab. Click Set, and enter a permanent password. Note: the password will later be entered in clear text run running a SCOM Task to install or upgrade the agent.
   
   
6. Then you can configure the Proxy tab.
   
   

Farm Account

The Provisioning Services Management Pack needs to log into the Provisioning Services farm.

1. Create a service account and make it a full Provisioning Services farm administrator.
2. On the SCOM server, run Provisioning Services MP Configuration.
   
3. In Management Pack 1.17 and newer, the first time you launch the tool, you’ll be taken to the Configuration encryption tab. Click Set, and enter a permanent password. Note: the password will later be entered in clear text run running a SCOM Task to install or upgrade the agent.
   
   
4. On the Provisioning Services tab, click Add.
   
5. Enter a farm name. You’ll need this farm name later.
6. Enter credentials for a full farm administrator, and click OK.
   
7. Click OK.

Push Citrix Provisioning Services Agent

1. In the SCOM Console, go to Monitoring workspace, expand Citrix Library, and click Provisioning Services Computers.
2. Select a Provisioning Services server.
   
3. On the bottom right, in the Tasks pane, click Check Installation Prerequisites.
   
4. Click Run.
5. Review the report, and click Close.
   
6. Now click the Install Citrix MPPVS Agent task.
   
7. If desired, you can override the Task Parameters. For example, UpgradeAgent can be overridden to true. See the documentation for details.
8. In 1.18 and newer, you must override the Encryption Password parameter, and specify the password you entered in the Configuration Tool.
9. Then click Run.
   
10. When done, review the report, and click Close.
    
11. Run the Set Farm Name on Citrix MPPVS Agent task.
    
12. Override the Task Parameter.
    
13. Specify the farm name. This should match the farm account created earlier. Then click Override.
    
14. Click Run.
    
15. Review the task output, and click Close.
    
16. The agent will eventually report as Healthy.
    
17. You can verify configuration by running the Check Requirements and Configuration task. You might have to also run the Update Configuration task.
    
    
18. From John Haggerty in the comments: If you see: “Connection to PVS Soap Server Failed”, and if C:\ProgramData\Citrix\Provisioning Services MP Agent\mppvs_agt.log says “Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI) authentication failed”, then configure Kerberos Authentication for Citrix MPPVS Agent service. To enable Kerberos authentication, perform the following steps:
    1. Set “Log On” account for “Citrix MPVPS Agent” service to the account you are using for MPPVS.
    2. In command prompt, go to “%Program Files%\Citrix\Provisioning Services MP Agent” and execute PVSMonitorSvc.exe /setconnection runninguser
    3. Restart “Citrix MPVPS Agent” service and after a minute run check requirements tool to check if agent is ok now.
    4. NOTE: Issue will be resolved in next discovery cycle (by default 5 minutes).

Related Pages

• Citrix SCOM Management Pack – NetScaler