Using XenDesktop with Hyper-V

Jarian Gibson — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:06:47 +0000

Recently I have worked with Hyper-V and SCVMM in my lab to get more hands on with Hyper-V R2. I also recently started working with XenDesktop and Hyper-V using the lab manuals I received when I attended Citrix and Microsoft VDI Training back in November. Using XenDesktop with Hyper-V is a pretty straight forward process. In this blog post I am going to go over the process of using XenDesktop with Hyper-V.

XenDesktop Delivery Controller and Hyper-V

Allowing the XenDesktop Delivery Controller (XDDC) to manage virtual desktops on Hyper-V, you need System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) in your environment. You need to install the SCVMM console on your XDDC.

The requirements for the SCVMM console when used with XenDesktop are:

Windows 2003 (XenDesktop limitation)
.Net 2.0 – XDDC install installs .Net 3.5 SP1
Powershell 1.0 or greater

You can install the SCVMM console before or after installing the XDDC. If you install the SCVMM console before installing the XDDC, the XDDC install will automatically install the SCVMM plugin to allow you to choose Microsoft Virtualization for the hosting infrastructure when creating a desktop group.

If you install the SCVMM console after installing the XDDC, the XDDC install will not install the SCVMM plugin and you will not be able to choose Microsoft Virtualization for the hosting infrastructure when creating a desktop group.

To add the SCVMM plugin for the XDDC after the XDDC install, you need to do the following:

Go into Control Panel
Click Add/Remove Programs
Select Citrix Pool Management
Click Change next to Citrix Pool Management
Click Next on Welcome to the Citrix Pool Management Setup Wizard screen
Click Modify on Citrix Pool Management Setup Modify, Repair or Remove installation screen
Change the Microsoft SCVMM Plugin to Will be install on the local hard drive on the Citrix Pool Management Setup Custom Setup Screen and Click Next
Click Install on the Citrix Pool Management Ready to Install screen
Click Finish on the Completing the Citrix Pool Management Setup Wizard
Now you should be able to see Microsoft Virtualization for the hosting infrastructure when creating a desktop group

See the following screenshots to modify the XenDesktop installation for Microsoft virtualization

Provisioning Services, XenDesktop Setup Wizard, and Hyper-V

Allowing the XenDesktop Setup Wizard to communicate with/create desktops on Hyper-V from your Provisioning Servers, you need to also install the SCVMM console on your Provisioning Servers. Your Provisioning Servers can be Windows 2003 or 2008 with Powershell 1.0 or greater (Download and install for Windows 2003 or install as a feature for Windows 2008). Once you have the SCVMM console installed, you can create desktops using the XenDesktop Setup Wizard on your Hyper-V infrastructure.

As you can see, using XenDesktop with Hyper-v is pretty straight forward. A lot easier if you install the SCVMM console before installing the XenDesktop Delivery Controller.

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.

Filed under: Hyper-V, Provisioning Services, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, XenDesktop Tagged: Hyper-V, Provisioning Server, Provisioning Services, SCVMM, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, XenDesktop

Jarian Gibson » System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Using XenDesktop with Hyper-V