Archive
PVS support in XenServer 6.1 – via @_POPPELGAARD – #XenServer, #Citrix, #PVS
Good blog post from Thomas Poppelgaard!
And this is something that many have waited for, either they upgraded and ran into the issues and had to revert back to 6.0.2… but now it’s fixed! 🙂
Citrix have released Hotfix XS61E009 & XS61E010 for XenServer 6.1 and now you are able to have Citrix Provisioning Services with XS 6.1 and use VVS.
I have been waiting for this for a while.
Issues Resolved In This Hotfix XS61E009
- Virtual Machines (VMs) with out of date XenServer Tools, may not be flagged as “out of date” in XenCenter. This hotfix resolves this issue and enables customers to be notified in XenCenter when new XenServer Tools are available.
- Booting a Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) target device using a Boot Device Manager (BDM) image can take an extended time to complete. This hotfix resolves this issue.
Issues Resolved In This Hotfix XS61E010
- Customers using XenServer Platinum Edition to license Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) may find that one PVS license per VM is checked out, rather than one PVS license per XenServer host. This may lead to a shortage of PVS licenses and an inability to provision VMs. Installing this hotfix along with CTX135672 – Hotfix CPVS61016 (Version 6.1.16) – For Citrix Provisioning Services 6.1 – English resolves this issue.
- Attempts to shut down Microsoft Windows Vista and later VMs can cause intermittent blue screen errors, with a "STOP: 0x0000009f..." error message.
- Adding more than eight NICs to Microsoft Windows Vista and later VMs, using the xe CLI can lead to a blue screen error on reboot.
- Copying data to a Microsoft Windows 2003 VM can cause the VMs to hang and lead to a grey screen error.
- When Dynamic Memory Control (DMC) is enabled, attempts to migrate Microsoft Windows XP and later VMs using XenMotion can cause the VMs to hang and lead to blue screen error.
- When the Citrix Xen Guest Agent service is running, Cut and Paste will not work between a XenDesktop virtual desktop and the endpoint device.
- Microsoft Windows XP and later VMs may hang during the boot process and may have to be forced to reboot.
- Attempting to install or upgrade the XenServer Tools on Microsoft Windows Vista and later VMs, which do not have access to a paravirtualized or an emulated network device can cause the installation process to hang.
- Manually installing the Legacy XenServer Tools without changing the device_id to 0001 can result in a "STOP: 0x0000007B..."error when rebooting a Windows VM. After installing this hotfix, customers will not be able to manually install the Legacy XenServer Tools by running xenlegacy.exe…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
Jan. Edition of XenDesktop Technical Newsletter Now Available – #XenDesktop, #Citrix
It’s out again with more exciting topics! Check it out!!!
Using XenDesktop? Then you need to get the XenDesktop Technical Newsletter! The newsletter is comprised of the best technical resources from across Citrix Services: Consulting, Technical Support, Education, and Technical Readiness. In its third year the newsletter is designed to help customers run their XenDesktop optimally and get more out of their investment in Citrix desktop virtualization. And its FREE!
I am pleased to announce that the January 2013 edition of the newsletter is now available.
Check out the archive page, where you can access both the current and past issues, as well as subscribe to the FREE monthly newsletter.
The January edition of the newsletter is packed with great content, including:
- Optimal XenApp 6.5 VM Configuration (Blog)
- Introduction to the new Project Accelerator (Blog)
- Deploying XenApp 6.5 using PVS (Blog)
- Insider Troubleshooting tips for Administrators (eBook)
- Whats new with Excalibur (Blog)
- Top Knowledge Center content for December 2012 (Articles, hotfixes, whitepapers, etc…)
- How to configure Access Gateway 5 standalone for use with XD5 (tech note)
- XenDesktop Tools & Hotfixes
- And much more.
If you have any..
Continue reading here!
//Richard
#Citrix #XenApp 6.5 Hosted Shared Desktop Sizing Example
Great Citrix blog post series from Andy Baker!
In this blog series I’m taking a look at scalability considerations for XenApp 6.5 Hosted Shared Desktops, specifically:
- How to estimate XenApp 6.5 Hosted Shared Desktop scalability
- What’s the optimal XenApp 6.5 VM specification?
- XenApp 6.5 Hosted Shared Desktop sizing example
My last post provided guidance on the optimal XenApp virtual machine specification. Now in the last post of the series, I’m going to walk through an example sizing exercise.
Scenario
Company ABC recently completed a user segmentation exercise. The following table includes 8 user groups that have been identified as good candidates for a Hosted Shared Desktop. None of these user groups requires the ability to install applications or the ability to customize their desktop beyond profile based changes. Three separate Provisioning Services images will be created due to application compatibility conflicts identified by Citrix AppDNA.
With Hosted Shared Desktops, it is important to consider the ‘Maximum Number of Concurrent Users’ column rather than the ‘Total Number of Users’ column. Sizing the environment for concurrency rather than the total number of users will help to reduce infrastructure costs without affecting performance or availability.
Sufficient redundancy should be incorporated into the sizing estimate so that a single XenApp server or virtualization host failure does not affect the total number of concurrent users that can be supported (n+1).
Company ABC wishes to use their standard hardware specification…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
My Post-Synergy View – Update 2 #CitrixSynergy #Citrix #CitrixSummit #XenApp #XenDesktop #NetScaler #Sanbolic
Hi again!
Ok, time to wrap up my Synergy update post series… In the previous post I started to give U my view of the takeaways from Citrix Synergy. So let’s continue! 🙂
As I wrote before I tried to structure the post using the following; each heading represents the enhancement request topic and/or the takeaway item, and then the subheading of Description and Status is showing you my personal view on the topic and its status.
NetScaler
Description:
These where the items that we had on the enhancement list before going to Synergy:
- Create SDX platform/architecture to run on all MPX appliances, for more info why see; NetScaler MPX vs. SDX dilemma; https://richardegenas.com/2012/10/03/netscaler-mpx-vs-sdx-dilemma/
- Add support for AG session policies so that ICA proxy can be turned on for specific published apps and desktops and not per session. This for situations where you might have one app or desktop that sits behind an AGEE and others don’t.
- The NetScaler/Access Gateway HTML/GUI pages used shall be able to be customized per AGEE/AAA Virtual Server. Today they are global pages so that specific modifications/customizations cannot be made and you have to buy an additional NetScaler unless major customizations are done and then life-cycle management becomes an issue.
- Change so that you can specify different Authentication policies and requirements mapped to Session policies instead of to a Virtual Server, AAA group etc. This could then provide a way so that you could offer ICA proxy mode with single auth and two-factor if you launch/select to open an SSL VPN tunnel. And then a user that has forgotten a hardtoken could still get access but only in ICA proxy mode and have all virtual channels disabled without having to have multiple accounts in the Receiver and admin doesn’t need multiple NS AGEE VS.
- It would be good to get the same Account Self-Service functionality that the Single Sign-On/Password Manager service can provide and have integrated into the AGEE login page where end-users can themselves unlock their accounts and reset their passwords without involving Service Desk. And the solution for how to get the single sign-on account self service feature should be an integration part of the NetScaler AGEE console rather than manually updating the HTML pages etc.
Wow, PVS creativity at its best – but still a workaround…
Ok, I must admit that the blog post below and the efforts put into it from a creativity point of view is great!
Martin Zugec blog post about Pimp your PVS 1 – auto patcher is really neat! I give you all the creeds Martin, great work!
But, is this a solution to the problem that the PVS product has regarding configuration and patch management? NO… U still have a lot of work to do here Citrix, I’m just glad that you have such innovative and creative people like Martin to deliver interim workarounds to a problem that according to my personal believe is a major mistake in the product design and build principles.
Still waiting for a XenDesktop suite-wide “Update Manager” that handles life-cycle management of all components of the stack. Citrix has a lot of great products and now just need to “wrap it all up” and ensure that they are ready from an ITIL/ITSM point of view.
Cheers!
//Richard
Please contribute – What do we expect from Citrix? – Citrix community enhancement list
Ok, there are a lot of things that I think we all expect Citrix to deliver now in Barcelona when Synergy soon kicks off! But so far I’ve not seen someone that has been combining a community list yet…
And the most important part I feel is that I get more and more information from companies out there that have enhancement requests and issues that they have a hard time expressing and getting into Citrix. The larger enterprises can of course through their channels get more information and also make their voice heard, but the SMB’s have a hard time to do so!
So this is my attempt to start a dialogue with all of U out there on what we expect to see from Citrix in the future! I think it would be interesting to see if the items I’m waiting for a change on is aligned with the rest of the community!
So why don’t we all contribute to a list that we all can share and prioritise over time? I can for a start moderate this list if you comment or send me items that you think should be on the list and then I’ll try to make sure that people within Citrix get the items and I’ll try to follow up! Of course we need help from the CTP’s (just to be clear; I’m not a CTP so don’t get me wrong here) and others as well to put pressure and assist in the governance of this activity.
So this is my first list of items that I think that we can build upon… It’s a first draft and far from the total number of items are there so bear with me! 😉
Please comment below to have your item(s) added to the list and let’s make a change!
| ID | Product/Area | Enhancement request/Issue | Status |
| 1 | Licensing | Ensure that all products supports the license server (NetScaler etc.) | Not fullfilled |
| 2 | Monitoring & Reporting | Ensure that you can get historical concurrent user reports that spans across ALL products (NetScaler/AG, XenApp, XenDesktop etc.) | Not fullfilled |
| 3 | Monitoring & Reporting | Ensure that Citrix provides an end-2-end monitoring and reporting service for the whole Citrix stack. This to ensure that delivery organizations can deliver reports like “Service Availability in %” over time that includes all service components (NetScaler AGEE VIP, StoreFront/WI, PVS/MSC, XenServer, XenApp/VDA, Profile Server, etc. If Citrix isn’t going to do this; then please point on a product that does the job. | Not fullfilled |
| 4 | Monitoring & Reporting | Provide a monitoring solution to ensure health and best practise configurations of all products involved in a traditional “XenDesktop” stacked service. | Not fullfilled |
| 5 | Cross-product | Improve your testing!! There have been to many issues with updates to products in the “Citrix stack” that has caused issues in others, like update to XenServer that caused PVS issues, or updates to a specific NetScaler feature that caused others to fail. | Not fullfilled |
| 6 | Cross-product | Create an central update service for all products that can inform the admin about updates not applied or if components aren’t in synch in terms of SW versions etc. | Not fullfilled |
| 7 | Cross-product | Ensure that the end-user look & feel are the same across the products used in the stack (NetScaler AGEE login page, Web Interface/StoreFront, Receiver etc..). This should not require admins to do and should be a design principle. | Not fullfilled |
| 8 | Cross-product | Come on, simplify the administration of the products in the stack = reduce the number of consoles! | Not fullfilled |
| 9 | AppController | Multi-domain support | Not fullfilled |
| 10 | AppController | Support for multiple setups that can synch the DB. This to ensure that you can have an HA pair setup for instance in Europé and one in the North Americas and have the end-user be logged in against both and have their subscriptions etc follow them (as well as of course reporting, monitoring etc. etc.) | Not fullfilled |
| 11 | AppController | Support for really large AD domains with LARGE # of AD users and AD groups | Not fullfilled |
| 12 | AppController | Support for AD domain structure where the BASE DN is different to where AD users and the AD security groups you want to use for roles | Not fullfilled |
| 13 | EdgeSight | Ensure that EdgeSight or equivalent end-user monitoring and reporting is integrated and that works on both XenApp and XenDesktop VDA’s and that doesn’t increase the IOPS with rediciolous numbers… | Not fullfilled |
| 14 | NetScaler | Create SDX platform to run on all MPX appliances, for more info why see; NetScaler MPX vs. SDX dilemma; https://richardegenas.com/2012/10/03/netscaler-mpx-vs-sdx-dilemma/ | Not fullfilled |
| 15 | NetScaler | Provide out of the box integration with the Single Sign-On product (former CPM) so that Account Self-Service can be made directly from AGEE VIP login page. | Not fullfilled |
| 16 | NetScaler | Add support for AG session policies so that ICA proxy can be turned on for specific published apps and desktops and not per session. This for situations where you might have one app or desktop that sits behind an AGEE and others don’t. | Not fullfilled |
| 17 | NetScaler | The NetScaler/Access Gateway HTML/GUI pages used shall be able to be customized per AGEE/AAA Virtual Server. Today they are global pages so that specific modifications/customizations cannot be made and you have to buy an additional NetScaler unless major customizations are done and then life-cycle management becomes an issue. | Not fullfilled |
| 18 | NetScaler | Change so that you can specify different Authentication policies and requirements mapped to Session policies instead of to a Virtual Server, AAA group etc. This could then provide a way so that you could offer ICA proxy mode with single auth and two-factor if you launch/select to open an SSL VPN tunnel | Not fullfilled |
| 19 | NetScaler | It would be good if you on the Receiver could select what authentication you want to perform upon login and not just at setup of the Account. That would mean that you could pass that info the the NS VS and then in AGEE handle that to the authentcaiton policies and session policies. Then a user that has forgotten a hardtoken could still get access but only in ICA proxy mode and have all virtual channels disabled without having to have multiple accounts in the Receiver and admin doesn’t need multiple NS AGEE VS. | Not fullfilled |
| 20 | Merchandising Server | Ensure that it supports larger AD environments and multi-domain support | Not fullfilled |
| 21 | Merchandising Server | Create a central DB for config etc or ensure that MS is migrated into SF asap. | Not fullfilled |
| 22 | Provisioning Services | Improved/simplified support/update functionality for when you use KMS licensing | Not fullfilled |
| 23 | Provisioning Services | Create REAL update msp or msi files for updates, you can’t require admins to go in and replace DLL-files etc in 2012 | Not fullfilled |
| 24 | Provisioning Services | Implement replication of vDisk files (diff-files) etc so that it’s automated within the PVS solution so that you don’t have to rely on DFS-R etc. | Not fullfilled |
| 25 | ShareFile | Ensure that encryption on local devices are available for all device types and OS’s (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Win XP/7/8, Linux, OS X) | Not fullfilled |
| 26 | ShareFile | Design the product so that you could leverage public storage providers for your storage but encrypt it using your own PKI service and proxy traffic to it through the Storage Center server(s) without having to invest in in-house storage solutions and reduce CAPEX. | Not fullfilled |
| 27 | ShareFile | Design the solution so that you can configure the plygin/Receiver functionality when it comes to StoreFront on groups/roles instead of just for the whole account. | Not fullfilled |
| 28 | Storefront | Support for multiple setups that can synch the DB. This to ensure that you can have an HA pair setup for instance in Europé and one in the North Americas and have the end-user be logged in against both and have their subscriptions etc follow them (as well as of course reporting, monitoring etc. etc.) | Not fullfilled |
| 29 | Storefront | Simplify configuration and branding of the StoreFront for Web sites like most other providers have and they had in Web Interface | Not fullfilled |
| 30 | Storefront | Add all features that where available in Web Interface | Not fullfilled |
| 31 | StoreFront | Design the product to allow the user to select whether he/she can group apps and desktops into folders or tabs in StoreFront for Web | Not fullfilled |
| 32 | Receiver | Ensure that email-enrollment to StoreFront stores can somehow support multidomain support (like if you have multiple users having the same email-address; name@company.com can be linked to different AD domains | Not fullfilled |
| 33 | Receiver | Corporate branding for the Receiver, logo, text etc. | Not fullfilled |
| 34 | Receiver | Ensure that all Receivers have the same look & feel and functionality. Like the secondary and primary password field names should be the same on a Mac and a Windows client, as well as other features. | Not fullfilled |
| 35 | Receiver | Add so that Receiver passes DOMAINNAME to NetScaler/AG VS so that it can be used to determine which AD domain to authenticate with. In todays version you have to either make one VS per domain or cascade through multiple domains on the same VS. And cascading is available as a workaround but triggers failed logins against AD and is not that nice and security/AD teams are not that happy… | Not fullfilled |
| 36 | XenDesktop | Support for Linux VDA’s (Ubuntu for example) | Not fullfilled |
| 37 | XenApp | Support for Linux Terminal Servers (Ubuntu for example) | Not fullfilled |
I’ll post an excel-spreadsheet as well for download soon, and then let’s see if there is an interest or not! 😉
Cheers!
//Richard
HEADS UP – PVS and XenServer compatibility issues
UPDATE!!! SEE THIS POST FOR MORE INFORMATION AND PVS SUPPORT ON XENSERVER 6.1; http://richardegenas.com/2013/01/22/pvs-support-in-xenserver-6-1-via-_poppelgaard-xenserver-citrix-pvs/
Ok, this is something that many may be aware of but I’m sure not all of you out there! Thanks Per Liif for the inputs to this little blog post!!
So what’s the issue? Well you can summarize it by saying that XenServer 6.1 and PVS is not compliant out of the box!
The Citrix information about this issue can be found here and basically tells you that; The standard XenServer Tools do not include support for Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) or Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS). For customers who wish to use VSS or PVS, the legacy XenServer Tools must be used.
What does this then mean in real life if you go ahead and use the standard XenServer tools and what errors might you be struggling with if you have this issue? Answer; you’ll see blue screens like this (xenvif.sys);
So what shall you do to prevent this, well use the steps in the support article from Citrix PRIOR to installing the legacy tools (xenlegacy.exe), otherwise you’ll end up with this blue screen (xenvbd.sys);
And of course you could argue whether Citrix could have provided a bit more heads up for everyone out there in the release notes and blog posts of XenServer 6.1. I hope that not many of you ran into this and spent to much time on it prior to finding the Citrix workaround article!
//Richard
The IT Melting Pot! 