Providing users access to their physical PCs has been done by either publishing RDP to them in XenApp or installing the XenDesktop VDA and assigning them to their PC.  Using either of these methods work, but also provide some challenges.  Below are some high level challenges with current methods.

Challenges with XenApp using RDP to connect to PC:

• Double hop connection – User launches RDP client using HDX and then connects to their PC using RDP.
• User has to remember name or IP address of their PC
• User does not get full HDX experience
  • Smart Access
  • HDX Policies
• User is not able to remote power on PC if PC is powered off

Challenges with exiting XenDesktop Brokering to Remote PC:

• Issues with XenDesktop VDA and video drivers
  • Resolution issues
  • Multi monitor issues
• Screen doesn’t always black out when connection is made
• User is not able to remote power on PC if PC is powered off

The challenges above are resolved by the new XenDesktop Remote PC feature.  After the Synergy Keynote I stopped by the Solutions Expo for an overview of the XenDesktop Remote PC feature.  Gabe Carrejo of Citrix gave me a great overview and demo of this new feature.

How does XenDesktop Remote PC address these challenges?

• Allows full HDX experience to physical PCs
• Provides new WDDM Display Driver
  • Respects local display adapter
  • Uses ThinWire
    • Billions of devices
    • High latency
    • Remote Aero
• Power Management feature – power on PC if PC is powered off
  • Wake on LAN prototype using Intel AMT technology
• RDC Service for touch less administrator PC assignment
  • Creates Machine Catalog and Desktop Group
  • Maps PC to user automatically

The XenDesktop Remote PC feature will be available to all XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum licensed customers in XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1.  This gives you a new distributed virtual desktop delivery method in the FlexCast model allowing you to leverage existing PCs for XenDesktop.  Today it is a private technical preview.  If you have a customer that is a good use case for this, contact your local Citrix team or Gabe Carrejo to get access to the technical preview.  You can contact Gabe via Twitter (@CitrixGabe) or by email.

I am happy that Citrix has released/added this feature to XenDesktop.  I have customers trying to do Remote PC using the methods above with challenges.  This new feature will address those challenges.

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

The new Citrix Receiver theme on NetScaler/Access Gateway 10 is not enabled by default.  The theme is on the appliance, but the old Black theme will be used by default.  I looked and searched the NetScaler 10 and Access Gateway 10 release notes, admin guides, and eDocs on the Citrix support  only to find that it can be done but there were no easily found instructions on how to do it.

From the Release notes for NetScaler 10 and Access Gateway 10:

Apply the Citrix Receiver theme to the logon page. You can use the command line to overwrite the original Access Gateway logon page with the Citrix Receiver theme.

That is all you get in the release notes, admin guides, and eDocs.  Ok, so now what?  Well, after upgrading the firmware to 10 from 9.3.x, I did some looking around on the appliance (connected using WinSCP to browse and search for files) and finally found the Citrix Receiver theme by doing a search for receiver*.  Now that I found the theme, how do I apply it?

Before applying the Citrix Receiver Theme

Tools needed to apply the Citrix Receiver Theme:

• WinSCP or any other secure file transfer tool
• Putty or any other SSH client

Apply the Citrix Receiver Theme

1. Connect to your NetScaler/Access Gateway appliance using WinSCP

2. Browse to netscaler > ns_gui and backup to the entire contents of the folder

3. Connect to your NetScaler/Access Gateway appliance using Putty

4. Once authenticated type the following commands pressing enter after each command:

1.  shell

2.  cd /var/netscaler/gui/vpns/customization/receivertheme

3.  tar -xvzf receivertheme.tar.gz

*Edit /var/netscaler/gui/vpns/customization/receivertheme/ns_gui/epa/epa.html and /var/netscaler/gui/vpns/customization/receivertheme/ns_gui/vpns/postepa.html

Change nsversion one line 19 from 1,1,1,1 to the NetScaler/Access Gateway version you are using.

To apply the Citrix Receiver Theme immediately.

4.  cp -r /var/netscaler/gui/vpns/customization/receivertheme/ns_gui/* /netscaler/ns_gui

To reapply the theme after the NetScaler/Access Gateway appliance reboots.

5.  mkdir /var/customizations

6.  cp -r /var/netscaler/gui/vpns/customization/receivertheme/ns_gui/* /var/customizations

Only do step 7 if rc.netscaler does not already exist.  If rc.netscaler exists, goto step 8.

7.  touch /nsconfig/rc.netscaler

8.  echo cp –r /var/customizations/* /netscaler/ns_gui >> /nsconfig/rc.netscaler

5. Make sure to copy files/make directory structure on both appliances if you have a NetScaler/Access Gateway high availability pair setup.

After applying the Citrix Receiver Theme

Thanks to Henny Louwers and his post on Citrix NetScaler 10: Apply Citrix Receiver Theme for verifying after my post in the Citrix Forums: Apply the Citrix Receiver theme to the AGEE logon page – How?

Update – This is now in the Citrix eDocs – Applying the Citrix Receiver Theme to Logon Page.  Even though the method above works, there is another way to reapply theme after the NetScaler/Access Gateway appliance reboots.  I have updated the instructions above to edit the epa.html and postepa.html pages for the Citrix Receiver Theme change.

Update – There is now another theme for Access Gateway Enterprise, see The Citrix Blog – Green Bubble Theme for Citrix NetScaler.  This new theme has more modifications than the default Citrix Receiver theme in the NetScaler 10/Access Gateway Enterprise firmware.

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

With some help of the Citrix Support Forums post – Streamed Desktops Black Screen after Booting, I was able to fix the issue in the lab and in a customers environment.  So far I have tested and confirmed three fixes for the black screen issue.  The fourth fix I have not fully tested yet but should work.  Before doing black screen fix #1 or #2, make sure to change your DHCP scope for your target devices to unlimited as stated in the Citrix Knowledge Center article above or the issue will happen again.

Black Screen Fix #1 – Mount the vDisk on a Provisioning Server in your environment and clear the DHCP info from the registry.  Before doing the following procedure make sure to make a backup copy of you vDisk(s).  Follow the instructions with screenshots below for this.

1.  Right click on your vDisk and select Mount vDisk.  The icon next to the vDisk should change to show that it is now mounted to the Provisioning Server.  In Windows Explorer the vDisk will mount using the next available drive letter.

2.  Open the Registry Editor and load the system registry hive from E:\Windows\System32\Config\System.  In this example the vDisk mounted with E as the drive letter.

3.  Clear the data for DhcpDomain and DchpNameServer in CurrentControlSet001\services\Tcpip\parameters in loaded registry hive.

4.  Check each registry key and clear the data for DhcpDefaultGateway, DhcpDomain, DhcpIPAddress, DhcpNameServer, DhcpServer, DhcpSubnetMask, and DhcpSubnetMaskOpt under CurrentControlSet001\services\Tcpip\Interfaces.  Repeat for each key under the Interfaces key.

5.  Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the CurrentControlSet002\services\Tcpip\parameters registry hive.

6.  Unload the registry hive loaded in step 2 and close the Registry Editor.

7.  Right click on your vDisk and select Unmount vDisk.  The icon next to the vDisk should disappear to show that it is now unmounted from the Provisioning Server.  In Windows Explorer the vDisk should no longer appear.  In this example drive letter E should no longer appear.

8.  Boot the image to make sure it boots without the issue.  Repeat the process for each vDisk image having the issue.  Remember to make a backup copy of your vDisk images beforehand.

Black Screen Fix #2 – Change the Provisioning Services Target Devices to another vlan in your environment.  Using this fix may require some network changes along with changes to your firewall and Access Gateway configuration for remote users.

Black Screen Fix #3 – Leave the Provisioning Services Target Device software at the 5.6.x version.  While upgrading Provisioning Services from 5.6.1 to 6 in a customers environment, I did not see this issue when the Provisioning Servers were upgraded to 6 and the target devices were left on 5.6.1 for several weeks.  In this environment the DHCP lease was set to 1 day.  The issue did not start appearing until the images Target Device software were upgraded to 6.0.

Black Screen Fix #4 – Use direct VHD boot to boot the vDisk image and revert the Provisioning Services Target Device software to a 5.6.x version using Hyper-V or XenServer direct VHD boot.  This fix is still being tested but should fix the issue.  You could also stay with the 6.0 target device software and combine fix #1 (without mounting the vDisk image on a Provisioning Server) and #4 to fix your vDisk images.

After performing any of the fixes above, your Provisioning Services Target Devices should now boot without having the black screen issue.  Hopefully Citrix has a Provisioning Services 6 Target Device fix soon so target devices no longer require an unlimited DHCP lease.  I also hope this issue is only affecting your XenDesktop vDisk images and not your XenApp vDisk images since your XenApp target devices should have a DHCP reservation.

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

What is the issue?

Internet Explorer can lockup when going to a site with Flash content.  No matter what the size of the Flash content is, Internet Explorer will lockup.  I have seen the most lockups with small Flash banners.  You can continue to work in the virtual desktop, but Internet Explorer is unusable until you end the process in Task Manager.  I have seen the issue on Windows 7 virtual desktops with Internet Explorer 8 running on XenDesktop 5.5 when using the Receiver 3.0 and Receiver 3.1.  There are reports in the Citrix Support Forums that the issue also happens with Internet Explorer 9.  Windows XP and XenApp 6.5 have also be reported to have the issue.  You can view the Citrix Support Forums post here – Receiver 3.0 and IE 8 Behavior and HDX and IE8 Freezing/Crashing.  I have tested XenApp 6.5 and XenDesktop 5.5 but was only able to reproduce the issue on Windows 7 with Internet Explorer 8 in XenDesktop 5.5 when connecting with the Receiver 3.0 or Receiver 3.1.  I have not tested Windows XP or Internet Explorer 9.

You can connect to the same virtual machine while Internet Explorer is locked up with a Remote Desktop Connection and Internet Explorer will work fine.  You also connect to the virtual machine console while Internet Explorer is locked up and Internet Explorer will work fine.

What are the workarounds?

The workarounds I have tested and confirmed that work are:

• Downgrade from Receiver 3.0 or Receiver 3.1 to Online Plug-in 12.x
• Downgrade the XenDesktop VDA to 5/5 SP1
• Create the UseAudioSyncing (DWord with value 0) Registry Key in HLKM\Software\Citrix\HDXMediaStreamForFlash\Server for 32bit or HLKM\Software\Wow6432node\Citrix\HDXMediaStreamForFlash\Server for 64bit
• Disable Flash Redirection – Internet Explorer would pause for a few seconds but still works

What is the fix?

Citrix support has confirmed this is a bug and they are working on a hotfix to fix the issue.  You can open a support case with Citrix support and get a private hotfix to address the issue.  If you open a case, request private hotfix# LA0691.  I have opened a support case myself with Citrix and received the private hotfix.  I can confirm the private hotfix has fixed the issue (so far no reports after a week when issue was happening every day) at the customers I have come across the issue at.  I have also not been able to reproduce the issue in my tests after installing the hotfix in my test environment.

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

What’s new XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2?  To see the new features in XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2 see The Citrix Blogs – XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2 Now Available! and the Citrix Knowledge Center article CTX129390 – XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2 Release Notes.

Note: Before upgrading please make sure to eject any ISOs mounted by the virtual machines, shutdown or migrate the virtual machines on the host being upgraded, disable high availability, and make sure to have a good backup and recovery plan just in case any issues happen during the upgrade process.

If you are upgrading from XenServer 5.6 Feature Pack 1 the upgrade is done from XenCenter using the Install New Update wizard from the Tools menu in XenCenter.  If you don’t read the fine print before trying to upgrade you may make the same mistake I did and try to boot to the XenServer 5.6 SP2 media.  When you boot the XenServer 5.6 SP2 media on and XenServer 5.6 FP1 installation you see the following warning:

Once I saw this warning I scratched my head and thought XenServer upgrades are usually pretty straight forward.   You boot to the media, select upgrade, backup the existing installation, go through the upgrade process, and reboot.  So after reading the fine print (like we all always do), I found out when upgrading from XenServer 5.6 FP1 to XenServer 5.6 SP2 you use a software upgrade package instead of booting to the XenServer 5.6 SP2 ISO/media for the upgrade.

To upgrade from XenServer 5.6 FP1 to XenServer 5.6 SP2 perform the following steps:

1. Logon to MyCitrix, go to the XenServer downloads in the download section, expand Citrix XenServer, and select the XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2 Software Update Package and XenCenter Windows Management Console to download.

2. Close XenCenter if open and update your XenCenter installation by running the XenServer Windows Management Console download.  Update XenCenter on any other machines that has XenCenter installed.

3. Open XenCenter, connect to your host(s) or resource pool(s) and then select Install New Update… from the Tools menu.

4. Click Next on the Install Update Before you start screen.

5. Click Add, Browse the XenServer 5.6 SP2 update package, and Click Next.

6. Select your host(s) or resource pool(s) you want to upgrade and Click  Next.  The  XenServer 5.6 SP2 update package will be uploaded to the XenServer host(s).

7. The Update Prechecks will check to see if the SP2 update can be applied to the server(s).   If all checks have a green check, Click Next.

8. Select Automatic or Manual Post Update Option and Click Install Update.

9. Once the update is successfully installed Click Finish.

10.You can now go into XenCenter and verify the XenServer version by going to your XenServer host(s), clicking the General tab, and expanding the Version Details.

11.Now you can upgrade the XenServer Tools on your virtual machines.

To upgrade from XenServer 5.5/5.6 to XenServer 5.6 SP2 perform the following steps:

1. Logon to MyCitrix, go to the XenServer downloads in the download section, expand Citrix XenServer, and select the XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2 Base Installation ISO and XenCenter Windows Management Console to download.

2. Close XenCenter if open and update your XenCenter installation by running the XenServer Windows Management Console download. Update XenCenter on any other machines that has XenCenter installed.

3. Mount the XenServer 5.6 Service Pack 2 Base Installation ISO using remote server tools such as HP ILO or Dell iDRAC, burn into a disk, or create a USB boot stick and boot to the XenServer media.  Make sure to start with the pool master that is not in maintenance mode if upgrading a resource pool.

4. Once your booted to the XenServer 5.6 SP2 media follow the prompts  for the starting the  installation, EULA, etc.  Make sure to select Upgrade XenServer when prompted.  Install any supplemental packs needed and review/address any third-party drivers, supplemental packs, etc that you get prompted for that may have issues with the upgrade.   The installation will also detect the previous installation and perform a backup of it.  Confirm the installation and proceed with the upgrade.

5. When the XenServer 5.6 SP2 installation/upgrade is completed remove the media and reboot the XenServer host when prompted.

6. Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5 on remaining XenServer hosts.  If you are upgrading XenServer hosts in multiple resources pools make sure to start with  the pool master that is not in maintenance mode in each resource pool.

7. You can now go into XenCenter and verify the XenServer version by going to your XenServer host(s), clicking the General tab, and expanding the Version Details.

8. Now you can upgrade the XenServer Tools on your virtual machines.

Now your XenServer host(s) and/or resource pool(s) should be on XenServer 5.6 SP2 and you can take advantage of the new features.

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

With XenDesktop licenses I mean the entire flexcast model.  Not just desktops, but XenApp usage as well.  After all, with XenDesktop you can use any flexcast usage scenario with Enterprise or Platinum licensing. 

• Now that Citrix offers XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum licenses in a concurrent user model, all XenDesktop license use cases/scenarios are covered.  If you had shift workers across the globe/different time zones, there wasn’t really a XenDesktop license model that would work.  XenDesktop users in the US working one shift could not share a XenDesktop license with users in Europe working another shift.  Now with the new XenDesktop concurrent Enterprise and Platinum license models, users across the globe/different times zones could share XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum licenses.
• New license purchases/additional license purchases will most likely be XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum concurrent user licenses instead of XenApp Enterprise or Platinum licenses.  If you are purchasing new/additional licenses why purchase just XenApp Enterprise or Platinum licenses when you could pay a little more and get XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum concurrent users licenses?  When purchasing XenDesktop licenses you get flexcast with different options for delivering desktops and applications.
• Having a single product license would make licensing less complex.  You would no longer have to worry about XenApp vs XenDesktop, concurrent vs per user/device.  You would decide how you need licensing in a single product for concurrent or per user/device and not have to worry about XenApp vs XenDesktop licenses.  Purchase a XenDesktop license that best fits your needs and decide how you want to use flexcast.
• Everything is now about the desktop, everyone is focused on the desktop, and everyone is interested in the desktop.  Even on Citrix’s website there is a product category where XenApp is listed under the desktop category.

I don’t see concurrent user licenses as the only license option.  Per user/device licenses make sense for most environments.  Concurrent user licenses make sense for some environments.   Examples would be environments that have over 4 to 5 users to 1 license concurrency rate and/or environments that users aren’t accessing XenApp or XenDesktop for long periods of time.

What about XenApp Fundamentals and Advanced Edition?

For XenApp Fundamentals I could see that staying as is.  XenApp Fundamentals is for very small business’s and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.  I don’t come across XenApp Fundamentals a lot. Most customers I deal with for XenApp are Advanced, Enterprise, or Platinum edition.

Now XenApp Advanced edition I could see changing a few different ways.  I see XenApp Advanced licensing changing in one of the following ways:

• XenApp Advanced edition being included with XenDesktop VDI edition only.  No longer available to be purchased separately.  Only allowed to be used for delivering XenApp applications to a virtual desktop.  No flexcast.
• XenDesktop VDI edition being changed to XenDesktop Advanced edition.  Flexcast for XenDesktop Advanced but your options are only hosted virtual desktops, hosted shared desktops on XenApp, hosted applications on XenApp, and streamed applications from XenApp.  No streaming to physical desktops using Provisioning Services or offline desktops with XenClient.  Basically XenApp Advanced edition features + XenDesktop VDI edition features but with Provisioning Services for virtual desktops and virtual XenApp servers along with Profile Management for both XenDesktop and XenApp.  Go back to the XenDesktop licensing model of Express, Advanced, Enterprise, and Platinum editions.

With Citrix now selling XenDesktop concurrent licenses for Enterprise and Platinum editions, I could see  the only way to get XenApp in the future could be as part of a XenDesktop license.  I have already been asked this by a few people and have seen some others tweet the same thought since the latest XenDesktop trade up program announcement.  Now don’t get me wrong even if in the future XenApp will only be sold as part of a XenDesktop license, I still see XenApp as the use case for the majority of users out there.  Just because there could possibly only be one license, doesn’t mean there is only one use case.  You will still have flexcast and all the delivery options that come with it.

Now XenDesktop really has ”flex licensing” to go along with flexcast.

What are your thoughts on the new XenDesktop concurrent user license options?

vCenter HTTPS Access

1. If it doesn’t already exist, create a DNS entry for your vCenter server.  Another option would be to create a host file entry on your XenDesktop Delivery Controllers and Provisioning Servers for your Virtual Center/vCenter server.

2. Using your browser connect to the FQDN of the vCenter server.  You should get a warning about the website’s security certificate.  Click continue to this website (not recommended).

3. Click the Certificate Error in the Security Status bar and select View certificates.  Once you can see the vCenter certificate, Click Install Certificate.

4. When the Certificate Import Wizard comes up, select Place all certificates in the following store and click Browse.

5.  When Select Certificate Store comes up, select Show physical stores then expand Trusted People and then select Local Computer and click Ok.

6. When the Certificate Import Wizard completion screen comes up, click Finish.

7. You will get prompted when the import is successful, click Ok.

8. Close the browser and reopen it.  You should be able to browse to your vCenter server without getting any certificate errors.

vCenter role for XenDesktop

When setting up the XenDesktop role in vCenter, the permissions listed in the Citrix eDocs are from the SDK programming guide and some permissions are not what is actually shown in the add a new role dialog box.  Differences in permissions are noted below in bold.

Create a role in vCenter with the following permissions:

• Datastore Permissions
  • Allocate space
  • Browse datastore
  • File management is listed in Citrix eDocs but it is Low level file operations in vCenter

• Network Permissions
  • Assign network

• Resource Permissions
  • Assign virtual machine to resource pool

• System Permissions – These permissions are automatically added when you create a role in vCenter.
  • Anonymous
  • Read
  • View
• Task Permissions
  • Create Task

• Virtual Machine/Configuration Permissions
  • Add existing disk
  • Add new disk
  • Change CPU count
  • Configure Resource is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Change resource in vCenter
  • Memory
  • Remove disk

• Virtual Machine/Interaction
  • Power Off
  • Power On
  • Reset
  • Suspend

• Virtual Machine/Inventory
  • Create is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Create New in vCenter
  • Create from existing
  • Delete is listed the Citrix eDocs but is Remove in vCenter
  • Register

• Virtual Machine/Provisioning
  • Clone is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Clone virtual machine in vCenter
  • Disk Random Access is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Allow disk access in vCenter
  • Get VM Files is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Allow virtual machine download in vCenter
  • Put VM Files is listed in the Citrix eDocs but it is Allow virtual machine files upload in vCenter

• Virtual Machine/State
  • Create snapshot
  • Revert to snapshot

If you want XenDesktop to tag the virtual machines, you must also add the following permissions:

• Global
  • Manage Custom Fields is in the Citrix eDocs but it is Manager custom attributes in vCenter
  • Set Custom Field is in the Citrix eDocs but it is Set custom attribute in vCenter

To use XenDesktop Setup Tool with Provisioning Services, you will have to add the following permissions in addition to what is listed above:

• Virtual Machine/Provisioning
  • Clone Template
  • Deploy Template

Now that we have the XenDesktop role created, assign a domain account to the role.  For this article the example domain account is Citirx_services.

One question I am always asked when using XenDesktop with VMware by customers is how to limit virtual machine creation to a certain cluster or servers within vCenter.  Follow the steps below to control where virtual machines are deployed within your VMware infrastructure.

1. Assign the XenDesktop role at the Datacenter level but do not propagate by unselecting Propagate when adding the role.
2. Assign the XenDesktop role at the Cluster level but do not propagate by unselecting Propagate when adding the role.  If you want to control virtual machine creation at the Cluster level then leave Propagate selected.  Assign the XenDesktop role to Servers within a Cluster if you want to limit virtual machine creation to certain Servers within a Cluster.
3. Assign the XenDesktop role to the Networks you want the virtual machines to have access to.
4. Assign the XenDesktop role the to Datastores you want virtual machines to be created in.
5. If you are also using folders within vCenter  in the VMs and Templates view make sure to also assign the XenDesktop role to the folders you want virtual machines created in.

You should now be able to control where the virtual machines are placed when they are created.  See the screenshot below for an example of controlling where virtual machines get created.

In the example above, virtual machines will only be created within the Citrix\Desktops folder on a single server within the VDILab cluster in a single Datacenter in vCenter.  The virtual machines will only use the VDI Network and will only be created on the LeftHand_Lab Datastore.

When you create virtual machines using Machine Creation Services or XenDesktop Setup Tool with Provisioning Services, configure the following on the Host screen:

• Host type: VMware virtualization
• Address: https://vCenter.domain.com/sdk – example vCenter name
• Username: domain\citrix_services – example service account for XenDesktop role created in vCenter
• Password: password for citrix_services account – example service account password for XenDesktop role created in vCenter

This article was created using vCenter/ESX 4.1, XenDesktop 5 with Machine Creation Services, and Internet Explorer 8.

This blog post was a collaboration with Shane Kleinert (@shanekleinert, CitrixIRC, @CitrixIRC).  I would like to give a big thanks to Shane for the team work on this article.

Since The Citrix Blog post came out on How to run a NetScaler VPX on XenClient RC2 I have been thinking about other ways to use XenClient for a testing/lab tool and/or as a maintenance tool.  When updating  Provisioning Services images I have set up a single Hyper-V server at customers with XenDesktop deployments on VMware for the Hyper-V Direct VHD boot option, used the XenServer Direct VHD boot option by setting up a XenServer NFS storage repository, and have even thought about dual booting my laptop with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 for the Hyper-V Direct VHD boot option.  I have even considering installing Hyper-V on Provisioning Server for the Hyper-V Direct VHD boot option thanks to my friends over at The Generation V and their blog post Using Hyper-V for PVS vDisk Offline Maintenance.  Now with XenClient there is another option for maintenance on Provisioning Services images.

How to update Provisioning Services images using XenClient

1. Create a new virtual machine on XenClient (Hard drive size doesn’t matter size disk will be deleted after virtual machine creation and select Create VM & Install OS later).
2. Get the IP address of your XenClient machine.  To do this you can hit Ctrl+Shift+T to break out to the terminal on your XenClient machine and run ifconfig.
3. SSH to your XenClient machine (login with the password set up during install) and change directory to /storage/disks to get the UUID of the virtual machine’s VHD  file you just created in step 1.  If you have more than one virtual machine on your XenClient machine you can also open the /config/vms/ *.db files and look for the virtual machine name and disk 1 values to get the VHD UUID.
4. Make a copy of the vDisk image (.VHD and .PVP files) you want to update.
5. Copy the vDisk image VHD file over to your XenClient machine (using a secure file transfer tool such as WinSCP) /storage/disks directory.
6. Follow the instructions in Citrix Knowledgeable Article CTX127075 – Attempting to Use a Virtual Hard Disk on XenClient 1.0 Creating using XenConvert or from a Pre-Release XenClient System Fails with Error Code 199 or the XenClient virtual machine will not boot and you will get Error Code 199.  Rename the VHD using the same UUID.vhd file name from step 3.
7. Boot the virtual machine in XenClient.
8. Update the XenServer tools (Remove Provisioning Services Tools, install XenServer tools, and reboot) and then Provisioning Services Target Device software (Reboot after install).
9. Check Provisioning Services Target Device NIC binding by running Program Files\Citrix\Provisioning Services\BindCfg.exe and then shut down the virtual machine.
10. Copy the vDisk image VHD file back to your Provisioning Services vDisk store.
11. Rename the vDisk image VHD file back to match the name of .PVP.
12. Import the vDisk into the Provisioning Services console.
13. Assign the vDisk image to a Target Device.
14. Boot the Target Device and test to make sure everything is working fine. 
15. Assign to the remaining Target Devices and boot or reboot them to get the updated vDisk image.

I have tested this process with Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 2008 R2 images running on XenServer 5.6 when I upgraded from XenServer 5.6 to XenServer 5.6 FP1 and Provisioning Services 5.6 to Provisioning Services 5.6 SP1. 

So now you have another option for updating Provisioning Services images.  If you have a desktop or laptop with XenClient installed, try out this process the next time you need to upgrade XenServer tools or Provisioning Services Target Device software.

In Access Gateway I have two session policies bound to the Access Gateway Virtual Server.  One session policy is for the Citrix Receiver and the other session policy is for Web Interface ICA/HDX access only.   No issues with connecting to the environment using the Citrix Receiver or Web Interface ICA/HDX access only.  I recently enabled the option to use VPN or Web Interface ICA/HDX access with Client Choices by using AAA Groups with a session policy in Access Gateway for testing.  VPN and Web Interface ICA/HDX access worked fine but I could not logon using the Citrix Receiver.  I tested the Citrix Receiver from the iPad and Android mobile devices.  See the screenshots below for the different errors on each device.

Citrix Receiver error on the iPad.

Citrix Receiver error on Android.

After reviewing my configuration, a session policy conflict was found between the Citrix Receiver session policy bound to the Access Gateway Virtual Server and a session policy bound to an AAA Group.  The session policies both had the same priority of 0.  See the screenshots below for the Access Gateway Virtual Server and AAA Group session policies configurations.

Access Gateway Virtual Server session policies.

Access Gateway AAA Group session policy.

After some configuration changes and testing, there are two ways to fix the issue.  One option is to make the AAA Group session policy a lower priority by giving it a higher priority number than the Access Gateway Virtual Server Citrix Receiver session policy.  The other option is to configure the AAA Group session policy with a policy expression of REQ.HTTP.HEADER User-Agent NOTCONTAINS CitrixReceiver.  See the screenshots below for the AAA Group session policies configuration options.

AAA Group lower priority session policy

AAA Group policy expression session policy

By using either of the options above for the AAA Group session policy, you should now be able to connect using the Citrix Receiver without any errors.  I wish Access Gateway had a resultant set of policy tool like XenApp and XenDesktop has.

Previous versions of XenClient allowed you to use an existing VHD file with a virtual machine on XenClient.  With the release of XenClient 1.0 a disk encryption facility with some additional virtual hard disk headers and hard disk checking was added.  When a virtual machine is started in XenClient 1.0, XenClient checks for the additional hard disk options.  If the additional hard disk options are present, then the virtual machine fails to start with Error Code 1099.

I have used XenConvert to convert physical machines and have also used VHD files from XenServer successfully with XenClient.  Until recently I have not tried converting a VMware VMDK to VHD format using XenConvert for use with XenClient.  I thought the process would be pretty straight forward and it was until running the vhd-copy script from Citrix Knowledgebase Article CTX127075 – Attempting to use a Virtual Hard Disk on XenClient 1.0 Created Using XenConvert or From a Pre-Release XenClient System Fails with Error Code 199.  The size of the target VHD file from the vhd-copy script was a fraction of the size compared to the source VHD file.

Using XenConvert to convert from VMDK to VHD format was a successful conversion without errors.

The converted VHD file was then copied over to the XenClient machine using WinSCP.  After the VHD file and vhd-copy script were copied over to the /storage/disks directory on the XenClient machine, the vhd-copy script was executed by making an SSH connection to the XenClient machine.  You can also do it from the XenClient machine shell terminal by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+T keys.  The vhd-copy command used was ./vhd-copy –src WinXP.vhd –dest WinXPFixed.vhd.  Notice successful completion of the vhd-copy script and the size difference in the screenshot below for the WinXP.vhd and WinXPFixed.vhd files.

After running XenConvert again to convert from VMDK to VHD format and running the vhd-copy script again, we got the same results.  WinImage was also used to convert the VMDK to VHD but errors were received when running the vhd-copy script.  In the end VMDK to VHD Converter was used to convert from VMDK to VHD format.  The converted VHD file was then copied to the XenClient machine using WinSCP.  After the VHD file and vhd-copy script were copied over to the /storage/disks directory on the XenClient machine, the vhd-copy script was executed by making an SSH connection to the XenClient machine.  You can also do it from the XenClient machine shell terminal by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+t keys.  The vhd-copy command used was ./vhd-copy –src WinXPPro.vhd –dest WinXPProFixed.vhd.  Notice successful completion of the vhd-copy script and now the size of VHD files are almost the same size in the screenshot below for the WinXPPro.vhd and WinXPProFixed.vhd files.

Now that the VHD file is properly encrypted for use with XenClient 1.0 it can be used with a virtual machine on XenClient.  To use  the VHD file with a XenClient virtual machine do the following:

1. Create a virtual machine but do not start it.
2. Connect to the XenClient machine by using Putty or open a shell terminal on XenClient by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+t keys.
3. Change directory to /storage/disks.
4. Find the VHD file created by the virtual machine created in step 1 and change the name from guidofvm.vhd to guidofvhd.orig.
5. Change the name of the converted virtual machine VHD file from convertedvm.vhd (Example from above WinXPProFixed.vhd) to guidofvm.vhd.
6. Start the virtual machine.

You should now have a virtual machine running on XenClient that was converted from a VMDK to VHD.  Big thanks to Doug Brown and Shane Kleinert for the team effort on this one.