• Microsoft Windows 8 support
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 support
• Microsoft Office 2013 support
• Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure support
• Pre-configured language profiles for English, Japanese, German, and Dutch
• Core workload extended with timers, allowing custom workloads to be analyzed in more detail

New Features in Login VSI Express 3.7 (already available in Login VSI Pro 3.x)

• Non-English Microsoft  Windows OS support
• Non-English Microsoft Office support

Screenshots of Login VSI 3.7

Login VSI Management Console Pro Edition – Test Configuration

Login VSI Management Console Pro Edition – Workload Configuration

Login VSI – Workloads

Login VSI Pro Edition – Analyzer Compare Wizard

Login VSI Pro Edition – Analyzer Scatter Chart

Login VSI Pro Edition – Analyzer VSI Max

Now with the new release you can perform performance and scalability testing on desktop and application virtualization solutions that support Windows 8 and Server 2012.  Vendors in the desktop and application virtualization space along with hardware manufacturers  use Login VSI  as their independently developed tool for their performance testing.  So when you are looking to test your deployment, look at Login VSI as the industry standard tool to perform you performance and scalability testing for comparison and validation.

Read the full Login VSI press release for Login VSI 3.7 here – VDI Performance Testing with Windows 8 and Server 2012 now supported by Login VSI 3.7

Login VSI 3.7 can be downloaded now here – Login VSI 3.7 download

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

I have been involved with Citrix products since the MetaFrame 1.8 days and liked how Citrix has added new features and functionality with each new release of their application and desktop virtualization products. Over the years acquisitions have been made to also provide more value to the product editions of XenApp and XenDesktop. Think about some of the acquisitions of the years.

• Net6 – Access Gateway
• Orbital Data – Repeater/Branch Repeater
• Reflectent – EdgeSight
• Ardence – Provisioning Services
• RingCube – Personal vDisk
• Virtual Computing – XenClient
• XenSource – XenServer
• NetScaler
• AppDNA
• Kaviza – VDI-in-a-Box

There have been other acquisitions as well. These are just a few off the top of my head. While most of these acquisitions or pieces of these acquisitions have made it into some of the product editions for XenApp and/or XenDesktop, others are still sold as separate products. If you look at what you get for a XenApp or XenDesktop Platinum license, is it really still worth the cost over purchasing the Enterprise edition of these products? Has the value of Platinum edition diminished compared to what Citrix has for other product offerings not included in Platinum editions of XenApp and XenDesktop today?

Let’s look at what you get in XenApp and XenDesktop Platinum edition today.

• EdgeSight
• Smart Auditor
• Single Sign-On/Password Manager
• Access Gateway Universal Licenses
• Provisioning Services (XenApp Platinum)
• Branch Repeater VPX 45 (XenDesktop Platinum)
• Branch Repeater Plug-in Licenses

EdgeSight – When EdgeSight was first released it was a very useful tool. It still is in some cases. Over the years EdgeSight has taken a back seat to other monitoring tools out there. EdgeSight also has some overhead that cannot be overlooked when sizing your XenApp and XenDesktop environments. Tools like Splunk, eG Innovations, and System Center Operations Manager with the ComTrade management packs are used instead of EdgeSight in some customer environments. There are others out there, these are just to name a few. In some cases Desktop Director is good enough for some environments because it is simple and easy to use for the help desk staff. I even still come across customers using Resource Manager because of the flexibility to customize it to their needs that EdgeSight doesn’t have. Even Citrix has conceded XenServer monitoring to System Center Operations Manager. Why not use their own in house product for XenServer monitoring? It seems over the last few releases/updates, not much development has gone into EdgeSight.

Smart Auditor – I feel this is one product Citrix missed some opportunities with. For some customers this is a hidden gem/easter egg. Most customers don’t know about it, but when they see it in demos they love it. That is until they ask about being able to record XenDesktop sessions and find out it is limited to XenApp only. Also there are limitations in XenApp. You have to think about which applications you are going to record then silo them off to their own application silo or disable session sharing. Two things that could make Smart Auditor more widely used are monitor for process launch instead of session launch and enable XenDesktop session recording. Also making the product more user friendly could go a long way. This is a great troubleshooting tool.

Single Sign-On/Password Manager – Single Sign-On is another tool that I used to work with a lot in the past, but don’t see it as widely used anymore. In most recent deployments, the main feature I get requests for and deploy is the self service password reset feature. Along with EdgeSight, it doesn’t seem like much development has gone into recent updates. Citrix could go a few different ways with this product. They could either stop doing single sign-on all together, move single sign-on into Cloud Gateway (at least the self service password and reset feature), or develop it further with a tap in and tap out solution. From my understanding Cloud Gateway won’t work with Windows/terminal based applications. This is where merging Cloud Gateway and Single Sign-On would have great benefits. Cloud Gateway would handle web based apps (being browser agnostic where current Single Sign-On today is limited to Internet Explorer) and have a Windows agent that would use the Cloud Gateway database for Windows/terminal based application definitions and credentials. I work with a lot of customers in healthcare throughout the midwest and this is one area where an opportunity is missed. Yes there are products like Aventura, Imprivata, HealthCast, etc that do more than just tap in and tap out, but if those products are purchased as add-ons then why not just go with Enterprise edition of XenApp or XenDesktop? Save the money in the licensing cost difference between Enterprise and Platinum to put that money towards the third party solution. Now I like solutions like Shared Workstations that integrate with Single Sign-On. I have a customer testing this now and results are good so far.

Access Gateway Universal Licenses – If you think about what the Access Gateway Universal Licenses offers, the use of these are a case by case basis. The features you get with these licenses are Smart Access, End Point Analysis Scanning, Clientless Access and SSL VPN. In most deployments I come across don’t use the majority of these features. With the introduction of the Access Gateway Platform license, I only see the Access Gateway Universal License used for SSL VPN. Smart Access, End Point Analysis Scanning, and Client Access have small uses cases. The OPSWAT integration with the Access Gateway (CAG) has renewed some interest in End Point Analysis Scanning, but the lack of integration with Access Gateway Enterprise/NetScaler hasn’t helped for NetScaler deployments. So that leaves SSL VPN. When SSL VPN is used, it is mostly only used for administrators/IT Staff. Instead of getting Platinum edition, why not just go with Enterprise and purchase the licenses you need for SSL VPN separately. If you think about, majority of users only need ICA Proxy which the Access Gateway Platform license provides and is included when you purchase a physical appliance, virtual appliance, or bandwidth license for NetScaler VPX. Appliance purchase still necessary. Majority of installs I have worked with purchase physical NetScaler appliances because they are consolidating multiple products from other vendors and are replacing it with a NetScaler application delivery controller.

Provisioning Services in XenApp Platinum – This speaks for itself. Probably one of the most widely used features in XenApp Platinum. If you think about it though, just get XenDesktop Enterprise licenses and you get Provisioning Services along with other features like XenClient, XenDesktop, Remote PC, etc.

Branch Repeater VPX 45 in XenDesktop Platinum – Now most customers already have a type of WAN optimization/acceleration device. In most cases Riverbed or Cisco is already deployed. Branch Repeater is evaluated but results vary based on what kind of traffic is being optimized/accelerated. In most deployments where Branch Repeater is used, physical appliances are purchased. Smaller deployments will use the Branch Repeater VPX included with XenDesktop, but this few and far between. After all, you will have to put a server at the branch office to host the Branch Repeater VPX to use it if you don’t have any.

Branch Repeater Plug-in Licenses – I honestly don’t see much use of these. Most deployments I come across are site to site with physical or virtual appliances or they already have a WAN optimization/acceleration device in place. For XenApp Platinum, an appliance purchase is necessary to use these.

What can Citrix do to add value to Platinum licensing?

XenApp and XenDesktop – Why not add entitlements for Cloud Gateway Enterprise, AppDNA, and Access Gateway virtual appliances with Platform licenses? This would immediately add value to Platinum licensing for XenApp and XenDesktop. I am not saying give them everything that Cloud Gateway Enterprise and AppDNA offer in Platinum editions, but give them some features of the products. Cloud Gateway Enterprise could just be the single sign-on pieces, but not the mobile application management or MDX technologies. AppDNA could be just the Standard Edition or the Enterprise Edition with a fixed amount of applications.

XenDesktop – Why not change the XenServer entitlement to XenServer Platinum edition equivalent in XenDesktop Platinum? That way XenDesktop Platinum licensed customers have the site recovery option. Along with XenServer Platinum, why not also add VDI-in-a-Box to XenDesktop Platinum? Adding VDI-in-a-Box to XenDesktop Platinum would give licensed customers the full flex cast model Citrix offers. This needs to be added to Enterprise edition as well, but I will address that below since this is about Platinum licensing.

What needs to change in XenDesktop licensing?

The entire XenDesktop editions licensing needs to be updated. VDI-in-a-Box and XenDesktop VDI edition are competing products. VDI-in-a-Box feels like the red headed step child at Citrix. Depending who you talk to at Citrix, some love it and some hate it. The main advantage of XenDesktop VDI edition over VDI-in-a-Box is the ability to license key upgrade seamlessly to XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum instead of a migration/forklift upgrade. Now if there were a better process of going from VDI-in-a-Box to XenDesktop, then XenDesktop VDI edition could just go away. Also let’s talk about one of the most talked about features of XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1, Remote PC. Remote PC has a lot of upside to it. Every time I talk about this feature or demo it to customers, they love it. The downside to Remote PC is that XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum edition is needed for Remote PC. I feel Citrix could gain more traction with Remote PC if they had a lower edition than XenDesktop Enterprise that included Remote PC. So with that being said here’s what needs to change with XenDesktop editions licensing:

• XenDesktop VDI edition needs to go away and VDI-in-a-Box needs to become the new XenDesktop VDI edition
• XenDesktop Advanced needs to be added that includes XenApp Advanced, Remote PC, and Provisioning Services to physical machines along with all the features in the previous XenDesktop VDI edition
• XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum have VDI-in-a-Box added
• XenDesktop Platinum has Cloud Gateway Enterprise (limited), AppDNA (Standard), Access Gateway VPX, and XenServer Platinum added

One last thought and this may sound a little out there, but why not just stop selling XenApp as a separate product and just have XenDesktop? If you think about what you get in XenDesktop versus XenApp along with the license options of per user/device and concurrent users, then why not just have XenDesktop? For a little more money (if buying concurrent) or less money (if buying per user/device), you get more value and flexibility for the licensing cost.  I blogged about this in a past article – With the new XenDesktop CCU License options will XenApp only be sold with XenDesktop?

So that’s my take on how Citrix could revamp licensing for XenApp and XenDesktop. With Citrix Synergy Barcelona coming up next week, hopefully Citrix announces some licensing changes around XenApp and XenDesktop along with adding to/restoring the value of Platinum licensing.

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

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.