Archive
GPO and PowerShell support in #AzureAD and #Intune? Tech Preview released – #EnvokeIT Workspace Client
Finally… we’re pleased to announce that we now have released the Tech Preview of the EnvokeIT Workspace Client service!! š
What is this and why did we build this SaaS device configuration service?
Have you also tried to roll-out Windows 10 with Azure AD and potentially also Microsoft Intune and lack capabilities like Group Polices to control registry and files or to run PowerShell scripts?
We’ve solved that for you! The EnvokeIT Workspace Client is a device configuration client built on the cloud and for the cloud! Now you have all the capabilities that you require to deliver a modern Windows 10 Out-of-the-box delivery using Azure AD!
Have a look at ourĀ “quick” overview video or just sign up for a free Tech Preview tenant and you’ll be up and running within minutes!
The service is built for Windows on Azure and leverages the latest technology to ensure that you can adopt the Windows and Azure AD architecture without lacking what you need from good old Group Policies!
Here are some examples of what the service can solve for you:
- You want to remove the Windows “bloatware” for all your Windows 10 devices, no problem
- If you want to specify and ensure that all your users have the same company background, you can do that!
- If you need to configure application settings for all users, no problem!
- Do you need to have an updated User Guides or other material easily pushed to your users desktop, no problem!
- If your web applications require that they are put in Local Intranet or Trusted Sites in your browsers, then you can push that out!
- Does your Windows application require specific local settings files to be pushed to the clients, no worries weāve got you covered there as well!
- Do you need to push out Microsoft Edge policies you can do that as well! For a complete list of built-in Group Policy objects that you can configure see this list.
- If you need to do special configuration of the OS, applications or user settings you can do that through PowerShell scripts, you write the scripts and our agent makes sure itās run in user or system context. Configuration possibilities are endless with PowerShell script support!
Read more at the site or sign up for your own trial tenant!
https://cloudclientportal.envokeit.com
http://www.envokeit.com/en/project/envokeit-workspace-client/
And if you need any assistance in your Windows 10, Office 365 or Enterprise Mobility Project just contact us at EnvokeIT: info@envokeit.com or send an email to me directly: richard.egenas at envokeit.com
//Richard
#Hyper-V 2012 R2 Network Architectures Series (Part 1 of 7) ā Introduction
This is a great blog post series! Good jobĀ Cristian Edwards!
Hi Virtualization gurus,
Since 6 months now, Iāve been working on the internal readiness about Hyper-V Networking in 2012 R2 and all the options and functionalities that exists and how to make them work together and I realize that a common question in our team or from our customers is what are the best practices or the best approaches when defining the Hyper-V Network Architectures of your Private Cloud or your Virtualization farm. Hence I decided to write this series of posts that I think they might be helpful at least to do the brainstorm to find the best approach for every particular scenario. The reality is that each environment is different and use different hardware, but at least I can help you identify 5 common scenarios on how to squeeze the performance of your hardware.
I want to make clear that there is no just one right answer or configurationĀ and your hardware can help you determine the best configuration for a robust, reliable and performer Hyper-V Network Architecture.Ā Please note that I will do some personal recommendation based on my experience. These recommendations might or might not be the official ā generic recommendations from Microsoft, so please call you support contact in case of any doubt.
The series will contain these post:
1. Hyper-V 2012 R2 Network Architectures Series (Part 1 of 7 ) ā Introduction (This Post)
6. Hyper-V 2012 R2 Network Architectures Series (Part 6 of 7 ) ā Converged Network using CNAs
7. Hyper-V 2012 R2 Network Architectures Series (Part 7 of 7 ) ā Conclusions and Summary
8. Hyper-V 2012 R2 Network Architectures (Part 8 of 7) ā Bonus
Continue reading here!
//Richard
#XenDesktop 7.1 on #Hyper-V Pilot Guide! – #Citrix
This is a great PoC guide, some thing I would have done differently in detail but overall great work!
Youāve heard of XenDesktop 7.1, experienced a demo and worked through theĀ Reviewerās Guide. Now where do you turn when youāre ready for a PoC, pilot and preparations for a full-scale rollout?
Here on the Citrix Readiness and Enablement Team, weāre always looking for ways to empower our customers to be successful on their projects. To this end, weāve taken one of our most popular hands-on lab guides used to train hundreds of internal and external students and reworked it for consumption by the masses. The XenDesktop 7.1 on Hyper-V Pilot Guide can be download fromhttps://citrix.sharefile.com/d/scaa256260df4ab3b. In this guide we cover the following topics with step-by-step instructions and screenshots:
– Configuring System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Installing the Agent
– Setting Up SQL Server Mirroring for a XenDesktop site
– Setting up the XenDesktop Site
– Joining a Controller to an Existing Site
– Configuring StoreFront and Installing Certificates
– Configuring NetScaler for StoreFront Load Balancing
– Installing the VDA Software on Desktop and Server VMs
– Creating Catalogs of Machine for Desktops and Servers
– Creating Delivery Groups for Desktops and Servers
– Delivering Installed and App-V Applications
– Provisioning Services Configuration and Optimizations
– Using the XenDesktop Setup Wizard
– Setting up Remote Access with NetScaler and StoreFront
– Internal and External Connectivity Scenarios
– Load Evaluator Policies
– Monitoring with Director
– Exploring Configuration Logging
– Exploring Delegated Administration
– Working with PowerShell
And much more!
Take a look through the document and let us know your thoughtsā¦
IMPORTANT:Ā This guide is designed to be used as a reference for building PoC and/or pilot environments. Production environments should always be…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
How to: Create Desktop Appliance site on StoreFront – #Citrix, #StoreFront, #ThinClient
I guess that some of you out there by now are using Thin Clients and some are using Desktop Appliance site functionality in the old Web Interface for these thin clients that are XenApp- or XenDesktop-ready.
So now you have or are thinking on how to setup this on StoreFront!
Citrix has A LOT of work to do in order to ensure that StoreFront becomes a stable and enterprise ready! There are so many tweaks and configurations needed in config files etc. that just isn’t ok! Add them into the console! It’s not hard, even I could code in some menus, forms windows and trigger the underlying PowerShell scripts!
But back to the topic, how do we configure Desktop Appliance site in StoreFront? Well, first we need to have a look at the following edocs articles that explain how to do it:
Desktop Appliance sites – And the most important in this article is the bottom that details WHAT DOESN’T WORK!
Important considerations
Desktop Appliance sites are intended for local users on the internal network accessing desktops from non-domain-joined desktop appliances. When you decide whether to use Desktop Appliance sites to provide users with access to your stores, consider the following restrictions.
- If you plan to deploy domain-joined desktop appliances and repurposed PCs, do not configure them to access stores through Desktop Appliance sites. Instead, configure Citrix Receiver with the XenApp Services URL for the store. For more information, seeĀ XenApp Services URLs.
- Desktop Appliance sites do not support connections from remote users outside the corporate network. Users logging on to NetScaler Gateway cannot access Desktop Appliance sites.
How do you release this and don’t support connecting through a NetScaler Gateway? Then you miss the whole point of SmartAccess, you cannot trigger EPA (host checks) for instance to control ICA/HDX features like drive mapping etc. internally. And you cannot have thin clients on the Internet that connects into the enterprise through NetScaler Gateway!Ā
Next you should read this article that details the PowerShell madness š
Configure Desktop Appliance sites
I won’t go into details of the article above but rather show you how it’s done and with some examples of arguments to pass to the PowerShell scripts.
Step one is to log on to your StoreFront server, and just to show you our current setup is that we have one Receiver for Web (RfW) sites used for browser access into StoreFront:
From a Store perspective you can see that we have one (1) store that the RfW site exposes:
How to: #Citrix #XenMobile 8.5 MAM upgrade! Part 2 – #StoreFront, #AppController, #NetScaler
Hi again!
If you haven’t read Part 1 then I highly recommend doing so prior to going directly to the upgrade that we’re covering in this post!
Prepare for a journey in this post about Citrix StoreFront upgrade, uninstallation, console and how messy it could be! NOT all the time, sometimes it “just works”! š
My little NetScaler is already upgraded to 10.1 so unfortunately I couldn’t take you on that journey as well, so we’ll start with the StoreFront upgrade from 1.2 to 2.0 in this post. These are the steps that we need to cover as highlighted in the migration guide that seems very short and straight forward:
Upgrade StoreFront 1.2 to 2.0.
- Logon to the StoreFront server console.
- Upgrade StoreFront by running the StoreFront 2.0 installer as an administrator.
- When the upgrade is completed, open StoreFront administration snap-in, remove CloudGateway controller from each store as this will be moved in the migration solution.
- Open NetScaler Gateway Properties and for each gateway defined and change the version field in settings from 9.x to 10.0.x or later.
- Test the configuration by logging on through web browser or Citrix Receiver.
- Verify if the users are able to login and authenticate to StoreFront defined stores configured.
Is it this easy?
Ok, I’ve downloaded the 2.0 installer, and I’m logged on to the server.
Before we even start the upgrade there are things that could go wrong in removal or upgrades of StoreFront. And one that I’ve seen cause a lot of headache for a lot of people out there is that they have the Windows Firewall service disabled. Though the installation and removal wants to delete or add these rules the installation will fail unless this service is running. As you can see in this picture below you see the FW rule added in StoreFront 1.2:
So let’s verify that the Windows FW service is started, and it is!
I’ll now start the installation by double-clicking the StoreFront 2.0 installer!
What is this popup that came directly after starting the installer?
Wait, ok so you guys at Citrix couldn’t ask me whether you could do this for me? My plan is to upgrade, so please just add a little step in your upgrade program that does this for me… change request #1 for the next SF release and it’s upgrade process! Verify pre-requisites or deal with them!
Documenting #Citrix #XenApp 6.5 with MS PowerShell V2 – @CarlWebster via @anders_keis
Good work Carl and the rest of you guys! Will try it out ASAP! š
The original article onĀ Documenting a Citrix XenApp 6.5 Farm with Microsoft PowerShellĀ was released on October 7, 2011.Ā The original script has been downloaded over 15,000 times. I decided it was time to update the script to have the output match what was shown in AppCenter.Ā Ā With a lot of help (and patience) from Exchange MVP and PowerShell guru Michael B. Smith, I updated the original script from over 1800 lines to over 2900 lines of PowerShell to thoroughly document a XenApp 6.5 farm.Ā This article will focus on the changes to the script.
I would like to thank the following people for helping to test the script.
- @BYODre
- Andrew Morgan
- Bart Jacobs
- Brian Hecker
- Derick
- Jarian Gibson
- J. L. Straat
- Jennifer Auiler
- Kees Baggerman
- Knut Gunnar Neggen
- Magnus Hjorleifsson
- Mark Fermin
- Thomas Poppelgaard
- And 25 others
Before we get started, I want you to know that I am NOT a programmer. I am NOT a software developer and I am NOT a real PowerShell coder. I am simply a hack who brute forces his way through all this PowerShell stuff until I either figure it out myself or have to use a lifeline. i.e. Michael B. Smith, Jeff Wouter or worse, I have to read a book!
The prerequisites to follow along with this article are:
- A server, physical or virtual, running Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with or without SP1
- Citrix XenApp 6.5 installed with or without HRP01
Note:Ā A few testers reported that neither this script nor AppCenter displayed the hotfixes installed on the data collectors. Citrix has a public hotfix that should resolve that specific issue. http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX132713
The nice thing about XenApp 6.5 compared to both XenApp 5 and XenApp 6 is that all the basic Citrix PowerShell stuff is installed when you install XenApp 6.5.Ā But we still need the XenApp 6.5 PowerShell..
Continue reading here!Ā
//Richard
#Citrix #XenDesktop Monitoring: Desktop Availability – #EGinnovations #HP #BAC
Ok, this was an interesting blog post from Miguel Contreras. First of all I’d like to thank you Miguel for this post!
You can read the blog post here prior to reading my ramblings… š
XenDesktop Monitoring: Desktop Availability
The whole blog post message hits a spot that I know many of our EnvokeIT customers are looking for: AN E2E (END-TO-END) MONITORING CAPABILITY!Ā
Citrix has great products and they work from a technical point of view, but I think that most part of the time development and evolvement of the products goes to fast so that the product teams doesn’t have time to synchronise how well they work together or what the service provider will need cross-products in the stack to deliver a managed IT service!
This blog post really proves it as well… Miguel has developed a powershell script that he schedules to run so that he could see in the morning if he could go to work or if everything is ok with his desktop service (or Windows as a Service (WaaS) as Citrix now talks about this type of service). And is that the way to go? I’m still looking for this E2E monitoring solution from Citrix that can provide real and good facts about how the overall WaaS service performs. Is the NetScaler VIP up, StoreFront, AppController, PVS/MCS, XenServer, the VM, File Server that hosts profiles etc. It’s only if yo get this full picture and fact that you can say that the service WaaS is available. It doesn’t matter if the desktop is running if the AGEE vip is down and he/she cannot reach it… or?
If Citrix isn’t getting into the monitoring business then please guide your customers to who of the partners that does the job, for instance EGinnovations, HP BAC etc.
Yeah yeah… my ramblings are over for tonight and this was not my first complaint about this “service readiness” stamp I’d like to see on enterprise products…
But still = I think no one else right now does the WaaS-job like Citrix!! But they can always improve like all of us! š
Cheers!
//Richard
The IT Melting Pot! 