Author: Carl Stalhood

EUC Weekly Digest – February 25, 2017

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

4 Comments

Here are some EUC items I found interesting last week. For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

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

XenApp/XenDesktop downloads

XenApp/XenDesktop articles

VDA

HDX

Director/Monitoring

WEM/Profile Management

StoreFront

Receiver

NetScaler

XenMobile

XenServer

Other Citrix

VMware

Delivery Controller 7.13 and Licensing

Last Modified: Aug 18, 2021 @ 7:35 am

47 Comments

Navigation

💡 = Recently Updated

Upgrade

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

You can upgrade directly from any Delivery Controller version 5.6 or newer.

Before upgrading, if you have a standalone Citrix Licensing Server, upgrade it to 11.14.0.1 build 19005.

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

  1. If StoreFront is installed on the Controller, and if the Citrix SCOM Agent for StoreFront is installed, stop the Citrix MPSF Agent service. See CTX220935 Cannot Perform a StoreFront Upgrade if Citrix SCOM Management Pack Agent Service is Running.
  2. Close PowerShell/Consoles. Make sure all Citrix Consoles and PowerShell consoles are closed. StoreFront won’t upgrade if any are running. If StoreFront fails, then the StoreFront configuration is wiped out.
  3. Snapshot. If StoreFront is on the Controller, take a snapshot before attempting the upgrade.
  4. Another option is to export the StoreFront configuration so you can restore it later if something goes wrong.
  5. Run AutoSelect.exe from the XenApp/XenDesktop 7.13 ISO.
  6. On the top left, click Studio and Server Components.
  7. In the Licensing Agreement page, select I have read, understand, and accept the terms, and click Next.
  8. In the Ensure Successful Upgrade page, read the steps, 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. If you see a Running Processes window, close the listed programs, and click Continue.
  12. Click Close if prompted to restart.
  13. If you see a window asking you to Locate XenDesktop installation media, click Cancel.
  14. Mount the XenApp_and_XenDesktop_7_13.iso.
  15. Run AutoSelect.exe.
  16. Click Delivery Controller and installation will resume.
  17. In the Call Home page, make a selection. If participating, click Connect, login, and then click Next.
  18. In the Finish page, check the box next to Launch Studio, and click Finish.
  19. After Citrix Studio launches, if you have sysadmin permissions on SQL, then click Start the automatic Site upgrade. If you don’t have full permission, then get a DBA to help you, click Manually upgrade this site, and follow the instructions.

  20. If you choose to Manually upgrade this site, and if you are upgrading from 7.11, then note that there’s no upgrade for the Logging Database schema, so there won’t be any SQL script for the Logging database.

  21. After all Controllers and VDAs are upgraded, right-click the Catalogs, and click Upgrade Catalog. Note: 7.9 is the newest minimum functional level. You won’t see an option for 7.13. If your Catalogs are already set to VDA version 7.9, then no upgrade is needed.


  22. Then do the same for the Delivery Groups. Note: 7.9 is the newest minimum functional level. You won’t see an option for 7.13. If your Delivery Groups are already set to VDA version 7.9, then no upgrade is needed.


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

New Install Preparation

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

Citrix Licensing – If you are going to use an existing Citrix Licensing Server, upgrade it to 11.14.0.1 build 19005.

SQL Databases

  • Citrix CTX209080 Database Sizing Tool for XenDesktop 7
  • Citrix article CTX114501 – Supported Databases for XenApp and XenDesktop Components
  • There are typically three databases: one for the Site (aka farm), one for Logging (audit log) and one for Monitoring (Director).
    • The name of the monitoring database must not have any spaces in it. See CTX200325 Database Naming Limitation when Citrix Director Accesses Monitoring Data Using OData APIs
    • If you want Citrix Studio to create the SQL databases automatically, then the person running Studio must be a sysadmin on the SQL instances. No lesser role will work. sysadmin permissions can be granted temporarily and revoked after installation.
    • As an alternative, you can use Citrix Studio to create SQL scripts and then run those scripts on the SQL server. In that case, the person running the scripts only needs the dbcreator and securityadmin roles.
    • It is possible to create the 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.
  • If SQL 2016 or newer, create a Basic Availability Group.
  • If SQL 2014 or older, 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 Citrix Studio on a different machine that has GPMC installed.

vSphere

  • Create a role in vSphere Client. Assign a service account to the role at the Datacenter or higher level.

Delivery Controller Install

  1. A typical size for the Controller VMs is 2-4 vCPU and 8+ GB of RAM. If all components (Delivery Controller, StoreFront, Licensing, Director, SQL Express) are installed on one server, then you might want to bump up memory to 10 GB or 12 GB.
  2. From Local Host Cache sizing and scaling at Citrix Docs:
    1. For LHC LocalDB, assign the Controller VMs a single socket with multiple cores.
    2. Add two cores for LHC.
    3. Add at least three more Gigs of RAM and watch the memory consumption.
    4. Since there’s no control over LHC election, ensure all Controllers have the same specs.
  3. Make sure the User Right Log on as a service includes NT SERVICE\ALL SERVICES or add NT SERVICE\CitrixTelemetryService to the User Right.
  4. On two Delivery Controllers, install the Delivery Controller software from the XenApp/XenDesktop 7.13 ISO. Go to the extracted 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 left, click Delivery Controller.
  7. In the Licensing Agreement page, select I have read, understand, and accept, and click Next.
  8. In the Core Components page, you can install all components on one server, or on separate servers. Splitting them out is only necessary in large environments, or if you have multiple farms and want to share the Licensing, StoreFront, and Director components across those farms.
  9. In the Features page, uncheck the box next to Install Microsoft SQL Server 2014 SP2 Express, and click Next.
  10. In the Firewall page, click Next.
  11. In the Summary page, click Install.
  12. In the Call Home page, make a selection, click Connect, enter your MyCitrix credentials, and then click Next.
  13. In the Finish page, click Finish. Studio will automatically launch.
  14. Ensure the two Controller VMs do not run on the same hypervisor host. Create an anti-affinity rule.

Create Site

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

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

Use Studio to Create Database 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 this Setup wizard. The other pages will be configured later.
  3. Enter a Site Name (aka farm name), and click Next. Only administrators see the farm name.
  4. In the Databases page, if you are building two Controllers, click Select near the bottom of the same page.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Enter the FQDN of the second Controller and click OK. Note: the Delivery Controller software must already be installed on that machine.
  7. Then click Save.
  8. If you don’t have sysadmin permissions, change the selection to Generate scripts to manually set up databases on the database server. Change the database names if desired, and click Next.
  9. In the Summary page, click Generate scripts.
  10. A folder will open with six scripts. Edit each of the scripts.
  11. Near the top of each script are two lines to create the database. Uncomment both lines (including the go line). Then save and close the file.

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

  14. Open the Query menu, and click SQLCMD Mode.
  15. Then execute the script.
  16. If SQLCMD mode was enabled properly, then the output should look something like this:
  17. If you have a mirrored database, run the second script on the mirror SQL instance. Make sure SQLCMD mode is enabled.
  18. Repeat for the Logging_Principal.sql script.
  19. You’ll have to enable SQLCMD Mode for each script you open.


  20. Repeat for the Monitoring_Principal.sql script.
  21. Once again enable SQLCMD Mode.


  22. The person running Citrix Studio must be added to the SQL Server as a SQL Login, and granted the public server role.

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

  25. On the Licensing page, enter the name of the Citrix License Server, and click Connect. If you installed Licensing with your Delivery Controller, then simply enter localhost.
  26. XenApp/XenDesktop 7.13 requires the newest Licensing Server. If your server isn’t compatible, leave it set to localhost and fix it later.
  27. If the Certificate Authentication appears, select Connect me, and click Confirm.
  28. Then select your license, and click Next.
  29. In the Summary page, if your databases are mirrored, each database will show high availability servers, and the name of the Mirror server. Click Finish.

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

Verify Database Mirroring

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

Second Controller

When building the first Delivery Controller, the scripts might have already included the second Delivery Controller. Thus no special SQL permissions are needed. If the second Delivery Controller has not already been added to the SQL databases, then 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 use Citrix Studio to generate SQL scripts and send them to a DBA.

To use Citrix Studio to create the SQL Scripts:

  1. On the first Delivery Controller, if StoreFront is installed, delete the default StoreFront store (/Citrix/Store) and recreate it with your desired Store name (e.g. /Citrix/CompanyStore).
  2. On the 2nd 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 six scripts. If not mirroring, then the top three scripts need to be sent to a DBA. If mirroring, send all six.
  8. On the SQL Server, open one of the .sql files.

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

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

Local Host Cache

If you have 5,000 or fewer VDAs, you can enable Local Host Cache (LHC) instead of Connection Leasing. LHC allows new sessions to be started even if SQL database is unavailable.

From Local Host Cache sizing and scaling at Citrix Docs:

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

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

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

For Windows Server 2008 R2 Controllers, PowerShell 3, or newer, is required. See LHC XD 7.12 and W2K8SR2 SP1 at Citrix Discussions.

Local Host Cache can be enabled by running some PowerShell commands.

asnp citrix.*
Set-BrokerSite -ConnectionLeasingEnabled $false
Set-BrokerSite -LocalHostCacheEnabled $true

George Spiers Local Host Cache XenApp & XenDesktop 7.12 shows the Event Log entries when LHC is enabled.

Database Maintenance

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
  • For AlwaysOn Availability Groups, to add MultiSubnetFailover to the SQL connection strings
  • For SQL mirroring, to add Failover Partner to the SQL connection strings

CTX140319 How to Migrate XenDesktop Database to New SQL Server has the correctly ordered list of PowerShell commands to change the database connection strings. Make sure PowerShell is running as administrator before running these commands.

Here are the DB Connections that must be changed. This list might be longer than the article. When using the article, make sure you include all of the DB Connections shown below. You can get the full list of database commands by running Get-Command Set-*DBConnection. When changing the DB connections, AdminDBConnection must be the last to be set to NULL, and the first to be configured with the new connection string.

Set-ConfigDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-AppLibDBConnection –DBConnection $null    #7.8 and newer
Set-OrchDBConnection –DBConnection $null      #7.11 and newer
Set-TrustDBConnection –DBConnection $null     #7.11 and newer
Set-AcctDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-AnalyticsDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-HypDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-ProvDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-BrokerDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-EnvTestDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-SfDBConnection -DBConnection $null
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DataStore Monitor -DBConnection $null   #Monitoring Database
Set-MonitorDBConnection -DBConnection $null                      #Site Database
Set-LogDBConnection -DataStore Logging -DBConnection $null       #Logging Database
Set-LogDBConnection -DBConnection $null                          #Site Database
Set-AdminDBConnection -DBConnection $null -force

Citrix CTX221389 Scripts For Updating Connection Strings in XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x was recently updated for 7.13.

  • Change_XD_Failover_Partner_v1.ps1 – is used to update the mirroring failover partner.
  • Change_XD_To_ConnectionString.ps1 – this takes passed in connection strings and uses them, so a very generic version.
  • Change_XD_To_MultiSubnetFailover.ps1 – this toggles the MultiSubnetFailover. If it doesn’t exist or is false, it sets it to true. If it’s set to true, the script sets it back to false. If you need to remove the option then you’ll need to use Change_XD_To_ConnectionString.ps1 and provide strings without the setting.
  • Change_XD_To_Null.ps1 – this is a reset of all the connection strings on the localhost as something has gone wrong. Note because this resets the connection strings to null, it will actually place the ddc into a “initial” state. I.E. if you run Studio, it’ll ask if you want to create a site, or join to another DDC. This is useful if something has gone wrong, as you can reset a Controller’s settings, and then attempt to set the connection strings again using Change_XD_To_ConnectionString.ps1.

Director Grooming

If XenDesktop is not Platinum Edition, then all historical Director data is groomed at 30 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 cmdlet.

  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.

View Logging Database

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

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

Maintain Logging Database

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

Export/Import Configuration

Ryan Butler has a PowerShell script that can export configuration from one XenDesktop farm and import it to another.

Studio Administrators

Full Administrators

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

Help Desk

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

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

Provisioning Services w/Personal vDisk

From Considerations: Provisioning Services at Configure and manage Personal vDisk at Citrix Docs: 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.

Customer Experience Improvement Program

XenApp/XenDesktop 7.13 enables CEIP by default. If desired, you can disable it in Citrix Studio:

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

Each XenApp/XenDesktop component has a separate configuration for disabling Customer Experience Improvement Program:

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.

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, for Connection type, select VMware vSphere.
  3. Notice there’s a Learn about user permissions blue link to an article that describes the necessary permissions.
  4. Enter https://vcenter01.corp.local/sdk as the vCenter URL. The URL must contain the FQDN of the vCenter server.
  5. Enter credentials of a service account that can log into vCenter.
  6. In the Connection name field, give the connection a name. Typically, this matches the name of the vCenter server.
  7. If you are not using Machine Creation Services, and instead only need the vCenter connection for machine power management, change the Create virtual machines using selection to Other Tools. If you intend to use MCS, leave it set to Studio Tools.
  8. Click Next.
  9. If you see a message about the vCenter certificate, check the box next to Trust certificate, and click OK.
  10. Note: this vCenter certificate thumbprint is stored in the XenDesktop database, and is not updated when the vCenter certificate changes. See CTX217415 Cannot connect to the VCenter server due to a certificate error for instructions on manually updating the database with the new certificate thumbprint.
  11. In the Storage Management page, click Browse, and select a vSphere cluster. Note: as detailed at CTX223662, make sure there’s no comma in the datacenter name.
  12. Select Use storage shared by hypervisors.
  13. If you have sufficient disk space on each ESXi host, also select Optimize temporary data on available local storage. From Mark Syms at XA 7.9 MCS with RAM Caching at Citrix Discussions: “If you use just MCS caching to local storage then the VM is not agile at all and cannot be moved even when powered off as it has a virtual disk permanently associated with a single host.”
  14. From Martin Rowan at XA 7.9 MCS with RAM Caching at Citrix Discussions: for the temporary cache disk, “Don’t format it, the raw disk is what MCS caching uses.”
  15. Click Next.
  16. In the Storage Selection page, OS and Personal vDisk must be selected on at least one datastore. For maximum flexibility, only select one datastore. To select additional datastores, run this wizard again to create a separate Hosting Resource.
  17. If you selected the temporary data on local storage option, on the bottom, click Select, and choose the datastores you want to use for disk caching. By default, all local datastores are selected. Click Next when done.
  18. In the Network page, enter a name for the hosting resource. Since each hosting resource is a combination of vCenter, Cluster, Network, and Datastores, include those names in this field (e.g. vCenter01-Cluster01-Network01-Datastore01).
  19. Select a network and click Next.
  20. In the Summary page, click Finish.
  21. If you have multiple datastores for your VDAs, run the wizard again.
  22. You can use the existing vCenter connection.
  23. This time, select a different datastore.
  24. Give it a name that indicates the chosen datastore.
  25. When you create a Catalog, select the Hosting Resource for the datastore where you want the VDAs to be placed. Create additional Catalogs for each datastore. You can then combine the Catalogs into a single Delivery Group.
  26. Later in the Catalog wizard, you’re given an option to enable caching and select a cache size. This is similar to Provisioning Services option “Cache in RAM with overflow to disk”.

Citrix Licensing Server

Upgrade

XenApp/XenDesktop 7.13 comes with 11.14.0.1 build 19005

If you have a standalone Licensing Server, upgrade it to Citrix Licensing 11.14.0.1 build 19005 if it isn’t already.

  1. Go to the downloaded Citrix Licensing 11.14.0.1 build 19005 and run CitrixLicensing.exe.
  2. If you see the Subscription Advantage Renewal page, make a selection, and click Next.
  3. In the Upgrade page, click Upgrade.
  4. Click Finish.
  5. If you go to Programs and Features, it should now show version 13.0.0.19005.
  6. If you login to the license server web console, on the Administration tab, it shows it as version 11.14.0 build 18001.
  7. You can also view the version in the registry at HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Citrix\LicenseServer\Install.

License Server CEIP

11.14.0.1 build 19005 and newer enables CEIP by default. This can be disabled in the Citrix Licensing Manager (https://localhost:8083) by clicking the gear icon.

Scroll down to Share usage statistics with Citrix and make a selection.

Citrix License Management Service

New in 11.14.0.1 is the Citrix License Management Service. This service helps you avoid prohibited practices:

  • Duplication of licenses outside a Disaster Recovery (DR) environment
  • Use of legacy licenses for new product versions
  • Use of rescinded licenses

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 and configure SA license auto-renewal.

Jonathan Medd Monitor Citrix License Usage With PowerShell.

Lal Mohan – Citrix License Usage Monitoring Using Powershell

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

Remote Desktop Licensing Server

Install Remote Desktop Licensing Server

Do the following on your XenDesktop Controllers:

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

Activate Remote Desktop Licensing

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

Smart Check

Citrix Cloud offers a Smart Check service that can scan your XenApp/XenDesktop infrastructure for known issues. Soon Smart Check will require Citrix Customer Success Services (Select).

To run Smart Check:

  1. Go to https://citrix.cloud.com, and login.
  2. After logging in, find Smart Tools, and click Manage.
  3. Click Smart Check.
  4. On the top right, click Add Site.
  5. In step 1, click Download Agent.
  6. Step 2 indicates it is waiting for you to install the Agent.
  7. On a Delivery Controller, run the downloaded CitrixLifecycleManagementAgent.exe.
  8. Check the box next to I accept the terms in the License Agreement, and click  Install.
  9. In the Completed the Citrix Smart Tools Agent Setup Wizard page, click Finish.
  10. Step 2 now shows that the Agent was installed successfully. Click Next.
  11. Enter credentials for your XenDesktop farm, and click Add Site.
  12. Eventually you’ll see a Get Started link.
  13. Or, if the site is already added to your list of sites, click View Report next to the site.
  14. At the top right, if you click Perform Check, you can run one of the checks.
  15. If you click Configure.
  16. You can schedule the checks to automatically run periodically.
  17. To view the alerts, click one of the alert badges in the component category. Also see Smart Check alerts reference at Citrix Docs.
  18. Expand a component, and click an alert.
  19. On the right, there’s an option to Hide Alert.

  20. To view the hidden alerts, at the top right, click the menu icon, and click Show Hidden Alerts.
  21. The hidden alert is grayed out. If you click the alert, you can restore it.

XenApp/XenDesktop 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.

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

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

Related Pages

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) 7.13

Last Modified: Nov 7, 2020 @ 6:35 am

36 Comments

Navigation

💡 = Recently Updated

Hardware

Hypervisor Host Hardware

  • Citrix Blog Post Citrix Scalability — The Rule of 5 and 10: Simply take the number of physical cores in a hypervisor host, multiply it by 5 or 10, and the result will be your Single Server Scalability. Use 5 if you’re looking for the number of XenDesktop VMs you can host on a box, and use 10 if you’re looking for the number of XenApp user sessions you can host on a box.

Virtual Machine 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 RAM caching (MCSIO or PvS), 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. For Windows 10, note that Visual Studio 2017 is not supported on LTSB. See Visual Studio 2017 Product Family System Requirements.
  10. 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. If RDSH, disable IE Enhanced Security Configuration in Server Manager > Local Server.
  2. Optionally, go to Action Center (Windows 8.1 or 2012 R2) or Control Panel > Security and Maintenance (Windows 10/2016) to disable User Account Control and enable SmartScreen .
  3. Run Windows Update.

  4. Add your Citrix Administrators group to the local Administrators group on the VDA. Computer Management.
  5. The Remote Desktop Services “Prompt for Password” policy prevents Single Sign-on to the Virtual Delivery Agent. Check registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services. If fPromptForPassword = 1 then you need to fix group policy. The following GPO setting will prevent Single Sign-on from working.
    Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Remote Desktop Services | Remote Desktop Session Host | Security | Always prompt for password upon connection
    Or set the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\PorticaAutoLogon (DWORD) = 0x10.
  6. For Windows 7/2008 R2 VDAs that will use Personal vDisk, or AppDisk, or any other layering technology, 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.
  7. If this VDA is Windows Server 2008 R2, see https://www.carlstalhood.com/windows-server-2008-r2-post-sp1-hotfixes/.
  8. To remove the built-in apps in Windows 10, see Robin Hobo How to remove built-in apps in Windows 10 Enterprise.
  9. 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.
  10. 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 Virtual Delivery Agent 7.13

  1. For virtual desktops, make sure you are logged into the console. The VDA won’t install if you are connected using RDP.
  2. Make sure .NET Framework 4.5.2 or newer is installed.

CLI Install:

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

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

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

GUI Install:

  1. Go to the downloaded XenDesktop 7.13 .iso file and run AutoSelect.exe.

  2. Alternatively, you can download the standalone VDA package and run that instead. Go the main XenDesktop 7.13 download page. Expand the section labelled Components that are on the product ISO but also packaged separately to download the Standalone VDA installers. 7.13 has a VDA installer called Desktop OS Core Services that is designed for Remote PC deployments.
  3. Click Start next to either XenApp or XenDesktop. The only difference is the product name displayed in the installation wizard.
  4. Click Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Desktop OS or Windows Server OS depending on which type of VDA you are building.

  5. In the Environment page, select Create a Master Image, and click Next.
  6. For virtual desktops, in the HDX 3D Pro page, click Next.
  7. 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 1st VDA, and then from there, connect to 2nd VDA). Click Next.
  8. In the Additional Components page, select the features

  9. 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.
  10. In the Features page, check boxes. In 7.12 and newer, only the top box is checked by default. If you want to use the other features, check the boxes. If this is a virtual desktop, you can leave Personal vDisk unchecked now and enable it later. Then click Next.
  11. In the Firewall page, click Next.
  12. In the Summary page, click Install.
  13. For RDSH, click Close when you are prompted to restart.
  14. After the machine reboots twice, login and installation should continue.
  15. If you see a Local ‘XenApp’ installation media window, click Cancel.
  16. Mount the XenApp_and_XenDesktop_7_13.iso.
  17. Run AutoSelect.exe.
  18. Click the Virtual Desktop Agent box.
  19. Installation will continue automatically.
  20. Note: NT SERVICE\CitrixTelemetryService needs permission to login as a service.
  21. In the Call Home page, click Connect, enter your MyCitrix credentials, and then click Next.

  22. In the Finish page, click Finish to restart the machine again.

Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP)  ?

VDA 7.12 and newer enable Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) by default. To disable it, create the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\Telemetry\CEIP\Enabled (DWORD) and set it to 0 (zero). Also see CEIP at Citrix Insight Services at Citrix Docs.

See https://www.carlstalhood.com/delivery-controller-7-13-and-licensing/#ceip for additional places where CEIP is enabled.

Connection Quality Indicator

The Connection Quality Indicator tells the user the quality of the connection. 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 | Administrative Templates | Citrix Components | Virtual Desktop Agent | CQI

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

Connection Threshold Settings lets you set the notification thresholds.

Adaptive Transport

A new feature in XenApp/XenDesktop 7.13 is Adaptive Transport, which uses EDT protocol, which uses UDP Ports 1494/2598 on the VDA. The UDP ports should already be open in the Windows Firewall.

Adaptive Transport is disabled by default, but can be enabled in the Citrix Policy setting HDX Adaptive Transport.

Slow Logons

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

“Add the following 2 registry keys to your 7.9 VDA server – then try connecting to it using ICA to see if the issue still occurs:

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

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

 

Mark DePalma at XenApp slow logon times, user get black screen for 20 seconds at Citrix Discussions says that pushing Tile Refresh to a background task speeds up logons.

  1. Regedit: 
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\DisableUPMResetCache]
@="DisableUPMResetCache"
"Version"="1,1,1,1"
"StubPath"="REG ADD HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\ImmersiveShell\\StateStore /v ResetCache /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f"
"Locale"="*"
  2. UPM Exclusions: 
    Directory - '!ctx_localappdata!\Microsoft\Windows\Caches'
Registry - 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\DisableUPMResetCache'

 

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

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

 

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

 

XenApp recalculates WMI filters on every reconnect. CTX212610 Session Reconnect 30 sec Delay – DisableGPCalculation – WMI Filters indicates that recalculation can be disabled by setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\Reconnect\DisableGPCalculation (DWORD) to 1.

 

CTX212439 Desktop Session Stuck in Pre-Logon State with Message “Please wait for the Local Session Manager”:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\Kerberos\Parameters\MaxTokenSize (DWORD) = 48000
  • Delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod\L$RTMTIMEBOMB

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 Virtual Delivery Agent, and click Change.
  3. Click Customize Virtual Delivery Agent Settings.
  4. Edit the Delivery Controllers, and click Next.
  5. On the Protocol and Port page, change the port number, and click Next.
  6. In the Summary page, click Reconfigure.
  7. In the Call Home page, configure as desired, and then click Next.
  8. In the Finish Reconfiguration page, click Finish.
  9. You must also change the VDA registration port on the 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 log, 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. See VDA registration with Controllers at Citrix Docs.  💡
  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 and newer 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. If it won’t install from Server Manager, you can install it from PowerShell by running Install-WindowsFeature rsat-rds-licensing-diagnosis-ui.
  7. In Server Manager, open the Tools menu, expand Remote Desktop Services (or Terminal Services), and click Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser.

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

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

C: Drive Permissions

This section is more important for shared VDAs like RDSH Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016.

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

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

Pagefile

If this image will be converted to a 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 and newer, 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/v6

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

  • v6 = Windows 10 (1607) 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

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

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.

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.

Receiver for HTML5/Chrome Enhanced Clipboard

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

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

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

  1. For VDA 7.11 and newer, calculate the video memory that is required for monitors using the following formula:
    SumOfAllMons (Width * Height) * 4 / 0.3, where width and height are resolution of the monitor. Note: There is no hard and fast rule that will work for all cases.
    Example: Consider the resolution of monitor 1 is 1920*1200 and monitor 2 is 1366*768. Then SumOfAllMons will be (1920*1200 + 1366*768)
  2. CTX115637 Citrix Session Graphics Memory Reference describes how multi-monitor resolution is determined.
  3. Open the registry (regedit) and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\vbdenum
  4. Increase the value of “MaxVideoMemoryBytes” REG_DWORD value to the above calculated memory.
  5. Reboot the VDA.

Citrix Policies also control graphics performance.

COM Port Threads

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

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).

Print Driver for Non-Windows Clients

This section applies to Windows 8.1/2012 and newer VDAs.

From CTX139020 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 following instructions for manually enabling SSL on VDA 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 7.13 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.

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.

  • For certificate auto-enrollment on non-persistent Remote Desktop Session Hosts (aka Server OS VDAs), see Non-Persistent Server SSL to VDA by Alfredo Magallon Arbizu at CUGC.

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:

Trend Micro

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

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

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

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

Trend Micro Links:

Sophos

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.

Windows 10 / Windows 2012 R2 / Windows 2016 and newer

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. If Disk Cleanup is missing, you can run cleanmgr.exe instead.
  3. On the Tools tab, click Optimize to defrag the drive.
    `
  4. 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.
  5. Run Delprof2 to clean up local profiles. Get it from http://helgeklein.com/download/.
  6. Machine Creation Services and Provisioning Services require DHCP.
  7. Session hosts commonly have DHCP reservations.
  8. Base Image Script Framework (BIS-F) automates many image sealing tasks. The script is configurable using Group Policy.  💡
  10. 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

Citrix Blog post – Optimising the performance of HDX 3D Pro – Lessons from the field

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

  1. For VDA 7.11 and newer, calculate the video memory that is required for monitors using the following formula :
    SumOfAllMons (Width * Height) * 4 / 0.3, where width and height are resolution of the monitor. Note: There is no hard and fast rule that will work for all cases.
    Example: Consider the resolution of monitor 1 is 1920*1200 and monitor 2 is 1366*768. Then SumOfAllMons will be (1920*1200 + 1366*768)
  2. CTX115637 Citrix Session Graphics Memory Reference describes how multi-monitor resolution is determined.
  3. Open the registry (regedit) and navigate to:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\vbdenum
  4. Increase the value of “MaxVideoMemoryBytes” REG_DWORD value to the above calculated memory.
  5. Reboot the VDA

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 7.6/7.7/7.8/7.9/7.11 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

EUC Weekly Digest – Februrary 18, 2017

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

Leave a comment

Here are some EUC items I found interesting last week. For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

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

VDA

Unidesk

HDX

Receiver

NetScaler

NetScaler MAS

NetScaler Gateway

XenMobile

ShareFile

XenServer

Citrix Cloud

EUC Weekly Digest – February 11, 2017

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

Leave a comment

Here are some EUC items I found interesting last week. For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

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

XenApp/XenDesktop

WEM/Profile Management

Provisioning Services

NetScaler

NetScaler MAS

NetScaler Gateway

  • CTX200066, Disable Auth on NetScaler, only works internally, and only for web browsers – Citrix KB article

NetScaler SD-WAN

XenMobile

VMware

Microsoft

Other

EUC Weekly Digest – February 4, 2017

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

Leave a comment

Here are some EUC items I found interesting last week. For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

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

Citrix:

XenApp/XenDesktop

MCS

Director/Monitoring/Licensing

WEM/Profile Management

Provisioning Services

Unidesk

Receiver

NetScaler

NetScaler MAS

NetScaler Gateway

XenMobile

ShareFile

XenServer

VMware

Other

App Layering – App Layers, Image Templates, and Publishing

Last Modified: Sep 27, 2023 @ 7:22 pm

127 Comments

Navigation

Change Log

Create App Layer

Note: Citrix App Layering does not isolate applications. If you need isolation (e.g. multiple versions of Java), consider implementing Microsoft App-V. Citrix App Layering merges the layers without isolation.

  1. See Citrix CTX225952 4.x Layering Best Practices
  2. In the ELM Management Console, go to the Layers tab or node.
  3. In the App Layers tab, click the Create App Layer button. Or in the Silverlight interface, right-click in the grey, and click Create App Layer.

  4. In the Layer Details page, give the layer a name and version. Since the App Layer is tied to the OS Layer, it’s a good idea to include the OS Layer name in the App Layer name.
  5. Give the layer a Max Size. If Offload Compositing is not enabled then the layer disk created for the vSphere Packaging Machine is Thick Provisioned. Scroll down or click the down arrow.

  6. In the OS Layer section, select an OS Layer and version. An App Layer created for one OS Layer cannot be used with another OS Layer. Scroll down or click the down arrow.

  7. In the Prerequisite Layers section, you can select additional dependent App Layers to include in your packaging machine. If there are no dependent layers, just scroll down or click the down arrow.

  8. In Silverlight, in the Connector page, select a vSphere connector, and click the down arrow.
  9. In the Platform Layer section, if you are creating the App Layer on a different hypervisor than originally used for the OS Layer, you can select the Platform Layer for the new hypervisor. If the hypervisor has not changed, just scroll down or click the down arrow. The hypervisor can also be changed when publishing the Image Template later.

  10. In the HTML5 interface, select a Connector, enter a filename for the .vmdk file, and click Confirm and Complete.

    1. In the Silverlight interface, in the Packaging Disk page, give the .vmdk file a name, and click the down arrow.
    2. In the Icon Assignment page, select an icon, or upload a new one, and click the down arrow.
    3. In the Confirm and Complete page, click Create Layer.
  11. Go to the Tasks page. Or in Silverlight, at the bottom of the page, open the Tasks panel.
  12. Click View Details for the running task. Or in Silverlight, click the information icon next to the running task.

  13. Eventually the task will finish deploying the Packaging Machine and say Action Required.

  14. In vSphere Web Client, find the new Packaging Machine (in the PackagingVMs folder in the Layering VM folder), open its console, and install your app normally.
  15. See App layer recipes at Citrix Docs for some application install instructions.
  16. Citrix CTX226984 App Layering/Unidesk: The list of Windows Updates is usually wrong in app/platform layers and published images/desktops.
  17. Antivirus can be installed on an App layer. See Deploy anti-virus software at Citrix Docs for instructions for the following:
    • Symantec
    • McAfee
    • Trend Micro
    • Sophos
    • AVG
    • Kaspersky
  18. User settings are not captured in an Application Layer.
  19. Domain Join – CTX224668 How to install applications that require joining the domain with Citrix App Layering – In summary, you can join a layer to the domain while packaging, but you must remove it from that domain before finalization.
  20. For Office, put all Office apps in one layer.
    • Print to OneNote does not work in Elastic Layers.
  21. For Office 365 Click-to-run activation:
    1. After Office Click-to-run is installed, for all OSs other than Windows 7, run C:\Windows\Setup\scripts\Office2013Windows81_PREP.cmd as Administrator.
    2. In App Layering 4.6, Optimize.hta and Office Activate.cmd can handle Office 365 Click-to-run activation. For 4.5 and older, see Rob Zylowski at Office Activation Scripts for Office 365 at Citrix Discussions, to download these scripts . Also see O365 Office 2016 click to run online activation at Citrix Discussions.
    3. Go to C:\Windows\Setup\Scripts, right-click RunOptimizer.cmd, and click Run as administrator.
    4. Scroll down to J, check the box next to Process Office 365, and click Save Settings A-K.
    5. This creates a file called ProcessOffice365.txt.
    6. See Citrix CTX224566 Unidesk Recipe for Office 2016: Using Shared Computer Activation From Office 365 for more licensing guidance.
  22. For Office Volume License activation: (Source = Citrix CTX224900 Windows / Office 2016 KMS not activating in App Layering images (MCS Image Prep OS Rearm Failed)
    1. Go to C:\Windows\Setup\Scripts, right-click RunOptimizer.cmd, and click Run as administrator.
    2. Configure item H.
    3. Scroll down a little bit and click the button labelled Save Settings A-K. Then click the Optimizer.


    4. For all OSs other than Windows 7, run C:\Windows\Setup\scripts\Office2013Windows81_PREP.cmd as Administrator.
    5. Then rearm Office by running C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPPREAM.exe as administrator.
  23. When you are done installing your app, finalize the layer:
    1. George Spiers Citrix App Layering Preparation Script: runs a number of tasks to clean out temporary folders, clear out Event Log entries, remove ghost devices from Device Manager, etc.  ?
    2. Double-click the Shutdown for Finalize icon on the desktop. If it finds issues, it will tell you what to do (e.g. reboot needed). Otherwise, it will shut down the VM.
  24. If Offload Compositing is enabled in your Connector, then upload will happen automatically.
    1. Otherwise, after the machine is shutdown, in ELM Management Console, go to Layers > App Layers.
    2. Right-click the Layer that is currently being Edited, and click Finalize.
    3. In the Script Path page, if you embedded any scripts in the layer, specify the path. Otherwise, just click the down arrow.
    4. In the Confirm and Complete page, click Finalize.
  25. It will eventually finish and say Deployable.

  26. You can Edit Properties on your App Layer to change the icon or specify a Script Path.

Windows Updates – From Gunther Anderson: “Generally, the list of updates is unreliable anywhere except the layer where the updates were installed. If your OS layer says the updates were installed, then they were. The actual list (the list is not the same as the actual updates) tends to get stepped on by your other app layers, since they remember the updates list from when they were originally created. With all of your app layers trying to set their own personal misunderstanding based on when they were initially created, what winds up in the published image is not a good reflection of any reality. However, the information from the OS layer is correct. Likewise, the list of Office updates shown in the Office layer is correct even when the list of Windows updates shown in the Office layer is not.”

User Layer Repair – App Layering 1908 and newer create User Layer Repair files for any new or edited App Layer. Uses these files to repair User Layers so that the App Layer you just created or edited overrides the User Layer.

Citrix has a User Layer Management Utility that does more than just repair. It can also Reset (rename) user layers, Compress them, or Expand them. This tool also works with FSLogix disks.

To repair user layers without using a utility:

  1. Find the repair files in your file share under \Unidesk\Layers\App\Repair and \Unidesk\Layers\App\PackageAppRules.
  2. Copy the UserLayerRepair.json file for the App Layer to the user’s User Layer .vhd location.
  3. Make sure Domain Computers has Modify access to the user’s VHD location. The repair function runs as the computer, not the user.
  4. After logging into a published machine, C:\Programdata\Unidesk\Logs\ulayersvc.log shows the Repair status.

OS Layer Switching – if you enabled the OS Layer Switching Lab Feature, then do the following:

  1. Edit Properties on the App Layer.

  2. In the App Layer Settings section (Layer Details page) is a checkbox to Allow this App Layer to be elastically assigned to all Layered images, regardless of OS layer (Allow OS Layering Switching). You’ll need to repeat this for each additional App Layer. Source = Elastic layers to other OS layers not working as expected at Citrix Discussions.

Image/Template

  1. In the ELM Management Console, go to the Images node/tab, and click Create Template.
  2. In the Name and Description page, give the Template a Name that indicates the OS Layer, Platform Layer, and App Layers. Then scroll down or click the down arrow.
  3. In the OS Layer section, select an OS Layer, and scroll down or click the down arrow.
  4. In the App Layers section (Application Assignment page), click Edit Selection and select zero or more applications. Any App Layer you select here will be merged into the machine pre-boot. Elastic Layers are assigned later. Click the down arrow.

  5. In HTML5, in the Platform Layer section, select a Platform Layer and version. If you are pushing to PVS, then make sure the Platform Layer includes the PVS Target Device Software. Scroll down.
  6. In HTML5, in the Connector section, select an existing Connector. In the HTML5 interface, in App Layering 2202 or newer, use the Connectors page in the HTML5 interface to add a Provisioning Services connector. Or use the Internet Explorer Silverlight interface at System > Connectors. See below for some configuration info for this type of Connector.
  7. In the Layered Image Disk page, give the .vmdk file a name, specify a size, and decide if you want Sysprep to run or not. You typically don’t need to Sysprep the image if you’re using MCS, PVS, Composer, or Instant Clone.
  8. App Layering 2308 and newer have an option to Defragment Layered Image Disk.
  9. If you wish to enable Elastic Layering, select it here to enable it in the Image Template. Assignment of Elastic Layers to users is described later. Notes:

    • Disk Free Space – when you enable Elastic Layering, the published image only gets 20 GB of free space due to the addition of a writable partition. To change the size, see CTX225030 How to set the default size of the Elastic Layering writable volume. You edit /usr/local/CAMService/CAMService.exe.config and add the line <add key="ScratchVolumeSizeInMB" value="20480"/>
    • Login time delay – From Rob Zylowski at XenApp Image Template Application Assignment vs Elastic Delay at Citrix Discussions: “There is a 5-8 second penalty just for turning on elastic layering. But its not a straight x seconds per app because the mounts run in parallel. However more apps do take longer. What can have more of an effect is if the app has a service. We have to mount the disk, read it and then start the service before we allow the logon to ensure that the service is available if your logon actually needs it. There is a log at c:\programdata\unidesk\logs that will tell you the time associated with mounting and starting elastic layers so you will know how much of the logon impact is due to elastic layering.”
    • Elastic Layers Path Override – The path to Elastic Layers can be overridden by setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Unidesk\ULayer:RepositoryPath on the published machine. See CTX222107 You can change the Elastic Layer repository in the registry without reimaging (4.x).
    • Citrix Profile Streaming Compatibility – App Layering 4.12 and newer support Citrix Profile Management Profile Streaming with Elastic Layers. Also see Elastic Layers and Profile issues at Citrix Discussions.
    • Delayed loading – By default, Elastically Assigned Layers are loaded at the end of the login process so that the user can get to a desktop quickly and not have to wait for their Elastic Layers to surface first. However, especially with Session Hosts, you may find that the Elastic Layers are not available quickly enough. It is possible to make Elastically Assigned Layers attach at the beginning of the login process. by setting HKLM\SOFTWARE\Unidesk\ULayer\MaxCompositingPhase = 0. More info at CTX246468 How to disable delayed loading of Elastic Layers on an image.
  10. User Layers is another option. Notes:

    1. User Layers have the same application compatibility limitations as Elastic Layers.
    2. Storage Locations for User Layers are configured at System > Storage Locations.
      • In App Layering 2005 and newer, you can set a custom path by creating a REG_SZ value called CustomUserLayerPath in the HKLM\Software\Unidesk\Ulayer key. See How to specify a custom user layer path at Citrix Docs.
    3. The default size for User Layers is 10 GB. You can change this size by setting HKLM\Software\Unidesk\Ulayer\DefaultUserLayerSizeInGb on the managed machines. Source = Understanding Elastic Layering > Scaling (tab) > User Layer Size.
    4. Multiple access to the User Layer VHD is not allowed.
    5. After logging into a published, layered machine and mounting a user layer, you must revert the machine. Non-persistent Catalogs automatically revert the machine after logoff. Or take a snapshot before logging in and revert to snapshot after logging out.
    6. David Wilkinson describes User Layers in detail at Citrix Application Layering – User layers.
  11. Office 365 User Layers is a fully supported feature. For details (including limitations), see:

  12. Session Office 365 User Layers can roam Outlook OST files on RDSH VDAs.

  13. Scroll down or click the down arrow and then click the Confirm and Complete button or Create Template button.
  14. The Image is then displayed as Publishable.

Clone Template

There’s a Clone Template feature to more easily create multiple templates with similar configurations.

  1. On the Images tab, select an existing Image Template and click the Clone button.
  2. Right-click the newly created template and click Edit.
  3. Notice the name has – Copy on the end. Feel free to change the name and edit the new template as desired.

Publish Image

  1. Select a publishable image template and click Publish Layered Image.
  2. In the Confirm and Complete page, click Publish Layered Image.
  3. Open the Tasks pane and click View Details (the information icon) to view details of the running task.
  4. If publishing to MCS (vSphere):
    1. In the vSphere Web Client, you’ll find the Template VM under the TemplateVMs folder under the Virtual Machine folder you selected for the Connector.
    2. Citrix MCS creates VMs in the same Folder as the Master Image. You might want to move the Template VM to a different virtual machine folder.
    3. For MCS, in Citrix Studio, create a Machine Catalog using the Template VM as the Master Image.

    4. Notice that MCS creates VMs in the same Virtual Machine folder as the Master Image.
  5. If publishing to Provisioning Services (PVS):
    1. The image is uploaded to the vDisk Store as a .VHD file (not .VHDX).
    2. And it’s automatically added to the vDisk Store in the PVS Console. You can now assign it to your Target Devices.
    3. You can Redirect ulayersvc.log to another folder or drive by modifying C:\Program Files\Unidesk\Layering Services\ULayer.exe.config. You can only modify this file after the image is published. (Source =CTX237138 Redirect ulayersvc.log to another folder or drive)
    4. CTX226065 Citrix App Layering 4.x: PVS Image Management – choose an image, then list all the targets using that image optionally filtering on one ore more collections, then “promote” the image to all selected targets.
    5. If the PVS Image prompts for a reboot, then see CTX230767 App Layering: Published image to PVS prompts user to restart computer. Create a new Platform Layer version. Take an existing Write Cache disk and attach to the Packaging VM so it can detect the new hardware. Remove the second disk and Finalize the Layer.

Elastic Layers

Logon delay – From Rob Zylowski at XenApp Image Template Application Assignment vs Elastic Delay at Citrix Discussions: “There is a 5-8 second penalty just for turning on elastic layering. But its not a straight x seconds per app because the mounts run in parallel. However more apps do take longer. What can have more of an effect is if the app has a service. We have to mount the disk, read it and then start the service before we allow the logon to ensure that the service is available if your logon actually needs it. There is a log at c:\programdata\unidesk\logs that will tell you the time associated with mounting and starting elastic layers so you will know how much of the logon impact is due to elastic layering.”

Citrix.com Understanding Elastic Layering – A technical overview of the Citrix App Layering 4.x Elastic Layering Architecture and Configuration details

Provisioning Cache Disks – Citrix CTX227454 App Layering: PVS Cache Disks May Need to Be Larger with Elastic Layering: you may need to add capacity to your Cache Disks and/or Cache Memory reservation on your Target Machines to support App Layering with Elastic Layers. App Layering caches entire modified files, not individual modified blocks.

Profile Streaming Compatibility – App Layering 4.12 adds support for Citrix Profile Management Profile Streaming with Elastic Layers. Also see Elastic Layers and Profile issues at Citrix Discussions.

Delayed loading – By default, Elastically Assigned Layers are loaded at the end of the login process so that the user can get to a desktop quickly and not have to wait for their Elastic Layers to surface first. However, especially with Session Hosts, you may find that the Elastic Layers are not available quickly enough. It is possible to make Elastically Assigned Layers attach at the beginning of the login process. by setting HKLM\SOFTWARE\Unidesk\ULayer\MaxCompositingPhase = 0. More info at CTX246468 How to disable delayed loading of Elastic Layers on an image. 💡

To assign elastic layers to users:

  1. In HTML5, select an App Layer and switch to the Version Information tab. Select a version and click Update Assignments.

    1. In Silverlight, go to Layers > App Layers. Right-click a Deployable App Layer, and click Add Assignments.
    2. In the Select Version page, select an App Layer version, and click the down arrow.
    3. In the Image Template Assignment page, don’t select anything. This page lets you assign this App Layer to a Image Template for pre-boot merging. For Elastic merging/mounting, just click the down arrow.
    4. In the Elastic Assignment page, note any issues that Elastic Fit discovered that would prevent the app from merging elastically correctly. If you’re OK with the issues, click the Assign Elastically button.
  2. In HTML5, switch to the Elastic Assignments tab and click Assign to new users.
  3. Search for a user group you want to assign this Layer to, and check the box next to the group. Click Save when done. Or click the down arrow when done.

  4. Click Confirm and Complete. Or in Silverlight’s Confirm and Complete page, click Assign Layer.

  5. Open the Tasks pane to see the progress while it copies the App Layer to the remote SMB share.

  6. When it’s done, go to the SMB share to see the files it uploaded, including the .json files that contain Layer assignments.
  7. To enable Elastic Layers in machines created from a ELM Image Template, edit the Template (Images), and make sure Elastic Layers is enabled in the Layered Image Disk page.

  8. Note: when you enable Elastic Layering, the published image only gets 20 GB of free space due to the addition of a writable partition. HTML5 lets you edit the size of this writable partition.

  9. If you find that App Layers are conflicting with each other, you can adjust the App Layer priority by using the Unidesk 4 Layer Priority Utility — Experimental tool.
  10. From Citrix Discussions Application from an Elastic Layer as “Published App”? You can publish an elastic app. Simply publish an app, but manually specify the path to where executable would be. The app is mounted before the user logs in, so it will be there when Citrix tries to launch the app.
  11. The path to Elastic Layers can be overridden by setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Unidesk\ULayer:RepositoryPath on the published machine. See CTX222107 You can change the Elastic Layer repository in the registry without reimaging (4.x).
  12. To debug Elastic Layers, see CTX222133 Elastic Layering Logs. Only Info logging is enabled by default.
    1. In C:\Program Files\Unidesk\Layering Services\ulayer.exe.config, set LogFileAppender level to Debug
      1. Must be set before machine boots.
    2. C:\ProgramData\Unidesk\Logs\ulayersvc.log

Update Layers

  1. You can optionally select an existing App Layer and click Clone. You would do this if want to create a new branch of app updates without affecting the main branch.

    1. You can select a particular version of the source layer.

    2. It takes a bit of time to clone the layer. Use the Task status panel to see when it’s done.

  2. In the HTML5 interface, select an App Layer, switch to the Version Information page, and then click Add Version. In Silverlight, right-click an App Layer and click Add Version.

  3. In the Version Details page, enter a new version, and scroll down or click the down arrow.

  4. In the OS Layer page, click the down arrow.
  5. In the Prerequisites Layers page, click the down arrow.
  6. In the Connector page, select a Connector, and click Confirm and Complete, or click the down arrow.

  7. In the Platform Layer page, click the down arrow.
  8. In the Packaging Disk page, click the down arrow.
  9. In the Confirm and Complete page, click Add Version.
  10. The task details shows the current progress.
  11. It eventually says Action Required.
  12. When the Packaging Machine is deployed, you can connect to its console and perform any desired updates. When you are done performing updates, finalize the layer:
    1. George Spiers Citrix App Layering Preparation Script: runs a number of tasks to clean out temporary folders, clear out Event Log entries, remove ghost devices from Device Manager, etc.  ?
    2. Double-click the Shutdown for Finalize icon on the desktop. If it finds issues, it will tell you what to do (e.g. reboot needed). Otherwise, it will shut down the VM.
  13. If Offload Compositing is enabled, then upload happens automatically.
    1. Otherwise, when done updating the Packaging Machine, right-click the App Layer that is marked as Editing, and click Finalize.
    2. In the Script Path page, click the down arrow.
    3. In the Confirm and Complete page, click Finalize.
  14. View the task details to see the current progress.

  15. To confirm that you have a new version, in HTML5 interface, select the App Layering and switch to the Version Information tab. In Silverlight, right-click the App Layer, and click Delete Versions.

  16. You can only delete versions that are not assigned to any Image.

  17. There are two methods of assigning a new version: one image at a time, or multiple images.
  18. To edit one image:
    1. Go to the Images tab. Select an Image, and click Edit Template.

    2. In HTML5 interface, scroll down to the App Layers section and click Edit Selection. Select the new version and click Save. Then click Confirm and Complete.

      1. In Silverlight, click the Application Assignment page. Click the plus arrow next to a Layer and select the new version. Then complete the wizard.
  19. To update multiple images:
    1. In HTML5, in the Version Information tab for a Layer, select the version and click Update Assignments.

      1. In Silverlight, right-click the updated layer, and click Update Assignments.
      2. In the Select Version page, select the version you want to assign, and click the down arrow.
    2. In the Image Template Assignment tab, select the templates you want to update, and scroll down or click the down arrow.

    3. In the Elastic Assignment tab, if this App Layer is assigned to users, you can update them too. Click the down arrow.

    4. Click Confirm and Complete, or in the Confirm and Complete page, click Update Assignments.

  20. Once an image has a new version assigned, you must republish it.

Export Layers

App Layering 4.3 and newer let you export all layers and versions to the SMB File Share.

  1. Go to the Layers tab.
  2. Right-click on the background, and click Export.
  3. App Layering 4.4 and newer lets you specify a file share for the exported layers.
  4. ELM 4.5 and newer let you select the layers and versions that you want to export. Make your selections, and then click the down arrow.
  5. Review the list of layers/versions it will export, and click Export.
  6. If you look in your SMB share, in the \Unidesk\Exported Layers folder, you’ll see a folder for the OS Layer, and in there, you’ll see a folder for each Platform and Application Layer.
  7. After creating new layer versions, if you export layers again, it will only export the layers/versions that haven’t already been exported.
  8. If you right-click the background, and click Import…
  9. It only imports the layers/versions that are missing.

App Layering – OS Layer and Platform Layer

Last Modified: Mar 27, 2024 @ 1:15 pm

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Navigation

This page assumes the Enterprise Layer Manager (ELM) has already been imported and configured. This page is based on VMware vSphere. For Hyper-V and PvS focused instructions, see Create and update the OS Layer by CTP George Spiers. For Azure, see How to configure Citrix Cloud – App Layering 4.x to deliver virtualized apps and Office 365 caching – User Layers for XenApp and XenDesktop Service Cloud Workspaces in Microsoft Azure by CTP Christiaan Brinkhoff.

Change Log

Layers Overview

25-page Citrix App Layering Reference Architecture at Citrix Tech Zone details the following:

  • Why App Layering
  • Technical Overview of Citrix App Layering
  • Types of Layers
  • App Layering Integration with Citrix Provisioning and Citrix Machine Creation Services
  • Cross-Platform Support
  • App Layering Communication Flow
  • Availability, Backup, and Recovery – including User Layers

A Technical Overview of Citrix Application Layering – 24-page Citrix whitepaper

Enterprise Layer Manager (ELM) uses several types of layers:

  • Operating System Layer
  • Platform Layer
  • Application Layer
  • Image Template
  • User Layer

The master versions of all Layers are stored inside the Enterprise Layer Manager virtual appliance.

Citrix Blog Post How to approach designing your app layering strategy describes in which layer to install an application.

Citrix CTX225952 4.x Layering Best Practices

Layer Report – lists all of the Layers and the information associated with the layers. See Rob Zylowski at Citrix Blog Post Citrix App Layering and reporting.

Operating System Layer

Operating System Layer is just the base OS (with patches) and VMware Tools. Other components are usually installed in Platform and Application Layers.

  • If you install .NET Frameworks in the OS Layer, then you only need to run Windows Updates on the OS Layer. However, Office should always be installed in an Application Layer.
  • Windows Store apps should be removed from the OS Layer, not other layers.

Platform and Application Layers are tied to the OS Layer – The remaining layers (Platform and Application) are created from an OS Layer. These layers are linked to one OS Layer, and can’t be used on any other OS Layer.

  • If you upgrade the hypervisor tools in the OS Layer, then you might have to recreate the Platform Layer.

Only OS Layer captures changes to local groups and local apps – Any application that creates local users (e.g. XenApp 6.5) should be installed in the OS Layer. Platform Layer and Application Layers do not capture changes to local groups or local users.

Platform Layer

Platform Layer is the highest priority layer and should contain the following: (from CTX225997 Considerations When Creating a Platform Layer in Citrix App Layering 4.x)

  • Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent, or VMware Horizon Agent.
  • Citrix Provisioning Services Target Devices Software
  • NVIDIA Drivers
  • Join the Domain
  • Citrix Receiver – for the Single Sign-on Component
  • Citrix Workspace Environment Management Agent
  • Imprivata
  • Hypervisor Tools – if packaging or publishing to a different hypervisor than originally used to create the OS Layer.

SAM database changes (local users, local groups) are not captured in the Platform Layer. You might have to use group policy to create and populate local groups. For example, Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent creates local users adds domain users to local groups. See Direct Access Users Group Missing All Layers at Citrix Discussions.

  • Domain Join in Platform Layer does not capture adding Domain Admins to local Administrators group and Domain Users in the local Users group. Use Group Policy Restricted Groups or Group Policy Preferences Local Users and Groups to add these Domain Groups to the Local Groups.

  • Here are some additional settings in a Group Policy at Computer Configuration > Preferences folder > Control Panel Settings  Right-click the Local Users and Groups node, point to New, and select Local Group. More info at CTX259057 VDAs are not registering using a published image – Use GPO/GPP to add the proper accounts and services.
    • Action – Update – Group – Remote Desktop Users – Add Members “DOMAIN\Domain Users”
    • Action – Update – Group – Remote Desktop Users – Add Members “NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users”
    • Action – Update – Group – Performance Log Users – Add Members “NT Service\CitrixTelemetryService”
    • Action – Update – Group – Performance Monitor Users – Add Members “NT Service\BrokerAgent”
    • Action – Update – Group – Administrators – Add Members DOMAIN\Your_Citrix_Admins_Group
    • Action – Create – Group – Anonymous
    • Action – Create – Group – Direct Access Users – Add Members DOMAIN\Your_User_Group

Windows 10/11 apps should be removed from the OS Layer, not from the Platform Layer.

An Image Template (the composed machine that is published to the hypervisor) can contain only one Platform Layer. If you are creating a Platform Layer for Citrix Provisioning Services, then that one Platform Layer should include both the Citrix VDA and the Citrix PvS Target Device Software.

Application Layers

Application Layers contain anything not in the OS Layer or Platform Layer, including the following:

  • Applications
  • Antivirus
  • Print Drivers
  • SCCM Client

Per-user settings (profile changes) are not captured in an Application Layer.

When creating a Layered Machine, there are two methods of merging the Application Layers:

  • Pre-boot – ELM merges the App Layers with the OS Layer and Platform Layer to create a single monolithic disk file. This method provides the greatest application compatibility. Use this method for Apps with boot time services or drivers.
  • Elastic – When the user logs into a Layered Machine, a service looks in a file share for any Elastic Layers assigned to the user, and merges (mounts) them as the user logs in. Different users can have different Elastic Layers, even on multi-user Remote Desktop Session Host (XenApp) machines. However, Elastic Layering doesn’t work for apps that need boot-time services/drivers.

A single App Layer can be merged using either of these methods. If the App Layer doesn’t work Elastically, then you can mount it Pre-boot (Image Template) instead. There is no need to create separate App Layers for each mounting method.

Elastic App Layers are stored in a SMB file share. You can use any desired method to provide High Availability for this file share, including: Scale Out File Server, DFS Namespace/Replication, etc.

FSLogix creates local groups every time the service restarts, thus it works when installed inside an Application Layer.

Image Template

Image Template contains one OS Layer, one Platform Layer, and zero or more App Layers. The App Layers assigned in the Image Template are merged pre-boot.

You then Publish the Image Template to your hosting platform.

  • For MCS, the Template is pushed to a hypervisor (e.g. vSphere) virtual machine, which becomes the master image for an MCS Catalog.
  • For PvS, ELM creates a VHD file, and pushes it to a PvS vDisk Store, so you can assign it to Target Devices.

For Elastic Layers, you must enable Elastic Layers in the Image Template.

User Layers

User Layers allow users to install their own applications. In ELM 4.14 and newer, User Layers are fully supported.

User Layers require additional consideration for backup, replication, and recovery.

User Layers are tied to OS Layer – From Gunther Anderson: “Like App and Platform Layers, User Layer disks are tied to the OS layer they were originally built from. If you have a user login to images from two different OS layers, you will see the User Layer disks in two different directories on the share, one for each OS layer. The image itself knows what OS layer it was built from, and the ULayer service uses that information.”

  • If you want profile portability, store the profile outside of the User Layer by implementing Citrix Profile Management.

The default size for User Layers is 10 GB. You can change this size by setting HKLM\Software\Unidesk\Ulayer\DefaultUserLayerSizeInGb on the managed machines. Source = Understanding Elastic Layering > Scaling (tab) > User Layer Size.

Layering Tips

From Citrix Blog Post 5 Tips for Packaging Your Apps with Citrix App Layering:

  1. .NET Frameworks go in the OS Layer
    1. Store apps are removed from the OS Layer.
  2. Keep the layer as clean and as small as possible
    1. A packaging machine will not be part of your domain
    2. Delete any installers from the desktop, delete any temp directories, and empty the recycling bin
    3. If Windows Updates, delete the contents of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download
  3. Underlying applications should be layered first, and then selected as prerequisite layers when you go to create a layer for the subsequent application
  4. Use  Application Layer Recipes
    1. Turn off the application’s auto-updater
    2. For antivirus, follow the manufacturer’s steps to “generalize” or remove any unique client identifiers
    3. Handle application licensing – rearm, activation, etc.
  5. Run ngen.exe update

Also see Citrix CTX225952 4.x Layering Best Practices:

  • Operating System Layer:
    • Application Layers are tied to the Operating System Layer.
    • ELM automatically upgrades OS Layer drivers. However, OS Layer Scripts should be updated reinstalling the Machine Tools.
    • .NET should be in the OS Layer.
    • OS Layer is lowest priority.
    • Patch OS by creating an OS Layer Version.
    • When patching, ensure Windows is activated.
    • VMware Tools goes in the OS Layer. Update it too.
    • Windows Store apps should be removed from the OS Layer.
  • Application Layers:
    • Per-user profile settings are not captured.
    • Local users and local groups are not captured. Use Group Policy Restricted Groups instead.
    • A single utility layer can include Java, Flash, Adobe Reader.
    • Turn off application automatic updates.
    • If domain membership required for an app installation, join domain, install app, remove from domain.
    • Antivirus can go in OS Layer or App Layer.
    • Printer drivers can be layered – but not elastically
    • Use Layer Recipes.
    • All Office apps needed by a machine/user should be combined into a single Office Layer
    • Office cannot be elastically layered
    • When patching Office, update the OS Layer first.
    • Max 50 layers per desktop.

CTX226984 App Layering/Unidesk: The list of Windows Updates is usually wrong in app/platform layers and published images/desktops.

Operating System Preparation

  1. See Citrix CTX225952 4.x Layering Best Practices
  2. Windows Server 2019 – Windows Server 2019 is supported in App Layering 1905 and newer
  3. Office 2019 – Office 2019 is supported in App Layering 1905 and newer
  4. Windows 11 is supported in App Layering version 2112 and later
  5. Windows 10
    1. Windows 11 22H2 and Windows 10 22H2 are supported in App Layering 2211 and newer.
    2. Windows 11 is supported in App Layering 2112 and newer.
    3. Windows 10 version 21H2 is supported in App Layering 2110 and newer.
    4. Windows 10 version 21H1 is supported in App Layering 2107 and newer.
    5. Windows 10 version 20H2 is supported in App Layering 2011 and newer.
    6. Windows 10 version 2004 is supported in App Layering 2008 and newer.
    7. Windows 10 version 1909 is supported in App Layering 2001 and newer.
  6. Create a virtual machine.
  7. If vSphere:
    1. Make sure your OS Layer creation machine has a NIC of type VMXNET 3.
    2. Paravirtual SCSI controllers are supported in App Layering 2001 and newer.
    3. On the VM Options tab, expand Boot Options, and make sure the Firmware is BIOS, not EFI.
  8. EFI:
    1. App Layering 2003 and newer has a ImportOsLayer.ps1 script that can import an EFI machine.
    2. Connectors with Compositing Engine enabled support EFI.
    3. Older versions of App Layering cannot import an EFI OS Layer.
    4. vSphere 6.7 defaults to EFI for new VMs.
  9. Install an operating system (Windows 11, Windows 10, or Windows 2022/2019/2016), and patch it.
  10. Install VMware Tools.
  11. DHCP – Make sure the NIC is set to DHCP.
  12. Workgroup – Don’t join the template machine to the domain. Leave it in a workgroup.
  13. RDSH – For RDSH machines, Citrix recommends installing RDSH in the OS Layer instead of the Platform Layer.
  14. Remote Desktop – Enable remote connections (Remote Desktop).

  15. Install Windows Updates.
  16. Disable Automatic Updates on the template machine. You can use layers to install updates. An easy method to disable it is in Group Policy (gpedit.msc) at Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Update | Manage End User Experience | Configure Automatic Updates. Disable the setting.
  17. To stop Windows from performing maintenance and consuming 100% CPU, set the following registry value: (source = Win 10 Image – CPU Utilization 100% non-stop at Citrix Discussions):
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\Maintenance
      • MaintenanceDisabled (REG_DWORD) = 1
  18. If Citrix Provisioning, George Spiers says IPv6 should be disabled.
  19. Go to the downloaded App Layering 2403 files, right-click the citrix_app_layering_os_machine_tools_24.3.0.exe file, and click Run as administrator.
  20. Click Yes to extract the files.
  21. If you look on the taskbar, you might see an open program called Set KMS Version.
  22. Click Use KMS.
  23. Click Close when prompted a reboot is needed.
  24. Then close the window.
  25. If Set KMS Version did not run automatically, then manually run C:\Windows\Setup\scripts\SetKMSVersion.hta as administrator (elevated).
    1. Shift right-click the file to copy its full path.
    2. Open command prompt as administrator, paste the path, and run it from there.
    3. Click Use KMS.
    4. This adds the file runipkato.cmd to C:\Windows\Setup\scripts\kmsdir, which ELM will run when it publishes the image. The script installs the KMS Client key and activates it.
  26. If you have run KMS Setup multiple times (usually due to Machine Tools upgrades), check the registry for duplicates and remove the duplicates.
    1. In regedit, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\Scripts\Startup\0\0. You should see kmssetup.cmd.
    2. If there are other registry keys named 1 or higher, check them for kmssetup.cmd. If true, then delete the duplicate keys so that only 0 remains.
    3. See CTX238316 After upgrading the OS Machine Tools, kmssetup.cmd runs twice at startup for more details.
  27. If this is a Windows 10 or Windows 11 virtual machine, and if you want to remove Store apps, remove them from the OS Layer instead of the Platform Layer.
    1. In App Layering 4.11 and newer, Store apps are supported, and it is no longer necessary to remove them.
    2. App Layering 4.7 and newer has a script at C:\Windows\Setup\Scripts\RemoveStoreApps.cmd that can remove the store apps. Note: this script removes Calculator, so you’ll probably want to find a replacement Calculator.
    3. Citrix Optimizer can remove Store apps.
    4. The Citrix Optimizer community marketplace at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ryancbutler/Citrix_Optimizer_Community_Template_Marketplace/master/communitymarketplace.xml also has an App Layering Supplement.

  28. Run setup_x64.exe from C:\Windows\Setup\scripts. Make sure you run it elevated.
  29. In the Welcome to the InstallShield Wizard for the Citrix App Layering Image Preparation Utility 23.12.0.4 page, click Next.
  30. In the Specify your answer file page, click Next.
  31. In the InstallShield Wizard Completed page, click Finish.
  32. CTP George Spiers Citrix App Layering Preparation Script: runs a number of tasks to clean out temporary folders, clear out Event Log entries, remove ghost devices from Device Manager, etc.
  33. Run the ImportOsLayer.ps1 script to import your new OS Layer to ELM. Newer versions of ELM only support the ImportOsLayer.ps1 method of creating an OS Layer.

vSphere Connector

ELM uses Connectors to communicate to push images and layers to various hypervisors.

  1. In App Layering 2202 and newer, you can use the new HTML5 interface to create Connectors.

    1. In ELM 4.11 and newer, in the Internet Explorer Silverlight console, you can create or edit connectors at System > Connectors. This page also shows Connector Cache information. Caching improves performance of the connectors.
  2. See System requirements at Citrix Docs for the list of supported hypervisors and brokers.
  3. To create the vSphere connector, in the Choose a Connector Type window, select VMware vSphere.
  4. Click New.

  5. In App Layering older than version 2304, a new tab opens. Version 2304 and newer have a new interface for configuring the Connector.
  6. Give the Connector a name (e.g., vCenter name). The Connector specification includes specific storage, so the Connector name should indicate the storage name.

  7. Enter the vCenter FQDN and service account credentials.
    • The vCenter permissions needed by the service account are detailed at vSphere Permissions at Citrix Docs.
  8. Click Check Credentials.

  9. Scroll down and use the drop downs to select where you want Packaging VMs and Published Templates to be created.
    • The Packaging VMs and Published Templates will be created under the Virtual Machine Folder that you specify here.
  10. If MCS, in the Virtual Machine Template (optional) field, search for a Template VM that will be copied to create the MCS master image. The Template VM needs CPU, Memory, and GPU settings, but no disks. See Required information for this Connector Configuration at Citrix Machine Creation Services for vSphere Connector Configuration at Citrix Docs.
    • To ensure that the published images have the correct time zone, it may help to generate a new template for your Connector by having (or building) a Windows VM that has booted in the correct time zone. Shut it down, clone it, delete the attached disk from the clone, and convert that to a template for your Connector configuration in the Layering Management Console. More info at CTX230562 App Layering: Machine time on a published image is wrong at first boot.
  11. Packaging Cache Size in GB speeds up App Layer creation operations if you are creating multiple App Layers for the same OS/Platform combination. The size should be greater the size of the OS/Platform combinations.
  12. Offload Compositing – at the bottom of the connector, make sure Offload Compositing is enabled to speed up provisioning operations. In 2304 and newer, click Confirm and Complete.
  13. In older versions click Test.

    1. When the Test is successful, click Save.
    2. Then click Close.

Platform Layer

Create Packaging VM

  1. See Citrix CTX225952 4.x Layering Best Practices.
  2. See Citrix CTX225997 Considerations When Creating a Platform Layer in Citrix App Layering 4.x.
  3. Create your Hypervisor Connector before you create the Platform Layer. In the new HTML5 console in App Layering 2202 or newer, click Connectors on the left. Or in the Internet Explorer Silverlight console, go to System > Connectors to create a Connector.

  4. In the HTML5 console, click Layers on the left, switch to the Platform Layers tab on the right, and then click Create Platform Layer.

    1. In the older Internet Explorer Silverlight console, in the Layers tab, Platform Layers sub-tab, right-click in the grey area, and click Create Platform Layer.
  5. In the Layer Details page, give the Platform Layer a name and version. Note: Platform Layers are linked to OS Layers, so it’s best to indicate which OS Layer this Platform Layer is based on. You can’t use a Platform Layer created on one OS Layer on a different OS Layer.
  6. Enter a version number.
  7. Specify a Max Layer Size. Note: the packaging machine is thick provisioned using the size specified here, plus the size of the OS Layer.
  8. In the HTML5 interface, scroll down.

    1. In the Silverlight interface, click Next (down button).
  9. In the OS Layer page, select the OS Layer (and layer version) this Platform Layer will be based on.
  10. In the HTML5 interface, scroll down.

    1. In the Silverlight interface, click the next button (down arrow).
  11. In the HTML5 interface, change the selection to This platform layer will be used for publishing Layered Images.
    1. Use the drop downs to select the Hypervisor, Provisioning Service, and Connection Broker. These can be changed later.
    2. Select an existing vSphere connector.
    3. For Packaging Disk Filename, enter a name for the .vmdk disk that will be created in vSphere. Click Confirm and Complete.
    4. Then click Create Layer.
  12. In the Internet Explorer Silverlight interface, in the Connector page, if you already have a vSphere connector, select it, and click Next. If you don’t already have a vSphere connector, then click New to create one. Click the down arrow.

    1. In the Platform Types page, change the selection to This platform layer will be used for publishing Layered Images. The other selection is if you want to deploy the vSphere OS Layer on a different hypervisor (e.g. Azure).
    2. Use the drop downs to select the Hypervisor, Provisioning Method, and Connection Broker. These can be changed later. Click the down arrow.
    3. In the Packaging Disk page, enter a name for the .vmdk disk that will be created in vSphere. Click the down arrow.
    4. In the Icon Assignment page, select an icon, or upload a new one. Click the down arrow.
    5. In the Confirm and Complete page, click Create Layer.
  13. In the HTML5 interface, on the left is the Tasks node showing you the current progress. Click View Details.

    1. In the Silverlight interface, on the bottom of the screen, open the Tasks pane.
    2. Click the information icon to view what the task is doing.
  14. Eventually it will say Pending (Action Required), meaning it’s waiting for you to perform the packaging in vSphere.

Edit Packaging VM

  1. In vSphere Web Client, in the VMs and Templates view, expand the Layering folder, expand Packaging VMs, and click the new Packaging Machine.
  2. If you edit the VM’s hardware, and if Offload Compositing is enabled, then the Hard Disk is Thin Provisioned.

    1. If Offload Compositing is not enabled, then notice that the disk is Thick Provisioned.
  3. Open the VM’s console and login to the machine.
  4. Join it to the domain. Only join the Platform Layer to the domain. OS Layer and App Layers must not be joined to the domain. You’re welcome to change the computer name.

    • After joining the domain, move the computer object to your VDA OU so the GPO computer settings are applied to the Platform Layer.
  5. You can now install VDA software.
    • VDA 2112 is supported with App Layering 2112 and newer.
    • VDA 1912 LTSR is supported with App Layering 2001 and newer.
    • VDA 1909 is supported with App Layering 1910 and newer.
    • VDA 1906 is supported with App Layering 1907 and newer.
    • VDA 1903 is supported with App Layering 1905 and newer.

  6. Feel free to reboot the Packaging VM.
  7. Rob Zylowski at Imprivata App Layers at Citrix Discussions recommends installing Imprivata in the same Platform Layer that contains the VDA.
  8. According to Direct Access Users Group Missing All Layers at Citrix Discussions, the Platform Layer does not capture or merge changes to local groups.
    1. Use Group Policy Restricted Groups or Group Policy Preferences Local Users and Groups to configure local groups.
    2. At Computer Configuration >Preferences folder >Control Panel Settings, right-click the Local Users and Groups node, point to New, and select Local Group. More info at CTX259057 VDAs are not registering using a published image – Use GPO/GPP to add the proper accounts and services.
      • Action – Update – Group – Users – Add Members: “DOMAIN\Domain Users”
      • Action – Update – Group – Administrators – Add Members: “DOMAIN\Your_Citrix_Admins_Group”, “DOMAIN\Domain Admins”
      • Action – Update – Group – Remote Desktop Users – Add Members: “NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users”
      • Action – Update – Group – Performance Log Users – Add Members: “NT Service\CitrixTelemetryService”
      • Action – Update – Group – Performance Monitor Users – Add Members: “NT Service\BrokerAgent”
      • Action – Create – Group – Anonymous
      • Action – Create – Group – Direct Access Users – Add Members: “DOMAIN\Your_RDP_Allowed_User_Group”
  9. If Citrix Provisioning:
    1. Install the Citrix Provisioning Target Device Software in the Platform Layer. The ELM Templates only allow one Platform Layer per template, so you’d need to install both VDA and Provisioning Services Target Device components in a single Platform Layer.
    2. Rearm KMS licensing (slmgr /rearm). MCS does this automatically during Image Prep.
  10. From Citrix CTX225997 Considerations When Creating a Platform Layer in Citrix App Layering 4.x): Additional software to install in the Platform Layer:
    • NVIDIA Drivers
    • Join the Domain – after joining, login as network account, then login as local account, and delete the profile of the network account.
    • Citrix Workspace App – for the Single Sign-on Component
    • Citrix Workspace Environment Management Agent
    • Hypervisor Tools – if packaging or publishing to a different hypervisor than the one originally used to create the OS Layer.
  11. Windows 10/11 apps should be removed from the OS Layer, not from the Platform Layer.
  12. CTX226984 App Layering/Unidesk: The list of Windows Updates is usually wrong in app/platform layers and published images/desktops.
  13. When done installing components, finalize the layer:
    1. CTP George Spiers Citrix App Layering Preparation Script: runs a number of tasks to clean out temporary folders, clear out Event Log entries, remove ghost devices from Device Manager, etc.
    2. Double-click the Shutdown for Finalize icon on the desktop. If it finds issues, it will tell you what to do (e.g. reboot needed).
    3. If it tells you that you need to run ngen, then run the following commands:

      "c:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe" update
"c:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe" update
    4. Otherwise, it will shut down the VM.
  14. If Offload Compositing is enabled in your Connector, then the Packaging VM will reboot into Windows PE and automatically run the CompositingEngine.
  15. ELM will automatically transfer the files from the Compositing Engine. You don’t have to click Finalize.

  16. If Compositing Engine is not enabled in your Connector:
    1. Back in the ELM Internet Explorer Silverlight Console, in Layers > Platform Layers, right-click the Editing layer, and click Finalize.
    2. In the Confirm and Complete page, click Finalize.
    3. You can click the information icon next to the running task to see what it’s doing.

  17. Eventually the icon will say Deployable.

  18. In the HTML5 interface, the tabs show you details on the layer.

    1. In the Internet Explorer Silverlight interface, you can click the information icon on the Platform Layer to view its details.

Next Steps

Update OS or Platform Layers

  1. In the HTML5 Interface, select a layer, switch to the Version Information tab, and click Add Version.

    1. In the Silverlight interface, right-click an OS Layer or a Platform Layer, and click Add Version.
  2. In the Version Details page, select a Base Version that you want to update. In the New Version field, enter a new version. In HTML5 Interface, scroll down. In Silverlight interface, click Next.

  3. In the OS Layer page, select an OS Layer version, and scroll down or click Next.

  4. In the HTML5 Interface, in the Platform Types section, most of this should already be filled in. Choose your Connector Configuration and then click Confirm and Complete.
  5. In the Internet Explorer Silverlight interface, in the Connector page, select a Connector, and click Next.

    1. In the Platform Types page, click Next.
    2. In the Packaging Disk page, click Next.
    3. In the Confirm and Complete page, click Add Version.
  6. The Tasks page and Task Details shows the current progress and will eventually say Action Required.


  7. When the Packaging Machine is deployed, you can connect to its console and perform any desired updates.

  8. When done installing updates, finalize the layer:
    1. George Spiers Citrix App Layering Preparation Script: runs a number of tasks to clean out temporary folders, clear out Event Log entries, remove ghost devices from Device Manager, etc.
    2. Double-click the Shutdown for Finalize icon on the desktop. If it finds issues, it will tell you what to do (e.g. reboot needed). Otherwise, it will shut down the VM.
  9. If Offload Compositing engine is not enabled in your Connector:
    1. When done updating the Packaging Machine, right-click the Layer that is marked as Editing, and click Finalize.
    2. In the Confirm and Complete page, click Finalize.
  10. View the task details to see the current progress.

  11. To confirm that you have a new version, the layer’s Version Information tab shows the new version. Or in the Silverlight interface move your mouse over the layer icon, and click the information icon. The available versions are shown.


  12. There are two methods of assigning a new version: one image at a time, or multiple images.
  13. To edit one image:
    1. Go to the Images tab.
    2. Select an Image, and click Edit Template.
    3. Scroll down or click the OS Layer or Platform Layer page.
    4. Click the plus arrow next to a Layer and select the new version. Then complete the wizard.

  14. To update multiple images:
    1. In HTML5, select the Layer, switch to the Version Information tab, select a version, and click Update Assignments.

      1. In Silverlight, on the Layers tab, right-click the updated layer, and click Update Assignments.
      2. In the Select Version page, select the version you want to assign, and click Next.
    2. In the Image Template Assignment page, select the templates you want to update, and scroll down or click Next.

    3. Click Confirm and Complete, or in the Confirm and Complete page, click Update Assignments.

  15. Once an image has a new version assigned, go to the Images tab, and republish the image.

App Layering – Enterprise Layer Manager (ELM) 2403

Last Modified: Mar 27, 2024 @ 1:08 pm

127 Comments

Navigation

These App Layering pages focus on VMware vSphere as the hypervisor.

Change Log

Licensing

From Citrix Blog Post A Breakdown of Citrix App Layering Features by Edition: Citrix App Layering is available in all Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) editions and all Citrix DaaS (Citrix Cloud) editions. This means that you can do the following across any number of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) sites in your environment:

  • Create an unlimited number of OS, platform and application layers
  • Create an unlimited number of layered images
  • Create an unlimited number of elastic layers

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) Premium Edition customers and all Citrix DaaS customers (Citrix Cloud) also benefit from:

  • Multiple hypervisors and/or cloud connections (e.g., Citrix Hypervisor and Azure or Citrix Hypervisor and Hyper-V).
    • Non-Premium sites are limited to one hypervisor or cloud connection type.
  • Multiple provisioning mechanisms (e.g. Machine Creation Services and Citrix Provisioning).
    • Non-Premium sites must select MCS or CPV and use it exclusively with Citrix App Layering.
  • Multiple broker types/platforms (e.g. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) with VMware Horizon View).
    • Non-Premium sites can only use App Layering within their Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) sites
  • User Layers

For Citrix Cloud – Those customers using the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) Service are entitled to Premium-level features including all Citrix App Layering capabilities.

Upgrade Enterprise Layer Manager

If you are deploying a new ELM appliance, skip to Import Enterprise Layer Manager.

See Citrix Docs for supported upgrade paths:

ELM 2204 is the last version to support Silverlight, since Silverlight has been removed from ELM 2206 and newer.

To upgrade:

  1. When you login to the ELM using HTML5, if you click your user menu on the top right, then you might see Upgrade Appliance with an alert next to it. If you don’t see it yet, then you might have to wait for the Download task to complete.

  2. If you don’t see the upgrade notification, then download it manually:
    1. Download the upgrade package from Citrix App Layering 2403 at Citrix Downloads. Look for the section named For an existing deployment, download the upgrade package. If you are upgrading from 1911 or older, then this might be your only option.
    2. In the App Layering file share, create an Upgrade folder.
    3. Unzip the Upgrade Package and copy the citrix_app_layering_upgrade_pkg_24.3.0.vhd file to the Upgrade folder in the App Layering file share.
    4. Click your name on the top right and then click Upgrade Appliance.
    5. If the field is not already populated, then click Browse.
    6. Browse the file share, select the upgrade disk, and then click Save.

    7. Click Confirm and Complete.
    8. In the Confirm Upgrade page, click Upgrade.

    9. Wait for the upgrade to complete.
    10. Then click Return to login and login.
    11. Click Dismiss acknowledging that connector caches have some items removed.
    12. On the top right, click your username and then click About to see the current version, which should be 24.3.

Offload Compositing

If you upgraded from a version older than 1911, then enable Offload Compositing on your existing Connectors.

  1. Login to ELM.
  2. If HTML5 interface, go to Connectors. If Internet Explorer, then go to System > Connectors.
  3. If HTML5 interface, highlight a connector and click Edit. If Internet Explorer, right-click a Connector and click Edit Connector Config.

  4. Scroll down and check the box next to Offload Compositing. Version 2304 and newer have a new interface for VMware Connectors.

  5. Click Confirm and Complete or Save.

Upgrade OS Layer

  1. From Gunther Anderson at Citrix: You do not uninstall or upgrade the Citrix App Layering Image Preparation Utility – Setup_x64.exe. The current drivers are installed in the ELM, and every time the ELM produces an image for any purpose, it injects the current drivers into it. You do not need to touch your OS layer for that. But you should re-publish all images.
  2. In a new OS Layer version, you should download and run citrix_app_layering_os_machine_tools_24.3.0.exe to allow it to upgrade your system scripts, but you don’t need to do anything beyond that. For Office 2019, your Machine Tools scripts must be version 1905 or later.
  3. When Yes when prompted that the tools will be extracted into C:\Windows\Setup\Scripts.
  4. Replace the existing files. This is especially important for fixing Office activation issues.
  5. If you look on the taskbar, you might see an open program called Set KMS Version.
  6. Click Use KMS.
  7. Then close the window.
  8. To fix Office activation issues, you’ll also need to create a new version of your Office layer, rerun the optimization tool, and then publish the updated image. More details at Office MAK licensing issues at Citrix Discussions.
  9. Re-publish your images so ELM can inject the new drivers.

Upgrade Provisioning Services Agent

  1. If you recently upgraded Provisioning Services server, then you might have to re-register the PVS snap-in: 
    "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe" "c:\program files\citrix\provisioning services console\Citrix.PVS.snapin.dll"
  2. Go to the Citrix App Layering 2403 files and run citrix_app_layering_agent_installer.exe.
  3. Click Yes to upgrade the agent.
  4. In the Welcome to the InstallShield Wizard for Citrix App Layering Agent page, click Next.
  5. In the InstallShield Wizard Completed page, click Finish.

Import Enterprise Layer Manager Appliance

This section is for new installs.

App Layering 4.x availability and recovery concepts guide:

  • Layered images, Elastic Layers, and User Layers do not communicate with ELM, so ELM’s availability is not a concern.
    • Do not change the vCPUs or memory allocated to the ELM appliance.
  • All created layers are stored on the ELM appliance. Simply backup the appliance.
    • Layers can be exported from the ELM appliance to a file share and optionally imported to another ELM appliance.
  • Elastic Layers and User Layers are always-open VHD files stored on a file share(s) that is separate from the ELM.
    • The file share(s) should be highly available. Use a clustering technology (e.g. Scale Out File Server) that supports always-open VHD files.
    • It’s not necessary to backup Elastic Layers, but you might want to replicate them to a different datacenter for multi-datacenter access. Make sure the replication tool supports always-open VHD files.
    • User Layers should be backed up and/or replicated. Use a backup method that supports always-open VHD files.

Download Appliance

  1. You can download App Layering 2403 Appliance Installation Package from Citrix Downloads.
  2. After downloading, extract the 2403.zip file.

Import ELM Appliance

To import the ELM appliance:

  1. In vSphere Web Client, right-click a cluster, and click Deploy OVF Template.
  2. In the Select an OVF template page, browse to the vmware_24.3.0.2.ova file, and click Next.
  3. In the Select name and location page, give the machine a name, and click Next.
  4. In the Select a compute resource page, select a cluster, and click Next.
  5. In the Review details page, click Next.
  6. In the Accept license agreements page, click Accept, and then click Next.
  7. In the Select storage page, select a datastore. The ELM appliance stores all master layers inside the appliance, so ensure there’s sufficient disk space (typically 300-500 GB) for the virtual appliance.
    1. You can view the appliance’s consumed disk space inside the ELM Management Console at System > Monitoring and Storage, or System > Manage Appliance.
    2. To expand the storage, either increase the existing disk size, or add a disk to the VM. Then, on the right, is a link to Expand Storage.

  8. Select a datastore, select thin provision, or not, then click Next.
  9. In the Select networks page, click Next.
  10. In the Ready to complete page, click Finish.
  11. See Firewall ports at Citrix Docs.

Configure ELM IP Address

  1. Once imported, power on the ELM appliance.
  2. Open the virtual machine console.
  3. After the RUN_ONCE commands are complete, login to the console as administrator with a password of Unidesk1. You might have to press enter before the logon prompt appears.
  4. Enter c to configure networking.
  5. Enter s to assign a static network.
  6. Enter a new IP address for this appliance. Then enter y to save settings and restart networking.
  7. Press <Enter> to continue.
  8. While here, feel free to configure the time zone.
  9. Press / to search. For Central Time, search for chicago, and note the time zone number.
  10. Press Q to quit the display.
  11. Enter the time zone number to configure it.
  12. NTP is configured to use Internet servers. Feel free to change them.

Silverlight

In App Layering 2206 and newer, the Silverlight interface has been removed. This section is only for App Layering 2204 and older, which require Silverlight for some or all features.

  1. If Silverlight is not installed, use Internet Explorer to connect to ELM and then click the button to install it.
  2. Uncheck the two boxes, and then click Install now.
  3. Click Close.
  4. When you go to the ELM console with Internet Explorer, the screen will be white for a few seconds. Be patient.
  5. You can login as administrator with Unidesk1 as the default password.

First Login

  1. In App Layering 2206 and newer, use Edge or Chrome to connect to the ELM. In App Layering 2204 and older, use Internet Explorer to connect to the ELM. Login using administrator and Unidesk1.
  2. The first time you logon, you are prompted to accept the End User License Agreement.

  3. Then you are prompted to set three passwords.




  4. You then see the Get Started wizard.

Appliance Certificate

  1. In the HTML5 console, go to System > HTTP Certificate Settings.

    1. In the Internet Explorer Console, go to System > Settings and Configuration.
    2. Scroll down until you see the HTTP Certificate Settings section. Click the Edit button.
  2. In HTML5 console, on the right, click Upload to replace the default management certificate.

    1. In Internet Explorer,  scroll down and click Upload.
  3. Browse to a PEM file that contains an unencrypted RSA key, and one certificate (no chain). You can use OpenSSL to convert a .pfx file to a PEM file.
  4. Make sure it says that the web server will restart, which means that it’s a valid certificate.

    1. In Internet Explorer, if you scroll up, it should show you the Common Name of the certificate you uploaded. If it’s the root certificate, then you need to remove the extra certificate from the PEM file.
    2. Scroll down and click Save.
    3. Click Yes to restart the web server.

  5. It might take a few minutes to apply. Eventually, you should be able to point your browser to the https URL and not see any certificate errors.
  6. In HTML5 console, at System > Security and Retention Settings, you can change the management console timeout.

    • In Internet Explorer console, at System > Settings and Configuration, you can scroll down to the Security Settings section to edit the Management Console idle timeout.

File Share

  1. On a Windows file server, create a new share that will store the Elastic Layers. Only SMB shares are supported with Elastic Layers. NFS shares will not work with Elastic Layers.
  2. For High Availability, you can use any file server High Availability technology like File Server Scale-out Clustering, DFS, etc. For local high availability, Citrix recommends clustering over DFS Replication since DFS failure requires reboot of Elastic Layered Machines.
    1. Elastic Layers are always-open VHDX files that can’t be replicated using DFS. For HA, build a File Server cluster, like Microsoft Scale Out File Server.,that supports SMB3 Continuous Availability.
  3. For DR Elastic Layer machines, the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Unidesk\ULayer:RepositoryPath can be configured to point to a file share in a DR site. See CTX222107 You can change the Elastic Layer repository in the registry without reimaging (4.x).
  4. Give Everyone (or equivalent) Full Control to the share.
  5. On the Security tab, make sure the Users groups only have Read access (no Modify/Write).
  6. Add a service account to the share and give it Modify access. ELM uses this service account to upload elastic layers to the share.
  7. In App Layering 2206 and newer, in Chrome or Edge, go to System and then Network File Share.

    1. On the top right, click Edit.
    2. Enter the path and service account credentials. Click Confirm and Complete.
    3. Click Save.
  8. In App Layering 2204 and older, in the Internet Explorer console, go to System > Settings and Configuration.

    1. Scroll down until you get to the Network File Shares section. Click Edit.
    2. Make sure Windows share is selected. Elastic Layers don’t work on NFS.
    3. Enter the file share path, the service account credentials.
      1. Citrix CTX227613 App Layering: Supporting DFS File Shares: The ELM can only access a DFS namespace if SMB 1.0 is enabled on the servers.
    4. Click Test Network File Share.
    5. Click Save.

In App Layering 2204 and older, you must use the Silverlight interface. Newer versions of App Layering can use Chrome/Edge.

  1. Go to System > Directory Services.
  2. Click Add Directory Junction.
  3. Enter the address of a domain controller or LDAP Load balancing VIP. According to CTP George Spiers at Citrix Discussions, instead of entering a single domain controller address, you can enter your domain’s FQDN (domain.local) and it will use DNS to find a domain controller.
  4. . Enter bind account credentials. Click Connect.
  5. Click Accept and Continue.
  6. For Specify start point, click the field and select the Base Distinguished Name.
  7. Give the directory junction a friendly name. Then click Confirm and Complete.

Role Based Access

This is configurable in the HTML5 interface in Citrix App Layering 2204 and newer.

  1. On the left, click System. In the middle, click Administrators. On the right, on the Directory Administrators tab, click Add Administrators.
  2. Click Add Accounts.
  3. Search for the new admin group, check the box next to it, and click Save.
  4. Click Confirm and Complete.
  5. Click Add User.
  6. App Layering 2306 grant the Reader role by default. You can change the role by editing the user.
  7. Click the drop-down to see other available roles.
  8. When done, click Confirm and Complete.

In the older Internet Explorer interface:

  1. Go to Users > Directory.
  2. Search through the tree and find your ELM Admins group. Select it. On the right, click Edit Properties.
  3. In the Machine Association page, click the down arrow.
  4. In the Roles page, change it to Administrator, and click the down arrow.
  5. In the Confirm and Complete page, click Update Group.
  6. Logout of ELM.
  7. Log back in using an AD account that’s in your ELM Admins group.

User Layers Storage Locations

ELM 4.14 and newer support User Layers.

File shares for User Layers are configured at System > User Layer Storage Locations. Each Storage Location can be assigned to different user groups. And you can prioritize the Storage Locations. See Add storage locations for User layers at Citrix Docs. And see David Wilkinson Citrix Application Layering – User layers.

For each new Storage Location:

  1. Create a Users folder in the root of each share.
  2. Each Users folder needs permissions that look like the following. CREATOR OWNER needs Full Control. The Users group needs Create Folder/Append Data permission to This folder only.
  3. In ELM, add Storage Locations and assign them to groups. The first one you add is the default Storage Location for users not assigned to any other Storage Location.
  4. Then you can add more Storage Locations for specific user groups.


  5. If users are assigned to multiple Storage Locations, click Prioritize Storage Locations to prioritize the assignment.

Citrix Provisioning Publishing Agent

To publish to Citrix Provisioning, you install the App Layering Agent on the Citrix Provisioning Servers. It’s only needed on one Provisioning Server.

The installation of the Agent can be automated. See Dennis Span Citrix App Layering Agent unattended installation.

From Install the App Layering Agent (required for PVS and Connector Scripts) at Citrix Docs.

  1. Ensure the Citrix Provisioning services are running as a domain account. Network Service won’t work.
  2. Run the following command on the PvS 7.7 or newer Server. Note, if you upgrade PvS, you’ll have to run this command again. 
    "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe" "c:\program files\citrix\provisioning services console\Citrix.PVS.snapin.dll"

    1. If Citrix Provisioning 7.6 or newer, then run the following command instead: 
      "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe" "c:\program files\citrix\provisioning services console\MCliPSSnapIn.dll"
  3. Go to the App Layering 2403 files you downloaded from Citrix Downloads and run citrix_app_layering_agent_installer.exe.
  4. In the Welcome to the InstallShield Wizard for Citrix App Layering Agent page, click Next.
  5. In the License Agreement page, select I accept the terms in the license agreement, and click Next.
  6. In the Agent Port page, click Next.
  7. In the Ready to Install the Program page, click Install.
  8. Enter the ELM FQDN, enter ELM credentials, and click Register.
  9. Registration logs can be found at C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Agent\Logs.
  10. In the InstallShield Wizard Completed page, click Finish.
  11. When an image is published to Provisioning Services, ELM can run a script. Citrix has a sample Versioning and Convert VHD to VHDX script that converts the VHD file to VHDX, and/or adds the published image as a version. The script files can be installed on the PvS server at this time. Later, you specify the path to the script when you create the PvS Connector in ELM while creating an image template.
  12. Citrix also has a BootPrivate script that modifies the vDisk mode to Private, boots the vDisk on a pre-defined target so that it can run pre-defined layer scripts, shuts down the target, waits for that shutdown, and then switches the mode back to standard.

Next Steps

EUC Weekly Digest – January 28, 2017

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

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Here are some EUC items I found interesting last week. For more immediate updates, follow me at http://twitter.com/cstalhood.

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

XenApp/XenDesktop

MCS

Director/Monitoring

WEM/Profile Management

Provisioning Services

StoreFront

Receiver

NetScaler

NetScaler MAS

NetScaler SD-WAN

NetScaler Gateway

XenMobile

XenServer

VMware