Director 7.17

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

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Change Log

Director Licensing – Platinum Edition

See the XenApp and XenDesktop Feature Matrix. Scroll down to Director Platinum Edition for the list of Director features that require Platinum Edition licensing.

  • Up to a year’s worth of performance data that provides a comprehensive view of capacity trends
  • Proactive notification and alerting including SNMP integration
  • SCOM alerts
  • Desktop and server OS usage reporting
  • Create customized reports
  • Reboot warnings
  • NetScaler MAS integration – HDX Insight
  • Override control over roaming sessions

See Citrix Docs Feature compatibility matrix for a list of which Director feature came with each version, and the licensing Edition needed for each feature.

Install/Upgrade Director 7.17 on Standalone Server

Current Release vs LTSR – Director 7.17 is a Current Release, which is only supported for 6 months from the release date, and you are expected to upgrade it every 3-6 months. If you prefer a release with a longer support cycle, see Director 7.15 LTSR.

Install on Delivery Controller? – The XenDesktop Delivery Controller metainstaller has an option to install Director on the Delivery Controller machine. Or you can install Director on separate, dedicated machines.

  • If Director will connect to multiple sites/farms, then install Director on its own servers.
  • For small environments, it might be OK to install Director on the Delivery Controller machines. Otherwise, Director is usually installed on separate machines.

Director and Delivery Controller versions – There’s no point in upgrading to Director 7.17 if your Delivery Controllers are not also 7.17. Director will inform you if your Delivery Controllers are not the same version as Director.

Installation guidance – For Director installation guidance, see the following:

Scripted install – To install and configure Director using a script, see Dennis Span Citrix Director unattended installation with PowerShell.

Manual installation – To install Director manually:

  1. Start with running AutoSelect.exe from the XenApp/XenDesktop 7.17 ISO.
  2. In the Extend Deployment section, on the bottom left, click Citrix Director.
  3. In the Licensing Agreement page, select I have read, understand, and accept the terms, and click Next.
  4. In the Core Components page, click Next.
  5. In the Delivery Controller page, it will ask you for the location of one Controller in the farm. Only enter one Controller per farm. If you have multiple Director servers, each Director server can point to a different Controller in the farm. From Citrix Docs: Director automatically discovers all other Controllers in the same Site and falls back to those other Controllers if the Controller you specified fails. Click Test Connection, and then click Add.
  6. You can optionally force SSL/TLS for the Monitoring service by following the instructions at Securing endpoints using TLS at Citrix Docs.
  7. In the Features page, click Next.
  8. In the Firewall page, click Next.
  9. In the Summary page, click Install.
  10. In the Finish page, click Finish.
  11. In IIS Manager, go to Default Web Site > Director > Application Settings, find Service.AutoDiscoveryAddresses, and make sure it points to one Controller in the farm, and not to localhost. From Citrix Docs: Director automatically discovers all other Controllers in the same Site and falls back to those other Controllers if the Controller you specified fails.
  12. You can optionally force SSL/TLS for the Monitoring service by following the instructions at Securing endpoints using TLS at Citrix Docs.

  13. If you built multiple Director servers, use NetScaler to load balance them.
  14. If you are upgrading Director, run C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\tools\DirectorConfig.exe /upgrade to complete the upgrade process.
  15. For info on the new monitoring features in Director 7.17 and older, see Use Director below.

Director Default Webpage

From CTX223907 How to Make Director the Default Page within IIS: If Director is installed on a standalone server, do the following to set /Director as the default path.

  1. Open Notepad elevated (as administrator) and paste the following text:
    <script type="text/javascript">
    <!--
    window.location="https://director.corp.com/Director";
    // -->
    </script>
  2. Adjust the window.location line to match your FQDN.
  3. Select File > Save As and browse to the IIS folder, by default C:\inetpub\wwwroot is the IIS folder.
  4. Select the Save as type to All types.
  5. Type a file name with an html extension, and select Save.
  6. Open IIS Manager.
  7. Select the SERVERNAME node (top-level), and double-click Default Document, as shown in the following screen shot:
  8. On the right, click Add…,
  9. Enter the file name of the .html file provided in Step 5.
  10. Ensure the .html file is located at the top of the list, as shown in the following screen shot:

Director Spinning Circle

If after login to Director the spinning circle doesn’t go away…

Do the following to fix it:

  1. Edit the file C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\web.config using an elevated text editor.
  2. Search for <serviceHostingEnvironment (line 273).
  3. Add the following attribute:
    multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true"

Also see CTX202564 Citrix Director Becomes Unresponsive after Submitting the Credentials when IIS X-Frame-Options is enabled

Director Domain Field

On the Director servers, locate and edit the ‘LogOn.aspx’ file. By default you can find it at C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\Logon.aspx

In line 450 you will have the following. To find the line, search for ID=”Domain”.

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

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

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

This will prepopulate the domain field text box with your domain name and still allow the user to change it, if that should be required. Note: this only seems to work if Single Sign-on is disabled.

Citrix CTX227936 How to hide the domain from Director Logon Page:  💡

  1. Edit the file C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\LogOn.aspx using an elevated text editor.
  2. Locate the tag which starts with: <asp:Label ID="DomainLabel"
  3. Immediately prior to that label, locate the tag: <div class='label eight'>
  4. Add the following before <div class=’label eight’>: <div style='display:none'>
  5. In between “</asp:Textbox> <br />” add the following: </div>

Director Tweaks

Session timeout

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

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

SSL Check

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

To stop this:

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

Disable Activity Manager

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

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

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

Large Active Directory / Multiple Forests

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

If multiple forests, see Citrix Blog Post Using Citrix Director in a MultiForest Environment.

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

Site Groups

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

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

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

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

Director Configuration Script

Johan Greefkes at Script for configuring Director at Citrix Discussions was kind enough to provide a script that does the following:

  • Sets the XenDesktop Controllers that Director communicates with
  • Disables SSL Check
  • Sets Logon.aspx file to default to a domain name
  • Adds a footer that displays the name of the Director server

Director – Saved Filters

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

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

The saved filters are stored on each Director server at C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Director\UserData. Each user has their own saved filters. The saved filters are not replicated across Director servers.

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

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

Director and HDX Insight

You can connect Director to NetScaler Management & Analytics System (NetScaler MAS) or Citrix Insight Center to add Network tabs to Director’s Trends and Machine Details views. Citrix Blog Post Configure Director with NetScaler Management & Analytics System (MAS).

Director and Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR)

If you have XenApp/XenDesktop Platinum Edition, it’s possible to install SSPR on the Director server. See George Spiers Citrix Self-Service Password Reset for a detailed implementation guide.

However this might break Director, and all you will see is a spinning circle.

To fix it, in IIS Manager (inetmgr), edit the bindings of the Default Web Site, and Remove the HTTP 8080 binding. Or implement the multisitebinding fix.

More info at Citrix Discussions Installing SSPR 1.0 appears to have broken Director 7.11 on same server.

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 XenDesktop 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.

More details on Monitor Service data aggregation and retention can be found at Data granularity and retention at Citrix Docs.  💡

Director Single Sign-on

You can configure Director to support Integrated Windows Authentication (Single Sign-on). Note: there seem to be issues when not connecting from the local machine or when connecting through a load balancer.

  1. Run IIS Manager. You can launch it from Server Manager (Tools menu), or from the Start Menu, or by running inetmgr.
  2. On the left, expand Sites, expand Default Web Site, and click Director.
  3. In the middle, double-click Authentication in the IIS section.
  4. Right-click Windows Authentication, and Enable it.
  5. Right-click Anonymous Authentication, and Disable it.
  6. Pass-through auth won’t work from another computer until you set the http SPN for the Director server. See Director 7.7 Windows Authentication not working with NS LB at Citrix Discussions.
  7. If Director is not installed on a Controller, then you’ll need to configure Kerberos delegation.
  8. If you are load balancing Director then additional config is required. See Director 7.7 Windows Authentication not working with NS LB at Citrix Discussions for more info.
    1. The FQDN for Director load balancing should be different than the FQDN for StoreFront load balancing.
    2. Create an AD service account that will be used as the Director’s ApplicationPoolIdentity.
    3. Create SPN and link it to the service account.
      setspn -S http/loadbalanced_URL domain\user
    4. Trust the user account for delegation to any service (Kerberos only) (trust the Director servers for delegation is not necessary in this case). You have to create the SPN before you can do this step.
    5. In IIS manager, on the Application Pools (Director), specify the Identity as user we have created in step 1.
    6. In IIS manager, expand Default Web Site, select Director, and open the Configuration Editor (bottom of the middle pane).
    7. Use the drop-down to navigate to the following section: system.webServer/security/authentication/windowsAuthentication
    8. Set useAppPoolCredentials = True, and useKernelMode = False. Click Apply on the top right.

  9. When you connect to Director you will be automatically logged in. You can change the login account by first logging off.
  10. Then change the drop-down to User credentials.

Director – Multiple XenDesktop Sites

  1. Run IIS Manager. You can launch it from Server Manager (Tools menu) or from the Start Menu, or by running inetmgr.
  2. On the left, expand Sites, expand Default Web Site, and click Director.
  3. In the middle pane, double-click Application Settings.
  4. Find the entry for Service.AutoDiscoveryAddresses, and double-click it.
  5. If Director is installed on a Controller, localhost should already be entered.
  6. Add a comma, and the NetBIOS name of one of the controllers in the 2nd XenDesktop Site (farm). Only enter one Controller name. If you have multiple Director servers, you can point each Director server to a different Controller in the 2nd XenDesktop Site (farm). From Citrix Docs: Director automatically discovers all other Controllers in the same Site and falls back to those other Controllers if the Controller you specified fails.
    1. You can optionally force SSL/TLS for the Monitoring service by following the instructions at Securing endpoints using TLS at Citrix Docs.  💡

Director Process Monitoring

Director 7.11 and newer have Process Monitoring, which is detailed in Citrix Blog Post Citrix Director: CPU, Memory Usage and Process Information.

Process Monitoring is disabled by default. To enable it, configure the Enable process monitoring setting in a Citrix Policy. For Citrix Policies in a GPO, find this setting in the computer half of the GPO. Note: this setting could significantly increase the size of the Monitoring database.

Director Alerts and Notifications

Director supports alert conditions and email notifications. This feature requires XenApp/XenDesktop to be licensed with Platinum Edition. See Citrix Blog Post Configuring & Managing Alerts and Notifications Using Director for more information.

Director 7.11 and newer have CPU, Memory, and ICT RTT alerts. Citrix Blog Post 7 New Categories in Director for Proactive Notifications & Alerts

To configure alerts:

  1. While logged into Director, at the top of the page, click the Alerts button.
  2. Switch to the Email Server Configuration tab.
  3. Enter your SMTP information, and click Send Test Message. Then click Save.

  4. Switch to the Citrix Alerts Policy tab.
  5. There are four high-level categories of alerts: Site Policy, Delivery Group Policy, Server OS Policy, and User Policy. Click whichever one you want to configure.
  6. Then click Create.
  7. Give the alert a name.
  8. On the bottom left, select a condition, and enter thresholds.
  9. On the bottom right, in the Notifications preferences section, click Add.
  10. Enter an email address, and click Add.
  11. Click Save when done. Feel free to create more alerts and notifications.
  12. For Server OS and User Policy, there are new ICA RTT alerts. See Citrix Blog Post 7 New Categories in Director for Proactive Notifications & Alerts for details on the new alerts in 7.11 and newer.
  13. In Director 7.12 and newer, you can configure alerts to generate an SNMP trap. This is configured in PowerShell as described at Configure alerts policies with SNMP traps at Citrix Docs.
    Set-MonitorNotificationSnmpServerConfiguration        #see Docs for parameter details
    Set-MonitorNotificationPolicy -IsSnmpEnabled $true -Uid <Policy ID>
  14. Citrix has an experimental Desktop Notification Tool. See Citrix Blog Post Desktop Notification Tool For Citrix XenDesktop.

Director Alerts can be configured with a WebHook that allows Octoblu to perform actions when a Director Alert occurs. See Configure alerts policies with Octoblu webhooks at Citrix Docs for details.

Set-MonitorNotificationPolicy –Uid 5 –Webhook <Webhook URL>

Director – SCOM Integration

Director 7.8 and newer can display alerts from System Center Operations Manager 2012 R2. This feature requires XenApp/XenDesktop Platinum Edition.

  1. See Configure SCOM integration at Citrix Docs for detailed configuration instructions. Also see Marius Sandbu Integrating Citrix XenDesktop 7.7 and System Center Operations Manager.
  2. If Director server or System Center Operations Manager server is 2008 R2, then login to the 2008 R2 server, open PowerShell and run Enable-PSRemoting. Yes to everything. This is not needed on Windows Server 2012 R2 servers.
  3. On Director server, run C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Director\tools\DirectorConfig.exe /configscom
  4. FYI, the DirectorConfig.exe /configscom command enables the following features on the Director server: /FeatureName:IIS-NetFxExtensibility45 /FeatureName:IIS-ASPNET45 /FeatureName:WCF-HTTP-Activation45
  5. FYI, the System Center Operations Manager server is listed in IIS Manager at Default Web Site > Director > Application Settings (middle pane) > Connector.SCOM.ManagementServer.
  6. On the System Center Operations Manager server, edit Remote Management Users local group, and add Citrix Admins, and other Director users.
  7. In System Center Operations Manager Console, go to Administration > User Roles, and edit Operations Manager Operators. Add the Citrix Admins, and other Director users.
  8. See Citrix Blog Post SCOM Alerts in Citrix Director for information on how to view System Center Operations Manager alerts in Director.

Director – Custom Reports

In Director 7.12 and newer, in the Trends view, there’s a Custom Reports tab that guides you through creating a custom OData Query. This tab only appears if you have XenApp/XenDesktop Platinum Edition.

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

Use Director

The newer Director features usually require Delivery Controllers and VDAs to be at the same version or newer than Director. Director depends on the Monitoring Service that is built into the Delivery Controller. The Monitoring Service gathers data from the VDAs.

See Monitor deployments at Citrix Docs.

See the various Troubleshoot topics at Citrix Docs.

New features in Director 7.16 and newer:

In Director 7.14 and newer, see CTX223927 How to use Director to troubleshoot application launch errors. This feature is configured in Citrix Policy Settings located in the Computer half at Virtual Delivery Agent Settings > Monitoring. Also see Citrix Blog Post Application Related Session Failure Reporting in Citrix Director 7.15.

In Director 7.14 and newer, see CTX223928 How to use Director to monitor storage performance.

Citrix Blog Post Citrix Director Now Provides Disk Usage Information!:

  • IOPS and disk latency data is enabled by default.
  • IOPS and disk latency is pushed to the database from each VDA at 1 hour interval.
  • Approximately 276 KB of disk space is required to store the CPU, memory, IOPS and disk latency data for one VDA over a period of one year.

In Director 7.14 and newer, see CTX223925 How to use Director to monitor NVIDIA GPU usage.

Citrix Director 7.13 and newer have an Application Instances tab on the Filters page that lets you filter published application sessions based on Session Idle Time (RDS sessions only), Application Name, and all other existing fields, like machine name, and so on. Requires Director 7.13, Controller 7.13, VDA 7.13, and Platinum Edition licensing. See Citrix Blog Post Monitoring Idle Applications and Sessions in Citrix Director. See Troubleshoot applications at Citrix Docs.

If idle time column shows n/a, then you need to wait 10-15 minutes.

In Director 7.13 and newer, the Session Details panel can show if Enlightened Data Transport (EDT, aka HDX on UDP) is enabled in the user’s session. See Citrix Blog Post HDX Adaptive Transport Protocol Monitoring via Director.

George Spiers has a comprehensive guide of all Director 7.12 features at http://www.jgspiers.com/citrix-director/.

Director 7.12 and newer have Connection Failure Details, which is detailed in Citrix Blog Post Director 7.12: Easier Troubleshooting of Machine & Connection Failures. Also see CTX223812 Citrix Director Failure Codes.

Director 7.11 and newer have Process Monitoring, which is detailed in Citrix Blog Post Citrix Director: CPU, Memory Usage and Process Information.

Director 7.9 and newer have Logon Duration improvements.

Citrix Blog Post Interactive Session of Logon Duration in Citrix Director – Explained: Interactive Session Duration = Desktop Ready Event Timestamp (EventId 1000 on VDA) – User Profile Loaded Event Timestamp (EventId 2 on VDA). More details in the Blog Post.

Citrix Blog Post Director 7.6 Failure Reasons Demystified lists possible failure reasons behind an Unregistered alert, and the true meaning of failure reasons such as Connection Refused and Communication Error. It details each failure reason, defines the meanings of these failures, and lists action items that serve as a starting point for troubleshooting the specific scenario. The list is based on Director 7.6.300.

Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) 7.17

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

Navigation

💡 = Recently Updated

Change Log

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. Operating system version support: VDA 7.17 supports Windows 10 (1607 and newer), Windows Server 2012 R2 (RDSH only), and Windows Server 2016 (RDSH or Server VDI).
    1. For older operating systems (e.g Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2), install VDA 7.15 with the latest Cumulative Update. VDA 7.15 will work with newer Delivery Controllers (e.g. Delivery Controller 7.17).
  2. CTX224843 Windows 10 compatibility with Citrix XenDesktop
  3. Firewall – VDA 7.17 enables the UDP-based EDT protocol by default. Make sure the UDP ports are open for ICA/HDX:
    1. UDP 1494
    2. UDP 2598
    3. UDP 443 – from Internet to NetScaler Gateway.
    4. UDP 443 can also be used by internal ICA connections if VDA SSL is configured.
    5. For EDT through NetScaler Gateway, make sure your NetScaler firmware is up to date, preferably 11.1 build 56 or newer.
  4. VDA virtual machine sizing:
    1. For Windows 10 virtual desktops, give the virtual machine: 2+ vCPU and 2+ GB of RAM
    2. For Windows 2012 R2 RDSH, give the virtual machine 8 vCPU, and 24-48 GB of RAM
    3. See Daniel Feller Sizing Windows 2016, Windows 2012 And Windows 10 Virtual Machines
  5. If using RAM caching (MCSIO or PvS), add more RAM for the cache
  6. Remove the floppy drive
  7. Remove any serial or LPT ports
  8. 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.
  9. If this VDA will boot from Provisioning Services:
    1. For vSphere, the NIC must be VMXNET3.
    2. 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.
  10. Install the latest version of hypervisor drivers (e.g. VMware Tools).
  11. The vSphere Activity Monitoring Feature with NSX Guest Introspection feature uses a TDI driver (vnetflt.sys), which might cause a “Connection Interrupted” message when users log off of Citrix. See CTX221206 “Connection Interrupted” error message displayed while logging off ICA session.

If vSphere, disable NIC Hotplug

  1. Users could use the systray icon to Eject the Ethernet Controller. Obviously this is bad.
  2. To disable this functionality, power off the virtual machine.
  3. Once powered off, right-click the virtual machine, and click Edit Settings.
  4. On the VM Options tab, expand Advanced, and then click Edit Configuration.
  5. On the bottom left, enter devices.hotplug. On the right, enter false. Then click Add.
  6. Then click OK a couple times to close the windows.
  7. The VM can then be powered on.

Windows Preparation

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

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


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


  5. Add your Citrix Administrators group to the local Administrators group on the VDA. Computer Management.
  6. The Remote Desktop Services “Prompt for Password” policy prevents Single Sign-on to the Virtual Delivery Agent. Check registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services. If fPromptForPassword = 1 then you need to fix group policy. The following GPO setting will prevent Single Sign-on from working.
    Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Remote Desktop Services | Remote Desktop Session Host | Security | Always prompt for password upon connection
    Or set the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\PorticaAutoLogon (DWORD) = 0x10.
  7. To remove the built-in apps in Windows 10, see Robin Hobo How to remove built-in apps in Windows 10 Enterprise.
  8. 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.
  9. 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 7.17

  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"

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

GUI Install:

  1. Mount the downloaded XenDesktop 7.17 ISO, and and run AutoSelect.exe.

    1. Alternatively, you can download the standalone VDA package and run that instead. Go the main XenDesktop 7.17 download page. Expand the section labelled Components that are on the product ISO but also packaged separately. There is a VDA installer called Desktop OS Core Services that is designed for Remote PC deployments.
  2. Click Start next to either XenApp or XenDesktop. The only difference is the product name displayed in the installation wizard.
  3. On the top right, click Virtual Delivery Agent for Windows Desktop OS, or Windows Server OS, depending on which type of VDA you are building.

  4. In the Environment page, select Create a Master Image, and click Next.

  5. In the Core Components page, if you don’t need Citrix Receiver installed on your VDA, then uncheck the box. Receiver is usually only needed for double-hop connections (connect to first VDA, and then from there, connect to second VDA). Click Next.
  6. In the Additional Components page, uncheck Citrix AppDisk/Personal vDisk. This feature has been deprecated and is being replaced by Citrix App Layering (Unidesk). If you are installing VDA on Windows 10 1709 or newer, then it is critical that you uncheck this. Click Next.

  7. 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.
  8. In the Features page, check boxes. 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.
  9. In the Firewall page, click Next.
  10. In the Summary page, click Install.

  11. If RDSH, click Close when you are prompted to restart.
  12. After the machine reboots twice, login and installation should continue.
  13. If you see a Locate ‘XenDesktop’ installation media window, click Cancel.

    1. Mount the XenApp_and_XenDesktop_7_17.iso.
    2. Run AutoSelect.exe.
    3. Click the Virtual Desktop Agent box to resume installation.
  14. Installation will continue automatically.
  15. Note: NT SERVICE\CitrixTelemetryService needs permission to login as a service.
  16. In the Smart Tools page, click Connect, enter your MyCitrix.com credentials, and then click Next.

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

  18. According to CTX225819 When Launching an Application Published from Windows Server 2016, a Black Screen Appears for Several Seconds Before Application is Visible, HKLM\SOFTWARE\Citrix\Citrix Virtual Desktop Agent\DisableLogonUISuppression (DWORD) should be set to 0.
  19. If you upgraded an existing VDA, then run gpupdate /force. Source = CTX233580 Citrix policy settings configured using Administrative Template Policy Settings deleted from Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) after upgrade to latest version of VDA  💡

Citrix Desktop Helper Service

Citrix Blog Post Augment Your XenDesktop Deployment with the Desktop Helper Service: this installable service adds the following functionality to your VDAs:

  • The “Shutdown Inactive Desktops” feature allows Citrix administrators to enable a timer that shuts down a virtual desktop after it has been registered for a configured amount of minutes without a user connection.
  • Delaying the Citrix Desktop Service start by a configurable amount of time allows the desktop to finish performing on-boot tasks before a user is brokered to it.
  • The “Force Group Policy Update” feature give administrators the ability to force a group policy update after a configured amount of time.

If these features are desirable, download the tool from the blog post and install it.

Configurable Registry keys are located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\DesktopHelper. Each value is detailed in the accompanying Word document.

Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP)

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

See https://www.carlstalhood.com/delivery-controller-7-17-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

Version 1.2 adds the GPO settings to the user half of a GPO.

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

Connection Threshold Settings lets you set the notification thresholds.

Adaptive Transport

XenApp/XenDesktop 7.17 includes Adaptive Transport, which uses EDT protocol, which uses UDP Ports 1494/2598 for HDX connections to the VDA. The UDP ports should already be open in the Windows Firewall.

For EDT through NetScaler Gateway, make sure your NetScaler firmware is up to date, preferably 11.1 build 56 or newer.

In 7.17, Adaptive Transport defaults to Preferred, which means it’s enabled by default. It can be configured in the Citrix Policy setting HDX Adaptive Transport.

Slow Logons

If logging in to a VDA from Citrix ICA, RDP, and Console results in a permanent black screen, then you might have to disable the App Readiness service. Source = CTX216590 Logon Delay and Black screen on logon for up to 10 seconds after upgrading from XA 7.5 to XA 7.6.  💡 

 

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. If Windows 10 1703 or newer, open Apps and Features.
  2. Find Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent, and click Change or Modify (Windows 10 1703 and newer).

  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. If you see a Smart Tools page, make a selection for Call Home, and click Next.
  8. In the Finish Reconfiguration page, click Finish.
  9. Restart the VDA machine.
  10. You must also change the VDA registration port on the Delivery Controllers by running BrokerService.exe /VDAPort.
  11. For Local Host Cache, on the Delivery Controller, run C:\Program Files\Citrix\Broker\Service\HighAvailabilityService.exe –VdaPort <CORRECT PORT #>. Source = CTX229493 VDAs Do Not Register in LHC Mode When Registration Port is Not Set To Default.

Verify that VDA registered with a Controller

  1. If you restart the Virtual Delivery Agent machine, or restart the Citrix Desktop Service
  2. In Windows Logs > Application log, you should see an event 1012 from Citrix Desktop Service saying that it successfully registered with a controller.
  3. If you don’t see successful registration, then you’ll need to fix the ListOfDDCs registry key.
    1. See VDA registration with Controllers at Citrix Docs.
    2. See The Most Common VDA Registration Issues & Troubleshooting Steps at Citrix Blogs.
  4. You can also run Citrix’s Health Assistant on the VDA.
  5. See CTX220772 Technical Primer: VDA Registration for a very detailed explanation of the VDA Registration process.

Citrix PDF Printer  for Receiver for HTML5/Chrome

  1. VDA 7.17 installs the PDF Printer automatically so there’s no need for a separate installation.
  2. To enable the PDF printer for HTML5 connections, configure the Citrix Policy setting 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 published applicatons to open files on Google Drive, 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 (or Apps & 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 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 Delivery Controllers). Click OK.
  4. Double-click Set the Remote Desktop licensing mode. Change it to Enabled and select Per User. Click OK.
  5. Optionally, you can install the Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser Tool. In the Server Manager > Add Roles and Features Wizard, on the Features page, expand Remote Server Administration Tools, expand Role Administration Tools, expand Remote Desktop Services Tools, and select Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser Tool. Then Finish the wizard.
  6. If it won’t install from Server Manager, you can install it from PowerShell by running Install-WindowsFeature rsat-rds-licensing-diagnosis-ui.
  7. In Server Manager, open the Tools menu, expand Remote Desktop Services (or Terminal Services), and click Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser.

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

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

C: Drive Permissions

This section is more important for shared VDAs like RDSH (Windows Server 2012 R2, 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. Note: in Windows 10 1703 and newer, this method no longer opens the correct tool.
  2. Another option is to open File Explorer, right-click This PC, and click Properties. This works in Windows 10 1703.
  3. Click Advanced system settings.
  4. On the Advanced tab, click the top Settings button.
  5. On the Advanced tab, click Change.
  6. 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.

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

Windows Profiles v3/v4/v5/v6

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

  • v6 = Windows 10 (1607 and 1703) 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.

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

Registry

Black Screen when launch Published Apps on Windows Server 2016

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

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

Published Explorer

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

  • Key = HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI
    • Value = 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

Smart Cards

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

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

Logon Disclaimer Window Size

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

  • Key = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432node\Citrix\CtxHook\AppInit_DLLS\Multiple Monitor Hook
    • Value = 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 3599).

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

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

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

HDX Flash

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

  • Key = HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\HdxMediaStreamForFlash\Server\PseudoServer
    • Value = IEBrowserMaximumMajorVersion (DWORD) = 11 (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.

NVIDIA GRID License

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

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

Legacy Client Drive Mapping

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

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

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

From CTX139020 Configuring Virtual Machines for Mac Client Printer Mapping with Windows 8.x. 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.

    1. In Windows 10 1703, open Printers & scanners, then scroll down, and click 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 TLS on a VDA using the PowerShell script at Citrix Docs.

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

    1. You can also use group policy to enable Certificate Auto-Enrollment for the VDA computers.
  3. Browse to the XenApp/XenDesktop 7.17 ISO. In the Support\Tools\SslSupport folder, shift+right-click the Enable-VdaSSL.ps1 script, and click Copy as path.
  4. Run PowerShell as administrator (elevated).
  5. Run the command Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted. Enter Y to approve.
  6. In the PowerShell prompt, type in an ampersand (&), and a space.
  7. Right-click the PowerShell prompt to paste in the path copied earlier.
  8. At the end of the path, type in -Enable
  9. If there’s only one certificate on this machine, press Enter.
  10. If there are multiple certificates, then you’ll need to specify the thumbprint of the certificate you want to use. Open the Certificates snap-in, open the properties of the machine certificate you want to use, and copy the Thumbprint from the Details tab.

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

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

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

  20. Since VDA 7.17 defaults to enabling the UDP-based EDT protocol, open port UDP 443 to the VDAs.

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.

  • From Russ Hargrove at A note on VDA certificates in 7.14 at Citrix Discussions: Citrix installs a new “Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop HDX Service” certificate in the Personal store which breaks the automation of the Enable-VdaSSL.ps1 script. To fix the problem, modify the task scheduler powershell script to:
    Enable-VdaSSL.ps1 -Enable -CertificateThumbPrint (Get-ChildItem -path cert:\LocalMachine\My | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Subject -eq ""} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Thumbprint) -Confirm:$False
  • For certificate auto-enrollment on non-persistent Remote Desktop Session Hosts (aka 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. Pre-create the Anon accounts on the VDA by running "C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICAConfigTool\CreateAnonymousUsersApp.exe". If you don’t run this tool, then anonymous users can’t login.
  3. You can see the local Anon accounts by opening Computer Management, expanding System Tools, expanding Local Users and Groups and clicking Users.
  4. If you want profiles for anonymous users to delete at logoff, then you’ll need to add the local Anon users to the local Guests group.
  5. If you open one of the accounts, on the Sessions tab, notice that idle timeout defaults to 10 minutes. Feel free to change it.

Group Policy for Anonymous Users

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

  1. On the Virtual Delivery Agent, run mmc.exe.
  2. Open the File menu, and click Add/Remove Snap-in.
  3. Highlight Group Policy Object Editor, and click Add to move it to the right.
  4. In the Welcome to the Group Policy Wizard page, click Browse.
  5. On the Users tab, select Non-Administrators.
  6. Click Finish.
  7. Now you can configure group policy to 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.

Windows Defender Antivirus

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

Optimize Performance

VDA Optimizer

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

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

Windows 10 / Windows 2012 R2 / Windows 2016 and newer

Optimization Notes:

Seal and Shut Down

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

Troubleshooting – Graphics

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.

  • 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

Delivery Controller 7.17 and Licensing

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

Navigation

💡 = Recently Updated

Change Log

Upgrade

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

You can in-place upgrade directly from any Delivery Controller version 7.0 or newer. Citrix recommends upgrading Delivery Controller 5.6 to 7.6 LTSR Cumulative Update 5 before upgrading to 7.17.

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. License Server Upgrade – Before upgrading to Delivery Controller 7.17, if you have a standalone Citrix Licensing Server, upgrade it to 11.14.0.1 build 23101.
  2. Frequent updates/upgrades– XenApp and XenDesktop 7.17 is a Current Release.
    • With Current Release (CR), you’re expected to upgrade to the future 7.18 (and 7.19, and 7.20, etc.) to receive bug fixes. Newer Current Releases come with new features, which might include new bugs. Current Releases are only supported for six months from the release date. That means you should plan to perform these upgrades at least twice a year.
    • If you don’t want to continuously upgrade to the latest Current Release, then you can stay on LTSR 7.15, which receives Cumulative Updates with bug fixes, but no new features. See Lifecycle Milestones for Citrix Virtual Apps & Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
  3. VDA OS Compatibility – XenDesktop 7.17 Delivery Controller is supported on Windows 2008 R2 and newer. However, Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) 7.17 is only supported on a limited number of Windows operating system versions, specifically, Windows 10 (1607+), Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016.
    • If you have older VDA machines running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you can leave their VDA software at version 7.15. It is supported for VDA 7.15 to communicate with Delivery Controllers 7.17.
  4. SCOM Agent – If StoreFront is installed on the Controller, and if the Citrix SCOM Agent for StoreFront is installed, stop the Citrix MPSF Agent service. See CTX220935 Cannot Perform a StoreFront Upgrade if Citrix SCOM Management Pack Agent Service is Running.
  5. Close PowerShell and Consoles. Make sure all Citrix Consoles and PowerShell consoles are closed. StoreFront won’t upgrade if any are running. If StoreFront fails, then the StoreFront configuration is wiped out.
  6. Other Users – Use Task Manager > Users tab to logoff any other user currently logged into the machine.
  7. Snapshot. If StoreFront is installed on the Controller, take a snapshot before attempting the upgrade.
  8. Download the XenApp/XenDesktop 7.17 ISO.
  9. Before upgrading, open PowerShell and run the following.
    asnp citrix*
    Get-TrustDBConnection

    1. If you don’t see a returned value, then you’ll need to run additional commands to fix the Trust Database Connection as detailed at Known Issues at Citrix Docs
      $cs = Get-ConfigDBConnection
      Set-TrustDBConnection –DBConnection $cs
  10. Run AutoSelect.exe from the 7.17 ISO.
  11. On the top left, click Studio and Server Components.
  12. In the Licensing Agreement page, select I have read, understand, and accept the terms, and click Next.
  13. In the Ensure Successful Upgrade page, read the steps, check the box next to I’m ready to continue, and click Next.
  14. In the Firewall page, click Next.
  15. In the Summary page, click Upgrade.
  16. If you see a Running Processes window, close the listed programs, and click Continue.
  17. Click OK when asked to start the upgrade.
  18. If the upgrade fails:
    1. Look for MetaInstaller log files under %localappdata%\Temp\Citrix\XenDesktop Installer\MSI Log Files.
    2. Look for StoreFront log files under C:\Program Files\Citrix\Receiver StoreFront\Admin\logs.
    3. Citrix has a MSI Log Analyzer.
  19. In the Smart Tools page, make a selection. If participating, click Connect, login with Citrix Cloud or mycitrix.com credentials, and then click Next. See Citrix Insight Services at Citrix Docs for more information on these options.

  20. If the install fails:
    1. Look for MetaInstaller log files under %localappdata%\Temp\Citrix\XenDesktop Installer\MSI Log Files.
    2. Look for StoreFront log files under C:\Program Files\Citrix\Receiver StoreFront\Admin\logs.
    3. Citrix has a MSI Log Analyzer.
  21. In the Finish page, check the box next to Launch Studio, and click Finish.

Studio – Upgrade Database, Catalogs, and Delivery Groups

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

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

  3. 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 7.17. If your Catalogs are already set to VDA version 7.9, then there’s no need to upgrade the Catalogs or Delivery Groups.


  4. Then do the same for the Delivery Groups. Note: 7.9 is the newest minimum functional level. You won’t see an option for 7.17. 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

Frequent updates/upgrades

XenApp and XenDesktop 7.17 is a Current Release.

  • With Current Release (CR), you’re expected to upgrade to the future 7.18 (and 7.19, and 7.20, etc.) to receive bug fixes. Current Releases also come with new features, which might include new bugs. Current Releases are only supported for six months from the release date. That means you should plan to perform these upgrades at least twice a year.
  • If you don’t want to continuously upgrade to the latest Current Release, then you can stay on LTSR 7.15, which receives Cumulative Updates with bug fixes, but no new features. See Lifecycle Milestones for Citrix Virtual Apps & Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.

VDA OS Compatibility

XenDesktop 7.17 Delivery Controller is supported on Windows 2008 R2 and newer. However, Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) 7.17 is only supported on a limited number of Windows operating system versions, specifically, Windows 10 (1607+), Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016.

  • If you have older VDA machines running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you can install VDA software version 7.15. It is supported for VDA 7.15 to communicate with Delivery Controllers 7.17.

Installation Automation

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

Citrix Licensing

If you are going to use an existing Citrix Licensing Server, upgrade it to 11.14.0.1 build 23101.

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

SQL Databases for XenDesktop

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

Windows Feature

Installing Group Policy Management on the Delivery Controllers lets you edit Citrix-targeted Group Policy Objects (GPOs) directly from the Controllers. Controllers already have Studio and Citrix Group Policy Management installed, so if GPMC runs from a Controller, then the GPO Editor will automatically have access to the Citrix Policies node. Or you can install Citrix Group Policy Management Plug-in on a different machine that has GPMC installed.

vCenter Service Account

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

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. Download the XenApp/XenDesktop 7.17 ISO.
  5. On two Delivery Controllers, to install the Delivery Controller software, run AutoSelect.exe from the 7.17 ISO.
  6. Click Start next to either XenApp or XenDesktop. The only difference is the product name displayed in the installation wizard.
  7. On the top left, click Delivery Controller.
  8. In the Licensing Agreement page, select I have read, understand, and accept the terms, and click Next.
  9. 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. Click Next.
  10. In the Features page, uncheck the box next to Install Microsoft SQL Server 2014 SP2 Express, and click Next.
  11. In the Firewall page, click Next.
  12. In the Summary page, click Install.
  13. In the Smart Tools page, make a selection. If you choose Smart Tools and Call Home, then click Connect, and enter your Citrix Cloud or MyCitrix.com credentials. Click Next.


  14. In the Finish page, click Finish. Studio will automatically launch.
  15. Ensure the two Controller VMs do not run on the same hypervisor host. Create an anti-affinity rule at vSphere Cluster > Manage > Settings > DRS Rules > Add. Set the Type to Separate Virtual Machines.

Create Site – Create Database

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 the scripts to a DBA.

Use Studio to Create Database Automatically

  1. Launch Citrix Studio. After it loads, click Deliver applications and desktops to your users.
  2. In the Introduction page, select An empty, unconfigured site. This reduces the number of pages in this Setup wizard. The 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.

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

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

Use Studio to create SQL scripts

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

Second Controller

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

  9. Open the Query menu, and click SQLCMD Mode.
  10. Then execute the 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.

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

Concurrent Logon Hard Limit

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

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

Local Host Cache

If you have 10,000 or fewer VDAs per zone (up to 40,000 VDAs per multi-zone site/farm), you can enable Local Host Cache (LHC) instead of Connection Leasing. LHC allows new sessions to be started even if SQL database is unavailable. VDA limits for LHC are higher in 7.16 than previous versions of XenApp/XenDesktop.

From Local Host Cache sizing and scaling at Citrix Docs:

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you did a fresh install of 7.17, then Local Host Cache should be enabled by default. You can run Get-BrokerSite to confirm. (run asnp citrix.* first).

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

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

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

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

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

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 elevated (as administrator), 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.

Customer Experience Improvement Program

XenApp/XenDesktop 7.17 enables CEIP by default. If desired, you can disable it in Citrix Studio:

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

Citrix Studio 7.17 collects data for Google Analytics. You can disable this in the registry at HKLM\Software\Citrix\DesktopStudio\GAEnabled = 0.

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.

Import vCenter Root Certificate

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

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

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

Import vCenter Certificate

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

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

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

  1. Get the vCenter certificate.
    1. Open a browser and point it to the vCenter URL. Note: this procedure to get the certificate won’t work in Internet Explorer.
    2. If Google Chrome, press <F12> to open the Developer Tools.
    3. On the top right, click the two right arrows to show more tabs, and click Security.
    4. On the Security tab, click View certificate.
    5. On the Details tab, click Copy to File.
    6. In the Welcome to the Certificate Export Wizard page, click Next.
    7. In the Export File Format page, either format will work. Click Next.
    8. In the File to Export page, browse to a new file, and click Next.
    9. In the Completing the Certificate Export Wizard page, click Finish.
  2. If your Delivery Controller is Windows 2012 R2 or newer, then simply run certlm.msc. This opens the MMC console with the Certificates snap-in already added and pointing to Local computer.
    1. For Windows 2008 R2, run mmc.exe, open the File menu, and click Add/Remove Snap-in.
    2. Move the Certificates snap-in to the right by highlighting it, and clicking Add.
    3. Select Computer account, and click Next.
    4. Select Local computer, and click Finish.
    5. Click OK.
  3. On the left, right-click the Trusted People node, expand All Tasks, and click Import.
  4. In the Welcome to the Certificate Import Wizard page, click Next.
  5. In the File to Import page, browse to the certificate you saved earlier, and click Next.
  6. In the Certificate Store page, click Next.
  7. In the Completing the Certificate Import Wizard page, click Finish.
  8. Click OK to acknowledge that the import was successful.
  9. Repeat these steps on the second Controller. It is important that you import the certificate on both Controllers before adding the Hosting Resource.
  10. If you open Internet Explorer and browse to the vCenter Server, there should be no certificate errors.

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. 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.
  10. Select Use storage shared by hypervisors.
  11. 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.”
  12. 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.”
  13. Click Next.
  14. 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.
  15. If you selected the temporary data on local storage option, on the bottom, click Select, and choose the datastores you want to use for disk caching. By default, all local datastores are selected. Click Next when done.
  16. In the Network page, enter a name for the hosting resource. Since each hosting resource is a combination of vCenter, Cluster, Network, and Datastores, include those names in this field (e.g. vCenter01-Cluster01-Network01-Datastore01).
  17. Select a network and click Next.
  18. In the Summary page, click Finish.
  19. If you have multiple datastores for your VDAs, run the wizard again.
  20. You can use the existing vCenter connection.
  21. This time, select a different datastore.
  22. Give it a name that indicates the chosen datastore.
  23. 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.
  24. 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”.
  25. If you rename Storage, Network, or Datacenters, see Citrix CTX225019 XA/XD 7.13: Renaming Storage, Network or Datacenters When Used With MCS or PVS. Either run Update-HypHypervisorConnection -LiteralPath "XDHyp:\Connections\MyConnection", or right-click the Hosting Resource and click Edit Storage. You can cancel the wizard.

Citrix Licensing Server

Upgrade

XenApp/XenDesktop 7.17 comes with 11.14.1.1 build 23101.

If you have a standalone Licensing Server, upgrade it to Citrix Licensing 11.14.1.1 build 23101, if it isn’t already.

  1. Go to the downloaded Citrix Licensing 11.14.1.1 build 23101, 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 11.14.0.1 build 23101.
  6. If you login to the license server web console, on the Administration tab…
  7. It shows it as version 11.14.0.1 build 23101.
  8. You can also view the version in the registry at HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Citrix\LicenseServer\Install.

Activate Citrix License

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

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

    • Another method of allocating licenses is in the new Licensing Manager at https://MyLicenseServer:8083.
  4. After licenses are installed, right-click the Licensing node, and click Edit Product Edition
  5. Change the edition to match your licenses. If you see both XenDesktop and XenApp licenses, you must select XenDesktop. If you see both Concurrent and User/Device, then you must select User/Device. Click OK when done.
  6. XenDesktop 7.14 and newer support mixed licensing in a single site/farm. See the following:

License Server CEIP

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

Switch to the Usage and Statistics tab, and make a selection in the Share usage statistics with Citrix section.

Citrix License Management Service

Version 11.14.0.1 and newer include 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

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. On the Historical Use tab, 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.

    1. On the Usage and Statistics tab…
    2. Scroll down and find the Historical Use section.

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.

To run Smart Check:

  1. Go to https://citrix.cloud.com, and login.
  2. After logging in, under My Services, find Smart Tools, and click Manage.
  3. Click Smart Check.
  4. If you enabled Smart Tools during the installation of XenDesktop 7.17, then the site should already be there. Click Complete Setup.
  5. If you didn’t enable Smart Check during XenDesktop installation, then on the top right, click Add Site.

    1. In step 1, click Download Agent.
    2. Step 2 indicates it is waiting for you to install the Agent.
    3. On a Delivery Controller, run the downloaded CitrixLifecycleManagementAgent.exe.
    4. Check the box next to I accept the terms in the License Agreement, and click  Install.
    5. In the Completed the Citrix Smart Tools Agent Setup Wizard page, click Finish.
    6. Step 2 now shows that the Agent was installed successfully. Click Next.
  6. Enter credentials for your XenDesktop farm, and click Add Site, or click Done.
  7. Eventually you’ll see a Get Started link.
  8. Or, if the site is already added to your list of sites, click View Report next to the site.
  9. StoreFront, Provisioning Services, and Licensing Server cannot be automatically detected. You can add a Custom Check that targets those machines. See Perform health checks on Storefront, Licensing, and Provisioning Servers at Citrix Docs.
  10. At the top right, if you click Perform Check, you can run one of the checks.
  11. If you click Configure.
  12. You can schedule the checks to automatically run periodically.
  13. To view the alerts, click one of the alert badges in the component category. Also see Smart Check alerts reference at Citrix Docs.
  14. Expand a component, and click an alert.
  15. On the right, there’s an option to Hide Alert.

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

Additional Smart Checks

The Blueprint Catalog has additional checks that you can add to Smart Check. Click Blueprint Catalog in the menu bar. Scroll down to the Citrix Checks section, and click the plus icon next to one of them.

When you go back to Smart Check, open a site (View Report), and click Perform Check, you’ll see the Custom Check that you added from the Blueprint Catalog.

See Citrix Blog Post VDA Health Check Now Available on Smart Check.

Citrix Scout

XenDesktop 7.17 includes Citrix Scout that can be launched from the Start Menu.

The tool can run a manual collection, run a trace, or schedule periodic collection. The results are uploaded to Citrix Smart Tools.


Links with more information:

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

Workspace Environment Management (WEM) 2311

Last Modified: Dec 20, 2023 @ 10:29 am

Navigation

This post covers Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM) versions 2311 and older.

💡 = Recently Updated

Change Log

Overview

Workspace Environment Management (WEM) is Citrix’s Performance Management and UEM (User Environment Management) tool for all XenApp/XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum Customers with active Software Maintenance (Subscription Advantage is not sufficient). The WEM Agent is supported on XenApp 6.5, and XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x. Videos:

Note: WEM does not replace Citrix Profile Management. You usually implement both.

Citrix Blog Post User Experience on Steroids: Citrix Workspace Environment Management has a list of Frequently Asked Questions about WEM, including a drawing of the architecture.

From Hal Lange at Database sizing at Citrix Discussions: SQL Always On is fully supported.  In WEM 1909 and older, the ONE caveat is to remove from the Always On Availability Group before upgrading.

Here are the official calculations from the Norskale days on space needed on the SQL Server:

  • Reserve 1GB of RAM per 1,000 users deployed
  • RAM=1.5GB system + (1.5GB SQL + 1 GB per 1,000 users) for that SQL instance
  • Disk = 1GB per 10,000 users per year + 10 MB per WEM site configured

Upgrade WEM

There is no LTSR version of Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM), so you should always upgrade to the latest version of WEM.

From Upgrade a deployment at Citrix Docs: In-place upgrades from versions earlier than Workspace Environment Management 4.7 to version 1808 or later are not supported. To upgrade from any of those earlier versions, you need to upgrade to version 4.7 first and then upgrade to the target version.

If you want to upgrade a WEM deployment earlier than 2006 to 2209 or later: To avoid database upgrade failures, upgrade to 2103 first and then to 2209 or later.

CTA Marco Hofmann at CUGC: How-To: Update Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM) from 4.x to 4.7 (v4.07.00.00)

To upgrade Citrix WEM:

  1. In-place upgrade the Citrix Licensing Server. No special instructions.
    • Ensure the installed licenses a non-expired Subscription Advantage date.
  2. Before you upgrade, run WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration Utility and record all settings.
  3. In-place upgrade the WEM Server. No special instructions.
  4. Use the Database Maintenance tool to upgrade the WEM database.
    • In WEM 1909 and older, before upgrading the database that’s in a SQL Server Always On availability group, you must remove it from the availability group. This is no longer required in WEM 1912 and newer.
  5. You might have to run the WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration Utility on each Broker to point to the upgraded database. If the settings are still there, then just click Save Configuration.
  6. In-place upgrade the WEM Console. No special instructions.
  7. In-place upgrade the WEM Agents.

Install/Upgrade WEM Server (Broker Service)

There is no LTSR version of Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM), so you should always upgrade to the latest version of WEM.

The WEM Broker Service can be installed on one or more servers, including Delivery Controllers. The WEM Agent cannot be installed on the Broker Server.

A WEM Server with 4 vCPU and 8 GB RAM can support up to 3,000 users.

  1. Port 8288 – WEM 1912 and newer have a new port 8288 for WEM Agent Cache Synchronization. You’ll need to add this port to your load balancer and open it in your firewall.
    • Port 8285 is still available for WEM Agents 2012 and older connecting to newer WEM Servers.
    • Old port removed – The Cache synchronization port (8285) was removed from WEM Server 2103 and newer, so make sure your existing agents are a version that supports the newer Cached data synchronization port. WEM Agent 1912 and newer should be sufficient.
    • If your existing WEM Agents don’t support the new port number, then upgrade your WEM Server to version 2012 (or version 1912), upgrade your WEM Agents to the corresponding version, and then upgrade the WEM Server to a newer version.
  2. Download Workspace Environment Management 2311 and extract it.
  3. If you are upgrading, run WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration Utility and record all settings. These settings might be wiped out during the upgrade.
  4. Licenses – make sure your installed CVAD licenses have a CSS date that is later than the date required by your WEM version. The required CSS date is shown at the top of the WEM download page.
  5. Run the downloaded Citrix Workspace Environment Management Infrastructure Services Setup.exe from the 2311-01-00-01 folder.
  6. If installing WEM 2308 or newer:
    1. Check the box next to I agree to the license terms and click Install.
    2. In the Welcome to the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Infrastructure Services Setup Wizard page, click Next.  
    3. In the Destination Folder page, click Next.
    4. In the Ready to install Citrix Workspace Environment Management Infrastructure Services page, click Install.
    5. In the Completed the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Infrastructure Services Setup Wizard page, click Finish.
    6. Click Launch Database Management Utility.
  7. If installing WEM that is older than version 2308:
    1. If you see a prerequisites screen, then click Install to install the prerequisites.
    2. In the Welcome to the InstallShield Wizard for Citrix Workspace Environment Management Infrastructure Services page, click Next.
    3. In the License Agreement page, select I accept the terms, and click Next.
    4. In the Customer Information page, click Next.
    5. In the Setup Type page, click Next.
    6. In the Ready to Install the Program page, click Install.
    7. If you are upgrading, you might be prompted to restart applications.
    8. In the InstallShield Wizard Completed page, click Finish.
  8. AntivirusC:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Workspace Environment Management Infrastructure Services and C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Infrastructure Services must be excluded from Antivirus scanning. Or exclude: Norskale Broker Service.exe; Norskale Broker Service Configuration Utility.exe; Norskale Database Management Utility.exe.
  9. If you are upgrading, then make sure your WEM Service Account has Full control permissions on the DBSync folder at C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Infrastructure Services\DBSync. For new installs, WEM should set this permission correctly once the Infrastructure Services are configured. Note: this folder seems to be missing in newer versions of WEM.
  10. Firewall – Ensure firewall allows the following ports to/from the WEM Broker servers. See Citrix Tech Zone Communication Ports Used by Citrix Technologies.
    • Agent Port – defaults to TCP 8286 – from WEM Agent to WEM Broker
    • AgentSyncPort – defaults to TCP 8285 – from WEM Agent to WEM Broker
    • Cached data synchronization port – defaults to TCP 8288 – from WEM Agent 1912 and newer to WEM Broker
    • AdminPort – defaults to TCP 8284 – from WEM Admin Console to WEM Broker
    • Monitoring Port – defaults to TCP 8287 – from Director to WEM Broker
    • AgentPort – defaults to TCP 49752 – from WEM Broker to WEM Agent
  11. See CTX218965 Error: “Server sent back a fault indicating it is too busy to process the request” and the WEM Agent fails to connect to the Broker Service if you need to throttle the number of connections if you have insufficient resources on the WEM Broker server.

Upgrade WEM Database

Workspace Environment Management 4.5 and newer have PowerShell commands. For details, see Citrix Workspace Environment Management 2103 SDK at Citrix Developer docs.

To upgrade the Workspace Environment Management database using the GUI tool:

  1. If this is a new install, skip to Create WEM Database.
  2. The person running Database Management must be a sysadmin on the SQL Server. Or you can enter a SQL login.
  3. On the WEM server, run Database Management from the Start Menu.
  4. If upgrading, in the ribbon, click Upgrade Database.
  5. In WEM 1906 and newer, the fields might already be filled in. Otherwise:
    1. Enter the SQL Server Name.
    2. Enter the existing WEM Database Name.
    3. Configure the credentials for the WEM service account.
  6. If your account is not a sysadmin on SQL, then enter a SQL account in the Database Credentials fields.
  7. Click Upgrade.
  8. Click Yes when asked to proceed.
  9. Click OK when prompted that database upgraded successfully.
  10. Click Finish to close the Database Upgrade Wizard.
  11. Close the WEM Database Management Utility.
  12. Open services.msc and restart the Citrix WEM Infrastructure Service or restart Norskale Infrastructure Service.

After the database is upgraded, run the WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration Utility.

  1. If the upgrade preserved the settings, then simply click Save Configuration. The service won’t start unless you do this.
  2. In WEM older than version 1906, you might have to re-configure the settings.
    1. On the Licensing tab, configure the licensing server.
    2. On the Database Maintenance tab, consider checking Enable Scheduled Database Maintenance.
    3. On the Advanced Settings tab:
      1. Enter the Infrastructure service account credentials.
      2. Enter the vuemUser SQL user account password.
      3. In WEM 1909 and newer, check the box next to Enable performance tuning and set both of the Minimum threads boxes to the number of concurrent WEM Agents that will be connected to this one WEM server. Maximum value is 3000.
      4. Make a choice regarding Google Analytics.
    4. The Advanced Settings tab will look something like this.
    5. On the Database Settings tab, enter the database server name and database name.
    6. In the ribbon, click Save Configuration.
  3. Click Yes to restart the Broker Service.
  4. Skip ahead to upgrade the WEM Administration Console.

Create WEM Database

Workspace Environment Management 4.5 and newer have PowerShell commands. For details, see Citrix Workspace Environment Management 2103 SDK at Citrix Developer docs.

To create the database using the GUI tool:

  1. The person running Database Management must be a sysadmin on the SQL Server. Or you can enter a SQL login.
  2. Make sure SQL Server authentication (mixed mode) is enabled on the SQL server > Properties > Security. Even though the WEM Broker server runs as an AD account that is used login to SQL, WEM Broker also uses a SQL account named vuemUser, which means mixed mode must be enabled. Source = John Long at WEM new install, cannot connect to infrastructure server at Citrix Discussions.

  3. On the WEM server, run WEM Database Management Utility from the Start Menu.
  4. If a new install, in the ribbon, click Create Database.
  5. In the Create database Wizard page, click Next.
  6. In the Database Informations page, enter the SQL server name, and enter a new Database Name.
    1. Only enter an instance name if you have a named SQL instance.
    2. Only enter a port number if your SQL instance is listening on a static port number other than 1433.
    3. From Måns Hurtigh at Problem creating WEM 4.3 Database on SQL Server 2012 at Citrix Discussions: The database name cannot contain a dash.
  7. The paths might not be correct so double check them. Then click Next.
  8. In the Database Server Credentials page, if your account has sysadmin permissions, then leave the box checked. Otherwise, uncheck the box, and enter a SQL login that has sysadmin permissions. Click Next.
  9. In the VUEM Administrators section, click Browse, and select your Citrix Admins group.
  10. In the Database Security page, if you intend to load balance multiple WEM servers, then specify a Windows service account for database access. The Broker Service will run as this account. See the load balancing topic at Install the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Infrastructure Services at Citrix Docs.
  11. The Database Creation Wizard also creates a SQL account called vuemUser with an 8 character alphanumeric password. If you want it more complex, check the box and specify the password.
    • Note: if you intend to implement AlwaysOn Availability Group, then you must specify this password, since you’ll be asked for it again when adding the database to the Availability Group. Also see SQL Server Always On at Citrix Docs.

  12. Click Next.
  13. In the Database Information Summary page, click Create Database.
  14. Click OK when prompted that the database was created successfully.
  15. Click Finish to close the Database Creation Wizard.
  16. Close the WEM Database Management Utility.
  17. There is a log file at “C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Workspace Environment Management Infrastructure Services\Citrix WEM Database Management Utility Debug Log.log” or at “C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Infrastructure Services\Citrix WEM Database Management Utility Debug Log.log”

WEM Infrastructure Services Configuration

  1. On the WEM Server, run WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration Utility from the Start Menu.
  2. On the Database Settings tab, enter the SQL Server name and database name.
  3. Switch to the Advanced Settings tab.
  4. If you intend to load balance WEM Servers, then Browse to a service account. This service account must have access to the database.

    • The service account must be in the local Administrators group on the WEM servers.
  5. Enter the vuemUser SQL user account password.
  6. In WEM 1909 and newer, check the box next to Enable performance tuning and set both of the Minimum threads boxes to the number of concurrent WEM Agents that will be connected to this one WEM server. Maximum value is 3000.
  7. Make a choice regarding Google Analytics.
  8. The Advanced Settings tab will look something like this.
  9. On the Database Maintenance tab, consider checking Enable Scheduled Database Maintenance.
  10. On the Licensing tab, you can enter a Citrix License Server 11.14.0.1 or newer that has valid licenses. Or you can enter the license server later in the admin console.
  11. Click Save Configuration in the ribbon.
  12. Click Yes when asked to restart the Broker Service.
  13. Close the WEM Infrastructure Service Configuration utility.
  14. If you are load balancing WEM servers, then you must also create a Kerberos SPN, where [accountname] is the service account you are using for the Norskale service.
    setspn -U -S Norskale/BrokerService [accountname]

Install/Upgrade WEM Console

  1. Run Citrix Workspace Environment Management Console Setup.exe from the downloaded WEM 2311 (aka 2311-01-00-01) installation files.
  2. If installing WEM 2308 or newer:
    1. Check the box next to I agree to the license terms and click Install.
    2. In the Welcome to the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Console Setup Wizard page, click Next.
    3. In the Destination Folder page, click Next.
    4. In the Ready to install Citrix Workspace Environment Management Console page, click Install.
    5. In the Completed the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Console Setup Wizard page, click Finish.
    6. Click Close.
  3. If installing WEM older than 2308:
    1. In the Welcome to the InstallShield Wizard for Citrix Workspace Environment Management Console page, click Next.
    2. In the License Agreement page, select I accept the terms, and click Next.
    3. In the Customer Information page, click Next.
    4. In the Setup Type page, click Next.
    5. In the Ready to Install the Program page, click Install.
    6. In the InstallShield Wizard Completed page, click Finish.

Install/Upgrade WEM Web Console

Install or upgrade the WEM Web Console on the WEM Server. The WEM Web Console can use port 443 if nothing else is using that port.

  1. Right-click Citrix Workspace Environment Management Web Console.exe and click Run as administrator.
  2. Check the box next to I agree to the license terms and click Install.
  3. In the Welcome to the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Web Console Setup Wizard page, click Next.
  4. In the Destination Folder page, click Next.
  5. In the Ready to install the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Web Console Setup Wizard page, click Install.
  6. In the Completed the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Web Console Setup Wizard page, click Finish.
  7. Click Launch Web Console Configuration. This might not work if you didn’t run the installer elevated.

Web Console Configuration

  1. Create a file share for WEM and grant Modify permission to a service account.
  2. Create a service account and add it to WEM Console > Administration > Administrators as Global Admin with Full Access and not Disabled.
  3. Install a certificate in the Local Computer store (certlm.msc).
  4. From the Start Menu, right-click WEM Web Console Configuration, expand More, and click Run as administrator.
  5. Click Next.
  6. The Port number cannot conflict with other services already using the port, including IIS.
  7. The Infrastructure server name can be localhost if you installed the Web Console on the WEM Infrastructure Server.
  8. User name must be Global Admin inside WEM.
  9. Click Start service.
  10. Click Configure certificate.
  11. Browse to the local cert and then click Set up certificate.

  12. Click Finish.

  13. Launch the Web Console and login. 
  14. Click your name on the top-right and click Storage folder.
  15. Enter the UNC path to the file share for WEM.
  16. Check the box next to Require credentials and enter the service account. Click Done.

WEM Configuration Sets

Each WEM Agent belongs to one Configuration Set. Most actions in a Configuration Set can be filtered, but some settings are global to the Set. To handle global settings, you can create multiple Configuration Sets that apply to different WEM Agents.

In WEM Web Console (2308 and newer):

  1. On the left, click Configuration Sets.
  2. On the right, click Add configuration set.
  3. Give the set a name and click Save.

  4. Click a Configuration Set to create Actions and configure other settings.
  5. Use the drop-down menu on the top-left to switch to a different Configuration Set.
  6. Directory Objects lets you add individual computers or computer Organizational Units (OUs) and assign them to Configuration Sets.

  7. Back in the list of Configuration Sets, on the right, you can click Backup and Restore.
  8. Click Backup to perform a manual backup. Or click Manage automatic backup. The backups are stored in the SMB file share.
  9. Notice the Directory objects are not included in the backups.
  10. After you have a backup, you can Restore it to any Configuration Set. This is an easy way of copying one Set to another.

In WEM Classic Console:

  1. From the Start Menu, run WEM Administration Console.
  2. In the ribbon, click Connect.
  3. In the Database Broker Information window, enter the WEM Server name, and click Connect.
  4. Some WEM Console settings are global (every agent gets the same setting). So if you want different global settings for different agents, then you create multiple WEM Configuration sets. At the top of the window, in the ribbon, you can create a new WEM Configuration set. 
  5. WEM 1912 and newer can Backup and Restore entire Configuration Sets, which makes it easy to duplicate a Configuration Set.

    • When Restoring a Configuration Set, there’s no need to create a new empty Set. Just run the Restore wizard and WEM will try to use the original Configuration Set name. If the original Configuration Set already exists, then WEM will append _1 to the name, which you can then rename.
  6. Once you have multiple Configuration sets, you can use the drop-down to switch between them.
  7. A WEM Agent can only belong to one WEM Configuration set. Different Agents can belong to different WEM Configuration sets.
  8. In WEM 4.3 and newer, you add agents to the Configuration set at Active Directory Objects (workspace on bottom left) > Machines (node on top left). You can add OUs or individual objects (computers or computer groups).

Import Recommended Settings

If you have multiple WEM configuration sets, this process should be repeated for each new, empty WEM configuration set. This process is only available in the classic WEM Console.

  1. On the right side of the ribbon, click Restore.
  2. Select Settings and click Next.
  3. In the Settings Restore wizard, click Next.
  4. In the Restore from folder section, click Browse, and browse to the \Workspace-Environment-Management-v-2311-01-00-01\Configuration Templates\Default Recommended Settings folder that was included in the WEM download.
  5. In the Settings Type Selection section, check all available boxes, and click Next.
  6. In the Restore settings processing window, click Restore Settings.
  7. Click Yes when prompted to replace.
  8. Click Finish.

CTP James Kindon at WEM Hydration Kit has a collection of Applications, File System and Registry Actions that can be imported to WEM. CTP James Kindon recently added Environmental Settings to the Hydration Kit.

WEM 1909 and newer can Migrate your Group Policies to WEM. CTP James Kindon at Migrating GPO settings to WEM explains this feature in detail.

WEM Administrators

This is only configurable in the Classic WEM Console.

  1. In the Administration Console, go to Administration (workspace on bottom left) > Administrators (node on top left).
  2. In the right pane, click Add, and specify an Active Directory group that can administer WEM.
  3. After adding a group or user, right-click the new administrator, and click Edit.
  4. Use the Permissions drop-down to select a role. The roles are detailed at Administrators at Citrix Docs.
  5. Then use the State drop-down to select Enabled. New administrators are initially disabled. Click OK to close the window.

WEM Agent Configuration

For configuration guidance, see CTP James Kindon WEM Advanced Guidance – 2023 at CUGC.

Most of these settings are available in the WEM Web Console.

  1. In the WEM Web Console, click a Configuration Set, expand Advanced Settings and click Agent Settings.

    1. In the WEM Classic Administration Console, in the Advanced Settings workspace (bottom left), there are several tabs for configuring the agent.
    2. On the bottom of each tab is an Apply button. Click this button periodically to save your configuration to the database.
  2. In Web Console, click Agent options.

    1. When making changes, make sure you click Apply changes periodically.
  3. Setting on these tabs are mostly self-explanatory. Feel free to change any as desired. If you imported a default configuration, then many of these might already be enabled. If not, then configure them manually.
  4. Check the Launch agent options. and Enable desktop compatibility mode. Web Console lets you configure launch exclusions.

    • In Classic Console these settings are on the Main Configuration tab.
  5. Enable automatic refresh.
  6. Enable Offline Mode and Use cache to accelerate actions processing. More info at Citrix Blog Post Workspace Environment Management agent caching explained.
  7. The Action processing section lets you select which modules should be refreshed on reconnect.

    • In the WEM Classic Console the settings are in the right pane on the Reconnection Actions tab.
  8. Scroll down and there are options to process printers and drives asynchronously.

    • In WEM Classic Console, the settings are on the Agent Options tab.
  9. Agent service options section has a setting for Bypass ie4uinit Check. Enabling this might eliminate a 2-minute delay before WEM Agent starts.

    1. In WEM Classic Console it’s on the Service Options tab.
  10. On the left is UI Agent Personalization. On the right is Appearance and interaction. You can change the UI agent theme. Other settings on this page let you hide the splash screen.

    1. In WEM Classic Console, on the top left, in the Advanced Settings workspace, there’s a UI Agent Personalization node.
    2. In the right pane, in the UI Agent Options tab
  11. The Helpdesk Options section lets you enable Screen Capture from the WEM Agent.

    1. WEM Classic Console has a Helpdesk Options tab.
    2. For the Enable Send to Support Option, to allow users to enter a message, add the text “##UserScreenCaptureComment##” to the Email Template box. (Source = MasterXen Workspace Environment Manager – Capture Screen)

System Optimization

  1. The System Optimization node lets you configure the various optimizations.

    1. WEM Classic Console has a System Optimization workspace (bottom left).
  2. On the top left, click the CPU Management node/section.
  3. CPU Spikes Protection gives processes equal access to the CPU.
    • There’s an option for Auto Prevent CPU Spikes.
    • From Hal Lange: “CPU Usage Limit should never be set to higher a percentage than one CPU. This will keep a single threaded application from thrashing a CPU.  Example: if 2 CPU’s are available, the CPU setting should not be set above 49%, if 4 CPU’s are available, the CPU setting should not be set above 24%”
    • Hal Lange demonstrates Citrix WEM Performance Optimizations in a YouTube video.

  4. Other tabs/sections let you manually specify CPU priority and/or clamping.

  5. Web Console > Monitoring > Insights > Optimization Insights has a report showing CPU optimization.

    • From CTA Chris Schrameyer WEM – CPU LOGGING: WEM does not provide any built-in logs to determine when a CPU Spikes Protection action is taken. It would be nice to know what processes are often limited, so we can then add them to a CPU Clamping policy or identify why they are using so much CPU.
  6. Memory Management node, you can enable Optimize Memory Usage for Idle Processes to periodically reclaim memory from running processes. This feature tells processes to flush their memory to disk. In other words, you’re trading memory for disk.

    1. WEM 2206 adds an option for Optimize only if total available memory is less than (MB) or Do Not Optimize When Total Available Memory Exceeds (MB). In other words, WEM does not optimize memory until available memory drops below this value.
    2. WEM 2206 adds a Memory Usage Limit for Specific Processes. Dynamic means the process memory is not limited until available memory is low.
  7. In the I/O Management node, on the right, you can prioritize process IO. Use the slider on the far right to enable the feature.
  8. In the Fast Logoff node, in the right pane, enabling Fast Logoff disconnects a session immediately, and runs logoff processes in the background.
  9. WEM 2003 and newer have a Citrix Optimizer feature. If you enable it, then the WEM Agents will disable services and scheduled tasks according to the settings in the template. WEM comes with built-in templates, or you can add your own. Newer versions of WEM have newer templates. WEM 2311 and newer support Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022.

    • WEM 2012 and newer have an option to Automatically select Templates to Use.
    • The Monitoring > Administration > Agents section adds a Process Citrix Optimizer action to each agent.
  10. WEM 2112 and newer have a Multi-session Optimization feature that lowers the priority of processes running in disconnected sessions.

Security

This section is only available in the WEM Classic Console.

  1. Click the Security workspace. On the top left, click the Process Management node. In the right pane, in the Processes Management tab, enable Process Management. The other tabs are grayed out until you check this box.

    • You can BlackList processes. There’s also a WhiteList, but once something is added to the WhiteList, then all other processes are blocked.
  2. On the top left, click Application Security.
  3. You can use the top-left sub-nodes to configure AppLocker. See Application Security at Citrix Docs.

    1. If you click the Executable Rules sub-node, on the bottom right is a button to Add Default Rules.
    2. If you edit a rule…
    3. You can assign the rule to a user group.
    4. The list of user groups comes from Active Directory Objects (workspace on bottom left) > Users.
    5. On top of the right pane, set Rule enforcement to On or Audit.
    6. In the ribbon is a button to Import AppLocker Rules that were exported from a group policy.
    7. The other sub-nodes follow the same configuration pattern.
  4. WEM 2112 and newer have a Privilege Elevation feature under the Security workspace. You might have to scroll down to find it. On the right, check the box for Process Privilege Elevation Settings. Notice the setting for Do Not Apply to Windows Server OSs.

    1. On the left, click Executable Rules under Privilege Elevation. Then on the bottom right click Add Rule.
    2. Give the rule a name and select an assignment.
    3. There are options to restrict the elevation to specific parameters. For example, you can restrict cmd.exe so it can only elevate specific scripts. Click Next.
    4. Browse to the executable file and click Create.
    5. CTP David Wilkinson has more details on this feature.
  5. WEM 2203 adds a Self-elevation feature that lets users manually run processes elevated. See Citrix Docs for details.

  6. WEM 2006 adds Process Hierarchy Control, which lets you restrict or allow a parent process from launching specific child processes. See Citrix Docs for configuration details.

    1. On the agent side, you must enable Process Hierarchy Control by running elevated AppInfoViewer.exe from C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Workspace Environment Management.
    2. Click Enable Process Hierarchy Control.
    3. Acknowledge that a restart is required.
  7. WEM has an audit log of the security features at Administration workspace > Logging node > Agent tab.

Policies and Profiles

  1. WEM Web Console > Profiles > Profile Management Settings lets you push Citrix Profile Management settings to WEM Agents
  2. On the top right you can click Quick setup to Start with template. Choose either File-based or Container-based.
  3. There’s an option to configure user-level settings instead of computer-level.
  4. See the Citrix Profile Management post for details on a recommended Profile Management configuration. Some of the newer settings might be missing from WEM.
  5. If you use WEM to configure UPM settings, but the settings are not applying to the WEM Agent, then see Citrix CTX219086 Some UPM or WEM Agent parameters may not be applied by the agent after switching from GPO settings to Workspace Environment Management settings.
  6. In the WEM Classic Console, at Policies and Profiles > Citrix Profile Management Settings, in the right pane, the File System tab has a useful Profile Cleansing button to remove excluded folders from an existing UPM profile share. This function might not be necessary if you enable Logon Exclusion Check.

    • Adjust the Profiles Root Folder, click Scan Profiles Folder, and then click Cleanse Profile(s).
  7. To configure folder redirection in the WEM Classic Console, on the top left, click Microsoft USV Settings.
    1. On the right, on the Roaming Profiles Configuration tab, check the box to Process User State Virtualization Configuration.
    2. Then switch to the Folder Redirection tabs, and configure them as desired.
  8. For Environmental Settings, WEM Classic Console has the Policies and Profiles workspace (bottom left) with three nodes on the top left.
    1. In the Environmental Settings node (top left), in the right pane, you can enable Environmental Settings, and configure restrictions that are usually configured in group policy. Peruse the various tabs on the right. Administrators can be excluded from these restrictions. These settings are only in the WEM Classic Console. In WEM Web Console they are replaced by group policies.
    2. The Environmental Settings within the WEM Administration Console are per-machine, not per-user. This means that, by default, all the settings configured inside of a Configuration Set apply to every non-admin user that logs into that particular Agent machine. In order to have different Environmental Settings apply to different users/user groups, they would need to be applied to a separate WEM Agent machine, and all the settings would need to be configured inside a separate Configuration Set to which the WEM Agent Machine is bound. Source = CTX226487 Guidance on configuring WEM settings per user/user groups.

Scripted Tasks

Web Console lets you configure Scripted Tasks that run at the agent (computer) level.

  1. First, add the task/script to Scripted Tasks at the global le

    1. Scripted tasks are PowerShell scripts.
  2. Then go to a Configuration Set and click Scripted Task Settings.
  3. On the far right, click the … next to a scripted task and then click Configure.
  4. Enable the task and choose a Filter.
  5. The Triggers page lets you choose when the script should run. You can Create new trigger.
  6. One of the options is Scheduled.

WEM Agent Group Policy

  1. In the WEM Download, go to the \Workspace-Environment-Management-v-2311-01-00-01\Agent Group Policies\ADMX folder.
  2. Copy the .admx file, and the en-US folder to the clipboard.
  3. Go \\MyADDomain.com\sysvol\MyADDomain.com\Policies.
  4. If you have a PolicyDefinitions folder here, then paste the .admx file and folder.

    • If you don’t have PolicyDefinitions in Sysvol, then instead go to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions, and paste the .admx file and folder there.
  5. Look for older versions of the WEM .admx and .adml files (in the en-us subfolder) and delete them. Remove any WEM .admx and .adml files that have a version number.

  6. Edit a GPO that applies to the VDAs that will run the WEM Agent.
  7. In WEM 1906 and newer, go to Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | Citrix Components | Workspace Environment Management | Agent Host Configuration.
  8. On the right, double-click Infrastructure server.
  9. Enable the setting, enter the FQDN of the WEM server (or load balanced name), and click OK. Note: It must be FQDN.
  10. Assign Agents to a Configuration Set.
    1. In the WEM Web Console, go to Directory Objects and click Add object.
    2. In the WEM Classic Administration Console, choose a Configuration Set and then go to Active Directory Objects workspace (bottom left) > Machines node (top left), and in the right pane, add an OU or individual machines.
  11. It’s possible that an Agent might register with multiple Configuration sets. You can review the registrations in Web Console at Monitoring > Administration > Agents.

    1. Registrations tab (right pane) might show you Agents not registered with any Configuration Set. Add the Agent to Active Directory Objects > Machines.

Install/Upgrade WEM Agent

For command line unattended installation of WEM Agent, see Alain Assaf at Citrix Discussions.

  1. WEM agent upgrade task – WEM 2311 and newer can push Agent upgrades to existing agents. In a Configuration Set, configure a file share under App Package Delivery. Then import the WEM Agent to the share. Then create a Delivery task. More details at App Package Delivery at Citrix Docs.

  2. If App Layering, Citrix recommends installing the WEM Agent in the Platform Layer.
    • If you are installing the WEM Agent in a App Layer, see George Spiers to workaround an issue with the Netlogon service in a Platform Layer that has the Provisioning Services Target Device software installed.
  3. Use registry editor to confirm that the WEM GPO has applied to the Agent machine. Look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Norskale\Agent Host\BrokerSvcName.
  4. VDA installer – In VDA 2012 and newer, the WEM Agent is included with the VDA installer; however, this install method has been deprecated. You can instead install it separately as detailed in the next step.

  5. Manual install – On a VDA Master machine, run Citrix Workspace Environment Management Agent.exe from the downloaded WEM 2311 (aka 2311-01-00-01) installation files.
  6. In the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Agent window, check the box next to I agree to the license terms and click Install.
  7. In the Welcome to the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Agent Setup Wizard page, click Next.
  8. In the Destination Folder page, click Next.
  9. In the Deployment Type page, select On-premises Deployment and click Next.
  10. In the Infrastructure Service Configuration page, change the selection to Skip Configuration since you’ve already configured the group policy. Click Next. Note: In WEM 1912 and newer, the cache synchronization port changes from 8285 to 8288.
  11. In the Advanced Settings page, if this machine will be used with Citrix Provisioning and has a Provisioning cache disk, then you can optionally move the WEM Cache to the Provisioning cache disk. Click Next. WEM Agent 2012 and newer have some enhancements for non-persistent machines. See Prerequisites and recommendations and Agent startup behaviors at Citrix Docs.
  12. In the Ready to install Citrix Workspace Environment Management Agent page, click Install.
  13. In the Completed the Citrix Workspace Environment Management Agent Setup Wizard page, click Finish.
  14. In the Installation Successfully Completed window, click Close.

WEM Agent Cache

  1. After installation, check the registry under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Norskale\Agent Host to verify your command line switches applied correctly.

  2. WEM Agent 2012 and newer have some enhancements for non-persistent machines. See Prerequisites and recommendations and Agent startup behaviors at Citrix Docs.
  3. In WEM Agent 1909 and newer, the WEM Agent installation path is now C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Workspace Environment Management Agent instead of C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host and you might have to modify your WEM Agent Cache Refresh scripts with the new path. See CTP James Kindon Citrix WEM Updated Start-Up Scripts for more details.
  4. Citrix CTX219839 How to Enable Debug Logging on Workspace Environment Management Agent manually, if no connectivity to Broker exists. Set AgentDebugModeLocalOverride and AgentServiceDebugModeLocalOverride to 1. The Norskale Agent Host Service Debug.log file will be written to %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host. The Agent Log file will be written to the User Profile (i.e., under %UserProfile%).
  5. Optionally, you can pre-build the Agent Cache by running AgentCacheUtility.exe, which is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Workspace Environment Management Agent (fresh WEM Agent 1909 and newer) or in C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host.

  6. It needs the following switches:
    -refreshcache -brokername:MyWEMServer
  7. From Hal Lange: “AgentCacheUtility does except short values (Eg AgentCacheUtility -r -b:)  the broker name should always be in FQDN since this does use Kerberos for the authentication.”

  8. You can also use the Web Console at Monitoring > Administration > Agents to refresh an agent’s cache and perform other actions. The Synchronization column indicates if the cache is up to date or not. It takes a few minutes to update.
    • It’s also in WEM Classic Administration Console at Administration workspace (bottom left), Agents node (top left)
  9. From Hal Lange: “Need to optimize the client by running ngen for .NET optimizations in the x64 and x86 directories. These commands will help optimize ANY .NET application installed on the system
    C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319
    C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319
    ngen.exe update
    ngen.exe eqi 1
    ngen.exe eqi 3
  10. AntivirusC:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Workspace Environment Management Agent or C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host must be excluded from Antivirus scanning. Or exclude Citrix.Wem.Agent.Service.exe; Norskale Agent Host Service.exe; VUEMUIAgent.exe; Agent Log Parser.exe; AgentCacheUtility.exe; AppsMgmtUtil.exe; PrnsMgmtUtil.exe; VUEMAppCmd.exe; VUEMAppCmdDbg.exe; VUEMAppHide.exe; VUEMCmdAgent.exe; VUEMMaintMsg.exe; VUEMRSAV.exe.
  11. If you use WEM to push UPM settings, but the settings are not applying to the WEM Agent, then see Citrix CTX219086 Some UPM or WEM Agent parameters may not be applied by the agent after switching from GPO settings to Workspace Environment Management settings.  Delete the machine cache, which is at the following registry location:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Norskale\Agent Host\UsvMachineConfigurationSettings
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Norskale\Agent Host\UpmConfigurationSettings

    This will force WEM to re-apply the per-machine settings (Microsoft USV or Citrix UPM settings, respectively).

  12. WEM Cache tends to break often. See CTP James Kindon Citrix WEM Cache Problems…. Again for a script to reset the cache periodically.
  13. CTP James Kindon describes the WEM Client Side Tools including: Log Parser, Resultant Actions Viewer, VUEMAppCMD, Manage Printers, Manage Applications, and Help Desk Tools.
  14. WEM Agent 2308 and newer have improved Event Viewer logging.

WEM Agent on Citrix Provisioning Target Device

From Citrix Discussions: create a computer startup script that deletes the WEM cache and refreshes it:

net stop "Citrix WEM Agent Host Service" /y
net stop "Norskale Agent Host Service" /y
del D:\WEMCache\ /S /F /q
net start "Citrix WEM Agent Host Service"
net start "Norskale Agent Host Service"
net start "Netlogon"
timeout /T 45 /nobreak
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Workspace Environment Management Agent\AgentCacheUtility.exe" -refreshcache -brokername:XXXX
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host\AgentCacheUtility.exe" -refreshCache -brokerName:XXXX

From Julian Mooren Citrix Workspace Environment Management with PVS – Synchronization State “Unknown”: For Citrix Provisioning, schedule a task to run the following commands at Target Device boot (Trigger = At Startup).

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Workspace Environment Management Agent\AgentCacheUtility.exe" -refreshcache
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Norskale\Norskale Agent Host\AgentCacheUtility.exe" -refreshcache

From CTA David Ott at Using Citrix Workspace Environment Management to Redirect Folders via Symbolic Links – Speed Up Logon: before shutting down your maintenance/private mode vdisk to re-seal, kill the Citrix WEM Agent Host Service or Norskale Agent Host Service. For whatever reason if you don’t do this it can cause your vms in standard mode to take an obscenely long time to shutdown.

Base Image Script Framework (BIS-F) automates many image sealing tasks, including tasks for Workspace Environment Management. The script is configurable using Group Policy.

Monitoring

  1. WEM Web Console > Monitoring > Insights has some reporting, including a report showing disk space consumed by profile containers.
  2. In the WEM Classic Administration Console, the Monitoring workspace (bottom left) lets you see Logon Time and Boot Time reports.
  3. Double-click a category to see more info.

  4. Configuration node (top left) lets you configure Work Days Filtering for Login/Boot Time Reports.
  5. WEM 2203 adds a Profile Container Insights report for both FSLogix and UPM Profile Containers.
  6. When you make changes in the console, if agents are already installed, you can right-click the agent icon (by the clock), and Refresh.
  7. You can also go to the Administration workspace (bottom left) > Agents node (top left). In the right pane, right-click one or more Agents, and click the Refresh options.
  8. WEM 1811 and newer periodically run UPMConfigCheck every day, or whenever the Norskale Agent Service restarts. The AdministrationAgents node in the WEM Console has a visual indicator of the UPMConfigCheck results. For status details, check the file C:\Windows\Temp\UPMConfigCheckOutput.xml on each WEM Agent Machine.

WEM Actions Configuration

WEM Actions are similar to Group Policy Preferences.

The general process is as follows:

  • Create the Actions
  • Optionally create Action Groups
  • Add AD user groups to the WEM Console.
  • Assign Actions or Action Groups to user groups. Use Conditions and Rules to perform the Action (or Action Group) for only a subset of machines or users in the user group.

Create Actions

  1. In the WEM Console, use the Actions workspace to map drives, map printers, create shortcuts (Applications), set registry keys, etc. Each Action type is a separate node. Some Action Types are not yet available in the Web Console, but new features (e.g., group policy templates, JSON Files) are only available in the Web Console.
  2. WEM 1909 and newer can Migrate or Import your Group Policies to WEM. CTP James Kindon at Migrating GPO settings to WEM explains this feature in detail.
    1. In Group Policy Management Console, back up the GPOs that you want to import to WEM.
    2. Go to the GPO Backup folder and zip everything.
    3. In WEM Console, go to Actions > Group Policy Settings and click Import.
    4. WEM 2209 and newer let you Import Registry File.
    5. WEM 2012 and newer let you edit the imported group policies.
    6. It seems to be a registry editor that doesn’t use ADMX templates.
  3. WEM Web Console lets you configure GPOs using traditional ADMX templates. Switch to the Template-based tab. Standard Windows templates are already built into the Web Console, but you can upload more templates. 

  4. In WEM Classic Console, some Actions, on the Options tab, have a Self-Healing option. To optimize performance, WEM only applies an action once. The Self-Healing option causes it to reapply at every logon.
  5. Network Drives have no field for selecting a drive letter. Instead, you configure the drive letter later when assigning the action as detailed below.
  6. External Tasks are scripts that are triggered at user logon, reconnect or other triggers. WEM 2203 adds triggers for Process start and Process end. WEM 2009 adds triggers for Disconnect, Lock, and Unlock.
  7. Applications (shortcuts)
    1. In the Actions pane, Applications have no option for placing a shortcut on the Desktop. Instead, you configure shortcut placement later when assigning the action as detailed below.
    2. You can pull icons from a StoreFront store.

    3. Arjan Mensch at Powershell Module for Citrix WEM – Part 3 – EnvironmentalSettings and MicrosoftUsvSettings from GPO and much, much more provides a PowerShell Module that can do several things to help setup WEM, including reading a bunch of shortcuts (e.g. from Start Menu), and converting them to an .xml file that can be imported into WEM. This simplifies Applications configuration.
    4. To prevent applications (shortcuts) from being created if the application isn’t installed, go to Advanced Settings > Agent Settings > Miscellaneous (or Advanced Settings > Configuration > Agent Options), and check the box next to Check Application Existence in the Extra Features section.
    5. To clean up extra shortcuts, go to Advanced Settings > Action Settings > Action cleanup (or Advanced Settings > Configuration > Cleanup Actions), and check the boxes in the Shortcuts deletion at startup section. Also see CTP James Kindon Citrix WEM, Modern Start Menus and Tiles.
    6. After you create Applications (Shortcuts), and assign them, on the agent, there’s a Manage Applications tool that lets users control where shortcuts are created, including pinning to Taskbar and Start Menu.

    7. Applications can be placed in Maintenance Mode. Edit an application, and find the Maintenance Mode setting on the Options tab.
    8. This causes the icon to change, and a maintenance message to be displayed to the user.

    9. The Applications node has a Start Menu View tab on the top right.

  8. For the Printers Action, there’s a Add from print server button or in the ribbon there’s a Import Network Print Server button.

    1. Web Console uses the WEM Tool Hub to browse the print server.


  9. JSON Files are Web Console only. This Action lets you configure Microsoft Teams settings.

    1. Click the Generate with template button.
    2. Choose your desired Microsoft Teams configurations.
  10. WEM 2311 and newer support Registry Entries in the Web Console. There’s an Import button that can import .reg files.

    • On the top right is a Settings button. 

    • If Registry Actions are not applying, delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VirtuAll Solutions\VirtuAll User Environment Manager\Agent\. (Source = Registry Entries not applied to users at Citrix Discussions)
  11. WEM 2311 and newer have File System Operations in the Web Console. There are several Action types.

    1. There’s a Settings button on the top right.

  12. WEM 2311 and newer have File Associations are available in the Web Console. It uses WEM Tool Hub to configure the FTAs.

  13. CTP James Kindon at File Type Association with WEM and SetUserFTA explains how to use WEM to run Christoph Kolbicz’s SetUserFTA utility to reliably set file type associations on Windows 2012 and newer.
  14. For variables that can be used in the Actions configurations, see CTP James Kindon WEM Variables, Dynamic Tokens, Hashtags and Strings.
  15. Action Groups are not yet available in Web Console. You can combine multiple Actions into an Action Group. Then you can later assign the entire Action Group to a user.

    1. Create an Action Group and name it.
    2. Double-click the Action Group to show the actions on the bottom.
    3. On the bottom, move Actions from the Available box to the Configured box.
    4. For more info, see Action Groups at Citrix Docs.

Create Conditions and Rules

Once the Actions and Action Groups are created, you then need to decide under what conditions the Actions are performed. One or more Conditions are later combined into a Filter (or Rule). The Filters (or Rules) are used later when assigning an Action to a user group.

  1. In Web Console, go to Assignments > Filters and click the Manage Conditions button and then click Create condition. Select one of the many condition types. 

    • Or in Classic Console, go to the Filters workspace (bottom left). On the top left, switch to the Conditions node. In the right pane, create Conditions.
  2. One of the interesting Conditions is User SBC Resource Type, which lets you run Actions for either Published Desktop or Published Application.
  3. CTP James Kindon at WEM filter conditions on OU and IP Address at Citrix Discussions says that the Active Directory Path Match condition requires a * at the end of the path.
  4. Then go back to Filters and click Create filter.

    1. Or in Classic Console, switch to the Rules node (top left) and create Rules in the right pane.
  5. If you add (by clicking the right arrow) multiple Conditions to a Rule, all (AND) Conditions must match. Web Console lets you click the circle icon to make it an OR operator, but this isn’t an option in the Classic Console. 

Add AD Groups to WEM Console

  1. In WEM Web Console, go to Assignments > Assignment Targets and click Add assignment target.

    • Or in Classic Console, go to the Active Directory Objects workspace (bottom left). With the Users node selected on the top left, in the right pane, add groups and/or users that will receive the Action assignments.
  2. Web Console also lets you add new targets when managing assignments for each action.

Assign Actions to User Groups

  1. You can assign multiple actions from one place by clicking an assignment target and then clicking the Manage assignments button.

    • In Classic Console, go to the Assignments workspace (bottom left) > Action Assignment node (top left). In the right pane, initially the bottom half is empty. Double-click a group to show the Actions that are available for assignment. 
  2. When you assign an action, you can choose a Filter.

    1. In Classic Console, move an available Action or Action Group from the left to the right. This assigns the Action (or Action Group) to the user group.
    2. You will be prompted to select a Filter, which contains one or more Conditions.
  3. When you select a Network Drive (or move a Network Drive to the right), you’re prompted to select a drive letter.

    • The list of drive letters is restricted based on the configuration at Advanced Settings workspace (bottom left) > Configuration node (top left) > Console Settings tab (right pane).
  4. Application assignment lets you choose where to create the icon.

    • In Classic Console, some Actions have additional options that you can right-click. For example, you can create shortcuts on the desktop.
  5. Web Console also lets you Manage assignments directly from each Action.

Actions Troubleshooting

WEM caches Actions executions under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\VirtuAll Solutions\VirtuAll User Environment Manager\Agent\Tasks Exec Cache. Sometimes clearing these keys and values will fix Actions not applying.

CTP James Kindon at Selective Deletion of the WEM Actions Tracking Cache wrote a PowerShell script to selectively clear these registry keys and values.

Modeling Wizard

  1. In the Classic Console, in the Assignments workspace, you can use the Modeling Wizard node (top left) to see what Actions apply to a particular user.

Client Side Tools

CTP James Kindon describes the WEM Client Side Tools including: Log Parser, Resultant Actions Viewer, VUEMAppCMD, Manage Printers, Manage Applications, and Help Desk Tools.

Transformer

You can enable Transformer, which puts the WEM Agent in Kiosk mode. Users can only launch icons (e.g., Citrix icons). Everything else is hidden. This is an alternative to Workspace app Desktop Lock. The Transformer interface is customizable.

WEM 2308 and newer use Edge instead of Internet Explorer. Edge enables StoreFront to detect Workspace app and auto-launch desktops.

  1. In the WEM Classic Console, there’s a Transformer Settings workspace (bottom left) with two nodes on the top left: General and Advanced.
  2. Enable Transformer, and point it to your StoreFront URL. Note, this applies to all users and all agents in this WEM configuration set. You should probably have a new Configuration Set just for Kiosk devices.
  3. Other settings on the General Settings tab let you customize the appearance, and specify an unlock password. You probably want to disable the Clock. The Navigation Buttons are browser navigation.
  4. Transformer can be unlocked by pressing Ctrl+Alt+U and entering the unlock password.
  5. On the Site Settings tab, you can add website URLs that can be launched from within Transformer.
  6. At the top of the Transformer window is a Sites icon that lets you go to the sites listed in the WEM Console.
  7. The Advanced node lets you configure Transformer to launch a process other than a browser.
  8. The Advanced & Administration Settings tab lets you hide features from Transformer.
  9. To prevent users from accessing the local system, consider checking Hide Taskbar & Start Button.
  10. You probably want Log Off Screen Redirection to redirect users to the logon page when StoreFront logs off.
  11. The Logon/Logoff & Power Settings tab lets you configure the WEM Agent to autologon as a specific account. Transformer then displays the StoreFront webpage where the user enters his or her credentials.