Offline vdisk creation

There are some situations when the PVS server can’t be reach from various reasons. In this case there is  a  workaround to create a vdisk from scratch and import to PVS server  latter on.

In my scenario  I will have a vmware infra there I will have the base image and i will attach another disk of 80 GB in order to accommodate the size of my new vdisk.

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Skype and XenDesktop

On this article I try to tackle a little the topic of using the Skype for Business in the VDI environment.

Citrix developed a new  plugin for  HDX RealTime Media Engine 2.0.100 designed for this special special task to help the implementation of  Skype in VDI. Continue reading

Upgrade License server to 11.13.1

The upgrade of the License server is quite simple as the wizard will upgrade it automatically.

The only thing that is important to do prior to license server upgrade is to backup the lic file, just in case as a best practice.

So the 1st step is to launch the installer

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HDX Framehawk Virtual Channel

Has anybody tried the new Framehawk ICA virtual channel? If yes maybe you can tell us how it works and what was your testing platform?

We where asked to do a short POC for this in order to see the differences and improvements it can bring with high packet loss or congestion.

When we finish we will post the results here.

Rules for the PVD disk (Personal Vdisk)

I will post a short description for the new way that the PVD can split the application and user part. By default this is a 50/50 split, and recently we had to modify this for one of our clients.

In the new version of PVD that comes with XD 7.6 the “default” behavior has changed a little.

  • EnableDynamicResizeOfAppContainer

Enables or disables the dynamic resizing algorithm.

    • When set to 1, the application space (on C:) is resized automatically when the free space on C: falls below 10%. Allowed values are 1 and 0. A restart is required to effect the resize.
    • When set to 0, the VHD size is determined according to the method used in XenDesktop versions earlier than 7.x

Default = 1

We will put this key value to 0 – allowing us to manually set the amount of space for apps/profile (demanded by our client)

 

EnableDynamicResizeOfAppContainer = 0

 

PercentOfPvDForApps

Sets the split between the application part (C:) and the profile part of the vDisk. This value is used when creating new VMs, and during image updates when EnableDynamicResizeOfAppContainer is set to 0.

PercentOfPvDForApps  = 80 (80%) -demanded

So to resume by using the first key set to 0 you can revert back to the behavior of the previous versions, and set the split manually.

Don’t forget about the custom “rules” files, in case you have specific applications or location that you want in the personal vdisk – we will talk more about this in the next post

 

 

XenDesktop Setup Wizard 7.6- new “feature”

When using the Xendesktop Setup Wizard on version7.6, I encountered the follow problem, the wizard is not keeping my HDD  attached to the virtual machine template at the value defined by me,  it recreated a new HDD of 6GB default value  on SCSI at the 0:1  instead the original one at 0:0 …. Continue reading

Xendesktop controller upgrade 5.6 FP1 to 7.6

On the existing XenDeskop Controller  5.6 FP1 uninstall in the following order the older version on controller.

– console

-Citrix Xendesktop server

You might want to leave web interface for legacy. in my upgrade i left that in place.

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SQL update script

There are cases when the access to the databases servers is restricted or the user that is given has not enough privileges to make the update automatically in a migration situation….  in those cases Citrix offers a possibility to generate a script that can be given to DB Admin to run on your databases to be  updated as need it

for that in the PVS server it is a utility software DBscript.exe that can generate that for you

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Run that .exe and select the situation you are in from the 3 choices and where to be saved the output.

 

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this is an example how it is looking an update file for SQL database

 

The output  file can be given to the DB Admin to run it.

PVS console upgrade from 6.0\6.1 to 7.6

After the server upgrade the console is need to be upgraded to the same level

So on the wizard window run the console installation

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Accept the license agreements  Continue reading

Upgrade PVS server from 6.0\6.1 to 7.6

On my scenario i had the SQL server 2008 R2 ( mirror) who served the PVS 6.0 and 6.1 servers  and according with the Citrix documentation i didn’t had to make any specific preparation. Of course a backup is need it in case some thing goes wrong. After the backup is done on the SQL server or just verify that the full backup jobs run as expected you can go to the next steps

So 1st of all I log on to the PVS server and as first action uninstall the old version of console and server  from Programs and Features

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